¶ Intro / Opening
I'm Janice Hostager . After three decades in the marketing business and many years of being an entrepreneur , I've learned a thing or two about marketing . Join me as we talk about marketing , small business and life in between . Welcome to My Weekly Marketing .
What if I told you that one of the most powerful tools in your small business arsenal is absolutely free and hiding in plain sight ? I'm talking about the Google Business Profile , that free listing that shows up when somebody Googles your business , and how to optimize it to actually bring you more clients , more calls and more credibility .
Joining me today is Marilyn Jenkins , a digital growth strategist who literally wrote the book about the subject called the Google Business Profile Training Guide . As the founder of MJ Media Group and the Law Marketing Zone , she brings decades of experience to the table , and today we're taking a deeper dive on one of the most underutilized tools in local marketing .
Google Business Profile isn't just a digital listing . It's your storefront on the world's biggest search engine . So if you've ever wondered how to get more visibility and search results without spending a fortune on ads , this episode is for you . Let's dive in . Well , hey , Marilyn , how are you today ?
I'm doing great . How are you ?
Good . Good , thanks for joining me . So I love talking about Google Business Profile because I think it's such a jewel that we have this available to us as small businesses . So what is it ? First of all , let's talk about what it is and why people should pay attention to it .
¶ What is Google Business Profile?
Well , if you , if you're old enough to remember the yellow pages , think about . Every business had a listing , whether you paid extra to be bold or any of that kind of stuff , right ? So it's almost like Google wanted the same . They wanted a directory of every business . So imagine them importing the yellow pages and then keeping every business updated .
So that's what it is . So every business is on the map . Every business listed has a Google Business Profile . If you have a new business , you can simply go and add yourself to it , and it's the way of Google being able to give users everything they need in their local search . So that's really what it is . Is your business online ?
Think of it as a webpage for , if you will , for specifically your business , and it's free ?
Yeah . What could be better than free, right ? For somebody who's like saying never touch their Google Business Profile . What's the first thing that they should do today with ?
I would search for your business name and then , if you've never done anything with it , there'll be a link on the Google Business Profile and it's a little box to the right that has all the detail and a little map above it and it'll say manage this listing or own this listing .
So , depending on your location , sometimes the wording is a little bit different , or maybe it says own this business . So click on that so that you can take it and you need to verify that you own it and then start using it . And the key here is Google is the number one search engine because it gives their users what they want , right ?
So if you want business and people are searching in your local area for your business , you need to give Google what they want so they can give their users what they want . And that's all your information about your business , so that they know what type of searches to show you for .
And what if you're not a local business and let's say you don't have a brick and mortar ? Is it still relevant then ?
It's still relevant . If you are local but you don't want your address listed . Now , you won't come up in the map pack . So if you'll look now when you do a search locally so say , for pizza restaurant near me , you'll get the map and you'll get three listings of the people that are the closest three businesses to you .
If you don't list your address , you're not going to be in that . However , if someone's looking you up , your Google Business Profile will show up so you can still get used from it . When it comes to being like a global business or a nationwide business , it's not as important .
Is it relevant to like your Google listings ? I mean , does it help your SEO in the long run ?
Yes .
Okay .
Indeed , it does a lot , because it used to be called Google My Business and people used it to store reviews . That was it . Well , when they upgraded it , they always changed the name . When they upgraded , they changed it to Google Business Profile and they added so much more to it .
So , instead of having one or two categories , you can now have up to seven and in some locations you can have more . The categories is the very first , most important thing that Google uses to know where to show you right and whenever someone locally searches for whatever .
We now also have products and services , which are places to put more keywords , more information about what you offer and update periodically
¶ Optimization Tips and Common Mistakes
. And then , if you think about, do you have a blog ? Do you post information ? They have posts that live on your , your Google Business Profile for six months and then can be replaced , so there's so much information you can tell Google about the types of businesses that you want .
That's really so nice that I feel like that every business should be utilizing it just for that reason for sure .
