July 30, 2025 • 37 mins
Local SEO isn’t dead—it’s evolving. In this episode of Over The Bull, Ken breaks down seven essential strategies to optimize your Google Business Profile (formerly GMB) and keep your business visible in a world increasingly shaped by AI search results.
You’ll learn:
•Why your business address still matters (even in 2025)
•The truth about NAP consistency and directory syndication
•How reviews, responses, and relevance drive local rankings
•Why keyword stuffing your business name is a fast track to suspension
•What Google really looks for when ranking service-area businesses
Backed by real data and official Google guidelines, this episode is packed with tactical advice—no fluff, no fear-based marketing.
If you’ve ever wondered why your business isn’t showing up in the map pack, this one’s for you.
________________________________________________________________________
1.Google Business Profile Help – Local Search Ranking Factors
https://support.google.com/business/answer/7091
2.Google Business Profile Help – Business Name Guidelines
https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177
3.Google Business Profile Help – Service-Area Business Address Guidelines
https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038163
4.Semrush – How to Rank Higher on Google Maps
https://www.semrush.com/blog/google-my-business/
5.BrightLocal – How to Optimize Your Google Business Profile
https://www.brightlocal.com/learn/google-business-profile-optimization/
6.BrightLocal – Local Ranking Factors 2020 (still referenced today)
https://www.brightlocal.com/learn/key-ranking-factors-for-local-seo-2020/
7.LocalFalcon – What Impacts Your GBP Rankings
https://www.localfalcon.com/blog/what-information-impacts-your-google-business-profile-ranking
8.PriceWeber – Google Business Profile Ranking Success
https://priceweber.com/blog/google-business-profile-ranking-success/
9.IPPEI – 2024 Google Business Profile Ranking Factors
https://ippei.com/gmb-ranking-factors/
10.Reddit – GMB Address Visibility & Keyword-Stuffing Discussion
https://www.reddit.com/r/GoogleMyBusiness/comments/19e48e3
11.Reddit – Service Area Business Advice & Local SEO Tips
https://www.reddit.com/r/digital_marketing/comments/19e45ug
Over The Bull is brought to you by IntegrisDesign.com. All rights reserved.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
You're listening to Over the Bull, where we cut
through marketing noise.
Here's your host, Ken Carroll.
SPEAKER_01 (00:09):
Let's talk about your Google business profile on
this episode of Over the Bull.
Do you ever have a hard timegetting the words out?
You know, I've restarted thispodcast episode, gosh, I think
three times.
You know, sometimes things justdon't roll off the tongue
naturally, and I got a littlebit of a cough today.
(00:30):
So if you hear me pause, pleaseforgive me.
I'll try to keep everything ascohesive as possible.
But I want to talk to you aboutthis Google business thing.
Now, the reason I'm doing it isfor a lot of reasons.
One is there's so muchconfusion.
Number two, there are attemptsto game Google business.
(00:50):
just like people try to game SEOor Google Ads or whatever may
have you, for a short-term gainbut a long-term failure.
You know, gaming the system isnot like you found a cheat code
in a video game.
Gaming the system in this worldmeans that you could get
suspended.
(01:12):
And you don't want to besuspended.
And believe it or not, I've runacross a lot of Google business
profiles over the years thatwere suspended because of poor
practices.
And what's more scary aboutthese practices is in a lot of
cases, they were told to do thisby people that claim to be
professionals.
(01:32):
Now, it's either that they'retrying to game the system
because they think they foundsomething really neat and
they're trying to look like theyknow more than they do, or they
simply are ignorant.
I don't know any other way toput it.
So you want to avoid both thoseditches and you want to stay in
the middle of the road.
And that's what this podcast isdedicated to today.
(01:53):
Now, as we talk about this, onething I do want to share with
you is that I'm using quotesfrom other resources.
And I've been doing that becausehere's kind of the thing.
What I'm seeing is the confusionand the bait and switch and all
(02:13):
these things.
concepts that are going acrossand it's confusing the average
business owner.
They don't know who to trust.
You know, you may listen to thisand go talk to your person who's
in charge of your Googlebusiness and they may say, I've
got that under control.
And here's why.
And this is why you want to doit.
And what I'm trying to do is getbeyond that and give you
(02:35):
accurate quotes so that as youdo things with your Google
business and your other, um,Things that you're going to come
out on top.
Now, it's my contention thatcredibility is going to be the
new currency for businesses.
And if you're doing things thatdon't contribute to the overall
(02:56):
credibility of your company, andyou're just doing things like
running ads to reallylow-ranking pages, or your
Google Ads guy is, feels goodtoday, it's going to feel bad
long-term, Gaming Googlebusiness feels good today, be
bad long term.
Search engine optimization,hiring a person that uses things
(03:16):
like private blog networks canget you into some big trouble.
Just like if someone were toperform a raid and you're
innocently walking by, you canget swept up in the raid,
regardless if you're a good, youknow, an innocent bystander or
not.
And the point is, you don't wantto end up in those situations.
(03:37):
You want to be Clean andcredible.
All right, so let's talk about acouple of points here when it
comes to Google business.
And here's a big one.
So let's talk about proximityand ranking.
So remember these three things,relevance, distance, and
prominence.
(03:57):
So local results are basedprimarily on relevance,
distance, and prominence.
Our algorithms might decide thata business that's further away
is more likely to have whatyou're looking for.
Now, this is from the SearchEngine Journal summarizing
Google's own guidance.
(04:17):
Okay, so the idea is when welook at it, people will often
ask, well, does it matter if Iput my real address on there or
can I put my service area?
And does that make a bigdifference?
Should I do it?
Should I not do it?
And then the opinions just comeroaring.
So here's kind of the deal withthis.
(04:39):
When you think of search engineslike Google, we often think
they're a lot smarter than wegive them credit for.
Now, don't get me wrong.
I mean, the technology is insanetoday.
But also, these are not sentientbeings.
These are not conscious beingswho understand things, and they
(05:00):
need signals.
And so if you can publish youraddress, that gives like a
really good indicator of whereyou are in relation to the
person searching versus aservice area that could be
bigger.
Pretty much it's that simple.
So if you can put your addresson there, you absolutely should
do it because remember whatGoogle is trying to do is give
(05:22):
the most relevant search resultsand proximity could be one of
those indicators, right?
So if proximity is it and youcan do it, then by all means,
you should do it.
Now, the idea is do you hangyour hat on it?
Do you like, you know, kick andscream and fight till the end?
(05:45):
Probably not, but it's a goodindicator and it does help
Google out.
So do it.
I know it's crazy, but it'spretty much that easy.
Number two, complete andaccurate Google business profile
information.
helps Google understandrelevance.
So remember we had this onepoint with relevance.
(06:07):
So let's go ahead and look at afew quotes here.
And basically let'ssub-categorize the quote by
going complete and verify yourbusiness profile to rank better
locally.
So let's read a couple of quoteshere.
This is from Google BusinessProfile Help.
So probably a pretty goodresource.
(06:28):
Local results favor the mostrelevant results for each
search.
See, it's the same thing it'salways been.
Google's got a product, and whatthey're trying to do is give a
good product.
To maximize how often yourcustomers see your business in
local search results, completethe following task in your
business profile.
(06:49):
Enter complete data, verify yourlocations, et cetera, et cetera.
