Changing Primary Owner for Your Google Business Profile

If you just sold your business, or need to change your Google Business Profile manager, you’ll need to change the primary owner. Changing the primary owner will enable the new owner or marketing team to have control over the Google Business Profile account.

Before you proceed, ensure you have primary user access to the Google Business Profile account – and five minutes of your time.

Follow these steps to change the primary owner:

1. Sign in to Google Business Profile

On your computer, sign in to Google Business Profile to access the manager tools page. Remember you need to be the primary user of this account to access the manager tools page and make changes. If you aren’t the primary user, you may need to forward this tutorial to the primary user of the account.

2. Choose a location

This step is necessary if your business has several locations. Click on the location you wish to manage to continue. You have to be sure to manage the right location as you apportion a new primary user to your business. This could be important if you wish to transfer primary user status to a part of your business based on location.

3. Select users

The Google Business Profile location screen allows you to manage everything from reviews to users of that location. You can also add a manager to the location if you wish to upgrade existing users to manager status.

4. Invite new users

If you sell your business or a part of it (a branch in a certain location), you’ll need to invite a new user. This is because you can’t confer primary owner status to a user not already on the platform. If this is the case, click on Add Users and add the new user’s email address. The next step is to select a role for them before sending them an invitation.

Be sure to also notify the new users about the invitation so they can check their inboxes for the invite and accept it accordingly. The roles you can assign the new user are Owner Manager or Site Manager. They also take up the roles as soon as they accept the invite.

5. Choose the new primary owner

Once you have the user on your Google Business Profile platform, go to the right of their name to see a menu with options to change user roles. From this menu, choose Primary Owner.

If you aren’t selling your business, conferring Primary Owner status to users, you need to proceed with caution. A user with this status can lock you out of the account as well as initiate other critical changes to your Google Business Profile. This can include adding new users and making them Primary Owners. You may consider other user levels, such as Site Manager and Manager.

6. Transfer business owners

All that remains now is to transfer control to the new primary user. You’ve successfully sold the business or have vetted the new user sufficiently to trust them with the management of your Google Business Profile account.

Keep in mind that there’s no going back once you assign users the primary user status. They’ll have the power to change account information, add other users, as well as edit other users among other abilities. When you’re sure of everything, you can click Transfer.

Changing the primary owner of your Google Business Profile account shouldn’t be a big deal if you follow these simple steps. You can also partner with us at Toast Local for a comprehensive audit of your Google Business Profile account setup and advise you on what to do to ensure it ranks higher on Google Maps. For more information or if you need any help, please contact us today.

How to Add Your Social Media Sites to Your Google Business Profile

Having a Google Business profile (or Google My Business as it’s often called) is a must for every business. It’s a quick and simple way to let potential customers know about your business, the products and services you offer, where you are located, and contact information.  You can also include pictures of your business and a link to your website. When people search for your business on Google, it will be one of the first things to catch their eye. The profile fits nicely on the right-hand column of the list of search results. It gives them all the information they need about your business at a glance, before going further and exploring your business’s website and content. Best of all, Google Business is free to use. What’s not to like?

Google Business profile is an important tool in making sure your business is seen and promoted (a must for SEO). It is simple to put together, however, it comes with one major flaw. It does not have an easy way to link to your business’s social media, like your LinkedIn or Facebook page.

Even now in 2022, there’s no way to be able to link them through the dashboard like you’re able to do when linking your main website. It’s a frustrating aspect of the Google Business profile. Your social media sites need to be seen and accessed quickly by current and potential customers just as much as your website. In fact, you may be wondering what the point is if not everything about your business can be included.

Here’s the good news; you actually can add your social media sites to your Google Business Profile. Google does not forbid you from doing it. You may know this already if you’ve seen other Google Business profiles that manage to have their social media sites linked. It just takes a bit of extra work.

How to Add Your Social Media Sites to Your Google Business Profile

Before beginning this process, make sure your business’s website has the ability to add a script. The main way to add your social media sites to your Google Business profile is through a script code that you want to add to the head or body of your website, according to a LinkedIn article written by Viral Your Website.

First, copy and paste the following code somewhere in Notepad or Word.

{ "@context" : "https://schema.org",
  "@type" : "Organization",
  "name" : "Your Organization Name",
  "url" : "https://www.your-site.com",
  "<span class="spelling">sameAs" :</span> [ "https://www.facebook.com/your-profile",
    "https://www.twitter.com/yourProfile",
    "https://plus.google.com/your_profile"] 
}

From there, edit the code with your business’s information:

  • In the name section of the code where it says Your Organization Name, fill in the name of your business.
  • Next, in the URL section of the code, add the link to your business’s website.
  • In the same section of the code, add the links to all of your business’s social media sites.
  • Once you’ve edited the code to your liking, you can paste it in the header or body of your business’s website.
  • When you’ve done all that, test your code out here.

