Good morning. Most weeks the useful move is not a big new strategy. It is one small thing you fix before lunch.

Here are two changes at Google worth knowing about, and one idea that will make your next ask land better.

Google rewrote its guidance on using AI to make content. It now says it is critical to manually factcheck and review all AI generated content for accuracy and trustworthiness before you publish. That review covers your metadata too, including title tags, meta descriptions, structured data and image alt text, and Google suggests telling readers how the content was made.

Why it matters: if you use AI to write your Google posts, your service pages or your review replies, nobody is checking it but you.

Do this: before anything goes live, read it out loud once. Fix anything that is not true about your business, your hours or your prices.

Google updated the Business Profile posts content policy. It now says that to avoid fraud or abuse it may remove posts that contain unverified contact information, including phone numbers, email addresses and social media handles.

Why it matters: plenty of owners paste their phone number into every post out of habit.

Do this: take the phone number and the email out of your post text. Your contact details already sit on your profile, which is where people look for them anyway.

I listened to a guy this week who wanted a big tool brand to sponsor his classes. He did not write and ask for a favor. He wrote and told them what a tradesperson spends on tools over a whole career, then said if you want to reach them at eighteen, let us talk.

He framed the ask in their numbers, not his own. That is the whole move. An ask with no number in it sounds like a request for charity. An ask with a number in it sounds like an offer.

This works at your size too, and it works with your own customers. Do not say "leave us a review if you get a chance." Say what it actually does: "We are a small shop and reviews are how new neighbors find us. It takes about thirty seconds, here is the link."

That is the Local Guide Method in plain terms. Your customers do your SEO for you, and they do more of it when you tell them why it matters and how little it costs them.

This week: pick one ask you make all the time and put a number in it. How long it takes, how many people it helps, or what it is worth to the person you are asking.

Most of what your Google Business Profile can do is free and sitting switched off. Here is the list, plus a thirty minute plan: Free Google Business Profile Features You're Not Using

If something here raised a question about your own profile, hit reply and tell me about it. I read every one.

Google Greg
Local Guide Marketing Academy

Idea spark: Chris Koerner on The Koerner Office.