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<\/p>\nHey, small business owner!<\/p>\n
You’ve got stuff to do today. Stuff that has to do with YOUR business. Not things that have to do with increased local search rankings.<\/p>\n
I get it. You do your business and I’ll do mine.<\/p>\n
So here’s the deal. There are a ton of ultimate guides out there with every gory detail about every aspect of local search. This ain\u2019t one.<\/p>\n
You need plain english, actionable items that any business owner can do that would have a big impact on your local rankings. And you need them now!<\/p>\n
I nailed down 6 points that you could execute over the next week that will help you rank better locally. They take 15-30 minutes each day to do.<\/p>\n
You interested? You’re dang right you are!<\/p>\n
Let’s run over the 6 steps, broken out into days, that can help you rank better in Google today!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Have you claimed your listing yet? Yes? Great! If not you\u00a0better do that now<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ok, now that you’ve got control of it let\u2019s run over some best practices:<\/p>\n Make sure you are using your official business name in the business name field<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Make sure you\u2019re using your accurate address and local phone number.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Have a suite number? Put it on address line 2.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n Write a good description of your business:<\/p>\n Knock out a quick bio that describes what you do.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Use the bold<\/strong>, italic<\/em>, and bullet points.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Link back to one page on your site.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Don\u2019t try to stuff keywords in there. Just write a natural description about your business.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n Add 5 photos<\/strong> of your building, products, and\/or services.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n No pictures on hand to add? We\u2019ve got you covered.<\/p>\n Pull out your phone and snap away. Here are some ideas for what to shoot:<\/p>\n company vehicle<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n store front<\/p>\n<\/li>\n waiting room<\/p>\n<\/li>\n staff<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n products<\/p>\n<\/li>\n a selfie!<\/p>\n<\/li>\n business complex<\/p>\n<\/li>\n you with a valued client<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n you doing an upside down beer bong<\/p>\n<\/li>\n ski the swiss alps? shoot it!<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Feel free to get creative!<\/p>\n Got that done? Perfect!<\/p>\n Go ahead and get back to your day.<\/p>\n Don’t forget to bookmark this page<\/strong> or set up a reminder for tomorrow!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Don’t go running off. This is pretty easy to do.<\/p>\n If you have access to your site then great. If not, no worries, you can still get this done.<\/p>\n I\u2019m sure you already have some text on your homepage<\/strong> about what you do and why you do it. But what you need to do is take it to a\u00a0whole… \u2018notha… level…<\/a><\/p>\n Here\u2019s what this looks like…<\/p>\n Go into more detail on your services and products.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Add more details on your company, its history, why you\u2019re the best, how you treat your customers, and why you love what you do.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Link to relevant pages in your site from here.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Add this new content to your site (if you have the ability) or save it to a word doc to send to your web developer.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n While you\u2019re at it, add some of those photos you took yesterday for your Google+ Listing.<\/strong><\/p>\n If you aren’t comfortable uploading these things to your site then shoot it over to your webmaster.<\/p>\n This is a fun one. A lot of local businesses overlook this feature of SEO and you can make some quick wins here.<\/p>\n What you need to do is take a little self-business inventory.<\/p>\n What is your one main service or product that people love and know you by?<\/strong><\/p>\n Perhaps you\u2019re a personal injury attorney. Maybe you\u2019re the best place in town to get Chinese food. Remove dents from cars?<\/p>\n After you have nailed down your specific service write it down on paper and let’s craft your home page title tag.<\/p>\n Here are three examples:<\/p>\n (Town) Personal Injury Lawyer – Abe Lincoln Attorney Offices<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Best Chinese Food In (Town) – Cal-Wa Kitchen<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Dent King – Automotive Dent Removal In (Town)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n See how that works? Great!