Your Google Business Profile (GBP) is vital to guiding customers to your small business. No matter how a consumer found you, whether it was through social media, word of mouth, or billboard advertising, before they call you or come by your store, they will look you up on Google first. It is important you keep your GBP healthy and up to date so consumers can find you, plus, a healthy profile will give them the trust they need to want to work with you. Let’s look at 5 easy ways to boost your GBP.
1. Have Consistent NAP Data
NAP (Name, address, phone number) are the most basic information a consumer needs to see for your business. If any of these are missing or incorrect, a consumer will quickly lose faith in your business. Double check phone numbers on your page, and use the call button on your profile to ensure it operates correctly by sending calls to your business. Same thing with any website and social media links; if a potential customer has to go through leaps and bounds to get to your website or socials, well, you’ve already lost them.
It’s also important to remember to keep your business hours up to date as well. With the holidays coming up, it’s best for you to go ahead and update those future business hours now on your GBP so customers who are trying to plan ahead are aware of what your hours will be. Google users can go in and report inaccurate information on your profile, and enough of these will cause your rank in Google searches go down, or even suspend your account. It’s essential these basic things are accurate on your GBP.
2. Respond To All Reviews
Whether it is a negative review or positive one, it is important you respond back to the reviewer. With a positive review, your response will enhance their trust in your business, and keep your good reputation in their minds. For a negative review, showing a desire to make things right will, hopefully, leave a more open minded impression on the reviewer. But either way, for a regular online browser, seeing that your business is actively corresponding with online reviewers builds trust that they are a company who cares about customer experience and their own reputation. Learn more information on how to best approach review responses in one of our previous blogs.
3. Upload Photos and Videos
In the world of AI, people want to see real photographs to ensure you are a legit business. Posting photos of your work, your team members, even a simple picture of your work trucks in front of your shop, helps build trust to the viewer. With a plethora of photos and videos, again they can tell that you as the business owner really care about people’s perception of your business. Plus, when Google sees you are actively posting photos, it is more likely to boost your business’s rank on searches.
You don’t need to plan a whole photoshoot or hire a professional photographer. With today’s trends, the more casual, laid back, and authentic your photos are, the better they will perform. It can be easy to use stock or AI photography, but younger generations who have been raised alongside the internet can pick those out and know they are not authentic to your business, so be careful using them.
4. Publish Google Posts Weekly
Just like social media, Google will push your business out to more people the more active you are at posting. This is a great time to post those pictures we were talking about! Posts could be as simple as documenting an office lunch from the week before, promoting a special seasonal service, or highlighting a review from Google or another reviewing platform. Not only does this boost your rank on Google, but when people see active and recent posts, it again gives the viewer confidence in your business. A consumer is more likely to choose a business who posts regularly, over one whose last Google post was months ago.
When you post, keep in mind that the information you put out there is what AI search engines like ChatGPT, Copilot, and others pull information from. So be sure you are as detailed and accurate as you can in your posts.
5. Refine Categories and Services
If you’re like a majority of our clients, your small business offers an array of different services. It is important you categorize your services appropriately and accurately. On Google, you have the option to list your one primary service and up to nine secondary services. So, if you are primarily a heat and air company who can also do appliance repairs and some plumbing work, your primary category should be HVAC services, with secondary categories being appliance repair services, and plumbing services. Be as specific as Google will let you, but be sure you don’t advertise services that you actually cannot do. If a consumer finds your business online when searching for a specific service, and they call you asking for that service that you actually don’t provide, they will feel misled and not trust your business, and potentially even leave a bad review.
Your business’s presence on Google is vital to your success. A well rounded, active GBP can boost your revenue, expand your market, and give you consistent business year round. It is a tool to help you, not make managing your business more complicated, but it does require a lot of time. Atwill Media’s Google Specialists are here to take that work away from you so you can do what you do best, running your business. If you’re ready to see a boost in sales and gain new customers, give Atwill Media a call and see how our Google Services can do just that.