Listen to the Digital Strategist Podcast
This Article is Based On Episodes 6-8
In This Guide:
I. Learn How to Get on Google For Free. Without a Website.
II. SEO Basics for your Content and/or Website, if you've got 'em.
III. How to Maximize Your Local SEO with Citations.
Your "Roadmap" of SEO Basics.
Here's what we will talk about in this article from start to finish:
1. Get on Google For Free
2. Get at least 1 Great Review of your Business
3. Get a website of any sort if you don't have one (This can even be a Facebook page)
4. Do Keyword Research, including competitor keyword research
5. Put the Keywords in All the Right Places
6. Get Back-links for your Website and Content
I. How to Start Local SEO without a Website.
70% of Local Google Searches Have Buying Intent.
About 70% of local searches on Google are done to purchase something.
For example, if I am looking for a coffee shop near me, then I am trying to buy a cup of coffee.If I search for a hairdresser in Bloomington, then I am ready to invest in some hairdressing.
One time I was with my client in his neighborhood when coffee cravings hit us like a ton of bricks. In our search for some options, we found 3 local coffee shops. However, only one was listed in Google.
Why? Because one business owner took the time (probably 15 minutes) to set up a Google profile. They were wise with their resources and made the most of free marketing opportunities out there.
60% of Businesses Don't Do A Thing About It.
Just like those two other coffee shops, 60% of business owners do not do anything as it regards art of marketing. They might have a great website, but they do nothing to "get it out there", and quite a few business owners do not even have a website.
So I'm going to give you a quick and easy way to "start getting out there" ASAP.
Get on Google for Free. It's Perfect. Necessary.
So you can be in the top 40%.
A Google my Business profile can be created for free. You just have to claim it and the process is three steps.
All you do is input some details about your business, follow the instructions, and once that's done...all you have to do is optimize it over time.
It's pretty much a free standalone website which is real effective for marketing your services online and getting your business indexed in Google maps.
1. Go to google.com/business
2. click on "Manage Now". Get a Google account if you haven't yet.
3. Follow the Instructions
4. The more details you put in, the better
You REALLY don't Need a Website for This.
You can get away without a website if you have a Google My Business page. In fact, it is no doubt a bare necessity. By refusing to take this step, you're basically shooting yourself in the foot. Without a Google My Business page, you're basically walling off the front door of business.
"Without a Google my Business page, you're basically walling off the front door of your business.'"
If you're one of the 60% of business owners who doesn't have a website or “Google my business” page, than your potential customers have to spend a large chunk of their time just to find you...if they ever do find you.
A Lot of Customers Can't Find You.
You can solve that Problem in 15 Minutes.
Even if you've invested in a sharp image, high quality branding, etc. there is no point if you don't give your potential customers a way to easily search for you. I plead with you...use 15 minutes to create an everlasting asset for yourself with a Google my Business page.
The "One Review" Hack
At one point, one of our clients had just one five star review up on Google.
300 people per month saw that post.
How many business opportunities could be in 300 views?
Not just the immediate 300, but the potential followup appointments, too.
Tons of opportunities are generated by just one great review.
Google realizes how important it is for more eyes to see the business when it has a great reputation, as evidenced by a good review.
So, Google shows the business to more people.
Get At Least One Review.
Or Else Someone Else will Win.
If your company has zero reviews, a prospect is going to pick a business that has one 5-star review. On top of that, Google will send your prospects in Google to other non-local businesses with reviews, even if you're the only business in their area.
In other words, having a review on Google very much so determines how many people find you.
Having a website and a Google page is a requirement now to grow your business.
Without Google, your business is more like a remote island. Unreachable. Untouchable.
It wasn't until I made my business page that I started getting more qualified calls from great prospects.
And when I asked them, “How do you find us?”, they always answered “On your Google business page”...
Just like that, we started doing business together.
II. Simple SEO for your Content And/Or Website
In 72 hours, You May Have Either Lost or Gained a Potential Customer through Google.
50% of local searches are for local service businesses,
and probably after about 72 hours of searching,
the prospect ends up making their final business choice.
How do we know this?
Google and other advertising companies track this data, digest it and report it.
So there are people going to Google to find out how to solve their problems, running across a business in their search, investigating business information and addresses, and making a decision about who to invest in for help.
In this respect, Google presence is a CREDIBILITY builder.
It is an essential trust factor.
Now it's time for you to learn a next step to ranking on Google: Keyword Research. This is for those of you who have a website and are wondering how to begin optimizing it...
But first, get a web page of any sort if you don't have it.
Have a Website ANYWHERE (can even be a Facebook Page)
If you don't want to spend cash on a website, you can go the free route and get on Facebook. The only downside of that is you won't be able to optimize your web presence as much as possible with keyword research. But it will work for the time being.
