#44 - Google Business Profiles Myths Destroyed

This episode is designed to cut through Google Business Profile (GBP) folklore by deferring authority directly to Google’s published documentation. Where Google is silent, we clearly label recommendations as risk-based, experience-driven guidance—not official policy.

Google’s Stance:
- The business name must reflect real-world usage and branding.
- Legal registration alone is not sufficient.
- Google may request evidence such as signage, branding, and customer-facing materials.

Step 1: Stop making changes. Frequent edits reduce trust.
Step 2: Align the business name with real-world branding.
Step 3: Correct address/service-area setup.
Step 4: Reduce categories to the most accurate primary + limited secondary.
Step 5: Remove policy-violating content (posts, photos, descriptions).
Step 6: Rebuild trust gradually—photos, legitimate reviews, consistent updates.
Step 7: Document proof (licenses, signage, utility bills) in case reinstatement is needed.

If a tactic requires justification gymnastics, it is likely non-compliant.
Google rewards accuracy, consistency, and real-world legitimacy—not clever loopholes.

Sources:
https://support.google.com/business/answer/7091?hl=en

https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en

https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en

https://support.google.com/business/answer/9157481?hl=en

https://support.google.com/business/answer/13763036?hl=en-NA

https://support.google.com/business/answer/7249669?hl=en

https://support.google.com/business/answer/14114287?hl=en

https://support.google.com/business/answer/3474050?hl=en

https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en

https://support.google.com/business/answer/7213077?hl=en

https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en

Suspension & enforcement overview:
https://support.google.com/business/answer/14114287?hl=en

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

You're listening to Over the Bull, where we cut through marketing noise. Here's your host, Ken Carroll.

