https://youtu.be/W0byLxpUL40
In this video, Corey shares with you:
- [1:14] – How keyword searches have changed across the years and why it should concern you
- [2:50] – why business owners should shift focus on local SEO
- [4:51] – a nifty tool that will help you see how your local SEO ranks
- [6:59] – and how to get maximum placement on Google Local results organically (2 easy steps!)
FULL TRANSCRIPTION:
I wanted to take a few minutes to talk about Google Local.
Google Local is extremely important for trades businesses as the local results show up prominently at the top of search engines with eye-catching appeal and star ratings.
Inclusion in the Google Local map can earn you a ton of business.
So, I’m gonna show you a nifty new tool that I just found for checking your Google results.
Something that was previously impossible and kind of left this–dizzying array around Google Local results, explain how user results is changing regarding keywords and how people are using search and then also give you some pointers to get maximum placement in the Google Local results.
Now, if you’re not already a member of our Facebook group: Home Pro Sales and Marketing Lounge, head on over to Facebook.
Find a link around this video in the comments and the sidebar of the website, top of the website where this video is–linked to the Facebook group won’t be too far away.
We’ve got an awesome group.
Now over 600 members, I believe–600 and counting, all focused on sales and marketing of home service businesses.
So, if you’re not in there, go ahead and join the group and I’m gonna get into this right now.
Google Local SEO For Contractors
I’ve done a basic search for just the keyword “plumbers”.
When I say “for the keyword ‘plumbers’”, we’ll come back to that because keyword searches are changing as well but I type in “plumbers”, and here’s the results that someone sees and they’ve got the lead ads up top the home service–Google Home Service lead ads.
And then below that you’ve got your pay-per-click and then you’ve got the map and below that you’ve got your actual SEO results.
I’ve been talking a lot recently, both in podcasts and in my blog posts about how SEO is kind of on it’s way out.
It’s declining in value.
People are taking their searches off of Google and at the same time, just as you see here, these search results are gonna be pushed further down the page.
It used to be that when you, you know, do a search for “plumbers”, you would see the search results up here, and you’d have three ads and you’d still see the searches but we have to scroll down to see them.
And on mobile–that’s a long way.
People don’t get down that far and at the same time the map is more engaging and it’s showing the reviews.
So, it’s very important that you’re in the map and I say, if you’re trying to really grow your business, it’s important you’re up here in the paid advertisements as well occupying as much space because when you’ve got a good sales funnel and a good sales pipeline and a good conversion-optimized contractor website that you send them back to, you can run all these ads and you just want to get people on your website because you know that you’re going to convert them later on.
So, it’s a matter of as many people as you can get in to the funnel which is to your website, the more people you can convert later on down the road.
But for now, I wanted to go ahead and talk about the map.
And before we get in to that, I want to go back to the keyword because you noticed, I typed in “plumbers” and we got this result.
What a lot of old school SEO would do as well, they would search for like “plumbers Fort Myers”, the trade or service, and then the city.
This stuff is dwindling.
It’s declining.
These long-tail keywords that people really used to try to target and optimize their website for because the search engines show the localized results.
The stuff got popular in the late 2000’s and early 2010’s when you would type in “plumbers” and would show all kinds of results from all over the country and not local service providers since then Google, Bing, and other search engines have gotten smarter and they display it locally.
People no longer need to type in this and I search for just the keyword and this is noticeable trend on my website–going back to 2011, 2012 people type in our trade which was screen enclosures– I’ll just type in mind for…for the heck of it but they would type in screen enclosures Fort Myers, Naples, Cape Coral, etc., the cities–we had to be optimized for those keywords but as I’m saying, SEO value is declining here.
This stuff is going the way of the dinosaurs.
It doesn’t really exist anymore.
It doesn’t need to happen.
People know that they don’t need to type it in.
They rely on Google to pull them to local relevant results.
And there we are…
We’re the first organic underneath of a paid ad at this time.
We’re doing pretty good there.
So, here’s the thing.
Up until just recently, up until I found this little tool, you had no idea how well you are doing in these rankings.
The only thing you could do is just to drive around and you know, as you’re driving around searching for your keywords and seeing what you’re doing but that all changed with this tool that I found recently called Local Falcon.
