Implementing a strong local SEO strategy can benefit plastic surgeons in a variety of ways. First and foremost, it can help them connect with prospective patients in their local area, who are more likely to convert into actual patients. In addition, a local SEO strategy can help plastic surgeons build brand awareness, increase their online visibility, and establish their practice as a trusted authority in their local community.

Go get yourself a drink and maybe a little snack—we’re going to provide a comprehensive guide to local SEO for plastic surgeons. We’ll be covering everything from keyword research and on-page optimization to off-page optimization and tips for reputation management. We’ll discuss key differences between traditional SEO and local SEO, as well as provide tips and strategies for maximizing your local reach. 

Whether you have a good understanding of plastic surgery SEO or you’re just getting your practice’s local presence off the ground, this guide will help you optimize your online presence and attract more, and better leads to your practice.

Understanding Local SEO for Plastic Surgeons

Having an understanding of local SEO is essential for plastic surgeons who want to attract more patients in their geographic area. Local SEO is simply the process of optimizing your website and online presence to improve your visibility in local searches. This means that when potential patients search for plastic surgery services in your area, your practice will, hopefully, be more likely to appear in the results pages (AKA SERPs).

The relevance of local SEO for plastic surgeons is that most people use search engines to find local businesses, including plastic surgeons. In fact, according to recent research, almost half (46%) of all Google searches are looking for local information. Optimizing your site for local SEO will help you tap into this market and attract more patients to your practice.

When it comes to local SEO, Google uses a unique set of ranking factors for local results. The most important local search ranking factors include proximity to the searcher, relevance of your business information, consistency of your business information (at least on major directories) and the prominence of your online presence.

Proximity to the searcher refers to the location of the person searching and how close they are to your practice. Google uses this information to deliver relevant local search results to the searcher based on their location. 

The relevance of your business information refers to how accurately and comprehensively your practice’s information is listed online—and how well it meets what the searcher is looking for. This includes things such as your address, phone number, and hours of operation. This also applies to making sure you have the best category selected in your Google Business Profile and you have consistent business information listed across the major, relevant directories and websites (think Yelp, Healthgrades, Bing). 

The prominence of your online presence is determined by the quantity and quality of the information about your practice online, including your website, directory listings, and social media profiles. You can think of prominence in this case as Google trying to determine how well known your practice is (based on the above factors).

The key differences between traditional SEO and local SEO for plastic surgeons lie in the focus and tactics used. While both have the same goal: ranking well; traditional SEO is more focused on improving the ranking of a website on a global level, whereas local SEO is focused on optimizing for location-specific keywords to improve the visibility of a website in a specific geographic area or in Google Maps. Traditional SEO tactics include link building, keyword research, and on-page optimization, while local SEO tactics also add-in building local citations, optimizing your Google Business Profile, and getting positive online reviews.

The key to success in local SEO is understanding and working to implement local search tactics that influence ranking factors of proximity, relevance, and prominence. 

Keyword Research for Plastic Surgery Local SEO

Keyword research is a crucial part of any local SEO strategy, as it helps plastic surgeons identify the most relevant and valuable keywords to target in their online content. By targeting the right keywords, plastic surgeons can improve their search engine rankings and attract more qualified leads to their practice.

The importance of keyword research for local SEO is based on the reality that it allows plastic surgeons to understand the search terms and phrases that potential patients are using when looking for plastic surgery services in their local area. By understanding these search terms, plastic surgeons can create content that is optimized for these keywords, which can help them appear higher in local search results.

To identify the right keywords for plastic surgery practices, it’s important to focus on both the services you offer and the geographic area you serve. For example, if your practice specializes in breast augmentation and serves patients in Los Angeles, you might target keywords like “breast augmentation Los Angeles,” “breast implants in LA,” or “top breast augmentation surgeon in Southern California.”

To conduct keyword research for local SEO, follow these steps:

Brainstorm potential keywords: Start by brainstorming a list of keywords and phrases that are relevant to your plastic surgery practice and the services you offer. Think about the types of procedures you specialize in, the geographic areas you serve, and any other relevant factors.

Use keyword research tools: Once you have a list of potential keywords, use keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner (you’ll need an Ads account setup), Ahrefs, SEMrush, or our favorite: Mangools KWFinder, to determine the search volume and competition level of your targeted keywords. These tools will also provide additional keyword ideas that you may not have thought of.

Analyze the competition: Research the keywords your competitors are targeting and how they are ranking for them. This can give you insights into what works well in your local area and help you identify new opportunities.

Choose your target keywords: Based on your research, select the most relevant and valuable keywords to target in your online content. Make sure to focus on keywords that have a high search volume and low competition level.

Incorporate your target keywords: Once you have identified your target keywords, incorporate them into your website content, blog posts, and other online marketing efforts. Be sure to use them naturally and avoid “keyword stuffing,” which can hurt your search engine rankings.

Conducting keyword research is a critical step in any local SEO strategy. By identifying the most relevant and valuable keywords to target in your online content, you can improve your search engine rankings, attract more qualified leads, and ultimately grow your practice.

On-Page Optimization for Local SEO

By optimizing your plastic surgery website content and meta data for local search, you’ll improve the site’s visibility in search engine results and attract more local traffic to their website.

On-page optimization allows plastic surgeons to communicate to search engines what their website is about and where they are located. This, in turn, helps search engines deliver more relevant results to users who are searching for plastic surgery services in their local area.

To optimize website content and meta data for local search, follow these tips:

Incorporate location-based keywords: Use location-based keywords throughout your website content, including your headlines, headings, body text, and title tags and meta descriptions. Be sure to use these keywords naturally and do not overuse them.

Include local contact information: Include your practice’s name, address, and phone number (NAP) on every page of your website (you can add this in a footer or header section). Make sure that this information is consistent and accurate and matches your information on Google Business Profiles, directories and other platforms.

Create location-specific landing pages: If you have clinics in multiple cities or operate in different towns, create landing pages on your website that are specifically optimized for those local areas. These pages should include location-based keywords and information about your practice’s services in that area.

Optimize images and videos: Optimize images and videos on your website by using location-based file names and including alt tags that describe the image or video and its location. This can help improve your search engine rankings for local search terms.

Use structured local schema markup: Use structured data markup to provide search engines with more information about your practice, such as your business hours, services offered, and customer reviews.

Off-Page Optimization for Local SEO

While on-page optimization refers to optimizing website content and metadata, off-page optimization involves (obviously) activities that take place outside your website, such as building citations and getting backlinks from authoritative sources in your local area or in the healthcare and plastic surgery industry.

Off-page optimization is important because it can improve a plastic surgeon’s credibility and authority in the eyes of search engines. Building high-quality and consistent local citations and getting backlinks from high quality sources, plastic surgeons can signal to search engines and potential patients that they are a reputable and trustworthy source for plastic surgery services in their local area.

To build high-quality local citations for your plastic surgery practice, follow these tips:

Ensure NAP consistency: Make sure that your practice’s name, address, and phone number (NAP) is consistent and accurate across all local directories and platforms. This can help improve your local search engine rankings and make it easier for potential patients to find and contact you.

Choose high-quality directories: Identify high-quality local directories and directories relevant to the healthcare industry and ensure that your practice is listed in them.

Optimize your listings: Optimize your listings in local directories by including accurate and up-to-date information about your practice, including your NAP, website URL, and a brief description of your services.

To earn backlinks from authoritative sources in the plastic surgery industry, follow these tips:

Create high-quality content: Create high-quality, informative content on your website that is relevant to the plastic surgery industry. This can include blog posts, videos, infographics, case studies, before and after progressions and other types of content that provide value to your audience and prove your surgical expertise.

Reach out to industry influencers: Identify industry influencers and thought leaders in the plastic surgery industry and reach out to them with your content. Ask if they would be interested in sharing your content with their audience or linking to it from their website.

Participate in online communities: Participate in online communities and forums in the plastic surgery industry. Share your knowledge and expertise and provide value to other members of the community. This can help you build relationships with other professionals and earn backlinks to your website.

Building high-quality local citations and earning backlinks from authoritative sources in the plastic surgery industry, you’ll improve your  local search engine rankings and authority—which should lead to more qualified patients.

Reviews and Reputation Management

Reviews and reputation management are another important aspect for improving local SEO results for plastic surgeons. Online reviews are a critical factor for search engines when ranking local businesses but they’re also hugely important to searchers when trying to determine the best surgeon or clinic to visit.

To manage online reviews and reputation for plastic surgery practices, here are some of our best practices:

Claim and optimize your business listings: Claim your business listings on major review sites other than just Google. These other important sites include: Yelp, Healthgrades, and RealSelf. Optimize your listings with accurate information, including your name, address, phone number, website URL, and business hours You should also optimize your practice’s social media pages on platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

Monitor and respond to reviews: Regularly monitor your online reviews and respond promptly and professionally to both positive and negative reviews. Responding to reviews shows that you care about your patients and their experiences, and can help improve your online reputation.

Encourage positive reviews: Encourage your satisfied patients to leave positive reviews on your business listings. You can do this by adding a call-to-action on your website, sending follow-up emails after appointments, or including a review request in your patient newsletter.

Address negative reviews: It’s near impossible to avoid negative reviews, so when you receive one, it’s important to respond in a professional and constructive manner. Acknowledge the reviewer’s concerns and offer to address the issue offline. This can help mitigate the negative impact of the review and demonstrate to potential patients that you take their concerns seriously.

Use feedback to improve your services: Reviews can provide valuable feedback that can help you improve your plastic surgery practice. Use the insights you gain from patient feedback to identify areas for improvement and refine your services.

By managing your online reviews and reputation, you can help improve your plastic surgery practice’s visibility in local search results and attract more qualified leads to your website. A positive online reputation can also help build trust with potential patients and foster long-term patient relationships.

Local SEO Tools and Resources for Plastic Surgeons

There are several tools and resources (many free) that are available to help maximize your local reach. Here are some of the top local SEO tools and resources that we recommend:

Google Business Profiles: Formerly or more commonly known as Google My Business, is a free tool that allows you to manage your online presence on Google, including your business listing and local search results. In reality this isn’t an optional resource—any business interested in having a local, online presence needs to verify and optimize their Google Business Profile. Fill this out with accurate information (including the best category for your practice), photos, and reviews, your list of services and you will  improve your visibility in local search results.

Google Analytics and Google Search Console: These free tracking tools are embedded and connected to your website and will provide regular information about the number of visits your site receives, which pages visitors are landing on, how many clicks you’re receiving, goals and conversions you set up and more. There is a definite learning curve to understanding all of the reports that are available, but this is a critical resource for anyone wanting data on how their site is performing. 

Moz Local: Moz Local is an affordable local SEO business information tool that helps you manage your online listings and monitor your online reputation. With Moz Local, you can manage your business listings across major review sites and directories, monitor your online reviews, and track your local search rankings. Another option is Yext, but for a budget conscious choice, Moz Local is a good option. 

BrightLocal: BrightLocal is a local SEO tool we use virtually every day. BrightLocal provides a range of services, including local keyword rank tracking, local citation building, reputation management, along with a host of audits to help you optimize your Google Business Profile and website. 

