We even took the opportunity to implement a feature that allowed BrightLocal Local Search Grid and Local Rank Tracker users to select the run-time of their reports to ensure reliability in the face of this realization (more on that below).

Now, time as a ranking factor seems to be rearing its head again; in a new twist, Claudia Tomina’s latest case study highlights how Google’s popular times graph seems to correlate with improved rankings. 

Source: Reputation Arm

Does Google’s ‘Popular Times’ feature influence local rankings?

When you opt into Google’s Location History, your information contributes to the pool of data that goes into determining popular times at local businesses. This data is anonymized by the time it gets to the SERP, and can provide users with live visit data, including typical visit duration and the estimated wait time. 

In Reputation Arm’s latest blog, Claudia Tomina found a correlation between a business’s popular times and its local ranking.

In her case study, Claudia ran ranking reports on two businesses side by side and compared them with the popular times data from their respective GBPs. Her research revealed that as popular times increase for a business, so does its ranking visibility for keyword rankings. 

She notes that because many restaurants will have similar popular times (such as a spike around dinnertime), sometimes the rankings boost will come later. For one particular business, this occurred at 8pm, despite not being their peak time. It is near their peak time of 7pm, but vying for less competition; the reported popularity of competitors dies out around 8pm, giving our original business the opportunity to shine. 

A follow-up piece additionally emphasized that these sorts of hourly trends are only one ranking factor in what is likely to be a whole host of influences. 

We asked Claudia to summarize her thoughts on her findings:

Claudia Tomina

Chief Product Officer at Reputation ARM

“​​After examining the Google API leak documents, I discovered GoogleApi.ContentWarehouse.V1.Model.WeboftrustTimeRange, which states:

‘Time range (start time and end time). Used to indicate the times in which a LiveResult is considered “hot” and thus a potential for boosting.’

Could “Live, Busier than usual” on Google Maps’ Popular Times graph signify that a business is “hot,” thereby providing a “potential for boosting” rankings? This potential ranking boost is yet to be confirmed by Google, however, the image below provides strong evidence suggesting this could be the LiveResult Google refers to.

[The image shows] an unverified listing that was able to outrank a popular chain restaurant while displaying the “Live: As busy as it gets” status under the popular times graph.”

What should I do with this information?

While there isn’t much you can do to completely change this particular ranking factor, it’s important to be aware of its significance and how you could move the needle. 

Awareness is key, so be sure to continually monitor hourly trends, track your keywords at an hourly rate, and be conscious of your popular times graph. Understand that while this can influence what you see on an hour-to-hour basis, it’s not the be-all and end-all of rankings—there are still a variety of other factors to consider. 

If you want to try to take advantage of this particular boost, this is a great opportunity to try out targeted promotions to run traffic through your door on those typical “quiet times.” 

Scheduling your local ranking reports

Following the revelation that opening hours affect local rankings, our product team got to work on a new update for the Local Search Grid and Local Rank Tracker.

You can now select a preferred three-hour window for reports to run in your local time. Just head to your report settings to amend the frequency, day, time, and timezone, and voila!

While we don’t recommend running your ranking reports around ‘Popular Times’ (as these are based on user visits and location history and could change at any time!), scheduling ranking reports during business hours will help you get the most accurate ranking data for your brand. Just keep in mind your popular times to add context to your findings. 

This isn’t just another SEO course—it’s your gateway to mastering the art of boosting visibility for multi-location brands on search engines like Google and Bing. Whether you’re an aspiring SEO professional or a seasoned marketer looking to refine your skills, this course will equip you with the knowledge and tools to excel in the competitive SEO landscape.

What You’ll Learn

In this course, Steve will take you through essential areas of local SEO, focusing on improving visibility on major search engines like Google and Bing. By the end of the course, you’ll be able to:

• Understand Local SEO Strategies: Gain a working knowledge of all aspects of a local SEO strategy tailored for multi-location brands.
• Set and Track KPIs: Learn how to establish key performance indicators for an MLSEO campaign.
• Identify SEO Opportunities: Confidently identify SEO opportunities related to location and speciality pages, data management, syndication needs, and reputation management challenges.

Here’s Steve with an overview of the course:

Each module is packed with interactive activities and quizzes to enhance your learning. At the end of the course, you can take an exam to earn a certificate, which you can proudly share on social media to showcase your newfound expertise.

Who is this course for?

This course is designed for individuals with a moderate skill level in SEO. We recommend participants have a basic understanding of digital marketing, website traffic analytics, and basic software skills (Google Sheets, Excel, Google Docs, or Word). While no coding skills are required, we do suggest learning basic HTML and JavaScript to become a well-rounded SEO professional. For those new to SEO, BrightLocal Academy offers A Beginner’s Guide to Local SEO to help you build a solid foundation before diving into this course.

How can I join?

Anyone can access this course, whether or not you’re a BrightLocal customer. You can also be among the first to find out when new courses drop by enrolling for free. Here’s how:

If you’re a BrightLocal customer, you can access the Academy via your BrightLocal account. Log in, click ‘Learning Resources’ at the top of the screen, and select ‘BrightLocal Academy’ from the dropdown menu.

You must create a free BrightLocal Academy account before enrolling in the ‘ Mastering Franchise and Multi-location SEO: From Strategy to Execution ’ course.

If you’re not a BrightLocal customer , you can join BrightLocal Academy for free and follow the steps above to enroll in the course.

Want to know more about BrightLocal Academy? 

Check out the official BrightLocal Academy FAQs here: 

What is BrightLocal Academy, how does it work, and how can I enroll?     

What courses does BrightLocal Academy offer, and how long do they take?     

If you have any questions of your own, feel free to get in touch with us. We hope you find this fresh new course useful, and we can’t wait to hear how it’s helped you improve your local SEO skills.

This article is from our Agency Playbook—a collection of guides created to help local SEO agencies grow and succeed. It is chapter seven of ‘Part One: Pitching and Onboarding’.

Firstly, congratulations on a successful pitch! 

It’s super exciting and rewarding to have won a new client, especially after a potentially long, competitive pitch process. But after the celebrations comes one of the final hurdles. Before getting down to the real business of starting to deliver on all the proposed implementations and optimizations that won you the pitch in the first place, the client needs to be officially onboarded.

While other teams will likely handle the contracts and compliance side of things, the individual, team, or project manager must set to work on the account. Having a robust, structured onboarding process to turn to at this stage can be crucial. Not only can it help ensure everyone is on the same page from the get-go, but it can also help deliver better results and build stronger relationships. 

This is when a ready-to-go onboarding checklist can be your best friend, helping your team avoid common early missteps and hit the ground running. 

Preparation and Creating Your Client Onboarding Checklist

A checklist certainly doesn’t need to be anything too technical or fancy; a simple Excel or Google sheet can work well, which is usually my preference! But what should it include?

In a nutshell, the checklist should help identify all the initial conversations and information gathering that’s needed, all the tools and platforms you will need access to, plus the typical kick-start tasks that help you identify key opportunities and the general lay of the local digital landscape for your new client. 

In simpler terms, a typical local SEO onboarding checklist can be divided into three main sections:

1. Things we need to know
2. Things we need to access
3. Things we need to do

Individual tasks or actions generally fall under these three buckets and can be added as separate checklist lines. A suitable status indicator should also be included. This could be a formatted drop-down menu offering a choice of progress statuses or as simple as a checkbox. Who doesn’t love the satisfaction gained from a successful tick?

1. Things We Need to Know

To kick off, a checklist should cover essential information gathering that’s needed to provide helpful new account context so that we can:

• Tailor our strategy accordingly
• Set realistic goals and expectations
• Identify any challenges and opportunities
• Set the bar for collaboration and communication
• Start strong

Every client will be different, with their own needs and nuances, so while the following checklist recommendations are by no means exhaustive, they should cover the most common bases:

Perform a Basic Local Maturity Check-In

A key first step is to arrange an initial meeting with the client to discuss their current local SEO setup and what will be needed to create and deliver the best strategy moving forward. Having a basic set of questions ready to ask and collating detailed answers will help inform those first important strategy steps. This is often called the discovery phase.

Some of this information may already be known from the pitch process, as covered in RFPs or brief details. If not already shared with you, asking for details on past or current local search strategies, including any metrics and local business goals, is a great starting point. Knowing that driving physical footfall into stores is the priority over increasing website clicks or that key stakeholders are very focused on the brand’s reputation across certain locations, for example, will help frame your initial roadmap.

It will also be key to confirm if you will be starting from scratch with a clean slate or taking over from an existing strategy or agency where there is still work to complete. The client may already have a well-established brand with a local SEO foundation in place, but they need fresh eyes and ideas to turn declining performance around.

Alternatively, if the client is a relatively new business that has initially focused on launching its website, it may still need the basics set up for local SEO, such as creating Google Business Profiles or providing recommendations for potential location pages .

Whatever has come before, it’s important to understand how the client views their current local maturity and success. The checklist can note this context, which will help prioritize the initial focus areas and set realistic goals for the short, medium, and long term.

Create a Centralized Data Source 

Any local SEO strategy will undoubtedly require access to and understanding of a brand’s key local business information, whether for brick-and-mortar locations such as stores or offices or the geographical areas the business serves.

For example, it will be difficult to audit Google Business Profiles without knowing accurate location names, addresses, and phone numbers to validate accuracy. 

Therefore, it’s important early on to determine where the core information about each physical location or targeted service area is stored and what they consider their source of truth. This could be an internal database or digital repository, an Excel file, or a tool like BrightLocal!

Try a Free Local SEO Client Information Template

Claire Carlile has developed a local SEO client information template as part of her course, “Essential Google Business Profile Tasks for Agencies,” available through BrightLocal Academy. Her course includes three more useful templates. To use the template, follow the link below, click the ‘Make a copy’ button, and rename it accordingly.

Find the Template

Local Market Analysis & Research

You’ll likely have conducted local market research and analysis in preparation for the pitch process. However, this may have been a diluted or narrow view, such as looking at a single market. As part of onboarding, building this out for a more complete picture early on is important. This will likely include the following info-gathering tasks to add to your checklist:

• Competitor analysis: Identify local competitors through helpful tools or review search results for relevant keywords. Then, review their local SEO set-up to benchmark maturity and inform the direction of the strategy.
• Target audience: Use a combination of analytics tools and client feedback to understand the current customer demographic and any opportunities to appeal to a wider or different audience. 
• Targeted local keywords: Identify relevant local keywords that existing and potential customers may use to find your new client’s products or services. Tools such as Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs can be helpful here.

Client Contacts

It likely goes without saying, but it’s essential to determine who the main day-to-day client contacts will be and any other key stakeholders you may meet or report to. It’s important to note that with local SEO, you may need to collaborate with individuals from across a range of brand teams, including website, marketing, sales, stores/retail, or social media. We’ve seen much collaborative success at Croud from identifying and connecting with these additional teams early on in the local onboarding process. 

For a multi-location business or a franchise, you may also be working with specific regions or branches. So, it’s worth clarifying early on who your key contacts are.

Define Ways of Working

You can be brimming with local SEO knowledge and skills and raring to implement an exciting strategy for your new client, but it’s crucial to take the time to understand how they prefer to work, communicate, and collaborate. 

Be sure to ask about the project management tools and communication channels they may already use and feel comfortable with and be willing to adopt these methods. This can instantly help build rapport, show you value their comfort and existing ways of working, and allow you to onboard more cohesively.

Sure, your agency may exclusively use Hangouts and the Google ecosystem, but if your client is deeply embedded in Microsoft, you may need to consider how that affects you. Suggesting a collaborative Slack channel may sound like a great idea, but it could add more hurdles if your client doesn’t have Slack.

2. Things We Need to Access

To efficiently run audits, implement optimizations, troubleshoot issues, plan local content creation, set up benchmarking, and conduct robust reporting, you will need access to various tools and platforms and visibility of key brand assets. Additionally, being well set up to quickly gain insights and demonstrate optimization or algorithm impact in a timely manner is also something to get ticked off early in the onboarding process. 