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Google Business Profile Myths on this episode of Over the Bull. Thank you so much for joining me this week. You know, uh, we've been extremely busy, so this podcast may be a little shorter than usual, but it's going to have some mission critical information about Google Business Profiles because it seems like there is a recurring theme around Google business profiles and what people should or should not be doing. So if you have a business that depends on your Google Business profile, you want to stay tuned for this one because it's going to offer you a lot of clarity. And before I get moving on this, I want you to know that I'm going to provide you with actual links to Google's documentation that will show you their perspective on it, which can help you give you confidence because let's face it, sometimes uh compelling arguments are one of those things that uh can sway us or confuse us. Also, it's very common in today's world to have certain vendors claim that they have some kind of secret recipe that circumvents best practices. The circumvention of best practices is dying quicker and quicker. And this is another example of that occurring. So you want to make sure to play by the rules. That's the easiest way to do it. And we've seen significant growth just by simply doing the recommended best practices. But of course, that requires more work than trying to implement strategies that are not recommended. Okay, so the purpose of this episode is designed to cut through the Google Business Profile folklore by deferring business authority directly to Google's published documentation. Where Google is silent, we clearly label recommendation as risk-based experience-driven guidance, not official policy. So core Google Authority. Google repeatedly states that local ranking is based on relevance, distance, and prominence. Okay, so this is a fact. They let you know that relevance, distance, and prominence are the important factors, and you're going to see a link to that effect. Now, the other thing is that all profile information must accurately reflect the real world business. Now, we're seeing people who are trying to do things uh that don't reflect the real world business. They're trying to serve it up in a way where they think Google is going to like it better. And again, this all revolves around uh this mythology that somehow you can game the system, or if you game it in a certain way, or use certain things in certain ways, that somehow you're magically going to appear uh better in uh you know search results than other people. Now, of course, there are some of the uh the games that are being played that may still be working for you to some extent, but we are seeing a mass influx of people coming to us because the house of cards is falling down on these tricks and ways to try to work around the system. So I encourage you if you're working with someone and they say, if you do this or do that and it's not best practice, you need to abandon that policy sooner than later. Okay, so here are the major myths and what Google actually says. Uh keyword stuffing the name of the business. So if you have a business and someone tells you to put the keyword related to your business in it. So for example, if you're uh Bob's uh electric company and uh your name is a Bob's Electrical, and then they tell you to change the name to Bob's Electrical Service, Des Moines, Iowa, or something like that, in order to get the keyword into the name of the business that's not the official business. Uh, here's the myth for that. Adding services and cities to the business name boosting rankings, uh, that it'll somehow boost the rankings by putting in the services and the cities. So I just gave an example of that. Now, Google says the name must match real-world branding and signage. And so oftentimes uh when people are trying to game the system, they'll tell you to do that. You'll probably hear uh all kinds of crazy stuff. And I may address this a little bit later, but we've even seen it where people have been recommended to start a DBA with a keyword-stuffed business name just so they can use it. Uh, you really should avoid these practices. Um, physical address is required to rank your business. I'm sure some of you have heard that, well, you need that physical address, you know, that's going to help you more than doing a service area. So that's the myth. Service area businesses rank worse than storefronts. Now, Google allows service area businesses to hide their address, and that data is absolutely in it. And you should do that. If you're a service area, that's what Google tells you to do. You should reflect your business as it is in the real world. Now, virtual post offices and PO boxes. Um, the myth is any address is better than none. Now, Google requires legitimate staffed locations. Now, this doesn't mean renting a building or a cubicle in a certain place and then just have a location that you can put down for your business. These need to be legitimate locations that are legitimately operated. Now, as they're cracking down, these things that seem like they're nebulous and don't matter will begin to matter. Um, next um subject, category stuffing. Uh, more categories equals more visibility. That's the uh the myth. So Google advises selecting the fewest accurate categories. So you want to get as accurate as you can, but you don't want to start drifting off and just putting in more categories, thinking somehow that's going to help you. By the way, this is also horrible advice in virtually every marketing strategy because the further you get away from what you legitimately do, at best you're going to bring in traffic that's not going to do anything for your business anyway. So make sure you stick focused to the proper categories. Reviews and incentives. Incentivized or filtered reviews are harmless. Google absolutely prohibits fake or incentivized engagement. So you want to be careful on how you do that. They want to see legitimate reviews, and you need to give legitimate reviews. Now, we have solutions that help with this, and we have certain strategies that we use at Intagorist Design that are designed to approach the question of asking for review at the right time and right place. For example, if you're asking for a review at the same time you're sending an invoice, that's not the best of ideas. Um review responses and AI. So the myth is keyword dents or AI replies are ranking tactics. Now, Google encourages responses but enforces content policy. No explicit uh AI ban exists, quality and compliance are the issue. So the idea is you do want to phrase your responses, but Google is rewarding human-touched content. AI content is becoming so rampant and it's so relevant or so nebulous that it's not useful for humans. And so, therefore, Google doesn't like it as much as real content. And so when you write, you want to put in a review that legitimately describes what the person does and thank them for their service. And there are certain ways to structure those responses to reviews. A lot of tools also look at how quickly you respond to those reviews. So getting reviews is important, but also responding to those reviews in a timely and appropriate way is extremely important. So profile completeness, uh completeness, excuse me. Uh the myth is only NAP matters. So has anyone ever told you the acronym NAP simply stands for Name, Address, and Phone Number. Now, those tools are out there, and what they basically do is they help broadcast your business consistently