Samuel Edwards

This post outlines the strategies and tactics of using podcasting as an SEO & link building strategy. If you’re looking for our daily SEO podcast, brought to you by SEO.co’s team click on the previous link.   Podcasting is having a moment. More than half of all Americans over the age of 12 have listened to podcasts in the past, and 32 percent of Americans listen to podcasts at least once a month. In addition, there are more than 750,000 active podcasts right now, with a collective 29 million episodes to listen to in more than 100 languages. It’s a landscape ripe with opportunities for savvy marketers. There are many good reasons to start a podcast, including entertainment, education, and pure personal interest, but in this guide, we’ll be looking at the utility of podcasts for a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy (and link building by extension). With the right podcast link building strategy, you can use podcasting as a way to expand your link building (and improve your rankings in search results), while simultaneously generating more search traffic to the podcast itself. Let’s take a deep dive and explore how to use podcasts for SEO and link building in 2025 and beyond. The Symbiotic Relationship of Podcasts and SEO First, we need to address the symbiotic relationship between podcasts and SEO, since it’s definitely a two-way street. In case you aren’t familiar, podcasts are pieces of audio content, usually episodic in nature, distributed for free via a highly accessible podcast network. You can make a podcast about anything—there are comedy podcasts, informative podcasts, review podcasts, interview podcasts, and even serialized fiction (like radio plays). For our purposes, we’ll be focusing on informative and/or entertaining podcasts, since these are the most likely to generate traffic for a business. If syndicated properly, podcasts can improve your brand reputation and visibility, and provide new opportunities to earn and generate links that boost your SEO strategy. In the opposite direction, organic traffic from your SEO strategy can bring more traffic and more listeners to your podcast. This is especially powerful if you’re monetizing your website with the help of your podcast as a separate stream of revenue. Eventually, you’ll have a self-sustaining feedback loop—a content engine that consistently yields more results. The SEO Benefits of Podcasting Let’s start by touching on the SEO benefits of podcasting. Merely producing podcast episodes and distributing them to an audience isn’t going to increase your domain authority or improve your SEO—but there are some distinct advantages and opportunities afforded to you through the art of podcasting. Let’s take a look. The relative ease of podcasting. One of the reasons podcasting has become so popular is its friendliness to newcomers. The audio format and ease of publication means you won’t have to invest much time or money to get started—yet the potential audience you can build with a podcast is practically unlimited in size. Compared to other link building strategies, this can be incredibly affordable, meaning it can actively increase your ROI. Syndication. If you use sites like Libsyn or Podbean, your podcast episodes can–at your request–be syndicated across a myriad of high-authority websites. And, more importantly, many of the syndicated links are dofollow, which means the links provide some SEO juice (unlike nofollow or noreferrer). Personal brand development and guest posting opportunities. Podcasts are typically hosted by one or two people, who serve as the charismatic leads for the show. If you’re trying to fit your podcasting strategy with your SEO campaign, it’s ideal to have your primary guest authors as your podcast hosts. Remember, the best way to build links for SEO is through guest posting, and guest posting is at its most effective when you have strong, personal brands to author new works for high-profile publishers. If you can build up the perceived authority and reputation of your guest authors through podcasting, you’ll gain access to much more lucrative publication opportunities. Relationship building and content collaboration. Podcasting is also a fantastic gateway for relationship building and collaborative content development. By networking with other podcasters, conducting interviews, and guest hosting on other podcasts, you’ll expand your network of content collaborators and partners. As a side effect, you’ll trade links with a wider range of industry authorities, and you’ll open the door to more co-author and co-publication deals. Linkable assets. Think of your podcast episodes as high-quality articles, or whitepapers; they can serve as high-quality, linkable assets on your own site. If you have an amazing interview, or if you discuss some original research or unique thoughts on a podcast episode, you can cite it in your offsite content, linking back to your site. Podcasting as a social media channel. You can also consider your podcast as an