the 3 types of local seo services available to business owners · overall ranking factors. however,...

The 3 Types of Local SEO ServicesAvailable to Business Owners

thedigitalelevator.com | [email protected] | 561.692.3719DIGITALELEVATOR

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thedigitalelevator.com | [email protected] | 561.692.3719

THE 3 TYPES OF LOCAL SEO SERVICES AVAILABLE TO BUSINESS OWNERS

Are you looking to get some online exposure for your local business but don’t know which local SEO option is right for your business and budget? Let’s break it down for you.

As a business that specializes in local SEO campaigns, I see a lot of the other offerings that are labeled as “local SEO” but that vary greatly in services and deliverables.

We have clients that have worked with some very large corporations that seemingly did nothing, worked with others that paid a monthly fee for a service but didn’t realize it wasn’t enough to meet their business goals, and others that didn’t really know what they were paying for.

Today, I’d like to clear some things up so that I help at least one business owner understand what to expect

before choosing one of the three types of local SEO services that are commonly offered.

To be clear, when we talk about local SEO we are talking about services that help a local business (city-specific) to rank in the search engines when relevant queries are entered (ex. “gym West Palm Beach”).

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WHAT MAKES A SITE RANK LOCALLY?Before we get into these three types of local SEO, let’s take a quick look at what a prominent local SEO correlation study says about what really makes a site rank. This is really, really important because if you have a certain expectation in mind from your local SEO campaign and the service you are paying for doesn’t deliver on the type of service that is needed (correlated) with helping you rank, your expectations won’t be met.

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For the Local Pack/Finder 1. [Google] My Business Signals (19%)

2. Link Signals (17%)

3. On-page Signals (14%)

4. Citation Signals (13%)

For Localized OrganicRanking Factors

1. Link Signals (29%) 2. On-page Signals (24%) 3. Behavioral Signals (11%) 4. Personalization (9%)

For reference, these two distinctions refer to the results provided by Google when using a query for a local business. The “Local Pack/Finder” refers to the listings that are within the map pack. These are limited to three listings.

Below this map pack are the organic local results, referred to in this document as Localized Organic Ranking Factors. Sometimes, Google will show both, other times, Google will just show the Localized Organic Ranking Factors and no Local Pack. Appearing in both areas for a search is beneficial and should be the goal of every company paying for some kind of local SEO service.

As seen above, the four most highly correlated ranking signals are:

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We will refer back to these correlations when looking at the three types of local SEO services:

1. Automated Location Management Services2. Cookie-cutter Local SEO Services3. Boutique SEO Firms/SEO Agencies Services

LocalPack

OrganicListings

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AUTOMATED LOCATION MANAGEMENT SERVICES

Automated location management services are amongst the most entry-level of all local SEO campaigns. These services help businesses get listed on a number of popular directories (Bing, Yelp, Best of the Web, etc.) across the internet.

Getting listed on directories (Citation Signals) is a form of local SEO called citation building, and is related to the fourth-most highly correlated Local Pack Ranking Factors mentioned above, and the fifth most highly correlated on the Localized Organic Ranking.

Business owners will pay a monthly or annual fee to have these services automatically submit their business information – Name, Address, Phone Number, website, etc.) – to a decent number of sites (usually like 40 or more) to ensure consistency across the web.

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Having consistent citation listings, and a large number of these citation listings, is correlated with higher rankings, but my experience is that it is very unlikely to help a business rank in the search engines for related queries without having some SEO services done in the other top three search signals mentioned.

Companies that offer this type of service include Moz Local, Yext, or Synup, and the prices per location vary from about $80 per year up to $500 depending on the package you get. If you stop paying, these companies will tell you your listings go away (although I’ve seen the contrary), so the long-term value here is not great.

These can be good options for companies who may get a lot of traffic from directories. I’ve seen restaurants, gyms, and contractors get leads this way. However, as these services alone tend not to actually see businesses rank in the search engines, they do little else but help to clean up one aspect of a much larger, true SEO campaign.


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• Satisfy one fairly prominent ranking factor

• Good for companies who get business from directories

• Ensure a business is listed consistently across the web

• The least expensive of local SEO services- $80 - $500/year


PRO’S & CON’S


PRO’S & CON’S

PRO’S• Low likelihood of ranking in

search engines

• Directory listings often expire

if service is ceased

• Not good enough for most

local businesses

CON’S

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COOKIE-CUTTER LOCAL SEO SERVICESI find it laughable when automated messages call me to tell me, the owner of an SEO company, that I need to claim my Google Business page or that it has issues. Perhaps you’ve experienced these automated phone calls too? These are the ones that are generally associated with a company offering cookie-cutter local SEO services.

I don’t use the term cookie-cutter to connote that these are bad, merely that they don’t customize the campaigns the way an SEO agency would. More on that below.

