May 8, 2025 • 22 mins
Why Local SEO Builds Your Community Connection
We’re diving into what is local SEO, sharing how to shine in searches like “repair shop in [your city].” Learn to craft a Google Business Profile that shines, weave local flavor into your website, and join community directories. Perfect for small business owners, these ideas will help you become a local mainstay, attracting neighbors to your door. Key Episode Takeaways:
- Local SEO focuses on searches like “florist near me,” linking you with nearby customers.
- A Google Business Profile (GBP) lays the groundwork for Google Maps and local visibility.
- Add local keywords and community details to your GBP to capture local searches.
- Connect your website to your GBP with local terms and schema.
- List on Yelp, Apple Maps, and local directories to strengthen your community presence.
Discover how to grow your local roots with local SEO at https://luminatelocal.com/what-is-local-seo/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:19):
Hey there and welcome back to the show.
This is Lumine Local and I'm your host Jesse Dolan.
Been helping small businesses and local businesses succeed with SEO for decades now.
And today's episode is a big one, especially if you're a business owner trying to attractmore customers in your city, your town, your neighborhood, your backyard, locally is where
(00:40):
we're going with this.
because we're diving into local SEO.
What is it?
Why it matters?
How to get your business showing up where it should, which is right in front of your localaudience.
Because if you ever searched for something like plumber near me, coffee shop in blank,your city, things like that, you've seen local SEO in action, you've done it yourself, and
(01:05):
you want to be found for the same thing.
If your business isn't showing up,
in those kinds of search results, you're missing opportunities for sure.
So let's go ahead and fix that, or at least bring you through some steps here today.
That'll get you on that journey.
So if you're a local business owner, marketing manager, web master, somebody who is incharge of getting your website and your business entity found online, especially for local
(01:33):
searches, then this episode is completely and entirely for you.
You built something great.
You're serving your community, serving your neighborhood, but your business isn't showingup when people are searching nearby for the products and services that you have to offer.
That's a problem.
So externally on the outside world, maybe you're not appearing in local searches, right?
(01:59):
Even though you have these products and these services, just like some of your competitorsthat are being found online, if there's, you know, let's just say there's no difference
between you and them.
But they're getting found and they're getting those local leads, especially in Googlemaps.
Um, this is something that you're going to want to get fixed for yourself and for yourbusiness and address.
(02:19):
A local search is huge, whether it be something like near me, right.
Or local or a search with the name of your city.
local SEO is a big part of SEO in general.
So I'm gonna start there real quick just to break it down.
So SEO search engine optimization, right?
We're all familiar with what that is.
(02:40):
Uh, but when we hear the phrase local SEO, just a small little nuance here, what doesthat, what does that mean?
Well, the way I like to present it up is that SEO is really about making sure that yourbusiness, your website, your entity is found.
Let's just say for the, keywords, right?
The products, the services, the keywords that you want to be ranking for, that you want tobe found for.
Local SEO is just a little tweak on that.
(03:02):
just means that you want to be found locally for a particular geographic area, yourneighborhood, your backyard, your Metro, your city, your town, et cetera, your state even
maybe.
And so if we take SEO and we just get a subset of being found locally, that's what we'retalking about.
So again, it's usually a keyword plus a near me type search or the keyword plus the cityplus the town plus the neighborhood, whatever it is.
(03:28):
It's being found for SEO that incorporates the product and service and the geographicreference when being searched.
Okay.
So that is local SEO.
um If you're not targeting that, if you're not playing the game that way, then you'regoing to feel stuck.
You know, there's more business out there.
You just need to be visible and people are searching.
(03:50):
And let's be honest, it shouldn't be.
super hard, right?
If you're banging your head against the wall, how do I get found online?
How do I show up in the map pack?
There's some things, some specific things that you need to do.
And that's exactly what's local SEO is going to help you execute, accomplish, andultimately get found for, right?
(04:13):
So I know it can be frustrating.
There's a lot of moving parts.
There are a lot of different things to do to set this up.
It's a said earlier, I've been doing this for decades with businesses and helped hundredsof businesses do this in addition to my own businesses.
So very well versed in the nuance for local SEO.
And the good news for you is it's something that you can also learn and implementyourself.
(04:37):
I'm here to guide you through those.
uh going to go over some highlights here today.
Hopefully you're prepared to take some notes, maybe some action items, things like that.
But we're going to share some tips and tricks on.
You know, what is local SEO?
Why is it important and why it matters to you and what you need to do to get found locallyin your area.
So let's break this down into some practical and clear action items for you.
(05:02):
So first we're going to talk about understanding the difference between SEO and local SEO.
Traditional SEO focuses on those broader searches.
Like I said, local SEO is geo focused.
Now a lot of people may not realize that Google uses
multiple uh points, if you will here, right?
Or multiple search engines, I should say, when it's showing you the results on the searchengine result page.
