Episode Transcript

Paul Benton: If you’re a plumber or a friend in the trades, you’re in the right place. Today we’re gonna be talking all about GBP with our friend Amy Toman, who is a nationally recognized expert in Google Business Profile management and compliance. And if you need to know who Amy is, all you have to do is Google her name, Amy Toman SEO, and the first page of Google will be all about her, signaling her strength as an SEO in her own right for her own brand.

Paul Benton: But Amy, welcome, and it’s so good that you’re here. You are a national expert, if not a global expert, at Google Business Profile. I’m honored and very happy to have you here today. Welcome.

Amy Toman: Thank you. Thank you. Uh, I’m a big fan of those who do home services. I will say I’ve worked with many people in this category, and- I just always so nice.

Amy Toman: They’re always so pleasant and just so willing to help out just to get things back where they should be, and I’ve been, been very, very… I’m always happy to help just because I’ve had such good luck in the past.

Paul Benton: And, uh, Amy, you know, the Google business profile for a plumbing company is vital. It is literally your anchor point to the, to your community for people to find you.

Paul Benton: 78%, it is said, of unattached new customers are converting in the Google Map section, and the Google Map section is a function of the Google Business Profile. And that’s where you come in because that’s your area of expertise. You do other SEO as well. However, you have achieved something that is unusual, which is the Diamond status or the Diamond Product Specialist status, and I’d like you in a moment to explain what that is as, as, uh, now I might understand it.

Paul Benton: Um, for those Harry Potter fans, you have access to the, uh, platform nine and three-quarters. For people who like Pulp Fiction, you might be like Mr. Wolf who comes in and clean ups, cleans up messes as a fixer. What is it that the Diamond Product Specialist does, and why is it so significant? Because it’s at the top of the scale.

Paul Benton: Tell us.

Amy Toman: Well, Google product experts are… They used to be known as top contributors. There is a form. It’s almost like an old-fashioned form similar to the ones like pre-2000 and like old bulletin board systems almost. And when you have a problem with your Google listing, you go to support first. If support is not helpful, then you go to this Google Business Profile help forum.

Amy Toman: The people who help on there are all volunteers, and they are, um, of varying levels of knowledge about the pro- about how to fix things. There are five levels on there of volunteers. Uh, you can s- you can just answer a question any way. But if you enroll in Google’s program, there are five levels, the top of which is Diamond.

Amy Toman: It… People always ask me, “How long did it take you to get there?” And I actually got there a lot q- quicker, I would say, than most. It took me about, about f- four or five years of volunteering on this forum and maintaining a consistent presence, um, learning about a lot of different topics. There’s not just one topic on there.

Amy Toman: People come in for everything from phone numbers to photos to, you know, somebody has… somebody’s trying to scam me to my listings disappeared and then reinstatements. So, so that’s it. I was the first woman to get it, and I had it. I had it. Was the only woman for three months. I was so proud of myself, and then somebody else got it.

Paul Benton: Do you know how many people there are with the Diamond product designation

Amy Toman: I would say there are probably, product experts in general, there are, I would say maybe, maybe 100. But of the people at the diamond level, I would say maybe there are 10 for this product, which is again, global. I mean, I’ve helped people, as long as it’s in English.

Paul Benton: So that is very significant. That is in, that, that is very rarefied air.

Amy Toman: It is because, well, first of all, it, it… I realize how much of a niche it is, that not everyone will, will need, you know, will need our help. But I- it’s the sort of thing where I, I’ve heard so many times, “I didn’t even know that this existed.”

Amy Toman: And, you know, I know a lot of times people say, “Well, if Google had this,” or, “Google had that.” And I, I say flat out, “Look, I’m not here to apologize for Google. I’m just here to help you get from, you know, where you are to where you need to be. And in that respect, you know, let’s move on.” Because sometimes they, you know, they, they’re saying rightfully so that Google ha- you know, doesn’t say, doesn’t explain certain things.

Amy Toman: And I’m like, “Well, you found me now, so, you know, here I, here I am.” But again, people don’t usually know about Google product experts until they need them. And when they need them, they’re like, “Thank God that somebody, you know, like you exists.”

