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How He Ranks #1 in Google Maps From 53 Miles Away | Mike Martin — Transcript

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0:00We're talking about Google business
0:01profile and local search engine
0:03optimization on this episode of the
0:05show. We're joined by Mike Martin. Mike,
0:08you're a listener of the podcast, too.
0:11>> Certainly am. Yes, I watch it daily
0:13because you do it every single day.
0:14[laughter]
0:14>> Let's go. That's amazing. And um Yeah.
0:17And you're friends with a lot of people
0:18who've been on the show. James Douly was
0:20on yesterday. You're good friends with
0:22him. And uh
0:23>> been mates with James for six maybe in
0:26fact longer than six years. I've known
0:27Casra six years. his business partner,
0:28but I've known James a lot longer back
0:30in the magic page plug-in days.
0:32>> Amazing. Okay, this is going to be a
0:33great episode. Can you um and yeah,
0:35you're going to be sharing some crazy
0:37stuff. Can you uh talk about your
0:38background really fast?
0:40>> So, I started out as I'll I'll take you
0:43right back. So, I started out as a
0:44locksmith. Um so, I let me I taught
0:46myself to pick my brother was supposed
0:48to get a record deal. We moved to
0:49London. It fell through. We moved back
0:50to Manchester and I'd sold me business
0:52to go to London. So, I um I I decided I
0:56wanted to start a company. I had no idea
0:58what I was going to do. And I met a guy
0:59at a party and this guy at the party
1:01says to me, "I've done 700 quid today."
1:02And I was like, "How how have you done
1:03that?" And he told me about uh he's a
1:05locksmith and I was like, "What's a
1:06locksmith?" I had no idea what it was.
1:08No idea about picking locks breaking
1:10into houses. And he he explained it to
1:12me and I was like, "Wow, I want to do
1:13that." So I taught myself to pick locks
1:15on YouTube. And then once I once I
1:18taught myself to pick the locks off off
1:19YouTube, I started advertising to try
1:21and get business. Um and very quickly
1:23realized there's a lot more involved
1:24than just picking locks. Anyway, um,
1:26paid ads, Google ads as you know, gets
1:28deer and deer and deer. It's a race to
1:30the bottom and the cost per click
1:31increases. So, I started to learn SEO
1:33back in 2009, 2010. And I over a 2-year
1:37period, I built one of the largest
1:39independently owned locksmith companies
1:40in the UK with just lead generation and
1:44building mass page style websites,
1:47radius targeting, and building what we
1:48class as single niche PBNs. And over the
1:51last few years, because we we had
1:53thousands and thousands of websites,
1:55we've noticed that the traffic, even
1:57though the sites are still ranking, is
1:58is gradually decreasing and decreasing
2:00and decreasing. And all you big lead
2:02genen guys will tell you the same thing.
2:03The traffic's decreasing. It's going
2:04over to AI. It's going to um Google
2:07properties, so to speak. And so we we
2:10moved heavily then into Google business
2:12profiles. We noticed that a lot of the
2:14traffic was in not necessarily
2:15increasing but because Gemini feeds
2:17Google business profiles sorry other way
2:19around Google business profiles feeds
2:21Gemini that goes into AI you get the
2:23overviews and also you get above the
2:25websites on Google um and we've never
2:28looked back we we we've kind of built a
2:30product around that and we've focused
2:32now 100% we give away eight or nine of
2:35our software products um to our our
2:38business partners involved in those so
2:40we could focus 100% of our effort on
2:42GBPs
2:44Dude, that's crazy. One of my one of my
2:47close friends uh was a locksmith in
2:50Missouri for a while uh here in the US
2:53and he shared like the craziest stories
2:56about like the the places that he goes
2:58out to to to break into homes like you
3:01said to unlock cars and he he was he got
3:03into garage door repair as well and he
3:05was also sharing how abysmal a lot of
3:09the SEO is in that. And uh yeah, this is
3:12going to be a cool local SEO episode.
3:14So, let me ask you, what's the fastest
3:16way you've seen a business go from
3:19invisible in the top three in the map
3:21pack? Um, sorry, go from invisible to
3:24the top three in the map pack. And what
3:26do they do in the first 30 days?
3:30>> I wasn't expecting that as a question.
3:32Um,
3:34well, Google Business Profile, I think
3:35it was about 2022, probably around
3:37November 2022, Google Business Profiles
3:39went from being Google My Business,
3:41which was was pretty much a static
3:42listing to Google Business Profile,
3:44which which now kind of reacts better to
3:48what we would call social media. Um, I
3:52I'd call it, it's kind of like social
3:53media. So, for example, you've got a
3:55YouTube channel. Your YouTube channel
3:56when you first started, it was probably
3:58very slow, nobody listening, nobody
3:59paying attention. But what you do is you
4:01focus on consistent daily activities.
4:05So with with regards to Google business
4:07profiles then the the the modern
4:11strategy I call it a GBP loop and the
4:13modern strategy is profile
4:15completeness/mirroring. So what we mean
4:17by that is completely fill out the
4:18profile. Forget about keywords, keyword
4:20stuffing and all the rest of that stuff.
4:21The like leave the SEO for the websites.
4:23Just fill out exactly who the business
4:25is. As soon as you give them your
4:26category and your location, Google knows
4:28who you are, what you do and everything.
4:29it doesn't need all of that additional
4:31information. And and don't get me wrong,
4:32they do work, but it's not necessary.
4:34And then when I say mirroring, what I
4:36mean is the Google business profile
4:38mirrors the website. [snorts] So, not
4:39just like back in the day, everyone
4:41talked about nap. It's obviously it's
4:43your categories, it's your working
4:44hours, it's your prices, it's all the
4:46rest of that stuff. And then mirroring
4:48the mentions of your business all over
4:50the internet. So, if if I I can't really
4:53give an example of the fastest I've seen
4:55it work, but I'll give you an example of
4:56what you should be doing in month number
4:57one.
4:58So month number one would be complete
5:01the profile in full. Make sure it
5:02mirrors your Google business profile.
5:04Make sure that all your citations on the
5:05internet uh match. And then it's about
5:09pictures slash videos posts and then
5:12praise which is reviews slash um review
5:16responses. And what what we do with a
5:18with a with a client or what the
5:19agencies I work with do is they focus on
5:22on what we call the GBP loop. So it's
5:24profile completeness/mirroring. get all
5:26that up to place and then find all the
5:28images they've got inside of the
5:29organization that they can post on a
5:31schedule to keep it going consistently.
5:33Then posts. So these these are not
5:35designed to rank, but what they are
5:36designed to do is let's say an image
5:39puts a face on the business and you want
5:40to you want your business to look like
5:42what it looks like now, not what it
5:43looked like 6 months ago or 3 months ago
5:45or even 3 weeks ago. So you want a
5:46consistent flow of media going up onto
5:48the profile. You want a consistent flow
5:50of uh posts. But when when we're doing
5:53posts, a lot of people are like, "Yeah,
5:54but they don't affect rankings." It's
5:55not necessarily about that. You're
5:56trying to give information. You're
5:58trying to build relationships, the same
5:59as anything you would be doing on on
6:01social media, and you're trying to
6:03convert a prospect to a customer. This
6:05method of marketing is so effective, I
6:07had to make sure it wasn't against
6:09Google's rules before I kept using it.
6:11It's a form of SEO I call compact
6:13keywords. Whereas most SEO focuses on
6:16putting up articles to answer questions,
6:18how, what, when, compact keywords
6:19focuses on putting up dozens of pages
6:21that sell to searchers who are actually
6:24looking to buy. These pages rank on
6:26Google and convert so much better than
6:28normal that when I discovered this years
6:30ago, I couldn't believe this was
6:32allowed. It's less work, too. The
6:33average compact keywords landing page is
6:35only 415 words. Compact Keywords is a
6:3813-hour deep course on getting sales
6:41with SEO. A customer said, "We spent
6:43nearly 18,000 in the last year and a
6:45half on marketing and SEO through
6:47different agencies locally, and that did
6:49nothing. We decided to take the leap on
6:51the compact keywords course. We're now
6:53getting about 6 to eight calls per day
6:55on a good day, which is just unheard
6:57of." Another customer said, "Give it to
6:59a junior employee. Have them follow it
7:02exactly as Edwards laid out. You don't
7:04have to do anything, and you're going to
7:06gain a six-figure SEO level employee
7:08just by having them go through this
7:10course." Compact Keywords is about
7:12setting up an SEO funnel that brings you
7:14sales for years and years and years. It
7:17works with AI. It's less work than
7:19traditional SEO and it makes way more
7:22money. You can get it now at compact
7:24keywords.com. Back to the podcast. The
7:26same as you want on social media. You're
7:27trying to get someone to like, follow,
7:29subscribe, and it's the same sort of
7:32thing. What you're trying to do is turn
7:33them from a prospect to a customer or a
7:34prospect to a hot lead then to a
7:36customer. And then after that is your
7:39reviews and your review responses. That
7:40is the only thing that really Google
7:42does say to us this increases
7:43visibility. This does work and we have
7:45seen it massively. But what we've seen
7:47work better is not necessarily going and
7:51getting 500 reviews all at once and then
7:54getting nothing for two to three months.
7:56I'd rather get 10 reviews a week or even
7:5810 reviews a month and then 10 reviews
8:00the next month and the next month. And
8:02then what we call the Google business
8:04profile loop is four Ps and then times 1
8:06C, which is profile completeness, post,
8:09pictures, praise, times consistency, and
8:11then you li loop back to the beginning
8:13again. Make sure that your profile's
8:14complete. Check that the mirroring is in
8:16place. Post, pictures, praise, back to
8:18the beginning. And you just do that
8:19monthly. And the agencies that are doing
8:21that are absolutely smashing it out the
8:23park. So, for example, my Google
8:25business profile, my my own personal
8:26coaching business. Um, I was on with one
8:29of my agencies the other day and he's
8:30he's 53 miles in in probably that
8:33direction. I don't know which one, but
8:34it lives about 53 miles away from me.
8:36And he's like, "So, this really works
8:37and what you're saying works." And I was
8:38like, "Okay, type in business coaching."
8:40And so, he went, "All right." And he
8:42gets his phone and he went, "Holy shit."
8:45And I was like, "What is that your
8:46first?" He's like, "You're right above
8:47all the websites." And I was like,
8:48"Exactly." And that's not me website.
8:50And that's not business coaching
8:52location. That's just business coaching.
