Hey there! Are you looking for simple, affordable ways to bring in more local customers to your door? Now utilizing the right local SEO strategies, that's search engine optimization strategies, can help you achieve this goal. And in today's digital marketing episode, I'm going to explain five simple and proven strategies that will help you take your business's visibility in your local community to the next level. And I've been doing this since 2009 and I've got some great strategies that really work almost every time. But before I get into today's topic, my name is Liz Garcia. I'm your happy, insightful, and perceptive host of Athena Arena Radio.com. I've been a content marketing and personal branding strategist and teacher, SEO expert, and WordPress website designer since 2009. Welcome to episode 19 of the Athena Arena Podcast, the Content and Digital Marketing Strategy Academy, for aspiring 6, 7, 7, and 8-figure, what I call Wonder Woman brands, and mastering your inner game. And for all you brilliant men out there, don't be fooled by the whole Wonder Woman thing. This is meant for you too. So let's get to today's topic, Local SEO, which is also known as search engine optimization. And getting found on Google searches, how do you do that? In my first years as an SEO WordPress website designer, I understood the power and ease of getting you found on page number one of local Google searches. Now that was over 10 years ago, so things have changed considerably since then, and business owners have become much more search-savvy. And I can see this when I look at search results. I can tell that small business owners know what they're doing now or they get help to do it. But without professional or informed search engine optimization done on your website, this is a great starter kit to get you off the ground. Meaning optimizing your website or some listing pages for local search is a great starter kit to get you off the ground. So I know many of you have businesses that can serve people beyond your local communities and even worldwide. Still, in the absence of a significant budget for developing a search marketing strategy, you're going to have a challenging time getting found on a more national or world in a more national or worldwide audience. So remember there are only 10 organic search positions on page number one of a Google search. And typically on that page, you're going to see three or four paid ads right at the top. Now they seem to be adding even more, which is kind of crazy but true. I'm seeing sometimes anywhere from four to six paid ads at the top of a search. And then you're going to see ten organic search results below that, and then more paid ads at the bottom, sometimes on the sides, you know. You know what a search, a Google search page, looks like. So sometimes you're also going to see images and videos in those search results. And that's a whole other topic, but I'm going to touch on it a little bit here. Now, if you're doing a local search like the like a phrase like plumber near me, as an example, you're likely going to see listings and a map of local plumbers near you. So just pay attention to this. This is what we're going to focus on today on these five proven steps to get found in a local search. You know that those maps show up pretty predominantly in those searches. Now, some people pay to get the on the top of the map listing. There's a strategy for that, which we're not getting into today. But if it you're in a highly competitive market, you're going to have to look at paying for a position on the map. But as long as no one's paying for it and you're showing up, there's no need to do that. So regardless of your business, getting found on local Google searches makes sense, as the cost per acquisition can be much less expensive than competing on a larger scale. Just so you know, this has been in my experience and I can see this, and there's ways to go about it for free organically. And by the way, organic search gets far higher click-through rates than those paid ads, like a huge amount, especially positions one through three. Once you drop down from four to ten, it drops off significantly. And then page anything beyond page one is kind of like kind of a waste of time. Now, the exception to what I'm sharing with you today is if you live in a large city like LA, New York, Chicago. In that case, you will likely need a paid Google Ads strategy to get found. You have to pay to get found and get positioning on the map or on local Google searches of different phrases, which is still a great afford more affordable strategy than trying to get found on a national basis. So please note that data analytics show that 5% or less of Google searches ever go beyond page one of a Google search. So the competition can be stiff depending on your business and industry. So let's start with my five simple and proven local SEO, that's search engine optimization strategies for business business owners. And the first one, which you've probably heard about before, but I'm gonna teach you how to do it more effectively, is to set up or claim your listing on Google. And you're gonna want to, first of all, you're gonna want to Google your business and see if it's already showing up. And if it is, you're gonna want to claim it. And Google will take you through some form of verification process that may involve a postcard to verify that you own a local business because they want to mail it to you to make sure that it's really you. So that could be the first step. And when you search for your business, be very specific. Like I would search the name of your business, the town it's in, and your name if you if you know your name might be included. So that'll really narrow it down just to see if you can find it on page one at all with a lot of details in that Google search. Be highly detailed about it so that the name of your business alone should be detailed enough along with the town that you're in and your name. So if you do that