The Simple and Smart SEO Show

Top 3 Benefits of a Google Business Profile (AKA Google My Business)

January 25, 2023 Crystal Waddell, Brittany Herzberg Season 1 Episode 36
The Simple and Smart SEO Show
Top 3 Benefits of a Google Business Profile (AKA Google My Business)
Show Notes Transcript

Today we are talking Google Business Profiles: How they work and why you should have one!

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1. Easy wins with Google Business Profile:

  • Embedding a Google Map on one's contact page is recommended to make it easier for customers to find their location.
  •  Double check all information is up-to-date including prices and ratings/reviews as these can change over time.

2. Interesting things we learned related to Google Business Profile:

  • Searches for "where to buy" and "near me" have increased over 200% in recent years, leading to an increase of discovery searches.
  • It is important to ensure accurate information on all platforms such as Yelp so customers can easily contact businesses via iPhone apps.

3. Why Google Reviews are the most valuable reviews:

  • Reviews should also be taken with a grain of salt as they can easily be fabricated or edited by businesses themselves. 
  • Google reviews typically tend to more accurate than other review sources since people have verified accounts through Google before leaving them.
  • It's important to respond politely to reviews, even if they are negative. This will help build trust with potential customers. 

4. Final thoughts about the artist formerly known as GMB (Google My Business):

  • Ask customers to leave a review on your Google Business Profile (send them a link to make it easy!) as it follows you wherever you go.
  • Specify an area of the world that is served if there isn't a physical location.


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This transcript has been machine-generated and has not been edited for errors.

They said that the searches for where to buy and near me have increased over 200% in recent years. So that's kind of a abstract statistic, but still it's like those searches have gone up. And these are called discovery searches. Hello and welcome to the Simple and Smart SEO show Where we provide tips and advice to improve your website's search engine ranking. I'm Brittany Herzberg,

SEO copywriter for Holistic Health and Wellness Pros who want to show up as the answer to a Googled Question. And I'm Crystal Waddell, an e-commerce seller and content creator. I help business owners communicate the value of their products and Services through content so you can make more Sales and grow your business. We are business besties who love learning and sharing what we've learned.

So what are we waiting for? Let's jump in. All right. Well, hello our friend. We appreciate you being here today. B and I are jumping into local SEO for the first time on the podcast and we're super excited about it. And we're kind of using this change from Google My Business to Google business profile as a segue into that whole conversation.

So I know B'S got a few stories you'd like to share with us about that. And then we're, we're gonna just go through an amazing sim rush blog that we found all about it and kind of pull it apart and talk about it. And yeah, so it should be a fun day exploring local seo. So, hey B, how you doing today girl?

Hi, I'm so jazzed about this topic. I can't even tell you story time. So there are three stories. If you feel like fast forwarding fine, go ahead. But if you feel like understanding why local SEO is so important and why Google my business or Google business profile or whatever name it's going by this week. Yes. Okay. Can we just also,

I have a lot of energy, so thank you for bearing with me everyone. It's Google Business, whatever has turned into like P Diddy, like what name are we going by right now? It was this, now's this, now's this other thing and it's like I can't, so I think right now it's Google Business Profile. Business Profile. Yeah. If it changes between now and when we release this episode,

we'll make sure the correct name is somewhere in there. Okay. Story time. We Will, I'll make no promises. I'll make sure it's in there. You'll put the show notes and I'll be like sneaky like okay stories. So one thing that's going on is my dad has a window replacement company and he is actually launching a second window replacement company. And he,

I'm helping him, Crystal's gonna be helping him with some UX design. We've got the s e o, the copywriting building out the website. So anyway, we're going through all of these steps and one of the very first steps is to set up the Google business profile. So I've been going through like step by step by step and cuz he, he delegated this task to me and I was like,

oh this is great. Like I'll get to see how we do do it these days. Oh my goodness. First of all, how You Do it. I know, that's exactly what's I Meant. But they don't have the postcards anymore. I really miss the postcards cuz it was so easy. And you said that was pointed out in this article too,

right? No, they did not have that updated. They still recommended the postcard as a way to verify your business, which I thought, ooh, we know better. We have an update Now, sadly. Sadly. Yeah. So it's, it's a little complicated ish if you are not familiar with setting up a profile. So this resource would be really helpful.

