Phil

Local SEO Victory in 5 Minutes a Day: Doable Baby Steps

May 20, 2014 by Phil 36 Comments

The worst part of local SEO isn’t that it’s tough or time-consuming. The worst part is it’s daunting.

It’s easy to get paralyzed and procrastinate – or not progress at all. That’s partly because you have to search hither and yon just to figure out what to put on your to-do list.

Maybe all you need is a to-do list that’s broken down into baby steps. That’s why I’ve put together that list today.

Each step (below) should take 5 minutes. And yes, unlike Andrew, I actually mean 5 minutes 🙂

Do one of these baby steps every single day. You’ll make a nauseating amount of progress – and probably in less time than you think.

No need to start at the top of the list. Just pick one of these baby steps for today, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow…

Think of one page you’d like to add to your site. (See this.)

Sift through the Google Places Category Tool and Moz Local’s Category Research area to see if there are any more categories you can specify for your business on any of your listings.

Ask one customer for a review.

Reply to one review.

Build a citation.

Fix or remove an incorrect citation.

Rewrite the title tag of one page that ranks in the gutter.

See if you can think of a Google Places descriptor that makes sense in your situation.

Do a Moz Local scan.

Do a Local Citation Finder scan.

Scan for and fix broken links on your site.

Write down one question that customers ask you all the time. (There’s any number of things you can do with it. For starters, just throw it in a document of questions to add to the FAQ page of your site.)

Write down one idea for a blog post. (Try this list of 100 ideas, or this second list of 100.)

Log into Google Plus, go to the “Local” tab, and type in variations of your business name, and note down any duplicate listing(s) you find.

Ask Google to remove a duplicate listing, if you’ve got any.

Do whatever it takes to get a nice cover photo for your Google+ Local page. (You don’t want people hitting the “back” button.)

Flip through the pages of your site and add links to relevant other pages (on your site or on others’).

Type your business name into Google and take note of anything you see that you don’t like.

Check on one of your business listings (citations) and add more info to it.

Flip through a competitor’s site. What’s the smartest thing he/she is doing?

Google the name of your top competitors. What are they doing that you can do better?

Type this into Google: “site:yourwebsitename.com”. Take note of any title tags or description tags you don’t like, and change them (not necessarily today).

Find a local charity you can help out. Email them and ask how you can pitch in. (It’s good karma. And if you get a link out of it, great.)

Spend 5 minutes writing a piece of one of the pages or posts you thought of, or writing stuff to add to your landing page. Stop after 5 minutes, even if you’ve been staring at a blank screen.

Add some Schema markup to your landing page.

Read one post by Mike Blumenthal that you haven’t read already.

Write down a specific question (and the person you plan to ask).

Buy some time with a person you think can answer your questions. (By the way, if you ever book a Mastermind session with me, let me know if your questions are from your daily “baby steps.” I’ve got a bonus for hardcore readers 🙂 )

Ask a quick question at Linda Buquet’s forum or at the Local Search Google+ community.

Write a to-do list for your local SEO efforts.

Do any one of the items you’ve put on your to-do list. Cross that sucker off.

—

By the way, I’d like this to be an evergreen post, so please let me know if you think of any 5-minute baby steps I should add. (Hat tip to Darren for suggesting a few steps.)

What’s the first 5-minute step you’ll do? How ‘bout the last one you did? Any questions? Leave a comment!

7 Mental Traps That Keep Businesses Down in the Local Rankings

May 16, 2014 by Phil 8 Comments

Yes, it’s tough to build a site that’s more than an online paperweight, and improve your rankings, and get reviews, and so forth. If you’re not visible in Google Places and beyond but you’re trying, at least you’re headed in the right direction.

But many business owners talk themselves into not doing enough to get the customers they need. They hurt themselves with weak excuses.

You don’t want be one of those people.

I’ve heard every excuse you can shake a stick at. They all seem to fall into at least one of seven categories.

Mental Trap 7: “I can’t handle too much business.”

Not the worst problem to have, is it? But I’ve got a few possible solutions:

Pay someone $10 / hour to answer the calls and fill up your calendar. (And read Perry’s book.)

Or turn away some customers.

Or raise your rates.

Or work out a referral deal in which you refer customers to someone else and get to wet your beak.

Mental Trap 6: “I don’t have the time to learn about Google.”

Then pay someone to help.

