Local SEO Looks Ahead to 2021 with Colan Nielsen
Agency Ahead by Traject
English - January 25, 2021 11:00 - 28 minutes - 52.3 MB - ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsMarketing Business Entrepreneurship marketing digital marketing agency software seo social media reputation customer experience local seo local search Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Colan Nielsen is the VP of Local Search at Sterling Sky, making him an excellent expert source for all things local search. If you want to build a local search presence for any industry or any business, he knows what to do.
He joins us today on the Agency Ahead podcast with plenty of insights into what's ahead, as well as some insights on how a local SEO might structure their workload and time. There are also some pretty incredible insights on how a person might "10x" themselves as a local SEO expert. Don't miss this.
The highlights:
[1:31] A day in the life of a local SEO.
[6:10] Choosing to share the results of experiments, vs. choosing to hold them back.
[7:36] Working as a remote local SEO team.
[10:59] 10x and level up.
[16:13] Looking ahead to 2021: trends in local search.
[21:36] Key recommendations for the new year.
[25:00] Colan's causes.
The insights:
A Day in the life of a local SEO
It's easy to get caught up in putting out fires, so Colan says he likes to do an exercise every now and then that helps him plan his days.
Colan says he has found four separate areas or buckets where he provides value.
He says building this rapport is a big part of keeping clients retained and happy.
He says the next thing he spends time on is his role as a leader within Sterling Sky.
He notes that Sterling Sky recently had everyone take a DISC personality test, and he found out he was a "Counselor" type.
Colan says the last thing he spends a lot of his time doing is brand-building.
Colan also spends time blogging on the Sterling Sky blog.
When to share experiment results and when to hold back
Colan talked about how he's trying to spend a lot of time figuring out new things that haven't been discussed or looked into or is trying to find answers to questions that people have had about local search, but have never been answered with an actual test or data.
Garrett asked how the team at Sterling Sky decides what they're going to share with the public, and what they're going to keep to themselves for competitive advantages.
What inspires them to hold back? The answer may surprise you.
Working as a remote local SEO team
Colan also had some insights to share about how the team has been working during the pandemic.
Obviously, things come up that are unplanned, but I would say 99% of the month is blocked in. I love that. I've been doing that for about four years."
This approach continued to serve everyone well even when the team went remote.
Then there can be a chunk dedicated to some operations tasks, helping to organize our internal processes, making sure they're documented clearly and they're updated. Then you'll probably find a block dedicated to doing a little bit of testing, maybe some blogging, forums, every day."
10X and level up
Colan also talks about how he has come to enjoy some of the parts of his work that he didn't enjoy so much three years ago, specifically, the client relationship management part of his job.
Garrett asked how he accomplished this breakthrough.
I've been doing so much of it over the past three years that it's gotten me to a point where I'm just more comfortable with, and actually look forward to, having client calls."
He says he thinks this shift was a more personal thing and shares some advice for people looking to make a similar shift.
If you can identify that thing, and it's something you have control over and the ability to work towards removing it or fixing it."
For Colan, this was giving up alcohol.
He says he thinks it was similar to Steve Jobs making the choice to wear black every day.
Fast forward a little over a year later, and I feel like a completely different person than I was. That has been the 10x thing for me."
Looking ahead to 2021: Trends in local search
Colan says that local businesses and marketing agencies should continue to pay attention to the various things that have changed over the past year because of the pandemic.
Colan points out that it's possible to put an attribute on your GMB listing that says you have virtual services.
He says we're going into a whole new style of economy.
It's not just local SEOs who are going: oh, we've gotta start learning this stuff. There are people on the eCommerce side going: oh, we've got to start learning this local SEO stuff. That's going to come to a point where it all just blends together. I don't know if it's going to be this year.
Certainly, by next year I think every local SEO will probably need to have eCommerce as part of their toolbelt as more and more businesses will be that hybrid style of maybe having a brick and mortar, but also offering online services."
He notes an example that Andrew Shotland brought up on the same webinar.
Key recommendations for the new year
He mentions a real-world experience he had with this recently.
One of the stores got 5 reviews in their first week, but one was a 1-star review that dropped their rating to a 3.9. "Which I feel horrible about it, they're awesome."
The owner wasn't sure if they should respond just to the bad review, or to all the reviews.
So I was able to explain the fact that yeah, you want to be responding to all your reviews, especially the negative ones because that person is going to get a notification you responded so there's an opportunity to maybe fix the situation, plus of course it looks really good for future customers when they see how you handled that negative review."
He advises doing something to make sure you're closing that feedback loop, perhaps by incorporating automated software.
What’s your right now cause?
Colan suggests getting out into your community and sharing some local SEO knowledge, all without trying to turn anyone into a client. He's even looking to be more proactive about it, walking into various businesses with the goal of offering a little advice.
With businesses struggling to survive, it is an excellent way to help and share your expertise, and one that costs nothing at all.
Connect with Colan Nielsen
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