• Google Business Profiles (GBP) : Key for all local activity, access to the client’s GBP locations will enable you to review their status, audit and update key business information, manage reviews and pull insights.
• Local listings : These may vary depending on the industry, but key platform listings and directories include Apple Business Connect, Bing Places for Business, Yelp, TrustPilot, and TripAdvisor.
• Social accounts: If supporting with social is in scope, e.g., Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, etc.
• SEO tools & platforms : It’s likely your agency has access to various SEO tools and platforms designed to track keyword rankings & performance, such as STAT, so it’s important to set up new client data ASAP. Additionally, if the client uses a listings management tool to maintain their online profiles and listings, having visibility is key e.g. BrightLocal, Uberall, Moz, Yext SOCi, etc.
• Analytics : This will help inform various performance reporting and analysis, such as Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Bing Webmaster, etc.
• Project management and communication tools: Depending on the client’s preferred ways of working, these could be task management and workflow tracking tools such as Asana and JIRA or communication and collaboration tools such as Microsoft Teams or Slack.
• Brand assets and guidance: These may be provided to you by the client or may be accessed via online repositories such as asset libraries containing photos, logos, brand and tone of voice guidelines, etc. Having access to these will help create consistent and appealing content.

3. Things We Need to Do

While a comprehensive local strategy and roadmap will include many tasks, and the immediate ‘things to do’ will vary from client to client, there are a few key common activities to prioritize from the start:

Conduct Local Keyword Research

You may have identified targeted keywords as part of your initial research and analysis, but expanding this to a full local keyword research project or refreshing a current KWR will help reveal untapped keyword opportunities that could inform local content plans.

Citation/Backlink Audit

Analyzing the client’s current backlink profile will highlight current strengths and weaknesses while reviewing the backlinks earned by competitors to help identify new opportunities for your client.

Key Listings & Local On-Page Audit

How effectively your client’s business locations and service areas are surfaced and perceived online underpins any successful local SEO strategy, not only to rank well for relevant keywords but also to serve correct, consistent, and helpful information to potential local customers, that ultimately converts.

Early on, a key action with a new client will be to audit and review existing online business profiles and listings for accuracy and completeness. Conduct an audit of key listings, starting with Google Business Profiles, to ensure they are eligible to surface (are verified and live) and are fully optimized.

When reviewing Google Business Profiles, it’s important to note the page each profile is pointing to, and what that page is telling Google about the business, its location, and its offering. Conducting an audit of these pages (often location service or store pages) can be just as key as auditing Google Profiles themselves, and may highlight some great on-page opportunities that can be built into the local strategy.

Reputation Review

I like to include an initial overview of a brand’s online reputation to determine whether there are any red flags to be aware of or quick wins to be had. Though this may not be an initial focus for all new clients, it’s crucial for local visibility and customer conversion.

You could add a checklist action to assess existing reviews across publishers such as Google, Facebook, Yelp, Trustpilot, and any other relevant reputation platforms to understand how the brand and its locations are currently perceived vs their competition.

Initial Local SEO Strategy Roadmap

Lastly, make sure to include an initial strategy plan creation in your checklist so you can conclude your onboarding plan by sharing a first draft plan of action with your new client for their review, feedback, and approval. This could be approached in several ways but could cover the first 3, 6, and 12 months or be segmented into proposed quick wins, incremental gains, and big bet projects.

Presenting a ready-to-move strategy early on sets a strong tone. This should certainly seek to align with expectations set during the pitch process but should be open to evolving based on onboarding conversations, client feedback, and emerging trends.

Final Thoughts

A methodical and organized onboarding process is essential for success in a local search strategy. When aided by a clear and efficient onboarding checklist, delays and potential blockers are reduced, leaving you fully prepped and energized to sail smoothly into your first tasks!

Key Takeaways:

• A structured onboarding process helps avoid common challenges and blockers.
• Organize your checklist into things to know, things to access, and things to do for better clarity.
• Understanding the client’s local maturity, key contacts, and data sources is crucial.
• Gaining early access to SEO tools, platforms, and listings and conducting initial audits sets you on the right path. 

Onboarding a local SEO client doesn’t have to be overwhelming, and by following a checklist can ensure a smooth process that sets you and your client up for success.

This article is from our Agency Playbook—a collection of guides created to help local SEO agencies grow and succeed. It is chapter six of ‘Part One: Pitching and Onboarding’.

It’s exciting when a new lead comes into a marketing agency! The excitement makes it tempting to dive in right away and brainstorm the many ways you can help. However, without understanding a lead’s specific goals, any solutions you come up with are based on assumptions. Even after your initial sales call with an exciting new prospect, most of what you’ve written down will still be assumptions—yours and theirs. 

A prospect will answer your questions to the best of their ability, but they may be clouded by their own emotional investment in the project or by misleading data and reporting from a current marketing vendor. Until you get a good look behind the scenes, you have no business making recommendations or assigning budgets to projects. 

This guide teaches you how to scope and execute a paid (yes, you should be paid for this work) discovery period for new clients. You’ll learn how to get buy-in, structure discovery projects, frame further phases, and build ongoing partnerships. You’ll walk away ready to communicate project needs and constraints more clearly, and you will be more confident in the plans and budgets you present to prospects and clients.

What is discovery work, and why is it key for marketing agencies?

Discovery work started in agile software development and UX so teams could understand and define a project before jumping head-first into development. The purpose of this work was to: 

• Address uncertainty
• Support cross-functional collaboration
• Explore iteratively
• Validate or disprove assumptions
• Define a clear roadmap

Five years ago at Kick Point, we had an inkling that we were not approaching digital marketing and website design proposals in a sustainable way. We either put together proposals based totally on best guesses of what a client would need (and then had to make big pivots down the road), or we would do unpaid exploratory work before putting the proposal together. That free exploratory work took valuable time and energy.

We first started experimenting with a paid discovery phase after one of our team members enrolled in digital project management training through the project management consultancy Louder Than Ten. 

Louder Than Ten championed the idea that discovery should not be a phase within an already fully budgeted and scoped project. It should be a completely separate project with its own budget, accounting for the expertise and effort that goes into uncovering complex problems and determining the right path forward.

For us, discovery for marketing and website projects came from a desire to dedicate time to exploring and understanding before committing to executing certain tactics or agreeing to rigid budget constraints. Of course, we’ve always had time to figure out what our prospects need; we just hadn’t historically been compensated for that time. 

Without discovery work, agencies jump right into prescribing and executing before researching and planning. This leads to unclear expectations and misunderstandings about the project scope, causing significant issues and ultimately compromising the potential of the relationship.

If you’ve been feeling some of this, your typical lead process might look like the following:

1. Take a call with a potential new lead.
2. Request access to all relevant accounts (Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Google Search Console (GSC), Google Ads, Meta Business Manager, their website backend, etc.).
3. Look through previous strategy documents and reports.
4. Make assumptions about what the client needs and put together a proposal based on that OR.
5. Recommend the client follow a set package based on work you’ve done for other clients.

Sound familiar?

Here are some of the problems we’ve come across with this approach:

• You might create a proposal that is too open and run into issues where the client expects more than you’ve budgeted for. In this case, you’ll either have to ask for more budget (hard) or undervalue your work (hard).
• You might create a proposal that is too strict, and the scope doesn’t allow you to change tactics as you get to know the client and their business better.
• You might find that those improperly scoped projects are taking more time than you’re being paid for, which means you’re losing money, potential new clients are suffering, and timelines for other existing clients are suffering.
• If you try to fit every potential new client into a set package, you might find that you’re not moving the needle because you’re focusing on the wrong things for their specific situation and losing their trust by the day.
• You’re in a situation where you’ve become an “order-taker,” where instead of building and executing a well-researched strategy, you’re just doing what clients have decided is right at any given moment.

What a mess!

Guesswork is not honest, fulfilling, or sustainable. The flip side is that doing research and developing plans for free is spec work and devalues our industry’s expertise. Paid discovery work leads to strong, lucrative marketing partnerships, happy teams, and, importantly, happy clients. It will improve the reputation of the marketing industry as a whole.

What happens during discovery?

That depends on your expertise and area of focus as a marketing agency.

At Kick Point, we specialize in PPC, SEO, Analytics, and Web Design and Development. Our Discoveries always include an expert from each area. If we know that we won’t be looking at a specific area (e.g. a client already has an agency handling PPC), we don’t include someone from that area. However, there is still a lot of value in our team having a holistic view of a client’s entire marketing ecosystem. So, we still request that they provide access to all accounts if they are comfortable.

We also ask questions. Lots of questions. Here are a few examples of questions that will help you get to the heart of what is important to your client and what makes their business unique:

• Which KPIs/metrics would you be evaluated against when it comes to a performance review? (What will demonstrate to your leadership that you’re doing a great job?)
• Imagine three ideal clients/customers. Write a 100-word bio for each.
• What are some things you’ve tried in the past in terms of marketing (or seen tried) that you felt failed or didn’t have the impact you expected?

Once we have access to their accounts, each team member on the project digs into their own specialized area:

Our SEO team members run website crawls to look for glaring technical or on-page SEO issues, review the site architecture, examine the client’s GSC to see how they are performing in search, review any existing keyword research, and spend time in a keyword research tool to get a sense of the keyword landscape.

Our Ads team members review the client’s existing PPC accounts, including Google Ads and any social ads accounts. They look at how the campaigns are structured, how they are performing, and whether there are any obvious issues like high click-through rates (CTR) but low conversions, etc. They review important landing pages to see if CRO best practices are being followed or if ad copy matches the messaging on the page.

Our Analytics team members dig into Google Analytics 4 accounts and Google Tag Manager accounts to see their existing setup, looking for any obvious issues and determining whether there are small tweaks that need to be made or if a major overhaul will be needed to make it possible to track the metrics that the client needs to make good business decisions.

Our design and development team members review the site from a UX perspective, determining if there are major issues around speed, usability, visual hierarchy, etc.

Our team notes what we’re seeing and then develops an initial plan of attack to make the biggest impact for the client. For example, instead of conducting a huge content audit that will take weeks, our SEO team may already see that service pages need serious help, and we should start there.

How long should discovery projects last?

The correct length will depend on the scope of the discovery and the areas of expertise your agency is focused on. At Kick Point, after a client has answered our discovery questions, our involved team members meet on Zoom or a Slack Huddle to do their deep dives and talk through any issues and ideas that come up. While this discussion is happening, a document is being prepared to summarize everyone’s recommendations, red flags, and time/budget needs. 

Sometimes, during this team meeting, a few more questions will pop up, and we send those to our client right away. Once those additional questions are answered, we finalize the Discovery Review Document and send that off to a client to digest before meeting with them to walk through our findings. After that, we send off a Phase 2 proposal. All up, this process can take as little time as 7-10 days. Website discoveries are often much more in-depth and typically take our team 3-4 weeks to complete.

How do you sell discovery projects?

The first step to selling discovery projects successfully is to truly believe that they are necessary. You must commit to insisting on them. As soon as you say, “We usually do discovery projects, but in this case, maybe…” you are unlikely to be able to sell a discovery project. Instead, try, “All of our projects begin with a discovery project.” There is no other option!

You wouldn’t expect a home builder to build a new house without blueprints. And you wouldn’t expect to get totally custom blueprints from an architect for free.

Remembering that discovery projects are not just good for you as the agency, but they are better for the client also helps. Clients will get better outcomes working with an agency that is committed to doing the right thing and not just what they’re assuming is the right thing—or, worse, that they have time for because they didn’t quote enough. Paying their agency fairly results in the right amount of time and effort being spent on problem-solving and well-thought-through implementations, which leads to more leads, sales, and engagement. It is a proactive, long-term approach.

Not every business or every marketing lead you pitch discovery to will get it. That’s okay. They don’t need to get it. Those that do will be the clients that you do great work with for years to come.

How much should a discovery project cost?

We’ve experimented a lot with this over the years! 

Our first discovery proposal was sent (and accepted!) in September 2019. It was beefy and not so much a discovery as a “let’s fix the blatant issues before getting into a monthly management situation.” We priced it at $7,000.

Our first 15 discovery projects were very in-depth and took up to a month to complete because we included some research and strategy work as part of discovery at the start. The average price was $6,700, and our close rate was about 44%.