Keyword Research.
Even if you don't have a formal website at this point, understanding keyword research is critical for any step in the entire SEO process. You can implement keywords into the content of your Facebook page for the time being just to develop the "SEO mindset" that comes with marketing your business online.
I mentioned in a previous post that I ranked with the keyword phrase, “The local Minneapolis Digital strategist” at one point, and that alone receives 2000 monthly searches within Minneapolis. If you can find keyword phrases like this yourself, it will elevate the probability of connecting with prospects who need your help.
What Kind of Keywords to Use
A great starting point is the type of business you have and your location.
For example, if you're a Life coach, this might work:
"Life Coach in Minnesota".
In your keyword research, you will find permutations or "offspring" of that keyword phrase, and at some point...you may run across something that works real well.
For example, a permutation of Life Coach in Minnesota may be "Minnesota Life Coach" or "Life Coach MN".
You also don't want to use keywords that are so obscure, no one will search for them.
In other words, you might find a keyword which is real easy to rank in, but that's only because nobody is looking for it. You don't want to use those keywords.
A Tool to Discover Potential Keywords NOW.
Go to ubersuggest.io.
Type in any potential keyword of interest...for example, try typing in your city and the type of business you have ("Chiropractor Minneapolis")
Once you put in your potential keyword, click on "Search".
Scroll Down. Here's what you'll see:
1. On the left are a ton of different potential keyword phrases you can use.
2. The numbers under "VOLUME" indicate how many searches there are with the keyword phrase in a month. You want at least a few hundred. But the optimal is a few thousand. Once you're too high, into the hundred thousands, you may get lost in the shuffle of competition.
There are a ton of other statistics you can explore on ubersuggest.
My biggest suggestion is to explore a tool like this, and do research to understand what each weird technical term means. Then, you can find your own SEO process over time.
Some other paid tools to consider would be ahrefs and moz.
Quick Money Math
Let's say you rank a page with a great keyword phrase.
You get some traffic to your page, say a few hundred a month, and potential business opportunities bloom.
If you can get about 1% of the traffic to turn into a customer, that is a $1000 + profit just because you took the time to make your business "clicks" with Google.
Check Your Competition and Get Ahead.
Go back to ubersuggest.io.
Type in one of your competitor's URL's.
For this example, we will type in "wikipedia.org"
Scroll down.
You can see all the keywords wikipedia is supposedly ranking for.
You've got to be careful with this, though. The most accurate way to go about researching your competition's keywords is to check them with multiple tools, like:
1. SEMRush
2. Ahrefs
3. Moz
With tools like ubersuggest and other paid options you can also see:
1. The back-links your competitors have
2. The keyword search volumes (# of searches per month)
3. The number of clicks
4. The number of keywords they show up for.
Think about Nuance To Find Keyword Gems.
For example, "Life Coach MN" may bring completely different results than "Life Coach Minnesota".
You're looking for a search volume with a keyword phrase that is at least a few hundred a month, so that "1%" of visitors who buy from you will be incredibly profitable.
Here's What You Should Do Once you Find The Keyword.
Once you find your local keywords, you need to place them in the following locations:
1. The meta-description of your website
2. The title tags of your web pages
3. The H1 and H2 header tags of your website text
4. Within the first paragraph of your page text.
If your visitors spend time on your pages, Google will start to look at you as a trustworthy brand because you offer people what they want, as made evident by your keyword choices, and in so doing, Google will send you more traffic.
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Note: Remember to use Google to look up any terms here you may not understand. The purpose of this article is to give you a huge overview and some fundamentals.
For example, if you built your website with WordPress and you want to find out how to change your header tags, go to google and search, "how to change header tags in Wordpress"
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DON'T do This with Your Keywords.
Let's say you're a life coach. You've got the keyword phrase "Life Coach in Minnesota".
You DON'T want to plaster these keywords all over the place hundreds of times.
Google can tell if you are "spamming" your page with pointless batches of keyword phrases.
Be rational with it. Don't overdo it, and use the keyword phrases throughout your content, but not so much that it feels overdone and inorganic.
Optimize: Put These 2 Simple Things On your Main Pages.
Let's say a Life Coach comes to the agency and tells us, “We need leads”!
We say, “Great, let’s see the website!"
We look at the website. No local keywords are used on the front page, so Google will not lift the site in rank.
So what are some of the basic things we would do?
If the client is a life coach in Minnesota, the home page could say something like, “Life Coach in Minnesota” or “Life Coach Mn”.
It's this formula of "Occupation + Location" . It's a great starting point once you've found some optimal keyword phrases through your keyword research.
Next, you want to put the name of your business on the home page as well.It doesn't make sense to be upset people aren't able to find you if you aren't taking the time to make sure your business name is following some header tags on your home page.
