Google My Business is a convenient and user-friendly resource for both potential customers and businesses alike. Created by Google, this one-stop-shop makes it easy not only for potential new clients to find pertinent information about your massage therapy practice, but also for you to control info about your practice and monitor analytics.  With 7.6 billion local searches done via Google My Business each month, you can’t afford not to embrace the services of this online business tool for your massage therapy practice. Here are some of the many benefits:

Benefit #1: Potential clients can find you easily.

Anyone looking for a massage therapy practice in your community and searching related keywords will instantly have access to your business name, contact information, hours of operation, driving directions, and other important info you post.

Benefit #2: Potential clients can use various platforms.

Whether it’s a tablet, a desktop computer, or a smartphone, your potential clients can readily access info about your business on any number of gizmos and gadgets available today.

Benefit #3: You can include lots of pertinent information.

While you’re free to add or delete whatever information you want about your particular massage therapy practice, the more details you include, the higher your ranking and the more convenient you will make the search experience for your potential customers. If you include the following recommended information, potential clients won’t have to go elsewhere to find the information:

The name of your massage therapy practice

The physical address

Your phone number

A pin marker

Your location on a map

Your website URL

Your email address

Your business category

The hours you are open

An introduction to your business

Well-lit, crystal-clear beautiful photos of your practice

Engaging and informative videos

Driving and parking directions

Neighborhood keywords

Special promotions and other info

Benefit #4:  You can quickly and easily update your business information.

The dashboard for Google My Business enables you to easily manage and update all of your business information in one central location. You don’t have to take the time to log into different Google pages to read, review, and respond to different activities on your account. With the Google My Business integrated Google+ page, you can share regular updates about your massage therapy practice, specials you are running, new products you have for sale, and additional services you may be offering at your practice. You can post creative and informative videos, you can respond to reviews, and you can host various educational and fun events via hangouts.

Benefit #5: You can easily include images and virtual tours of your practice.

Your Google+ page enables you to provide potential customers with the ability not only to look at cool photos of your practice but also take a virtual tour of your establishment. The more information you continue to add to your account, the higher you will rank in the Google search engines.

Benefit #6: You can track your Google rankings.

There are several different ways you can up your ranking in Google’s proprietary search algorithm;

Setting up an account with Google My Business is one of those ways. To get the most out of this powerful feature, you need to track how your massage therapy practice ranks not only on Google searches but also on Google maps. Specifically, you need to understand which Search Engine Optimization keywords drive your business. For example, if your SEO keyword phrase is massage therapy on Saturdays, you can then track that exact phrase by every combination of zip codes you want to reach, by your practice’s neighborhood, and other specific geographic locations you might be interested in tracking. This will help you not only understand what your customers are searching for the most, but also enable you to strategically plan your course of action to increase the traffic to ensure your practice is what they find as they search. While tracking organic (free) search rankings is a bit of a challenge via Google (because they want you to buy advertising from them), you can opt to invest instead in local online marketing software platforms to automatically track your local SEO progress. Among other information, some of these pay-per-month programs enable you to:

check your ranking over specified periods of time to identify and analyze trends

show improvements in Top 3, Top 10, and Top 30 rankings

track your ranking in organic Google searches

track your ranking in Google map searches

track your ranking in your SEO keywords

Take a moment to explore Google My Business; look at how other businesses in your area are utilizing it. Then, when you are ready with just the right wording and the perfect photos, set up your own massage therapy practice on it and track how many new clients this resource brings to your front door!

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