6 Important things to know about Google Business Profile for Tradies
If you’ve searched for a service online, chances are you’ve come across Google Business Profile (formerly called Google My Business) listings or websites. However, services differ so would Google Business Profile for tradies be any good?
Fast and easy to set up, Google Business Profile showcases all the initial information about your business that a potential customer needs to decide if they want to take further action, or not. It can help establish legitimacy for your business, send more traffic to your website and make it easy for people to contact you. Best of all, it’s where people leave reviews.
1. What is Google Business Profile?
Google Business Profile (GBP) is an important marketing tool for every trade business. It is free to use and easy to set up, and the best way to boost your visibility and your business profile’s effectiveness.
GBP is the tool used to help you manage your business profile on Google, and update the information when needed.
This tool allows you to
- create a marker on Google Maps
- give potential customers an easy way to phone or message you
- provide a link to your website to drive traffic
- give customers an easy to use tool to leave you a review.
GBP makes it easier for people to find your business and helps ensure your trade service stands out online for your local area.
2. Why a GBP listing is important for being found online
Most people don’t move past the first page when they search for a service on Google. Many know exactly what they’re looking for already, and want to see who provides the service they need in their local area.
A GBP listing shows potential customers basic important information - including website link, phone number, location and customer reviews. It will also show more than this if you’ve taken the time to optimise it and keep adding to it regularly.
3. The best GBP listing position
Ensuring your GBP listing appears in the 3-Pack is vital. The 3-Pack is the way in which Google displays the top three results for local searches just below the map, as you can see in the image above. It uses the searcher’s location to make the results more relevant. It’s important that your business shows up in position 1, 2 or 3 as very few people click the View More link.
4. GBP provides authentication
Google Business Profile is a reputable way to get your business noticed. This is because most people trust the 3-Pack business profile listings. When a user sees a business in the 3 pack that shows the phone number, website, opening hours and good reviews, they are more likely to make contact.
Simply by listing your business and using GBP correctly you can gain the most important thing needed to turn a potential customer into an actual client; credibility.
5. How to claim your Google Business Profile listing
In order to use GBP, you need to make sure your business is listed on Google. You can do this by creating or logging into your Google account and accessing Google Business Profile. From here you can claim your business, or list it if it has not yet been created by Google.
Once you’ve filled out all the details such as business name, contact details, service area, hours and business category, the final step is to verify that your business is where you said it is and that you own it.
There are three verification options:
1. Postcard verification is where a postcard is sent to the address you’ve entered with a code you can use to verify your business.
2. Phone verification where you receive an automated message with a verification code.
3. Email verification where a code is sent to your Google account inbox.
Once you receive your code, you must enter it into your GBP account to verify your business and proceed with optimising it.
6. How to keep your Google Business Profile listing optimised
There are a few things you can do to ensure your GBP listing moves up the ranks with the goal of getting on to page one and making it into the 3-Pack. This is a tough task and takes hard work as it can be very competitive, but it’s not impossible:
- Keep it up to date: if you’ve changed your business location, your phone number or your website URL, it’s vital to keep this information up to date in your GBP listing.
- Follow GBP updates: make sure you're up to speed with the latest changes specifically related to using Google Business Profile.
- It’s all about the reviews: many potential customers will use other people’s experiences to determine whether or not they’ll even head to your website let alone use your services. This is what is referred to as social proof; following trends and basing trust in the opinion of experts, celebrities, friends or even just other users. In fact, 92.4% of consumers said online reviews help guide them in their purchasing decisions.
Want help getting your GBP listing into the 3-Pack?
There are no tricks when it comes to claiming and updating your Google Business Profile listing.
What does take time, energy and know-how is moving up the ranks to get your business in the coveted 3-pack position for your business type in your local area.
Managing Google Business Profile and Local SEO strategies is one of the services that we provide to tradies all over Australia to help them get onto the first page of Google and keep the leads coming in.
Contact us today for details of our special Tradies GBP Service – where it’s all done for you.
