Where should my business page link go?

Why one link everywhere?

Because customers do not all look in the same place. One finds you on a map, another on Instagram, another on the side of your van. If each place sends them somewhere different, some of them land on an old website, a dead link or a page with last year's prices.

One address in every place means one page to keep up to date. Change your hours there, and everybody who finds you, wherever they found you, sees the new ones. It is easy to check, too: tap through from each place once, and you know they all work. The checklist starts with your Google profile and works outwards.

It helps people trust you as well. When your profile, your bios and your van all show the same address, a customer can tell they have found the right business, and not another one with a similar name.

Before you start, pick the page every link will open, and make sure it is ready: your number right, your hours right, and a button to call you near the top. Putting a link everywhere sends people to that page, so it should be one you are happy for a stranger to see.

How do I add it to my Google profile?

Your Google Business Profile has a place for your website,^1,2 and it is the first place to put your page's address: the profile is often the first thing people see when they look you up, and its website button should open a page that helps them get in touch.

Our guide to Google Business Profile websites has the steps for pointing your profile at your page. If your profile still points at an old website that nobody keeps up, this is the change to make first.

While you are on your profile, read it as a customer would: is the phone number the one you answer, are the hours this week's hours, and do the photos show your own work? Your page and your profile should say the same things, so a customer who sees both trusts both.

What about Apple Maps and Bing?

Apple Maps shows a business on a place card, with buttons to call it and to visit its website, and Apple Business is how a business looks after its card, at no charge.³ Put your page's address in the card's website field.

Bing has its own listing for businesses too, Bing Places: put the same address there. While you are in each of them, check that your name, address and phone number match your Google profile exactly, so a customer who finds you in two places can tell it is the same business.

The same goes for any other listing you have, such as a trade body's member page or a local site that lists businesses near you: if it has a place for a website, give it the same address.

Which bios and profiles should carry it?

Every account you use to show your work, because that is where people who like it go when they want to get in touch:

• Instagram. A professional account can show up to five links in its bio,^4,5 so your page can sit beside anything else you link.
• Facebook. If you have a Facebook Page,⁶ add your page's address to it, and to any post that tells people how to book.
• WhatsApp Business. The app gives your business a chat, a catalogue, QR codes and away messages.⁷ Put your page's address in your business profile there, and in your away message, so somebody who writes when you are closed can still see your hours or ask for a booking.
• Everywhere else you post. The same address, in the same place on each account, so it is easy to find wherever somebody starts.

Say what the link is for, in a few words beside it: “Call, WhatsApp or book” works better than a bare address, because people tap what they understand. And when you post your work, mention the link now and then, so followers who need you remember where to go.

What about my van, my window and my paperwork?

The people who see your van or walk past your shop are some of the nearest customers you have. Give them a way to reach you without typing:

• a QR code on the back and sides of the van, with a few words such as “Scan to call or book”
• a QR code and your page's address in the shop window, at eye level
• the address on your business cards, invoices, receipts, quotes and leaflets
• the address in your email signature, so every reply carries it
• your voicemail message, as a place to book or send an enquiry when you cannot answer
• the automatic reply you send when you are away or on holiday

Order a small test run before a big print job, and try the code and the address on it yourself. When you next reprint anything, swap any old address on it for the new one, so nothing you hand out points somewhere stale.

Print the address in words as well as the code, for people who would rather type it or need to read it out to somebody. Our guide to what the QR code on your van should open covers where to put the code and how to test it before it is printed.

How do I know it is working?

A simple way to start: for one month, ask each new customer how they found you, and note the answer in a notebook or on your phone. At the end you will know which places bring people and which do not.

Then look at what your page can tell you: how many people opened it, how many scanned the code, and how many tapped to call or message you. A place that sends visits but no calls may need a clearer page; a place that sends nobody may need a better spot for the link.

Every few months, check each link yourself: open your Google profile, your Apple Maps card and your bios on your phone, and tap through to your page. Links get changed by accident, accounts get edited, and a check takes a few minutes. Do it again whenever you change your page's address, your phone number or your hours.