searchcon 2016 | local seo with casey meraz

May 12 & 13, 2016 | Breckenridge, Colorado

5 AdvancedLocal SEO Tips & Tricks

Solve Problems & Rank Higher

About Casey Meraz• I like beer• Founder of Juris

Digital & Ethical SEO Consulting• Likes Beer• Loves local search

What Are We Talking About Today?

And now this local finder thing

Now With Ads!

You’ve Done The Basics

We’re going to assume you got the basics right. But just incase let’s do a quick review.

Fixed Major Citation Issues

Fixed issues on the data aggregatorsCleaned up the top citation sources

Removed duplicatesMade sure your NAP is 100% correct

Have A Clean Website

Make sure it’s properly optimizedNo errors like 404’s, internal 301’s, etc.

You have a fast site speedOptimized your connected landing page

NAP on pages

Optimized GMB Profile

You optimized your Google My Business Profile

Filled it out completelyFilled it out correctly

You Have ReviewsReviews will increase CTR!

Strong Authority

You have high quality linksYou’re ranking organically for important

keywordsYou’re not penalized by a filter or manual

action penalty

Issue #1: Your Client Is Outside Of The City

Issue #1: Your Client Is Outside Of The City

But when the search location is set to

search from Tampa for just

“Handyman”…

We see them here

Issue #1: Key Takeaways

• Check your mailing address vs. city outline in Google Maps

• Mailing address is not a physical address• City+Keyword Searches Will Not Rank• Focus on a strong organic presence

Issue #2: You’re Not Getting Citation Credit

http:///

Recently I did a study

• I submitted ~45 automated citations for a new business

• I waited a month• I checked to see how many were indexed

The Results Were

\

What You Can Do

• Search Google to see if your citations are indexed

• Do a site: search on the citation source• Get the URL’s of each citation you want

indexed• Put them on a resources page and force

crawl them through search console

Issue 3: You Can’t Find a SAB’s Address

Go to Google Maps, Search for the business

Click Embed Map, Then Directions

Click Embed Map, Then Directions

Issue 4: Your Competition Is Cheating

Step 1: Get familiar with GMB GuidelinesStep 2: Identify who is blatantly violating these guidelines.Step 3: Report them for deletion via Google Map Mapmaker via Suggest an Edit

The Simple Fix

Issue 5: Your Practitioner Listing Is Outranking My Business Listing

• Find out which out which listing is currently ranking highest and make it the primary listing you try to get reviews on.

• Try to keep categories from overlapping as much as possible

• When categories do overlap (ex: 2 dentists), minimize the profile that ranks lowest.• Removing the website is a great way to minimize

• g is currently ranking highest and make it the primary listing you try to get reviews on.

• Try to keep categories from overlapping as much as possible

• When categories do overlap (ex: 2 dentists), minimize the profile that ranks lowest.• Removing the website is a great way to minimize

Doctors, Lawyers, Etc. may have practitioner listings

• Find out which listing is currently ranking highest and make it the primary listing you try to get reviews on.

• Try to keep categories from overlapping as much as possible

• When categories do overlap (ex: 2 dentists), minimize the profile that ranks lowest.• Removing the website is a great way to

minimize

Minimizing Your Listings

Listing Category Website Field

Law Firm Law Firm, Lawyer Domain.com (homepage)

Lawyer A Personal Injury Lawyer Domain.com/personal-injury-page

Lawyer B Criminal Justice Attorney Domain.com/criminal-law-page

Lawyer C Divorce Lawyer Domain.com/divorce-lawyer-page

THANK YOU!!!