Using AI - Google Business Profile SEO Tutorial | Improve Your Ranking (May 2024 Update)

For local business trying to get more customers with Google search, their Google business profile is more important than their website. I want to show you why. This is a quick example of what it looks like when you search for Plumber Houston.

On the very top we have sponsored. This used to be called ads. But Google really wants more people to click on them.

So now they're called sponsored. Google's parent company, Alphabet, makes nearly 80 percent of its revenue from you clicking on those ads. Now, roughly 5 to 10 percent of the people who search for this query will click on one of those sponsored results.

Below those sponsored results is the map results. 60 70 percent of the searchers are going to call or click on one of those three map results. And those are not your website.

Those are your Google business profile. Below the map, we have the organic results. 20 30 percent of the searchers will click on one of those results.

And those actually are your website. So that is the organic results. two to three times the traffic.

The customers will go to your map result. Then we'll find your organic website. My name is Caiulb Hulku.

I started an SEO agency in 2016 and grew it to seven figures within three years. And recently. We've pivoted to what I'm calling an AI SEO agency.

So this video is going to be a complete tutorial, step by step breakdown on how you can use AI to set up and optimize a Google Business Profile. I'm also going to tell you how you can make sure that your website content is synergized with your Google Business Profile categories and services, which is highly, highly important, and a lot of people forget that. Now, personally, I've helped hundreds of new entrepreneurs start their own successful SEO agencies.

And this video is based on what we do at my own agency. So before I dive in, I just want to show you three quick examples of before after local ranking so you can see that my team actually does this on a regular basis and knows exactly what's required to improve local ranking. Okay, so this first one is West Columbia.

Before and after. Next we have Concord, also before and after. And the third and final one I'm going to show you is San Mateo, before and after.

All three of these happen within two to three months using the exact methods I'm going to show you here. If you need any help with these, with ranking a GBP, feel free to reach out. The way the Google Business Profile rankings work, Google calls it a blended algorithm.

It's based both on your website As well as your Google business profile itself. In addition to that, one of the strongest ranking factors for GBP is the distance from the searcher to the address of the Google business profile. So if you walked into a plumber's bit lobby and searched for plumber, you'd probably find that particular plumber ranked very high.

The goal is The goal here is to improve the rank position as we get farther and farther away from the business address so you get more and more calls. You show up for more and more customer searches. That's why, for local searches, we use the map scan that I showed you earlier so we can see how it's ranking relative to distance.

And the way we do that, improve rank position as we get farther away, is we work to build more trust with Google. And that allows us to outrank GBPs in the same category, even if those other GBPs are closer. We also want to make sure the Google Business Profile is set up the right way, so Google knows what types of terms you're trying to rank for.

Alright, so the first step that I'm going to cover is creating your Google Business Profile. Now, back in the halcyon days of 2019, this was super easy. We thought it was hard at the time, but it really was quite easy.

Easy. Okay. And we called it a Google My Business, not Google Business Profile.

They changed that name. All we had to do back then was enter in the business name, business address, business phone number. Google mailed us a postcard, we put the code in and we were done.

We were verified. Now in the last. 12 months or so, almost every single new Google business profile that I've created for clients has required a video verification.

On top of that video verification, it's also much easier to get a new GBP approved if there's online evidence that business actually exists. Google wants to see that business exists beyond just a brand new GBP. So the first thing we're going to do when setting up a new Google Business Profile is make sure Google can see online evidence that our business exists.

So, your first step, search for the business name. The business name that you're going to name the Google Business Profile. And if there are no results for it, or very few results, we need to create results.

We need to get that business's name out there. on the interwebs. So, you'll want to buy a domain if you don't already have one.

Niche city, such as Plummer Houston, is SEO optimized, it still works well. You could also use the business name, a branded domain, that also works well. Go ahead and do local citations, do a press release for the domain that matches the business name.

Your business name, I should have mentioned this before, it needs to match the name of the formal business formation paperwork, insurance statement, utility bill, Or, ideally, all of the above. It needs to have some sort of paperwork that proves that business is real. So do the press release, do the citations for that business name.

Go ahead, if you're not sure where to go for a press release or citations, my favorite source is here, the Ice Cream Truck Shop. Go ahead and create a website and put content on the homepage. Talk about the service, what you do.

Don't worry about it too much, this isn't the final content, this is just so that when Google crawls it. it sees that it exists. Go ahead and order a car magnet, business cards with a matching email and domain, a yard sign, and finally, wait.

About 30 days is what I found is enough time, and I know this isn't exciting, but keep in mind that Google generally doesn't trust stuff that's 45 seconds old. So we want to wait. We want to let all of the press releases and citations in the website, we want all of this age so that it looks more realistic.

Then we're going to do the video verification, and there are two steps to that. The first one, Google's automated system will accept the video upload. And then the second step, Google will manually review it and decide whether or not it's a real business and to verify it.

Now, after doing hundreds of these, we've written a simple step by step guide and also included a sample video verification video that you can take a look at. If you're interested in it. I have a link in the description down below.

