Google My Business is still free, but are you really making use of it?

Google My Business was originally developed not for automotive, but for restaurants.

For dealers and car companies, Google My Business (GMB) is extremely important. Contrary to Google’s usual practice, it is still free. But are you really making use of it? Have you optimized your GMB profile for what matters to you? This week I’m speaking at Wash Expo Europe about the importance of GMB for car washes. And what applies to car washes naturally also applies to automotive.

GMB was originally developed for restaurants, which is why you still see options like ‘pickup or dine-in’, which of course refer to whether a pizza is delivered or not. On the other hand, GMB is very important for the service side of a car company. Searches such as ‘Ford dealer’ combined with your phone and location show the nearby Ford dealer, but also, if properly optimized, the GMB profiles of Ford specialists in the so-called ‘local pack’.

The ranking is determined by many factors. No, I am not a specialist, but I am a pragmatist who has optimized the GMB accounts of the Ligier Store and Experience Store Doesburg for good results.

Primary category

Of course, I could talk here about the primary category and the nine secondary categories you must fill in, otherwise you won’t get where you want to go: the services. Not every GMB account has this, but car companies do. For example, the GMB account of Il Fienile, our national home store, does not! See below the Il Fienile dashboard, where the option ‘edit services’ is missing:

Il Fienile

At Ligier Store Doesburg and in automotive, it looks like this:

Ligier Store Doesburg

The option ‘edit services’ is what I want to discuss, because that is where the hidden gold is. Not everything I explain works immediately, but the chance of effect is high enough to try. Moreover, I am sure almost no one does this, which is exactly why I do it. I like to seize those extra opportunities.

Services

For us, ‘car dealer’ is the primary category, since there is no ‘Ligier dealer’ category. That category I need to polish. I do this by clicking ‘add more services’. See below:

Add More Services

When you click there, you can create a subcategory under the main category, in this case ‘car dealer’. For the GMB of Ligier Store Doesburg, I added the following categories:

• Microcar seller
• Ligier dealer
• Microcar dealer
• Ligier Professional dealer
• Microcar service and maintenance

After selecting ‘Ligier dealer’, you can add your own description. That is the beauty of it. For example:

Ligier dealer

I already have a high ranking because I am a Ligier dealer. Google does not send you to the nearby Aixam dealer if you are specifically searching for a Ligier dealer. In GA4, I can also see exactly how many visitors come via GMB and call. Considering this, all those small adjustments absolutely make sense, and they require a lot of work.

I also adjust the secondary category. See below:

Secondary category

Under the category ‘car repair and maintenance’, I created all kinds of services relevant to this category. For example, air conditioning, exhaust, and brakes, with the addition that it concerns microcars.

Conclusion

It’s actually a bit upside down: Google knows everything about you, and yet you still have to tell GMB what you do. The more you tell, the higher the chance of visitors, although I give no guarantees.

If you want to improve as a car company in online automotive, optimizing your GMB page absolutely belongs to that. What I have shown above is just a small part of what you can do with GMB. Visibility and findability can still be further influenced, but then you need to actively work with GMB.