The Business of Digital Podcast

Mike "Professor Maps” Blumenthal joins to talk Local SEO, Google My Business and digs deep into photo optimization for Local SEO Domination.

Jumping in to talk Local SEO, Google My Business and specifically Images and their impact on Google My Business & Local SEO is Mike "Professor Maps” Blumenthal.

Local SEO Topics Covered

Zero ClicksImmersive SearchTransnational SearchKnowledge GraphGoogle My BusinessReviewsLocal GuidesOptimizing Photos that Show up in LocalImages & Impact on Local in 2020

Best Practices for Images

Along with a number of topics touched on during the episode one big one was the role of images now and what a business can do (or should) to leverage images more in Local SEO. A few tips from Mike that came out of the talking include:

Quality. Phone images can be good but really work to make the images you upload high quality.Google Image GuidelinesGoogle Business Specific Guidelines for PhotosGoogle AI is getting better in understanding what is in photos and the quality of those photos.Images are getting better placement in Local results. Search by Photos - Read more at NEW GOOGLE LOCAL DISCOVERY: SEARCH BY PHOTOSGoogle Image AI can understand the semantics in a photo. Mike gave the example of Google knowing that the background in a photo for a lawyer was a court room.Report images that are poorly done or out dated and some may be taken down.Keep your own images fresh.Google Post images will flow into your GMB so stay active!

Google's Ongoing Battles

Photos of local businesses are part of what Google is trying to do to battle the Yelps but also Instagram. The Search by Photos feature that was rolled out in late 2019 is Google trying to stay relevant for the different types of searching and results that people are looking for.

Tips for Dealing with Locations with History

Mike states that NAP confusion doesn't exist anymore thanks to entity search. In the past the required need for NAP consistency was mostly due to Google and other engine's inability to really understand entities.

Thanks to knowledge graph Google has become much better and faster in terms of understanding what is what, what is old and what is new.

Mike dives into a recent case study where he worked with a restaurant that was the 4th business in the past 5 years. By just doing Google My Business, Google Posts and a few other things was able to overcome the fact that there was likely lots of NAP issues. In fact the business achieved success despite not even trying to clean up/update NAP.

Solving Street View Issues

A quick note is that there are many agencies and even individuals now that can update street view photos. So if you update your business sign, take over a new location or just want your photos updated in Google there are people that can help speed it up.

4 Basics of Ranking in Google per Mike

Great websiteGoogle My BusinessReviews, Links & Great PhotosListen for the 4th!

Full Transcript

Matt Siltala: Welcome

to another exciting episode of the business of digital podcast, featuring your

host, Matt  and Dave roar. Hey guys,

excited to have you on another one of these business of digital podcast

episodes today. We got a special treat for you. But for before I jump into

that, let's make sure we got Dave over there.

Hey Dave, I'm going to catch him off guard cause I like

doing that to him when he's on mute.

Um, but we actually have a treat for you guys today. We

would like to welcome, uh, Mike Blumenthal. Professor maps. Thanks for joining

us, Mike.

Mike Blumenthal: It's

my pleasure. As always, man.

Matt Siltala: You

know, we were talking about how long has it been since, uh, since you and I

have been in the same place hanging out and, and it's crazy how like time just,

uh, flies in this industry and, and, and it seems like it's been so long.

So, uh, I'm excited to, to have you on, to chat about some

of this stuff. But, uh, before we get into that, I just want to let everybody

know that Mike is the co [00:01:00] founder. And as he puts it, chief

delegation officer at gather up, uh, which recently

Should you connect with your boss on Facebook? Should you follow your coworker on Instagram? What is the upside/downside to social media + coworkers? Lots to be honest!

What to do about coworkers and bosses and social media accounts?

Should you connect with bosses, clients and even coworkers on Instagram? FB? What to do to walk that line?

Disclaimer: Dave and Matt are not your HR Department or lawyers. For all legal related questions around hiring, firing and even your own internal social media rules you should consult a paid professional aka lawyer.

TL/DR version of "Should you connect with bosses and coworkers on Social Media?"

