April 14, 2025 • 20 mins
We explore the concept of an "SEO insider's inbox," sharing noteworthy updates from Google and discussing digital ownership strategies for content creators.
In this episode:
- Google Business Profile emails reminding owners to follow policies
- Introduction of Google's experimental AI mode
- Building content on YouTube vs your own site
- How building your presence on "rented ground" (social platforms) creates vulnerability
- Real experience with Google Business Profile suspension
- Improvements in Google's appeal process
- Prevalence of SEO spam emails offering SEO services
Stay tuned for a follow-up episode where we'll document the entire Google Business Profile appeal process and timeline.
---
Meredith's Husband
https://www.meredithshusband.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right.
One thing I was thinking.
You know one of the recentepisode we did on the new
Squarespace AI.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
So that came in, that came to my attention because
you got it in an email.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
And I think that was pretty good.
At least it was timely.
That got me thinking.
I do occasionally get stuff inmy inbox that I think, oh, that
would.
I should mention that on thepodcast.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
And it comes either from Google or it comes from
other insider-type SEO sources.
The problem is, those littlethings usually are not enough to
make an episode out of Right.
They're little bits of news.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Right.
However, what I was thinking—you could put a bunch of them
together.
Yes, exactly hey.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
I have three or four of them gathered up in a little—
Folder.
I have three or four of themgathered up in a little label or
something inside my inbox.
I said, yeah, let's do anepisode where it's sort of like
an insider's inbox, an SEOinsider's inbox.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Oh, I like that.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Insider access to an SEO's inbox.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Wow, we need music Insider access to an SEO's inbox
.
Wow, dun, dun, dun, dun we needmusic.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Yeah, insider access to an SEO's inbox.
That sounds like a root canalwhile you're having an enema on
top of a colonoscopy.
So, like I said, I have four ofthese emails here.
Okay, I have three.
I have three and let's callthis the fourth one a bonus,
okay.
But I have three things I hadmarked like hey, that would be
(01:25):
interesting.
I should mention that.
I feel like I should mentionsomething like that on the
podcast.
The first one was from, andI'll go through them in order.
I'll just spend a coupleminutes on each.
The first one was directly fromGoogle.
It was about the Googlebusiness profile platform and it
(01:45):
was titled Keep your Business,your business profile,
trustworthy and reliable.
And it gives it.
It talks about hey, you got tokeep your information up to date
.
Welcome, you have to welcome,all feedback, not just the good
ones, and you need to avoid, uh,violating our, our policies
here.
Fair enough, all those things,um, and yeah, okay, I mean yeah,
I mean if you are, if you havea business profile, chances are
(02:06):
good.
You got one of these emails butit links to some prohibited
content.
Good information to have to befair, not that exciting, oh,
that's it.
Yet Okay, good, not thatexciting yet oh Okay.
The next one I received anotheremail from Google, google and
it says meet the new ai mode.
(02:26):
So ai now has and I don't doyou know this, have you seen
this?
I don't maybe so google has hadfor a while now.
If you do a search in google,it has what used to be the,
where the featured snippets usedto be.
There's now a generate.
There's a response, generatedby a paragraph.
And I have found it quitehelpful.
(02:47):
I usually, most of the timewhen I'm doing a search, I just
read that and then, if I want toknow something else, I then
drill down to one of the sourcesthat they provide, and I don't
even look at the list ofwebsites.
That, traditionally, is whatSEO has all been about.
Well, it's still no.
This SEO is just going to beabout the AI generated results.
(03:08):
It's a change in the industry.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Is this guy?
Everything's going to change.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
So this AI mode is in an experimental phase, it's
like a beta phase, so it's not.
It won't be available toeveryone, but it looks to me
like it is available availableto anyone with a free Gmail
account.
So if you have free there, youcan, probably you can.
I'm sure you can use it If youhave a Gmail account behind your
(03:34):
business domain, like you and Ihave.
So you have an email, I have anemail, but technically it's
powered by the Gmail suite, theGmail workplace.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
It's sweet, it is sweet.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
It is not available to those accounts, okay, because
those are paid accounts.
Google wants to put thisthrough experiment.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
It wants to test it.
