Heroes in Business - Craig Darling, CEO Darling Digital, Chevrolet Hall of Fame

Episode Date: June 21, 2021

Secrets of Google you need to know. Craig Darling, founder of Darling Digital: the least expensive and most effective way to manage your Google My Business profile. Is interviewed by David Cogan Founder of Eliances and Host of the Eliances Heroes Radio Show Broadcast of AM and FM, syndicated online www.eliances.com

Up in the sky, look, it's captivating, it's energizing, it's Eliance's Heroes. Eliance's is the destination for entrepreneurs, investors, CEOs, inventors, leaders, celebrities, and startups, where our heroes in business align. Now, here's your host flying in, David Kogan, founder of Eliance's. That's me. And it's another incredible, incredible time that we're going to have because you know what? It's always about learning from others. And that's what we do from people who are making an impact. And you all have the ability to do that too. And we're going to learn some more secrets today. So with that too, thank you two for the feedback when I interviewed the former CEO of Apple.

So you know where to go to find those past and previous interviews, go to alliances.com. That's E-L-I-A-N-C-E-S.com because it's the only place where entrepreneurs align. All right, you heard of Google, right? Google this, Google that. Wow, have things transformed within Google. Well, you know, we've got an expert here today

and we're gonna learn the secrets about Google. We have with us the founder. Are you ready? The founder of Darling Digital. And he is a Google expert and he's going to share some secrets about google because things change so much with them and you could reach craig darling by going to darlingdigital.us or of course we'll have it on our website then the link at alliances.com so cra, welcome to the show. First of all, with all the changes that are going on within Google constantly, how in the world do you keep up with them all?

Well, fortunately, I am a registered Google partner, so I'm invited to those sales meetings that last for hours. So, really cool. We learned some new stuff just this last week. For example, how Google and Ford are working together. I was able to sit in a meeting with the current chairman of Ford Motor Company. So there's so much going on. It's just, it's crazy.

But you have to watch the emails because as a Google partner, Google does tell me on a regular basis what's going on. And can you believe after all these years, it's still the number one place. People always say, well, just Google that. They don't say another one. I mean, it's still right. What kind of market share do they own in the search engine field? 92% of the people in the world that use search use Google to search.

And that's why I'm such a proponent of the free Google tools. That's amazing. Okay. I want to talk about, you use this magic word, one of our favorite words, one of the four letter favorite words, free. There's others too. Tell us about what that means. Well, if you sign up for a Gmail account, you're eligible to create a Google business account. And Gmail and Google My Business are both being free, include dozens of other digital tools that Google allows you to fill out that'll deliver your content as search results. It's a whole new world when it comes to SEO, and the Google tools are part of it. And by the way, it's all free.

I just teach people how to use it, or if they want me to, I manage them for them. All right. So I'm sure probably one of the number one questions you get is, how do I get at the top? How do I get at the top? I want to be on the first page ranking. Is there really a way for that to happen? Yes. Google business profiles only come in in one search result. Number one. It is never number two. It's never number seven. It's never on the second

page. A Google business profile, when it's relevant to the search result, is always the first position. And what we do is train people or teach people how to create relevance for their Google profile so that is number one position more than just a few times a week. Some of our clients are the number one result 50, 60,000 times a month. All right. So probably maybe a little bit of a crazy question, but how important is it now for people to really utilize and be on the top of Google? And then the second part of that is, is you mentioned that you teach it. What about those that are out there that just say, you know what, Craig, here, I want to pay you, just take care of it. Right. Well, it's very, very important. Anymore, Google is moving to the same fact that Facebook and LinkedIn are, is they want

to keep you on their platform as long as possible. And Google My Business panels are, in fact, a social media platform for businesses and entrepreneurs that's located directly in Google search. So everything that you do on that affects your relevance for search results. That being said, it is sometimes difficult for business owners to grab a hold of Google and run with it. So I personally manage 220 clients around the globe.

I manage their Google business profiles for them. And I teach twice as many on a regular basis that's amazing and you know what could also be found when you do a search is the alliances Heroes show right you're listening and watching me David Kogan host of the alliances Heroes show make sure you go to alliances.com that's e-l-i-a-n-c-e-s.com because we have with us Craig Darling, founder of Darling Digital. We're talking about the most effective way to manage your Google My Business profile. So make sure that you contact him, DarlingDigital.us. In fact, you may have the lifetime opportunity to see him live in person or live on one of the online experiences that Alliances has, because Craig

is part of the Alliances community. In fact, Craig, what's it been like for you to be part of the Alliances community? Oh, my goodness. David, the Alliances community has offered so much. When I first started, my company was just a little local company. And since I became a member of the alliances group where entrepreneurs really do align, we've blown up and we've gone worldwide. We're now currently working with clients in 10 countries and 33 of these United States. And I thank alliances for that.

