Friday, September 24Digital Marketing Journals

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Will Google Remove a Google Maps Review After the Owner of the GMB Page Replied to It?
16Aug By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services, Uncategorized

Will Google Remove a Google Maps Review After the Owner of the GMB Page Replied to It?

Like my post? Please share! Yes, Google may remove Google Maps reviews that the owner/admin of a Google My Business page wrote a public reply to.   Responding to a review doesn’t seem to validate it in Google’s view, as in, “Well, if business owner replied to it, it must be legit.”  Your response to a review doesn’t fossilize that review for eternity. Every now and then a client gets a bad review from a non-customer, a real customer with a bogus or irrelevant complaint, a slimy competitor, or another  questionable source, and the question I get is: “Should I report the review to Google or should I reply to it?”  If you’re wondering the same thing, I’d say you should do both.  Report the review and reply to it in a circumspect way (if you think you’re better off with a response up for al...
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Google Starts Cheering Anti-Spam Edits in Google Maps
15Jul By PhilNo Comments
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Google Starts Cheering Anti-Spam Edits in Google Maps

Like my post? Please share!Just about every day I send in edits on Google My Business pages that have committed one party foul or another, but this is the first I’ve seen Google go out of its way to encourage those edits:It was a partial edit of a business’s name, in which I removed a single stuffed-in keyword.  I find two things interesting, at least in this case.  The first is that I made that edit back in 2018.  The second is that that edit has stuck for almost 3 years, even though it would have been easy for the business to add back in the keyword.  Often when you make a Google Maps edit on the name of GMB page and Google agrees with your edit and makes the change, the business just changes the name back to whatever it was, and Google doesn’t do anything about it.  Often it become...
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Shoehorning Cities into the Address Field of a Google My Business Page
8Jul By PhilNo Comments
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Shoehorning Cities into the Address Field of a Google My Business Page

Like my post? Please share! I may have seen this before, but it must not have registered with me until I saw it more than once on the same page of Google Maps results.   In any event, it’s new to me.  Below is an example.  Do you see what’s out of place?Is it the plump business name?  Nope.  Keyword-stuffing like that is omnipresent.  What else looks odd?That “service area” – Holy Moses!  Has Google started displaying in Google Maps all the cities in your GMB service area?  That’s what I thought at first, but notice: the cities are in the “address” field.The street address is in the address field, but so are 12 cities (known as “suburbs” in Australia) and communities the business serves. That isn’t a fluke, because on the very same page of Google Maps results is another GMB page w...
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How to Influence “Years in Business” in the Local Pack Results
28Jun By Joy HawkinsNo Comments
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How to Influence “Years in Business” in the Local Pack Results

Posted Jun 28, 2021 by Joy Hawkins In this Guide:Why you should add an opening date Earlier this year, Google started to display opening dates in the local pack results.  If you choose to not add your opening date inside Google My Business (GMB), Google will often pick a date based on other sources – and these sources could easily be wrong.  I recently did an audit for a business that was displaying as being open for 7 years, when in reality they have been open for 23 years!  Since Google actually allows you to control this, there is no reason why you wouldn’t want ...
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10 Years of Local Search Blogging
2Jun By PhilNo Comments
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10 Years of Local Search Blogging

Like my post? Please share! Today marks 10 years since I started blogging about local SEO and related topics, and in my view it marks the real start of my business and all that’s brought – including 400+ posts, way more skill, great clients, a great living, some friendships, a better understanding of my place on this dustball, and a bit of fun along the way. Therefore, as Klingon ritual dictates, I must offer up a few stray thoughts today, even if there is an 80% chance it’s all irrelevant to you and a complete waste of your time.  On the other hand, if you’re a business owner who’s interested in the blogging or “content” thing, or if you’re a longtime reader here, or if you’re a local SEO-er, there may be bits and pieces of interest to you. As I alluded to in my post from 5 years ago, ...
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Service Pages and Local SEO: 20+ Principles to Make Them Your Rock-Solid Foundation
28May By PhilNo Comments
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Service Pages and Local SEO: 20+ Principles to Make Them Your Rock-Solid Foundation