and you don't see a listing that you can claim, then you're gonna want to set up your own Google Business Profile page. Now, for a while it was called a Google Maps profile or Google My Business, and but now it's called a Google profile page. I'm sorry, Google Business Profile Page, that's what it's called now. So you're gonna have to wanna you're gonna Google like how to set up a Google business profile page, and then you're gonna have to create an account to do that, which is free. So when people search for local businesses, Google puts your business, be your business name, your address, your phone number, map, and website near the top of the search results, which you've probably already seen. And if you're not sure about this, just Google a local search term for like a plumber. Common services that people would would need local services for. Electricians, plumbers, dentists, whatever. Google like dentist near me, plumber near me, or plumber in the town that you live in, town and state, you could do that too, and just see what shows up. So you can see what I'm talking about when I say you want to get in that map listing because that's highly visible and high on the page when you go to do searches right now. So when you do this, it allows customers to find and contact you easily, and it's also essential to ensure you provide accurate information and update your listings regularly to ensure customers always find correct details and results. So you're gonna want to pay attention to this Google Business Profile page and stay on top of it because it's highly likely gonna show up on a local search before your own website, unless your own website is highly optimized for search, which typically you would hire someone like me or a search an SEO, SCM agency to help you do that. But in the absence of that, you're gonna want to really pay attention to that Google business profile because it gets it gets top billing on Google searches. You know, Google owns it, they're they're helping you out. And be be aware that I forget what the percentage is, but it's a pretty high percentage of local searches happen on phones. You know, people are out and about, they're like, oh, can I get a table at a restaurant? Oh, I need to go to the dentist, you know, it's on the flies type of thing. So you want to make sure that you show up in those local Google searches on your business profile page. It's high more, it's much more likely to get found than your own website unless you have someone like me optimize your website. And typically, yeah, I can get found right alongside those Google listings for my local customers that do business locally. Okay, that's number one. Create that Google Business Profile page. Number two is you're gonna optimize your listing on your Google profile page, and I'm gonna tell you how to do it. And it's one of the simplest yet most effective local SEO strategies is to optimize this page in the way I'm gonna teach you today. And as an SEO strategist since 2009, that's search engine optimization strategist. I've really been doing it since 1999. I was out there in the wild west of the internet when I first realized the significance of trying to get your business found on the internet. You know, I started back then when I had a home furnishing store in the back Bay of Boston, and I was quite successful at getting found when I realized, oh, I gotta learn SEO and how to do it. And I learned that way back when. So here's what you're gonna want to do. There's these are some expert tips I want to share with you about optimizing your Google profile page that I've implemented for for clients when I first started my uh web agency back in 2009. So, first of all, you're gonna want to fill out every available form field. You're gonna pack that puppy with compelling information tailored to your ideal customer. Now, when you when you're putting information in that field, speak to your audience, don't you know, just spit out a resume. You don't want to do that. You want to speak to your audience, call them out, call out their pain points, and provide, you know, content, rich written content that speaks to them. This is your marketing, this is the marketing opportunity you have is to really call out that ideal customer and speak to them. And one my number one thing that I I talk spoke about right at the beginning of this podcast is you've got to understand how significant keyword research is and understanding what keyword phrases people are using to find a business like yours. As well as not only find the business like yours, but find the solutions or the result. You know, what are the problems that you solve? Not only do you want to say you're a plumber, but you want to tell them what kind of problems you can solve and call them out. And when you do keyword research, you're gonna find out, all right, what's the biggest problem people are seeking? And a great example to this is if you're kind of a holistic or alternative health professional. You can say that you're an Ayurvedic practitioner or a naturopath or all of that, you for sure, you're gonna use those words. But if you do keyword research, like I have done for people like this, like top problems people are looking to solutions for are like back, lower back pain, back pain, gut problems, huge amounts of volume, and these significant physical problems people are having that want more naturopathic and alternative solutions to. So this is just an example. Not only are you gonna use the word naturopath or naturopathic practitioner or all kinds of iterations of that word, you also want to call out do you have lower back pain? Are you experiencing gut problems? Whatever those top conditions are that you help people with, you for sure are gonna want to include them in the description on your profile page. And we're gonna go into a little more detail about this in in a second. So you've got to know what those keyword phrases are. And if you go back to my episode on keyword marketing