(05:28):
The map pack, if we're all familiar with this, when you do a, let's just say a Googlesearch, right?
For something near me or something local, you're going to see the map listing and thenmaybe three, maybe five businesses, it depends on where you're at for your geographic
market and what you're searching for.
uh
But you're going to see that, that map pack with those results.
And then you're going to see the traditional uh search engine results, right?
(05:52):
All the different web pages underneath that.
So there's actually two different brains, two different, two different algorithms, twodifferent search engines within Google that handle that.
One is the maps search and one is just the traditional Google search.
When we do a search on google.com and it's for a local search, Google will combine thosetwo search engines, those two algorithms, those two functions and
(06:14):
Show you that on one SERP one search engine results page.
That's what that acronym stands for.
Um, with that map pack and then the traditional web links under that.
So the first thing we're going to talk about here is getting found and getting set up inthat map pack.
Before I do that, uh, I do want to talk about reviews, which ironically enough, once youget set up in your Google business profile, you're to be able to get reviews.
(06:41):
Uh, but what I'm talking here is reviews for.
This show, Luminate Local.
Getting reviews is a huge part of us knowing that we're on the right track.
It's your way to tell us that you like what we're doing, that you support us and that youappreciate it.
We love the feedback.
read them all internally and really do value them.
(07:01):
And then we also will read them on the show here to give you a shout out and to share thepraise with everybody else.
If you'd like to leave us a review going out to illuminatelocal.com, we would reallyappreciate it.
Just scroll down, click the button for reviews.
You can read a bunch of reviews yourself.
And more importantly, you can find buttons to leave us a review on whatever portal youchoose, be it Facebook, podcasts, Google, things like that.
(07:23):
We'd love to hear from you.
And again, we'll read them on the show.
This one here I have today is a five star review from Google for Sandra Meyer.
She says it was complete.
I'm sorry.
She says I was completely impressed with his professionalism and customer service.
Talking about me, I took an SEO webinar workshop.
He followed up and gave me more tools to work with.
(07:47):
So yeah, I remember talking with Santa trading some emails.
I was great.
She was on a webinar that we did about local SEO.
Very similar to topic that we're talking here today, actually.
And yeah, that's what we do is whether it be webinars, podcasts, YouTube like this.
Uh, we love teaching, love showing and enabling business owners, marketing managers.
to do this kind of local SEO stuff.
So if you think that any other episodes that you've listened to here, been beneficial toyou, or if you're, you're vibing on this one and you like it, we'd love for you to go on
(08:13):
out to our website, leave us review and yeah, close the loop on that for us.
All right.
So getting back into it here, let's talk about setting up your GBP and how to show up inthat map pack, because for local SEO, it's a must that we have to be showing up in that
map pack, particularly for Google here in this example.
(08:34):
If you don't have a GBP, I'd say not to be dramatic, but stop everything right now and goclaim it.
We'll be covering that in another episode.
So if you don't know how to do that, I'll just touch on it real quick.
You can just simply do a Google search for Google business profile.
Just go to Google, type that in.
It'll bring you to the spot in Google to set that up completely free.
(08:55):
It's one of the most powerful tools you can do for your local visibility.
Okay.
Just not to, not to hype it up too much, but that is the case.
It's completely free.
It's put out by Google.
for you to show up in Google, right?
You're gonna wanna do this.
So follow the steps.
You have to verify your business.
Again, I'm not gonna do a deep dive into that here today, ah but get it verified.
They make you verify.
(09:16):
So, you not every Tom, Dick and Harry can go out there and set this up and just spam thesystem.
So you have to prove your legitimate business.
And once you do that, you're gonna wanna fully set up and optimize your profile.
Take advantage of everything that they have, fill it out, upload photos, list yourservices, your hours, your business categories.
You can write a description, which is very important for getting your keywords in thingslike that.
(09:37):
This is very important for Google.
um This information decides who appears in those map results, right?
There's other things as well to really leverage your map listing once you get it set up.
But first things first, you're not going to show up in that map pack if you don't have aGoogle business profile listing.
do that.
Okay.
Next, as part of the optimization and setup for your GBP.
(10:01):
is to link your website to your GBP.
And actually, let me go back real quick.
We talk about setting up your GBP and optimizing it.
um Let's just talk about as an example, but you're wanna apply this thought and process toyour entire GBP listings when you're listing your products and your services and those
descriptions.
(10:22):
But for your business description, you're gonna wanna make sure you use your local SEOkeywords, right?
Hopefully you've done some keyword research, you know what you want to be showing up for,you know, if you're looking to be found for red balloons, make sure you're talking about
red balloons in your Google business profile description.
Additionally, let's make it local.
(10:42):
Let's talk about the cities, the counties, the neighborhoods, whatever it is you're tryingto serve and be found for.
Make sure you're mentioning those geographic references also in your descriptions for yourGBP.
Okay.
