 important and minor factors for Local SEO, specially the name spelling that I guess many of the people ignores. Really helping article.
Thank you! Glad you got something out of my post...
Hey Greg! I really liked your idea to add review section on the website. I think it is the best effective way to get more-n-more reviews. It is totally worth to add.
Thanks! We've found that having the page to send them to makes things so much easier - AND, it lets you control where you're sending people for reviews without having to re-print review handouts or signage at the store...
Yeah, this is just an amazing technique Greg. I never thought before we can also try this to get reviews..
oh yeah - that's why our strategy works so well... we can concentrate on Google for the first 10, since that's the most "bang for your buck", and then we can diversify and get other sites, and niche-specific sites - all by just changing the links on the /reviews page on the site...
I found it really helpful and simplified, I am going to apply these tips in my client's website.
I have a lot local views, but not many hits
You mean lots of views of your listing in the map pack, but not many website visits? Sometimes, depending on what your business vertical is, the map pack is all you need. If people can see your listing and just call you (or get your address to visit you), there's not necessarily a need to click over to your website.
Thank you for the guide! I am struggling with getting the local stuff just right, and this will surely help me out a lot!
Funny pictures!
Tried local Moz but the program will not accept PO Box for address. I also experienced trouble trying upload data file. The support Person was very nice
You'll find that Google also does not accept a PO Box as a local address. Sorry you had troubles with uploading the data file, but glad to hear you had a good experience with our customer support.
What if the city a client is located in is very small and online maps populate larger cities automatically? In one case Facebook, Google +, and numerous directories all changed the city to something different - and Wikipedia automatically brought me to the county for information. How do you optimize in that kind of a situation?
Are you talking about what to do for the Google Map embed? You can customize the map embed view, so make sure it's showing your address, then just zoom in close, then embed that version of the map.
What if the city they are located in is so small that numerous larger cities automatically populate into maps? For example: Westmont NJ - if you Google just the city all of the results come up for Camden County, but then there are other cities that populate in other sites. Facebook says Haddonfield, Google + says Collingswood. How do you optimize in a situation like that?
so what are we searching for in Westmont? If I could see the query and results, I could give you a more on-point answer....
Great read thanks Greg. Quick question - I cannot keep up with Google's rules re: multiple Google+ pages. We have a client with franchises in different states and cities and have refrained from creating a page for each (e.g 'Company Name City') as we do not want to get anyone's listing removed (had that experience in my pre-SEO life with Google Places). Appreciate your thoughts on this - or direction to any credible reading on the subject. Thanks again for your post - look forward to ready more of your summations.
ok - there's definitely a rule against having multiple G+ listings for a single location - so you don't want to do that.
BUT - if you have locations all over, then you definitely want to have a G+ listing for each location, and the landing page for each location should be a unique page on your site. I'm not sure what your experience was with getting a listing removed, but it was probably for some other violation... Google WANTS you to link to a unique landing page for each listing...
Thanks so much Greg - really appreciate your reply.
Thanks for putting this together. Very helpful to have a checklist and I'm definitely doing the review page.
Awesome! Glad my post will help you!
Nice post Greg You done a amazing work.Its really very helpful for everyone who want to spread his business locally.
Thanks Larry! Glad you enjoyed the post
Love the branded review postcard! What a terrific idea, blending the best of offline local with online local, very smart!
Thanks! We've had incredible success with it... so I thought I'd share
I see that embedding a Google Map on each page is important.
You say do it correctly by pointing to the G+ page.
How exactly is that accomplished?
Thanks for the excellent info.
When you do it "wrong", you just go to Google, enter the address, and then embed that map. To do it right, you need to get to the map from your G+ listing and embed that version.
If you did it wrong, the info popup will just show your address. If you do it right, it shows your biz name and info too.
Greg,
Great post, what are your thoughts on the NAP citation tools that syndicate your listings to local citations?
Have you used Whitesparks paid service for your clients? If so has the process been efficient?
Thank you for the post Greg. I have always been reluctant to use a on-site review page or those widgets that take visitors from your site to a review site because it would have a referring domain on the visit and that could be considered influencing the customer. That is why I always thought a page or poster with mobile QR codes to site would be ideal because visitors would go directly to the review sites.
I would be grateful if you convinced me the review page is not risky.
Yes I am agree with your idea. With this we can also do the submission our website in Google Places
Greg, I love the pro tip, using the string at the end of the link (?hl=en&review=1) but it's a little bit of a mystery. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. Or it will work on my screen, but I'll email it through to someone to test it and it won't work on their screen. Any tips/tricks regarding this?
Does anyone have any ideas? Would love to know...
I'm in Australia. I only point that out because we seem to be having some techy issues with the changeover to Google My Business pages...
I agree that Local SEO makes perfect sense for any business with a physical location -- it's a no brainer -- but I run into trouble with search volume. What if the town where the business resides has virtually no search volume, as opposed to a city nearby that gets a lot. Another example, if you were optimizing a ski resort in the Adirondacks, would you focus on optimizing for the town/state or go for "upstate new york," which is more closely aligned with their overall goals. Any thoughts on this?
After Pigeon, it's a heck of a lot harder to show up high in cities where you're not located - but it *IS* possible. It depends how close you are to the other city, how rural your area is, how good your content is, etc... but it can be done, and many times it's the right play. We target the major metro for most of our car dealers for just that reason.
As far as the ski resort goes, you just need to do some keyword research and figure out which phrases would bring the most potential traffic. You could also check other resorts in the area and see what they're going after (since you want to be sure you're competitive). Target the phrases with the most volume, and the phrases your competitors are going after, and you should have a pretty good set of terms.
That first example is amazing. I have a client who has a business name that can easily be spelled a couple of different ways. Very helpful.
Greg (and everyone else here),
Narrowing the topic to URL structure... we are working on a directory of local races (5K, marathons, etc) and we are trying to determine best practices for URL structure for SEO purposes. My question is regarding city, state references in the URL string. Which is best:
localraces.com/kansas-city-mo/event-name
or
localraces.com/mo/kansas-city/event-name
or
localraces.com/missouri/kansas-city/event-name
We are focusing on the top 250ish metro areas in the US for now, btw.
Local SEO takes a hit thanks to Google Pigeon update..
Hello Greg,
You recommend to include the city in the title and in H1 tags.
Some directories don't accept that we list the city in the name.
Do you think it could be considered as NAP discrepancy and have a negative impact?
Thanks
TanguyLT -
The H1 heading is on your website, not on directories... it's the heading at the top of the page - the page title, if you will. You definitely want to put ONLY your business name in any directories or citations to keep your NAP info consistent...
Thank you very much for featuring the way you facilitate getting more positive reviews. Your Pro Tip on using the?hl=en&review=1 string at end of the G+ Local URL is without doubt a gem. Fantastic post!
as for a local b