Exactly .
So, are there some easy ways to optimize their profile that people sometimes overlook , or what are the most common mistakes you see that people make ?
If you were , say , old school , and you said , like Maryland's plumbing in ABC town for plumbing , home plumbing , that's the name of your business . So you see what I did there . I keyword stuffed what I do and the town . So they are not approving Google Business Profiles anymore that don't have your actual business name in them . So that's kind of the thing .
Remember years ago, people would do four A's to be at the beginning of their category .
Yeah
You know , A , A , A , A , plumber , right , unless that's your legal business name , you'll not be able to use that . And that's the biggest thing , that keyword stuffing and then faking it . Not really faking it , but doing it, one like , say , you have an aunt that lives in the town over and you want to be listed in that town , so you use her address .
Right , it's not a real address . You can't verify that you own that address or you do business out of it . So those are the two big things and Google's cleaning those up just by not approving them or disallowing them .
Oh , interesting . So now I work out of my home but I have a PO box that's in an actual different town , I mean it's nearby . Is that something that can be allowed by people that have their PO boxes somewhere else ?
It was at one time when they were mailing out the postcards . But now what we've noticed over the last probably eight or nine months 90% of the verifications are requiring a video .
Now you have to show your signage out front , using the key to unlock the door , going in and showing customer-only places and employee-only places , and all of this in one cut in 90 seconds . So if it's a PO box , it just doesn't qualify .
Really . Okay , interesting , so you just leave the address off altogether .
Yeah , when you go into the management portal , which they have upgraded, the management portal , it's so easy to use and there's even a gas gauge on some people's that show how complete it is , which is very helpful . But in there you can say where your address is .
You don't want to show your address , you're not going to show up in the map pack , which is ideally what you as a local business want , but if someone's looking for something in your area you could come up as on the side .
Okay , okay . So if you weren't wanting to show your location actually ? And can somebody use their profile to show up higher in search results without paying for , like ads or or having their map inside ? I know you mentioned that just having the profile is beneficial .
What about increasing your , your search results , your SEO , based on what you put into your profile ? Is there something that , in particular , that works really well , like blog posts or what ? What do you recommend for that ?
Yes , exactly , and it does normally in most places . Very few places , I should say . Ads are showing up in the map pack , but for the most part
¶ Handling Reviews and Weekly Updates
they're not , so any listings are . There's always three organic listings in the map pack, right ? By, now . . . Think about what's happening right now . Since Google has rolled in AI into their search results . Only about 50% of the searches equal a click right , so it's called zero-click search results is what's happening in Google .
That means when someone asks a question or searches for something , Google gives them the answer right there . They don't have to go anywhere to get it, right ? So if you've taken your Google Business Profile , you have chosen as many categories in priority of the business that you want and you put yourself in there .
You know , if you're a home construction and you want to focus on kitchen remodeling , that should be your first category , right , and then lesser priority down . Now using blog posts that have your keywords in them , absolutely . Making sure that you have your services listed out and periodically add more to it or change it .
If there's a special , you want to make sure that you have your hours that are correct and , especially if there's a holiday coming up , you edit your hours . Because in the Google Map Pack , Google will say near a holiday last you edit your hours . Because in the Google map pack , google will say near a holiday last updated on the listing .
So you want to make sure yours wasn't last updated last year , right ? So that's super important and one of the big , big important things is is to reply to every review , and this sounds really complicated , but it is not .
You need to do a little something every week on your Google Business Profile because I can guarantee you that your competition , especially if it's a franchise , is not doing it .
Is Google paying attention to that as well ?
Yes , that's the engagement part . You're giving them more information every week , you're doing something every week and you're keeping your hours updated . Now , just as an example , I had a pet store that we were working with and , out of the blue , their Tuesdays they had no walk-in traffic and they were like what's going on ?
