128 | Do you need a Google business profile?

0:00 Hi, everyone. I'm excited to bring to you a short conversation I recently had with Jules White, who is a website and SEO marketing consultant, founder of the website Success Hub. I met Jules on a podcasting group that we're both part of, and she offered to come and talk to us a little bit about Google search and whether it makes sense to have a Google business profile, even if you don't have a physical location. And I get this question a lot, and I'm certainly not an expert in Google or Google business profiles, so I thought it'd be really great to hear what Jules had to say. So let me just share a little bit about her background. Jules helps small business owners and entrepreneurs grow without social media.

0:43 She teaches people how to show up on Google, get recommended in AI search, and turn your website into a team member so that the right people can find you and book with you and buy from you without a lot of hustle, which I love that. mission. So I hope you enjoy this conversation. I've put Jules' contact information in the show notes as well as a resource that she mentions towards the end. So check that out if you'd like to stay connected. And otherwise, I hope you enjoy this resource. All right. I'm so excited to be talking to Jules today because she's going to come and help us answer some questions that I hear actually a lot about Google Business Profiles. Okay.

1:24 So, Jules, welcome. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you. It's so lovely to be here with you. Yeah, I'm excited to get to talk to you. The first question that I have for you, and I get this sometimes and I never really quite know how to answer it, is why would somebody who's in solo practice as an herbalist, a nutritionist or something like that, why would they want to have a Google business profile, especially if they don't have a physical location? Maybe they're just doing virtual visits. Is it still something that people should bother with? So I think it's definitely worth considering. So I think probably the biggest reason why we want them is because they actually help us to show up on Google.

2:05 So Google business profiles are, if you imagine if you're going to a restaurant or something and you're looking for a restaurant locally to you and you type in something like, where can I get some Chinese food near me or something? And what we see coming up on the maps, we'll see a list of different businesses with recommendations, with reviews. And it's basically a way for us to actually show up in search. So I think for any business, it's worth considering whether you should have a Google profile. We can also gather reviews there as well. I think that's probably one of the, big benefits is that it's a great place to send people when we're asking them to leave us a review because it's an independent place as well.

2:47 So we can put the words that people tell us on our websites, but actually having that there in one place, which helps us then to show up on Google, then I think that's the main reason why people would want them. And they are primarily designed for businesses that work in a local area. So if you've got a physical location, like a brick and mortar type business, or if you primarily work with people in your local area. But if you're an online business and you can get one, because if you are purely online and you don't have any kind of way of showing that you work with people, that you can work with people locally.

3:32 Then it can be really tricky to get one. But I think it's worth it. I think it's worth trying. Like if I give my business as an example, I primarily work with clients online. So the majority of my work is done over Zoom, but I still do have quite a local presence here. So I do a lot of networking locally. I've done lots of guest talks and workshops and things in my local area. And I have had clients come and work with me here in my house. And I've also been to clients houses and businesses and worked with them. So it kind of is a little bit, I don't know, some people could say that you're, not following Google's rules fully, but I think it's certainly worth trying.

4:16 So if you've got an office at home and you can kind of show that you would work with clients, you potentially, you know, theoretically, you could work with clients in your house or you go to them, then I do think it's worth having it. Now, that being said, you wouldn't then have a pin in the map so you would we would call yourself as a location-based business so that's what i've got on my business if you find my business on google maps if you find my my google business profile it's set to the location so clients you know i don't have a pin in the map like i've got a physical shop where people come to, a bit like if you it like for plumbers and, i'm trying to think of who else would come out to you like. Hvac engineers those kind of people they don't they shouldn't unless they've actually got a shop or a workshop they shouldn't have a pin in the map now many of them do they said they kind of seem to get away with it a little bit more in that kind of industry but they should be set as a service area business because they're going out to their clients rather than the clients coming to them, so yeah i think it's definitely worth if you can get one it's definitely worth worth having one does that does that answer that question i feel like that was um a long way around of saying yes you need a google profile well it seems like the search, Coming up on search is a big thing, especially if you're trying to find more clients.

5:33 And it also occurs to me that a lot of people are looking for. Herbalist in South Dakota or a nutritionist in Maryland or something like that. So I suspect that it might also give you a little bump from that perspective as well. Yeah, yeah. And even if you work with anyone anywhere or you can work with anyone anywhere, it's so much easier to stand out in your local area. It kind of immediately gives you a niche if that niche is just your town or the slightly wider area, then it does help. It helps to look right. If you're trying to stand out against the whole of the internet and that's really tough but actually sometimes just adding in that local area and they usually will be you know most people unless you're uh unless you're selling ski wear and you're based in the caribbean then you're probably going to have some people who would like to buy from you locally so i think there's always you know we can cut we can end up, because we think oh yeah global i can work with anyone anywhere we end up like, losing out on that local part of it really so yeah i think it's i think it's important.