And...
I'll have links so you can keepreading, but I'll summarize here
in a minute.
The next one's from SEMrush, orS-E-M-rush, however you want to
pronounce it.
Google ranks business profileswith complete and accurate
information higher in the localsearch results.
(07:12):
This includes verified businessaddress, hours, category, and
attributes.
Your profile, and this isanother resource, this is Bright
Local, how to optimize yourGoogle business profile.
Your profile is more likely toshow up in local results when
all sections are filled out,including business descriptions,
(07:32):
service area, hours, and photos.
Okay, so these are some heavyhitters here.
So what are they saying?
Fill out your profile to thebest of your ability and
complete as possible.
Believe it or not, when you takesome Google Ads classes, one of
the things that they tell you todo is fill out everything.
(07:55):
And the reason they tell you tois there's a lot of things you
can fill out.
It's not just ad copy, but youcan put in things like, you
know, links that are relevant,you know, site links, things
like that.
And what it does is basicallytakes up more real estate.
And so in this case, filling outand having all your information,
you're taking up all the realestate, you're giving Google
(08:16):
more to look at, more to assess,and frankly, look more serious
about your business than justpopping on a little bit of basic
information.
And so what they're saying is bediligent, fill everything out.
Now, when you do fill it out,You can go through and in your
description, you can put in yourservices.
(08:37):
You could put in categories.
You could put different thingsin there.
But don't keyword stuff things.
Use natural.
So keyword stuffing would belike that integrous design.
We have web design.
That is web design.
And we also offer web design.
You know, you don't want to becrazy with it because a lot of
people also think the more theyuse a keyword, the better they
(09:00):
will rank.
This is actually not true.
If you use different tools onthe internet, what you're going
to find is you can actually useyour keywords too much in places
like blog articles and thingslike that.
And it looks too saturated or itlooks like you're trying to spam
the content and it can actuallyhurt you.
And so you want to use tools tolook at things like keyword
(09:22):
density.
But in this context, you simplyjust want to make sure that as
you're filling out your profile.
You're doing it in a natural wayand filling it out to the best
of your ability.
So let's look at number threehere.
This is called NAP consistencyacross citations builds local
(09:42):
visibility.
That's a mouthful, huh?
NAP consistency across citationsbuilds local visibility.
So first, what is this crazyacronym NAP?
Seems like we live in a world ofNAP, right?
Like Google Business Profile iswhat, GBP, and Google My
Business, GMB.
And again, if you want to be oldschool, you can still get away
(10:06):
with calling it GMB, but thetechnical term is Google
Business Profile these days.
And yes, I will say GMB orGoogle My Business Profile.
frankly, because I'm just acreature of habit, but I try to
change that.
So NAP is name, address, andphone number.
Name, address, phone number.
(10:26):
And name, A address, P phonenumber.
So it's pretty much that simple.
And then it says acrosscitations builds local
visibility.
So the idea is you want to haveyour information as consistent
as possible and broadcast acrossrelevant sites places on the
(10:46):
internet that will help youroverall NAP consistency, N-A-P
consistency.
Now, if we look at RedditInsight on local directory
strategy, one of the quotessays, NAP, name, address, and
phone in parentheses, infoacross all citation platforms.
(11:07):
Consistency is key.
Google values this.
So, for example, at IntegrisDesign, we have a partnership
where We can broadcast yourinformation consistently across
60 citation platforms.
And not only that, but you canmanage your profile.
You can update your hours ofoperation.
(11:28):
You can manage your reviews.
You can check where you'reranked at locally.
You can also do a lot of otherthings within our platform, like
even set up automations.
And so there's a lot of goodtools out there that do that,
and some of them I'm referringto.
in these articles, I think.
But the idea is if you're justpopping into Google Business and
(11:50):
you're just changing yourinformation there and you're not
doing well, probably because youdon't have proper citations.
Now, I have seen a lot ofagencies who are just basically
optimizing the Google Businessprofile.
I mean, like physically justthat one profile.
And they're not broadcasting itacross the spectrum.
(12:13):
And so, by the way, I think ifyou go to
scan.integristdesign.com, I'mpretty sure we've got a tool
there, scan.integristdesign.com,and you can actually check how
well you're being broadcast ifyou're interested.
But basically what happens withyour NAP score is they're not
broadcasting it and they're justmanaging it strictly from inside
(12:35):
Google.
And the reason some of thesecompanies do it is because
they're ignorant, but then otherreasons they do it is because
You have to invest in a platformthat will help you do this.
And if they don't invest in aplatform that kind of helps get
over the goal, it's cheaper forthem just to say they did it by
just going into your Googlebusiness profile and changing a
(12:57):
few things around, which willnot get you over the goal.
Citation volume and qualitymatters.
Okay, but in parentheses, let'ssee.
Now let's go to Wikipedia here.
I know some of you have probablydifferent opinions about Wiki,
but let's just check it out.
Actually, this is from, no, holdon a minute.
(13:18):
This is actually from Reddit.
So Reddit local SEO advice.
Citations are a key factor inlocal search rankings.
The more consistent and the moreaccurate citations, the more
likely to show up in localsearch results.
So if you got all those reviews,You got everything going.
(13:39):
You probably are missing somecitations or you have very
inconsistent citations.
Another thing is the tool thatwe use will also bring up
duplicate citations.
And being able to identify thosequickly and being able to
suppress those is also somethingthat would be helpful.
(13:59):
Good for your business.
So you want to make sure thatyou don't have duplicates across
the bandwidth.
And you can imagine what it'd belike just trying to manage 60
citations manually.
It'd be crazy.
And so having a tool to help youwith that's good.
Wikipedia kind of says similarthings.
I'm just going to kind of skipthat one.
I know some of you probably havedifferent opinions about the
(14:22):
world of Wikipedia.
Number five, reviews andresponses drive prominence and
trust.
So here we go.
We'll pull Wikipedia in here.
We don't let them not be part ofthe fun today.
More reviews and positiveratings can improve your
business's local ranking.
And that is from apparentlyindicating Google Prominence
(14:47):
Signal.
I don't know if that's theactual title of the section or
not, but that's what I have inmy notes.
And Search Engine Journal, let'ssee what they said.
And respond to reviews, positiveand negative, is a direct
recommendation from the SearchEngine Journal trying to profile
(15:07):
activity and trust.
So here's kind of a thing, guys.
I know you're going to get thatreview, and it's going to just
send you over the top.
Okay, but remember, you're notwriting a review to that person.
You're writing a review to yournext customer.
and they want to see how youhandle both the good and the
bad.
And so I know you love yourbusiness, and I know you
(15:29):
probably try to do a good job,and it's probably infuriating
when it happens, but you want tobe able to handle it in a way
that's respectful, and you wantto be able to do a good job of
it.
So make sure that as you'rewriting the negative reviews,
don't ignore them, but make surethat you do address it, and then
make sure that you remainpositive and remain sure that
you remain objective during it,and don't put a lot of, like,
(15:51):
negative emotion into it, rightas though it's your writing to
the next customer.
All right, so let's talk aboutregular posts and content
updates, signal activity.
Ensure your– oh, they call itGMB here, guys.
So if you're calling it GMB,feel good here.
This is from Reddit BestPractices Summary.
