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Subject: Local SEO
Goal: By the end of the call, our students would understand exactly what it takes to rank their local business at the top of Google
Quick Summary:
For those of you who’ve been subscribers to the University for a while, you know that we started something called the Weekly Coaching Calls a few weeks back. The plan for the Weekly Coaching Calls is to do a live video conference every single week and tackle a topic that is relevant to the local business internet marketing community to help local businesses get off the ground when it comes to Local SEO, websites, social media, email marketing, blogging, content marketing, etc. We’re taking Josh’s insider agency knowledge from Tutelary Marketing and sharing it with you, the local business.
For our first week, we decided to start with what I consider the foundation for any good local business marketing on the internet: I wanted to lay out the basics for Local SEO. I did this by looking at two of our students’ websites. We featured James’ martial arts company, and Conrads’ carpet cleaning company, which are also local businesses. I wanted to look at these websites from a Local SEO perspective – give an assessment of their current sites and tips for improvement and that’s exactly what we did.
Students Only
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Extended Summary
In the Coaching Call, we went over the 5 basics of Local SEO:
- Google My Business Page
- Local Citations
- Online Reviews
- Onsite SEO
- Off page SEO
The five basics of SEO are essential in determining whether your website is going to rank well on Google or not.
Below is a basic summary of these factors (you will want to watch the replay for the full, visual effect):
1. Google My Business Page
Google My Business gives your business an online presence and public identity that is acknowledged by Google. It’s free and it’s simple to use – and will make you credible in the eyes of potential costumers. If you can’t find your business here, register, claim a page of your own, and optimize it.
We gave some examples of this on the call.
2. Local Citations
Much like academic citations, local citations are your business’ presence of legitimacy in local search directories. Since these act as mini versions of Google focused on local businesses. People in your area looking for the service you offer will find you better when you are listed in the over 200 available local search directories. Also, the more profiles you have registered in different local search directories, the more Google will view your business as a prominent one and raise your ranking. It’s a good idea to sign up and make a profile with your name, address and phone number, since 99% of these are free, and this can result to a higher Google search listing. Google can match your profile to your Google My Business page and your ranking will go up.
We gave you some examples of this in action on the call.
3. Online Reviews
Online reviews show the human side of the business. They contain what your customers say about you. These can either lead to conversion, better sales, or people who ignore your business, all on the basis of the reviews they read. 90 percent of consumers read reviews before buying items; they want to know the companies before they spend money with them. Google is actually able to use online reviews in other websites to tell how prominent your business is.
We gave a more in depth explanation and a few tips on how to get reviews on the call.
4. Onsite SEO
What does your website say about you? This is what the “onsite SEO is about”. If you’re a plumber in Scottsdale, AZ, you want people to know that you’re a plumber when they see your webpage. Google is looking at this too. Does your website actually talk about being a plumber in Scottsdale? This is not just limited to the home page. It should be in as many pages that make sense.
We talked much more in depth about this on the call and gave a few more examples of this in action.
5. Backlinks (off page SEO)
Backlinks are basically other websites that hyperlink to yours. Think of it as other people recommending your business, or even voting for you to be ranked higher on Google based on their own website. The more credible backlinks you have, the more prominent your business is.
In the call, I went into this more in depth, showing a few people’s backlinks to their websites and explaining in further detail.
Final Summary:
These are the 5 factors it will take to rank your local business on Google and you should now be able to work your way around that.
The replay is up so students can now login and watch it as well as grab the podcast:
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Q&A Portion:
Each week we will release the full Q&A portion of the Weekly Coaching Call.
This week’s is below:
1) Do you think Yext is a good idea?
Yes, Yext is a fantastic idea, but the price is extremely high. You need to pay $500 for an annual service that you could do for free (albeit laborious). Yext is local search directory data provider that is in partnership with about forty to fifty different search directories. They push all your data to all those directories so you get forty to fifty citations in a short span of time.
You can do the same on your own by submitting your own profile in dozens of free local search directories. If you don’t have time but also don’t think the $500 is a good investment, you can just outsource the job for a remarkably cheaper price. We at the University are actually developing a product where you can be able to go to all those search directories, like Yext, for a more affordable price through outsourcing. We’ll let you know when that products goes live.
Yext is good for those who can afford it – it’s not a terrible product! I just think that as a local business, it’s probably not worth it and would outsource the work myself.
2) I’m about to switch my website to another website. How do I do that so I don’t lose my ranking?
This needs a more thorough explanation, and is a possible topic for another coaching call. But here’s the quick answer: tell your website that you want to “301 redirect” your old website to your new website. After that, anytime someone types your old website, they’ll automatically be redirected to the new one. When you write a 301 redirect, Google will pick it up, take note of that, and will transfer all your ranking accordingly.
3) What about citations? Is there anything I need to keep in mind?
Just remember to format each citation exactly the same every single time at every single search directory! That makes it a lot easier for Google to compile everything, because a different “St.” vs “Street” here or there might read as a new business for Google. You might as well make it as easy as possible for Google to pick up on it. Even a period could make a difference – don’t obsess over it BUT take note of it!
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Tune in next week for our next Weekly Coaching Call. We’ll be talking about backlinks. We’ll go more in depth on what they are, how they work, and how you can get them. Backlinks are probably responsible for about 60% of your ranking on Google, so you won’t want to miss this.
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