Free Resources | LocalVisibilitySystem.com

A “free resources” page might seem kind of redundant, given how much free stuff is on this site. Still, if you’re the DIY type, you probably like having all your local-visibility tools in one toolbox.

I’m constantly creating and adding resources, but the ones below should hold you for a little while. Some of them originally appeared in my blog posts, whereas others live in other areas of my site.

Happy shopping!

The 7-Step Guide to Getting Visible to More Customers in the Local Search Results—Step-by-step instructions for how to get your business visible in local Google — by yourself. (Please note: I wrote the guide in May of 2011 and am long overdue for a 2nd edition.)

Checklist for Keeping Google+ Reviews out of the Filter—Ever asked a customer to write a review, only to have the review not show up on your business’s Google+Local page? My checklist can help you keep more of your hard-earned reviews.

Free Google+Local Review Handout Generator—A collaboration between Darren Shaw of Whitespark.ca and me. Simply enter your business information and let the tool customize and spits out a one-page document you can give your customers that walks them through how to post a Google+Local review of your business. It’s based on the review handouts I offer on this site. You can read more here or go directly to the tool here.

The Definitive List of Local Search Citations—Got all the local citations you need? Not sure? This list will tell you.

My 17-point questionnaire for potential clients—This questionnaire contains the questions I ask most potential clients up-front to get a good sense of their situation and how well I can help them meet their goals. They’re the questions any local-search pro should ask you. Even f you’re optimizing your local visibility yourself, you should know the answers before getting your hands dirty. (Here it is on Google Docs.)

My “How Long Local SEO Takes: the Short Version” printout—In October 2012 I published a giant post on how long it generally takes to see results from your local SEO campaign. Later I did another, shorter post in that distilled my findings into a single page. There are actually two versions of this easy-reference printout: the original, and the sleeker, prettier version. Same contents, different look. Take your pick!

“12-Week Action Plan” for visibility in Google+Local—Local SEO can be overwhelming, and usually is. Even if you know what to do, it’s hard to put all the pieces together into a coherent plan. This well-known “action plan” should help. Be sure to read the accompanying blog post either before or after you go over the plan.

The Local Business Reviews Ecosystem – US—Did you know that sometimes if a customer writes you a review on one site, that review will appear on other sites — sometimes over a dozen? There are a handful of important sites that “feed” reviews to other sites. If you run a business in the US and want to know which review sites matter the most, read this post and download the PDF.

The Local Business Reviews Ecosystem – Canada—The Canadian equivalent of the above post/graphic. I originally wrote this as a guest post on Whitespark.ca.

InfoGroup Category List—This one’s hard to explain unless you’ve read my short accompanying post first.

LocalEze Category List—Same as above; check out the post first, and then loop back to the list.