Local SEO Tactics and Digital Marketing Strategies

Reasons Your GMB List Can Get Suspended and How You Can Get Your Listing Unsuspended   You definitely do not want to get your Google My Business page suspended, since your GMB listing is such a crucial part of ranking high in Google for many popular local search terms.  However, if your GMB got suspended, there is hope!  In our first "Beer Friday" episode we'll discuss GMB suspensions, the reasons for getting suspended, and how you can get reinstated using the Google local businesses reinstatement requests.  We'll also drink a beer. Cheers!   What You’ll Learn First Beer Friday episode - where we drink beer and talk SEO Beer is from Bald Man Brewing in Eagan, MN Reasons why your Google My Business listing can get suspended How to get your GMB listing reinstated if it gets suspended One of the more common reasons for getting your GMB suspended is because you check the box that says you have a storefront and serve customers at your location, when you do not have actually have a store front If your business category is one that Google considers risky, such as locksmiths or criminal lawyers If you deal with regulated goods, such as firearms, pharmaceuticals, or other controlled items Your Google My Business listing can be suspended for having multiple listings for the same business A good way to double check and see if you have duplicate Google My Business listings is to do a Google search on your address in Google Maps If you find a duplicate listing, and it's not currently claimed by you, you can claim it and then mark it as a duplicate or as closed Your can get a GMB suspended if you have incorrect information on your listing If you try and use keywords in your GMB business name, you run a high risk of getting your listing suspended If you make too many changes to the primary business info fields, such as your name, address, or phone number, you can get suspended Having a fake web address or a redirected website address listed on your GMB can get your GMB suspended If you have multiple business locations, you can get suspended for overlapping your service areas on multiple GMB listings If you do get your GMB listing suspended, it is possible to get your GMB reinstated by following the reinstatement process from Google It usually takes 24-72 hours for Google to respond to your reinstatement request If you don't get reinstated, you can try it again You can also send a Tweet to Google for questions or problems with your GMB Your individual GMB listing can get suspended, or even worse, your entire GMB account (and all listings) can get suspended View the show notes, resource links, episode transcript, and watch the video version at https://www.localseotactics.com/episode32

Improve The Speed Of Your Website To Rank Higher In Google Searches And Get More New Customers Website speed is a ranking factor, for Google.  It's official, Google has confirmed it!  So, if you're not paying attention to how fast your website is, then you're completely ignoring something that can easily help your Google rankings!  In this episode we dig into what can cause your website to slow down, how to test the speed of your website, how to identify exactly how long each element of your website takes to load, and best practices you can implement to maintain a fast website today, as well as into the future. View the show notes, resource links, episode transcript, and watch the video version at https://www.localseotactics.com/episode31

How To Survive As Local Business For Over 20 Years By Embracing New Marketing Strategies You know Bob Brennan as the co-host to Local SEO Tactics.  What many don't know is Bob's history as a successful brick-and-mortar business owner over the last 20+ years.  For episode 30 of Local SEO Tactics, Jesse interviews Bob Brennan, discussing what it takes to survive as a business for over 20 years, and how continuing to seek out and embrace new marketing technologies can help grow your small business. What You’ll Learn Insights into what it takes to persevere in small business with an ever changing marketing landscape How inbound or "pull" marketing is so much more powerful and outbound or "push marketing Contrasting the traditional marketing techniques like direct mail, versus newer digital methods Focusing on SEO and digital marketing costs substantially less than cold calling, direct mail, and appointment setting Business owners need to shift their marketing to become a "service based business" Using digital marketing allows for very low cost test marketing to see if your ideas will fly or not It's much easier for a local small business to open an online store with today's eCommerce technology Local businesses can leverage technology to provide value and services that competitors are not What are the basic inbound marketing metrics that a business owner can easily pay attention to Developing a customer service script can help your team to convert more first time callers into customers Make sure you are researching your competitors to see what they are offering and how they handle new customers View the show notes, resource links, episode transcript, and watch the video version at https://www.localseotactics.com/episode30

