Podcasts about your google my business

How can small business owners leverage digital marketing to stand out in a crowded market while embracing the potential—and limitations—of AI? In this episode of Life After Corporate, host Deb Boulanger is joined by Paige Wiese, the CEO of Tree Ring Digital, to explore the nuanced landscape of modern digital marketing. They talk about crucial issues such as maintaining up-to-date business data, the indispensable role of Google My Business for solopreneurs, and the shifting balance between human-led content creation and AI tools. Paige shares valuable insights on effective platform strategies, the importance of thought leadership, and the tangible benefits of SEO, ensuring that every small business owner feels empowered to invest wisely in their digital footprint.  This is a conversation you cannot afford to miss if you aim to turn every digital marketing effort into substantial business growth.   [00:05 - 9:03] The Power and Pitfalls of Digital Asset Management Challenges in tracking key business data and the significant financial and decision-making impact of outdated information. Maintaining an up-to-date Google My Business page for solopreneurs, boosting both visibility and credibility. Being visible on multiple platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook to build trust and engagement. Predictions are leaning towards increased reliance on AI for business tasks but be aware of losing the value of expert digital marketing assistance.     [9:04 - 16:52] Maximizing ROI in Digital Marketing and Thought Leadership Digital marketing is a significant investment and the concept of "return on effort" for small businesses is discussed. Focus your marketing efforts on platforms where your ideal clients are, rather than spreading yourself too thin, citing a lesser-known audio platform's lack of traction. The prudent use of AI is advised to simplify tasks and enhance decision-making, with an emphasis on intentionality and impactful activities. Avoid getting overwhelmed with multiple tasks and instead concentrate efforts in a few critical areas and excelling in them.     [16:53 - 25:02] SEO and Digital Marketing in the AI Era Essential SEO steps include setting up a robots.txt file, submitting a sitemap to Google, and claiming Google My Business to improve visibility. The need for alignment between SEO efforts and content marketing is underscored, indicating that blogging without SEO optimization is ineffective. Adapt strategies to align with trends showing that users are not relying solely on Google for information. The impact of AI on search results and the importance of maintaining SEO best practices for visibility within AI-curated content results.   [25:03 - 34:36] The Human Touch in AI-Driven Marketing The necessity of emotional connections and thought leadership is where AI falls short. While clients may believe AI can replace human effort, personal insights are crucial for authentic content. The need to stay current with technology trends while recognizing the current limitations of AI. Tree Ring Digital focuses on adapting marketing strategies to meet client needs and the importance of strategic, organic growth.   Connect with Paige Wiese https://www.treeringdigital.com/ LinkedIn:  LinkedIn profile Facebook: Facebook Instagram:  @treeringdigital   Talked About on the Show Google My Business:Google My Business How to Set up Your Google My Business for 2025  Google Business Profile Set Up: 2025 Step-by-Step Tutorial     Go to https://lifeaftercorporatepodcast.com/ for all episodes 169. Lisa Durante's Strategy for Mastering Your Content Marketing Plan! 153  A 3-Step Guide to Skyrocketing Your Income 137 Marketing, Management, and Metrics: The Keys to Consistent Success Tweetable Quotes: "We've seen it in image creation and people trying to have their social posts created by AI, and it's still not there. You might get close, but it's not perfect.".... Paige Wiese on the future of AI in Marketing "How can we be strategic? What's another way? How can we work together? And maybe I train you a little bit on this. If you have the time, use that right now until you have the money. And when you have the money, we'll go a different route." — Paige Wiese on going from zero to strategy   **TRANSCRIPT AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST**   SUBSCRIBE & LEAVE A FIVE-STAR REVIEW and share this podcast to other growing entrepreneurs!  Get weekly tips on how to create more money and meaning doing work you love and be one of the many growing entrepreneurs in our community. Connect with me on LinkedIn; https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12656341/  or on Instagram or our website at www.lifeaftercorporatepodcast.com 

Got a Minute? Checkout today's episode of The Guy R Cook Report podcast - the Google Doc for this episode is @ 20230512 How to Add a Business Description meta tag to Your Google My Business listing ----more---- Support this podcast Subscribe where you listen to podcasts I help goal oriented business owners that run established companies to leverage the power of the internet Contact Guy R Cook @ https://guyrcook.com The Website Design Questionnaire https://guycook.wordpress.com/start-with-a-plan/ In the meantime, go ahead follow me on Twitter: @guyrcookreport Click to Tweet Be a patron of The Guy R Cook Report. Your help is appreciated.   https://guyrcook.com https://theguyrcookreport.com/#theguyrcookreport Follow The Guy R Cook Report on Podbean iPhone and Android App | Podbean   https://bit.ly/3m6TJDV Thanks for listening, viewing or reading the show notes for this episode. Vlog files for 2022 are at 2022 video episodes of The Guy R Cook Report Have a great new year, and hopefully your efforts to Entertain, Educate, Convince or Inspire are in play vDomainHosting, Inc 3110 S Neel Place Kennewick, WA 509-200-1429

Your Google My Business profile might be updated and well-managed but are you also using Apple Business Connect? Can people find your business on Apple Maps? It's something that you don't want to miss out on. In this episode, Arti Sharma shares more about the current SEO trends. Here, she gives you some important tips to help optimize for local Voice Searches on different Maps.  Listen and learn in this episode!   KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE More than 2 Billion people are using Voice Search to find businesses, products, services, and general information. One big reason why voice search has been so successful in recent years is that it's being used in smartphones, smart homes, cars, and everywhere else.  The 3 types of Voice Searches: Discovery, Direct, and Knowledge-based. In discovery searches, people are looking for types of local businesses. In direct searches, people ask for information about a specific local business. Knowledge searches may have local businesses' intent, but local businesses can create information that will answer that particular question. While discovery searches are important for finding new customers, direct searches can often be more important because these customers want to interact or do business with you. 3 out of 4 users of the iOS device use Apple Maps, not Google Maps. Go to mapsconnect.apple.com to claim your listing. You should have an Apple ID to have access to this. Optimize your Yelp business listing because Apple sources information from Yelp If you optimize your business to show up well on a Google search and Google Maps, you are already well optimized to show up in a Voice Search on Google Assistant. Alexa gets local business data, photos, and reviews from two primary sources: Yelp and Yext. If you liked this episode of Fuel Your Marketing, tell your friends! Find us on iTunes and Google Play to rate/review/subscribe to the show. Want more? Visit our website, and find us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube! iTunes: http://ow.ly/Ihl350xDn8M Google Play: http://ow.ly/sPag50xDn8T Spotify: http://ow.ly/bt0g50xDn8Q Our Podcast Portal: http://ow.ly/ogQK50xDn8S

