What Is Local SEO? | Lesson 1/10 | SEMrush Academy
Watch the full course for free: https://bit.ly/2Zgtu2P
0:16 How local ...SEO is different from regular SEO and why it’s important
0:26 Search engine optimization or SEO
0:50 Local SEO
1:30 Google’s local algorithm
1:44 Who needs a local SEO?
1:50 How to check if Google’s local algorithm applies to your SEO
2:16 Local SEO targets
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
You might find it useful:
Have all your local SEO questions answered by an expert.
➠ https://bit.ly/3cLdkCp
Learn how to improve your website's visibility locally, globally, and on mobile searches in our free course:
➠ https://bit.ly/2WJBxDF
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
Most people don't realize that Google uses multiple algorithms to return search results. Search engine optimization, commonly called SEO, is the strategy of optimizing signals on and off a website to influence how the site shows up when certain keywords are searched for.
When most marketers and business owners talk about SEO, they're talking about regular, traditional SEO that targets Google's traditional algorithm.Google uses a different algorithm to return localized search results, and Local SEO is the strategy of optimizing signals to target that specific algorithm.
Google is able to analyze the gazillions of queries it receives, and it's figured out that for certain business types, even when the user doesn't include any geographic modifiers in a search query – something like a city, a neighborhood, or a phrase like “near me” or “nearby” - that user still needs search results in the local area.
I love to use the pizza example here, and not just 'cause pizza is delicious… If you're in a new town and you need to get a pizza, you'd pop on to Google and do a search for something like “pizza delivery”. Google will show you pizza joints that are nearby, even though you didn't specify a location.
That's Google's local algorithm in action. Even if the best SEO in the world optimized a pizza restaurant in New York City, Google's algorithm is smart enough to only show you pizza spots in your immediate area.
Any business with a physical storefront or that serves customers in a particular geographic area needs Local SEO. The easiest way to check whether the local algorithm applies to your business is with a quick Google search. Search for a handful of your most important keywords and check out the search results.
If you see a map pack – a map with three results underneath, that's a clear signal that the local algorithm returned those results, and that means your business needs Local SEO.
But Local SEO isn't only about the map pack. With Local SEO, you're also targeting localized organic results and searches on Google Maps. Your business's physical location is important, as is proximity – how far away you are from the user who's doing the search.
The radius for local search results varies greatly between different verticals and even different cities. Typically, the more concentrated the competition, the smaller the search radius will be.
#LocalSEO #SEOcourse #SEMrushAcademy[+] Show More
Now Playing
What Is Local SEO? | Lesson 1/10 | SEMrush Academy
Get introduced to local SEO and how Google uses a local algorithm to ...
Get introduced to local SEO and how Google uses a local algorithm to determine which businesses get the best page placement.
Watch the full course for free: https://bit.ly/2Zgtu2P
0:16 How local ...SEO is different from regular SEO and why it’s important
0:26 Search engine optimization or SEO
0:50 Local SEO
1:30 Google’s local algorithm
1:44 Who needs a local SEO?
1:50 How to check if Google’s local algorithm applies to your SEO
2:16 Local SEO targets
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
You might find it useful:
Have all your local SEO questions answered by an expert.
➠ https://bit.ly/3cLdkCp
Learn how to improve your website's visibility locally, globally, and on mobile searches in our free course:
➠ https://bit.ly/2WJBxDF
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
Most people don't realize that Google uses multiple algorithms to return search results. Search engine optimization, commonly called SEO, is the strategy of optimizing signals on and off a website to influence how the site shows up when certain keywords are searched for.
When most marketers and business owners talk about SEO, they're talking about regular, traditional SEO that targets Google's traditional algorithm.Google uses a different algorithm to return localized search results, and Local SEO is the strategy of optimizing signals to target that specific algorithm.
Google is able to analyze the gazillions of queries it receives, and it's figured out that for certain business types, even when the user doesn't include any geographic modifiers in a search query – something like a city, a neighborhood, or a phrase like “near me” or “nearby” - that user still needs search results in the local area.
I love to use the pizza example here, and not just 'cause pizza is delicious… If you're in a new town and you need to get a pizza, you'd pop on to Google and do a search for something like “pizza delivery”. Google will show you pizza joints that are nearby, even though you didn't specify a location.
That's Google's local algorithm in action. Even if the best SEO in the world optimized a pizza restaurant in New York City, Google's algorithm is smart enough to only show you pizza spots in your immediate area.
Any business with a physical storefront or that serves customers in a particular geographic area needs Local SEO. The easiest way to check whether the local algorithm applies to your business is with a quick Google search. Search for a handful of your most important keywords and check out the search results.
If you see a map pack – a map with three results underneath, that's a clear signal that the local algorithm returned those results, and that means your business needs Local SEO.
But Local SEO isn't only about the map pack. With Local SEO, you're also targeting localized organic results and searches on Google Maps. Your business's physical location is important, as is proximity – how far away you are from the user who's doing the search.
The radius for local search results varies greatly between different verticals and even different cities. Typically, the more concentrated the competition, the smaller the search radius will be.
#LocalSEO #SEOcourse #SEMrushAcademy[+] Show More
Watch the full course for free: https://bit.ly/2Zgtu2P
0:16 How local ...SEO is different from regular SEO and why it’s important
0:26 Search engine optimization or SEO
0:50 Local SEO
1:30 Google’s local algorithm
1:44 Who needs a local SEO?
1:50 How to check if Google’s local algorithm applies to your SEO
2:16 Local SEO targets
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
You might find it useful:
Have all your local SEO questions answered by an expert.
➠ https://bit.ly/3cLdkCp
Learn how to improve your website's visibility locally, globally, and on mobile searches in our free course:
➠ https://bit.ly/2WJBxDF
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
Most people don't realize that Google uses multiple algorithms to return search results. Search engine optimization, commonly called SEO, is the strategy of optimizing signals on and off a website to influence how the site shows up when certain keywords are searched for.
When most marketers and business owners talk about SEO, they're talking about regular, traditional SEO that targets Google's traditional algorithm.Google uses a different algorithm to return localized search results, and Local SEO is the strategy of optimizing signals to target that specific algorithm.
Google is able to analyze the gazillions of queries it receives, and it's figured out that for certain business types, even when the user doesn't include any geographic modifiers in a search query – something like a city, a neighborhood, or a phrase like “near me” or “nearby” - that user still needs search results in the local area.
I love to use the pizza example here, and not just 'cause pizza is delicious… If you're in a new town and you need to get a pizza, you'd pop on to Google and do a search for something like “pizza delivery”. Google will show you pizza joints that are nearby, even though you didn't specify a location.
That's Google's local algorithm in action. Even if the best SEO in the world optimized a pizza restaurant in New York City, Google's algorithm is smart enough to only show you pizza spots in your immediate area.
Any business with a physical storefront or that serves customers in a particular geographic area needs Local SEO. The easiest way to check whether the local algorithm applies to your business is with a quick Google search. Search for a handful of your most important keywords and check out the search results.
If you see a map pack – a map with three results underneath, that's a clear signal that the local algorithm returned those results, and that means your business needs Local SEO.
But Local SEO isn't only about the map pack. With Local SEO, you're also targeting localized organic results and searches on Google Maps. Your business's physical location is important, as is proximity – how far away you are from the user who's doing the search.
The radius for local search results varies greatly between different verticals and even different cities. Typically, the more concentrated the competition, the smaller the search radius will be.
#LocalSEO #SEOcourse #SEMrushAcademy[+] Show More
Now Playing
Local Ranking Factors | Lesson 2/10 | SEMrush Academy
Greg teaches you how to rank well for Google local SEO by using ...
Greg teaches you how to rank well for Google local SEO by using Google's local algorithm and its main signals to your advantage.
Watch the full course for free: https://bit.ly/2Zgtu2P
0:51 ...Business vertical
1:04 Business location
1:47 Local Search Ranking Factor or LSRF survey
2:31 Local Pack/Finder and Localized Organic ranking factors
2:42 Proximity
2:55 Link signals
3:00 Review signals
3:10 On-page signals
3:14 Citation signals
3:19 Behavioral signals
3:27 Personalization factors
3:32 Social signals
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
You might find it useful:
Learn more about the tools for local SEO SEMrush has to offer.
➠ https://bit.ly/2X9TZEC
Learn how to improve your website's visibility locally, globally, and on mobile searches in our free course:
➠ https://bit.ly/2WJBxDF
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
No one knows exactly what's in Google's algorithm except Google engineers, so how are you supposed to know how to optimize your site?
Every year, several agencies and tool providers release their lists of important ranking factors, but you should never take anything you read or watch as gospel. Sure, it's likely that most of what you'll read or hear will be helpful, but some of it might not make a bit of difference to you.
Local SEO can be incredibly complicated – tactics that work for businesses in one vertical won't necessarily work for businesses in another. The things that you'd do for a personal injury attorney are totally different from the things you'd do for a plumber.
Also, the tactics that work in one city or metro area won't necessarily work in another city or metro area. The things you'd do to optimize a car dealer in a crowded market like Dallas are totally different from the things you'd do for a car dealer in the middle of nowhere in Wyoming.
