How Home Service Companies Win Google in 2026

Summary

Podcast Summary: Owned and Operated – How Home Service Companies Win Google in 2026
Host: John Wilson | Guest: Julie from Big Reputation
Date: May 21, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode of “Owned and Operated,” host John Wilson is joined by Julie from Big Reputation, a leading service for managing and optimizing Google Business Profiles (GBPs) for home service companies. The conversation dives deep into the latest changes, best practices, and actionable strategies to win at Google reviews and the Google Map Pack in 2026—critical for HVAC, plumbing, and electrical contractors seeking to grow their business.
The pair cover recent Google algorithm changes, the rising importance of review velocity and recency, strategies for competing with giants as a small operator, GBP profile optimization, and why photos and personalized responses matter more than ever.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The New Rules of Google Reviews in 2026

• Google’s Algorithm Changes
  • There’s a recent trend of Google removing reviews that mention technician names, which started in the restaurant industry but now affects home services.
    • [01:47] Julie: “The reason…the common denominator in why reviews are getting hidden is the technician name.”
  • Google hasn’t made an official statement, but many businesses are seeing legitimate reviews, especially those mentioning techs by name, disappear.
• Trust and Visibility
  • Reviews act as major trust signals—customers look at reviews first before booking services.
    • [02:54] Julie: “It signals trust. So for example, when a customer goes to look up your business, what your review says about your company…signals trust.”
  • Strong review presence directly impacts performance in Google’s Map Pack.
    • [03:13] John: “It makes you show up better in Map Pack.”
• Consistency over Quantity
  • Consistent, recent reviews matter more than massive historical numbers.
    • [05:44] Julie: “A company that has 500 reviews may outrank a company that has like 10,000 reviews just because they are very consistent.”
  • Avoid review bursts—spread new reviews out over time for maximum effect.

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2. Winning Strategies for Google Business Profiles (GBP)

• Naming and Location Strategy
  • GBP business names must match official naming across all locations; keyword-stuffing is risky and can be against Google's Terms of Service.
    • [04:01] Julie: “As long as it matches the business name…it has to be the same all across.”
    • [04:16] John: “You can’t just open a new one and it just be Wilson Sewer or something.”
• Launching Multiple Profiles
  • Opening new profiles is allowed, but only if you have a legitimate new office (with lease, signage, phone, utility bills, etc.).
  • Be careful: Diluting review efforts across multiple profiles can lower velocity and frequency on each, hurting overall ranking.
    • [20:41] John: “If you get 10 reviews a week and you have 5 GBPs, it’s only 2 each, which is not a lot of frequency or velocity.”
• Metro vs. Rural Markets
  • It's easier to rank highly in smaller, rural markets, sometimes with as few as 10-20 reviews.
    • [16:00] Julie: “If it’s easier to break out, obviously, in a more rural market.”
  • Success in rural areas can build brand authority for future launches in metro markets.

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3. Best Practices for Reviews and GBP Activity

• Review Velocity & Frequency
  • More important than total count—steady streams of new reviews signal active, relevant businesses.
  • [06:41] John: “It makes sense why a smaller contractor could beat them…if it was 20,000 reviews…but nothing in the past year.”
• Responding to Reviews
  • Every review, positive or negative, should receive a timely, personalized response (within 24 hours).
    • [07:55] Julie: “With responses, you do want to respond within the first 24 hours.”
    • [08:06] Julie: “Don’t have any type of copy and paste. It should be unique to the customer.”
  • Reference the service and location in both review requests and responses—Google’s algorithm values contextual detail.
    • [08:20] Julie: “Mention the service…location…any type of context. That will all feed into Google’s algorithm.”
  • Never “flame” a customer in a negative review response—keep all interactions professional.
    • [09:20] John (joking): “Definitely flame the customer publicly.”
    • [09:30] Julie (clarifying): “Definitely not.”
• Photos and Updates
  • Regularly upload genuine photos and make posts—three to five per week is a recommended baseline.
    • [09:43] Julie: “Photos and updates and posts are very important…update it regularly.”
    • [25:23] Julie: “Google’s Gemini is smart enough to determine a stock photo from a real photo.”
  • Automation tools can help stagger updates and mimic human behavior, avoiding spam signals.