Paul Benton: And what powers do you have that, uh, regular SEOs, civilians don’t have?

Paul Benton: Do you have an access to a Google team that others do not?

Amy Toman: What we have… See, you, you, you go up, uh, w- as you kind of level up in the program, there are a few different perks. Like we can, we meet once, usually once a week with a team of Google community managers. They fill us in on information, we fill them, we give them feedback, things like that.

Amy Toman: And other than that, I think they ask for, there’s nothing like defi- I can tell you things that are nuanced issues, but for the most part, things are not defined. There are some things that I’ve just done more than other people, so I tend to know how to do, you know, certain troubleshooting issues. I’m also, I also help mentor other people.

Amy Toman: In terms of actual, like, concrete things that we do, I would say, like I said, the meetings. The meetings become very important at the f- kind of the third level, which is gold. Oh, there’s also a summit, a yearly summit from the b- top two levels.

Paul Benton: And it gives you a depth of knowledge just by speaking with other experts in the program as well as Google that is definitely unusual.

Paul Benton: Why don’t we talk about, you just gave a presentation on the common violations, so that people, you know, setting the scene The Google Business Profile is the vital anchor point really to your visibility online. And yet if you make mistakes in setting it up or changing certain parameters such as office location and so on, you can get locked out.

Paul Benton: And then the challenge becomes who do you call for help? Most people then would be emailing back and forth with Google and hoping they get, uh folks to help them solve the problem, but that isn’t always the case. So the first place that, that we advise for our clients is don’t poke your GBP. L- don’t mess around with it if it’s working, and maybe you can go into what you just talked about at a presentation.

Paul Benton: What are the common policy violations that are causing GBPs to get shut down? So maybe start out by answering if, um, you’re a plumbing company owner, what’s the one thing you should never, never, never do to your Google Business Profile for fear of getting locked out of it? Maybe start, start with that.

Amy Toman: Okay. The first most important thing that I have seen for plumbers, home service people, epoxy flooring, the whole drill, is, um, showing your address when you work from home, or working from a place that does not have permanent signage. Google is very specific about, about being able to direct users to a business.

Amy Toman: They want… They recommend usually… It’s, it’s been this way for a while, but when a user comes in and says, “Hey, plumber near me,” or even, you know, even not near me, just “plumber,” the near me is, is inherent in that at this point, and Google will come back with somebody in your neighborhood. They usually… And they give extra credit, so to speak, to businesses that show their address.

Amy Toman: The problem is, in my experience, plumbers work from their homes because they’re not, they’re not fixing a tub at, your tub at their home. They’re going to your house and they’re doing the work. The problem is that Google does not want that address to show unless you have signage there. So when I say signage and they say permanent signage, that is wood, that is plastic, that is metal, that is either on the building or on a road sign or something similar.

Amy Toman: If user, if merchants don’t have that address, they are supposed to hide the listing. Uh, sorry, hide the address. You do that in your settings. There’s a, there’s a little toggle. You know, it says something like, “Show address to, to,” I don’t know, “users,” and you say no. When people don’t do that- It’s really relatively easy to report and it’s frustrating because, you know, a lot of businesses just go on like that.

Amy Toman: They don’t, they don’t understand the rules and, um, and they go on and they set this up not realizing it’s problematic, and then they get dinged, they get suspended, and they don’t know why. And I just look at the listing, I’m like, “Do you have signs there?” “What kind of signs?” “You know, if you have a sign, it’s not a banner, is it?

Amy Toman: It’s not a piece of paper on a door?” “Oh, it is.” “That’s why you got suspended.” Or, “You don’t have any signage there? Mm, that’s why you got suspended.” The most important thing, I hate to say this, is the biggest thing you could do before setting this up or if you have been suspended, is to look at Google’s guidelines.

Amy Toman: The guidelines for repr- It’s called the guidelines, Google’s Guidelines for Representing Your Business. That page is an excellent resource. It explains to you, you know, do you put LLC after your business name? No, they don’t want that. Do you… How do you, when do you show your address? When do you not show your address?