alternative social media channel. Just as you might syndicate and popularize your best content through channels like Facebook and Twitter, you can talk about your best content on a podcast, increasing its visibility and capacity to earn links. Medium transformation potential. Podcasting is also unique because of its ability to serve as multiple mediums simultaneously. For example, let’s say you interview people on your podcast. You can film the interaction between your host and your guest, then release it simultaneously as a YouTube video, a podcast episode on various networks, and a written transcript on your blog; this way, you’re creating video, audio, and written content all at once. Now you’re starting to see why it’s so popular. Podcasting Fundamentals For a podcast to benefit your SEO strategy, link building strategy, and brand reputation, you need to adhere to these important podcasting fundamentals: Invest in quality equipment. Your podcast is only going to be listenable if you invest in decent equipment. That doesn’t mean you have to go out and buy the most expensive microphone on the market, but you should at least strive for mid-range territory. Make sure you’re recording in a location that’s acoustically favorable, and monitor yourself with good headphones. It shouldn’t cost you more than

Ahrefs is a great tool for SEO professionals. It can be used for keyword research, competitor analysis, and backlink monitoring. However, there are many other tools in the search engine optimization industry that do essentially the same thing as Ahrefs, and sometimes they’re better suited to your individual needs. It really depends on what data you need and your digital marketing strategy. In this article we will review what Ahrefs has to offer, so you can decide if it’s worth the cost or not. What is Ahrefs? Ahrefs is probably the best SEO tool that allows you to monitor keywords, link opportunities, and competitors. It updates in real-time so you can see who’s talking about your brand or topic at any given moment. Ahrefs also offers an extensive backlink database of over one billion links with the ability to filter by domain type (do follow/no follow), anchor text distribution, rank value, PageRank value, etc. The service will cost $79 per month for all its features including research tools like the Ahrefs keyword explorer tool which follows up on keyword suggestions found through its main feature: Keyword Explorer for keyword research and keyword ideas. It provides detailed information such as search volume and difficulty score. There are no limits on how many projects you work on simultaneously. What is Ahrefs Used For? Ahrefs is often used by SEO professionals because it helps to get an idea of what targeted keywords are generating traffic, how difficult those keywords are to rank for, and the potential number of visitors that could be generated. It also provides data on your competitors’ backlinks in order to help you outrank them through strategic link building. In brief, here are some basic pros and cons of using Ahrefs, as compared to other marketing tools. Pros: Provides insider information on competitive domains so that you can “steal” links from them There is no limit on projects meaning you’re able to work with a lot at once Cons: Doesn’t provide as much detail or user reviews when compared with other tools like SEMrush and SpyFu which offer more insights into specific industries such as eCommerce stores, health blogs, etc. Is Ahrefs an Affordable Solution? For the minimum monthly subscription price of $82, you’ll get an all-inclusive package with a variety of features at your fingertips. There’s no need for additional fees like data surcharges or commissions on orders placed through the website as that is included in the cost of the service. For this reason, many believe Ahrefs is worth it because it offers so many different opportunities and tools to increase visibility within search engines without having to pay extra money. However, many would recommend also using SEMrush and SpyFu which provide more detailed insights into specific industries such as eCommerce stores, health blogs, etc. Is Ahrefs Better Than SEMrush? Ahrefs and SEMrush are both SEO tools that offer a variety of features for increasing visibility within search engines. One advantage Ahrefs has over SEMrush is the ability to follow up on keyword suggestions found through its main feature: Keywords Explore. Another major pro is that there’s no limit on projects, so you can work with many at once. Whereas in contrast, SEMrush limits how many times you can use their tool per day which may be limiting if your marketing strategy relies heavily on keywords research or competitor analysis. Furthermore, while both Ahrefs and SEMrush provide detailed information such as cost per click (CPC) and keyword difficulty score, Ahrefs does not have any hidden fees like data surcharges or commissions. If you’re running a digital marketing agency, Ahrefs may be the best tool for your business. On