Thursday, July 9Digital Marketing Journals

Tag: Local

61% of CMOs Say Local Marketing Is Too Complex: Here’s the Fix
6Jul By Sara VordermeierNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services, Sponsored Posts

61% of CMOs Say Local Marketing Is Too Complex: Here’s the Fix

This post was sponsored by Uberall. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own. Who should own AI search visibility across all our locations? Should I add more AI tools to manage local listings and reviews, or is that making it worse? When 99% of senior marketers say they want an AI orchestration layer, the question is who leads it. The ideal multi-location marketing world is one where agentic AI fixes duplicate listings, responds to customer reviews, analyzes sentiment, and spots optimization opportunities before the marketer can say “GBP.” However, what multi-location brand CMOs actually have, in today’s far less ideal world, is layers of disjointed AI and marketing tooling creating an unclean and unclear infrastructure. This lack of infrastructure makes it nearly impos...
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5-Minute AI WordPress Plugin Audit That Can Save Your Local SEO
2Jul By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO

5-Minute AI WordPress Plugin Audit That Can Save Your Local SEO

There’s a good chance your site is on WordPress.  If so, priority #1 is to keep it above the earthworms.  Keeping your site up and functional is critical for business, partly because it’s critical for your local SEO. For a WordPress site, plugins giveth and taketh away.  They’re half the point of the platform.  The AI era hasn’t changed that yet: For now, WordPress is still ubiquitous, and so are plugins, including those that break and cause sites to catch fire.  The good news is that AI has at least made preventive maintenance a little easier, which can save your bacon. Exactly how can you tap into that, though?  You may know that systems run by AI chatbots (e.g. Claude Code) can make changes to your site, but you may not want to rely on that just yet.  What if you want AI to help you fin...
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How To Build: AI Trust Signal Strategy & Boost Local SEO Reviews
20Jun By Jeff SchwerdtNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services, Sponsored Posts

How To Build: AI Trust Signal Strategy & Boost Local SEO Reviews

This post was sponsored by Reviewly.ai. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own. Does keyword research still matter for SEO in 2026? Are Google reviews required for a local business to show up in AI results? How do I get my clients’ businesses recommended by AI like Gemini, Claude, and Google AI Overviews? With Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity now answering questions that used to require clicking through ten blue links, the way businesses get discovered has shifted. When these tools decide which businesses to recommend, they lean heavily on one local SEO trust signal above all others: reviews. That means your review generation strategy is no longer just a reputation play. It’s a visibility play. If AI can’t find fresh, consistent, positive reviews about you...
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10 Ways for AI to Make Higher-Flying City Pages for Local SEO
8Jun By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

10 Ways for AI to Make Higher-Flying City Pages for Local SEO

For many years now, people who know just enough about local SEO to be dangerous have blasted out “city” or “location” pages like they’re the Funyuns factory.  Sometimes those pages are effective, and produce both visibility and customers, but usually they flop. Now, with AI on the scene, there’s even more incentive to create “city” pages for your site.  They’re a great way for service-area businesses to rank in areas where they work but don’t have a physical location (or a gray-hat Google Business Profile page).  The same is true of “state,” “province,” or “county” pages, or other pages that target a specific region.  For multi-location bricks-and-mortar businesses, solid “location” pages – one for each physical location of the business – can serve the same function.  For the sake of simpl...
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How To Build Local Pages That Win In AI Search
19May By Loren BakerNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, Webinar

How To Build Local Pages That Win In AI Search

Local AI search rewards better pages. Learn exactly how to build them. Are your location-based pages showing up when AI-powered search answers local queries? Is structured data, listings, reviews driving (or undermining) your brand’s visibility across locations? 👆 Register above to learn the right way to build local intent pages that get cited in AI answers. How Local AI Visibility Works: Search Results, Listings & AI-generated Answers This on-demand session delivers a practical framework for strengthening your local SEO foundation so your brand surfaces consistently across traditional search results, listings, and AI-generated answers. You’ll Learn: How AI Search Discovers Individual Locations: Understand exactly how AI-powered search pulls from your site, listings, schema, a...
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90-Day GEO Playbook for Local Search: How To Show Up For AI
11May By UberallNo Comments
Generative AI, googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services, SEO Strategy, Sponsored Posts

90-Day GEO Playbook for Local Search: How To Show Up For AI

This post was sponsored by Uberall. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own. Local consumers have stopped searching the way we built our marketing around. This significant change in buyer habits has been quietly happening in the last 18 to 24 months. According to recent Uberall research into AI search behavior, an estimated $750 billion in consumer spend is already shifting toward AI-powered search. Roughly 60% of all searches now end without a single click to a website. And in a finding that should stop every marketer cold, or at least those working for multi-location businesses, 68% of brands are missing entirely from the recommendations AI engines generate in their category. That problem goes beyond channels. It’s a fast-moving visibility problem that risks affectin...
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Ultra-Practical Local SEO Tasks AI Can Help You With
25Apr By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

Ultra-Practical Local SEO Tasks AI Can Help You With

Most advice on “how to use AI for local SEO” faceplants in at least one of three ways: The problem isn’t a problem you’ve got. The solution is too complicated or hard to digest. You can do it better yourself, perhaps the old-fashioned way. Even so, your local SEO campaign is a lot of work, and you just know AI can help lighten your lift.  What are some specific, practical, high-payoff local SEO tasks AI tools can help you with, starting right now? 1. The quick competitive backlinks check. Go to your AI chatbot of choice (e.g. ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, etc) and type in “what domains link to [URL of competitor’s website]?”.  You’ll see where they’ve got their most-prominent backlinks, plus some.  Will this show you as many links as a paid backlink checker will?  No, but even when you use o...
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Why Dynamic GBP Profiles Are The New Local Ranking Factor
5Apr By Adam HeitzmanNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

Why Dynamic GBP Profiles Are The New Local Ranking Factor

You probably set up your Google Business Profile a while back, filled in your address, picked your categories, maybe chased down a few reviews, and then called it done. Totally understandable. That was enough, once. But here’s what’s changed: If you haven’t meaningfully touched that profile in months, you’re losing visibility to competitors who figured out something you haven’t yet. Google transformed GBP from a directory listing into a live engagement surface, and businesses that treat it like the former are quietly bleeding map pack rankings they don’t even know they’ve lost. This applies to every local business. Retailers, yes, but also law firms, dental practices, restaurants, gyms, plumbers, and salons. If your GBP isn’t actively signaling to Google that you’re open for business and e...
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Google Discover Core Update Data: Local Publishers Lost Reach
16Mar By Matt G. SouthernNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, News, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO

Google Discover Core Update Data: Local Publishers Lost Reach

An analysis from Discover tracking tool DiscoverSnoop adds to the post-update data available on Google’s Discover core update, confirming some patterns identified in earlier NewzDash analysis while contradicting others. The DiscoverSnoop report compared article counts and audience scores for publishers in the week before the update began (January 26 to February 1) against the week after it completed (March 2 to March 8). That post-completion window differs from NewzDash’s earlier scorecard, which measured a mid-rollout window. For transparency, DiscoverSnoop is a commercial Discover analytics platform. The report is based on its own tracking data. Who Lost Visibility Some publishers lost more than 20% of their article placements in the Discover feed while also seeing audience scores declin...
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90 Days. 1 Plan. Improved Local Search Visibility
4Mar By Heather CampbellNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, Webinar

90 Days. 1 Plan. Improved Local Search Visibility

AI is rapidly rewriting how consumers discover, evaluate, and choose local brands, and multi-location businesses are already feeling the impact. How do AI agents decide which local brands get surfaced, recommended, or excluded? Which location-level signals influence AI-driven discovery and selection? And how can enterprise teams operationalize GEO across hundreds or thousands of locations? Watch on-demand and learn how to make every location AI-ready in the next 90 days. A Practical GEO Playbook for Multi-Location Brands Discovery is no longer “search → compare → decide.” It’s rapidly transforming into “intent → AI agent → action.” AI systems now aggregate signals across maps, reviews, content, location data, engagement, and brand trust before your potential shopper ever clicks. Watch on-d...
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Longevity in Local Search: How You Can Keep Rankings High Year After Year
3Jan By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services

Longevity in Local Search: How You Can Keep Rankings High Year After Year

“Beware of an old man in a profession where men usually die young.”  There’s a similar truth in local SEO: the businesses to keep an eye on are those that stay near the top of the local search results over time.  Like all businesses, they have their ups and downs, and they’re probably not #1 for nearly every term, but their downs seem temporary, and their ups are long.  Even if they’re down in the Google Maps results, they may be great in the organic or AI results, or vice versa.  They just don’t go away. Months-long streaks of good rankings are easy to come by, and easy to lose.  Some businesses are in pushover markets, or they get lucky, or they employ spam effectively, or Google decides to shake up the results for a while.  But those don’t explain why some businesses routinely clobber o...
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How Will AI Mode Impact Local SEO?
22Dec By Jeff RiddallNo Comments
Generative AI, googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

How Will AI Mode Impact Local SEO?

In organic search, disruption has always been the norm, but the integration of AI into Google Search – with AI Overviews and now AI Mode – is not an incremental change; it is a fundamental restructuring. For marketers overseeing single or multi-location SEO strategies, the transition from the traditional blue-link environment to a conversational, synthesized search experience carries important stakes. The initial manifestation of this shift, the AI Overview (AIO), which claims the premium “Position 0” real estate on a search engine results page (SERP), provided the initial shockwave. However, the long-term competitive reality is defined by AI Mode, a full conversational ecosystem where users can engage in multi-stage dialogue with AI. This interactive mode anticipates a user’s entire “info...
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The New Role of Local Search in Customer Experience
20Nov By Pranav DesaiNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services, SEO Strategy, Sponsored Posts

The New Role of Local Search in Customer Experience

Ask yourself the following: Do you reply to reviews? Do you engage? Do you make the interaction feel personal? Do you follow through on your promises? Do you keep information consistent across every platform? Do you share fresh updates (ex: photos, posts, or promotions) that show you’re active? Do you provide transparent details like pricing, wait times, or insurance accepted? If you answered no to any of the aforementioned, it’s time to switch to a brand experience mentality. That shift shows up clearly in the data. Six in ten people say they at least sometimes click on Google’s AI-generated overviews, which means discovery is no longer only about traditional rankings. It’s about whether your brand shows up well when search engines pull together information in context. Reputation follow...
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10 Great Comments from the 2026 Local Search Ranking Factors Survey
8Nov By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, sem, SEO, seo services

10 Great Comments from the 2026 Local Search Ranking Factors Survey

The 2026 Local Search Ranking Factors survey is as full of insights as ever.  It was published yesterday, over at Whitespark.  (As always, a big thanks to Darren for organizing it and herding the cats.) If you do nothing else today to improve your understanding of local SEO and ability to get more visible in local search, pour yourself a mug of your finest moonshine and read through the survey or watch the video recap.  There’s a ton of useful info, whether you like to get into the details or just want a quick gut check. In case you don’t have time to read the full survey, at least you’ll want to skim through the comments.  That’s always been my favorite part of it anyway.  Sometimes you find gold nuggets in there. Even the comments section is a long read, though, which is why I’ve rounde...
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How To Do A Complete Local SEO Audit: 11-Point Checklist
4Nov By Jeff RiddallNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

How To Do A Complete Local SEO Audit: 11-Point Checklist

Local SEO includes several specific tasks geared to establishing the relevance and authority of a business within a targeted geographic area. Search engines and large language models (LLMs) like Google Gemini and ChatGPT reference many different data points to determine who will be surfaced in their respective result sets, which include AI Overviews and AI Mode in Google, featured snippets, local map packs, image or video carousels, and other emerging search formats. So, how can you identify and prioritize optimizations with the greatest potential to deliver converting traffic to your website or your business door from traditional organic local SEO or AI search? Below, we’ll walk through an evaluation of each key facet of your local search presence and uncover your best opportunities to im...
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When Can Skinny Pages Help Your Local SEO?
31Oct By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

When Can Skinny Pages Help Your Local SEO?