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4. Service Area Businesses (SABs) vs. Storefronts

• SABs (hidden address, service area shown) are now increasingly competitive, even in some large metro areas.
  • [12:09] Julie: “…SABs…start to close the gap between…storefronts…we’ve been seeing SABs break top 10, top 5, and top 3 recently.”
  • It's easier to rank top-3 with an SAB in rural areas; still tougher in large metros, but the gap is closing.

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5. Advanced Tactics and Tools

• Heat Map Tools
  • Use heat maps to identify local competition, best markets, and see where you’re winning or losing in Google’s Map Pack.
    • [15:10] John: “What’s your take on like heat mapping? The rural thing is kind of interesting.”
• Review Routing for Multi-Location Operators
  • Temporarily route more review requests to a new location to quickly build authority.
    • [19:05] Julie: “We could turn off the routing to all of your locations and route it all to that fifth one. That way you build the authority pretty quickly.”

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6. What’s Coming Next

• AI and Multi-Platform Reviews
  • As more customers use AI search and non-Google review sites (Yelp, Facebook, Angie), expanding your profile beyond Google boosts your presence in AI-driven results.
    • [26:26] Julie: “When you start to diversify your review platforms…that’s when you’ll start to show up in AI search.”
• Automation & Personalization
  • Automation tools for scheduling posts, managing review responses, and integrating with CRMs will become more critical.
  • AI systems need to “mimic human behavior” to avoid being flagged as spam.
    • [27:18] Julie: “…we stagger all the post times and the response time so that it’s as human sounding as possible. That way you don’t trigger any type of…”

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• [01:47] Julie (on algorithm changes):
  “The reason…the common denominator in why reviews are getting hidden is the technician name.”
• [02:54] Julie (on trust signals):
  “When a customer goes to look up your business, what your review says about your company…signals trust.”
• [05:44] Julie (on review consistency):
  “A company that has 500 reviews may outrank a company that has like 10,000 reviews just because they are very consistent.”
• [08:06] Julie (on review responses):
  “Don’t have any type of copy and paste. It should be unique to the customer.”
• [11:10] John (on GBP as the new storefront):
  “My feeling in 2026 is that the GBP is like the storefront. It’s almost like the new website.”
• [15:56] Julie (on rural markets):
  “If it’s easier to break out, obviously, in a more rural market.”
• [19:54] Julie (on review threshold to launch new GBP):
  “In the 500 and above, truthfully. Again, it depends on your area. So if you’re in a small town, very rural, maybe it would start at like 100.”
• [24:13] Julie (on staying relevant):
  “…Keeping their profile active is the best way to explain it.”
• [25:23] Julie (on photo authenticity):
  “Google’s Gemini is smart enough to determine a stock photo from a real photo.”
• [26:26] Julie (on review platform diversification):
  “When you start to diversify your review platforms…that’s when you’ll start to show up in AI search.”
• [27:18] Julie (on mimicking human behavior in automation):
  “We stagger all the post times and the response time so that it’s as human sounding as possible.”

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Timestamps for Important Topics

• [01:47] – Google algorithm change: reviews mentioning technician names deleted
• [02:54] – Why reviews matter for customer trust and Map Pack ranking
• [05:44] – The role of frequency, velocity, and recency in review strength
• [09:43] – Importance of photos, posts, and profile updates
• [12:09] – Service area businesses vs. storefronts, and closing the gap in search rankings
• [19:05] – How to quickly build reviews for new GBP locations (review routing)
• [21:35] – Risks of review dilution and overexpansion with multiple profiles
• [24:45] – What Big Reputation automates for home service businesses
• [26:26] – The importance of being on multiple review platforms for AI search

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Actionable Takeaways

• Maintain consistent, frequent review generation on every GBP location.
• Personalize responses to every review promptly (within 24 hours), noting service and location.
• Regularly upload real photos and make GBP posts; target 3–5 per week.
• For multi-location businesses, focus review acquisition energy on new locations for rapid visibility but don’t dilute efforts.
• Consider targeting rural markets for initial dominance, then leveraging that authority for expansion.
• Stay vigilant of changing Google algorithms (e.g., technician name reviews) and adapt strategies.
• Diversify beyond Google—seek reviews on other platforms to future-proof for AI search.

