What Happened in Local SEO in 2023 & How to Improve Local SEO in 2024

Yes, local SEO is still worth it in 2023. Many businesses are still missing out on the basics -- are your business details correct, do you have the right business category, is your business name correct, does your website perform well, do you have real reviews, and are you responding to questions. There were also new features that came to the local SEO world in 2023 including Apple Business Connect, ways to fix image upload issues in Google Business Profiles, the new Google Merchant Center/Google Business Profiles integration, and activities added as a feature to some Google Business Profiles.

Looking ahead to 2024, what should be on your local SEO to do list? I recommend ensuring that you are tracking traffic from Google Business Profiles via UTM tagging and call tracking, checking on reviews and messages and actually responding to them, setting up an automated system to ask for reviews, and use posts on Google Business Profiles at least weekly.

Finally, AI is of course a hot topic in SEO in 2023. This talk was presented in Australia, and Google's Search Generative Experience (SGE) isn't available in that country yet, but local SEOs can learn a lot by seeing what SEOs in other countries have searched for in SGE so far. Beyond SGE, using tools like ChatGPT can help identify key attributes for your business via positive and negative review generation.

Have more questions about local SEO? Would you like me to come speak at your event about local SEO or analytics? Get in touch!

This talk was presented at Search Marketing Summit in Sydney, Australia on November 28, 2023.

Transcript

1. @danaditomaso Local SEO: 2023 Highlights & Looking Forward to 2024 Dana DiTomaso Presented at Search Marketing Summit 2023
2. @danaditomaso I’ve seen a lot of changes over the last 20+ years of local SEO.
3. @danaditomaso 2021 - Google Business Profiles 2014 - Google My Business 2011 - Google+ Local 2009 - Google Places 2005 - Google Local Business Center 2004 - Google Local
4. @danaditomaso The name might change, but the fundamentals stay the same.
5. @danaditomaso Are your business details correct?
6. @danaditomaso Do you have the right business category?
7. @danaditomaso Is your business name correct?
8. @danaditomaso If all else fails, you can just name your business after a search term.
9. @danaditomaso Do you have real reviews?
10. @danaditomaso Real reviews aren’t all 5 stars.
11. @danaditomaso Do you have a reasonably fast website?
12. @danaditomaso Are you answering questions?
13. @danaditomaso Are these things basic? Sure, but that doesn’t mean that these things are taken care of.
14. @danaditomaso What happened in 2023
15. @danaditomaso January: Apple Business Connect launch
16. @danaditomaso You can’t ignore Apple Maps — look at the market share of iPhones.
17. @danaditomaso July: Updated GBP Policies https://support.google.com/business/answer/13762416
18. @danaditomaso Ever had issues with photo approvals?
19. @danaditomaso August: New GBP help form https://support.google.com/ business/gethelp Enter “photo not approved” or similar and you’ll have the option to contact support and hopefully have it fixed.
20. @danaditomaso Test using the Cloud Vision API https://cloud.google.com/vision/docs/drag-and-drop Check the “Safe Search” tab and see how your photo is interpreted.
21. @danaditomaso August: AI Suggested Description in GBP The AI description can help identify the key points you’ve made in your description — are you making the right word choices?
22. @danaditomaso November: Google Merchant Center GBP Integration Google Merchant Center isn’t just for ads.
23. @danaditomaso This is an organic shopping search, pulling from Google Merchant Center.
24. @danaditomaso November: Activities Added (to some profiles) Not every business qualifies, but check if you do.
25. @danaditomaso How can you keep up with local SEO changes? 1. Near Media: https://www.nearmedia.co/ 2. BrightLocal’s Blog: https://www.brightlocal.com/blog/ 3. Sterling Sky Local SEO Changes: https://www.sterlingsky.ca/google-local-changes/ 4. Miriam Ellis at Moz: https://moz.com/blog/local-business-content-guide
26. @danaditomaso Looking ahead to 2024
27. @danaditomaso Here is your to do list!
28. @danaditomaso Do this right now: 1. Add tracking to your links & calls 2. Make sure someone reliable is receiving your message notifications and responding to them 3. Set up a review request automation system (if you haven’t already)
29. @danaditomaso Add UTMs to your website links Medium: organic Source: gbp (for Google Business Profiles) Campaign: GBP Website Link website GBP Appointment Link appt GBP Posts post GBP Products product GBP Menu Link menu
30. @danaditomaso Add UTMs to your website links Term: Use for locations (if you have multiple or will have multiple one day!) Content: Post - Event yyyymmdd+event+description Post - Offer yyyymmdd+offer+description Post - Update (normal type) yyyymmdd+update+description Product product+description
31. @danaditomaso Example: Website link, Potts Point location https://site.com?utm_medium=organic&utm_source= gbp&utm_campaign=website&utm_term=potts+point
32. @danaditomaso Example: Event post for Black Friday sale, Potts Point location https://site.com?utm_medium=organic&utm_sourc e=gbp&utm_campaign=website&utm_content= 20231124+black+friday&utm_term=potts+point
33. @danaditomaso Optional: Create a custom channel in GA4 for GBP Admin > Channel Groups (in the Data Display section)
34. @danaditomaso Make sure to re-order the channel list to ensure that GBP traffic is “pulled out” of the Organic Search channel.
35. @danaditomaso Add call tracking as your primary GBP number and add your real number as your secondary number. (We love CallRail!)
36. @danaditomaso Do this right now: 1. Add tracking to your links & calls 2. Make sure someone reliable is receiving your message notifications and responding to them 3. Set up a review request automation system (if you haven’t already)
37. @danaditomaso Do this right now: 1. Add tracking to your links & calls 2. Make sure someone reliable is receiving your message notifications and responding to them 3. Set up a review request automation system (if you haven’t already)
38. @danaditomaso Your daily to-do list: 1. Check for & respond to reviews 2. Check for & respond to questions Just take 10 minutes each morning — this doesn’t have to be a big time investment.
39. @danaditomaso Your weekly to-do list: 1. Add posts & other updates (yes, people do look at them) You can re-use social posts from elsewhere — the goal here is to look active.
40. @danaditomaso Keep an eye out for Local Service Ads (LSAs).* *This talk was given in Australia, they don’t have LSAs (yet).
41. @danaditomaso Don’t get distracted by “one weird trick the experts don’t want to tell you”.
42. @danaditomaso Don’t try to do everything.
43. @danaditomaso Decommission what you aren’t using.
44. @danaditomaso Let’s not forget about AI
45. @danaditomaso Google’s SGE isn’t available in Australia (yet).* *This talk was given in Australia, but many other countries don’t have SGE yet. You lucky Americans do, of course.
46. @danaditomaso You can compare different businesses using SGE.
47. @danaditomaso This result is likely pulling from Google Merchant Center.
48. @danaditomaso How does SGE rank local results? We don’t really know, yet.
49. @danaditomaso SGE has been shown to use text from reviews for follow up questions Credit to Andy Simpson
50. @danaditomaso AI can also help you identify important attributes.
51. @danaditomaso What does ChatGPT include in a positive review?
52. @danaditomaso …all I wanted was regional spellings, and I got this.
53. @danaditomaso Tool Recommendation: Leadferno (coming to Australia in 2024!)
54. @danaditomaso Jessie Low’s suggestions for where to get started in local SEO https://kpplaybook.com/resources/local-seo-low-hanging-fruit/
55. @danaditomaso Analytics for Agencies is out now!
56. @danaditomaso Get our free bi-weekly digital marketing newsletter: kpplaybook.com/newsletter Dana DiTomaso kpplaybook.com @danaditomaso