Oh, it wants to protect those.
It wants to test it.
That's nice.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
It wants to make sure that the people who are paying
are getting quality stuff Right.
Google is really well known forthis.
They even do this.
They are such a big companythat they do what they call
dogfooding what they do, is theyrelease a new?
No, it's not.
If they release a new phone,for example, they will first
give the phone to all of theiremployees and get feedback and
(04:18):
then make improvements and theycall that.
I don't know why they call itdogfooding, but they feed it to
their internal organizationfirst before they give it to
people who are paying for it.
So that's kind of one of theirapproaches.
So this has probably gonethrough their internal team,
gotten approval there.
Now it's rolling out to freeaccounts.
(04:40):
If you have a free account,just like an email address that
ends in at Gmail, you shouldhave access to this.
If you just go to Googlewithout logging in at all, I
actually don't know if you wouldhave access to this, but if you
go to Google and do a search,you know how.
At the top there are tabs thatsays like all results, images,
videos, news, maps.
So right there, the first oneis going to be AI mode.
(05:04):
If you click on that, you'regoing to go to something that
looks very much like the chatGPT interface.
Yes, and this reminds me ofsomething that I said.
I said Google's going to adapt.
Don't worry.
Whatever GPT yes, they do havea head start.
They are really good.
They are better than Googleright now, but Google is going
(05:26):
to adapt.
So this to me just the way itlooks visually.
They are adapting.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
And that's Gemini.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
I actually don't know if this is Gemini.
I mean, it probably is built onthe same framework that Gemini
was but they're calling it AImode.
Oh, there you go.
Google is terrible with names.
They always change their names.
They change their names way toooften for my liking, anyway,
dear Google.
So if you want to try that outand I have tried it out a little
(05:56):
bit seems fine.
It seems kind of just like chat.
Gpt seems like a naturalextension of what they're
already doing.
I got to say I wasn't thatimpressed with the results, like
okay, they still have a ways togo, I feel personally.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Everyone has to start somewhere.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Okay, that.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
That's the first one.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
That was the second.
That was the second.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Well, we got two in there.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Yeah, remember the reminder from Google business
profiles.
Okay, the next one didn't comefrom Google, it came from.
Well, it looks like it camefrom search engine land.
Actually, I don't even know howI got this email.
I don't know why I don't knowwhy I'm receiving this, but I
got it and it is a forum lookslike on search engine.
(06:41):
Forum or form forum.
People are discussing, chattingabout a topic called youtube
channel versus website.
Which is the better path toearning money, youtube or
website?
So so building a youtubechannel right or building a
website?
Which which one is going to bemore profitable in 2020, like
now, and moving forward?
So this got me thinking.
(07:01):
Yeah, is this a discussion thatyou feel people are having?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Not me, not you.
I live in a hole.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
I know this has been an issue in the past and I
thought like I mean, I thoughtthe discussion was kind of
settled, but when I saw this andI read the comments, it seems
like it's not so.
The question is do you buildyour content on YouTube or on
your blog?
Basically, that's kind of atthe heart of this question.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
But how could it be monetized if it's on your
website as a blog?
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Well, that's how that , if you sell something, if you
are selling a product as a blog,well, that's how that, if you
sell something, if you areselling a product most, I think
that many I won't say most but Icertainly think that a lot of
monetized channels on YouTubeare also selling something right
?
You know, there is somethingyou really want to consider here
.
I'm not going to say it's aproblem and tell you which one
you should do social media oryour blog but one thing that you
(07:59):
really have to understand and Ithought this was kind of taken
as fact now, but evidently it'snot from looking at these
comments when you create yourcontent on YouTube or on
Facebook or on Instagram or onTikTok and you build up your
empire there, that's somebodyelse's website.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Right, and that could be taken away from you at any
moment it could easily and oftenis.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
I don't know how many times I've heard stories about
people who had a robust Facebookbusiness page and all of a
sudden it was deactivated orsomehow, or they just went from
like getting, say, 10,000impressions per month to like 10
.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Okay.
So this reminds me of thesaying don't build your house on
rented ground.
Have you ever heard that Like?
So you got to understand.