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Connect with the Guest

• Julie, Big Reputation
  • Email: [e-mail]
  • Web: www.bigreputation.ai
  • Occasional appearances on Owned and Operated webinars

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This episode is an essential listen for any home service business leader interested in dominating local search and Google reviews in 2026 and beyond.

Transcript

[A]

The GBP is like the storefront. It's almost like the new website.

[B]

It's all about being active on your profile. You don't want a week where you're getting 30, 40 reviews and then your GBP is dead for two to three weeks.

[A]

Owner responses, make them professional with responses.

[B]

Even if you get a one star review, you still do want to respond to it.

[A]

You're wrong.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Do not definitely flame the customer.

[B]

Definitely not.

[A]

What is a good amount of reviews for me to go launch my next gbp?

[B]

I would say.

[A]

Welcome back to Owned and operated, a top 200 business and entrepreneurship podcast. I'm your host, John Wilson, and on this show we dive into the home service industry and how to grow your home service company inside it. Today I'm joined by Julie from Big Reputation, which is a service that we use to measure and drive more Google reviews and make our Google business profiles even better. This is a frequently requested topic inside our community and our Facebook groups, so I'm sure you're in for a great conversation. Welcome to the show.

[B]

Thanks for having me.

[A]

Yeah, this is going to be fun.

[B]

This will be fun.

[A]

My bud. Jules, you ready to dive deep into Google Reviews and how to make make local search show up better?

[B]

I'm not, but we will fly by the seat of our pants.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, we're. I think we're going to, I think we're going to do great here. So I think first off, let's start off with like Google Reviews. What's the latest haps you know, you brought up? We're at our Breaking five workshop. You talked yesterday a little bit about this like, algorithm thing that everybody hates where like the technician name reviews are starting to get deleted. Like, is that real? Like, what do we think?

[B]

Yeah. So I would say about a month ago we started seeing the updates. I think Google's algorithm is still indexing all of the changes. However, we have seen it start to affect home service contractors. It started in the restaurant industry. I have been seeing and I have talked to a few potential clients and

[A]

so we've had like Google's notes saying like, this is real.

[B]

Google hasn't officially said like, hey, we're officially doing this, but we noticed the change across the restaurant industry. And then in terms of like, technicians, I did talk to a few people and they're like, wow, our review count has gone down, but the one star reviews have remained the same. Why would it be getting removed? And after just having conversations with some of our partners and that's what we've noticed that the reason the common denominator and why reviews are getting hidden is the technician name.

[A]

Yeah. That's crazy. I feel like most of our reviews have technicians.

[B]

Yeah. Unfortunately I don't agree with it, but I don't work at Google.

[A]

That's right.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

All right, cool. So why today, like 2026? Why are reviews like more and more important? We've noticed in our business, so reviews

[B]

are important just because it signals trust. So for example, when a customer goes to look up your business, what your review says about your company, whether you have a bunch of one stars. Wilson, I know, has a ton of five star reviews. It just signals trust and to the customer. So why would they choose you over a different company?

[A]

Yeah. And it makes you show up better on Map Pack.

[B]

Yes. Yeah. So with Map Pack, I know that again, the algorithm is changing, but it's all about relevancy now. So in terms of reviews, it's all about consistency and how relevant you are. So when the customer is looking up water heater, who is the best contractor that will best fit their search? So based off of Google, it goes off of trust and like who has the highest trust signals one of the

[A]

topics that came up. I think people get really interested in this because people are talking about on the Internet but like driving new GBP profiles, like, what do you. I don't know, what do you think? Like, is there a risk there? Because I think that's what most people are concerned about. Like, hey, if I go open a new profile, get some more leads, like, is that bad? Is that good? Am I allowed?

[B]

Overall, it's good. You are allowed. Right now Google is cracking down, so as long as it matches the business name, it has to be the same all across. So you can't like for example, Wilson Plumbing, Heating, Cooling, it has to be the same across all of your gbps. You can't just open a new one

[A]

and it just be Wilson Sewer or something.

[B]

Correct.

[A]

I think that's called what Keyword stuffing.