Now another spot getting back to it is.
to link your website to your GBP.
There will be a field on your GBP setup for you to list your website.
(11:04):
And this will allow people when they click on your GBP listing to then see your website,click on it and visit your website, which is great for human behaviors.
But also what this does is it kind of cements into Google that like, this is my business.
Here's my name, my address, my phone number, my descriptions, my product, my services,photos.
You get reviews, which is all another topic, right?
(11:25):
But you get reviews ability.
Once you set up your GBP, that's where you your Google reviews.
But then you also say, this is my website.
And now, like I mentioned earlier, there's those two different systems within Google.
There's the map search and then the traditional website search.
Once you set up your GBP and you list your website, you're kind of cementing the fact toGoogle, like this is me, this is my GBP profile, and this is my website.
(11:48):
And you're kind of connecting, right?
Both of these things together.
And what's good for the goose is going to be good for the gander here.
So set up your GBP, link your website.
And then we want to turn our attention to optimizing uh your website.
So whether it be your homepage or maybe there's a local landing page, whatever it isyou're putting into that GBP for your website link, we're to want to make sure we optimize
(12:11):
that page.
You do want to apply just to be clear.
You want to apply local SEO to your web content in general.
But for this episode here today and what we're diving into, talking, uh we're talkingspecifically about the page that you've linked to.
from your Google business profile, okay?
So if you serve multiple cities, uh consider having uh those listed on there, right?
(12:34):
Do you wanna make sure you are declaring what your service area is?
You wanna be talking about the towns, the neighborhoods, the cities, the names of thosethat you're trying to be found for, in addition to making sure that those core products
and services are mentioned as well.
But again, just like your descriptions for your GBPs that I mentioned earlier, use thekeywords.
(12:56):
for the products and services also use the keywords for those geographic, those georeferences.
And don't be afraid to be super granular.
there's, if you're in a neighborhood that's larger and it's very, uh maybe it's not theactual name of the city, but it's a district or a neighborhood within there.
If people are familiar with that and it's, it's popular and searching for it, you can usethat in addition to actual proper city names, county names, zip codes.
(13:20):
There's a lot of ways you can drive geographic references.
If you're unsure.
of what to do there, always check Google, right?
If you know the keyword you're trying to rank for and you're not ranking for it, do aGoogle search for it.
Find out what those top competitors are doing.
See what kind of content they're listing on those pages that are linked to the GBPs.
Just do some reverse engineering there and that can help you out.
(13:42):
uh Also, this is where schema markup can potentially help you out.
What schema is, which is again, another topic.
I'm not gonna deep dive on it here today.
But that's coding that you can list on your web pages that help Google search engines andother bots and AI agents know what this page is about.
In addition to whatever we human beings would see on the front of that, if you will, thatthe page that we're So Schema is a way to just kind of ensure that some of this
(14:11):
information is relayed to any of the bots.
Again, what's your address?
What's your geo coordinates?
Things like that.
Take advantage of that on these pages as well.
And really this is all going to tell Google
Um, where you are, where you operate, what you have to offer, things like that.
That's what really kind of pulls all this in together.
And if you can update your website in this way and set up your GBP in this way, uh, thosetwo together again, is going to be a little bit of a symbiotic relationship.
(14:42):
you'll find that if you're optimizing your website properly, your GBP ranking will bumpup.
And you'll also find that if your GBP becomes dominant, your website rankings will bumpup.
And that's going to be a great mix for you.
If we talk about local SEO specifically within Google, the, the Holy grail, the thing thatwe're looking for is to show up in the map pack and also be at the top of the natural
(15:03):
website rankings right underneath that map pack from a psychological standpoint as a, asan end user.
If I'm doing a search for something and I see, you know, your business listed in that mappack and I see your business listed below it in the search engine results.
That just tells me that your dominant you're probably going to get my click and probablygoing to get my business.
So we want to optimize and focus on both ends of that spectrum for your GDP listing andyour website.
(15:30):
Now we're talking local SEO.
A lot of that conversation there was dominated by references to Google.
But local SEO is not just Google.
It's a big part of it, but it's not just Google.
We also want to make sure we're listed in really anything else that's locally focused.
I'm going to give a few examples, but there's probably more beyond this.
(15:50):
And it really just is going to depend on your industry or geographic location.
What's, what's available to you, but things like Apple maps, right?
People are searching and Apple maps all day long, specifically, you know, from mobiledevices.
So, I think 80 plus percent of all searches, if I remember correctly, um, currently aredone on mobile devices.
(16:11):
Right?
So Apple maps is pretty key.
Bing places being found in Bing Yelp.
Uh, local chamber of commerce, know, any of these other directories or portals that mayapply to your business.
Um, if there are like Yelp is a good example.
If there are websites and directories that not only will show up in Google and in search,but also act as their own search engines.
(16:34):
Like if I'm going to go out to eat in the city that I'm not familiar with, I might pull upYelp, right?
