Listen Now:

Are you getting clients and customers organically through search? Is your Google My Business page optimized and up to date? Discover how you can supercharge your organic marketing with simple SEO tricks with today’s expert Amy Graves.

Amy’s Website
Find Amy on Instagram
Connect with Amy on LinkedIn
Follow Amy on Facebook
Watch Amy on YouTube

Watch the FREE Step-by-Step on how to set up your Google My Business Profile here.

Check out the entire library of organic promotion episodes here.

Alyson Lex 0:03
We have talked about creating content for your website, we've talked about creating a conversion. On your website, we've talked about what not to do on your website, we've talked about how to make your website better. And we have had an amazing web expert come and rip our website to shreds. But what we haven't talked about, because frankly, I don't really get it is SEO. And I've had clients that are very concerned about it, I can write copy that, you know, talks about some keywords. But today, Amy Graves is here from AMG, an innovative consultant, and she is an S. E. O master. She's going to help us understand what it is, why we care, and what's better, how to make it work for our business. So Amy, thank you so much for being here with us today.

Amy Graves 1:01
Thank you for letting me be here. I appreciate it. All right.

Alyson Lex 1:06
So can you just give us that introduction on why we care about SEO and Google Analytics and all of that stuff.

Amy Graves 1:18
You care because you want business? Whether you're a service industry or retail, you want people to find you not you don't want to spend all your time networking. You want people to who are searching in Google and other search engines to find you.

Jennie Wright 1:36
Have you met Alison she loves definitely loves the interaction? Yeah,

Amy Graves 1:41
I do too. But there's, it's really fun, though, when you get that random appointment, like who is this person? I've never met them before. And I want to help more of that happen. Because you know, your networks, your networks are limited. You're limited to who they know. And you're limited to, are they going to remember to recommend you want to be nice to be in a search engine where they like, hey, they search for something you fix. And the right person comes to your website, the person who actually could buy from you, not the world but the right client. And that's why you should care.

Jennie Wright 2:19
And this works. Go else and go for it. Yeah,

Alyson Lex 2:22
I was gonna say I have had one or two of those people like, Hey, I found you on Google. And oh, oh, okay. So yes, more of that. Jenny, I interrupted you.

Amy Graves 2:34
Did that person work for you, though? Like, was that someone you're like? Yeah, this is my ideal client. That was a good find. Yeah, cool. Awesome then whoever ripped apart your website didn't look at the other side of it. Here's the fun thing about SEO, SEO, it. There are two different trains of thought on search engine optimization. A majority of the industry is about the techies, industry standards, backlinking, and everything like that. I focus on your ideal client. Keywords are only as important as what your client is saying before they find you. So you know what problem you fix. How does your ideal client describe that problem you fix? And that's the wording that should be on your website? Doesn't matter. Anything, everything else doesn't matter if you don't have the exact words.

Jennie Wright 3:29
So everybody uses Yoast, right. It's a plugin, everybody uses it. So are you saying that Yoast is yay? Like good? Should we have it? Or do we need more?

Amy Graves 3:39
Yep, I would say all of those types of plugins are good to an extent, they're going to tell you about that technical side of SEO. But that doesn't mean it's going to bring in the right client to you. So you need to focus when you're focusing on search engine optimization, your focus is on the user. What are they typing into that search bar that you want to be found for? Like, so a great example is I'm going to I'm working with a real estate agent right now are starting next year anyway, but we were talking about how she works with three very specific groups of people, one of them being probate, and not all realtors work with that. Well, you need to mention that on your website, you need to mention that on your Google My Business page, you need to mention exactly who you work with. If you want them to come to you, right. Otherwise, Google and search engines are going to send everybody in the world to your website. But it's like the old adage if you sell to everyone you sell to no one right because you're not zeroed in on that one person who you can make that emotional connection with to get them to buy from you.

Alyson Lex 4:52
One you're speaking my language you know I love to talk to ideal client. Yeah, I want to back up I'm gonna put that Google My Business I'm going to put a pin in that we're going to come back to that one in a minute. But earlier you mentioned service, business and retail. What about if I have like an online course? Or those kind of does this? Is this something I should also be focused on? Yep.

