LocalU Search

Manual
Advanced Edition 2019

© 2019 LocalU Marketing Seminars, LLC.

 © 2014-2019 LocalU Marketing Seminars, LLC.
All Rights Reserved.
Not to be reproduced or reprinted without permission.
 Table of Contents

Foreword 01

Introduction 02

Knowledge Graph 03

Keyword Research 04-06

Location Data 07

Google My Business 08-09

Website Optimization 10-12

Architecture 13-14

Reviews 15-17

Building Your Brand 18-20

Paid Campaigns 21-22

Endnotes 23

© 2019 LocalU Marketing Seminars, LLC.

 Foreword
LocalU seminars were started to help small businesses market themselves online. The idea grew to include the
best minds in local search, with appearances at regional conferences to show local businesses why they should
care about NAP, verify their listing on Google, and invest in a marketing plan to grow their business.

Shortly after that, the LocalU faculty found marketers wanted more help to address the unique challenges of
promoting a local business. As a result, the Advanced LocalU seminars were born. Twice a year, the faculty now
brings new in-depth insights to marketers about the constantly changing local search landscape.

Personally, I got my start in local when I became frustrated with the healthcare experience while my wife was
pregnant with our first child. Scheduling medical appointments was a nightmare, and finding information about
obstetricians near us was difficult at best. I wanted the journey to be much better for patients - and with that in
mind, the idea for PatientPop was born. Today, the company delivers our practice growth solution to doctors
across the US, and as part of that solution, we help them effectively build their local presence online.

I went to my first LocalU conference in Minneapolis, 2015, where I met Mike Blumenthal, who was introduced
as ‘Professor Maps.’ He became an early advisor to PatientPop, shaping our initial platform vision. Mike then
introduced me to Joel Headley, who, at the time, was working in search at Google, having previously led the
operations and support teams for Google My Business. Joel now heads our SEO efforts at PatientPop.

We’re now honored to host the LocalU faculty for a second time for LocalU Advanced, and I look forward to our
continued partnership and collaboration across our organizations in years to come.

Luke Kervin
Co-CEO, PatientPop
Santa Monica, CA
February, 2019

© 2019 LocalU Marketing Seminars, LLC. 01

 Introduction
Local University covers a range of internet marketing topics, with a focus on Local Search Engine Optimization.
Simply put, we teach business owners and the agencies that serve them to thrive online. This manual is a
companion to our Small Business Edition (localu.org/smb), which helps businesses get a head start tackling
local search topics and activities related to opening a new business, developing a local-ready website, getting
reviews and citations, creating email and paid marketing campaigns, and tracking success.

The advanced topics included in this manual touch upon subjects covered in LocalU Advanced seminars, which
are designed to help SEO experts deepen their understanding of local search challenges and opportunities.

Local SEO is the art of talking to a machine, usually Google, and coaxing that machine to help your business
appear more often, and in a better position, in search results. However, you don’t need to approach the task
strictly from a machine’s perspective. Ideally, think beyond that single outcome to find ways to promote your
business or client, increase website size, and improve your visibility. Content developed for local SEO can also
be used for email marketing and social media to further benefit your business.

Contributors:

Mary Bowling, Ignitor Digital Kirby Kushner, PatientPop

Mike Blumenthal, GatherUp David Mihm, ThriveHive & Tidings
Jason Brown, Over The Top Marketing & Mike Ramsey, Nifty Ventures
ReviewFraud Ed Reese, Sixth Man Marketing
Dana DiTamoso, Kick Point Will Scott, Search Influence & UpScribed
Joel Headley, PatientPop Darren Shaw, Whitespark
Carrie Hill, Ignitor Digital Aaron Weiche, GatherUp
Paula Keller French, Search Influence JJ Workman, PatientPop

© 2019 LocalU Marketing Seminars, LLC. 02

 Knowledge Graph: Entities and Keywords

Right now, search involves searching things, not strings. That means your keyword research and content creation
should take into account not only the keyword relevance of your website, but also how your keywords and
content represent your local business.

Background
Technology companies today use entities to organize information and deliver search results. Entities are
organized into the form of: subject, predicate, and object. For Google, this information is known as the
Knowledge Graph. The Knowledge Graph uses a subject, object, predicate (S,P,O) format to answer questions.
A simple relationship may be:

Tzur Gabi is a dentist.

Google can evaluate this statement as true or false.

