“Google My Business” is part of everyday conversation for any size business. As a business, while this not may be your area of expertise, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t optimize your Google Business page for conversation and growth. Establishing a verified and organized Google My Business (GMB) presence is a simple first step to capturing more qualified leads and showcasing your architecture portfolio.
Overview
Google My Business is the online leading profile of your firm. It’s likely the first thing that will display when searching for your company through Google. The listing includes your business name, contact info, hours of operation, and more—all with an interactive element that lets users review, ask questions, and make an appointment from their phone. It’s the first step in securing and organizing your reputation online.
Tips for Setting Up Google My Business
1. Verification & Updates
The first step you want to take is to set up an account with GMB and claim your firm’s listing. Once you do that, you can become verified. Once verified, you’ll appear more professional to potential customers. From there, you can add your business information. Remember, people normally include a local element in their search, so including your location is crucial. By adding the location of your business, you can potentially become a featured listing for the local pack, when a user searches with location as a keyword.
Example – “tampa architecture firms”
2. Riches in Niches
GMB has 3,000+ categories you can choose from and allows you to choose up to 10 categories? We would recommend adding at least 4 for architecture firms. This specificity can help you narrow down your audience and improve your changes to rank for the local search pack. For example, instead of choosing only “architecture firm” you should also include a number of specialities within architecture. Maybe “commercial architect” or “urban planning” if that more accurately describes your firm.
3. Reviews
It goes without saying that customers tell the best story. Not only do reviews and testimonials gain trust and reputation, but they make up 10% of how Google decides to rank search results. Google wants to providers users with the best possible results for a given search. That’s why business with favorable reviews will rank higher than one with bad reviews.
It’s all about selling trust & delivering with results. Your marketing strategy should consist of asking for a testimonial after completing a project. There’s many ways of doing this and dozens of platforms where reviews live today. We can help you consolidate this approach and collect awesome client testimonials to feature on your website, search listings, GMB profile and other leading architect/real-estate focused social sites.
4. Professional & Cultural Photography
Your GMB listing allows you to submit multiple photos of your practice. Within this, is the ability to feature 3 specific categories — “At work”, “Team”, and “Identity”.
The “At work” category should be photos of your projects. This is a quick snapshot of your top 3-5 projects, with links to your website.
The “Team” category is a great opportunity to showcase your team’s culture. This could include photos of your team interacting in the office, or a light-hearted photo of the group on a job. Think Instagram-like, but don’t over post. You only need a few to showcase your professional culture.
The “Identity” section should showcase your brand, by uploading your logo. Google auto adds your logo here when it’s uploaded via “Info”.
Need Help?
Optimizing your Google My Business profile is one of the simplest marketing strategies you can make and the results can lead to long-term benefits. If you’re struggling to set up your business listing, or need help with attracting the right visitors to your website, we’re here to help. Contact our team today.