Probably a lot of what we're gonna share is gonna be really helpful. And I'm sure you could stay tuned for SEO shorts and figure out exactly how to walk through all of this. Hint, hint. Oh yeah. But, but yeah, so setting up the profile with my dad for his company was like a story that showed up in my life where I was like,

we really need to talk about this. And then a friend introduced me to another friend who's a photographer and I was fortunate enough we're, we're gonna do some work together. Hailey and I met up with her just to like chat. And then she got some photos of me and, and Jack, I brought Jack with me and Oh, she was mentioning,

they're so cute. I'll, I'll link to them if, if they're out by the time this is out. But she was mentioning that she has multiple addresses. She lived in Vermont, started her business there, and then moved down to North Carolina. She's been in Durham and then she's gonna be moving to Winston-Salem later this year. So she, we were talking through that and she's like,

oh yeah, I can just add another address. And I was like, wait, what? How do I not know you could do this? So that was, so Do the previous addresses stay on there or is she just updating the Address? I think she was adding, like adding an additional one. So all you know, Vermont is live, Durham is live,

Winston-Salem will be Live. And so she still works in all of those places or will continue to work. Wow, okay. That's really cool. That's good to Know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Her husband is from Vermont, so they travel back to see family and then she blocks off time when they're up there to, to do some shoots. And then I asked her,

I was like, okay, you're moving to Winston. It's only about an, I know this too. Well, it's only about an hour and a half drive. So I was like, are you willing to drive back cuz she's currently pregnant, she's having her first baby. And so I was like, is that still on the table? She's like,

oh yeah, we could, we could work that out. So yeah, she's just gonna add an address. But that was eye-opening to me. And then the very last scenario story that showed up in my life was that I, I was wanting to have my hair blown out for this photo shoot and because if you don't know, I have very curly hair like Crystal,

we have curly hair, it's part of how we bonded early hair club. What? So every once in a while I'm like, this would sounds like fun. So I looked into it. I don't have a person that I go to regularly for that. So I found someone tried to call her. I kept getting these error messages of like, the Verizon customer you're trying to preach can no longer,

like the phone number is no longer available, whatever. It switched the error message like multiple times. And I'm saying error message, but that's not right. But the, the warning or the alert that I was getting was like, you can't reach this person. So I'm like, what in the world? I figured out a way to email her and I told her what was going on and she was like,

I, we have to figure this out. And I'm like, well, good thing you found me lady, cuz I can help you. Yeah. Oh my gosh, that's terrible. Think about how much business she's probably lost because of that. Well that was the first thought that she had. And I don't know if that's true because the phone number on her website was accurate,

but the phone number that Google was picking up was from her Yelp listing. So she had to Google my business or Google business profile account and that number was accurate, but the number she had in Yelp was being picked up. So the lesson here is to please make sure that your information is correct. What? I know why that is. I Forgot.

Tell me cuz I didn't know. Yes, because she probably, it's probably an iPhone thing. It's probably, most iPhones will have this error because iPhone gets their reviews and different information from Yelp. Oh, That's right. You're right. Because if I'm looking at the reviews, yeah. Oh, you're so smart. Yeah. So thankfully it's not everybody on the internet,

but it is, everybody with an iPhone is gonna struggle to get in contact with her. So, and that's definitely business reason gonna fix It. Yeah. And if the business has a Yelp account, like for example, I'm not listed on Yelp. So for my massage business or even my copywriting business, you, you can't at this moment, as far as I know.

Right. Review me on Yelp because I don't have a listing. If I did then that, that's where that information would be coming from. So yeah, just, just a heads up, if any of those accounts that you have haven't been, just go check them to make sure that all of your contact info is correct. The end, Gosh, that is like total random information.

I think I learned, I know like when I was trying to create a Yelp profile, because I know we're not talking about Yelp profiles right now, but it seems a little bit more difficult to do a Yelp profile without an actual brick and mortar. And so as I was doing that, that's how I kind of learned about, you know, those type of things.

But I never thought it would be helpful. I never really even thought it would have anything to do with a Google business profile issue. Yeah. But yeah, that's probably exactly what happened. Yeah. So go figure. But that's, those are the stories and that's what brings us here today. And thank you for joining us. Yeah. Well and you know,

when we were talking about doing, you know, something with local S E o I realize, you know, typically I don't do a lot locally. You know, I think having a Google business profile has been really helpful, you know, in the SEO since for my business. But I don't do a lot of things locally in North Carolina. Most of the customers that we serve at Collagen Wood either come from New York or someplace in the Northeast California.

We do a lot of coast, you know, coastal states, which is Yeah. And then also Texas and Illinois. So that is, is so random. Yeah, I know. Isn't that interesting? But you know, those are hotspots for sports, you know. Sure. And big tournaments and athletes and, you know, TE Oh, and Florida.

Yeah. Texas and Florida are big ones, you know, so those, those are the places that we serve. So having a local presence hasn't really been a, you know, like anything that we've focused on, you know, and now with Crystal waddell.com I've realized, you know what, there are a lot of local businesses that I can help with their seo.