Like, if you are building, yes,yeah, Same thing.
If you are building content andyou're relying on the social
media channel, that's great.
I mean, there are millions uponmillions and millions of
(08:59):
eyeballs on social media.
It's a great place to geteyeballs.
But if you're not pullingpeople off of those platforms
onto your own, you don't havedirect access to those people
Right and, like you said, youcould lose it at any time.
This, to me, is one of the mostbrilliant things about social
media, from the perspective ofthe people who created it.
(09:21):
So content like this is ageneral kind of rule of thumb.
It's not easy to create contentright, but to be successful
online, you kind of need tocreate content.
So the genius to me, again thegenius part about social media
is they figure it out a way forother people to create their
content.
(09:41):
Zuckerberg doesn't create anycontent.
He doesn't have content teams,it's you and me who are creating
content.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Once you put it on their platform, they own it and
they can use it however theywant.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
I think legally that is true.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
That is so.
Whatever you put on there, theycan then take and use anywhere
in the world, however, they want.
However, they want your voice,your image your words.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
So the problem with that, I mean, is twofold.
You're creating content to helpmake somebody else money and,
yes, if your YouTube channel ismonetized, you're getting a
sliver of that money.
You know who knows how muchthey're making.
The other thing thing it couldbe taken away, yeah, at any
(10:27):
point, and at that point youhave no like.
Let's say you have a reallygreat youtube channel.
It's getting lots of views like,say, you have a million
subscribers oh my god if all ofa sudden, your youtube channel
is shut down or demonetized orsomething for some reason, which
happens often.
All of a sudden, you can't justemail, you can't send a text to
those million subscribers.
Okay, if you build a list offyour site, yeah, it'll probably
(10:47):
be smaller, but it's your list.
Like you have that content.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
And control.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Yeah, Like somebody, I was listening to a talk one
time and I don't remember who itwas, but somebody.
They were talking about thisand they said does anybody
remember Arsenio Hall?
Yeah, yeah, of course weremember Arsenio Hall.
Arsenio Hall had a very, very,very popular show.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Arsenio, yeah, and it was before social media, right?
Okay, so it was in the days, ifyou're old enough to remember,
when TV shows were.
They're just on the TV, what?
And?
Speaker 2 (11:21):
only when they say it's going to be and you have to
get a book to know when that is.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
They didn't have a podcast, they didn't have a
website, they didn't haveanything.
What did people?
Do with their time, I don'tknow, and one day, I believe,
arsenio was on Fox.
Fox canceled his show.
Now he had oh man, I have noidea how many viewers, how many
lists.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
He had so many lists.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
I was going to say listeners, but he had viewers,
like probably tens of millionsof viewers.
Now, once his show was takenoff the air, what happened to
Arsenio Hall?
Like we saw him occasionally onmovies?
Arsenio Hall, like we saw himoccasionally on movies, but
somebody talked about thisbecause he was on an episode of
a TV show which I won't describe, but he was trying to call
(12:09):
people who would be influencersin the entertainment industry
and nobody would take his call.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Wait, is this for real?
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Yeah, this is for real and this is years later.
Like he would, he was callingall these people and it was part
of this reality TV show andnobody would take his call.
And this is an example like yes, it's from 20 plus years ago,
and who knows what kind of aperson he is but he didn't have
his list, he didn't own his list.
He was building his and therewas no other options not his
(12:37):
fault, but he had a TV show onsomebody else's network and that
network decided no, we don'tlike your TV show.
And then he was done.
So there is the danger of that.
If you are building content forInstagram or YouTube or TikTok
or wherever, realize that is apotential danger, Okay Okay.
(12:58):
So, whatever you're doing, tryand this is not easy, but try to
brainstorm how you can start toown your list, more than be
borrowing it from Zuckerberg orwhoever is going to buy it Now.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Dangerous is a big word, but it's Okay.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Well, it's a.
I said potentially, yeah, Imean it is a potential downside.
Yeah, yeah, I mean it?
Is a potential downside.
Yeah, okay, a lot of businessis just evaluating potential
downside and minimizing yourrisk.
So you want to minimize yourrisk?
