SearchLab’s Local SEO Blog

Knowledge bombs to help you learn more about Local Search

Suds & Search 26 | Niki Mosier, Head of SEO at Two Octobers

August 13, 2020 Mark Bealin Best Practices, Digital Marketing, Local SEO, Suds and Search

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My guest today is Niki Mosier, Head of SEO at Two Octobers. She’s a well known local SEO, a must-follow on Twitter, and a popular presenter. She has presented at SMX West, WordCamp, Optimisey and she’ll be speaking at Brighton later this year.

A few years ago, Local SEO legend Mike Blumenthal coined the phrase, “Google as your new home page.” The idea is that Google is showing so much information in knowledge panels and other special features that searchers no longer need to go to your website to find out everything. In fact, Google probably has some better information than a small business website.

How to respond to bad reviews from people who weren’t customers

August 11, 2020 Greg Gifford Google My Business, Local Search Tuesdays, Local SEO

In this week’s video, I talk about responding to reviews from people who weren’t customers – whether it’s a misplaced review that should have gone to another business, a bad review from someone who clearly wasn’t a customer, or even a bad review from a disgruntled ex-employee, I share examples of how to respond to these “bogus” bad reviews that we all hate.

Suds & Search 25 | Mike King, Managing Director of iPullRank

August 6, 2020 Mark Bealin Digital Marketing, Marketing Analytics, Search Engine Optimization, Suds and Search

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In 2011, I was a young SEO Director for a small agency. I read a blog post from a not very well known SEO with a memorable Twitter handle – ipullrank. After reading the post, I remember sending an email to our team that said something like, “You all need to read this immediately.” The author of that blog post was Michael King and I’ve remained a fan of his ever since.

Today, Mike is the Managing Director of iPullrank, the digital marketing agency he founded. Mike and his team work with some of the most iconic brands on the Fortune 500 list. He’s got a really interesting back story. I start our conversation talking about his journey from unappreciated contractor to agency owner.

How to respond to customer reviews

August 4, 2020 Greg Gifford Google My Business, Local Search Tuesdays, Local SEO

In this week’s video, I talk about responding to customer reviews – how quickly to respond, what to say, and why responses to bad reviews are incredibly important. Check out the video for all the awesome details…

Suds & Search 24 | Ruth Burr Reedy, VP of Strategy at UpBuild

July 30, 2020 Mark Bealin Best Practices, Digital Marketing, Suds and Search

Also available as a Podcast:

My guest today is Ruth Burr Reedy, Vice President of Strategy at UpBuild. I first heard of Ruth when she was working at Moz as their Lead SEO. Veteran SEOs know that Moz used to be called SEOmoz. Ruth took on the daunting challenge of overseeing the SEO for that rebrand. She’s now living in Oklahoma and I start our conversation asking about her journey to UpBuild.

Ruth is an in-demand speaker who’s presented at all of the major industry conferences including UnGagged, Mozcon, SMX, and State of Search.

Keywords in Google reviews will help you rank

July 28, 2020 Greg Gifford Google My Business, Local Search Tuesdays, Local SEO

In this week’s episode, I share a useful tip for your review strategy – if a customer leaves a review that includes a keyword you’re trying to rank for, you’re more likely to show up in searches for that keyword! You can’t tell customers what to write, so I share a little Jedi mind trick that you can use to guide customers in the right direction.

Suds & Search 23 | Michelle Morgan, Director of Client Services at Clix Marketing

July 23, 2020 Mark Bealin PPC Advertising, Suds and Search

Also available as a Podcast:

Each year, PPC Hero publishes a list of the top PPC influencers in the world. I’ve been fortunate to interview many of the PPC experts who appear on that list. My guest on this episode of Suds & Search is Michelle Morgan. When PPC Hero published their list for 2020, Michelle was #1. If you’ve seen one of her videos, heard her present or read a blog post she authored you know that that honor is well-deserved.

What’s the ideal Google review score?

July 21, 2020 Greg Gifford Best Practices, Google My Business, Local Search Tuesdays

In this week’s episode, I’m sharing research that shows that you actually don’t want a perfect 5.0 review score on Google. Many studies have been done to show that a few bad reviews actually help you attract more customers. Check out the video for all the details!

The Shoes of MozCon 2020

July 17, 2020 Greg Gifford Best Practices, Digital Marketing, Resource Library

Shoes of MozCon action shot from 2019 So somehow, the “Shoes of MozCon” has become a tradition. I started off as a goofy thing to do on Twitter with my friend Bryant, and now it’s something everyone expects, and maybe even looks forward to (and this year, we even got shoe companies hitting us with ads on the hashtag). With COVID causing the conference to go virtual this year, it took a lot more work to make it happen. Special shout out to Hayley Bowyer, who helped me get all the speakers to send in photos.

So once again, here’s the MozCon recap post that you never knew you needed in your life… The Shoes of MozCon Virtual 2020!