The Local Essentials SEO Plan
The Local Essentials SEO Plan will provide your business with a clean, solid, and error-free foundation to build off of. Having your local seo foundation set up correctly will not only produce faster results for your business, but will ensure all of your other marketing efforts have the greatest impact and desired result.
As the name states, this is your essential Local SEO foundation. This is perfect for startups and new businesses, but this may be for you too if you suspect your business could be doing better with a clean up and restart overhaul.
Let’s go over the Local Essentials plan in more detail.
1. Google My Business Page Setup & Management
In regards to getting more phone calls and leads from online, your Google My Business (GMB) very well might be more important than your website. Not to get too complicated here, but your GMB page is influenced by your website, but the truth is, Google doesn’t want to send people to your website if they don’t have to. Google makes most of their revenue from their paid ads so it makes sense (and cents$!) for them to keep you, the searcher, on the the search result page longer until an ad is clicked.
The good news is, you can capitalize on this! Your GMB page makes it especially simple for your target market to contact you and become a lead.
The goal of Local SEO (and what we will achieve for you) is to “earn” your business a spot in the highly visible Local 3-Pack that appears at the top of Google’s local search results.
Did you know that the Google 3-pack appears at the top spot in 93% of searches with local intent?
Example of Google's Local 3-Pack:
Some of what we will do:
- Setup GMB page (if necessary) or Optimize existing one
- Research & Choose primary and secondary categories
- Research & Craft a unique 750 word business description
- Create shortname and shareable profile & review link
- Setup Products
- Setup Services
- Setup Messaging (optional)
- 1 GMB post a month (this can be an update, event, offer, product, COVID-19 update…)
- Respond to your reviews on your behalf (optional) – Interesting study on why responding to your Google reviews is important: https://www.brightlocal.com/research/local-consumer-review-survey/
2. SEO Your Website
Granted, your GMB page will probably bring in more leads than your website, but what many people either don’t realize or acknowledge is — your website influences BOTH your organic and GMB rankings.
According to this recent Local SEO Study by Bright Local, on page signals (your website’s SEO) is the 3rd highest influencing factor in 2020.
Proper onsite SEO will also ensure that Google can easily find and crawl your site, and that you’re offering your users the best possible experience.
Our team will perform a complete audit and propose improvements if needed for the following highest impacting elements:
SEO titles and meta descriptions
- Your website’s page titles and meta descriptions are a key SEO factor. Our Inspir3d team will audit your website’s current page titles and metas and propose optimized ones based on real and recent data (no changes made without your approval).
Page structure: H1s, H2s, p tags, and other page elements
- Your website’s Page structure, especially titles, are another key factor. Our Inspir3d team will audit all of your website’s current title tags and format and propose optimized ones to ensure best SEO results and performance (no changes made without your approval)
Keyword frequency
- Are you using the right keywords in your content and the right amount? How about semantic keywords? Overuse? Underuse? Our Inspir3d team will audit your content for keyword choice and frequency. When you get this right we’ve seen web pages go from being seemingly invisible online to ranking on page 1.
Outbound and Inner linking
- A proper outbound and innerlinking strategy can boost your page’s visibility and create a better experience for your users. Win win. Our team will audit your current link strategy and provide an action plan if needed.
Navigation and link structure
- Google prefers a link structure that is uniform and with proper hierarchy. Is your website easy to navigate? Are potential customers or patients able to easily find what they are looking for? Our Inspir3d team will audit your website’s link structure and user experience and propose a plan to ensure best SEO results and performance (no changes made without your approval.)
Learn more about link structure: https://neilpatel.com/blog/seo-urls/
- Google prefers a link structure that is uniform and with proper hierarchy. Is your website easy to navigate? Are potential customers or patients able to easily find what they are looking for? Our Inspir3d team will audit your website’s link structure and user experience and propose a plan to ensure best SEO results and performance (no changes made without your approval.)
Trust signals
- Trust. The single most important element in any transaction or relationship. Does your website demonstrate trust? Our team will go through your site as a potential customer and collaborate with you on how we can increase trust, and subsequently, conversions.
Website speed
- Google confirms that page speed is a ranking factor for mobile searches. There are many other studies that confirm that even a 1 second improvement can dramatically increase your conversion rate. If your website is built on WordPress, we will improve your load times by one second or more.
- Optimize all images
- Caching
- Leverage browser cache
- Minify CSS, HTML, and Javascript
- Google confirms that page speed is a ranking factor for mobile searches. There are many other studies that confirm that even a 1 second improvement can dramatically increase your conversion rate. If your website is built on WordPress, we will improve your load times by one second or more.
Your Website’s Schema
- Schema is code that “speaks” to the search engines and is a great way to help your website stand out from your competition. Our Inspir3d team will identify the best schema markup for your website and implement.
Learn more about Schema here: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/technical-seo/schema/
- Schema is code that “speaks” to the search engines and is a great way to help your website stand out from your competition. Our Inspir3d team will identify the best schema markup for your website and implement.
3. Review Acquisition System
Reviews continue to be a major influencing factor to a business’s online visibility and sales. 97% of people these days read reviews. Think about that for a second. I do this for a living so that doesn’t come as a surprise to me, but I don’t think most small businesses realize just how important reviews have gotten over the past few years.
Inspir3d has put in a ton of hours, resources, and yes, even money to ensure we are giving our clients the best review system/process possible. We have come up with a great process and will help you like we have many others build a great online reputation (even if it’s not so hot right now).
Some highlights of the system are:
- Real time reports and dashboard
- Email review drip system
- Text message review system
- Kiosk review system
Below is a live review dashboard (part of this plan) of one of our clients who has given us permission to share. When Advanced IT Solutions first started marketing with us, negative and fake reviews were a challenge. Read our recent IT Support Service Business case study to learn more.
4. Local & Niche Citations
Local and niche citations are another Local SEO ranking factor, especially when it comes to showing up in Google’s local 3-Pack.
Accurate citation and local directory listings are also important to increase your brand exposure. The more people see your business on the internet the more likely they will remember you!
Our team will:
- Run a complete audit to identify what citations you already have, which ones you are missing, and which ones have errors.
- After providing you with our findings, we will begin filling in your citation “gaps” and correcting errors and indiscrepancies.
- We will provide a report every month showing our progress.
5. Reporting & Analytics
You must measure to improve.
There’s a well known quote in the analytics community by Peter Drucker, and it is, “What gets measured, gets managed.” It’s so true. If you (or your marketing team) doesn’t have a solid measurement plan and system in place, it’s not too late and we’d like to help!
One of main advantages we have today with digital marketing versus traditional is we have data. When you have data you can make informed decisions. Our Inspir3d team will make sure you are equipped with all of the best reporting tools and that you understand what the numbers mean. This is how you will grow your business.
Our team will:
- Setup, optimize, and share access to Google Analytics
- Setup, optimize, and share access to Google Search Console
- Setup, optimize, and share access to Google Tag Manager
- Setup, optimize, and share access to a custom Google Data Studio report
- Setup, optimize, and share keyword, competitor, and SEO reports
6. Local SEO Dashboard
This is your Local SEO command center with 24/7 access to your up to the minute marketing metrics. From here you can view the progress and results of our efforts and yours, and know how your business is performing.
There are numerous reports that come with sub-reports for additional information when needed. The main reports are:
- Google My Business
- Google Analytics
- Rank Tracking
- Online Reviews & Reputation
- Directory Listings & Citations
- Links & Domain Authority