At the end of 2020, we changed things up so that all of our marketing discovery projects were structured to be very efficient and economical. Up until 2023, our projects were priced at an average of $2,690 only, and our team could usually do one from start to finish in a single afternoon! Our close rate at that time was 60%. 50% of those projects turned into further long-term marketing work, and 11% into large custom website projects.

From 2023 until now, we have taken on fewer projects overall as we’ve invested time into our marketing training platform, KP Playbook, and we’ve focused on growing and strengthening our existing partnerships (many of which started with discovery!). We have been selective in taking on new marketing discoveries and are now at an average of $4,920 a project. Our custom website discoveries now average $19,000 a project.

We are continuing to experiment with the scope and scale of discovery projects, but one thing remains the same: the discovery project itself is not a set package. Have a massive site with user logins, hundreds of pages, a complex lead to CRM integration, and three subdomains you’d like us to look at? That’s going to be more work to dive into than a small business with a homepage, contact page and three service pages, and no Google Analytics or Ads accounts.

What happens after discovery projects?

Ideally, after completing a discovery, you have a Phase 2 proposal ready to share with the client, with recommendations clearly mapped to the goals they’ve shared with you.

What that looks like depends on what you’ve found during discovery. That’s the whole point!

For some clients, that might mean a research-based project to set a good foundation and then a couple of months of training so they can manage and grow their marketing efforts from there. For others, it might mean setting up a monthly ongoing relationship with a set number of tasks that you’ll complete each month from the roadmap you’ve created.

For us, not every discovery project turns into a long-term partnership, and that’s a good thing. We are not the right long-term fit for every client we do a discovery project with, but they will always walk away with a clear direction of where they should go next if it is not with us. In many cases, the answer from discovery was to provide training to a team so they could execute recommendations in-house. 

Regardless of what comes next, you can feel confident that you’ve done your due diligence before making those recommendations. You also have set up a relationship with a client where you are paid fairly for your efforts from day one, have set the expectation that good work doesn’t just happen without research, and that learning and changing course is a natural part of the process.

SEO is often referred to as an ongoing chess game, particularly when Google is involved—and local SEO is no different. Google’s local ranking algorithm uses various signals known as local ranking factors. These can become more prominent or less important depending on the current algorithm Google is using to rank local businesses.

In many cases, local SEO reporting will highlight some clear areas for improvement or identify what your competitors are doing better. But what do you do when it’s not obvious?

We thought we’d take a look at a real-life example to try to help.

So today, we’re diving into a real local SEO problem. Using two genuine (but anonymized in this case study) dental clinics within a mile of each other in a small town in the United States, we’ll explore how to read BrightLocal reports to identify areas for further investigation. We’ll also consider the other local ranking factors to investigate beyond those reports.

Throughout the case study, we’ll highlight some key areas for investigation or actions to take, so you can use these as guidelines for investigations with your own clients.

Starting Stats: Local Search Grid

Let’s take a look at a problem you might be faced with. Imagine you’re an agency working with Dentist A, an independent dental clinic in a small town in the northeastern US. You’ve not been subscribed to BrightLocal for long, and you’ve been getting to grips with reading the reports. So far, you’re mostly concerned with local ranking reports.

You’ve added Dentist A’s keywords to Local Search Grid (LSG). The top of your report shows the Average Map Rank for your first keyword (‘dentist’) is 7.3. It also shows 25 green grid points, which means they’re ‘high ranking’ (as in ‘in the Top 3 in the Local Pack). The orange and red points show you areas that need improvement. So far, so good.

Scrolling down underneath the map image, you’re presented with a side-by-side comparison of your top local competitors. This is when you see something confusing. Dentist B, one of your closest competitors in proximity, has an Average Map Rank of 4.9, while yours is 7.3. 

Two other competitors sit above Dentist B. Both have hundreds more reviews, backlinks, and a higher domain authority (DA) than you, so it’s clear why they’re performing well. But when you compare the report’s local ranking factors side-by-side, you should technically be outperforming Dentist B.

Let’s examine these factors more closely.

Despite both dental clinics’ average Google rating of 4.9 out of 5, Dentist A should have an overall advantage for this term—shouldn’t it? Yet its average local ranking is over two positions lower.

Now, we will look at our other BrightLocal reports to see if they uncover anything else.

Further Investigation with BrightLocal Tools and Reports

Local Rank Tracker and Google Business Profile Audit

Local Rank Tracker (LRT) tracks the positions of your keywords in Google and Bing over time so you can see which are gaining or losing visibility in the SERPs. Google Business Profile Audit displays a summary of your GBP’s key information, and its performance for five of your chosen keywords against local competitors. In this section, we’ll cover the two reports together as the insights feed into one another.

As well as looking at the main LRT report to see if ranking positions for keywords change over time, you can also use it to compare rankings with a chosen competitor. Let’s look at how Dentist A and Dentist B perform in Google organic desktop rankings for some of their key terms.

On the date in question, you can see that the competitor, Dentist B, is ranking for more of the key terms and outperforming Dentist A for two of them (dental clinic and emergency dentist). Now we’re getting somewhere.

So, aside from monitoring any downward movement to our key terms in the SERPs to pinpoint any changes that may have caused this, we know that Google is rewarding Dentist B with better organic rankings for these terms. The most obvious case could be that Dentist B has better optimized its website pages for this key term, while Dentist A has overlooked it.

Actions to Take

Review Any Recent Website or GBP Changes

If you have made changes recently, don’t modify or reverse them. It’s not yet clear if this will have impacted rankings, so you’ll want to monitor this over time.

Assess Competitors’ Website Content

If you regularly monitor competitors’ website content, can you see if anything significant has changed? If you’re unsure or you don’t have a record of changes, put yourself in the shoes of a prospective patient and review competitor content, asking:

• Does their website have more comprehensive service pages dedicated to services that match key terms?
• Is the content of good quality? That is, does it demonstrate expertise, experience, authority, and trustworthiness (as per Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines)?
• Is the location and its surrounding service areas clearly presented in some way?

Audit Competitor GBPs

Look up your competitor’s GBP and make note of the features being used. Compare this against your client’s GBPs to identify any gaps you may have. Ask yourself:

• Does it use Google Posts to share updates with users?
• Has it listed Services that correlate to key terms?
• Does the Q&A section have any questions in it? Have they been answered?
• Are there photos of the clinic, its team, and its facilities?

Review and Update Your Keywords

As businesses change and evolve, new services are added, some may be removed, and new geographical areas may open up. It can be easy to overlook the process of reviewing and updating keyword portfolios to reflect these. However, this should not be underestimated! Tracking the ranking positions of terms that are no longer relevant to your brand is pointless and skews your focus to the wrong things.     

With the above, it looks like we’ve already got a list of things we can do. It’s a good start!

Now, If we jump over to GBP Audit, we see a more visual representation of Dentist A’s GBP.

Each tab at the top lists 10 top competitors for each keyword, which builds on the information presented in Local Search Grid and Local Rank Tracker. However, we can see here several more factors to consider in order to help ranking performance:

• Whether the profile is verified
• % of Key Citations (more on this later)
• Linking domains (total linking root domains, e.g. you might see 200 links, but they might only be coming from 50 root domains)
• Number of photos

This is all well and good, but we’ve still not found the smoking gun—the metrics that really mark Dentist B out from Dentist A. Let’s move on to the next report and see what else we can unearth.

Citation Tracker

Citations are thought to be a local ranking factor, which means it’s important to ensure the businesses you are managing can be found across various online directories. 

Citation Tracker (CT) is quick and simple to set up. Using your business details, CT will locate all of the citation websites you’re listed on and highlight inconsistencies and errors on key citation websites.

Above, we can see that Dentist A’s picture is not too rosy. The Key Citation Score of 28/100 tells us that both the quantity and quality of citations are not up to scratch. Moreover, out of the 23 live citations, only 13 are considered key citations, and 11 of those have errors—that’s close to half of Dentist A’s citations.

Simply scrolling down on this report highlights every citation and its errors. In Dentist A’s case, there are some significant differences in the business name being used across these websites.

Put yourself in the shoes of a customer, and that’s a pretty confusing experience when you’re doing research—especially for an important decision associated with healthcare.

From a customer perspective, the Local Business Discovery and Trust Report 2023 investigated the implications of incorrect business information on consumer trust and found that 62% of consumers would avoid using a business if they found incorrect information online.

Competitor Citations

Adding a competitor as a location within BrightLocal and setting up its own Citation Tracker report is a simple way to compare performance and identify key citation sources you may be missing. It’s up to you whether you choose to run them as one-offs or regularly for a more consistent picture of the competition.

We went ahead and ran Dentist B’s CT report. 

Luckily for Dentist A, Dentist B’s citations are in even worse shape, with just nine in total! However, the dashboard does not highlight any errors, while we know that Dentist A does have some to work on. 

It seems like citations aren’t the make-or-break factor for Dentist B outranking Dentist A, but this doesn’t mean that cleaning up, fixing, and building new citations shouldn’t happen. It’s still important to maintain and optimize listings to ensure business information is accurate.

Actions to Take

Correct Your Citation Errors

Fixing these errors should be the first port of call. In Dentist A’s case, there are only nine to do, so this won’t be too time-consuming. For businesses with dozens of listings to fix, you can see why monitoring them regularly is important.

Within your CT dashboard, you can travel straight to the live citation and edit your listing. Or, if a colleague or client manages citation amends, you can click the status of individual citations to leave notes highlighting what needs to be done.

Find and Add New Citations

CT highlights the relevant citation websites where listings are not found, which can be used as a checklist to work through. You can go through and add these yourself, or consider using BrightLocal’s Citation Builder service for a fuss-free and speedy turnaround.

Reputation Manager: Monitor Reviews

Moving into the realm of reviews, Monitor Reviews is a useful dashboard as it displays review growth over time, as well as a breakdown of star ratings and the sources of where reviews are coming from.

We already know that Dentist A has an average star rating of 4.9, but there are two clear areas that need improvement.

For some reason, Dentist A hasn’t received a new review since January 2024, leaving a two-month gap on the timeline. A quick manual check confirms this, so there is a clear starting point: achieving new review growth.

While the star rating breakdown is positive, the review source breakdown highlights just three sources of reviews: Google (98%), HealthGrades (<1%), and Wellness (<1%).

Diversifying review portfolios is an important consideration of reputation management. According to the Local Consumer Review 2024, 36% of consumers use at least two different review sites before deciding to use a local business. 

Plus, as we highlighted earlier, ensuring consistent information across different sources, such as review platforms and citation websites, reinforces trust with consumers.

Dentist A could consider building a stronger profile on other review platforms, such as Better Business Bureau (BBB), TrustPilot, YellowPages, and Doctor.com.

Competitor Reviews

We set up a Monitor Reviews report for Dentist B to compare the review profiles of the two businesses. Although its review sources are even less diverse and have fewer total reviews than Dentist A’s, Dentist B’s review growth chart shows a constant stream of reviews month on month.

From this, we can conclude that review frequency and recency play important roles in creating what Google deems to be a trustworthy review profile.

Review Responses

Heading over to Dentist A’s review profiles on Google, HealthGrades, and Wellness, another key observation is that it only replies to business reviews sporadically. Google’s guidance on improving local rankings specifically calls out managing and responding to reviews.

Plus, our findings from the Local Consumer Review Survey consistently show that consumers are more likely to use a business that responds to all types of customer reviews, whether positive or negative.

On the other hand, Dentist B doesn’t seem to reply to any business reviews. Although it appears to have the upper hand with review growth and recency, both businesses should absolutely consider review responses a priority. 

Actions to Take

Create Review Campaigns to Encourage New Reviews and Diversify Sources

Clearly, relying on reviews coming in organically isn’t working out for Dentist A. Creating timely, automated review campaigns is simple and effective with Get Reviews. 

Now, we can create email and SMS templates, including email follow-ups, create an NPS system for gathering useful internal feedback, and select the external review platforms we want to ask customers to use.

Local Search Audit

Local Search Audit provides an instant snapshot of your local SEO ‘health’ in an easy-to-understand traffic light system.

As we’ve already analyzed Rank Tracker, Local Listings, Reputation Manager, and GBP Audit, we’ll cover Links & Authority and On-Site SEO here.

