Small Business Big Visibility

Jason McKenzie
  • 5.0 (3)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Daily

Are you a small business owner seeking effective, efficient, and profitable ways to grow your business without the overwhelm? Welcome to "Small Business Big Visibility", the podcast dedicated to empowering adventurous entrepreneurs like you to simplify marketing, reduce stress, and boost revenue. Hosted by Jason McKenzie, we dive into a topics from different angles, providing actionable insights, innovative strategies, and easy-to-implement tools. Our mission is to help you focus on what truly matters: your passion, your family, and your freedom.

  1. 5d ago

    Can You Buy Reviews? What Actually Happens If You Do

    You can find a service tonight that will sell you fifty reviews for about a hundred dollars. You're staring at a competitor with two hundred reviews and you have eleven. The package costs less than a nice dinner. So can you just buy your way to five stars? The short answer is no. But "don't" isn't much of a reason, so this episode walks through what actually happens after you pay, and why earned reviews beat bought ones every time. First, what even counts as buying reviews, because it's wider than most people think. The obvious one: paying a service for reviews from people who were never your customers. Buying a package to lift your average, same thing. Writing reviews yourself, or asking staff and family to post them. And the one that surprises people: rewarding real customers with a gift card, a discount, or a giveaway entry in exchange for a review. The customer can be real and the review can be honest, and it still counts against you. Google prohibits incentives, and in the US the FTC finalized a rule in 2024 banning fake reviews and undisclosed paid endorsements, with financial penalties behind it. I'm not a lawyer, so check your own situation with one, but the platform rules alone are clear enough. Then, what happens if you do it. Detection, because spotting fake reviews is pattern matching and pattern matching is exactly what machines are best at. The penalty, which starts quiet: the reviews get removed, your money evaporates with them, your rating can land lower than where you started, and in bad cases the whole Google Business Profile gets suspended, taking you off the map you were trying to climb. The customers, who read reviews carefully now and smell a wall of vague five-stars from a mile away. And a fourth, newer risk: the AI assistants that recommend local businesses draw on real review patterns, and a profile with a suspicious spike or a penalty is a poor candidate for a confident recommendation. The difference underneath all of it: a bought review is a purchase, one number nudged up once, with a chance it gets clawed back. An earned review is an asset that keeps coming as long as you serve people well, and it names specifics that help customers and search systems understand what you're actually good at. So instead, five moves: ask (most businesses with few reviews simply never do), ask right after you deliver while the customer is happy, make it one tap with a direct link or a QR code, ask everyone the same way rather than cherry-picking your happiest customers, and reply to the reviews you get. The line you don't cross: you can make it easy, you can remind, you can say thank you. You can't pay for the review. This is the third episode in the reputation half of the series, after how to ask for reviews and how to respond to a bad one. CHAPTERS: 0:00 Tempted to just buy a few reviews? 0:38 How review-buying became a thing 0:59 Should you buy reviews? No. But why? 1:49 The four things that count as buying reviews 3:41 What happens: detection 4:40 What happens: the penalty 5:20 What happens: the customers 5:44 What happens: your AI rankings 6:31 Bought reviews vs. earned reviews 7:08 Five ways to grow reviews the right way 8:25 The one line you can't cross 8:36 Next: can you get an unfair review removed? MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: 📘 Get the book free (The Best Kept Secret in Town): https://doesailikeme.com/?src=podcast 🧰 GeniePress (a rule-safe review routine that runs without manufactured reviews or spam links): https://geniepress.app 🎧 Last episode: how to respond to a bad review. ABOUT SMALL BUSINESS BIG VISIBILITY: A podcast for small business owners who want practical, real-world strategies to grow without burnout. Hosted by Jason McKenzie, founder of Boise Web and a 15+ year veteran helping small businesses become more visible, more profitable, and more sustainable. Episode 426 🔗 https://smallbusinessbigvisibility.com/ #LocalSEO #GoogleReviews #OnlineReputation

  2. Oct 22

    Someone Left You a One-Star Review. Now What?