What you'll learn in this episode: Why all successful business owners use a combination of thought and action The difference between Google Ads, Google My Business, and organic SEO Why all roads lead to Google My Business, and why law firms should be investing in it How SEO has changed over the last decade, and how it will likely change over the next five years Why online reviews are crucial for ranking on Google, and how to get more of them About Ronnie Deaver Ronnie Deaver is the founder of NoBull Marketing, a lead generation firm for lawyers. Specializing in Google Ads and Google My Business, NoBull is know for its “No B.S. Guarantee” and fluff-free services. Before founding NoBull, Ronnie was Director of Operations and Director of Web Development & SEO at SMB Team, a legal marketing and coaching firm.  Additional Resources NoBull Marketing Website Ronnie Deaver LinkedIn No Bull Marketing Facebook Transcript: SEO has changed dramatically over the last five years, but one thing remains the same: keep Google happy, and Google will reward your firm with higher rankings. Ronnie Deaver, CEO of NoBull Marketing, has figured out exactly how to do that for his legal clients. He joined the Law Firm Marketing Catalyst Podcast to talk about why Google My Business is so important for law firms; how to get more valuable online reviews; and why your website still matters—but not for the reasons you might think. Read the episode transcript here.    Sharon: Welcome to the Law Firm Marketing Catalyst Podcast. Today my guest is Ronnie Deaver, who is CEO of NoBull Marketing. NoBull Marketing is a lawyer-exclusive marketing firm. In this session, we're going to be touching on three areas: search engine optimization or SEO, Google My Business and Google Ads. They all play a role in generating leads for your firm. They can also make your head spin, as they have mine, but Ronnie's going to lay it out for us clearly. Ronnie, welcome to the program.   Ronnie: Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.   Sharon: So glad to have you. First of all, tell us about your career path, how you got here.   Ronnie: My career path probably started around 10 years ago, and it was a very unexpected way to get into marketing as a whole. I moved to Boston, and for anyone who wonders why, it's a very stereotypical story: I chased a woman. The woman did not work out, but the city did. While I was there, I was very broke. I went on Craigslist—this is one of my favorite stories—and found a guy who was like, “Hey, I need help with my website.” I met with him at a McDonald's, and the first thing he said to me was, “Hey man, I want a website, but what I really want is to show up number one on Google.” In my head, I was like, “I don't know how to make that happen, but if you pay me this much per month, I'll make it happen for you.” So, I got my first recurring client. Fortunately I succeeded, and the rest is history from there.   As it relates to lawyers, I got involved with lawyers three or so years ago. From then on, I've been sold that they're the people I want to work with. As far as I'm concerned, it's almost like a spiritual calling. I have so much respect for lawyers because they literally raise their hands and say, “Yes, I'm willing to get involved with people at the worst times of their lives.” They're crazy. That's insane to be like, “People going through the most emotional problems of their lives, when they're at their worst and their lowest, I'm going to help those people.” I'm like, “Wow! I want to help those people help other people.” I've been working with lawyers ever since.   Sharon: Why are they at the lowest? Because they're lawyers, because they went to law school?   Ronnie: No, they're helping people who are at their lowest.   Sharon: I see. I get it.   Ronnie: If you're getting a divorce, you're pretty emotionally stressed.  If you're going through a criminal case, you're usually not your happiest person at that time. What I respect about lawyers is they put a lot of training and time and willingness into helping people who are not coming to them when they're super chippy and cheery and excited. They're usually unhappy; they're usually trying to solve a big problem; they need help; they can be emotionally touchy. It's not easy to be a lawyer. You're dealing with people at the worst, but these lawyers are volunteering to do that. It's a cool career. While I couldn't be a lawyer—I wasn't destined for that—I want to help those lawyers build better lives and build better businesses for themselves so they can help more people.   Sharon: That must keep you very busy. You answered my question. I was going to ask if you had thought about law school yourself.   Ronnie: I did, but I'm one of those guys that's more of intense action than intense thought. I thought about it, and I was like, “Man, this is not my destination.” I'm a very clearcut, no B.S. guy, and the law is a little—there's a lot of negotiation. There's no clearcut “This is right. This is wrong.” It's not that simple, and I'm a simple guy in that sense. I'm like, “This is how we do it. This is what's going to work. I've tested it and I'll evolve that over time.” I'm not destined for that high level of nuance and thought that lawyers need. I thought about it, but it's not me as a person.   Sharon: That's interesting. I'll have to think about it. I like the idea about intense action. You're a person of intense action and not intense thought, and lawyers are so thoughtful and think everything through. What keeps you attracted, then? Why, after years now, have you continued to work with lawyers?   Ronnie: The biggest thing is because they're so intensely thoughtful, they're also willing to recognize that intense thought doesn't make a business. That's the cool thing about business; it inherently is this weird balance of both. You have to have to incredibly good thinking. You have to think and know what you're doing and why you're doing it, but you can't think your way to success. You also have to take a lot of action, action that you don't know if it's going to be profitable; action you don't know if it's going to work; action even when it's hard; action when you're having a bad day. It's a combination of both.    What I love about lawyers is that oftentimes they're very driven people if they went through law school. They're like, “Hey, I know I have this weakness. I know I can think well, but I don't know what I need to do to act.” They're very willing, if given appropriate guidance and coaching, to take real, major action and have success. When I work with a lawyer, I'm usually quite confident. In almost every circumstance, I can work with that lawyer and they're like, “Yes, I want to make this business work,” and I'm like, “Great. Do this, this and that. This is what we found works. If we follow these steps, we're going to make you money.” They're like, “Great, I will follow the steps,” and they do it and they execute.    If I work with a restaurant and I work with somebody who's not quite as driven as a lawyer, you can end up with a lot less successful story. The success stories I get with lawyers are incredible. I've got one woman right now, and when I met her, she was basically facing bankruptcy. Now she's growing so fast and hiring because she can barely keep up with the caseload. They're struggling to follow up with their leads. That delta, that change, is so common in the lawyer space because once given direction, they run with it because they're so driven. I love it, and I have so much energy for it.   Sharon: That's great. I'd like to know some of the lawyers you know. Don't you find resistance sometimes? Resistance like, “I know. You don't know. I'm a lawyer. I know how to do that.” Not to knock anybody, but it's like, “I know how to do whatever needs to be done, whether it's marketing or whatever.” Do you find that?   Ronnie: I think that's broadly true for most marketers in working with lawyers. I have a unique experience with lawyers as an individual because of the way I come off and the way I speak to people. The way I think and talk and approach people is very forward. It's no B.S. It's like, “Hey, this is what I think. This is why. This is going to be the outcome if you do this and the outcome if you don't.” I'm very honest and transparent.    Maybe you have seen my guarantee—I won't go into it right now—but if I don't think I can make you money, I'm not going to charge you, basically. If I don't think I can succeed for you, I'm going to tell you I can't, and I won't take you on as a client. I make it very clear to people that I'm not trying to sell you anything. Either you want the thing I do and I can make you money, or you don't want the thing I can do or I can't make you money, and we shouldn't work together. When I come to people with that approach and I'm that transparent, that no-B.S., and I have that wiliness to not take your money, and I'm not trying to scam you or sell to you regardless of your benefit, people will come to trust me a lot quicker. They're going to say, “This guy actually has integrity.”    Character and integrity building is something I care a lot about. Because I approach my business and every person I speak with like that, I usually get very little resistance, because at that point, they're like, “Hey, I actually trust this guy.” That resistance is usually coming from fundamentally they don't trust the person they're talking to. That's not usually an experience I have, because I will willingly stop working with somebody when I'm like, “I think you should focus on a different investment, because I don't think you're getting the ROI from me for whatever circumstances. I think you should go to do this.” I do that even to my own detriment, because my fundamental goal is that I want lawyers to build better businesses. Sometimes that includes me and sometimes that doesn't. I'm willing to say that regardless.   Sharon: I can see how that can engender trust and less resistance. You're in area we've worked in, but not so much as a hands-on area. It's something that really needs to be straightened out. SEO has come a long way since the first websites and I could tell people, “Do it yourself.” That can't be done anymore. What's the difference between SEO, search engine optimization, Google My Business and Google Ads? Can you explain that all?   Ronnie: I find the easiest way to explain it is to envision an actual search. Any lawyer listening, do a search for “divorce lawyer New York City.” I chose New York City because it's going to have tons of searches and a lot of competition. If you do that search, what you'll see immediately at the top is Google Ads. You're going to see the new local service ads. I should say newer; it's been out for years now. That's where you see maybe an image of a lawyer and their reviews. Under that, you'll see text ads. Those are ads that literally just have text on them. Both of these, though, are a form of Google Ads. Google Ads, they're great. A lot of people have had mixed experiences, but the great thing about Google Ads is you can pay to play, and it works if it's done right, if you're doing it with a professional who knows how to fight Google.    Here's the thing: Google Ads is designed to spend your money, not make you money. Think about who's running it. Google wants to make money. They don't really care that much about you. They just want to make money. But when you work with a professional whose goal is to make you money, like me, my goal is to say, “Hey, Google, I don't want you to take my money. I want to make sure we're making money.” Anyway, Google Ads can be really profitable if you spend this much to get that much. So, that's Google Ads, and basically it's pay to play. You pay to advertise. You get clicks. Those clicks turn into calls. Those calls turn into cases. You run the numbers. You try to make it profitable. That's Google Ads you see at the very top.    Interestingly enough, as you mentioned, a lot has changed over the last 10, 15 years in the SEO/Google world. What's right below Google Ads now—and this didn't used to be true—is Google My Business, otherwise known as the Map Pack or the Three Pack. There are a lot of different names for it. That's the next thing, where you see names and reviews and a literal map. Back about 10, 15 years ago, you saw organic results first. You would see ads, of course, but then you would see organic results, your typical text search results, and then you would see a map under that. This was a major shift that happened roughly five years ago, where Google My Business was completely allotted to being above organic results.    Nowadays, what I talk to lawyers most about is that Google My Business shows up above all of your organic results. This is where I think you should put your effort into on the organic side. Google My Business is its own standalone profile. It has a lot of ranking factors that are a little bit different than SEO. It's going to have ranking factors based on reviews, how active you are on the profile. Are you making posts? Are you uploading photos? Have you added your services? Have you added your products? Are you doing Q&As? Are you responding to your reviews? There's a lot of grunt work, which we'll talk about later, that goes into Google My Business as a platform for ranking on there.    Quick caveat there: one of the big differences from traditional SEO—when people say, “I want to be ranked one”—is on Google My Business, you can get to rank one, two or three, but you're never going to own that spot 100% of the time. It doesn't happen. Google My Business is always switching them out. There's no owning rank one 100% of the time in your market, especially in a bigger market. So, the name of the game with Google My Business, because it's so dynamic, is not just to rank one. It's the percentage of time that you own rank one, otherwise known as your market share or your share of local voice, which are just different ways of saying how often you show up in the top three. So, just remember that, people. The big thing that's changed from SEO to focusing on Google My Business is instead of owning that rank one spot and owning it permanently for years, you're talking about a percentage of time, literally, in a given day. If a thousand searches are made in one day, you're trying to have maybe 20% of that, not 100% like you would in the old days, which is traditional SEO.   Beneath is, of course—if you search “divorce lawyer New York City,” we saw the ads; we saw Google My Business. Right beneath that is your traditional SEO. I personally don't promote a lot of traditional SEO anymore. The big reason for that is that nowadays there are all these aggregators: Super Lawyers, Lawyers.com, Justia, FindLaw. These guys are spending millions and millions of dollars a year to own these. I've found that even if you could rank here—and you can with sufficient effort, but the value you get out of it, plus the chances of your ranking are so low that it's not worth the ROI. I did the tracking once. The average website tracker converts 3%. You're going to put all this effort in, and you get 300 extra people on your website. That's like 10 calls. 300 people, that could be a big number for a lot of business owners, especially for the level of SEO they can commit to, but it's only 10 calls. Making that profitable is very hard.   Regardless, that's your three fundamental separations between Google Ads that show up at the top, pay to play. Google My Business, which is where I now recommend people put the majority of effort because it's at the top. More importantly, you're not competing with Findlaw, Super Lawyers, Avvo, any of those guys on Google My Business. You're just competing with the local people in your market. It's a much less competitive market while still having all the volume of everyone in your area searching for it. Below that are organic SEO results. That covers the three.    Sharon: Let's say I'm a family lawyer and I've never done any of this. I come to you and say, “I have money to put behind it. Can you get me to the top or near the top?” Is that possible today? Do I have to redo my website with content?   Ronnie: Yes, it's absolutely possible. Here's the thing. SEO and Google My Business, they still have a relationship together. Do you have to do everything as crazy and intense as you used to have to do with SEO? People used to think with SEO, “We have to redo the website, and we've got to make millions of pages of content. We've got to do that,” and it's this whole giant affair. You don't have to do that anymore. However, your website still does affect your Google My Business because it scans your website and uses that for context of what services you offer. If you say you're an estate planning lawyer, for example, Google wants to see that you have pages for probate, pages for estate planning, pages for wills, pages for trusts, because it's going to scan your website and use that as context.    But here's the thing. This is the big changing in mindset. It's not about those pages' rankings. Those pages are never going to rank. I don't give a crud if anyone ever Googles and finds that page. That's not the goal when you're focusing on Google My Business, at least. The goal is that Google scans them to help it understand what your business does, and then it's more likely to rank your Google My Business profile higher on that Map Pack rather than your actual page.    Here's the other reason I love Google My Business. Google My Business only shows up on the searches where people have literally raised their hands and said, “I need a lawyer right now.” It doesn't show up when they're saying, “Should I get a lawyer?” or “Can I avoid getting a lawyer?” or any of these other research terms. It literally only shows up when people say, “Hey, I want to hire a lawyer right now.” So, the leads you get from it, the people who call you, they're usually very close to making a decision. You're putting effort into showing up in front of people right when they need a lawyer, which is why it can have a high conversion rate and why it can be so profitable.   But yes, you can absolutely start ranking. A lot of my clients rank within as little as 90 days. That's possible. The reason it's possible is because if you put the sufficient grunt work into the profile—grunt work being the posts, photos, Q&As, getting reviews—reviews alone are like 35% of the factor. Put that grunt work in, and even a small boost in your ranking on Google My Business can easily turn into an extra 10, 15, 20 calls a month. 10, 15, 20 calls, maybe that's three, four or five consultations. If you close one of those with an average case value of $3,000 to $5,000, you're already starting to get profitable from what you're spending on somebody like me. The ROI to time factor with Google My Business is so much better and so much faster than whatever SEO that was in the past, where it's 12 months or 24 months to float an expense, and maybe $30, 40 grand a year for years. Google My Business doesn't have that factor. You can go a lot faster.   Sharon: You still have to do a lot of SEO behind the scenes. It shows up in a different way. Tell us more about the grunt work. Do you do the reviews? Are you doing the photography? Are you prodding your clients, saying it's time to write an article or whatever?   Ronnie: Yes, so we do as much of the grunt work as we humanly can. This what I talk about the whole time. We're not selling back magic. We're not selling a magic pill that solves all your problems. What we sell is grunt work. We know if we put this work in, it pays. So, we handle all the on-page SEO. We'll go through and optimize your website fully. For anybody who wants to hear these terms, some of these will be a little technical. We're not going too far into them, but metatitles, metadescriptions, local schema, image alt text, image compression, website speedup stuff. All your basics of having a website that makes sense to Google so they know your name, your address, your phone number, what you do, we'll handle all that.    Then on the setup side of Google My Business, there's actually quite a lot. One of the things people don't realize is that five or eight years ago, Google My Business was a set-and-forget thing. You put your name, your info, your category and never thought about it again. Maybe you get a review every now and then. Nowadays, they've turned it into a quasi-social platform. I want to be clear here: it's a terrible social platform. Never think of it as a social platform. But even if you're not going to get views or likes or whatever on it, doing that activity still makes Google happy, which means you're more likely to rank higher. It's about making Google happy, not about getting profile views or image likes. In terms of setup, you can put all that basic information in: your name, address, phone number, description.   Nowadays, they've recently—and I say recently as in the last couple of years—they've added functionality where you can add literally every service you offer. Let me give you an example. When I work with a criminal lawyer, they're not just a criminal lawyer. They do drug crimes; they do manslaughter; they do criminal deportation. They do all these different subcategories. Even below that, a drug crime lawyer is not just a drug crime lawyer. It's also Xanax crime, meth crime, marijuana crime. You can break this down. For our average client, we're adding 50 to 100 individual services, breaking down literally every single thing they do. We're adding 100 words of extra context into the back of the profile, putting every single thing they do. Again, that gives Google more context of who you are and what you do, and it makes it easier for you to rank. The cool thing is when you do rank, if somebody did want a marijuana crime lawyer near me, Google literally would say, “Provides service: marijuana crime lawyer.” You're more likely to get the call because not only did you rank higher, but you showed that you're a specialist in that industry.    You can also do products. Products are basically a visual version of that. You get to do the same thing, but you put photos and you can link to a certain page on the website. It has a little more of a visual component to it, but again, it's another way of telling Google who you are and what you do. We do all of that on the setup side.   Then you have the ongoing side. On the ongoing side, again, we do all this grunt work. We write a blog post every single month. Lesson learned; I now only work with J.D. holders to write blog posts for lawyers. I will never have somebody who has not gone to law school write a post for a lawyer. No lawyer likes that. I've never had a problem with a lawyer now that I only have people who went to law school writing it. I had lots of issues before, but we've done that for years now, no problems. So, we have an actual law student, somebody who went to law school, got their J.D., write the blog posts so the lawyer doesn't have to.    