It's sitting inside your Google Business Profile right now, waiting to be found. That's my view. I was on a call with a business owner in California recently. He'd been trying to rank for his main keywords for months, spending money, making changes, getting nowhere. When I went into his Google Business Profile reports and looked at the search terms that were actually bringing people to his profile, something immediately stood out.... Google was already sending him traffic. I'm not talking about the keywords he'd been chasing. I mean the ones Google was already sending him traffic for, specific searches, local area terms, things customers were genuinely typing in. Google had already decided he was relevant for those. He just hadn't noticed. And he certainly hadn't been putting any effort into strengthening those signals. That's what I mean by low hanging fruit. The keywords Google is already rewarding you for. Because if Google is already sending you traffic for a term, even at position 15 or position 18, it's already decided you're relevant. It's already put you in the race. And getting from position 15 to position 3 on a term Google already thinks you're relevant for is a completely different challenge to trying to rank for something Google hasn't associated with you yet. So the first thing I do with any client who wants to restore their rankings — before anything else — is open their GBP reports and find what's already working. Because that's where the fastest wins are. Find out what you're already getting traffic for. Go into your Google Business Profile insights and look at the search terms people are using to find you. Even if those keywords aren't bringing in sales yet — that's not the point at this stage. The point is that Google has already decided you're relevant for those terms. And that's your starting position. Getting traffic for a keyword isn't the finish line — it's the starting gun. Because when Google sends those visitors your way, it's watching what happens next. Do they stay on your website or bounce straight back?

One day everything's fine. You're ranking, the phone's ringing, business is ticking along. And that's no coincidence, because on Google Maps your ranking and your calls go hand in hand. The higher you rank, the more your phone rings. Drop down and it goes quiet fast. One client I spoke with even considered hiring someone just to take the calls, the volume was that high. Then without any warning it just stops. And the frustrating thing is you haven't done anything wrong. Nothing obvious has changed. Well, this might surprise you. I was consulting with a client recently and all they did was add LTD to the end of their business name. That's it. Nothing else changed. Overnight they went completely invisible. Gone. Now you might think that's unfair, and you're right. But here's what's really going on... Google is so sensitive to anything that looks like a business gaming the system that even an innocent change to your business name can trigger a full review. And when Google reviews your profile, it defaults to caution every single time. Guilty until proven innocent. So the lesson here is simple. Changing a service, adding a post, uploading a photo, Google barely notices. But touch your business name, your primary category, or your address and Google treats it as a major event. Make sure you're ready for what comes next before you make any of those three changes.

I've just noticed that all the replies to my reviews have disappeared! Has this happened to anyone else?