8:5453 miles away from my Google business
8:56profile and I'm ranking number one every
8:58area within a 25 mile radius of where I
9:01am for business coaching, business
9:02coaching near me and business coaching
9:04location. I'm the number one Google
9:06business profile and I don't do anything
9:07special. I literally just follow that
9:10thing. That's it. Just follow that loop
9:13and it just works. Um, and and we kind
9:15of found it out by when we first started
9:18trying to rank Google business profiles,
9:20we did what everybody was saying, "Oh,
9:23you should be doing this. You should be
9:24doing this. You should be doing this."
9:25And and we tried absolutely everything.
9:26And the results was just mediocre. And I
9:29went to my business partner. I'm like,
9:30"This doesn't work." I was like,
9:32"You just can't rank them the way that
9:33we can with websites." Um, and he said,
9:35"Leave it with me." And he goes away and
9:37he starts reading through all of
9:38Google's documentation. And it's about
9:40four weeks later, we come back and he's
9:41like, "I know exactly how to do it." And
9:43when he first gave it me, we didn't call
9:44it the GBP loop, but he gave me the
9:46process. He's like, "Just do this, then
9:48do this, then do this, then do this,
9:49then loop back, then do this, then." And
9:50I was like, "Oh my god." And we started
9:52testing it. And within 4 to 6 weeks, we
9:54was number one everywhere within a 2 and
9:57a half mile radius. Then within about 8
9:59weeks, we had um an 8 mile, not an 8
10:02mile, I think it was a 10 mile radius.
10:04And then after that, we was a 20 m,
10:06which means it's 40 mile across. And we
10:08were number one everywhere. And we still
10:10are to this day. And we've not just got
10:11that with ours, we've now got that with
10:13hundreds of clients and I work with
10:15hundreds of different agencies now on
10:19basically. So, so I do a monthly
10:20training with the agencies and I I'll go
10:22in and look at what they're doing, how
10:23they're doing it, and it nearly always
10:24just comes back to one word,
10:26consistency. Every single time it comes
10:28back to that one word, consistency. It
10:30just works because your link building,
10:32your keywords, your content, your
10:35contextual relevance, and your your
10:37everything else comes from the mirroring
10:38over of the website. And if you're
10:41trying to really push it a little bit
10:42further, you can use something called uh
10:44well schema. You'll know what schema is.
10:46And what we do is we put the business in
10:48the schema and then we use the CD in the
10:50same as and then we use that as a
10:51service area and we create service area
10:54pages around the business and that gives
10:56us a little bit of a boost um if if we
10:59need it. Most times you don't need it
11:00though with 99% of businesses you don't
11:02need it cuz nobody's being consistent.
11:05>> That make sense?
11:07>> It Yeah. We're going to break this down.
11:08I want to break this down into like step
11:10one, two, three. I think that'll make it
11:12especially easy. But I I I also want to
11:13ask I try to ask questions that
11:15listeners might be thinking. So how come
11:17you can't say the fastest that you've
11:19seen a business go from invisible to top
11:22three?
11:23because most businesses have been up
11:25maybe 6 12 18 months before we've before
11:27we've started doing anything with them.
11:29So if
11:29>> Yeah. But I mean like when you start
11:31when you start doing something with
11:32them.
11:33>> Well that business coaching one I I just
11:35told you about that one in four weeks we
11:38was number one everywhere within a 2 and
11:39a half mile radius. But if we was to try
11:42if I'm to try and say from zero, if you
11:44just set up a Google business profile
11:46now like and and if you're let's say
11:49you're dealing with divorce lawyers
11:52versus dealing with candle makers. Yeah.
11:55Then your candle makers is going to hit
11:57number one everywhere or say it's going
11:59to it's going to get a much bigger
12:00visibility in the in the radius area of
12:03where people are searching from much
12:04much faster than if somebody who's going
12:06after a divorce lawyer and they've
12:08already got 600 Google business
12:10profiles. They got thousands of clients.
12:11They've got hundreds if not thousands of
12:13citations all over from legitimate
12:15places, not just from from from spammy
12:18crappy ones that people throw up. Like
12:20all of a sudden, it's a whole different
12:21ballgame. Um, but what we've seen even
12:24in those situations is the consistency
12:27is not always there. The requesting a
12:29review from every single client isn't
12:31there. The responding to the reviews
12:33isn't there. If it is there, it's
12:34usually there. It's a canned response.
12:36Thanks for the review. Lovely working
12:38with you. Thanks. and everyone's getting
12:39the same response and it's like okay and
12:42so that's kind of what we've built into
12:44the process is a way of automating rec
12:47review requests and then we have AI that
12:50writes the response but the client has
12:52to then verify and edit it so that
12:53there's no actual just AI slop going up
12:56so nothing can be put up automatically
12:58it has to be put up um it has to be
13:01verified reviewed and verified by a real
13:04human before it ever goes live
13:07>> and what what's step one for let's say
13:09somebody who hasn't really worked on
13:11their Google business profile at all.
13:13What's step one?
13:14>> So step one, right? So if you if you're
13:16a GBP expert, [clears throat]
13:18then step one's profile completeness
13:20straight away. It's the foundation. Um
13:23inside of our software, we have
13:24something called a GBP expert because
13:26this is where most people fall down. So
13:28what we what we enable them to do is
13:30they upload their Google business
13:32profile and GBP expert will will scan
13:34it. We'll scan your website. will scan
13:35everything that to do with your business
13:37and it will come back and tell you
13:38exactly what steps you need to do to get
13:40to as close to a 100 score as possible.
13:43So, profile completeness and then
13:45mirroring. So, before you start putting
13:47up loads of posts, putting up images,
13:49and doing all that, if you're working on
13:51a bad foundation, profile completeness
13:53is step number one. And then mirroring
13:55is again is just look side by side. This
13:58is the website. This is the Google
13:59business profile. the business name is
14:01identical because people tend to stuff
14:02keywords into business names when it's
14:04on a Google business profile which is
14:06against the terms anyway. Um then you've
14:08got so you'll check the name, you'll
14:11check the the the locations the same,
14:12our business hours are the same. You'd
14:14be surprised to find how many people
14:16have got 9 to5 Monday to Friday on on
14:18their website and that's not their
14:21working hours and they're open seven
14:22days a week. And so so it's important to
14:25make sure that everything mirrors. And
14:27then again, you can go to something like
14:28chatbt and you can say chatbt, go and
14:31find all the mentions of my business on
14:32the internet and put in a load of
14:35information about your business and find
14:36me everywhere that this doesn't match.
14:38And then that that's not it's not
14:40completely foolproof, but it's the most
14:42cost effective way for a business to do
14:44it. And then they can just click the
14:45links from chat dbt and go and find the
14:47citations where things are not matching.
14:50Like we've got an example where we've
14:52ranked one of our Google business
14:54profiles and we can't hit number one.
14:56Okay. And the reason we can't hit number
14:57one is we've purposely created citations
14:59with different opening hours. So on on
15:02the website it's got something like 9
15:04to5 Monday to Friday. And then over on
15:06the citations we've got 10 toil uh 10il
15:092 I think Monday to Friday. And we've
15:11done it purposely to show that actually
15:13having these citations over here make a
15:15difference if you've got even something
15:17like your working hours is incorrect.
15:18Now, we are ranking in the top three for
15:21a lot of areas and number one in some
15:22areas, but we're nowhere near hitting
15:24that 25 mile radius that we want to
15:26potentially get for a Google business
15:28profile. That's kind of the aim. If if
15:30you get everything right, you should be
15:32able to hit that radius quite
15:34consistently on the first page of
15:36Google.
15:36>> And what happens when when external
15:38websites that aren't your own are saying
15:40different things about your business?
15:43>> Yeah. Well, the the the thing is is what
15:46you want to do is try and get all of
15:47your citations as accurate as possible
15:49as in in everywhere that you physically
15:51can do it. Um, now we used to have a lot
15:54of directories cuz we did the mass page
15:55sites and we'd pulled all the directory
15:58information
16:00from Google business profiles and we
16:02built out these mass page directories
16:03and was ranking for everybody's brand
16:04names and keywords and all sorts of
16:06crazy stuff like tens of thousands of
16:07pages. And we were getting hundreds and
16:10hundreds and hundreds of businesses
16:12contact us saying this is incorrect. And
16:14that's what you have to do
16:15unfortunately. You have to get in touch
16:16with these these website owners and like
16:17look you've got the wrong information
16:18about my business. Can you please take
16:20it down? And it can be quite laborous,
16:22but it's worth it. Especially if those
16:24websites are something that's got a lot
16:27of a good solid footprint online. Like
16:30if it's just some crappy little onepage
16:31website somewhere that's not really
16:33indexing properly, not ranking, you can
16:35almost ignore it. But the bigger
16:36citations are more important. Um, and
16:39the more powerful a website, the more
16:41effort you want to put into.
16:42>> And how much does that affect your
16:43Google business profile performance when
16:45you when you fix a citation? when you
16:47fix like an external citation
16:50>> again like like we said earlier it
16:52doesn't it depends on the industry and
16:55the competition that's in there and how
16:56well everything else is in place
16:57already. So it's not necessarily that
16:59you're going to change a citation and
17:01it's going to push you up to the number
17:02one or you're going to get all your
17:03citations correct. But the the key is is
17:06if you've got citations all over that
17:08are referring to your I think I think I
17:11think the best way to look at it is if
17:13you make Google think or even look and
17:16say is this the same business it will
17:18pretend to ignore it'll tend to ignore
17:19it. It's like if you put two pages on a
17:22website um and and you've got one that
17:24and this one that's both trying to rank
17:25for the same page for the same keyword
17:28like Google tends to ignore them both.
17:30it some most of the time it'll choose
17:31one but it can ignore them both and
17:33you're cannibalizing it and it doesn't
17:35work. So obviously what you do is you
17:36tear the the linking and and link them
17:38all through to one and do it correctly.
17:40But it's kind of like the same thing is
17:43it's it's more about because obviously
17:45if you've got a business that's 15 years
17:46old, they might have changed address.
17:47They might have changed working hours.
17:48They might have there'll be a ton of of
17:50services they do now they never used to
17:51do back in the day. And so, but all that
17:55is we get it as close as we possibly can
17:57and then from that point forward we
18:00focus on consistency, pictures, post and
18:02praise and consistency over time. But
18:05then we keep looping back every month to
18:07the profile completeness and mirroring.
18:08So every month you're going to recont
18:11the places that you you can to try and
18:13get all your information accurate. And I
18:15think that's the key. It's not about
18:17getting everything 100% straight away.