Mental Trap 5: “I don’t have the money.”

Then spend a little time learning how to improve your visibility yourself.

Don’t have time or money? Well, you can’t get something for nothing, so get creative – like by drafting your family into doing some of the work.

Mental Trap 4: “I’m already spending a fortune on advertising.”

Do you want to continue spending a fortune on ads? There’s nothing wrong with that, as long as your ads attract people who eventually convert and become customers. If I hand the bank teller $1 and she hands me back $5, I don’t say, “Hey, I don’t like spending all this money.” No – I stick my arms between the couch cushions to find every penny and quarter that I can turn into a dollar that I can turn into $5 at the bank.

Or if the advertising isn’t effective, then stop the madness at once and work on your free visibility in Google Places and elsewhere.

Mental Trap 3: “How do I know I’ll actually get visible?”

Depends on how realistic your goals are:

If you’re trying to get visible in a city your business isn’t located in or very near, I’ll tell you right now that your chances aren’t good. Location matters. In this case, you should add paid options, like AdWords, to your arsenal.

If you’re in a cutthroat local market, like for “Los Angeles divorce lawyers” or “New York City jewelry,” you can get highly visible if you really want to. But you’ll have to find a way to stand out, and it’ll take longer.

But if you’re in a “normal” market but just aren’t ranking well, a little time or money can take you far.

Mental Trap 2: “I’m not good with computers.”

You don’t have to be. (Re-read answer to Excuse #6: have someone else do it.)

Public Enemy #1: “Now isn’t a good time.”

When is a good time? When business is good, you’re busy with customers and day-to-day upkeep. When business is slow, you’re busy scrambling for customers.

Keep doing what you’ve been doing, and you’ll get what you’ve been getting.

—

Is your local visibility what you’d like it to be? Why – or why not?

What’s a mental trap you’ve been in?

Leave a comment!

Your Google Places Landing Page: Homepage or City-Specific?

May 13, 2014 by Phil 26 Comments

What should you put in the “Website” field of your Google Places page: the URL of your homepage, or of one of your location pages? You know it can affect your rankings. Which one do you pick?

I suggest you use your homepage as your landing page, whenever possible.

There’s debate over which page to use. This great thread on Linda Buquet’s forum shows that.

It’s a trade-off:

On the one hand, the homepage URL (AKA root domain) usually has the most page authority – from any links the site has earned. Most of your links probably point there.

On the other hand, a location-specific page by definition does a better job of “targeting” (I hate that word) the city you’re in. You’re talking about one city rather than several.

From what I’ve seen, the “authority” of the homepage seems to pack more punch for rankings.

Why? As I mentioned, my best guess is that it’s because the homepage usually has the most link juice. Or maybe it’s because most businesses’ “location” pages are thin on content or over-optimized – to the point that maybe Google dings them. I don’t know.

What I do know is I’ve seen the homepage URL work time and time again for multi-location clients, and for business I stumble across “in the wild.”

I also know I’ve had a couple of clients whose rankings were nowhere until we switched the URL – on the Places page and in the citations.

I didn’t always err on the side of using the homepage as your landing page. For a time, organic rankings and Google Places rankings could be mutually exclusive. Google’s setup was such that if your homepage had a page-one organic ranking, and then you used your homepage as the landing page for Google Places, you’d lose your organic ranking if you started ranking in the Google Places “7-pack.”

That’s not the case now – thank goodness. At least at the moment, you can have your homepage rank organically and serve as your Google Places landing page.

You may have other concerns about using the homepage:

1. You’d find it hard to make the homepage title tag relevant to multiple locations.

2. You feel that having the name / address / phone (“NAP”) info for multiple locations on the same page might hurt rankings.

For the title tag, just do the best you can – in terms of getting city names in there. In my experience, it’s more important to make sure your main service(s) are in the title tag; Google knows where you’re located.

Speaking of Google “knowing” where you’re located, I’ve never seen any bad effects from having multiple blobs of NAP info on the homepage.

One last thing I’d like to mention:

Please use your discretion. If you’re ranking well already, you should probably leave well enough alone. Don’t go changing your landing page URL everywhere if you’re #3 and want to move up a couple positions.

The best situation in which to take my advice is (1) if you’re just starting your local SEO effort, or (2) if you’re not ranking well and you feel like you’ve tried just about everything else.

—

What’s been your experience? Which type of landing page has worked – or not worked – for you so far? Leave a comment!