Understand When The Google Map Pack Shows Up and How To Get Your Website Ranked In The Map Pack We're all familiar with the Google Map Pack, right?  Google map pack is the general term used to describe the location based results you see on a Google search results page, where it lists local businesses and identifies their location on a map with little place marker icons.  Well, if you want your business to get in front of new customers, you need to be ranking in the Google map pack!  In this episode we'll talk about how to determine which keywords will trigger that map pack to show up (not all will).  We'll also dig into how you can optimize your website for the keywords that trigger the map pack, to make sure you are showing up here for local searches! What You’ll Learn You need to be in the Google map pack if you want to be found for local search results on Google The Google map pack is group of businesses that appear in a box at the top of the search results page The map pack does not show up for every search term you want to target You need to find out which search terms the map pack is showing up for, and optimize for those keywords Find the qualifier and superlative keywords that you can add to your services to trigger the map pack to show up You need to have a Google My Business listing to show up in the Google map pack search results Be sure to do Google searches from multiple IP's and from multiple physical locations to understand the differences by location   View the show notes, resource links, episode transcript, and watch the video version at https://www.localseotactics.com/episode29

Discover The Easy But Hidden Way To Engage With More Customers And Get Ahead Of Your Competition We've noticed a shift happening - customers are contacting businesses more and more with instant messaging, SMS text messages, and emails, and less with phone calls than they used to.  This is great, but it comes with a catch!  It's super easy to know when your phone is ringing...but how do you know if you have a new message on Yelp, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, LinkedIn, or any other 3rd party messaging platform?  Don't let these customer inquiries slip through the cracks!  In this weeks episode we share some tips and tricks to quickly engage with these customers, and win the sales that your competition is missing out on!     What You’ll Learn There is a rise in the ratio of non-phone call communications for customer contact from websites Phone calls remain the most popular method of contacting local companies for service requests Often times businesses are slower to reply to emails than they are in handling phone calls Customers can easily contact many businesses via email in short order If you can promptly reply to emails, you will stand out above the competition Customers can also contact you via Yelp, Facebook, Twitter, and other 3rd party messaging methods You can use screen recording apps (like Loom) to record a message, and link to it in your message replies Many customers choose messaging over a phone call so they can have a one-way conversation and avoid talking to a salesperson Strategically reply to messaging with smart and informative answers, communicating your points where relevant Emails and messages are easily shared by customers, so your replies should take that into consideration Instant messages are much more intimate and less likely to get lost in the shuffle, compared to emails or phone calls Messaging platforms like Yelp and Facebook will display your response (reply) time - a slow response time can turn customers away, and a fast response can gain you new customers Find all your communication inputs and understand how and where you are getting new leads from Use Google My Business to enable messaging (SMS) direct from your GMB listing Use Twilio or Intrycks Call Tracking to integrate SMS on your business phone numbers Integrate a live chat feature on your website to provide easy and immediate customer interactions Make sure you have a quote form or contact form on your website that is easy to find and easy to use View the show notes, resource links, episode transcript, and watch the video version at https://www.localseotactics.com/episode28

How To Approach Local SEO and Increase Rankings If Your Business Has Multiple Locations If your business has multiple locations, you need a slightly different approach to your local SEO strategy.  There are a few simple but highly effective concepts you can deploy to maximize your exposure and increase your Google rankings for all locations.  In this episode we'll break down the subtle differences that are needed when you feature multiple locations on your website, in order to get every location ranked and dominate in your local market! What You’ll Learn How to setup pages on your website to rank and dominate for each location you have Setting up one website with a page for each location is better than having separate websites for each location Make sure you have a Google My Business (GMB) listing for each business location Create an individual page on your website for each business location you have Link to these individual location pages from the respective GMB listing for each page Create a main "Locations" page on your website, making it an index listing of each location Link to each individual location page from the main Locations listing page Make each location page unique to the location, using images and information about the location Optimize location pages for the specific city that the business location is within Make your homepage focused on the brand and identity, not the locations you serve Be careful when setting up your service area in GMB so you do not overlap locations Make sure any local citations or online profiles for each location are linking back to the individual location pages on your website If you choose to have unique Facebook pages for each location, take advantage of Facebook Locations to manage them View the show notes, resource links, episode transcript, and watch the video version at https://www.localseotactics.com/episode27

