Key Takeaways
- The Pain: Being invisible. Neighbors search for your service, but Google shows them a competitor in Long Beach instead.
- The Fix: The "Updates" Tab. Using it as a social feed rather than a static listing.
- The Voxel Win: We export perfectly sized clips specifically for the Google Maps mobile interface.
The South Bay Creator’s Guide (Part 6): The Local Beacon
By Edwin Duterte & Jennifer Wolfe
Founders of The Donn Allan Experience
Previously in Part 5: We saved your remote interviews from bad Wi-Fi. Now you have pristine content. But simply posting it to YouTube isn't enough if you want people to walk through your physical door. Today, in Part 6, we turn your Google listing into a 24/7 broadcast tower.
The "Ghost Town" Listing
Open Google Maps right now. Search for a business type in San Pedro (e.g., "Dry Cleaner"). Click on a few profiles.
What do you see? A blurry photo of the storefront from 2019. A logo. Hours of operation. That’s it. It looks like a digital ghost town.
Google hates ghost towns. Its algorithm wants to send users to businesses that are alive. If you aren't feeding the machine fresh data, the machine ignores you.
The SEO Question:
"Should I put my episodes on my Google Business Profile?"
The Voxel Answer: Yes. It is the single strongest "Heartbeat Signal" you can send to the algorithm.
The "Update" Strategy
Most business owners don't know this button exists. On your Google Business Profile, there is a tab called "Updates" (formerly Posts).
You can upload 30-second video clips here. When you do this, three things happen:
- The "Active" Flag: Google flags your business as "Currently Active."
- The Real Estate: Your listing literally takes up more space on the screen because the video thumbnail pushes your competitors down.
- The Conversion: A customer deciding between two shops sees you talking. They trust you instantly.
Case Study: The Vintage Store on 6th Street
Let’s imagine a vintage clothing boutique right here on 6th Street in San Pedro.
The owner comes to Voxel Micro Video Labs and records a segment about "How to Spot Authentic 70s Denim."
She takes a 45-second clip of that video and uploads it to her Google Maps "Update" tab with the caption: "New vintage denim just dropped! Come check it out on 6th St."
Now, when a tourist gets off a cruise ship at the World Cruise Center and searches "Shopping near me," Google serves her profile first. Why? Because she has fresh, rich media content, and her competitors just have a phone number.
The Voxel "Map Pack" Export
Technical details matter here. Google Maps hates huge files. If you try to upload a 4GB 4K file, it will reject it.
At Voxel, part of our workflow is exporting a "Map-Optimized" version of your clips. We compress the file size without losing quality, ensuring it uploads instantly to your profile so you can dominate the "Local Pack" rankings.