Local SEO Insights

Could Google Duplex replace human interaction between businesses and their customers? It sounds scary, but it might just be what the successful customer service system of the future looks like. Currently booking appointments and making table reservations, Duplex might eventually be able to update your GMB account automatically. Contributor Dev Basu shares his thoughts on […]

Dev Basu
April 17th, 2019

What is the Yelp Verified Badge and how does it differ to Google Local Service Ads? Yelp’s new paid feature has been rolled out for certain home services to supposedly help local businesses differentiate themselves from fake listings, but just how helpful will this really be to local businesses and their consumers? Tom Waddington has done his […]

Tom Waddington
April 4th, 2019

Staying on top of your business’ online reputation is a time-consuming and never-ending pursuit. You need to respond to reviews in a timely manner, spot trends within feedback, and address issues that are negatively impacting your reputation. On top of that, you also need to be generating new reviews to help attract customers and stay […]

Myles Anderson
March 26th, 2019

Why guess at what Google is looking for in a local business website when they have a document that practically spells it out? Here, Marie Haynes uses the Quality Raters’ Guidelines to make a strong case for good reputation, expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness, and more. There has been a lot of discussion lately about information that […]

Marie Haynes
February 28th, 2019

“Strike while the iron is hot,” they say, and nowhere is this more applicable than when getting authentic feedback from customers. At the point of sale or point of service; that’s when customers are at their happiest, and when they’re most likely to provide you with a true reflection of your service. That’s why we’ve […]

Myles Anderson
February 19th, 2019

Welcome to this year’s Local Consumer Review Survey! We’ve compiled the latest trends in online business reviews, giving you all the statistics you need to develop your online reputation management strategy for local businesses in 2019. When we first released this report way back in 2010, we could never have imagined how important online reviews […]

Rosie Murphy
December 7th, 2018

Just like regular SEO, local SEO is an ever-changing game, with search engines moving the goalposts all the time. The myriad factors that can affect rankings in the local pack and localized organic search results are some of the most critical to local businesses, so it’s no surprise that shifts in importance are closely monitored. […]

Myles Anderson
December 4th, 2018

Considering paying for reviews, getting friends and family to leave reviews, or even a ‘review swap’? Snap out of it! Google Gold Product Expert Jason Brown is here to explain how these schemes could ending up tanking your reviews, and offers some legitimate and proven tactics to generate reviews as alternatives. Every business wants to […]

Jason Brown
November 26th, 2018

As part of the Local Marketing Institute‘s Local Business Marketing Summit earlier this year, I had the pleasure of sharing my tips for developing an effective reputation management strategy. Take a look at the video below for the whole recording, or read on for a summary. I love what reputation can do for a business. When […]

Myles Anderson
November 13th, 2018

We’ll be updating this page as and when guidelines change, so be sure to bookmark! Every year, the BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey shows us just how important reviews are for local businesses. The latest study revealed that 40% of consumers only take reviews written within the past 2 weeks into account – up from 18% […]

Jamie Pitman
November 12th, 2018