Wedding Business Solutions

Brian Lawrence - Moving the needle towards 2026

• Alan Berg, CSP, Global Speaking Fellow

Share episode

Brian Lawrence - Moving the needle towards 2026

What's really moving the needle for your wedding business? Are you making changes now that will set you up for more success when the next engagement season rolls around? Are you treating your website and SEO as living, breathing assets—or are you waiting until it’s too late to update them? In this episode, we unpack the practical steps you can take right now to boost conversion, show up in more local searches, and start turning more browsers into bookers. Plus, we dive into the difference between expertise and experience, how to use AI authenticity, and the power of keeping your Google Business Profile fresh and relevant.

Listen to this new episode for actionable ideas on website updates, local SEO tips, and simple strategies to attract and convert more couples—just in time for the next big wave of wedding planning.

About Brian:
Brian Lawrence is the co-author with me of "From Browsing To Booking" and producer of the Inclusive Wedding Summit. His agency is the go-to web design and SEO resource for numerous wedding industry authorities and also consults with many businesses on website and seo strategies. He was homegrown in the industry, owning numerous wedding businesses and serving as VP of a national wedding brand.

Contact Brian:
https://www.brianlawrence.com/meeting-with-brian-lawrence/

https://www.brianlawrence.com/


If you have any questions about anything in this, or any of my podcasts, or have a suggestion for a topic or guest, please reach out directly to me at Alan@WeddingBusinessSolutions.com or visit my website Podcast.AlanBerg.com 

Please be sure to subscribe to this podcast and leave a review (thanks, it really does make a difference). If you want to get notifications of new episodes and upcoming workshops and webinars, you can sign up at www.ConnectWithAlanBerg.com  

View the full transcript on Alan’s site: https://alanberg.com/blog/


Have you ever wondered... "What would Alan say or do about this?" - well, now you can ask my AI Alter-Ego "Ask Alan Anything" the things you'd ask the real Alan, any time of the day or night. And as a listener of this podcast, you'll save 50%, so starting at only $10 per month you can "Ask Alan Anything"!

Go to www.WhatWouldAlanSay.com and use the 50% off coupon code - podcast - to start asking Alan anything today.

I'm Alan Berg. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions about this or if you'd like to suggest other topics for "The Wedding Business Solutions Podcast" please let me know. My email is Alan@WeddingBusinessSolutions.com. Look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks.

Listen to this and all episodes on Apple Podcast, YouTube or your favorite app/site:

