November 7, 2023 • 28 mins
Ever wished you could master the art of Google Business Profile and transform your small business's online presence? Well, we've got you covered. Hosts Ajay and Henry, sound the diving bell on this digital tool that's instrumental for small businesses in our internet-obsessed world. We take you down the lanes of Google Search's 25-year history and its influence on local businesses. We shine a light on the local algorithm's key players - relevance, distance, and prominence - and underline the crucial role of reviews in organic rankings. Plus, we ensure you grasp the concept of 'leads over time' (LOT).
But we don't stop there. Henry, our resident Google Business Profile expert, helps you navigate the labyrinth of optimizing your profile for better rankings. We delve into the subtleties of SSL security, mobile responsiveness, and more. You'll learn about the grit needed to secure a good GVP rank through directory and website work, and how to keep it all running smooth with a maintenance loop. We're breaking down Google Business Profile, one step at a time, so you can harness its power for your small business. So, come along on this compelling journey of understanding and optimizing this influential digital real estate.
But we don't stop there. Henry, our resident Google Business Profile expert, helps you navigate the labyrinth of optimizing your profile for better rankings. We delve into the subtleties of SSL security, mobile responsiveness, and more. You'll learn about the grit needed to secure a good GVP rank through directory and website work, and how to keep it all running smooth with a maintenance loop. We're breaking down Google Business Profile, one step at a time, so you can harness its power for your small business. So, come along on this compelling journey of understanding and optimizing this influential digital real estate.
Google Business Buzz Podcast
Brought to you by:
OMG National
www.omgnational.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
People come to us and say, hey, you guys are the GVP
experts.
We hear, you've got a goodmethodology, make me rank number
one.
And then we go look at thewebsite and what do we find?
Hello, and welcome back toanother episode of the Google
(00:20):
Business Buzz.
I'm Ajay and this is Henry, andwe're here today to talk about
something that is possibly themost exciting thing we have
spoken about today.
Now, in marketing, things arealways changing, things are
always evolving, but one playerin this space as a platform has
been here for ages and ages andit is one of the most useful
(00:42):
properties for the majority ofbusinesses online, and that is
the Google Business Profile GVP,or the Maps, formerly known as
Google my Business GMB.
This thing is a powerhouse fora number of reasons we're going
to get into, but today is theday that we're going to dive
into a little bit about whatmakes this so special, how small
(01:04):
businesses can leverage this totheir advantage and what it
means for you as a smallbusiness owner.
So, henry I know this is yourdomain, man Tell us a little bit
about the history.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Thanks, ajay.
Thanks for that intro and helloeveryone.
The Google Business Profile isabsolutely the most important
piece of digital real estate forany local business.
Most consumers are findinglocal businesses be that a
(01:38):
service business, a retail storeor restaurant on Google Maps
and the interactions that arehappening on Google Maps are
turning into conversions.
Those are leads.
You're talking about phonecalls, you're talking about
website visits and you'retalking about direction requests
on that Google Map.
(02:01):
Now we know that Google Searchhas absolutely changed in the 25
years that they've been around.
They started out with just 10links, 10 links to 10 websites.
It was very easy to manipulatesearch back then using keywords,
using old school SEO tacticsthat are no longer relevant
(02:25):
because Google tightened that up.
But they've continued to usetheir organic ranking to build
on top of that platform, of thatarea, where it's their legacy
product.
They invested heavily.
They want to make sure thatthose links are actual value to
(02:48):
the user.
That gets the result, and theyalso use that to affect the
ranking factors of a GoogleBusiness profile.
So Google Maps and also GoogleAds your quality score on Google
Ads is directly affected by thequality of the website and how
(03:10):
that one performs.
Now, when we look at Google, myBusiness or Google Maps.
That is where 86% of consumersare taking their recommendations
from and making decisions aboutwhere to spend their money.
(03:32):
Google Ads is a great way ofcontinuing to keep your business
and the purview of new users,but a lot of savvy customers
will scroll past to check outorganic results.
Why?
Because of reviews.
Because of the organicalgorithm that Google has and
(03:56):
has made public, and they dothis to assure their users that
customer experience and userexperience is paramount.
It's the most important thingfor Google.
They want that end user, thatperson that's conducting the
fast food near me search, to bepleased with that search and to
(04:17):
come back to Google and continueto use Google because of the
trustworthiness and the highquality of the results that
they're receiving.
So Google made a few thingspublic about the local algorithm
, like 10 years ago, and thishas become law for most
(04:41):
marketers and I know I've usedthis document many times and
it's called how to Increase yourLocal Ranking on Google.
You can Google it, find itreally easily.
It's an article by Google andthey talk about three things.
They talk about relevance,distance and prominence, and
(05:04):
those three things are where abusiness can really benefit from
that algorithm and make themost out of Google Maps and
increase their overall businessviewership and conversions.
It's a very involved process.
(05:28):
It's very much like going tothe gym and working towards a
goal, like having apps right.
You want a six pack of apps.
If you don't already have it,you have to work hard, and when
you do have it, you have to workhard to keep it, so you don't
ever want to let off the gaspedal with organics because
(05:49):
other competitors can alsoovertake.
So that's really the intro, agood intro, I'd like to say.
I think I want to get yourthoughts about everything I just
talked about.
What do you think, ejay?
Speaker 1 (06:05):
100% man.
So one thing I want tohighlight to every single person
watching and listening rightnow you have used Google Maps
before 99% chance you have.
You've used them to getdirection requests, you've
possibly used them to send amessage, you've used them to
call, right, and so this is notsomething foreign.
