Webinar – How to Optimize Your Google Business Listing to Stand Out From the Competition

TRANSCRIPT:

Introduction

Welcome to the webinar on optimizing your Google Business listing, and I hope that you’re ready to optimize your listings and attract more customers because I’m, this is kind of a fun topic.

I’ll bear with my fun titles today. I’m trying to be a little bit less boring and so we’ve added a few fun titles and stuff in there and I hope that you’ll bear with me as we go through that. Again, today we’re here to talk about optimizing your Google business, listening and making sure that your business is standing out online.

I’m your host for today. My name’s Jonathan Mast, and I’ve been in the SEO and digital marketing games since the early 19, or since early 1995. That, basically makes me an online dinosaur. Uh, And I’ve earned all this white hair that you see, but don’t. I’m not gonna bore you with all a bunch of ancient SEO tactics.

Instead, I’ll be sharing some up-to-date insights that have literally just changed in the last few months on how to improve your local search engine rankings and make sure your business stands out from the competition. So let’s face it, having a complete and accurate Google business listing is like having the perfect wingman.

It can help you attract more potential customers and make a great first impression. And who doesn’t love a good first impression? Right? During this webinar, we’ll cover everything you need to know about optimizing your Google Business listing, and we’re gonna talk about how to create a compelling listing description that’ll make your competition green with envy.

And of course, we’ll share some bonus tips and strategies from managing your listing along the way as well. And I should probably get caught up on my slides. I apologize. Here we go. There we go. So if you haven’t already, grab yourself a cup of coffee or a tea. Get comfy and let’s dive into the wonderful world of Google Business listing optimization.

Why a Complete and Accurate Google Business Listing is Important

Importance of First Impressions

So, first thing I wanna talk about why a complete and accurate Google business listing’s important. Really it’s, all about first impressions. Your Google business listing needs to be on point. You know what they say, and you never get a second chance to make a first impression. And when it comes to potential customers finding your business, your Google business listing is the first thing that they’ll see.

So let’s make sure that like a superhero cape, it’s powerful and unfort. Nowadays, people are glued to their mobile phones just like they are to their last slice of pizza in the box. And when they’re searching for a local business, you better believe that they’re relying on Google business listings like they rely on their cup of coffee in the morning.

In fact, a recent study found out that 60% of the people who search for local businesses on their phone visit that business within one. Think about that 60% of the people that are researching you are likely to either visit or contact you in 24 hours.

Gotta get back to my notes. Nothing like losing your place. So when people are scrolling through in their phone, they want to be find that info fast and they want to find it now. If your listing is incomplete or it looks like a maze and it’s hard to follow, those potential customers are gonna leave quickly and they’re not gonna come back.

So let’s make sure that your Google listing is the hero in the search results and not the villain. And we’re gonna do that by optimizing your listing so that you can provide all of your information. In easy to read, quick and, easy to decipher way. And let’s start by talking about that with the accuracy of your listing itself.

Benefits of a Complete and Accurate Listing

Benefits of a complete and accurate listing. You’re probably wondering what’s the big deal with having a complete and accurate listing? Right. Well, it’s kind of like having a magical unicorn is your business mascot. Having a complete one is actually rare and it’s powerful and it can really be helpful to you.

So first of all, I want to have talk to you about how having a complete listing is like rolling out the red carpet for your potential customers. They can find all the information they need on your business, just like your address, your phone number, your hours of operation, and instead of a, making it like some hard to find treasure map, you’re making it easy, simple to follow and easy for them to get your inform.

So when your listing is complete and accurate, think of it like Catnet for Google. If you’ve ever had a cat and watch them with catnip, they go crazy over it and Google does the same thing. We’re. We’re playing by Google’s rules here, everybody. And if you want your business to do well, following Google’s rules and playing their game, it’s their sandbox will really help you do well.

And Google wants to make sure that they show off your business to the people who are searching for it, especially when you’re cooperating and doing the things that Google wants. So think of it an optimized Google business listing. It’s kind of like having a secret handshake with Google. And let’s face it, who wouldn’t wanna do?

