Google’s New Addition – Family-led Attribute in Google My Business Profile
Let’s admit, Google is the major source of searches. There has been exponential growth in the “near me: searches seen over the past one year, which is finally declining. Today, comparable searches without “near me” are rising. Why?
That’s because near me now is implied.
With the trend of fewer “near me” searches occurring, you might be thinking what do to in order to contextualize the “My Business” page and stand out from the crowd.
Fortunately, Google truly understands that your business is not just defined by usual NAP data, such as name, address, location, and phone number. It also helps to describe what the business offers and the unique traits making it special and more relevant.
Google attributes help to optimize business for search results. It ensures that customers can find your business easily with the details they are looking for. For instance, with the help of attributes, a business can clearly indicate whether they have an ATM on the premise, outdoor seating, delivery etc.
Note that 70% hotel searches are for specific amenities such as “hotel with indoor swimming pool”, “hotel with gym” or “hotel with spa.” When searchers conduct these types of queries, which are unbranded, attributes help for search performance. It also provides consumers with increasingly relevant search results as they proceed to purchase.
Your business category determines the attributes you can add to your Google listings. For instance, restaurants can include details such as they accept credit card and reservations, they offer gluten-free, vegan options, or they have a keto-friendly kitchen. Likewise, hotels can specify whether they welcome pets or not, have a grocery store or not, highlight organic products etc. Google gives you endless possibilities to maximize relevance.
Having said that, many attributes vary and may be applied to all types of businesses. For instance, businesses can specify things like whether or not they are open on Sundays with timings, LGBTQ friendly or not, and much more. Google’s Knowledge Card lists these attributes, which prominently showcase relevant information, which users are typically searching for, including address, website, business hours, and other important and basic information about the business.
Google Attributes – What are they?
Google My Business attributes are specific characteristics or factors about a business, which exist outside the standard categories. Google uses attributes to describe business elements such as in-store experiences, product offerings, WiFi availability etc. Here’s one example
On October 26, 2016, Google introduced owner verified Google My Business pages with the ability to add custom fields into their listings to promote greater visibility on Google Maps. In the past, Google was merely gathering these attributes from other users who wrote a review about the place.
By customizing these attributes, Google has also filtered the industry. Based on the business vertical, only some attributes are available to you with the help of bulk upload document. Take another example of a restaurant having an attribute of offering wine while a bank could have an attribute offering an ATM. At present, some industries are allotted number of attributes than others by Google.
How to Google My Business Attributes Affect a Business?
The greatest advantage is that attributes make Google Maps results more customized, relevant and error-free. It also allows businesses to highlight their best qualities compared to their competitors. Google organizes attributes by breaking them into few sections like:
- Offerings
- Crowd
- Highlights
- Popular for
- Atmosphere
Google considers all these attributes and creates a description, which consumers see the first thing when they view Google My Business listing.
What should Businesses do?
Businesses should take optimum advantage of these latest attributes. It is simple! Just log into your Google My Business dashboard and ensure all the listings are up-to-date. You can see a message at the top of the dashboard explaining new attributes. In addition, most of the Google My Business listings show updates for the new feature too.
Family-Led Attribute – What is it?
Google My Business recently added a new attribute called Family-Led Business. It adds on to the Veteran Led and Women-Led category of attributes already available.
Companies adding this attribute to their Google native listings would see the family-led in on all their enterprise listings in Google Maps as well as Google search.
How to add Google Family-led Attribute?
In order to activate the icon, simply log into your Google My Business page, click on the listings and then click on the “info” tab located on the left-hand side. You can scroll down to the “Add Attributes” section and click on the pencil icon. A new dialog box pops up and lets you click on the “Family-led” button to apply it to your my business listings.
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Should you care for Family-Led Google Attribute?
If you have any of the traits for which you are promoting, this includes one of the three attributes that might help, add it. It ensures that your business stands out and has an advantage within the Google outcomes. You would also get a shiny new family-led icon displaying that you are a family-led enterprise, which adds an extra enterprise for you.
Tips to Optimize Google My Business Listing
The first crucial step in a local SEO strategy is to claim your local business and verify it with Google My Business (GMB) listing. Getting your Google My Business page can increase your potential chances of becoming visible in Google’s leading features like Local Pack, Google Maps, Local Finder, and overall organic rankings. A qualifying local business can also claim free listings on Google and add all information related to the company such as address, phone number, business hours and mode of payment.
In addition, over the past couple of months, Google has also introduced some new and interesting features, which companies can apply to the Google My Business page. Companies should take optimum advantage to enhance Google My Business listing and attract viewers’ attention. It automatically increases local search engine ranking and yields relevant results.
Many local businesses claim their Google My Business listing and just forget about it. Most businesses even fail to realize that offering a variety of features gives them a chance to optimize the Google My Business listings. It is, thus, crucial to check your business listings from time to time, update records and listings, and maintain accuracy.
To optimize Google My Business Page, you have to provide complete information that Google asks for. Google wants to know many things in order to help your business grow and reach its target audience. So, you have to fill out the profile completely and accurately. Once done, the listing would have some valuable basic data, which will make it easier for your potential customers to find out more information about the company. If you do not fill out the information by yourself, someone else might do it.
Business owners fail to realize that anyone can edit or suggest a change to the business listing, which includes your competitors.
When users click on GMB listings, they see “Suggest an edit” option:
By clicking on “suggest edit” tab, anyone can literally edit or add something to your Google My Business listing, which may be irrelevant.
That’s not all! These user-generated changes can go live on the listings without even any notification. This is just another reason why it is very important to log into your Google My Business dashboard regularly and ensure that no one makes any unwanted changes to the listings.
In the classic Google My Business dashboard, you would see “Google Updates” notifications.
As you see the updates, you should note that these are the changes Google made to the business listing because it was either the new algorithm found some information about the business such as citation, location change, Google map change, or a Google user submitted an edit, which is published. Note that when people suggest edits, it is not just a mere suggestion. The changes go live without any prior notification or an opportunity to dispute such a change.
Now, if you click “Google Updates”, you can see a box, which allows you to “Review Updates.” Using a tool, you can remove any incorrect information from the listing that may lead to adverse consequences.
Final Word
Intelligent search is on the rise. As a result, it is more important than ever that you take full control of public information about the company. Information related to your business is now available in many places and locations besides your website. It is now impossible to update all digital information manually. So, find a tool that allows you to manage your company’s digital data and information across intelligent services, which ensures customers get genuine information and find out accurate updates about your business.
Google encourages customer reviews, unlike Yelp. Ethical review is very important for the success of your business. According to 2017 BrightLocal Consumer Review Survey, 97% consumers read online reviews for local business in 2017, and 12% look for local business review online daily. Likewise, 85% consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
With this new update, Google is definitely aiming to personalize user experience.
Author: Amara Luis
Amara Luis is a skilled and most creative content writer work freelance specializing in writing SEO, social media and other various topic on internet marketing.