(16:14):
Ensure your GMB profile is ascomplete as possible.
Keeping up with post photos, QA,and review responses.
Keeping up with post.
Did you know that you can poststuff to Google Business and
that you should do thatregularly, just like you would
with other social media-likeplatforms?
(16:37):
Well, you can.
You can actually do posting tothere as well.
At Integrus, one thing that weoften do is we actually have a
white glove service, and we haveone that encourages our
customers where they canparticipate.
We even have our own socialposting portal where they can
(16:59):
post all their social mediaprofiles, plus they can post to
Google Business at the sametime.
So what you want to do isbasically what it's saying is
stay active.
Show that you're alive and showyour business is flourishing.
Show that you care what's onyour Google business profile.
And if you have someone postingfor you and they're not posting
(17:22):
to your Google business, youprobably want to ask why they're
not doing that.
Okay, so this is kind of acouple big ones.
And one of them, number eight,I'm actually going to step on a
crazy limb and Do it without anykind of citations.
So no net on the last one, guys.
So number seven, avoid keywordstuffing your business name.
(17:44):
Now, here's the quote.
This, again, is from Reddit FAQ,and this is on GMB Naming.
So Google my business naming.
If your local business isalready named New York Plumbing,
that's fine.
But you shouldn't list your nameas Joe's Plumbing in New York
just to rank for local keywords.
(18:08):
So here's the question of theday.
Is the name of your businessyour true name of your business?
Or did you slap some keywords inthere too?
Or did you take some really badadvice and let your marketing
guy put some keywords in thetitle?
Now, here's the thing.
Gaming that, it does helpsometimes.
(18:30):
But also, that can get yoususpended.
Yep, that can get you suspendedand you don't want to go down
that road.
So the idea is that's really badadvice.
Remember, you're trying to beconsistent.
You want your name of yourbusiness to be consistent across
the entire bandwidth.
You don't want to be differentjust on Google business.
(18:51):
What are you telling Googleabout the name of your company
when you do those things?
Are you confusing Google even?
I mean, the idea that, and Iremember years ago, running
across the situation.
And I got approached by all myclients, and they were telling
me how brilliant this person'sresearch was, who ran Google
(19:13):
Ads, that you should game thesystem by putting keywords in
the title.
And this guy even went as far assaying, get a DBA with the
keyword.
I wish I was making this up.
But he even said, go get anotherDBA so you could use it.
Just crazy stuff.
And the idea is you really wantto be consistent.
(19:34):
You want to be consistent acrossyour entire bandwidth.
And just play by the rules.
And if someone's telling yousomething that seems a little
bit fishy, odds are it is fishy.
So avoid that, please.
Please, please, please don't dothat because you don't want to
get suspended.
Now, let's talk about numbereight.
(19:55):
This is mine, and I honestlydon't have a citation for this,
so take it or leave it.
I'll tell you what my personalexperience has brought me to
understand.
For some reason, certainmarketing people build these
low-ranking, scrape-stylewebsites they're running Google
Ads to.
(20:16):
I know, you've heard me harp onthis for weeks.
But the thing is, is they runthese, And then what they do for
some reason is they put thatlow-ranking website as the web
address in the Google BusinessProfile section.
Now, this is not good, guys,because all you're doing is just
(20:39):
causing confusion.
Now, I have been trying tofigure out, because I don't game
the system.
I mean, I'm a prettystraight-laced guy when it comes
to it.
I'd rather run thingsstraight-laced than try to build
it up ethically.
But my guess is the reason theydo this is because they're
trying to pad their stats.
You know, throwing the ball inthe flats is how I often refer
(21:02):
to it back in the old schoolfootball.
You know, get the completionstat up a little bit.
Now, I don't know if that's whythey're doing it or not.
There may be some superadvanced, really awesome reason
they're doing this.
I can't find it.
And so if you can find it, I'dlove to hear more about it.
But I do know that you should belinking to your primary business
site because you want to beconsistent.
(21:25):
Remember, your name, address,your phone, your business,
everything should be consistent.
You should be driving thattraffic to your main website
because you're trying toincrease the credibility of your
main website.
And so those are the big eightthat you should be really
thinking about as you're doingyour Google business.
(21:46):
And, you know, I'll tell you onethat's really tough for me.
And I never have a good answerfor this.
So you put a keyword in the nameof your business.
And the question is, when do youpull it?
When do you take it out?
You know, if you want to play bythe rules and you weren't
playing by the rules, how do youdo it and when do you do it?
(22:07):
And that's kind of a subjective,you know, argument.
I mean, because...
you change the name of yourbusiness, you're probably going
to trigger a re-verification atthe very least.
And you may even cause Google tolook at it harder, right?
And so the idea is, well, whendo you do it and how do you do
(22:29):
it?
And the problem is, is becauseyou got it tangled up by taking
bad advice, you have to untangleit.
And there's really not a bestpractice for, as far as I've
been able to find, about how tocorrect poor practices or
non-recommended methodologies.
And so I struggle with that.
(22:50):
I struggle with when to triggerit.
I do not prepare the client forthe worst when we do it.
And sometimes you just kind oflet it sit there and go about
its merry way until you rip theBand-Aid off.
So hopefully that helps you outa little bit when it comes to
Google business and what youshould do and what you should
(23:12):
not do.
Just having someone who sellsyou Google Optimization as a
one-time service.
You know what?
There's something else I want totalk to you about.
The category of your business.
You probably want to note this alittle bit.
But there are some plug-ins.
(23:33):
Like with Google Chrome, forexample.
Let me see if I can find thename of this tool.
I cannot think of the name ofthis tool.
I think it's called...
I can't think, I can't see it.
But basically, if you go toGoogle Chrome, you can find
certain tools.
And what these tools do is it'llshow you the primary and
(23:55):
secondary categories ofcompetitors.
And so what you can do is whenyou install it, it'll show you
what primary and secondarycategories your competitors are
choosing.
And then what you can do is youkind of follow suit.
And that'll clue you in topicking the best categories for
your Google business profile.
So you want your primary to beyour primary and your secondary
(24:15):
to be your secondary, obviously.
And looking at what yourcompetitors are doing will give
you a leg up.
And so I don't know why I didn'tbring that up earlier.
It's not even in my notes, but Ido know that that's something
that can really help you out inunderstanding where you should
play at.
And also, if you download thattool, that's bugging me here for
(24:38):
a second.
I'm actually going to pause thisand find the name of the tool.
All right.
I am back after a brief pause,and that is called GMB Spy.
So Google My Business Spy, GMBSpy.
And it'll basically put a littleicon up in your Chrome browser,
and then you can kind of gothrough and just see what
(25:00):
categories your competitors arechoosing.
And that can help you outsignificantly in optimizing your
business profile.
So I apologize for that.
I Sometimes, you know, you getthese notes and you get the game
plan together.
And anyway, it can really kindof, sometimes you miss some of
(25:21):
the stuff, miss the forest forthe trees, so to speak.
So in conclusion, hopefully thiswill help you out, you know,
optimize your Google businessprofile, get everything moving
where it needs to go, and helpyou avoid a a lot of the common
pitfalls, and a lot of the badadvice is floating around about
Google business.
(25:41):
The other thing is there is athing in human nature where we
always want to be smarter orbetter than everybody else.
