Local SEO

Suds and Search 40 | David Mihm, Founder of Tidings

November 19, 2020 Mark Bealin Digital Marketing, Local SEO, Suds and Search

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My guest on this episode of Suds & Search is David Mihm. David is the founder of Tidings, a software product that automatically generates perfectly-branded email newsletters for small businesses.

For over a decade, David has been one of the leading voices on Local SEO. He founded GetListed in 2009 during the early days of Local SEO. GetListed was acquired by Moz, and David took a role at Moz as their Director of Local Search Strategy.

Over the years, David has been featured in blogs on pretty much every major SEO publication including GatherUp, BrighLocal, Moz, and Street Fight Mag.

He currently serves on the faculty at LocalU. He appears pretty every local SEO conference and on tons of podcasts and webinars.

I heard David present at Whitespark’s Local Search Summit a few weeks before he came on the show. I started our conversation by asking him about his presentation titled, “Email: Your Marketing Lifeline During COVID-19 (and Beyond).” It’s interesting to hear him talk about the ways that COVID has disrupted digital marketing and how email marketing has gained greater exposure.

We also talked about Local SEO. David published the original Local Search Ranking factors study way back in 2008, and a few years ago when he left Moz, he handed the study over to Darren Shaw of Whitespark. I asked him about the importance of reviews, how to set up a good Local SEO foundation and the ways the industry has changed, but also remained the same over the years.

Grab a beer and join me for a conversation with David Mihm. We talk about email marketing for small businesses, Local SEO best practices, and his efforts to remain a scratch golfer during the global pandemic.

Signals that influence Local SEO: Google My Business

November 10, 2020 Greg Gifford Google My Business, Local Search Tuesdays, Local SEO

In this week’s episode, I finish my series on signals that influence Local SEO with a segment on Google My Business. Arguably the most important element in your Local SEO strategy, Google My Business is often overlooked by local businesses. Watch and learn which elements have the most influence over your visibility in searches, and learn how to optimize the most important elements.

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What to do if you’re affected by new COVID restrictions

November 3, 2020 Greg Gifford Digital Marketing, Local Search Tuesdays, Local SEO, PPC Advertising

In this week’s episode, we talk about what you should do if your business is affected by the new round of COVID lockdowns. As the virus is surging in many areas across the country, many areas are increasing restrictions and returning to strict lockdowns. We’re heading into the holiday season, so it’s more important than ever to maintain your visibility online, so we share a few quick tips to ensure your business will be visible and attract customers.

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Greg’s Local SEO Presentation from PubCon

October 20, 2020 Greg Gifford Local Search Tuesdays, Local SEO

This week’s episode is another long one – but it’s packed with awesome Local SEO tips! I wanted to share my presentation from PubCon last week – one of the industry’s oldest and largest digital marketing conferences. I share lots of up to date tips to help gain more visibility in local searches and explain several of the recent COVID-related updates to Google My Business – you definitely don’t want to miss it!

Suds and Search 32 | Jason Brown, GMB Spam Fighter and Google Gold Product Expert

September 24, 2020 Mark Bealin Google My Business, Local SEO, Suds and Search

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My guest on this episode of Suds & Search is Jason Brown, an expert Local SEO, and Google My Business Gold Level Product Expert. Jason has a wide breadth of SEO knowledge but what he really loves to do is fight spam.

Spam has been a major issue in SEO from the very beginning. Over the course of my thirteen-year career, Google has cleaned up many of the most common tactics but local businesses still grapple with an astonishing level of spam especially in the map pack.

Spam fighters like Jason Brown act as consumer vigilantes fighting spam on behalf of legitimate local businesses. I start our conversation by asking Jason about the different ways that spammers are attempting to take advantage of vulnerabilities in Google’s local algorithm.

In many cases, this activity isn’t merely a matter of bad customer experience; it’s actually fraudulent. We talk about why Google hasn’t been able to do more to fight spam and how other third-parties like the better business bureau are involved.

Jason presents at numerous industry conferences including LocalU, Local Search Summit, and Pubcon. He is a columnist for SEMrush and regularly appears in BrightLocal webinars. He is a sought after subject matter expert for national and local news pieces on local spam. If you like this interview, I highly recommend that you follow Jason on Twitter.

Grab a beer and join me for a conversation with one of the top Local spam fighters in the world. We’ll talk about why local Spam is so prevalent, how small businesses can fight back, and the time he found a lawyer who had a listing in the middle of the ocean.