Google My Business Best Practices for Businesses with Multiple Departments

As for the modern world where the focus is made on the Internet presence, having an online platform that would represent all the departments of the company is a vital necessity. Regardless of the kind of business or the industry it belongs to, whether there are specific divisions in a healthcare organization, numerous types of products in a retail store chain, or multiple service lines in a service organization, proper organization and optimization of the GMB profile can sharply boost the organization’s local search visibility. The problem most businesses encounter when they have several departments is that their clients rarely notice the various departments, hence the need to come up with a proper Google My Business plan.

At Device Doctor India which is one of the most acclaimed digital Marketing Company, we comprehend the need for developing a formal system of handling Google My Business accounts, particularly when it comes to companies with different sections. In this blog, I will share the GMB best practices for such organizations, whereby every department will have its part in contributing to the growth of the business.

Why is Google My Business Important?

Now that we know what type of information we want to include, let us explore why Google My Business is important for businesses. Google My Business or GMB for short, is a service that is owned by Google through which businesses can control how they appear in searches done on both Google and Google Maps. For businesses with multiple departments or locations, Google My Business helps in:For businesses with multiple departments or locations, Google My Business helps in:

• Enhancing local SEO rankings.
• Some of the information includes the addresses, the time of operation, services and also the contact details.
• Increasing the engagement rate of customers· through reviews, posts and answers to questions.
• Providing insights on how the customers are engaging with your firm.

Hence, much optimization, a Google My Business profile which is managed in the most appropriate manner has the potential of yielding higher visibility, traffic and thus sales. It is time to focus on the practices specifically tailored for the companies with highly developed sales departments.

1. Set Up Separate Listings for Each Department

This is one of the most useful ideas for the management of the GMB account of the business that has a complex structure with numerous departments. This strategy is especially useful for large organizations such as hospitals, car selling firms or retailing firms that provide a number of services to their customers.

For instance, if you are running a car dealership with a sales division, a services division and the division that deals with spare parts, they all require their GMB listing. This enables the customers to search for a specific department of their interest and it also enables the business to know the location of the department and its working information, such as the working hours and contact numbers.

The leading digital marketing agency in Device Doctor India will assist in creating and claiming distinct GMB accounts for each department, as you aim to capture the appropriate audience in every department and receive better rank in search results.

Best Practices:

• Each entry must have its phone number and business category.
• Being specific, use actual names such as “Device Doctor India—Marketing Services” and “Device Doctor India – Web Development” and so forth.
• Do not attempt to list the exact same department twice in the website, as this will only create confusion for the customers and an unfavorable outcome for your rankings.

2. Choose the Right Categories for Each Department

The categorization of businesses is quite crucial in Google My Business, for SEO and usability issues. Every department should have a primary category that would describe the functions of the department in a given organization. Google then employs the data in forwarding business to the relevant searches.

For instance, if one of your departments is specialized in digital marketing, your main category should be “Marketing Agency,” and if your other department is specialized in web development, your main category should be “Web Development Services.”

Due to this, one can align himself with the right categories that would optimize the discoverability of each department. Google My Business Help provides tips on how to choose the categories; though contacting experts such as Device Doctor India, one can be sure they are choosing the most effective categories for each department.

Best Practices:

• Select only one main category per department but it is possible to select a secondary category.
• Seven maxims of good practice for academic writing State how specific you want to be. For instance, it is better to use “SEO Services” instead of a more general term of “Marketing.”
• It is recommendable to update categories as often as possible, especially when running a business organization.
  
  

3. Optimize NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) Consistency

Name, Address, Phone number consistency or NAP is important for local SEO and also assists Google inc. to establish trust in your business among its users. In case you are having several departments in your organization, it is crucial to ensure that every department’s name, address, and phone number are correctly displayed in your GMB profile and other sites, your web and social media platforms and directories.

Each department must have its unique number or working schedule; thus, it should be well indicated in the GMB account of that particular department.

Best Practices:

• Strengthen all NAP information to make sure that they are kept constant in every online channel.
• In cases where the department has specific phone numbers and addresses, it is advisable to use them.
• Update the information often, especially if there are some changes in departments, for instance, they moved to another office or have change in phone number.

4. Add Department-Specific Photos and Videos

Visual material is an effective tool of communication with the customers and helps to attract attention to the ‘About Us’ pages in GMB. For companies with a number of divisions, it will be most effective to upload divisional pictures and videos that may advertise the division’s services. It not only makes people more engaged but also can make it easier when it comes to differentiating departments for customers.

For example, if you have the department that is specialized on digital marketing, then it is possible to post photos of your marketing team at work, working space, or some of the successful campaigns. If another department is in charge of web development, you can then explain what your team’s websites look like or the design projects you are currently or have recently worked on.

Device Doctor India can help in development of high quality and attractive visual content that would set each department apart with their GMB profile.

Best Practices:

• Each listing should have at least 10 photos which are specific to the department or location.
• These must involve not only photos of the team, products, working spaces and offices, but also shots of what goes on behind the scenes.
• One should consider providing videos where clients can experience a virtual tour, or, on the contrary, watch the testimonials.

5. Utilize Google Posts for Each Department

Google Posts are useful to the businesses as it gives them an opportunity to post updates, promotions, and events on GMB profile. That is why for companies that have departments publishing content for different departments is very useful to keep the customers informed. The departments help to promote services, to inform about the new offerings, to share the useful information which is connect with the sphere of specialization using Google Posts.