Bing SEO Using Bing Webmaster Tools and Bing Places To Increase Your Local Rankings and Exposure Bing SEO!  It's something that most businesses ignore, and you can use that to your advantage!  Research shows that up to 33% of the US population uses Bing on a monthly basis, with over 5 billion searches on the Bing network each month.  Bing has some great SEO tools, just like Google, including Bing Webmaster Tools, Bing Places, and Bing Connected Pages.  We'll break down how to use these tools and get your business listed in Bing, to tap into the hidden audience you may be missing out on! It's super easy to get your business setup on Bing Places Bing Places is the Bing equivalent to Google My Business (GMB) Yahoo pulls Bing Places business listings into the Yahoo Local search results AOL pulls Bing Places business listings into the AOL local search results Over 5 billion monthly searches on the Bing search network each month in the US Up to 33% of the US market is being served by Bing, via Bing, Yahoo, and AOL You need Yelp reviews because the reviews on Bing Places are provided by Yelp Use Bing Webmaster Tools, which is like the Google Search Console Submit your website to Bing via the Bing Webmaster Tools portal Bing Connected Pages can "connect" your website to your social profiles Many competitors are not active in Bing, so your odds for domination are increased View the show notes, resource links, episode transcript, and watch the video version at https://www.localseotactics.com/episode26

Focus On Local SEO To Rank Higher In Google For Locally Based Searches What is local SEO? How does local SEO work? How do you use local SEO marketing to rank locally in Google for the searches you want? In this episode we'll answer these questions and run down the most important things you should be doing to get found locally in Google, and Bing. Learn what you need to do on your website, plus the importance of social media profiles and review portals as it relates to your local presence. We'll round up some tips from previous episodes, plus talk about some new tactics too! YOU'LL LEARN If you're trying to get found locally, you need to setup your Google My Business (GMB) You need to be appearing in the top 3 results within the GMB for searches Getting reviews on your GMB will help with your local search rankings Google Posts (within GMB) expire after 7 days, so post weekly to stay visible Choosing the primary category for your GMB is very important Take advantage of the Business Description in the GMB and fill it out Make sure you properly setup your Service Area Business if you visit your customers You can setup a GMB even if you do not have a website yet, and still rank in Google Get setup on Bing Places to show up in the Bing map pack, for local searches in Bing Setup business pages on the main social networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc) Put up a profile on popular review portals such as Yelp, CitySearch, and similar It's very important to keep your NAP (name, address, phone number) consistent on all listings Local SEO just means that your efforts focus on showing up for your local city, not nationwide Make sure your GMB primary category is leveraged heavily on your homepage List your physical address twice on your homepage, once above the fold and once in the footer Put your phone number at the top of your website, and make it big, bold, and contrasting Get local backlinks by sponsoring clubs, teams, and organizations in your city View the show notes, resource links, episode transcript, and watch the video version at https://www.localseotactics.com/episode25

How To Use Google My Business Descriptions, Services, Attributes, and More Google My Business (GMB) is an extremely important part of SEO and the digital marketing strategy for any local business wishing to get found online.  In this weeks episode, we'll review some recent changes and updates to GMB, plus some important areas you'll want to take advantage of.  Find out how to continually optimize your listing, increase exposure, and stay up-to-date on any new GMB updates in the future! YOU'LL LEARN New features that are available to use in your Google My Business listing What you should do with the Google My Business description area How using the Google My Business description can benefit your SEO and exposure Overview of the new Services feature within your GMB listing How to match up your website structure with your GMB Services Best practices for Section names, Service titles, and Item Descriptions When you should or should not show your pricing in the GMB Services area Google has removed all anonymous reviews from GMB listings The importance of, and tactics to get more reviews on your website How to add users to your GMB listing so you can delegate tasks and updates What are Attributes within the Google My Business listing How to stay up to date with GMB news and updates directly from Google View the show notes, resource links, episode transcript, and watch the video version at https://www.localseotactics.com/episode24

These Are The Pages You Need To Include On Your Website What are the most important pages you need do have on your website - one of the most common questions we get asked! In this episode we'll break down the main pages that every local business should be including, and answer this question. These are the critical pages for Google bot and your customers, and you need to design them for both to have success. Here's what working for us right now and we hope it helps you, too! YOU'LL LEARN What are the critical and essential web pages that you need to have on your website Your homepage is the most important page on your website Using your primary Google My Business category on your homepage How to properly display your address and nearby cities you serve on your homepage Creating niche pages for the products and services you provide Including your secondary Google My Business categories in your niche pages Designing your pages for both your customers and Google to navigate and find Using an About Us page to send signals to Google about being a legitimate business Putting a Contact Us page in your main menu What type of information you should be putting on your contact page and how to display it The importance of a reviews or testimonials page, and what it does for Google Creating a "locations served" page if you serve cities outside of where you're physically located Matching your Google My Business service area with your locations served page View the show notes, resource links, episode transcript, and watch the video version at https://www.localseotactics.com/episode23 Thanks for Listening!