Then we go further than that. We have posts on Google My Business. We'll upload photos. If we have to, we have stock photos; even stock photos are better than no photos. We do send a little automated text asking lawyers, “Hey, send me a photo if you have it. If you have a real one, I'll take it.” I make it as easy as if you just respond to a text, I'll handle uploading the photo. So, we ask for those photos or we post our own.    We're going to be uploading our own questions and answers. People don't realize this, but you can actually ask yourself a question on Google My Business and answer it. You don't have to wait for somebody to ask you a question. That's a whole new functionality. A couple of years ago, Q&As didn't even exist. Now Q&As will do this. Say I have a family lawyer. I'll say, “Hey, what's the process of divorce?” and I'll ask myself that question. Then, J.D. holders will write a 300-word response and post that there. We're adding 10 of those a month; we're adding 3,000+ characters of words to the profile proving to Google that we're an expert and know what we're doing. Again, more and more grunt work, everything you can do.    Finally, on the review side, I can't do it for you fully. People have tried completely outsourcing but your conversion rate will be terrible. If I do it for you completely, I'll get one out of every 10 people to leave a review for you, which is a waste. What I have done—and I've gotten this up to a 40% conversion rate, so four out of 10 will leave of review of you. I set up a very simple flat automation for our clients, where all they have to do is give me a name, a phone number and an email, and we'll automatically send three to six follow-ups by SMS asking them to leave a review. It'll follow up over 10 days. It's that follow-up that makes a big difference, because the first time you ask, they're never going to leave a review. You've got to ask at least two or three more times, and they'll do it on the follow-up. That gets about a 40% conversion rate. Most of our clients are getting two to five, sometimes 10 new reviews a month.   When you combine all that together, what we end up seeing is often between 20% and 30% lift month over month. By lift, I mean an increase. If they're getting 30 calls now, next month I'd see maybe 40 calls. The next month I'd like to see 50, 60 calls. The next month I'd like to see 60, 70 calls, so that at the end of it, I have a lot of clients. Within six months, they've doubled their call volume. When you're doubling your call volume, that pretty easily turns into quite a bit more revenue.   Sharon: Wow! But you're saying, though, you still have to do all the stuff we used to do. It's the stuff we're talking about, just on your website. You'd come in and say, “Let me change the tags. Let me change this.” You still have to do that, even though people aren't coming to the website directly; they're coming to the ads or Google My Business. When you add, let's say, 15 more services, is that behind the scenes? Like if they search “criminal lawyer in New York City” and then they click on that and see, “Oh, this guy does all this criminal stuff,” is it behind the scenes?   Ronnie: It's completely behind the scenes. The customer will almost never see it unless it showed up on a very specific search. Here's the thing: it's in the profile of Google My Business itself. It's not a thing anybody can click through to. It's not a thing somebody can explore or open up. Products are a little different. Products you can click through and explore, but services are explicitly a backend thing, so Google My Business knows exactly what your services are. They sometimes use it where the customer can see it says “provides” and whatever the service is. That will sometimes show up, but you can't control it. It'll sometimes show up on the search, but there's no clicking through and seeing all those services. So, mostly we do it for Google's sake.   I love that you mentioned all that old SEO stuff as still being present. The way I think about it, Google My Business was built on the foundation of SEO. It's not that they're completely disconnected, but nowadays, SEO is a supporting tool to Google My Business. I don't usually recommend SEO as a standalone campaign anymore just because of the numbers and profit. I tracked 200 campaigns and here's what I found. I tracked every call, every form fill, every everything. I found that 60% to 80% of all calls a lawyer got over 200 campaigns could be directly attributed to Google My Business. They called straight from Google My Business. They didn't go to the website at all. They just called from Google My Business without ever going to the website.   Sharon: Does Google My Business give you a separate phone number if you're paying Google for ads? Do they give you a separate phone number to track this?   Ronnie: They do have some call tracking functionality. It's not a separate number. What they do is behind the scenes. They have what is called call history in Google My Business. I don't usually recommend it, and the reason I don't recommend doing that is because, first of all, it's bad data. It'll lead you to believe you're getting worse data than you are because it can only track the people who click it to call. It can't track the people who type it in manually. Google My Business is still going to show your actual number, but when you click it, they run it through a different phone number on the back end. So, it's only tracking 60% to 70% of your calls. It's not tracking the many, many people who Google on their desktop and then call from their phone, for example.    What I do instead is set up call tracking, where we replace your office number or we import your office number and turn it into a tracked line, depending on if you have a vanity number or really old number you love. Either way, we either completely replace your office number with a new tracked line, or we'll import your current one and make it into a tracked line, and then we put that on Google My Business. Then we have perfect data because it doesn't matter how you placed the call. Whether it's clicked on or manually called, I have that data. I know how that person called and I know where they came from.    Sharon: Is everything you're describing the same on the phone, desktop, mobile device?   Ronnie: It's all the same. They would see one phone number all the way through. It doesn't matter where they come from.    Sharon: What happens if you have a vanity number? Let's say I'm a client and I say, “Oh, I have to call John. I know his number is 1-800-LAWYER.” How do you separate those?   Ronnie: Yes, if you really care about running a vanity number, I understand. Like I said, we have the option to import that. We can import that number and turn it into a call tracking, which I think is best practice regardless. If you're going to have a fancy number, at least know how many people are calling you. I think that's the useful thing to do. So, we import that number and turn that into a call track number. Then that number stays the same. Nothing changes. It's the same number. When you switch from T-Mobile to Verizon, you get to keep your number. It's the same thing. We get to keep that number; we just turned it into a tracked one. It's the same number, but you get all the benefits and now you can track all your calls.    Sharon: When you're working lawyers, what are the top three mistakes you see, or the top three tips you have? What would you say?   Ronnie: I think as it relates to broad marketing, the biggest thing is not realizing what personally works for you as an individual. What I mean by that is the biggest thing I see lawyers do as a mistake—this is all business owners—is that it's so tempting to follow the advice of everyone else who says, “This is the best way to succeed,” and they'll do it regardless of whether or not it's good for them as an individual. I'll give you an example of somebody it's not good for. Say you've got a very shy person, a very shy lawyer who doesn't enjoy meeting in person. It makes them very nervous. It makes them very sickly and unhealthy and anxious. They're having a bad day. Every time they go to a networking event, they're miserable. But every lawyer they've ever met has told them the only way they're going to succeed is if they get good at networking, so they grind their way through and force themselves to go to all these networking events. The reason I think that's a terrible idea is because business is marathon; it's not a sprint. This is general business advice separate from marketing. Business is a marathon, not a sprint. If you go do things that make you miserable all the way through, you're not going to be able to sustain. You're going to want to quit. You're going to want to give up. You're going to burn out. You're going to shut down. You're going to give up. It doesn't work. So, the biggest mistake I see lawyers make is trying to do things the way everyone else tells them to, regardless of how it feels to them.    Networking for me is super easy. I'm very outgoing, very loud. I speak. I can own a room very easily. Great. What didn't work for me was trying to force myself to run a lot of Facebook ads. I'm a very direct marketing guy. Cold email is how I do things. Meeting people in person is how I do things. Podcasting and talking, that's how I do things. But everyone I met was telling me, “Do Facebook ads. Do Facebook ads.” That just freaked me out. If I spent $3,000 in Facebook ads, I was terrified all month, like, “Oh my god, I'm wasting money.” Then I'd be miserable the whole day, all day, every day. I never would have gotten this far if I kept doing what everyone else told me to do.    The same thing is true for most lawyers. Find the marketing path. Find the way to run your business that works for you as an individual, even if everyone else tells you it's not the best way. Again, success is going to come from surviving over the long run, over the marathon, so you can find what works and find the thing that keeps building up rather than the short-term thing everyone says should work. That's the biggest mistake with lawyers. Just find the path that works for you. If you don't like making content, you don't want to be on TikTok, you don't want to network, you don't want to whatever, that's fine. There's a way to do it; I promise. You've just got to find the way that works for you. That's my number one tip there.   The second one, as it relates to Google My Business specifically, is that it's not a set-and-forget profile. I'm going to say it again. It is not a set-and-forget profile. Five years ago, you were right; it kind of was. You would set it. It wasn't even the thing that showed up first. It was secondary. Now, it's the thing that shows up first. I've tracked 200 campaigns. The majority of your leads comes from Google My Business. Think about this: all roads lead to Google My Business. Here's why. You run that billboard campaign. They'll remember your billboard. They might remember your name, and what do they do? They Google your name. What's the first thing that shows up? If you do a Google search for the business and you have a Google My Business listing, the first thing they see on the entire right side of the screen is a massive thing with everything about you, your reviews, you information. That is Google My Business. It's literally massive. It takes up the entire right side of a Google search. It's huge.    So, if you run that billboard campaign, you run that Facebook ad, you do that radio campaign, even if you get a referral, the first thing people do nowadays is they Google you and read your reviews and look at your profile. I've seen lawyers lose referral leads because they were Googling them, and they were like, “Hey, you've only got one review. I don't trust you. Your Google My Business profile looks terrible.” All roads lead to Google My Business, so what I tell people is don't set it and forget it. Put more effort into it than anybody else, whether you pay somebody or do it yourself. This is not stuff you can't do yourself; it's just a lot of grunt work. Get in there. Make the posts, add the photos, get reviews. Do the work. All roads lead to Google My Business. Don't set and forget it. Make use of it. Find everything you can do. You'll get paid for it in the end. It's grunt work that pays. That's what I tell people: it's grunt work that pays.   Which brings me to my next thing, which is that when it comes to reviews, there's a big myth. I get so many complaints about reviews. “I can't get reviews. I'm a criminal lawyer. Somebody who just had a child sex case doesn't want to leave a review. Somebody who just went through a divorce doesn't want to talk about the divorce.” First of all, you don't actually know that. There are a lot of assumptions. I know if you were going through a divorce, you wouldn't want to leave a review, but you don't know that about other people. I have met a lot of criminals who are pretty thrilled to brag about the fact that they were a criminal who got off the hook. They're very thrilled to leave that review. They're proud of it. You've got no idea what people are willing to do. Don't assume you do. More important, the reality is that reviews are so profitable. Even the referral person is going to look at your reviews. So, you've got to get those reviews, and the number myth I see is that most lawyers think they can only get reviews from paying clients, people who have succeeded and paid you. That is not true. The only requirement for a review is that you gave somebody legitimate legal value.    Let's think about that. What does that mean? I'll give you an example that blows it out of the water every time. Estate planning lawyers, every quarter they're going to host a local seminar at the nursing home, for example, and 60 people are there. Maybe they get three, four, five clients out of that session. They're thrilled. They've just made so much money. However, here's what they do next. After that seminar—they've just spent two hours with these people—the ask all 60 attendees to leave a review right then and there. They get 15 to 20 extra reviews in one day for a seminar they were already going to do and they already got five clients out of. At free consultations, you just spent 30 minutes giving legitimate legal value to somebody, even if they don't become a client. I've got clients right now who get three, four, five reviews a month just from people they did a free consultation with. They didn't even become clients, but at least they got a review out of it for that free consultation. So, there are lots of creative ways that you can get reviews. You've just got to think, “Did I provide legal value of some sort?” Friends and family count here. If you gave legitimate legal value, if somebody asked for advice or a thought or suggestion or direction and you gave legal value of some form, that's cool; ask for that review. You're safe to do it. It's worth the payout.   My final thought for people, and I'll close off here, is that I know you've probably had a bad experience with Google ads when you tried running them yourself. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water. There are a lot of lawyers who are like, “I'll never do Google ads. It's never profitable. I tried it once and I lost a lot of money,” especially after Google launched Google Express Ads. I don't know if you remember those, but Google tried it for a while. Basically, Google wants to get rid of us agencies because we are really good at not getting people to spend as much money. We're really good at getting our clients to reduce the budget with Google ads. Google wants a direct path to the client where they can work with the lawyer and the lawyer pays Google. They don't want a middleman. However, the benefit of the middleman is that when you work with an appropriate middleman, you can get it to where we're constantly telling Google, “I don't want to pay for this. I don't want to pay for that. I don't want to pay for this.” What we're doing every day and every week is finding out what's worth paying for and what actually turns into money.    I'll give you an example. If I work with a criminal lawyer, what I've found out—and we've helped clients make more money this way—is that if we just pay for DUI searches, we'll get some cases that way, but a lot of people who are in a DUI, some of them don't have the money or they aren't very socially responsible people. They're not likely to have the money or to pay out. What I found was if we go after nursing DUI or contractor DUI, suddenly the game changed. Now we were going after people who lose the entire livelihoods and licenses. A nurse loses her license for a DUI. Suddenly, those people have more money because they're nurses, and they're way more incentivized to make it work because they don't want to lose their license. I have that context where I can pay money on Google Ads to find the leads that are most likely to make you money and actually convert. When you work with a professional on Google Ads, you can make your campaign a lot more profitable than anything you've ever done on your own. So, don't throw out Google Ads. You're literally getting to pay to put yourself in front of people who say, “I need a lawyer right now.” If you work with a professional, you can make a lot of money with it. Don't throw it out. Consider it.   Sharon: You work with Google a lot. It sounds like Google would love to go to a lawyer and say, “Just buy my ads.” It doesn't matter whether it's a nurse. This is just off the cuff. What's next for Google and you? Do you feel changes coming? It seems like every time one learns what's going on, it's changed. What do you feel is changing or coming?   Ronnie: Yes, one thing I love about Google is that while it seems like it's changing a lot—which it is. It's changed more in the last five years than it's changed in the last 15. At the same time, it's kind of the index fund of marketing. What I mean by that is if you think of it as a broad hull and you don't get distracted by Google itself in terms of user behavior, it's the most ingrained thing now. It's a social/cultural thing. When you don't know something, what do you do? You Google it. You look for it. You make a search for it. It's the most basic thing. We haven't quite gotten to that with social media like Facebook. You're not so ingrained with the idea of Facebook that you go on Facebook to look for an ad to find an answer to your problem. It's not the same; it's completely different. Google has the benefit of being this culturally ingrained thing. Even though its platform is changing a lot from a user behavior standpoint, nothing's really changing, unlike Facebook where a single iOS update completely shattered Facebook ads, and now you suddenly can't make money on it. That's wild. That's very unlikely to happen on Google because it's so ingrained in culture and how people work. It has the benefit of being high intent. People only go there when they intend to find an answer or when they intend to hire somebody, unlike Facebook. They don't intend to find an ad on Facebook; they just happen to.    I bring that up because when it comes to Google and why I love it and expound on it so much, it's the index fund of marketing. It's hyper-ingrained in culture. It's not going to change very much at all in terms of the cultural side. It might evolve, but it's going to be Google. It's going to be the idea of searching for a solution. That may evolve in its format. It might be like a VR headset, where an ad shows while you're searching for something on a VR headset. But fundamentally people are going to search for answers, and you can pay or put grunt effort in to show up in front of people when they search for the answer, whatever format they take. So, in some ways it's changing; in a lot of ways it's almost not at all. For me, I'll probably be on the Google search world, because why would I not put all my effort into putting myself in front of people when they're already looking for me? That's where I want to be. It's easier that way. Fundamentally that's not changing.    Now, when it comes to actual platforms—which, to me, are on a micro scale compared to the macro we just talked about—there is some micro-stuff changing. The thing that's going to keep changing is Google's going to keep trying to find ways to get rid of agencies. I'm going to have to keep fighting. We're going to fight that as long as we can. There's going to come a day where eventually Google succeeds with that, but the agencies will probably still have a role because business owners have better things to do than manage their budgets or campaigns. There may be a human component forever, but there will probably be a point where Google succeeds enough where their ads actually perform at reaching their goals for the client. That is probably still many, many years off, because right now the reason Google Ads can't do that is because they don't know your business.    For example, right now with local service ads, which is probably the most they've ever succeeded at making it where they can go directly to the lawyer, they will run a campaign for an immigration lawyer, but they don't know that business. So, if that immigration lawyer says, “Hey, I don't do deportations and I don't do asylums,” Google has no filtering for that. You can't turn that off, so you get all immigration leads. Right now at least, there's no customization to that individual business. That's the kind of filtering I can do as the human saying, “Hey, I only want these types of cases. I don't want any of these cases.” I can put that kind of thinking into it. Google may one day fix it up, but they haven't done it yet.   What they're trying now is an improved version of all this called Performance Max. It recently came out. Basically, it's the same idea as Google Express Ads, but with the lessons from local service ads. It's like version 3, but now it goes on all of their Ads platforms. They're trying merge into one giant ad platform where you pay one budget to advertise on Google ads, display ads, YouTube ads, Gmail ads, on all their platforms all at once. Of course, in theory that sounds great, but if you just give it to the bots, it's going to spend money. It has no context of who you want to target, what types of cases turn into money. Performance Max might have a role to play. I don't expect it's going to take over the agency role anytime soon. I probably need to keep fighting them for a long time to make sure we're only spending money when it makes money. But what we're going to keep is a trend where Google tries to find some new way where we don't need an agency. They're going to underestimate and still not understand what the individual business actually needs, so we're going to keep going back and forth until one day they figure it out. I don't know how long that's going to be, but it's probably at least five, 10 years.    Sharon: You've given us a lot to think about. It's not your father's Google, I should say.   Ronnie: Yeah, it's changed a lot.   Sharon: I want to thank you so much. It's been very, very interesting. We greatly appreciate you being here.   Ronnie: Absolutely. I had a great time. Thanks for having me.  

