Scott Vancea has been in real estate tech for well over a decade, and in that time, he's seen how Google Business has consistently been the biggest component agents have ignored in their marketing.

In our latest episode of Keeping it Real, Scott shares with us how we can optimize our Google Business Profile, and how doing so might just be the key to amplify our growth.

In February of 2020, against all odds if you remember the world events that were occurring at the time, Scott launched a successful business.

Its name is Optimize5. Its mission? Helping agents with online brand optimization, because to Scott, this is the biggest low hanging fruit in real estate.

So let's start with the basics…

What is Google Business Profile?

Google Business Profile (formerly known as Google My Business) is a featured, optimized profile of a business that shows up when you search for it on Google, showcasing the business' address, customer ranking and reviews, contact information, operating hours, pictures of the business, etc.

The goal is to connect users with all the necessary information of the business at a glance, so that they can make a quick, informed decision on it, whether it's a restaurant, a gym, or a hardware store. 

Why pay attention to your Google Business Profile as a real estate agent?

Because everyone starts a decision by Googling it. Whether you hear about a real estate agency through a friend, or a business card, or a LinkedIn post, the first thing anyone will do is search for it on Google.

Think of your Google Business Profile as the first impression users will have of your business. Google promotes this feature above all other websites, by either highlighting it on the side on desktop, or adding a featured location snippet on top of all results on the phone. This is the first thing users will see.

How to Optimize Google Business Profile

Google Business Profile is free. So there's plenty of things you can do to optimize it.

In fact, some people have these profiles without even knowing about it, because Google will often just create them for businesses. This can sometimes be a problem, because the search engine can pull up incorrect data and associate it with your business.

So the first step is to Google your business name, and find some easy, 5-minute tutorials on YouTube on how to set it up with the right information.

Now, what Scott focuses on is optimization.

In his business, Optimize5, he audits people's online presence to identify gaps in the market, and how to showcase the best parts of a business for people to convert more online.

The worst case scenario is, obviously, when there is no profile. When people look for your real estate agency and there is nothing that shows up in Google's Business Profile. This is because this feature carries with it a lot of authority and default trust. It solidifies you in the user's mind as a real business.

But another really bad scenario is when your business does show up in Google Business Profile and the main cover photo is a picture of a parking lot. Yikes.

That cover photo should either be your logo, your headshot, or a picture of your team. A parking lot or a street view does not go far in terms of conveying a lot of trust, but this is probably what Google will pull up by default, based on your address.

How well you rank for keywords such as "good real estate agent in Austin" (or whatever your location is) is almost solely based on how well your profile is optimized in Google Business Profile.

Now, a good business profile has:

• a great cover image
• a website button
• a "Call" button so users can easily contact you
• reviews
• products
• posts
• social media profiles

All of these things (except for the reviews) you can add yourself today.

"When it comes to reviews, we've always been told that we need to get reviews on Zillow or Realtor.com, and that's all good and well… but Google Business Profile is the first thing people will see when they look for you. Make sure you've got those reviews." – Scott Vancea

So if you have no reviews on your Google Profile right now, prioritize them. Make it a point for your next 10 customers to leave you a review there, specifically.

If all you take away from this post is that you should complete the information on your Google Profile and make sure you solicit at least 10 reviews from your previous or future customers there, you'll be in a much better place.

But if you want to take it a step further, keep reading.

Ranking 1st in Google Results with a Business Profile
"Customers come to me and they say 'I want my website to come up first when people look for《real estate agent austin》and that's just not going to happen.", says Scott.

You're competing against thousands of other real estate agents in Austin, with a huge marketing budget, with a bigger team, AND you're trying to beat Realtor.com and Zillow. You're not going to beat them in organic ranking.

But there's a cheat to this. And that's called the Google 3-Pack. And they are the top 3 Google Business Profiles, which appear either at the very top of search results, or at the side, or as the second result in search engines.

"That's your main shot of ranking in the first page." Scott states.

What's more, you can expand that 3-Pack, and Google will show all the businesses in that area.

And guess what? Zillow doesn't qualify for Google Business Profile. Not when it comes to the "real estate agent in austin" (or any other city except for their headquarters in Seattle). 

So if your goal is to appear on the first page of Google, this marketing channel should be your top priority. 

And this is how:

As Scott shared with us above, there are plenty of components one can add to have a robust and optimized business profile. Let's look at each one.

PRODUCTS

Adding products to your business (which in the case of real estate is the range of services you offer) is not just great visually for the user, but it's effective in the technical sense for search engine optimization.

Here are some products you can add:

• home buyer consultations
• home seller consultations
• property value assessments
• negotiation consulting
• property marketing and advertising
• transaction coordination

Google loves it when a business profile has many products, and in fact, you can start ranking for the particular keywords of those products. 

For instance, if a user looks for "home buyer consultation in austin" (or whatever your city is), if you have a product in your Google profile page with images and verbiage, your business will be appearing in the results.

So add products, add images and descriptive text to each product, and a link back to your website.

POSTS

You can use your Google Business Profile like you use your blog or your YouTube channel, and update it with news from your industry or market, and videos with tips for homeowners or homebuyers.