The SEMrush Academy has several different video training courses; if only they had one for Local SEO… with an incredibly witty and handsome person to teach everyone…
It's important to test everything for yourself, so you're sure that the tactics and strategies that you're using will result in more visibility for the site you're optimizing. See what works – pay attention to what you're doing and what changes you see in search results.
You should also pay attention to the annual Local Search Ranking Factors survey – basically, the Local SEO bible. Each year, the top 35-40 worldwide experts in Local SEO are given an in-depth survey about the various factors that influence local search results. Between client work and experimentation, these experts know that tweaking this signal over here or turning up this dial over here will result in more visibility in local searches.
The survey results are aggregated into two pie charts that outline the signals that are agreed to be the most influential in increasing local search rankings. One pie chart shows the signals that matter most for showing up in the map pack and in searches in Google Maps, and the other pie chart shows the signals that matter most for showing up in localized organic results.
The same signals matter for both areas, but the weights are different. Let's look at the map pack and map search factors first. Proximity (how far the search result is from the searcher) is a major factor in map pack results, and since that factor falls under the Google My Business area, it's the largest piece of the pie at 25.12%.
Links signals comes in second with 16.53%, followed by review signals at 15.44%. Notice that for showing up in the map pack, your Google My Business profile, your inbound links, and your reviews matter more than the content on your site, which comes in at number 4 with 13.82%.
Citation signals are the next piece, accounting for 10.82% of the total signal weight. Behavioral signals such as click-through rate, clicks to call on mobile, and clicks for directions account for 9.56%, followed by personalization factors at 5.88%. The final small piece of the pie covers social signals, at a pretty ineffective 2.82% of the total weight.
The localized organic signals show a very different breakdown for the top 4 weighted signals. Inbound links are the most important here, with almost 28% of the overall signal weight. On page signals follow close behind at a hair over 26%.
Behavioral signals come next with 11.5% of the weight, followed by Google My Business signals, which only count for 8.85% here. Citations are next with 8.41%, then personalization at 7.32% and reviews at 6.47%. And like we saw on the map pack pie chart, the smallest signal weight is social signals, with only 3.47% of the total weight.
#LocalSEO #SEOcourse #RankingFactors #SEMrushAcademy[+] Show More
Watch the full course for free: https://bit.ly/2Zgtu2P
0:51 ...Business vertical
1:04 Business location
1:47 Local Search Ranking Factor or LSRF survey
2:31 Local Pack/Finder and Localized Organic ranking factors
2:42 Proximity
2:55 Link signals
3:00 Review signals
3:10 On-page signals
3:14 Citation signals
3:19 Behavioral signals
3:27 Personalization factors
3:32 Social signals
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
You might find it useful:
Learn more about the tools for local SEO SEMrush has to offer.
➠ https://bit.ly/2X9TZEC
Learn how to improve your website's visibility locally, globally, and on mobile searches in our free course:
➠ https://bit.ly/2WJBxDF
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
No one knows exactly what's in Google's algorithm except Google engineers, so how are you supposed to know how to optimize your site?
Every year, several agencies and tool providers release their lists of important ranking factors, but you should never take anything you read or watch as gospel. Sure, it's likely that most of what you'll read or hear will be helpful, but some of it might not make a bit of difference to you.
Local SEO can be incredibly complicated – tactics that work for businesses in one vertical won't necessarily work for businesses in another. The things that you'd do for a personal injury attorney are totally different from the things you'd do for a plumber.
Also, the tactics that work in one city or metro area won't necessarily work in another city or metro area. The things you'd do to optimize a car dealer in a crowded market like Dallas are totally different from the things you'd do for a car dealer in the middle of nowhere in Wyoming.
The SEMrush Academy has several different video training courses; if only they had one for Local SEO… with an incredibly witty and handsome person to teach everyone…
It's important to test everything for yourself, so you're sure that the tactics and strategies that you're using will result in more visibility for the site you're optimizing. See what works – pay attention to what you're doing and what changes you see in search results.
You should also pay attention to the annual Local Search Ranking Factors survey – basically, the Local SEO bible. Each year, the top 35-40 worldwide experts in Local SEO are given an in-depth survey about the various factors that influence local search results. Between client work and experimentation, these experts know that tweaking this signal over here or turning up this dial over here will result in more visibility in local searches.
The survey results are aggregated into two pie charts that outline the signals that are agreed to be the most influential in increasing local search rankings. One pie chart shows the signals that matter most for showing up in the map pack and in searches in Google Maps, and the other pie chart shows the signals that matter most for showing up in localized organic results.
The same signals matter for both areas, but the weights are different. Let's look at the map pack and map search factors first. Proximity (how far the search result is from the searcher) is a major factor in map pack results, and since that factor falls under the Google My Business area, it's the largest piece of the pie at 25.12%.
Links signals comes in second with 16.53%, followed by review signals at 15.44%. Notice that for showing up in the map pack, your Google My Business profile, your inbound links, and your reviews matter more than the content on your site, which comes in at number 4 with 13.82%.
Citation signals are the next piece, accounting for 10.82% of the total signal weight. Behavioral signals such as click-through rate, clicks to call on mobile, and clicks for directions account for 9.56%, followed by personalization factors at 5.88%. The final small piece of the pie covers social signals, at a pretty ineffective 2.82% of the total weight.
The localized organic signals show a very different breakdown for the top 4 weighted signals. Inbound links are the most important here, with almost 28% of the overall signal weight. On page signals follow close behind at a hair over 26%.
Behavioral signals come next with 11.5% of the weight, followed by Google My Business signals, which only count for 8.85% here. Citations are next with 8.41%, then personalization at 7.32% and reviews at 6.47%. And like we saw on the map pack pie chart, the smallest signal weight is social signals, with only 3.47% of the total weight.
#LocalSEO #SEOcourse #RankingFactors #SEMrushAcademy[+] Show More
Now Playing
Local Links | Lesson 3/10 | SEMrush Academy
Find out here what exactly Google is looking for and how you can build ...
Find out here what exactly Google is looking for and how you can build links that work.
Watch the full course for free: https://bit.ly/2Zgtu2P
0:33 How Google’s local algorithm looks at ...links
1:31 Nofollow links work in local SEO
1:39 Perceived authority of a site does not matter in local SEO
2:18 Low authority is typical for local sites
3:57 Easy ways to build local links
3:58 Local meetups
4:34 Event sponsorships
4:59 Find local bloggers and get them to write about you
5:10 Ask your employees what they do in their free time
5:26 Neighborhood watch sites
5:44 Use Google searches
6:26 Find unique links
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
You might find it useful:
Apply your newly acquired knowledge by practicing with SEMrush and build up your real-world skills.
Go to Backlink Analytics:
➠ https://bit.ly/2LCQTUa
Go to Bulk Analysis:
➠ https://bit.ly/3bIoCq0
Learn how to improve your website's visibility locally, globally, and on mobile searches in our free course:
➠ https://bit.ly/2WJBxDF
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
Links have always been the most weighted ranking factor in Google's traditional algorithm, and they're incredibly powerful in Google's local algorithm too.
Google looks at links like popularity votes. Ideally, the best sites will have the most inbound links pointed towards them, since other sites will link to the worthy content.
Google's local algorithm looks at links differently than its traditional algorithm. Most local business websites operate on a much smaller scale. The majority of local business sites only have a few hundred linking domains – sometimes not even 100.
In the traditional algorithm, it's important to acquire links from sites with high authority that are relevant to your business. Because local businesses operate on a smaller scale, the requirements aren't so stringent.
In Local SEO, the important factor is that the link comes from a local business or website. Sure, industry-relevant links are still important and still carry value, but local links move the needle more than anything else.
In Local SEO, we don't care if a link is follow or nofollow. If you're newer to SEO, there's a special directive included in the link code that tells Google to pass value with the link – a “follow” link – or to simply crawl the link without passing value – a “nofollow” link.
Traditional SEOs avoid nofollow links – but in Local SEO, they're just as valid. Yes, you heard me right – nofollow links still work in Local SEO.
We also don't care about the perceived authority of a site. Every link tool includes some sort of authority metric that relates the associated “value” of the site the link is coming from. Big sites with lots of authority have a higher authority score, and each link tool has a different name for the value. With SEMrush, it's easy, 'cause the score is called the “backlink authority score”.
While the traditional SEOs are out scrambling to try to get links from really high authority sites, all of us in Local just sit back and laugh as we rake in links from low-authority sites.
Now, I'm not saying we get links from spammy sites – but, typically, local sites don't have much authority. They don't have a ton of other inbound links, they don't have tons of awesome content, and sometimes the sites even look a little ugly.
I've been calling local links “crappy church links” for years. A church link is an awesome hyper-local link, but typically church sites have low authority scores in link tools – so traditional SEOs would say they're crappy links.
Because of that fact, they're harder to reverse engineer. As you start to grab more local links and gain more visibility in local searches, your competitors will jump to analyze what you're doing. When they run your links through a link tool, the links will all appear to be low-value links, and since your competitor doesn't know Local SEO, they'll think your links suck and move on to other areas, never realizing what they've missed.
