How to Increase Website Traffic With Google My Business (Part 1)

By Raise the Rank. 

Improve your online reputation and grow your businesses’ presence online with these advanced Google tips. 

Editor’s note: The article that follows is part one of a series that describes a variety of techniques made for contractors to increase their roofing company’s online presence and make more money. The methods articulated in this article are provided by the experts at Raise the Rank. 

This post on Google My Business (GMB) will be about everything from the very basics all the way through advanced tactics and will be in order from set up to Google’s new features.  

1 – Get more traffic by claiming your Google My Business 

In my opinion, your roofing company’s Google My Business is the most powerful local SEO tool and tactic that can be implemented for 2021 and beyond.  

If you have a limited budget, you can still work your GMB hard and if done right you can truly crush your market with GMB. 

Even as powerful as Google My Business is, a full 44% of businesses have not even claimed their Google My Business listing. 

2 – Improve local visibility by fully optimizing your GMB 

The first thing you must do is claim your Google My Business listing. So, go to business.google.com and click sign in — you will need a Google account to do this.  

Pro tip: Always use the same Google account for everything you do at your company using a Google property.  

You can also claim your Google Business listing from Google Maps. If you have not claimed your listing, Google your company and you will see a link that says, “Own This Business?”  

Click the link and you can get started this way. Again, it will ask you for a Google account to get you logged in.  

If you already have more than one Google account, be sure you are not logged into the wrong account when you set up your business listing or you will have to change it – Google does not make changing anything about ownership easy.  

The reason Google makes it hard for making these changes is security. You do not want someone gaining access to your Google My Business.  

Remember, everything is fresh on your mind today, but you must plan for the future. Over the years you may move or add more Google accounts, like another business venture or a personal Gmail and a business Gmail account.  

Make sure you keep all of your login credentials in one place. If you lose your password and can’t get back in, it is difficult to contact Google and gain access to your account. I will have a complete section just on how to gain access to your Google My Business if you lose access. A password is OK to forget or lose, it is full access that is the problem. 

Now that you have your Google account and you are logged in let’s start setting up your business profile.  

When getting started you may see a page like this. Type in the name of your business and click next, this is accepting Google’s terms of service.  

If your company is new or you have been working from your home and Google has no real address on file you will most likely see this type of startup page.  

Next you will see a “where are you located” page. Fill this page out and click next. If you do not deliver goods and services to your clients, then do not click the button asking this.  

Next you will need to select your business category. Just add one, you can always add or change it later. Just make sure you get your main business type correct and in the first position. Google puts more emphasis on the first business type listed. This will be your main function like “roofing” and a subcategory like “skylight contractor” always helps. 

Next add your contact information. 

Now click finish and your new Google My Business will be active. 

Congratulations, you now have your new Google My Business listing. You may or may not have to request a postcard from Google for verification of the address. I have seen it both ways, where you get right in and have full ownership with a text to verify and where you will have to request a postcard with a verification number on it.  

Don’t worry, Google will normally have the postcard to you in a week or less.   

Pro tip: While you wait for your postcard, do not fill out any company information, wait for the verification number or you are likely to lose the information you add and will have to start all over once your account is verified. 

You want to get started by filling out your business info, click the info link in the left-hand menu bar.  

Now it is time to get detailed. 

This is where you tell Google and your customers and clients not only where you are but who you are and what you do.  

Depending on what type of business you are, you could see different features in your GMB. A service business like roofers will not see the same things a restaurant will see. I will only show general features that roofers will see here. 

Some of the advanced tactics I will show will require additional tools like CallRail and Google Analytics and if you do not have knowledge of or use these you will not be able to add these at this time. 

When filling out your business information be specific and detailed. Do not get in a hurry with this, don’t let yourself get bored, this is very important. Make sure you have all your hours set then look at the section of additional hours. Stay ahead of this one, Google likes for things to stay updated so make sure your special hours like Christmas and New Years are set and correct.  

Make sure your address is correct, this is also very important. 

I will explain later but make sure your business name on your website is exactly the same in your GMB, including commas and LLC. 

The next section after your address is a new section Google added recently. This is for service businesses that handle many areas.  

This is huge for service businesses for a couple reasons.  

In the past many businesses tried to game the GMB system by getting a UPS box and having a Google My Business address with it. Did I just give you up? If so, you may want to rethink it and get rid of it before Google body slams you for GMB spam.   

Pro tip: If you have one of these or many, my advice is permanently close them.  

There are two schools of thought here, one says delete and the other says permanently close. If you delete it then everything is gone forever, but if you just close it then it is still hanging out there, and in my opinion after reading many top blogs and everything Google has on the subject, I say just permanently close them. This is for real locations you have had, not UPS boxes. 

