Google My Business: Advanced Features to Improve Your Search Rankings
Last month, Sessile published an article introducing you to Google’s local SEO tool. Today, let’s take it a step further and explore some lesser-known features that can help you sell more bouquets online!
A powerful tool for building reputation
Google My Business also offers a rating feature that allows your customers to share their experience with you with all internet users: the well-known reviews. Your customers can leave you reviews rated from 1 to 5 stars based on their level of satisfaction.
As you might expect, the overall rating is a powerful tool for building reputation, and very often, it’s this factor that influences whether or not customers decide to make a purchase. That’s why you need to pay close attention to this metric! In fact, 84% of internet users rely on reviews when deciding whether or not to make a purchase. This rating also affects the visibility of your business listing: the more reviews you have, the higher your ranking will be.
We strongly recommend that you respond to as many reviews as possible, even if they’re negative: differences of opinion can happen, and customers won’t take offense! However, you should take the opportunity to present your side of the story in a courteous and well-reasoned manner to dispel any doubts. Be sure to respond to positive reviews as well to show that you’re responsive.
Keep in mind that the more reviews you have, the more credible your rating will appear to online users. Any method is fair game when it comes to gathering reviews: don’t hesitate to ask your regular customers or anyone who shops in your store to leave you a positive review to help you out. If you have a Sessile store, we collect reviews for you: after each order, we send an email to your customers asking them to share all the good things they think about you. This feature is exclusive to Sessile!
Share your news with your potential customers
While most businesses understand the importance of their business profile and generally do a good job of providing essential information to their customers, very few realize that Google My Business is also a platform for sharing updates, much like social media. Just as your customers can add photos of the bouquets they’ve purchased from you, you can also add your own to showcase your latest arrangements to your customers.
You also have the option to share posts to highlight one of your favorite creations or to promote a sale: the interface is intuitive and lets you easily edit posts by adding affiliate links that should bring you a few orders. According to experts, an account with at least 100 profile photos sees its exposure increase sevenfold.
Another useful feature of Google My Business is the user suggestion, which allows a customer to indicate that some of your information is out of date. Be sure to review these suggestions, both to ensure the accuracy of your information and to stay in touch with your customers. If you have a Sessile online store, we handle responding to user suggestions for you every week, so your account is updated in real time.
Remember once again that the more regularly you update your listing, the more Google’s algorithm will reward your efforts by featuring your profile prominently.
Merchant Center: Your product bundles are directly visible in search results
Google Merchant Center is a new feature launched by Google, and it is still largely overlooked by most businesses. However, it is a powerful tool for generating sales. In fact, it allows you to display products from your online store directly in search results.
You can add your products directly to Google Maps so that they are visible to online users. In practical terms, this means that potential customers simply need to click on a product to place an order, and this time savings for them has an impact on your conversion rate. In particular, this can help customers visualize themselves making the purchase, therebyincreasing your online orders.
But this process can be time-consuming. That’s why Google created Merchant Center, which it makes available to e-commerce managers—and Sessile has access to it! This allows us to automatically notify Google of your new products, which will then be displayed to customers directly in search results.
Another advantage of Merchant Center (remember the relevance criterion!) is that it lets you show Google that there’s ongoing activity on your account; and if you’ve been following along, the more content you post, the higher your store will rank on the page. And the products you add are considered by Google to be highly relevant information, meaning they’ll carry significant weight in your organic search rankings.
The only downside to this tool is that it’s tricky to master. Given the nature of your business, you’ll need to update it very frequently based on your inventory. But don’t worry: at Sessile, we’re Merchant Center pros and can automatically sync products from your Sessile online store to optimize your account. That way, your bouquets will appear on Google Shopping and will be more likely to generate orders!
Did you enjoy this article? We have plenty more tips to share with you! Schedule an appointment with our team to learn more.
Who are we?
Sessile champions the independence of artisan florists online. Founded in 2019 by six friends, Sessile brings together 500 florists committed to transforming the industry and enables flower delivery throughout France, Belgium, and Luxembourg. By breaking away from the traditional online catalog model, the network highlights each florist’s expertise and helps keep the art of floristry alive. Florists can pursue their passion and create more creative bouquets because they have greater freedom to offer seasonal flowers and, whenever possible, locally sourced flowers.