18:19It's about being consistent and it's
18:20seeing things happen and then you move
18:23back down the list and then it comes
18:24back and it happens again and you move
18:26back down the list and it happens again
18:27and eventually you'll get things to you
18:29probably never get everything 100%. But
18:32the the great thing about Google
18:34business profiles is is that 50% of
18:36people that do them profile completeness
18:39they'll go off and they will maybe fix
18:41the website and some of the citations.
18:42They'll put a batch of images up that
18:45they'll maybe do a few posts. they'll
18:47get past 10 links because there's this
18:48myth online that uh sorry 10 reviews
18:51there's this myth online it gives you a
18:53massive boost and I've not seen any
18:54proof of that so I won't say it is or it
18:56isn't I just don't necessarily I've not
18:59seen it um and then they won't do
19:02anything it'll sit there so it's
19:04completely useless so probably 80% of
19:06Google business profiles are not even
19:08optimized and then the ones that do get
19:10optimized they're not staying consistent
19:14the key is that consistency
19:16Yeah, it's it's and and uh what you're
19:19saying about mirroring with the website
19:20is super cool. Darren Shaw, he's been on
19:22the podcast many times, super wellknown
19:24in local SEO, Darren Shaw of White
19:26Spark, in his first time on the show, he
19:28he said he said like they looked at the
19:31crawl logs of a uh of a a website when
19:33they made a change to the corresponding
19:36Google business profile. and he saw that
19:40Google crawled they made like the most
19:42minor change to the GBP and Google
19:46crawled literally every page on the
19:49website. Every single page Google
19:52crawled to to verify the change and um
19:56Google can see that because it's part of
19:59Google. So so so so it's it's it's much
20:02quicker than than anything else. I mean,
20:04I don't know if if you were if you've
20:06done lead generation and things like
20:07that when we all used to um create a
20:09Google doc and make it public and put
20:12all of your and it doesn't work the same
20:14anymore. Put all of your URLs into it
20:16and it' get you indexed really really
20:18quickly and then we'd stack all the
20:19Google properties and things like that
20:21to try and it doesn't work anywhere near
20:22as well anymore because AI is kind of
20:25filtered through to the point where it
20:26understands exactly what it is you're
20:27doing. What should what should what
20:29should uh a local business have on their
20:31site
20:33>> on their website?
20:34>> Yeah.
20:35>> I mean, so so a lot of people are like
20:38you've there's a list of thing. I mean,
20:39you obviously want your terms of service
20:41and your privacy policy and things like
20:42that, but it's it's more about matching.
20:45So from a website perspective, from a
20:47local SEO perspective, that's where
20:49you're going to do all of your content.
20:51That's where you're going to that's
20:52where all the technical work belongs.
20:54Okay? So, so, so from a website
20:56perspective, they can do a Google
20:57business profile themselves. A a
21:00business can do it themselves. It's just
21:02very very very time consuming and that's
21:04why we create softwares that takes away
21:07the time. But, but from from a from a
21:09website perspective, local SEO is not
21:11very difficult. There's very few
21:13businesses even now that are doing it
21:16right. So I I always say to a business
21:19don't try to like get content's nowhere
21:23near as valuable as it used to be. Like
21:25content some content is nowhere near as
21:27valuable. Data is very very valuable. So
21:30for for example uh from a content
21:32perspective I can put 500 pages of
21:34content super super quick using AI and
21:36you can go through and mess around with
21:37it and make it but so can everybody
21:38else. But if I if I go into my software
21:41and pull back data from 500 different
21:43Google business profiles and say, "Okay,
21:45I can see that if you put up images
21:48twice a week and if you do this many
21:50posts and you do this and then I publish
21:52that data, that one piece of content is
21:55way more valuable
21:58than a 100 pages of so-called SEO
22:02optimized
22:03AI slop because it's it's brand new.
22:06It's unique. It's it's real data that
22:08you you you you're bringing that doesn't
22:10exist anywhere online before. It's not
22:12something that's been regurgitated from
22:13something that already exists, which is
22:15kind of what your your AI does. Um, and
22:17we're finding that that type of content
22:19ranks better than content that is just
22:23we are the best plumber in location type
22:25of that we've been doing since 200
22:29probably before I did it, 2009, 2010
22:31when I started. But before that, people
22:33were doing it as well, weren't they? We
22:34I don't know if you was in SEO back
22:36then, but what we used to do is we we'd
22:38get white content on a white background
22:40and you'd put in like keyword location a
22:42thousand times on the page and then
22:44you'd have a little bit of text at the
22:45top and you'd have a white background
22:47with white text and you publish it and
22:49you'd hit number one in Google.
22:50[laughter]
22:51It was awesome. It was so easy. Um
22:54[laughter]
22:55like we made so much money back in the
22:56day from the lead genen stuff, but
22:57obviously Google's got on to all that
22:59now.
23:00>> Yeah. with um the content like not all
23:02content is as valuable. Completely
23:04agree. I for me it's uh I I think I
23:10think top ofunnel content which I talk
23:12about all the time on the show is
23:13generally like don't focus on that if
23:15you're a business. Focus on that if you
23:17have all the bottom ofunnel stuff nailed
23:18down. And with a local business like
23:20you're saying it's super it's super easy
23:22to do to do content on a site. Focus on
23:26the the bottom of funnel stuff. Most
23:28people don't even know how to do
23:29relevance. Most local businesses don't
23:31properly know how to do relevance. I was
23:33looking at um one of the top one of the
23:35top uh one of the top law firms that in
23:41SEO within New York City and there was a
23:44lot that they were doing right, but
23:46there was a ridiculous amount that they
23:48were doing wrong where they can easily
23:50be overturned in their SEO. And it's um
23:54yeah, a a lot of people don't know how
23:56to do um SEO the right way. uh you see
24:00that you see the um what you're talking
24:01about there law firm in the United
24:03States do you know what a practitioner
24:05profile is basically and the reason I'm
24:07bringing up is because you've said the
24:08law firms and law firms is the perfect
24:09example right so so most and I'm not
24:12saying all law firms but most law firms
24:13for example might be a law firm based in
24:15the United States uh based in New York
24:16we use New York right and then let's say
24:19they've got 20 partners right all
24:21partners one does divorce one does some
24:23sort of finance crap and all sorts of
24:24stuff that they do all these different
24:26types of law right each one of those
24:28lawyers lawyers might actually be
24:30eligible for what's called an individual
24:32practitioner profile, right? So then
24:35what you do is your website would be um
24:37abcaw.com. Yeah. Then you'd have
24:39abcaw.com/mike
24:41Martin. Then we might have Edward Sturm
24:43and and so on and so forth. Yeah. And
24:45and we're both lawyers. And then what
24:47you can do is I can go and create.
24:49Right. So, as long as I'm contactable at
24:51the at the business during my selected
24:54working hours and as long as I'm a a um
24:56I forgot how so I can be contacted at
25:00the verified place and I'm a public
25:04facing professional. So, you can't have
25:06receptionist and people like that,
25:07right? So, it's it's your lawyers. But,
25:09let's say I'm a divorce lawyer. Mike
25:10Martin's a divorce lawyer. So, what I
25:12could potentially do is I can build a
25:15practitioner profile for Mike Martin as
25:18a let's say I'm a doctor, Dr. Mike
25:20Martin, but we'll go back to law now
25:22just because I don't know the titles of
25:23lawyers. Um, so I I I can be Mike
25:26Martin, the the the divorce lawyer based
25:28in New York at the at the business and I
25:33can have my own individual practitioner
25:35profile. Okay. So it then becomes a
25:37specialist practitioner profile because
25:39it's only going to be based around
25:40divorce lawyer, right? And then I can
25:42build out my own um my own client base.
25:46I can build out my own prof pictures
25:48post pro pro uh pictures, post and
25:51praise. But then let's say I've got a
25:53practitioner profile with 240 uh
25:55fivestar reviews. Now imagine that I'm
25:58going looking for a job and I'm going up
26:00against three other right more
26:03experienced lawyers for this divorce
26:05lawyer practitioner. But I walk in there
26:07and because if you move address or you
26:09move business, you can transfer your
26:12Google business profile practitioner
26:14profile across to where you've moved
26:16address as a business. Well, it's the
26:18same thing for these individual
26:19practitioners right now. Imagine I walk
26:21in and they've seen three people that
26:22are more experienced. They're like, "Oh,
26:23see this last guy anyway? He's he's he's
26:25he's not as experienced. We're probably
26:27not going to pick him. And he walks in
26:29and he says, "Right, but what and I've
26:31got this and I've got this and I've got
26:32this and I've had about a book of
26:33business, but I've also got an
26:34individual practitioner profile, right?
26:37And it gets 39 incoming calls every
26:39single month, right? And now imagine
26:42each one of those leads is worth, I
26:43don't know, between 20 maybe 20 to
26:46150,000 for a for for a divorce. All of
26:48a sudden does that and he can take that
26:51with him." And so so lawyers can build
26:53what's called individual practitioner
26:55profiles and so can doctors, so can
26:57dentists, so can can um insurance
27:00brokers, so can real estate. So you can
27:02go like a lot of people are spending a
27:04ton of time trying to pitch businesses
27:07on Google business profile optimization,
27:08but you can go into LinkedIn and you
27:10could potentially go and pick um
27:12professionals, experts, and and like
27:14you're not trying to sell them. You're
27:16like, I'd love to sit down and speak to
27:18you and see if you qualify for an
27:20individual practitioner profile. And if
27:21you explain it the way I've just
27:22explained it to you, let's say you're
27:24earning six figures and you want to go
27:25and get another job and you've got that
27:26on your CV. Nobody else has got that
27:27because nobody's doing it, right? And
27:29you can do this for surgeons. You can do
27:31you can do it for real estate um one
27:33that actually does seem to use it quite
27:35a bit. real realtors tend to use it, but
27:38it it's such a it's one of the biggest
27:40opportunities in my opinion um for
27:43people doing Google business profile
27:45optimization right now and and then from
27:46an upsell from inside an organization
27:48perspective, you you could be the the
27:51law firm. If you contact the law firm
27:53and say, "Do you realize that we could
27:55have maybe 5, 10, 15 different Google
27:58business profiles from inside your
28:00organization? All I want to do is sit
28:02down, interview each one of your your
28:04experts, see if they qualify for it. If
28:07they do, we'll build out the profiles.