If you get involved in the local community, building local links is actually incredibly easy. Many businesses can find local link opportunities related to things they're already doing in the community, or through local relationships they already have.
When you're ready to go out and build some local links, start by checking your competitors' links. Jump into SEMrush and download a list of your inbound links and a list for each of your major local competitors. Compare your links to what your competitors have, paying special attention to the links that they have, but you don't.
If someone's linking to your competitor, it's likely very easy for you to get a link from the same site. This shouldn't be your only strategy, because you need unique links to pull ahead in search results – but it's a great starting strategy to level the playing field.
#LocalSEO #SEOcourse #Backlinks #SEMrushAcademy[+] Show More
Watch the full course for free: https://bit.ly/2Zgtu2P
0:33 How Google’s local algorithm looks at ...links
1:31 Nofollow links work in local SEO
1:39 Perceived authority of a site does not matter in local SEO
2:18 Low authority is typical for local sites
3:57 Easy ways to build local links
3:58 Local meetups
4:34 Event sponsorships
4:59 Find local bloggers and get them to write about you
5:10 Ask your employees what they do in their free time
5:26 Neighborhood watch sites
5:44 Use Google searches
6:26 Find unique links
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
You might find it useful:
Apply your newly acquired knowledge by practicing with SEMrush and build up your real-world skills.
Go to Backlink Analytics:
➠ https://bit.ly/2LCQTUa
Go to Bulk Analysis:
➠ https://bit.ly/3bIoCq0
Learn how to improve your website's visibility locally, globally, and on mobile searches in our free course:
➠ https://bit.ly/2WJBxDF
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
Links have always been the most weighted ranking factor in Google's traditional algorithm, and they're incredibly powerful in Google's local algorithm too.
Google looks at links like popularity votes. Ideally, the best sites will have the most inbound links pointed towards them, since other sites will link to the worthy content.
Google's local algorithm looks at links differently than its traditional algorithm. Most local business websites operate on a much smaller scale. The majority of local business sites only have a few hundred linking domains – sometimes not even 100.
In the traditional algorithm, it's important to acquire links from sites with high authority that are relevant to your business. Because local businesses operate on a smaller scale, the requirements aren't so stringent.
In Local SEO, the important factor is that the link comes from a local business or website. Sure, industry-relevant links are still important and still carry value, but local links move the needle more than anything else.
In Local SEO, we don't care if a link is follow or nofollow. If you're newer to SEO, there's a special directive included in the link code that tells Google to pass value with the link – a “follow” link – or to simply crawl the link without passing value – a “nofollow” link.
Traditional SEOs avoid nofollow links – but in Local SEO, they're just as valid. Yes, you heard me right – nofollow links still work in Local SEO.
We also don't care about the perceived authority of a site. Every link tool includes some sort of authority metric that relates the associated “value” of the site the link is coming from. Big sites with lots of authority have a higher authority score, and each link tool has a different name for the value. With SEMrush, it's easy, 'cause the score is called the “backlink authority score”.
While the traditional SEOs are out scrambling to try to get links from really high authority sites, all of us in Local just sit back and laugh as we rake in links from low-authority sites.
Now, I'm not saying we get links from spammy sites – but, typically, local sites don't have much authority. They don't have a ton of other inbound links, they don't have tons of awesome content, and sometimes the sites even look a little ugly.
I've been calling local links “crappy church links” for years. A church link is an awesome hyper-local link, but typically church sites have low authority scores in link tools – so traditional SEOs would say they're crappy links.
Because of that fact, they're harder to reverse engineer. As you start to grab more local links and gain more visibility in local searches, your competitors will jump to analyze what you're doing. When they run your links through a link tool, the links will all appear to be low-value links, and since your competitor doesn't know Local SEO, they'll think your links suck and move on to other areas, never realizing what they've missed.
If you get involved in the local community, building local links is actually incredibly easy. Many businesses can find local link opportunities related to things they're already doing in the community, or through local relationships they already have.
When you're ready to go out and build some local links, start by checking your competitors' links. Jump into SEMrush and download a list of your inbound links and a list for each of your major local competitors. Compare your links to what your competitors have, paying special attention to the links that they have, but you don't.
If someone's linking to your competitor, it's likely very easy for you to get a link from the same site. This shouldn't be your only strategy, because you need unique links to pull ahead in search results – but it's a great starting strategy to level the playing field.
#LocalSEO #SEOcourse #Backlinks #SEMrushAcademy[+] Show More
Now Playing
What Are Citations? | How They Matter for Local SEO | Lesson 5/10 | SEMrush Academy
Learn how to deal with mentions of your business's NAP on other sites. ...
Learn how to deal with mentions of your business's NAP on other sites. No local business SEO tutorial is complete without this information.
Watch the full course for free: https://bit.ly/2Zgtu2P
0:40 ...Structured citation
0:50 Unstructured citation
2:18 Google understands address abbreviations
3:50 USA citations system
4:40 How to see which citations matter most to your business
5:04 How to see what your citations look like and how to correct bad information
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
You might find it useful:
Apply your newly acquired knowledge by practicing with SEMrush and build up your real-world skills.
Go to Listing Management:
➠ https://bit.ly/3bJZQpi
Learn how to improve your website's visibility locally, globally, and on mobile searches in our free course:
➠ https://bit.ly/2WJBxDF
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
Citations are mentions of your business's NAP info – name, address, and phone number – on other sites. They're your online ID – third-party backups of your business info that help prove that you're a local business at your actual address.
There are in fact two kinds of citations, even though most people only consider one. Most business owners and marketers equate citations to directory listings – that's the first type of citation, called a “structured citation”. Your NAP info is listed in a structured format, typically with your business name on one line, address on another, and phone on another.
The second type of citation is called an unstructured citation, and it occurs when your NAP information is listed in a… you guessed it – unstructured format. These happen when you're mentioned in long-form content like a blog post or news article, where name, address, and phone number are all mentioned, but not in a strict line-by-line format.
Citations used to be an incredibly weighted element in Google's local algorithm, but they've become less important over the last few years. Now, they're a foundational element – something that you need to get right in order to show up in local searches, but not something you can work harder on to influence your rankings.
I like to equate them to a poker ante. When you're sitting at the poker table, you have to pay an ante to play the next hand of poker – but that ante has no bearing on whether or not you win the hand. It simply allows you to play.
Your citations work the same way. Getting them right allows you to “play” and show up in local searches, but has zero bearing on how you'll rank once you're showing up. Citations are much more important for showing up in the map pack – if you don't have your citations set up correctly, it's very difficult to show up in map pack results.
Your citations need to be 100% consistent. Whenever Google's algorithm sees your NAP information listed on another website, it's expecting to see the same information. Any mismatched, incomplete, or duplicate information sends a bad signal to Google.
Google is smart enough to understand address abbreviations – you might read older posts that claim your citations need to be consistent down to each individual character, but that's no longer true. Google understands that “st” and “street” are the same thing.
Other than that, your address needs to be your actual address. Google ignores suite numbers, so don't try to cheat by using a suite number to make it look like you're in a different location. Don't try to use virtual offices like Regus or post office boxes to fake an address. Always use your real address.
If you've got multiple businesses at the same address, you need to be sure that 2 of the 3 NAP elements are different to avoid visibility problems. Since the address is the same, that means each business needs a unique name and unique phone number.
You also need to be listed on the sites that matter for your business. There are certain sites that every business should be listed on, while other sites only matter for certain verticals.
Think of it like this – your business needs to be listed (correctly) where Google expects it to be listed. There's no set number, but for this example, let's assume the number is 25. If you sell widgets in Denver, Colorado, Google's algorithm expects that a widget seller in Denver will be listed on 25 citation sites. If you're only listed on 15 of them, and several of those have data inconsistencies – yet your competitors are listed correctly on all 25, that could be a big part of the reason you're having trouble showing up in local searches.
#LocalSEO #SEOcourse #Citations #SEMrushAcademy[+] Show More
Watch the full course for free: https://bit.ly/2Zgtu2P
0:40 ...Structured citation
0:50 Unstructured citation
2:18 Google understands address abbreviations
3:50 USA citations system
4:40 How to see which citations matter most to your business
5:04 How to see what your citations look like and how to correct bad information
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
You might find it useful:
Apply your newly acquired knowledge by practicing with SEMrush and build up your real-world skills.
Go to Listing Management:
➠ https://bit.ly/3bJZQpi
Learn how to improve your website's visibility locally, globally, and on mobile searches in our free course:
➠ https://bit.ly/2WJBxDF
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
Citations are mentions of your business's NAP info – name, address, and phone number – on other sites. They're your online ID – third-party backups of your business info that help prove that you're a local business at your actual address.
There are in fact two kinds of citations, even though most people only consider one. Most business owners and marketers equate citations to directory listings – that's the first type of citation, called a “structured citation”. Your NAP info is listed in a structured format, typically with your business name on one line, address on another, and phone on another.
The second type of citation is called an unstructured citation, and it occurs when your NAP information is listed in a… you guessed it – unstructured format. These happen when you're mentioned in long-form content like a blog post or news article, where name, address, and phone number are all mentioned, but not in a strict line-by-line format.