Like the third Tuesday , it's like what's going on here . I'm like check your hours , because the hours is something that the public can change if they believe it's different . Someone went in and made it look like they were closed on Tuesday .
So when people do check the hours and so they updated it , so it shows updated by the owner , and their traffic started coming back in on Tuesday . So it was just simple as that .
That's really interesting , so somebody could actually sabotage your listing .
It can . And if you , you know , in the beginning you asked me what if you've never owned it , your competition can't . They could actually take it and put their phone number as the business so that they then hijack .
Wow .
They might not get away with it long if they have to go into a review , a verification review ,
Okay .
Because they can't prove you know , the signage , the key . They can't prove all of that , but they used to prior would be able to do that . They could go in and change the address , get the postcard and verify and go forward .
Wow , that's just nasty . That's , I guess , this world that we live in , right ?
It is , isn't it ?
So what's your advice on responding to negative reviews ? You talked about reviews . What about the bad ones ? You recommend people go in as well .
Yes , all of them especially . So , think about your reviews . Your replies are not necessarily a reply to that reviewer . It's a reply to your future customer . It shows Google that you care about the customer experience , which is why they're the number one search engine . So , even if it was your fault , professionally apologize .
If it wasn't your fault , explain that as professionally as you can , without pointing fingers . And if it's a disgruntled employee , ex-employee , or maybe it's just something dude I don't even do car repair , I'm a bakery . Just professionally , reply that . Just be clear . Just be professional , and that's the best .
Be kind and be professional , but reply to everyone and if you can use your keywords in your location without it sounding weird .
Right , right . So your keywords in your location . So give me an example of that .
So like yeah , I mean , if you're replying , so say it's a positive review . Then you could reply and say thank you so much for visiting us . We appreciated doing business with you and helping you with your plumbing needs in XYZ town .
So plumbing , or maybe you did , you baked them a cake or I mean whatever you know , whatever your main category is , we were happy to help you do this in town .
Gotcha . Gotcha . So where does Google Business Profile kind of fit in the overall marketing strategy ? So I work a lot with marketing strategy , right , so I would listen to the awareness stage really , but I bet it could kind of be in the consideration stage too . Would you agree with that ?
I think if you're a local business with an address , it is imperative that you do it , because it's the biggest search engine . It's where everybody is going to ask questions and now , especially with AI there , give them as much information as you possibly can and you will benefit from that .
Again , the number of reviews is what used to kind of rank in Map Pack , and the Map Pack used to be seven . Now it's three , so it's even more important . Google will potentially and in many cases we've seen give someone with less reviews a higher ranking because they have more information on Google Business Profile .
Okay . So when you said it used to be seven , you mean seven businesses would show up in the search results , is what you're saying ?
Right , and now it's three .
Now it's three , okay , okay . So how often do you think that people need to update it ?
I would say at least weekly , do something a little weekly . So maybe Thursdays are the slowest day in the business . So Thursday morning you go in and you check for reviews and you reply to them , or you put a new service or a new product so say you've got something coming out over the weekend . Update something , add a new photo .
Photos are great and especially if you turn your location services on . If you are the business that goes out of your office to do repairs or whatever , make sure location services are on and take a picture of you or your team or your truck , wherever you are , and post that .
What that helps is also tells Google that I am relevant further away from my office .
Okay , okay , and a couple weeks ago , when we chatted for the first time , I was telling you about a client that I had that had multiple locations . Now , hers was a little tricky because they work in a hospital setting , so they have an office in hospitals , and you were telling me that , absolutely , it's possible to have multiple locations listed , right ?
Yes .
And so tell me what you said . I don't know if you remember this , but you said that each office needed to make sure you had a suite number , correct ?
Yes , and that's the thing , because you can't use the hospital's address or Google's going to say that's a hospital . But think about , hospitals have doctor's offices in them , they have therapy offices in them , so any of that type of thing .