It's no charge at all. Go ahead and grab it. It's just a lot more in depth than I want to cover in this YouTube video.

Okay. So once you have your Google business profile created, we're going to go ahead and start filling it out. And the first place we're going to start is services.

Okay. And we want a lot of services. We want like 20 to 30 different services.

And if you can't think of that many, no problem. ChatGPT can help you. In fact, here's the prompt that you should give ChatGPT for it to generate services for your niche.

You are a local SEO expert. What services should be added to a Google Business Profile for an HVAC service and installation company in Houston, Texas? Please be specific and list at least 20 services, but feel free to list additional ones that are highly relevant.

Each service should be a specific offering and not a broad category. Also, include variations of services that might have different names, but are commonly searched for by target customers. Okay, then you'll get your long list of services.

Check through it, make sure it makes sense and go ahead and then add them to the Google Business Profile. Now we're going to add categories. There's a good reason we did services first.

We want four or five categories minimum. Most business owners only add one and they seem like they're done. Google allows you to have five, so we want to do as many as possible.

So for those categories, it can be tough to come up with that many. So again, here's a prompt for ChatGPT to help you with those categories. Thanks.

You are a local SEO expert. What additional categories should a local HVAC technician use for their Google business profile? Here are 20 services that this company provides.

And again, we wanted to add the services there so that ChatGPT can match the services with categories, which is an excellent place to start. Okay, so now we have services, we have categories, we need a description. And of course, the place that we're going to go for that description is ChatGPT.

So here's the prompt to get ChatGPT to write a description. You are an expert in local SEO and improving Google Business Profile rank position. Please write a Google Business Profile description for an HVAC installation and service company in Houston, Texas, targeting 750 characters in length.

This business has been serving local clients for over 20 years and the unique selling proposition is a five year guarantee on all work that's done. Clearly change how long they've been in business and change the unique selling proposition to match you or your clients. Okay, so let's talk about Google Business Profile Posts.

I've heard from a lot of SEOs that regular GBP posts don't do anything, don't prove rank position. And honestly, maybe they're right and maybe they're wrong. But, it only takes a half hour to write and schedule a lifetime of Google Business Profile Posts.

And things that only take a half hour to do We generally just do them. It also only needs to be done one time. Not worth split testing something that's so quick and easy.

And ChatGPT can write these GBP posts for you. Combine that with a tool like GoHighLevel, where you can schedule them out very easily forever. So write a dozen, maybe twenty, GBP posts, schedule them to go one per week, and after you run out, Your 21st should be your first post, but delete the first post before you post the 21st, so you don't have any duplicates, okay?

Just do it, and then it's done forever once you do it the one time. And it's the same thing with geotagged photos. We know that Google removes the data when the photo's uploaded, but we don't know if Google uses that data to verify the photos are real, or that that data might impact ranking.

Maybe it does, and maybe it doesn't. But, just like the GBP posts Geotagging takes less than a half hour, just geotag them before you upload them. Now, all of your photos, you should grab them, ideally you're going to get them from the business itself.

Okay, and if you can't, for whatever reason, get them from the business itself, AI generated is a very, very distant second best, okay? Much worse than business generated. But stock images are a no no.

Do not use stock images, Google knows that they're stock images, it can match images. So geotag them, and then schedule uploading them again with a tool like GoHighLevel. You can schedule those photos to go out once a day or once a week, depending on how many you have.

If you're interested in checking out GoHighLevel, I have a link for a 14 day free trial in the description that you can check out. Okay, so from a review standpoint, I've said before in another video that reviews are not very important to ranking a GVP. And I stand by that.

If we take another look at that Plumber Houston search I showed you at the beginning, there's a massive range in review count for those top three players, from over 3, 000 reviews to just 150. More than that, if you hit show me more businesses, we would see a dozen plumbers that have over 500 reviews, that are not in the top three, even though there are a couple in the top three that have just 150. 150 is still a lot of reviews, but they're ranking for Plumber Houston, highly, highly competitive.

So that's my point. Now, the difference is once you are ranked in the top three, reviews are very important to build trust with your users, to get them to choose your business profile instead of the other two that are being shown. So reviews are important, just not as important to rank as what a lot of other people say.

And by far, when it comes time to get reviews, the best method that I've ever used is to give the business owner a sentence or two script along with a direct review link for the GBP. And ask that business owner to copy that script and text it to prior customers of his. That request coming from his phone, the business owner's phone, business owner's ask, the response rate is massive.

It works really, really well. to get solid reviews. Other methods can also work, but generally they're not nearly as effective.

The second best one that I've used is to use GoHighLevel to set up an automation. When you set up the automation, set it up so that the goal is a link click on the GBP review link. Then create maybe half a dozen or so messages, three texts, three emails, and send it over a period of three or four weeks to that customer.

We don't want to spam our customers. The automation will stop when someone clicks on the link, or when someone You know, they've ignored all six of your messages. No problem.

This has maybe a 10 to 15 percent success rate per customer Versus almost a 60 or 70 percent text rate if the business owner texts directly So on top of reviews, we want to make sure that your google business profile is kept up to date A big sign for this is the holiday hours. Okay, you can't fill up holiday hours for years in advance You It only lets you do it for a few months in advance. So give yourself a calendar entry every other month or so.

