

Monday: Thorough Tactics for Improving Your Paid Search
Improving your paid search is at the top of the list because, well…it’s at the top of Google. When paid search is run well and hits your cost per acquisition (that still allows you to be profitable), it’s a healthy channel with lots of benefits. Here are some tactics that you can implement on your account each week to drastically improve overall performance. 1. Create Single Keyword Ad Groups (SKAGs) One of the greatest issues we see in how Adwords accounts are set up is that they allow a variety of ads to show for a variety of keywords…none of which go to a dedicated landing page. As a rule of thumb, if you are a local business, you should at least mine your search term report each week. Look at your keywords that are performing the best: have the lowest cost per acquisition, or highest conversion rate, etc. Once you have identified these keywords, the next step is to build an adgroup around this keyword. In this adgroup, you can test four unique ads that highlight what makes you better than the competition. Don’t keyword stuff your ads. Include your keyword, but focus on disrupting the searcher so that you have a higher click-through rate (CTR) than those also advertising. Unbounce provides more great info on this topic here: http://unbounce.com/ppc/doing-adwords-wrong-make-it-right/ 2. Build Dedicated Landing Pages with Unique Offers, Copy and Images If you are still sending your local PPC ads to your homepage, please stop! You are only hurting yourself. Here’s a sample of what happened when we moved a local exterminator from sending traffic to their homepage to a dedicated landing page.

- Make sure your number is in the top menu and stays stuck at the top when you scroll. This is easy to do with Unbounce (we build all of our landing pages with them). Here’s a link to their scripts.
- If you have a fixed price include it in your headline.
- If you service a specific location, show that off as well.
- Got great reviews? Show them off. Yelp, Google+, all of it.
- Use a call to action on your form button that’s specific to what you do. Think “Get Rid of The Rats” instead of “Submit”
- Record a video if you can! Users love videos and it makes you seem more personal. A bad video of yourself is better than an average motion graphic you get from Fiverr.
Here’s a live landing page that shows off all these features and converts at 25%!
Tuesday: Thorough Tactics for Improving Your Map Results

Wednesday: Thorough Tactics for Improving Your Paid Lists
While I am not the biggest fan of Yelp, it’s hard to argue against the impact it can have for local businesses. 1.Get Reviews. Test Ads. I am not saying this as a Yelp fanboy, but instead someone who looks at any channel that can drive new leads at the correct cost per acquisition. Notice what a lot of our accounts’ conversion rates look like from Yelp (and even Facebook).




Thursday: Thorough Approaches for Optimizing for Organic Search Each Week.
Organic traffic is the holy grail of local search. It’s free (except for the countless hours of time it takes to earn it) and allows you to grow your profit margins once earned. With that being said, here are some tactics you can do each week to help improve your organic rankings. 1.Write Content for Businesses in Your Network From the Chamber of Commerce to LeTip, your own referral network is one of the best places to write for and build links from. You are not the only one who struggles to create awesome content on a consistent basis. Your friends struggle and would love to have some great content written for them too. It’s an obvious tip, but stay within your vertical. If you do plumbing, it makes sense to write for a home builder. Topics such as drywall, water damage, maybe even interior design would be highly relevant, but maybe don’t try to write as if you are catering your content for a local gym. Here’s a template to help you get started: Hi ___, Hope you’re off to a great week! We’ve been working really hard over here at ____ to get our name out. One way we’ve been doing it is by creating content for people in our network. Here’s some of our latest content: (Sample link) (Sample link) (Sample link) Any chance we can write for your blog? Here’s some topic ideas: (Sample Topic) (Sample Topic) (Sample Topic) Hope this works out for you, we can get on it right away. Talk soon! Try it out! I think you’ll love it. Then, you can link back to service pages and more with some great anchor text. 2. Improve Your Titles and Meta Descriptions It might seem basic, but no one is treating their page titles for SEO like they treat their PPC titles. This is a big problem. Here’s what happened when we optimized our own titles at Directive Consulting (plus built links and countless other things).



- Special Offers
- Pricing
- Guarantees
- Years in Business
- Family Owned
- Reviews
- And more!
Friday: Creative Ideas to Mix In
The last day of the week is our flex day. This is a time to get the creative juices flowing and pursue new tactics to increase brand awareness and leads in your area! 1.Create Local Guides and Promote via Facebook Your audience loves local content. Instead of creating content that’s generic or about your services all the time, mix it up and create content about your area. For example…
- The 15 Best Hiking Trails in (your city) to Take Your Lab
- Target people who match your household income or whatever targeting you use to screen them and then target:
- Hikers
- Lab Owners
- City
- Target people who match your household income or whatever targeting you use to screen them and then target:
Here’s some local content samples and numbers for recent campaigns we’ve done:



Wrapping It Up
Each week is an opportunity to drive new business. The key is identifying new opportunities and asking yourself what’s next. If you have great Yelp reviews, focus on Google My Business and vice versa. Got both of those down? Try Facebook Ads. Got all three of those? Start guest posting for other local businesses and link back to your site. There’s always a new opportunity out there. Hopefully, this post helps get your creativity flowing.