So diving into this, it's kind of like new territory, but it's also really interesting because it's a, you know, it's a new form of outreach and marketing that I, I have never really done before. And it'll be helpful. So, so to start off, like you talked about, you know, it used to be called Google My Business and people still refer to it as Google My Business.

And if you ever see something like gmb Yeah. That's like internal SEO speak for Google My Business. But I thought it had just been absorbed by Google Map. Yeah, it Hasn't. That's not, yeah, that's not the case. But I will tell you one takeaway that I saw already from another article in Search Engine Journal was that embedding the Google Maps on your contact page is a good idea and a good thing for local seo.

And so I thought, oh well that's awesome. Yeah, go Ahead. Yeah, no, it's great. I'm, I'm trying to learn the hand raising. So I was really good at it when I was in school, but with my massage business, so bri britney herzberg.com is the website that I have, and it used to be a hundred percent massage therapy.

And then I started copywriting and my massage practice was full. So I was like, you know what? I think I'm just gonna take that down to a page on my website and have the rest of it be copywriting. So when it was massage only my contact page, I did embed that. I did embed Google Maps on my contact page because it made more sense in my head of like,

people are gonna wanna know where am I located, where do they need to drive, what's the address? Because with massage therapy, I'm always in someone else's space. That's how I choose to do it. I'm, I'm renting a room in there. And so like, it hasn't been as big of a, an issue with my copywriting business, but just wanted to point that out.

The other thing too, I'm starting to really love one page websites. And I think that might be another, another, like, niche for me. Niche Niche, whatever offering. And I have, I know n I have copy by v.com and I haven't done anything with it, so I may play around with it like something I did because I saw what was going on with the Google business profile and I wanted to test out my business when I was doing my dad's stuff.

I, I did get, get a business profile listing for copy by B. So if I have the website, then I can link them and anyway, stay tuned cuz I think that'll be another project for myself. All right, let's get back to the list. Well, I, I do wanna make a comment on that really quick because coming from the background of e-commerce,

when you talk about having a one page website, I just, I don't know whether I wanna laugh or cry, you know, probably cause I told you about the, yeah, the guy that I wanna invite on to talk about local seo, he was talking about that and he said something about, you know, the intricacies or whatever of an e-commerce website,

because you've got product pages, you've got collection pages, you might have a blog and then you've got your standard, you know, about pages and all that type of stuff, contact pages. And so I thought, wow, you know, and I even emailed them this. I was just like, it's crazy to me like how lucky people are when they have like three to five pages to optimize.

You know, because I'm like, what is that? Like, you know, it's So, and even still some of us, me included, still feel like that's overwhelming. But that is why I love my service provider people. And that's why I was like, what's the, what's the, not easy, but what's a business I can have with low overhead where it's like,

for me, assert providing a service is so much easier than providing a product. And I'm always going toward like, you know, we have this podcast, it's called The Simple and Smart SEO Show. I'm like, what's a simple and smart thing I can do? Yeah. But yeah, I can only imagine what it's like going through those websites. Yeah.

Well I could go off on a tangent on those things, but I'm not going to, I'm gonna stay focused today because you've got this, the simple and smart thing to do was to find an article about this. You know what I mean? Oh it. So I was very proud of myself with that. I was like, I don't have to recreate the here,

I loved it here and go do a bunch of research. Yeah. Honestly, you wanna know how I came up with this? Yeah. Cause I, on my phone, I just searched for Google my business because I was like, okay, have I written anything about this and saved it in my notes or whatever. Mm. And this article happened to come up in one of the sim sim emails.

So I was like, oh let me check this out. And then it was like, oh, this is perfect, we'll just talk about this. You know, and yeah, you know, some of the things that changed, but going back really quick to some of the insights from Search Engine Journal, you know, the part of the, you know,

Google, what's it called now? Google Business Profile. Yeah. Include the following. So you've got your business name and that the name of the business a lot of time is hyperlinked. And so you can, when you click on it, you get the full Google Business Profile listing. In theory. What are you talking about That is clickable. Could you share more on that?

I'm also in maybe the wrong I'm in Safari. No, well no, that's probably fine. Well let's just look at it how it is in Safari here. Okay, so, so on your website, click and see what it says. When you click on website, does it go to your domain? Here I'll click you see that? Oh wait,

you mean from this? Yeah, because when you search for your business, if you have a Google Business profile listing, it's gonna show up on the right and it's gonna have your name and it's gonna have something like your website directions, save reviews and Your phone number, The hours, that type of thing. So click on website up above your stars.

