Local SEO Tactics and Digital Marketing Strategies

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!

Apps For Website Change Monitoring, Change Detection, and Alerts Nowadays, there are many great website change detector apps to help monitor website changes and give you instant alerts to said changes! Ever have the pleasure of receiving a message from your customer, telling you your website is down? Or that you have an error on the page preventing them to buy or contact you? It's fun, right? No matter how great things seem to be going, errors can happen in an instant! We'll break down some of the free and low cost apps we use for change monitoring and to keep us instantly informed! Plus - learn how to use these same apps to spy on what your competition is doing! YOU'LL LEARN How to automatically monitor your website for downtime Get automatic alerts if your website goes offline, and when it comes back online Monitor your website for hacking and hijacking issues How to make sure your website does not have plugins causing on-page issues Ensure any content embedded into your website is always active Monitor specific landing pages to ensure they are always up and working properly Catch changes any hackers, malware, viruses, or bots make to your website Monitor the source code of your website for unauthorized changes Monitor your Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, or other social accounts for changes and updates Get alerted when content on other websites changes - like pricing on Amazon Spy on your competitors websites for content updates and get notified when it changes Get instant alerts when your competition updates it's online prices Monitor your competitors website to see what new keywords they are targeting Get alerted when your brand is mentioned on specific websites Setup notifications when important websites are updated with new posts or content Create alerts to monitor your competitors social media accounts View the show notes, resource links, episode transcript, and watch the video version at https://www.localseotactics.com/episode22 Thanks for Listening!

How To Take Better Photos For Your Website - Part 2 Matt Addington shares tips and tricks for taking your own photos for your website, with your smartphone, in part 2 of this interview. We'll also cover how to edit photos, great tools for editing built into your phone, and how to use photos on your website in the best way for maximum engagement and conversion. Matt shares some great tips that will make anyone better at taking photos, telling stories, and ultimately developing better content for your website! YOU'LL LEARN How to take great photos for your business with your smartphone What are the best angles to take photos with your iPhone How to zoom in on ordinary things to take dramatic photos Getting your camera to a place that you or others normally take for granted Don't let the background be a distraction ("when in doubt, leave it out") What is the HDR camera setting on your phone all about How using the touch focus feature on your phone can help take better photos Using built in editing features right on your phone Using apps and mobile versions of programs like Photoshop for professional editing Powerful features with Adobe Lightroom for phone and desktop photo editing When it makes sense to hire a photographer instead of taking your own photos Using a "less is more" strategy when putting photos on your website Thanks for Listening! View the show notes, resource links, episode transcript, and watch the video version at https://www.localseotactics.com/episode21

How To Take Better Photos For Your Website - Part 1 One area of your website that can have a huge impact on user experience is the photos (or videos) that you have on your web pages. Interesting and engaging photos can draw customers in, enhance your image, and tell the story of your brand. We've got Matt Addington – photography wizard – in to talk about this. In part 1 of this two part episode, Matt shares some tips and tricks on how to take better photos for your website, to help make your pages stand out from the crowd and resonate with your customers! YOU'LL LEARN Techniques on how to take better photos with your smartphone Why images, photos, and video are more important than ever for your brand identity How to stand out with photos taken from a unique perspective How photos and videos can be used to tell a story and be more engaging Focus on a simple and tight image and remove background clutter for powerful images Use multiple images on your page to tell a story, instead of one all inclusive photo Great photos on your website should invite users to read and view more content Don't show the same type of image multiple times - be unique with each photo on your website Thanks for Listening! View the show notes, resource links, episode transcript, and watch the video version at https://www.localseotactics.com/episode20

Introduction To The GMB Offer Posts and How To Craft A Great Offer Google has released a new feature within Google My Business (GMB) called Offer Posts. The new GMB offer posts are very similar to the traditional posts, but you can use them to post sales, discounts, promotions, or other special offers. The new offer posts have some unique features like staring date and ending date, promo codes, and more! We'll break down the features, and go over some best practices to leverage this new feature to help you improve SEO, gain rankings, and get more sales! YOU'LL LEARN What is the "posts" feature in your Google My Business listing What is the new GMB offer posts feature How is an offer post different than a traditional post Where you'll find the GMB offer posts feature in your GMB listing How often you should put out new GMB posts How many words you can use in a GMB post What types of offer posts are having the best conversion rates How to construct a good offer within GMB offer posts How you can use keywords in your posts for SEO How to set starting and ending dates for your offer post Using promo codes in your offer post for eCommerce applications Using promo codes in your offer posts for non-eCommerce situations Benefits of using images with text overlays in your posts How to make a GMB offer post with a strong call to action (CTA) How to present a clear CTA for your offer with relatable context Thanks for Listening! View the show notes, resource links, episode transcript, and watch the video version at https://www.localseotactics.com/episode19

Avoid Over Optimizing Your Website To Maintain High Search Rankings Yes, it is possible to over optimize your website. Too much of a good thing can get you in trouble with Google, and impact your search rankings in a big way. In this episode we answer the question "what is over optimization", and break down some of the tactics and strategies you can use identify and avoid over optimizing your website. YOU'LL LEARN How is it possible to over optimize your website? What it means to be over optimized on your website What is keyword stuffing How keyword stuffing can lead to website over optimization Developing your web pages for "user intent" and not just focusing on keywords How to fix and reformat an over optimized web page Mixing in keyword variations on your page to make it SEO friendly and user friendly Methods of reviewing your page to determine if it's too focused on specific keywords Google knows if you are writing your pages for rankings and not for humans to read Quality content and clear communications can get your pages ranked Consider the "user intent" on what your page is communicating Thanks for Listening! View the show notes, resource links, episode transcript, and watch the video version at https://www.localseotactics.com/episode18