When Google announced changes to its Local Search algorithm a couple of years ago many people and business owners, especially those involved in SEO and marketing where enraged, not more penalties! not more ranking drops! These were some of the comments on marketing and SEO forums.

Every time Google does a big updates - small algorithm changes are commonplace - there is always someone who'll scream and rant online saying that Google has targeted them and ruined their rankings. Google targets no one, these people have simple been caught using dodgy SEO methods by the new  algorithm  and suffered the consequences.

New algorithms, even the big ones, don't usual effect a marketing company such as Top Rank because we don't take short cuts and we never use what are know as black hat techniques to get to the top quicker. All of our SEO is 100% safe from Google penalties

Our SEO and marketing tactics are steady and structured and have been perfected over many years by our in house marketing team to a point nowadays where we can basically guarantee to increase the rankings of any local business or tradesman. We have had great success with fencing companies, solicitors, locksmiths, printers and sign makers to mention just a few. Success in our eyes mean multiple top 5 results, many no1 results and domination for the local area for certain keyword and phrases

Yes it did, it affected us in a positive way as most of our clients saw a significant boost to their rankings and an increase in work and leads after the new algorithm was launched.

Without getting too technical Google's Local Search Algorithm was created to actually help small local businesses and allow their websites to show up for local searches. Before this new algorithm was released you had national and nationwide companies dominating even the local search results due to them spending a lot more money on marketing and SEO.

What Google essentially did was give the small businesses and the local independent tradesman a bite of the apple so to speak without them needing to compete for rankings with national companies who where able to spend a lot more money on marketing ,and for the first time in years we saw local plumbers and local locksmiths ranking above the likes of Yell, British Gas, Bark and other national companies and websites. This forced many  large companies to turn to paid ads to stay at the top of Google with organic results favouring the genuine local businesses.

There are still a high percentage of people who simply don't trust paid ads and will scroll down to the organic results, the reason is that the paid ads tend to come from larger companies and when you require the services of an emergency plumber because water is cascading through your ceiling or you desperately need an emergency locksmith because you're locked out of your house and stood in the rain you don't want a national company sending someone from miles away, you want Dave the plumber or Gary the locksmith from around the corner. You also don't want the get charged a small fortune either.

This is a tough question and relies on lots of factors. If you're based in a city or large urban area with lots of competition from other local businesses or tradesmen offering the same services then it will be the business doing marketing that ranks at the top of the results. Even the map 3 pack results depend on how Google perceives your business. If there are 20 local businesses or tradesmen all offering the same services they can't all be at the top of page one. This is where local SEO comes into play.

In more rural areas local business websites have been known to rank with very little or no marketing at all but even in these areas where competition is scarce some companies still make mistakes and fail to rank.

Google isn't psychic; you need to let Google know that you are a local business which is why Google introduced schema mark-up, microformats and GEOcoding. If you don't know what theses mean then you definitely need a marketing company to help you rank because simple having a website that has a local address and states in its text that its a local business isn't enough.

Another mistake some businesses and tradesmen make is using a .com domain and expecting Google to treat them as a local business. A .com is a global domain so you're treated as a global business/company. If you're a local business located in the UK then you must use a .co.uk domain name otherwise you'll fail to rank.

The good news for small businesses and independent tradesmen is that local SEO isn't as expensive as national SEO. This is because it takes less work to rank a local business than it does to rank a national or global business and when Google released its Local Search algorithm it also released a whole new set of local ranking requirements or ranking signals as they are called in the industry.

Even though there is no a step by step guide - and there never will be -  Top Rank have mastered the art of local SEO using our 15 years of experience in the SEO industry as well as a lot of common sense when it comes to what Google is looking for in a local business.

We have some local business and tradesman paying as little as £100 PCM and dominating the local results. Our SEO fees are completely bespoke and depend on the number of keywords, the number of areas targeted competition etc.

Unfortunately there are a lot of rogues and conmen in the SEO industry targeting small businesses and independent tradesmen who they know have very little knowledge of the SEO and marketing industry so you need to be cautious.

Even though it's not necessary and Top Rank has clients based all over the UK, some local businesses prefer to use their own local SEO Company, this is fine, and you probably want to help other local businesses and keep the work in your own town/city.

But remember the SEO and Marketing industry has no regulations and anybody can refer to themselves as SEO experts and marketing professional's regardless of their actually skills so here are some tips to get you on the right path.

Always Ask for evidence of past work

A genuine marketing company will keep meticulous records of their client ranking results so will have no problem producing case studies showing how they ranked other businesses and how long it took.

If they refuse to produce evidence like this or mention client confidentiality, GDPR or Data Protection then don't use them as these are simply excuses. Top Rank has many clients past and current, many of which have made it clear that we can refer to their success when speaking with potential clients; these businesses would also have no problem answering a quick phone call to confirm that we did in fact work with them

Minimum Term Contacts

If an SEO or marketing company asks you to sign a minimum term contract for 6, 12 or even 18 months then avoid them. Genuine marketing companies will never ask you to do this as there is no place for minimum term contract in this industry.

This is simply admitting that they probably won't be able to rank you and have no confidence in their own abilities. If you are climbing the rankings and getting work/leads then you'd happily pay for marketing.

For some rogue marketing companies there business model is getting companies to sign up to minimum term contracts with no intention of doing any SEO or marketing, by the time your 12 month contract is up they have had 100's more victims signed up.

These companies tend to operate from impressive city centre offices filled with salesmen. This is not how SEO and marketing companies operate.

Don't Get Taken in By Jargon

A genuine marketing company will be able to explain things in plain English. If however you are targeted by a salesmen rather than a marketing professional you'll here a lot of Jargon, this is mainly to impress you and make you think they know what they are talking about.

In reality these people use jargon because they don't understand SEO so could not explain anything in plain English even if they wanted to. Top Rank does not employ salesmen. SEO is always explained and broken down by a marketing professional in plain English, and if there is something a client doesn't understand we will explain it another way until you do understand.

We are not here to impress you with smart talk and jargon and you shouldn't use a marketing company that does because its a dead giveaway that they don't know enough about the industry

Guarantees and Working For Google

Working for Google is a widely mocked comment yet does still happen. This is where you'll get a cold call from someone claiming to be working for Google and guaranteeing you page 1 results.

Let's get one thing straight; Google's net worth is over a Trillion USD that's 1000 Billion. No one at Google is cold calling Geoff the plumber in Norwich with a too good to be true deal and guaranteed rankings.

To be honest, these calls are generally nothing to do with SEO and are out right scams. They want your credit/debit card number so they use a company you know to be trustworthy offering a service you or your business needs.

There are however some marketing companies claiming to have an "inside man" at Google in an effort to persuade you to use their marketing services. Anyone spouting nonsense like this should be avoided, if they can't show you case studies or other evidence of their skill and have to turn to outrageous claims like these then they are not good at their job or are just scammers using SEO as a tool to set up regular payments.

In Summary

The release of Google's Local Search algorithm actually helped small local businesses and tradesmen by allowing them to rank when someone was doing a local search.

Local businesses and tradesmen still needed to pay attention to their websites content and structure if they want to out-rank other local competitors and because of the changes to Google's local  algorithm and changes to the required ranking signals professional SEO companies could now work with small  businesses and tradesmen by finally offering an affordable pricing structure.