Yeah, that's all I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
I hear you loud and clear All.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
I'm saying Okay, all I'm saying, all I'm saying Back
to the SEO's inbox yes, emailnumber four.
Yes, remember, the first emailwas about following the Google
business profile policies, andthis one is the bonus.
Yeah, this is the bonus.
So this email, the subject lineis Meredith's husband yes Me,
it's me, it's you.
Your profile has been disabled.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Really it was disabled.
Yes, really.
Oh, it's not a spam.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
No, it's really been suspended.
This is the second time thishas happened to me.
Here's an example of Google hasdecided to suspend my profile,
so it's no longer getting views.
What?
Yeah, a prime example.
Now, I don't know.
The email says your businessprofile has been removed by
Google.
Learn more about ourrestriction policy.
(14:14):
To appeal this decision Clickappeal below.
Google.
Learn more about ourrestriction policy.
To appeal this decision clickappeal below.
Now Google, frustratingly,never gives a reason why your
profile is suspended like this.
Like I said, this is the secondtime.
Yeah, it's shitty.
I know it's frustrating Now.
My profile was suspended thefirst time because the name
(14:35):
business Meredith's husbanddoesn't sound like a business.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
It's wonderful.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
And I actually had to .
I actually have a businesslicense with the name of the
company.
Being Meredith's husband, I hadto send it to Google to prove
to them that it was actually abusiness.
That might be the same problemhere.
I literally just got this emailyesterday, so I don't know.
Problem here I literally justgot this email yesterday, so I
don't know.
So one thing I will do is Iwill as I go through the appeal
(15:00):
process, which I know isfrustrating, but I don't have
any other options.
I have to do it, and this is aservice that I mean Google is
providing for free.
I'm not paying to have mybusiness profile listed.
I'm not paying for Google toshow my information to anybody,
so this is a necessary evil, Iguess.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Not necessary.
It's not necessary, it's justit's common, I know, so I got to
deal with it and it shows thatthey're actually doing their job
and trying to make sureeverything's verified.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Yeah, and I will say I would rather they be, let's
say, over diligent andoccasionally deactivate
something that shouldn't be,rather than the opposite.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Yes, I agree.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Because then the results would, then the general
results in Google would probablybe kind of shitty.
So I need to go through thisprocess.
I'm going to kind of document itas I go and I'm going to
measure how much it as I go, andI'm going to measure how much
time it takes.
Oh, very good, because in thepast I've had students where
this takes like three months.
In my case it took about amonth.
(16:08):
The whole appeal process overthe last few years that they
offer has gotten much better.
Okay, it's gotten way better.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
That's good.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Like a few years ago, like the first time my business
was suspended, I did not get anemail, they don't notify you,
they don't give you a chance toappeal, there is no appeal
process, they don't provide alink.
It took me a good hour just tofigure out what my next step was
and to figure out where to goto do that.
So the appeal process is easierand I will document it and
(16:38):
we'll probably do an episode inthe future about what happens.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
That sounds good.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
I hope I get it back.
You know students say theyfreak out about this and I say
don't worry.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
I have never seen a situation where a legitimate
business didn't get theirprofile back until and now I'm
freaking out, freaking the fuckand now you understand why
they're yes, yeah, you know, Ido understand I do understand.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
I tried, I try to ease their mind, but I certainly
understand.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
And here I am again um, I have one thing that you
can delete.
So I've noticed that in my junkmail there are so many people
telling me about SEO andoffering SEO services.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Do you ever so do I.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
So do I.
I have in my spam, literally,and every once in a while I'm
like you know what I'm going toreply to this person and I give
them my name and eventually theconversation comes up Well, what
is your business about?
And I say SEO.
And it's silence.
I've done that on the phone too.
I've gotten those calls.
Somebody called me and theysaid yeah, we're a data provider
(17:51):
for Google and we have avacancy at the top of the
listings for your industry andwe have a vacancy at the top of
the listings for your industry.
I was like, no fucking way, I amso lucky Like I'm going to call
this guy back.
I called him back and we'retalking to him and he's like
yeah, so you know, yeah, yeah,yeah, what's your business?
I said SEO, click, hang up.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Those are scams.
