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Why My Local Start Google Business Profile Help Is Free

So what’s the catch?

Every time I tell a business owner our Google Business Profile optimization is free, I get the same look.

Fair enough. In 25+ years of SEO, I’ve seen plenty of “free” offers that turned into a 12-month contract. So here’s the whole story, start to finish. It’s short, I promise. 

— Parichatra Reuning, founder, My Local Start

Why My Local Start offers this for local businesses

I think local businesses, in the age of AI, need marketing help the most and usually have the least money for it. Small business owners usually don’t have a marketing department. The owner is the marketing department, plus the bookkeeper and the janitor.

Then there are the folks just getting started. Every month I talk to people about opening a shop, plenty of them have never heard of a Google Business Profile. Nobody told them it exists, let alone that it needs to be set up right. It’s a lot easier to start with a good profile on day one than to fix a messy one six months in.

The owners who’ve been open a while usually have one. Very few understand it. They set it up years ago, maybe added a logo, and haven’t logged in since. Some profiles were owned by someone no longer part of the business. Some owners were told to post on it every day like it’s Facebook. Others paid someone who kept loading it with stock photos or AI images. Meaningless and low-value.

Your Google Business Profile (GBP) is the first thing a local customer sees when they search for what you do. It shows up in Google Maps before your website does. For a lot of people, a GBP listing is your business.

For our people here at My Local Start, these are the local small business owners that we’d like to work with. I’d rather help them get it right than watch them lose customers to a chain with a bigger budget.

What you get, for free

  • No Google Business Profile yet? We’ll set one up with you.
  • Already have one? A real look at your profile, by yours truly, with notes in plain English (at times in broken English, but you’ll get the gist) on what I’d improve.
  • A photo plan, using pictures of your actual shop and crew.
  • Your hours, address and phone checked, because, ahem, you might’ve been sleeping on the job.
  • A straight answer about where you stand in Google Maps for the searches that matter to you.
  • A simple way to ask for reviews, plus how to answer the ones you get, including the cranky ones. It’s easy. There’s a request review button right in your Google Business Profile dashboard, FYI.
  • Your categories, services and description fixed, so Google knows what you do and which towns you serve. If your description is lame, we’ll spice it up.

There’s nothing to sign, and we won’t ask for a credit card.

When a profile is enough (and when it isn’t)

Here’s the part most agencies won’t tell you: some businesses don’t need much more than an optimized Google Business Profile. If you’re the only farrier (my new neighbor is!) in the county, a great profile and a handful of good reviews might keep your phone busy all year. If that’s you, I’ll say so. Go spend your hard-earned money where it’ll grow your business further. Godspeed.

Want more than a one-time tune-up? See our Google Maps ranking help.

Other businesses are in a tougher fight. Think lawyers, contractors and private medical practices. There, a polished profile gets you in the door, and then Google starts comparing websites. Is your site optimized? Is your content useful and relatable? Can Google trust you? Google looks at whether you have a real page for each service you offer and whether other local sites vouch for you.

Location matters too. Google favors businesses close to the person searching, which is why some scammers set up fake addresses all over town. (It won’t last. Google catches up eventually.)

If your competitors have strong websites and you don’t, profile optimization alone won’t cut it. I’ll show you that in the free review, with your actual local competitors and your rankings, so you can decide for yourself.

Who the free help is for

The free optimization is for local, owner-run businesses: the shops, practices, crews and nonprofits where the person answering the phone is often the person who owns the place. Western North Carolina is home base, but if you’re a small business anywhere in the US, reach out. I’m also helping brand-new businesses still learning the ranking ropes.

Outside the US? So sorry, no can do. Local search abroad is outside what I know best, and I’d rather not guess with your business.

The free help isn’t a fit if you’re one of these:

  • Agencies looking for free work to resell to their own clients
  • Anyone hoping we’ll set up fake listings or game the system (we won’t, at any price)
  • National chains and franchises with a corporate marketing budget
  • “Rank and rent” sites

Agencies and chains, no hard feelings. We’d still love to work together. We’ll just send an invoice.

How we make money

I’m not running a charity, and I won’t pretend to be. We’ve got families to feed and a mortgage, same as you. This is a long game. Here’s the business model, in full:

  1. We fix your profile for free. You see what we do and how we work, with zero risk.
  2. Some of you won’t need anything else. That’s fine. You’ll tell a friend. For our team, that’s worth more than a paid ad.
  3. Some of you will need a website that can compete, or SEO to get past the competitor who’s been sitting at the top of the map for five years. When that day comes, I hope you’ll call us. We’ll already know your business, and you’ll already know we do what we say.

The takeaway

There’s more than one door for people to find you online. Your Google Business Profile is one. Your website is another. Together, they’re what people check out before they get in the car to come see you. Your profile should look and sound like you, and your prospects should be able to find it. We’ll help you get it there for free.

If you’re a local business owner, request your free profile review or call (828) 627-8555. A real person answers, usually me or Stone, my partner in crime. (Not literally. Our records are spotless.)