Local SEO Tactics and Digital Marketing Strategies

In this episode, we interview Scott Hudgins of Core ID Services and Michael Takla of HackNotice about cybersecurity and corporate breaches. A surprising amount of information can be purchased, shared, or just plain found on the so-called "dark web". Bad actors can gain access to this information and compromise your company assets, including your website. Scott and Michael are here to talk about CIA, a new service by Core ID Services, that helps companies to be proactive in the fight against cybersecurity, as well as share some simple and effective best practices that we can all improve upon! BONUS - Core ID Services is giving away free 30 day trials to all Local SEO Tactics listeners! What You'll Learn Scott Hudgins with Core ID Services and Michael Takla of HackNotice discuss dark web threats Core ID Services provides identity theft protection and cybersecurity services for businesses and individuals Most corporate cybersecurity issues arise from third party vulnerabilities and breaches Over 70% of breaches originate from credentials stolen from a third party Employees that use corporate email addresses for personal account logins can be exposed Being lazy and reusing credentials on multiple services can lead to breaches Most security hacks are lazy, looking for the easy victim, and are not very sophisticated Good security starts with basic personal best practices, like using a password manager app If you know or think any of your account credentials are compromised, you should absolutely change your password Core ID Services can proactively find your information on the dark web, so you can take fast action before you are compromised

Getting back into some direct SEO tactics on this episode, we'll dive into the topic of content silos and using the silo architecture to help you with some SEO gains. Leveraging this strategy can help to build relevancy for your topics, products, and services. We'll break down the basic concept of the content silo so you can implement it on your own website! A content silo technique can potentially help you rank higher for specific search terms and topics Create a strong landing page that you want to rank in Google Develop supporting pages that dive deeper into to topic of your landing page Do not link your landing page to the supporting pages The supporting pages should link to themselves, and to the landing page Each supporting page should be in-depth and specific on one topic that is related to the landing page intent Supporting pages in the silo are not intended to be linked in your main menu or navigational structure All actions on your supporting pages should be pushing users to your landing page

This is a special mini-episode, to let you know about new coronavirus related attributes that are available in Google My Business. Not many companies are taking advantage of this right now, so it is important to take the time to investigate this if it applies to your business! This can help your visibility, your clicks and conversions, and have a positive impact on your GMB SEO. Check out the show page for a link to the YouTube video, so you can see the screen-cast with examples and guides on how to do this in your GMB listing. Google has released some new Google My Business attributes related to the Coronavirus pandemic You can add attributes such as curbside pickup, take out, delivery, and in-store shopping Not many businesses are taking advantage of this attribute right now You may have to change your primary business category if you are not seeing the attributes Discover what categories your competitors are using if they trigger attributes but you are not

How-To videos are hot right now! With everyone completing their honey-do list at home, learning new hobbies, or just trying to be productive, there has been a surge in views for educational and How-To videos. Take advantage of this and leverage How-To videos on your website! There are many types of How To videos, and we go through some examples in this episode. Once you have the video, you can leverage it for all sorts of benefits, including transcribing the text, embedding the video into your website, extracting the audio, saving screenshots, and much more! Enjoy! Use How-To videos on your website to get SEO benefits How-to videos are extremely popular right now There are many types of How-To videos you can produce You can easily create videos, post them to YouTube, and embed them in your web pages Leverage your videos A How-To video does not have to be a DIY video or a tutorial video How To make things or build things are easy videos that you can make if relevant to your business You can make How To videos that guide customers on how to hire services like what you provide Make educational How-To videos to help customers know when to replace or repair items you provide

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, it's still important to focus on your SEO and website. One thing that is important to your SEO, but often hard to execute, is getting more backlinks for your site. A great way to get backlinks right now is to tap into your local media and community resource websites. Right now, most of these organizations have web pages or sections of their website dedicated to giving local businesses more visibility. There are resource pages, maps, and listings of businesses that are open, and the services they provide. This is an excellent and easy way to obtain great high quality and relevant backlinks for your website. In this episode we'll discuss the tactics and strategies you can take advantage of right now. Backlinks are a big part of search engine ranking in Google Most media outlets have a page online to list local businesses that are open Often times you can link back to your website on these sites Find local TV, radio, newspaper, or online publications Look for their Coronavirus resources area and find their posting area Get your business listed in as many as possible