Scrawny pages get a bad rap.  Certain types of low-content pages, when employed wisely, can fill gaps in your business’s SEO armor.  They can rank not only in the organic results, but also in the Google Maps 3-pack results, and sometimes even in the up-and-coming AI results. Contrary to popular belief and most SEO dogma, not all pages on your site need to be long or detailed to rank well.  One way you already know that’s true is: how many times have you seen a featherweight page or post punch way above its weight in the search results and thought, “That’s it?”  The search results are not stacked from top to bottom with info that’s meticulously researched and organized – to put it kindly.  Google didn’t become Google by handing everyone a stack of PhD dissertations, but rather by offering a...
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Simple Template for Self-Auditing Your AI Local Search Visibility
3Oct By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO

Simple Template for Self-Auditing Your AI Local Search Visibility

Just about every business owner wants to be more visible in the AI local results, but it’s easy to get analysis paralysis.  Where and how do you even check your visibility?  How should you size up competitors?  What are realistic next steps, particularly next steps you don’t already plan to do? Most advice on AI local SEO is like other SEO advice, but even squishier.  When it’s not the same candy in a new wrapper, it’s extremely broad, or it’s a fancy version of “I don’t know.”  Nobody has the AI local results figured out, but that doesn’t mean you should be a spectator, and it sure doesn’t mean your competitors will just sit around and watch.  AI is still a relatively small part of local search, but it may not be that way for long.  You can and should plant the flag now. A starting point ...
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Review Signals Gain Influence In Top Google Local Rankings
24Sep By Matt G. SouthernNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, News, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

Review Signals Gain Influence In Top Google Local Rankings

A new analysis from Search Atlas quantifies the interaction between proximity and reviews in local rankings. Proximity drives visibility overall, while review signals become stronger differentiators in the highest positions. This study examines 3,269 businesses across the food, health, law, and beauty sectors. It shows that for positions 1–21, proximity influences 55% of decisions, while review count accounts for 19%. In the top ten, proximity’s influence decreases to 36%, but review count increases to 26%, with review keyword relevance reaching 22%. Search Atlas writes: Proximity is the top driver of local visibility. The study also notes: Proximity does not always dominate in elite positions. What It Means You’ll have a better chance of achieving top results by focusing on earning more r...
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Setting up Your Small Business for Success: The John Vuong / Local SEO Search Story
12Sep By Roger MurphyNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, podcast, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services

Setting up Your Small Business for Success: The John Vuong / Local SEO Search Story

Starting a small business is no easy feat. When Local SEO Search’s owner, John Vuong, first started the company, it was challenging. In fact, he didn’t have a laptop when he first went to see new clients; all he had was a mobile device. In his first meeting, he emphasized the importance of getting great search engine results. After that, the client signed with John and the rest was history. Learn how John created success for himself and for other entrepreneurs with the power of website optimization: Having a Positive Attitude “Optimism is a happiness magnet. If you stay positive, good things and good people will be drawn to you.” — Mary Lou Retton When speaking with potential clients, John always put his best foot forward and kept thinking positive thoughts. He approached people with a...
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New Strategies To Gain Local Search Visibility
31Aug By DACNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services, Sponsored Posts

New Strategies To Gain Local Search Visibility

This post was sponsored by DAC. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own. The new reality of Search and brand discovery requires an Enterprise-to-Local strategy. Traditional keyword-driven search engine results pages (SERPs) are being disrupted by AI-driven experiences that anticipate, summarize, and even act on users’ needs. As generative AI tools like Google’s AI Overviews and platforms such as Perplexity become more prominent in the Search journey, the marketer’s task expands: It’s no longer just about ranking well on Google but being visible wherever decisions begin. For multilocation businesses, this presents both a challenge and an opportunity. AI is flattening the competitive playing field, restructuring what influences purchasing decisions, and automating former...
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Easy Win for AI Local SEO: a Strong “Why Choose Us” Page on Your Site
19Aug By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

Easy Win for AI Local SEO: a Strong “Why Choose Us” Page on Your Site

We’re all still trying to get a grip on local SEO for AI chatbots (Grok, Gemini, ChatGPT, etc.).  Everything’s subject to change in about 5 minutes.  For all I know, maybe my advice here will have the shelf life of gas station sushi.  But one thing I’ve noticed so far is that what seems to work in the AI results is basically what’s worked for the last 78 “internet years” in Google and beyond: a your-website-first strategy.  Most of my clients are in the catbird seat in the “local” AI results because of it.  Your business can ride high in the AI results, too.  Don’t start overthinking everything.  Simple, practical stuff still works.  Start with that and build on it. Of course, as the AI tools themselves are quick to tell you, there are many other factors besides your site.  Your online rev...
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Local SEO ‘Best Practices’ Aren’t Universal: Yext Study
15Aug By Matt G. SouthernNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, News, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company

Local SEO ‘Best Practices’ Aren’t Universal: Yext Study

A new Yext analysis of 8.7 million Google search results suggests many common local SEO tactics don’t perform the same across industries and regions. The dataset, drawn from the company’s Scout Index, focuses on what correlates with visibility in Google’s Local Pack, not just overall map presence. What Yext Found Review Management Emerges As The Strongest Signal The clearest pattern is around reviews. Yext states “Review engagement dominates,” calling it “the most consistent driver of Local Pack visibility across all industries and regions.” Within the study’s feature rankings, review signals top the list, including review count, new reviews per month, and owner responses. Businesses with many positive reviews and prompt owner responses tend to outperform competitors. Industry Differences ...
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Google Search Can Now Call Local Businesses Using AI
26Jul By Matt G. SouthernNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, News, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

Google Search Can Now Call Local Businesses Using AI

Google has introduced a new AI-powered calling feature in Search that contacts local businesses on a user’s behalf to gather pricing and availability details. The feature, rolling out to all U.S. Search users this week, allows people to request information from multiple businesses with a single query. When searching for services like pet grooming or dry cleaning, users may now see a new option to “Have AI check pricing.” How It Works After selecting the AI option, users are guided through a form to provide details about the service they need. Google’s AI then calls relevant local businesses to gather information such as pricing, appointment availability, and service options. The responses are consolidated and presented to the user. The experience starts with a typical local search, such as...
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Accidental Rankings: Little Mutations That Can Help Your Local SEO Big-Time
6Jul By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services

Accidental Rankings: Little Mutations That Can Help Your Local SEO Big-Time

Like my post? Please share! An “accidental ranking” is just what it sounds like: a term you’ve ranked for without even trying.  Not all accidental rankings are useful, but you’ll find some that turn into some of your strongest local rankings once you start trying to show up for them. What I suggest is simple: 1. Sift through the Google Search Console “Queries” report and find search terms your business ranks for that you haven’t targeted and that you think have value. 2. Target those terms a little more on the pages that already rank for the “accidental” terms, on your most-visible other pages, on your homepage, or on some combination.  (Often this is as simple as adding a paragraph on whatever the topic is, and maybe throwing the “accidental” term into the title tag.) 3. Create other page...
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Google Local Search Research Paper On Business Type Extraction
12Jun By Roger MonttiNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, Google Patents & Research Papers, google seo, Local Search, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

Google Local Search Research Paper On Business Type Extraction

Google published a research paper describing how it extracts “services offered” information from local business sites to add it to business profiles in Google Maps and Search. The algorithm describes specific relevance factors and confirms that the system has been successfully in use for a year. What makes this research paper especially notable is that one of the authors is Marc Najork, a distinguished research scientist at Google who is associated with many milestones in information retrieval, natural language processing, and artificial intelligence. The purpose of this system is to make it easier for users to find local businesses that provide the services they are looking for. The paper was published in 2024 (according to the Internet Archive) and is dated 2023. The research paper expla...
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Almost-Customers Are Local SEO Gold
31May By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

Almost-Customers Are Local SEO Gold

Like my post? Please share! The best people to help you get more customers are your current and past customers.  They give you referrals, reviews, results you can showcase, and more.  The second-best people are your almost-customers.  They give you intel you won’t get anywhere else – if you ask them for it.  You can use that intel to improve your visibility in the local search results and to get more customers out of the deal. My suggestion for you today is simple: send a quick survey to the people who chose not to work with you.  The insights you get can be gold for your business in general and for your local SEO effort in particular.  You may not want to spend any more time with almost-customers or ask anything of them, and the feeling may be mutual.  But the alternative is to get nothin...
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20% of Local Searches Now Start Here
3May By Matt G. SouthernNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, News, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO

20% of Local Searches Now Start Here

New research shows that map platforms have become key search engines for local businesses. One in five consumers now searches directly in map apps instead of traditional search engines. BrightLocal’s Consumer Search Behavior study found that Google, Apple, and Bing Maps make up 20% of all local searches. This is a big part of search traffic that many marketers might be missing in their local SEO plans. The Rise of Map-First Search Behavior The research found that 15% of consumers use Google Maps as their first choice for local searches. This makes it the second most popular platform after Google Search (45%). The study reads: “Another significant finding is the prominence of Google Maps in local search. 15% of consumers said they would use Google Maps as their first port of call, meaning t...
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Competitor Analysis In Local SEO And How To Gain An Edge
21Apr By Jeff RiddallNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

Competitor Analysis In Local SEO And How To Gain An Edge

In every community, multiple businesses and business types vie for prominence within a limited geographic radius. As such, when it comes to online visibility and local SEO, competitor analysis isn’t just a best practice – it’s a necessity. Understanding and responding to your rivals’ strategies, strengths, and weaknesses is the cornerstone of a winning local SEO campaign. For SEO professionals, this means going beyond surface-level observations and diving deep into data to uncover actionable insights. Let’s explore how to conduct a thorough competitor analysis and leverage any findings to gain an edge in local organic search, drive targeted traffic, and improve the bottom line. Identifying Your Local Online Competition Before you can analyze your competition, you need to identify them. A b...
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Using Local Business Partnerships And Collaborations To Build Authority And Visibility
5Apr By Jeff RiddallNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

Using Local Business Partnerships And Collaborations To Build Authority And Visibility

All businesses, large or small, must establish a level of authority for the products and/or services they offer in the minds and hearts of their target audience if they expect to convince them to engage and buy. This universal marketing truth plays out daily for small businesses looking to capture the attention of local customers through a variety of local SEO strategies. Authoritativeness is the “A” in the much-heralded E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) found in Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines. In short, a business or organization needs to prove its authority to Google, and all other search engines, to be considered worthy of visibility in search engine results. The authority of a local business can be established in a few different ways, but...
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Risks and Rewards in the Common Get-Ahead Local SEO Tactics
1Apr By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

Risks and Rewards in the Common Get-Ahead Local SEO Tactics

Like my post? Please share! To paraphrase Dirty Harry: do you feel lucky? You don’t need much luck if you’re good at weighing risks and rewards.  Local SEO is nothing more than a bunch of trade-offs.  Cobble together a few tactics, a simple method or two to gauge their effectiveness, and fallback options or ways to adjust, and you’ve got yourself a strategy.  The specific tactics you stick together will determine how your strategy will work out – in the Google Maps results, in the organic results, and maybe beyond. What’s a wise or dumb tactic or strategy depends on your risk-tolerance, your ability to measure and evaluate results, and what your alternatives are.  If you’re doing at least some of the critical things I suggest – like leaning on “service” pages, creating spin-off pages, gett...
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A Complete Guide To Local Structured Data & Rich Results
8Mar By Chelsea AlvesNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services

A Complete Guide To Local Structured Data & Rich Results

Structured data markup can work diligently behind the scenes to help your local business shine online. It can add eye-catching rich results to your search results, like review stars, FAQs, and breadcrumbs, that grab attention and encourage more clicks. Structured data uses the standardized vocabulary of Schema to tell search engines – and even AI tools – exactly what your website is about, making it easier for customers to find you. While it’s not a direct ranking boost, structured data plays a big role in making your business more visible, whether in traditional search results or AI-powered tools like Gemini or ChatGPT. From a local ice cream shop to a hardware store, adding structured data can make a huge difference in boosting your local SEO and staying ahead in today’s ultra-saturated ...
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A Complete Guide To Local Structured Data & Rich Results
24Feb By Chelsea AlvesNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services

A Complete Guide To Local Structured Data & Rich Results

Structured data markup can work diligently behind the scenes to help your local business shine online. It can add eye-catching rich results to your search results, like review stars, FAQs, and breadcrumbs, that grab attention and encourage more clicks. Structured data uses the standardized vocabulary of Schema to tell search engines – and even AI tools – exactly what your website is about, making it easier for customers to find you. While it’s not a direct ranking boost, structured data plays a big role in making your business more visible, whether in traditional search results or AI-powered tools like Gemini or ChatGPT. From a local ice cream shop to a hardware store, adding structured data can make a huge difference in boosting your local SEO and staying ahead in today’s ultra-saturated ...
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Is This Bad For Local Businesses?
20Feb By Mike BlumenthalNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

Is This Bad For Local Businesses?