Amy Toman: What kind of, what kind of addresses can be used? Sometimes they, they will not, they will tell you flat out, home addresses are fine, apartment addresses are fine, just make sure you don’t, you know, get out of the signage, don’t put them, show the address. But co-working spaces, virtual addresses, PO box, USPS, things like that, no.

Amy Toman: No, those, those don’t work.

Paul Benton: The case of a plumber who is working from home, do you believe that the suspension will be because of a report, a third-party report, or is Google actually policing this actively?

Amy Toman: That’s a really, that’s a really good question. I believe it’s more the former than the latter. I believe that people are saying, you know, “Hey, I’m following the rules.

Amy Toman: I’m number four, so I’m not being shown in the top three, but this guy’s not following the rules, so why should he get the- my s- what I consider to be my spot?” And so he gets reported. And I mean, it could be reported by, by a competitor, it could be reported by an SEO agency. It could get reported by a local guide who wants points.

Amy Toman: But that’s usually what I think it is. I mean, it, it could be some other elements as well that you wouldn’t think of directly, things like if somebody, and I’ve seen this, if someone is trying to use that address, okay? Like say, say you moved, say you registered a Google listing at this address and you worked there for 10 years or five years or whatever, and then you moved.

Amy Toman: Well, if somebody else is going to use that address ’cause you’ve moved out of that space- And they’re told they can’t. Their listing gets suspended ’cause they’re using the same address that you’re no longer in. Google may see that, or those people may fight back and say, “Look, they’re not there,” and then you get suspended.

Amy Toman: Uh, there could be other issues. Your listing could have reviews on it from somebody who is a known spammer By association, you could get suspended. There’s, there’s a bunch of, like, really far-out options that could unfortunately form a perfect storm that results in your getting suspended. But I would say the majority of the time I do think it’s somebody else reporting it.

Amy Toman: I will say that much.

Paul Benton: But I’d like to ask more in-depth questions on that, but let’s use that as a springboard. Let’s say that happens, and somebody reaches out to you. What would you do in your role to fix that problem if, if you were given the reins?

Amy Toman: First thing I’d do is I would check that they still exist at that address, and if they don’t, obviously we’re gonna, we’re gonna deal with that.

Amy Toman: But then I literally, I start out by asking them if they have signage, if so, what kind, and show me a photo. Then I would say, “Okay, well, we’re, we’re gonna work on this,” and I would ask for their, um, photos. I- if I, if I cannot see the listing because it’s been suspended, ask for screenshots of the listing to take a look at it.

Amy Toman: And then I ask for supporting paperwork. Paperwork is the big deal these days. I’ve had people come to me with one document, and it kills me because I’m like, “You can’t, you know, you need more than that.” But I usually ask for, you know, a minimum of five pieces of business paperwork. I’ve had people submit up to over 15, and I’ve now started a list because I want to make sure that I’ve got, you know, for inspiration purposes.

Amy Toman: ‘Cause if people tell me, “Well, I don’t have anything,” I’m like, “Oh, you know, go find the list,” and give them some ideas. But I, that’s what I generally do. I start by looking at the listing itself, looking at the address, looking at the signage, photos or not, and then I look at the paperwork. The paperwork needs to be consistent.

Amy Toman: That’s, that’s the biggest thing. It needs cur- need be… It needs to align 100% with whatever’s been, um, added to the Google listing, and it needs to be from authoritative bodies. I also look at excuse me, their digital footprint. You know, do they have, do they have social media? And if the social media’s out there, does it have the same name?

Amy Toman: And when possible, does it have the address showing and the phone number and the, the website URL? Making sure that their digital footprint is consistent. I also look at their website to make sure that their address shows in the footer and on the Contact Us page. A lot of times, uh, people don’t have that.

Amy Toman: I, and I do tell them, and they will come back and say, “I don’t want to do that.” My answer is, “Well, do it for a little while. Do it while Google is verifying the listing. After that, you know, take out the street address. Just have, for SEO purposes, the city, the state, and the zip.” But I’ve been very lucky because most people are kind of compliant with that.

Amy Toman: They’ll get either, they’ll either go in and enter it or their developer will, will be helpful with it. But that’s, that’s where I start I look at all these factors.

