 I am Trisha Clements with Your Biz Watchdog and we are working, can you guys hear me? Beth says she can't. Louder would be better or maybe, okay, now can you hear me? Okay, thank you, shoo, alright, so again, I am Trisha Clements with Your Biz Watchdog and we're going to be doing Google Local Workshop, I'm going to talk a lot about your Google Business Profile and local SEO. Here's my contact information here. I'll have it at the end as well. And again, WordCamp Birmingham, y'all, I'm so excited, this is the first big WordCamp that I have been in presenting at in like forever, what is it, like four years, I miss my peeps. So I'm so excited to be here and really thrilled and so happy for the whole team that has been here and made this possible. Alright, so, first thing is, Google Business Profile, so it's basically, it's local SEO, it's a big, huge part of your local SEO plan. So formally, GMB or Google My Business because Google, yeah, they like to confuse us. So they've renamed something, as always, just about everything Google you can look at and you can say, oh, well, what was it named five years ago and then people will know what you're talking about. So let me then show you what we're looking at. This is, I pulled up one here, a savvy digital design website designer in Smyrna, Georgia. And this is the mobile view for her Google Business Profile. So this is what we're talking about. So I would welcome all of you all to pull out your phones, put your business name in and see what your Google Business Profile looks like. Okay, pull that in. And let's see, you've got your images, your, the call, save, share, all of that in there. So put your business in and see if it comes up, if it comes up, hopefully it comes up. Okay, any questions? Everybody got their business? No? You got it? You good? Okay. Oh, you're putting it in to find it on your phone for the desktop. So if you put your business name in, let me go back a slide. You should get your mobile, your Google Business Profile, okay. Now you've got the desktop view, yes, Aisha has a question. We'll go get to that, yeah. So her question was about having more businesses and having additional business profiles for them. We're going to get to that for sure. This is the desktop view, of course. Everything looks different, mobile versus desktop, so you need to look and see what your profile looks like when it's in desktop or when it is in mobile. So you'll see this is a lot different from the mobile because you've got this on the right. This is called the knowledge panel on the right where it's got this basically her business, Google Business Profile. On the left, you've got a website, Facebook, and then if you keep scrolling you have lots of other information. So if you have a laptop out, I would ask that you probably look up your business and see what you can find. If you don't have your laptop with you, make sure you make a note to go home and look at that and see what is found. The one thing that you also want to look for is scroll down on the left here and see. You should have your business's website, you've got Facebook, other places. Where else is your place being mentioned online? And what comes up if someone does that search for your business name, what are they seeing on there? That brings us to the different types of searches that we're going to search for for your business. You've got the branded search, which is what we just did, just the business name. That's your branded search. You've got the explicit search, let's say we're going to look for website design, Smyrna, Georgia, or you could use near me. And you've got implicit search, which is this website designer. And those are, the main, the first thing you need to do is make sure that you're showing up when you search for your branded, do a branded search. You put your business name in, you need to make sure you find your business. Yes? Question? So that, all of this knowledge panel is pulling from your Google Business profile. So if this is very limited on the right, that means your Google Business profile needs a lot of optimization. And we're going to get to some of the things in there shortly. But if you're not seeing much on the right, all of this here that we've got is pulling from your Google Business profile, formerly known as Google My Business. So that's the main thing. I've worked with businesses where they will pull in, well, let's see here, story times. I have lots of story times. So this is my first story time. So I had a business come to me and they were doing a branded search. And when they did the branded search, what came up in the right was their old location in a different country. So not only had they moved, they had moved into a different country. So they're trying to get people here to search and find them and do business with them. But when somebody does a branded search on their business, they're finding the business in a completely different location. That's a bad user experience. And people are going to probably look at that and be like, what on earth? The issue was, is what they did was they tried to move locations, but they didn't quite get it right. So when they moved it, they simply opened another one. And because their new location was newer, Google kept showing the old location. So they needed to get it closed and get the other one reopened. So that's really important. When you search, are you finding your business, the one that you want people to see? Or is it an old location from 10 years ago? It's closed. So that's really, really important. I had, I moved to Southwest Florida right before the hurricane hit, Hurricane Ian. And so I've been looking for fence companies. Had a hard time. I had my fence already done. And the hurricane tore it apart. Was looking for a fence company to fix my fence. Had a really hard time. They're so busy. So I saw some neighbor get their fence done exactly what I was wanting. I went out there and I got their business card. I'm like, I'm going to call and schedule to get you all to come, give me an estimate. I Googled their name. Yeah. So I don't have a picture, but the knowledge panel, it was a different business name that came up. And I put the business name branded search in and a completely different fence company came up. So basically anyone who was searching for that company is probably going to their competitors. So again, that's why it's really important to make sure that you're in that branded search. And a lot of that has to do with optimizing your Google business profile and your website for your local SEO. So I mentioned explicit search. So we are searching for a website designer Smirna, Georgia. And this you can see there are lots of ads towards the top. So this is something that, over time, what you're going to work on your Google business profile and also SEO on your website to get your business to come up in the mat pack, snack pack, whatever they're calling it nowadays in the map right there. So that's what, and that is harder. Obviously, branded search, that comes first, you've got to make sure you come up there. From there, then you're going to work to come up in the explicit search. And then implicit search, you don't even see the map because the map, Google business profile, are for local search intent, where people are looking for a business in a specific area. So that's why it doesn't contain the location, only contains the keyword that we use there. So you're probably wondering, so what are the factors that help determine the search results for local SEO? The first would be relevance. The people searching, are they actually searching for your business, what you do? And does your Google business profile show that? Does your website SEO show that? Has your website been optimized to show that you're the local business that handles what they're looking for? Your Google business profile, has that been optimized for that? So that's the first thing, the relevance. Are you what they're looking for? The second part is distance, because again, this is local SEO, how close are you to the person searching? Person sitting there at home on their laptop, or out somewhere with their phone. How close are you to them? That's as far as distance, how close are you? And we're going to talk in a minute about service area businesses, those that don't have their address on the map. Even if you don't have your address showing on the Google map, Google knows what address you've put in, and they're using