DTC #110: Can Google Maps help online brands?
Google's SEO gives priority to local results over global. Consumers swear by locally made products. Can we leverage this by a Google maps listing? Let's explore.
👋 Hola! Welcome to Out of Singapore. I am Shan. I write about building new businesses. I will take you through my venture building experiences - learnings and failures all in one.
This is the first blog in the second year of Out of Singapore. Happy birthday OOS🎂🎂 🕺🪩🕺
Google has turned out to be a high ROI channel for us (apart from TikTok) in last 2 months. With the initial positive signs, we are trying to strengthen our Google ecosystem. One of them is - Local Google results (or SEO). Enter - Google business profile.
We will discuss
What is Google business profile?
Who is it for?
Can it help online brands with no physical presence?
How are we doing?
What else can we do?
Let’s get started.
#1 What is Google Business Profile?
Put simply, Google My Business is your business listing on Google Search. It shows up across Google Search and Google Maps.
Here is how it looks for our brand.
It allows you to
Update official business information - description, opening and closing hours
Show pictures and videos from the business - Remember those pictures of a restaurant listing?
Customers can message you if they have questions
Customers can get directions to your store. If you have multiple stores, it would guide customers to the nearest location.
Customers can call you directly from Google result.
Though Google Business profile is used across Google Search and Google Maps, the location part is extremely important. Adding a address to the business profile adds you to Google Maps result as well. Google map listing is way to build and validate presence for prospective customers.
Let me showcase a difference in the search result of a brand using Google Maps listing on Google business profile vs someone not using it.
Xandro comes out as a local brand with a local address compared to BioFinest and ForYouth. Customers get to see images, ratings and information on the brand without the need to visit the website. It captures the entire desktop screen and on mobile gets a full page view.
Here is a brand with multiple stores leveraging Google maps -
#2 Google business profile works for who?
Google business profile listing would work best for physical businesses - customer reviews and photos work wonders. Offline businesses cannot survive without it. Imagine trying to find a restaurant or clothing store not listed on Google Maps!
Here is what a quick Google Search tell us -
Physical storefronts or offices: Google Maps can help potential customers find the business.
Service-based businesses: Google Maps can help potential customers find the business when it offers services in a specific area.
Multi-location businesses: Google Maps can be used to create listings for each location, increasing the business's local presence.
Events and special promotions: Google Maps can be used to promote events or special offers
But then how about online brands? Brands which may not have physical presence, like us? Let’s explore
#3 How can Google maps help online brands?
Seemingly great for physical businesses, google maps can be powerful resource for online brands. Here some reasons
Customers value locally made products - Local address and a validation on Google Maps provides credibility to claims of local production. Singaporeans prefer Made in Singapore. Americans prefer Made in America. Australians prefer Made in Australia. Our customers keep asking if we are Singapore company - the google maps listing is a very strong signal for them.
Enhanced credibility - The business profile allows for independent reviews from customers. This enhances business reputation.
Close sale - A prospective customer may have seen a Facebook ad or Tiktok Ad. May have seen the brand on social media. They make a search on Google to research the brand and land on this business profile with customer reviews. The chances of customers buying the product goes up significantly.
Not a scam - This follows from point 2. For a new brand trying to convince users to pay them, google business profile with ratings helps them understand that the business is legit.
#4 How are we doing?
Let me share two charts with you
Visibility - 3263 people found us via Google Search. A small part found us through Google Maps. Everyone who found us on Google search, saw the Google maps listing.
Interactions - There were 600+ interactions on the business profile. Interactions are calls, directions, messages and bookings.
Are we doing good? Absolutely not. We are just okay - organic reviews are low.
We pushed for new reviews in Feb. I am hoping this will show good results over next few months.
#5 How will we improve?
Here are some things we will do to improve
Improve basics - Upload more photos and videos (credible ones).
Add a shop front for customers to collect their orders. This would be tricky and may take time. We would need to take in-store orders.
Connect google product reviews and website reviews to the google business profile. This would ensure website reviews are shown in google search product snippets. This is a question of cost and would be done in Q2.
Request consumers to review us on Google. This will add organic reviews on the profile.
Go live on Apple Maps - Haha, yes! We are not present on Apple Maps and 50% of our customers use Apple devices.
Point 3 and 4 are different - point 3 syncs existing website reviews to google while point 4 is new review collection via Google profile.
Leveraging all aspects of Google ecosystem will be crucial to scale our revenues (organically and inorganically). Let’s see how these efforts play out.
That’s it for the topic. Please let me know if I missed any points or should write about a specific topic. Would love to hear back!
Last week I wrote about building a lean marketing team in a costly base (read Singapore). If you didn’t get time to catch up, here is the link.
Like and share 😍
Please support the publication with your likes. You have been an absolute charming reader!
In another story, I have quit morning black coffee for 3 months. I am 21 days into the experiment. No more heart palpitations through the day. I took a 3 hour nap yesterday (after a long time). I am as attentive and energetic (of course with my supplement regime) and less irritated through the day. I do take green tea sometimes during the week (which has 1/3rd caffeine content and contains L-Theanine, a calming compound).
Jisoo Fan Club
This is funny. Subscribe to Jisoo fan club here
Thanks and have a great week ahead!