When it comes to your website, security is often an overlooked topic. Right now, with the current coronavirus pandemic impacting our lives and dominating our news and discussions, we are all very distracted. The bad guys and the hackers know this and can take advantage of the situation while our attention is focused elsewhere. Make sure your website is secure and protected against these threats with some simple and often free solutions. As the saying goes, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" and that holds true for this topic here. Taking the time to make sure your website is protected can save you many headaches and a lot of time down the road. Always be aware of website security, especially in times of great distraction Security issues can impact your customers or users and your search engine visibility Your website should be secure with SSL security If you are using Wordpress, keep Wordpress updated to current releases Make sure all Wordpress themes and plugins are updated to avoid security vulnerabilities Use security plugins for Wordpress to easily strengthen the security of your website Audit user access, credentials, and password policies to understand who has access to your website If your website is compromised, your web page speed can be impacted severely If your website is compromised your email addresses can get blacklisted and prevent emails from being delivered An exposed website can be hijacked and used for phishing scams, or to charge you a ransom to restore it You can use software to monitor your website and watch for any unauthorized changes

In this episode Jesse and Bob share thoughts and ideas that are working to keep businesses afloat during this coronavirus pandemic. It's always important to listen to your customers to identify their pain points, their motivations, and their desires - and that is even more amplified right now. By quickly adapting your business, and communicating these adaptations clearly online and on social media, you can continue to serve your customers and maybe even thrive in the current marketplace. Leverage technology and your human resources to change now, setting your business up for maximum success now and also for the future. What You'll Learn Ways that businesses are pivoting their digital marketing for the coronavirus pandemic Google reviews are still paused by Google, so new reviews are not showing The questions and answers section of Google My Business is also temporarily down Keep using the available GMB features, like posts and photos to communicate Make sure you communicate your business open status front and center online If you have downtime and extra labor, you can focus on producing content to improve Google rankings Record videos to showcase your products to customers and leverage the videos online or in emails Show customers what you are doing right now for no-touch service, and how you are being clean Customers are looking online to see what steps your business is taking to be safe during the pandemic Understand your market and how it is shifting today, and make sure you adapt with it to serve customers Look at selling gift certificates to generate revenue now and stay connected with your customers View the show notes, resource links, episode transcript, and watch the video version at https://www.localseotactics.com/how-remain-open-for-business-and-stay-relevant-online-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic-055/

Since we can't escape the current coronavirus pandemic, we will again embrace it in this week's episode! Learn some of the tips and tricks that businesses are using right now to adapt to the current marketplace, and how to communicate those changes to their customers and prospects. You can leverage your website and social media in new ways, to stay connected and give customers the information they are looking for. Adapting to these customer expectations and providing them solutions will win you new business now while positioning your brand for operating in the future COVID-19 era, however long that may be. What people are doing to make sure their businesses stay open and active How to let everyone know you are open for business still How to better communicate with customers about your business and status Opportunities with social media and digital communications Position your brand to survive the coronavirus pandemic

Coronavirus is having a major impact on businesses large and small. In addition to the economic impact of COVID-19, customers are changing the way they interact with businesses, and businesses are forced to pivot and offer services or products they may not have in the past, in order to survive. Luckily there is a host of technology solutions to enable more dynamic online interactions with your customers, as face-to-face retail becomes an issue in the coming weeks or months. In this episode, we'll focus on some popular video and communications tools, and discuss how to use them to operate your business, and also to engage with your customers in new ways. What You'll Learn How the COVID-19 pandemic is changing the way we interact with businesses online People are rapidly changing how they look for a business online Businesses are shifting to more online and website based communications Use tools like Zoom, Loom, and Google Hangouts to interact with customers in new ways Leverage video recordings and YouTube to enhance the content and purpose of your website

For local SEO, your Google My Business listing is an extremely important tool for your business. In this episode, we will discuss the best practices and relevancy of the description field within your GMB listing. The description field is the largest single input area for your GMB, and it's also an area that is highly relevant for inputting specific keywords and geographic references that you want to be found for. Here are some tips and tricks to approach your GMB description with SEO in mind, to improve your local rankings! What You'll Learn Google My Business (GMB) is very important for your local SEO The description field in your GMB is a great resource for targeting keywords and geographic areas Your GMB description will show in your business Knowledge Panel You can input up to 750 characters in your description Even if the description is not seen by users every time, Google knows what it contains Google has eluded to the fact that putting keywords in your GMB description will help you rank for those keywords Make sure your Google My Business description is optimized for SEO and readability just like any other content on your website

