Google Business Profile Optimization

Don’t Panic: Google Business Profile Dashboard Is No More

nicole — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 21:16:16 +0000

For Google Business Profile, formerly Google My Business, the app is no longer available to use. You now have to make edits and updates to your Google Business Profile (GBP) within the search engine results pages (SERPs). No more dashboard to see your insights and easily navigate to make quick changes to your GBP. Google got rid of the dashboard and it seems the new way of life is updating via SERP.

The new “dashboard” is called the New Merchant Experience (NMX). The NMX is used by GBP managers and owners to access and edit details of their profiles and monitor performance. To access this, you will need to search for your business name in Google to see the NMX. Be sure you are logged into Chrome with the Gmail account that is linked to your GBP. The below photo is what you should see.

What Aspects Of Managing Your Google Business Profile Has Google Changed?

Most items in your GBP were previously managed via the GBP dashboard within the app or online at business.google.com. Now, all GBP are only editable within the SERPs, some features have been removed, “posts” are now called “updates” in the NMX, you no longer can see metrics around photos within the performance section, and “users” are now called “managers”. If you are looking to change your office hours or update your hours for Holiday, that is found within the “Edit profile” icon.

Some crucial items are hidden within the 3-dots to the right of “Your business on Google” as seen in the photo above. The first thing listed when you click on the 3-dots is the Business Profile settings. This is where you will find who has access to your GBP, profile id and labels, the ability to mark your GBP as closed or transfer ownership, and see any linked account to your GBP such as Google Ads. If you need to transfer primary ownership from another user to yourself, the “Managers” tab is where you would want to click. This will bring up all users who have access to your profile, then click on your own access and switch it to primary owner. To learn more about transferring ownership, read more about it on the actual Google Support website.

Next, you have notifications. This is where you can change which notifications you receive emails about. These include customer messages, reviews, questions, photos, insights, etc. It is a good idea to review this section to make sure you have selected what you want to be notified for, and what you don’t. We recommend at least enabling reviews, messages, photos, questions, posts, and reminders.

You will also find within the 3-dots Google’s Terms of Services. It is a good idea to be aware of these if you are making edits and updates to your GBP yourself. You do not want to do something that is against the ToS to land yourself in suspension. If you do get suspended, it typically takes around a week to get your account back up and running.

Certain Performance Indicators Have Changed or Vanished

Hopefully, you didn’t really enjoy seeing the “How customers search for your business” metrics because they are gone. You can longer see within the GBP NMX whether your searches are coming in as Direct, Discovery, or Branded. The pie chart is gone and there is no sign of it returning. No worries, Weaver Virtual Solutions can still obtain this data via our API with GBP and provide it within our reporting dashboard that you receive monthly. So while you won’t be able to see it within the NMX, you will still get the data from us monthly if you are on our SEO plan.

Is There Any Way To Get To The Old Dashboard

Nope! The old dashboard is gone and Google has made no mention of its return. It seems we will be getting used to the change and using the NMX moving forward. No need to worry, once you get comfortable using the NMX, Google will be sure to change it and you will get to learn a whole new dashboard. The only thing we can do is adapt and overcome and continue to dominate SEO results, and we are here for it.

If you need help managing your GBP, we would love to help. We specialize in SEO & Online Marketing for insurance agents. Our services are fantastic and we prove it through our results. 100% of our clients that have been with us for 1 year have seen an increase in their phone calls and website visits. Results-driven is our middle name. If you would like to have a quick call to discuss your current situation and what we can provide you, feel free to complete our contact form, or book a time directly at the URL below.

https://calendly.com/weavervs/30min

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Authentic Ways To Grow Your Local Search Presence

nicole — Mon, 07 Nov 2022 19:38:40 +0000

Being an insurance agent, you are always looking for ways to improve your local presence. It’s critical to maintain a consistent framework of outputs in these circumstances so that you can stand out in local search results. The competition can be fierce, but these steps below will help you dominate the Google Local SEO in your area.

Improve Your Social Profiles And Google Business Listing

One of the fundamentals of local SEO is having a complete and verified Google Business Profile listing.

One of the biggest errors that marketers make when it comes to local SEO is to simply upload a scant amount of data to Google Business Profile (GBP) and set it to run automatically. Having all of your name, address, and phone number (NAP) information completed, as well as adding pictures, categories, operating hours, and much more, is a powerful tool for moving your business up in local SEO listings.

Check-in at least once a month (if not more often) to upload new images and see how your listing is doing in GBP. For your primary social media profiles, use the same procedure. You want to make sure you can be found on Google as easily as you can on Facebook and Twitter because local search queries in social media have increased significantly over the past ten years.

Complete a Quote, Then Request a Review

One of the most effective ways to improve your ranking in local search engine results pages is to create five-star reviews (SERPs). Local SERPs tend to float those results higher as a result of increasing your average rating and volume of ratings. Furthermore, the social proof derived from five-star reviews is a priceless tool for gaining customers’ trust in your company.

Expand Your Network’s Backlinks

The advantage of local SEO and link building is that you typically don’t need to create tens of thousands of links. Instead, to improve your SEO positioning, you typically only need a few more than your local competitors.

