Local Marketing Institute Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Each week, Greg and Ben answer your questions on digital marketing for local businesses … local search engine optimization (SEO), Google Business Profile, social media, email marketing, websites, online advertising and more.

Updates and Questions

• Google incorporates “expert answer snippets” into their AI overview.
• Ask.com shuts down.
• Concerns about GBP suspensions from user account restrictions on the rise.
• Data from ChatGPT Ads is now available.
• Why are my GBP posts for weekly events getting rejected by Google?
• What should I do if a customer threatens to leave negative reviews if they can’t get a discount?
• How should I structure UTM tracking in GBP?
• Will adding a UTM to GBP hurt local citation?
• Do the new guidelines on reviews with names mean that negative reviews with staff names are easier to remove?
• If I select “custom display name and picture” to leave a review, does that affect all previous and future reviews?
• If my GBP has been suspended because of an account restriction, is it possible to move forward with the appeal process without removing the account?
• Did GBP Insights get removed, or is it hidden?
• Why am I ranking worse after moving locations?
• What is the going rate for offering SEO services?
• What is the KPI for success in the SEO field?

Links mentioned in this session are available on our website at https://localmarketinginstitute.com

Each week, Greg and Ben answer your questions on digital marketing for local businesses … local search engine optimization (SEO), Google Business Profile, social media, email marketing, websites, online advertising and more.

Updates and Questions

• GBP photos now sorted by recency.
• Google introduces “Ask Maps” as a new way to find businesses.
• Updated information on LSA performance insights.
• When is it better to wait for Google Support to respond after having trouble with video verification?
• When traveling to another country, I got significantly less spam calls for my GBP, and when I came back, they resumed - is this a coincidence?
• What should I do if a former employee has claimed my GBP?
• What should I do if I can’t contact Google Support when requesting to nest a department listing?
• What should I keep in mind when doing video verification for an SAB?
• Did the insights feature on GBP get removed?
• What should I know about UTM source codes?
• If you change your language settings in Google Maps, can you suggest-an-edit your business name in as many languages as you want?
• How do I transfer the primary owner of a GBP?

Links mentioned in this session are available on our website at https://localmarketinginstitute.com

Each week, Greg and Ben answer your questions on digital marketing for local businesses … local search engine optimization (SEO), Google Business Profile, social media, email marketing, websites, online advertising and more.

Updates and Questions

• Google Maps rolls out reviewer nicknames.
• Google LSA adds “get competitive quotes” and “request multiple opinions” buttons.
• Gemini 3 AI mode rolled out.
• GhatGPT uses Google for Atlas browser.
• Semrush acquired by Adobe for 1.9 billion.
• Extortion attempts for GBPs on the rise.
• How do I resolve my “pending edits” faster?
• What causes a website’s url to change to an OEM url?
• Are there any new developments in AI in Local Search?
• Should I turn on messaging for WhatsApp in my GBP?
• Why does changing my address for an SAB not trigger reverification after moving to a different state?

Links mentioned in this session are available on our website at https://localmarketinginstitute.com

What is schema markup and why is it important for your local business?

Bottom line ... it can improve your local SEO and help more customers find you.

For this Office Hours session, we’ve invited Martha van Berkel, one of the most respected schema markup experts in the world, to join us.

Martha explains schema markup and how it can be used to help local business websites stand out in organic search.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• What schema markup is and why it's important
• The most important schema tags for your website
• Specific schema tags for organization, local business, events, FAQs, products and blogs
• How to implement schema markup on your website
• How to test for proper schema markup on your website
• Important differences for single versus multi-location businesses

Not many business do schema markup well ... if at all. This is an important topic for business operators and marketing agencies alike and can help make your website stand out from your competitors.

Watch the full video session at https://localmarketinginstitute.com/how-schema-markup-improves-your-local-seo/

When it comes to marketing, what is the “new normal” for local retailers and in-home service providers?

Local marketing experts, Neal Polachek and Greg Sterling, join Eric Shanfelt to share perspectives and concrete examples of how local businesses need to modify operating practices and customer communications in the coming weeks and months.

