If you want your business to appear at the top of Google, the first thing you should do is complete your Google Business Profile and verify it.

In this training video, we show you step-by-step how to set up your Google Business Profile, while also showing you the importance of verifying your profile. The training applies to every business, but since most of the attendees were real estate agents, we also focus on important factors relative to real estate professionals.

Completing and Verifying Your Google Business Profile is a Must!

It is essential for every business to have a verified Google Business Profile so that you are eligible to be on the first page of Google search results in the Google 3-Pack, plus you will appear in Google Maps.

Join Allan McNabb and his guest Jon Sullivan, along with participants in the live training, and we will walk you through setting up your Google Business Profile.

If you would like to take your internet marketing to the next level after completing your Google Business Profile, please schedule a free consultation.

Note: Google My Business has been renamed to Google Business Profile.

Video Transcript

Allan: Alright, so welcome everyone. We’re doing something a little bit different. Our simple objective tonight is to get everyone to fill out their Google My Business profile, and if you’ll go on and be at google.com and log in to Google, we’re going to take you from there in just a moment. I’m going to share… I’m going to start by sharing my screen. I’m just going to talk about why this is important. And then we’ll go from there.\

Why it is Important to Have a Verified Google My Business Account

Alright, so I’ve got pulled up with the Google Support page about the Google Knowledge Panel, and when someone looks up your business, and if you’re an agent, of course, they’ll look up your name or the name of your agency, you want to appear in the knowledge graph, it appears here on the right, and I’ve got a copy here of our business image building media and you can see all the information that it has about our business here, they can click here and request a quote. They can schedule appointments online. Of course, there’s our business address, our hours of operation. There’s our phone number. The link to an appointment. There’s our COVID-19 update. There’re questions that we’ve answered. Link to our Facebook reviews. Here’re our Google reviews. There’s information about us. Again, link to our Facebook, and then these are things that other people are searching for, and of course, Graystone is one of those.

So once your Google My Business profile is filled out and is verified, so we’ll talk about that. Basically, after we’re done filling everything out, you’re going to select for Google to send to you a postcard to your business address. So we have a lot of the Graystone agents on tonight. So for Graystone agents, that is the corporate office, Graystone office. So that postcard will come into the office and just find out whoever gets the mail there. Once that postcard comes in for you, for your Google My Business, there will be a code on there, so take that code, you’ll have to go back to Google My Business and put that in there. If you have any trouble, just get with me, you can WhatsApp me, and we’ll help you with that.

Okay, so let me show you just a little bit more, and we’ll be over to Google My Business, start working on that in just a moment. So here is the Graystone Investment Group. They’ve got their Google My Business filled out. And you can see the exact same thing. So every agent should be able to just put in their name or put in there, like John Sullivan Real Estate, and this panel should come up. Now, let me take it a little bit further for you. So here’s Ray Hendricks, and I showed you this in our webinar two weeks ago, and so here’s Ray. You see that he comes up here with the front page of Google and that’s with his website. And when you put in Ray Hendricks with Graystone Real Estate, here he comes up in the knowledge panel right there. And so, let’s go on and get started.

Method of This Training

Now, we’re going really slow tonight, and John, I appreciate you being here, I want to get some thoughts from you here in just a moment, so one of John’s really important things he’s going to be doing tonight as we are hosting together, is to make sure we go slow enough for everyone. So we are going to take it nice and slow, put your name here, put your address here, put your phone number here, we’re going to go nice and slow. If you have a question, just go on and open up your microphone and ask. Just interrupt us, just ask. And we also want to make sure before we go to the next step that we don’t want to leave anybody behind, so please to everyone who is with us tonight, if you get bogged down, if you didn’t quite understand exactly what the next step is, or if you didn’t make the next step or if you need a few seconds, just stop us so that we can wait, make sure you are with us and then we move forward because this isn’t like a normal training, a regular training, that we would often do where there’s a lot of presentation. This is more like, we’re going to do this together, and we’re going to go slow and get it all done, so that by the time we’re done, your Google My Business is filled out, it’s ready to be verified, and then you can put some finishing touches on it later. Alright, John, any thoughts before we move forward?

John: No. I think the video looks good, I just want to make sure everyone has a web page open to google.com and ensure we start off on the right foot and make sure everybody retains the information that you provide.