that address to show proximity. So that address is extremely, extremely important. The next one is prominence. How well known is your business? Your online presence, your reviews, that's a really big part of that, your reviews. Basically, your prominence, that's what you want to work on so that you're found in the search results when people are searching for your type of business. OK, so creating and or optimizing your Google business profile. So a lot of people say, OK, let's just go to Google, say enter the profiling, and we'll just get going. And I like to just tell you to put the brakes on, because I've had so many businesses that come to me that have done that. And trying to say this, but Google has lots of guidelines. And if you don't read through and know and understand each and every guideline, that can get you caught into a point where your Google business profile goes offline and you can't be found on search. So you definitely need to make sure when you get started you are prepared. So first thing you want to do for your business. You want to go to the Secretary of State and see what your information has there. Every state is different. So whether you have a corporation, an LLC, whatever type of business you have, what do you have on the Secretary of State? That's really, really important for your Google business profile. A lot of people don't even consider this. They're like, well, I don't know. It's just what we put in 10 years ago is important. So that's the first step. Here we're looking back at savvy digital design. I did write out her address, but I've got all her information here. And also I'm going to be looking at that address when I'm looking at that. That's really important. The address you have in the Secretary of State's office, extremely important for your Google business profile. So another story time. Why does it matter? So I had a client that came to me and he was trying to work on it on his own. And he couldn't figure out how to get his business live, his Google business profile, actually active and working. And he happened to be in the, let's see, Medicare. I guess it was open enrollment back in November, I think it was. And this was, he was contacting me the beginning of April or March or April. He was working on his Google business profile. Got plenty of time. And he's like, but I can't get it live. Google just doesn't like what I'm giving it. So the first thing I went through was, OK, let's look back at your Secretary of State. And let's see what you look like on there. Oh, I haven't done that yet. So let me start off by saying a lot of what I'm telling you is, can you get it on Google without having some of this stuff? You could. But once you get it there, are you going to have a problem and how long is it going to take to fix it? So just start off right. So I went back with him. I say, OK, you need to get your Secretary of State stuff handled and get that done so that we can start off, because Google's already not liking you. So let's get your stuff together and send it in and get you on Google. Unfortunately, the Secretary of State, in his instance, took like five months to get his stuff together. So that's another reason you want to, if you're sitting here thinking, well, I don't have a problem with my profile. OK, so you don't have a problem today. But if there's a problem, how long is it going to take you to figure out and get the Secretary, whatever it is, resolved? You don't want to be off the map for five months. Get it while things are good. So if, hopefully nothing will happen, but if something happens, you're ready and you are prepared. And we did actually, I got him back just before open enrollment started. I mean, it was one of the long ones, but it was all the Secretary of State. The other thing to note is, if you are using a trade name or a DBA. So I will say this, this is not legal advice. This is not legal advice. So basically, seek legal counsel on any of this. I am telling you what Google wants for your Google business profile. If you're not sure how that works out, legally, talk to your attorney. So for a DBA, every state is different. Like in Georgia, I think, that's where I've been for 27 years, I would go to, you have to have it recorded in the clerk's office for each county. Some states, you can go to the Secretary of State's office and bam, it's right there with the corporation. I love that. That's wonderful. The thing is, I have talked to businesses, they're like, yeah, we've got a trade name. Okay, where's the paperwork? We did that 15 years ago, huh? And then I look and I'm like, okay, what county you're in, I search it. I'm like, I search and I can't find it. Doesn't mean it's not there. I search and I can't find it. Help me find the paperwork that you say is filed. They said, well, we must not ever filed it. So then, you've got to then go in and get information filed. Okay, let's see. Any questions about that part of it, the trade name? Question? Yeah, if you've properly registered it. On your Google business profile, as far as the name, you can use a DBA. So I'm your biz watchdog. Let's just say instead of your biz watchdog, I wanted to say, okay, I moved to Florida. I'm going to be Southwest Florida local SEO queen. Okay, I can do a DBA for your biz watchdog, which has the LLC and use that term for my business name. However, I can't then go and have your biz watchdog, Southwest Florida local SEO queen. I can't have both of them. I have one or the other. And whichever one I'm doing. So like, right now I'm your biz watchdog. Everything is your business, my website, everything. If I decide to change that, everything needs to have that DBA on it. So what if you see two different things? So yeah, so this is what I got my last thing under here. It says, Google does not allow one company to have multiple profiles with multiple DBAs. So what that means is, and this is Google, this doesn't mean, from my understanding, talking to attorneys, their states or whatever that do allow you to have multiple DBAs with an LLC. Google says, if you have one LLC, if you're using a DBA, you can't have five DBAs with that same LLC. You can only have, you can't have five different profiles out there with that underlying LLC, another LLC. So now this is for your Google business profile, OK? I want to make sure I'm clear. This is for your Google business profile. And if you do one, and let's say you do two DBAs with one LLC, are you going to get caught? I don't know. You could go on forever and not have an issue. But I'm simply saying that this could become an issue for you. So you need to be aware of it. And so, and that, because I know there are a lot of LLCs that basically operate several different DBAs. But Google wants you to pick one. And that's one thing too, Google is looking at it as, well, you've got your one company, they're all doing the same thing. And I know a lot of businesses don't do it quite like that. They're like, oh, well, this portion operates this part of the business, this services, this portion operates another one. So when Google's looking at it as far as any time you have an issue with Google and you have to send them the documentation and let's say that if you're suspended for whatever reason, your profile, and you have to then get reinstated, you're going to have a hard time getting reinstated if you have numerous DBAs with one LLC. Can it be done possibly, but not likely? Questions? Follow-up? Aisha? Yes? Aren't related. So that's kind of something that you need to look at your business and see how you want to do it. So are they local businesses that you want to have local Google business profiles for each of them? Yes. OK. So you kind of have to look at Google and decide, which ones do you want to have separate ones? My recommendation to you would say, OK, so let's say you've got these five different DBAs that you're doing two. OK, two. OK. So you've got two. My recommendation would be to have a second LLC and do the second company and have two LLCs. That's my recommendation. Could you get away with one LLC? Possibly. But if you ever got your account, your profile suspended for whatever reason. And I'm going to get to suspensions in a minute, but you can get your profile suspended just by looking at it wrong. You go go forever and never have a problem. But there's the one chance you could look at it wrong and get it suspended. So I'm just kind of giving you. I want you to understand the worst case so that