043. As a small business owner, you're likely already well aware of the importance of posting to and utilizing Facebook, Instagram, and various other social media platforms.    However, I have a question for you. Are you utilizing your Google Business Profile (formerly called “Google My Business”)?    If you're like most small business owners, you probably created your account for the sake of having the online directory listing, but you haven't updated your Profile since signing up and have yet to share a single post. And, friend, I want to encourage you to change this so that you can improve your search engine rankings.     Your Google Business Profile needs to be part of your SEO and marketing strategy, and in this week's episode of Priority Pursuit, we're breaking down exactly why you should be updating and posting to your Google Business Profile regularly, as well as what you should be sharing on your Google Business Profile.  What is a Google Business Profile?   First of all, what is a Google Business Profile? Google Business Profile is essentially an online storefront where you can display and share updates, photos, videos, your hours, your policies, and more about your business.    When people search for products or services you offer or for your business specifically, Google then uses Google Business Profile to provide Google users with a snapshot of your business. If they'd like to learn more, Google users can then visit your website or even contact you for a quote through your Google Business Profile (if you have this setting turned on).  Why is it important to update & post to your Google Business Profile?   Your Google My Business profile will put your information in front of potential customers faster.  Google is the leading search engine & will likely always prioritize its own features & tools.  Google Business posts are searchable. Having an active Google Business Profile can drastically improve your local SEO.  Few business owners are taking advantage of Google Business Profiles, which will give you a chance to stand out.   What should you share on your Google Business Profile?   Make sure all information displayed on your Google Business Profile is accurate & up to date. Post to your Google Business Profile regularly. Ask for Google Reviews, which are part of your Google Business Profile.   You can find a more detailed version of this episode's show notes at: http://victoriarayburnphotography.com/why-you-should-be-updating-posting-your-google-buisness-profile. Mentioned Links & Resources The New Adventure Workshop - https://newadventureproductions.com/workshop  Google Business Profile - https://www.google.com/business/  “Episode 004: Five Ways to Improve Your SEO for Free” - https://victoriarayburnphotography.com/five-ways-improve-your-seo-free/  “Episode 009: How to Identify & Use Strategic Keywords to Improve Your SEO” Save 50% on Your First Six Months of Quickbooks Self-Employed: http://victoriarayburnphotography.com/quickbooks/  Receive $20 Off Your First Pair of Rothy's: http://victoriarayburnphotography.com/rothys Join the Priority Pursuit Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/179106264013426 Follow or DM Victoria on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/victorialrayburn/

