How well does your Google Business Profile perform for your business?

Menu:

• Introduction
• Do you have a Google Listing?
• How Strong is YOUR Google Business Profile?
• Don’t forget your reviews…
• Need some help?

Introduction

Make Google Business Profile perform for your business

All locations on the internet which mention and display your business are potential advertising or promotion opportunities. Ultimately, the more of these positions you hold in the online space, will provide a level of trust and credibility for your business.

Unfortunately, the cost of advertising is continually increasing, and the ability to have your page organically found on the first page is getting harder with every search engine update. It is for this reason that when there are free citations for your organisation, it is imperative to maximise its potential for driving customers to you.

Do you have a Google Listing?

Google, being the largest of all search engines in terms of usage, can have the greatest impact for your business’s online presence. The Google Business Profile is a free platform within the Google system where you can maximise your profile. A strong profile can display your expertise and experience, display trust factors like reviews and ratings, as well as give your location and contact details.

As you might imagine, a good profile could do wonders for your client acquisition. However, Google doesn’t make it that easy. Doing a search for a plumber in Bourke, New South Wales will bring a vastly different result to the same search in Richmond, Victoria. The number of businesses competing for that search is vastly different. Google, as a search engine will then “rank” these listings in order of Experience, Expertise, Authority and Trust. Commonly referred to as “E, E, A, T” signals.

The added benefit of the Google Business Profile is within the Google ecosystem, it will be listed on Google Maps.

How Strong is YOUR Google Business Profile?

Your listing might have been automatically generated by Google. At that level, many of your details will be listed, having been scraped by Google from your socials, website and other listings on the web. This in itself doesn’t create a strong profile for Google to rank “your” listing.

If you haven’t claimed the listing for your business, you cannot alter or update any of the details of your Business Profile, let alone optimise it for your business. Being one of the strongest methods of generating new business from an organic search on Google, this becomes an important first step to being found.  

Once you have claimed the listing for your business, the real business of optimisation and promoting your business begins. Update your details to better reflect how you want to be contacted. It is however important to have the same contact details across the web for consistency. A Google attribute referred to as “NAP”. Name, Address and Phone. Variations are possible but need to be done in accordance with consistency.

Make your business a friendly and inviting place to visit. Adding photos of your reception, workplace, front door, garden feature, team… The list goes on and on, the idea is for your listing to stand out and provide an inviting appeal.

Now to show that you have what the searcher needs. As a plumber, a list of services and a brief description would show your abilities and expertise. A physio could demonstrate the successful results achieved for patients in the past, demonstrating their experience.

The business profile dashboard will mostly guide you to update and insert as many attributes as possible to make a good, strong profile.

Don’t forget your reviews…

Peer reviews is one of the most influential indicators people use to decide the credibility and suitability of a business for their needs. Nurturing a good review score can be difficult, there are always some that will not be happy with your service. Bad experiences and reviews can make it difficult to get a good ranking. There are a couple of ways to take a bad review.

1. Ignore it.
2. Get angry and spit a nasty reply.
3. Take the review as a criticism on your handling of their individual circumstance. Thank them for the feedback and offer to resolve their issue.

A bad reviews is an opportunity to show your maturity and willingness to make amends for whatever has caused them grief. I am not suggesting that the reviewer is right, just be sure to contact them before responding publicly to resolve the perceived issue. If that works, ask for the review to be altered. If this is not possible, describe the corrective steps you have taken in the reply to the review. You can’t make everyone happy, but you can show you have the integrity to accept there was an issue and made an attempt to resolve it.

The vast majority of your clients would be happy to give a good review, if you asked them. Have you ever asked for a review? Bad reviews are inevitable, but getting your happy customers to leave you a good review is easier than you think. This is the easiest way to drown out the bad reviews and raise your review ranking.

Need some help?

Having a successful Google Business Profile can make a huge difference to your client acquisition. It isn’t difficult, but can be time consuming. Getting the whole package working so that you show up at the top, that takes time and some engineering. Done for you options include;

-If you feel you need some help with this, I offer a Google Business Profile Optimisation package that might work well for your business.

-Alternatively, I can also look into developing your Review Ranking. Using our unique Software package, we can perform a Reputation Management package that might bundle up well for your business to rise in the rankings on Google.

-Ultimately, we can also set up a full automation package. Looking at all your messaging and call requests, nurturing your prospects and guiding them to make a booking.