{"id":4536,"date":"2021-09-30T12:30:27","date_gmt":"2021-09-30T12:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpmudev.whitespark.ca\/2021-wlss-day-2\/"},"modified":"2024-10-28T16:04:38","modified_gmt":"2024-10-28T22:04:38","slug":"2021-wlss-day-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/blog\/2021-wlss-day-2\/","title":{"rendered":"2021 Local Search Summit &#8211; Day 2 Takeaways &#038; Advice"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Day\u00a0 2 of the #WLSS was filled with everything from content strategies to automation to scaling key SEO drivers and more. Our heads are spinning from all of the knowledge shared today. We&#8217;re giving you a look into all of they sessions and sharing ideas, insights, and tips below. You can unlock all of the events recordings by purchasing our Video Bundle. <a href=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/blog\/2021-wlss-day-1\/\">Catch up on Day 1 tips<\/a> or skip ahead to our <a href=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/blog\/2021-wlss-day-3\/\">Day 3 roundup<\/a>.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jump right into content from your favourite Day 2 speakers:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"#brian\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Brian Dean<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#duane\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Duane Brown<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#dana\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dana DiTomaso<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#nati\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nati Elimelech<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#himani\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Himani Kankaria<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#joel\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Joel Headley<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#allie\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Allie Margeson<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#dev\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dev Basu<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#ayat\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ayat Shukairy<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#greg\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Greg Sterling<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#diana\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Diana Richardson<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#aaron\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Aaron Wieche<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div class=\"avatar\" style=\"float: left; width: 100px; height: 100px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumbnail photo aligncenter wp-image-79472 size-full\" style=\"float: left;\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Brian-Dean.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" \/><\/div>\n<h2>Brian Dean (<a href=\"https:\/\/backlinko.com\/?ref=whitespark\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Backlinko<\/a>)<\/h2>\n<h3>Accessible (Yet Effective) Content Promotion Strategies<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s a dark time for SEOs. It\u2019s harder than ever to get your content seen, shared, or linked to. Even if your content is amazing, world class content, it\u2019s still one of millions of posts floating around the galaxy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">94% of all blog posts have 0 backlinks\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2.2% of content get links from 1 or more websites!<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you\u2019re using the publish and pray approach &#8211; publishing content and praying people see it, read it, and share it &#8211; then Brian\u2019s 7 promotional strategies are going to help transform how you build relevance and authority through content. Get access to the recordings to hear all of Brian\u2019s tips.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One promotional strategy you can start implementing today is:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Create Content For Your Niche\u2019s Jedi: The Linkerati<\/strong>.<\/span><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/moz.com\/blog\/identifying-the-linkerati\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Linkerati is a term that Rand Fishkin<\/span><\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> coined many years ago to describe the people in your industry that you are creating content for. They would be bloggers, journalists, editors, and other publications that you need to appeal to in order to get more backlinks.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The content that you are writing to the \u201cLinkerati\u201d may not be the same content you would write for your customers. Publishing content for your customers is great and very important, but if you only publish content for your customers and not the people in your industry with linking power, you&#8217;re missing out.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One way to do this is to update your old content to appeal to linkarti. Numbers and case studies appeal to the niche that Brian is in (SEO) but these pieces aren&#8217;t necessary what his customers want (small business owners who take his online course).<\/span><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Brian-Dean-Updating-old-content.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"avatar\" style=\"float: left; width: 100px; height: 100px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumbnail photo aligncenter wp-image-79477 size-full\" style=\"float: left;\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Duane-Brown.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" \/><\/div>\n<h2>Duane Brown (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.takesomerisk.com\/?ref=whitespark\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Take Some Risk<\/a>)<\/h2>\n<h3>How To Pivot Your Facebook Advertising In A Post iOS14.5 World<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many of you have probably heard about Apple&#8217;s iOS 14.5 update that limited the ability to set retargeting cookies on mobile. Well, not all is lost. Duane explained how you can pivot your Facebook advertising in a post IOS 14.5 world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Oftentimes, we hear clients say, \u201cwe&#8217;re losing sales\u201d. The truth is, they&#8217;re not actually losing sales. The reality is that sales are either super delayed, or they&#8217;re just not showing up in AD manager.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You are not losing sales, you just can&#8217;t track what&#8217;s going on, and that is because Apple&#8217;s decided to ask people \u201cdo you want to be tracked\u201d and rightfully so, most people say no.