Meredith's Husband: 0:42

Hey, this is Meredith husband, I've got some SEO advice for you. But I'm gonna keep it really simple so that you can understand it. So make sense. And most importantly, so you can actually use we're gonna talk about today, something that I think would be really important to most local business owners, isn't everybody local to somewhere, and not really know, my business is not local. I like mayor's husband's not local. So local search results don't really matter. But if you are a local business, which would mean that you service people in a local area, or people walk into your shop, those are two different types of local business. Either way, it's pretty important to show up in local search results. Yeah, so somebody does a search on Google for something in their neighborhood and you're in that neighborhood, you want to show up,

Meredith: 1:34

or they do you know, places near me, thrift stores near me,

Meredith's Husband: 1:41

same thing, same thing, Google is going to know where that person is searching from, and they're going to feed them up local results. So you want to get into those listings. Today, we're going to talk about that. And there's two categories of things that you can do. And I'm gonna split this into two episodes that we're going to talk about the first category. And next week, we're gonna talk about the second. The first category is the on site stuff, the stuff that you can do to your actual website, and other properties that you control. So things that are completely within your control today. That's good. Number one.

Meredith: 2:15

The next time we're going to control the things that are not in our control,

Meredith's Husband: 2:18

we're going to influence the things that are less under our control, not under our direct control. Okay,

Meredith: 2:27

I'm coming back. So I can

Meredith's Husband: 2:28

do Yeah. And this one's pretty good, too. Yes. Can you guess what the number one thing to do is? If you want to show up in local

Meredith: 2:37

salon, your local Google business, right?

Meredith's Husband: 2:41

Yes, fill out your your Google business profile,

Meredith: 2:45

he gets one. Right. Right.

Meredith's Husband: 2:48

So and I'm gonna go through, there's a few things specifically that you can do with that profile to improve your chances of showing up when people search in the in the area that you want to target. Okay. Okay, so number one, is your business category. Yes, Google gives you an option. There are several 1000, options, zoologist, if you want to go ahead. But you do want to cheat, you want to be very careful, don't choose something, don't try to differentiate yourself here. Okay. Like if you're a photographer, don't say I'm a visual artist, okay? That that's not going to work. Don't say you're a painter etc. Also, don't make up something. So there is an option, I think Google still has this option, where you can write in your own, don't do that choose from one of the ones life find the most appropriate, because they're going to decide that's going to be their first preference. If you choose something on your own. If somebody does a search for photography, and one of their categories is photographer, and you choose something like visual artists, they're never going to display you to that person. If you make something up, you're only going to be displayed if there are no photographers that Google can choose from. So either one of those situations, but choose the most accurate one. After you choose the most accurate one. You can add a second one if you want, but make sure that number one you choose the most accurate fairies, this category. Yes. Number two is your address. Yes. So remember, this is a local search feature. Google is going to try to match up people who are in your neighborhood who are geographically close to you. Your address is important your home address or office? Well, we'll get to that there are some options with this. And it's kind of a trade off for a lot of local business owners, especially small business owners. Yeah. But you want to you want to use an address here. Okay. And again, we'll get to that at the at the end of this list. I'm going to go over some options for that. So number three, you just want to make your Google business profile as complete as possible. You want to fill it all out. We've talked about this before. It's good for SEO, it's just good practice. It's also it makes you look more impressive. When somebody does a search for your business name, or you show up there. It just looks more impressive when that listing is like robust when it's complete, makes you look more official. Now, I would say add images that's more for users, that's not going to help you rank higher specifically, but when people see that as a photographer, I'm sure you have images. It's nice to get those images in front of people, especially before they before they even get to your website. Yeah, for sure. Okay, the next point, Don'ts Try to stuff your keywords into your business profile. So don't put the word photography photographer, etc. Throughout your business listing. The one exception is within your business name, you want to include your complete business name, including the photography portrait, most likely, as a photographer, you're you're you're you're gonna have a brand name in your case and there's dinner photography include the photography by never just used Meredith Zinner include the photography, absolutely. But don't stuff the word photography in other places that's not necessary. It seems that people do a lot of stuffing. Stuffing is pretty popular. Stuffing is delicious

Meredith: 6:15

stuffing, oh, my gosh.

Meredith's Husband: 6:17

Okay, number four, the next point reviews, it's important to have some reviews. Yeah, for your Google business profile. And I would say it's probably more important to have, this is gonna sound obvious, but good reviews, you want to have good reviews, a few good reviews is better than a bunch of pretty good reviews. Okay, I like personally, I would rather have three five star reviews than 10,000 views, and eight of them are five star and two or three star. This is a case where more is not better. Okay, better is better, better is better. Okay, so let's go back to the address, because this is a big question. So the ideal here is you want to have your address right in the middle of your geographic target. So wherever it is that you want to appear to people, you probably have, like a neighborhood in mind, right? Like you have Park Slope, that's a pretty good neighborhood, the ideal situation would be to have your address be right in the middle of Park Slope. Right now. That's not always possible.

