If you own a home service business, you have an online reputation—whether you are actively managing it or not. The good news? You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on expensive monitoring software to find out what people in your community are seeing. You can do a comprehensive check of your digital footprint entirely for free.
The Biggest Mistake: The Vanity Search Trap
When most contractors decide to check their online reputation, they make one major mistake. They do a quick Google search of their exact business name, see their own website pop up on the first page, and call it a day.
I call this the vanity search. It feels good, but it is incredibly misleading.
When you only look for your exact brand name, you completely miss the bigger picture. You miss seeing whether your business shows up for the actual services you provide—like “emergency plumber near me” or “roof repair.” Most importantly, you miss seeing if your core business information is actually consistent across the web.
The Power of a Manual NAP Audit
One of the most effective things I do for my clients is a manual NAP audit. NAP stands for Name, Address, and Phone number.
To do this, I manually hunt down every place a company is listed online: their Google Business Profile, their website, Facebook, Nextdoor, and any random local directory. I log exactly how their name, address, and phone number appear on each site.
The Element of Surprise
When I hand that audit over, clients are almost always shocked. An old phone number might still be floating around on a local directory, or a previous address is listed on a social media profile they forgot they had. Fixing these basic inconsistencies is the absolute foundation of managing your online reputation. If Google (and your customers) are getting mixed signals about where you are and how to contact you, your reputation is already taking a hit.
Three Free Tactics to Audit Your Footprint
You don’t need to be a tech wizard to monitor your brand. Here are three highly effective, completely free tactics you can start using today:
- Use Incognito Mode: Whenever you check your own search results, always use an Incognito or Private browsing window. If you don’t, Google biases the results based on your past browsing history, showing you what it thinks you want to see, rather than what a new customer sees.
- Set Up Google Alerts: Set up free alerts not just for your exact brand name, but for common misspellings or terms like your brand name plus the word “review.” Google will email you whenever it finds new content matching those terms.
- Search the Local Trenches: Bypass the standard Google front page and see what people are saying in the community forums. Search for your business name directly within local Facebook community boards and Nextdoor to see if neighbors are recommending you—or complaining.
The 15-Minute Action Plan
If you are feeling overwhelmed and only have 15 minutes today, here is exactly what I want you to do.
Open up an Incognito window and find the first five search results for your business. For most local contractors, this will likely be:
- Your Google Business Profile
- Your official website
- Your Facebook page
- A secondary community site like Nextdoor or Instagram
- An industry organization listing, like a local Chamber of Commerce
Look at those five sites and make absolutely sure that your Name, Address, and Phone number are exactly the same across every single one of them. Getting your core information aligned is the single best first step you can take toward protecting your reputation.
Need a second set of eyes? MapYourBiz offers a “Talk To Us!” free 20-minute consultation where we will personally review your Google Business Profile and see how you stack up against your local competitors.
Or give us a call at 360-605-0705. We’re here to help you build a solid foundation for your business.