ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Local SEO Toolbox - Free Download

Foreword

Part I: The Mechanics of GBP and Local SEO

What Is Google Business Profile?
Google Local Ranking Factors: Explanation & High Level Action Plan
The Three Pillars Of Local SEO
Prominence
Relevance
Proximity
Local SEO Ecosystem
Document Scoring
Geo-Relevant Documents
Authority Documents
Geo-Relevant Signals
Semantic Geo-Tokens & Nearby Locations
Trusted Sources & Spam
Local Search & Universal Search
Structured Data For Entities
Term Frequency For Entity Knowledge
How To Rank Locally In Google
Increasing Your Prominence
Establish Social Media Profiles
Build Citations
Reinforce Your Backlink Profile
Collect Reviews
Increasing Your Relevance
Optimize Your GBP Content
Choose The Right Category
Add Geo Markers
Optimize Your Website’s Location Page
Optimize Your Photo & Video Content
Connect Related Entities
Increasing Your Proximity

GBP 101: The Basics Of Local SEO

The 3 Main Types Of Businesses
Storefront
 Service-Area Business (SAB)
Hybrid
How To Set Up Your GBP Listing

Best Practices For GBP Naming - 2021 Update

The November 2019 Algorithm Update
What We’re Seeing From Our Campaigns
Some Examples In The Real World
Best GBP Naming Practices 2021
Important GBP Guidelines
Knowledge Panel
How To Get A Knowledge Panel
Step #1: Gather All Your Information In One Place
Local Vs Toll-Free Numbers
Step #2: Fill Out Your Profile
Choose A Category
Choose A Service Area
Step #4: Complete Your Listing
Step #6: Maintain Access To Your GBP
Optimizing Your GBP Listing
Operating Hours
Businesses With Physical Locations
Service Area Businesses
Seasonal Businesses
Appointment-Only Businesses
Temporarily Closing A Listing
How To Edit Your Operating & Special Hours
Website & Appointments
How To Edit Your Website & Appointments Links
Services
How To Edit Your Services
Description
How To Edit Your Description
Editorial Summary
Attributes
Editing/Adding Attributes
Attribute Icons
Missing Attributes
Subjective Attributes
Photos
 Other Optimization Tips
GBP Posts
Update Posts
How To Create An Update Post
Events
Offers
Products
Publishing Posts
Reviews
How To Get Reviews From Around The Web
Removing Reviews From Around The Web
Photos
How To Find Target Keywords
Questions & Answers
How To Add To Your Q&A Section
Removing Questions
Relevancy
GBP Business Sites
Basic Setup & Optimization
Primary Button
Site Headline
Description
Summary Header & Description
Publishing
Posts
Videos
Products & Services
Products
Other Link Building Opportunities
Other GBP Features
Appointments/Bookings
Short Names
GBP Mobile App
Welcome Offer
Messaging

Google Business Profile Auditing

The 7 Step GBP Audit
The Name Audit
The Address Audit
 The Phone Audit
The Duplicate Listings/Possum Audit
Listing Audit
The Website Audit
The Citation Audit

Fighting off Fake & Old Competition in Google Maps

The Solution to Fake Listings
A Team Dedicated to Fighting Fake Listings

Part II: Automating your GBP Reporting and Management

Tracking Your Local Pack Rank
Client Reports
How To Automate Reporting
How To Choose Metrics
How To Present Metrics
GBP Posts
How To Post To GBP From Local Viking
Automating Posts
Photo Optimization
How To Add Images To GBP From Local Viking
Optimizing EXIF Data
Questions & Answers
How To Answer Questions From Local Viking
Bulk Uploads

Part III: Ranking Signals Walkthrough

Half of the Local SEO Battle: Website Optimization

Our On-Page Optimization Philosophies
Optimizing Basic Elements
Content Structure & Links
The Silo Structure
Quadrant Approach
Service Area Expansion
Content Creation
Interlinking
Schema Markup
Building Your Schema
Using A Template
Using A Schema Markup Tool
The Ultimate Local Link Building Guide
What Is Link Building?
Link Building 101
CID URL
Maps Linking
The Three Pillars Of Local Link Building
Data Aggregators
Social Media
Essential Citations
Citation Building In 2021
Priority #1 - Top Citation Sites
Must-Have Listings For Every Business
Apple Maps
Bing Places
Yelp
411
Alignable
Waze
Priority #2 - Secondary Citation Sites
Priority #3 - Niche Citation Cites
Priority #4 - Local Directories
Priority #5 - Competitive Citations
How To Find Citation Sites
Guest Posting & Link Outreach
Conferences & Events
Donations & Sponsorships
Forums
Local Blogs
Sponsored Posts & Local Advertising
Standard Guest Posting
Appendix
Reference Videos Used In This Guide
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Foreword

Thanks for checking out our guide on ranking Locally. Most of these tactics will be focused on the GBP ranking aspect
of Local SEO but most of the strategies will also help with gaining visibility in the SERPs as well. We are always testing
tactics and ranking concepts and you should too.

We broke this guide into several Parts, so those that are just starting can start digging into their local campaign
starting with page 1 and by the end of their reading will have an extremely solid grasp on what it takes to compete
in local SEO.

More advanced readers can skip around and extract any nuggets as they see fit.

Part I: The Mechanics of GBP and Local SEO.

Part II: Automating your GBP Reporting and Management

Part III: Ranking Signals Walkthrough

Even if you are a more advanced digital marketer, it would behoove you to at least check out the first part because
we cover a lot of the mechanics of GBP and best practice. There are a lot of moving pieces to consider so having an
A-Z laid out for you in one place is advantageous.

I might be biased but I do believe this is the most complete guide on GBP out there. Take advantage of it and enjoy.
Take action and rank some local businesses. Have a successful day!
Part I: The Mechanics of GBP and Local SEO

What Is Google Business Profile?

Google Business Profile (GBP) is the search engine’s business directory, similar to other online directories like Yelp
or the Yellow Pages. GBP makes it easier for users to find the information they need about your business, such as
your location, phone number, website, products/services, operating hours, and customer reviews.

Your listing information can show up in four places:

- The knowledge panel, a panel of information that a user gets when they search for a specific business.

- The local pack (also known as a snack pack or 3-pack), which shows up right under the ad portion on the
search engine results page but above the organic results.

- Google Maps, which can be accessed either through the mobile app or through a browser by clicking
“Maps” in Google Search.

- Local Finder, which is what comes up when you click on a listing in the SERP or on the “More places” button
at the bottom of the local pack.
Local results have a prominent place on the SERP. This is why it’s so important to set up and optimize your GBP listing
– a higher ranking directly translates into more eyeballs on your listing. But local SEO isn’t just about improving your
brand reputation, it’s also about increasing conversions.

From January 2020 to July 2020, there was a 61% increase in calls from Google Business Profile, and 49% of
businesses received more than 1,000 search views per month. What this tells us is that Google Business Profile is a
major potential source of leads – if you know how to make the most out of it, that is.
Google Local Ranking Factors: Explanation & High Level Action Plan
AUTHOR NOTE: In this section I am going to cover, philosophically, what we look at
optimizing and working on during the life of a campaign. Think of this as a high level
overview before we dig really deep into the nuts and bolts of these concepts in the
remainder of the guide.
Many factors affect your rank in local search results, but some matter to Google way more than others. The good
news is that we can break the algorithm down into three main pillars: prominence, relevance, and proximity. While
not officially acknowledged by Google, independent testing has shown that GBP engagement can also influence
rankings in both local and organic search.

All local ranking factors fall into at least one of these categories. We’ll take a deep dive into the most important
factors under each pillar to help you understand how Google decides rankings. Even better, we’ve also included a
concrete action plan that will help you optimize your content, build a more visible online brand, and snatch those
top local pack positions.
The Three Pillars Of Local SEO

Prominence
If you’re familiar with organic SEO’s E-A-T pillars (Expertise, Authority, Trust), you can think of “prominence” as local
SEO’s counterpart to “authority”. Prominence simply refers to how popular or well-known your business is to its
users. The more prominent you are, the more likely you’ll rank in the local search results.

Your prominence is affected by both online and offline factors. If you are prominent in the real world, then search
results will reflect that as well. Google also takes into account your brand visibility online – more citations, links,
features, and positive reviews boost your prominence.

Relevance
Relevance is the foundation of not just SEO but Google’s entire algorithm. When a user searches for a specific
keyword, Google wants to give them the most relevant and useful results that match their query. For example, a
listing for a digital marketing agency wouldn’t be very relevant to someone who is looking for a place to eat.

Increasing your relevance is simple enough. You just have to optimize your content and other related entities so that
Google understands what your business is all about. You can do this by completing your online profiles and adding
relevant keywords.

Proximity
Proximity is about how close your business is to the user. For example, if someone is searching “best pizza
restaurants” in New York, then Google won’t return results in California – unless they include a location keyword in
their search term (e.g. “best pizza restaurants San Diego”).

Google’s algorithm for proximity is more complex than most people realize. Your search term and location play a
role, of course, but there are other factors involved as well. If you are walking and search for “pizza near me”, for
example, Google would show you restaurants that are within walking distance rather than those that require a drive
or commute.

Distance is a major factor in local SEO because a user is more likely to patronize a business that is closer to them.
This is also an interesting pillar to try and work with because it’s a bit more challenging to influence compared to
relevance and prominence.
Since you cannot move your business address to rank in other locations, you have to optimize your local business
profile so that your business is displayed to the customers you want to reach. Conventional rank trackers are
notoriously inaccurate because Google serves results based on the user’s location, and that varies wildly from user
to user and even device to device.
 Local SEO Ecosystem

Now that you know which factors are the most important for ranking in Google Business Profile, it’s time to take a
deeper look into Google’s algorithm to figure out why things work the way they do. This section will teach you about
the ins and outs of the local search ecosystem as well as the best data-driven practices for local SEO.

For more insight into the search engine algorithm, we turned to some of Google’s patents. SEO experts often look
at patents to test local SEO theories and prepare for potential algorithm updates, especially since Google isn’t
particularly transparent about its ranking process.

It’s important to note, however, that not all patents are useful or relevant. Google claims thousands of patents a
year, including some which are not in use and some which will never be. You shouldn’t turn to patents as the end-
all-be-all of your SEO strategy; instead, use them to test your theories and create a stronger, more effective
approach.

With all that said, let’s get started on those patents.

Document Scoring

According to this patent, Google’s system assigns a “score” to every document based on its prominence and geo-
relevance. The number of referring entities (e.g. links, backlinks, citations, profiles, etc.) and the backlink graph are
both essential to how Google handles document scoring.

It’s clear from the patent that authority is still paramount. We’d recommend boosting the backlink profile of your
referring links or the entities that point to your assets. Tier two link building can pass a lot of authority, but you have
to be cautious – many of these link building networks are read as “spam” by search engines because they’re often
used for black hat SEO. You should not cut corners or engage low-quality PBNs for your link building unless you want
to get penalized by Google.

Two other factors can affect your document score: reviews and keyword relevance.

Reviews are a huge location prominence signal, and proper reputation management (both online and offline) can
significantly impact your local “score”. The patent also talks about how Google scans documents for search terms.
Adding keywords in your document title, content, and/or category will help you rank for relevant local searches.
Geo-Relevant Documents

“Location, location, location” is a common mantra in real estate, but it’s been co-opted by the local SEO industry as
well. Proximity is one of the biggest factors when determining a local search result’s relevance, which is why it’s
important to add necessary geographical markers to help Google match you with nearby customers.

This Google patent tells us that the search engine indexes documents according to geographical relevance, based on
a wide range of location signals (e.g. addresses, zip codes, latitude/longitude, etc.). This validates what pretty much
every SEO expert tells you: if you want to succeed at local SEO and rank in GBP/Google Maps, you have to make sure
that you have your NAP (name, address, and phone number) in as many of your online assets as possible
– and make sure it’s consistent.

If you add location signals to your content, it becomes an unstructured citation for your business. Collect structured
citations alongside these to further reinforce your geo-relevance. You should also add geographical data to your
website, GBP posts, backlinks, and more. This could be in the form of your business address, GPS coordinates, a
Google Maps location, and even driving directions.

Adding location markers alone won’t boost your rankings, but it does provide the geographical data necessary for
Google to return relevant results to its users. Combine it with other local SEO practices for an effective campaign.
Authority Documents

Originally filed in 2004, this patent tackles how Google determines a particular document’s authority. It’s a relatively
simple process – Google looks for documents associated with a location, then it identifies authority signals that are
associated with the documents such as backlinks, anchor text, document titles, and more. After weighing all the
associated signals, the algorithm determines the “authority score” of the document. Documents with higher
authority scores are more likely to be displayed in a prominent position in the SERP compared to documents with a
lower authority score.

This reinforces what we already know about authority while tying it in with geo-relevance. The best way to boost
the authority of your document or page is by increasing the number of referring links, tapping high-authority
referring domains, and improving the strength/relevance of those links. Then, they pass that coveted link juice to
your assets.

Another helpful practice is associating all documents with your entity/business by adding your NAP where relevant.
You should also link to other related documents/pages to help Google’s bots crawl and index your content.
Geo-Relevant Signals

Another proximity-related patent filed by Google in 2004 talks about how Google assigns location markers to a
document that doesn’t have any by looking at the geographical signals of relevant or associated documents. What
this means is that Google’s search engine algorithm can analyze a set of web documents, determine the location of
the first document based on keywords and other geographical data, then assign those geographic location identifiers
to a second web document if Google determines that there’s a relevant link between the two.

You can make it easier for search engines to “assign” the right location by including addresses, phone numbers, and
other geographical signals throughout your document/page. Anchor texts in link building – specifically those that
mention your town/city – can also potentially increase your geo-relevance.
Semantic Geo-Tokens & Nearby Locations
Whenever you add a geographical marker (e.g. address, driving directions) to your document, it receives a “geo-
token” that represents the location. These geo-tokens are responsible for providing relevant local search results to
the user by operating off a “confidence system” – the more defined geographical information you have associated
with a document, the higher the confidence score, and the more likely you will appear as a result for that location.

Again, this strengthens the importance of adding geo-relevant signals to your content and documents. This patent
makes it clear that the system looks at both on-page and off-page signals to determine your location. It scans your
document for addresses, city names, landmarks, neighborhoods, zip codes, and more. It also reads backlink anchor
text (see the figure above for an example) to figure out the correct location.

Nearby locations can also be associated with your document. For example, a document for a business in Atlanta can
be associated with nearby towns or cities within a certain distance. This helps you rank for searches even if you are
just outside the given location.

Trusted Sources & Spam

Google’s goal is to provide its users with the most relevant and useful results, which is why they developed a system
for determining a source’s trustworthiness. Before retrieving business information to display to a user, Google looks
to see if the source is trusted or not. If the source is trusted, it displays the result. If the source is not trusted, then
Google weighs several factors, assigns a “trust score”, and displays or withholds the result depending on that score.
The patent gives many clues as to what could trigger a spam classification. Using subjective terms like “best” or
“cheap” repeatedly throughout the content, adding commercial modifiers where they shouldn’t be, and stuffing
your content with keywords are a few things that could get your document categorized as spam.

You can avoid getting tagged as spam by using natural language, incorporating keywords organically, and getting
listed on trusted platforms. Increasing your trust signals and avoiding spam triggers are the two most important
takeaways from this.

Local Search & Universal Search

If you’re familiar with SEO, then you should already know that local and organic search are different things. But there
are times when the two aren’t completely separate; this patent explains how search results are merged.

Documents are scored through two different search engine algorithms – one for local, the other for
universal/organic. A document may have different rankings for each. But when the search query requires the two
to be merged, Google combines the two results and rescores the document based on the second algorithm.
This just means that ranking well in organic search results could positively affect your local rankings and vice-versa.
Higher authority in one system can still benefit you across different search engines, so it’s still a best practice to
include organic SEO in a local SEO strategy.

Structured Data For Entities

This patent demonstrates how Google collects structured information about your entity/business from all over the
web, including data aggregators, directories, and more. Structured information refers to your structured citations –
usually, these mean your business directory citations.

Make sure that your business information is consistent no matter where it appears on the web. This involves
standardizing your NAP and updating old listings with the correct information.

Term Frequency For Entity Knowledge

In 2011, Google filed a patent on assigning “terms of interest” to an entity, giving us an idea of how Google builds
its database and categorizes documents. When you add keywords (or “candidate terms”) to your content, the
algorithm is more able to determine what your content – and therefore, your entity/business – is about. The patent
also talks about “learning” this information from user input and queries as well.

This patent reinforces the importance of adding keywords, related terms, and variations throughout your content.
You should also make sure that any referring entities use the correct keywords since the algorithm also looks at off-
page signals to determine an entity’s subject matter.

Google isn’t entirely transparent about how it ranks results, but understanding the algorithm is the first step to a
truly successful local SEO strategy. By looking at Google’s patents – past, present, and future – we can test out our
SEO theories, prepare for upcoming algorithm changes, and figure out which practices could get you ahead of the
competition.

How To Rank Locally In Google

So how can you use your knowledge of prominence, relevance, and proximity to influence your rankings?

The trick is to create an action plan that specifically targets each of the pillars. You need to have all three to rank
high – focusing on just one or two won’t cut it. This doesn’t mean that you should put equal effort into all three; you
can push harder on a specific factor if you’re lacking in it, as long as all three are present.

Keep reading for hard-hitting, actionable optimization tactics for better local rankings.
Increasing Your Prominence
Building prominence is all about building brand reputation and awareness. In this section, we’ll cover some of the
most impactful prominence-building tactics: social media, link building, and reviews.

Establish Social Media Profiles

It might sound very basic, but you’d be surprised at how many businesses don’t get this step right. If you want to do
SEO – heck, if you want to do any kind of business – you need to have your social media profiles fully fleshed out.

Categorize each social media platform into either essential social profiles and secondary profiles. Essential profiles
include the major social media networks like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other industry-specific
platforms (e.g. Yelp, Trip Advisor, etc.). These have to be set up first. Once you’ve established your essential profiles,
you can move on to lesser-known secondary sites like Academia.edu or Square Cash.
Build Citations
Link building is not as impactful as it used to be, thanks to shady businesses using black hat SEO tactics. But having
a strong backlink profile is still an important ranking factor because it signals to Google that your content is accurate,
relevant, and trusted.

To build citations the right way, turn to Google-approved techniques like adding your business to a directory site,
writing guest posts, and reaching out to blogs/newspapers/journals/etc. to get featured.

Reinforce Your Backlink Profile

Linking to your “properties” can pass link juice. Take advantage of this by creating a backlink graph, or a list/collection
of your most important backlinks. Adding this to your website comes with plenty of benefits:

- It encourages faster indexing since Google can just crawl that page for new links.

- It adds authority/prominence signals because you have a lot of sites linking back to you.

- It adds relevance signals because Google takes each citation in context. This means that they look at who
is linking to you, what type of site they are, the content your link was placed in, the anchor text of the link,
and many other factors to determine the “topic” of your site/page.