Subject Predicate Object Valid

Tzur Gabi is a dentist True

The Knowledge Graph extends the entity to include Google uses these extended relationships to
multiple relationships. answer questions. The knowledge panel is one of
the ways Google organizes much of the information
stored in the Knowledge Graph for a local business.
Los
Angeles Connecting businesses to potential customers relies
i n on content that brings the entities together in the
a ted
loc Knowledge Graph and answers questions. Your
local business can be considered an entity, but so
is a are its categories, location, and services. Each entity
Tzur Gabi Dentist
pro
needs to be connected in the Knowledge Graph as
vid Google moves closer to answering questions, and
se es t
rvi h
ce e moves away from simply showing links on a Search
Engine Results Page (SERP). Marketers who can
Teeth help make these connections for Google will be
whitening
effective regardless of the search surface used —
whether through web search, voice search, or maps
navigation.

© 2019 LocalU Marketing Seminars, LLC. 03

 Keyword Research

Move away from only using keyword research tools Also, research the types of results Google returns
to help increase your business reach and rankings. for key terms. Does Google return local results,
Your primary source for keyword research should images, or answer boxes? Do businesses like yours
come directly from your business and its current appear on the first page? If not, consider other
customers. Use words your customers and clients keywords where there’s a likelihood of landing
use frequently, and answer these questions: among similar businesses.

• What does your business want to be known for?

• How do your customers describe their needs?
Here’s an Example
• What are the current search behaviors of your
prospects and customers?
• If you have onsite search, what searches are most The SERPs for informational queries about medical
popular? conditions, symptoms, and treatments are owned by
Google’s most trusted topical sources such as MayoClinic,
• Which pages on your site are read the most? WebMD, Migraine, Healthlines, etc. So, if you’re in this
business, you should only optimize for informational queries
specific to your niche, in your location. For instance, if you’re
Your obvious search terms are the ones most an ear, nose, and throat specialist in Dallas, what do people
likely to have the highest search volume. Typically, in that particular city need to know about the cedar pollen
optimizing for the obvious brand, location, and there?

category (each its own entity) in local search will

Keyword research can be a deep and distracting black hole.
cover the majority of key or head terms. Focus on Know when to stop, and remember that keyword research
these entities to naturally help you explore related is only as valuable as the content you actually develop and
terms and expand the content menu. By including publish. Therefore, you can take an iterative approach to
related terms in content, performance for the head research and content development, and discover what is
likely to help your site perform better over time.
terms improves.

After researching, organize search terms in a meaningful way:

• Create groups of closely related terms

• Create groups of keywords that answer the same question or a set of closely related questions
• Note groups of search terms where new content and pages are needed for your business
• Don’t disregard low search volume terms (they can still be valuable)

Keyword research will help inform your website navigation structure and primary pages, and keyword use
within your website content. Low search volume terms can still be sprinkled through relevant pages, or used as
internal link text and alt image text.

© 2019 LocalU Marketing Seminars, LLC. 04

 Keyword Research

Google Trends
Use Google Trends to see the relative popularity of entities, topics and search terms.

The Topic Layer in the Knowledge Graph groups Search trends are available for YouTube, Images,
everything related within your website content News and Shopping, and the Web. Use related
into a single topic with related subtopics. Google topics and queries to mine for additional keywords
has just begun offering immersive experiences in to target, paying attention to rising terms showing
search and Google Discover as a result of the Topic upward changes in search traffic.
Layer, which often provides the context needed to
determine searcher intent. Google Trends can help you determine if your local
business is a recognized entity in the Knowledge
All topics are also search terms. So, topics and Graph. The ‘compare’ function of Trends tracks the
entities will likely provide the biggest buckets of relative popularity of an entity or topic, allowing you
terms to kickstart your research. Start with topic to track the relative popularity of your business and
research and keep digging into additional topics competitors over time.
and subtopics, as needed. Google Trends already
defines searches as topics, search terms (i.e.,
keywords), or entities.

Example of Compare: The relative popularity of two local entities,

Shamsah Amersi, MD and Caroline Colin, MD. Up to five search
terms can be compared.

Search terms and Topics are labeled in Google Trends while listed
locations, books, and people are entities in the Knowledge Graph.

© 2019 LocalU Marketing Seminars, LLC. 05

 Keyword Research

Keyword Planner
Use Keyword Planner to see search volume and the relative difficulty of ranking for a term.