Log Into Google

Allan: That’s cool. And I’ll tell you what I’m going to do, I’m going to… I’m going to even… Well, let me ask, does anyone have a question regarding logging into Google? Has everybody logged into Google? Does anybody have a question about that? If you do, just open up your microphone and let us know so we want to get everybody logged in.

Access Google My Business

Alright, very good. Now, if you see beside my profile picture, and I’m using a Google account that I don’t use for other things so that I can be just exactly where you are. I don’t have any Google My Business or anything assigned to this account. So besides my profile picture, there’s a little icon there with a little square. There’s a square of squares, just click on that. And then right below it, you’re going to see where it says Business. And if you have to, move your Zoom panel out of the way, but go on and click where it says, “My Business” right there.

Yeah, you might have to scroll. Do whatever you have to do. And now it’s asking me again to sign in, and that’s because I’ve never used Google My Business here. So I’m going to click Sign in, and so since I was already logged in to Google, it takes me right here to, Find and Manage your Business. Alright, so does anybody need for us to go back and review how we got there? If you do, just open up your mic, don’t worry about asking, just go on and ask. We want to make sure everybody’s with us there.

John: So Allan, I don’t have My Business. Is it under Account, perhaps?

Allan: Okay, so let me go back there one more time. I want to go back. I appreciate you asking, John. So John, do you have a profile picture here, and then do you have the little square icon there beside you?

John: Correct. Yes.

Allan: And you click on that, it opens up. And do you have, somewhere in here, you may have to scroll down, where it says My Business? Do you have that on any…

John: I do not.

Allan: Okay, alrighty. Well, I don’t know why that would be. Has anybody else got that trouble by any chance?

Jason: Yeah. Hi, this is Jason. Thank you for this.

Allan: Hey, Jason.

Jason: But yeah, I have the same problem. I don’t see My Business here.

Allan: Alright, well, hey, let me do a little Google search here, huh? Let’s see if we can find out. And if the rest of you want to do a little Google search, let’s try to find out together here. I’m going to go log into…

John: And I have four Gmail accounts. I don’t see it in any one of the four.

Allan: Alright, for those who don’t have it there, let’s see here. Alright, here’s a support thing from Google, can’t find…

[pause]

Okay. Alright, let’s try something else. Hang on one second.

Jason: Hey there, Allan, this is Jason again, there was a link that said More, and then in that I searched for a business and I was able to find it.

Allan: Awesome. Okay, very good.

Jason: Yeah. Go all the way to the bottom and click on More.

Allan: Oh, very good. So, if you don’t see…

Jason: Okay.

Allan: Yeah, so Jason, appreciate that. So if you don’t see My Business here, go to the very bottom and click on More from Google, and then it’ll open up with some other options. Some other options there.

John: Is it business tools?

Allan: You can click on that and see. Jason, do you see, where did you have to click on?

Jason: In the browser, I did Ctrl+F, I went to Search, I went to Find, typed in business, and it was the second or third link. Yeah, you have to scroll down quite a bit, but again, if you do Ctrl+F, and type in business…

Allan: Yeah. Yeah, okay, it’s Google My Business. So it’s right here. It’s right here. I guess, we just click Get Started, right there, huh?

Jason: Yeah, that’s what I did. Googled My Business.

Allan: Yeah, so I just scrolled way down here, and you can see there’s a big picture there, it says Google My Business. I clicked Get Started, and Start Now right there. Alright, and then click Sign In from there. Alright, so give me some feedback, everybody. Do we need to review navigating that? Does anybody need us to review how to get to Google My Business?

John: I think I got to it a different way, to be honest.

Allan: Okay. All right, so let’s see everybody else…

John: Navigating.

Enter Your Business Name

Allan: Let’s see, anyone else have any trouble? Are we all here ready to start putting in our business? Alright, I’ll move forward here. Alright, so the first thing that the Google wants us to do is try to find our business because there is a chance, if our business has been out there for a long time, that Google already knows about it and already has a listing in there and just wants somebody to claim it. That may not be the case for anybody here. I’m going to make up a business name here just for demonstration. Allan Mcnabb Real Estate, and of course, it doesn’t find that business and it wants me to, it says, “Create business with this name,” so I just click on here and it’s going to let me start. So everybody do that, I’m going to back up here. So just put in your business name right here, so John, what is your business name that you have there?

John: Sullivan Global, LLC.

Allan: Okay, and were you able to then click and get to the next screen?