Using the scare tactic of letting you know that your Google My Business page is inaccurate or needs to be claimed (which is free by the way, just follow the previous link), these companies will get their foot in the door and then go on to let you know about their local SEO services.

These services often will include some of the above-mentioned automated local management services but may also include a small business website, Facebook ads, distribution of special offers across some directories, and even some email marketing help.

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To the uninformed small business owner, this kind of multiple channel visibility can sound quite good, but the reality is that resources that go into the multiple channels is so low that leads or sales can be hard to come by. Like the automated local management services, when you stop paying for these services there is not much online to indicate you ever had a presence at all.

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Companies like Yellow Pages, Hibu and Yodle provide these types of services for about $400 to $900 a month, depending on add-ons. These may be a good option for business owners who want some kind of exposure but aren’t ready for a full-scale SEO campaign.

In terms of checking items on the Overall Ranking Factors correlation graph above, look for these services to help with Citation Signals, Review Signals, and Social Signals, all at the back end of correlational high-ranking factors.

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• Satisfy three fairly

prominent ranking factors

• May also include a small

business website, Facebook

ads, distribution of special

offers across some directories,

and even some email

marketing help.

• Good for companies who get

business from directories

• Ensure a business is listed

consistently across the web

COOKIE-CUTTER LOCAL SEO SERVICES PRO’S & CON’S

PRO’S• Don’t customize local SEO

services for your business

• Offer a lot of low-level

resources that sound good on

paper but don’t provide

results

• Impact of services often

expire if service is ceased

• Not a great ROI @ $400-$900

per month

CON’S

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BOUTIQUE SEO FIRMS/SEO AGENCIES SERVICES

If you are really looking to make a dent in local search engine traffic and are interested in partnering with a company that will accomplish all of the items mentioned in the aforementioned local SEO correlation study, you’ll want to work with either a boutique SEO firm or an SEO agency that offers local SEO services.

A boutique firm is a small SEO company and may consist of just one employee who does all the work for you, versus an agency that may have multiple people working on your campaign.

Expect these type of local SEO campaigns to work on On-page Signals (Numbers 3 and 2, respectively) that are related to getting in your website and optimizing it or sending over recommendations to your developer. You can also expect these companies to help you to create some kind review strategy (Review Signals (Numbers 5 and 7, respectively)), help with social media (Social Signals (Numbers 8 and 8, respectively)), and assist with Behavioral Signals (Numbers 6 and 3, respectively) and Personalization (Numbers 7 and 9, respectively).

Boutique

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Custom local SEO campaigns like these are the most expensive and require a substantial financial and time-related investment. Most companies that offer all of these services charge $1,000 to $2,000 per month, and these costs may not account for things like content creation (which is actually related to On-page Signals), social media management, or paid advertising.

However, given the correlational data that is associated with solid search engine rankings and therefore more website visits, leads and ultimately sales, it is often the most valuable option in terms of ROI.

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These campaigns will also ensure that your Google My Business (My Business Signals, Numbers 1 and 6, respectively) page is setup properly, and work with you on things like building out directory listings to help with those Citation Signals (Numbers 4 and 5, respectively).

Just to note, claiming citations and ensuring consistency across them is better done manually, as the listings will remain even after you stop paying the SEO company, unlike with the automated services mentioned above. I’d recommend that the SEO company you choose does, in fact, build manual as opposed to automated directory listings.

My experience is that almost all boutique SEO companies and SEO agencies will do the above – meeting seven out of the eight overall ranking factors. However, many companies don’t spend time on the second most important ranking factor for Local Pack Rankings, Link Signals (17%), and the most highly correlated factor for Localized Organic Ranking (29%). It is my experience that in competitive industries (law, medical, financial, construction, fitness), omitting this service is a disservice.


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• Satisfy all local SEO ranking

factors

• Get help with all aspects of

your digital marketing

• Good for companies in highly

competitive niches

• Ensure a business is listed

consistently across the web

• Impact of services stays even

if service is ceased

• Customized for your business

BOUTIQUE SEO FIRMS &SEO AGENCIES SERVICES

PRO’S & CON’S

PRO’S• General SEO campaign may

not include content creation

or social media

• Not all SEO companies build

links

• Takes a long time to kick in

• Most expensive of local

SEO at $1,000 -

$2,000+/month

CON’S

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CALL US TODAY 561.692.3719

WHICH LOCAL SEO SERVICE IS RIGHT FOR YOU?

My bias, of course, lies within full-service local SEO campaigns but this doesn’t mean that the other options won’t justify their costs. I have seen businesses get sales from automated local management services as well as cookie-cutter services. But, I’ve seen the power of an agency-level local SEO campaign and seen the returns make the most sense from a business perspective.

I hope the above information helps you lean towards one service over the other and gives you a good idea of what you can expect from each. At the end of the day it should be all about ROI, and if the cheapest package helps you sell, it may be the option that makes you happiest.

Regards,

Daniel E. LofasoPresident / FounderDigital Elevator

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