So let’s do a quick recap. Having a complete and accurate business listing. It’s like having a magical unicorn is your business mascot. It’s catting up to Google. Like I said, it makes it easier for potential customers to find you and increases your visibility and search results, and ultimately that’s what we want.

Consequences of an Incomplete or Inaccurate Listing

So lastly, consequences of an incomplete or an inaccurate listing. That’s really what, happens when your Google business listing is incomplete or inaccurate? It’s like showing up at a party in a mismatched outfit. Have you ever had a bad dream about doing that? And. You know, Google doesn’t want you to do it either.

It’s, not gonna work. Unlike showing up at a party where you may get a lot of attention, having an incomplete profile isn’t gonna get you a lot of attention. Online. People aren’t gonna be able to reach you, or worse yet, they might show up at the wrong location, get confused, call the wrong number.

So, incomplete information, probably the worst thing that you. And let’s not forget about the impact on your search ranking. So completing your Google profile will help you in your search rankings when your listing is incomplete or inaccurate. Google is like that friend who’s always on the lookout for fake news.

It’s less likely to show your business and search results and potential customers might as well be searching for that unicorn Writing a unicycle it’s like a game of hide and seek, but your business is the one hiding when you have incomplete information, and that’s not. So if you wanna avoid that frustration, avoid lost business, and you don’t want your business to be like that kid who always got picked on a gym class, make sure that your Google Business listing is complete and accurate.

The Role of Google Business Listings in Local SEO

Definition of Local SEO

So let’s talk a little bit about the role that Google business plays in local s e o. So first let me define local seo. For those of you that may or may not be, know what I’m talking about, we’re gonna get into the nitty gritty of local seo, and it’s kind of like planting a garden, but instead of flowers, we’re growing your business.

And who doesn’t love a good garden party? Right? So first of all, local seo, it’s like the secret sauce to attracting more local customers to your business. It’s, not about appealing to everybody across the state or across the world, but locally in your area. And if your business has a service area that’s defined by local, then the local SEO is what you need to be focused on.

It, does involve a bunch of tactics. That’s okay. It things like optimizing your website for keywords and creating content that’s relevant to your local audience and building local back links and creating local service pages. That’s, all great. It’s kind of like building a gingerbread house, but instead of candy here, we’re gonna use SEO things and SEO tactics.

Importance of Local SEO for Small Businesses

So let’s talk about the role of Google business listings in all of this. And think of it like a v I p pass to the, so to the top of the search rankings. When your Google Business listing is complete and accurate, it sends a signal to Google that you’re legit and you’re ready to rock and roll. It’s like having a bouncer wave you in at the bar while the rest of the competition is left waiting in line.

And let’s face it, that’s good for your. So if you wanna make sure your business is at the, is the life of the party, make sure your Google Business listing is on point and optimized for local seo. So let’s talk about what that looks like. And next is the importance of local SEO for small business. So local SEO is essential for your small business, and if you rely on local customers, that’s even more important.

In fact, we talked about some of the research earlier, but additional research shows that 46% of all of Google searches are actually for local information, and 78% of the local search is. Results in an offline purchase. In other words, 78% of those local searches. So if we run those numbers 46 and 78, roughly 40% of those searches that are done online result in a local purchase being made.

That’s a lot, and that’s a ton of traffic that can come to you. So if you’re a local business, not maybe a home services business like an electrician, a plumber, a landscaper, you know how important it’s to be visible and accessible to your potential customers in your local area. And this is where local search fits in.

When someone searches for a home service in their area, they’re likely to see a map with local listings at the top of the search results. We call that the map pack or the local pack. Being on the local pack can be a game changer for your business, as it can greatly increase the chances of getting noticed by your potential customers.

You may have noticed before when you do a search, you start off with generally three ads at the top and then a map, and then below that are the organic listings. Organic is great for the map pack, that local pack, it’s gold. You really, want to try to be there and goo. Your Google business listing is one of the best ways to get listed in the map pack.

