How to check for updates of your data on Google My Business?

Google updates can occur at any time and are visible in Google Search, Maps, and other Google My Business services. You can review these changes and ensure the accuracy of the information provided to your customers. Each type of update is associated with a colour in the listing editor.

This means you can choose to accept, reject, or edit Google updates: on individual listings, on multiple listings, in the mobile app, and in bulk imports.

Learn more: Best practices for Google my business local listings

How do I manage location’s duplicates on Google My Business?

Here’s how to remove location’s duplicates from your Google My Business account and how to report them from Google Maps:

From your Google My Business account:

The “Duplicate Location” indication is shown when the business you want to add already exists in your account. If it says “permission required” you must request ownership of the listing.

How to delete a local listing:

1. Log in to Google My Business
2. In “Account Summary”, click on “Duplicate Businesses”.
3. Go to the store to be deleted and click on “Delete this listing” / Or check the box of each store to be deleted, select the three-dot menu and then select “Delete”.

Warning: Be careful not to delete accounts that are already validated.

From Google Maps

1. Open Google Maps
2. Search for the location and suggest a change
3. Select “This place is permanently closed or never existed” and the reason “Duplicate”, then click on send.

How can I centralise the management of my retail network on Google My Business?

Creating a bulk location is the best way to correctly manage all your Google My Business listings. A group of outlets can be shared with your partners (colleagues, solutions, agencies, etc.). On the other hand, if you want to distinguish between sub-sets of establishments (brands, catchment areas, etc.) you can create location groups.

To publish and validate your shops in a grouped manner (in a single operation), you must import them (xls, csv, etc.) into your Google My Business account.

Please note: Use a business email address provided by Google to manage your Google My Business account.

How can I get the statistics of my Google My Business listings?

It is possible to download the statistics of several establishments at the same time by exporting them. Three reports are available: statistics relating to the discovery of your establishments, your photos and your telephone calls.

Procedure:

1. Connect yourself to Google My Business
2. Check the point of sale that interests you
3. Click on the menu above the list of your establishment and select “Download Statistics”.
4. Select one of the three reports in the “Local Reports” screen that opens
5. Specify the desired time period in the next screen and download the report

Please note: For non-validated records the statistics are not available.

How can I manage the opening hours of two different services on my Google local listing? (e.g. Drive service)

It is important to distinguish between your standard opening hours for your main service and your secondary opening hours that are useful for specific services.

You should indicate your standard opening hours in the dedicated section of your My Business listing. This means the hours during which staff are present to accompany and serve customers. For your “secondary” hours, add these in the “additional hours” section. Another solution is to use the Post feature to highlight them regularly or continuously in the news feed of the listing.

Exception: For petrol stations it is advisable to indicate the opening hours of the pumps. Consult the article of  Google My Business support to know how to proceed according to the specific cases of the different sectors of activity.

Please note: Do not include opening hours in the name of the local listing, otherwise it will be blocked.

How do I get access to my Google My Business accounts?

How to proceed:

1. Sign in to Google on the account you want to use to manage your store.
2. Enter the name or address of your institution and select it from the search results. A dialog box may appear showing part of the email address used for validation of the record. If you manage this email address, log in to this account to access your institution’s record.
3. Fill in the form. The current owner of the file may need to contact you to find out more about you. You will not be able to send your request without sharing your contact details with them.
4. Google My Business will send an email to the current listing owner asking them to contact you, and you will receive a confirmation email. Wait 7 days for the current listing owner to respond to your request. If you have not been contacted by this time, you will be able to have your membership in the business validated in order to access the content you are interested in.

How to delete an institution page from your account?

It is recommended to mark your institution’s page as permanently closed rather than delete it. If you still want to delete your listing you can do so via this procedure.

Procedure to be followed :

1. Sign into Google My Business
2. In the menu, click on info> Under “Close or delete this page”,> Click on mark the establishment as permanently closed.
3. Click on Ok in the dialog box
4. In Info> under “Close or delete this page”, delete the page.
5. Review the information on the page that appears,> then click on delete account.

