Guest Blogger Misha Cunningham: “Misha is an entrepreneur and business owner, with a particular affinity towards eCommerce. He is the current Regional Team Leader on the Google Digital Garage project and loves using his digital wizardry to help existing business owners and startups alike. A staunch believer in the Law of Attraction, he believes we are all the sum total of our most dominating thoughts.”
In the past couple of decades, the trade industry has had to adjust to some changes. With the rise of the internet, the industry has had to either adapt or their digital skills gap would grow, leaving them behind. These shifts in making field businesses accessible to the general public are not over yet. For this sole reason, Google has rolled out a new vetting system for all kinds of businesses to level the playing field, called the ‘Google Guaranteed programme’.
The programme is very new and has been released just in the US. It looks promising and seems to influence the trade industry. The Google Guaranteed programme soon will be rolled out in the UK and other parts of the world in the future.
What is Google Guarantee?
The Google Guarantee comes in the form of a simple verified green check mark that presents itself alongside your business name in Google search results. This little green check acts as a badge of trust for businesses. Besides promoting your business and building its solid online reputation, the Google Guarantee Badge encourages potential customers to click your ads. After all, what is better than Google vouching for your business and it is said to be a smart way to improve marketing.
How To Get A Google Guarantee Badge For Your Business
If you want Google to put their seal of approval on your business, then it requires qualifying for an intense certification process. The criterion to qualify for the Google Guarantee is not a walk in the park. Any business wanting a Google Guarantee Badge has to undergo:
- License and insurance as evidence to ensure that the company is in compliance with local laws and regulations
- Trading data check
- Scrutiny to ensure that all the employees in your company are 18 years or older
- Background checks of old and any new hires
- Recertification every 3 months
After jumping through all these hoops, the big G rewards your business with a solid green mark and makes your business stand out from the rest of the competition in Google search results. Deep integration with Google Ads is to be expected as standard, with reports emerging that Google charges for a lead when a customer calls your business through the Google ad.
Google Guaranteed And The Trade Industry
The Google Guaranteed programme is the latest advancement aiming to optimise your digital campaign by cutting out the middleman. Therefore, providing users with verified, Google recommended results.
The programme has set the course to change things for field service businesses and offers an excellent opportunity for businesses to stand out from the crowd and immediately increase the trust levels of consumers. Thanks in part to the Google Guarantee which states that if a customer is not happy with the work done, Google will cover the cost of the job up to a cap of $2,000 providing the claim is submitted within 30 days.
Since the advent of Google Guarantee, the marketing gurus have been debating on how this will affect trade review sites that are solidly dependent on visitor and user ratings. However, the full operating parameters of Google Guarantee and how it will be received within markets like the UK are still not clear yet. The gist of it, however, seems to be that Google Guarantee is a dependable, trust-inducing and curated service that looks set to change the way we search for and find trade services in the future.