Keyword Planner is a simple way to get a sense of

search volume for a particular term, or the relative
difficulty of ranking for that term. Keyword Planner Useful Tools
buckets keywords into broad volume groups — but
note that the specific volumes should be taken with Google Trends
https://trends.google.com/trends/
a grain of salt.
Explore how Google data can be used to tell stories. Explore
the year through the lens of Google Trends data.
Get search volumes and forecasts will allow you to
compare impressions, cost, average position, and Google Ads Keyword Planner
typical click-through rates. ‘Impressions’ identify https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/
Google Ads Keyword Planner is a keyword research tool
opportunity while ‘cost’ determines difficulty. Higher-
that allows you to find the right keywords to target for
cost search terms are generally more competitive display ads, search ads, video ads, and app ads.
and can be more difficult to rank for in organic
search. Moz Keyword Explorer
https://moz.com/explorer/

Try the following when using Keyword Planner: SEM Rush

https://www.semrush.com/

• Set Keyword Planner to search closely related terms. Keyword.io

• Use filters to sort by search volume and keyword https://www.keyword.io/
difficulty.
• In the filters, remove the ‘adult’ filter, since many Answer the Public
medical and legal terms will trip it. https://answerthepublic.com/
• Enter a website page URL to see what terms Google
thinks an individual page is about and which terms Buzzsumo
are related to the page. This is useful for competitor https://buzzsumo.com/
research, too.
SERPStat
• Search your brand’s name to learn which terms
https://serpstat.com/
Google Keyword Planner suggests. This will enable
you to discover gaps in Google’s knowledge about
the entity.

Adding new keywords to existing content can get

4x more impressions on Google.1

© 2019 LocalU Marketing Seminars, LLC. 06

 Location Data

Managing locations entails managing information across multiple publishers and partners, and on your
business website. An agency that oversees many small businesses, each with its own website, is likely to take
a distinct approach from overseeing many locations for a separate brand. Recently, Google My Business made
agency management a feature, not a side effect. So, an agency should migrate its managed listings to the new
dashboard.

The agency dashboard provides a key benefit: the listing is managed by the agency as an entity, instead of
individuals within the company. Locations can be added to location groups, which is the only entity transparent to
other users added to the listing. Location groups within the agency dashboard can be managed by users in the
same domain or entire user groups. Turnover, or assignment changes, are opaque to the customer, simplifying
the exchange of invites and users assigned to any individual listing.

Citations would otherwise be difficult to update. The legal

profession has vertical-specific publishers that
In the past, citations were a straightforward way those in the legal industry will want to include in the
to stand out in search results. Today, citations are management software, too.
necessary, but not sufficient enough to stand out
from other businesses. This is likely the result of the As you approach location data management, ensure
proliferation of citation management tools and the you’ve considered:
awareness among local businesses that they need
to maintain a consistent name, address, and phone • Website management
number (NAP) across the web. • The need for updates to a large corporate site
• Management of many websites, each with a
handful of locations
When choosing a citation tool for your business,
• Citation management
focus on the capabilities of the platform along with
• Automated vs. manual updates
any vertical-specific opportunities unique to your
• Build vs. buy
strategy. Yext not only delivers citation management, • Publisher diversity
but can also create local landing pages that might • Niche-specific sites
work well for large enterprises, where local data • Local-specific sites
managers don’t usually have direct access to edit
the corporate website.
Brand Building
Additionally, a business that has locations outside
Ultimately, creating or updating citations is a brand-
the U.S. might require selection of a system that
building exercise. The citations most likely to move
can accommodate international publishers. For
the needle for search presence are hyper-local and
healthcare, choosing the right partner can provide
niche-specific. For more on how to partner to build a
immediate access to healthcare platforms that
brand online, see the brand-building section.

© 2019 LocalU Marketing Seminars, LLC. 07

 Google My Businness

Google My Business (GMB) basic setup and optimization is covered in detail in the Small Business Edition (localu.
org/smb). In this manual, we’ll touch on some of the high level issues. For an in-depth view of local search,
especially on Google, check out the Experts Guide to Local SEO: https://localu.org/experts-guide-local-seo/.

Attributes
Google regularly increases the number of attributes available in GMB. Sometimes attributes appear first in
Google Maps. While not every attribute is immediately used in search, attributes can impact customer decisions
and conversions. Also, as the data for particular attributes becomes available, user-selected filters can be
applied, as is the case with ‘wheelchair accessible entrance.’

Listing Updates
Frequently, and seemingly at random, updates
can happen to your listing. These updates happen
without notice and can drastically change your
ranking if name or category changes are applied.
Getting to the source of the changes is necessary
to ensure your listing remains published properly.
The top culprits for the cause of these updates can
include:

A third-party app that updates the listing via

the GMB API
To find out if another app has access to your listing,
check which apps have been given permission to
your Google Account at https://myaccount.google.
com/permissions. Browse under Third-party apps
with account access, which labels apps that have
The primary attributes that should be added to a access to View and manage your business listing
location are the additional URLs associated with on Google. Revoke permissions to any unauthorized
menus, services, bookings, or ordering. Because or unwanted app, and it will no longer be able to
those links shorten conversion steps, there can be update the listing.
an incremental increase to bookings, for example.
Additionally, where appropriate, filling out more
detailed service menus permits users to make
conversion decisions directly on Google. (continued on next page)

