50 Ways Local SEOs Can Make a Living
My advice is simple: make the most of your SEO person or staff. Whether that means taking on additional responsibilities or replacing some of the current tasks with other tasks, it won’t be hard to make them more useful than they are now.
What is most useful varies from company to company and changes over time for the same company. The critical tasks in local SEO change between the start and the 8-year deployment. (You wouldn’t believe the crazy things I’ve been asked to do and what I usually end up doing. I oblige whenever I can.)
As usual, the first step is to take a solid inventory of what your SEO(s) can potentially help with. Only then can you determine what they are will can help. Of course, there may be good reasons to focus on this rather than that, and an honest employee will tell you when there is someone better equipped or less expensive. So you first discuss what is possible, and then you discuss what is best. Some good things might have been hiding from you.
There are 30 bands hidden in this picture! We discovered one of our favorites!
If anyone knows the artist please let us know so we can credit them pic.twitter.com/lKGGBYeuQP
— Jack Bruce (@jackbrucemusic) November 26, 2020
Below are 50 ways your local SEO department can do its best:
(These are in no particular order, except that I’ll start with the few most obvious points. Also, contrary to my nature, I won’t explain every point in detail. Please leave a comment if I need to elaborate on anything.)
- Troubleshooting. Determine what’s been bothering you, whether it’s a drop in rankings, impressions, traffic, leads, or money.
- Audit. I’m not just referring to the initial crawls of your site, citations, backlinks, and competitor maps spam, but also routine checks of these areas over the months and years.
- Working. Setting up GBP pages, filling out GBP pages, finding and landing link opportunities, creating and correcting citations, uploading and optimizing photos, and so on.
- Strategize. Good search engine optimization can help you develop a strategy for getting reviews and links. “thickening” B. Your visibility, adding a location, using old blog posts and much more.
- Write. I’m mostly referring to writing or growing “service” pages, spin-off pages, and other high-priority pages, but writing also takes into account your YouTube work, photo optimization, and other areas tied to local SEO . Neologism should probably be part of an SEO’s job description anyway, but it isn’t always. It’s worth discussing early and often.
- We can help you redesign your website or migrate to a new platform or host.
- We will help you create a completely new website in an SEO friendly way.
- Gathering competitive intelligence.
- We support you in developing internal resources.
- We’ll help you weed out unnecessary tools and subscriptions you’re paying for.
- Use or have them use their tools and subscriptions. The customer and the SEO do not both have to pay for Ahrefs
- Make sure other marketing channels mesh well with your SEO. Are these PPC landing pages indexed and are they causing problems? Shouldn’t these TikTok videos be on YouTube too? The vanity domain is fine, but should it really get all the backlinks? You have the idea.
- Share with you not-NDA protected information from any competitors the SEO may have worked with in the past. Not everything is a trade secret, protected or protected by law Omerta.
- Providing information about what has worked in other industries. I can’t think of an effective SEO strategy or process that only works in one area and can’t be adapted to yours.
- Share real-world examples – good or bad. Sometimes you just want to see an example of something out in the wild before you commit to something, be it a link opportunity, an approach to getting reviews, a new look for your main navigation, or whatever.
- Reviewing suggestions from other marketers (e.g. developers). Get a second set of eyes to look for pitfalls, glaring omissions, and confusing or vague language.
- Interview, review or recommend your providers of other services.
- Providing a second opinion on software. I’m thinking ORM software, CallRail, Jobber, Lawmatics, or anything you hope will make your life easier.
- Continuous research for keywords/search terms. This is not a one-time deal.
- Analyze Google Search Console data and make recommendations based on that data.
- Serve as Expertif you are dealing with a shady marketing company (current or former).
- Reporting, whether via Google Analytics, Search Console, Grid Tracker, other tools or a combination thereof.
- We can help you rename or relocate your company.
- YouTube work: upload, optimize and embed videos.
- Photo work: Find or create, edit, upload and optimize photos on your website.
- Showcase your business on the SEO provider’s website if they have a prominent website and a large following (in this case it can be a nice little link).
- Edit content. Nominally this is for search engine friendliness, but ideally it also simply makes it easier to read.
- We help you curate reading material on the topic of SEO. If you’re into that sort of thing. I often send clients my blog posts (half the reason I write in the first place), but I also point them to other people’s resources.
- Teach you or your employees how to do SEO in-house. Or at least how to do certain parts of it.
- Limiting Google Maps spam.
- Conducting due diligence on company sales, mergers or acquisitions. If you are trading horses in any way, you should ask yourself, “Who gets what?” and “What is it worth?” Questions will arise. Your SEO person may be able to help you.
- Evaluate the pros and cons of website domains you may purchase or move your website to. Choosing the wrong domain can be a missed opportunity, cost you good backlinks, give you bad backlinks, confuse customers, or get you into legal trouble.
- We help you sell or clean up parked domains. You may want to know which domains might have some SEO value, at least according to your SEO expert.
- Research the advantages and disadvantages of a new address.
- Smooth or establish relevant other systems and processes: obtaining reviews, taking and sharing photos by on-site technicians, following up on leads, etc.
- Assisting in a related endeavor, an independent endeavor, or a relative’s business.
- Help establish your successor. Maybe you want or need to help the next generation achieve the same results you achieved with SEO work, and perhaps even better. At first, this will likely require some consultation, sharing of internal resources, and a bit of coaching. Later you will need to update the website and possibly other assets.
- Providing information about your competitors’ SEO companies or other contractors. Many of us know each other and have one or two observations.
- Become your customer and maybe a reviewer too.
- We help you develop SEO as a side hustle, coaching business, etc. Here is an excellent example.
- Ask customers personally for reviews. If you haven’t been able to crack the code and get customers/clients/patients to write reviews despite basically following your SEO person’s advice, maybe it’s time for him or her to prove it in person that it CAN be done in your situation. It’s a temporary arrangement that you can keep until you both see what works.
- Setting up tools (e.g. plugins, rank trackers, ORM software, etc.).
- To unblock, contact GBP Support on your behalf.
- Avoid GBP suspensions and other penalties by identifying loopholes or gray areas. At least you should knowledge the slippery path, whether you choose it or not.
- Offer them pro bono work in exchange for a success story, case study, testimonial, recommendation, etc.
- Conducting tests or experiments for an independent or “sandbox” company.
- Test new or invite-only Google products or GBP features on your behalf or how they will serve your business.
- Identify top potential Yelp reviewers.
- We help you figure out or establish your niche. Local SEO tends to be much easier, faster and more fruitful for relative specialists than for generalists. Good local SEO can help you maintain some visibility and revenue from the services or products you want to move away from, while also helping you get more action of the type you want.
- Reducing dependence on SEO. Over time, you may notice more word-of-mouth recommendations or find it easier to get other marketing channels up and running. This is most likely if you get your SEO person to help in many loosely related areas and if he or she has the motivation and ingenuity to do so. All it takes is a little 3D thinking for both of you.
What else can you get out of your SEO person or team? What should (in your opinion) definitely be within your own purview or not? Did I miss something? Leave a comment!