Collect Reviews

Reviews are a controversial aspect of local SEO – some experts say they matter while others say they don’t. Our tests
show that most businesses should see a minimal increase in rankings thanks to review generation campaigns. This
means that, while reviews are important, they shouldn’t be the end-all-be-all of your SEO strategy.

Aside from rankings, there are many ways that reviews can help your business. More positive reviews increase
trust and prominence with Google, even if your reviews are hosted on a third-party platform. Higher ratings also
develop trust with potential customers, putting you in a more advantageous position compared to lower-rated
competitors.

Increasing Your Relevance

When trying to improve your relevance score, there are two things to keep in mind: your location and your niche. In
this section, we’ll look at how adding niche and geographical keywords can help increase your relevance.
Optimize Your GBP Content

If you aren’t optimizing your GBP content for relevant keywords, then you’re losing out on a lot of relevance. Just
make sure that you don’t over-optimize by stuffing your listing with keywords – that’s the best way to get penalized
by Google.

Make sure that your content contains the right keywords while still being natural and easy to read. Use synonyms,
related search terms, and LSI keywords. You can also use a tool to generate keywords and calculate ideal keyword
density so that your content is on par with your competition.

Choose The Right Category

The category that you choose on GBP can significantly impact which search terms you rank for. Choose the most
specific and most accurate category possible. We’ll go into more detail about GBP categories in a separate article.

Add Geo Markers

Increase your geo-identifiers or any information that specifies your location. This includes zip codes, neighborhoods,
GPS coordinates, Maps pin location, and more. The more of these you have, the stronger your geographical
relevance.

Optimize Your Website’s Location Page

Although organic SEO is a completely separate field, it synergizes with your local SEO efforts. Google looks at your
organic rankings to help determine your local search rankings, so it’s important to keep your website optimized for
both niche and location keywords. You can even add a location page to your well-ranking website to boost your local
performance. We’ll talk more about optimizing your website in a different guide.

Optimize Your Photo & Video Content

Optimizing your visual content is a small yet impactful step you can take to get better local rankings. Photo/video
optimization covers a wide range of practices, from choosing the best images/videos to adding alt text to
compressing file sizes to improve page speed.
Connect Related Entities

Connect your online brand entities such as your website, GBP profile, social media profiles, and more. Creating an
interlinked network of pages is a great way to build relevance and authority in Google’s eyes. Plus, linking out to
your profiles can encourage users to learn more about what you do and further engage with your brand.

Increasing Your Proximity

As we’ve mentioned earlier, working with proximity is tricky. We’ve conducted a lot of tests and experiments to see
what works to increase proximity signals and we touch on some of the ways to try and achieve larger radii for
rankings in your market in the rest of the guide.

At the end of the day, your local ranking is based on a complex web of factors. It’s important to know which ones
affect your rankings the most and which are a waste of resources. Focus on building your prominence, relevance,
and proximity through our concrete action plan steps, and you’ll see your online brand grow in no time.

GBP 101: The Basics Of Local SEO

The 3 Main Types Of Businesses

Before we get started on the basics of GBP, you first have to understand the three kinds of businesses that are
accepted on Google Business Profile. Below, we break down what they are as well as the advantages and challenges
of each.

Knowing which type your business is will guide you throughout the rest of the process. But if you’re struggling with
this step, don’t worry – you can always change your listing later. Choose the one that best fits your business right
now, and update it if it changes.

Storefront

Storefronts are the most common type of business. To qualify as a storefront, your business must satisfy three
conditions:
 1. You must have a physical location, office, or storefront where you conduct business.

2. The physical location must be staffed during office hours.

3. You must not conduct business anywhere else other than your storefront (e.g. customers’ homes).

Storefronts include most retail stores, restaurants, gas stations, supermarkets, and the like. The exception is when
those businesses offer delivery services, but we’ll get more into that later.

Ranking for storefronts is mostly based on relevance. You’ll want to rank for the area that your business is based in
since customers are usually looking for the business nearest to them. However, you can also rank for surrounding
areas and even neighboring cities. This is especially true for businesses based in small towns or those that don’t have
a lot of competition in the area.

Service-Area Business (SAB)

Service-area businesses (SABs) are businesses that don’t require their customers to visit a physical location. These
businesses send people out to the customer’s location instead, like in the case of construction, plumbing, electric
work, or delivery-only restaurants.

Because you don’t conduct business with your customers on-site, your business address should be hidden from
public view. Some of these businesses may not even have a “proper” business address since SABs are often run out
of someone’s home. Hiding your address will prevent customers from showing up at your office.

Unlike storefronts that may target surrounding cities, SABs can only rank in the area/s they serve. You cannot rank
outside of that service area since those customers cannot benefit from your business.
For example, let’s say that you’re a plumber that services the Las Vegas area. Even if you’d be willing to travel to
nearby Pahrump for a customer, you will not rank in their location unless you specifically choose “Pahrump” as a
service area.

GBP currently allows you to choose up to 20 service areas for each listing. We recommend choosing the largest or
broadest service area first to cover as much ground as possible.

Hybrid

Hybrid businesses, as the name implies, are businesses that combine both storefronts and SABs. These businesses
serve customers on-site while also serving customers at other locations. Examples of hybrid businesses include pizza
restaurants or flower shops that have a delivery option.

If you are a hybrid business, you should display both your business address and your service areas. For example, this
Italian restaurant below serves diners at its location in Las Vegas, but they also deliver food.
How To Set Up Your GBP Listing

If you want to start ranking the local search results, then you need to have a GBP listing set up. The process is simple
enough that you can set it up on your own. But if you want pro tips for higher rankings, check out our step-by-step
guide below.

Best Practices For GBP Naming - 2021 Update

If your GBP rankings changed suddenly and inexplicably around November or December of 2019, you’re not alone.
Many businesses noticed that their listings were performing very differently, even though they hadn’t made any
changes. This sparked speculations that Google had updated their local search algorithm yet again.

Within two weeks from when it was first noticed, Google confirmed that they made several updates. However, they
wouldn’t go into detail about what happened until a few weeks later.

Theories about proximity, link building, and the like floated around. But the official announcement confirmed that
this new update – called the Nov. 2019 Local Search Update – dealt heavily with relevance, specifically how your
GBP name can affect your rankings.
Today, we’ll go through the most important takeaways from the November update, how it affects GBP naming
conventions, and the best GBP name practices in 2021.

The November 2019 Algorithm Update

The November 2019 Local Search Update was one of the biggest updates to local SEO since the Possum
implementation in 2016. Sure, there have been a few minor or niche-specific changes, but none like this. Last year’s
update overhauled a lot of what we knew about Google Business Profile and what works for local search, especially
because it was across the board – listings in every industry and every country were affected.

Before Google announced the algorithm change, it was known as “the Bedlam update” because of all the confusion
it caused in the local SEO community. Many listings either dropped in rankings, climbed in the local pack, or
disappeared from the search results altogether.

Eventually, it was revealed that the update didn’t change the fact that proximity, prominence, and relevance were
the most important factors in local SEO. But it did change how Google understands relevance, especially as it pertains
to Google Business Profile names.

Before the Nov. 2019 roll-out, it was quite common to see high-ranking listings that contained a city or location in
the GBP name. This was proven to boost relevancy and improve rankings, so plenty of businesses were taking
advantage of it.

Adding main keywords to the name was also a usual practice, even though it was technically frowned upon by
Google. Listings weren’t getting suspended as much, which further reinforced the widespread practice.
But after the update, which Google says heavily focused on language, it seems that more and more listings are
getting suspended or filtered out of the local pack for violating GBP guidelines on naming. If you had a location
modifier or main keyword in your listing name, you were suddenly at risk of major penalties.

We’ll get into the what-to-do and what-to-avoid in a bit. First, we need to talk about how the algorithm is sniffing
these listings out.

The new local search algorithm uses something called “neural matching”. This was originally rolled out in 2018 for
organic search, but it’s now found its way to local SEO. Neural matching allows Google to better interpret and
understand search intent. By understanding the relationship between two different search terms, the search engine
can still match you to the right businesses even if there’s no direct keyword match.

In a 2019 tweet, this is how Google Search liaison Danny Sullivan explained neural matching:

“For example, neural matching helps us understand that a search for "why does my TV look strange" is
related to the concept of "the soap opera effect." We can then return pages about the soap opera effect,
even if the exact words aren't used…”

Sullivan also called it a “super-synonym system”. Basically, a business doesn’t have to rely on exact keyword matches
anymore to get relevancy signals, as long as they have other related words or concepts in their listing. We speculate
that this is why the spam filter has tightened – as search engine algorithms get smarter, they generally also get more
restrictive to prevent people from manipulating the system.

The ranking fluctuations from the November update should have settled down by now, although minor ups and
downs should still be expected due to a constantly-changing algorithm.
What We’re Seeing From Our Campaigns

Despite the current crisis, we’re still doing around 100 campaigns a month. This gave us a good enough sample size
to test how the algorithm change is impacting rankings.

As we mentioned earlier, adding cities and keywords used to give us great results. We had quite a few listings that
employed this technique. As the update was rolling out, however, those listings were dipping out of the local pack.

So here’s what we learned from that:

- Including a city keyword at the end of the listing can trigger filtering.

For example: Company ABC - Baltimore

We suspect that the hyphen makes it easy for the algorithm to spot these appended location modifiers.

- Including the category in your listing name can trigger filtering.

For example: Company ABC Website Designer

This isn’t technically new – even before the November update, adding a primary category keyword in your
GBP name upped the risk of a penalty. But now, even secondary category keywords are potentially
triggering the spam filter.

- Including an exact keyword can trigger filtering.

For example: Firm Personal Injury Lawyer

It seems like the algorithm has caught onto this popular practice. This has always been frowned upon, but
more so now than ever before.

Some Examples In The Real World

Soon after the update was launched, we were able to really see the real-world impact of these naming changes.
Let's take a look at some live examples.

Here’s what the local pack looks like for “appliance repair baltimore”:
This is a niche we’re familiar with, so we know that exact match keyword listings used to dominate the local pack.
But now, the top performers are “Baltimore Appliance Masters” and “Mr. Appliance of Owings Mills”, both of which
incorporate their location modifier in an innovative way. This is way better than just tacking on the city at the end
of the name, which would easily trigger the spam filter.

Here’s another example in another niche:

As you can see, using “of” is a good way to add a location to your GBP name and still rank despite the update. It
doesn’t just use the hyphen, and it sounds more natural – like it’s a real business name.
The legal industry was another niche that saw huge changes in rankings. Before the update, most local pack listings
incorporated a keyword like “personal injury lawyer”. Here’s what those local search results look like now:

The #1 rank still incorporates a similar keyword, although it isn’t an exact match. This may be the reason it’s
performing better than all the other listings while still avoiding suspension. When we looked at the rest of the results,
we saw that most listings didn’t have any keywords at all – a huge change from before the update, when it was full
of spammy-looking, keyword-stuffed GBP names.
All these examples prove that Google’s spam filter is more restrictive than ever before. We don’t often see keywords
or location modifiers in the local pack anymore.

Best GBP Naming Practices 2021

So, what should you do now that the “Bedlam update” has been fully rolled out?

According to Google, nothing. The search engine said that businesses don’t have to change anything about their
listings if they followed GBP guidelines in the first place.

According to Sullivan, the algorithm update was designed to make things easier for business owners. You don’t have
to worry about incorporating keywords into your business name.

Follow Google Business Profile guidelines. This is the safest way of optimizing your listing.

Important GBP Guidelines

To help you stay suspension-free, below are some of the most important guidelines on naming your Google My
Business listing.

- The name on your GBP listing should match your business’ real-world name. This is the name that you
use on your storefront, signage, website, letterheads, business cards, and is how customers know you.
This means that you shouldn’t put any taglines, operating hours (e.g. 24/7, unless it’s part of your actual
business name), or location signals.

- The exception to this is if you have different departments. For example, many universities have
separate colleges, or a grocery store might have a bakery section that operates as a distinct entity.

- Adding LLC, Inc., and other legal terms are not necessary unless they are part of your real-world
representation. So if your signage says “Coffee Shop”, your GBP name shouldn’t be “Coffee Shop Ltd.”

- If you are an individual practitioner (e.g. dentist, doctor, lawyer, etc.), you can include
titles/certifications like Dr., MD, JD, and CFA.

Ever since the Nov. 2019 Local Search Update, the algorithm’s spam filter has tightened tremendously. You can’t
add location modifiers or keywords willy-nilly unless you want a swift and harsh suspension.
Knowledge Panel

The Knowledge Panel is one of two main ways Google displays your GBP information on a local search results page.
When you Google a business, the search engine will sometimes return an information box that contains all kinds of
data about it. This includes the business name, address, phone number, website, operating hours, photos, and so
much more.

How To Get A Knowledge Panel

Like much of SEO, there’s no way to secure a knowledge panel for certain – it highly depends on Google’s algorithm.
Even verifying your listing doesn’t earn you a knowledge panel automatically, although it increases your listing’s
trustworthiness and credibility for customers. To see if you have a knowledge graph, check out this video.

The best way to get a knowledge panel is by optimizing your listing. You’ll need to complete your GBP profile with
accurate, up-to-date information. Next, you’ll need to add photos, gather reviews, and incorporate the right
keywords throughout your listing. Then, you’ll need to work on increasing your domain authority through organic
SEO. Again, this won’t guarantee that Google will display a knowledge panel for your business, but prominent
businesses have a much higher chance of earning one.

In 2017, some businesses and marketing agencies reported that their knowledge panel was no longer showing up,
even if they directly searched for the business name or brand. More specifically, knowledge panels would show up
if you searched the business name along with a location keyword, but if you removed the location keyword, the
knowledge panel would no longer appear.

One fix that has proven to be effective across the board is this: remove all your business categories except for your
main one. If you do that, your knowledge panel should return.

Step #1: Gather All Your Information In One Place

First things first, make sure you have all the information you need to set up the listing. The most important of this is
your NAP or name, address, and phone number.

For this guide, we’ll use this NAP:

Name: Las Vegas Low-Cost Handyman

Address: 4709 Arial Ridge St, Las Vegas, NV 89147

Phone number: 725-400-7190

Keep this handy when setting up your GBP. This will help you keep the information consistent, no matter where on
your GBP listing it’s located.

Local Vs Toll-Free Numbers

While putting together your NAP seems pretty straightforward, there’s one part that some businesses stumble on:
choosing between a local phone number and a toll-free number.

Local numbers are assigned based on location and are easier to call for nearby customers. Toll-free numbers, on the
other hand, can be dialed out of state or even out of the country. This allows customers to call you even if they’re
not in your area without incurring any extra charges.
While this makes toll-free numbers seem like the better option, the opposite is true. Studies have shown that local
phone numbers perform better for local SEO.

A SinglePlatform survey found that local businesses are heavily preferred by customers, with 72% willing to pay more
for a local product if it’s comparable or better than its national or international alternative. Having a local phone
number on your GBP listing will reinforce your branding as a local business, which in turn improves your reputation
with local-minded consumers.

If you want to include both your local and toll-free numbers, you can! Simply add your local phone number as your
primary number, and add your toll-free number as a secondary contact number. Here’s how:

1. In your GBP dashboard, click on “Info”.

2. Click on the “Edit” pencil icon next to your primary phone number.

3. Click “Add phone number” and enter your secondary number.

4. Click “Apply” to save your contact information.

Step #2: Fill Out Your Profile

Now that you have everything you need to set up your GBP listing, it’s time to create one! Go to the GBP home page
to get started.

If you are signed into an account that already manages a GBP listing, then you will be taken to the dashboard. You
can add a new location by navigating to your “Manage locations” screen, then clicking on the “Add location” drop-
down.
If you are not managing any GBP listings, then you will be directed to a page where you can search for your business
name to see if there’s an existing listing for it. If there’s no existing listing, you can click on “Add your business to
Google” to create a new one.
If you have to create a new one, type in your business name. You also need to choose a business category. We’ll talk
more about categories in a bit, but for now, just choose the broadest category that best describes your business.
Choose A Category

You can change your business category whenever you want, but be careful. In some niches, especially the ones
Google considers high-risk (such as locksmith, garage door repair, and personal injury lawyers) changing the primary
category can trigger a suspension.

Earlier, we mentioned choosing the broadest category possible when setting up your listing. Now, we’ll go into detail
about the best ways to choose your primary and secondary categories.

Our approach is simple: find out what categories your competitors are using. Doing competitor research is essential
if you want to optimize your listing and get better rankings.

You can find out your competitors’ categories by searching for your primary keyword on Google Maps. For
example, your primary keyword could be “pizza restaurant Baltimore”. Then, look at the top three results and click
on each of those listings. Take note of the primary category, especially if they all have the same one.
Aside from your primary category, Google also allows you to add several secondary categories to your listing.
Secondary categories allow you to show up in related searches. However, unlike your primary category, secondary
categories are not viewable on your listing. This makes doing competitor research for secondary categories a lot
more complicated.

To view a listing’s secondary category, follow these steps:

1. Access the listing on Google Maps.

2. Right-click on the listing, then click “View Source”. Alternatively, you could press Ctrl + U if you’re using
Google Chrome.

3. Press Ctrl + F to open the search function. Search for the primary category.

4. Look for the categories that come after the primary category. These are the listing’s secondary categories.

Take note of the secondary categories that you find on each of the top three listings for your main keyword. We
recommend having one primary category and two secondary categories maximum, so pull only the most popular
and relevant ones from your competitor research. If you add too many secondary categories, it could hurt your
ability to get a knowledge panel for a branded search.
Choose A Service Area

This one only applies to service-area and hybrid businesses. If you conduct business with customers outside of your
business address, then you need to choose your service area/s.

Again, you can add up to 20 different service areas. To maximize this, we add service areas in a very specific order.
You don’t have to add all of these to your listing; it’s best to add only the ones that apply. For example, if you don’t
service customers outside of your county, then don’t add neighboring counties to your listing. As a rule of thumb,
you should only add service areas if:

1. You actually can serve customers from that area; and,

2. You want to rank in that location.

Here’s how we add service areas, in order:

1. Your county

2. Neighboring counties

3. Your city

4. Other neighborhoods inside your city, if they are shown on Google Maps

5. Neighboring cities, towns, etc.

6. Specific zip codes of your service area/s

If you max out your 20 service areas before you get to add zip codes, that’s okay! As long as you have gone through
the list in order, your listing should still rank in the most important locations for your business.

Step #4: Complete Your Listing

On the next screen, you will be prompted to add your phone number and website. Fill this information out to get to
the last step of the process: verifying your listing.
To manage your listing and update the information when needed, you first need to verify it. By verifying your listing,
you’re signaling to both Google and its users that you are a legitimate, reputable business. This also prevents other
people from gaining access to your listing, making inaccurate changes, and misleading your customers.

Most businesses have to verify via post. Google will send a postcard with a unique code to your business address.
Once you receive it (usually 3-5 days later), you can enter it online to verify the listing. Some listings may be eligible
for other forms of verification, such as through phone call, text message, or email.