John: I am putting it in right now and it does go to next, yes, sir.

Allan: Okay. Jason, how about you? Were you able to get through there okay?

Jason: Yes, thank you.

Select Your Business Category

Allan: Awesome. Okay, so Google did not find this business, obviously, because it’s fictitious, and so it’s ready for me to start, and I’m just going to click next. Alright, now this is the most important part, and that is the category. And if you start just typing, you will see, I just put real there, you’ll see the options that are there. You do not want to make up a category, you want to use a category that Google gives you, and this will be your primary category, this is the most important category, and for SEO purposes, you only want to choose one category. So there are some exceptions to that, if you’re like a giant company and like you’re a Walmart and you got a pharmacy department and stuff like that, but for all of us here, tonight, you only want one category and what will happen if you choose multiple categories, you are decreasing the value of the SEO of your Google My Business, so you don’t want to do that.

So I’m going to choose real estate agents, I’m not an agency, I’m just going to say real estate agents, and I’m going to click next. Alright, so does anybody have a question or need for us to review that last part? If so, just open your mic and let us know.

Adrian: Have a question, how did you get to that part? I’m in my Google My Business, but I’m looking towards the, I guess, the drop-down menu and I can see Photos and all of that, but I don’t see…

Allan: Okay, so let me ask you, Adrian, with your Google My Business, is it sort of already set up for you and you’ve got, if you’re seeing, are you seeing photos for the Google My Business or sort of… Describe what you got there.

Adrian: Okay, I see, basically, well, I’ve been doing, I’ve been using Google for a while, so maybe this is why. Sellers, Buyers, Florida Network Team. I see Complete your recommendation task to research your goals on Google, View Plan, Stay Connected, Performance. I got Views. So, I don’t know…

Allan: Okay, so let’s back up here just a little bit, Adrian. Okay, so did you get to this part okay, where it said, Google My Business and you clicked “Sign in?” Did you get there okay?

Adrian: Yeah, I’m already signed in when I went, let me see, I’m using Graystone…

Allan: Okay, and did you get to this part right here? Did it show you this where it said “Find and Manage Your Business?”

Adrian: No, I didn’t.

Allan: Okay.

Adrian: No, I see, I see Home on the, all the way…

Allan: Oh okay, alright, so let me… Okay, so you see on the left-hand side, you see Home and Ad Center and Inbox and all that, right?

Adrian: I see Home, Host, Info, Insights, Reviews, Messaging, Photos.

Allan: Okay, very cool. So what you see is… So what you have there, Adrian, is your Google My Business is already set up.

Adrian: Oh.

Allan: And so if you click on Info, which is probably like your third one down on the left-hand side, right?

Adrian: Yep, yep, that’s correct.

Allan: Okay, so now, and I appreciate you asking this, Adrian, if there’s anyone else in the same position as Adrian, you’ve already started your Google My Business, and to the left where you see like home, and it’ll say maybe Post, and then the third one down is like Info, click on Info, this is where you fill yours out, okay? Okay, so right there, Adrian, in the Info section, you’ll see where it has primary category, right?

Adrian: Yeah, yeah.

Allan: Okay, that’s where you’ll put your category at, so let me… What I’m going to do is I’m going to… And this is what you’re looking at on my screen is if you’ve never done it before.

Adrian: Gotcha, okay.

Allan: Okay, I appreciate you asking that, and there may be somebody else in the same boat there, so let me catch it. I’m going to put this in here.

Adrian: Thank you.

Allan: You’re very welcome. Any other questions while I fill this out?

Adrian: I’m good, thanks.

Allan: Good question, good question. Okay, so I just typed in “real” for my business category, I’m going to select real estate agents and Adrian or anyone else who already has theirs going, you can change your primary category if you want to.

Add Your Business Address

Alright, so I’m going to say next. Now, do you want to add a location customers can visit, like a store or office? And the answer is, yes. If you’re a Graystone agent, it is yes. You can meet them, of course, at your office, and if, for those who are with us who are not part of Graystone and a Graystone agent, if you want your business to show up on Google Maps, select yes. Let me… I gave you the example of Ray last time, let me see if I can find that really quick. No, but anyway, you remember when you do a Google search and there’s a map that comes here and there’s three listings right here, that is pulled in from Maps. We could go over here also to Maps. So if you want to show up in Maps, which is super important for appearing on Google, say yes.

