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how create apple maps listing

Our team just attended the Rocks Digital Marketing Conference, as they do every year. For our agency partners that attended, it was great to see you online. Today we’re going to share the highlights from Eric Shanfelt of Local Marketing Institute’s presentation, Why and How to Claim an Apple Maps Listing.

Why You Need to Claim the Apple Maps Listing

Andrew Shotland of Local SEO Guide estimates there are 100 million U.S. adults that use Apple Maps. Have you considered that Siri always returns Apple Maps results? And typed searches on iPhones and tablets return Apple Maps results. Apple CarPlay is powered by Apple Maps. So everything in the Apple-verse uses Apple Maps by default – period.

If your customers are not on Apple Maps, you definitely want to get them listed there! For those of you who are Advice Local partners, we submit your clients’ businesses to Apple Maps within our solution. If you are on our legacy platform, Apple Maps is not included.

 

apple maps connect

How to Claim an Apple Maps Listing

The good news is this – you can go directly to Apple Maps to submit your client’s business. It’s not as simple as getting the listing created through a listing management solution such as ours, but it’s possible.

To create/claim an Apple Maps listing, start by going to Maps Connect. Eric shared these observations about the Maps Connect solution:

  • You’ll need to create an Apple ID to go through the claiming process for the business listing.
  • Be sure to use an email address with the same domain as the website.
  • User management is not available in Maps Connect, so you’ll need to create an Apple ID that the business owner can own.
  • You can have multiple listings per Apple ID, which is perfect for multi-location businesses.
  • Maps Connect does have bulk submission available, but only for over 10,000 locations.

Just like with a Google My Business listing, you start with finding the business in Maps Connect in order to claim it. From there, you will go through the verification process with a phone number to claim this listing.

Can You Optimize an Apple Maps Listing?

As Eric pointed out, you can’t optimize much on an Apple Maps listing, but you can include the basic business information. The business name, address, phone number (NAP), business hours and category are available.

You can also add web links. Be especially sure to include Yelp, since most of the reviews on Apple Maps pull from Yelp. So, to get reviews on Apple Maps you need to get reviews on Yelp.

A powerful tip Eric shared was to “ask customers to check in on Yelp. While a business can’t directly solicit reviews on Yelp, they can ask for a check-in. After the customer checks in, Yelp will prompt the customer to give a review.”

How to Control Photos Featured on Apple Maps

Here’s some important information Eric shared related to photos on Apple Maps.

  • The photos in Apple Maps are pulled in from Yelp. This may change later, but for now, they are from Yelp.
  • Make sure the business has photos on the Yelp listing. By default, the photos featured on Yelp are random, and include photos from both the business and customers.
  • The only way the business can control which photos are featured on Yelp and Apple Maps is to purchase the slideshow upgrade. If the business controls the photos on Yelp, they will be controlled on Apple Maps, too.

Will the Apple Maps Data Stay Intact?

Apple Maps pulls in data from other sources, so while you can claim the listing and have the correct information listed on Apple Maps, the data can get updated by other sources. If the business data changes, Apple Maps will not notify you – you’ll have to check it manually. Eric suggested doing this weekly… yet another reason to use a listing management provider like us to monitor and maintain this data. It’s efficient and highly beneficial.

Why Every Local Business Needs An Apple #Maps Listing by @BernieColeman #SEO
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Now we’ll ask: Are your clients listed on Apple Maps? Is their map listing claimed? Is the business’ NAP correct?

Making sure the local businesses that you represent are found in all the maps is extremely important. Request a demo today online or call (214) 310-1356 to find out how we can take care of all your listing management needs.

The post Why Every Local Business Needs An Apple Maps Listing appeared first on Advice Local.

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We’ve talked with you quite a bit about Google My Business over the last few months. As you may recall, just a few weeks ago we shared how changes are coming to Google Maps that were announced at Google I/O.

We follow what’s happening in local SEO and Google My Business (GMB) specifically because this so dramatically impacts you, our agency and local marketing partners. This week we’d like to highlight an agency partner that is accomplishing quite a bit by utilizing Google My Business for their clients. We’ve been following this agency partner – and specifically one of their client’s listings – to see how it’s been performing since March 9.

