Do you want to promote your local business through search engines like Google?

If so, setting up a Google Business Profile (GBP) is paramount to your success. 

That’s because GBP is Google’s in-house business directory, and it uses its data to display local businesses in Google Maps and its regular search results. 

A GBP listing is also necessary for appearing in the local pack, which is a special SERP (search engine results pages) feature that appears at the very top of the search results. 

Here’s an example of a local pack that triggers when we search for ‘best pizza near me’ (which is an extremely common search phrase for finding local businesses):

As you can see, the local pack highlights three local pizza restaurants and includes information like their address, hours of operation, and average rating out of five stars. 

However, there’s something each of these restaurants has in common, and it’s that they all have optimized Google Business Profile listings. 

If they weren’t in GBP, they wouldn’t appear in the local pack, which is why setting up GBP is imperative for all local businesses. 

Some quick stats to prove our point:

• ‘Near me’ keywords (like the one listed above) are the most popular queries on Google, as they account for 84% of all discovery searches. 
• GBP listings that are 100% complete are 7 times more likely to receive more clicks than incomplete profiles. 

Knowing what you know now, are you ready to claim and fully optimize your Google Business Profile listing?

Awesome, stay tuned to learn how! 

What Is Google Business Profile?

Google Business Profile is an online business directory that allows local businesses to control how their business information appears in Google Search, Google Maps, and even Google Shopping.

It works by allowing local business owners to create listings (and claim existing ones) that provide crucial information like:

• The business’s NAP (name, address, and phone number) 
• Customer reviews 
• Hours of operation 
• Email addresses 
• Photos of the business 

It’s extremely important for business owners to keep this information accurate and up-to-date to avoid confusing potential customers. 

The biggest thing to know is that your GMB business listing is still intact. It’s all saved in your Google account. 

With a Google Business Profile, you can add photos, create compelling business descriptions, display your hours and contact information, and monitor/reply to reviews that customers leave for your business on Google. 

You can also create short posts to update customers on new developments and promote special deals. 

Google Business Profile’s Main Features 

Now that you know what GBP is all about, let’s take a deeper dive into its features and capabilities.

GBP’s primary features revolve around three areas:

1. Maintaining accurate information about your business across Google’s product lineup 
2. Interacting with your existing customers 
3. Attracting new customers 

There’s quite a bit to unpack here, so let’s take a closer look at each feature. 

Manage your business information 

On GBP, you can provide essential details such as your business name, address, phone number, website, hours of operation, and more. 

This information helps potential customers find and contact your business. It’s also the data Google will use to display your business in Google Maps, Google Shopping, and SERP features like the local pack. 

Customer engagement

There are a few ways you can interact with your customers on GBP, including:

• Reviews: Customers can leave reviews and ratings on your profile, which will build trust and credibility. Responding to reviews (both positive and negative) will also show that you care about customer feedback, so do your best to respond to every review that you receive. 

• Q&A section: The Q&A feature allows customers to ask questions directly on your profile, which you can answer to provide more information and engage with your audience. A fleshed-out Q&A section will likely reduce the amount of customer support queries you receive, so it’s worth the effort to write one. 

Add photos and videos

You can upload photos and videos of your business, significantly enhancing your listing’s appeal. 

High-quality images can attract more customers by giving them a visual representation of your business.

However, you should only include immaculate photos that make your business look amazing. Translation: get professional photos taken instead of snapping some pics with your smartphone and calling it a day. 

Share posts and updates

The ‘Posts’ feature allows you to share updates, special offers, events, and other content directly on your profile. 

There are lots of ways you can leverage this feature to your benefit, such as showing off a new product or informing your audience of an upcoming promotion.

Getting more creative, you can incorporate 360° street views from Google Maps, user-generated content like customer photos, and seasonal content.  

Gather insights 

Google provides valuable insights into how customers interact with your profile, such as how many people view it, how they found it, and what actions they take (e.g., visiting your website, requesting directions, or calling your business).

Understanding customer behavior will help you improve your services and make better business decisions, so it’s worth analyzing the data GBP has to offer.

Bookings 

Google Business allows customers to book appointments or services directly through your profile if applicable.

This is an excellent way to drive conversions, as it’s always best to make things as simple as possible for new customers. 

Instead of having to click through to your website to schedule an appointment, users can simply hit the ‘Schedule’ button that will appear next to your search result. 

Attributes

The attributes feature lets you highlight specific aspects of your business, like being women-led, veteran-led, Black-owned, or LGBTQ-friendly. 

This can help you connect with specific audiences and provide accessibility information, such as if your business has wheelchair ramps. 

Products and Services

Here, you can showcase your offerings with detailed descriptions, photos, and pricing. 

This gives customers a preview of what you offer before they even visit your website or physical location, which is another way to boost conversions. 

Once again, your goal is to make interacting with your business as quick and easy as possible for prospective customers. 

Build Customer Trust With GBP

GBP’s primary function is to present established, reliable businesses to online search users. 

Without a fully optimized listing, searchers may not completely understand what you offer, or they may suspect your business is not legitimate. 

So, when you claim and verify your business on Google, it signals to potential customers that your business is legitimate and trustworthy. 

Don’t believe us? 

Consider these stats that come directly from Google:

• Customers are 2.7 times more likely to consider a business reputable if they find a complete GBP listing.
• Customers are 70% more likely to visit and 50% more likely to consider purchasing from businesses with an optimized GBP listing.

However, if you want to generate more business, you’ll also need to build trust with your customers. 

Unsurprisingly, positive reviews are one of the best ways for businesses to build trust. 

Research shows that 84% of customers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. That’s why they matter so much for your ranking and overall brand. 

Maximize Your Local SEO

People who are searching for local businesses are often ready to make a purchase.

They’ve already done their online research on your products or services (thanks to Search and Maps) and are ready to purchase a product, make a reservation, or book an appointment with you. 

Note that the Google Map results don’t always show up at the top, but people still tend to click on them even if they are farther down the page. 

Juris Digital did a heat map study and discovered that around 32% of people clicked on Google Maps results, while the remaining users clicked on organic search results or paid ads. This means you have a very real incentive to appear in Google Maps results, which is only possible through GBP. 

Also, according to Moz’s local search ranking factors, Google Business Profile consistently ranks first for ranking factors in local map search and is also a significant factor in local organic search.

Increased Visibility in Google Search and Maps

Having a Google Business Profile is essential for improving your business’s visibility in local search results, especially when users search for services or products ‘near me.’ 

This increased visibility has the potential to drive more foot traffic to your brick-and-mortar business. 

How’s that?

It’s because a GBP listing makes your business more accessible to potential customers who are ready to purchase.

Backlinko’s research found that 76% of consumers who search for ‘near me’ keywords on Google will visit the physical business within a day, so we didn’t just pull this fact out of nowhere! 

That’s not to mention the additional benefits you’ll reap from appearing in the local pack SERP feature mentioned previously. 

While the exact criteria for appearing in the local pack are not fully known, these factors can significantly boost your chances:

• Optimizing your Google Business Profile
• Accumulating customer reviews
• Engaging on social media
• Being listed on top citation sites like Yelp or Yahoo Local

Next Steps: Optimize Your Google Business Profile

Now that you understand the importance of a Google Business Profile listing for your local SEO, your next step should be to start optimizing it to fully benefit from Google’s offerings. This is where you can get creative to attract new customers and increase conversions.

Our Learning Hub chapter, “How to Optimize Your Google Business Profile Listing,” provides step-by-step instructions on how to make your profile stand out.

Here’s a sneak peek of the optimization advice we provide:

• What’s the most important information to include in your listing?
• Where can you include keywords?
• How should you format your business’s NAP?
• What’s the best way to photograph your business?
• Is it worth adding videos to the GBP listing?

Also in this guide: 

How to Use Google Posts: This section will show you how to master Google Posts. Learn what they are, how to create engaging content, and track your results to watch your visibility soar! 

How To Claim Your Google My Business Listing: This section includes step-by-step instructions on setting up your Google Business Profile and optimizing it to rank higher in local search.

How To Get Google Reviews: Discover proven strategies to earn authentic reviews and build trust with potential customers. Plus, learn how to tackle fake reviews effectively.

Ready To Grow Your Business?

Now that you can officially answer the question ‘What is Google Business Profile?’ It’s time to put that knowledge into practice. 

If you don’t have an active online presence on Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business), you could be missing out on a ton of potential customers. 

Our local SEO gurus are experts at optimizing web pages with localized keywords, getting your business listed in high-traffic directories, and making your Google Business Profile the best it can be – so don’t wait to try out our services. 

Also, feel free to contact us if you need help getting started with your marketing strategies. 

The post What Is Google Business Profile? appeared first on The HOTH.

If so, verifying your business with a listing on Google Business Profile (GBP) is an absolutely crucial first step.

97% of consumers take to search engines like Google to learn more about local businesses, and a GBP listing will help you appear in the local search results. 

If you’ve ever searched for a restaurant or business ‘near you’ or ‘in your area,’ you’re probably very familiar with seeing search result features like these:

This is Google’s ‘Local Pack,’ and it contains three local business listings relevant to the search query, and even features a handy map. 

Well, every business listed in this example has one thing in common – they all have Google Business Profile listings. 

If you want your local business to appear in dynamic search results like these that contain maps, reviews, and photos – creating a GBP listing is a necessity. 

With a Google Business Profile, you’ll have more control over how your company appears on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs for short), including your:

• Business NAP (name, address, and phone number) 
• Positive user reviews 
• Photos of your business 

Also, by creating a GBP listing, Google will verify you as a legitimate and reliable business, enabling you to appear in all sorts of SERP features (like the ‘Google Local Pack’ listed above, but more on that later). 

In this article, we’ll teach you all five verification methods for setting up your Google Business Profile listing, so stay tuned.  

What is Google Business Profile, and Why Does it Matter for Local SEO?

Google Business Profile is Google’s own business listing service. It helps businesses manage their online presence across Google’s platform, especially for Search and Maps.

Whenever you search for a business on Google, its GBP appears as an information box that provides essential details like:

Business name

Address (or service area)

Hours of operation

Contact information

Photos and videos

Customer reviews

(Source)

The good news is business owners can either A) claim an existing GBP listing (sometimes Google will auto-generate business information if there is none) or B) create a new listing from scratch. 

By doing so, you’ll have complete control over the information Google displays about your business, which is a serious advantage. 

GBP is particularly important for businesses with brick-and-mortar locations (restaurants, stores, etc.) or those serving specific cities and neighborhoods (electricians, mobile detailers, consultants, etc.). 

Once you verify your GBP listing, you’ll unlock additional features, including the ability to:

• Respond to customer reviews and questions
• Create original posts to share offers or updates about your business
• Add service options like online delivery or booking

Besides Google Business Profile, other free tools offered by Google that help business owners with their digital marketing include:

• Google Analytics. The more you know about your target audience, the easier it becomes to create content for them. Google Analytics is a free platform that provides all kinds of insights into your audience’s behavior, including their demographics, how they found you, and how they interact with your site. 
• Google Search Console. If you want to find success with SEO (search engine optimization), you need a way to monitor your progress. Google Search Console provides crucial SEO metrics like position rankings, keywords, and indexing error reports. 
• Google Ads. A quick way to skyrocket your brand to the top of the search results is to use paid ads through Google. A perk of going this route is how much control you have over your ads (i.e., demographics, control over when they display, etc.).    

Why Is It Important to Verify Your Business Listing on GBP?

Are you still not convinced that you need to verify your business with a GBP listing?

Well, these five key benefits should help change your mind:

Keep your business information up to date

With a verified GBP listing, it’s confirmed that you’re the rightful owner of your business. That will prevent others from claiming your listing or making unauthorized/inaccurate changes to it. 

As long as you have complete ownership of your listing, you can update your business hours, respond to reviews, add photos, and create posts. 

If you don’t verify or claim your GBP listing, you risk Google displaying outdated or inaccurate information about your business, which can have disastrous results. 

Since so many users search on Google for local businesses, a huge chunk of your prospects will fall by the wayside because they saw an incorrect address or business hours. That’s why it’s imperative to claim your listing and keep your business’s information up to date. 

Enhanced customer interactions

One of the biggest perks of GBP is that you can respond to customer reviews, which will improve your reputation management. 

You can reply to both positive and negative reviews, which will demonstrate both professionalism and a staunch commitment to a positive customer experience. 

(Image Source)

You’ll definitely need lots of user reviews if you want to drum up business from local patrons. 

Why is that?