The only exception is if your business is your home address, you don’t want your home address out there, but say yes. Okay? I’m going to say next. Any questions, anybody? Alright, so let’s put in the address. Now, if you’re a Graystone agent, your address is the Graystone address, and if you’re not a Graystone agent, it’s whatever your business address is. Alright, so I’m going to pause here, and I believe I do have the Graystone address there and I’m going to check it here just to be safe.

John: That’s correct.

Allan: Yep. And you can see 3001 North Rocky Point Drive. Okay, alright, so I’m going to pause here and give everybody a chance to get that in, okay? And then I’ll say next. Now, anyone have any question? Alright, so if you do, please stop us. Now the next thing is, of course, it recognizes this address and it says, “Oh, okay, are you Real Estate Ray? Because Real Estate Ray’s address is there.” And of course, I’m not. Now I’ll give you just a little bit of information about how Google Maps works. They’re very careful about having multiple businesses at a single address. One exception of that, of course, is real estate agents, because they understand that real estate agents will have a bunch of them in a single address. So just say, this doesn’t match, and then…

Jason: Hey, Allan.

Allan: Yes, Jason, go ahead.

Jason: Yeah, hey, so it’s Jason. So I didn’t get that option. I have exactly the same address, but so when I go to next, it takes me to the next question, which is about other customers and other addresses, I don’t get this check here. Oh, there you go, yeah, I get that one.

Enter Your Service Area

Allan: Yeah, yeah, so yeah, so you may or may not get that question, but if you do, just say, no, this isn’t the same one. Okay, so now it says, “Do you also serve customers outside this location?” For example, if you visit or deliver to your customers, you can let them know where you’re willing to go. So for probably all of us, we’re going to say yes. If you’re an agent, of course you do, you’re out visiting clients all throughout the area, Elaine is with us, we appreciate that, and she’s a web designer in Tampa, and I’m sure Elaine is doing that also, so she has her office location, and then she is out throughout the area, and now, this is really important because later it’s going to let us select what our area is where we’re servicing clients, so I think for everyone here, we would just put yes, and then we’re going to say next. Now let me pause here. Does anybody have any questions, just chime in. Anybody have any questions?

Alright, so now the area that you serve, you can put in, for example, you can put in Tampa and select that, maybe you select the St… Maybe you service St. Pete, let’s see if it pulls up the whole one. We can try Hillsborough. Hillsborough County, so you’re going to have some options with that so… And you can pick multiple, so for right now pick your main area, I picked Tampa, if you’ve got another area, Land O’ Lakes, Florida, if you’ve got another area, Lutz, Florida, maybe you do Sarasota, Sarasota, Florida, so fill in and you can come back through here and change it super easy, but these are the areas where you would travel out to visit your customers. So for real estate agents, basically where you’re traveling your clients are buying and selling homes, for Elaine it’s where she’s traveling to visit her customers, and also I guess for a real estate agent and also for Elaine you also may be doing it online.

A thing you want to be very careful about because Google My Business deals with Google Maps, so for example our clients, we’ve got clients in various states but Google Maps is not going to show us for those other states ’cause we don’t have offices there so just think about Google Maps, Google Maps is just wanting to know what you’re doing locally so don’t get too aggressive with that and I would say probably the smaller the area you put the easier it’s going to be to show up on Google Maps at the top of Google Maps. So don’t get too aggressive with that, certainly don’t be putting multiple states and stuff like that, even if you’re a licensed as a real estate agent, you’re probably not going to put multiple states anyway unless you actually have an office there, a physical location. Alright, so I’m ready to move forward, does anyone have any questions?

Enter Your Business Phone Number

Alright, so I click Next. Now, I’m going to just put in your business phone number. If you have a website, it should be the same number on your website. And as you’re doing this, let me also throw in this, a little bit of advice, super important that your business phone number be consistent all through the Internet, so it should be the same thing on Facebook, on Twitter, on YouTube, on Google, on your website. And so if you have any variations there, just make sure that you have one of those selected, next time you’re in Facebook change it if you need to or something like that. So this is your business phone number, and then next is your website URL.