What’s the reason behind doing all of this? It will give further credibility to your business. It also helps Google to better understand what your business is and what it offers, giving you a huge boost in SEO. Also, it adds more information to your Google Business profile that customers can quickly access.

Perhaps someday in the future, businesses will be able to add their social media sites to their Google Business profiles as easily as they can add their main website. But until then, this process, while taking a bit of time, will work and net your business positive results. Contact us for more information about how to add your social media sites to your Google Business profile.

How to Share Your My Google Business Profile With Clients

Increasing your brand’s visibility on the internet should be your ultimate goal. You are a step ahead if you already have your Google My Business listing. But how can you leverage this progress and get more clients? Let’s find out how you can share your Google Business profile with your clients.

The Importance of a Google Business Profile

Never underestimate what a Google My Business account can do if you adopt it as a marketing strategy. A Google Business profile helps your business grow by attracting potential clients – they will know what services you offer as well as how to get them.

Why should you give the GMB listing idea a thought?

  • Manage your brand’s information

Here is a chance to notify your clients and prospects about your business through regular updates. Updates about working hours, location, as well as contact details are what will boost your SEO ranking, increasing your brand’s visibility.

  • Establish a reputation

Google incorporates reviews and star ratings for services offered by various brands. Your clients will influence your business’s visibility depending on other people’s experiences. Prospects refer to reviews before deciding if your services are any good.

  • Convert prospects into clients

Google My Business has a book an appointment feature that helps prospects plan on visiting your company. Clients who are still scouting for services might choose your listing over the rest by checking your GMB profile.

How Does Google Rank Your Google My Business Listing?

Google analyzes all business listings and ranks them based on several factors, including:

  • Relevance – Does your GMB listing match the search intent?
  • Where is your business located, and how far is the searcher from the business?
  • Prominence – What’s the experience like when using your services? What do other people think? And what’s your SEO ranking?
  • Google Analytics – These features optimize your brand awareness, increase traffic, as well as attract prospects.

How to Use My Google Business Profile to Attract Clients

How can you use a My Google Business listing to gain more customers? Below are the areas you should work on!

1. Work on your profile

A complete Google Business profile compels potential clients to try your services. Accurate information also places you above competitors by boosting your relevance score. Google detects information like what your business is about, its location, and when you are open.

As a business owner with a GMB listing, update business hours when they change. Let clients know if you are available during holidays, weekends, and at what time.

2. Verify location

Google displays the most verified locations on search engines. A Google product with a valid location also improves the SEO score.

3. Include your business’s images and videos

My Google Business Profile has a logo and brand photo. Images that relate to the business, such as location photos, increase its recognition.

4. Don’t miss out on keywords

Your brand remains relevant with specific keywords. Google Analytics can help provide answers to search queries.

Work on your ranking by incorporating keywords organically. Don’t forget that the keywords should also match your brand’s description.

5. Reviews are magical.

Reviews are critical in determining a business’s credibility – prospective clients are likely to believe what other people think of your service. These will be reflected in your SEO score.

Always ask for reviews and ratings when you are sure that you gave an excellent service. Google usually has a link for customers to share their experiences interacting with your brand.

While positive reviews influence visibility, negative ones could be why your online presence is not tangible. Respond to negative reviews by empathizing and even apologizing for your shortcomings.

Your customers are the reason you’re still running your business; why not strive to make them happy? The idea is to connect with customers by paying attention to their concerns.

6. Update your business details regularly

If you ever change any details, update your Google My Business listing. For example, if you change location or working hours, update this.

Conclusion

A Google My Business listing can be worthless if it doesn’t attract prospects and clients. Customers will easily find you with these tips as well as improve your ranking. If you are unsure about how to use Google My Business to get more clients, contact us today for insights.

How Do I Get Ownership of My Google Business Profile if Someone Else Has It Claimed?

According to research, 5% of GMB listing views result in a website click, call, or direct request. So, if your Google Business profile has been claimed by someone else, you need to take action immediately. Every second that passes, you are missing out on a potential lead.

It’s probably owned by an old owner or employee, but it could also be a competitor playing dirty. It is a common tactic where they do it to redirect traffic to their website or post negative reviews under your business.

Whatever the case, as long as someone else has it claimed, here is what you can do to get ownership.

How to Request Ownership of Your Google Business Profile

Once you receive the message that the business profile has been claimed, it contains a hint of the verifying email address. If the hint gives you an idea of who it might belong to, give them a call and ask them to transfer ownership.

Additionally, if you can’t tell who the hinted email belongs to, ask the employees and former owner(s) whether they did it. If they did, ask them to transfer it back to you via their Google Business profile.

If you don’t find out who it is, it is likely someone outside the business. You can request ownership by clicking on “Own this business?” then “Request Ownership”. The ownership request is sent to the email in the message.