I know they are.
I know they are.
Yeah, I know they are, butthey're so.
I'm always, when I go throughmy junk box, I'm amazed at how
many there are.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
There's a ton.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Well, it's practically free to send those
emails and, as they say in WhiteLotus, it's a number game.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
You got to play the numbers.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
You got to play the numbers.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Yeah.
All right.
One thing I was thinking.
You know one of the recentepisode we did on the new
Squarespace AI.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
So that came in, that came to my attention because
you got it in an email.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
And I think that was pretty good.
At least it was timely.
That got me thinking.
I do occasionally get stuff inmy inbox that I think, oh, that
would.
I should mention that on thepodcast.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
And it comes either from Google or it comes from
other insider-type SEO sources.
The problem is, those littlethings usually are not enough to
make an episode out of Right.
They're little bits of news.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Right.
However, what I was thinking—you could put a bunch of them
together.
Yes, exactly hey.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
I have three or four of them gathered up in a little—
Folder.
I have three or four of themgathered up in a little label or
something inside my inbox.
I said, yeah, let's do anepisode where it's sort of like
an insider's inbox, an SEOinsider's inbox.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Oh, I like that.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Insider access to an SEO's inbox.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Wow, we need music Insider access to an SEO's inbox
.
Wow, dun, dun, dun, dun we needmusic.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Yeah, insider access to an SEO's inbox.
That sounds like a root canalwhile you're having an enema on
top of a colonoscopy.
So, like I said, I have four ofthese emails here.
Okay, I have three.
I have three and let's callthis the fourth one a bonus,
okay.
But I have three things I hadmarked like hey, that would be
(01:25):
interesting.
I should mention that.
I feel like I should mentionsomething like that on the
podcast.
The first one was from, andI'll go through them in order.
I'll just spend a coupleminutes on each.
The first one was directly fromGoogle.
It was about the Googlebusiness profile platform and it
(01:45):
was titled Keep your Business,your business profile,
trustworthy and reliable.
And it gives it.
It talks about hey, you got tokeep your information up to date
.
Welcome, you have to welcome,all feedback, not just the good
ones, and you need to avoid, uh,violating our, our policies
here.
Fair enough, all those things,um, and yeah, okay, I mean yeah,
I mean if you are, if you havea business profile, chances are
(02:06):
good.
You got one of these emails butit links to some prohibited
content.
Good information to have to befair, not that exciting, oh,
that's it.
Yet Okay, good, not thatexciting yet oh Okay.
The next one I received anotheremail from Google, google and
it says meet the new ai mode.
(02:26):
So ai now has and I don't doyou know this, have you seen
this?
I don't maybe so google has hadfor a while now.
If you do a search in google,it has what used to be the,
where the featured snippets usedto be.
There's now a generate.
There's a response, generatedby a paragraph.
And I have found it quitehelpful.
(02:47):
I usually, most of the timewhen I'm doing a search, I just
read that and then, if I want toknow something else, I then
drill down to one of the sourcesthat they provide, and I don't
even look at the list ofwebsites.
That, traditionally, is whatSEO has all been about.
Well, it's still no.
This SEO is just going to beabout the AI generated results.
(03:08):
It's a change in the industry.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Is this guy?
Everything's going to change.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
So this AI mode is in an experimental phase, it's
like a beta phase, so it's not.
It won't be available toeveryone, but it looks to me
like it is available availableto anyone with a free Gmail
account.
So if you have free there, youcan, probably you can.
I'm sure you can use it If youhave a Gmail account behind your
(03:34):
business domain, like you and Ihave.
So you have an email, I have anemail, but technically it's
powered by the Gmail suite, theGmail workplace.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
It's sweet, it is sweet.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
It is not available to those accounts, okay, because
those are paid accounts.
Google wants to put thisthrough experiment.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
It wants to test it.
Oh, it wants to protect those.
It wants to test it.
That's nice.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
It wants to make sure that the people who are paying
are getting quality stuff Right.
Google is really well known forthis.
They even do this.
They are such a big companythat they do what they call
dogfooding what they do, is theyrelease a new?
No, it's not.
