How We Helped Will Win Local SEO With Just The Basics (A Masterclass)

This is a longer post than usual but it will be packed with valuable information so you will want to read the whole thing.... you wont be disappointed.

🧐 You most likely joined this community because you're juggling multiple tasks at your business, and you are well aware that you would be crazy not to leverage AI to do as many of them as possible.

If you don't, your competitor will—and they'll absolutely steamroll you. But there's a common mistake: shiny object syndrome. 🤩

With AI tools releasing upgrades every week, it's easy to think that the latest tool will solve all your problems and that you should learn and integrate it as quickly as possible. The truth is, for most things, you just need to do the basics right—only now you can do them faster with AI.

No matter how smart these tools are (for now), some fundamental rules still apply: "quality of output is directly related to the quality of input" (garbage in, garbage out). If your basics aren't solid, the more complex efforts will fall apart.

Here's a real example where we helped one of our members in our Premium Community finally get his local SEO right. Within just a few weeks of focusing on the basics, he not only started ranking on the first page of Google for local keywords, but also began seeing leads come in from his Google My Business profile, simply because it wasn't optimised correctly. Here is the post were this came from for reference.

🟢Some background🟢

Will has a local business and had been trying to rank for the past two years. In one quick onboarding session, we discovered a few simple yet crucial things that were holding his business back from ranking well.

📍📍📍1. Google My Business Not Optimized📍📍📍

- This is one of the lowest-hanging fruits that most businesses miss right away.

🏗️🏗️🏗️2. No Specific Local SEO Pages for Each City🏗️🏗️🏗️

- This might not be as basic, but it's an easy win that can yield massive results fairly quickly.

So, how did we solve these problems more efficiently with AI for Will, leading to his site ranking and leads coming in?

📍Google My Business Optimisation📍

There are three main pillars to get right for your GMB profile to be found by the right people:

📍1️⃣Have the Right Information1️⃣📍

This might seem obvious, but it's often overlooked. Go into your GMB account (if you haven't made one yet, start HERE, and ensure all your details are up to date and correct. It's very important that in the locations section, you add all of the specific locations you service—not just the city, but also the suburbs. For example, if you work in the Gold Coast, Australia, don’t just put 'Gold Coast' as your service area. Include all the suburbs too.

Need a little extra help understanding what to put in each section? Use THIS custom GPT to generate ideas for what to post—just provide it with a background of what your business does.

📍2️⃣Keep It Frequently Updated2️⃣📍

Google loves fresh content, so make sure your GMB profile stays up to date. This means uploading photos from time to time, responding to every review, and adding posts to the 'Add Update' section regularly.

The 'Add Update' section is a great way to keep your GMB profile fresh. If you're looking for content ideas, you can repurpose your blog posts, ensuring they're under 1500 characters, and upload them there. If you want to automate this process, I've made a detailed tutorial on how to set it all up—you can watch it below HERE.

📍3️⃣Ask for Reviews—Always3️⃣📍

Reviews are the most important thing for Google My Business, so do everything you can to get more. Make it as easy as possible for customers to leave a review. Don't ask them to search for your GMB profile—that's too much work. If you communicate online, provide a direct link to your GMB review page, which you can find HERE. If interactions are mostly in person (e.g., at a restaurant), turn that link into a QR code and add it to the menu, the bill, or even hang it in a picture frame in the restroom—wherever people will see it.

🏗️Build Local SEO Pages🏗️

People tend to overcomplicate things when creating local SEO pages. Start with a domain page that serves as the hub for your business. This page should showcase all your services, products, and general business information. Include a clear link to a central 'Locations' page to make navigation easy for users and search engines.

Your 'Locations' page should list all the areas where you operate, organized geographically for clarity. For each area, include a link to an individual location-specific page. For instance, if you offer plumbing services in Carlton, the 'Locations' page should link to a page like "Plumbing Services in Carlton."

Each location-specific page should detail the services offered in that area. Use local keywords naturally (e.g., "Emergency Plumbing in Carlton") to improve SEO. Personalize the content by referencing local landmarks or events, and include practical elements like embedded Google Maps to enhance local relevance.

Finally, create service-specific pages tailored to each location. Break down your offerings into detailed, SEO-optimized pages. For example, a service like "Leak Detection Services" should have localized variations such as "Leak Detection Services in Carlton." Include detailed descriptions, testimonials, and unique content to avoid duplication while boosting local appeal.

I have made a whole public Miro board giving you an example of what this might look like as a wire frame, you can access that HERE (it might help visualise things better).

If you have too many location pages to build, I've created a tutorial on leveraging AI-powered automations to automatically build these local SEO pages. It takes a bit of work upfront, but the outcome is fully optimised SEO pages. Check it HERE

Wrapping things up, just remember to always focus on the basics. While it's fun to play with the latest AI tools, they're probably not going to solve your existing problems overnight. Concentrate on the AI tools you already know, and apply them effectively to your workflows to boost your efficiency.

⚠️Read the following section If you want extra value ⚠️

If you feel like you're in a similar position to where Will was and you're ready to make a big impact on your business, I have a special opportunity just for you. Joining the Premium AI Ranking Community gives you access to everything Will used to succeed: personalised support, an SEO support manager, two live Q&A sessions each week, and our full library of premium content and automations.

But here’s the exciting part: because you’ve taken the time to read this post, I want to offer you something extra. Normally, 1-on-1 onboarding sessions with me are valued at $247, but if you join now and send me a DM letting me know you read this post, I’ll give you a complimentary onboarding session. During this session, we’ll create a tailored strategy specifically for your business to ensure you hit the ground running and start seeing results as quickly as possible.

This offer is only available for as long as this post remains pinned to the top of the feed—so take action now before it’s gone! Don’t wait—sign up today, and let’s make it happen!

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