‍

‍

The hidden potential of Google Business Profile

(Adding force-multipliers to your bottom line)

‍

Update: Google My Business is now called Google Business Profile.

Google Business Profile can transform how you acquire customers online.

For many businesses, I'll go as far as saying that it's more important than their own website.

If you're in charge of helping your company get more customers, this article will arm you with the know-how to turn your Profile into a revenue-pumping machine.

(While 10x-ing your own value in the process.)

I'll be using real world data from my own campaigns and third-party sources to illustrate just how powerful Google Business Profile has become in 2023.

Let's get started.

‍

If you already know how powerful Google Business Profile is, you can skip to The Execution Plan for a complete framework on getting more customers.

‍

‍

Google is getting greedy with its own traffic.

They don't want to send people to your website if they don't have to.

‍

About 11 years ago - so a million in internet years - Google gave people ten blue links, along with some ads when they searched for something.

Things have changed in a big way since then.

Google has been de-prioritizing organic search results in favor of ads and what are known as "No Click Searches".

No Click Searches: Instances where people are searching on Google, only to get the information they need without needing to visit any websites.

Google understands that it can only get so aggressive in terms of prioritizing ads over organic search results.

What they've gotten very good at is getting people to stay on search results pages until they actually click an ad.

They're doing this in many ways that you've already seen - and it's happening more frequently.

Here are some examples:

‍

‍

‍

This may not seem like a huge deal at first, but the growth of No Click Searches is no joke.

And it's affecting local businesses.

‍

No Click Searches now account for 47% of all search queries.

‍

Google's intent is to offer users as much value as possible directly within search results - so when people do something that Google can't directly answer - the chances they click an ad (so Google gets paid) increases.

Rand Fishkin, one of the original thought-leaders in SEO, held a presentation about this at a conference. Here's one of the slides that refers to this:

‍

‍

Business owners who rely on traffic from search engines previously just had to worry about the growing prominence of ads - as Google pushed organic results lower and lower on the page.

From the data above, it's clear we're now fighting against these ads, and the rapidly growing instances of No Click Searches.

No Click Searches on mobile: The real kicker is how No Click Searches work in combination with mobile devices. Due to the small screens, No Click Searches account for over 60% of searches in some cases.

The small screens mean that ads get even more priority on mobile.

When ads are followed by Google's efforts to keep users from clicking on organic results (answer boxes, etc) it turns into even more No Click Searches.

Here's an example of what we see when we search "mortgage rates Calgary". Normal organic results aren't even shown until the bottom of the third screen.

This illustrates the lengths Google is taking to offer people information directly in search results - so they can keep them on their pages longer - instead of having them visit your site.

‍

‍

That bright shiny site you paid a ton for - and are paying someone truckloads of cash to optimize for search engines?

Even if it ranks first, it's now buried on the second half of the page.

This is why so many sites are seeing decreases in their search engine traffic - even when their rankings haven't decreased.

Here's what a well respected agency owner had to say on LinkedIn.

‍

‍

What does this mean for your site? Should you still be paying someone to optimize it?

Listen, I'd rather not give you my opinion. We've never met and I don't know the ins and outs of your business.

Let's look at the math instead.

‍

Moral of the story?

Your costs aren't yielding close to the returns they used to.

But many agencies and consultants would never tell you that.

Because your campaign is how they make their living - even if it's slowly causing you to lose your shirt in the process.

‍

Checkpoint: Skip to The Execution Plan for a complete framework on getting more customers. Or keep reading for more on why Google Business Profile is so powerful.

‍

‍

The rise of Google Business Profile

‍

Google Business Profile has been around for quite a while - before No Click Searches were even a thing.

Here's some of the other names it's gone by:

• Google Places
• Google Local
• Google Business
• Google My Business (the most recent name change)

Google Business Profile has grown in prominence in terms of how and when these listings appear in search results.

Everything we've covered to this point is about how Google is getting greedy with its traffic.

They don't want to send people to you unless they have to (or unless you pay for it with ads).

But the fact is - people will always want and need to speak to local businesses at some point.

Google knows this (they know a lot, after all).

So rather than having people go to your site when they reach that point - they built an entire platform for people to connect with businesses - one that they own.

Before you start yelling at the sky and condemning Google, it's important to realize two things...

1. We need to play nice with Google (you'll see why shortly).

2. Google Business Profile actually generates more customers than your website does on its own.

‍

Resist Google at your own risk

‍

We have two choices.

We can take our ball and go home - crying about how Google is evil, agencies are evil, and we're not going to play with either any more.

We'll debate the ethics of Google's desire to keep their traffic. We'll argue over the usefulness of agencies and consultants.

Or, we can choose to be rational problem solvers, survey the digital landscape, and let the results drive us towards better decisions.

And honestly, that's what I love about digital marketing:

At the end of the day, the data is all that matters. Data tells us what's working, what's failing, and where we should invest our time and money.

‍

Why Google Business Profile is so important for your business.

(Using data from third party sources and my own confidential campaigns.)

‍

I don't want you to just take my word for it.

The internet is filled with unqualified opinions - so let's not add to that dumpster fire.

Here's what the data says:

1. 46% of all Google searches have a local intent. [Source: HubSpot]

That's about 1.6 billion searches per day where people are looking for products, services, and information in their location.

2. 93% of local searches now feature Google Business Profiles. [Source: STAT Analytics]

There's a lot of people using Google every day for local purposes.

And now we know that virtually all of those searches feature Google Business Profiles.

3. 68% of people contact a business directly from search results. [Source: Search Engine Land]

If they're on a mobile device - which we've established is already 50% of all web traffic (and growing) - all someone needs to do is tap a link...

And they're calling you - or your competitor - directly from search results.

These three data points show the importance of Google Business Profile - especially when we already know that Google wants to send people to a platform they own.

But we haven't even covered the most important one...

"88% of people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations." [Source: Forbes]

‍

Welcome to the Review Economy

‍

Reviews from trusted third parties - like Google - are at the core of buying behavior in 2023.

There's no way to escape it.

People don't want to hear you toot your own horn.

They want others talking about how great you are - on websites they trust.

This is the single most important piece of data which speaks to the usefulness of Google Business Profile.

When used correctly, your Google Business Profile can become a high-octane customer acquisition engine.

That's because the people viewing your Profile are being pre-sold on doing business with you, because of one of the most persuasive assets a business has...

Social proof.

Let's look at another example of how traffic from Google Business Profile differs from normal search engine traffic - previously known to be the best quality traffic in terms of converting visitors into customers.