It keeps going on and on. It seems like every day somebody calls you up and says:
- “Hey so and so, did you know that your Google Business Profile is not claimed?”
- “Hey so and so, I can help you get more customers through your Google Business Profile.”
- “Hey so and so, we help companies like yours rank their Google Business Profile higher on Maps and get more leads.”
If you were to only get as many leads as you do these pitches, where would you be, right?
Bali? Caribbean? Ibiza?
But if SO MANY people preach this thing called “Google Business Profile,” there must be something there you don’t know, right?
What exactly is Google Business Profile good for? And how can it add more to your bottom line?
~5 Minute Read
What is a Google Business Profile?
Google Business Profile is a free citation offered by Google (you can open it here), and it’s used by companies to get more customers from Google Maps.
How many customers, exactly?
It depends. Some people make life-changing money from their Google Business Profiles. It varies wildly from industry to industry.
Industries like water damage repair, plumbing, and roof repair can get a lot of calls because customers don’t have a lot of time to just browse through multiple websites. They see the first Google Business Profile that stands out with its reviews and photos, and then they call.
Google Business Profile (I’ll refer to it as GBP from now on) can also serve emergency dentists (especially mobile dentists), mobile mechanics, addiction rehab businesses, payday loan agencies, and others.
Pretty much any industry where the sales cycle is short can massively benefit from their GBPs because you don’t need a website to start getting customers through the door.
What about long-sales-cycle niches like roofing installation, solar panel installation, or pool installation?
Niches where companies sell products that are more of an investment than a necessity, that could also, depending on the industry, be covered by insurance, should also get their GBPs but their overall local SEO approach ought to be a bit different. More on that later.
Either way, my main point is that, regardless of the business you run, you need a GBP.
Now, I’ll go over 3 well-known benefits of Google Business Profiles and then 2 out-of-the-box ways GBPs can add considerable revenue to your bottom line. You’ve NOT thought of these before.
Three Main Google Business Profile Benefits
Reputation
About 98% of people have read a review of a local business at some point in their lives, while around 70% of them do it “regularly”.
Think about it, what is the first thing you do when you’re about to hire someone for a big project or for help with something very sensitive? This could be a dentist, a pressure washer, or a lawyer.
I’ll tell you what I do.
So, recently, I had to do some serious work with my teeth. In the winter of 2023-2024, I visited a dentist 5 times. It was a dread.
I found that dentist online by Google-ing “dentist [my neighborhood]”. I go through GBPs and actually read the reviews. It’s not the point of just having 5 stars anymore, but also having customers tell stories of their experience with your brand. This is what sells.
What do you think customers, especially younger ones, will do once they see your sign or an ad somewhere? They will look up your brand and check your reviews.
The beauty of Google Business Profiles (this could be a sub-benefit, if that’s even a word) is that they claim the entire first page when somebody looks up your brand name.
The reviews are the FIRST thing somebody will see, because this panel on the right (we SEOs call it the “Knowledge Panel”) takes up most of the space.
Local SEO
In my post about how local SEO increases profits, I outlined exactly how a GBP can directly help you add more consistent leads to your sales funnel every month.
I laid out some calculations with examples. So, feel free to go through that after you’re done with this post.
But a GBP is an essential component of your local SEO strategy. Ranking only a website on the first page of local search results is not even worth it these days. It takes a lot of time and work, only to realize that being below the top 5 yields you no traffic whatsoever.
Only websites #1 and #2 can make some decent money in local search results, not just because most people go to the top 3 GBPs on maps (around 50%-60%) but also because Google keeps pushing sites down the page more and more.
As you can see, this website had almost 100 impressions for these restoration keywords, and the CTR (click-through rate) was exactly zero.
However, the GBP is where the calls truly go in local SEO.
The top 3 companies on Google Maps in local search results get 50%-60% of the business (15%-20% each). If you’re unfamiliar with how local search looks like, here is an example:
Websites are a thing of the past, at least partially.
The true motive behind Google is to drive up advertising demand and costs by pushing more and more companies down. They also want you to 100% rely on Google’s assets for business (a website is your asset, but a GBP is Google’s).
Valuable Asset
A rock-solid Google Business Profile is an intellectual property that could add more value to your business if you ever decide to sell it.
Google Business Profile is also an inbound lead generation channel (meaning, customers find you instead of you chasing them).
Why should you care?
According to Salesman.com, companies with well-built-out inbound lead generation get 50% more buyer-intent leads at a 33% lower cost.
This doesn’t apply to my industry!
Does it truly? Are you going to say that 91% of marketers who think that inbound lead generation is the most important aspect of their campaigns are all wrong?
Sounds like a very hot take.
In the end, the truth is that a Google Business Profile is an asset, like a rental property, machinery, or software. It works for you 24/7, bringing you and your team calls, regardless of whether you’re working at that moment or not.
Out-of-the-box Google Business Profile Benefits
Get Leads Fast from New Markets
At the time of writing this, I took over a client’s website with a competitor who uses coworking spaces and/or virtual offices to open up Google Business Profile locations and get business.
These guys can serve customers remotely with no geographic constraints, but there is still a huge local demand. Think of keywords like “{service} {city}” (“roofing Austin”).
Does Google approve of this?
No, they don’t.
However, if you actually have an LLC registered with a real office space in a given location that you can serve, Google is all for it.
You could test out a market before committing fully to it as your new business location. And the great thing is, the more branded your business is (by following the previous points and all the tips on our blog), the easier each new location is to rank.
"Tie Up" All of Your Brand's Online Assets
Google Business Profile is a massive asset for branding, as I’ve likely said over 1,000 times on this website (and I’ll say it 1,000 times more).
With a verified location, Google will now easily pull all of the other citations on the web of your business – think of Yelp, YellowPages, and others.
You also have the option to add all of your social media to the GBP and easily display all of your social profiles to anybody who searches for your brand.
Here’s how you do that:
Why does all of this matter?
Remember when I said that GBP helps by providing reviews for customers to read?
Well, not only does it do that, but it also pulls in all of your Yelp reviews, Facebook reviews, Nextdoor reviews, and so many others.
Imagine the impression of a potential customer who not only sees 5 stars on Google but also on Facebook and Yelp?
Conversion rate massively increases.
Now, you can sorta do this – rank all of your other brand’s citations and social profiles on the page when somebody Googles your brand name – but it happens much faster, almost instantly, when you verify and optimize a Google Business Profile.
Conclusion
How is that for a post?
You’ll not read this on most local SEO blogs.
If you need my help with your own GBP, head over to the free audit request page and enter all of your details. I’ll be happy to help!
Other than that, make sure you give this post a nice, juicy backlink from the colleague’s or friend’s inbox you shared it in. Thanks! 😀
Bogdan is a local SEO expert with over 3 years of experience helping businesses grow using Google. When he is not helping businesses grow, he works on his own SEO projects, works out, takes long walks, and watches Suits, which is completely ironic given how rarely he dresses up in a suit himself.