[B]

It's. You should put keywords. There's contradicting reports that say that you, that you shouldn't stuff your keywords. However, like for example, if you put Wilson Services, it doesn't really signal that much trust. But whereas you put Wilson Plumbing, Heating, cooling and electric, when you add those verticals in, you should do a DBA to change your name.

[A]

Yeah, that's interesting. I feel like people are doing like that is interesting because I feel like we tripped and fell into that one where it's Wilson Plumbing, Heating, Cooling and electric.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So that was a, that was a happy accident.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Most marketing agencies will show you clicks, impressions and maybe even traffic, but none of that really matters if the phone's not ringing. And that's why we partner with service scalers. They are built specifically for home service companies and they focus on one thing which is driving real high quality calls and book jobs. This is a no brainer. They're offering a 60 day money back guarantee on LSA management, Google business profile optimization and website builds. If you don't get more visibility, more calls and better leads, then you don't pay. If you want more book jobs without the marketing headache, click the link below and book a free strategy call with service scalers. That's interesting. All right, so like, what else, what else are you seeing on reviews that matters? Like what velocity or number? Like, does number matter as much as we think it does?

[B]

It does matter. However, the name of the game is going to be your consistency and your velocity. So quantity does matter. But out of those, for example, a company that has 500 reviews may outrank a company that has like 10,000 reviews just because they are very consistent. In the name of Google, it's all about being active on your profile. So how often are you getting reviews is that consistent? So you don't want a week where you're getting 30, 40 reviews and then your GBP is dead for two to three weeks.

[A]

Yeah, I think the thing that makes sense, like G Google my business profiles or Google Business. It's GBPS now. I guess. Yes. I think it's kind of funny because it like just generally makes sense. Except for the technician name thing. Yeah, I think it just like makes sense. Whereas like the review frequency thing I like there's contractors with like 20,000 reviews. I think we have five or six or something on our main page.

[B]

Mm.

[A]

But it makes sense why a smaller contractor could beat them. Because if it was 20,000 reviews but it was like five years ago and it's just been like nothing in the past year. Like that totally. It logical that it would rank less than someone that got 500 in the last year and a half.

[B]

Right. So when you think of it in like a restaurant term, you don't want, if, if you're looking for, let's say Mediterranean restaurant, you don't want to know which restaurant, you don't want to know which restaurant is relevant. Eight years ago you want to what's the best now? Like where can I have dinner and expect quality service?

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

Same thing for the home service industry.

[A]

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that Makes sense. That makes sense. Yeah. So count a little bit. Recency is going to matter a lot. Which I think that makes sense because I think I remember a couple years ago we were like really beating the hell out of gbps and we would look and there was like a plumber with like 50 reviews or something and they were ranking higher on the map pack than we were with like 4,000.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And it's just what the going on. But like they probably got 50 reviews like last week or you know, correct. Whatever. All their, all their friends left a review. How much do you think responses actually matter? This one comes up a lot.

[B]

Responses are important. So with responses, you do want to respond within the first 24 hours.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

It doesn't matter if it's 5, 10, 5 to 10 minutes or 5 and 30.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

As long as it's within that 24 hour window, you definitely want to respond. Definitely don't have any type of copy and paste. It should be unique to the customer.

[A]

Okay. Like, hey, Betty sue, thanks for whatever. Okay.

[B]

Yeah, with responses too. You always want to mention the service that was provided, the location that it was performed in any type of context. That will all feed into Google's algorithm. So in your response it's as important. It definitely is important. But getting that in the initial review as well and the content is extremely important.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. Okay. So GBP number of reviews matters, but velocity and frequency are currently more important, which I think that makes sense. I think that's like a fun thing to highlight because I think people get caught up on, hey, the big company down The street has 20,000 Google reviews. How am I supposed to compete with them? And like this is like, hey, there is a way to compete with them.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

It's just like more frequency.

[B]

Correct.

[A]

And, and like is it increasing or is it decreasing?

[B]

Yep.

[A]

Okay, that makes total sense. Owner responses, make them professional, make them bespoke.

[B]

Correct.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Yeah. With owner responses, even if you get a one star review, you still do want to respond to it, but obviously you're wrong. Yeah. Definitely do not.

[A]

Definitely flame the customer publicly.

[B]

Definitely not.