We have been testing Google’s newest “Ask For Me” Search Lab test. It is quick, easy, and impressive technology to request local quotes, but it is not at all clear that it is good for small businesses. At the end of January, Rose Yao, a product lead at Google, announced a new Search Lab test (“Ask for Me”) that uses Google Duplex to automate calls to local businesses “to find out what they charge for a service and when it’s available.” It’s testing in two categories to start: automotive service/repair and nail salons. And we just got access. When your search query falls within one of the two test categories (e.g., oil change), the Ask for Me module appears under the Local Pack with a large call to action that encourages users to “Get started.” Ask for Me Module, CTA (Screenshot from searc...
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Surprising Review Stats To Feed Your Local Strategy [Study]
12Feb By Miriam EllisNo Comments
Digital Marketing, googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services

Surprising Review Stats To Feed Your Local Strategy [Study]

If you’ve already walked a long mile in your local SEO shoes, chances are you have plenty of lived experiences that allow you to predict some of the responses to large-scale local business review surveys. It’s affirming to see, for example, that 85% of our respondents place a degree of trust in local business reviews, and 92% now believe that brands responding to reviews have become part of offering good customer service. Consumers are also seeking review content across a wide variety of platforms, including traditional local business listings like Google Business Profiles, social media sites like Instagram, and other localized online spaces. You could have made an educated guess about stats like these, but pay attention to the data in this survey that contains genuine surprises. Statistic...
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Added a Service Page to Your Site? Now Do These 30 Things for It to Help Your Local SEO and Grab Customers
8Feb By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

Added a Service Page to Your Site? Now Do These 30 Things for It to Help Your Local SEO and Grab Customers

Like my post? Please share! It’s fun to slap together a new “service” page and see fast results, because most of the time it doesn’t work out that way.  More often, you’ll need to put in a little more gruntwork before that new page can help produce organic rankings, Google Maps rankings, and customers. As usual, your process counts for all the marbles.  I can sum up the basic process: Make your new page hard for Google to miss, make it hard for would-be customers to dismiss, study your results from multiple angles over time, and improve the page over time. If you pull it off, you’ll create another little (or big) source of local visibility that makes you less dependent on the finicky Google Maps results, while (paradoxically) helping you perform better on the map. Exactly how do you do tha...
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Maximizing Foot Traffic With Hyper-Targeted Local PPC Strategies
4Feb By Ameet KhabraNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, PPC, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

Maximizing Foot Traffic With Hyper-Targeted Local PPC Strategies

As someone who knows a lot of local business owners, I know how important it is to get customers through your doors. While traditional marketing methods like flyers and newspaper ads still have their place, the digital era has opened up incredible new ways to reach local audiences and drive foot traffic, thanks to PPC advertising. PPC platforms like Google Ads offer fairly granular geographic targeting options, allowing you to show ads only to people in the area(s) you serve. However, effective local PPC goes beyond setting a radius around your store location. You can drastically improve your campaigns by leveraging advanced strategies and features to bring more local customers to your business. Get Granular With Location Targeting The foundation of any local PPC campaign is location targe...
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Local SEO For Service Area Businesses: Targeting Your Coverage
15Jan By Jeff RiddallNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services

Local SEO For Service Area Businesses: Targeting Your Coverage

For small, mobile, local businesses operating without a fixed storefront, navigating the world of local SEO can feel like charting uncharted territory. Service area businesses (SABs) – think plumbers, electricians, mobile pet groomers, and the like – face unique challenges in establishing a strong online presence. However, by understanding the nuances of local SEO for service area businesses and implementing the right strategies, you can effectively target your service areas and reach more customers than ever before. This comprehensive guide will delve into the intricacies of local SEO for SABs, providing valuable insights, strategies, and best practices to help you effectively target your coverage area and maximize your online visibility to drive more local traffic and business. Understan...
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Brutally Short List of WordPress Plugins That Help Local SEO
31Oct By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

Brutally Short List of WordPress Plugins That Help Local SEO

Like my post? Please share! Most wounds are self-inflicted, at least in local SEO.  A weak site makes it much harder to get visible in the organic results and in the Google Maps results, and to stay there.  But you won’t grow the site to be big and strong if simple tasks are a PITA, or if you spend too much time and energy and money on features that stop working, or if your site gets hacked and you can’t get it out of sickbay fast.  Too many plugins, or the wrong plugins, can cause all of those problems and more. My advice is simple: install as few plugins as possible.  If you pack too heavy, in general you will find it much harder to create and improve pages long-term, more plugins will conflict or stop working, and a vulnerable plugin will result in a hack sooner or later.  All of those ...
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50 Ways Local SEOs Can Earn Their Keep
3Oct By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services

50 Ways Local SEOs Can Earn Their Keep

Like my post? Please share!An SEO can become your trusted consigliere, an all-star utility player, lowbrow ruffian fixer, or some combination of those and more, if only you know the range of tasks that he or she might be able to handle for you or help you with.  They may not be good at everything, and you may not need them for certain things, and that’s OK.  They might be able to save you some money or time or both, and they might have some aces up their sleeves – things you didn’t think they’d be good at. My advice is simple: use your SEO person or people to the max.  Whether that means they take on additional responsibilities or they swap out some of the current tasks for different tasks, it won’t be hard to make them more useful than they are now. What’s most useful varies from one busi...
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Yelp Sues Google Over Local Search Dominance
1Sep By Matt G. SouthernNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, News, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company

Yelp Sues Google Over Local Search Dominance

Yelp has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google in federal court in San Francisco. The suit alleges that Google has illegally leveraged its monopoly in general search to dominate the local search and local search advertising markets, harming competition and consumer choice. Key Allegations Yelp’s complaint accuses Google of engaging in anticompetitive conduct, including: Self-preferencing its own “inferior” local search product over competitors Driving traffic and revenue away from rivals like Yelp Making it harder for competitors to achieve scale Increasing costs for rivals Limiting consumer choice to grow its market power The company claims Google’s local listings are “on average, shorter, more prone to error, less subject to quality control, and less likely to be useful to consumer...
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Utilizing Local Influencers For Digital Marketing Success
20Aug By Jeff RiddallNo Comments
Digital Marketing, googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services

Utilizing Local Influencers For Digital Marketing Success

Small businesses face the ongoing challenge of standing out in crowded marketplaces, both online and off. One strategy that has gained significant traction in recent years is leveraging prominent, trusted local influencers to help boost online authority and visibility and grow the business. This approach enables businesses to tap into established community voices, build trust, and reach specific local audiences through value-added partnerships. Understanding Local Influencer Marketing Local influencer marketing involves partnering with people who have significant followings and/or influence within a specific geographic area or community. These influencers may not have millions of followers like national or global influencers, but their impact on local consumers’ searching and buying decisi...
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Recovery Times from Local SEO Mishaps: a Quick Summary
4Aug By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

Recovery Times from Local SEO Mishaps: a Quick Summary

Like my post? Please share! If you break a leg, how long will you need to be in crutches, and how long before you can run?  If you smash your pinky finger, when can you play Chopin again?  If you throw out your back, how long until you can attempt a new personal record in the caber toss? The answer, of course, is that it depends on what happened and on what you do about it.  That’s also true in local SEO, both in the Google Maps results and in the organic results.  What begins as a minor problem can fester, drag on forever, or become a fustercluck.  What seems like a death knell may be just a wake-up call.  If a specific problem is what’s holding you back and you fix it, sometimes you can start or resume ranking right away.  If it’s a problem that takes you a long time to remedy, or even t...
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A Guide For Local Business Owners
3Jul By Jeff RiddallNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, sem, SEO, seo company, seo services

A Guide For Local Business Owners

Local business owners consistently face a familiar digital marketing conundrum. With a myriad of options available and seemingly growing daily, including the recent introductions of AI into the mix, how do you determine the best and most effective approach for your business? To begin, most local businesses have two (or technically four) primary paths to consider: Organic and paid strategies for both search and social media. In this guide, we’ll explore the nuances of each option, weigh the pros and cons, and offer actionable insights to help make informed decisions on where to invest your valuable time, resources, and funds. Understanding Organic And Paid Strategies Let’s start by defining the fundamental difference between organic and paid strategies: Organic: Focuses on building long-te...
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Local Links vs. Industry Links for Local SEO: Which Is More Likely to Stick?
29Jun By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

Local Links vs. Industry Links for Local SEO: Which Is More Likely to Stick?

Like my post? Please share! If you want to rank more than a klick or two from your perimeter, you’ll need a few links – from other sites to your site.  Most of those sites should be relevant to what you do, where you are, or both. Those links probably don’t need to be hard to get, you won’t need a ton of them, and you may not even need them at all right now to make big gains.  How important they are depends on a lot of factors.  But you will need some solid links sooner or later, as rebar to support your other SEO work.  Otherwise, you’ll have a hard time getting ahead of your tougher competitors, staying ahead of them, and preventing rankings rot.  A version of this is true if you’re a professional SEO-er: you need to do some work to help your clients land a few links. There’s no “best” t...
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12 Kinds of Growth in Local SEO
9Jun By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

12 Kinds of Growth in Local SEO

Like my post? Please share! You don’t just want to become easier to find: you want to be harder to avoid.  Higher rankings make you more visible, but alone they don’t make you unavoidable.  Your goals will require more than that.  You need multiple ways to advance your goals, and not just 1 or 2. It’s like how there’s not just one way to grow your wealth.  You can get paid more, spend less, reduce your debt, reduce your tax burden, buy assets that appreciate, turn savings into investments, etc.  It’s similar in other situations, too: There are many different ways a farm can produce more food, a military can deliver more victories, a baseball team can win more ball games, and so on.  So it is in local SEO.  More customers are more likely to darken your door if they keep seeing you, rather t...
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Your Guide To Dominating Local Search Marketing
5Jun By SOCiNo Comments
content, content creation, googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, On-page SEO, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services, Sponsored Posts

Your Guide To Dominating Local Search Marketing

This post was sponsored by SOCi. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own. As a marketer, you may feel like the ground is shifting under your feet with so many changes in the world of search. From Google’s recent announcement to release AI Overviews to all U.S. users to OpenAI revealing GPT-4o, there’s a lot to keep up with. How will these changes impact your search efforts? Do you need to shift your search strategy? We have the answers for you and more! In this blog, we’ll explain how search marketing has changed, what this means for your brand, and share tactics to improve your online visibility. At the end, we’ll also introduce our new game-changer for local search management. Let’s get into it! The Evolution Of Search Marketing As search evolves, many marketers are ...
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How to Get More Google Reviews to Improve Your Local SEO
1Jun By Darren ShawNo Comments
googe optimize, Google Business Profiles, google optimization, google seo, Local SEO, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO

How to Get More Google Reviews to Improve Your Local SEO

Let’s play a game! Which of the following statements is FALSE? A. Keywords in reviews impact rankings.B. Keywords in review responses impact rankings.C. It doesn’t matter if you get 20 reviews all at once, or over a longer period of time. The ranking impact will be the same.D. Both B and C.E. Both A and B. And the correct answer is… D! (for Darren, duh) If you got it right, congratulations! You have not been bamboozled by all the false information out there. If you didn’t pick the right answer, don’t stress. I’m here to help you learn. Whether you’d like to brush up on your reviews knowledge or learn how to craft a successful review strategy, this week’s episode is for you. We cover everything you need to know about reviews: from common myths, to review-related ranking and conversion facto...
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Photos & Local SEO: Simple Ways to Put More Notches on Your Belt with Images
26Apr By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

Photos & Local SEO: Simple Ways to Put More Notches on Your Belt with Images

Like my post? Please share! The biggest problem with most advice on “image SEO” is it focuses too much on what images you should take and how you should take them.  Often that advice rests on an assumption that you’re in a photogenic line of work, where it’s both easy and wise to take photos of what you offer and where you offer it.  But what if your services appear only as brain waves in your head, your products are tough on the eyes, or your place of business looks like Sanford & Son’s?  Even if your photos don’t have the good looks, somehow you still need to give them legs. Another problem is much of  the advice is perfectionistic and fussy.  It’s too focused on technical steps that most people can’t or won’t bother with, that your competitors seem not to bother with, and that Googl...
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Review-Fu: 13 Nimble Ways to Get More and Better Reviews of Your Local Business
29Mar By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

Review-Fu: 13 Nimble Ways to Get More and Better Reviews of Your Local Business

Like my post? Please share! In your effort to get reviews that grow your cred and your business, it’s easy to get stale.  You ask the same people, in the same way, around the same time, for roughly the same favor.  You leave it alone unless and until there’s a big problem or a big gap in your armor.  Perhaps out of fear that you’ll try something worse, you won’t try something that might work better.  That’s fine SOP, except when you start losing business because your reviews aren’t as plentiful, prominent, or persuasive as they might be or as competitors’ reviews are. No review-rustling strategy is perfect, and every one of them creates or ignores little problems (with customers, service, policy, competitors, Google, etc.).  You can keep those problems nice and small if you put in effort c...
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Beautiful Local Business Website Redesign Example
26Mar By Darren ShawNo Comments
googe optimize, Google Business Profiles, google optimization, google seo, Local SEO, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO

Beautiful Local Business Website Redesign Example

Multi-location Pricing Request Our platform is designed to help multi-location businesses manage their reputation, whether you have 2 or 1,000 locations we can facilitate each business, and set-up your account with a plan that best suits each location’s needs. Fill out the form below to get a quote for your multi-location business. We will email you back directly and answer any additional questions you may have.
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How Local Businesses Should Use Video In Their Digital Marketing
14Mar By Jeff RiddallNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services

How Local Businesses Should Use Video In Their Digital Marketing

The popularity of digital video content is undeniable. Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, all of which are heavily video-based, are at the top of the social media ladder. For many younger audiences, these platforms, along with a plethora of streaming services, have usurped all others as their primary source of entertainment and/or information. Some are even being touted as the next search engines. This is still hotly debated. Likewise, video marketing is on the rise, and many marketers have come to see this as a preferred method of engaging with their target audiences. However, at a local business level and for local business owners, it feels like there is still something of a reluctance to fully embrace this important medium. Perhaps this is due to a lack of time or resources – a c...
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Local SEO For Non-Physical Businesses: Overcoming The Challenges
11Mar By Adam HeitzmanNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services

Local SEO For Non-Physical Businesses: Overcoming The Challenges

It’s hard to overstate the value of maximizing your organic visibility for location-based searches. A well-executed local SEO strategy lets you reach far more local customers, which can deliver a massive boost to your in-store and online traffic and sales. But if you don’t run a brick-and-mortar business, can you still take advantage of local SEO? Fortunately, the answer is yes! Today, we’ll explain how to overcome the challenges of building a solid local search presence without a physical storefront. Difficulties Of Local SEO For Non-Physical Businesses Search engines take into account the physical location of businesses when determining the most relevant listings to rank for local searches. If a company has an address in Nashville, Google may rank it higher for user searches in and aroun...
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Web Design Effects – Local SEO Search Inc.
9Mar By John VuongNo Comments
Business advice, googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

Web Design Effects – Local SEO Search Inc.