you're aware of it and don't come back and say, well, I have one LLC and two DBAs, and why isn't it working? So that's a way that I would recommend two LLCs. Does that help? Do you have follow-up questions to that? No. Get mad at Google, not me. I know I'm teasing you. Yeah. Well, and I know it is. I know, I know. And that's the thing, you know, you possibly get away with it just so you know the pitfalls of if you decide to do that. And there may be other ways, like with the LLCs, to talk to your accountant and see how you can do two LLCs and not have a lot of additional expenses. I don't know. So OK, OK. Any more questions about that trade name? And I said DBA, some places call it trade name. So trade name or DBA, OK? All right. Now I got to see where I am. Because I'm in a homeless. No, please ask questions away while I'm going through this. Let's see. OK, so the next one is going to be your address. Address, really important. So when you're looking at your address, a lot of people, they'll go to business.google.com. Oh, let me just put my address in. You have to screech on the brakes on that, because that's where a lot of businesses get. Their profile in trouble is with their address, because it matters a lot. First thing is, I'm going to do is another story time. So I had a client, and he came to me, and I was working and doing his monthly management on his Google Business profile. And then he decided, he's like, you know, I'm changing up my business quite a bit. Let me pause this while I figure out what I'm going to do and how I'm going to pivot and change my business, and then we'll come back. I was like, OK, sounds good. Month and a half later, I get a notice that his Google Business profile suspended. So I got in touch. I was like, hey, what's going on? What happened? And he said, I don't know. I said, OK, so tell me what's happened recently. What have you done in your business recently? I know you're working on changing things. And I said, OK, this is where you're located. He's like, oh, no, I moved six months ago. Well? And I was like, well, did you change it in your Google Business profile? No. OK, so with that, I was like, OK, so we need to. So it was suspended. And that's one of the things that I do a lot of. I deal. He'll hear me talk about suspensions. And I want to clarify, basically, your Google Business profile, if Google doesn't like something or if someone else reports you for any little thing and Google says, we're going to suspend you and have you come back and prove that you're legit and everything's correct, you have to then go and ask Google for reinstatement. And so when I talk about suspensions and reinstatements, that's what I'm talking about there with that. So with this one client, I was like, OK, you moved, but you didn't tell Google. But I need your address, your new address. We need to get that out there so Google knows that's your new address and then tell Google. So we did that, did the reinstatement. Now, again, the Secretary of State is really important. It took a month to get the Secretary of State to update his address a month. And so I mean, there's times I've been in Secretary of State and it's just like it takes an hour and it's done. For some reason, it took a month. And by the time it was like a month later and finally we got it with the Secretary of State, I requested the reinstatement. It was reinstated within 12 hours. But that month that it was off the map, business went from here to here because people weren't finding him on the map at all. All of the traffic basically was evaporated because they couldn't find him on the map. So I want to talk about next the types of business addresses that you're going to use for Google. There are different types, just like with Google, there's different types of everything that we're talking about. So let's see. Brick and mortar is your storefront. Those are basically businesses that have a storefront and you can go in and do business right there in the storefront. Let me look and see. I had a note here. One thing that Google does say is, businesses showing their address on Google should maintain permanent, fixed signage at their business name at the address. So what that means is they don't want you to go in, type your name on a piece of paper. That's my business. There have been people that have done that. Just so you know, that is not something unusual. They'll stick a little sticky tape on note on the door and put their business name. This is where we operate now. Google says, haha, very funny. No, it isn't. Permanent signage, so that's the brick and mortar. Your storefront permanent signage. Service area businesses. These are, this is kind of where people get a little bit confused with service area businesses. Think of businesses like your landscaper. They come to you. Yeah, yes. Face painting. Exactly, face painting business. You go to them and do the parties. They don't come to your house. Your plumbers, they come to your house. You don't go to them. But they service a local area. So if you've got somebody here, face painter here in Birmingham, she's not gonna come to California to schedule a party. She's gonna come. She's got a little area that she probably, that has dust that goes visits. Those are businesses that service a local service area. And what Google wants is for that service area to basically be input into Google. And then there's a little, they keep changing it. So there's a little place to mark on there that people do not come to you. And basically it hides your address. So the question would be, well, I don't want my, my home address is my business. I don't want that broadcast across Google. That's where you're supposed to put your home address and click that box to say that people do not come to you. And then you put in your service area where people, where most of your clients are gonna come from, where you service. Yes, question. On that. Usually I'm loud enough. Home businesses, and especially a lot of us that may work with websites, we can work anywhere in the country. Yes, okay. My service area is the United States and Canada and some of Europe. Yes. I don't want my home address on Google. Okay. And there's been a lot of talk among us about, does that penalize you? Okay. Because I got that little nasty gram that said my address was not on my website. Well, you got that from who? From Google Search Console. Oh, okay. Okay, that's Google, okay, in Google Search Console. Okay. Yes, so I figured Google's cousins, you know, everything about that. How do home-based web design or unlimited service areas, how do we do that correctly on our business profile? Sure. So with that, what you'll do is, and let's just, I'm assuming your address that you have on the Secretary of State and in your documents, your home address, okay. So let's assume that. You're gonna go into your Google Business Profile, set it up, and you're gonna set that address in your Google Business Profile, and you're gonna check that you do not see people at your location. So that means that that address is not gonna show up on the map. So that's gonna be the first part of it. Still list us as local. So now, that's the whole part of your, the Google Business Profile is based on the map and it's for local search. So you could be a local web designer and you could want local business, and then you could say, well, I want local business, but now I might want business across the country. It is fine to have your Google Business Profile for your local business, for people to find you locally. Because I always like to tell businesses that for SEO, it's easier to start SEO in a specific region and not say, like say, okay, I want to define clients in Birmingham, not, I'm looking in the whole US, just everybody come to me when you're starting out. You're sitting there, okay, I want people in Birmingham, it's easier to look in a specific area. So yes, you can first start a web designer in Birmingham. And that's gonna be your Google Business Profile that's the local SEO that you're gonna work with to get your local clients. Then your website would probably mention that you're in Birmingham, you do this, but then you're gonna say, by the way, we do clients in X, Y, Z, wherever worldwide. So you can have that Google Business Profile as long as you service clients in that local area. One thing is that Google does say that they want you to have a local connection. So you can't say, well, I've got, I'm in Birmingham and but