Transcripts
1. Introduction And Preview: Hi everyone. I'm Sandeep Amar, and I'm going to teach you how to get more and more customers for your local business and convert more inquiring customers into paid customers. You see today, we are living in the world of Internet. Everyone is using Google search on their smart phones to look for everything, especially local searches. Beat an Italian restaurant, Mexican restaurant. I, Dr. real estate agent, plumper, pizza store, or a dentist. In the older days, local businesses were promoted by word of mouth, local billboards, ads, leaflets, et cetera. Today with Google, everything is being searched for an everything is being discovered on Google. So with smartphones in everyone's hands, people are always searching for what they need and they are doing it on the smart phones itself. So if you're a doctor, you're a lawyer, you're a real estate agent, you're a plumber, you are a saloon owner. Your clients are primarily local and your GMB is where your next customer is going to come from. Learn this term GMB, PMBs, Google My Business and your listing is Google My Business listing. Now, just a few simple steps. This is a non-technical course. Non-technical. Just a few simple steps there, as easy as filling out a form or putting a Facebook post, you know, just like you do every day, you can increase your customers by 56. That's 500 percent. And that's serious. That's not a joke. And not just that you'll convert more customers today if they acquiring customers at a 100 and you're converting them into five paid customers. You know, with this course you'll be able to convert 15 of the a 100 customers. So that's a 300 percent increase, that's a a3x increase in percentage. So the total increase is five x into three x. That's a 15 x increase overall. So this is where this course can help you. So let's continue into understanding how big is this. You know, as per Google's own data about Google, My Business, 97% of customers read online reviews while searching for local businesses. 77% of smartphone users use Google Maps. And these near me searches, plumbers near me, Italian restaurants near me, Mexican restaurants near me. Here, saloons near me. These searches are increasing 300 percent year on year. So if you win on Google, My Business, you will win overall. That is how important it is and it is going to explode as the time passes on. Therefore, it is very critical for you to win on Google My Business. Now some of you may ask us that, Hey, look, I'm already doing well. So why do I need to do this? You know, I think it is more important when you're already doing well, to do well in Google My Business, because your competition is out there to steal your lunch. And if you don't move ahead in terms of technology, you know, you'll never move ahead in your business rather you'll regress. I'll take a small example. Technology has won all the wars. There was a great war in India between Alexander and porous. And that war was won by Alexander because Alexander was using more modern technology. From Indian side, Indians were using elephants, whereas Alexander was using horses. And horses could run faster, could navigate faster, whereas it was very difficult to navigate for the elephants. So, you know, this kind of modern technology in war has always one. Similarly, you have got to adapt to the modern technology and move ahead and adapt to the success of Google, My Business listing before your competition hits you by adapting to Google My Business listing far more than what you're doing. So even if you're doing well, it is very, very important for you to make these small changes. Just fill out a few forms, just create some posts just like you do every day on social media. And win on Google, My Business listing. So without much ado, let's get right into it. And the first step in this whole process is to set up our Google, My Business listing.
2. Setting Up GMB, Google My Business: Hello everyone and welcome to how to create a Google My Business listing. Now for Google, My Business listing, you know, first we have to understand a little bit word GMB is. Gmb is a free platform provided by Google for local businesses to give customers more ways to reach you and your establishments. Gmb will help you with more ways to transact and increase your business. Now, in this part of the course, I'm going to tell you about how to create a Google My Business listing, and I know many of you would've already created this listing, but I would really insist that you kind of have a look at this short video and just go through the process again so that, you know, if you have any issues or if you missed anything, at least you know what You skipped and those things you can go back and kind of ventilator. So let's begin this. Hello everyone. And let's start creating a Google My Business listing. As you open the Google page, you search for GMB. And now you click on Google, My Business. Now you have to sign in with your Google account or Gmail account. If you've already signed it, it will take you inside. Otherwise, you'll have to sign in. Here. You have to either claim your business. I mean, you can search for business in case somebody else's put it, you know, you'll be able to claim it. Otherwise you start on adding a new business or add your business. So we'll click on Add your business. In this case, we are adding Roger here Studio, which is an example. And we choose the option, create a business with this name. So we have Roger his studio, create a business with this name. And then we click Next. The business category here is hair saloon. So we select the category as hair saloon, and we click Next. Since we want our customers to find us. So we press yes, in terms of customers finding us and we click Next. Now here is where we're going to put the address of our establishment. Now this address is picked up by Google automatically at times, but we have to be absolutely sure that the address is correct. And now we put in the address and all the details are right. And it seems everything's correct. So now we click Next. We are an establishment that doesn't go out, which is the Roger Hair Studio. But if you're a plumber or someone who's giving, you know, services at home, then you have to select Yes, I serve outside my location. Here. We have chosen know since our location services at the location itself and not outside. So we select No, I don't. And we press Next. Now, I have to put my contact number here. I can also put a website in case I have one. But if you don't have the website, Google, My Business gives you a free website? Yes. A fully free website without any cost. And we should select get a free website based on your info. And we can, you know, add all the steps later for this. Next. Next we select Want updates and recommendations based on your business. So please select Yes, next step, we've reached the finish and manage this listing. Please click on Finish. Now, as you can see, to verify your business, Google, My Business will send you a postcard. Now this will come by mail, proper mail. And it will take some time, ten to 20 days to receive this postcard. You need to write your name, and this postcard will come in your name to your address. This postcard will have a verification code which you need to later Enter. To your Google My Business listing. To verify your listing, now press on male and it'll send you a code which will lead later, like I've explained. Now, the next steps. The next steps are the services which are going to offer as part of your services in your establishment. Here, some of these services are already there, but you can add more services like hair extensions, manicures, pedicures, which are P suggested by Google. And you can add some custom services. Now just to showcase that, I'm adding some custom services like her treatment and some more services so you can add, you know, custom services as well. And we press Next. The next step is to select your business hours. This is something which is very important and lot of businesses miss this. Now to begin with, I'm opting for all seven days open. So I have, you know, checkbox turned open all seven days. Now, you can select