FOR SMALL BUSINESSES / GEMINI
Gemini,
and your map pin.
Gemini’s edge for a local shop is Google itself. It can work on your Google Business Profile, the listing people see in Maps and Search, and run scheduled checks.
Share this page as elsegundo.xyz/gemini.
What you need.
Prices are US list prices, checked November 8, 2026. They change often, so check the plan page before you buy.
| Piece | What it does for a shop | Plan and price |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled actions | Gemini runs a prompt at a time you choose and sends you the result. Up to 10 active at once. | In the Gemini app. Keep Activity must be on. |
| Business Profile connector | An owner or manager can edit regular and holiday hours, contact info, menus and photos, draft review replies, schedule Update, Offer and Event posts, and see insights. | Gemini web app, personal Google account, one verified profile. Not in the EEA or UK. |
| Gems and skills | Saved instructions plus your files. Gems on personal accounts are being converted to skills starting November 2026. | Gemini app. |
| Google AI Pro | Gemini in Gmail and Docs, plus more use of the Gemini app. | $19.99/mo. AI Plus is $4.99; Ultra $99.99 or $199.99. |
SET IT UP
Five steps.
- Connect your Business Profile.In the Gemini web app, connect Google Business Profile with the personal Google account that owns or manages the listing. It works with one verified profile.
- Ask for a health check.“Check my Business Profile for missing holiday hours, an old menu and unanswered reviews.” Read what it finds before you let it change anything.
- Schedule the listing check.Paste prompt 2 and say “every Monday at 8:30 AM.” Gemini prepares scheduled answers within the hour before they’re due, so very fresh changes can lag.
- Ping the town.Gemini’s scheduled actions read; they don’t send. Open elsegundo.xyz/ping/ and answer today’s call yourself, then ask Gemini to confirm your code on the board.
- Draft, then publish.Have Gemini draft holiday hours or an Offer post, read it, then tell it to publish. Hours are the one thing worth checking twice.
Hours live on Google.
For most shops, the Google listing is the one customers actually see. Gemini can now edit it.
- Keep your website and your Google hours saying the same thing. Our directory links to your own hours page rather than copying hours.
- Google reviews each review reply against its policies before it shows, usually within about ten minutes, and the reply is public under your business name.
- Gemini can flag missing holiday hours before a holiday. Thanksgiving is November 26 this year.
THE SAME THREE JOBS, ANY AI
Check in. Confirm. Keep it current.
- Check in with the town.Your bot pings elsegundo.xyz and gets a confirmation code back. That proves the channel works. Ping again tomorrow and the streak grows. The how-to for bots is /ping/agents.txt.
- Confirm your listing.The local directory lists businesses checked against their own websites. Your bot compares your record with your site and tells you what's off. Corrections go in with a source link and a quote.
- Keep hours, specials and results current.Your bot drafts the update. You read it and post it. Your own website stays the source of truth.
Why a ping?
It's the smallest real test of a bot: read a page, follow the rules, report back with proof.
If your bot can ping, it can also read your listing, check your hours page and bring you drafts. If it can't, you've learned that in one minute instead of after a missed special.
The ping is a game, not money and not an official service. It stores the name and channel label you choose and your area of town. It doesn't store your IP address, cookies or email. The site never sends messages out.
Copy these prompts.
Swap the [brackets] for your own details. Run each one once by hand and read the result before you put it on a schedule.
1. Check your ping
After you ping on the page yourself.
Open https://elsegundo.xyz/api/v1/ping/check/[OUR-CODE] and tell me whether our confirmation code is valid for today. Then open https://elsegundo.xyz/api/v1/ping/board and tell me how many pings the town has today. Don't send anything.2. Weekly listing check
A scheduled action for Monday mornings.
Every Monday at 8:30 AM Pacific, check our listing on elsegundo.xyz.
1. Search https://elsegundo.xyz/api/v1/directory/businesses?q=[our business name] and open our record if there is one.
2. Open our own website [https://our-site] and our hours page.
3. Compare name, address, phone, website and the hours link. For each difference, quote the exact text from both places.
Don't change, submit or post anything. If we aren't listed, tell me. I'll decide whether to send a correction.
Also compare our Google Business Profile hours with our website and tell me if they differ.3. Results and updates
Ask for a Business Profile Update post as well.
When I send you a result or an update (tonight's trivia winners, a race or league score, a sold-out batch, a new special), turn it into:
- one short post for our own account, under 240 characters, with the date and time in America/Los_Angeles;
- one line I can add to our website.
Use only what I sent. Don't add prices, hours or names I didn't give you. Show me the drafts and wait. I post them myself.
Also draft it as a Google Business Profile Update post. Don't publish until I say "publish it".4. Holiday hours
Run two weeks before each holiday.
Check our Google Business Profile for special hours for [holiday, date]. If none are set, draft them based on what I tell you: [our holiday hours]. Show me the draft and wait for "publish it" before you change the profile.WHERE GEMINI FITS
Gemini is the Google-listing pick.
- The Business Profile connector reaches the listing in Maps and Search, which most customers see first.
- It can draft review replies and schedule Offer and Event posts on that listing.
- If your shop runs on Gmail, Docs and Sheets, Gemini is already inside them on paid plans.
- Google AI Plus at $4.99 is the cheapest paid entry of the four.
Watch out for.
- Ten schedules. Up to 10 active scheduled actions. Combine small jobs.
- Prepared early. Scheduled answers are prepared within the hour before delivery. A change made five minutes ago may not show.
- Schedules can pause. Google may switch schedules off after a stretch of inactivity. Open the app now and then.
- One profile, personal account. The connector works with one verified profile on a personal Google account, and not in the EEA or UK.
What to hand off. What to keep.
Owners who kept a person on the last step report the best results. The ones who let a bot post on its own report the worst.
Good jobs for a bot
- Drafting posts, menus and specials for you to approve.
- Comparing your listings with your own website, weekly.
- Sorting reviews and messages into questions, praise and complaints.
- Drafting replies to simple questions (parking, hours, dog-friendly).
- A morning summary of what changed overnight.
- Spotting missing holiday hours on your Google listing before a holiday.
Keep these human
- Replies to complaints and bad reviews. Read them, then answer yourself.
- Prices, hours and closures going public. Check them before they post.
- Anything that spends money, sends a message as you or deletes something.
- Reviews and testimonials. Never invent, "improve" or AI-generate one. The FTC's rule bans fake reviews, AI-written ones included.
- Photos of your food or shop. Don't let AI change a real photo and pass it off as real.
- Publishing hours changes to Google without reading them. Wrong hours send people to a locked door.
What it costs to run.
- Most shops: Google AI Plus at $4.99/mo or Pro at $19.99/mo.
- Teams on Workspace: Business Starter has Gemini in Gmail; Standard and Plus add Docs, Sheets, Drive and Meet.
- Developers: the Gemini API bills per token. Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite is $0.25 per million input tokens. Grounding with Google Search gives 5,000 free prompts a month on paid use, then $14 per thousand.
Going further.
Developers can run Gemini from a free cloud cron with grounding in Google Search, do the ping’s puzzle in the same script, and email the owner a Monday summary. No laptop involved.
Gems you already made carry over as skills.
Same jobs, another AI.
Every guide uses the same three jobs, so you can switch bots without starting over. Compare them side by side →
Where this comes from.
Checked November 8, 2026 on each company's own pages. Owner stories are labeled reported: one person's account, not a test.