I'm not gonna, I'm gonna go and be in a hole across the state and just have my address in Birmingham and I'm not gonna really see any clients in Birmingham. Does that make sense? If you're established, and you, this is for the recording. For them, yeah. If you're in the established business, we've been doing this 25 years. And we wanna come up in near me. That's local SEO, Google Business Profile, which is the profile. How do I fill out my profile to indicate? Yes, I've been in near me person, but I can only be anybody else. That's gonna be on your website. When you have your business profile, do not go in there and say, I service the entire US or the entire world. There's a high likelihood of getting your profile suspended by doing that. Google has a ton of terms of service and guidelines. And one of them I think the most recent is, they want your service business to be a 200 mile from your business, like 200 mile maximum. So even though you put in your Google Business Profile that Birmingham is your center and 200 miles away from Birmingham is where you service, that's just for people looking at local SEO and finding you on the map. So then if you've got somebody you're looking for clients that are not here that are in California, they'll find you from your regular SEO from your website. Does that make sense? Okay, okay. Yeah, so definitely if you're a service area business, do not put in that you service the world or the US or, you know, because that's one of the things that you have to understand the Google Business Profile is for your local SEO efforts. Okay, yes. Do you have a question? Yes? Business with multiple locations. So now that part of it depends. So if you've got multi locations, so are those locations? So first question is the same state. Okay, so when you've got those locations, what is your address for the business? You're gonna be two, six, five, seven, eight. Okay, we're gonna get, let me see. Oh, next slide. Oh, next slide. Okay, so before I get to that, let me mention hybrid really quick and then the next slide answers that question, Aisha. Hybrid is basically a mixture, so let's say a pizza place, a restaurant that delivers. You've got that physical location, but you also have a service area where you deliver the pizza, you don't deliver it, you know, 50 miles out, you only have a specific area. So that would be your service area, your hybrid. Okay. Now we're gonna get to addresses that are not allowed by Google, even if they are hidden. Okay? Oh my God, look at all my notes here. So let's get back to your question. You mentioned post office, so the, okay, UPS store and post office locations. Now it says, Google says these are addresses not allowed. This means that if you put an address that is one of these, a UPS store in your Google business profile, Google's not gonna like that. They know a lot of these are UPS stores, post office locations. There's a high likelihood of getting suspended. So basically my first thing would be don't use a post office box. Okay. Don't use a UPS store. Those are like really high ones that are high likelihood of getting suspensions. Now like years ago, like people would always get the UPS store because it was a mailing address but it didn't have PO box. And everybody say, well my competitor here is using it. They simply haven't been caught. Just because they haven't been caught doesn't mean that they're doing it correctly. If they get caught, are they gonna lose their entire profile? With 150, 300 reviews? Cause they could. Okay. Okay, so let's look at, I'm gonna go through some of these Aisha and then I'm gonna come back to you and see if they answer your question. So Google says virtual offices are not allowed as an address. Basically if you run out physical space, or physical, I'm sorry, if you run out a mailing address but you don't operate out of that, do not use that address on your Google business profile. That's basically considered a virtual office. You don't, you're just using it to get mail. Those are, and also think of like the Regis locations where it's like sign up for us and you have your mail delivered and we'll answer the phone and then every once in a while you can rent, you said use a table here. I don't recommend that. They know all the Regis locations. There are times that they just, Google will go in and do suspensions of everything listed at that address for Regis or any of the other spaces. So now let's see, virtual, so co-working space. So there are times when you can use co-working spaces and times that you can't. As a general rule, I would say it's not recommended for co-working space. However, co-working spaces, faces that basically you run a desk out of a space, you get your mail, you get everything else. The one instance that you can use it, there are co-working spaces that have like a specific office, they put your name on the door, you have an office with a phone, you were in there and answering the phone during business hours. You were your staff. That is when you could use that co-working space. Otherwise, I do not recommend using it. And even if you're doing it the correct way, you could see a suspension where you have to go in and say, look, Google, I really have a space here and I'm using this and this is my office. Okay, so those are the addresses that Google does not want you to use even if you are a service area business. So now Aisha's probably thinking, well, I can't use any of these, what do I use? Say your follow-up. Okay, so one thing you can use is your home address. Because it's, okay, so other cities, what Google wants is you need to have a physical presence in those cities even if it's not a storefront. So someone has to be there at an address in those cities for you to have a separate Google business profile there. Does that make sense? So one of the things, and I'll tell you, here's the issue that a lot of people come across with this because I understand and completely relate, you're like, well, I work, I do business in these cities. The problem is, is that there are bad actors out there who have gone into all these cities and opened all these profiles and Google has said, we don't like that. We, everyone else, gets punished in the long run because somebody has gone in and done things and Google's trying to clean up things. I'm not sure how successful they are, but that's one of the guidelines that they put in place because Google is saying that in order for them to know that you actually have a presence there, you need to have an address that somebody is there with your business. So basically what is for physical locations all the way? No. So if you have, I think the issue here is where you're looking to have multiple profiles. I'm not to pay a bunch of fees and I don't know how to show up for my customers that I actually serve. Serve, yeah. Right, so I work across the US and I need to be able to be picked up across the US. So we're, the local SEO part of it would not be the across the US, that would be just your regular SEO that you're doing on your website. So this part of it for your Google business profile is getting found in that local part. We have another question too. All right, so Ayesha lives in Asheville, North Carolina. I live in Greensboro. Yes. But if part of her business is coming to Greensboro to teach classes, then, but that's a separate business than the one in Asheville. She has, but she comes to Greensboro to teach the classes and she rents out space for that class. I'm making this up. Oh, as I say, because you're making enough, I'm like, oh, oh, the problem issue. But I'm making up the situation, but that could be a situation. Yeah. I'm working for three times a month at work with several companies. So basically that would be something where your Google profile on the map is geared towards your local where your address is there. And that's where your focus on your Google business profile is. The other Google is saying that's something you'll need to focus on your website and SEO and not your local. Does that make sense? Did I answer your question that you had back there? I see y'all coming in here. She's just talking about the address. I haven't gotten to the address yet. The address is the biggest problem. Yeah, so thank you. I'm glad, because it's a huge, so that, yeah, mm-hmm. And so basically Google is saying if you don't actually physically have someone in your business in that area location, during whatever that location's normal business