NB: The page will still be visible on Google but will be “Free of rights”.

How to remove a listing from Google?

It is recommended to mark your homepage as permanently closed rather than delete it. Why? Because this will allow searchers to find your establishment and see that it is permanently closed.

An establishment marked as closed on Google will appear less and less over time on Google searches and on Google Maps, in favour of other pages found with the same keywords. Eventually, the listing will be automatically deleted.

Is it possible to know the “fill rate” of Google My Business listings?

For the past few years, Google has been displaying this rate in the Home section of each Google My Business listing. This rate indicates how complete your listing is (e.g. listing is 75% complete). Completing your listing will improve your ranking in local searches and present a complete profile to users.

Why are my schedules in colour?

When you do not specify your exceptional hours, an orange mention is added to the local record of your establishment, it means that the owner has not validated his hours during public holidays.

However, if the mention is green, it means that you have mentioned this change on the form, the consumer can go to your point of sale with peace of mind, and this will also lead to a better referencing because your information will be considered reliable and qualitative by Google.

How to publish a google post?

1. Log onto GMB and then to the institution page
2. Click on “Create a post” or click on “Posts” in the menu
3. The “create a post” page offers several types of posts. Select the one that suits you.
4. Add photos, text, events and a call to action button to your post. Simply click on each field and enter the information.
5. To make your posts targeted to specific regions or languages, click on “Target”. If you do not select any region or language, your posts will be available in all regions and languages.
6. Once you have created your content, you can click on Preview to preview it.
7. Then click on “Publish” in the top right corner of your screen.

What is the impact of publishing photos on a Google My Business listing?

Businesses with photos on their Google My Business listing receive an average of 42% more route requests on Google Maps and 35% more clicks on their websites.

The cover photo and logo are the most important elements for the user as they are in the foreground of your listing.

Then you can add additional photos to make your listing more descriptive and attractive (inside or outside your business, your top products, your team or your offerings). It’s best to do this across all of your businesses’ Google My Business listings. By giving your pages a consistent look, you will strengthen your image and improve your local referencing.

Please note: the size of these photos must be at least 720 x 720 pixels and in JPG or PNG format

How to appear on Google Maps?

To appear on Google Maps, you must first add your business to Google My Business. It is important to indicate your address on this page. Then you can add your business to Google maps by following this procedure:

1. Log on to Google Maps
2. You can then add your establishment in 2 different ways:

1. Click on the drop-down menu at the top left. Then click on “Add an establishment”
2. Right click anywhere on the map. Then click on “Add an establishment”.

What does Google My Business represent in my sector?

Google My Business is a feature that allows physical businesses to present their information on a listing. These listings allow local businesses to manage their online presence in Google search and on Google Maps so that they can be easily (geo)located and provide the information that people usually look for (opening hours, directions, consumer reviews, etc.) when searching.

Google My Business is an invaluable online tool for your business and is of crucial importance for your local SEO. An optimised listing of your business on Google My Business will help you rank high in Google search results. When consumers inquire about a product or service that your business can provide, you will automatically be suggested in the results. A competitive advantage to be seized!

How to assess the accuracy of the information on my pages?

Google My Business does not allow you to automatically check the accuracy of your information. To do so, you have 3 solutions:

• Internally at head office level: Ask one of your marketing team to check the accuracy of each facility record. This can be a time-consuming process.
• Internally at local level: Each shop manager is responsible for regularly updating his or her information. Indeed, only he/she can communicate in the best possible way the changes of opening hours or events specific to the point of sale (promotions, products,…)
• An agency: In addition to increasing your web visibility, the agency allows you to ensure the reliability and security of your information and save precious time for your teams.

How can I manage my franchisee pages?

To manage your franchisees’ pages you simply have to create a location group with all your franchisees’ pages on Google My Business. They can be managed collectively by an organisation or a group of users. Organising your locations into groups makes it easier and more secure to manage multiple locations.