research, I would recommend you listen to that again. And I'll provide a link to that below. And you're you're gonna need to use, you can find tons of free keyword research tools online, and I've always I always use something called SEMrush.com. And I currently use ubersuggest.com because I love Neil Patel and I love the user interface of his tool, and he's friggin' brilliant, and it's got everything you could ever want for marketing your business online. It's fantastic, give you tons of ideas. So so will SEM Rush, but SEM Rush is kind of more uh sophisticated, maybe not that Uber suggests isn't, but it's a little more uh professionally minded for people that are in the industry. So it it may be a little more complex than you had hoped, but they're both good. So like I just said, I don't want you just to find the obvious keywords that would you would use for your business, like plumber if you're a plumber, life coach, hairstylist. For sure you're gonna use those words, but I want you to find what other combinations of those words, as an example, people are using, right? A hairstylist could also be a beauty stylist, a life coach, it could be what kind of life coach, health coach, wellness coach. There's all kinds of iterations that you're gonna want to use if they're relevant to your business. And then then I'm gonna want you to look at I'm gonna want you to find high search volume keyword phrases for the solutions you provide. Like for a plumber, there could be a high search volume thing that says emergency pipe repair or clog removal. You don't know until you do the research. And if there is, then you for sure are gonna want to use that word or whatever specialty it is you do in the world of plumbing that you do a lot, you're gonna want to call it out with those words and make sure people know that's what you're good at. Come and get me. And if you're a life coach, a solution to one, I mean, this life coaches for everything under the sun. One could be build confidence at work as an example, or get along with your uh co-workers. There's so many iterations of problems people want solutions to, you really gotta do the keyword research based on your expertise and see what pops up. And likely you're gonna find stuff that you can do really well, but you had no idea that people were looking for it at a high volume versus what maybe you're doing now. So, this is just the benefit of keyword research. Again, go back and listen to that episode because this is really necessary for success in your local Google search strategies that I'm sharing today. So, once you've done some keyword research, and you don't have to spend a lot of time, I mean you could spend half a day doing this and get tons of great ideas, and then kind of decide what do I want to use based on search volume, what are people looking for, that kind of thing. And then I want you to pepper those keyword phrases naturally throughout the written content where they make sense in that Google profile page. You can have form fields where you can write content, use it all, use up all the text that you can, because they give you a fair amount of characters that you can put in those things. So I want you to use them to your advantage by peppering in these keyword phrases that are relevant to what you do. Now, you don't want to force it. And instead of using the same keyword multiple times, I want you to do your best to find synonyms that are cl or closely related terms to some of the keyword phrases, especially in regards to the results that you provide. There could be other ways to say things and you'll still get great results because Google recognizes that the topics are similar, they're related, and they're meaningful. So you don't want to spam, which means stuff keywords into your Google business profile at all. You want to write content that isn't written for humans, it's organic, it's genuine, it makes sense. So don't worry about stuffing that thing with keyword phrases. Just do what is natural, just be aware that if you only have a certain amount of copy that you can write, a certain amount of paragraphs of words, choose those wisely. Make sure you're using the ones that have the uh lowest hanging fruit and the greatest opportunity to get you found locally. And I always my strategy is you want to go with the highest search volume because it because the long tail is it to the like a plumber is that they're gonna tag on where you live, and then the field for plumbers in your particular town could get really smaller too. So there's there's a strategy there is good strategy to going with those high search volume keyword phrases in a directory listing because directory listings and your Google Business Profile page is um meant to be found locally. Okay, so that was number one was you know, claim your listing if it's already there, and then you're gonna update it with all the content I'm suggesting. And then number two was to optimize optimize that listing page with all this good stuff I'm sharing with you today. Make sure you jam-pack that thing with good content and everything that they allow. So, and you can upload images and videos and all kinds of good stuff there. So, you know, pictures of the exterior of your office or building if that's you know relevant or whatever you want to do. There's tons of room to add images, and that's the next tip. So, proven strategy number three is to use images in your Google profile and on your website with detailed titles, alt tags, and descriptions. And this is a great trip that's worked like a charm for years for me. So let me just let me just tell you what this means. So, what you're gonna do is you're gonna create compelling images that have text overlays on them. And you can create images like this in Canva for free. That's uh canva.com, you can use that for free, or you can hire a graphic designer to help you. And it's super simple, it's not gonna get complicated. What you're gonna do is you're going to first of all create a search