As a real estate agent, it’s absolutely critical that you have a Google Business page, but it’s even more critical that you actually log in and use it to its full advantage. Just having one isn’t enough, but having one and utilizing it to it’s fullest is a key part of an overall digital strategy that agents should be taking full advantage of right now.
A Google Business page can benefit you in a lot of different ways:
- It can provide key information if someone searches your name or team name.
- It can allow you to show up in map searches for localized searches.
- It works towards your local SEO search strategy.
If you don’t have a Google Business page, you need one, and you can get one set up quite easily. Just click here, click the Get Started button, and enter the basic information about your business. One thing to consider when you’re initially setting it up is the business address. That’s because: a) it helps define your location for local search results, and b) it’s one of the ways Google will verify your location by sending a postcard with a code.
For your Google Business page, it really pays to have as much of your profile defined as possible.
Your business page needs reviews; as many of them as you can get. Reviews work because having a lot of them look impressive, and because it’s Google, a lot of consumers trust the reviews as being legit. But you also need to add all of the other information that you might not think is important, but really is. A cover photo, additional photos, hours of operation, website links, directions, etc; all of it is important and a key part of having a complete profile that works.
One of the biggest missed features of most Google Business pages is the posts section. Basically, it allows you to showcase articles, news, and anything else you can display as a post, within your business page search results in the sidebar, and it absolutely gets clicks from users.
It only displays for 7 days, so you’ll need to update it often, but it’s a great way to have your important/new content displayed in a prominent way to engage your audience.
Your Google Business page should be a key part of your search strategy, both from a name search and local search perspective.
If someone searches your name, your Google Business page will display on the right of the search results, in addition to all of the organic results displaying in the main search results, and a lot of users will use the information they see there to make a judgement on your business.
In terms of local search, if someone searches a term like: ‘miami real estate agent’, the listings that display in the map results are based on your Google Business page and the address you listed there, so again, the business address is really important.
Making sure you show up in the local map search is tough to do, but it’s all based on your Google Business Page, and a key way to do that is to make sure you’ve defined all of the information possible, especially your reviews.
When Google is returning search results for the person searching, it really just wants to return the best possible results for the user, and if you have all of your information defined and a lot of positive reviews, the chances of you displaying are a lot higher than those that don’t.
If you don’t have a Google Business page, you need to set one up today; and if you do already have one, it pays to make sure that it’s as complete as possible. Doing so is an impactful part of your overall digital strategy.
With up to date marketing trends relevant to today’s market, our report is a selection of curated content, information, and data that will give you an outline of what’s working right now in real estate marketing.