© 2019 LocalU Marketing Seminars, LLC. 08

 Google My Businness

Another manager makes direct edits Phone calls are only measured on mobile devices
where a user touches the phone number to bring up
Recognize that various users may be able to make
their dialer. To get precise numbers on anyone calling
edits to your listing. If your listing is associated with
from the listing, use a call tracking number.
an organization that no longer works with your
business, remove the organization. Also, remove
Click tracking isn’t granular to all the URLs available to
any names you don’t recognize or trust to keep your
business categories. Tracking URLs should be used on
business information accurate.
the authority page (your primary website) along with
different tracking for your menu or services / products
Any user of Google Search or Google Maps
URLs — or your order, reservations, or booking URLs.
with a Google account
Using Google Analytics, the tracking URL for a menu
While it may feel like a violation of trust for the might look like www.yourbusiness.com/menu?utm_
business owner, Google needs to get feedback from source=gmb_menu&utm_medium=Organic.
various channels to keep listing information up-to-
date. As a result, users can suggest edits to your
listing. Depending on the type of edit and the edit
history of the user, the edit may be accepted quickly Useful Tools
or sent for further review by a Google moderation
team. While pending edits don’t appear in GMB, Google My Business
you can see them in search. So, you should monitor https://www.google.com/business/
Your free Business Profile on Google My Business helps
and reject any inaccurate edits before they are
you reach and engage with local customers across Google
published, when possible. Search and Maps.

Insights and Tracking

GMB provides a dashboard with insights about how
your business performs in local search results. It
includes impressions, clicks, actions, and search
terms. There are a few things to remember about
this data:
Complete and accurate business
profiles on Google are 2.7x more likely
Clicks, impressions, and actions are always an
to be considered, receive 7x more
undercount, because Google usually doesn’t show
data that could be attributed to an individual user. clicks, and are 70% more likely to
For instance, a single ‘driving directions’ request attract location visits.2
from one postal code won’t be reported.

© 2019 LocalU Marketing Seminars, LLC. 09

 Website Optimization

Keyword research informs the development of website structure and content — the heart of website optimization.
When choosing what to invest in, keyword research should have you viewing search results on Google, both on
desktop and mobile. Google has a number of search features beyond links to pages on a website. For instance,
answer boxes, events, and immersive experiences can all be impacted by proper website optimization.

Structured Data Search Features

In its earliest form, structured data held the basic Rich Results
HTML elements of headers and paragraph tags.
For local businesses, the most typical form of rich
Markup fundamentally tells machines how to
results is a review-rich snippet, in which stars,
interpret content, and HTML is primarily for a web
aggregate rating, and review count (or votes) appear
browser, like Chrome or Safari. However, it is clear
as part of the snippet in the SERP.
that other programs can take advantage of more
structure to drive features. Maps can use addresses
and Contacts can consume information in virtual
business cards. Primarily, we focus on what a search
engine consumes and uses to drive search features.

Structured data can be broken down in two parts:

• Vocabulary: The system of tags that define

information.
• Encoding (language): The way those tags are marked
up for machine consumption. Other rich results can include rich cards, which
appear in courses, jobs, and recipes as either lists or
While there are some lingering vocabularies — carousels.
like Facebook’s Open Graph — which can be
implemented on sites, Schema.org is the most
current and widely used vocabulary on the web.
Also, JSON-LD is the most straightforward way
to encode content on a website. Ultimately, we
recommend relying primarily on Schema.org and
JSON-LD to markup sites with structured data.

© 2019 LocalU Marketing Seminars, LLC. 10

 Website Optimization

Featured Snippets Images and Videos

When Google can find answers to questions that Often, appearing in carousels, images and videos
aren’t available in the Knowledge Graph, a featured can provide searches that are categorical in nature,
snippet will be highlighted at the top of the page. reaching searchers who wouldn’t typically search
Featured snippets can include lists and tables, but for a local business. Images and videos are a great
shouldn’t be confused with answer boxes, which way to increase awareness and introduce a local
are answers from the Knowledge Graph and lack business through a different medium.
attribution (e.g. [what time is it in hawaii] or [how tall
is steph curry]).

Semantic Markup does not guarantee a featured

snippet. The most trusted, highest-quality answer is
likely to get the snippet.

• Question & Answer formats work well.

• Answer each question thoroughly in about 60 words
right after each question.
• The use of <ol> and <ul> can help boost your content
eligibility to show a featured snippet.
• List more than 10 items to try to get the ‘more’ link,
thereby encouraging click through.
• Use the SEMRush position tracking tool to see which
keywords generate snippets.

