Small Business Big Visibility

Jason McKenzie
  • 5.0 (3)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated 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

    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

  2. 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

  3. 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?

  4. Sep 3

    The Google Business Profile Mistake Costing You Customers

    Do you know if your Google Business Profile is quietly costing you customers? There's one specific mistake that keeps more good local businesses out of Google's map results than almost anything else, and it's probably not what you'd guess. It isn't bad reviews or a weak website. It's an incomplete profile.In this episode, I'll show you why that little map box with three businesses (the map pack) is some of the most valuable real estate on the internet, why it's powered by your Google Business Profile and not your website, and the three things Google actually uses to decide who gets a spot: relevance, distance, and prominence. Then I'll walk through the real checklist, in the order it pays off: claim and verify your profile, fill in every field (wrong hours alone will cost you customers), get your primary category right, add ten real photos, and ask for reviews the honest way. I'll also cover the shortcuts to never touch (keyword-stuffed names, directory blasts, fake reviews) because getting caught can get your whole profile suspended.This is the fourth episode in the series on building your business foundation for both search and AI. Most of this checklist takes an afternoon and costs nothing, and it's one of the highest-return things you can do for a local business.After 15+ years helping small businesses get found, I've watched genuinely good businesses stay invisible on Google for one reason: nobody ever finished setting up the free listing that puts them on the map. None of the fix is a trick. It's just the unglamorous work of being a complete, accurate, active listing, done honestly.CHAPTERS:0:00 Is your Google Business Profile costing you customers?0:30 What the map pack is and why it matters0:55 Why the map box is powered by your profile, not your website1:14 The mistake: an incomplete profile1:37 The three things Google measures: relevance, distance, prominence2:42 What "complete" actually means: the checklist2:49 Step 1: Claim and verify3:02 Step 2: Fill in every field3:20 Step 3: Get your category right3:45 Step 4: Add real photos4:01 Step 5: Ask for reviews (only real ones)4:51 A note on NAP consistency (coming next episode)5:22 Why there are no shortcuts here6:01 Worth an afternoon this weekMENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:🧰 GeniePress (helps keep your online presence complete and consistent): 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 418🔗 https://smallbusinessbigvisibility.com/#LocalSEO #GoogleBusinessProfile #SmallBusinessMarketing

    The Google Business Profile Mistake Costing You Customers

  5. Aug 27

    How to Write an About Page That Gets You Hired

    Does your About Us page actually explain why someone should hire you? Most don't. They fail in one of two predictable ways, and there's a good chance yours does at least one of them right now. The fix is a simple five-part structure that turns a page most owners treat as an afterthought into one that quietly closes the deal. In this episode, I'll walk through the two failure patterns (the diary entry that tells your founding story but nothing useful, and the corporate press release so generic it could describe any business on earth), and the five-part structure that actually works: a one-sentence opener that says what you do and who it's for, a credibility section built on facts instead of adjectives, values backed by real evidence, objection handling that answers the doubts people arrive with, and a clear next step. I'll also cover why this page matters more in the AI era (assistants pull from clear, factual pages to decide who to recommend), and, just as importantly, why you shouldn't spend three weeks agonizing over it while your service pages sit half-finished. This is the third episode in the series on building your business foundation for both search and AI. Get your About page clear in an afternoon, then move on to the pages that actually do the selling. After 15+ years helping small businesses get found, I've read a lot of About pages that were written for the wrong reader. The ones that work aren't clever or polished. They're clear, they're specific, and they answer the one question the visitor actually came to the page to settle: can I trust these people? CHAPTERS: 0:00 Does your About page explain why anyone should hire you? 0:25 The two ways About pages fail 0:34 Failure 1: the diary entry 0:46 Failure 2: the corporate press release 1:12 The five-part structure that works 1:16 Part 1: One sentence, no warm-up 1:49 Part 2: Why you're credible (facts, not adjectives) 2:30 Part 3: What you stand for, backed by evidence 3:24 Part 4: Objection handling 3:57 Part 5: A clear next step 4:22 Why this page matters more in the AI era 5:03 The difference between a link and a name AI speaks out loud 5:25 Why the About page isn't your most important page 6:08 Get it clear in an afternoon and move on MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: 🧰 GeniePress (tells you what to fix and in what order): https://geniepress.app 📘 Small Business Big Visibility: Local SEO Made Easy: [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 417 🔗 https://smallbusinessbigvisibility.com/ #LocalSEO #GEO #SmallBusinessMarketing