If you have the option to verify by phone, make sure you turn off your IVR (interactive voice response) functions. If
IVR is enabled on your phone, you might not receive the code.

Step #6: Maintain Access To Your GBP

After setting up your listing, the next thing you should do is protect it in case something happens. You’ll want to add
another user to the listing just in case you lose access to the primary email. Here’s how:

1. In the dashboard for the listing, click on “Users”.

2. In the “Manage permissions” pop-up, click on the “Add users” icon.

3. Enter the user’s name or email address to add them to the listing, and choose the correct role.
Optimizing Your GBP Listing

A complete profile is the first step to better rankings. In this section, we’ll go through a few tricks and trips for
optimizing your GBP listing.

Operating Hours

Businesses With Physical Locations

If you have a physical address where you serve customers (i.e. a brick-and-mortar shop, a storefront), then you
should set your hours for when you are open and serving customers.

Even if you take calls after hours, the hours on your listing should reflect your operating hours. This is very important
to keep in mind – if your business is listed as “open” but you aren’t serving anyone, a customer can report your
listing to Google and get it suspended.

Let’s say that your business is technically open 24/7 to receive calls and queries, but you only serve customers
Monday to Friday from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM – these should be your listed hours.
Service Area Businesses

Service-area businesses are businesses that don’t serve customers at their business address. If you have an SAB, set
your hours to when you are open to receiving calls or bookings. If you can answer the phone all day or if you also
accommodate emergency calls at night, you can list your SAB as open 24/7.

Seasonal Businesses

Some businesses may have different operating hours depending on the time of year – these are seasonal businesses.
If this category applies to you, you must set your business hours to your current hours. If your business is closed for
the off-season, you need to remove your hours and set it as temporarily closed (more on that later).

Appointment-Only Businesses

For businesses that operate on an appointment-only basis (e.g. medical professionals, salons, etc.), showing your
operating hours might give the wrong idea.

There’s currently no feature that allows you to indicate that you are an appointment-only business. Instead, Google
recommends that you remove your operating hours if you don’t want customers showing up at your location without
a prior booking.

Temporarily Closing A Listing

There are some cases in which you’ll want to mark your listing as “temporarily closed”. If you’re planning to do
renovations or close your business for the off-season, this is a great way to let customers know that you aren’t
operating at the moment but will be back in business shortly.

You cannot close a listing from your Google Business Profile dashboard. If you want to temporarily close your listing,
you'll need to contact support to get the label.

There is a known bug where businesses that are temporarily closed still appear as “open” on Google Maps. If this
happens to you, contact GBP as soon as possible to get it reviewed.
Adding business hours helps customers know when you’re open. Only use your real and correct operating hours –
Google often does “spot checks” by calling businesses during their listed hours. If the business doesn’t pick up the
phone, they risk getting their listing suspended.

In some industries, it’s common for businesses to open and close multiple times a day. For example, a restaurant
might be open for the lunch and dinner rush but is closed all other hours of the day. If this sounds like your business,
you can add multiple sets of operating hours (e.g. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.) to the same day.

For holidays and the like, you can add special hours to the listing. Special days include holidays (e.g. Thanksgiving,
Christmas), special occasions (e.g. a company party or trip), or any other day that you would have different hours.
You can choose from Google’s special hours suggestions or create your own.

Whenever you add operating hours to your GBP profile, make sure that you check your other directory listings.
Google pulls data from around the web for your knowledge panel, so your information must be consistent no matter
where it appears. If you have outdated information listed somewhere else, Google might erroneously add that into
your GBP listing.
How To Edit Your Operating & Special Hours

1. Go to your GBP dashboard.

2. Click on “Info”.

3. Click on the “Edit” pencil icon next to the “Hours” or “Special hours” section.

4. Add your operating hours, then click “Apply”.

Website & Appointments

Place your website’s URL in the website field. You can use either your GBP site (more on that later) or your regular
website.

For the appointments link, this should be a link to a page where customers can schedule an appointment with you.
You can use your website’s home page, as long as there’s an appointment form or something similar. If you don’t
add the correct link, you’re losing out on a potential lead.
How To Edit Your Website & Appointments Links

1. Go to your GBP dashboard.

2. Click on “Info”.

3. Click on the “Edit” pencil icon next to the “Website” or “Appointment links” section.

4. Add your URL/s, then click “Apply”.

Services

If you provide services to your customers, you can display them on your listing. Not only does this give customers a
better idea of what you offer, but it’s also a great opportunity to add long-tail keywords into your GBP listing.

When you add services to your listing, each service must fall under one of your chosen categories. For example, we
have a listing that has three categories: “Handyman”, “Painter”, and “Electrician”. We group our services under each.
This means that we would put “exterior painting” under “Painter” while we’d put “ceiling fan installation” under
“Electrician”. Don’t put a service in a section it doesn’t belong in because that would be confusing for users and
Google alike.

Google suggests services based on your categories, and you can add those easily to your listing. If you don’t want to
use Google’s recommended services, or if their suggestions don’t contain your target long-tail keywords, you can
just delete them and add your own. In a recent update, your category becomes your top-level service. If you edit
this, it will also change your category.
When you add a custom service, you will be prompted for the service name, price, and description. Take this
opportunity to optimize the content for your desired keywords, but be sure not to over do it. Creating spammy
content on your GBP by stuffing keywords into the content unnaturally is antithetical to what Google or your
customers want to see. To edit your custom services, click on the Edit pencil icon next to it.
There are four types of price structures: No price, Free, Fixed, and From. Let’s break it down one by one:

- No price: If you want to hide your prices or encourage customers to contact you for a quote, don’t list your
prices publicly. You should also choose “No price” if you bill per hour (with a varying number of hours per
job) or if the other pricing options don’t apply to your business model.

- Free: Only list something as free if you’re telling the truth. Customers can report your listing to Google if
you don’t accurately represent your prices.

- Fixed: Fixed prices are best used for services that cost the same no matter what. For example, if you offer
consulting services at $75 per hour, then you could display a fixed price.

- From: From prices are for services that vary in cost but have a minimum charge. For example, your website
design services start at $1,000 but could cost more depending on the client’s requirements.
How To Edit Your Services

1. Go to your GBP dashboard.

2. Click on “Info”.

3. Click on the “Edit” pencil icon next to the Services section.

4. Add business categories and services as needed.

You can either keep or delete Google’s recommended services. If you can’t delete them, you can still edit them,
change the service name, and add the price type and description.

Description

Your business description offers another good opportunity to get geo-relevance and add keywords to your listing.
You have a maximum of 750 characters to describe what your business does. Again, do not over-optimize with too
many keywords – it needs to be natural and easy to read. We recommend hiring a writer who specializes in SEO
copywriting.

The business description should contain an “elevator pitch” of your business and a call-to-action. Before publishing
the change, check that it does not violate Google’s guidelines.

How To Edit Your Description

1. Go to your GBP dashboard.

2. Click on “Info”.

3. Click on the “Edit” pencil icon next to the “Description” section.

4. Add your description, then click “Apply”.

Editorial Summary

The editorial summary shows up on some, but not all, knowledge panels. Google manually creates a summary for
big enterprises, chain brands, and other popular businesses. It appears in the top part of the knowledge panel and
in Google Maps.
Business owners have no control over whether they get an editorial summary. Similarly, if you do have an editorial
summary, you cannot write or edit it. If the editorial summary contains inaccurate information, you can reach out
to Google Business Profile using this form and request them to fix it.

Attributes

Attributes help a customer understand more about your business. The kinds of attributes that you can add to your
listing highly depend on your business category, so make sure that you choose the correct one first.

There are two kinds of attributes: factual attributes, which describe your available amenities/facilities or other
objective things that make your business stand out (e.g. wheelchair-accessible, Wi-Fi, woman-led business, etc.);
and subjective attributes, which describe less tangible qualities (e.g. popular, cozy, casual, etc.).
Editing/Adding Attributes

As a business owner, you can edit your factual attributes. However, you cannot edit or add your subjective attributes
– these are added by users who have visited your business.

If you want to add or edit factual attributes, follow these steps:

1. Log into your Google Business Profile dashboard.

2. Click “Info” > “Add Attributes”. Click the edit button.

 3. Search for or select the attributes that you want to add. When you’re done, click “Apply”.

Attribute Icons

Some common attributes come with icons that show up as “badges” on your GBP listing. These are only viewable on
mobile by viewing the listing on your mobile browser.
The list of attributes with icons is constantly growing, and it includes both factual attributes and user-generated
ones. There are also special attributes that you can only “earn” by meeting certain conditions. This includes the
“Highly rated” attribute, which you can only get if you have an average rating of at least 4.5 stars, and the
“Trending” attribute, which is added automatically by Google.

Missing Attributes

If you can’t find the attribute that you want to add, it’s most likely because that attribute isn’t available for your
business category. The attributes available to you are determined by your primary business category. The attributes
of a dentist would look very different from the attributes of a marketing agency.
Because no list identifies with absolute certainty which attributes are a part of which categories, you’ll have to
experiment with different (but related) categories to find the one that contains the attributes that you want. For
example, the “Happy Hour” attribute is not available under the “Dentist” category. But switching over to “Bar”
provides you with the option to select it.

Even better, attributes “stick” once you’ve added them – so if you want to change your primary business category
back to the original category (or to an entirely different category altogether), the attributes that you’ve already
added will remain on your listing, even if your new category doesn’t contain that attribute.

Again, you have to change your primary business category to get different attributes. Adding a secondary category
will not give you access to that category’s attributes.
It is important to note here that in some niches, especially those that Google considers high-risk (such as locksmith,
garage door repair, and personal injury lawyers) changing the primary category can trigger a suspension, so be
careful.

Finally, Google adds new attributes regularly. You should always check your dashboard to see if there are any new
attributes that you can add to your listing.

Subjective Attributes

Like factual attributes, the available subjective attributes change depending on the primary business category. Unlike
factual attributes, subjective attributes are not available on your Google Business Profile dashboard – instead, these
attributes are added and voted on by customers.

Users can add a wide variety of subjective attributes that describe the place’s atmosphere, service, quality,
amenities, and more. While you can’t control this part of your listing, it does give you great insight into what
customers think about your business.

You can find your business's subjective attributes by following these steps:

1. Open your Google Maps app on your mobile device.

2. Click on “Describe this place” or the “>” arrow next to the business description. If you can’t find either of
those options, that means that there are no subjective attributes for that business category.
Alternatively, you can also check your Google Business Profile Insights dashboard to find which attributes are most
associated with your business (under “Insights > “What your business is known for”), but this is only available for
listings in the restaurant or cafe categories.

Photos

Photos can serve many purposes on your listing. They can attract customers, help them find your location, and
push them towards making a decision. They can even help you rank better in Google Maps through increased geo-
relevance.

Collect as many photos as you can of your business. Google recommends several different types of photos such as
exteriors, interiors, products, and photos of your team at work. We encourage you to publish a few of each so that
customers get a better picture of your business. Make sure that each photo follows Google’s content and format
guidelines.
Photos should be taken using a high-quality camera. But, you don’t need to splurge on a DSLR – even an iPhone
camera works well if you have the proper lighting! If you can’t take photos of your business for any reason, you can
simply add photos of the city and surrounding area.

Once you have your desired images, you have to optimize them on your own or through a geotagging tool.
Geotagging tools allow you to optimize images in bulk, speeding up the process, and making it significantly less
tedious. Local Viking has a built-in optimization toolkit, but you can use any geotagging tool to format your photos.

Here’s how we do it:

- Filename: Name your photos after your brand name and/or a main keyword.

- Title: Add a main keyword or keyword variation as the image title.

- Subject: Add a keyword variation as the image subject.

- Tags: Add another keyword variation as the image tag.

- Comments: Add your business name, address, and phone number in the image comments.

- Authors: Add your website URL as the image author.

- GPS: Add your business’ latitude and longitude/GPS coordinates.

Then, when all the images are optimized, upload them to your GBP listing. Make sure you upload your photos in the
correct section (e.g. At work, Team, etc.).

We found that Google strips some of your image data when you upload to GBP. But photo optimization is still
important for two reasons:

1. Google may still read the information before stripping the data. We know, for example, that Google reads
the photo title – so adding a keyword here could boost your listing.

2. You will be publishing your photos in places that do not strip the EXIF data, such as Google Drive, your
website, and across the web.

Unlike Google, most sites do not remove the EXIF data when you upload your photos online. Google will still be able
to find these photos and read the data from these, so optimizing is crucial. Add images to your website’s location
pages, citations, press releases, social media profiles, and your Google Business Profile site (which we will discuss in
a later part of this guide).
Other Optimization Tips

Now that we’ve covered the most important optimization techniques, here are a few more tricks that could give
your listing an added boost in the local search results.

- If you have Google Ads for your GBP listing, add a Google Ads location extension to track your calls.

- Add your opening or establishing date. This makes your business seem more legitimate, increasing your
trustworthiness and authority with potential customers.

- If your business has multiple locations, you can add a store code or a unique identifier for your specific
branch. This helps Google tell the difference between your location and another location under the same
name.

- Don’t stuff any section with keywords, especially the “Advanced information” section. Some of our tests
have shown that using too many exact-match keywords in this part of your listing could increase the risk of
a soft suspension.
 - Under “Labels”, you can add more long-tail keywords and location markers. We’ve tried a variety of signals,
including our listing’s CID and MREID. Experiment to see which keywords increase your rank, keeping in
mind not to keyword stuff. We’d say two variation keywords are more than enough for this field.

GBP Posts

GBP posts allow you to inform customers about upcoming events, special offers, new products, and other updates
on your business. Posts are also usually overlooked as a ranking factor, so this is one area where you can stand out
from the rest.

In this part of our GBP guide, we’ll talk about the four types of GBP posts: Updates, Events, Offers, and Products.
Sometimes, Google will also launch special post types, like when they let businesses add a COVID-19 update during
the height of the pandemic.

Whenever we set up a GBP for one of our clients, we always have at least eight posts (two for each type) ready
before launch so that users already have several posts to look through.

See the different types of posts with this video.

You can add a new post by following these steps:

1. Go to your GBP dashboard.

2. Click on “Posts”.
 3. Click on the post type that you want to add.

4. Complete the post, then press “Preview” or “Publish”.

Update Posts

The most general type of post is an update post. You can use updates to make announcements, feature customer
testimonials, or give users a peek into the day-to-day of the business. Update posts last for seven days, after which
they are archived. Archived update posts can still be accessed on your GBP business site, but they will be hidden
from search results and your knowledge panel.

How To Create An Update Post

When you create an update post, you can add photos or videos to help it stand out. You can either upload photos
from your computer or choose a photo that you’ve already uploaded to GBP.
The post itself should be short and descriptive. There’s a 1,500-character limit before your post gets cut off – this
translates to around 250 to 300 words. Make sure you incorporate your brand name, address, phone number, and
the keywords you want to rank for. You can also link to previous posts, social media profiles, and your website.

You can add an interactive button with your desired call-to-action. You can choose from Book, Order online, Buy,
Learn more, Sign up, or Call now. Then, add the appropriate link, whether that’s to your website or an online booking
platform.
Check out this video for a step-by-step walkthrough of setting up an Event Post using Local Viking.

Events

Event posts are pretty straightforward. If you have an upcoming event that you want to promote, add an
announcement to your GBP listing. These can be offline events (e.g. conferences, gigs, parties, etc.) or online events
(e.g. webinars). Event posts expire after a specific date, and you can set up an event post up to 364 days in advance
before it expires.

Similar to Update posts, you can add a photo or video to your Event. You’ll also have to add an event title and
date/time. Use the description section to add keywords and explain what the event is about. Don’t forget to add
your NAP and link to your other posts!
Offers

For special deals and promotions, create an Offers post! Here are some examples of great offers that you can provide
to your customers:

- Discount coupons

- Deals on shipping

- Extra items for a minimum purchase

- Free quotes/estimates

You can offer anything you like, as long as it is real and legitimate. If you are caught promoting a deal that you don’t
offer, your listing could get suspended for violating Google’s terms of service. Also, keep in mind that you cannot
offer anything in exchange for reviews as that also goes against GBP policy.

To create an offer, you’ll have to add a photo/video, offer title, start and end date, and description. Like Event posts,
you can set the expiration date up to 364 days after posting. There isn’t a call-to-action button, but you can add a
link to your offer, discount code, and/or the terms and conditions of the offer.
Products

If you sell goods, then you can show them off in Product posts in your GBP listing. When you create a product post,
you’ll be asked to provide a photo/video, product name/title, price, description, and a call-to-action button.
Like Update posts, Product posts automatically archive after a week of posting.
You can add products from your GBP listing or create new ones. We recommend linking the call-to-action button to
the product page on your website or a page where users can buy that product. If you decide to link the CTA button
to a different page, make sure you include the product page as a naked URL in the post description. Then, set the
link to no-follow.

Publishing Posts

No matter what type of post you create, the next step is always publishing it to your listing. Click the “Publish” button
at the bottom of the dialogue box to make your post go live.
But publishing isn’t the last step – you still need to promote your posts so that customers find them. This can be
achieved by sharing your posts with your social media followers. Here’s how you can grab a shareable link:

1. Go to your GBP dashboard.

2. Click on “Posts”.

3. Next to the post you want to share, click on “Share post”.

4. Click on one of the social media buttons to share it directly to Facebook or Twitter. You can also share it via
email or copy-paste the link instead.

5. Take note of the post link. Add it to a Posts spreadsheet if possible.

When you publish a post on GBP, it cross-posts to your GBP site. You can also grab the link from your business site
and share that URL instead of the GBP one.

Posting regularly is almost as important as what you post. Try to post at least once a week, or more, if possible. If
you run out of things to post about, you can cycle through products you’ve already featured or showcase customer
reviews.

Stay up to date with GBP Posts with this video, and see our latest GBP Posting strategy with this video.

Reviews

Reviews are a major component of your GBP listing and one of the most important factors that contribute to your
local ranking. Plenty of high ratings and positive reviews signal to Google that you’re a trusted business that provides
excellent services to its customers.

The knowledge panel displays your overall rating as well as your total number of reviews below your business name.
Further down the knowledge panel, Google will show snippets from three customer reviews.
Sometimes Google pulls old or negative reviews that no longer reflect the current state of your business.
Unfortunately, there’s no way to control which reviews will show up in the knowledge panel preview. Upvoting or
collecting new reviews doesn’t impact which snippets are shown in the knowledge panel.

We should always be looking to get more legitimate reviews however. We outline some of our favorite tactics in this
video. Just make sure you follow Google’s guidelines on getting reviews to prevent a suspension or termination. A
quick outline of Google’s guidelines can be found in this video.

How To Get Reviews From Around The Web

The rating that the knowledge panel displays is an aggregate of your Google reviews score. But the knowledge panel
also pulls data from third-party review sites, listing your scores in the section “Reviews from web”. This is a great
way to “compile” all your customer reviews and ratings in one place.
Of course, this only applies if you have profiles on those review sites. Employer review sites like Glassdoor are not
included in the knowledge panel, and neither are scores from review giant Yelp. Some review aggregate sites source
the same reviews, so you may see duplicate scores.

