8 Tips to Optimize Your Dealerships Google Business Profile
What is a Google Business Profile?
A Google Business Profile helps your dealership get found online. According to Google, “with a Business Profile, you can manage how your local business shows up across Google products, like Maps and Search. If you run a business that serves customers at a particular location, or you serve customers within a designated service area, your Business Profile can help people find you. Verified businesses on Google are twice as likely to be considered reputable.”
With Google boasting 92% of the world’s search traffic, it’s easy to see why it is important to optimize your Google Business Profile.
Benefits of Creating & Maintaining Your Google Business Profile
With a Google Business Profile you can maintain accurate information about your business online, interact with your customers, and attract new customers. When your dealership shows up at the top of the search results page; it is much easier to make a positive and professional impression, which will result in a higher CTR, or click-through rate on your website.
An active Google Business account is a powerful tool that can help you improve your website’s ranking in Google search results. Your Google Business Profile is the first thing a lot of internet users see, and sometimes, the only thing they see. It is important to make sure that Google can find you and that it has the right information.
It’s important to remember that potential customers will be comparing you to your competitors. That’s why it’s essential to have a complete and optimized listing. By making a good first impression, you’ll increase your chances of converting those users into customers.
Google Business Profile Optimization
Key Elements to Optimize:
Use your actual business name. Stuffing your listing with too many keywords is not only against Google’s Terms of Service, but it can also result in your listing being penalized.
List a local phone number. If you want to rank high in local search results, it’s important to have a legitimate local phone number. If you’re using a call tracking number, make sure to enter the tracking number in the primary slot. This is the number that will show up to users. Put your actual local number in the secondary slot.
Make sure your hours of operation are correct.
Write a compelling description. Make sure your business description includes information about who you are as a company and what you stand for. You don’t want to stuff this section with random keywords just to try and boost your ranking in searches – that won’t work. The description on your GBP won’t affect your ranking, but it will give potential customers and partners a good idea of what you’re all about.
Upload lots of high-resolution photos. This includes exterior, interior, and product shots. This will help the customer feel more familiar and comfortable should they visit in person.
Upload videos, if you have them. Videos must be 30 seconds or shorter and smaller than 100 MB.
Be Consistent. One of the most important aspects of digital marketing is staying consistent. You must post and update regularly to stay front of mind with your ideal customers and to remain an authority in the Outdoor Power Equipment world.
Get reviews from happy customers. A large ranking factor for Google is customer reviews. Businesses that have more reviews tend to seem more credible and reliable to consumers. Asking for review should be ingrained into your sales process. Why? 71% of consumers will leave a review, if asked. This is why it is important to have a strong brand reputation management strategy in place as part of your overall marketing objectives.
This Seems Like a Lot of Work – Is it Worth it?
A solid marketing strategy includes social media, brand reputation management, business listing management, dealership SEO, plus many Outdoor Power Equipment Dealerships also employ paid advertising in the form of Pay-Per-Click Advertising, Display Advertising and many other digital advertising strategies. With so many options, it can be daunting! At Dealers Digital we know what it takes to maximize your online exposure and boost your sales! Our focus is on the Green Industry. We know your market, we know your customers, and we know how to reach them. Whether you are looking for a do-it-yourself platform, (Here’s looking at you DealerAmp), or want someone to handle all of your marketing needs, we have a solution for you! Contact Us to start the conversation about upping your marketing game!
If you’ve been a frequent reader of this space in past issues, you know how important and powerful I think the Google My Business tool is for local businesses. In November, however, Google announced that they were doing away with Google My Business in favor of a more streamlined business management model known as Google Business Profiles. This isn’t an uncommon practice for Google as this particular product has been renamed multiple times over the years. Anyone remember Google+ or Google Places? They were just prior iterations of what will be known as Google Business Profiles going forward.
So what does this mean for business owners who had just gotten used to utilizing the Google My Business app to post updates, images and product information?
First, the Google My Business app is going away in 2022. It will be retired in favor of allowing businesses to manage their details directly from Google Maps or Google Search apps or websites. So as long as you are a signed in to your Google account and you are a manager of your business, you’ll be able to make edits on the fly from within the existing web interface itself. If you’re used to going to google.com/business to manage your business, now you can simply go to google.com and search for “my business” and you’ll be able to manage your details directly from the search results page.
One big exception to this change is that if your business has multiple locations, you’ll still be able to use the existing Google My Business website to manage those listings just as you always have. That website will become known as the Business Profile Manager and act primarily as a support hub for businesses with multiple locations.
With this update, Google has announced some additional features that should have now rolled out to all users.
New verification process
If you need to claim your business listing, you can now do it directly in Google Search or Google Maps, without the need to go through the Google Business Manager.
Some businesses will see faster methods for verifying businesses, including video verification.
Call history
Call history helps you keep track of phone calls from your customers on Google Search and Maps. Using call history can help businesses respond quickly to missed calls so that you don’t lose an opportunity for a sale. Plus, any call that you receive that originates from your Google Business Profile will have a short whisper message informing you that the call came from Google. This is a great way to understand just how much traffic and visibility you’re getting from your listing.
Instant messaging
Your customers can now message your business in real-time directly from your business profile. You can customize your automated welcome message, share photos and store your conversation history. In order to provide an optimized experience and promote trust and engagement for your customers, Google requires businesses to respond to messages within 24 hours so if that’s not a watermark you’re comfortable with, it’s best to not activate this feature for now. However, businesses that are committed to an above average customer experience and respond quickly to messages will get the benefit of users seeing messages like “Usually responds in a few minutes” directly on your Google profile. If you can commit to responding and engaging with your customers quickly, you’ll likely see more customers taking advantage of this method of communication and you’ll be first in line when they are looking for the products you sell.
Marketing kit
Another recent addition is the new marketing kit that allows you to create free marketing materials to promote your business. Customize and download print-ready posters, windows stickers, pre-made social posts and more. As long as you have a verified profile, you’ll have access to these materials to encourage customers to review your business or even automatically create a quick video to use on your social media channels.
Local Google search results are powered largely by how well you engage with customers and optimize your business profile. Google benefits when they can provide the best possible results for searchers and your business benefits when you take the time to utilize all of the free resources at your disposal. According to Ipsos Research, an up-to-date Google Business Profile is:
2.7x more likely to be considered reputable.
Gets 7x more clicks
Is 70% more likely to attract location visits
Is 50% more likely to lead to a purchase
All of these factors add up to make the new Google Business Profiles the single most important free tool you’ll ever utilize for your business.