Like my post? Please share! I work with clients on all kinds of local-visibility-related challenges, but you would not believe how much time I spend on service pages: explaining, critiquing, troubleshooting, inventorying, creating, and refining them, and then doing it all over again. By “service page” I mean any page that’s focused on a specific service you offer.  But everything I recommend here also applies to whatever you may offer: products you sell, medical treatments you perform, legal cases you handle, etc.Service pages can help you in many ways, including in that they:Turn more of your visitors into customers, no matter how good or bad your search engine visibility is. Can bring you most of the organic rankings you’ll get. Can pop you into the Google Maps results / local 3-...
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What to Do If You Lost All Your Google Reviews after Accidentally Deleting Your GMB Page
29Apr By PhilNo Comments
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What to Do If You Lost All Your Google Reviews after Accidentally Deleting Your GMB Page

Like my post? Please share! As I’ve observed and written for many years, your Google reviews are never completely safe – and never completely gone.  You can lose them in bulk or in a drip.  You can lose them because of Google’s filter, manual removal, a bug, or a reviewer’s change of heart.  You can also lose your Google reviews – all of them – in a puff of smoke when trying to move to a different Google account. The specific scenario I’m thinking of is that you deleted a G Suite account or other Google account and thought your Google My Business page and reviews wouldn’t be affected, only to discover that both your GMB page and your pile of reviews are gone. Oops. If it makes you feel better, Google’s messaging often is unclear, such that routine steps sound scary and shooting yourself...
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Spin-off Pages: a Bazooka for Your Local SEO
22Apr By PhilNo Comments
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Spin-off Pages: a Bazooka for Your Local SEO

Like my post? Please share! You’ve been on many sites that have them.  Your stronger competitors probably have some.  You may even have a few on your site.  In any case, what I call “spin-off pages” aren’t a new thing, but SEOs and business owners tend not to think of them often or at all, and almost never do they treat spin-off pages as a major part of their on-page local SEO work.  That’s a tough break for them, but great news for you. What is a spin-off page?  It’s a new page you create that’s all about a more-specific version of a service/product/treatment for which you’ve already got a page on your site. In other words, you identify a page on your site about a service (or other offering) you consider a high priority, you think of ways to bust that page into smaller chunks, and you ...
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Odd Relationships in Local Search
30Mar By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services, Uncategorized

Odd Relationships in Local Search

Like my post? Please share! One of the first things you notice about Google Maps and the rest of the local search zoo is that usually there’s no single, isolated reason one business outranks another.  Rather, all kinds of factors come into play: some obvious, some less obvious, lots of maybes, and some that probably nobody knows about.  But I’d go a step further and say you’re in a much better position to get some solid rankings if you know how some factors tend to interact with each other, often in unpredictable ways.You can’t look at local search ranking factors in a vacuum.  Google sure doesn’t seem to.  Now, it’s not a bad idea to work on your local SEO with a big checklist.  That can get you far, especially if you stick with it.  You only run into trouble when you seem to have do...
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How to Automate and Monetize ONE Marketing Conversation to Create Strategic Chatbot Success, Even if FB Shuts You Down
3Mar By Mary JohnsonNo Comments
best chatbot, chatbot, chatbot app, chatbot messenger, chatbot online, chatbot website, creating chatbots, facebook bot, facebook chatbot, facebook messenger bot, robot chat, Uncategorized

How to Automate and Monetize ONE Marketing Conversation to Create Strategic Chatbot Success, Even if FB Shuts You Down

