Essential Internet Marketing for Law Firms – Google My Business
Google My Business is a very important aspect of Local SEO. It ensures businesses are visible on the local search and can help bring more foot traffic to your store. An optimized GMB profile is also considered a ranking factor that helps businesses rank high on local search engine results pages. Despite its importance, most people don’t spend much time optimizing their GMB profile and presence. They set up their business and move one, not even realizing that this is a great tool for internet marketing for law firms. In this article, we explore GMB and how you can get more out of it:
What is Google My Business?
Google My Business is a platform that allows firms to manage their brand’s presence on search engines. You can set a Google Map pin, provide important company information like address, phone number, services, industry, etc, and showcase reviews from current customers.
A strong GMB profile can help you win a prospective client’s trust when they search your brand name. For example, if the brand profile on Google’s listing is comprehensive, with clear star ratings, reviews, a good description of the firm services, several pictures, open and close timings, and other such information, people will be more inclined to trust the brand. A complete profile is something like a business card and the more information it provides, the more professional it looks.
A professional-looking profile improves brand reputation, ranking, and authority, which can help you thrive in the competitive world of internet marketing for law firms.
How to Get the Most Out of GMB?
GMB is a fairly straightforward platform and it is easy to set up a strong presence through it. Experts believe that this should be your first step while working on internet marketing for law firms. Here are some tips that can help you create the most impressive business listing for your brand:
Be Consistent
Consistency is essential when it comes to GMB and there is very little opportunity to go wrong with it. Google sources information from various first party and third party places, which means it will look at the information on your website, social media places, local directories, websites like Yelp and Yellow Pages, etc. You need to make sure that the firm name, address, and phone number information is consistent on all of these platforms.
When Google sees all of this information and notices all the details are consistent, it will trust your brand and assign it a better ranking. If your information is inconsistent, which means if the details on your website or other business listings don’t match what is mentioned in GMB, you are considered unreliable. Google values user experience over everything else so it isn’t going to show unreliable information to search engine users. Keeping Google happy is an important part of internet marketing for law firms.
Fill in All Data Fields
Google wants to provide extensive information about the firm to its clients, which is why there are several fields available to you. A complete firm profile with accurate information will get you more recognition. These fields include:
- NAP information
- A detailed summary of the business
- Store open and close items
- Business category (primary category and additional categories)
- Services or Products tabs
- Accessibility
- Amenities
- Highlights of the business
- Business URL
You can also add pictures to make the listing more attractive. Google will assign a score to you based on the completeness of your profile. While this score doesn’t have much impact on the search engine rankings, it can help. Providing accurate information through different mediums like GMB profiles, social media profiles, content, etc, can take your internet marketing for law firms to the next level.
Reviews and Ratings
Reviews and ratings immediately showcase just how trustworthy your firm is. The best way to take advantage of this feature is to encourage feedback from clients and reply to every comment you receive. Encourage people to provide reviews and feedback through dedicated strategies. You can create an email campaign, ask for reviews through social media, or even mention it in the invoice. Make soliciting feedback an important part of internet marketing for law firms.
No business has a pristine reputation but how you deal with negative reviews will also influence your prospective customers. If you handle it promptly and efficiently, your firm’s reputation will improve. Work on resolving the issue and keep the communication lines open as much as possible. Once you have resolved the issue or helped clients understand the situation, ask them to consider giving another review. This will leave a lasting impression on people’s mind because it will show how efficient your customer service is.
Make sure your GMB profile is always up-to-date and provides the most current information. Incorrect information will affect user experience and compromise your reputation.