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Phone Numbers AND Addresses Return to Google Local 3-Pack Results
Over the past day, people in different parts of the US and the world have reported seeing phone numbers return to Google’s 3-pack of results. Here in Red Sox land, I didn’t see any phone numbers until...
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New Spammy Emails from Yelp to Business Owners
I’ve seen Yelp’s advertising pitches and other pitches for years. But this email I just got from Yelp HQ this afternoon is new: The link just takes me to my business dashboard, where I see Yelp’s...
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10 Ways to Use CrazyEgg for Smarter Local SEO
CrazyEgg is like night-vision for your website. It’s an inexpensive, easy-to-install tool that shows you where visitors click, how far down the page they scroll, and much more. I’ve used it years,...
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Do Longer Business Hours Help Local Rankings in Google?
Sometimes I get clients whose businesses are open only a few days a week. They often seem to get less Google Places visibility and lower traffic on those days. To me, it’s always been a...
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Yelp Monetizes the Description?
Justin Mosebach of YDOP has noticed a new paid offering in some of his multi-location clients’ Yelp dashboards: the ability to add a description with “Specialties, History, Meet the Owner/Manager,...
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Who Provides Facebook’s Local-Business Data?
I’ve never created a Facebook page for Local Visibility System, LLC: Sure, I created a Facebook page for myself about 10 years ago (and haven’t spent any time there in probably 7-8 years). But I...
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Quick Initial Review of Moz Local Insights (Beta)
Moz Local has come a long way in the last 20 months. It’s a handy option for getting some of your most-important listings up and running, especially for new businesses. It isn’t a one-stop shop for...
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Asking Customers for Google Reviews in the New Google Plus: What Are Your...
Google’s really done it this time. The “write us a Google review” steps that worked so well for so long soon will work no more. In the new layout of Google+, if you send customers to your local page...
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Which Local Citation Sources Offer Follow Links?
Pretty much every local listing you create for your business lets you include a link to your website, so that it’s easy for visitors to learn more about you. But most of those are nofollow links –...
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How to Migrate or Redesign Your Site and Not Die in the Local Rankings
Clients and others often ask me how they can redesign their site or migrate to a new CMS and not end up committing seppuku in the local search results. I tell them that although there are probably a...
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Will a Tracking URL Hurt Your Local Rankings in Google?
You may have considered building a tracking URL and putting it in the “Website” field of your Google My Business Google Places page. You’d do this so that you could see in Google Analytics how many...
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Announcing the Definitive List of Local Review Sites
How complete is your collection of reviews? To know that, you’ll need to know of all the sites where customers can (and should) review your business. I’ve found 166 local review sites so far. Some...
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Yahoo Local Review Stars No Longer Show in the SERPs
As a local search engine, Yahoo has long been the equivalent of an ’80s hair metal band, still squeaking along decades after its heyday. For the last few years, its only real boon to your local...
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15 Smart Things Most SEOs Never Do
I’ve seen SEOs do all kinds of dumb things for clients. Far less often do I see them follow some wise practices that can help them get better results, and with less heartache. My suggestions also can...
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Now You Can Fix Your Yahoo Local Listing without Paying for Yext
It appears that you can – once again – update your Yahoo Local listing for free, without having to sign up for Yext PowerListings. Yahoo completely turned over listings-management duties to Yext last...
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Amazon Home Services for Local Businesses: the Ins and Outs
I’ve wanted to write about “Amazon Local SEO” for a while now. I had it planned out. But then last year Amazon retired their daily-deals program, at which point 50% of my content became about as...
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Yelp Elite for 3 Years with Only 66 Reviews: How?
I like to support local businesses that I want to stay in business, I love to write, and as an SEO I must experiment every now and then. That’s why in spring of 2013 I started crawling around in...
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Google Adds “Send to Phone” Feature to Local Knowledge Panel
Search for a local business by name and you might notice something new in the right-hand panel (the knowledge graph): Click the “Send” button and you’ll send a push notification to your phone or...
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Effective “Review Us” Pages for Local Businesses: a Fistful of Examples
Having a solid “Review Us” page can help you rack up reviews on the local review sites that matter. When you ask customers / clients / patients to review you, you can send them to a simple URL on your...
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Moz Local My Business Console Debuts: Quick Facts and Thoughts
Today Moz rolled out the My Business Console, as a part of the Moz Local suite of tools and resources. Moz engineers Mark Corley and Dudley Carr gave me a tour of it the other day, and it looks...
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