Doing SEO on your website is very important, but how do you know if you're doing it right? In this episode of Local SEO Tactics, we cover three of our favorite 100% free online testing tools, to help grade and gauge your website and SEO. The three primary areas are page speed, schema implementation, and overall SEO - which contains keyword optimization, page structure, images, and other on-page website elements. There are many tools online, and there are many more free tools that we are not talking about today. A simple Google search will show many popular testing options, in addition to the ones mentioned in this episode. Enjoy! What You'll Learn There are dozens of reputable tools you can find online to help optimize your website Use our free SEO audit to check your web page for optimization on specific keywords Make sure any SEO audit tool you choose looks at domain issues, keyword optimization, and image analysis Use the Google Structured Data Testing Tool to check your web page schema markup Check the speed of your web pages for loading times and find what elements may be slowing it down

Here we are at episode 50! A small but significant milestone for the Local SEO Tactics shows so we want to first thank you for the support and feedback on this journey! In today's episode, we feature our first call-in question. Evelyn, asks if it is okay to use the same background image on all pages of your website? We cover this, and some related scenarios, to talk about the SEO impact as well as the user experience for choosing to do this! YOU'LL LEARN Does it hurt SEO to use the same background image Make sure the background image does not slow your page load times It is better to use original photos over stock photos You can use a slider instead of a background image if it makes sense on your page Sometimes a background image does not reformat to a responsive page properly Use a slider with image effects like Ken Burns effect to create movement and animation Find show notes and episode information at https://www.localseotactics.com/using-the-same-background-image-on-every-page-of-your-website-50/

By now we all know online reviews are a necessity for a local business. Your reputation and public ratings are an instant edification of your business and show potential customers what they can expect if they patronize you. If you are getting good reviews and have a sizable amount of reviews, you can leverage what we call "review clout" and expand your business into new revenue streams. In this episode, we talk about how to find the related niches for your business, where your review clout can quickly get you new business and dominate the competition! YOU'LL LEARN Getting reviews is always very important for your business Ask customers face to face for reviews to get as many as possible Use automation like ReviewLead to capture even more reviews for your business Once you have high review count and high review rating you can leverage it for new revenue streams Find niches that you can serve that have low competition Look for competitors in the map pack that have low review scores Add keywords and optimizations to your GMB and website for the niche to gain visibility View show notes and all links on the show page at https://www.localseotactics.com/review-clout-leverage-your-online-reviews-to-expand-into-new-revenue-streams-049/

Images and graphics are an important part of any website, landing page, or sales page. Images help tell your story, showcase your brand, or clarify an example. As the adage goes, a picture is worth a thousand words! In this episode we will cover some of the basic things you should be doing to optimize your images that you use on your web site. You can get your pages to load faster, and you can take advantage of some very important SEO benefits with image optimization. Take a listen and hopefully you will learn a new trick or two! What You'll Learn Google can tell if you are using stock photography or not Google Vision AI can determine an image object, relevancy, and topical associations Use your own original photos and graphics whenever possible on your web pages Optimize your images for proper size Optimize your images for maximum loading speed Take advantage of alt tags and file name to benefit your SEO efforts View show notes and all links on the show page at https://www.localseotactics.com/learn-how-to-optimize-images-for-web-speed-and-seo-benefits-048/

Optimizing a page for a keyword; it's a topic that comes up weekly here at our agency. There are many elements that go into successful SEO and web page optimization. That said, if you're not doing the basics in relation to the keyword you are targeting, the rest is tough sledding. In this episode we'll walk through the basic block and tackle of what you should focus on for how to optimize a web page for a keyword or phrase. What You'll Learn To have a successfully optimized page, you must not skip the basics of keyword targeting Getting your keyword into the URL of the page is great if you can do it Be sure to incorporate your keyword phrases into your headings Develop the page content on purpose with the keyword and related phases in mind Adding images with file names and Alt text that uses your keyword is ideal To be targeting the keyword, you must be mentioning the keyword on the page View show notes and all links on the show page at https://www.localseotactics.com/how-to-optimize-your-web-page-for-a-keyword-a-basic-overview-047/

