When you google your business name, this image on the right that comes up is called your Google My Business profile.
It is totally a free snippet of your business that Google provides and it’s one you can be in complete control of. It is totally free to update this with loads of details about your business, holiday hours, recent posts, videos, images and tons more.
This is STEP ONE in building a kick-ass online presence.
If you don’t know how to get into or update your Google My Business profile – or somebody else claimed your profile and you don’t know who or when – this guide is for you!
STEP 1: Apply to Claim It
Visit https://business.google.com/create to ‘claim’ your Google profile as if it was a new business.
STEP 2: Wait to Get Ownership
You will have to wait 3 days while Google checks with the ‘rightful’ owner (who claimed it first).
STEP 3: Start Updating the Google My Business profile
In the meantime you can click the link to ‘suggest’ an edit in the previous box. This gives you an opportunity to get the ball rolling on business hours, phone number changes, address until you get complete access to the profile.
STEP 3: Claim it Fully
Assuming you do not get any email alerting you to conflicts allowing you to claim your business (which almost never happens), you go back to your business’s Google profile and click to claim it. Now you are set!
IMPORTANT:
You MUST be requesting control of the profile from an email address that is tied to the domain (website address).
If your website for your business is jimsheating.com, the email needs to come from office@jimsheating.com for example.