For many businesses, it’s a given you need an online presence to interact with your customer base in a more convenient and intimate manner. However, while many businesses settle for having a social media presence, the most effective businesses know the most effective move is developing a quality website. A website is an all-in-one tool for your online needs, allowing you to communicate with your clients and offer them alternative avenues for locating your services. But like any other tool, it’s vital you invest in your site to make sure you’re getting the most out of it. Quality web design is the key to creating a quality website that both gets you the right attention from Google and gets clients to stay and do business once they get there. To make the most of your website, it pays to know...
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Google Maps Launches AI-Powered Local Business Search
5Feb By Matt G. SouthernNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, News, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO

Google Maps Launches AI-Powered Local Business Search

Google is introducing an experimental feature in Google Maps that uses AI to help users discover local businesses that meet specific needs. AI-Powered Discovery The new feature utilizes large language models to analyze Google Maps’ database of over 250 million places, photos, ratings, reviews, and more. After entering a conversational search query, Google Maps will suggest personalized recommendations for businesses, events, restaurants, and activities in the area. For example, you can ask Maps to recommend “places with a vintage vibe in San Francisco,” and it will return suggestions like clothing boutiques, record stores, and flea markets. The results are categorized with photos and review highlights to explain why they meet your criteria. You can refine your search by asking follow-up qu...
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A Complete Guide for Local SEO
29Jan By Sherry BonelliNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services

A Complete Guide for Local SEO

One of the best local SEO strategies that any eligible local business can use to rank higher on Google and get local clients is to claim and optimize their Google Business Profile. However, claiming your Google Business Profile (GBP) is just the first step – you must optimize, frequently check, and update your GBP with new information for potential customers. Also, many businesses don’t realize that Google (and almost any user) can make changes to their GBP – like changing your address, updating your business hours, uploading photos, leaving reviews, and more. Ultimately, a Google Business Profile is really a community profile – it’s not just yours (the merchant’s). Virtually anyone online can contribute to your Google Business Profile, and Google encourages user-generated content (UGC), l...
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Is Web Design Easy? – Local SEO Search Inc.
27Jan By John VuongNo Comments
Business advice, googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Internet marketing, Online marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, SEO APP & Web Development, seo company

Is Web Design Easy? – Local SEO Search Inc.

Your website is the cornerstone of your brand’s digital identity and where you convert interested visitors into loyal customers. In this fast-paced digital world, there’s no room for errors that could turn potential clients away. Gone are the days of 2002, when web design was a simpler affair focusing primarily on user experience and less on aesthetics. Back then, webmasters were often satisfied with having their content online, making changes on a whim without much thought. Web design has evolved dramatically, intertwining aesthetics, user experience, and technical complexities. In exploring the various aspects of web design, this article answers the question, “Is web design easy?” Fundamental Elements in Web Design Central to every web design project are several key elements that form th...
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Adapting Your Digital Marketing Strategy To Local Events And Seasons
12Jan By Jeff RiddallNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services

Adapting Your Digital Marketing Strategy To Local Events And Seasons

Local businesses wanting to improve their online visibility are regularly tasked with proving their “localness” and relevance to search engines. In my last article on using local partnerships and collaborations to build authority and visibility, we touched on the importance of community participation and engagement as a means to establish this localness. Two primary means of engaging with local customers are via events or establishing communications during relevant occasions. Both offer the opportunity to create informational, educational, or promotional content where local businesses are able to demonstrate their experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness – or E-E-A-T – which Google strongly factors into its Search Quality Rater Guidelines and, subsequently, its search ...
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Can You Hide Your GBP/GMB Address Without Losing Your Local Rankings?
11Jan By Darren ShawNo Comments
googe optimize, Google Business Profiles, google optimization, google seo, Local SEO, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

Can You Hide Your GBP/GMB Address Without Losing Your Local Rankings?

How can a service area business (SAB) move their address and not lose their rankings? Well, it’s tricky. I just tested this in a new case study, and I thought I had come up with a brilliant solution, but it didn’t quite work out as well as I had hoped. But fear not. I think there is a solution, and I’m going to break it down in this video. Some Context I posted a tweet about how service areas don’t have any impact on rankings. And Trey Copeland, a service area business owner, replied with the following: This is a great example demonstrating that service areas have no impact on ranking. And it also demonstrates a common problem with Google Business Profiles: Where when a service area business moves their location, it’s very difficult to shift their rankings from the ...
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Google Confirms Business ‘Openness’ As Local Ranking Factor
16Dec By Kristi HinesNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, News, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO

Google Confirms Business ‘Openness’ As Local Ranking Factor

Recent findings by SEO professionals suggest that Google has recalibrated its local search algorithm, placing more emphasis on a business’s listed hours of operation as a key ranking signal. According to Joy Hawkins of Sterling Sky, the trend became noticeable after the November 2023 core update, leading to businesses that appear as closed being significantly less visible in local search results. 😱Well the news is out, the new ranking factor we are seeing that has a massive impact on ranking is HOURS. We're seeing that businesses literally vanish in the local pack when they are not open. We started seeing this with the November 2023 core update. This is also making… pic.twitter.com/kDzfrbNmB5 — Joy Hawkins (@JoyanneHawkins) December 7, 2023 Business Hours Confirmed As ‘Stronger’ ...
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Moving your business? Consider Proximity for Local SEO.
4Dec By Darren ShawNo Comments
googe optimize, Google Business Profiles, google optimization, google seo, Local SEO, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO

Moving your business? Consider Proximity for Local SEO.

Multi-location Pricing Request Our platform is designed to help multi-location businesses manage their reputation, whether you have 2 or 1,000 locations we can facilitate each business, and set-up your account with a plan that best suits each location’s needs. Fill out the form below to get a quote for your multi-location business. We will email you back directly and answer any additional questions you may have.
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Why Google Search Console Is the Best Way to Measure, Track, and Troubleshoot Your Local SEO
1Dec By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services

Why Google Search Console Is the Best Way to Measure, Track, and Troubleshoot Your Local SEO

Like my post? Please share! What about Google Analytics, and GBP Insights, and third-party rank-trackers?  Each of those has its place in the world and can come in handy.  You may use them, and they may help.  But if you had to pick ONE way to measure how you’re doing in the local search results, one place to monitor progress, one tool to help you troubleshoot, Google Search Console is your best (or least-bad) choice.  In my experience, it’s the sturdiest buoy you can cling to. Whether you do your own local SEO, are part of a team that works on it, or are an SEO professional who needs to put out the occasional fire, here’s why I say Google Search Console (“GSC”) is uniquely helpful to help you figure things out, and why digging around in its data is a uniquely high-payoff use of your time:...
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How Local Businesses Can Rank For Popular Near Me Searches
1Dec By Kristi HinesNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, News, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company

How Local Businesses Can Rank For Popular Near Me Searches

A recent feature on The Verge highlighted businesses that try to get an edge in local search rankings with clever names like Thai Food Near Me. So, I set out to discover if this strategy could impact local rankings and, more importantly, if other local businesses could replicate it. Before I get started, I should preface this with some good and bad news. Bad News: Distance Is An Important Ranking Factor Most restaurants will not rank as the best restaurants near me unless they are physically located near the search user’s location. The reason? One of the three critical ranking factors for Google local search results is distance. Suppose a restaurant owner wants people in Phoenix, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York to discover their dining establishment with the term best restaurant near me...
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Data-Driven Decision Making To Optimized Local Digital Marketing Efforts
29Nov By Jeff RiddallNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO

Data-Driven Decision Making To Optimized Local Digital Marketing Efforts

If you’ve been involved in any sort of marketing over the past 20 to 30 years, you’ve no doubt heard the phrase “Content is King.” This may very well be true, as content in its many forms underpins all interactions between businesses and their target audience. However, if “Content is King,” then data is an omnipotent force directing the King’s every move. This is particularly the case with digital marketing, where nearly all interactions and engagements can be monitored, analyzed, and optimized. To put it simply, data helps us to understand what is working and not working so we can focus our attention on doing more of the former and less of the latter to drive results. Start With Actionable KPIs For small local businesses, which don’t typically have a great deal of time or resources to all...
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Moving your business? Consider Proximity for Local SEO.
29Nov By Darren ShawNo Comments
googe optimize, Google Business Profiles, google optimization, google seo, Local SEO, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO

Moving your business? Consider Proximity for Local SEO.

Does Proximity to a City Affect Local SEO Rankings?When targeting multiple cities in SEO, proximity to a city can indeed affect local rankings. Search engines consider the physical distance between a business and the user's location when determining relevance. Being closer to a city can impact local SEO rankings positively, as it signals greater accessibility and relevance to nearby users in that area.Multi-location Pricing Request Our platform is designed to help multi-location businesses manage their reputation, whether you have 2 or 1,000 locations we can facilitate each business, and set-up your account with a plan that best suits each location’s needs. Fill out the form below to get a quote for your multi-location business. We will email you back directly and answer any additional que...
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Using Local Business Partnerships To Build Authority And Visibility
28Nov By Jeff RiddallNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

Using Local Business Partnerships To Build Authority And Visibility

In the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing and search engine optimization (SEO), one thing remains constant: the importance of authority, which has a distinct effect on organic search visibility. Authoritativeness is the “A” in the much-heralded E-E-A-T found in Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines. In short, a business or organization needs to prove its authoritativeness to Google, and all other search engines, in order to be considered worthy of visibility in search engine results. The authority of a local business can be established in a few different ways, most notably: Via the helpful, high-quality, well-structured content it creates for its target audience/customers. Through validation of its offerings via industry-specific backlinks it maintains to its primary product, ...
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Local SEO Keyword Research Doggie Door: How and Why to Search Google Maps Reviews by Keyword
23Nov By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

Local SEO Keyword Research Doggie Door: How and Why to Search Google Maps Reviews by Keyword

Like my post? Please share! Here’s the doggie door, which I’ll explain more in a minute: 1. Go to the Google Maps tab OR open up the Google Maps app and pull up any business. You must go either to maps.google.com or open the app, because this won’t work anywhere else, like in the Google Business Profile “dashboard,” in the Chrome app, etc. 2. Click on the “reviews” tab, as though you’re a customer who wants to browse them.  (Of course, I’m assuming that the business has reviews.) 3. Click on the magnifying glass icon, type any word or brief phrase into the search bar that pops up, and check out the list of all reviews containing that word or phrase.  The word or phrase will show up in bold lettering. Here’s where the keyword-search feature is in the Google Maps app: Handy, isn’t it? No...
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Business Hours and Local SEO: 17 Ways to Use Your Hours for Maximum Boom
28Sep By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

Business Hours and Local SEO: 17 Ways to Use Your Hours for Maximum Boom

Like my post? Please share! Business hours get no respect from local SEOs.  Rarely do we see them as a problem, or as a possible solution to problems.  That’s because we seldom scrutinize hours as we would other moving parts on a website, a Google Business Profile page, or anything else that can make a business visible or invisible locally.  If you’re a business owner, you’ve probably thought way more about your hours than your local SEO person has. Hours aren’t even one of those factors everybody works on but nobody writes about.  In the excellent 2023 Local Search Ranking Factors survey by Whitespark, “proper hours” showed up only as a “conversion factor,” rather than as a factor that directly or indirectly might sway local rankings.  (In the comments section, only the wise Gyi Tsakilaki...
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Starting Local SEO with Nothing: 30 Ways to Start Cold and Succeed
21Aug By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services

Starting Local SEO with Nothing: 30 Ways to Start Cold and Succeed

Like my post? Please share! Are you starting your local SEO work at Customer #0, with few or no connections, few or no resources, and not much certainty as to where to begin?  Working on local SEO for this new business may feel like you just moved to a foreign land with only the clothes on your back.  You may not even speak the lingo.  You’re starting with your wits, work ethic, presumably a computer somewhere in the trunk, and not much else.  In other words, you’re starting with zilch.  Cold-start SEO (as I call it) is a mighty different thing from doing SEO for a company that’s been around for a while, has a customer base, maybe has a war chest, and probably has other resources you don’t.  This may sound like a stretch now, but the local search results still are a place where it doesn’t...
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Does Setting Your Google Business Profile as “Temporarily Closed” Impact Local SEO Rankings?
16Aug By Darren ShawNo Comments
googe optimize, Google Business Profiles, google optimization, google seo, Local SEO, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO

Does Setting Your Google Business Profile as “Temporarily Closed” Impact Local SEO Rankings?