Citations used to be an incredibly weighted element in Google's local algorithm, but they've become less important over the last few years. Now, they're a foundational element – something that you need to get right in order to show up in local searches, but not something you can work harder on to influence your rankings.
I like to equate them to a poker ante. When you're sitting at the poker table, you have to pay an ante to play the next hand of poker – but that ante has no bearing on whether or not you win the hand. It simply allows you to play.
Your citations work the same way. Getting them right allows you to “play” and show up in local searches, but has zero bearing on how you'll rank once you're showing up. Citations are much more important for showing up in the map pack – if you don't have your citations set up correctly, it's very difficult to show up in map pack results.
Your citations need to be 100% consistent. Whenever Google's algorithm sees your NAP information listed on another website, it's expecting to see the same information. Any mismatched, incomplete, or duplicate information sends a bad signal to Google.
Google is smart enough to understand address abbreviations – you might read older posts that claim your citations need to be consistent down to each individual character, but that's no longer true. Google understands that “st” and “street” are the same thing.
Other than that, your address needs to be your actual address. Google ignores suite numbers, so don't try to cheat by using a suite number to make it look like you're in a different location. Don't try to use virtual offices like Regus or post office boxes to fake an address. Always use your real address.
If you've got multiple businesses at the same address, you need to be sure that 2 of the 3 NAP elements are different to avoid visibility problems. Since the address is the same, that means each business needs a unique name and unique phone number.
You also need to be listed on the sites that matter for your business. There are certain sites that every business should be listed on, while other sites only matter for certain verticals.
Think of it like this – your business needs to be listed (correctly) where Google expects it to be listed. There's no set number, but for this example, let's assume the number is 25. If you sell widgets in Denver, Colorado, Google's algorithm expects that a widget seller in Denver will be listed on 25 citation sites. If you're only listed on 15 of them, and several of those have data inconsistencies – yet your competitors are listed correctly on all 25, that could be a big part of the reason you're having trouble showing up in local searches.
#LocalSEO #SEOcourse #Citations #SEMrushAcademy[+] Show More
Now Playing
Local Content and On-Site Signals | Lesson 4/10 | SEMrush Academy
Learn how to manage your important NAP information. Watch the full ...
Learn how to manage your important NAP information.
Watch the full course for free: https://bit.ly/2Zgtu2P
0:32 Local SEO is entity based
1:09 Name, Address, Phone number or NAP
1:41 Schema markup in NAP
2:14 ...Dynamic Number Insertion or DNI
2:57 Your content needs to be local
3:25 Localized content
3:44 Your content needs to be conversational
5:17 Optimize for the local algorithm
5:51 Title tag is the most weighted SEO element on your page
6:31 h1 heading
7:10 Image alt text
8:01 Include location keywords in your URLs
8:40 Importance of setting up 301 directs
8:57 Use your location keyword phrase in your meta description
10:05 Importance of having a blog
10:55 What to include in your local blog post
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
You might find it useful:
Apply your newly acquired knowledge by practicing with SEMrush and build up your real-world skills.
Go to Position Tracking:
➠ https://bit.ly/36bWoCR
Go to Site Audit:
➠ https://bit.ly/2ykLsX6
Go to SEO Content Template:
➠ https://bit.ly/2TkTypK
Go to Listing Management:
➠ https://bit.ly/3bJZQpi
Learn how to improve your website's visibility locally, globally, and on mobile searches in our free course:
➠ https://bit.ly/2WJBxDF
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
Website content has always been one of the main factors in SEO – obviously, you can't rank for a keyword phrase if you don't have related information on your website.
Google has evolved from simple keyword-to-keyword matching to entity-based search, and Local SEO has always been entity based. The old idea still applies, though – for any keyword phrase you want to rank for, you need a page on your site about that concept.
All of the standard technical elements matter too. You need clean, concise code. You need to be sure you don't have broken links or missing images. You need your site to load quickly.
But we're here to talk specifically about Local SEO, so let's talk about the elements that are different from traditional SEO.
Like I mentioned a minute ago, Local SEO has always been entity focused, and one of your business's most important entity elements is your NAP – your name, address, and phone number. The most basic way to prove a business exists in a certain location is to look at the physical address.
Your NAP information should be clearly displayed on every page of the site. This isn't just an SEO tactic, it's important for your user experience too. If someone wants to call you or know where you are so they can pull up directions, you should have your NAP info front and center, so they don't have to go looking for it.
You also need to ensure that your NAP information is marked up with schema. If you're not familiar with schema markup, it's code that's used behind the scenes to help classify information on your website. There's a specific type of schema markup for local businesses, with specific sub-types for most verticals. If you'd like more info on schema, head over to schema.org/LocalBusiness for a detailed explanation of the local business markup.
It's incredibly beneficial to display a local phone number. Call tracking can make this a bit more complicated, so let's look at a few scenarios. If you're using dynamic number insertion – commonly called DNI – javascript will fire once the page loads and change the phone number to a tracking number based on the referral source. As long as your actual local number is the default number that's coded into the page BEFORE the javascript fires, you'll be ok.
If you're instead using a block of tracking numbers and you've dedicated one number to your website, you'll still want to show your local number somewhere on the page. In these situations, you'll typically show the tracking number at the top of the page and your actual local number down in the footer. Make sure that your schema markup includes the local number, not the tracking number.
Your content needs to truly be local. Most businesses only worry about their content being unique, which isn't a great idea as a sole target. Anyone can write unique content, but that doesn't necessarily mean it will be relevant or useful. If you're writing content that's truly useful for your customers AND you make sure it's localized, you'll be unique without having to try.
Having local content doesn't mean just shoving your city name into the text every few sentences – I'm talking about being truly localized. When you mention local landmarks in your directions, or talk about local events you're involved with, or mention your city in natural conversational text – that's when you've got actual localized content.
#LocalSEO #LocalContent #LocalContentStrategy #SEMrushAcademy[+] Show More
Watch the full course for free: https://bit.ly/2Zgtu2P
0:32 Local SEO is entity based
1:09 Name, Address, Phone number or NAP
1:41 Schema markup in NAP
2:14 ...Dynamic Number Insertion or DNI
2:57 Your content needs to be local
3:25 Localized content
3:44 Your content needs to be conversational
5:17 Optimize for the local algorithm
5:51 Title tag is the most weighted SEO element on your page
6:31 h1 heading
7:10 Image alt text
8:01 Include location keywords in your URLs
8:40 Importance of setting up 301 directs
8:57 Use your location keyword phrase in your meta description
10:05 Importance of having a blog
10:55 What to include in your local blog post
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
You might find it useful:
Apply your newly acquired knowledge by practicing with SEMrush and build up your real-world skills.
Go to Position Tracking:
➠ https://bit.ly/36bWoCR
Go to Site Audit:
➠ https://bit.ly/2ykLsX6
Go to SEO Content Template:
➠ https://bit.ly/2TkTypK
Go to Listing Management:
➠ https://bit.ly/3bJZQpi
Learn how to improve your website's visibility locally, globally, and on mobile searches in our free course:
➠ https://bit.ly/2WJBxDF
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
Website content has always been one of the main factors in SEO – obviously, you can't rank for a keyword phrase if you don't have related information on your website.
Google has evolved from simple keyword-to-keyword matching to entity-based search, and Local SEO has always been entity based. The old idea still applies, though – for any keyword phrase you want to rank for, you need a page on your site about that concept.
All of the standard technical elements matter too. You need clean, concise code. You need to be sure you don't have broken links or missing images. You need your site to load quickly.
But we're here to talk specifically about Local SEO, so let's talk about the elements that are different from traditional SEO.
Like I mentioned a minute ago, Local SEO has always been entity focused, and one of your business's most important entity elements is your NAP – your name, address, and phone number. The most basic way to prove a business exists in a certain location is to look at the physical address.
Your NAP information should be clearly displayed on every page of the site. This isn't just an SEO tactic, it's important for your user experience too. If someone wants to call you or know where you are so they can pull up directions, you should have your NAP info front and center, so they don't have to go looking for it.
You also need to ensure that your NAP information is marked up with schema. If you're not familiar with schema markup, it's code that's used behind the scenes to help classify information on your website. There's a specific type of schema markup for local businesses, with specific sub-types for most verticals. If you'd like more info on schema, head over to schema.org/LocalBusiness for a detailed explanation of the local business markup.
It's incredibly beneficial to display a local phone number. Call tracking can make this a bit more complicated, so let's look at a few scenarios. If you're using dynamic number insertion – commonly called DNI – javascript will fire once the page loads and change the phone number to a tracking number based on the referral source. As long as your actual local number is the default number that's coded into the page BEFORE the javascript fires, you'll be ok.
If you're instead using a block of tracking numbers and you've dedicated one number to your website, you'll still want to show your local number somewhere on the page. In these situations, you'll typically show the tracking number at the top of the page and your actual local number down in the footer. Make sure that your schema markup includes the local number, not the tracking number.
Your content needs to truly be local. Most businesses only worry about their content being unique, which isn't a great idea as a sole target. Anyone can write unique content, but that doesn't necessarily mean it will be relevant or useful. If you're writing content that's truly useful for your customers AND you make sure it's localized, you'll be unique without having to try.