How to Structure Your Site for Local Search Visibility That Lasts

May 5, 2014 by Phil 16 Comments

The Ise Shrine is pretty cool. The Emperor of Japan had it built in the 7th Century. It’s made of untreated wood, yet it’s stood for over 1300 years. How?

Because master carpenters rebuild the whole thing – board by board – every 20 years.

Your site won’t have to serve you for quite that long, but you can build it to last. If you structure it according to a few best-practices, it’s more likely to rank well in the local results, and to be easy for customers to use. It will also be easier to make changes later on if you need to.

I’m not talking about internal link structure (how your pages should link together). Other posts deal with that nicely. Nor am I talking about what should be on your pages. I’ve talked about that, too.

I’m talking about where to put stuff. Simply having “content” on your site isn’t enough. You need to organize it in a way that Google and customers can understand all your business offers.

For my clients’ sites, there are some points I really harp on, and some that I don’t consider crucial – but wise to do. Let’s go through the former – my “hard rules” – first.

My hard rules:

1. Have one site – or as few as possible. Avoid microsites. Avoid mirror sites.

2. Put your blog on the same domain. Preferably it’s at yoursite.com/blog. You want your posts and any links to benefit the site you’re trying to rank. (By the way, if you don’t have a blog because your wheels are spinning, see this and this.)

3. Your page structure should be granular: Have a page for each service, each location, each practitioner or employee.

4. Form a “bulls’-eye” pattern with your content. You should have an area of your site – like your blog – where you’re concentrating useful content, but you should also have “content” spread throughout the rest of your site. That stuff can rank. Think FAQ pages, bio pages, or city pages.

5. Your homepage should be a static page, rather than feature your latest blog posts. One reason (of many) is that Google needs a consistent picture of what your business offers, if you’re to rank for those services. The blog post du jour won’t necessarily do that.

My softer rules:

6. Your navigation should be dummy-simple. You want to avoid pogo-sticking. If you want people to see your “Products” page, it should probably be in your top menu.

7. Avoid “island” pages – pages that have no internal links to them, or only links that are buried in pages few people see. This is in the same vein as point #6. Everything should be findable in 1-2 clicks from your homepage. Google needs to be able to crawl those pages easily. And if you don’t want people to find those pages easily, you should reconsider whether they even should be on your site.

8. Use as few subdirectories as possible. (Or else you get this.)

OK, time for a quick break.

Now, you may want to check out some examples of well-structured sites. Here are a few keepers:

CohenWintersPlasticSurgery.com

NOVAChiroWellness.com

PringleLaw.ca

It’s also worth checking out these relevant posts (including a couple of mine):

Intelligent Site Structure for Better SEO – Joost de Valk

Site Architecture & Search Engine Success Factors – SearchEngineLand

The Anatomy of an Optimal Local Landing Page – Mike Ramsey

Location pages for local businesses and organizations – Google Developers

Microsites for Local SEO: the Pros and Cons – me

21 Pages a “Small Local Business” Site Needs for Tip-Top Local Visibility – me

—

How do you suggest structuring a site for maximum local visibility?

Did I forget any big no-nos?

Leave a comment!

“Some of My Google+ Reviews Just Got Filtered. What Should I Ask My Customers to Do?”

May 2, 2014 by Phil 8 Comments

One of my oldest clients asked me that question the other day. He had dozens and dozens of Google+ Local reviews that he earned over the months. 3-4 of them got filtered after living happily on his page for several weeks.

He then asked, “Should I just ask customers to repost their reviews on Google+?”

I said, “Take it easy, Rambo.”

Then I suggested an action plan:

It’s true that Google’s filters aren’t as tough as they used to be, but they still do filter reviews (as we’ve seen). If Google sees customers re-post the same reviews that got filtered, that looks weird.

It also looks weird if a customer isn’t a frequent reviewer on Google+, and posts one review, and that review gets filtered, and he/she posts another review of the same place.

Here’s all you can do: if those 3-4 reviewers have written reviews of other businesses besides yours, it’s probably OK to ask them to post another review on Google+, provided that they rewrite it rather than post the same thing. But if your business is the only one they’ve reviewed, don’t ask them to review you on Google+ again. Ask them to write a review elsewhere.

—

What do you suggest asking customers to do if they’re still willing to write a review after their first one gets filtered? Leave a comment!