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So what can you do to help improve your traffic and get the most out of your Facebook Ads?<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Here are a few of Duane&#8217;s Tips<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Lead &amp; Sales Funnel &#8211; Build a Strong Marketing Foundation<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do not put all your eggs in one basket &#8211; aka you cannot rely on only one ad platform to build and grow your business. Just using Google, or Facebook, or Amazon is not ideal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Build a better lead funnel by creating quality content your customers care about.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Oftentimes in marketing, people just do things to do things. If you do things to do things, you&#8217;re probably not going to have the success that you want. It takes time to see the strategy start to work and see success.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In marketing, sometimes you&#8217;re going to invest into things for 6 to 12 months into a strategy to see a payout in the long run, stay the course and not give up; before you see success. Don\u2019t give up too early.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Media Optimization &#8211; Where to Spend Money?<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once you\u2019ve built up your amazing content you want to figure out what your Facebook Ads strategy is going to be.\u00a0What is your desired outcome? Is it a lead? Is it a newsletter signup? Is it a sale? Whatever you want to achieve, figure that out first.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What Outcome Do You Want?<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Advocacy<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Awareness<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Engagement<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Audience growth<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Focus on one single issue. Once you know your strategy you can figure out your measurement of success.<\/span><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Duane-Brown-What-outcome-do-you-want-with-your-ads.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"avatar\" style=\"float: left; width: 100px; height: 100px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumbnail photo aligncenter wp-image-79480 size-full\" style=\"float: left;\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Dana-DiTomaso.jpg\" alt=\"dana-ditomaso\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" \/><\/div>\n<h2>Dana DiTomaso (<a href=\"https:\/\/kickpoint.ca\/?ref=whitespark\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kick Point<\/a>)<\/h2>\n<h3>Redoing Your Website: Avoiding Pitfalls, Chaos, and Setting $$$ on Fire<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dana shared her experience and wisdom about redoing your website, which typically can feel like setting a bunch of money on fire, and then you end up with a website at the end. With her process, hopefully, you can avoid that during your next website overhaul.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When a website re-haul is happening a lot of times SEO isn\u2019t brought in soon enough. SEOs have a unique talent of straddling the worlds of content, technology and conversion, but we&#8217;re really bad at communicating with other people. We make data boring with tables, but we need to get in the room as early as possible.<\/span><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Dana-SEOs-be-like-let-us-in-the-room.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How do we do this? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Break it into two components: discovery and building.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thinking about all the procedural things (including SEO) that have to happen BEFORE the design side of things.<strong> You are never going to have a good time if you start with a design first website.<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most people these days do \u201cwaterfall\u201d process, it\u2019s a one way trip, and there isn\u2019t a way to visit where you\u2019ve been without significant effort. Websites are living, changing beings and you don\u2019t necessarily end up with something you are happy with at the end of the waterfall process.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Waterfall is confusing for decision makers, you can\u2019t go backwards and it\u2019s hard to show what you\u2019re talking about or what it will actually be like.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Dana Recommends \u201cAgile-ish Process\u201d<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Where you don\u2019t adhere to the two week sprint rule, but you take the idea of sprints into how you do website projects.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Developers can get involved as early as possible, but aren\u2019t bogged down with the specific details of how everything\u2019s gonna go. They know the direction of the project and aren\u2019t pulled into every single meeting.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can jump into development a lot faster because a lot of decisions are made up front that you can roll out, instead of having to wait for the design to be complete.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Agile-ish allows for your deliverables to be presented often, because you\u2019re working in sprints, you have the opportunity to communicate more frequently with decision makers, which helps everyone to be on the same page.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>=<\/p>\n<div class=\"avatar\" style=\"float: left; width: 100px; height: 100px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumbnail photo aligncenter wp-image-79496 size-full\" style=\"float: left;\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Nati-Elimelech.jpg\" alt=\"nati elimelech\" width=\"700\" height=\"700\" \/><\/div>\n<h2>Nati Elimelech (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wix.com\/?ref=whitespark\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wix<\/a>)<\/h2>\n<h3>Automation in SEO: Time Savers for the Busy Search Marketer<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nati shared automation advice for the busy search marketer. If you\u2019re not technical don\u2019t let that prevent you from taking advantage of automation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why automation?\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Efficiency is key to growth<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You need to balance profitability and deliverability to your customers<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Humans don\u2019t scale well<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Only 24 hours in a day<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>The Planning Fallacy<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Things always take more time than we think<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even simple tasks are made up for micro tasks<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nothing takes 5 minutes, not really<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Nait-E-The-planning-fallacy.