Amy Graves 5:15
And here's what. So if you think about how people use the virtual sphere, they're not just out there to buy, they're out there to find out more about you. Let's say, you met this great network client, and they're like, I want to find out more about them. But I don't want to make that appointment yet. They're going to Google you. Can they find you? Did they go to your website? Did they find your social media? So even if you're not actually selling a product, or you're selling an online course, you still need people to find you to find out more about you. 90% of sales happen after your ideal client has done research. And if they can't find anything on you on your research, they're not going to buy from you. So yeah, so online courses, people who aren't in the retail world you still need. The exception is is like if you if you're on Etsy or Shopify or you use Amazon, those aren't, you're not going to probably find as much need to have this on your website.

Amy Graves 6:22
Okay.

Jennie Wright 6:24
I have questions. Questions, many questions. My first one is, have you. I'm curious. Did you happen to go and google us?

Amy Graves 6:35
I did not.

Jennie Wright 6:42
I might have the honesty. No. I love the

Amy Graves 6:46
I am so honest. You guys. It's terrible. Yes, I think I, I did Google you when I initially came across because you I found an application for you guys in the Speaker's circle on Facebook. Yes. I googled you then. And I did find some basic things right away. But I didn't find a lot.

Jennie Wright 7:06
Okay, no, real nice. Okay, I'm glad I asked. Thank you for being honest. So okay, so imagining that our first step is to be found online, what's going to be? What's going to be the first step? What is the first step that System to THRIVE podcast are anybody should be taking so that they can get seen on Google and preferably not on page six?

Amy Graves 7:31
Right? You need a Google My Business Profile? First step.

Jennie Wright 7:35
So how is that helping? How is Google My Business? What is it doing?

Amy Graves 7:40
So Google, my think of Google My Business as your key word inventory, it is your card catalog of all the important words that are related to your ideal client. So in your description, you're going to talk about what you do and who you help. But the key that comes down to his your services, and depending on what type of business will depend, if you have products and services or just services or just products, I have services and products on my Google My Business page. So products for me are my master classes and Google Analytics. They are my one on one sessions that I do for Google Analytics, and Google My Business, there's my one time service services of hey, guess what, I will set up your Google My Business page for you, and make it advanced, and you don't have to worry about it. So those are my products. My services are not only marketing, I do search engine optimization. I do business coaching. So those are my services. And the key with those services is you're going to give a description, and the description describes what you do for your ideal client. And it should be in your ideal clients language. So you do podcasts and you specifically look to help people, you know, really thrive in their business. So what are the keywords people listening to your podcast are going to be looking for when they're searching for a podcast like yours, and you want that in your description on your Google My Business page. So it's, it's just really all you're doing is you're giving Google a database on your company of what you do, and that the more keywords you put in there, based on your ideal client, the better the connection of an organic user, or someone who doesn't know you exist, will find your website.

Alyson Lex 9:35
So how does that show up from like an end user experience? If I'm googling, you know, business podcast that whatever right there the keywords we put in? Clearly I've thought about this and what do I see do I see like the little map because that's local businesses, right electricians near me or whatever. So how does that help me?

Amy Graves 9:59
So I think It found both ways. And what's great is when you when you create that profile is you're expanding how people are going to find you. So from an end user perspective, they're going to they're going to Google business podcast. And what should what you want to happen is you want your podcast to pop up first. So if you're the first thing, and you've got to Google My Business Profile, to the right of the screen, is all the information from Google My Business for the client to see. So it's got it doesn't have a map, depending on if you gave them your address. So for service people like me who do mostly virtual work, you don't need to put your address in there. So it'll still pop up with a map, but it'll just say, in the city you're located, it's going to pop up your website links, which is what you want, right? You want people to click your website. And if they click it from Google, my business Excellent. That pops up on your Google Analytics even better. at them, if they keep scrolling down to look at your profile, they're actually going to see a list of your products and services, as well as any photos you've uploaded. So they're going to get a full picture of who you are on a search results screen.