©2025 Wedding Business Solutions LLC & AlanBerg.com

What's going to move the needle for you in 2026? Listen to this episode and find out. Hi, it's Alan Berg. Welcome back to another episode of the Winning Business Solutions podcast. If you are watching on video, you're probably wondering why I am not alone here in my studio. I'm here with my friend Brian Lawrence, co author of our book From Browsing to Booking. If we're. Again, if you're listening and not watching, you don't see that we're both wearing T shirts with the book on it and then it says on the back, author. So thank you, Brian, for providing us with those shirts and thank you for joining me. Oh, it's a pleasure. Now, we've done so many before, but this is the first time we're really sitting in the same place together. Yeah. And I rarely ever do this. So you came up with some ideas about needle movers. What's going to move the needle? So where does, where did this concept come from? Well, essentially, there's so many different pathways that you can take to try to better your business from a website and SEO perspective. And you know, where it seems like we're months away, but, but when it comes to trying to make changes on your website and SEO that are going to bear fruit, it takes time. Right. So what I want this podcast to be about is some of the things that you could work on now just in time to really benefit the most from the, you know, the engagement season starting say in late November with Thanksgiving. Right. Not waiting until you're. It's too late to get the changes made. Taking time now because everything is steps. Right. Nothing happens in one step. You have to think about what needs to get changed. Make those text changes and things, get them to your developer if it's not yourself, and get that stuff done. So what would be. Let's start. What's the first things people could look at? Well, the, the good thing when you're talking about a website is that when you make a change on a website, it's, it's, it's immediate. So the people that are coming to the website after you make those changes, we're hoping have a better chance of converting. But I'm going to focus more on the, the SEO type of things because it takes time for Google, the things that you do to percolate with Google and help and help you ranking. Okay. So SEO. And before we get into. I heard something recently and I'm sure it's just a, you know, somebody being alarmist about this, saying that SEO, SEO doesn't matter. Now it's optimizing for the AI. It seems to me like that's a crossover because AI is using the web to get its information, right? Yes. And yes, there's a tremendous amount of hype having to do with AI and voice search. And it's, it's still really, really important. But Google still gets like 300%. No, I mean, it's like 387 times. This, this was a, this was a stat that was done like two months ago. Okay. 3, 387 times more search volume than, than AI or voice. Right. And plus, there's AI on Google as well. Right, there's AI on Google. And then Perplexity just announced its new browser. But again, a browser is browsing the Internet. If it's browsing the Internet, then it's searching what's going to be on your site. So, so let's talk about optimizing your site. What are some of the, the things that the people listening can do to optimize their site? Well, you have to realize because there are so many other vehicles besides Google that you, you have to, you have to search in a way that, that it gets delivered, that they want those, those. It's not, it's not just keywords anymore. It's like asking questions because you're asking those questions. Well, where could I find a really good florist that does chuppes if it's a Jewish wedding in my area. Right. Instead of. Or wedding florists in a particular area? So you get answers. And one of, one of the challenges also with the AI results is that you often get answers that are not a direct response of the actual businesses. Okay. You can search it on a. They'll say to you, sometimes we'll go to this Reddit group, or you can go to Wedding Wire or the Knot. Right. And then if you dig deeper, sometimes they'll mention names. Some you have to sometimes be a really big name to even get mentioned. It takes, it really takes time to get, to get even mentioned. And what's often happening now is that if a couple is seeing those AI results, they may go right on Google and search for the business by name. Like the clicks, the actual links are not there. It's like it's called no click search. Okay. Okay. But again, it's still finding that information. It either exists on your site or it doesn't. And I know with my site that you've worked with me a lot on, I ask a lot of questions and I've been doing this for years trying to ask on my site the question that somebody might ask whether it's getting to my site or whether it's already on my site because I want them to be curious about the answer. And now people are actually searching hopefully for that question. It was an unintended positive consequence. I mean a lot of the things that we worked on and also a lot of the things that I did with a lot of my clients have really turned positive, even more so since the change of Google algorithms. Because Google is really looking for authenticity, they're looking for expertise. Right. So when you radiate that with having questions and answers, that and you, and because you are so many like you speak all over the world, you're you know, an education expert for, you know, wedding prone network. Google sees all those things. It's not just being on your website anymore, it's where else you're being mentioned. Which includes social, includes other people's websites. So again, going back to blogging, which we've spoken about before, if you blog about the weddings you do and you mention those other pros that could help them as well. And do it in real text. Do it like you were talking to somebody. And this is a place where some people are using AI. Actually heard this the other day. This guy on