We are all here, because we think conversational marketing and chatbots are amazing, right? I hope you agree with me when I say that it’s NOT the chatbot – the technical thing we build – that is amazing, but WHAT WE PUT IN IT – the conversation. And, if you agree with that, let’s go one step further, in order for what we put in the chatbot – the copy – to convert at a high level, we need to have a strong, successful strategy for the TRANSFORMATION of the other person in the conversation, not us and our business. You’ve heard this quote before, I’m sure… You will get all you want in life, if you help enough other people get what they want. Zig Zigler This is the essence of the success of chatbots through conversational marketing. Unfortunately, most chatbot c...
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Seed Audiences: the Most Practical Way to Make Blogging Work for a Local Business
1Mar By PhilNo Comments
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Seed Audiences: the Most Practical Way to Make Blogging Work for a Local Business

Like my post? Please share! For most business owners and others who try it, blogging is a frustration factory.  The way they go about it, it’s a time gobbler, a grind, and a disappointment until they give up – 47 blog posts and 0 new links, 0 visitors, and 0 customers later. What’s wrong with the way small / local businesses blog? I’ll be the last one to say blogging isn’t effective.   It sure can be.  This blog is a vital organ of my business, and that’s true of some of my clients’ businesses, too.  But certain pieces need to slide into place first, preferably on the sooner side. The big trouble is that blogging (as it’s commonly done) is at best a tough way to earn links, build an audience, and pick up local rankings for semi-competitive terms.  As in it’s ineffective at all 3 most of...
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7 Phases of a Local Business Reviews Campaign That Makes It Rain
1Feb By PhilNo Comments
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7 Phases of a Local Business Reviews Campaign That Makes It Rain

Like my post? Please share! Even people who do a solid job of getting online reviews tend to make the process tougher than it needs to be, because they do the right steps in the wrong order.  That can mean unnecessary trial and error, frustration, wasted time, wasted money, and more bad reviews and fewer good reviews than you might have had otherwise. Whether you’re the business owner, an employee, or a third party, you have a choice as to how you sequence your work.  Examples of good steps that can trip you up if you do them at the wrong time include offering customers a choice of multiple review sites, asking them to upload photos or go into detail, and using software or other tools to lighten your lift.  Good ideas?  Maybe, but the effectiveness depends on the timing. What’s the leas...
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What to Do If Google Auto-Updates Your Google My Business Info and Gets It Wrong
1Jan By PhilNo Comments
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What to Do If Google Auto-Updates Your Google My Business Info and Gets It Wrong

Like my post? Please share! You probably know Google’s tendency to mess with the business info you put in your Google My Business dashboard.  Whether Google emptied fields you filled out, or “corrected” basic facts about your business, or injected info that may be 100% wrong, the telltale orange writing in the GMB dashboard is always a hassle and sometimes a big problem.   Google’s “we know better than you do” MO got worse throughout 2020.  Around the time it temporarily froze some GMB features, Google started piling on new features at an even-faster pace than it had before.  Sometimes Google would fill out those new fields or check those new boxes for you, and often not correctly.  Also, Google started more frequently overwriting or removing old info – info you may have put in you...
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How to Use Free Content to Sell Your Course
30Dec By AmyNo Comments
course creation, free content, Online Business, online course, Social Marketing Strategies, social media, social media marketing, Uncategorized

How to Use Free Content to Sell Your Course

If you build it, they will come, right? Well, if you’re constructing a baseball diamond in the middle of a cornfield to attract a legendary baseball player, then sure. When it comes to digital course creation, the work doesn’t stop after you’ve finished shooting your videos and uploading your course materials. You have to get […] The post How to Use Free Content to Sell Your Course appeared first on Amy Porterfield | Online Marketing Expert.
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How to Land Your First Chatbot Client: 6 Success Stories to Use as a Guide
27Dec By Andrew WarnerNo Comments
best chatbot, chatbot, chatbot app, chatbot messenger, chatbot online, chatbot website, creating chatbots, facebook bot, facebook chatbot, facebook messenger bot, robot chat, Uncategorized

