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5 Google Places Tests I’d Love to See
I discover a lot about Google Places by wrestling with it all day, every day. But I’m also constantly scratching my head at questions—things that I just started wondering about based on observations,...
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12-Week Action Plan for Google Places Visibility
Unless you’re Arnold, furious bursts of action alone probably won’t get you very far. You need a plan for the action. This is especially important if you’re trying to get your business visible in...
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State of the Most-Important Local Search Sites (Mid-2013)
A lot has changed in the last few months in the world of local search. All of it affects your efforts to get visible to local customers. I’m not even talking about Google+ Local. Like Oprah’s weight,...
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Local Citation-Building Workflow (in a Nutshell)
A smart dude once said that “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” I have as many questions as anyone else about local citations, but I can explain in pretty simple...
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The Best [BLEEP]in’ Local Link Questionnaire
You need at least a few good links to rank well in Google Places and beyond. Especially post-Pigeon update, and especially if you’re in a competitive local market. But that’s easier said than done....
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Google Helpouts Didn’t Have Time to Bleed
Google Helpouts and Jesse Ventura’s character in Predator have much in common: They both showed early promise, but got killed off way too soon. Well, on second thought, I guess that’s all they have in...
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How to Use Wildcard Searches for Local Keyword-Research: Lightning Round with...
Two little characters – the asterisk ( * ) and the underscore ( _ ) can help your keyword-research. Simply add them to various search terms you type into Google when researching keywords, and...
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20 Local SEO Techniques You Overlooked (Almost)
We local-SEO geeks talk about the same old basic principles a little too much: clean up your citations, don’t get penalized by Google, be mobile-friendly, earn “local” links, create “unique” content,...
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Which Local Review Sites Are on Your Side?
Not all review sites play games with customers and business owners. In that way, Yelp and Google+ are outliers. Reviews there are important, of course. But if you run into difficulty getting reviews...
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Who Can Write You an Online Review – Besides Customers?
Tricky question. Let’s start with the obvious gold standard: your customers write openly about their experiences with you in online reviews, and you did such a good job for them that those reviews...
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Lipstick on a Pig: Google Places “Report a Problem” Requests Now Rejected...
A couple days ago, Colan of Imprezzio Marketing reported that the next-to-useless “Report a problem” feature in Google Places had been revamped. I was excited. After all, Google made it easier to...
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Pasting or Embedding Google Reviews on Your Site: Will They Get Filtered?
For a few years now, people like me have told clients and others that it’s probably not a good idea to copy their Google reviews and paste them onto their site as testimonials. The concern is that...
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Hauling in More Local Customers…Even When Your Wheels Are Spinning
That’s the name of the talk I gave at MN Search yesterday. I covered 25 quick wins for attracting more local customers when you don’t know what to do next. Some of my suggestions are for local...
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25 Principles of Building Effective City Pages for Local SEO
So you want to create “city pages” to attract local customers in places where you don’t have an office. How can you make those pages attract customers rather than repulse them, rank well in the...
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Best Search Operators for Digging up Duplicate Local Citations
To claim your seat at the Local Feast, your citations need to be more or less correct. But you can’t fix those listings if you can’t find them. Tools are unreliable. Even the excellent Moz Local...
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20+ Depressing Observations about Yelp Reviews
I’ve seen Yelp from many angles: as a local SEO-er, as a local-reviews madman, as a consumer, as a two-year “Elite” reviewer, as a concerned citizen, and as a business owner. That means I’ve got a...
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How to Change Your CitySearch Business Categories without Breaking a Sweat
The categories you pick for your non-Google local listings also matter. They influence your rankings within those sites, and seem to influence your Google Places rankings at least a little. I’ve...
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How to Know If Your Local Reviews Strategy Works
Your review count and average ratings are just the tip of the iceberg. Your business might have 200 reviews and a 5-star average and your review strategy could still be a flop. That’s because lots of...
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Updated for 2015: How to Write a Google Review of a Local Business
Google has changed the steps for writing a Google Plus review…again. Unlike 3 years ago, this time Google made the steps a little simpler for customers, clients, and patients. The new “Collections”...
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What If Yext Gobbles up More Local Directories?
Yext has formed tight partnerships with some notable directories in recent years: MapQuest, InsiderPages, and CitySearch, among other bigger sites (and some rinky-dink ones). The core feature of...
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