the other hand, if you run a business and have a marketing department in-house, SEMrush is just enough to meet your needs. Ahrefs’ Backlink Analysis Tool One of the most helpful features Ahrefs offers is its backlink analysis tool, Site Explorer. It provides detailed information such as search volume and difficulty score. There are no limits on how many projects you work on simultaneously since it updates in real-time so you can see who’s talking about your brand or topic at any given moment. Because of this, many would recommend using Ahrefs for SEO purposes because it allows you to view data from a competitive standpoint to help with link-building strategies that will rank your site higher than other competitors’. You Can Use Ahrefs to Build Links Strategically Another major benefit of using Ahrefs is that you can use it to build links strategically. For example, if your competitor has a recent link from Forbes with an anchor text of “top-rated SEO tools,” there’s potential for ranking more highly in the SERPS when people search for relevant keywords surrounding this topic. If they also have other sites that are linking back to their sites like SitePoint or Entrepreneur Magazine, then you’ll be able to steal these links. You’ll be able to find these opportunities by using Keywords Explorer and Link Intersect tool within Ahrefs’ Site Explorer dashboard. Ultimately, Ahrefs can be used both as a competitor analysis tool and a link-building platform to give you a competitive edge in your industry. Ahrefs Can Help You See New Websites Linking Back to Your Site Ahrefs can also be used to find new websites that are linking back to your site, which is crucial for keeping page rankings high. For example, if you’re a small business and want to increase the number of people finding your website when they search “coffee shops near me,” Ahrefs will help give you an idea of how many other sites on the internet have links with these keywords in them. This means it’s important not just because it’ll tell you who else has similar content as yours but also where their links come from. This makes things easier since most SEO tools only analyze pages within specific domains rather than the whole web. Ahrefs Can Uncover “Lost” Backlinks Ahrefs can also be used to uncover

Google’s algorithm is designed to identify signs that a site’s content truly is authoritative by evaluating a site or web page’s backlink profile. When other authoritative publishers link to your content on a regular basis, it signals to Google that your content is valuable. This boosts your site’s rankings in search engines and directs more guests to your site. Luckily, improving your backlink profile doesn’t need to be costly, but it may be difficult to acquire high quality backlinks. In most cases, building links without quality content is very difficult. But, there are plenty of ways to get free backlinks manually (and not necessarily through a spammy free backlink generator). Here are 15 methods for acquiring free backlinks! Recognize that while these “free” suggestions may not cost you dollars, they will cost you time, so budget accordingly. Before we do, are you curious about ratio of bad backlinks to high quality backlinks? Analyze your backlink profile now with our free backlink checker tool. Let’s dig in! 1. Check for Existing Mentions Search the Internet for mentions of your brand, services, or products. You may need to perform several searches to find a decent number of mentions. Check to see if the publishers of the content in which your brand and products are mentioned have linked back to your site accordingly. When they haven’t, reach out to them, asking if they’d be willing to add links. Some might ignore this request, but others may be happy to do so. Additionally, even when a publisher has included a link to your site in a mention of your brand, click the link to confirm it works. Sometimes even your high quality backlinks become “broken.” When you find a broken backlink, ask the publisher if they could fix it. 2. Guest Blog Engaging guest blogging services is a tried and true way to not only market your business, but also to create backlinks for improved SEO. Many digital publications and blogs in your niche may accept guest submissions. Often, instead of money, “payment” for these submissions involves permission to include a link back to your site in the content. Again, this serves two purposes: boosting your link profile while also giving your brand some free advertising. However, you need to keep certain tips in mind when submitting guest posts. Don’t include excessive backlinks, don’t waste time publishing on low authority sites, don’t keep using the same websites, and certainly don’t publish valueless content or content that’s already been published elsewhere. 