28:08And because you're already spending 15,
28:1020 grand a month with us, we'll only
28:11charge you two grand per profile per
28:13month. Let's say you get 10 and you put
28:15an extra 20 grand a month in recurring
28:16revenue straight into your business with
28:18an upsell that's going to one one new
28:21client through one of those practitioner
28:22profiles will cover the cost of that
28:24anyway, for for these lawyers. and and
28:26it's it's it's it's it's such a big
28:28opportunity that nobody's taking
28:30advantage of.
28:31>> It's cool. Super cool. Um I want to go
28:34back to your method, too. So, okay. So,
28:37step one is just profile completeness
28:41and mirroring.
28:42>> Yep.
28:42>> And and Okay. Step two,
28:45>> uh pictures and and videos. So, so
28:47profile completeness pictures. And when
28:49I say pictures, videos, it's just a
28:51media me. You need a media strategy
28:54because
28:56it's not necessar like Google's not
28:58going to say to us put upload three or
28:59five or seven images every single week.
29:01Okay? And and there's not even any proof
29:03that they the effect ranking. But the
29:05whole point of of using having a media
29:07strategy, there's the consistency so
29:09Google can see movement. So it knows
29:11that you're still active, you're still
29:12doing what you do, but not not only
29:14that, it puts a face on the organization
29:15right now face. Like most profiles
29:18you'll see the images are 2 3 4 5 years
29:21old
29:22>> and it doesn't take much effort to be
29:25uploading pictures on a regular basis.
29:27Like even if you're a lawyers firm, it's
29:29like you've got people joining and
29:30leaving all the time. There's new
29:32legislations coming out which you can
29:33put into post or images. There's all
29:35sorts of stuff that's happening that if
29:37you treat it more like social media,
29:40your consistent daily uploads,
29:42consistent daily manual actions rather
29:44than um trying to be super technical
29:46because leave that to the website, leave
29:48that to the SEO organ agency, the the
29:51Google business profile, that
29:52consistency. So the then yeah pictures
29:55>> yeah most people just don't want to be
29:57consistent. So how about people who are
29:59trying to use AI images in their GBP?
30:03So, what we were doing for a while and
30:06what I've been doing is I would avoid
30:08completely AI generated, especially now,
30:10you know, that they've got the little
30:11thing that they've got to put in the
30:12images so that they can tell it's an AI
30:14image straight away. But what so what I
30:16used to do is I used to go to my website
30:19and I'd [clears throat] take a
30:20screenshot
30:21of of a call to action, right? And then
30:24I'd get that screenshot of that call to
30:25action and then I'd go over to Canva and
30:27I'd make like an 18 um
30:31what's it called? 19 1820. I can't
30:33remember what they call it. You know,
30:34you know the shapes 1920 by um 1080p.
30:38>> It's 1920 pixels by 10 by 10,80 pixels.
30:41It's like a standard slide shape. So I'
30:44I'd create one of them. I'd drop it in
30:46the middle. Then I'd say office staff
30:48and I'd get images from Canva and I'd
30:50drop behind the call to action the
30:53office staff and then I'd duplicate it
30:55and I'd switch the image from the
30:57background. So you're getting 100%
30:58unique images. It's got call to action
31:00and and information from your website.
31:02It's got writing in the image. The
31:03background isn't generated using AI
31:05because it's generated straight from
31:06Canva, which is from the stock images,
31:08but you're not using stock images.
31:10You're using a call to action that cuts
31:11out the middle square. We've done that
31:13quite a bit, but I would I would focus
31:15more on using real images. if you can
31:17get a client.
31:18>> What type what type of images should
31:20people be putting? Because imagine like
31:23some some people they hear that and
31:25they're just like, "Okay, I'm just going
31:26to do exactly that call to action button
31:29over a blurred background and I'm just
31:32going to keep changing the background
31:33and that's all they're going to do." So
31:34like
31:35>> no, chase your clients. So for example,
31:38this is so one of the biggest problems
31:41an agency has with Google business
31:42profile management is all the back and
31:44forth. So if you imagine right we we we
31:48need images from the client. So the
31:49client sends them your WhatsApp. They
31:51put them you put them into Google Drive.
31:52You can't schedule them. So you have to
31:53upload one at a time. You have to you
31:55have to focus on that. Then you've got
31:56the back and forth as we write the post.
31:57We send them to the client. The client
31:59um edits and approves them. Sends them
32:01back. And then we have to publish them.
32:03The same with the reviews. We're chasing
32:04the reviews. We're going to respond to
32:05the reviews. The client has to um has to
32:08approve it. And because of that process
32:10that that it's really really manual like
32:12an average agency spends um close to if
32:15they do it manually up five to 10 hours
32:17a month per client on Google business
32:18profile if you're doing a proper job
32:20right so we created something called the
32:22client portal which is a white label
32:24client portal and what happens is every
32:27single week the system will
32:28automatically go and look dynamically at
32:31what's outstanding on the client's
32:32profile do we need images do we need
32:34post to be approved do we do do we need
32:36client contact information like emails
32:38and phone numbers and it will send an
32:40email to the client and it'll tell them
32:42exactly what we need and then there's a
32:44link to what's called the client portal
32:46and the client can then open the client
32:47portal and they can upload their images
32:48and it'll put them straight into the
32:50schedule. They can approve posts and and
32:52the system will write your posts
32:53automatically based on the client's
32:55website every single week, push them
32:56into the client portal. They can look,
32:57edit, approve, publish and then the same
33:00thing with the reviews. It'll chase the
33:01reviews and then it'll the client can
33:04oneclick respond to a review but it
33:05writes three options with AI. they
33:08select one and then they have to edit
33:09and approve it before they can publish
33:10it. So, we've kind of made that back and
33:13forth completely disappear. But still,
33:16going back to images, I would focus
33:18massively on trying to get real images
33:20from the organization. Like, you don't
33:23need to upload hundreds and hundreds and
33:25hundreds of images. The key is staying
33:28consistent and requesting them from the
33:29client on a regular basis and at least
33:31getting the client to put some in. You
33:33said how many how many images and videos
33:35a week?
33:37>> There isn't a number. There is no
33:38there's no specific number. Like if
33:40let's say let's say I was working with a
33:41um a car showroom.
33:43>> Like I I would potentially me personally
33:45would say to the car showroom, every
33:46time you get a new car in, take a
33:47photograph and put it on the Google
33:48business profile, put it on the client
33:49portal and we'll just post them all.
33:51We'll just keep it going. It's not going
33:52to cause any harm. But then let's let's
33:54say let's say you're you're a funeral
33:57parlor. Like a funeral parlor, you're
33:58not going to be taking pictures of
34:00people letting you do you know what I
34:01mean? So, and so Google like like you'll
34:04know Google has got let's say it's got
34:06200,000 of every business and it's got
34:09it knows what they do. It's not about do
34:12this many images and do this many posts.
34:14It's like just just be as consistent as
34:17you possibly can because we what we
34:18don't want to do is upload 50 and then
34:21nothing for six months. Then upload 50
34:22and then nothing for six months. Then up
34:24we don't want that up and down. What we
34:26want is to say to Google, you can see
34:28this is a consistently active business
34:31that's got consistent action going on
34:33all the time. Like on average, they
34:35upload three images a week. On average,
34:36they upload three to four posts a week.
34:38On average, they get a review every
34:40single week, right? Then let's let's not
34:42change it. And then what we do is we we
34:44we monitor, we measure, and we repeat.
34:46Or we monitor, we measure, we adjust,
34:48and then we repeat. So if we can see
34:50that it's not helping, like we'll look
34:53at where we're going wrong. It's it's
34:54usually it's nearly always something to
34:57do with profile completeness/mirroring.
34:59We're not uploading images or the the
35:01images are all out of date. We're not
35:03getting any interaction at all on the
35:05post because with a post it should do
35:07really one of three things. It should
35:09provide information. Yeah. To people. It
35:11should try to build a relationship or it
35:13should try to convert a prospect into a
35:16customer. That's it. That's really it.
35:18If if it does one of those three things,
35:20put it on the profile. If it doesn't do
35:22any of those things, then don't do it.
35:25It's as simple as that. And it's like,
35:26don't write it for the sake of writing
35:27it. So, that's kind of what we do is we
35:29try to focus on those three areas when
35:31we're creating using AI, but we scan the
35:34website, we scan the thing, we create
35:35them with AI, they go into the client
35:36portal. Once the clients seen them,
35:38either edited them, and then approved
35:40them, then they go into the publishing
35:41schedule automatically. So, there's no
35:43real work to do.
35:44>> Does that make sense?
35:45>> So, yeah. So, so step two, images and
35:48video, consistent images and video. Step
35:50three,
35:50>> yes. uh post regular post so yes just
35:54just regular post
35:55>> and then step
35:56>> is there you don't have any cadence for
35:58posts
36:00>> well we don't have a specific cadence
36:02for post because I've tested this on
36:04hundreds of Google business profiles now
36:06and on some of them I'm publishing 14
36:08posts a week on others I'm publishing
36:10four posts a week
36:11>> and what what is a post and just like
36:13give an okay let's say you're a
36:14locksmith business give an example of
36:16post that you would do
36:17>> well I might I might say I might I might
36:19do a post to say we've Just like I'll
36:21give you an example of when I was a
36:22locksmith. Like I might do a post on
36:25there that's information is like um I
36:28went to a house once and this girl had
36:31somebody had had broke into a house
36:33through the bottom of a front door
36:35because they wanted to nick a car keys
36:36to steal a car off the drive. And I'd
36:38gone to to to fix the front door, change
36:40the locks and and so on and so forth.
36:41But what happened is her and her
36:42four-year-old daughter had been hid
36:44under the bed upstairs. And because they
36:46couldn't find the car keys, they went
36:47upstairs, kicked the bedroom door open,
36:49threw the bed out of the way, grabbed
36:50the woman, give her a bit of a a thing,
36:52and and like something like that. I
36:54would definitely post that onto my
36:56Google business profile. I wouldn't say
36:57specifics and names. It's like, guys,
36:59you need to pay attention to your
37:00security. This is something that we've
37:02seen recently, like, and I was at an
37:04address in this location, blah, blah,
37:05blah. You don't put names. You don't put
37:06phone numbers in because they won't get
37:08it won't get published anymore. But then
37:10that's the type of thing that I would
37:11put up. But then also, I I would be I
37:12would be notifying that we've got new
37:14members of staff starting. I'll be
37:15notifying we've got events coming up.