Optimizing a Google My Business Listing Increases Search and Maps Views

Back in March we discussed the value of optimizing a Google My Business listing, and shared screenshots showing that once the partner added products and services to their client’s GMB listing, the search and map views started to spike.

A screenshot from March to April compared how the client’s GMB listing went from getting 2.76K views to getting 6.18K views in search and map views. A screenshot taken this week reports 12.2K combined views in search and maps.

map search views june 2021

How Customers Search Within a GMB Listing Can Be Revealing

In April we discussed Google My Business with you and its place in local search. This post was a follow-up to the March article. At that time, we looked at the How Customers Search for Your Business data from GMB insights.

In March, their client’s GMB listing was reporting 2,479 searches in a quarter (3-month timeframe). In April they received 2,912 searches in a month (30-day timeframe). This week’s screenshot revealed this is maintaining, and is currently at approximately 3,145 searches in a given month.

how customers search gmb

The detailed breakdown on this data is 713 Direct Searches (22.7%), 2,423 Discovery Searches (77%) and 9 Branded Searches (0.3%).

To understand the difference between Direct, Discovery and Branded searches you can look to Google My Business Help. Google explains these as:

  • Direct searches: A customer directly searched for your business name or address.
  • Discovery searches: A customer searched for a category, product, or service that you offer, and your listing appeared.
  • Branded searches: A customer searched for your brand or a brand related to your business. This category will only appear if your listing has appeared at least once for a branded search.
  • Total searches: The total number of direct, discovery, and branded searches.

Customer Actions Taken on a Google My Business Listing Can Be Tracked

Today, we’d like to take this a step further and look into Customer Actions taken on this client’s Google My Business listing. While we don’t have screenshots from the previous periods, this week we captured a quarter view.

gmb customer actions taken

As you can see for this reporting period, prior to March 19 this GMB listing was getting less than 10 total actions taken daily from the GMB listing. For background, our agency partner started publishing GMB posts to this listing on March 24. Prior to that time, no GMB posts had been published on the listing. The partner published a second GMB post on April 5. Once the partner started publishing GMB posts, the Customer Actions started increasing.

On April 19 the partner increased to publishing a GMB post every week. The actions taken on the GMB listing started increasing even more. So instead of getting 10 total actions a day, now the business is getting upwards of 35 total daily actions. We realize that 35 total daily actions might not seem like a lot compared to other listings, but we can tell you this – it’s a significant number for this industry, especially when we compare it to other GMB listings for a local business (in the same industry) in a smaller city.

On March 14 this agency partner launched a new website for this client, and along with that they set up Google Analytics Goal Tracking and put UTMS on all the links on the GMB listing. We can report that they have had 1,880 sessions on the website occur from clicks on the Google My Business listing – along with 99 goal completions, which for this website is either a form fill or a click-to-call. So, if you’re still wondering if Google My Business is important or if your local business clients need a website – well, we can confirm both with a powerful yes.

Google My Business Adds Services by Scraping the Business’ Website

Have you looked at your clients’ Google My Business listings lately in the GMB dashboard? Have you noticed extra services being added to the business’ GMB listing that you didn’t add? These services are pulling from the business’ website.

Google is looking at your clients’ websites to confirm the services listed on their website match the GMB listing, and when they don’t, they will remove those services – and in some cases add additional services to the GMB listing. It’s important to monitor your clients’ Google My Business listings on an ongoing basis – we’ve said this before and we will continue to share this truth.

This includes taking the following actions:

  • Monitoring reviews and responding to them
  • Adding Questions & Answers
  • Uploading EXIF-data optimized images
  • Publishing Google My Business Posts

#GoogleMyBusiness & the Business’ Website Works Together by @BernieColeman #SEO
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We’ve Got the Google My Business Tool to Help You

At Advice Local, we pride ourselves on providing our partners with solutions – and our Google My Business tool can help you accomplish all of the above and more. Request a demo today and take a tour of our complete listing management solution.

The post Google My Business & the Business’ Website Works Together appeared first on Advice Local.

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DexKnows Joins Advice Local’s Data Amplifier Network

We’re dedicated to providing the best listing management solutions available to our agency, brand and local marketing partners. And when we get the chance to add a new high-quality directory to our Data Amplifier Network, we jump on it.