3. Partner With Others (Naturally) Friends or others in your industry may be willing to link back to your site if you link back to theirs from time to time. “Time to time” is an important detail you can’t ignore. Google doesn’t want publishers engaging in link schemes, one of which involves using low quality backlinks to manipulate rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs). If it appears that you’re engaging in such a scheme, Google may actually penalize your site accordingly. Make sure those you partner with understand that you only want them to link to your site in their content when they have genuinely valid reasons for doing so. They shouldn’t add links just for the sake of honoring the partnership. 4. Link to Others You don’t necessarily need to enter into a formal agreement with partners to develop a sort of link-sharing partnership. If you regularly link to another’s content (again, when it makes sense to do so) and share their content with your followers on social media, they might take notice. This could give them reason to return the favor by linking to your site more often. 5. Give Interviews on Podcasts Don’t be shy if you’re considering reaching out to podcasters to ask if they’d have you as a guest on their shows! Remember, podcasters, like business owners and marketers, also need to create regular fresh content. They can do so more easily when potential guests contact them offering to appear on their shows. When deciding which podcasts to ask if you can appear on, naturally, you should choose those link placements relevant to your niche. You should also confirm the show notes their hosts post on their websites after releasing episodes include links. If they don’t, you can still potentially mention a link to your site on a podcast. This won’t necessarily have much of an impact on your SEO rankings, but it will direct more attention to your site, which is never a bad thing. 6. Use Social Media This is an easy way to get a few more backlinks. It might not make a huge difference in your overall backlink profile, but it won’t hurt. Review your social media profiles to confirm you’ve included links to your site. The main web page of your profile should have a link. When it’s natural to do so, you should also link to your site in posts. Make a point of sharing social media posts from others on your own social media profile as well. They may be more inclined to link to your site in the future if you do. Remember, using social media to get links is more about connecting with people on social media and less about getting links from social media. 7. Praise Vendors, Suppliers, and Those You Admire As many of these suggestions imply, one of the best ways to improve your organic traffic is to do others a favor. Some will recognize that you’re promoting their brands, and will thus be more likely to promote yours when opportunities to do so arise. Via your blog, podcast, YouTube channel, and any other platform through which you release content, make a point of singing the praises of your suppliers, vendors, and others who you admire, whether they be bloggers, other business owners, or anyone else. Just make sure you’re primarily mentioning those who have web presences through which they can link to your site. If they find out you’ve been promoting them, they might

Quality SEO isn’t cheap. Exploring the types of SEO cost structures and the value of SEO services can help you better understand the best structure of SEO pricing models and how to get the most bang for your buck. Budget is one of the biggest considerations in an SEO campaign. No matter how much traffic you gain, how many new leads you close, and how much total money your SEO strategy makes you, none of that matters if your recurring revenue is still less than what you’re spending on SEO pricing. That being said, a greater SEO budget, if spent wisely, generally leads to greater results. When considering the question “how much does SEO cost?” you would be wise to understand the correlation between SEO costs and SEO results: If you’re paying less than a few hundred dollars a month, you probably aren’t building anything substantial. In fact, you’re probably doing more harm than good. Though it’s hard to pinpoint an exact figure for the cost of hiring a good search engine marketing expert, we typically advise a minimum of $500 per month for local SEO or any small business or startup. For most companies targeting short-tail keywords on a national level, $2,500-$5,000 per month is a much more realistic minimum figure, with added benefits as you scale up your budget. The more competitive the niche, the larger your budget will need to be. So how can you tell whether it’s time to increase your own SEO budget? Here we explore payment models and differences in SEO strategies that can affect the price you pay for SEO services. SEO Pricing Structure There are a handful of different payment models, depending on how you’re looking to implement digital marketing services. Each pricing model for SEO has its own advantages and disadvantages, and offer their own price ranges. Over the course of this article, we’ll introduce the main SEO services you’ll need to enlist in a campaign, how much effort they take (roughly), and how those efforts are collectively priced in each of the following payment models: In-house SEO experts In-house employees will cost you full-time salaries (or time, if you plan on doing the work yourself). SEO Freelancers and consultants Freelancing SEO consultants will cost you hourly or project rates. SEO agencies An SEO agency will generally cost you monthly SEO retainer fees for ongoing, managed SEO. Hybrid models Hybrid services typically leverage the power of multiple options above. SEO Cost vs. SEO Quality vs. SEO Speed It’s also important to recognize the “quality” factor in your SEO company services. If an agency is charging far more money than another, it probably means they’ll be doing more work, and you’ll be seeing far better results by enlisting. This isn’t always true; you’ll find price discrepancies among identical services and service discrepancies at the same price level. However, it’s important to realize that SEO costs scale according to the amount of effort involved (and the amount of effort involved often correlates with your ultimate success). On the other end of the spectrum, paying too little for SEO can land you with a bad crowd—keyword stuffers, link spammers, and other link schemers who will end up doing more harm than good for your site. If you find a price for organic SEO that seems too good to be true, it probably is. You don’t want this to happen to you:   (Image Source: Moz) With the background information out of the way, let’s start taking a look at how much effort an SEO campaign really takes, and how much each option to pursue that effort will cost you. SEO Pricing Components to Consider There are many working parts to an effective organic search campaign, so it’s virtually impossible to relegate all of them to a simplified description of “SEO services.” This makes answering the question of “how much does SEO cost?” that much more complex. Some SEO agencies and digital marketing consultants may try, but it’s in your best interest to dig a little deeper and find out what they’re truly offering. Most practitioners will have a few key areas of specialization, and may generalize in the other areas. As you’ll need a little bit of everything if you want to succeed, I encourage you to look at options that guarantee you the best overall range of coverage. We also haven’t covered the research and strategy components here, even though they are important, because you may already have an SEO strategy in mind, and approaches vary too wildly to settle on an “average” amount of effort. 1. One-Time On-site Optimization (Image Source: Moz) First, your site needs to be cleaned up. If your site isn’t in proper working order, or isn’t optimized for search engines, it isn’t going to rank on Google. Fortunately, most of the changes you’ll need to make—such as restructuring your navigation, writing good titles and descriptions, fixing site speed and optimizing for mobile devices—are one-time changes. Depending on what shape your site’s in, this could take a few hours or several days’ worth of effort, maybe even more if new development is involved. Most SEO agencies and consultants will charge a “setup” cost for SEO or otherwise include it for free as part of an ongoing SEO package. For an in-house worker, this will mean a delay in beginning the “actual” campaign work. 2. Ongoing On-site Optimization Once your site is optimized for search engine visibility, you won’t have to do much on a regular basis unless something changes. For example, you might need to perform keyword research, correct a 404 error, get rid of a duplicate page, readjust for new keywords you’re targeting (with the help of expert keyword research), or change some design element to perform better. Still, it’s a good idea to perform a regular on site SEO audit, monthly or weekly depending on the magnitude of your campaign. A regular SEO audit will not be time-intensive, shouldn’t factor much into the overall costs of

The legal field is evolving into a more digital marketplace. More and more clients are looking for lawyers who can offer the best of both worlds- high-quality legal services with an innovative, tech-savvy approach. As such, in order to nail legal SEO, lawyers need to be aware of the latest trends in digital marketing strategy so they stay ahead of their competition. Leading local SEO strategies for law firms have fairly consistent over the last decade. However, there are some differentiating factors in 2025 that will put your law business at the forefront of today’s legal digital marketing landscape in your particular law niche. Optimize Your Website for Local Search Most law firms are local businesses. That means that local search engine optimization (SEO) is the name of the game when promoting your law firm’s online marketing. Here are a few best practices for local SEO: Using consistent and accurate business information on your website, including contact details. This means having the correct address, phone number etc., as listed in Google