And we always want to look forthat person that maybe has that
magic bullet or that certainthing that's missing that's just
going to propel business or helpit out.
And the idea of knowing thatsecret or being a part of that
(26:02):
secret is something that is soenticing.
You know, it's kind of hard toavoid.
And if someone's gaming yoursystem already and you're
experiencing success, you know,you can have this idea that it's
going to go on forever.
Now, the secret to onlinesuccess, believe it or not, is
pretty simple.
And that is follow the rulesthat these big tech companies
(26:25):
laid out.
Don't try to trick them.
Don't try to fool them.
Work by the rules, work hard andtry to build your company up.
Um, If you do it that way,you're going to succeed better
long term.
Your credibility is going toincrease.
Things are going to startworking out just by following
best practices.
(26:46):
And so when someone gives arecommendation, like they give
something counterintuitive towhat I'm telling you, you want
to avoid it.
I mean, these people– and I'mnot a real big Reddit person,
but this is good stuff fromReddit.
But they're saying this because–It's the best way to do it.
(27:07):
And so avoid the whole gamingthe system process.
Avoid the urge to it.
And I know it's going to be bad,okay?
Rip the Band-Aid off and quitusing the Google Ads guy who's
sending things to those littlescrape web pages that they're
building.
(27:28):
Get away from that, okay?
Just like you want to get awayfrom anyone who's doing cold
email marketing because byblasting people that have not
subscribed to your businessinformation.
So many games that are beingplayed.
And the thing is that yourcredibility of your business is
important.
And you don't want to be knownas the spammy guy.
(27:49):
And you certainly don't want tobuild a Google business profile
up and then have it ripped awayfrom you because it's been
deemed as not following theright protocols.
No matter what it feels liketoday, you want to get away from
it.
And I'm running into businessesthat are really struggling with
the idea that they've got tobite the bullet, that they've
(28:12):
got to do it.
And as the owner of a businessand as someone who cares and
really tries to do things to thebest of my ability, that is good
for the customer long term.
It really bothers me when I runacross people who struggle
financially.
with making these decisions.
(28:34):
So here's the other problem withthis.
Let me talk about this for asecond because I've run across
this.
So let me ramble for a minute.
So the other thing that you runinto is, let's say, for example,
you have someone who's doingyour SEO or doing your paid ads
(28:55):
or doing your GMB or whatever,and then you start to have
someone else untangle it.
And then what you see is theperformance has gone down.
Your visibility decreases.
Your Google ads aren'tperforming as well.
You're not converting.
You know, the waves are gettinghigh and you're getting nervous.
(29:19):
And the tendency would be tothink that the previous guy knew
more than your current guy.
Now, that couldn't be furtherfrom the truth.
The problem is that yourprevious guy was gaming the
system.
Your new guy is trying to helpyou out ethically, but you're
struggling as a business to stayafloat, right?
Because you've got to make moneyat the same time.
(29:41):
And so juggling that as theowner of a business and figuring
out the best time to do it canbe a struggle.
And that's a challenge for youas a business.
But the worst thing you could dois go back to the guy that's
caused the problems to beginwith.
And that's tough because you mayeven have a good relationship
(30:01):
with those people.
But they're hurting you, eventhough it feels good, right?
They're enabling you.
So the best thing to do isfollow best practices and build
everything the right way.
So if you go back to the lastepisode, you're going to see
where I talk about landing pagesand bait and switch, for
example.
(30:22):
There's a lot of these littlethings that are going on.
So you'll be careful to do that.
Okay, that's the end of myramble.
I've decided to stop it rightthere.
I know you probably enjoyhearing me ramble, but that's
pretty much all you're gettingtoday.
I don't want to spoil you.
I'm trying to think if there'sanything I want to share with
you from our agency perspectiveover the last week, see if
(30:45):
anything of interest has comeup.
I think one of the big thingsthat I would suggest based upon
the last week So here's what Iknow about a lot of small
businesses.
Typically, small businesses arestarted by someone who does
something really well.
(31:05):
And they do a bang-up job of it.
And as they do it, then theystart to grow and add people and
do things.
And then competitors startcoming in.
And when competitors come in,then, you know, they muddy the
waters in terms of youradvantage and the quality of
your service.
And so the idea is to understanddifferent things about your
(31:30):
business that are good and bad.
And one of those tools that havebeen traditionally very good is
something called a SWOTanalysis.
S-W-O-T, SWOT.
And that stands for yourstrengths, your weaknesses, your
(31:52):
opportunities, and your threats.
Now, the idea is you want tounderstand what makes you better
as a company and what makes youstand out as a company.
And you want to understand whereyour weaknesses are at and where
the threats are coming from.
You don't want to close youreyes to this.
And so going through a SWOTanalysis can help you better
(32:16):
understand your market position.
And then what you can do isstart to work that into your
paid ads, your overall marketingapproach, and then you can start
testing it using A-B techniques.
Basically, you present differentmessages and different kind of
campaigns, and then you findwhich ones basically resonate
(32:38):
and convert better than others.
And so the idea is that I haveseen a situation where
Businesses, sometimes they tendto think that they got to be the
lowest price or they have to docertain things in order to sell
their product and becompetitive.
But the idea of that reallyisn't that good.
(33:01):
I mean, I had a guy one time, hetold me, he said, there's always
somebody out there willing tocharge less money to go out of
business quicker than you.
And so the idea is to create avaluable service and then make
sure that you put that in yourmessaging, but then also test it
before you go whole hog with it.
(33:23):
And then once you do that, thenyou understand more about your
business.
And you should do thatperiodically because your
competition will change.
And so you want to understand asmuch as you can so that you can
remain on top You can change astime changes and you can evolve
with everything else.
(33:43):
So I think the advice of the dayis I've seen a couple of cases
where some good businesseshaven't gone through that SWOT
analysis.
And we actually, when we take ona new client, we actually
incorporate kind of a SWOTanalysis along the path, you
know, like, you know, justlooking at different things,
(34:04):
looking at competitive researchin addition to it and things
like that, and then starttesting the messaging out.
So if you haven't gone throughthat and you're a small business
and you're probably really goodat what you do, I recommend that
you get out and you look at yourSWOT analysis and then make
(34:25):
adjustments.
Work with your people to try tofigure out the best way to do
things.
Okay, that should be it for thisepisode of Over the Bull.
I do hope this helps you out,and I do hope that you
experience great success.
You know, I am so grateful toGod to give me the opportunity
to be able to talk to peoplelike you and be able to offer
(34:47):
advice to you.
You know, as a Christiancompany, you know, Jesus is my
Savior, and His guidance inEverything that I do is so
important to me.
And one thing I would suggest toyou as an owner of a business is
I have seen some people thathave a lot of money.
(35:10):
I mean, a lot of money.
And I've also, in my life, I'veexperienced a lot of things.
And the one thing that means somuch to me is once a month, My
family gets together, my kidsand my grandkids, and we sit
around, we eat, we talk, weenjoy life together.
(35:33):
And sometimes in business, itcan be all-consuming.
And before you know it, yourlife is over.
And you've planted seeds inplaces you really shouldn't, and
you've avoided things that youreally should have paid
attention to.
Now, I know in my life, as Ibuilt our business and tried to
work on it to the best of myability, there were times where
(35:55):
I've neglected the things thatwere more important.
