Google My Business for Real Estate Agents

Elena Gjevukaj

_{IT Project Manager at RE/MAX Europe}

Every real estate agent wants to generate more leads and one way to do this is to have multiple active lead sources. In this blog article, we recommend using Google My Business Page (GMB) to drive traffic to your website.

But what is Google My Business, can it really be of use to an agent or broker/owner?

GOOGLE MY BUSINESS IN REAL ESTATE MARKETING

Google My Business (GMB) is a Google tool that helps individuals and organisations manage the search presence of their business. Think of Google My Business as a digital storefront or a page in the phone book. Your profile gives you the ability to list your business location on Google Maps and local search results. It features details about your real estate company such as:

Office address
Working hours
Phone number
Location
Reviews
The link to your website (the most important feature)

WHY IS Google My Business IMPORTANT?

Because people search for services online. They look at the reviews and make a decision based on what appears first on their screens. These few seconds are a huge moment in your business success, and one you need to get right.

The main benefit of a Google My Business Page is that it communicates information to potential customers from a trustworthy and legitimate source - the first page of Google.

Regardless whether you want to claim your listing as a brokerage (organization) or as a realtor (practitioner), it’s vital to put time and effort into your Google My Business profile. Clients don't want to waste time on something they don't benefit from. By creating a Google My Business profile, you'll be able to present short and accurate information about your business backed up by positive reviews and excellent pictures.

Real estate agents in particular can take advantage of the smaller benefits this tool offers.

Follow these two suggestions and you are ready for the coming Google updates and will no doubt see more potential clients looking for you on google search.

How to Set Up Google My Business Account?

Follow these easy steps to set up your Google My Business Page account:

Go to www.google.com/business
Add your business name.
Say yes to adding a location for your office.
Fill in the information about your address.
Verify your business with the code that Google sends you.
After the verification, you can log into your created account and add additional details for your business. If you're a real estate agent working in a particular area, you can specify it.
Add your phone number and the link to your website.
Highlight your services. Add a description for your business.
Make sure to add a profile and cover photo. You can also add additional photos that showcase your business's personality (team photos or the interior of your office).

If your listing has been automatically generated by Google, you can also claim your Google My Business listing here.

Reviews on google

Reviews on Google are very important and maybe the second most important feature to your GMB account. If SEO is a significant element of your website strategy, you need to focus on getting your reviews on Google.

To begin working on your Google reviews, we recommend sending an email to previous clients asking them to review your business on Google fairly.

Google uses reviews in its ranking, and it is suitable for SEO to have your clients regularly leaving reviews for you on Google. If you get at least 30 reviews on Google My Business, Google Adwords will automatically pull your rating into your text ads.

Another way to do this is by sending a direct pre-filled five stars GBM link that you can send to your clients. To do that, follow these steps:

Open Google Chrome on a mobile phone and use the incognito mode feature.
Visit Google and find your company on Google My Business. A Graph will appear containing your company details.
Click on "Review and Rate." On the far right, tap the 5th star, which will be the automatic rating carried into the URL you send customers and clients.
Visit the "Leave a Review" page and select the URL. Copy it, then paste the link into an email.

This link will work on mobile or desktop platforms.

Setting up your Google My Business Page and optimizing it using the tips will get you more quality leads. The real estate industry in particular, benefits from this tool because it's all about local search results and for people searching for realtors with high commercial intent.

For more information about Google My Business, register for our next webinar with Jason Pantana.
Jason will share his ultimate best practices on getting the most out of Google My Business.

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