DexKnows Joins Advice Local’s Data Amplifier Network

DexKnows Is Now Available in Advice Local’s Listing Management Solution

Today we get to share that DexKnows has been added to our network. For all of our platform partners, if you log into your dashboard today, you’ll see DexKnows along with a synced status for any active business listing. For our partners using the legacy dashboard, we highly encourage you to consider making the switch today. Along with new directories such as DexKnows, there are many other amazing features such as data aggregator submissions being included for free.

SuperPages and YP Have Been Refactored, Too

Part of our commitment to being the best in listing management means we’re continually improving on our listing management technology, and how we submit a business’ data to directories.

We have refactored YP and SuperPages. Now when you list a local business with Advice Local, the data within our technology is submitted to these sources even faster.

As you might have observed, at Advice Local we are very particular about the directories we add to our Data Amplifier Network. We look at the characteristics of the directory such as domain authority, page rank, backlink trust flow, backlink citation flow and organic traffic.

We also consider qualities such as whether they amplify business data to other trusted data sources. We actually discussed this back in April – and now’s a good time to find out why all listing management services are not created equal.

Data on DexKnows, YP and SuperPages to Consider

DexKnows

  • 78 Domain Authority
  • 14,300 Linking Websites
  • 5.8M Do Follow Backlinks

YP

  • 76 Domain Authority
  • 8,781 Linking Websites
  • 17M Do Follow Backlinks

SuperPages

  • 84 Domain Authority
  • 40,293 Linking Websites
  • 54.6M Do Follow Backlinks

When It Comes to Listing Management, Quality Is More Important Than Quantity

When you are submitting a business’ data online, you always want to consider quality over quantity. When it comes to listing management, the well-known saying less is more applies here. Simply put, being listed in a smaller number of top-quality directories will outrank the visibility of being in many directories that are known to be infused with spam.

Google clearly states that “low-quality directory or bookmark site links” can hurt a business. They are considered a link scheme, as outlined on the Google Search Central blog. A sure sign that the directory is of low quality is revealed if they require a link back to publish the business’ listing.

#DexKnows Joins Advice Local’s Data Amplifier Network by @BernieColeman #SEO
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We’re All About the Data – You Can Be Too!

At Advice Local, accurate business data distributed on quality directories, data aggregators, mapping apps, GPS and in-dash navigation solutions is our priority! Request a demo today and learn how we can help you to help your local business customers.

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Why Is Google My Business So Important

Yes, I’m talking about Google My Business again today! And there’s a reason … Do you fully understand why Google My Business is so important? Besides the fact they are Google, it’s so important because consumers trust Google.

When it comes to search, Google pretty much has a monopoly. According to Statista, as of February 2021 they have 86.6% of worldwide desktop market share.

statista google desktop market share

As local marketers, while we don’t always love Google and their many algorithm changes, where would we be without them? Local businesses wouldn’t need to hire us to help them place in Google search, and more than likely, we’d all have other careers!

So, Why Is Google My Business Important?

First, it’s time to think beyond the reason “because consumers trust Google” (even though they do). The more obvious reason is that Google owns Google My Business. This means they prioritize the businesses that are using their products and services. By having an optimized Google My Business (GMB) listing, Google can better understand the business, their products and services – and deliver relevant search results that are based on the user’s query, and the location of the user in relation to the business that’s closest to them.

Back in January, I discussed zero-click searches and website mentions, and covered how mentions in conjunction with an optimized business listing can help a business to surface more often in Google Maps for specific queries. I used the example probate litigation mckinney in our January search.

In April I looked at this again, and shared how adding detailed product descriptions to the business’ GMB listing moved the business to the first position in Google Maps. And when the business is surfacing, notice it’s for the information within the GMB listing – the website wasn’t mentioned as a factor.

These local justifications – as Miriam Ellis discussed on Moz’s blog this week – had us wanting to test this once more. Just like the other times I started with a desktop search.

Instead of getting a local pack when searching for probate litigation mckinney and then advancing to maps, there is no local pack at all. Instead, the business Lucé Evans Law (which is referenced in the prior examples) is returned as the single result. For transparency’s sake, I have actually been testing this query over the last month, and this business is returned as the single result each time in a desktop search, and is holding in the first position on Google Maps.

