Webinar Transcript - The 2021 Guide to Google Maps

Speaker: Harry Casimir

Hello, everyone, thank you for tuning in, and I’m gonna let you guys give a few more minutes before we get started here. Well, I mean, I’ve got to thank you so much for joining us. My name is Harry Casimir, founder, and CEO of Marketing. Thank you so much for joining us. About to dive into some pretty good content today and kind of break down how to get Google Maps ranking. Awesome, Again, if you guys joining us, we’re just waiting for a minute or two to let some additional people come in.

A decent group of people signing up for this webinar today, and I’m looking forward to sharing some knowledge with you guys today. Thank you so much for joining me. Again, thank you so much. All right, we’re not going to let you guys stay too long, but I want to respect yours time and again. Thank you so much for joining me this afternoon. So we’re just going to share my screen here with you. Awesome.

All right, so today we’re going to go over the twenty twenty-one guide to Google Maps and there’s a lot of changes over the years that happen. And Google Maps. And as we said, the changes really affect a lot of businesses, especially the marine business industry. So what to go over some of the tips, some of the things that we can do o to leverage that. So I’m just going on today to hear the things that we.

Set to start, you got to think that you would learn today the latest updates and Google map listing, so kind of did some deep dove into it. All the latest updates and had in fact, you are the five big issues that could really prevent you from waking and Google Maps and actually hurt you and you as well for the Web visibility perspective and really showing you the improving methods that we have in place that we have applied. And that’s also worked across the industry.

That can really help you rank on the three-pack. And we’re going to go ahead and three-pack what that means and really share with you some of the tools because all of this cannot just be done manually, can but be a lot of work to share with you as well. All right. So who am I? My name is Harry Casimir. For those who do not know I was born and raised in Haiti.

I came to the States when I was 16, a veteran serving in the Navy. After I left the Navy, I become a digital marketer/ server admin, started my first company back in 2005 when I was on active duty, actually. So we are Google Partners, Microsoft Network ad partner, as well as Facebook advertising partners. I wrote the book The Ultimate Guide To Internet Marketing For Boat Dealers. So if you want to have a copy, just head to our website and request your copy.

We are members of the MRAA and the end MMA as well as the Marine Industry Association Florida as well. Have multiple articles published in the Boating Industry magazine and work with many marine businesses over the decades. So I would love to share some knowledge with you a little bit about myself. Our company Boat Marketing Pros was a sister company of Atilus has been in business since 2005. We are a full digital marketing agency. We do planning with web development and marketing the whole gamut.

Boat Marketing Pros is a spinoff/ sister of Atilus and we did the same thing as this does, except that we focus exclusively on the marine industry business. So with that said, all the things that we do are website SEO, Organic SEO, local SEO PPC for all the major networks as well as AD re targeting newsletter, reputation management and, so forth. So kind of a little bit about Boat Marketing Pros. So before we get started, a couple of things.

If you have questions, please send them over. I will do my best to answer them throughout the webinar as I’m going through this. Or if I do not answer your question as I’m going through a certain section, I will definitely make sure I answer them at the end. This session, this webinar has been recorded. So for those who tend to have a nice day in the end, I will make sure you get a copy of it so you can review it and you do tips that you want to apply to your business.

You can do so. And also we offer a few tools at the end here at the end of the webinar for those who stay with us till the end. So looking forward to sharing those with you. Just wanted to let you know it is happening. And again, if you have questions, please submit them and the chat room and I will be more than happy t to answer those for you. So let’s get started with the twenty twenty-one guide to Google Maps.

Right. As I mentioned earlier, here are four things that we’re going to go over, the latest updates with Google Maps listing the five biggest issues that could really prevent you from getting ranked on Google. And that’s really across the board, as you all may know. All of us know, actually, Google is really the big gorilla in the room here. When it comes to search engine, there are plenty of what the search engine, but people barely heard of them because Google really, really take the oxygen in the room here.

So you got to be ranked as the best as you can in order to make an impact in your business. So we’re going to go over the issues that could prevent you from getting ranked. And we’re going to share with you the proving knowledge, the model that we have in place that can get you rank on the pack and the three-pack. And we’re going to again, we’re going to break down what that feedback, what it means and where you should be based on where you are geographically, and also the keywords that you probably looking for and the type of business you are in, right?

