30 minutes. Six questions. Once a month..
Why this mattersMost business owners check their analytics in a panic when something feels off, then ignore them for weeks. That is not a system — that is anxiety. A monthly review ritual fixes it. Same time, same questions, every month. The discipline is what makes the data actually move your business.
Read this once. Sit with it before you answer.
What is the smallest possible monthly review you can run and still catch a problem before it becomes a trend?
Where you stand right now.
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
- 1Run the six-question monthly review against your current 90-day data.
- 2Translate each answer into a specific direction for next month's work.
- 3Schedule a recurring 30-minute monthly calendar block for the ritual.
- 4Commit to the first review happening within the next 7 days.
The whole lesson in a few points.
- 0130 minutes. Six questions. Once a month. Every month.
- 02The six questions cover direction requests, discovery ratio, AI surface share, top search queries, review velocity and response rate, and posts and photos cadence.
- 03The answers translate directly into next month's work. Each question has one likely fix.
- 04Schedule the recurring block now. Recurrence is what turns a good intention into a system.
- 05Daily check-ins create anxiety. Monthly reviews create strategy.
Why 30 minutes is enough.
You do not need an hour. You do not need a spreadsheet. You do not need a dashboard tool unless you are managing multiple locations. 30 minutes is enough because you are only looking at three core numbers from Lesson 8.2 and asking six diagnostic questions. The questions take longer than the data pull.
What you are not doing during the ritual: building reports, creating new content, redesigning anything. You are looking at what happened in the last 90 days and deciding what to do differently for the next 30. This is a strategic review, not an operational task. Block the calendar time. Close every other tab. Open your Performance tab and your workbook side by side. Set a timer if you have to.
The six questions.
Open your workbook to the Monthly Review Checklist. The six questions are on that page.
One. Are my direction requests trending up, flat, or down over the last 90 days compared to the previous 90?
Two. Is my discovery search ratio increasing? Are more new people finding me through category searches rather than just by name?
Three. What is my AI surface share, and has it moved from last month?
Four. Which specific search queries showed up most often in my Performance tab this month? Are those queries aligned with my primary category and services, or am I being found for the wrong things?
Five. How many new reviews did I receive this month, and how many did I respond to within 48 hours?
Six. Did I publish at least 8 to 12 GBP posts and add at least 4 new photos this month? If not, where did the cadence break?
That is the entire ritual. Six questions. Honest answers. You write each one in the workbook with a one-sentence answer.
What to do with the answers.
The answers turn into decisions for the next 30 days. If direction requests are trending down, something is breaking the conversion. Audit your photos and your top reviews. Check your hours. Make sure your phone number works.
If discovery ratio is flat, your relevance signals need reinforcement. Add new services in customer language. Publish more content tied to specific service categories. Refresh your business description.
If AI surface share is below 15 percent, your grounding content is thin. Revisit Lesson 4.4 and make sure your description, reviews, responses, and website FAQ are all telling the same story in answer format.
If the wrong queries are appearing, your primary category may need adjustment, or your services list may be too broad. If reviews are lagging, your Module 5 system has a broken trigger or a compliance issue. If your posts and photos cadence broke, you know exactly which week the rhythm slipped — schedule a catch-up block this week.
One ritual. Six questions. Six possible directions for next month's work.
Schedule it now.
Open your calendar. Create a recurring monthly event. Title it "GBP Monthly Review." 30 minutes. Same week of the month, every month. First week works for most owners because the previous month's data is settled.
Set it as recurring, not just one-time. The recurrence is what turns this from a good intention into a system. If you have a team, this can be a 30-minute team review instead of a solo block. Either works. The point is that it happens.
30 minutes. Six questions. Once a month. Every month.
The next lesson is where AI does the heavy lifting on this same ritual so you do not even have to read the data manually.
The vocabulary that follows you.
- Monthly Review Ritual
- The recurring 30-minute calendar block where you run the six questions against your 90-day data and translate the answers into next month's work. Same week, every month.
- Monthly Review Checklist
- The six-question framework on its own page in your workbook. Covers direction requests, discovery ratio, AI surface share, top search queries, review velocity and response rate, and content cadence.
- Strategic review
- A 30-minute thinking session that turns data into decisions. Distinct from an operational task. No new content created. No reports built. Only diagnosis and direction.