    Someone leaves a one-star review and your stomach drops. Your face gets hot. Your first instinct is to defend yourself. Don't. That reply isn't for the person who left the review. It's for the hundred people who read the exchange later, deciding whether to hire you. And it's for the AI assistants that now summarize what people say about local businesses when someone asks for a recommendation. That changes the whole job. You're not trying to win an argument with one unhappy customer. You're showing everyone watching how you behave when something goes wrong. Handle it well and a calm, human reply under a harsh review can do more to win a new customer than the complaint did to lose one. In this episode I walk through a simple five-step way to respond: wait an hour before you write anything (nothing good gets written in the first ten minutes), reply within a day or two so silence doesn't speak for you, own the part that's genuinely yours, correct real errors gently without calling the reviewer a liar, and move the actual fixing to a phone call or email, then follow through. I also cover the hard lines that get businesses in real trouble: no buying or faking reviews to bury the bad one, no bribing or badgering the reviewer, no pretending it will disappear, and never starting a public comment war you can't win. One last thing worth knowing. A single bad review sitting in a healthy stack barely moves the needle. What hurts is a pattern. If ten people complain about the same thing, the reviews aren't the problem, they're pointing at the problem. Fix that, and the reviews mostly take care of themselves. This is the second episode in the reputation half of the series, right after how to ask for reviews in the first place. CHAPTERS: 0:00 The one-star review you don't know how to answer 0:23 Your reply isn't for the reviewer 1:01 Step 1: Wait one hour 1:25 Step 2: Reply within a day or two 1:44 Step 3: Own what's yours 2:17 Step 4: Correct the record gently 2:57 Step 5: Take it offline 3:35 What readers conclude when they see your reply 4:08 What the AI assistants conclude 4:36 The hard lines you don't cross 5:16 One bad review vs. a pattern 5:38 The five steps in one minute MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: 🧰 GeniePress (watches your reputation and drafts replies, nothing posts without your approval): https://geniepress.app 📘 Small Business Big Visibility: Local SEO Made Easy (on Amazon): [book link] 🎧 Last episode: How to Ask for Reviews Without Feeling Like You're Begging ABOUT SMALL BUSINESS BIG VISIBILITY: A podcast for small business owners who want practical, real-world strategies to grow without burnout. Hosted by Jason McKenzie, founder of Boise Web and a 15+ year veteran helping small businesses become more visible, more profitable, and more sustainable. Episode 425 🔗 https://smallbusinessbigvisibility.com/ #LocalSEO #GoogleReviews #OnlineReputation

    Someone Left You a One-Star Review. Now What?

  3. Oct 15

    The Best Kept Secret in Town: Getting Found and Chosen in Search and AI- Full Audiobook

    AI is recommending businesses in your town. It should recommend yours. Your best customers came by referral, which is why this has never felt like your problem. It is also why it is hard to see coming. The neighbor who used to pass your name along is being asked less often. People ask a machine now, and it does not hand back ten links. It answers with about three businesses, by name. One of them might be the outfit you know cuts corners. If yours is not on the list, nobody tells you. The phone just gets quieter, and you don't know what to do. With this audiobook you can: Discover the five factors that decide who shows up in search and AI. Learn how to keep it all running in about an hour a week. Implement simple tracking and see the results for yourself. Find the two questions snake oil salesmen hope you don't ask. You learn it by following somebody as they walk the path. Steve Carrack is a master plumber with twenty years in and four trucks, and every customer he has ever had would vouch for him. The machines have never heard of him. Follow him from invisible to recommended, then work the same method on your own business. Get the free audiobook bundle: https://doesailikeme.com/?src=podcast Check your own website free: https://ismysitebad.com/?src=podcast Have GeniePress do the work on your WordPress site: https://geniepress.app/?src=podcast CHAPTERS: 0:00 Introduction 0:15 Chapter 1: You Never Knew It Happened 5:53 Chapter 2: The Screenshot 22:43 Chapter 3: Who Vouches for You? 33:54 Chapter 4: Five Seconds 49:29 Chapter 5: Wrong for 8 Months 1:04:04 Chapter 6: The Other Three 1:20:05 Chapter 7: The Answers You Already Give 1:45:14 Chapter 8: The Easy 10% 2:06:44 Chapter 9: The Speedometer 2:21:48 Chapter 10: An Hour a Week 2:44:22 Chapter 11: One Year Later 2:47:33 A Note from Jason 2:49:23 Chapter 12: The Field Guide 2:51:27 The Two Tests 2:54:35 The Five Factors in Order 2:55:26 Factor 1: Brand Clarity 2:57:25 Factor 2: Presence 3:00:13 Factor 3: Popularity and Reputation 3:02:16 Factor 4: Expertise and Depth 3:05:15 Factor 5: The Technical Stuff 3:10:42 Your First Month, In Order 3:16:37 The Hour a Week 3:18:09 Closing and About the Author Small Business Big Visibility, Book 2. Written by Jason McKenzie, author of Small Business Big Visibility: Local SEO Made Easy and host of the Small Business Big Visibility podcast. Narrated in his own voice, generated with AI. #LocalSEO #GEO #SmallBusinessMarketing