It’s because of how crucial reviews are for businesses in today’s age. According to a 2020 survey, 94% of customers claimed positive online reviews made them more likely to choose a business, while 92% said negative reviews turned them away immediately. 

With GBP verification, you can interact and respond to reviews to save your reputation. 

For example, you can call out fake reviews whenever they pop up, and you can address a patron’s genuine concerns whenever you receive a negative review. 

While you may want to just ignore negative reviews, it’s imperative that you respond to them, as that’ll improve the public’s perception of your brand.

The proof?

Harvard Business Review conducted a study which found that businesses who responded to reviews – good or bad – saw an increase in their ratings as a result. 

This is why it’s so important to respond to every review that your business receives on Google. 

Besides responding to reviews, GBP also enables you to:

Answer questions: Customers can post questions directly on your profile. Once verified, you’ll have the ability to answer their questions, which will position your brand as an authority figure. 

Message customers: GBP allows customers to message you directly through your listing, which definitely comes in handy. Through the messaging feature, customers can reach out with pressing questions and concerns or just to sing their praises.

Crucial for local SEO

Local SEO is the name of the game for brick-and-mortar businesses eager to capitalize on relevant user searches on Google. 

We’ve already mentioned how the vast majority of customers use search engines to find information about businesses in their area. 

If you want to rank high for keywords related to your business (like ‘pizza near me’), you MUST have a Google Business Profile. 

Otherwise, Google won’t know if it should trust your business or not, so you’ll have limited visibility on the SERPs. Moreover, a GBP listing is necessary if you want to get your business listed in the aforementioned ‘Google Local Pack’ (where three local listings appear along with their locations on Google Maps). 

Appearing in the Local Pack is integral for the success of local SEO campaigns. 

Why is that?

Studies show that 93% of searches that have local intent on Google feature a Local Pack, and 50% of users will visit a nearby business within 24 hours as a direct result of their local search. Moreover, 78% of those users will make an offline purchase in the near future. 

Increased trust and credibility

Picture that you’re on the hunt for a reputable plumber in your area. 

Which service would you choose: one with glowing reviews, readily available contact information, and high-resolution photos – or one that has no pictures, reviews, or even an address listed?

The choice is clear. 

This hypothetical proves the importance of Google Business Profile verification for generating new customers. 

In other words, Google isn’t the only one interested in your business’s credibility; your prospects are, too. 

In fact, Google reports that users are twice as likely to consider a verified business trustworthy over a non-verified one. Therefore, it’s in the best interest of your business and brand reputation to get verified on Google Business Profile. 

Prevent misrepresentations

As stated before, Google auto-generates business information for companies that don’t have active GBP listings. 

That’s because Google wants to provide the best experience possible for users trying to find local businesses in their area. Not every business creates a GBP listing, so it’s up to Google to fill in the gaps. 

However, while your GBP listing remains unclaimed, anyone can claim they’re part of your business (or even the owner). From there, they can scam your customers, upload misinformation, and destroy your company’s credibility. 

GBP verification will ensure that you’re the only one who can publicly upload information about your business. 

That will prevent scammers from claiming that they own your business, and you’ll be able to keep all your information up-to-date (auto-generated GBP listings may have inaccurate or outdated information). 

Access to insights and analytics 

A verified GBP account grants you access to invaluable analytics for your local SEO campaign. 

In particular, you can view metrics like:

• Search terms. You’ll have a list of all the unique search terms users typed into Google to find your business. 

• Profile views. This is the total number of users that viewed your Google Business Profile. 

• Direction requests. This represents the number of users that requested directions to your business. 

• Food orders. For restaurants, you’ll be able to view the total number of food orders placed through your GBP. 

• Calls. How many users called your business from your GBP listing? This metric lets you know. 

These are just a few of the data sets available to you with a verified GBP account. Also, you can view which actions users take once they visit your listing (like making calls or scheduling bookings). 

These insights are perfect for improving your listing, website, and marketing strategies.

How to Verify Your Listing On Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business)

Now that you know why GBP verification is worth it, it’s time to learn how to make it happen. There are five unique ways you can verify your business on GBP, so let’s take a closer look at each one. 

Before you start the verification process, you have to claim your business first. To do so, go to Google Search or Google Maps and type in your business name and address. 

If there’s an existing GBP, click on the ‘Own this business?’ button and select ‘Manage this business.’

Once this is done, you can move on to the verification process. 

Image courtesy of Birdeye

Google offers several ways to verify, and the available options might vary based on your business type.

#1. Postcard

In this method, Google will send you a postcard with a unique code to your address. Business owners need to enter an accurate address and request the postcard.

The postcard usually arrives within 5-14 business days. 

Once you have it, log in to your Google Business Profile. From the dashboard, navigate to your business and click “Verify now” or “Verify location.” Enter the 5-digit code listed on the postcard, and you’re all set. 

#2. Email

Some business profiles have the option to verify by email, but it’s not unanimous. If you see the “verify by email” option, click on it, double-check the email address, and select “Verify Now.”

After that, you’ll get an email from Google with a verification code and an activation link. Click on the link, enter the code on the following page, and tap “Verify.” 

Presto! You’re now verified in GBP. 

#3. Phone or text

From your GBP dashboard, select “Get Verified” and choose the “Phone or SMS” option. 

Ensure that the number you’ve provided is the right one and that you can immediately answer calls to it (a time-sensitive code is involved).

Google will then call you and give you a code. If you select SMS, they’ll send a text to that number with a code. Enter the code in your Google Business Profile page, and you’re good to go. 

This verification method is only available in a few countries, including the US and Canada.

#4. Video recording

Another option is to send Google a video recording proving that your business actually exists in your area and that you own it. 

This method is a bit more complicated, so here’s a step-by-step breakdown. 

How the process works

1⃣ Initiate verification

Log in to your GBP and click “Verify now.” If video recording is an option for you, it will appear on the list. 

2⃣ Instructions and guidelines

Google will provide specific instructions on what to include in your video and guidelines to follow. Read over these carefully!

3⃣ Record your video

Google requires a continuous, unedited video that proves you operate at the claimed location (edits could imply manipulation, which is why it needs to be one seamless take). 

Here’s what to include:

Location: Show the exterior of your business, including any visible street signs, nearby businesses, or the surrounding area. This will confirm your business’s connection to your Google Maps listing.

Operations: Showcase what you do. This could be inventory, branded equipment, marketing materials, or tools you use to serve customers.

Proof of management: Demonstrate your authority to represent the business. Ideas include showing an employee-only area, using keys to unlock the building, or briefly displaying non-sensitive business documents (or posing in front of your framed portrait).

Steps for Recording

1. Use your mobile phone. If you started verification on a desktop, scan a QR code to continue on your phone.
2. In your Business Profile, tap “Get Verified” > “Capture Video.”
3. Tap “Start Recording” and follow the guidelines to create a single, continuous video.
4. Tap “Stop Recording” > “Upload Video.”

4⃣ Upload and submit

Follow the provided steps to upload the video for Google’s review.

5⃣ Optional: Delete your video

Once verified, you can delete the video from Google’s servers. Go to your Google Business Profile > More > Advanced Settings > Video Uploads > Delete Videos.

#5. Live video call

Instead of filming a video, you can also take part in a live video chat with a Google representative to complete the verification process. 

First, you need to check when representatives are available for the call on this page.

To kick off the call, you’ll need to start a text chat with a support agent first. Go to your GBP dashboard, select “Get Verified,” and then choose “Video Call” from the list of available options. Select your language of choice, and then hit “Start Call.”

Source 

A support representative will help you join the call. 

During the call, you need to show all the same details you would in a video recording (i.e., business location, equipment, and proof of management).

#6 Bulk Google Business Profile verification

If you manage 10 or more locations of the same business, you may be eligible for bulk verification, which definitely comes in handy. 

Here’s how to get started.

Prerequisites

• No existing verified accounts: Ensure that no individually verified accounts exist for the locations you intend to manage in bulk.
• Error-free account: Double-check that your existing Google Business Profile account is in good standing.
• Ineligible businesses: Service-area businesses (those without physical locations) do not qualify for bulk verification.

Next, put together a spreadsheet containing information for all 10+ locations you manage. 

Include each business’s name, address, contact details, etc. 

Ensure that all locations are part of the same business entity.

Here are the steps to request verification:

1. Sign in to Google Business Profile Manager on your computer.
2. Click “Verifications” in the left-hand menu.
3. Select the “Chain” option for bulk verification.
4. Complete the form and provide the following information:
   • Business name
   • Countries/regions of operation
   • Contact names for all managers of the Business Profile account
   • Contact phone number
   • Business manager email
   • Google Account Manager email (if applicable)
   • Submit: Finalize and submit the form.

Google will then email you regarding the status of your bulk verification request.

#7 Instant verification 

If your website has already been verified with Google Search Console, your GBP may be eligible for instant verification. 

If you qualify, you don’t need to go through any of the verification methods listed above and can directly edit your company’s details.

This is by far the quickest and easiest way to verify your business on GBP, so it’s worth setting up Google Search Console if you haven’t already done so. 

How to Optimize Your Google Business Profile Listing After It’s Verified

Now that you’ve verified your GBP listing, it’s time to optimize it so that your profile provides:

• Useful information 
• A way to connect with customers
• A boost to your local SEO 

Here are five best practices for optimizing your Google Business Profile listing. 

Use professional images

Upload current photos of your establishment, but ensure that they’re A) high-resolution and B) remain consistent with your brand identity. 

If you have any videos of your business in action, feel free to add them as well. Visuals like photos and videos act as social proof for would-be customers browsing your products and services. 

The team at Google claims businesses with photos have a higher chance of generating clicks to their websites and requests for directions. 

This plumbing service is an excellent example of using high-quality photos in a GBP listing:

The highlighted photo beams with friendliness and professionalism, and the others are effective at showing off their plumbing work. 

In the same vein, restaurants can upload images of their signature dishes and decor – and furniture stores can highlight the craftsmanship of their products. 

Categorize your business correctly

Google Business Profile operates on categories, so you should add as many that directly relate to your business as possible. 

Why is that?

Because Google’s search algorithm uses these categories to decide when to include your business for local searches, it’s imperative that you include the full gambit of what you offer.

In other words, don’t just add one main category and call it a day. 

You’re allowed to add up to 10 relevant subcategories, and you can and should use them all. 

Google provides the example of a grocery store that offers both a pharmacy and a deli. In that scenario, their primary category would be ‘grocery store,’ but they should also include ‘pharmacy’ and ‘deli’ as subcategories. 

Enable special features

GBP provides special features for hotels, restaurants, pubs, and other types of businesses to better highlight their offerings. 

For example:

• Hotels can display their class ratings, check-in and check-out times, and a list of amenities provided. 
• Restaurants and bars can display menus and add URLs for online delivery/reservations.
• Some businesses have the ability to list their products directly.
• Healthcare providers can list their accepted insurance providers. 
• Some businesses have the option to book appointments or request a quote.

(Source)

Depending on your business offerings, you should capitalize on these features since they make it easier for customers to spend money at your business. In the example provided, the electrician company enables prospects to request a quote straight from the Google results.  

Add any other helpful information, such as wheelchair accessibility, LGBTQ+ friendly, and free Wi-Fi availability.

Actively Manage Reviews

If you want your prospects to view your business as credible, you need user reviews. 

Google provides star ratings and detailed comments so that customers can accurately relay their experiences. 

We’ve already gone over how important it is to respond to both good and bad reviews, since professional responses will lead to higher ratings later on. 

Optimize the copy on your listing

Add a small overview of your business offerings at the top of your Google Business Profile listing. Here’s an example from a sushi restaurant:

This one or two-line sentence is a deciding factor that can persuade customers to pick your business over the competition. If your company has a concise, enticing description while your competitors only have a few words (or no description at all), it becomes clear which business is more professional.  

Think of it as a call to action for your company. Keep it short and sweet, but highlight what you offer and how you stand out from the crowd.

Leverage Google Posts

Google Posts are mini-updates that appear directly on your Business Profile whenever your listing appears in Search and Maps.

It gives you a platform to highlight what’s happening in your business, which will keep your customers in the loop. 

Here’s how to use them effectively:

Source

There are three different types of posts, including:

• Offers: Promote sales, discounts, and limited-time deals. Visually showcase the offer and use time-sensitive language to create urgency.
• Updates: Share general news about your business. This could be new products, awards, blog articles, or behind-the-scenes glimpses to build connections.
• Events: Announce upcoming events, workshops, webinars, etc. Include dates, times, and how to register or attend.