[A]

Okay. All right. I'm going to flame the customer publicly. Got it. You had on your floor. You know, really like dive deep. Any other activity on Google profiles that matters? Photos, Posts.

[B]

Yes, photos and, and updates and posts are very important. So in terms of just the overall profile, if you're zooming out, you do want to update it regularly. Yeah, big reputation. We automate one post, one photo per day. If you, if you haven't done it, start with A baseline. So a good place to aim is three to five per week. And just so that everyone's aware, because I got this question. GBP is Google Business Profile not Great British pound.

[A]

That's funny. Oh, that is funny. Yeah. Google Business Profile. I don't, I don't know when they switched it. It was like last year you stop. They stopped saying GMB. And yeah, personally I still like GmbH. Okay. But I don't know what to say. I don't say I feel my feeling. Not a fact. My feeling in 2026 is that the GBP is like the storefront. It's almost like the new website. Because I feel like with AI your website is becoming less relevant. Like SEO lets you show up inside AI search. But like customers aren't probably going to like beep boop their way through your website to like figure out if you do H VAC services. But the service page on Google My business profile probably will or their AI that they're like asking questions to Will like, what's your take on that?

[B]

So Google My business or I'm sorry, gbp Google Business Profile is very important. However, it. What you're saying is a little contradictory. Mildly. Just because your website is on your GBP and the SEO does that SEO does help the SEO of your GBP as well. So.

[A]

So they build on each other.

[B]

Yes. So although the signals are not similar or. I'm sorry, although they're not identical. They are similar.

[A]

Okay, like how?

[B]

Meaning like you could rank one in Jeep on your map pack and you could be third on Google or you could be on the second page of Google and still rank high. Vice versa.

[A]

Got it. Okay. So like more signals to the gods of Google that like we're a real business.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Okay. All right, cool. Aside from like the technician name thing, anything you're seeing like popping up as upcoming changes.

[B]

Yeah, something that I saw that was interesting. After running a few heat maps for clients.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Starting about two and a half months ago, we've been seeing that SABs, which are service area based GBPs start to close the gap between stores storefront. So okay, depending on your market, your. The heat map tool, if you have a form of that or if you're a big reputation client, we have that built in when you're running a map pack scan and let's say you're looking to open up a new gbp.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

When you look at the map pack, we've been seeing SABs break top 10, top 5 and top 3 recently. So they are really closing the gap and depending on what market you're in, it's hard to say whether a storefront is more beneficial than a service area based.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

For a super metro area, a storefront location is probably going to weigh a lot heavier just because a lot of the companies that rank are going to be the ones that have the storefront locations versus a more rural area. Like a service area based GBP you could probably get away with.

[A]

Okay, I don't understand how to, I don't, like, I understand the difference in what you're saying because like one has an address and like sometimes when I've looked up gbps, it's like, like a, like. Yeah, it's like a fence on Google. So I understand what you're saying. I don't understand how to set up a service area business. Like, is it the same process where you go in and like you need a storefront, you have to do the verification.

[B]

So it might have changed since I've worked in an office, but for, for, from what I know, you still have to have an address. It could be residential, but it's hidden so it doesn't have.

[A]

In a public facing address. Okay.

[B]

Correct.

[A]

Okay, so that could be good for like. Yeah, if somebody runs out of their house. Right, Yeah, I know, I know some people put gbps like in their, on their text homes. So like, maybe that's the example of when that's useful.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Is like we're running out of some dude's home, we don't want a customer to show up to like little Jimmy's house.

[B]

Correct.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

All right. That makes sense. And previously it was not successful or less successful.

[B]

Yeah, we, you would not see prior, like three months ago, you would not see an SAP break top 20 even.

[A]

That's interesting. Does it matter? Like, you meant, you mentioned like, like Metro. Does it matter like if it is it. You said you're, you're, you said you're watching it like get better. Is it getting better in metros and rural or only rural or like just getting better period?

[B]

It's, it's getting better, period. Like, I've run a few. For example, south Florida.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

A very competitive market for, let's say h vac. I've seen sabs break top 10, but not top 5 in more rural areas. I've seen them in the top three. So it just depends. That's where that heat map SEO audit tool comes in handy. Just because you get visibility of if you're deciding to launch in a new market, who your competitors are, what they're Doing and if a storefront location is even more beneficial than having a service area based.

