Google My Business SEO – Expert Guide
For customers to find your home service company, you need to create a Google Business page listing. If you’re a local business owner and haven’t yet claimed your Google Business profile – we can help!
1. Google My Business For Home Service Companies
What is Google My Business?
Google My Business (GMB) is more than just a business directory listing. It allows you to include the location of your business on Google Maps and in local search results. Your GMB profile includes key information potential customers can access. This includes your hours of business, how customers can contact you, and a link to your business website.
Another feature of your GMB profile allows you to post useful information to inform customers about any new services, events, or special offers. Think of it as a micro-blog with many other extra resources. The best advantage is that what you publish in your GMB profile can rank high in Google’s local search results.
Why do I need a Google My Business account?
You can manage Google Reviews by customers for your business from within your Google My Business dashboard. A Google Business Profile now offers valuable benefits for any home service company trying to establish or expand its presence in the local market. If you want potential customers to find you, you need to have a GMB account.
Be discoverable
Google’s Business Profiles are geo-targeted. So your home service company becomes more visible to potential customers in your local area when they are looking for services.
Keep customers informed
Your GMB profile allows you to publish four different types of content: Product, What’s New, Event, and Offer. These options make it easy to keep local customers informed and engage with them. We’ll take a deeper dive into each one later in this post.
Boost consumer confidence
When customers can see your Google reviews and up-to-date detailed information about your home services company, they feel more confident about contacting you. Whether in an emergency or for scheduling regular service.
2. How to use Google My Business for local marketing
There are a few different ways that GMB can help you establish your company as a brand in local search results:
Engage with consumers directly and build a solid local online presence
Connect with consumers on their preferred channel (web or mobile)
Highlight your business
Gain insights
Optimize local SEO
How we use Google My Business for SEO
Get started with The Code Nerds and Google My Business today. The first step is to do a GMB Audit.
What Is A Google My Business Audit, And Why Should You Care?
At The Code Nerds, we dive deep into your GMB profile to help you maximize your presence in Google My Business listings. Here’s what we cover in our GMB audit:
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Identify your local competitors
SWOT analysis of your competitors
Optimize your listing title
Select best GMB attributes
Check NAP consistency
Publish business hours
Optimize company description
Create a unique profile short name
Upload photos
Verify listing
Generate Google reviews
3. How to use Google My Business for local marketing
Successful home service companies optimize their Google My Business profile to get more local customers.
How do we use Google My Business to get more customers?
When we create your GMB profile and integrate it into your website design, we set up the following critical tools:
Online Reviews & Ratings – customer reviews and ratings can help your product or service gain higher visibility in search results. They can increase conversion rate and overall user experience.
Photos & Videos – Google loves images! Among other benefits, you can use photos to show promotions, events, and special offers.
Content Publishing Plan – We make sure your GMB ‘updates’ are timely and optimized for maximum impact!
Connecting your physical address with GPS, adding pictures, photos of your products or services, and operating hours creates a complete profile for your company.
Post news, updates, and special offers.
We said before that there are four types of GMB posts. Here’s how we optimize them to make sure your business always has something interesting for customers.
Product Posts
Google My Business product posts are an effective way for businesses to sell specific products or maybe seasonal services. Those with the knowledge can produce high-quality content (such as a detailed description) that appeals to their customers. These are ideal for home service maintenance companies to showcase what they do. Whether you offer a new innovative roof repair product or an emergency plumbing service, product posts work!
What’s New Posts
This type of post can provide general information about your business that is helpful for potential customers. You can include a photo or video for even better engagement with users. A well-crafted CTA button can produce excellent results when tailored to the needs of local customers. Have you included a new service your business offers? Do you have a new home maintenance product to promote? “What’s New” posts are ideal!
Event Posts
Event posts are a great way to publicize your next event. Publish the details such as date, time, and place to attract new customers to your business. After, you can add the event photos or videos to your profile for anyone who missed the event. Just about to unveil a major remodel or renovation? Show it off! Just finished a pristine landscaped garden? Let other potential customers see your work!
Offer Posts
Posts to promote specials or offers. Offer posts require a catchy title and start/end date. When the post is shared, it automatically includes a “View Offer” CTA button. You can also include a photo/video, coupon, promo link, and terms and conditions with the post. For example, a landscaper may want to promote a 20% discount as an early-bird seasonal offer for a limited time. A roof maintenance company may want to promote a winterizing “clean and seal” service just before the cold weather arrives.