Meredith: 7:28

Right. But it has does it have to be real?

Meredith's Husband: 7:32

It does have to be real. So yeah, so you can't just say,

Meredith: 7:36

Okay, let's say Park Avenue, is a really nice address. I'll just put my address there. And that'll get me local people from that area

Meredith's Husband: 7:45

that, you know, people have certainly tried that. And sometimes that might work for a little while. But that could get your listing banned permanently if you do stuff like that. So the options here are, you can use your home address. Okay, now we've tried that. Yeah. And the downside is you could have Watkins right and say, Hey, I'm ready for some photographs. So I can certainly also there's privacy issues. I don't you know, I wouldn't want to put my home address on Yeah, so other options, co working spaces, co working spaces are very popular nowadays. Yeah. But you have to be careful. The rules that Google provides are that if you give an address, that address has to be staffed by you or somebody representing your business during business hours. Now this, to me, a co working space works here, a co working space is going to be staffed by someone representing your business during business hours, right? The catch is you need to have a unique address. So if you so it needs to have a suite number, or something that's different, you can't have the same address as 20 other businesses. If they all have the address with no suite number, that's not going to work. That's not going to help much at all. So certainly, if you have a co working space with your own office suite number, that's great. I would say. And this is a little bit controversial. Some people think this is a good idea. Some people think it's not a good idea. If it were me if I had a co working space, and I just had a shared desk. Yeah, I would I would ask can I get a mailing address? Yeah, a virtual office, something with a suite number, or something that is my own? It's my own address. Yeah, that's what I would do. Yeah, yeah. If you don't have a co working space, then and you don't want to use your home address, then what are the options? Yeah, these are not great options. But we did this for you for a number of years. And then Google sort of cracked down on it. We had a mailbox. It was not a Pio box. Never use a Pio box. But we had a male It was like one of those private, you know, I forget that it's like a just mailbox placed at a bunch of mailboxes. Yeah, you had a number of box number, like a suite number. That's very questionable nowadays, I think.

Meredith: 10:03

I don't know if they do it anymore, just for probably those reasons. Actually, I have no idea what I'm talking about. I

Meredith's Husband: 10:09

don't know. I mean, you could probably get away with that. You might run into problems. You might get your listing, temporarily suspended, right.

Meredith: 10:19

Not worth it. Could you could you have a friend who has an office and say, Hey, can I have stuff sent there for me and you

Meredith's Husband: 10:29

could if that friend, you know is not using the address. for his or her own business, then you know, if they had a, you know, a, you know, 123 4/5 Street suite number eight, if that's his or her business, then that I would not make also make that your own business. Okay? You really want to have a unique address something that is your own. Okay. So this is a judgment call. I mean, this is an issue for a lot of small businesses. It's been an issue, it's something that we've had to consider multiple times for your business. Yeah. Yeah. And again, I will tell you what the ideal is, yeah. And that's having an address, whatever that addresses, whether it's a co working space, an office space, your home address, right in the middle of the area that you want to target. That's, that's the ideal situation. Unfortunately, a lot of times, it's not totally feasible. Yeah. Okay. So the other thing to note here is that Google gives preferences to businesses with an address over businesses that have a service area. And we tried this with your business, you there is an option and Google say, Hey, I don't want you know, I work from home, I don't want to put my home address in here, I will do a service area. And for a photographer like you, you service your clients at their address. Right. And that is what Google suggests that you do if you were to go read the Google documentation and recommendations about what to do. That's what they would tell you to do. However, they don't give preference to those businesses, unfortunately, yeah. And that may, it's good to know,

Meredith: 12:07

that's good to know,

Meredith's Husband: 12:08

that may change. I mean, this is this is something that has changed multiple times through the years. But I have seen evidence with your site and other sites. When they do that, and they moved to a service area, all of a sudden, they're getting a lot fewer impressions interesting. So their business doesn't show up as often.

Meredith: 12:25

That's good to know. That's, that's gold advice right there.

Meredith's Husband: 12:29

This is all gold advice.

Meredith: 12:31

Advice. Gold advice is really good to learn,

Meredith's Husband: 12:35

when I'm recording this, can lay that down. Yeah, back on

Meredith: 12:40

just this feeling about it. Anyway,

Meredith's Husband: 12:43

the other thing that I would say is, if you don't have one, try to get a local phone number. So a phone number with the with your local area code. And this is getting depend. Depending on where you live, this is getting harder to do. Yes, you can use Google, like Google Voice or Google, or whatever, whatever the service is called now. That's what you have. That's what I had for years. However, if we were to go try to do that, now, those numbers are gone. They're not available. So if you live in a big city, and they're having they're constantly having to add new area codes and things like that, this might be an issue. Do your best to get a local phone number, though, don't just pick any random area code and call that your business. It's not going to be the local. Yeah, do your best there. Again, this is something the ideal is not always possible nowadays. But do your best,

Meredith: 13:36

just to the best, as long as we do the best.