What You Need to Know About Google My Business & Your Website Episode #342 with Kristi Simone You've finally built your website, and it's ready for patients to use. But just because you've built it doesn't mean it's done! Managing your website is a constant editing process. And to help you be up to date and searchable, Kirk Behrendt brings in Kristi Simone, CMO at Whiteboard Marketing, to teach you the best practices of website building and utilizing Google My Business. If you want to create a website that will increase your conversion rates, listen to Episode 342 of The Best Practices Show! Main Takeaways: Fill out your Google knowledge profile. Be active on your Google My Business page. It will help you show up in search results. Build your website for how Google is going to search for it. Your website should also be built for patients. Keep it clean and simple. Home pages are the most important to get right. It's where patients spend the most time. Have your calls to action at the top of your website. 45% of website users click off in 10 seconds or less. Make information easy to find. Don't have videos streaming in the background. It increases the loading time. Patients want clickable buttons, such as Google Maps, calling, and online scheduling. Online scheduling and chat can increase your conversion rates! Use Google Posts as a free advertising opportunity. Don't build your own website. Let the experts build it for you. It's recommended to redesign your website every three years. Quotes: “We recommend that dentists redesign their [website] every three years, or at least making sure that just because you've built your site, you're not ever finished with it. You should always be working to update content, add new pages, add a blog, do different things to keep your website current all the time.” (04:28—04:46) “[Google owns] pretty much every aspect of internet search. You also have other players in the industry like Bing, Yahoo. But Google really owns 90% of that search purpose. So, when we build websites, we are really building it for how Google is going to search for it and different things that make your website show up for Google when a patient may be searching for a dentist in your specific area, or a dental implant in your specific area.” (05:18—05:48) “You also have to build a website for your patients to be able to use. There's a lot of data out there that shows that 45% of actual users jump off of a site within 10 to 15 seconds. So, one of the other reasons that we really focus on building websites for is to get a patient to do whatever you want them to do, know whatever you want them to know, within 10 seconds or less.” (05:53—06:20) “You're building [your website] for Google, you're building for conversion rate optimization, and then you're also building it for speed. We want those websites to load really quickly. The ideal is three seconds or less.” (06:21—06:35) “One of the first things that we ask [dentists] to do when we're talking about Google My Business is pick up their phone or their laptop and search their own name on Google and see what pops up. What they should get on the right-hand side is called the Google knowledge profile. And that is what Google is really using to pull up your practice information when a patient is searching for a dentist in that area.” (07:05—07:29) “Google considers dentists as a local business. So, they're local to Columbus, Ohio, or Chicago. It's really local to that. Where you think of Nike, for example, that's not a local business. That's a national, international brand. So, it's really important that that knowledge profile that you just pulled up and looked at is filled out with all kinds of great information. And that's how local search works, and that's how Google My Business works. To tie it together, your website is the heartbeat of that knowledge panel information. Your Google My Business profile actually allows you to add your website URL....

Your Google My Business profile has a plethora of customizing options and ways to show off your business' services. Are you taking advantage of all these FREE features? Probably not. Listen to the audio version of our blog to learn how to manage your Google My Business account properly. . . Written: Google My Business…Yes, Please!

We're losing valuable Google real estate.     Google's organic search results are continuing to be pushed further down the page - after Google Ads, the Map Pack, and “People Also Ask”.  Considering that most traffic comes from mobile, by the time people scroll through to the organic results they’ve probably forgotten what they were searching for.   Moral of the story? ⬆️Continue to make high quality content to boost your "value" and "relevancy" ⬆️Your Google My Business profile needs to be active, current, and optimized ⬆️Run Google Ads   If you’d like me to take a look at your online presence go to: www.ContentIntoPatients.com to schedule a one-on-one Strategy Session.  

When was the last time you updated your Google My Business page? It only takes a few minutes, but it could have a critical impact on the success of your business.Your Google My Business page is a free business listing on Google. And no surprise: The better you flesh out your listing, the better you'll rank on Google's various search platforms. Here, digital-marketing expert Mateo Lopez will tell you exactly how your GMB page affects where you rank on Google searches and in Google maps—as well as how to optimize your listing to get more leads.Links:Google My BusinessBeyond the WhiteboardTwo-Brain CoachingGym Lead MachineTimeline:3:19 – What is Google My Business?7:35 – The Google knowledge panel.9:30 – Keyword searches and how GMB determines where you rank.14:13 – How your business name in GMB affects your rankings.22:15 – Choosing your business category.27:27 – The importance of accuracy.31:29 – The power of pictures.35:35 – Increase your reach with GMB posts.37:21 – Posting reviews on GMB.40:11 – The one thing you should never do on your GMB page.

Nearly all of my new clients find me through local google searches using their mobile phones. All of them comment on how my business was one of the first options to show in their search, my positive reviews, and my professional well laid out website as being their reason for choosing me.In this episode, I discuss ways you can optimize your "Google My Business" listing. Your "Google My Business" listing is likely the first thing your customers will see when finding you through a local search. If you don’t have a listing - please create one today and utilize all of it’s features! It is especially important to choose the right primary and secondary categories for your business so that you can rank higher when clients search for your exact services. Use the online tool www.pleper.com to see how you rank with specific key words. I hope you enjoy this value packed episode and make updated your GMB listing a habit.For more tips on how to grow your lash business, subscribe to my weekly newsletter here: https://view.flodesk.com/pages/5e821b88ee06f00026d7683c.Visit http://www.leveluplash.com for products that will elevate your lash artistry. Follow me on Instagram at: http://www.instagram.com/leveluplashpro.

Today we're going to get into Part 2 of my best 15 Quick Tips for an awesome 2020. If you missed Part 1 you'll want to download and listen to that show, as well, for a more comprehensive overview of my Quick Tips 1 through 8. Finally, be sure to share this show with another contractor so that they can have an awesome 2020, too! Show Highlights: Dave recaps his first 8 Quick Tips that he shared in Part 1: Quick Tip #1 - Get a plan. Figure out where you want to be at the end of 2020. Use Dave's 1-Page Business Plan available as a FREE download on his website to help you get started on the process of planning. Quick Tip #2 - Keep things simple, but be consistent. Checklists are helpful. Quick Tip #3 - What do you do? And who do you do it for? Don't try to do everything. Look at where you're making your money and focus on that. “The riches are in the niches.” Quick Tip #4 - Focus on profitability and increasing your margin. You don't have to be the biggest guy in town, but you do want to be the most profitable. Quick Tip #5 - Know your numbers. Measure your results, because what gets measured, gets improved. Quick Tip #6 - Education and training. Always be learning. Always be training your people, teaching them new skills. Learn how to sell, and train your sales team. Quick Tip #7 - Protect your time. Don't forget your systems and processes, which can help you streamline your time. Quick Tip #8 - Learn to be a good delegator. This frees you up to do what's really important, which is planning your business and running it like you should. Make sure to train your people and assign responsibility. Then, follow up and provide regular feedback. Quick Tip #9 - Get a coach or a mentor. They can help you put together your business plan and help you figure out the direction of where you're going. You can then share this plan with everyone in your company so they can better understand where you're going and how you plan to get there. JUMPSTART YOUR BUSINESS!! I WILL WORK WITH THE FIRST 10 CONTRACTORS ONE-ON-ONE FOR THE SPECIAL RATE OF $195!! Contact Dave HERE to get started! Quick Tip #10 - Our employees: take care of them! Always be recruiting, always be training, always retain. Be profitable so you can pay them well. Treat them with respect and show your appreciation. It costs a lot of money to replace employees, and that's money out of YOUR pocket. I share a LOT of excellent ideas on ways that you can take care of your people! Quick Tip #11 - Tune up your website. Make sure it's up to date and optimized. This is the hub of your marketing system! Keep it clean and organized. Your website attracts visitors, which you want to convert into appointments, which you want to convert into sales. If they're looking at your website, then they are looking at other contractors' websites, too. They are researching and looking for answers and solutions. Blog posts help to give them these answers. I provide you with some great examples of content that you DO and DO NOT want on your website! Quick Tip #12 - Have a good marketing plan. Did you miss my interview with Anna Anderson and “How To Set Up A Marketing Plan For Your Roofing Business”? There's a link to Episode 134 below to listen! Be clear on your goal, and have an understanding of who you're marketing to. You need to know where last year's leads came from and figure out what is working and what is not. This will help you come up with a marketing budget. Quick Tip #13 - Increase your price. Most contractors do not charge enough for their work. They either don't understand the cost or they don't understand the value they provide. Learn professional sales skills and learn how to differentiate your company from the competition that is worth a higher price. Quick Tip #14 - Have an operating budget. Keep it simple. Whatever you're going to spend on your overhead, you have to control it. Make sure it matches your accounting system. Quick Tip #15 - Your “Google My Business” page, reviews, and referrals. It all matters! Make sure your google page is professionally done with quality photos. Reviews are critical and the new “word of mouth”. Be sure to ask for reviews! Have a process and make it simple for them with links. Be referable by doing great work, and ask for referrals. Be consistent with following up. Business is built on referrals. Radius marketing and how to do it. BONUS TIP #16: Take a step back and figure out what it is that you're doing, not only with your business but with your life. It's all about balance! Take some time away from the office on a weekly basis and review your family, finances, business, health, and education to see how best you can find the balance that you're needing. Links: For Tips, Strategies, and Free Downloads! Download My FREE 1-Page Business Plan! The Roofer Show Text Dave @ (510) 612-1450 - Say Hi! I would love to hear your feedback, pros & cons! Please leave me a review on iTunes! Did You Miss Part 1 Of My 15 Best Quick Tips For An Awesome 2020? Click Here To Listen! —> 15 Best Quick Tips - Part 1 Episode # 134 with Anna Anderson “How To Set Up A Marketing Plan For Your Roofing Business with Anna Anderson” JUMPSTART YOUR BUSINESS!! DAVE WILL WORK WITH THE FIRST 10 CONTRACTORS ONE-ON-ONE FOR THE SPECIAL RATE OF $195!! Contact Dave HERE to get started! THE ROOFER SHOW SPONSOR INFO: Need Help Answering the Phone Or Online Chat? Use Ruby Receptionists!! Find Out How They Can Help Bring In Leads!! Click here and use the code Roofer50 for a special discount! Call Ruby Or Call Ruby at (844) 326-7829 Check out the app!! —->Dave's Listeners Get a 21-Day Money Back Guarantee