Oh, it was above the Stars. Oh, here. Okay. Yeah. Also just know that We're Website if we're saying some stuff. I know, right? Yeah. Not your actual website. Brittany. I just wanted to point out that we probably will upload this video. So if we're saying stuff and you're not following, we do have this on video.

Okay. Yeah. We'll put it on our simple and smart SEO show. YouTube and link to it. Okay. So go back and then search for collage and wood. Cuz I wanna show you how it works differently for me. This is a good, this is a good test though because with the stuff that I just pulled up, it was be here massage therapy.

But remember I just said that I updated my website so that only one page is for massage and it just took it to the copywriting page. So heads up for Brittany, I need to go in there and put the slash massage so that it leads them to that page. Okay, we're on. Oh, okay. Collage board. It's already helping you.

Okay, so click on website for me, see how I don't have those other options like you did. Oh, okay. Well now of course it's gonna go to my website, so that's perfect. Yeah, go back again though, because before it's gone to some weird thing where scroll it, see how it has products and all of that. Like up here?

No, down in my, in my profile. Oh, here. Yes, it's, So it has profile like products that I've uploaded at some point, but they're not pulled from my website. Like where are they Called You all? It's something special that, Is that the right phone number Google has done? Yeah, that's the right, but I created product posts at Someti at some point.

And so the problem with this is like if my price changes, Oh, half These prices are not the right prices. Oh. So you know, some of them are, some of them aren't. But that's something to watch out for. So if you've used, you know, Google buy business in the past, you need to go into your business profile and just double check that things are updated.

Okay. So then another thing that's gonna show up on your business profile is your rating. And I have a story about rating and reviews. Oh yes, please tell. Would you like to hear it? Oh, would you, would I come on testimonials, reviews? I'm here for It. Okay. Well this is, this is kind of a icky thing.

Okay. Oh, so when I, yeah, when I found this out it made me feel kind of sick. But, so with e-commerce, just like any other service and products, I guess, you know, you can set up independent review systems. You know, like Yacht PO is a popular one. Gosh. Even the one I have, I can't even remember the one I have.

But anyway, These sound sound like Latin terms by the way. I'm like a what now? Yacht. Oh like a, like a review app. Okay. Gosh, you should click on my website so I can see what that review app is. Cause I feel bad. And then where Do I need, scroll down. Oh, this, just scroll down.

Oh, well if you scroll down it'll say it, but it doesn't say it right there. Did I go too far? Yeah, you went too far. Anyway, my point is, with these review apps, like let's say that you wanna do one app and then you wanna switch to another, I guess I took it off this page anyway, I can remember what it's called.

But you wanna switch to another, you will, you'll have to download your reviews and then upload them to the new review app. Oh. And they have a specific template that you have to use in order to make that import. So you'll export your reviews and then import your reviews into the new app. However, once I was in there, I was like,

wow, now that I have the template to do the reviews, I really could just create a whole bunch of reviews, You know? Oh Yeah, yeah. All you need is an email address. And I don't know about you, but in my email service provider, like in my, on my email list, and I noticed this with Clavio because I used Clavio with my e-commerce store,

that there were like fake emails that they would sort into like kind of a junk email thing. What? Yeah, it was like Dave fake fake mail.com or something like that. You know, like that's creative. Yeah, well it was really weird. It was box, you know? Right. But it was a security thing on Clason and I really appreciated it.

But from the perspective of, oh my gosh, if I wanted to launch a product, I could create a bunch of fake reviews very easily. Dude, that's so hard. And yeah. And so I just wanna put that out there for everybody. Like no offense to my other e-commerce sellers and sorry if I'm like blowing the lid off like a secret,

like insider secret. I don't like it. You know, I don't like it. So that's not cool. I just wanna say, yeah, be very careful when you see reviews, you know, because, and make your decision based on reviews. Because a lot of times they could be fabricated, they could be true, they could be fabricated. I don't know.

So, so this Brings up a really good point with frankly something that I've been wondering about with Airbnb because I've, you know, the stories, I'm not going to share them all over again. But there have been some really awful experiences that we have had recently with Airbnb and I don't understand how these places have like 4.5, 4.9 5.0 reviews. Like,

are you kidding me? I felt like I was gonna die in a couple couple of these places. And I'm not being dramatic when I say that. Like when you take a peak under a, an above the garage apartment and all you see are wires and the building is built into the dirt, you don't sleep very well at night. Just gonna say that.