Content is king! This phrase is virtually beaten to death in the marketing world nowadays. But, it's true. At the end of the day, content is what Google serves up, and content is what we need to produce to be found in Google. Producing content can be very intense, overwhelming, and time-consuming. Be smart about it, and develop a website content strategy that you can not only execute yourself, but one that you can also delegate internally, or externally to talented experts! What You'll Learn You must do keyword research to identify the proper phrases to target and incorporate into your content Write pages that answer common questions your customers are asking When you type pages, use the tone of talking to the customer directly Determine the frequency you can stick to for how often to put out new content Determine the size of the page (how many words needed) depending on the market and niche you are in Use in-sourcing to delegate content creation to people on your team Use outsourcing to hire freelancers or specialists to help with content creation For a long term solution to outsourcing you can consider adding a Virtual Assistant Check with colleges to see if you can work with an intern to develop content for you View show notes and all links on the show page at https://www.localseotactics.com/create-a-website-content-strategy-and-get-help-making-new-content-for-your-site/

In this episode, we will go over two important aspects of properly positioning and optimizing your Google My Business Listing (GMB Listing). The first topic is how to identify your primary digital competitors, who may be different than the historical competitors you are aware of! The second topic is how to peek under the hood and discover what categories your competitors are choosing for their Google My Business listings. The process may seem a bit technical and complicated as we walk through it, but it's actually quite easy once you do it in practice! What You'll Learn Why it's important to understand your digital competition versus your historical competition How to search on desktop and mobile search to find out who your primary competitors are Look for competition who is dominant in the map pack Choosing your GMB category is very important for your visibility You can also choose multiple subcategories for your business too Learn how to view which categories your competition is using for their GMB When you look at a GMB you only see one of the several categories the business may have listed https://www.localseotactics.com/discover-what-google-my-business-categories-your-top-competitors-are-using/

Joe Anderson of Metaphor Creations is back for part 2 in our discussion about website speed and optimization. We'll go over page caching for your website, to understand how a cache works, and how using a page cache plugin can speed up your website. We'll also dig into plugins, for what makes them great and what makes them dangerous! Keep your site running smoothly by following these best practices and helpful tips. What You'll Learn What caching is and how to use caching on your website Use page caching to make future visits to your web page very fast for users Use WordPress plugins to minimize your script and make your site load faster Using minimizing plugins can help but you must be careful and test your site afterwards When choosing plugins for WordPress make sure you choose quality plugins from known developers If plugins are making your website slow, you can disable plugins to determine the culprit Keeping your plugins updated will ensure your site is free of errors eliminates security holes Visit the show page for all links and for more information; https://www.localseotactics.com/https-www-localseotactics-com-improving-website-speed-for-wordpress-part-2-interview-with-joe-anderson/

Joe Anderson of Metaphor Creations is back on the show this week, and this time we're talking about website speed. Specifically, we're talking about how to improve the speed of your Wordpress website. This is part 1 of a two-part interview with Joe, and in this half, we're going to cover web hosting and using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to make sure your web host and server is running as fast as possible. Plus, Joe shares a discount for everyone on his Ditty Ticker plugin bundle for Wordpress! What You'll Learn Get 10% off the Ditty Ticker Bundle from Metaphor Creations using the code "intrycksditty" Website hosting makes a difference in your website speed, especially for WordPress websites Using a Content Delivery Network to speed up your website CDN stands for Content Delivery Network Visit the show page for all links and for more information; https://www.localseotactics.com/improving-website-speed-for-wordpress-part-1-interview-with-joe-anderson/

We're talking about the Google Posts feature within your Google My Business (GMB) listing this week. Previously we discussed the various types of Google Posts you can leverage, but in this episode, we take a deeper look into the "standard" Google posts option. This is a powerful method to quickly communicate to Google the primary services you offer and the geographical area that you wish to be found for. Check out and put it into action, whether you are just getting your GMB off the ground, or if you're a GMB veteran! What You'll Learn Use Google Posts to communicate to Google the primary cities you do business in How to identify nearby cities and neighbor hoods that Google will recognize How use Google Posts to communicate to Google the primary services you provide How to use these tactics to launch an initial content strategy for Google posting Visit the show page for all links and for more information; https://www.localseotactics.com/setting-up-your-initial-posting-strategy-for-google-posts/

How To Get More Reviews On Your Google My Business Listing For this week we're talking about reviews again. Specifically, we're talking about how to get even more reviews on your Google My Business listing. Just being passive and asking a customer to leave a review, or contacting them a few days after the sales transaction is not enough. You need to hold their hand, coach them, and even slightly pressure them to leave a review right then and there. If you can accomplish this, you will outpace your competition, improve your Google rankings, and get more business fast! Check it out! What You'll Learn You need a Google My Business Listing in order to get reviews on Google Be up front and help walk a customer through how to immediately leave a review in person Some customers may have "technology shame", not knowing how to leave a review and so they will not leave one Double the amount of reviews you are getting by being a little bit pushy and focused on getting reviews Getting more Google reviews can improve your visibility and search rankings Visit the show page for all links and more information; https://www.localseotactics.com/getting-more-reviews-on-your-google-my-business-listing/

