How to Maximize GBP Traffic in the Age of AI

0:08
Hello, hello, welcome, everyone.

0:13
Hello, hello.

0:16
Well, welcome to how to maximize your GBP traffic in the age of AIA.

0:20
Very exciting topic if you ask me.

0:23
Before we dive in, a few housekeeping items, so no need to take notes.

0:28
This is all recorded.

0:30
If a question does come up while we’re chatting, feel free to type it in the chat.

0:34
We’ll have a fairly short Q&A at the end, and if we don’t get to your question, our team will follow up over e-mail, as long as you’re not submitting anonymously, of course.

0:44
With that, let me go ahead and introduce myself.

0:46
Hello, I’m Anna Rendells, I’m a senior strategist here at Elkimer.

0:50
I’ve been in this field for quite some time and I’ve had the privilege of working with a lot of our top brands, but my expertise is specifically in listings management and EO, which is why this topic is so exciting.

1:03
But the real star of the show is Brad, so I’ll *** it over to you to introduce yourself.

1:08
Hi everyone, Brad Schaefer.

1:09
I’m on the search and Gemini partnerships team here at Google and I am calling in from a phone room, but it looks like it’s like a prison.

1:18
It’s it looks like it’s Google prison.

1:20
But I promise it’s a nice phone room.

1:22
There’s like a Beachy theme.

1:24
So I’m at the beach right now and just really excited to be here.

1:29
And I’ll say this is our 2nd webinar that we’ve done together.

1:33
And so I feel like we are we’re like experts and doing joint webinars you and I together.

1:39
And so yeah, really excited to be here.

1:42
I’ll say my background, I come from a restaurant tech and so a lot of my examples might come as like restaurants, but I’m I’m focused on all businesses, all verticals and how to optimize your business on Google, which is the question that we’re all asking.

2:00
And so I’m really excited to share more details with you all.

2:03
Amazing.

2:03
I’m glad you acknowledged the prison thing.

2:05
So I was going to ask you for and if you.

2:07
Yeah, it looks, it really does like it looks like these walls are padded actually.

2:13
Wow.

2:14
Yeah, padded walls.

2:16
Alrighty.

2:17
Well with that, here we go.

2:21
Backing up a little bit, I should mention I obviously said I’m with Elkamer and I have to pause and give a little bit of background.

2:26
We are the number one, I know multi location and customer intelligence platform truly helping brands outrank competitors, respond to reviews and ultimately understand what customers care about.

2:39
So we bring both direct and indirect feedback together to give a more complete actionable view of your customer.

2:45
So a lot of good stuff happening over here, but let’s switch gears a bit and talk about what’s happening with search overall.

2:52
And as we know, it’s evolving quite quickly.

2:55
Something new seemingly happens and pops up every single day.

2:59
But traditional SEO isn’t necessarily going away.

3:02
So think your long form content, your keywords, meta tags, backlinks, that whole list on the screen.

3:09
It still matters, but Google’s understanding of your business is shifting with AI driven search and Geo signals.

3:16
So what hasn’t changed?

3:17
The fundamentals.

3:18
So strong content quality, great user experience, clear organization, technical structure.

3:24
If you get these right, you’re still going to perform well across multiple types of search.

3:29
Now the key difference now is honestly focus.

3:32
Traditional SEO is very website driven and centered on ranking pages, but with AI driven, otherwise known as Geo search, they prioritize context and intent.

3:42
So using short, short natural language content structure data and directly answering user questions.

3:50
So it’s really about being the answer, not just appearing in results anymore.

3:54
So understanding this shift is essential, but so is understanding where Google’s at overall.

3:59
So with that, I will pass it to you, Brad.

4:03
Yes, and this was A and and please comment in the in the chat if you can help us.

4:10
We were debating on what is it called GIF or GIF, we’ll put it, we’ll put it in the chat what what you think the pronunciation is.

4:19
But this was a GIF that showed how users were interacting with Google search previously, which was things to do in Nashville or restaurants near me, very simple queries, something that we’re all familiar with.

4:33
And in the last year, there’s just been a huge profound shift in how users are interacting with Google search more conversational and you can see filled with intent.

4:43
So previously things to do in Nashville and then you would see like the standard like 10 links.

4:50
Now it’s things to do in Nashville this weekend with friends or foodies who like music, chill vibes.

4:56
Like these are five different queries previously all in one.