hours are on your profile, then you should not have a profile there at that location. As far as Google local business profiles. Now going back to reputation there. Yes. As far as how many businesses? Leak into the business profile. Yes. Is there a limit? So there's no actual known limit. I will tell you that getting multiple business profiles at one location like that is gonna be very hard to maintain without Google suspending them because they are gonna think that you are not legitimate businesses. That's what legitimate businesses do. However, a lot of businesses out there create profiles to try to get business and then, which is not the business that normal business, they're about there selling all of these different, what's the word I'm talking, looking for David? I can tell a story in the mail. Yes. So I work with a minimal malpractice law firm. Right. Hugely competitive because they don't deal with cases less than 10 million bucks. So there's a huge incentive to try to get away with Google. Mm-hmm. Right? And I work with the client in Pennsylvania and they have no door reform. So there's no cap. So like 10 million is a good day. Or about 100 million is a good day. So there's just a huge incentive in that system for some nefarious competitors who are trying to gain the system just to create Google My Business Profiles because it's worth that effort. Get it banned, make it telling million dollars. And move on. Hold another one. Yes. That is the whole. It's the whole spam their way up. Where they do it. And okay, so that's what Google is trying to correct. Right? And so unfortunately some legitimate businesses who have legitimate reasons get caught in this. Yeah. Right? And there's a distinction between the Galatee and Google's rule. Mm-hmm. You're not breaking the law. Yes. To do this. But if you wanna participate in a private company's system, they have rules. And they, these rules change. Patricia's giving you the best advice she can. I know no one's getting frustrated with her because she's giving you the advice. I know. It's Google. It's not me. No, I know. I think everybody knows that. Yes. Yeah. So it's not illegal to have two DBAs in one house or 20. It's not illegal. It's just. Talk to your accountant. I don't think it's illegal. You also is someone potentially could. Yeah. Yeah. And that's what Google's. And I think you said this, but you've told this to me many times as you met in my profile too, right? Totally forgot what I was gonna say. So I'll let someone start. So I do definitely wanna emphasize that. A lot of the times that they've got guidelines, Google has guidelines, they will then tighten them up and you'll see more suspensions. And that'll be because people of legitimate businesses have complained. We've got all this spam on the map and why aren't you dealing with it? So this is them dealing with it. And in the course of them dealing with it, legitimate businesses, they're finding that you're having trouble complying with the guidelines in staying active with their profile. And the more legitimate businesses that have to compete against them when you've got 10 people to say, well, he's got a business in the UPS store. Yes. Why can't I? It's the new game. Yeah, exactly. Yes. Really, I just had a comment of what we're talking about here is only one layer of the Google massive equation and order of operation. So like what she's talking about is local. Yes. The way it functions has to do with your location, right? Your local. If it works on a map, it's you can't be more than one place at the same time. It's the way they see it, right? So that's why there's limitations on this and why it's smart to have a really good understanding of it. So you can do all the other things that make it obvious that your service area is larger, right? So that was my comment. Yeah, definitely. Good. Thank you. Okay, Beth. So for my agency, I set up a Google business profile a long time ago, but I didn't do anything with it. And I put in the service area is all of the United States and Australia and Canada. And you didn't get suspended. It's just been sitting there. Yes. But when I search for my name, it comes up and a little blurb comes up. It doesn't tell you much because I didn't do anything with it. But now I've rebranded my website. I've rebranded my business. I'm focusing more on local, but so I need to change the name. I'm just going to, okay, let me put it this way. Here's, I'll have an answer. The one I put up there is a DBA that I never registered. The one I have now is actually a DBA that's registered. Okay. So can I just go and change the name? So yes and no. Yes, you can go change the name because that's your, it depends. That's your company name. However, there is a long process to get to the point of where you should change your name. So I rebranded my business at the beginning of 2020. And I did a ton of stuff for a few months before I told Google, hey, I'm your bizwatchdog. So yes, you can change your name. I don't recommend you just simply going in and changing your name. And there is a long list of things to do. We can talk about it and get in touch with you afterwards. But yes, you can. Do you have a checklist? I might. But that is one thing. So some of the things that you go in and just change, the important things like your business name, your business address, your website, URL, things like that. If you go in and change those, wait, if you're changing them legitimately, changing them to correct them or you're moving or whatever, those places have a little bit higher instance of getting your profile suspended when you change them. It just means that you then have to go back in and say, okay, this is why I changed it. And part of that is Google saying, well, you've changed something pretty important. We're not sure that this is legit changing what needs to be changed. So just be aware of that. Okay, now. Okay, so now here is don't create a duplicate profile. This is a little bit different than your question, Aisha. So that's why I didn't go to this slide next previously. But so there was a business that came to me. They had seven profiles on the map. And they were at a kind of same building, I guess you would say. So think of it like, when you're looking at a larger company like Walmart, you've got Walmart Garden, Walmart Pharmacy, Walmart, whatever part. And they're allowed to have departments with their Google business profile about their departments. And that's what this business had attempted to do. They're like, oh, we got different departments in our business. Sometimes Google allows that and sometimes they don't. You have to look at it and say, okay, these big departments, is that something where people are gonna go say, okay, I just need the pharmacy. I just need the lawn and garden. So the business I was working with, they weren't specific department. They were just departments within them. It wasn't departments where people are gonna say, oh, I'm going to just this department. So they had seven profiles all at the same location. They were trying to say they were all different departments. And then they moved. Do you know how many profiles they moved? One. Then they had people coming to them saying, well, we drove to what was listed on your Google business profile. But it was one of the six that they didn't move. I said, okay, well, let's change that. Let's get logged into your profile. Yeah, we don't have access to that anymore. Another big thing, you as the business owner should be, always be the primary owner on your Google business profile, period. You can then add managers. You can add other owners, but you need to be the primary owner of your Google business profile. Yes. I was looking at their thing and I was like, y'all don't do data entry. Like, why is this on here? And right now they don't know how to get in there. Is there a way for them to figure it out because it's an organization and not a business? Where they've had several CEOs and several decision-takers. So as you're dreaming about you said, someone has lost access to a profile. Is there a way to get back in? Yes. You know, if I can figure out how to turn it on. Okay. Sorry, I was drinking water and choked on the water I started drinking. Okay, so yes, you can. The answer would be more, a little bit more difficult than just that. Sometimes it's easy. Sometimes it's harder. So a lot of it just kind of depends on the specific client. So we can talk about it. I do white label work. So