Tag: Google Business Profile

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New “Profile Strength” Feature Rolled Out for Google Business Profiles

Dipa Gandhi

by Dipa Gandhi

Well, Google’s always keeping us on our toes. Just a couple of days ago, Google fully rolled out its new “Profile Strength” widget on the Google Business Profile (GBP) dashboard.

So What’s This All About?

Notice the green circle in the image above. This full green circle represents a complete profile. When you see a complete green circle, you have nothing to worry about. There is also a visual to indicate that more information is needed on a GBP.

Take a look at the GBP below, it looks like the profile is nearly complete, but after clicking on “Complete Info”, it takes you to another screen which implies the profile is not 100%. What was missing? The Ads credit hasn’t been claimed. Tricky, right?

It appears this may be Google’s way of trying to monetize the Google Business Profiles. Those who are Google Business Profile savvy would know whether or not their profile is as complete as possible without having to advertise with Google Ads.

Let’s take a look at another GBP that is less complete. If your profile strength is red in color and it appears to be 75% complete, this is an indication that there is room for improvement.

The red makes it look like your GBP is lacking, but there are times when the “Complete Info” is clicked and the user is taken to a screen like the one below. Options are given to you can choose to keep the messaging off. It’s not necessary to leave the “accept messages” option on in order to have a more complete profile.

However, if you see any of the images below on your profile, there are opportunities to make it more complete. Just specifying which services your business actually provides, or adding a description, will make your profile more complete and optimized.

Key Takeaways

Once you’ve created your Google Business Profile, you’ll want to make sure you optimize and monitor it on a regular basis. With Google always implementing changes, there may be new features you can include to strengthen your profile, and you’ll also want to be sure your profile isn’t negatively impacted by any of Google’s changes.

If your profile strength is yellow and nearly a complete circle:
then the only hindrance from it being fully complete with the green circle might be that you have not claimed your Google Ads credit, which is perfectly fine. As long as you know you’ve fully optimized your GBP, you are safe to ignore what “Profile Strength” shows.

Business Website, Carpet Cleaning Leads, cleaning business leads, Commercial Cleaning Leads, digital marketing, Lead Generation, Lead Generation for Contractors, online marketing, SEO

How to Gain High Quality Reviews on Your Google Business Profile

Diane Lovine

Part 2 in the Series: Importance of Building High Quality Reviews on GBP

by Diane Lovine and Dipa Gandhi

We’ve learned the importance of having lots of high quality reviews on your business profile. More and more, business owners need to build a high volume of  positive reviews to help them rank online and stand out among their competitors. Reviews can make or break a business. 

The challenge is getting your customers to leave positive reviews on your site. 

Unhappy customers are ten times more likely to leave negative reviews about a business than highly satisfied customers are to leave positive reviews. How can businesses motivate happy customers to leave positive reviews for them?

Ask on the Spot

  1. Service businesses can equip their field agents with tablets that can be used to prompt customers to log onto their Google or Yelp account to leave a review on the spot once each job is complete. When customers are asked to leave a review sometime in the future, they often forget and it becomes inconvenient.
  1. Some businesses choose to hand out their business card after the job is complete with a QR code that takes customers directly to their Google Business Profile (GBP) link, or any other review site, to write a review. Providing a QR code is a quick and easy way for customers to leave a review.  

Make it Simple

  1. Some lead companies now offer comprehensive solutions for reputation management and can set you up on a system that automatically sends links to Google upon completion of each job. This is often a free or inexpensive add-on service as part of a business services package.
  1. Whether you pay a service that sends links to your customers or you send a link yourself manually, the name of the game is to make it as simple as possible for your customers to access your listings and provide a positive review. 
  1. Any time you can reduce the time spent looking for a citation or website to leave a review and eliminate the possibility of leaving a review to the wrong business, you’re increasing your chances of building more reviews. 

Follow Up

  1. It’s OK to send an email reminder a day or two after a job well done if you find that the customer has not left you a review. You might send another after a week or so. If you still don’t get a response, drop it for now. Persistence is great, but the last thing you want is to be a nuisance.
  1. Follow up in 8-12 months again with a nurturing email or a promotion to stay top of mind with your customer. You want them to remember you when it’s time to have more work done. This gives you an opportunity to win their business again and another chance to build your online reputation. Lead generation companies often provide database remarketing and lead nurturing as a part of their total business growth package. Ask your 99 Calls rep for more information if this sounds interesting to you.

Initiate A Process

  1. Be sure to request and store your customers’ information including name, email, address and cell phone number. Once each job is complete, send an email explaining that reviews are much appreciated an very helpful and include the GBP review link. Customers may prefer to leave a review on a different site such as Yelp or Facebook which is also great. Keep in mind timing is key. You want to be sure to send the email within a day or 2 after the job is complete so the customers initial reaction to the completed job is still fresh in their mind and is transmitted to the review accurately.
  1. Along with sending an email, you may be able to save your customers even more time by offering to provide a template of a review to eliminate additional steps of trying to figure out what to write. This would also ensure the customer leaves a quality review, with content and the type of service provided rather than just a star rating.

Challenge Your Employees

Another creative way of gaining reviews is to offer incentives to your field agents. Gamefy it by offering a prize for the employees who get the most  customer reviews. You don’t want to directly offer your customers incentives to leave a review on GBP as it is against Google’s policies, but an incentive for your field agent might achieve the same goal without violating Google’s policies.

No matter what method you use to gain reviews, your ultimate goal is to gain those positive reviews on a frequent basis to build trust, increasing rankings and ultimately get more leads. The key is to make it quick and simple for your customers.

Want a refresher on why it’s important to get reviews on your Google Business Profile?Refer to the blog from April on the Importance of Reviews on your Google Business Profile.