5:01
And so for us, it’s been a transformational time to for us to be able to give correct answers, accurate answers to fill users needs.

5:17
And the way that that we’re able to show this information is primarily through Google Business profile.

5:24
So this right here is like the front door to your business.

5:28
And I’ll say this session, we’re going to talk a lot about Google Business profile.

5:34
And it might seem repetitive given how much there is on Google Business profile.

5:39
That’s just showing just how important it is to make sure that your Google Business profile is telling the story that you want to tell users.

5:46
So think of that query we just had before things to do in Nashville chill vibes with friends.

5:54
How is your Google business profile showing your vibes, showing your attributes and it seems like table stakes at this point of making sure your hours are correct, making sure your menus.

6:05
But that’s actually what LLMS and what Gemini is pulling from as the single undisputed source of truth that you’re essentially saying like, OK, I’m open these times.

6:15
Here’s my vibes, here’s my reviews.

6:19
It really tells you like really tells our systems like what information we should be showing for users.

6:30
And so we do want to list out a few important things that you can do in this new AI search experience.

6:35
And I’ll say in general, Anna mentioned it before as like what the difference is now with a new terminology being Geo versus SEO.

6:46
I like to say that good Geo is good SEO.

6:50
And so a lot of these things you, you may have heard before are really foundationally important, but the first is to really be the primary information source for your business.

7:00
And so I’ll say like really focus on the foundation with images, with videos, make sure that we can access your content that is like P0 most important, make sure that we’re able to index your, your information.

7:16
I’ve seen a ton where a lot of users are, a lot of businesses are focusing on a photo or a video, and then we realize that we can’t even access that data in general.

7:25
The third is just really showcasing your unique value.

7:28
So if you’re not showing what your vibes are, showing what your additional attributes are, you according to this query that a user might give you might be just another restaurant on the street and you’re selling yourself short on this amazing vibes that you have.

7:45
And then 4th is really embracing transparency.

7:48
So with Gemini, with AI mode and AI overviews, we’re looking at different sources of information.

7:54
We look at Google business profile as that like grounding source, but we look at other sources like Reddit and Instagram, Facebook, and so make sure that all of your different channels are all accurate.

8:09
And then lastly is making sure that you’re responding and cultivating reviews.

8:13
We’ll touch on that a little bit later, but you’ll see a lot of queries and a lot of responses come back going.

8:19
A lot of users are saying XYZ and that’s pulled from reviews.

8:24
So these are the five categories.

8:27
We’ll go into detail on all of them, but I’ll say this is pretty standard as far as what SEO World was previously and now it’s very similar, but even more important with other types of content.

8:43
So getting into the details, being the primary information source for your business, it is key.

8:49
I mean, I, I was on AI was sharing, I was on an e-mail chain with a large enterprise business and they’re, you know, a huge marketing team.

8:58
They’re very much invested in their SEO and they asked for our opinion looking at their Google business profile, what they should do.

9:05
And we saw that just the foundational content wasn’t there.

9:08
They were focused heavily on what type of photos and videos and and multimodal content could be, but they were missing like structured menus and photos.

9:19
And so making sure that you are the primary information source for your business, making sure that you are telling the story of why we should go to your business.

9:30
Yeah, I see that a lot too.

9:31
People like to jump ahead and start optimizing and getting into the nitty gritty.

9:35
But you really need to make sure your phone number is live.

9:37
You know, just go back to the basics a little bit.

9:40
Exactly.

9:42
And then getting into the back to the basics, like making sure that we can access your content.

9:47
We have a few tools.

9:49
If you just Google how to make sure Google is accessing your content.

9:53
We have a few tools to ensure that your websites can be crawled and and gives you like a, a score back and if there’s anything that’s missing.

10:01
So making sure that you’re prioritizing like content rich pages, but that we can also index and crawl.

10:07
It’s kind of like what you just mentioned as far as getting ahead of the game.

10:10
I’ve seen it before where a lot of folks are creating some awesome content and we just can’t access it.

10:19
And then third is really showcasing your unique value and expertise, like we’re, I was mentioning before, so really showing like if a user is going to ask, what are the vibes?

10:31
I’m looking for a patio.

10:33
I’m looking for somewhere with dogs that have this sort of feel.

10:38
How are you?

10:39
How are we pulling that information?

10:40
We, we pull that from Google business profile and we pull it from the content that you’re sharing.

10:44
And so making sure that you’re not looking at Google business profiles, just like you verified.

