Rev & Reach Episode 18 – Local SEO: Why It’s Critical to Hire an Expert

00:08
Hello, I’m Lori Jo Vest. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Rev and Reach where we go behind the curtains and share our secrets on how we get digital marketing ROI for our clients at PopSpeed Digital Marketing. I am the founder and one of the partners at the agency, and let me tell you, there is a lot to know. So we never hesitate to bring in the experts, and I would encourage you to do the same, especially when it comes to local SEO.

00:41
So I’ll tell you what we’ve learned. Most smaller businesses would, and when I say smaller, I mean maybe they’re in one state or they’re in one city, maybe have three or four locations. A lot of small businesses underestimate how much local search can impact your bottom line. And what I mean is, when people are searching for HVAC companies near me, tacos near me, siding companies near me, those people are ready to buy when they put that search in. And it’s not just on Google anymore. It’s across all social media. It’s on maps, voice assistants, AI, all kinds of places. So when someone searches for best whatever service you offer near me, who comes up? The business that does is the one that’s making the money. So will your organization be the one that shows up in that search? Because local SEO is about showing up when people are looking for you geographically.

01:53
So local SEO matters more than ever, and here’s why. Forty-six percent of all Google searches are looking for local information. Not just, you know, how to plant a tree or what to do if my scrambled eggs are runny, but 46%. That’s a huge number, and when people search “near me,” it’s high intent Marketing Gold. I mean, it really is something that you want to focus on to make sure you’re in that search. And it’s not just for restaurants or nail salons, dentists, auto shops, fitness studios, business-to-business organizations. If you are the one that has the best local SEO, you’ll be the one that is not the best-kept secret. You’ll be the one that grows. Because a lot of people don’t understand SEO, and they think they can just put up a website, and poof, there you go, everybody’s going to start searching for it. They’re not, and if they do, they won’t find it.

03:04
So there’s a lot of things that are important. We’re learning this just like everybody else is. I mean, we’re always learning. We have consultants we work with that focus strictly on local SEO to make sure that we’re providing the best, most knowledgeable approach to the business for our clients. When it comes to local SEO, there’s a lot that rides on it. Little things like making sure that every business listing is exactly the same, same address, same name. If one has Inc after it and another has Inc. with a period after it, they all have to have that. If one spells out “Road” in your address listing, they should all spell out “Road.” One shouldn’t use an abbreviation while the other spells the full word out. They all need to match. That’s just one little thing that can happen to mess up your local SEO. So consult the experts, like PopSpeed Digital Marketing, when you’re doing this kind of work, or if you have a company that you know local search is going to be important.

04:06
Now it’s also changing. Google is always going to be important. I can’t see Google going away anytime soon. However, what is happening is the rise of local search on social. So people will go on TikTok, people will go on Facebook, they’ll go on Instagram and look for hashtags like #DetroitEats or #BirminghamMIStylist, and those are now search keywords that people are using. You want to be sure that you’re using searchable, local hashtags in your content. Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn posts are now actually indexed for interests and reviews.

04:45
So if you look at local influencers, great advantage to your local SEO to put some local influencers into your digital marketing. They can get so much good attention from the people that you want to reach locally. It’s a really great approach there. A lot of them might be micro-influencers, where they’ve got, you know, they don’t have 100,000 followers, but they might have 10,000 of the right followers that are interested in your restaurant or your business. So influencers are really good key to local SEO. It might not seem like they would be, but they really help when it comes to local. So your customers are searching in new places, you want to make sure that you’re there where they are, and they’re everywhere, so you need to make sure you are in all those places as well.

05:36
So how do you win at local search? Your Google Business profile is the best place to start. Very, very important. You want to claim it, you want to verify it, you want to add photos, products and services, and at least weekly updates. And when I say update, you can actually put a post up on Google Business now, like you would on Facebook or Meta, you know, any of the Meta platforms or LinkedIn, and that’s a really good thing to do, because then you’re actually feeding consistent new information to the algorithm.

06:08
The other thing you want to do is make a huge effort to get reviews from your people. So you may create a little business card with a QR code on it, and when you do business with someone at that last meeting or at your front desk, or you might send a thank you note, you want to put that little card in there and ask them to give you a review. And when they do, you reply to everyone and say thank you. So reply on the Google platform, the Google Business platform, reply to them and thank them for taking that time and pay attention to your reviews. And when bad ones come in, that’s another topic that we can’t talk about now, but when a bad review comes in, make sure you respond to it in a way that is polite, compassionate, and engaging, and actually asks the person to get on the phone with you. Because what happens on a Google review if it’s negative, it can often be managed and the consumer may actually take it down eventually if you handle it properly. So we give that kind of advice in some of our customer service materials that we provide to our clients, but you want to make sure that you ask for those reviews.