© 2019 LocalU Marketing Seminars, LLC. 11

 Website Optimization

Onsite Opportunities Video

Events • If you run a business with individual agents or

practitioners, introduce new customers to them. This is
Events can show up in the knowledge panel or particularly helpful for practitioners who have diverse
as lists in search. Using proper markup increases backgrounds or hard-to-pronounce names.
search real estate, too. • Mark up video with semantic markup to ensure Google
understands the structure of your video — e.g. how long
it is, how old it is, what it is about, and what thumbnail
• Use Event Markup: https://schema.org/Event. you want used to represent the video.
• Events can include seminars, panel discussions, open • Include a transcript. Don’t assume Google is going
houses, or meet-and-greet gatherings.
to understand your video content. Instead, serve it to
• Get creative! Participate in a parade, perform Google on a silver platter.
professional screenings or consultations at the local
• Embed your video on pages that are related to the
YMCA, or get involved in other community events.
video topic. A video can be shown on multiple pages.
• Events are news and can be used in other marketing
initiatives including social media, email marketing,
• Never use autoplay, as it degrades the user experience.
company announcements / media relations, and so
on. Note that Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool (SDTT)
displays what Google thinks about your structured
data, but it’s not the be-all-and-end-all of correct
Q&A Page
markup. The tool checks to confirm you have sufficient
• Use the Q&A page markup: https://schema.org/ markup for features that Google displays in search
QAPage.
results. It generally doesn’t show the latest content
• Add one question per page with multiple answers
— this increases your opportunity for in-depth FAQ from Schema.org. If you see errors or warnings in
explanations. the SDTT, check your markup for mistakes. Then,
• Use a single FAQ page which links to a full page with if you need help, reach out to the semantic search
more specific questions and answers. community on Twitter or the Schema Working Group.
• Avoid using accordion menus.
• Use internal linking to related content or other
mentions of the topic.
• Poll your phone/customer service staff to find out Useful Tools
what questions are asked frequently, so you can
create more relevant Q&A content.
Structured Data Testing
https://search.google.com/structured-data/testing-tool

Pages with rich snippets (stars from reviews) improve

their click-through rate by more than 200%.3

© 2019 LocalU Marketing Seminars, LLC. 12

 Architecture

Entities
Entities can be used to group and organize the content on your site, where the architecture should include
navigation and internal linking. Both are valuable mechanisms to signal to Google what’s important content.
Through the Knowledge Graph, Google understands entity relationships. Making these relationships explicit
through site architecture helps Google put these pieces together from your website content.

Using the example search [best rhinoplasty doctor], Google likely processes the information in the following way.

• Finds the entities:

• Doctor
• Specialty: plastic surgeon
• Location
• Services: rhinoplasty, nose job
• Person

• Defines the relationships among the

entities:
• The Knowledge Graph links entities.
• Crawled content validates if entity
relationships are true or false.
• Synonyms are found for related or
additional content (e.g. rhinoplasty
and nose job).

• Finds the prominence of the entities:

• Number of reviews
Google then displays the results based on the scoring of the
• Number of links / citations
information.
• Known accreditations / credentials
• Number of visitors to the location

• Finds the relevance of the entities:

• Query matching the entity
• Entity relationships with other entities
that match the query

• Calculates the distance from the

searcher’s location

© 2019 LocalU Marketing Seminars, LLC. 13

 Architecture

Cross Linking Site Consolidation

Entities on a website should interlink to show their For enterprise SEO, we often run across
relationships. For instance, a page about plastic opportunities to consolidate multiple websites (i.e.
surgery should link to a page about rhinoplasty. A one website per location) into one large website
page about rhinoplasty should link to a page about with topics and supporting links that lend more
the location where that rhinoplasty is performed. power to the individual location pages.

Consider cross linking (or internal linking) as a Merging multiple location-specific domains into
roadmap of relationships between entities. For one website that has multiple location-specific
instance, for medical practices, this allows Google pages has many benefits, including cost savings.
to draw relationships between doctors, services, Marketing for, optimizing, and linking to one website
locations, related services, alternative services, is much easier to accomplish than performing these
different names of services, etc. activities for multiple website domains.

• Doctor One Domain Pros

• Performs plastic surgery
• Performs rhinoplasty
• One domain with multiple location pages is inherently
more powerful than 50 domains with two to three
• Performs injections
pages.
• Injections of botox
• It limits duplicate or similar content across domains.
• Location
• One domain links nearby locations.
• Has doctors
• You only have to build links to one site or domain.
• Has services
• It’s easier to optimize and monitor one domain vs
• Service multiple domains.
• Has locations
• Has doctors
One Domain Cons
• Person
• At location • No ‘exact match’ domains.
• Performs services

Reminders for internal linking:

• Do not rely solely on navigation and footer links
for internal linking.
• Link related pages of content to each other.
• Avoid linking to anything offsite.