Yelp: Yelp is a popular review site that allows consumers to search for local businesses and leave reviews. By claiming your business listing on Yelp and optimizing it with accurate information, photos, and reviews, you can improve your visibility in local search results.

RealSelf: RealSelf is a review site and online community for people interested in cosmetic treatments, including plastic surgery. By claiming your profile on RealSelf and engaging with patients in the community, you can build your online reputation and attract more qualified leads to your practice.

When selecting local SEO tools and resources for your plastic surgery practice, consider your specific needs and goals. Look for tools that provide the features and functionality that you need, such as local citation building, reputation management, and local search rank tracking. Consider factors such as pricing, user-friendliness, and customer support when selecting tools and resources for your practice.

Local SEO is not just a “nice-to-have” strategy, but an indispensable one that can make or break the success of your plastic surgery practice. By implementing a comprehensive local SEO strategy, you can set your practice apart from the competition and reach more qualified leads in your local area.

If you need help with your local SEO strategy, contact Dagmar Marketing. Our team of experienced plastic surgery marketing experts can help you optimize your online presence for local search and attract more qualified leads to your practice. 

Don’t wait – contact us today to take the first step toward maximizing your local reach.

The post Dominate Your Local Market: A Comprehensive Guide to Local SEO for Plastic Surgeons appeared first on DAGMAR.

If you’re a lawyer or the owner of a law firm, you know how important it is to have a strong online presence, especially a strong local online presence. 

And, probably the best way to establish and maintain that local presence is through your Google Business Profile (GBP).

If you’re not familiar with GBP, it’s a free tool offered by Google that allows businesses to manage their online presence across Google, including search and maps. GBP was previously known (and is commonly still referred to) as Google My Business or GMB. By optimizing your GBP profile, you make it easier for potential clients to find and contact your law firm.

Here are five reasons why claiming or creating and optimizing your law firm’s GBP profile is so important to your lawyer SEO strategy and to your practice in general:

Improved search visibility for your law firm.

Getting your GBP setup is the first step to help your law firm show up in local search results. When someone searches for a lawyer or law firm in a specific location, Google will display a list of relevant businesses, along with their locations, reviews, and ratings. By optimizing your GBP profile, you can increase the chances that your law firm will appear in these search results.

First, you have to claim (or create) a profile. Claiming your profile ensures your business information is accurately represented in Google search results and Google Maps. This includes the name you operate under, your proper address (including suite numbers if you are in a shared space) and the best phone numbers for your practice. 

Go to https://www.google.com/business/ then sign in. If it’s the first time logging in or setting up your law firm’s presence, you should see a dashboard that gives you the opportunity to search/setup your business.

If you’ve previously added a business to GBP, you should see a list of your profiles and a button to “add business” — this will give you the opportunity to put your business info in and either claim an existing listing or create and verify your new profile. 

Increased credibility of your law practice.

In addition to showing up in local search results, a verified and optimized GBP profile can also help establish your law firm as a legitimate, credible and reputable business. 

When potential clients see your business listed on Google with positive reviews and ratings, they are more likely to trust you. Which in turn gives them a good reason to consider using your law firm for legal services they need.

Enhanced accessibility of your law firm website.

An optimized GBP profile makes it easier for potential clients to find and contact your law firm. 

By including your business’s address, phone number, and hours of operation, you can make it easy for people to find your location and get in touch with you You’ll want to include a link to your website, which can help potential clients learn more about your law firm and the services you offer (you would be surprised how many profiles are in maps without a website link). You can also setup calls through your profile allowing potential clients the ability to call you directly from your listing. Just be aware that means you will likely have less visit through to your website, but engagement and conversions could improve.

Increased engagement with potential legal clients.

GBP allows you to interact with your clients and potential clients through reviews and messages. 

By responding to reviews and answering any questions that potential clients may have, you can increase engagement and build trust with your audience. This is especially important for a law firm, where trust and credibility are crucial.

To increase and improve your reviews and ratings, you should have a review acquisition strategy and process for soliciting reviews from former and current clients.

Better traffic to your law firm’s website.

Optimizing your GBP profile can also drive more traffic to your law firm’s website. 

When your business appears in local search results, potential clients can click through to your website to learn more about your legal services. More website traffic leads to potentially more business for your law firm.

How do you optimize your law firm’s GBP profile?

Here are a few tips:

• Make sure your business is listed accurately. This includes your business name, address, phone number, and hours of operation.
• Use high-quality photos to showcase your law firm and its services. Include real photos of yourself and other lawyers in your practice.
• Encourage your clients to leave reviews on your GBP profile. Positive reviews can help improve your visibility and credibility.
• Respond to all reviews, both positive and negative. This shows that you care about your clients and are willing to address any concerns they may have.
• Fill out your services section. If you’re a lawyer that specializes in different types of law, you’ll want to add the different legal services you offer and a brief explanation of your expertise. 
• Keep your profile up-to-date with any changes to your business, such as new services or changes to your hours of operation.

By following these tips and optimizing your law firm’s GBP profile, you can increase your online visibility, credibility, and engagement, which can all lead to increased business for your law firm. 

Don’t neglect your GBP profile – it’s an important tool for any lawyer or law firm looking to succeed online.

The post Google Business Profiles for Lawyers appeared first on DAGMAR.

SEO Quake

Looking to move the needle on your website’s performance? SEO Quake allows you to perform an in-depth analysis of each webpage on your site. It is one of the impressive local SEO tools that allow you to view the same SEO data directly on a search engine results page to find out how other sites are performing. Because successful SEO strategies need constant monitoring, all data is in real-time. You can get hyper-local and filter by location-based search results. Features like these help you to test what drives the organic traffic growth your business needs.

With the ability to adjust which SEO results display, SEO Quake is highly customizable. Any business can quickly identify and fix issues causing poor optimization and hone in on the most critical information to them. New businesses can focus on the high-level data that will help them gain traction. Established businesses can dive deeper into more specific data.

Google Analytics

Used to track and analyze website traffic, Google Analytics allows you to get the most value from your website. It’s a must-have tool for anyone who wants to grow their business website with digital marketing. With Google Analytics, you can check how many people visited your site and their location. You will also know which pages they visit most and the time they spend on each page. You can use this data to know what type of audience you should target and what you need to improve to turn your visitors into buyers.

Google Search Console

Previously known as Google Webmaster Tools, Google Search Console is one of the local SEO tools that you can use to monitor indexing status and optimize your site’s visibility. You can use this free tool to troubleshoot the presence of your website in Google Search results.

Want to see how your site compares to competitors? Compare the performance between specific URLs and domains. Build better links with powerful internal and external link reports. And then rapidly analyze a page’s keyword density all from within the same dashboard. Use this goldmine of data to create SEO strategies that expand the reach of your business.

Screaming Frog

Although it’s not free, if you need to extract data and audit some common SEO issues on your website, then it is worth checking out Screaming Frog. You will have to download and install this local SEO software on your PC if you want to improve onsite SEO. In addition to identifying issues on your site, this SEO Spider is a fast and advanced tool that collects the data you need, such as page meta descriptions and word count – to make better SEO decisions.

Sistrix

With this tool, you can track the visibility of sites on Google SERPs for the country you are targeting. You can check the visibility index to evaluate the pitfalls or successes of SEO activities. Sistrix can also analyze a thousand keywords. Additionally, you can use it to analyze how Google algorithm updates have affected competitor domains. In turn, this allows you to improve the positioning of your website in search engines.

Moz Local

This is a local SEO tool that you can use to update or create your listings, manage the information about your location, verify your listings again, and find or resolve any duplicate listings. By publishing consistent location data, Moz Local helps businesses to climb up the search results pages. Instead of managing your citations separately on multiple platforms, this tool allows you to get all your information and find out what is causing your site to drop down search engine results pages, not going higher.

Sparktoro

To do good marketing, you have to understand your target audience. You should know where they spend time when they on the internet, what they read, watch, listen to, and who they are following on social networking sites. Sparktoro is an audience intelligence tool that allows you to get the behavior of your target audience with just a single click of the button.

You can read about more local SEO tools in our post on how to conduct your own quick local SEO audit.

Need more than free local SEO tools? Let us know.

Savvy business owners know that search engine optimization is key for website growth and visibility, particularly when prospective customers are in their local areas. These local SEO tools will help you increase traffic to your website, giving you more opportunities to generate leads and sell your products or services. To learn more about local SEO and how it can put you ahead of your local competition, please get in touch for a free consultation.

The post Free Local SEO Tools & Resources for Small Business appeared first on DAGMAR.

First, a refresher on just how important it is for your prospective customers to find you before they find your competitors: Eighty-eight percent of local business searches turn into a visit or phone call within 24 hours. If you haven’t implemented good local SEO practices, you’re missing out on potential business. Now’s the time to make the time to improve your local SEO practices.

So, how do you do that? Here are 10 SEO optimization tips to help you improve your website traffic, attract better-qualified leads, and convert more site visitors into customers.

1. Do Keyword Research with a Local Focus

Like every good SEO strategy, SEO for local businesses should begin with good keyword research. For local SEO, though, you’ll need to look at keywords with your location in mind. Using a service like KWFinder to start your research, think like a potential customer. What would they search for? What would you type in to find a service like yours in another town?

For example, say you run a local coffee shop in Houston. To find you, someone might search for a term like “Houston coffee shop” or “best coffee near me.” You’ll want to attach your location to those keywords within your SEO strategy. So, your final list of keywords might include “coffee shop Houston” and “best coffee in Houston”. When you have a list of the keywords you want to target, you’ll be ready to use them throughout your website.

2. Optimize Meta Tags With Local Keywords

When it comes to improving SEO, one of the best places to put your keyword research to work is within your meta tags. Search engines like Google use meta description information to learn more about what the pages on your website are about. Use those keywords as naturally as possible in both the title tags and meta descriptions for each page of your website. This will help local searchers find your page more easily and, at a glance, see that it’s giving them the information they need.

3. Create Location-Specific Web Pages

Add some location-specific pages to your website using your keywords. For example, if you are a plumber, along with your main plumbing website add some pages for each of the cities you serve. Along with city names, you can target counties, neighborhoods, and district names. Be sure that you include your location-specific keywords in the content of each new page, too. This will increase the chances Google delivers it as a page one result.

4. Optimize URLs on New Web Pages

When building those new location-specific pages, make sure you optimize the URLs, too. URLs are often overlooked in local SEO strategies, but they are actually an important factor in how your page ranks in results. URLs are another signal to tell a search engine what the page is about and what its target might be. That helps the search engine deliver more accurate results to the searcher and increases your chance of being on the first page.

5. Optimize Your Site for Mobile Viewing

Local searches are overwhelmingly done on mobile devices, so make sure your website is mobile-friendly. If you fail to make your website user-friendly on a mobile device, you risk losing potential customers to your competitors. HubSpot found that 61% of searchers are more likely to call a business if they have a mobile-friendly website.

