Entrepreneurs have little time. Maintaining a Google MyBusiness account only seems like an additional time eater here. However, there are a few solid reasons to actively maintain the MyBusiness account.

Most people use Google to search for services or offers in their area. Among search engines, Google has an overwhelming market share of about 90% in Germany. Anyone who runs a business is therefore well advised to keep an eye on Google. Most people first think of search engine optimization (SEO) here. For local businesses, however, Google MyBusiness is probably even more important.

How Google MyBusiness works

The Google MyBusiness entry appears potentially in two places: On Google Maps and in Google Search.

At MyBusiness I can store information about my company:

  • Address and phone number
  • opening hours
  • Information about my products and / or services
  • Link to my website
  • Logo and additional photos

Additionally, I can create posts and promotions. These can be special offers, press releases or job postings. These texts have a certain runtime and disappear again afterwards.

For most companies, however, the following function is most critical: customers can write reviews.

Ratings on Google are of great importance when it comes to “being found”. Anyone who has many good reviews is classified as relevant. What Google finds significant moves up in the search results.
In this respect, search engine optimization comes full circle: Google would probably not classify your own small website as particularly relevant. However, if the website is linked to a Google MyBusiness entry, which also has a lot of positive ratings, the number of hits on the website also increases significantly.

How does a company get a MyBusiness entry?

Important to know: Even if you have not created an entry yourself, your own business, your own practice, your own store can be entered in Google Maps. All it takes is one enthusiastic customer who thinks that this company absolutely has to be found in Maps.

So anyone can enter. And this is where the problem begins.

If someone has entered my business, all Google users can write reviews, upload photos and add information.
As long as I have not actively claimed this business listing for my company, I have no control over what happens here.

I don’t find out when someone has given a review or posted a photo. As long as the reviews are positive, of course, there is no problem. But of course it also happens that people write negative reviews, or reviews that are simply spam. These don’t even have to be real customers. If I don’t notice that, I can’t react. That can have a negative impact on my business.

It can also happen that photos are displayed within my listing that do not actually belong to my company. The Google algorithm automatically searches for “matching” photos. This happens especially if the entry is not maintained by the owner of the business – because in that case, there are no authentic photos.

If there is already an entry, you should definitely claim it. Otherwise, you can of course create an entry yourself and fill it with the most essential information about your company.

Maintaining my MyBusiness account

It is important that all relevant information is present and correct: Contact details, website, address, and the description of what I offer. I also consider a certain number of photos to be advisable, if only to have control over which images are displayed in connection with my company.

It is not absolutely necessary to actively work with the account. It just needs to be clear that it belongs to my business. Google MyBusiness sends emails when someone submits a review, suggests a change, or uploads a photo. This information should reach me reliably.

Of course, I can do targeted marketing using the MyBusiness account. There is plenty of information about this on the web. My point here is to show what I regard as the minimum necessary to prevent damage.

Conclusion

Whether I want to maintain a page on Facebook, a YouTube channel or a Twitter account for my business is entirely up to me.

With Google MyBusiness, the situation is different: Here, anyone can enter my business, usually with the best of intentions. I have to reckon with that and keep an eye on my profile.