And also we’re going to share with you some of the tools we know we don’t want to keep for ourselves, so we’ve got to share them with you. The tools that we know that works and that can help do the heavy lifting with you or help you to do the heavy lifting when you come to getting ranked on Google. Right. So go dive right into it. Right. So really, the question is, do Google Maps matter now?

A lot of us, a lot of us really the public in general use Google Maps as a tool to navigate even from coming from home to drop the kid to school to look at the traffic, where to go. But many people do. Even we. Some people do, but some people do not realize how powerful Google map is in terms of how it impacts business, and this is what we’re going to go over to Google Maps matter, and absolutely it does.

And we want to get started right off the bat on how it impacts business. So, for example, here’s a good example at the moment, according to Google. Forty-four percent of people search for your product or services if they find you on the maps. Forty-four percent of them going to most likely, most likely click on the first two to one to three of the results directly on the maps. That’s every 10 people that search for people will have a chance to get to you if they find you and the maps.

And keep in mind, the map is the second thing from the pact, which we are going to go over. So this is why it’s so important to ensure that you have that in place. Also, why it matters is because Google now incorporates. Directly, a phone number, your phone number inside the Google Maps, which means that when someone could point you in the maps or let’s say, for example, someone is driving from point A to B and they’re looking for your product or services, your business, or maybe you’re looking for your dealership or the services that you offer as they are on the way.

They may or may not. They may search for that product. And when they do, when they find that information, it’s most likely your phone number going to show right up there. And so this is why Google Maps is so important now for business because someone finds your numbers in and lots of people just going text, they not going to browse on your website while they’re driving. Most likely they would be calling you. And this is why it’s so important to ensure that your Google Maps is properly set up and which we’re going to go over right.

So because it’s actually driving calls and this is why it’s so important. As you may know, PPC and SEO are some of the best tools right now for the market digital marketing perspective. But Maps, Google Maps is really driving calls now because it’s right in front of the end-user, the consumer that’s looking for services, product all your business directly. Right. So, I want to go over so you can see why Google Map is so important, why it matters to have your business properly set up in Google Map.

And we’re going to go over now the biggest changes on Google Maps that’s happening over the last few years, especially recently so. Previously, Google Maps used to list seven listings, right? So now they change that and it’s only three organic listings that show up on the result page. We’re going to go over there in a second. Right. And at the moment, Google, Google also starts serving ads within the map results.

And again, we’re going to show you how that looks, what that looks like. And this is not for every market, but this is something they do. And also it’s also looking at and taking a major measure toll on, really tracing down those people or businesses that using fake addresses, so if you are using fake addresses and sometimes even fake digits, just misspell an area on the address. And we’re going to go over that in a second.

But also, if you are using a UPS store for you, a P.O. box or UPS store mailboxes, virtual office address, Google starting to penalize you for those. So keep that in mind. There is always some really very small way around those. But you do have to keep in mind those are big changes that are happening right now. They’ve been in place for a long time. But Google is really cracking down, doubling down on that kind of issue.

Again, part of what can impact you as well is a lot of people move from the office to home. So a lot of businesses that used to really have an office physical office address, now they move to a home and that’s a physical address is no longer available. Most people don’t want to show that their home address and the business and Google Maps, they hide that address that can also impact you. So this is something you have to be mindful of on how that can really affect your business.

Now. What you need is a real physical address in the city that you want your business to be ranked for. This is really big at the moment and there is no way around it. I f you live in the city, you want to rank for the city. For example, if you are a boat dealer in Cape Coral, Florida, you want to rank for Cape Coral, Florida, then you have to have actually a physical address there that’s actually selling boats. And this is no and Google’s algorithm is getting extremely, extremely smart in terms of verifying are you truly who you are, who you say you are and are you really in that location?

So why are we talking about early in a moment ago? Is the what the result looks like. Right. So. They used to be seven options, the result now it’s only three, as you can see on this screen. So only three of them show. But also, as I mentioned, there are some markets that Google also shows, start showing ads. So let’s break down this map for a second in terms very quickly, in terms of what this looks like.