To get reviews from around the web, your business name on GBP and your third-party profiles must be an exact
match. For example, if your business name on GBP is “Quick Water Solutions” but your name on the review site is
“H2O Inc”, then Google may not make the connection between the two profiles and it will be excluded from your
knowledge panel.

If it still doesn’t show up, you can also encourage Google to include third-party reviews in your knowledge panel by
linking to your review profiles from your website.

Should you simply pay for reviews on your GBP listing? We discuss that in this video.

Removing Reviews From Around The Web

Google wants to provide its users with fair and accurate business reviews, which is why you can’t simply remove a
review profile from your knowledge panel without good reason. There are two cases in which you can request for a
review profile to be taken off your GBP listing: if the review profile is linked to the incorrect business and if the
linked review profile is from a complaint site.

Getting a wrongly linked review profile removed is fairly simple – all you have to do is contact GBP support and
request for it to be removed. Make sure you include the following information in your request:

- The keyword/s that triggered the knowledge panel with the incorrect review profile

- The link to the third-party review profile that you want to remove

- An explanation of how the two businesses are not related

The process for removing a complaint site profile also begins with contacting Google Business Profile support. A
complaint site is any review site that is dedicated to collecting (mainly) bad reviews. This would skew your overall
score since these sites focus on negative feedback and your reviews there don’t offer a fair or complete picture of
your business. Google is usually willing to remove these review profiles if you reach out.

Learn more about removing negative reviews with this video.

Photos

“A picture is worth a thousand words” may be a cliche, but it applies to your Google Business Profile listing. Your
photos tell a story that your business information and even customer reviews can’t, so it’s important to get it right.

Your profile image shows up at the top of the knowledge panel and is one of the first things customers will see about
your listing. Plus, studies have shown a strong link between your GBP photos and local search performance.
Businesses with more photos get more views, more calls, more clicks, and more inquiries than average. It potentially
increases your rank, allowing you to show up on more searches and reach more customers.

How To Find Target Keywords

Take your main keyword and plug it into the search bar. Identify the listings with the most reviews – even a few
dozen or so will work, but the more reviews, the better. If you live in a small town, you might not get many hits. In
this case, search for the same keyword plus a location keyword of a big city. For example, “handyman Las Vegas”
will probably get you listings with more reviews than a similar search for a rural area.

Click on the listing to bring it up in Google Maps. Scroll to the reviews section and look at the featured reviews. Some
words will be bolded – these are the keywords you need to take note of. Repeat with other listings until you have a
list of keywords. You want your customers to use these keywords, your main keyword, and a location keyword as
well.
Here’s an example of a review that incorporates the keywords above:

“I called this company and got a swift response. The price they charged was lower than the quotes I got from other
Las Vegas handyman companies, and the quality of work they did was outstanding!”

Questions & Answers

Since Questions & Answers were added to GBP in 2018, this feature has been mostly overlooked by many SEO
experts and guides. Because of this, many businesses are missing out on the great opportunities that the Q&A
section offers.

Any user can ask you a question on your listing or answer a question that’s already been asked by someone else.
But the real value comes in answering the questions yourself.

Answering questions allows you to add keywords to your listing, but that’s not the biggest reason to prioritize your
Q&As. You can clarify information, expound on your products or services, or even create a quasi-FAQ on your listing
by posting (and answering) your own questions. Even better, your Q&As can show up in the search results page,
which increases the chance of someone stumbling upon your GBP.

The Questions & Answers section is also a great place to show off your amazing customer service. This improves
customers’ overall experience with you as well as how they perceive your business.

How To Add To Your Q&A Section

1. Go to your GBP dashboard.

2. On the home page, click on “View on Search”. Alternatively, you could pull the knowledge panel up directly
on Google Search.
3. Scroll down to the Questions & Answers section, labeled “Ask a question”. If you can’t find it on the listing,
click on “More about” to expand the section.

Note: The listing must be verified before you can ask a question.
4. Ask your questions.
 5. Answer the questions you’ve just submitted by clicking on the Answer button. You can use any account
(e.g. personal, business) to ask and answer questions.

Removing Questions

Sometimes, users ask inappropriate, irrelevant, or inflammatory questions. Thankfully, you can easily get them
removed by reporting the question.
If you want to remove a question or answer, just follow these steps:

1. Click on the three vertical dots next to the question you want to remove. Click “Report”.

2. Choose one of the following categories:

a. Incorrect information

b. Hate, violent, or inappropriate

c. Advertising or spam

d. Off-topic

e. Something else

f. No longer applies

In most cases, the question will be removed automatically and immediately.

Relevancy

One of the main pillars of local SEO, relevancy refers to how much your listing matches what the user is searching
for. Increasing your relevance starts with adding keywords – both niche keywords (e.g. handyman exterior painting)
and location modifiers (e.g. Las Vegas) are essential, especially if you want to rank in areas other than where your
business is located.

We’ll cover just a few basic tips to help you build relevance in your target locations. Stay tuned for another post on
more advanced relevancy-building techniques!

For now, here are a few simple things you can do to add relevance to your GBP and rank in your target areas:

- Add location keywords in your listed services. Add a different service for each geo modifier, making sure to
use the location in both the service title and description.
 - If you’re creating an FAQ in your Questions & Answers section, try to include your keywords plus a geo
modifier for the location you want to rank in.

Example: Do you provide exterior painting services in Las Vegas?

- When answering questions, try to include the target keywords + location marker as well.

GBP Business Sites

Google Business Profile doesn’t just offer a directory listing, it also offers a free business website. Unlike a regular
Google site, this website is automatically populated with data from your listing (another reason to make sure your
listing is always updated and accurate).

There are many things that you can do to optimize your business site through the GBP dashboard. Let’s go through
those optimizations now.

Basic Setup & Optimization

To access your GBP business site, go to your GBP dashboard and click on “Website”. From here, you can customize
your settings, choose a design, and build your website.
Select a theme that best fits your business. Then, click on “Edit” to optimize your site content.
Pro-tip: When you’re working on your GBP business site, make sure that you save your progress regularly. Some users
have reported GBP crashing or glitching, causing them to lose their unsaved work. You can save your site by clicking
on the checkmark at the top of the Edit panel.

Primary Button

One of the first things you should add is a primary button, also known as a call-to-action button. The primary button
is located in your site header and, therefore, is one of the very first things users will see when they visit your website.

Currently, you can choose from six different CTAs. These are:

- Call now

- Contact us

- Get quote
 - Make appointment

- Message us (SMS)

- Message us (WhatsApp)

Different CTAs work for different businesses, but we’ve found that “Call now” and “Make appointment” are the most
effective. These are the CTAs that put the customer further down the funnel, bringing you closer to a sale.
Others like “Contact us” and “Message us” leave room for the potential customer to ignore your responses.

No matter which button you choose, the contact information connected to the button is pulled directly from your
listing. If you make any changes to the contact number on your GBP site, it will also change the contact number on
your listing.

The “Make appointment” option redirects users to your GBP’s appointments link. As with your contact number,
changing the link on your site will also change it on your listing, so be careful with this. If you are a service-area
business, we highly recommend using this button because it’s a do-follow link, which means that it passes link juice,
authority, and relevance to the target site.
Site Headline

The site headline is the text that appears at the very top of your site. Initially, this will be auto-populated with your
listing name. The good news is that you can change it without affecting your listing. This is a great opportunity to
add a keyword to your headline and increase its relevance.

Site headlines are always formatted as an H1, so apply any header best practices when crafting your GBP headline.
Through extensive testing, we’ve found that a keyword plus a location is the most effective combination. If your
brand name already contains both a keyword and a location (e.g. “Las Vegas Low-Cost Handyman”, you can stick
with it or choose another variation. Just keep in mind that you have a maximum of 80 characters to work with.

Description

Your site description appears below your headline. It’s automatically generated with your category and operating
hours, but you can change it without altering any data on your listing. We prefer using a keyword variation since
we’ve already included a main keyword in the site header. You only have 140 characters for the description, but
since you’re only adding a few words, you don’t have to worry about running out of space.

Summary Header & Description

Your GBP site’s summary header is similar to a regular website’s H2, so make sure that you include a long-tail
keyword or a keyword variation to increase your relevance. You can add up to 40 characters in the summary
header.

Although it is called a summary “description”, you should think of this as the body of your content. This is a great
place to put a long-form article that’s optimized with keywords. You don’t have to worry about a character limit, so
you can take up as much space as you need. You can write your own article, but we’d recommend hiring a
professional writer with SEO experience to get the highest quality work.

Your article should be peppered with external links to relevant locations, your website, and other sites within your
industry. All these links are no-follow, which means that they don’t pass authority. However, they still add to your
relevance, which is why you should add them.
Use GBP’s editing tools to format your content in a way that’s easy to read. Divide up the paragraphs for better user
experience and use bolded or italicized words to draw attention to the most important ideas. The editing controls
are at the bottom of the panel.

Publishing

When your site is set up and ready for launch, go ahead and publish the site by clicking on the “Publish” button in
the upper right-hand corner of your screen.
Once you’ve already published the site, the blue button will change to “View Site”. Click on this button if you want
to see how your site looks when viewed by the public.

Posts

We already talked about the basics of GBP posts earlier in this guide, so in this section, we’ll focus on how posts can
boost your GBP business site.

Whenever you publish a post to your listing, it gets posted to the front page of the business site as well. Recent posts
are shown on the site’s home page, but you also get a unique URL/page for each of the posts. To get the post’s
business site link, simply click on the post on your GBP site home page.

This presents a great opportunity for building links, both internally and off-page.

The first thing you should do is organize your GBP site in a silo structure. Divide your posts into categories or topics.
Then silo them by linking these posts to each other, also known as “daisy-chaining”. Your first GBP post should link
to your GBP home page, while subsequent posts should always link to the post before it.
For off-page link building, link back to your posts’ unique URLs. Since all of your posts are interlinked, any link juice
or relevance from the external site will flow into your business site – not just the target post.

Videos

Like photos, videos are a great way to visually represent your business. However, there are a few guidelines that you
have to follow:

- Videos must be less than 30 seconds and 100MB in size.

- The minimum resolution for videos is 720p.

- Videos must be stable (in focus), well-lit, and of good quality. Videos that are shaky, out of focus, or darkly
lit may be removed by Google.

When you upload a video to your GBP listing, it shows alongside your photos. Once you upload two or more videos,
then your listing will get a dedicated videos tab.

Products & Services

Businesses usually sell products, services, or both to their customers. GBP has rolled out two features that could
help businesses advertise their offers and even close a sale: Products and Services.

We’ll get into the details of both below, but first, a note: you can add both Products and Services to your listing.
However, having both features enabled doesn’t mean that both will show up in the main overview tab – only
Products will appear in the business info section, although both will get their separate tabs.

Products

In 2019, Google Business Profile launched a new feature for most business categories: Products.

Products allow you to showcase top products and even allow customers to buy them directly from your listing. You
can even organize products by category or collection!

“Products” shows up on all mobile and desktop searches, although it doesn’t appear in Google Maps. If you’re
viewing it via desktop, the Products section takes up a very prominent place in the listing. It even shows up before
your Google Posts, which is where businesses used to promote their products and services.

If you are viewing the listing on mobile, “Products” shows up as a separate tab. It also appears in the main tab if you
expand the listing.

The major difference between Products Beta and products on Google Posts is that Product Beta gives you much
more visibility. Product posts only appear in your desktop knowledge panel for seven days after posting. In contrast,
Products let you display products permanently on both desktop and mobile searches.
Services

The Services feature is similar to Products, except it’s tailored for more service-oriented businesses. This feature
allows you to add your services, prices, and other relevant information to a “Services” or “Menu” tab.

When you add services to your GBP listing, Google may suggest a few popular predetermined services based on your
business category. Of course, you can still add your custom services if you can’t find them on the list.
You also don’t need to worry about optimizing your Services (or Products) – your content here does not affect your
local ranking in any way. There’s only one exception to this: if you have a GBP website that contains a services menu,
you can add that content to your listing. And since web content can influence your 3-pack ranking, optimizing that
services menu with the right keywords is worth the effort.

Other Link Building Opportunities

Links inside your GBP post are do-follow links, which means that they pass juice. You can use site posts to build links
to other assets such as your website, social media, and more. This creates plenty of link-building opportunities for
your other online profiles.

Your first step should be embedding your business site on your actual website, social media profiles, Google sites,
PBNs, press releases, and wherever else you have digital assets via an iframe. To add an iframe, add this piece of
code:

<iframe src=”your-business-site-url-here.com” width=”600″ height=”450″ frameborder=”0″

style=”border:0;” allowfullscreen=””></iframe>

Adjust the width and height so that the iframe is the correct size. You can place the iframe anywhere on your site,
but we’ve found that it’s best positioned at the bottom of the page. Google’s bots crawl the page from top to bottom,
and iframe codes may stop them from crawling the rest of the page. Put the iframe at the bottom so that the bot is
sure to crawl most of the content.
You can also build up your GBP site by linking to the posts and the jump links from your other profiles/sites. Take
advantage of all of these link-building opportunities to help you rank higher in both local and organic searches.
Other GBP Features

Appointments/Bookings

If you want to accept appointments, reservations, or bookings via your Google Business Profile listing, there are two
features that you can look at.

The Booking feature allows you to integrate a third-party booking partner into your listing. Currently, there are
dozens of “Reserve with Google” integrations (such as Klook, TripAdvisor Experiences, Full Slate, and Appointy), and
dozens more in the works.
Using the Booking feature makes it easier for customers to see your schedule/availability, make a booking, and get
reminders for their appointment. On the business end, it allows you to manage customer information, modify
bookings, and view booking insights.

If you already have an account with the scheduling provider, you can simply link your GBP account to your scheduling
account. If you don’t, you’ll have to sign up and pay the necessary fees (if any). There may also be fees associated
with booking through Google, depending on your provider.

In contrast, the Appointments feature is a field where you can add a URL to your booking page. While it doesn’t
have the “fancy” features that come with the Bookings integrations, it’s completely free and doesn’t require any
third-party scheduling provider.

Don’t use the Appointments feature to link to your homepage URL. If you don’t have a booking form or page, you
can link to your contact page instead.

Short Names

In April 2019, Google launched the short names feature to much fanfare. Short names allow businesses to add a
variation of their business name as well as get a customized GBP link that they can give to customers. These custom
URLs make it easier for customers to access the listing and leave reviews.
When the feature first launched, it caused a lot of issues. One of the biggest problems was that businesses found
that their listings disappeared after creating a short name. There was no notification in the dashboard nor through
email that the listing was removed or suspended, and the listing was still accessible through the dashboard, so this
was extremely confusing. Rankings also dropped immediately, undoing months of hard SEO work.

Google released a statement denying that listings were suspended. What actually happened was that the system
was having trouble associating the new short name with the listing’s CID URL. This could affect any listing with a
short name, but there seemed to be a much higher risk for listings with short names that were very different from
their brand names.
This issue appears to be largely resolved and reports of listings disappearing have, well, disappeared. We included
this information though in case you experience an issue with your listing after adding a short name.

GBP Mobile App

In this section, we’ll talk more about the GBP app and some of the special features it provides.

Not only can you respond to reviews and update your listing through the mobile app, but you can also access two
unique features that are not available on desktop or through your browser: Welcome Offer and Messaging. You
must have the mobile app if you want to set either of these features up.

Welcome Offer

The Welcome Offer encourages people to follow your GBP listing through the Google Maps app. Like Offer posts,
you can offer anything you want in exchange for a follow – discounts and free items are the most common welcome
offers.
Whenever a user follows your listing, they will get notifications about any new posts. Getting people to subscribe
means more people that you could market through your posts. Welcome offers are viewable on your listing through
Search or Maps.
Subscribing to a business listing automatically activates the offer, and users have up to two weeks to redeem it.
Putting a time limit on the offer redemption period creates a sense of urgency. Without a time limit, they may not
ever redeem the offer. With one, they’re pushed to take action before they lose out on the deal.
Messaging

Messaging provides you with another channel to communicate with your customers directly. You don’t even need a
third-party app for this – customers contact you through your GBP listing, and you receive notifications on the mobile
app. You can turn this feature on using the app’s dashboard.
Only turn messaging on if you can handle the volume of inquiries. According to Google’s policies, you have to respond
to all messages within 24 hours. Otherwise, they will turn messaging off. How fast you typically respond will be
displayed to users, so make sure you stay on top of your messages!

Google Business Profile is the cornerstone of local SEO. Through it, you can improve your brand visibility, provide
helpful information to customers, and rank higher in the search results.

Hopefully, this guide has provided you with everything you need to know to set up your GBP listing. Of course, this
is just an introduction, so make sure to read our other blog posts to learn more advanced optimization techniques!
Google Business Profile Auditing
Local SEO campaigns, especially in the context of ranking Google Business Profile listings,
shouldn’t start with a “one size fits all” approach. There are a number of critical issues that need
to be identified that will change the priorities of a given local SEO campaign.

This means that the first step of any local SEO/GBP digital marketing campaign is a thorough
and in-depth audit, aimed at identifying these critical issues before any work starts.

To help make the audit process more structured in our agency, we’ve developed a (free for now)
platform that you can use in your agency to track audits for your GBP campaigns. To sign up,
visit https://GBP.management and create your account.
The 7 Step GBP Audit

Our GBP audit process boils down to seven individual areas of interest:
● Name
● Address
● Phone
● Possum/Duplicate Listings
● Listing Audit
● Website Audit
● Citation Audit

Each audit step takes a variable amount of time (from a few minutes to 1-2 hours) and the
primary goal of the audit is to identify campaign altering issues prior to the campaign starting.
The Name Audit

The Name Audit step looks at the name of the business (and the GBP listing) to identify two key
potential issues: GBP TOS issues and the presence of Brand Dilution.

To begin, you should familiarize yourself with the ‘Guidelines for representing your business on
Google’, particularly the ‘Name’ section:
Having an noncompliant GBP listing name is a risk to the long term health of the listing as the
listing can be subject to suspension at any point in time (either due to an algorithmic detection
or via a competitor reporting the listing).

Due to the weight that the GBP title gives to the listing in organic rankings, titles are often
keyword stuffed and manipulated in TOS breaking ways; you may potentially need to have a
discussion about the risks and benefits of TOS breaking or encroaching naming strategies if you
are auditing a listing with good rankings for the keywords in the title.

Once the TOS review is done, the next step is looking for signs of Brand Dilution.

To check for brand dilution, take your business name and Google it (we’ll use Traffic Runners,
LLC for this example):
What we are looking for is a clear connection between the brand and its associated web
properties in the eyes of Google.