To create a location group:

1. Log into Google My Business
2. Click on “Manage” and then on “Create a location group”. If this button is not displayed, click on the three-bar menu and click on “Create a business account”.
3. Enter the name of your group and click OK

To add an institution to one or more groups, click on “Learn more”.

Facebook places: what are the differences with classic pages?

Facebook Places is a feature that can be activated from a company’s Facebook page to create local pages for its physical stores. 

Facebook has a feature that allows you to generate local pages for your physical points of sale on its search engine: Facebook Places. Indeed, each establishment can benefit from a “location” type page and thus highlight its local information (address, opening hours, contact details, promotions, specific local content, etc.).

As a business network, there are several ways to exist on Facebook. Either there is a main business page and independent locations pages, or the local pages are connected to the business page. The second option is the “locations” feature, which is what we are interested in.

This organisation of accounts has two particular advantages: it automatically generates a Store Locator and centralises the management of pages. The latter will allow users to locate establishments on a map from the main page. 

With Facebook Places, you can connect and manage all your activity sites on Facebook to promote Local Pages and local awareness ads. You can add new Local Pages, edit existing venue information and manage them all from one place. It offers a simpler display including contact details, times and location.The “classic” page(s) will offer a wider choice of content.

Related article: Facebook Places, the digital showcase for your physical stores 

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Why is it important to manage your Google reviews ?

Managing your e-reputation is one of the pillars of customer relations. It allows you to create a relationship of trust and build loyalty. Google places a lot of importance on this in terms of 3 elements:

Local results can be filtered by the number of stars. 

The number of reviews is displayed. 

The average score is also displayed.

Our recommendations:

1. Try to answer to all reviews, as this will encourage other local customers to speak out.
2. Be responsive, customers are sensitive to your response time. A maximum of 5 to 7 days is recommended.
3. Apply the “tone of voice”, the communication tone defined by your company. Use formal or colloquial language, for example.
4. Avoid copy and paste, opt for a personalised response.

In the event of a review violating the rules, comments and photos can be reported to the moderation teams who will remove them after evaluation.

Learn more: how to manage Google reviews and why

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How to run advertising campaigns on Google?

A Google Ads campaign creates a set of digital advertisements that will appear on the Google hub (Google Search, Google Maps, Youtube, the Display network…)

A Google Ads campaign will allow you to appear in searches for businesses similar to yours made by your potential customers. Google ads offers shop owners the opportunity to build local campaigns that aim to bring a customer into the shop by appearing in searches for prospects near the store.

For this purpose :

1. Go to your Google Ads account. On the left, in the pages menu, click on Campaigns. Then click on the “More” button and then on “New Campaign”.
2. Select the objective for your campaign. If there are no objectives that correspond to your needs, select “Create a campaign” without specific objectives. In the case of physical stores, select “Promotions and shop visits”.
3. Choose a daily budget or a budget for your entire campaign.
4. Provide a set of resources for your campaign. (Photos, videos, logos,

   descriptions,…)

Read more: The benefits of local google campaigns

What is a local ad?

A “local ad” is a digital promotion of your shop in a geographical area around it. The ad ensures that the most important information (name, address, opening hours, images, etc.) about your store is automatically displayed on the digital platforms of potential customers in the vicinity. The aim is to attract the customer to the point of sale. This strategy is called “Web-to-store” and consists of optimising the online visibility of your points of sale on the most important media to encourage visits to the shop.

What is a local campaign?

A “local campaign” consists of promoting your shop digitally throughout the Google ecosystem (Google Search, Google Maps, Youtube, the Display Network, etc.). When creating a Google campaign, there is the possibility to select a goal for your campaign. By selecting the goal “Promotions and shop visits”, you will be able to build what is called a “local campaign“. This type of campaign will allow you to display all the advertisements on the digital platforms of your potential customers who are close to the store.

Organising a campaign for a retail network requires some organisation. We advise the head office to offer a library of resources to the local entities. The shop managers will only have to take over these resources when they set up their campaigns.