Being in that map pack really can be a game changer for your business, as it greatly increases your chances of getting noticed by your potential customers. When someone sees your business in the local pack, they can easily see your business name, your address, and your phone number, and other key details.

And why is that important? Well, it makes it super easy for them to contact you, and let’s face it, that’s what we want. How do you get your business to appear in the local pack? It starts with a strong Google business listing and by optimizing your listing with accurate and complete information, things like photos, customer reviews and, that even video, you can really help improve your chances of appearing in that local pack.

So not only gonna talk about setting up and optimizing, but also keep in mind that continually optimizing and adding content to your Google Business listing’s important. So maybe you’ve had a business listing for years and you’ve never done anything with it. That’s okay. Now is the time to change that, and it’s time to start getting those updates made in a regular basis that are consistent to help you get new customers walking in the door.

The Relationship between Local SEO and Google Business Listings

So what’s the relationship between local SEO and Google business listings? It’s, really about how your Google Business listing fits into your local SEO strategy. At the end of the day, the better that your Google profile is filled out, the more complete it is, the better the information is, the more.

Often that is updated even including posts that you make and things like that. The better that Google is going to understand your business and the better that they understand your business, the better you’re going to do in local search rankings. Think of it like anything else where. Google is really looking when somebody does a search to deliver the best possible, most relevant search results to the user.

Typing in that query, and by completing and optimizing your Google business listing, you’re gonna make sure that Google knows more about you than they do about your competition. And that’s gonna allow them to make sure that when a customer or prospect that you wanna do business with logs in and does a search, that Google’s gonna be more likely to show your.

And your search results higher because they’re gonna know your business better and know how relevant that is to the people doing the search. So let’s talk about how to optimize your Google business listing and stand out from the competition. There’s a couple different things we want to talk about, the basics of optimizing tips for creating a strong profile, the importance of consistent information and the value of using some visual elements like we talked about.

How to Optimize Your Google Business Listing to Stand Out from the Competition

The Basics of Optimizing Your Listing

Let’s start with the basics. So when we do that, in the previous section, we talked about the role of Google Business listings in your local SEO and how it can impact your search rankings. In this section, we’re gonna talk about how to optimize your Google business listing to stand out from the competition.

Let’s cover those basics of your listing. You wanna make sure all of your information on your listing is up to date, and that it’s consistent with other online listings. So this is one of the things that so many businesses fail, and it’s, really about, this is the, probably the biggest tip for creating a strong profile.

The Importance of Consistent Information

You need to make sure that your business information, your, we call it nap Your. Address and phone number. Those need to be consistent across every platform. So not only on Google, but on Bing and on all of the other directories that are out there. And there, by the way, are hundreds and hundreds of different directories out there, business directories, and.

If your information is inconsistent in those, Google will have a hard time understanding whether it’s your business or another related business, and it will have a hard time pulling in that, web of information about your business. So what do we mean when we say consistent? First of all, your name.

That means when it comes to using your name of your business in your listings, you need to use the exact same. That means that if you are an llc, you need to choose. Are you going to include LLC at the end of the name or not? If you’re incorporated, are you gonna include that at the end of your name or not?

If you include LLC on some but not on others, Google may wonder whether or not it’s the same company. It’s also important to make sure that your company name is spelled exactly the same way. Misspellings can be devastating here. Make sure that your business name is spelled. The next is your address. You wanna make sure that your address is identical across the board.

And this is probably the area we see the most difficulty that businesses have because I’ll use my address as an example. I’m at 29 22 Fuller Avenue Northeast in Suite 1 0 3 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. That seems easy enough, right? I can put I’m at 29, 22 Fuller and leave off the avenue, or I can write Avenue as a v e period, or ages a v e, or I can spell it out as avenue.

And I can either add the Suite 1 0 3 or not. Add the Suite 1 0 3 and I can spell suite as a S T E period, or an s t E, or I can spell it all out like S U I T E. I can use all of those options. And as you start putting these together, you can see how really quickly I could have hundreds of derivations or it certainly dozens of derivations on my name and my address.