single ours as in 1 to another point, or you can have a break within ours as in ten AM to one PM and then two PM to six PM. So right now, I've selected ten AM to nine PM. And I'll give you an example now of the breakouts. Okay. Say for example, for Sundays it is 10:00 AM to 09:00 PM. Now for Monday, let's try to create the breakouts, okay. So we start at 10 AM, then we close it at 01:00 PM for lunch. And then we click on Add Rs. See you on the right side. Add ours. And add hours will add OS for the same day, the next slot when you're available. Okay, so the middle time is the big time. I hope this is simple to understand. You know, in case you have any questions, you can always go back to our community forum. So let's after lunch break, start again at two. So select two PM, just like you see on the screen, and ended on nine PM. So I hope you understood how to create two different time slots within a single day. And we can create more hours. They are if you have three times slots, you can make three time slots. If you have four times lords, you can make for time slots. And if you're a doctor, you can fix your timings in some manner which kind of suits you. If you're a plumber, you can kind of fix your timings the way it suits you. If you're a restaurant and you have break timings are non break timings. You can set it up that way. Now you press next. And the next step is to add a business description. Business description is all about your business, your features, whatever your services are. And this section is called adding business description. Now right now you can skip it. But the problem with that is that a lot of people skip it. And around 90% of businesses across the world do not have a business description. Because the skip it now and they never added later. But you skip it now because you know your business description has to be perfect. Right now you can put 23 lines just as an example, but later on you have to go and edit it and write a great business description. So you can choose either you can skip it now or write to three lines. So that's how you're going to move ahead with your business description. The next step is to add some photographs. Photographs are the critical part of your Google My Business listing. But what I suggest is do not add many photographs right now. Maximum, add one photograph right now, or skip this particular step right now. Because later on you have to upload photographs for interior, exterior, work team and other folders which are going to identify your images slightly better. So either you skip it right now or add one photograph. And we have a very detailed module on photographs. So don't worry about that. Either you add one photograph or you skip this section right now. Now we're almost ready. We've finished the first step of creating the listing. All these first steps are done. Now, everything is ready. You finish over here and the verification male is going to come in few days. Then we're going to verify the profile. But till then we can add a lot of information. And this information will be part of a dashboard which is Google, My Business Dashboard. And when we're going to login, we're going to see that particular dashboard. So we'll move to the next module. Thank you very much.
3. GMB Verification: Hello everyone. Today we're going to learn how to verify your Google My Business listing. Now verification of Google My Business listing is very important from Google's perspective as well as consumer perspective. Because it's going to tell consumers that you are a Verified listing and you are a genuine listing, you are not a fake. And that verified tick is really going to help you. Now as part of setting up of GMB listing, you know, we have already asked for a verification code which is going to reach you by mail, which is going to take ten to 20 days. Now, assuming this code has come to you and you open the envelope, and now you've got the code with you. Now you have to verify one location or multiple location. Let's assume you have to verify one location. Just go to the menu and click on Verify. Now, in the code field, please enter the five digit verification code from your envelope art postcard, whatever you've got, click Submit, and you'll see that your business is now verified. Congratulations. Now you have a verified Google my business account.
4. How To Write A Business Description: Hello everyone. Business description as the name suggests, should be all about the business. You have, the services you're offering, the products you have, and many more positive things about your business. In this video, we'll show you how to write some of the best descriptions and some of the case studies which have been the best business descriptions across the world in terms of Google, My Business listing. Now we want to tell you one thing in a likely told you earlier while creating the Google My Business listing, lot of people skipped the business description and they never came back. And this data is as bad as 95 percent. 95 percent people do not have proper business descriptions. Good, 90 percent people do not even have business descriptions because they're completely forgotten about descriptions once they've skipped it in the first step. Okay, so are you ready? Let's dive in to write a business description or edit your earlier business description. Just login to your Google My Business account. Click on the Info tab. On the Info tab come slightly down and you will see ad business description. Just click on the pencil sign or the edit sign. And it'll open a pop-up for you where it will say, write a business description for your business. So let's learn about the best practices of adding a business description. There are certain do's and don'ts. Let's get into dues. Dues are give what you offer, what are your offerings? Second thing is, how unique are your offerings? How unique are your services? How unique are your products? Next thing is, you don't give your history, your vintage. You've been there for a long time, and anything else that helps you build credibility for the customer, that's helpful for the customer, and helps you build credibility for the customer. Now, one example could be, We have been servicing car since 1985 and providing complete customer satisfaction. The next example is Danielle leisure is the top 1% agent as per MLS 2019. Now this is a testimonial or an award or something which you won or where you've been recognized and you have to add it in the Business listing. In terms of your business description, focus primarily on details about your business. Around 250 characters are visible in the Knowledge Panel. So, you know, I think the whole business description is around 750 words or characters. Now one important thing is around 250, two hundred, three hundred and fifty characters are visible in Google Maps or the Knowledge Panel, which are the front-end, basically which is what consumers sees in your business description. Therefore, writing important information, unique information keywords in the first 300 characters is very, very important. So even if the full limit of this is 750 characters. But if you make sure that all the important keywords, all the important features, all the important services are present in first 250 to 350 characters. I think that will be a great practice. So make sure you do that. Now let's come to some don'ts, the things which you don't have to add in businesses description. First, don't mention your offers, promotions, prices, or sales. That's not what business description is for. Do not include URL or some HTML code or exceed 750 characters in their description field, which in any case, Google will not let you, but you have to know that the top limit of this is 750 characters. Do not provide any inaccurate or false information. Do not do that at all. Because some people, some agency, some other person would ask you to put some information that is not accurate. And they'll tell you, Hey, look, this will make things more attractive for you. Please, please do not listen to them. Make sure that everything is genuine and everything is correct and fully truthful. So do not provide any inaccurate or false information.