    The Best Kept Secret in Town: Getting Found and Chosen in Search and AI- Full Audiobook

  4. Oct 8

    How to Ask for Reviews Without Feeling Like You're Begging

    Do you dread asking a happy customer for a review? Almost every business owner knows they should be asking. What stops them cold isn't laziness, it's the cringe, the feeling of pestering someone who just wanted to pay and leave. Here's the part worth sitting with: that awkwardness usually isn't about the customer at all. It's something going on in your own head, and once you see it, most of the discomfort melts away. In this episode, I'll walk through the mindset shift that fixes the awkwardness (the customer almost always feels good about helping you, the same way you'd feel fine if a business you loved asked you), plus the three structural fixes that make asking feel natural: ask at the moment they're happiest (timing beats wording every time), ask like a plain human in one short sentence, and make it stupidly easy with a QR code or a direct link so there's zero friction. I'll also cover the counterintuitive part most people get backwards (steady beats bursts, because 20 reviews in one week reads as fake to Google, AI, and humans alike), and the clear line between what's allowed and what gets your profile penalized: no paying for reviews, no incentives, no employees or family, no review gating, and never ask for a specific star rating. This is the first episode of the back half of the series, moving from being found to being trusted. Reviews now do two jobs: helping a real person choose you, and feeding the AI assistants that answer "who's a good plumber near me" directly. Those tools read what your reviews say and how fresh they are, so being well reviewed is part of getting named by the machine too. After 15+ years helping small businesses get found, here's the honest version: the whole system fits on an index card. Pick your moment right after a job goes well, ask in one short sentence, send the link immediately, reply to what comes in, and repeat with the next happy customer, forever. That's it. CHAPTERS: 0:00 Do you dread asking for reviews? 0:25 The real block isn't the customer, it's your own mindset 0:43 Why reviews matter now: humans and AI both read them 1:22 It was an issue inside me, not the customer 2:01 Would you be mad if a business asked you for a review? 3:14 Make it about your "why," not about you 3:35 Rule 1: Ask at the moment they're happiest 4:31 Rule 2: Ask like a human (and the QR code trick) 5:25 Rule 3: Make it stupidly easy 6:00 Why steady beats bursts 6:45 What's allowed and what gets you penalized 7:32 A quick note on negative reviews (coming next) MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: 🧰 GeniePress (helps you keep up with asking and replying): https://geniepress.app 📘 Small Business Big Visibility: Local SEO Made Easy (on Amazon): [book link] 🎧 Start the series: Why AI Might Be Recommending Your Competitor, Not You. 🎧 Last episode: The Website Fix That Matters More Than Speed ABOUT SMALL BUSINESS BIG VISIBILITY: A podcast for small business owners who want practical, real-world strategies to grow without burnout. Hosted by Jason McKenzie, founder of Boise Web and a 15+ year veteran helping small businesses become more visible, more profitable, and more sustainable. Episode 423 🔗 https://smallbusinessbigvisibility.com/ #LocalSEO #GoogleReviews #SmallBusinessMarketing

