Local SEO Link Building Tactics

Whether you are a business owner looking to build your SEO capability for the first time, or someone who has been working on it for years, one of the first things that you should know is that links are one of the most important ranking factors for your website. This means that if you want your local business to rank higher in a Google search, you will need to build your backlinks. Before we get into how to do that, let’s go over some of the basics about link building.

Local Link Building Overview

So what does local link building entail? Building links on your local business website means to connect locally relevant or contextual links to your website. This helps to drive users and traffic to your website, helps your website rank better for local search engine searches, and ultimately help people find your website and services.

This may sound complicated, but the good news is that most local businesses don’t need a huge number of links to rank in local search. A quick look at the search engine results page (SERP) shows us that businesses that have more than 150 referring domains rarely pop up on the first page. So, how do we find the balance of too many and too few links?

Tips for Building Local Links

Building local links for your website can be done with some research, perseverance, dedication and a bit of good advice. Let’s go over a few tips that you can use to get started:

  1. Get links from other ranking sites
    Otherwise known as barnacle SEO, this technique is a great place to start. You’ll want to search for some terms relevant to your business in Google, make note of the sites that show up first, and then try and get links from those sites to yours. While you most likely won’t get links from any competitors that show up in the results, look for other aggregate or directory sites that you could list your business on. Since many people use these sites to search for new businesses, this is a great first step to boosting traffic on your website.
  2. Create locally relevant content
    The content on your website should be relevant, fresh, and attractive to your audience. You should spend some time researching topics that will be interesting to your target audience, and then creating and publishing content about those topics. Your content can be about anything that potential customers may be interested in, such as common pricing for the services you offer, tips and tricks, or interesting tidbits about the industry you are operating in.
  3. Get links your competitors have
    Your competitors are likely also working to improve their rankings, so it only makes sense to find out what links their websites have. By checking on tools like Link Intersect from Ahrefs, you can find relevant link opportunities that you can seek to gain for your site.
  4. Claim unlinked mentions
    An unlinked mention is when another website mentions your company or employees but doesn’t link these mentions back to your site. This happens commonly in businesses that get local news coverage such as law offices, community services, or even companies that participate in charity events. Finding these unlinked mentions and making sure they link to your site will help point people towards your site and business.
  5. Reclaim lost links
    Websites will change over time, and this can mean you will have links to pages that no longer exist. Make sure to redirect these old versions of your pages to more current versions so that you can recover the links and their value for your business.
  6. Add internal links
    Don’t underestimate the power of internal links – these are when you link one page on your website to another page also on your website. Try not to go overkill here, but definitely consider this to be a good opportunity to build your links.
  7. Get local citations
    There are plenty of citation services available that you can add your business information to, and you’ll want to seek them out as many of them feed data into other websites. Some great examples of these are Foursquare, Google Business, Bing, Yelp, Yellowpages, Facebook, and Apple Maps. Local ciations are also one of the powerful ways to increase your Google Business Profile rankings.
  8. Pursue other local link opportunities
    Think about any other websites that are focused in your area that you can build links with. There are plenty of opportunities that you can find with some diligent research and brainstorming. Some examples are: college and university websites, city websites, local news or media, local community groups such as Reddit or Facebook, local sponsorships, travel websites that focus on your area, or local business awards. Be sure to think about your specific local relationships and how you can get testimonials, case studies, or expert interviews about your business.
  9. Buy companies or websites
    This is more of a rare occurrence, but if you get the opportunity to make a merger or acquisition at the local level, you should consider taking it. If you are not in a position to buy an entire company, some companies sell their existing website or let their domain rental lapse. If you can acquire these domains, you will be the owner of two ranking sites that you can use to boost your links.

What now?

It’s tempting to go for flashy or complicated link building techniques right off the bat, but it’s important to start with the basics first. Start with the easy stuff to begin building your links, and then as your company grows you can move to the more creative techniques. If you need help getting started or moving to the next step, contact us to learn more about our SEO Victoria BC service.