What to Do After Requesting Ownership

After sending the request, the listed owner has seven days to respond to the request. You can check the status of the request by signing in to your Google My Business or clicking the link in your verification email.

There are three possible outcomes:

  • Approval of Your Request

If your request is approved, you will be notified via email. You can then remove them as owners and manage it.

  • Your Request is Denied

You may also receive a notification email letting you know that your request has been denied. If it has been denied, you can appeal the request.

How to Appeal a Denied Ownership Request

If the current owner doesn’t respond to your email or denies your request, and you’re certain the business is yours, you can appeal the decision. To appeal, in the confirmation email you received after requesting access, click “View request”, then “Appeal”.

By appealing, you are verifying the Google Business profile listing using a postcard. Google sends you a postcard containing a pin. You are to enter this pin into your business profile page, then you become the new owner.

  • You Don’t Hear Back From Them

If you don’t hear back from them after the 7-day grace period, you might have the option of claiming or verifying it yourself. Just sign in to your GMB account and look for a Claim or Verify button on the dashboard.

If you don’t hear from them, and your dashboard has no Claim or Verify button, you may need to restart the process or go for the last option below.

What if Everything Else Fails?

After all else has failed, the last resort is to ask for help from Google’s help center. Give them all the details of the situation, then they will handle it and have the ownership transferred.

You can also receive support from Google’s @googlemybiz, which is dedicated to answering questions about Google Business profiles.

Do You Need Help Maximizing Your Local Online Presence?

How high up do you rank when a local customer searches for keywords related to your business? If it is not the top result, then you need help maximizing your local online presence. And no one does it better than Toast Local.

Toast Local helps local businesses rank higher and increase leads. We will perform a comprehensive audit of your current Google My Business setup then optimize it to improve your rank.

We can also maintain it monthly! Contact us to get a free analysis!

How to Optimize Your Google My Business Profile Header Image

Everybody understands first impressions matter, not just in real life but also online. It would help to constantly manage your online reputation to ensure your landing page is word-perfect in online business. However, most people don’t understand the relevance of the Google My Business profile page. You are guilty of thinking it is only a matter of reviews and local search, but you are not alone. The fact that you may overlook is that you need a tight rein on your Google My Business photos.

A Google My Business profile is now an essential aspect for local businesses. Unfortunately, it is not enough to simply have a profile and generate the leads that will help to boost revenue. It would help to optimize your GMB page, which means, among various things, the proper header image.

Studies show that online users rely heavily on visual cues and process visual media faster than average plain text. Another BrightLocal research reveals that 60% of online consumers find local search easily when the business incorporates good pictures. This helps to attract more customers and close deals fast.   

Google My Business offers many visual features to present your business in the best possible light. However, taking great images of the right size and uploading them to the right place can be challenging. Let’s change that!

Google My Business Cover Photo Size

The header photo is typically the first image your visitors will see. The recommended ideal cover photo size is 1024 x 576 pixels. Traditionally, Google requires that cover photos have an aspect ratio of 16:9. The minimum and maximum pixels for the image would be 480 x 270 2120 x 1192 pixels, respectively.

These requirements no longer apply, but you can still use them as a great rule of thumb. It would help play around with various dimensions and see what will work best. The standard dimensions among popular businesses are:

  • 1366 x 768
  • 1280 x 720
  • 960 x 540
  • 854 x 480

Uploading Google My Business Profile Header Image 

The image you wish to upload on your Google My Business cover photo will go along with your Google My Business Listing. Start by uploading the cover photo. You can use the following steps:

When using a PC:

  1. Log in to your GMB profile
  2. Select Photos > Overview > Cover
  3. Select the right image to upload

When using an iPhone:

Tap Profile > Add a Cover Photo

When using an Android device:

Go to Upload > Profile > Photos. Next, select “Set as Cover Photo” to start the upload process. 

Where Does the Image Appear?

When you upload photos to your Google My Business Listing, and they don’t show them publicly, don’t feel discouraged. It has been a problem for over a year. Google is already aware of the issues and is constantly working to fix them.

The photo visibility is pretty sporadic but not very common. There are no foolproof solutions, but some tricks can help make your image appear flawlessly.

The first solution is to configure all your photos correctly. It is best to ensure they suit the recommended solutions and size even when they are. Google guidelines for header images are:

  • Apply PNG and JPG format
  • Optimize the size from 10 KB to 5 MB
  • Improve quality by using proper lighting
  • Ensure resolution is greater than 250px by 250px

Another solution would be to delete the affected photos and upload them again. This sometimes works as a few businesses have used it perfectly.

If this fails, then go forward and contact us at Toast Local. We can also help you with your Google  My Business Profile. Our goal is to help you improve your online visibility, measure your results, and enable your business success.