6. Create Local Content Strategically

When you are creating content for your blog or social media channels, give it a local focus. Write about local events, feature other local businesses, or talk about the history of your area. Try to generate cross-linking with other local businesses, too, for an added SEO boost.

7. Optimize Your Site for Speed

Long gone are the days of dial-up and painfully slow download times. Customers expect their internet experience to be nearly instantaneous. Your website should be no exception. Websites that are slow and clunky to load (especially on a mobile device) have a much higher bounce rate. So slow-loading pages could be a gift to your competition. Monitor your page speed rates and do what you can to make them as fast as possible. The easiest way to see your page speed score and get optimization tips is to visit Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool and add your URL.

8. Create a Strategy and Monitor Your Online Reviews

Online reviews have a big impact on whether a potential customer chooses your business. Make sure you stay on top of online reviews with a strong strategy. Start by soliciting positive reviews from your customers to boot your online rating. If you do get a less-than-stellar review from someone, make sure you respond to it publicly. Potential customers are more likely to forgive a bad review when they know you care enough to address the issue.

9. Create and Claim Your Google My Business Profile

Google uses your Google My Business profile to pull information not only for text searches but for voice searches as well. So if someone asks their Google device “Where is the nearest coffee shop,” your information will only pop up if your Google My Business profile is complete. Take time to fill out the information and keep it updated. It only takes a few minutes but can have a significant impact on your web traffic.

10. Keep Monitoring Your Local Results

Slow and steady wins the race here. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution for local SEO, so you’ll need to find what works best for your business. Making small, incremental adjustments here or there allows you to fine-tune your strategy into something that’s really working for both you and your customers. Keep an eye on your metrics or have a digital marketing company do that on your behalf. Your analytics can tell you what keywords are paying off with conversions and what’s falling flat.

Looking for More Local SEO Tips?

Improving your local SEO takes time. As a business owner, it may not be time that you have to give. If you need help implementing your local SEO and increasing your traffic, talk to our team. We work with businesses to develop strong local SEO strategies that focus on getting conversions. Contact us for a free consultation and let’s talk about how we can help improve your local SEO marketing strategy.

The post Our Top 10 Tips For Better Local SEO appeared first on DAGMAR.

You can determine this for yourself by doing a local SEO audit. Read on to find out how to do an easy but thorough local SEO audit in less than an hour.

Why should you perform a local SEO audit?

An SEO audit is a great tool to help focus on areas of your online presence that need attention. From a business owner’s perspective, doing an SEO audit will help you determine if the money you’re spending on an SEO agency is worth it: Are they completing important aspects of a digital marketing campaign? Are they providing everything specified in your contract? Is it helpful to your business? You may trust the marketing company you work with, but you should also verify you’re getting what you pay for.

How often should you audit your local SEO?

There’s no hard and fast rule for conducting audits. We like to do audits on our client’s sites every six months or so. As a business owner with other things on your plate, once a year would be a good benchmark to shoot for.

Tools you’ll need for a quick local SEO audit

• Google Search Console—Similar to analytics, Google Search Console is a free tool that provides tons of information about where your clicks are coming from, what pages are getting lots of visits, submit new pages for Google to crawl, and importantly see queries that led to clicks (this is a big deal, because you cannot see this in Analytics without a PPC account).
• Screaming Frog—This free tool is available as a paid version, but for most small/medium sized businesses the free version is sufficient. This tool allows you to crawl your site and see what pages are being found by bots and any issues such as 404 pages, 500 errors (something is wrong on your server and the page/site cannot load), missing information on title tags and descriptions and more. The free version will crawl up to 500 URLs, whereas the paid version is effectively unlimited.
• Ubersuggest—To understand what your potential or ideal customer is searching for, you need to have some idea of the keywords and queries they use when searching online. A keyword research tool is critical for this. In the past, Google’s keyword planner was a free tool you could use for this information. We’ve found Ubersuggest to be a great alternative that is free for most everything you would need. One drawback is you will not get localized search results (you can’t see what people in your area are specifically searching, rather you will see nationwide results). If you need definitive info on local keywords, we’d recommend KWFinder, and you can get a free 10 day trial when you register—this tool is actually our preferred paid keyword research tool for local information.
• Copyscape — if you need to find out if you have duplicate content on your site or if your content has been plagiarized, Copyscape is the best tool to find this info out. While the plagiarism checker is free, there are some paid aspects that may be worth your while and the cost is relatively minimal.
• PageSpeed Insights — This is a free web-based tool offered by Google to gauge the PageSpeed of your site. This will give you an idea how fast your site responds to server requests. This is technical, but you’ll want to save your score so you can review it with a developer. Alternatively, you can also use GTMetrix to see how your site performs and to discover opportunities to speed up your site.
• Google Docs Sheets — Create a google docs spreadsheet where you can copy and paste information to make todos and things you will need to correct or focus on.

Now you know some of the tools you’ll need to have access to, let’s get started—we want to try to crank this out in about an hour. But for more in-depth insights you’ll want to block out a few hours or so.

Steps to doing a quick and simple local SEO audit in under an hour

While most people would immediately go to their website and start looking at technical things, we suggest starting off where your potential customers will start: with keywords. Starting off we want to do some quick research on keywords and queries that your ideal customers would use to find a company just like yours.

Do your keyword research and query checks.

Keyword research for search volume and ideas

Tools to use: Google Search Console, Ubersuggest or KWFinder

Keywords are the terms you want to be found for—these will determine your page title tags, meta descriptions, your URLs, the headings and subheadings on a page, and possibly even blog articles and content you’ll produce for your site. This is why understanding your keywords and what people are searching for is important.

To see what customers are searching for we have a few steps you’ll want to do.

We’re going to start with manual searches—you’re going to want to open an incognito browser for this.

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You’re going to pretend you’re a typical customer and do some keyword searches for 5-10 of the primary keywords you want your website to rank for. This is also a good way to gauge who your top competitors are and what they’re doing.

Here’s an example: if you’re an HVAC repair company in Dallas, Texas you are going to open an incognito browser and run various searches around the terms you would search if you were looking for your services.

Here’s what you want to look for:

• Do you see local results for your terms (local results are maps box results on the first page).
• Is your business in the local results? Are you in any of the organic listings below the local results?
• Go through the maps listings and the first 3-5 pages of search results—note your rankings.
• Look to see which competitors are running ads for keywords.
• Look at the ‘searches related to’ section at the bottom of the page for more keyword ideas you may not have thought of.

Now if you have access to your Google Search Console account, you’re going to login at search.google.com and check your clicks and queries.

When you login click on Performance → Search Results then look at Query and make sure you’re sorted by Clicks from High to Low (arrow pointing down)

These are queries people are using to click on your site. Alternatively, if there are low numbers of clicks, these are queries that have caused your site to show up in a search result somehow but you’re not getting clicked. Review the queries to get an idea of what terms people use to find your business. You should be able to tell which of these terms are more important to you and which aren’t as important. Add the queries you’re most concerned with to your list.

Next take your list of keywords and any additional keywords you want information for and go to Ubersuggest or for more accurate localized information, KWFinder.

You’re going to copy your keywords and search for the search volumes. These are rough estimates of how many times that term is being searched monthly. The higher the number of searches per month the more people are searching. But this also usually means those keywords are more competitive and potentially harder to rank for.

Now, open a spreadsheet and copy this list of keywords and search volumes into it. You’re going to refer to it again shortly.

Take a quick NAPS.

We’re not referring to a refreshing afternoon snooze.

NAPS is an acronym local SEOs use when referring to a company’s Name, Address, Phone number and sometimes Site.

Why do you need to check your NAPS? Because this is a quick way to ensure information and data about your business is accurate. The thing you’re wanting to see is if there are multiple versions of your business information floating around online. While Google and other search engines have gotten much better at consolidating and clearing up conflicting information, it’s still helpful to ensure your NAPS are as accurate as possible.

Checking your information

Open your spreadsheet and create a new tab for researching your NAPS info. You’re going to want to keep note of incorrect and outdated information that will need to be updated.

The first thing you need to do is search for variations of your business name and your address. There are a few different searches you’ll want to do:

“Name” + “Address”

“Name” + “Phone Number”

“Address” + “Phone Number”

“Name” + “Zip Code”

“Name + “Old Address(es)”
“Name” + “Old Phone Number(s)”

Note: searches with quotation marks tell Google you want exactly what is inside the quotations. We call this ‘exact match search’.

What you want to do is look quickly at the search results that show up. You’re likely to see mostly directory listings such as Yelp, Manta, BBB, etc… You want to see which if any have incorrect information. Just quickly copy any listings with inaccurate information into your spreadsheet. Review the first 2-3 pages of Google results for the different searches you’ve done.

Check your Google My Business page:

Google My Business (GMB), if you’re not aware, is a free page Google will create and verify to ensure your business is legitimate. Having a verified GMB is critical to being able to show up in local search results and maps. If you do not have a GMB already, you’re going to have to create one—but that won’t help with this audit.

**IF YOU DON’T HAVE A GMB ALREADY—STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING, GO TO BUSINESS.GOOGLE.COM AND START CREATING YOUR GMB PAGE. ALSO FIRE YOUR LOCAL SEO AGENCY—THIS IS BASIC STUFF FOR AN SEO COMPANY AND THERE’S ZERO EXCUSE FOR THEM NOT TO HAVE THIS DONE FOR YOU (IF YOU’VE BEEN WITH THEM FOR MORE THAN A MONTH)**

If you do have an existing GMB but you don’t at least manage it or it’s not claimed you must get it controlled and verified.

Hopefully the above isn’t relevant to you, so we’re assuming you have access to your managed and verified GMB page. Now check the following things:

• Is the most relevant primary category for your type of business selected? (example: Southern Restaurant)
• Are secondary, relevant categories also on your GMB? (example: Brunch Restaurant, Breakfast Restaurant, Seafood Restaurant)
• Do you have a good, keyword friendly description for your page? Keyword friendly means that the most important keywords for your business are included in the description—additionally you would want your city/area your serve in the description too (example: Pest Control company in Charleston, SC)
• Do you have your logo, a banner, and photos added to your GMB? Ideally you’ll have at least 5 photos but more would be better. Include pics from indoor, outside the business, some of your employees.

Check your website’s on-page optimization for local SEO signals

Now we’re going to dig into your company website. We want to try to look at this from a technical perspective. We’re not focusing on design elements really, just how a non-feeling Google bot would see your site—but if there are obvious user-experience things you feel should be corrected, keep a note of these changes you would like to make.

First, you’re going to review your site’s title tags and meta descriptions.

You might be thinking “what are title tags and meta descriptions?” These are pieces of code, more accurately HTML elements that tell search engines the title of your page (title tag) and a brief explanation of what the page is about (meta description). When you do a search, the prominent titles and short paragraph in results are a page’s title tag and description. Title tags are a ranking factor, they have the ability to affect how well your site ranks in Google searches. Descriptions are not a ranking factor, but they can affect if someone clicks through to your site.

Tool to use:

You can do this manually, but it is easier and quicker to use the Screaming Frog crawler tool we recommended earlier.