Why Is Google My Business Important

The optimization of this business’ Google My Business listing moved Lucé Evans Law from not appearing in the local pack until clicking through to Google Maps (in approximately the fifth position in January), to now being the only result in a desktop search – and also in the first position in Google Maps. As you can see in the example above, the business’ website is also placing organically for probate litigation mckinney in the first page of desktop search results. They were not placing in search on the first page for this phrase back in January.

So, Now We Ask You… Is Google My Business Important?

Well, if you want your local business clients to place in local search results, then yes.

At Advice Local, we equip you with all you need to fully leverage a Google My Business listing for your local business clients.

  • Our Google My Business tool allows you to schedule posts, upload EXIF-data optimized images, add questions & answers, plus monitor & respond to reviews from a single interface for single location or multi-location brands. And you get access to 18 months of historical data for the business’ GMB listing.
  • We have a free guide that walks you through how to apply E-A-T to a Google My Business listing to help it appear more often in maps. This includes strategies to optimize the listing.
  • And, through your Advice Local partner dashboard you can find out the Google Authority Score for each active business listing.

We also have a Google My Business Sync option in your partner dashboard, and a feature where you can auto-reject GMB public edits.

Why Is #GoogleMyBusiness So Important? by @BernieColeman #SEO #GMB
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Do You Need Help With Your Clients’ Google My Business Listings?

Just like with all our other features, we’re here to help you – our agency and local marketing partners – work smarter, not harder. Request a demo to learn all about our Google My Business tool, listing management solutions and much more.

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What Is Local Listing Management? | Advice Local

We know that as an agency or local marketer, you understand exactly what local listing management is. Yet it’s one of those topics that can be hard to explain to your customer when they ask, “Just what is local listing management?” So today, I would like to help you better explain this important subject and sell listing management services to your local business customers.

What Is Listing Management?

Local listing management is the management of a business’ data on the internet. This data consists of the business’ name, address and phone number (NAP) in most cases.

Other types of data can be included within a local business’ listing, like a link to the business’ website, days and hours of operation, the primary and secondary business categories, products & services the business offers, payment methods they accept and additional attributes such as wheelchair accessible, if they offer free WiFi, and so on. NAP is the primary information – this other data is secondary.

Local listing management is a service that agencies and local marketers offer to ensure that a business’ address and information relating to the business is correct in online directories and data sources such as mapping apps, Google My Business, Yelp, Hotfrog, MerchantCircle – and countless other data sources.

Now that we have a definition that will help you explain local listing management to your local business customers, let’s explore it a bit more closely.

You can continue defining what listing management is by adding:

You know how when you search for a business online for directions,
and the business information will come up on multiple data sources?
Often, some of those sources may have different addresses …
so to request directions, how do you know which one is correct?

This conflicting online data is essentially incorrect – clearly demonstrating that the business needs local listing management.

Why Is Local Listing Management Important?

The fact is, no one likes to get lost when driving to a local business. Consumers lose trust in a business if the information about the business is incorrect online. And search engines lose trust too. Search engines want to keep consumers coming back for more, so why would they continue to place a business higher in search if the information about the business is wrong? They wouldn’t. It’s that simple.

BrightLocal’s Local Citation Trust Report revealed the following:

  • 80% of consumers lose trust in local businesses if they see incorrect or inconsistent contact details or business names online
  • 68% of consumers would stop using a local business if they found incorrect information in online directories
  • 40% would give up looking for a local business they couldn’t find because the address was wrong online

If a business is not managing their business’ NAP data online, they need to ensure that they hire an agency or local marketing company to do it. This is where you, as an agency, can really help your local business customers.

Have You Considered How Valuable Listing Management Is to Your Agency?

Our listing management service is not only affordable, it produces results, brings in recurring revenue to your agency, gets you new agency leads, includes reporting and much more.

1. Your local business clients love to see results.

Adding listing management to your agency product offering is an easy way to show a new client results right away. With our listing management solution, you can show your client results in minutes – literally.

At Advice Local, directories and data sources trust the data we provide them to be accurate. And since we have a direct API connection to many of these sources, the data on the directory can be updated almost instantly.

2. Selling listing management provides a low-maintenance, additional recurring revenue stream for your agency.

We prioritize white-labeling our listings management service to other agencies. This means your customer will see your business name instead of ours. You get to set the price at which you sell Advice Local’s listing management service to your customers. Anything above what you pay us is profit.