Boost Your Local SEO Presence with a Verified Google Business Profile

Setting up your Google Business Profile and getting verified is the foundation of a strong local online presence. 

It signals legitimacy to both your customers and Google – plus, it gives you the tools you need to stand out in local search results. 

Want to dominate your local market? 

Let’s make it happen!

Take the next step:

If optimizing your Google Business Profile and tackling local SEO seems overwhelming, don’t worry! 

The HOTH’s marketing and SEO experts are here to handle everything for you. Get in touch today and start attracting more local customers to your business without having to lift a finger.

FAQs

What is a Google Business Profile?  

A Google Business Profile is a free listing that helps your business get discovered on Google Search and Maps. 

It lets you showcase essential business information like your address, hours of operation, photos, and enables customer reviews.

Why is Google Business Profile verification important? 

Verification adds a badge of legitimacy to your listing, boosting customer trust. 

It also helps improve your ranking in local searches and grants you full control over how people interact with your business online.

How long does the verification process take? 

The most common verification method is to receive a postcard containing verification codes, and it typically takes 5-14 days to arrive. 

Other methods like phone or email verification can sometimes be faster, but the overall timeline can depend on your specific business and location.

Can any type of business get verified? 

Most businesses that have a physical location or operate as service-area businesses (those that serve customers at the customer’s location) are eligible for verification. 

There are certain restrictions for strictly online businesses or specific sensitive business categories.

I’m not receiving my verification postcard. What should I do? 

First, double-check that the address in your Google Business Profile is completely accurate. 

From there, you can request that Google send you another postcard, or if your business is eligible, you can attempt a different verification method.

My verification was rejected. How can I fix this?

The most important step is to carefully review Google’s Business Profile guidelines. 

Common reasons for rejection include inaccurate information or not meeting Google’s eligibility standards.

Can I change my business information after verification? 

Yes, you can edit your basic business information after verification. However, be aware that significant changes to your name, address, or business category might trigger the need to re-verify your listing. 

The post Google Business Profile Verification: What Is It, and Why Do You Need It? appeared first on The HOTH.

Yet, nothing has changed quite as much as the local search. 

On Wednesday, September 28th, 2022, Google held its Google Search On 2022 event, where they announced the newest features coming to the platform – including many local search updates. 

Changes include exciting user features such as being able to search for specific food dishes from local restaurants, using images to conduct searches, and an exciting Google Maps live view. 

What does this mean for your local SEO profile?

It means that you need to adapt to these changes as quickly as possible to retain your current rankings. Not only that, but these changes will also pose exciting opportunities for new tactics to get you to the top of the SERPs. 

With 2023 just around the corner, it’s crucial to gear up for the new year by checking out the most accurate predictions for how SEO is set to change going forward.  

Luckily, that’s precisely what we’re here to do. 

Read on to learn about the most important local SEO updates as well as what will matter most for SEOs in 2023. 

2022 in Review: What Were the Biggest Developments in Local SEO?

The SEO industry saw some significant changes and updates in 2022, with 10 confirmed Google algorithm updates. 

In early December, Google implemented continuous scroll on desktop search results. That means there’s officially no longer a page 2 of search results (time to move all those dead bodies). 

SERP features also received an overhaul, with some search queries now featuring 2 or more featured snippets, ‘other sites say’ snippets, and ‘from the web’ snippets. Beyond that, Google began using MUM (Multitask Unified Model) to determine a general consensus for search queries. 

Doing so has helped them reduce ‘false premise’ results (unrelated results that don’t satisfy your search intent) by 40%. 

The switch from Google My Business to Google Business Profile saw more changes to the platform than just the name change. Most notably, local business owners can now edit their listings without having to dig through tons of lists and menus. 

Instead, you’re now able to edit your local listings (think your business name, address, and phone number) straight from Google Maps and Google Search. 

Many local SEO updates were announced at the Google Search On 2022 event, which will surely mix up the local search results. A lot happened, so let’s take a look at the most important updates. 

Google’s Multisearch ‘Near Me’ 

Multisearch was arguably the most significant new search engine feature that rolled out in 2022. 

Source

Starting in April, Google searchers were able to use images or screenshots instead of text-based queries. 

It works by using your phone’s camera (powered by Google Lens) to search for images online. Users can also add text on top of the image to make the search more specific. 

Google’s goal was to allow users to ‘search beyond the box’ and ask questions about the things they see. 

The applications for this new feature are vast, as you can use multisearch to find products, educational information, tutorials, and more. 

For instance, if you take a picture of your dining set and add the text ‘dining room table,’ Google will help you find a matching dining room table for your silverware. 

How does this affect local SEO?

During Google Search On 2022, it was announced that multisearch queries will include local SEO terminology, such as ‘near me.’ 

That means users can discover your local business through image searches, which is yet another way prospects can find you online. 

Optimizing your content for local multisearch 

Multisearch is certainly a convenient feature for Google users, but how will it affect your local SEO strategy? More importantly, will it impact your current local rankings?

After all, every time new features are added to search engines, SEOs must devise ways to optimize content for them. 

Since multisearch is still so new, there’s a noticeable lack of information on how to optimize for it. 

However, Google’s John Mueller has a few words of advice for webmasters. 

He states, “if your content is findable in search, and if you have images on the content and those images are relevant, we can guide people to those images or to your content in multiple ways.” 

He also notes that “there’s not a direct effect on SEO or anything like that.” In other words, if your content is already ranking in the top 5 local results or local pack, multisearch won’t change that. 

What you should do is ensure your website is chock-full of helpful content that contains relevant, high-quality images. You should also optimize your Google Business Profile (GBP) to include the most up-to-date information, such as your NAP (name, address, phone number) and business hours. 

If you don’t have a GBP, you likely won’t appear in Google Maps or the local pack, so you should definitely create one (or claim an existing business listing). Including Google reviews on your profile is another good idea, as that’s a perk for both your customers and search algorithms. 

Finding Local Restaurants By Searching for Menu Items 

Sometimes users aren’t looking for specific restaurants but rather a certain dish that they’re craving. 

For instance, say you’re in the mood for a barbecue chicken pizza, but you aren’t sure which of your local pizzerias offer them. 

In the past, you’d have to take to Yelp or other directories to find specific menu items, but as of September 2022, the new Google update grants users this ability. 

By searching for ‘Google’s John Mueller ,’ Google will display a results page with a list of all the local restaurants in the area that serve that dish. Besides that, you’ll also get to see pictures of each dish, user reviews, and the rest of the menu. 

According to Google’s research, 40% of their users already had a dish in mind when searching for food online, which was the reason for the update. 

This feature adds a few new ranking factors for local restaurants, so it’s crucial to optimize your GBP if you want your restaurant to appear in these new types of searches. 

For one, you’ll need to include high-quality pictures of each menu item, as well as detailed descriptions and reviews. 

That means it’s time to bust out the camera and lighting kit if you don’t already have pictures of each dish online. If your barbecue chicken pizza has a mouth-watering photo, enticing description, and numerous 5-star reviews, you’ll likely pick up a majority of the business from local queries looking for it. 

Combining multisearch and searching for food dishes

Users can now search for specific menu items using multisearch, which adds another layer of complexity to these new features. 

For instance, if you wanted to find the best plate of spaghetti in your area, you could select a photo of spaghetti from your photo library and add the words ‘near me.’ 

Google will understand what you mean, and you’ll see a list of all the local restaurants offering spaghetti in your town. This further reinforces the need for high-resolution images of every menu item you offer; otherwise, you’ll miss out on tons of potential traffic. 

Google Maps Live View & Neighborhood Vibe 

Small businesses now have even more incentive to create Google Business Profiles, as Google Maps has undergone a significant transformation.

First, Google’s Neighborhood Vibe is making Google Maps more interactive and personal. As you browse neighborhoods, you’ll get to see user-uploaded photos and videos of the area from various social media profiles. 

This is meant to let you feel the ‘vibe’ of the neighborhood, such as local hot spots to eat, drink, and dance. 

Google Maps also has an interactive live view now, which will display the GBPs for local businesses. Users will get to see your business name, hours of operation, user reviews, and how busy you are at the moment. 

What do these two features mean from a digital marketing standpoint?

They mean you’ll need to keep your GBP up-to-date now more than ever before. The last thing you want is for a prospect to see your business hours in the Google Maps live view only to realize they aren’t correct whenever they try to visit your location. 

You’ll also need to engage with your social media profiles on Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. That will increase the chances of users taking exciting photos and videos of your business and then sharing them online with friends. 

The Face of Local SEO in 2023

Now that you know more about the essential local SEO updates of 2022, it’s time to look forward to 2023.

How is your local SEO strategy likely to change?

There’s sure to be more information coming out about how to optimize your content for multisearch, as it’s a feature that’s sure to stick around. 

Mobile-first indexing isn’t going anywhere, so you’ll need to ensure you have a responsive design if you don’t already. Not only that, but GBP is going to matter more than ever, so proper optimization is critical. 

Besides that, having a lightning-fast website that offers a stellar user experience is still a must, thanks to the Google Core Web Vitals test and the ever-growing standards of the average internet user. 

Final Takeaways: Local SEO Updates 

2022 saw many significant changes and updates for the SEO world, and local search wasn’t left out by any means. 

Multisearch, Google Maps Neighborhood Vibe, and searching for food menu items are all significant advancements, and you’ll need to optimize your content accordingly. 

Do you need help forming a local SEO strategy that considers all these updates?

Then it’s time to drop everything and check out our outstanding local SEO packages. We also offer managed SEO, local business listings, and local reviews, so don’t wait to get in touch.        

The post The Most Pressing Local SEO Updates for 2023 appeared first on The HOTH.

By adding local schema markup to your website, you can tell search engines exactly what your business name is, your image, your address, phone number, hours of operation and more.

In today’s article, I’m going to show you how to optimize your local seo website with schema.

Let’s get into it!

What Is Local Schema Markup?

Schema.org was developed as a collaboration by global search engines such as Bing, Yahoo, and Google, to create a method for categorizing information about different websites. 

Schema markup data is created through code, so it has a specific language used so the search engine can understand what you’re trying to tell it. Schema markups are also known as structured data and they could be instrumental for adding extra power to a digital marketing strategy.

For example, if your business has differing opening hours depending on the day, you can mark every department with an OpeningHourSpecification item for each one.

Customers use search engines to find businesses near their locations, within their timezones, and depending on availability. Increasing your ranking for a local business involves providing search engines with as much relevant information about your business as possible.

As per John Mueller’s statement, using structured data doesn’t have a direct benefit towards increased ranking. However, structured data makes it easier to show where a webpage is relevant, allowing it to rank easier for the right terms. Thus, it has an indirect, positive effect on search engine optimization ranking.

Before we keep explaining how to properly optimize schema markup to drive visitors to your site, let’s define some key terms that we’ll be using for the remainder of the article.

Structured data

First, we have structured data. Structured data is data specified in a standard format. Some examples of structured data include numbers, contact points, dates, and credit card numbers. Structured data is easy to understand and organized for local search engines.

Structured data helps standardize information about a page or subpage, classifying it better for web crawlers. In other words, schema markup is structured data that directly tells a search engine the meaning of your page and why users will find it useful. 

Types of Schema Markups

There are different formats of schema markups: RDFa, Microdata and JSON-LD, sometimes known as ld+json. Let’s describe what makes each of these types special:

JSON-LD

JSON-LD is the Google recommended format for schema. JSON-LD is a Javascript notation embedded in a <script> tag in the page head or body. Its easier to understand because it expresses data without user-visible text in-between.

An example of JSON-LD is PostalAddress. It’s easy to understand that this schema code refers to the postal address of the website. 

RDFa and microdata

RDFa is an HTML5 extension that supports linked data and introduces HTML tag attributes that correspond to the user-visible content you’re aiming to describe for an organic search. The results we’ll be taking a look at later are an example of what you can do with RDFa. It’s commonly used in the head and body sections of the HTML page.

On the other hand, Microdata is an open-community HTML specification code that nests structured data within HTML.

Both RDFa and Microdata are implemented as properties in the content, while JSON-LD is added as a final section of code in the HTML footer. RDFa and microdata are older ways to write schema and usually require more effort to be properly implemented, making them more prone to showing up errors. 

JSON-LD offers the benefit of being more efficient to work with, making it easier to make adjustments to your on-page SEO.

Schemas are also categorized in other types, as they are incredibly varied and can apply to practically any industry, object, or action. The schema.org dictionary consists of 792 different types, so there’s a lot of territory to cover when adding your local business schema markup. We’ll take a look at the most important schema types for your business later.