If you want to do this manually, you’re going to visit your site → right click somewhere in the body → a menu should pop up and click “view page source.” This will open a new window/tab with your site’s HTML code. Then do a CTRL-F or CMD-F and search for “title”

Better option: install/open Screaming Frog and input your site’s URL and hit start, then choose “HTML” to get all your pages. Now go through your homepage and main/most important pages looking for:

• Does the homepage title tag include the main/most important keyword and location/city as well as brand name if appropriate? (i.e., Pest Control Jacksonville, FL)
• Do your other pages/service pages have title tags with relevant keywords and city/location business targets?
• Are there a lot of duplicate title tags throughout the site? Usually this occurs when you have a template setup that automatically puts a default title tag if one isn’t set. NOTE: You don’t want duplicates.
• Check that URLs are reader friendly (i.e., no weird symbols or parameters, they use words)
  • They should be relatively short. At least short enough to convey the information of the page.
  • They should have main keywords in the URL (i.e., companyname.com/bed-bug-removal-jacksonville

• Do you have the NAP in the header or footer of your site?
  • Extra credit: is it properly marked up in Schema

• Do you have pages that target the services you provide in a city/location? Ideally, you would have a page per major service you provide.
• Is there a blog? And is it active with good articles?

Now you’re going to look at the site from a customer’s perspective—just to get a feel for if it’s user-friendly.

• When you look at the menu, is it easy to find information a user might need?
  • Are service pages easy to find and click on?
  • Is there a way to easily contact you or schedule service? Ideally you have a contact page as well as contact forms and clickable phone numbers. This is really helpful for visitors who are viewing the mobile version of your site.
• If you have a business that clients come to you, is there a map embedded on the contact page?

Quick content review

Next you want to do a quick content review of what is on your site and blog. You’re not going full-on Editor-in-Chief here. You just want to make sure your content isn’t being duplicated everywhere (or isn’t plagiarised from somewhere else) and the content is not spammy or reads like it was written by a 3rd grader.

Tool to use here: Copyscape or Siteliner

Open up Copyscape or Siteliner and put in your homepage URL—this will run a scan and see if the content on your homepage is duplicated elsewhere. Do this with your most important pages and any major blog posts you have on your site. Take a note of any pages that appear to be duplicates or have a high percentage of on-page content that is copied on other sites.

Note: if you’ve used a copywriter to create content for your site you should always check the content they provide is unique. For a small fee—minimum purchase is $5.00 or $10.00 if using Paypal—you can purchase Copyscape Premium credits which allows you to run searches on specific pages, copy & paste content, and batch search your URLs.

Run a PageSpeed Insight analysis

I feel the need…the need for speed!

When it comes to your website you want to be like Maverick and Goose (before the tragic accident that is). You want your site to be fast.

PageSpeed is important because it affects how quickly your site will load for a user and how quickly search engines can crawl your site. This affects everything from rankings to how long someone may bother staying on your site. The tools you’re going to use here are Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool and GTMetrix.

PageSpeed Insights is a web based tool Google provides which will give your site a score from 1-100. There are separate scores for both your mobile and desktop versions of your site. The analysis will give you specific insights that can be addressed to improve PageSpeed. These are usually technical fixes meant to address things at the server level. Just take note of your results as you will have to give this report to your developer or whoever you use to maintain your site.

Use PageSpeed Insights tool to find out your score on mobile and desktop along with the opportunities and diagnostic fixes recommended.

If you have a developer, you may need to have them fix/address any issues found on PageSpeed Insights tool.

GTMetrix is another useful tool to help you gauge the speed of your site.

Generally speaking the things these tools are going to give you information about is how to:

• Reduce your server’s response time to improve how quickly your pages, images, other resources are served up.
• Minimize the number of HTTPS requests
• How to minimize redirects. The more redirects a page/site has, the slower it will take to load.
• Optimizing images. The bigger, more resource heavy images you have the slower your site will be.
• How to enable caching. When a browser loads your site, it has to download all the files so everything displays properly. Proper caching allows certain aspects of your site to ‘pre-load’ reducing demands on your server.

These two reports taken together will give you an opportunity to have your web developer address issues to improve speed on your site.

Do a quick social review of your online presence.

Checking your social presence is an important way to ensure you control your branding. Branding is, in our opinion, a potentially major ranking factor and will continue to grow in importance as Google evolves its algorithm.

First check to see what social networks your company is on. If you’re an involved business owner you probably already know most of this, but it helps to double check and verify.

• Are there any social sites relevant to your business, that you’re not on? If so, make a list of sites you should be on (or that you have competitors on) and plan to have pages created at a later point.
• Of the sites you are on is your page active? Are regular, relevant posts being shared on the social channels? Are you engaged with followers?
• Is your business information—NAPS—correct on the sites that allow that information?

For most companies, Facebook and Twitter are almost mandatory. Depending on your niche Instagram, LinkedIn, Youtube and others may be important to have. Make sure you’re on any relevant social channels.

Check your online reviews.

Online reviews are critical to local businesses. 82% of consumers check reviews for local businesses and they read about 10 online reviews before deciding if they can trust a business.

Reviews are not easy to get—rarely does your business just generate tons of reviews without having to do anything. That’s why it’s so important to pay attention to your online reviews and implement a strategy to constantly get new reviews.

First, you need to see how your reviews are online. What is the general sentiment about your business in online review sites?

You need to search your company online for reviews or go directly to sites you know have reviews for your company.

An easy way to start is to do a Google search for “my business name reviews” (I hope it’s obvious that you have to replace my business name with the name of your company)

Now, in that spreadsheet you’ve created, add another tab. Here you’re going to copy the URLs for important review sites and keep track of your overall ratings on those sites.

Additionally you want to look at:

• What is the overall sentiment of your company? Are reviews generally positive? By the way, you don’t have to have 100% glowing, 5 Star reviews. All businesses are going to have customers that cannot be satisfied, if you have the occasional negative review don’t stress about it.
• Are the reviews you’re getting generally unique?

Next head over to your Google My Business page to check reviews on here. Arguably, GMB reviews are the most important of online reviews you can have. Most customers start their journey via search, as opposed to going straight to your site. With local search, and GMB your reviews are going to be front-and-center. Keep track of your overall ratings here as well.

Although this is additional to an audit, checking your online reviews should drive home the importance of having a strategy for getting new reviews. At a minimum your review acquisition strategy should:

• Have a way to reach out to new and past customers to ask them to leave a review or give feedback about your service.
  • One way to do this is to have a page on your site that links to preferred review sites
• Respond to ALL GMB reviews, positive and negative.
  • In some instances a negative review can be turned around just by showing the customer you’re aware of their concerns and willing to work with them to correct whatever their negative experience was.
• Do not offer anything in return for a review.

So you’ve spent about an hour or so doing a quick local SEO audit—has anything stood out about your online presence? If there are any glaring issues you’re noticing, now is the time to schedule a chat with your local SEO agency and discuss the things you’ve noticed and things that need to be corrected.

Looking for a new local SEO agency? Contact us today to schedule a chat and evaluation of your company’s needs!

The post How to Conduct Your Own Quick Local SEO Audit appeared first on DAGMAR.

We all know this is a crazy time and there’s all sorts of uncertainties surrounding the impacts this pandemic is going to leave behind.

One of the immediate effects has been the shuttering of businesses (voluntarily or mandated). Many of these are the small businesses that we frequent day in/day out—and we recognize that we need to do our part to help ensure they can remain afloat during and after this has all passed.

While we’re doing our part for social distancing and limiting going out and visiting places, there are ways we can continue to help other businesses (and by extension their employees) as we stay home trying to avoid infection.

On top of buying gift cards or ordering takeout—one thing I realized that can have a knock-on effect is to leave our friends reviews on their business pages.

I know, you’re probably thinking this sounds like one of those “I’ll do something without actually doing something” type of actions, but it’s really not.

In our industry we cherish reviews. They can be the difference between a potential client calling our business or some other competitor. We make recommendations to our clients how to improve their own review gathering strategies. And more importantly—reviews are one of the main ways a customer decides whether to trust and patronize a business. We’ve seen surveys that show 82% of consumers read reviews for local businesses and the majority (52%) of 18-54 year olds “always” read reviews.

That should give you an idea of how important reviews are to a business—and when businesses are struggling, reviews can be even more powerful.

So here’s our suggestion: if you’re one of the lucky ones who are home and healthy with your family, able to work remote and have some free time, start leaving reviews for the businesses, services, and restaurants you frequently use. You need to step up away from COVID-19 coverage for your own mental health, and leaving positive reviews will help clear your mind.

Best Places to Leave Reviews for A Business:

Google

This is an obvious one. Search for the business you want to review and normally their Google My Business page will show up in search results. Click the “reviews” link and you’ll get a pop up with all reviews, and a nice “write a review” button in the upper right corner. Start typing away.

Facebook

This is often another important one for small businesses. If you’re having trouble finding the business Facebook page, go to their website and look for the social media icon for Facebook. That should link you to their page and you can leave your review there. Facebook is a good one to leave reviews on because in many community pages, when someone recommends a business that page often shows up in the comment with the star-ratings and people can check out the reviews.

Yelp

Same deal—if you leave a review on Google may as well jump over to Yelp and leave a review there as well. Spread the love we say!

Some Alternative Ideas for Reviews

These review sites are obvious—but they’re not the only way to show appreciation for a business you’re fond of and highlight why you like them. Here’s a couple more ways to have an online impact on some local businesses:

Reddit

Reddit is a great place to leave a review. Why? Because they often have forums (subreddits) dedicated to your town/city. And this is a great place for locals to stay on top of news and information around town. It’s also a great place for engagement. I would recommend going on Reddit and searching for a subreddit related to your area. Once you’ve joined the subreddit go ahead and leave a review (always helps to have a catchy title as well).

Twitter

Another off-the-beaten-path way to expose the good a local biz does is via Twitter. Here you can find hashtags that are relevant to your area or to a businesses niche and share a quick review/explanation of why you’re recommending them. Make sure to tag them assuming they have a Twitter handle.

Personal Blogs

If you have a personal blog you can always write up a review on your site. In the future if someone searches for “Business Name reviews” your site with its glowing recommendation might just show up in search results.

Couple of Other Things

Pictures are a great way to enhance your reviews. We’re a visual species, we love to see pictures and what’s better than seeing the actual food you’re recommending or a nicely framed picture of that cappuccino you could die for right now? If you have pictures you can share on a review, make sure to do so!

When you leave a review somewhere that’s not a ‘traditional’ review site (i.e., Google, Yelp), try to leave a link to the company you’re reviewing. On sites like Reddit, Facebook, blogs all you have to do is copy the URL of the business and drop it into your review and it should automatically link to their site.

This pandemic is looking to be devastating to our friends in the hospitality industry and while we’re doing our best to limit social interactions, this is one way to help their business in some non-traditional ways. Once things are back to normal, your reviews will be able to help them generate new business and hopefully lead to better economic times for our communities.

The post How to Help Local Businesses During the Pandemic appeared first on DAGMAR.