strategy around those images. And let's take my business for as an example. I'm uh an SEO, WordPress website designer, content strategist, personal branding strategist, search engine SEO expert, um, that type of thing, social media marketing, all that. So I have a lot of categories. That I can create images around. And I'm going to do keyword research around those top search volume phrases. So if I'm going to do an image around WordPress website design, I'd find an image that calls that out. People can see, oh, you know, the image speaks a thousand words. Make sure it's speaking what you're offering. And then I create a title over that image that says something like, look professional and get found on local Google search. Right? And this is in an effort to get business clients that want to maybe redesign their website or optimize it for local search or do whatever it is that they want to do. So I'm going to overlay some text on an image that calls out the problem or calls out the solution or calls out what people are looking for. I want a professional looking website that gets found. So that could be the title, overlaying the image as an example. And then what I would do is I'm going to name when I create the image, I'm going to title that image with the keyword phrase. So I'd use the title that has the keyword for a keyword phrase in it. So I'd make sure the title said SEO WordPress Website Design. That would be my keyword phrase. In the title of that image. And then I'd upload it and make sure that when I upload it, there could be form fields. And I know in WordPress, when you upload an image in WordPress, there are form fields called alt tag, caption, and descriptions and title. There's four form fields. So the title doesn't typically get read by the search engines. The alt tags do and the descriptions do. So here's just one example. I'm creating an image for SEO website design, and when I upload it to my business profile, my Google Business Profile or my website, if there's a form or a field that says alt tag, I'm going to make sure that SEO WordPress website design is in there, but I'm also going to make sure that SEO WordPress website design in Aspen, Colorado is in there. This is the local strategy with images. I want you to create an image, and I would what I'd do possibly, it's not really that much work, is I'd find a different image for the same search term, but then I'd say SEO Website Design Carbondale, Colorado. So these are the communities around me. Because when you do search, those images can pop up. And if you get highly detailed in the description, the alt tag and the title of that image, you can get I typically can get found like in position number one in images. So this is like a killer strategy to employ for your Google business profile as well as your website. So I'm not going to go too much into the website stuff right now. I want to stick with the Google Business Profile. So what's going to happen? There's going to be four fields, form fields that you can fill out when you upload. First of all, you create the image, you save it as your title of the image that has your keyword phrase in it, and the location for this particular image you want to target. So I like to suggest your the town that you're in and then four to five communities that surround you if it makes sense that people would work with you. And if they don't, you know, like me, I don't need to have people work near me, but for the local search strategy, you're going to keep it within a region that makes sense. So I would do probably six different images. All the images will be different, a little bit different title, but still the keyword phrase would be in it, slightly different title. And then the description of it, I'd go into more detail so I could really speak about, you know, what I do, how I help you, what results people have. You can go, you can do a fairly uh comprehensive description of that image using your keyword phrases and speaking to your ideal clients. And then the alt tag is, you know, when you're when you're on a website and you mouse over an image, the alt tag is the text that pops up on the mouse over. So it's telling you what the image is about. So you want to make sure that alt tag has your keyword phrase along with what town you're serving, right? Just serve one town in each image and then write your description. So I do this when I create websites. I'm I'm very um diligent about using all those form fields because I know people can get found on local searches or searches in general in the images area of a Google search. So um let's talk about so that so the strategy there is to create an image for each keyword phrase you want to target, and then for each keyword phrase and town you want to target. And you can do a ton of images if you want. You can just go to town, why not? It's it's free. Upload as many images as you want in that Google Business profile and use text overlays that speak to your audience. So you can get more, you know, the the picture speaks a thousand words, but you're gonna get their attention when you have a title. And an example of this to look at is go to YouTube and you see those videos that come up in small, you know, on the side, you can see people use very bold titles, short and sweet, but bold, so that they can be read. You want to use that same strategy because people are finding you on mobile phones and desktop and iPads and laptops all over the place. So you can't put a lot of words in there, but really speak to them with the keyword phrase and a call out, like, hey, I'm talking to you. Are you tired of your website looking like a do-it-yourselfer? Let me help you, you know, something like that. How are you going to speak to your audience? And those title overlays of those images. Okay, so that's tip number three is using images, right? Fill in all the it's called metadata of an image. And if you if you have a WordPress website, you know that all that metadata is available for