How to Get Your Catering Business Listed on Google My Business?

Introduction

If you are running a family restaurant or catering business, you must get listed on Google My Business. Google My Business is a free tool that lets you manage how your business appears on Google Maps & search. It includes adding your business name, detailed location, hours, monitoring & replying to the customer reviews, adding photos, and so much more.

Now, you will ask how do I get my business listed. To help you out, we've created this step-by-step guide. So, let's scroll down and find out how:-

● Create an Account

Google My Business is free to use. But, there is one requirement—your business must have physical presence.  Or, in simple words, you can’t work 100% online without any physical address.

Now, creating a Google My Business listing:-

Step 1: Log into your official Google account, but make sure you go with one that you want to associate with your business. Create a Google account, if you don't have one.

Step 2: When you've logged onto your account, the next step is to click "Start Now" in the top hand corner.

Step 3: Enter the name of your business.

Step 4: Enter the address of your business.

Step 5: If your business reaches out to the client's locations, which in case of a catering business is quite common. You can tick "deliver goods and services to my customers." check box. In case you don't want your address to be visible publicly, you can always "Hide My Address (It's Not a Store) Only Show region." checkbox. And, finally, you've selected your delivery area.

Step 6: In the category, you have to select "Catering Food and Drink Supplier."

Step 7: Add the contact details of your catering business: the website URL and phone number.

Step 8: Now, the last and most crucial step is physically verifying your business. Presently, if you don't want to verify your location, hit "Try a different method" and then "Later."

● Verify Your Physical Address

There are a plethora of ways to verify your business on Google My Business:-

• Bulk Verification
• By Postcard
• By Email
• By Phone
• Instant Verification

Each of the methods has its own set of steps to verify. But, we'll put forth the steps to verify your business address using the Postcard method, which is most preferred by businesses,

Step 1: Log into your Google account.

Step 2: Double-check the address, see if it's right.

Step 3: Hit "Mail," and a postcard with the verification code will reach your place within the next 14 days.

Step 4: Once you've received the code, your next step is to log into your Google My Business account. Then click on "Verify Now," then enter the code into the field, and finally click "Submit."

If somehow, you've misplaced the mail or not received it, you can request a new code by clicking "Request Another Code" at the top corner of the screen. 

● Optimize Your Listing

So, once your business profile has been verified, now is the time for a touch to present it in front of your prospective clients.

Go to the dashboard of Google My Business. Select info, and pick a section you want to update.

Since you are into the catering business, add relevant photos and then write important text. Include as much as information possible, right from the big catering events along with details like areas you serve, working hours, phone number, etc.

A quick note: business with photos receives 35% more clicks.

At any time you can edit your Google My Business listing, just by logging into the account.

Your Google My Business listing cover photo is elemental as it shows upfront and can be able to make or break for your best. So, choose it wisely, typically go with a high-resolution image.

You can also include videos in your listing, but it should:

• Not be longer than 30 seconds
• Be less than 100 MB
• Have minimum 720p resolution

● Difference Between Google My Business, Google Places, and Google+

Are you confused with different names, Google+, Google Places, and Google My Business?

Google Places was a dedicated tool for managing the Google business listing; now, there is Google My Business.

Google My Business is the central hub that manages Google Search, Maps, and Google+.

So, now what is Google+? It was a social media site for businesses, where they could post updates, in other words, just like a Facebook business page. However, it has been officially closed.

Conclusion

The whole process of getting your catering business listed on Google My Business is tiring; therefore, you can seek the help of a local SEO agency.

Whatever your hospitality business type is, a chain of restaurants or an upcoming catering company, a small cafe or a pizza delivery service, we offer tailored online marketing services. Book a free consultation with our marketing specialist for a dedicated catering business marketing plan.