Your Google Business Profile is more than just a listing, it is a free hub where you manage your presence on Google Search and Maps. By using it, you can share essential information like photos, opening hours, and reviews to connect with customers effectively.

Optimising Your Local Presence with Google Business Profile

For local businesses operating in areas like Albury Wodonga, visibility online is essential. To ensure potential customers find you when they search for your services, managing your presence on Google is a critical step. This guide outlines how to effectively use your Google Business Profile (GBP) to improve local visibility and engage customers.

Understanding Your Google Business Profile

The Google Business Profile is the tool that allows local businesses to appear in Google Search results and on Google Maps. When someone searches for a local service, the GBP provides curated information. This includes business hours, contact details, photos, and customer reviews. By managing your profile effectively, you ensure that potential customers find your business among the top relevant results.

Key Components for an Effective Profile

To establish a credible and useful listing, focus on providing accurate and comprehensive information across all sections of your profile:

Accurate Information
The foundation of your listing must be precise. This means ensuring your business name, address, phone number, and operating hours are 100 percent accurate. Consistency in this data is crucial for building customer trust.

Visuals (Photos)
High quality images are key to attracting attention. Including clear photos of your services, location, or team helps potential customers understand what you offer immediately.

The Description
Use the description section to clearly explain what your business does and what makes it unique. This is your opportunity to communicate your value proposition concisely.

Reviews
Customer reviews provide valuable social proof. Encouraging customers to share their experiences and responding thoughtfully to all feedback demonstrates professionalism and commitment to service.

Using Dynamic Features to Engage Customers

Beyond static information, you can use specific features within your profile to keep your listing updated and engaging for potential clients:

Google Posts
Posts allow you to share timely updates directly to your listing. They are effective for highlighting current promotions, announcing special events, or sharing new services. When creating a post, use relevant images and include a clear Call to Action, such as “Learn More” or “Contact Us.”

Attributes
Attributes allow you to add specific details about your business that might appeal to customers, such as amenities, service options, or unique features. These details help potential customers quickly assess if your business meets their specific needs.

Leveraging Expertise for Local Success
For businesses looking to enhance their online presence, especially in the Albury Wodonga area, a professional approach is necessary. We understand that managing these listings effectively requires both accurate information and smart content strategy.

At ChookChook – Albury Wodonga Web AI and IT Support, we help local businesses ensure their GBP is fully optimised.

• Ensuring your profile accurately reflects your services and location in the Albury Wodonga area.
• Crafting compelling content for your descriptions and posts, utilising effective communication techniques, including strategies related to AI content generation.
• Implementing updates that keep your listing fresh and relevant.

A well managed GBP is a powerful asset. If you are looking for expert assistance in optimising your online visibility, let us help you connect with more local customers.

Ready to optimise your listing and grow your business?

Contact us today to discuss how we can improve your digital presence.

The post Your Local Google Business Profile appeared first on ChookChook.

Have you ever made a decision to purchase an item, or use a service based on positive reviews from an online review website?

More and more consumers rely on online reviews, based on fellow consumer’s experiences, in order to make their buying decisions. Large and small businesses rely on reviews to help build their reputation as a trusted industry leader. Both assume that online review websites manage the reviews to ensure that consumers aren’t misled. Unfortunately, even though consumers expect online reviews to be legit, it’s not always the case. As a matter of fact, these days you can bet that a significant amount of online review websites are fake or have a considerable amount of fake reviews (upwards of 18%).

Not like fake Grass.

There’s a name given to fake reviews. Astroturfing (no, not the green lawn replacement you may be familiar of) it’s when a reviewer writes a fake review on behalf of their sponsored company. This company rewards the reviewer with payments, items of value or a gift card. Just imagine this for a moment. University students struggling to pay for their education are given a reward by one of the university’s football team sponsors to write bad reviews of the sponsor’s opposition. Over a course of a few months or a year there are thousands of bad reviews to that opposition. Their reputation is tarnished and their sales suffer, soon that company shuts shop. Although this is just an example, such simular events have happened and sponsoring companies have faced huge penalties.

But how Influential are Online Reviews really?

Obviously, you shouldn’t believe every online review you read. That said, approximately 80% of consumers actually trust online review sites, almost as much as they do personal recommendations. In most cases, older consumers (baby boomers) aren’t as trusting as younger consumers who have grown up tapping and scrolling away on their computers, tablets or smartphones, browsing through review after reviews and making their buying decisions based on what they read on the review websites.

Can reviews be beneficial?

The positive side to online reviews is that they can boost search engine results, can be a positive form of advertising for a business and provide the kind of extended exposure that you might never be able to accomplish or afford through conventional marketing channels.  The problem is that negative reviews also get this exposure and most of us, if we’ve been in business for a significant amount of time, are bound to have a couple.  A few negative reviews actually can make the positives look more realistic and if the business shows compassion and tries to provide a positive outcome, it can also work in favour for the business.

