Google Business Profile Tips for Billings, MT Businesses

When someone in Billings Heights searches for a furnace repair, a lunch spot near Downtown Billings or a dog groomer on the West End, the first thing they usually see is not a website. It is the map and the business listings under it. Those listings come from Google Business Profile.

If your profile is missing, half finished or out of date, a customer who has never heard of you has no reason to pick you. Here is how to get it right, in plain terms. This is Z from Blaze Digital Design, and this is the stuff I check first for every local business.

What a Google Business Profile is

It is the free listing Google shows for your business in Maps and in local search results. It holds your name, address or service area, phone number, hours, photos, reviews and a link to your website. You manage it at business.google.com.

It is not a replacement for a website. Think of it as the front door. Your website is where people go when they want to know more before they call.

Get the basics exactly right

Most problems I see come from the simple fields.

• Use your real business name. Do not add extra words like “Best Roofing Billings MT” unless that is your actual name. Google’s guidelines do not allow keyword stuffing in the name, and listings that do it can be suspended.
• Pick the right primary category. This tells Google what you are. Choose the most specific one that fits, then add a few secondary categories for other things you really do.
• Address or service area. If customers come to you, show your address. If you go to them, like a mobile detailer, plumber or handyman, set a service area (Billings, Laurel, Lockwood, the rest of Yellowstone County, wherever you really work) and hide the street address.
• Match your phone number and address everywhere. Your profile, your website and your Facebook page should all say the same thing, written the same way.

Keep your hours honest, especially in winter

Montana weather does not care about your posted hours. A blizzard, a cold snap or icy roads can shut you down early, and holidays shift schedules too. If your profile says you are open and someone drives across town to find a locked door, that turns into a bad review fast.

• Update your regular hours whenever your schedule changes.
• Use special hours for holidays, big events at MetraPark that change your schedule, and weather closures, so Google shows the change without you rewriting your normal hours.
• If your hours change by season, like a landscaper who slows down in winter or a snow removal outfit that ramps up, change the profile when the season changes instead of leaving old hours up.

Add real photos, and keep adding them

People want to see what they are getting. Photos of your storefront, your work, your team and your space help a stranger decide.

• Use real photos you took, not stock images.
• Add a clear photo of the outside so people can find you from the road, especially if you are tucked into a strip center.
• Add new ones every so often. A profile with recent photos looks like a business that is open and paying attention.

Reviews: ask, respond, and never pay for them

Reviews are one of the biggest things people read before they choose a local business. Billings is the kind of town where word of mouth matters, and reviews are word of mouth that strangers can read.

• Ask happy customers directly. A short text with your review link right after a good job works better than a sign by the register. You can copy your review link from your profile.
• Respond to every review, good or bad. Thank people. For a bad one, stay calm, keep it short and offer to make it right offline.
• Do not offer discounts or freebies for reviews. Google’s policies do not allow incentivized reviews, and it is not worth risking your listing.

Use the services and products sections

You can list the specific services or products you offer, with a short description for each. This helps Google match you to more specific searches and saves customers a phone call to ask “do you do that?”

Link it to a website that loads fast on a phone

Most local searches happen on a phone, often from a truck, a job site or a parking lot. When someone taps through to your site, it needs to load fast and show your phone number, hours and location right away.

That is why every site I build is hand-coded and mobile first, with no page builder slowing it down. Our one-page build is $500 and covers exactly what most local businesses need to back up their profile. You can see examples in our portfolio.

Quick checklist

• Profile verified and owned by you, not a past employee or old agency
• Real business name, correct primary category
• Address or service area set correctly
• Phone and address match your website
• Regular hours and special hours up to date
• Real photos, including the outside
• A plan to ask for reviews and reply to them
• Services or products listed
• Website link that works and loads fast on a phone

Next step

If you run a business in Billings, from the Heights to the West End to Downtown, and your profile or website needs work, book a free strategy call and tell me what you do and who your customers are. We reply within one business day.