[A]

Yeah, that's interesting. Do you like, what's your take on like heat mapping? The rural thing is kind of interesting. We've talked about this a bunch on the show and some people are starting to sort of gravitate to more rural. Like obviously there's a lot of opportunity inside a big city. Like there's a lot of opportunity inside Dallas or Cleveland or Chicago or pick or whatever.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

But there's also a lot of competition and I. We've had people on the show who are like smaller contractors and they're rural and they have like 50 reviews or 100 reviews or whatever and they're like the top freaking dog wherever they are. Like any take on rural versus metro?

[B]

If it's easier to break out, obviously in a more rural market.

[A]

Yeah. And like 10 reviews, you could be at the top of the chart.

[B]

Right. And then once. So the benefit to opening in a rural market versus like launching a flagship in a metro is that you build that brand authority. So as you continue to. Let's say that your second location is in a metro area, there will be more branded searches. Google has already have. You've already established that trust signal with Google?

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We. What we're thinking about doing is like launching offices in rural areas because like the main. We have, I mean, all in probably like 20 profiles now. I don't actually know, but like there's. There's areas that are like an hour away that the biggest Competitor has like 200 reviews. And it's like, dude, we could take that over in like a week.

[B]

Yeah. And like with. Obviously you're in big rep, so you know about the review routing feature. So that's something that will help build that profile. And in a more.

[A]

Well, that. That came up yesterday at the workshop. So like, let's just hit that for a second. So if you have multiple gbps, I think the question was coming up, like, how do I launch a new one? So I'll give my context for the listener. You. Google has terms of service and you follow them. That's like most of the context. So like you have to launch an office, somebody has to go there. You have to have a sign on the door, you have to have a phone number, you have to have a lease, you have to have maybe a utility bill.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And then launch it.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[A]

And then when you launch it, you can like funnel all of the other GBP reviews to that new. I talk to a ton of home service owners. And if you're anything like the one to $5 million shops that I know, you're probably getting hammered with AI pitches right now. Most of them sound great until they hit the real world and just completely fall apart. The one that we keep coming back to is voca. What stands out is they actually understand how contractor businesses operate. This isn't just another AI answering service. Avoca handles inbound calls, outbound follow ups, texts, web leads, even dispatching, all in one system built specifically for service companies. If you're on service titan, then this is a big deal. Their integration is deep, so you're not duct taping together five different tools and hoping that nothing breaks during your busy season. I also respect that they're realistic about AI. When a call needs a human, they've got a 24. 7 live transfer built in. So nothing slips through the cracks and your customers don't get stuck in a bad experience or like an AI loop. Owners using Evoca are seeing hold times basically disappear and booking rates jump some by 30% or more. If you want an AI partner that actually helps you book more jobs without creating more chaos, this is worth checking out. Book a demo at the link below.

[B]

Yeah, so what's exclusive to us? And I believe Service Titans Marketing Pro has this as well, but it's not super automated. It's a little bit more of a manual process.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But let's say you launch a new Jeep bp, as you well know on your, on your. For example, Wilson.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You guys have four profiles with us, and if you decided to launch a fifth, we could turn off the routing to all of your locations and route it all to that fifth one. That way you build the authority pretty quickly because, for example, if you're, if you're trying to break out in a rural area, it'll be very easy because you guys get high review volume and flow and whereas like in a metro area, let's say that's okay if you did want to open up in, let's say, a big city like Chicago, where there's a lot of competitors.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You might need more.

[A]

Take some work.

[B]

Right. You might need more review volume to even start to rank. So again, it's helpful either. Both ways.

[A]

Yeah. What do you think? I'm just like going through the questions that people had yesterday because I'm sure if the people at the workshop had them, like the public has them, what is a good amount of reviews for me to go launch my next gbp? Like, when should I be like, it's

[B]

time I would say in the 5, 500 and above, truthfully. Again, it depends on your area. So if you're in a small town, very rural, maybe it would start at like 100.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But if you're in a very dense city like Dallas or Chicago or Miami, I would say like 500 to 1000. Anywhere between there before you start to see traction. I would definitely focus on building that and making sure you rank there first before you to open up a new location. Because then you start to dilute the signal a little bit.