Links and Authority

Links and Authority is rated as ‘OK.’ Further down, Local Search Audit shows the following metrics for Dentist A against the average competitor: 

• Google Index count (how many of your pages are Indexed by Google): 42 vs. 20
• Link count: 285 vs. 511
• Linking domain count: 89 vs. 149
• Domain Authority: 13 vs. 14.2

Link building is an important part of local SEO as it helps build awareness and authority, boost organic visibility, and signal that brands are trustworthy.

From these stats, we can see that attaining new links and broadening linking domains should be a key focus for Dentist A to improve on.

Actions to Take

Link building is renowned for being a tricky area in SEO—you can easily dedicate a whole role to outreach. So, while an entire link-building strategy may be a lot to recommend straight away here, you can start small.

Create a List of Target Websites and Publications

Generally, a good link portfolio should consist of relevant, authoritative sources. It’s also wise to consider how you can diversify it—for Dentist A, it could be something like an article on cosmetic dentistry ahead of big events for an authoritative wedding publication.

Set Up Brand Alerts to Find Mentions of Your Business Online

This can be useful for identifying when your brand is mentioned online but has not been linked to, so you can create a list of organizations to reach out to for corrections.

Review Your Backlink Profile with a Dedicated Tool

Semrush and ahrefs are just two examples of tools that can identify your links and linking domains, as well as provide insights on competitor backlinks. Competitor backlink analysis is also a useful way of scouting out ideas for the types of content and topics that are being linked to or covered by journalists.

On-Site SEO

This section of the Local Search Audit report is a small goldmine. It counts the number of pages crawled, the number of internal links, page titles and metadata, mobile rendering, and keyword count, to name just a few.

From a technical standpoint, Local Search Audit rates Dentist A as ‘Good.’ It’s worth noting that Dentist A’s website is fairly small, with just 66 pages. Plus, although it’s given the green flag overall, a few problem areas are highlighted:

• Missing image alt tags
• Sparse content pages (<500 words)
• Google PageSpeed Score

Scrolling down, the Local Search Audit also highlights the presence of ‘Top Keywords’ across the site. Quite astonishingly, ‘dentist’ does not appear here whatsoever! As we suspected earlier in the LRT section, the key term has been completely overlooked here.

Given that Dentist A’s primary GBP category is also ‘dentist,’ this is quite a severe misstep. 

Dentist A can easily begin to rectify this issue by re-optimizing key pages for the correct terms.

Actions to Take

Identify Missing or Low Count Key Terms

When it comes to fitting keywords into your website content, you never want to force it. However, this area of Local Search Audit could highlight if you are under-servicing some of your key terms.

In Dentist A’s case, the website is missing one of its priority, tracked keywords, which also correlates to its primary category in GBP. 

We’ll move on to sparse content in the next section.

Beyond the Tools

We’ve identified plenty of areas that can be improved upon to boost Dentist A’s local visibility, but there are only a few clear areas where Dentist B is outperforming them so far—review regularity and local rankings.

So, with what we’ve learned from the tools and reports, how can we take some of these insights away to investigate further?

On-site Content

Unfortunately, since we’ve anonymized our dentists, we can’t show you screenshots of the websites. But for Dentist A, imagine an HTML-coded Myspace layout circa 2006 (seriously). The navigation is not particularly intuitive, and, as we just discussed, the content across the website is sparse in detail.

Local Search Audit highlighted 45 out of its 66 pages as sparse content—that’s 68% of the site’s content with pages containing less than 500 words. Although content quality doesn’t—and shouldn’t—always correspond with quantity (e.g. word count), you would expect a website in the healthcare industry to have some comprehensive content.

It’s important to have clearly defined service pages, with descriptions that outline what potential patients can expect and answer any questions they may have.

With our auditor caps on, we can already see some clear reasons why Dentist B might be outranking Dentist A from a content perspective. So, we’ve compared the two dental clinics side-by-side, rating key elements of on-site content for local SEO. (Again, we can’t show you the websites, so you’ll have to trust us on this!)

Actions to Take

Page Optimization

At the very least, take the opportunity to optimize website pages. Optimize titles and descriptions with relevant keywords and a concise character limit, and find natural opportunities to include more of your key terms in page content.

Content Refresh

Rewriting website content can be a daunting task, but it’s easier to tackle if you break pages down into priority groups. For example, you could start with your key services and work on them in batches.

Page Structure

Whether you’ll be writing the content yourself, or briefing it to a team member or freelancer, a content brief is a great way to maintain consistency with your page structures. You can include keywords, page titles, headings, and descriptions, as well as dedicated sections that need to be written and included, such as FAQs.

Research Supporting Content Ideas

Would your website benefit from a blog or dedicated area for more informational and supportive content? This type of content can help answer queries that users might search for in their earlier stages of research, so you can target long-tail key terms and diversify what you are ranking for. 

Google Business Profile

So far, the reports have surfaced some areas of GBP that need further investigation, such as categories and photos. Dentist B does not use any secondary categories, whereas Dentist A has two: cosmetic dentist and dental implants.

Considering a relationship has been found between additional GBP categories and higher local rankings, it is surprising that Dentist A doesn’t have a noticeable advantage in its rankings.

While it’s not clear how photos might influence the performance of a GBP listing in local rankings, both Dentist A and Dentist B could significantly benefit from adding more. Dentist A has two, and Dentist B has four.

Knowing that Google’s rankings algorithm takes into consideration user behaviour in SERPs, it stands to reason that anything you can do to make your business more attractive to engage with online will have an indirect impact on rankings.

Adding photos of the business exterior and interior, facilities, team members, and even patients in different clinic areas (having obtained their permission) can help prospective patients feel more trusting of businesses. The Local Business Discovery and Trust Report 2023 found that the industry where consumers most wanted to see photos of team members was healthcare. Plus, customer reviews with accompanying photos can help to show ‘real’ experiences.

Additional GBP Features

Google is always testing and rolling out new GBP features that make them more helpful to searchers. Some are industry-specific, but many general features can be added to enhance your profile.

Dentist A and Dentist B don’t appear to use any additional features to their advantage. There are no Posts, Services, or specific attributes. Plus, both have unanswered questions from users, so this is an area that should be built out to help manage prospective patients’ expectations.

When performing similar analysis of your clients and their competitors, ask yourself the following questions:

• Does the GBP use profile attributes? 

Where appropriate, attributes such as ‘Black-owned,’ ‘LGBTQ+ owned,’ and ‘women-owned’ can help to signal safe spaces for customers within local communities. There are also attributes related to accessibility   

• Have Products and Services been added?

GBP managers can add specific Services to GBPs, which helps users narrow down their searches and find relevant results.

• Build out ‘Questions and answers’

You don’t need to wait for a customer to ask questions. Add questions yourself and provide answers.

• Create Posts

Google Posts are an easy way of displaying what’s new, any recent updates or promotions front and center on a GBP. They’re also a good way of showing business activity to searchers.

Opening Hours

Towards the end of 2023, it was confirmed that business opening hours influenced local rankings. In short, businesses rank higher when they are searched for during the business’ opening hours.

Dentist A and Dentist B have similar opening hours. They are both closed from Friday to Sunday and operate similar hours on their usual business days. In this instance, it doesn’t appear that either clinic has an advantage over the other, but it’s a factor to consider for your own investigations.

Business Listings vs. Practitioner Listings

Dentists and healthcare provider GBPs differ from many other business types because there is an option to add separate practitioner listings.

Dentist A uses its practitioner’s name alongside the business name in its GBP, which seems to have caused issues and confusion with its citations across different sources. Some citations list the dental clinic name, and others list only the dental practitioner.

Considering Dentist A and Dentist B are neck-and-neck in so many areas of local SEO, this could be one of the elements that are harming Dentist A the most.

Social Media

Many local SEOs consider social signals a dwindling local search ranking factor, and they haven’t been included within the last three Local Search Ranking Factor reports. However, recent reports suggest that GBPs may now pull social posts into profiles if Google Posts are absent, so this could be set to change.

Even if not considered an important local ranking signal, social media can be a useful trust signal for E-E-A-T. Having an active online presence helps show searchers that you are who you say you are. It also provides a valuable platform to showcase experience, expertise, and authority.

For professionals such as dental practitioners, where personal branding is considered important, adding ProfilePage markup to website pages helps Google highlight information about experts and creators. If the lead dental practitioner has social media profiles or author pages for online publications, Google can draw on these to associate the E-E-A-T signals.

Dentist A has a Facebook page with 217 followers. The page has not shared any updates since October 2023 and, prior to this, had not posted for six months.

Dentist B, meanwhile, only has a LinkedIn presence. This seems an odd choice for a dental clinic, as professionals largely use LinkedIn to network and engage with employment opportunities. The page is inactive, though, with zero followers and no posts or activity.

For the dentists in this case study, Facebook should be an obvious choice for setting up social profiles, as it also functions as a citation and review platform.

Meanwhile, visual social channels like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok can be hugely beneficial for showcasing services, client testimonials, and experiences. Before and after content can be incredibly powerful on visual platforms, particularly for services such as cosmetic dentistry, dental implants, and orthodontics.

Actions to Take

Update Facebook Profile

In Dentist A’s case, the Facebook page needs to be managed more regularly to inform the community of any updates. It could also benefit from a profile refresh to reflect key services, add recent photos, and use recent client testimonials.

Consider Establishing Yourself on New Social Platforms

As mentioned, both dentists could benefit from a presence on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube to showcase their services and USPs.

When deciding on the best social media platforms for your brand, keep the key objectives in mind. What are you looking to achieve on social media? Who is your key audience? What type of content are you looking to create?

Conclusion

Hopefully, this investigation has highlighted how to get the most out of BrightLocal report insights and why it isn’t always crystal clear why one business may be outranking another—even to the most experienced local marketers!

Although every area of local SEO plays an important part, we’ve identified several key areas for Dentist A to improve on as a matter of priority. We’ve recapped these below:

Some areas of auditing and analysis take practice and even some trial and error, so don’t be disheartened if you aren’t immediately uncovering insights. With time, you’ll find your own ways of working and maybe even develop a process to train other colleagues or client partners, but this case study should be a good start for now.  

Remember, there are communities ready and available to ask for help, too! Check out our Facebook community, The Local Pack, and Sterling Sky’s Local Search Forum.

Known as Google I/O, the keynote is Google’s opportunity to announce the latest advancements in its technology and offer a glimpse at what’s to come. Past Google I/Os have seen the public introduction of such Google products as the Google Assistant, Google Lens, and more.

And, like always, 2024’s summit is the subject of the week in the search industry. Following its May 14th premiere, search professionals are scrambling to figure out what Google’s self-coined “Gemini era” means for the industry. 

As noted by Google’s Liz Reid,

“With each of these platform shifts, we haven’t just adapted, we’ve expanded what’s possible with Google Search. And now, with generative AI, search will do more for you than you ever imagined. So whatever’s on your mind, and whatever you need to get done, just ask, and Google will do the Googling for you.”

There is a lot of fancy talk surrounding what seems to be an even fancier product. But what does that really mean for local SEOs, who already spend their days deciphering Google’s ever-changing algorithm?

In the words of Near Media’s Greg Sterling: Gemini was the star. Search was there… but in more of a supporting role. Nonetheless, search still got its screentime, with four important updates for local SEOs to focus on—AI Overviews, multi-step reasoning, topic clusters, and itinerary planning with Gemini Advanced.

Let’s take a look at the big announcements most relevant to local SEOs…

AI Overviews

This looks more interesting beyond the standard SGE integration we know. Example of an "AI-organized search results page", bringing it together in a dynamic/full-page experience. Apparently this will be launching within the US in the coming weeks (in labs first). #GoogleIO pic.twitter.com/QaIvFagETT

— Brodie Clark (@brodieseo) May 14, 2024

What is it?

AI Overviews is the official name of what was previously called Google’s ‘Search Generative Experience‘. It uses the information collected via Gemini’s multi-step reasoning (more on this below) to present a clear, organized search result that answers all of the user’s questions… and then some.

AI Overviews are, essentially, a quick overview of the answer to the query with links to learn more. 

Gemini becomes the user’s “personal agent”, offering the user all of the pertinent information regarding their query. This allows for complex questions to be answered simply and clearly, all within a single search result page.