5. Examples And Case Studies of Good Business Description: Now here are certain good examples which we can learn from. The first example is from Mr. Ahmed Malik would ans foot and ankle clinic in London. It's a very crisp example of a business description, which is just the right words and explaining all the key points of the foot and ankle clinic. You can see the description on the screen right now. The second example comes from Dr. Shin. Now this is a little more comprehensive, but you know, it explains the services very well. And these are just about the maximum number of words we should use. And you know, it talks about all the key services. You know, he talks about welcome to the most comprehensive state of the art center dedicated to delivering compassionate care for people of all ages and walks of life. So I think this is another great example of a business description. Third example is from earlier saloon in the New York City. Now they just do curly hair solutions. And it is great to see that they've been very direct about it. That they specialize in curly hair services and they are offering a free consultation. So the saying, Give me a call for a free consultation. I think this is very short, very crisp, very to the point and very meaningful business description. The next example is from Magnolia Bakery, which is at Rockefeller Center. Now they've talked about a little bit of vintage of theirs when they started out, what was the objective and what is their specialization, which is classic American baked goods. And they've talked about ambiance and deco, or an atmosphere which is very meaningful. And they also provide a nationwide shipping of variety of products which is also meaningful. So I think they are very clear, very crisp, and a very good example of another good business description.
6. How To Upload Photos And Best Practices: Hello everyone. Today we're going to learn how to upload photos, optimize photos and the best practices around photos in Google, My Business listings, It is said that a picture is worth 1000 words. You always want to make the best first impression and photographs play a vital role in doing that. Also, this helps you in building trust among your prospective customers. When the potential customers can see the outside and the inside of your business establishment like exterior, interior team, working team behind date. And some of the photos which showcase probably if you are a restaurant, your signature dishes, et cetera. This is really going to help users, you know, kind of maker decision whether they want to come to your establishment or not. Therefore, it is a very, very critical situation. Now, the Google, My Business, will give you multiple options in form of tabs. Upload videos. Please see the video on the screen. Now we're going to learn how to add photos. This session will also extend into how to optimize photos. So when you come to uploading photos, you will see logo, overview, video. In TDR, Exterior. At work. Team n identity. You can choose photos which we have already created or which you have already created. In this particular example, we will use photos which we have already created. Now, in terms of logo, you can choose a logo in case you have one. So you can upload it from your computer. But since we do not have a logo right now, we will give it a miss. And we have a separate module in which we have shown how to create a logo. So you can go and watch that. I mean, you can do it later. Let's come to the color photograph. We can choose a photo from the set of photos which we've already taken. And let's use some of these photos. We have taken the exterior photo as the cover photo because that's what is showing your establishment from outside. Now, we can use another photo as well, but try and choose a photo which is the best reflection of your establishment. And now we upload the photo. Here. The upload is complete and we are able to see the photo as a cover photo. Now let's add the interior photos. Interior photos as in how is the ambience the look of the business establishment? For doctors? It could be the reception doctors Kb in restaurants, it's easier. You know, you can do so many things. So let me take an example and post a photo of interior of my hair saloon. Hair is, I'm selecting a picture which we have already shot. And this is the right picture. We now upload this picture. Now this picture is uploaded and you can see this picture is part of the interior images. Now let's come to the photograph of the exterior or the organization. This is very important because this is also your address. So if somebody's coming to the organization, they can identify from the board or from the texts, which is a written outside your business establishment. So it is very important that you know that exterior photos there because that will give you an idea while somebody's driving near your establishment and the person is able to relate it to the photo and the address is clear in person can stop there. So let's upload a picture. Let's click Upload. We've already pre-selected a picture. Let's add the picture. Now. The picture is uploading. Now it's part of the exterior photo. Now coming to work photos. Photos are very important because they are showing people at work. So at a hairdressing saloon, somebody's giving her treatment. Somebody is giving many cure pedicure or a restaurant, Somebody's cooking a great dish, or a doctor is seeing a patient. So these are the workforce and I think they make a great impression. So have some great work photos. And here we have two photos ready. Let's upload those photos. And we'll tell you a little later how to create some of these great photos. So let's upload these two photos. Now you see they are uploading. Now both of them are uploaded. And now these two photos are part of your work photos. Now let's come to the team picture. In terms of the team picture, we want to have multiple pictures of single person each. Or we can put the temperature as part of the entire team. We are, we are showing here three people in the team picture. So we've created this. I think this gives a great impression that how the team is looking like, what is the size of the team and a happy team. So here is how we upload the team picture. Just upload this picture which we are pre-selected. Now the photo is uploading. And now we got it to upload. And this is part of a team picture. All these photos right now are examples. Therefore, there are stock photos, but we will never use stock photos. We will not use stock photos while putting up or uploading. You know, we'll only use real photos. Please remember that these are just examples. These are just pretty looking stock photographs. That is why we are putting that. Otherwise we will never use the stock photos. Now, these are just examples of photos that you've used. So these are stock photos. But please remember a complete nor to stock photos or usage of stock photos as part of your photos. So we will only use real photos of real people, of real establishment in these photos n naught use stock photos at all. We have to remember this. So no stock photos. These photos are stock photos just because they are only examples while uploading actual pictures in our Google, My Business, for those, we will use real photos of the establishment. Now that we put up the exterior, interior work and team photos, we can come back to our view and we see all these pictures in one frame. And I think everything is looking great. This is the way we have to go about putting in photos the part of logo we will explain a little later. But right now, I think we're set with all our correct photos. Now, our next step could be uploading a video and uploading a video could be optional here. But I think we can upload a video to see your establishment in action. We have taken some examples and we'll explain the optimization of videos a little later. But right now we've chosen a video wherein a service is happening at hair saloon. So this is our first video. Here is how to upload the video. We select the video. Now this video is uploading. We've got another video. And the second video is also uploading. So once these videos are uploaded, they will be processed. So I think that processing takes a little time. Therefore, you will not be able to see thumbnails right away. But after some time, the videos will be available on your Google, My Business listing for your customers. So videos can make that audio visual appeal little more better and little more explicit in terms of the services you're offering and how the action is happening in your establishment. And it could be a really excitement addition to all the photos which you've already had. It.
7. Photos And Videos Specifications: So here are certain photo specifications that need to be kept in mind. Although the regular photos, jpegs, and PNGs, so you would not have any problems, but the format needs to be JPEG or PNG, which is the regular photo in your phone or via your mobile phone, so you don't have to worry too much about it. The size is between 10 KB and 5 and B, that also would not cause too much of a problem while you are shooting from your phone. But in case the images too big, you can reduce the resolution of your phone, which also generally will not be required. But still you can reduce the resolution of your phone and then shoot the picture. Keep the resolution of your phone or whatever device you're using, edX 720 pixels. So generally the requirement is 720 by 720, but if you keep it at 72 and the lower part of resolution, like 1980 by 10 ATP. So the second part of resolution has to be 720. It'll take care of itself. Most of these things would not bother you, but still from a little bit technical perspective, these are the requirements of photos. Now let's move to the requirements of the videos. Google, My Business is allowed only 30-second long duration, so up to 30 seconds long duration video. Can we put the file size they've provided as up to a 100 MB, which is comfortable. I don't think that would be a problem. Again, resolution has to be minimum 720 by 720. So any phone which is recording in HD or any other thing, whichever using a digital camera, it would suffice. So it would not be a problem in most cases.
