Good morning.

Most of what decides whether a customer finds you is not clever. It is showing up, over and over, in the places where people are already looking. This week has two small Google changes worth knowing about, and one habit that costs you nothing but ten minutes on a job site.

Google added a support channel policy. There is a new section in the Google Business Profile policies about misuse of support channels. In plain words, Google is asking people to stop flooding the support portal with false or bad faith reports, because it slows the queue down for everybody. The policy says repeated unfounded reports can carry consequences.

Why it matters: if a competitor has been reporting your listing to try to knock it down, there is now a written policy against it. It also means your own support requests should be clean and factual, because the queue is being watched more closely.

One thing to do: next time you report a competitor's listing for something real, like a fake address, write it short and stick to the facts. Skip the complaints and the history. Just the one thing that is wrong.

A reported change to reading reviews. This one is reported, not confirmed by Google. Several people are seeing Google Maps show a sign-in prompt before someone can read all the reviews on a listing, sort them, or leave one. Google has not announced or confirmed this, so treat it as something to watch rather than a change to plan around.

Why it matters: if it holds, the first few reviews a customer sees without signing in carry even more weight than they already did. And asking for a review may get a little harder, because a customer has to be signed in to leave one.

One thing to do: read the top three reviews on your own profile the way a stranger would. If the most recent one is from March, that is the real problem to fix this week, whatever Google does with the sign-in screen.

Here is something I keep coming back to. The most reliable ad for a local service business is not an ad. It is the before and after.

Think about the jobs you do every week. A stump ground down to nothing. A driveway that goes from gray to clean. A pan, a gutter, a yard, a room. The work itself is the most watchable thing you own, and it needs no script, no voice, and no budget. Transformation is a story that explains itself in about eight seconds.

Most owners never film it because it feels like it does not count as marketing. It counts. A customer who watches your crew fix something has already seen proof. Nothing you could write about yourself does that job as well.

And it ties straight back to the Local Guide Method. Your customers do your SEO for you, and this is the same idea pointed at your own camera roll. The work becomes the proof, and the proof becomes the reason somebody calls you instead of the shop closer to them.

One action this week: pick one job on the calendar. Set a phone on a cheap tripod before you start, let it run, and stop it when you are done. Post the sped-up version. Do not script it, do not narrate it, do not wait until you have a plan. One job, one video. See what happens.

New this week: why you do not show up on Google Maps one town over, and what actually closes that gap. Read it here.

If you have a question about your profile, your reviews, or anything in here, just hit reply. I read every one, and the questions often turn into the next issue.

Go film something.

Google Greg
Local Guide Marketing Academy

Idea spark: Chris Koerner on The Koerner Office.