The free Google listing most trades half fill in
It is the box that appears beside the map. For a lot of local businesses it gets seen more than the website.
When somebody searches for a plumber near them, the first thing on the screen is usually not a website. It is a map with three businesses pinned on it, each with a name, a star rating and a phone button. That listing is free and you control it.
The median business in a large study of Google listings got 1,260 profile views a month and 59 actions from them: 33 clicks to the website, 14 phone calls and 12 requests for directions.
BrightLocal, Google My Business Insights Study, 45,264 businesses across the UK, US, Canada and Australia. Note this is 2019 data and is not broken down by country, so treat it as a sense of scale rather than a forecast.The parts that get skipped
- Services. There is a list where you can add every service you offer, by name. Most businesses add two and stop. Add all of them, including the ones you think are obvious.
- Service areas. If you travel to customers you can set the areas you cover rather than showing a shop address. Fill this in properly.
- Hours, including bank holidays. Wrong hours cost you calls, and Google will prompt people to ask whether you are really open.
- Photographs. Not the logo. Your van, your team, your finished work. Add a few every month rather than twenty once.
- The description. Say what you do and where, in plain words, in the first sentence.
- Messaging. If you will actually answer it, turn it on. If you will not, leave it off, because a dead message button is worse than no button.
Reviews live here
Your reviews attach to this profile, not to your website, which is a reason to take the profile seriously even if your site is perfect. Reply to every review, including the bad ones, in a sentence and without arguing. People read the replies more carefully than the reviews.
An afternoon's work, in order
- Claim or find your profile and check nobody has edited the name or category to something odd.
- Pick the most specific primary category that fits. "Car detailing service" rather than "Car wash", if that is what you do.
- Add every service with its own name and a short description.
- Set the areas you cover to match the ones on your website, word for word.
- Upload twelve photographs of real jobs, not stock.
- Check the phone number and website link are right. People do change, and old numbers linger.
It is free, it takes an afternoon, and for a lot of local businesses it gets seen more often than the website does.
One caution worth knowing. A great deal of advice about Google listings quotes statistics that trace back to marketing blogs quoting each other. Treat any "X% of local searches lead to a visit within 24 hours" claim with suspicion unless you can find the original study. Fill the profile in properly because it is obviously useful, not because of a number somebody made up.