In this case we can see that the Knowledge Graph pops and the top 10 results are listings or
properties of the brand itself.
A failed Brand Dilution check will yield no Knowledge Graph for the business’s name and the top
10 search results will belong to several other businesses of similar names:

If you find yourself auditing a business that fails this step, you’ll need to alter the campaign to
begin with a strong priority on building branded links to the company’s website and thoroughly
completing audit point #7 (Citation Audit) to identify missing business listings that the company
should have.
The Address Audit
The address audit helps identify common address-based issues. To start, open up Melissa
Data’s Address Lookup Tool and enter the address of the listing as it shows on the GBP itself:
Press enter and view the results, you’re looking for all green and no identified issues:

You may experience a variety of address validation issues such as an undeliverable address or
non-existent suite # -- usually a discussion with the client is needed to clarify the source of the
error.
An errant Melissa Data check might look something like this:
Regardless of the issue, ensure Melissa Data checks for the GBP’s address are fully validated.

Next, drop the address into Google Maps and look for any listings at the same location:
You will have to toggle the zoom level multiple times but the goal of this activity is to identify any
listings at the same address that have the same GBP categories or targeting the same niche. If
you do find a listing at the same address, save it for the Possum audit step.

The last Address Audit step requires you to ‘Save’ a listing using the Google Map “List”
functionality:

We’ve created a list called ‘Audit’ but you can save a listing in any list you choose. After you’ve
saved the listing, do a search for the city that you or the client expects the listing to be ranking
in.
In this example, we’re using a Pizza Hut in San Francisco so the primary keyword tracking
should be using ‘San Francisco’ as the geo:

After entering the city into maps.google.com, you’ll see your saved location as a turquoise
colored pin. Pay special attention to the red outline that Google places to delineate the
boundary of the geo. If the saved location doesn’t exist within that boundary, you may very well
experience a ton of difficulty ranking the listing in the desired geo.
You may be surprised to see that the intricacies of city lines and addresses sometimes results in
clients thinking they are located in one geo but in the eyes of Google, they exist in another
(usually smaller and adjacent).
The Phone Audit

The phone audit has two primary purposes:

1. Ensure multiple businesses are not using the phone number listed on the GBP
2. Identify business listing issues, business listings that the business might have lost
control of, and any other data consistency issues

To perform the phone audit, take the phone number from the listing and ‘split’ it into the
variations of phone number formatting that your locale uses.

In the US, a phone number of “+13105554545” could be written the following ways:

"310 555 4545" OR

"310 5554545" OR
"310 555-4545" OR
"310555 4545" OR
"3105554545" OR
"310555-4545" OR
"310-555 4545" OR
"310-5554545" OR
"310-555-4545"

Using a Google “Dork” you can enter this as one search query:
"310 555 4545" OR "310 5554545" OR "310 555-4545" OR "310555 4545" OR "3105554545"
OR "310555-4545" OR "310-555 4545" OR "310-5554545" OR "310-555-4545"

Using this methodology, you’ll get back more results and potentially uncover listings associated
with your phone number that you wouldn’t otherwise have uncovered.

The Duplicate Listings/Possum Audit

The purpose of this audit is to make sure your business stands a chance of ranking. Duplicate
listings and sharing an address with entrenched competitors can smother your efforts from the
get go. We do this audit to level the playing field and guarantee that your hard work isn’t all for
nothing, which is sadly a distinct possibility if you don’t know what to watch out for.
So, step one. You want to highlight the address of your GBP listing and paste it into the Google
Maps search bar. Then we want to do a Nearby search.
Take a look at the results. Zoom out a bit to be sure you’ve got the lay of the land. You need to
be sure you’ve got a single GBP listing.

Everything good? Cool. Let’s keep it moving.

Now it’s time for a close competitors and category check. This is easy. We will search Google
Maps for the top level category of our business.
Now we want to zoom in on our building and see who’s in there with us.

We’ve got a bogey. Let’s make a note.

Now, at this point, we actually don’t know anything about Russell Gary Small. Maybe he’s a
prominent figure. His lack of reviews doesn't lend credibility to that assessment, but let’s do a
thought experiment. What if this guy has name recognition in the community because he’s
constantly airing “Car accident? Slip and fall? Do you know anyone at all that we can sue? Call
now” personal injury commercials on every TV station. If that’s the case, you have a problem.

Google filters results for searchers down to a single result per building. In order for your listing to
rank with any kind of prominence, you need to be the highest ranking outfit in your building in
your category. If you’re not winning the grown up version of king of the mountain, you won’t rank
outside the walls of your office. That’s no bueno.

Some people move to a different office to break the possum filter. That’s actually not a bad idea
if you’re dealing with someone whose rankings are entrenched and insurmountable. If that’s not
an option for you, you have a long road ahead of you. It will take all kinds of content creation
and link building to displace the top dog in your building. This is expensive and time consuming.
In nearly all cases, the most cost effective way to gain visibility is to move.

We’re done with the duplicate listings part of the audit now. We’re going to give ourselves a
passing grade and move on to the next section.
Listing Audit

Look at you! You’ve passed the first four sections of the audit. You probably think you’re hot
stuff right about now.

Stop it. This is no time to rest on your laurels. We have three more sections to go.

We created a profile in Google Business Profile to show you the ropes. It’s called Bob’s Law
Firm. We completed the profile all the way up to the postcard verification step.

The first thing we see in our audit is the category count. We want to select our business, then
click the info tab on the left side of the GBP dashboard.
We want there to be four or less categories when we combine the primary and additional
categories. We’ve got two.

Fantastic. We’ve passed the first part of the audit. Time to document it.

If you’ve got more than four categories, there’s a good chance you will lose your knowledge
graph on Google search. You need to have relevant information on your site for every category
your business claims.
The next two checkboxes we see on the audit wouldn’t be applicable to this kind of business.
Multi location? No. Not this law firm. We won’t check that box. Radius problem? That’s
something that applies to service area businesses. That box will also be unchecked.

A radius problem is mostly applicable to outfits with more than one location. Let’s picture a
business with two locations. Location one has specified that it will cover City A. Location two
has specified that it will cover Cities A, B, and C. Go sit in the corner. You just failed this part of
the audit. You can’t have two locations covering the same city. It’s just a matter of time before
your listings get suspended. Fix that issue quickly.

Okay--NAP consistency. Luckily for us, the imaginary citations that accompany this imaginary
listing have all been submitted with flawless consistency. You will need to take a look at the
citations associated with your listings though. Does any of the information vary? It shouldn’t. Fix
any consistency issues as quickly as you can.

Business hours. Easy thing to check on. Let’s take a look at what we’ve got going on with Bob’s
Law Firm.
Curious. So, this would be something to talk to your client about. Bob may have submitted that
information because he’s using an all-hours answering service. Google doesn’t like that. Unless
your business actually has staff on the clock all day, every day, this is a violation.

Let’s check out how we’d notate this in our audit.

Special hours. Easy. Are you open on Christmas? Easter? January 1? Make sure the days a
given business isn’t operating are properly accounted for in Google Business Profile.

C’mon, Bob. Really? You were off to such a good start. Get your act together.

Now we need to do a label check. Let’s see what Bob’s got going on.
Nothing. Perfect. This passes. Here’s the thing. Labels won’t help your rankings, but labels can
hurt them. Don’t keyword stuff this. Google doesn’t like that.

The next two check boxes we see are about local numbers. This is pretty straightforward.
Listings should have area code-appropriate phone numbers. If you’re a tow truck driver in
Miami, you don’t want a Seattle area code on your GBP listing. That’s a red flag. Let’s check in
on Bob.
Pfft. Fail.

Tracking number being used. What’s that all about? You can use tracking numbers with Google
Business Profile. They don’t violate the consistency of your NAP. Just make sure that tracking
numbers are listed as additional numbers.
Time to update the old audit. Here’s an example of how you’d notate the information we just
check up on.

Bob doesn’t have any photos uploaded. Google Business Profile doesn’t allow imaginary listings
created for eBooks to upload photos. It smacks of discrimination, but that’s just the way things
are. You’d check on your photos by clicking on the appropriate section on the panel on the left
side of the page.

Here’s how I’ve updated the audit for the purposes of this guide. You’d obviously populate the
field with whatever pertinent information you have.
Questions and answers is up next. Every GBP listing is capable of accepting questions from
Google users. Bob isn’t verified, so we’re going to show you a screenshot of a real listing.

We don’t have any questions in this listing. Business owners and listing managers can populate
this area with questions if they want to. Think of it like spiking a tip jar. It’s how you can get the
ball rolling and start interacting with potential customers/clients.
Reviews are a bit further down the knowledge graph from Questions & answers. Looks like
we’ve got something positive to report now.

After we’ve found the reviews, let’s take it one step further. We want to see if these reviews
have been responded to. Click the link we see at the bottom of that image. We can take a look
at review responses, if there are any, by clicking on “View all Google reviews.”
There are too many reviews to show them all in one screenshot. All of them have been replied
to. Way to go, Chris! Full disclosure: Christopher Graham has 17 five star reviews and a single
one star review. It looks like the one star review is bogus, frankly. Check out the resources
section of localviking.com to see how to handle erroneous review elimination. That’s a whole
other ball of wax, though. Let’s go ahead and update our audit for now.
Let’s get back to Bob. We need to take a look at his posts.

Sigh.
All right boys. We’re on the ten yard line now. Let’s see if Bob has a GBP business site. In case
you’re not in the know, Google Business Profile provides free websites for businesses. What
you do is select a subdomain for a URL in the following format: subdomain.business.site. It’s a
site you can use for free.

Looks like Bob is still suffering the same fate as other technically-not-real businesses. His site
isn’t live.

Be aware of the fact that no preparation of any kind was done on our end. Google has a ready
made site that you can publish. You can adjust things and make them the way you see fit, but
you really don’t need to. The information from your GBP listing will populate the site in
appropriate places.

Let’s put the finishing touches on this section of the audit. Then it’s time to move on.
The Website Audit

Way to go--you’re on section six of seven now. Guess what. This is the longest one. Go grab a
drink and a snack and settle in for the long haul. This isn’t going to be fun. You need to do it
though. This is what separates the wheat from the chaff.

Some of this stuff is simple. Tell you what. Just to ease you into things, I’m going to go to the
second item on the checklist because it’s a breeze. We’ll come back to item one after.

We didn’t lose anyone with that screenshot, right? You may want to consult some more
remedial material if so.
Now we need to venture into what amounts to not-that-familiar territory for a lot of people: URL
cannibalization. What we want to do is make sure all of the separate page URLs are fairly
distinct from each other.

Let’s check out our favorite attorney whose name could easily double as a vision test.
We’re going to find most of the site’s distinct pages inside that red box. The URLs are as
follows: rarefinlaw.com/about-us, rarefinlaw.com/attorneys, /practice-areas, /news, /resources,
/contact-us, and /how-to-find-us.

Easy pass. All of those URLs are unique. An example of something that would fail would be if
the page contained something like rarefinlaw.com/lawyer and rarefinlaw.com/lawyers. We don’t
want URLs fighting over the same keywords.

Now let’s take a peek at the URL structure.

Decent. There are no glaring errors. They could be improved though.

Now we need to take a look at the site’s service page. In this case, it’s the Practice Areas page.
The content is kind of light. It needs to be beefed up somewhat. Also, the personal injury link
takes you to a family law page. That’s an issue.

Time to take a look at the site’s meta title and its competitive health. You can find the meta title
by letting your mouse hover over the tab the site is loaded in.

That’s our homeboy. Let’s take a look at three of his competitors, all of whom outrank him.
Here’s how we’d write this up.

Now it’s time to look at H1 and H2, which is HTML code for different header types.

Most sites will have H1 and H2 HTML tags. They’re the largest and second largest (out of six)
header types. Not all sites use these tags though; for example, czepigalaw.com doesn’t use
either. Some sites will have some H1 headers, but no H2 headers. Some sites will use H2s, but
not H1s. It’s a mixed bag.

There are many plugins and extensions you can use to make your life easier. One feature that
every browser has is the ability to view source. To check up on the headers we need for our
audit, load any given page’s source, then search for H1. After that, search for H2. You want to
make sure the tag is preceded by the following character: <. That’s how you open HTML tags. If
you live in a part of the world that considers mayonnaise an acceptable french fry condiment,
you may know that character as a “left single-angle quotation mark,” apparently. It’s always
acceptable to call it a less than sign, as far as anyone at Local Viking knows. No matter. You
open HTML tags with < and close them with >.
Given that longer-than-needed explanation, let’s take a closer look at how these tags are used
in practice.

Pretty complicated image, right? Let’s break it down. The highlighted text is as follows:
<h1><span class="diyfeDecoration">Law Office of Refai Arefin LLC - East Berlin,
Connecticut</span></h1>. That means the text we’re interested in is “Law Office of Refai

Arefin LLC - East Berlin, Connecticut.” Let’s look at his H2 headers.

The text we’re interested in here is “Contact Us” and “Office Hours.”

Now we’ve got the H1 and H2 text from our client. Fantastic. Now it’s time to scope out the
competition. We’ll start with aetonlaw.com.
We’ll first take a look at his H1 tags.

The text that’s important to us is “CONNECTICUT LAWYERS FOR TRIALS AND

TRANSACTIONS.” Now we’ll want to take a look at the H2s.

The <h2> text we need to make a note of is "Practice Areas," "Clients' Reviews," "Recent
News," and "GET OUR BOOK." We could show you more screenshots of code in red boxes, but
you likely get the idea.

We also ran down the code of the other competitors mentioned in the meta title section of this
audit. Of note, neither of the other two were using <h1> tags, and czepigalaw.com wasn’t using
<h1> or <h2> tags.

Time to update the audit.

Okay, now that we’re all nice and familiar with H1 and H2 tags, let’s take a closer look at the
page source to identify if there’s any rhyme or reason to the way these tags are applied. We’re
going to go all the way down to <H4> this time.
Swing and a miss.

Now we need to take a look at the main elements of the page. We’re going to borrow a phrase
from the legendary SEO oracle Allen Levings, and keep our eyes peeled for “the three kings.”
The three components here are the page title, the H1 tag(s), and the URL.

We’ve got our three kings highlighted in this image. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of variation
here. Let’s write it up.
All right. Time to evaluate image optimization. We’re going to use a shortcut this time around.
There’s a browser extension called SEO Meta in 1 Click, which anyone can get for free from
seo-extension.com, and we’re going to have it give us a rundown of the images on
rarefinlaw.com.

It looks like there’s only a single image that has ALT text and a title. Let’s update the audit.
We want to examine the site now for services/GBP categories in bullets. Let’s take a look at
rarefinlaw.com again.

So, we’ve got some bullets here. That’s a good sign. Let’s take a quick trip to PlePer.com and
use their GBP category search tool.
Let’s search some of the bullet points on rarefinlaw.com now. Here’s a good one.

Got it. Now, let’s paste that into the PlePer tool.

Whomp whomp. Dang. Also, if we recall the statement we made three entries ago in the audit,
there are no <H3> tags on this site. Let’s update the audit again.
Now let’s take a look at the local content on the site.
So, there really isn’t any. His address is obviously local to where his office is--as local as
possible, technically. Aside from that, we’ve got driving directions, which amounts to the same
sort of content.

This isn’t local content though. If he had some information about ordinances, or zoning issues,
or specific criminal statutes that pertained to East Berlin, that would be more along the lines of
what we’re looking for.

We need to see if we have any links to top level sites now. There aren’t any. It’s difficult to show
a screenshot of something that isn’t there.

What we’d expect for top level site links would be things like Facebook, Avvo, Yelp, Martindale-
Hubbell. We don’t have any such links on rarefinlaw.com.

We need to check for an embedded map now. We know the site has one from the local content
part of this audit. The thing is, that’s not the page the GBP listing links to, which is just
rarefinlaw.com. That’s a check box we are going to leave pristine.
Is the NAP information listed on rarefinlaw.com? Indeed it is. It’s actually on every page of the
site, in the left hand column.

Let’s go ahead and update these last two audit items.

The next audit item concerns whether or not Search Console has highlighted the site’s NAP
information. We do not have access to Search Console in this situation. We are going to omit
that step in this particular audit. It is an important item on the list though. You should check it out
if you’re able to.

Now it’s time for everyone’s favorite: JSON LD. If you’d like to find out if the site you’re auditing
has JSON LD installed, run a Google Schema Checker test. You can do that at
https://search.google.com/test/rich-results. Let’s take a look at the way things shook out.
We got an error. That’s a no. Let’s double check though. Open the page source and do a search
for JSON. To be triply sure, check for schema as well.

Strike two.

We can stick a fork in this audit item now. Time for a new audit update.
Are you guys still with us? Stand up. Stretch, if you need to. Snap back into focus afterwards,
though. We’ve got a little ways to go.

Okay--entity page. This is usually any given site’s “about us” page.
It looks like the audit gods have decided to throw us a bone for the first time in a long while. The
entity page exists. It needs quite a bit of work though. That photo gallery contains a single stock
image of books on a shelf that anyone who has ever visited the Winter Park Public Library’s
third floor can relate to.
That image isn’t doing anyone any good--not the site owner, not the site visitors, and certainly
not the site auditor. To describe it in a single word, the one we’d choose is “weird.”

This audit item gets a checkmark, more as a result of a technicality than anything else.

We’ve got some internal linking to investigate now. Not your cup of tea? Buck up. We’re almost
done now.

The first thing we’d evaluate is Google Analytics. We do not have access to that information.
We’re going to omit it from this audit. Do not skip this if possible.

Siteliner is next. If you don’t know about Siteliner, learn about it. The website is siteliner.com.
After you enter the URL for it to examine and it finishes its analysis, we want to click on Your
Pages (a link you’ll see on the left), then sort by Page Power.
It looks like our resources page is the most powerful of the lot. Most of the internal links go to it.
That is atypical. In fact, the bottom two pages we see here, family law and wills, trusts, estate
planning are the two we’d like to see at the top. Sometimes SEO is a cruel mistress.

We want to take a look at Search Console next. Alas, that is a window we’re unable to look
through. We’re moving past it out of necessity. This is information you need to include if you’re
at all able to.

We have four audit fields to catch up on now.

All right. Get ready to pat yourself on the back. Don’t actually do it yet--we still have one last text
field to fill out--just get ready.

Let’s give an overall summary now.

All right. No more text to enter for this section of the audit.

Hold your horses, though. We’re not done. We have a radio button to designate.
We really have no option other than to fail rarefinlaw.com for the website audit. Far too few of
the things we checked on passed.

Okay. Now you’re done with the website audit. Get your bearings. It’s time for the seventh and
final step of the GBP audit. Don’t worry. It’s short.

The Citation Audit

We use a local citation finder tool on whitespark.ca when we do this citation audit. The tool isn’t
free, but it is powerful. It’s worth paying for an account, even if it’s just to do an audit on a single
client.

What you want to do is set up a search for the domain in question. When the search has run,
you want to click on the results, then take a look at the three tabs at the top. You’ll want to take
a look at the comparison tab.
Let’s talk about what we’re looking at here. The first column is the domain you just ran the
search on. The other columns are its competitors. The rows are the citations that your domain
either has or is eligible for. We can see how we stack up to our competitors in the citation game.
Pretty neat, right?

We’re ready to jot some observations into our audit now.