Learn The Different Types Of Google Posts And How To Best Use Them In this episode we kick off our second season with one of the most important topics for local SEO...Google My Business. Specifically, we're talking about the Google Posts feature within your GMB listing (Google My Business listing). There are four primary post types, at the time of this recording at least! Those are Google Update Posts, Google Offer Posts, Google Even Posts, and Google Product Posts. We will explore what each one should be used for, the best practices for each, and what using them properly will do for your business and local exposure online. We will also talk about the new domain name and home for the Local SEO Tactics show! What You'll Learn New domain name and home for the show at localseotactics.com What are the four main areas and types of Google Posts How to use Google Update Posts How to use Google Event Posts How to use Google Offer Posts How to use Google Product Posts View the show notes, resource links, episode transcript, and watch the video version at https://www.localseotactics.com/episode40

Learn What Plugins We Use To Power Our Websites With Joe Anderson From Metaphor Creations This week Jesse interviews Joe Anderson from Metaphor Creations, talking about Wordpress plugins and taking a peek at some of the powerful plugins we use at Intrycks to power our websites. These plugins help to create dynamic content on your website, keeping them fresh and engaging for your customers and prospects. Plus we unveil our newest collaboration, Agile Alerts, and announce the free Beta Registration on the show. What You'll Learn Interview with Joe Anderson of Metaphor Creations Intrycks collaborates with Metaphor Creations on a regular basis to provide websites and digital marketing services to customers Our new collaboration www.agilealerts.com is now live and taking beta users Joe has been a Wordpress developer since 2011 It's very important to create good and "sticky" content for your website, to keep users engaged Use the Content Duplicator plugin to quickly create new page or post templates for your Wordpress website Always change the page title, URL, and content on a duplicated page so as to avoid actual duplicate content Use the Alternate Timed Content plugin to schedule when you want content and widgets to show, or be hidden, on your website You can use the Ditty News Ticker to dynamically display scrolling, rotating, or other text and news on your website The Ditty Facebook Ticker allows you to pull in your recent Facebook posts into your website and display them anywhere in your website View the show notes, resource links, episode transcript, and watch the video version at https://www.localseotactics.com/episode39

Develop A System To Consistently Produce New Content For Your Website Content is king, but producing good relevant content for your website is easier said than done. Especially if you need to put out that content on a regular basis. In this episode we share some tips and tactics on how to create a content production strategy that allows you to stay on track and keep putting out fresh content. Learn how to get easy ideas for content, what type of content you should produce, and how often you should be creating it. Plus, don't forget to setup your website to automatically alert Google when you have new content on your site, too! What You'll Learn You need to have a regular content production schedule to continually produce new content for your website Your level or quantity of content production will depend on what your competition is doing You can research your competition to see what their content output is by viewing their blog, or checking their XML sitemaps You need to be active in producing new content because Google is continually looking for new content to show in search results Use an XML sitemap and submit your website to Google via Google Search Console to automatically get your new content submitted to Google Putting out content with 1,200-1,500 words on the page once per week is ideal, but at least once per month or every two weeks is okay Sit down one day per month (or quarter) and list out the content or topics you will be working from Easy ideas for content creation can include things like category pages, FAQ pages, Q&A, industry news, internal company news or events, and local community related topics You can create new content for your website by using case studies or customer testimonials Do keyword research to find out the most popular keyword searches for services or products you want to be found for so you can write content specifically for those topics You can use a freelancer to help create content for your website, but make sure you understand the process yourself first View the show notes, resource links, episode transcript, and watch the video version at https://www.localseotactics.com/episode38

Get Your Website Submitted To Google and Bing And Have Your Pages Indexed For Search Listings Learn how to submit your website to Google and Bing, to make sure your pages are indexed and available to show up on search engine results pages (SERP). The only reliable way to accomplish this is to use the Google Search Console to submit your website to Google, and to use Bing Webmaster Tools to submit your website to Bing. In this weeks episode we'll walk you through the basics on how to get your website submitted, make sure the Google and Bing know about new pages, and ensure that your pages able to be found by the search engines! You'll Learn The only way to submit your website to Google Setup your account in Google Search console (GSC) to submit your website You need to submit a sitemap in your GSC account Your sitemap acts like a Table of Contents for Google, to help them understand your website pages You should be using a Wordpress plugin or some other method to auto-update your sitemap when you create new content You can manually submit a page to Google by going to the Fetch as Google in the Crawl section of Google Search Console The process to submit your website to Bing is very similar to submitting to Google via Bing Webmaster Tools View the show notes, resource links, episode transcript, and watch the video version at https://www.localseotactics.com/episode37