Enter Your Website

Okay, so if you have a website, you want to put that in there. For example John, he’s got his own website, and John, you want to put your website there. Now, a lot of agents will not have their own website, and what they want to… If they put in the GraystoneIG… Let me get back here… So if an agent doesn’t have a website, put in GraystoneIG.com, you don’t need all this other stuff right here, GraystoneIG.com. Now, putting that URL there is super, super important because you noticed when Ray Hendricks, the example we used two weeks ago and then also today, when you pull him up, you see his knowledge graft on Google, it’s got that link right there, boom, they click it, they go right there. So if you’ve got…

John: Allan?

Allan: Yes, go ahead, John.

John: Norma had a question. Is there a problem if she uses the same phone number for two different businesses?

Important Information About Your Business Phone Number

Allan: Could be a problem, yes, you want to have a distinct number. We don’t want to confuse Google ’cause Google already knows or may already know that other phone number is for a different business. So for example, if… It’s not unusual for us to have customers who have two businesses in a location. Now that’s a little challenging, we have to jump through some hoops with that, but one thing we always want is a different phone number. And the other thing is, it’s super important that your phone number be a Tampa phone number, if that’s your primary area, and I would assume it is. If you’ve got Graystone office as your business, if you’re a Graystone agent, you want to have an 813 area code phone number. Now, if, for example, your cell phone is like a 727 number or maybe you used to live in another state and it’s still that number I’ll tell you how to get around it right now and for now just put your phone number in there and go back and change it later after we’re done or when you do this next step, if you need help just WhatsApp me and we’ll be glad to help you.

You can go to Google and search… You can just do a Google search to get a Google phone number and it will allow you to choose by area code, and just choose of course the 813 area code. And it doesn’t matter. As long as it’s got the 813 area code, you’re fine. Just pick one of those numbers. And you can forward that phone number. You’re in Google, you get the free phone number, and then it will allow you to forward that to your cell phone. And I’ll tell you just a little something about our company. We started it years ago and that’s exactly what we did. We got that Google phone number to this day, and it forwards to multiple numbers, so we’ve got multiple people that will get that call. So you can get a free phone number from Google. And you just want to get an 813 area code.

Now, if one of the agents has their own office address, and I know there’s agents in Jacksonville, there’s another one down in Miami, they’re probably going to want to use an address in their area, so they’re going to want to use a phone number in their area. So the answer is, it would make it really difficult to use the same phone number for two businesses. If you need to, just get a free Google phone number. Alright, any other questions there with that? Really super good question. I hope I didn’t go too long on the answer. Okay. So let’s move forward here. I’m going to say Next. Okay, so it’s going to want me to finish, and so I’m going to say Finish. Oh, what do you know? I guess I’m a Graystone agent now, huh? Right?

[chuckle]

Important Information About Verifying Your Google My Business Account

Okay guys, so now this is really, really important information. So this is where you verify. So many years ago, people were just… They were trying to hack the system. They were using fake addresses or false addresses just to get on Google and just to get in Google Maps. So Google’s solution is, let’s say, “Okay, we’re going to send a postcard to you at that address. If that’s your business address, we’re going to send a postcard there.” So, what we’re going to say here, contact name, of course for me is Allan McNabb. John is John Sullivan, etcetera. Now, so Google is going to send a postcard to Allan McNabb Real Estate, attention Allan McNabb at 3001 North Rocky Point, that’s the Graystone address. Alright, the… So just let whoever… John, you may know this, whoever takes care of getting the mail that comes into this address, which might be the front desk, I don’t know, just let them know, “Hey, I’ve got a postcard coming in from Google. I need to make sure I get that.” And when it comes, when that postcard comes in, there’s going to be a code on it, and you’re going to need to get that code and come back into your Google My Business, and it’ll have a place right on the front to put that code, so you’re verified.

Now, until you’re verified, it will not show up on Google. So super, super important. If you’ve got questions about that, if you’ve got a question like, “Oh man, where do I put that at?” or something, just WhatsApp me there. So I’m going to say, click on Mail right there. And look for it to be there in about five days. And if it’s not there, you can come back into Google My Business, your account, you can request it to be resent. But again, super important, especially like with a Graystone business with a lot of agents and also a lot of different businesses at that address, go in and be talking to them, go by and call the receptionist, whatever it is, and let them know, “Hey, I’ve got that postcard.” And you just need the number. You don’t physically have to have it. Just have the receptionist or somebody take a picture and send it to your phone. You just need that number, that’s all you need. Alright, I’m going to click Continue.