I'm not going to go to Google and look for, you know, barbecue near me.
I might go to Yelp and look for the best barbecue restaurants.
Well, Yelp is.
kind of its own search engine in that way too, right?
So you wanna be listed in these things, you wanna be optimized within those things as welluh for the broader exposure in search, but then also within those portals themselves.
(16:58):
uh Every quality listing that you get in these, going back to Google, uh is a trust signalto Google and expands your local footprint.
So if you're in Apple Maps, if you're in Bing, if you're in Yelp, if you're in your localchamber commerce,
If you're in all of these areas locally, Google and all the other bots will see that andthat really helps elevate you overall, right?
(17:20):
So again, a very symbiotic relationship here in local SEO if you're hitting on allcylinders.
So that's kind of a 20,000 foot overview of local SEO, what it is, some of the keycomponents and some of the key areas to focus on.
Now, if you've done all that or you're doing all that,
(17:41):
What you're to want to circle back to at the end is tracking your results and stayingconsistent.
You're to want to use tools to track your rankings in local search and in Google Maps.
uh Do searches yourself.
There's products out there that can give you kind of a rough idea of how you're ranking indifferent uh areas around town.
Check your Google Analytics within your Google business profile.
(18:04):
There are called uh insights where it'll show you.
various stats like how many people have viewed your Google business profile, how many haveclicked to call on your phone number, how many have clicked to visit your website.
If you're the type of business where people can navigate to you and drive to you, how manytimes have they clicked to use directions, things like that.
So you're going to want to track these results, look at the analytics, see if it's workingand just like everything with an SEO, do more of what works.
(18:32):
And if something's not working, you know, go back to the drum board, fix it and try again.
Great part about digital marketing is we can track all of this and see if and when it isworking, right?
So pay attention to the traffic and Google analytics, pay attention to your Googlebusiness profile.
uh Google search console, GSC is another great one to understand how you're showing up inGoogle search results.
(18:53):
And then whatever analytics are available to you on any given platform like Yelp, payattention to those as well.
Okay.
So if you're not sure where you're at, just to kind of get a baseline.
Um, or maybe you make these changes and you want to reevaluate where you're at.
Uh, a great tool that we have to offer for free is our SEO audit.
If you go on out to illuminatelocal.com, look for the yellow button at the top, or you canfind it in the footer as well.
(19:19):
Free SEO audit.
gives you a score of your page against whatever keyword you're trying to optimize and rankfor.
And it's going to give you the highlights of where your site stands in terms of local SEOfactors, like the GBP, the local directories, content, things like that.
And also show you where some holes are show you what's good, you know, just again good badand ugly It's fast.
(19:41):
It's free use it over and over and it gives you a pretty good punch list for your yourclear Directions on what your next steps are again, just head over to illuminate local
comm look for the free SEO audit button and leverage that So if you don't take local SEOseriously, that's okay.
You're just not gonna get those benefits, right?
(20:04):
Local search happening all the time.
If you're not showing up on that map pack, you're not showing up on that SERP, the resultspage.
Um, you know, nothing will really change for you, which maybe that's okay.
But if you are looking to drive success and get more leads locally in your own backyardand not have that business go to your competitors who are showing up in search, um, make
(20:24):
sure you take action on these items here.
If you do take action, you're going to show up.
You're going to get more local traffic.
Um, you're going to.
be able to get reviews, right?
Which is a big trust thing for people.
You're going to show that you're a five star business and hopefully dozens or hundreds ofpeople have patronized you and agree.
That's great for the signals to us human beings for trust to click on you in the firstplace or to call you in the first place.
(20:49):
But then also those are little mini testimonials that you can use in your marketing.
There's just a lot of great things that come with being dominant and showing up in localsearch.
You can become the go-to business in your area, right?
Um, earn that brand recognition.
get more referrals, you know, people say, just down the road, you got to go visit thisplace.
They do A, B and C, you know, really that's the power of local SEO.
(21:10):
It's not just showing up and getting found, but becoming a great local business and beingfound everywhere, physically, digitally, you know, through the, the telephone chain of, of
local neighbors and things like that too.
So hopefully that helps everybody out.
I think that's a wrap for today's episode.
We covered what local SEO is.
(21:32):
Slight tweak on how it's different from just broad and traditional SEO, some steps totake, why it matters for small businesses, especially for local businesses.
And, uh, yeah, I think that should get you off on a good start.
If you've got a question, maybe you want to dive deeper into any of the topics here forlocal SEO.
Maybe if you've got something else that's kind of been stuck in your cropper a little bit,we'd love to hear your question and answer it on the show.
(21:58):
Big part of what we do go to illuminatelocal.com, scroll down to the bottom, click thebutton for submitting a question.
Give us your question, let us know what you're thinking, what you want to have answered.
If you've got that question, I'm sure there's a bunch of other people that would love tohear about it as well.