the way home from a wedding, he gets onto AI. I think he's actually might be using Notebook LM or one of those. And he just dictates because he's driving and he says while it's fresh in his mind, he's talking, just talking about the wedding. I just did this wedding of this couple and it was at this place. And here's what happened. The photographer was this and it was really fun. They had a beautiful cake and it was whatever. And then it will turn that into his blog post which then can be broken into social posts and other things. Mention those other venues and he's doing it right on the way home. So talk about saving time and talk about being fresh in your mind right then. And it's also authentic. It's real, it's what actually happened. And Google is eating that up. Yeah, yeah. And it's again real conversation. It's not this bland text, it's a conversation about what happened at that. And speaking of conversations, I don't have one but I know people have an Alexa or they have other connected devices in their house. I'm afraid to say Siri, because my phone's listening. But what if somebody has one of those? I'm sure a lot of people are using that are they using that to search? I think that because there are so many vehicles in our industry, it isn't as prevalent. But certainly if someone, what's a good restaurant or what, you know, near me, what's a good seafood restaurant? But, but certainly it's, it's still, I mean, we do incorporate strategies that try to get Alexa and Siri to, you know, to recognize as, as a, as, as a choice. Okay. But it, but the, the problem is, is that they don't really give you a lot of choices. So it's like sometimes they'll just say one result. It's right. So kind of very, very lazy. Well, it also, you know, you get what you ask for. You asked for something, it gave you something. If you said, give me five rest choices. Exactly. And I think that's what AI can teach us is because when, you know, I, I went from being an AI resistor to an AI evangelist and when I learned that people over 45 get better results from AI because we give it better instructions, I will give it better instructions. And, and my assistant who just graduated college last year, she said, yeah, I give it eight words. You give it two paragraphs. So. And then iterating, which is okay, now refine those results or give me other results or things like that. Funny side story with this, my wife and I, we play wordle and some of the word games at night. So we'll turn off the TV at 10 o' clock and we'll do those together. When I'm home, it's. And if something comes up that we don't know on my iPad, I'll ask Siri. And the funny thing is, after 10 at night, if I say hey Siri, it goes. It literally goes. Or sometimes. Huh. Which just cracks up my wife, she just thinks that's hysterical. That's Siri there. And you know, what is your, what is a website these days like a website is? It's not just an online brochure. It's. It's been more than that for years. But what else is it? What else should it be? Well, a web, A website, like I had done. We were together produced this conference called the Inclusive Wedding Summit earlier in the year and I did a seminar differentiating between a company centric website and a client centric website. And when a couple is going to a website, they are looking. It's all about them. And if you choose content and you choose, as you always say, aspirational imagery that they could relate to, they resonate with them. If they see, like you may Think as a business owner, I want to share how great I am. It's, you know, all of all of the accolades, all of all of the reviews, and certainly reviews are helpful in context to having those testimonial snippets that you talk about to back up a particular aspect that you're trying to get across. It's like social proof. But it, but in general, it's more. To me, the website today is more about like welcoming the, you know, the couples. Here I am, here's why I'm for you. And having, well, like thinking about all the calls to action that are welcoming rather than get more info, contact us, right? And again, this is another way I'm helping people with AI is like take the wording on your website and put it in and say, could you make this more conversational, more friendly, more usable for a Gen Y, Gen Z audience? Let's say if you're going after weddings or your audience, if you're doing corporate, you might be a Gen X, gen Y audience. I have a friend who I helped her edit her book with AI and hers are baby boomers and Gen Xers. And we're telling them that, specifically trying to tell who the audience is. So the whole idea of your website is now your presence. Since so many people in the industry. I was having this conversation last week with this group. I said, how many people, when they started, were looking across, physically looking across a desk at their customer? And they were about the same age. I know when you started, that was you, right? You're sitting there as a wedding professional. And whether it was your DJ business or you had the wedding center, you were looking at people who were about your age. They were my peers. Absolutely. I made friends with some of them. Absolutely. And we still make friends with them. But, you know, I socialize with them. It's a little bit different. Right, but yeah, but you're looking across the desk now, right? And I was talking to somebody today and he said, yeah, now I'm their parents, right. I'm the age. I'm the age of their parents. So I always use this kind of metaphor, that your homepage is your receptionist because this is your business. If they're not coming in physically, it's your business. So that whole idea of welcoming, how would you design your office if they were physically coming in, what would be in there? How would you talk to them? And you mentioned expertise. And let's just define here. Experience and expertise are not the same. Experience is time. Right. Been in the wedding industry for five years, 10 years, whatever you've done 10 weddings, 