Add Your Business Services

Alright, so do we have any questions here? Alright, now what Google is going to try to walk us through here, is adding a lot of important information. And this is about our services. And there’s going to probably, at some point, they’re… We can update numbers and things like that. Now, this is where a lot of people, they say, “Oh, it can’t be that important.” So they just try to say, “I’m not going to do that.” But it’s just like anything else, it’s just like LinkedIn. If your profile isn’t fully filled out to the best that you possibly can, fewer people are going to find you. And the same thing with Google My Business. If you don’t… It’s important to Google, to get all of this information in and to get pictures in. And you say, “Oh, what’s the craziness for pictures?” It’s important to Google. So hey, we gotta play the game. We gotta play the game. So add My Services. So I’m going to… John, what would be a service there for a real estate agent?

John: You could have wholesale real estate, commercial real estate.

Allan: Let’s see if we can do that.

John: Residential.

Allan: Wholesale real estate. Okay. Now… Real estate. Now, I don’t do appraisals. You don’t want to put appraisals there because then they’re going to start grouping you with other people. So you don’t want to put appraisals there. Wholesale real estate and maybe, let’s see, what should I put, John? Say, wholesale real estate, sales…

John: I’m doing several different boxes. So.

Make Changes and Update Your Google My Business Account

Allan: Okay. And folks, you can change this, so don’t worry about getting it all perfect. As a matter of fact, we’ve had our business on Google My Business for many years, and I’ve still been in there, especially with all this COVID stuff going on, I’ve been in there probably three or four times, just tweaking it. So this is not a one-time and done, so let’s just put in a couple, and then we’ll move forward, and you can come back and really think about it. Home sales, what’s another one, John, that you put in there?

John: Norma put relocation specialist.

Allan: Awesome, let’s put that. Relocation specialist. Okay. Alright, so I’m going to pause here for a moment. Just put a few in there, and once we are done, you can come in and we’ll show you how to come in and to tweak this. And you might think of something, “Oh, I want to put something a little bit different.” Or add one to it. You can do that. Okay, and if everybody would, please just make sure your microphone is muted, and then open it if you want to ask a question or make a point. So everybody try to just keep your microphones muted. Okay, alright, so I’m going to click save right there. Any questions?

Enter Your Business Description

Alright, now the business description, so what I would suggest is, let’s just put in a sentence or something. The reason for that is, this is something that’s going to take a lot of time, that you really should over time, try to perfect. So John, for example, you might want to go to your web page and go to your website, go to the About page and copy what’s there and just paste it right here.

And if you’ve got maybe your LinkedIn, just go over to LinkedIn and hopefully you’ve got a nice little description or bio or something there, just copy it there, put that in, you can skip it for now and you can come back and do it later. That’s all fine. So, I’m going to pause for just a moment, and this is a fake profile for me, so I’m just going to delete it after we’re done tonight anyway, so I’m not going to put anything in there. So again, just something for now, just something nice and easy. You can copy from your website. If you want to go snatch it on LinkedIn really quick, and just copy and paste something really nice and easy. And again, it’s something you’re going to want to perfect over time.

And when you do that, think about your services that you have in there. You want to use those kind of words. Think about your primary category, which for the real estate agents is probably real estate agent. You want to use that word in there a few times, because that’s sending signals to Google, “Hey, this is who I am, this is what I’m doing, these are my services.” So you want to perfect that over time. Alright, so you can click Skip, if you want to skip this, and when you’ve got your little bit in there that you’re putting, just click Save right there, and it’s going to now ask us for photos.

Add Photos

Now again, you can come back. All of the things we’re doing tonight, you can come in and change. So the next thing we want to do is… Let me see if I’ve got a photo there, I just clicked Add Photo. I’m going to select from my computer, and I’m just going to select four. I’m going to say Open. Those are going to go there. Those are uploading.

Now Google, it’s really important to them to have pictures there. I suggest over time, get some pictures of the Graystone building, the Graystone office, exterior, interior. There’s a lot of other things you can do. Like when you go to the Graystone office, you know the way, right? But still, go to your Google My Business listing, click Directions, and let it give you directions so that Google sees, “Hey, somebody’s getting directions to go here. This is an important place.” So do things like that all the time. Okay, any questions about pictures? And again, once we get done, and I’ll show you how to go do this, but once we done, all this can be changeable. They’re just walking us through the step-by step. Alright, so I’m going to say Next. Alright, so where it says, we’re almost done, I’m going to click Continue and…

Okay, it says, “I agree to the terms, etcetera.” Yep, going to get started. Alright, so, you see, and now let me pause, does anybody have any questions? Is anybody not with us here?