Having local content doesn't mean just shoving your city name into the text every few sentences – I'm talking about being truly localized. When you mention local landmarks in your directions, or talk about local events you're involved with, or mention your city in natural conversational text – that's when you've got actual localized content.
#LocalSEO #LocalContent #LocalContentStrategy #SEMrushAcademy[+] Show More
Now Playing
What Are Reviews? | How They Matter for Local SEO | Lesson 6/10 | SEMrush Academy
Learn how local business SEO is impacted by both positive and negative ...
Learn how local business SEO is impacted by both positive and negative reviews, and what you can do to positively influence your reviews.
Watch the full course for free: https://bit.ly/2Zgtu2P
0:18 ...Significance of reviews
1:16 Review velocity
2:33 Why the optimal review score is between 4.2-4.5
3:20 Google’s algorithm expects your reviews to be spread among multiple review sites
5:08 How to get good reviews
6:09 Set up a page to send customers to
6:53 Follow up on your face-to-face review request
7:19 Respond to every review
8:15 Make your reply relevant to the review
8:48 Don’t fake reviews
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
You might find it useful:
Apply your newly acquired knowledge by practicing with SEMrush and build up your real-world skills.
Go to Brand Monitoring:
➠ https://bit.ly/3dTK90e
Learn how to improve your website's visibility locally, globally, and on mobile searches in our free course:
➠ https://bit.ly/2WJBxDF
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
Reviews aren't just important to potential customers, they're a big factor in Google's local algorithm. Remember – Google's local algorithm has always been entity based, and customer reviews are basically crowd-sourced entity data.
Think about how you decide on a local business – you're going to read their reviews. You want to see what other people think. Studies have shown that people now trust online reviews as much as they trust a review from a friend or family member.
If a business has bad reviews, you're much less likely to go there. Google's algorithm uses reviews the same way – if a business has bad reviews, it's less likely to show up higher in search results.
Google doesn't just look at your total review score. The number of reviews matters, as does the overall sentiment of what reviewers have said. In fact, if certain keywords tend to appear in your reviews, you'll be more likely to show up for those keywords.
Google also considers review velocity. If you get a few reviews here and there, that's a natural pattern. If you get a massive number of reviews on a single day and then no reviews for weeks or even months afterwards, it's an unnatural pattern and Google might look more closely.
The most important step is to simply care about customer service. If you're providing an awesome customer experience, you're going to get good reviews. If you don't care about your customers, you're going to get bad reviews.
Businesses that are scared to put effort into reviews and reputation management because they're worried about bad reviews are typically businesses that know they're going to get bad reviews. If you fix your internal problems and give great customer service, you don't have to be worried about bad reviews.
That said, one or two bad reviews helps you look more “real”. No one expects any business to have a perfect review score. Everyone knows that sometimes the ball gets dropped, or some customer is having a bad day. A few bad reviews here and there is natural. When you start to see consistent bad reviews that mention the same problem, then you know there's something to worry about.
Several studies have shown that you don't want a perfect review score. The sweet spot is a review score between 4.2 and 4.5. In that range, you've got a good score overall, but a few bad reviews here and there. No one will think your reviews are fake, and you're more likely to attract customers.
Think again about when you're deciding on a local business, or even reading reviews on a particular product. What's the first thing you do when you look at the reviews? You change the sort filter so you can read the bad reviews. You want to read about the bad experiences people had and how the business responded.
It's also important to acquire reviews on different sites. Even though Google reviews are the most prominent, as they show front and center when someone searches for your business, you need reviews on other sites too. It's not natural for all of your customers to leave a review on Google.
Google's algorithm expects your reviews to be spread across multiple review sites. Besides Google, you need to get reviews on Facebook, any industry-specific review sites, and whichever review site feeds Apple Maps.
In the US, that's Yelp. Even though Yelp is primarily used for restaurants and hospitality type businesses, Apple made a deal with Yelp, so the reviews that show for businesses in Apple Maps come from the business's Yelp profiles, not from Google.
You don't want to have a great score with a lot of reviews on Google, only to show on Apple Maps as having a handful of reviews and a 2-star rating. How many customers will pull out their iPhones for directions, only to decide not to do business with you when they see your low score?
#LocalSEO #SEOcourse #RankingFactors #GoogleReviews #SEMrushAcademy[+] Show More
Watch the full course for free: https://bit.ly/2Zgtu2P
0:18 ...Significance of reviews
1:16 Review velocity
2:33 Why the optimal review score is between 4.2-4.5
3:20 Google’s algorithm expects your reviews to be spread among multiple review sites
5:08 How to get good reviews
6:09 Set up a page to send customers to
6:53 Follow up on your face-to-face review request
7:19 Respond to every review
8:15 Make your reply relevant to the review
8:48 Don’t fake reviews
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
You might find it useful:
Apply your newly acquired knowledge by practicing with SEMrush and build up your real-world skills.
Go to Brand Monitoring:
➠ https://bit.ly/3dTK90e
Learn how to improve your website's visibility locally, globally, and on mobile searches in our free course:
➠ https://bit.ly/2WJBxDF
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
Reviews aren't just important to potential customers, they're a big factor in Google's local algorithm. Remember – Google's local algorithm has always been entity based, and customer reviews are basically crowd-sourced entity data.
Think about how you decide on a local business – you're going to read their reviews. You want to see what other people think. Studies have shown that people now trust online reviews as much as they trust a review from a friend or family member.
If a business has bad reviews, you're much less likely to go there. Google's algorithm uses reviews the same way – if a business has bad reviews, it's less likely to show up higher in search results.
Google doesn't just look at your total review score. The number of reviews matters, as does the overall sentiment of what reviewers have said. In fact, if certain keywords tend to appear in your reviews, you'll be more likely to show up for those keywords.
Google also considers review velocity. If you get a few reviews here and there, that's a natural pattern. If you get a massive number of reviews on a single day and then no reviews for weeks or even months afterwards, it's an unnatural pattern and Google might look more closely.
The most important step is to simply care about customer service. If you're providing an awesome customer experience, you're going to get good reviews. If you don't care about your customers, you're going to get bad reviews.
Businesses that are scared to put effort into reviews and reputation management because they're worried about bad reviews are typically businesses that know they're going to get bad reviews. If you fix your internal problems and give great customer service, you don't have to be worried about bad reviews.
That said, one or two bad reviews helps you look more “real”. No one expects any business to have a perfect review score. Everyone knows that sometimes the ball gets dropped, or some customer is having a bad day. A few bad reviews here and there is natural. When you start to see consistent bad reviews that mention the same problem, then you know there's something to worry about.
Several studies have shown that you don't want a perfect review score. The sweet spot is a review score between 4.2 and 4.5. In that range, you've got a good score overall, but a few bad reviews here and there. No one will think your reviews are fake, and you're more likely to attract customers.
Think again about when you're deciding on a local business, or even reading reviews on a particular product. What's the first thing you do when you look at the reviews? You change the sort filter so you can read the bad reviews. You want to read about the bad experiences people had and how the business responded.
It's also important to acquire reviews on different sites. Even though Google reviews are the most prominent, as they show front and center when someone searches for your business, you need reviews on other sites too. It's not natural for all of your customers to leave a review on Google.
Google's algorithm expects your reviews to be spread across multiple review sites. Besides Google, you need to get reviews on Facebook, any industry-specific review sites, and whichever review site feeds Apple Maps.
In the US, that's Yelp. Even though Yelp is primarily used for restaurants and hospitality type businesses, Apple made a deal with Yelp, so the reviews that show for businesses in Apple Maps come from the business's Yelp profiles, not from Google.
You don't want to have a great score with a lot of reviews on Google, only to show on Apple Maps as having a handful of reviews and a 2-star rating. How many customers will pull out their iPhones for directions, only to decide not to do business with you when they see your low score?
#LocalSEO #SEOcourse #RankingFactors #GoogleReviews #SEMrushAcademy[+] Show More
Now Playing
Google My Business | Lesson 7/10 | SEMrush Academy
Learn how to optimize your Google My Business profile for success. ...
Learn how to optimize your Google My Business profile for success.
Watch the full course for free: https://bit.ly/2Zgtu2P
0:13 Google My Business (GMB) or Google Places
0:36 Where your business information ...can be found
2:00 Your GMB profile is your new homepage
2:23 How to claim or reclaim your location
5:16 Upload videos
5:39 Get familiar with your GMB Dashboard
5:51 How to track your performance using GMB Insights
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
You might find it useful:
Apply your newly acquired knowledge by practicing with SEMrush and build up your real-world skills.
Go to Listing Management:
➠ https://bit.ly/3bJZQpi
Learn how to improve your website's visibility locally, globally, and on mobile searches in our free course:
➠ https://bit.ly/2WJBxDF
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
Your Google My Business – or GMB - profile is your business listing on Google, where you're able to tell Google specific information about your business. It's a direct interface with Google's entity information about your business.