And if Google can’t match those up, Then it’s not sure it’s talking about the same business because somebody at 29, 22 Fuller Ave might be different than somebody at 29, 22 Fuller Avenue. And sounds like you should know this, it’s the same thing, but Google doesn’t remember we’re using artificial intelligence here, or Google is to match all those records up and any inconsistencies can cause problem.

Tips for Creating a Strong Profile

But one of the questions I always get on this is, Jonathan, what about tracking phone numbers? I’d really like to use a tracking phone number from my Google business listing to know when I’ve got a call coming in from that and how effective that’s working for me. It’s a great question. The phone number is the one possible exception if it’s set up properly.

So again, you want to use the same phone number across all of your listings. That should be your primary phone number. But if, and this is for Google Business listings only, if you want to track the calls that you’re getting off your Google Business listing because various marketing that you’re doing and campaigns that you’re, You can do that by making the primary phone number on your Google Business, listing the tracking number and then adding what Google calls a secondary business number, and this secondary number needs to be your main business line, has to be the number that’s on everything else.

If you do it that way, Google will let you use that tracking number. And still keep everything consistent because it can match up the secondary phone number with the same primary phone number it sees on other listings. But don’t just use a tracking number alone on your Google listing nor on any other listings because that will hurt your results and it’ll make that really, difficult for you.

So I hope that makes sense on the importance of consistent information and why that matters. Let’s talk for just a moment about visual elements and me going, Jonathan, what do you mean visual elements? I, can set up a profile, but what do I do with that profile? Well, one of the great things about Google business listings is that they allow you to post updates to your page on a regular.

You do it multiple times a day if you want. Those updates could be in the most recent blog post that you did for your website. It could be a new video that you recorded. It could just be an update on your business. It could be almost anything. And Google loves pictures and video. No surprise there. So when you’re updating it, consider using visual elements.

When you’ve got a new staff member, take a picture of them, grab your smartphone, take the. And post that on your Google Business listing. If you’re doing something fun as a team or you’re out at a job site, take photos, take video, and post those things to your Google Business listing. That all helps create relevancy for Google.

In a moment, we’re gonna share a bonus tip that also helps you share geolocation based data, meaning in the local service, you can create multiple location points in your service area that Google will see and know. Wow, I see the service area you work in, because I see you posting updates, and I’ll talk about that as our bonus tip here in just a.

The Value of Visual Elements

So use those visual elements because those visual elements are critical to your success and making sure that you’re getting the feedback and everything that you want. So next step best practices for com. Creating a compelling and a persuasive business listing description. So we’ve talked about your name at edwardson, phone number, we’ve talked about making updates.

Those are all super important. But now we need to take a look at the best practices for creating. That compelling and persuasive listing. And you go, Jonathan, why do I need a persuasive business listing description? Well, if people are finding your business online, your Google Business listing is often gonna show up on the right hand side of the screen.

So if you’re at the screen and taking a look, you’re gonna have your search results, and then to the side, you’re typically going to. Your Google Business listing information, and part of that listing information is gonna include the description that you type, this exact description that we’re talking about here.

Best Practices for Creating a Compelling and Persuasive Listing Description

We wanna make sure that you create a description there that tells customers quickly and succinctly the value that they get from working with you. Plain and simple, how do you make their lives? Imagine if you would, this is like a Google search result. You see the listening to the website and then underneath the listening to the website, you see the url, and underneath that you see a short description of maybe 50 to a hundred words talking about what that webpage is about.

This is the same thing. But it’s about what your business is about, and you’ve got 30 to 50 words there that’ll generally show up in, again, in the website search or in the Google search. Make sure that when people are searching for your business, that description tells them how working with you is gonna make their life better.

That will make a world of difference in how many people then pick up the phone and call you, come to your business, email, you request a quote, whatever’s appropriate, whatever you’re encouraging them to do, but don’t. Don’t just skip that. So many people skip the business description and that can be absolutely devastating.