What to look out for.

Although online review websites are popping up all the time, consumers should stick to the more established ones. Unfortunately, even some of these sites can’t be fully trusted or a large number of reviews on such sites. As a matter of fact, one of the sites that have been touted as one of the most “trusted” (a U.S. review site), relies on individuals to post negative reviews so that they can give the option to the business reviewed to have that negitive review removed or pushed down the list for a considerable amount of cost. Talk about a complete scam!

Determining Which Reviews are the most Trustworthy.

The volume of reviews on these websites can be mind-boggling. For instance, TripAdvisor has over 150 million reviews posted by users on its site. Yelp has over 57 million local reviews. So how do you know which of these online review sites can be trusted and which you should ignore? The following information will help guide you through the “review” maze.

Read Several Reviews on a Number of Review Websites.

If you’re dying to book that cruise, hire a landscaper or buy a product before the sale ends, you should still take the time to do your research, reading a lot of reviews before you form an opinion about the review site and decide if it is trustworthy. Most consumers make a decision after only reading a few reviews. Do yourself a favour and don’t skimp when it comes to making a buying decision. Take the time to compare reviews on several sites to determine whether or not there’s a trend.

Check Out the Reviewers Profile.

Look at the reviewers other reviews to get a feel for whether or not you can trust what they have to say. Be especially wary of first time or one time reviewers as well because chances are they’ve been paid to post their review. Read through the reviewer’s posts on businesses, products and services, other than the one you’re considering. It’s also a good idea to search for the reviewer on Google and/or social media sites because some online review sites require people to sign into their Facebook account before posting reviews.

Be Sceptical of Reviews with Similar Wording.

Reviews that contain similar wording for several products or services are a good sign that they’re “paid for” reviews. In addition, if the reviewer uses targeted wording that’s beneficial to consumers that are searching for a specific product, they may be working as a paid blog writer for the product’s owner/service provider.

Be Wary of “Extreme” Reviews.

You already know that some reviewers are going to either hate, love, or have neutral feelings about a restaurant, hotel or service provider – that’s to be expected. What isn’t normal is if the reviewer goes over the top with their reviews, to the extreme, through their positive or negative remarks. If this is the case, they’ve probably been given incentive for posting the review. Examples would be their competition posting negative reviews, or the reviewer being compensated for posting a positive review.

Protecting Yourself.

Every online review posted by your customers is a kind of promotion for your business. Your brand and product are exposed to readers, raising their awareness of who you are and what you have to offer. Similar to social media, online review sites provide you with the chance to establish a closer relationship with consumers. You are likely to be able to read reviews from an array of customers, many that may not have shared their opinions about your business otherwise. You’ll also be able to reply to positive and negative reviews in many cases, showing consumers that you’re interested in what they have to say. Through your replies, your customers and potential customers have the opportunity to get to know you as an individual, not just a business.

While reviewers are required to disclose if they are affiliated to the company, some businesses have friends and family write reviews, or pay other people to write glowing reviews for them, presenting them as impartial recommendations, when in truth they are deceiving fakes (Astroturfing). It can be challenging to tell if an online review is trustworthy or not, but taking the time to do some research online will provide you with more insight.

The post Getting the Best Online Reviews appeared first on ChookChook.

Are you a New Business in Albury Wodonga?

So, you’re in the process of building up your new business. Within the last few months you spent your allocated budget and maybe even then some, but you’re so proud of the final result, it doesn’t really matter to you. It’s going to be awesome, you know it. Perhaps you were a bit surprised at the cost of having a web presence and the funds needed to continue hosting an amazing website that will reflect your remarkable business. Your business is unique, and you just know the website is going to be awesome!

Opening day comes around fast, and it’s over faster than that. What happened?
You expected people to come in droves, but only a couple of friends visited your business. Not even a rotten hacker viewed your website, let alone a unique visitor to it. What’s happened? Did you do something wrong? No doubt you’re feeling ripped off and you’re looking for somewhere to point the finger. Obviously, there is someone other than you to blame!

Well, not long ago that finger was pointed at me. Explanations didn’t go down well. The clients were blinded by their unrealistic expectation and lack of research or questions.

The truthful reason why opening day was such a flop was because there was absolutely no launch strategy in place – sounds like a simple plan that could have easily been put in place, right? Well, yes –it could have.

Now, I’m no business planning expert but I do know that “Build it and they will come” isn’t quite as easy as it sounds. Building a business is one thing, getting people to know you even exist is another. And both need to connect to make opening day a success. This is where having an opening day strategy plan is important. A flashy new building in the middle of the street may look interesting and gain some exposure from passing traffic, but the point is people still don’t know what you do.