you to fill in when you upload an image. And I always do it. And typically, people will name their images for a website very generally. They might say like home page web design as an example. And you can leave the title that way, but that alt tag needs to be much more specific, and then the description of the image needs to be, you know, you could write three to four sentences about it if you want. Why not? Because search engines are going to read it and see that it's highly related to a search. So it's it's likely gonna show up on the top of an image search. And if you if you're familiar with uh Google, you go to Google and you Google something at the very top, you'll see that you can Google images, videos, or just overall. So there's different types of searches you can do. And I'm just gonna look at it real quick just to and it's a little hard to see, but uh let me just look up uh internet. Okay. So at the very top, under the search bar on Google, there's an option to search for all types of content. There's an option to search for news, shopping, videos, books, images, and more. So there's all kinds of stuff there. And uh Google will deliver whatever people are responding to. So if it's images, they'll deliver that. If it's videos, they'll deliver that. So I recommend using this for images. This is your number three proven effective tips for local search is using images to your advantage in search because most people don't know that and wouldn't do it. Okay, number four is get listed in the relevant high-quality business directories and review sites. So, as a small or medium-sized business, it's vital that you make yourself identifiable to potential customers and the search engines. And getting listed in directories and review sites is the best way to ensure your business appears when consumers search locally. And searching for directories and reviews specific to your industry is key, as this is gonna help you differentiate you from the local competition while creating more opportunities to gain visibility on authoritative sources and directory sites. Additionally, it's gonna ensure that all of your listings are up to date on all platforms and that your Google business profile is included. This ensures potential customers can find the most accurate information about your business when conducting local searches. Now, this is where I really hit a home run back when I implemented local Google search strategies for my local customers. More than 10 years ago, when I first started, 2009, those first five years, I did a lot of this because I was just starting out and I wanted to make sure we had success in my launching new websites and getting my customers found. And I had this one particular story about uh my customer who owned a mattress store locally. And when I did search for him and I understood the power of directories and how someone like me, who's a search engine optimization expert, can dominate page one of local Google searches with directory and business listings in relevant directories. I mean, it was almost embarrassing. Back then, my customer dominated anywhere from eight to ten slots on page one of a Google search because they had all those not only did his website show up at the top, that showed up first, but listings in Yelp and other types of directories, Google Maps, back then all showed up. So I was like, holy crow, there's no missing this guy in our valley where we live. So but the only reason I dominated that is because I implemented these strategies that I'm telling you today. I understood the keyword phrases that people I knew his business because I I did all the research. I'm like, all right, I know what people are looking for and I know how to help you. So you gotta know this, and you gotta understand how to format tech content and write it for search purposes, right? So you can put all your stuff into directories, but if you make a simple listing and don't follow what I'm suggesting today, you're gonna get, you know, let no results because there's tons of competition these days. You've got to be more savvy when it comes to creating a listing or business page on in a directory, especially niche directories are really what really matters, and I want you to pay attention to this. So, some general directory websites are places like Yelp. Yelp dominates local Google searches in case you haven't noticed, along with um what are those other, I'm trying to think of those other sites for hotels and motels, any type of local restaurant, hotel, motel services. I think there's three web directories that dominate that when you go to a local search. And then if you're looking for something like other directories that are highly niche, would be something like Angie's List, which is created for general contractor types, plumbers, electricians, household health, any type of handyman, tons of stuff. I don't think they limit it anymore. You can you can put any uh many types of businesses there, but I would look at it closely and see what predominantly what it is that people are looking for. Same with house, H-O-U-Z-Z. That's intended for general contractors, but more design-oriented, like interior designers, interior decorators, architects, general contractors, and then people that supply like um uh furniture stores, appliance stores, tile stores, that type of thing. So house is great, a great directory for that type of business. And then finally, psychology today is a very excellent um directory if you're in the mental health business. And I forget what they charge, it might be $30 a month, but you know what? People get found on page one of Google searches, on local Google searches through Psychology Today. And I notice that if I Google that type of, you know, a local psychiatrist or psychotherapist or whatever, listings show up in psychology today on page one of Google searches before many individual individual websites. Although, you know, websites that are optimized for that for local search can come up before