© 2019 LocalU Marketing Seminars, LLC. 14

 Reviews

Reviews are a major ranking factor. When you have more reviews and a better rating than your competitors, this
will help increase your website traffic and turn prospects into customers. For new businesses, getting current,
happy customers to share their positive experiences online is a tried-and-true method for growth. In our Small
Business Edition of this manual (localu.org/smb), we emphasize the need to have a plan around growing review
volume, responding to reviewers, and adjusting your business practices based on feedback.

Identify Fake Reviews

A word of caution: there are some businesses and marketing agencies that invest heavily in review solicitation
that sometimes includes illegitimate review generation. Knowing how to spot, report, and remove fake reviews
can reduce competition from bad actors, and allow your prospects to digest real reviews on Google, Yelp, and
Facebook.

The easy way to spot and identify a fake review is to look at the review profile. Review profiles generally contain
a username, profile photo, and a list of reviews.4 The reviewer might be a spammer if:

• They leave multiple reviews in different states for similar services.

• Their profile photo looks fake.
• The review has duplicate content.
• The photos included with the review aren’t original.
• A large number of reviews were added in a short period of time.

Also, if you find one reviewer who is a spammer on a single listing, chances are there will be additional spammer
reviews on that same profile. To check the profile image, perform a reverse image search on the profile photo to
find out whether it is unique or used frequently elsewhere. In some cases, image search will identify the name
of the person in the image. To check the content of a review, search the full text of the review on Google — you
might find the same review posted multiple times.

© 2019 LocalU Marketing Seminars, LLC. 15

 Reviews

Report Google Reviews

If you find a business with fake reviews, document and report the reviews to Google. It isn’t sufficient to report
the reviews one-by-one through Google’s reporting functionality. Instead, you’ll need to use the Google My
Business Community to escalate the reviews.

It’s not enough to report fake reviews using the “Flag as inappropriate” feature. You’ll need to turn to the Google My Business Community.

Before reporting on the community, create a Google Doc and list:

• Name, address, phone number, and website of the business with the fake reviews.
• A link to each suspect review.
• A short explanation noting why you believe the reviews are suspicious.

To escalate the reviews to Google, you can submit a post on the Spam & Policy discussion category or contact
Google My Business support through Facebook or Twitter.

Keep in mind when escalating in the community that you’re communicating with volunteers, not Google
employees. So, please remain patient, polite, and professional. It can take time to for a Product Expert to see the
thread, and up to two weeks for Google to take action.

You may want to create an alias to protect your identity from the business or marketing company you are
reporting, because there have been instances of retaliation.

If you do contact Google My Business support directly through Twitter or Facebook, you can communicate
privately with a Google employee via direct message, and explain why you believe the reviews should be
removed. Note that those channels still need to contact a separate team for review removal, which doesn’t have
an immediate turnaround, so patience is still required.

In rare circumstances, sometimes a business can become the subject of a negative media story, inciting the ire
of an online community and causing a rapid succession of negative reviews to appear on the business listing. In
this instance, the business can contact the Google My Business support team directly to ask Google to stop all
reviews on the listing until the news cycle changes.

© 2019 LocalU Marketing Seminars, LLC. 16

 Reviews

Report Yelp Reviews

On Yelp, we frequently see questionable photos Useful Tools
posted with reviews. Home improvement
companies, for instance, can have photos copied Google My Business Community, Spam & Policy
from other websites, which is detectable using https://www.en.advertisercommunity.com/t5/Spam-Policy/
bd-p/Spam_and_Policy
reverse image search. If you identify a situation
Whether you’re new to Google My Business or an expert,
like this, flag the profile and photo, and detail the your voice matters. Join the community to connect with
violation that justifies removal. business owners and product experts.

Google My Business on Twitter

https://twitter.com/googlemybiz
The latest Tweets from Google My Business
(@GoogleMyBiz) Support.

Google My Business on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/GoogleMyBusiness
The official channel for information and updates from the
Google My Business team.

Support Center | Yelp for Business Owners

https://www.yelp.com/support/contact/questions?src_
article_id=000007285
If the business has several fake reviews, create a Support Center. Call (844) 889-3486 9 am - 5 pm PST.

document with the details, and link to it when filling

out the contact form to report a business.

Report Facebook Reviews

86% of consumers read reviews for
Facebook has removed the ability to flag and
report individual reviews. To report fake reviews, local businesses (including 95% of
you’ll need to report the user profile that created people age 18-34).5
the review. While viewing the user profile, select
the three-dot menu under the user’s cover photo.
Select Give feedback or report this profile > Fake
account.

