Newsletter #33

Say Farewell to 2017 with Advice From Local Experts & Audits to Help in the New Year

December 19, 2017

Whitespark's Monthly Local Search Newsletter

Local InsiderDecember 2017

Season's Greetings From Whitespark We hope your holiday season is filled with magic, joy, and cheer. May your 2018 have dazzling success in all things local search. We look forward to providing you with more local resources, tips, and articles in the new year!Cheers,Team Whitespark

From the Blog

Give your local SEO efforts a boost with Whitespark’s Local Search Audit Service! Our team of experts will perform an exhaustive audit on your current local standings, and provide you with a custom action plan to help improve your online visibility and performance.

Last month LocalU hosted their Advanced Workshop in Santa Monica and there were so many good tips. We rounded up our favourites from the day to share with you. 

Read this post to get advice from local experts on:

  • Google My Business 

  • Structured Data

  • Google as the New Home Page - What to Do

  • Customer Reviews and Feedback

  • Citations

  • Content Marketing

Around The Web

 

Brian Barwig takes a closer look at review snippets in the local pack, and potential triggers for these recent additions to pack results. Check out his analysis to see if there are any patterns in the data or ways to trigger this for your business. 

"Yelp has taken a hard line against review solicitation, but columnist Brian Patterson believes the company may be taking it too far." 

Running an effective local SEO campaign requires you to have solid systems, processes, and resources in place to be successful. Phil Rozek shares his list of must-have internal resources. 

Have you been keeping tabs on all the changes in local search in 2017? No? Don't worry, Joy Hawkins has an extensive list of all the changes she's tracked this past year. 

With the end of the year only a few weeks away, it's time for predictions for the up and coming year. We are big fans of David Mihm, and many of his 2017 local predictions did come to fruition! Take a look at his forecast for 2018, we look forward to seeing how many of these come true. 

SEMrush and Ghergich & Co. conducted a study where they analyzed 1.6 million featured snippets and 80 million keywords. They found that to get this coveted position you will need to use concise formatting, focus on mobile user experience, and give search engines the answers they need. Read this post to learn more and put their findings into action. 

Can we say goodbye to 160 character Meta Descriptions? Check out this post from Len at Telapost, and his thoughts on Meta Description length and tips for optimization. 

Miriam Ellis has 5 of the most common mistakes made when it comes to building a foundation in local marketing. Read this post to make sure you aren't incorporating these flawed tactics into your campaigns, and how to fix them if you are presently dealing with any of these issues.

Upcoming Conferences (2018)

PUBCON - AUSTIN February 21, 2018Austin, TX

DIGITAL SUMMIT - PHOENIXFebruary 21 - 22, 2018Phoenix, AZ

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING WORLDFebruary 28 - March 2, 2018San Diego, CA