Let me pull it up here and show you how it works.
It’s really nifty and it’s a good benchmark for tracking your local SEO because the game is you wanna get higher in these maps.
These maps are your SEO right now, these local rankings.
So, here it is.
Let me get it on the right monitor, that might help.
But here it is.
Here is the Local Falcon program.
It’s free and it’s got some paid upgrades.
You can see more of the air and you can see how it works.
You put in the business.
You put in the keyword and then it shows the results.
You can see right near them.
They’re doing quite well.
If it’s further away, they’re doing worse and worse.
And that’s typical.
But what you want to do as good as you can and local and get outward from your area as much as you can by optimizing your Google Local.
So, let’s just check it out here and see what it does for my business.
It’s kind of cheating because I already know but Gulf Coast Aluminum…there’s us!
Keyword is “screen enclosures”–that’s our main traffic driver.
Set it to a bigger grid as we can get for free for as far of a distance as we can so we’re covering at this point 25 square kilometers and we’ll do the search and you’ll see right there —
We’re basically dominating the local SEO.
Hopefully, all the way across the board…
There we go.
Across the board.
We’re dominating for our Estero location right there.
So, that’s very nifty.
It shows you exactly how well you’re doing.
Gives you a good place to benchmark your progress from and we’ll do the other one…where is it.
There it is.
Naples location.
Zoom out.
7th.
Right .
Right at the main office.
It’s a seven.
And everywhere around there were ones and twos so, we’re doing pretty good.
Doing pretty good on the local and this is a cool program.
I’m not affiliated with them in any way.
I just found them and I thought it was worth a share because everybody’s always trying to get up in the maps and the maps are incredibly valuable.
Now, on that note let’s talk about how to get your results up in the map.
No.1 is getting more reviews.
So, if we come back here, you’ll notice, number one, my company does have a ton of reviews out there.
Building reviews up and getting lots of them and frequently right so Google can easily measure the velocity.
I would say it’s important to have a consistent stream of reviews.
I would say that it would not be difficult for them and therefore it is likely that they’re doing you just spiked up your reviews one day and get ten of them from your friends and family and then you don’t get anymore, I’d say that that doesn’t weigh as strongly or as positively as having many reviews built up over several weeks or months in a steady velocity.
So, if you’re gonna spike up the rate of reviews you’re getting, you better be expected to, you better be able to continue that rate.
You want it to look natural.
Google’s all about natural organic, real, and delivering the highest quality content which is gonna be stuff that’s rated by real people to their users.
So, get those reviews on there.
Build them up.
Get all your customers to leave you reviews.
And then also, you have the Wall.
Now, if we navigate to our profile, you will see something that most service businesses aren’t using and that is the Google Local Wall which you see here and if we click it, we haven’t posted anything since June, 26, 2018.
And before that, 2017.
We should be doing that but I’ve been focusing most of my efforts on Facebook and kind of overlooked this.
And now, now that I’m making this video, I’m certainly going to move this up in priority–that said it’s been a low priority because we’re doing quite well in Google Local but if you’re not and you don’t have the number of customers that you need to get a ton of reviews really quickly and you’re trying to do everything that you can for free, certainly be utilizing your Google Wall, making regular content and informative-based publications on here and also, make sure that in the back end of your Google My Business which is where you make these wall posts, make sure you’re filling out all the information.
Admittedly, I’ve been quite weak on this but it is something that I should do to pick a little more business and ultimately pick up a little more boost in the map.
So, if you want to get to the maps, build up those reviews, and also, start using Google My Business to publish content.
I know we can get kind of frustrating and overwhelming but that’s the marketing world that we live in where it seems you’ve got to post here and post there.
In my case, I’ve lately just been focusing on Facebook we’re doing great there but that’s taken my attention away from Google.
So, I need to re-prioritize and certainly complete this information or not complete it but get routine and regular and updating it.
And if you’re trying to get new business and you don’t have a huge marketing budget, certainly making this routine and publishing this content on your Google Wall should be a priority.
It will boost you in maps.
So, that’s what we have on local SEO today and we got the Local Falcon program showing us where we ranked and them some tips and pointers.
Get those reviews.
Get that Google Wall.
You will see improved rankings in your local SEO.