Back in 2020, Google claimed that setting your Google Business Profile as “Temporarily Closed” did NOT impact your rankings.  Well, what if I told you that this is not the case anymore and that marking your business as “Temporarily Closed” CAN absolutely negatively impact your rankings?  Here’s what I found out. Google’s Stance on the Subject In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, many businesses had to shut their doors and mark their Google Business Profiles as “Temporarily Closed”. Around that time, Google’s Danny Sullivan was asked on Twitter if this would have any impact on those businesses’ Local SEO rankings and visibility.   Danny Sullivan reassured all local business owners that “Temporarily Closed” wouldn’t affect their rankings or visibility. That Tweet was la...
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The Ultimate Guide To Boosting Local SEO For Clients Using AI
7Aug By Cynthia SenerNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services, Sponsored Posts

The Ultimate Guide To Boosting Local SEO For Clients Using AI

Drive business growth by offering an online brand and reputation intelligence platform that re-imagines customer connections through AI-powered deep listening, especially if you run an agency or are a reseller. In today’s ever-evolving tech landscape, it’s easy for agencies to feel overwhelmed by the vast array of options and partners. If you’re working with multi-location customers desiring modern marketing platforms, services, and products, the selection becomes even more complex. This article provides six key points to consider when looking for the reputation management platform and partner that best serves both you and your customers. 1. Place A High Value On End-Consumer Insights To Gain More Retainers & Clients As a marketing agency, the key to your clients’ success lies in how t...
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How Can Small Local Service Businesses Use AI To Improve Their Digital Marketing?
3Jul By Jeff RiddallNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services

How Can Small Local Service Businesses Use AI To Improve Their Digital Marketing?

When many of us hear how AI will change the world – particularly digital marketing – our thoughts (and occasionally fears) drift towards how big organizations will use machines to do the work of legions of copywriters, designers, and other content creators. Large corporations with equally large customer bases and competitively driven content needs are looking to sophisticated AI systems to generate content, and process and analyze data to stay ahead. But the opportunities presented by AI are not just for the big guys. In fact, small local businesses with fewer resources and often less time can certainly benefit from some of the innovative time and cost savings AI solutions offer. One particularly challenging aspect of running a small business these days is keeping up with the often overwhe...
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Why US Brands Lose $2.4B A Year From Local Invisibility
7Jun By Heather CampbellNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, Webinar

Why US Brands Lose $2.4B A Year From Local Invisibility

A localized marketing approach can unlock significant growth potential for your business – but it can also be highly competitive. So, what will it take to raise the bar and outperform your competition? How can you avoid missed revenue opportunities and maximize your brand’s visibility? On May 31, I moderated a webinar from SOCi’s Monica Ho, CMO, and Damian Rollinson, Director of Market Insights. Ho & Rollinson presented the results of the Local Visibility Index (LVI) and uncovered how costly it is to fall short of the high standards required for localized marketing. Here’s a summary of the webinar. To access the entire presentation, complete the form. The Local Visibility Index: Results & Trends For 2023 Let’s dive into the 2023 findings, exploring the significant outcomes and patt...
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A Strategy For Ranking Local Search Terms
30May By Andrew ShotlandNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, On-page SEO, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services

A Strategy For Ranking Local Search Terms

Location landing pages don’t get enough respect. You set them up with your name, address, phone number & hours. Maybe you embed a Google Map for driving directions. Perhaps you write some copy that no one will read, and if you have multiple locations, you repeat the same copy on each page and just change the location name. If you’re feeling cocky, you put a call to action on it – maybe. You set it, then you forget it. And guess what? That actually works pretty well for local SEO. I mean, what more does a potential customer want from a location page? Maybe an appointment scheduler? But who cares about the customer? We smug SEO types all know Google is our #1 customer. So, what does Google want from a location page? Let’s start with the basics. 1. What Is The Purpose Of A Location Page?...
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The Practical Guide to Local SEO For Orthodontists
5May By John VuongNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Internet marketing, Online marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services

The Practical Guide to Local SEO For Orthodontists

If you’re an orthodontist, you know that it takes time and precision to get the best results. The same goes for your local SEO. You need to partner with an agency that understands your unique needs and can help you achieve your goals. In this guide, we will walk you through the best approach to local SEO so you can get started on the right foot! Why Local SEO? When it comes to digital marketing, local SEO is one of the most powerful strategies for small businesses that serve a specific geographic area. If you’re an orthodontist in Toronto, for example, local SEO can help you connect with the nearby customers who need your services. Patients in Toronto can’t use an orthodontist in Vancouver — they need someone near where they live and work. That’s you! Local SEO for orthodontists involves ...
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How a Hacked Site Affects Your Google Business Profile Page and the Rest of Your Local SEO
21Apr By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services

How a Hacked Site Affects Your Google Business Profile Page and the Rest of Your Local SEO

Like my post? Please share! After 14 years of nary an incident, and despite pretty solid security SOPs, this site was hacked earlier this month and shot up with malware.  It was fine last time you read one of my blog posts, and it’s fine now.  Most likely the problem was a bad plugin (a common weakness).  For now, let’s just say that old Cochise had a bad hoof. If your business rides on your site, then there’s always a chance you can get hacked, and so can just about everyone else.  (Not having a site isn’t a good alternative: you’re still in a forest of Google Maps spam and other spam, and may look even tastier to the local wildlife.)  That’s probably not news to you, but a possible hack may seem like an abstract problem that you can’t do much about, or the kind of bridge you cross when y...
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The Beginner’s Guide To Understand Local SEO
13Apr By SEO NinjaNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local SEO, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services

The Beginner’s Guide To Understand Local SEO

Customers make use of internet extensively on a routine basis for finding solutions to their problems. Those who are looking for best products or relevant answers may or may not get directed by Google towards their site and web pages, depending upon how effectively SEO services are working for improving their search engine rankings. Small and multi-location businesses both get additionally benefited with the use of local SEO. Since it adds considerable weight to your online presence, it is worth every bit to get familiar with its meaning, importance and more. What is Meant by Local SEO? Area-specific searches are highly targeted on the businesses available in a certain territory. Local SEO makes use of SEO tools to be found and ranked high in the search results. It is the most effective w...
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6Apr By Darren ShawNo Comments
googe optimize, Google Business Profiles, google optimization, google seo, Local Insider, Local SEO, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services, Whitespark Weekly

Easily Boost Local Rankings with Google’s Predefined Services

Easily Boost Local Rankings with Google's Predefined Services A few weeks ago, the SEO world was shooketh by Joy Hawkins’ discovery that adding predefined services to your GBP significantly improves rankings. I had to see for myself, so I set up a test. You won’t believe these results! Video Transcript If you follow local SEO, you’ve probably seen Joy Hawkins’s recent research where they showed that adding predefined services to a GBP seems to have a positive impact on your rankings. I even made a video about it not too long ago. Well, it’s always a good idea to t...
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Google Reveals How It Catches Fake Local Business Reviews
31Mar By Roger MonttiNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, News, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO

Google Reveals How It Catches Fake Local Business Reviews

Google published a blog post that shared that they updated their machine learning systems in order to catch and remove more fake reviews, fake business listings and fraudulent contributed images and videos. The automated systems and human review teams removed over 200 million photos, 7 million videos and blocked or removed over 115 million reviews, which represents a 20% increase over the prior year, 2021. How Google Catches User Contributed Spam Google is using brand new machine learning models to catch and remove fake and fraudulent content. These machine learning models look for unusual patterns in user contributed content, including flagging new forms of abuse that hadn’t previously been seen. Google shared: “We’ve long used machine intelligence to help us spot patterns of potential ab...
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Another Underused Local SEO Tool in Google Search Console: the Internal Links Report
28Mar By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services, Uncategorized

Another Underused Local SEO Tool in Google Search Console: the Internal Links Report

Like my post? Please share! Why are those rock-solid pages not ranking as they should?  Why aren’t those pages helping you pop into the Google Maps 3-pack for certain search terms?  Why is one of your Google Business Profiles or one of your “city” pages clobbering the other?  If you just can’t figure out why Google spits some of your home cookin’ into the napkin, you may be low on internal links. Of course, many other ingredients go into the haggis.  Sometimes the problem is a lack of backlinks, or a thin page, or your developer goofed, or that not enough time has passed, or some combination of the above, or some other problem(s) altogether.  You may very well need to work on those areas. But if you’ve looked at the problem up and down, you’ve worked on it, and you can’t shake the feeling ...
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7Mar By Darren ShawNo Comments
googe optimize, Google Business Profiles, google optimization, google seo, Local SEO, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services, Whitespark Weekly

Increase Local SEO Rankings With Predefined Services

Increase Local SEO Rankings With Predefined Services - Whitespark Huge local SEO news! Adding predefined services to your Google Business Profile can now significantly impact rankings. Until now, services have NOT been a ranking factor. In fact, the idea that services impacted rankings was the #4 local SEO myth in the latest Whitespark Local Search Ranking Factors survey. They were still valuable for other reasons: they drove more conversions and they triggered eye-catching justifications in the search results. But rankings? No. However, new research by Sterling Sky shows that selecting Google’s pr...
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8 Techniques To Get More Customer Reviews For Your Local Business
24Feb By Pratik DholakiyaNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

8 Techniques To Get More Customer Reviews For Your Local Business

In the internet age, few things shape purchasing decisions as much as online reviews. And why not? They provide authentic and honest insight that no marketing campaign could ever replicate. The modern equivalent of the all-important word of mouth, customer reviews can make or break the reputation of a local business – and make a huge impact on sales numbers. Not convinced of the importance of reviews for small businesses? Here are some key online review statistics you should know: When shopping online, more than 99.9% of people read reviews at least occasionally. 91% of consumers acknowledged positive reviews made them more likely to support a business. 79% of people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Only 13% of people would consider using a business with a two-star...
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8 Techniques To Get More Customer Reviews For Your Local Business
14Feb By Pratik DholakiyaNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

8 Techniques To Get More Customer Reviews For Your Local Business

In the internet age, few things shape purchasing decisions as much as online reviews. And why not? They provide authentic and honest insight that no marketing campaign could ever replicate. The modern equivalent of the all-important word of mouth, customer reviews can make or break the reputation of a local business – and make a huge impact on sales numbers. Not convinced of the importance of reviews for small businesses? Here are some key online review statistics you should know: When shopping online, more than 99.9% of people read reviews at least occasionally. 91% of consumers acknowledged positive reviews made them more likely to support a business. 79% of people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Only 13% of people would consider using a business with a two-star...
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Geotagging Photos is a Local SEO Myth
9Feb By Darren ShawNo Comments
googe optimize, Google Business Profiles, google optimization, google seo, Local Insider, Local SEO, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services, Whitespark Weekly

Geotagging Photos is a Local SEO Myth

Geotagging Photos is a Local SEO Myth - Whitespark It’s infuriating that many local SEOs are still telling people to geotag their Google Business Profile photos, when research has shown time and time again that IT DOES NOT WORK. In this video, I explain why it doesn’t work, bust some myths and present a couple studies that have concluded that geotagging is a waste of time. Video Transcript I’ve been getting into TikTok a little bit lately, and I am ANNOYED. So, I keep seeing all these local SEO people on TikTok shilling this advice, li...
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10-Second Local SEO Win: Request Indexing of That New Page in Google Search Console
7Feb By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services, Uncategorized

10-Second Local SEO Win: Request Indexing of That New Page in Google Search Console

Like my post? Please share! It took blood or treasure or both for you to get those new pages written and up on your site.  Even before that, you may have struggled in the local search results, struggled to figure out what may help you gain traction, and struggled to set aside the time to get it done.  After all of that, wouldn’t it be shame if you didn’t see any SEO benefit for weeks or months?  Wouldn’t it be a double shame if 10 more seconds of work could have saved your pages from weeks or months of invisibility? My suggestion is simple: every time you create a new page (or post or similar resource), immediately go into Google Search Console and request indexing.  That’s it*. (*Of course, you will need to have installed Search Console – formerly known as Webmaster Tools.  It’s free and...
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How to Write a Good Business Description for Local Citations
4Feb By Darren ShawNo Comments
Citations, googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Insider, Local SEO, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

How to Write a Good Business Description for Local Citations

Here’s a hot tip many businesses don’t think about when building citations for local SEO. In my latest video, I explain why the first sentence of your description is so important, and how to make the most of it. Video Transcript Hey, here’s a quick citation building tip that a lot of businesses are missing out on. Whether or not you’re building citations with our listing service or you’re building them yourself, the description field is very important. Why business descriptions are important Let’s say you order citations from us and you’re entering the description. This field is your opportunity to get some additional keywords in. Though I wouldn’t say keywords on your Google Business Profile description have an impact on rankings, keywords in your citation descript...
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ChatGPT Sucks at Local SEO
1Feb By Darren ShawNo Comments
googe optimize, Google Business Profiles, google optimization, google seo, Local SEO, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

ChatGPT Sucks at Local SEO

#6 Verify your business with Google, as this can also help improve your visibility in search results. Wrong. It won’t have any impact on your rankings directly. This isn’t really a factor in terms of your ranking, but it WILL allow you to edit your listing, which, of course, is super valuable. You want to be able to make changes to your listing, update your categories, add new categories, all that will have a positive impact. But the actual act of verifying versus unvarying is not a signal in itself. You got that one wrong, too, ChatGPT. #7 Optimize your website for local SEO and make sure it has Google My Business structured data markup. Yeah, 100%. You have to optimize your website for local SEO. Make sure that you have lots of content relevant to the products and services that you offer...
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Do You Still Need Directory Submission For Local SEO?
27Jan By Jeff RiddallNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

Do You Still Need Directory Submission For Local SEO?

