Your 30-minute monthly routine, and your re-score

Here’s something that’s easy to miss. Getting found on Google isn’t a project you finish. It’s a few small habits you keep: ten minutes a week, and thirty minutes a month.

In this last lesson, you’ll set up that routine. Then you’ll score your business again, to see how far you’ve come.

Let’s build your routine on W16. It has four layers.

With every customer: ask for a review. Every customer, the same way, soon after the visit or the job. No picking only the happy ones, no rewards, and no suggested words.

Every week, about ten minutes: your five-minute check on W6 from Lesson 2.6, plus time to reply to new reviews. Check your profile for changes from Google or the public, because once Google notifies you of a suggested edit, you have just four days to accept or reject it. And check your messages and missed calls against the target you set in Lesson 5.1.

Every month, thirty minutes. Do it in the first week, after the fifth, when last month’s searches should have arrived.

Five minutes: copy your numbers into W14.

Five minutes: your rank check, with the same searches and places as last time.

Five minutes: one post, and a few new photos.

Five minutes: count your new reviews, and compare your pace with the top three. Track that for the business, never as a target for staff.

And ten minutes: one job from Module 4. Fix a listing, or ask for one local link.

Every quarter: compare your categories, services and reviews with the top three in the map. Tidy your listings on other sites. And check your attributes, and your holiday hours for the next three months, whether that’s Thanksgiving, a bank holiday or Australia Day. If you’re seasonal, do this check a month before your busy season: before winter for a heating engineer, or before summer for a pool service.

Write the day you’ll do each one on W16, and put them in your calendar now. Then choose one person to own it. If it’s everyone’s job, it’s nobody’s job. And if a month goes badly, do the minimum: ask every customer, reply to reviews, and check your profile for changes. Everything else can wait a week.

Now, your re-score. Take out your W1 scorecard from Lesson 1.2. We’ll fill in the re-score column the same way, step by step.

Step one: run your three searches again, with the same words, and from the same places if you can. Check the location at the bottom of the results page, and write down where you appear.

Step two: your ten profile checks. Name, category, address or service area, hours, phone, website button, photos, rating, number of reviews, and your newest review and replies.

Step three: the top three. Their rating, reviews, newest review, category and photos, next to yours.

Step four: your numbers. Use a period of the same length as last time, so the comparison is fair. If you run ads now and didn’t then, make a note, because the report includes actions from ads.

Step five: run the free profile score again, and write it down.

Now put the two columns side by side. Circle everything that improved. Then pick your three biggest gaps today. They’re your plan for the next three months.

And if some numbers went down, don’t panic. Check you’re comparing the same months, and think about the season, before you decide anything.

So, how did you do? Here’s how I’d like you to judge it.

Not by one ranking. As you saw in Lesson 5.3, your position changes with where and when someone searches. And remember, Google says nobody can pay for a better local ranking, so be wary of anyone who promises you one.

Judge yourself on what you control. Is your profile verified, complete and accurate? Do you ask every customer for a review, and reply to every review? Do you answer calls and messages within your target? Is there a row in W14 for every month?

Then look at what matters most: calls, bookings, and customers coming through the door. If they’re moving the right way, keep going. If they’re not, your change log and the checklist in Lesson 5.4 will show you where to look.

Here’s an example. Say you run a café in Brisbane. Your position in one suburb hasn’t moved. But you now have thirty more reviews, you reply to every one, and Saturday calls are up. That’s real progress.

One last rules check, because routines drift when you’re busy. Keep asking every customer, not just the happy ones. Never offer anything in return for a review. Never give staff review targets, or ask customers to mention a staff member by name. And keep one profile, with your real name. Those rules come straight from Google, and your routine should never bend them.

You’ve reached the end of the course. If you’d like a certificate of completion, take the final quiz. It’s fifteen questions, three from each module, and you need twelve to pass. You can retake it as often as you like.

The certificate shows that you’ve completed this course. It isn’t a Google certification, and Flexi Local isn’t affiliated with Google. It doesn’t guarantee any ranking, but you’ll know exactly what to do, and why.

Let’s recap the whole course in three lines. One: Google weighs relevance, distance and prominence. You can’t buy a better local ranking, but you can earn one. Two: a complete, accurate profile, genuine reviews, and a website and listings that back you up do the earning. Three: answer every customer, and keep score every month.

Your task: fill in W16, finish the re-score column on W1, put your routine in your calendar, and take the final quiz.

Thank you for doing this course, and for doing it properly. Keep your workbook somewhere safe, and come back to any lesson whenever you need it. Google changes its screens and rules from time to time, so every lesson page shows the date we last checked it, and links to a written guide if you want to go deeper.

Now go and answer that next call.

Doing it yourself works. If you’d rather hand the routine over, our do-it-yourself or done-for-you page shows who does what. The course works the same either way.