How to Land Your First Chatbot Client: 6 Success Stories to Use as a Guide

The number one question Bot Academy community members ask is “How do I land my first bot client?”The truth is, it isn’t doesn’t take a crazy complicated master plan and there’s no one right way to do it. If you have the skills to build a chatbot and understand the value you bring to a client relationship, it’s actually pretty straightforward. To show you, I interviewed six successful Bot Academy graduates to find out how they closed their first deals so that you can put their strategies to work for yourself. Use Personalization and Persistence – Kelly Garrett https://youtu.be/DBkGOxYmjzA Kelly Garrett actually landed her very first bot client using the cold email template from Bot Academy. Who’d have thought that would work? 😉 However, she didn’t s...
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5 Ways to Find More Time to Grow a Chatbot Business
27Dec By Marisela KhaliliNo Comments
best chatbot, chatbot, chatbot app, chatbot messenger, chatbot online, chatbot website, creating chatbots, facebook bot, facebook chatbot, facebook messenger bot, robot chat, Uncategorized

5 Ways to Find More Time to Grow a Chatbot Business

When people don’t join Bot Academy, we ask them “why didn’t you join.” A common response: “I’m too busy right now.”If that’s you, you should hear how our students and team get past being busy and start taking action (even if you never join Bot Academy). 1. Cut Out Obstacles “I believe it was in the book ‘Good to Great’ where the author said that to succeed you need to decide what you are going to stop doing as much as focusing on what you are going to do to succeed. “So I stopped doing meaningless stuff, like playing video games or watching TV. You would be amazed at how much time is freed up when you look at what you are going to stop doing in order to succeed.” – Sean Elliott, Bot Academy graduate. I found the section he referred to:This worked for th...
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What Facebook Messenger’s “Promotion Ban” Means for Marketers Like You
27Dec By Andrew WarnerNo Comments
best chatbot, chatbot, chatbot app, chatbot messenger, chatbot online, chatbot website, creating chatbots, facebook bot, facebook chatbot, facebook messenger bot, robot chat, Uncategorized

What Facebook Messenger’s “Promotion Ban” Means for Marketers Like You

Facebook recently announced that, starting July 31st, Facebook Business Pages can no longer send broadcast messages to their subscribers…sort of. (Keep reading to find out what they actually said and what it means). This caused a lot of chatbot marketers to freak out.We also got a lot of questions about this from potential Bot Academy students when we opened enrollment last week.Here’s the deal. Bot Academy’s founder, Andrew Warner, has access to a lot of insider information so we’ve been preparing for this for a while. Here’s how we knew this was coming:As an investor in multiple chatbot companies, Andrew has been in the loop about how they were preparing for the policy update. Andrew hosts a popular startup podcast, Mixergy. His fans slip him ins...
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How to Book Lead-Gen Appointments with ManyChat & ScheduleOnce
27Dec By Rebecca LayNo Comments
best chatbot, chatbot, chatbot app, chatbot messenger, chatbot online, chatbot website, creating chatbots, facebook bot, facebook chatbot, facebook messenger bot, robot chat, Uncategorized

How to Book Lead-Gen Appointments with ManyChat & ScheduleOnce

As a chatbot marketer, generally more demo calls = more sales. And the same is true for your clients if they use discovery calls to close deals. However, if you’ve ever tried to schedule a meeting via email, you know just how big of a pain it can be. Cue multiple emails back and forth, waiting days for a reply, and lots of time zone confusion… Instead, imagine your chatbot sends prospects links where they schedule their own appointment (in their own timezone) in just a few clicks. Then they get an automatic calendar invite and reminders so they actually pick up at the time of the call.Plus, you look more credible and professional because it’s like having your own virtual assistant. Andrew, Bot Academy’s founder, even uses a scheduling bot with a name: Amy...
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Case Study: Combining Chatbots, Email & Urgency for $100K in Sales
27Dec By Jordyn BeanNo Comments
best chatbot, chatbot, chatbot app, chatbot messenger, chatbot online, chatbot website, creating chatbots, facebook bot, facebook chatbot, facebook messenger bot, robot chat, Uncategorized

