In this conversational tutorial, Polly Barnfield, OBE, and Google My Business specialist Matt examine how Betty's Cafe & Tea Rooms in York leverages Google My Business (GMB) to attract more customers. They highlight several best‑practice features: the new proximity‑linking tool that shows a four‑minute walk to nearby attractions like York’s Chocolate Story; the importance of keeping the GMB profile current, illustrated by a recent update to opening hours; aggregating reviews from Google, Facebook, TripAdvisor and other platforms to build trust; adding high‑quality product photos to appear in Google Image search; and the simple process of editing the profile (sign‑in, change hours, save). Throughout, they stress that GMB is free, under‑utilised, and can dramatically improve discoverability for any physical business. The discussion ends with a call to action for other cafés to adopt these tactics.
Chapters
Matt, our resident Google My business expert is going to talk us through why Betty's Cafe and Tea Rooms do such an extraordinary job of using Google My business, which as we said before is a completely free feature on Google. And Matt, they do a really good job here, don't they?
They do. There's, there's quite a few different areas for us to touch on today, but I think where I'll start is actually what we can see straight away. So, and I know we've spoken about this before, Pauline, it's really interesting is this slight bit here that I'm highlighting where it tells us it's a four minute walk away from York's Chocolate Story. So this is actually a very, very new feature of Google. My business as we speak really pushes across how important it is to put effort into it as well. So obviously what I'll quickly do, Polly, is try and just explain how it works. Then if you have any questions on that, please let me know. Just because I say it's a relatively new kind of feature that they've added. But using these as a specific example is most people who've heard of York or have been to York have probably heard of Betty's Tea Rooms and, and the York Chocolate Story. They are two of the biggest kind of, I suppose, tourist attractions of York. And what Google's actually done very smartly, very recently is figured out okay? So Betty's is in York and obviously York's Chocolate Store is there as well. And these two profiles are kept up to date. The very good Google my business profiles, but also the very popular people are searching them a lot. So it's kind of being able to link two and two together and say, well, if people are in York they probably want to go to Betty's and then afterwards they may want to go to the Chocolate Story. So what it's done is actually using the address function that it's got, which we are, is it giving it for the, for the map section of everything is figuring out how long away it will take you to walk to each location, which is an incredible feature.
So Matt, if I'm a, if I'm, if I'm, if I'm a smaller cafe than Betty's in York and I'm doing a good job with my Google my business profile is Google likely to pick up and link me to Google to York's chocolate story?
Yeah, 100%. So this isn't because Betty's is, you know, classed as Google by class, by Google, sorry, as the best cafe in York, not by Far it's just because they've got a very up to date profile which people are using because it's so up to date. And just as a, I suppose a slight aside point to show how up to date it is, there is actually this one section here which tells us that just one week ago the business updated their opening times. So that is how often they are checking that profile and keeping it up to date.
That's a really good point. Bach Max. I know there's another cafe we reviewed recently that they still got their Covid regulations on there which made you think it was a bit of out of date. And then when you went down to the event section it was clearly an event that was out of date. I mean this makes you realise that they really care because at the end of the day this listing is looked at on your mobile device, isn't it? It's while you're walking around York, it could be rainy, it could be summer, you could be having a good day or a bad day. And when you want to go to better Cafe you want to know that they care. And this says they can because it's been updated recently. And all the rest of their profile, I think as you go down they're even putting through their Facebook reviews on there. You know they're being really brave, they're being really proactive.
Yeah, 100% and that's a great point as well is that they show the care and I think that's the big thing is people want to know a business they're going to cares about their customers and you know a lot of businesses miss out on this brilliant opportunity of Google my business which is completely free to just push out and show how much they care. So as I said there we can see that they updated it one week ago and it's relatively rare to see.
That on a company just on that point. You know, just it's really easy to do this, isn't it? It's not, it's not difficult, not difficult at all.