The information is displayed to users in several locations. The most common location is the knowledge panel box that appears to the right side of search results when someone searches for your business name. Your GMB info also appears if you show up in the map pack, or as a result in the local finder page, which shows up when you click “more places” at the bottom of the map pack. Your GMB info is also displayed whenever someone searches for your business in Google Maps.
But like I said, the most common spot your Google My Business info appears is in the GMB profile, which is the info box that appears to the right of search results when someone searches for your business.
And I've got a crazy concept to share with you today…
Your Google My Business profile is your new home page.
For years, we've all been told that the home page of our website was of vital importance, since that was typically the first impression we'd make with potential customers. But that's no longer the case.
If someone needs your phone number to call you, it's listed right there at the top of your profile. No need to click through to your site.
If someone needs your address to get directions, it's right there at the top of the profile too. So they're not going to your site either.
Your profile lists your hours of operation, and your customer reviews, and shows photos of your business… all the things that customers used to visit your website to see.
So now, your GMB profile is your new home page. It's the first impression you make with potential customers, and, for many local businesses, the only impression you'll make.
You've got to have an awesome profile to attract more customers. An awesome profile also helps you show up more often in local searches.
Before you do anything else, you need to be sure you've claimed your location. Most of you will already have this knocked out, but if you're not sure, just head over to google.com/business and log in. If you've claimed your location, it will be listed here. If not, you'll need to go claim it. Simply click the “claim this location” link on your GMB profile.
If there's no link there, then the location has already been claimed. Check with your staff members (possibly even past staff members) to see if anyone claimed it on their own Google IDs.
If you need help reclaiming your profile, it's usually easiest to contact Google My Business support on Twitter. Just tweet to @googlemybiz and they'll help you get access to your listing.
Once it's claimed, it shows up in your GMB dashboard. To optimize your profile, fill out everything you can.
List your actual business name – don't try to stuff in extra keywords. Your listing will get suspended if you get caught stuffing keywords. Make sure it's the same business name you use on your website and your citations.
Make sure your address is listed correctly, and that your map pin is in the right location. Like I mentioned in the citations video, suite names don't matter to Google, but they're important to humans. If you're really in a suite, make sure you list it so that customers can find you.
If customers come to your location to do business, that's all you need to worry about. If you're a service-based business that visits customers at their location (like a plumber or an electrician), then you're what's called a “service area business”. You should leave your address blank and instead fill out the “service area” field. You should only fill this out if your business visits customers at their location, or you deliver to a customer's location. If you're a business where customers come to your location AND you deliver (like a restaurant that delivers food), you should enter your address AND fill out the service area field.
#LocalSEO #SEOcourse #RankingFactors #GMB #GoogleMyBusiness #SEMrushAcademy[+] Show More
Watch the full course for free: https://bit.ly/2Zgtu2P
0:13 Google My Business (GMB) or Google Places
0:36 Where your business information ...can be found
2:00 Your GMB profile is your new homepage
2:23 How to claim or reclaim your location
5:16 Upload videos
5:39 Get familiar with your GMB Dashboard
5:51 How to track your performance using GMB Insights
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
You might find it useful:
Apply your newly acquired knowledge by practicing with SEMrush and build up your real-world skills.
Go to Listing Management:
➠ https://bit.ly/3bJZQpi
Learn how to improve your website's visibility locally, globally, and on mobile searches in our free course:
➠ https://bit.ly/2WJBxDF
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
Your Google My Business – or GMB - profile is your business listing on Google, where you're able to tell Google specific information about your business. It's a direct interface with Google's entity information about your business.
The information is displayed to users in several locations. The most common location is the knowledge panel box that appears to the right side of search results when someone searches for your business name. Your GMB info also appears if you show up in the map pack, or as a result in the local finder page, which shows up when you click “more places” at the bottom of the map pack. Your GMB info is also displayed whenever someone searches for your business in Google Maps.
But like I said, the most common spot your Google My Business info appears is in the GMB profile, which is the info box that appears to the right of search results when someone searches for your business.
And I've got a crazy concept to share with you today…
Your Google My Business profile is your new home page.
For years, we've all been told that the home page of our website was of vital importance, since that was typically the first impression we'd make with potential customers. But that's no longer the case.
If someone needs your phone number to call you, it's listed right there at the top of your profile. No need to click through to your site.
If someone needs your address to get directions, it's right there at the top of the profile too. So they're not going to your site either.
Your profile lists your hours of operation, and your customer reviews, and shows photos of your business… all the things that customers used to visit your website to see.
So now, your GMB profile is your new home page. It's the first impression you make with potential customers, and, for many local businesses, the only impression you'll make.
You've got to have an awesome profile to attract more customers. An awesome profile also helps you show up more often in local searches.
Before you do anything else, you need to be sure you've claimed your location. Most of you will already have this knocked out, but if you're not sure, just head over to google.com/business and log in. If you've claimed your location, it will be listed here. If not, you'll need to go claim it. Simply click the “claim this location” link on your GMB profile.
If there's no link there, then the location has already been claimed. Check with your staff members (possibly even past staff members) to see if anyone claimed it on their own Google IDs.
If you need help reclaiming your profile, it's usually easiest to contact Google My Business support on Twitter. Just tweet to @googlemybiz and they'll help you get access to your listing.
Once it's claimed, it shows up in your GMB dashboard. To optimize your profile, fill out everything you can.
List your actual business name – don't try to stuff in extra keywords. Your listing will get suspended if you get caught stuffing keywords. Make sure it's the same business name you use on your website and your citations.
Make sure your address is listed correctly, and that your map pin is in the right location. Like I mentioned in the citations video, suite names don't matter to Google, but they're important to humans. If you're really in a suite, make sure you list it so that customers can find you.
If customers come to your location to do business, that's all you need to worry about. If you're a service-based business that visits customers at their location (like a plumber or an electrician), then you're what's called a “service area business”. You should leave your address blank and instead fill out the “service area” field. You should only fill this out if your business visits customers at their location, or you deliver to a customer's location. If you're a business where customers come to your location AND you deliver (like a restaurant that delivers food), you should enter your address AND fill out the service area field.
#LocalSEO #SEOcourse #RankingFactors #GMB #GoogleMyBusiness #SEMrushAcademy[+] Show More
Now Playing
Google Posts and Questions and Answers | Lesson 8/10 | SEMrush Academy
Learn how to use Google Posts and Q&As in a powerful way to bring in ...
Learn how to use Google Posts and Q&As in a powerful way to bring in new traffic.
Watch the full course for free: https://bit.ly/2Zgtu2P
0:53 Google Posts
1:39 GMB Profile
2:28 Ideal Image ...Size
2:58 Thumbnail size is different
3:26 Video for posts
4:20 What’s New Posts
5:38 Questions & Answers Section
6:53 Load your FAQ in Google’s Q&A
7:02 Make sure your answers show as primary ones
7:31 Questions in Q&A
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
You might find it useful:
Apply your newly acquired knowledge by practicing with SEMrush and build up your real-world skills.
Go to Listing Management:
➠ https://bit.ly/3bJZQpi
Learn how to improve your website's visibility locally, globally, and on mobile searches in our free course:
➠ https://bit.ly/2WJBxDF
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
Sure, we could have included these in the last lesson on Google My Business, but we're trying to keep these lessons short and easy to digest, and if I'd included them, I would have had to ramble on for even longer, and you'd start to wonder when I'd ever stop talking, and maybe even start to wonder if you should just bail on the lesson, which we definitely didn't want to happen, 'cause this info is really awesome. Whew!
Seriously though, these features are powerful, and most businesses and marketers don't use them at all, so we felt like it was worth dedicating an entire lesson to these elements alone.
Let's start with Google Posts. Posts consist of an image or a video paired with a short text description – up to 1500 characters. Google has moved them around a few times since they were released, but right now, as we record this video, they show up at the bottom of your GMB profile panel on desktop searches. On mobile searches, they show in the blended search results and under the “posts” link of your GMB profile.
In both platforms, Google displays a thumbnail view, where the image is cropped and only the first few lines of text are displayed. When the user clicks on the post, the full image and text description are displayed.
Posts should always be promotional – sharing social fluff doesn't work here. Remember, your GMB profile is your new home page, and it's typically the first impression you're making with potential customers. You should be using Posts to wow them and convince them to click over to your site.
Posts will also help you stand out from competitors. Remember, most businesses aren't using Posts, and we know that local customers do research and look around for local options. If you're using Posts and your competitors aren't, you'll stand out and be more likely to convert those customers.
Posts stay live for 7 days, unless you use one of the Post templates that includes a date range. If you have more than one Post live at one time, they'll be displayed in a carousel, with the most recent Posts showing first.
You should approach Posts like AdWords or display ads. The cropped image and small amount of text displayed in the initial thumbnail view have a massive impact on clicks.
The ideal image size is 1200 by 900 pixels. Loading images is incredibly frustrating because the cropping of the thumbnail image is inconsistent. The crop is set to slightly above vertical center, but not always in the same location. Check out these two examples – the same image was loaded to each, but the crop is different on each one.
It gets even more frustrating – the thumbnail size is different between desktop and mobile. Here's the same image, and in fact the same post – and you can see the desktop image is slightly larger than the mobile image.