And if we use your question, we're gonna send you out a free illuminate local swag bagwith some goodies.
And that's got some fun stuff in there.
(22:19):
So.
Yeah, check us out.
Luminatelocal.com.
Submit your question or again, if you want to leave us a review, let us know if we'redoing a good job.
We would appreciate that as well and appreciate you all for tuning in.
We'll catch you on the next episode.
Take care.
Hey there and welcome back to the show.
This is Lumine Local and I'm your host Jesse Dolan.
Been helping small businesses and local businesses succeed with SEO for decades now.
And today's episode is a big one, especially if you're a business owner trying to attractmore customers in your city, your town, your neighborhood, your backyard, locally is where
(00:40):
we're going with this.
because we're diving into local SEO.
What is it?
Why it matters?
How to get your business showing up where it should, which is right in front of your localaudience.
Because if you ever searched for something like plumber near me, coffee shop in blank,your city, things like that, you've seen local SEO in action, you've done it yourself, and
(01:05):
you want to be found for the same thing.
If your business isn't showing up,
in those kinds of search results, you're missing opportunities for sure.
So let's go ahead and fix that, or at least bring you through some steps here today.
That'll get you on that journey.
So if you're a local business owner, marketing manager, web master, somebody who is incharge of getting your website and your business entity found online, especially for local
(01:33):
searches, then this episode is completely and entirely for you.
You built something great.
You're serving your community, serving your neighborhood, but your business isn't showingup when people are searching nearby for the products and services that you have to offer.
That's a problem.
So externally on the outside world, maybe you're not appearing in local searches, right?
(01:59):
Even though you have these products and these services, just like some of your competitorsthat are being found online, if there's, you know, let's just say there's no difference
between you and them.
But they're getting found and they're getting those local leads, especially in Googlemaps.
Um, this is something that you're going to want to get fixed for yourself and for yourbusiness and address.
(02:19):
A local search is huge, whether it be something like near me, right.
Or local or a search with the name of your city.
local SEO is a big part of SEO in general.
So I'm gonna start there real quick just to break it down.
So SEO search engine optimization, right?
We're all familiar with what that is.
(02:40):
Uh, but when we hear the phrase local SEO, just a small little nuance here, what doesthat, what does that mean?
Well, the way I like to present it up is that SEO is really about making sure that yourbusiness, your website, your entity is found.
Let's just say for the, keywords, right?
The products, the services, the keywords that you want to be ranking for, that you want tobe found for.
Local SEO is just a little tweak on that.
(03:02):
just means that you want to be found locally for a particular geographic area, yourneighborhood, your backyard, your Metro, your city, your town, et cetera, your state even
maybe.
And so if we take SEO and we just get a subset of being found locally, that's what we'retalking about.
So again, it's usually a keyword plus a near me type search or the keyword plus the cityplus the town plus the neighborhood, whatever it is.
(03:28):
It's being found for SEO that incorporates the product and service and the geographicreference when being searched.
Okay.
So that is local SEO.
um If you're not targeting that, if you're not playing the game that way, then you'regoing to feel stuck.
You know, there's more business out there.
You just need to be visible and people are searching.
(03:50):
And let's be honest, it shouldn't be.
super hard, right?
If you're banging your head against the wall, how do I get found online?
How do I show up in the map pack?
There's some things, some specific things that you need to do.
And that's exactly what's local SEO is going to help you execute, accomplish, andultimately get found for, right?
(04:13):
So I know it can be frustrating.
There's a lot of moving parts.
There are a lot of different things to do to set this up.
It's a said earlier, I've been doing this for decades with businesses and helped hundredsof businesses do this in addition to my own businesses.
So very well versed in the nuance for local SEO.
And the good news for you is it's something that you can also learn and implementyourself.
(04:37):
I'm here to guide you through those.
uh going to go over some highlights here today.
Hopefully you're prepared to take some notes, maybe some action items, things like that.
But we're going to share some tips and tricks on.
You know, what is local SEO?
Why is it important and why it matters to you and what you need to do to get found locallyin your area.
So let's break this down into some practical and clear action items for you.
(05:02):
So first we're going to talk about understanding the difference between SEO and local SEO.
Traditional SEO focuses on those broader searches.
Like I said, local SEO is geo focused.
Now a lot of people may not realize that Google uses
multiple uh points, if you will here, right?
Or multiple search engines, I should say, when it's showing you the results on the searchengine result page.
(05:28):
The map pack, if we're all familiar with this, when you do a, let's just say a Googlesearch, right?
For something near me or something local, you're going to see the map listing and thenmaybe three, maybe five businesses, it depends on where you're at for your geographic
market and what you're searching for.
uh
But you're going to see that, that map pack with those results.
And then you're going to see the traditional uh search engine results, right?
(05:52):
All the different web pages underneath that.
