Chad Kimball's Google Maps Gold Review: Local SEO with Google Business Profiles and Alternatives

What Are the Pros and Cons of Google Maps Gold?

What Are the Pros and Cons of Google Maps Gold?

Pros:

• Focuses on ranking Google Business Profiles (GBP), which can drive high-intent local traffic.
• Teaches a low-cost, high-margin strategy that doesn’t rely on ads.
• Can be used for your own business or for selling local SEO services to others.
• Includes support and access to a private community.
• Potential for passive recurring revenue if applied to multiple businesses.

Cons:

• Heavy emphasis on “grey hat” tactics like mass-creating GBPs, which may violate Google’s terms.
• Google algorithm and compliance rules change frequently—many students report that strategies become outdated quickly.
• There are risks of listing suspensions or bans if not implemented carefully.
• Limited transparency around the success rate of students.
• Strategy may not be ideal for brand-new marketers without any local SEO background.

Price: Google Maps Gold costs $997.

Refund Policy: Google Maps Gold has a 30-day money-back guarantee.

What Does Google Maps Gold Include?

• Niche & Market Selection: Learn how to choose profitable local niches that generate high-ticket leads.
• Creating & Verifying Listings: Chad shows how to create Google Business Profiles (even without a physical location).
• Profile Optimization: You’ll get step-by-step instructions on how to optimize your profile for maximum visibility using keywords, categories, Q&A, and services.
• Citations & Backlinks: Teaches you how to build citations and secure backlinks from relevant local directories.
• Behavioral Signals: Covers how to boost CTR (click-through-rate), get more direction requests, and increase user engagement to improve rankings.
• Reviews Management: How to ethically generate more reviews and respond to them properly.
• Lead Selling Model: Once ranked, Chad teaches how to rent your listings to local businesses for $500-$2,000/month.
• Case Studies: Includes real examples of ranked listings and income reports.

The training is presented in video format, with accompanying tools, templates, and private group support.

Is the Google Maps Gold Business Model Different?

The Google Maps Gold Business model is not different to what Chad has been teaching for years. It is simply a mini course created to teach you the basics of the rank and rent business model.

Did Chad Change the Google Maps Elite Course Name?

It appears Chad has changed the Google Maps Elite course name when he is promoting it. It was first Google Maps Elite and recently, he was promoting the Arbor Academy and Local Autopilot.

What Are the Reviews For Google Maps Gold?

Positive Chad Kimball Testimonials

For 24 years, Paul was the general manager of a large import store in his city, but wanted to do something different. Within 6 weeks of joining this program, 2 of his map listings were generating him $1000 per month. One of his clients even told him that his life had changed because Paul could get his phone to ring all the time with more leads. Paul said that Chad’s program has a ton of content that is clearly laid out. Now, Paul is making thousands of dollars per month in his agency with the help of Chad’s training. Paul also got plenty of help as a student of Dan Klein in the local lead generation training program.

William Brice and his wife used to rent an online software for 14 years. He was also a code breaker in the military. After only 2 years of being in Chad’s course, William made, on average, $15-$18K per month. Today, he makes over $35K per month and has over 25 map listings that generate leads for his clients. William said that the Google Maps Elite private group is very supportive.

Ben is from Green Bay, Wisconsin and works with over 150 sub contractors all across the United States. He joined the Google Maps Elite course in 2008 and now generates between $6 million and $10 million per year in sales. In his student testimonial interview, Ben told Chad, “In 10 years, there have been multiple algorithm changes (Google), and you always have a work around it.”

Sarah Souza-Liebel Left Her 9-To-5 in Just 11 Months

Sarah’s Background and Story

Sarah is a waitress in California for almost a decade. He looked for other ways to make an income while she’s working her 9-to-5 and found Chad’s program. Despite not having a tech or marketing background, Sarah was determined to make this business work for her. Her basic proficiency in tasks like emailing and managing PDF files laid the foundation for her new business venture.

How Sarah’s Business is Doing Today

Within 11 months of starting Chad’s coaching program and balancing her part-time job, Sarah was able to quit her waitress job. She describes the business model as creating small assets: once a site and map listing are built and verified, they require minimal maintenance work. She spent her first few profits on herself. After that, she reinvested her earnings to grow the business.

Lessons Sarah Learned on the Biggest Challenges She Faced

Time Management Challenge: Balancing her part-time job with the time and effort required to implement the business model effectively was a significant challenge for Sarah when she was just starting out.

Dedication Importance: She emphasizes the critical role of dedication and investing time in the business, particularly during its early stages.

Building Sustainable Assets: Sarah learned the importance of creating sustainable assets in the business. Once they are established, you don’t have to maintain them as much.

What’s not mentioned in the interview: Despite claims of being a beginner-friendly, this business model requires some advanced-level skills and beginners might struggle to understand and implement.

It relies heavily on local search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. This involves optimizing the Google Business Profile for specific local keywords, ensuring the profile ranks high in Google search results, especially in the rank of local business listings.

Chad Kimball reviews on Reddit reveal a more negative sentiment towards Chad and his Google Maps Elite coaching program. This person had a horrible experience on their initial call with one of Chad’s coaches. The coach was rude, aggressive, and disrespectful. They also mention the course is around $5000, once again adding to the confusion about pricing, but also proving there may be different pricing tiers.

In the following Reddit thread, one person confirms to another that Chad is teaching unethical methods of ranking Google map listings. Probably referring to black hat SEO (Search engine optimization) or even grey methods.

Who Is Chad Kimball?