Neal and Greg have deep experience as analysts and advisors to companies large and small in local markets.

You’ll learn:

• Best practices for customer communication
• New business models … and some great pivots
• New best operating practices
• How work-from-home will change for you and your employees
• What to do with your email, social media, website, and business listings
• Software solutions you should consider going forward

This is an invigorating session with lots of practical take-aways that you can put into action right away.

View the full video recording at https://localmarketinginstitute.com/marketing-your-local-business-beyond-covid-19/

In this session, Eric Shanfelt, Founder of Local Marketing Institute shows local businesses how to get started with ecommerce and how to market their products for sale on a variety of platforms.

You’ll learn how to:

• Get your ecommerce system to interact with your POS system.
• Integrate with Google Merchant Center.
• Showcase products in your Google My Business listing.
• Get your products into Google Shopping via “Surfaces Across Google”.
• Connect your ecommerce to Google Shopping Ads.
• Set up product catalogs in Facebook Business Manager
• Use Facebook product ads.
• Sell products via a Facebook Store.
• Integrate with Amazon.

If you’re just getting into ecommerce, this session will give you the fundamentals you need to get going on the right foot. And if you’re already selling online, you’ll learn some new tricks that can help you get the most out of your ecommerce efforts.

Watch the full video session at https://localmarketinginstitute.com/ecommerce-101-for-local-businesses/

Local business reviews have evolved drastically over the years. But has your review strategy changed to adapt?

In this session, local SEO expert, Mike Blumenthal, shows you how reviews have changed and what those changes mean for your business. You’ll learn:

• Which review platforms matter now
• How reviews actually influence customer decisions
• The impact of review gating
• How Google uses reviews to understand your business

You’ll also learn how businesses now use reviews to get strategic insight into internal processes and ways to improve their customer experience.

Watch the full video and get all links for this session at https://localmarketinginstitute.com/evolution-local-business-reviews/

Have questions about your local Google My Business listing? How to deal with spam, improve your business listing’s visibility, or problems you may be experiencing? This your opportunity to ask Ben Fisher and get the advice you need.

Ben is one of only three platinum-level GMB Product Experts in the world recognized by Google itself. He has been in digital marketing since 1994 and works with everything from single operator merchants to large franchises.

In this Office Hours session, Ben spends an entire hour answering your Google My Business questions.

To watch the video and get all links for this session, go to https://localmarketinginstitute.com/ask-ben-gmb/

Facebook remarketing can help local businesses reach customers more cost effectively than other advertising options. With remarketing, you target ads to existing customers or people who already know your business. These people are more likely to do business with you than a “cold” audience who doesn’t know you yet.

In this Office Hours session, Craig Mount gives you key strategies for Facebook remarketing to increase clicks and maximize visibility without increasing your ad budget. He’ll review remarketing for beginners, but also provide advanced strategies for more experienced marketers.

In this session, you’ll learn:

• How remarketing works on Facebook.
• Targeting and audience-building strategies unique to local businesses.
• Innovative ad ideas for local businesses in a variety of sectors.
• Unique ways to spend budget that maximizes clicks, impressions and profit.
• How today’s COVID-19 situation impacts remarketing and how to adapt.

To watch the video and get all links for this session, go to https://localmarketinginstitute.com/facebook-remarketing/

Technical site issues can have a big impact on SEO for your local business. Local SEO expert, Dani Owens, joins us in this session She covers the most common technical SEO problems that sites have and tells you how to improve or fix them.

Examples include:

• Making sure Google has no issues crawling and indexing your pages and the content on them
• Steps to take after installing an SSL certificate
• Improving crawl budget by reducing broken pages and internal redirects.

In the session, Dani will talks about the fixes on a WordPress site. However all of these issues apply to sites on other systems as well.

You’ll learn why these common technical problems have an impact on SEO for your local business and how to find and fix them.

To watch the video and get all links for this session, go to https://localmarketinginstitute.com/website-seo-issues/