I've created a Google Posts image-cropping guide to help take the headache out of uploading posts and hoping that your text or important image elements don't get cropped out. Just head over to bit.ly/posts-image-guide to download the PSD.
You can also upload a video instead of a photo. In the thumbnail view, it shows as a still image with a play button, and when clicked, the video starts to play. Videos for Posts have the same file size restrictions as videos for GMB, which is up to 30 seconds in length and 100 mb in size.
#LocalSEO #SEOcourse #GooglePosts #QA #SEMrushAcademy[+] Show More
Watch the full course for free: https://bit.ly/2Zgtu2P
0:53 Google Posts
1:39 GMB Profile
2:28 Ideal Image ...Size
2:58 Thumbnail size is different
3:26 Video for posts
4:20 What’s New Posts
5:38 Questions & Answers Section
6:53 Load your FAQ in Google’s Q&A
7:02 Make sure your answers show as primary ones
7:31 Questions in Q&A
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
You might find it useful:
Apply your newly acquired knowledge by practicing with SEMrush and build up your real-world skills.
Go to Listing Management:
➠ https://bit.ly/3bJZQpi
Learn how to improve your website's visibility locally, globally, and on mobile searches in our free course:
➠ https://bit.ly/2WJBxDF
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
Sure, we could have included these in the last lesson on Google My Business, but we're trying to keep these lessons short and easy to digest, and if I'd included them, I would have had to ramble on for even longer, and you'd start to wonder when I'd ever stop talking, and maybe even start to wonder if you should just bail on the lesson, which we definitely didn't want to happen, 'cause this info is really awesome. Whew!
Seriously though, these features are powerful, and most businesses and marketers don't use them at all, so we felt like it was worth dedicating an entire lesson to these elements alone.
Let's start with Google Posts. Posts consist of an image or a video paired with a short text description – up to 1500 characters. Google has moved them around a few times since they were released, but right now, as we record this video, they show up at the bottom of your GMB profile panel on desktop searches. On mobile searches, they show in the blended search results and under the “posts” link of your GMB profile.
In both platforms, Google displays a thumbnail view, where the image is cropped and only the first few lines of text are displayed. When the user clicks on the post, the full image and text description are displayed.
Posts should always be promotional – sharing social fluff doesn't work here. Remember, your GMB profile is your new home page, and it's typically the first impression you're making with potential customers. You should be using Posts to wow them and convince them to click over to your site.
Posts will also help you stand out from competitors. Remember, most businesses aren't using Posts, and we know that local customers do research and look around for local options. If you're using Posts and your competitors aren't, you'll stand out and be more likely to convert those customers.
Posts stay live for 7 days, unless you use one of the Post templates that includes a date range. If you have more than one Post live at one time, they'll be displayed in a carousel, with the most recent Posts showing first.
You should approach Posts like AdWords or display ads. The cropped image and small amount of text displayed in the initial thumbnail view have a massive impact on clicks.
The ideal image size is 1200 by 900 pixels. Loading images is incredibly frustrating because the cropping of the thumbnail image is inconsistent. The crop is set to slightly above vertical center, but not always in the same location. Check out these two examples – the same image was loaded to each, but the crop is different on each one.
It gets even more frustrating – the thumbnail size is different between desktop and mobile. Here's the same image, and in fact the same post – and you can see the desktop image is slightly larger than the mobile image.
I've created a Google Posts image-cropping guide to help take the headache out of uploading posts and hoping that your text or important image elements don't get cropped out. Just head over to bit.ly/posts-image-guide to download the PSD.
You can also upload a video instead of a photo. In the thumbnail view, it shows as a still image with a play button, and when clicked, the video starts to play. Videos for Posts have the same file size restrictions as videos for GMB, which is up to 30 seconds in length and 100 mb in size.
#LocalSEO #SEOcourse #GooglePosts #QA #SEMrushAcademy[+] Show More
Now Playing
Other Signals That Influence Local Search Visibility | Lesson 9/10 | SEMrush Academy
Learn how to use behavioral signals, personalization, and social ...
Learn how to use behavioral signals, personalization, and social signals to your advantage.
Watch the full course for free: https://bit.ly/2Zgtu2P
0:45 Behavioral signals
1:03 Engagement with your GMB listing
1:23 Location check-in
1:44 CTR ...(Click Through Rate)
2:05 Pogo-Sticking
2:43 Sites with massive CTR would spike in rankling in the short term only
3:10 Personalization
3:39 Personalization decreases in strength as a ranking factor
3:56 Social Signals
4:43 Social signals become less important as a ranking factor
5:00 Social media is a key part of engaging with customers
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
You might find it useful:
Apply your newly acquired knowledge by practicing with SEMrush and build up your real-world skills.
Go to Site Audit:
➠ https://bit.ly/2ykLsX6
Learn how to improve your website's visibility locally, globally, and on mobile searches in our free course:
➠ https://bit.ly/2WJBxDF
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
In the previous lessons, we've covered all of the important signals that influence local relevancy and how your business will appear in local search results. In Lesson 2, I talked about the annual Local Search Ranking Factors study and showed the pie charts that outlined the various signal strengths, and then covered the bigger signals in subsequent lessons.
In this lesson, I'm going to go over the smallest slices of pie – even though they don't carry much weight, it's important to understand how everything fits together in Google's local algorithm.
Behavioral signals are the biggest of the final pieces of pie. In the map pack graph, they're about 9.5% of the whole, and in the localized organic side, 11.5%.
This is basically a bucket for real-world engagement – the various ways that Google can tell when real-world users are engaging with your business. For example, engagement with your GMB listing would fall under the behavioral signals category. The more people interact with your Google My Business listing, the better your behavioral signal will be.
Mobile clicks to call and clicks for directions are a huge part of this. Clicking to read reviews, clicks to view photos, clicks on Posts and Q&A – any time someone interacts with your listing, it's an engagement metric that Google can track.
Location check-ins would be another example of real-world behavioral signals that would prove engagement to Google. Google can even track users in the real world to see when they're at your location – how do you think they get the info for the “most popular time to visit” graph in your GMB profile?
Your click-through rate in search results is another behavioral signal that potentially affects your rankings. Google says click-through rate has no effect, but far too much research has been done to prove that there's at least minimal influence. It makes sense – if a user clicks through to a search result and then quickly returns to the same search results page and clicks another result, it's pretty clear that they didn't find what they were looking for. This is commonly called pogo-sticking.
If a significant number of users are pogo-sticking off your site, it would make sense that Google might not show you as often, since user signals would seem to point out that they weren't finding relevant answers.
On the flip side, if you were ranking below sites that had lots of pogo-sticking, but users found their answer on your site and didn't go back to Google, it would also make sense that your site would start to show up higher in search results.
Of course, this is all conjecture, and no one has definitively proven that click-through rate affects rankings. Except, some people have actually done that. In the short term, the test sites with massive clickthroughs would spike in rankings, but it didn't seem to have much effect over the long term.
Many experts theorize that there's potential for much more emphasis on behavioral signals in the future. It's easy to manipulate links and reviews, but it's incredibly difficult to fake these real-world signals. As Google finds better ways to track actual users and their engagement with your business, it's likely that these behavioral signals will continue to gain importance.
Personalization is another one of the small slices of pie – and it used to count for much more. In the past, Google would personalize search results based on the search history of the device the search was conducted on. In other words, if you're searching on your phone, the past searches you've made would influence the search results you're seeing.
#LocalSEO #SEOcourse #RankingFactors #SEMrushAcademy[+] Show More
Watch the full course for free: https://bit.ly/2Zgtu2P
0:45 Behavioral signals
1:03 Engagement with your GMB listing
1:23 Location check-in
1:44 CTR ...(Click Through Rate)
2:05 Pogo-Sticking
2:43 Sites with massive CTR would spike in rankling in the short term only
3:10 Personalization
3:39 Personalization decreases in strength as a ranking factor
3:56 Social Signals
4:43 Social signals become less important as a ranking factor
5:00 Social media is a key part of engaging with customers
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
You might find it useful:
Apply your newly acquired knowledge by practicing with SEMrush and build up your real-world skills.
Go to Site Audit:
➠ https://bit.ly/2ykLsX6
Learn how to improve your website's visibility locally, globally, and on mobile searches in our free course:
➠ https://bit.ly/2WJBxDF
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
In the previous lessons, we've covered all of the important signals that influence local relevancy and how your business will appear in local search results. In Lesson 2, I talked about the annual Local Search Ranking Factors study and showed the pie charts that outlined the various signal strengths, and then covered the bigger signals in subsequent lessons.
In this lesson, I'm going to go over the smallest slices of pie – even though they don't carry much weight, it's important to understand how everything fits together in Google's local algorithm.
Behavioral signals are the biggest of the final pieces of pie. In the map pack graph, they're about 9.5% of the whole, and in the localized organic side, 11.5%.
This is basically a bucket for real-world engagement – the various ways that Google can tell when real-world users are engaging with your business. For example, engagement with your GMB listing would fall under the behavioral signals category. The more people interact with your Google My Business listing, the better your behavioral signal will be.