  5. Oct 1

    The Website Fix That Matters More Than Speed

    Were you told to fix your site speed before anything else? A lot of small business owners pour hours, money, and stress into chasing a near-perfect speed score while something far more important sits quietly broken on their site. One person once told me his site had to score a 95 to 100 on speed. When I asked why, he had no idea. Reasonable speed is good. Obsessing over a perfect score while ignoring what actually moves the needle is not. In this episode, I'll explain what technical SEO actually covers (it's smaller than the industry makes it sound), which pieces genuinely matter, and the one item most owners skip that quietly outweighs site speed: structured data, also called schema. Think of your website as a house. Your pages and photos are the house everyone sees. Technical SEO is the plumbing underneath, invisible until it breaks. I'll walk through the four things worth your time, in order: making sure your important pages can actually be found (the silent killer), getting your speed to reasonable rather than perfect, making sure your site genuinely works on a phone, and adding schema so machines don't have to guess who you are. That last one matters more now, because AI assistants lean on clean, unambiguous data when they decide who to recommend. This episode closes out the fundamentals half of the series on building your business foundation for both search and AI. We've covered being clear about who you are (Brand Clarity), showing up correctly everywhere people and machines look (Presence), and now making the whole thing readable (the Technical layer). What's left is the part just as important as any of it: whether people, and AI, actually trust what they find. That's where the series goes next, starting with the thing most business owners dread, asking for a review. After 15+ years helping small businesses get found, here's the honest line: technical work removes obstacles, it doesn't create demand. A perfectly fast, perfectly labeled website with nothing worth saying still loses to a slower site run by a business that's clearly good and clearly trusted. Fix these four things once, properly, and you're mostly done. It's a foundation you set and then largely leave alone. CHAPTERS: 0:00 Were you told to fix your site speed first? 0:33 The owner who wanted a 95 speed score and didn't know why 0:55 Why technical SEO sits last on the five factors 1:07 What technical SEO actually is 1:25 Your website is a house, technical SEO is the plumbing 1:52 Fix #1: Can your pages actually be found? (the silent killer) 2:34 Fix #2: Site speed, reasonable not perfect 3:34 Fix #3: Does your site genuinely work on a phone? 4:10 Fix #4: Structured data (schema), the one to prioritize 5:05 Why schema matters more than shaving load time 5:36 The honest line: technical removes obstacles, it doesn't create demand 6:17 Why the series covered clarity and presence first 6:34 Your four-item checklist, in order 7:16 This closes the fundamentals half of the series 7:40 What's next: whether people and AI trust you MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: 🧰 GeniePress (handles the technical work, schema included, nothing goes live without your approval): https://geniepress.app 📘 Small Business Big Visibility: Local SEO Made Easy (on Amazon): [book link] 🎧 Start the series: Why AI Might Be Recommending Your Competitor, Not You. 🎧 Last episode: Your Google Business Profile Got Suspended. Now What? ABOUT SMALL BUSINESS BIG VISIBILITY: A podcast for small business owners who want practical, real-world strategies to grow without burnout. Hosted by Jason McKenzie, founder of Boise Web and a 15+ year veteran helping small businesses become more visible, more profitable, and more sustainable. Episode 422 🔗 https://smallbusinessbigvisibility.com/ #LocalSEO #TechnicalSEO #SmallBusinessMarketing

    The Website Fix That Matters More Than Speed

  6. Sep 24

    Your Google Business Profile Got Suspended. Now What?