How To Create and Use Category Pages To Improve The SEO On Your Site Use category pages to boost the SEO on your website! Category pages are very helpful for multiple reasons. They are an easy way to produce content on your site, and attack specific keyword or phrases you're trying to rank for. Category pages can boost your SEO by helping to group relevant web pages together, so Google can understand the products and services you provide and better match them up with the searchers intent. This approach is also great for your actual human web visitors, too, since it gives them natural navigational hubs to learn more or explore your offerings further. We'll walk you through some easy ideas and concepts, to help you get started making or improving your own category pages. What You'll Learn Using category pages on your website to round up content on similar topics Improve your SEO and search engine rankings with category pages Begin by looking at the type of products and services you offer and put them into groups Come up with the category for each of these groups and create a category page On each category page you will list individual products and services in that group Create the category page with SEO in mind for keywords, URL, title, and h tags Link to the product and service pages from the category page Category pages can be listed in the main menu of your website or other prominent areas Category pages can have call to action (CTA) buttons and other traditional conversion features Treat the category page similar to a landing page because you want to match user intent and convert Putting FAQ's on a category page is an easy way to add more relevant content to the page Add links to the category page from any relevant individual pages, where it makes sense for visitors to follow Update category pages with new content and links when it's created to keep your category page fresh View the show notes, resource links, episode transcript, and watch the video version at https://www.localseotactics.com/episode36

Hire Top Talent On A Temporary Or Part-Time Basis To Instantly Increase Business Productivity This week we interview Nate Hirsch from FreeeUp.com, who teaches us how you can use freelancers to scale your company on a budget. Nathan Hirsch is a 28 year old serial entrepreneur who is an expert in hiring online and building eCommerce businesses. He co-founded his first eCommerce company out of his dorm room in 2009 built it to sell over $25 million worth of product over 5 years. While scaling, Nathan discovered the power of outsourcing and ended up building a remote army of freelancers. In 2015, Nathan co-founded and became the CEO of FreeeUp, an online hiring marketplace that allows business owners fast access to a hand-picked network of top talent freelancers in eCommerce, digital marketing, web development, and much more who have already been vetted for skill, attitude, and communication. Nate shares his story of entrepreneurship, delegation, and scaling a small business on a bootstrap budget. Using freelancers to supplement your team can provide some great benefits to local business owners. You can hire top quality individuals quickly, and instantly improve the talent on your team - often with higher skill sets and lower costs than if you were to hire local talent. Learn how FreeUp only accepts the top 1% of all freelancers into it's pipeline, and how you can get started with a discount for being a Local SEO Tactics listener! What You'll Learn How Nate Hirsch founded FreeeUp.com and grew it into a successful business that allows customers to hire top quality temporary freelancers Nate got his first taste of scaled success by selling niche baby products on Amazon when he was attending college at 20 years old As Nate tried to scale his business he encounter many struggles in how to hire talented people to join his team Growing your business and delegating your duties as a business owner are very difficult FreeeUp only allows the top 1% of all freelancers to join their network and perform work for FreeeUp.com customers Freelancers are all vetted on many levels, including skill, attitude, and communication Utilizing freelancers allows you to utilize top level talent for short term tasks or projects instead of hiring them and retaining them In a job market where hiring local talent is very tough, using freelancers is a great way to get talented team members It is important to set expectations on what type of talent you need and what type of talent you are hiring in a freelancer Focusing on your own hiring process and refining them will make sure you continually bring talented people that fit your needs You should delegate things that you are not good at or that you don't want to do Find specialists to execute these delegated duties for you so you can turn your weaknesses into strengths Get $25 OFF from FreeeUp.com for all Local SEO Tactics listeners View the show notes, resource links, episode transcript, and watch the video version at https://www.localseotactics.com/episode35

