As a real estate professional, a big part of your business growth plan is keeping your brand visible online. Your Google Business Profile is an incredible asset to help with your growth. With about 90% of folks starting their journey with a Google search, are you and your business set up to be found by prospects?
Online visibility is crucial for real estate professionals to grow within their local market. It’s the first point to grow your brand, gain leads, and showcase success as a trusted real estate agent for home buyers and sellers. As we’ve said many times “If you’re not digital, you don’t exist.”
What is Google Business Profile for Real Estate?
A free tool to help real estate agents and brokerages is Google Business Profile (formerly known as Google My Business). Google Business Profile is a dynamic and important platform that displays the information hub of who you are, what you do, how you can help them, and how to get in touch with you. Having this information front and center for your audience who is looking to learn about you and your business will allow them to get in contact with you faster.
As you get your profile set up and completed, you will need to frequently monitor your reviews, posts, and your own contact information. I’ve seen some Google Business Profiles with outdated or incorrect contact information which can send your business backward.
Ready for some success tips on setting up your Google Business Profile? Here, we, go!
If You Are a Real Estate Agent Using Google Business Profile:
- Set your Google Business Profile as a service area provider, NOT as someone who services clients at a brick-and-mortar location. You are always on the go and more importantly, you serve multiple communities within your local market. Setting up your provider allows you to increase your reach online to those communities while also not having any technical friction with the listing of your brokerage’s profile.
- Make sure reviews are being collected on your profile, integrations from platforms like Rate My Agent help aggregate reviews. If you’re with Realty ONE Group this is in your ONE Tool Chest!
- Posting photos and videos exhibiting how you’ve helped your buyers and sellers are great visual validators of your business and your story.
- Validate yourself as a real estate expert in your market by adding and/or updating your Google Business Profile to focus on your real estate business and use it as part of your growth strategy.
If You Are a Real Estate Broker or Office Using Google Business Profile:
- Set your Google Business Profile as a brick-and-mortar location, meaning you have folks coming into your physical location. Make sure the agents in your office do not claim your address as a physical or brick-and-mortar location. This will eliminate conflicting results for the office while helping the agent’s profile expand its reach to more potential people.
- Post content! This includes photos of your office, culture, what you offer, and events. Showcase visually why your audience should do business with you and you exist.
- Post what you offer as a business! Provide info to real estate professionals, buyers, sellers, partners, and community organizations. Attract more clicks and engagement with your profile as you would with your social media. The more people engaging with your profile the more potential you have to rank higher in search results.
- Post a clear and horizontally formatted image of your office location’s exterior. This image can show what people need to look for when they’re looking for your office.
Credibility is important online and there are elements within the Google Business Profile you can provide information to fulfill these criteria prospective leads are looking at. Post information that is validated and informative, as you would on your social media and website. Become the trusted resource for information for your local marketing and enjoy the growth of your real estate business by doing digital marketing the right way!
Realty ONE Group focuses on the real estate business success of our professionals and franchisee broker-owners. With industry-leading real estate coaching, technology, and our COOLTURE we help our real estate professionals reach their potential while they earn more. Reach out to learn more about how Realty ONE Group is the only UNbrokerage to help you!