What Are Rich Results?

Rich results show up when a page has its content enriched by well-placed schema markup. We love to see rich results show up on the SERPs whenever we look something up.

See the beautiful snippets, FAQs, and images that show up on the SERPS whenever you look something up?

Take a look!

Those are rich results. They make your website stand out and highlight key information your audience might be directly searching for. They also provide search engines with intel on a page’s purpose.  

Rich results attract a lot of attention and generally show up as boxes with an image, rating, FAQ, recipe, and a brief description of the search query. 

On the other hand, a search result without schema markup would show up like the following image:

When the information in the meta description doesn’t include information on the FAQs, it doesn’t come up with answers to the direct questions. 

Once a visitor sees the extra details prompted by the schema markup, it is easier for them to make a decision to click on the page or pass it over. 

Of course, anyone would prefer a rich result instead of the simple result. That’s why you should add schema markup to your website!

This translates into a reduced bounce rate and an increased possibility of a visitor clicking on a rich result from the search results.

In the long-term, these efforts translate into a higher ranking and expanded search result features. Think of them as search results premium options

Rich results are different from snippets, even if they might look the same. Some snippets might show rich results, but not all featured snippets. 

This is what a featured snippet looks like:

A bit self-explanatory, but the screenshot shows us a featured snippet of the Google search “what is a featured snippet”. It’s located in “Position 0” of the google search, presenting viewers with an answer before any other site is presented. Most likely, people will click on the site presenting the featured snippet before any other result below.

You can use Schema.org’s dictionary to have a better understanding of what each term means and how to use it properly.

Also, take a look at this screenshot from their website:

How Schema Improves Digital Brand Presence

Schema can improve brand presence by coming up with a Knowledge Graph. See the big box that shows up on Google searches? It has relevant business information that Google only displays if they deem the information to be useful. 

You can help search engines trust your company’s information by translating this into structured data in your website. It’s also helpful if you complete your Google Business Profile account to improve your digital business’ Knowledge Graph. 

Displaying social proof and social media links on Google increases brand trustiness with your audience, as people look up your product and find what previous customers are talking about it before they even reach your website.

Since we know that Google ratings, reviews, and stars show up in the Knowledge Graph, you can allow customers to leave reviews that show up as rich results thanks to using schema markup.

How to Identify Your type of Organization in Schema

First, clarify what kind of business you are. Schema.org provides business owners with several different options, and its best to be as specific as you can. 

Most businesses identify with “Organization” though there are many other types available in Schema.org.

The main structured data you want to focus on are the types of businesses, image, phone number, logo, opening hours, company description, address, contact information, phone number, and its website URL. 

As a business, there’s going to be an overwhelming amount of properties for your local business schema.

To make things easier, we compiled a list of the main local business schema you should focus on to stand out.

The GeoCoordinates and OpeningHoursSpecification types are recommended by Google and can increase the validity of your rich results. To better understand how to use them, take a look at https://schema.org/GeoCoordinates.

Which Schema Markup Type Should I Use?

Now that we know more about schema markup properties, let’s talk about types. Which one would be best for your site?

To find out, let’s take a look at the rich results that show up on the google search snippets once more. If you want more ideas, check out the list of rich results we described above too.

Use keywords for schema markup

Let’s step into the shoes and search engines of one of your clients for a second. What kind of keywords do they tend to look up the most when inquiring about companies like yours? Get back to the cake bakery example.

What are the most common results that show up on Google when you type in cake baking recipes?

Cake bakery near me, cake bakery that accepts credit cards, cake bakery recipes.

Because these are possible examples of keywords searched by clients of a cake bakery, for their website, they might prefer to use the location, gallery, recipe, and review search results for schema markup.

If they are a retailer, they might want to add the opening hours schema markup to show up as rich results. 

If you’re a consultant or an agency, you might want to use the article and FAQs schema markups to captivate your audience from the get-go and showcase your expertise.

The most important schema types for increased visibility are: organization, reviews, recipes, author, breadcrumbs, datasets, events, products, and offers. 

Type in your business type on Google search and write down the first three keywords that people tend to search for when looking it up.  Now, using this keyword, find a schema markup that relates to it.

Another source of inspiration for your schema markup types could be your competition. Specifically, examine what kind of schema markup other companies in your industry are using, and not using.

If other cake bakeries are all using the aforementioned markups, why not use a carousel or a video showcasing the glazing of one of your cakes for rich results?

To better understand how each of these work and look in Google, let’s take a look at these examples:

Carousels

Carousels are rich results that tend to show up on mobile devices, displaying several cards from an individual website. Carousels are useful for mobile SEO and great for showcasing physical products.

FAQs

Your frequently asked questions (FAQ) section should provide questions and answers about your website, product, or service. If done well, they can even be eligible for a rich result on Search and an Action on the Google Assistant.

For example, if other bakeries are all using reviews and recipes, but none of them are using FAQs, you might want to do things differently to stand out better.

Article

The article structured data can increase your appearance in Google Search results. This is especially true if you’re publishing news articles and can be a good way to highlight your content marketing. The article markup can have different appearances depending on if you’re using it for a regular webpage or an Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) page.

Pro-tip: Avoid relying on too many plugins for schema markup, as it could generate conflicts and schema errors. With schema markup plugins, less is more!

LocalBusiness

LocalBusiness will be your best friend if you have a local business, especially considering how useful it is to show physically on maps. If you use the schema markup local business type, you’ll be able to add structured data about your business.

LocalBusiness has these possible schema markup types:

• AnimalShelter
• ArchiveOrganization
• AutomotiveBusiness
• ChildCare
• Dentist
• DryCleaningOrLaundry
• EmergencyService
• EmploymentAgency
• EntertainmentBusiness
• FinancialService
• FoodEstablishment
• GovernmentOffice
• HealthAndBeautyBusiness
• HomeAndConstructionBusiness
• InternetCafe
• LegalService
• Library
• LodgingBusiness
• MedicalBusiness
• ProfessionalService
• RadioStation
• RealEstateAgent
• RecyclingCenter
• SelfStorage
• ShoppingCenter
• SportsActivityLocation
• Store
• TelevisionStation
• TouristInformationCenter
• TravelAgency

On top of that, many of these types have subtypes of their own to better clarify and niche down what your business really is about. 

Review Snippet

Review snippet is a short piece of a review or rating from another review website, validated by Google and possibly showing a rich snippet that features stars and other summary info from the ratings. Review snippets might show in the rich results or in Google Knowledge Panels and might feature some of the following content types: 

• Book
• Course
• Event
• Local Business
• How-To
• Movie
• Product
• Recipe
• Software app

Q&A pages

Q&A pages contain information that can show up on the search results page as a question followed by a direct answer. What sets it apart from the FAQs is that users can input answers to the queries directly and it’ll automatically show the most voted answer. It can generate a better snippet for your page. To mark Q&A pages, set up your structured data using the schema code QAPage, Question and Answer types.

How to Add Local Schema Markup to Your Website

1. Display your nap in an easily crawlable HTML text format

An important reminder before we come up with your schema markup code using the schema app step-by-step.

DON’T display your NAP in image format. Search engines can’t crawl text embedded in images, so this won’t help your local ranking signals at all.

Instead, instruct your developer to list your NAP in an easily crawlable HTML text format.

Here is an example from a property management company based in Dallas Fort-Worth, Texas.

If you scroll to the bottom of their homepage, you can see the business name, address, and phone number information. This is typically where NAP info can be found.

Next, make a left click, which shows you the view page source option, or simply hit Ctrl + U.

Next, make a left click, which shows you the view page source option, or simply hit Ctrl + U.

This will pull up the HTML text source code for the website.

Hit search (or Ctrl + F) and type a portion of the listed address to see if it’s listed as text.

You should find something that looks like this.

If you look closely, you’ll find the business’s NAP nestled inside the page footer divs.

That’s how it should be done.

So your takeaway from this step is:

DO make sure your NAP shows up in your website’s HTML. This way, humans and search engines can crawl your info.

Next, add a Schema local business markup to your page.

2. Add Schema.org local business markup to your page

So, now that we know everything about schema, rich results and markup types, how do you go about creating your Schema markup? 

Even if you don’t know much about coding, there are tools like the Schema Markup Generator so you can come up with the schema markup code templates yourself.

If you haven’t optimized your Search console, then now would be a great time to do it. It’ll allow you to check how Google presents your site to the public. If you want to learn how to implement Google Search Console properly, check out our guide here.

Start by plugging in and tagging your website data to Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper.

Just enter your business page URL and click “start tagging”.

Let’s try our earlier example of a Texas-based property management business.

This will take you to a visual of your site where you click on and highlight certain parts, such as text, an image, or the footer, where your NAP is, and label it in the input table to the right. 

Select the image on your page:

Then select your company name:

Then select your address:

Once you’re done putting in data for all the tags, generate your structured data code by clicking HTML and choosing JSON-D.

You should see a snippet of your code like the one below.

<script type=”application/ld+json”>

{

“@context” : “http://schema.org”,

“@type”: “LocalBusiness”,

“name” : “Hallam”,

“legalName”: “Hallam Internet Ltd”,

“alternateName”: [

“Hallam Internet”

],

“logo” : “https://www.hallam.co.uk//wp-content//uploads//2016//05//fallback.png”,

“image”: “https://www.hallam.co.uk/assets/banner-hallam-office.jpg”,

“url”: “https://www.hallam.co.uk”,

“address”: {

“@type”: “PostalAddress”,

“streetAddress”: “The Clock Tower”,

“addressLocality”: “Talbot Street”,

“addressRegion”: “Nottingham”,

“postalCode”: “NG1 5HG”

},

“telephone”: “0115 948 0123”,

“openingHours”:

[

“Mo-Fr 09:00-17:00”

],

“email” :”info@hallam.co.uk”,

“vatID”: “745898665”,

“sameAs” :

[ “https://www.facebook.com/HallamTeam”,

“https://twitter.com/HallamInternet”,

“https://www.linkedin.com/company/hallam/”,

“https://www.yelp.co.uk/biz/hallam-internet-nottingham-2”

You can download the code snippet and test it on Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool.

Structured Data Test

Google will make some additional warnings or recommendations if you missed filling in some tags.

Click preview to get a glimpse of what your rich snippet would look like. You can also verify that your code is added correctly by using the Rich Results Test Tool.

Once you’re satisfied, pass the baton on to your developer.

Schema Markup Helps your Website

Schema.org provides webmasters with the advantage of describing their website data and relevant content to search engines.

The best resource to understand and build schema markup on your own is Schema.org. Everyone wants their website to show up as rich results, but to do so, you’ll need to ensure there are no conflicts of code or errors within your schema markup. With so many properties to choose from, it can be confusing to know where to start.

If you want something more detailed, this guide digs deeper into the topic of Schema markup for local businesses.

Schedule a call with our team to find out how to come up with the most accurate schema markup code for your website.

The post How To Add Local Schema Markup To Your Website appeared first on The HOTH.

So there’s no wonder that local business owners are going to great lengths to optimize their sites for Google and other search engines.

Especially when you take into account that 28% of all local searches result in a purchase!

Getting your local SEO right can result in a huge payoff for your business, and our local SEO checklist offers every step, tip, and trick you need to start ranking no.1 on Google.

Ready to get started? Let’s get into it!

Why Is Local SEO Important?

Before we get stuck into our checklist, let’s remind ourselves of why local search strategy is so important. 

A local SEO strategy makes sure that you are in prime place at the top of their search. This is incredibly important considering that 24.4% of all clicks go to the first local result on the page.

If you want your business to become more visible to a local audience, you will need to enhance your website with local search engine optimization.

Not only will good local SEO boost the number of people that visit your business (50% of “near me” searches result in an offline store visit), it will also boost your online brand presence and authority.

Don’t miss out when someone in your area searches for a business like yours, get ahead of your competitors with our ultimate local SEO checklist!

13 Steps To Optimize Your Local Business

1. Claim your Google Business profile

This is the first (and easiest) step every business should take to perform better in local Google search results. 

Google Business, previously known as Google My Business, is a tool that allows you to create a profile for your business on Google. Have you ever searched for a local business and seen a little profile pop up featuring information, opening hours, and reviews? Yep, that’s a Google Business listing. 

As Google explains, “Google Business Profile is an easy-to-use tool for businesses and organizations to manage their online presence across Google. To help customers find your business, you can verify your business and edit your business information”.