Paul Benton: And Amy, do you handle then the application or reapplication, the communication management with Google directly?

Amy Toman: I start at, I can start at, there’s actually, there’s actually kind of two points.

Amy Toman: Process for, for getting a listing back is that you are first offered an appeal. If that appeal… And then during that appeal you have, I always have to point this out ’cause I sometimes forget, you have 60 minutes. They actually say to you in three different places, “Are you ready to submit your paperwork?

Amy Toman: You have 60 minutes.” They say it three times before you actually s- three times before you actually start. So you have five fields in which you can upload information, upload proof. They give you examples of proof. And then that there… Well, I should say there’s five fields in which you can upload things.

Amy Toman: You can do that, and then there’s a sec- if you don’t, if that’s rejected, you either are offered or a link can be provided to you to request a second appeal. If that appeal is also rejected, your only option going forward is a Goog- to go to the Google Business Profile help forum, sometimes called Help Community, I think, and post there and ask for, uh, ask for escalation.

Amy Toman: I can step in, I, working for privately for folks, I can step in at any time. I can step in when they first have the problem before they do anything. I can stop in at the, uh, step in when they need to be appealed. Whenever I step in, I am very, very specific to do exactly what I outlined before. I look at everything from their digital footprint, to their, uh, documentation, to the listing, to the photos, to just, you know, just everything.

Amy Toman: And I, I’ve gotta say, most people, most product experts I, I know, I think most of them do the same thing, and I’ve had, I’ve had a really long string of successes. I, I don’t think there’s a consistency to how everybody does their reinstatements. Maybe if you work for an agency, there may be a certain consistency there, like amongst more, you know, two or more people.

Amy Toman: But I will say that at this time I am, I do this pretty much on my own. I’ve had a lot of good luck. I’ve had a lot of good luck also because the way I present the information to Google is very clear and specific. Mm-hmm. I don’t say, “Go look here, go do that.” I say, “Oh, look. Look at, you know, look at this one example.”

Amy Toman: I had one time where, I don’t remember what t- I think they were electricians, and the one company purchased a second company And the company wanted to go in and change the listing for the second company. Was an older man who had retired and sold his company, which is fine. Well, they didn’t have… Google’s like, “No, you can’t change the name.”

Amy Toman: And I, my presumption was that Google thought that they were s- they were scammers or spammers. So what we ended up doing was, as opposed to, like, the paperwork that I talked about before, we have government paperwork, things like that, I said, “I want you to provide, please provide me with your ownership documentation and anything that can prove that this m- this gentleman sold the p- sold this to you.”

Amy Toman: Then I went in and I got technical documentation from their website, one of which was, like, most people are like, “I didn’t know you can get that.” I said, “Ah, you have to be creative.” And I got all that together, and the first time Google had issues, but the second time it, it, you know, it, it went through. And was very, very happy with that.

Amy Toman: Again, because you have to be able to be flexible with these. It’s not always just do, you know, w- step ones, two, and three, and then you’re done. A lot of times it’s, uh, you have to kind of roll with the situation. Like I said before about somebody who said, “Well, we couldn’t get a lease for the property because of, you know, something with the landlord.”

Amy Toman: I had somebody else who said they couldn’t get a business license because, and this was somebody in, I believe, Indonesia, who said they couldn’t get a business license because there were no business licenses where they were, and all the businesses were, uh, could… I said, you know, “Does your mayor or city council have anything?”

Amy Toman: And he said, “The big man could, could sign something.” And I’m immediately th- I just don’t wanna tell you what I thought of. And I said, “No, that would be good.” So, so he had a document written

Paul Benton: up. It’ll satisfy Google.

Amy Toman: Yeah. But again, but again, you have to kind of roll with the situation. You have to figure out what it is, what it is that you need, and what the business can provide.

Amy Toman: And so that’s how that works.

Paul Benton: Let me ask you, Amy, uh, plumbing companies, especially the bigger ones that are multi-location, have brick and mortars They would love to add GBP locations because that increases their footprint. And remember, we talked at the beginning that in a, uh, geo grid that might be, or the map around your GBP, where your GBP can be visible, might be 100 square miles in some cases, and so it’s valuable.

