How to properly set up a Google Business Page for Real Estate Agents
Google is so important that it is even a word in the Oxford Dictionary! You google everything, from what restaurant to eat out at on Friday to where you should go on holiday. You can’t avoid it, your clients and prospective clients are going to google you! This is why it is so important that you have a Google Business account so you can control to a large part what they see when they type your name in to that familiar search box.
What is a Google Business Page?
A Google Business page is that box that shows up on the right when you type in a companies name. It typically shows some photos, the address, and reviews plus additional items like store hours and website.
Setting Up Your Real Estate Google Business Account
As you can see, it is very important to have a presence on Google and this is a free and quick way for your to do it. Below we go through the steps you need to take to properly set up your Real Estate Google Business Account.
Step 1 - Get a Google Account (if you don’t have one already)
Most of us have a Google Account. If you are one of the few that don’t your first step is to create one. You can do this here.
Step Two - Go to Google Business Page and Click “Start Now”
Once you have a Google Account (or if you had one already) go to: https://www.google.com/intl/en_ca/business/ and click Start Now!
Step Three - Enter Your Business Name
Now we recommend you think about what you want to call your business name and we wrote quite a bit on this in our Facebook Business post here. Think about your brand, your target customer and what they would type into Google! This is your opportunity to build your brand so don’t take this step lightly!
Step Four - Enter Your Location
This is also a very important step. Consider where you want to work as a real estate agent and perhaps choose your location to match. Search results generally pull those listings closest to the person searching in Google so if you have a neighborhood you want to work, consider choosing that as your location.
Step Five - Choose Your Business Category
There are so many options to pick from so it is important you get this right! We choose “Real Estate Agents” below however you know your practice best. Make sure your category is filled out accordingly for your Google Real Estate Business page!
Step Six - Contact Details and Verification
Google will ask you to enter your contact details including your website if you have it. This is very important for two reasons:
1) This will drive your potential and active clients to the correct locations once they find you on Google and;
2) This is the information Google will use when verifying your account.
What is verification? Google won’t just publish any Business page, they need to confirm that you are the real person and will do so by mailing you a code and/or calling you directly. If you don’t verify, you will not be published!
That’s it! Now you just need to wait for Google to verify your account but the hard part is done! If you have time we encourage you to do the same for your Facebook Real Estate Business page which you can read about here!
With ❤️,
The RealOffice360™ Team