Have you ever seen this after you performed a search on Google?
The Snack-Pack
We are pretty sure you have. Marketers refer to this as the “Snack-Pack”. The Snack-Pack is essential to your online marketing efforts as many people look no further than the top of the search engine results page.
What is Google My Business
What may surprise you is that the Snack-Pack is not based on your website. Instead, it pulls its information from an account which you need to create for your business known as a Google My Business (GMB) account. Think of your GMB account as an alternative to having a Facebook Business Page, or as your listing within the Yellow Pages of your city. You can upload information, service details, hours, pictures and much more.
It’s How You Get Reviews
GMB is also where you need to point people to who want to leave reviews for your business – and no business these days can afford not having reviews online. It’s just how customers shop nowadays; by doing research first.
An important realization is that you can have a GMB account without even having a website. When we get a new customer, we set up and optimize their GMB account before we even build their website. Yes, people may start calling you just because they saw you within the Snack-Pack.
Getting on the First Page of Google
As you now know, the Snack-Pack appears before the actual search engine results featuring websites. This means that in terms of being shown first on Google, the GMB account matters more than your website. Concurrently, Google prioritizes websites which are linked to a well-optimized GMB account in the actual search engine results. This makes your GMB account one of the most important factors when it comes to your SEO Strategy.
SEO stands for search engine optimization and aims at increasing the likelihood of your website showing up when someone performs a Google search related to your industry.
Long story short, having a GMB account MATTERS A LOT!!
Targeting Bilingual Audiences with Google My Business
The high amount of Hispanics in San Antonio places businesses here in an interesting position. Each time they create a marketing asset, they need to decide whether they should also offer a Spanish version for this huge demographic. By not doing so they may exclude themselves from significant revenue opportunities.
This decision needs to be made when it comes to websites, flyers, business cards, and of course your Google My Business account.
Shankar Poncelet, our CEO, grew up in a trilingual country. Therefore he is very familiar with creating multi-lingual marketing strategies. While building multi-lingual websites is SHANKX’s bread and butter, applying this to a GMB account posed a new challenge. SHANKX contacted Google directly and shares the most relevant insights with you now:
- Upload visual assets with annotations in both languages
- Use both languages in the main description field
- GMB sections may or may not be bilingual
Below is an example of one of SHANKX’ customers who operates as an immigration lawyer.
We hope that this information helps you increase your market share within the Mexican community here in San Antonio. Let us know if you have any additional questions. It’s a vast topic and impacts so many aspects of your marketing strategy. If you want to do it right, you should consider professional help right when you set everything up.