What’s with the name? It’s a portmanteau of local and hocus pocus.
Just my way of referring to semi-common local SEO practices that I think are superstition.
We talked about “Local SEO Myths” in 2013. But there’s even more to say. In that post, I and other local-search geeks focused on myths that lead business owners way off-track.
Now I’d like to talk about what I see as practices that just waste time and effort. They won’t kill you, but I can’t say they’ll help you.
Probably worth emphasizing now rather than later that this post is my opinion. It’s based on a big ugly pile of first-hand experience. But it’s still an opinion. Let’s argue in the comments.
OK, now that my lawyer’s meticulously worded disclaimer is out of the way…
There are the local-rankings factors I’ve seen move the needle for clients and others, time and time again. I’m talking about things like accurate categories, consistent citations, many reviews, good title tags, and meaty sites.
Then there are the factors that may matter to your local rankings. These are steps I usually suggest to clients, because they’re good to do even if they don’t help rankings in the slightest: using Schema markup for your NAP, picking good H2 tags, embedding a Google map on your site, adding lots of photos to your Google listing, etc.
And then there’s the Locus Pocus.
These practices have done little to deserve my wrath. I’ll spare you my theories about why I don’t think they matter.
My best indictment of them is simply that in 5 years I haven’t seen a whit of evidence that they help your local rankings in Google or anywhere else.
Here’s the stuff I wouldn’t suggest spending any time on:
- “Geotagging” photos. Sure, pick relevant names for the files, and try to pick relevant alt tags when appropriate. But metadata? Fugettaboutit.
- Including city names in the “keyword” fields on your various business listings. If MerchantCircle asks you to stick 10 keywords in a box, put in 10 services you offer (and maybe their synonyms).
- Using unique descriptions on your listings.
- Getting hundreds of structured citations. Lots of unstructured citations (e.g. newspaper mentions), great.
- Giant blocks of text where you mention all the towns you serve.
- Keyword tags.
- Making cheapo slideshow videos and uploading them to every video site you can find.
- Setting a large “Service Area” in your Google Places dashboard.
- Putting your “target” city in the Google Places address field, for fear that you won’t rank well there if you enter your real city. If you want any shot at ranking where you want to, you need to help Google understand where you’re really located.
- Seeking that extra edge by trying to outsmart all the sites where you can list your business. Just five more little keywords in your description, writing just one review for your own business, etc. Thanks to Aaron Weiche for mentioning this point (below).
Maybe these practices aren’t so harmless after all. Spending your time and energy on them and expecting results just means it’s longer before you’re visible in the local rankings.
Hat tip to Darren for weighing in on several of the points.
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What have you found to be “locus pocus”? Did you ever have some miraculous experience with any of the practices I mentioned? Leave a comment!