So someone search for both rentals and the Google algorithm does know where you are located. So if you are in the middle of so for example, if you’re in the middle of Fort Myers and you’re looking for boat rentals, it’s going to show the closest place to Fort Myers that has the best ranking within the maps that also will optimize. So there are lots of little pieces that need to be accounted for you to show up here. But also the right up here, as I mentioned, Google start serving ads within the result for the maps.

So the first one you see is the Freedom Club. Because the running ads up here and also this market at the moment, Google running ads allowing ads to be run to here, but also you can see if we don’t close, it’s really managing and taking over three different spots. So imagine if you all will rank will optimize well set up in Google and you can take those places. Four out of 10 people come into Google. Going to click this site.

I’ll go to your site. So this is this can be big and making a big difference in your business. And we’re going to go over there and moment how to make sure you get your website, your Google, my business set up and optimize that. So the next thing we’re going to go over is the fitness on fake addresses. You can see the trend, how that was effected, how much people use to use fake addresses to get ranked.

And a lot of you’re going to find even companies, digital marketing companies, that’s going to claim that they can actually get you there. You have to be mindful and careful on what methods they use because some of them may use methods that Google doesn’t like. And that’s going ban you. So a lot of those people you can see by looking at this graph in lots of businesses that used to that use fake addresses that do not if you do not live in the city, you do not do the business in the city and you do not have a physical address in the city.

Google, start knocking you out at the moment. And this is something you have to be careful with. If you are not living in the city, you’re doing business in the city. Make sure you understand what you are doing or the agency that is helping you or where is it helping you now, or if you do it yourself, make sure that you don’t get a bad assessment. Right. So the impact we keep on talking about this is the breakdown.

So when you search for a result for keywords, whether it’s a service or product or a person or business you’re looking for. And Google, they are three things that show up. So there is ads way up there. This is the ad someone actually the business actually pays for every time someone clicks up here. And there are the maps, and this is where we’re going already today, and this is organic, which is the SEO, which is particular worked and it’s different than maps.

It is part of maps, but is completely different than maps, and that there is a different kind of work that needs to be done to get you rank very high up there for the keywords that you’re looking for. But we got to stick to the map today. So. These are the three things that we keep on talking about in the factory, right? So every time you hear the fact Google, this is what it means, the ads up there, the maps, and the SEO.

All right. So. So how could what could be hurting you and Google maps ranking, so I’m just going to go over this very quick, like, OK, the things that we’re going to go over today as to what could really hurt you or stop you from ranking in Google Maps, one, you need a real business address. And the city that you are targeting, if you are, for example, and Fort Lauderdale and you want to rank for number one dealer or boat rental, boat services repair, boat schooling in Fort Lauderdale, and you actually have to have a physical address.

And if you are using your fake location again fake location can mean many different things for different people. But if locations for example, if you don’t have a physical address, their Google algorithm getting very, very smart. So if you’re using someone’s address and you’re using and this is why Google is getting doubling down on using PO boxes, using virtual office addresses, because they know a lot of business is very cheap to get a virtual address. And you don’t have a real address there.

So Google wants to give the local business a lot of advantage over those people that are flying by night that don’t really have a real location. This is why it’s so important and consistent. And your map will stand full name, address, and phone number. So making sure your business information to name, address, phone number is correct across the web, no matter where it’s at, and we’re going to go over the detail why what you need to do, how to make sure all that information is correct and also do you have enough reviews across the Web reviews is extremely, extremely important.

And we’re going to go over the detail of how to make sure you get a decent amount of reviews from your customers as they again. Can I go over the proving formula to how to get ranked at Google Maps as well? So. So to do that, we’re going to go make Google my business, the four things that you need to Google my business, we’re going to go over the directory listing citations. We’re going to go over the reviews, break down the reviews and how re-view worked and how to get reviews from your customers.

Also, we’re going to briefly touch on Page SEO, which is very, very important, especially with the new updates Google should, I believe, in May or June that just came out really affecting a lot of businesses. And we’re going to share those with you in a moment. All right. So the number one thing you want to do is make sure you claim your business inside my Google. Google my business. Right.

Make sure you get that information out of the way. So how do you do that? This is a very straightforward kind of list out here for you. Just log in to Google my business. Actually, you can use your personal account to turn it into your business account. It’s up to you how you do that all set up brand new Google my business account and set it up, because every business right now if you’re running Google, is very hard for people to find you.