Paul Benton: They’re… This is really a very important asset to a plumbing company’s digital infrastructure, but you can’t cover the country with one GBP. You have to add additional ones. Now, the, the question is, what is the right way to do so? Now, in the old days, in other industries, people would say, “Well, go to Regis and pay $100 to a Regis facility.”

Paul Benton: That doesn’t work anymore. What’s your advice now to a plumbing company that, for example, in a large market like the tri-state area where you are, to build a patchwork? Is that, is there a good strategy, an appropriate strategy for how to do that so that a plumbing company with 25 trucks might end up with six GBPs?

Paul Benton: What’s the right way that they would expand to get that, make that happen?

Amy Toman: The f- the first thing is I’m ve- I will say I’m very white hat. I, I’m not, I’m not underhanded, I’m not manipulative, and I just don’t care about those methods, to be honest. What I would start with is by pointing out that a Google listing generally recommends you within anywhere from two to five miles only of your location.

Amy Toman: As a result, you’re going to need representation in other areas. Now, the first thing I say, this, this flips us back going from GVP to SEO, local SEO. The first thing I would suggest is having location pages for on the website for the areas you want to target. You know, if you’re, if you’re located in, say, northern New Jersey, but you want to go to the Bronx, you want to go to Westchester, you want to go to southern New York State, you want to go to central New Jersey.

Amy Toman: These, all of these areas should have their own page on the website, and they should be thoroughly optimized for that area, for that location as much as possible. You also want to ask for reviews that mention those areas. You want to have social media that talks about those areas. But the, the next thing that’s most important is start out by having…

Amy Toman: Oh, first of all, just a well-optimized website that’s also has a good internal linking structure is also very helpful. But overall, the other thing is, when we want to talk about multiple Google listings, you need to talk about having a legit location. I have had people who have gotten, um… And I still think that there is such a, um, there is such a market for this that, that somebody is not filling, and they really need to.

Amy Toman: I’ve had people get– Okay, I had somebody who was moving out of her area but still wanted to be represented there. So what she did was she talked to– And this is, this is Texas, so I’m not, I’m not sure where your clients are, but Texas is, there’s a lot of Texas. Well, what they did was the client mentioned they had an outbuilding.

Amy Toman: So what they did was they already ran their business from there. So what they did was they split, they split it up into two distinct office areas. They, this, this woman put her signage outside. She made sure that it was, there was like suite one and suite two that were okay with the post office And then that’s what she used.

Amy Toman: So not only did she go from a service area to a storefront, so she got, she got all this extra stuff, and meanwhile she moved 45 minutes away. The issue is that you need to have legit space. The other person who I, who I did want to mention saying that this is a missed business opportunity is that the other person got the equivalent of, I swear to you, it was, it was maybe 10 feet deep and about five feet, four feet wide, and it was closet.

Amy Toman: But it was within another office space. It had a door, it had permanent signage in the lobby. Her name was on the lobby, her business name was on the, on the lobby directory. When you went to the office, you know, sign was up, opened it up. She had… There was like a, um, a desk along one wall. There was chairs.

Amy Toman: There were a few file cabinets, and that was her office. I know somebody else who had, I think it was a conference room for an office. It was, you know, repurposed from something else. Those spaces, if you can find them, are not that expensive per month, and they will allow you to now have visibility in that physical area, in that geographic area.

Amy Toman: And that’s, that’s the, that’s the best way. If you want to have visibility in Google over a wide geographic area, the best thing you could do is get yourself, lease yourself, even if n- you know, the, if you need a small office, a small office. If you are working out of a garage, ask them, “Look, is this, you know, do, can I get mail here?

Amy Toman: Can I say it’s a suite number?” Uh, if you don’t control the whole thing. If you control the whole thing, even, you know, all’s the better. What you always have to think about when looking at a new location is, the first one is, is anyone else there using, who is using that address using the same category as you want to be using?

Amy Toman: If they are, forget about it, go someplace else, because only… If you, if two businesses are using the same address, only one of them is going to show. So you need to make sure that you’re not in there with someone else. And then also you need to look at it and think of, “Am I going to be able to put signage?

