Get Found — Google Business Profile, Social Presence, or Both

The Lesson

Not every business needs a Google Business Profile. GBP requires a physical location where you serve customers — a store, an office, a clinic, a restaurant. If your business is entirely online (a SaaS company, a freelance writer, a D2C brand that ships nationally), GBP isn't your first priority. Your "found" layer is your social presence, your website, and your content.

Here's how to know which path to take:

Path A — You have a physical location or serve customers in a specific area (restaurant, CA firm, physiotherapist, retail store, salon, coaching centre). GBP is your single highest-impact free tool. "[Your business type] near me" is searched millions of times per month in India. If you don't have a GBP, you're invisible in those searches. If you have one but it's incomplete — no photos, no reviews, wrong hours, generic description — you're losing to competitors who took 30 minutes to set it up properly.

Path B — You're online-only or serve customers nationally/globally (D2C brand, SaaS, digital services, freelance consulting, e-commerce). Skip GBP for now. Your "found" layer is your social presence (Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube — wherever your audience already is) and your website. Today's exercise for you: audit your primary social profile against Days 3-5. Does it pass the three-second test? Is it benefit-first? Is there social proof visible immediately?

Path C — You serve locally AND sell online (a restaurant with delivery, a clothing brand with a store and an e-commerce site, a coaching business with in-person and virtual clients). Do both. GBP for local discovery. Social/website for online discovery. But prioritise GBP first — it's free, it's faster to set up, and for local businesses, it often drives more leads than anything else.

Today's Exercise

If Path A or C — GBP

1. If you don't have a GBP: Create one now at business.google.com. Fill out every field. Add 5+ photos (office, team, product, storefront — whatever's relevant). Write a description using your core message from Day 11.
2. If you already have one: Audit it. Is the description generic? Update it. Are there photos? Add more. Are there reviews? Count them.
3. Ask 3 existing customers to leave a Google review this week. Send them the direct review link (search "Google review link generator" for the short URL).

If Path B — Social presence audit

1. Open your primary social profile (Instagram, LinkedIn, or wherever your customers find you). Apply the three-second test from Day 3. Does it immediately communicate what you do, who it's for, and why someone should care?
2. Check your bio against Day 11's core message. Rewrite if it's feature-first or generic.
3. Look at your last 9 posts. Do any of them include social proof (customer results, testimonials, before/after)?

Output: A fully completed Google Business Profile with 3 review requests sent, OR a rewritten social bio with a social proof audit of your recent content.

AI critique prompt (Copywriting & UX folder)

"You are a local business visibility expert who applies the trust research from Don't Make Me Think and the conversion principles from Making Websites Win. Your job is to evaluate whether my [Google Business Profile description / social media bio] would make a potential customer choose me over the other options they're seeing.

Here is my [GBP description / social bio]: [paste]

My business: [what you do] My location: [city/area] My customers: [who they are] My top 2 local competitors: [names, if known]

Evaluate step by step:

1. Three-second test: If a customer sees this alongside 4 other businesses in the same Google Maps results (or the same Instagram search), does mine stand out? What would make them click on mine versus the others? 2. Benefit check: Am I describing what I DO (features) or what the CUSTOMER GETS (benefits)? 3. Trust signals: Is there any proof element (number of clients, years, specific result)? If not, where should one go? 4. Specificity: Could this description apply to any [my industry] business? If yes, it's too generic. 5. Rewrite it. Make it benefit-first, specific, and include one trust signal. Keep it within the character limit [GBP: 750 characters / Instagram bio: 150 characters].

Show the original and rewrite side by side with the specific problem and fix for each change."

How to assess the AI's feedback: The AI should identify specific failures — "this line is a feature, not a benefit," "there's no proof element," "a visitor can't tell what you do in 3 seconds." If it only gives vague praise ("looks good!"), push back: "Be specific about what's weak. Pretend you're a customer who just searched '[your service] near me' and saw 5 results. Why would you click mine instead of the others? If you can't answer that clearly, my description isn't working."