Elevate Your Google Profile: Tips for Attracting More Customers
Your Google listing is more than a digital business card—it’s your most underutilized marketing asset. In this episode, Lani and Jeana dig into the real power behind your Google Business Profile (GBP): why most business owners are using it wrong, what to fix today, and how to make it your highest-converting source of leads without spending a dime on ads.
If you're still relying on word of mouth or chasing leads that never close, it's time to make Google do the heavy lifting.
What You’ll Learn:
- The #1 mistake most people make with their Google listing
- How the “map pack” works and why it’s your ticket to free visibility
- What info Google needs to trust your profile (and rank it higher)
- Why automation makes or breaks your review strategy
- Tools to collect 100+ great reviews with less than 5 minutes of effort
- What to post on your listing to keep it active and converting
📌 Instagram: @stealthfreedomtoexit
📌 Facebook: Lani Dickinson
📩 Email: info@stealthfreedomtoexit.com
🌐 Website: stealthfreedomtoexit.com
Transcript
>> Lani Dickinson: Welcome back to Freedom to Exit. I'm your host, Lonnie
Speaker:Dickinson and Gina Desaier.
Speaker:Today we have been presenting over the last few
Speaker:episodes the introduction to our tool belt
Speaker:empire and book Solid Radio.
Speaker:Today we're going to talk about your Google business
Speaker:profile and how it's not just a map pin, it's a
Speaker:money magnet. Now this is one of the things that
Speaker:Gina really loves. So
Speaker:you're going toa want to take notes and probably open up your phone
Speaker:by the end of this episode. So coming in
Speaker:hot. Okay, Gina, here's the stakes. Let's say
Speaker:someone's looking for handyman near me.
Speaker:Window installer near me. Painter near me. Home
Speaker:remodeling near me. Cause that's what they're putting
Speaker:in. Well, that's actually the thing that gets fed to them. Near me is the
Speaker:first thing that comes up and then they type that into
Speaker:Google.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: What happens now?
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: Well, the first thing you see nowadays is the very first thing is
Speaker:AI generated answer. And
Speaker:then the next group you gott look, it'll say
Speaker:sponsored. Those are people that paid to be there. They
Speaker:may not be any good, but they're paying to get up there.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Right.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: And then the next group is what you really want to look at is what we call
Speaker:the map pack.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Map pack.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: Mac pap. Map pack. It's hard to say,
Speaker:but there's three of them and those are like
Speaker:the top three based on a lot of
Speaker:things of your Google business profile,
Speaker:your reviews. Is it in active?
Speaker:are you adding things to it? Are you adding
Speaker:photos? Are you adding questions and
Speaker:answers and things like that that lets them know that this business
Speaker:is still alive. Google loves those kind of things.
Speaker:They want you to stay on Google. That's why they're
Speaker:making it more and more like it's your own little website. Because they want
Speaker:people to stay on Google. Yeah. so
Speaker:you want to be one of those.
Speaker:And getting there is
Speaker:half the battle.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Half the battle. And if you're not showing up
Speaker:there, you've already lost the
Speaker:battle.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: Yes. Very few people will. I some will. They'll go
Speaker:on down the page and look, but
Speaker:very few will. And if you show up on
Speaker:second or third page, you're pretty much
Speaker:notnna get well.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: And we know that 98% of people say
Speaker:they first go to Google.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: Right. And. And 86% of
Speaker:customers say that they won't even consider a business with
Speaker:no online presence.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Yeah, it's serious.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: It is, it is.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: So what are some common problems that
Speaker:you see when people come to you, they've been doing it themselves.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: And it's still not working. So they again think, oh, this
Speaker:doesn't work either. What are some common problems, you see?
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: well, one of the main things is not
Speaker:even having it set up. Right. Like not
Speaker:having, Maybe you don't have your phone number on there.
Speaker:Or maybe you've changed your phone number and you haven't went back and updated
Speaker:your Google business profile.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Or maybe you put the wrong address on like I did when I did it May.
Speaker:Instead of having you do it.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: Yeah, good.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: I was 111 instead of 112. It makes
Speaker:a difference.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: It does. It makes a huge difference.