IN SUMMARY:
1. Put local keywords on your pages, your home page at least. (Example: "Life Coach in Minnesota")
2. Put your business name on your pages (H1 and H2 Tags), your home page at least.
Stay Persistent. The Results Will Multiply.
Here's a Quick Summary Checklist For You.
Here's a quick checklist of all you can do to be on your merry way to high rankings:
1. Get a Google My Business Page
2. Make sure you have at least one Great Review
3. Learn Local Keyword Research and take advantage of free tools like ubersuggest to hone in on your process. Other tools include ahrefs, Moz, and SEMRush. Remember to do some competitor research as well.
4. Be Aware of Nuances in Keyword phrases to find hidden opportunities
5. Place your keywords in the Title, Meta-Description, H1, and H2 Tags of your Website
If you take your time to follow these steps, and optimize your pages, in about 3 – 6 months, you are going to be dealing with too much business.
Let's take a look at a fundamental step of Optimization.
III. Maximize Basic SEO with Citations.
Start Getting Your Website Shared. The Easy Way.
The more times your website gets shared, the higher your rank on Google will be.
When I started building my website years ago, the first place I went to get it shared online was the Local Chamber of Commerce.
Why? One of the easiest ways to show Google you are a legitimate business is to get it listed in local directories.
If your name, address, and website link is listed in your local chamber of commerce website, it is creating a local, authoritative backlink, which proves your value as a local business entity.
In essence, websites "vote" for other websites by linking to each other.
The more votes you have, the more Google will pay attention to you.
It's Like Running For Mayor.
In case the above doesn't make sense...
Let's say you are running for mayor and the senator of Minnesota walks in telling everyone,
“Hey, Jake is a great guy, he is running for mayor, he gets my vote”.
What kind of "social domino effect" may that have? Who else may vote because the Senator voted?
Maybe 3 or 4 other representatives could pitch a vote in and the growth would continue.
Essentially, the "currency" of the candidate's local influence and status is a vote.
In the same way, links between websites are the "currency" of a website's influence. Links are votes.
IN SUMMARY:
1. Check out local business directories online.
2. Get your Name, Address, and Phone Number listed in them. Make sure they are consistent with what is written on your site.
It's Worth It. Trust Me.
When it comes to local directories, You might have to pay a license fee. However, it is always worth joining the Local Chamber of Commerce.
You're paying for more than just one listing, as there are industry-specific pages you can find within the Local Chamber of Commerce network.
That means even more citation opportunities for you. And the more citations you get, the more "votes" you get. The more "votes" you get, the more Google pays attention to you.
Don't Lose Sales Just because You Missed a 5 Minute Step.
If you are not doing all this, you are going to lose to the business owner who is taking 5 minutes out of their day to just leave a link on the local chamber of commerce website.
All it takes is one link to start.
You can’t win office if you don’t have one vote.
More On Business Citations and Reviews
It all starts with one Local Chamber of Commerce listing.
Remember, as you branch out and get your business listed in more directories, you've got to be consistent with the following information across the board so Google will understand the depth of your authority and authenticity:
1. Your Name
2. Your Address
3. Your Phone Number
Not only does this help with SEO, but it also protects the authority of your reputation.
For example, let's say you're an an attorney with the name "John LawLover".
If you make sure to get your name, address, and phone number properly verified on a Google My Business page, along with other local directories, no one can possibly impersonate your business.
In other words, the more consistent your brand is across multiple listings, the more Google will be able to detect any other "attorney" who may impersonate as "John LawLover".
Google will prioritize the first person (you) who verified the company with the same name, address, and phone, and will notify any imitator to change their information.
That said, every back-link you get is worth at least $100 to your company. They help strengthen your reputation and spur on Local SEO dominance.
Industry-Specific Directories.
There is a website called localplumberdirectory.com.
It is just like the Local Chamber of Commerce, except it exclusively targets plumbers. The same opportunities abound...more citations. More reputation.
If you do some research, you can find directories targeted towards your particular industry and go on from there.
Try searching for "Local (Industry name) Directory" in Google.
For example, if you're a chiropractor, it would be "Local Chiropractor Directory"
2 Other Directories For You
Thumbtack.com and Yelp.com are two other general directories you can have your business listed. Additional research will help you find even more directories. Remember, there are some directory scams out there, so make sure you do your research thoroughly.
The more you can get your Name, Address, and Phone Number out there, the better.
The key principle is this: Keep all your information consistent across the web so Google can follow your trail, raise your business up, and put you in front of new eyes.
Have fun,
Jake.
PS If you’ve got any questions about this article or any other marketing and SEO inquiries, you can book a call here.
PPS. Check out this $100k SEO Case Study for proof that our methods work!