[A]

Yeah, totally. Because I think back to your point on it was like frequency and velocity. Like the more gbps you have, the more you have to keep up with frequency and velocity on multiple gbps.

[B]

Correct.

[A]

Which I think is kind of hard. Like you have to keep it equal spreading and then maybe focus as you launch a new GP, but then equal spread again. So if you get 10 reviews a week and you have 5Gbps, it's only 2 each, which is not a lot of frequency or velocity.

[B]

Yeah, correct. So then at that point that's where it'll start counting against you because then

[A]

you'll start to drop and you diluted too much.

[B]

Correct.

[A]

Yeah. That's interesting. Yeah, that makes sense. I think. Yeah, that comes up a lot. I think people like see it on X or like you're like go launch a billion GBP profiles and yeah, the logistics are kind of a lot. Like you have to pay for rent. Like it's, we, we do it. So like I'm not going to tell people not to do it, but what you have to follow Google terms of service. You need a lease. Someone needs to visit that office. The lease is probably expensive. Like. Yeah, I know some people paying like three grand a month for that lease. And then it also dilutes your active energy for reviews.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So.

[B]

Correct.

[A]

Yeah. Make sure you're ready. 500 feels like a good number to me. I think it like so sort of in tune with that. You sounds like a hundred is when profiles start to rank.

[B]

Correct.

[A]

Okay. Like how often are they ranking under 100 or only if you're rural or

[B]

it's, it's, it's hard. It just depends on the area. So like for example, like LA, you're

[A]

probably not going to rank with 90 or something.

[B]

Yeah, correct. Yes. You're gonna, you're probably gonna need 500 or above. That's where you'll be in that bracket. Same like Cleveland is a little bit smaller market, but it's still very metro. There's a lot of competitors Here, South Florida, very competitive market. But let's say that you go to some small city in Kentucky, not hating on them or anything but if you go to a small city there it, you might be able to rank with 10, 15, 20. So it just depends on the, the market. So definitely when you're looking to launch a new gbp, make sure you're strategic. Is what's the population there, how many competitors are there? Is an SAP more beneficial than having a physical location? What do my competitors reviews look like?

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They like what are you seeing as the difference between like a 5,000 review business, 500 review business, a 20,000 review business. Like what's the difference?

[B]

It's, it's hard to say because like for example the 20,000 review business, they might not be keeping up with their reviews or they might not be updating their profile. They, they might not be staying relevant. So somebody with a 20,000 review count, although they have a lot and it seems hard to compete, let's just say that they really fall off the wagon in terms of getting reviews. A company with 5, 600 reviews might easily outrank them.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

If they're, if they have good trust. Google sees that like for example, any type of engagement on your Google business profile, whether it's call directions, they click on your website, they scroll through your photos, they scroll through your updates, service products, whatever, all of that feeds into Google's algorithm. It says like hey, a lot of clients like this company. So then we'll start to refer them more. So for example, a 20, a company with 20,000 reviews, they might be ranked top five. They could rank top five or they could not even show up in the top 10. Just because a company that has 600 reviews is getting 5, 10 reviews a day, 20 a week, whatever the case is. And they're staying up to, they're, they're keeping their profile active is the best way to explain it.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think what happened, you know early on I remember putting a big focus on reviews and this was like 2016 or something.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And it was just like what's the automation, how do we post? I like the automated posting of photos thing that somebody said yesterday, they're like three to five a week. I do one every six months. And I was like that's funny. I think that was Ray.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And yeah, responding to reviews honestly that takes a lot of energy. So I don't know like, so can you walk through big rep, like what's, what does big reputation do?

[B]

Yeah. So we're an AI based platform. What we do is a lot, we automate a lot of what your technicians are already doing on the field.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So we take that lift off of your plate. We're not review management by any means because we don't update your services. We don't dispute reviews. Although like I tell all my clients, feel free to lean on me as a resource. I will point you in the right direction. But in terms of big reputation, we manage your reviews, we'll respond to them. We have a follow up drip campaign. We use all of the photos from your CRM and we will post it as to your photos and updates. Just because Google's Gemini is smart enough to determine a stock photo from a.

[A]

Yes, a real photo.

[B]

So once you upload all of that, all the signals compound together to create an active profile.