But when you were using thatGoogle business profile, that
(06:26):
GBP listing, you probably didn'trealize that you yourself, as a
customer, now put yourself inthe customer shoes, were
engaging in what could have beena lead funnel, right.
So we're used to thinking and Imanage paid leads, paid
advertising right In part forOMG National, and so when folks
come to me, the types ofconversations I have are always
(06:47):
about paid advertising and thoseare great.
Paid advertising is good.
Paid advertising is fine.
You get rapid lead acquisition,leads on demand.
When we think about Googlebusiness profile, we need to get
used to thinking and talkingabout it in terms of leads over
time LOT.
This is something coined byHenry over here and I think it's
great, because we're not usedto thinking about Google
(07:10):
business profile as Legion.
But it is right.
Think about it.
All of those calls, thosemessages, those direction
requests you, as a smallbusiness owner, you want more of
those to your business.
And so, ladies and gentlemen,what we have here is the
ultimate sleeper right.
When you have a 97 ToyotaCorolla and it's still running
(07:30):
in your driveway, that cardoesn't get all the press,
people don't take pictures of it, people don't give you
compliments on it wherever yougo.
But they should right, becausethat thing is indestructible,
it's bulletproof, it's stillrunning and it's giving you
immense value for what you putinto it.
Google business profile is thesame way, and this is a
perception I had to change.
(07:50):
Being on the paid ad side ofthe equation, I never knew what
Google business profile could dobefore I started working for
OMG and seeing how critical thisproperty is for so many of our
clients that depend on it forlead gen every single day.
But here's the catch GBP isn'tlike a magic wand.
We can't wave a wand and turnit on, like Google ads, and have
(08:10):
it output hundreds of calls,tens of calls, consistently
cycle over cycle.
No, there's a methodology hereand it bangs on those parameters
Henry was talking about.
It's all about that frameworkrelevance, distance, prominence.
If you understand those, youcan extrapolate your playbook
how to bang on those factors toincrease all of those lead
(08:34):
engagements coming in, thosecustomer actions that's the
million dollar word.
Customer actions calls,messages, direction, requests,
so on and so forth.
So, henry, relevance, distance,prominence, man, there's a lot
to unpack here for the averageperson that is listening and
perhaps didn't even know thatGoogle business profile, gbp was
(08:55):
that important or that it waspotentially the source of
thousands of leads over timewhen a consistent and good
methodology is applied to it.
How are we unpacking this thing?
Where do you want to start andhow do you want to organize this
in terms of steps to go from azero to hero with Google
business profile?
Speaker 2 (09:12):
There's really no guarantees and it all depends on
the market and it all dependson the industry and what a
particular business owner iswilling to do and how involved
they are.
So we mentioned relevance,distance and prominence, right,
and those are the three factorsthat Google made public out of
(09:36):
hundreds that they keep secret.
So let's talk about these threefactors, right, because if they
make it public, it's definitelyin use and so we can confirm
that.
So relevance, right.
When they talk about relevance,it's really talking about how
complete that business profileis, how built out is that
(09:59):
profile?
Gbp offers many, many fields,right, not just a business name,
address, phone number, website,category.
It offers services, it offersproducts, it offers business
attributes, it offers hours ofoperation, it offers different
(10:20):
hours if you have access hoursor senior hours All different
types of business attributesthat help consumers find exactly
what they're looking for, right?
Google wants to know if thebusiness is veteran-owned.
Google wants to know if thebusiness is LGBTQ friendly.
(10:42):
Google wants to know if it haswheelchair accessibility.
Right, these are importantfactors, not just for Google but
for actual users on Google thathave preferences filled out on
their profiles, on their Googleprofiles, on their accounts, or
actually use these terms intheir search, making sure that
(11:03):
profile is extremely built outas much information as you want,
like this has not changed inall of the time that Google has
been around.
Content is king.
Seo in 2023 is still veryimportant and content remains
king.
So we have to give Google asmuch content as possible.
(11:25):
Give them photos, ask forreviews All of these things.
Keep you relevant and giveGoogle the right signals.
Then we move on to distance.
Right, we have to think aboutdistance with user experience in
mind, because Google is notgoing to want to show a user
(11:47):
results that are two hours away.
Google wants to show a userresults that are right around
the corner, results that aretrustworthy and convenient, that
have high ratings, high reviews, high star ratings and that are
trusted by other consumers.
Now, that is part of that userexperience factor, right?
(12:13):
So distance when we go back todistance, we have to think about
where the business is locatedand what the competition is
looking like in that area.
We also have to think about theservice areas and how those are
set up, because there are alsoguidelines around that.
If you're a service areabusiness, google recommends
(12:35):
having that set up tight in yourarea.
You can't go further out than atwo-hour driving distance from
where your GPP was verified.
But even then you want to keepit tight.
I would recommend 30 minutesfrom where you are verified,
because Google is always goingto want to be relevant to the
(12:57):
user.
That is closer to that search,right?
So it's not going to show youif you're two hours away.
Then we talk about prominenceright, so it's relevance,
distance covered.
Now, recovering prominence, andprominence is where a business
can really do a lot.
So Google under prominence,it's kind of like a bucket
(13:19):
factor, right, they grouped up acouple of things, a few things
actually.
So we have web links, we havedirectories, right, so websites
like Yelp, like Better BusinessBureau, like MapQuest, yellow
Pages, all of these differentsites that at one time or
another were very popular butnow have lost popularity due to
(13:40):
Google, right, google stillconsiders them important.
There are a lot of them, and ifyour business is being seen by
Googlebot with the same businessname, address, phone number,
category, photos, all of thesame information that allows
Google to give that GPP moretrust factor, more prominence
(14:01):
factor.