<\/p>\n Important tips to keep in mind:<\/p>\n Include your business name, a keyword, and your town.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Keep it under 60 characters.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n Don\u2019t stuff it with keywords.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Now you can update your home page title tag yourself or send the word doc with your title tag to your web developer so they can do that for you.<\/p>\n Next you\u2019ll need to add some schema mark-up<\/strong> to your homepage as well\u2026<\/p>\n Wait, ski where?<\/p>\n My mom’s a what?<\/p>\n Don’t let this word intimidate you. Google loves big words. This is just a mark-up language that helps the search engines identify where you are and what you do.<\/strong><\/p>\n Bonus: You don’t even need to know how to code to do this.<\/p>\n Head to\u00a0this tool<\/a> and add your official business name, address, and phone number.<\/p>\n After it spits out the code, copy and paste it into your homepage or the footer on your site.<\/p>\n Again, if you\u2019re not sure how to do this save the code on a word doc and shoot it over to your webmaster.<\/p>\n You’ve got some of the basics of local seo down. But…you need some reviews!<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Love it or hate it, Yelp is the\u00a0review site of the current time. Note:<\/strong> you cannot directly ask for reviews on Yelp so I\u2019m going to show you how to passively let people know you\u2019d like one.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll need to have claimed your Yelp profile already for this step to work. Here\u2019s the link<\/a> to claim your business listing if you haven\u2019t already.<\/p>\n Find the specifics on how to get your\u00a0Yelp badge<\/a>. Then place the provided code on the homepage or the contact page<\/strong>. In the footer or the header file. The choice is yours but it needs to be visible on your site.<\/p>\n Badges? We don’t need no\u00a0stinkin’ badges<\/a>. Well, actually, turns out you do.<\/p>\n You’ll also need real world visibility for your Yelp account, so let’s get a sticker for the front door!<\/strong><\/p>\n Fill out\u00a0this form<\/a> to have a sticker sent to you.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n When the sticker shows up, slap it on the window or door that sees the most traffic in any given day.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n But what if I’m service based?<\/strong><\/p>\n Ah, take heart my lamb.<\/p>\n If you’re service based then you most likely have a nice database of emails<\/strong> and a service that you use to communicate with those people.<\/p>\n If you don’t then I advise you do one of two things<\/strong> 1) Start one today. Like, right now!!! 2) Curl up in the fetal position and get a good long cry out. Then go start one.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a super easy script you can copy and paste into your email after you login to your email provider:<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Subject:<\/strong> We’re On Yelp!<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Body:<\/strong> Hey! We wanted to let you know we’re on Yelp!<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 We just went and updated\/customized our Yelp account.<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Go take a look and let us know how you like it. Maybe you could upload a picture of a \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 project we did for you? No pressure though \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 P.S. We enabled the chat function so you can ask us questions privately and we’ll \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 respond! So cool, right?<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Have a great day!<\/span><\/p>\n Shoot that puppy off and monitor your Yelp account over the next week<\/strong> to see what shows up. Don\u2019t be afraid to hit the list again in a couple of weeks to remind people that you looooove Yelp.<\/p>\n Notice I didn\u2019t touch on Google?<\/strong><\/p>\n Well, there\u2019s a reason for that, which I\u2019ll explain at the end of this article. But, for now, you can get some easy Google reviews that will really help your rankings with\u00a0this link<\/a> if you\u2019d like to start there instead.<\/p>\n Not everyone is willing to put up with Yelp, after all.<\/p>\n You\u2019re starting to really get into the nitty gritty of local seo.<\/p>\n Building citations can eat up a lot of time. But you don\u2019t have to claim ALL the citations, you just need the\u00a0best ones<\/a>! Hurray!<\/p>\n Assuming you\u2019re in the U.S. let\u2019s get the top 10 websites that list your business<\/strong> BUT are easy to claim. Remember not to get burnt out on these. Claim just 1-2 a day over the next week.