Myth Busting - More BAD Local SEO Advice

[Linda Buquet]

Here is another post that busts some of the worst Local SEO misconceptions.

Much of the advice that follows is false information many of us have heard given out by self proclaimed local gurus. But much of it is things that even fairly educated business owners and even some consultants mistakenly believe, like he who has the most reviews or citations wins, or verifying your Place page improves ranking. (All 3 not true.) Read on for more...

<a href="http://epointdigital.com/worst-local-seo-advice/">The Worst Local SEO Advice I've Ever Heard</a>

As the old saying goes, “Don’t believe anything you hear and only half of what you see.” Same goes for Local SEO advice given these days. I’ve heard a lot of different advice on what should be done for Local SEO. “Get as many citations as possible”, “Just markup your website with Schema to rank higher”, or my favorite, “Claim your Google+ business page to improve your rankings”.

It’s not that easy, and thankfully it isn’t, because everyone would be doing it. Local SEO is a strategy, rather than just a one quick, fix-it-all approach. Many factors go into developing a higher ranking, and it takes a well, thought out strategy to achieve those results.

Any other bad advice you keep hearing out there, that was not covered in this post? Anything surprise you? Thoughts???

Disclaimer: As always I did not read completely or critically. Just skimmed. So if you see something out of whack please let us know.

 

[Scott Rawlins]

Good read. Thanks for sharing Linda. It still baffles me how some people think, like the ones that are giving this type of advice. But even more baffling is the people that actually believe.

?Don?t believe anything you hear and only half of what you see.?

So true!

On the other hand, if we didn't have these types of situations, there would no use for us, as Local SEO consultants.

 

[Phil Rozek]

I think we kinda covered that (and much more) last year in the "Top Local SEO Myths" post

 

[Margaret Ornsby]

Wouldn't it be nice if people would stop trying to believe there's a single shortcut to good rankings?

We're funny things, human beings, always wanting there to be a silver bullet, even though we know in our heart of hearts it doesn't exist...

 

[MarkW]

I have to disagree about what it says with regards to newspaper advertising. I've been able to measure the effectiveness there and it had a positive ROI for us (that was in the restaurant industry). That doesn't mean that YOU will have a positive ROI, but it is definitely possible still. Im not sure what that has to do with local SEO, but it made its way into the article.

 

[painperdu]

The distinctions in this article are subtle. What it considers bad advice isn't necessarily bad. All other things being equal, the site that claims its G+ listing will have a huge advantage -it could give Google a means to break a tie when all other attributes are the same.

Being thorough would have been better advice.