Maps. Optimizing keyword phrases to target specific search terms that potential clients might be using when searching online marketing (e.g.: “personal injury lawyer“). Targeting keywords relevant to your practice area with content on the main pages of your site (home page). Try adding unique articles or blog posts about those topics too. It will help you rank higher for related queries! Creating an optimized title tag for each page of your website which includes pertinent keywords so it can appear in SERPs more prominently. Nail Your Content Marketing Strategy There are plenty of other ways to go about marketing your law firms online, but content marketing is the backbone. This is why you should publish blog posts that provide useful and informative information about your practice area. This could be anything from an overview of the latest legal news to a breakdown of what digital marketing for lawyers can do in various situations, like when someone has been injured on the job or after being involved in a car accident. The more specific you are, the better. And the faster you can get your content out there, the better. You can also develop educational pieces on key topics such as DUI or white-collar crime. These articles will help educate current clients and attract new ones at the same time by showing them how they’ll benefit from hiring your firm. Conduct Audience Research Before you start writing your content, it’s important to know who your target audience is. For example, if most of the people searching for a “personal injury lawyer” are in their late 20s and early 30s, then you should have a section on your site that caters specifically to this demographic. This might include videos or articles on what they need to do after being injured at work or how to handle insurance companies when an accident has occurred. On the other hand, someone search for “mass tort lawyer” on a cancer case, may be in a totally different age demographic and should be targeted accordingly. Keep Up with Google Algorithm Updates Google never stops changing its algorithm so make sure you’re up-to-date by signing up for Google Alerts (alertboxusa.com) which will notify you about emerging trends like changes in ranking algorithms and how they’ll impact your website. Build Up Your E-E-A-T Another way to help your marketing for law firms stand out from the competition is by building up its E-A-T. E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. You can do this in a number of ways, such as: Adding testimonials on your website that show how satisfied past & more clients are with the services you offer. Engaging with other professionals or experts in your field online via social media (Twitter, LinkedIn). It’s best if these interactions happen naturally rather than being too pushy about it!. Having accurate descriptions of specializations. For example, some people might think “family lawyer” refers just to divorce cases but there are actually different types of family law, such as custody and adoption. Run Google Ads Campaigns It might sound counterintuitive as many people think of Google Ads as being used to drive traffic to your website, but there are a number of benefits when it comes to running ads on search engines. You can use them for lead generation by promoting offers such as “free consultation” or “get started today.” You’ll also be able to track conversion rates and see if you’re getting more clicks from online campaigns than offline ones. This data will help you better plan future digital advertising & internet marketing efforts or online marketing efforts. Develop Social Media Digital Marketing Strategy The best way to get clients these days is through social media marketing . Whether they find you via Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, it’s important that each page has its own unique content so potential prospective clients feel like they’re engaging with a trusted brand. Investing in social media marketing ads will help in sending more traffic to your website. Many social media platforms, like Facebook Ads, will allow you to create dynamic advertisements without breaking the bank. Publish High-Quality Landing Pages In the age of Google, it’s not enough to have a website with just basic information about your law firms. Instead, you should create landing pages that are specifically designed for certain audiences, which will help in converting potential clients into paying ones. Lead generation pages can be designed for people who have just been injured on the job or after being involved in a car accident and need legal advice as quickly as possible. Generate Leads with Gated Content Gated content is a great way to generate quality leads by making potential new clients register and provide their contact information in order to access an exclusive resource. This can be as simple as offering downloadable eBooks or webinars, but it’s important that your gated content has value for the user so they’re willing to share their personal data with you.