Another thing that they mentionin this factor are reviews,
positive ratings and reviews.
They also talk about recentreviews.
So they encourage Google,encourages business owners to
always ask for reviews fromtheir customers.
They try to make it a point ofsaying that you shouldn't only
(14:24):
ask customers that you know aregoing to give you positive
reviews.
You should ask every customer.
Getting a negative review isn'tthe end of the world, because
you must always know how torespond to that negative review.
And it's actually a way ofimproving one's business.
Make some quality assurance orquality control assessments
(14:46):
using their reviews, theirnegative reviews.
And then the final and arguablythe most important factor, it
brings us to the website RightNow.
I mentioned that Google usestheir organic, their classic
organic legacy product in all oftheir platforms, right, and
(15:08):
they're building on top of that.
And that starts with GBP.
So the position of a website onorganic search has a direct
influence about the position inlocal search.
So on the Google map.
So if you can get your websiteto rank in that first page among
(15:30):
the first 10 links underneaththe map, that will help a
business go up in the Google maprankings, right.
So that's another distinction.
That's important and it's kindof confusing, but let's try to
make it clear.
Local rank is Google maps.
Organic rank is underneath themaps, the classic 10 links.
(15:53):
So those are the three factorsand prominence having those.
You know more important threefactors within them, but you got
for us.
Ajay, I want to hear yourthoughts.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
So you guys have all learned by now.
You know that there's this coreframework we got adhere to
relevance, distance, prominence,and that determines how well a
Google business profile isshowing up, is doing.
We need to tie this back intothe goal right.
What is the goal for any Googlebusiness profile?
What should the goal be?
The goal should be, as Henrystated before, just to ingrain
(16:26):
this in everyone's minds itshould be to rank as high as
possible, preferably within thattop three section, the map pack
, and that is because the higheryou rank and the more
consistently you rank, the morecustomer actions we can bring
into the profile.
Now, as Henry said, it's allbased on this framework and sure
you can't mess with distancetoo much.
Relevance is something that youknow.
(16:48):
Fine, you can turn on theattributes on your GVP.
I'm sure there are folkslistening that haven't even
updated their.
You know their attributes inquite some time.
Pro tip, get on there and makethose relevant to what you do.
So it's helpful.
But prominence is the big one,guys, and I want you all to
understand that this doesn'tmean that you need to have the
world's best ranking website.
You have to be number one.
Sure, would that be great, butthat is an a feasible starting
(17:09):
point for everyone, henry, someplaces they can start correct me
if I'm wrong or you know goodSSL security, mobile
responsiveness, local businessschema, local marketing schema,
appropriate things like H1H2headers.
You want to have a website thatis user friendly, mobile,
responsive and accessible, andthere are reports you can run to
(17:30):
see how well your website doesin the real world.
Now I want to highlight thisimportance to everyone, because
in marketing, you tend to zonein on things like zone in on
local services ads, zone in onGoogle ads, zone in on GVP, and
you end up thinking in a box.
Henry is telling you guys thatthis is not just a box with GVP
in it, that GVP is heavilyreliant, based on the prominence
(17:50):
factor, on other things likethe website and directories.
So those are not good.
Your GVP rank is going to beaffected and that is something
that we see every day, right,henry?
People come to us and say, hey,you guys are the GVP experts.
We hear you've got a goodmethodology, make me rank number
one.
And then we go look at thewebsite and what do we find
Right?
So we're to the wise guys.
(18:11):
If the website's not lookingright, the GVP is going to
struggle If all of those thedirectories, core data,
architecture, name, address,phone number app we've used this
example before another podcastHenry the plumber address phone
number must be consistent.
You can't have Henry theplumber and directory A a, j the
plumber and directory B andChris the plumber in directory C
(18:32):
.
You can't.
This is still.
This still must be consistentand that's a labor of love.
If you see your Lamborghinilooking nice in the driveway, no
one sees the amount ofmaintenance that went into that.
Right, in all the services, theengine services, the tire
rotations, the detailing, thecleaning.
Think of directory work andwebsite work as the maintenance
to even have as a foundation toensure that the GVP is going to
(18:53):
be off to a good start.
And then we can talk aboutthings to think of as a
maintenance loop.
Right, so folks are coming tous or another marketing agency
that hopefully knows whatthey're doing.
Doubt it, but if they're comingto us and they're saying, hey,
make my GVP rank better, it'snot just about doing the things
Henry mentioned, getting reviews, sure, it's about doing them
consistently, which is probablywhere he's going with this.
(19:13):
So you want to think abouttasks that you want to do on a
loop or maintenance style basis.
Now, henry, what are some ofthose tasks?
Maybe we can get into apublishing strategy, a posting
strategy, content strategy andwhat would be advice you have
for our listeners and viewers?
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Absolutely.
You mentioned one and it goesright back to content being king
, User generated content, themost important right.
So reviews are extremelyimportant.
Reviews can be the low hangingfruit and can mean the
difference between a fiveranking for a certain keyword
(19:49):
and a top three ranking for acertain keyword.
We know that a business canstart ranking quickly on the
first page with 10 reviews.
So that's the no-transcriptbare minimum that any business
should look and try to complete.
That's the first goal withreviews for business Try and get
10 reviews at least within thefirst few months and then build
(20:14):
from there, Making sure that youhave photos, consistent photos,
authentic photos.
Google doesn't want anythingstock.
Google doesn't want anythingtoo elaborate or photoshopped.
No superimposed graphics orphone numbers on a picture.