across the internet. That is a non-negotiable tool in 2025 and 2026. And there are a lot of different services that offer that, and some of them are definitely better than others. We have tested and fine-tuned our process to where we feel we're broadcasting in the most efficient way possible. Uh, so all these tools are not created equal. So make sure that uh you're just not buying into the cheapest service. Uh, completing your profile is also really important and keeping it up to date, uh, closures and information such as that. Google Post. Did you know you can post to your Google business like you can Facebook and other social media profiles? You absolutely can. So posting frequency alone boost rankings is one of the uh the uh myths that's out there. And so the idea is posts are governed by content policies, not ranking guarantees. So again, you don't want to fake it. You don't want to get into a mode where you're just posting stuff just to post it, thinking if you blanket the internet with enough content, that somehow your Google business profile is going to supersede those that are posting legitimate content that is important to their readers. You want to make sure that quality enters the equation. People are so concerned with quantity, they're not thinking of quality. And all of these uh online search tools are concerned about quality, accuracy, and relevancy. And so when it comes to Google business, it's more so because they're also trying to pull up the best results for people who are in certain locations. And again, just don't game the system. Okay, so here's the uh the DBA keyword strategy. Uh let's talk policy versus reality. And the theory is registering a DBA with keyword makes it compliant. Google's stance on this: the business name must reflect the real world usage and branding. Legal registration alone is not sufficient. Google may request evidence such as signage, branding, and customer-facing materials. They're wanting consistency. Keep in mind that if you're trying to game the system in a certain way, there are millions and millions of guys who are trying to game it as well. And there's also people that are trying to do it for more nefarious reasons. Google wants clean data. All these websites want just clean, reliable data to increase the value of their services. All the gaming messes that up, and that's why Google doesn't want it. Um, so let's talk about uh risk assessment. Um, while a DBA may exist legally, profiles are still subject to manual edits, suspensions, or forced renames if branding appears manipulative. So that should uh put the uh kiosh on creating uh DBAs with keyword stuffed names. By the way, I know of an agency uh out of Canada that recommended this like two or three years ago, and they were treating it as though they found the holy grail. This is not the holy grail. Gaming the system is not the holy grail. This idea of gaming the system, if you even get a hint of that. Hey, we got a trick that no one does. If we just do, and you get these little tidbits from a provider, you need to run the other direction. The name of the game today is to play by the rules, do the hard work, don't rig the system, and don't smather it with just tons and tons of irrelevant content. I mean, let people know what you're really about. Okay, so um untangling. Oh my goodness, untangling a setup that is uh so intertwined with bad advice. You know, you get a listing and you got the wrong name of the business, you got the you got an address that's uh not a real legitimate address, uh, you've got categories that are messed up, and now you're you want to clean it up. Okay. The bottom line is it's like the old movies in the 80s where you're trying to defuse a bomb and you don't know to cut the red wire, the blue wire. There's a little bit of that going on because it shouldn't have been done in the first place. And so as you untangle, there is a legitimate uh potential that the listing could get suspended or certain things could happen. Slow and methodical tends to work a little bit better as you're cleaning things up. Um and so what we want to do is we want to you want to do a little bit of changing at a time. That's the way we typically do it, and we want to do it in a methodical way. Um, it's not something that there is a best practice, is because the best practice would be not to do it in the first place. So ideas are, you know, aligning your business name with real-world branding. By the way, this is also good because uh consistency across the internet with the name of your business is absolutely huge. Uh, making sure the address is correct or the service area is properly set up. Uh, reduce your categories, you know, obviously make them the prime the most accurate, and then have a couple secondaries that uh relate to your business. Um, that could comprise a post, photos, and descriptions. Uh, rebuild trust gradually through legitimate reviews, consistent updates, you know, real-world photos. And then you're gonna have doc you're gonna have to have documented proof if you get suspended and you need to get reinstated. This could include things such as licenses, signage, utility bills, and a host of other items. And it's not one of those things that's instant. But keep in mind we've had some people come to us and they said that their uh provider was asking them to give them like tax return information and some just outlandish items. Uh, we've never had to do that. So I don't know if you're getting any of that information, but it really shouldn't be anything out of the box other than general information that proves your business is legitimate, the name of your business, the location of your business, and then prove that you are who you are. In the end, Google Business is absolutely something your business needs to focus on and it needs to do it the right way, and you need to keep it updated, moving in the right direction, and follow best practices. These are tips that will help you follow those best practices, and it's recommended that um you do this because here's the thing if you've gotten away with it, just like you've gotten away with Google Ads running to those low-ranking pages, it may be working, but there is a time coming, and it's already here for a lot of businesses. They walk through the door every day here, and they've trusted people to incorporate policies that they thought were sneaky or getting around corners or some kind of trick that no one else knows, and uh it's ended up biting them. And so go ahead and start doing this now. If you don't have a good person or you're getting someone bad advice or someone kind of whispering in your ear and saying they've got some tricks no one else knows, my best recommendation to you is run in the other direction. And my final thought of the day is oh, by the way, we got a new mic. I'd I'm gonna I'm interested to see how this goes. Uh, and and you know, just treat this uh thing in closing just like you do those junk emails. Still get clients emailing me saying that Mary at her Gmail account says she can fix problems with the website and fix SEO stuff. Delete them, spam them, mark them as phishing, and move on. Your time's too valuable to waste on spammers who are trying to get your attention because they don't know how to market themselves. Until next time, this is Ken with Over the Bull.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

Thanks for tuning in to Over the Bull, brought to you by Integrist Design, a full service design and marketing agency out of Asheville, North Carolina. Until next time.