The documents discuss the history and current state of the conflict between Israel and Palestine over land and sovereignty. Tensions escalated in recent years as Israel expanded settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, while Palestinians seek an independent state. Peace efforts have been ongoing but challenging given both sides' claims over the same territory and holy sites.
Today I’m going to be real with you. Real techniques that have worked for my agency over the past 6 years. A little bit about my journey.
, I stumbled into SEO like most did and went from building exact match anchor text links to generating stories with great media pickup.
Founder of Ethical SEO Consulting & Juris Digital
Primarily work with Attorneys
Write for Moz
Write a lot about Local SEO
Passionate about local and organic
Went from black hat to white hat
What is Local SEO? Today we’re going to mostly be focused on localized search results. Keep in mind though that many of these tactics cross over to organic seasrch as well. More on that in a bit.
Realities of Local Search
What is local search
Local search history
Tactics we can use that work to move the needle
Let’s look at some quick realities about local search.
Local SEO is hard and it’s not really getting any easier for real companies to be successful. White hat SEO is harder. But we have a right to do great work for our clients.
Love your clients. Everyone is selling a get ranked quick scheme. What happens? They disappear.
You don’t know the whole picture. You need to just keep doing good things.
On Page SEO Is Important
EMD’s carry weight
Competition can block link crawling robots.
Tools are imperfect
Forget that the fact the guy who ran the first marathon died for a second. SEO is a marathon… It’s not a sprint. Spammers are gonna keep spamming.
Consider giving up. Or follow best practices to get yourself there.
The top performers are doing real marketing.
They’re active. They’re posting videos, they’re getting news mentions.
How to be active:
Create new content
Activley going after links
Small budget weekly – 1 hour a week.
Create a calendar. Set deadlines for yourself.
Everyone wants to just get the top citations and start ranking. Well guess what. Everyone is doing that now. Think outside of the box. Be different, and grow!
My sister has a massage therapy business in whititer.
Took top citations
Built a website
Earned a few links
Worked in the community
Waited
Results came
Los angeles car accident attoreny is $316 per click
They did a lot more to rank here
EMD’s
Huge Link Profiles, etc
Knowing this lets dive into history
The local algorithm has changed substantially over the past few years with some of the biggest changes coming recently. Some of these updates played a big part.
Pigeon in July of 2014 was big shake up. During this update the algorithm tied more closely to organic signals from just traiditional old local signals. This was a major shake up.
Bad organic presence meant your site tanked
No links meant your site tanked
People were spamming local got more shook up
We found out quickly domain authority seemed to help.
The 3 pack kind of came out of left field and reduced visiblity from 7 results to only 3
This is now your real estate. The 3 pack is all that’s left.
Let,s Dive In. Couple things to keep in mind:Don’t Take Shortcuts
Realize that your competition will vary depending on location Don’t Assume Something Isn’t Working Because It Worked Easier Last time. Competittion really varies.
It’s harder to rank for Los Angeles Personal Injury Lawyer than it would be for Parker, Colorado Dog Wash
Be The Least Imperfect.
Seriously be the best out there in everything you do. From on page to off page.
You have to be better than everyone else out there
In this presentation we’re going to look at tactical tips. Things you can do that will actually work and get your clients results.
Map to local search success shared at MozCon by @MaryBowling
Let’s start by looking at the basics of three different known ranking factors.
Foundation is important
GMB Optimization
Citation Consistency
On Page Optimization
Briefly cover the basics
Make sure your profile is 100% filled out
Go to Google.com/MyBusiness to access this information
This has recently been updated.
Select your proper categories based on what’s available.
Business Name
Address
Phone Numbers (local phone number)
Website
Categories – Use Moz Category tool: https://moz.com/help/guides/local/category-research
Business Hours
Holiday Hours (Special Hours)
Photos
Description
NAP SCHEMA
Duplicate listings should be killed.
Duplicate listings kill your GMB listings
Although they no longer do phone verifications you can call Google and get issues fixed ASAP.
You should point to a unique landing page for each location:
Meta Title – Geographic location and keywords you want to rank for
Heading Tags
Unique Content
NAP+Hours
Localized Images
Embedded Maps
Make sure the site structure is solid for this
On page optimization is not just your landing page. We will talk more about this in a minute.
Ensure there are no duplicate Citations! Merge them! Delete Them! Kill Them!
