Why tradesmen need Google Business

What is a Google Business Profile?

Formerly known as a ‘Google My Business listing, (pre-December 2021) a ‘Google Business Profile’ is one of the most important free tools that a small business can use to expand their business’s online presence and visibility. And the best part about it is how easy it is to set up and use. If you’re a trade or small business owner who wants to gain a wider audience online, and you don’t know how best to do so, then keep reading this blog post to find out just how crucial a Google Business Profile is!

A Google Business Profile is the first thing that you see when searching for any business on Google’s search engine. If you’ve ever performed a Google search for a local business near you, you will have seen a box with a list of local businesses and a few details regarding each business pop up on the right-hand side of your screen. This pop-up box is known as a Google Business Profile. They help inform us of local businesses that are relevant to our search.

What’s the importance of having a Google Business Profile for tradesmen?

It improves the online visibility of your business

As a tradesperson who is in the market for a new website, there’s no doubt that you are looking to get your business seen more frequently online. Ideally, you’d want prospective customers that live in your catchment area and are interested in the services that you provide, to find your website when they are searching on Google – and having a Google Business Profile set up will help your business do just that.

The Google Business Profile pop-up allows your business to be presented in a very professional light, with your logo and cover photo branding displayed, your operating hours listed, as well as the button to call your phone number instantly available for the searcher to call right away, without even needing to click onto your website first! You can edit these details at any time with relative ease.

It’s free advertising, so why not take advantage?

Undoubtedly the best thing about getting a Google Business Profile is the fact that it’s completely free to set up! If we begin a Google search of “plumbers in *your local town*”, there will be around a dozen results that show up of local plumbing businesses in that area. This is known as a Google Local Pack, which is a search engine results page that displays results relating to your search. If you’re looking to connect with a location-specific target audience, which you most probably are as a tradesman, then claiming, updating and keeping your Google Business Profile fresh can really help with your Google Local Pack rankings.

If you already have a Google Business Profile set up, and you have collected some 5-star reviews on your profile already, your business is likely to show up on search results, even though your company name was never specified in the Google search. Having a Google Business Profile set up allows you to drive organic traffic to your website, without having to pay for PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising, when people search for your services in your local area.

Your Google Business Profile also has a feature that allows you to track how many people are seeing and clicking on your listing – this comes in handy when measuring your marketing campaigns and the number of leads you’re generating from Google Search and Google Maps. You can even find out information about where your customers are coming from and what keywords they’re searching for when they find your business. This can be very helpful when it comes to giving you guidance on what relevant long-tail keywords will help to significantly increase the number of clicks to your web pages.

Most of your local competitors will already have one set up!

It’s highly likely that your competitors already have a Google Business Profile set up. That’s why you should also have one to stand out in local searches. Don’t just stop there though – it’s important to take advantage of premium features such as the opportunity to showcase your portfolio of work with photos and videos, which will help your listing attract attention. Uploading regular business updates and telling a wider audience what you’ve been up to will help keep your profile fresh and relevant.

The best way to make your Google Business Profile stand out over your competitors is to collect Google reviews – studies have even shown that reviews are thought to make up around 10% of how search engines rank their results. While reviews are a major factor in SEO efforts when it comes to your Google Business Profile, they also serve as free advertisements for your services. Positive reviews can be crucial in a potential customer’s decision-making process on whether to purchase your services or products and help enhance the credibility and trustworthiness of your company. People nowadays trust online reviews just as much as in-person recommendations and research shows that there’s a positive correlation between reviews and sales.

Help get your business found on Google!

After you’ve created and claimed a Google Business Profile for your company, the following step is to make sure it’s optimised and that all of the necessary information is filled in. On your profile, you should try to include as much information as possible. People will click on your business to find out additional information, such as contact information and directions after they have completed their search and located it in the search results. Consumers’ search habits are constantly evolving, and information must be fully available. It will be difficult for people to actually locate you if you have not provided an exact company address. Visitors will then potentially go somewhere else if your business is difficult to find.

To sum up, we think it’s essential to have a Google Business Profile for tradesmen. It has an incredible number of benefits and advantages of improving appearance in Google results and if you’re a trade that hasn’t got one set up already, you’re already one step behind your competitors, who are likely to have one set up already.

At BUILT, our expertly-built websites for tradesmen come with a Google Business Profile setup included, because we understand how powerful this tool can be and we want to do all that we can to ensure that any customer that purchases a new website for their business with BUILT, can reap the rewards that a Google Business Profile has to offer. Let us help you take advantage of all the cost-effective ways to grow your business and the number of leads you acquire online.

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