And you don’t have much of a choice if you really want people to find you, because even if friends refers you to someone, you most likely going to go on the Web and look for the company and go to the website. And most of the time, you know, you’re most likely going hit Google to find that out. So make sure you log on to Google, update your company information. OK, so this is very important. And we’re going to go over this and detail.

As you can see, when you add your phone, when you log in, and your information, your company’s name. And this is not where to place keywords will put the company’s information. Right. If your company called ABC, one, two, three boatings. Just put ABC one, two, three. That’s it. Put the address, the correct address to your website. Make sure that that is correct and the way you want it to display to the end-user and also make sure that your physical addresses their pictures and list the hours of operation.

And I’m going to show you what that looks like. Right. So here you put the business as the business name, the business services. They offer a kind of categories that you belong to, the address of the business where it’s located, kind of area that is serviced. And also the hours of operation are very, very important and very easy to set up. And while you are there, Google also makes it really simple for me from a business owner, perspective marketing director or the marketing coordinator or general manager to actually look at some of the things that are happening for you.

Right. So while you and Google my business inside Google Insight, you see how many people really search for how many people, the search and how often your particular service and keywords show on on the maps when people search for that keywords. No, not necessarily looking exactly for you, but so, for example, if you boat dealership you in Miami, if someone search for boat dealers in Miami, that should be one of your keywords that you kind of rank for depending on what you are, what you really want to do and your target market.

But. If someone searches for boat dealers in Miami, they should be all of that would show that your company is being searched. Your company’s keyword would be searched. And also it shows you actually how many people visit your website when they come and search for that keyword for you as well. And then people that request for the direction show you, as well as even people, can make calls directly to your business. And you can see that sometimes, guys, when you look at a business online, right.

You look at the information for the business, it shows you the business on the left side. And there is a way you can add a review if you can make a quick call to that business. This is all there. And that’s what the inside looks like for you when you claim Google my business. So, what are some of the best practices that, you should keep in mind when you are updating, creating and updating, optimizing, Google my business for your business, right?

Make sure you update and add those consistently to your page. This is what tech here is. If you could do that once, once every two weeks, at least once a month would be fantastic. Business Google posting as well, so you can actually use your blog post, your comment, anything that’s happening. And some of you guys, you use Instagram or and so creating a post is not it doesn’t have to be brand new post.

those articles that you already have, you can actually push them, push them to Google my business as well, that they can be showing up there. And this is the importance of that is just another signal that tells Google that your business is active right now. To respond to the review. So whether good or bad, we and we’re going to go over that, make sure you respond to those reviews, especially within Google my business, make sure you respond to those as well.

Also, Google allows people now to ask questions, actually question directly on your business within the search results or if that happened, make sure you answer those, because, again, you get kudos for that as well. So the next thing we’re going to do is the citation, right? Remember, we got to we got this thing we’re going to break down, going over the how to build citation and how to ensure that your business gets ranked and get all the signals from different places when needed.

Right. So here we are. Citation. It basically business listing, business directory submission on a story, really, that’s what it is. It’s making sure your business listing is touch is pushed out to all the correct places with the correct information where it needs to be. And they are very, very important to do so. You submit your business to as many citations and make sure they are listed in as many situations as possible, make sure they are consistent.

Information has been submitted. Right. So you want that information to be the name, address, phone number of the business to be consistent across the board and also make sure you view those as often so that you can find duplicates and incorrect information as well and are going to share with you the crazy web how this works. Right. So on this map here, you can see Google plays but Google my business now. You can see all the information.

Google actually pulled us all this information. And to verify whether this information they have and information all these places have is the same or match up. So if you have, for example, 123 street 101 suite 100 and then another place, one of the other places that, for example, in Yahoo! Local, you have a suite to two hundred or three hundred two different addresses in the eye of Google.

So even though the street address is the same, the numbers are the same. The only thing that’s different is the street is the suite number. That’s a different address. So keep that in mind as you want to remove that duplication from your listing. Right. So the biggest thing here is also when you talk about the citations, when you going to citation is making sure that all your citations are properly set up and submitted to the aggregators. Now, you might ask, what is an aggregator?

