268. Demystifying the Process of Letting Your Coworking Members Use Your Address for Their Google Business Listing
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TRANSCRIPTION
268. Demystifying the Process of Letting Your Coworking Members Use Your Address for Their Google Business Listing
00:00:03 Welcome to the Everything Coworking podcast, where every week I keep you updated on the latest trends and how-tos in Coworking. I owned and operated coworking spaces for eight years, and then served as the executive director of the global workspace association for five years. And today I work with hundreds of operators and community managers every month, allowing me to bring you thought-provoking operator,
00:00:29 case studies and inspirational interviews with industry thought leaders to help you confidently stay on top of what's important and what you can apply to your own role in the Coworking industry. Welcome to the Everything Coworking podcast. This is your host. Jamie Russo. Thank you for joining me first on the list. Let's give a shout-out to our certified Coworking community managers, Anneka Robinson from WorkLodge,
00:01:00 Chelsea Siver from Workspace Collective in Ocala, Florida. Those are our two most recent congrats. It's a pretty hefty process to get certified. There are 13 assessments involved, so it's doable, but if you want to get your Community Manager certified, it's a great professional development opportunity for them. It's a great resume builder. They appreciate it in our Community Manager
00:01:27 University has so much more in it. So we'd love to see you there. A couple of other announcements, we have a, How I Did This session coming up on co-warehousing. So we just did one on how to build your virtual mail virtual office, digital mail revenue. And it was fantastic. Our guests shared some gold nuggets and our next one is on co-warehousing.
00:01:56 So you can register for the live session at Everything Coworking dot com forward slash How I Did This. If you are in Everything Coworking academy member, you get the recordings in your Coworking academy hub. So you can access those any time, any that we've done so far this year. So if you registered for the live session and missed it, you can join the academy.
00:02:21 Speaking of the academy, I interviewed Amy. She was referred to me, someone in the Facebook group referred one of our academy members to her and our academy member emailed me and said, you should talk to this woman. She knows her stuff. So I reached out to Amy and Amy spent over an hour with me. The whole recording is not an hour,
00:02:42 but she and I talked forever. She, I mean this in the most endearing respectful, appreciative way is a total Google nerd. She's one of 50 Google product experts, 50 ish. She says in the world. So she knows a lot about the Google products. And she walks in talks, SEO, and Google business listings all day long for clients. So she spent some time walking through the nitty-gritty of how to safely share your Google business profile with your members.
00:03:21 Lots of rules here. So I did this interview for our academy members. So they're going to get the full interview, but I wanted to share with you some excerpts that I thought would be really helpful, at least in sending you off in the right direction. And you can find Amy online. All of her info is in the show notes. If you want the full recording and access to the video and the cheat sheet that our academy members get,
00:03:49 check us out in the academy, you can get all the details on the academy. The academy is really designed for operators that want to go deeper than the podcast. They want access to experts that will make a difference in their business. They want to know they want access to the recordings for the How I Did This sessions, which are full of meaty,
00:04:10 practical tips, and they want access to other operators. So we do live calls every month as well. So check out the details at Everything Coworking dot com forward slash academy. Now we will dive into an excerpt of my conversation with Amy. So I'm going to say right at the outset of this episode, that Amy will probably need to come back because we have been going a mile a minute on things that she knows that we don't know.
00:04:41 Amy Toman is my guest today. And she is multi-passionate, but she's an expert. She's a Google product expert gold level. So she helps with Google business profile questions and problems, and she can talk more about what that means. She's also a local SEO specialist. She works specializing in the legal industry and she works with pet sitters. She worked out of a coworking space,
00:05:06 so she gets our business and Amy, somebody in my Facebook group recommended you to Leslie Bailey who's in Indianapolis. Who said, Jamie, if you need a Google expert, you should talk to Amy. So we're like, I don't know, seven degrees of separation from a Facebook group contact. So thank you to the Facebook group person who connected us and thank you for taking the time to do this.
