What Have You Seen Work With Local SEO

[Worldwidebacklinks]

I have worked in Australia for a while managing a wide variety of SEO campaigns for small/medium/large businesses, i have seen the best results with-

• A website that has some age to it
• Fixing any tech errors (Page speed, URL structure etc)
• NAP consistency across listings
• Directory submissions
• Flawless onsites (custom page title, meta desc etc for every page)
• Pages around every individual service the business offers with a minimum of 250 words
• Local/relevant backlinks
• Claiming the Google my business listing for the business. This is important
  
• Encouraging the business owner to get reviews
• A blog (depending on the industry/niche)
• Working on UX - Many local businesses over here have old, ugly websites which often effects engagement.

I could go on, but this is a starting point.

What have you seen deliver the best results for Local SEO?

 

[Andrew Scherer]

You say that's a starting point but really that is pretty much all you need in most metros to really kick butt.

I suppose it's all in the execution.

I am more content heavy than 250 words for my service specific pages, to stay competitive and pick up extra long-tails I do 500-600+ words. For category-specific landers I like to do 1k words or more and internal link out to the thinner service pages.

 

[Avid Learner]

I have worked in Australia for a while managing a wide variety of SEO campaigns for small/medium/large businesses, i have seen the best results with-

• A website that has some age to it
• Fixing any tech errors (Page speed, URL structure etc)
• NAP consistency across listings
• Directory submissions
• Flawless onsites (custom page title, meta desc etc for every page)
• Pages around every individual service the business offers with a minimum of 250 words
• Local/relevant backlinks
• Claiming the Google my business listing for the business. This is important
• Encouraging the business owner to get reviews
• A blog (depending on the industry/niche)
• Working on UX - Many local businesses over here have old, ugly websites which often effects engagement.

I could go on, but this is a starting point. What have you seen deliver the best results for Local SEO?

Nice succinct list. Perhaps embedded in that list (tech errors / UX) is mobile... of course, for some businesses this is more important than others.

 

[Worldwidebacklinks]

You say that's a starting point but really that is pretty much all you need in most metros to really kick butt.

I suppose it's all in the execution.

I am more content heavy than 250 words for my service specific pages, to stay competitive and pick up extra long-tails I do 500-600+ words. For category-specific landers I like to do 1k words or more and internal link out to the thinner service pages.

That is quite content heavy, but i understand the need in certain industries as it can get very competitive. Do you struggle with 1k words on your category pages?

 

[Worldwidebacklinks]

Nice succinct list. Perhaps embedded in that list (tech errors / UX) is mobile... of course, for some businesses this is more important than others.

That is very true. Depends on the mobile search %.

 

[randybishop]

Here is a 66 point checklist for Local Seo by Phil Rozek
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bQH4IgisYhn08-cu8m3VyYz2zyByizgzB7Edap3WP-8/edit#gid=0

 

[sully1975]

Here is a 66 point checklist for Local Seo by Phil Rozek
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bQH4IgisYhn08-cu8m3VyYz2zyByizgzB7Edap3WP-8/edit#gid=0

Saw this just this morning. You beat me to posting it. Foiled again.

 

[Sombrero]

This what I've found working for me:
- aged domain plus 5 years paid ahead
- Google plus reviews
- keep the website updated with fresh content
- Use AdWords to decrease bounce rate
- research what kind of content your readers love most and improve it
- Create an extra website with keyword on domain and link to the main one

 

[BreaknBrix]

Here are a few things I've noticed help a lot:

• Size of domain matters a lot. Try to be no smaller than 60% your #1 competitor and ideally around 150%.
• Primary pages should be done really well. Great copywriting, optimized, they should read better than any of your competitors.
• Geo-targeted pages I do a wiki style format. They read more plainly. Stats and info about every town, I basically rewrite their wiki page for my niche.
• As much inner linking as possible. Do it within the content then throw geo-targeted links at the bottom of the article.
• An >>awesome sales video! I take this very seriously. The retention rate on our main sales videos are incredible.
• 1 press release mandatory. Use paulopaul. He'll get you in a minimum of 300 media, tv, radio and broadcast stations. Plaster this social proof all over the site.
• Reviews are more important than citations. Increase conversion rate. Increase CTR. Increase traffic. Increase lead quality. Increase rank. 78% of customers read them.
• Citations. There are lots of people who can do them manually for a good rate. Do all the harder ones yourself.
• Geo-targeted YT channel with tons of geo-targeted videos. This will rank above G local. You can "spin" them by converting scripts to sound bytes, making small edits and rerendering over and over. Put your link in the annotations, not description. Then use GSA on most of them. For a few, don't use GSA and link in the description.
• Write the most incredible about me page you can. I write some bad ass about me pages.
• Make a tutorial on your site with images and everything that shows customers how to leave reviews. Keep it short, easy and to the point. Link button on homepage.
• This won't work well depending on how many businesses you're marketing. But I have 10 CL accounts I post on every day.
• Every local business should have a swipe file. I have a HUGE swipe file like xxxbusiness swipe>craigslist>articles>118 very well written articles, etc. Tons of headlines, graphics, scripts, brochures, designs and copy for everything.
• Videos videos videos. Every business needs a "business camera". They should be recording almost everything they do so all the best stuff can be snipped and posted online.
• Pictures picture pictures. We have thousands.
• Use tinypng to optimize all photos before you upload them.
• Did I mention on page?

Too much stuff to list.