those Google search, uh those psychology today searches as well. So these are some great examples of directories where you can submit your listing and build optimized pages for your business. Now, what I'm suggesting is you've got to follow the strategy I told you for your Google business profile as well. Otherwise, you're not gonna get the same results. You really got to learn how to optimize that page following the steps I've shared with you. Now, um, and the reason these directories are so powerful, there's reasons that they show up on page one of searches. First of all, they're built on search-driven, SEO-driven best practices and protocol. So the engine behind it is optimized for search purposes. There's a particular software that manages how these things are handled and they're optimized for search. Plus, they have thousands, if not millions, of backlinks to the site, which is a significant aspect to uh Google search results. And backlinks are when, let's say, you have a listing on psychology today, you're gonna want to link from your website, somewhere in your website, and there's a strategy to this as well, which we're not going into today. You're gonna want to link from somewhere in your website to your listing page in psychology today. That's called a backlink. And now these you have all of these members in Psychology Today and Howes and Angie's list linking back to the main web, to the main directory website and your own listing page. And this is how it starts to build tons of what's called domain authority. And like an example for psychology today, is members of Psychology Today write expert blog posts that are highly relevant to the audience there, and that adds to their domain authority when you have thousands of experts contributing to content on a director website like that, it becomes huge. You can't compete with that because domain authority is anywhere from zero to a hundred, and it's a challenge to get above fifty as an individual, that's for sure, unless you write tons of content and provide tons of and people follow you and share you on social media, that type of thing. But domain authority for like psychology today or in the 90s, just as an example, so you understand this, what you're competing against. Which is not to say you can't be found on page one of a Google search with your website, but you need someone like me who knows how to do it. And I I'm successful at doing that, but it's getting more difficult by the day. You know, if I were to help you, I would do the research, and I'd say, you know what, it's going to be ch tough to get you because you're behind the eight ball. Someone people that have been on the web have been getting found for years, are way ahead of you in regards to search, and there's ways to go about it, but just know that it's not that necessarily that easy. Depends on where you live and how much competition you have. So I I can typically suss that out by doing some research and letting you know, okay, this is where we're this is what like what we can do. I have a strategy that typically works, but it takes time to do it. So anyway, back to directories and why they're so friggin' powerful, and while I recommend you um this is you're gonna be your next step, right? Especially if you don't have a budget to optimize your own website or to run pay uh paid ads to get found, you're gonna want to use this strategy to get you found in directories because they have way more power to get you found than your own website. Okay. So do a little research, try to find niche directories that you can submit your listing to and then use my strategy. And also, if you're gonna end if you're gonna submit this type of content to other directories, you're gonna want to mix the content up a little. Do not duplicate it. Because Google's just gonna say, you know what, this is duplicate content, I'm only gonna show one of these results. Because they don't want to clog up the page with the same results anymore. This has changed. So you've got to create new kind of fresh content that maybe focuses a little bit heavier on a different side of your business on a different directory. That's a strategy I'd recommend so that you can show up in multiple z positions on page one of a Google local Google search, just as an example. Okay. Now, I gotta tell you, I can't promise success in this at all because I'm not the boss of Google, and Google is constantly changing its algorithms up, deciding what factors hold more weight than others, things like that. Now, just so you know, I understood the power of niche directories many years ago, as I just shared in that example of the mattress retailer I helped. And at the time, and I still help peoplepreneurs that are in the, I have a lot of people in the mind, body, spirit health space. And as an SEO expert, I decided to create an online directory for these types because these types are typically solopreneurs, they're not marketing or web savvy at all. So I'm like, you know what? A solution is to create a search-driven directory just for these types. So I have I mentioned my other website, another podcast, I think. It's called the mindbody spirit network.com. It has a lot going on, but one aspect of that is a directory for business owners like life coaches, wellness coaches, acupuncturists, Ayurvedic practitioners, Akashic Records experts. I mean, really unusual types of professionals, but they need representation somewhere and in a network that's kind of related, like it's transformational, alternative, holistic type of solutions that people are looking for. And how do you optimize so these people can get found? So this is why I created that directory. And I'll leave you there's a link to the mindbody spirit network.com if you are interested in submitting a you know, you want to use this strategy because it's a highly niche niche directory that I'm offering here. Um, you could submit your business listing page there as well. But again, you're gonna have to follow my