When someone in Nashville searches “roofer near me,” the first thing they usually see is a map with three businesses on it. That map listing is your Google Business Profile, and it gets a lot of attention. But your Google Business Profile and website are not two separate projects. They work as a pair, and when they back each other up, you show up more often and win more of the calls.
Key takeaways
- Your Google Business Profile gets you seen. Your website is where people check you out and decide to call.
- Google looks at both. A strong site makes your profile more believable, and a strong profile sends people to your site.
- Your name, address, phone number, services and areas should match everywhere.
- Link your profile to the page that fits best, and make that page easy to act on.
Most owners treat these as two different chores. Somebody set up the profile years ago. Somebody else built the website. Nobody ever made them talk to each other. That gap costs more than people think.
What each one does
Your Google Business Profile is your listing on Google Search and Google Maps. It shows your hours, reviews, photos, phone number, directions and a link to your website. For a lot of local searches, it’s the first thing a customer sees about you.
Your website is where people go when they want to know more. Do you handle my kind of job? Do you work in my part of town? Do you look like a real company? Can I trust you with my house, my car, my legal problem?
Some people call straight from the map. Plenty of others click through to your site first, especially for bigger jobs. If the site answers their questions, they call. If it doesn’t, they go back to the map and try the next listing.
So the profile opens the door, and the website closes the deal. You need both doing their part.
How your Google Business Profile and website help each other rank
Google wants to show people businesses it can trust. One way it checks is by comparing what your profile says with what your website says.
When the two line up, Google gets a clear, consistent picture. When they don’t, it has to guess. These are the first things we check.
Your name, address and phone number match exactly
This sounds basic, and it is. It’s also wrong on a lot of sites we audit. The profile has a new phone number and the website footer still has the old one. The profile says “Suite 200” and the website leaves it off. The business name on the site includes “LLC” and the profile doesn’t.
Pick one version and use it everywhere: your profile, your website, your Facebook page and any directory listings.
Your services show up in both places
If your profile lists “water heater installation” as a service, your website should have a page about water heater installation. Not one line on a general services page. A real page that explains the work, shows photos and tells people how to book it.
That page gives Google something solid to connect to your profile when someone searches for that service. It also gives the customer what they came for.
Your service areas are clear on the site
Your profile can list the areas you serve. Your website should back that up. If you work in Brentwood, Franklin and Spring Hill, say so on the site in plain language. Mention them where it makes sense on your service pages, and show real jobs you’ve done in those towns.
Please don’t build twenty copies of the same page with the city name swapped out. Google sees right through that, and so do customers. One honest, useful page for each area you really serve is worth more than a pile of copies.
Reviews, photos and posts point the same direction
Reviews help your profile rank and help people trust you. Showing some of those reviews on your website helps the site do its job too. The same goes for photos. Real photos of your work belong on both.
If you post updates on your profile, link them to the matching page on your site. A post about a spring HVAC tune up special should send people to your HVAC maintenance page.
Want to know if your profile and website are working together? Our free Full Marketing Audit checks both, along with your rankings, competitors and tracking, then sends you a written report with a ranked list of fixes.
Where your profile should link
Your profile has a website link, and some categories also allow links for appointments or menus. Where those links go matters.
For a single location business, the home page is usually fine, as long as the home page is strong. That means it says what you do and where in the first screen, and the phone number is easy to tap.
For a multi-location business, each location’s profile should link to that location’s page on your site, not the home page. Someone looking at your Murfreesboro listing wants Murfreesboro hours, the Murfreesboro address and the Murfreesboro phone number. Sending them to a generic home page makes them dig, and people don’t dig.
It also helps to add tracking tags to those links so your reports can show how many visits came from your profile. It’s a small setup step that makes your reports a lot more honest.
What the website needs once people arrive
Getting the click from the map is only half of it. The page they land on has to finish the job. This is where a lot of businesses lose calls they already earned.
The page your profile links to should have:
- Your phone number at the top, and it dials when tapped
- A headline that says what you do and where
- Your strongest reviews near the top
- Real photos, not stock images
- A short form for people who would rather not call
- A fast load time on a phone
We wrote a longer list in seven signs your website is costing you leads. If your profile is getting views but your phone isn’t ringing, start there.
Your profile gets you on the map. Your website gets you the call. If you only work on one of them, you’re leaving the other half of the job undone.
Justin Cahoy, founder of MXM Exposure
A simple monthly routine
You don’t need to live in your Google Business Profile. A little regular attention goes a long way.
- Ask every happy customer for a review, and reply to every review you get.
- Add new photos of real jobs. Put the best ones on your website too.
- Post an update when you have news, a seasonal service or an offer, and link it to the right page.
- Check that your hours, phone number and services are still correct, especially around holidays.
- Look at your profile’s performance numbers next to your website’s call and form numbers, so you can see the whole picture.
Reviews are the part most owners struggle with, so we wrote a separate post on how many Google reviews you really need and how to get them consistently.
Common mistakes we see
A few problems come up in almost every local business we look at:
- The profile category doesn’t match what the business makes most of its money on
- The website link points to an old domain or a page that no longer exists
- Hours are wrong, so people show up or call when you’re closed
- Questions in the Q&A section sit there with no answer, or with an answer from a stranger
- Duplicate profiles from an old address or an old business name
- The website never mentions the city you’re trying to rank in
Each one is fixable. Most can be fixed in an afternoon. Together, they can be the difference between showing up on the map and being the business nobody sees.
How our team handles this
At MXM Exposure, we don’t treat your Google Business Profile and your website as separate jobs, because Google doesn’t. Our team builds or rebuilds your site with service pages and area pages that back up your profile. Then we manage the profile itself with fresh photos, posts, review replies and accurate details, all pointing back to the right pages.
That’s what our local SEO work is built around. And if your current site can’t hold up its end, our website design team builds one that can. Same team, one plan, with reports in plain English.
If you want to see how your profile and website are working together right now, start with our free Full Marketing Audit. We’ll review both, compare you to the competitors showing up above you, and send a written report with a ranked list of what to fix first.