Well, in aggregators, those is those tricky things. And the United States and Canada, there are four main aggregators. The aggregators basically capture information from all over the place and then distribute the information or at least people come to them to grab that information, or sometimes people use them to verify the information they have on hence today’s factual action and figure believe they change their name now and then you store all of those four guys are really major, major players that actually exchange and share information with Google, with Apple, with Yahoo, with Microsoft to ensure that the information is showing on their maps are correct.

So this is critical that you have your information set up here. Again, this is part of making sure your business listing the business citation is properly included throughout the Web, the tools that we suggest that you use of these four tools. And there are tons of all the tools out there, just so you know. But Local Moz, BrightLocal. Advice Local are very well known in the industry to be very, very useful, user friendly.

Now, if you already have a tool in place that does this for you, don’t you don’t need to change this. You can keep your current tools, just making sure you, as I mentioned earlier, making sure to check your information or verify and correct it. So, again, this is very important for you to ensure that you get you don’t have to do the heavy lifting. You can use those tools to do that. The only thing that you have to do is making sure you track your citations.

So the first thing you do in a citation, right. You claim your business making sure the information of your business name, address, and phone numbers are correct. And there are other things as well, such as the categories of your businesses. But those are very easy to remember. But make sure you have all the information and then go to the listing, all the citations that you submit and make sure you track them because sometimes some of the citations and listing what happened in this directory sometimes go out of business, right?

Go out of business. So sometimes they merge? Sometimes it’s so sold out and sometimes they become absolute. Just keep that in mind because not all directory survives. They are businesses just like us. Some of them do survive. And what happened is that if they become neglected, they can become an absolute and you don’t want to be associated with them. So this is why it’s so important for you to track your citation so that when anything happens if there is an error, you are the first to know, and also you are the first to get in there and get it updated.

And again, that’s how you make sure that is why it is important to track some of the best practices when you come to citation, making sure the first thing you want to do is manually go to Google, Google my business and claim your business, Google my business page and make sure your all your information is correct and make sure you add photos, pictures, and post, right. Then use tools like YEX, bright local advice local, and the other tools that we showed you a moment ago.

To submit your citation, your business citation, right, and making sure you get listed on all the major aggregators, do all four of them in the US doesn’t really take a lot to get them done, but you do have to keep on top of them. So make sure you get that. And also, they get all the heavy lifting. You don’t have to do it on your own. We already show you to show you the tools that we think could help you.

And they are a ton of tools out there and some of them are cheaper than what we showed you. So, again, if you think if you don’t want to do this and I know some of you guys are very technical, you can want to do this yourself. Good for you. But if you need help, there are always agencies. And we would love to talk to you and help you if you would like. And also leverage our tools like Bright local citation finder and White Spike.

Those are very, very specific tools. That’s actually very good on that can help you find the information that you’re looking for in terms of niche that you want your business to be listed at. So, for example, there are niche directories for almost everything you can think of every business type in Canada, most likely days in need. You actually that you want to be in Indonesia actually is very, very critical. So, for example, if you are a repair shop, whether you’re a boat repair shop or an auto mechanic repair shop, there are listing.

There are directories that have that advantage that you want to be listed in there as well. Because what happened is when Google doing when the aggregate is getting the information, they categorize your business based on your niche and that information coming from those different niche directory, business listing. You want to be there. So making sure you get your business listed on there. And so for marine business, these are the top places that you want to hire and make sure you get listed on.

Right to Google. Obviously, Facebook, there is no way around those guys are Foursquare, Microsoft, Bing, which is Microsoft network now. So make sure you get it. YELP. Make sure you get listed on the on and MapQuest, yellow real yellow pages and as well as BBB. These are again these are just seven of them that we share with you. Well eight of them but there are hundreds of other ones. But those are the ones that you want to get your business citation to be submitted on and making sure the information is correct.

So. The next thing we go over is getting reviews from your customers. Again, this is something that is so critical now to have reviewed it makes a big difference. So even if I’m your friend, you are my friend. I refer business to you most of the time. You’re going to go search for that business and possibly even look at the reviews and before you go to their website. So this is why we view is so critical.

And we’re going to go over some of the strategies on how to get reviews consistently from your customers. Right. So. There are lots of tools to use and that you can actually use to get review from your customer. So a lot of us are very busy. A customer comes they buy a boat from us or they rent a boat from us, or we fix something on their boats or they buy a piece of software from us or we just train them.