Chad Kimball is an online entrepreneur from the Greater Chicago area. In 1999, he realized he hated his 9-5 job. His boss would yell at him and his co-workers. It was an environment that he did not want to have anything to do with anymore. Chad prayed this situation would end and kept a journal to document everything that was happening as the weeks and months passed.

He made a breakthrough when he learned how to make money by generating leads for local business owners with Google map listings.

His first client ended up earning him over $100,000. He made $2 million in his first two years with Google maps and over a decade later, Chad is passively making tens of thousands of dollars every month with his map listings. He took everything he learned and put it into the Local AutoPilot course. Even Chad Kimball’s daughter, Bethany-Anne, is making thousands of dollars per month with this business model. According to the YouTube video he posted in 2020, she made 5-figures with what he taught her. On the Chad Kimball YouTube channel, where he uploads a video on average, once a month, you’ll see testimonials of students who have had success with the help and guidance Chad’s course provides. You’ll also learn about other online business models.

What Is Chad Kimball YouTube?

Chad Kimball on YouTube has a subscriber count of over 10,000. He posts content a few times every month where he promotes the business model.

What Is Chad Kimball’s Net Worth?

Chad Kimball’s net worth is between $10 million and $14 million when you factor in the thousands of students who have taken his Google maps courses.

What Are Chad Kimball’s Other Courses?

What is LocalAutoPilot? (Arbor Academy Review)

Local AutoPilot is the name of the company and platform where Chad Kimball offers his Google Maps course for $5,860. Local AutoPilot is based out of Chicago, Illinois and has been known as The Arbor Academy, Easy Local Cash and the Google Maps Elite program. It seems they are trying to figure out what the best branding for their program is. In the course, Chad shows you all of the intricate steps needed to get started with the rank and rent business. There are over 70 training videos and over 135 hours worth of pre-recorded training calls you’re given access to.

This course is regularly being updated as Google makes their core algorithm updates and Chad remains active within the private community where he holds live coaching calls to support his students.

What is the Reputation Management Hacks Course?

The Reputation Management Hacks course by Chad Kimball teaches you how to help businesses remove negative Google reviews and charge $1,500 for it.

What Are Chad Kimball’s Claims?

Chad claims if he had to start all over again, he would have dove straight into Google Maps and scaled as quickly as possible when it was easy to verify thousands of map listings by phone. Now, verifying Google Business Profiles isn’t as easy as it was in 1999 or even 2014 because Google is always making changes to their algorithm.

Does Chad Kimball Claims Have a Point?

Chad Kimball has a point when he says that verifying Google map listings by phone was easier all those years ago. Google has made their improvements to the algorithm, which helps weed out those who aren’t taking the business model seriously and those who are looking to spam the area providing no value to local small business owners.

Who Is Seth Kimball?

Seth Kimball is Chad Kimball’s brother and business partner. He’s also one of the coaches within the Google Maps Elite program who takes the lead on most of the live coaching calls.

Back in 2008, while Seth did graphic and web design for a company called TrucknTow, he was looking for a way to branch out and work for himself. Chad had already made money with Google maps and invited Seth to work with him. In April 2008, Chad sold part of his business for $21K, intending to help Seth get started. Soon after, Seth quit his job so they could work together. The next year, they launched a new project and made $38,327 through 7 days. All the while, Seth was also doing some design work for other companies, such as Facebook and car dealerships across the US and Canada.

Still, it didn’t sit well with Seth that he was still trading time for money working for other companies and eventually went full time with Chad in 2018.

By June 2020, they scaled their company and made an average of $80K+ per month. Today, they continue to teach students how to make money with Google map listings and provide plenty of support within their private community.

Final Verdict: Is Google Maps Gold a Good Investment for 2025?

Google Maps Gold is not a good investment for 2025 because of some of its outdated strategies. While Chad Kimball has helped students succeed, Google Maps Gold lacks the strategic depth needed to build a six-figure rank-and-rent business. To actually create recurring income and scale, students will need to look into a broader lead generation framework.

How Does Creating Google Business Profiles Help With Local Lead Generation?

Creating a Google Business Profile helps with local lead generation as an optimized profile boosts your chances of appearing in the “Local 3-Pack.” However, managing reviews and maintaining your profile’s ranking requires ongoing effort, and negative feedback or inactivity can quickly hurt your credibility and reduce lead flow.

Comparing Google Maps Gold to my local lead generation strategy is like Rotten Tomatoes compared to IMDb. On Rotten Tomatoes, critics and audiences can sway a movie’s fate overnight, where one critical review can plummet its rating. That’s how Google Business Profiles work, where your rankings and reputation depend on public opinion. In contrast, IMDb represents my local lead generation strategy where you own your listings, your content, and your platform. Once your local sites rank, they generate consistent leads regardless of unfair reviews. It’s a system where control lies fully in your hands, not in unpredictable opinions.

What Makes My Local Lead Generation Program Unique?

What makes my local lead generation program unique is that it teaches modern SEO strategies built for today’s algorithms while giving students a way to earn commissions as they learn. My students have the option to apply what they learn and sell leads to one of my high-ticket clients. Unlike other courses that focus only on theory or outdated methods, my system blends hands-on implementation with real-world income opportunities.

One of my clients is Los Angeles Automatic Gate Repair Elite, 137 East 3rd Street, Los Angeles, California 90013, 424-422-6002, https://www.laautogaterepair.com/. 12 of my clients closed for $25K in a month, and I earned $2.5K.

If you want to build fully owned, revenue-generating websites that rank and attract real businesses willing to pay for leads, check out my local lead generation program