So don’t skip it. Take the moment and write something unique. And that works. By the way, I’m gonna throw in a quick tip here. This is if you’re paying any attention to the news lately, you’ve probably heard about all of the uproar over chat, G P T and AI tools and things like that. This is a great example of a place that you can use chat, G P T.

to help you inspire content for your website. You can literally go into chat G p T. It’s a free service by the way, and Bing now is offering it through their browser as well. And you can type in, write a Google business description for my business. Describe a couple of key aspects about your business, in particular, how it is that you’re gonna make your customers lives.

And then when you do that, take that description, Bing chat, g p t, other tools that are out there. And there are many, th they will create a description for you that you could just copy and paste in, or even better, that you could then edit to make sure it sounds great, but it’s a wonderful way to create content quickly and inspire you.

If you’re not used to writing a Google business description, don’t sweat it. Use the tools and. Help let them help you create that compelling description that you need. All right, so we talked about the importance. Let’s talk a little bit how to differentiate yourself from the competition. So to differentiate to differentiate, I can’t speak today, yourself from the competition.

Consider what makes your business unique. What sets you apart from the other businesses in your industry? What do they do or what do you do? I’m sorry. Better than anybody else. These are all things that you can share in your Google Business listing and will again help set you apart from your competi.

It’s hugely important. You can also differentiate by focus on maybe a specific niche or target market. By the way, I don’t know if it’s niche or niche. I know there’s riches in the niches. Doesn’t work with, there’s riches in the niches, but hopefully, you know what I mean there. Pick a niche or pick a target market and talk about it.

Maybe again, you’re a home service provider and we talked earlier about an electrician or a plumber or a roofer, and you serve a specific area of your town or your municipality. Talk about that and talk about things happening in that area to let people know that’s the projects that you wanna work on.

For example here, I made a note that if you’re a landscaping company, you could specialize in eco-friendly landscaping practices or cater specifically to high-end residential properties by focusing on certain areas of town. But by differentiating from the competition, you can create a more compelling and persuasive listing description, and all of that will resonate with your customers and cause your phone to ring more.

Additional Tips and Strategies

So a few additional tips here that we can do. One, responding to reviews. So building Google reviews is critical. For those of you that saw, I posted, that was the other webinar I was gonna do in this one, one. So we’re focused on this one, but in a couple weeks I’m gonna do a webinar on building five star Google reviews, because believe it or not, there are some simple things that you can do to improve and greatly increase the number of five star reviews you have.

That’s important. Google loves those reviews, especially when they’re on Google. So how do you do that? First of all, every time someone leaves your review, you wanna respond to it. You don’t have to do it the moment it’s left, but within a day or two, get out there and respond to it. If it’s a positive review, and I hope most of them are, thank them for that.

Let ’em know how great it was to work with them or work on their project and, share that relevant information. If it was a bad review and we all get them, it’s even more I. to leave a response. A couple of tips here. One, give yourself a day to calm down before you do it, because if you’re like me, when somebody leaves you a bad review, there’s probably things that you don’t agree with in that.

And don’t pick a fight online. Leaving a response to a negative review is your opportunity to show the rest of the people that see this, that you are the reasonable person in this. So don’t pick a fight. Let them know that you appreciate their, review and their response, their feedback, and that.

Hopefully it’s true. You’d love to resolve that and encourage them to reach out and contact you personally and let them know how to do that, either by calling your office and asking for you or sending you an email or whatever you can share. Just remember, whatever you share is gonna be public, so if you were to put your email address in there, that’s gonna be available for the world to see.

Encourage them to do that. Leave that response. It’s your opportunity for someone then to, say, okay, somebody had a bad experience. That happens. Almost everybody, by the way, expects it. You are not gonna be able to make every person, every customer happy. We try to, but it doesn’t always work out. Some customers are just unreasonable.

So when that unreasonable customer leaves you a bad reviewer, maybe you just totally, things got screwed up. Respond to it. Let them know you want to fix it, and then leave it alone. Do not engage. Do not disagree with them. Do not argue with them, but do respond. It’s important to do that. It’s also important, as I mentioned, to respond on the positive reviews, letting people know what that is.

