{"id":457,"date":"2020-08-22T10:00:17","date_gmt":"2020-08-22T10:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/repcheckup.com\/?p=457"},"modified":"2022-09-07T02:47:58","modified_gmt":"2022-09-07T02:47:58","slug":"claiming-google-my-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmbgorilla.com\/claiming-google-my-business\/","title":{"rendered":"How You Can Claim Your Business on Google My Business"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Whether you like it or not, chances are someone (or some robot) has created an online profile for your business on one of the many \u2013 if not all \u2013 review-based sites. Try as we might, it seems like escaping representation on the internet in one way or another is impossible \u2013 thankfully <\/span>personal <\/span><\/i>profiles aren\u2019t automatically being created for us as of yet. As a business owner, however, you\u2019ll want to claim your Google My Business<\/a> profiles and make sure that the information provided is correct. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Studies have found that 56% of businesses are unclaimed <\/em>on Google, making them susceptible to leading customers to the wrong information about your business \u2013 and that’s something it’s better to avoid.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are a few things you should know before we get into the details of how you can claim your business online. First, these profiles <\/span>do <\/span><\/i>impact the way that people will interact with your business as far as them deciding who they\u2019ll seek to do business with. Just as you\u2019re more likely to order an item from Amazon with 20 reviews that total 4.5 stars rather than an item with 1 review that totals 5 stars, people prefer to purchase products with established reputations online. The same logic applies when people do the research to find the <\/span>business <\/span><\/i>they\u2019ll work with next. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to provide researchers with the best information, making it more likely for them to choose <\/span>your <\/span><\/i>business out of all the rest, you\u2019ll need to claim your profile.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Claiming Your Profile is Important in a World of Competitors<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The truth is that claiming your profiles and getting reviews routed to them is good for gaining new clients, but it\u2019s even better when it comes to staying ahead of competitors \u2013 <\/span>and <\/span><\/i>staying <\/span>safe <\/span><\/i>from them.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are dozens of business accounts that you should be claiming, including Google My Business. To claim and monitor these profiles, someone in your business will have to personally log in and out of each account and go through steps similar to the ones we’ve listed below. If you want to save time and get things done the right way, you could sign up for a reputation management tool, like RepCheckup<\/a>, that gets the job done for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When an online profile is left unclaimed, it\u2019s possible for competitors or malicious individuals to claim it for themselves. Once this happens, it\u2019s very difficult, if not impossible, for the true business owner to regain control of their profile. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some cases, these hackers will reroute potential customers to a spoof website that looks similar to yours to entice them into making purchases, thus giving up their credit card information to an untrustworthy source who is masquerading as your business. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other times, these pirated profiles will begin to display incorrect information regarding your open hours, address, and phone number in order to confuse people who are actively trying to contact you or find your business\u2019s physical address. The result? Disgruntled customers who return to your profile to leave an angry review.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Online Profiles You Should Claim<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are over a hundred review platforms that your business could have a profile online. As we mentioned earlier, it\u2019s entirely possible that you already have a profile even if you haven\u2019t created it yourself!<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the best practice would be to claim all of the profiles on websites your business appears on, that daunting task is easier said than done. For some business owners, using a tool, like RepCheckup, is the easiest route to take. However, there are a few key profiles you can work on claiming while you prepare your reputation management strategy. In this series, we\u2019re going to teach you how to claim the most major profiles on the web. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google My Business<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If there\u2019s a specific review profile you <\/span>absolutely <\/span><\/i>want to claim first, it should be your Google My Business profile. As the most popular search engine by far, Google has worked hard to create a platform that encompasses anything and everything a user may search for \u2013 including local businesses.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because Google has created Google Maps, one of the most popular GPS systems that is automatically built into most phones, their access to your exact location allows their algorithms to tailor results specifically to your locality, no matter where you are. This means that your Google My Business profile, which controls what appears on Google Maps, is an crucial profile to claim and manage.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claiming Your Google My Business Profile<\/h2>\n\n\n\n