(20:34):
Everything must be authentic tothe business and that actually
helps Google provide their userswith your business into the
search.
It gives Google morejustification to bring a
business into their search.
So photos extremely importantand we know that Google's AI is
(20:54):
everywhere.
Google will be able to seeexactly what you are showing it
through the photo and applykeywords as labels.
So if it's an HVAC installation, if it's an AC installation,
you want to show the work thatyou're doing.
Then we want to talk aboutGoogle Business Updates.
(21:15):
Through Google Business Profile, you can do something similar
like a social post, but it's nota social post.
Again, Google doesn't like anyof the frizz frazz no photoshop,
superimposed graphics, nothingin terms of stock images, Even
if you're trying to repeatimages, Google started to take
(21:37):
those away and will deny yourpost.
So new, fresh, updated photoswith the publishing posts, with
your Google Business Updatesthat's important and using those
updates to tell users aboutyour services and your products,
about what makes you differentfrom the competition Because
(22:00):
that's what Google was lookingfor.
Google was looking for content,content, content to justify
bringing a business profile intotheir search.
Google Business Profile offersany user the ability to ask a
question and, unfortunately, anyuser can answer that question.
It doesn't have to be thebusiness owner necessarily.
(22:22):
So I've seen many instanceswhere a competitor goes in and
answers the Q&A the questionthat some user has asked and
this has gone over the client'shead, over the business's head.
They haven't even realizeduntil they come to us and we
provide the methodology to applyfrequently asked questions to
(22:46):
that area and clean it up if itis messy, filled with spam or
whatnot.
So these are things that a usercan do on their own, a business
owner can do on their own, butthere are also tricks and there
are also best practices that onemust consider, Because if you
don't and you want to add yourphone number to the copy of a
(23:09):
business profile update, it'sgoing to get rejected and you're
not going to want to know why.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
I just want to speak to that.
Everyone is an armchair expert,guys, till it comes time to
throw down.
We've got clients who came tous and said, hey, what's wrong
with my posts?
I'm making my own posts at thesame time and we go and look at
these posts and they're too long.
They're formatted like socialmedia.
There's all kinds of emojis andthere's image overlays being
(23:34):
used with the accompanyingimages, and it's just not in the
format that Google likes it in.
Nor does Google find this sortof stuff helpful in the real
world to users.
So, like Henry said, it's allabout authenticity and it's all
about consistency.
This means that if you're aplumber, you want pictures of
your guys and gals out in thefield doing real work.
(23:54):
You don't want to.
This isn't let's get cuteInstagram.
This is Google and we got toabide by their preferences, and
so it's all about consistency.
Like he said, sure, you as abusiness owner, you can go in
there and respond to a reviewevery once in a while.
You can go throw in an FAQ or aquestion every once in a while,
but are you doing itconsistently to show yourself
(24:16):
engaging with your futurepotential customer base?
Right, and are you doing itright in accordance with
Google's best practices.
So, when it comes down to thepublishing strategy, the posting
strategy, the review responsesand the photos and everything
else, it is a well-curated,deliberately crafted system that
we have ongoing for our clientsto make sure that our clients'
(24:39):
GBP profiles are getting loveconsistently.
And it is that consistency,that thoughtfulness and that
engagement that allows you toshow Google that you are there
for the needs of your customersand that you're engaging with
them over time.
So this isn't like, if you'retrying to lose weight, you go to
the gym this weekend and thentwo months later, it's been two
months since you've gone to thegym last.
That ain't going to work.
(25:00):
It is very competitive, guys,and, as we mentioned, the goal
is to rank as high as possiblefor those keywords you're
targeting, and that is not goingto happen without consistency.
And so to Henry's point.
I just wanted to highlight theimportance of the cohesiveness
of the strategy and theimportance of hitting all of
these angles.
We're talking about not justone or the other inconsistency,
(25:23):
it's all about the consistency.
You guys and as Henry mentioned, most of that is done through
the prominence factor.
If you're running game onGoogle Business Profile, trying
to make it and have yourbusiness scene visible to more
people and engaged with you, areapplying your interpretation of
the prominence ranking factor.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
And so, henry, what else should they know, man Well,
you really want to make sureyou're on top of any updates.
That can happen with yourGoogle Business Profile, because
Google AI, like we mentionedearlier, it's always out there
and it's always scraping theinternet and if it finds old
information anywhere if you'renot on top of your directories,
(26:02):
per say, let's say you had aYelp page that was at the old
location and you never updatedit because you forgot the
credentials Google might findthat and Google might apply that
address back onto your GoogleBusiness Profile.
And if you don't see it youdon't accept or reject that at
it it'll get applied.
So you got to make sure you'reon top of those updates because
(26:26):
Google will definitely push itif you're not rejecting or
updating yourself.
And then you want to make sureyou're on top of your reviews,
your reviews and your questions,because that is the most
important thing.
You want to respond to everysingle review and you want to
ask for reviews from all of yourclients.
(26:46):
All of your customers Get intothe habit of asking for a review
as soon as you finish a job ormake a sale and then sending a
follow-up text, a follow-upemail or giving them a QR code
for them to scan, because it'snot like they don't want to
leave a review.
Maybe they just forget or theycan at that moment.
(27:08):
I've been that user where Ihaven't been able to leave the
review in that moment, but whenI get a text message reminding
me I do.
So that's very important.
Ask at least three times forthat review and make sure you're
on top of the website as well,and everything we talked about
(27:29):
is extremely important if youreally want to be competitive.
Any business can be on GBP onGoogle Maps and any business can
be on Google Ads.
