How earning Google’s trust helps you rank higher online
Ranking higher, better, or at all. It’s what more and more agents and teams want which is why it’s high on my list as #2 for you this week.
Ranking — when you know which buttons to push, does two incredible things.
1. It establishes an authority that you already likely possess.
2. It gives you a chance to showcase that authority through Google Reviews.
Customers right now are searching locally for someone like your team, or they want to validate a referral that they did get from a colleague or friend. That’s where ranking can help.
For me, I’m not the technical person to tell you exactly what to do in every situation (that’s more Darryl’s role) but I do know how important this is if you want to stay ahead, get chosen, and keep the authority that you’ve build in your farmed area, or particularly city.
The biggest problem with ranking is usually trying to figure how to get it, and what things to put in place to get it done.
There is plenty of information on the web to weed through and I know this because when I started my design business in 2010 I tried to increase customers having the ability to search for me and what I did.
Weeding through all the information, didn’t leave me feeling confident that I was or had what I needed to move the needle on my ranking.
#1- Ranking esablishes your authority
So when prospects, and customers are looking on who to hire, which agent to choose and who will they find?
A new lead searching might come in though Google maps, SEO, and most often a referral in your case. Either way ranking higher (or at all) is important because all the different factors ( although simple, there are a lot of them that weave in and out and affect each other).
The way to rank higher?
Ranking and being found even more has everything to do with Trust.
It is primarily based on information that Google has about you as a team. The more digital assets you have such as web links, socials links, articles, your profiles cleaned up and in line, the more Google trusts you and shows you and ranks you higher.
Google Reviews play a heavy role and are factored into local search ranking which plays well into point #2.
#2- Improve local ranking by managing customer reviews
More reviews, and positive rankings elevates your ranking. We’ve seen it with the clients we’ve helped and there are pluses to ranking and what that means for you.
- The volume of reviews you have.
- How often new reviews are posted.
- How many positive versus negative or okay reviews you have.
- How many reviews you have mentioning keywords are all taken into consideration.
Which is why as much as it’s important to have more reviews, It’s also important for your customers to be reading the right words that you want them to be reading about you to find you.
We’ve have clients solely found and hired straight from Google because of the words that those reviews declared on the web. They stood out.
**** Spoiler alert **** reviews are really important and I will break-in this down this week as a seperate blog entry because it’s just that important and valuable for you.
Like I said above, there are many factors on how to rank or rank higher. You can do a bit of work to organically rank higher, and you can pay to rank higher. (although we are firm believers that you as a great agent should get chosen for your service, not because you paid to be there).
Just know that everything you do or decide to do in the present or future all play a role and you do not have to do everything at once.
There are layers and layers to ranking, and raking higher which Darryl certainly has more knowledge on the specifics of HOW than myself.
If you’ve been doing some of your own research, or if you have a question, or want a more detailed look at what this means for you, please feel to send us a message and we’d love to help you take your next steps.
See you next time.
Darryl and Jodi