37:16I'm notifying we're going to do special
37:18offers. I would be notifying we've got
37:19OAP special offers, especially around
37:21the winter time when it gets really
37:22really cold and and and and and OAP's
37:25night need special treatment for stuff.
37:27So, it's not about trying to do things
37:29for an SEO perspective. It's it's trying
37:31to do things that will help the
37:34community. Like the first thing you said
37:35to me when I was coming on your podcast,
37:37is the information going to help my
37:39users? Because if it's not, not
37:40interested. Which is the best way to run
37:42a podcast? But it's the same. It's the
37:44best way to run a business. Don't run a
37:46business for Google. Run a business for
37:48the customer. And and Google understands
37:52the business. Like you you you'll
37:54understand that 99% of businesses that
37:56run everything for the customer, they
37:59grow like that. Whereas the businesses
38:01that are more focused on Google and
38:04rankings and SEO and link building and
38:06citations and everything else, they
38:09they don't get the same they don't get
38:11the same results because they're always
38:12trying to find the next little hack
38:14that's going to give them that slight
38:15boost that then three months later is
38:17going to give them that drop and then
38:19they're chasing the hack and then
38:20they're chasing the boost. I did it for
38:21years with with with local SEO, with
38:23mass page, with with single niche PBNs.
38:26I used to create these these single H
38:27PBNs where I'd go off and I'd scrape
38:30yellow pages and I'd find every single
38:33um one that had a a a dead link on it.
38:36So I'd scrape it. I think it was Rune
38:37was the tool I used to use. I'd scrape
38:39um every every locksmith in say
38:41Manchester or Olden or Rodale. And any
38:43that had a dead link so I knew it had a
38:44citation on on um yellow pages and and
38:48the domain had expired, I'd go and buy
38:50it. I'd turn it into a locksmith site.
38:51I'd build out all the pages on it. I'd
38:53create a radius. I'd do everything I do
38:55with a normal money site and then what I
38:57do is I create a triangle where I'd link
38:58them all together and then what I do is
39:00I'd watch the traffic and then one of
39:02them might pop. I never knew why. So
39:04let's say I built 12 sites. Site number
39:06seven might pop. When that that site
39:08pops and the other load don't they
39:10become supporting sites for the single
39:12niche PBN and the site that pops gets
39:14its own triangles underneath it of new
39:17domains being bought pointing up to it.
39:19And then if any of the let's say I built
39:21three triangles, we say 36 sites and
39:22there's three links to the site and then
39:24they all in batches of 12. And then if
39:26any of those individual sites started to
39:28pop, I didn't care why. Like right that
39:30one's popped. Put it at the top. Let's
39:32build three triangles underneath it.
39:34Let's create a single next PVN under it
39:35with all these domain names that were
39:37were not costing me any money. And I
39:39used to do things like that all the
39:40time. And that was kind of our our local
39:42SEO strategy. That that that took us
39:45from from doing almost nothing to 100
39:47grand a month in in a in an industry
39:50where you don't get any repeat business.
39:52And that that was what was was amazing
39:53because that was why I stopped doing the
39:54locksmithing because everyone's like to
39:56me why would you walk away from that?
39:57And it's like because you start from
39:58zero every single month. Like do you
40:01realize you've got a mountain to climb?
40:02If I do 100 grand this month and then I
40:04do 30 grand the following month I feel
40:06like killing myself [laughter] because
40:08it's like ah what's going on? And it's
40:10like every month, every month, every
40:11month. So we got I I got into then
40:13software and started creating software
40:15which is recurring revenue software
40:17which means you never go back to zero at
40:19the start of every month.
40:22Step I think we're on step four or five.
40:25We had uh we had Okay. Step one is is
40:29profile completeness and mirroring. Step
40:31two is images and videos. Step three is
40:33posts. So step four
40:35>> is uh praise. We call I call it praise
40:38but it's basically reviews and review
40:39responses. [snorts]
40:40>> Um and we have seen I can actually
40:43actively say we have seen reviews and
40:45review responses showing up in the AI
40:47overviews in 24 48 hours. We do know
40:51that that reviews help with with with
40:54visibility and we do know that mo the
40:57more reviews you get real genuine
40:59reviews from people within the location
41:01where you're working and where you're
41:02trying to rank because obviously you'll
41:03know that that um distant relevance and
41:05prominence is the is the three key
41:07things for for for them to rank and and
41:11so so we have seen um Google business
41:13profiles uh sorry reviews and review
41:16responses pushing it into the AI they do
41:18push up the site but again I would I
41:20would I would say don't focus on So, for
41:24example, if you put in a 100 clients
41:26this month into my software, I won't
41:29send out a review request to 100
41:30clients. Our system won't. It drips out
41:33your review requests over a 30-day
41:34period, right? And you put 100 phone
41:37numbers, 100 thingies, um 100 emails.
41:39And the reason it does it that way is so
41:41what we're trying to do is drip out your
41:43review requests over over a period so
41:46you get the consistency. So we focus on
41:49then getting them.
41:50>> What does a review request look like?
41:52>> So it'll be an email that goes out to a
41:54client. It will be a a text that goes
41:56out to a client automatically from
41:58within the system. And then we do we do
42:00other things like we have little uh you
42:02can create flyers. You can put QR codes
42:03that you can print off and you can put
42:05in your packaging, put on your
42:06packaging. We have little like the
42:08little poster that we create which can
42:10sit next to somebody's checkout system.
42:11We have an API system that basically
42:15connects to, let's say you use Stripe to
42:17take payments off a customer, right?
42:19Well, if you're taking payments off a
42:20customer and you take their email
42:21address, you can connect to the API and
42:23as soon as you take that payment, it'll
42:25automatically send them an email
42:26requesting a review. So, you're
42:28requesting reviews as the clients are
42:29coming in. But because businesses don't
42:32want to give you the client's
42:33information at one at a time when if we
42:36ask for them at the end of each month or
42:38at the end of each week, we'll then drip
42:39those requests out over a 30-day period
42:42so that we're not getting a ton of
42:43reviews and then nothing. Ton of reviews
42:45and then nothing. And then the the
42:47system will email the client once a week
42:49saying, "This is everything we've done
42:52for you. This is what's outstanding that
42:54we need from you so that we can carry on
42:55doing the same next week." And the
42:57system will keep on top of your clients
42:58for you doing it that way. So that's
43:00kind of so so it's it's it's all about
43:04>> So your system your system reminds the
43:06clients or your system messages the
43:09customers of the business to to to leave
43:12reviews.
43:14>> So the system reminds the business
43:17owners. So so so the system so let's say
43:20you've done 14.
43:21>> So what what are the business owners
43:22doing?
43:24So they'll then drop the information
43:25into the client portal and once the
43:28information goes into the client portal,
43:29the client portal will then put it into
43:30your publishing schedules. So you don't
43:33have So So what'll happen is what once a
43:35week a client will get an email that
43:36says right, you've we've done 14 posts.
43:38Those posts will have been written by AI
43:40put into the client portal. The client
43:41portal have been sent to the the client.
43:43So let's say it says you've had 14
43:44posts, you've had four image uploads,
43:46you've had five reviews that's come in,
43:47you've had
43:48>> but I want to I want to go back to the
43:50fundamentals of getting the reviews of
43:51actually getting the reviews. like you
43:53need a review strategy.
43:54>> Yes.
43:55>> Yeah.
43:56>> So, so we have a review strategy inside
43:59of the client portal and inside of the
44:01system. So, every week the system will
44:04email the client the the business owner
44:07and say, "Please put your customer
44:09information into the client portal." So,
44:11then what they'll do is they let's say
44:13they've got a list of email addresses or
44:14phone numbers. they can drop those into
44:16the client portal and then the client
44:18portal will write an email or or a text
44:21request and send it to each of the
44:23clients of the business but it's white
44:25label so it sends it to each of the
44:27clients of the business when they
44:29respond with a review respon when they
44:31put up a review because it gives them
44:32the click link that takes them straight
44:33to the Google business profile soon as
44:35they get a review the next time it sends
44:36them an email it'll say right add your
44:38client information and you've also got
44:40three reviews you need to respond to
44:41inside the client portal so when they go
44:43into the client portal this is this is
44:44the agency say uh sorry when the when
44:47the business owner goes into the client
44:48portal they'll be able to click uh
44:51suggest with AI that'll write three
44:53responses to the review because the the
44:55software crawls the website and the GBP
44:58writes three responses the client can
44:59choose their favorite the business can
45:01choose their favorite select it edit it
45:03click submit
45:03>> does the does does the system send
45:06follow-ups to customers of the business
45:11>> no not as yet no it will only send one
45:13one request per customer. Um, now the
45:16client, they can upload more client
45:18emails going forward, but we we don't
45:21want to be getting you look turned into
45:23a spammer. So, for example, if you're
45:25sending out three emails to a client for
45:28requesting a review, there's a much
45:30higher chance they're going to give you
45:32a one-star review because you're
45:33stalking them. So, we send out one email
45:36requesting a review. If they ignore it,
45:38we don't stalk them. And we do exactly
45:40the same. And the only reason we do that
45:41is because we we try to avoid negative
45:44reviews at all costs. Like inside the
45:46email, it'll say um if you had a great
45:49experience, click here and leave us a
45:50review. If you had a bad experience,
45:52this is our support email and it gives
45:54the support email from the website so
45:57they can email your support team and
45:58hopefully you can help them out and you
46:00don't get a bad review. So there's a lot
46:01of little things we do to try and not
46:04not coax them into giving positive
46:05reviews, but obviously avoid negative
46:07reviews at all costs.
46:09>> Yeah. the uh the rules around reviews on
46:12on Google business profile. Pretty
46:15crazy.
46:15>> Yes. Yes. And even silly little things
46:17like phone numbers and things like that
46:18or or certain mentions in there now can
46:20have them have them restricted. And
46:22Google do take down a lot of reviews
46:24now. They take take down a ton of
46:25reviews and that's my technical team. My
46:27my technical team go through and they
46:29check absolutely everything to make sure
46:32that we follow 100% of the rules. like
46:35the silly little things like there's
46:36certain tools out there goo like big
46:38tools okay that send you these oneclick
46:41um add a client with one click and they
46:43send an email to you and then when you
46:45click that email it automatically adds
46:47your client inside your system but it
46:48opens your it opens the business owner
46:51so they can see the name of the company
46:54inside of the oorthth because they have
46:56to by law and if they're if they're kind
46:59of distorting that or hiding it then
47:01they're breaking Google's terms and
47:02could potentially get you get it shut
47:05down, but it's also it's supposed to be
47:08white label. It's opening up whereas we
47:10follow every single rule to the letter,
47:14which I think you have to nowadays.
