Note: Found Bytes is produced for the ear and designed to be heard. If you are able, we strongly encourage you to listen to the audio above. Or you can read our synopsis below to get an idea of what sorts of topics David and Greg cover in this episode.
This week on Found Bytes, David Mihm invites Greg Gifford, VP of Search at Wikimotive, to share his experience from over a decade in local search, and what every local business owner can learn from the auto industry.
What You’ll Learn From This Episode
Greg kicks off the conversation by sharing his take on the Google My Business feature, and how his opinion of GMB profiles has evolved from more of an afterthought to a marketing priority for local success. Greg also gives some great tips for those who jumped on their Google My Business profile early—like the local business center listings from 2012/13—and what to watch out for when optimizing old GMB listings.
David and Greg dive deeper into local SEO strategy and Google My Business with examples of photo best practices from Greg’s time working with the auto industry. They both discuss how important it is to be actively monitoring and engaging with the Questions & Answers feature for your GMB profile, highlighting the “thumbs up/thumbs down” feature within Q&A, and positing that data from this feature could be tied to voice search in the near future.
Next, Greg shares how he’s seen marketing success with Google Posts, which flows naturally into an overview of content marketing. Greg wraps up the discussion with some DIY tips for local businesses looking to tackle content but not sure where to start. David closes up the episode with his classic lighting round, asking Greg about frustrations with Google My Business and to predict what sorts of changes we may see in local search over the next 12 months.
Resources Mentioned
- ThriveHive’s free Grader Tool
- “Google may decide to charge for Google My Business listings” – by Barry Schwartz, SearchEngineLand
- ThriveHive’s Top Customer Questions