10:49
And that’s your, that’s your business listing, looking at it as like a live view of how, how you’re communicating your, your unique value and your and your vibes is what I’d like to say.

11:03
And then fourth, making sure that we can have accurate content across all platforms.

11:09
So I’ll say when we are pulling information and we’re, we’re responding to a query on, on Gemini on AI mode, we have Google business profile, which like I mentioned is that grounding source, but we will also check other sources to make sure that we’re providing the most accurate content.

11:24
I mean, I, I can remember when Gemini first launched, there was a ton of queries that may have looked incorrect or it was different on AI mode versus Gemini.

11:35
Now we’re getting a lot better at being able to provide accurate information and that’s primarily due to the fact that we’re able to see so many different sources.

11:43
So making sure that you are consistent across platforms may seem very easy, but it’s actually harder than you than you may seem.

11:55
And then last I mentioned on reviews and we look at, you know, a lot of users look to and I just look at how I use Google myself.

12:04
I look at it as when I’m looking at a restaurant, I’m immediately looking at the star rating, how many reviews if it’s a new restaurant versus existing restaurant, What’s the most recent?

12:15
And you see now with, you know, Gemini and AI as being push to as many platforms as possible, you’ll see that AI overview at the top of what users are saying.

12:26
That’s primarily driven by reviews.

12:30
And I know, Anna, you had some some good tips for reviews.

12:35
Yeah, yeah, reviews are something that we talk a lot about here at Alkimer because of how truly impactful they are.

12:42
I think there’s a stat about 91% of consumers use reviews to evaluate a business before they even go.

12:48
So it’s a really important touch point for your customers.

12:51
And, and one thing we emphasize is that you should be responding to all reviews, not just the positive ones, not just the negative ones, honestly, especially the negative ones and try to get that offline.

13:02
But really responding across the spectrum of all reviews will just show that you know your business is active and engaged and, and that engagement can go a really long way.

13:12
When customers see that back and forth, it makes your business feel more approachable and builds that trust.

13:17
Like Brad said, it’s it’s one of the first things I look at as well as just like an average user of Google.

13:23
And as a bonus, Google does reward that type of activity too.

13:26
So consistent engagement through review responses can really boost you in search visibility.

13:32
And then another just quick pro tip here is use review responses as an opportunity to reinforce your brand voice and insert some keywords in there as well.

13:42
That’s always what I tell whoever I’m working with.

13:44
Instead of just saying like, thank you for your feedback, say thank you for your feedback on this specific product at this specific location.

13:51
It’s just a really easy way to to kind of boost you up and in search.

13:57
But as you can imagine, responding to reviews at scale can be tricky.

14:01
We come across this all the time.

14:03
So that’s something we’ve always supported within the Alkamer platform, whether responding manually or leveraging our team with like templated responses.

14:11
But as the space evolves, especially with AI, so do we.

14:15
So we now offer an AI responder that can generate really thoughtful replies based on the content of the review.

14:23
So you can use this individually in bulk.

14:26
And now we even rolled out automated responses for specific types of reviews or all of your reviews that you want us to respond to.

14:33
So overall, whether you prefer like a more hands on approach or more automation, there are really flexible ways to stay consistent and engaged and truly no excuse to not be responding to these reviews.

14:47
OK, Now we’ve talked a lot about reviews and how they help you engage with customers.

14:52
But first, going back a little bit, you do need to be verified to get your profile live.

14:57
And verification is basically Google’s way of confirming that your business is real.

15:02
And in fact, you are authorized to manage this listing.

15:05
So until that happens, all of these good things that we’ve been talking about really can’t happen.

15:09
You can’t respond to reviews, you can’t update information or optimize your presence at all.

15:14
There are a few things to make the process go smoother.

15:17
I will not read them all to you, but they’re on the screen.

15:20
Participation is key.

15:21
Definitely getting someone involved on site is probably going to need to happen with video verification, so just be ready for that.

15:28
Business signage.

15:29
This one comes up all the time, but make sure that your business signage in fact matches what you’re trying to present your business name on Google as you would think that one’s obvious, but sometimes it’s not.

15:41
Sometimes people like to get a little bit tricky with the name that they want on Google and it it does need to match exactly how you’re presented in real life.

15:49
So while there are a lot of things that we can’t control with verification because it’s it is Google’s world at the end of the day, these things definitely help prepare you for whatever is to come with that process.