And luckily, I have a beautiful,loving family and kids and
grandbabies and all those thingswho've stuck with me over the
years and have supported me.
And I'm lucky enough to have afamily business, you know, where
we literally are family.
(36:16):
Just one big family, even thepeople in our blood, if we still
think of them as family.
And so as you go through life,I'd love it, you know, just try
to keep focus on those things.
Try to look at your familybecause when all is said and
done– The money is going to goaway.
The stuff you built is going togo away.
(36:37):
You're going to go away.
I'm going to go away.
And what's going to be left isthe legacy that we left on those
that love us.
And we've been able to impressupon them the things that are
important in this world.
That's part of what my faithbrings me.
(36:58):
And so I just pray that– Youfind that peace and you find
that happiness and you find thatbalance in your life.
Okay, until the next Over theBowl podcast, I wish you guys
the absolute best.
God bless.
SPEAKER_00 (37:13):
Thanks for tuning in to Over the Bowl, brought to you
by Integris Design, afull-service design and
marketing agency out ofAsheville, North Carolina.
Until next time.
You're listening to Over the Bull, where we cut
through marketing noise.
Here's your host, Ken Carroll.
SPEAKER_01 (00:09):
Let's talk about your Google business profile on
this episode of Over the Bull.
Do you ever have a hard timegetting the words out?
You know, I've restarted thispodcast episode, gosh, I think
three times.
You know, sometimes things justdon't roll off the tongue
naturally, and I got a littlebit of a cough today.
(00:30):
So if you hear me pause, pleaseforgive me.
I'll try to keep everything ascohesive as possible.
But I want to talk to you aboutthis Google business thing.
Now, the reason I'm doing it isfor a lot of reasons.
One is there's so muchconfusion.
Number two, there are attemptsto game Google business.
(00:50):
just like people try to game SEOor Google Ads or whatever may
have you, for a short-term gainbut a long-term failure.
You know, gaming the system isnot like you found a cheat code
in a video game.
Gaming the system in this worldmeans that you could get
suspended.
(01:12):
And you don't want to besuspended.
And believe it or not, I've runacross a lot of Google business
profiles over the years thatwere suspended because of poor
practices.
And what's more scary aboutthese practices is in a lot of
cases, they were told to do thisby people that claim to be
professionals.
(01:32):
Now, it's either that they'retrying to game the system
because they think they foundsomething really neat and
they're trying to look like theyknow more than they do, or they
simply are ignorant.
I don't know any other way toput it.
So you want to avoid both thoseditches and you want to stay in
the middle of the road.
And that's what this podcast isdedicated to today.
(01:53):
Now, as we talk about this, onething I do want to share with
you is that I'm using quotesfrom other resources.
And I've been doing that becausehere's kind of the thing.
What I'm seeing is the confusionand the bait and switch and all
(02:13):
these things.
concepts that are going acrossand it's confusing the average
business owner.
They don't know who to trust.
You know, you may listen to thisand go talk to your person who's
in charge of your Googlebusiness and they may say, I've
got that under control.
And here's why.
And this is why you want to doit.
And what I'm trying to do is getbeyond that and give you
(02:35):
accurate quotes so that as youdo things with your Google
business and your other, um,Things that you're going to come
out on top.
Now, it's my contention thatcredibility is going to be the
new currency for businesses.
And if you're doing things thatdon't contribute to the overall
(02:56):
credibility of your company, andyou're just doing things like
running ads to reallylow-ranking pages, or your
Google Ads guy is, feels goodtoday, it's going to feel bad
long-term, Gaming Googlebusiness feels good today, be
bad long term.
Search engine optimization,hiring a person that uses things
(03:16):
like private blog networks canget you into some big trouble.
Just like if someone were toperform a raid and you're
innocently walking by, you canget swept up in the raid,
regardless if you're a good, youknow, an innocent bystander or
not.
And the point is, you don't wantto end up in those situations.
(03:37):
You want to be Clean andcredible.
All right, so let's talk about acouple of points here when it
comes to Google business.
And here's a big one.
So let's talk about proximityand ranking.
So remember these three things,relevance, distance, and
prominence.
(03:57):
So local results are basedprimarily on relevance,
distance, and prominence.
Our algorithms might decide thata business that's further away
is more likely to have whatyou're looking for.
Now, this is from the SearchEngine Journal summarizing
Google's own guidance.
(04:17):
Okay, so the idea is when welook at it, people will often
ask, well, does it matter if Iput my real address on there or
can I put my service area?
And does that make a bigdifference?
Should I do it?
Should I not do it?
And then the opinions just comeroaring.
So here's kind of the deal withthis.
(04:39):
When you think of search engineslike Google, we often think
they're a lot smarter than wegive them credit for.
Now, don't get me wrong.
I mean, the technology is insanetoday.
But also, these are not sentientbeings.
These are not conscious beingswho understand things, and they
(05:00):
need signals.
And so if you can publish youraddress, that gives like a
really good indicator of whereyou are in relation to the
person searching versus aservice area that could be
bigger.
Pretty much it's that simple.
So if you can put your addresson there, you absolutely should
do it because remember whatGoogle is trying to do is give
(05:22):
the most relevant search resultsand proximity could be one of
those indicators, right?
So if proximity is it and youcan do it, then by all means,
you should do it.
Now, the idea is do you hangyour hat on it?
Do you like, you know, kick andscream and fight till the end?
(05:45):
Probably not, but it's a goodindicator and it does help
Google out.
So do it.
I know it's crazy, but it'spretty much that easy.
Number two, complete andaccurate Google business profile
information.
helps Google understandrelevance.
So remember we had this onepoint with relevance.
(06:07):
So let's go ahead and look at afew quotes here.
And basically let'ssub-categorize the quote by
going complete and verify yourbusiness profile to rank better
locally.
So let's read a couple of quoteshere.
This is from Google BusinessProfile Help.
So probably a pretty goodresource.
(06:28):
Local results favor the mostrelevant results for each
search.
See, it's the same thing it'salways been.
Google's got a product, and whatthey're trying to do is give a
good product.
To maximize how often yourcustomers see your business in
local search results, completethe following task in your
business profile.
(06:49):
Enter complete data, verify yourlocations, et cetera, et cetera.
And...
I'll have links so you can keepreading, but I'll summarize here
in a minute.
The next one's from SEMrush, orS-E-M-rush, however you want to
pronounce it.
Google ranks business profileswith complete and accurate
information higher in the localsearch results.
(07:12):
This includes verified businessaddress, hours, category, and
attributes.
Your profile, and this isanother resource, this is Bright
Local, how to optimize yourGoogle business profile.
Your profile is more likely toshow up in local results when
all sections are filled out,including business descriptions,
(07:32):
service area, hours, and photos.
Okay, so these are some heavyhitters here.
So what are they saying?
Fill out your profile to thebest of your ability and
complete as possible.
Believe it or not, when you takesome Google Ads classes, one of
the things that they tell you todo is fill out everything.
(07:55):
And the reason they tell you tois there's a lot of things you
can fill out.
It's not just ad copy, but youcan put in things like, you
know, links that are relevant,you know, site links, things
like that.
And what it does is basicallytakes up more real estate.
