What is currently the best way to boost your lead generation efforts? It's Google My Business. If you haven't claimed your listing yet, stop reading this article right now and do it, then come back and finish the article.
Once you've claimed your listing, you'll want to go through and fill out your profile completely. This is not a place to make half an effort; GMB is far too important to your business.
Next, start posting. What to post depends upon what your business is doing, but anything you believe is worth telling a friend is worth posting. Have you won some new business? Have you received a recent 5-star review? Have you updated your website? Have you received some industry rewards? Any of those are worth posting on your GMB page.
You're also going to want to start taking and posting photos on your page. Perhaps you're a roofer and just completed a project … take a picture of it with your mobile phone and make sure your GPS is enabled. Having the geoinformation recorded onto your photos is essential for GMB to understand the geographic relevance of your images. This is probably more important to Service Area Businesses (SABs) than brick and mortar, but pictures are equally important to both. If you're not in the construction trade but perhaps insurance sales, take photos of landmarks in towns where you have appointments to let Google know your area of operation.
Just doing these three things will start your phone ringing, but this is not a one-time thing; you will need to commit to posting content and photos for the foreseeable future to get the benefits available to you in Google My Business.
I've included links to a few excellent articles that go into depth to help you take full advantage of GMB; I hope you enjoy them; they are well worth your time.
Google's Top-Ranking Factors for Local SEO
With so many potential clients turning to local search to find a business or legal services, the online presence of your business or practice must be well optimized.
How to Optimize Your Google My Business Listing
With new features rolling out left and right, optimizing your Google My Business listing has never been a better idea — or more overwhelming, Kickstart your local SEO strategy by checking each of these essential optimizations off your list
Getting on the Map: The Intro to Local SEO for SABs
Local SEO is tricky when you don t have a dedicated brick-and-mortar storefront. If you've been left wondering how to maximize your presence on Google and in your target markets as an SEO or a service area business owner, this introductory guide by Joy Hawkins will set you on the right path
Need more local marketing tips? Check out our entire Guide to Local Marketing for Real Estate Professionals