16:01
And then reverification, I know this one comes up all the time and Brad, we were talking about this and I think Google rolled out some some new features when it comes to reverification.

16:10
If we want to make peek, yeah, I’ll say we more on the on the back end.

16:14
We know it’s a common issue when folks are adding additional attributes to their business that they may have triggered A reverification.

16:23
And so we made some updates on our side.

16:26
So it should reduce reverification by about 40% in most cases.

16:30
And so we’re trying to make it easier.

16:32
Once you’re verified, we’re saying that you’re a trusted source.

16:36
Obviously, there’s still going to be cases where you know you’re adding an attribute that might not be relevant to your business.

16:42
That typically is what triggers A reverification.

16:45
But we try to make it as smooth as possible, understanding that verification can be challenging.

16:51
And like you mentioned, being in being at the location, sharing videos and it can be, we understand it can be a challenge and we try to making it as as easy and seamless as possible.

17:03
Yeah, 40% is huge.

17:05
So I’m personally excited about that.

17:10
Speaking of video, so a couple helpful tidbits on the screen too.

17:14
Won’t walk you through all of them, but essentially video previews when you were actually submitting the video in real time, you can now see a little sneak peek, a little preview of it before you submit it.

17:25
So I would just highly recommend double checking it, making sure everything’s good to go, making sure you hit all of the key things that Google is asking for.

17:33
And then just a couple extra tips here.

17:36
Just make sure your surroundings are clear when you’re filming that video.

17:39
Good lighting, minimal background noise and visible signage.

17:43
Of course, that exactly matches.

17:45
And then I would just recommend speaking naturally.

17:47
Google just wants to confirm your business, so no need to memorize a script.

17:51
I’ve seen that before where it becomes an entire production and they just really want to make sure that you in fact exist where you’re saying you do.

17:58
So just making sure you have logos, licenses, all of that good stuff.

18:03
Overall, video verification is where we’re going, where we’re at with Google.

18:07
No more postcard, none of that.

18:08
So just be prepared to to get that video completed.

18:14
So once you are set up and verify, that’s when the fun really begins.

18:18
You can build out all of your business details.

18:21
This information is really helpful for a customer to of course, find you in search.

18:25
So starting with the basics is pretty crucial.

18:27
And I will say Google does a really good job of making this a fairly intuitive process.

18:32
So kudos to you guys, Brad, but it they’ll really walk you through it.

18:36
It’s a step by step.

18:37
You have to fill out this core information to essentially get any listing live.

18:41
A couple call outs though.

18:42
First, your address.

18:43
This does need to be fully accurate and complete.

18:46
So make sure you’re including things like suite numbers and floor numbers if they apply.

18:50
Small details like that can make a big difference when a customer is trying to actually find you in real life.

18:56
And same goes for phone number, making sure that’s correct and consistent.

19:00
Also very important for customers to be able to actually contact you.

19:03
So overall, I mean, the more accurate and complete your information is, the easier the customer will find you.

19:11
And then you can start optimizing.

19:13
This is where you can really start to stand out.

19:15
I’ll keep this one fairly high level because we’re going to hit some of these later on, but first, categories.

19:20
So adding relevant additional categories can help you expand visibility in search, but they do need to be relevant.

19:26
If you just start adding categories to add them, that’s when you’re going to trigger that reverification that we’re starting or trying to avoid.

19:33
But for example, if you do own an Italian restaurant and that should be your main category, but you have a bakery attached, then you could add in bakery as a secondary category.

19:43
That’s totally fine.

19:45
Photos are another big one.

19:46
We talk about this all the time over here.

19:49
The general role is the more high quality relevant photos, the better.

19:54
That’s often one of the first things that customers look at outside of reviews as well.

19:58
And then attributes are also really important and honestly pretty underutilized.

20:02
Things like Wi-Fi or has wheelchair accessibility.

20:06
It might seem small, but they can influence decisions and really help with search relevance.

20:11
And then lastly, we’ll talk about this one a little bit more.

20:14
But all of your links like menu socials, all of those, just make sure they’re not broken.

20:19
We see this a lot where they’re linking out to pages that you either don’t use if it’s like a social media profile, or it’s just an entirely broken link.

20:27
And that’s only going to harm you in search.

20:29
So just make sure all of your links are are good to go.

20:35
And I love this.

20:35
I feel like it just comes full circle with this quote.

