Google My Business Is A Must For Accountants Looking for Local Clients
The Google “Snack Pack” is a goldmine for businesses looking to generate leads locally. A fully optimized Google My Business profile is a must if you want to take advantage of the Snack Pack/Google Maps listings.
We reached out to dozens of marketing experts across the country like Lend My Biz to pick their brains as to what is currently working for proper GMB optimization. The 9 quotes below sum up everything very nicely.
1. Geo-Targeted GMB Content
“I’ve worked with a few accountants and one of the best strategies we found is locally targeted content. Creating educational content that targets the cities that they’re in allows them to drive the right kind of traffic to their website. Not only does it rank them higher on the local results, but it also shows up in the regular search engine results and gives them twice the real estate on the first page. This is due to the fact Google reading your page and seeing the having location relevant content on your website, which helps both your local and overall rankings.”
By Sean Dudayev of Frootful Marketing
2. Three Step Process
“After two years of trial and error with Google My Business, we’re now generating 6500 monthly views on our GMB page and receiving countless referrals. My company is consistently ranked 1 in search phrases related to its field, and there are 3 factors that I believe make this possible: The first is recency; you must post every day without fail. The second is quality; you can’t fake it with Google or your customers, you must dig deep on every post and provide serious value to your clients. The third is Google reviews; they’re part of the algorithm for ranking and most important, helpful to your clients.”
By Andy Moquin of Andrews Jewelers, Inc.
3. Five Step Process
“Here is what every accountant should be doing to maximize their exposure on Google My Business:
- Fill out their profile completely and ensure everything is as accurate as possible.
- Upload updated photos of the office, outside and in, and all staff members and put them in the appropriate folder within the GMB system.
- Send an email to every client requesting a review of your services and providing a link to the Google review area. Make this part of your process whenever you close a file.
- Respond to every review you have, and address the content of the review, even and especially the negative ones.
- Add your website's pages into GMB as Posts, no more than 2/week, with an image and a synopsis of the page content.
I hope this helps anyone who reads the article.”
By Mark Miller of Firm Theory
4. Offer A Discount To Past Customers on GMB
“As tax season nears, many are looking online for accountants to file taxes – take advantage of this by offering a discount on services for past clients through your Google + profile (business page) who leave a review and return to file this year. Create a custom graphic on your GMB page to offer new customers a discount.”
By David Everett Strickler of DavidEStrickler.com
5. Don't Neglect The GMB FAQ Section
“The biggest downfall of businesses relying on GMB to generate foot traffic I have seen so far is that they tend to ignore customer enquiries. The ‘Questions & Answers' section available on these listings provides business owners with a very convenient way to talk directly to their prospective customers. Such customer’s touch point creates a great opportunity to present ourselves as professional entities who value our customers’ businesses. Big bucks have been spent on marketing for however long to acquire direct contacts such as those currently neglected by a lot of local businesses online. My recommendation is to take every enquiry of your customers through this channel more seriously. Always get back with an answer. Your responsiveness (or neglect for that matter) is on display for all to see when it comes to managing a Google My Business listing.”
By Vi Trang of Savings.com.au
6. Have A Google Reviews System In Place
“The key to driving business with Google reviews is to pre-screen clients systematically. To pre-screen, send an email shortly after concluding business with a client, asking how the client would rate your business.
When a client rates your business highly (4 or 5 stars) ask the client to share their experience in a Google review. But when a client rates your business poorly, don't ask for a review. Instead, ask for constructive feedback. You may learn a lot about how to get more 5-star reviews in the future.
One word of caution: Unfortunately, Google doesn't make it easy to give your client a link to your review page. If you simply copy and paste the URL in your browser, you'll cause technical difficulties for some of your clients. See step-by-step instructions on how to get a Google review link the right way.”
By Chas Cooper of Rising Star Reviews
7. Double Check Your NAP – Name, Address, Phone Number
“Make sure you have the right address for your business location because in most cases Google will send you postcards with your verification code to verify your business. Try to squeeze in targetted keywords in your business description, Why? because Google allows you to write up to 750 words. Add relevant images to your business.”
By Brett Helling of Ridester
8. Be Sure To Fill In The Services Section
“A few clients I have are accountants and there are a few recommended tips that I make an absolute requirement, especially for accountants for their Google My Business listing. First, a couple months before tax season, I have them reach out to previous clients and ask for an honest review. This way these reviews are recent, which helps show trust for potential new customers looking at their listing. I also recommend filling out the services area of their listing with the different types of tax preparation they offer and the pricing for it. Lastly, months leading up to tax season, I recommend that they add posts to their listing. It makes the listing stand out and look way more up to date than other competitors in the same space. These are all free things to do, but can take a little more time, and in the end will make their business stand out more than the rest.”
By Jeff Moriarty of JMoriarty Marketing
9. Photos Should Have Complete Metadata and Be Geo-Tagged
“The shift to Google My Business is especially important for accountants, since many of their new customers are searching based on location. The key to success in Google My Business is being active. That means you should reply to all of the customer reviews and provide updated posts that are tagged to your location at least once per month. It's also important to optimize your photos with tags and metadata. While it can be time consuming, it's definitely worth investing some of your resources in building your profile or hiring a service that can help you optimize your results to help you stand out from the crowd.”
By David Hunter of ASAPmaps
