5 STEP VISIBILITY

PLAN USING GOOGLE

MY BUSINESS
 GOOGLE MY BUSINESS’
STRENGTHS
One of the strongest tools for your
local marketing and local visibility is
your Business Profile on Google
Search and Maps (also known as
Google My Business).
This tool provides strong visibility
and favor in Google’s algorithm
especially if someone is seeking
your products, service, or solution
in the areas that you service.
It’s highly visible in Google Search
and Maps.
It provides the ability to see your
reviews and correct information
about your business on any
device, even providing directions
to your location, if part of your
business provides the opportunity
for people to be able to go to your
location.
If not, it can still showcase that
you provide services to the area
which makes sure people can find
you in the moments they need
you.
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GOOGLE MY BUSINESS
MYTHS
It’s only for brick and mortar stores or
locations - NOT TRUE! Even home based
businesses can use Google My Business and
gain advantage (for example: a local skin care
consultant representing a brand based in
Dallas, Texas wants people to call her when
they have skin care needs and not reach out
to the main headquarters.) How can she show
up if people are searching for that skin care or
brand in her area? Using Google My Business.
If you’re part of a large group (physician’s
office, real estate broker, etc), then the
owner of the firm or clinic is the one one
who can have a Google My Business profile,
sometimes called a “listing." - NOT TRUE!
Each doctor, dentist, real estate agent, etc -
can have their own Business Profile on Google
Search and Maps.
I’m competing with myself on Google Search
if I use Google My Business. I don’t want to
confuse people - NOT TRUE! You won’t
confuse people if it all ties back to your
website. And, isn’t it better to have two
horses in the race? Doesn’t it increase your
odds of winning? In this case, it increases your
odds of winning the business by showing up
more often to more people you can serve in
the moments when they need you.
BEFORE THE 5 STEP
VISIBILITY PLAN
FIRST
Complete Your Business Profile and Verify Your
Account

There is really nothing you can do with your account or

any of these steps if you don’t have complete control
and ownership of your account.

If you’re working with an agency or consultant and

they haven’t given you access to your account, then
contact them for access and for them to transfer
ownership of the account to you.

The danger in not being “owner” of the account is that

you and the agency/firm/consultant are seen as equal
owners in the Google account (especially if you gave
them your password). This means they can shut down
your account or shut you out of your account. It takes
a tremendous amount of time and energy to prove
that you’re the owner which means you do not have
access to your reviews, messages, and your online
reputation.

If it’s a very challenging relationship sometimes your

complete account can be altered or pieces removed
that cannot be recovered. This is an important part of
your business, that is visible on all devices in the
number one search engine in the world. Just like many
aspects of your business, it’s important that you own
and control what belongs to you - which your
information and your online reputation belong to you.

Share the next page with the agency or freelancer

you’re working with who currently has not provided
access to you.

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 Please Provide OWNER Access

THE USERS TAB

To add owners and managers:
Click 'Add users'
Enter the email address
Select role

Quick Tip:
You must be an owner to
add or remove users

The Users tab allows the Business Profile
owner to invite others to help manage it.
Incidentally, inviting another person only
gives them access to the Business Profile, but
not to any other Google products that you
might use, like Gmail. In other words, they
can’t read your email.
There are four access levels available:
Primary owner - that’s you, unless you
transfer ownership
Co-owners, managers - they can do
almost everything owners can do, except
delete the Business Profile or transfer
ownership
Site Managers - they have more limited
access to the Business Profile
How to provide the agency or consultant
access to manage your account:
To add a manager, click “Users” from the
left side navigation, then click the button
labeled “Add users” in the top right corner.
Now, add the email addresses of the
managers you’d like to invite.
When you’re done, click “Invite” to send an
email to the new page managers. Once they
open the email and accept the invitation,
you’ll see them listed as authorized
managers.
As the owner, you can revoke access to the
Business Profile or transfer ownership.

Please select OWNER and begin the

ownership transfer process.

The Ownership Transfer Process Steps

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 THE 5 STEP PLAN
1 COMPLETE YOUR PROFILE

The beauty of the Business Profile (also known as

GMB, Google My Business, or a Google Listing) is
that it updates and is responsive across all Google
platforms and devices. This is a good thing since this
is where people look first. Be sure that you’re keeping
this updated and current. If you do that in the main
Business Profile Dashboard, it will update
automatically across search and maps.

This is where you want to look through each area of

the 'Info' page of the profile (found in the back office
dashboard) and make sure you’re utilizing it to the
fullest. Does it accurately match what people are
looking for?