So anyway, I don't know if that also happens on an airb on Airbnb, but I wouldn't be surprised. And that's very disheartening to hear that someone could do that and probably has done that. Yeah, well I mean you could go in and probably delete the reviews, you know, or hide them or that type of thing. So, you know,

and I don't know how it works on Airbnb, cuz that's a bigger website, but just on, you know, the standard review apps, you can do that so well, you know, again, take it all with the grain of salt because not everything is as it appears. Okay. So that's my public service announcement on that. Now the point with,

the point with Google my business though, however, or the g Google business profile is that Google reviews typically are legit. I mean, right. You know, maybe, maybe you have reviews from people that you know, you know, cuz you could always go ask fans or friends and family to review Yeah. But they have to have a Google email address and be like,

kind of like a, a verified Google person to leave a review. And over the years I didn't even realize people were leaving reviews there. You know, say, Hey, could you leave a review? And maybe they're familiar with, you know, leaving Google reviews. So that's how they left their review. Right. But you, I I say all this to say you can trust those Google reviews a little bit more than you can just any website Reviews.

Yeah. And I do, like, that's actually why I went through the process of now it's not gonna show it. That's why I went through the process of getting the copy by b business listing, Google Business account, Google Business Profile, whatever, that thing. That's why I went through the process of that because I was like, oh, I could ask people to,

to write reviews over there. Like maybe I'll have an email prompt at some point where it's like, hey, or an email call to action where it's like, Hey, would you mind going over and doing this thing? So yeah, it, it can be beneficial for e-commerce for service providers if you have a brick and mortar place, if you work online.

I mean there's, and I thought of it after seeing someone else do it. Her name is Jules Kim. She's amazing. She, I think she's doing like life coaching now, but just, yeah, like if you haven't thought of getting a Google business profile, maybe Consider it. Yeah, for sure. And and it's also another opportunity, you know,

because if you've gotten reviews from people in the past, like say in your e-commerce store or you know, on your website, ask those same people to go over and say, Hey, here's the link to my Google business, you know, account or whatever. Could you leave a review there? So the people that you have relationships with, or even ones that maybe haven't left a review,

you could always send them to Google so that you know, they have a, you know, you have a review that goes with you wherever you are, no matter if you sell on Etsy or some other website. I wonder if it would also be worth it to, and maybe this is part of what you have in mind, like let's say someone did already write you a testimonial and it appears on your website or somewhere in your marketing materials,

but you want it to be on Google. Perhaps you could give the person the link or put it in an email and say, Hey, I'm really trying to make an effort to, to have these reviews over here. This is what you shared previously. Any chance you would write this or maybe write an updated review and put it at this link. Just make it easy for them.

The easier you can make it, as Crystal knows with all of her, like UX design stuff, the easier you can make it for someone, the more likely you are to succeed. And they are to follow through on the thing. Yeah, exactly. So then another thing that shows up on the Google business profile is like the price, and you know,

this is kind of relative to your industry or whatever, but think about it in terms of like hotels or restaurants, you know, it's like the $1 sign right to the four or $5 side, you know, and it's relative, obviously to your industry. And then if you have a brick and mortar, there's a place for your address. But the great thing is if you are a,

an online business and you don't actually have a fiscal location where people can visit you, you don't have to have an address. So that's really great. Instead what you'll do is you'll specify what area of the world that you serve. Yeah. You know, like on, on my map, I have this really weird triangle up there at the top. I noticed it.

I was like, what a weird map because it like shows Oh, most of the United States and you know, I guess it's because it's going up to Alaska Or it might also be going out to Hawaii because of that being like out here. Yeah. Oh, That's funky. Yeah. Yeah. So I, I say, you know, the United States is my,

the area that I serve, although I do get hits a lot from Canada, but shipping and e-commerce, it's a hot mess express going across the United State lines. So I try to keep it, you know, to the Us I clearly specified rally with copy by B, but now that I see your Yes, tell me. Pentagon, Pentagon. Think so.

It's A five-sided thing. That's what you got right there. But is it 1, 2, 3, 4. Oh, I have that. What's the four-sided though, over here with Yours? Quadr, lateral quad. Okay. Just like, as an aside, because we're, I guess we're hanging out over here for a minute. I have heard that you're either good at algebra or good at geometry.

I was very good at algebra, geometry, I struggled through. So were you better at geometry? Do you remember? You know, I, I've always been that person that's like pretty good at everything. Yeah. Maybe not great at anything, but you know, it's like, okay, I don't, I mean, come on. I've got random knowledge about Yelp.

So that's just how it goes. That's not random though. You're a business owner And I can tell you some shapes, but whatever. Okay. Okay. Anyway, sorry, what were you gonna say about yours? I think I was just gonna say that I, like, I need to go back in and address, do the area differently. Well,

no, I don't necessarily want my address to show up, But, but if you're copy by B and not necessarily, you know, stuck physically, you know, like with parameters of the massage practice, you want that to be nationwide. That's what I'm saying. Worldwide. Yeah. Yeah. I need to go do, actually I could do, yeah,

I have some work to do. This is fascinating. Change your area served. All right. And then another thing is, there's two options for letting people know about whether you're open and closed and you're hours so open and closed. A lot of times you'll get messages from Google that says, Hey, it's a holiday coming up, are you open on this state?

