Latest / The Local Marketing Podcast with Fexingo: Small Business, Google Maps, and Local SEO / How a Hardware Store Uses Google Maps Attributes to Beat the Big Boxes
Transcript
- Lucas: So there's this independent hardware store in Portland, Oregon called 'The Tool Shed'. Been around for forty-two years. And in the last eighteen months, they've quietly been using Google Maps attributes to compete against Home Depot and Lowe's — and winning. Luna: Winning how? Like, customers walking in saying they found them on Maps? Lucas: Exactly that. Their owner — a woman named Maria Gonzalez — told me that before she started paying attention to attributes, maybe ten or twelve direction requests a week from Google Maps. Now she's averaging over forty. That's a threefold increase without spending a cent on ads. Luna: Okay, so attributes are those labels under the listing, right? Things like 'Women-led' or 'LGBTQ+ friendly'? Lucas: Right. Google offers about forty possible attributes you can toggle on your Business Profile. They fall into different categories — ownership, service options, amenities. And most businesses just set them once and forget them. But Maria treats them like a living tool. Luna: What's she doing differently? Lucas: She audits her attributes every single week. Not just adding or removing, but asking: Who is my customer this week? In spring, it's gardeners. So she turns on 'Curbside pickup' and 'Same-day delivery'. In winter, it's people fixing pipes, so she turns on 'Appointment required' because she wants to manage the flow. Luna: That seems like a lot of work for a small team. Is the payoff really there? Lucas: She tracked it. The week she added 'Women-led' and 'LGBTQ+ friendly', direction requests jumped thirty-four percent. And calls labeled as 'booking' went up twenty-two percent after she added 'Online appointments'. These aren't guesses. Google provides that data in the Insights tab. Luna: I can see why 'Women-led' would matter for a hardware store — it signals a different experience than the big box. But does 'LGBTQ+ friendly' actually change behavior? Lucas: There's research from the Human Rights Campaign showing that seventy percent of LGBTQ+ consumers and allies prefer to spend money at businesses they perceive as inclusive. If your listing has that attribute, you become visible in searches where big boxes are invisible. And Google's algorithm actually boosts your ranking when attributes match the searcher's intent. Luna: So if someone searches 'hardware store near me LGBTQ friendly', the Tool Shed pops up before Home Depot, even if Home Depot is closer? Lucas: Exactly. Google weights attribute relevance in local results. But here's the catch — you can't just enable every attribute. Maria calls it 'attribute fatigue'. If your listing has twelve tags, none of them cut through. She limits herself to five active at any time. Luna: Five seems low. How does she choose which ones? Lucas: She uses a simple rule: one ownership attribute, one service attribute, one accessibility attribute, one payment attribute, and one seasonal attribute. So right now, hers are: 'Women-led', 'Appointment required', 'Wheelchair accessible', 'Accepts debit cards', and 'Same-day delivery'. Luna: So 'Same-day delivery' is seasonal? In June? Lucas: She says in Portland, June is when people start major home projects. They're buying lumber and paint, they can't carry it home on the bus. Same-day delivery is a huge differentiator when Lowe's says three to five days. Luna: But what about the big box stores — do they use attributes at all? Lucas: Home Depot and Lowe's have attributes, but they're generic. 'Large chain', 'Has restroom', 'Has recycling'. Their listings don't say 'Veteran-led' or 'Small business' because they can't. And those ownership attributes carry trust that a big chain can't replicate. Luna: That's interesting. But I wonder — if a business has solid reviews, do attributes really move the needle? Lucas: I asked Maria that exact question. She said reviews tell people you're good. Attributes tell people you're for them. They're different signals. A five-star review from a random person doesn't answer 'Is this place welcoming to me as a trans person?' An attribute does. Luna: So attributes are almost like pre-qualifiers. They reduce friction before the customer even walks in. Lucas: Exactly. And that's something that, you know, it's funny — we talk a lot on this show about reviews and posts and photos. But attributes are this underused lever. Most businesses don't realize they can update them weekly, or that Google surfaces them in search snippets. Luna: Quick honest thing — a handful of listeners chip in monthly through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, and that's literally what funds making episodes like this, where we can dig into specific tactics from a real hardware store in Portland. If these conversations have sparked something you've actually used, that's the whole reason we keep doing this ad-free. Lucas: Yeah, and we're not asking for a dime more than feels right to you. It's just, the people who support us — they're the reason we can spend an episode on a forty-two-year-old hardware store instead of chasing the latest trend. So if you've ever learned something from this show, that's where the link lives. Luna: Alright, back to Maria. She also mentioned something about attributes and search rankings that I hadn't heard before. Lucas: What's that? Luna: She said that when she added 'Online appointments', her listing started appearing for searches like 'hardware store consultation'. Before, she wasn't ranking for that at all. Lucas: That makes sense. Google treats attributes as structured data. When you add an attribute, you're essentially telling Google's algorithm what you offer. It's like adding keywords to your profile without stuffing the description field. Luna: So for a hardware store, the obvious attributes are the physical ones like 'Has restroom' or 'Wheelchair accessible'. But the ones that drive action are the trust and service attributes. Lucas: Right. Maria's biggest lesson was: Don't treat attributes as a static checklist. They're a weekly marketing decision. She spends ten minutes every Monday morning reviewing her competitors' attributes too. She checks if a local hardware store added 'Curbside pickup' and decides whether she needs to counter. Luna: That's guerrilla local SEO. I love it. Lucas: It's also free. There's no ad spend. It's just a consistent ten-minute habit. And the results compound. Her direction requests have grown month over month for a year. Luna: So what's the one attribute every hardware store should enable right now? Lucas: If I had to pick one — 'Small business'. It's available to any independent retailer. And according to Google, listings with the 'Small business' attribute get a twenty percent lift in click-through rate from local search results. It's the single highest-impact attribute for independents. Luna: And what about a business that doesn't qualify for ownership attributes — say a franchisee? Lucas: Then focus on service attributes: 'Appointment required', 'Online estimates', 'Same-day service'. Those signal convenience. Maria actually tested removing 'Same-day delivery' for a week and saw direction requests drop by fifteen percent. She put it back immediately. Luna: Test and revert. That's solid. Lucas: It's the same mindset as A/B testing an ad. Except there's no ad cost. The only investment is attention. Luna: So for a listener who runs a local business — not necessarily a hardware store — what's the takeaway? Lucas: Log into your Google Business Profile today. Look at your attributes. Ask: Are they serving the customer I want this week? If you haven't touched them in three months, you're leaving money on the table. And check your competitors' attributes in the same category. If they have something you don't, that's a gap you can close in ten minutes. Luna: I think I'm going to audit my own listing tonight. I have a feeling I've got attributes that haven't been touched since 2022. Lucas: That's probably the most common state. And the easiest fix. So if you're listening, just do it. Ten minutes. It might be the most profitable ten minutes of your week.