Avoid 5 Mistakes to Improve Google Business Profile Engagement
From website visits to phone calls, a complete Google Business Profile can bring traffic to your business – helping you get more leads and drive more sales. But, for many businesses, their Google Business Profile gets dusty on the digital shelf as they set it and forget it. With a little attention, any business can improve Google Business Profile engagement.
Your Google Business Profile can be an extremely powerful tool, if you have it set to work for you. The best part? You don’t have to invest anything to get free leads from this tool. Yes, really! Skip the ads and focus your time on getting your Google Business Profile to where it needs to be.
Based on our work with small businesses across the country, here are the top five mistakes to fix to improve your Google Business Profile engagement.
Mistake #1: Incomplete Business Information
This one sounds simple enough – just add in your business details and you are good to go. Reports vary, but anywhere from 50-60% of Google Business Profiles have incomplete or wrong information. This is huge!
Just think, by filling in your information in your Google Business Profile, you will already be in the top 40% of businesses.
So, what do we mean by filling in your details? It means that you need to make sure your Google Business Profile includes the basics. Commonly called NAP, this is your name, address, and phone number. Beyond that, make sure you have information like email address and your website.
This gives your customers a complete look at who you are – and ups that trust factor. Most consumers will trust a business more if they have a website in place. So, make sure that your business is getting that attention. And, bonus – if you have it linked on your Google Business Profile, it gets an immediate boost.
Beyond the basics, look at adding information about your products and services. Doing some keyword and competitor research can give an indication of what you should list. However, it is a bit of an art to list our both so they can complement and give you the biggest search engine optimization (SEO) boost. In getting both of these categories working together, you can get more of an SEO lift and help your potential leads get a better understanding of what you can do for them.
Mistake #2: Old or No Photos
We get it – posting photos on your profile can seem intimidating. It’s not like you have a professional photographer following you around all day, every day. How in the world will you get photos that will be interesting enough for Google? And get people to click?
Here’s the good news. Google loves user-generated content. This means that you can grab your iPhone and take a picture of you working in your office (even if you don’t have a physical location for people to visit). Grab a picture of you on a job; maybe get a before and after if the client approves it.
Plus, when you have location services enabled on your phone; each photo will be tagged with metadata so that Google can use that data to boost your local SEO.
How many photos do you need? It’s recommended to have at least 50. And, within that 50, you need to have three of each of the areas of your business. For instance, three images inside the office. Three outside. Three of each service; three of each product. And then, continue to add new photos from events, product launches, and customer engagements to build your gallery.
As you add photos, follow a common naming convention that includes your business name, service (or what’s featured in the photo), location, and number. This will Google a guide to use the information to boost your ranking. (Extra bonus!)
Mistake #3: No Reviews or Too Many Bad Reviews
The most common negative review we see on Google Business Profiles? People seeing a company car driving a little crazy, and going on the Google Business Profile to leave a bad review.
These are challenging. After all, they do not reflect the company’s services or quality of work. However, every employee represents the company when driving a branded car or wearing branded gear.
If your profile has many of these, it can bring down your rating and make people less likely to hire you – even if it has nothing to do with the quality of your work. (In the next section, we’ll highlight the best way to respond to these.)
Perhaps you are a new business, or you’ve never asked your customers for a review – and so your profile has no reviews. This makes people question whether you have a good service or product; is it someone that you can trust?
Now, before we move onto the responses to your reviews, let’s cover one thing: cheating the review system. As tempting as this is (you know, the company promises that they’ll get you hundreds of five-star reviews), do not do it. If caught (which Google is now using AI to make it easier for them to catch offenders), you could face a ban and/or deletion of your profile. Plus, consumers are getting more savvy at seeing through this.
Mistake #4: No Response to Reviews
Whether it’s a one- or five-star review, your customer took the time to go to Google and write a review. They shared their experience – and it’s something they didn’t have to do. If you want to improve Google Business Profile engagement, this is one area to focus as you can get the biggest boost.
Taking the time to respond to reviews goes a long way. For one, your happy customers will have more loyalty to you because they appreciate your attention. And, for new people that come across your profile, they see your character and how the organization works. You care about people! You don’t just say that you put customer service first, you actually do it.
So now you’re wondering about the bad reviews. Can you just stick your head in the sand and ignore them? As much as we’d love to say that you can, it’s best to face them and what they say. The response you provide should include any relevant details, but avoid getting defensive about it. Don’t get too into the weeds – ask to take the conversation off line so you can fix the issue.
Let’s say that someone says that your driver cut them off on the highway, and they are giving you a one-star review. A great response would be to address the aggressive driving and provide insight into any training you have to help your employees drive more defensively. You could also request them to share more information with you via email, and commit to talking to the employee about the issue.
Mistake #5: Inconsistent NAP
Citations – or being listed in other directories – serves as one of the best ways to boost your local SEO and ranking on Google. There are numerous directories (so make sure to prioritize based on your market and your industry), but even more important – keep your NAP consistent.
- Business Name: Keep your business name the same, no matter where it’s posted. The most important thing? Decide whether you want “LLC” and keep it the same across all sites (even your website).
- Address: Include key details about your address, including suite or unit number. Make sure to spell out words like street, avenue, and parkway. This eliminates confusion and can create a consistent theme across your listings.
- Phone Number: This one seems like an easy one, but a hang up (bad pun?) comes in when you are using a Google Voice number or other VoIP to mask your personal number as a business number. Make sure to keep these numbers current, and to keep your phone number consistent across all listings!
There You Have It: How to Improve Google Business Profile Engagement
The best Google Business Profiles can see upwards of 300 clicks each month on their profiles. Incomplete profiles are likely to get between 20-30 clicks. That’s a huge difference! And, there are some key areas of focus – which we covered in this blog – to get you ranking where you need to be.
To help, check out our digital workbook: The Small Business Blueprint: Building a Lead-Generating Google Business Profile. This gives you step-by-step insight into what to do to get your Google Business Profile ranking higher.
But, if you don’t have time to DIY, we are here to help. Here at Beyond Five Stars Marketing, we offer custom service packages to give you the support you need to build your digital presence and get more sales from your Google Business Profile.