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More great info on local visibility – on the way
If you’re reading this, you’ve found my blog at just the right time–when I’ve written nothing on it, and all the good stuff is yet to come. It’s part of a completely new layout for...
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Happy 1st Birthday (to This Blog)!
I created this blog exactly one year ago. A lot has happened in the world of local search since my first post. Although LocalVisibilitySystem was born in ’09, today also marks one year since I went...
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The 2012 Local Search Ranking Factors – out Today
Of all that’s been written and said about local search, there’s one single-most important piece: It’s David Mihm’s annual “Local Search Ranking Factors” study. The first one came out 4 years ago (at...
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New Tool for Customer Reviews: Whitespark’s Review Handout Generator
About a year ago, Darren Shaw of Whitespark.ca and I had an idea: Wouldn’t it be nice to have a free and easy way to make a single page of instructions that walks your customers through how to post a...
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2nd Edition of Free 7-Step Guide to Local Search Visibility
About time, huh? For roughly the past 18 months I’ve wanted to write a 2nd edition of my free guide. Like everything else on this site, the guide is meant to be a resource for business owners with a...
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Great Book: “Five Stars: Putting Online Reviews to Work for Your Business”
If you give a hoot about your business’s online reviews, you’ll want to pick up a copy of a great book that just came out today. As the name suggests, Five Stars is all about reviews – particularly...
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Apple Maps Local Business Category List
Apple has finally given business owners (and SEOs) a self-serve way to add or edit listings on Apple Maps. You can do it at MapsConnect.Apple.com. For over two years there have only been workarounds...
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How Long Can a Google+ Review Stay Filtered? At Least 2 Years
I’m a jerk. Someone wrote a nice Google+ review on my business page in 2012, and I didn’t thank him until today. ‘Course, it would have helped if I knew about the review. It had been filtered for...
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Local Citation Audit Tip: Use the New Sitelinks Search Box
One benefit of Google’s new sitelinks search box: it can help you save time on finding messy local citations. See what I mean? Just type in the name of the site and search for your listing(s) from...
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Using the Sitelinks Search Box for Your Local Business
I don’t think anyone’s talked about Google’s sitelinks search box in the context of how small-to-medium local businesses can use it. It will probably never be a big part of anyone’s local SEO efforts....
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10 Reasons to Get a Google Business View Photo Shoot
Since 2010 Google has let business owners hire a “Google Trusted Photographer” to come to their store or office, take a bunch of photos, and splice them together into a virtual tour. That tour is...
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User Behavior Affects Local Rankings. Now What?
First, go check out Darren’s slides. After you pick up your jaw, come back here. The two presentations were an unofficial duo that kicked off the Local track at State of Search 2014. Want to know how...
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Every Local SEO Diagnostic You’ll Ever Need to Know (Plus Some)
You may be stumped as to why you’re not ranking well (or at all)…but don’t say it’s because you tried everything and just couldn’t figure it out. You probably didn’t try everything. I can think of 56...
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Latest Google Places Guideline Flip-Flop: Natural Extension of Pigeon Update?
As you may have read from Mike or Linda, Google just updated the “My Business” guidelines (again). Among several rule-updates that will Google will probably enforce haphazardly or temporarily, here...
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The Lazy Man’s Way to Find Meetup.com Local Link Opportunities (in 5 Seconds...
Has your local SEO person nagged you to earn a few good links? I hope so, because that’s good advice. Especially since the Pigeon update, your ability to do RCS and earn links – like from local media...
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Have Google Places Descriptors Been Grandfathered in?
It’s been exactly one week since the latest revision of the Google Places My Business Quality Guidelines. Of all the changes, arguably the biggest change was that Google put the kibosh on...
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The 20 Principles of a Dynamite Local SEO Audit
If you aren’t sure what a local SEO audit is and have no idea how to do one, you’ve come to the wrong place. (In that case, start with Casey Meraz’s monster post.) But I’m guessing your problem is...
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12 Kinds of Duplicate Content in Local SEO: Which Ones Are Trouble?
There are two intertwined myths about duplicate content: 1: That Google is on the warpath against it, penalizing sites left and right. 2: That duplicate content is a thing – one specific problem....
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10 Benefits of a Disappointing Local SEO Effort
You’re the business owner. You’ve paid for help. You’re the local SEO. You’ve been paid to help. Maybe you did help – just not quite enough. Both of you were expecting boom. But all you got was...
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Who Should Ask for Reviews: Business Owner or Employee?
“Phil, how do I get more reviews?” I’m asked that all the time. What I’m almost never asked is who should ask customers, clients, or patients for reviews. That’s a shame, because a good strategy +...
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