Not only do you need to make sure your business has one, you also need to make sure it’s accurate and optimized.

Here we’ll explain how to create and optimize your listing, as well as introduce some other Google tools that will boost your local SEO efforts too.

How to create a Google Business listing

Luckily, you can get set up and optimized in several simple steps:

• Log in or set up Google Business Profile Manager

If you have a Google account, you will already have access to Google Business and its Profile Manager. 

• Add your business

Start typing your business name into the search bar and see if it appears in the drop-down menu. If it does not, simply select the option to “add your business to Google”. Select the most relevant business category for you and click next.

• Add your business location

Add the address for your business’s location and position the marker on the map so that you can feature on Google Maps. If you offer services, Google also provides an option to list your service areas. 

• Add contact information

This is where you add your business’s website and contact phone number (if you have one). 

• Verify your business

Google will ask you to provide your mailing address so that they can verify your business. This address will not feature on your public profile. 

If you have a physical business, Google will send a postcard to the relevant address. If you do not have a physical location, Google will allow you to verify via email instead. Either way, Google will provide you with a five-digit code for verification. 

Do not skip this step, it will negatively impact your local SEO.

• Optimize your profile

Once you’ve confirmed and verified your business listing, you can begin to optimize your profile to attract local customers. You will be able to add business information about what you do or sell, your opening hours, your contact preferences, and photo and video.

Make sure that your profile is as complete as possible. Google itself has said, “businesses with complete and accurate information are easier to match with the right searches”. Furthermore, keep your opening hours updated for seasonal changes.

When adding images to your profile, make sure you use a high-quality logo and cover photo that accurately represents your business. Consider adding videos that show your business, location, and friendly team. Also, include images that show off your products and make them look great!

Later in this article, we’ll be explaining how to find local keywords, you’re going to want to include these in your business listing. Include them naturally in your business description without keyword stuffing. 

Lastly, ask your customers to leave positive reviews or ask a question on your Google Business profile, then make sure you reply to them. You can manage these testimonials through your Google Business Profile Manager dashboard.

• You’re up and running!

Once your profile is optimized and ready to go, click ‘continue’ to reveal your Business Profile Manager dashboard. This is where you will be able to see insights about your business listing, manage messages, respond to reviews, and even run Google Ads.

Google offers two other tools that will help boost your SEO efforts: Google Search Console and Google Analytics. 

2. Set up Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a free tool designed to help you optimize your site and rank better on SERPs (search engine results pages).

Submitting your business’s website to Google Search Console will make sure that Google is aware of your site, and is actively crawling it for relevant keywords and information so that it can rank you accordingly.

You will also gain access to the Google Search Console dashboard where you can see daily reports for your site, revealing bugs and errors you need to fix in order to rank better.

Here’s how to get set up:

• Log into your Google account

Head to Google Search Console and click ‘start now’. 

Log into your Google account, and note: this should be the same Google account that you used to set up your Google Business listing.

• Enter your website address

Once you’re in, click the right-hand corner option to enter your web address.

• Verify your web address

Google now needs you to verify that the website you entered is yours. You can do this by signing into your domain name provider or uploading an HTML file.

• Upload your XML sitemap

This step isn’t essential for setting up your account, but it is essential if you want to improve your site’s SEO. You might want to use an XML sitemap generator here. This helps Google’s crawlers index your site quicker and get you ranking for relevant search queries.

Once you’re verified, you can check your Search Console dashboard to learn more about your search engine performance. You’ll be able to see the keywords you currently rank for and find out about any site errors that need to be fixed.

3. Set up Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a free tool that allows you to track your website’s traffic and other relevant SEO data. This information will help shape your local SEO strategy moving forward.

Here’s how to get set up:

• Log into your Google account

This should be the same Google account you used to set up Google Business and Google Search Console.

• Click ‘Start using Google Analytics’

Click the option to start using Google Analytics, and select ‘Google Analytics for websites’.

• Add account name and website

Add your account name followed by your website name in the appropriate fields. Fill in your website address, using http or https depending on whether you are in possession of an SSL certificate.

• Select industry category

Find the category that best suits your business. This then helps Google provide benchmark data for other similar businesses.

• Select ‘get tracking ID’

While ticking the data sharing options and terms and conditions, make sure you select ‘get tracking ID’. You can then install this ID code on your website to allow Google to track your traffic data. If your site is based on WordPress, you can use this free plugin to install the code. 

With all of those steps complete, your Analytics profile is ready to go!

3. Find local keywords

A key factor in driving targeted local searchers to your business is using the right keywords. In this section, we’ll explain how to do thorough local keyword research. 

This process allows you to understand exactly what your potential customers are typing into search engines. And therefore, when you implement these keywords into your website and Google Business listing you’ll be able to appear in these local search results.

Here’s our method for the best local keyword research:

Use a keyword research tool

The first step to finding local keywords is to use a free keyword research tool. Use this tool to search for the services you offer. Each keyword in the results is paired with search volume data. This data lets you know how many people are searching for that query. 

It is hard to find local search data here, as most SEO tools calculate their search volumes by country. Even if you have services with an incredibly low search volume, it’s still important that you have a dedicated page for them on your site.

However, those services with high search volumes are the ones you need to prioritize in your SEO strategy (put them at the top of your list!).

When it comes to local SEO keywords, it’s important to note the difference between implicit and explicit local searches.

Implicit keywords are searches like “electrician” and “alarm installation”, where the searcher is hoping local results will automatically come up. 

Whereas explicit keywords are searches where the searcher specifies their area, such as “electrician in Chicago” and “alarm installation in Chicago”.

Search volume for a neighborhood in Chicago

Finding implicit keyword search volumes:

Although it can be hard to find local search volume data for general keywords like “electrician” and “rewiring”, it is made possible by Google Keyword Planner. This data will then help you further prioritize your list.

Simply paste your services into the bar that says “get search volumes and forecasts”. Make sure these services are in implicit form, meaning it’s just the service – no mention of location. Then change the location to the area where you offer that service. 

This will then reveal the number of people in that area searching for that service per month. The services with the biggest search volume should be prioritized at the top of your list!

Finding explicit keyword search volumes:

For this one, you can go back to your free keyword research tool. Entering explicit versions of your service keywords – which means service followed by the area you service. For instance, “electrician in Chicago”, “rewiring services in Chicago”, or “alarm installation in Chicago”.

Your search will reveal the search volumes for these explicit keyword searches. Once again, move those with a high search volume to the top of your list.

Keyword strategy for service pages

When creating search engine optimized web pages you will need to follow a keyword strategy. This strategy should include a focus keyword, as well as related keywords, synonyms, and long-tail keywords. You’ll use these keywords later in your on-page content (see step 3).

By now, your keyword document should be divided into each service page and any subcategories. Make those service pages headings so that you can list related keywords below.

For every service page, your focus keyword will be the service itself. In this case, it’s “alarm installation”. Further keywords will include explicit localized terms such as “alarm installation in Chicago”.

Now, return to your keyword research tool and run a search for your service term. This should offer related terms such as “alarm system installation”, “alarm installation near me”, “alarm repair”. You may also find long-tail search queries such as “how much does alarm installation cost?”.

Make a note of the terms you think make the most sense for each service.

4. Optimize your web page content

This step involves optimizing on-page elements such as URLs, title tags, meta descriptions, text content, images, and NAP details. This will boost your site’s user experience and attract organic traffic.

Local SEO NAP

Content is one of Google’s most important ranking factors and we’ll show you how to optimize your on-page content for local searches.

URLs

Firstly, make sure every page’s URL is clear and simple, utilizing your focus keyword where possible. For example, “yourcompanyname.com/services/alarm-installation”.

Title tags

Your page’s title tag will be the clickable headline that appears in a Google search. This needs to be concise and include your focus keyword. Try our title tag generator to stay within Google’s character limit.

Meta descriptions

Meta descriptions are the preview snippet that appears in a Google search result. Just like title tags, these can be optimized by staying within a character limit and including keywords. 

If using WordPress, you can use the free Yoast SEO plugin to create a Google-friendly snippet for each page.

Text content

Every service page should include a description of the service, how it works, how much it costs, what’s included, etc. Review your keyword list to make sure searcher queries are answered on the page and include your keywords naturally without stuffing. 

Images

Images are a great way of breaking up content and illustrating your services. However, large file sizes will slow down your site and ruin the user experience. Use a free service to compress your images.

NAP details

Make sure that every page of your site uses the same business name, address, and phone number – including your Contact page. You should also ensure that these are the same details listed on your Google Business listing and any directories you appear on. See Step 7: Optimize Citations for more details.

Incorrect Local Citations

Sticking to these rules when creating or editing your homepage, web pages, and landing pages will stand your small business in the best stead to rank on Google.

5. Make sure your site is mobile-friendly

As of 2022, 70% of web traffic comes from mobile phones. What’s more, 78% of local searches on mobile result in an offline purchase. 

Google’s algorithm ranks mobile-friendly sites higher in search results, so making sure your site is responsive and ready for mobile browsers is a huge part of your local SEO efforts.

Consult your web designer to make sure that your site is responsive to mobile devices and tablets. You want to make sure that page load speed is just as quick on mobile as it is on desktop.

Google also offers a tool that checks how mobile-friendly your pages are.

6. Blog content aimed at your target customer

Your search engine optimized web pages should now be targeting lots of your target keywords. However, you may find that there are some keywords you haven’t been able to use. You can now use these key terms and questions to shape blog content for your site.

Having a regularly updated blog is a staple for any digital marketing strategy. SEO keyword-focused articles are used by content marketers to boost visibility in search engine results. 

But bear in mind: When it comes to local SEO, the same people searching “how long does car alarm installation take?” may not have the local intent necessary to hire your business.

Don’t let this put you off including blog content on your site! These search queries and keywords provide valuable information about what your potential customers and target audience want to know.

Including helpful blog content on your site helps build reputation, authority, and trust. And every local business stands to benefit from a community of trusting customers.

7. Encourage customer reviews

Remember when we said your Google Business listing allowed customers to leave you a review? Generating and monitoring those online reviews is a vital part of mastering local SEO! Here we’ll explain some of our best tips and tricks to make the most of this feature…

Better reviews = more clicks

To generate more Google reviews for your business you can:

• Ask your customers to leave a review.
• Add a Google review button to your site.
• Use your Google Business account to review other businesses in your area – they may return the favor as a token of appreciation.

Negative reviews happen to every business, but how you deal with them is what affects your local SEO efforts.

In the case of a negative review, try to respond with contact details to resolve the issue in private.

Although Google has stated that negative reviews may impact your business, responding to all reviews will boost your local search performance – so remember to respond to the positive reviews too!

8. Optimize citations

Citations are other mentions of your business’s NAP details (name, address and phone number) across the web. Google uses these citations to verify your business’s online authority. Optimizing your local citations can be a time-consuming task that requires attention to detail, but we’ve broken down every step here:

• Make sure NAP details are accurate and consistent across every web page and business listing.
• Ensure every link to your website directs to the correct landing page.
• Use the Moz citation checker to do a citation audit, then clean up duplicate content and incorrect listings.

• Analyze your competitors to see where they get their citations. If they have a citation listed somewhere you do not – get listed there too.
• Get listed on local directories (more on this in Step 10).

9. Local link building

The citations described above begin the process of link building for your website. However, a local link-building strategy could also benefit from some high authority backlinks leading to your site.

Backlinks are important for SEO because they demonstrate domain authority to search engines like Google and Bing. However, when it comes to local SEO, you’ll want to get backlinks from locally relevant sites.

Let’s talk through the options to find and secure local backlinks:

• Submit guest posts to locally relevant blogs and publications.
• Join local industry committees and get them to link to your site.
• Sponsor local events.
• Use a free backlink checker tool to see how your local competitors get backlinks and reverse engineer their methods for yourself.
• Offer quotes and statistics to local news reports and stories.

10. Local PR

Getting local PR coverage for your business could fall under the link-building category, however, it also serves to increase brand awareness, trust, and authority.

Strive to get your business’s name in local papers, publications, and news sites (for the right reasons!) – not only will you receive a backlink, you’ll also spread word of mouth.

Reach out to local news if you have a grand opening or event – they may be interested in covering it.

11. Local directories and listings

The more local directories your business appears in, the more signals Google gets that you’re a significant local business that they should prioritize in local search rankings. 

Make sure that you have claimed and optimized your listings on popular directories such as Yelp and Yellow Pages, using accurate and consistent NAP details. Use images on these listings where possible as they get added to the Google Images algorithm. Other free directories include Foursquare and Bing Places.

