Google My Business: The Foundation of Visibility

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Thank you for tuning in to Web Pro Business Solutions. I'm your host, Kristina Stubblefield. In this episode, I'm going to be talking about one of my faorite topics, and I know I have a lot of fun favorites, but this one's near and dear to my heart, and for good reason. That's Google My Business. So many people ask me, what is something I can do to increase my visibility?

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And usually before they're done with their sentence, I say, Google My Business. Or it is now known as Google Business Profile. And here's the deal. Over 90% of searches are done on Google. And that is why every business, no matter what industry you're in, but especially wedding professionals, should be on Google My Business.

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And here's why. If you need more reasons, what are the engaged couples doing? They're doing their research. Most of the time, before they schedule an appointment or visit your website or find you on social media, they're doing their research. And that is happening on Google search engines.

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Now, of course, it is really important to know your online reputation and to be listed in other search engines. Absolutely. But Google, my business is very interesting. I'm a techie, so I love the power of technology. But most importantly, I love helping other people harness that for their business.

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And Google My Business, let's be honest, they're pretty dang smart. Because not only do you have your business information, there your name, your phone number linked to your website address, possibly. And FYI, if you don't already know, you don't have to have your address shown. So if you work from home or just have a PO box, that used to be something we had to deal with. For those who didn't have brick and mortar, it's not the case anymore.

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So back to the importance of it. Google My Business allows you, offers you, has a wonderful opportunity where you can post right inside your listing. Now, why would that be important? Well, because in the Google Knowledge Panel, which that is on the right hand side, when you do Google searches, there's a boxed in area on the right, and that's the Google Knowledge Panel. And your post will show up right there inside of your Google My Business.

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And that's a powerful tool because when you have things going on with your business, you have a new product, a new service, you have a new video that you can put out. If you know, 90% of searches are done on Google, you would want that information to be out there. Not that they got to have to go digging up on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, your website, your lead page, all these other places. Why would you not have updates on Google? So just to clarify, it is right on the first page of Google with your Knowledge Panel.

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You can tell I get pretty excited about this. It's free. It's free. And most people say to me, okay, I know I have to spend money on marketing. Yes, news flash, you do.

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However, it doesn't cost you anything to have a Google My Business profile. Or Google. Google business profile. Google My Business. The name change gets me every time.

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Most people are still referring it to it as GMB. It doesn't cost you anything. Now, with that same token, I understand you can't always manage these things post consistently yourself.

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I'm going to go off topic for just a minute, but it still kind of has to do with it. There are scheduling tools out there. We even offer a scheduling tool that you can schedule out. Facebook. Post Instagram, post.

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Google my business. Post Pinterest. Twitter. The list goes on and on. So I firmly believe you should definitely have a system in place and you should have a process to follow to make sure you keep up with your consistency.

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Google My Business falls into that as well. Because here's why. After seven days, your post on Google My Business is not visible right inside of your knowledge panel. You have to do a few clicks to be able to see. And why would they have done that?

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Well, it's going to keep you coming back. You want to post once every seven days at least. At least. Now, on Google My Business, this is not me saying only once a week, because that's not the case. But I'll backtrack, and I will say consistency is key.

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So the number of times you post, make sure you can be consistent. It is most of the time not going to be the best thing for you to post. Five times this week, ghost it, next week, the third week, two times, the fourth week, once. Consistency is key with almost all social platforms. And am I sitting here saying Google's a social platform?

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Well, Google My Business, because you can do updates with photos, videos and text. It's a powerful tool, and that's why this is one of the first topics that I speak to people about with visibility. It's the number one search engine. 90% of searches are good right there. Your business needs to be taking advantage of what's offered.

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The silver lining, if you want to call it that, is that it doesn't cost you to be on there. So where do you start? Well, okay, if you're not sure if you have a Google My Business, I suggest, number one, you go out and Google yourself. Okay. I recommend people do that on a regular basis, and I'm not going to go down that rabbit hole because I can get off topic very quickly.

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Number two, you can go to business Google.com, and you can do a search for your business and see if your profile comes up. The best part when you do the second way I mentioned is if you don't have one, you can go right through the steps to set up an account. Now, let me say a couple of things about that. First and foremost, make sure you pay close attention to what Google account you're logged into. Some people will say Gmail account, because your Google My Business or your business listing for Google will be attached to that Google account.