We do consult for them and we say, you’re good to go and you are very busy and you hop you on to the next customer. You forget about the service you did and you did a good job. The customer will be extremely happy, but yet you don’t leverage that make sure you use tools to help you track that customer down and get reviews from them, because re-view has become so critical on the Web. And that’s a big signal Google looks at when it comes to Google Maps.

Right. One of the things that I would suggest that you do and I have seen a lot of businesses do this, is it’s very easy. But an old school but this really works is give a customer an easy way to to get reviews to you. As soon as they get the service on the take you back as you give them or whatever, that might be your welcome package. Make sure you slip a hard copy, the printed copy of your card, almost like a postcard so that they can give you a view and then don’t make it complicated.

Thank you so much for your business. We would love to go with you. Please put a QR code on this. You can put a QR code on your and your printed sheet the printed card so that they can scan on their phone and then get right into the review section and Google for you and then get that going right. So the next thing, make a call after service, really kind of make sure you walk them to the process. I know this could be a little bit longer, but there is some customers you may be working with.

That’s what and what might work for them if that’s what works and that’s how you’re going to get you. And that if you can make a difference between the next job, the next purchase, the next big-ticket item, you sell or not. So I would highly recommend that you make sure you follow up with them and give them a call and to help them walk them through that process. All right. And also build this inside your company culture, because reviews used is not everybody’s built to ask for a review.

We make the sell, make the money. And this is not part of the job. But if you make it, then you can really help. Whether you work for yourself, you have a full team with you. Make sure it’s part of the company culture to ask what reviews and follow too. Speaking of following to how to get those who are the some of the tools that we know that work is extremely, extremely well to help you get reviews.

Right. There is a customer lobby and that you can use to submit and request the customers, just thank them for their business and then ask them to submit a review and all those review tools. And there are lots of them out there. I just mentioned those three, but there is lots of more out there that you really use automated text messages so that to remind your customer, hey, I know you, we did a service on your boat last week or you purchased things from us or we help you with this.

We would love to get a view from you. And all of those can be fully automated. So the second the customer will walk out, not only you give them a hard copy of a postcard because that postcard what happened is you have that customer at most likely in your CRM database somewhere. So whenever they submit it with you, you can actually pay your CRM to let them know that customer is somebody with you. You don’t have to keep on sending that reminder, but until then, they do reminders that can go out and those tools can help you do that.

Right. So you get those tools to submit, to remind your customer to give you some feedback. So these are some of the tools that we would highly recommend that you use to help you do the heavy lifting. So the last thing on Google Maps, right, that we can Google Maps is are on-page optimization. Google will put a lot of emphasis on this now, really. Again, your address is so critical and so become such a big focal point on the business when it comes to Google ranking that you cannot really not showing your business address somewhere on your website.

This is very critical. Now, one of the things that I suggest is the easiest way to do that is to ensure that you put your business address at the very bottom of your website so that it shows on every page. So that’s very simple because that way, when when when when they call your website, it’s basically it’s really straightforward that they can go in and capture the information, quality information on every page at once. And so it’s very easy to get index there again, making sure that information you have at the bottom of your page is the same information you have on Google.

My business is the same information. You have all the citations that we talked about earlier. Right. And also the same information that the customer, when they submitted a review, does the same information that they’re looking at. This is all come back into really hard to get ranking and Google Maps. Now, I know we went over a lot. So we talk about Google my business, why it’s What’s the words or Google map of Google my business inside Google Maps with Google, my Google.

My business is the focal point inside google Maps, you do have to claim your business. And so I Google my business and make sure you create that profile, optimize your information, really push content, consistent updates, information inside on your Google my business page so that they can show up on your maps. Right. Or make sure that information is correct inside Google my business so that when someone looks for you or for you or whatever for your service or anything that you offer your company’s name, it shows directly on the Google Maps because it’s the correct information and Google inside Google my business.

Right. So the next thing is making sure you have your citation in place. This is extremely important and you cannot really get a ranking that well on Google Maps without proper citation. Again, when you submit your business listing to all those different directories and different aggregators, you want that information to be consistent across the board. Don’t forget now, right now, his name, address, and phone number, you want that information to be consistent across all the directories that you submit your business because this is where Google used those different business listings to do the comparison.