Speaker:And so that kind of stuff,
Speaker:is one of the first things that we look at. Have you linked
Speaker:your website? I mean, if you have a
Speaker:website.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Well, they will after they get done with us.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: That's right. That's right. Then you need to link it.
Speaker:used to. You could even like, chat people
Speaker:from there. But Google, for some reason, turn that off. I don't know
Speaker:why. I don't know. Anyway, we
Speaker:just look at those kind of things. First of all, accuracy.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Like hours.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: Hours, yes.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: I really wish chiropractor would hear this
Speaker:episode because his hours are never accurate. His Facebook
Speaker:page says one thing, the Google profile
Speaker:says another. I have to take a picture every time I'm at
Speaker:his office.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: I take a picture of the door, see what's new.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Because it changes all the time.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: Yeah. And another thing that goes along with this is what we call
Speaker:citations. This is just a freebie here.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Freebie. You heard it here.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: And a citation is your information
Speaker:is out there on places you don't even
Speaker:know. I mean, Google, Bing,
Speaker:Yahoo, and there's tons of other ones
Speaker:that we can run a report and show you where
Speaker:these places are. And you're like, I don't even know those places.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Here's another. Phoebe, do you know who wrote the code for
Speaker:Bing?
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: No.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Marty Pell. Barney Pell.
Speaker:This my homie.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: Oh, okay. Yeah, I didn't know that.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: You think you're a tech. What do you call yourself?
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: Tech wizard. You call me a tech wizard? Anyway,
Speaker:if those citations are different, like you want
Speaker:them to be the same on all of them, if your
Speaker:address on one is different than another one, Google goes out and
Speaker:looks at all these citations and
Speaker:it gets confused and it's like, oh, there's a phone number on here
Speaker:that's this one. And then this phone number is this one. And
Speaker:so it gets confused and it doesn't like that. So it's kind of like
Speaker:a mark against you. Like, you know, in school
Speaker:you got a mark against you.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: You know how rules that problem.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: Your hands, a ruler slap. You ever.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: I did not get ruler slaps. My parents whooped
Speaker:me with.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: Maybe I'm the only one in this.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Group together there was ever a need. Okay, quick story.
Speaker:I lived in Japan from second to sixth grade,
Speaker:on a military base. And, I come
Speaker:home and it's strict. I go to
Speaker:Department of defense schools. If you get in trouble there,
Speaker:they call your dad's boss. It's not like you're not
Speaker:just getting a little note home they call your dad's boss. So it
Speaker:serious business. So I come home, come back to
Speaker:California in sixth grade, and, I
Speaker:was far ahead of the class, so I was
Speaker:grading papers and stuff all the time, and I
Speaker:got asked to carry something to the office. And I saw
Speaker:a line of people lined up out the door getting paddled by
Speaker:the vice principal. And I was like,
Speaker:what in the world is this?
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: The principal spanks you too. You don't
Speaker:anymore. Yeah, not anymoremore.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Anyway, I got whooped with and I turned out fine.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: Well, Google will
Speaker:ruler slap your hands if you get citations wrong
Speaker:in all these places.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: You know how I deal with that? For me, because you
Speaker:know, I don't.
Speaker:Whenever I try to do it myself, Ginaus sends me messages.
Speaker:Why don't you just let me do this for you?
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: Leave it alone.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: But the way I get the, address correct every time in the phone number, I
Speaker:keep it on a Google Doc and I cut and paste it on everything
Speaker:I do because you told me about that problem.
Speaker:Y. Yeah.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: So there's little things like that that we can go look
Speaker:and see and let you know why
Speaker:you're down here instead of up here.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Yeah. So you're good customers. You can also
Speaker:ask them to post pictures in their review if you have a
Speaker:relationship. That I think really helps too.
Speaker:Have I wrote a Google review for
Speaker:a junk hauller guy, the servant king. There's a plug
Speaker:Chris. And he said, lonnie,
Speaker:would you be willing to post pictures with your. I was like,
Speaker:sure. So I took a few pictures. That review has
Speaker:been looked at over like 12 or 1300 times.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: Wow.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: He's like, that's what I need. I need more pictures. So
Speaker:ask your good customers for to, upload
Speaker:pictures.