Dave of course says it "depends". The other answer is much longer so read the transcript or listen to the episode! Sorry it really isn't something that is easy to sum up.

What social media networks should you worry about?

While there are many social media networks out there we focused on the following for this episode:

LinkedInInstagramFacebookTwitter

Will Hiring Managers Look at Your Profiles?

Good lord yes they will or should. Whether the person is a recruiter, HR, future coworker or boss just assume that some or all will go looking for you online. They will likely find your various social profiles and at least poke around a bit.

LinkedIn Tips

Dave talks through some things he did when he worked in-house and at an agency. From hiding his contacts to updating his job details/wins each quarter. If you have a large success or win why not add it? If you constantly add things it wont raise a flag with internal recruiters, bosses or HR that you might be looking which going from a dated profile to very robust is a clear signal!

Tips for Business Owners/Management

As a manager and owner Matt connects with employees but lets them ask for the connection. He doesn't want to make his employees feel awkward saying yes or no to a request and put them on the spot. He also suggests that as a manager or owner that you are consistent with whatever you do.

Tips for Employees

Dave gives his tips which includes being consistent for all coworkers and think about the long and short term. Think about if one coworker can see what others can't do you put them in a tough position?

Full Transcript

Matt Siltala: Welcome

to another exciting episode of the business of digital podcast featuring your

host, Matt  and Dave roar. Hey guys,

excited to have another one of these episodes come to you. How's it going over

there, Dave?

Dave Rohrer: It is

going. It is not a Monday. It is a Friday. We are recording and clearly Matt is

ready.

It's

Matt Siltala: been

a long day. Yeah. We won't get into it, but, um, we're here chatting about fun

stuff today. I always love doing these episodes.

Dave Rohrer: I

don't know if this is a fun stuff.

Matt Siltala: Well,

I enjoy doing these episodes with you. This is, this is a, well, we do it for

you guys. Well, this

Dave Rohrer: topic,

well, no, this is fun. Yes. 20 minutes of talking.

We do before, but the, um, yeah, this topic is a, I think, a

dicey one for many people. It is sides of the aisle.

Matt Siltala: It

is. And I think you and I bring, you know, we were talking before we started

recording. Now you and I have great perspectives on each side of this as a, and

we'll just [00:01:00] jump into it, but without keeping you guys like in this

suspense, what is it guy?

You know,

Dave Rohrer: it's

Matt Siltala: what

to do about, yeah, exactly. You already know what to do about coworkers and

bosses and connecting with them on all the. The different socials that are out

there, you know. Anyway, we're going to, I guess we're going to dump, jump into

Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, you know, we can talk maybe about

others, Reddit, Pinterest, uh, um, things like that.

I mean, those are the big ones. And so, um,

Dave Rohrer: so

yeah, it's, I think every instance is a bit different and everything.

Everyone's, how they treat it. And. On Facebook, I th I'm pretty sure that at

least once a month someone's on there talking about, you know, how, how do you

accept, o

A Yext article spurs a conversation around what sites should or shouldnt have site search and why. Does your website need site search to help your visitors?

Thanks to Yext for the blog post that spurred the need for us to talk about site search and if/who really needs it.

After a recent football game they went through and picked one PAA (people also ask) about each of the advertisers and checked if they could find the answer on the advertiser's site using site search. Pretty much everyone but one failed.

For a quick comparision note our own sites:

Dave Rohrer Personal - small static site of ~10 pages with no site search.Avalaunch Media - ~1000 pages in Google with an easy to find site search in Blog.NorthSide Metrics - small static site of ~16 pages with no site search.

Do Websites Need Site Search?

While the long answer takes us almost 20 minutes to get to, the short answer and questions you need to ask yourself around if your site requires some type of site search are here:

If the answer to these questions is NO then you might be able to get along without one.Can you and users find things easily without it?Do you have a small and limited in scope site?Is your site pretty static and small?Did you ask 5-10 people to find things on your site and they easily did?If you answer YES to any or all of these questions you really should have one.Do you have lots of products or services?Do you have lots of content in the form of articles, blog posts, FAQ, service pages, product pages, etc?If you search Google/Bing for your brand and answers to the PAAs that come up all are not easily found on your service/product/internal pages.

