Google Business Profile Setup for Real Estate
Your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is a crucial tool for any local business. It's the digital storefront that appears on Google Search and Maps when people search for businesses like yours. A well-optimized profile can significantly boost your local SEO ranking, attract more customers, and ultimately increase sales.
This blog will guide you through optimizing your Google Business Profile in a step-by-step manner, ensuring it works its hardest for you. Here's a breakdown of the key elements:
Business Information
1. About your business
- Accurate Business Name: Ensure your business name precisely matches what appears on your signage and marketing materials. Consistency is key for Google's algorithms.
- Select Relevant Categories: Choose the most relevant category that best describes your core business as the primary category. Add secondary categories that accurately reflect your specific services. Research your competitors to see what categories they use and explore more specific options.
- Write an Engaging Description: Craft a compelling description (around 300 words) that highlights your unique selling points and the benefits you offer clients. Focus on human-readable language that showcases your brand personality. Strategically incorporate relevant keywords people might use to search for your business, but avoid keyword stuffing. Hint: Google provides a "Suggest description" based on updated info on your Google Business Profile.
- Opening Date: List the date you opened for business, or if applicable, your experience within the industry to demonstrate a broader range of expertise. This can be particularly effective for newer businesses that might lack a long-established physical presence.
2. Contact information
- Phone Number: Enter your main business phone number. Consider using a dedicated number with call tracking to monitor calls generated from your profile.
- Website: Include your website address with UTM parameters to track website traffic specifically driven by your Google Business Profile. This valuable data will help you measure the effectiveness of your profile and see how many website visitors it generates. Check out our favorite Campaign URL Builder!
- Social Profiles: Link all your active social media profiles to your Google Business Profile. This creates a cohesive online presence and encourages potential customers to learn more about you on the platforms they frequent.
3. Location and areas
- Business Location: Enter your exact business address. If planning on a new location check out our other blog "Google Business Profile Location" to locate the city center based on the longitude and latitude. The closer your business is to the center of the city will help with proximity-based searches such as "Realtor in Denver, CO".
- Service Areas: List all the areas you serve, including cities, counties, and zip codes. This is especially important if you offer mobile services or have a flexible service area. You can have up to 20 service areas so consider targeting counties if you service a larger area. For best practice, you should consider creating a new Google business profile across multiple counties but if obtaining new reviews is an issue then focusing all of your efforts on one profile is okay for right now.
4. Business hours
- Hours: Select your operating hours. Consider 24/7 if applicable.
- Special & Online Hours: Special hours are based on holidays and business hours. Online hours should only be activated If you offer extended customer service online through Google messages, answering services, website chatbots, etc. This lets potential customers know you're readily available to answer questions or address concerns, even outside of traditional business hours.
5. More
- From the Business: Let customers know more about your business by showing attributes on your Business Profile. These may appear publicly on Search, Maps, and other Google services. If you're not the owner, confirm with the owner before adding an attribute. Ex. Identifies as Black-owned, Latino-owned, veteran-owned, women-owned, etc.
- Accessibility: Let customers know more about your business by showing attributes on your Business Profile. These may appear publicly on Search, Maps, and other Google services. Ex. Has wheelchair-accessible restrooms and seating.
- Planning: Appointment required; yes or no.
- Service options: Does your business offer both in-person visits and the convenience of online appointments? Can your staff provide multilingual assistance?
6. Activate Messages and Chat Settings
- Turn on the chat (Messages): Let customers message your business on Google for free and see new messages on Search or Maps. Hint: Activate chat alerts to make it easy to respond quickly by getting text alerts for chat.
- Chat settings: (This can be found by clicking on "Messages" on your profile and then locating the triple dots in the top right corner)
- Welcoming message: "Hi! The quickest way to get ahold of me is to call but how can I help you today?"
- Add FAQs: Write "Custom FAQs" or toggle on "Automatic FAQs"
7. Respond to all Reviews (Old and New)
- Personal response: A good review response should include; acknowledgement, reference to their experience, an invitation to return back to the business, or to discuss any issues further.
- Review Response Templates: Use the templates below as a starting point.
Positive Review: "Hello [Reviewer Name], Many thanks for taking the time to share your feedback with us. We’re very happy to hear that we met your expectations and were able to [insert detail] quickly!"
Negative Review: "Hello [Reviewer Name], Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback with us. I’m sorry to hear that your experience hasn’t met your expectations on this occasion. It sounds like [insert reason for the negative review]. Please do reach out [insert contact info] if we can assist further."
8. Add Photos:
- Cover image: This image will be displayed on the actual profile main images, so make sure this image properly displays your business or yourself. (The recommended size for a Google Business Profile (GBP) cover photo is 1024 x 576 pixels and The image should also have a minimum resolution of 72 ppi and be between 10 KB and 5 MB in size)
- Logo image: Can appear in search engine results and next to replies for reviews. (The recommended size for a Google Business Profile logo is 720 x 720 pixels and a JPG or PNG file with a size between 10 KB and 5 MB)
- Business images: These images can be accessed after finding the profile and will be looked through by searchers when ultimately deciding who to work with. (Recommended resolution: 720 px tall, 720 px wide. Minimum resolution: 250 px tall, 250 px wide, and between 10 KB and 5 MB)
Remember:
Regularly update your profile with fresh content and gather more reviews to maintain a positive online presence. By following these steps and keeping your Google Business Profile optimized, you'll be well on your way to attracting more local customers and achieving your business goals.
Want to take your Google Business Profile to the next level? Consider using a local marketing agency like OmniLocal. OmniLocal can help you:
- Save Time: Manage all your Google Business Profiles from one central location, saving you valuable time and effort.
- Profile Management: Ensure that your profile is updated and optimized to the fullest.
- Boost Rankings: Utilize advanced SEO features to improve your local search ranking and drive more traffic to your business.
With OmniLocal, you can unlock the full potential of your Google Business Profile and dominate your local market. Schedule a free discovery call today to learn more!