This new feature is due to be rolled out to US users this week, with more countries coming soon.

These search results pages consider information that a typical searcher may not have even considered. Take a query about “anniversary celebration dinner spots in dallas.” Gemini’s approach to search intuits the need to check the weather before offering locations.

Breezy summer evening? Gemini knows that a rooftop bar might do the trick. So, once again, it all comes down to detail—businesses must offer Gemini as much specific information about themselves as possible so that they’re first on Gemini’s list when a relative search is made.

What does it mean for local SEO?

In our article on SGE in June 2023, we explored what an AI-generated search response would mean for local search. Since then, some elements of this new search function have changed, but most remain the same.

The key thing that all content publishers should be wary of is whether Google will be showing links, citations, and sources in its AI Overviews. For now, it seems like there’s no consistent answer to that. Some searches return what you might call a ‘zero-click’ result (where the response provides the answer and nothing more), while more complex or debatable answers are prefixed with ‘According to’ and link to the source of the response, presumably so that Google can put the onus on its sources for contentious or controversial topics.

What about searches for local businesses? Well, examples of this were given quite an airing in the keynote, and it seems like, for now, any business information returned for local search terms comes from the usual places: Google Business Profile, directories, citation sites, review sites, and news articles and blog posts recommending businesses.

Keeping your business profiles across Google and other listings platforms remains as crucial as ever, and some form of the ‘local pack’ will likely remain, as Google has a vested interest in adding value to its Google Business Profile product.

The bigger question will be around whether local businesses will continue to see value in publishing localised or locally-relevant content to attract customers via what was the organic ‘ten blue links’.

In a world where Google can take the contents of your article on “the best events for visitors to [your town]” and hand it to searchers without ever linking to your business, you might be thinking again about investing in an organic search strategy.

Ultimately, AI Overviews is the biggest shift in Google search that we’ve seen in decades, and we’ll be closely monitoring how it works in order to provide our readers with the best advice on improving and understanding visibility in the Gemini era.

BrightLocal’s Take on AI Overviews

Kristian Bannister

Chief Product Officer at BrightLocal

We’re excited by the changes coming in Google’s AI Overview and the potential opportunities for local businesses and those working in local SEO.

We always want to ensure that our products equip our customers with the right data and the best insights to help them deal with the changing landscape of local search. Undoubtedly, the release of AI Overviews is one of the biggest changes we’ve ever seen to search results, and we owe it to our customers to fully understand:

• What this means for our existing ranking tools
• How it will impact local search results, search behavior, and businesses
• How we can help marketers adapt and thrive in this new dawn of search

What This Means for Our Existing Ranking Tools

We always ensure that our existing tools continue to work as expected. Google continually makes small changes to its SERPs, which could impact how we and our partners gather ranking data. We already have numerous alert systems in place to ensure these changes don’t interrupt our tools. But we’re being especially vigilant with the rollout of AI Overviews to ensure there will be no (or at least minimal) interruption to our tools and no impact on accuracy.

We’ll also be looking into ways to help businesses better understand their visibility, with keywords triggered by AI Overviews within our rank trackers if we believe these insights have potential value for our customers.

How This Will Impact Local Search Results, Search Behavior, and Businesses

Right now, we aren’t completely sure what this may mean for local search results and businesses. My personal speculation is that simple “how-to” content is likely to be an area where AI Overviews start to take away traffic, as Google will be able to serve it directly in SERPs. That does pose a significant threat to businesses that have built revenue models on the back of this content.

In local search, we could see AI Overviews becoming a tool for discovering and better evaluating local businesses. Local businesses rely on some sort of transaction, whether it’s visiting a restaurant, getting an oil change, or hiring a plumber. AI Overviews won’t replace the end goal, but they will likely change how consumers find and evaluate businesses, which itself is likely to impact local SEO strategies.

How We Can Help Marketers Adapt and Thrive in This New Era of Search

This is where things get exciting. We’ve been following the development of SGE and anticipating this launch for some time. Like you, we’re in a phase of discovery and exploration with this new technology, focusing on understanding what new problems and opportunities may arise that we can help our customers address. Our mission is to help marketers become brilliant at local SEO, and these changes make that mission even more important as we all enter uncharted territory together.

We’ll be looking outwardly at what our industry peers and experts are saying, but we also want to hear from our customers. If you want to reach out to me personally to share your thoughts and ideas, I’m available any time. Please feel free to reach out at contact@brightlocal.com. And if you see any significant changes in your or your client’s local rankings, we’re on hand to help at support@brightlocal.com, as always.

Multi-step Reasoning

What is it?

Throughout the summit, Google emphasized multi-step reasoning as a key feature of the Gemini era. So, what does that mean? 

According to Google, ‘multi-step reasoning’ refers to the tool’s ability to take a larger, multi-part question and break it down into sections before determining what needs to be answered and in what order. It then uses reason, alongside Google’s vast information index, to answer the questions logically. 

Coming soon, we’ll bring new multi-step reasoning capabilities to Google Search. It breaks your bigger question down into parts and figures out which problems to solve and in what order, so research that might've taken you minutes or even hours can be done in seconds. #GoogleIO pic.twitter.com/Op8Iu7K21m

— Google (@Google) May 14, 2024

What does it mean for local SEO?

Considering that Gemini needs to get its information somewhere, it’s more important than ever that businesses provide Google with the most detailed and accurate information possible for Google to find.

Ratings, reviews, business hours, and more can all come into play when someone queries Google, and the last thing a business needs is for Google to spit out the wrong information or, even worse, overlook it entirely.

Topic Clusters

What are they?

Remember the query about anniversary spots? Just because outdoor seating could be a good option due to the sunshine doesn’t mean it’s the only option.

Instead, the personalized search results page will be broken down into what Google refers to as “topic clusters.” These clusters group results based on unique angles of the search, such as “outdoor seating,” “rustic charm,” or “restaurants with live music,” offering users different directions to take their query. 

What do they mean for local SEO?

Details. Details. Details. We can’t say it enough. For Google to determine that a restaurant belongs in that “rustic charm” cluster, it’ll need evidence to prove it. Having a fully filled-out Google Business Profile, a robust history of reviews, and a detailed website all help signify to Google that yes—this is one of the top “rustic charm” restaurants in town.

Gemini Advanced

What is it?

Gemini Advanced takes all the above functionalities and offers a full-fledged itinerary-planning capability. Whether you’re trying to figure out a family-friendly meal plan or planning a romantic trip to New York City, Gemini Advanced uses its multi-step reasoning capacities and topic clustering features to provide a fully personalized AI overview of the ideal plan. 

What does it mean for local SEO?

With Gemini Advanced, Google will look at more than just your business—it’ll look at the context surrounding it.

With the advanced contextualization and reasoning around search results, Gemini Advanced will know not to show the local ice cream parlor in the dead of winter following a Christmas Market. However, it may know to show it if it serves the best hot cocoa in town and is only a block away from the market’s entrance.

But, to make those connections, it needs the correct data to draw upon… such as an updated menu, mentions in local publications, and a host of positive reviews.

Google on Responsibility

Acknowledging the uncertainty that always comes alongside new technologies, Google assures that they’re approaching Gemini with the same AI principles they say they’ve always abided by. 

Google’s AI Principles

• Be socially beneficial
• Avoid creating or reinforcing unfair bias
• Be built and tested for safety
• Be accountable to people
• Incorporate privacy design principles
• Uphold high standards of scientific excellence
• Be made available for uses that accord with these principles

Also, according to Google, they are introducing Gemini with the intention of maximizing the benefits for people and society. And, while local SEO may change according to these new tools, we trust Google’s intention to use its AI for a better user experience. 

In Summary

Overall, the significance of these updates to local all comes down to the same thing: data accuracy and detail are more important than ever. With an expert tool crawling the web to find the best possible fit for a user’s query, businesses need to ensure that the tool can find them—and everything it needs to know about them. Things like having comprehensive and descriptive FAQs will become even more important players in visibility.

That being said, this is all based on what we know right now. The most important thing is that businesses continue to stay agile and up-to-date on industry trends; with Google’s constantly changing methods, it’s important never to get too stuck in your ways. This year’s Google I/O is simply further proof of that.

Before we begin… what is Reddit?

Reddit is a forum social network that was founded in the USA in 2005 and has since grown to encompass over 82m active daily users (as of March 2024).

Users can register and post content, such as text posts, images, videos, and links, that other members can then upvote.

Reddit has thousands of individual communities hosted on the platform dedicated to particular topics, known as subreddits.

Near the start of 2024, it was reported that Google and Reddit had formed a partnership that would, in Google’s words, “facilitate more content-forward displays of Reddit information.” In short, Reddit content would appear in more results for Google searches.

Google claims the move came because searchers increasingly use the search engine to find information on Reddit, tying it back to its core principle of surfacing helpful content to users.

This irked SEOs. 

As a global community forum, Reddit pretty much has a thread on everything ever. But, as many within the digital community have pointed out, that doesn’t make the content expert, authoritative, or trustworthy.

Amsive Digital’s Lily Ray highlighted the prominence of Reddit results for Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) search queries—terms related to topics, products, and services that can impact a user’s health, finances, and even safety.

Importantly, these queries should surface quality content in Google results, aligning to E-E-A-T guidelines.

Serious question for you @searchliaison:

For 6+ years, and throughout the QRG, Google has shared that YMYL queries – presumably like “weight loss” – require the highest levels of E-E-A-T. For 6+ years, we’ve seen sites like the CDC and Harvard ranking prominently for these… pic.twitter.com/7fpoUOKANO

— Lily Ray (@lilyraynyc) April 3, 2024

Study Methodology

With the above in mind, we wanted to understand the significance of the Google/Reddit partnership in relation to local search intent.

So, we analyzed 800 local SERPs using one transactional keyword (e.g. coffee shop) and one informational keyword (e.g. best coffee shop) across 20 different verticals, searching from 20 different US cities, to determine:

• How often Reddit results appear in any form within local search results on ‘page 1’
• Whether Reddit results appear as organic (blue links) search results or feature in a ‘Discussions and Forums’ section
• The average ranking positions of Reddit results for vertical-specific search terms (an average taken of searches for 20 US cities)

Note: This study was conducted at the beginning of May 2024, so the search results are accurate for this snapshot in time.

‘Page 1’ refers to what was previously the first page of Google results before indefinite scrolling was introduced for many users. Generally, this encompasses the first 10 organic links in Google results and finishes with the ‘People also search for’ section, although this can vary due to different SERP features.

Let’s get to the results.

The infographic below shows the average ranking positions of Reddit results appearing in organic search results for the different verticals we tested, using informational search queries. As we’ll get to shortly, all 20 of the verticals showed organic Reddit results when informational terms were searched.

Appearance of Reddit Within Local Search Results

Informational Searches (e.g. best coffee shop seattle)

The headline results are that we found Reddit results appearing for 81% of informational search queries (e.g. best coffee shop seattle) and 16% of transactional search queries (e.g. coffee shop seattle).

It makes sense that informational searches would generate results from Reddit; it’s a forum network where people frequently seek opinions to aid their research and consumer decisions.

Essentially, this means Google trusts the content enough to show it for eight out of every ten informational searches. However, when you consider that content on Reddit can be generated by anyone, expert or not, it’s still a pretty significant finding.

Although Reddit results appeared 81% of the time for informational search terms, every vertical we tested generated some Reddit results. The lowest case in this instance was for ‘betting store’, with Reddit appearing for one in every 10 searches.

At the same time, the following verticals saw Reddit results for 100% of informational searches:

• car dealerships
• chiropractors
• day spas
• fast food restaurants
• HVAC
• storage facilities
• tax advisors
• vet clinics

You can see a table with all of these results and more in the appendix.

Transactional Searches (e.g. coffee shop seattle)

Our study found that 16% of transactional searches generated Reddit results. With comparatively few Reddit results found, transactional searches won’t be a key focus in this analysis, but it’s still interesting to see which vertical-specific terms generated the results.

The verticals with a higher percentage of transactional results generally appear to sit within the hospitality and leisure industries: fast food (85%), day spa (60%), gym (45%), travel agency (35%), and coffee shop (30%).

However, the threads that appear in their search results, whether as organic links or in the discussions feature, correlate more to the intent of an informational search. Have a look at the example below for ‘coffee shop austin.’