On one hand, you’ve probably been told that it’s critical for improving search engine optimization (SEO) and drawing prospective clients to your law firm website. On the other, you’ve likely been warned that link building can be dangerous—that if you use some of the commonly-suggested techniques to build links, you’ll risk being penalized by Google. Your site could even be de-indexed, meaning it wouldn’t show up at all.

And that is all true.

Link building can boost search engine rankings, increase organic traffic from Google and other search engines, and draw traffic from other websites. But, if you engage in “black hat” link building activities, you could pay a heavy price. So, it’s important to understand exactly how link building helps increase traffic to your website, and how to tell good links from bad.

What is Link Building?

In the most general terms, link building is simply taking action to increase the number of inbound links to your website. In the most explanation, inbound links can boost your search engine rankings because Google and other search engines interpret a link as a recommendation for your site. Links to your content suggest that others find your content valuable and relevant, which increases the likelihood that people searching for that type of content will also be interested in what you’ve posted.

But, as you’ll see in the more detailed discussion of link building strategies below, not all recommendations are good recommendations.

Inbound links are more likely to have a positive impact on your search rankings when they come from reputable sites, and carry more weight if those sites are relevant to yours. Links from “bad neighborhoods” can actually hurt your rankings, because search engines (and Google) judge you in part by the company you keep.

In short, link building is an effective means of increasing your search rankings, but must be handled with care.

The Other Benefits of Link Building

Since it became clear that inbound links from credible sites could improve search rankings, most marketing experts talk about link building almost exclusively in terms of SEO.

But, it’s worth remembering why websites started linking to one another in the first place. When a reputable site posts a link to your content, that doesn’t just tell Google someone thinks your content is worthwhile—it also tells visitors to that others view your content as valuable as well.

Well-placed links don’t just increase organic traffic by helping you get your pages ranked; they also help because people who are interested in the type of content you’re offering click those links and visit your website. And, depending on the referring site and the visitor’s impression of that site, you may get a boost in credibility based on that recommendation.

Good and Bad Links

What Color is Your Link Building Hat?

You’ve probably heard link building and other attorney SEO tactics described as “white hat” or “black hat.” It’s pretty clear that “white hat” is meant to suggest good strategies and “black hat” the shady ones.

But, you may not know exactly which techniques fall into each category or why.

In a nutshell, white hat strategies optimize (and stay true to the) variables Google and other search engines consider, while black hat techniques try to trick the system.

For example, earning links from reputable sites relevant to your own by creating top-notch content that others will be interested in sharing is a white hat tactic. Whether you’ve created great content to show your expertise, to share information with the public, or just to draw links, the end result is the same. If your content gets ranked and searchers click through, they’ll have the great experience the search engine algorithm predicted.

In contrast, purchasing links is a black hat strategy. If you’re able to buy enough links on reputable sites that Google thinks you’re drawing a lot of natural links, you may end up ranking high without solid content. In other words, you may have tricked the search engine into sending visitors to a page that doesn’t meet its standards.

That’s why, if you get caught using black hat strategies, your website may be penalized, or even removed from search listings. And, even if you’re not breaking the rules yourself, you may suffer for your association with the wrong sites.

Assessing Sites before Seeking Links

Of course, some websites will link to you naturally. You may not know they’re linking to you until you see referrals in your analytics or use an SEO tool to check your backlinks. Some more general link building strategies, such as sharing catchy content through social media, may also draw links from sites you haven’t specifically targeted.

But, many link building tactics involve choosing the sites where you’ll place or seek out links. Before you take that step, make sure the site is one you want linking to your content.

Sometimes, factors that make a site an undesirable place for a link are readily apparent. For example, if a site is poorly maintained, with broken links, missing images, display problems and other obvious issues, you’ll probably want to steer clear. Similarly, if you can see that the site features a large number of links, especially links to irrelevant sites, you can usually assume that search engines won’t weigh a recommendation from that site positively. Additionally, if you see a lot of irrelevant linking out, you can safely assume the site is selling links.

You can also easily tell when a site is focused in an arena that might be considered “seedy,” such as pornography, pharmaceutical, or gambling, and when a site is flooded with advertising.

But, the issues aren’t always so visible. To make sure you’re choosing sites that will benefit you—and, even more importantly—won’t hurt you, research the domain.

Depending on the type of analytics you’re using for your website, you may already have a tool for measuring the power of someone else’s domain. But, if you don’t, here are a couple of free options:

• Ahrefs Website Authority Checker
• Moz Domain Analysis

These two tools provide slightly different information, and there are some discrepancies between their results.

Ahrefs shows a domain rating between 1 and 100, along with the number of backlinks that site has and the number of unique domains those links come from. Moz shows the number of domains linking to the site (but not the total number of links), the number of keywords the site is ranked for, and adds a “spam score.” But, both are useful to gain a high-level sense of the authority and reputability of a domain.

Creating Effective Links

Strategic link building for your law firm involves more than just connecting with the right sites.

Some links are more valuable than others, depending on where they appear and how they’re structured. Generally, links coming from within the body of the post and using relevant anchor text are more valuable than those appearing in bylines and bios. These are also called ‘editorial’ links.

Once upon a time, the gold standard was to get anyone linking to you to use a particular keyword phrase to point to a page, so Google would notice that a lot of people were sending “car accident attorneys” traffic to your site. The truth, though, is that it’s very unlikely that dozens or hundreds of sites will naturally link to you using exactly the same language, and Google knows it. Thus, you’ll want to vary the language you use in text links.

Law Firm Link Building Tactics

The possibilities are nearly endless when it comes to attracting or securing links to your website. Here are some of the most common tried-and-true methods to help you get started:

Create or Update Directory Listings

The web is a sea of opportunities for directly listings, some legal specific and some general, some free and some paid. There’s another factor not everyone is aware of: some with “nofollow” links and some with “dofollow” links.

For attorney internet marketing purposes, that distinction matters–nofollow links don’t pass authority for search ranking purposes. But, don’t disregard those listings out of hand. A listing in a popular directory may still pass targeted traffic to your site, and adding your name, address and phone number to a directory in a format consistent with your website and other directories will help establish credibility in Google’s eyes.

There are far more legal directories on the internet than most attorneys are aware of (some good placements and some not so much), and finding them through search is a good starting point. Though you’ll want to do more research into each domain you’re considering, appearing near the top of Google’s listing of attorney directories is a solid hint that search engine sees the site as credible.

Here are a few of the better-known and ranked legal directories. Most offer both free and paid listings. Not all offer dofollow links, but those that don’t are still valuable citations.

• Justia
• Avvo
• FindLaw
• HG.org
• Lawyers.com
• NOLO
• Martindale

There are also many specialized or award-based directories, where you’ll have to qualify for listings. Perhaps the best known of these is SuperLawyers, but there are many others based on practice area, geography, and achievement. More niche sites will generally have lower traffic, but strong relevance, both for SEO purposes and for purposes of drawing targeted traffic to your site. Just remember to check out the “neighborhood” before you choose.

A great side benefit of these legal directories is some of them often show up in “…lawyer near me” type searches with a top X list. If you’re in that list it is a sort of secondary website for potential clients to find you.

You’ll also want to explore non-legal-specific directory listings that can carry significant weight. Some examples include Yelp and YP.com. The most important of these is Google My Business, which has a direct impact on a site’s ability to rank in that all-important local pack of search results.

Guest Posting on Relevant Websites

Like link building generally, guest posting gets mixed reviews. That’s because, like many SEO strategies, guest posting has been abused to the point where guest posts can be classified as spam links.

Still, law firms can use guest posting effectively by ensuring that any guest posts submitted:

• Are substantive and contain valuable information and insights, rather than being quickly knocked off or “spun” to create linking opportunities
• Are placed on sites that are relevant to your law firm, either through subject matter or based on geography/local to the community a firm serves
• Are created and placed judiciously, rather than as a blanket effort to get a large number of guest postings out in a short period of time
• Include only one or two links to your website, and incorporate them naturally–generally, that means from the body of the post and using keywords that are relevant but not contrived and not repeated from linking opportunity to linking opportunity

Be sure that the site you’re contributing to has a good reputation, and that your content adds value for the site’s regular audience. Content placed for the sole purpose of getting a backlink is usually easy to identify, meaning you won’t get an SEO boost or traffic from the site. And, if you do too much of it, your site may be penalized by Google.

Create and Promote Your Own Great Content

One of the most straightforward ways to gain links to your website is to create great content.

We’ve already talked about what makes valuable content in terms of guest posting. When you’re creating content for your own site, add one ingredient: make sure that you’re providing content people will want to share.

That means thinking about headlines, using eye-catching graphics in postings, and creating content in a format that’s inviting. It also means making it easy to share, with a social media plug-in that lets visitors share to their own social media accounts with a single click.

Don’t limit yourself to blog posting, either. Videos and infographics can also draw links and traffic to your site, and give you an opportunity to incorporate personality and perhaps humor into your content, making it easier for prospective clients to connect with you.

Of course, not every blog post will get a burst of social shares or inspire links on other blogs and websites. In fact, most will not. But, investing in the occasional piece of content with widespread appeal can pay off, especially if you give it a boost by sharing through your firm’s social media accounts and the personal accounts of attorneys and staff.

Sponsoring Local Events or Events in Your Niche

Sponsoring a local non-profit fundraiser, an educational event, a conference relevant to your practice area or even a youth sports team in your community has obvious benefits beyond the possibility of obtaining a relevant link. In addition to the value you add to the community, you’ll be getting your name out in a positive way and establishing yourself as someone who is there to help.

As an added bonus, though, this type of sponsorship often means an opportunity to obtain one or more quality links, as the organization may list sponsors on its website, and may even post thank yous or sponsor lists in social media or share in a local news outlet.

Of course, if your sponsorship is motivated in part by the linking opportunity, you’ll want to apply the same standards you would when considering a guest post or directory linking. Remember, though, that a smaller local organization is by nature very unlikely to have the type of domain authority you’ll see with a reputable national directory. That’s because the site will be relevant to a smaller sector, and so won’t draw thousands of backlinks. As long as the site is reputable, that link can still add value.

Contribute to Relevant Publications

Here, again, relevant may mean within your industry or may mean local.

In the legal industry, for example, contributing an article in your practice area to a respected legal directory site might yield a valuable backlink. Similarly, writing a legal column for your local newspaper that is posted publicly on the paper’s website could offer a relevant link.

Do your homework, though. While many legal directories accept contributions from attorneys, not all allow dofollow links in the body of the article or the attorney’s byline or bio. And, many newspapers keep content behind a paywall, meaning that search engines won’t crawl those links and you won’t see SEO benefits from the links.

When considering this strategy, consider other benefits as well. Getting quality links to your website is a valuable undertaking, but this particular strategy–like many others on this list–has advantages that go beyond the value of the link, such as building credibility in your industry, cultivating referrals from other attorneys who read the industry publication you’ve contributed to, and establishing yourself as a legal authority in your local community.