If you want local, targeted traffic, you have two options: Dominate the search results nationally or Rank your local Google Business Profile listing. Some businesses do both, but ranking your website takes time and money. Want to get traffic faster without having to wait a long time for SEO? Although you can certainly optimize for local SEO website to generate local traffic, you’ll need time and a large budget for that. Focusing on your Google Business Profile (Formerly known as “Google My Business”) will generate traffic faster and without the need to spend a lot of money. What is Google Business Profile? Google My Business Profile is a free Google business listing stored in Google’s database. Business listings will show up in several places across the Google network, including in search results, on Google Maps, and in Google Shopping. On the surface, it functions just like any other business listing. For example, you can display photos of your business, display your hours of operation, list your services, and provide your contact information. At a deeper level, it plays a crucial role in generating traffic from Google searches. Here are the steps you’ll take to add your business to Google: 1. Sign into your Google Business Profile account If you don’t have a Google Business Profile yet, you can get one by looking for your business in Google’s database or click on the option to add your business to Google. If you see a listing for your business, but you don’t remember creating it and you don’t have access to the business account, you can claim your listing. This walkthrough video explains how to create or claim your listing. Otherwise, continue with the following steps to create your listing. 2. Select your business category Choose the category that best represents your business and then click “next.” For instance, a lawyer looking to optimized for law firm SEO, might choose something in the legal niche. 3. Set your location Set your location by choosing whether or not you have a physical location for customers to visit. If you do, you’ll be asked to enter your address. When asked to add a map marker, make sure you place the marker as accurately as possible. If you don’t have a physical address for your customers, but you offer in-person services or deliveries, you’ll be asked to list the areas you serve. Once this information is entered, click “next.” 4. Add your contact information In this section, you’ll add your phone number and website address. You can also omit your phone number if you prefer not to be contacted by telephone, but it’s a good idea to have a contact number. 5. Verify your business This step is vital. You’ll be asked to verify that you are the business owner or rightful representative by providing a physical mailing address. This address will be hidden from public view and is only used by Google. Google will send you a postcard to this address with a verification code that you’ll need to fully activate your listing. If you already have a code, go here to verify your business. 6. Customize your listing profile This step is where you’ll enter more nuanced information like your business description, business hours of operation, photos, and how you prefer to be contacted. Once you complete this section, clicking “continue” will bring you into your Business Profile Manager dashboard. This is where you’ll find all the tools to manage your listing, manage reviews, read and reply to messages, and even create some PPC ads on Google. Optimize Your Google Business Profile to get more traffic Once you’ve created your Google Business Profile, here are some tips to quickly optimize your Google Business Profile to start getting more traffic. 1. Know how your Google Business Profile drives traffic Knowing how your GBP drives traffic is essential for optimization. In a nutshell, three factors determine local search ranking: How relevant your listing is to a user’s search terms. The more relevant your listing is, the more likely it will be to show up in results. How far your business is from the user’s location. How popular your business is in your niche. This factor includes the number of reviews you have, your review score, and some SEO factors like how many backlinks you have. Here’s how it works on the front end from the user’s perspective. GBP results are displayed above organic search results. A well-optimized Google Business Profile will turn up in those results. If your GBP shows up, you’ll get traffic even if your web pages never show up in search results. Here’s how it works on the back end. Google knows where a user is from based on their IP address. Google also knows where your business is located based on the zip code you provide in your listing. When a user searches for a business like yours, a bunch of Google Business Profiles are displayed at the top of the page favoring businesses local to the user. When you optimize your GBP to come up in local search results, many users will click on your listing instead of scrolling down to the organic search results. Knowing this gives you the advantage because you can optimize your listing by including a variety of keywords related to your business that people might search for. For example, if you’re running a Mexican restaurant, you can name the individual dishes you serve (like enchiladas and tacos) to capture traffic from people specifically searching for those dishes. Having a Google Business Profile improves your local SEO because your listing is more likely to come up in search results for local search users looking for businesses nearby. This will be discussed more in-depth later in this article. 2. Prioritize your GBP listing You can spend tens of thousands of dollars on search engine optimization (SEO), but if you’re on a budget there are other ways to get traffic, mainly through your GBP. If you haven’t