As we found in the Local Business Discovery and Trust Report, these are often the types of businesses where consumers want to see genuine experiences from other customers, while the ‘risk’ remains low if they do decide to make a transaction. Google may show these Reddit results as supporting information to other sources due to its low risk.

In terms of YMYL queries, the only relevant search term that generated Reddit results was for ‘tax advisor’, with Reddit appearing just 5% of the time. While we don’t know how much Google might have scaled back on these types of results appearing in SERPs since Lily Ray reached out to the company in April 2024, this clearly shows they are still appearing. 

Average Ranking Positions for Vertical-specific Local Searches

Reddit’s prominence in the SERPs is clear, but how are they ranking, and are there any trends across the verticals we used?

Although the informational query chart does not appear to show any instant patterns, we can see that only three verticals generate Reddit results with an average ranking position of three or higher. These fall into the leisure and hospitality category where, arguably, searchers looking for the ‘best’ might want to be able to compare people’s experiences of things like gym facilities and movie theater amenities.

The example below shows that the Reddit thread goes beyond recommendations and delves into the ‘why’ of something. In this instance, the original poster is asking for more.

And perhaps there is something in that. Perhaps Google rates the quality of discussion content as high enough to rank organically because it is exactly that: a discussion. It goes beyond the statement-like nature of reviews, where we don’t have the opportunity to probe into the experience further.

Then again, why does ‘best movie theater’ average a 2.3 ranking across 20 US cities, and ‘best hotel’ only average 6.1? Is it because, in Google’s opinion, there are greater authorities and platforms on the accommodation side of hospitality to discuss what makes something the best?

For transactional searches, there are fewer results with average ranking positions. In some cases, this is because no Reddit results were generated at all. In others, the results were grouped within the ‘Discussions and Forums’ feature instead of an organic position.

What this chart does show, though, is that the verticals where Reddit results were displayed as organic links are all fairly ‘low risk’, with no YMYL verticals seeing results for our transactional searches.

Also, as we’ll go on to discuss with the fast food restaurant vertical, it could also be that Google is reading mixed intent for these queries. While ‘hvac contractor huntsville’ generates organic results for actual HVAC services in the area, the Reddit result displayed surfaces advice and recommendations.

It could be the case that, as Google pivots towards longer, more conversational search queries (especially as part of AI Overviews), it doesn’t recognize the urgent need for transactions in more generic terms. We’d have to do more testing with various transactional terms to determine this.

Reddit Appearing In a ‘Discussions and Forums’ Feature

Since late 2022, there has been a SERP feature called ‘Discussions and Forums’ where multiple forum results, such as Reddit or Quora, are grouped together in one section. This makes it clear to searchers that any results within this section have been pulled from forum networks.

We wanted to know how often they appeared within the ‘Discussions and Forums’ feature. We found that results sometimes only appeared within this SERP feature, sometimes only as organic (blue links) results, and sometimes both.

Reddit results grouped into the ‘Discussions and Forums’ feature appeared more than a third of the time (35%) for informational search queries. Meanwhile, out of all the informational queries that surfaced any type of Reddit results altogether, the proportion of ‘Discussions and Forums’ results was 43%.

It’s unclear why Google displays some Reddit results as organic links and others within this feature. As mentioned, there are cases where both appear—for different threads and discussions—so does this mean that Google displays the threads it deems more helpful, authoritative, or trustworthy as organic links?

Although many searchers have likely heard of Reddit, there will be plenty that haven’t. The ‘Discussions and Forums’ feature feels like the most transparent way to display thread results, clearly labeling them to users and enabling them to make up their own minds.

Reddit Results Appearing in SERPs More Than Once

Some verticals were likely to generate Reddit results in SERPs more than once, including for transactional search terms. 

Fast food restaurants generated multiple Reddit results for one in every five transactional searches (e.g. fast food restaurants boston) and almost half of the informational searches (e.g. best fast food restaurants boston).

However, looking at several examples of these results, it appears that Google may determine the intent behind our transactional fast food searches as more informational. Although local packs tend to be displayed, showing fast food restaurants nearby, the organic results show a mix of review sites, listicle-style articles, and forum discussions.

What do these results mean for local SEO?

Developments like these can be frustrating for marketers and SEOs. It feels like a neverending chess match between us and Google, particularly when you’re putting in the work to create unique, helpful content and find that (arguably) lower-value content like Reddit forum threads are being rewarded in the SERPs. 

However, we can take away some lessons and considerations from it all. 

Continue Creating Unique Content

As with just about anything in SEO, we don’t know how permanent these developments within the SERPs will be. What we do know, though, is that the principle of E-E-A-T continues to be an important factor in how Google rates the quality of your content.

With this in mind, don’t be scared or disheartened by the findings in this report! Continue creating content that is unique to your brand, as well as relevant and helpful to your audience. This might be location-specific website pages, building out your key services and products, or providing FAQs.

If you are a marketer or specialist within a regulated or YMYL industry, such as healthcare, finance, banking, or gambling, continue demonstrating your expertise, experience, authority, and trustworthiness, and consider how else you can create unique content.

Keep on Top of Your Brand Mentions

If you haven’t considered Reddit before, you might find it useful for measuring consumer perceptions of your brand. Try conducting a site search for your brand terms on Google (e.g. search ‘site:reddit.com brand name’ in Google) to see where you appear there. Or better yet, set up a Reddit account and have a poke around in there yourself!

In fact, the very day before this research was published, Search Engine Land reported on a new special snippet that appears to be being tested with Reddit results. Top user answers, with upvotes displayed, are being pulled into the results, presumably as a way to ‘enhance’ them. So, you could look at it as another way for Google to get users to click through to Reddit threads, or, on a more positive note, it’s potentially another opportunity for your brand to be visible as a new type of snippet—providing users have a reason to talk about you.

The wider lesson here, however, is considering where else brand mentions can appear. As discussed in the Local Consumer Review Survey 2024, ‘unstructured’ brand reviews can appear in many places, and consumers are increasingly looking to alternative platforms to research your brand, including:

• Local news: 43%
• Instagram: 34%
• YouTube: 32%
• TikTok: 23%
• Reddit: 21%

If you can, consider using social listening and brand monitoring tools or setting up free media alerts sent directly to your mailbox. 

Seek Organic Opportunities to Represent Your Brand Within Forums

Do not try and fake your way into Reddit. Users generally don’t mind it when a brand or brand representative can answer questions or provide further information within a thread. However, nothing is more obvious than when brands attempt to snake their way into conversations ‘organically’ to drive prospective customers to them.

It might be tempting to drop some offers into conversations here and there, but we’d recommend keeping interactions as organic and helpful as possible. Reddit has an official advertising platform if you’re looking to go down the route of sponsored content, Reddit Ads.

Here’s what BrightLocal’s Social and Community Manager, Jenny Bernarde, says on the subject:

“Sometimes, Redditors can tell when a brand account is there to do marketing and selling. If they sense marketing, it’s not going to do well. On the other hand, answering questions and getting your brand out there is a good thing—if you can do it authentically and helpfully, and give way to others to speak of their own experiences. 

At the end of the day, it’s useful to use Reddit and reply to things to show that valuable authority and expertise.”

Jenny’s tips:

• Have a brand account that is the main ‘voice’ for the brand.
• Create a brand subreddit that provides your community with a space to talk about your brand. This is not your own brand creating content.
• Have brand representatives register on Reddit to reply to questions, and share suggestions in wider subreddits.

Deliver a Customer Experience Truly Worth Recommending

Ultimately, you can’t give people a reason to talk about your brand if you aren’t focused on delivering exceptional customer experiences. There is only so much local marketing can do for you without it.

The Brand Beacon Report 2024 found that the highest-performing multi-location businesses prioritize customer satisfaction and retention over customer acquisition. These businesses reported marketing performance that exceeded expectations and also had clear local marketing strategies in place.

It’s a no-brainer. Customer satisfaction and experience are key to brand reputation and your bottom line.

Summary and Discussion

It’s clear that Google trusts the content it’s surfacing from Reddit and understands that users want to see this information when researching. While AI Overviews is only just rolling out, seeing how Reddit’s prominence in the SERPs develops from here will be interesting.

What are your thoughts on Google showing Reddit results in the SERPs? Is there a danger in giving some threads a position in organic rankings instead of being grouped with other forum results?

We’d be really interested to hear your take and any recent experiences on these developments. You can tag or mention us over on X, LinkedIn, or join the discussion within our Facebook community group, The Local Pack.

Appendix

Reddit results appearing for all verticals

Avg. Reddit ranking positions for all search queries

How often Reddit results appear in SERPs as organic (blue) links

Discussions and Forums Reddit Result Appearances

Our latest course, Essential Google Business Profile Tasks for Agencies, led by expert Claire Carlile Rees, is tailored exclusively for agencies and designed to equip you with the tools and strategies needed for success. This course has everything from seamless client onboarding strategies to practical monitoring techniques!

Throughout the course, you’ll gain access to four useful spreadsheet templates, ensuring you stay organized and ahead of the competition. Plus:

1. Efficient Client Onboarding Processes: Learn the secrets to seamless client onboarding that will impress your clients and set the stage for long-term success. 
2. Effective UTM Tagging Strategies: Unlock the power of UTM tagging. Discover how to generate and implement effective tags that will deepen your understanding of marketing attribution.
3. How to Harness Google Business Profile Services and Products: Dive deep into the world of Google Business Profile and discover how to leverage its Services and Products features to maximize your clients’ visibility. From optimizing profiles to utilizing advanced features, you’ll be equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to dominate local search.
4. How to Monitor Google Business Profiles Like a Pro: Stay ahead of the curve with practical monitoring techniques that ensure you’re always in the know. From tracking performance metrics to identifying areas for improvement, you’ll learn how to keep your finger on the pulse of your clients’ Google Business Profiles.

Here’s Claire with an overview of the course:

Like all BrightLocal Academy courses, you can strengthen your understanding through interactive activities and quizzes, guaranteeing a thorough grasp of the concepts. When completed, put your knowledge to the test with a final exam and show off your new-found skills with a shareable certificate.

Who is this course for?

This course suits anyone working in or on local SEO – whether you’re in-house or on the agency side, working in a multi-location or single location. Pick and choose from the lesson units depending on the types of services that you’re offering and to whom.

How can I join?

Anyone can access this course, whether or not you’re a BrightLocal customer. You can also be among the first to find out when new courses drop by enrolling for free. Here’s how:

If you’re a BrightLocal customer, you can access the academy via your BrightLocal account. Log in, click ‘Learning Resources’ at the top of the screen, and select ‘BrightLocal Academy’ from the dropdown menu.

You must create a free BrightLocal Academy account before enrolling in the ‘Essential Google Business Profile Tasks for Agencies’ course.

If you’re not a BrightLocal customer, you can join BrightLocal Academy for free and follow the steps above to enroll in the course.

Want to know more about BrightLocal Academy? 

Check out the official BrightLocal Academy FAQs here: 

What is BrightLocal Academy, how does it work, and how can I enroll?    

What courses does BrightLocal Academy offer, and how long do they take?    

If you have any questions of your own, feel free to get in touch with us or leave a comment below. We hope you find this fresh new course useful, and we can’t wait to hear how it’s helped you improve your local SEO skills.

This guide offers tailored strategies for professionals who want to perform SEO for real estate companies. It focuses on optimizing listings, enhancing online presence, and driving targeted traffic to your client’s real estate business. 

What even is local SEO anyway?

Local SEO for real estate is aimed at boosting your company’s visibility on search engines like Google, specifically for potential buyers and sellers in your area. 

This strategy increases your company’s search engine rankings, enhancing your online discoverability to local traffic. In the competitive real estate market, where establishing local connections is crucial, effective local SEO tactics are essential for standing out.

While we’ll mainly focus on Google due to its widespread use, the concepts behind local SEO for real estate ensure your services are found by the right local audience, regardless of their starting point in the search process. 

As you can see below, there are more than a few different ways people are using search to find something specific. Local SEO is your opportunity to rank for each and every one of these different variations and get yourself in front of the right people, whether they want a luxury condo in Miami or a two-bedroom house in Scranton.