Mobile clicks to call and clicks for directions are a huge part of this. Clicking to read reviews, clicks to view photos, clicks on Posts and Q&A – any time someone interacts with your listing, it's an engagement metric that Google can track.
Location check-ins would be another example of real-world behavioral signals that would prove engagement to Google. Google can even track users in the real world to see when they're at your location – how do you think they get the info for the “most popular time to visit” graph in your GMB profile?
Your click-through rate in search results is another behavioral signal that potentially affects your rankings. Google says click-through rate has no effect, but far too much research has been done to prove that there's at least minimal influence. It makes sense – if a user clicks through to a search result and then quickly returns to the same search results page and clicks another result, it's pretty clear that they didn't find what they were looking for. This is commonly called pogo-sticking.
If a significant number of users are pogo-sticking off your site, it would make sense that Google might not show you as often, since user signals would seem to point out that they weren't finding relevant answers.
On the flip side, if you were ranking below sites that had lots of pogo-sticking, but users found their answer on your site and didn't go back to Google, it would also make sense that your site would start to show up higher in search results.
Of course, this is all conjecture, and no one has definitively proven that click-through rate affects rankings. Except, some people have actually done that. In the short term, the test sites with massive clickthroughs would spike in rankings, but it didn't seem to have much effect over the long term.
Many experts theorize that there's potential for much more emphasis on behavioral signals in the future. It's easy to manipulate links and reviews, but it's incredibly difficult to fake these real-world signals. As Google finds better ways to track actual users and their engagement with your business, it's likely that these behavioral signals will continue to gain importance.
Personalization is another one of the small slices of pie – and it used to count for much more. In the past, Google would personalize search results based on the search history of the device the search was conducted on. In other words, if you're searching on your phone, the past searches you've made would influence the search results you're seeing.
#LocalSEO #SEOcourse #RankingFactors #SEMrushAcademy[+] Show More
Now Playing
How to Report Your Results to Your Client or Your Boss | Lesson 10/10 | SEMrush Academy
Learn how to share and interpret your results with your client or ...
Learn how to share and interpret your results with your client or manager.
Watch the full course for free: https://bit.ly/2Zgtu2P
0:51 Google Data Studio
1:39 Google Data Studio reports update automatically
1:43 Use ...Google Sheets to pull data into Data Studio
2:11 Relate the report to your business goals
2:34 Use the summary sheet as the first page in your monthly report
2:47 The summary sheet is the perfect lead-in for your report
3:08 Summary sheet metrics
3:55 Standard SEO reporting charts
4:10 Pre-SEO line
4:39 GMB Insights Data
4:58 Review
5:18 Do not show ranking data on an SEO report
6:17 GMB call tracking data
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
You might find it useful:
Apply your newly acquired knowledge by practicing with SEMrush and build up your real-world skills.
Go to My Report:
➠ https://bit.ly/3dXvQrA
Learn how to improve your website's visibility locally, globally, and on mobile searches in our free course:
➠ https://bit.ly/2WJBxDF
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
In the previous lessons, we've covered all of the important signals that influence local relevancy and how your business will appear in local search results. But knowing how to optimize for Local is only part of the battle.
You've got to know how to report your results if you want to keep your job – whether you're reporting to a client or to your boss, it's important to know what to present and how it should be presented.
There are a multitude of dashboarding tools and reporting tools available, and you can even make manual reports… but I've become a complete fanboy for Google Data Studio.
The editing interface takes a bit of getting used to, but once you understand how things work, it's a piece of cake. The best part about Data Studio is that you have full control over how the report looks. You can tweak the design of the entire report, down to any little detail. You're able to use various “connectors”, which are ways to connect to APIs to pull in data from various tools.
Best of all, once you've got a report built, it updates automatically. You don't have to spend any time at all prepping your report.
If you've got data that you want to display that doesn't have a connector, you can put the data in a Google sheet so you can pull it into Data Studio.
At my agency, we're big fans of customized reporting per client. The most important thing to understand about your Local SEO report is that every business will care about different metrics, and most of them won't really care about all the data that SEOs tend to geek out about.
The best advice I can give you is to tie the report to the business goals – and, more importantly, tie it into their bottom line. Your client isn't hiring you to get them more website traffic. Your client is hiring you to make them more money. Like Puff Daddy said, it's all about the benjamins.
This is why I like to include a summary sheet as the first page in a monthly report. You'll typically have two scenarios – you're either talking to a business owner who doesn't understand all the details, or you're talking to a marketing person who understands, but the owner or manager sometimes pops in and wants updates.
The summary sheet is the perfect lead-in for your report. It's where you present the most important information that ties in to the business's bottom line. If the person you're presenting to doesn't really care about the rest, they're happy. If someone pops in later to ask how things are going, the summary sheet is all they really need to read.
So what should you show on the summary sheet? Show the most important metrics – organic traffic, and how it has improved, and leads, and how they've improved. That's really it – you can show more if you want, but those metrics help even the biggest of noobs understand how your efforts are affecting their business. More traffic and more leads equal more sales.
I like to show the monthly number, then a comparison of month-over-month and year-over-year, so short-term and long-term trends can be easily seen. It's helpful to include notes on the page as well, giving a brief outline of the things you've done in the last month, and even what you're planning for the upcoming month. Remember, most of what you're doing is “behind the scenes”, so being transparent about what you're doing helps your clients know you're working when they're not seeing lots of changes on their website.
You'll want to include all the standard SEO reporting charts too – time on site, bounce rate, overall traffic, organic traffic, and so on. I've got a cool trick to share with you, though – if you're using Data Studio or creating your own reports, you should add in a “pre-SEO” line.
#LocalSEO #SEOcourse #LocalSEOReport #SEMrushAcademy[+] Show More
Watch the full course for free: https://bit.ly/2Zgtu2P
0:51 Google Data Studio
1:39 Google Data Studio reports update automatically
1:43 Use ...Google Sheets to pull data into Data Studio
2:11 Relate the report to your business goals
2:34 Use the summary sheet as the first page in your monthly report
2:47 The summary sheet is the perfect lead-in for your report
3:08 Summary sheet metrics
3:55 Standard SEO reporting charts
4:10 Pre-SEO line
4:39 GMB Insights Data
4:58 Review
5:18 Do not show ranking data on an SEO report
6:17 GMB call tracking data
✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹
You might find it useful:
Apply your newly acquired knowledge by practicing with SEMrush and build up your real-world skills.
Go to My Report:
➠ https://bit.ly/3dXvQrA
Learn how to improve your website's visibility locally, globally, and on mobile searches in our free course:
➠ https://bit.ly/2WJBxDF
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In the previous lessons, we've covered all of the important signals that influence local relevancy and how your business will appear in local search results. But knowing how to optimize for Local is only part of the battle.
You've got to know how to report your results if you want to keep your job – whether you're reporting to a client or to your boss, it's important to know what to present and how it should be presented.
There are a multitude of dashboarding tools and reporting tools available, and you can even make manual reports… but I've become a complete fanboy for Google Data Studio.
The editing interface takes a bit of getting used to, but once you understand how things work, it's a piece of cake. The best part about Data Studio is that you have full control over how the report looks. You can tweak the design of the entire report, down to any little detail. You're able to use various “connectors”, which are ways to connect to APIs to pull in data from various tools.
Best of all, once you've got a report built, it updates automatically. You don't have to spend any time at all prepping your report.
If you've got data that you want to display that doesn't have a connector, you can put the data in a Google sheet so you can pull it into Data Studio.
At my agency, we're big fans of customized reporting per client. The most important thing to understand about your Local SEO report is that every business will care about different metrics, and most of them won't really care about all the data that SEOs tend to geek out about.
The best advice I can give you is to tie the report to the business goals – and, more importantly, tie it into their bottom line. Your client isn't hiring you to get them more website traffic. Your client is hiring you to make them more money. Like Puff Daddy said, it's all about the benjamins.
This is why I like to include a summary sheet as the first page in a monthly report. You'll typically have two scenarios – you're either talking to a business owner who doesn't understand all the details, or you're talking to a marketing person who understands, but the owner or manager sometimes pops in and wants updates.
The summary sheet is the perfect lead-in for your report. It's where you present the most important information that ties in to the business's bottom line. If the person you're presenting to doesn't really care about the rest, they're happy. If someone pops in later to ask how things are going, the summary sheet is all they really need to read.
So what should you show on the summary sheet? Show the most important metrics – organic traffic, and how it has improved, and leads, and how they've improved. That's really it – you can show more if you want, but those metrics help even the biggest of noobs understand how your efforts are affecting their business. More traffic and more leads equal more sales.
I like to show the monthly number, then a comparison of month-over-month and year-over-year, so short-term and long-term trends can be easily seen. It's helpful to include notes on the page as well, giving a brief outline of the things you've done in the last month, and even what you're planning for the upcoming month. Remember, most of what you're doing is “behind the scenes”, so being transparent about what you're doing helps your clients know you're working when they're not seeing lots of changes on their website.
You'll want to include all the standard SEO reporting charts too – time on site, bounce rate, overall traffic, organic traffic, and so on. I've got a cool trick to share with you, though – if you're using Data Studio or creating your own reports, you should add in a “pre-SEO” line.
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