You don't have to be a marketerto know all of these things and
it's available to everyone.
So explore, play around andhave fun with it.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
And please do not keyword stuff your business name
and please do not buy reviews.
Remember, guys, there is noshortcut to success.
You may see a friend do it andit may be tempting, but it's
never going to be the best movefor your business.
So good things take time andthe framework we've provided in
this podcast is very much asolid one for increasing your
organic presence over time.
(28:14):
So, in conclusion, everyone,google Business Profile, an
immensely, immensely valuableproperty online that will get
you more of those free LOT leadsover time.
Do not sleep on GBP and do notsleep on the power of organic
marketing.
Until next time, everyone.
I'm Ajay, that's Henry, andthanks for joining us on the
(28:35):
Google Business Buzz.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Subscribe, share comment.
Thanks, Peace.
People come to us and say, hey, you guys are the GVP
experts.
We hear, you've got a goodmethodology, make me rank number
one.
And then we go look at thewebsite and what do we find?
Hello, and welcome back toanother episode of the Google
(00:20):
Business Buzz.
I'm Ajay and this is Henry, andwe're here today to talk about
something that is possibly themost exciting thing we have
spoken about today.
Now, in marketing, things arealways changing, things are
always evolving, but one playerin this space as a platform has
been here for ages and ages andit is one of the most useful
(00:42):
properties for the majority ofbusinesses online, and that is
the Google Business Profile GVP,or the Maps, formerly known as
Google my Business GMB.
This thing is a powerhouse fora number of reasons we're going
to get into, but today is theday that we're going to dive
into a little bit about whatmakes this so special, how small
(01:04):
businesses can leverage this totheir advantage and what it
means for you as a smallbusiness owner.
So, henry I know this is yourdomain, man Tell us a little bit
about the history.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Thanks, ajay.
Thanks for that intro and helloeveryone.
The Google Business Profile isabsolutely the most important
piece of digital real estate forany local business.
Most consumers are findinglocal businesses be that a
(01:38):
service business, a retail storeor restaurant on Google Maps
and the interactions that arehappening on Google Maps are
turning into conversions.
Those are leads.
You're talking about phonecalls, you're talking about
website visits and you'retalking about direction requests
on that Google Map.
(02:01):
Now we know that Google Searchhas absolutely changed in the 25
years that they've been around.
They started out with just 10links, 10 links to 10 websites.
It was very easy to manipulatesearch back then using keywords,
using old school SEO tacticsthat are no longer relevant
(02:25):
because Google tightened that up.
But they've continued to usetheir organic ranking to build
on top of that platform, of thatarea, where it's their legacy
product.
They invested heavily.
They want to make sure thatthose links are actual value to
(02:48):
the user.
That gets the result, and theyalso use that to affect the
ranking factors of a GoogleBusiness profile.
So Google Maps and also GoogleAds your quality score on Google
Ads is directly affected by thequality of the website and how
(03:10):
that one performs.
Now, when we look at Google, myBusiness or Google Maps.
That is where 86% of consumersare taking their recommendations
from and making decisions aboutwhere to spend their money.
(03:32):
Google Ads is a great way ofcontinuing to keep your business
and the purview of new users,but a lot of savvy customers
will scroll past to check outorganic results.
Why?
Because of reviews.
Because of the organicalgorithm that Google has and
(03:56):
has made public, and they dothis to assure their users that
customer experience and userexperience is paramount.
It's the most important thingfor Google.
They want that end user, thatperson that's conducting the
fast food near me search, to bepleased with that search and to
(04:17):
come back to Google and continueto use Google because of the
trustworthiness and the highquality of the results that
they're receiving.
So Google made a few thingspublic about the local algorithm
, like 10 years ago, and thishas become law for most
(04:41):
marketers and I know I've usedthis document many times and
it's called how to Increase yourLocal Ranking on Google.
You can Google it, find itreally easily.
It's an article by Google andthey talk about three things.
They talk about relevance,distance and prominence, and
(05:04):
those three things are where abusiness can really benefit from
that algorithm and make themost out of Google Maps and
increase their overall businessviewership and conversions.
It's a very involved process.
(05:28):
It's very much like going tothe gym and working towards a
goal, like having apps right.
You want a six pack of apps.
If you don't already have it,you have to work hard, and when
you do have it, you have to workhard to keep it, so you don't
ever want to let off the gaspedal with organics because
(05:49):
other competitors can alsoovertake.
So that's really the intro, agood intro, I'd like to say.
I think I want to get yourthoughts about everything I just
talked about.
What do you think, ejay?
Speaker 1 (06:05):
100% man.
So one thing I want tohighlight to every single person
watching and listening rightnow you have used Google Maps
before 99% chance you have.
You've used them to getdirection requests, you've
possibly used them to send amessage, you've used them to
call, right, and so this is notsomething foreign.
But when you were using thatGoogle business profile, that
(06:26):
GBP listing, you probably didn'trealize that you yourself, as a
customer, now put yourself inthe customer shoes, were
engaging in what could have beena lead funnel, right.
So we're used to thinking and Imanage paid leads, paid
advertising right In part forOMG National, and so when folks
come to me, the types ofconversations I have are always
(06:47):
about paid advertising and thoseare great.
Paid advertising is good.
Paid advertising is fine.
You get rapid lead acquisition,leads on demand.
When we think about Googlebusiness profile, we need to get
used to thinking and talkingabout it in terms of leads over
time LOT.
This is something coined byHenry over here and I think it's
great, because we're not usedto thinking about Google
(07:10):
business profile as Legion.
But it is right.
Think about it.
