So you want to rank locally? If you have already worked hard to add a few citations, complete your on-site local optimization, acquire customer reviews, and build some locally relevant links, well, now it's time to shift your focus. According to David Mihm, citations make-up roughly 25% of the overall local ranking factors.
Since Google+ Local was released last May, it’s safe to say that everyone in the local search community -- business owners and agencies alike -- has been waiting with bated breath sfor the launch of Google’s rumored “Business Builder” dashboard. For whatever reason, it still isn’t out yet, but while you’re waiting, there’s no reason you can’t take advantage of the most underrated feature of Google+: leaving reviews of other businesses as your business page.
As tax time nears in the United States, it’s hard not to wonder what exactly all that money is being spent on. Instead of getting into politics, I’d rather describe something our taxes do pay for and how it can help you plan an effective local SEO strategy.
Local businesses everywhere are finding themselves frustrated by search engines' filtering of customer reviews on sites like Yelp, UrbanSpoon, and many more. Clear up your review filter confusion with these tips and tactics from local expert, David Mihm!
Local has officially grown up, and it's becoming a major force to be reckoned with. I received a ton of questions from my Mozinar about where local is headed, and I decided to dive deep into the answers. Make yourself a cup of coffee and dig in to 40 local search questions answered in detail!
It’s obviously not uncommon for small businesses to move. However, few business owners realize the Local Search headaches they may be creating for themselves or their customers as a result of a move. The problem is so common that I thought I’d turn my advice into a blog post/case study.
Some of you may remember my Brief History of Google Places infographic from January 2011. Time to update that graphic with the most memorable events of 2012 to ring in the New Year!
42% of small business owners said their top priority for using Facebook was customer acquisition. It struck me that business owners might have a similarly-large misconception when it comes to their expectations of loads of other digital marketing options, so I came up with a graphic to help them better understand their options.
Last week's webinar, "You Probably Think This Citation Source Is About You, Don't You?" was an awesome time to learn all about unique strategies for building citation sources. Dana DiTomaso answers community Q&A from the webinar and expands on her tips for keeping citation source building effective, fun, and free of form submission tyranny!
Apart from a local business profile completely disappearing from Google's local index, few things cause more frustration and heartache than lost reviews. Unfortunately, lost reviews are one of the problems most frequently reported by local business owners, creating stormy weather in this whole region of Google land.
A major update to the Google Places Quality Guidelines. Local SEOs and local business owners - don't overlook this important change in Google's handling of go-to-client business models.
A few years back I would go to SEO beginner seminars a lot and try to help out with questions that the audience would have. It was less of a seminar, and more of a roundtable, but it was nice to hear from the people that didn't do SEO for a living. They would dip their toes in it, were generally interested and would ask the absolute best questions to get you thinking. I remember a part...
Late last week, in a move that was apparently spurred by threats of an FTC investigation, Google removed third-party reviews and listings from their Places pages in the Local/Maps results. Thi...
The search engines are hungry for vertical search content. The representation of content types in the SERPs, beyond the traditional webpage, seems to grow on a daily basis. In many cases it is actually easier to rank for a vertical channel like video for a given keyphrase than it is to rank a traditional webpage for the same keyphrase. Are you still trying to compete in the SERPs with tradition...