Take the landscape into account when trying to determine which citations you need. Take a look
at yandex. It comes in tenth in domain authority, but only one of the site’s competitors has a
citation there. In a case like that, load the site and check it out.
Unless your client has a highly-specialized practice that caters to Slavic and/or Turkic peoples,
this is a citation you can skip.

Moving on, let’s talk about how you’d find duplicate citations. It’s going to be a slog without a
tool like Whitespark. You just need to start searching for citations. As good a place as any to
start is yellowpages.com.

We’ll spare you the screenshot. We didn’t find any citation duplicates for our buddy Refai
Arefin’s website. Let’s write it up.

Oh snap. We’re close to the finish line here, ladies and gents. Take ten or twenty deep breaths
before we move on. You don’t want to hyperventilate when we get to the end.

Ready? Splendid.

Let’s give this audit a summary of the citation issues we did or didn’t find.
We’ve got three more left clicks, then it’s curtains.

We need to score this audit. There are three choices: pass, fail, and needs improvement. The
needs improvement designation was designed for 50-50 situations, which is exactly what we’ve
got on our hands.

Here we go. Click one, click two, click three.

Seriously, way to go. This was almost certainly time consuming if you’ve never been through it
before. Don’t worry. There’s a learning curve. After one or two more, you’ll fly through them.
Congratulations. Making it to the end of this audit was a grind, but you’re inarguably better for it.

That’s it. You’re done.

Scram.

Fighting off Fake & Old Competition in Google Maps

Google Maps is the lifeblood of local businesses worldwide. Many local businesses live and die on the free
organic traffic they receive from Google Maps, but there is a massive amount of fake and old listings that clog up
real businesses ranks. See, at the end of the day you have 2 choices on how to deal with your competition. 1: Out
rank them
2: Remove them
And you can't remove real businesses, but you sure can remove fake or old listings. Now you might say to yourself,
why waste the time removing them if I can just outrank them like real businesses. The truth is, you could, but if
you are a legitimate business trying to outrank a fake one, it’s equivalent to trying to beat a hacker in a video
game. Unless your a hacker also, your not going to be able to match their success. Why should you have to spend
exponentially more time and money to try and outdo this hacker when you could simply call them out and be done
with it. That’s one less listing you have to try to out rank.

If you agree that fake listings are damaging and you want a solution, skip to the solution here. If you want to learn
a bit more about the damage it causes, keep reading.

Ok well what's one or 2 fake listings? It's the internet right? You might be tempted to ignore auditing for fake listings
but it would be a big mistake. Take a look at this image.
The 1st listing points to a random house in the middle of the woods.
The 2nd listing is keyword stuffed. As per Google’s terms of service, keyword stuffing is in violation of
the rules.
The 3rd listing points to a random building. Now lets talk about the 3rd listing for a second. You might be
saying, hold on for a minute, maybe the business is legit and is just inside. Google’s terms of service also
states, you must have a sign outside showing the world you exist. Below is the sign outside that building
and no where on that list do I see a business called “Tax Consultants LLC”.
It makes sense why Google wants any business with an address to have a sign. Think about it. If a listing
in Google Maps has an address, its saying, come to this location so we may service you. How furious
would you be if you drove 30 mins out of your way to a business that didn’t exist?

So, without going any further, the 1st 3 listings alone are in violation of Google's terms of service and
should not exist. The 3 most important positions on Google Maps are being held by listings that
shouldn’t exist. Meaning, if your business was in 4th, your losing out on almost 100% of the traffic. 4th
and below on Google Maps is as good as being on page 2 of Google search. If you reported those 3
listings, you could be on 1st in Google Maps as fast as Google accepts the suggestions which could be as
fast as the next 5 mins. It could also take weeks to get the listings removed as Google gets non stop
suggestions about removing listings.

Now you still might not be convinced the issue is all that serious. It's just 3 listings after all. Well, are you
factoring in the distance each listing covers? This is where Local Viking’s geo grid system becomes
invaluable.
This scan is a 13 mile by 13 mile area and this is a fake listing that is taking up a 2 mile by 3 mile area of
the top 3 positions of Google Maps. You might still be saying, ok well it's just 1 listing. That's just it
there are many other listings like this one as the hackers just spam Google Maps to block out real
listings.
Enough fake listings ranking a little here, and a little there, and soon, all the best positions in Google
Maps are stolen for a wide area. What do these fake listings have to gain? Well the game is simple.
They then turn around to the real business and sell the traffic back. So, the real businesses are not only
paying exponentially more in marketing in hopes of out ranking some of the fake listings, they are also
tempted to buy their traffic back.

The Solution to Fake Listings

Unfortunately the only solution is a manual one, and it must be conducted once a month and in some
extreme cases, once a week. The reason for this is black hats make hundreds of thousands of fake
listings every single day world wide. They are very used to losing their listings and making new ones so,
if you ever hope of keeping your true ranks, you must conduct this audit every month. We handled a tax
consultant client who, on average, had 70 fake listings removed every month. And every month after,
about 70 more fake listings were found and removed again. The second you stop fighting back is the
second you lose your ranks again to the hackers.

We are going to give you the blueprint on how to conduct this audit. But if you would like to have
someone else provide this service for you, click here. Let's begin.

Step 1:
Run a GeoGrid scan on Local Viking for every keyword you want checked.

Step 2:
You have 2 options here.
Option 1 is to manually click each node in the scan and see who ranks in front of you. Identify any listing
that is keyword stuffing or is fake.

Option 2 is to download the CSV file of the scan and remove all duplicates. You would then identify and
fake listings blocking your ranks.
Step 3:
Create a list of all the listings in question. Record the following details:
Listing Name
Listing Map URL
Reason Why Its against the Rules

The last detail is important because you will need it for a later step.

Step 4:
Starting from the top of the list your made, click the map url and click Suggest an Edit.
If the listing is keyword stuffed, click Change Name or Other Details and change the name to what it
should say.

If the listing is fake or old, click Close or Remove and click the correct reason.
Rinse and repeat for every listing you found in question.

Step 5
Submit the fake listings to Google through their redressal form. Remember that list you made?

Fill out the form with one of the listings in question and upload your list with their file upload button.
Step 6
Wait and see what happens. Despite how painfully obvious a fake listing might be, it still might not be
taken down. It could take many tries and in some extreme cases, you might have to call the listing out
on Google’s forum.

Step 7 - Optional
This step is optional but you might be tempted to recheck your list of reported listings to see what got
removed. You will also see the changes reflected in your GeoGrid scans. It's not uncommon for fake
listings being the sole reason why you're not in the Google Map pack.

Step 8
Repeat this process again at least once a month. It's not enough to run this audit once and be done. The
fake listings will just return again.

A Team Dedicated to Fighting Fake Listings

Ok, now that we broke down how to fight fake listings on your own, let’s talk about a company called
Local Business Protection, whose sole purpose is to identify and report false competition on Google
Maps. They charge a flat monthly fee and remove listings against Google’s terms of service in a cost
efficient manner.

This spam fighting team does the work for you behind the scenes and gives you access to a full client
facing dashboard.
You're given a clear transparent visual on what listings are being monitored and which have been
successfully removed. Not much more to do but to sit back and relax.
Part II: Automating your GBP Reporting and
Management

Many people think that once you’ve created and implemented your SEO strategy, the hard part is over. But in reality,
that’s when the work really begins.

You won’t know if your SEO efforts are working unless you measure your results. In this guide, we’ll walk you through
the basics of GBP analytics and how to handle client reports.

After setting up a campaign, the next priority should be automation. A lot of local SEO can be tedious and repetitive.
These efforts are necessary, of course, but they take your focus away from the things that need the most attention
– like bringing in new clients and developing strategies, just to name a couple.

Automating certain action items saves you time and money in the long run. It also frees you to scale up without
sacrificing quality or performance, meaning you can take on new clients (and increase your profits). Or, if you’re a
business trying to DIY your marketing, this lets you focus on actually running your business.

This guide also contains helpful advice on how to automate parts of your strategy. So if you’re ready to improve your
efficiency and create more effective local SEO strategies, read on!
Note: GBP reporting and automation are highly dependent on the tools you use. For this guide (at the risk of sounding
like self-promotion) we’ll be using the Local Viking dashboard. Most of our recommendations and instructions involve
this software, but there’s also plenty of advice that you can apply no matter what program you’re using!

Tracking Your Local Pack Rank

The truth is that most conventional rank trackers don’t give a complete or accurate picture of your SERP placement.
We won’t go into too much detail about this, but we did write a blog about why local rank trackers often suck, so
you should check that out if you’re interested.

But the general idea is that conventional rank trackers only show you what the rank is in the area of the person doing
the tracking. We all know that proximity is a huge factor in local search, so what may show up as the top result in
one neighborhood may not show up at all in another.

This is why we believe in the GeoGrid – it accurately reports how you rank depending on the location of the searcher.
Having access to this data means that you can identify which markets you’re performing well in, and which areas
you need to boost. Hyper-local optimization is the name of the game.
Client Reports

Many marketers dread the monthly client report meeting, but reporting is essential to maintaining good client
relationships. These meetings allow you to demonstrate the real value of your SEO efforts, which increases customer
satisfaction and the likelihood that they’ll renew their contracts.

We believe that, in most cases, poor customer retention can be traced back to poor client reporting. Many don’t
know which metrics to include or how to present their wins. It doesn’t matter if the results are great – if clients don’t
understand that, then they won’t be able to justify how much they’re spending on SEO.
In this section, we’ll go through our process for automated reporting and customer management.

How To Automate Reporting

GBP Insights is a useful tool, but we want to dive deeper for our client reports. So we import our insights into the
Local Viking dashboard using an API. Not only does this give us way more information to work with, but it also lets
us see the growth of our top metrics at a glance.
If you don’t understand these metrics or what they mean to your client, you can check out this video.

How To Choose Metrics

Half the battle of client reporting is knowing which metrics to present. You don’t want to overwhelm the client with
too many metrics, even if they show positive growth, because they dilute the impact of your biggest wins.
One of the biggest mistakes that beginner SEOs do is only reporting on local rank. While this is technically the “goal”
of your local SEO efforts, it doesn’t mean anything to the client. Your job is to report on the metrics that directly
correlate with economic value. These are your conversion metrics, like phone calls, website visits, and driving
direction requests.

The metrics we’ve included in the Local Viking dashboard are our favorite ones to report to clients. We don’t use all
of them all the time, and they may not be relevant to your clients specifically, but they’re a good starting point.

How To Present Metrics

If choosing the metrics is half the battle, presenting them is the other half. Great results don’t mean anything if your
client can’t understand them.

When you’re delivering the results to the client, you want to present them in small, digestible pieces. It’s
overwhelming for anyone to be presented with large amounts of information, even more so if they aren’t familiar
with SEO.

The Local Viking tool lets you click on each of the cards to “highlight” them when reporting to your client, making
each piece of information more “bite-sized”. You can even omit certain metrics from the report, especially if you
don’t want to draw attention to any negative results.

Focusing on the positives will benefit both you and your client.

Negative results can distract clients from seeing their wins. We’ve had many cases of clients chewing out our account
managers because of minor decreases, even though the most important metrics show major improvements.
Omitting negative results also lets you troubleshoot internally before presenting them to the client.

Highlighting your progress is a good way to keep retention rates up and take care of your team. Of course, you can
still present negative metrics if you can spin them into a positive or propose an action plan to improve them.
At our agencies, we submit client reports every 1-4 weeks, depending on the needs of the client and the scope of
work. So that we don’t miss any important meetings, we set up notifications both on our end and the client’s.

To see how to create automated reporting for your clients, you can watch this video.

GBP Posts

No one should anchor their entire local SEO strategy on GBP posts, but they do contribute a small boost in rank if
you know how to optimize them. We’ve had a few clients in low-competition markets that managed to edge out the
competition just through a few posts with the right location keywords and geo-tagged images.

You can also generate an RSS feed through Local Viking, then syndicate your post content to your other brand
entities. Or, if you’re looking for a more advanced post-optimization technique, try analyzing the keyword results of
your commercial queries. Take note of what keywords are being used and how frequently, then mimic that in your
posting strategy.

This guide, however, isn’t about optimization strategies. Instead, we’ll talk about how you can use Local Viking to
automate your GBP posts.
How To Post To GBP From Local Viking

In the Local Viking suite, there’s a posts section where you can see your stats and previous posts.
If you click on “New post”, you’ll be able to draft, publish, and schedule your posts without leaving the dashboard.

From here, you can choose what kind of post you want to make. Right now, there are three types available: Standard,
Event, and Offer. You can also add a CTA button and assign a URL. Add this if you want to direct people to your
website, a product page, or your booking/appointment platform.
Add your content, which should already be optimized according to the best posting practices. Make sure that you
link to the GBP listing itself, the relevant location page, and your previous post. Daisy chaining is an important part
of this process since your posts appear as separate web pages on the GBP site.

Automating Posts

It can be tedious and time-consuming to do this process every time you want to post to GBP. The Local Viking posting
tool supports syntax, which means that you can automate creating the post itself. For example, it can automatically
insert SERP and domain URLs that you’ve previously used, which shaves a few minutes off the process.

Also, scheduling your posts in advance lets you take care of your upcoming posts in one go so that you’re not going
back and forth every week. To automate your posting, toggle the switch next to “Schedule Post?”. This will open up
a calendar where you can select the date and input the time that the post will be published. You can schedule posts
months in advance, although we like to do it only one month ahead, which gives us some room to change our content
strategy if necessary.

If you have many clients and/or need to upload posts in bulk, there’s an easy solution. You can upload a CSV file that
contains your content, URLs, and even posting date. This lets you schedule a lot of posts in advance without having
to do it one-by-one in the Local Viking tool.

Check out this video for a step-by-step walkthrough of using Local Viking to automate your GBP posting, or check
out these videos for more tips and tricks:
Acceptable GBP Post Content
Daisy-Chaining Posts
Multi-Location Posting
Bulk Uploading Using a CSV File
Daisy-Chaining Bulk Uploads
Deleting a Post Before It’s Published

Photo Optimization

Photos aren’t just “decoration” for your GBP listing and posts. If you optimize them correctly, they can push niche
relevance and location signals as well.
How To Add Images To GBP From Local Viking

In the “New media” tab of the Local Viking suite, you can add and optimize your GBP photos. The tool lets you add
a category and schedule when it will go live.

You can upload your own images (which we highly recommend for your listing photos), but you can also use the
extensive stock photo provided by Local Viking for your GBP posts. Just search for the image you want, and add it to
your dashboard. You can also adjust the image dimensions or crop the photo, so you don’t need an external image
editor to make minor edits.
Check out this video for a step-by-step guide to using Local Viking to upload images to your GBP listing.

Optimizing EXIF Data

Your images shouldn’t just look good, they should also be optimized. Thankfully, the Local Viking tool provides an
easy way to edit EXIF data before you publish your photos.

Select the “EXIF” tab from the navigation bar. You have three options: keep EXIF, edit EXIF, or clean EXIF. If you
choose “edit EXIF”, all the metadata fields will become customizable. We use syntax in ours to automatically pull
data from our listing and populate the metadata fields, which makes this process even more efficient.
There’s another helpful feature here. At the bottom of the screen, there’s a GPS section. “Use GPS from location?”
is automatically checked, but you can uncheck it if you want to add your own GPS coordinates. This is great for hyper-
local optimization or if you want to target areas outside where you would normally rank.

To identify the right GPS coordinates to add, you can check the GeoGrid or a GPS coordinates tool.
For a step-by-step walkthrough of using Local Viking to optimize your images, check out this video.

Questions & Answers

Questions and answers, despite their importance in local SEO, are often overlooked. This section is a great way to
add keywords, address customer queries, and build trust with both consumers and Google alike. Still, keep in mind
that, like GBP posts, Q&As should not form the foundation of your local SEO strategy. It’s an extra bit of optimization
that can provide a small boost, but not enough to justify spending hours working on it.

This is why we’ve automated certain aspects of our clients’ Q&As – our listings still get the benefits, while we’re
freed up to focus on the more demanding aspects of our strategies.

Having an FAQ on your listing is a good way to increase engagement. And since more people are moving towards
voice search (where their searches are often in the form of a question), having your info laid out in a question-and-
answer format can help you rank in voice results.

How To Answer Questions From Local Viking

Click on the Q&A tab in the Local Viking suite. You can view all of the questions currently on your GBP listing, whether
you’ve answered them or not. You can answer questions right from your dashboard by clicking on the arrow next to
it. The question will pop up on the right-hand side of the screen, along with a text box where you can input your
answer.

Aside from answering questions, the Local Viking tool lets you ask them. So if you want to create a quasi-FAQ page
on your GBP listing – a great opportunity to add keywords, by the way – you can do so from here.

Bulk Uploads

The bulk upload option is one of the best Q&A features that the tool offers. You can upload a CSV file that contains
all of your questions and answers so that you don’t have to add them manually. If you handle a lot of listings, this is
a great efficiency hack because it provides a fast and easy template where you can literally “fill in the blanks”
depending on the client.

To take advantage of this, you have to create your CSV file. Open a new spreadsheet, and add two columns: one for
questions, and one for answers. You should also leave two columns for the legend/key.

First, let’s tackle the key. The information you place here should match what’s on the GBP listing, including
formatting. In the example below, we’ve included just seven cells. But the more information you have, the better.
Next, write your Q&As. But when you’re drafting them, use substitution variables based on the “key” information
you have. For example, instead of writing out your phone number, write {{phone_number}}. If you handle many
clients in the same niche, we suggest writing more general questions so that you can reuse this template across
several campaigns.

Once you have all of your questions and answers laid out, it’s time to substitute the variables for the actual
information. Click on Edit > “Find and replace”. Under “Find”, add one of the substitution variables (e.g. {{City}}).
Under “Replace with”, input the corresponding data (e.g. {{Baltimore}}).
Make sure that Search is set to “This sheet”, then click “Replace all”. This will automatically replace every instance
of the variable with the actual information. Repeat this until you’ve replaced all of the substitution variables. Then,
quickly scan over the finished work so that all of the substitutions make sense. You may need to reword some if
there’s awkward phrasing or incorrect grammar. After that, your file should be ready for uploading!

Copy-paste the questions and answers column into the CSV file, then upload it to the Local Viking tool. It will
automatically import and publish your Q&As to the listing.

This is a great tactic for marketing agencies or SEO professionals who handle a lot of listings within the same niche.
You can just reuse the template and customize it for each client rather than starting from scratch, which saves a lot
of time. Plus, it’s easy enough that you can assign the work to someone else (like a virtual assistant), and it will take
them just 10-20 minutes per client.

Check out our walkthrough on using Local Viking to manage your Q&As with this video.

Part III: Ranking Signals Walkthrough

 Half of the Local SEO Battle: Website Optimization

Most on-page optimization guides only tackle the organic SEO side, overlooking the fact that site optimization plays
a significant role in local SEO as well. By adding location signals to your website, this tactic packs a 1-2 punch: you
can increase your rank in the organic SERP as well as the local pack.

