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17 Questions with Darren Shaw – Creator of the Local Citation Finder
Recently I had the pleasure of grilling Darren Shaw of Whitespark.ca about his “Local Citation Finder” – the ultra-handy local-search optimization tool he created. If you’ve spent more than a few...
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How Long Does Local-Search Visibility Take?
The question I get asked more frequently than any other is: “Roughly how long until my business ranks well in local search?” (“Ranks well” usually refers to being on page one and “local search” usually...
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Google MapMaker 101 for Local Business Owners
Google MapMaker is like the NSA: Many people know it exists or at least have heard of it in passing. But few know much about it or what goes on there. MapMaker is one head of a two-headed monster....
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Andrew Shotland Talks Apple Maps Marketing
How should Apple Maps fit into your plan to get visible to more customers in local search? Read on and you’ll get some answers from Andrew Shotland – the guy behind Local SEO Guide and the Apple Maps...
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International Local SEO: Nyagoslav Zhekov
Some local-search pros are narrow. They’ve only helped business owners in one industry, or in one country. Or maybe in a couple. Then there are the adventurous ones, with all kinds of experience. You...
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Don Campbell on the GetFiveStars Tool for Getting Customer Reviews and Feedback
Don Campbell is a smart guy – and busy. For at least as long as I’ve been in “local,” his company – Expand2Web – has been hooking up small-to-medium business owners with affordable, solidly built,...
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Mike Ramsey on Local SEO for Law Firms
You don’t need to be a lawyer – or work for lawyers – to benefit from battle-tested advice on local SEO in particular and marketing in general. (If you do work in the legal field, this is your lucky...
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Hear Me Blab about Categories for Local SEO
Mike Zaremba of Radical Mustache has started a great podcast series on local SEO. It has a bent toward restaurants, because many of his clients and audience are restaurateurs. But the subject matter...
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What’s Missing from the Google Places Quality Guidelines?
The rules governing Google Places (or “Google My Business”) have never quite done their job. They’re thick, short on examples, and wide open to (mis)interpretation. The Google Places Quality...
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Best Mike Blumenthal Blog Posts (So Far): a Poll of Longtime Fans
http://www.flickr.com/photos/smallbusinesssem/5485107542/ Mike Blumenthal needs no introduction to anyone who pays close attention to Google Places and the rest of the crazy world of local search. If...
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Industry-Specific Local Review Sites: the Definitive List
“Niche” review sites are underrated. You’re crazy not to get reviews there. Sites like Avvo, DealerRater, and HealthGrades (to name well-known examples) tend to rank well in Google’s organic results,...
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Too Many Donuts for the Google MapMaker Anti-Spam Cops?
Google’s finest aren’t throwing the book at spammers. I recently asked Dan Austin – a longtime buster-upper of MapMaker and other spam – to help with a project. One of my client’s competitors was...
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12 Points Your Customers Should Know Before Writing a Review
You know you need to encourage customers / clients / patients for reviews. If you don’t, you’re stunting your local visibility and your ability to get the phone to ring. Easier said than done. Your...
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Local U Boot Camp in NYC: New Local SEO Event
The Local U crew is putting on a new event for business owners and marketers who want to learn the ropes of local-search marketing. It’s called the Local U Boot Camp. It’s a one-day event in New York...
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My #1 Local Citations Tip: Do Another Round
A recent conversation with my LocalSpark amigos Darren and Nyagoslav got me to thinking: Yes, there are dozens of things to remember do when working on your citations. I offered 43 bits of advice in...
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How to Cultivate Hearty Local SEO Genes for Your Business
If you’re opening a new business or considering some changes, can you make your business itself local-search-friendly? Can you bless yourself with an inherent advantage in the local rankings – like...
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Hijacking Google’s Local Knowledge Graph
I was just going about my business, monkeying around in the local results. Then something caught my eye: Given that Google just started testing green review stars, I could only draw 2 conclusions: 1....
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When Can Digging for Competitive Intel Help Your Local SEO?
People often ask me what kinds of competitive fact-finding I think can help their local SEO efforts. My answer usually is, “Not what you’d think.” The theory is solid enough: you want to know why...
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Who Stretched Google’s Map?
Here’s a question that’s relevant to my post from last week on competitive-intel: Which of your local-search competitors is most worth learning from? One obvious answer would be, “Whoever’s #1,...
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You Can Incentivize Google Plus Reviews…Just Not in the Way You’d Think
It’s bad form to offer customers hard incentives to write you reviews. That includes money, products, work, massages, Starbucks cards, Chuck-E-Cheese tokens, or anything else of tangible value. On...
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