47:15There's little things that work, but you
47:17can look at at what works and um kind of
47:21it's like the best example is email
47:23opt-ins. It's like you're better off
47:26asking people to tick a box to say that
47:28you're all right to market to them and
47:29then deleting the ones that don't
47:30completely deleting them from your
47:32system than than taking a chance of
47:34sending out loads of these these. And
47:35it's the same with Google business
47:36profiles. It works if if you if we
47:39follow the rules and and and decide not
47:41to like try to try to bend it a little
47:44bit to get that tiny little bit of a
47:46boost quicker. It's like explain to a
47:48business, look, we do it this way. It
47:50might take it might take you a month
47:51longer or two months longer, but it's
47:53going to stick and stay long term and
47:54you know that you're building on a solid
47:56foundation. So that's kind of
47:58>> So you're So you're this like old school
48:00black hat who's now completely white
48:02hat.
48:03>> Not completely white hat. It's just
48:05right black hat with my own lead
48:07generation websites was only going to
48:10take my business out. Yeah. It wasn't
48:12going to take anything from any anybody.
48:14When you're dealing with Google business
48:16profiles, then you don't own them all.
48:18they belong to a business. Now, now
48:20imagine imagine you've got a plumber
48:22that's getting 150 leads a month from
48:23his from his Google business profile. He
48:25does nothing else, right? He's got a
48:26website that might rank for one keyword
48:28in one location, but he's not getting
48:30full-on visibility from it, right? And
48:32then all of a sudden in October, you the
48:35guy that's not doing everything correct
48:36gets his Google business profile
48:37suspended. And what's he going to do for
48:40Christmas for his kids? Like that's kind
48:42of how you've got to look at it when
48:43you're talking about Google business
48:44profiles. It's not it's not a lead
48:46generation. So, black hat lead
48:47generation. I would still be black hat
48:49to death, right? [laughter]
48:51If I was doing lead generation.
48:52>> What are some What are some black hat
48:54things that you still do?
48:56>> I don't I've focused 100% on Google
48:58business profiles now. I really don't.
49:00We've literally this year we've got
49:02about two and a half thousand domain
49:04names that are expiring that we've had
49:06built in into sites over the years.
49:08We've literally w like I I don't do
49:11anything other than Google business
49:12profile optim. I spend more time now. I
49:15probably have four or five meetings a
49:16day with agency owners where whenever
49:19whenever somebody joins our our our
49:22software. I basically speak to the I I I
49:25I give them the opportunity to have a
49:28meeting with me, a one-on-one, not with
49:30one of my team, not with one of my
49:31staff. They'll sit down with me and I
49:32will look at their business. I'll look
49:33at what they're doing and I will help
49:35them whether I can help them. Like for
49:37example, the individual practitioner
49:38profiles. I know for a fact if an agency
49:40joins me and they're working with
49:42doctors, they're working with dentists,
49:43they're working with lawyers, I can
49:45double the size of their agency pretty
49:46easy by just giving these tiny little
49:48bits of advice. So I I'll sit down and
49:50do a 30-minute meeting with every single
49:52agency that joins us, the ones that want
49:54to book it, and they'll get a one-to-one
49:56meeting with me and then I'll go
49:57through. So I spend more of my time
49:58doing that than doing anything else. So
50:00I'm not building any lead generation
50:02stuff anymore. I'm not like we've
50:04completely walked away from it. the
50:05these softwares because I I I was the
50:07owner and creator of Magic Page Plug-in,
50:09Lead Simplify, Local Content Engine, and
50:11a bunch of other ones. There's about
50:12eight of them. And I had a business
50:14partner that owned 20% of Magic Page
50:16Plug-in. I gave him all the softwares,
50:18and I could have sold them, but I gave
50:20them with no cash down. And I said to
50:22him, "Look, all you got to do, one of my
50:24friends had a bad experience. He sold a
50:26business and most of his clients got the
50:29piss took out of him." And I was like,
50:31[clears throat] I don't want a chance
50:32selling this and ruining what's what's
50:35like the guys that got lifetime licenses
50:37and all that. So I gave them to this
50:38person, all of them, and said, and he'd
50:41worked me with me for 11 years. So he he
50:43knew what he was doing. All you got to
50:44do is look after the customers. Don't
50:46any money, do anything. I'll help you
50:48market to the new customers to
50:49transition from where the subscriptions
50:50are now over to you. Here's the
50:52software, here's the products, is
50:53everything you've got. and I gave them
50:54all to him and I've helped him
50:55transition the majority of the customers
50:57across to to new subscriptions and stuff
50:59like that. Um, and and and that was
51:01rather than like don't get me wrong, it
51:03wasn't worth multiple seven figures, but
51:05I could have easily got
51:08half a million to to to maybe low seven
51:11figures for the for these softwares and
51:13the products and everything we had in
51:14place. But I didn't want to do that cuz
51:15I knew every client that's been with me
51:17a decade would have got the piss taken
51:19out of them or could have. but with
51:21somebody buy coming in buying it who
51:23doesn't know what they're doing. So we
51:24gave them to him and we just focused
51:26100% on GBP. Now
51:28>> what do you recommend to businesses for
51:30answering the phone? Anything special?
51:34>> Um but are you talking about answering
51:37the phone as regards to lead generation
51:40answering the phone? not like um like
51:42you have like a phone number in Google
51:43business profile, somebody clicks
51:45somebody clicks call um or or now
51:50Google's AI will go and call businesses
51:53for the customers.
51:55>> Well, it's always been my belief and and
51:58I've got no no proof of this, but it's
52:00always been my belief that there is a
52:01negative signal from Google. So, so for
52:05for example, right, I I've I I've always
52:08looked at at at Google from the
52:11perspective of of what logically makes
52:12sense, right? So, imagine somebody comes
52:15to your website, they click on your
52:16website, they ring your business, they
52:18don't get an answer. Yeah. Then they go
52:22they go back to Google, make the same
52:23search, click the business that's
52:24underneath you, they ring, and they
52:26don't go back to Google and make that
52:27search again. I believe that if that is
52:29consistently happening, I believe that
52:32that is a negative signal to Google and
52:34that eventually it's going to start
52:36pushing the websites that are answering
52:37the phones up above you because all
52:38Google want Google back in the day
52:40before AI was the only was the only
52:43website on the internet that wanted to
52:45get businesses off Google as fast as
52:47possible. Yeah. It wanted to send you
52:49somewhere else everywhere. Um, so with
52:53with regards to to to to phone number, I
52:55don't like the idea of having AI phone
52:57answers. I don't like the idea of having
52:59AI phone responders and I don't like I
53:01don't mind for outreach, but if you're
53:04not,
53:04>> will you will you outsource? Will you
53:06hire people um in very far away places
53:11>> that's less expensive
53:13>> to answer the phone?
53:14>> No. No. If if I'm if I'm in the UK, I'd
53:17want someone speaking first language,
53:19English. Um I I it's all about the
53:22customer experience for me even back
53:24when so what what I used to this is this
53:26is actually really good um people might
53:28like this people especially in lead
53:30generation so what I used to do is I
53:33used to have I I created what's called
53:34the fastest finger first system and I
53:37used to use lead simplify for it and the
53:39fastest finger first system what it used
53:40to do is is all the phones would ring
53:43simultaneously we actually built lead
53:44simplify for this it's still running
53:46it's still a software uh my old business
53:48partner now owns it Um, and what
53:50happened? So, I had, let's say I had six
53:52people answering the phones, right? And
53:54those six people that answer the phones,
53:56they wouldn't make a penny for answering
53:57the phones. So, if they didn't answer
53:58the phone, they didn't get paid, right?
54:00And they, but they got 20% of revenue
54:03generated from the calls they answered.
54:05So, I'd have six phones ringing all at
54:07once. And the person that could answer
54:08the phone the fastest, get it. And then
54:10what they do, for example, on the on the
54:11lead gen, and we had lots of different
54:12strategies, but one that that was my one
54:14of my favorites was, "We need a full
54:15addressing postcode and a credit or a
54:17debit card security appointment. Is that
54:18okay?" They'd be like, "Yeah." and they
54:19be like, "Right, where are you? What's
54:20happening? Who do you need?" Right? And
54:22they tell them and they be like, "Right,
54:23we need 60 booking fee, okay, to secure
54:26your appointment." And then we'll have
54:27somebody with you within the hour and
54:28they'll break into your house, break
54:29into your car, do whatever. We'd take
54:31that 60 booking fee via a Stripe payment
54:33over the phone, you know, over the over
54:35the phone payment or we'd send them a
54:37link and they'd pay it. Then we'd ring
54:39the locksmiths in the local area, right?
54:42And say, "I've got a job here. 100 quid
54:44to collect. Do you want it for free?"
54:45Right? We've just made 60. So we quote
54:47160 quid. We take 60 quid. We'd phone a
54:50locksmith and say, "I've got a job here.
54:51You can have it for free." And if they
54:52said yes, I'd be like, "Right, you have
54:53to join our lead simplified system.
54:54We'll send you loads of work for free."
54:56So, we were giving work away to
54:58businesses and taking a booking fee from
55:00the client. Um, and then my teley sales
55:03staff, the way I ran the teles sales
55:04system was you get 20% of revenue
55:07generated. So, if I made if I had if I
55:09had 500 phone calls a day coming in,
55:11let's say 10% converted to leads, I'd
55:12have 50 leads converting at that every
55:14single day. 80% went in my pocket, 20%
55:18paid the teley sales team, and I didn't
55:20have to I didn't it didn't cost me a
55:21penny just for the phone calls. And that
55:23was kind of we built a massive massive
55:25lead genen network across the UK using
55:27that exact strategy. And I used to do
55:29the single niche PBM websites and then
55:32the single niche PBN websites was built
55:34of my my money sites would build
55:36themselves. I'd go and buy 12x domains,
55:39do the exact same thing to all of them.