Directories are already taking up multiple 1st page listings

Note: Many of these directories allow your customers to leave reviews. You should monitor and respond to these just like you do with Google Business.

12. Use Schema’s geographic markup

One of the final methods you can use to improve your local SEO is to add Schema markup to your website. 

Schema.org is made by the world’s most popular search engines Google, Bing, Yahoo! and Yandex. You can use it to help search engines understand your site better and rank it accordingly. 

You can also add Schema’s code to your web page content to allow star ratings, reviews, and pricing info to appear in your Google search results. 

When it comes to using Schema’s data markup for local SEO, you’ll want to pay attention to their “geographic markup” feature. This markup provides search engines with more information about your geographical location, thus boosting your performance in local search results. Before you add Schema’s geographic markup to everything, check Google’s Schema guidelines to avoid becoming spammy. 

13. Social media 

Social media continues to be a valuable brand-building tool for businesses of all shapes and sizes, but how can it help your small business and your local SEO?

Connect with customers

Customers are expecting a higher degree of transparency from the brands and businesses they support – they want to know who is behind a business, and if their views and values align. A strong social media allows you to make emotional connections with customers and improve retention over time.

Reach more of your target audience

All main social media platforms offer paid adverts that can help you reach more potential customers than ever.

SEO-boosting links

The jury is out over whether a portfolio of strong social media pages sends signals to Google to boost your rank. However, every social media platform you join is still a valid backlink to your site. 

It’s Time to Put This Local SEO Checklist To Good Use

Before you run off and crush the local SEO game, we’ll leave you with the reminder that good local SEO starts at your brick-and-mortar business. 

Completing all of the steps on this list will only boost your bottom line if you run a healthy and positive business that does its job well. A good website and a few backlinks are no replacement for good staff, products, and customer service! 

Hopefully, you found this local SEO checklist helpful! If you have any more questions about boosting your business’s SEO, don’t hesitate to reach out and give us a call – we’re here to help!

P.S. Have you signed up for a HOTH account yet? You can get access to SEMRush data for free, plus manage all your link building in one place. Click here to sign up (free).

The post Local SEO Checklist: 13 Tips To Optimize Your Site appeared first on The HOTH.

According to a 2021 study, 69% of marketers invested in SEO, and 75% said their SEO tactics were effective at helping them fulfill marketing goals.

But every marketer isn’t an SEO expert or even proficient in the field. Companies need to hire an SEO specialist who knows exactly what to do so their website and content rank on the first page of search engine result pages (SERPs) and bring in traffic.

This article explains the role of an SEO specialist in detail and lists the essential characteristics they must have to help companies get results.

What is an SEO Specialist?

In a sentence, an SEO specialist analyzes websites and optimizes them so that they rank higher on major search engine result pages. 

This individual is an expert in “organic search” — search results that aren’t ads, but that Google thinks are the best and most relevant content — and can create an SEO strategy that improves user experience while simultaneously appealing to the latest search engine algorithms.

Apart from a higher search ranking, an SEO expert can ensure your web pages appear for relevant search terms instead of random ones.

For example, if you search for “running shoes,” you get companies like Nike, which sells running shoes, and articles that list the best running shoes. Both of these results are driven by good SEO.

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A good SEO strategy can help companies, regardless of size, attract more users and generate high-quality leads. Consequently, conversions grow, and so does revenue.

While this sounds great, business owners often have surface-level SEO knowledge. They know it’s a marketing term but don’t understand the different components, such as on-page, off-page, and technical SEO, or how they impact search engine rankings.

They can also struggle to differentiate between SEO and SEM (Search Engine Marketing), which have the same goal — driving traffic and revenue from search engines — but varying components and tactics. This lack of understanding often leads to them making incorrect decisions regarding hiring and goal-setting in these areas. 

This is when SEO professionals are required. They can take charge of all the processes needed to boost your search rankings.

What Are the Job Responsibilities of an SEO specialist?

Every SEO consultant has a different set of responsibilities depending on the industry and company they’re working with. However, most SEO experts are proficient in the following:

Keyword research

A keyword typically corresponds with the main topic of the content on your page. It is a word, phrase, or question users search for to find specific web pages and content on the topic. It can be a single word such as “shoes” or a longer phrase such as “running shoes for women.”

An SEO specialist performs keyword research to determine which keywords each page on your website should target. They will then focus on how each of these pages can rank for their specific keyword(s).

Without keyword research, your content is a jumble of topics that you think your users might like. Unfortunately, most websites make this mistake, which is why a 2020 study found that 90% of them don’t get organic traffic from Google.

It’s the job of the SEO specialist to use keyword research to identify exactly what users are looking for and why. They then tailor your website’s content to match search intent.

On-page optimization

On-page optimization is a general term used to describe how an SEO expert cleans up all the elements that are on or behind your website. 

This includes meta titles and descriptions, header tags, using the right images, proper HTML structure, internal linking, and fast page load speeds (like always compressing images that go on your web pages).

Here the SEO specialist ensures every web page aims to show up for the correct search terms, provides a good user experience, and leads users towards conversion.

Optimization also requires testing varying versions of elements on the web page to see which one improves lead generation. For example, having a detailed call-to-action button can perform better than a basic “Click Here” button.

Mobile optimization

Mobile phone users accounted for more than 92% of global internet users at the end of 2021. Your website must be mobile-friendly, there’s just no way around it, both for general usage and SEO purposes. Every page on your website needs to be 100% visible and perfectly usable on mobile devices.

Search engines value mobile-friendliness in 2022. Google has implemented mobile-first indexing for years now, which means websites that are not mobile-friendly automatically get lower rankings. They even offer a free tool to test how mobile-friendly a web page is.

An SEO specialist must analyze how they can improve your mobile user experience and make your web pages easy for users to navigate, regardless of their device.

Link building & off-page optimization

Link building is a way to let Google know that your content or web page is valuable. It’s the process of getting links to your website from external websites to improve your authority.

The links could be someone referencing your blog post in their article or a reviewer adding a product link as part of a glowing review.

Building a web of links from multiple sources increases your website’s chances of gaining a higher ranking. A recent study showed that top search results had significantly more backlinks than lower-rated results.

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An SEO specialist will have a link-building strategy that develops backlinks via guest posts, content-based assets (infographics, statistics, etc.), and other methods. Some might consider buying links, but this is risky as it violates Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, and you have to trust the seller to be honest and uphold their end of the bargain.

Link building has to be combined with every other SEO component to work. For example, you can have multiple backlinks to a page, but if the content on that page is poor, then your lead generation will take a hit.

Content marketing is an effective strategy for building your off-page online presence. If you invest time in building relationships with other bloggers in your niche, and creating stellar, valuable content, it’s only a matter of time before you earn several high-quality, relevant links.

Analytics

Every SEO expert has to know how to analyze the results driven by their campaigns, the different metrics to use, and what the numbers actually mean. Understanding this data is more complicated than it seems.

Sure, it’s easy to look at leads generated or web traffic and decide whether a campaign is successful or not. But, there are many smaller yet impactful metrics along the way. Each of which indicates how parts of your SEO campaign are working.

SEO specialists will analyze the correct metrics, gauge results, and make campaign decisions based on them. If a particular aspect fails, they will need to test new elements or implement process changes to get better results.

URL naming & titles

For accurate data collection and campaign tracking, SEO specialists need to use custom URLs. These URLs will let them know where the traffic is coming from, whether from a backlink, an ad, a social media post, or a marketing asset like a newsletter. 

Let’s say you hired an SEO expert to boost your traffic from search results. If there’s a sudden uptick in traffic, how do they know if it’s because they’re actually reaching the goal you set or if the increase in visitors is from other sources, like a social media contest?

Custom URLs are used to monitor data for different campaigns, assets, and sources.

The Characteristics of an Effective SEO Specialist

If you’re looking to become an SEO expert or hire one, here are six crucial characteristics you need:

#1. Understands the different levels of SEO 

There are three main SEO tiers — on-page, off-page, and technical — that every expert must deeply understand.

• On-page SEO is usually content-related but includes everything that goes into your web page. It’s the process of ensuring all the content on your website uses the right keywords, meta tags, title tags, and internal links. These elements let search engines know the topic you’re covering and why you’re a trusted resource on the subject.

SEO experts must know how to optimize content and form links between related web pages such that users are led from one page to the next, inching closer to completing the purchase.

• Technical SEO refers to optimizing components that are not content-based. It ensures that the foundation of the website is good.

Website speed, architecture, indexing, crawlability, and mobile-friendliness, are some technical factors that an SEO expert must analyze and improve.

Improving technical elements shows search engines that your website is well-built and provides a better user experience.

• Off-page SEO refers to activities outside your website that help improve search rankings. Backlinks are vital for off-page SEO as they act as social proof of your authority on a subject and let Google know that your web page is a trusted source.

Apart from backlinks, any external activity that can boost your search ranking is considered off-page SEO, including social media and traditional media marketing campaigns, brand mentions, and influencer marketing.

SEO specialists often work with marketing and PR teams to create external campaigns that will positively impact SERP rankings.

An SEO specialist is expected to be an expert in these core areas and know precisely how they affect your ranking. While they may not handle all of these factors personally, their knowledge will help them oversee other teams’ efforts.

#2. Stays current

Google constantly updates its search algorithm, and these changes can affect your rankings and domain authority. So how do SEOs stay up to speed? The SEO industry keeps evolving as experts discover new strategies or ideas to adjust to the latest developments.

An SEO expert must keep track of all these updates, trends, and methods to strategize effectively. Outdated tactics will often lead to poor results.

They must also be aware of the latest trends in the client’s industry so that they can create relevant content. For example, if everyone in the industry is focused on X, but all your blogs are about Y, the chances of gaining next-level traffic are minimal. So you want to capitalize on trends to capture user attention.

#3. Collaborates with other teams

Since so many factors go into SEO, a specialist rarely works alone. It’s more common that they work hand-in-hand with other teams, such as social media marketing, content marketing, and web development.

For successful campaigns, SEO experts must be excellent communicators and collaborators. They must communicate with clarity, so all team members understand why and how to accomplish campaign goals.

They also need to be persuasive. You often have to explain why changes are needed and how they benefit the website to people who don’t have any SEO knowledge, such as stakeholders or the web development team. You must be able to get these people on board.

#4. Has a marketing mindset 

Search engine optimization and marketing go hand-in-hand. Effective marketing campaigns lead to better search rankings.

SEO specialists need to have a marketing mindset, where they are focused on the target audience and know how content plays an overall role in achieving business goals.

Moreover, an SEO consultant will often work with a company’s internal marketing team. So, they need to be up-to-date on current marketing trends and strategies. The content you create must appeal to readers if it has a chance of rising up the rankings.

Additional knowledge in social media trends, consumer psychology, web development, and viral strategies enables SEO experts to create more compelling content and optimize websites to make the most impact on users.

#5. Able to define and track SEO goals 

SEO experts must be able to look at the bigger picture and set the right goals. Is the overall goal to build brand awareness, increase rankings, drive traffic, or boost conversions? These are interrelated, but understanding the main objective helps set smaller SEO-based milestones.

For example, if the goal is to drive traffic, you can set milestones based on the number of visits via organic search per month. A free website traffic checker can help with that.

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Knowing how to set goals, using the right metrics to measure them, and analyzing initial results to make changes or increase production are all expected of an SEO consultant.

#6. Adaptability 

You’ve created the perfect roadmap for getting the company website to the first page of SERPs, and then BAM! Google switches its search algorithm, or a new viral marketing trend takes over.

This is a common scenario for an SEO expert, and they must be able to adapt to it. 

SEO experts often work with multiple companies across industries. Adaptability is also essential here. You need to understand your client’s needs, their industry, and how you can take them to the top of search rankings for their specific keywords.

Where to Find SEO Specialists?

You can hire a freelance SEO specialist or consultant for one-time projects. These are experienced individuals that work with companies on a per-project, contract, or retainer basis. 

However, they may not be viable for many organizations as freelancers can be expensive, and there’s no guarantee of stability or results or productive, long-term relationships. Moreover, a single SEO specialist can help strategize, but they struggle with implementation, especially at a larger scale. 

The second option is to hire a full-time SEO specialist who works with your marketing teams to get results. But again, this can get expensive, and their skillset is often limited to one aspect of SEO.

This is why most companies opt for a digital marketing agency like The HOTH. Agencies have a group of experts at their disposal. They can also produce content faster, meaning you can scale your marketing efforts exponentially. 