So you go in and you fill out all of the upcoming holiday hours. You want to show Google that the GBP is very active. And when reviews do come in, you're going to want to reply to every single of you that's left.

Go high level can do this with automatic AI generated responses, or you can do it yourself. Try to work in services or other keywords into those review responses. You also need to respond to user suggested changes, okay?

It doesn't matter if you reject them or approve them, but always, always respond. Okay? Also, there's a lot of little boxes on your Google Business Profile.

You need to fill out every single one of them. If you have any trouble thinking of something to put in there, ask ChatGPT. It will help, but every single box needs to be filled out.

So, let's talk about being responsive. Gbp messaging is a way that a customer can basically text you through the Google business profile, but you need to be able to respond quickly. I have seen negative rank impacts from ignoring Gbp messaging.

So if you or your client, if you're not ready and willing to quickly respond to Gbp messaging, you can simply turn it off. I don't recommend turning it off though, because a lot more customers are using GBP messaging to text businesses instead of dialing a phone. If you can't respond or don't want to, you can set up GoHighLevel to automatically respond to GBP messages for you, and you'll want HighLevel to send you and your client a text message or a push notification when those messages come in, so you can go in and respond quickly, evaluate the AI response.

A massive help. To trust in ranking if you quickly respond to GBP messages. And honestly, it's the same for answering the phone.

I have seen negative rank impacts with high missed call percentages. And this is clear why Google would do that, right? Google wants a good user experience.

And if a user searches for something, Google presents it with a business. The user calls that business and there's no answer. That's a bad user experience.

So you always, always need to answer the phone. Okay. And stay on the phone for 10 to 20 seconds.

You can just hang up if it's a marketing company or a scam, those come in a lot. Okay. All right.

So let's talk about the website content and how we can make sure that synergizes with the GBP services and categories we've already entered. This is a big deal to make sure that Google. Crawls your website and sees that it talks about the same things your GVP talks about.

So, I'm going to give you a prompt. Uh, it'll work really well if you're in a low or medium competition space. Okay, if you're a plumber in Houston, this isn't going to work for you.

But in a low or medium competition space, you can use your homepage to mention all of the categories as an H2 tag. And then, underneath that h2 tag that matches the category, you can talk about the service that's most relevant for that category. Here's the chat GPT prompt that will have chat GPT rewrite your homepage content with that focus.

So the first thing, grab all the content in your homepage, I'm giving you homepage content for a website that wants to rank their Google Business Profile for HVAC Houston. The Google Business Profile categories they've used are 1. HVAC Contractor 2.

Air Conditioning Contractor 3. Heating Contractor 4. Heating Equipment Supplier 5.

Air Quality Consultant Please rewrite this content, focusing on adding exact match keywords for each category as H2 tags. When you provide the content back, italicize anything that you changed so I can quickly evaluate your edits. Under each H2, a single relevant service should be mentioned with a paragraph about how that service relates to the GBP category.

The services provided by the client are, and here you'll put in the 20 services that you have, I'm not going to read those to you. So with that prompt, ChatGPT is going to rewrite the homepage so that it matches the business categories and services that you put on the GVP. Hugely important to create that trust with Google, to show Google that the information on your website matches the information on your GVP.

Now, if you're in a high competition space, you won't be able to do all of this on the home page. In a high competition space, what you'll do is create an individual service page for each of the GBP categories. You'll internally link those service pages back to the home page.

The H1 and title tag for those service pages should be the GBP category, and the H2 should be the service you're actually trying to rate for. The URL slug should also match the GBP category. The prompt I just gave you, you can edit that to have ChatGPT write those service pages.

And again, as always, use a human editor before posting. Your human editor is focused on two things when evaluating AI content. Number one, fact checking.

AI tends to hallucinate, which is a polite way to say it just makes things up, so you need to make sure that it isn't wrong about things. And number two, AI is typically very generic, so you'll want your human editor to add uniqueness. Now if you're not sure whether you're low or high competition, Treat it like you're high competition, create the service pages.

I know it's a lot more content, but AI with AI generated content, I mean, content is just a lot less expensive now than it was a year or two ago when we would spend a lot of time evaluating whether it was a low or a high competition specs. Now we just treat almost everything like it's high competition. All right.

This was a lot, there's a lot of information I gave you here. I hope you found this video valuable on how to optimize your GVP and website for local search. Your ideal new client have had a website and GVP for a couple of years and they've just been struggling to rank.

Applying these methods is going to be able to push them into the top three in just a few months. I mean, unless they're in Houston or something like that, this is exactly what we did to those three new clients I showed you at the beginning of this video. And as you know, there is massive value in pushing a GBP to the one of the top three positions.

If you're interested in more content about building an AI SEO agency, please give me a subscribe. I publish videos all the time about building an AI SEO agency. Give me a comment or a like if If you thought this video was valuable for you, and don't forget to check out the description where I have my detailed guide to recording the GBP verification video.