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

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@danaditomaso Local SEO: 2023 Highlights & Looking Forward to 2024 Dana DiTomaso Presented at Search Marketing Summit 2023

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@danaditomaso I’ve seen a lot of changes over the last 20+ years of local SEO.

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@danaditomaso 2021 - Google Business Proﬁles 2014 - Google My Business 2011 - Google+ Local 2009 - Google Places 2005 - Google Local Business Center 2004 - Google Local

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@danaditomaso The name might change, but the fundamentals stay the same.

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@danaditomaso Are your business details correct?

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@danaditomaso Do you have the right business category?

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@danaditomaso Is your business name correct?

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@danaditomaso If all else fails, you can just name your business after a search term.

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@danaditomaso Do you have real reviews?

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@danaditomaso Real reviews aren’t all 5 stars.

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@danaditomaso Do you have a reasonably fast website?

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@danaditomaso Are you answering questions?

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@danaditomaso Are these things basic? Sure, but that doesn’t mean that these things are taken care of.

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@danaditomaso What happened in 2023

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@danaditomaso January: Apple Business Connect launch

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@danaditomaso You can’t ignore Apple Maps — look at the market share of iPhones.

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@danaditomaso July: Updated GBP Policies https://support.google.com/business/answer/13762416

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@danaditomaso Ever had issues with photo approvals?

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@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.

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@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.

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@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?

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@danaditomaso November: Google Merchant Center GBP Integration Google Merchant Center isn’t just for ads.

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@danaditomaso This is an organic shopping search, pulling from Google Merchant Center.

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@danaditomaso November: Activities Added (to some proﬁles) Not every business qualiﬁes, but check if you do.

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@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

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@danaditomaso Looking ahead to 2024

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@danaditomaso Here is your to do list!

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@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)

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@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

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@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

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@danaditomaso Example: Website link, Potts Point location https://site.com?utm_medium=organic&utm_source= gbp&utm_campaign=website&utm_term=potts+point

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@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

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@danaditomaso Optional: Create a custom channel in GA4 for GBP Admin > Channel Groups (in the Data Display section)

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@danaditomaso Make sure to re-order the channel list to ensure that GBP traffic is “pulled out” of the Organic Search channel.

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@danaditomaso Add call tracking as your primary GBP number and add your real number as your secondary number. (We love CallRail!)

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@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.

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@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.

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@danaditomaso Keep an eye out for Local Service Ads (LSAs).* *This talk was given in Australia, they don’t have LSAs (yet).

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@danaditomaso Don’t get distracted by “one weird trick the experts don’t want to tell you”.

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@danaditomaso Don’t try to do everything.

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@danaditomaso Decommission what you aren’t using.

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@danaditomaso Let’s not forget about AI

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@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.

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@danaditomaso You can compare different businesses using SGE.

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@danaditomaso This result is likely pulling from Google Merchant Center.

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@danaditomaso How does SGE rank local results? We don’t really know, yet.

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@danaditomaso SGE has been shown to use text from reviews for follow up questions Credit to Andy Simpson

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@danaditomaso AI can also help you identify important attributes.

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@danaditomaso What does ChatGPT include in a positive review?

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@danaditomaso …all I wanted was regional spellings, and I got this.

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@danaditomaso Tool Recommendation: Leadferno (coming to Australia in 2024!)

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@danaditomaso Jessie Low’s suggestions for where to get started in local SEO https://kpplaybook.com/resources/local-seo-low-hanging-fruit/

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@danaditomaso Analytics for Agencies is out now!

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@danaditomaso Get our free bi-weekly digital marketing newsletter: kpplaybook.com/newsletter Dana DiTomaso kpplaybook.com @danaditomaso