-BB

 

[Worldwidebacklinks]

Here are a few things I've noticed help a lot:

• Size of domain matters a lot. Try to be no smaller than 60% your #1 competitor and ideally around 150%.
• Primary pages should be done really well. Great copywriting, optimized, they should read better than any of your competitors.
• Geo-targeted pages I do a wiki style format. They read more plainly. Stats and info about every town, I basically rewrite their wiki page for my niche.
• As much inner linking as possible. Do it within the content then throw geo-targeted links at the bottom of the article.
• An >>awesome sales video! I take this very seriously. The retention rate on our main sales videos are incredible.
• 1 press release mandatory. Use paulopaul. He'll get you in a minimum of 300 media, tv, radio and broadcast stations. Plaster this social proof all over the site.
• Reviews are more important than citations. Increase conversion rate. Increase CTR. Increase traffic. Increase lead quality. Increase rank. 78% of customers read them.
• Citations. There are lots of people who can do them manually for a good rate. Do all the harder ones yourself.
• Geo-targeted YT channel with tons of geo-targeted videos. This will rank above G local. You can "spin" them by converting scripts to sound bytes, making small edits and rerendering over and over. Put your link in the annotations, not description. Then use GSA on most of them. For a few, don't use GSA and link in the description.
• Write the most incredible about me page you can. I write some bad ass about me pages.
• Make a tutorial on your site with images and everything that shows customers how to leave reviews. Keep it short, easy and to the point. Link button on homepage.
• This won't work well depending on how many businesses you're marketing. But I have 10 CL accounts I post on every day.
• Every local business should have a swipe file. I have a HUGE swipe file like xxxbusiness swipe>craigslist>articles>118 very well written articles, etc. Tons of headlines, graphics, scripts, brochures, designs and copy for everything.
• Videos videos videos. Every business needs a "business camera". They should be recording almost everything they do so all the best stuff can be snipped and posted online.
• Pictures picture pictures. We have thousands.
• Use tinypng to optimize all photos before you upload them.
• Did I mention on page?

Too much stuff to list.

-BB

Very comprehensive list. I assume you have had some good results with the methods you have listed? I will definitely give a few of them a shot.

 

[Avid Learner]

Here are a few things I've noticed help a lot:

• Size of domain matters a lot. Try to be no smaller than 60% your #1 competitor and ideally around 150%.

Too much stuff to list.

Thanks...I haven't seen this one mentioned, or may have missed it.

No doubt the rest of the stuff not on your list has less impact.

 

[bmminc]

Here are a few things I've noticed help a lot:

• Size of domain matters a lot. Try to be no smaller than 60% your #1 competitor and ideally around 150%.
• Primary pages should be done really well. Great copywriting, optimized, they should read better than any of your competitors.
• Geo-targeted pages I do a wiki style format. They read more plainly. Stats and info about every town, I basically rewrite their wiki page for my niche.
• As much inner linking as possible. Do it within the content then throw geo-targeted links at the bottom of the article.
• An >>awesome sales video! I take this very seriously. The retention rate on our main sales videos are incredible.
• 1 press release mandatory. Use paulopaul. He'll get you in a minimum of 300 media, tv, radio and broadcast stations. Plaster this social proof all over the site.
• Reviews are more important than citations. Increase conversion rate. Increase CTR. Increase traffic. Increase lead quality. Increase rank. 78% of customers read them.
• Citations. There are lots of people who can do them manually for a good rate. Do all the harder ones yourself.
• Geo-targeted YT channel with tons of geo-targeted videos. This will rank above G local. You can "spin" them by converting scripts to sound bytes, making small edits and rerendering over and over. Put your link in the annotations, not description. Then use GSA on most of them. For a few, don't use GSA and link in the description.
• Write the most incredible about me page you can. I write some bad ass about me pages.
• Make a tutorial on your site with images and everything that shows customers how to leave reviews. Keep it short, easy and to the point. Link button on homepage.
• This won't work well depending on how many businesses you're marketing. But I have 10 CL accounts I post on every day.
• Every local business should have a swipe file. I have a HUGE swipe file like xxxbusiness swipe>craigslist>articles>118 very well written articles, etc. Tons of headlines, graphics, scripts, brochures, designs and copy for everything.
• Videos videos videos. Every business needs a "business camera". They should be recording almost everything they do so all the best stuff can be snipped and posted online.
• Pictures picture pictures. We have thousands.
• Use tinypng to optimize all photos before you upload them.
• Did I mention on page?

Too much stuff to list.

-BB

This is golden.

 

[radiant13]

Everything that's been mention has been whitehat and all excellent.
Are you ready for something from the darkside? After all, this is BHW.
I've been using pandabot to increase the click through rate and decrease bounce rate on a local site. Enough time have elapsed and a conclusion can be drawn now. For the main kw the site was at 12 and today is at 10 bottom of page one.

I've seen many advise against using any bh on local sites, well, this little bh technique seems to have worked.

 

[strawswitch]

Didn't know about the geotargeted YT channel. Thanks for the detailed list!

 

[Worldwidebacklinks]

Local SEO is quite tricky especially with all of the cleaning up you have to do if a business has had some dodgy SEO work done in the past. Great replies on this thread!

 

[ZombieQueen]

Here's a secret. Google trusts certain citations over others, with government being at the top of the list. Most states have an online directory of LLC's, DBA's, etc... Any kind of government listing is a tier 1 citation.Backlink your government directory listings.

 

[Worldwidebacklinks]

Here's a secret. Google trusts certain citations over others, with government being at the top of the list. Most states have an online directory of LLC's, DBA's, etc... Any kind of government listing is a tier 1 citation.Backlink your government directory listings.

Interesting, i have seen a few registry type websites (licensing numbers and the terms you have listed above) which may be of value when building citations.