Apple Maps To Expand For Local Businesses

Android or iPhone? Mac or PC? We all know there is a pretty strong divide between one side or the other. As a small business owner, this is something you should care about. If you have experience using a Google Business Profile to help people find your local business online, you may have considered how potential customers that use Apple Maps instead of Google Maps can find and read about your services too. The good news is that Apple finally has a solution: enter Apple Business Connect.

Apple Business Connect is a new and rebranded version of “Apple Maps Connect”, which was released a number of years ago and was a much more basic way to list your business on Apple Maps. If you are wondering if the new and improved Apple Business Connect is actually going to bring value to your customers and business, let’s go over some of the main features and potential benefits below.

Overview

According to Apple, Apple Business Connect is a way to “put your business on the map”. If this sounds like a classic Apple marketing line, it’s because it is. What that line really means is that this is a free tool that helps local businesses display their business information in customized formats across Apple devices and applications. This tool is very similar to the Google Business Profile, but for Apple Maps instead of Google Maps. This fact alone should intrigue many business owners right off the bat.

Features

Apple Business Connect has four key features I’d like to highlight:

  • Customizable place cards
    This feature allows you to display whatever information about your business that you deem to be most important for potential customers to know. You can use the app to easily add photos, logos, header images, opening hours, and more using a user-friendly interface. You can also quickly manage business information such as holiday hours and contact information right on the UI.
  • Call-to-action buttons
    Apple has a wide variety of call-to-action buttons that can be customized and set up on each Place Card. These include: appointment booking, OpenTable reservations, InstaCart ordering, call or live chat, hotel booking through Booking.com, ticket purchases, and much more.
  • Showcases
    If you are looking to make time sensitive announcements about changes to your business, sales, or special events, the showcase feature allows you to manage these announcements and easily display them to clients. This acts much like the Google Posts feature in the Google Business Profile, where posts appear attached to your business right in the app.
  • Insights
    This feature is something to be excited about – all business owners want as much data as possible on how their business is doing and how their clients are finding them. Apple Business Connect offers an impressive insights section that allows you to see what people searched before selecting your business name, as well as other data about your business Place Card. This feature is especially valuable as Google seems to be moving its own insights functionality in a different direction rather than developing it further.

Is ABC worth the time? 

While not technically a new product, Apple Business Connect has generated a lot of discussion in the local search/SEO community. A lot of people are showing a preference to the easy-to-use Apple UI over the sometimes more complex Google Business Profile UI. There is also a lot of excitement about the increased potential to reach customers across Apple devices without having to rely on them using Google services to search for local businesses.

If you still aren’t convinced about Apple Business Connect, at a minimum you should spend just a few minutes claiming your business and making sure your information is accurate. If you already used Apple Maps Connect, you’ll need to do a few updates. For those that have never used it, I would strongly recommend it! Not only is it free to use, but it’s essentially free advertising for your business on a very popular app.

If you’d like to take it a step further, you can work to optimize your Apple Business Connect listing. This is similar to how you would optimize your Google Business Profile, as many of the features are similar.

If neither option works for your schedule and you get a headache thinking about managing yet another platform, I can help.

Next Steps

The only essential takeaway from this blog is that your small business should be using Apple Business Connect, even if you simply claim your business, verify your info, and leave it at that. If you need help claiming your business and/or setting up your profile, reach out and we can get you set up right away.

If you can, begin giving your Apple Business Connect listing the same attention that you have been giving to your Google Business Profile – a key note here is to make sure the information is consistent across the two platforms. Read this post on how to rank your Google My Business page.

If you are looking to dig into this new tool further and use it to grow your business, this is an exciting time for you. Apple Maps is finally no longer a second-rate platform and we are seeing a much greater user uptake, so now is the time to understand how Apple prioritizes the Maps listings and how you can use that to your business’ advantage. It’s also worth noting that Apple has also developed an API functionality to manage multiple listings within Apple Maps (which is almost on par with the Google Business Profile equivalent), which is perfect for multi-location businesses. Apple has really designed an impressive tool which we should all view as the perfect complement to the longstanding Google Business Profile functionality.

The SEO community has a lot to learn about Apple Business Connect, which means that lots of new info will be coming. I’ll be staying up to date on any new developments, tips, and tricks, and will be sure to share with you. In the meantime, if you are updating your Apple Business Connect profile and want to spend some time working on optimizing your Google Business Profile too, let’s chat about reviewing your current listings and finding ways to further get your business out there.