All but one of these were physical addresses, but again, in my opinion if you try to run more than one location other than one that is truly in another city or state you will confuse Google.  

How does Google know which address to show a client if you have locations too close to each other? 

Also, later in this post I will go deeper on why you do not want more than one location unless it truly is staffed and is real. It all relates to how hard it has become to properly work your GMB and that will be a full section. 

Make sure your URL, website address, is in correctly, it is always better to copy and paste to eliminate any potential errors.  

Appointment URL is going to be in the advanced section. Unless your website is set up for this you will need a calendar link like Acuity or Calendly so I will cover this later.  

Attributes will be different from business to business. Many businesses will only see veteran or women led. If this applies to you then add this. At this time the only other attribute I have seen for roofers is online scheduling and Google has it named in the menu as amenities.  

If you happen to be a restaurant owner or hair salon then you may have a much longer list like handicap seating, restrooms and payment types.  

Now your business section. This is very important even if Google does not add much to its algorithm for keywords in this section. Back in the day, when Google My Business was still Google Maps, businesses would keyword stuff this area.  

As a matter of fact, many would keyword stuff everything and back then you could get away with it.  

Google even did away with business description for a while then brought it back not that long ago. 

Google has put an end to keyword stuffing so watch how you word your services section. Write it like you would tell a client what you do. It is important to talk to Google, but you must convey your message to your clients as well. So, be a good writer and have a nice description. You have up to 750 words for this. Use as much of this as you can.  

Make sure you add your opening date after your company description. Even if you are a fairly new company do not let that scare you away from having a fully optimized GMB.  

This is the last thing to add here. Skip the add photos for now, we will get into that later. Photos are more important than you think so hold tight and I’ll explain later.  

The store code, labels and Google Ads extension phone number are also advanced, and I’ll get to those later.  

3 – How to use the main GMB menu 

As I walk you through this part of your Google My Business, I will dive deeper for each of these sections. If there are pro tips and advanced features you can take advantage of, I will show them to you and walk you through how to maximize each one.  

Look to the left-hand side menu, this will be your main menu and where you will start working from most of the time.  

4 – Get more leads and prospects with “Weekly Posts” 

Many of the next Google My Business feature are overlooked, or the vast majority just don’t get how powerful they are and what they mean to Google.  

Posts are one of these hidden gems.  

Many businesses make a post and never do another one. Big mistake, why? Google has always liked new and fresh. New what? New everything from content to images.  

Google more than any creature I have ever seen in my life loves content and they like fresh content as well as good content.  

When Google first started letting you do posts they were good for nearly a month.  

Now a post only lasts for one week.  

So, you need to stay diligent and do a post every week.  

Do your post on what is going on in your business, don’t just throw junk at your visitors, remember this is where you are trying to make a lead/prospect a client. So, add some value to their journey. Remember, most people will only replace one roof in their life, so talk to that person and help them through their roofing journey.  

A well done GMB with weekly post will put you way ahead of your competition. Most just are not going to do it, like I said 44% of your competition have not even claimed their GMB.  

The way you should look at your weekly GMB post is the same way you should look at content for your website. You should add value to your client with every post and page or why write it.  

Ask yourself, is this post going to help this visitor make a decision to make a purchase? Does it answer the questions someone would ask looking to spend anywhere between $8,000.00 to $30,000.00 on a new roof? 

You did not hear me say make a purchase with you. The goal here is to help every one of your Google My Business visitors make a decision whether it is you or someone else.  

Remember, every client is not for you, informing your client properly will let them know if you are a good fit for each other. 

If you are not a good match, then how are you going to get the Google review and a referral?  

Ultimately your goal is building a long-term business or there is no need in reading this post. 

You have 1,500 characters available for a post which will give you approximately 300 words max.  

Your post does not have to be 300 words, but between 100 and 300 will make a good post.  

At the end of your post do not forget the CTA, call to action button.  

You can add a call now button or a link to your website. If your post is on skylights and you have information about skylights on your website, then add a link to that skylight page. I prefer a call now CTA but that is just me.  

You can do posts on products, events, offers or what’s new. Use what is current and of interest in your company on that particular week.  

Last thing on posts, make sure you add a picture. Adding a good compelling image will help grab your potential client’s attention. Make sure you add an alt text and alt tags to at least some pictures you put in your GMB, whether you post pictures or pictures and video in the photos section. 

Tune into part 2 to learn more about how to maximize your business potential with these Google My Business methods. 

Learn more about SSA in their RoofersCoffeeShop® Directory or visit www.ssacapp.com. 

Original article source: Raise the Rank