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Richard Waine is a Lancaster-based headshot photographer in the USA who worked most of his career in finance before becoming a very successful photography business owner and operator.
He first appeared on the podcast in episode 372, where we explored the numbers behind building a successful business.
None of that, though, has anything to do with why I've asked him back.
If you've been following the recent chatter on social media, you may have heard about a UK-based photographer and SEO teacher who was advocating the reporting of other photographers who were breaching Google's terms with their Google Business Profile.
These reports see the nominated photographer having their profile removed by Google without warning and a lengthy process to get it back — if they actually can at all.
By having other photographers removed by Google, the remaining photographers move up the search rankings.
Needless to say, the photographer in question has received a lot of flack! His actions have affected photographers I know personally and who are PhotoBizX Premium Members.
If you think you're breaching Google's guidelines, go into your Google profile first and foremost, and understand if you are a physical address type of business with a brick and mortar, then select it. If you service businesses or individuals outside of that particular business address, and you go on location, change it to a hybrid business. If you are in fact the service area, and you cannot host a physical address, then select that. I think that's very important to get the things correct because these are verifiable. – Richard Waine
Anyway, I was on the hunt for a suitable guest to discuss SEO, Google, and what makes a good Google Business Profile listing when today's guest came highly recommended to me by other photographers I know and trust.
In this eye-opening interview where you may learn some difficult lessons, Richard shares how to master your Google Business Profile as a working photographer and avoid having your profile removed by Google for doing the wrong thing.
Here's some more of what we covered in the interview:
There are actually two ranking signals, let's call them, that are inherent in the reviews. The quantity of your reviews is in fact the signal and the star rating is a signal as well. So I have made it my life's mission to get as many of those as I can. And the reason why, in addition to those particular signals is the words that people use, because now I've got content to repurpose, not just taking that and putting it out to the masses, but also working in those sentiments into my own copy. Because now I'm made aware of how my clients felt working with me. And I assure you where there's one there's more, so there are a lot of avenues to look at those reviews through. – Richard Waine

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The first and foremost thing that I think all of us should do, if you own a business is to scrub your profiles, not just scrub it but make sure it's optimized well and it's properly maintained regularly. – Richard Waine
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576: Richard Waine – Master Your Google Business Profile… Top Tips for Photographers

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