So there's actually two different brains, two different, two different algorithms, twodifferent search engines within Google that handle that.
One is the maps search and one is just the traditional Google search.
When we do a search on google.com and it's for a local search, Google will combine thosetwo search engines, those two algorithms, those two functions and
(06:14):
Show you that on one SERP one search engine results page.
That's what that acronym stands for.
Um, with that map pack and then the traditional web links under that.
So the first thing we're going to talk about here is getting found and getting set up inthat map pack.
Before I do that, uh, I do want to talk about reviews, which ironically enough, once youget set up in your Google business profile, you're to be able to get reviews.
(06:41):
Uh, but what I'm talking here is reviews for.
This show, Luminate Local.
Getting reviews is a huge part of us knowing that we're on the right track.
It's your way to tell us that you like what we're doing, that you support us and that youappreciate it.
We love the feedback.
read them all internally and really do value them.
(07:01):
And then we also will read them on the show here to give you a shout out and to share thepraise with everybody else.
If you'd like to leave us a review going out to illuminatelocal.com, we would reallyappreciate it.
Just scroll down, click the button for reviews.
You can read a bunch of reviews yourself.
And more importantly, you can find buttons to leave us a review on whatever portal youchoose, be it Facebook, podcasts, Google, things like that.
(07:23):
We'd love to hear from you.
And again, we'll read them on the show.
This one here I have today is a five star review from Google for Sandra Meyer.
She says it was complete.
I'm sorry.
She says I was completely impressed with his professionalism and customer service.
Talking about me, I took an SEO webinar workshop.
He followed up and gave me more tools to work with.
(07:47):
So yeah, I remember talking with Santa trading some emails.
I was great.
She was on a webinar that we did about local SEO.
Very similar to topic that we're talking here today, actually.
And yeah, that's what we do is whether it be webinars, podcasts, YouTube like this.
Uh, we love teaching, love showing and enabling business owners, marketing managers.
to do this kind of local SEO stuff.
So if you think that any other episodes that you've listened to here, been beneficial toyou, or if you're, you're vibing on this one and you like it, we'd love for you to go on
(08:13):
out to our website, leave us review and yeah, close the loop on that for us.
All right.
So getting back into it here, let's talk about setting up your GBP and how to show up inthat map pack, because for local SEO, it's a must that we have to be showing up in that
map pack, particularly for Google here in this example.
(08:34):
If you don't have a GBP, I'd say not to be dramatic, but stop everything right now and goclaim it.
We'll be covering that in another episode.
So if you don't know how to do that, I'll just touch on it real quick.
You can just simply do a Google search for Google business profile.
Just go to Google, type that in.
It'll bring you to the spot in Google to set that up completely free.
(08:55):
It's one of the most powerful tools you can do for your local visibility.
Okay.
Just not to, not to hype it up too much, but that is the case.
It's completely free.
It's put out by Google.
for you to show up in Google, right?
You're gonna wanna do this.
So follow the steps.
You have to verify your business.
Again, I'm not gonna do a deep dive into that here today, ah but get it verified.
They make you verify.
(09:16):
So, you not every Tom, Dick and Harry can go out there and set this up and just spam thesystem.
So you have to prove your legitimate business.
And once you do that, you're gonna wanna fully set up and optimize your profile.
Take advantage of everything that they have, fill it out, upload photos, list yourservices, your hours, your business categories.
You can write a description, which is very important for getting your keywords in thingslike that.
(09:37):
This is very important for Google.
um This information decides who appears in those map results, right?
There's other things as well to really leverage your map listing once you get it set up.
But first things first, you're not going to show up in that map pack if you don't have aGoogle business profile listing.
do that.
Okay.
Next, as part of the optimization and setup for your GBP.
(10:01):
is to link your website to your GBP.
And actually, let me go back real quick.
We talk about setting up your GBP and optimizing it.
um Let's just talk about as an example, but you're wanna apply this thought and process toyour entire GBP listings when you're listing your products and your services and those
descriptions.
(10:22):
But for your business description, you're gonna wanna make sure you use your local SEOkeywords, right?
Hopefully you've done some keyword research, you know what you want to be showing up for,you know, if you're looking to be found for red balloons, make sure you're talking about
red balloons in your Google business profile description.
Additionally, let's make it local.
(10:42):
Let's talk about the cities, the counties, the neighborhoods, whatever it is you're tryingto serve and be found for.
Make sure you're mentioning those geographic references also in your descriptions for yourGBP.
Okay.
Now another spot getting back to it is.
to link your website to your GBP.
There will be a field on your GBP setup for you to list your website.
(11:04):
And this will allow people when they click on your GBP listing to then see your website,click on it and visit your website, which is great for human behaviors.
But also what this does is it kind of cements into Google that like, this is my business.
Here's my name, my address, my phone number, my descriptions, my product, my services,photos.
You get reviews, which is all another topic, right?
