Transcript
Joe Troyer: Theresa asks, would you use GMB insights over a paid service such as Bright Local? And I’m sorry, I’m going to keep it out of full-screen view, just so I can type in here with you guys on the call. So, would you use GMB insights over a paid service such as Bright Local? And the big resilient answer is, fuck no. Yes, Joe just swore big time. At the end of the days, folks, I need you guys to understand that when it comes to keyword data, when it comes to running your business, and keeping track of your KPIs, you should not be leaning on Google exclusively to keep track of your most important KPIs, especially historically when it comes to keyword search volume on a local level. When it comes to Google, my business insights are fricken trash. They’re not accurate, even remotely, okay?
Joe Troyer: So, I’m going to give you guys a real-life example of this, so that you guys can make sure that this sinks in, okay? But, I need you first and foremost just to take away that you should never be relying on GMB insights, okay? So, practical, real use case, okay? There’s a keyword phrase, one keyword phrase, that according to Google’s keyword tool, in one city and one location, that keyword phrase had a search volume of 50 searches a month, okay? When we rank for that keyword, and that keyword shows up and it’s ranking inside of Google Maps, and it’s the only keyword phrase that it’s ranking for. And the reason for that is because it was a really close to exact match domain or keyword phrase. So, if the keyword phrase is ABC Dental, the domain, for example, is like abcdental.com, okay? So, it was ranking for that quickly, but wasn’t ranking for anything else, okay? So, the search volume on ABC Dental in this example is 50 searches a month, okay? We ranked for it, right? We ranked for it. We ranked for it using a GMB. We rank in the three-pack. I think when we did this test, we were ranking number two in the three-pack.
Joe Troyer: So, we weren’t number one. We had, like no fricken reviews yet. The number one competitors had the five-star snippet showing up, and let’s call it that they had 40 reviews, right? So, they’re the dominant person there in the three-pack. So, being below them with no reviews, we’re not going to get a whole lot of traffic, right? So, keyword volume is 50. We’re ranking number two, but we had no presence almost because we’re just getting shadowed by the top competitors in the three-pack. So, we rank, and I look inside of Google My Business insights, and this is like months into us ranking, and I look at it, and it’s saying that we’re getting roughly 50 phone calls per month. Okay? That is what they’re reporting. Anybody want to have a guess, when we looked at call tracking, how many calls we were actually receiving on a monthly basis?
Joe Troyer: [Frankie] says 100. What’s up Frankie Allen? Good guess. Dennis says 100. Folks, over 200 phone calls a month, and when I looked at those 200 phone calls, just to be clear, those were like, 200 raw … or, I’m sorry, those were 200 unique phone calls, meaning anybody that called back multiple times was already filtered out of the number. So gross, I’m sure it was more like 250 or 260. So, yes, I swore. Yes, I got explicit, but at the end of the day, folks, you can not put all of your eggs in one basket, and Google, Google Maps, and Google Keyword Tool, and Google Keyword Volume on a local level, I need you guys to understand, fundamentally, has been screwed for a really, really long time, and you should not be counting on that data, or you’re missing the boat completely. Frankie Allen says, “Oh my gosh, I need to set up call tracking.” Yes, 100%. You got to set up call tracking, right?
Joe Troyer: So, let’s talk about that now. So, how do you do a good job of truly capturing that data? Okay, so the way that you do a good job is, inside of Google My Business, and I’m not going to pull it up here. I could walk you guys through step by step, just know that it’s on the screen, right? So, inside of Google My Business, there is a place where you can edit your phone number. Okay, what I want you to do is, I want you to go and I want you to add another phone number, and I want you to swap out the primary phone number, and the additional phone number, okay? And what’s going to happen is the phone number that’s showing inside of Google My Business, and that people would click on to call is really your phone number, your tracking phone number. And so, it’ll replace the phone number that they use everywhere, like Yelp, and before in the GMB, and Yellow Pages, but that phone number is still going to be tied to that account, and to that listing. And so, Google knows to keep it associated with your account. So, if you’ve already got a site that’s got citations and everything else and you’re not starting from scratch, this is how you’d use call tracking without having to update all those fricken citations, and deal with the tracking mess. Okay, good stuff? All right, fantastic.
Joe Troyer: So guys, 100% of the time, just error on the side of caution in that Google My Business insights is going to be wrong, right? Their data is going to be wrong. The keyword tool is going to be wrong, just make that assumption, please, moving forward. Okay, so then, should you use a paid service such as Bright Local, then is kind of the second part of the question? And so, I would use 100% call tracking, number one. But then, number two … and that’s required. I don’t do anything without call tracking. And then number two, Bright Local is good, because Bright Local will … understand Bright Local pulls in some data from Google My Business insight stuff. So, I wouldn’t be looking at Bright Local to provide me with the data inside their interface from GMB insights. That’s retarded. We just said that that data wasn’t very good, right? But what I would do is use GMB insights to help me audit my Google My Business account, and tell me what I should be doing that I haven’t done already, right? So, show me the issue, show me the opportunity, show me what to fix, is the first use case for Bright Local.
You could use Whitespark but I prefer BrightLocal you can see why in this BrightLocal Vs Whitespark post.
Joe Troyer: The second use case for Bright Local is the citation audits in general, and then, all the other tracking tools, third, that are inside of Bright Local. So, Bright Local is who I use to this day to do local Google My Business rank tracking, okay? So, there are other platforms out there that, frankly just being honest, I think do a little bit better than Bright Local in terms of the rank tracking piece, but they’re just shiny object things and things that, for me, I don’t think really matter, right? So, Bright Local kind of gives me the whole suite in one, so to speak, and so that’s why I love Bright Local, okay? And they’re always updating the tool. They’re in the trenches. They have a really good pulse of what’s happening in the local market. See the bright local vs Review grower comparison.
