Local SEO for Atlanta Based Businesses Introduction

Audio Transcript

Welcome back to The Mastermind. I’m your host, Jeff V. Evans.

Today we’re going to start a new series. It’s a series that I’m really, really excited to do. I’m going to be solo on this series, although I might bring on a guest here or there because this has become so vitally important, especially now that we’re looking at recession.

Or whatever you believe is actually happening.:)

Local visibility online has always been important. It’s always going to be important, but now it’s become even more important.

When a recession hits, this is usually the time where one of two things happen for a business and business owner.

Either, number one, they get scared, they drop all their marketing and they try to just conserve. And that’s a no no.

Then there’s a second type of business owner who takes it and runs with marketing, puts more into it because this way you can take more market share during the recession because your competitors will back off.

Now is the perfect time for you to actually move forward.

So today we’re going to start off by talking about Google’s Map Pack and the organic results. We then get into a little bit of education in regards to the differences.

Atlanta local SEO is my baby. It’s what I’m so proud to be a part of. To help Atlanta businesses with their SEO.

Then we’re also going to start talking about different types of Google business profiles because that’s what it’s called now.It’s no longer called Google my business. They love to change the names.

We’re going to talk about what it takes to be an Atlanta SEO consultant, what you should look out for in a company or a consultant.

Then just really get into the meat of strategy and also some story and background as to myself and why I started local SEO in Atlanta over 15 years ago!

Kind of what I’ve seen evolve within the industry, within Google.

I’ll give you a hint. As long as you do best practices and work hard and put money into your marketing, it will work.

I know it’s shocking, but if you’re looking to spend $100 a month and rank number one for any phrasing whatsoever, it’s just not for you.

But that’s the same thing with Facebook ads or Google Ads or any other type of marketing.

You’ve got to invest in marketing.

You have to invest more in it. Personally.

Just a real brief aside.

The way we do our pricing specifically for local SEO clients is the more aggressive you want to be. The more you must invest into it. Plain and simple.

Because we can spend twelve months and get your ranking really well.

Or we can put a whole lot into it and get the same results in probably three to six months. Depending upon your industry and how competitive the market is.

But that’s an aside.

Let’s get back into Google’s Map Pack and organic results, and let’s just kind of talk through some of the differences here.

So Atlanta local SEO is primarily focused on ranking in Google’s map pack. The Map Pack is what is shown above the organic results, but below the paid results.

Where you’ve got that little map section there.

And it is incredibly important to be in that top three.

There’s a lot of ways to do so and optimizations, and we’ll get into all of that. We’re also going to touch on some of the other search engines like Bing and Apple Maps.

Yes, Apple Maps, voice search, things like that.

But right now, our focus is going to be on Google.

They have the majority of traffic, it’s crazy really. It’s almost like 90%.

Now, both the Map Pack and our organic results, they’re very valuable, but for their own reasons, right?

So we’re going to create a strategy to dominate both across multiple search terms within our target geographical areas.

Now, it’s our Google Business Profile, which is actually what appears in the Map Pack, and it’s our website, which actually appears in the organic results.

Okay, yes, there is a website link in the Map Pack, but it’s the Google Business Profile and optimizing that’s going to get you into that map pack.

Both of these entities actually require their own ranking strategies.

We’ll go through both of them as time progresses.

Let’s go ahead and we’re just going to kind of dive into the Map Pack, especially for local SEO here in Atlanta and kind of go through the basics of this.

So the businesses, again, that you see ranking in this map pack are Google Business Profile listings.

Again, not websites.

Websites rank in organic search.

Google business profile listings are going to rank in the Map Pack.

Now, whether you’re dealing with a plumber who operates in a particular radius, whether you’re dealing with a doughnut shop, one of my personal favorites, and it’s address that you actually visit. Every local business can create one of these listings, and it’s free to create, so keep that in mind.

It is free to create this thing, which is absolutely incredible.

It’s one of the actual nice things that Google has done for us.

So ranking in the Map Pack is really powerful for multiple reasons.

Number one, we appear above the organic results which is huge.

Number two, we can display our number, call button, reviews, opening times, what category of business you are, and a location without anybody needing to click onto your website.

There is a lot of studies out there, and we’ll go through some of those later in this series that actually talk about the percentages of people that will just click on a phone number right from their phone in the Google Maps section, which is awesome.

Now this becomes really cool because when a customer isn’t overly concerned, I guess we can say, and all they want to see are five stars or four and a half stars next to a business name, they’re in a rush.

They don’t care who does the work as long as they are perceived to be good. And that’s where a good reputation management campaign comes in, being able to get those reviews and make sure that they are at least five.

Most of the time people are Googling a local business in order to solve their dire problem.

Really a lot of times.

So you’ve got plumbers, HVAC, things like that.

They have problems, there’s emergencies, they need them solved.