(11:25):
But you get reviews ability.
Once you set up your GBP, that's where you your Google reviews.
But then you also say, this is my website.
And now, like I mentioned earlier, there's those two different systems within Google.
There's the map search and then the traditional website search.
Once you set up your GBP and you list your website, you're kind of cementing the fact toGoogle, like this is me, this is my GBP profile, and this is my website.
(11:48):
And you're kind of connecting, right?
Both of these things together.
And what's good for the goose is going to be good for the gander here.
So set up your GBP, link your website.
And then we want to turn our attention to optimizing uh your website.
So whether it be your homepage or maybe there's a local landing page, whatever it isyou're putting into that GBP for your website link, we're to want to make sure we optimize
(12:11):
that page.
You do want to apply just to be clear.
You want to apply local SEO to your web content in general.
But for this episode here today and what we're diving into, talking, uh we're talkingspecifically about the page that you've linked to.
from your Google business profile, okay?
So if you serve multiple cities, uh consider having uh those listed on there, right?
(12:34):
Do you wanna make sure you are declaring what your service area is?
You wanna be talking about the towns, the neighborhoods, the cities, the names of thosethat you're trying to be found for, in addition to making sure that those core products
and services are mentioned as well.
But again, just like your descriptions for your GBPs that I mentioned earlier, use thekeywords.
(12:56):
for the products and services also use the keywords for those geographic, those georeferences.
And don't be afraid to be super granular.
there's, if you're in a neighborhood that's larger and it's very, uh maybe it's not theactual name of the city, but it's a district or a neighborhood within there.
If people are familiar with that and it's, it's popular and searching for it, you can usethat in addition to actual proper city names, county names, zip codes.
(13:20):
There's a lot of ways you can drive geographic references.
If you're unsure.
of what to do there, always check Google, right?
If you know the keyword you're trying to rank for and you're not ranking for it, do aGoogle search for it.
Find out what those top competitors are doing.
See what kind of content they're listing on those pages that are linked to the GBPs.
Just do some reverse engineering there and that can help you out.
(13:42):
uh Also, this is where schema markup can potentially help you out.
What schema is, which is again, another topic.
I'm not gonna deep dive on it here today.
But that's coding that you can list on your web pages that help Google search engines andother bots and AI agents know what this page is about.
In addition to whatever we human beings would see on the front of that, if you will, thatthe page that we're So Schema is a way to just kind of ensure that some of this
(14:11):
information is relayed to any of the bots.
Again, what's your address?
What's your geo coordinates?
Things like that.
Take advantage of that on these pages as well.
And really this is all going to tell Google
Um, where you are, where you operate, what you have to offer, things like that.
That's what really kind of pulls all this in together.
And if you can update your website in this way and set up your GBP in this way, uh, thosetwo together again, is going to be a little bit of a symbiotic relationship.
(14:42):
you'll find that if you're optimizing your website properly, your GBP ranking will bumpup.
And you'll also find that if your GBP becomes dominant, your website rankings will bumpup.
And that's going to be a great mix for you.
If we talk about local SEO specifically within Google, the, the Holy grail, the thing thatwe're looking for is to show up in the map pack and also be at the top of the natural
(15:03):
website rankings right underneath that map pack from a psychological standpoint as a, asan end user.
If I'm doing a search for something and I see, you know, your business listed in that mappack and I see your business listed below it in the search engine results.
That just tells me that your dominant you're probably going to get my click and probablygoing to get my business.
So we want to optimize and focus on both ends of that spectrum for your GDP listing andyour website.
(15:30):
Now we're talking local SEO.
A lot of that conversation there was dominated by references to Google.
But local SEO is not just Google.
It's a big part of it, but it's not just Google.
We also want to make sure we're listed in really anything else that's locally focused.
I'm going to give a few examples, but there's probably more beyond this.
(15:50):
And it really just is going to depend on your industry or geographic location.
What's, what's available to you, but things like Apple maps, right?
People are searching and Apple maps all day long, specifically, you know, from mobiledevices.
So, I think 80 plus percent of all searches, if I remember correctly, um, currently aredone on mobile devices.
(16:11):
Right?
So Apple maps is pretty key.
Bing places being found in Bing Yelp.
Uh, local chamber of commerce, know, any of these other directories or portals that mayapply to your business.
Um, if there are like Yelp is a good example.
If there are websites and directories that not only will show up in Google and in search,but also act as their own search engines.
(16:34):
Like if I'm going to go out to eat in the city that I'm not familiar with, I might pull upYelp, right?
I'm not going to go to Google and look for, you know, barbecue near me.
I might go to Yelp and look for the best barbecue restaurants.
Well, Yelp is.
kind of its own search engine in that way too, right?
So you wanna be listed in these things, you wanna be optimized within those things as welluh for the broader exposure in search, but then also within those portals themselves.
(16:58):
uh Every quality listing that you get in these, going back to Google, uh is a trust signalto Google and expands your local footprint.