07:20
Now, I mentioned this earlier, but they call it “NAP” just in case you see this acronym anywhere: NAP consistency. What NAP consistency means is, you want your name, your address, and your phone number to be identical everywhere it appears. It’s really important for Google, because, again, Google is, you know, zeros and ones. It’s going to just see what it sees, and if it sees a different address, it may not think you’re the same business. So you really want to be consistent, identical across all the platforms that you’re on. You’ll also want to make sure you have local content on your website, things that are blogs and videos, articles that mention the city or the neighborhood. So for example, you might say, “Top five roofing companies in Chicago” or “Top three family activities in Troy.” Now, one of them might be yours, you know, the other two might be friendly competitors. Or maybe you are giving, you know, really helpful, useful information that isn’t just valuable in your city, but you still include that city so that Google sees you as a local resource for those people that are in that geography. Now, your on-site SEO is also really important. So you want to, you know, if you’ve put together your own website or you’ve had, you know, one of your friends or relatives put something together for you on Wix, you might want to rethink that. Because the professionals, when they’re doing websites, they’re actually setting your website up with SEO keywords and descriptions, meta descriptions, all kinds of things that make it more palatable to the Google search algorithm. So consider that if you’re putting up a website, make sure your SEO is done and done well. It’s really important.

09:09
So the other thing that I would do is encourage people to check in and to tag you on their social media, because those types of things actually—the algorithms on all the platforms—if you’re getting, you know, check-ins and tagged posts, you’re going to be seen as having a more active, engaging profile, which helps the algorithms show you to more users of the platform.

So finally, things are changing. We know things are changing, and the future of local visibility is going to be AI driven. People are often getting on their phone saying, “Hey, Siri,” or they’re at home and they say, “Hey, Alexa, find a nearby taco shop.” Now, we always want to think about tacos. I don’t know why, but we’re big on tacos in our family.

10:00
Finally, so, you know, find a taco shop near me. Are you in the AI Discovery Channels? And that can be a challenge, but if you’re doing everything right before you know it, you will get picked up by ChatGPT, Perplexity, you know, the other AI chat agents, so that when someone goes in and does a search on their ChatGPT account, they may come up with your business, and in AI searches, they favor businesses with updated info, with reviews, and a lot of engagement. So all the things that we’ve already talked about are what’s going to help you win on the AI search channels as well. So just remember, local SEO isn’t only about the algorithms. It’s also about being visible, being everywhere, being reliable, and being human and authentic. Because the more authentic you are, the more likely people are to engage with your content across the board. The more they engage with your content, the more the algorithm sees that you are a credible business that they want to send consumers to check out.

11:14
So let’s talk about the big picture. SEO is about being found. Search engine optimization, it’s about optimizing Google’s ability and the other places people search, the ability to find you and your content. Local SEO is about being chosen as a preferred, you know, place they’re going to go for their tacos or to get their vacuum cleaner repaired. And social and AI search are the new front doors. Don’t give up on Google. Google is really important, but social and AI are right behind it, and it’s a triad that you’ll want to make sure you’re feeding all three of the beasts. I know it can be hard, so just remember you cannot sell to people who can’t find you, and if you’re not there, they won’t be able to find you. So I would suggest right now, you Google your business’s name and see what your customers see, because that is going to help you determine how your business shows up locally. And essentially, you can do a really quick SEO audit. How well are you doing? So seriously, think about that. Take some time. I would love to hear from you.

12:31
So if you could DM me or comment on the video, how does your business show up locally? What does it look like? How many search results do you get from your business? And do you show up in any of the searches for the general, like, tacos near me? And if you don’t now, you’ve got some marching orders. Go back and look at the transcript on workmomsays.com, pull out the things that you should be doing, and start doing them. So basically, what I would also say is, remember, showing up isn’t luck, it’s strategy, and you want to be strategic with digital marketing that you do for your business.

13:13
So that’s what I’ve got for you today at PopSpeed Digital Marketing. We are here for you. We specialize in social media, SEO, content, website builds and maintenance, and email marketing. And if we can help you get more ROI, we are here for it. If you want to listen to the show and get your ROI that way, we’re happy to see that as well. If you’re watching this on YouTube, please do me a favor, hit the subscribe button, hit the like button, maybe even leave us a comment and help us grow our following there. We are really trying to get the word out about really great ROI tactics in digital marketing, and we’re here to help. So we will be back soon with more great information. Take care, bye.