00:05:33 Cause I kind of reached out and said, Hey, my audience needs to know what you know, and I'm learning as we're talking that we don't even know what we don't know to some extent. So thank you for taking the time to do this. Google is very, has got a lot of nuance to their listings. So listings have become central to a lot of businesses marketing,
00:05:56 but as you there's so many small little areas that can both help and hurt. So I'm glad to talk to everybody because there are rules specific to coworking spaces that Google has created, which Is fairly new. Oh yeah. Most I'll make you bet that most are not aware of. Wait, so tell me, how did you get into being passionate about Google and SEO?
00:06:23 Oh, okay. I worked at a niche business agency that created websites for pet sitters. I did that for a while. When I left there, I had made so many contacts. They asked me, can I still keep asking you questions? Can you still help me? So I started my own business and I did that for about, about a year and a half started working for,
00:06:47 I went from one agency that kind of dealt with an SEO agency that dealt with contractors. And then I moved. I left there and I moved into one that now specializes in attorneys. I do legal SEO. Now I still have my pets that are friends also as well as just working with general, small businesses, small meaning, not multi. They don't have 8,000 branches,
00:07:12 multiple branches, just not, you know, not as large as say a Best Buy. I also volunteer on the Google business forum, the Google, my business help forum, where I keep, I will tell you, I go back and forth between Google my business. The new name is Google business profile. I know I'm trying to get that right.
00:07:30 But also it's so ingrained. Yeah, That's a mouthful, but I volunteered there and I asked a lie, answered a lot of questions. People have a lot because the Google rules are just, they're not cut and dry. There are some nuances to things. And so a lot of people go on there. Like I said, it's called the Google business profile,
00:07:49 help forum. And you can usually get help from a Google product expert about in English. I think there are about 50 of us globally. Wow. And I've helped people all over the world. I've helped people in Africa, in Europe, in Asia. I haven't hit south America yet, but Australia, Indonesia, lots of people all over. And it's just really nice to be able to do it for the community because you know,
00:08:14 these people would have no other way of getting help. No, I'm so glad to know about that. We'll have to make that listing and we'll link to your LinkedIn profile. You have a great bio. You're active on Twitter. Yep. I'm on bubbles up your, of bubbles up. It's an inside joke with my husband, but I also find out with everything else.
00:08:35 I say I also volunteer a lot of girl Scouts and I at girl Scouts I'm bubbles. So they're Okay. I love it. So like multi-passionate but it all sort of, except for the bubbles maybe ties together. Okay. So you've worked in a coworking space and I would say probably 80% of coworking space leads initiate through the Google business profile through, you know,
00:09:00 Coworking near me. So it's a huge lead source and it needs to be protected at all costs. So we can talk a little bit about that. I do want to, I think the primary topic, I want to make sure we address. Cause we could get into a lot of topics is protecting my listing. If I have members that want to use the same address.
00:09:23 And there's a lot of, kind of like nuances that go into that. And I think those were the rules that you were referring to, that you would demystify for us. So why don't you dive in and all ask clarifying questions. If there's anything, I feel like we need to probe more. Okay. Coworking spaces are tough for Google and it took them a while to come up with the rules,
00:09:47 but I'm just going to be right up front. And I'm just going to tell you right now what they say. Cause I have them up here. Businesses can not list an office at the coworking space. Unless here you go. The business maintains clear signage, receives customers at the location during business hours and is staffed during business hours by your staff. Let's break that down a little bit.
00:10:13 Let's start with clear signage now. Well, before I get, before I get into that, let me just, let me just move a little back a bit coworking space owners, your listing, your listing is usually from what I've seen a street address and possibly a floor like say second floor will be suite 200. You need to keep that you need to keep the address.
00:10:41 You need to keep the suite. You need to not let any of your members use that suite. Hey, we'll be right back. I just want to share a couple of opportunities from our show sponsors as a co-working space owner, you are always looking to provide more resources and programming for your members, right? How about access to financial education and even investment opportunities?