So if Google, for example, finds your business, has one address and one place and then one or two are using a different place and then know this address is not a second location that you have now, you may be in trouble because now Google doesn’t it’s not sure what to make of it. That can knock you down a point or two and that can make a difference on closing the next deal or not because you could be number one in Google Maps, but because of that inconsistency inside your address that can really knock you down.

So keep that making sure that you track, monitor, and update all the incorrect information, duplicate information on your Google business list. Right. The next thing is reviews used big data into your business culture, build that into your S.O.P, all your procedures, so that every process that you follow, the information that you have in place, all that information, make sure your team, your sales team, you as to whether the operator of the business, the business manager, the marketing coordinator, the salesperson, make sure that this is kind of part of the process.

A customer service, a customer get the package. They get maybe a hard printed physical card with a QR code and so they can scan and submit that review, but also then do your CRM. That’s also part of one of those tools that connected one of those tools that I showed you a moment ago to ensure that you consistently follow up until you get some reviews from them. Right. You want that to happen, really? But last but not least is on-page SEO.

This is very, very important. I know it didn’t want to be a lot of detail, because you can be very, very long and lengthy, but the bulk of it is making sure that all the information within your website is fairly consistent and relevant to your industry. And Google algorithm becomes much smarter now in terms of how we look at how consistent your information on your website is and how we need it. Is it your business itself or the industry that you are in?

And all of that played a big role, a big key, but most importantly, having your address, physical address, and inside where your business, I’d say your website footer and really match up to all the places that it’s at is extremely important. Right. So I know we went over a lot here. Just kind of do a quick recap. I’m going to open the room here for four questions and answers some of the questions that have been coming in.

As I mentioned before, I do that, don’t I ? Do I as a promise, if you would like to get one of the ultimate guides to master Google or local search, we this is something that we offer. Those are free guides that come to our website. If you come to our website, there are lots of resources there. You can actually download this here or you just requested for directly from us as well as if you go to our website, we have a full we resources section that has I wrote a book last year was actually you can request a copy that we have actually in a magazine that we publish once a month here.

And there’s lots of different information, especially from the SEO perspective and website visibility. We have a blog section that has lots of detailed information as well. We have a lot of white papers webinars. We get this every two months. We have a webinar coming up and as well as a podcast. And thank you to my team that has put this together. Thank you, Kristen, and the rest of the team. So really, there’s a lot of resources on our website that you can get.

And I know if I can say this, last year was a tremendous year, and this year actually the beginning of it, this year was a tremendous year for the marine industry. As you all know very well, lack of resources nowadays is really kind of really helping hurt the marine industry as well, because I know lack of inventories and lack of the ability for us to get enough people. But this is a great opportunity as well as a business to look at where you are and where you want to be because you can capitalize on this time, because a lot of your competitors, most actually probably like we make a lot of money last year, let’s just chill.

But this is the time that you probably get really get all your ducks in the world from the web and digital marketing perspective where you can actually set your SEO. Right. You can get your Google Maps, you can get your social media right. You can get your website that that was beyond the eighteen hundreds you’re going to get right at the moment so that you can really get the ranking and the next six months or so when things hopefully turn around, where the inventory starts to trickle in, you really get ready to crank in.

And that’s when your competitor going to try to get started again. We do know this was a fantastic year for the marine industry in many ways, it did not come without its challenges, but we know that was a great year. But this is not going to stay forever. We are all us going to have to generate more leads and generate more customers and make more sales. And this is a great opportunity at the moment to actually look at your marketing strategy, especially from a digital marketing perspective, to look at especially the long term pieces of marketing from a digital marketing perspective, like an SEO those one things that take time so you don’t want to kind of get really and run where you’re where you want to get really set and prepare yourself and go.

And this is a great time if you look at what you want to do. All right. So last I want to offer as well is Free Strategy Session for those who attend here. And this is we and there is no obligation. It’s up to you if you would like it. You just we just reach out to us here and go to our website and try to schedule a time. And I’d be more than happy to have my team here would put a full assessment on your website and your visibility.