6:35 OK, so let's say some people are listening to this and they think, OK, maybe I should make a Google profile or maybe I have one that I haven't looked at in five years. You know, what are some do you have any tips or or perhaps even some common mistakes that you would say, like, don't do this? Any any hints for folks who might be like, OK, probably I'll give this a try. Yeah, yeah, definitely. So this is a lot of the work that I have done with clients over the years of fixing these kind of mistakes, or people will come to me and say, my profile has been suspended, or I can't get my profile verified. What have I done wrong? Help. And there's some common issues that often come up. So the main ones are going against Google's guidelines.

7:19 So if you're trying to get a pin in the mat, and you are clearly not a business where clients come to you, then that can often cause problems. And especially now, years ago, we used to be able to request a postcard from Google and it would come through the post and we would be able to then verify our profile like that. And now we have to do it with a video. So we have to show the area we're in. We sometimes have to show the street name, show the outside of our building with signage and then walk in and basically show them that this business does actually exist in this location and then we have to do it with a video. Now, if you're a service area business, it's slightly different. You still have to do the bit from the outside of your house, but Google's not going to be then showing that on your profile. But you have to walk in and then show things that show that you are a genuine business.

8:03 With all of the verification stuff, it's supposed to be to help Google to wheedle out some of the spammy and like the scam businesses, basically. But often it doesn't just end up, what's the word I'm looking for? Like being more of a disadvantaged small business owners who are actually just trying to do more to get their marketing work in for them so that would definitely be one thing so if you're trying to put a pin in the map and you definitely don't that would be the biggest mistake and then probably one of the other things is just ignoring it so either setting it up and then as you say not coming back to it for five years or just not even going through and filling in the basic information on there so it's they're very simple to use I know sometimes with websites they can feel really confusing and feel really techy.

8:45 But with Google business profiles, once you get past that initial verification, which can sometimes, it's not even techy, it's just a pain. It's just something that is a bit of a hassle to do. But once you get past that bit, it's actually really easy just to go through and look at what's available in your profile. So making sure that you've put in the start date of your business, when your business opened, whether you're accessible and all of these kinds of things, which actually just sort of basic stuff that you put in there. That is a lot of the things that people just don't even go through and add. And then making sure that that then ties in with what's on your website as well. So you can add things into your profile like the services you offer, the categories that Google should put you in and kind of consider your business as maybe showing up in the search results for the category of nutritionist and those kind of things.

9:32 And just going through and making sure that you've actually added in any information that you can. And you don't have to sort of overthink it. I think quite often with all of this stuff, it feels like it's a lot to do. But even just taking an hour to just go through and look at what settings are available can make quite a big difference, really. And do you recommend revisiting it once a year? What feels like the appropriate cadence? So, well, I'm a firm believer in social media is optional. And I think a lot of business owners just spend a lot of time and energy on social media and feeling like you've got to post daily and you've got to keep showing up and then they don't get much back for it. Whereas actually, if you just spend a little bit of time in your Google business profile and set it up initially, so you get the initial profile set up properly.

10:20 And then even if you are just posting to because you can post to your Google business profile, you can add updates there. Even if you're just doing that once a week then that could be amazing that can definitely help, even if you're only doing it once a month so for example if you're blogging and you're releasing a blog once a month then just updating your Google business profile with this this new blog and how it ties into the services you offer or if there are things, that the seasonal things that are happening around you know in the world or. Would apply to your business, just having some posts like that, that you just post every now and again. And that's not going to make a massive difference in terms of the showing up, like the ranking, but it just helps Google to understand what's going on.

11:07 And if you've got events and things going on in your business, you could also add that as updates. And then ideally, we want to be adding photos if we can. And we don't want to be using stock photos or AI generated photos but if you do have some photography and it doesn't have to be like professional photography but if you are taking photos regularly in your business which I feel like with nutritionists potentially there could be you know all sorts of pictures that you could take of seasonal foods and recipes and all kinds of stuff and like lots of ways you could sort of add photos but adding photos regularly helps Google understand that this is still a business that's active and still a business that they should be recommending to people really.

11:48 Got it. So it sounds like maybe once a month would be a good cadence to start with and then see how it goes. Yeah, it's certainly better to do that than, you know, as I say, they often get very neglected. And it could be even that maybe you've made an update to your website and then you just do something that then ties that in with your Google business profile as well. And even just going and making sure things are still up to date because anybody can make changes and suggest changes to Google about a business profile. So, for example, if you go to a business and they're closed and their Google profile says that they're open, you can tell Google, oh, this business was closed at this time. And Google will then make those changes in your profile. So if you don't go in and check your profile regularly, you might then miss that somebody has marked your business as permanently closed or something.

12:34 Normally, you get an email from Google with important stuff like that. That's why just going in, if you ever get any reviews, then we should definitely be replying to all the reviews that we get on our profile as well, which all sends those signals to Google that your business is still active in there, really. Okay. And I know this has come up in groups before. People have said, like, oh, I like the idea of a Google business profile, but I'm nervous of what if somebody leaves a bad review? What do we do? Yeah, I think this is a common fear for business owners. It's a conversation I've had recently, actually, with somebody that I network with. And firstly, I think the chances for most small business owners, and particularly one-to-one service providers as well, I think the chances of that happening are probably slimmer than we realise.