55:41Whichever one popped, I'd then start
55:43creating pyramids under it. if none of
55:44them popped, they became a supporting
55:46site in a single niche PBN. And and we
55:48just did that and we just kept building
55:49and building and building. So all I was
55:51doing was building consistently and then
55:54bringing in new telly sales people that
55:55could answer the phones. every single
55:56person that answered the phone always
55:58had to have English as their first first
56:01language because if somebody rings up
56:03and and and I don't want to say anything
56:06that's going to get me get me completely
56:07canled, but if if if you if you if you
56:10phone somebody up and you hear a foreign
56:12accent when you're in the and and and
56:13you're phoning for a local locksmith in
56:15in a local area, like instantly there's
56:18that trusting there and then straight
56:19away it's like okay and now he wants me
56:21card details over the phone. That's why
56:24we created the the link. we could send
56:25you the link and you can do your car
56:26details yourself, but as soon as it's
56:28like and you want me car detail and it's
56:29like nah, forget that. We'll phone
56:31somebody else like we're not and and
56:33obviously my business relied on call out
56:34fee or booking booking fee to book the
56:37appointment, secure the appointment. But
56:39that we we did that really really well.
56:41But that was one of those those
56:42strategies that that probably equated
56:44that little strategy probably equated to
56:45about 25 grand a month of our revenue um
56:48from from that one little strategy. And
56:50then obviously I had guys going out
56:52doing jobs and they get a percentage of
56:53every job. So the same situation. I
56:55never paid the locksmith any money. I
56:57take them on. They buy their own
56:58insurance. I had to take bits of money
57:00out of what I p paid them to go with to
57:02the tax man and then they'd use my
57:04invoice system. Uh sorry, my invoice
57:06books and we'd take either 40 or 50 or
57:09or 60% of the profit of the job and
57:12they'd go out and do the job. So they'd
57:13only ever get paid if they went out and
57:15did the work. So we kind of had a lead
57:16genen network business that was zero
57:19outlay. cost us nothing to run it except
57:22for me doing the websites and the lead
57:23genen strategies
57:26>> for businesses that serve multiple towns
57:28but only have one address. What's your
57:30playbook?
57:32>> So I'll go back to Google business
57:34profiles for that. Yeah.
57:35>> Yeah. [clears throat] Yeah. Yeah.
57:36>> So obviously you you can have service
57:38area. Okay. So a lot of people don't
57:41quite understand the difference between
57:42a service area business, storefront
57:45business and a hybrid. So service area
57:47business is if you are use locksmith as
57:50an example locksmith nobody comes you
57:52haven't got a shop you work from home
57:54you've got a van and you go and visit
57:56people in a local area right then you're
57:58a service area business okay so you
58:01don't show your address on the profile
58:03and this is where a lot of people make
58:04the mistake they show their address
58:05thinking we're going to get more leads
58:06because they can see where we are but
58:08then they can't pass verification so
58:09they get suspended because when Google
58:11wants to see a video walkthrough of the
58:12business it doesn't exist so that's a
58:15service area business. Then we've got a
58:16storefront business, which is basically,
58:18let's say you run a a locksmithing shop
58:20and you don't go out and do emergency
58:22callouts. That's a storefront business.
58:24Then let's say you have a locksmith shop
58:26and you do emergency call outs, that's a
58:27hybrid business. People come to you. So
58:29it's it's all about where you meet the
58:31customer in the physical world. So you
58:32have to to to to qualify for a Google
58:35business profile, meet the customer in a
58:37physical location, whether it's at your
58:38premises or at their premises. And
58:40that's the difference between the
58:41hybrid, the the storefront or the
58:43service area. Now, that's important for
58:45what you've just said to me because
58:46strictly speaking, right, if if I've got
58:51me based at my house and I I live in
58:54Manchester, [clears throat] I can have a
58:56a Google business profile that's a
58:58service area profile and good luck
59:00getting it for a locksmith. But let's
59:01say you're doing plumber, electrician,
59:02roof, something like that. It's a lot
59:03easier, right? And we only go to third
59:05parties. They don't come to us. Okay?
59:07So, you're a service area business. So,
59:08let's say I'm I'm Mike the locksmith
59:10lives in Manchester and my service area
59:12is Manchester. I can have a Google um
59:14business profile, a service area, Google
59:16business profile for that. If I then
59:17take on a member of staff that's based
59:19in Liverpool, right? And he's going to
59:22be doing a service area in Liverpool for
59:24me. Strictly speaking, he can h I can
59:27have another service area, Google
59:29business profile from his address in
59:32Liverpool as long as I don't show the
59:34address and then he can verify it by
59:36walking out onto his drive when they
59:38send him and say well give video
59:39verification and saying this is the van,
59:41this is the sign written van opening the
59:43back, this is all the tools, this is our
59:45our invoice box, this is everything. So
59:47you can actually have multiple locations
59:50service area businesses without
59:52officially having a a location that
59:55customers have to come to. Okay, it's a
59:58little bit more difficult. So if I was
1:00:00building a multilocation service area
1:00:02business only type strategy, that is
1:00:05exactly what I'd do. I' I I'd actually
1:00:07build my Manchester business to the
1:00:08point where it's doing say 10 or 12
1:00:10grand a month. And then they'd be like,
1:00:11"Right, I'll give this guy in Liverpool
1:00:13a basic, let's say 1,500 a month basic
1:00:15and a percentage of every job he does
1:00:17for me. Then I've got him as a member of
1:00:19staff. I've got his location. I can set
1:00:20up the GBP with the service area and I'm
1:00:22going to use the GBP in Liverpool to
1:00:24generate all my leads, which so it's
1:00:26going to pay for itself." And let's say
1:00:27the first two months you might not make
1:00:29any revenue. Yeah. because you're
1:00:30building out the GBP. You're staying
1:00:31consistent. You're doing what you're
1:00:32doing. You're sending him jobs. You
1:00:33might even be sending him to Manchester
1:00:35for jobs because he's in Liverpool, but
1:00:37his service area is Liverpool and you're
1:00:39using the jobs he's going to Manchester.
1:00:40So, he's all uploading images to start
1:00:43working the GBP in Liverpool for you and
1:00:46you're building what's classed as a
1:00:47service area business. So, when you've
1:00:48got multiple locations, it is possible.
1:00:51And a lot of people try to do it like a
1:00:53lot of people that are creating Google
1:00:54business profiles are
1:00:57displaying the address because they
1:00:59don't understand the difference between
1:01:00a service area business and a a
1:01:02storefront business and that's why they
1:01:03can't get um approved. They they can't
1:01:06get them reprove and they're getting
1:01:07suspended because as soon as Google
1:01:09comes to you and says like here's a
1:01:11video shows your business you can't cuz
1:01:13it doesn't exist. But if you're
1:01:14completely honest and then you focus on
1:01:16profile completeness, post pictures and
1:01:18praise times consistency, you're going
1:01:20to win a lot more often than you're not
1:01:24>> beyond reviews. Is there anything we're
1:01:26missing?
1:01:28>> We've done we've gone we've gone through
1:01:30everything, made it up to reviews. Is
1:01:32there anything after that?
1:01:34>> Not really. No, it's just consistency.
1:01:35There's a lot of things that people tell
1:01:36you to do. So my my attitude towards
1:01:39that has always been right. There's this
1:01:41one thing that somebody tells you over
1:01:42here that that they say you should do,
1:01:44but it's a test that somebody did that
1:01:46seems like it might work, but it's still
1:01:49just a guess. It's still ju it's an
1:01:51educated guess, but it's still just a
1:01:52guess. So, from a short-term strategy
1:01:55point, it's like you can dig in to a
1:01:57million different strategies that might
1:01:59work, that might give you this tiny
1:02:00boost, that might do this, but you might
1:02:02as well be spending your time on profile
1:02:04completeness, post, pictures, praise,
1:02:05times, consistency, coming back and
1:02:07running through it again, coming back,
1:02:08running through it again, and staying on
1:02:09top of the loop. If you just focus on
1:02:12those steps and those four things, five
1:02:14things if you inclass consistency as
1:02:15one, it's just a loop. You just keep
1:02:18following the GBP loop. We've actually
1:02:19got a book coming out at 30th September
1:02:22which is all about it. Um, and it
1:02:24teaches the profile. It teaches
1:02:25absolutely everything. Verification
1:02:26processes, the lot. Um, but but that's
1:02:29the that's
1:02:30>> the name of the book,
1:02:33>> believe it or not, Google business
1:02:34profile management for agencies.
1:02:36>> Okay.
1:02:37>> And then it's how to scale your agency
1:02:39with the GBP loop. And this goes through
1:02:41absolutely everything. So if if I look
1:02:43in here and pull up one of the chapters,
1:02:44it's like
1:02:45>> it's a thick book.
1:02:47It's nearly 300 pages.
1:02:49>> Oh, wow.
1:02:50>> Um, it's nearly 300 pages and it takes
1:02:52you through absolutely everything.
1:02:53>> Can you open it up? Show Show. Let's
1:02:56see. Let's see what's inside it.
1:02:57>> All right. Let me
1:02:58>> show it to the camera.
1:02:59>> There's some of the content section.
1:03:01>> Okay.
1:03:02>> And then So, this is this is just going
1:03:03through the chapters and the content
1:03:04sections. Same situation. And
1:03:08>> let's go to the middle of the book. Just
1:03:09like a random area in the middle of the
1:03:10book.
1:03:12>> Look at that. You want me to tell you
1:03:13what's in it? So, it says there, "Create
1:03:17one source of truth. Mirroring keeps the
1:03:19facts aligned."
1:03:21Um, I won't go in and read it because
1:03:22I'm not the best at reading.
1:03:24>> Well, no, you've been describing it on
1:03:25this podcast
1:03:27>> pretty much. Yes. There's a ton of stuff
1:03:28I've not gone into, which is is most of
1:03:30the boring stuff which you need to know
1:03:32to do it right. But
1:03:33>> like what? Like what?
1:03:35>> Like what what haven't you what what are
1:03:37the goods that you haven't shared on the
1:03:39podcast?
1:03:41>> The stuff that will make everybody turn
1:03:42off.
1:03:43>> M. So,
1:03:45>> and is it like obvious stuff that people
1:03:46would know to do anyway?
1:03:49>> Um, I mean like things like what we've
1:03:51just gone through with the three
1:03:52different types of of business model,
1:03:53the hybrid, the the service area and and
1:03:55and the thing people
1:03:56>> Okay, I want to I want to ask you this.
1:03:58I want to ask you this. How can anybody
1:04:00change somebody's Google business
1:04:02profile without their permission if the
1:04:04business isn't paying attention?
1:04:06>> Um, yes. Beautiful question. So, so
1:04:09basically, right, I don't you've got
1:04:11some on on all Google business profiles.