20:38
It’s really at the end of the day, all Brad and I are probably going to say is that you need to build trust with the customer.

20:45
So this is pretty important.

20:46
But with that, back to you, Brad.

20:49
Yeah, I truly do love this quote.

20:50
It’s building trust with someone you’ve never met.

20:53
I’m I, I mentioned it before, but Google business profile being the, I think of it as like a first date almost.

21:00
It’s like how you are displaying yourself on that first date and it’s really like that first impression that a user gets about your business and think of vibe, think of like attributes like you mentioned, like it, it is a lot of foundational stuff, but it’s extremely important for users to be able to make those decisions based on how you are displaying yourself on Google business profile.

21:22
And, and I and I love just the building trust.

21:25
You can you can start that first experience in a, in a off the right foot.

21:29
Exactly.

21:33
And then I know we also recently released a new tool like I mentioned, we’re going to be, you’ll see more and more places where Gemini and AI will be able to help you create business descriptions and and other content.

21:46
And so we do have a new tool that we help you create your own description.

21:50
I’ll say a lot of businesses what they do is they might try to over optimize their business description or maybe they want to be like honey or acute, something that maybe grab someone’s attention and it might over engineer things.

22:06
And so we do have this tool which is great of being able to help you.

22:10
I almost myself get writer’s block when it comes to this stuff.

22:13
So it really helps take the load off of creating your own business description.

22:17
You can also change this in the future, but know that it is extremely important to add a description.

22:22
This is also what gets pulled when we’re answering queries on a certain business type.

22:28
And so you see the stat right here, 29% of customers more likely to consider purchasing from a business with more details on their profile.

22:36
I’ll say I just think of using Google search yourself.

22:39
Like if you’re looking for a business and a business had no information, didn’t have you didn’t really know what to expect, you didn’t know where to go.

22:48
You’re going to be far less likely to choose that business in your search.

22:54
And also with services, making sure that you are just showing your services.

22:59
If you, if you do offer services like I, I look at the example of like masseuse, like I am a user and I am searching for specifically hot stone massage.

23:12
Like I, I want to make sure that I’m getting those hot stones that are like scalding hot in my back.

23:17
And you are a masseuse, but you don’t have that offered in your services.

23:21
And I’m searching, you know, I want hot stone massage near me.

23:25
You won’t show up in that search.

23:27
And so making sure that you are offering all you have all services listed in your Google business profile, because if you don’t, I can guarantee you that the competitor down the street probably does.

23:42
And then last or not last, but we’ll, we’ll touch on this a little bit about social media links in your profiles, but making sure that you do have your social media LinkedIn, your Google Business profile.

23:54
It seems like it’s like, you know, why would I need to have my Instagram on my Google business profile listing?

24:01
But as you can see right here on the right example, we are actually displaying a lot of the Instagram content on directly on the profile.

24:09
And that’s from being linked to the GBP when you’re setting up.

24:13
And so making sure that you have those linked and so you have all content.

24:17
You see, I can see some vibes right here on this GIF/GIF whichever one we decided the terminology is, but making sure that you have your your social media linked is extremely important.

24:31
Anna, any, any tips there?

24:34
Yeah, make sure the links aren’t broken as I mentioned.

24:37
And yes, now social media links are being indexed in search, so more important than ever.

24:43
Another little tidbit I will say is I would just pick your top 4.

24:47
Google only showcases 4 social link.

24:49
So I would just pick the four that you’re most active on and and put those in there.

24:54
So you don’t need to add the whole the whole slew of them.

24:57
Just pick your top ones that you’re actually active and posting on regularly.

25:03
Cool.

25:04
And then additional hours.

25:05
This one is a really quick but important optimization.

25:07
Even adding one or two of these can really boost your profile.

25:12
But at the end of the day, it’s it’s only if you have these hours available, especially if you’re in the restaurant space of you might have, you know, specific brunch hours or happy hour hours.

25:21
Definitely get those in there.

25:24
For example, again, if you own a restaurant and you’re open from 7:00 to 7:00 PM, but you have brunch from 1:50, I would add those.

25:31
So anything that’s applicable, anything that also matches your website, make sure that they’re listed on both of those.

25:38
That’s my only other tidbit of knowledge here.

25:39
And then posts, posts are back.

25:44
This is exciting.

25:45
Posts are back.

25:47
I’ll say this was a feature that we had a long time ago as far as Google post, it was when Google had Google Plus where you’re trying to be like a social media.