Jennie Wright 11:12
I have follow up questions. So while you were talking, I went and googled you, Amy graves, AMG innovative. And what came out the first thing was LinkedIn followed by your about page on your website. I don't see any Google My Business stuff. I'm not seeing the sidebar, anything along those lines with that information. Where is it?

Amy Graves 11:32
Staying? It should be? It was like the number one find? Yes. So yeah, just stay. So I changed my business URL, like this week. Right? So Google is in the process of re verifying my company. So it's very possible that because of a website change, they're not recommending my probe my business profile at the moment.

Jennie Wright 12:00
Okay, so I typed my name in. Yep. And now I'm getting stuff on the side. So my business, you know, my Google your business, and it says, you know, here's my Calendly link, and yada, yada, yada, right? So I'm seeing that a bunch of pictures and things like that. And I do get, like, I have a I know it's not optimized, just FYI. But I do see it. So I guess with yours is waiting to verify I see it for me. So that's cool. Okay, so that's what I wanted to understand. Cuz I'm like, wait a minute. She's talking about this thing. I'm not seeing it. So especially

Amy Graves 12:32
with the person talking about it isn't popping up. Yeah. And didn't

Alyson Lex 12:38
Molly's gotten to me? Yeah, you've kind of caught out a couple of times on this.

Amy Graves 12:46
Again, let's see if we can make it three.

Alyson Lex 12:47
Sassy. All right. So I set out to my

Jennie Wright 12:54
knees laugh is the most infectious thing ever.

Alyson Lex 12:56
I know. Right? Like it totally changes your day. It's in a very good way. Yes, this is

Amy Graves 13:03
that's what we want.

Alyson Lex 13:08
Alright, so I'm assuming that I can enter into Google, like, set up a Google My Business page, and Google will tell me how to do that. So then once I get follow all the wizard, I'm going to pretend that everybody knows how to follow instructions on a screen. How do I like what are some steps I should take to optimize it? I want to make sure that I show up. And I don't pull, you know, apparently have to verify. Who knew before you'll show up. We learned that today. Yep.

Amy Graves 13:36
So once, if you're going into creative, just know that you're not going to do much Intel, you get the Google postcard. And the Google postcard is your verification code that proves you are a business and it's sent to your business address. So that that's just important to know, once you have that card, and you verified the next thing is to go in and just update all of the sections. I'm not kidding, update everything. If Google is giving you room to add something, add it that when when you do your basic setup, that is a basic profile. If you go in afterwards, and start adding an hours your what hours are closed for holidays, or open depending on the holiday itself. Added a nice big meaty description, you get 700 characters use as many as possible. When you're talking about your services, you get 300 characters for description add as much as you can give Google detail because google it doesn't. It's not AI, right? So it's gotta it's, it's got to connect words in order for you to get connected to that right person. I'm not sure about the age of the people that are going to be listening to this, but I'm gonna give this example is Google is a library, a library a website. So if you're older enough, like me, and you used to go to the library, and you would have to use a card catalog to faced on words, right? That's what Google is doing this compiling a card catalog of how to list your website. So they match you to the right person. Because Google doesn't want to just send random people right to your website they want to make they want to be successful in getting to be known as the people that can send you to the right website.

Alyson Lex 15:24
Yeah, that makes a lot a lot of sense. Yes.