Our advice:

– Ensure that there is good communication between the head office(s) and the local physical entities. Beforehand, it is necessary to define the messages that will be carried by each. The creation of a communication calendar for these different messages must then be created to allow good synchronisation between entities.

– To avoid launching competing campaigns for the same retail network, use the geo- location variables of the different platforms to create “catchment areas”. It is possible in the platforms to exclude geographical areas where the campaign will therefore not be communicated. The campaigns will therefore be mutually exclusive.

1. Read more: Boost the visibility of your outlets with local ads

How to run advertising campaigns on Facebook?

Facebook offers shop owners the ability to easily create local “Facebook ads” campaigns, a format that meets their needs.

Indeed, this digital advertising format allows physical stores to promote their services and products to potential customers in a nearby geographical area. Local campaigns meet the needs of physical shops as it brings the customer to their location.

The steps:

• Choose your campaign objective: in Facebook ads manager, click on “create” in the “campaign” tab. Facebook offers you 11 different campaign objectives. In the case of retail networks, the objective for the point of sale will be “Point of sale traffic”.
• Define your audience: in the “locations” section, it is interesting for retail networks to use the “People recently in this location” option to allow targeting of people in the vicinity of the store. It is possible to enlarge the targeting radius around the shop.
• Define the locations of the campaign: for the “in-store traffic” campaign objective, the locations are limited to the Facebook feed and stories and the Instagram feed and stories. The images and/or videos and texts prepared in advance will then have to be uploaded.
• Specify the campaign budget and timetable: You have two choices for the campaign budget: choose a daily budget or a total budget for the whole campaign.
• Choose the different campaign formats

Read more: What are the benefits of Facebook ads for a retail network?

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What is the impact of online visibility for my store?

A good search engine optimization (SEO) builds trust and credibility towards your company. Moreover, a complete business page (with photos, descriptions, timetables,…) will automatically rank better than one that is less complete.

Your main source of traffic is through Google searches. People usually only get as far as the first page of results before stopping their searches or changing keywords. That’s why you need to make sure your brand’s pages are on the first page of the results.

Good local SEO means engagement, traffic and conversions. Good web SEO also means a better user experience by bringing the information they need directly to them. For this, regular information management is crucial. Any excuse is a good excuse to publish a Google Post to communicate events or promotions. SEO is a long-term strategy with measurable results.

How to identify the SEO impact of the store locator?

The store locator is a key tool for driving customers to your locations. In digital marketing it is important to be able to measure the impact of your actions in order to analyse the results and optimise your strategy. You will be able to set up corrective or development axes by setting defined objectives and by monitoring your results thanks to KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).

Google Analytics, Google’s performance measurement tool, will allow you to measure a set of KPI’s such as turnover, visits, revenue or sales,… Moreover, it is a very useful tool to measure your digital presence through indicators such as the number of clicks, views or downloads on websites and ads.

Google Analytics is a very complete tool, which makes it quite complex at first. We advise you to consult the Google support articles before creating an Analytics account.

Read more: Get started with Analytics

What is an omnichannel strategy?

Omnichannel is about connecting the brand with its customers on all available channels simultaneously. This approach places the consumer at the centre of the marketing strategies of brands, since he is the one who decides which channel is best suited to his or her needs at a given time. The stakes are high for brands, as customer experience, satisfaction and interaction with the consumer are at the heart of the buying journey.

Read more: Use an omnichannel strategy to increase total sales

How can I get my website to rank well on Google?

If you are looking to promote your website, increase traffic and make it more visible, it is important to work on your website’s SEO on Google. Indeed, it is the best way to get important and relevant traffic.

Here are the steps to follow:

• Make the site accessible to Google
• Find the right keywords to position yourself
• Monitor the SERP (Search Engine Result Page) daily
• Create qualitative and relevant content
• Introduce structured data to your website
• Optimise the loading speed of your website

More information: What is local SEO?

What is the difference between E-commerce and In store?