00:11:14 Well noumena is the number one community for freelancers and founders looking to grow their businesses. So noumena and coworking spaces go together like, you know, butter and jelly. We found that over 75% of our community already work in or are seeking out a coworking space. We'd like to help our members connect with you and find your space anywhere in the world. So join our coworking space directory to be featured in our community and give your members access to a whole library of entrepreneurial resources and financial education programming all at no cost to you,
00:11:55 by the way, visit noumena.pro forward slash Coworking to fill out an interest form that's N O U M E N a.pro/ Coworking. We will include that link in the show notes for anybody who's walking around and doesn't have time to write it down. You can find it in the show notes for this episode at Everything Coworking dot com noumena financing. The future of work.
00:12:27 The amount of opportunity in the Coworking industry is absolutely mindblowing. It's projected to grow by $13 billion in the next five years, just staggering numbers. Now you've probably seen success magazine it's hugely popular and focuses on professional development, personal development and business coaching. Well they're branching out with their own franchised Coworking business called success space. It's actually a brilliant franchise model with three revenue streams recurring and on-demand revenue from Coworking memberships,
00:13:06 a full-service cafe and success-certified business coaching for small business owners to executives to learn more about this exciting new Coworking business opportunity. Check it out at success. Co-work dot space. That's success. Co-work dot space. We will link that up in the show notes as well. Okay. So they can't use the same exact address. Okay. And that is what brings us over to the rules.
00:13:37 But let me just tell you another thing. It's just the problem is if you have eight people all using suite 200, they all may end up getting their listing suspended. Right? So here's, let's go back to the rules. Let's talk about this a little bit. Okay. The biggest thing to remember for owners is have your own suite number, do not share if you have suite D you have divided your space into individual offices,
00:14:06 which is definitely the way to go give them set designations. You know, ABC 2 0 2, 2 0 4, 2 0 6. That is what you want to do. Do not leave it to your members to create those. You have a spreadsheet, fusion and assign Someone will get suspended and someone will blame somebody else. And we can make those up. Cause I always distinguish the post office does not want you to make up sweet numbers.
00:14:36 You know what? I don't know their rules. I can only tell you From Google doesn't care. They want to know where you are in that space. And as long as you can designate and make sure that no one else has that Space, it has to be unique. It has to be Okay. Wait, what about the argument? Somebody gave me this argument once they're like,
00:14:55 well, if I Google like a shopping mall, the safe way and the Starbucks, or, you know, have the same address on Google, You're not safe way. You're not scared about Google understands those Google. Not only that Google can find that information in multiple places. Okay. They can find that on Starbucks, probably on Starbucks website, they can find it in eight other places,
00:15:21 all linking in. So unfortunately that's the best answer. That's your multinational corporation. Don't attempt it. It's just gonna, it's just going to bite you back. Okay. So we're going to go over here. We're going to talk about these rules. You have to have each individual office. If you are going to use that address for co-working space. Let me explain how the offices work at the place that I went,
00:15:45 which like I said, I feel bad. Cause they went down after the pandemic is what they had is they had individual offices and they had what we referred to as a community community desks. The individual offices had their own designations, excuse me. And they had glass doors on each one. And when a one point moved out and another came in, they had a really beautiful plastic sticker that went on with the business's logo on the door.
00:16:17 So there was never a question which business was in which space or if the space was permanently occupied by that business, very clear, they left no hesitation whatsoever. The reason why that's important is as I said, the rule says, unless that business maintains clear signage. So what I recommend, because here's the thing. If you get suspended, you need to prove all this.
00:16:43 And the biggest best thing you can do is have photos on your Google listing showing this right? So if you were in suite, I don't know B show a photo of the door with your, with your logo on it. Or if you have a sign next to your door that says sweepy in the name of the business show photos of this, okay.
00:17:03 For the owners, not only do you want, and this is how you're helping your members, not only do you want to have something on or just next to the door, you want to have a sign by the entrance, right? Maybe, maybe one of those ones where you can slide, you know, the names in and out of the letters.