It is literally a case of signing up to the profile which no been through before in a previous video. Once you've created everything and input the information that is probably the bulkiest task. It's just including all the information after that it's as simple as just logging in and changing what needs changing. So let's say for example we thought Betty's were going to change double close on Tuesdays at 5pm literally all they have to do is sign in, click on an information section, there'll be an opening times kind of subsection there and they just change Tuesday to close at 5pm Click Save and that's it.
So if anybody wants to know how you do that, if you just use the little blue button to the bottom right where you can see this video and there's a chat button and you type in Google my business profile, there's a, there's a really great session where Matt goes through step by step how you do your Google my business profile. If you need any questions, just ask them in the thing and one of the team will get back to you. But I think the value of getting this right is so huge for any physical business. What else are they doing?
Well, Matt, so another point that you actually mentioned yourself, Polly, earlier as we scroll down is when we look at the reviews. So these three reviews that we can see here are obviously for a start, very good reviews, which is exactly what people looking for. You know, they want to see if this, especially if it's a cafe, they want to see that the reviews are saying, this is an amazing cafe, best one I've ever been to. You need to go to it. So these three reviews here are actually pulled in from Google reviews, which is something I would always suggest trying to push people to leave because that will always 100% of the time showing your Google my business profile. They're essentially linked together your Google my business profile and the Google reviews where they've done something relatively brave, as you said, Polly, and kind of what not every company does is they have also pointed out reviews from other websites. So obviously we know you can leave a review on Google. If we're talking specifically about cafes, as we are in this case, there's Facebook, TripAdvisor, Yel, Yahoo. There are countless different review platforms out there and people want to see that as well. So with this one we can see. Okay, well I can see there's three very good reviews straight away from Google. But there's also if I wanted another 431 on Facebook where I could go and read through all of them if I want to. And it just gives more confidence to the user as well and the customer that this company is not hiding anything. They're happy for me to see everything. So.
And so Matt, that that's something you can, you can basically click a button in your Google my business profile and say include my Facebook reviews. And like you say that that would make me walk that extra 500 yards to get the cafe. I know I'm going to have a delicious tea. I can feel it. It's Making me hungry.
Exactly. And I think that's the thing is, you know, the more you can offer your customers or your users through your Google my business profile, the more likely they are to either come and visit you in person or visit your website, depending on your business. It's very much an underutilized tool by a lot of businesses, but that also means there is huge opportunities for every business as well.
And what else? Betty's are doing this amazingly well, but what could they do better? What are they missing? I know what I think they're missing. I want to see a picture of one of those amazing cakes. They must have awesome eclairs or something. I want to see a steaming pot of tea and awesome eclairs.
Could they add them 100%? And I think that is one thing that a lot of people do want to see. Obviously, people know Betty's quite famous for the cakes and the teas and the coffees. And at the minute, what I'm seeing is straight away, the main picture is the outside of their building, which by all means is a very nice picture. Like, looking at that picture is very nice. And I know if I was walking through York, that's what I'm looking out for. But when we're thinking about kind of a restaurant or a cafe, and as we said, when we're kind of talking about these specific, you know, cakes that we've heard it like everything about, and the best cakes you're ever going to have, show a picture of them, show them off. It's free, it's easy to add them. That's what people want to see. You know, if you think about a Facebook page or an Instagram page, you'd be uploading every single photo you could get of your own products. You should be doing that with Google My business as well. It's just as important to push through. And the added bonus to that is if you're uploading it to Google my business, there is every opportunity for it to show in Google Image search as well. So if someone searched delicious cake, they could see a picture of Betty's Delicious cake. So it's really useful to use everything ties in together. It's a Google product at the end of the day. So adding all those photos in is just giving even more reasoning for those customers to actually go and visit.
Exactly. But great job, Betty's Teerum. But please show me the eclairs, show me the donuts, show me the easy cake, because I'd be even quicker to get there. It's great to see a profile that you could improve on that. But this is this just, you know, why would any business not do this? And I think please do use the blue search button to bottom right of maybe tech and just Google, Google my business and you'll be served up with a whole load of articles, videos that will talk you through how to do this, and you've got any questions specifically, please ask them and the team will jump on. Matt, it's absolutely brilliant and look forward to doing another review with you very shortly.
