Client Spotlight: Preferred Rate
Increase in Profile Interactions
Profile
Views
Search
Appearances
Consistent
Interactions
Preferred Rate is a dynamic, fast-growing lending institution
with multiple branch locations and loan officers nationwide. From the very beginning, Preferred Rate has focused on delivering exceptional service to their customers.
They understand that to do this well, continually evolving their systems and pushing for innovation is paramount. They also knew this would require a robust digital presence to connect with clients and remain competitive in the lending space.
Google Business Profile Optimization
Social Media Management
Online Reputation Management
Preferred Rate operates in a fast-paced, high-demand industry where having a strong and well-managed online presence is crucial. At the outset, they needed more than just a website. They required a comprehensive, scalable digital marketing strategy to support their rapid growth. This included creating and managing hundreds of Google Business Profiles (GBPs) for loan officers and branch locations and optimizing each to increase visibility in local searches.
As Preferred Rate grew, maintaining accurate and consistent information across Google Business Profiles for branches, teams and individual loan officers became essential. Compounding this challenge, many loan officers, teams and DBAs joined Preferred Rate from other organizations, bringing fragmented and outdated data. Managing these inconsistent online listings was a significant hurdle.
Preferred Rate’s team would either need costly internal resources with deep expertise in digital marketing and local SEO or leverage a trusted outside partner to handle profile management. Tasks like merging duplicates, updating addresses, adding new locations and staying on top of changing business hours required constant attention. Moreover, ensuring compliance with Google’s best practices was vital for maximizing visibility.
With accurate and consistent listings across hundreds of locations, our loan officers and branches are easier to find and trusted right from the first search. That visibility translates into more relationships, conversions and business opportunities nationwide. It’s also become a powerful recruiting advantage, helping us attract top loan officers who want to be part of a brand that stands out online.”
Dec. 2020 and July 2025
Visibility Impact
Data Accuracy & Cleanup
Growth & Scalability
Seamlessly Managed
With Consistent Branding
Optimize5 has been critical in Preferred Rate’s growth from day one.
Working closely with their leadership team, Optimize5 built Preferred Rate an optimized digital presence from the ground up.
The first step was developing the Preferred Rate website into a high-performing, visually appealing and customer converting tool. From there,
the work expanded to creating custom Google Business Profiles for every branch, team and loan officer. For each one, Optimize5 ensured that the GBPs were consistently optimized with the latest contact information, accurate business hours, high-quality images and region-specific highlights.
Phil Lekousis noted, “These business profiles are a cornerstone of Preferred Rate’s local marketing strategy, significantly improving our visibility in local searches and enhancing our online credibility.”
Through their Business Listings Management Services, Optimize5 meticulously created, optimized and managed thousands of additional business listings across platforms like Bing, Yelp and Apple Maps. With the keen understanding that the customer discovery landscape has changed dramatically — according to one study, 75% of new business comes from review sites and directories — Optimize5 created accurate and optimized business listings for Preferred Rate.
Optimize5 ensured that the Name, Address and Phone Numbers (NAP), as well as other crucial business details, were perfectly consistent across each listing. These consistent, optimized citations generated over 342,000 business listing impressions and more than 146,000 profile clicks in the
last 12 months for the 295 profiles managed, which was a 50% increase in visibility YOY.
Phil has seen the substantial impact the company’s business listings management strategy has had.
“Optimize5’s business listings management services played a crucial role in our growth and success. The profile impressions and clicks they’ve helped generate have significantly increased our visibility online. We’ve seen a direct correlation between launching and updating accurate business listings with increased business.”
Managing fragmented and changing data
As Preferred Rate grew, they continued to bring on new loan officers and DBAs from other organizations. The challenge was that many loan officers, teams and branches had fragmented and outdated data from these previous roles. Optimize5 tackled the monumental task of suppressing, merging and deleting 3,269 duplicate profiles to clean up Preferred Rate’s digital footprint.
As business information changed — whether it was NAP updates, business hours, service offerings, etc. — Optimize5 made over 1,600,000 updates across all profiles, ensuring Preferred Rate’s online presence remained fresh, accurate and compliant with Google’s best practices. This proactive management allowed Preferred Rate to focus on serving clients without worrying about the constantly shifting demands of their digital presence.
Becoming an extension of preferred rate’s marketing team
Optimize5 became a natural extension of Preferred Rate’s internal marketing team as the partnership grew. Optimize5 provided ongoing Google Business Profile Optimization, managed loan officer and branch profiles, and supported the company’s broader digital marketing strategy.
Beyond GBPs, Optimize5 also helped with internal marketing initiatives such as building and evolving the website, creating custom Loan Officer pages, and integrating various digital strategies to further enhance their online presence. This allowed Preferred Rate to scale their business without sacrificing the quality or consistency of their online brand.