And so in this case, filling outand having all your information,
you're taking up all the realestate, you're giving Google
(08:16):
more to look at, more to assess,and frankly, look more serious
about your business than justpopping on a little bit of basic
information.
And so what they're saying is bediligent, fill everything out.
Now, when you do fill it out,You can go through and in your
description, you can put in yourservices.
(08:37):
You could put in categories.
You could put different thingsin there.
But don't keyword stuff things.
Use natural.
So keyword stuffing would belike that integrous design.
We have web design.
That is web design.
And we also offer web design.
You know, you don't want to becrazy with it because a lot of
people also think the more theyuse a keyword, the better they
(09:00):
will rank.
This is actually not true.
If you use different tools onthe internet, what you're going
to find is you can actually useyour keywords too much in places
like blog articles and thingslike that.
And it looks too saturated or itlooks like you're trying to spam
the content and it can actuallyhurt you.
And so you want to use tools tolook at things like keyword
(09:22):
density.
But in this context, you simplyjust want to make sure that as
you're filling out your profile.
You're doing it in a natural wayand filling it out to the best
of your ability.
So let's look at number threehere.
This is called NAP consistencyacross citations builds local
(09:42):
visibility.
That's a mouthful, huh?
NAP consistency across citationsbuilds local visibility.
So first, what is this crazyacronym NAP?
Seems like we live in a world ofNAP, right?
Like Google Business Profile iswhat, GBP, and Google My
Business, GMB.
And again, if you want to be oldschool, you can still get away
(10:06):
with calling it GMB, but thetechnical term is Google
Business Profile these days.
And yes, I will say GMB orGoogle My Business Profile.
frankly, because I'm just acreature of habit, but I try to
change that.
So NAP is name, address, andphone number.
Name, address, phone number.
(10:26):
And name, A address, P phonenumber.
So it's pretty much that simple.
And then it says acrosscitations builds local
visibility.
So the idea is you want to haveyour information as consistent
as possible and broadcast acrossrelevant sites places on the
(10:46):
internet that will help youroverall NAP consistency, N-A-P
consistency.
Now, if we look at RedditInsight on local directory
strategy, one of the quotessays, NAP, name, address, and
phone in parentheses, infoacross all citation platforms.
(11:07):
Consistency is key.
Google values this.
So, for example, at IntegrisDesign, we have a partnership
where We can broadcast yourinformation consistently across
60 citation platforms.
And not only that, but you canmanage your profile.
You can update your hours ofoperation.
(11:28):
You can manage your reviews.
You can check where you'reranked at locally.
You can also do a lot of otherthings within our platform, like
even set up automations.
And so there's a lot of goodtools out there that do that,
and some of them I'm referringto.
in these articles, I think.
But the idea is if you're justpopping into Google Business and
(11:50):
you're just changing yourinformation there and you're not
doing well, probably because youdon't have proper citations.
Now, I have seen a lot ofagencies who are just basically
optimizing the Google Businessprofile.
I mean, like physically justthat one profile.
And they're not broadcasting itacross the spectrum.
(12:13):
And so, by the way, I think ifyou go to
scan.integristdesign.com, I'mpretty sure we've got a tool
there, scan.integristdesign.com,and you can actually check how
well you're being broadcast ifyou're interested.
But basically what happens withyour NAP score is they're not
broadcasting it and they're justmanaging it strictly from inside
(12:35):
Google.
And the reason some of thesecompanies do it is because
they're ignorant, but then otherreasons they do it is because
You have to invest in a platformthat will help you do this.
And if they don't invest in aplatform that kind of helps get
over the goal, it's cheaper forthem just to say they did it by
just going into your Googlebusiness profile and changing a
(12:57):
few things around, which willnot get you over the goal.
Citation volume and qualitymatters.
Okay, but in parentheses, let'ssee.
Now let's go to Wikipedia here.
I know some of you have probablydifferent opinions about Wiki,
but let's just check it out.
Actually, this is from, no, holdon a minute.
(13:18):
This is actually from Reddit.
So Reddit local SEO advice.
Citations are a key factor inlocal search rankings.
The more consistent and the moreaccurate citations, the more
likely to show up in localsearch results.
So if you got all those reviews,You got everything going.
(13:39):
You probably are missing somecitations or you have very
inconsistent citations.
Another thing is the tool thatwe use will also bring up
duplicate citations.
And being able to identify thosequickly and being able to
suppress those is also somethingthat would be helpful.
(13:59):
Good for your business.
So you want to make sure thatyou don't have duplicates across
the bandwidth.
And you can imagine what it'd belike just trying to manage 60
citations manually.
It'd be crazy.
And so having a tool to help youwith that's good.
Wikipedia kind of says similarthings.
I'm just going to kind of skipthat one.
I know some of you probably havedifferent opinions about the
(14:22):
world of Wikipedia.
Number five, reviews andresponses drive prominence and
trust.
So here we go.
We'll pull Wikipedia in here.
We don't let them not be part ofthe fun today.
More reviews and positiveratings can improve your
business's local ranking.
And that is from apparentlyindicating Google Prominence
(14:47):
Signal.
I don't know if that's theactual title of the section or
not, but that's what I have inmy notes.
And Search Engine Journal, let'ssee what they said.
And respond to reviews, positiveand negative, is a direct
recommendation from the SearchEngine Journal trying to profile
(15:07):
activity and trust.
So here's kind of a thing, guys.
I know you're going to get thatreview, and it's going to just
send you over the top.
Okay, but remember, you're notwriting a review to that person.
You're writing a review to yournext customer.
and they want to see how youhandle both the good and the
bad.
And so I know you love yourbusiness, and I know you
(15:29):
probably try to do a good job,and it's probably infuriating
when it happens, but you want tobe able to handle it in a way
that's respectful, and you wantto be able to do a good job of
it.
So make sure that as you'rewriting the negative reviews,
don't ignore them, but make surethat you do address it, and then
make sure that you remainpositive and remain sure that
you remain objective during it,and don't put a lot of, like,
(15:51):
negative emotion into it, rightas though it's your writing to
the next customer.
All right, so let's talk aboutregular posts and content
updates, signal activity.
Ensure your– oh, they call itGMB here, guys.
So if you're calling it GMB,feel good here.
This is from Reddit BestPractices Summary.
(16:14):
Ensure your GMB profile is ascomplete as possible.
Keeping up with post photos, QA,and review responses.
Keeping up with post.
Did you know that you can poststuff to Google Business and
that you should do thatregularly, just like you would
with other social media-likeplatforms?
(16:37):
Well, you can.
You can actually do posting tothere as well.
At Integrus, one thing that weoften do is we actually have a
white glove service, and we haveone that encourages our
customers where they canparticipate.
We even have our own socialposting portal where they can
(16:59):
post all their social mediaprofiles, plus they can post to
Google Business at the sametime.
So what you want to do isbasically what it's saying is
stay active.
Show that you're alive and showyour business is flourishing.
Show that you care what's onyour Google business profile.
And if you have someone postingfor you and they're not posting
(17:22):
to your Google business, youprobably want to ask why they're
not doing that.
Okay, so this is kind of acouple big ones.
And one of them, number eight,I'm actually going to step on a
crazy limb and Do it without anykind of citations.
So no net on the last one, guys.
So number seven, avoid keywordstuffing your business name.
(17:44):
Now, here's the quote.