All right, so we're getting some questions and some of those are, can you share if there is one thing that someone can do right now, what would you say that they can do to be able to be found on Google? Start utilizing your Google Business Profile. An actively managed Google Business Profile will default to the number one position in the map pack. That's very important to know for local businesses specifically. All right. Now, I know when you come, you're very active within the community, and a lot of people want to talk with you afterwards. I mean, you know, you're talking

about something that, first of all, everybody's heard of Google pretty much, right? And they do get an idea of how important it is. What are some of the more frequent questions? Because again, I know in person, people swarm around you. They're like, but what are they asking? They're asking a number of things. Number one, can they learn how to do it? The answer is yes. It's actually very simple. Number two, they ask, why is it so important? Again, Google is trying to keep people on their platform. So if you manage the Google profiles properly the way Google wants you to, they'll actually promote your profile to people that they think are most likely to engage or do business with you. And think about that.

They spent a couple of billion dollars creating these tools. You and I have nowhere near the financial wherewithal to do that so just follow their advice and it seems to work out again you know many of my clients are getting thousands of views every single month it's just crazy cool and with all the things happening and the things of how things have really evolved within google what does your crystal ball say of what's next? What's next is they're moving past the technology of the target and remarketing. Google is committed to eliminating cookies and privacy issues. So it remains to be seen how well they can do it and still achieve their goals of marketing. But we'll see a lot of changes in the next three

months. What about just paying to be on the front? You know, I see a number of things where it shows up ads and you could pay and all that. What's your professional view on that? Well, I do. I manage, you know, quite a bit of dollars every month in pay-per-click ads. One of the things that I have discovered in my lawyers around the country like this, a typical criminal lawyer will pay $200 or so for a click. However, if they run the pay-per-clicks through their Google business profile, the pay-per-click ad pulls the Google business profile with it, and people will click on the profile, which is free, instead of clicking on the ad for $200. It really saves lawyers a lot of money and others as well, I'm sure. Now, we've got a lot of various small businesses to large businesses that are listening right now and also watching.

Is there a specific type of maybe sweet spot of your customers? No, not really. My clients tend to not be millennials, so the millennials don't think I know what I'm talking about. But, you know, I make a jest. No, to answer your question, no, not really. It's just a matter of being straightforward and transparent and sharing literally real results. Yeah. And, you know, Craig, I've known you for a number of years now. How did you even get started within the Google arena? That's actually an accident. So as you probably know, I was in the automobile industry and I helped moving the automobile

industry from the industry it was to online. And one day I was playing with something called Google Plus. And I made a post on Google Plus. And then a few minutes later, I accidentally searched for that post. It's complicated how it happened, but the search result, my post was the number one search result on the search. And I said, how could that be? How did it index that quickly? And I discovered that I could utilize Google tools

to index content to search in seconds instead of days or weeks as the robots do it. Great. Now you mentioned too about being able to teach it. So how does that work? Is it multiple classes? Is it days? Is it specific subjects? And also,

too, is how would somebody go about learning more to sign up for that? Well, I have a website. It's called tvi.education. And it's a DIY, do-it-yourself website where people can watch videos. They're not highly polished. They're not highly produced. They're actually videos of me managing somebody's specifics, real Google business profile. And then those six to seven minute videos are posted in there with the notations on what the post is for. So that's one aspect. And that's a subscription fee. And then I do a coaching program. A lot of people take advantage of my five-week coaching program, which is one hour a week, one-on-one with me.

I teach you how to use it. And then we're launching on Monday. I've got two openings left. We're launching the Agency Builders class, which is a one-year mastermind to help people create agencies that are as productive as mine in the Google business arena. Oh, that's phenomenal. agencies that are as productive as mine in the Google business arena. Oh, that's phenomenal. So you're creating a business within a business for people to be able to run. I want to share the wealth, man.

There's 33 million businesses in America alone, and only 5% of them are actively using their Google profiles. That's absolutely phenomenal. And, you know, with the way, again, things that are evolving and stuff, what do you have advice for parents out there that are raising their children that want them to be able to make a living, do something that they enjoy like you do, and certainly being able to do it, quote, remote and stuff? What type of advice, secrets can you share with them? Learn how to spell and punctuate honestly that's

that's when we hire somebody that's the first thing we look at can you spell and can you punctuate and can you read right it's amazing that here is a digital area but if you don't have those three skills and a little math along with it doesn't hurt either, because algorithms are math in a different, you know, in a different disguise. But yeah, just learn to read and write. That's so important. Excellent. Well, Craig, definitely. I mean, again, you do so much for the community helping so many people helping people learn it helping people being able to either walk through it take classes heck now even launching the part where they can do and learn from you to do their own agency that's the hero helping others

craig darling founder of darling digital and remember you can reach him at DarlingDigital.us or we'll have it on our site at Alliances. Again, you're listening to the Alliances Hero Show. Continue to stay tuned. This has been David Kogan with the Alliances Hero Show.