100 weddings, 1000 weddings, whatever it is. Expertise is the quality of the results that you've provided during that. Because everybody listening here knows somebody that's been in the business 10 years and has done the same wedding for 10 years, they do exactly the same thing that they're going to show up. It's not bad, but they're just going to do that same thing. I just experienced this. I was a guest at a wedding and the DJ did okay. And I can just imagine that the next wedding is going to look pretty much like this wedding. Whereas I just came back from a conference where I spoke to a group that they really work on their MC skills, event designing and stuff. And every wedding is different and unique and really personal to the couple. So make sure your website, we say that they care more about their experience than your experience. Yes. And it's also about quenching the couple's thirst for differentiation. It isn't a matter of, well, you're like everybody else, it's being original. One of the things that we've both spoken about is that you want to try to stay away from content that you can just copy and paste and put on any other website, Right? And this is one of the downsides of AI is just because AI can create the content from your website from scratch doesn't mean it should, because anybody else putting the same prompt in is going to get the same result. And that's why what I've been teaching is how to use AI with your own content, where you can make it fresh or you can make it more conversational, but it's still your content. So it's not going to sound the same as everybody else, but it's also putting forth, you know, talking about the results you're going to provide for someone. Because nobody needs a photographer, but they want the pictures. Right? And nobody needs a videographer, but they want to relive those sounds and those sights and the motion of their wedding. Nobody needs flowers, but they want the decor. So what are you selling? And if your website is talking about the stuff, everybody else does that. And a lot of people do it cheaper than you do. I hope they do, because you shouldn't be the cheapest one. Right? And also there's another element to expertise. Expertise, say for a none venue, is showing your expertise at that venue, Right? It's sharing images and videos that you performed at that vendor and at that venue, and perhaps actually having an actual blog post or landing page that talks about what your vision is at that venue. Like what do you look for? What is some of the magic of that venue? And that creates expertise and educating couples on really nuanced things that you've learned from your experience that could really help them. That's expertise. That's the difference, like you said, between expertise and experience. Right. And again, imagine you're driving home from a wedding or a mitzvah or a Kinsey or whatever and you dictate that story of that and say, as a photographer, I absolutely love shooting weddings at this venue because you know, that 200 year old oak tree is just magnificent or the lake is this, or the fountain or the staircase or whatever. And linking to that venue, talking about that venue and location, because City State now is going to help their SEO. And when someone goes and searches and you come up, hopefully in that search, they're going to read about how you love working at that venue that they chose, which validates their choice. And believe it or not, some of the things that we're talking about are needle movers. Yeah, okay, because, because if you get that content, change of content, you know, you know, once a couple goes through all of the choices that they made, you talk about this all the time as well and they've made it to your website, they've eliminated a lot of. Other people, almost everybody. So one of the biggest victories is if you get say a few hundred people to your website and right now 10 of them end up contacting you. If you can bring that up to 20, that's like the biggest victory. And that's one of the things that we work on with clients a lot. And we look at it from every aspect, starting from that homepage being a really good front lobby that really shows people, that makes it easy for people simplifying the navigation. Just a lot of those things. Yeah, I mean the whole we've all been there where you click something and there's a dropdown, then you click something and it opens to another dropdown and you've now clicked three times to get to where you're going to adds that friction. My friend David Averin wrote a book, why Customers Leave and How to Win the Back. And he said you'll never know the people that went to your website and left without contacting you because you can't see it. If it was a physical storefront and you saw people walk in and leave without talking, that would hurt. It's hurting every day and we can't see that. I also was talking to someone who's talking about how they're getting fewer leads now. And I said, it could be August. You know, we're recording this in August. It could be that it's August. I said, but it could also just be what's going on. People are waiting longer to book. That was a big topic of conversation at this conference this week. And I said, you know, one of the reasons is this generation has grown up in a world where they can get just about anything they want whenever they want last minute. They don't feel the sense of urgency because they, let's face it, Amazon, it used to be if we can get this in two days, wow, that would be crazy. Now it's do you want it today or tomorrow morning by 7am or whatever that expectation is? Yeah. What do you need? You can get it. And since they all live, we, I should say they, we all live in a world with blinders because I can't see the other customers. So of course they think the second Saturday in October is going to be available whenever they want until they start looking. Yeah. I was having that conversation with, with, with a DJ who also produce. Heather from HD Entertainment also produces Central