If they release a new phone,for example, they will first
give the phone to all of theiremployees and get feedback and
(04:18):
then make improvements and theycall that.
I don't know why they call itdogfooding, but they feed it to
their internal organizationfirst before they give it to
people who are paying for it.
So that's kind of one of theirapproaches.
So this has probably gonethrough their internal team,
gotten approval there.
Now it's rolling out to freeaccounts.
(04:40):
If you have a free account,just like an email address that
ends in at Gmail, you shouldhave access to this.
If you just go to Googlewithout logging in at all, I
actually don't know if you wouldhave access to this, but if you
go to Google and do a search,you know how.
At the top there are tabs thatsays like all results, images,
videos, news, maps.
So right there, the first oneis going to be AI mode.
(05:04):
If you click on that, you'regoing to go to something that
looks very much like the chatGPT interface.
Yes, and this reminds me ofsomething that I said.
I said Google's going to adapt.
Don't worry.
Whatever GPT yes, they do havea head start.
They are really good.
They are better than Googleright now, but Google is going
(05:26):
to adapt.
So this to me just the way itlooks visually.
They are adapting.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
And that's Gemini.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
I actually don't know if this is Gemini.
I mean, it probably is built onthe same framework that Gemini
was but they're calling it AImode.
Oh, there you go.
Google is terrible with names.
They always change their names.
They change their names way toooften for my liking, anyway,
dear Google.
So if you want to try that outand I have tried it out a little
(05:56):
bit seems fine.
It seems kind of just like chat.
Gpt seems like a naturalextension of what they're
already doing.
I got to say I wasn't thatimpressed with the results, like
okay, they still have a ways togo, I feel personally.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Everyone has to start somewhere.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Okay, that.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
That's the first one.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
That was the second.
That was the second.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Well, we got two in there.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Yeah, remember the reminder from Google business
profiles.
Okay, the next one didn't comefrom Google, it came from.
Well, it looks like it camefrom search engine land.
Actually, I don't even know howI got this email.
I don't know why I don't knowwhy I'm receiving this, but I
got it and it is a forum lookslike on search engine.
(06:41):
Forum or form forum.
People are discussing, chattingabout a topic called youtube
channel versus website.
Which is the better path toearning money, youtube or
website?
So so building a youtubechannel right or building a
website?
Which which one is going to bemore profitable in 2020, like
now, and moving forward?
So this got me thinking.
(07:01):
Yeah, is this a discussion thatyou feel people are having?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Not me, not you.
I live in a hole.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
I know this has been an issue in the past and I
thought like I mean, I thoughtthe discussion was kind of
settled, but when I saw this andI read the comments, it seems
like it's not so.
The question is do you buildyour content on YouTube or on
your blog?
Basically, that's kind of atthe heart of this question.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
But how could it be monetized if it's on your
website as a blog?
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Well, that's how that , if you sell something, if you
are selling a product as a blog,well, that's how that, if you
sell something, if you areselling a product most, I think
that many I won't say most but Icertainly think that a lot of
monetized channels on YouTubeare also selling something right
?
You know, there is somethingyou really want to consider here
.
I'm not going to say it's aproblem and tell you which one
you should do social media oryour blog but one thing that you
(07:59):
really have to understand and Ithought this was kind of taken
as fact now, but evidently it'snot from looking at these
comments when you create yourcontent on YouTube or on
Facebook or on Instagram or onTikTok and you build up your
empire there, that's somebodyelse's website.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Right, and that could be taken away from you at any
moment it could easily and oftenis.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
I don't know how many times I've heard stories about
people who had a robust Facebookbusiness page and all of a
sudden it was deactivated orsomehow, or they just went from
like getting, say, 10,000impressions per month to like 10
.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Okay.
So this reminds me of thesaying don't build your house on
rented ground.
Have you ever heard that Like?
So you got to understand.
Like, if you are building, yes,yeah, Same thing.
If you are building content andyou're relying on the social
media channel, that's great.
I mean, there are millions uponmillions and millions of
(08:59):
eyeballs on social media.
It's a great place to geteyeballs.
But if you're not pullingpeople off of those platforms
onto your own, you don't havedirect access to those people
Right and, like you said, youcould lose it at any time.
