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