Add special features and attributes
How do attributes affect my GMB profile?
Adding attributes to your GMB profile increases the chances of your business showing up in more targeted searches.
Here’s an example: a customer searching for “landscapers near me” can also filter using more targeted attributes, such as “24-hour response” or “fully bonded”.
Google collects all this data through the “attributes” feature.
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Encouraging customers to leave reviews
The reality is that most consumers will scrutinize your online reputation before giving you any business. One major deciding factor is what customers are saying about you on Google.
One of the simplest ways to improve your marketing is by asking for reviews from Google customers. The key to standing out from other service businesses in your area is to have many positive reviews and a high average star rating. Often, this is not as difficult as it may seem.
According to our study, 45% of plumbers have 3 or fewer reviews on GMB and 26% are not listed. If most of your competitors fit the same profile, it may just take a few customers to get ahead of them.
Custom URL for your Google My Business account
Not only is a custom URL easier on the eyes but it’s also super useful! You can easily ask for Google reviews by simply adding /review/ to the end of your custom URL.
g.page/[custom-name]/review/
A good custom URL makes it easy to promote your business profile and for users to enter the URL into a browser. It’s also more appealing in marketing content.
Build trust by responding to reviews
If you respond promptly, both positive and negative feedback can be beneficial. This shows potential customers that you take care of your Google My Business listing and your reputation by asking for feedback!
Online reputation management (ORM) is a key factor in Google search rankings.
How The Code Nerds can properly connect and “mirror” your GMB to your website
If you respond promptly, both positive and negative feedback can be beneficial. This shows potential customers that you take care of your Google My Business listing and your reputation by asking for feedback!
Online reputation management (ORM) is a key factor in Google search rankings.
Refine paid and organic reach with insights from GMB
This is a no-brainer, with all the data at your fingertips. Being visible across Google My Business is a way of legitimizing yourself as an expert in your local area. Local search results from GMB can inform your spending on other advertising campaigns and help further optimize your digital marketing campaigns.
As a home service company, you know that ranking well in local search results is a top priority. It means more leads and sales!
Business owners who aren’t aware of the benefits from Google My Business are missing out on many potential customers.
Drive customer engagement on Google
See how customers connect
Discover how to serve customers better! Get precise customer feedback on the quality of your customer service, after office hours or weekend support.
Find and resolve issues in real-time: know which customers complained about you, when and how they contacted you.
This is a must for any home service company that cares about truly understanding their clients’ experience with them.
Get to know your customers
Know what makes your customers tick, their pain points can help you create more targeted and effective marketing efforts.
How The Code Nerds manage your
GMB profile for best results
We can drive local tra c through properly built out location pages. We can also use an
Advanced Location Page (ALP) if needed. What does an Advanced Location Page do?
That’s a great question; the code nerds can use advanced location pages like a landing
page for your local business. This is when you have multiple service areas and multiple
listings represented in your GMB profile. If you only have one area then there will be no
need to create an advanced location page.
Other key benefits include:
Content Publishing Plan – We make sure your GMB ‘updates’ are timely and optimized for maximum impact!
Save money and target your online ad campaigns better with greater insight. Not using online ads yet? The Code Nerds can support your home service business with a custom ad campaign to get you more local customers.
Google My Business is a crucial local search tool every business needs to have set up correctly with good content. The Code Nerds will make sure your GMB profile delivers the results you want!
Leveraging GMB to Grow Your
Home Service Business
The Code Nerds give you the tools to update and track your GMB listing and engage with customers from your phone, tablet, or computer.
Using GMB for home service companies is a no-brainer. Online-only businesses don’t need to worry so much about local search. But local companies looking for local customers and the opportunity to rank higher in local search results should be rushing to GMB.
GMB connects local customers with local companies in the world’s biggest search engine – Google search.
Top 3 benefits of Google My Business for
local businesses
1. Increase local search rankings. This is the biggest benefit and probably the main reason why you are reading this article in the first place.
2. Collect customer reviews – customers rate your business AND provide feedback on how good or bad your service was. This leads to even more repeat customer referrals and word-of-mouth advertising.
3. GMB is proven to drive more reviews for your business than Facebook, Yelp, or any other local listing.
Other benefits include:
Driving even more traffic to your main website!
Keeping customers up-to-date
Connecting and getting better results
Getting to know your customers – building community
Discovering what works best for your customers
Stop Losing Out – Get More Business Today!
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