One of my pet peeves is unclaimed google business listings.  What is this?  When you find a business on Google, you can see its location, directions and website.  You also see a question “Own this business?” which means the company is NOT taking advantage of their free google business page.

When you OWN or claim the google business page, you can upload photos as the owner, you can reject changes as the owner and you can respond to reviews at the owner.  You really do want to OWN your google business page.

So how do you claim your business on google?  Be logged into an email account with google services, such as a gmail account.  Then click on the “Own this business?” link.  You will be prompted through a series of basic questions about your business.  If you don’t have a store front, you should choose “I deliver goods and services to my customers. ” on the address page.  You will not have to list your home address publicly on google. Keep clicking through until it asks you how to verify your ownership.  You can receive a phone call or text message with a special code you would then type in.  Or you can request a post card be sent to your business address.  It is that simple.

Examples

Now you can check any time to accept or reject customer suggestions to your google listing.  For example, a restaurant I work with is a bar and grill. They do offer several vegetarian options, but some customers have been vocal in their need for more.  They suggested to google that the bar and grill offered NO VEGETARIAN OPTIONS, which is not true.  I was able to correct this because the restaurant CLAIMED the google business page.

Another example is from a local bike shop.  A customer wrote a scathing review about a bike repair.  The bike shop owner was able to respond that they had received faulty information from the bicycle company rep.  The situation had been resolved but the customer wanted to vent anyway, all over a $2 part.  Without my client’s response, prospective customers would have gotten a very skewed impression of the bike shop.

Claim Your Business

Please claim your business today.  Feel free to email me at cblack@r3cCreations.com if you have any questions or run into any problems.