    How to Write an About Page That Gets You Hired

  6. Aug 20

    This Mom-and-Son Team Teaches Teens What School Won't

    Tara Lynn Haley wanted a doctorate in psychology. Instead, she failed Psych 101 and started her adult life thousands of dollars in debt. What followed was a winding path (flight attendant, an injury, an ADHD and OCD diagnosis, and years teaching alternative and neurodivergent students) that led her somewhere she never expected: building a business with her teenage son, Liam. In this conversation, Tara Lynn and Liam share the "false finish line" idea at the heart of their work: the myth that high school, then college, then a job is the destination, when it's really the start of 40-plus years most people were never prepared for. They talk about why students leave school knowing calculus but not how to budget, secure their digital accounts, file the adult documents families discover too late, or build the intergenerational connections that research links most closely to human happiness. Liam shares what it's like to build something alongside his mom, and why a teenager telling other teenagers this message lands differently than a teacher saying it. They also get into a practical take on using AI well (why endless "redo it" prompting wastes tokens, money, and energy) and the years-long journey of turning a classroom budgeting exercise into the program they're launching now: Jobsperience™, a 105-day system that helps teens build real independence in about 10 minutes a day. This is an interview episode, and it's a genuine story-over-expertise conversation with a mom-and-son team building something they care deeply about. Please note: this episode includes a brief, non-graphic discussion of youth mental health, including suicide and overdose, as part of what motivated Tara Lynn's work. If that's a hard topic for you right now, please take care. In the US, you can reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988. CHAPTERS: 0:00 Meet Tara Lynn and Liam, a mom-and-son business team 0:34 A failure story that became a resilience story 1:28 The "false finish line" and what school gets wrong 3:36 The many jobs and paths along the way 4:44 The skills students leave school without 5:19 Loneliness, connection, and the Harvard study on happiness 5:52 Liam's view: why he chose to build this with his mom 18:39 Using AI well: why "redo it" wastes tokens and energy 21:39 What pushed Tara Lynn to go back for her doctorate 34:00 Building Jobsperience since 2019 38:47 Where to find them and what's launching now MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: 🌐 Tara Lynn Haley: https://taralynnhaley.com 🎓 Jobsperience™ (the 105-day program): https://taralynnhaley.com/purchase/ 🆓 Free sample (Emergency Readiness, 4 Practice Steps): https://taralynnhaley.com 📺 YouTube: https://youtube.com/@TaraHaley 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taralynn.haley/ 🎵 TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@taralynn.haley 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tara-lynn-haley/ 👥 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tara.haley/ 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 416 🔗 https://smallbusinessbigvisibility.com/ #SmallBusinessOwner #Entrepreneurship #LifeSkills