Case Study: Combining Chatbots, Email & Urgency for $100K in Sales

In the last 4 months, Gabe Schillinger has generated over 1,100 sales with a pretty awesome campaign that combines chatbots, email, and a time-sensitive evergreen offer. His company, Legion Beats, sells a membership program that helps musicians produce higher quality songs and market themselves so they can earn a living doing what they love. Based on the average lifetime value of each member, his chatbot campaign has brought in over $100,000 in revenue! Sounds pretty good right? We were certainly impressed when we heard the results he was getting. But we were even more impressed when we found out how he’s doing it. There are two really smart strategies Gabe is using (that apply to virtually any industry):Combining chatbots and email for multiple customer t...
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3 Keys to Servicing Your First Chatbot Client
27Dec By Rebecca LayNo Comments
best chatbot, chatbot, chatbot app, chatbot messenger, chatbot online, chatbot website, creating chatbots, facebook bot, facebook chatbot, facebook messenger bot, google chat bots, robot chat, Uncategorized

3 Keys to Servicing Your First Chatbot Client

It’s finally happening, you’ve landed your first chatbot client! You did your initial call, learned about their business, and found out what’s working for them and what their challenges are. You did a stellar job explaining the value of chatbots and why they should work with you to build one. And the client was sold! You’re floating on the ceiling from excitement, basking in the glow of your achievement, when the helium starts to leak out of that balloon. And suddenly you realize, “Oh no…now I have to deliver.” Because if you want to keep them as a retainer client, or use them as a case study, you have to drive results. And that’s scary. What if you set up the campaign and it totally bombs? So you’re staring at your computer, stuck at ground zero, with your ...
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How to email your chatbot’s subscribers
27Dec By Rebecca LayNo Comments
best chatbot, chatbot, chatbot app, chatbot messenger, chatbot online, chatbot website, creating chatbots, facebook bot, facebook chatbot, facebook messenger bot, google chat bots, robot chat, Uncategorized

How to email your chatbot’s subscribers

Have you ever wanted to send email to your ManyChat subscribers?? Hannes recently asked how to do this in our members-only Facebook Group.It was a great question because it’s super valuable to import your chatbot subscribers to your client’s email platform so you can email them too. Stephen Bradeen, a certified Bot Academy graduate and one of our group call leaders, swooped in and gave Hannes exact, step-by-step instructions for this process. We thought you might want to know the answer too, so here’s a quick how-to. How to Export ManyChat Contacts to a Google Sheet Step 1: Log into ManyChat and go to Settings > Integrations and click Connect Google Sheets Account.Step 2: Select the account you’d like to connect, and confirm the authorization.Step 3...
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Land Real Estate Clients by Pitching these 5 Things
27Dec By Rebecca LayNo Comments
best chatbot, chatbot, chatbot app, chatbot messenger, chatbot online, chatbot website, creating chatbots, facebook bot, facebook chatbot, facebook messenger bot, robot chat, Uncategorized

Land Real Estate Clients by Pitching these 5 Things

The real estate industry is a prime target for chatbot builders. We get questions in our Facebook group all the time about how to pitch clients in this market. And for good reason.(Chat from a live training) It’s lucrative. These are often high-earning clients selling high-end homes. So they have high-end budgets to work with. It’s high-impact. Bringing in just one sale generates thousands of dollars in commission for the client. It’s competitive (for them, not you). Real estate agents need a way to stand out, yet most are relying on the same outdated marketing strategies. There’s huge opportunity for improvement by implementing something new. It’s time-sensitive. There’s a limited window when someone is buying a house, so responsiveness is key. Other chan...
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Top Announcements from ManyChat’s Conversations Conference 2019
26Dec By Andrew WarnerNo Comments
best chatbot, chatbot, chatbot app, chatbot messenger, chatbot online, chatbot website, creating chatbots, facebook bot, facebook chatbot, facebook messenger bot, instagram chatbot, robot chat, Uncategorized