This, again, is from Reddit FAQ,and this is on GMB Naming.
So Google my business naming.
If your local business isalready named New York Plumbing,
that's fine.
But you shouldn't list your nameas Joe's Plumbing in New York
just to rank for local keywords.
(18:08):
So here's the question of theday.
Is the name of your businessyour true name of your business?
Or did you slap some keywords inthere too?
Or did you take some really badadvice and let your marketing
guy put some keywords in thetitle?
Now, here's the thing.
Gaming that, it does helpsometimes.
(18:30):
But also, that can get yoususpended.
Yep, that can get you suspendedand you don't want to go down
that road.
So the idea is that's really badadvice.
Remember, you're trying to beconsistent.
You want your name of yourbusiness to be consistent across
the entire bandwidth.
You don't want to be differentjust on Google business.
(18:51):
What are you telling Googleabout the name of your company
when you do those things?
Are you confusing Google even?
I mean, the idea that, and Iremember years ago, running
across the situation.
And I got approached by all myclients, and they were telling
me how brilliant this person'sresearch was, who ran Google
(19:13):
Ads, that you should game thesystem by putting keywords in
the title.
And this guy even went as far assaying, get a DBA with the
keyword.
I wish I was making this up.
But he even said, go get anotherDBA so you could use it.
Just crazy stuff.
And the idea is you really wantto be consistent.
(19:34):
You want to be consistent acrossyour entire bandwidth.
And just play by the rules.
And if someone's telling yousomething that seems a little
bit fishy, odds are it is fishy.
So avoid that, please.
Please, please, please don't dothat because you don't want to
get suspended.
Now, let's talk about numbereight.
(19:55):
This is mine, and I honestlydon't have a citation for this,
so take it or leave it.
I'll tell you what my personalexperience has brought me to
understand.
For some reason, certainmarketing people build these
low-ranking, scrape-stylewebsites they're running Google
Ads to.
(20:16):
I know, you've heard me harp onthis for weeks.
But the thing is, is they runthese, And then what they do for
some reason is they put thatlow-ranking website as the web
address in the Google BusinessProfile section.
Now, this is not good, guys,because all you're doing is just
(20:39):
causing confusion.
Now, I have been trying tofigure out, because I don't game
the system.
I mean, I'm a prettystraight-laced guy when it comes
to it.
I'd rather run thingsstraight-laced than try to build
it up ethically.
But my guess is the reason theydo this is because they're
trying to pad their stats.
You know, throwing the ball inthe flats is how I often refer
(21:02):
to it back in the old schoolfootball.
You know, get the completionstat up a little bit.
Now, I don't know if that's whythey're doing it or not.
There may be some superadvanced, really awesome reason
they're doing this.
I can't find it.
And so if you can find it, I'dlove to hear more about it.
But I do know that you should belinking to your primary business
site because you want to beconsistent.
(21:25):
Remember, your name, address,your phone, your business,
everything should be consistent.
You should be driving thattraffic to your main website
because you're trying toincrease the credibility of your
main website.
And so those are the big eightthat you should be really
thinking about as you're doingyour Google business.
(21:46):
And, you know, I'll tell you onethat's really tough for me.
And I never have a good answerfor this.
So you put a keyword in the nameof your business.
And the question is, when do youpull it?
When do you take it out?
You know, if you want to play bythe rules and you weren't
playing by the rules, how do youdo it and when do you do it?
(22:07):
And that's kind of a subjective,you know, argument.
I mean, because...
you change the name of yourbusiness, you're probably going
to trigger a re-verification atthe very least.
And you may even cause Google tolook at it harder, right?
And so the idea is, well, whendo you do it and how do you do
(22:29):
it?
And the problem is, is becauseyou got it tangled up by taking
bad advice, you have to untangleit.
And there's really not a bestpractice for, as far as I've
been able to find, about how tocorrect poor practices or
non-recommended methodologies.
And so I struggle with that.
(22:50):
I struggle with when to triggerit.
I do not prepare the client forthe worst when we do it.
And sometimes you just kind oflet it sit there and go about
its merry way until you rip theBand-Aid off.
So hopefully that helps you outa little bit when it comes to
Google business and what youshould do and what you should
(23:12):
not do.
Just having someone who sellsyou Google Optimization as a
one-time service.
You know what?
There's something else I want totalk to you about.
The category of your business.
You probably want to note this alittle bit.
But there are some plug-ins.
(23:33):
Like with Google Chrome, forexample.
Let me see if I can find thename of this tool.
I cannot think of the name ofthis tool.
I think it's called...
I can't think, I can't see it.
But basically, if you go toGoogle Chrome, you can find
certain tools.
And what these tools do is it'llshow you the primary and
(23:55):
secondary categories ofcompetitors.
And so what you can do is whenyou install it, it'll show you
what primary and secondarycategories your competitors are
choosing.
And then what you can do is youkind of follow suit.
And that'll clue you in topicking the best categories for
your Google business profile.
So you want your primary to beyour primary and your secondary
(24:15):
to be your secondary, obviously.
And looking at what yourcompetitors are doing will give
you a leg up.
And so I don't know why I didn'tbring that up earlier.
It's not even in my notes, but Ido know that that's something
that can really help you out inunderstanding where you should
play at.
And also, if you download thattool, that's bugging me here for
(24:38):
a second.
I'm actually going to pause thisand find the name of the tool.
All right.
I am back after a brief pause,and that is called GMB Spy.
So Google My Business Spy, GMBSpy.
And it'll basically put a littleicon up in your Chrome browser,
and then you can kind of gothrough and just see what
(25:00):
categories your competitors arechoosing.
And that can help you outsignificantly in optimizing your
business profile.
So I apologize for that.
I Sometimes, you know, you getthese notes and you get the game
plan together.
And anyway, it can really kindof, sometimes you miss some of
(25:21):
the stuff, miss the forest forthe trees, so to speak.
So in conclusion, hopefully thiswill help you out, you know,
optimize your Google businessprofile, get everything moving
where it needs to go, and helpyou avoid a a lot of the common
pitfalls, and a lot of the badadvice is floating around about
Google business.
(25:41):
The other thing is there is athing in human nature where we
always want to be smarter orbetter than everybody else.
And we always want to look forthat person that maybe has that
magic bullet or that certainthing that's missing that's just
going to propel business or helpit out.
And the idea of knowing thatsecret or being a part of that
(26:02):
secret is something that is soenticing.
You know, it's kind of hard toavoid.
And if someone's gaming yoursystem already and you're
experiencing success, you know,you can have this idea that it's
going to go on forever.
Now, the secret to onlinesuccess, believe it or not, is
pretty simple.
And that is follow the rulesthat these big tech companies
(26:25):
laid out.
Don't try to trick them.
Don't try to fool them.
Work by the rules, work hard andtry to build your company up.
Um, If you do it that way,you're going to succeed better
long term.
Your credibility is going toincrease.
Things are going to startworking out just by following
best practices.
(26:46):
And so when someone gives arecommendation, like they give
something counterintuitive towhat I'm telling you, you want
to avoid it.
I mean, these people– and I'mnot a real big Reddit person,
but this is good stuff fromReddit.
But they're saying this because–It's the best way to do it.
(27:07):
And so avoid the whole gamingthe system process.
Avoid the urge to it.
