Earlier this month, marketers from around the world participated in the latest LocalU virtual conference hosted by Local University.
Workshop topics are filled with local marketing tips from top experts, from dealing with fake reviews to SEO predictions and more.
Attendees engaged in lively discussions on Twitter during each session, highlighting the speakers’ most useful and practical tips.
Below are the main takeaways from each speaker and their respective sessions.
1. Write for Clients First, Write for Google Second
Charlie Hunt, ProofContent
Image source: LocalU.org“If you’re just writing content for Google’s algorithm (rather than writing content for users in the first place), you’re going to get knocked out of rankings.”
Local identifiers are included based on what the client has searched for. Whether it’s a neighborhood, county, city, etc.
Create a dedicated page for your customers’ top FAQs. This alleviates the need to answer these questions again and again.
Identify your Unique Selling Point (USP). If you’re not sure what these are, talk to your client to help identify them.
Image credit: Twitter.com, screenshot taken by author April 20222. Dispute 1 inappropriate comment equals 11 positive comments
Image source: LocalU.orgCurtis Boyd, Transparent Company
It pays to dispute fake reviews. Illegal reviews are bad for ratings, which is proven to hurt revenue.
Removing legitimate negative reviews is not the goal. Acquired reviews are good; purchased reviews are not. Silencing real customers is bad or illegal. That’s not its purpose.
Your boss shouldn’t ask you to review a company unless it’s on Glassdoor. The most common types of fake reviews come from vendors, business owners, existing employees, dishonest customers, and 3rd parties and review clusters.
Dispute fake reviews on mobile and desktop. There is data showing that comments are fake, and the success rate of being deleted is about 380 times.
If you encounter clusters of negative reviews, it’s best to use the GBP Help Forum to work with Google Product Specialists.
3. Work smarter with the useful Google Data Studio
Image source: LocalU.orgAmanda Jordan, Shaky Rue
With GDS, you can spend less time viewing data. You can create local SEO reports that are digestible not only for you but also for your clients. There are many templates for you to plug and play your data.
“Use Data Studio to find and categorize keywords and find new ways to leverage the data they provide.”
GDS has many free connectors to help integrate your data, such as Google Analytics, BigQuery, Google Sheets, Search Console, and more.
Additionally, there are free tool connectors for GDS, including Ahrefs, ContentKing, DeepCrawl, SEMRush, and more.
Use data controls in Data Studio. They allow you to manipulate data by date, visitor type, device type, and more.
4. Strategically combat your spam
Image source: LocalU.orgJoey Hawkins, Pure Sky
The percentage of fake listings varies by industry. Garage door repairs, garbage trucks, and personal injury are the industries with the most fake listings.
“87.6% of garage door repair listings are spam. It’s very damaging to brands, and why fighting spam can help legitimate brands.”
Fighting spam is not a long-term strategy, but you should strive to pursue it. Spam can always come back, and Google doesn’t always enforce all of their guidelines.
If there are duplicate lists, don’t delete one. Consolidating lists can actually help them rank.
If your industry has a moderate number of spam lists, it may be worth your time to report.
5. We only buy from people we know, like and trust
Image source: LocalU.orgMatthew Hunter, Automated Wolf
Use LinkedIn as a trusted source, not a stranger. Relationships are built in comments, not posts.
It took 7 hours for 11 different interactions in 4 different locations to earn users’ trust in order to create opportunities to work with and sell to them.
Leverage LinkedIn for short content that users can discover. Then, create long-form content where there is some kind of interaction (course, webinar, etc.). From there, create a community of trust so users keep coming back to you.
Make sure you have a profile, not just a company page. Create a compelling personal headline that showcases who you are and what you do.
The winning formula for a personal title: role + expertise + value.
6. Content without data leads to bad results
Image source: LocalU.orgNoah Learner, two October
Build your content based on customer goals, collect data, clean it, and create topics based on that data.
Sell what is most profitable for you. Make sure to ask your clients what their biggest earners are during your onboarding process.
It’s hard for Google to know what to show, which is why it’s important to make your content clear at a glance.
There is a big difference between search trends from Google SERP auto-suggestions and Google Trends. Auto-suggestions are personalized, trends are not.
7. Proximity updates are more important
Image source: LocalU.orgYan Gilbert and Coran Nelson, Sterling Sky
The closer you are to a business listing, the higher the chances of the listing ranking.
Due to the variety of map packs, the nearby update allows for more business listings to rank.
Keywords with no position are affected the most.
Keywords in your business name are no longer as straightforward as they used to be.don’t use keywords
Image source: LocalU.orgPadding as a strategy. Google is trying to balance the spam pound while allowing real businesses to rank.
The most important action items in the nearby update are:
- Focus on explicit keywords
- Create more sterling real estate
- Use ads to retarget in areas where you’re losing rankings or traction
- Pursue a wider variety of keywords to minimize damage
Image credit: Twitter.com, screenshot taken by author April 20228. SEO Predictions Can Help Answer Stakeholders’ Key Business Questions
Image source: LocalU.orgAndrew Shotland, The Local SEO Guide
The key questions stakeholders want to answer are:
- How much can I get out of it?
- how much time is required?
- What is the ROI?
SEO forecasts need to take into account the uniqueness and goals of an individual business. Do more than make predictions using your own experience and your own data.
Sometimes accurate forecasts don’t matter, as long as the expectations you set are realistic. Don’t mistakenly exaggerate forecasts in order to look good and get budget approval.
A good scientific method is the RICE score. (reach x affects x confidence)/effort = RICE score.
However, a good RICE score probably won’t bring in a lot of revenue, even if it’s easy to implement. Determine what is more important: high income or high RICE score?
9. You are obligated to ensure that your review is authentic
Image source: LocalU.orgMike Blumenthal, Near Media
The business is responsible for reviewing how the platform works, as well as the conduct of SEO and reputation management firms.
The new FTC commercial marketing guidelines include:
- No censorship gate
- No selective review shows
- Positive and negative reviews must be treated equally
- Incentives must be clear
Censorship bans don’t work. Customers can see the difference between your website and Google reviews.
You don’t have to post objectionable or inappropriate comment content. Make sure you post a clear TOS on your website, explain the FTC guidelines, and post everything that complies with those guidelines.
generalize
LocalU virtual workshops are very focused on real-world updates that impact businesses, as well as content tips that can help anyone with a brick and mortar business or listing.
If you want more details about the conference, be sure to join the #LocalU conversation on Twitter and connect with the speakers.You can also buy instant access from local universities here.
At the end of the meeting, local universities announced the resumption of in-person activities. They will be hosting LocalU Advanced on July 28th in Denver, Colorado. If you are interested in attending, be sure to keep up with your local university for more information.
Featured image: MaDedee/Shutterstock