00:17:21 You want to have something like that. If the building itself will allow it, you have it in the lobby as well because people need to be able to prove that they have the signage that Google's asking for and take photos. All right. It's like the driver behind this is Google wants the consumer to not be confused. That's it? Yeah. So their interest is,
00:17:41 look, if somebody Google's a business, then it says it's here. We want it to be easy to find. And the person can show up and find the business. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. And they want, they want, and I also don't want people kind of, I hate to say this. They don't want people screwing around. They don't want people to say I'm here,
00:17:58 but they're really not. Or they're renting a box. No, that's not where, cause that's not where they are. Right. Okay. So the second thing receives customers at the location during business hours, if somebody just walks in and like three days in a row and there's no one in your office, the light is off every day, they can report that.
00:18:17 They can report that and Google will go, oh well. And they will suspend you. So you have to show people that there is, you know, that there is action going on there, take photos of somebody in the office, you know, show them what you don't have to show like what's on the desk, but maybe just show them, you know,
00:18:32 this is where this person sits. This is where that person sits. And also that the place itself has to say, if you're going to say during business hours, if the coworking space is only open from nine to five, don't say that you are in at your office from eight to six, you know, you'd have to separate that out. And that's another story in itself,
00:18:53 but just make sure that the coworking space hours we'll work with the members or the members work with what the coworking space has. Last thing staffed during business hours, by your staff. Again, taking photos of people, sitting at the desk, working those photos because Google is really good about photos right now about their, their AI. They can tell you if you took a photo and that photo does not match up all the photos that everyone else or sorry.
00:19:21 The other spaces within that building, they'll be able to tell. So if you take one at your home office and say, look, here's my, you know, my coworking space office, Google will know. It's not, I mean, they won't call you on it, but they will be able to help. So, and also it's by your staff during business hours that they have to be there.
00:19:38 That means too, is that if you have a receptionist, the receptionist does not count. So if you're getting, say, if you're getting mail or something like that, you need to have somebody there to come pick up, pick it up. You know, you can't just leave everything to the receptionist basically. So being the employee of the coworking space,
00:19:58 like a Community Manager, I'm trying to say that they are, they can't, They can't act on behalf. It has to be Phone calls, phone calls have to, even though they don't say it in here, I just noticed that. But phone calls, if somebody calls you, it can't be answered by a central line. It has to be by the business itself.
00:20:15 So these rules imply that to use the address for a Google business listing, they really have to be present okay. And present. And they cannot be at the community desk. They can be at the community desk if they follow all the rules and they have signage that specifically designates that desk for one person, one person only, and no one else can be seen working at that desk.
00:20:42 I would not do it for a community desk because it's too hard to prove. What about a dedicated desk with like Dedicated desks, dedicated desk. We'll do it. But again, you have Flex staff because the flex desk, not provable cause really it could be used by anyone. So the dedicated has the right signage. Exactly. I can tell you a secret to that.
00:21:03 People should remember. Do many of your members put their floor plans online? Oh, it varies. But certainly some do. If someone is trying to find out if a business is at a coworking space or is it a as a main desk or not the first thing we look for, who's going to leave it at that. If there's a floor plan that's publicly available.
00:21:26 If all, if I find somebody who's at suite 200 and I find that the suites go from 2 0 2 to something I see. Yeah. I think I, cause I'm thinking from the mind of a spam hunter now the spam hunter says, I, my person is number four in the listings for whatever service it is. I look at the top three and I say,
00:21:46 what are they doing wrong? If they're working at a coworking space again, Google will, if you give them enough proof, Google act on it and suspend it and make that business prove where they're actually doing business. Okay. Got it. So I'm an attorney in New York and I really want a San Francisco business. Cause I do, I work with clients from the bay area.
00:22:10 I specialize in whatever patent law. And so I want to be, you know, I want to show up in local searches. It sounds like if I don't have a team member in a space as in a co-working space in San Francisco, then even if I have signage and the Community Manager will, whatever, take my mail. That doesn't count. I cannot actually have a listing Again.
