Google has launched new options within the Business Profile to allow customers to contact you via WhatsApp or with a text message (SMS).
It recently announced that it was adding this feature to Business Profile for most countries, including the UK.
This is great news for businesses, as it provides customers with another contact option, that’s available directly from Google’s search results when someone searches for your company name.
It’s a useful option for customers who may not have time to call or search through your website for an answer, or for those who prefer messaging (I can see my grown-up children preferring this to having to speak to someone on the phone!).
How to add chat options to your Google Business Profile
You will need to activate this feature if you want to have it available, so to do this:
- Go to/sign-in to your Business Profile
- Click Edit profile > Business information > Contact
- Click Chat and then select the down arrow
- Select Text message to add a phone number
- Select WhatsApp and add your WhatsApp URL
- Click Save.
NB. you can choose whether to enable one or both of these options, depending what works best for you.
Good news for those of you with multiple Business Profiles, is that you can add the same WhatsApp URL to all of them if you want to.
However when it comes to tracking the performance of user interaction of this feature, including number of clicks on the chat button, Google says this is not yet available. Regardless, you will be able to manually keep tabs on whether you’re getting an increased number of texts or WhatsApp messages.
For more information, visit Google’s Business Profile help section.
Want to learn more about how you can optimise your Google Business Profile further? Contact us today and chat to one of our Local SEO experts.