Let people know. I tend to ignore those just because I'm pretty much always open. Yes. And then the Hours, usually I'm like a holiday. Sure, yeah, I'm working. Yeah. I was like, what's a holiday? But anyway, then, so then the hours are like the typical hours that even if you're, if you don't have a brick and mortar,

the typical hours that somebody could reasonably expect a response from you. Yeah. So, you know, I don't really have a lot of parameters. There's, but they're either, but I think recently I did change to being closed, enclosed on Sunday or something like that. Just, Let's see, what did you do? Oh, Oh yeah, you're closed 24 hours.

You're, But you're closed on Sunday, but you're open 24 hours. Yes. Yeah. Oh, this is a good one. It says online service hours. Oh, that's wonderful. Ooh. Yeah. So I didn't realize I'd set that up. That's very nice. Yeah. But that was smart of you. And then that way, because I have a chat function on our website,

so it's like, okay, if people wanted to go to the website and actually chat with me, they could expect to chat with me during the week. But they, that's really cool prepared then I might be able not, not be able to chat with them on the weekend. So Yeah. I love it. Good stuff. Okay. And then there,

there's a spot for description. I don't really see a description on mine. I, oh, here we go. This Is you. Oh, okay. All right. So, and yours is on my mine? Yeah, it's located underneath the, it's located underneath the reviews. But what's also interesting here is there's a reviews from the web section where they give,

you know, Facebook reviews, which Oh yeah. You know, are fairly trustworthy I guess. And then Etsy reviews, You got a lot Etsy reviews. Yeah. Third party data. So, but yeah, that's Underneath Applicable that. I don't want people to go to Etsy though, want 'em go to my website. But that's, we're, We're doing like a mini audit.

So like maybe we don't want those things. So maybe you can turn it off somehow or disconnect it. Well, I don't mind it because it builds trust, you know, and so, you know, when people see that, oh yeah, she's got 545 reviews from Etsy and they're all five stars, you know, or averages to be five stars,

that builds trust. So I'm, I'm okay with that. But then, so underneath, underneath that there is this little paragraph where I said, you know, this is what we do. We specialize in senior night birthdays and graduations, blah, blah, blah. So Yeah. And then I got creative with mine cuz of course I did. I,

I more like introduced myself and made it sound like it was me writing to a person because copywriter, tell me more. I see your, I see your wheels spinning. Oh man, I'm sorry. I don't, well I don't really wanna do this right now, but I'll say it. Okay. I think it's just probably a little bit confusing here because it's like massage therapy at the top,

copywriter at the bottom, even though you explain, you know, but I guess at the top you do have copy now. And I Said copywriter, but what do you mean, do you think? Yeah. Is that the line that you were talking About? Well, no, earlier when we, it looked like it was something about massage therapy earlier,

but it was, it Was a different business, So, oh, there's two different business profiles. Ah, okay, good, good, good, good. All right. That's Great. I'm glad you said that though cuz I was like, what? Okay. Yeah, so now I'm in the right so we're good. So that's, yeah, and that's exactly what I was gonna tell you is like,

ooh, I think you should have two, but you do have two. So good job. I did a good thing. Okay. Yes. Where, where are we now? Description, check service options. Yeah, Yeah, so this, this is just kind of extra information. Like if you are a a restaurant, this is really helpful, you know,

because it tells people whether, you know, they can pick up the food or like if you use GrubHub or what's the other one? DoorDash. Yeah, DoorDash or something like that. Or if you can order online, like a lot of times the menus will be here for restaurants. Yeah. So I see that more as, you know, an option for a business like that.

Okay. So I Think I, I'm trying to think through as you're saying that I feel like I've also seen people, I wonder if I did it. I feel like I've seen people list. Yeah, I don't think I did it for example. I could maybe, possibly, I'm not really sure cuz I'd need to go in and look. But I could maybe say like SEO audits,

web copy, case study, copy, client interviews, things like that. Like I could possibly go in and say those are different services. But then the tricky thing is as a service provider, if I go and change my offerings, I would need to remember that and go in and change them. So maybe don't necessarily do that unless you for real know what you're gonna do.

What, what, what? What's your thought? N nothing. Nothing. No, I think you're absolutely right. Okay, so I was thinking, I was like, I think we're probably gonna have to do a part two because we haven't even really gotten into the article yet. Oh yeah. But we can, we can finish this Up. Okay.