So if you're in Apple Maps, if you're in Bing, if you're in Yelp, if you're in your localchamber commerce,
If you're in all of these areas locally, Google and all the other bots will see that andthat really helps elevate you overall, right?
(17:20):
So again, a very symbiotic relationship here in local SEO if you're hitting on allcylinders.
So that's kind of a 20,000 foot overview of local SEO, what it is, some of the keycomponents and some of the key areas to focus on.
Now, if you've done all that or you're doing all that,
(17:41):
What you're to want to circle back to at the end is tracking your results and stayingconsistent.
You're to want to use tools to track your rankings in local search and in Google Maps.
uh Do searches yourself.
There's products out there that can give you kind of a rough idea of how you're ranking indifferent uh areas around town.
Check your Google Analytics within your Google business profile.
(18:04):
There are called uh insights where it'll show you.
various stats like how many people have viewed your Google business profile, how many haveclicked to call on your phone number, how many have clicked to visit your website.
If you're the type of business where people can navigate to you and drive to you, how manytimes have they clicked to use directions, things like that.
So you're going to want to track these results, look at the analytics, see if it's workingand just like everything with an SEO, do more of what works.
(18:32):
And if something's not working, you know, go back to the drum board, fix it and try again.
Great part about digital marketing is we can track all of this and see if and when it isworking, right?
So pay attention to the traffic and Google analytics, pay attention to your Googlebusiness profile.
uh Google search console, GSC is another great one to understand how you're showing up inGoogle search results.
(18:53):
And then whatever analytics are available to you on any given platform like Yelp, payattention to those as well.
Okay.
So if you're not sure where you're at, just to kind of get a baseline.
Um, or maybe you make these changes and you want to reevaluate where you're at.
Uh, a great tool that we have to offer for free is our SEO audit.
If you go on out to illuminatelocal.com, look for the yellow button at the top, or you canfind it in the footer as well.
(19:19):
Free SEO audit.
gives you a score of your page against whatever keyword you're trying to optimize and rankfor.
And it's going to give you the highlights of where your site stands in terms of local SEOfactors, like the GBP, the local directories, content, things like that.
And also show you where some holes are show you what's good, you know, just again good badand ugly It's fast.
(19:41):
It's free use it over and over and it gives you a pretty good punch list for your yourclear Directions on what your next steps are again, just head over to illuminate local
comm look for the free SEO audit button and leverage that So if you don't take local SEOseriously, that's okay.
You're just not gonna get those benefits, right?
(20:04):
Local search happening all the time.
If you're not showing up on that map pack, you're not showing up on that SERP, the resultspage.
Um, you know, nothing will really change for you, which maybe that's okay.
But if you are looking to drive success and get more leads locally in your own backyardand not have that business go to your competitors who are showing up in search, um, make
(20:24):
sure you take action on these items here.
If you do take action, you're going to show up.
You're going to get more local traffic.
Um, you're going to.
be able to get reviews, right?
Which is a big trust thing for people.
You're going to show that you're a five star business and hopefully dozens or hundreds ofpeople have patronized you and agree.
That's great for the signals to us human beings for trust to click on you in the firstplace or to call you in the first place.
(20:49):
But then also those are little mini testimonials that you can use in your marketing.
There's just a lot of great things that come with being dominant and showing up in localsearch.
You can become the go-to business in your area, right?
Um, earn that brand recognition.
get more referrals, you know, people say, just down the road, you got to go visit thisplace.
They do A, B and C, you know, really that's the power of local SEO.
(21:10):
It's not just showing up and getting found, but becoming a great local business and beingfound everywhere, physically, digitally, you know, through the, the telephone chain of, of
local neighbors and things like that too.
So hopefully that helps everybody out.
I think that's a wrap for today's episode.
We covered what local SEO is.
(21:32):
Slight tweak on how it's different from just broad and traditional SEO, some steps totake, why it matters for small businesses, especially for local businesses.
And, uh, yeah, I think that should get you off on a good start.
If you've got a question, maybe you want to dive deeper into any of the topics here forlocal SEO.
Maybe if you've got something else that's kind of been stuck in your cropper a little bit,we'd love to hear your question and answer it on the show.
(21:58):
Big part of what we do go to illuminatelocal.com, scroll down to the bottom, click thebutton for submitting a question.
Give us your question, let us know what you're thinking, what you want to have answered.
If you've got that question, I'm sure there's a bunch of other people that would love tohear about it as well.
And if we use your question, we're gonna send you out a free illuminate local swag bagwith some goodies.
And that's got some fun stuff in there.
(22:19):
So.
Yeah, check us out.
Luminatelocal.com.
Submit your question or again, if you want to leave us a review, let us know if we'redoing a good job.
We would appreciate that as well and appreciate you all for tuning in.
We'll catch you on the next episode.
Take care.
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