Why Your Multifamily Google Business Profile Is Critical to Your Property’s SERP Ranking
Your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business or “GMB”) is an essential tool for any business that wants to be visible in search engine results pages (SERPs). For multifamily apartments, a Google Business Profile is especially important because it allows you to list your property in Google Maps, making it easier for potential renters to find you.
In addition, your Google Business Profile provides valuable insights into how potential renters are searching for apartments online. If you’re not using Google to promote your multifamily property, you’re missing out on a valuable opportunity to reach more renters.
What Is a Google Business Profile?
Your Google Business Profile is a free listing service provided by Google. Any business can create a listing, which will appear in SERPs when potential customers search for businesses or properties like yours.
Your business listing can include important details about your property, such as your hours of operation, contact information, website URL, available floorplans, and more. You can also use a Google Business Profile to post updates and special offers, which will appear in your listing whenever someone searches for your property on Google.
Why Is Google Important for Multifamily Marketing?
There are several reasons why a Google Business Profile is essential for your multifamily marketing strategy. First and foremost, Google makes it easier for potential renters to find your property. When someone searches for “apartments near me,” Google will show them a map with apartment listings and links to each property’s website.
If your apartment complex has a business listing, it will appear on the map (provided you have optimized your listing), making it more likely that potential renters will click through to your multifamily website.
In addition to making it easier for potential renters to find you, Google also provides valuable insights into how people are searching for apartments online. The ” Insights” tab on your Google Business Profile dashboard will show how many people have viewed or clicked on your listing and what keywords they used to find you. This information can help tailor your multifamily marketing efforts to better reach potential renters.
Consider the following Google Business Profile stats:
- 65% of the paid clicks on Google SERP originate from mobile devices.
- The average business is found in 1,009 searches per month, with 84% of these coming from discovery searches.
- 49% of businesses receive more than 1,000 views on searches per month.
- 5% of Google Business Profile views result in a website visit or contact.
- Google Business listings with complete and accurate information receive 7x more clicks than those missing information; they are also 70% more likely to attract on-site visits.
- 30% of consumers say they judged a business based on its review responses.
How to Optimize Your Google Business Listing
Now that you know why a Google Business Profile is important, let’s take a look at how you can optimize your listing:
1. Claim your business page.
Make sure you are in charge of your property’s business listing by claiming the business page. This way, you will be able to make changes and add updates as needed.
To get started, follow these steps to claim and optimize your multifamily Google Business Profile:
- Verify and claim your business listing.
- Link the listing to your multifamily website.
- Add high-resolution photos and videos of your units and community.
- Write a full and accurate description of the property.
- Add floorplan images to the “Products” section.
- Add your resident and community amenities to the “Services” section.
- Add local citations to enhance your Name, Address, and Phone (NAP) Score.
- Create Google long-form posts to promote resident events, special offers, new amenities, and more.
2. Fill out all fields in your listing completely and accurately.
Include all relevant information about your apartment complex, such as your leasing office hours, contact information, website link, amenities, floorplans, etc. The more information you can provide, the better!
3. Add photos and videos of your property.
People love visuals! Adding photos and videos of your apartment complex will make it more likely that potential renters will click through to your listing. You can even add a virtual tour of your units so people can get a feel for what it’s like to live at your property without ever having to leave their couch!
We recommend adding floorplan images to the “Products” section and resident and community amenities to the “Services” section of your profile.
Your photos will likely be a prospective resident’s first impression of your property, so be sure only to use high-resolution photos. Your residents can also upload their photos of the property with their reviews; this allows prospects and potential renters to relate to your community and provides additional opportunities to build trust and authority with Google.
4. Respond promptly to reviews (both positive and negative).
Did you know that 84% of people trust online reviews just as much as referrals from their friends? Also, keep in mind that 97% of customers say that reviews influence their buying decision. And these stats also apply to multifamily apartments.
Promptly responding to reviews shows you care about what renters say about your community. It also shows that you are willing to listen to feedback and make changes accordingly. In fact, 33% of customers who received a response after posting a negative comment or review on a business turned around and gave a positive review; meanwhile, 34% of those people deleted the original negative review.
In short, your review response might seem small, but it can make a big difference!
5. Add UTM codes to your profile links.
Next, you’ll want to track how effectively your business profile is directing traffic to your multifamily website. To do this, you’ll need to add Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) links to the URLs on your profile.
UTM codes are unique pieces of text that you attach to the end of each URL; these allow you to easily identify any traffic that comes to your multifamily website when a user clicks on those specific links. These links are great for special campaigns, ads, emails, Call-to-Action buttons, and social media. In other words, you’ll be able to identify if users arrived at your site from one of the links on your Google Business Profile or somewhere else.
You can easily build your UTM codes here.
6. Increase your NAP Score.
It’s important to keep your phone number and address up-to-date not only so potential renters can easily get in touch with you if they are interested in booking a tour or learning more about your property but also to improve your NAP Score.
Creating consistent local citations is a simple way to improve your ranking in the maps section. Building citations improve your Google authority and increase the consistency in which your brand is represented by your Name, Address, Phone (NAP) Score.
Making sure your citations are consistent is essential. For example, if Google sees a phone number on your community’s business profile, then crawls your site and sees a different phone number, Google will flag you. This “red flag” will penalize your property’s SERP ranking, as Google thinks your brand is untrustworthy.
Bottom line: For best results, you must cross-check all information about your property with your website and anywhere else your property’s contact details may appear online to ensure accuracy and consistency.
Provide Prospects With the Information They Need When They Need It
A Google Business Profile is essential for any multifamily property that wants to be visible in SERPs and attract more prospective residents. By taking the time to optimize your apartment complex’s business listing, you will be able to reach more people and provide them with the information they need to make a renting decision.