Gone are the days of relying solely on billboard ads, newspaper ads, and cold calls. 

As a marketing professional, you’re tasked with ensuring property seekers find your client’s offerings before those of your competitors. Tailoring your SEO tactics to the real estate market demands a comprehensive grasp of local consumer behavior and search trends. 

You’ll first want to initiate this process by analyzing local search queries related to real estate in the area where your client is located. These can be queries like the ones shown above or maybe broader, with people just looking for realtors themselves.

The next part of the puzzle is the optimization of an online presence across various platforms, ensuring high visibility. Ultimately, the goal is to position your client’s real estate business as the top choice for local searches in their area. 

More on that below.

Why focus on local SEO for real estate when there are so many other marketing things to do? 

High visibility in local search results directly correlates with increased property inquiries, so much so that the National Association of Realtors reported that a staggering 97% of homeowners used the internet in the search for a new home. 

Having a robust online presence today is simply a necessity. 

It’s about making your real estate business the go-to source in your community, leveraging targeted keywords, and optimizing your online presence to meet the specific needs and interests of the local market. 

In doing so, you’re not just improving your search rankings; you’re building trust and establishing a strong local brand that resonates with potential clients right in your backyard. 

Why do real estate companies need to look at local and not just do traditional SEO?

What’s different for local compared to traditional search is that it’s not just a focus on a website. An e-commerce company likely just wants to rank its website, but a real estate company or an individual real estate agent is likely going to be competing for spots in the local pack.

The Local Pack is the section at the top of a search that Google deems as local. It lists several businesses and places them on a map. It lists these businesses using its Google Business Profile (GBP), and technically you can rank one of these without even having a website.

This means that real estate companies need to focus on optimizing for the local pack and the local organic results.

Real Estate SEO Basics 

The fundamentals of real estate SEO can be complex and overwhelming, but they don’t need to. 

Here’s where I would begin: 

Perform an Audit

While local searches don’t necessarily need a website to rank, there’s a good chance that a professional realtor is going to use a website as the core of their marketing.

Understanding your website’s current performance is crucial before planning any SEO enhancements. An SEO audit reveals high-performing pages and areas needing refinement, offering a clear snapshot of your digital footprint. While audits require effort, they provide a critical baseline to measure future progress and develop an effective strategy for growth.

These tasks aren’t specific to real estate. They’re about making sure your website offers the best experience possible.

Consider the following key aspects during your audit to identify improvement opportunities: 

• Site Structure: Evaluate your XML sitemap, robots.txt files, and any redirect issues.
• Page Elements: Review titles, meta descriptions, headings, alt tags, and URL structures. 
• Content Quality: Assess content organization, keyword usage, link integration, and visual content, and check for duplications or canonical issues. 
• Link Health: Analyze both inbound and outbound links, the quality of internal linking, and identify any broken links. 
• User Experience: Ensure the site is accessible, mobile-friendly, and fast-loading. 

Enhancements in these areas can lead to significant gains in organic traffic. Utilize tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to pinpoint pages requiring attention and identify fixable issues. These platforms also offer valuable resources like PageSpeed Insights.

Advanced Guide to Google Search Console

Learn more

The best part? These tools are free, and you can glean a tremendous amount of data to work with. 

Don’t get too caught up in competing audit software and tools. There’s a time and a place for them, but the tools mentioned above will get you where you need to go.

Conduct In-depth Keyword Research 

Effective keyword research forms the backbone of any successful local SEO campaign in the real estate domain.

Focus on identifying long-tail keywords that potential buyers or renters frequently use in their searches. Analyze search volume and competition levels to prioritize the keywords most likely to bring results.

Sure, ranking for the term ‘realtor’ sounds like a great idea on paper. But there’s a good chance that’ll be incredibly difficult to achieve. You’ll be playing against big sites like realtor.com and a few others. This is where those long-tail keywords can come into play.

Tools like Google Keyword Planner can be a free and a powerful place to start.

In any form of SEO, understanding search intent is key. It typically falls into four categories: 

• Informational: Very common in real estate. Whether someone is looking for advice on getting a mortgage, understanding home inspection processes, or exploring neighborhood guides, they’re seeking information. These terms are more likely to display traditional organic search engine results pages (SERPs) or localized versions of those.
• Navigational: This occurs when a prospective buyer or seller knows which real estate agency or property listing site they want to visit but uses Google to get there quickly. These are likely to be branded in some way. They could be people searching for a specific type of property on a real estate aggregation site or for a property with a realtor they’ve already heard of.
• Transactional: The moment a buyer decides they’re ready to contact an agent, schedule a viewing, or even make an offer online. They’ve moved beyond browsing to taking concrete steps toward a purchase. 
• Commercial Investigation: Potential clients in this stage are almost ready to make a decision but are comparing different properties, agents, or mortgage options. They’re seeking the best fit for their needs before committing. This could be terms like ‘two-bed apartments in [location]’. With a conversion journey as long as house buying, this may not be as immediately transactional as some types of business where people are searching for a specific product.

Catering content to match these intents can significantly boost a real estate website’s effectiveness in attracting and converting potential clients.

By identifying key phrases, such as “real estate in [location]” or “homes for sale in [location],” professionals can tailor their online content to match these specific searches. The use of modifiers and variations on these keywords allows for a broader reach, capturing a wider audience with slightly different search habits.

Some other searches, without a modifier, may still be localized by Google. For instance, an informational search of ‘Do I need a survey to get a mortgage’ performed in Dallas, Texas, provides answers from a number of local real estate sites.

This strategic approach ensures that your client’s listings and content resonate directly with the search intent of buyers and sellers, significantly enhancing visibility and engagement. 

When doing your keyword research, also try tools like Google Trends to get a feel for how the local real estate market is doing. 

Competitive Analysis

Understanding the competition is key to standing out in the real estate market. With a thorough analysis of other real estate websites and their SEO strategies, you can uncover ways to set your client’s listings apart and carve out a unique position in the market. 

Seeing a competitor’s listing at the top for a specific keyword is a signal that they’re doing something effectively. Google’s preference for that realtor’s content over others is a clear indication of what works.

It’s your task to decipher the successful elements of that top-ranking content, replicate those strategies, and then go a step further to outshine the competition. Performing a Google Business Profile Audit can give you a great view of where your competitors are beating you.

Make a Plan and Stick to It 

After conducting thorough keyword research and sizing up the competition, it’s crucial to develop a targeted strategy for your client’s real estate business.

This plan should not only aim to boost your client’s online visibility but also ensure your client’s brand’s unique character and values shine through. 

SEO isn’t just about climbing the rankings or increasing site traffic; it’s also about how your client’s brand is presented online.

Even if your client’s listings don’t top the search results, a compelling, visually appealing online profile can attract potential buyers or sellers to click on your client’s site first. The goal is to make the real estate business the most clickable, regardless of its position in search results. 

The Local Pack: A Prime Real Estate Spot 

The Local Pack’s prominence in localized search results has been game-changing since it was introduced.

The Local Pack refers to the block of business listings that appears above the traditional organic search results on Google when users perform a local search query, such as “real estate agents near me.” These listings are formed of Google Business Profiles, so you must have one to be considered.

This feature displays a map alongside a concise list of businesses, including key information like the business name, ratings, and contact details.

Securing a spot in the Local Pack means: 

• Enhanced Visibility: The Local Pack occupies a prominent position on the search results page, often appearing before any organic site links. This prime placement ensures your business catches the eye of potential clients first. 
• Increased Trust: Listings in the Local Pack come with ratings and reviews, which can help build trust with prospective buyers or sellers before they even visit your website.
• Local Relevance: The Local Pack focuses on businesses within the searcher’s vicinity, making it an invaluable tool for real estate professionals looking to target clients in specific local markets. 

Organic Search Results: The Long Game 

Beneath the Local Pack, traditional organic search results provide results based on Google’s algorithmic determination of relevance to the user’s query. These results are purely based on websites. For real estate SEO, appearing in these organic results is essential for several reasons: 

• Sustained Traffic: While the Local Pack drives immediate visibility, strong organic rankings can deliver consistent traffic over time, as they’re based on the quality and relevance of your content. 
• Authority Building: High rankings in organic search results signal to potential clients that your site is a credible source of information, helping to establish your authority in the real estate market. 
• Comprehensive Coverage: Organic results allow for greater depth of information, enabling real estate professionals to attract clients at various stages of the buyer or seller journey, from initial research to ready-to-transact individuals. 

The most effective local SEO strategy for real estate combines efforts to appear both in the Local Pack and in organic search results. 

This dual approach ensures maximum visibility across different types of search queries and user intents. 

Optimize Your Google Business Profile 

With your real estate SEO strategy in place, it’s time to focus on local SEO activities that promise swift and significant outcomes. Central to this effort is optimizing your client’s Google Business Profile (GBP) , a critical asset for boosting visibility online. The example below shows you what a real estate company’s GBP can look like.

A well-maintained Google Business Profile is essential for real estate professionals, often serving as the first point of contact with potential real estate customers, sometimes even before they visit your client’s website. This profile not only improves your searchability but can also enhance your visibility early on, especially if your client’s website is still gaining traction in search rankings. 

If you haven’t claimed or set up a Google Business Profile for your client’s real estate business yet, prioritize this step immediately. Opt for verification methods that are quick and reliable, such as via phone call or using a business video (I’d recommend avoiding postal verification due to its lengthy process). 

Google Business Profile Tips 

• Update the Business Information: Ensure every detail on the profile is comprehensive and accurate, including the business name, address, phone number, and website link. Consistency across the profile helps Google verify the legitimacy of the business, improving the overall search visibility. Incorporate relevant keywords into the business description to draw in potential clients, but keep the narrative clear and engaging for real people. 
• Select Appropriate Categories: Choose Google Business Profile categories that accurately describe the real estate services you offer, such as “real estate agency” or “property listings,” to improve how potential clients find you during their specific searches. 
• Incorporate High-quality Images: Visual appeal is crucial. Upload professional photographs of available properties, your client’s team, and successful transactions to make the profile stand out. These images not only attract attention but also reassure clients about the quality of your client’s services. 
• Post Regularly: Utilize the GBP posts feature to share the latest updates, property listings, and industry news. Keeping the profile active with fresh posts and images demonstrates to potential clients that the business is dynamic and engaged with the market. 
• Cultivate Reviews: Encouraging satisfied clients to leave positive reviews can significantly boost the profile’s effectiveness. Not only do these reviews provide valuable feedback, but they also improve search rankings, showcasing the business’s reputation and reliability. 

Something you may need to consider in real estate is practitioner listings. Real estate is an industry that Google allows to have individual practitioner listings. This means an individual can set up their own GBP. It’s generally advised for these practitioners to use their home address if they are comfortable doing so. Otherwise, they’ll likely just get filtered out at best, or at worst, they’ll compete with your main business’s listing.

This can be a tricky tactic to get the best out of, so make sure you look into managing practitioner listings properly.

Local Links for Real Estate Local SEO

Links have long been important for Google’s algorithms. When you’re trying to rank locally, it’s worth remembering that links from relevant local sites hold a lot more weight.

These links, from respected community sites, local news outlets, or industry associations, act as strong signals to search engines, affirming your business’s relevance and authority within a specific geographical area. 

An effective tip for acquiring local links is to engage with your community by participating in local events, sponsoring local teams, or collaborating with local bloggers for guest posts. 

These activities not only strengthen your community presence but also increase your chances of earning valuable local backlinks. 

Actionable insights include regularly monitoring local media for opportunities to contribute expert opinions on real estate matters or offering insightful market analysis, which can lead to natural backlink opportunities. 

Google’s Local Service Ads 

Google’s Local Service ads are a pay-per-lead advertising platform that positions your client’s real estate services at the very top of search results, directly in front of potential clients. 

By placing your services at the top of search results, these ads significantly increase your visibility and the likelihood of generating high-quality leads. 

Unlike traditional pay-per-click advertising, you pay for leads, not clicks, making it a cost-effective solution for targeted marketing. 

If You Have Multiple Locations…

If your real estate company operates in more than just one location, there are a few things you’ll need to consider.