Google My Business Dashboard: Edit, Add Important Information

This is the Google My Business dashboard. Adrian, this is where you were at previously when you were asking about that. Any questions? Anybody got any questions? Alright, so let me show you around a little bit. Of course, it says that we are pending here with the postcard. We can click there, we can learn about it. Turn on messaging. This is where people can send to you messages from your Google My Business listing. And so, I encourage you to do that. They’re going to have a little app that you can do from that. Probably not going to want to do any advertising there, and it’s got some other things that it’s going to want us to do over here, it’s going to have us add hours, add a logo, and things such as that. Okay, so let’s add our hours. Now, before we do that, does anybody have a question? I’m going to click here, Add Hours, and I’m going to add my hours. Any questions?

Alright, if so, if you do have a question, just un-mute yourself and ask or type it in the chatbox, either one. And John, are you watching in our chatbox there?

John: I am, but I don’t see anyone.

Allan: Great, thank you so much. Appreciate those, as a matter of fact, that are putting in the chats there. Appreciate that so much. Alright, so I’m going to click Add hours. Now, I’ll show you two ways. I can click Add Hours right here. Google is trying to get me to do this. Or let me show you this right now, ’cause when you come back in, log into Google My Business, click Info right here, and this is where all this information is. You can see I can click the little pencil, I can change my business name. I can change my category. I can change my address. I can change my service area, phone number, website, services, etcetera, all the way down. Alright, I’m going to add my hours right here, any questions?

Add Your Business Hours

Alright, so I’m going to hit the Edit pencil, and I’m going to add my hours, and I’m going to work Monday through Saturday as a real estate agent, maybe you’ll put Sunday in there also. And I’m going to put 8:00 to, say, 6:00 PM all the way down. You can put lunch in there, probably none of us would want to do that, but that’s important if you’ve got a doctor’s office and you’re closed for an hour for lunch or something like that. Saturday, I’m going to sleep in so I’m not going to open till 9:00. And now, just an FYI, Google, in your listing, when somebody looks you up online, they will say if you’re open or closed. So, if you’re really open to 8:00 or something, don’t be afraid to put that in there, because Google will show that you’re either open or closed. And they’ll also tell people what time you open up the next day. So on Saturday, I’m going to be a slacker and close at noon.

Alright, so go on and fill out your hours to whatever you want them to be, of course, you can always come back in here, click on Info and change this around. And when you’re done, just click Apply, and you’ll see that your hours are in there. Add special hours, this might be like holidays, if you want to say that you’re closed. You can put New Years Day, Christmas Day, etcetera, stuff like that, and you can’t say that every year you’re closed every Christmas, you gotta come in every year and put them in, so you can put those in there. I’m going to scroll on down.

Products

John, do you think a real estate agent would put any products in there? I wouldn’t think so.

John: No.

Allan: If someone who’s with us that is selling products, that’s where they would put it in, just click right there. They would put it in right there. Alright, again, you can click here, you can edit your services, if you want to put in different ones or delete ones. If you’re woman-led, all the ladies in the audience, I would definitely go there. Any of the men or women, if you’re a veteran, I would go in here and definitely select these. And everyone if… Okay, and everyone, especially if you have your own website, I would click online appointments, and you can just put your contact form on your website or something like that when it comes to giving the URL for that.

Link to Your Calendar to Schedule Appointments

John: You could also put on there your Calendly, if you have a Calendly.

Allan: Right, right. So if you’ve got a Calendly, you can embed your Calendly on your website. Super easy to do that. If you ever have a question about that, just WhatsApp me on that. And that’s very cool, or you could just give them your Calendly. The benefit of sending them to your website, you want to always try… You want to promote your website because you want to be talking to people, you want to be saying your URL all the time, you want to try to get them to go to your website because that’s where they’re going to learn more about you, they’re going to see, maybe you’ve got some videos on there and they’re going to see those. So you all, as much as possible, you want to try to take people to your website. So your Calendly, put that on your website. Somebody, you’re talking to somebody, you’re just passing a neighbor on the street, and they say, “Oh, what do you do?” and everything, you tell them a little bit about it. Says, “Hey, I’ve got a website,” and you tell him what your website is, and you just want to be talking about that all the time. We talked about in our last webinar two weeks ago, your website is your main lead generation tool. So with your social media you want to send them to your website, for your calendar, you want to send them to your website. Everything possible, you want to send them to your website. That should be your number one lead generation tool. Alright…

John: Allan, Lilia said, please a little slower, but Lilia, did you need Allan to repeat something?