Jason and Alan are once again joined by Dr. Rob Ritter! Rob had just stepped off the main stage at the Spear Summit and sat down to talk about integrity marketing and really good suits. Some highlights include: How can dentists harness social media in an authentic way? How should your team be involved with social media marketing? Authenticity is about showing what kind of human you are, not what kind of veneers you do How has social media changed dentistry? Why should you log where your phone calls/new patients are coming from Why does he love Dental Intel and other dashboards? How important are websites in 2019? Your Google My Business page and how to use it Why you shouldn't wait on new technology Is CBCT standard of care for endo? Some links from the show: The Voices of Dentistry is approaching! We have an amazing speaker line up and the best party in all of dentistry! Go check it out and register at www.voicesofdentistry.com! VoD 2019 Highlight video The Dental Hacks Nation closed Facebook group has 28,000 members! Head over there to interact with other Dental Hacks listeners, guests and Brain Trust members every day, all day! Remember…if you don’t have anything “dental” on your FB page, we might decline your membership request. So IM the group or email us at info@dentalhacks.com! Not all "paperless" is the same. A lot of people think a PDF is paperless. Did your patient print out that pdf? Did someone scan it into your system? If someone is printing, scanning, even retyping or copying and pasting then it’s not truly paperless. YAPI was the first and the best at paperless.  Why don’t you go check the menu at dentalhacks.com/YAPI. It’s a funny name but serious software! To effectively do chairside CAD/CAM, you've got to be organized. You want to have the right inventory of blocks, but you don't want to overstock. Most importantly, you need to be able to find exactly what you're looking for when you're looking for it! Zirc understands the needs of the chairside CAD/CAM community! If you're doing CEREC or other chairside milling, you should control block chaos with their CAD/CAM Block Locker! They're offering a 20% discount for the Dental Hacks Nation using coupon code CADCAM20 at dentalhacks.com/blocklocker. It's the best way to organize your CAD/CAM blocks! Cosmecore is a dual cured core material from Cosmedent. We use it all the time. It cuts just like a tooth with no gouging! and now it's 20% off until the end of October using the coupon code "CORE" at check out at dentalhacks.com/cosmecore. Go get yourself some! Go Hack Yourself Alan: Berman Instruments wingless, black coated rubber dam clamps If you have any questions or comments for us please drop us an email at info@dentalhacks.com or find us (and like us!) at www.facebook.com/dentalhacks. Or, if you prefer…give us a call at (866) 223-5257 and leave us a message. You might be played in the show! If you like us, why not leave us a review on iTunes? It helps us get found by like minded people and might even help us get into “What’s Hot” in the iTunes store! Go to this link and let the world know about the Dental Hacks! Finally, if you aren’t an Apple person, consider reviewing us on Stitcher at: stitcher.com/podcast/the-dentalhacks-podcast! If you would like to support the podcast you can check out our Patreon page! Although the show will always remain free to download, our Patreon supporters get access to special bonus content including (at least) one extra podcast episode every months! Also be sure to check out the Dental Hacks swag store where you can find t-shirts, stickers coffee mugs and all sorts of other things that let the world know you’re a part of the Hacks Nation.  

You can find Greg on Twitter or on Linkedin, here is his agency. Greg is the dude that knows about local SEO and if you have questions about it, you should talk to him.  One of the best sources for local SEO knowledge, as mentioned by Greg is 2018 Local Search Ranking Factors. The Dude's Guide to The Secret of Local Search Success in 2019 and Beyond from Greg Gifford Here is the transcript of the podcast: Greg: Google uses multiple algorithms so SEO is not equal across the board.[music]Peter: This is Time for Marketing. The marketing podcast that will tell you everything you've missed when you didn't attend the marketing conference.[music]Peter: Hello and welcome to the Time for Marketing podcast. The podcast that tells you everything that you have missed when you didn't go to your best and favorite marketing conference. My name is Peter and I'll be your host for today. This is episode number 26 that is airing on the 7th of October 2019. Before I introduce you to our today's guest, I have something to ask you.Could you take the time and open your slack, your Trello, whatever communication channel you have for your agency or for your company. The place where you send all of the interesting links that you read and could you just paste the link to this podcast and say, "I've learned something here." That'll be great. People should know about this podcast.Now, today, with us the big, the great, Greg Gifford. Greg, hello and welcome to the podcast.Greg: Hey, happy to be here. Thanks for having me.Peter: How are you doing up there in the hot state of Texas?Greg: Still hot, unfortunately. We're hoping that now that we're getting down into the 80s, maybe we'll start to get colder but you never know in Texas. It could be up in the hundreds again next week but we're good.Peter: All right. When you look outside your window, do you see cactuses? That's how I figure-- Greg: And tumbleweeds and we all ride horses to work. [laughs] Texas is massive. That's one of the funny things when talking to people from Europe about how big Texas is. We've got mountains, we've got deserts. Other than the fact that when I was in Sylvania it was a nicer part of the year and so everything was green but very similar looked with things. Texas is fairly flat compared to most of Europe. At least most of Texas is but the crazy thing is just the scale. I could get my car right now and drive 80 to 85 miles an hour and go west and it would take me 14 hours to get out of Texas.Peter: It's a completely different scale because if I would do that I'll be changing five different countries probably.Greg: Yes, it's pretty crazy.Peter: Greg, you are the vice president of Search at the Wikimotive Agency. Tell us a bit about your agency and more what do you do as the vice president of Search?Greg: I came on earlier this year with this agency. It's a small boutique agency and I came on because for the last, Jeez, years and years and years, I've been doing SEO exclusively for car dealers for probably 12 years and the place that I worked last time was approved by all of the car manufacturers. Not that that was a bad thing, but we had a very set SEO package that we had to offer which was great.We still got results and did well but I wanted to branch out and expand my reach and do some other things so I came to Wikimotive. They do have a lot of automotive clients but they've got clients outside of automotive and we're making some big pushes into some other verticals. I'm able to stretch my wings here and do some fun things outside of automotives.Peter: All right. What does that mean that the agency was approved by car manufacturers?Greg: It's a weird thing in the US that if you were a car dealer you-- Let's use Ford or BMW as an example. You have a set number of website providers that you're allowed to use that are manufacturer-approved. BMW will say, "You can use one of these four companies to do your website, you can use one of these four or five companies to do your PPC and you can use one of these four or five companies to do your SEO."For most of the manufacturers, you can choose to use a different company if you want but if you use the company that is approved by the manufacturer then the manufacturer will pay for it. There's a lot of benefit. The manufacturer will send all this co-op money out to dealers to use for various marketing things that they do. It works well for the dealerships because then they don't have to spend money on it. That's what the whole vendor-approved thing is. We were on the approved list for all of the major automotive [unintelligible 00:05:04].Peter: You are doing weekly video on your website, tell us a bit about that.Greg: We do a weekly video series called Tactical Tuesdays With Wiki where every Tuesday we do a short video. Most of the time there are three to five-minute videos on some digital marketing tactic. Every once in a while, though we will share a longer video. I just spoke at the Advanced Search Summit in Washington, D.C. a few weeks ago and so this week's video basically I did a re-recording of my presentation and did it with the slide. Now, we've shared that entire presentation but most the time it's short, quick, easy to digest tips about current things going on in Search or specific tips that will help you show up better.Peter: All right. If you've done a lot of SEO for automotive companies, that means local SEO was always a big part of what you do. Is that still a thing?Greg: Yes, very much so. That's what I'm known for. I speak at conferences all over the world about local SEO and teaching people here's what to do to show up better in local searches.Peter: This is also the presentation that I wanted to talk to you about. You spoke at the Advanced Search Summit in Washington, D.C. a couple of weeks ago. What the title of the presentation it's pretty long. The Dude's Guides to The Secret of Local Search Success in 2019 and Beyond. We will attach the presentation to the podcast show notes. I've checked the presentation, you like movies don't you?Greg: I do. I'm a movie man. I was actually a movie major in college so I wanted to go to Hollywood and make movies but clearly that didn't end up happening. I ended up getting into computers instead but I have a full sleeve on my right arm of movie portrait tattoos from various movies and then I'm almost finished getting a sleeve on my right leg of all stuff from the Goonies. I really, really love movies and every time I do presentations I always have a movie theme.Peter: Because as you say in one of the first slides bullet points are killing you, right?Greg: Yes, because I think this year I'll end up speaking at 27 or 28 conferences by the end of the year and I see a lot of presenters. A lot of times you see presenters at conferences that may have really great information but they're just incredibly boring to watch. The background of their slides is just white background and black text and they just have a whole bunch of bullet points on their slides and they're just standing there on the stage and read their bullet points. It's just not a very entertaining presentation to watch.Not that they have to be entertaining but it's just painful to sit there and watch somebody read their slides. I believe that bullet points kill kittens and I don't ever use bullet points in my presentations.Peter: All right. We had enough of chitchat. Greg, here are your five minutes to sum up your marketing conference presentation.Greg: One of the important things that people need to realize that I always like to talk about is that Google uses multiple algorithms. SEO is not equal across the board. It's important to understand with the business that you work with or the website that you're working with which algorithm is going to apply. If it's a business that has a physical location where customers come to that place of business to do business with the business or if it's a business that serves people in a particular area like a plumber or an electrician, then that website needs to be using the local SEO tactic so that you're including all of the additional things that matter to that local algorithm.There's overlap between Google's traditional algorithm and the local algorithm so doing traditional SEO will still give you some benefit but if you've got that physical location or you're serving in a particular area then local is what's going to provide the best results to what you're doing. It's really important to pay attention to various experts in local so that you can stay up to date especially in the UK and Europe where you guys are just starting to catch on and really have people talk at conferences about local SEO where I've been talking about conferences about local SEO for like 10 years in the States.It's just because I think people are really just now starting to understand, "My gosh, this can make a massive difference." You want to follow the right people on Twitter, you want to test your own stuff to make sure that you're doing things that actually work. There's a study that's conducted by a company called White Spark and then published on the Moz Blog. They're called The Local Search Ranking Factors.That's important to pay attention to because it gives a playbook of, "These are the signals that matter the most for showing up in these local searches." You can see from year to year, what's changed, what's become more important, what's become less important and really the things that matter the most are links and content and then your Google my business listing.Sure, links are important in regular SEO but the important thing with local SEO is you want to get local links. You want links from other businesses and other web sites that are in your particular geographic area because those are the links that Google's local algorithm is going to provide more weight to. The good thing about these local links, it doesn't matter if they're no-follow links, it doesn't matter if they don't have a lot of authority if you're using Moz, you're looking at the main authority or Majestic with Trust Flow.It doesn't matter what those authority metrics are because they're still going to count and provide value. Then definitely check through the slides that are going to be attached to the podcast here because there's a lot of different ideas that I run through of things that you can use to get these local links. With local content, it's really important that it's conversational content. Everything that's on your website should sound like something that you would say face to face to a customer that just walked through your front door.It's really helpful to read everything out loud because then you'll catch things that don't really sound conversational. Then with local SEO, you've probably heard about citations, that's basically directory listings where it's name, address, phone number listed on other websites. That used to be much more important so you can discount all the stuff that you'll read that says you have to get hundreds and hundreds of citations.Really, the only ones that matter now are the ones that potential customers might see so you want to do a google search for the name of your business and run through the first three pages of Google search results. Those are the only citation sites that you need to worry about. Then the final thing that I always want to make sure to push the point across is that Google My Business is absolutely important now. Your Google My Business listing is basically your new homepage so if someone's wanting to get your phone number they don't have to go to your website anymore.If someone wants to get your address they don't have to go to your website. If someone wants to see pictures or read reviews, they can get all of that right there in Google My Business. It's really important that you optimize your listing. Obviously, make sure you've claimed it, have the right categories chosen. The category that you choose and put in the primary slot actually carries a little bit more ranking value so you want to make sure you're strategic in which one you're putting there.Make sure you've got a local phone number listed and then make sure you're using the new features that have been released. We've got Google posts which is basically--we call it just free advertising. It's an image and some text that show up as a thumbnail in your profile that people can then click and it blows up bigger and they can see more text and a bigger image, that really helps you stand out from competitors. Lots of businesses aren't using them yet, it's a way to drive pre-site conversions.Then the most important thing is the new feature called Questions and Answers that shows up in the Google My Business profile. It's a community discussion feature where anyone in the community can ask a question and anyone in the community can answer the question for the business which is pretty scary because you don't really want other people answering questions that customers are intending for your business. It's important to monitor that and make sure that you're keeping an eye on when new questions pop in so that you can go and answer them.Then each question can get multiple answers, so the answer that shows as the primary answer to the question is the one that has the most upvotes. You've got to make sure that you're not just answering questions but making sure that your answers have the most upvotes so that you can control that first impression. I know I went through that really quickly, that was a whole lot to try to squeeze into just a few minutes but definitely check out the slides, there's tons and tons of really helpful information in there.Peter: This feels like we got another social network that we need to take care of, is that true?Greg: I wouldn't really call it a social network but a lot of people already pay attention to Google My Business because of the customer reviews. They know, "Hey, this is where people are going to leave us reviews, we need to go pay attention to the reviews, we need to ask for reviews, we need to answer those reviews." Now, it's almost like a new review section. Technically, you're not supposed to put reviews there but a lot of people do.Something else that we see really often is people think it's a messaging system and that it goes directly to the business because the general public doesn't realize that it's just a community discussion feature. We'll see questions all the time where people will say, "Hey, what's your phone number? I've got something I want to buy from you. I need to call you or I need your service, what's your phone number?"If you're not paying attention to that then you miss that sales opportunity or that service opportunity and even though the button that you have to click to ask that question is right next to the phone number in the Google My Business profile, it doesn't matter, people expect that it's messaging and you're paying attention. They're not going to take that extra step to go to your website and see your phone number because they think that if they put that in that's a message that pops up at the business somewhere.We see that a ton. We've now seen too that Google is starting to autosuggest answers. If you go into a Question and Answer section and say that you want to ask a question and you start typing in a question, if it's similar to another question that's been asked in the past then Google will auto-suggest the answer to that question so you don't even actually have to submit the question anymore. It's really important to go in and preload your questions. You could actually ask questions as the business. You want to go in and ask those questions. We call it setting up a pre-site FAQ page.Peter: Google My Business used to have a lot of spam and people using black hat tactics. Is 3 still this way? Do we still have to be careful what all the competition is going to do to us or is Google [inaudible 00:16:07] helping with that?Greg: Very much so. It's awful and you guys are lucky over there and your app it's nowhere near as bad as what it is here in the States, it is just spamtastic. There are just all kinds of people faking listings and creating lead-gen opportunities with fake businesses to try to sell leads to businesses and it's just awful. There is a form that you can go report fake listings on but they pop up just as quickly as you cancel them.I would expect that over in Europe, it's just going to continue to get worse and as everyone over there that's in the kind of shady or gray areas of business and they're trying to figure out ways to work, they're going start watching what we're doing here in the States and seeing how easy it is to fake stuff. I have friends that have local SEO agencies and most of what they do is just fight spam instead of-- You don't have to necessarily spend as much time optimizing your client site if you can get them to rank better by taking down all the cheaters that are spamming things.Peter: You said in your presentation that the local listings are not really as important, on the other hand, I've just saw weeks ago that SEMrush, the SEO tool, added the listings tool into their tool. Is it still going to be important? Should people use such tools or you think not?Greg: I think it's really going to become less and less important as far as the ranking algorithm goes. We won't have to worry so much about nap consistency in the future. I think what it really becomes and we're kind of moving in that direction already, it really just becomes what customers might see. You don't want to just concentrate on Google and say, "Hey, I'm on Google and it's correct." Let's say you have a business and that business moves and so you are now at a new address but you don't update any of your listing sites, then you may have all of these other listing sites that have your old address.Even though that might not matter for the ranking algorithm, it matters for your customer experience because someone may do a Google search and not pay attention to Google My Business and they may pull you up on another device. I was actually talking to a friend of mine the other day that had a guy coming to install something in his house and the guy said that it wasn't showing up on MapQuest and he said, "Just use Google because it's on Google." The guy said, "I don't even have Google on my phone."There are people out there that don't rely on Google and they may use MapQuest or they may use Yelp or they may use Apple maps or something else. It is important to pay attention to the citational location listing sites that are publicly visible which is why I said earlier, go through the top two or three pages of Google search results. Those ones that show up to the general public are probably always going to be important from a customer-facing standpoint even though they may not matter for the ranking algorithm.Peter: All right. All in all, if you are in Europe, there's Google My Business that you should start using and if you are in the US, start using it more and stop the spam that is out there.Greg: Definitely.Peter: Something or somewhere like that. All right Greg, thank you very much for your presentation, your summation of the presentation. What are your future plans for the conferences? Where can people see you and if not on the conferences, where can people find you?Greg: I am heading to PubCon in Las Vegas next week and the week after that I will be in London doing SearchLove London and then the first week of November I'm speaking at a conference called State of Search in Dallas. Later that week, I'm heading to Los Angeles to speak at UnGagged. The week after that I will be at SMX East in New York City.Those five or six conferences are the last of my conference schedule for the year. Also, if you're out in Europe and not able to pop over here, pop over to London to see me there. I have a Fundamentals of SEO training video on SEMrush on their academy section. If you go to the SEMrush Academy pages, there is an entire training course that's about, I think, three and a half, four hours long on SEO basics.If you're just getting started, or if you want a refresher on the basics, it's that SEO fundamentals course. Just last week, we released a new course that I did for them on keyword research. It's about an hour long. Over the next few months, I've got three other new courses coming out. The keyword research one just came out then we'll be doing one on link building, one on mobile SEO, and one on local SEO.Peter: A lot of you everywhere. Well, you're an important guy, so you should be there. Thank you very much for being on the podcast and sharing your local search knowledge. I'll see you around. Have a great day.[music].