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So check the circle in the top right hand corner and make sure if you're like me and have multiple Google accounts, you know which one you're logged in as. Now, a caveat to that, you can add users to your Google My business. Okay? So if for some reason you need to have a secondary or have another person be a user, you can set up those user roles once you have your account established. Now for some exciting news.

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One of the things that was such a pain in the ass about Google My Business, and really we shouldn't complain because it's free, but with verifying your account, you would have to wait for the postcard to come in the mail that had the six digit, five digit code, however many digits, you think after hundreds of these, I would know. But off the top of my head, you have to wait for this code to come in the mail to verify your account. Well, guess what? Most accounts will now have an option to do so by text message, by email. So anything to make the process a little easier so that's if you don't already have an account.

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So let's go ahead and let's talk about if you do, if you do have a Google My business, most people that I come across, they've set up an account and they haven't went back to it. So I encourage you to make sure you go to your Google My Business account and you check the information that's there, the phone number, the address, the description, the hours, all of the things that you can have in your profile. Check for accuracy. So important to make sure your information stays up to date. Again, it's attached to the number one search engine where I've already said multiple times that 90% of the searches are done.

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So you want to make sure it stays up to date. The other thing I will say with that is your photos. Please take the time to add photos. Now, I also say on a regular basis, wedding professionals, I'm going to get on my soapbox. I have worked with people in all different industries over the past 20 years, and I'm here to tell you, wedding professionals have access to the most opportunities, the best opportunities, several opportunities to capture content, photos, videos, etc.

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For their business. Now, why would I say that? Because you're probably at an event once a weekend, once a week. And I'm not saying you're saying you have to take hundreds of pictures at every event that you're at. You're there, you're hired for a service or product.

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I get it. But that takes me to a whole other topic. And I'm not going to hop. What I am going to say is making sure you have updated pictures on your Google My Business. I encourage you to change those pictures out at least monthly, and if you can't do that, at least quarterly.

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People are making decisions based off what they find about your business on search engines as well as social media. So it's really important to put your best foot forward, and you need to do that in the number one place that people search. So photos are really important. And when you get in there, there's cover photos, your logo, inside, outside. You don't have to get caught up with all that if you don't have a brick and mortar.

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The key is updated content. And there's other things that I can mention. I like to keep these episodes small. Digestible. I want you to be able to implement what you hear me talking about, or if you're watching this on video, what you're watching me talk about.

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I love helping businesses succeed. Whether that means you want to streamline your workflow, you really want to get a handle on Onboarding all the way to offboarding. You want to be more visible, maybe you want to grow your business. Technology can play such a huge role in helping you achieve whatever it is you want to achieve in your business. And Google, my business is not optional.

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It is a must. And I say that passionately and wholeheartedly. I know it can be overwhelming. You're wearing multiple hats, and here I am saying you have to do this. There are people out there like myself that can help with that process.

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But this is at the forefront of visibility. It's what I call as part of the foundation and the insights that are available with Google My Business. It will tell you how many people are searching your category, how many people are searching you, what actions they're taking, if they're clicking on your phone number on your website. Oh my goodness. It is very powerful.

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Whether you spend money on Google Ads or social media ads or not, or just organic, that information can be vital for you making the best decisions with your marketing efforts, no matter if you're just starting out or if you've been in the game for a long time. And there are some other things with Google My Business, but I just wanted to talk about some of the initial things that you want to make sure is in place so your business comes up when people are searching for you. Visibility, it's key. And I don't need to tell you that video should be somewhere in your Google My Business. Video is king.

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And that isn't changing anytime soon. I really appreciate you taking time to listen to this episode. Here's what I'd like from you. I have put together, I call it a cheat sheet of some of the important items to make sure your Google My Business profile has and you can get that information in the show notes, or you can get the information below this video at any time. You can visit the website KristinaStubblefield.com and get access to the podcast episode two videos, but also to these handouts or cheat sheets, as I call them, that are available.

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Last but not least, make sure you're in my free Facebook group. That's right, the link is attached with this video as well as this podcast episode or go to kristinastubblefield.com and get a link to join today. All kinds of good stuff inside the Facebook group and you can connect with other wedding professionals. Thank you so much for tuning in.

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Until next time, see you!