13:26 And also if you do ever get like if you ever get a review that's not five stars, then that firstly makes sometimes makes your makes your profile more believable, especially if you've got hundreds of purely five-star reviews. I don't know if you ever look at businesses and think, you know, come on, they've got 350 five-star reviews. You start to look at them and think, maybe are some of these, have they been paid for? Are these fake reviews? Whereas actually the ideal score is between 4.6 and 4.9 because it makes us more believable that the, you know, and then, I would always then look at what the other, what the bad reviews are or what the lower reviews are to see what kind of things have come up.

14:08 And even if you did have a bad review, then I think it's a really good way to turn that around into something positive in your business. Because we would always want to reply to our reviews that come into our Google profile, then you're not really replying to that person who's left the bad review. You kind of, you are, but what you're thinking of is that future person who's reading that bad review and seeing how you handled it as a business owner. I think that can be one of the best PR and one of the best sort of customer service things that you could do in your business, really. But for the majority of business owners who, and with the profession that you're working with as well, they care about their clients. So it's probably that they're not going to get bad reviews anyway.

14:54 So I think it's definitely a genuine fear, but I think the benefits you can get from showing up on Google and getting clients for it. It's ultimately just about making your marketing easier and people finding you. People are out there searching either for a solution to their problem or for a business like yours. And if you can show up, then all the better, really. Right. Right. Yeah. And I know, you know, some people are like, oh, we really need to be moving away from Google. And there's this whole thing. But I also, as small businesses, I also think like at a certain point, we do have to make some compromises of, like you said, being where our clients are. So I, you know, I know a lot of people feel torn on it.

15:35 And especially without funds and if you're like trying to do the low hanging free things, this is one of the low hanging free things. It is. Absolutely. Yeah. And it's hard. I've had that conversation with somebody who said, we were talking about AI and they said that, because I teach about how to show up in AI search. And they were saying, oh, yeah, my clients, it was somebody who's got a group program. And they were saying, my clients don't want to use AI. But again, it's that same thing of it's not that wasn't about using AI. That was about other people are out there doing it. Other people are out there searching Google. And if you're not showing up then you are yeah you're definitely making it harder for yourself really so yeah definitely yeah.

16:19 Absolutely. And this is just so helpful. It's lovely to have sort of a breakdown of this is not that hard. And you need to just take a little time to set it up and maybe a little bit time once a month to just update it briefly and see how it goes. Could be something reasonable for people. And it may it can make such a big difference i think that's the big thing with this is people are always going to be out there searching for people locally to buy from and it can make such a big difference and actually the work you do with your google profile can also help you to then show up in the ai searches as well because then that's often where the ai is drawing from so, right right, oh this is great is are there any other tips that you want to pass along for people who are dipping their toe into these waters?

17:05 So, yes. So I would definitely say one of the strongest signals you can send to Google through your Google business profile is your primary category that you select for your Google profile. I've got a few episodes of my podcast that people could go and listen to. We can maybe link to that in your show notes. Can to help you to understand you know what you what you should consider about your primary category but if you're looking at your profile and thinking I've chosen the wrong primary category, then I would suggest only changing it if you absolutely have to because that can sometimes trigger a re-verification and if you've managed to get your profile verified and then you trigger a re-verification it's a bit annoying really so, oh that's a great tip okay so before we choose a category, listen to one of the episodes in the show notes just to make sure so that we don't cause more problems down the road.

17:56 Absolutely. Yeah. And if there is like for a nutritionist, realistically, your best primary category is going to be nutritionist. So I don't know about herbalists. I haven't looked, that's not something I've looked into, but certainly that's most likely going to be your best, your best bet really. So yeah. Sure. Okay, great. And is there anything you have going on that you would like to share with people who are listening before we wrap up? So, well, I do have something that they might find helpful, actually. So, I've got a local visibility checklist, which they can download. And it's literally like, once you've got your profile, then you can just go through and make sure that you tick all the bits that you need to that will help you then optimize your profile properly.

18:38 Oh, great. Well, we will link to that as well in the show notes and go from there. And how can people get in touch, stay in touch, connect with you? So the best place to find out more and to connect with me is my website. So that's the website successhub.com or listen to my podcast, which is called the Website Success Show. And I feel like that's my own sort of SEO success story and my own little... Message that I can send to people that you don't have to use social media because I've thrown it to I think I'm up to about 20,000 downloads without ever promoting it on social media or paying for ads so when I tell people that they're like oh okay maybe there is an option to not have to use social media in my business, exactly don't have to, don't have to you just need to think through some of the other options oh I love that I love that that's amazing awesome well thank you so much for coming and sharing this.

19:31 It's just like a, just a small thing that can make a big difference. And I love that for people who are running a, you know, clinical practice with a lot going on. So I really appreciate you taking the time to be here and share this with us. Thank you. No, it's been great to come on. I always love coming on and geeking out about the power of Google. Awesome. All right, everybody, check out the show notes and we'll go from there. Thanks so much.