How would you grow this?
I started a community called Local SEO Community 3 months ago, for discussing local SEO and Google My Business tips and strategies - as opposed to SEO as a whole.
There are currently about 870 members (it's free to join).
Of those 870 members, there is a good mix of both local SEO professionals (freelancers, agencies) and small business owners, but probably a little heavier on the SEO professional side.
I would love to even that out and get more small business owners participating, but it has been a little tougher than I thought.
Maybe small business owners just don't have the time or energy to want to learn about optimizing their Google My Business listing? I'm not sure...
Any suggestions for how you would get more small business owners participating on Local SEO Community?
One thing that I thought would be a draw for business owners is the "Ask for feedback" section on Local SEO Community:
Where business owners can post a link to their GMB listing or website, and get feedback from other community members about how it can be optimized.
The "Ask for feedback" section has had some activity, but not as much as I thought.
Perhaps posting a link to their website or GMB for critique and critisism is a little scary for many business owners? Like if they know that it needs some work?
Hey Davis, maybe @andreboso can help, with "How I'd grow Local SEO Community"?
In my experience the majority of small business owners don’t even know what SEO is, let alone find the time to participate in an online community. If I were @DavisBaer I’d probably focus on SEO professionals 🙂
The local SEO professionals side has actually been pretty easy to grow.
However, the TAM of local SEO professional is far smaller than the TAM of small business owners.
Also, once the community gets too deep and in the weeds with complicated SEO talk, then business owners might feel like it's not the place for them, because they don't understand what anyone is talking about haha.
The opposite is true though, professionals might not like a community where beginners post tons of basic questions. TAM might not be that important for a community, it all comes down to your monetization plan. Easy to grow is a great signal of product-market fit!
Good point.
However, one of the ideas was to have a place where beginners (business owners) can ask their questions, and then the SEO pros can help answer them, and in doing so, present themselves as an expert in a place full of potential leads for them.
Oh I see. If that’s your goal I’d position it as a community for business owners and I’d follow the same framework used to grow a marketplace, because you’ll need both supply (professionals) and demand (business owners). Maybe these notes could be useful!
Awesome stuff, thanks for sharing!
Maybe small business owners just don't have the time or energy to want to learn about optimizing their Google My Business listing? I'm not sure...
Yes, that is almost certainly the reason. Which is why they hand it over to an expert to set it up.
Any suggestions for how you would get more small business owners participating on Local SEO Community?
Why do you need more small business owners participating? If we knew why you want more of a balance, you may receive more action ideas.
The total addressable market (TAM) of local SEO professionals is far smaller than the TAM of small business owners.
Also, once the community gets too deep and in the weeds with complicated SEO talk, then business owners might feel like it's not the place for them, because they don't understand what anyone is talking about.
So I would like to keep it a healthy mix of both small business owners and local SEO professionals.
Hope that clarifies things a little bit 😊
Ok, great, I see from another answer the community could develop into a marketplace for SEO experts to help local businesses. That seems a good plan. At present when you visit https://www.localseocommunity.com/ it directs straight to the forum, which does not really sell the idea that local businesses can get expert help. Should there be a proper landing page encouraging local businesses to join and find SEO experts? I think so. Also, I see plans to make it a premium forum after 1000 members. I would not charge local businesses to use the forum, but perhaps charge the experts to tout for business.
I tried to open your website but McAfee webadvisor blocked your site and this was the error message:
Website status: Suspicious
"This site looks a little risky to us, so we flagged it just in case. Make sure you trust this site if you choose to proceed. Better safe than sorry!"
You should consider fixing this, else you might be loosing some quality traffic.
Can you go to https://community.circle.so/c/product-updates and https://community.nocodedevs.com/c/news-and-annoucements and let me know if it flags those as well?
Trying to figure out if it's an issue for all sites hosted on Circle, or if it's only an issue with my specific community
Those urls are opening without issues, not blocked.
Thanks. Can you provide a link to the McAfee version you are using so I can download and test on my end?
It's McAee WebAdvisor google chrome extension.
Hmmm, can't seem to find an extension with that exact name...
Is this it? https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mcafee-siteadvisor-enterp/cmendinpapjjojakimjlmkkkcmnojefg?hl=en-US
Yes that should be it.
Would you be able to send me a screenshot of the extension you are using?
The one mentioned above doesnt seem to be working, so I dont think it is right.
https://imgur.com/42D2zVr
Hey Rajan, can you try again and let me know if you still get the warning? I think I have fixed it :)
Thanks, found it!
Thanks for letting me know Rajan.
Any idea how to fix it?
The community is running on Circle, so it might be an issue that they need to fix.
Cheers mate, it's working now. What was the issue and how did you fix it.
I had to go here http://trustedsource.org/ and submit the site for review to get it removed.
Thanks a lot for all your help, truly appreciate it!!!
I think one criticism is to change the name of the website into something more smaller and concise.
In terms of growth, you'd have to show how your website can have a impact on their lives and that can be easily seen and communicated by delivering presentations to the head of these small businesses.
Haha yeah, the question is how though
Youtube. Very generically. Say videos called "Local SEO for your business", "how to rank in search locally", Local business search ranking", and "Search engine strategies for local business", with content that shows a couple of brief tips in the beginning, followed by a screencast of the site and how those issues are addressed there.
Make sure to show text of the site's URL at the top or bottom of the video frame (whichever is more intrusively in the faces of the viewers) and mention a couple of times that the signups link is included in the description below and also, that it includes a free introductory community assessment by professonals for the local brick and mortar business and a complimentary setup guide for GMB pages for new signups.
Of course, you'll need to officially ask for some in the community to provide those assessments (but they're already doing that and even wish to - it drives customers to their respective businesses lolz.
Then two more quick tips, then another brief screencast showing how those points were addressed by the community there at the site, mentioning that there's so many other member perks too.
Finally, end with a blurb of you, framed in a medium shot talking on and to the camera about how they site has served local businesses develop strategies and their GMB page, social media, and website SEO, fading to a black screen with the website URL that remains for the final ten seconds of the no more than five minutes long video with a voice over reinforcing how you and the community are looking forward to seeing the viewer there so all their dreams can come true, as Mick Jagger says in the song, "Far Away Eyes".
A free starter pack PDF included as a giveaway would be a great idea for a signup bonus, and you could feed their registration for the freebie download through a Mautic server for inbound marketing too. And explain how they can do the same (inbound marketing for free) in the bundle Pak they download from you..
Having a separate members only tools and resources section on your website would be a good thing, and one of the pros there already compiled and posted a list of about a hundred resources - with his permission, you could prolly scrape twenty five (free) ones from his curated list, and of course, all of this would only be available to logged in members. This by the way
Dedicate an hour a day, get
Members only reviews of products and services as news articles / blogs, and enlist different period at the store e see
No more than five minutes total on each of the videos.
For anyone not logged in, have the landing page prominently display, "Why Join?" With all the actionables for verbiage and with a big button smack in the middle of the page that links to one of the YouTube videos.
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