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Showing posts from August, 2019

Google Maps SEO: 5 Surefire Steps to Rank Your Local Business

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GS Marketing Company Digital Marketing Agency Call Now! 818-293-8467 If your local business was displayed here when someone searched for what you’re offering, you could drive a ton of targeted local traffic to both your website and physical store. Follow these five simple steps to start ranking in no time! 1. Add your business info to major local aggregators One of the most important steps is get links and citations for your local business. Links and citations help your business rank in the search engines, both in the free organic listings as well as on Google Maps, because they increase the trust and authority of your domain. There are literally hundreds of sites where you can submit your business information for free citations, but the good news is that you can get most of them by simply submitting your information to the four major local business data aggregators: Express Update Factual Neustar Localeze Acxiom These companies supply business data to Google, F

A Horror Story: Check Your Google Local Listings - This Could Happen To You!

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GS Marketing Company Digital Marketing Agency Call Now! 818-293-8467 A rather nasty problem surfaced in the Google Business forum. I wanted to share it here so folks are aware.  (Excuse the scary title, but it's Halloween week and this is pretty horrific!) There are lots of reasons to check your live listing as well as your dashboard. Google edits, occasional bugs, user edits  and this... Competitor sabotage and customer stealing, by putting their ad and phone # on your listing.  (Although hate to call the crappy images above and below ads, but they are.) Now granted this is a locksmith, so hopefully, other mainstream businesses would not face this type of competitor sabotage.  BUT I've seen this happen in other industries  and there was even a course proudly offered  (by a person I won't name)  teaching how to steal customers by squatting an ad with phone # via an image on your competitor's listings.  (Same concept, still GMB listings, different delivery method.)

What to Do if Someone Else Claimed Your Google My Business Listing

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GS Marketing Company Digital Marketing Agency Call Now! 818-293-8467 One of the most important steps in a  local SEO strategy  is to claim, verify and optimize your Google My Business listing. The process is fairly straightforward, and you can get started by going to  Google.com/business . However, you may discover that the listing was already verified by someone else. This can be alarming if you’re the business owner and don’t know who this individual is. Fortunately,  Google provides instructions  on how to move forward. If someone else claimed your Google My Business Listing, you’ll need to find out who owns it and submit a transfer ownership request. Follow these tips to get started. Step One: Ask Around The listing could have been verified by someone you know, but without your knowledge. Reach out to anyone who’s had a hand in your marketing efforts to see if they have access to it, such as current and former employees or agency vendors. If so, have them  transfer owne

Why Small Business Owners Need Local SEO to Remain Competitive

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GS Marketing Company Digital Marketing Agency Call Now! 818-293-8467 Being found by ready-to-buy prospects and converting them into customers is all about search engine optimization, or more precisely, local SEO. Here are a few stats that prove our point: 50% of consumers who perform a local search on their smartphone visit a store the same day. 18% of local mobile searches result in a sale within one day. 78% of local mobile searches result in an offline purchase. Sounds amazing, right? Local SEO gained popularity after the release of the famous ‘Pigeon’ update of Google’s search algorithm in 2014. The new algorithm update dramatically improved the way the search engine handles and interprets location cues, making it easier for businesses to get found by prospects who are actively looking for their product or service. While local SEO is an essential component of any winning online marketing strategy, it’s particularly important for small businesses for the following r

What Is SEO And Local SEO?

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What Is SEO And Local SEO? SEO is short for Search Engine Optimization and SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is the name given to activity that attempts to improve search engine rankings. SEO isn’t just about building search engine-friendly websites. It’s about making your site better for people too. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the practice of increasing the number and quality of visitors to a website by improving rankings in the algorithmic search engine results. Local SEO means to promote business or services locally. This SEO is a strategy and process to optimize a site or pages on your site to show for organic queries in the search engines where the intent of the searcher is to find local information. Moreover, local SEO is focused on providing results that are relevant to a searcher based on their current location. If I search for ‘best steak restaurant’ on my desktop right now, Google would provide me with results that are nearest to me. Difference between

How Are Customers Searching for Your Business?

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GS Marketing Company Digital Marketing Agency Call Now! 818-293-8467 How Are Customers Searching for Your Business? In 2007, Google reached  438 billion searches  throughout the year. Ten years later in 2017, Google received  100 billion searches  each month. Because of the drastic change in consumer behavior, searching on the Internet has come a long way. Rather than using search engines solely to answer questions, we search for directions to the nearest store. Or, we look up customer reviews for products we're considering purchasing. We even have voice assistants to help with our searching!  Businesses need to ask themselves two questions: how are customers searching for my business and are they finding it at all? Today, we're going to answer those questions as we look at the overall change in search habits of consumers. Hyperlocal Search Will Continue to Rise While  consumers use websites to find or engage with businesses 63 percent of the time , they s