25:58
We’re not trying to be a social media company.

26:01
What we’re trying to do is being able to showcase your unique value and your expertise and vibes.

26:07
And so we’re, we’re really trying to show users different content than just like the straight foundational.

26:14
And so we do have a few new features.

26:17
We refer to them as what’s happening, features of what’s happening in your business.

26:21
And that’s driven by post.

26:23
And so you might have previously seen it was like updates by business and it was kind of like down at the bottom.

26:30
Now we have this front and centre as like what is happening today, being able to drive urgency to your business.

26:36
And so we have we have this new tool with posts.

26:40
And so I am, I pretty much sleep and wake up in the middle of the night going Google posts is like what, what we’re all focused on right now.

26:51
And we made it a lot easier to share posts.

26:53
Previously there was only it was, you know, a small box on being able to share a description, an event and an offer.

27:01
And so we were able to update our, our tools to show scheduling features and being able to post across multiple locations.

27:10
And so we have a lot new features when it comes to posts and make it a lot more intuitive for Google posts.

27:19
Yeah, the scheduling is so cool.

27:20
That was brought up a lot to me in the past.

27:23
I heard about it if we could only schedule them and now you can, which is really good.

27:27
Now we can and I mentioned before, but a big new feature that we have is referred to as what’s happening.

27:35
And so this feature if a Google posts and also we’re able to pull from social media links.

27:42
So if you’re posting on Instagram and Facebook, a specific offer, a deal or an event.

27:48
So that’s like anything happening within the next 7 days, we’re gonna display that front and centre on your Google business profile.

27:55
We’re gonna show, OK, here’s what’s happening today.

27:58
You can see right here there’s a happy hour at the dive bar, which sounds awesome, sounds like so much fun and I wanna go there now.

28:07
And so it’s a new way to show users your vibes, what’s happening and drive that urgency.

28:15
And also why social links are so important cuz a lot of that information is pulled from those.

28:25
And then last, you’ll see some new tabs appearing in your Google Business profile.

28:29
So I definitely would not ignore.

28:31
I know it’s easy to ignore all the the tiles that can be shown on Google Business profile.

28:37
These are going to start being more powered by Gemini more frequently.

28:43
And so you’re going to see some great insights and almost like a health metric to help you manage your Google Business profile and optimize for, like we said, vibes and what users are looking for.

28:56
And so definitely take a look at on your Google Business Profile Center and making sure that you’re taking a look at the insights that we’re offering.

29:05
And the good news is if you’re working with the Elkamer team, we monitor this too every single day.

29:10
So we will be telling you whatever you’re missing here for short.

29:16
OK, so it looks like we’re wrapping things up.

29:19
We always like to end with kind of a checklist as to what you should be doing now.

29:23
And really it comes down to just staying active with your listings.

29:26
That’s kind of the whole theme here, making sure that they’re updated and engaging so they don’t go stale and then having a plan in place for things.

29:34
We didn’t go into it in depth, but duplicate suspensions, re verifications, all of those things pop up from time to time in this space.

29:41
So just making sure that you’re ready with all of your information if they do, and then absolutely doing regular audits, So double checking, you know, your hours, your contact information, all of that cause is Privy to change of course.

29:54
So just making sure that your website, your Google listing, all of it is staying accurate.

29:59
And at the end of the day, really just think of this as maintaining your digital storefront.

30:04
So staying engaged and consistent with these basics can make a huge difference in search.

30:08
And of course, reach out to your listings team if anything does come up and we can we can help.

30:16
Cool.

30:17
Before we jump into Q&A, there should be a poll popping up on your screen.

30:23
We are a survey company at the end of the day as well.

30:25
So we absolutely want to hear from you.

30:27
So feel free to fill that out and then we will go ahead and hop into some Q&A questions.

30:37
And the first one that I saw that was intriguing.

30:40
And Brad, you might have some insight here, but how does Google prioritize trusted sources?

30:45
I hear about this all the time too.

30:47
And what factors influence review credibility and rankings on Google?

30:51
Yeah, no, it’s a great question and it’s one that is a little bit of inside baseball on things that I don’t even have this ability on of, you know, the weight of each trusted source.

31:04
I’ll say we look at all trusted sources.

31:06
So we’re we’re looking at Reddit, we’re looking at Facebook, Instagram.

31:12
We’re primarily looking for consistency is the is the key.