Understand Searcher Intent On Google So You Can Incorporate User Intent Into SEO For Your Website Understanding user intent and searcher intent can be a huge benefit to your SEO. As Google continues to leverage it's AI and Machine Learning to provide search results, one of it's main focuses is to effectively guess the user intent on any given search term. For example, someone who often watches DIY videos may be presented with DIY information for a relevant search, even if they are not inputting "DIY" or "DIY videos" into their search. Gaining a clear understanding of the your audience, and what their intent would be when finding your page, will help you develop clearly identified content. This makes it much easier for Google to match your content with searcher intent, rather than guessing. In this episode we'll break this down and digest what it means, so you can create better content, convert more users, and rank higher in Google by incorporating searcher intent into your SEO strategy. What You'll Learn How to create pages on your website for the user intent Creating your page with a good user intent helps Google know who you are creating the page for If you are targeting a search term that is ambiguous for user intent then you may have poor results Going after long tail keywords can add more context to your content and help define intent Matching content to user intent will reduce bounce rates and keep users on your site longer Example - if you're creating a DIY article or page, make sure the content is helpful for solving their problems Example - if you're creating a page for services you provide, make it clear you are offering your services Strive to really understand what users are searching for - answers, info, services, help, or products Google uses AI and machine learning to try and guess a users intent and tries to match it to search results Having a strong intent based content page will also deflect poor quality visitors who did not match your intent At the top of the page clearly state the intent of the page right in the title and headings of the page View the show notes, resource links, episode transcript, and watch the video version at https://www.localseotactics.com/episode34

The Importance of Using Google Questions and Answers on Google Maps and Your GMB Listings Have you heard of or viewed the Google Questions and Answers area in your Google My Business listing? This is an area you should be paying attention to! Anyone with an active Google account can post a question about your business. Additionally, anyone can also answer that question! This is pretty cool, but also pretty scary from the standpoint of the business. Learn how to monitor Google Q&A, how to answer questions in Google Maps via the Q&A area, and how to leverage this to enhance your online exposure. Learn how to take control of the questions, how to have the best answers, and how to make sure your business content is in your own control. What You'll Learn What is the Google Question & Answer feature in the Google My Business listing area Anybody with a Google account can ask a question about your business Anybody with a Google account can answer a question about your business It's possible for people outside of your business to provide price quotes and answer information about pricing There can be multiple answers to any question on Google Questions and Answers about your business If you are registered as the owner of the business, when you answer a question it is tagged with "Business Owner" so the public can distinguish your reply All answers can be upvoted and the answer with the most upvotes will be the answer that is shown for the question Make sure you monitor the questions that are being asked on your GMB so you can provide answers to them You can check to see if you have new questions by going through your GMB listing by clicking the "view in search" or "view in maps" links Leave answers as fast as possible to answer the customers questions and to be the first answer provided Upvote your own answers right away and ask others you know to upvote your answers too Ask your own questions so you can get the information you want up in the Q&A section You can answer your own questions too, to make it a very good FAQ type of area in your GMB View the show notes, resource links, episode transcript, and watch the video version at https://www.localseotactics.com/episode33

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!

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

Rank Higher in the Google Map Pack By Using GMB Categories as Keywords On Your Website Google My Business, also known as GMB, is a crucial part of any SEO strategy in today's world. In order to maximize the relationship between your GMB listing and your website, you need to take advantage of the Google My Business categories. These categories are very important on the SERP (search engine results page), and using these categories like you would a keyword is a great way to increase your exposure, bump your web rankings, and show up in the map pack! YOU'LL LEARN How to bring synergy between your website and your Google My Business listing Get your GMB listing to show in the Google Map Pack more often Choosing the primary category in your GMB listing is critical to your success Checking to see which categories are relevant for your business in GMB Using your primary GMB category as a keyword on your homepage Using variations on GMB categories versus exact match Avoiding over-optimization and over usage of the category keyword Leveraging your secondary GMB categories into new pages on your website Thanks for Listening! View the show notes, resource links, episode transcript, and watch the video version at https://www.localseotactics.com/episode17

Use An XML Sitemap Generator To Create and Auto Update Your Website Sitemaps Want your pages to show up in Google? Then you better have a sitemap on your website! A sitemap, or more specifically, an XML sitemap, is like a roadmap or a table of contents for all of the important pages, posts, and images on your website. Having an XML sitemap will tell Google, and other search engines, which pages are on your website - so they can know to include them in their search results. In this episode we'll cover the basics of sitemaps, how to create them, and why you need one! YOU'LL LEARN What is a Sitemap for your website What is an XML sitemap What is an HTML sitemap Why you need both HTML and XML sitemaps Easy plugins for WordPress to generate an XML sitemap How to choose what content to include in your sitemap How sitemaps tell Google you have new pages or images on your website How to generate sitemaps on non-WordPress websites Selecting sitemap generators that auto-update Thanks for Listening! View the show notes, resource links, episode transcript, and watch the video version at https://www.localseotactics.com/episode16

