9 Local SEO Tips From Top Experts

Earlier this month, marketers from around the world attended the recent LocalU virtual conference, hosted by Local University.

The topics of the ads were filled with local marketing information from top experts in everything from handling fake reviews, to SEO information, and more.

Participants engaged in lively discussions on Twitter throughout each session, acknowledging the most helpful and physical advice from the speakers.

Below are the tops to remove each speaker and their session.

1. Write For Customers First and Google Second

Charli Hunt, ProofContent

“If you write things for Google’s algorithm (and not first -time users), you’re going to be knocked out of your rankings.”

Include local labels based on what customers are looking for. Whether it’s neighborhoods, counties, towns, and so on.

Create custom pages for great FAQs from your customers. This reduces the need to answer these questions frequently.

Identify your unique sales (USPs). If you’re not sure what these are, talk to your customers to help identify them.

Photo credit: Twitter.com, window taken by author April 2022

2. Disputing 1 Illegitimate Review Is Equivalent To 11 Positive Reviews

Curtis Boyd, The Transparency Company

It is useful to argue false evaluations. Legal reviews are affected by awards, which are proven to affect revenue.

Removing negative reviews is not the goal. Good reviews available; buy reviews no. Calming real customers is not good or legal. That’s not what it’s about.

Your boss should never ask you to review the company, unless it’s on Glassdoor. The top types of fraudulent reviews are from customers, business owners, current employees, false analysts, and third party and group reviews.

Contrast fake reviews on mobile phone and computer. Having information that shows reviews to be false is about 380 times more successful than removal.

If you’ve been hit by a bunch of negative reviews, it’s best to work with a Google Product Expert using the GBP Help Forum.

3. Work Smarter With Practical Google Data Studio Uses

Amanda Jordan, RicketyRoo

With GDS, you will have less time to review your data. You can create local SEO reports that are easy to use not only for you, but for your customers. There are many examples for you to put together and play with your data.

“Use Data Studio to search and index words, and find new ways to use the data they provide.”

There are many free links with GDS to help organize your data, such as Google Analytics, BigQuery, Google Sheets, Search Console, and more.

In addition, there are a number of free tool links for GDS, including Ahrefs, ContentKing, DeepCrawl, SEMRush, and more.

Use data commands in Data Studio. They allow you to access date information, visitor type, device type, and more.

4. Be Strategic With Your Spam Fighting Efforts

Joy Hawkins, Sterling Sky

The percentage of false listings varies greatly across the industry. Garage Door Repair, Disposal, and Personal Injury are top businesses with fake listings.

“87.6% of Garbage Card listings are spam. This is why spam-fighting is so destructive, and why spam-fighting can help with appropriate signals.

The cost of Spam is not a long -term plan, but something you should try to pursue. Spam can come back, and Google doesn’t enforce all of their guidelines.

If you have duplicate lists, don’t delete one. Compiling lists can really help them with the situation.

If you’re in an industry with a lot of spam lists, it might be worth your time to report.

5. We Only Buy From People We Know, Like, and Trust

Matthew Hunt, Automation Wolf

Use LinkedIn as a trusted source rather than a stranger. Relationships are built on information, not posts.

It takes 7 hours and 11 different interactions, in 4 different locations to gain a user’s trust, in order to have opportunities to work with and sell to them.

Use LinkedIn with as many users as possible. Then, do long-form events that have some form of interaction (classes, webinars, etc.). From there, create a trusted organization to keep users coming back to you.

Make sure you have a personal profile, not just a company page. Create a compelling personal headline that reflects who you are and what you do.

The formula for a specific topic: Role + Skills + Significance.

6. Content Without Data Leads To Poor Outcomes

Noah Learner, Two Octobers

Build your content based on client goals, collect data, refine data, and then create themes based on this data.

Market what works best for you. Be sure to ask your customers how many clients they have during your process on the board.

Google has a hard time figuring out what to show, so it’s important to be clear about what you’re talking about.

There is a big difference between searches from Google SERP auto-suggest and Google Trends. Auto-advice is special, and Trends is not.

7. Proximity Is Much More Important With The Vicinity Update

Yan Gilbert and Colan Nielson, Sterling Sky

The closer a business listing is, the higher the chances the listing will be arranged.

The recent update has allowed many more business listings to be classified, thanks to a variety of maps.

Keywords were nowhere to be most affected.

The keywords in your business name are not as simple as they used to be. Do not use keywords

filling out a plan. Google is trying to balance spammy GBPs while allowing real businesses to organize.

Top features from the recent update are:

Photo credit: Twitter.com, window taken by author April 2022

8. SEO Forecasting Can Help Answer Key Business Questions From Stakeholders

Andrew Shotland, Local SEO Guide

The key questions that stakeholders need answered are:

Information SEO requires that each business be integrated with goals. Do more than just use your own experience and your own data to see.

Sometimes accurate information doesn’t matter, if you honestly set good expectations. Don’t pretend to create information to look good and get budget approval.

A good scientific method is the RICE Score. (Effort x Effort x Confidence)/Effort = RICE Score.

However, a good RICE score may not generate much revenue, even if it is easy to implement. Decide which is more important: higher revenue or higher RICE score?

9. You Have An Obligation To Make Sure Your Reviews Are Genuine

Mike Blumenthal, Near Media

The business is responsible for the application of the evaluation foundation, as well as the conduct of SEO and brand management.

The FTC’s new business marketing guidelines include:

It is useless to withhold evaluations. Customers can see the difference between your website and Google reviews.

You do not need to spread harmful or inappropriate information. Make sure you have a clear TOS posted on your website that explains FTC guidelines, and publish everything that complies with those guidelines.

Summary

The LocalU virtual symposium focused heavily on real -time innovations affecting businesses, as well as information tips that can help anyone with a physical business or lease.

If you want more information on the sessions, be sure to join the #LocalU discussion on Twitter and connect with the speakers. You can also purchase instant access from Local University here.

At the end of the conference, the Local University announced its return to technical matters. They will host LocalU Advanced in Denver, CO on July 28th. If you would like to attend, make sure you stay current with the Local University for more information.

Photo Credit: MaDedee/Shutterstock