3. Our lead gen tools bring you new business.

At Advice Local, partners can run unlimited Baseline Reports for prospective customers. This tool is an excellent way to get your foot in the door at a business. Additionally, we have a widget you can add to your website to invite site visitors to run a free Online Visibility Report.

When they run the free report, the lead information collected is added within your Advice Local partner dashboard. You can use this information to follow up with the prospective business to sell them listing management, Google My Business optimization – and many other services your agency may offer.

4. We include 100% white-label automated reporting.

No one really likes to spend their day producing reports for clients. At Advice Local, our solution includes automated white-label reporting. Within your partner dashboard, you can set up automated reporting that emails directly to your clients. Your client feels good because they got a report showing how visible their business is online, and you didn’t have to lift a single finger to send it.

What Is Local Listing Management? by @BernieColeman #SEO
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Local Listing Management Brings in Revenue for Both Your Agency and Your Clients

As you can see, when it comes to listing management there’s a lot to consider – we’ve only touched on the high points. Request a demo today and dig into all the details with one of our team members.

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The Secrets to Winning More Business With Voice Search | Advice Local

Instead of talking about Google My Business today, I’m going to mix it up and talk about the importance of voice search optimization. What is voice search optimization, you ask? Excellent question.

Voice search optimization is really just SEO, but more specifically an SEO strategy – the using of long-tail keywords within a website’s content.

Necessities for Creating Voice Assistant-Friendly Content

  • Researching questions that consumers are asking relating to your client’s products and/or services
  • Including these questions and answers to answer the query within the business’ website content
  • Adding FAQ schema on the pages that include these questions and answers

We have discussed voice search optimization and long-tail keywords before. Once you have an understanding of the keywords and keyword phrases consumers are searching that relate to your client’s products and services, you are ready for the next step – applying intent.

A desktop search for A/C service; best times to get an A/C serviced; best times to get an A/C service in McKinney are going to vary greatly. I actually did these same searches in 2019 and have screenshots available at the link above.

AC Service Voice Search Example

Applying Intent to a Voice Search Query

Today, I did those exact queries mentioned above with the Google Assistant on mobile. The results were as follows:

  • The query AC service returned a search result for Carrier’s website and then a few other options.
  • The second query, best time to get an AC serviced, returned a single answer – a featured snippet from a business’ website that answered the specific question.
  • The third query, best time to get an AC service in McKinney, returned a single local business result for the closest AC company.

The main point here is that while each of the voice searches were similar, Google perceived each to have a different intent. A typed search result is going to differ greatly from a voice search result. In order to get a business to appear in voice searches more often, you must consider intent as it relates to your client’s products and/or services. But, that’s not all you have to consider.

Natural Language and Voice Search Go Hand-in-Hand

To help the businesses you represent surface for voice search queries, it’s about aligning the long-tail keywords with the intent on a website. It’s also about using natural language for voice search optimization. This is writing in a way that consumers would actually speak or ask their voice assistant a question.

There is more to ranking in voice search besides this, however. I analyzed ranking factors that influence voice search awhile back. I found a few factors to be important – page speed, HTTPS, brief-informative answers within in-depth content, authority over the subject matter, strong backlinks and ultimately, getting the featured snippet.

Voice Search Is Continuing to Grow in Popularity

Over the coming years, voice search is going to continue to skyrocket to new levels. You don’t hear about it as much today because the fact is, now everyone is accustomed to it! Since it’s not the new best thing it means there’s plenty of opportunity for you as a local marketer to leverage it for your local business clients. There are still many businesses that are not optimized for voice search. This is the low-hanging fruit that you can reach up and grab with a few adjustments to your local marketing strategy.

Voice Search Readiness Score Example

Advice Local Can Help With Voice Searches, Too

Did you know that we include a voice search readiness score within our Online Visibility report? This is a great way to see if your clients are getting found by the voice search devices. Our listing management solution includes voice app creation technology. You can create a voice app for your client that’s ready to submit to the Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa app stores within minutes. It’s fast, easy-to-use and affordable.

We Provide the Schema Markup to Add Voice Search Data to Your Clients’ Websites

From your Advice Local partner dashboard you can access the schema markup that integrates Local Business Schema, FAQ Schema and Speakable Schema to add to your clients’ websites. Voice assistants (and your clients) will love you for doing this.