PA wedding shows. Yeah. And she was, had the same conversation that so many people are last minute like right now. She has a lot of openings in September and October and she had the same thing last year. But, but they got, they got filled. Yeah, yeah. And it's, I talked about my son's wedding last year and he was part of the, part of that issue because when he chose to get married at City hall in San Francisco and not have his reception there, the calendar is only 90 days out. So he beginning of July, they booked their wedding in September in the Bay Area. Thank you very much. Not like it's too busy there or anything. Right. And then had to get music and flowers and all those things. And they did. And partly because of the connections that I have and partly because they didn't have a traditional wedding so they weren't fighting against the, you know, people for a 200 person venue. They, we had 10 people, 30 people, 60 people. So it was a little bit, a little bit easier, but still, you know, they would have been struggling a little more if, if that hadn't been in the industry for 30 years. Yes. As much, as much as you tried to help and they didn't take you up on it. Well, no, they did, they did. But you know. Well, you've heard me talk about this and you guys listening have heard me talk about this. He's a procrastinator and he married a Procrastinator. So they've always done this too much analyzing, overanalyzing. I could go through other decisions. They're going through now my wife and I just throw up her hands and go, when you're ready, let us know. Okay, so location search, right. Location search is a big thing, right. Is Google prioritizing that or how, how does, how does that work? Well, yeah, absolutely. I mean that, I mean, Google is, I mean, first of all, we're in an industry that is, you know, if you're a wedding, a wedding venue, a vendor, it's all about local search. Well, all businesses except for destination weddings, but a destination wedding in a particular area. So all weddings are local to somewhere. Right. It may or may not be where you live. Right. So if people are searching, what are some things that people can do to make sure that they show up? Especially since a lot of people listening do not have their address on their website because they work from home. We're doing this in, in my home office. Well, well, one. Well, one of the biggest. There's a couple of things that are really important and definitely needle movers. One is that a lot of people are now searching using terms near me. Like what? Like where, like, where's a venue near me? Where's a vendor near me? Right. And we, we actually have done like a case study where, how we, we would go into a website and change some wording on the website, all over the website to reflect that. And we have, we've shown it's been a tremendous benefit. Where. What do you, what, how do you say that? What's the wording you would say on a website? Pretty much like nearby this particular area or. So our venue is in Haddonfield, New Jersey, which is near Trenton. Yes, yes, exactly. Things like that. Or near the train station or near the airport or near the lake or near the, whatever you're actually using the word near. Yes, exactly. And also say you're a wedding vendor that is located like just outside the, you know, a large city and you're not going to do as, you know, to work to rank on Google Maps, part of the criteria is you really need to be located there. Right. And if you're located in a suburb, using the terms near could help. Could help you there as well. And that's very often with the big cities. You know, with Chicago, if you're outside the Loop, you're in Schaumburg, which is near Chicago. Right. Or near Naperville or New York. You have to make it, it has to be truthful. Right, right, right. Or when people ask me where I live, I say Newark Airport, because that's where I'm typically near. Right, Right. Well, you know, I don't know if you know this. My LinkedIn profile says serving the world from New Jersey. That's good. Instead of putting my address. Because it's kind of. That's actually true. That. That's what it is. So. So again, just being creative with this, but being truthful, like you said. Yes. You have to be authentic. It's just. It's just looking for your own truth in your business and leveraging it in the best possible way. Okay. At all. But it. But there's been a couple of recent changes a little while ago. You know, most many businesses don't really nurture their Google Business profile on a regular basis. Yeah. They look at it as well and go and update it like once or twice a year. And they typically do that from a photo or video aspect more than anything else. Okay. But Google is constantly changing fields that or information that you can add. And some months ago, they actually allowed you to add your social media handles. Oh. So that's very helpful. I don't know if I've done that right. I did add an RSS feed from my podcast. So every time my podcast goes up, it's going into my Google business profile. So that's new content. Yes, that's showing us that. That's great. Yeah. Great. So, and the other thing, which is like, really, really recent is that Google is starting to now show social media posts as part of the search results. So it's really important to add relevant keywords and geographic terms into your social media posts. Into your wording in there. Exactly. Okay. And also, even with imagery, using really good alt text, the text that describes the images. Right. Which goes back to inclusivity. Is it for people that are visually impaired, you have the alt text and as well as for when you hover your mouse over the alt text coming up, the description, captions, things like that. If somebody does blog, let's say they do what we were just talking about where on the way back from the wedding, they dictate it, creates a blog. Can they RSS feed that over to their Google business profile? It's something that we haven't done yet that you said that you. So I did it. I