strategies to optimize that listing page to get found. You can't just go willy nilly, fill out the Page, which most people do, and you got to follow some strategies for that to work for you, regardless of dur any whatever directory you're in. So just a little plug here: if you do become a member of the Mind, Body, Spirit Network, once you submit your listing, you're going to receive some emails, mini training series, they're going to help you optimize your listing for directory purposes and local Google searches. Which is not to say you won't get found nationally because we have a lot of international traffic coming through that directory. But the promise is to make sure you get found on local Google searches. And again, I can't promise that, but I do my best to help you succeed with proven strategies that have worked for me since 2009. Now, we're on to uh proven local strategy number five is to include location pages on your website. So what I'm suggesting is you create dedicated pages for each of your business's locations if you have more than one, or if you serve more than just your town that you are in, it's a great way to localize your website and appear in more search engine results. So I like to advise my people that are on the directory. There's a form field that says, okay, I want to know your top the top five communities that you serve. So that would be the town you're in and three to four communities that surround you if it makes sense, and people would have to, if they have to come to you physically, does that make sense? But even if it doesn't, many people want to deal with local vendors, re whether you need to be in person or not. So I want you to consider and include the towns that surround you where you could find more local customers. So what I'm suggesting is you could create what's called a landing page specific to, in my example, SEO WordPress website design, I create a landing page specific to people in Aspen, Colorado, as an example. Just a landing page for that. And then I could do another one specific to people in Glenwood Springs, which is like 30 miles away. And this is how, which I think is overkill, but it not necessarily. But for someone, if you're doing this yourself, there's a much easier solution that I'm going to share with you today. So but back to the landing page, if you create specific landing pages based on one primary keyword phrase and then supporting phrases, and then one location, you can also include other relevant information like your addresses, driving directions, and hours, you know, be really customer service focused. Give them everything they need to know so that they feel like they're dealing with a local company. Okay. So from my experience, that's a lot of work. And I wouldn't recommend, unless you had a ton of money to burn, you can do it. But I wouldn't recommend it because there's a much easier way. So here's my tip on how to do this. And I work in WordPress website design, but most website plat design platforms do the same thing. So what I do is I create one piece of content. It's called like a content block, which I've seen in other platforms. In WordPress for sure, you can create a content block, especially if you have some sort of theme. I use Avada, I use Avada themes for many of my websites, and I can create a piece of content and I can share and save it as a template. So what I do is I I create what's called like a footer piece of content. It goes at the bottom of all my pages and blog posts. And the footer is quite simple. It's just a paragraph. And depending on the page or the post that I'm putting the footer on, I'll say something. I'll say the name of the website is the Athena Arena.com. That's the name of the company. I'll say something as simple as this. The Athena Arena.com provides SEO WordPress website design and content marketing strategies for businesses in Aspen, Colorado, and the surrounding communities of Snowmass, Basalt, Carbondale, and Glenwood Springs, Colorado. That's it. And just having the names of those towns alone on a page, search engines are gonna pick up on them. Like you don't need to create a page, you just need a footer at the bottom, and the only customization of that footer is you're gonna customize it for the page that you're working on. So if I have a blog post about personal branding, I'm not gonna use the same words. I'm gonna say, I'm gonna switch out the word SEO WordPress website design, and I'm gonna put in personal brand strategies. So I would say the Athena Arena provides personal branding strategies for businesses in Aspen, Colorado, and the surrounding communities of blah blah blah blah blah. So it's that simple. That tip is worth its weight in gold. I highly recommend you implement it. Or if you need a website designer to help you, follow those instructions and then put it on every blog post, every page, and then you're gonna get found a lot easier locally with that tip. So that's uh that's one of my best tips, and it's worked like a charm since 2009 for sure. Now I have a bonus tip for you, and that bonus tip is develop an automated system to gather ratings and reviews. And you may have noticed that Google gives weight to those yellow star ratings and search results. So does Amazon for that matter. On any type of large directory site, you're gonna see those four and five star ratings are, you know, are gonna show up at the top of searches, like inside of a directory, too. Like if you go to Yelp and you search for something inside of Yelp, you're gonna see those ratings and reviews, which really the TripAdvisor is another one, I just remember that, which really catches people's eyes, right? It's a huge part to local search that you're gonna have to pay attention to. So, and I I have this on the Mind Body Spirit Network as well. There's a place for people to come in and rate and review your services. So here's my strategy for doing this to try to keep it simple. I want you to create a simple email template that you're