Speaker:What about respond? Responding.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: Responding. Yeah, we talked about that in earlier episode as well.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: This is the Google episode.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: I. I know, but we got ahead of ourselves. It was A
Speaker:leak. It was a leak. It was a leak. And so, yes,
Speaker:responding to the reviews. Google wants you to respond to
Speaker:every review, good or bad.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Customers do too. okay. I wish I'd looked
Speaker:these stats up. I said that in another episode.
Speaker:companies who respond to even negative
Speaker:reviews within 24 hours,
Speaker:I think it's something like 30% of
Speaker:them. It may not be that high, 20 or 30% of them.
Speaker:The reviewer will usually change that from a 4,
Speaker:3, 2 to a 3. They won't probably give
Speaker:you a 4, but a 2 to a 3. That average makes
Speaker:a big difference in your overall rating. So it's
Speaker:worth it to respond to the negatives. And then there's another
Speaker:percentage, I don't remember, of people
Speaker:who discredit people who don't respond to the negative
Speaker:reviews. And for every
Speaker:negative, review that's responded to or
Speaker:every negative review that's responded to, it's something like an
Speaker:additional 3%. Click, click through rate to your
Speaker:websites and your booking links. If you have those things
Speaker:attached there. It's interesting. It's
Speaker:like, okay, everybody knows stuff
Speaker:happens. How does this business owner respond when stuff
Speaker:happens? Do they make it right?
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: I'm a tech wizard for other people as well,
Speaker:and I know, right?
Speaker:but another one told me that she
Speaker:got more, leads
Speaker:off of her responses to a
Speaker:bad review than she ever did off of the responses
Speaker:to the good ones.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Proving my point.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: So. Yeah, exactly, proving your point. So,
Speaker:automating those reviews. I know, we're going toa
Speaker:talk about AI later in another episode, but using
Speaker:AI to answer those reviews, I know, sounds
Speaker:scary to let someone else take over. And
Speaker:we've had people go, o. I don't know. But once they do it and they
Speaker:see them, they're so good, such good.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Responses that they're like, how many hours back?
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: I gu calendar that at least two hours a day
Speaker:of trying to think of what, how to answer them,
Speaker:how Google would want them answered. Whereas an
Speaker:AI knows that and so they're answering them. And even
Speaker:the bad ones we had when get a bad review and they were blown away
Speaker:at the politically
Speaker:correct because as a business
Speaker:owner, someone gives you a bad review, what is your first instinct?
Speaker:Well, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, defend, defend, defend.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Yeah, I have, my, my big H vac client in my exit
Speaker:business. Yeah, my, my first
Speaker:meeting with him, you know, I had d done my whole assessment. He had d already hired me
Speaker:and, and I came in, gathered information, did my whole, I
Speaker:said his name
Speaker:you are not allowed to respond to the
Speaker:reviews anymore on Google or
Speaker:Glass Door. No
Speaker:more keyboard for you.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: Yeah, because you get, it's an
Speaker:instinct, it's natural instinct to defend yourself.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Defend yourself.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: Whereas AI just present. AI doesn't
Speaker:have feelings so it just like presents it well.
Speaker:It knows how to say things politically
Speaker:correct.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Well. And it knows where we're trying to get them and all those things because we've trained
Speaker:it.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: Right.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Yeah.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: Right. So
Speaker:you had.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Nope, that wasn't Google. You have a
Speaker:story about the lady went on vacation and when she came back she was booked
Speaker:out for two weeks.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: No, that's Automations.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: It was Automations.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: It's not Google.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Automations are important too. All right,
Speaker:so in our opinion,
Speaker:I think we could say, Google business
Speaker:profile plus its optimization are one
Speaker:of the quickest wins that are guys.
Speaker:It's, you know, it can help everybody. But for,
Speaker:especially for the service based home improvement
Speaker:type people, they're googling, they're
Speaker:looking at reviews and we
Speaker:know, we see it make more money for people.
Speaker:It's just a fact. So
Speaker:if they wanted to do that, what would be their steps?