Top Announcements from ManyChat’s Conversations Conference 2019

When ManyChat’s founder saw me at the Conversations Conference, he beamed and told me, “You have the top posts about the conference in our Facebook group.” In this post, I’ll cover the top 2 changes he referred to…in depth. Then I’ll give you the big picture so you know what this means. Read on to see what ManyChat announced. BIG Change #1: You can send text messages Huge excitement because now we can send text message. You can now send SMS messages (which most of us just call “text messages”) from ManyChat. That means… …if you have something to send that doesn’t fall within Facebook’s terms of service, you can text it. …if a specific reader isn’t opening up Messenger messages, you can trigger a text message instead. …you now have an easy way to send text me...
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The 24-hour Messaging Rule: What It Means & How To Prepare
26Dec By Rebecca LayNo Comments
best chatbot, chatbot, chatbot app, chatbot messenger, chatbot online, chatbot website, creating chatbots, facebook bot, facebook chatbot, facebook messenger bot, robot chat, Uncategorized

The 24-hour Messaging Rule: What It Means & How To Prepare

Facebook Messenger’s policy changes are still right around the corner (Facebook has postponed the deadline from January 15, 2020 to March 4, 2020)! It’s important that you start preparing now. So over the next few weeks, we’ll cover what the changes mean, how to prepare, and how to set up high-performing campaigns in 2020. First up, the 24-hour messaging rule! What the policy says: Businesses have 24 hours to respond to a user.Any time someone interacts with your bot (subscribing via growth tool, tapping a button, typing a response, etc.) you have 24 hours to message them, including promotional messages. Every new interaction re-opens the 24-hour window. But once it closes, you can no longer send messages for free. What it means for your campaigns: The +1 ...
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#347: The ONE Thing All Successful Entrepreneurs Do For Time, Location, & Financial Freedom (And Why You Should Too!)
22Dec By AmyNo Comments
atomic habits, create habits, entrepreneur, entrepreneurial habits, full focus planner, how to create habits, James Clear, Kate Northurp, michael hyatt, Online Business, online marketing made easy, podcast, Social Marketing Strategies, social media, social media marketing, step-by-step, successful entrepreneur, Uncategorized

#347: The ONE Thing All Successful Entrepreneurs Do For Time, Location, & Financial Freedom (And Why You Should Too!)

What you need to know about habits and successful entrepreneurs I know I speak for many entrepreneurs when I say that committing to a routine in the morning and before closing your eyes at night can play a big role in succeeding as an entrepreneur, as well as personally. Now, before you think that this […] The post #347: The ONE Thing All Successful Entrepreneurs Do For Time, Location, & Financial Freedom (And Why You Should Too!) appeared first on Amy Porterfield | Online Marketing Expert.
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Is COVID-19 the End of “Google As Your New Homepage”?
21Dec By PhilNo Comments
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Is COVID-19 the End of “Google As Your New Homepage”?

Like my post? Please share! Over the years, we’ve seen Google add so much stuff to the search results that we’ve concluded Google doesn’t even want searchers to click through to your website, because (Google assumes) everything people want to know is right there in the search results.  Some smart people in the local-search space have called that slow transformation “Google as your new homepage.”  Who needs to see your homepage when Google can save people a click or tap? As with so many other things, COVID-19 will probably change that.  At least in the crazy world of search, it seems the big lesson is: we still need to click. Google’s local search results are affected by the disruption and (to a lesser extent) contribute to it.  In the long haul, that may us a little less reliant on them...
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Doable Examples of Online/Remote Services Offered by Local Businesses
21Dec By PhilNo Comments
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Doable Examples of Online/Remote Services Offered by Local Businesses

