Or… 17 Steps to Set Up and Manage Your Google Business Profile
Over the last number of years you’ve probably heard the drum beat that your Google Business Profile (GBP) is extremely important for your car or tractor dealer website’s local SEO and now GEO (“Generative Engine Optimization”… you know… AI stuff). Many consultants tell this story. But is it true? Is your GBP really that important to you?
The Answer? Yes!
The experts aren’t off beat in their advice. Let’s look at a few facts that illustrate the power of your GBP (and reviews in particular):
- Sites that optimize their GBP page get 7x more clicks than those that don’t.
- Google currently owns 90% of the search market share and with GBPs central to its local SEO and GEO strategy.
- Roughly 76% of “near me” searches result in business visits within a day.
- 75% of people never scroll past the first page of a Google search. This is why local SEO, GEO and GBP page optimization is critical.
- 97% of shoppers read online reviews for local businesses and they also expect higher star ratings (of 4.5+) and more recent reviews.
- 93% of online shoppers have made a purchase after reading reviews… with 27% spending over $1,000.
- 86% of people will hesitate to purchase from a business that has negative online reviews.
- Think with Google says that 18% of local cell phone searches led to a purchase within a day, whereas only 7% of non-local searches generated a sale.
- GBP website clicks, calls, and direction requests increase by 44% when a business improves its star rating by one star.
We Don’t Live in a Fact-Free World
Look at those simple facts. They tell a very clear story that Google’s focus on local search is critical for your business from GBP optimization to consumer behavior in response to well manicured reviews. Google is the elephant in the room so you have to play by there game if you want to get noticed and sell cars.
Let’s try something different. Why not ignore what the experts say and throw the facts to the wind. What will happen? Ignore your GBP reviews and when shoppers search for a new car, they will see your mixed bag of reviews while your competitors will have hundreds, if not thousands, of well managed high reviews. Look a little further, and your competitor will have great posts that inform the shopper, and Products as a carousel of your inventory for them to review (or inventory directly out of their Google Merchant Center). You? You’ll waste away as shoppers go elsewhere.
Get to Work. Your Dealership Depends on It!
I’ve seen way too many dealership websites with poorly executed GBP profiles. It’s painful because when I see them I know that they’re losing business underutilizing a solution that’s a lead genarator.
Since I hate writing long blogs, never mind reading them, I’ll cut to the chase and give you a quick 13 point checklist that you can follow to setup and manage your GBP account. It is by no means complete, but it is a start. If you want more information, contact us any time.
17 Steps for Creating and Managing Your GBP
These steps are divided into two categories: 1. Setting up your GBP profile; and 2. Managing your profile.
Instead of writing a bunch of words, what is provided is a simple checklist along with links to instructions from Google (for the more complicated items) on what you need to do. Much of this work is common sense so it is not hard to do. But, AND THIS IS AN IMPORTANT “BUT”, if you can’t do the work because you don’t have time, then GET SOMEONE TO DO IT FOR YOU. (Yes, I’m screaming there. My hope is that you’ll listen.)
SETTING UP YOUR GBP PROFILE
Go through this checklist to setup your GBP profile correctly. Mistakes upon setup can cause pain later making it worthwhile to get each one right.
- Claim your account if you haven’t done so already! Owning your GBP is critical to be able to manage your content and reviews.
- Ensure that your NAP (Name, Address and Phone) and URL are Correct – Your NAP MUST INCLUDE the same legal business name, address and phone information on your website, social media, etc.. Keep it consistent at all times. This is important for your organic performance.
- Pick the Right Business Categories – For franchises: start with “[brand] dealer”, and then pick the relevant secondary categories that apply to your dealership (You can search for these by asking Google a simple questions such as “I’m a franchise [insert brand here] dealer, what secondary categories does Google recommend for my Google Business Profile?”. If you are a used car dealer or a tractor dealer, then follow the same logic and ask what Google would recommend for your priority category and then the following secondary categories too.
- Write an Engaging Business Description – Just saying you’ve been around 40 years is not enough. Talk to how you can help your customer get what they want and include keyword phrases relevant to your business. Again, if you aren’t sure, ask Google to help you build a good Business Description. Tell Google about your dealership, how long you’ve been around, what you sell, what geographical areas your serve, your philosophy when working customers, and then ask it draft a description that meets Google’s description character limits and description best practices. Simple stuff, and it helps.
- Provide your opening date. It’s valuable especially if you’ve been in business a long time.
- Activate chat ONLY IF you can respond immediately. Otherwise, Goolge will cancel it and you’ll frustrate potential customers.
- Set Up Your Social Media Profiles Correctly – Google adds your profiles automatically so make sure you use the same name as your GBP name on all your social media profiles.
- Service Areas – This section defines the geographic regions (cities, towns, and/or counties) where your dealership travels to deliver inventory or provide. Don’t forget this. If you travel to help your customers, this gives you and extra local footprint for Google to rank you. If you don’t service customers at their locations, then leave this section blank.
- Business Hours and Special Hours – Many business get their hours wrong and then lose customers who travel to the business only to find it closed. Don’t make this mistake. Set your regular business hours and then provide special hours for holidays (such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc.).
- From the Business, Accessibility, Amenities, Crowd, Parking, Payments, Planning, Recycling, and Service Options – All of these items are quick to configure. Fill them out as much as you can, but you can skip those that don’t apply to you (a common one is Recicling).
- Products – If you are going to manually put up information about your inventory, you need to make sure you do it in a way Google likes since it can be a bit picky. If you want to actually list your inventory on your GBP, then your better bet is to use Google Merchant Center.
ONGOING WORK – AKA “OPTIMIZING YOUR GOOGLE BUSINESS PROFILE”
Dedicating a minimum of about 15 minutes/day pays off over time (although more time is better). Here’s why: As you know from the facts above, an optimized GBP profile gets 7x the clicks verses one that isn’t optimized, and is also considered to be 2.7 times more reputable.
- Generate and Respond to Reviews (Often!) – There is an art to responding to reviews but the key is making sure you respond to all reviews with a message that talks to the people reading the response, not just the reviewer. Get more info here from an earlier blog I wrote. It’s a bit dated but has held up over the years.
- Upload Great Photos and Videos (with customers!) – This is as simple as taking a photo with your phone (with good lighting) and posting it to your GBP via your phone. Even better, if you get short videos of happy customers, post those to your GBP and social media too!
- Put Your Posts to Work for You – Post content relevant to your customers. Examples might include info on a car that won awards or preparing your car for the holiday season… all with good keywords. Google loves new content.
- Use Welcome Offers to Push Business Your Way Use Welcome Offers to turn visitors into customers. It’s free advertising!
- Check Your Products Listing (or Google Merchant Center) – If you manually maintain a Products list, it’s important to check it regularly (a few times/month) to keep it current. Letting it age is not helpful.😥
- Update Your Service Areas – If you deliver services or inventory to your customers, then make sure you update it if you add a new coverage area.
The Final Word
I just data dumped a bunch of information on you so I apologize if your head is spinning right now. If you are confused, the best advice I can give you is to take an hour to read through the checklist and familiarize yourself with what you need to do and whether you think you have the time to do it. If you think you have the time, then check off each item and get rockin! If not, contact me and either I will give you a hand. At the minimum, my hope is that we’ll have a great talk and I’ll at least give you some free information to help your dealership. Have at it and enjoy!