In this guide, you’ll learn more about the different strategies we use to optimize our sites for local search. We won’t
get too technical because we want to focus on improving your site’s authority, but we’ve included a lot of actionable
advice and step-by-step instructions to get you started.

Our On-Page Optimization Philosophies

Every SEO agency has their own philosophy on how they approach on-page optimization. We’ve tested several
different approaches to varying levels of success. After years of refining our strategies, we now swear by two big
ideas that consistently deliver great results: the 2/3 rule and reverse engineering.

The idea behind the 2/3 rule is simple: when adding keywords to various elements of the page, they should only
appear in 2/3 of those attributes. For example, if you have a keyword in your URL and page title, you can skip out on
adding a keyword in the H1. It’s not a perfect science and there are some exceptions. But this is a great rule of thumb
to avoid over-optimizing, especially for new SEO professionals.

But when it comes to the larger framework in which we operate, we’ve found that nothing is more effective than
reverse engineering. Reverse engineering is when you look at what other, successful businesses are doing and mimic
that in your strategy.

Since search engines aren’t entirely transparent about how their algorithms work, this (combined with testing and
refining) is one of the best ways to build an effective local SEO game plan. When we try to reverse engineer our
competitors’ winning techniques, we look at the top three non-directory results.

Optimizing Basic Elements

A successful on-page strategy usually targets a wide variety of ranking signals. But for this guide, we’ll focus on the
three on-page attributes that are most essential to local SEO campaigns: page title, meta description, and headings.
You’ll want to compare how your competitors handle these three elements, then reverse engineer the best
practices.
If you want to save time, you can invest in a tool that extracts this data automatically for you. Some software will
even make specific recommendations based on the information they pull. But these programs cost money, which
makes them inaccessible to beginner SEOs and businesses who are DIY-ing their marketing.

The good news is that you can still pull this data on your own, for free, and with a tool you’re probably already
familiar with.

By setting up the ImportXML function, Google Sheets will extract the data you need, allowing you to create data-
driven optimization strategies. Just keep the 2/3 rule in mind!

First, create a sheet, one for each keyword you want to evaluate. Here’s an example:

Fill out the top row with your competitors’ website URLs. Then, add these formulas into the appropriate cells:

- Title: =IMPORTXML(A1, “//title/text()”)

- Meta Desc: =IMPORTXML(A1, “//meta[@name=’description’]/@content”)

- H1: =IMPORTXML(A1, “//h1/text()”)

Replace “A1” with the cell that contains the competitor’s URL. Using the example above, that would mean A1 for
the first column, B1 for the second column, and C1 for the third. If you want to extract other headings, you can
modify the H1 formula (e.g. //h2/, //h3/).
This is the most basic version of this strategy. If you want to power it up, create a sheet with your target keywords,
then add the ranking competitor URLs for each. Use the Import formulas to pull the data into another sheet
automatically. This way, you can just add URLs to the first sheet any time you want to analyze a new competitor or
keyword.

Content Structure & Links

Out of the three pillars of local SEO, proximity is one of the hardest to push. While you can improve your relevance
and prominence, you can’t change where your business is based. This limits your ability to rank in GeoGrid nodes
(or areas) outside Google’s predetermined distance.

But there are ways to push the algorithm and expand your geographical signals. Here’s how you can do it through a
local content silo.

The Silo Structure

A silo structure is a logical way of organizing your site content where everything is divided into topics and subtopics,
like below:

In this section, we’ll talk about two different approaches. In most cases, you will have to use a bit of both to get the
best results.
Quadrant Approach

This approach helps you improve your proximal influence or how strongly associated your brand is within your
geographic area.

If your business is based in a large city and has several different verified GBP listings, this approach is particularly
effective. List all of your service areas and break them down into quadrants. Ideally, your website should have at
least one service page for each quadrant.

Start by making a service page for each of the verified listing locations, then add a link back to the site homepage.
For quadrants that don’t have a corresponding listing, you can still create a service page for that area. Don’t forget
to add a link to your home page! Then, link those location pages to the nearest GBP listing. For the anchor text, use
a niche + quadrant-specific location keyword, such as “plumber Long Island”. Since Google looks at the context of a
link, combining location-specific content with a geo-modified keyword can push relevance to your listing.

Service Area Expansion

Another approach to this is quite similar to the quadrant strategy we outlined above, except this helps you “expand”
your service area outside of the GeoGrid nodes that Google has “assigned” to your listing. This extra real estate
means that you could potentially rank in nearby areas where Google would normally not show your listing.

Service area expansion still requires that you create location pages, just like in the quadrant approach. The difference
is that, instead of focusing on quadrants, you focus on smaller neighborhoods and towns.

Create neighborhood-specific content for the areas surrounding your current service area. Make sure to include
images that are optimized and geo-tagged for these “hyper-local” nodes.

Content Creation

Now you know that you need to create location pages to supercharge your GBP listing and rank in nearby locations.
But what kind of content should these pages have?

At the very minimum, your service area pages need to have your geo-specific keywords, a link back to your
homepage, and a link to the relevant GBP listing (especially if you have multiple verified listings for the same brand).
Beyond that, it’s up to you what else you want to include.

Get creative! We like to feature client testimonials, “proof of quality” photo galleries, and the specific services we
provide for that area. When showcasing satisfied customers, we recommend adding a location marker to boost your
geo-relevance. This doesn’t mean that you should put their entire address – their city, town, or neighborhood should
be more than enough.

But your content creation plan shouldn’t end with location pages. Your other site content should be locally-optimized
as well.

Find ways to incorporate local-specific language or topics into your content strategy. For example, instead of an
article about “the cost of teeth cleaning”, write about “the cost of teeth cleaning in Chicago”. Even that minor change
can drive more traffic to your site while also increasing the geo-relevance of your pages.

Another thing that you have to keep in mind is that you need to target different keywords for each page/piece of
content. Otherwise, your new content will compete with your other target pages and may even “cannibalize”
rankings from them.

If you don’t have a content plan in place, it’s easy to run out of ideas and revert to the same topics over and over
again. We like to look for ideas on forums, social media networks, and other platforms. Find out what questions
people are asking about your niche. If you’ve already tackled the main topic, you can update your current content
with it. If you haven’t, you can build a new piece of content around it.

Again, don’t write several blogs on the same topic or targeting the same keywords. You don’t want your pages
competing against each other for rank.

Interlinking

We’ve already touched on this a little, but let’s expand on the role of interlinking in local SEO and what the best
interlinking strategies are.

Interlinking your content helps to pass trust, authority, and geo-relevance from one page to another. It also
encourages users to explore other content on your site.

When you link to another page, drop the link naturally. Use anchor text that contextualizes the link and incorporates
an important keyword. Each page needs to be linked to at least one other page, but you don’t have to link every
page to each other – if it makes sense and encourages further reading, go for it! But if it feels clunky or forced, leave
it out.

Avoid using irrelevant or vague anchor text that doesn’t describe what the linked page is about. And don’t add
hundreds of links on one page! You can be aggressive with your linking strategy, but most of all, be smart. There’s a
line between aggressive and spam.
Schema Markup

A schema markup is a piece of code that allows Google to read and understand content. Without a markup, crawl
bots won’t parse the content the way you want them to.

There are different kinds of schema markups, each designed to extract a particular type of data. Today’s schema
markups are incredibly sophisticated – there are markups for recipes, reviews, events, videos, and so much more.

Building Your Schema

There are two ways to build a schema markup: you can either use a template or build your own with a schema
markup tool. We’ll cover both methods, in detail, below.

Using A Template

For most campaigns, templates are an easy and affordable way to add schema. All you have to do is fill in the blanks
with your content, and voila! You have your markup.

The problem with templates is that many of those available online – whether through a plugin or a random generator
– are clunky or not as feature-rich as the schema markups you can build from scratch.

Still, there’s always room for templates in a local SEO campaign. We use them quite often and have even included
some of our favorites in our local marketing toolbox.

Before implementing our schema markups, we like to test out the code using the Google Structured Data Testing
Tool. You can even build the markup here, so that you can see how the schema looks as you edit it, in real-time. This
saves you a lot of time and effort since you’re not going back-and-forth every time there’s a problem with the code.

But the real reason why templates work for us is that we’ve spent countless hours refining our schema strategy.
Templates can be a real winner if you know when and how to implement them.

Using A Schema Markup Tool

Schema builders still use “templates” where you can fill in the blanks, but they also allow you to build the code as
you see fit without having to start from scratch. Most markup tools have a bit of a learning curve, but once you get
the hang of it, it becomes incredibly easy to create custom schemas.
Check out our local SEO toolbox to get access to a free schema app builder. Once you have that downloaded, read
on for tips on how to use it.

You can use the search bar or drop-down menu to find the schema code you want to use. When you click on a
schema type, the code will appear in the right-hand box.

Some schema markup types come with additional options. On the left side, you’ll be able to toggle and customize
certain parts of the code.
If a section has a plus sign, it means that you can add other elements to the code. For example, clicking on the “+”
under DayOfWeek in the local business markup allows you to specify what days you are open.

Go through each section one-by-one, and take note of how your input alters the schema. Don’t try to go through
all the sections at once, especially if you’re new to this. Take your time, and finish one section before moving onto
the next.
This schema builder app has hundreds of options to choose from, and it’s fun to tinker with code. But be careful
about spending too much time using the tool – you’ll likely only have use for a select few schemas anyway, and your
time is better spent on other local SEO efforts.

On-page optimization isn’t just for organic SEO anymore. By reverse-engineering your competitors’ optimization
tactics, creating location-specific content, structuring your site in a silo, and smartly using schema markups, you can
enjoy better rankings in both organic and local SERPs.

The Ultimate Local Link Building Guide

Time and time again, link building has proven to be an effective optimization strategy. But too many guides are too
scared to go in-depth because of the potential consequences. Most link building practices are considered gray or
even black hat SEO. Trying to influence rankings through backlinking is a direct violation of Google’s terms of service!

But, this doesn’t mean that you can’t operate above board with link building, it just means that you have to be more
creative with how you approach it.

By the end of this, you should come away with a deeper knowledge of link building and the best practices to adopt
in your local SEO strategy.

What Is Link Building?

When another website links to yours, that is called a backlink. Link building is the process of acquiring more backlinks,
which in turn could boost your SERP rankings.

Link building is important in SEO for two reasons. First, links help Google crawl, index, and rank new content. Second,
and more importantly, a backlink is a “vote of confidence”. In the same way that you wouldn’t recommend a bad
film to a friend, the assumption is that you wouldn’t link to something that you wouldn’t trust or recommend. Google
takes a look at a page’s backlink profile to determine how useful and relevant it is. If a lot of high-quality websites
keep linking back to your content, then Google is more likely to rank it higher on the results page.

Link building has been a foundation of SEO ever since PageRank was introduced in the ‘90s. But some people figured
out how to manipulate the system, which led Google to update the algorithm and penalize certain link building
techniques.
Considering how hard it is to build powerful but white-hat backlinks when Google’s algorithm is constantly changing,
it’s no surprise that link building is one of the hardest parts of SEO. But it is integral to any optimization strategy, so
it’s worth the effort. If you can become an expert backlinker, you’ll be miles ahead of the competition.

Link Building 101

Gone are the days when the number of backlinks was the most important factor. In 2021, you can’t just drop a link
anywhere on the web and expect it to drastically change your rankings – you need a smart strategy that gets you
the most results with the least amount of work.

To create that winning strategy, you need to understand some of the fundamentals of link building for local SEO. In
this section, you’ll learn which properties you need to link to. Since this is about local link building, the focus here is
on how to improve the backlink profile of your Google Business Profile listing, not your website.

CID URL

The CID, short for “Customer Identification,'' is the unique code assigned to every entity in Google’s ecosystem. A
business’s CID remains the same on Google Maps, local search, and elsewhere, which makes it useful for collecting
all “documents” under a certain entity.

When you’re building backlinks for local SEO, you’ll want to link back to your GBP listing by using the CID URL.
Based on our tests with real client listings, we’ve found some success with including the CID URL in our citations.

To find your CID URL, follow these steps:

1. Go to Google Maps.

2. Search for the listing. Make sure that it is the only listing on the right-hand panel; otherwise, you won’t be
able to get the CID.

3. Right-click anywhere on the listing, then select “View page source”. Alternatively, you could also press “Ctrl
+ U” if you’re accessing it from a PC or “⌘+ U” if you’re accessing it on a Mac.
4. Click “Ctrl + F” or “⌘ + F” to launch the search function. Search for “ludocid”.

5. After the word “ludocid”, you should see a string of numbers and letters. Take the numbers in between
“u003d” and “#lrd”. That is your CID.

For example: ludocid\\u003d10055226065046849962#lrd\\

6. To convert your CID into a CID URL, simply add the CID to the end of this link:

https://www.google.com/maps?cid=[CID]
 For example: https://www.google.com/maps?cid=10055226065046849962

7. The CID URL will automatically redirect to your listing. You can use this URL whenever you need to link back
to your GBP.

Maps Linking

The CID URL isn’t the only thing you can link back to. Using the Maps short link as the backlink target can significantly
amplify your listing and improve your rank. To find the short link, simply access the listing on Google Maps, and click
on the “Share” button.

Google Maps offers other opportunities for link building as well. We like to embed the map on our website, blogs,
press releases, and other places online. To get the Maps embed code, click on the “Share” button, then click on
“Embed a map”. Adjust the size as needed, then copy-paste the code. This creates an IFrame with the business’
name, address, rating, and Maps location on it.
Unlike what some SEO experts recommend, we don’t add keywords or schemas in our IFrames. This kind of over-
optimization isn’t necessary to see better rankings. But if you want to embed a validated schema into the
Maps IFrame, you’ll have to insert it before the closing IFrame tag </iframe>.

Here’s what it should look like:

<iframe
src=”https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d3085.874802540008!2d-
76.620948
68463662!3d39.33642197950544!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x0%3A0x8b8
b56d4cf5dc9aa!2sDr.%20K.%20Michael%20Murphy%20%26%20Associates%2C%20LLC!5e0!3m2!1sen!2s
u s!4v1577854169329!5m2!1sen!2sus” width=”600″ height=”450″ frameborder=”0″ style=”border:0;”
allowfullscreen=””>ADD SCHEMA HERE</iframe>

The Three Pillars Of Local Link Building

All of our local SEO campaigns are launched with links from the Big 3: data syndicators, socials, and essential
citations. We use this three-pronged approach because it’s the best way to build trust, relevance, and authority with
Google.

But before we cover the action items under each pillar, you must first understand how Google reads and ranks
documents.

For each “document” (e.g. site, page, etc.), Google looks at how many other documents reference it, and what the
quality of those documents are. If there are only a few referencing documents, or if the referencing documents are
considered spammy, then the target document will have a lower score.

Google also uses other documents to find out what your document is about. It reads the anchor text link as well as
the content itself to determine the topic of your document. By consistently associating certain keywords with your
documents, you’ll increase your relevance to those topics. For example, if a page about cars links to your document
with the anchor text “car dealership”, that lets Google know that your document may be related to cars.

When you build links, it’s not just about quantity – it’s about quality and relevance as well. Here’s how you can
achieve both using the Big 3 approach.
Data Aggregators

It doesn’t matter if we’re working with a big client or a small one, data aggregators are always our top priority when
it comes to local link building. The first thing we do in any campaign is submit the business information to the biggest
data syndicators online.

This is important because Google grabs data from all over the web to populate GBP listings. For example, they can
update your phone number if they find different contact information associated with your brand on another site.
Google is even known to create listings based on this data.

If your brand isn’t submitted to the major data aggregators, you’re potentially losing out on a lot of trust signals.
And even if these data aggregators have your info, it’s always recommended to update them regularly. Inconsistent
information can result in a lot of GBP mishaps, such as Google changing your contact information without your
permission.

What are the major platforms? Check out this handy graphic below:

Social Media

We get into the details of social media link building later in this guide, but for now, there’s just one thing to keep in
mind. Every business must have their social media profiles built and filled out. Most brands will have a Facebook or
Instagram, but there are many other profiles you should have as well. You can download our Local SEO Toolbox to
learn about the lesser-known profiles you need to build.

Plus, having social media profiles is only the first step. The next thing you have to do is optimize them. Make sure
that you use your keywords without spamming them. Your GBP categories should be included as keywords as well
as any other search phrases you want to target. Then, once your profile is optimized, interlink your content where
possible to pass on link juice.

Social media optimization isn’t the end-all-be-all of local link building, but our tests over the years have shown that
it does make an impact on your backlink graph. Since creating and optimizing profiles are free, businesses with small
budgets can benefit from this tactic. But for those in competitive niches, we’d recommend putting aside some of
that marketing fund for boosted posts and paid ads.

Essential Citations

There was a time when link building was almost synonymous with citation building, and the best way to hit the top
of the local Maps result was by getting listed on the most number of directory sites. Although there are now many
other factors that determine your snack pack placement, getting citations has always been and still is a major part
of ranking locally. We’ll get into the nitty-gritty of building essential citations in the next section of this guide.

Citation Building In 2021

Building citations has evolved significantly since the practice became popular a couple of decades ago. You can’t just
upload your data on every directory site and call it a day. Despite that, so many SEO professionals and businesses
are still doing the same thing – it’s no wonder they’re not seeing the results they want.

We don’t discount the impact the citations have on prominence, so we still include it in our local SEO playbook. But
we do it differently from everyone else.

We approach citation building in phases. This allows us to create a separate strategy for each of the phases and
prioritize the citations that have the most impact. This way, you don’t have to spend hours copy-pasting your info
onto every other data platform, but you still reap the benefits.

Our Local SEO Toolbox contains a HUGE list of our top, secondary, niche, and location-specific citation sites. We’ll
still break down our favorites below, but downloading the kit will give you everything you need for a strong campaign
start.
Priority #1 - Top Citation Sites

Generally speaking, your priority in any kind of strategy should be the actions that yield the most/best results. This
is why we put essential citations at the top of our list. These include popular directories like Yelp and the Yellow
Pages, but every country has its list – make sure you check those out before building your citations.

There’s also another side to essential citations: GPS directories. GPS directories store information about your
location, which allows GPS systems (in phones and cars, for example) to give the user accurate directions. This boosts
your accessibility while also setting the foundation for your geo-relevant citation building efforts later on.

Must-Have Listings For Every Business

No matter what your campaign or niche is, there are a few citation sites that you absolutely cannot miss out on.
These are high-confidence sites that could increase your document score, which is why every local SEO strategy
worth its salt needs to include these platforms.

Again, you can get the full list of recommended directories through the toolkit, but we’ll break down six of the most
important ones here.

Apple Maps

With billions of requests per week, the Apple Maps directory is one of the most in-demand, authoritative websites
that you can get your brand on. Having a citation on this platform is a great way to increase your prominence and
trust score while also providing users (especially those with iPhones or iPads) more avenues to learn about your
business.
Like Google Business Profile, signing up with Apple Maps is easy and free. All you need is an Apple ID. Just go to
Apple Maps, sign in with your free Apple ID, and complete the registration process. You’ll need to provide the
business name, country, phone number, category, and status.