This, to me, is one of the mostbrilliant things about social
media, from the perspective ofthe people who created it.
(09:21):
So content like this is ageneral kind of rule of thumb.
It's not easy to create contentright, but to be successful
online, you kind of need tocreate content.
So the genius to me, again thegenius part about social media
is they figure it out a way forother people to create their
content.
(09:41):
Zuckerberg doesn't create anycontent.
He doesn't have content teams,it's you and me who are creating
content.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Once you put it on their platform, they own it and
they can use it however theywant.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
I think legally that is true.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
That is so.
Whatever you put on there, theycan then take and use anywhere
in the world, however, they want.
However, they want your voice,your image your words.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
So the problem with that, I mean, is twofold.
You're creating content to helpmake somebody else money and,
yes, if your YouTube channel ismonetized, you're getting a
sliver of that money.
You know who knows how muchthey're making.
The other thing thing it couldbe taken away, yeah, at any
(10:27):
point, and at that point youhave no like.
Let's say you have a reallygreat youtube channel.
It's getting lots of views like,say, you have a million
subscribers oh my god if all ofa sudden, your youtube channel
is shut down or demonetized orsomething for some reason, which
happens often.
All of a sudden, you can't justemail, you can't send a text to
those million subscribers.
Okay, if you build a list offyour site, yeah, it'll probably
(10:47):
be smaller, but it's your list.
Like you have that content.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
And control.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Yeah, Like somebody, I was listening to a talk one
time and I don't remember who itwas, but somebody.
They were talking about thisand they said does anybody
remember Arsenio Hall?
Yeah, yeah, of course weremember Arsenio Hall.
Arsenio Hall had a very, very,very popular show.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Arsenio, yeah, and it was before social media, right?
Okay, so it was in the days, ifyou're old enough to remember,
when TV shows were.
They're just on the TV, what?
And?
Speaker 2 (11:21):
only when they say it's going to be and you have to
get a book to know when that is.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
They didn't have a podcast, they didn't have a
website, they didn't haveanything.
What did people?
Do with their time, I don'tknow, and one day, I believe,
arsenio was on Fox.
Fox canceled his show.
Now he had oh man, I have noidea how many viewers, how many
lists.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
He had so many lists.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
I was going to say listeners, but he had viewers,
like probably tens of millionsof viewers.
Now, once his show was takenoff the air, what happened to
Arsenio Hall?
Like we saw him occasionally onmovies?
Arsenio Hall, like we saw himoccasionally on movies, but
somebody talked about thisbecause he was on an episode of
a TV show which I won't describe, but he was trying to call
(12:09):
people who would be influencersin the entertainment industry
and nobody would take his call.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Wait, is this for real?
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Yeah, this is for real and this is years later.
Like he would, he was callingall these people and it was part
of this reality TV show andnobody would take his call.
And this is an example like yes, it's from 20 plus years ago,
and who knows what kind of aperson he is but he didn't have
his list, he didn't own his list.
He was building his and therewas no other options not his
(12:37):
fault, but he had a TV show onsomebody else's network and that
network decided no, we don'tlike your TV show.
And then he was done.
So there is the danger of that.
If you are building content forInstagram or YouTube or TikTok
or wherever, realize that is apotential danger, Okay Okay.
(12:58):
So, whatever you're doing, tryand this is not easy, but try to
brainstorm how you can start toown your list, more than be
borrowing it from Zuckerberg orwhoever is going to buy it Now.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Dangerous is a big word, but it's Okay.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Well, it's a.
I said potentially, yeah, Imean it is a potential downside.
Yeah, yeah, I mean it?
Is a potential downside.
Yeah, okay, a lot of businessis just evaluating potential
downside and minimizing yourrisk.
So you want to minimize yourrisk?
Yeah, that's all I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
I hear you loud and clear All.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
I'm saying Okay, all I'm saying, all I'm saying Back
to the SEO's inbox yes, emailnumber four.
Yes, remember, the first emailwas about following the Google
business profile policies, andthis one is the bonus.
Yeah, this is the bonus.
So this email, the subject lineis Meredith's husband yes Me,
it's me, it's you.
