Connecting to Google

Registering your website to Google is a crucial step that we highly recommend you do once your website is live if you’d like to use Google in your marketing strategy.

This process includes registering your website with Google to ensure you appear in Google’s search results. You can trigger this directly from within the system itself via a simple step by step guided process and your Google account which this article will outline, including some recommended next steps.

Being connected to Google also allows you to take advantage of invaluable information that can feed into your marketing strategy. Some of the benefits include:

• Automatic resubmissions of your SiteMap so you appear in Google’s search results

• Report of your daily website visitors

• Retrieval of your Top Search Queries, Top Keywords & Top Search Pages

• Tracking your Citation growth each month

• At a glance, see which Citations contain missing or incorrect information that are hurting your search engine rank

Google Account required

You must have a Google Account set up in order to complete this process.

If you have multiple email addresses set up with Google, please ensure you use the same Google Account email address for this process. e.g. if you have already set up a Google Business Profile under a particular email address, ensure you use that same email so this process will link up to it (and not create a duplicate).

Also ensure that your Google Account has sufficient permissions set up. They should be sufficient by default, but if you’ve had any other users or companies involved with your website, for example, then they may have revoked certain access from your Google Account. To check your permissions please refer to the Google Business Profile article.

Connecting to Google

This guided process will step you through how to register with Google, which includes connecting or setting up Google Analytics, Google Search Console and your Google Business Profile.

Steps

1. Navigate to the Dashboard or Marketing menu

2. Click on Register Website with Google
   
   
   

3. Click Connect to begin the process  
   
   
   

4. Choose your Google account. Ensure you’ve selected the account that you have associated with your business (and if you already have a Google Business Profile set up ensure you’re using this same Google account).
   
   
   

5. Click Allow to allow your BookingTimes website access to your Google Account
   
   

6. If you don't have any existing Google Analytics properties, click Create analytics account button. This will open a new browser tab and take you onto a Google website to create a Google Analytics account for you. If you do have an existing property, simply click Connect next to it and skip the below steps that take you into Google to create this property and move onto the Search Console section.

   1. Note: a property is simply a generic term for a website that you have added to your Google Analytics account so just name it as your business name.
      
      

7. The following steps show you how to create and set up a new Google Analytics property within Google if you don’t already have one - otherwise please skip these specific Google steps :

   1. Click on Start Measuring button
      
      
      

   2. Enter in an Account name. e.g. My Business Name. Select your desired the account data sharing settings and click Next button
      
      
      
      

   3. Enter in a Property name. e.g. My Business Name. Set the appropriated Reporting time zone and currency and click Next button
      
      
      

   4. Select your Industry category. e.g. Jobs and education. Select your Business size and click Next button.
      
      
      

   5. Select your Business Objectives (note if you select ‘Other’ at the bottom it will uncheck all the top ones). Click Create button.
      
      
      
      

   6. Select the “I also accept…” checkbox, and then click the I Accept button
      
      
      

   7. Select Web as the platform
      
      
      

   8. Add in your website address, and a Stream name. e.g My Business Name
      
      
      

   9. Click Create & continue button at the top of the screen
      
      
      

   10. View your Stream details. This is the LAST step required to set up your Google Analytics account. Clicking Next will take you into additional Google settings that are not required as part of this set up. Once you see this screen, go back to your browser tab which has your BookingTimes website open.
       
       
       
       
       

8. Once you’ve created your property in Google, Click Refresh Properties button under the table for the updated properties to show, and then click Connect against your property.
   
   

9. If you don't have any existing Search Console properties, click Create new property button, or click Connect if existing properties are already set up. This will create a Google Search Console account for you.

   1. Note: a property is simply a generic term for a website that you have added to your Search Console account so just name it as your business name
      
      

10. If you don't have an existing Business Profile, click Create business profile button. This will only create a skeleton profile and it’s recommended you go back and edit it directly in Google after this process to ensure it has all the correct details and you have your business “Verified” with Google (i.e. proving that you are a legitimate business). If you have an existing profile set up then click Connect in the row item next to the correct Business Profile.
    
    Note: You can also create a Business Profile first directly via Google here: https://business.google.com/create

    Note: You can manage your Business Profile directly via Google here: https://www.google.com/business
    

11. If you’re creating a Business Profile then enter your business profile details, and click Check for profile. This is important to ensure you do NOT create a duplicate Google Business Profile.
    
    
    

12. If no other profile is found, click Create profile link
    
    

Note

Once this process has been completed it can take several days for Google to be connected to your website. If the Register Website with Google button re-appears a few minutes after this process, please see the Google Business Profile article to ensure your Google Account has sufficient permissions.

Once it's connected you'll see a Connected to Google in the left hand menu when you navigate to the Marketing menu. Then on the main panel of that marketing screen you'll see: Top Search Queries, Top Performing Keywords, Top Pages, Directory Listings and other information across the available tabs.

Next steps to boost SEO

The BookingTimes software has been designed with SEO as a priority. It has all the right page structure, the right tags, great performance - all the things that Google loves. This can be thought of as passive SEO.

The next step is looking at active SEO, once you’ve kicked off registration with Google, there are a number of additional steps you can take to maximise your rankings on Google:

• Set up your Google Business Profile - the registration process created an account for you if you didn’t already have one, but make sure you update all your business details and get it Verified with Google.

  • You can manage your Business Profile directly via Google here: https://www.google.com/business

• Local listings and citations

• SEO basics course

• Activate your SEO+ subscription plan!

SEO+ subscription plan

This optional monthly add on allows you to increase your website's visibility and manage your online reputation easily:

• Manage, reply-to and publish every Google review directly from your platform - even across multiple Google profiles. Google reviews act as social proof AND are crawled for keywords.

• Improve search results by automatically adding structured data markup to every page on your website. This is fancy code that increases the search engine visibility of your company, your services, online courses, locations, hours, and more.

• Find new authoritative places to list your business online, complete with regular checks for brand consistency. Also find out where your competitors are listed and where you need to be.

• See complete reports on all of your top search queries, keywords and top pages from Google's data.

To activate it, simply go to the Marketing menu on your website, select the SEO+ tab, and click the Activate Now button.