<\/p>\n CitySearch<\/a> – search business name and location, then claim<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Bing<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n YellowPages<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n Yahoo! Local<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n SuperPages<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n Foursquare<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n ChamberOfCommerce<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n YellowBot<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n YellowBook<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n <\/p>\n Have you ever looked at your competition\u2019s website?<\/p>\n Do you know what they are missing 90% of the time? (no statistical evidence of this stat, it just sounds nice.) Service pages! Yup, most businesses forget to break out each service they offer as an individual page and speak in detail about it.<\/p>\n Silly, huh? But you\u2019re not silly because you\u2019ll have all these pages in a couple of weeks!<\/p>\n Open a word doc and and list out all the pages that you need to create, the more the better. Then start typing away. Talk in detail about what the specific service is\/does that you provide to your customers.<\/p>\n If you were an electrical engineer you could add all these (if they applied):<\/p>\n New Construction<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Remodels<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Rough Electrical<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Electrical Rooms<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Generator Installations<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Panels & Panel Boards<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Dimmers and Accessories<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Interior Lighting<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Landscape Lighting<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Lighting Systems Design<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Lighting Control Systems<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Solar Panel Systems<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Trufig Interior Finishes<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Customer Care Programs<\/p>\n<\/li>\n 24hr Emergency Service<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Make sure you update your title tag, add a photo or two, and link to other pages on your site on each of these pages. Much like you did with your homepage. Continue to build out these pages until every. last. one. is done and optimized!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n You’ve spent the last week on your local seo and you’re feelin’ pretty darn good about yourself.<\/p>\n Heck, you might even pop a cold one today and celebrate your new subtitle “Owner\/Local SEO Expert.”\u00a0We can relate to the feeling.<\/p>\n This is a good start to your Local SEO, and with these basics covered you’ll probably get some decent traction<\/a> in the local search results.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lh4.googleusercontent.com\/nqCXOtE_b7por3Okh4LTmFYLq7QqLcBh839AUPbHrmOcSSlEQ3x7loiYasgRRFlkv3qBuwgqatZqQK_jPIdIRyk5kxMfiymSLduTtwU1V2B6e9D_60IbU0gtPmGyNdHLyA\")
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Day 2: Improve Your Homepage<\/h3>\n
Time: 15 to 30 minutes(ish)<\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/bgwwPHVtG0Cu2wwTyfhzlcOKOvuf033vsYgLKePA999h2pLlJd1exQbEBZASX85VI8GTAh0I5FNBlKQZvQcGqpGa3nXrI5K9W27o4E52WJ8o6l-vCGOf19DNR0yWaXNXzg\")
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Day 3: Update Home Page Title Tag & Add Schema<\/h3>\n
Time: 15 to 30 minutes(ish)<\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/2w6YVWzHSdjxwyLrVClI5QCJgN9qMUv_SPCtRTSEGNVx7Qo6u2AOnDLfhzSIuWLM6GAHl3YuP9_bfRd146N-OqK5-7OZrUX_RmTgo0muFlUD4QtQtxoR764SMCLxqv20rA\")
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Day 4: Get Some Reviews<\/h3>\n
Time: 15 to 30 minutes(ish)<\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lh5.googleusercontent.com\/9IWXhf8hsPemQNgDF05CkX5emfhi-EmKFbmNrOwqdHbBFLtiM2ov7sdj3lK4k2n20VhkMLt201oK-zgZuLpgNM8RnrL_JS5TW3Pjr5z1ozADgpxvT0ByDpfYiK5VEsBRnQ\")
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\n<\/span>Day 5: Collect Some Citations<\/h3>\nTime: 15 minutes to 2 weeks to 1 months(ish)<\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lh5.googleusercontent.com\/BrNELTUh9HU-JWPVP2Y0Km6Ueb24Q-xcGmvxPXdZHe6NLg0y2TTrdpjfPd19vpqKBWQMqZsfQqp6tRdmYdnkD5a2vjetCgcQcdkZIwWtMZoOQd5Ysd_iLKnoBBprIdweyg\")
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Day 6: Add Service Pages<\/h3>\n
Time: 15 minutes to 2 weeks to 1 months(ish)<\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lh4.googleusercontent.com\/1qo5Pkk7noaGPxPBP6gAkoz7G9MhHPlLcGWgA7nP4wXr8NsZPc3YqMp4pTprJirtxBfPaTKYcftT5GfmF2LrAVWcxLjP2TW7THnoifqMMR9YUETZFiz8tPaiiKl-sKcPCQ\")
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Day 7: Your Day Of Rest<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/MdhJMpwMZsn-X2OSMmJ1AhDuBZmm24NOFwIOfzmtkfgX3ydTMe3dI8Vah-NIiVHJd0efTkDlTak_gOVbaM2I7ftsROzF9A46eAR2-_zV1Plu7ZrHxGDAXv0kxNGa8eqDSw\")