written by
Jake Goss-Kuehn

How to Easily Beat Your Competition with Local SEO (For Free).

Local SEO 5 min read

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This Article is Based On Episode 9

5 Minutes a Week Will Get You Miles Ahead.

5 minutes a week.

20 minutes a month.

Basically, you're going to learn how to connect with other businesses in your sphere to increase your website visitors every month.

It doesn't matter how much or how little you grow. What matters is how consistently you grow.

The simple applicable principles here will give you consistent growth.

Just One Magical Question. One Magical Email.

Let me ask you this.

If you are a chiropractor and someone reaches out by email to ask,

"Hey, I saw your website, it looks great…. Can you handle one more patient?"

What would you say?

Probably Yes. If you're like most chiropractors, you're always open to more business.

And if you know someone is out to help you get more business,
then you'll probably be more open to returning the favor, right?

You'd probably be open to putting your new friend's website link on your own website.
And vice versa. Trading website links.

Do you know what happens when your website link is put somewhere else?

Google trusts you more.

I've said it before...
Backlinks are the "currency" of rank in SEO.

You become a business owner's friend by telling them you'll send clients to them, and then you both exchange links to each other's pages.

More detail on that in a moment, but first...something real important to address.

Don't Say This.

If you say something along the lines of “Hey, I want to work on a strategic partnership”, the recipient is going to ignore you.

But if you say something like….

"Hey...you design websites? Do you have room for one more client?"

They are going to say yes.

20% of the time they are going to open their email and respond with a "yes."

That's what we found, at least.

A business owner wants to hear from someone who is interested in what they do
and cares about their success.

And it is what the front desk wants to hear.

They want to hear from someone communicating how important their success is.

So, the next thing the recipient will say is “yes", or "come on in", or "let’s get on a call”.

Walmart, K-Mart, and the Food Chain.

In the ecosystem,
certain species of animals simply don't compete for the same resources as other ones.

But Walmart and K-Mart compete for the same audience...and K-mart loses.

You've got to find out how to niche down so that no matter what,
you aren't in a scarcity mindset, hunting for the same food your neighbors are.

In other words, reach out to competitors whose market don't overlap with yours.

"Non-competitive competitors".

For example, you might be a chiropractor in city x. Other chiropractors are "competitors"...but a chiropractor in city y isn't a genuine competitor...because their market doesn't overlap with yours.

So you can tell them, "Hey doc, I can send you patients if you're open to it", and you won't lose business.

In fact, you'll win because that doc will appreciate your helping hand and be open to exchanging favors.

Learn a lesson from the food chain...competition can be a myth if you look in the right places.

Cement your Network. Raise your Rank with Local SEO.

If you are in Minneapolis and you know of a chiropractor in Missouri, you are not competing.

If you are a local chiropractor with one branch and small staff, you aren't competing.

So, it is safe to say and safe to do to say… "Hey I would like to send you business” to open up a bigger conversation.

All you have to do to cement the referral network you're building is to trade website links with whomever you're partnering with.

Connect, Converse, and Then Send the Following Email.

Once you've connected with another business owner who would love more business,
nurture the relationship.

At some point, send them something like this:

“Hey, I like that blog post of yours here’s a few links of ours if you don’t mind sharing”.

Let them know you linked to them on your site and they will most likely return the favor.

You can also try something like,

“I really like your latest blog post. Can I link to your page? We also published this blog post. If you don’t mind sharing that, we would appreciate it!”

Have something to give. A lot of people will want to return the favor if you ask.

It DOESN'T Matter if Visitors Actually Click.
The Link Just Needs to Be Distributed.

If no one ever clicks on a back-link you've got elsewhere, it doesn't matter.

The link is still probably worth $500-$1000. Why? Like I said earlier, the link itself is "currency" of rank, authority, and trustworthiness.

When a link to your website is out there, Google will show your website to more people.

I can't stress this enough.

It doesn't matter what the reader of the web page does...

As long as the owner of the website took the time to put a link to your business on their page, that is enough credibility for Google to start paying attention to you.

From Start to Finish: 3 Steps.

What you've done is turned this idea of "competitor enmity" upside down by collaborating with irrelevant competition. Meaning, competition that isn't measured as competition because they are non-local.

1. Find a business owner similar to you in another area.

Send them an email asking, "Hey, I saw your website, it looks great….Can you handle one more patient?"

or "Hey, I saw your website, it looks great...are you open to more business/clients?"

2. Get to know them. Build Rapport.

3. Find some content of theirs you really like. Send them an email saying, "Hey there, I really like this blog post of yours. Can I link to it on my page? We actually published something recently as well, so if you could share it, it'd be appreciated!"

Or

"Hey, I like that blog post of yours here’s a few links of ours if you don’t mind sharing”

Offer a favor to a business owner, get to know them, compliment their work, ask for a favor exchange. Repeat.

Have fun building your credibility for free,

Jake.

PS. Learn how to organize all your client and partnership data in this CRM Guide we put together for you!

PPS We've got case studies on our Home Page. Our SEO stuff works

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