How It All Began: A Local Collaboration
This presentation came about after a chance meeting with an old industry colleague, Sue Ledingham from Central Coast Council, at the Visitor Information Centre at The Entrance. My past role as a board member for the former Central Coast Tourism body gave us plenty to talk about, and we discussed how I could help local tourism operators get more from their online presence.
We scheduled a meeting with the Destination Central Coast team to find out what local tourism operators would benefit from most. Their top concern was how businesses struggle with online reviews.
Many have trouble asking for reviews, responding to them, and handling the negative feedback that impacts conversions. The result was this short, punchy keynote, designed specifically for the Central Coast tourism market operators.
This information inside is evergreen, highly actionable, and can have a direct impact on your bookings and sales.
Watch the 10-Minute Keynote Presentation
A Complete Guide to Your Google Business Profile
Instead of just a transcript, (but you can find the transcript below if you prefer to read it), let's break down the core principles that can transform your Google Business Profile from a simple listing into a customer-conversion machine.
1. Local SEO is Not Website SEO
The game is different for local businesses. Being found locally means being present and optimised on key directories. While Apple Maps and Bing Maps are important, Google remains the undisputed king.
- Your Google Business Profile replaced the Yellow Pages. It's the most critical directory for local discovery.
- Think beyond your website. Local SEO is about dominating the map pack and directory results.
2. The Three Pillars of a Successful Google Profile
To win in local search, you need to master three key areas:
- Be Found (The Listing): Your core information must be accurate and complete.
- Be Seen (Visuals): High-quality photos, videos, and virtual tours capture attention and build trust.
- Be Trusted (Reviews): This is your conversion factor. Reviews are the single most important measure of customer trust.
3. Mastering Online Reviews
Reviews are non-negotiable for success. Here's why they are your most powerful conversion tool:
- The Sweet Spot: The ideal review score is 4.2 to 4.8 stars, not a perfect 5.0. This range signals authenticity.
- Negative Reviews are an Opportunity: 45% of consumers are more likely to visit a business that responds professionally to negative reviews.
- Respond to ALL Reviews: Aim to reply within 24-48 hours. This is a positive ranking signal to Google.
Your Action Plan: Daily, Weekly, and Monthly GBP Tasks
Treat your Google Business Profile like any other marketing channel.
- Static Info (Check Monthly): Your Name, Address, Phone Number, and Hours must always be accurate.
- Dynamic Info (Update Weekly/Daily):
- Respond to all new reviews.
- Upload new photos or videos.
- Publish a new Google Post.
- Answer a question in the Q&A section.
Investing a small part of your marketing budget and time into actively managing your Google Business Profile will pay dividends.
Have questions about your Google profile? Feel free to reach out for a free consultation.
Transcript:
The 10-Minute Challenge
Nadia Pike - Tourism Business Development and Industry Officer for Central Coast Council
So that's it for me. Next, it is my pleasure to introduce Marc Charette from Work Pics 360to deliver a presentation on how you can maximise your Google Business Profile.
Marc Charette:
So I have a challenge. Nadia, I want you to hold me to it, please, because you've given me 10 minutes, right? Now in 10 minutes, I've got to change people's behaviour in the room. I've got to change the way you think about Google Business Profile, where it ranks in the importance of your daily activities in marketing.
I'm going to suggest to you that I don't want you to stop doing anything with your social media.
I don't want you to stop doing what you're doing with your website.
I don't want you to stop what you're doing with your print.
But I want you to think about how you can take the idea that this one little thing that Google owns...
Why Local Directories Are King
...and who here knows that Google is still the number one search engine in the world? It still is, right? It's not going to go away. That's not going to change. So I've got to get you to think about how you're going to implement a different strategy to improve how you actually get found in local search because local SEO is not like SEO on a website. It's about making sure you're found in directories. And the most important directory in the world, what replaced Yellow Pages is Google Business Profile.
Who here has an iPhone? Can I see some hands? Who has an iPhone? All right. So all the people who have an iPhone, I want everyone else to raise their hands that didn't raise their hand. Okay. So those are the people who natively had already the Google Maps on their phone. Everyone else, when you bought your phone, it came with Apple Maps. Didn't come with Google Maps. Did you think of adding yourself to Apple Maps? Just a little hint. If your business is not on Apple Maps, you're missing out. If you're not on Bing Maps, you're missing out.
That's local SEO. But it's still true that the king, queen, top banana in local SEO is definitely your Google Business Profile.
The 3 Factors of Local Search: Be Found, Seen, and Trusted
So we're going to go into this. And again, Nadia keep me on tack because I'm going to be… I got to move fast, right? Here we go.
There are three factors in local search. First you got to be found. That's the directory listing. Then you've got to be seen. And how are you seen? Photos, videos, and virtual tours. I'm going to give a shout out to Isaac at the back, who's a photographer. There's a lot of people in this room who've used commercial photographers and content creators. Don't underestimate the power of having somebody else holding the camera. Doing it yourself is good and you want that.
But you also want to make sure that you have someone who can actually take that professional shot, that field of view that you can't see for yourself. Because what happens is that whenever you're taking pictures of your own business or you're taking videos of your own business, you're showing what you think people want to see. The job of us commercial folks is to think about what your customers want to see. That's a lot more important because that's the ones that are making the decisions to either come or not. It's up to you. And the last step is, I got to go back, is to be trusted, which is your reviews.
Why Reviews Are a Goldmine
I got told that in this room that reviews is kind of a hot topic. Some people love them. Some people hate them. They're a pain. I get it. But here's the most important thing about the reviews. They are the single most important conversion measure that you're NOT measuring right now... [and the rest of the transcript text follows]