The primary goal of local SEO is establishing visibility for a local business in the Local Map Pack and/or the top three organic search results. These typically reside just below paid Google ads and the Map Pack. As with all SEO, myriad factors (i.e., the (in)famous Google algorithm) come into play to determine which businesses get top billing and the resulting coveted organic search traffic. One set of factors from a local SEO perspective is local presence, relevance, and authority. In other words, and from a common sense perspective, local businesses need to prove to the search engines: They are indeed physically located within close proximity to their customer base. They provide services or products which fall into specific categories. They are a trusted/authoritative content source and...
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Do Service Areas Impact Rankings for Local SEO in 2023?
25Jan By Darren ShawNo Comments
googe optimize, Google Business Profiles, google optimization, google seo, Local SEO, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services, Uncategorized, Whitespark Weekly

Do Service Areas Impact Rankings for Local SEO in 2023?

Do Service Areas Impact Rankings for Local SEO in 2023? - Whitespark I recently made a video presenting some new evidence that service areas might impact rankings in local SEO. However, upon further investigation, I realized that I was wrong. In this new video, I go over an update to this case study and discuss a surprising discovery related to the address your business was verified at. Take a look. Video Transcript Hey everybody, I recently published a video where I talked about how service areas seem to be impacting rankings. This wa...
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Google Local Pack: What Is It?
23Jan By Jason HennesseyNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services, SEO Strategy

Google Local Pack: What Is It?

Google Maps is a tool we easily take for granted. Looking for a tasty new restaurant? Google Maps pulls up the hottest spots near you. Need a local plumber? Google Maps will show you the providers with the best customer reviews. Google Maps provides a massive benefit to users looking for businesses – and to businesses looking to attract customers. That’s why the Google Map Pack is prime real estate for businesses hoping for more online and local traffic. What is the “Google Local Pack,” you ask? In this guide, we’ll tell you all about it, the features that matter most, and how to use it to drive leads to your business. What Is The Google Map Pack? The “Google Map Pack” (or the Google Local Map Pack) is a prominent section in the Google local search results that showcases the top-ranking lo...
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Google Announces 7 Local Search Updates
22Jan By Matt G. SouthernNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, News, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services

Google Announces 7 Local Search Updates

At Google’s annual Search On conference, the company announced seven new features and updates to local search. These updates will significantly enhance how people explore neighborhoods, businesses, and restaurants in Google Search. The local search changes rolling out soon include: Search for restaurants by dish Discover restaurant specialties More support for digital menus Enhancements to Google Maps’ Live View Aerial views of famous landmarks Immersive view Neighborhood vibe checks Read all the details about these updates in the below sections. 1. Search For Restaurants By Dish Google is upgrading its restaurant search capabilities with the ability to find local places that serve a specific dish. The new search experience will allow you to enter a query like “soup dumplings near me,” and...
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7 Tips For Better Local SEO Reporting
21Jan By Matt BertramNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company

7 Tips For Better Local SEO Reporting

One area many agencies lack overall, especially in local SEO, is reporting. Unlike enterprise and international businesses with C-level executives and shareholders, many local businesses only care about getting more foot traffic in their doors. So by simplifying our approach and focusing on reporting only highly relevant data, agencies can better serve local businesses and build stronger relationships. Here are seven tips to improve your local SEO reporting and serve your local clients. 1. Simplify Reports Simplifying your SEO reports is not just a tip that local SEO agencies should follow – but one that generally any agency should, too. Our first impulse as marketers and communicators is to provide as detailed a report as possible. That’s even more true when marketers need to bury bad cam...
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STOP Ignoring This Free Keyword Research Tool For Local SEO
21Jan By Darren ShawNo Comments
googe optimize, Google Business Profiles, google optimization, google seo, Local SEO, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services, Tools, Whitespark Weekly

STOP Ignoring This Free Keyword Research Tool For Local SEO

Very few businesses take advantage of the Searches Breakdown feature in the Performance section of their Google Business Profile, which is a shame because this tool is incredibly valuable and FREE. So, I decided to make this video outlining all the reasons why this feature is useful, and the best ways to use it for improving your local SEO. At the end, I share an awesome hack to make everything easier. Video Transcript Hey, there’s a free and awesome keyword research tool for local, but many businesses and SEOs are completely ignoring this. It’s the “Searches breakdown” feature in the Google Business Profile’s performance section. How to find this data So, if you click on the Performance section of your GBP and scroll down, you can see all of these keywords that your Google Bus...
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5 Ways SEO Experts Are Winning In Local Search
18Jan By Bright DataNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services, SEO Strategy, Sponsored Posts

5 Ways SEO Experts Are Winning In Local Search

This post was sponsored by Bright Data. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own. You know the story, every SEO professional is learning and using the same methods for building their SEO strategy. So, how do you uncover hidden gems that help propel your local brand to the top of search engine results pages (SERPs)? How do you elevate yourself from just a professional to an SEO expert? Where do you get actionable insights that help you claim a top SERP position? Expert digital marketers know that in order to win a top position on the SERP, they must understand how the SERP works. The solution: Actionable search insights can be discovered with SERP APIs. Being able to see what makes or breaks a top spot in a search will help you create a winning strategy. Expert digital m...
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30 Minutes Of Local SEO Every Week
16Jan By Paul SchmidtNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services, SEO Strategy

30 Minutes Of Local SEO Every Week

Given the current economic conditions, marketing teams are being stretched thin and are expected to do more with less. If you are a marketer focused on generating revenue from local areas, then you know that fierce competition is waiting for you to slow down your local marketing initiatives. In times like these, it’s important to maintain a consistent framework of outputs that will allow you to stand out in local search results. Here is a checklist of the 5 areas for you to focus on if you only have 30 minutes a week or less to devote to local marketing efforts. 1. Optimize Your Google Business Profile Listing And Social Profiles A complete and verified Google Business Profile listing is one of the cornerstones of local SEO. One of the biggest mistakes marketers make in local SEO is simply...
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Google’s New Local Search Features Are Finally Here
14Jan By Matt G. SouthernNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, News, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company

Google’s New Local Search Features Are Finally Here

Google is finally rolling out the local search features previewed earlier this year, including the ability to search your surroundings with your phone’s camera. At Google’s Search On virtual conference in September, the company had people buzzing over its innovative updates to local search. Google previewed an option to search for restaurants by dish and a new search capability built into Google Maps’ Live View. Those updates and more are now available. Here’s an overview of the local search updates launching today. What Are the Local Search Features Offered by Google?Google offers a variety of local SEO tools for listing management. These tools allow businesses to optimize their online presence, attract local customers, and improve search rankings. With features like Google My Business, b...
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12 Proven Local SEO Tips To Dominate The SERPs And Map Pack
12Jan By Winston BurtonNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

12 Proven Local SEO Tips To Dominate The SERPs And Map Pack

To attract new customers, you need to ensure you’re in front of local searchers looking for your products or services. If you’re not optimized for local search, you’re missing out on a tremendous opportunity to reach potential customers in your area and drive incremental revenue, traffic, and sales. In this article, we’ll explain why local search is important and how you can ensure your business is optimized for the local search results to maximize performance. 1. Get On A Local Search Platform Many local search platforms can fit into your budget, including Moz, Yext, RIO, RenderSEO, Chatmeter, Uberall, and SweetIQ, to name a few. Using a platform makes it much easier to manage all your listings. That includes getting your name, address, and phone number (NAP) consistently and accurately l...
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Using YouTube to Pull More Freight for Your Local SEO
30Dec By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services, Uncategorized

Using YouTube to Pull More Freight for Your Local SEO

Like my post? Please share! If you’re like me, you don’t obsess over YouTube or videos in general.  Maybe it’s tough to do videos in your industry, and tougher in your particular situation.  You may have your hands full with all of the other SEO and marketing stuff.  You may not like handing over so much of your intellectual property to Google (and you’re not too interested in TikTok).  Just the same, whenever you DO have some videos that you’ve sent off to YouTube Camp, you want to make sure they at least come home with some local rankings or other souvenirs in the backpack. YouTube optimization is a lot like most other areas of SEO.  For one thing, most of your rewards come from nailing the basics consistently.  Also, it’s especially like local SEO in that the rankings are murky: Often y...
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Guide to Local Dentist SEO: How to Get More Patients to Your Clinic
8Dec By John VuongNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Online marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services

Guide to Local Dentist SEO: How to Get More Patients to Your Clinic

You already know SEO is important, but what you might not realize is that being a local small business is your biggest superpower. Local dentist SEO is one of the most powerful tools that you can use to get more patients to your clinic. It makes sense, after all – everyone needs a dentist near where they work and live. If you want to take advantage of this fact, then you need to understand how local SEO works. In this guide, we will teach you everything you need to know to maximize local SEO for your clinic. The Starting Point: Google Business Profile Everyone is using the internet to find out anything they want to know. That includes finding out what high-quality dentists are near where they live and work. If you want to make sure that your business is easily found by potential customers...
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How a Pro Can Boost Your Local SEO Dental Marketing
8Nov By John VuongNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Internet marketing, Online marketing, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services

How a Pro Can Boost Your Local SEO Dental Marketing

If you’re a dental clinic looking to improve your online visibility and attract more patients, then you need to start doing local SEO. What is local SEO? It’s a process that makes your website highly relevant to people in your local neighbourhood and service area. However, this isn’t just about claiming your Google Business Profile and adding some city names to your keywords. There’s a lot more to it than that. That’s why dental clinics benefit from having pros manage their local SEO dental marketing campaigns. In this blog post, we will discuss some of the things that a pro can do to help boost your local SEO efforts and get you more leads and patients! Finding the Right Keywords You know that ranking high in search engine results is essential for attracting new patients. When people ar...
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Tanking Local Rankings? How to Turn Them Around If They’ve Gone Down
3Nov By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services, Uncategorized

Tanking Local Rankings? How to Turn Them Around If They’ve Gone Down

Like my post? Please share!Here’s the slide deck from my recent talk on Local U Advanced Virtual (a great event if you’re trying to sharpen your local SEO sword).  It’s about things you can try if it seems your rankings have fallen and can’t get up. Given that you can’t buy the videos after the fact, and that I don’t own the recording, probably the easiest way to pick up what I’m putting down is just to flip through the slides (above).  Some of the action items you may know about already.  But to the extent anything is unclear – as I’m certain a few points will be – you can check out the one-page summary below, or my commentary below, or both. Here’s the one-page summary – AKA the cheat sheet. Here’s some color commentary on specific slides that may call for it: Slide #3 (big-picture comme...
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Dry Rot in Local SEO
19Oct By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services, Uncategorized

Dry Rot in Local SEO

Like my post? Please share! What effects does time have on your business’s local visibility?  What happens when you turn away – when you spend all your time on things other than SEO?  A lot can happen, and most of it isn’t good.  As with anything else, your position can decay over time.  Even though you may not change your SEO setup in any way, it exists in an environment that changes it without your hands anywhere in sight. How much hull maintenance you need to do is a tough question, partly because it’s a blend of two different but related questions I’m asked all the time: “Do I have to pay attention to SEO stuff constantly?” “I’ve eased up, and that seems to be showing in my rankings. What should I have kept up with?” My response to each of the dueling banjos is the same: You can’t dwel...
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4 Key Local Search Updates Rolling Out In 2022
29Sep By Jenny BernardeNo Comments
Blog, googe optimize, Google Business Profile, google optimization, google seo, Local SEO, News, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO

4 Key Local Search Updates Rolling Out In 2022

Wednesday, September 28 saw Google’s Search On 2022 event; a conference announcing the newest features arriving to Google. We’ve rounded up all the exciting local search updates coming to Google this year, as outlined at the event.  Multisearch Near Me  “Your camera is the next keyboard” explained Prabhakar Raghavan, Senior Vice President at Google. Updates to Multisearch will now include ‘near me’ terminology. Users will be able to search through photos and images, alongside fewer words, to find what they are looking for, and stores nearby that sell it. Whilst we have known about this update for a few months, it’s now been confirmed that this will start rolling out across the US.  Find the food you love  You’ll now be able to search (using both text, and images) for a specific dish. This...
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Getting Big Brand Buy-in for Local SEO Budgets
20Sep By Ben FisherNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Learn, Local Search at Scale, Local SEO, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

Getting Big Brand Buy-in for Local SEO Budgets

Hello, and welcome to the second installment of Local Search at Scale! This series is devoted to helping large enterprises and franchises tackle the world of local SEO. The first installment, ‘How to Best Tackle Local SEO as a Large Enterprise or Franchise Business‘, was an overview of the topic at large, and included the top five problems that enterprises/franchises often face when trying to boost their local SEO efforts, as well as five tips for how they can improve them. Here’s a refresher of those key challenges: A lack of understanding of where their marketing dollars can be most impactful in terms of local SEO (this is what we’re tackling today) A lack of communication between all involved parties at every location or branch Too many involved decision-makers can grind the approval pr...
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The Benefit of Local SEO for Dentists: How to Attract Your Ideal Patients
19Sep By John VuongNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Online marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services

The Benefit of Local SEO for Dentists: How to Attract Your Ideal Patients

When it comes to marketing your dental clinic, there are a lot of different options to choose from. You can invest in traditional marketing methods like television and radio ads, or you can focus on digital marketing strategies like SEO and social media. While both of these options have their benefits, we believe that local SEO is one of the most important tools in your arsenal. In this blog post, we’ll discuss the benefits of local SEO for dentists and how you can use it to attract more patients! Increased Visibility in Your Market If you’re a dentist who’s looking to attract more patients, you may be wondering how to go about it. One of the key elements is to improve your visibility online. You want to ensure that when people in your area look for dental topics, they see your website ri...
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Unlock 6x More Ranking Insights in Local Search Grid
7Sep By Kristian BannisterNo Comments
Blog, BrightLocal Products, googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local SEO, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO

Unlock 6x More Ranking Insights in Local Search Grid

We’ve upgraded Local Search Grid to give you more ranking insights than ever. Since we launched last year, Local Search Grid has become a valuable and popular addition for our customers. They use it to: See the real-world picture of how a business is ranking based on where customers are searching Understand which businesses they’re really competing against in local search and how to overtake them Show clients ranking improvements in an easy-to-understand and compelling way Generate visually engaging reports for prospecting and pitching potential clients Up until now, each Local Search Grid report was limited to five keywords, so you’d need to be selective about what you wanted to track and analyze. But that’s changed! Now, you can track up to 30 keywords in each report so you can: Get a b...
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The Rise of Social Search: Transforming the Way Local Businesses Are Found
1Sep By Jenny BernardeNo Comments
Blog, googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local SEO, News, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services, social media

The Rise of Social Search: Transforming the Way Local Businesses Are Found

Over the past few months, we’ve seen major changes in both the ways users consume social media and the opportunities presented to local businesses by new social media search functionalities.  In July, we reported on Instagram’s new immersive map, potentially changing the game for local business discovery. Since then, it’s also been reported that TikTok is the go-to search engine for Gen Z, with 40% of Gen Z users preferring the video sharing app, and Instagram, over Google Search.  Naturally, TikTok is jumping on product developments, improving its search functionality, and even testing a ‘nearby’ feed.  We’ve also seen Twitter introduce Location Spotlight for local businesses, which displays important business information and integrates with Google Maps to help customers find them. ...
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Testing in Local SEO: How Can You Do It and Not FUBAR the Business?
31Aug By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services, Uncategorized

Testing in Local SEO: How Can You Do It and Not FUBAR the Business?