8. How to use Photos in the best possible manner: Now we're going to share some best practices of photographs on Google. My Business listing. There are certain do's and don'ts. Let's start with some do's. The most important photo is your cover photo. Your cover photo should showcase the personality of your business. It is the preferred photo to be shown on your listing in Google Search and Google Maps Search. It should be very clear head shot, or it should be a service photo while you are in action. Or it should be a great photo of your establishment from the outside of the establishment. Now here are certain great examples of color photos. The first example of the cover photo is of a doctor or clinic. Now, the cover photo is of the exterior where the sign board is clearly visible and the establishment is very well visible from the outside so that while somebody's visiting, they can clearly identify the establishment from outside. The next example is an Italian restaurant in New York City called Santos. Again, it is very well visible from the outside. And it is got a typical design, so very easy to find out from the outside. Next example could be a cover photo of a work. We're in a plumbing van is shown with clear branding of the plumbing organization, which is called Works plumbing. The next example is a headshot of Schonberg go Family Law Group, which is in San Francisco, California. The lead lawyer is very clearly visible and this could be a very professional covered photograph for a lawyer. Now let's come to the logo photo. Now. If you have already logo, let's upload the company or service or establishment logo from your own machine so you can upload the photograph of the logo which you have. And it is important to clearly put out your identity, which is part of your logo. Now, either you get your own logo or you have your own logo. But otherwise, for you, we've created a very, very simple module, just like creating a Facebook post. We will show you in a separate video how to create a logo in like five minutes with a very simple tool called Canva. Now, let's come to best practices of exterior photographs. Exterior photographs are all about your establishment from the outside with ideally a beautiful looking sign board. In addition, have photographs of landmarks around the establishment so that people can find your establishment easily. That is a very, very important thing. Here are some great examples of exterior for those for exterior photos. Here are the examples. Now the first example is of Dr. Hera. Now, this is what we've seen in the cover photo example as well. Now this particular photograph is from outside of the organization and clearly shows the establishment. The next example is a tackled restaurant in London, which is df tacos, again, very clearly visible from the outside. The next example is offered dental clinic in San Francisco, and again, very, very clearly visible from the outside. So these are some great examples of the exterior photos. Now let's come to the best case studies of work photos. Here you have to upload photos while you are at work. Give examples of action happening in a professional manner at your establishment. Post photos off your team doing work. If you're a doctor looking at a patient, if you're a restaurant, you know, great dishes serving people. And here are a few great examples of work photographs. Now let's move to the best examples over photos. The first example is from bargain plumping. Here, a person is clearly doing the plumbing job with the t-shirt having the branding of bargain plumbing. Here's another photo from bargain clumping. The next example is of a hair saloon in Jersey, wherein after the hair Kurt they have put in the picture. So this is just off to the haircut. Another example of this alone is a hairdresser trying to create a hair style of a customer. These are all the examples of good work photos. Now let's come to best practices of team photographs. You have to put a photograph of a single team member or the entire team together to make sure you give a great idea of your workforce. Especially if you are able to kind of showcase some profile. So if it's a hairdresser, you know, the person is holding scissors or other props like that. And here are some great examples of team photographs. The first practical example is of a hair salon in New Jersey wherein all the staff, the entire staff is having a nice unglamorous picture wherein, you know, which goes with the positioning of a hair saloon. And this picture is a great team pitcher for them. The next photograph is a law firm in Dallas. And very professionally they are standing aside their degrees and the law firms name is visible at the back. So it's an excellent photo for a law firm. Another example is of a plumbing company in Dallas. Where are they? Are three plumping personnel who are just standing outside their van. And this is also a great team picture. Now, as part of the best practices, here are the don'ts, things which you should not do. First and foremost, do not use stock photos. That's very important. Second is we've seen people put some very bad pictures which are outside photos. The landmarks are not visible, just parking photos. There is no sign. It's the photograph of the building from an angle which is very unclear. So don't do that. What do you need to do is, like we explained earlier, make sure the sign board is visible. Now some photos which are not clean, which are pixel eating, please do not put those pictures. Please do not put bad pictures. Don't put any pictures, but please do not put any bad pitches. Make sure pictures are clean. They don't have to be very beautiful, but they have to be clean and nice. Now, last but not the least, keep note of the dimensions which you've told you earlier. But you can, the dimensions can be set automatically by Google, My Business. So most of the times it will not be a problem.
