56% like watching trip reviews from like travelers - google

Google is often the first point of contact between a customer and a business. From finding businesses nearby to planning itineraries for upcoming trips to looking up a forgotten phone number, we plug keywords into Google to help us with anything we want to know. And if we want to find out how one business compares to another, we Google to find out about other people’s experiences.

Recognizing the need, Google has rolled out its own reviews feature, which allow users to write reviews directly on the business’s Google or Google Map listing. Since Google reviews are obviously favoured by the search engine and show up upon every relevant result, if your business wants to have a good presence on Google, the best place to start is by getting more Google reviews.

In order to get Google reviews from travelers you have to set up Google My Business

What is Google My Business?

Google My Business is a free tool that allows businesses to control their appearances on various Google products like Google+, Google Maps and Google Search. With this tool in your pocket, you can create and update your business listings to make them interesting for customers.

With help from Google My Business, people can easily find where your travel and tour business is. It enables you to maintain your local results which show on multiple Google platforms. These results are modified according to geographies to enrich the online searching experience.

The Benefits of Using Google My Business

1 Manage your details online

With the help of this free tool from Google, you can manage how people see immediate details about your business. It helps list your tour business online with your business hours, website details, location and phone number. Besides this, a travel and tour business like yours with a verified Google listing is more likely to be considered by clients. Google My Business, is also available as a mobile app. It enables access to your Google listings at any time, irrespective of where you are.

2 Communicate with customers

Did you know, reviews and ratings improve click-through rates by 20%? TripAdvisor is not the only way to gather customer feedback. Google is equally powerful when it comes to traveller reviews. With Google My Business you can receive feedback, reviews and ratings from customers against your business listing for anyone to see. You can easily respond to these and showcase special moments during tours with comments and photo for better engagement.

3 Grow your business presence

Ultimately, every tour operator business plan is bound to include expansion. With the Google My Business tool, you can show your website, phone number or email to get direct engagement. Then you can track your appearances in search results and how people have reached out to you through your Google listings. Based on this information, you can fine-tune your location based AdWords campaigns to spread the word about your business.

Are You Eligible to Use Google My Business?

Before you consider Google My Business as a part of your tour operator business plan, you need to know if you are eligible to use it. Knowing the basic guidelines will prevent your business listing from being prohibited or suspended. Here’s what you must learn before listing on Google My Business –

How to Join Google My Business?

Activities planet team will be helping you to list in Google My Business, having good photos of your office, the experience pictures and videos will help. Checkout our Basic Photography and videography for inbound products

  • A Gmail account
  • A business name
  • A business address
  • A business category
  • A valid phone number or website