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Automation helps eliminate the planning fallacy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It removes time constrictions and scaling issues. Plus your automations work 24\/7 &#8211; no time restrictions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Planning, setting up, and executing automation does take time &#8211; but there is a simple formula you can use to determine how much time you should invest in creating your automation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Automation\u00a0Formula &amp; Example<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How much time to invest =\u00a0 <em>Avg task time<\/em> <strong>X<\/strong> <em># of repetitions\/month<\/em> <strong>X<\/strong> <em># of projects or clients\u00a0<\/em><\/span><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Nati-E-Automation-Example.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" \/><strong>How do you select the right candidates for automation?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The key to good automation is to automate only the things where the quality of the work\/output will not be impacted by being automated.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>3 rules to automating something\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It needs to be repetitive<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No complex decision making (simple tasks)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Does not need expertise\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"avatar\" style=\"float: left; width: 100px; height: 100px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumbnail photo aligncenter wp-image-79500 size-full\" style=\"float: left;\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Himani-Kankaria.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" \/><\/div>\n<h2>Himani Kankaria (<a href=\"https:\/\/missivedigital.com\/?ref=whitespark\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Missive Digital<\/a>)<\/h2>\n<h3>How to Boost Organic Traffic That Converts Using Featured Snippets<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Featured snippets are short blurbs of text that appear at the top of Google&#8217;s search results to quickly answer a searcher\u2019s query\/question. The content is pulled from web pages in Google&#8217;s index. Common snippets include definitions, tables, steps (how-to\u2019s), and lists.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A lot of SEOs refer to Featured Snippets as \u201cPosition 0\u201d because it appears at the very top of results before the #1 spot. And everyone wants this coveted ranking result for their top target keywords.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Think of Featured Snippets as the remarketing of SEO<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When you earn the Featured Snippets in search results, you will also get higher click-through-rates which brings more relevant traffic to your website.\u00a0<\/span><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/CTR-example.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How can you use featured snippets to boost conversions from organic traffic?<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0Start by planning out your budget\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Identify your question keywords with information search intent\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Plan out the topics both for SEO &amp; Content team<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Optimize your content:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Include media to help increase engagement from audience,<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Use headers and subheadings to improve readability,<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Add meta tags (URL, title tags, description, image ALT attributes)Internal and external links<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ol start=\"5\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Publish and follow your content distribution strategy <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Expand your content strategy to include branded terms and conversion rate optimization (CRO)<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> For example &#8211; create content about &lt;your business name&gt; vs &lt;competitor name&gt;, or<\/span><\/li>\n<li>H<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ow &lt;product name&gt; of &lt;your business name&gt; are different from competitors.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ol start=\"7\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Monitor then Optimize then Monitor and then repeat (MOM approach)\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div class=\"avatar\" style=\"float: left; width: 100px; height: 100px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumbnail photo aligncenter wp-image-79504 size-full\" style=\"float: left;\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Joel-Headley.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" \/><\/div>\n<h2>Joel Headley (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.patientpop.com\/?ref=whitespark\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Patient Pop<\/a>)<\/h2>\n<h3>Improving Key SEO Drivers at Scale<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When we think about ranking factors in local we talk about\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">GMB,\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Citations,\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reviews,\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On-page signals (technology behind the site and content),\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Links (how you define prominence), and\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Behavior (can\u2019t scale this).\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/SEO-Drivers.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How do we prioritize our investment in these SEO factors?\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You want to start with the market that you are serving in. Take a market perspective when you want to improve your SEO practices.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When it comes to content &#8211; <em>all content changes matter to SEO<\/em>. This includes<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Title tags<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Internal links<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Managing redirects<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Service pages<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Heading structures<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Photos<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Looking Deeper into Photos<\/strong><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When we think about photos the opportunity is not just for your website but also GMB. Businesses are really missing out on expanding their content through high quality and relevant photos.