It’s a great opportunity for your prospects to learn more about you and how they can what or not how, but what they can expect when they work. Another thing is using Google My Business insights. So when you get your Google Business profile set up, in addition to the profile, Google will now provide you with regular insights as to what’s happening on your profile.

How many people found you through Google search, what they were searching for when they found you? How many people visited your profile? , how many people called you from your profile or contacted you from your profile? Use those insights that are gonna come to you. They’ll most likely be emailed to you.

You can also view them through your dashboard, your Google Business dashboard, but use those to figure out how to add the right additional content moving forward. Those insights will tell you the things that you posted that got attention, and maybe you’ll see that some things didn’t get attention. Use that information to help you do a better job in the future of posting content that’s relevant to your audience, because the more relevant that content is, and the more frequent you make those updates, by the way, the more that people will find you and engage with you online.

The other part that comes up a lot is managing multiple locations. So if you’re a business that has multiple physical locations, then I’m gonna have a specific recommendation for you. I want to clarify though, this doesn’t mean you service multiple locations. This means you have multiple physical locations.

This is a warning to everybody. Google business listings are incredibly powerful, but you don’t want to try to pull the wool over Google’s eyes because they are. Getting to the point because of all the scammers that they’re assuming, most of what we tell them as business owners is suspicious, if not outright false.

And so anything you do that raises their ire for example, posting that you’re running multiple locations and then having those locations be a post office box or anything like that, or even the local mail store that used to work doesn’t anymore. And it’s likely. To take all this hard work that you’re putting into your Google profile and lose it because their your, profile’s likely to get just turned off.

And by the way, that’s worse than not having one, because by not having one, Google will assume some information about you. If you tick them off and they remove your profile, you’re gone. You’re invisible. It’s not worth it. So again, this is about if you have multiple physical locations maybe I’m a pizza place and I have multiple pizzerias around the city.

Each one of those should have their own Google business listing so that each one can get its own reviews and each one can have its own information about hours and location and all that. You can still have a, parent one if you want, but it’s good to have each location have its own. That is not the case.

If you just wanna talk about service area, though, that’s a whole nother topic. We can talk about that later. But summarize to say this is not a time to try to game Google because it will cause problems for you. If you have multiple service areas, by the way, that are not in your local area. I just talked to a tree service company for example, who literally.

Serves the Midwest, even though they’re based in Michigan and they needed to know how to get their Google business listing to pop up in other areas. We can help you do that. It’s, not easy, it’s not guaranteed, but there are some things that we can do to help Google understand what you truly do in the areas you serve.

But don’t try to gain Google because it won’t work and you’ll get burned. And that’s, just bad across the. So I mentioned earlier I had a bonus tip for you and I want to share that bonus tip with you right now. This may be one of the simplest things that you can do to really improve your, Google Business listing.

So you can see on camera here, I’m holding up my phone. We’ve all got a phone, just checking what was on my screen. We’ve all got a phone. Thank your phone out and download the Google Business Listing app. It’s free. It doesn’t cost. Next time you’re on a job site, you’re out visiting a customer, you’re doing something.

BONUS TIP!!

Remember we talked about taking pictures and video and all that. Don’t only do that, but while you’re on the job site, log into your Google Business account from your phone and post an update about what’s happening. Post those pictures while you’re at the job site. Post that video while you’re at the job site, Meco.

Jonathan, why do I wanna do that? Well, Couple things. One, remember, we want to consistently post new information to our Google profile. I’d recommend at least once a week, once a day would even be better. Maybe a couple times a week, but at least once a week. If you do this, when you’re out at a job site, not only are you helping with that cuz you’re posting that new content, but you’re also doing something that’s almost magical.

You’re giving Google a what’s called a geolocation map. When you log into your Google Business app on your phone at that job site, Google is gonna query and they’re going to know exactly where you are. Well, within three feet or so. . That means if you are standing at the doorstep to one of your customers, or maybe you’re a contractor, you’re a residential, you don’t have to share the address, but Google’s gonna have your latitude and longitude of exactly where that service that you’re posting about is happening.

