Is the quality of traffic different today for local businesses?
episode
Voices of Search // A Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Content Marketing Podcast
3 min
2 speakers
5 chapters
transcribed 1 month ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Why is the quality of local traffic changing for businesses today?
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I'm Jordan Cooney and joining me today is Joy Hawkins, owner and president of Sterling Sky. Joy has spent nearly two decades studying local results and has led more than a thousand local SEO tests to determine what ranking factors really matter. Today we're going to talk about local SEO, how it's evolving in this age of AI, in the rise of paid visibility, in what businesses need to do to stay ahead.
How did the rise and fall of the rank‑and‑rent model affect lead quality?
Is the quality of traffic different today than it was in the past for local businesses?
There used to be this rank and rent model that was really popular in the local space where you'd set up a website, rank it, and then, you know, sell the leads, right? I think that I've seen as a trend at conferences that is less and less popular over the years because it's harder. The opportunity for business owners is like they often all want to target the same things because they want to go after the things with volume.
Time for a one-minute break to hear from our sponsor, Previsible. So you're looking for SEO help, then you got a couple of options.
What risks do small businesses face when scaling content and link building?
You could start replying to spam from agencies that claim they can get you to rank number one on Google. You can pay an hourly rate for a consultant who will inevitably nickel and dime you with hourly charges, or you can work with a cookie cutter agency to quickly launch a strategy-less project with low success rate. None of those sound very good. Now do they? Well, that's where Previsible's integrated consulting model comes in. Previsible draws from a collective 40 years of SEO and digital marketing experience to unlock your organic growth opportunities. They build custom solutions that combine strategy, technical expertise, content, and reporting to effectively operationalize SEO for your business.
Pre-Visible's four-stage approach ensures that your SEO programs thrive.
How can reviews, awards, and social signals build authority without traditional links?
By starting off with a strategy first approach. Then they support you in your efforts to create quality content, help you identify technical issues, and most importantly, they'll work with your cross-functional teams to integrate your SEO strategies to make sure that your SEO budget actually drives results, not just your agency's bottom line. So join brands like Yelp, eBay, Canva, Atlassian, Square, all who rely on the SEO consultant. At Previsible. For more information, go to previsible.io. That's previsible P R-E-V-I-S-I-B-L-E. Io.
Sometimes you can really dominate with like the more niche you get, the more specific you get, but it's not as attractive because you don't get the immediate massive increase in leads and volume, right?
Why is YouTube outperforming LLM‑optimized content for local SEO?
But I would say long term it could be a good plan.
Thank you to Joy Hawkins, owner and president at Sterling Sky for joining us. If you'd like to contact Joy, you can find a link to her LinkedIn profile in our show notes or on the voicesofsearch.com. You can also visit her company website, SterlingSky.ca. If you haven't subscribed yet and want a daily stream of SEO and content marketing knowledge in your podcast feed, hit the subscribe button in your podcast app or on YouTube and we'll be back in your feed every week. Okay, that's all for today. But until next time, remember the answers are always in the data.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
Why is the quality of local traffic changing for businesses today?
0:00–0:43
2
How did the rise and fall of the rank‑and‑rent model affect lead quality?
0:43–1:16
3
What risks do small businesses face when scaling content and link building?
1:16–2:00
4
How can reviews, awards, and social signals build authority without traditional links?
2:00–2:47
5
Why is YouTube outperforming LLM‑optimized content for local SEO?
2:47–3:16