26 March 7 Underutilized Google Business Page Features That Boost Your Ranking March 26, 2024 By Melisa Rana Marketing, Social Media digital marketing, Google, SEO 0 7 UNDERUTILIZED GOOGLE BUSINESS PAGE FEATURES THAT BOOST YOUR RANKING April 26, 2024 | Marketing, Social Media | Google, Digital Marketing, SEO By Zach Vesper, NPI, Inc.'s Senior SEO & Marketing Strategist Establishing an online presence is an essential for every small business owner, and the current king of the online search (by a mile) is Google. Whether you like it or not, creating and keeping up your Google Business Profile is no longer an option for the modern business - it’s the baseline. Plus, since your competition is already on Google, new business owners have some catching up to do if they want to show up first in the search results. The good news is that there are plenty of features on every Google Business Profile that most business owners don’t take advantage of. After getting your Google Business Profile set up, here are a few little things that you can do to make a big splash online. 1. Find Your Google Review Link There are a surprising number of factors that feed into how high your business ranks in search results, from your business’ proximity to the searcher, to the quality of your website’s keyword selection. Still, out of the many, many factors that feed into a business’ overall search result ranking, the most powerful influencing factor is Google reviews. Of note, it isn’t just the number of Google reviews that’s impactful to a business’ ranking. Your business also needs to continue getting new reviews on an ongoing basis if they want to reach for that number one ranking. Developing a robust review-gathering strategy is important for every new business, but Google is kind enough to provide its own tool that small business owners should take advantage of much more often: their Google Review Link. Navigate to your business profile dashboard and select the “Ask for Reviews” widget to find a short link that you can attach to your inspection reports, follow-up emails, texts, marketing materials, emails, wherever! With one simple click, your clients and customers’ ability to leave reviews for your business has never been easier. This feature is a no-brainer to integrate into your review-gathering strategy - so find it, and enjoy the new reviews! Increase your total number of reviews and the number of reviews you receive per week by taking advantage of the best strategies. Then, respond to every review: the good, and the not so good. 2. Turning Messaging: ON Another function that many home inspection businesses do not utilize is Google’s messaging feature. After navigating to your business page, simply select the “Messages” widget and hit the “Turn On” button - it’s that easy! While it’s understandable that some business owners would want to try and funnel all of their leads to a single source (eg. their website, a phone number, or maybe an email), the most successful entrepreneurs will be able to meet their customers wherever they’re at. The messaging feature is all about making contact as easy for prospective clients as possible, adding a new chat option next to the call function. Business owners will receive alerts through the Google Maps mobile app (make sure to download this if you haven’t already) whenever a question or quote request comes through. This is just another feature that business owners can utilize to capitalize on leads quicker than the competition! 3. Add Photos to Your Page Next up, the majority of business owners set up their Google Business Pages with an initial handful of pictures to show their team, their logo, and maybe themselves in the field on a job. These are all great additions to a business page, with the opportunity to show your work ethic, some of your most impressive tools, and to present yourself in a positive light. What most business owners are missing out on is the SEO boost that comes with continuing to add photos after your business page is set up! Service area businesses have plenty of opportunities to take interesting and engaging photos, so just like how your social media pages can gain traction with fresh content, explore a posting schedule to your Google Business Page. Explore some of the strategies of taking engaging photos for social media with this guide for a little extra help! 4. Post to Your Business Page In the same vein, many small business owners don’t realize that they can post to their Google Business Page in the same way that they publish posts on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, or X (Twitter). Whether posting articles, pushing promotions, or celebrating holidays, fresh content posted to your business page shows that you’re active and will continue to boost your SEO. If you’re already taking advantage of automated posting platforms, consider adding your Google profile to your list of social platforms for another little bump to your ranking. Additionally, if you haven’t looked into posting videos for social media yet, take the opportunity to jump on the bandwagon today! According to some social media analysts (like Sam McFarlane of the digital marketing outfit “Sam Says”), videos might be the most effective way to capture your audience’s attention on social media. 5. Add a Booking Link Another feature that many small business owners miss out on using is the “Bookings” function through their Google Business Profile. As easy as copying and pasting the link to your website or external appointment scheduler, this is just another option that makes things as easy as possible for your clients and customers so that everything they need is in one handy location. Even if most of your leads get funneled to your business phone line or to your email, it’s wise to leave options open to your client base. 6. Keep Your Services Up to Date For businesses that have been in operation for a while, there’s a good chance that the information that you posted online has fallen out of date as your services have expanded and the industry has changed. To reduce confusion and improve your ranking for valid services, remember to update your business website, and your Google Business Profile whenever your services change. Of note, if you’ve been in operation for a few years and you haven’t made the effort to diversify your services yet, what are you waiting for? Diversification, trying new things, and taking educated risks are all vital for business owners who want to grow. If you don’t need to update your services - that’s a problem you need to fix! 7. Track Your Performance Finally, as with every digital marketing campaign, and every new add-on service launch, tracking the performance of your investment is the only way to know if you’re seeing the right ROI. Built into every Google Business Profile, business owners and managers can track impressions, view their top search terms, their number of calls, messages, and their website clicks over time. Tracking and growing your ranking on Google is totally within your hands - all you have to do is take advantage of the many available tools built into Google’s platform to start off on the right foot. For any additional help, reach out to your NPI marketing team! We specialize in Google SEO, keyword research, and much more to help you get in front of clients. Interested in learning more about the benefits every NPI franchisee receives from their corporate marketing team? Get your free info packet or reach out to our recruitment team today! About the Author Zach Vesper, Senior SEO & Marketing Strategist Zach brings twelve years of content marketing and nine years of search engine optimization (SEO) experience to the NPI in-house marketing team. His areas of expertise include building marketing plans that increase franchise sales, optimizing web content for search, crafting effective paid search campaigns, reputation management, and content strategy. Zach is always more than happy to answer your questions about all things Google and considers this the most important and enjoyable aspect of his job. Comments are closed.