Consumption habits have evolved with the internet: customers inform themselves, compare and read the opinions left online before making a purchase, whether online or in shop. For this reason, local SEO “click and collect”, websites and the use of social networks are essential for retail networks. The benefits are numerous: better visibility, local communication, increased turnover and customer loyalty.

Two terms have emerged from this change in consumer habits: e-commerce and in- store. The difference between these two terms is determined by the place of purchase. E-commerce describes an online shop where the purchase is made virtually. In-store is a term used to describe physical establishments where the purchase is made in- store.

What are the best practices for good local SEO?

Here are some tips:

• Create an account on the most important platforms such as Google My Business, Facebook, Instagram,… Don’t forget to register on local and professional directories according to your sector.
• Check that the information you give on all platforms is the same. Align your information such as your name, address, phone number, website,… Check that your opening hours are up to date on all these media.
• Encourage your customers to post their reviews on your pages. The more reviews you have, the better your ranking will be. Don’t forget to respond to them, as this shows that you take customer reviews into consideration. It is advisable to respond to reviews between 2 and 7 days after publication.

• Add information to your listings detailing the services and/or products you offer. This way, people interested in your brand will know with a single glance what you do.
• Post about events taking place in your shop such as promotions or current actions.

How can I increase my online traffic?

Have you noticed a drop in traffic to your local pages or website? Are you looking to understand why and how to reverse the trend? Here are some tips to reverse the trend:

1. A drop in traffic can be linked to a drop in general traffic on a specific keyword or term. In other words, it is possible that a term that you regularly use for your advertising campaigns or communications is less sought after by Internet users.
2. The visibility of an online article can, in addition to its subject, be linked to its publication date. Do not hesitate to write articles on current topics on a regular basis. In addition, make sure that a specific keyword is used throughout your article. This keyword should also be in the title.
3. To increase your visibility, communicate regularly to your customers and prospects. Use any event to prepare content. We advise you to create a content calendar to organise your email marketing and social media posts.
4. Update your local listings on Google and Facebook regularly. This sends a signal to Google that the information is reliable and provides a good user experience for users. You can update your exceptional hours, add photos, products, services, post content.

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How do I manage the online presence of my establishments?

The management of the local digital marketing of a network of shops must be based on the synergy between the head office and the local entities. To this end, the head office is advised to offer a library of resources (texts, photos, videos) for all the communications needed by the stores. The shop managers are then responsible for communicating with the proposed resources.

To facilitate the management of all your points of sale, the MyMobilosoft software offers you all the resources you need to manage the presence of your points of sale on the web: local referencing (multicasting), content publication, conversation management and e-reputation. This way, you can manage your entire web presence on the same platform and analyse your results to make the necessary improvements to your strategy.

How can I be more efficient in managing my local pages?

Managing the different local pages on a set of media requires a certain number of resources.

There are 3 possible management modes to gain efficiency:

• Decentralised management: give local managers the possibility to manage their own local pages. They are best placed to respond to local issues.
• Centralized management: The head office ensures that the information from all the outlets is managed in the same way.
• Outsourced management: delegate your workload to a team of efficient and reactive data managers 7/7, they manage your GMB and FB pages, your store locator, reviews …

To be more efficient and make your life easier, Mobilosoft has developed a simplified and centralised management platform, allowing you to save time and monitor your marketing actions. This platform brings together these three forms of management in a centralised manner to save time for all network employees.

How do I manage my different schedules on different digital platforms?

We advise you to differentiate your regular hours from your secondary hours. On your Google My Business account, for example, your exceptional hours should be detailed in a different section (“More hours” or “Exceptional opening hours“) than your usual hours. For exceptional services or events, don’t forget to detail your schedule changes in this dedicated section. 

To benefit from the overall consistency of your points of sale, it is advisable to use software or platforms to centrally manage all your point of sale data on your various digital media.

For this, the MyMobilosoft platform exists, it allows you to have a global and centralized vision of your pages on Google My business or Facebook Business for example. You can manage all your pages, change the schedules in a quick and centralized way and thus save time to your teams and limit the errors in informations.

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