By following these tactics, over three

million fake 4-star ratings posted
by 37 reviewers were escalated and
removed by Google.6

© 2019 LocalU Marketing Seminars, LLC. 17

 Building Your Brand

When we talk about building your local brand online, we often think about link building and citation building.
However, link building isn’t simply about adding a link to your website from any site that will allow it. Brand
building is about taking relationships that exist in the real world and making them apparent online. You can
also extend those relationships to online sources, including market or category-specific directories. Instead of
commenting on blogs, focus on building relationships with businesses that are willing to showcase your brand
alongside theirs.

The goal of brand building is to attract more people and prospects to your business. You can spread the word by
growing your reviews, links, citations, and individuals on your email list.

Ultimately, the combination of visibility and reputation determines your brand presence. Cable companies, for
instance, have high visibility but poor reputations; conversely, the corner cafe may have a great reputation but
low visibility. Every effort to build visibility should have an online component and a plan. True brand building can
only work via a partnership with each individual business, and each successful partnership can drive benefits to
your business.

© 2019 LocalU Marketing Seminars, LLC. 18

 Building Your Brand

Benefits Brand Building Tactics

Ranking Make real-world connections
Links have always helped websites rank better in When building your brand, take the extra steps to
Google organic search results. In the past few years, ensure your efforts are reflected online. Typical online
links have also gained considerable and irrefutable marketing tactics may include:
influence with local search rankings. High rankings,
as noted, are one of the best ways for small • Referring partners
businesses to gain online visibility. • Promoting professional networking
• Listing vendors and suppliers
• Showing active volunteerism in your community
Overall Visibility • Sponsoring local events via grants or individuals via
Links to your website and mentions of your business scholarships
(i.e. citations) on other websites are a
proven way to increase your overall online visibility Upgrade current mentions
because they establish a presence across
Find all of the current links to your domain. Ensure
more places where prospects are likely to look for
they link properly to live pages, and replace links that
your products and services.
land on 404 or 301 pages. Additionally, recognize that
anchor text and content on third-party sites can be
Good Community Karma improved. When third-party sites display attributes
Links and mentions can serve as visible online about your business (e.g. payment methods), ensure
evidence that you support your community by the details are up-to-date.
sponsoring local groups and events, donating
resources to area nonprofits, or volunteering your Perform a brand search, excluding your website:
services to benefit your city, town, or neighborhood. [brand_name -site:www.brandsite.com]. Also, find sites
that mention your brand, but don’t currently link to
your website.

Use the Moz Link Explorer to find current links that

need improvement, and compare those results to the
Google search for mentions that don’t have links.

© 2019 LocalU Marketing Seminars, LLC. 19

 Building Your Brand

Add links based on current relationships

The products you offer, brand you convey, and referral relationships you have built should all be expressed
online. Work with your partners and vendors to define your relationship on their sites, whenever possible.

Build new relationships

• Start memberships in local business groups and industry groups. Join appropriate
local and professional associations to anchor your business to your geography and
industry.
• Include listings on local and hyperlocal websites. Get listed on sites associated
with cities, towns and neighborhoods where you’d like to draw in more customers.
• Aim for ‘barnacle’ SEO. Sites that already rank well for a desired term are a great
target for links related to your business.
• Promote features that make your business special. Take advantage of any
characteristics that entitle your business to be listed in niche directories, like
veteran-owned businesses, pet-friendly eateries or handicapped-accessible stores.

Useful Tools

Moz Link Explorer

https://moz.com/link-explorer
Get to know this all-in-one link building tool. Link Explorer replaces Open Site Explorer with a new set of link analysis
and competitive research tools.

Given the first ten pages appearing in organic results

on Google, 30% of the total referring domains point
to position one.7

© 2019 LocalU Marketing Seminars, LLC. 20

 Paid Campaigns

To get started in paid campaigns, check out our Small Business Edition guide (localu.org/smb). While simple paid
campaigns like Google AdWords Express can jump start a new or struggling business, they are often more costly
than steady investments in your brand, website, and local presence when you want to gain leads through organic
search.

To realize a return on investment, it’s important to understand your complete customer lifecycle and have clear
revenue goals. Marketers initially tend to think mostly about cost per lead when using paid campaigns. However,
the ratio of lifetime value (LTV) to customer acquisition cost (CAC) paints a broader and more accurate picture
of the full value of campaigns. LTV is the monthly recurring revenue of a customer divided by the monthly churn
(number of customers who stop using and paying for products / services). CAC is the total cost of a marketing
and sales campaign divided by the number of customers acquired by that campaign.

An LTV to CAC ratio of 3:1 is good, while a ratio of 5:1 suggests an under investment in your marketing and sales
spend. You can use the LTV to CAC ratio to justify additional marketing and sales spend, or to refocus your efforts
elsewhere.