Like my post? Please share! While everything and everyone is on lockdown, how can a “local” business still bring in a little revenue?  How can you set yourself up for a strong comeback?  And how can you do it from your yurt? As you might guess, you do it by offering an online or “tele” version of at least one of your services.  Customers / clients / patients may need to keep their distance, but many still want or need now what you offer.  Only a video, phone, or other online option meets both of those needs. The problem now is you’re not sure where to begin, because you don’t have examples or blueprints of online-only services that you can adapt to your situation. I’m not saying a remote option is an option for every business.  Some businesses can only do their work in-person, and don’t...
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Reopening Checklist for Local Businesses: Make It Confusion-Free, Local SEO-Friendly, and Safe
21Dec By PhilNo Comments
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Reopening Checklist for Local Businesses: Make It Confusion-Free, Local SEO-Friendly, and Safe

Like my post? Please share! No matter how operational your business has been, or how “open” it can be now, or how your goals have changed, sooner or later your local search visibility again will be one of your sorest spots.  Whether that’s already happened or is still a while off, at the very least you don’t want your local SEO to be in worse shape than it was before the lockdown. There’s a good chance you’ve been open in some capacity this whole time.  So when I say “reopening” I’m referring to whenever you’re (1) welcoming more in-person business and (2) focusing more of your local SEO effort on drumming up that in-person business.  My guess is you’re not emerging suddenly.   Of course, I don’t know your specific situation, so I assume it’s safe and legal for you to “reopen” in one ma...
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Free SEO Help for Small, Locally-Owned Businesses Hurt by Looting & Rioting in 2020
21Dec By PhilNo Comments
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Free SEO Help for Small, Locally-Owned Businesses Hurt by Looting & Rioting in 2020

Like my post? Please share! If you’re part of a small and locally owned business that’s been looted or trashed by rioters in recent days – or if you know someone in that situation – I’m glad to provide some pro bono marketing / SEO help.  All you’d need to do is contact me, though you’ll probably want to read the rest of this post for context. Many problems marketing just can’t solve, of course.  But I can think of at least a few situations in which a little well-executed local SEO or other online marketing helps your business get by for at least a while longer.  For example:Your store or office is boarded-up or not staffed, so you need to offer a mobile, home-based, or online/virtual service. Your store is destroyed, but you can sell some of your products online and ship them. You’re...
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Want to End Your Lease But Not Your Local SEO? Factors to Consider If You Might Leave It Behind
20Dec By PhilNo Comments
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Want to End Your Lease But Not Your Local SEO? Factors to Consider If You Might Leave It Behind

Like my post? Please share! Now you’re looking at your lease through the local SEO lens.  A combination of the pandemic, the lockdown(s), the quasi-reopening, and other changes has made you want to save money where you can, or work from home indefinitely, or move your HQ.  The basic concern is, “Will I destroy my local rankings if I rent somewhere else or stop renting altogether?” Your more-specific questions might include:Should you stay in your current building? If you stay, how long should you stay? If you move, which address (old or new) should you show online? Should you stop showing your address online? How important is your exact address, in the grand scheme of local SEO?The answer to those questions and others in a similar bucket is: “it depends.”  It depends on a lot of fac...
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How do I Contact Google My Business Support?
20Dec By Joy HawkinsNo Comments
GMB, googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services, Uncategorized

How do I Contact Google My Business Support?

Posted Dec 14, 2020 by Joy Hawkins Updated June 29, 2020 If you’re looking in your Google My Business dashboard and no longer seeing a call button, you’re not alone, many in the local SEO industry have been frustrated by the recent changes in how to contact GMB support.  Over the last few months, Google My Business has consolidated virtually all of their support contact forms into one single form. As of today, the only way to contact GMB support is through this form. Alternatively, you can still find that same form inside the GMB dashboard, which we will outline below. Email Finding email ...
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Google Local Services Reviews Not Showing in Google Maps? Why That Happens and What to Do
20Dec By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services, Uncategorized

Google Local Services Reviews Not Showing in Google Maps? Why That Happens and What to Do