All of those calls, thosemessages, those direction
requests you, as a smallbusiness owner, you want more of
those to your business.
And so, ladies and gentlemen,what we have here is the
ultimate sleeper right.
When you have a 97 ToyotaCorolla and it's still running
(07:30):
in your driveway, that cardoesn't get all the press,
people don't take pictures of it, people don't give you
compliments on it wherever yougo.
But they should right, becausethat thing is indestructible,
it's bulletproof, it's stillrunning and it's giving you
immense value for what you putinto it.
Google business profile is thesame way, and this is a
perception I had to change.
(07:50):
Being on the paid ad side ofthe equation, I never knew what
Google business profile could dobefore I started working for
OMG and seeing how critical thisproperty is for so many of our
clients that depend on it forlead gen every single day.
But here's the catch GBP isn'tlike a magic wand.
We can't wave a wand and turnit on, like Google ads, and have
(08:10):
it output hundreds of calls,tens of calls, consistently
cycle over cycle.
No, there's a methodology hereand it bangs on those parameters
Henry was talking about.
It's all about that frameworkrelevance, distance, prominence.
If you understand those, youcan extrapolate your playbook
how to bang on those factors toincrease all of those lead
(08:34):
engagements coming in, thosecustomer actions that's the
million dollar word.
Customer actions calls,messages, direction, requests,
so on and so forth.
So, henry, relevance, distance,prominence, man, there's a lot
to unpack here for the averageperson that is listening and
perhaps didn't even know thatGoogle business profile, gbp was
(08:55):
that important or that it waspotentially the source of
thousands of leads over timewhen a consistent and good
methodology is applied to it.
How are we unpacking this thing?
Where do you want to start andhow do you want to organize this
in terms of steps to go from azero to hero with Google
business profile?
Speaker 2 (09:12):
There's really no guarantees and it all depends on
the market and it all dependson the industry and what a
particular business owner iswilling to do and how involved
they are.
So we mentioned relevance,distance and prominence, right,
and those are the three factorsthat Google made public out of
(09:36):
hundreds that they keep secret.
So let's talk about these threefactors, right, because if they
make it public, it's definitelyin use and so we can confirm
that.
So relevance, right.
When they talk about relevance,it's really talking about how
complete that business profileis, how built out is that
(09:59):
profile?
Gbp offers many, many fields,right, not just a business name,
address, phone number, website,category.
It offers services, it offersproducts, it offers business
attributes, it offers hours ofoperation, it offers different
(10:20):
hours if you have access hoursor senior hours All different
types of business attributesthat help consumers find exactly
what they're looking for, right?
Google wants to know if thebusiness is veteran-owned.
Google wants to know if thebusiness is LGBTQ friendly.
(10:42):
Google wants to know if it haswheelchair accessibility.
Right, these are importantfactors, not just for Google but
for actual users on Google thathave preferences filled out on
their profiles, on their Googleprofiles, on their accounts, or
actually use these terms intheir search, making sure that
(11:03):
profile is extremely built outas much information as you want,
like this has not changed inall of the time that Google has
been around.
Content is king.
Seo in 2023 is still veryimportant and content remains
king.
So we have to give Google asmuch content as possible.
(11:25):
Give them photos, ask forreviews All of these things.
Keep you relevant and giveGoogle the right signals.
Then we move on to distance.
Right, we have to think aboutdistance with user experience in
mind, because Google is notgoing to want to show a user
(11:47):
results that are two hours away.
Google wants to show a userresults that are right around
the corner, results that aretrustworthy and convenient, that
have high ratings, high reviews, high star ratings and that are
trusted by other consumers.
Now, that is part of that userexperience factor, right?
(12:13):
So distance when we go back todistance, we have to think about
where the business is locatedand what the competition is
looking like in that area.
We also have to think about theservice areas and how those are
set up, because there are alsoguidelines around that.
If you're a service areabusiness, google recommends
(12:35):
having that set up tight in yourarea.
You can't go further out than atwo-hour driving distance from
where your GPP was verified.
But even then you want to keepit tight.
I would recommend 30 minutesfrom where you are verified,
because Google is always goingto want to be relevant to the
(12:57):
user.
That is closer to that search,right?
So it's not going to show youif you're two hours away.
Then we talk about prominenceright, so it's relevance,
distance covered.
Now, recovering prominence, andprominence is where a business
can really do a lot.
So Google under prominence,it's kind of like a bucket
(13:19):
factor, right, they grouped up acouple of things, a few things
actually.
So we have web links, we havedirectories, right, so websites
like Yelp, like Better BusinessBureau, like MapQuest, yellow
Pages, all of these differentsites that at one time or
another were very popular butnow have lost popularity due to
(13:40):
Google, right, google stillconsiders them important.
There are a lot of them, and ifyour business is being seen by
Googlebot with the same businessname, address, phone number,
category, photos, all of thesame information that allows
Google to give that GPP moretrust factor, more prominence
(14:01):
factor.
Another thing that they mentionin this factor are reviews,
positive ratings and reviews.
They also talk about recentreviews.
So they encourage Google,encourages business owners to
always ask for reviews fromtheir customers.
They try to make it a point ofsaying that you shouldn't only
(14:24):
ask customers that you know aregoing to give you positive
reviews.
You should ask every customer.
Getting a negative review isn'tthe end of the world, because
you must always know how torespond to that negative review.
And it's actually a way ofimproving one's business.
Make some quality assurance orquality control assessments
(14:46):
using their reviews, theirnegative reviews.
And then the final and arguablythe most important factor, it
brings us to the website RightNow.