gonna use every time you've completed a transaction or service for one of your customers. You know, there's a particular time frame where it's like, okay, time to ask for rating and reviews. You know it's complete, they've sat with it for a while, they're happy with it, or whatever, and you're gonna send them an email. An example of what I would recommend is um you're going to provide a nice little bonus, and I like to use gift cards as bonus thank yous to my customers for taking the time to rate and review. And it's not intended for a bribe, it's intended to get genuine feedback. So the subject line in an email could be something like Can I treat you to a Starbucks gift card? I I do this to create people love it. I send them a Starbucks gift card, and it doesn't have to be a lot, right? Five, ten, twenty bucks, whatever you want. It could be an Amazon gift card, depending on you know what type of service you're providing. You know, if you just sold them ten thousand dollars worth of services, you might want to up the game a little and give them a hundred dollar gift gift card with the which is not to bribe them. You don't want to bribe them, you even want to say that as much in the email. You just want to acknowledge and appreciate their time and effort for creating a rating and review for you because it helps you become better at what you do. So what I would recommend is um make sure you know you point out you're not trying to bribe them. Especially if that dollar amount gets high. Like if you give them a hundred dollar Amazon gift card for ten thousand dollars, it's like you didn't have to do that, but they'd be like, oh my god, thank you. But make sure you say, I want a genuine review, don't brown nose me. Don't feel obligated to give me a good, you know, however you want to phrase it. You don't even have to phrase it at all. I'm just talking out loud so you can think about it. So what you're gonna do in the um, you really wanna get a rating and review on that Google Business Profile page because it shows up so readily before anything else. You wanna you wanna get ratings and reviews on that website. But it would be also great if you could get ratings and reviews in other directory websites like you know, Howes or Angie's List or wherever you might go, the Mind Body Spirit Network, because it's gonna still show up. Those ratings and reviews matter in those search results. So it sounds like a lot to ask of people to fill out ratings and views three or four different times, even on your own website. You could have some sort of uh WordPress plug-in or functionality to your website that accepts ratings and reviews there too, because you want that to happen as well. So you got to make it easy for your customers to rate and review you. And what I do is I find the link, you'll you go into your Google Business profile, and you're gonna say, How do I send a link for people to rate and review me? And it'll help you find your link. So you're gonna write in the email, here's the link to fill out the Google profile. You want them to do that one first, and then you can say, and if you don't mind, I would really appreciate if you could copy and paste that same review into two, you know, maybe two other directory sites and your website. And there's no obligation to do that. Point out that that Google one is really most important, and then maybe you know, you decide what how you want to prioritize it and see what search results you're getting already. So if you've getting strong local search results in Google, then keep feeding that with ratings and reviews and sending people there. So that's huge in those local Google search results and in search results in general. Those ratings, plus the stars take up more real estate in the listing, and you get more eyes on you when people see those stars. So highly recommend that's the bonus tip. You gotta do that, and most people don't do it. I'm like, that's silly. So I've I figured it's gotta be easy for you to do. So create a template, copy and paste it into an email, send it off, put it on your checklist, ask them to let you know when they've done it, and then you send them the gift card, whatever that may be, and thank them for their service and time. Okay. So that's it for today's episode of the Athena Arena Podcast. And I'm gonna create a downloadable PDF that you can follow called Five Simple Improven Local SEO Strategies, which I didn't have time to get done at the time of this recording, so I'll get it done as soon as possible. But in the meantime, uh there's a link here we can get on the list to receive that as soon as it's completed. And I'm also, while I was creating this podcast, I'm I'm like, this really deserves a video tutorial on how to go through all this. So I'm gonna create a course on this that um I don't know when I'm gonna be able to get to it, but if you get on that list, you'll also get on the list to be notified of when the course gets launched. So you can really fine-tune your local SEO efforts with some video training. Um and here's one other thought I can help you with an intelligent, data-driven content marketing strategy. We can work one-on-one, I can help you with this as well. And I'll get there's a link below that you can click on and schedule time for a little consultation, or you can just go ahead and buy my my uh Starter Kit package. It is really intended to get an overall content strategy going for you and get you off to a good start. Thanks for joining me today. Next week, we're gonna talk about it's mastering your inner game, and I have this great topic about self-esteem, which is super powerful and fascinating to understand the power of self-esteem and consciousness, and why corrupt, seemingly corrupt, uh powerful individuals have so much wealth and power in this world. Really interesting to put that into understanding and understand the energy of it all and self-esteem, which is super important in having a successful business. I will see you then.