10 Common Mistakes To Avoid On Local Websites by Greg Gifford

[Linda Buquet]

Greg Gifford just did another good post over at Search Engine Land I wanted to share.

<a href="http://searchengineland.com/10-common-mistakes-avoid-local-websites-213668">10 Common Mistakes To Avoid On Local Websites</a>

Now that Pigeon has rolled out to Canada, Australia, and the UK, it?s clearly here to stay, and the Pigeon posts are still crowding everyone?s news feeds. Business owners want answers, so they?re doing anything they can to figure out the ?next best thing? for Local SEO.

Instead of another list of tips for 2015, I?m going to share a list of the most common issues we see on small business websites. Over the last few years, between our own clients, potential clients, and businesses I?ve chatted with at conferences, we?ve seen the same mistakes again and again.

The best tactics won?t matter if your basic foundation is out of order, so hopefully this list will help your business (or your client?s business) thrive in 2015.

Head over to read the rest.

Here is a comment I made:

Great post and great points all Greg!

Wanted to make a comment about #8 because there is still so much keyword GEO stuffing on local sites.

I posted at my forum back in 2012 warning SMBs that it's a Google webmaster violation to stuff cities, zips and phone #s..

Here is the pertinent Google guideline: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66358?hl=en

"Examples of keyword stuffing include:

Lists of phone numbers without substantial added value

Blocks of text listing cities and states a webpage is trying to rank for

Repeating the same words or phrases so often that it sounds unnatural..."

Here is my 2012 post with more info:

<a href="http://www.localsearchforum.com/local-search/908-warning-new-google-guidelines-local-seos-must-know-could-cause-penalties.html">Warning: New Google Guidelines Local SEOs Must Know - Could Cause Penalties</a>

Still valid today and yes still in the webmaster guidelines.

If you are concerned with onsite SEO, be sure to watch last week's webinar if you missed it.

<a href="http://www.localsearchforum.com/insidelocal-webinars/27106-local-onsite-optimization-best-practices-webinar-4-local-search-experts.html">Local Onsite Optimization Best Practices Webinar with 4 Local Search Experts</a>