Speaker:Besides our free Google business audit
Speaker:call that they can have? What m are some of the things
Speaker:that they can do?
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: Well, they can go look at their Google
Speaker:business profile number one and go through some of the steps that we just
Speaker:discussed. Is my address right? Are my
Speaker:hours the same? Because when you set it up, you might
Speaker:been open seven days a week and now you're like, oh no, I'm not working
Speaker:on Sunday anymore. And so you take that off.
Speaker:Or maybe there's after hours, like if you're an
Speaker:H vac, what's an emergency number if it's different
Speaker:than the first one and all of that stuff. So
Speaker:to me just go look at all that stuff and then look at the
Speaker:last time you had a review. Did you answer? You can go
Speaker:back and answer them. It doesn't matter. I know we've been talking
Speaker:about answering them quickly.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Well, it'll help build the habit.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: Just go back and answer them. Go back through there
Speaker:and answer them. I'mnn client that goes back and answers
Speaker:them. That's been there for a long time. Oh, it's not been
Speaker:answered. Let's answer that. yeah, add pictures
Speaker:of your, you know, your truck.
Speaker:Maybe get in the habit of before and after
Speaker:job pictures of a job. Maybe you're
Speaker:remodeling something. And before picture and after.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: I have a solar guy who does sends a lot of solar, you know, before
Speaker:and after and night. I used to think
Speaker:how many before and after solar panel pictures do we
Speaker:need? But guess what?
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: It's a big deal.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: Yeah.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: I mean solar panels will. Solar panels.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: But, but how did it look on this house?
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: So get in the habit of doing that and then uploading them
Speaker:there. So those are just, I mean those are a
Speaker:few things that you can do on your own to move the
Speaker:needle of your profile.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: And when you wanna get serious, you gotta get this profile aud it.
Speaker:Because we help you add the automation and all those
Speaker:things.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: We talk about reviews and how big they are. And they are,
Speaker:they're big. But you're like. And you tell someone,
Speaker:hey, go leave me a review. well like how do
Speaker:they find that? Well that's the hardest part
Speaker:is getting them to go to their phone or to their
Speaker:computer or whatever and Google you and then
Speaker:try to find where it says leave a review and
Speaker:click on it. And then it comes up and with this box and
Speaker:these stars and all that. So that's the hardest part.
Speaker:So the easiest thing to do.
Speaker:Number one, do you have your card?
Speaker:We've got NFC cards, ye
Speaker:Google card. And you just go tap this on their phone.
Speaker:Our podcast guy has the very same thing right here.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: He said it changed his life.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: 320 creative changed his life because he, he doesn't have
Speaker:to hand out business cards anymore. His is the business card.
Speaker:You tap it on a phone and it just automatically
Speaker:goes to his link tree that has all the stuff. If they
Speaker:don't have that capability then there's a QR code on the back.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: That he can give them a good shot of that they might need podcasts.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: Hold it real still. Can you zoom in? And
Speaker:if you need podcast help, but ours
Speaker:also, we can program it to go directly
Speaker:to that box. It just automatically
Speaker:pops up with the review box and the
Speaker:start thing. They don't have to even think about it.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: This helps with everything, not just Google profile.
Speaker:I know this because
Speaker:all of my rentals in Jacksonville were just due for their
Speaker:termite inspections for the insurance.
Speaker:And I got a notice that it was my
Speaker:final time to pay or whatever, you know, I am. If
Speaker:it's not on automation, it doesn't happen. And
Speaker:I emailed them twice. I said, can you send me a link to
Speaker:pay?
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: And they said, oh, you gotta go look in your junk box. It's on the invoice,
Speaker:there's the address, there's still mailing,
Speaker:waiting for checks from across the country.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: Yeah.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Oh my gosh. Everything needs to be a link
Speaker:directly to what you want them to do. Busy people are
Speaker:notnna chase it down for you.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: Exactly, exactly. So,
Speaker:yeah. So we've got easy ways and a
Speaker:lot of people are like, that's hard. It's a hard ask.