Because there was one thing I wanted to make sure I said before we ended, cuz I had written it down earlier. Okay. We have tag and then whatever you're gonna wrap up with. Okay. Okay. So a tag, where is the tag at? I have no idea. It's a feature that designates the type of business, which is like Italian or men's clothing store.

Italian meaning food. Not just like you're an Italian person. Oh yeah. Like Italian food. I'm imagining, I know that when I, yeah, coffee was creating right when I was creating my listing. Now that I don't remember it, but I know when I did my dad's, the closest I could get to like window replacement was like window installation or something like that.

But it, they do offer that. Okay. So I did, I believe that's what I selected for like the, the type of business. So the tag is essentially a category, Right? Yeah. So if you wanna, for my brain, if you wanna compare this to like what you're doing on Instagram, then I think I have myself as just like copywriter.

You could have business owner, entrepreneur, singer, whatever. Okay. The last thing I wanna just say about the business profile itself that's not on this other list is the place where you can add updates. So, you know, every once in a while I would get an email from the old Google my Business and it would say, Hey, share what's going on at your store or whatever.

And so if you click add update, you can basically add like a little post or you can add photos. And so I like to add photos of products there. If I had a brick and mortar, that's where you can add photos of your office, like your storefront. Because I remember when I was getting my hair done a few weeks ago, it was a,

a new lady and I didn't know, I knew the general area, but I didn't know what her storefront. Yeah. So that would've been a perfect time for me to be able to see, you know, the storefront so I know what I was looking for, you know. And then it also gives people a chance to kind of look around. So if you,

you know, take pictures of the entryway and like where they'll be getting their service done and all that type of stuff, it just creates that familiarity so that they know they're in the right place when they get there. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So a few things are coming to mind. I am that person that checks the parking situation because I am so terrible at parallel parking.

I'm not terrible, I just don't love it. So I'm like, is there a parking lot? And I actually, when I was in Florida, recently found a coffee shop that I wanted to go to and it, I had done research before I even left and I knew that I wanted to go to this place. And so I was like, what's the parking like?

And they had a very detailed, I loved it, especially for a place that's downtown. They had a very detailed like, you can come in this street, you can come in this street, you can go this way. And then they had a picture where they circled like their 10 parking spaces. So when I got there, I felt very comfortable knowing where to park and knowing that there was a parking lot and knowing that I didn't have to stress about like go park in a garage or get there early enough so that you can parallel park by just pulling into two spaces.

So that's one thing people like me, I feel like there are people like me, me that exist where we do check the parking before we get there. So that's helpful also with what you were saying about showing the pictures with my massage practice, to me that felt really important to show people like the door, the, the front, like the lobby,

the front desk, the hallway, the bathroom, and then what the room looks like. So I just thought through, and if you're listening to this, maybe you can do the same thing. What is it that people need to see so they feel comfortable and they feel like they know where they're going and know what's up before they get there. Because again,

just like reviews that transparency also builds trust. Yeah, exactly. And you know, a lot of people worry about reviews, you know, since Yeah. You said that word again. I've also remembered something else I wanted to say about that. And when you get a bad review, you know, I used to, I used to worry because you know,

for the most part I've gotten all five star reviews on Etsy. Most people aren't super ugly about it. Right? But when you get a review that's less than five stars, a lot of times what matters more than the review itself is the response that you give to it. Yes. And I know on Etsy and on on Google, you can respond to the reviews.

And so that is a chance for you also to kind of share your personality and what it's like to work with you and you know, again, help people kind of figure out like, do I wanna work with this person? Yeah. You know, like, do I trust them, do I like them? All that type of stuff. So just,

I'm glad you said that because I saw that you had responded and I like that and I wanted to mention that. So yeah, I'm glad you brought that Back. Yeah. So I had that situation on Etsy a few months ago where this woman ordered giant numbers and stands to go with the stands or to go with the numbers, make 'em freestanding. And I shipped them in two packages.

And so from the UX perspective, what would've been better is if upfront I had said, Hey, by the way, you're gonna get two packages. Or if I had written on the package package one of two, package two of two, right. Well, what happened instead was she got the first package or the second package, which was the stands,

she got those first because that was a smaller package and I guess it, they got separated and she emailed me and she said, I want my stuff using different words. Okay. And I was like, whoa, hold on, wait a second. What are we talking about here? You know, because I was like, okay, is this, is this Etsy?