Before you plan your business opening day yourself, seek advice from a business planer such as the BEC. However, a really easy and relatively cost efficient step you can implement is to have a huge banner secured on your newly constructed building and another on your daily motor vehicle with “Opening Soon” and your web site address in a bright colour. That’s near free advertising! Who’s not interested in a new, fresh business that’s Opening Soon in or around Albury Wodonga? People will see the banner and visit your website to find out what all the excitement is about.

Website not fully functional? I don’t recommend a website with so little information on it that people will shrug their shoulders and move on. Hey! isn’t there a huge banner on your building and on your motor vehicle? So why not have one on your website? Before you say that’s just giving people a run-around and they’ll still shrug their shoulders and never come back! please consider this…

A Banner on your website with an exciting paragraph or two telling visitors what your business will provide and with an option for visitors to be notified via email when you open is really a great idea. Visitors to your website will now have something to be excited about. You could email them a discount coupon code if they sign up to be notified of opening day. Not only will they be enticed to enter their email that you would use for further promotions, they will visit your business, waving their discount coupon code at your front door on opening day.

Take these tips into consideration and hopefully opening day for you will be a huge success!

Summery: You don’t need a fully fledged website to gain peoples interest at first. An “Opening Soon” banner works on your business front door and it’ll work on your website too.

The post One great idea to advertise your business before it opens. appeared first on ChookChook.

Google has notified webmasters!

“Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results. Consequently, users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices.”

via Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Finding more mobile-friendly search results.

Q. Why has Google done this?

A. 60 Percent of Online Traffic Now Comes From Mobile
Source: Small Business Trends

Luckily (but more intentionally on our behalf) all our clients have mobile friendly websites made by us. If you’re a business in the Albury Wodonga region and need to update your website to get it up to standard, or a complete refresh with the latest internet trends, contact us and we’ll sort it out.

The post Google News – Mobile-friendly search results. appeared first on ChookChook.

There’s no denying it, Google is the big one on the net. With near world dominance when it comes to who is the search engine king. If you want your website to be found then get your details listed in Google My Business.

If it looks all to complicated for you to do it yourself, or you’re not sure if it’s really worth the time and effort, we’re here to help. Just contact us and ask us to get your business information on Google My Business. We also offer this service for our clients because we want your website to be listed and found on Google. This also helps with SEO. So when a visitor from Albury or Wodonga searches your business name – there’s a very good chance it’ll show up in the first page results.

Google My Business puts your business info on Search, Maps and Google+ so that customers can find you, no matter what device they’re using.

via Google My Business.

Don’t hesitate to contact us. We can get your Albury Wodonga business on Google. If you have a website that’s optimized for SEO or even if you don’t (..yet) your business needs to be listed with Google.

The post Google My Business – You must Do this! appeared first on ChookChook.

Are you getting great value out of your Advertising campaigns?

You need to get the word out about your business (an obvious fact, I know) so you advertise in local newspapers, radio, and TV. They are arguably some of the biggest mediums through which to advertise your business, they have been for many years, and they’ll continue to be a major sector with small businesses advertising strategies.

However, the cost of advertising using the “Big Three,” newspapers, radio, and TV, is all relative to the amount of space and time your ad runs for. The larger and the longer your ad runs for, the more it costs!

One possible method is to have your business website advertised through these powerful media advertising sectors.
For instance, instead of taking out a large ad in the newspaper, crammed to the brim with all your products and services, why not run a smaller ad that features your website as the primary bit of information? Or maybe run two, even smaller ads, in different newspapers?

Radio and TV adverts, on the other hand, could be made to run for half the time, so instead of buying a 30 second spot with a voice over ‘speed talking’ at 100mph (which is more likely to cause a listener a disturbance), buy instead a less expensive 15 second spot, using your website as the primary bit of information. Listeners and readers who are interested in what they’ve just read or seen will come to your website, and in doing so will find out everything about your business’s products and services at no extra cost to you.

Ask yourself this.

Excluding when you bought your 1st car from the classifieds.  When was the last time you saw an advert and wrote down the phone number from it?

If you’re the average person out there and very much like us, that answer is most likely…  drum roll please…never!
So then, if you see an ad for a special item or service from a business, how do you find more information about what you just saw? Do you look up that business on Google for their contact details, information, and their webpage? The answer is a resounding yes, and we all do just that. In fact, we do it a lot more than looking up a business or service from the Yellow Pages.
Why? Because it’s so much easier and convenient!

Try it.

You know us as ChookChook, and we’re local to the Albury Wodonga region.
Now type ChookChook Albury Wodonga into Google and there you have it. In just a couple of seconds you’ve gotten all the information you could ever possibly need about us, it’s just that easy.

That’ so true, you think?

Need a website? Talk to us for fast, honest, and reliable local service. We’re local to Albury Wodonga, and we come to your premises! We can do the exact same thing for your business…

Together, we can build an awesome, business website that will have clientele coming to you!

The post Using a website to gain value from advertising appeared first on ChookChook.