if you wanna talk to me and help your client out, we can work and figure it out. But yeah, if you've lost access to your profile, first thing, get access back because you don't want something posted on your profile that you have no idea what it is, what people are putting on there. You need to have access to it. So really, really important. Long story short is with this one business that had seven profiles, I had to then go in and get those other six off the map so that people weren't confused, going to the wrong location, getting upset. And like they said, it's a poor user experience if you're going on and you're typing the business and you're getting the wrong address and being sent to the wrong location. So definitely keep your customers in mind when you're thinking about that. Verification methods. Okay, what you're gonna get for a verification method, I don't know, it kind of depends on the move Google's in. So I think, you know, a lot of postcard is kind of one that we get a lot of, saying that they're gonna send a postcard and then you have to enter the code. Sometimes you'll get call or text, sometimes email. You may get video verification. If you go in to verify your business and you get video verification, do that. Say I don't wanna do any of the others, do your video verification. And I would say probably, it's Google, so who knows how long it'll be before it happens. But the future for verification is gonna be video verification. And we have a question behind it. Verifying for a client. So, I think that was the question. If you're verifying it for a client, so part of this is Google is gonna say, they need to verify either the address and all of that. The client has to do a little bit of work for the video verification. These are things that, like I said, I've had clients do them, but because I'm not the one doing the verification, I send the client and say, okay, they're gonna call you at this time and do the verification. So I haven't actually been on that receiving end of it being on the video because I'm not the client. But the client has to do that. The same with the postcard. They get the postcard in the mail, they may call you with the code. Text or call, Google will text or call that phone number and they'll have to tell you the code to get it. So. Can you tell us a little bit more about video verification? What all the details would we need to have for better? So I would say for getting prepared to do your video verification is basically kind of the same as getting prepared to get your profile online. You've got your stuff with the secretary state, make sure all your addresses are correct. They're gonna want you there in your office and in the location and making sure that that address matches what you've put on your profile. I haven't done it, so Google will probably know where you are. I think, from what I've heard, it's kind of sitting at your desk and showing, look, I'm here. I don't have people come to my house because I'm a service area business and we don't show our location, but I'm a real person, I'm here. One thing that video verification does help, it does help where you have, there's always first-beamers a way to get around things, but it's a little bit harder than postcard text or call because they've got the physical, the person there on the video saying it. Does that make sense? Okay, questions on that? But I do think video verification is going to be the future of verifying on Google and if you have the opportunity to do it, definitely, definitely do that. Pro tip. Once you have requested verification, however you've requested it, even the video verification may take a little while, you may need to schedule that verification because they're not gonna be sitting there waiting for you to say we're ready. So once you have requested postcard, whatever it is, don't touch your profile, please. Wait till you're verified. Then go in and do whatever it is you wanna do, add things, add photos, all that stuff because if you go in and make changes once you've requested verification but haven't actually verified your business, you're probably gonna have to start that verification process over. So if you've requested a postcard and then you go in and change a bunch of stuff on your profile and you get your postcard, that code probably will not work, okay? Now we're gonna get to fun stuff. The new GBP dashboard in-search experience. Just wanted to know if there's anything else. Okay. Oh, sorry, hang on. So the in-search experience. Like Google, they like to change things to confuse us. And they also call it NMX, new merchant experience. So I don't like this new merchant experience. The reason is because it's a poor user experience. Google likes to tell us what to do and then they don't follow their own requirements. They tell, your website needs to be user-friendly and user has to have a good experience. Go in there and look at your new dashboard. So basically you're going to business.google.com and I'll show you a picture in a minute. And you'll see. See here, go there, take a look around but don't touch anything. Okay, I've got a picture at some point. I'll show it. But basically, before you would have your profile and you would click on it and have a bunch of information you could do. They have changed it now to where it comes up in the search with all the information there. If you're used to it the other way, it's very confusing. It's very confusing because there's multiple clicks to get to what you want to get to. Yeah, that's something on business.google.com. And so, you know, we're always told the least clicks are the best way to get to things. The best user experience. Yeah, they increase their clicks on there, but you know, I don't know. Do as Google says, not as Google does, that's all I can say. So, the other thing is if you're going to your profile and you're making lots of updates, don't do them all at once. Don't go, okay, I'm ready. No, no, no, no, no, no, I'm done. Take a minute on each one and do the, I know, follow your laughing. It could increase your chance of getting your profile suspended. Okay, that's just a tip. Will it happen? Maybe not, but it could. It could increase your chance of getting it suspended. And so, I've been talking about suspensions and one thing is that there are two different types of suspensions. You've got your soft suspension and your hard suspension. Soft suspension is basically when Google has suspended your account, but you can still go and search for your business, do a branded search and find your business on the map. Okay, so then all you have to do is tell Google, send them the information, get reinstated. Hard suspension, you're not visible on the map. Let's say you had, I don't know, 160 reviews. They're not visible on the map. Those reviews are hard to come by. I mean, it's hard work getting those reviews. If you have a hard suspension, it means your entire profile is removed from the map. Everything is gone from the map. You are left with the hole in the donut, okay? Nothing is on there. So that's why you need to be very careful of your suspensions, what happens? And no matter why you're suspended or what type of suspension, once you're suspended, you are under the microscope. So I've had clients that come to me and say, well, we're probably suspended because of this that we did here. And I'm like, yeah, probably that's why. And before I work with them, I'm say, but you have all these other five problems over here that need fixing before we get you reinstated. And they'll say, well, we'll do with them later. Google's gonna say, we're looking at everything. You're suspended. You're gonna fix all of it. You're not getting reinstated. So that's one thing. When you've got a suspended account, you are under the microscope. So one example of this had a client come to me. He had one good location, had 163 reviews, and he had had five other locations around Metro Atlanta. Those locations were not legitimate locations. He had done them in a Regis building. He had done them at an employee's home. He had all over. He said, well, we need those in order to get more traffic. Well, Google doesn't like that because they don't say, they said that those are not legitimate profiles. They do not comply with Google's terms of service. And they're guidelines. So I said, well, the reason they probably got suspended had to do with his address. He was in a new location with a new address that actually I think the post