FAQs, Blog Posts, and Content Findability

For a great example of content and why you might want site search no matter what your business type go back and listen to E17 – The Good, Bad and the Ugly of Content with Melissa Fach. In it we dig into creating good content to answer your prospect/client questions and making things find-able on a site.

Need ideas on how to test your site search and site overall?

Talk to any and all prospect and client facing people.Customer ServiceSalesReceptionist, front desk or appointment settersAsk friends, family or strangers to find X on your site. Use 3rd party testing tools that allow you to record people as they navigate your site to answer questions.Ecommerce site? Test searching skus (yours, manufacturer and any others)

Additional Site Search Resources

14 eCommerce Site Search Best Practices for 202012 Site Search Best Practices (with Examples)On-Site Search & SEO: Everything You Need to KnowWhy it’s super-important to consider your internal search when migrating

Full Transcript

Dig into Better Personal Time Management Tips in this episode and combat burnout and over extending yourself.

In this episode the goal is to help you avoid burnout and hopefully get more done at work!

Other Episodes

In the past we have covered some similar topics that may help.

LeadershipMental health

Tools

We talked about a number of tools to help you with time and task management.

GetHarvestFreshbooksThere are many others but these were just the ones we mentioned.

Full Transcript

Matt Siltala: [00:00:00]

Hey guys, good to be with you. How's it going, Dave?

Dave Rohrer: [00:00:15]

It is going, sir. It is another day, another podcast, another

Matt Siltala: [00:00:18]

episode. See what we do for you guys. Um, you know what? This one's going to be

an interesting one to talk about. Like. You know, you were just sharing with me

a lot of information about just kind of just how things go and as far as like

the day to day busy-ness and you know, the feast or famine.

And it's really just a topic that I kind of wanted to get

into and, and help people understand. But I guess the official thing that we're

going to call this as personal time management and, uh, the ability to say no.

And this is something that I've had or lack there of. Yeah. Very, very, very

true. Um, it was just interesting talking with you and hearing about like all

of the stuff that had going on.

And [00:01:00] there's so many factors, you know, like a lot

of times we want to just put all the blame on ourselves and like, I didn't get

that done, or this is my problem, or that's my fault, or whatever. And the

reality is in a lot of these situations, like with what you were sharing with

me. Um, the reason that you didn't get half of what you wanted done, what you

were talking about earlier was because of someone else, um, because you were

waiting on something else.

And so I think we have to learn to take all that in. But I

guess the, the, the real thing that I wanted to, to jump into, and I'll just

kinda give you a little bit of a, of a background about myself and how I

started to get into the trap of, of, you know, not being able to say no was,

well. You know, when I first started getting into this industry, I mean, I

think my very first client was, um, $300 a month.

And, uh, you know, I was, I was very grateful for it and,

you know, I was doing other things. Obviously. We're in corporate America, but

I just started taking on little projects here and there [00:02:00] cause I was

doing my own thing. And you know, people started asking me, Hey, how, you know,

how's this going and how are you learning this?

And again, this was, you know, early, early two thousands.

Um, and so. You know, I would just take on a project here or there and then I'd

get, you know, I'd do some really good work for this guy. And he's like, Hey,

my buddy just started this site, or so-and-so just started this site and I told

them about you, and they want to work for you as well, or, or they want you to,

or they want to hire you as well.

And so, okay. You know, take that on. And depending on the

project, you know, I didn't, you know, my, my projects at that time were

anywhere between, you know, 300 and. 300 to 750 a month. I mean, if I got a

$2,500 a month plan, I thought I was big time. Um, but most of them were, you

know, in the hundreds. And, but I got into this pattern of, you know, like I

would, someone would come and say, Hey, you know, this is the project that I

need, or this is a, this is what I'm needing from you.

[00:03:00] And in many cases there would be, um, you know,

it'd be a project that I wasn't really. Sure of, or it would be a specific task

that I didn't know exactly how to do. And I would always say yes, because, you

know, I didn't want to leave that money on the table and then I would figure it

out. I would spend time figuring out, okay, this is the things that they needed

from me.

