Social Media Ad Videos for Small Business: 7 Essential Steps
A practical seven-step plan for short promotional videos that show what your business offers and tell customers what to do next.
Insights
Plain-English Marketing Guides for Local Businesses
Practical guides on websites, search, and Google Business Profile for spas, salons, photographers, event services, and other businesses that run on bookings. Each one explains how things work, where Google makes the call, and what you can do about the rest.
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Latest guides
Pick the guide that matches your problem: nearby customers can’t find you, your Google listing is wrong or suspended, or your website drags on a phone.
Local SEO Checklist: 7 Ways to Help Nearby Customers Find Your Business
When someone nearby searches online for a service or product, will your business appear with accurate information and a clear way to contact you? Local SEO helps businesses become easier to find in local search results and helps potential customers decide what to do next.…
Why Small-Business Websites Score Poorly on Mobile PageSpeed
Your website feels quick on your own phone, yet Google’s mobile test scores it orange or red. Here’s what that test measures, the usual causes on small-business sites, and which fixes to make first.
Google Business Profile: What Google Controls and What You Can
Verification, ranking, suspensions, and review removals are Google’s decisions. Accuracy, completeness, and upkeep are yours. Here is where the line sits, and how to make the most of your side of it.
SEO vs. Local SEO: What’s the Difference?
They overlap more than most business owners are told, but they answer different searches. Here’s how each one works, what Google says it looks at, and where a local service business should start.
Don’t see your question? Email it and we’ll reply within one business day.
Email Info@gendigitalmarketing.comWorth knowing
Three facts from Google’s own documentation
A lot of marketing advice is guesswork. Our guides are built on what Google has actually published, with the sources cited so you can check them. Start with these three before you spend money on marketing.
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How Google picks local results
Google names relevance, distance, and prominence as the main factors in local results. Distance is largely out of your hands, so the work goes into relevance — how well your profile matches the search — and prominence, how well known your business is.
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Some decisions are Google’s alone
Verification, suspensions, and review removal are Google’s decisions. You can reply to reviews, report ones that appear to break Google’s policies, and check for edits Google makes from user suggestions.
Sources: Google Business Profile Help, linked in the guide
Read the Business Profile guide -
The mobile test is deliberately tough
Google’s PageSpeed test imitates a mid-range phone on a slow mobile connection, not the phone and Wi-Fi you check your site on. More than half the score comes from two things: how quickly the main image or headline appears, and how long the page is too busy to respond to a tap.
Hiring checklist
Four questions to ask any marketing provider
Whether you hire us or someone else, the answers tell you a lot about how the project will go. Here is what a good answer sounds like, and how we answer each one.
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01 — Ownership
Who will own the website and the domain?
It should be you. A good answer names whose account the domain and hosting sit in, and when the finished site becomes yours. Ours: both accounts are registered to your business from the start, and the completed website transfers to you after full payment. A provider can fairly keep its own internal templates and processes, while third-party themes, plugins, fonts, and photographs come with their own licenses.
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02 — Access
What access do you need to my Google Business Profile?
Manager access, not ownership. Business Profiles have separate owner and manager roles, and a manager can handle the day-to-day work. We ask to be added as a manager, so your business stays the owner of its own listing.
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03 — Scope
What exactly is included, and what costs extra?
You should see it in writing before work begins. Our proposals set out the scope, timeline, deliverables, exclusions, and final price. Hosting, premium plugins, advertising, and other third-party costs are separate unless the proposal says otherwise.
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04 — Reporting
How will I know whether it’s working?
You should get a plain-English report every month showing what was done and what changed, measured in calls, website clicks, and inquiries, not just rankings. With us, every ongoing plan includes a monthly report, and our monthly marketing plans add a review call to walk through it.
Ask us all four on a free consultation, and hold us to the answers.
Request a Free ConsultationTopics
Topics we cover
The guides follow the three core services we deliver. If you would rather have the work done for you, each service page explains what is included and how the work runs.
SEO and local SEO
How search engines read your website, and how nearby customers find you in map and local results. We work on your site’s technical basics, page titles, and content. We also keep your business listings consistent and report every month.
Audit starting at $495
Explore SEO and local SEOGoogle Business Profile
Your listing on Google Search and Maps. We set it up or optimize it, keep your categories, services, hours, and photos accurate, and draft review replies for your approval.
Setup starting at $650
Explore Business Profile managementWebsite design and performance
Mobile-friendly websites with a clear structure, one obvious next step, and a lean build tested for mobile speed before launch. We handle design, contact forms, basic SEO setup, and analytics.
Websites starting at $500
Explore website design and developmentWant to see the work on a real site? The Gen Spa case study documents a page-by-page website rebuild, with before-and-after PageSpeed results.
Read the Gen Spa case studyFree consultation
Want answers specific to your business?
Guides cover what holds true for most local businesses. A free consultation covers yours: we talk through your website, Business Profile, and search presence, then tell you where we would start. There’s no obligation to hire us, and we reply within one business day.
Request a Free Consultation
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Prefer to talk? Call or text (561) 517-7842
Or email Info@gendigitalmarketing.com