Like my post? Please share! We talk about ranking factors a lot, but not much about systems.  Your business’s local visibility depends on the ranking factors tilted in your favor, but you can’t get more factors tilted in your favor without systems that help you learn as you go.  Otherwise, you’ll be like a magician who tries to learn a new magic trick real-time while in front of a live audience. Whether you do your own local SEO or do it professionally for clients, you probably spend most of your time on how you measure and how you troubleshoot.  Those are crucial, of course, but they’re not as useful without two other systems that most people never develop: Ways to collect or create internal resources that you don’t have to rely on a third party for, particularly real-life examples of thi...
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Local Search at Scale with Ben Fisher
19Aug By Jenny BernardeNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search at Scale, Local Search Clinic, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, Webinars

Local Search at Scale with Ben Fisher

How to register and ask your question(s) How to register Attending a BrightLocal webinar on Crowdcast is simple. You’ll need a Crowdcast account to join, but registering takes just 2 minutes.  1. Click the green ‘Save my spot!’ button at the top of the Crowdcast window. If you can’t see this button, or the Crowdcast embed, please visit the Crowdcast page directly to register.  2. Enter your email address or choose to log in through your social media. Hit the green arrow, or press enter to continue.  3. Click ‘Email me a login link’ where you can confirm your registration via email. Don’t see the email? Please check your spam folder! 4. After you’ve confirmed, you’ll be redirected to the Crowdcast event page. Remember to add the event to your calendar to make sure you don’t miss it! If y...
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How to Optimize the Local Customer Buying Journey
10Aug By Alex BirkettNo Comments
content marketing, googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Learn, Local Marketing, Local SEO, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services

How to Optimize the Local Customer Buying Journey

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Local searchers buy from businesses that not only have the best products and services but also, provide a great buying experience. According to the State of the Connected Customer report by Salesforce, 80% of customers argue that the experience a business provides is as good as their product or the service they deliver. A purchase happens in stages. By identifying what happens in each stage, you understand what a potential customer is doing, what they need, and their pain points.  While working on your client’s local businesses, your efforts are focused on providing relevant information to potential customers throughout the customer buying journey. It makes it easier for them to make informed choices and, in the process, helps yo...
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Wistia Status – Local video file uploads not working
30Jul By WistiaNo Comments
Social Marketing Strategies, social media, social media marketing

Wistia Status – Local video file uploads not working

Subscribe to updates for Local video file uploads not working via email and/or text message. You'll receive email notifications when incidents are updated, and text message notifications whenever Wistia creates or resolves an incident. Country code: Afghanistan (+93) Albania (+355) Algeria (+213) American Samoa (+1) Andorra (+376) Angola (+244) Anguilla (+1) Antigua and Barbuda (+1) Argentina (+54) Armenia (+374) Aruba (+297) Australia/Cocos/Christmas Island (+61) Austria (+43) Azerbaijan (+994) Bahamas (+1) Bahrain (+973) Bangladesh (+880) Barbados (+1) Belarus (+375) Belgium (+32) Belize (+501) Benin (+229) Bermuda (+1) Bolivia (+591) Bosnia and Herzegovina (+387) Botswana (+267) Brazil (+55) Brunei (...
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Is Instagram the Next Big Local Business Discovery Engine?
28Jul By Jenny BernardeNo Comments
Blog, googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services, social media

Is Instagram the Next Big Local Business Discovery Engine?

Instagram has launched a new map search feature to help users discover local businesses more easily. The new feature allows users to scroll around a map, browse popular locations, and explore local businesses. The map promotes a more immersive experience, where users can upload and view stories tagged in each location.  New map, who this? 🌐🗺️ Now you can now find popular locations around you or filter by categories like cafes or beauty salons. pic.twitter.com/asQR4MfljC — Instagram (@instagram) July 19, 2022 How the New Instagram Immersive Map Works The map, provided by Apple, has been around for some time, with photos available to view at each location. However, with this new update, users can explore areas and businesses throughout the map, finding prominent loca...
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Local SEO Steps That Help 1 Location vs. Multiple Locations at Once
27Jul By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services, Uncategorized

Local SEO Steps That Help 1 Location vs. Multiple Locations at Once

Like my post? Please share! Either you’ve got multiple business locations that you want to rank well throughout as much turf as possible, or you’ve got one location and the same goal.  You may be somewhat more focused on the Google Maps / 3-pack results, but you also want the maximum local visibility in the organic results. In either case you probably want to know what actions can help you in multiple areas at once, and what can help you in one problem area or another. How can you feed the whole nest of birds at once, and how can you feed the one extra-scrawny bird?  You probably plan to do both, but if you can’t tell the two apart, you can’t put your time, resources, and effort to the best use now. What do I mean by “help”?  Either bumping up your rankings for terms you already rank (badl...
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How to Best Tackle Local SEO as a Large Enterprise or Franchise Business
26Jul By Ben FisherNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Learn, Local Search at Scale, Local SEO, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services

How to Best Tackle Local SEO as a Large Enterprise or Franchise Business

In this new series, Local Search at Scale, Steady Demand’s Ben Fisher gets to the heart of the local SEO issues that matter to large brands and franchises with 100s of locations. To say that local SEO can be a bit complicated is putting it mildly, and that’s just when speaking about small businesses with a single location. When you’re talking about an enterprise-level organization with numerous locations (i.e. franchises) across numerous markets, it can quickly become a mess. For starters, before we dive into how to best approach local SEO as a large enterprise, let’s first briefly define what we mean when we talk about local SEO. Local SEO is a marketing strategy that has a singular goal—to help your business be more visible and rank higher in local Google searches. Any type of business ...
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What is Local SEO and How Does it Work?
8Jul By Jamie PitmanNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Introduction to Local SEO, Local SEO, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

What is Local SEO and How Does it Work?

If you want to be more visible to local consumers online, you’ll need to get to grips with local search engine optimization (SEO). With 46% of all Google searches performed by people looking for products, services, or information in their local area, improving your local search presence could clearly benefit your business. What is Local SEO and how does it work? Local SEO is a marketing technique that helps local businesses to improve their visibility in Google’s local search results. It’s carried out by businesses who want to be more easily found online by consumers within the local area. If you’re looking to sell products or services to consumers located in a certain town or city, you need to be familiar with local search marketing.    To carry out SEO for a local business, you’ll perfo...
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New Academy Course: How to Master Local Link Building
6Jul By Kate Herbert-SmithNo Comments
Blog, googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local SEO, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company

New Academy Course: How to Master Local Link Building

Local link building is the backbone of any local SEO strategy. Your rankings depend on the quality of your link building campaign, your capability to identify backlink opportunities, and your ability to network your way into link providers’ hearts! But local link building is notoriously tricky and time-consuming. And, without the right tactics, it can prove pretty fruitless. It’s also very different from traditional link building and requires an altogether different approach. So, what can you do? Enroll in our brand new BrightLocal Academy course—How to Master Local Link Building— by the local SEO master himself, Greg Gifford. During the course, Greg will teach you: the difference between traditional and local link building; tactics for local link acquisition; how to do outreach the right...
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Expanding Our Local Data Aggregator Coverage with GPS Network and YP Network
30Jun By Kristian BannisterNo Comments
Blog, BrightLocal Products, Citations, googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, News, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

Expanding Our Local Data Aggregator Coverage with GPS Network and YP Network

We’ve expanded our Local Data Aggregator coverage with the addition of two new networks: GPS Network and YP Network. GPS Network It might sound pretty obvious, but it’s vitally important to ensure potential customers can actually find where your business is located. But, updating outdated or conflicting location information is still a challenge that local businesses frequently have to tackle. Our own research shows that 39% of consumers would either jump ship to an alternative business or give up their search entirely if they encountered incorrect address information for a local business. That’s where the GPS Network comes in. The GPS Network ensures a business’s location data is available and accurate on five of the most widely used navigation apps: TomTom Waze Here Uber Navmii Collecti...
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21 Local SEO Moves & Situations I Have Never Seen a Business Penalized for
30Jun By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services, Uncategorized

21 Local SEO Moves & Situations I Have Never Seen a Business Penalized for

Like my post? Please share! All kinds of actions and events can set you back in the Google Maps 3-pack, the organic results, or both: Google Business Profile pages that get removed, having a location in the same building or complex as a bunch of your competitors, hosting or other errors that prevent Google from accessing your site, getting your title tags wiped out, being at the business end of an algorithm update, or buying thousands of shaky links.  It’s important that you can ID the landmines.  It’s equally important to know what is not a landmine. Over the past 86 “Internet years,” I’ve had many a conversation with business owners (and often other SEOs) to the effect of, “Do you think ______ caused my rankings to dive?”  More often than not I say “No, here’s what I think happened,” an...
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Local SEO Checklist: 48 Steps to Improve Local Search
15Jun By Roger AvilaNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Learn, Local SEO, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

Local SEO Checklist: 48 Steps to Improve Local Search

With over 46% of all searches having local intent, any local business that wants to thrive in the coming years will need to keep a close eye on their local SEO traffic. That’s where local SEO comes in. If you’re new to local SEO, you might be wondering where to start. This checklist will give you each and every step to follow, to find success in local search. Understanding How Local SEO Works Google has about 83% market share in the search market. If you’re running a local SEO campaign for a client, it makes sense to focus primarily on Google Search. Google’s Local Search algorithm has three key ranking factors. Proximity, Relevance, and Prominence.  Here is a quick summary of these three key local search ranking factors: Proximity refers to the physical distance from the searcher. Rele...
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Why E-A-T Inspires Local Content Creation
2Jun By Melissa PoppNo Comments
googe optimize, Google My Business, google optimization, google seo, Learn, Local SEO, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

Why E-A-T Inspires Local Content Creation

We’ve all educated ourselves on Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-A-T). We’ve all debated whether it’s a ranking factor or if it’s not. And we’ve all struggled to determine whether a client is part of a Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) niche and whether we should pay attention to E-A-T when making content decisions. E-A-T should inspire local content creation and all content creation at every level, no matter how big or small our clients are. E-A-T quickly shows us the type of considerations we should make when creating content, even if it doesn’t matter for checking off boxes for SEO best practices. It gives us a glimpse of the things that are important to Google and what they look for, but beyond that, it really shows us what we should find important when crafting conten...
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Dani Owens on How to Build Local Links
1Jun By Kristian BannisterNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local SEO, podcast, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO

Dani Owens on How to Build Local Links

Local SEOs have a love-hate relationship with link building. We love links, but building them is time-consuming, manual, repetitive and ultimately has a relatively low success rate compared to other SEO tactics. Fortunately, Dani Owens is here to help. Dani has a wealth of experience building local links for a wide variety of clients and niches. In this episode, she reveals: The differences between link building for local SEO versus traditional SEO Her simple three-step process to ensure campaign success The biggest local link building no-nos Low-effort link building tactics that any business can implement Creative link building tactics that your competitors won’t be able to replicate Watch the interview:   Resources: Subscribe today: If you like what you hear and want instant access t...
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Local SEO for Lawyers: 7 Ways to Get Started
27May By Tomasz NiezgodaNo Comments
googe optimize, Google My Business, google optimization, google seo, Learn, Local SEO, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