believe I did it through Zapier. So it's taking it from. It's taking it from Buzzsprout, which is what publishes my audio. And I believe I had to use a Zap through Zapier. To make the RSS come because the image wasn't showing up. The text was, but the image wasn't. And again, it's just a graphic. Like you're going to have a graphic of us with our shirts on for that to be there. So I imagine it can do another rss. But just think about that again. The whole idea of repurposing your content in different places, putting a blog on your website. I know the thought of a blog really scares people. Unless you do, like we just said, is dictate it. Have AI turn it into the written words, put it up there. Now, Google doesn't want your site to be stale, right? Correct. So how often would somebody need to do that to add. Let's say they were just going to add a blog. Let's say their web text didn't change at all. But they're going to add a blog on your site, by the way, not on a separate place on your site often. Do they need fresh content for Google to say, okay, that's changing? I would, I would say one, you know, once a week to. Or at least once every other week. Okay. Because every time that you're adding something to your website, you're inviting Google to come and reevaluate your site as long. As you've been doing it regularly. Otherwise, if you haven't changed in a while, does it just. Yes, it gets into a pattern to not. But however, there is a. There's. There's two. Most people have heard about Google Analytics, you know, to be able to analyze a lot of consumer behaviors and where you're getting the most traffic from. But there's also another tool from Google called Google Search Console, where you could actually submit that, like, let them know that you've made changes on the website and it immediately gets crawled by Google. So was that in our book? Was that in your. Yeah. Okay. So again, if you're watching, you can see the COVID of the book, from browsing to booking. If you're not watching, if you're listening, you can go to shopalenberg.com you can see the book there, by the way, use the coupon code podcast for free shipping on that. But Brian's part of the book has nuts and bolts. Stuff just like this. We're talking about Search Console, where you can submit your site. Because if you haven't changed your site in a while, and what would you say, at least six months. Google's really not even reading it anymore because it's just assuming you. You're not changing anything. If you blogged every other week. And if you do more than 26 events a year, that's 26 blogs for you to do. That becomes fresh content, which means Google will do. But you would have to submit and say, hey, go check my site. It's new. Or if you've updated the design or whatever, hey, go check my site. Using Google Search Console is sort of an expediter. But Google will come around. I mean, they will detect when changes are made on the site. Yeah, but there's also other types of blog posts that you can do that are more intentional to actually get more traffic to your site. Again, if you're not a venue, you know, having these actual real wedding blog posts done right with the right SEO strategy could also help you rank for venue name search terms. So of course you're not going to rank higher than the venue, you're not going to rank higher than Wedding Pro Network. That's not necessarily true. If you work at a venue a lot and you blog about them a lot and they don't change their. That's right. I, I, I, I don't know if Tim Sudol. Yes. Listening there. Yes. But my friend Tim Sudol is a videographer in Philly and there was a, the Four Seasons Hotel was there. And they called, this is years ago. They called him one day and said, why did you hijack our SEO? And he said, what are you talking about? And they said, well, when you search for the Four Seasons Philadelphia, your videography website comes up. And he said, yeah, because I talk about you more than you do. And that's all it is. At the simplest form, at simplest level, SEO is do these words and phrases appear on the site or not? Right. That's a simple level. I know there's more technical than that. And if you don't change anything on your site, those words, that's it. And every time he would blog about I was at the Four Seasons. I was at the Four Seasons. I was at the Four Seasons. Well, changing things on your site doesn't necessarily, it's more than just front facing. No, no, I get that. It's also behind the scenes. Like every page on your website has what's called metadata. Right. You know, the things that you can tell Google, like when you look on the certain, when you actually look on the search results, you know, there are certain tags that, and also even you can, you can have your, your main headline in every page have some SEO intent. Right. But it's, but it's really tricky because you don't want to Speak to the end the couple as if you're trying to rent from Google Ease you want, it has to be authentic. So I mean we have, we have a really good strategy with, with, with headlines, with, with main headlines where we'll almost like shrink the keyword so it does, so you don't notice it, that, that, that we want Google to notice that they don't care the size of the text. Right. But the main message, the main value proposition is, is, is there for the couple to notice. Right. So the opposite of what we see very often which is it's this keyword text keyword test which doesn't read well. It doesn't read conversationally. You'll make a smaller, you'll make the big line read well and then you might have a smaller line that has some of those keywords. Exactly. Yeah. Because Google's not going to say, well that's eight point type. I don't, you know, I don't care about it though. It does care and it doesn't care what the font size is. It's reading it in computer text in the back anyway. Okay, we are, we are going to run out of time here. What is, what did we not talk about? Well, besides, you know, getting back to the Google business