00:22:36 If you have that, if, if they're using a community desk, no, but if they have an actual office that has all those proof. Yeah. But someone has to use the office. They can't rent an office and never come. Correct. Okay. To be honest, if, as long as they have the office within a coworking space, yes.
00:22:54 You have to prove some people have rented offices that are legit offices and like bricks and mortar and stuff. And that's never questioned, but it seems like Coworking question than other places. Also I will point out too, if you have a business, just the example that you had, where you had, you were in New York and you want a business in San Francisco,
00:23:16 don't ever put your service area. If you're saying that, you know, you have a service area don't ever put it at, it needs to be two hours from your driving time, from your space or less don't ever put like your attire, say the entire country you're in as your service area, because that's what you won't get suspended for that. But if you're suspended for something else,
00:23:36 they will not bring you back until that's fixed. And they usually won't tell you why you were suspended. So in terms of enforcement, how will Google figure out? So like the attorney example, I want an address. So I've rented a dedicated desk. No one uses it, but the coworking space put up signage for me. So I meet the signage requirement.
00:24:00 I've taken some photos. I don't ever send anybody to that address. So maybe I won't get caught So many will report you. Okay. So that's the risk is that there's an end user somewhere that gets annoyed with something that's happened. And they're looking around and finding, Yeah, Google's AI, won't pull it out themselves, but somebody will report you.
00:24:25 Somebody will. And not only if that, but if they're good, they will have photos. They will have paperwork. They will look at your LLC and say, the LLC does not list that location. Why is that? And they will produce enough for Google to get you thrown off. That's called a very good spam hunter. But again, that's why one of the things that I was,
00:24:46 I know I, I brought up to you at one point is knowing these rules is I think something that will help your owners help their members. Okay. To be able to say to them, these offices, these 10 offices, the five here are the five. There they are, Google compliant. So if you're coming in there, I know you said each you have to have,
00:25:14 what is it? Six touch points to make a sale thing like that. And I heard that a few minutes ago, if you, one of them could be again, these six offices are Google compliant. Let me just go over the rules with you. But just so you know, these offices you can use, we know you can use them. We have set them up as such.
00:25:38 So that's something I think would really help people because I'm sure some businesses start out with like, you know, I want to be here. I need a small space for myself. I'm going to use Google maybe. But by being able to say, no, you don't have to use your home address. You can use this address. Here's just the rules.
00:25:56 And look, I've made it easy for you by did you notice a sign by the door? Did you notice the sign next to your office? Do you notice how we have a logo for your business on your door? You know, we have a central mail area that you can go, you know, grab it yourself. I have phone lines that I can add in the whole drill,
00:26:14 but by making them Google compliant and knowing, you know, what, What that means. Yeah. I love that as a marketing benefit, I think that's super smart. Okay. My interview with Amy goes for about another 30 minutes. She continues to drop her knowledge bombs on the Google business profile do's and don'ts that content is exclusive Lee for our academy members.
00:26:42 So we, you some good nuggets to start with. And if you're an academy member, you get the full interview. If you're not a member of the academy, yet you can get all the details at Everything. Coworking dot com forward slash academy. If you join, you get all of the historical content, which is why we charge a setup fee so that we have other expert trainings and you get our,
00:27:09 how I did, How I Did This series and access to our monthly group. Coaching calls, coaching slash mastermind calls is really what they are. So there's a lot going on in the membership. Amy's full interview is one of those resources or How I Did This sessions include how and why to buy a building for your coworking space. Three operators share their three CRMs expanding to multiple locations and growing your virtual mail revenue.
00:27:42 So lots of goodies in there. Again, that's Everything. Coworking dot com forward slash academy and academy members. You can access that content easily by logging into your academy hub and send an email to our team. If you need that login info, we'll see you next week. Thank you for listening to today's episode. If you like, what you heard,
00:28:08 tell a friend, hit that subscribe button and leave us a rating and review. It makes a huge difference in helping others. Like you find us. If you'd like to learn more about our education and coaching programs, head over to Everything. Coworking dot com. We'll see you next week.
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