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here\u2019s an example of why stock photos just don&#8217;t cut it when it comes to your website and business.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The stock photo below was used for a dentist&#8217;s website &#8211; it shows us a happy person with clean and healthy looking teeth. We don\u2019t know where they are, who they are, they are holding a coffee cup, they are outside not inside a dentist office. Is this picture doing the job of showcasing this business? No.<\/span><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Stock-photo-example.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Take it a step further and think, are there things that Google is doing automatically with photos that would be relevant for search? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Well, they are probably <a href=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/blog\/photos-on-google-listing\/\"> classifying the photos<\/a> and do you know how they are interpreting the photos you are sharing on your website? Use their classification engine, <a href=\"https:\/\/cloud.google.com\/vision\/\">Cloud Vision<\/a>, to help you understand how Google &#8220;sees&#8221; your photos and to take better (more relevant) photos for your business.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Below is an example of using Google&#8217;s Cloud Vision API in action &#8211; see how Google understood the first image and then with some minor position and focus adjustments how Google understood the second image.<\/span><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Advanced-Photoshoot-that-uses-Cloud-Vision.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">YES! When the team at Patient Pop added relevant, thoughtful, high quality photos on their clients Google Listing and websites. they saw an increase in traffic.<\/span><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Photos-on-Google-Graph.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"avatar\" style=\"float: left; width: 100px; height: 100px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumbnail photo aligncenter wp-image-79511 size-full\" style=\"float: left;\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Allie-Margeson-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" \/><\/div>\n<h2>Allie Margeson (<a href=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Whitespark<\/a>)<\/h2>\n<h3>Leveraging GMB Conversion Features: Messaging &amp; Booking<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While a few GMB elements will influence your rankings, there&#8217;s an increasing number of rich features that when optimized, can boost your conversions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This includes Messaging &amp; Booking.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Google Messaging<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">GMB Messaging: there is no other GMB feature that puts you in more direct contact with your customers, aside from the call button.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Customers can chat with your business through GMB Messaging by clicking the <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chat icon, <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Get a Quote button on your listing,\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Message button in your Google Posts. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All of these new CTAs switch on when you enable Messaging.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Be aware: When a user completes a quote request through Messaging, GMB may prompt them to get additional quotes in just one click. This function is for the benefit of searchers, of course it&#8217;s not ideal for your business, but if you do a good job of managing Messaging &#8211; this shouldn&#8217;t be a problem.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With the local pack Request Quotes button, if most competitors haven\u2019t enabled Messaging, a business that wasn\u2019t even ranking in the local pack can shoot up front and center to provide a quote.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-79513 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Request-a-Quote-1-1024x576.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <strong>key benefit of Messaging is the immediacy of the medium<\/strong> &#8211; strike while the iron is hot. And we all know leads are impatient.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Messaging is an additional way for searchers to interact with your business &#8211; not everyone wants to call, nor is everyone searching for your business when you\u2019re open and available to one.\u00a0<\/span><strong>Want to start leveraging conversions with GMB Bookings\/Reserve with Google?<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/blog\/gmb-bookings-reserve-with-google\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Then you need to read this in-depth post from Allie Margeson!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"avatar\" style=\"float: left; width: 100px; height: 100px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumbnail photo aligncenter wp-image-79567 size-full\" style=\"float: left;\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Dev-Basu.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" \/><\/div>\n<h2>Dev Basu (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.poweredbysearch.com\/?ref=whitespark\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Powered By Search<\/a>)<\/h2>\n<h3>The 9 Systems Every Agency Needs to Grow and Scale<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As an agency owner you&#8217;re always managing multiple plates, you&#8217;re working on your marketing and being able to get a bit more leads, and then you&#8217;re focusing on working with prospects to turn those conversations into clients. As soon as that client closes, then you&#8217;re talking to your delivery team to be able to get them a loud result and it can all be a little bit exhausting. You often don&#8217;t have the systems in place or the people and processes in place to be able to scale your business, you can feel a little bit like your battery&#8217;s low at the end of the year and your profits aren&#8217;t really any higher.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dev found that there&#8217;s nine different systems (accelerators) necessary to grow more revenue, have more fun in the business, and to create a bit more freedom.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Zooming out and figuring out where you are on this agency bell curve can help you determine the actions you need to take to move forward.