  7. Aug 13

    How to Write a Homepage AI Can Actually Recommend

    When someone asks an AI assistant for a good local business, the AI reads your website to decide whether to recommend you. If your homepage says something like "we provide quality solutions for all your needs," it has nothing to work with, and it moves on to the business that made itself easy to understand. Writing a homepage AI can actually recommend starts with one thing: brand clarity.In this episode, I'll break down brand clarity, the first of the five factors, and why it quietly wrecks more websites than any other. You'll learn the four things your website needs to plainly say (what you do in your customers' words, where you serve, who it's for, and why choosing you is the easy decision), the difference between vague copy and jargon (two ways to be unclear), and a two-minute test you can run on your own homepage right now: cover the logo and navigation, read only the first two sentences, and see if a stranger could tell what you do, where, and for whom.Here's what's new in the AI era. A human who lands on a vague page might squint and poke around before giving up. An AI assistant won't. It doesn't guess what you probably mean. If your site doesn't clearly say what you do, the AI has nothing to work with and moves on to the business that made it easy. You don't get partial credit for being almost clear.This is the second episode in the series on building your business foundation for both search and AI. The good news: brand clarity is the cheapest factor to fix. No redesign, no new developer, no new photography. Most businesses could fix their biggest clarity problem in an afternoon, just by writing down, in plain language, the four things a stranger actually needs to know.CHAPTERS:0:00 Could a stranger tell what your business does?0:33 The sentence that says nothing: "quality solutions for all your needs"0:59 Why the vague feels obvious from the inside1:14 Brand clarity: the first of the five factors1:36 The four things your website needs to plainly say1:58 Fixing the vague sentence (a real example)2:13 The anatomy of a page that gets found2:54 Why AI punishes vagueness harder than humans do3:41 The two-minute test: cover the logo, read two sentences4:18 Words to watch for: solution, excellence, quality, trusted4:49 The opposite problem: too much jargon5:14 Why this is the cheapest fix on the whole listMENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:📘 Small Business Big Visibility: Local SEO Made Easy: [book link]🎧 Start the series: Why AI Might Be Recommending Your Competitor, Not You.🔗 https://smallbusinessbigvisibility.com/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 415🔗 https://smallbusinessbigvisibility.com/

    How to Write a Homepage AI Can Actually Recommend

  8. Aug 6

    Why AI Might Be Recommending Your Competitor, Not You

    Someone in your town grabs their phone and asks, "who's a good electrician near me?" The AI gives them a short, confident answer with just a few names. Your business was either in that answer or it wasn't. If AI is naming your competitor instead of you, this series is about fixing that.In this episode, I'll explain what GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) actually is in plain language, why it's not the mysterious new discipline a lot of people online make it out to be, and how it connects directly to the local SEO you may already be doing. The core idea: AI assistants aren't inventing businesses out of thin air. They pull from your website, your Google Business Profile, your reviews, and directories, the same web content everything else runs on. I'll also introduce the five factors this whole series is built around: brand clarity, presence, popularity and reputation, expertise and depth, and the technical stuff, in the specific order that actually matters (which is not the order most of the industry sells).This is the first episode in a new series on building your business foundation for both search and AI. Do the fundamental work well and you show up in both places. Skip it and you risk being invisible in both.After 15+ years helping small businesses get found, I've watched providers oversell the technical checklist because it's easy to charge for, while ignoring the fundamentals that actually move the needle. This series is the honest version: what's testable, what's repeatable, and what genuinely helps you get recommended, whether the recommendation comes from Google or from an AI.CHAPTERS:0:00 Have you heard the term GEO and have no idea what it means?0:35 What GEO stands for, in plain language0:52 SEO gets you the top link. GEO gets you named.2:07 Why you could be invisible to people asking AI2:27 GEO is not a separate system from getting found on Google2:57 AI isn't inventing businesses. It pulls from your existing presence.3:55 The five factors this series is built on4:22 Factor 1: Brand clarity4:37 Factor 2: Presence4:52 Factor 3: Popularity and reputation (and the no-fake-reviews rule)5:22 Factor 4: Expertise and depth5:42 Factor 5: The technical stuff (and why it's deliberately last)5:59 Why the order matters7:10 Why nobody fully understands the whole system (including the AI companies)8:19 Where to start: brand clarityMENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:📘 Small Business Big Visibility: Local SEO Made Easy: [book link]🧰 GeniePress: https://geniepress.app🔗 https://smallbusinessbigvisibility.com/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 414🔗 https://smallbusinessbigvisibility.com/#LocalSEO #GEO #SmallBusinessMarketing

    Why AI Might Be Recommending Your Competitor, Not You
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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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