If you are shopping for a new listings management partner or considering a change, request a demo from Advice Local. A member of our sales team can share with you all about our voice search features and much more.

The post The Secrets to Winning More Business With Voice Search appeared first on Advice Local.

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Advice Local’s 2020 Year in Review – What Did You Accomplish? | Advice Local

What are you doing in 2021 to better help your local business clients? We accomplished a lot at Advice Local in 2020 to make it easier for our agency & local marketing partners to help their clients get found in Google Maps and organic search.

Advice Local’s 2020 Year in Review

Today we would like to do a 2020 Year in Review with you.

1. Breakthrough Voice Profile Technology Is Now Available on Judy’s Book

Each business listed in Advice Local’s technology has all of the following applied to their business’ listing on Judy’s Book in real time – and it’s all done automatically.

  • Local Business Schema
  • Review Schema
  • FAQ Schema
  • Speakable Schema

2. First-Class Conversational Voice App Technology Is Now Available

For platform partners, this technology integration is available in your partner dashboard. You can create a voice app for any active business listing within our technology.

  • Using the business’ information in our technology, we’ll create a list of frequently asked questions and answers.
  • Features such as adding a Welcome Message, Help Message and Exit Message are options also.

Once finished completing the app information, you simply place the order. Get more details on our voice app technology here.

3. Add Markup That Voice Assistants Love to a Local Business Website

Within the Advice Local dashboard, for each business’ active listing, there is a section entitled Voice Search Data. Within this section a JSON-LD script is available for copying & adding to the business’ website. This enables voice assistants to answer frequently asked questions about the business in voice queries. And here’s more on adding Local Schema, FAQ Schema and Speakable Schema to your clients’ websites.

4. Winning With Voice Search – Tips & Tricks Download

Voice search is more important than ever. Statista estimates that more than 8 billion voice assistants will be in use by 2023. This download, Winning With Voice Search, walks you through how to make this information available to voice assistants – and in a format they can understand.

5. Google My Business Management Just Got Easier

Our Enhanced Google My Business tool makes it easier for you to manage multiple Google My Business listings from a single dashboard. Through our tool you can schedule GMB posts, upload images that include EXIF data to the GMB listing, add questions & answers, respond to reviews, access 18 months of historical insights data and more.

6. Google My Business Sync Keeps Your Client’s Listing Up-to-Date

Google My Business Sync (or GMB Sync) is available for all partners through the dashboard. We do not require the use of our GMB Claiming service to access this feature. You can easily update the GMB listing information through our dashboard or simply sync the data to our listing management solution to monitor it. GMB Sync makes it easy to keep your client’s Google My Business listing up-to-date.

7. Advice Local Introduces the Google Authority Score

Advice Local has developed an algorithm called the Google Authority Score (GAS) which is available to our partners exclusively. This score calculates how well a business’ Google My Business listing is performing in Google Maps. The score is calculated based on the usage of the features within a business’ GMB listing.

8. Get the Secrets to Increasing a Business’ Online Authority

Google’s E-A-T (expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness) is a component of how Google directs its Search Quality Raters to evaluate a website’s content. Our newest download, Applying E-A-T to a Google My Business Listing, walks the reader through how to apply E-A-T to a business’ Google My Business listing to help it appear more often in the Local Map Pack, also referred to as Google Maps.

But Wait, There’s More to What Advice Local Has Accomplished in 2020

Above, we’ve summarized the most impactful moments that are helping our partners to better serve their local business, service area businesses and brand clients. Some of our additional accomplishments include:

  • Welcoming new directories and data providers into our network
  • Upgrading our API connections so we can share a business’ attributes beyond the name, address & phone number (NAP)
  • Switching some directories from an API partner connection to a direct API connection

The future is bright for local businesses. It’s important that you have a partner that is providing best-in-class listing management & technology solutions.

#AdviceLocal’s 2020 Year in Review – What Did You Accomplish? by @BernieColeman #SEO
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We have a solid 2021 roadmap, and we’ll be continuing to roll out new features and improvements to our technology over the coming months. If you haven’t taken a tour of our technology recently, it’s time to act. Request a demo today – you’ll be pleasantly pleased with our listing management solutions.