9. Why Reviews Are Important: Understanding Best Practices: Hello everyone. Today we are going to talk about reviews on your Google, My Business listing. Now this is the most critical part and reviews make or break our lead situation in terms of getting phone calls, getting walk-ins. So it is very, very important and reviews are the most important things. Now, five, we need good reviews. I can answer that with a very, very simple example. Now, if you were to get a list of businesses, and on one side you see a business with attractive four-star rating. And on one side you see a business with no reviews at all. What would you prefer? You would obviously prefer the four-star rating. Now Google knows that reviews are the number one influence on consumer buying. So this is a key ranking factor in their algorithm. You can also see for yourself the impact of reviews on ranking for most searches performed on Google. The first three are the ones with multiple reviews and solid star ratings. Now, we'll get into how to get more reviews, as in how to invite reviews. If you log into your GMB account, you will need to find get more reviews. And it's right on the homepage of the dashboard. And in case you do not have any review, it will read, get your first review. You'll see a button. Get your first review. If you have no reviews, start with your long-time loyal customers to get momentum going. After getting your first review, it will look like this. The Share Review form will lead you to this link, as you are seeing on the screen. Just click to copy and you will get a link like this. This link you can share via e-mail, Facebook, WhatsApp, or Twitter, with any of your friends or relatives or well-wishers. Now please do not hesitate in asking for reviews, because every positive review increases your chances of getting a conversion by 25 percent, therefore, encourage a culture of reviews. Now, as we said, we need to encourage a culture of reviews. So how to do that? Ask users to give reviews, especially the happy customers. You can add an incentive for happy customers as a motivation, offer them a small discount or a gift card. But make sure that first service has to be great. And you or your receptionist or some of your team members can ask the user or the customer, Hey, look to you like a service. And if they say yes, then you tell them, why don't you post a positive review for us and we'll give you a 10 percent discount rate now, but only do it with the customers who are already happy with you. So here is the summary of the process. First, serve well. Second, ask for satisfaction levels of the customer. Third, if the customer is happy, request for a review and offer a small incentive forth. If customer is not happy. Solve the problem, make sure the customer is happy. And once the customer is happy, request for a review and share the link with him or her. Now, we'll come to review strategy. There are three parts of review strategy, quantity, speed, and diversity. Now the first factor, the first factor is quantity. Quantity as the number of reviews. But it's a key factor. But that doesn't mean that, you know, you have to have lot of reviews very fast. Okay? So reviews need to be positive. The quantity should be built over time. So go slow and steady on your quantity. Quantity is important, but positivity is more important. Therefore, do not change quantity in terms of reviews. Lead the quantity built slow and steadily, and focus on quantity in terms of positive reviews. So get positive reviews and do not chase quantity in terms of sheer numbers. The second factor is speed. Now speed in continuation of quantity needs to be consistent. Not fast, not slow. We've seen many listings where for weeks and months there are no reviews. And certainly within 23 days there are 45 reviews, which may seem fake, not only to Google, but also to users. So that is very, very important. So make sure that you're consistent, not forced. You know, it's a 10 to 15 minutes a day effort. It's not a two-hour effort every day. And then, you know, you're taking no action for weeks. Just like, you know, you go for exercise. And one day you are super motivated and you spend two hours in the gym and next full week you take off here, spent 10 minutes a day. Consistency is important. No fake reviews for sake of quantity or speed. No fake reviews. You know, don't get into the pressure of speed. Last but not the least, process for promotion of reviews should be informed of a discipline driven by service orientation. That's very important. The third factor, diversity, is part of phase 2 planning. Now once you have cracked the Google, My Business reviews, the reviews are coming. They are consistent, they're positive on Google, My Business listing. Then you need to create diversity. This diversity needs to be created on other platforms, like Yelp, like Facebook, and like other platforms. So this will give diversity to your business in terms of reviews. Now, let's get to keywords in reviews. In addition, Google may also display a business profile in search results if it has reviews that contain the keywords, please see some examples. Google win, embolden keywords in your reviews to further validate the relevancy. Keywords in reviews do help in higher rankings of your business listings. User photos, interviews. Adding photos to the reviews can really make a difference. Most users will not do it and we'll need some motivation for the same. Here are some examples. Example number 1, hairstylist offered to click a before and after photo or once the style is done. Take a photo of the style with the customer's phone. Would you like me to take a photo of your hairstyle is the question you should ask the person. Second example, restaurant. Maybe first example within the restaurant offered to click a photo of customer enjoying great food. Second, offer to click a photo of the family enjoying the food. Third, offered to call the chef and have a snapshot with a chef if the customer has really liked some dish. And these photos can be later on used by customers on social media as well, tagging or sharing link of your establishment. Another great example is real estate. Offered to click photo of the new house with a new owner. It's a big moment. Offered to do an opening ceremony like cutting a ribbon and getting some professional photographer to take the pictures and share with the customer and share on your GMB profile. There'll be amazing and showcasing the beautiful property with the customer could be another option. Next is an example, could be dentist, skin specialist, weight-loss consultant. You know, ask the customers if they are okay putting up before and after views. That could be a great idea. And a customer's feedback in form of these reviews and photos could be excellent. To sum up, the whole idea is to add credibility to your service via customers feedback. This will help as a differentiator when it comes to competition and ultimately will bring more customers to you. Here are few real examples for you to see. Observe n Learn.
10. Responding To Reviews: Best Practices: Now let's learn how to respond to reviews, responding to positive reviews and responding to negative reviews. How to respond to positive reviews. Thank the customers in a human manner, right? Individual, thank you. Notes to each customer. Do not become a bot. Do not use the same old reply message with cut paste for every thank you message. Also, do not have a very formal kind of reply. Rather have a human reply. If you're a doctor, you can see, I hope you are feeling great and please come back in case you feel there is any issue that reinforce the good points. Now let's learn how to respond to negative reviews or how to manage negative reviews. Sometimes mistakes to happen in every business. And you may leave a customer unhappy. As a result, he or she can write you a negative review. Do not get disheartened and do not shy away from talking to the customer and being apologetic about it. Please note that the negative review is visible to all new prospective customers, Hence, not doing anything about it won't help your business at all. Here are the steps which you can take. The first step is getting back to the consumer. Because consumer has left some kind of details with you and tried to communicate with the customer through your database and convince the customer to change or edit the review, reply to the customer, and apologize, and ask for a phone call that replied to a negative review should become unprofessional. Do not lose your cool. Do not try to recreate the situation and limb the consumer. Just follow a simple template. Dear customer. Thank you for your feedback. Vr, really sorry that we could not serve you up to your expectations. Please let us know if we can reach you. Kindly call us at XYZ number or email us at ABC at the rate gmail.com. We would love to serve you again and we are assuring you of solving your issues clearly NP-complete. Another example could be, I apologize on behalf of everyone at my company. Please know that your situation was an exception. As you can see on other reviews, we are known for taking ownership and caring deeply about our customer. We can't fix the past. But you have my personal commitment to improve the way our staff serves every customer. Until then, please accept my sincerest apologies on behalf of everyone on the team. As a process and as a summary from your own records, you can find the phone number or email of the customer. Try to keep a call or set up a call with the customer. Call the customer, address specific issues raised by the customer. Provide a solution which can be a full refund reuse of surveys or some other free of cost service and even something more, but makes sure customer is fully satisfied. Now, if the customer is convinced that customer is ready to change the review or delete the review. Customer even doesn't know how to change that if you. So here is the process. We should tell the customer how to edit or delete the review. The customer has to open Google Maps on their computer. In the top-left menu, the three horizontal lines. Look for your contributions. Click on that and then choose reviews. Next to their review of your business. Click More three dots. You'll be able to see three dots. Click mood, choose an option, edit or delete, and follow the instructions. Ideally get the review deleted.