So if you can show that here's the address and here's my office and you've got a name on your door , this is my business and then go into the office I'm thinking the video , you know that verification but as long as you have a number on the door , you've got a suite number , and a hospital is a business location that has multiple
¶ Multiple Locations and Future Importance
business inside of it , so it's valid . I would just , you know , be careful with multiple locations , in that I would get one verified and approved first , then get the next one .
Unless you are new to Google Business Profile and you already have like five locations , then try to get them each verified , but I would just , you know , one at a time works that way . You're getting one focus . The Google Business Profile is one of the few places in Google that you can actually talk to a real person .
Now , it might be by chat , but within your management portal , you can reach support and a real person will talk to you . That's probably fast going by the wayside with them implementing so much AI , but right now you can reach someone because that's how important this profile is to the big Google system .
Oh , that is so cool . I remember you telling me that and I was shocked honestly , because so many I mean any big corporation it's almost impossible to talk to a real human being .
So that tells me how important the Google Business Profile is to their search results .
That's really interesting so there's no way to really , as your business grows , you can keep your Google Business Profile is what you're saying . It's not like it's not just for small businesses .
No , no , no . And the other thing is you also want to make sure that if you're taking over a business no , I'm saying that wrong If I'm renting an office and starting my business , that another business was in , if you search that address , you can see who else used it .
So as soon as you start your Google Business Profile or you update your address , you want to make sure you tell Google that this is a duplicate and those people aren't here anymore . Okay , and that will help you get better juice on your, on the address and it won't be confused .
Yeah , yeah . What do you see coming up that Google's going to be doing with these ? Do you think they're going to stick around ? So many things that Google does, they
The Google Business Profile is I think the 11th iteration of Google Places, so it's not going anywhere but every time there's an iteration, there's new features, so I think that's what I think is going to happen is with the AI and also with the zero-click searches, It's more important than ever .
If , like I said , 50% of searches are clicking , that means 50% of people who ask Google a question are never getting to the bottom , where the organic searches are , much less getting to the ads right . So the AI is at the top and then the Google Business Profile is to the right .
So it's super important that , no matter what the changes are , make sure you keep it . Do not give your login and password to anyone . If you hire someone to help you manage it , you make them a manager okay , so that you still own it . This is a massively important piece of intellectual property for your business .
It's more important than your website and , yes , I said that out loud . Yes .
Okay , good to know . Yeah , because I know that I've had them set up , because I've had multiple businesses and I've had them always set up and you kind of set them up and forget about them . Or at least I do , but and I know my clients or at least I do and I know my clients that seems to be the case as well .
But really putting some time and energy into that is going to benefit you overall , is what you're saying .
Yeah , and if you've got a point of sale , it's a really good idea to print out a QR code and have it attached to your point of sale for reviews and it's the URL to the pop-up window and just make asking for reviews part of your process . When you finish a job or a sale or whatever , ask for that um , and then you know .
So watch those start growing and you'll see your rank can get better as well oh , super , super interesting stuff .
Where can people find out more about you and if they need some help with their Google Business Profile , because , honestly , I can tell you that setting it up can be a real pain sometimes , especially with the verification process . Right , absolutely , how can they find out more about you or Google Business Profiles in general ?
They can reach me on LinkedIn . I'm Marilyn Jenkins . I also have a book , the Google Business Profile Training Guide , available on Amazon , and you can reach me at mjmediagroupco .
Awesome , and I will put those links in the profile for today . Thank you so much , Marilyn . This was super informative . I need to go update my Google Business Profile right now .
Well , thank you for having me . This has been a blast .
Thank you . If today's episode got you thinking about your own Google Business Profile and maybe even scrambling to check it out to see if it's up to date , then I'm right there with you . For a transcript and links to anything we talked about today , visit the show notes at myweeklymarketingcom . Forward slash 111 .
If you found this episode helpful , be sure to follow and subscribe so you don't miss future episodes . And hey , if you know a fellow business owner who could use a little help showing up on Google , share this episode with them too . Thanks for joining me today . See you next time . Bye for now .