Local SEO for Lawyers: 7 Ways to Get Started

In many ways, doing local SEO for lawyers is similar to other industries. 97% percent of Google and other search engine users look for local businesses online, and these businesses include law firms or individual practitioners.  However, it is also different from local SEO for other industries because law tends to be a highly specialized practice. For instance, while a personal injury attorney has a basic knowledge of taxation from law school, you’d rather engage with a tax lawyer if you’re trying to determine how much tax you’ll pay for real estate you’ve inherited from a grandparent.  So, how can you make sure that your client’s law firm appears somewhere at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs)? Well, you need a robust local SEO strategy. Such a strategy will help your client’...
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Local Citation Sites for Top 100 US Cities
26May By Rada DaktinaNo Comments
Citations, googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local SEO, Resources, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

Local Citation Sites for Top 100 US Cities

San Jose, California San Jose is the third-largest city in California, and is situated within the San Francisco Bay Area. After rapid growth in the mid-20th century, San Jose has now come to be well known for its affluence and high cost of living. It has been reported that San Jose is one of the ‘happiest’ places to work due to the high salary opportunities and the prospects for growth. Schools in the surrounding areas supply thousands of computer science graduates into the local economy ever year, and as the largest city in the valley, San Jose has been nicknamed “the capital of Silicon Valley.” We have searched for local directories and potential citation sites throughout the city, including the following local areas: Downtown San Jose, Central, West San Jose, North San Jose, East San Jo...
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Why NAP & User Experience Are Crucial To Local SEO
9May By Dan TaylorNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services

Why NAP & User Experience Are Crucial To Local SEO

NAP consistency is an important part of Google’s local search and Local Pack algorithms, which means that building citations with a consistent NAP on your Google Business Profile listing and other online directories and sites can influence your local rankings. However, having a consistent NAP is also important to the user journey, as online directories and social bookmarking sites aren’t just used by Google – they’re used by humans, too. Maintaining a high level of consistency and accuracy reduces the risk of mistakes being made by search engines mechanically processing the data. It also reduces the risk of user friction should a potential customer trying to contact your business come across an incorrect phone number, store hours, or email address. And, if Google comes across five differen...
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How to Monitor Your Local Competitors on Social Media
8May By Ann SmartyNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Learn, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, social media

How to Monitor Your Local Competitors on Social Media

Are you looking for more ways to get your business found by your local customers? Would you like to discover more marketing opportunities in your area? Competitive monitoring is something that will help you achieve both tasks. While you may be thinking ‘but I monitor my local competitors already’, I’m here to tell you: there is always more that you can do. Monitoring your local competitors on social media, for example, could uncover lots of opportunities for your business. Mainly, it could allow you to: Identify your competitors’ social media and community building tactics Be the first to know when your competitor is offering a special offer or preparing for an event Learn from them by discovering hashtags that trigger local visibility, marketing channels that seem to work best, influence...
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A Guide to Mobile Optimization for Local Business Websites
6May By Shane BarkerNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Learn, Local SEO, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services

A Guide to Mobile Optimization for Local Business Websites

In the last few years, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of searches conducted on mobile devices. According to recent studies, 64% of all searches are now conducted on mobile devices and I’m sure this number will continue to grow.  With the majority of viable consumers having access to smartphones, it’s more important than ever for local businesses to optimize their websites for mobile. Not only is it important from a search engine optimization standpoint, but making a website mobile-friendly also provides a better user experience for your client’s customers. In this guide, we will discuss all aspects of mobile optimization, from making your clients’ websites mobile-friendly for search engines, to improving the user experience. We’ll also cover some common mistakes to avoid ...
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4 Tips For Getting Your Story On The Local News
6May By Lee WilsonNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Link Building, Local Search, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company

4 Tips For Getting Your Story On The Local News

Building your brand via local media coverage and news websites can provide substantial benefits for your business – online and off. Google and other search engines place great value on external brand mentions and links by sources they perceive as trustworthy. This PR exposure in news and media outlets active in your local communities offers access to new audiences and fuels your sales growth potential, too. Understanding how to get a story on local news sites relevant to your business can give you a competitive advantage over your local competition. Use these four proven tips packed with the actionable tactics you’ll use to connect with and get featured in local media, building valuable links, visibility, and new business in the process. 1. Lay The Groundwork The biggest mistake companies ...
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Local SEO For Ukraine – LIVE
5May By Jenny BernardeNo Comments
googe optimize, Google My Business, google optimization, google seo, Local Search Clinic, Local SEO, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, Webinars

Local SEO For Ukraine – LIVE

Where Will the Funds Go? All proceeds will go towards grassroots efforts to support the citizens of Ukraine Our Ukrainian team is already working directly with local volunteer groups to organize and distribute food, sanitation, and medical aid to those in the most affected towns and cities across Ukraine. The funds raised will buy more essential supplies to transport to the volunteer warehouses in western Ukraine. We’ll match every dollar or pound raised, so you know your money is having double the impact!  The supplies will be driven by BrightLocal team members and handed to volunteers at the border for onward transport. We will monitor and report on the progress of the aid as it makes its journey from the UK to Ukraine, so you can see exactly where your money is going and when it reaches...
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How to Identify Content Gaps for Local Businesses
1May By Celeste GonzalezNo Comments
content marketing, googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Learn, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

How to Identify Content Gaps for Local Businesses

Are you trying to create a local content strategy but have become stuck because lots of content recommendations are better suited to enterprise-level businesses? Well, don’t worry—there’s a way to adapt and overcome this obstacle by creating a user-intent content gap analysis for your clients. What is a Content Gap Analysis? A content gap analysis is the process of finding gaps in your content compared to your competitors. Performing one will allow you to find missed opportunities for pieces of content on your website, helping bring in traffic and eventually convert readers to buyers. How Content Gap Analysis is Done A content gap analysis is done by evaluating your competitors’ data to see how you stack up. What are the keywords they rank for? What keywords do you rank for? Which of those...
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What Should Be in Your Local SEO Bug-Out Bag? A Checklist
1May By PhilNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services, Uncategorized

What Should Be in Your Local SEO Bug-Out Bag? A Checklist

Like my post? Please share! Some of your local visibility struggles are caused by Google, some are your competitors’ handiwork, and some are due to you or your crew.  Much of the time, that last category of mistake is easy to avoid by taking a prepper approach. Local SEO is hard enough without self-inflicted wounds.  Some of those wounds may be strategy decisions that didn’t work out as you hoped.  Others are less interesting and more mechanical: Did you lose access to an online property?  Did you fail to keep a “paper trail” that helps someone help you?  Did you lose something that helped you rank or that took a lot of time to create?  Did you create a series of 1-hour and 2-hour snafus that slowed your roll? The idea of this post is simple: your local SEO effort will work out better or g...
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Content is Still King: Improving Local SEO With a Focus on Quality
30Apr By Amanda WinsteadNo Comments
content marketing, googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Learn, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo services

Content is Still King: Improving Local SEO With a Focus on Quality

Recently, Google’s Search Advocate John Mueller made a hard case for quality above all things SEO. However, the bar for uniqueness and quality is higher than ever. In our competitive digital landscape, how do you ensure your online efforts stand out? Fortunately for local businesses, your role in a geographically-based community gives you a point of uniqueness right there. You have a physical location and a demographic you can pinpoint. Now how do you win that audience with local SEO? The answer comes in two parts. First, content is still king, meaning it will take you further than anything else. Second, quality should be the baseline for every SEO decision.  Let’s discuss the ongoing importance of quality content in 2022, as well as the ways you can improve your local SEO with a focus on...
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The Complete Guide For Local Businesses
28Apr By Jeff RiddallNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services

The Complete Guide For Local Businesses

When we hear the term local SEO, we often think about the strategies and tactics that local retail or B2C businesses use to optimize their online visibility and drive traffic to their physical storefront. However, there are also B2B businesses, which may or may not operate from a distinct location, e.g., a commercial realtor. These types of businesses have similar, albeit slightly different, challenges to having their customers find and engage with them via organic search. The overarching goal of a local SEO strategy for any B2B business (much like its B2C counterparts) is to establish itself as the most trusted authority for all topics related to the products and/or services within a specific geographic service area. As such, businesses must present themselves as active, trusted community...
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4 Tips for Local Businesses: How to Get Noticed in Your Community
28Apr By John VuongNo Comments
Business advice, googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Internet marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services

4 Tips for Local Businesses: How to Get Noticed in Your Community

As a small business owner, it can feel like it’s difficult to get your name out there and be seen as a leader in your community. At one time, having a successful and useful business in your city or neighbourhood was all you needed, but now there are so many other businesses competing for attention, it can be hard to make your voice heard. If you’re feeling invisible, especially compared to the large company down the street, this blog post is exactly what you need. We’ll give you 10 tips that will help you get noticed and stand out from the competition in your local community! Get Involved in Local Events Any business, no matter its size, can get involved in the community and make a difference. One way to get started is by attending local events. This could involve setting up a stall at a ...
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SEO Tactics That Work – Local SEO Search Inc.
24Apr By John VuongNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services

SEO Tactics That Work – Local SEO Search Inc.

SEO is an important part of modern marketing. It’s a time-consuming process, and it can be difficult to know where to start or what the best strategy is. Fortunately, this guide will give you a quick overview of search engine optimization (SEO) that works well now. Given how quickly the digital marketing landscape is changing, it’s important to stay up-to-date with the latest best practices. Keep reading if you’re ready for your website to rank more highly in Google this year! Use Keywords in the Right Places One of the most important aspects of SEO is choosing the right keywords to target. But, once you’ve selected your keywords, where should you use them? Here are a few tips to help you get the most out of your keywords. First, use your keywords in the first 100 words of your content – ...
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50+ Business-Building Local SEO Tactics For SMBs
21Apr By Bill HartzerNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services

50+ Business-Building Local SEO Tactics For SMBs

Do you have a local small to medium-sized business (SMB)? If so, you know just how difficult it is to get found and stand out in increasingly competitive search results. Local SEO strategies must adapt to new features and algorithm updates by the top search engines that affect local search results. Most local SEO tactics fall into the following three categories. Optimizing local listings and citations. Optimizing your website and its content. Optimizing and working on incoming links. In this column, you’ll find over 50 specific things you can do right now to help improve your visibility in local search results, divided into those categories above. Optimizing Local Listings & Citations Let’s start with your NAP (Name, Address, and Phone Number) data. In order to get listed and ranked in...
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5 Online Marketing Myths – Local SEO Search Inc.
18Apr By John VuongNo Comments
Business advice, googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Internet marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO

5 Online Marketing Myths – Local SEO Search Inc.

There are a lot of myths floating around about online marketing. Some people think that it’s easy and that you can just throw up a website and start making money. Others think that it’s a waste of time and that no one ever really succeeds with it. The truth is, online marketing is neither easy nor hard – it’s simply a different way of doing things. In this blog post, we will dispel five common myths about online marketing and show you the truth behind them! Myth #1: Online Marketing is Easy There’s a common misconception that online marketing is easy. After all, how hard can it be to create a few social media posts or send out a couple of emails? However, the reality is that online marketing requires a lot of time, effort, and planning. To be successful, you need to understand the various...
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50+ Business-Building Local SEO Tactics For SMBs
15Apr By Bill HartzerNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company, seo services

50+ Business-Building Local SEO Tactics For SMBs

Do you have a local small to medium-sized business (SMB)? If so, you know just how difficult it is to get found and stand out in increasingly competitive search results. Local SEO strategies must adapt to new features and algorithm updates by the top search engines that affect local search results. Most local SEO tactics fall into the following three categories. Optimizing local listings and citations. Optimizing your website and its content. Optimizing and working on incoming links. In this column, you’ll find over 50 specific things you can do right now to help improve your visibility in local search results, divided into those categories above. Optimizing Local Listings & Citations Let’s start with your NAP (Name, Address, and Phone Number) data. In order to get listed and ranked in...
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9 Local SEO Tips From Top Experts
14Apr By Brooke OsmundsonNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, News, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO, seo company

9 Local SEO Tips From Top Experts

Earlier this month, marketers from around the world joined the latest LocalU virtual conference, put on by Local University. The symposium topics were filled with local marketing tips from top experts on everything from handling fake reviews, to SEO forecasting, and more. Attendees engaged in lively discussions on Twitter throughout each session, highlighting the speakers’ most helpful and tangible tips. Below are the top takeaways from each speaker and their respective session. 1. Write For Customers First and Google Second Charli Hunt, ProofContent Image credit: LocalU.org “If you just write content for Google’s algorithm (and not users first), you will be knocked off your top rankings perch.” Include local identifiers based on what customers are already searching for. Whether that’s nei...
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Analyzing Your Local Organic Search Competition
10Apr By Brian HarnishNo Comments
googe optimize, google optimization, google seo, Local Search, pagerank, search engine optimisation, search engine optimising, search engine optimization, SEO

Analyzing Your Local Organic Search Competition

A local organic competition analysis is an essential early step in defining your strategy as it helps you understand what you’re up against in organic search results. From this competition analysis, you can move forward knowing that your information will help you achieve the results you’re looking for. By looking at content, it is possible to figure out: What topics the competition is writing about. How many words they’re writing on average. The frequency of their content updates. Going through this process helps you understand what they are doing so you can adapt your content strategy and beat theirs accordingly. By looking at links, it is possible to figure out things like: How many links the competition is getting. What kind of links. Where they’re getting their links from. How often th...
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