<\/span><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Dev-Basu-the-bell-curve-of-Agencies.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Stalling<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211; you feel your best days have been passed up. This agency has run into the fear and ignorance line &#8211; they feel that there is not anything that they could do differently. Very small % of agencies are over here.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Sustaining<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211; this is an okay place to be &#8211; it\u2019s like a see-saw: you get a client, you lose a client, you are up a little,then down a little. The key here is that you need to carve a place in your market to go from being passed up to <\/span><b>Position Up<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> = becoming meaningfully differentiated to the clients that you actually want to attract.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Scaling<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211; this is a good place to be. They have found their niche and created a name for themselves. Getting here means that your agency has <\/span><b>Process Up<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> = you have established standard operating practices, you know how to delegate.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Soaring<\/strong> &#8211; this is rare. Agencies that are two standard deviations from where most agencies are and have found a way to <\/span><b>Perform Up<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> = in terms of where they are going.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is a way to break through these levels: from stalling to sustaining to scaling to soaring through the concept of building a \u201cMillion Dollar Agency\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What does that look like in terms of a model? There are three core components:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Money<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fun<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Freedom<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Dev-Basu-Million-Dollar-Agency.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dev shared his 9 system for assessing and grading your agency, here is one you can look at today:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Build Authority\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Y<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ou need to be able to stand out in the crowd of agencies<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ask yourself: how easy is it for your clients to simply, quickly and easily understand and accept why your agency is the best in the market to solve THEIR problems\u2026 <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Are we <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">guessing<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or do we <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">know<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> how our prospects think about us?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"avatar\" style=\"float: left; width: 100px; height: 100px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumbnail photo aligncenter wp-image-79570 size-full\" style=\"float: left;\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Ayat-Shukairy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" \/><\/div>\n<h2>Ayat Shukairy (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.invespcro.com\/?ref=whitespark\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Invesp CRO<\/a>)<\/h2>\n<h3>10 Tips for WINNING CRO Experiments<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You are in for a treat friends, because the brilliant Ayat shared 10 tips for winning Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) and we will share a few of these gems with you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>#1 Stop Focusing on the Small Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A lot of times people think that conversion rate optimization is so easy. I can do it with my eyes closed, all I have to do is just change the color of a CTA, or change a single element. This is not CRO, this is template tweaking. CRO is a lot more than that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are no best practices when it comes to CRO<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No checklists.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You will not get anywhere with just tweaking.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You want to be looking for repeatable, sustainable growth.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you want to succeed with CRO you need to create a process. Here is the process that Invesp CRO has created for their team known as SHIP.<\/span><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Ayat-Shukairy-CRO-Process.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" \/><strong>#2 Interview for Growth<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ayat and her team start by focusing on a <strong>JTBD (Jobs To Be Done) interview<\/strong> with their clients to really get a conscious understanding of why something is happening &#8211;<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Understand why people are doing something?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What are their feelings?<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What are the social motivations and the psychological motivations that push them to make a specific purchase?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Doing this informs a lot of what your next steps are, it informs how your marketing is going to be, it\u2019s going to inform the different elements you will incorporate into the website that really matter to this visitor. It is going to help inform the unique value proposition as well.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span>==<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cCustomers have jobs that are both functional, social, and emotional in nature, and companies need to design offerings that win on both levels.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The interviews can open up aspects that you don&#8217;t even think about that many say has nothing to do with CRO, but it does because what you are trying to do is increase revenue for your client and you can achieve this by approaching it from all angles, it doesn&#8217;t necessarily have to always be only on the website.\u00a0<\/span><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Ayat-Go-deeper-into-the-minds-of-your-customers.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"avatar\" style=\"float: left; width: 100px; height: 100px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumbnail photo aligncenter wp-image-79574 size-full\" style=\"float: left;\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Greg-Sterling.