Your profile has been disabled.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Really it was disabled.
Yes, really.
Oh, it's not a spam.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
No, it's really been suspended.
This is the second time thishas happened to me.
Here's an example of Google hasdecided to suspend my profile,
so it's no longer getting views.
What?
Yeah, a prime example.
Now, I don't know.
The email says your businessprofile has been removed by
Google.
Learn more about ourrestriction policy.
(14:14):
To appeal this decision Clickappeal below.
Google.
Learn more about ourrestriction policy.
To appeal this decision clickappeal below.
Now Google, frustratingly,never gives a reason why your
profile is suspended like this.
Like I said, this is the secondtime.
Yeah, it's shitty.
I know it's frustrating Now.
My profile was suspended thefirst time because the name
(14:35):
business Meredith's husbanddoesn't sound like a business.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
It's wonderful.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
And I actually had to .
I actually have a businesslicense with the name of the
company.
Being Meredith's husband, I hadto send it to Google to prove
to them that it was actually abusiness.
That might be the same problemhere.
I literally just got this emailyesterday, so I don't know.
Problem here I literally justgot this email yesterday, so I
don't know.
So one thing I will do is Iwill as I go through the appeal
(15:00):
process, which I know isfrustrating, but I don't have
any other options.
I have to do it, and this is aservice that I mean Google is
providing for free.
I'm not paying to have mybusiness profile listed.
I'm not paying for Google toshow my information to anybody,
so this is a necessary evil, Iguess.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Not necessary.
It's not necessary, it's justit's common, I know, so I got to
deal with it and it shows thatthey're actually doing their job
and trying to make sureeverything's verified.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Yeah, and I will say I would rather they be, let's
say, over diligent andoccasionally deactivate
something that shouldn't be,rather than the opposite.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Yes, I agree.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Because then the results would, then the general
results in Google would probablybe kind of shitty.
So I need to go through thisprocess.
I'm going to kind of document itas I go and I'm going to
measure how much it as I go, andI'm going to measure how much
time it takes.
Oh, very good, because in thepast I've had students where
this takes like three months.
In my case it took about amonth.
(16:08):
The whole appeal process overthe last few years that they
offer has gotten much better.
Okay, it's gotten way better.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
That's good.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Like a few years ago, like the first time my business
was suspended, I did not get anemail, they don't notify you,
they don't give you a chance toappeal, there is no appeal
process, they don't provide alink.
It took me a good hour just tofigure out what my next step was
and to figure out where to goto do that.
So the appeal process is easierand I will document it and
(16:38):
we'll probably do an episode inthe future about what happens.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
That sounds good.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
I hope I get it back.
You know students say theyfreak out about this and I say
don't worry.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
I have never seen a situation where a legitimate
business didn't get theirprofile back until and now I'm
freaking out, freaking the fuckand now you understand why
they're yes, yeah, you know, Ido understand I do understand.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
I tried, I try to ease their mind, but I certainly
understand.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
And here I am again um, I have one thing that you
can delete.
So I've noticed that in my junkmail there are so many people
telling me about SEO andoffering SEO services.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Do you ever so do I.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
So do I.
I have in my spam, literally,and every once in a while I'm
like you know what I'm going toreply to this person and I give
them my name and eventually theconversation comes up Well, what
is your business about?
And I say SEO.
And it's silence.
I've done that on the phone too.
I've gotten those calls.
Somebody called me and theysaid yeah, we're a data provider
(17:51):
for Google and we have avacancy at the top of the
listings for your industry andwe have a vacancy at the top of
the listings for your industry.
I was like, no fucking way, I amso lucky Like I'm going to call
this guy back.
I called him back and we'retalking to him and he's like
yeah, so you know, yeah, yeah,yeah, what's your business?
I said SEO, click, hang up.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Those are scams.
I know they are.
I know they are.
Yeah, I know they are, butthey're so.
I'm always, when I go throughmy junk box, I'm amazed at how
many there are.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
There's a ton.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Well, it's practically free to send those
emails and, as they say in WhiteLotus, it's a number game.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
You got to play the numbers.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
You got to play the numbers.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Yeah.
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