Get Recognized

When you get an award from your local bar association, your practice-area sector of the state bar, a non-profit you’ve gone above and beyond for, your local Chamber of Commerce or Rotary Club, or any number of other local and industry-centric organizations, you get publicity.

Of course, that’s valuable in its own right, but in 2020 it also often means links from the organization’s website, industry publications, local media and others.

You may be thinking that the benefits are obvious, but securing this type of honor isn’t really within your control. But, that’s not entirely true.

While you have to qualify for the award and you can’t control the final decision, a great many awards start with a nomination from someone you know. Examples include inclusion in the SuperLawyers directory, alumnae awards, community-based “person of the year” type awards, and round-ups like the 40 Under 40 lists assembled by many respected business publications.

Your law firm’s marketing team should always be on the alert for this type of opportunity.

The Bottom Line on Law Firm Link Building

Everything you’ve heard about link building is true: it’s an important part of SEO for lawyers, and it can be risky if not executed carefully. But the “rules” for quality white-hat link building are simple and mostly involve common sense and good judgment.

Choose sites to place or cultivate links from based on their reputation and authority, just as you would choose any other type of endorsement. When contributing content, make sure you’re adding the same type of value you must ensure you’re adding with the content you publish on your own site. And, don’t look for shortcuts. Any system or provider that promises you a large number of links in a short period of time is almost certainly advocating or employing black-hat strategies that will hurt your rankings, or even get you blacklisted from search.

Take a multi-pronged approach to link building, and be prepared to build up your backlinks incrementally, not overnight.

The post 6 Key Link Building Tactics for Law Firms appeared first on DAGMAR.

Google’s formula for ranking pages for keywords is based on a complex algorithm. So, to rank well, how you optimize your website must meet the always-evolving requirements of Google, while still providing your clients and prospects with the helpful information they need in a user-friendly manner. As requirements evolve, though, finding and using the best keywords remains at the heart of organic attorney search engine optimization (SEO).

You can find a more comprehensive look at law firm optimization in our SEO for lawyers guide. In this post, we’re focusing specifically on the nuts and bolts of the keyword research and selection process for attorneys.

Basics of Keyword Research

The keywords you choose should:

• be relevant to the legal services you provide
• be highly targeted (don’t try to rank for just “attorney” or “lawyer”)
• have steady-to-good levels of traffic
• have levels of competition that are achievable

As you conduct your keyword research, you’ll want to find terms with commercial intent. These may have less traffic than broader terms you’ll find, but you can rank more easily for them. Plus, because keywords with commercial intent are ones where people are actually looking for legal services (rather than simply searching for information), you’ll likely convert at a much higher rate when using commercial-intent keywords.

The image below shows a keyword from someone who is clearly considering suing a nursing home for neglect, and it has a search volume that averages 40 searches per month:

The next image shows a broader term:

The 390 people who search for this term each month are looking to hire someone who provides legal services in Florida. Thus, this is also a keyword with commercial intent. The difference is “Florida legal services” has a very broad potential (there are probably hundreds of legal services available in Florida) whereas ‘sue a nursing home’ has a fairly narrow legal intent (i.e., elder abuse or something similar).

In your research, look for keywords that have research/educational intent as well. People who search using these terms want solutions to problems they’re experiencing, so the terms often include “why” or “how.” These keywords can be used in blog posts, case studies, videos, and white papers.

People searching keywords with research intent might not be ready to hire an attorney, but positioning your law firm as one that provides quality solutions can be a good lead-nurturing strategy. Plus, when you use these keywords in engaging content that educates and informs, it’s more likely that people will share this content with others, spreading the reach of what you write.

You can find keywords with both commercial and research intent—and their associated traffic—by using professional tools. Some of them offer free access, in full or in part; but, for more sophisticated usage, you’ll likely need to pay for a subscription or outsource the keyword process to experts who offer SEO services for law firms.

We’ll get into more detail about keyword research tools later in this post. For now, we’ll just say that it can make sense to explore which tools are currently available for a free trial period to see what you think of them. This is a short-term solution (SEO is a long-term, ongoing process), but one that can help you see which tool works best for your law firm.

How to Create a List of Keywords

Note that we’re sharing a strategy for creating a list of keywords for organic SEO, rather than for pay-per-click (PPC) keyword research. If you’re looking for information about PPC for your law firm, review our PPC and Adwords advice here.

To create an organic keyword list, make a list of the services you offer (these should dovetail with the service pages on your site) and prioritize them in importance to make sure you give your more profitable services the lion’s share of your resources.

For each of your service areas, you’ll want to find relevant keywords with:

• commercial intent (personal injury lawyer, social security disability attorney)
• research intent (what is considered nursing home neglect, questions to ask an estate planning attorney)
• localized intent (Florida legal services, Jacksonville law firm)

One quick and easy way to expand your keyword list is to enter each of your broader terms into the Google search box to see what additional terms are auto suggested. Add relevant ones to your list. You can also enter these additional terms into Google to see if even more useful terms are auto suggested.

Here’s another convenient free way to seed your list. Let’s say that you want to include “automobile accident attorney near me” in your keyword list. Enter it into Google and then scroll to the bottom of the search engine results page to see what other terms Google suggests.

When creating your list, you can also use free tools like Google Suggest, QuestionDB, Soolve, WordStream and Ubersuggest. Plus, it makes sense to check your Google Search Console to see which terms are already sending people to your law firm’s site.

Once you create a seed list of keywords, you can enter each one into a keyword research tool to see how much traffic each one has. When you do that, also look to see what related keywords the tool suggests and the monthly traffic figures for those terms. Although they may not all be relevant, it’s likely that many are, so capture the ones that fit your law firm’s offerings.

Through this process, you’ll come up with a core list of keywords that you can use on pages and posts on your attorney website. It isn’t unusual to need to do more research when you’re writing blog posts, especially if the topics are somewhat different from what you’ve written about in the past.

Best Keyword Research Tools

There are plenty of keyword research tools to choose from. Here are just a few, organized in alphabetical order.

• Ahrefs
• Google Keyword Planner
• KWFinder
• SECockpit
• SEMrush
• SpyFu
• Wordtracker

If there are free trials available, experiment with a variety of them. You can also read online reviews of the tools and ask for recommendations from other legal professionals who might be willing to share their experiences with the keyword research tools.

How to Choose the Best Keywords For Your Law Firm

For each service that you offer, it’s important to include the following in your foundational keyword list:

• broader keywords: examples might include “automobile accident attorney” and “medical malpractice lawyer”
• longtail keywords: examples might include “what does power of attorney mean” and “best social security attorneys near me”
• local keywords: “Florida automobile accident attorney” and “Jacksonville personal injury attorney”

As we mentioned near the beginning of this post, choose keywords that are relevant to your law firm, with steady to good traffic and manageable levels of competition.

Longtail keywords are typically less competitive, therefore helping your law firm to benefit from quicker traffic wins while building up credibility in Google for the more competitive ones in your keyword mix.

Local keywords can strengthen location pages on your site that describe the services you offer at each of your offices and otherwise send location-specific cues to Google.

How Often to Redo Keyword Research for Your Law Firm

It’s probably enough for your law firm to redo its keyword research once or twice a year. Unless you add new legal services in between or new laws take effect, reviewing your keywords every six months or so should be sufficient.

When you double-check your keywords, check to see if monthly search figures have gone up or down for them. If the search volume for a term is significantly going down, try to reverse engineer why and use your keyword research tool to see what related terms are being used by clients and prospects, instead. Once you have an idea of what changes need to be made, you can tweak your copy accordingly.

When redoing your research, re-enter your core terms into Google’s search bar, too, to see whether the auto suggests change. What about the related terms found at the bottom of the search page?

Regularly check your Google Search Console throughout the year to see which of your keywords are sending the most organic traffic to your site.

Metrics to review include:

• page impressions
• page clicks
• page clickthrough rates
• query clicks
• query clickthrough rates
• total clicks

What surprises did you find? How will that impact how you use keywords in your pages and posts going forward? What topics need more content to give important keywords more oomph? What pages and posts might need edited?

How to Review What Competitors Are Doing

Keyword research tools often give you the ability to review rankings of your competitors, as well. As just two examples, SEMrush and SpyFu are robust tools for competitor analysis.

Although it might be tempting to just do searches in Google for various terms to see where you and your competitors rank, Google personalizes searches in a way that skews this data. A study shows that, even when you search in incognito mode, skewing occurs; so, for more accurate data, use professional tools to gather this information.

Armed with the knowledge of competitor rankings, you can see which keywords they’re ranking well for where you’d like to have high visibility. You can then use those insights to reverse engineer what competitors are doing on their sites to achieve those rankings.

You may discover that you need to develop more content around those keywords, or it may mean that you need to make the content you already have more in-depth and robust. Or, maybe you’ll need to do both.

To help, here are insights into longform content and the role it plays in ranking for desired keywords. The takeaway: It’s important for your law firm to focus on creating something better than what’s out there in your space, particularly ensuring your content is better than the content your competitors are writing.

Not all keywords that your successful competitors are ranking for are necessarily important to you, but you can still use what you learn to help discover how they’re using attorney search engine marketing techniques to get leads—and that information can be invaluable, even when some of their keywords aren’t relevant for your law firm.

More Tips For How to Research Law Firm Keywords

When brainstorming keywords, blog topics, and more, put yourself in the position of your clients, rather than considering them from the mindset of a legal professional. What are the concerns of someone, say, whose loved one is being neglected in a nursing home? Or someone who was injured in a motorcycle accident through no fault of their own?

What questions might these potential clients have? What keywords might they be typing into a search engine to find solutions to the problems they’re experiencing?

This is where persona creation can come in handy. A client persona is a fictional character that can help you attract targeted traffic to your website, including when you’re in the keyword research stage of the process.

As an often overlooked strategy, also talk to people who work for your law firm, including those who answer the phone. What questions are they commonly asked? If those staff members look at your law firm’s content, does it address those questions?

You can also check out websites where people ask legal questions to gain insight into the types of issues that people seek information about. For example, if you’re a child custody attorney, you can look at Avvo and Quora to see what child custody questions are being asked, and then answer them on your own site using keywords from your research.

Finally, it’s important to recognize when enough research is enough before you begin writing your content. Remember, you can revamp this list during your annual or biannual keyword review.

Need Help? Contact DAGMAR Marketing Pros

When one estate planning law firm contacted us, their team shared how they wanted to boost their website rankings for estate litigation terms along with other terms from higher-profit practice areas. Our customized SEO strategy had the following results:

Contact us online or by phone at 904-270-9778 to let us know how we can help your law firm.

The post Keyword Research For Attorneys: A How-To Guide For Law Firms appeared first on DAGMAR.

Let’s say, for example, that you’re a personal injury attorney located in Jacksonville, Florida. You’d use local SEO strategy and techniques so that when potential clients search in Google for a term like “automobile accident attorney near me,” Google would compare your location to that of the searchers. After verifying your geographic proximity, and that you provide the desired services, your law firm could appear in the Google Map local pack for that keyword.

Ideally, you’d be listed as one of the top three listings in the local pack. That’s because those are the ones that searchers can see without needing to click on the “More places” link.

