Last Week In Local 11/29/2021

Happy Cyber Monday, everyone! Carrie and guest host Erin discuss notable news in local search from the past week. Last week, we saw quite a few changes at Google, including reviews and bolded text as ranking factors, GBP for the auto industry,  the value of quality content over hype, new Google Maps features, and our amazing sponsors for tomorrow's LocalU Advanced event. (tickets still available at LocalU.org/Nov30)

Carries links:

99 Problems: Local SEO for Auto Dealers Ain’t One - Colan Nielsen - https://www.sterlingsky.ca/local-seo-auto-dealers/I’d like to take this final chance to shout out to our LocalU Advanced Sponsors for the November 30th event.  We’re lucky enough to again have Places Scout sponsoring LocalU.  Mark Kabana and the team at PS really go the extra mile to make tools that help local SEOs get on track and complete tasks - from map grid rankings, to historic screenshots of SERPs, to competitor tracking and reporting that can help with spam fighting - definitely a really great tool for any Local SEO to have in their arsenal. PlacesScout.comAgain returning to LocalU Advanced as a sponsor is the incredible team at Whitespark. Whitespark made its name in the citation game, but they offer Local SEO as well as the Local Search Ranking Factors study.  Their ranking and reporting tool is unparalleled, their SEO knowledge & writing/newsletter is must-watch SEO, and they curate and share the Whitespark Local Search Summit every year - which is definitely worth the price of admission. Whitespark.caA first-time sponsor this event is The Transparency Company. Curtis Boyd and his team are building a world-class tool to help agencies determine where fake reviews are showing up for their clients (or if their prospects are faking reviews) - they also guide you through how to report and clean this up with a tool you can subscribe to and a Chrome extension. AskForTransparency.comAnother first-time sponsor, but long-time attendee is Dan Vance and the Advanced Local team.  They have developed a specialty in automotive repair LocalSEO serving clients in the US and Canada.  Their team covers the gambit from GBP optimization and ranking to traditional SEO, Social Media, and a variety of paid ads platforms. AdvancedLocal.com

Erin's Links

How Marketers can adapt to Google’s local SEO changes  - https://searchengineland.com/how-marketers-can-adapt-to-googles-local-seo-changes-376371John Mueller of Google offers helpful tip with regards to text bolding as a ranking factor - https://twitter.com/johnmu/status/1462775511508262923?s=21Google confirms something we've known for a while  - https://twitter.com/joyannehawkins/status/1463588414872297474?s=21Area busy-ness feature in Google maps - https://www.t3.com/news/google-maps-users-areEveryone at the Table. A Mid-Ohio Food Collective podcast
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