Get your law firm on the radar with Google Business Profile
Learn why it's essential to add your law firm business information to your Google Business Profile and how Stillio can help you with vital insights.
Google Business Profile, now known as Google My Business (GMB), is the go-to tool for local businesses that rely on proximity, like bakeries, parking lots, and ATMs. However, more and more professionals, including attorneys, are turning to this free tool for visibility. In addition, Google Business Profile allows lawyers to manage and establish their firm's online presence and connect with new clients.
While it is a powerful online marketing tool, it also needs progress tracking like other tools. This article will provide tips on optimizing your business profile, whether for a firm or personal, and tracking results over time using screenshots.
Getting started with Google Business Profile
First, you need to create your Google Business profile. To start, you'll only need to be logged into your Google account. You can use your existing one or create a new one for this purpose.
By heading to https://business.google.com/create, you'll see you're all set to start filling out your company details. You can easily follow the steps to set the profile up with different types of information.
To please the Google search algorithm, do not forget to add the following:
- Business name
- Address
- Phone number
- Website URL
- Opening hours
- Business description
All this information will pop up on your Google Maps listing. Phone number and website URL will be key parameters to verify your account, so if you have them, make sure not to skip this step.
After creating the profile, the last step will be to verify it. Depending on the type of business, the verification can be done via phone call or by getting a postcard with a code delivered to your business. To learn more about creating and verifying a Google Business Profile, visit the Google Support center.
Optimizing Google Business Profile for lawyers
Creating and working on your Google Profile for business isn't only great for visibility, but it also boosts local SEO for lawyers.
To list your business on search results, Google relies on your relevance, proximity, and popularity. So if you are also facing questions such as "how to promote my business on Google" or "how to get more leads via GMB listing," follow these Google Business Profile tips to optimize your firm's profile.
Add accurate information
According to Google, a complete business profile fetches 2.7 times the customers compared to incomplete profiles. Further, this advice suggests that complete and accurate information improves your score for relevance. For instance, updating your firm's working hours if they have a sudden change, like a holiday, is a good practice.
Add pictures
A picture has more impact than words. So, add photos of your law firm's reception and office and glimpses of some good moments to your business account. You could also add your firm's logo. While this makes the snippet more human, do not overstuff your profile with pictures. Instead, use only meaningful photos or videos.
Describe your business precisely
Add a precise and powerful brand description to your Google Business Profile. It should convey your law firm's mission statement. Fully utilize the available word limit to provide something catchy, and use keywords and links (careful not to overstuff).
Increase your response rate
For a business, there is nothing more precious than a satisfied and loyal customer. Being a law firm, you will receive several types of queries on your Google Business Profile. You should not only answer these questions but try to do it with a reasonable response time. Don't leave questions unattended! Quick replies show interest in new clients. A delayed answer may also push your clients to search for other options.
Encourage and reply to reviews
Nowadays, people believe more in reviews than your brand description. More importantly, they check your replies to previous customer reviews to ascertain your approach. So, encourage customers to rate your services and write reviews. Google Business Profiles for B2B companies with good reviews tend to list at the top of Google search results. However, if you ever get an unsatisfactory comment, make your apologies. Don't leave them unanswered!
Add your website's link
The Google Business Profile is an excellent place for users to get a glimpse of what your firm does, but there should be a place where they can go to get more information. Moreover, a business profile with an authentic website address looks more reputable and authentic. You can easily create a basic version on Google Business Profile if you don't have a site.
Add additional services
You can also showcase your firm's specializations directly on your business profile. For instance, a law firm may specialize in family, corporate, general, and more. Again, providing this information on the search results snippet gives users a faster impression of what your firm does.
Keep it updated
Lastly, do not create and forget. Keep track of your progress, update your profile regularly, and optimize SEO for attorneys. While it doesn't mean GMB should be your new LinkedIn, occasional, simple updates don't hurt anyone.
Analyzing your optimization results
Another great attribute of the Google Business section is its analytics dashboard that helps businesses gain insights into how potential customers interact with your business. It also provides data about customers' actions in an accessible manner. You can get insights into the following:
- Business profile local search performance
- Number of views and how your business got discovered
- Website click-through
- Number of messages and phone calls received
- Actions
These Google Business metrics help analyze how your firm interacts with prospects. The most useful feature of the Google Business dashboard is its ability to showcase insights into graphs and charts. In addition, you can filter the reports as per your liking. Let us explain this with an example.
For instance, your profile local search performance is a Google Business metric. It gives a complete search performance report, including a breakdown of Direct search, discovery search, and branded search. Here is what this metric looks like:
google search report
Although the Google Analytics dashboard is a great tool to measure your performance periodically, it doesn't monitor how your snippet looks and performs on actual searches. However, you can manually monitor the performance of your business snippet on general searches like "family lawyers in Minnesota."
Furthermore, screenshots of these results keep a record of your competitor's performance. But, manually screenshotting and saving it in an accessible folder are tedious tasks. Fortunately, with an app like Stillio, you can use automated screenshots to do the work.
How to automate SERP results with screenshots
Optimization is a process that you should constantly be going back to. Therefore, you should monitor results, like periodically checking your ranking on Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). Here is how Stillio's automated screenshots can help track your law firm's progress on SERPs.
Automated screenshots work by providing Stillio with the URL you want to track (in this case, the SERP) and set the interval you want the tool to capture, which can go from 5 minutes to a year.
By setting automated screenshots of those SERPs, you get results directly into your account to check out whenever you want, without the manual load. In addition, you can set captures for different URLs, meaning you can see your ranking for various keywords.
Set notifications for when a new screenshot is available, so you never forget to look at your rankings and make timely adjustments.
Screenshots are also great for tracking competitors. Run a search for your keywords to locate competitors, and set captures to see their rankings.
With a tool like Stillio, you'll never get behind on monitoring results.
Conclusion
Google Business Profile is a must to build your firm's online presence. And when optimized, results will be heading toward you in no time! Fortunately, with its built-in analytics, half your job is done. You can accomplish the other half by automating screenshots of SERP results. That helps you to access your and your competitors' performances.
When you get your law firm's profile ready, make sure to sign in for our 14-day free trial and try Stillio yourself.