
TRENDING: The All-In-One Digital Marketing Software
David Mihm has spent his career helping location-oriented companies make the most of their digital presence. Most recently David founded and ran Tidings, an email newsletter product which he sold to DemandScience in 2021. Previously, David served as VP Product Strategy for ThriveHive from 2018-2020. He also co-founded and ran GetListed.org, an application to help small businesses create and optimize their presence in local directories, acquired by Moz in 2012. David was instrumental in the development of Moz Local and served as Moz’s Director of Local Search Strategy.
“If you don’t claim and verify each and every listing on each and every search engine and data provider, Google and the other search engines are forced to make a “best guess,” by clustering information that seems to match up, and they don’t always guess right.”
“local SEO seems to follow the Pareto Principle: 20% of your optimization efforts (taking care of last month’s basics) will get you about 80% of your results, especially when it comes to ranking.”
“In local search, a citation from a trusted website like a city or state government or even a commercial site like a Chamber of Commerce or city newspaper can often be the difference between #1 and not appearing in the seven-pack.”
“Claim your business listing at the major search engines: Google Maps, Yahoo Local, and Bing Local. This is a total no-brainer.”
“The bottom line is that search engines’ ability to tie a particular phone number to a particular business gives them increased confidence in that business’s information, especially if that information matches what the business owner has entered into the Local Business Center—so they’re more likely to rank it.”
“To maximize your rankings on Google Maps, Yahoo Local, and Bing Local, your business’s Name, Address and Phone number (“NAP,” to borrow a Localeze-inspired acronym) should broadcast the same rock-solid signal on every platform. Think of them as your business’s thumbprint.”
“Properly categorizing your business at Google Maps is one of the most important Local Search Ranking Factors.”
“Google My Business has released so much functionality in the last two or three years that you can almost get away with not having a website, which I would not advise any business to do.”
“Customer service really is the new foundation for marketing.”
“Google has been moving into a world of answers, not websites. They want to present as much information as they can about a local business directly in the search result. This way the need for searchers to click through to a business’s website will decrease.”
“The best chance you have is to compete organically by targeting specific pages at the larger city. The best/easiest kind of content to populate these pages are usually case studies from customers who live in the larger city.”
“Dominate your small-town market. Get as many customers from your “backyard” as you can. Then start to gradually expand to the bigger city using word-of-mouth, targeted offline business partnerships and referrals, and eventually social media.”
“The great thing for local businesses is Local SEO should get less-technical over time.”
“Social media is important for a holistic digital presence and does have some value for Local SEO. All kinds of studies show that customers are more likely to buy from a business that shows some engagement on social media — an active presence gives people a better feel for your business before they decide to purchase from you.”
TRENDING: The All-In-One Digital Marketing Software
Geoff Breitling: If you want to build or scale a 7 figure SEO agency, you should watch this short video.