The local pack is a specific type of Google search result, one that shows local results that are connected to a searcher’s query. Here’s an example of what local pack results would look like for the keyword of “Jacksonville personal injury attorney”:

How to get into and stay visible in the local pack for desired keywords continues to evolve as Google makes changes to its local ranking algorithm. Local search is a mix of art and science, and it’s important for your law firm to adjust its strategy when changes are made without doing what’s called “algorithm chasing.” That’s when someone hears of an algorithm update or notices an unwanted change in a metric, and then hurries to make tactical adjustments without being strategic about them.

Although Google doesn’t always share the details of its ranking algorithms, it does provide a high-level look at how it ranks sites for local search: “Local results are based primarily on relevance, distance, and prominence. These factors are combined to help find the best match for your search.

“For example, Google algorithms might decide that a business that’s farther away from your location is more likely to have what you’re looking for than a business that’s closer, and therefore rank it higher in local results.”

Let’s break this down:

• Relevance: Google is looking to see how closely a local listing matches what a particular searcher is seeking. For example, if someone is looking for a Jacksonville automobile accident attorney, and that’s a service you provide, there is relevancy.
• Distance: Google checks to see how geographically close a business is to the searcher.
• Prominence: This can mean online visibility or how well a brand is established.

As noted in Google’s explanation, their algorithm uses a blend of these three factors to make ranking decisions.

So, what does that mean for the local search campaign for your law firm?

You’lll need to determine your overall strategy, one that dovetails with Google’s algorithm, as well as deciding upon more granular tactics. After you implement your strategy and employ your tactics, monitor results and adjust as needed.

Here’s information that will help you to create the elements of your campaign:

Factors That Can Affect Local SEO Rankings

A quality local SEO campaign should contain the following components:

• Google My Business (GMB) optimization
• on-site optimization, especially in connection with NAP consistency (name, address and phone number)
• inbound link and citation strategies
• Google reviews
• location pages
• keyword research for your targeted area
• strategies that will help your local SEO campaign dovetail with your other online marketing efforts; you can find information about digital marketing for law firms in our SEO for lawyers guide.

Understanding Google My Business

Google My Business is a free tool provided by Google to help businesses like your law firm provide and manage their information in Google. When you have the correct information listed in GMB, this helps people in need of your services to know where you’re located, the hours you’re open, how to find and browse through your law firm’s website, and more.

Companies that verify their GMB account are two times as likely to have people see them as reputable firms, according to a study that Google commissioned a few years ago.

If, on the other hand, you don’t have a GMB account, then it isn’t possible for your law firm to appear in the Google Map local packs, which puts you at a significant disadvantage when large numbers of people use Google searches to find the services they need.

Although GMB is free to use, the setup and optimization process can take some time. It includes claiming and verifying your listing, and otherwise optimizing it strategically for best results. This involves writing an engaging business description that uses keywords appropriately, without crossing over into spam. You get 750 characters to write this, so do so thoughtfully. You’ll also need to select the appropriate categories/sub-categories, add eye-catching pictures, and more.

If you find it valuable, Google includes a Q&A section where you can answer questions people have about your firm. You can also create posts for your GMB page, allow potential clients to send private messages to you through the platform, and more.

Finally, a key step of optimizing your GMB is ensuring that your business name, address, and phone number (your NAP) is correct and consistent with what’s listed on your law firm’s website. If they don’t match, fix any incorrect information, ASAP.

Important Online Listing Sites for Law Firms

The idea of NAP consistency goes beyond making sure that what’s listed on your website matches your GMB. You’ll also want to ensure that there is NAP consistency on business listings for your law firm throughout the internet. If you’ve moved your office or changed your phone number, then it’s especially important to do a thorough NAP audit.

Google is getting increasingly better at identifying business information and checking it for consistency—and, when conflicting information is found, Google may consider your law firm to be less than trustworthy. If this happens, then this will likely cause your business to be less visible on Google than it otherwise would be. Plus, clients seeking your services may not be able to find you, and might go to a competitor.

If you find incorrect NAP information about your firm online, contact the webmaster and ask for a correction. Although obtaining NAP consistency can be tedious, it’s a fairly simple way to improve your law firm’s credibility in Google, which typically helps to improve local search rankings.

On an ongoing basis, get new citations for your firm by getting listed in new directories, particularly those with high domain authority scores, which range from 1 to 100. Directories for law firms with high scores include:

• Justia.com: 88
• FindLaw.com: 84
• Nolo.com: 74
• Avvo.com: 70
• Lawyers.com: 69
• LegalZoom.com: 69
• Martindale.com: 64
• LegalMatch.com: 62
• SuperLawyers.com: 60
• BestLawyers.com: 54

You can often get listed on the websites of professional associations you belong to. Also think about which local websites in your area are the go-to places for communities around you. See if there are opportunities for you to get listed on them.

Each time that you get listed in a directory, it adds another inbound link to your law firm’s website, which helps with local SEO and your site’s organic SEO.

When creating your plan for citations, think about your social media platforms and individual websites, too. What’s most important is to choose quality sites for citations and work on steadily increasing their number while continuing to monitor the accuracy of the information listed.

Because of automated aggregation tools, your law firm’s NAP information can appear on sites without your knowledge. So, checking NAP is an ongoing process, with errors needing to be corrected as quickly as possible to help prevent any negative impact on your local SEO rankings.

Getting Online Reviews

Another key factor in succeeding in local SEO is steadily getting online reviews. Getting Google Reviews is important, and you’ll also want to get reviews from other relevant sites, such as Yelp and the Better Business Bureau.

To help, we’ll describe the process of getting Google Reviews, which can help to guide you with other review sites, as well.

The first and most obvious step is to provide the quality of legal services that will cause people to say positive things about your law firm. But, that’s often not enough because busy people may not think about leaving online reviews or, if they do think about it, they may get distracted by the next thing on their list and not actually follow through. Or, they may not know the process.

Google is fine with you asking people to post reviews, and they’ve provided instructions. (Contrast that, for example, with Yelp that has a no-solicitation policy that imposes ranking penalties for offenders). Before you ask people to post a Google Review, create a link that will take your clients directly to where they can leave that review. Here’s how.

Then, send your clients your customized link, along with easy-to-follow instructions about how to post a review. Note that although it isn’t legit to specifically ask them to write a positive review or to offer them an incentive, you can select whom you ask. Send the request from an email address the clients will easily recognize, and write it in a personal way with a clear call to action. Also come up with a follow-up request for those who don’t respond to your first request.

Pace yourself. A steady supply of online reviews can help your law firm in local search results. But, if Google gets flooded with them, it can look suspicious and this strategy might backfire on you.

As one more “goes without saying” kind of thing, don’t buy fake reviews. It must have seemed like a good idea for some business owners in New York—at least until they got slammed with $350,000 in fines.

Here’s information about Google Reviews and customer engagement.

On-Page SEO for Local SEO

Besides providing your NAP in prominent and logical places on your website, optimize your website in ways that enhance your local SEO campaign. If your law firm has one location, include geo-targeted keywords in your pages and blog posts so that Google and site visitors are clear about where you’re located.

If you have multiple offices in multiple cities, create a location landing page that shares the city and state for each one, along with relevant contact information for each. Then, in the information listed for your first location—say, Jacksonville, Florida—link out to an optimized location page that focuses just on services provided at that office. Do the same for location number two, perhaps Orange Park, and so on. Create quality content for each location page, using relevant geo-targeted keywords.

Using Local Schema

Schema is markup data that helps Google and other search engines better understand the content of your website. Included in this is LocalBusiness schema that helps search engines to have a clearer understanding of addresses, phone numbers, and other location-specific pieces of information.

You can look at the local information found on each page of your site and then find the corresponding schema data. Code the content; test it by using Google’s Structured Data Testing tool; test your markup in Google’s Search Console; and then monitor to see if this improves your local search results. Tweak as needed. Because this process isn’t intuitive, Google has created a Structured Data Markup Helper.

Professional Local SEO Services

If you’re busy helping clients and are looking for a partner to assist with your law firm SEO and local SEO services are our specialty.

Local SEO strategy and tactics can be a mystery, but we believe in transparency, showing you what we do and how well we’re doing it for you. As you can see in this lawyer case study, our customized SEO strategy for the featured law firm resulted in a 103% increase in the law firm’s local traffic, along with a 406% boost in their conversion rate.

If you’re ready to talk about how we can help your law firm achieve its local search goals, contact us online or by phone at 904-270-9778.

The post Local SEO for Lawyers appeared first on DAGMAR.

When that happens, it’s hard not to bang your head against the wall and wonder, “What’s up with that???”

In fact, that’s why we decided to write this post. A successful local SEO campaign needs a unique blend of on-site strategies with off-site ones. And, because we specialize in doing exactly that (we’ve already won a prestigious national award, the Landy Award for the Best Local SEO Initiative), we’ll share answers to nine different questions to help you get the local online visibility you deserve.

Now, onto the questions!

Question #1: What is a good litmus test to determine if an SEO agency is good at local SEO?

That’s easy. The agency will explain, in detail, what they’ll do for your company. And, they’ll explain everything in a way that makes sense. If an agency talks about a proprietary process (or, maybe even worse, a “secret sauce”), then that’s not the right agency for you. After talking to a good local SEO agency, you’ll finish the conversation with the feeling that you know exactly what they’ll be doing for you and why.

Now, here are answers to eight other local search questions we’re often asked.

Question #2: What exactly is local SEO and how are its techniques different from organic SEO strategies?

If you’re using organic SEO techniques on your website, one of your key goals would be to appear as high as possible in the search engine results pages (SERPs) for relevant keywords. If you were a personal injury attorney in Charleston, South Carolina, for example, you’d want to be one of the top organic listings for the term we just italicized:

Your local SEO efforts, though, are focused on getting quality placement in the Google Map local pack for relevant terms, especially in one of the three listings (the three-pack) that you can see without needing to click on the “More places” link. For example, if you’re a Jacksonville personal injury attorney, you would want to appear in the local three-pack for that term. Here is that three-pack image:

When you talk to local SEO companies about their strategies for your company, pay close attention to what they say about getting your company into the three-pack listings. What strategies will they use?

Although no two local search companies will respond in exactly the same way, a quality company in 2018 will use a blend of:

• Google My Business optimization
• inbound link and citation strategies
• on-site optimization, especially in connection with NAP consistency (name, address and phone number)
• Google reviews
• location pages
• keyword research for your targeted area
• strategies that will help your local SEO campaign dovetail with other online marketing efforts

Local SEO is a unique mixture of art and science, evolving as Google makes changes to its algorithm. Quality companies evolve right alongside these changes (without algorithm chasing!), while also proactively learning about likely changes in the algorithm and SERP placements. That way, the agency has a plan in place, if needed, right out of the starting gate, and can react quickly. Quality companies also monitor site metrics to help ensure that their strategies are remaining effective.

Question #3: How does Google decide how to rank companies in the local pack?