In this episode, I talk about how a personal injury law firm gained a HUGE personal injury client from their 5 star review rating AND from their presence in Google local search results.The review rating for your business can have a multiplying effect on the brand of your business, especially if your business is ranking in the top 3 search results in Google Maps or Google local search results.Your Google My Business listing is the web property that appears in Google local search, but whatever your review rating is, it's going to amplify your brand and ultimately drive the decision of the consumer (patient, client, customer, etc...) to connect with your business.Listen this episode, and then join our SEO Secrets Facebook group to join in the conversation!.https://www.facebook.com/groups/seosecretsgroup/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This lively visit with real estate agent, Kristina Smallhorn applies to all businesses who need and receive reviews. The video version linked in the bottom will have some how to tips, too.  Business reviews are not just for B2C and brick and mortar. ALL businesses need reviews in the right places where their potential clients go when considering them as as solution. This, along with what their colleagues and friends recommend play the biggest role in decision making before they even contact you. My guest is Your Real Estate Whisperer, none-other than Kristin Smallhorn, a successful real estate agent in Louisiana. Her engaging YouTube channel is how I knew she was a great guest for this topic. But videos are what you EDIT and produce. Reviews - we do not control what people post. We can hope, we can ask for them when we have a successful transaction, but ultimately, we cannot control what others say about us - this gives reviews more credibility. Why do you think some businesses don't pursue reviews?Well, you may be surprised.Businesses don’t want to end up in one of these situations: receiving zero business reviewsreceiving zero recent online business reviewsreceiving negative online business reviewsor, the business simply has a chaotic presence of online reviews across multiple business review websites OK, listeners, put on your big kid pants. Reputation provides interaction.AND business reviews provide valuable feedback for businesses.Business reviews and social posts help shape a company's online reputation.AND, if you don't like what's being said, well, it may be time to do it better. Your problems are bigger than what people are posting. That's just the result of the issue. Ask yourselves these questions:How your are reviews?Are you are sure you know where they all are?What about when you get a bad review? How do you respond and how quickly?Were you able to turn any around to either remove them or update them to something positive? Have you converted any bad reviews into clients or advocates? PIE IN THE SKY hopes! We cover a couple of stories in this episode you may be able to relate to or find entertaining.   What you do to get reviews and testimonials from clients?How do those play into your conversion rate?How do you share reviews with your target farm, audience without constantly blaring the "LOOK AT ME! I'm GREAT!" horn. Time for your do to list, listeners.Where to look for your existing reviews?You can do a quick look on the three major venues in order of weight:Yelp!Look on your Facebook business page.Your Google My Business page - the right hand box.You can also do a search on Yext! without signing up - you'll get links to all of your current profiles and can see what others see. Now, if you are niche - you need to also receive and review your listings on those sites: For Real estate professionals: Zillow, Realtor.comFor attorneys: Avvo, Lawyers.comFor Medical professionals: Healthgrades, RealSelf, ZocDocFor restaurants: Zomato, TripAdvisorFor service providers (contractors, roofers, cleaners, etc.): AngiesList, HomeAdvisor, NextDoor if it's popular in your area. Of course you want to get reviews concentrated on the most important online review sites. That's why we recommend you focus on no more than five review sites total. Listen to this replay and catch the video on Susan Finch's site here >

Reasons Your GMB List Can Get Suspended and How You Can Get Your Listing Unsuspended   You definitely do not want to get your Google My Business page suspended, since your GMB listing is such a crucial part of ranking high in Google for many popular local search terms.  However, if your GMB got suspended, there is hope!  In our first "Beer Friday" episode we'll discuss GMB suspensions, the reasons for getting suspended, and how you can get reinstated using the Google local businesses reinstatement requests.  We'll also drink a beer. Cheers!   What You’ll Learn First Beer Friday episode - where we drink beer and talk SEO Beer is from Bald Man Brewing in Eagan, MN Reasons why your Google My Business listing can get suspended How to get your GMB listing reinstated if it gets suspended One of the more common reasons for getting your GMB suspended is because you check the box that says you have a storefront and serve customers at your location, when you do not have actually have a store front If your business category is one that Google considers risky, such as locksmiths or criminal lawyers If you deal with regulated goods, such as firearms, pharmaceuticals, or other controlled items Your Google My Business listing can be suspended for having multiple listings for the same business A good way to double check and see if you have duplicate Google My Business listings is to do a Google search on your address in Google Maps If you find a duplicate listing, and it's not currently claimed by you, you can claim it and then mark it as a duplicate or as closed Your can get a GMB suspended if you have incorrect information on your listing If you try and use keywords in your GMB business name, you run a high risk of getting your listing suspended If you make too many changes to the primary business info fields, such as your name, address, or phone number, you can get suspended Having a fake web address or a redirected website address listed on your GMB can get your GMB suspended If you have multiple business locations, you can get suspended for overlapping your service areas on multiple GMB listings If you do get your GMB listing suspended, it is possible to get your GMB reinstated by following the reinstatement process from Google It usually takes 24-72 hours for Google to respond to your reinstatement request If you don't get reinstated, you can try it again You can also send a Tweet to Google for questions or problems with your GMB Your individual GMB listing can get suspended, or even worse, your entire GMB account (and all listings) can get suspended View the show notes, resource links, episode transcript, and watch the video version at https://www.localseotactics.com/episode32

