Powerful Google Tools for Home Services Businesses

Google My Business

This is a very important tool as it helps carpet cleaners get found in their local community. This is why I spend a good chunk of my time explaining to carpet cleaning business owners about the importance of this tool.

When a potential client searches for a term for such as carpet cleaning Sutherland, Google My Business and the local 3-Pack can bring up your business name and location.

Being able to show your business name in the maps is one of the reasons that make this an important tool for your business. There are several things that come to play, the first thing is to ensure that your listing is accurate and also well-optimised.

What do I mean by optimising your listing?

• Claim the listing so you have full control over it. An unclaimed list will show the term ‘own this business?’ in the listing.
• Ensure that there are no duplicate listings of your business to create confusion.
• Select the correct category for your business – when we checked, we saw many carpet cleaning businesses listed in the carpet store category.
• Double-check your business name, address and phone number and ensure they match that of your website. This name and address profile should be used on other directories like True Local and Apple Maps as well.
• Add appealing images and videos.
• Make an effort to increase positive reviews to increase your ranking.

There are other ways that you can use this Google tool to boost your visibility in the 3-Pack including;

• Respond to reviews: Whether positive or negative, ensure that you respond to all reviews from your customers. I often emphasise that business owners should turn on notifications to get alerts after a review has been posted. Responding promptly to client reviews will increase customer loyalty and will help you make important changes to your business to enhance customer experience.
• Google Posts: This is the newest feature within Google My Business listing, and because Google has been paying great attention to it, I would recommend that you also do. This is because it may influence search rankings. This feature allows businesses to showcase mini blog posts that are either promotional or educational. Using this feature will increase the visibility of your listing.

Google says “Connecting Google Analytics to your Google My Business account lets you view data about your website on your Google My Business dashboard. Make sure that you use the same Google account for both services.”

Google Search Console

Formerly known as Webmaster Tools, Search Console is a free tool and it’s crucial when it comes to SEO. Google has continuously tried to improve this tool which may only mean that it will be around for the next many years. This tool will help you know where your traffic comes from, what potential clients are searching for and how pages are ranking.

Make sure you connect it to your Google Analytics account.

Google Analytics

This is the #1 Google Tool for all business owners – including Carpet Cleaners.  If you don’t know what’s going on with your site, how can you manage it? Google Analytics can tell you things like:

• How many visitors are new vs. returning?
• How much time do people spend on your website and what pages do they spend time on? Does your website have a high bounce rate – which pages do you need to improve?
• How many video watches do you have?
• How many phone calls does your website generate?
• How many appointments or contact requests come from the website.
• How does your traffic compare with last month? Or last year?

You can get answers to all these analytical questions from Google Analytics. This free tool will also help you understand how potential clients are finding and navigating your website.

Google Tag Manager

Google Tag Manager is a free Google Tool that makes it easy for your online marketing team to add and adjust tracking code on your website. We use it as a standard for installing Google Analytics code because it just makes it easier to add things like Facebook tracking pixels and conversion testing code to your website without needs to edit the website code.

It loads on the website in a way that does not cut the speed of the site.

Google Ads

You may have known it as Google AdWords, and it’s going through a name change.

I common question I’m asked is do Google Ads work for Carpet Cleaners? My answer is sometimes, it depends. Driving a Google Ads campaign appears deceptively simple – it feels like driving a car. You just get started and follow the instructions and directions.

Sadly, it’s not that simple. It’s actually more like flying a plane. There’s a lot of complicated stuff in the cockpit that you might not know about if you are new to it and try to do it yourself.

It’s also a pure direct marketing play, in that with the right sort of approach, using testing and past experience, you can with a little time and dedication turn it into a lead generating money machine.

Google Mail and Google Apps Suite

G-Suite is a bunch of Google Tools amongst them a professional version of Gmail that runs your domain based email. While there are other email tools carpet cleaning business owners can and do use, I would advise you to keep away from using non-domain based email addresses like Bigpond, Gmail and Hotmail. Email is one of the primary means of communication, and it’s important that your credibility is seen when communicating.

Reasons to Use a Professional Email Address

• Maintain a professional business image
• Reduce risk of your emails being marked as spam
• Have a clear link to your website
• Enhance collaboration with your team
• Organise emails by departments
• Google apps also provide you with access to Google Drive online storage, Google Forms and a whole raft of replacement tools for Microsoft Office and Calendar.

Not everyone will need every Google Tool I have mentioned above. But keep in mind that even the most basic Google Tools for carpet cleaning businesses, when used the right way, can generate more leads and make you more informed and more efficient.

If you ask me, Google My Business is compulsory for your business, you will also need Google Analytics to understand what is happening on your website and Google Ads to help grow your business.