Amy Toman: And is it a legit space relative to, say, like, um, talking US here, relative to the Postal Service?” If the Postal Service doesn’t recognize it- You can’t get mail there, it’s not gonna help. You want to get something at which that- that’s basically legit, whether it’s a storefront or similar. You can’t use people’s homes.

Amy Toman: Uh, you know, you can use an owner’s home, but you can’t use, like, a, a staff member’s home. You always wanna look towards suspension. Do I… Would I have enough paperwork, the right paperwork to come back from a suspension? With a secondary location, what you’d need, and a lot of people don’t realize this, is that a secondary location does not need a lot of the same information that…

Amy Toman: Uh, well, all it needs is the information for the primary business, but for a secondary location, you need, for that specific place, you need the lease, you need utility bills, and if there’s signage, you need, you know, signage there. For a while early this year, uh, uh, it was noted that Google had removed the term utility bills from one place, so people are like, “I can’t submit utility bills anymore.”

Amy Toman: But that… But they didn’t, and they actually put it back because of, I… Just different things. But if you have a secondary location, that’s something you need to think about. So when people say, “Well, I’m just gonna do it at, you know, at my employee’s place,” not unless you have a lease, you pay a utility bill, and you have…

Amy Toman: You know, if you’re gonna use the address, if you have signage You can use it as a service area, but I’m not sure how many service areas you can attach to one business, because I think there’s a limit. Um, I, I’m not sure the, of the number.

Paul Benton: But it is worth the effort because- Yes … if you consider the amount of revenue that is coming through the GBP, each GBP, it’s significant.

Paul Benton: And if you compare that to the cost of a billboard or a Facebook campaign, and you just consider the rental for such a facility as just a marketing expense, it can be very, uh, worthwhile doing. And I guess the conclusion here is that you’re saying this can be done as long as it’s done in the correct way, and that’s very promising.

Paul Benton: Yes.

Amy Toman: Yes. The, the biggest thing, as I said, in choosing a location, the two biggest things I think are choosing a location at which no one else is… An address at which no one else is currently using that address with your category. And the second thing is just making sure it’s a legit address relative to Google’s, um, Google’s guidelines.

Amy Toman: And as long as you can, as long as you have looked into both of those, you know, that’s great. Go for it. As I said, I, I do think somebody should create a bunch of really small, you know, not just co-working spaces, but, like, closet-sized spaces, because small businesses would just love those, you know? Mm-hmm. If you had a, like, like, you know, 10 or 15 of them within what was previously, I don’t know, a space that people are no longer…

Amy Toman: You know, uh, where a business was, say, is now fully remote, oh, man, those would… That is really, really work well because then people would have enough of a physical space in that geographic area that work with Google’s guidelines.

Paul Benton: So Amy, as we wrap up here, can I ask some rapid-fire questions- Sure … that a Diamond Expert-

Amy Toman: Sure

Paul Benton: could answer? Can a profile get shut down based on who is granted access? Is that a risk?

Amy Toman: Yes. It would go by the email account. If an email account has been restricted by Google, everything attached to it, every Google property attached to it can be affected. I’m speaking from personal experience. Like, I was in Local Guides, then all of a sudden I wasn’t.

Amy Toman: No explanation, no anything. Ah, it took a few hours, then all of a sudden my Google listing went down. I knew how to deal with it, and this was before I was a Google product expert. I just, I figured out wha- made the connection. But yes, you want to make sure that any email that is a user on your listing does not leave reviews and does not suggest edits.

Amy Toman: If they do anything like that, it’s really questionable whether they should be a user on your listing, ’cause they could take the listing down. And yes, this does sometimes affect multiple listings, and I unfortunately imagine what that looks like. It’s like, you know, dominoes. You know,

Speaker 3: do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do.

Amy Toman: And the agency is just sitting there going, “All the work I’m gonna have to do to get those back.”

Paul Benton: But it also means that when people are adding email addresses at an agency, they need to be mindful. Now, is that remediated with the removal of that email address?

Amy Toman: And then app- uh, and then applying for reinstatement.