31:16
And I actually saw one of the questions in the Q&A kind of reference the consistency part on the temporary closure that will that I can get to.

31:25
But it, it definitely throws systems for a loop when things are not consistent.

31:30
So even if we have the grounded information from Google business profile, if there’s any information out there that is not consistent across the trusted sources, then it can affect the answers that we’re giving to queries.

31:42
And so it makes it even more important, regardless of weight, whether it’s Reddit or whatever the source may be, making sure it’s consistent across the board.

31:54
And then on the reviews and rankings, it, it is definitely a a hot topic too.

32:00
I’m in my LinkedIn DMSI have many messages about reviews and questions about reviews.

32:09
You’ll start to see, or you may have seen recently more support articles that we’ve shown as far as what is open for reviews as far as like paying for reviews or trying to incentivize reviews or spam reviews.

32:26
And so we’re, we’re really trying to make a consistent experience across all users.

32:31
And so we don’t believe that paying for a review will lead to a great experience for someone that’s searching for your business.

32:37
And so definitely do not pay for reviews or you can encourage reviews as far as a you know, if they have a great experience asking them if they wouldn’t mind leaving a review with a photo or or any attributes that they may have experienced, they can.

32:56
Also, there’s I saw a myth recently of if the user is leaving a review in the location, it might cause flags.

33:04
That’s not the case.

33:06
We definitely understand if they’re sitting at the table and they love their burger, they might review the burger right there and then.

33:12
So no issues with folks leaving reviews in the location we look at, I’ll say like Velocities.

33:19
So like how many reviews are coming in in a certain amount of time and whether there’s any like paid, paid reviews.

33:26
And so definitely do not encourage the, the paying for reviews.

33:30
I think the, it’s like the classic thing, like if you’re offering great service, you’re gonna get great reviews.

33:36
Is, is how it, how it leads to.

33:37
I’m glad you debunked that because I hear that all the time too.

33:41
People do think that’s true.

33:44
Also, you can, you can add like QR codes, that’s completely fine in, you know, like a restaurant space or whatnot or on a receipt.

33:51
There are ways to incentivize without directly paying for them.

33:54
I will say cool.

33:58
Any other questions that you’re seeing, Brad, I mentioned I, I see one of like what’s GBP?

34:04
And I just, I love that question and thank you for asking it because I can get so in the weeds on like acronyms and things like that.

34:12
Google Business profile, which we were just discussing before is what we refer to as GBP.

34:18
It also was previously mentioned as like Google My Business.

34:23
And so there’s like GMB, which is referenced in a lot of places.

34:27
And so no, GBP is Google Business Profile, which we refer to as like the grounding source, like we mentioned.

34:35
Yeah, we do love our acronyms in this space.

34:38
Everything’s not yes, everything is yes, cool.

34:48
I see one that’s mentioning ideal size of photos or graphics, and we do have a support article that talks about size of photos.

34:59
I, I I will try to pull it up Jessica, but I don’t I don’t have it easily accessible.

35:04
But if you look up, if you Google like graphic graphics for like what size photos and videos for Google business profile, there should be a help article there.

35:18
Amazing.

35:19
Well, if there are any last minute questions, feel free to throw them in.

35:23
If we didn’t get to them now, we sure will over e-mail.

35:28
But with that, I think we’re kind of coming at time anyway.

35:30
But thank you all.

35:32
I will add one last thing.

35:34
As far as I do see that there’s like a lot of questions that are happening.

35:38
One of the awesome things about working with the Alchemer team is they’re able to like, like they are your voice when it comes to like a big part of working with Google is that they’re able to give us a lot of feedback and they’re actually helping us drive what changes we should be making, what product updates we have.

35:56
And so definitely working with the Alchemer team of, you know, giving your feedback, like I saw one about like HIPAA compliancy on verification, like we can go like way in depth on that.

36:08
So making sure that you’re giving that feedback to the Alcamore team to to give to us here at Google is really important and it helps us a ton.

36:16
Yeah, it’s amazing.

36:18
Cool.

36:19
Alrighty.

36:19
Well, thank you Brad for joining me.

36:21
It’s always fun and thank you all for joining today.

36:24
And this of course, as I mentioned is recorded.

36:26
So if you have any last minute questions or want to listen to us again and we will send it out your way.

36:34
Perfect.

36:34
Thank you everyone.

36:35
Thank you.

36:36
Bye.