Allan: Thank you, Lilian, appreciate that very much. And we’re going to go on and slow down just a little bit. Alright, so any questions from anybody? Okay, and anyone who wants to ask a question, you can just put it in the chatbox or you can un-mute. Alright, so the, we’ve got the description next. You can click on the pencil and you can edit your description, got 750 characters to do that. And you can add your opening date, which I suggest that when did you start in business. Go on and put that in there, and I’ll put 2011 and January the 11th, and I think I see another chat that came in there. John, if you want to check on that.

John: Yes, sir. Norma asks, is this recorded? Could we go back and see it again?

Allan: Yes, we’ve got it on Facebook Live, and I’m looking over at Beth. Is it on Image Building and Graystone? Yeah, so it’s on the Image Building media Facebook page, and it’s also on the Graystone page. So you can go right on in there and take a look at that. Thank you for asking that.

John: Thank you for the question, Norma.

Allan: Yeah, thank you very much. So that’ll be archived on the the Graystone Facebook page for as long as Facebook is in existence, so you can go back and get that, yeah. It is always good to add more photos.

Post to Your Google My Business Account

Now, let me give you a little tip here, you know Graystone… And I’ve talked to Jorge about this just the other day. Especially we’re getting agents that are filling out their Google My Business profile, we can post to Google My Business with our platform we use with Graystone, just like we post to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, all of that. Now, the importance of that is, you’re going to get more SEO credit if you’ve got those postings, and when we post to Google My Business, and we use an image, which we always do, that will automatically be put into your photos. So you all help me make sure we get started, we get with Jorge, we get everybody’s Google My Business added to the platform. That’s going to help you have more visibility on Google, more people to find you on Google by having us post to your Google My Business. So let’s, help me make sure we get that done if you would. Okay, so I do want to point out to everybody at the top, you can see on mine, stuck at the very top, it says Verify now. Once you get that number off of the postcard, right here is where you put it, and you just click verifying. Okay, John, so I see, man, time has just flown by like crazy. I see we’re already at 6 o’clock.

John: Yes.

Closing Remarks

Allan: And so we need to be wrapping up here. Let me go on and ask, anybody have any final questions?

John: No, sir.

Allan: Alright, so guys, you can WhatsApp me. We’ll be glad to help you. You can watch on Graystone Facebook page or Image Building Media. And I think… Let me just… I don’t know if I can go back here. See if it’ll let me go back. Let me reload here, but anyway, you can see on your side bar right here, the post, these will be the posts that we post through the platform for you. You wouldn’t have to worry about this. Insights tells you about how many people have seen your listings, called as a result of that. Reviews are right here. This is important to get reviews, to get people to go to your Google, give you reviews. Here’s where you come to see them and to respond to them, super important. Here’s where you can get your online messages. I suggest everybody sign up for that, and just a few other little things that you can change there. Okay, John, does that wrap it up for us? Are we good for now, you think?

John: Yeah, and great presentation, Allan, thank you very much. Thank you, Beth.

Allan: Super awesome. And thanks, John, appreciate you with hosting with us here and appreciate everybody being here, all the questions, all the feedback, all the chats, appreciate that, and again, reach out any time. We’ll be super glad to help everyone with whatever you may need, and thanks everybody to the kind words you’re putting in the chat. We appreciate that so much, and you guys are really awesome, and again, just let us know how to help you. Okay, we’ll go on and close for now, everybody appreciate it and…

John: Thanks for joining, guys.

Allan: Yeah, we’ll talk to you later. Allan McNabb at Image Building Media. Thanks for being with us.

Image Building Media

Image Building Media is an internet marketing company based in Tampa, Florida, serving clients in various industries throughout the U.S.

We specialize in internet marketing, including SEO, social media marketing, website design, content marketing, video marketing, email marketing, SMS marketing, mobile web marketing, online reputation management, CRM integration, and more. We also provide consulting services, including conversion analytics.

To learn more about Image Building Media and our services, book a free consultation or contact us direct.

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