I mentioned that Google usestheir organic, their classic
organic legacy product in all oftheir platforms, right, and
(15:08):
they're building on top of that.
And that starts with GBP.
So the position of a website onorganic search has a direct
influence about the position inlocal search.
So on the Google map.
So if you can get your websiteto rank in that first page among
(15:30):
the first 10 links underneaththe map, that will help a
business go up in the Google maprankings, right.
So that's another distinction.
That's important and it's kindof confusing, but let's try to
make it clear.
Local rank is Google maps.
Organic rank is underneath themaps, the classic 10 links.
(15:53):
So those are the three factorsand prominence having those.
You know more important threefactors within them, but you got
for us.
Ajay, I want to hear yourthoughts.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
So you guys have all learned by now.
You know that there's this coreframework we got adhere to
relevance, distance, prominence,and that determines how well a
Google business profile isshowing up, is doing.
We need to tie this back intothe goal right.
What is the goal for any Googlebusiness profile?
What should the goal be?
The goal should be, as Henrystated before, just to ingrain
(16:26):
this in everyone's minds itshould be to rank as high as
possible, preferably within thattop three section, the map pack
, and that is because the higheryou rank and the more
consistently you rank, the morecustomer actions we can bring
into the profile.
Now, as Henry said, it's allbased on this framework and sure
you can't mess with distancetoo much.
Relevance is something that youknow.
(16:48):
Fine, you can turn on theattributes on your GVP.
I'm sure there are folkslistening that haven't even
updated their.
You know their attributes inquite some time.
Pro tip, get on there and makethose relevant to what you do.
So it's helpful.
But prominence is the big one,guys, and I want you all to
understand that this doesn'tmean that you need to have the
world's best ranking website.
You have to be number one.
Sure, would that be great, butthat is an a feasible starting
(17:09):
point for everyone, henry, someplaces they can start correct me
if I'm wrong or you know goodSSL security, mobile
responsiveness, local businessschema, local marketing schema,
appropriate things like H1H2headers.
You want to have a website thatis user friendly, mobile,
responsive and accessible, andthere are reports you can run to
(17:30):
see how well your website doesin the real world.
Now I want to highlight thisimportance to everyone, because
in marketing, you tend to zonein on things like zone in on
local services ads, zone in onGoogle ads, zone in on GVP, and
you end up thinking in a box.
Henry is telling you guys thatthis is not just a box with GVP
in it, that GVP is heavilyreliant, based on the prominence
(17:50):
factor, on other things likethe website and directories.
So those are not good.
Your GVP rank is going to beaffected and that is something
that we see every day, right,henry?
People come to us and say, hey,you guys are the GVP experts.
We hear you've got a goodmethodology, make me rank number
one.
And then we go look at thewebsite and what do we find
Right?
So we're to the wise guys.
(18:11):
If the website's not lookingright, the GVP is going to
struggle If all of those thedirectories, core data,
architecture, name, address,phone number app we've used this
example before another podcastHenry the plumber address phone
number must be consistent.
You can't have Henry theplumber and directory A a, j the
plumber and directory B andChris the plumber in directory C
(18:32):
.
You can't.
This is still.
This still must be consistentand that's a labor of love.
If you see your Lamborghinilooking nice in the driveway, no
one sees the amount ofmaintenance that went into that.
Right, in all the services, theengine services, the tire
rotations, the detailing, thecleaning.
Think of directory work andwebsite work as the maintenance
to even have as a foundation toensure that the GVP is going to
(18:53):
be off to a good start.
And then we can talk aboutthings to think of as a
maintenance loop.
Right, so folks are coming tous or another marketing agency
that hopefully knows whatthey're doing.
Doubt it, but if they're comingto us and they're saying, hey,
make my GVP rank better, it'snot just about doing the things
Henry mentioned, getting reviews, sure, it's about doing them
consistently, which is probablywhere he's going with this.
(19:13):
So you want to think abouttasks that you want to do on a
loop or maintenance style basis.
Now, henry, what are some ofthose tasks?
Maybe we can get into apublishing strategy, a posting
strategy, content strategy andwhat would be advice you have
for our listeners and viewers?
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Absolutely.
You mentioned one and it goesright back to content being king
, User generated content, themost important right.
So reviews are extremelyimportant.
Reviews can be the low hangingfruit and can mean the
difference between a fiveranking for a certain keyword
(19:49):
and a top three ranking for acertain keyword.
We know that a business canstart ranking quickly on the
first page with 10 reviews.
So that's the no-transcriptbare minimum that any business
should look and try to complete.
That's the first goal withreviews for business Try and get
10 reviews at least within thefirst few months and then build
(20:14):
from there, Making sure that youhave photos, consistent photos,
authentic photos.
Google doesn't want anythingstock.
Google doesn't want anythingtoo elaborate or photoshopped.
No superimposed graphics orphone numbers on a picture.
(20:34):
Everything must be authentic tothe business and that actually
helps Google provide their userswith your business into the
search.
It gives Google morejustification to bring a
business into their search.
So photos extremely importantand we know that Google's AI is
(20:54):
everywhere.
Google will be able to seeexactly what you are showing it
through the photo and applykeywords as labels.
So if it's an HVAC installation, if it's an AC installation,
you want to show the work thatyou're doing.
Then we want to talk aboutGoogle Business Updates.
(21:15):
Through Google Business Profile, you can do something similar
like a social post, but it's nota social post.
Again, Google doesn't like anyof the frizz frazz no photoshop,
superimposed graphics, nothingin terms of stock images, Even
if you're trying to repeatimages, Google started to take
(21:37):
those away and will deny yourpost.