Maybe you’re a cement contractor pouring a foundation and you’re, you take a picture of that, that, that hole before you put cement in it, and the one afterwards, and how those walls look. When you take and share those pictures, Google’s gonna know exactly where you are and it’s gonna create what we call geolocation based data that Google can continue to use to promote your business because they know the areas that you work in.

So if you take nothing else from this entire webinar, please download the Google Business Listing App on your phone and when you’re outta job sites, and you can do this multiple times a day if you’re moving around job sites. Take a couple photos, take a short video, can even be a selfie video of you explaining what you’re talking about.

Pull your phone out, do that recording, and then share that from the job site to your Google business. That again, if you think nothing else will dramatically increase your results and your search engine. So a couple of key takeaways. One, I hope you figured out by now you need to have an optimized business listing.

It’s critically important. You need to make sure that you’re taking the actions to make sure that’s a complete business profile too. I know as entrepreneurs, oftentimes we struggle with a d and distractions and the latest bright, shiny object, but this bright, shiny object, Google business listings can make you money.

So take the. To work through and fill out all of the information they’re asking for and make sure, as we talked about earlier, that all of that information is consistent across the board. Next steps for you. I want you to think of one thing that you can do that you’ve taken outta the webinar today that you can do in the next 24 hours, possibly even yet today.

It’s not even five o’clock, so we are just 30 minutes in. It’s not even five o’clock. What can you do yet today on your Google Business listing to help you rank better? Can you go in and make sure your name and address and phone number are optimized? Can you download the app and post an update yet today?

Think of one thing, and I’d encourage you to do that. Make sure that, you’re doing that, adding value and taking care of things. So one special offer for joining us on the webinar today. We have, in addition to your Google Business listing, you can create what are called local service pages on your website.

And we have a unique program that we’ve just launched this year to do that. It’s working out incredibly well for our clients. We’ve literally got clients on our program that are hyper-local pages are out ranking their own website for location based searches. If you have a local service area and you’d like to make sure that your business is ranking in that local service area.

Especially when people are typing in like near me searches, plumber near me, electrician near me. Reach out and talk to my team. We’ve got a special buy one, get one free offer. Short time offer, reach out. We’d be happy to give you details and find out whether that might help build your business. If you’re not interested, that’s okay.

Ignore my short sales pitch. , I’m done. That’s all you’re gonna get from me today. So now it’s time for question and answer. Does any, if you would look over on the side of your screen, you should see a q and a button. Does anyone have any questions that they would like to ask or that they would like me to answer?

Q&A

Maybe something you missed or I see a couple of you guys joined in a little late. That certainly fine. Any questions at all that I can answer for? I’m gonna go ahead and give this just a couple minutes while you guys think and get up the gumption and guts to go ahead and leave and type one you can, by the way, if you don’t want your name shown, you can leave a question or post a question anonymously as well.

And there we go, jp, thanks for the comment on the g p app. So yeah, just a reminder there. Download that Google Business profile app. They have one for both Android and iPhone and logging in from a job site. I don’t care what business you’re in, we’ll show Google the service area that you work in.

It’s a huge, Marilyn asked, what does the Google Business app look like? So let me see if I can find it on my phone here. I should have been prepared for that. I can’t say that I am, but let’s see here a minute. I’m pretty sure I’ve got it. Let’s see here. Doesn’t look like I have it downloaded. I just got a new phone and it’s amazing how many things you forget to download.

So let’s take a look here a minute. Google Business profile. There we go.

Google has a gazillion different apps. If you’re not familiar with that, the one that you want that’s gonna do what you want is actually just your basic Google app. It’s gonna look like, let me get this on the screen. It’s gonna look like this. And then once you log in up in the corner up here, you’re gonna have the opportunity to log in.

And when you do that, you’ll have the opportunity to see your Google Business listings from there and be able to make updates and post updates directly in. You can’t find the app on Apple. So Chris you wanna look for the Google app. It’s just got a large g as an icon. Let me see if I can find it here for you.