Subscribe to Moz Local
Get the top 50 citations for your industry and geographic area
Use Whitespark or Brightlocal to identify more opportunites
Use Yext Duplicate supression to make it easier
Use tools to automate finding them like Lastpass, RoboForm
Make it easier by using automation: - https://moz.com/blog/finding-and-building-citations-like-an-agency
https://moz.com/blog/advanced-citation-audit-clean-up-achieve-consistent-data-higher-rankings
Now let’s dive into more factors. The ones that people don’t talk as much about that may have an impact on your local rankings.
Google told us they take into consdieration more organic factors. Mobile results show mobile friendly websites. Our clients who have responsive designs rank better, get more local traffic, and rank higher in local search results.
Local is mobile
Don’t have competing pagesHave a solution
Redirect page to main content page
Fix 404 Errors
Reclaim link juice
Increase crawl budgets
Use screaming frog to crawl
Check Google Search Console (Formerly webmaster tools for reported errors and fix)
Fix internal 301 redirects
Be the least imperfect
Don’t write crap content
Don’t keep it thin
DO focus on the topic
Adding your citations won’t hurt but you also get a link. Don’t just share with YouTube, use Dailymotion, Vimeo, etc. You can consider advertising this video too with paid ad’s if you did a good enough job with it.
Dailymotion
Vimeo
Etc.
If you’re not listed on Apple yet sign up for free and get your busienss listing. https://mapsconnect.apple.com/
In this example you can see how a chiropractor cheated the system in Google Mapmaker to spam his way into ranking and scoring for all sorts of keywords.
Analyze your competition’s categories in Google.com/mapmaker and report any violations.
Ever heard for NAP+W? That noFollow link can help your local SEO. Go after them. If the website looks reputatable, has authority, and seems legit get a listing.
Advanced Citation Finding: Google your city name and see what ranks.
Google has trust in these businesses. Google has local trust. Figure out a way to get listed
Google your city and see what ranks
Chamber of Commerce Website
Community business directories
Community websites
Don’t just spy on competition
see what ranks in google.
Event Citation Building
We can build links and citations through events. Check out these resources:
https://moz.com/blog/the-complete-guide-to-link-building-with-local-events – Kane Jamison
https://moz.com/blog/local-event-marketing
Host a meetup
Host a sale
Host a class
STEVE – can we add logos for Eventbrite, Denver Post Events, Meetup.com, etc. I want to show there are multiple sites you can use to build links via events.
Links work for local and organic SEO. If you’ve worked with a bunch of SEO’s check your links. Are you redirecting links to a redirect, to a redirect? This shit matters.
Are your link sources pointing to pages that are then 301 redirected several times?
Update links you have control over
You have to be better than everyone else.
Get the best possible link picture you can
Make sure you don’t have a penalty
Organic link signals are now heavily weighted.
Penguin means death
Make sure you deserver to rank. Use the Panguin tool: http://new.barracuda.digital/panguin-tool/
Anchor Text:
Links are still a very major ranking factor
Keyword plus city name
Only need a few
They should be different
STEVE – Let’s show anchor text links on this slide
Boost your domain authority by getting trusted links from trusted sources.
Check out this guide: http://bit.ly/1UFMddq Keep your brand consistent
Facebook
Twitter
Youtube
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Reddit
Instagram
Yelp
Crunch Base
About Us
Find good links from your competitors
Follow this advanced competition analysis guide here: https://moz.com/blog/local-seo-advanced-competitive-analysis
Find 5 – 10 competitors and look at their quality links.
Use tools like:
Moz
Ahrefs
Link Research Tools
Majestic SEO
Get the best possible link picture you can – HowTO
Google Webmaster Tools, etc.
But don’t make this your only strategy. These were both easily replicatable.
Do real marketing stuffOther ways to get links: Drunk driving campaign Stutliff Stout.
Got local links
Got community involvment
Got interviews on local news stations
Got business from doing real shit
HARO – Helpareporter.com
Casey Markee shared this example with me
This is for a lawyer. Boring! Right?
Thousands of visits
Links from authority websites (Above the law)
Scholarships with Media Attention
People are ignoring local schools & easy links
Sponsor local events. Get involved in the community.
Go to the farmers market.
Get reviews. Have a review strategy in place to get constant reviews. You need to integrate into your customers business.
Get Five Stars – Great program for getting reviews
Customer feedback can also help you create more localized and business relevant content
FAQ Pages
Figure out common questions that are asked
Create that content that is location specific
Finally, do the very best in everything you do.
You will beat your competition
You will win
You will be rewarded