Amy Toman: A lot of people are under the belief that if there’s something wrong with their Google listing and they fix it, Google will immediately, uh, like it will immediately get back online, and that’s not true. If you, once you fix it, you still have to apply for reinstatement, so you still have to go back and get all the paperwork and the photos and, you know, go through the process.

Paul Benton: What is a malicious suggested edit? You mentioned that in your, uh, present- Oh … recent presentation.

Amy Toman: Oh, yeah. That’s, that’s when people- That’s another

Paul Benton: reason to get suspended.

Amy Toman: It is. That is when somebody, uh, goes in and… I- I shouldn’t say, I sh- I should phrase it a little bit differently, but what I meant was if your listing, like I said, if you, if you have a competitor and the competitor goes and sees that your address is showing and it shouldn’t be, they will report you.

Amy Toman: Um, if your title, the listing title, is not compliant with what it should be, if you’ve added terms to it and somebody goes in and points out to Google that that’s not their business name, you could get suspended for that also. That’s, that’s it generally. Or if somebody reports your reviews as being fake.

Amy Toman: That’s a big one. Like, don’t ever, ever, ever buy reviews because they are getting really on top of that. They are starting to do labels on listings. They are starting to put blocks on incoming reviews. So I know how much they, you, you want them, I know how much they mean, but don’t buy fake reviews. Just don’t.

Amy Toman: They were gonna end well.

Paul Benton: What is, um, spam as a reason to get shut down? You had mentioned that.

Amy Toman: Reviews mostly. It’s, it’s, it’s, well, it could be your title. If you have, say if you’re, you know, Tom’s Plumbing and you have added, you know, & Electric, and then you put the name of your town, all of that, all of those additions on there, if Google is alerted to that, they will probably take you down and, but they will take you down…

Amy Toman: I- it’s, it’s bec- could be because of the title, but it’s also because now Google doesn’t see that same information elsewhere online. So you need to kind of present yourself, present your information to them so that they realize that you are, you are legit. So you have to fix the title and then go back.

Amy Toman: Other things, 100%, it’s reviews. If you have, if you’ve only been open for, say, a year and you are not a restaurant and you have 2,000 reviews, you know, totally cool. If you’re a hotel, if you’re, if you’re a, you know, those sort of things, if you’re an amusement park- You’re gonna have that number of reviews. A lot of, you know, business categories don’t have that, and it’s kind of obvious when you have that.

Amy Toman: And then if you get somebody like me who can sit there and say, “Here’s… Hello, Google. Here is why they are fake.” You know, and I, ’cause I, I do. I have, I have a very set process for proving when these are fake. Google can suspend you. They will also sometimes… They have a whole process of what they’re gonna do.

Amy Toman: Um, I, I’m not su- I’ve only seen this once in the US, and I’ve seen it a few times in the UK. What they will do is they will put a label on your listing for, I think, at least a month. They will put a block on your listing so that no incoming reviews, you know, no incoming reviews will be posted, and they will also take down all the reviews that they think are fake.

Amy Toman: And so if you’re thinking of investing in fake reviews, it could be a momentary investment, and you will, in the end, probably lose. You lose the money that you put into that.

Paul Benton: Amy, this is great advice. I think the moral of the story here is that what you do with Google, you need to do with a frame of complete honesty and following the rules.

Paul Benton: And you can make innocent mistakes, which is why you need good guidance from people like you, and it’s important, uh, not to try to cut corners. But if you do it right, then you’ll be rewarded. Um-

Amy Toman: 100%. They’re free listings. Everybody continues to point out they’re free listings. Mike, yeah, I used to say anybody can get a Google listing, but not everybody can keep it.

Amy Toman: These days, it’s even f- it’s even getting more difficult to get a Google listing, because they’re checking so many things in advance. They’re definitely worth having. If you don’t have one, you are s- you’re just missing out, just lost opportunity for you. So it’s really worth the effort to get the listing started, you know, keeping it, keeping it white hat, keeping it complying with Google’s guidelines, and it’s just, it’s just a total funnel for, you know, new clients to come in and find you.

Amy Toman: And y- you don’t wanna miss out on that.

Paul Benton: And with that, Amy, thank you for being at the table and telling us about the Google Business Profile. And everyone, we’ll see you in the next video