The problem that many agents run into is that they want the production value. They want to record perfect videos with excellent lighting and complex editing – don't fall for that.

Consistency is key here. You can easily report your blog articles on your Google Business Profile. You can repost the same text and image from your LinkedIn on your Google Business Profile. You can share your new YouTube video on your Google Business Profile.

Simply add it as another platform to share stuff on, and after a few clicks, you should be done with it.

A simple, 12-second video of you driving down your street and giving a tip for people listing their home can be just as effective as a high-production 10 minute one to build trust and put a face to the brand. So don't overthink it, and use this as another channel to provide value.

REVIEWS

Even though we've covered reviews before, there's another aspect to them that's crucial for your ranking.

Google will read all of the reviews you have, and it will use the words your customers are describing you with as keywords.

For instance, if your customers are writing that you're an "affordable" real estate agent, Google interprets this and pairs this with synonyms of the word "affordable", so it's more likely to rank you not only for "affordable real estate agent in [town]", but also for:

"cheap real estate agent in [town]"

"cheaper real estate agent in [town]"

"not expensive real estate agent in [town]"

"reasonably priced real estate agent in [town]"

Now, this doesn't mean you should tell all your customers to use the word "top" or "awesome" so you come off as the "best real estate agent", because Google can easily identify when this is done disingenuously and can suspend your profile.

But it does mean you should encourage people to leave a well written review of you.

BACKEND DATA 

All of the components we've spoken about are consumer-facing information. But there are also things you can tell only to Google on the backend, for it to be able to rank you effectively.

"I have an agent in Las Vegas who speaks Mandarin, and she incorporates this in her Google Business Profile." shares Scott.

This isn't only impressive, it's an extremely effective organic ranking strategy, because guess who's going to appear if you look for "mandarin speaking real estate agent" in Las Vegas?

These very niche, extremely targeted value differentiators are great things to showcase in your Business Profile. And you can (and should) add them in the backend of your profile as well as in the consumer-facing side.

One way to add them in the backend is to use the "categories" tool in your Google account. 

Think about the ways in which you're unique in your industry, and add those in your profile description, so you can start ranking for those keywords in your area.

You can also add these as a product if it makes sense. Going back to the Vegas realtor example, she could easily add "Mandarin Real Estate Services" as one of her products showcased on her profile.

The Biggest Profile Optimization Fails

One of the biggest questions we were dying to ask Scott was what were some of the biggest mistakes he's seen on agent's profiles.

To no one's surprise (we're all just doing our best here!) there were many. But here are the two biggest ones.

• The first one that came to mind was the business' name.
  
  "What a lot of real estate agents don't realize is that their Google My Business profile's name is their business name," he says.
  
  Your name might be "John Smith, Austin Realtor", but you don't want it to be "The Best Austin Realtor".
  
  Best case scenario, Google fixes it. Worst case scenario, you get taken down by Google.

Now, are there ways to hack the system? Yes and no. It depends on what Google's rule is at the time.

Scott recalls the example of a nail salon that is literally called "Nail Salon Near Me", and Google asked them to provide a bunch of documentation to ensure that was the actual name of the LLC, as well as pictures of the signage on the storefront of the nail salon.

For simplicity, Scott recommends simply naming your profile what your actual business name is, which for agents is generally our name.

• The second one is having bad reviews.
  
  Here's the thing: it's okay to have a bad review.
  
  The key to managing these negative reviews is to reply to them in the most amicable way possible, and this is a proven social media statistic.
  
  An amicable response to a negative review neutralizes the negative review. You can come away from that exchange looking as a consummate professional, and have the opposite effect the review wanted to trigger.

If it's not a legitimate review, you can appeal to Google to take it down.

How to Fit Google Profile Optimization into Your Day

"A good business owner can't do everything, and they shouldn't" says Scott.

Which is great to know, because there are only 24hs in a day, and we're constantly telling agents that they should care about blogging, and social media, and nurturing, and calling leads, and on top of that… their actual real estate work.

So, how is an agent supposed to fit all of these Google Profile optimization activities in?

Well, the best thing you can do is to automate everything. Meet with the Optimize5 team (and they take free consultation calls every day to walk agents through this process) and see if and how you can work with them.

They'll do 29 minutes of auditing your business profile page for free, and then they'll tell you how you can work with them in the remaining minute of your call.

Worst case scenario, you got a free consultation and an analysis of what you could be doing to improve!

Now, who in your team should have a Google Business Profile?

This depends on the makeup of your team. For the most part, Scott recommends each agent to have a profile. 

But if it's a team with a listing agent at the top and buying agents underneath them, it might make sense to have one single profile page that consolidates all the information and reviews. The downside is that when an agent leaves, they can't take their positive reviews with them, and the negative ones will affect the whole team.

If you're called the "Awesome Arcadia Home Team", you can have your agents have a personal profile, and have each of the members called "[Agent's Name], Awesome Arcadia Home Team".

Again, this will depend on your team, and it's something Optimize5 can help you with.

We hope you found this conversation with Scott useful. Make sure to tune in to the next Keeping it Real, available on Spotify and our YouTube.