And I know it's going to be bad,okay?
Rip the Band-Aid off and quitusing the Google Ads guy who's
sending things to those littlescrape web pages that they're
building.
(27:28):
Get away from that, okay?
Just like you want to get awayfrom anyone who's doing cold
email marketing because byblasting people that have not
subscribed to your businessinformation.
So many games that are beingplayed.
And the thing is that yourcredibility of your business is
important.
And you don't want to be knownas the spammy guy.
(27:49):
And you certainly don't want tobuild a Google business profile
up and then have it ripped awayfrom you because it's been
deemed as not following theright protocols.
No matter what it feels liketoday, you want to get away from
it.
And I'm running into businessesthat are really struggling with
the idea that they've got tobite the bullet, that they've
(28:12):
got to do it.
And as the owner of a businessand as someone who cares and
really tries to do things to thebest of my ability, that is good
for the customer long term.
It really bothers me when I runacross people who struggle
financially.
with making these decisions.
(28:34):
So here's the other problem withthis.
Let me talk about this for asecond because I've run across
this.
So let me ramble for a minute.
So the other thing that you runinto is, let's say, for example,
you have someone who's doingyour SEO or doing your paid ads
(28:55):
or doing your GMB or whatever,and then you start to have
someone else untangle it.
And then what you see is theperformance has gone down.
Your visibility decreases.
Your Google ads aren'tperforming as well.
You're not converting.
You know, the waves are gettinghigh and you're getting nervous.
(29:19):
And the tendency would be tothink that the previous guy knew
more than your current guy.
Now, that couldn't be furtherfrom the truth.
The problem is that yourprevious guy was gaming the
system.
Your new guy is trying to helpyou out ethically, but you're
struggling as a business to stayafloat, right?
Because you've got to make moneyat the same time.
(29:41):
And so juggling that as theowner of a business and figuring
out the best time to do it canbe a struggle.
And that's a challenge for youas a business.
But the worst thing you could dois go back to the guy that's
caused the problems to beginwith.
And that's tough because you mayeven have a good relationship
(30:01):
with those people.
But they're hurting you, eventhough it feels good, right?
They're enabling you.
So the best thing to do isfollow best practices and build
everything the right way.
So if you go back to the lastepisode, you're going to see
where I talk about landing pagesand bait and switch, for
example.
(30:22):
There's a lot of these littlethings that are going on.
So you'll be careful to do that.
Okay, that's the end of myramble.
I've decided to stop it rightthere.
I know you probably enjoyhearing me ramble, but that's
pretty much all you're gettingtoday.
I don't want to spoil you.
I'm trying to think if there'sanything I want to share with
you from our agency perspectiveover the last week, see if
(30:45):
anything of interest has comeup.
I think one of the big thingsthat I would suggest based upon
the last week So here's what Iknow about a lot of small
businesses.
Typically, small businesses arestarted by someone who does
something really well.
(31:05):
And they do a bang-up job of it.
And as they do it, then theystart to grow and add people and
do things.
And then competitors startcoming in.
And when competitors come in,then, you know, they muddy the
waters in terms of youradvantage and the quality of
your service.
And so the idea is to understanddifferent things about your
(31:30):
business that are good and bad.
And one of those tools that havebeen traditionally very good is
something called a SWOTanalysis.
S-W-O-T, SWOT.
And that stands for yourstrengths, your weaknesses, your
(31:52):
opportunities, and your threats.
Now, the idea is you want tounderstand what makes you better
as a company and what makes youstand out as a company.
And you want to understand whereyour weaknesses are at and where
the threats are coming from.
You don't want to close youreyes to this.
And so going through a SWOTanalysis can help you better
(32:16):
understand your market position.
And then what you can do isstart to work that into your
paid ads, your overall marketingapproach, and then you can start
testing it using A-B techniques.
Basically, you present differentmessages and different kind of
campaigns, and then you findwhich ones basically resonate
(32:38):
and convert better than others.
And so the idea is that I haveseen a situation where
Businesses, sometimes they tendto think that they got to be the
lowest price or they have to docertain things in order to sell
their product and becompetitive.
But the idea of that reallyisn't that good.
(33:01):
I mean, I had a guy one time, hetold me, he said, there's always
somebody out there willing tocharge less money to go out of
business quicker than you.
And so the idea is to create avaluable service and then make
sure that you put that in yourmessaging, but then also test it
before you go whole hog with it.
(33:23):
And then once you do that, thenyou understand more about your
business.
And you should do thatperiodically because your
competition will change.
And so you want to understand asmuch as you can so that you can
remain on top You can change astime changes and you can evolve
with everything else.
(33:43):
So I think the advice of the dayis I've seen a couple of cases
where some good businesseshaven't gone through that SWOT
analysis.
And we actually, when we take ona new client, we actually
incorporate kind of a SWOTanalysis along the path, you
know, like, you know, justlooking at different things,
(34:04):
looking at competitive researchin addition to it and things
like that, and then starttesting the messaging out.
So if you haven't gone throughthat and you're a small business
and you're probably really goodat what you do, I recommend that
you get out and you look at yourSWOT analysis and then make
(34:25):
adjustments.
Work with your people to try tofigure out the best way to do
things.
Okay, that should be it for thisepisode of Over the Bull.
I do hope this helps you out,and I do hope that you
experience great success.
You know, I am so grateful toGod to give me the opportunity
to be able to talk to peoplelike you and be able to offer
(34:47):
advice to you.
You know, as a Christiancompany, you know, Jesus is my
Savior, and His guidance inEverything that I do is so
important to me.
And one thing I would suggest toyou as an owner of a business is
I have seen some people thathave a lot of money.
(35:10):
I mean, a lot of money.
And I've also, in my life, I'veexperienced a lot of things.
And the one thing that means somuch to me is once a month, My
family gets together, my kidsand my grandkids, and we sit
around, we eat, we talk, weenjoy life together.
(35:33):
And sometimes in business, itcan be all-consuming.
And before you know it, yourlife is over.
And you've planted seeds inplaces you really shouldn't, and
you've avoided things that youreally should have paid
attention to.
Now, I know in my life, as Ibuilt our business and tried to
work on it to the best of myability, there were times where
(35:55):
I've neglected the things thatwere more important.
And luckily, I have a beautiful,loving family and kids and
grandbabies and all those thingswho've stuck with me over the
years and have supported me.
And I'm lucky enough to have afamily business, you know, where
we literally are family.
(36:16):
Just one big family, even thepeople in our blood, if we still
think of them as family.
And so as you go through life,I'd love it, you know, just try
to keep focus on those things.
Try to look at your familybecause when all is said and
done– The money is going to goaway.
The stuff you built is going togo away.
(36:37):
You're going to go away.
I'm going to go away.
And what's going to be left isthe legacy that we left on those
that love us.
And we've been able to impressupon them the things that are
important in this world.
That's part of what my faithbrings me.
(36:58):
And so I just pray that– Youfind that peace and you find
that happiness and you find thatbalance in your life.
Okay, until the next Over theBowl podcast, I wish you guys
the absolute best.
God bless.
SPEAKER_00 (37:13):
Thanks for tuning in to Over the Bowl, brought to you
by Integris Design, afull-service design and
marketing agency out ofAsheville, North Carolina.
Until next time.
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