Featuring your daycare on Google Maps is not only essential for when new customers are looking for the daycare closest to them, but it’s also super important for both SEO and putting your daycare ahead of the competition. Not only will the physical address of your daycare be displayed on the map, but online users will be able to see photos, star ratings, testimonies, and even news and announcements – all of which is crucial for attracting new clients. It’s also going to be where much your online traffic will come from, especially in the early days of your online presence. That’s why we thought it would be important to discuss what the Google Business Profile is and how to display your daycare on Google Maps.
What Is Google Business Profile
Google Business Profile, formally known as Google My Business, is a tool created by Google for users to manage and optimize an online profile on the Google search engine. It’s completely free and crucial for local SEO for two reasons. Firstly, it allows for a complete profile of your business to displayed on the right hand side of search engine result pages when people search for you directly (see above for an example).
That alone is a fantastic feature because the profile displays your reviews, address, contact information, website, social media channels, updates and more. However, the reason why the Google Business Profile is really important for small or new businesses is because it adds your company on Google Maps.
Like most of us, if you have ever asked Google Maps for directions to a business or googled something like “restaurants close to me”, then what often gets displayed is the physical locations of any relevant businesses within your area. This is what the Google Business Profile is – your individual company profile for Google Maps and search engine result pages. What is usually displayed is your logo, photos, contact information, physical address, and other important links such as your reviews/testimonies and your website.
Not only will local users be able to find you more quickly and easily when looking for a daycare close to them on Google, but it also provides you with the right platform to really compete with other daycares around your area. Collecting strong reviews and testimonies as well as posting company updates frequently and providing links to your awesome website can really make the difference when people are investigating their local daycares. Having and optimizing a Google Business Profile is not only necessary – it’s essential!
How To Get Your Daycare On Google Business Profile & Google Maps
Fortunately it’s a fairly simple to get your daycare on the Google Business Profile and, therefore, Google Maps. It’s also a completely free service that Google provides. All you simply need to do is sign up to the Google Business Profile from their dedicated website (usually you will have to log into your Email/Gmail account first).
Occasionally, when you’ve had an online presence for a fairly long time, Google can automatically create a business profile for you – or you may have created an account a long time ago and forgotten about it. If that’s the case, Google will allow you to first look up your business online to see if you’re already listed. If so, you can access/claim your profile that way. Otherwise, you can continue on with the creation of a new business profile.
What is important to understand is that it is essential to have a physical location for your daycare which you are happy to display on Google Maps. If you list your business with not having a physical address/location, then there is a strong chance that you will have a profile when people search you directly but you will not appear on Google Maps along with your competitors. It’s also impossible to add a physical location to your business profile later if you don’t have an address in the beginning but do later on. It would be much better to list an address and then change it later on compared to not listing an address at all and going through the hassle of removing the account and starting again.
Finally, please note that you will have to verify the account. Depending on the location of your business, this will either mean something as simple as an email or phone call verification or something slightly more tricky like an address verification. This means a postcard with a verification code will be sent to your business address. Thanks to the pandemic and the unreliability of post, particularly in rural areas, often you will be allowed to simply use the other methods of verification. With that said, if you do need to verify the address of your daycare, then please keep in mind that the postcard can be delayed by weeks so you may not be able to get your profile on Google as quickly as you like.
Daycare Promotion & Google Business Profile
By signing up with us at Daycare Promotion, you will be given access to the Google Business Profile and offered professional advice so you can get onto Google Maps in next to no time. We will also provide documents and subsequent blog tutorials on not only how to create your new business profile, but also how to optimize it for local search engines. Be sure to check out our pricing plans for our services and promote your business online today.