The quickest way to increase the number of backlinks to your website is to ask the companies you do business with for them. Therefore, as a first step, compile a list of all the business relationships you have in your area and specify the reasons why these relationships would link to you.

Build Local Citations

Citations are merely online references to your company’s name, address, and phone number. Citations can be found in niche-specific directories as well as in general local directories (like Google Maps).

Links aren’t always required in citations for you to benefit from them. Google considers mentions of your company name as a local authority signal. Concentrate your initial efforts on Google, Yelp, Bing, and Facebook to get things going.

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4 Quick Tips To Boost Your Google Business Profile Visibility

nicole — Thu, 03 Nov 2022 21:21:22 +0000

Every company wants to increase its online presence, especially on Google. In local search listings and the Map Pack, how can you get in front of the correct people? Your local business’s Google Business Profile (GBP) listing can be optimized to help it be found and convert motivated searchers into paying customers. Here are a few pointers to help you obtain some rapid wins without going broke.

Request Reviews!

One of the most effective strategies to increase your GBP is to write reviews. They are free yet do a lot to improve your company’s visibility among organic searchers.

Consider how you’d go about sorting through a wide list of area general contractors if you’ve never worked with one before. Because you don’t have a third-party validation of areas like pricing and quality of labor, you have no idea if the statements provided on a contractor’s website are accurate. In this scenario, GBP reviews will help you rank higher in local searches. People looking for contractors in their region will be more likely to trust your company if you have 10 or 15 four- or five-star reviews. Those reviews, however, will not appear overnight.

To persuade pleased consumers to submit reviews at all, you may need to perform some outreach. You can do this by sending them an email, a postcard, or just asking them to give you a vocal assessment of their experience with you. Another alternative is to use review management software such as BirdEye, ReviewPush, or Pozative. You can use these applications to:

Organize your customer reviews.
Send text message review requests.
Respond to new Google reviews directly from email alerts.

Your review requests should encourage customers to be honest and detailed in their analysis, regardless of how you do it.

Don’t Be Spammy

Google is certainly clever enough today to detect attempts to game the system by automating content, establishing doorway pages, and keyword stuffing, for example. GBP follows the same logic. Why would Google, the world’s largest and most powerful search engine, let you get away with spamming practices like bribing individuals to create favorable reviews? Real, honest reviews will be trusted by potential customers. Google, as well as the review sites I mentioned, do. They can tell if you bought a shady website to write a false five-star review for your company.

In reality, review sites may detect phony reviews and mark your website as untrustworthy. When users arrive on one of your pages, the flag will appear as a popup alerting them not to trust your site. Offering incentives, like future discounts, for consumers who submit favorable GBP evaluations is a similar notion. In this scenario, doing so may have a negative impact on your online reputation. Potential buyers may believe that persons who mention the inducement in their reviews are lying.

Attempting to bribe people for positive assessments, on the other hand, obscures the situation’s potential reality. Even if customers had a bad experience with your company, they will not mention it in their reviews. This increases the chances that future customers may be “duped” and have a terrible experience when they expected something better.

Be Sure To Respond To All Reviews, Including Negative Ones

Instead of working more than necessary by employing these strategies, I recommend either preventing unfavorable GBP reviews from occurring in the first place or promptly responding to any negative GBP reviews that do occur. The former would certainly necessitate you getting your hands dirty and ensuring that every area of your business is working well.

At all times, cater to your consumers, and if something goes wrong, be understanding, handle it right away, and make sure everyone leaves happy. Reach out to customers who have left poor reviews online to apologize and empathize. This demonstrates to the general public that you care about your customers even after they leave your business.

Be Sure To Use Google Business Profile

My final piece of advice for increasing your GBP is to use Google’s online business tool.

The Google Marketing Kit is one such product, which allows you to make free stickers, posters, and social media postings to promote your company’s promotions and events. Social posts, in particular, should be a huge help to your internet profile. You may make amazing posters out of your favorable evaluations, complete with written blurbs, and then share them on social media.

Users may also follow your company’s local profile on GBP in the same way they would on Facebook or Instagram. Your followers would then have access to your company’s:

New social posts.
Offers.
Blog posts.
Events.
Product updates.

All of these things will help your followers become more aware of your brand. Finally, Google Posts allows you to creatively promote new coupons, deals, and events. You may also increase user engagement by using photos, videos, and call-to-action buttons. Because its analytics function allows you to monitor how users responded to whatever you wrote, Google Posts is a wonderful GBP advertising tool. You can utilize the information you gather to create even better posts in the future.

Also, look at Google’s Local Favorites service. It honors the top 5% of local businesses in each category with digital and physical badges. Google wants you to improve the local profile of your company. It aspires to foster the healthy competition that exists among small businesses in the area. Almost everything Google does these days is in the interest of improving the user experience.

Who can establish themselves as the finest provider of any product or service the user requires? Your response should be “you.” You can only do it if you have a killer GBP that attracts all of the correct consumers. If you need help with GBP optimization, be sure to reach out for a free discussion on how we can help you.

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