 

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Local Business Marketing in 2021

Do you remember back in October when I talked with you about planning seasonal marketing campaigns? How did it go? Were you able to help your local business clients get more business?

As a reminder, I suggested you call and email your clients to find out what they had planned – and if their answer was “nothing,” to help them make that plan! From there I wanted you to take action and implement any necessary changes to their Google My Business and other business listings.

I even gave you some tips and tools to make it easier, such as creating a timeline for the activities that needed to transpire, and to use the available scheduling tools to help them implement their marketing plan.

While the holidays are not yet over, hopefully your focus is also on how you are going to help your clients keep the momentum (or improve it) in the first quarter of 2021.

We all hoped COVID would be over by now, but it seems it’s going to follow us into 2021. In North Texas, occupancies are dropping back down to 50% capacity at restaurants and such. The trend of mandates and consumers being cautious about the businesses they frequent is continuing.

Answer These Local Marketing Questions

  • How can you help your local business clients continue to get new customers?
  • How can you help them build trust with consumers online?
  • How can you help them demonstrate their expertise?

Over the past several months, I’ve been sharing new strategies and available features with you. As we inch closer to 2021, the above questions remain extremely pertinent, so let’s revisit just how you can help your local business clients.

1. Google My Business Optimization

Make sure your clients’ Google My Business (GMB) listings are optimized to share what their COVID procedures are, and that the business’ website has a page discussing it. Utilize all the attributes features that Google has made available.

2. Leveraging E-A-T for Local Business Marketing

That’s right – expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness (E-A-T) can help you better service your local business clients. While Google is referring to a business’ website content when they discuss E-A-T, this can and should be applied to a business’ online presence everywhere. Consider E-A-T as it relates to a client’s GMB listing, their social media presence and for Pete’s sake, the business’ directory listings!

3. Give There Local Marketing Some GAS

We developed the Google Authority Score – we call it GAS – to help you and your local business clients better understand how they are doing online, specifically as it relates to their Google My Business listing.

Setting Up Local Businesses for Success in 2021 by @BernieColeman #Marketing #Business
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Take a Peek at Our Local Business Marketing Solutions

A new year is almost here – in fact it’s right around the corner. At Advice Local, we’re dedicated to helping you. Have you given any of our new product features a test drive? Request a demo and start 2021 off big.

You’ll see how our listing management services, voice search app technology and our Google My Business tool can help you! These add-on services not only help you to better serve your clients, they make your work easier – and offer additional services you can up-sell to your clients.

 

The post Setting Up Local Businesses for Success in 2021 appeared first on Advice Local.

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It’s Time to Plan Seasonal Local Marketing Campaigns

The holiday season is right around the corner. If you haven’t already started planning seasonal local marketing campaigns for your clients you need to get busy. You can guarantee their competitors have already gotten to work.

And in response to this fact, today we’re going to give you some steps to get you started and help you outline a plan. Along the way, we share some tips and tools we use for our campaigns.

First Thing – Call/Email Your Clients

You need to know all the important information about their holiday campaigns.

  1. Are they changing their business hours for the holidays; which days will they be open and closed, etc.
  2. Find out what, if any seasonal offers and discounts they are going to have and when.
  3. If the client doesn’t have a campaign planned, this is the perfect opportunity for you to demonstrate your value to them by helping them create a plan.

Take Action

Once you gather the specifics about a client’s holiday campaign, you’ll need to create or gather quite a few resources.

  1. You need to make sure your client’s business listings are updated with the information about their holiday hours, etc.
  2. If you do the client’s social media, you’ll need to order graphics for use online within posts. Perhaps you need seasonal social media cover images created, or banners for the home page.
  3. If you manage their website content or Google My Business, you need to get content created for use online in the form of posts and/or videos.

Create the Timeline & Schedule the Activities

There are several holidays coming up so most likely, you can’t just put up a single image, post or offer and consider it completed. You’ll need to leverage some tools to make it easier.