To quote Google, “Local results are based primarily on relevance, distance, and prominence. These factors are combined to help find the best match for your search. For example, Google algorithms might decide that a business that’s farther away from your location is more likely to have what you’re looking for than a business that’s closer, and therefore rank it higher in local results.”

Here is more information about how Google defines these three terms:

• Relevance: how closely a local listing matches what a searcher is looking for; the more detailed and complete your local information is, the more easily Google can appropriately match you up with prospects
• Distance: with local search, Google will compare how close a listing is from a location term used in a search; if a location term isn’t used, Google will use what is known about the location
• Prominence: this refers to how well-known a business is, with familiar, more established store brands, as just one example, having an edge; a company can gain online prominence by being visible online, though, including through Google reviews and link building campaigns that increase your online authority signals.

Question #4: What is Google My Business (GMB) and why would I need this if I have a good website?

GMB is a tool provided by Google so companies can manage their business information in Google. The tool itself is free, but it does take time to claim/verify your business listing and to strategically optimize the listing for best SEO impact. According to a 2014 Oxera report prepared for Google, businesses that verify a GMB listing are two times as likely to have consumers consider them to be reputable.

From a practical sense, having the right information in GMB means that, when people use Google Maps to find your business, they will have access to the correct information, including your address, your phone number, your hours of operation, your website, and other key pieces of information.

As far as why you need both (GMB and a website), here is a quote from Google, “Google My Business complements your existing website by giving your business a public identity and presence with a listing on Google. The information that you provide about your business appears on Google Search and Maps.”

Here’s an even shorter answer. Without a GMB profile, you can’t rank in the three-pack. No matter what.

It’s vital that the name, address and phone (NAP) information found on your website and in accompanying schema matches that of GMB (more about schema soon). Think of GMB as the Yellow Pages of the digital age and you’ll quickly see why inaccuracies are highly problematic.

If there are any discrepancies in your NAP, prioritize this fix because accurate business data is crucial for your site to perform well in Google’s local search algorithm. The maps section of Google, as just one example, relies heavily on accurate data so users can call the right number and get accurate driving directions. And, here’s the bottom line: If your online NAP information is incorrect, Google won’t trust your listing enough to prominently show it in response to searches.

If you have a physical location, and a digital marketing consultant tells you that you don’t need an accurate and optimized GMB to succeed online, don’t walk away. Run. If an agency tells you that they manage local SEO campaigns but don’t include GMB in their mix of strategies, run even faster.

Question #5: Why are Google reviews so important to local SEO?

SearchEngineJournal.com published study results in 2017 that showed how Google reviews were the most important ranking factor in local search. Why? “The prominence of reviews isn’t particular shocking,” the article quotes, “as it’s a way for Google to crowdsource ranking factors, it’s hard to spam.”

Simply having more reviews, though, isn’t enough. It’s what is being said in them that really matters. GMB pages that contain reviews that use keywords and/or the city name, for example, rank more highly in the local pack.

To get more Google reviews, encourage satisfied clients to write one. To make it easy for them to do so, you can create a unique link that will take these clients to exactly the right location. But, pace yourself and avoid all of these do-nots.

• Do not create a situation where customers flood Google with reviews. This will look spammy. A measured, natural-appearing pace is best.
• Do not specifically ask customers to write a positive review; just ask people you expect will provide positive comments to write a review.
• Do not offer discounts or giveaways in exchange for a review.
• Do not write a fake review to try to boost your rankings.
• Do not ask anyone else to write a fake one for you, either..
• Do not write anything negative about your competitors in their Google Reviews or encourage anyone else to do so.

Here’s another litmus test: A good local SEO company will explain, from the very beginning of your time together, how reviews are important. Plus, they will either work with you to generate more reviews using your existing tools or provide a good list of online tools to help you consistently generate good reviews.

And, here’s information about customer engagement marketing and Google Reviews.

Question #6: What are citations and what role do they play in local search?

Any time the NAP of a local business exists on a website, that’s a local citation. These citations can be found in or on:

• local business directories; in 2015, HubSpot.com listed the 50 best
• social media platforms
• individual websites and more

Perhaps the most important citation is that on GMB. Benefits of being listed in various places online include how:

• quality ones help you to rank more highly in local search engine rankings
• people in your area who see your citations can click on them to see your website, which can lead to increased traffic, conversions and sales

To help your rankings, it’s important to focus on:

• choosing quality sites for your citations
• steadily increasing the number of citations
• ensuring that the information included is consistently accurate

If the information found in citations conflict, Google is less likely to trust your website, which means you’re less likely to rank well. Plus, potential customers may go to the wrong address, call the wrong number or go to your business when you’re closed, none of which is good for business.

It’s also important to monitor your citations, because they can easily appear without your knowledge through the use of automated aggregation tools. Errors need found and corrected as soon as possible to help prevent any negative ranking impact, as well as loss of foot traffic and any reductions in associated revenue and/or reputation.

You can test how your business information appears online by using our free listing scan tool.

So, here’s another litmus test: a quality local SEO company will provide citation generation and cleanup services. They will also be able to explain the importance of these services.

Question #7: How do we find the best local SEO company for our business?

There are several issues to consider and avenues to pursue. But, before you spend time looking for a good local SEO agency, have the right expectations. Below are a few qualifications we ask of our clients, ones that you’ll want to ask yourself (since a good local SEO agency won’t work with just anyone):

1. Whom are you trying to reach?
2. What locations need increased sales the most?
3. What products and/or services need a special boost?

The more specific your goals are, the more effectively a qualified local SEO company can devise a strategy and the more precisely results can be measured.

Make sure you have enough time to provide your awesome new local SEO company the input they need to do a good job. Remember, any marketing campaign is only as good as the input received. Be patient, too. SEO in general takes months to move the needle and local SEO is no different.

That said, here are specific ways to find the best local SEO company for your business.

Google searches

You first want to create a list of companies to contact. And, using Google to make your list is a practical early step. Ironically, though, choosing a company that ranks highly in your area for local SEO services isn’t necessarily the best strategy. That’s because agencies that are busy with client work prioritize their own sites last. You shouldn’t necessarily discount top-ranking local SEO firms, but don’t immediately assume they’re the best, either.

Plus, like with any service, you can get recommendations by asking other successful local businesses what digital marketing firm they use, checking to see who has won relevant awards and so forth.

Online reviews

You can also check online reviews, although this should not be your stand-alone strategy, either, because it’s fairly easy for competitors to pay for reviews. Places to check are Google Reviews, Facebook and the like.

If an agency has a long list of negative reviews, this could very well be a warning flag. If there are some negative ones interspersed with mostly positive ones, then the real question to jot down to ask is how the agency handles negative reviews because you’ll want to make sure they have a solid plan in place if/when you get one.

Local SEO Case studies and testimonials

Once you have a list of local SEO agencies that interest you, check the websites of those companies to see what local SEO case studies and/or testimonials they include on their website. Most SEO agencies will have multiple case studies but how many are for local SEO? If they don’t list any, consider this a red flag. You can find our case studies here.

Conference call

Set up conference calls with potential SEO agencies that make your short list and, when you talk to each company, ask if local search is one of their specialties. Also ask them about their overall philosophy of local SEO. Some companies may claim to “do local SEO” because they create and optimize location pages on client websites. While that is a component of local SEO, it is just one step in a multi-pronged campaign.

The reality is that a digital marketing company can be quite proficient in organic SEO but not really know much about local SEO at all. And, although some ranking factors are the same between organic SEO and local SEO, there are numerous factors that are unique to local search, and you need and deserve a company that specializes in local.

When on a call with an agency, talk to them about your specific needs and pay attention to whether they clearly answer your questions or try to avoid answering. If they say they’ll get back to you with information, do they? When they said they would? And, here’s the real bottom line: Does what they say make sense?

After one round of calls, it will probably be pretty clear who the finalists are.

After your initial calls with potential local SEO companies, ask yourself, “What did I learn?”. A good agency will review your SEO and local SEO signals before you do business with them. If, though, the call was more salesy in nature, one where you learned more about the agency than about your own needs, then this is probably a bad sign.

Before you sign

When you find an SEO company that you like and trust, ask them for client references and then contact the references provided. If that process goes well, then it’s time to do a final clarification of what the agency will provide for you and at what cost (more about pricing soon) on what timeline. It isn’t reasonable to pin your local SEO agency down to the precise actions they will take, but it is reasonable to ask to understand the processes being undertaken.

Ask the agency how often they will hold conference calls with your company to discuss progress and answer questions. Ask who, specifically, you will have access to. Some companies bring out the big guns during sales calls and then assign your account to an inexperienced junior consultant. Also ask how often you will receive progress reports and what will be included in them: Rankings? Traffic? Broken down by location? What else? When you have a question in between meetings, how should that be handled? By email? What can you expect as a typical response time?

Question #8: How much should my company pay for local SEO?

Factors that affect pricing include the amount of citation management and local link building being done, and the number of business locations involved in the campaign. Overall, the average local SEO campaigns we build range from $1,500-$2,300 per month for one brick-and-mortar location. A typical breakdown looks something like this:

• Getting your business listed in the top 50 online directories is a core strategy for local SEO. For some industries, you may need up to 100 citations. The cost of managing citations ranges from $50-$150 a month.
• Another fundamental component of local SEO is quality link building, and this can cost $500-$1,500 monthly.
• If you have one website listing multiple business locations, there are efficiencies involved in the work being done and the associated pricing, but you should still budget $750-$1,500 per month per new location.

Simply finding out what local SEO costs is really only step one of the equation, though. What really matters is the amount of value delivered and your return on investment.

Question #9 Why should we choose DAGMAR Marketing for local SEO?

Local SEO is one of our core services, and we are known for consistently getting impressive results for our clients. In fact, we won a highly prestigious national award for local SEO.

Because Google is among a local business’s most important marketing channels, we will do the following in your local SEO campaign:

• conduct keyword research to strategically determine how people look for your business, and for the products and/or services you provide
• optimize your website to send appropriate local signals to Google and other search engines
• develop online citations and help ensure that accurate business information exists in online directories
• review promotion strategies for your business
• build quality local links to capitalize on your business relationships

SEO tactics come and go, and are continually evolving. So, instead of spending your budget chasing Google’s latest algorithm, we build your local SEO campaign on solid, time-tested marketing strategies. Our focus on the factors that truly matter helps to create local visibility that endures and positions you for natural rankings growth over time.

As proof, we invite you to look at what we did for Turner Pest Control. In one of the most competitive industries in Florida, the DAGMAR Marketing team helped Turner with significant business growth in multiple cities.

In their case, we discovered that previous SEO tactics had caused them to incur a Penguin penalty from Google, one that negatively impacted their rankings. We designed a penalty recovery program along with a customized pest control SEO program. Within three months, they witnessed significant traffic gains.

Whether you’re new to local SEO, have spent too much already without results, or just want to work with people you can trust to have your best business interests at the heart in all they do for you, we’d love to talk with you. And, whether or not you choose DAGMAR Marketing as your next local SEOagency, we hope this article can arm you with enough information so that you can make a sound choice.

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