10 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Managing Your Google Business Profile

Running a business today means having an online presence. People should be able to find your business online and research it. One better way to enable that is to have a Google Business Profile. It’s an online representation of your bra, and maintaining it properly can help you provide a good impression to potential customers.

However, new and unaware users often make mistakes regarding setting up and maintaining their business profiles. Today, we have highlighted ten of the most common yet damaging mistakes. By avoiding them, you can ensure that your business listing performs well and attracts more customers.

10 Common Mistakes Not To Make in Google Business Profile

Here are the ten most common mistakes people make when setting up a Google Business Profile.

Providing Incomplete Information

Your profile contains all the information about your business that your customers should know. This includes the name of your business, the areas in which stores or service centers are available, and contact information.

However, the brochure should highlight your business’s services and operating hours. It should also include links to your website.

If you fail to provide this information, your profile will not help. After all, a Google Business Profile is designed to help people find your business online.

Incomplete information not only gives a bad impression to your customers but also reduces your chances of appearing in searches. So, you are actively hurting yourself by providing incomplete information.

Irregular or No Updates to Google Business Profile Information

Updates are necessary to maximize your Google Business Profile. Most businesses offer seasonal sales at least twice a year and celebrate an anniversary or milestone every few years. These are also good times to hold promotional events and sales.

Naturally, information about these events must also be provided on your Google Business Profile. That way, people who find your business through Google will also learn about these events and possibly convert.

If you don’t update your profile with this information, many people won’t know about it, and you will lose out on potential sales. So, profile management dictates that you do so.

The easiest way of doing this is to use Google Posts. With Google Posts, you can publish information to your business listing in the form of text, image, or video.

Also Read: How to Manage Google My Activity

Neglecting Customer Reviews

Your Google Business Profile is also a place for people to review your business. Customers can rate your business from 0 to 5 stars and provide some accompanying text.

A common Google Business Profile mistake new users make is ignoring reviews on their profile. This results in bad publicity and loss of trust. So, you must never neglect customer reviews.

To do that, you can reply to business reviews. Replying to good reviews is easy: You thank the customer and appreciate their kind gesture. For bad reviews, though, you must placate the customer and try to do right by them.

Make sure you reply to both kinds of reviews, as this will give the impression that your business is consumer-friendly. Not replying to reviews will result in a poor search appearance and show customers that you don’t care about them, which will result in poor sales.

Not Having a Q&A Section

People almost always have questions about your business. The questions may relate to specific products or services, returning items, or claiming a warranty.

Customers need a place to ask questions directly from the business and receive a timely response. Google Business Profile allows you to create a Q&A section that facilitates such interaction.

A common Google business profile mistake that users make is ignoring the Q&A section. This leaves a lot of their customers confused and unsure. Unsure customers never convert, so you lose out on potential sales.

Therefore, to properly manage your Google Business Profile, you must create a Q&A section and promptly answer customer questions.

Incorrect Pinned Location

Google demands that your business must have at least one physical location. You need to provide the Google map coordinates of that location in your profile.

If you don’t have a physical office where you meet customers face to face, then Google will not allow you to create a business listing. Now, you can dodge this problem by providing a fake address, but that poses a high risk of your account getting suspended once Google finds out.

Adding your pinned location is easy. All you have to do is be present at your physical store and use a free online tool to find your exact location. Then, you can upload it to your Google Business Profile. This ensures that your location is correct, and Google won’t penalize you for it.

Stuffing Keywords in Business Title or Description

Keywords are necessary to show up in Google search results. However, you need to have more tact when using keywords.

Business Profiles are not like blog posts where you can put keywords even in the title. According to Google guidelines, your business name must not have any keywords.

Your business description can include some keywords, but it must be informative and readable. You can’t stuff keywords into it.

Don’t use AI for it, either. AI-written content has certain qualities that even normal people can identify. It would be best if you could hire a professional writer to do this kind of thing as their work will yield the best results.

Lack of Descriptive Photos of Your Business

When people look for a business online, they need to see evidence of its physical presence. You can provide your location, but you also need to provide descriptive photos of your store or service center.

When customers can put a name and a place together, they can rest easy knowing that if push comes to shove, they can visit a real location.

Descriptive photos also provide a good first impression. People tend to judge things by their looks, so upload flattering pictures of your store, products, and ongoing events.

You will be surprised how many people interact with your business just because it looks good and professionally maintained. So, don’t overlook this useful tip and improve your business’s foot traffic.

Inconsistent Name, Address, and Phone Number

When advertising online, your business needs to provide a name, office/store address, phone number, and email address. These are all important bits of info required to contact the business.

Naturally, your profile is not the only place where you publish this information. Your brand’s website and social media accounts also contain this information.

A common mistake people make is providing inconsistent names, addresses, and phone numbers (NAP) across these channels. Google checks for these inconsistencies and will penalize you for them.

So, make sure that you provide consistent NAP information across all channels.

Violating Google Guidelines

Google has various guidelines for creating a listing with a Google Business Profile. Much of what we have already discussed is actually part of these guidelines.

However, specific guidelines exist for different types of businesses. Chain stores and brands, for example, have additional guidelines regarding the number of stores in one location and the quality and consistency of service provided.

Individual practitioners and businesses related to universities and institutions have their own guidelines. The Google Help Center has a comprehensive list of them.

Make sure you study and fulfill them well; otherwise, Google may remove or suspend your business profile.

Failing to Monitor Your Google Business Profile Regularly

As with all things related to marketing, you must monitor your profile and check for things that may be performing poorly. Monitoring your Google Business Profile will help you keep track of customer sentiment and the performance of your business profile.

Many people make the common mistake of creating a business profile and then failing to check it later. They think that since the profile is already created, nothing else needs to be done, so they ignore it and let it fester.

This means that they ignore reviews and neglect customers, which is a massive problem. We have already discussed this.

Avoid this and regularly maintain your profile so that it performs well and brings more views and visits to your business. Be vigilant and check your profile at least once a week. However, ideally, you should check it every day. 

Conclusion

There you have it: ten common mistakes that Google My Business users make. If you curb them early on, you will easily reap the benefits of it and improve your business’s digital reach.

Most of these mistakes can be easily handled with a bit of prudence. However, some of them require technical knowledge. The best way to ensure that none of these mistakes occur is to hire a few people to manage your Google business profile.