To add to this, agencies can be cheaper and often have a subscription-based model where you only pay for what you need and can cancel at any time.

SEO Specialists Can Elevate Your Brand and Business

Every business that wants to succeed digitally needs SEO experts to guide them to the top of SERPs. SEO agencies can help you target the right users, create personalized content at scale, and boost traffic. 

Get industry-leading SEO specialists working on your website by using our HOTH X service. Our experts have spent years of their lives diving into the technical (and often tedious) world of SEO, so you don’t have to.

The post What is an SEO Specialist? Here’s What You Need to Know appeared first on The HOTH.

So how do you get your CBD brand to stand out amongst the crowd?

If you have a brick-and-mortar CBD store in your town, you can use what’s known as ‘local search engine optimization (SEO)’ to attract new customers in your area. 

That’s where you optimize your on-page and off-page content to rank higher in the local search – or searches that contain keywords such as ‘near me’ or ‘best (service) in (specific location).’ 

In fact, 46% of all Google searches include local intent, which is a lot of potential traffic to miss out on if you don’t use local SEO.  

A savvy local SEO strategy will help you dominate the search results for your town or city, leading to more organic traffic, conversions, and sales – and the CBD industry is no different. 

That’s why CBD SEO agencies are popping up like wildfire because it’s a marketing strategy that yields tangible results. 

Stay tuned to learn how you can develop a CBD local SEO strategy for your CBD website, business, or dispensary. 

Why Does Local SEO Matter for CBD Companies?

It can be tough to launch a lasting CBD brand in 2022, and there’s primarily one reason for that – oversaturation. 

While CBD is still a relatively recent craze, there’s no shortage of CBD companies, services, and products out there. There are oils, gels, gummies, sprays, balms, and even CBD products for pets. 

The chances are high that dozens of CBD companies are already in your local area, too. 

That means you need special ways to stand out and attract customers, and local SEO is your secret weapon. 

For example, if you target the right keywords that have local intent, high search volume, and low competition – you’ll be well on your way toward ranking in the top 3 organic search results. 

In today’s age, customers will almost exclusively use the internet to find local businesses. 

The proof?

97% of users have searched online to find a business near them. So if you can position yourself high on the SERPs (search engine results pages) for local keywords, you can gain all that juicy business. 

Yet, before you get started, you should know a few things about the world of local SEO. 

What’s the Local Snack Pack on Google?

Google search has a few different categories of results it displays for local search queries. They are:

• Paid ad results (PPC) 
• Organic search results
• Local ‘snack pack’
• Featured snippets and other SERP features

Understanding how each of these works is crucial to finding success with local SEO. 

If the local keyword triggers a SERP feature, such as a featured snippet, it will appear at the very top of the page, even above the paid ads. This coveted spot is known as ‘position zero.’ 

Under that, the next results users will see are the paid ads or sponsored results. While these tend to appear at the very top of the page (unless there’s a SERP feature in position zero), they cost money to display. 

These are known as pay-per-click ads, or PPC for short. While they can also be an effective way to generate traffic, we aren’t going to focus on how to optimize them today. 

Directly under the paid ads is where you can find the snack pack results. 

What are those?

The snack pack is a small box containing the top three local results for the search query. It provides a brief bit of information for each business. 

Regarding local SEO, the snack pack results are considered the holy grail. They’re the most desired spots for any local business, and your CBD brand is no different. 

Quick Snack Pack Facts

There’s a significant reason why local businesses want to include themselves in the snack pack results. It’s because the snack pack snags a majority of the clicks. 

The crew at Moz put this to the test, and they found that 44% of users clicked on snack pack listings, while organic listings accounted for 29%, and paid ads were only 19%. 

That’s why it pays big to secure yourself a spot in the snack pack results. 

Since there are only 3 spots in the pack, you really need to ensure that your content is high-quality and fully optimized. 

When Google first introduced the snack pack, it was a SERP feature that contained 7 Google Business Profile Listings. That changed to five, and eventually, the three that we now know as the snack pack. 

Speaking of Google Business Profile, it’s a gigantic part of local SEO, so let’s take a closer look at it. 

What’s Google Business Profile and Why Does it Matter for Local SEO?

You won’t be able to master CBD local SEO without a fully optimized Google Business Profile (GBP) profile. 

It’s the heart and soul of all local SEO strategies, so it’s imperative to understand how it works. 

Besides becoming eligible to rank in the snack pack, you’ll also need a GBP profile to show up in Google Maps, another local SEO necessity. 

Simply creating a GBP and claiming ownership of your business isn’t enough. Instead, you’ll need to fully optimize your account just as you would your website for traditional SEO. 

That means adding images and customer reviews, using relevant keywords, and providing as much accurate information about your business as possible. 

Has your business been around for a while? If so, the all-knowing Google probably has an existing GBP listing for it – you need to claim ownership of it. 

To do so, click the Manage Now button on the GBP homepage. From there, you’ll get directed to GBP’s in-platform search engine. Simply enter your business name, and GBP will let you know if it already has a listing for you. 

It will also inform you if someone else has claimed ownership of your business. Should that happen, here are the steps Google recommends you follow to transfer ownership. 

Creating a new Google Business Profile listing

If the internal search doesn’t provide any listings for your business, you’ll need to create a new one. 

The good news is it won’t take long to set up your new GBP profile. However, the verification process will take a bit longer – usually up to a week. 

First, you’ll need to enter your official business name and business category. 

Pro tip: The business category on GBP is a big deal, as the category you choose will affect which keywords Google ranks your website for on the SERPs. 

For example, if you choose ‘coffee shop’ as your primary business category, Google may rank you for local searches containing the keywords ‘coffee,’ ‘barista,’ ‘espresso,’ and other related terms – even if you aren’t attempting to rank for them outright. 

Selecting a business category for your CBD business

What business category should you choose for your CBD brand?

Google My Business Category

You’ll have a few options, each with its pros and cons. Recently, Google introduced a new category for marijuana dispensaries called Cannabis Store. CBD comes from the cannabis plant, so is that what you should choose for your category?

It depends on how heavily you want to utilize GBP’s other features. 

You see, GBP places some heavy restrictions on cannabis dispensaries as the drug is not yet legal on a federal level inside the US. 

Since CBD is officially legal and non-intoxicating, you can get away with using other categories such as:

• Alternative Medicine Practitioner
• Health and Wellness
• Medical Center 

The downside of these is you likely won’t get as many relevant keyword rankings from GBP as you would with the Cannabis Store category. 

For example, if you go with Medical Center, GBP may rank you for keywords like ‘healthcare,’ ‘physicians,’ ‘diabetes,’ and others that may not reach your desired target audience. 

GBP’s Restrictions on the Cannabis Store business category

The Cannabis Store category, on the other hand, will help you rank for more relevant keywords for your niche. 

The downside of that is the restrictions that you have to deal with, including:

• Not being able to list any information about your prices or products
• No communication with your audience via posts 
• Not being able to list your services or provide booking information for customers

As you can see, the restrictions are pretty strict. You’ll need to consider these disadvantages before settling on Cannabis Store as a category. 

Our recommendation? 

Go with Health and Wellness. While GBP’s recommendations may miss the mark for some, keywords like ‘meditation’ and ‘fitness’ are somewhat related to CBD oil. 

Not only that, but you won’t have to mess with any cumbersome restrictions, so you can fully optimize your GBP profile. 

Adding a Physical Location to GBP 

Once you’ve selected a business category you’re comfortable with, you get the option to add a physical location, such as a store or office. 

Hint: This is your ticket to getting listed on Google Maps, so you definitely want to add any physical locations that you have. 

If you don’t see customers or patients at your location, you can choose not to include the address. This means that while you won’t show up on Google Maps, your CBD website will still display for local searches in your service area. 

In that case, you’ll need to tell GBP where your primary service areas are so it can include that information in your profile. 

Next, it’s time to enter the contact information for the business, such as its phone number and current website URL. After that, you can enter the address for the business (only if you have a brick-and-mortar location that you want customers to visit). 

GBP will then ask you if you want to include a service area outside your primary address. You should do so if your operation involves deliveries or home visits. 

At any time, you can go back and change or add service area details and edit the rest of the information related to your profile. 

Verifying and publishing your GBP profile

All you need to do now is verify your profile via postcard, and then you’ll be able to publish it. 

While it’s unfortunate that you have to complete the process by snail mail, the verification process usually takes a week or less. 

Verification is necessary for you to access page insights, analytics, and business reviews within the platform. You also won’t show up on Google Maps or the Local Snack Pack until you’ve been verified. 

You’ll receive a verification postcard in the email containing a code to activate your profile. 

Once that’s done, your profile is officially live, and you can begin optimizing it for CBD local SEO.  

Optimizing your GBP Profile for CBD Local SEO 

Now the fun part starts. Since you have an active GBP listing that you claimed ownership of, you can tweak it to perform better in the search. 

A fully optimized GBP profile is your golden ticket to ranking in the Snack Pack and generating more localized website traffic. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of what you need to do. 

Step #1: Enter as much information about your business as possible 

First and foremost, Google is always looking for the most relevant result for a user query. That means it will scour your business information when crawling your profile. 

As such, you want to ensure that the algorithm has as much accurate information about your business as humanly possible. 

It’s crucial to not leave anything up to the imagination here. Make sure your profile has:

• Accurate business hours
• Detailed information about your products and services
• Up-to-date pricing 
• Your address and website URL 

The more in-depth you can get with your profile information, Google’s crawler will be able to paint a clearer picture of what you do. 

Step #2: Don’t forget to do keyword research 

Just as you would with a regular Google search, you need to do keyword research for your GBP listing and posts. 

You can use our free keyword planner tool to identify keywords related to your niche with high search volume and low competition. 

Each time you reach out to your audience via a post on GBP, include your target keywords in it. It would be best if you also injected these keywords into your business description. 

Step #3: Add high-resolution images of your business and products 

Believe it or not, photos make a huge difference in click-through rates on Google Business Profile. 

In fact, GBP listings containing photos receive 35% more click-throughs than those that don’t. 

It makes sense if you think about it; people are far more likely to drive to a business when they know it has a nice, clean building and interior. 

That’s why you need to upload as many high-resolution photos of your business as you can. When you do, make sure that your business looks pristine, safe, and inviting. 

Other CBD Local SEO Tips and Strategies 

That’s how to claim and optimize a GBP listing, which is huge for local SEO. Yet, it’s by no means all that you should do. Alongside maintaining your GBP profile, you should also:

• Conduct a technical SEO audit of your website to fix errors and improve your user experience 
• Build backlinks and use internal links 
• Use content marketing to create relevant blog posts optimized for SEO 
• Post glowing reviews and case studies on your website and GBP profile 

Let’s take a closer look at each technique and how you can use it to promote your CBD business. 

Technical SEO audits 

Lots of technical factors will affect your ability to rank on Google and other search engines. Errors like broken links, orphan pages, broken redirects, duplicate content, and messy URLs will hurt your SEO. 

That’s why you need to audit your website for these errors regularly. A great way to do so is to use Google Search Console. It will let you know about all the technical errors it discovers when crawling your website, which makes them easier to find and fix. 

PageSpeed Insights is another useful tool, primarily for gauging your page loading speed. Lastly, you’ll want to ensure that your website can pass the Google Core Web Vitals test. It’s a series of diagnostics that will test your site for speed, responsiveness, and interactivity. 

Local link building 

You’ll want to use link-building techniques to improve your chances of ranking in the top 5 for local SEO, too. 

The difference is you should focus on building links relevant to your location. 

Links from reputable local businesses, local universities (.edu sites are always desirable), and even local government organizations are who you should target. 

Before doing outreach to obtain a link, run each local website through our domain authority checker to make sure it doesn’t have a low domain authority (DA), which will hurt your DA as a result. 

Content marketing for CBD local SEO 

SEO experts everywhere will tell you that releasing regular content is integral to success, and local SEO is no different. 

To keep organic traffic rolling into your site, you’ll need to create top-notch blogs, videos, infographics, and other forms of content regularly. 

At the same time, each piece of content should contain relevant keywords and strong backlinks to help you out in the search. Besides that, high-quality content is a great way to boost brand awareness and build trust amongst your target audience. 

Customer reviews and case studies 

Last but not least, strong customer reviews are a massive part of local SEO. You’ll want to include positive reviews on your GBP profile, your website, and any social media profiles you have for your company. 

Highlighting a customer case study is another way to boost your SEO and gain customer trust. Choose a customer that found success using your product, and highlight their entire journey. 

