Congratulations on launching your website with Zarla! Now it’s time to put your business out there and start getting customers!
If you already have active social media accounts with followers, the simplest way to build buzz around your business is to tell your followers about your new website.
Create posts on each of your social media platforms, remembering to include the direct link to your website, and repeat that process every few days for about a month. If you have other announcements about your new business (milestones, new offerings, awards, events, etc.) mention those as well.
Regular posting will get your business on people’s radar and start bringing visitors to your site.
No social media accounts? Or just want more visibility? Not to worry! We’ve created a simple guide to help you get more visitors to your site and turn those visitors into customers.
1. Get your free custom domain name.
If you’ve just launched your website, your current, temporary domain name is “your-business-name.zarlasites.com.” This can be confusing for customers, so don’t let that be your domain for long - contact Zarla’s support team to request your custom domain name without the default “zarlasites” included.
Your custom domain name will typically be simple and straightforward, like yourbusinessname.com. This will help customers remember it and, when they type it directly into their browser, they’ll be taken immediately to your website.
2. Create a free Google Business Profile.
It’s incredibly difficult for new businesses to rank highly in Google’s search results UNLESS you add your business to Google directly.
Here’s our step-by-step guide to make this process simple and quick:
1. Go here and type your business name and category (if you're not sure, just type any word that describes your business and choose an option from the dropdown menu).
The page looks like this:
2. Next, choose your business location. If you don't have an office or storefront that you want people to visit, select "No" as your answer.
If you chose "No" then the next step is to add a service area:
By giving Google your general location, they can show your business to local customers, even if you don't have a physical address.
If you do have a physical address, then just fill out your business address like normal.
3. For the next few steps, continue filling out your business details as requested. Some of these will be optional, and you can select "Next" or "Skip" if you want speed up the process by filling them out later (or not at all).
The one exception is your business verification. You MUST verify your business or your Google Business Profile will never go live.
4. At some point Google will request that you verify your business. They might send a verification code by text or mail, they might request that you record a video of your business (here's how to successfully get verified by video) or they could offer another method to prove your business exists.
You can always choose to verify your business later, but your profile will not be visible to customers until you have verified it - which would defeat the purpose of having a Google Business Profile - so we always recommend verifying as soon as possible.
Here's one verification example:
5. After verifying, continue the setup process. Google might offer you the option of letting customers message you from your Google Profile:
You can also add a business description, or photos to your profile (feel free to use text and descriptions from your Zarla website to fill out this profile if you’d like) and basically add any other information you think customers might want to know.
Just remember, most of this is optional, so if you don't feel ready for something in particular, you can always skip it for now!
Once you have completed all these steps, Google will take you to the results page to show you what your completed profile looks like (it will probably be “pending review” but as long as you have verified your business it won’t take long to be publicly visible).
Additionally, you will not be able to move on to step 3 until you verify your business, so make sure to do that right away if possible.
3. Request ratings from your customers.
Lastly, you’ll need to ask for ratings from every satisfied customer immediately after you finish a job for them - Google relies on these ratings to determine which businesses it should place at the top of its search results.
Generally it only takes 3-5 ratings from customers before you'll start seeing your business near the top of Google's local results for your business services.
You won't get any ratings if you don't ask, and there are a few easy ways to make sure your requests are answered with a great 5-star review:
First, tell each customer - in person - that you'll be asking for a rating to learn how you did. Then, send them a short text within a few minutes (or email if you don't have access to their phone number).
Here's an easy text template you can modify for your own business:
[First name], thanks for trusting me with your [specific service]. Would you be willing to share a quick rating of how I did? It won't take more than a minute, and every rating we get helps a ton.
Here's where you can leave your rating. [Link goes here]
Thank you, I really appreciate it!
[Owner's name]
[Business name]
For the sentence "Here's where you can leave your rating" make sure to include a link to your Google Business Profile's review page.
You can get a link by going to your Google Business Profile and clicking on "Ask for reviews" which is typically found at the bottom of the rows of icons available:
Google will show you different options for sending a link - for a text, you can just copy/paste the Review Link that Google gives you:
If you stick with this process, you'll get reviews and rank near the top of Google for your business searches in no time.
Need more help with your Google Business Profile? Don’t hesitate to ask!