Get found on Google as a liquidation store

Facebook groups bring back people who already know you. Google brings in people who do not. Someone new to town, or someone who just watched a bin store haul video and wondered if there is one nearby, types "bin store near me" or "liquidation store" and picks from whatever shows up in the map.

If your store is not in that map with good photos, current hours, and a few dozen reviews, they are going to your competitor. Fixing this takes an afternoon and then a few minutes a week.

Claim and finish your Google Business Profile

Search for your store's name. If a listing exists, claim it. If it does not, create one. Then fill in every field, because empty fields are what keep listings out of the top three:

• Category. "Discount store" or "Liquidation store" as primary, with "Outlet store" or "Thrift store" as secondary if they apply.
• Hours. Exact, including the day you are closed for restock. If you are closed on Thursday and your listing says open, you get a one-star review from someone who drove over.
• Description. Two or three plain sentences. What you sell, how the pricing works, when you restock. Use the words people search: liquidation, bin store, overstock, discount, and your town's name.
• Photos. At least twenty. The storefront, the bins full on restock day, the line, the register, a few hauls. Photos of full bins do more than any description.
• Products or services. List a handful: "Bin store, $10 restock day," "Discounted small appliances," "Overstock furniture."

Get reviews every week

Reviews are the biggest factor in which store shows first, and they are the easiest to get if you ask. Put the review link on a sign at the register with a QR code. Ask the customer who just found a great deal. Have your team ask on restock day when everyone is in a good mood.

Aim for a couple of new reviews a week. Reply to every one, including the bad ones, in a sentence or two. A calm reply to a complaint about a broken item reads better to the next customer than a perfect five-star average.

Do not offer discounts for reviews. Google removes them, and the reviews you lose are the honest ones.

Post to the profile, not just to Facebook

Google Business Profiles have a posts feature that almost no small store uses. Put the same restock announcement there that you put in your group. It shows in the listing when someone searches for you and tells Google the business is active. One post a week is plenty.

Put the basics on a one-page website

You do not need much of a site. One page with:

• Store name, address, and a map.
• Hours, including the closed day.
• The price schedule, written out.
• A photo of the bins.
• A link to the Facebook group.

Put the town name and the words "bin store" and "liquidation" in the page title and the headline. That page, plus the profile, is enough to rank for local searches in most areas because most competitors have nothing.

Keep the hours right

The single most common mistake is stale hours. Holiday closures, a skipped restock, a change to the schedule. Every one of those, if not reflected on the listing, produces a wasted trip and often a review about it. Update the profile before you update the group.

What to expect

New listings take a few weeks to settle. After that, if your photos are good and reviews are coming in steadily, you should see the profile's own stats show searches for "bin store" and "liquidation" in your area with your listing in the results. Watch that number monthly. When it grows, the line on restock day grows with it.