Is this my website? Because she sent me multiple messages through the chat on my website and I'm trying to figure out like what she ordered. And it turned out she was over on Etsy. So by the time I checked Etsy, that's when I was like, oh, this is where she's coming from, you know? And so, and she had already left a review,

a one star review, it's still there and it says, warning, this is a scam, da da da da da. And I had a choice to make, you know, like it was busy season, right? It's always busy season for something. So I had a choice to make. I could either, you know, go massage her shoulders or whatever,

make her feel warm and fuzzy about the experience, or I could take care of my future clients. And I have no doubt I probably could have gotten her, you know, to write a better review. But I mean, the lady was already cussing at me before I had a chance to explain, you know? And it was like, I don't really feel like spending a lot of time with people like that.

So, you know, I, I did politely, you know, explain to her the numbers were coming and all that type of stuff. But rather than, you know, worry about the review, I just responded to it. And once you respond on Etsy, it cannot be changed. So I knew, I knew going in, I was like,

this is gonna make this a permanent thing, but rather than let it, you know, just sit there and fester. Yeah. And have people wonder like, what the heck is this? I just responded. I said, Hey, I'm so sorry I didn't tell you it was coming in two packages. Your second package is on the way and it's actually gonna be earlier than it was supposed to be there,

you know? Yeah. But kept it light kind of funny and you know, kept it moving. So I just wanted to throw that out there. You know, it's just strange situations, present strange opportunities, you know, to show different side of you. And I want to say from a person that does look at reviews and who values them highly,

it, especially if I see like a one-off situation, it's like I read that as the customer is a, is a little bit off their rocker, not you, the business owner. So if there's a string of them, then it's like warning, don't go with that business. But if it's like a one-off, not a big deal. And like you said,

seeing your, your response to that probably made people feel much more comfortable with working with you and also still kind of re reaffirmed that like red flag on their end, not on your end. Right. So, yeah. So, okay, so just before we close this out, this is the last thing that I wanted to add because this kind of came more from the Simmers article,

but they had talked about searches for things like coffee near me. Oh yeah. And that's gonna pull up the map pack, you know, that that type of stuff that's like near me that's going to give you like those local results. But they, they said that the searches for where to buy in near me have increased over 200% in recent years. So,

oh, you know, that's kind of a abstract statistic, but still it's like those searches have gone up and these are called discovery searches. So Oh, when I heard that term discovery searches, it reminded me of the funnel, you know, and of the top of the funnel and the idea of awareness and also unawareness because again, if somebody's Searchie for something like Coffee Near Me or Coffee Shop near me,

they may not know the name of your coffee shop. Yeah. You know, or of the product that they're Searchie for, they may not know your brand name, but then you show up as a search result, which is great. So, you know, I just wanted to, you know, kind of point that out because that kind of ties back into this whole idea of like the importance of SEO and getting found online.

Yeah, no, definitely. And if, if, if I may, just quickly, if you're in Orlando or going to Orlando, there's two really great coffee shops. One is called Cups and Pups. I took Jack in there. It was the first coffee coffee shop he's ever been in. And they were so nice in there. And then the other one that I went to was called Craft and Common.

And if you like Cha Lattes, you gotta go there. They have like multiple cha latte options. And then the other thing was East End Market, they have some little shops in there, they have a coffee shop and then they have food Highly recommend. And I kind of wish those were, were were near me. That was nice. Yeah. I mean,

but I found them because of, because of local s e o and Google Maps and Google my business profile and all of those words, found them that way. Yeah. Awesome. I love how you put it together. Google my business profile. So instead of, Oh hey, look at that. Yeah, I think that needs to go in the title of the podcast episode.

Yeah. So instead of Google Business profile, it's Google My Business profile. So I'm just gonna get Pete, Eddie, Sean Combs, like everything. It's just like all Wrapped into one. I love it. I love it so much. Okay, so this will definitely be a part one. We'll come back with part two at some point discussing more about local seo and there's just so much more.

So I'm sure there's gonna be part 3, 4, 5, and six as well. But Hopefully just buckle up and stay tuned. Yeah, Yeah. Hopefully this gives you a nice overview of that Google business profile and definitely leave us any thoughts or questions. I was gonna say actually maybe what I would personally love to encourage people to do, since we talked about reviews,

maybe if you like yeah. Listening to the show, you could find us especially on Apple and maybe rate and review the show. Crystal, did we ever give away the planner or is that still going? That's still going. That's still going, yes. So yeah, tag us over on Instagram or send us a message. We are at simple and smart s e o on Instagram.

So if you leave a review, screenshot it and then share it with us and you'll be entered into the planner giveaway. Ooh. Ooh. And with that, thanks for tuning in and keep your eyes peeled for part two. Yeah, we'll see you next time. Bye. Thanks for joining us today. If you like this info, subscribe before you go so you never miss out on something related to seo.

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