Google My Business is a great tool that all financial advisory businesses should use. Many firms do not realise they may be holding back their business by not using all Google My Business capabilities.
So how can you ensure that you are using the tool to its full potential?
Today we will explore what Google My Business is and why it is important.
What is Google My Business?
Google My Business is an online tool that Google launched in 2014.
It is designed to help companies and organisations manage their online presence through the Google interface, and has evolved into an essential tool for all companies worldwide.
It will enable clients to find and verify their business and business information.
The tool allows you to manage the information that Google users find when they search for your business or the financial services you offer.
Google My Business Listings include:
- Name of your business
- A link to your website
- Your business hours
- Google Maps pinpointed to your location
- Photos of your business
- Client reviews
The Google feature essentially allows internet users to find the most relevant information about your company, services, and products – all set by you.
Why does my financial advisory firm need a Google My Business profile?
Google My Business is essential to financial service businesses for many reasons, no matter the size.
Local businesses alone receive 94% of their calls from Google My Business, while a typical business gets 59 actions from its Google My Business listing every month.
Google My Business features make it easier for prospects to find and verify you online.
People want to find your company quickly online in a digital first world. Research has shown that more than 90% of people look to verify companies online before making final decisions about using their services.
If they don’t find you, you could miss a chance.
Customer reviews
Social proof is essential for financial marketing strategies. As you know, trust and authority are of the utmost importance in this industry.
73% of consumers trust companies’ online reviews.
Google My Business listings include Google reviews and the functionality to engage with them. This social proof helps businesses build trust with clients and maintain a loyal client base.
There are many methods to get customers to review your business. View our blog ‘How to increase Google reviews for financial companies’ to find out more.
We always recommend replying to reviews, whether positive or negative. This is your chance to show clients and prospects that you care about what they have to say.
This can even lead to more reviews, improve your ratings, and show your financial firm as a trusted and transparent business to future clients.
Local SEO
SEO is an integral part of any company’s organic growth strategy. A whopping 92.47% of global traffic comes from Google Search, Google Images, and Google Maps.
SEO is essential if you want to drive even a fraction of this traffic to your site.
SEO plays a huge role in brand awareness, as well as local client acquisition.
SEO is simply the process of making a website more valuable to web visitors, making it appear higher in search results.
Local SEO works similarly, except that you optimise your website to be found for local searches.
Google My Business is a crucial pillar of your local SEO strategy.
In particular, a listing for a local business is more likely to appear when people search for a nearby business using Google Maps.
How to optimise your Google My Business listing
Optimising your listing is important to ensure that you stand out. These are the most important factors to ensure your listing is well optimised:
Name, Address, Phone Number
The most important information to include in your listing is your business name, address, and phone number.
Searches for your business online will bring up this information about you, who you are and what you do.
You can modify the address, phone number, or name of your business through your account. It is important to make changes to your business information as soon as a change happens, to ensure that searchers do not use the wrong information.
Google will reward you by ranking you higher for accurate and regularly updated information about your business. It is worth noting that neglecting to update your account regularly can have a negative impact on your organic ranking.
Multiple locations
If your business has multiple locations, you will need to manage each one separately in your Google My Business account. Google makes it simple to manage all your locations from one login.
It is important that you keep track of every location’s listing. Each location will have different hours and reviews.
A well-managed business will have a higher reputation and offer a better experience for clients in all locations.
Hours of operation
Listing your business hours will help you with SEO, but also give valuable information about your company.
Imagine yourself as the client. They will want to know when and where they can access your services.
The listing of your business hours improves trust and lets clients know when they can reach you.
It is important to correctly set up your business hours for your listing.
This information gives clients and prospects vital information about your business and proves you are legitimate and trustworthy to Google.
Website
Don’t forget to include your website link when you create your Google My Business Account.
Prospects will want to visit your website if you offer services they are interested in.
Do not force them to click between your listing page or the first Google search result web page.
Make it easy for them by including your website URL in your listing.
Photos
Photos are essential to fully optimise your listing.
Photos will drive more click-through from listings to websites, and show that you are a legitimate company.
Examples of photos you could add include:
- The exterior and interior of your business.
- Photos of your team
- Your logo
- Photos from events you’ve hosted
The Benefits of Having a Google My Business Profile
A Google My Business Profile is a great way to get your financial service business noticed.
A properly optimised Google My Business Profile will help you get better rankings and improve local SEO.
You’ll quickly surpass your competitors with a well optimised profile.
This will lead to more inbound enquiries, more website visitors, more reviews and Google My Business rankings, which can help build your domain’s authority on the platform search function.
If you need further help setting up your Google My Business or have any further questions, our friendly team is here to help.