Roy Barker speaks with Ken Tucker about reputation management and local search engine optimization SEO. Ken is the founder of Changescape Web and specializes in search engine optimization, website design, reputation management, social media marketing, lead generation, and marketing automation.  Ken is a StoryBrand Certified Guide, a Master Duct Tape Marketing Certified Consultant, an Inbound Marketing Certified Professional (since 2010), and an SEO for Growth Consultant (stlouis.seoforgrowth.com). Ken is the author of Social Media Marketing for Restaurants and co-author of Reputation Management (Marketing Guides for Small Businesses). Ken created and taught one of the first college credit Social Media Marketing classes in the US at St. Charles Community College. He has taught a course on Content Management Systems. He serves as Co-Chair of the St. Charles County Chambers of Commerce Technology Committee. www.changescapeweb.com stlouis.seoforgrowth.com coloradosprings.seoforgrowth.com https://changescapeweb.com/online-reputation-management/ Also, visit Ken’s Amazon page: https://www.amazon.com/Ken-Tucker/e/B06XT3FDG5/ Ken's recommended reading is Building a Story Brand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.com/Building-StoryBrand-Clarify-Message-Customers/dp/0718033329/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1523237552&sr=8-1&keywords=the+story+brand Below is a complete transcript.    Roy Barker:         Hello, everyone. This is Roy Barker with episode three of the Senior Living Sales and Marketing Podcast. Today, we are fortunate enough to have Ken Tucker, the Founder of Changescape Web, which specializes in search engine optimization, website design, reputation management, social media marketing, lead generation and marketing automation. Ken is a story brand [00:00:30] certified guide, a master duct tape marketing certified consultant, and an inbound marketing certified professional and an SEO for growth consultant. Ken is the author of Social Media Marketing for Restaurants and co-author of Reputation Management. Ken created and taught one of the first college credit social media marketing classes in the U.S. at St. Charles Community College. He has taught a course on [00:01:00] Content Management Systems and serves as a co-chair of the St. Charles County Chamber of Commerce Technology Committee.                               Ken, welcome to the show. Ken Tucker:        Thanks, Roy. I'm glad to be here. Roy Barker:         Appreciate you taking time out of your day. There's so many great subjects that you're an expert in I would love to talk about. I think we're probably gonna have to end up having you come back again to address some of these, 'cause the two that have been on my mind this last [00:01:30] week, that I really think that you can speak to, are going to be the reputation management portion and the local search engine optimization. Of course, as you know, in the senior living industry, reputation is everything because we take care of people's loved ones, and so somebody getting a bad review or bad word of mouth going around can be very detrimental to the stream of prospects coming in. Then [00:02:00] also, some of our markets are getting more and more crowded and they're getting more and more noisy. So, making sure that we can tune in on the local search engine optimization is gonna be key to growing occupancies for our industry going forward. So having said all that- Ken Tucker:        Yeah, absolutely. Roy Barker:         Having said all that, let's start out with the reputation management piece. We talked a little before the show, and I guess [00:02:30] I see this as becoming more critical that, back in the olden days of the internet when reviews were created and all these different services out there like Yelp, that had reviews, it seemed that my opinion was to help the next consumer, whether I liked it or not, maybe talk about the good points, the bad points. But if I went out and had a one off bad experience at a place, I probably wouldn't take the time [00:03:00] to come home and write them a really bad review. But I feel like as we've progressed, that reviews have become a lot more punitive, and maybe I was having a bad day, maybe the company that I was at, whether it's a service or a product, maybe they were having a bad day. We just didn't gel, and so now I rush home to write a bad review. Or even worse, I've heard cases of businesses [00:03:30] that have actually been held hostage by customers saying, "If I don't get more than what we bargained for, then I'm gonna leave you a bad review." And some businesses are so dependent upon these that they end up having to give in and meet their needs to get a good review, or at least not get a bad review.                               So, kind of what are you seeing out there and what is your take on that? Ken Tucker:        Well, yeah, I mean everything you mentioned is certainly [00:04:00] as possibility. And it's a real shame, you know, that people are being very punitive about things. Look, everybody's gonna have a bad experience from time to time. You know, and everybody's gonna deliver less than stellar service from time to time, it's the reality of things. I think that, you know, one of the important things that we see is, first of all you've got to be monitoring the reviews that are coming in about your business. If there are no reviews about your business, [00:04:30] that's a strong indicator as well because you're allowing somebody to fill in the void with what they think their perception is. And the reality is, if there are no reviews and your competitors have strong reviews, they're gonna assume that nobody cares enough about your business to write a review about your business. So, we strongly recommend businesses take control over their own reputation management, and doing that through what we call building [00:05:00] a review funnel.                               So a review funnel is certainly gonna give you monitoring capability to see what people are saying, but it's gonna give you a place to drive people to, to write a review and also have the ability, that you know, if somebody comes in and like you said yesterday, they could have been one of your greatest champions and today they had a bad day or a bad experience or something happened with the care that, you know, is maybe more complex [00:05:30] that you need to have a conversation with them but they immediately ... Look, it's emotional, right? So they feel like they need to go out and do something. Roy Barker:         Right. Ken Tucker:        So, when they go to this review page, if they give you three, or the way we set it up frequently is on a five-star rating system, if they give you three stars or less, they actually are gonna get a popup window that comes up and it's actually a request for feedback to say, "We're sorry you didn't have a great experience, what [00:06:00] can we do to help?" And that's gonna be an email that's gonna be sent to the business so that they can address that concern. They're not gonna be taken to a review property, such as Yelp or your Google My Business page or Facebook.                               If they give you a four or five star rating, then it's going to take them to those review sites that you've deemed are important for your business, for people to go write reviews and they can be healthcare specific or they could be general directories. [00:06:30] And then people can go through ... But you already have a pretty good idea, I kinda refer to it as a review gate, where somebody is gonna click on, you know, that based on the number of stars they're gonna give you, they're gonna be taken to a popup that then has, okay here's my Google link, here's my Facebook link, here's my Yelp link, here's my Healthgrader's link or whatever's appropriate, and then they can go from there. That way [00:07:00] you're kind of intercepting those experiences where people need to vent before they're actually gonna go out there and write a review.                               Now, there's absolutely nothing you can do if people go directly to your Google My Business page or your Yelp page and they go write that review. In that case, but if you do take control over the process and you drive people to this review page, you're gonna have a little bit more [00:07:30] control. Roy Barker:         Okay. Ken Tucker:        So, that's one thing. Roy Barker:         Okay. Ken Tucker:        I guess the other thing is, you know, when somebody does go out there and write a less than stellar review about your business, we always recommend that you respond to those reviews, but be really careful about that. Actually, when you look at ... You know, what Google is wanting to see right now, is it wants to see response to every single [00:08:00] review that's out there, whether it's positive or negative. If it's negative, what we recommend a business do is they go out and they say, again, "We're sorry you didn't have a great situation, your feedback is important to us, let's talk about this." And then take it offline and give them either a customer service phone number or a customer service email address, and then take the rest of that conversation offline. Roy Barker:         Okay. Ken Tucker:        When you do [00:08:30] that, you might have the ability to talk things through, you're not gonna be in this nasty back and forth situation where everybody's gonna see everything going back and forth online. Some of that may happen, right? But take it offline. And then some of those customers might be willing to go back in, if you explain the situation, if you address their concerns, and maybe they're gonna change their three-star rating into a five-star rating. And maybe they're even gonna say, "I was really frustrated at first, but these guys worked [00:09:00] with me, they helped me understand the situation. They took care of my needs and my family's needs and all's good." Roy Barker:         Right. Ken Tucker:        So you can turn a less than stellar situation into actually a positive customer experience. Roy Barker:         Yeah, 'cause I think that's- Ken Tucker:        And customer service opportunity. Roy Barker:         I think a lot of times that, I think you hit on a point, a lot of times they just want to be heard, and if I have a bad experience and while I'm at the store or restaurant, if I try to address the [00:09:30] manager and I don't feel like that they were paying attention or that they really cared what I was saying, then you know, I think that's when people go home frustrated and really all they wanna be is heard. If they could be heard and addressed, then that goes, to me, that goes a very long way in solving the issue. Ken Tucker:        Yeah, yeah. Roy Barker:         But as far as on a company website, you have a lot of control over seeing reviews that people write and [00:10:00] that message and being able to address them easy. I guess the tricky part to this is there are so many other places that people can go say something derogatory about you or your business, is there a compilation where you can find all of these at once? Do you just google your business name and hope that it comes up? Or are there like a registry of review sites that you can look at to know where to go [00:10:30] exactly look for this? Ken Tucker:        Yeah, there are a couple of things. So first of all, if you just let reviews happen, they are going to skew toward the negative. It's just human nature, when we have a bad experience, we feel like we've gotta go on a mission and protect other people, right? So, and it seems like it motivates us more. Study after study after study shows that if you just let your consumers or your customers [00:11:00] write reviews as they are having their experiences, they're gonna skew to the negative. So that's another reason why we really recommend the business take control over their reviews and go out and ask happy, satisfied customers to go write reviews. They'll write a review for you but you need to ask them and you need to develop a process and a system to make it super easy for that to happen. Roy Barker:         Right. Ken Tucker:        So that's certainly one component. There are some management tools that are out there that will allow you to monitor [00:11:30] what people are saying about your business online. For one, I would recommend setting up a Twitter monitoring system using a tool like HootSuite for @ mentions or conversations about, either by brand name or by your business name or even important caretaker's names. You could do that in a tool like HootSuite very effectively, [00:12:00] and monitor Twitter conversations. Roy Barker:         Okay. Ken Tucker:        But in terms of specific reviews, there are review monitoring systems that are out there as well, and some of those are gonna monitor all review systems that you want to sign up for. In other cases, and this is kind of where reputation kind of merges into a little bit more local SEO flavor. [00:12:30] There are all these directories that your business gets listed on and some of these directories also allow people to write a review.                               As an example, Citysearch is a directory that your business may be listed on, even though you never actually go out there and create it, Citysearch is gonna build a listing of all of the local businesses that it can find through whatever algorithm it's pulling from, whether it's pulling from the Secretary of State office, which in Missouri where I'm based, [00:13:00] that's where businesses are listed when we create our companies and we establish our businesses, the Missouri Secretary of State's office lists us there. City Search might pull from there, it might pull from Google or Bing search results, it might pull from other directory systems that are out there. So, it's gonna have a record of your business and if somebody does a Google search and they find your name, they might find the Citysearch listing and that's where they may go write that review. [00:13:30] So, if you have a directory management system in place, then it is going to notify you every time somebody goes and writes a review on any of these general directories that are out there like a Citysearch. Roy Barker:         Okay. Ken Tucker:        Now, if you're in the healthcare specific industry, there are healthcare add ons that you can buy that will monitor the reviews that people are doing on the healthcare specific directories. Also, there are just [00:14:00] review monitoring tools specifically that will look for those as well. Roy Barker:         Okay. Yeah, and it kinda goes back to the old adage, and this has been many years ago, but the saying used to be that a happy customer told one of their friends, where a dissatisfied customer told eight of their friends. Ken Tucker:        Yeah. Roy Barker:         I don't know if that still holds true with those numbers, but it's typically right. It's harder to get ... Happy customers feel like that they were supposed to be happy and [00:14:30] so that's really, unless they have an over the top experience, they don't really reach out and try to put that message out there. Where if you have a bad experience, it seems like nowadays, everybody wants to let everybody know that. Ken Tucker:        That's correct. But if you ask people, who you know are happy customers, and you make it really easy for them, you give them a review link and say, "Here, go to this place and write a review for me." You tell them what the process is gonna be like, they [00:15:00] are more than happy, most of the time to go and do that. Now, there are certain industries where people are gonna be less willing to do so, and you know, I mean, if you're a Certified Financial Planner, obviously, by regulation, you can't even ask people to go do that. Roy Barker:         Oh, okay. Ken Tucker:        But most businesses can, and they really need to because online reviews right now, in combination with the quality and consistency of the way the business is listed on [00:15:30] these online directories, is the number one factor for a local search. Roy Barker:         Okay. Ken Tucker:        Especially online reviews though. And so, when you look at online reviews, there are a couple of different things that are really important to keep in mind. One is, the overall, really probably three things. Number one is, what is your composite rating? That's certainly gonna be a factor. So if you had 10 reviews, what is your overall [00:16:00] composite rating score? Could be 3.8 out of a five-star rating. Or it could be a five out of a five-star rating or whatever. So that composite review score's important. The total number of reviews on particular review sites is important. So if you have five reviews and your competitor has 25 reviews on a particular review site, that's maybe gonna tip the scale for your competitor instead of yourself. Then [00:16:30] the third thing is what we refer to as review velocity. This is where you're getting a constant stream of people writing reviews about your business. It may be great. Maybe two years ago you went out and you got 15 reviews on Yelp or your Google My Business page. Those are typically the two sites that are going to show in local search results most prominently. But you haven't done anything since. Google [00:17:00] is gonna see there's a point of diminishing returns if you're not continually getting that stream of reviews. So that's another reason why it's really important to develop a system of going out there and asking consistently for high quality reviews. Roy Barker:         Okay. Ken Tucker:        You want to keep those reviews coming in. When you do that, especially ... You know, the number one review site in my mind, bar none, for a local business, where if you're delivering care in a local market, is to create a Google My Business. So if you haven't done that [00:17:30] already, go to google.com/business and create that and claim your Google My Business page. That is absolutely paramount. Then, once that page has been created and you claimed and you're managing that page, then you want to start to drive people to go write reviews to your Google My Business page. Now, this is the page that's gonna show up on the Google Map result. So if somebody were to type in Senior Care, Chesterfield, Missouri. You're gonna get a Google Map [00:18:00] result nine times out of 10 when you type in that geographic location in combination of a product or solution or a service that you're looking for. Being able to show up on that Google Map result, they're typically showing three results of businesses. That is the most important real estate that any local business can probably be listed on. So online reviews on [00:18:30] your Google My Business page are the most important thing to be able to make that happen. Roy Barker:         Okay, great. You were talking about when we were proactive and we can send our customer or our prospect a link. Then once we get it and we can see that it's a four or five, then we have the ability to, I guess push that out to the Yelps and the Google My Business to help be a little preemptive, is that correct? Ken Tucker:        [00:19:00] Well, it doesn't work quite that way. What happens is you can send people to a page, either on your website or a third party page, there are pros and cons for both. But you can send them to that page, a review page, and they fill out the number of stars. You can actually set that page to have a stream of reviews that have been written and you can set the threshold to say I only want to stream four or five-star reviews back on to this page, and then people can click [00:19:30] on the star rating and if it's three stars or less, they're gonna be asked to provide feedback that's gonna be emailed to somebody in the business so that they can respond to that. If it's four or five stars, they're gonna be presented with which review sites you want them to go write the review for. Roy Barker:         Oh, okay, okay. Ken Tucker:        There's no system, and honestly, Google and Yelp and all of these different review sites, they want users to be logged in. So, [00:20:00] if your customers don't have Yelp accounts typically, I wouldn't drive them to Yelp, and I wouldn't drive them to Yelp anyway because Yelp wants people to do it in a very organic way. Yelp is the one directory system where you just kind of have to let reviews happen. You better be monitoring your Yelp reviews for sure. But you really can't take control over the Yelp process because Yelp actually will penalize you for doing that. Roy Barker:         Okay. Ken Tucker:        [00:20:30] But most of the other directory systems that I'm aware of, in fact all of them, you have the ability to control and drive people to go write reviews. And Google is absolutely king, so that's where I would send people first. But they're gonna have to log in with a Google account to be able to write a review, and that's for authenticity purpose. Google wants to see there's a real person that is actually out there writing a review. Now, an individual can have 30 [00:21:00] Google email addresses and there's nothing you can do to prevent that and they may create a bonus email address just to go write a review. There's nothing you can do to stop that or control that. But if somebody is abusing the system, there are ways to try to get Google to adjudicate the process and clean things up. Roy Barker:         Okay. Ken Tucker:        It's a painful, tire, it takes a lot of time and it's a big hassle, but sometimes you can do that. Google [00:21:30] will do it if the review came from an employee. Roy Barker:         Oh, okay. Ken Tucker:        You know, where an employee was disgruntled and they went out there and wrote something negative about your business, you can go to Google and they will help you address that. Roy Barker:         Okay. Yeah, I've read a lot more press recently about people beginning to fight, not the companies, but the Googles and the Yelps trying to put policies in place to help alleviate [00:22:00] fake reviews or get them off quickly before they damage somebody's business. Ken Tucker:        Yeah, yeah. I mean, there are stories out there, and actually I work with a web property where people reported a listing that I work with and manage, saying it wasn't a real business and so Google took the page down. So you have to go back [00:22:30] and you have to prove, yeah, you're a real business entity doing business at that physical location. You might have to provide a picture of a name on a sign that shows you're operating out of that business and send that to Google before they'll establish your Google My Business page again and let you manage it and have it verified by Google. And we've also, I've got some marketing colleagues of mine that I know have had people [00:23:00] where their competitors go in and write really nasty reviews about a business and they're not real customers. Roy Barker:         Oh, wow. Ken Tucker:        And so, but you know, those things, while it's unfortunate and it's a drag on your overall composite rating, you know, I think if you go through the process and you respond to those reviews and ask to take it offline, most people, they're smart enough to when they read a review, [00:23:30] they're gonna have a pretty good idea of whether it's a bogus review or not. Roy Barker:         Right. Ken Tucker:        If they see that the business actively cares and they're trying to go out there and reach out there and address frustrated customers, that's gonna speak volumes. Honestly, when you look at the younger people, they don't trust a business that only has five star reviews often times. Because they just don't see that as authentic. So, [00:24:00] it's not the worst thing in the world to have a three-star review. But I think you can say a lot to the world if you go out there and address an experience that somebody had when they gave you a three-star review and say we want to try to make things better for you. Roy Barker:         Right. Yeah, I think that just goes with there's always gonna be problems in life, it's the way that you handle them is what shows the real character of the person or the business. So that makes a lot of sense. Ken Tucker:        Yeah, absolutely. Roy Barker:         So [00:24:30] now, as we've talked about this reputation management, it seems like it is tied a lot more closely to local search optimization than what I had thought. So, in the senior living business, some of these markets are getting very crowded, a lot of competitors. The one thing that I talk a lot about is that this isn't [00:25:00] like the old days where somebody just sees a sign in the front yard and they walk in and they don't know anything about the business. Probably 80 to 90% of either perspective residents or their adult children or loved ones will go out and research the different communities so when they walk in, they not only know a lot about you, but they also know a lot about your competitors. So how can a [00:25:30] local brick and mortar business stand out in the local search area? Ken Tucker:        Yeah, online reviews really are the first most important step that I think a business needs to take. You know, one of the things that's happening is, this is not answering your question directly, but I'll come back around to it. Google has this project called Google Lens and it's basically gonna give you the ability [00:26:00] to point your phone at a business and if it can find that business and recognize that business online, it will present the reviews and it will show you the reviews right there just by you holding your camera and pointing it at the business. So, online reviews are really, really important.                               Now having said that, my experience is that most franchises and most national players, they really hamstring their local service providers [00:26:30] because they do not allow them to create an effective local presence. And by local presence, you should have your own website, it should be optimized for the services and the locations that you do business with and that you support in those communities and those different suburban areas and things like that. Most of these large providers that operate on the franchise model, they don't let [00:27:00] their local business create a local presence.                               Building a website, optimizing that website for local search phrases, so don't just operate for generic phrase like senior healthcare or assisted living or things like that. Optimize it around the local phrases plus the geography that you're serving. Then, build an online presence [00:27:30] that includes getting in these local directory listing services, like I mentioned Citysearch, local.com. There are literally hundreds of these different sites, most of which you'll never hear of or even have a chance to come across. But what they do is they send signals, especially when you're, and this is a really important point, it's called name, address, phone number. When your name, address and phone number are exactly [00:28:00] the same, and I mean exactly the same, on multiple of these different directory sites that are out there, those all send signals to Google and Bing and the other search engines, this is the correct, up-to-date, accurate information about your business. So if you have multiple phone numbers, you need to pick one that's your primary phone number, it needs to be on your website, it needs to be in these directory systems, it better be on your Google My Business page exactly the same [00:28:30] way. If you've moved recently and you used to work down the street or across town, but your physical address has changed, you're probably gonna have problems with some of these directories in the way you're listed.                               So, going in and cleaning up the way your business is listed is a really important thing because even an abbreviation of how you might spell street or suite, like if you're in an office suite. If you abbreviate it on one [00:29:00] site and you spell it out on the other site, that's enough to create some confusion and all of that confusion and all of that bad and inconsistent data hurts your rankings in search. So, when you go in and you clean all this up, you're sending a signal to Google and Bing, but Google's really the king, that you're paying attention to the way your business is listed online, you're updating it and you're making sure that it's accurate.                               [00:29:30] Those things right there are huge. Your Google My Business page and these other directories, building a strong online reputation and then having a website that you can actually truly optimize for local search. A lot of these franchise providers and big corporate providers that have maybe a presence in a local market, what they do is they'll give their franchisee a single page, and they don't give them very much editorial control over what they can really do [00:30:00] from a search engine optimization. So I'm very confident that most of your independent and smaller players in any market have a great opportunity to out perform these big national companies if they take control of their own local search. Roy Barker:         Okay. So what about name changes. Every now and then we may have, this is the ABC Assisted Living Community and then they go through an ownership [00:30:30] or management change and then they become the XYZ Company. So, when we talk about all these components for the local search optimization, how difficult is that to make that transition to get the new company name and face associated with the address and kind of get up to speed on that? Because I have had that happen before where a business has changed hands and I'm out looking [00:31:00] for Joe's Hamburger Shack and now it's Manny's Hamburger Shack, but on Google it's still with the old listing. Ken Tucker:        Yeah, so there are a couple different ways that you can handle that. I'm a really big fan of using a management tool that will allow you to manage and control and update everything from a single console, a single website, including locking down the name, address, phone number records [00:31:30] and actually scanning and removing duplicate listings that might be confusing to the consumer. So you can go that route. It's obviously a more expensive route, but it gives you the ability to actively manage and control and update content and push it out to multiple sites all at once from a single site. So it could be a real effective powerhouse for you locally.                               But you can also go through [00:32:00] a manual review process and find ... There are tools out there, as matter of fact, there's a tool in the footer of my website that you can run a free business listing scan and they'll go out there and scan 70 different websites and show you how your business is listed there or whether your business is even listed there. So you can go through that and once you identify those sites, you can literally go in and manually claim them and update them. It's a labor intensive, time consuming process but you can do it that way. If your only capital that [00:32:30] you have to spend is somebody's time, then that may be the reality of what you have to do. But if you can afford to spend a little bit of money using a tool and having a system in place to take care of that, that's a great way to go.                               The last way that you could do this is through doing what I would call some kind of a citation blast strategy where you could go use a tool like Brightlocal or moz.com, and they give you the ability to create a record of your business with the accurate information [00:33:00] and then it will do a one time push out there to these different directory listings. The downside of that is if you have changed your name or you've changed your physical street address, there's a chance that that data will be overwritten by the algorithms over a period of time because you're not gonna be able to find and remove all of the bad data. But there are pros and cons and we try to help everybody [00:33:30] understand if they can get away with a cheaper solution versus if they've had a situation where they really need to have a full time regular managed directory system in place. Roy Barker:         Okay, great. That sounds like great advice. Well, Ken, we're gonna wrap it up for today. I do appreciate your time very much. Like I said, there's so many topics that I think we could cover, I would like to invite you back for a future show- Ken Tucker:        Okay, I'd love that. Roy Barker:         To cover a few more of [00:34:00] these, like the marketing strategy, lead generation, things like that. But before we go, do you have any SEO or marketing related books that you would like to recommend that you've read lately? Ken Tucker:        Yeah, you know, I'm a big fan of Duct Tape Marketing, which is, it's a book that was written several years ago but it's great for a business to help understand what they need to do to put a local, I'm [00:34:30] sorry, a small business marketing strategy in place. The most recent book that I've read that just has a wow factor to me, so much so that I went and got certified to be able to consult using their methodology, is a book called StoryBrand. It's basically about, it's using storytelling, but it turns storytelling on its head a little bit from the traditional way that marketers tend to talk about it. Most marketers talk about [00:35:00] story, in terms of the brand being the hero. StoryBrand focuses on the customer being the hero and the brand is the guide that has a plan that helps them achieve the outcome that they want to desire. So Story is really powerful because it's the way humans have communicated for thousands and thousands of years. So when you can do that, you can really clarify your marketing messages when you [00:35:30] look at if from a storytelling perspective. I would encourage everybody to take a look at that book. It's really easy to read, it's a fast read, and it's really powerful. Roy Barker:         Okay, great. Thanks. I will reach out and pick that one up myself. So, if somebody wanted to reach out and get a hold of you, what are some of the best methods to contact you and learn more about you and your services? Ken Tucker:        Yeah, so we actually have three different websites. We have [00:36:00] stlouisseoforgrowth.com. That's stlouis.seoforgrowth.com. We have coloradosprings.seoforgrowth.com and we have changescapeweb.com. Changescapeweb is our main company website. From there you can find our contact information. You can find us on most social media using the handle @changescape. I've written a couple of books. One on Reputation Management and one on Social Media Marketing for Restaurants, [00:36:30] which has a lot of information that I think is highly relevant really for any brick and mortar type of business. You can find those on Amazon if you just do a search for me as an author, you'll find those two books there.                               Then, the last thing I would say is if anybody wants to learn more about reputation management, I've got an online webinar that people can watch [00:37:00] at their convenience. I also mentioned this free business listing scan tool. If you go to my website, changescapeweb.com and you go down to the footer, there's gonna be a column that you'll see in the footer called free stuff and there are links there that you can sign up to watch the online Reputation Management webinar or run that business listing scan to see if your business has any bad data out there. But you need to get cleaned up. Roy Barker:         Okay, great. Thanks for all the great information and [00:37:30] I'll be sure and include all of that in the show notes as well. Ken Tucker:        Okay, awesome. Thank you. Roy Barker:         Yeah. Ken, again, thank you so much for your time and all the great information. Look forward to speaking with you again in the near future. Ken Tucker:        Absolutely. Thanks so much for your time, Roy. I really enjoyed it. Roy Barker:         You bet. Ken Tucker:        All right, take care. Roy Barker:         All right, yeah. Until next time, well have a good afternoon, thanks.