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" \/><\/div>\n<h2>Greg Sterling (<a href=\"https:\/\/uberall.com\/?ref=whitespark\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Uberall<\/a>)<\/h2>\n<h3>Does Local Listings Management Still Matter?<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Greg is going to present research on the impact of citations. It&#8217;s hard to find good informative data on the impact of citation, and this is great data!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once upon a time\u2026 managing citations or business listings was really a foundational local SEO tactic. Everyone agreed upon this. Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP) consistency was relied upon by Google to <\/span><b>verify the existence and legitimacy<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of local businesses. Sometimes described as \u201cbacklinks for local.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Listing management was very important.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another reason why a business would want to have uniformity in their business information distribution was that they wanted people to encounter the same information, same phone number, same address, etc, when they went to different places to look up your business. If they didn&#8217;t do that then it was often being managed by the publishers themselves, the platform, or some third party. That meant that if they didn&#8217;t take control of their data, somebody else would on their behalf.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Citations are still a factor, it&#8217;s still regarded by people as something that has a role to play in local rankings.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2014 &#8211; Citations Number 1 Ranking Factor<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2020 &#8211; Citations Number 6 Ranking Factor\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Local-Search-Ranking-Factor-Changes-Over-Time-.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" \/><b>So What\u2019s Happened?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Google has significantly reduced its reliance on third party directories and third parties in general. Google is getting data much more directly, and is using its own efforts to validate the existence of businesses. Google is treating its own data as more authoritative.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another factor is that a lot of consumer destinations that people used to go to routinely, such as AOL, Yellow Pages, MapQuest, city search, etc. are all essentially gone.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So Greg and the team at Uberall really wanted to answer the questions<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Does it matter?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Does it not matter?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How does it impact local rankings?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Everyone in the industry agrees that GMB, Facebook, Yelp, Apple Maps, and Bing are very important listings sites. Then some verticals are still critical for certain industries.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Uberall Study<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Uberall wanted to know:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Does going beyond the business listings that everyone agrees on matter?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What\u2019s the impact (if any) on local visibility and consumer engagement?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What they did:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Examined 115,000 enterprise and SMB locations in the US and Europe to determine the impact of extended directory distribution on local search and Google Maps visibility.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Data was collected from January 2019 &#8211; October 2020.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Control group featured inclusion in GMB, Facebook, Apple Maps, and Bing.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Experimental group featured extended distribution (varied by market) to roughly 70 total directories included in the study.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>The Findings (Short answer: there was an impact!)<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Listings distributed on 10+ sites saw an average of 80% improved local visibility on Google.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An average of 67% improvement in consumer actions for businesses listed on 10+ directories.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When distribution was extended to 30+ directories, user actions increased by more than 136%.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Profile completeness also boosted visibility and resulted in a 69% increase in website clicks. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Greg-Sterling-Distribution-Study-Results.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Greg-Sterling-Distribution-Study-Results-Engagement.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" \/><strong>As you add more distribution, you&#8217;re seeing a corresponding, positive effect in terms of visibility on Google rankings. <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Why Listings Management is STILL Important<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Consumers are even more engaged at the local level<\/strong> than before COVID.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Listing consistency is no longer the top local ranking factor, but <strong>Google still values third party citations<\/strong>.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/listings-service\/\"><strong>Active listings management<\/strong><\/a> across a network <strong>can produce a double-digit life in search visibility and engagement<\/strong>.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Those <strong>visibility gains can translate directly into revenue<\/strong>.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"avatar\" style=\"float: left; width: 100px; height: 100px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumbnail photo aligncenter wp-image-79575 size-full\" style=\"float: left;\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Diana-Richardson.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" \/><\/div>\n<h2>Diana Richardson (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.semrush.com\/?ref=whitespark target=\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Semrush<\/a>)<\/h2>\n<h3>Finding Your Tribe: Social Media Marketing &amp; Community Building for Small or Niche Businesses<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A lot of businesses make the claim that their audience is not on social media, but Diana Richardson is here to prove you wrong!