Constant Testing Facebook Targeting

Use A/B testing from the start of your campaigns Location targeting on Facebook can turn local
to optimize your ad spend and improve lead events into inexpensive ad buys. A pin drop in
generation. After finding a creative concept and Facebook allows you to target the right place
campaign that works, test it as your champion across specific demographics. For instance, a
against another challenger creative campaigns to restaurant business that’s open late may want to
continually build on your initial success. When you target a theater nearby just as its show ends. Or, the
create and test three or more ads per ad group, restaurant may want to advertise in the area around
you’ll gain even more insight about what performs a competitor’s business (but not at the competitor’s
best. exact location).

You can also use your current customer list to build

Focused Acquisition
similar audiences to grow your newsletter. If you
Paid campaigns, unlike organic search, allow want people to drop in to your business location,
focused spend. Ads should target lead generation, use dayparting (displaying ads only at certain times
and help drive sales. Avoid social ads that merely of day) to ensure ads run during business hours.
promote ‘likes.’ Always use ad spend to get direct
conversions or develop a broader audience. For
example, you can use social ads to build your email
list.

© 2019 LocalU Marketing Seminars, LLC. 21

 Paid Campaigns

Scaling Agency and Enterprise

The goal of every campaign is to find appropriate As the number of campaigns you oversee grows
traction between your offer and your audience in beyond what you can reasonably manage on the
a minimally viable way. Validate hypotheses with native ads platform alone, explore tools for automation
the simplest acceptable campaign structure and as and aggregation with ad tech platforms. Examine each
little budget possible to reach a sample size large platform against the dimensions that matter most to
enough to ensure the conclusions are relevant. your business. Review the following when assessing
an ad tech platform:
Once you’ve cleared this hurdle, and know that
there is traction between your offer, creative,
• Onboarding and account creation efficiencies
• Automation for ongoing management
messaging and conversion mechanisms, it’s time to
• Reporting aggregate and by specific client
scale your efforts. CAC is a function of your Cost per
• Cost structure and impact on your margins
Acquisition (CPA) or Cost per Conversion (CPC). In
• Required changes to current operations or campaigns
paid search, push campaigns that have strong CPA to migrate and scale the platform
metrics to approach 100% Search Impression Share. • Headcount impact to manage operations with growth
In the display space, increase your reach to the • Implementation costs, including time and technical
greatest extent while also maintaining acceptable resources
CPA.
Ad tech platforms can provide significant value if you
For paid search, scaling is generally a function find the best fit for your needs. Ultimately, an ad tech
of increased budget and geographic targeting. platform will require a restructure of your operations
Upon capturing the available inventory within and ongoing technical maintenance, but will help scale
your addressable geography, explore additional ads.
keywords and measure their ability to produce an
acceptable CPA.

In display, scaling is a function of increasing

audience size by:

• Expanding geography
• Adding new audiences (using Lookalike audiences) 80% of consumers want search
• Adjusting targeted attributes and demographics ads customized to their immediate
location.8
When creating new audiences, look at the audience
attributes that historically correlate with conversions.
Build audiences to grow the number of people
within your target pool that possess those attributes.

© 2019 LocalU Marketing Seminars, LLC. 22

 Endnotes
1 “Beyond Keyword Research: Optimize for Relevancy with Proof Terms.” 28 Feb. 2017, https://www.slideshare.net/
searchinfluence/beyond-keyword-research-optimize-for-relevancy-with-proof-terms. Accessed Jan. 2019.

2 “Optimize Your Google Business Listing (and Get 7x More Visits ....” 20 Nov. 2018, https://thrivehive.com/how-to-optimize-
your-google-my-business-listing/. Accessed Jan. 2019.

3 “Understanding Your Presence on Google.” 12 Apr. 2018, LocalU Advanced, Austin

4 Note: Google has recently allowed reviewers to hide their reviews, making this assessment more difficult.

5 “Local Consumer Review Survey | Online Reviews Statistics & Trends.” https://www.brightlocal.com/learn/local-consumer-
review-survey/. Accessed Jan. 2019.

6 “Massive fake review attack has big impact on small businesses ....” https://searchengineland.com/massive-fake-review-
attack-has-big-impact-on-small-businesses-309255. Accessed Jan. 2019.

7 “We Analyzed 1 Million Google Search Results. Here’s ... - Backlinko.” https://backlinko.com/search-engine-ranking.
Accessed Jan. 2019.

8 “Going Local: How Advertisers Can Extend ....” https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/advertising-channels/search/how-advertis-

ers-can-extend-their-relevance-with-search/. Accessed Jan. 2019.

© 2019 LocalU Marketing Seminars, LLC. 23