Meredith's Husband: 13:39

So that's our Google business profile. Now, what about her website? Oh, wait, so we want to put her address on our website, too, right? Yeah. I mean, I've had I've had clients say to me, Hey, why is our business not appearing? We have our address on our Google business profile. And I go look at their website, and they don't mention their address anywhere on their website. Now, you need to do that because Google needs to connect the two. That leaves the question where on your website? Do you put it? On the bottom? Good point? Yes, I would put it and I do put it on your website, your address. And this, this address matches exactly what you have in your Google business profile. That's important, too. The address needs to be exactly what is there in the footer. So it's in the footer on every page. It's just the very, very last line

Meredith: 14:25

and every page, would you recommend that over just say the Contact page, or the first first page?

Meredith's Husband: 14:34

Yes. So the Yeah, so I'll get to that. The other places I would put it would be put your city name or your neighborhood name, your town name, at the end of the title tag of your homepage. So the title tag is marason are photography, children and family photos. And then at the very end, if you have Rome, New York, or Brooklyn or whatever, that's not really going to be visible to users who are actually looking through your website. But right away that signals to Google Hey, this is where I am. It signals to people who are looking for your site, if they see that in your title tag, it's a match. So that's one area I would put I would also put it if appropriate work it into the language on your homepage like Hey, I live in Brooklyn or I you know, work all around Brooklyn in Park Slope or New York may just make it natural. Do not and I see people doing this a lot. Stuff the keywords right don't list at the bottom of in your footer or at the bottom of a page. All the towns don't just creak like

Meredith: 15:34

Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn Heights downtown Brooklyn,

Meredith's Husband: 15:39

Bay Ridge, right? Don't do that. That's a technique that worked like, I don't know, eight, eight to 10 years ago. Typically, the exception would be if you are just focusing on like two or three towns, right? And you want to say, Hey, I surf town, and Vermont, I, Brooklyn and Queens and Staten Island. For some reason, those are the areas you target than that, then you could say that, but don't yet don't create like, Okay, we call them list. Yeah. Sorry, P. Okay, so also, as you'd mentioned, the Contact page, the contact page would be a good place. However, I feel if you put your home address on your contact page, you are inviting people to show up and knock on your door.

Meredith: 16:21

That's true. Yep. Yeah, fair enough.

Meredith's Husband: 16:23

A better option. You have your local phone number there. You can say something about Brooklyn, if you can fit it in. I wouldn't I wouldn't duplicate in yours. No need to your address is already on every page in the footer. You don't need to duplicate it on the contact page, right?

Meredith: 16:38

This is why you do what you do. And if not me,

Meredith's Husband: 16:42

yeah, you could put in the I've known some pretty good SEO, those that use the technique, they put your phone number in the title tag of your contact page. That seems to be a nice little trick. The other thing you can do is casually mention where you are in your about page where you're located. Hey, I'm Mara Zinner, I live in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Work it in naturally, right? Again, don't list a bunch of towns and neighborhoods. So what are the other options? There are two other things that you could do. Okay. You can use your blog to target neighborhoods.

Meredith: 17:18

Hey, how about if you could say, Clinton Hill?

Meredith's Husband: 17:23

Yeah, if you do a photo, if you do a photo shoot, especially if it's like an outdoor photo shoot in Prospect Park yet that make target Prospect Park with the name of that block, or focus on other like, you know, you could do it, you can blog about anything, where to take your kids on a on a rainy afternoon, or whatever it is. But name, name the neighborhoods that way. Okay, that's something you can do. Another thing that I like to do is if you have testimonials, yeah. Include where the person lives. So you have a testimonial. And hey, this is from Jim and Sue. Instead of just saying, Jim and Sue. You can say Jim and Sue from Cal gardens. It's a great

Meredith: 18:01

idea. I like that little flavor. Yeah, I sound like I'm insane.

Meredith's Husband: 18:07

I just look like you're insane, too. I know. So that's it, there's really nothing else you need to do. Like Google, if you have your address in your Google business profile, and you have it in those places on your website. You should be good. From the onsite perspective, the places you can directly put your address, you've got that taken care of next week, we'll talk about what you can do outside of your own website. Okay, and how you can improve your local listings by doing things on other websites.

Meredith: 18:37

Interesting. This was very chock full Oh, info. I hope so. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yes, it was.

Meredith's Husband: 18:45

Okay. Okay, cast this over.

Meredith: 18:47

Okay, this is over. See you in the next one.

Meredith's Husband: 18:49

I think. If you're finding these episodes helpful, I created something that I think you're going to find even more helpful. It explains the SEO process similar to these episodes in a way that I hope is new for you, but it also puts them in order so that you know what to do first and second and third through the entire SEO process. And I hope saves you a lot of time by giving you an actionable step by step plan. It's called the SEO roadmap, and you can find it at Meritus husband.com/roadmap.