Local SEO: Create & Run Your Own Local SEO Campaign

Your Google My Business listing should be treated with the same importance as your website.  For many local businesses, their Google My Business listing is more important and gets more traffic than their website.  In this section of the course I will go over the features of your Google My Business listing, what elements are the most important, and how to optimize your Google My Business listing so it can rank higher in the local search results in Google.

In this video, I explain what rankings factors determine how your listing will rank in the local search results and tips on how to get your Google My Business listing to rank higher.

The info section is where you will add your business information and select your business categories, which are critical in making sure Google places you in the search results properly.  We also discuss the importance of "NAP" consistency across all of your web properties.

Google loves images.  Google also loves it when you upload photos as the business owner and even more when your customers upload their own photos as well.  In this video I discuss the importance of using images in your Google My Business listing and how to leverage images to rank higher in the local search results.

Getting online reviews for your business is one of the single most important things you can do to help your Local SEO efforts.  And Google reviews sit at the top of your most important review platforms.  In this video I discuss the importance of getting online reviews for your Google My Business listing.

There is also an entire section dedicated to online reviews later on in the course because they are that important.

The posts feature works similarly to a Facebook post.  It is meant to promote current events, product announcements and other news related to your business.  In this video I show you what the Post feature is, the several posting options available and how to get the most out of the Post feature.

Did you know that people can ask you questions about your business directly on your Google My Business listing?  And did you know that anyone, even other customers can answer these questions?  In this video I will show you how the Q&A feature works in Google My Business, how to access it in order to answer questions (you currently cannot from the Google My Business dashboard or mobile app), and how to use it to further enhance your Google My Business listing.

Your Google My Business listing comes with a wealth of analytics and insights that can help you make better marketing decisions for your business.  In this video I show you the features of the Insights section and how to use that data to make smarter business decisions.

In this video I explain what Technical SEO is and how it fits into your overall Local SEO strategy.

Making sure that your website is structured properly is vital for a successful Local SEO strategy.  In this video I show you how to properly structure your website so the search engines can properly crawl, index and understand each page of your website.

The search engines do not view and understand your website the same way a typical website visitor does.  The search engines look at the content of your website and also look at the "meta" data on your site.  In this video I discuss the importance of structuring your meta data correctly so the search engines can better understand your website and make it easier for them to rank your web pages higher.

A slow website can lead to a poor user experience on your website, costing you potential customers.  Speed is also a ranking factor when it comes to SEO so it is important that you have a website that loads fast and provides a good user experience for your visitors.  In this video I show you how to check the speed of your website and how you can make it load and perform faster.

In this video I show you how to properly add your NAP (Name, Address, Phone number) to your website and also the importance of embedding a Google map of your location on your website.

Like meta data, Schema markup language on your website can better help the search engines understand the content on your website.  In this video I show you what Schema markup language is and how to implement it on your website.

A review and some additional tips for Technical SEO.

Don't forget to download your content planning spreadsheet.  You can also access the Google Spreadsheet version as well.  For the Google Spreadsheet, be sure to make a copy of the file so you have a copy you can edit.

Content is king!  You may have heard this before but it's true.  Without content you have nothing to rank in the search results.  And today, only quality, targeted content makes its way on the first page of the Google search results. 

In this section of the course I will discuss the importance of content as part of your Local SEO strategy and how to use content strategically to rank higher and gain more visibility in the search engine results.

In this video I discuss some content tips so you can make the most of the content you are creating.

In this video I show you how to use images to help rank pages on your website higher in the search results.

In this video I discuss the importance of creating individual service/products pages on your website and how to get them to rank higher in the search results.

In this video I show you how to create location pages on your website so you have the opportunity to rank your website in several cities or neighborhoods in a city.  I also show you what to do if you do not have physical locations in these areas.

In this video I show you how to structure your website if you have multiple locations for your business.

Your contact page is not just a place people go to fill out a contact from or get your phone number.  Your contact page is an import conversion page and the quality of your contact page can determine if someone decides to contact you or not.

The right blog strategy can literally become a force multiplier for your website, turning hundreds of monthly visitors into thousands.  But is requires the right strategy or you risk wasting lots of time for little results.  In this video I show you how to create an effective blog strategy that will attract potential customers for your business.

In this video I discuss additional content tips so you can get the most out of your content strategy.

A review of what we learned in the Content section of the course.

Download the citation tracking spreadsheet.  You can also download the Google Spreadsheet version, just be sure to save yourself a copy so you can edit the spreadsheet.

In this section of the course we discuss citations.  You will learn what citations are, how they are used to help your Local SEO efforts, and how to get them for your business.

In this video I explain what citations are and how they are used as part of your Local SEO strategy.

Not all citations are created equal.  You can easily waste lots of valuable time creating citations on meaningless web websites.  In this video I show you how to build your citations in a way that will save you time and make your citation building efforts much more effective.

I review of what we learned in the Citation section of the course.

An overview of what you will learn in this section on getting online reviews for your business.

Some tips on getting the most out of your online reviews.

Not all review platforms are created equal and not all review platforms are good for your business.  In this video I show you how to find the online review platforms that are important for your specific business.

In this video I discuss the importance of setting up a system to get online reviews on a consistent basis and how to create your own review system.

Negative reviews can literally break a business and cause people not to contact you.  But if you handle negative reviews the right way, you can turn them into a net positive for your business.  In this video I show you how to properly respond to negative reviews you get online.

A recap on what we learned about online reviews.

What role social media plays in Local SEO.

Helpful tips on how to incorporate social media into your Local SEO strategy and how to use social media to get more links and citations for your business.

A recap of what we learned in this section.

Download the included checklist here.  Have questions about Barnacle SEO?  Be sure to ask and I will answer all questions.

Barnacles are small marine creatures that attach themselves to a larger host. Barnacle SEO is attaching your business to larger websites that rank higher in Google than your website.

In this section I am going to show you an easy but very effective search engine optimization (SEO) strategy to give your business more exposure in the search engine results.

Instead of competing against these larger websites, learn to use them to your advantage. Why try and rank just your website and Google My Business listing when you can potentially rank several different websites that can bring your business exposure, traffic, and customers.

A walkthrough tutorial on how to find Barnacle SEO opportunities.

Recap and thanks.  If you have any questions about implementing Barnacle SEO, just ask and I will do my best to answer them.

Learn why analyzing your analytics is so important and how to use that data to make smarter marketing decisions.

What metrics are important in Google My Business insights report and how to use that data to make smarter marketing decisions.

Here you will learn what data inside Google Analytics is important for your local SEO campaign, how to find it and how to make actionable improvements after analyzing the data.

Goal tracking in Google Analytics is important for understanding where your best traffic is coming from and what pages on your website are performing the best.  By the end of this video you will know how to setup goal tracking inside your Google Analytics account.

A recap of what we learned about in this section.