Lesson 1: How to create a Google My Business listing

How To Create A Google My Business Listing

A Google My Business listing is an important part of your local marketing strategy and a properly optimized GMB listing can contribute significantly to your company’s growth.

1. Before You Start…

A Google My Business listing is an important part of your local marketing strategy and a properly optimized GMB listing can contribute significantly to your company’s growth.

The video in this module goes over how to create your GMB Listing.  There are some things you should prepare before beginning this process.  These are:

• Business name, 
• Business address, 
• Business phone number, 
• The Hours of operation, 
• List of all services you provide, 
• List of Service Locations with a good mix of counties, cities, and zip codes, 
• All modes of payment you accept, and 
• Year your business started.

You will also need a business description consisting of around 750 characters.  It should contain:

• A quick introduction to the business, 
• Services you provide, 
• Locations you serve, 
• The company phone number, and 
• A call to action.  

You will also need 6-8 business photos. These should include:

• Your business logo,
• A team photo, and
• 3-4 photos of your technicians while working.  

When you have this information ready, you are all set to create your Google My Business listing.

Important Note: You will need a google or a free Gmail account to create a Google My Business Listing.

2. Starting with Google My Business listing.

• Go to Google and search for Google My Business.  
• Click on the first result.  
• Select Manage now.  
• Type in the name of your Business.  At this point, you will also be able to see if someone has already created a GMB listing for the name you enter.  
• You will be brought to the create profile page.  Enter in your business category, if you have more than one, only enter in the main category, for now, you can add more later.

The next page will ask, “do you want to add a location customers can visit, like a store or office?” 

• If you have a proper Business location that customers can visit, then select yes. 
• If you do not, then select no.

On the next page, enter the primary location that you serve.  You can add up to 20 locations, but for now just a few will suffice.  You can add more later when you optimize your GMB listing. 

On the next page, enter your company’s phone number and website URL, if you have one.  

The last step is to verify your mailing address.  Once you provide Google a mailing address, they will send you a verification code through the mail.  Currently, this is the only means of verification that google provides for home service businesses like pest control.  It will take 5-12 business days for the postcard to arrive.

You now know how to create a Google My Business listing for your pest control company. With this, you have taken the first steps to grow your company.

In the next module, we’ll cover how to optimize your GMB listing step-by-step.