Um. You know, I'm gonna, I'm going to go and learn how to do

this. And then this is where, you know, the networking comes in and this is

where, you know

Listen as AJ Wilcox talks LinkedIn Ads 101 but goes deep into what the "perfect" setup for him looks like. If you are thinking of starting on LinkedIn Ads make sure you take notes.

Guest AJ joins this episode to highlight who should use LinkedIn Ads and give some tips for best practices and getting the most ROI out of the platform. So if you are a B2B marketer and you are NOT on LinkedIn advertising you need to read on or give a listen.

Why are LinkedIn Clicks so Expensive?

AJ digs into a bit of comparing why clicks cost so much on LinkedIn vs. Facebook or Google Ads or Bing Ads. In the end if you are B2C it may or may not make sense but if you are B2B you really should look at it as an option.

Targeting by Job TypeTargeting by Job NameTargeting by Employer/Company NameTargeting by Industry & Industry Groups

2019 & 2020 LinkedIn Statistics

If you are wondering here are some stats on the size of the platform:

https://klientboost.com/ppc/linkedin-advertising-stats-2/https://www.omnicoreagency.com/linkedin-statistics/https://foundationinc.co/lab/b2b-marketing-linkedin-stats/New CEO news announced right before we recorded.

Tips for Launching LinkedIn Ads

Dave sets up a scenario of an SEO tool provider going after Enterprises and AJ digs in walking through his steps of how he would approach such a campaign.

Look and target by Job Title.Build a new campaign and target SEO Groups.Job Function exclusion for anyone in Sales or Business DevelopmentSEO Skills would be a 3rd group.Look at decision maker vs. practitioner depending on who the target is and filter audiences that way as well.Look to uncheck Audience Expansion.Use single image sponsored content to start with for your ad.Change bid type from automated bid to max CPC but floor it to save your budget.It can be hard to spend with the text link ads.

What Matters Most in LinkedIn Ads?

Is content king or is it all about targeting? AJ walked the line but in the end they both are really important if you want to have a successful campaign on LinkedIn Advertising.

Make your offer matter to those that you are looking to target.

Can You Run an Engagement Campaign?

Yes. Dave and AJ talk through some ways SaaS companies can watch for users to stop engaging with their product and use LinkedIn Advertising to try and engage people again.

Additional LinkedIn Advertising Resources from AJ

Advertising on LinkedIn Lynda Course by AJLinkedIn advertising for small businesses: Account setup, best practices & campaign build templatesLinkedIn Ads Show

Full Transcript on LinkedIn Ads

Matt Siltala: [00:00:00]

Hey guys, excited to have you join us on another one of these business of

digital podcasts today. I believe we have Dave over there. Hey, yay. Always

got. Uh, we do have a special guest friend of mine.

And a LinkedIn expert. I like to say that a J Wilcox. How's

it going

AJ Wilcox: [00:00:31]

doing, Greg, thanks so much for having me on.

Matt Siltala: [00:00:33]

Hey, thanks for joining us and we appreciate, you know, the last minute I

reached out to you and, and, uh, you know, we've been wanting to do this one

forever. I asked, David's been in the, uh, the notes for.

For quite some time as far as

Dave Rohrer: [00:00:46]

down the line.

Matt Siltala: [00:00:47]

But, uh, we figured it was time and it worked for you. And so, uh, again, I, I

really do appreciate you taking the time. And before we jump into anything AAJ

why don't you just spend, uh, you know, 30 seconds or a minute and, and just

share [00:01:00] with, uh, you know, our

AJ Wilcox: [00:01:01]

listeners.

Matt Siltala: [00:01:03]

Well, you know, he, he, uh, he is coming through for us. So anyway, just share

it. Share a little bit about, uh, your background and where people can find you

and what, what you feel they need to know about you.

AJ Wilcox: [00:01:14]

Awesome. Well, I fell in love with LinkedIn ads about eight years ago. Um, I

used to be an SEO guy. I started digital marketing about 13 years ago, and I

called myself an SEO guy.

It was crazy. Um, but really fell in love with LinkedIn ads

at a previous company. A