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Communities available to find your audience<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Video (YouTube, TikTok..)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Conversations &amp; audio (Twitter, Chats, Podcasts, Clubhouse)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Facebook Groups\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Business vs Personal (LinkedIn)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Getting started with building a community<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Test various channels to find your audience<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Don\u2019t forget that it takes a lot of trial and error and testing. Don\u2019t be discouraged if things don\u2019t work right out of the gate.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Remember that not ALL social platforms will work for your business.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Whatever your \u201cexperience\u201d is with existing customer base, you need to recreate that on social media.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here&#8217;s one of the real life examples Diana shared of a local record shop, Trax on Wax, who\u2019s audience is very active and engaged on Facebook and he\u2019s creating posts that center around content about the local community, behind the scenes, social commentary &amp; the experience with the shop.\u00a0<\/span><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Diana-Richardson-Trax-on-Wax-post-example-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What works best for the Trax on Wax community: <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No sales<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Funny<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Authentic<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Personality<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On theme (music)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Making the most out of a niche<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Consistency<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Tips to help your business build a community\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The content you share is critical<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Test, test, test<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Consistency is key<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cultivate an experience\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Engage and show up<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"avatar\" style=\"float: left; width: 100px; height: 100px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumbnail photo aligncenter wp-image-79599 size-full\" style=\"float: left;\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Aaron-Weiche.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" \/><\/div>\n<h2>Aaron Weiche (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.leadferno.com\/?ref=whitespark\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Leadferno<\/a>)<\/h2>\n<h3>Removing Friction to Gain Results<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Aaron Wieche walked attendees through the ways in which your business can remove friction on your website to gain more conversion results.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We can be our own roadblocks to conversions &#8211; there are many ways in which we cause friction in our lead generation processes that prevent conversions and get in the way of our customers&#8217; destination.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>As a business you want to remove the fear of the unknown for a website visitor<\/strong>. You need to answer their common concerns and give them confidence to take the next step.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Are you the expert?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Can I trust you?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Are you the best value?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When can we start?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Below is an example of removing the fear:<\/span><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Example-of-removing-fear.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" \/><strong>Give Visitors Clear and Concise Directions That Are<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Action driven and relevant (bonus if you can evoke emotion &#8211; trust, excitement&#8230;)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Draw the eye (style, color, placement)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Give an expectations (do X to get X)\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Rethink Your Approach to Lead Capture<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Don\u2019t create a form of doom with 15-20 questions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another way of removing friction is thinking about \u2018<em>what do I actually need to know from this customer?<\/em>\u201d vs \u201c<em>what\u2019s everything that I can get?<\/em>\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you have to use a longer form, make it more visual and engaging to improve the customer experience. Consider adding a progress bar to simplify the steps.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Aaron-Weiche-reduce-friction-with-a-better-lead-capture-form.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Did you learn something new today that you are going to apply in your local SEO practice or for your small business?<\/strong> Share what it is in the comments below. &#x1f447; There is still one more day left of knowledge sharing. If you want full access to the content and all recordings, you can buy our Video Bundle.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Day\u00a0 2 of the #WLSS was filled with everything from content strategies to automation to scaling key SEO drivers and more. Our heads are spinning from all of the knowledge shared today. We&#8217;re giving you a look into all of they sessions and sharing ideas, insights, and tips below. You can unlock all of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4571,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"Day\u00a0 2 of the #WLSS was filled with everything from content strategies to automation to scaling key SEO drivers and more. Here&#039;s a look into the sessions and ideas, insights, and tips to help improve your local marketing.","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"classification":[],"class_list":["post-4536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4536"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4570,"href":"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4536\/revisions\/4570"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4536"},{"taxonomy":"classification","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/classification?post=4536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}