Jennie Wright 15:30
There, I see us doing an episode where you like, totally ripped down one of our Google My Business. But you know, it's also very visual. So maybe not, but I think it's a really good I think it'd be a really good practice to go to your Google My Business, which I just did, by the way, I have one set up, I get a report occasionally saying, you know, so and so this many people saw your Google My Business Profile, etc. And what I am going to recommend that people do is absolutely go set that up. Now you have a service where you actually set people up for them, that is freaking cool,

Amy Graves 16:06
right? So I do, that's one of those areas where it's, it's multiple steps. So it's my free giveaway to people. That's cool. If you go to the first step in seo.com, that's where I, that's where my free video is that walks you step by step on what to update, you can do it yourself. Cool. I do one on one sessions, where 45 minutes you and I can knock it out with the exception of getting all of your services in but we can at least get you started on services and products based on what your company does. And then I do it for you because we'll have a 15 minute meeting. And then I just take care of it and get it done. All right. Well, I

Jennie Wright 16:40
like that a lot. Before we wrap up today. Before we wrap up today's episode. I know Allison's like probably hunting you down right now online to book that. I want to talk quickly about the SEO side. Do you have any quick strategies or tips that you can give people or a quick story that you can share to help people get started? Tell them like, you know how to make this happen?

Amy Graves 17:01
Wow, quick story. Um, so the best that even if you don't do any of the updates on your Google My Business Profile, make, start making posts weekly. I tell people at a minimum schedule five minutes a week, go on your Google My Business page and make one post. It can be anything as long as it's business related and relates to what people are looking for. Right? You're not going to talk about your hair cut. This isn't Facebook, pump up your products, your services, events, whatever it is, but make one post a week. I have a client that chose to take me on and she did it scheduled herself five minutes every day for 30 days. She saw her in her traffic increase in a quarter by 7,000% of traffic to her website. 7000.

Alyson Lex 17:50
Sorry, but wait, wait. He just broke in and interrupted you. At the same time. You're saying five minutes a day to make a quick little business related posts. And this is directly on the Google My Business page, not her website? Not any long 1800 word blog post? Not a tick tock. The you know, it's doing all those dancing and pointing things but a five minute update essentially on her gym. Jimmy, do you be young? Seven 7,000%. Okay, yeah,

Jennie Wright 18:23
I can get behind numbers like that pretty freakin fast.

Amy Graves 18:27
Here are the keys that she did. She knew her ideal client well, so she knew what they were searching for. So she in her five minute post, she could quickly list something with say, Whatever her pain point was, but she's does Software crm for, you know, entrepreneurs that are growing. And they're to that point where they need automation now. So she knew her purpose her her ideal clients pain point to get that out there effectively. But here's the thing, don't pay for good Google ads, if you're not doing your Google My Business page. Because if you don't understand your ideal client work, Google Ads isn't going to work for

Alyson Lex 19:03
you. Okay, so you're you're blowing my mind a little bit. And what I want to do is find out on behalf of our audience where we slash they can get in touch with you and find you other than on your soon to be released Google My Business page, I will likely be back up by the time this episode airs. How can how can they get in touch with you? And stay connected?

Amy Graves 19:28
Yeah, best way is to go to my website. It's any mainstreet.com Because I work with all industries manufacturing, to health and wellness to real estate I got you covered so long as you know you have a website, I can help

Alyson Lex 19:40
you. Awesome. And we'll put we'll put all of those links on the show notes page at system to thrive.com so that people can just kind of click through and find you that way too.

Jennie Wright 19:52
Well, I just went and posted on my Google My Business page saying that I just got to interview me graves for AMG, innovative consultants, and she totally ripped my Google business part good my Google business page apart. So I have updates that I'm going to do. So there you go. I just posted, I just followed the Yeah. Alright. Awesome. So we will definitely have everything in the show notes that we've talked about today. Any links or anything that you shared, go and check me out. I think Elsa and I have a lot of work to do to get our stuff up to to snuff. So we're gonna go do that. But I just want to thank everybody for listening, go and get your Google My Business page done. Either do it yourself, follow some instructions or reach out, get me to do it seems like the better solution to me. So do that and make sure you're following this podcast wherever you are listening, and definitely let us know what you think. Leave us a review. We'd love to hear from you. And thanks so much, Amy, for being here.

Amy Graves 20:42
You're welcome and make sure they leave a review on Google.

Jennie Wright 20:45
Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yes. Go find me on Google. leave a review. All right. We'll talk to y'all soon. Thanks so much.

Amy Graves 20:49
Take care.