My first piece of advice would be to set up a Google Business Profile for each location as an absolute minimum. However, while every circumstance is different, you don’t necessarily need to create a new website for each location, especially if the additional locations are in the surrounding cities.

In this situation, you could simply create local landing pages that detail your knowledge of the area and the listings you have available there, and potentially supply information on your physical location and the team there.

As you can see in the example below, Perna has created a location page for multiple cities and communities. Each of these has a short overview of the area, some key statistics, the live real estate listings, and then more in-depth area information that a buyer may find useful.

If your client has locations in different States or Provinces, creating an additional website for those would be helpful.

There are more on location pages later in this guide.

What You Need to Know About Local Citations 

Local citations play a crucial role in enhancing the online presence of a real estate business, acting as a signal of credibility to search engines. Ensure each listing of the business across directories is consistent, with accurate NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) information to boost local search rankings. 

Regularly auditing and updating your citations can prevent discrepancies that might harm your SEO efforts. Encourage reviews on these citation sites to increase engagement and provide social proof of your client’s business’s reliability. 

Building citations not only increases visibility but also reinforces authority in the real estate market, making it easier for potential clients to find and trust your client’s services.

Not every platform will be relevant to your client, so be discerning when necessary. The link below provides an extensive list of directories for real estate agents.

Top Citation Sites for Real Estate Agents

Learn More

Generating and Managing Reviews 

Encouraging clients to leave positive reviews is vital for bolstering your real estate client’s online reputation. Each glowing review is a testament to the quality and reliability of your client’s services. 

Actively respond to all positive or negative reviews to show engagement and commitment to client satisfaction. This is a huge part of review management. 

Develop a streamlined process for requesting reviews from clients post-transaction. Make sure you ask everyone, regardless of how smooth the buying process went. It will quickly become obvious to review platforms if you only ask people who have a good experience, and this kind of “review gating” is strictly against many review platform guidelines.

Leverage social media and email campaigns as platforms to remind clients about leaving feedback. Monitor review platforms regularly to address any concerns promptly.

The key to this process is consistency. Once you find a process for curating and managing reviews, stick to it.

Positive online reviews can dramatically improve your client’s SEO standings, making this a crucial part of your strategy.

Creating Compelling and Valuable Content 

Creating content that resonates with both buyers and sellers requires a deep understanding of their needs, preferences, and the challenges they face in the real estate market. Focus on developing blog posts, infographics, and videos that offer practical advice, market insights, and property highlights to engage your client’s audience effectively.

But don’t worry if some of those formats are out of your reach. If all you can produce, for now, is a bunch of well-researched and authoritative blogs, that’s ok. Video, for instance, could come later. Creating content of real quantity will be much more beneficial than doing it at scale poorly.

Tailor your content strategy to address common questions from buyers and sellers, such as tips for first-time homebuyers or how to stage a home for sale, providing real value. Leverage local market data to create reports or analysis pieces that position you as the go-to expert in your client’s area. 

Craft your content with a human-centric approach, incorporating several hundred words with integrated targeted keywords, ensuring readability and relevance. High-quality content remains the pinnacle of what search engines value most in ranking websites.

Don’t Forget About E-E-A-T (Expertise, Experience, Authority, Trustworthiness) 

For real estate professionals, showcasing a deep knowledge of the market, years of successful transactions, and authoritative insights on property trends is important.

Demonstrating expertise through detailed neighborhood guides, experience via success stories, authority through market analysis, and trustworthiness with transparent client testimonials can significantly enhance a website’s E-E-A-T. 

This, in turn, not only aligns with Google’s guidelines for high-quality content but also builds confidence among potential buyers and sellers, making it a pivotal strategy in the competitive landscape of real estate SEO. 

Learn from What’s Working 

Analyzing the content strategies of successful competing real estate professionals can provide invaluable insights into what resonates with your target audience. 

By observing which topics, formats, and SEO tactics are yielding results for them, you can identify gaps in your strategy and areas for enhancement. Learning from competitors’ successes allows you to refine your approach, adopting proven methods to improve engagement and visibility. 

Ultimately, this analysis is a shortcut to discovering effective practices in real estate marketing, enabling you to adapt and innovate based on solid, real-world data. 

Content Clusters and Pillar Pages 

The strategy I employ is using content clusters and pillar pages. 

A pillar page serves as the foundation, covering a broad topic related to real estate, such as “Home Buying Guide” or “Selling Your Property.” It provides a comprehensive overview of the subject, offering value to readers while leaving room for more in-depth exploration. 

Content clusters, on the other hand, consist of specific, related articles or pages that delve into subtopics of the main theme outlined in the pillar page. 

For example, within a “Home Buying Guide” pillar page, content clusters could include articles on “Financing Your Home Purchase,” “Understanding Home Inspections,” or “Navigating Closing Costs.” 

These subtopics link back to the pillar page and vice versa, creating a tightly interlinked structure. This setup helps search engines understand the relationship between the pillar page and its clusters, boosting the authority of the site on the topic and improving its search rankings. 

For a more thorough exploration of the method, please refer to this forum post/video about creating content clusters and pillar pages from Real Estate Webmasters’ CEO, Morgan Carey. The video might be just under an hour, but it’s worth every second of your time.

Refreshing Content

Refreshing content is an important tactic in SEO. It’s easy to fall into the trap of making new content for the sake of it. If you’ve already got plenty of content, though, it’s often worth taking some time to review it and see whether it’s as helpful as it can be.

This ensures your client’s website stays relevant to current market trends and search engine algorithms, ultimately attracting more potential buyers and sellers. 

Plus, oftentimes, refreshing is a faster process than starting a blog from scratch.

Content Refresh Checklist

• Audit Existing Content: Begin by reviewing your site’s existing real estate content, identifying outdated pieces lacking engagement or no longer reflecting current market conditions. You can then decide whether it’s worth updating or even removing old pieces. Perhaps you made a guide four years ago that goes deep into what living in a specific area is like. Well, in that time, multiple businesses opened or closed, the school won some awards, and maybe the crime rate changed.
• Keyword Research: Perform updated keyword research to capture the latest trends in real estate searches, focusing on what potential clients are currently looking for in your client’s area.
• Competitor Analysis: Examine content from competing real estate websites to identify gaps in your content strategy and opportunities for improvement. Using the example of the area guide again, you can look at what your competitors have done and spot any areas you missed. Maybe they had a run-down of the best places to get coffee, you could add that into yours, too. 
• Update Market Data: Ensure all statistics, listings, market trends, and property prices are up-to-date and reflect the current real estate market.
• Enhance User Experience: Make your content more engaging and user-friendly by considering layout and readability and incorporating new, high-quality images or virtual tours of properties. 
• SEO Optimization: Update SEO elements like meta titles, descriptions, and headings with current keywords, and ensure your content structure is optimized for search engines. 
• Refresh Internal Links: Add links to newer content or important pages on your client’s site to keep users engaged and distribute page authority throughout it. Also, check to see whether you’re linking to the piece you’re updating from other pages on your site.
• Promote Updated Content: Share your refreshed content through social media, email newsletters, and other channels to drive traffic and signal to search engines that your client’s site is active. 
• Monitor Performance: Use analytics tools to track how the refreshed content performs, adjusting your strategy based on user engagement, traffic, and conversion rates. 

Following this process not only improves your client’s website’s SEO performance but also ensures your real estate content remains a valuable resource for clients navigating the housing market.

Crafting Unique and Helpful Location Pages for Each Property 

Creating distinct location pages for each area where you have listings is a strategic move to capture local search traffic. These pages should include specific details about the neighborhood, schools, and nearby amenities to boost SEO and user engagement. 

You’re essentially painting a picture for potential homeowners about the area they want to move to. Don’t embellish, but highlight all of the reasons why someone should move to the page you’re writing about. You’re also showing Google that you really understand the area and the needs of prospective buyers there.

When I’m writing these pages, I typically focus on splitting my headings into: 

• Describing the area in great detail. 
• The specific types of homes typically for sale in the area and the demographics typically found in the local community. 
• A collection of entertainment and amenities that the area offers. Just remember, the more local restaurants and shops you include in this list, although helpful, require more upkeep long-term to ensure you’re not linking to closed businesses. 
• A list of common FAQs that potential homeowners would ask. However, please note that Google has downgraded the importance of FAQs and How-Tos, along with their respective schema recently. 

Tailor each page’s meta titles and descriptions to include local search terms. This targeted approach makes your client’s listings more discoverable to those searching for properties in specific locations.

Don’t Sleep on Technical SEO

Focusing on these technical aspects will help your client’s real estate website rank higher, attract more local traffic, and convert more leads. Other than local business schema, these changes are more general SEO best practices rather than something specific to local. 

A few tasks for you to consider are:

• Mobile Responsiveness: Ensure your client’s site looks great and functions seamlessly on mobile devices, as more searches are performed on mobile than on desktop.
• Page Speed Optimization: Speed is key. Use tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights to identify and fix slow-loading elements to keep both users and search engines happy.
• Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificate: Implement HTTPS to secure your client’s site. It’s important not only for user trust but also for Google’s ranking. Google likes safe sites.
• Clean URL Structure: Use readable, keyword-rich URLs. Keep them short and sweet, and avoid unnecessary parameters or numbers.
• Schema Markup for Local SEO: Implement local business schema to enhance visibility in local searches. This includes adding structured data for your client’s address, phone number, business hours, and more.
• Optimize Title Tags and Meta Descriptions: Include relevant keywords and make them compelling to boost click-through rates from search engine results pages.
• Image Optimization: Compress images to speed up load times and use descriptive file names and alt tags to improve accessibility and relevance. 
• Internal Linking Structure: Create a logical internal linking strategy to help search engines and users navigate your client’s site. Use relevant anchor text for these links.
• Duplicate Content: Avoid duplicate content issues by using canonical tags when necessary and ensuring each page offers unique value.
• XML Sitemaps and Robots.txt: Submit an up-to-date XML sitemap to search engines to help them crawl and index your client’s site efficiently. Use robots.txt to control what parts of your client’s site search engines can access.
• 404 Error Management: Monitor and fix any broken links or pages to improve user experience and maintain site authority.

11 SEO “Tactics” to Avoid 

Some of what you will read below used to be common practice but not in today’s marketplace. Be mindful to avoid these additional malpractices, which can harm your client’s website’s ranking and credibility. 

• Cloaking: Showing different content to search engines than to users, a deceptive practice that can lead to severe penalties.
• Using Doorway Pages: Creating low-quality pages designed solely to rank well in search results and funnel users to a different page. In real estate, these may well be your location pages. Make sure those add real value and aren’t just full of overly optimized headers with no real information.
• Sneaky Redirects: This deceptive practice redirects visitors to a different URL than the one they initially clicked on.
• Hidden Text: Including text on a page that’s the same color as the background, positioned off-screen, behind an image, or deliberately concealed in any manner to incorporate more keywords should be avoided. 
• Article Spinning: Rewriting existing content with slight variations to create “new” content, often resulting in low-quality or nonsensical text. 
• Overusing Anchor Text: Aggressively using exact-match anchor text for internal or inbound links can appear manipulative to search engines.
• Scraping Content: Copying content from other websites without adding value can result in duplicate content issues and may lead to legal challenges.
• Keyword Stuffing: This involves overusing your target keyword or keywords to the point of redundancy.
• Link Buying: Rather than naturally earning backlinks, this tactic involves purchasing them, which is frowned upon.
• Automatically Generated Content: Using software to generate content without human review often leads to poor quality and irrelevant, sometimes inaccurate content.
• Excessive Reciprocal Links: Exchanging links with other sites purely for the sake of cross-linking, without genuine relevance or value to users. 

Focusing on creating high-quality, relevant content and following ethical SEO practices is the best strategy for long-term success in search engine rankings. 

Let’s Wrap This Up 

Fundamentally, real estate SEO doesn’t follow a one-size-fits-all approach. It involves experimenting with various tactics to discover what elevates your listings and enhances your online presence. Every real estate business is unique, with diverse goals and benchmarks for measuring SEO success. 

Communication is key—aim to set realistic expectations and then strive to exceed them. Real estate professionals may not be SEO experts, and it’s your role to demonstrate the tangible benefits of your SEO strategies. Through clear examples and results, you can illuminate the value SEO brings to their business.