office just recently added. Well, we're just gonna fix that. I was like, well, okay, you can just fix that, but Google's not gonna reinstate you till you get rid of all these others. And so my question to him was, do you want, and his suspension was his 153 reviews, were no longer showing on the map? He'd worked hard for all those reviews they weren't on the map. So the question then is, do you want to try to do things that are against Google's guidelines to try to keep these other five that aren't really, maybe you're getting a little traffic from them, are you gonna keep them forever? Probably not, because Google's gonna probably notice it at some point. Or do you wanna try to work for your one good profile with 150 reviews and get it back? So that's kind of the business decision. If it were me, I want those reviews back. So that's what we ended up doing is working to get rid of all those bad profiles and getting one profile reinstated and back on the map. So, questions. Now, when you have a suspension, the more you kind of play around with it and mess around with it and before you get reinstated, it can be worse really in the long run because you're sitting there with your suspension, the faster you get it reinstated the better because if you're on there and your business is off the map, that traffic is not coming to you. So you definitely need to work and take those suspensions seriously, okay? So I had a business, they came to me because their suspension had a hard suspension. I can't remember how many reviews they had but it was well over a hundred. And I went and looked to see what exactly they had done wrong because they actually had a physical location, they had, I mean, tons of stuff where you could see this was this legit, they'd been in business for years, they had all the information that I needed and I was like, well, why'd they get suspended? So they were working with a marketing agency that connected something to their Google business profile that if I were working with them, I would not have connected to it. Watch what you connect to your Google business profile. And then they went in and gave Google information that didn't match what Google had and said, yeah, we don't like you anymore, suspended. And that took a while to get back. So part of the thing is a lot of times getting the reinstatements done, part of it depends on getting the information from the business, from the client. Another part is how busy is Google with these reinstatements. Right now, at 12 to 24 hours, I can get a reinstatement request completed and accepted. Back in November, it was 22 business days, not just days, business days. And that was because there were so many of them. Google was, I don't know, reorganizing all their tech support and stuff. So yeah, you definitely want to, part of it is luck when you're catching Google, is it a good time or a bad time? So, okay. Okay, now, we talked about, yes. So this is what I was talking about earlier. This is your in-search experience on Google. And basically, see, if you haven't been to business.google.com recently, you may not have seen this. And so basically pull it up when you have a moment on your own. So if you have more than one business in your email address that's managing it, you may have two businesses come up, then two, however many businesses you've got under that email address, you click on one of them, it will then take you out to the in-search experience. And all I can say about this is, yes, a lot of people complain about it and yes, Google doesn't care. They've done this and you'll accept it. So you can say I'm not a fan of it. But hey, you know, that's how a lot of things are. One thing I'll tell you, basically go through it and just see where things are on here and familiarize yourself with it when you're going to work on your profile. There are the three red dots at the top of the profile. Please, please, please do not click on remove business profile, please. Okay, one more, please don't click that. So this is something, and again, this is to me is something where Google has stuff on here and their wording is horrible because I've had where a business came to me and they had an employee that they were on good terms with and the employee said, well, you know, they're leaving for whatever reasons. The employee said, okay, well, I'll just turn everything over to you. Let me remove myself from the Google business profile. Instead of removing the user, which is like hidden someplace else, they went and they said, oh yeah, I just removed this business profile. They're thinking remove the business profile from my email address. That's not what Google thinks. Google said, you're out of business, okay, we gotcha. We're wiping you off the map. So when you have an employee, anyone who comes and goes, you remove them by going into your users. Well, there's that, let's see, hold on. See, it says managers add, edit, remove profile managers. That's where you would add and remove your managers. Don't let anybody else remove anybody because you don't want them clicking to remove your profile. With however many reviews you've gotten on there, okay. Google will think you mean delete your business, you're out of business. And then if you delete your business from the map, yeah, you're kind of out of business because you're waiting for the traffic to come in that's not there because Google says you don't exist, okay. So I want to talk a little bit about reviews and let's see, what time is it? How much longer we have? Okay, we're good. Okay, so tips for reviews. Reviews reflect your business's prominence. That was one of the things we were talking about for a local SEO. What are the three factors when you're looking at search results? So definitely put a review system in place. Don't just say, we're gonna start asking people for reviews. You need to actually have a system in place to where you got something where you ask them in person. It follows up with an email. Additional emails after that if they haven't left a review. So this is probably going to be a system that you are having a process in place that does it and not just saying, oh, I'll just email them and I'll remember to do it. That's not the process I'm talking about. You need to have an actual process where they go into a system and the emails go out or timed and go out and ask for those reviews. Make sure you do not violate Google guidelines, terms of service or, Beth, sit down. FTC guidelines, I know she always gets worked up over FTC guidelines. So Google has their own guidelines. The FTC has their own guidelines. And basically you just need to make sure you're in compliant. You shouldn't be doing things like review gating. That's basically when you're asking people, did you enjoy, did you like the service or product? If they say no, then you don't ask for review. That's review gating. Google does not want you to do that. You could lose more than just the reviews you did that with, okay? Hmm? Google knows. Let me tell you, Google knows. They have, actually, all the stuff that they can tell with how businesses and users react and everything on Google, they can tell if it's not working the way is normal. And they've actually had businesses. And a lot of these are attorneys where they went in and saw that they were review gating and they took down, I don't remember the numbers anymore, but I mean they lost like three-fourths of their reviews. And the attorney's office went back and said, well, we didn't start review gating until after this number. So we want these reviews back. And Google says, Google owns this profile. You do not. You violate our terms of service. We could have taken all your reviews. We were good. We left you a couple, okay? So you have to make sure that you are not violating Google's guidelines when you ask for reviews. So don't review gate. Don't review hop. That is working with other businesses and say, I'll leave you a review. You leave me a review. Don't do that. Yeah. Don't do that. Okay. So, and then the FTC. The FTC has guidelines. And so these are guidelines that I will say this is what the FTC says as a business owner. I would say as the agency owner, let your clients know about it. They can make the business decision. But basically, they are looking at review gating when it comes to putting reviews and showing them on your website. They do not want you to review gate on your website. So if you're showing reviews on your... I'm on my way to sign now. Take