Recent content by chrisauman

I guess all clients need different reporting. But for us we're trying to really simplify things for most of our clients because they're all super busy. They just want to know if you're moving on the needle on the things that matter. My advice would be to continually simplify. Focus on the...

Be careful about basing your site on a free theme. There are too many issues to talk about at this point but do some research and consider basing your site off of a well supported framework such as Genesis. Not saying that this is THE one but do some research as there are a lot of articles out...

Hi jvaquino, Understanding why or how something works with the aggregators can be a tough question to answer. Without going too deep into it, consider the link below that shows a version of the local search ecosystem and how sites share data. The 2013 Local Search Ecosystems (and a GetListed...

Thanks Linda. I think I already knew that but forgot since most of our clients are starting from scratch with local. It's odd to already have an unclaimed listing floating out there. GREAT advice. Thank you! Chris

Thanks for the time and thoughts Linda. So here are a couple observations and one more question to stir the pot... There are a couple grocery store competitors and they're receiving local pack listings. They're also clearly labeled as a pharmacy even though they're a grocery store - as in...

We have a grocery store client that essentially has multiple businesses at the same location. They're obviously a grocery store but they also have a Pharmacy, Bakery, Bank, etc. Each would have unique name, phone number, category, etc. but the same address/same building. I'd like to see if I...

Andrew, (I have no association with Moz) With MozLocal you're getting distribution to the top 4 data aggregators with one simple submission. I know if you go direct to just one (like Neustar/Localeze) they can charge you yearly and it's MUCH more expensive than Moz just for this one site. So...

Anybody know the specifics why some businesses have photos/icons next to their listing and others don't? The one's that don't seem to show the Google street view photo. Having your page verified and optimized doesn't seem to make a difference. I could be blind but would appreciate someone...

Many home builders that I'm aware of operate actual offices out of their model homes. If you can actually call that location, talk to a real person and meet them there to discuss building a home I'd say that it's a legit office location. I would flag it though and I'm betting that Google will...

Stacey, I'm kinda fighting the same battle with one of my clients. Here's what I would say: Google+ Local is exactly that. Local business information. The phone number is an essential part of that information and if it's not a local number Google is not going to give you any love. If you have...

Yea, I noticed this a while ago. I believe you can register on the site but that's as far as you'll get. They'll immediately start calling your client to upsell them so unless it's in the budget don't even start. Sidenote: I have seen their site show up a lot for local results. They do position...

It's not that we avoid the top-level head terms, it's just that we don't obsess and put all our efforts into ranking for a few terms like some companies do. If you understand the concept of the long tail, there is ultimately much more traffic there AND it's easier to get. If you can get local...

We don't really focus on rankings. Obviously we like to see the pages we create show up for specific, top-level searches but ultimately none of it matters if traffic doesn't increase and conversions happen on the site. We report on traffic increases and goals/conversions. Clients could care less...

Great tip Daniel. Thanks!

Thanks for the love Linda. Totally agreed on your comments! I'll make sure to update the post because you've added valuable feedback.