[A]

Okay, cool. So photos, review request responding updates.

[B]

We also have a heat map function built in. We have a location health scanner. So that feature is just to help you spot very quick gaps of what updates can be made.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

To your gbp.

[A]

Sweet. All right, what, what, what's coming next? Like what are you guys working on?

[B]

So with the tech mentioned review thing we're working on, unfortunately this is, this is going to go back to manual. However, it. We still want our contractors to be able to easily spiff out their technicians. So they're going to be able to assign the reviews manually to their technician now that they're not named where ideally the goal is this year, big focus this year is to start to integrate with other review platforms. So although Google still owns about 86 to 90% of the market share.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

When you start to diversify your platform, review platforms like Yelp, which is controversial, Facebook and Angie, that's when you'll start to show up in AI search. So as the world continues to slowly pivot over to AI, we want to stay ahead of the curve.

[A]

Yeah, I mean I think that makes sense. I think AI has brought like all of everything in. Like indeed, reviews start to show up now. That'd be kind of interesting if you could. Yeah, that'd be funny. But yeah, indeed, reviews, glat like employment reviews plus customer reviews are all showing up as I look for companies which I think is kind of interesting. Yeah, we had one where it was like Brandon Nairo is known to be patient leader or something like that. We also had one where like Brandon, I was, you know. So we've had it show up on both sides, but it was kind of funny. It was like, okay, interesting. It's like, well, more than just Google or customers. Yeah, but yeah, it was kind of funny.

[B]

And the biggest takeaway about Big Rep too, that I forgot to mention is that what we do is we try to mimic human behavior. So like when we do any type of uploads, it's not just 8am every single day. We stagger all the post times and the response time so that it's as human sounding as possible. That way you don't trigger any type of.

[A]

It's pulling the photos from like your CRM.

[B]

Yeah, right.

[A]

Yeah. That's cool. That's cool. We, we used a service for this before we started using you guys and I don't. Well, I remember the name now, but I don't want to bash them on the Internet and yeah, it wasn't great. Yeah, yeah, Automate is great. Cool. All right. Any. Any like closing thoughts on Big Reputation or like Google Reviews in general how to drive this part of your business? Your Google business profiles are either printing money or they're losing it. And that's where Big Reputation comes in. Big Reputation turns your GBP into a true lead machine without adding more work to your plate. It runs in the background with automated posting, review generation and fast responses so that your reputation compounds over time. And this is huge. If you're multi location they make it dead simple to manage and scale your reputation across every branch so every location shows up and wins in the map pack. I'm actually using Big Reputation right now as I grow and scale my newest acquisitions plus you get real insight into what's actually happening. You get to spot gaps with location, health monitoring, track reviews and sentiment and see which zip codes you're winning and which ones you're losing. Better insights, stronger trust, more calls from an asset you already own. Go check it out at bigreputation AI/oao

[B]

with Google reviews. When you are prompting the customer, my biggest key takeaway of like. Well I guess what your biggest takeaway should be is.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

When prompting the request from a customer, what you're looking for is photos are going to weigh the heaviest.

[A]

However, it is like a photo review.

[B]

Correct.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

It is difficult. We found that it's difficult to prompt the customer to leave a picture on the review.

[A]

We have to talk to the team and train a lot about that. Yeah.

[B]

Sometimes we are trying to figure a workaround where possibly we can send the client the picture and they can just upload the one that you already took on site. That is in the roadmap somewhere. And then when you're again with reviews aside from photos, it's going to be the service location and any type of context. So what that looks like like you

[A]

did a water heater in Akron and it was awesome.

[B]

Yeah. Or any other type of context whether it's in your basement, your backyard. So that way you start feeding into Google's algorithm in terms of the location. You could get as granular as neighborhoods as you'd like, but just make sure that each response is, yeah, it could get as super targeted as you'd like but make sure each response is cater to that custom. Yep.

[A]

Thanks for coming on. We appreciate you coming on. If people want to hear more about big reputation, how can they get a hold of you?

[B]

So my email is julie@bigreputation AI and our website is www.bigreputation.AI and sometimes I'm on the owned and operated webinar so you can always catch me there.

[A]

Yeah, awesome. All right, thanks Julie.

[B]

Thank you.