Hi {{first_name}},
Last week we mapped out the five components your business needs to be found, trusted, and chosen. We said your Google Business Profile (GBP) comes first.
Today, I explain why.
When most local business owners think about their online presence, they think website. This makes sense. A website feels like the real thing. It has your name on it and lives at an address that's yours.
A Google Business Profile feels like admin.
It isn't.
Your GBP is what shows up before your website in almost every local search. It's the first thing a potential client sees. It shows your hours, your photos, your reviews, your services, and a direct path to contact you. All before they've clicked a single thing.
It's also completely free. And it takes hours to get right, not months.
What April found when she went looking
In earlier issues, we spoke about April. She came to us convinced she was behind. She had a decent website and a working Instagram account, but her GBP had been sitting untouched for the better part of two years.
We asked her to look at her competitors’ Google Business Profiles before we started working on hers.
She spent an hour going through six salons in Northampton. What she found surprised her.
Three of them had no photos uploaded at all. Two had services listed with no descriptions and no links to their websites. One had unanswered reviews going back three years, including a negative one sitting right at the top with no response.
The threat she'd imagined wasn't there.
Her competitors were barely present.
The thing most businesses get wrong
They claim the profile. They fill in the basics. And then they leave it.
No new photos, no posts, and no responses to reviews. They have services listed but not described. Hours may or may not still be accurate.
Google notices. So do potential clients.
A neglected GBP sends a signal before anyone has even contacted you. It says nobody is home. A complete, active profile says the opposite. It says this business is real, current, and paying attention.
We covered the foundations of GBP back in Issue 3. Claiming your profile, filling out your services, adding links to your specific service pages. If you haven't done that work yet, start there.
If you have, this is the next level.
The Signal health check
Here's where the work from earlier issues connects directly to your GBP.
In Issues 4, 5, and 6 we talked about backlinks, Chamber listings, directories, and unlinked mentions. All of that work depends on one thing being true: your business information is consistent everywhere it appears.
Name, address, phone number (also known as NAP). These should be exactly the same.
Google cross-references your GBP against every other mention of your business it can find. If your Chamber listing says one address and your GBP says another, that inconsistency costs you. If your website phone number doesn't match your GBP, that costs you too.
Open your GBP now. Check your name, address, and phone number. Then check your website. Then your Chamber profile. Then any directories you got listed in after Issue 6.
They should all say exactly the same thing. If they don't, fix that before anything else.
One Practical Move
Do what April did. Spend one hour looking at your top five competitors' GBPs.
Look at their photos. When were they last uploaded? Look at their reviews. Are they being answered? Look at their services. Are they described, or just listed? Look at their posts. Is there any activity, or has the profile been left to go cold?
Then come back to your own profile with fresh eyes.
You will see the gaps differently and you will know exactly what to fix first.
One Tool
Max for Google Business Profiles at maxlocal.co. We mentioned this in Issue 3 and it's worth repeating here. Max helps you schedule posts, monitor reviews, and keep your profile active without logging in manually every week. If your GBP has been sitting untouched, this is what changes that.
Set up Google Alerts for your business name at google.com/alerts. It is completely free.
Keep howling!
Fungai
Your Owwtreach Guy
Grow with Owwtreach
www.owwtreach.com