So again, I’ll hold up my phone. I know it’s not the best on the camera, but it is the icon that you guys should see. I believe on the right side of your screen, it just says Google. And that will give you what you need there. So that should get you what you need. Jp. Good question. Any recommendation on how long a Gmmb both should be?

That’s a great question. It really depends on, how much you want, but I wanna encourage you that your post can be short. It can literally be, again, let’s use the, opportunity as a plumber. I could literally be working on somebody’s faucet under their kitchen sink and post an update that, you know, fix a clog sink today.

And now the family can do dishes. It could be that simple. It could also be much more lengthy and could have, you know, a few hundred characters in it describing what you’re doing, talking about the service and. sharing a question that the homeowner asks you on that particular job site or that your customer asks you if you’re in a retail location.

It could be checking in from your store when somebody comes in and, asks you a great question that you wanna share. We all get asked lots of questions and, remember that. Sometimes the best content for us to create are those questions that we find ourselves answering on a repeated basis for our customers.

So when a customer comes into your store or is calling you or asking you the same question over and over, it’s a great indicator to you. That’d be a great type of content to create. I personally would love to encourage you to take a short video, hold your phone up and press record and say, Hey, you know, I get asked all the time in my pizza parlor what’s the most unique pizza that I’ve ever had ordered?

And answer that question, or, what’s the most popular topping? Answer that question and then post that video could be 30 seconds long. Post that video on up to your Google Business listing. It can be really powerful to do that. But more important is f. Posting content again at least once a week, preferably a couple times a week, will be even more important.

The other thing, and this can really help you out if you’re doing blogging, creating regular daily videos if you’re into to the YouTube videos or anything along those lines, or if you’ve got social media posts that are going up, those can all be shared as updates on your Google Business listing and all of them help keep that listening active.

and relevant, and that’s important. Again, the real huge benefit of using your phone to do it is you’re adding then what we call geolocation based data. So as you’re leaving that, Google’s gonna go, oh, I can see jp, you’re, here’s where you’re at in Florida. Or it can be looking going Maryland. I can see the, here’s where you’re at in Michigan.

And it’s gonna add that information to that post, and it’s gonna then bring that geolocation based data in as something relevant to what you’re doing and relevant to your customers. And that means, Marilyn, if you’ve got a somebody searching for a realtor in the Grand Rapids area where I know you work in Michigan and.

You’ve posted a lot of content. Maybe it was showing a home to somebody. Maybe it’s a new listing you got. Maybe it’s some videos that you’ve taken talking from your office, talking about common questions and things like that. When somebody nearby you does a search for best realtor or best realtor near me, or anything like that.

You are going to be more likely to show up because Google’s going to not only see your data, but they’re gonna see that location data. And if that’s, if you are close, again, most other realtors not gonna do that. You’re gonna have more data than that Google can use to show your profile in the map pack and in the top of the search results.

So hopefully that answers your questions, great questions by everybody. If you run into any additionals I think you guys all can reach out and, ask me questions. You should have the ability to text me through the text alerts that you got for this webinar. You can also reach out to my team.

We’re all here to help you and answer any questions that you may. Before we go, we’ve got just a couple minutes. I’m gonna hang on tight for probably about two minutes, maybe three longer if you’ve got questions. But if you do have any, go ahead and post them. Marilyn, thank you for the comment. I appreciate that.

It’s always good to know that these add some value, so thank you very much. Thank you all for investing your time. I know you’re all busy, you’ve all got a lot going on. I really appreciate this. And let me just put a little plugin watch out for the Google Review seminar. We’re gonna do that next.

I’m probably gonna do that in about two weeks. And we’re gonna teach you how to get more five star reviews. Imagine if I can show you how this week it’s Tuesday. Imagine if by Friday you could have five to 10 more, five star. That’s what I’m gonna show you how to do, and I’m gonna show you how to do that almost every week.

So thanks again for your time, everybody. Have a wonderful day, and we’ll see you soon.