Local SEO
Google Business Profile Audit
Wellington and Christchurch
Prepared for
Alert Building Inspections
https://alertbuildinginspections.co.nz/
I noticed a double up / glitch in the dashboard (all profiles). The main category Building Inspector appears twice in the dropdown.
On some profiles, for example Christchurch this is displayed as Home Inspector on the search result.
This is most likely just Google showing different wording for different regions, and the double up is a glitch while both are tied to the same logic in the back-end. However, I would suggest selecting Building Inspector once again as a second category (Home Inspector is not an option). Try this on one profile first to see what happens (might take a few days)
Other secondary categories to add:
Commercial Property Inspector
Asbestos Testing Service
Listing products and/or services is a great way to rank for specific keywords. A great range of services has been added, along with custom descriptions. However, there are a few double ups, for example pre purchase building inspection and pre purchase building report, the latter being more suitable to list a product (some products have already been listed and can be deleted from services).
It is also best to list services under the most appropriate category, for example commercial building inspection under the category commercial property inspector.
The Christchurch profile has 26 services listed, that’s far too many. A number around 15 is generally recommended which aligns with your competitors, who list 10-20 services.
We recommend moving all the reports from services to products. Building report has already been added as a product, meaning it can be deleted from services.
We also noted some keyword manipulation, adding the location. This is not necessary as the search intent will be tied to the business location. This may actually have a negative impact, and to users it looks spammy. We recommend removing location names from products / services on all profiles.
Following products / services should be added:
Asbestos Testing (if applicable)
Meth Testing
Drug Contamination Testing
Renovation Inspection / Report
Alteration Inspection / Report
The business description is a great way to provide a quick overview about your company and the services you offer. Since the description does NOT impact rankings, there’s no need to include every single service, these can be listed under services.
The formatting is limited too. For example, the description field doesn’t take line breaks or bullet points. Your description has a list of services defined in the dashboard but this looks different on the live listing / see below.
We recommend following description (or similar):
Alert Building Inspections delivers professional building inspections throughout Wellington, giving home buyers, sellers, and property investors the confidence to make informed decisions. We are BCITO Trade Qualified Inspectors and our reports are accepted by all banks. We offer full professional indemnity insurance and a fast 24-48 Hour Turnaround. Our comprehensive reports are clear, practical, and highlight structural concerns, maintenance issues, and defects to help you understand the property's condition, with reports starting from $299.
Dashboard vs. live view.
According to Google’s guidelines, service area businesses should not display their address, if there is no office or showroom for walk-in customers.
The catch is, listing the address will usually improve rankings.
At the moment, your profile ranks well for “building inspections auckland” and similar keywords:
However, this may change as you recently moved. Your ranking might still relate to your old business address / hasn’t reset yet in Google’s algorithm, even though you have already verified your new address. But there is no guarantee the ranking will go down due to this as other building inspection companies are using service areas and ranking just as high/higher.
If rankings drop, it would be best to display your new address. This is a very delicate edit though and can lead to instant disapproval if not done in the right order. Re-verification might be required too.
Before opting to display the address you have to “prove” that you really operate at this address. You will need to update your online citations / directory listings first and wait for them to get indexed before editing the address on your Google Business Profile.
You have defined all major Auckland areas which generates a visual service area for the viewer.
Service areas do not impact rankings for specific location keywords such as
“building inspections south auckland” etc.
Rankings for location specific keywords are determined by a range of factors such as the verified address, website content, citation consistency, and more.
Your West Auckland profile has the address listed and ranks for local searches. The phone number is the same as on you Auckland profile which is not ideal (see next page).
In a multi branch scenario like yours, it is best not to overlap service areas.
Both, Auckland and West Auckland profiles are listed with the same mobile phone number which is not ideal.
While both profiles are live and verified, this could change at any moment as Google usually demands a unique phone number per business location.
The use of 0800 numbers as primary number is fine but a different phone number should be used as secondary phone number.
If at all possible, the use of a local landline number is ideal as this is yet another local signal to Google. Your Wellington and Christchurch profiles have local landline numbers which is great.
To potential customers a 0800 number or a local landline number looks more trustworthy than a mobile number.
The use of the mobile number in SMS settings is perfectly fine of course. However, Google is asking for confirmation (please confirm by clicking OK if everything is correct).
Responding to reviews is important, especially negative ones. You are doing a very good job responding to most reviews. However, the language used in responses is extremely important. While we understand this is always an emotional process, it is best to keep language neutral and professional.
When researching businesses, potential customers often look at negative reviews and judge the business based on their responses to criticism. Mistakes or misunderstandings can happen but the way a business deals with this is important.
AI can help to craft responses in a professional tone, without sounding emotional or defensive.
In some cases, negative reviews can also point out legitimate pain points within the business / areas with room for improvement.
Unfortunately it is very hard to get negative reviews removed, and only possible if they violate Google’s guidelines or if you can prove they are spam, for example competitors getting people to post negative reviews etc.
On a positive note, negative reviews add a factor of authenticity. A business with hundreds of five-star reviews and zero negative reviews doesn’t look real.
Images are important to provide a quick impression. They showcase your company’s identity and provide a visual impression of your products and services.
Unfortunately it is a little tricky to influence which images are shown on the search result, and this may vary depending on the search query, the searcher’s profile and history, etc. Your best chance is changing the cover photo, this is usually shown on the search result.
I saw the below when I clicked on your profile - in multiple browsers in incognito mode.
While the picture of the large round building and the stock photo of a family on a lawn (currently set as your cover photo) are of good image quality, they are not very relevant and should therefore be removed.
I recommend deleting the current cover photo and replacing it with the man checking the gutters.
Relevant pictures in your gallery:
While showcasing your team is a good idea, it is better to have one team shot instead of individual photos as they are not relevant to your services and mix in with those relevant product/service images that your customers are looking for.
We recommend deleting the individual photos and uploading a team photo.
The ranking of a Google Business Profile is determined by a range of factors and the majority has been covered in this report. i.e. listed business name, registered address (even if not shown), categories, products & services, etc.
However, there are a lot of things going on in the background such as the profile history, address changes, who submits edits and more.
As outlined throughout this report, your profiles are generally well optimised, in some cases over-optimised which can raise flags.
The Auckland and Wellington profiles seem to be ranking well in the map results, in sync with the respective websites in organic rankings.
Christchurch however is different: while the website ranks well, the Google Business Profile does not, despite being well optimised and the address being close enough to the city centre (some well ranking competitors are further away).
To further understand this, it would be good to know the history of the profile, has it ever been moved, i.e. address changed. Has it ranked better in local results in the past? If so, when did it change and what has happened around that time?