Drive Business to Your Car Wash

Here are six tips to help you drive more traffic to your car wash in 2022 with Google’s recent update. It’s all about your Google Business Profile. I’ll show you what to do right now.

Hey guys! I’m Mike Berlin from Slam Car Wash Marketing bringing you some new ideas to consider when marketing your car wash operation. It’s the Slam 6. This episode discusses the six things you should do right now on your Google Business Profile to help more customers find your wash first.

Last year, 230 million consumers found businesses from “near me” searches on Google. This is when a customer grabs their phone and searches for “car wash near me.” Who pops up first? Do you pop up first?

Google My Business changed this year. Google Business Profiles are now a free listing and it’s your identity on Google. There is some low hanging fruit here so you can log in right now make some major improvements to your listing and improve your local search ranking so how do you even rank yourself well you can call us, and we can pull a full report, or you can do what I call the Cajun search ranking. I’m from Louisiana and this is my quick DIY way to check your ranking.

Go to Google Maps, look up your address, and zoom in to about a five-mile radius. Then, clear out the search bar and search for the words “car wash.” See who pops up. When it comes to local search ranking, Google bases this on many factors but some of the strongest indicators are made by your Google Business Profile.

Here’s six things I want you to do and get updated right away.

1. Claim Your Listing

If you haven’t done so already, make sure your information is accurate as possible. I’m talking about your name, address, phone number, and store hours. Set yourself a reminder to check on it every month. Keep it up to date.

2. Menu and Services

Go into your listing under services and load in all your wash packages, pricing, and a photo. List out what you’re offering so that consumers can gather all the information they need without ever leaving Google.

3. Photo Uploads

Here’s my recommended shot list—

• picture of the menu
• smiling employee helping a customer at the pay station
• a shiny car coming out of the tunnel
• a customer using the free vacs or the mat washers

Basically, we want shots of smiley happy people to show the world how great it feels to come to your car wash. Also, geotag the photos that you’re posting to your listing or take them with your phone and make sure your location service is turned on.

You’re telling Google that those photos are real, and they were taken at your wash. Another strong indicator to help localize your content is that those photos came from your property. I’ve got a link to a great geotagging tool in the description of the video below.

4. Respond to Every Review

Google is now tracking us and watching how fast we respond to reviews. They want to make sure we’re engaged with our customers good or bad respond to each and every review. Every single day, you want to get more reviews. Then, make it easy on your customer.

Here’s a quick bonus tip:

You can go to your listing and get the link directly to your review page. Take that link and dump it into QR Code Monkey. Boom! You now have a QR Code that puts that happy customer right on your review page in one click. I’ll put the link to QR Code Monkey in the description.

5. Your Business Description

Google gives you a maximum of 750 words to describe your business. Make sure you include your city, name and business category (car wash). In the first sentence, I would make sure you clearly describe your business and what you offer. Also include why you’re the best in town compared to your competitors. Mention the areas that you serve; include the nicknames for your town or your area. I would also say that you’re proud supporters of whatever local high schools and perhaps proud to employ students from neighboring schools and churches. Don’t go crazy with your keywords, but I want to make sure you work on some of those local key phrases that give signals to Google and help your wash index for those phrases.

6. Weekly Interactive Posts

I would make a post to your listing every week. At least post a deal or create an event to promote a group that you’re helping with fundraising or mentioning a new product you now offer. Make sure you’re posting good quality relevant content every week so that Google sees that you’re engaged with your customers and staying active.

These six steps will improve your Google Business Profile and drive more traffic to your wash in 2022. I hope you find this helpful and gets you fired up about marketing your car wash.

If you want some advice or need some help, email or call us at Slam. We’re here to make car washing easy. Lastly, if you like this video, click subscribe and follow us on Facebook. We’ll keep sending you fresh ideas on car wash marketing. Go get slammed!