    Your Google Business Profile got suspended, maybe out of nowhere, and Google won't tell you exactly why. That is genuinely one of the most stressful things that can happen to a local business, because that listing is often where your customers find you. The good news: there is an appeal process, and if you handle the first moves right, you can usually get reinstated. In this episode, I'll walk through what a suspension actually is (hard versus soft), the handful of things that trigger most suspensions (editing too many fields at once, keyword-stuffing your business name, an address that doesn't match your business type, or Google's automation simply making a mistake), and the exact six-step order to get reinstated. The order matters more than anything: step one is what NOT to do, because the most common panic move (deleting your profile or creating a new one) can permanently tie your hands and leave you with two problems instead of one. I'll also share a practical AI tip: screenshot your profile, hand it to an AI, and ask it to check your details against Google's guidelines so you can spot the likely violation faster than reading the rules yourself. This is the seventh episode in the series on building your business foundation for both search and AI, and it closes out the Presence factor. One honest reality check: nobody controls Google's queue, and anyone promising to get you reinstated in 24 hours is guessing. The best thing you can do is hand Google a clean, obviously legitimate profile to say yes to. After 15+ years helping small businesses get found, I've seen a genuinely legitimate 15-year-old business get suspended because Google decided, wrongly, that it wasn't real. It got reversed once the owner submitted the right proof. Most suspensions are fixable. A few good habits (consistent name, address, and phone, slow changes, an honest profile, and your verification documents kept somewhere handy) prevent most of them in the first place. CHAPTERS: 0:00 Has your Google Business Profile been suspended out of nowhere? 0:14 A real example: a 15-year business Google decided wasn't real 1:02 There is an appeal process 1:12 What a suspension actually is: hard vs. soft 1:33 Why Google won't tell you the reason 2:18 The likely causes: editing too much at once 2:41 Keyword-stuffing your business name 2:58 An address that doesn't match your business type 3:12 Sometimes Google just made a mistake 3:32 The six-step fix (order matters) 3:44 Step 1: Do NOT delete or recreate your profile 4:04 Step 2: Audit yourself against Google's guidelines 4:45 Step 3: Fix the violation before you appeal 4:56 Using AI to find your likely violation 6:04 Step 4: Gather proof you're a real business 6:05 Step 5: File one reinstatement request 6:32 Step 6: Wait, then follow up exactly once 6:55 Why shortcuts cause most suspensions 7:14 If it was a false flag, don't overthink it 7:55 The habits that prevent most suspensions 8:41 Where this fits, and what's next MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: 🧰 GeniePress (monitors your profile so problems get caught early): https://geniepress.app 📘 Small Business Big Visibility: Local SEO Made Easy (on Amazon): [book link] 🎧 Last episode: No Storefront? How to Set Up a Google Business Profile 🎧 Start the series: Why AI Might Be Recommending Your Competitor, Not You. ABOUT SMALL BUSINESS BIG VISIBILITY: A podcast for small business owners who want practical, real-world strategies to grow without burnout. Hosted by Jason McKenzie, founder of Boise Web and a 15+ year veteran helping small businesses become more visible, more profitable, and more sustainable. Episode 421 🔗 https://smallbusinessbigvisibility.com/ #LocalSEO #GoogleBusinessProfile #SmallBusinessMarketing

  7. Sep 17

    No Storefront? How to Set Up a Google Business Profile

    Do you serve customers at their location instead of yours, with no storefront to point to? If you're a plumber, mobile mechanic, landscaper, house cleaner, or HVAC tech, most Google Business Profile advice doesn't quite fit you, because it assumes you have a front door customers walk through. You don't need one to show up on Google. You need the setup that's actually built for you. In this episode, I'll walk through how to set up a service-area business profile the right way: why faking a storefront address used to be common and why Google fixed it, how to claim your listing and choose the "I deliver to customers" option that hides your address, how to pick service areas without overreaching (listing 30 cities doesn't get you found in 30 cities, it just spreads you thin), how video verification works, and the setup mistakes that get profiles suspended before they even get started. Then I'll cover the part most service businesses skip: filling in every field, adding real photos of your crew and finished work, getting honest reviews, and posting occasional updates. This is the sixth episode in the series on building your business foundation for both search and AI, and it fits inside the Presence factor. One thing that matters more now, not less: people increasingly ask AI assistants who's a good plumber or house cleaner near them, and those tools pull from the same signals your profile feeds. A clean, complete, honestly reviewed profile doesn't just get you listed on Google Maps anymore. It can get you named by the AI too. After 15+ years helping small businesses get found, here's the honest truth: the profile is a door, not the house. Set it up correctly, keep it honest, and then keep doing the real work, because that's where the results actually come from. CHAPTERS: 0:00 Do you go to your customers instead of them coming to you? 0:40 Why faking a storefront address caused a mess 1:02 What a service-area business (SAB) actually is 1:26 Do you qualify as an SAB? 1:42 Claim your listing before creating a new one 2:05 Use your real business name (keyword stuffing gets you suspended) 2:28 The location fork: choose "I deliver to customers" and hide your address 2:55 Pick service areas without overreaching 3:27 Choose your primary category carefully 3:56 Video verification, step by step 4:37 The setup is the easy part 4:58 Fill in every field 5:22 Photos: you have more to shoot than you think 5:47 Get reviews honestly (faking them gets you suspended) 6:39 Post occasional updates 7:28 Keep your name, address, and phone consistent everywhere 8:02 Two things to know as a service-area business 8:58 The profile is the door, not the house MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: 🧰 GeniePress (AI drafts the fixes, you approve, nothing goes live without your say-so): https://geniepress.app 📘 Small Business Big Visibility: Local SEO Made Easy (on Amazon): [book link] 🎧 Last episode: Is Your Call Tracking Losing You Customers? 🎧 Start the series: Why AI Might Be Recommending Your Competitor, Not You. ABOUT SMALL BUSINESS BIG VISIBILITY: A podcast for small business owners who want practical, real-world strategies to grow without burnout. Hosted by Jason McKenzie, founder of Boise Web and a 15+ year veteran helping small businesses become more visible, more profitable, and more sustainable. Episode 420 🔗 https://smallbusinessbigvisibility.com/ #LocalSEO #GoogleBusinessProfile #SmallBusinessMarketing

