How To Dominate Google Local Search: In 8 Easy Steps

By Alistair Dodds

Do you run a small business? Do you want more local customers and client prospects to find you on Google? Do you want to appear at the top of Google results when they’re researching for a product or service solution you offer? If so, this book is for you.

You’ll learn the simple step by step process award winning Digital Marketing Agencies use so their clients can appear in Google Local pack results; those 3 listings that appear on a map in Google search results when you search for something that includes a location, for example, “London plumber”. Those positions garner over 55% of all the search traffic and they’re free!

First, you’ll learn how to set up and optimise your Google My Business listing so it out performs your competitors. Next, you’ll master what you need to optimise on your own website, so it tells the right story to Google. Then you’ll see why citations are so important and the best sources to start registering with. We’ll then explore how to build high quality, local and industry relevant backlinks to your website so Google’s algorithm places trust in your content.

Finally, we’ll look at why customer reviews are so important and how you should handle them, how to use social media to send the right signals to Google, and how to bring all these factors together to create a highly successful campaign.

This is the same strategy my Digital Marketing Agency Smoking Chili Media employs to such great effect for our clients. It's part of the reason we've been nominated for best in search at industry awards and why so many of them are happy to leave us glowing reviews and testimonials.

So, whether you have one hour a day or one per week to spare, the sooner you start implementing this plan, the more effective your results will be.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Alistair Dodds
• Release date: Sep 6, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463651704

Alistair Dodds

Fresh faced and straight out of Uni, Alistair started his working life answering phones, sorting the mail and being the office dogsbody for a large international marketing agency in London. Not content being chief gofer, Alistair was quickly moved into the production department and began his fast rise through the world of online marketing working on client projects for Cisco, Sony and Cap Gemini to name but a few. From there, Alistair jumped into the world of internet start ups in early 2000, where he taught himself SEO techniques before there was really a word for such work. Engaged in the highly competitive world of online gaming, Alistair also developed a plethora of Gorilla marketing techniques to help set his clients apart. Along the way he also directed and honed PPC campaigns, onsite optimisation testing, copywriting and email marketing campaigns before diving headlong into the world of social media when the first fledgling platforms came along. Today he heads up the Smoking Chili Media Digital Marketing team, directing our content marketing strategies and implementation for our client base. If there’s an online marketing technique out there that he’s not at least studied, scrutinised, tested and ruminated on, then he’d be very surprised and would love to learn of it. For he is nothing if not thorough when keeping abreast of the latest industry news and techniques. In older times I guess you would call him a bookworm...alas a boring title that doesn’t do justice to his dynamic and creative mind! As we speak, Alistair will be off compiling strategies for digital marketing campaigns and working hard on getting our clients to the top Google ranking positions and building engaged and active social media audiences!

Book preview

How To Dominate Google Local Search -

In 8 Easy Steps

By Alistair Dodds

Smoking Chili Media

Copyright 6 August 2018

Published on Smashwords

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Google My Business Optimisation

Local Pack Ranking Signals

How to Dominate Local Google Search Summary

About the Author

Introduction

If you run a local business and want to receive local search related traffic from Google, then a Google My Business listing is essential. Having such a listing is one of the most important routes for local customers and prospects to discover your shop and service offering online. It's the map part of a local Google search where a company’s address and review rating is shown on the Google map.

And yet so many business owners seem to neglect this vital marketing opportunity. If you've not yet registered for a Google My Business listing or have not fully optimised it, then this guide is for you. We'll take you step by step through the setup process so you can be found by more potential local customers, increase your sales and ultimately lead a happier, less stressful life!

Quick Stats:

• Google accounts for over 70% of all internet searches (to date in 2018).

• Google handles 1.2 trillion searches per year globally.

• 52.2% of searches are on mobile phones (that's people out and about who could well be looking for a local business or service near them).

• 1st, 2nd and 3rd place results receive between 55% to 60% of all the traffic.

• According to this Google research paper, 50% of consumers visit a shop within 1 day of finding them in search on their mobile.

With these figures in mind, it is therefore essential that local businesses claim the prominent top 3 positions that Google My Business often provides in local search results. So how do you go about doing it?

Well the starting point is to fully optimise your Google My Business listing. Once you've done that however, don't stop there as there are many other factors involved.

The last industry survey on local search ranking factors (which gets updated about every 2 years) placed Google My Business as the most important factor followed by links from other websites to your website, citations, on page optimisation, customer reviews and more. You can see the full breakdown in the pie chart below.

In the first part of this guide we're just going to focus on getting your Google My Business fully optimised. In the second part of the guide we'll investigate how you go about obtaining citations, relevant backlinks and the rest of the ranking factors. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

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Chapter 1

Google My Business Optimisation

First let's start with a quick overview of the initial 12 steps involved in optimising your Google My Business listing.

Claim your business listing:

1. Register with Google: Visit https://www.google.com/business/

2. Business Name: Use your exact business name. Do not add keywords to your name (you will be penalised later if you do).

For example, Good = My Company Ltd. Bad = My Company Ltd London Cheap Dentist.

3. Address: State your full address. It’s vitally important that use the same Business Name, Address and Phone Number (NAP) when registering elsewhere on the web. We’ll talk more on this later but for now, just be aware that you want to be registering a settled and consistent Name, Address and Phone number (NAP).

4.