Five Ways To Improve GMB Ranking

five-ways-to-improve-your

*Updated May 3rd 2022

I’ve already written about how to optimize your Google My Business listing. And how to get reviews for it.

But recently I’ve been asked a lot by local business owners about how to improve their Google My Business rankings in 2019. Once you have optimized your Google My Business listing, it comes down to five things which I am about to explain.

#1 – Business Listings

Getting ranked high within Google My Business comes down to Google verifying that your business is real. It does this by determining how often your business name, address and phone number (NAP) is cited or listed on the internet. It’s the exact same as how backlinks act for search engine optimization. The more you have, usually the better your search rankings will be.

The easiest way to get cited or listed is to submit your business to local and national business directories. Our Google My Business package includes listing your business in the top 50 directories you are not listed in.

#2 – Consistent NAP

The way your business NAP (name, address and phone number) is listed in these directories, on your websites contact page and within the Google My Business listing must be consistent and up to date. Here’s how to ensure your business NAP is consistent across the web. Google website crawlers will get confused should you have a different NAP listed on various business directories.

To make sure your NAP is consistent, do a search for your business. Click to see what every listing of it looks like. If the information is incorrect on a website, contact them and have it changed. This is something a few of our clients have had to do as they’ve changed addresses or phone numbers. Using the best local SEO software out there, we can track our clients business listings to see their NAP.

Here’s a look at one of our clients with a very solid NAP score.

google-my-business-nap-score

Here is a potential lead that has a very poor NAP score.

google-my-business-poor-nap-score

#3 – NAP On Website

You will also need to list your business name address and phone number on your website. I’ve read other SEO companies say it’s good to have it in the footer or header of your website so it shows on every page. If you can do this, then go head as it’s good for the user experience. I’ve found that it’s fine to have the name, address and phone number listed on the contact page. Bonus points if you do so using the Schema markup.

Here’s an example of our NAP on the contact page.

nap-on-contact-page

Got all this so far? Great! There is one more thing that should be on your contact page.

#4 – Embedded Google Map

If you go to our contact page, you’ll see an embedded Google map. It’s good practice to have your businesses Google My Business listing embedded on your contact page. This way Google can be certain you are located at the address you have listed by confirming that with your Places listing.

Embedding is easy. Simply search your business name while in Google Maps. Once you have found it click on three lines beside your business name in the search bar on the top left. Then you can click on “Share or Embed Map”.

local-seo-consultant

Once that is selected, click the embed map option at the top of the pop up box. Then copy the iframe code and paste it into your contact page.

The last and most important factor to improving the ranking of your Google My Business listing is coming up next.

#5 – Reviews

You need to get everyone to review your page. This blog post and this blog post cover two easy ways to get more Google reviews.

Think about it. If Google sees a page with 20 or more reviews, won’t it want to show that page in the mapped listings over a page that doesn’t have any reviews?

This falls in line with Google’s approach to search. Providing the searcher with the most relevant search result and business.

Reviews must have overall positive sentiments. They are important local SEO ranking factors to influence your local rankings. Additionally, the below infographic shows some important factors to consider:

Local SEO Ranking Factor

Evaluate Rankings

Once you have changed what is above and still notice your rankings are low, then you might need to have your business cited more. You can do this two ways.

  1. Find out where those competitors who rank higher than you are cited. Do a search for their business and if they come up in a directory, find out if your business is listed there. If it’s not, add it.
  2. Take advantage of our Google My Business package and the citation building service within it.

Much like SEO, Google uses business citations as a means to provide their searchers with the most relevant businesses within the Google Places rankings. Follow the instructions I have laid out in this post and watch your rankings improve. If you need help with your rankings, visit our Google My Business packages page for different packages and services aimed at improving your rankings.

6 Best SEO Tools For Bloggers In 2022

best-seo-tools-2022

Using Advanced technology, competitors in tech blogging have already stepped up their game in increasing their website trafficking.