Use Google Search Console To Submit Your Website To Google and Report On Google Search Performance Google Search Console (also known as Google Webmaster Tools pre-2015) is a free service, provided by Google, that lets you peek into some great information about your website. If you're not using this right now - you should be! You can use it to submit your site to Google, report on how many people are finding your website from Google, where your pages are ranking on search engine results pages (SERP). Plus, you can view how many people visit on mobile devices versus desktop computers. Check it out! YOU'LL LEARN What is Google Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools) How to get your website into the Google Index faster using Google Search Console, so you can show up on search results ASAP What does Google Search Console do for you How often should you be reviewing Google Search Console Instructions on how to setup your Google Search Console account How to add your website(s) to the console for tracking and reporting How to verify your website to prove that you own it How to submit your sitemap to Google Using the "Fetch as Google" feature to trigger your pages for indexing How to see which pages you have in the Google Search Index Access Google search data to see how many times your pages are shown on the Google search engine results page (SERP) Access Google search data to see how many clicks you're getting from Google SERP Thanks for Listening! View the show notes, resource links, episode transcript, and watch the video version at https://www.localseotactics.com/episode15

How To Decide If You Should Refocus Your Homepage Or Make A New Page To Attack Keywords In this weeks episode, we dive into a question that was submitted by Patrick, who listens to the Local SEO Tactics podcast. Patrick was wondering if he should modify his homepage to attack a new keyword target, or if he should create a new page to go after that keyword instead. We'll break down the options and talk about the various situations in which you may choose path over the other. YOU'LL LEARN Which page carries the most weight on your website How Google serves up web pages, not websites, in search results Deciding if you should change your home page or create a new page when going after a new keyword target for your website When you should avoid refocusing your keyword targets on your homepage When it's okay to refocus your keyword targeting on your homepage When you should create a new page to attack a new keyword focus When you should refocus your keyword targeting on an existing page versus creating a new page The danger of deleting pages off your website with out properly informing search engines Thanks for Listening! View the show notes, resource links, episode transcript, and watch the video version at https://www.localseotactics.com/episode14

Use Online Reputation Management To Drive More Traffic and Improve Your SEO! Online reviews are very important, not only for helping to build trust with potential customers, but also as it relates to the overall SEO of your website. From Google, Facebook, and Yelp, to Angies List, the BBB, and many more…customers can leave their feedback an a number of places today. As a local service business, you need to take control of these review portals, so you can not only view and manage the customer reviews, but also to leverage them and take advantage of the praises in your marketing strategy! YOU'LL LEARN Overview of automated review capturing systems At what point should you consider using an automated review capturing system How to get more customers to leave you a positive review How to remove the barriers for customers to leave a review for your business How asking for feedback instead of a review will increase your review rates How to get your customers onto the "leave a review" screen within Google (and others) within seconds How to get 2x or 3x more reviews from your customers How to get email alerts when customers leave a review, good or bad, on any review portal Thanks for Listening! View the show notes, resource links, episode transcript, and watch the video version at https://www.localseotactics.com/episode13

Learn How To Use Improved Call Handling Strategies To Charge More For Your Services! As a local service business, it can be annoying when you get price shopper phone calls. However, the reality is that we are ALL price shoppers! Don't shy away from giving price quotes and estimates over the phone, because that is what customers really want. In this episode we'll cover some of the best tactics and strategies we've uncovered to handle price shoppers, and convert them into great customers while your competition turns them away! YOU'LL LEARN Best practices for new customer call handling to convert more prospects into new customers How to quickly instill confidence in new callers and win them over Tactics to identify "price shoppers" and quickly convey your value Leveraging a call handling script to funnel customers into your sales process Why price checking your competition is so important How to use text message follow up's to convert more prospects into customers The 3 R's - Referrals, Reviews, and Repeat business Using the "bookends" price quoting method to give an estimate to every single inquiry How the "bookends" price quoting method builds confidence and converts more customers How to "tell" a customer you're going to follow up, instead of "asking" them How to avoid providing free tech support and wasting time on the phone for DIY callers Thanks for Listening! View the show notes, resource links, episode transcript, and watch the video version at https://www.localseotactics.com/episode12