How Do You Optimize a Google Business Profile to Reach a Wider Audience?

The main goal for SEO is reaching a wider audience and driving more traffic, but how do you do it for a Google Business Profile?

Video transcript:

David: What changes would you make to a Google Business profile to reach areas outside your zone?

Tricia: So, part of that is hard because of the vicinity update. But if this is a service area business, it might not be. So, some of the things are mentioning the different services service areas and different things in your profile. So how far out are these service areas?

Tim: It’s typically up to a forty-five-mile radius from their core servicing.

Tricia: The reason I asked is with your Google Business profile, for a service area business, it’s a maximum of two hundred miles. That’s why I was asking about that. But, yeah, for forty-five miles, that shouldn’t be that hard. The other thing is that some people look at is their service area, but they’re not going to have an actual address. Sometimes people actually open up an office in the area, but they can’t have a service area and a physical address. They have to have one or the other. But it doesn’t sound like they want to do that.

Tim: Well, they do have a physical address. They do have customers visit their office as well.

Tricia: Oh, they did. Okay, so they have a physical address, but they service, like a forty-five-mile geographical area.

Tim: Yes, about five counties in three states.

Tricia: Okay. So then I would go in and make it a hybrid Google Business profile, where basically, you’ve got the address, and you add the cities in there. And then talk about the different cities in your Google Business profile; make sure you’re mentioning those.

Tim: In the actual description?

Tricia: Yes. Well, you can because people look at that. Make sure that you put your service areas in there as well. Under your address, there’s going to be something that says service areas, make sure you add those.

There was something I was going to say, and I just forgot. Oh, reviews. So in Google reviews, if you’ve got a client and their client is in one of these cities you want to target, you’re not supposed to tell them, “I want you to write a review for me, and this is what you need to write.” But you can ask them to help you out by writing a review, and it would be great if they could mention where they are because we’re trying to get more customers in that city, and mentioning it in a review could help.

Tim: Yeah. That makes sense.

David: I think it’s okay to prompt people and say, “Hey, when you give me a review, be sure to tell people where and what we did for you there.”

Tricia: Yes.

Tim: Yes.

David: And mention the service and where it was done. “I can’t believe you came all the way out here to York just to do my toilet.”

Tricia: Yeah.

David: Now we’ve gotten York, South Carolina in there.

Tricia: Yeah. Prompt them for sure with things like that.

Tim: Yeah. Cool thanks.

Tricia: It could definitely help the reviews by getting some of those locations’ names in the reviews.

Tim: Yeah. Makes sense. Thank you.

David: What a wonderful great little tip. Thank you.

Tricia: So, the other thing with the vicinity update, that’s a Google algorithm update, is that especially bein that it has an office and a physical address, it is harder to rank outside, the further away you get. So, this is more related to service area businesses. For example, if there’s a landscaping company and they don’t have a physical address, they just have a service area where they verify their Google Business profile, that’s going to be where Google says is their center. So, let’s say your client, their house is way out here, but they want to target a different location because that’s where their clients with the money that they want are. They’re going to have a hard time reaching these clients out there if they’re verified way over here. So, they’re going to want to see if there’s a way to have a verified address which is pursuant to Google guidelines in the middle of their service area. That’s a little off on a tangent, but it’s important to know when you’re dealing with service area businesses.