profile, a real needle mover is to start tending to your Google business profile on a regular basis and not do it. And also you have to really look at your review balance. Like if you have hundreds of reviews on Wedding Wire and the Knot and you have 20 reviews on Google. The benefit of getting more reviews on Google is not only because you make the more clickable if. What does someone really have to go on when they're, when they're looking at the map results? It's the name of the business, where they're located and a number of reviews. And if your review quality and quantity is pales in comparison to your competitors, you're not going to get clicked as much. So the more frequent you respond to the reviews regularly. Big one right there responding. I still see people not doing that and respond well. By the way, I had one the other day. We're in New Orleans, we're at a restaurant and we're a big group. We're 30 people. And this waitress, what do they say down south? Bless her heart, she kept up with us. And on the way out she's like, my name is Angela. My name is Angela. You know, what did she say? Trip me. TripAdvisor. She wanted the review on TripAdvisor. She's like, Trip me. My manager Loves it, you know, trip me. I went back, I posted a review later that day. That manager responded and he, he responded personally to me. It was not a generic response. I feel even better about the restaurant now. Absolutely. And there's definitely, you know, so what we're doing is there's others we didn't get a chance to cover today. But we have this really good laundry list of needle movers. You know, we start, we start off with a 30 minute consult where we do some upfront reporting and it's all educational and then if it reveals an opportunity for me to help you, we go forward. But no matter what, you know, the way I educate, it's always to be beneficial. Right. All right. So in the show notes you will have Brian's contact information. Pretty easy. Brian, Brian Lawrence.com or www.brianlawrence.com and he said, you heard it here. He will give you 30 minutes free. Take a look at what you have, give you some ideas. You want to go on your own and do it. You want them to do it. You need a new website. He's your guy here. But again, Google business page, he set mine up. I had no reviews. Now I have 220something. I don't know if you saw recently, but I had 197. And I made a Facebook post and I said I know it's just a number, I know it doesn't mean anything but I am so close. Can anybody help me out? I remember the first time you even asked for reviews, you got a bunch of them. Google actually sent me an email and said, you Google business profile has no reviews. If you have at least five, you'll show up more in searches. And, and you've probably heard me say this. I'm not looking for people to find me on a search unless they're searching for me personally for Alan Berg. But I said I'll play along. And I asked about 900 people, you know, could you be one of my five? It said if you get at least five. And I got 32 in the first two days. So I had 197 recently. I said, hey, could somebody, you know, somebody help me out? And I went from 197 to 213. Right, right. Just right away. Now I'm at 220 something. And that's if you don't ask, you don't get. So Brian, as always, we could talk forever, but I try to keep these. To a. Yeah, I want to say one more thing because I want to say this is like a really important concept is that every year, you know, at this time of the year, we know it, most businesses across the country are in their events, they're very busy. What it takes to actually improve your website and SEO doesn't. If you have someone that understands the industry does not take a lot of time or bandwidth. But people typically wait till they're out of season to take action. Too late. It's just too late. It's too late. Yeah. And again. And plus, then I'm really busy. I have so much work of that that you're gonna have to be on a queue. Right? Well, that's the other thing. You know, that's the same mentality. I need it done now, so it can get done now. But you don't see that there's a queue of people that are. That are doing that. And then something that we both learned because you have people that help you. I have my assistant. You know, you can't do it all yourself. And if you don't have the expertise, you want to get somebody that has the expertise. And sometimes I'll ask my assistant. I actually just sent her something. I said, I need this done. Do you want to take a stab at it? And I will bet you she will do it better than I do. Right? Because, yeah, maybe I have more experience, maybe even more expertise, but she's going to approach it a different way. So if you need an expert on that, you need to get it done. You need to go early so that when Thanksgiving comes, engagement season starts Thanksgiving through Valentine's Day. You want to be ready and capture those as much as you can. Get as much conversion. That's a tone for your whole year. Yeah. And you know what? You put on a. Put on new clothing and you just look in the mirror, you feel good. You need to sometimes redress your website as well. So thanks for listening. Look at the Show Notes Brian Lawrence.com Again, get from browsing to booking and use the podcast code. I'm sorry, Use the coupon code. Podcast at shopallenberg. Com. Get your copy over there, and we will see you on the next episode.


I’m Alan Berg. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions about this or if you’d like to suggest other topics for “The Wedding Business Solutions Podcast” please let me know. My email is Alan@WeddingBusinessSolutions.com or you can  text, use the short form on this page, or call +1.732.422.6362, international 001 732 422 6362. I look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks.

Listen to this and all episodes on Apple Podcast, YouTube or your favorite app/site:

©2025 Wedding Business Solutions LLC & AlanBerg.com


People on this episode

Head Shot

Alan Berg, CSP, Global Speaking Fellow

Host