  8. Sep 10

    Is Your Call Tracking Losing You Customers?

    Is your call tracking losing you customers? Here's how it happens. A business owner once got a call from a confused customer: "Why'd you change your phone number? I called your number and got a shoe store." He hadn't changed anything. His call-tracking service had swapped the number on his website months earlier, customers had saved the tracking number, and now it was ringing a shoe store across town. Call tracking is one way your business ends up showing the wrong phone number, and it's a version of a bigger problem quietly costing local businesses customers every day: your business information doesn't agree with itself across the web. In this episode, I'll explain NAP consistency (it just means your Name, Address, and Phone match everywhere they appear), why machines care so much about it (Google and AI assistants build a picture of your business by cross-checking mentions, and when those mentions disagree, their confidence drops and they may lean toward a competitor whose details line up cleanly), and exactly how much of this deserves your time, which is less than most people tell you. I'll also warn you off the services promising to fix your listings across 5,000 directories, most of which are the equivalent of a flower shop in Bangladesh that has nothing to do with your business. This is the fifth episode in the series on building your business foundation for both search and AI, and it fits inside the factor I've been calling Presence. Your homework is a single afternoon: pull up your Google Business Profile and your website, compare your name, address, and phone, fix what doesn't match, and then stop. After 15+ years helping small businesses get found, I've learned this is table stakes, not the whole game. Get it reasonably clean, then put your real energy where it actually moves the needle: clear brand information, genuine reviews, and real expertise on your site. CHAPTERS: 0:00 The customer who called and got a shoe store 0:46 What NAP consistency actually means 1:23 Why machines care: how Google builds a picture of your business 1:57 When mentions disagree, confidence drops 2:18 A worked example: three addresses that don't match 2:59 The whole mechanism: doubt costs you visibility 3:13 How to get it right: pick one version and use it everywhere 4:11 Why you should ignore the "5,000 directories" services 5:01 The Pareto principle: fix the 20% that carries the weight 5:11 NAP consistency is table stakes, not the whole game 5:47 Where it fits: the Presence factor 6:09 Your homework (one afternoon) 6:31 A note for businesses without a storefront (coming next) MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: 🧰 GeniePress (surfaces the mismatches that actually matter): https://geniepress.app 📘 Small Business Big Visibility: Local SEO Made Easy (on Amazon): [book link] 🎧 Start the series: Why AI Might Be Recommending Your Competitor, Not You. ABOUT SMALL BUSINESS BIG VISIBILITY: A podcast for small business owners who want practical, real-world strategies to grow without burnout. Hosted by Jason McKenzie, founder of Boise Web and a 15+ year veteran helping small businesses become more visible, more profitable, and more sustainable. Episode 419 🔗 https://smallbusinessbigvisibility.com/ #LocalSEO #GEO #SmallBusinessMarketing

    Is Your Call Tracking Losing You Customers?
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About

Are you a small business owner seeking effective, efficient, and profitable ways to grow your business without the overwhelm? Welcome to "Small Business Big Visibility", the podcast dedicated to empowering adventurous entrepreneurs like you to simplify marketing, reduce stress, and boost revenue. Hosted by Jason McKenzie, we dive into a topics from different angles, providing actionable insights, innovative strategies, and easy-to-implement tools. Our mission is to help you focus on what truly matters: your passion, your family, and your freedom.

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