11. How To Put Posts And Best Practices: Hello everyone and welcome to the section of how to put posts. Posts are very, very important and a good 90 to 95 percent people in the world on their own Google, My Business listings are not putting posts. That's an amazing statistic. So what we suggest is you post your latest updates, your offers. And now let's jump into it and see how it's done. From the homepage. We go on to the post page. The homepage is the dashboard of Google, My Business. On the top navigation you will see a COVID update, post, add, post, add, update, add event, and add product Post Types. I'm going to click them one by one. And let's see an example. Here is how we can update the status or put up an update post. We have already put an example of a post. This is an example of a post of a pediatrician. A child has just been vaccinated and she's smiling and she's feeling happy after being vaccinated. It's a great post. We've called this post happy and very brave Sally, after vaccination. Another example of a post that we've put is of a person who just got a haircut. And his name is Jimmy. And Jimmy with his happy haircut. Jimmy has just got a haircut. And this is for a hair salon. We will give you the full process of putting up each of the different kinds of posts, as we've explained here, how to put an offer post today. Going to tell you how to put up an offer post. First, you reach the home, which is your dashboard. And from there you click on posts in the left navigation. Click on Add offered. Now, we don't expect you to create photographs. Designs are creatives. Let me give you a good news. It is not required at all. And there are great sources of fully copyrighted free images. Just go to google.com, search for Unsplash, un SPL, ASH. As you see on the screen, you will see a site. Click on the website. Here, you'll get completely free images, completely free of copyright. Searched for the word excited, EXE IT ED. Because a great offer is meant to show excited people. Let us use the first image. I think it's a great image to use. Just click on the image. Then click on Download Free, and the image is downloaded. Now you can go back to the posts and do add photos. Select the photos from your computer. And here is the image which we downloaded. Now we are uploading this image. The image has been uploaded. Let's give it an offer line in the title. The line is get excited 30 percent off on the entire store items. This is our line. Now, you may like to add time, but I think it is better that we put just dates. So from Jan 15th, we make it Jen 18th, three days offer. And we can add details which are coupon codes, et cetera. But let's just keep it simple for awhile. Now let's preview it. Here is how it will look like. I think it is looking great. Let's go back. There is one more option on the photograph. Just click on the Edit button, just like you do it on Facebook. Click on the Edit button and you can move this for framing. I think if you move this a little bit down, get the lady who's excited in the center of the frame. That will be great. Now, again, click on upload photos. And if you do the preview, It's looking great. It's time to publish. Let's publish the post. And here you go. Your post is published. And you didn't have to do any design work at all. Here is a great offer post, which you can do in no time. Posts are like social media posts, just like you do in Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. These are your regular updates about your business in form of photos, videos, offers, events, and new products. So what are the advantages of posts? Posts help in increasing your visibility among your target audience. High engagement when a customer is looking at your listing, new offers, products, and services offered to the customers. Increasing confidence of customers by showcasing success. Most customers, looking at listing, our thinking, will their objectives are met like winning a case, alleviating or disease, getting a great haircut, basically a happy ending. You need to put examples of customers happy endings at your local business. A happy customer with a great looking hairstyle can boost confidence of new customers by multiple times. For example, highlighting a new line of fall clothing with various product images. Second example, showcasing an upcoming event you are trying to promote. Third example, using a GIF as in an image to relive game winning shot with your audience.
12. Setting Up Free Google Website: Hello everyone. Today we're going to talk about free Google, My Business website. You're going to love this one because this module we'll talk about how you can get a free website from Google. Unbelievable, trite. But it's true. If you do not have a website, Google free website is a great option. It can help you create your special space on Google.com and other search engines. You can put it up on your visiting cards and on other establishment materials for users to visit your website and get information. It adds to your professional stature. As with a website, your business looks more professional. Now let's see how it is done. Google builds on neat looking website from all the information that you've entered while creating Google My Business listing, you can modify the following things. Theme of the website. The theme of the website is essentially how your site looks. Google gives you a free option to choose between different looks. Do not worry. You do not need to design anything. You just have to press a button and change the look. And finally, select the design which you like for the free website. This is also a free feature. Click on the theme on top-left corner. It'll show you the options. Click on the tick button near the theme. And that design option is selected for you. After sign-up. To see your website, click on the website in the left panel. In the right panel, you will see something like this. As written in the top-left corner. Your site is not yet published, so your site is not live yet. Starting from the top left corner. Please understand that right now you are on a sub-domain. That means your site is abc dot business toss site. And DOD business dot site is the domain which Google has given you. That business dot site is a domain which is provided by Google. And your business name can be added in front of it. Changed the name of your business, whatever you like. You can make this change here. Best-practices tried to put full business name here. Now, there is one more option. You can have a dedicated domain of your own to buy and connect with a dedicated domain. This is just an option, but you can do it. A dedicated domain makes you more professional and gives a direct identity to the website. It is a very simple process, but it's not essential. We suggest that first you publish your normal website on a sub-domain with all the details and then consider buying it. To do this, click on Buy. There are two options. The second option may not be required right now. So just click on option 1. You can check out from here what you're seeing on the screen right now. And that's it. Thank you.
