7 Steps to Claim and Optimize Your Google Business Profile

A Google Business Profile for financial advisors is an essential tool for improving local search visibility and attracting potential clients. This free platform from Google helps financial professionals manage their online presence, showcase client reviews, and appear in relevant local searches. Optimizing your Google Business Profile ensures that prospects can easily find and connect with your firm, ultimately boosting your SEO performance and credibility.

According to Google, half of all the individuals who conduct a search for a local business will visit that business within 24 hours.

By claiming and optimizing your Google Business Profile, you can ensure accurate business details, display client reviews, and enhance your local search presence. If you want to learn how to optimize your google business profile, follow these steps to set up and maximize your GBP listing.

1. Claim Your Google Business Profile

The first step to optimizing your Google Business Profile is claiming and verifying your listing. If you already have a Google account, you can use it to claim your business. If not, create a Google account first.

Start by clicking here to begin the verification process.

Once you submit your claim, Google will verify your business through email, phone, or mail. To check the latest verification methods, visit Google’s official page.

Tips for Remote Businesses

If your team works remotely and does not meet clients in an office, you can hide your address by selecting:

•  “I deliver goods and services to my customers at their locations.”
•  Leave the “info” and “business location” fields blank in your profile settings.

Even before verification, you can start optimizing your profile to enhance its visibility.

2. Categorize Your Business Appropriately

Setting the right business category is crucial for appearing in relevant searches. Google provides pre-set categories—you cannot create your own, but you can choose the most relevant ones.

• Primary Category: This should define your main service, such as Financial Planner or Investment Service.
• Additional Categories: Add extra relevant categories to describe specific services you offer.

Pro Tip: Your primary category directly affects search rankings, so choose the most accurate term for your business.

Additionally, Google allows businesses to add a brief description, which appears in local search results and Google Maps.

3. Write a Quality Business Description

A well-crafted business description boosts your SEO and helps potential clients understand what you offer. You must be brief here, as you only have 750 characters. Even though you need to keep it short and sweet, ensure you include relevant keywords. To do this, consider the words that customers might use when searching for a business that offers your services.

Steps to Add Your Business Description:

1. Log into your Google Business Profile.
2. Click on the “Info” tab in the left-hand menu.
3. Find “Add a business description” and click the pencil icon.
4. Write a concise but keyword-rich description (750 characters max).

Example Business Description:
“XYZ Wealth Management provides expert financial planning, retirement strategies, and investment management to help clients achieve long-term financial success. Serving [your location], our fiduciary advisors offer personalized wealth solutions tailored to your goals.”

4. Add Photos That Showcase Your Business

Businesses that use photos on their listing receive 35% more clicks through to their websites than businesses that don’t, so be sure to include images of your business in your Google Business Profile.

A picture can convey many characteristics of your business that text cannot. Is this team professional? Is the office inviting? What will it be like to work with this firm? Use images to convey your brand and answer these questions in a different way. Consider the following when adding photos to your profile:

• Photo quality: Upload high-quality photos to reflect professionalism. Google recommends an image resolution of at least 720×720.
• Photo variety: Pictures can include your logo, team, work setting, and the interior and exterior of your office space (if applicable). These are great ways to encourage virtual visitors to get to know you and your business. Be sure to also indicate which images are your cover and logo, so Google uses them appropriately in your listing.

Because we know the impact photos have in marketing, we recommend adding at least 3-6 photos to your Google Business Profile for optimal performance. Google now also offers virtual tours on your profile, so you can also consider hiring a Google-approved photographer to create a 360-degree virtual tour of your space for prospects. This could be helpful for going the extra step or providing a sense of direction in a suite of offices.

Example of a Well-Optimized Google Business Profile Listing:

Below, Obermeyer Wood Investment Counsel, LLP includes pictures of their team, building, and logo photos on their Google Business Profile.

5. Add Your Contact Information

To round out your business information, you will also want to include your business contact information, including your business phone number, website URL, and links to any active social media profiles. Including these allows potential clients to more easily access your marketing channels.

In addition, a phone number with a local area code may also support your local SEO – an important factor in your large SEO strategy, as many searches for financial services provide localized results.

6. Get Reviews to Highlight Your Good Points

How often do you check reviews online? For most people, reviews are a deciding factor in whether they work with a business or purchase a product. If prospects are interested in working with your firm, housing reviews on your Google Business Profile can be a great way to build trust and give them a more personal testimony of your work. Not only do reviews help people get an idea of what it would be like to work with you, but they can also help your business in search rankings, making your Google Business Profile important to SEO as well.

With the pros of reviews in mind, we must also address a common concern –  are reviews compliant? The SEC’s Division of Investment Management has issued guidance to assist firms in this, with the bottom line being: “an investment advisor’s or investment adviser representative’s (IAR’s) publication of all of the testimonials about the investment advisor or IAR from an independent social media site on the investment advisor’s or IAR’s own social media site or website would not implicate the concern underlying the testimonial rule.”

It seems that if an advisor has no control over the content of the third-party review, the reviewer is not compensated in any way, the advisor publishes all reviews, positive and negative, and refrains from promotion on the pages where such testimonials appear, then the advisor will be in compliance. Of course, this will depend on your compliance team’s final take as well, so be sure to consult compliance before utilizing reviews.

7. Set Your Service Areas if Applicable

If you serve a specific city, include that location under “Service area.” If you interact with clients across the country or world, feel free to leave this area blank.

Wrapping Things Up

With the tips above, your Google Business Profile will help support your local search and, if approved by compliance, can act as a hub for your business reviews. Furthermore, a Google Business Profile is relatively passive once it has been set and only requires updates if you make changes to your business hours or information, so you can enjoy the benefits of your new profile without having to add more to your workload. Once you have optimized your Google Business Profile, you can start tackling other platforms to enhance your brand recognition and internet visibility, this will establish more credibility to your brands online audience and support local SEO.