That means including the time before finding your product where they struggled and dealt with a common pain point. Then show how your product or service changed their life for the better. 

Final Takeaways: CBD Local SEO Strategies 

By now, you should understand what it takes to reach the top of the local SERPs for your CBD business. 

If you create and optimize your GBP profile, fix technical errors, build links, create content, and post glowing reviews – you’ll stand the greatest chance of penetrating the Snack Pack, SERP features, and the top 5 organic search results. 

Do you not have time to conduct an in-depth local SEO strategy for your CBD business?

Then don’t hesitate to check out our managed local SEO packages at The HOTH. Our team of experts excels in local SEO, and we’re no strangers to cannabis marketing. Reach out to our team today to revolutionize your local SEO strategy.      

The post How to Master CBD Local SEO to Take Your CBD Business to the Next Level appeared first on The HOTH.

If you run what would be considered a “local business” in your community or city, it’s absolutely imperative that you have GMB set up and that you stay on top of it.

This blog will discuss five ways you can revamp your GMB if things have grown stagnant. Your first step should be claiming your listing if you haven’t done it already.

Then, simply follow these tips to start boosting your local SEO. Ready to begin? We’re going to count down the top five things you can start doing immediately.

Start scrolling to learn how to get started.

1. Add Keywords to Your Business Description

Our first piece of advice is to incorporate relevant keywords in your Google My Business listing, including within the 750 characters you get to describe your business.

That’s not to say you should overdo it by packing as many keywords as possible. As with any SEO content, the use of keywords needs to be natural and your description should be useful for visitors.

An effective GMB business description is clear and concise, and ideally, it would include a primary keyword to help your website rank.

Some enterprising businesses will attempt to add keywords to their business name. If that works for you, fantastic! Just make sure it doesn’t come off as spammy or fake.

In most cases, this only works for businesses whose names already contain a keyword. For example, a company named “Home Renovation Auckland.”

If you’re going to try to do this, we recommend proceeding with caution. Getting flagged by Google could result in penalties or losing your GMB listing.

2. Engage Visitors With Photographs

What’s the first thing people look at when they Google your business? That’s right, photographs!

If you operate a restaurant, for example, they want to see what it looks like inside before making a reservation. Or if you sell a unique product they want to see an image of it before buying one.

Here’s something to consider: businesses with images on their GMB get 42% more requests for directions and 35% more website clicks.

We live in a visual society and a majority of customers want to see pictures before they purchase goods or services.

The key here is to post high-res photographs. Blurry or badly composed pictures will reflect negatively on your business.

It may be worth it to hire a professional to get shots of the exterior and interior of your business, staff members, and any products or services you’d like to highlight.

3. Update Local Directories With Your Business

While optimizing your Google My Business page, you also want to ensure your business information is updated in other local directories like Yelp, Yellow Pages, Hot Frog, or Yahoo Local (to name a few).

Why does this matter? Any local directory with your business information can refer new customers. This means all of the key information like address, hours of operation, or contact information should be up-to-date.

It’s not an uncommon scenario for businesses to change their hours of operation and not have it reflected on local directories. This could be frustrating to customers and even result in a lost sale.

Not only do you want to ensure the information is always relevant but adding more directory entries can improve your SEO as well.

We know how this takes a lot of time and effort. That’s why we offer The HOTH’s Local Business Listings & Citation Building Service. Our team can conduct a full audit of all the places you appear and whether the information is correct.

Then, we can start building new optimized citations for your business to grow your exposure and search ranking.

4. Check All of Your Google My Business Settings Regularly

Details change all of the time. Parts of your business are always evolving and even Google updates its systems a few times per year.

That’s why it’s up to you, a business or the agency you hire to help with GMB, to stay on top of the listing.

One easy way to optimize your listing is by updating categories. Google automatically assigns your listing a category but you’re able to change it to something more accurate.

You can also add “additional categories” to get more specific with your listing, which could result in more qualified traffic.

Another strategy is to keep all of your information localized. Make sure your phone number is listed with a local area code, for example, and set your GMB service area to only include the areas where you operate.

It may be tempting to expand your search area in GMB to reach more people but don’t do it unless that’s the actual strategy your business is taking.

5. Solicit Reviews From Satisfied Customers

Our No. 1 tip for revamping your GMB listing is to get more reviews! After looking at your business photographs on GMB, most online visitors will check out your reviews next.

They want to know whether the products and services you’re offering are high-quality, and how past customers have felt about you. Getting good reviews not only attracts more customers but can also improve your SEO.

Google will be more likely to show your business in search results if you have more reviews than your competitors.

Reviews aren’t always easy to get but you can solicit them from customers by sending an email after the sale to follow up on their satisfaction. This could include a link to your GMB listing.

Some companies even provide this link at the checkout.

It doesn’t matter what strategy you use to solicit reviews but the important thing is that you start getting more on your GMB.

Watch Your Local SEO Soar!

It’s impossible to boost your local SEO without claiming and optimizing your Google My Business page.

Following all of the tips we listed above won’t take long and they’ll deliver results. Once your listing is optimized, you’ll want to set a schedule for checking on it to make sure no revisions are needed.

Do you have additional questions about GMB or are you concerned about possessing the experience to manage it?

Our expert team of SEO professionals can help you! Simply book a call with us to get started.

The post 5 Tips to Revamp Your Google My Business Page appeared first on The HOTH.

With just a little time and effort, you can start cashing in on the customers in your area who are ready to purchase right now.

Did you know that a whopping 46% of all searches on Google are local?

Yep, you read that right. Nearly half of ALL Google searches revolve around local businesses.

In other words, if you don’t already have local SEO setup for the multiple locations of your business, you are missing out on massive traffic and sales.

But… what if I told you that with a few simple changes to your website, you could be easily and organically attracting more targeted traffic to your store?

Wouldn’t it be nice if your local store was the one showing up for that person who is ready to buy?

Whether it’s a client’s business or yours, this step-by-step guide will show you how to dominate local search for a multiple-location business.

Let’s get started!

What is Multiple-Location SEO?

If you have multiple locations or service multiple areas, you can set your website up in a certain way to maximize your search traffic and user experience.

You’ll want to follow this strategy if any of the following apply:

• You have multiple physical stores or locations
• You serve multiple areas (even if you don’t have a physical store)
• You are a directory that aggregates local businesses

Whether you have 2 locations or 2000, it’s crucial to present Google and the other search engines with the right information.

Doing so allows the search engines to distinguish between the different locations, and present the right one to people who search for it.

Are you ready to learn how to do SEO for a multiple-location business?

Let’s get into it!

1. Build Out Pages For Each Location

One of the biggest problems we see is simply not building out separate pages for each location.

Often websites will try to rank their homepage for multiple locations or put all locations on a single page.

These are not optimal because each page of your website should be about 1 thing. And when you build out dedicated pages, you have way more chances to rank!

You might be thinking, “Isn’t this really necessary? I’m probably going to have lots of pages that say almost the same thing!”

The answer is a resounding YES. You need location-specific pages. Do a search in Google for the term you want to rank for and you’re almost guaranteed to see location-specific pages ranking.

In the above example, you can see that each of these pages that are ranking are specifically about auto repair in 1 location.

The easy way to fix this is to simply build out pages for each location that you serve.

Creating a logical URL structure

By creating a logical site structure with your URLs, your site will be very organized, easy to navigate for users, and easy to understand for search engines. Plus, you can maximize your chances of ranking!

An example of one way to do this for a business with many locations across multiple states could be:

yourbiz.com/locations/ for a list of all the locations

yourbiz.com/locations/florida/ for a list of all the locations in a particular state

yourbiz.com/locations/florida/tampa/ for a list of locations in a city

yourbiz.com/locations/florida/tampa/location-name1/ for store #1

yourbiz.com/locations/florida/tampa/location-name2/ for store #2 in the same city

Be sure to make the URL geo-specific whenever it makes sense.

If store #1 is located in a strip mall called Grand Plaza Mall, or at the intersection of 5th St. and Elm St. then the URL could be:

yourbiz.com/locations/florida/tampa/Grand-Plaza-Mall

Alternatively, you could make it a page for the service that you offer

yourbiz.com/locations/state/city/widget-repair

Whatever way you decide to structure your URL’s, keep their organization tidy by sticking to one system that makes sense.

You want to make sure that your individual pages can be indexed by Google and other search engines.

2. Optimize Each Location Page For SEO

After you’ve created the pages, you need to optimize them so Google understands what each page is about.

You’ll first want to include your keywords in the title tag and meta description.

This is the piece of code on every page that suggests what Google should display in the search results.

Tip: If you’re using WordPress for your website, you can use a simple plugin like Yoast to modify your title tags.

In the example above, you can see the title tag includes both the description of the service as well as the location.

The meta description also includes the location and the service and entices the user to click on the result.

3. Optimize the Content for Each Location

After you’ve created the pages and optimized the title tags & descriptions, you’ll want to add localized content to the page!

Many location pages make a big mistake by not adding much content, so make sure you add everything that a user would want to know.

What content should you add to these pages?

Here are some ideas to consider:

• Service Descriptions: Describe the services that you offer. If you offer a variety of different services, consider creating a new page for each.
• Common Questions: Add commonly asked questions and answers about your services.
• Photos: Add photos of the location or your work in the area. .
• Reviews: Reviews are crucial to capturing customers with a strong intent to make a purchase. Searches for “[your brand] [city] reviews” are sure to occur. These people are seriously considering your business, they just want to hear what other customers have to say about it.
• Directions: Add instructions for getting to your business from each cardinal direction (starting with the highway exit). Embed a map with your location pinned as well.

If you’d like some help building out your content, be sure to check out our copywriting product, HOTH Web Copy.

4. Create A Google My Business Profile for Each Location

Google My Business is Google’s service for helping control how your business appears on Google & Maps.

By claiming and optimizing your profiles for each location, you can take control of your presence!

We put together a huge guide on everything you need to know about Google My Business here.

The good thing is if you have multiple locations, it’s easy to keep everything organized. You can use the same account to manage all the locations.

If you have more than a few locations, you can even use the bulk upload spreadsheet and import them into GMB simultaneously using the import tool.

Triple-check your work before uploading. It’s easier if you get it loaded in right the first time!

5. Build Local Business Listings For Each Location

Getting listed in local directories for each location is an important part of getting maximum visibility with SEO.

You’ll want to make sure you’re listed on all the popular sites for your niche, and that your information is accurate.

The combination of your name, address, and phone number is referred to as a NAP, or NAP citation.

When Google sees the presence of your NAP combination on multiple websites, that is a positive signal for SEO.

On the flip side, Google often pulls inaccurate or outdated NAP’s from aggregator sites, resulting in what they see as a discrepancy between their information about your business and what’s on your website.

You’re better off keeping Google happy by managing your citations. Citation inconsistencies are the top issue affecting local SEO.

Our Ultimate Guide to Local SEO has an in-depth section on building NAP citations that you’ll want to check out for a full tutorial.

6. Get Reviews for Each Location

Did you know that 85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as a recommendation from a friend or acquaintance, and 49% of consumers look for at least a four-star rating before choosing a business?

Reviews are now featured prominently in many search results, especially search results that trigger map pack listings.

We wrote a huge post on how to get more reviews here.

Additionally, if you want some help with this, you might be interested in our review management software HOTH Stars.

Conclusion

By following this strategy for multi-location SEO, you’ll be able to rank for more terms and get more customers!

Creating unique content for each location and service page can be time-consuming, but it’s worth it if you’re serious about investing in your SEO. If you’d like to speed up the process, check out our done-for-you copywriting service, HOTH Web Copy.

We offer digital marketing solutions for different industries. Read about how we’ve helped law firms, dental offices, contractors, and more.

Do you have any questions about doing local SEO for multiple locations? Have a story or strategy to share? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Local SEO For Multiple Location Businesses (And Franchises) appeared first on The HOTH.

In this presentation, you will learn:

• The reputation disruption that’s happening
• How your brand’s reputation influences SEO
• How to build a scalable reputation boosting machine
• Tactics to get more positive online reviews
• How to prevent negative reviews from going public
• How to make more money and increase sales with customer reviews

…And much more!

Reputation Hacking Presentation Video

Reputation Hacking Slides

We’ve used our own review getting software to boost the reputation of hundreds of brands online. Check out our Reputation Management software, HOTH Stars

The post Brand Reputation Hacking: How To Get More Reviews – Search Engine Journal Summit appeared first on The HOTH.