13. Understanding GMB Insights And Actions Points: Hello everyone. Today we're going to talk about Google, My Business Insights. For anyone running a business, it's important to have an overall view of what's going on. And that is why Insights is so important. Remember, the customer's journey is related to your local business listing. It tells you which keywords or search queries did customer use to reach your business? It tells you how many people search directly for your business. It also tells you about the customers who found your business by searching for a product or a business. In addition, there are reports which show you about your peasants on Google search and your presence on Google Maps. Once the customer sees your business listings, it tells you about customer actions like visiting your website, requesting directions, or giving you a call. Most importantly, this tells you about the areas from where your customers are searching for you and looking for directions to reach your establishment. Let's go to your GMB account to find out more. Click on the insight tabs on the left menu. The first part of insights is the search terms. In the following example, you can see how a generic search for pediatricians in San Jose have received a maximum number of customers. This is followed by the actual name of the doctor. You can classify your customer as someone who already knows about you, either as direct customers or referred by someone, the number of customers for generic searches need to improve as that is indicative of your consistent performance in your professional eerie. Next is how customers search for your business. Direct discovery or branded. Next, where customers view your business on Google, Google search or Google Maps search. Next chart tells you what action did the customer take once he saw the listing, visited website, requested directions, or gave a direct call. Direction requests are very important as it shows all the nearby pin codes from where customers are coming in. The phone call data is reported in terms of daily goals and the time of the calls. You can match this data with the number of calls you actually received on your number. Last but not the least, it report views of your photos. It helps you understand which photos are working. Why you should post more photos and stay ahead of the competition. Please note that you should not get afraid by this data or charts. These are really helpful if broken down and analyzed properly. All this information is to help you help you understand how customers are reacting to your Google, My Business listing, it simple data, and it will help you connect the dots and ultimately drive more foot faults to your store, service center, or any of your establishment. Thank you.
14. How to share GMB link and create link juice for your listing: So this session is all about getting links to your Google, My Business listing. First, we need to learn how to get the link to your GMB listing. Now to get the link first, you log into your GMB account. Just scroll down and find, get more reviews. This is what you have to find. On get more reviews. Click on Share Review form. On the Share Review form, you will see a link. Now, this is the link to your listing. Now, just click on the link to copy. The link will be copied. Now you have got the link and this link can be shared on WhatsApp, on Facebook, on Twitter, and on many other places. So now you've got the link ready to be shared. Now, I think first step which you can do is share this link yourself on your personal Facebook, personal Twitter, and all the personal handles. That is very important. That is the first step, that is the minimum thing that you can do. And the next step could be, you can ask your friends, your relatives, and other people who can help you to share these links on their social platform. So that could be the second step. The third step would be sharing this link on your website. You know, so put this link on your website. Now these are some very easy steps. Now, coming to a little bit of an advanced step. An advanced step is that you've got friends in your own area, as in area of work. Suppose you're a pediatrician and you are in San Jose. So you got a friend who's also a pediatrician in LA. Now both of you can help each other, okay. Without cannibalizing, because both of you are local businesses, you are not having any competition. So the LAP vegetation can give a link to you and you can give a link to the L, a pediatrician. That is what we need to achieve. So you put up a post on your GMB for your friend in LA and give a link to his LA Google My Business listing. And he can put up a post on his GMB for your establishment in San Jose. That way he gives a link to you and you give a link to him. This way, you get great chance of increasing your ranking for each other. And it's a win-win situation. Now you need to find friends and partners to do that. This is a mutually beneficial exercise. And this is going to greatly help your organic rankings within Google Maps and Google Search. I hope you take these steps and take full advantage of this. Thank you very much.
15. Adding listings other than GMB: Hello everyone. This session is about creating multiple listings over and beyond Google, My Business listing. Now, this only needs to be done once you've done all optimizations on Google, My Business, as suggested by us. But you will come to know about a term called citations or multiple listings. So I think it's a good idea to have 34 more places where you can put your listings. We essentially the three platforms where you should put your listing after you're fully optimized on Google, My Business listing, the three platforms, our Bing Maps, yell, and Facebook. You know, people make various suggestions like yellow pages and many, many other sides. And they have even made suggestions category wise. But I feel these three are good enough. There is no need for agencies are paying listing databases that is not going to work. Most important thing to note while creating these listing is keep the name address, phone number absolutely the same. Nap name, address and phone number? Absolutely the same. Please remember this. Use the same business profile description everywhere. Same. Use only one website link. If you have created a GMB website, use that link. If you have God website which you created elsewhere, use that link, use the same link in all the listings. Next, use the same category. If you've chosen penetration in GMB, use the same category everywhere. In case that category is not available, use the parent category, you know, which is doctor in this case, pediatricians, parent categories, dr. use the same photos in all listings. This will make sure you will have consistency. And you'll have listings which are beyond Google, My Business listing, to help your Google My Business listing. Thank you very much.
16. Local Brand Building: Now this session is a very interesting session. This session is local brand building for your Google My Business listing. Now this does not involve local advertising like banners or handouts or billboards. This involves very, very small steps, but very, very effective steps. You know, with these small steps, you can drive lot of value to your business and to your Google My Business listing. First step, create a database of phone numbers or visiting users. Now within this step, send them weekly fortnightly texts, WhatsApp messages with offers and updates and links to the website and links to Google My Business listing. We've already taught you how to get the link to your Google My Business listing. Another small point is make sure that frequencies maximum one a week. You know, let's not upset the customer. Lets, you know, operate in a manner where it's regular, but it's not too frequent. The second big point is create some small printed usable gifts for your visiting customers. Small things. Usable mean something which customers can use N-nought throw away, like a small calendar or a small diary to make notes, you know, a book of positive quotes. You know, all of these things can kind of really have an impact. And we, these things regularly being with the customer, these can have very, very positive impact when your customers meet other customers, Nc, these kind of small items, they can get impressed and the recall of your establishment kind of goes up and that we call converts into search on Google and Google Maps. So this increases search volume for your local establishment and width search volume of your establishment, growing your category impact on Google in terms of comprehensiveness increases. So creating a database of emails, date of birth anniversaries can even help further sending them messages on their special days, special events by email and text creates such personal touch. So all of these extreme points can help consumers remember you. And when they search for you, the search volume of your branded keywords increases. If your branded keyword search volume increases, then there is increase in your presence for the category keyword search also, another thing that you can do is incentivize your stuff for positive behavior. For example, you can create a system in which if a review mentions a particular employee or a team member, then you give that team member and incentive. This is a good way of incentivizing your staff to exhibit positive behavior. So these are some great points which you must use, which are very, very useful. And this can really help you in local brand building. In higher brand searches, an overall high impact in Google, My Business listing ranking better for you.
