← Grow Your Local Business
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- [00:00]
Leslie Presnell
Hey, do you want to know what's possible for you when we work together inside the LocalPreneur Academy? Before you dive into this episode, I wanted to invite you to book a complimentary consult call with me so we can talk about exactly how your business will grow. And listen, I know hopping on a call can feel really intimidating. I've been there. I know it can be scary, I know it can be awkward, and I don't want you to feel nervous or pressured at all. In fact, I want it to be a really fun conversation. Let's like, seriously, how often do we get an hour just to talk about ourselves and our business to someone who actually wants to listen? I'll 100% lead the conversation so you don't have to be worried about being prepared or even knowing what to say. We're going to look at everything you're doing now to market yourself locally. Even if you don't think you are doing enough or it's not working at all how you want it to. We're going to figure out what's working and what's not working and why, and exactly what I'll do to help you inside the LocalPreneur Academy and how it will apply specifically to your unique business. And I know you likely have a lot of questions like how do I reach more people who live in my city? And how do I get people to stop scrolling and actually engage with my post? How do I get people to take action and reach out to book or buy? And we can totally cover this for sure. And anything else you can think of that's keeping you stuck. And I'll share how I can make the process easier for you to grow your local business. I've been there and I have helped so many local business owners do this work too. So click the link in the Show Notes to schedule your complimentary consult. Call with me and I will talk to you soon.
- [01:45]
Podcast Announcer
You are listening to the Grow youw Local Business Podcast where local marketing expert and life coach Leslie Presnell shares the strategies and the mindset to help you reach more people in your city and bring in a steady stream of clients. All right, let's dive in.
- [02:01]
Leslie Presnell
Foreign hey, welcome to episode 126. Today I have a short but important update that you need to hear, especially if you are using Instagram to market yourself and to get local clients. So let's start here. Can your Instagram content get you found on Google? Why yes it can. And not just Google, but other search engines too. And as of last week, 07-10-2025, it actually got a whole lot easier and your chances of getting your Instagram content found on Google or on other search engines just got a lot higher. So here's what's changing. Some of you may have already Googled yourself or your business name and you may have seen your Instagram p pop up. That's not new. Google has been able to pull some public Instagram content for a while. Usually it's profiles or kind of random things, or maybe you have even googled things and things have come up from other businesses or other Instagram accounts. But what is now different is Meta has a officially open the doors for a full indexing of all public content. So photos, reels, captions, carousels, everything if you have a professional account. So this is the first time that Instagram has just made it like really clear and structured. So that means now that if somebody is going to Google or going to search engines and they're typing in very specific things like prenatal yoga classes in Lexington or senior photographer near Austin, or blonde balayage specialist in Atlanta, your Instagram content like individual post or photos or reels could start to show up. This is huge for local businesses to now get found by local clients who are literally looking for the services that you're offering. Like these high intent local clients, even if they've never heard of you before, they're going to be able to find you and find you easier. So how do you increase your chances of getting found? First, there are a couple of things for you to set up that you're going to want to check. And chances are if you're a local business and you've been marketing on Instagram already, you already have these things done, so you won't have to do anything. But I just wanted to be safe and cover everything. But number one, in order for your post to be seen on Google, you'll need to make sure that you have a professional account, not a personal account. So your professional account can be either a creator account or a business account. It does not matter which one your own. I recently did a podcast a few weeks ago on the difference between the creator account or the business account. And you could decide the best type for your business. So if you want to circle back and listen to that one, you can, but it doesn't really matter for the sake of getting discovered or found on Google. But it's still a helpful and clarifying podcast. I'll. I'll link it up in the show notes for you, but that's the first thing you Just have to be on a professional account. It's the search engines are not going to index things from personal accounts. The next thing is your account has to be set to public and this is something you can double check in your privacy settings. Chances are if you're a business and you are using Instagram to market, chances are your profile is already public. But you know, just go double check. And while you're there you will see a new little toggle setting and that's your search engine indexing setting. You want this to be turned on so you'll see in the privacy settings where it says allow public photos and videos to appear in search results engines. So we want this to be toggled on so the search engines like Google can show your photos and videos in search results. So it goes beyond just people being able to find you in Instagram. So those are the settings that I want you to go to. Double check just your account and your privacy settings. Now beyond that, in order to get discovered locally on Google through Instagram, there are other things you will want to do. You will want to use keywords and location keywords like your city and industry specific keywords like what you do in your bio and in your content, in your captions, in your post, in your videos. Captions matter more than ever. Rewind that and listen to it again if you need to. Captions matter more than ever. And I'm saying that because I hear this all the time. I hear people tell me nobody reads my captions, Google does. Google is reading your captions. And I will also argue that your people, your audience will read your captions if you give them something worth reading. But as far as discoverability and showing up in search engines, if you're just writing clever or vague captions like I loved working with this client or Happy Monday, it's not going to get you found. And not to mention, that's not selling and converting your clients or driving any urgency or desire to work with you either. That's a whole other podcast. But to get found locally on Instagram or to get your content to show up in these search results on Google, you need to be clearly saying exactly what you do and where you do it. Those key words do matter in your captions, in your videos, in the text, on your screen, in the alt text. So for example, you need to be saying things like maternity photos in Tampa, postnatal yoga for moms in Charlotte, like we want to be working in and weaving in keywords and location specific keywords in our content in a natural way, in a natural, compelling way. Like, of course we want to say it to where it still makes sense to where for what we're writing and for what we're talking about. Like, we still want to keep our clients in mind and our audience in mind. But Google needs to know where you are and what you do. It needs to know what your content is about, as does Instagram and then Google search engines. They need you to be consistent. Google loves fresh content. It loves active accounts. So that means showing up regularly with your localized and optimized post so you increase your chances of getting found and in ranking. All right, so if you want help in making all of this so much easier, and if you're like, okay, great, but like, how do I really do all this? How do I really get my keywords and what keywords and all of that, I've got you. I recently launched a $47 mini course called the Local Instagram Formula. And this is where I walk you through how to optimize and localize your Instagram account. So you can not only get found on Instagram, but now so your content can be showing up in search engines too, by following the exact same process. So it's not just about getting discovered either. It goes beyond that. It's about turning your followers, the people who are finding you now, into clients. But getting found is step one. That's. That's the foundation. So you can access the local Instagram formula with the link or within the show notes. That is a great place to start. It's a highly actionable mini course and you'll make super quick changes that can create some really big visibility for you locally. All right, so let's make it happen. Have a great week and I will talk to you soon. Hey, if you enjoyed today's episode, I want to invite you to check out my program, the LocalPreneur Academy. This is the only program for small business owners who want to become the local go to in their industry with a steady stream of clients. You can find more information@lesleypressnel.com and I'll see you inside.