All the areas of your Business Profile are important to

the first impression and reputation you have when
you’re being searched or found by potential
customers. These are the most immediately visible
which if used can expand your visibility in search:

Your service areas

Hours of operation
Special hours
Special holidays
Products listing
Services listing

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 2 CHOOSE ALL THE CATEGORIES THAT
HELP DESCRIBE YOUR BUSINESS

You can only choose one main category What are nine categories that help
out of a little over 3,000 total. There may describe your business?
not be a perfect match so choose what is
most similar to what you do.

The “special sauce” that makes your

Business Profile unique is the
subcategories. You can have up to nine
subcategories. Choose all nine or as much
as you want, to showcase the uniqueness
of your business.

Choose Main Category

Choose Nine Subcategories

3 CHOOSE YOUR SERVICE AREA

If you don’t show an address, this is If you do decide to show an address,

important as it will place you in the area this can help solidify your presence in
even if you have not allowed your address the area and it can also show how
to be published or hidden that portion of wide of an area you serve.
your Business Profile.

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KEEP IN MIND...
GOOGLE MY BUSINESS’ SUPER POWER IS LOCAL MARKETING.
Once you start widening your service area by
putting location (cities or zip codes), 100+
miles out of the area you actually dilute the
effectiveness of Google My Business. There
are other tools to promote your business in a
variety of locations that are far and wide.
There are even tools to amplify your business
nationwide or worldwide but Google My
Business is not one of them.
Focus 20 miles around your area and name
those areas you serve by city, name, or zip
code.
Or, you also have the ability to use the drag
bar presented to you when you’re setting up
your service area to show a circumference
around your business - again, keep it tight
and local.
Focus the tools to help support reaching
your local area.
Again, if you don’t serve your local area -
there are other tools you can use. That
doesn’t mean that you don’t use this one
(GMB) but you use all in collaboration with
each other to provide the right type of
Google juice to push you to the top of search
results.

4 CREATING A POSTING SCHEDULE

Less than 28% of businesses have a posting strategy for their Google My Business profile.
Ready to stand out above your competition?

Here's a Simple 5 Point Google My Business Posting Strategy:

Update your information on your profile anytime you have updates, even as minor as a change in
suite number
Publish posts and upload photos each week
Keep a steady stream of reviews coming in (ask, ask, ask)
Monitor and respond to reviews
Stay on top of new features so you can ensure you’re using your profile to its fullest potential.

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 What can you post about?
Blog articles
Company news
eBook downloads
Upcoming events
Special offers
Product promotion
5 USE THE FREE WEBSITE PROVIDED WITH YOUR
BUSINESS PROFILE - EVEN IF YOU HAVE A SITE
Google provides a free website with every
free Google My Business Profile.
And, a lot of small businesses do not use
the free website because they have their
own website and they don’t want to
compete with another website.
Well - you’re not.
This free website through your free GMB
account can act like a landing page filled
with 'Google juice' directing traffic to your
site if you set it up right.
And, if you’re in a race to get more
business - wouldn’t you want to have two
or more horses in the race? Doesn’t that
increase your odds especially if each site is
directing people to your main website?
Showing up in more Google searches
increases your chances of winning the
business.
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Include photos and videos with your posts:
What you put on social works as long as it's actual
photos (not stock photos)
Team photos are great.
Use the square aspect-ratio when you take photos
so you can easily repurpose your photos across
multiple platforms at scale.
Name your photos before you upload them. This is
how you help Google understand what your photos
and your business are all about
The more you show up in search results - let’s say
two or three more times - that’s 2 or 3 more times
that you can serve your potential customers.
The free website comes with themes you can
change out and customize. The amount of
customization is limited but you don’t need to
worry about that. As long as it mirrors your brand
and the call to action on the site takes them to
your website it’s giving you more visibility.
The text can be customized to highlight whatever
aspect of your business you want. You can
unpublish it and publish it whenever you want so
update it with the latest products, team news, or
events you’re having. Then, create a call to action
button that takes them to your site (oh those are
already built in there so you can choose the text,
font, color, and the link to which page on your
website you want to direct them to go.)
Hidden gem, right? ;)
BONUS: KEYWORD MOMENTS
Use keywords in your profile to show up
higher in search results and to dominate the
first 10 searches (first page of a Google
Search)
I’ve given you some basic things here you can
do to become consistent in your visibility. This
will make sure you are there in those key
moments when your customers need you.
You can take this further with:
Joining in on free webinars
Becoming more active and involved in
asking questions in our Market in
Moments Facebook community
Or take a deeper dive into using some of
the business & budget friendly tools and
courses that I share specifically designed
to help and be manageable for small
businesses.

THE QUESTION IS: Of all that you've learned, which parts are you going to apply?

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