Speaker:Hey, can you go review me? Mean, did you like this? I
Speaker:mean they're afraid.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: They're gonna go, have you done the review yet? That's not even gonna
Speaker:come, right?
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: Yeah, they're like, they're afraid they're gonna go, heck no, you were awful.
Speaker:I'm not gonna do that.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: The worst thing they're worried about is like, it feels like, you know, like we're
Speaker:begging for validation or something. And that's a big
Speaker:deal. But also if it
Speaker:comes when we'd rather be going to
Speaker:sleep, going to dinner with our family, going to the ballet
Speaker:recital.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: All the things we'd rather be doing, it's
Speaker:going to fall to the bottom.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: Right?
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Yeah.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: Right. If you have a store,
Speaker:if someone can come to you, then
Speaker:we can put it on like a. And you've seen them in stores.
Speaker:It's like a little stand with the Google and you just
Speaker:tap your phone on it and it automatically goes there.
Speaker:we've had waitresses take them and when they
Speaker:take the you take your card back after you've
Speaker:paid your. If you've enjoyed your meal. We wouldn't mind
Speaker:your. When they lay it there and they just say just tap your card
Speaker:on that and it'll take you and you can leave a review and then
Speaker:they come back and pick up the card. Soeah a lot of
Speaker:ways we can help you make that an easier
Speaker:ask and an easier
Speaker:response from your customers.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: And then the automation will respond in.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: Justonds and answers it.
Speaker:You could also set up an automation that goes to them that thanks
Speaker:them, you know.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Yeah. And gives them a. Well, you can incentivize them and ask
Speaker:gives them a reason to keep doing.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: Business with y and ask them if they have a friend that needs their
Speaker:business.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: You know, tell them about Automate that
Speaker:anyway could. We could go on all
Speaker:dayimations.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: So if you don't know how your
Speaker:Google listing looks and you didn't know some of this
Speaker:information or you haven't touched it in months,
Speaker:let us know. We can help you. We'll run a free
Speaker:Google business profile audit
Speaker:and it'll show you exactly what's helping you and what's
Speaker:hurting you and what you need to do to Optimize it and all of
Speaker:that. You can also go to the link that's in the
Speaker:show notes and download our 6 hidden
Speaker:links. 6
Speaker:hidden leaks in your business that
Speaker:are bleeding you dry and how to fix them fast.
Speaker:Because showing up is the first step. Converting those
Speaker:leads, knowing where the money's going, all those
Speaker:things are. They still need to be taken
Speaker:care of in the trades.
Speaker:You know this better than we do. People
Speaker:judge what they can see.
Speaker:Your Google business profile is often the
Speaker:first and only thing they can check and see.
Speaker:So make sure they have something to look. Look at
Speaker:90,
Speaker:92. Hold
Speaker:on, it's going toa come to me. It's a stat.
Speaker:I think it's 92% of people lead in
Speaker:their brain visually with the visual field. Some people lead
Speaker:with their auditory and some people lead with
Speaker:kinesthetic. But most people lead
Speaker:with visual. That's how they start their interaction in their
Speaker:engagement with the world. So give them something to look
Speaker:at. If it looks solid, they're going to
Speaker:trust you. If it looks sloppy, they're going to say,
Speaker:I don't know, that looks crazy. So go
Speaker:check your listing, book your call
Speaker:for your gole profile,
Speaker:Google profile audit and
Speaker:let us help you get it tuned up. Anything else you want to
Speaker:add before we hop off? We've
Speaker:said enough. I know. As always, we are so
Speaker:grateful for your time. We're glad that you're here. We'd love for
Speaker:you to share this with anybody who, you know, needs
Speaker:it. Subscribe to the podcast and
Speaker:join us next week. What are we going to talk about? AI'next
Speaker:week?
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: Sure, I would love to talk about AI.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: AI is her thing. She's all in it all day long.
Speaker:AI and how. Let's see. I don't remember the title. Just
Speaker:join us next week. We're go going toa talk about
Speaker:how.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: AI can enhance your business.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Yeah, enhance your business. We'll come up with a better title with by the time
Speaker:we record it.
Speaker:>> Jeana DeShazer: Yeah.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Thanks so much. Have a great day.