After you’ve completed the initial information, Apple will ask you to verify the listing via phone. Verification opens
up more options for your listing such as address, operating hours, and website. Apple will then review your
application, which should take a few days, although some users have reported that their applications were still under
review weeks later.

Bing Places

Bing may not be as prominent as Google or Apple, but there are still plenty of users on the search engine. Creating
a listing on Bing Places is so simple that it’s almost a no-brainer, but what we’re really after is getting some of that
authority passed down onto our documents. Bing is a great source of that, and it takes only a few minutes to set up,
which is why we still include it in our strategy.

To create a Bing Places listing, you need an Outlook email account for the business. Sign into Bing Places with that
email, then connect your (verified) Google Business Profile listing. If you have a verified GBP (which you should
before you even start citation building), it will automatically verify your Places listing as well.
Yelp

When talking about directories or citations, it’s impossible not to mention Yelp. Yelp is arguably the biggest directory
other than Google Business Profile, and many other platforms (Google included) use it as a data source. It’s trusted,
authoritative, and prominent – never skip Yelp in your citation building strategy!

Because Yelp is such a dominant data aggregator, anything you put on your Yelp listing could potentially affect your
listings everywhere else, including GBP. While this could result in Google overriding your input and populating your
listing with Yelp data, smart local SEO experts use this to manipulate the Maps platform.

Of course, it’s best to start simple first. Just make sure that your information is consistent no matter where it appears
on the web, and you can avoid these sudden changes.

To create a Yelp account, sign up on the platform and fill out the business details (e.g. name, location). You will have
to verify the listing right away via phone, otherwise, you can’t continue with the process.
Once you’ve verified the account, you’ll be asked to add your service areas, photos, categories, and other
information that enhances your profile.
411

Before the internet, people used to dial 4-1-1 to get local directory assistance. Nowadays, more people use Google
than their telephones to get information. But in a time when this information is fragmented across different phone
carriers, it’s very important to get listed in the national database so that more users have access to your listing.

To get listed in the trusted 411 directory, submit your information on List Yourself!.

Alignable

Alignable is a network of small businesses that provides a decent citation, and it only takes a few minutes to create
a listing. Sign-up on the platform is free and you can easily verify your account through SMS.
To make the most out of your Alignable profile, you need to connect your Facebook Business page. We’ll talk more
about that in a later part of this guide, so don’t worry if you don’t have it set up yet.

Fill out your profile as thoroughly as possible. Always link back to your social media profiles, website, GBP listing,
and other brand documents to get that link juice! Here’s what a completed Alignable profile should look like:
Waze

We go through many more citations in our downloadable toolkit, but the last essential citation that we’ll talk about
in this guide is Waze. Many of us know Waze as a GPS/driving directions app, but it’s also an authoritative source
that can up your document score.

Waze has been a Google property since 2013, and interlinking Google entities is an incredibly powerful way to
reinforce your brand. We’ll discuss that in detail in the “Google Site Stacks” section of this guide, but for now, here’s
how to add your business to Waze. Warning: this is more technical than just creating an account online, so make
sure you follow these instructions closely!

First things first, you need a phone that runs Android. Download both Waze and FakeGPS GO, or any location
spoofing app. Then, you have to enable the developer mode. This screenshot shows you how:
After completing those steps, go back to your main Settings screen and click on the new “Developer Options” setting.

Tap “Select mock location app”, and select your GPS spoofing app.
Open up the app and set your target location. This should be your exact business address for the best results.
Once that is set, open Waze. Check that the blue dot (your location) is set to the correct point. Then, tap on the
orange button on the lower right of the screen.
Tap “Place” to add your business to the map.
Add a photo of the business. We recommend using an exterior shot to help customers find where you are. You can
also use a Street View photo if you don’t have any pictures of the outside of your business. Then, complete the listing
as needed.
Priority #2 - Secondary Citation Sites

Once you have your essential citations down, you can switch focus to secondary citation sites. These are the lesser-
known yet still robust directories that have popped up over the last decade. Secondary sites may not pass as much
authority, but we want to add as much prominence as possible.
Priority #3 - Niche Citation Cites

Although a lot of local SEO is establishing geo-relevance, you need to increase your niche relevance as well. After all,
Google takes a look at the referencing page to understand what your document is all about, and citations from
relevant sources have more weight than those from unrelated directories.
Priority #4 - Local Directories

Local directories and geo-specific citations are a good way to associate your brand with a location. This isn’t always
possible, especially in smaller towns, but most major cities in the US have a local directory. If your area has one,
make sure to include it in your backlink strategy.
Priority #5 - Competitive Citations

A concept that is common in SEO is “reverse engineering”, and we often use it when building citations. We always
take a look at what our top-ranking competitors are doing, and we apply it to our strategy. Competitive parity is a
core philosophy ,and it’s a big reason why our clients are able to get into the local pack.

You can use a tool like Whitespark to find out which directories your competitors have listings on. This helps you
even the playing field and benefit from the best practices of your competitors.

How To Find Citation Sites

To help you flesh out your link building strategy, we’ve put together this handy guide on how to find citation sites.
Below, we recommend some search parameters and terms that you can use to find the right directories for your
brand.

Note: These search terms will help you find geo-relevant citation sites. If you want to find niche-relevant directories,
replace “City” with your business category or main keyword. For example, “plumber”, “restaurant”, or “digital
marketing agency” can all be plugged in to find directories in those fields.

- City + “add your business”

- City + “add your business” site:.edu

- City + “add your business” site:.gov

- City + “add site”

- City + “add URL”

- City + “add website”

- City + “favorite links”

- City + “favorite sites”

- City + “favorite websites”

- City + “listing”

- City + “recommended links”

- City + “recommended sites”

- City + “submit website”

- City + “submit”

- City + “suggest site”

- City + “suggest website”

- City + * directory

- City + directory

- City + intitle:directory

- City + inurl:“.gov” “add your business”

- City + inurl:directory

- City + inurl:submit.php
Guest Posting & Link Outreach

Another core aspect of link building is networking – which means cultivating relationships with other people and
businesses so that you can get more opportunities for citations. In this section of the guide, we’ll focus on two types:

- Guest posting, or writing an article for another website so that you can add a link to your
site/listing/documents

- Local outreach, or networking to bloggers, businesses, and other people in your community so that they
can give you a geographically-relevant backlink

Guest posting is a common tactic for organic SEO, and almost every guide will mention it at some point or another.
But for local rankings, the data suggests that the second type, local outreach, is much more effective at generating
relevance and prominence.

Both practices allow you to add contextual links on authoritative websites, which improves your prominence in
return. A good local SEO strategy will combine a bit of both, especially since your organic rankings impact your local
rankings.

But for this guide, we don’t want to focus too much on the ins and outs of guest posting. A lot of work goes into local
outreach, and many businesses simply choose to outsource it.

Instead, what we will talk about is how to find more opportunities for link building. When we search the local market
for potential backlink sources, we first look at the thought leaders and prominent personalities in the community.
Every city or town has its blogs, forums, and influencers – we just need to find them. Not only does this increase
your geo-relevance and help you rank higher for your location, but it’s also a great way to reach new audiences and
advertise your brand.

Below are some of our favorite places to mine for link building opportunities.

Conferences & Events

Conferences, expos, and other events have always been good avenues to meet people and connect with other
businesses. This isn’t as long-term or sustainable a strategy as our other recommendations on this guide, but you
can still get a link from the event by sponsoring the conference or setting up a booth.
The backlink is merely a bonus. It may sound cheesy, but the real benefit of attending these conferences is the
relationships you make while you’re engaging with the community.

If you are capable of hosting an event, there are plenty of SEO opportunities as well. To learn more about event
link building, check out Moz’s strategy. Even though it was written in 2012, many of the core practices remain
effective to this day, so that’s also worth a look.

To find events near you, use these search parameters:

- City + intitle:conference

- City + intitle:exhibition

- City + intitle:expo

- City + intitle:seminar

- City + intitle:trade show

- City + site:meetup.com

- City + “submit an event”

- City + events

- City + events page

 -
City + find an event

Donations & Sponsorships

Donation links are relatively easy to build. All you have to do is find a website that accepts sponsorships or donations,
donate enough to earn a link on their website, and reap that link juice. This strategy has a few pros and cons.

One of the advantages is that there’s little work required to get a donation link. Targeting the right sites (like local
business associations or clubs) can increase your geo-relevance while also building authority. And as a bonus, many
charitable donations to nonprofits can be written off your taxes.

Not every donation link is created equal, though. Over the last decade, many people have taken advantage of this
strategy to the point where some donation sites don’t pass much authority or trust anymore. Low-quality
placements on spammy sites that have hundreds of other links are a waste of time and money.

The trick is to be selective about who you donate to. Stick to established local organizations like a sports club or
charity. Not only are you giving back to your community, but you’re also avoiding the usual spam sites that many
SEO experts use to get a link.

To find organizations that accept donations, use these search parameters:

- City + “contributors”

- City + “donation links”

- City + “donation lists” + “contributors”

- City + “donations list”

- City + “list of contributors” + donation

- City + “sponsors”

- City + allintitle:”contributors”

- City + allintitle:”sponsors”
-
- City + contributors page

City + contributors page + “donate”

- City + donate to us

- City + donation list + “contributors”

- City + inurl: keywords

- City + scholarship inurl:k12 100

- City + sponsor us $100

- City + sponsor us $100

- City + sponsors page

- City + “contributors”

- City + “donate”

- City + “charity online”

- City + “contribute”

- City + “donate for”

- City + “donate now”

- City + “donate online”

- City + “donate to”

- City + “goods for donation”

- City + “make charity”

- City + “make donation”

- City + “money for donation”

- City + “partner”
 -
- City + “services for donation”

- City + “sponsor”

City + “sponsorship”

- City + “support”

Forums

Most people overlook forums as a potential source for backlinks, but we’ve found that it is an impactful way to build
an audience, establish yourself as an industry expert, and promote your links. One of our agencies has been mining
forums for link building opportunities for years, and that’s because this strategy works.

If you decide to adopt this approach, make sure you avoid this one common mistake. Many simply leave links in their
profile signature, but you can’t expect a lot of link juice (or clicks, for that matter) by spamming the forum that way.

Make the most of the platform by creating relationships with the owner, moderators, and other forum members.
Pay for ads on the forum (as a sign of goodwill), and negotiate a backlink with the owner. Engage with the
community, answer questions, and drop the link only when it’s relevant. You can also provide special discounts or
offers for members of the forum, which will likely result in more links.

Be creative and put a little bit of effort into cultivating those relationships. That will go farther than sneaking a link
in without context.

To find forums to participate in, use these search parameters:

- City + “forum”

- City + “powered by Fireboard”

- City + “powered by ip.board”

- City + “powered by phpbb”

- City + “powered by phpbb3”

- City + “powered by SMF”

 -
- City + “powered by vbulletin”

- City + forum

- City + intitle:forum

City + inurl:forum

Local Blogs

Never underestimate the power of a local blog! By reaching out to a local blog, you can give your campaigns – and
therefore, your rankings – a serious boost.

Local bloggers have spent countless hours investing in their brand. They’ve most likely built a small but fiercely loyal
community around their blog, which makes their audience much more likely to trust (and click on) their
recommendations. Plus, local bloggers are usually “in-the-know” with local events and trends, and partnering up
with them could open up other opportunities for you to market yourself.

One of the easiest ways to encourage local bloggers to work with you is by giving them something in return. No, not
money, but samples of your products or services. If you’re a restaurant, invite them for a complimentary meal. If
you’re a fashion brand, send them free clothes of their choosing. Even service-oriented businesses can get in on this.
For example, if you’re a dentist, you can offer free cleanings or extractions.

It’s a win-win situation: the blogger gets free products/services (and more content for their blog), and you get a geo-
relevant backlink in their review. This can improve both your document score and your referral traffic, so it’s doubly
effective. We’ve used this strategy with many clients across varying niches, and they’ve all worked well. You just
need to be creative with your incentives, and choose the right bloggers!

To find local blogs you can partner with, use these search parameters:

- City + blogs

- City + bloggers

- City + blog

- City + updates
-
- City + inurl:blog

- City + intitle:blog
Sponsored Posts & Local Advertising

There are plenty of local websites that are built on advertising – brands buy a review or feature, and the site posts
about them to their thousands (or even millions) of readers. It may not be the most sophisticated local outreach
strategy, but it’s simple and effective – and that’s what matters the most.

Not all local advertisers offer link building opportunities, but it helps to ask. Sometimes, you may be able to negotiate
a better deal that includes backlinks, but you won’t know unless you try. You’d be surprised at how many of them
are flexible with their advertising packages for the right price. After all, money is money, and a backlink isn’t difficult
to provide.

As with blogs, the benefits of buying media with a local company are two-fold. First, you get your backlink from an
authoritative and geo-relevant site. Second, these websites promote your brand to a large audience. Worst case
scenario, you strengthen your brand visibility. Best case scenario, you gain a few customers.

To find local websites that offer advertising to businesses, use these search parameters:

- City + “advertise on our site”

- City + “advertise on this site”

- City + “advertise”

- City + “partnership opportunities”

- City + “pay for a post”

- City + “sponsor a post”

- City + “sponsored post”

- City + intext:“this is a paid post”

- City + intext:“this is a paid review”

- City + intext:“this is a sponsored post”

- City + intext:“this is a Sponsored review”

- City + intext:“this was a paid post”

- City + intext:“this was a paid review”

 -

City + intext:“this was a sponsored post”

City + intext:“this was a Sponsored review”

City + accepting sponsored posts

City + inpostauthor:“guest”

- City + inpostauthor:“sponsored author”

- City + inpostauthor:“sponsored post”

- City + intitle:“sponsored author”

- City + intitle:“sponsored post”

- City + intitle:“submit sponsored post”

- City + inurl: sponsored-post

- City + inurl: sponsored-posts

- City + inurl: sponsored*post

- City + inurl: sponsored*posts

- City + inurl:category/sponsored

- City + inurl:tag/sponsored

- City + sponsored post by

Standard Guest Posting

Of course, we can’t end this section without talking about the most common outreach tactic of all: guest posting.
Guest posting is a cornerstone of link building that provides many advantages:

- It allows you to demonstrate your expertise, which in turn raises your brand’s prominence and credibility.
Most people would rather trust a business run by someone they’re already familiar with.
 -

-
- Guest posting involves networking with other industry professionals, which opens up many other
opportunities down the line.

It helps to build your name and brand. More prominent names are more likely to be featured organically
by other sites, earning you natural, authoritative backlinks.

There are many ways to get a guest post on another site. The most effective ways involve cold emailing, networking,
and building relationships with other people in your niche. But this guide isn’t about guest posting, so we’ll leave
the nitty-gritty for another post. Instead, we’ll teach you how to find some local link building opportunities through
search.

Just a note: this particular strategy doesn’t get you a lot of opportunities, so don’t put too much time or effort into
it. Still, we’ve managed to land a few great geo-relevant backlinks using this technique, which is why we’ve still
included it in this guide. It’s best if you leave this work to a virtual assistant or another team member so that you
can focus on the more impactful outreach strategies.

To find some local guest posting opportunities, use these search parameters:

- City + “Add Articles”

- City + “Add Content”

- City + “Become a Contributor”

- City + “Become a Guest Blogger”

- City + “Become an Author”

- City + “Bloggers Wanted”

- City + “Blogs Accepting Guest Posts”

- City + “Blogs that Accept Guest Blogging”

- City + “Contribute”

- City + “Guest Blogging Spot”

 -

- City + “Guest Contributor”

- City + “Guest post by”

- City + “Guest Post Guidelines”

- City + “Guest Post”

-

-
City + “Places I Guest Posted”

City + “Publish Your News”

City + “Submit a Guest Post”

City + “Submit an Article” -

City + “Submit News”

- City + “Submit Post”

- City + “Submit Tutorial”

- City + “Suggest a Post”

- City + “This is a guest article”

- City + “Want to Write for”

- City + “writers wanted”

- City + “Add Guest Post”

- City + “Become a Contributor”

- City + “Become a Guest Writer”

- City + “Blogs that Accept Guest Bloggers”

-
-

-
- City + “Blogs that Accept Guest Posts”

- City + “Community News”

- City + “Contribute to our Site”

- City + “Group Writing Project”

City + “Guest Bloggers Wanted”

City + “Guest Bloggers Wanted”

City + “Guest Posts Roundup”

City + “My Guest Posts”

City + “Now Accepting Guest Posts”

City + “Submission Guidelines”

City + “Submit a Guest Article”

City + “Submit Article”

- City + “Submit Blog Post”

- City + “Submit Guest Post”

- City + “Submit News”

-
-

-
- City + “Suggest a Guest Post”

- City + “The following guest post”

- City + “This guest post is from”

- City + “This guest post was written”

- City + “Write for Us”

- City + inurl:guest-post-guidelines

- City + inurl:guest-posts

- City + inurl:write-for-us

- City + inurlprofiles/blog/new

- City + “submit guest post”

- City + “accepting guest posts” -

City + “contribute to our site”

City + “contributor guidelines”

City + “guest bloggers wanted”

City + “guest post courtesy of”

-
-

-
City + “guest post opportunities”

City + “write for us”

City + accepting guest posts

City + become a guest blogger

City + become guest blogger

- City + guest blogger wanted

- City + intitle:”guest blogging opportunity”

- City + intitle:”submit blog post”

- City + intitle:”submit guest post”

- City + intitle:”write for me”

- City + intitle:”write for us”

- City + inurl:”write for me”

- City + inurl:”write for us”

- City + inurl:category/guest

- City + inurl:guest-blogger

-
-

-
- City + inurl:guest-post

- City + inurl:guest-posts

- City + inurl:guest*author

- City + inurl:guest*blogger - City +

inurl:guest*post

City + inurl:guest*posts

City + inurl:tag/guest

City + submit a guest post”

City + submit guest post

-
 -

-
City + submit your guest post

City + submit your own guest post

We’ve gone through several different link building techniques, from the most common to the most advanced. Not
all of these strategies will work for everyone, especially those who don’t want to risk a penalty with gray-hat tactics.
But this guide has everything you need to create a solid, successful link building strategy – the rest is up to you!

Appendix

Reference Videos Used In This Guide

Finding Your Knowledge Graph

GBP Post Overview
Setting Up An Event Post
The NEW State of GBP Posts
GBP Posting Strategy
Getting More Google Reviews
Google’s Review Guidelines
Paying For Reviews
Removing Negative Reviews
Navigating The Local Viking Dashboard
Automated Reporting With Local Viking
Automated GBP Posting With Local Viking
Acceptable GBP Post Content
Daisy-Chaining Posts
Multi-Location Posting
Bulk Uploading Using a CSV File
Daisy-Chaining Bulk Uploads
Deleting a Post Before It’s Published
Using Local Viking To Upload Images To Your GBP Listing
Image Optimization Using Local Viking
Managing Q&As With Local Viking