  1. Update your client’s business information in your Advice Local dashboard. With a few clicks you can update their listing information and trust us to distribute it to the top directories and data sources.
  2. If you’re creating content for WordPress websites such as a blog post, schedule those in advance through the scheduler. Use tools such as Hootsuite and Facebook’s native scheduler for social media posts.
  3. Since you cannot schedule posts, offers & images in advance through the Google My Business dashboard, you’ll need a tool to complete this for you. Our Enhanced Google My Business tool enables you to schedule for a single location or multi-location brand with a few clicks. It’s super-easy to use, affordable – and so very powerful.

Consider Using a Voice App

When your clients have a special campaign going, what better time to introduce yet another way to help them get found online? You can update the custom Welcome Message within the voice app to include seasonal messaging. Once the voice app is live, edits are in real time, so you can change the message as the holidays change.

Creating a conversational voice app is simple to do with our technology. We pull the business’ information from the Edit Client section and populate the answers to the common questions automatically.

Creating a local marketing campaign for your clients is an absolute must. For instance, perhaps you manage only a few components of their online marketing. This could be your opportunity to introduce them to your other services, or provide support to your partners. Either way, now is the time to act, because you know their competitors already have – or are about to.

It’s Time to Plan Seasonal Local #Marketing Campaigns via @Advice_Local #Business
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We’re Here to Help

At Advice Local we are all about making local marketing easy for our partners. Request a demo today or drop an email to your account manager if you are already a partner.

We’re happy to demonstrate how our listing management services, Google My Business tool, or conversational voice app can help you to better help your clients get found online in desktop, mobile and voice search queries!

The post It’s Time to Plan Seasonal Local Marketing Campaigns appeared first on Advice Local.

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Winning with Voice Search – Tips & Tricks to Get More Voice Search Traffic

Voice search is more important than ever. Statista estimates that more than 8 billion voice assistants will be in use by 2023. Question – do your small business and brand clients have a voice presence?

At Advice Local, we take helping our agency and local marketing partners very seriously. What worked yesterday to help a local business or brand get found simply may not work today. This is why it’s important to have the best voice presence solutions available at your fingertips.

The Meaning of Voice Search Is Evolving

For a business to get found in voice search queries, you must have the business’ information and the most common frequently asked questions about the business available to the voice assistants. While this may seem simple, it’s definitely not.

Our newly released download, Winning With Voice Search, walks you through how to make this information available to voice assistants – and in a format they can understand.

In this how-to you will:

  • Explore what makes a business voice search-ready
  • Study the benefits of a conversational voice app
  • Get insights on the voice search generation
  • Dig into voice search habits
  • Discover why content is king in voice searches, too
  • Learn how to win more featured snippets

This voice search how-to is short, sweet and to-the-point. I guarantee you’ll be able to read it in 5 to 10 minutes. Once finished, you’ll be ready to start implementing and optimizing for voice search right away.

Winning in Voice Search Requires a Voice Presence

While we have many features available through our presence management solution to help you get a business found online, today I’m going to focus on our voice technology.

Advice Local Voice Technology Features

  • Submit enhanced data for a business to the Google Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa.
  • Technology that generates common frequently asked questions.
  • Submission of a local business’ data to key sources that voice assistants trust.
  • Voice Profile Judy’s Book listing.
  • Voice search data markup for each business’ location listed with us.
  • First-of-its-kind Voice Search Readiness Score within the reporting dashboard.
  • Voice Search Readiness Test that displays a “ready” or “not ready” status.

While Advice Local has been helping businesses get found in voice searches all along, today we can help you do it in an even bigger way.

How We Make Voice Search Data Available to Voice Assistants

Did you know that even if a searcher does not specify “near me” in their voice query, that voice assistants will still provide results based on proximity? And knowing that, ask yourself: Are the local businesses I represent getting found by voice assistants?

#Voice Presence Is a Must – We Have the Technology and the How-To by @BernieColeman #SEO
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Voice Search Optimization Help Is Available

A study by BrightLocal reveals that to show up in search results for voice searches, local businesses must meet criteria that include components like this:

  • How close the business is to the searcher
  • How the business interacts with reviews
  • Number of backlinks to the business’ website
  • The business activity level on social media
  • Business’ visibility on industry-specific and local directories

All of these features are built right into our solution. Request a demo of our local presence management solution to learn how we can help you today!

Have you grabbed our voice search tips & tricks download yet? Well, now’s the time!

 

The post Voice Presence Is a Must – We Have the Technology and the How-To appeared first on Advice Local.