For instance, the marketing department can share insights into new trends in digital marketing while the customer support department provides guidance on how to solve problems frequently.

Best Practices:

• (Frequency): Post at least once a week so that your profile stays active.
• Always use bright images and a prominent CTA in the posts being posted on the social media platform.
• Add the keywords related to the specific department for the optimization of post content.

6. Encourage Department-Specific Reviews

Buying behaviour and trust are influenced hugely by online reviews, which are very crucial in enhancing your Google My Business rankings. Since most business organizations have departments, there is a need to make the clients leave a review for each of the departments. Recommendations are useful in increasing the awareness of individual departments and in creating social proof of the business.

Thus, request satisfied customers to provide feedback through follow-up emails or by providing a link to the department’s GMB profile. This is why the management should ensure that they reply to all the reviews irrespective of whether they are either positive or negative.

According to the experience of Device Doctor India, it is better to request the Departmental Review as it will help make each business department more visible and increase its popularity.

Best Practices:

• Engage the employees using follow up emails or messages, requesting for reviews based on their respective departments.
• Always make a professional and timely response to all the reviews.
• Invitation customers, in the emails that you send them, to leave some reviews or ask for more with a more specific URL to the GMB profile.

7. Use FAQs to Address Department-Specific Questions

Currently, GMB profile contains FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section where Google permits businesses to include them. In case you have several departments in your company, it will be plausible to provide answers to the questions that can be related to a specific department among the FAQ section. It can enable the customers to get the information they are looking for and enhance their experience with the organization.

For example, the digital marketing department would be in a position to answer questions like what services you offer, our price offer, or how soon can we deliver as compared to the customer service department, which would be in a position to answer questions like when are we available to support, or how to address an issue with a product.

Best Practices:

• Customers should be able to find answers to questions that might be new to them under a frequently asked questions section, which should be update periodically.
• The answers also should contain the relevant department-specific keywords to optimize the website’s promotional function.
• Make your answers straightforward and not lengthy and boring.

8. Leverage Google Analytics and GMB Insights

When an organization operates in several departments, it is important to monitor the success of the various Google My Business profiles. Using GMB Insights will help you know the number of customers that locate your listings, their origin and what they do. With this information, you can then determine which departments deserves commendation and which ones deserves your attention.

Also, using GMB integration means that you can track the visitors from those specific profiles to your website using Google Analytics. This way you’re able to determine how efficient the GMB profile of different departments is in engaging consumers and converting them.

Best Practices:

• GMB Insights should be check from time to time to see how it is faring.
• Do not leave your GMB strategy to guesswork alone, leverage data to enhance the implemented strategies.
• There are two integrations with machine learning to manage, Google Analytics for tracking conversions and website traffic from GMB.

9. Implement Structured Data Markup for Multiple Departments

Structured data markup or the Schema markup, assists the search engine in understanding the structure of the business and its products more effectively. If your companies is divide into departments, it is beneficial to markup departments to subjects to enhance company appearance in search results, As more specific a company is, bigger the chances, you will be found by someone interest in your products.

The use of structured data means that Google is able to show rich snippets in the search results for purposes of displaying such specific information as departmental contacts, services offered, and the times that it Opens and Closes.

Best Practices:

• Have each department assign a schema markup to its respective GMB listing in order to increase indexation.
• Consult an SEO specialist or the leading and most trusted digital marketing agency in India, Device Doctor India, to incorporate structured data effectively.
• This means that you should change your schema markup as your business develops.

10. Monitor and Update Department Listings Regularly

Google My Business profile optimization is a continuous process that means constant monitoring and regular updates. In the case where a business has different departments, it makes it very important to ensure all the departments’ listings are current and optimized to the maximum. Some of the basic actions include updating the information, adding new pictures, replying to the reviews and evaluating their performance.

While most of our clients are serve once in setting up their Google My Business profiles properly, Device Doctor India offers monitoring and optimization services for Google My Business profiles to make sure that organizations with a variety of departments do not lose out to competitors.

Best Practices:

• Audit all department listings at least on a quarterly basis.
• It is used in the updating of business hours, services and contact information.
• Pay attention to customer’s feedback and reply to it.

Conclusion

Dedicating Google My Business Profiles for multinationals may seem like a way of discouraging most businesses, but the above recommendations of using the best practice can help multinationals create more business profiles for their several departments to increase the general visibility of their business to the clients. To achieve these, one can start with different listings, categorization, Google posts and reviews so that the different departments are well featured in Google.

Outsource your Google My Business services with Device Doctor India, the best digital marketing company. Our GMB management services enable organizations with departments to be well organized, prominent and productive in a contemporary business environment.

FAQs

Q1: Can I create separate GMB listings for each department?
A: Yes, the listings can be create by companies that have more than one department for the purpose of giving more pointed contact information and services for the certain department.

Q2: How do I choose the right category for each department?
A: Choose at least one NAICS category that would classify each department’s services. As an example, we have a marketing agency for marketing solutions and Web development services for the web development solutions.

Q3: Why is NAP consistency important?
A: This means that maintaining NAP consistency is important as it gives accurate information, which boosts the search ranks as well as the trust of customers.

Q4: How can Google Posts benefit departments?
A: Google Posts is a feature that enables the departments to post updates and promotions so as to ensure that their listings are active and customers engaged.

Q5: How does Device Doctor India help with GMB?
A: GMB optimization at Device Doctor India is provided, such as separate listings, the categories, and improved local presence.