17. Best Practices with customers: This session is about optimizing interaction with the consumer. Now for this, this is an attitudinal change which you have to bring the Google My Business listing is made in such a manner that people can make a call outside of your business hours and add some more times. We are not saying that you receive the calls all the time, but try to receive the call in a positive manner. Even outside of your business hours, because you are in a very competitive environment. Time is spent on the call, time is spent on your listing is going to be a key factor there. Therefore, your positivity is very important. Time is spent will come from not only the call, but also will come from details like phone number, address, website appointment link menus, photos, reviews, Q&A posts, products and services, that sector. So our approach should be invite questions, invite calls. Let's not shy away or get frustrated about receiving calls at some odd times until it's it's very late, you know, or something which is very weird. You know, some of these customers may convert to a sales. Some of these customers may not convert to the sales, but the value of a positive quantity, positive attitude is going to help us not only in the business manner, but also for rankings in multiple ways. So let's remember to do this. Let's be positive about calls. Thank you very much.
18. Secret Sauce: Google Moments and Key Action Points: Hello everyone. And here is a very interesting module where Google has given some great consumer insights, some great consumer behaviour insights. And it's a very, very interesting module in the modern day. And you must understand this if not, take any action, but must understand this. Google has defined some moments in the life of consumers, especially after the advent of smartphones. And all businesses should understand that there are four moments, no go, do, end by all the smartphone users want to do these four things. And these four things, Google calls micro moments. And there is lot of intensive research happening. While these micro-moments are there. How to supply information to the user, which can primarily come from local businesses. So local businesses like you need to capitalize on these micro movements. So what are our action points? First section, point B there. Have full and complete information on your GMB listing. Let's see two examples. The two examples on your screen right now have full information, end-to-end, make a booking, phone number. Q and a. Everything is there. So, you know, you got to have full information. Second, be useful. Now how do we use will give a complete description of your business. Post offers an events, make sure customers are helped on mobile phone as they visit your listing. Put photos of work, team, interior and exterior so that a quick decision making from consumer can happen. Answered all the questions directly, which we have told you earlier also. And last but not the least, give proper address, phone number, booking, appointment features, and other facilities. The third is be fast. Act fast. Since the consumer is on mobile searching for options. You know, act fast on a positive review. Act fast on a negative review. Act faster on a phone call or an e-mail into a question. So whatever is in your hand, please do it fast. Fourth, be accountable. Incredible. Customers are looking for credible options from their mobile phones, therefore creates surrogates on profile which make you look credible. For example, tried to get positive reviews with a great service and offering something extra all the time. Showcasing testimonials, awards or whatever you can, which builds credibility. Put photos of certificates, diplomas, everything else which can add to your credibility and make the decision-making faster for the consumer to choose your establishment.
19. How to create Google Ads for GMB: Hello everyone. Today we're going to talk about how to create an ad which you may or may not use. But it's a good thing to learn while you're learning how to optimize your listing for free traffic, it's not a bad idea. If you want some quick wins with a paid Google Map Business campaign. Ads come on top of all organic listings for specific keywords and services. They are very simple and easy to set up. So let's dive in to create an ad. We will log into our Google, My Business account and click on create an ad in the left menu. Once you have clicked on create an add, the prompt will be to select a Google Ads account. If you have one, you can select that. Otherwise, you will have to create a new Google AdWords account. Once you are inside your campaign or Google ad manager or Google Ads account, this first step is what's your main advertising goal? Get more calls, get more advertising sales, or sign-ups, get more visits to your physical location. For this video, we are choosing, get more visits to your physical location. If you have multiple businesses, you will choose between the 1s or if you have one business, select that one business. Now, where are your customers? Google is asking you in what area you want to advertise your business. Currently, it's selecting our business address and 25 kilometer area around it. So we say next to this. Now, based on your business profile, Google is suggesting some keywords like blow drying, hair treatment, hairdresser. You can choose from the suggestions or you can add own keywords like body vaccine, etc. Then please click on Next. Now here, what you can do is create the ads, whatever you want to promote. I'm writing all Kurtz at $29 as my headline. Here is an example. Do give it a thought as this is where you're spending your money. So make sure your best offer is visible to people and they get drawn to the ad. We are almost done with our ad. And Google will pick the business address as mentioned, and we click on Next. Just make sure your phone number is right for all the phone calls. Now, this is the budget part. Enter how much you want to spend every day or monthly, or you can select a recommended for you from Google. Now, Google is asking you to review your campaign ones and everything looks set here. All the keywords are right for numbers are right. Let's click Next. Now this is the payment part where you can add your credit card details and agree to Google's terms and conditions. And you are all set for your ads and it'll be under review. You can check after, let's say 24 hours and your ads will be live. Thank you very much.
20. What is Google Guaranteed and how to use this feature?: Hello everyone. Today we're going to talk about the Google guarantee program. Although this is not an essential module, but getting some knowledge is not a bad thing. The Google guarantee is in addition to accompanies Google, My Business, where Google generates a batch that says they guarantee your work. It is available for businesses that pass a Google screening and qualification process through local services ads. It is available for following countries. United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, France, Italy, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Belgium, and Switzerland. If someone books a job through Google and they're unhappy with the work of a company with the Google guaranteed. Google will cover the amount of invoice up to 2000 dollars. The following are the upper limits of lifetime limits per customer in each country. You can see these details on the screen as they go one-by-one of different countries. United States, Canada, Ireland, and many other countries. The limit is more or less in the range of 1500 to $2 thousand. Industries which are eligible for Google guaranteed can also be seen on the screen. There are many, many industries like auto, glass, like electrical, like even planning, financial planning, like home cleaning, and many, many other categories which right now are available on your screen. The process of Google guaranteed. If your business uses local service ads, you can apply to the program by signing up for local service ads. If the service is available in your area and you receive certification, a batch or logo will be displayed next to your ad. When you apply, google will check your business license, insurance, and online reviews. They will also conduct background checks on employees at no cost to you. Owners backgrounds are always checked and other backgrounds are checked based on nature of your business. If your company passes this screening, you will receive a batch to show customers. Google has pre-qualified you. If a customer is unhappy with your service, they can submit a claim to Google to be reimbursed for the amount of their invoice. Google will then reach out to you to learn more and may request additional information about the customer. You will have the opportunity to resolve things with your customer. If that doesn't work, Google will decide on a fair resolution based on its discretion in findings. To sign up. Here is the URL which is available on your screen right now. You can use this process.
Sandeep Amar, Digital Leader