So new, fresh, updated photoswith the publishing posts, with
your Google Business Updatesthat's important and using those
updates to tell users aboutyour services and your products,
about what makes you differentfrom the competition Because
(22:00):
that's what Google was lookingfor.
Google was looking for content,content, content to justify
bringing a business profile intotheir search.
Google Business Profile offersany user the ability to ask a
question and, unfortunately, anyuser can answer that question.
It doesn't have to be thebusiness owner necessarily.
(22:22):
So I've seen many instanceswhere a competitor goes in and
answers the Q&A the questionthat some user has asked and
this has gone over the client'shead, over the business's head.
They haven't even realizeduntil they come to us and we
provide the methodology to applyfrequently asked questions to
(22:46):
that area and clean it up if itis messy, filled with spam or
whatnot.
So these are things that a usercan do on their own, a business
owner can do on their own, butthere are also tricks and there
are also best practices that onemust consider, Because if you
don't and you want to add yourphone number to the copy of a
(23:09):
business profile update, it'sgoing to get rejected and you're
not going to want to know why.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
I just want to speak to that.
Everyone is an armchair expert,guys, till it comes time to
throw down.
We've got clients who came tous and said, hey, what's wrong
with my posts?
I'm making my own posts at thesame time and we go and look at
these posts and they're too long.
They're formatted like socialmedia.
There's all kinds of emojis andthere's image overlays being
(23:34):
used with the accompanyingimages, and it's just not in the
format that Google likes it in.
Nor does Google find this sortof stuff helpful in the real
world to users.
So, like Henry said, it's allabout authenticity and it's all
about consistency.
This means that if you're aplumber, you want pictures of
your guys and gals out in thefield doing real work.
(23:54):
You don't want to.
This isn't let's get cuteInstagram.
This is Google and we got toabide by their preferences, and
so it's all about consistency.
Like he said, sure, you as abusiness owner, you can go in
there and respond to a reviewevery once in a while.
You can go throw in an FAQ or aquestion every once in a while,
but are you doing itconsistently to show yourself
(24:16):
engaging with your futurepotential customer base?
Right, and are you doing itright in accordance with
Google's best practices.
So, when it comes down to thepublishing strategy, the posting
strategy, the review responsesand the photos and everything
else, it is a well-curated,deliberately crafted system that
we have ongoing for our clientsto make sure that our clients'
(24:39):
GBP profiles are getting loveconsistently.
And it is that consistency,that thoughtfulness and that
engagement that allows you toshow Google that you are there
for the needs of your customersand that you're engaging with
them over time.
So this isn't like, if you'retrying to lose weight, you go to
the gym this weekend and thentwo months later, it's been two
months since you've gone to thegym last.
That ain't going to work.
(25:00):
It is very competitive, guys,and, as we mentioned, the goal
is to rank as high as possiblefor those keywords you're
targeting, and that is not goingto happen without consistency.
And so to Henry's point.
I just wanted to highlight theimportance of the cohesiveness
of the strategy and theimportance of hitting all of
these angles.
We're talking about not justone or the other inconsistency,
(25:23):
it's all about the consistency.
You guys and as Henry mentioned, most of that is done through
the prominence factor.
If you're running game onGoogle Business Profile, trying
to make it and have yourbusiness scene visible to more
people and engaged with you, areapplying your interpretation of
the prominence ranking factor.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
And so, henry, what else should they know, man Well,
you really want to make sureyou're on top of any updates.
That can happen with yourGoogle Business Profile, because
Google AI, like we mentionedearlier, it's always out there
and it's always scraping theinternet and if it finds old
information anywhere if you'renot on top of your directories,
(26:02):
per say, let's say you had aYelp page that was at the old
location and you never updatedit because you forgot the
credentials Google might findthat and Google might apply that
address back onto your GoogleBusiness Profile.
And if you don't see it youdon't accept or reject that at
it it'll get applied.
So you got to make sure you'reon top of those updates because
(26:26):
Google will definitely push itif you're not rejecting or
updating yourself.
And then you want to make sureyou're on top of your reviews,
your reviews and your questions,because that is the most
important thing.
You want to respond to everysingle review and you want to
ask for reviews from all of yourclients.
(26:46):
All of your customers Get intothe habit of asking for a review
as soon as you finish a job ormake a sale and then sending a
follow-up text, a follow-upemail or giving them a QR code
for them to scan, because it'snot like they don't want to
leave a review.
Maybe they just forget or theycan at that moment.
(27:08):
I've been that user where Ihaven't been able to leave the
review in that moment, but whenI get a text message reminding
me I do.
So that's very important.
Ask at least three times forthat review and make sure you're
on top of the website as well,and everything we talked about
(27:29):
is extremely important if youreally want to be competitive.
Any business can be on GBP onGoogle Maps and any business can
be on Google Ads.
You don't have to be a marketerto know all of these things and
it's available to everyone.
So explore, play around andhave fun with it.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
And please do not keyword stuff your business name
and please do not buy reviews.
Remember, guys, there is noshortcut to success.
You may see a friend do it andit may be tempting, but it's
never going to be the best movefor your business.
So good things take time andthe framework we've provided in
this podcast is very much asolid one for increasing your
organic presence over time.
(28:14):
So, in conclusion, everyone,google Business Profile, an
immensely, immensely valuableproperty online that will get
you more of those free LOT leadsover time.
Do not sleep on GBP and do notsleep on the power of organic
marketing.
Until next time, everyone.
I'm Ajay, that's Henry, andthanks for joining us on the
(28:35):
Google Business Buzz.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Subscribe, share comment.
Thanks, Peace.
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