Latest / The Local Marketing Podcast with Fexingo: Small Business, Google Maps, and Local SEO / How a Baker Uses Google Maps SEO to Drive Foot Traffic
Transcript
- Lucas: So there's this bakery in Portland — Meriwether's Bake Shop. It's a small storefront on a side street, not on the main drag, and they were struggling with walk-ins. Then they did something pretty simple with their Google Business Profile that boosted foot traffic by about forty percent over three months. Luna: Forty percent from a profile tweak? That's huge. What did they change? Lucas: They went deep on Google Maps attributes. You know, those little tags under your listing — 'wheelchair accessible', 'free Wi-Fi', 'outdoor seating', 'cash only', 'family-friendly'. Most businesses just set the obvious ones and move on. Meriwether's spent an afternoon auditing every attribute Google offers and turned on or off about twenty of them. Luna: I think a lot of people don't realize how many attributes there are. Google has over a hundred now for different categories. Lucas: Yeah, and they're category-specific. For a bakery, the relevant attributes include things like 'breakfast', 'dessert', 'coffee', 'vegan options', 'takeout', 'curbside pickup', 'gender-neutral restrooms'. Meriwether's owner, Sarah, told me she initially only had five attributes set. She added 'free Wi-Fi', 'outdoor seating', 'wheelchair accessible', 'family-friendly', and 'dogs allowed'. Luna: Wait — 'dogs allowed' matters for a bakery? That seems niche. Lucas: It does in Portland. She said a lot of people search for 'dog-friendly bakery' because they walk their dogs and want to grab a pastry. That attribute alone started showing their listing in those search results. And then 'free Wi-Fi' brought in remote workers who came for coffee and ended up buying lunch. Luna: So it's not just about ranking higher — it's about showing up for the right searches. Each attribute is like a keyword. Lucas: Exactly. Google uses attributes as a relevance signal. If someone searches 'bakery with outdoor seating', your listing has a much higher chance of appearing if you have that attribute turned on. Sarah saw a measurable spike in impressions from the 'outdoor seating' query after she added it. Luna: What about negative attributes? Did she turn any off? Lucas: Interesting question. She turned off 'cash only' because they actually take cards and she didn't want to discourage customers who assume they need cash. And she explicitly set 'no delivery' since they don't deliver — that prevents people from calling and asking. Luna: Right, that's smart. Because if you leave a negative attribute unset, Google might not assume it's false — it just doesn't know. But setting it explicitly signals accuracy. Lucas: Yes. And accuracy matters for trust. Google also weighs attribute completeness in local ranking. A business with all relevant attributes filled in tends to rank slightly higher than one with just a few. There's a study from last year by BrightLocal that found listings with at least ten attributes get thirty percent more clicks. Luna: Okay, but here's the thing — attributes aren't static. Businesses change. A bakery might add a gluten-free line, or start offering tea. So you'd need to update them. Lucas: That's exactly what Sarah does. She reviews her attributes monthly. She added 'gluten-free options' when they launched a dedicated gluten-free menu. That alone brought in a whole new customer base. She told me one customer drove twenty minutes because they specifically searched for a gluten-free bakery. Luna: That's the power of specificity. And it's free. No ad spend. Lucas: Free but not effortless. You have to be intentional. The mistake a lot of small businesses make is setting attributes once and forgetting them. Google occasionally adds new attributes — last year they added 'sustainable packaging' for food businesses. If you don't check, you miss out. Luna: How do you even find all the attributes for your category? It's not obvious in the Google Business Profile dashboard. Lucas: You go to the 'Info' tab, then scroll down to 'Attributes'. But Google doesn't show all possible ones — it shows the ones you haven't set. So if you want to see everything, you can use a tool like PlePer or just look at a competitor's listing and see what attributes they have that you don't. Luna: Competitor analysis — that's a good hack. Also, I've seen some businesses use Google Posts to highlight attributes. Like a post saying 'Enjoy our outdoor seating' with a photo. Lucas: That's exactly what Meriwether's does. They tie attributes to posts. For 'dogs allowed', they posted a photo of a customer's dog outside the shop with a caption. That post got shared locally on social media and drove engagement. Google Posts can reinforce attributes and vice versa. Luna: It's like a flywheel: attributes help you show up in search, posts give people a reason to click, and then the reviews come in. Speaking of reviews, do attributes show up in reviews? Like someone might write 'great outdoor seating' and that would reinforce the attribute. Lucas: Yes, Google can extract keywords from reviews and match them to attributes. So if multiple reviews mention 'outdoor seating', even if you didn't set the attribute, Google might infer it. But it's better to set it yourself. Sarah actually saw a review say 'loved the free Wi-Fi' and that validated her attribute choice. Luna: So attributes and reviews work together. What about Q&A? Can attributes help there? Lucas: Definitely. Someone asked on Meriwether's Q&A 'Do you have vegan options?' and Sarah answered yes, plus she made sure the 'vegan options' attribute was turned on. That question-answer pair now appears in the Q&A section and the attribute signals the same thing. It's redundant but consistent. Luna: Consistency is key for Google's algorithm. If you say you have vegan options in your attributes, posts, and Q&A, Google is more confident that it's true. Lucas: Right. And that confidence feeds local ranking. There's a rumored Google Maps update coming later this year that will surface attribute-based filters more prominently. So if a user searches 'bakery with vegan options', Google might show a filter carousel at the top of the map. If your attributes match, you get prime placement. Luna: That would be a game-changer for small businesses. They could essentially bid on attributes without paying. Lucas: Exactly. The businesses that have their attributes dialed in now will be ahead when that rolls out. Sarah's already seeing the benefit — her foot traffic is up forty percent and she attributes about half of that directly to attribute optimization. Luna: That's a concrete number. So what's the single most important takeaway for our listeners? If they only do one thing this week. Lucas: Go to your Google Business Profile, scroll to the attributes section, and turn on every single attribute that genuinely applies to your business. Then set a monthly calendar reminder to review them. That's it. One action that can start bringing in more relevant customers. Luna: And for businesses that aren't sure what applies, ask a few customers what they value. They might tell you something you hadn't considered, like 'free parking' or 'late-night hours'. Lucas: Great point. And speaking of value — we've been doing these episodes for a while now, and we've never run ads. That's a deliberate choice. If you find these conversations useful and want to support keeping them ad-free, you can buy us a coffee at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a small way to help us keep going without interrupting the content. Luna: Yeah, we really appreciate the listeners who've contributed. It makes a difference. And we're not going anywhere — we just want to keep the quality high. Lucas: So back to attributes. One last tip: don't underestimate the 'wheelchair accessible' attribute. It's not just about compliance — it signals to a broad audience that your business is inclusive. Meriwether's saw a noticeable uptick in families and older customers after setting it. Luna: Inclusivity as SEO. I like that. Alright, thanks Lucas. Next episode we'll look at how a hardware store used Google Photos to drive in-store traffic. Lucas: Looking forward to it. Talk to you then.