These slides were presented at the Semrush webinar "The State of Local Search in 2021 | 5 Hours of Local SEO". Video replay and transcript are available at https://www.semrush.com/webinars/the-state-of-local-search-in-2021-or-5-hours-of-local-seo/

1. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S

2. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
https://www.sterlingsky.ca/google-local-changes/

3. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
changes
tracked in
2020
84

4. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S

5. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S

6. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S

7. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S

8. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
Currently there are 3978 Google My
Business Categories
2018 2019 2020
54
Added
54
Added
45
Added

9. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
43
New Categories
Added Last
Month
(Feb 2021)

10. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
https://www.sterlingsky.ca/99-problems-but-gmb-category-dilution-aint-one/
Google My
Business
Categories.

11. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
https://whitespark.ca/local-search-ranking-factors/

12. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
https://www.sterlingsky.
ca/google-my-business-
category-changes/
For up-to-date category changes
check our website

13. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
https://moz.com/blog/google-my-business-fields-that-impact-ranking
1. Categories
2. Website
3. Reviews
4. Business Name

14. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
Rank higher on Google
- Local SEO
Goal
1
Goal
2
Convert searchers into
customers - Google My
Business management.

15. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
Hello All!
We know, we know. Personal Injury is not the easiest to deal with BUT…
If you had a client that was trying to rank for “Personal Injury Lawyers” in Louisville and
needed to be in the 3 pack, what would be necessary steps besides:
- Citation building
- GMB Post
- Receiving new reviews and replying
- Q&A
- Upload of photos
USER

16. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
Link Building
Goal
1

17. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
https://rankings.io/google-my-business-ranking-study/

18. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
Link
Building
is Hard

19. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
Content & Website
Goal
1

20. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S

21. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
Bad
content
doesn’t
do
anything.

22. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
50 SSDI
location
pages for
cities
across
Florida.

23. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
● Took down all the
SSDI pages
● Redirected the URLs
to the main pages of
the site on disability
claims and personal
injury claims.
Cleaned up
the site:

24. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
Results of
removing all
of these
unnecessary
pages.

25. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S

26. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
Ranking
is only
goal 1.

27. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
Goal
2
Convert searchers into
customers

28. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
https://www.brightlocal.com/research/review-search-click-through-study/

29. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
Reviews by Rating
https://www.yelp-press.com/company/fast-facts/default.aspx

30. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
Review Attacks

31. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
Review Attacks
Now Missing
Standard

32. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
Pre-COVID During COVID
https://gatherup.com/blog/how-one-business-made-a-mess-of-masking/

33. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
Politically Charged Reviews
https://gatherup.com/blog/reviews-dont-mask-the-truth/

34. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
Fewer
reviews
were left in
the last
year due to
COVID-19.
“We saw a drop in the overall
number of reviews due to fewer
people being out and about
during COVID-19”
https://blog.google/products/maps/google-maps-101-how-we-tackle-fake-and-fraudulent-contributed-content/

35. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
https://www.yelp-press.com/company/fast-facts/default.aspx

36. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
79% of consumers
trust online
reviews as much
as personal
recommendations.
https://www.brightlocal.com/research/local-consumer-review-survey-2019/

37. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S

38. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
38.5% of
people polled
trust reviews
less than they
did 5 years
ago.
https://www.reviews.com/home/security-systems/almost-40-percent-of-us-consumers-trust-online-reviews-less-than-they-did-five-years-ago/

39. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
SPAM

40. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
https://www.yelp-press.com/company/fast-facts/default.aspx
Was 7% in 2019

41. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
Removed more
than 55 million
policy-violating
reviews in 2020.
https://blog.google/products/maps/google-maps-101-how-we-tackle-fake-and-fraudulent-contributed-content/

42. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
1 Reviewer +
3 Reviews =

43. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
“I estimated that about half of the
difference between Google and Yelp
ratings of low-quality businesses are due to
fake reviews, and at least about a quarter of
Google reviews for low-quality businesses
are likely fake.”
http://www.devesh-raval.com/reviews.pdf

44. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S

45. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
https://blog.google/products/maps/google-maps-101-how-contributed-content-makes-maps-helpful/
According to their spam report
removes millions of fake listings every year.
2018 2019
3 million
removed
4 million
removed

46. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
From 3 to 62
first-position
local (GMB)
rankings.
Tuesday, 04 February 2020
Saturday, 26 October 2019 3
62

47. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
https://www.sterlingsky.ca/ultimate-guide-fighting-spam-google-maps/

48. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
What is
the end
result?

49. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
How Do You Know You’re Successful?
2017 2020
34,564
32,922
Users

50. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
2017 2020
852
437
How Do You Know You’re Successful?
Goal Completions

51. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S

52. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S

53. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
GMB
Insights
Tracks This
Out
of all
of
this

54. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
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55. @ J O Y A N N E H A W K I N S
Email:
https://www.sterlingsky.ca
/newsletter
Forum:
www.localsearchforum.com
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/JoyanneHawkins
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/joyhawkins/
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/localsearchforum