Google My Business For Real Estate Agents
Creating a google my business account cost $0 and is a surefire way to increase your exposure to buyers and sellers looking for their next realtor. Taking only a few minutes to set up, this is one of the highest ROI for marketing you will ever receive.
Why Should Real Estate Agent Create Google My Business page?
Aside from simply being a free marketing tool, there are multiple advantages to having a GMB page for your real estate business.
Provides Easy Access to Contact Information
A Google My Business page provides your website, phone number, and office address (if applicable) front in center. Additionally, you can provide links to your social media accounts.
When looking for an agent, this helps prospects tremendously as they no longer have to hunt around for your contact information.
Reviews
Just like your contact information, your reviews will be front and center. Reviews and your overall rating is displayed prominently on your page. This is extremely helpful for those searching for an agent. While scrolling, they can easily compare agents based on their reviews.
Additionally, you can easily create social media posts that highlight these reviews, using a template like the one below.
SEO & Drive More Traffic to Your Website
Having a Google My Business Page provides another angle for SEO (search engine optimization). While your website generates leads from buyers and sellers searching questions, a Google My Business Page captures those who are looking for "Real Estate Agents Near me".
As you embark on your real estate SEO journey, you will quickly find generating organic leads through these methods is one of the best ways to create a long-lasting, predictable real estate business.
Covered in more detail below, you a Google Business Profile acts as a great landing spot to distribute your blog posts and photos.
If you want to learn more about search engine optimization for real estate, check out this page: SEO For Real Estate Agents.
Before You Create your Google My Business Profile
Before we get started, you will want to ensure you have the following business information ready:
- Business Name
- Address
- Phone Number
Now, this is also referred to as "NAP" and it's very important to keep consistent throughout all of your business listing. From your website information to your Facebook page, having your business information consistent will help your SEO tremendously.
Additionally, be sure to add the link to your website.
Part One: Setting up Your Google My Business Real Estate Agent Profile
Step One: Signup For a Google Business Profile
Head over to Google Business to sign in with your Gmail account or create a new one.
Step Two: Add Business Information
Add your real estate business name (or your name) and select "Real Estate Agent" as the business category.
Step Three: Add location details
Next, you will want to add a location for customers to visit. This is very important as having a physical address will help with rankings and show up in Google Maps and local search. I only recommend listing your office address.
Step 4: Enter The Areas You Offer Your Real Estate Agent Services
Then, you will want to click "yes", that you travel to people's locations, and enter your service area (the areas you sell real estate) on the following screen.
Step Five: Receive Postcard In the Mail
Once you have added your agent office address, Google will mail you a postcard. On this postcard, there will be a code to enter on your profile to confirm your address. Once you have verified your business (via the code), your Realtor Google My Business Page will be live!
Part Two: Optimizing your Google My Business Profile
Now your Real Estate GMB profile is setup, you will want to optimize it. Here are a few ways to have your page show up higher in the search results.
Step One: Add photos and updates
Personally, I take all of the blogs from my carrot site and post them under the "updates" section. This shows up on my Google Business account, making easy access for those viewing my profile.
I will also post the photos from my social media profiles onto my Google Profile as well.
Step Two: Adding reviews to your Google My Business Agent Profile
If you're wondering how real estate agents get Google reviews, here are the exact steps.
After closing with my clients, I will send them a link to leave a review on my Google Business Profile.
*Important Tip: When asking for a review, head over to your profile (from the google search) and click on reviews.
From there, it will open up a screen with a button for "write a review"
Click on this and copy the link. That way, when you send this over to your clients, it will open the page they need to leave a review, without having to search all over the place.
Optimizing Google My Business For Real Estate Agents
Use a Phone Number With Call Routing
Let's try and avoid calls at 1 am... yes, they occasionally happen. I recommend using a service, like aircall, that will allow for call routing and tracking.
Even if you are the only one receiving the inbound calls, you can set up the call flow to only forward to your phone during certain times of the day.
Additionally, you can save your number on your phone as"Online Number". This way, it will show up on your phone as someone calling from your number on your profile.
Add Photos
If you go through other real estate agents Google My Business profiles, you may see some that haven't added an update in months or even years. You always want to ensure you have relatively new updates so potential clients know you are active.
Now, I simply use the content I post on my social media and also the articles I post on my real estate website. An added bonus is the ability to add a link to the blog post on the update.
This is a great way to gain more traffic to your website... for free!
Outsource Google My Business Profile Optimization
I am a big believer in "delegate & elevate" and sometimes I will outsource tasks I don't enjoy or I am not good at doing. If you would prefer to outsource optimizing your profile, you can do so for around $100.
Here is who I recommend using, Mark has been instrumental in helping me achieve listing #1 within a few months.