So, are you the one whose website has not ranked high even after so many efforts? Here, in this article, you’ll learn about the 6 Best SEO tools for Bloggers in 2022 to help your webpage rank higher easily.
When everyone is trying to grow in Blogging and digital marketing, competition is relatively high. And, to stay in the competition, there are many SEO tools to help you in this regard.

They provide you with content optimization and increase organic traffic on your website.
Continue reading to know why you need an SEO tool? And what are some of the Best SEO tools that will change your game?

What Is An SEO Tool – Why Do You Need It?
SEO tool analyzes how well the content is and improves your visibility to increase traffic to your website.
Plus, it provides information about new and trending keywords to get a higher ranking on any Search Engine. Moreover, it also helps with backlinking, which naturally brings more traffic to your site.

Scroll Down to discover some of the best SEO tools that raise your game in today’s massive competition.

Some Other Essential SEO Tools For Bloggers
Apart from standard SEO tools, some other important and must-have tools that make your Blog Posts competent and visible on search engines are:

  • check-plagiarism.com The most important aspect of any blog post or web content is it should be Unique and plagiarism free. Duplication is not accepted anywhere. It decreases the quality of content if it has similarities.With Check Plagiarism Online, you can scan your document through billions of web pages within no time. In Addition, it is completely safe and secure and can allow up to 5 docx, txt, pdf Files at a time.
  • editpad.org It helps to write text, grammar checking and much more. And it helps writers and Bloggers to paraphrase and rewrite the sentences to avoid similarities.It shows word count as well as character count. It helps convert difficult text into plain text.

6 Best SEO Tools For Bloggers to Rank High on SERPs

So, here is a list of SEO tools you need to look up for!

  1. Growth Bar growthbarWho doesn’t want to do multiple tasks under a single tab? Growth Bar is one of the smartest SEO tools that allow bloggers to create content, find keywords, track backlinks and do a lot more in just a single tool.It is an Open AI-generated model with advanced GPT-3 AI technologies. It directs millions of related keywords, competitor analysis, word counts, link counts, and keyword tracking.
    Key Features

    • Keyword suggestions, Keyword tracking for Google and Facebook Ads
    • Generate AI Content
    • Enables AI Blogging
    • Competitive Research for Backlinks and other Metrics
    • Allows Google Chrome Extension
    • Provide word count, difficulty score, and a lot more

    Pricing
    You can get a 5-day free trial before paying Subscription. Bloggers enjoy the Growth Bar SEO tool the most because of its affordability and efficiency. It is available for just $29/ month.

  2. Yoast yoast-seoYoast is one of the most popular and comprehensive SEO Plug-in on word press. It enables bloggers to generate optimized content that is perfect for Google search.Moreover, it’s a free plug-in with millions of downloading and a 5-star rating, proving that it is doubtlessly the best SEO Tool for you.
    Key features

    • Improves delivery by structuring the paragraph
    • Engage people with better readability
    • Keep a check on Keyword density
    • Checks plagiarism
    • Give you a preview of your webpage for a better understanding
    • Provides social media optimization
    • Backlink tracking

    Pricing
    The good news is, Yoast SEO Plug-in is free to use. Hence, you can opt for a Yoast premium version for better functions. It will cost you around $90/ year

  3. Ahrefs a-hrefsAnd when it comes to the 6 Best SEO tools for bloggers in 2022, Ahrefs is the one you should consider. It’s a versatile tool that improves your ranking on search engines.Ahrefs is primarily used for URL rankings, keyword tracking, backlink audits, and competitive research. It provides a strategy to increase your visibility and boost keyword rankings.
    Key features

    • Shows ranking history of for any keyword
    • Backlinks audit
    • Guest link and internal links tracker
    • Site explorer
    • Content generator

    Pricing
    It allows you a 7-day trial for $7, and then you can go for an advance subscription with prices ranging from $99 to $999

  4. SEMrush SEMrush has knocked down its competitors because of its excellent UI (User Interface). Subscribers easily use this tool for comparisons and Top Rankings.
    So Far, SEMrush is likely to be the leading SEO tool for generating blog posts. Hence, Blogger’s favorite tool to work on it.It catches more organic traffic through site Audits, backlink tracking, keyword research, and competitor analysis. It not only helps you evaluate your data but competitors’ content as well.
    Key features

    • Organic keyword researches
    • Content optimization
    • Competitive research of Ads and products
    • On-page SEO

    Pricing
    With different categories, Semrush varies in price. It starts at $99/ month if you go for a pro plan. And if you opt for a Guru plan or business plan, it ranges from $199 to $399.

