Most local business websites struggle to rank. New clients come to us with badly broken sites. If they have any traffic, it's usually bought. And no, I'm gearing up for a rant about small...
SEO, SEM & Local Search
SEO Is Your Website’s Foundation, Not a Coat of Paint
In a previous gig, I managed the SEO of a national retail chain. E-commerce division, or the salt mines, where meetings were a small part of the day and not four-fifths. Every department grew except...
Digital Marketing Whack-a-Mole: 15 Fibs & Fallacies That Won’t Stay Down
Digital marketing is the process of promoting products and services over the internet. It includes SEO (search engine optimization), paid search, website design, CRO (conversion rate optimization),...
SEO Is Dead. Long Live SEO!
SEO just ain't what it used to be. In the Wild West days, I could post a press release on a dozen free sites, and if it had the right backlinks and anchor text, a high-volume keyword like Easter...
Frequently Asked Questions about Small Business SEO
How can a small business afford SEO? Nowadays, how does someone find a local business like yours? Not in the Yellow Pages or the junk mail. People search for a plumber or electrician, and the...
How to Add Your Business to Google Maps
Okay, you got me. There's no way to add a business to Google Maps — at least not directly. You can't buy your way in. To earn your way in, you must follow specific guidelines and take steps that...
Frequently Asked Questions about Paid Search for Small Business
What's the difference between paid search and search engine marketing (SEM)? Some people use the terms interchangeably. But paid search campaigns use PPC (pay-per-click) ads that appear on the SERPs...
Large vs. Small Agency SEO: What’s the Difference?
In my two-plus decades of digital marketing, I've met and worked with SEOs of all stripes. Good ones, bad ones, and a few who mailed it in to collect a lazy paycheck. By this, I mean they dispensed...
Technical SEO vs. Content SEO: Why Few People Do Both
They couldn't leave well enough alone. In the good old days, there was SEO — search engine optimization. Just plain SEO and nothing else. It was the only flavor of ice cream. Nerds handled it...
Google Ignores the Meta Description. Maybe You Should, Too
Professional SEOs are paid to stay on top of Google's frequent algorithm changes. Not everyone does a good job of it. Sometimes their advice can be — well — dated. And some SEOs cling to cherished...
A Short Glossary of Digital Marketing Terms (Let’s Cut Through the Jargon)
We try to keep things simple at Culture Cube, but sometimes we can't help ourselves. Like all digital marketers, we slip into jargon, even with customers — alas. But some digital marketing terms and...
What Are “City Pages?” And Does Your Local Website Need Them?
Local businesses serve a local area. Now that we've stated the obvious let's take a closer look. How local, exactly? Do you operate within a five-mile radius, or does your business serve most of Los...
Small Business Website SEO: How Small Is Too Small?
Most local business websites average fewer than 16 visits a day. 37% of their traffic is direct — from email and shared links, bookmarks, Google Maps, word-of-mouth referrals, or maybe from someone...
How to Optimize Your Business for Local Search
Some Culture Cube clients get half their phone leads from Google local search results — in other words, the Google Map Pack or the top organic positions. That's a big deal when a single plumbing...
10 Reasons to Claim & Verify Your Google Business Profile (GBP)
Local search has exploded. Just how much is a matter of conjecture and debate, with figures ranging from 26 to 50%. We can argue over the percentages, but we can't deny that local search is the only...
Culture Cube’s Client Onboarding Fast Track: What Is It?
It's easy enough to rebuild a website if you don't do much with it. Slap on a new template, upload a few graphics, and voila! You're done! It's akin to repainting a car with a broken drive train....
What Are Local Business Citations? And Why Should You Care?
Digital marketers love their acronyms. CTR. PPC. SEO. GBP. We love buzzwords just as much and sometimes forget that customers don't always share our enthusiasm for them. One of the hottest buzzwords...
Google Business Profile Is the Best-Kept Secret in Local Marketing
Few business owners realize how little their website influences local search. Google considers different factors, not your search-optimized copy from Agency XYZ. "But wait!" you protest. "They told...