They have a tree that needs to be cut down, a tile falling off their roof, whatever.

They want a new haircut.

But for the most part, they don’t want to spend hours and hours trawling through different local websites.

All they want to do is get it done as fast as possible.

Now, if they see a business who’s in their area or who serves in their area with a credible name, plenty of five star reviews, that’s going to be enough to actually earn their trust.

So the map pack again is an excellent tool for lead generation.

It helps customers quickly get connected with your business.

All right, let’s talk about the actual benefits of a Google Business Profile.

Once again, it was called Google My Business or GMB. It is now Google business profile or GBP.

Unbelievable with these terminologies.

But hey, it is what it is.

So within the actual dashboard of the Google Business Profile, you can add images, you can add posts daily.

I suggest that you have an area for a description.

Obviously you want to make that keyword rich.

There’s a section to view your reviews, also to respond to your reviews.

If you’re not responding to reviews, you are missing the mark.

Go out and respond to those reviews.

Actually, there’s messaging now, so you can actually message kind of like a messenger, a chat feature within this platform.

You can add products, you can add services.

You can actually create a website within the Google Business Profile platform.

So it’s pretty cool.

There’s a lot of really great stuff in there.

Now, one of the really cool benefits of optimizing this is that you’re going to be able to rank faster now, not fast, but faster.

So organic search could take months and months and months to really get those one, two, three spots in regards to the most competitive keyword phrases that you have.

But with a Google Business Profile, you’re able to kind of jump quicker to that top three in the map pack because there’s a specific strategy and you follow that strategy and you do the right job and you do a great job and you’re not in a highly competitive if you’re a personal injury attorney in Atlanta, that’s incredibly difficult to rank for, right?

Incredibly difficult.

But let’s say you are a tattoo removal studio.

Or maybe you’re a med spa that offers tattoo removal.

That’s a good one.

And not competitive.

So there’s a little secret for you.

So again, some of these can rank really quickly, some overnight.

Although these days I don’t see that.

I really don’t see that very often.

But the great thing about all of this is that, look, guys, this is free lead generation.

So if you know what you’re doing or you’ve been taught by somebody that knows what they’re doing, or you hire somebody like myself that knows what they’re doing, you’re able to then rank and get all that free traffic and all those free phone calls.

All right, now let’s talk about the organic results on the Google search page.

Now, I’m sure most of you are very much aware of where this is and what this is.

But did you know that you can actually get more calls and more visits to your website from organic than if you ranked number one in the Map Pack?

That’s not 100%, but it is a really good percentage.

Now why?

Because with your website, you’re able to rank for a lot more phrases.

So, for instance, if you’re a landscaping company in Atlanta, but you also do landscaping in Lawrenceville, you do landscaping in Marietta, you do landscaping in Cumming.

So you’ve got all these different pages of locations that you do the work in.

You’re not going to be able to rank in the Map Pack for that because Google looks at your address and your service area and really will kind of bring that down into a centralized location.

So if it’s Atlanta, it’s more in the Atlanta area, specifically around the zip code that you’re in that you’re going to rank for in the Map Pack.

But organically sky is the limit at this point.

You can rank for other states for all that matters.

It’s just absolutely up to how optimized is the website for the right keyword phrasings.

So that’s, again, it’s why it’s so important that it’s a one two punch, if you will.

So when we talk about Atlanta based local SEO, we’re really talking about optimizing your Google business profile.

But we’re also talking about doing organic search engine optimization for your Atlanta based business as well.

This way you have a combination and you’re guaranteed to make money, which is why we’re all in business.

Let’s just call it like it is.

We’re in business to make money.

We want to help people.

I want to help companies.

It’s my favorite thing in the world to get a great testimonial, a great review from a company, and to a point, it is way better than even the money.

But we are in business to make money.

So that we can take care of our families, we can take care of our loved ones, and we can live happier lives.

So I hope that this little basic introduction to local SEO here in Atlanta has been helpful.

Again, this is just the first episode within this series.

My next episode is going to be kind of going through the different types of local SEO, and this will really kind of get into a lot of different business types and a lot of helpful hints along the way.

So if you liked this episode, please give me some great reviews.

Go to Apple, go to Spotify, whatever subscribe.

If you have questions about this, if you would like me or my team to do an analysis of your website and your search visibility within your local area and industry, please send me an email.

Jeff@jvinsentcreative.com.

Once I get the email, we’ll reach out to you.

We’ll get you to fill out a form with all the pertinent details, and then we’re going to do a full analysis, either in person or on a zoom call if you’re more comfortable with that.

By the end of that, you will know exactly where you stand and where you need to be to dominate your local area in Atlanta for your industry for the years to come, especially in a recession if it gets worse.

We’re here for you, and it is our job and our passion to make sure that you are well taken care of.

Thanks again, guys.

Hope you enjoyed the show. Take care.