It would be accurate to say that it’s more important now than ever before to keep your Google My Business (GMB) profile updated with current information. With more people searching for products and services locally, it is an absolute must for you to have your business profile data kept accurate. 

Below, you’ll find some compelling reasons for maintaining an accurate business profile on your Google My Business account. You can get a leg up on your competition by keeping this data 100% accurate, because you should get more traffic to your website and more direct phone calls. 

 The importance of local SEO 

One of the most effective strategies that any local business can use is to claim and optimize their Google My Business profile. But it’s not enough to simply claim it and supply the relevant data – it has to be kept current and optimized. According to Ipsos Research, the following benefits accrue to any business which makes a point of keeping all data current on its profile: 

• searchers are 2.7 times more likely to consider your business a reputable one
• your business will get 7 times more clicks than a business that’s either not listed or not current
• you will be 70% more likely to get location visits
• visits will be 50% more likely to result in a purchase 

As you can see, the statistical evidence points up the fact that having current data on your Google My Business profile can be crucial in attracting more business and more customers. That’s something you just cannot afford to ignore – because chances are, your competition is aware of all these benefits, and they will be taking steps to ensure that their business profiles are kept updated and accurate.

 Improving your local SEO ranking 

When you complete your Google My Business listing, it can immediately improve your local SEO ranking. It will also deliver a great first impression for anyone who’s searching for your essential business info. This will be listed at the right hand side of the interface, and will be conveniently displayed for all who are seeking it. Your Google business profile will also have the advantage of Google Maps integration, and that will make it much easier for searchers to find your business. 

Given the fact that Google Maps is the most popular app in the world for mobile maps and directions, it stands to reason that you’ll get lots more traffic as a result. Another great advantage of having your business profile optimized and updated is that you’ll have direct messaging potential. Customers will be able to send messages right to your business using the email provided by the GMB interface, or they can directly phone your company. 

One of the things you may not be aware of is that customer reviews will be displayed under your Google My business Profile, and that can give you tons of credibility. Assuming that most of the business reviews are positive, that can provide a major boost to the decision-making process for anyone searching for a product or service they really need.

Having a presence where your audience is 

Any business that wants to be seen has to be where the people are, and in today’s business climate, people are overwhelmingly online. According to Google, more than 84% of all consumers use their computing device to search for local online businesses. Even more impressive, a whopping 88% of searchers will be using their smartphone. By creating and maintaining your Google My Business listing, you can be sure that you’re reaching as many consumers as possible. Even better, you will be positioned where all these people are spending a majority of their time, which is online.

 Generating leads 

When searchers go online to find a product or service, they are actively searching for a business just like your own. They’ll be using Google Search and Google Maps in an effort to find services and products near their location. They’ll also be using these tools to compare one business to another, so they can make a decision on which to patronize. In order to be discovered by people who have intent to buy, it’s absolutely essential for you to keep your GMB listing updated and accurate. This will undoubtedly result in far more leads than you could ever have hoped for without the built-in help from your business profile on Google. 

Boosting your exposure 

Even though search engines are the dominant mechanisms used to find products and services these days, they aren’t the only possibilities. There are actually hundreds of directories and apps available which direct searchers to appropriate destinations. However, most of these platforms acquire that information by crawling the web and making use of information gathered by search engines such as Google.

 Consequently, many of the listings provided by these smaller directories make use of information which has trickled down through Google business listings. When you keep your Google My Business listing updated, you’re not just ensuring that Google has updated information, you’re also ensuring that hundreds of other directories get populated with current data. This in effect, will boost your exposure and expand your reach far beyond anything you could have hoped for.

 Improving your SEO

 Lots of people get intimidated by search engine optimization, but you can break it down and incrementally work toward full optimization. One of the easiest ways to enhance your local SEO is by keeping your GMB listing updated, and making sure that data in any other of your listings matches that of your GMB account.

 Google itself is frequently crawling the internet searching for updated information, so that it can provide optimal data and the most reliable search results. When you have consistent contact information across all of your listings on the web, you’ll be viewed as a more credible business by Google. This is important for SEO rankings, and ultimately for the volume of traffic that gets driven to your website.