Google My Business: How Much Does It Cost & How to Promote?

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Q1. Is Google My Business Free?

Ans. 

Yes, Google My Business is free.

Moreover, Google considers it as the official profile of your business online. And it draws information from your profile while answering queries related to your profile.

Your Google My Business listing and its quality significantly factor in your brand’s visibility for the local searches. 

A study states that the quality of your GMB listing has a 25.4% share in defining your chances in the local 3-pack results. 

So, use this link to create a GMB listing for free. Moreover, you can highlight several business details for free on the GMB listing. The crucial details include: 

• Brand Name, Address, and your Contact Information
• The Primary Category and Secondary Categories (or Sub-categories) of your business
• Your Services or Products with details and pricing
• Your Business Hours or your Service Hours for each weekday
• Business Description that preferably lists your USPs, expertise, experience and includes your keywords. 
• Your Service Areas (if you are a business that serves at the customer’s location) 
• GMB Reviews from your customers and other consumers
• Images of your business (Venue, products, staff, food, menu, catalog, ambiance, etc.)
• GMB Posts where you can add offers, events, CTAs, etc. 
• FAQs segment where you can answer common queries by customers

Read: Step-by-step Setup Guide for Google My Business Set up

Q2. How Much Does It Cost to Post My Business on Google Maps? 

Ans. 

It doesn’t cost you anything to claim your business through a GMB listing. You can showcase your listing for free, attract inquiries, and grow your local presence. 

Moreover, you do not require any deep SEO expertise for creating the GMB listing. Here is how you do it: 

• Open the Google My Business gateway and click “Manage Now.”

• Here you must use your official Google Account (if you do not have one, create it here.)

• Next, you get a search option to check if your business already has a listing. You can claim this listing (“Request Access”) and optimize it if you find one. Or, if you do not find a relevant listing, create an all-new listing. 

• Next, you can start adding your business info. Start with the original Business Name and Category.

• Next, fill in your business location details. Here, if you don’t serve at your business location but the customer’s place, select ‘No’ for this question: 

Here, you need to select suitable service areas: 

Next, continue along the list of questions to complete your GMB profile and verify the profile. Most probably, you will have to agree to the Postcard verification. The phone and email verification options only appear for a few business types. 

Add other details like Site URL, Phone Number, Products/Services, Store/Service Hours, Images, etc. 

Finally, request Postal Verification (if Phone or Email Verifications aren’t available).

Q3. Can I Pay Google to Rank Higher?

Ans.

No, you cannot pay Google any cost for increasing your ranks in the organic results. And these ranks only depend upon your SEO efforts. 

However, you can rank ahead of organic GMB results by promoting your business through paid Google Map Ads. These are popularly known as Google Map Promoted Pins.

These ads display in the Google Map search results above the organic results. 

Here is an ad example for your reference: 

These pins are usually different from the organic results, which helps them appear significantly. 

Here is the color code for different business types: 

Once a user taps on the promoted pin, it opens the business’s GMB page.

Read: What are the Benefits of a Google My Business Listing?

Q4. How Can I Advertise My Business on Google Maps?

The best way to advertise your local business on Google Maps is through Promoted Pins. 

Here is how your ad looks: 

Follow these steps to build it: 

• Use your official Google account to create your business’s GMB profile 
• Use the same Google to create your Google Ads account.
• Here, enable the ‘Locations Extension’ for your business location (as in GMB)
• Next, go to “Keywords & Targeting,” select “Locations”, and add the preferable areas for your ad. 
• Lastly, add 5-20 relevant target keywords for each specific ad group.

You can accompany your promoted pins with other features like 

• In-store Offers 

You can showcase your in-store offer coupons (discounts and deals) to your promoted business profile. 

• Local Inventory Search

You can add your list of products to your promoted business profile. This feature allows consumers to check if your store sells the inventory they are searching for. Use this link to learn more. 

• Customizable Business Page

With promoted ads on Google Maps, you can build your customizable business profile. Add your number, location, direction, photos, etc., to this page.

• Featured Customer Reviews

You can represent your customer reviews on your ads. These reviews show up when a user taps on your promoted pin.