  5. Moz Pro Moz pro is another widely used SEO tool. It provides various features that help users find related keywords, competitive analysis, and site audits.Plus, it builds a strategy that increases traffic to a website. Using Moz Pro, you can stay updated with what your competitors are doing. It recommends improvements to your blog posts and site content to stay visible on search engines.
    It provides standard metrics, allowing Google SERP, Moz score, and optimization suggestions.
    Key features

    • Keyword research
    • Content and site explorer
    • Backlink tracking
    • Competitive analysis

    Pricing
    It offers a free 30-days trial. Further, you can avail Subscription of $9/month.

  6. Mangoolsmangools (KWFinder)
  7. Talking about the 6 Best SEO tools for Bloggers in 2022, KWFinder by Mangools will remain the leading SEO tool in providing related and trending Keywords. Thus, it improves the optimization of your Content on Search Engines.

    Long-tail Keywords are termed Gold in the world of SEO. Digital marketers, Bloggers, and content creators understand the importance of Long tail keywords. Similarly, KWFinder knows it too.
    It searches for the best long-tail keyword for its user. Moreover, it analyses Competitor’s keywords as well. That will automatically bring the website to Top rankings and generates more organic traffic.

    Key features

    • Suggest Long-tail keywords
    • Improves Local keywords
    • Provides SERP analysis
    • Track competitors keywords
    • Provides top-notch keywords for better optimization

    Pricing

    It offers a 48-hours money-back guarantee. Its prices are $29/month for basic, $39/month for premium, and $79/month for an agency.

    Wrap Up On 6 Best SEO Tools For Bloggers In 2022

    Today, when most people are working online, marketing and business have been globalized to a great extent.
    Blogging, digital marketing, and owning an online business need unique and competent SEO content that increases natural traffic on your web page. To build organic traffic on your website, you need SEO tools.

    We tried to bring up some of the Top-notch SEO tools for you. They will help you in the long term. Happy Blogging to you!

Google Ads & SEO Are A Deadly Duo

google ads and seo are a dealy combo

If you are wanting to improve your SEO rankings but aren’t sold on Google Ads, I want you to rethink that. The are a couple of reasons why, which I’ll explain in a bit. Read on to find out what those are.

I’ve already talked about how long it can take to increase SEO rankings. Depending on a few factors, it’s going to take an SEO company time and patience to do the job properly so that a website sticks highly on the first page. There will be money spent and it will take some time to see some organic traffic visit the website.

For many business and website owners, that’s a tough pill to swallow. That’s why I’ve always said SEO is a long term investment as you won’t have to keep paying for SEO services and subsequent organic traffic after the rankings stick. But this is also the reason why people aren’t sold on Google Ads and having to continuously pay for traffic.

Let me introduce you to a deadliest tag team in online marketing.

Google Ads and SEO

I would like to propose an idea, and that is to invest in both Google Ads and SEO at the same time. This will increase the monthly budget but it’s worth it. Here’s why.

While the SEO campaign is working away in the background and your search rankings are improving, driving traffic to your website will help the SEO company and it will also help the business owner.

Here’s how it helps the SEO company:

Show Me The Data!

This will give the SEO company very sound data on what keywords are generating the most amount of engagement on the website. Whether that’s simply average time spent on website or goal conversions, the data will help the SEO company make any tweaks to the keywords being targeted.

Here’s how it helps the business owner:

Offsetting Costs

The business owner will be able to generate leads from the Google Ads campaign. Then hopefully close some sales to offset the cost of both the Google Ads spend and the SEO services. This will cost more than just running an SEO company but it’s money well spent for both parties.

It’s hard for many business owners to shell out money on SEO as it’s a process that might not see much in the way of results, traffic and leads. But as I explained above, it can a great option to also invest in a Google Ads campaign.

Fill out our discovery form if you are interested in this approach or using either of our SEO or Google Ads management services.