this up with the FTC. They are saying the Fair Trade Act. Basically, they want to make sure that consumers are getting all the information to be able to make an informed decision. And so they're saying that the reviews on your website should be... I'm trying to think how I say this. You shouldn't say we have a five-star reviews. Here all are five-star reviews. And then you go to Google and you have like 2.8 star and all these negative reviews that you're not showing it. So, and that's not just Google. So any of them. So, but the FTC go to their information and find out what they want. And again, this is a business decision. A small business, are you, is the FTC gonna come after you and look at it? I don't know. But as a small business, you need to simply be aware that these are their FTC guidelines. Just be aware of it. What you do with that information, okay. Question, David, who had? This is not directly related, but it's kind of in the same genre. Lately, I'm getting lots of text messages where people are using my phone number to try to scam you like. The Nipple design team, do you do website design? Do you do this? Do you do that? And I leave report junk. I mean, I know it's scamming. So I'm looking at the Google knowledge panel. And yeah, your phone number shows up. But I wish you could just have your email. There was no place to just put your email as a contact. You have to have your phone number. So all these creepy people are sending text messages on my phone. Well, at that point, that's a decision. Do you want your cell phone to be your business phone number? You know, that's kind of like how, you know. From the FTC review, because I have been refused to be a guest on podcasts if I don't review their podcast first before I even hear it or am on it. Oh. And I have gotten many, many, many, many, many of these. It's not like I just got one and I was annoyed. Yeah. No, I've gotten like 20, 30 of these over the last year. So this is very interesting information. And I may be writing a form email that I send back to them. Well, definitely reach out to me, Elizabeth, because there are different places on the FTC with information on this. There's for you all, there's information for businesses. There's information for agency marketers to go on there and read their guidelines and what they want as far as from small businesses. Now, again, when you're looking at that, you know, this came up recently because a business was fined for rebugating. They said, they showed on their website all their positive reviews, whether it was from Google or wherever, all their reviews they were showing, they were all positive. When you went out to all the different sites, whether it was Google, Facebook, anywhere, you'd say, oh, 1.2 review. And it's like, we bought based on, you know, customers bought based on their website saying they had five star, but when you go out every other place, it had like 1.5, whatever. And Google and the FTC is like, look, you need to represent how your business actually is as far as reviews are concerned. That's on the website. And that's what the FTC was finding this specific business for. And again, it's small. A lot of times what they'll do is they'll go make an example out of this one company that may be larger. So to try to get things, okay, we're making an example of them, you all get your act cleaned up is kind of what they're, they do. Yeah, where's the mic? Oops. Maybe this'll be a final question. I know that you're close on time and I appreciate it. Can you settle it once and for all? If, with all the power invested in you. If you ask clients for reviews and add an incentive and say, good or bad, if you write a review, you get this thing. Yes. Okay, so is it, are you asking for legal? Okay, so with Google, okay, Google's, I don't remember who's in there, Terms of Service or Guidelines, do not allow incentivized reviews, Google. So that means that if you're asking for a Google review, you should not incentivize your reviews. Now, other platforms, are they different? I don't know, I haven't looked at Facebook seven, I don't know, Facebook might be different. But what does the FTC say, because we're talking about that, the FTC says if you're incentivizing a review, you have to show that that was an incentivized review. Think of when you see a commercial on TV and they've got somebody talking, this was a paid testimonial. So the FTC's, okay, that's fine. So there are some places that will allow you, when somebody leaves a review to say, this was a paid testimonial review, whatever. Google does not allow that, Google does not. So all the other review places, you'll have to check and see specifically on them. Yes. First of all, do you have any suggested way as to how to own your reviews? Like, can we literally copy and paste them off Google in case we get suspended and maybe use them on our website later? I mean, is there a content ownership issue there? Google owns the platform, therefore those reviews are theirs. And as far as copying them and putting them on your website, if they're live on Google and you're using it word for word, as far as how they're doing that, possibly. You're cheering me on your best. That would be, the FTC doesn't like that. In case I get suspended for something stupid, I have a document somewhere that holds my review. No, Google, if you're getting suspended hopefully then you get to the reinstatement process. Hopefully your reviews will be there. The ones I've worked on, the reviews have come back. There are instances where Google really, it was suspended for so long, Google says, you know, you've got your profile, but there's nothing there. And they're not going to go in and put reviews back on it for you. They're not going to. And lastly, this is more of an FTC question and I know that's not your talk, so maybe this isn't applied, but is there a distinction between a review and a testimonial? Yeah, let me see. Reviews, I have a thing for that that I like to say and it's escaped me for right now. And I can't really, there's sort of a difference, but it's not necessarily one that's really a big difference. You know, reviews asking for a review. Testimonial is more of a longer term thing where you're asking more information out, asking them to give you a testimonial that you'll probably put on your website. So, and while I'm talking at the last, I want to push this around, put your business card in, I am going to do a raffle towards the end, so put your business cards in, make sure you get that out. Okay, I want to move to a couple more things and I'm going to go through this quickly and take more questions. Okay, oh, I thought, what? Get your business cards in. Get 10 reviews on your Google business profile. Get more reviews than your competitors. Then, get over 100 reviews. You will get a bump after you get 10 reviews. You will get a bump once you get over 100 reviews. So, those are your tips on that. Give them a QR code, give them a link directly to leave a review. Easy peasy, okay? Easy peasy, right? You all enjoyed this, leave a review. Easy peasy, okay? Make sure you get your business card in. Your website and Google business profile work together. Do not think of them as completely separate. They work together, okay? That's really, really important. I have information we did not get to but a lot of that is some things that David kind of mentioned in his talk. As far as Google analytics, your local SEO on your website, mentioning your business, where you're located on your website, okay? One thing is Google business profile is not a set it and forget it website or profile. Do not go and set it and forget it. Do we have everyone? So, what I'm gonna do is you're gonna get my five biggest tips for your Google business profile. One person is gonna get a 30 minute ask me anything, okay? Question, and anyone, I will be here till tomorrow. So, y'all come up and ask me questions. David? David? Hold on, y'all want another pick? Y'all want another pick? Who wants another pick too? Who wants a second? I'll do a second one. You, I'm gonna give you your one. I said who wants a second one? Oh, Kevin. I met Kevin, yes. Okay, this is, okay. So, Kevin and David, you'll both have a 30 minute ask me anything. Okay, so everyone who put their stuff in here, I will be sending you slides and everything. If you want to take a picture with my information, reach out to me with questions. I will be here till tomorrow morning, so I'll be here tonight.