Like my post? Please share! Many businesses use Google’s Local Services Ads (AKA “Google Guaranteed”) program to show up at the very top of the local results – above all the other ads, and above the local map (AKA the 3-pack).Local Services Ads (LSAs) are still not an option for every business, and they’re not a good option for everyone, but they often earn their keep for the businesses that do use them – if my clients’ experiences are good indicators.  By which I mean people see the ads, click on them, and in some cases become customers.  (If you’d like to know more, Tom Waddington did a great overview of LSAs.) Google even makes it extra easy to ask customers for reviews: Google gives you a special “write a review” link (different from the Google My Business one) and encourages you ...
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When Can Google Maps / GMB Content Cause Google Ads Disapprovals?
20Dec By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services, Uncategorized

When Can Google Maps / GMB Content Cause Google Ads Disapprovals?

Like my post? Please share! Any restricted terms that find their way into your website’s source code can cause Google to disapprove your Google Ads (AdWords) ad – even if you didn’t personally add that content to your site.  That’s the short answer. “Banned” terms that show up on your Google My Business page (like in your description) or on Google Maps (in the form of Google reviews) won’t prompt Google to pull your ads, as long as that content stays on your GMB page(s) or in your reviews.  You run into trouble only if a person or piece of software puts even one of those restricted terms onto your site.   By the way, I find it tiresome to call them “restricted terms” or “disallowed content” or whatever constitutes Google’s huge no-fly list of search terms in AdWords.  So from now on I’l...
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10 Bootstrap Ways to Grab More of Your Service Area in Local Search
20Dec By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services, Uncategorized

10 Bootstrap Ways to Grab More of Your Service Area in Local Search

Like my post? Please share! You’re probably frustrated by the puny patch of land in which you rank for anything.  How can you grab at least a little more of your service area? It takes work, but you can rank in (and get more business from) places beyond the one city or few towns where you rank today.  Those gains will happen mostly in the local organic results, but most strategies can drag your Google Maps rankings along, too. Here’s a video of my talk at the recent Whitespark Local Search Summit, hosted by Darren Shaw.  It’s called “10 Bootstrap Ways to Grab More of Your Service Area in Local Search,” and I hope it gives you some doable ideas for how to do exactly that. If you want a handy reference, or if you don’t need my color commentary or the Q&A at the end, here is a one-page...
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Goofiest Local SEO Metrics and Better Numbers for You to Watch
20Dec By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services, Uncategorized

Goofiest Local SEO Metrics and Better Numbers for You to Watch

Like my post? Please share! It’s hard enough to pilot your business into Google’s local search results and pick up the right customers.  That’s even harder if your instruments point you in the wrong direction, or you look at them wrong, or you look at the wrong instruments. In local SEO it’s easy to waste precious time and energy on goals that don’t matter, problems that don’t exist, or showy numbers that obscure important numbers.  The end result is you waste time and work less on what affects your business the most, and generally achieve the opposite of what you want.   I spend a lot of time with clients (long-term, audit, and consultation) homing in on one thing and tuning out another thing.  Below is a rundown of what I’ve found to be most common goofy and unimportant measurements o...
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Next-Level Google Maps Spam-Squashing Moves
20Dec By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services, Uncategorized

Next-Level Google Maps Spam-Squashing Moves

Like my post? Please share! This is an unofficial sequel to my February 2019 post called “Google Maps Spam Patrol: Why You Need to Do It, and 10 Tips to Make It Doable.”  In that post I explain why you should keep your competitors’ Google Maps / 3-pack spam (or honest mistakes) from spinning out of control.  As I often tell my clients, if your competitors want to outrank you in the local search results, you might as well make them work for it and do it fair and square.   If you’re not too familiar with the idea and practical SOPs of spam patrol – or spam-fighting, spam-hunting, or whatever  you’d like to call it – you’ll probably want to take a few minutes to read that post (and maybe this one and this one). Now, if you’re clear on why and how to do Google Maps spam patrol, and maybe ...
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