1:04:13If you go and search for any Google
1:04:14business profile, you you can go search
1:04:16now and you can look for something
1:04:17called suggest and edit. So suggest an
1:04:20edit is where you can go in and you can
1:04:22suggest a new phone number. You can
1:04:24suggest a new a new location. You can go
1:04:26in and make changes to the Google
1:04:27business profile. And if if if the
1:04:30business or the agency is not paying
1:04:31attention and they miss the email, let's
1:04:33say enough people suggest an edit. So
1:04:35let's say um in fact, you did a post
1:04:38today or yesterday about the guy with
1:04:39the the the hundred phones in the car.
1:04:41Yeah. Um I I looked at it this morning.
1:04:44It was on it was on LinkedIn that one
1:04:45was it? And um when I seen that straight
1:04:47away that that kind of came to me that
1:04:48thought because this guy could go in and
1:04:50suggest a 100 edits and if you don't pay
1:04:52attention to that 100 edits kind of like
1:04:54on Google Maps when you're driving along
1:04:56and it says to your are the police still
1:04:58at the side of the road. It allows the
1:04:59community to join in. People can
1:05:01actually suggest edits to your Google
1:05:02business profile. Now imagine somebody
1:05:04goes and says, "Let's change this phone
1:05:06number."
1:05:06>> And what if you don't respond to the
1:05:08edits that it just they they
1:05:10>> not necessarily always, but if enough
1:05:12people suggest it, then yes, it can.
1:05:15>> Uh-huh. And so if you're if you're a
1:05:16business owner, how do you prevent this?
1:05:19>> Well, we we have something in our system
1:05:22which basically tracks every tiny little
1:05:25change. And then as soon as somebody
1:05:28suggests an edit or an edit is made,
1:05:30Google will it basically it'll flag it
1:05:33up in your system and say to you
1:05:34straight away um that
1:05:36>> but yeah, let's just even for like the
1:05:38standard for the standard business
1:05:39owner, somebody who's not even using
1:05:41your system, how do they how
1:05:43>> they have to look they have to keep
1:05:44track of their emails. They have to keep
1:05:46track of the email that's connected to
1:05:47the Google business profile, not
1:05:48necessarily their personal email. So, it
1:05:51might be like, I've got an email that I
1:05:52never
1:05:52>> So, they could set up a filter in Gmail
1:05:54to look for specific words. What would
1:05:57those words be?
1:05:58>> I have no idea.
1:06:00>> Um, it depends what's changed. So, it be
1:06:02letting you know that your phone
1:06:03number's changed. It might be letting
1:06:05you know that your working hours have
1:06:06changed. It might be letting you know
1:06:07that. So, so, so we could be it could be
1:06:09anything. It could be letting you know
1:06:10that this has changed. And if and and
1:06:12like Google business profiles, they now
1:06:15rank based on your working hours. So, if
1:06:17I've got working hours of 9 to5 Monday
1:06:19to Friday and then my competitors got
1:06:22their working hours of 12 till 7 Monday
1:06:24to Friday and I'm outranking them
1:06:27between 9 and 5 Monday to Friday, after
1:06:295:00 their Google business profile will
1:06:31jump above mine. That's how that's how
1:06:34dynamic it is now. That's how how quick
1:06:36the changes happen. So, we call it
1:06:39profile guard and a profile guard is
1:06:41designed to make sure that people don't
1:06:42come and make changes to your Google
1:06:44business profile. Now, we used to do
1:06:45this like back in the day, a long long
1:06:47time ago, where we'd go and try and
1:06:48claim people's Google business profiles.
1:06:51And then what what you could also do is
1:06:53back in the day, you could go to
1:06:54somebody's Google business profile and
1:06:56if they if their website had expired,
1:06:59okay, their domain name had expired, you
1:07:01could go in and buy the domain name, set
1:07:03up the email address [email protected],
1:07:06right? And then you could go and claim
1:07:08the Google business profile that was
1:07:09already ranking in in the area and get
1:07:11their Google business profile from their
1:07:13business. And people do that all the
1:07:14time. Like let's say you're you're a
1:07:16nontechnical plumber. You buy a domain,
1:07:18you get a website built, you're getting
1:07:19all your traffic from your Google
1:07:20business profile, and you forget to
1:07:21renew your domain name. Then some little
1:07:23smart ale turns up, buys your domain
1:07:26name, sets up info at location, claims
1:07:28the um and I think Google's plugged it
1:07:30now. We've not done it for years. And
1:07:32then and then you literally have got
1:07:33their their old website, you've built it
1:07:35and set it up, and then you've nicked
1:07:37their Google business profile as well.
1:07:39Um, and that's kind of another strategy
1:07:41that black hat strategy we used to use
1:07:43back in the day. But it's the same
1:07:45situation. If somebody wants to to make
1:07:49changes to your Google profile and
1:07:50you're not paying attention, that's why
1:07:51all businesses need an agency looking
1:07:53after the Google profile. They've not
1:07:54got an agency looking after it and
1:07:56they're not paying attention. Like
1:07:57people can make changes to your business
1:07:59and not not necessarily changes that's
1:08:01going to send the leads to them, but
1:08:04changes that's going to break the mirror
1:08:05in.
1:08:06>> Yeah. But how common is that actually?
1:08:09Well, I with regards to commonness, I
1:08:12don't know. Only Google knows the answer
1:08:13to that. But what I do know is is it's
1:08:15very simple to do. You go to any Google
1:08:17business profile. There's a thing on
1:08:19there that says suggest and edit. And
1:08:20right next to that, it's something like
1:08:22own this business. Uh so you can click
1:08:25the own business and you can send a
1:08:26message to the owner to ask them to make
1:08:29you a manager or an owner. But also the
1:08:32suggest and edit. You can suggest an
1:08:33edit to pretty much anything on the
1:08:34profile.
1:08:36So, I don't know how often it happens,
1:08:37but it's it is a dodgy. It is something
1:08:39that we've seen that you need to keep on
1:08:41track of and and that's why we created
1:08:43it so that you can just one click revert
1:08:45back to normal.
1:08:46>> Um, so yeah, it's it's a problem.
1:08:49>> Yeah. Uh, before we go, is there
1:08:51anything else that we haven't talked
1:08:52about?
1:08:54>> Um, no. I think I think we've gone
1:08:57through the loop. We've gone through um
1:09:00absolutely everything. We've got the
1:09:01book. I can I can I can mention the book
1:09:03again.
1:09:04>> Yeah. Well, where should everybody find
1:09:05you? Find you and your business and your
1:09:08software. What should people do?
1:09:10>> Uh, gbple.net.
1:09:12But what I could potentially do is is
1:09:14give you a discount link for the people
1:09:16watching your podcast and at least that
1:09:18way anybody who grabs it via your
1:09:19podcast, they can grab a discount link
1:09:21that we'll put into the chat. So, but my
1:09:23business
1:09:25>> Yeah. Mike Martin.uk is me personally.
1:09:28That's my private blog. But obviously we
1:09:30we can put something in in in the
1:09:31description and then your guys can find
1:09:32that.
1:09:33>> Yeah. Yeah, sounds great. Um, all right,
1:09:36Mike, thank you. So, thank you for Thank
1:09:38you for listening to the pod. Thank you
1:09:39for coming on the pod.
1:09:41>> This is a lot of fun and you shared you
1:09:42shared some crazy stuff.
1:09:44>> Yeah, it's it's been awesome. It's been
1:09:46brilliant. I think it's all about the
1:09:47questions, isn't it? The questions you
1:09:48ask kind of
1:09:49>> they they they keep it going because you
1:09:51don't ask questions. Like you go to
1:09:53some podcast and it's like why did they
1:09:55ask that question? Like I have no
1:09:57[laughter]
1:09:58makes no sense. So that's why yours has
1:10:00exploded so quickly over the last few
1:10:01years though I'm assuming. Uh yeah, and
1:10:04the and well the consistency to your
1:10:06point because I show up every day.
1:10:08>> Yes. Show up every day. That that's the
1:10:10social media strategy. That's what I
1:10:11tried to say to people is treat your
1:10:12Google business profile like it's your
1:10:13social media. It's it's the it's one of
1:10:16the biggest I don't know if it's bigger
1:10:17than LinkedIn, but I'm assuming it is.
1:10:18It's one of the biggest business social
1:10:20media platforms on the planet that
1:10:21nobody treats like social media. And
1:10:23it's not about technical. It's not about
1:10:26it's not about SEO. It's about
1:10:28consistent daily actions in the right
1:10:30place doing the right actions every
1:10:32single day. And if a business can't keep
1:10:35on top of this when we're trying when we
1:10:36were trying to come sell to businesses
1:10:38direct to businesses this as a service.
1:10:41We never sold to a business that you're
1:10:43going to rank here or you're going to
1:10:44get this or you're going to do this.
1:10:44It's like look we can build the
1:10:46visibility but it's going to take you 5
1:10:47to 10 hours a month. We'll walk you
1:10:49through the process. We'll tell you
1:10:50exactly what you need to do yourself.
1:10:52And if you can't do it consistently,
1:10:53then pay us to do it for you. And you
1:10:55take a business on a 30-minute call
1:10:56telling them exactly what they need to
1:10:58do every day. And business is like, I
1:10:59can't do that. And it's like, exactly.
1:11:01Now pay us 500 or a,000 or 2,000 a
1:11:03month. We'll do it for you. And that's
1:11:05the best way to close a business. You
1:11:06don't try and sell them. You give them a
1:11:08free training call that explains to the
1:11:10business owner, this we're going to
1:11:12teach you how to do it yourself. And if
1:11:13you want to go and do it yourself, knock
1:11:15yourself out. And the ones that go away
1:11:16and say, "You know what? I'm going to
1:11:17try and do it myself." Phone them up two
1:11:18weeks later and see if they've been
1:11:19consistent. And they haven't. 4 weeks
1:11:21later, they definitely haven't. And then
1:11:23you then they're going to move it over
1:11:24to you cuz you always let them know
1:11:26being consistent and then stopping is
1:11:27worse than never doing it at all.
1:11:30>> Mike Martin, thanks for coming on the
1:11:32pod.
1:11:33>> Thank you very much, mate. Cheers.
1:11:35>> This is episode 1,172
1:11:39of the podcast. 1,172
1:11:42days in a row doing this show.
1:11:45If you watch this on YouTube, thank you
1:11:47so much for watching. If you listened on
1:11:49Spotify or Apple Podcasts, thank you so
1:11:51much for listening and I will talk to
1:11:54you again tomorrow.
1:11:57Bye now.

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