And actually, I’d be more than happy to company call with you and go over that with your piece by piece. So about two of the questions. If you have additional questions or comments, please feel free to choose to send them all the way here. But for now, I’m going to open the floor to any questions. You may have, so one question, my business is based out of my home, I have my home address listed as my business.

Is it? It is consistent across Google Maps, is that going to cause me to be penalized? This question’s based. It’s very interesting. Google doesn’t penalize you perse, say, for a business that uses your home address as a location as long as it’s consistent. We have worked with clients, many clients that have used that method, but some of them are not even comfortable leaving, making sure the address is listed in the business, because for a lot of reasons, obviously, and what we have to do and google allow you to do that actually is hide your address.

Now, Google knows that you have a physical address, but you are allowed to hide it from the map. So this is something that you could actually play with if there’s something you want to do. But if you don’t mind your ads, your home address there, you can keep it. You can as long as it’s consistent across the board. Again, Google doesn’t penalize you for using your home address as long as the home address that you are using and the city that you are claiming that you’re doing business and is where the home address is that I hope to answer your question.

And again, if you have any questions to follow up on that, I’d be more than happy to. I’m more than happy to answer more questions on that. So. The other questions that we get from people are that, OK, I live in city A or my business is in City A, but the city, B, C, and D is it’s within my radius is maybe five miles. Right. How do I rank for those cities? Yes, you can rank for the cities.

Again, Google Map is very, very the algorithm get them extremely smart and that you don’t have to claim that you, your business has an office city B or C because you don’t. So this is where you can get penalized so that if you’re not in business, if you are doing business and city B and you don’t have a physical address there, just it’s OK to say that it’s OK for you to say I’m doing business and city B and C, C and D, but I don’t have a physical address there.

And Google would understand that because of your proximity, what may make a big difference and how well you work in that city and for the services that you’re looking for is the competitiveness of your service, product, or company, but what have you. Right. For example, I think that is a perfect example for those who know the Footlight area very well if you are in Fort Lauderdale. So, you know, Fort Lauderdale has a lot of mini little different cities right around it.

So you have Pompano to the north. Right. And then you have Hollywood to the south and then you have the Western the to the west. So you have three city right. Next kind of put four like that right in the middle. So if you are a boat rental business or a boat dealer business inside Fort Lauderdale. And your competitors and others who there are lots and lots of boat dealers, so I don’t even have to mention that there are lots of actually but rentals.

There are many book clubs there as well. So the competitiveness makes a big difference because although you are in the middle of Fort Lauderdale and Pompano may not be too far from, but there are two or three businesses that is closer to Pompano than you. And they also have the Google my business maps. Well, set up, right. So there’s this all this kind of have to look at. What’s nature now, what I have seen people do and this is, again, for if you’re running a big business, a boat dealer or a boat rental, but boat dealer, you can actually have a second location easily in Pompano so which basically bring you right on the edge.

So if you look at from location A, from city A and lets’ say Pompanot is in city B in that case, now you have if you are looking at the proximity and the radius of those two locations, they almost collide and merge somehow and somewhere in the middle, which actually give you an edge because you can actually claim the second location now and Pompano for your business and now you’re getting ranking boat dealer and Fort Lauderdale dealer for two different locations, but the same company.

I hope that makes sense and that’ll help explain this a little bit. Right. So I know I’ve been going on for a bit here. Talk a lot. So if you have guys have any additional questions, I would be more than happy to answer that. And again, I really appreciate you guys joining me today. It’s an honor to be able to present this to you and share some knowledge. I hope you find this useful. I hope you can utilize this and your business.

And if you so are you guys. I know of a techie, so you can just take this information and run with it and just utilize it and optimize your business. But some of you guys don’t go away and you may need some help. And we are here with boatmarketingpros.com. That’s all that we do. We live and bread and eat and sleep digital marketing from planning to basic web design to a complex web application to online marketing and newsletters, whatever that you may need.

We are here to help. So we would love the opportunity to chat to see if we can help, if we are fit to work with you, you work with us, and then we can see what we can do for you. So feel free to reach out again. boatmarketingpros.com? My name is Harry Casimir. It’s been a pleasure. I want to thank all of you guys for sticking around and listening in, for tuning in.

Also, thank you to my team at boatmarketingpros.com to help put this together. Appreciate it. And until next time. Thank you so much.