SEO... But Everyone's Doing It Wrong — Transcript
Full transcript
- 0:00A mobile mechanic has no storefront, no
- 0:02sign, anybody can drive past, nothing a
- 0:04competitor can photograph and report to
- 0:06Google. That makes it one of the easiest
- 0:07categories in local search to fake your
- 0:09way into. Now, a mechanic in Irvine,
- 0:11California left me a comment asking me
- 0:14to take a look at that market. In a
- 0:15category built like this one, there's
- 0:16usually a pretty ugly answer for why
- 0:19they can't break into their own market.
- 0:21So, I'm going to take a look at it. I'm
- 0:22going to search mobile mechanic Irvine
- 0:24live and break it down. Mobile mechanic
- 0:28Irvine California. Excellent. All right.
- 0:31Now, as the usual, I'm going to
- 0:33completely ignore the sponsored results.
- 0:35I don't care who's buying to be on top.
- 0:36I want to see the results for which ones
- 0:39Google is rewarding the most. All right,
- 0:41and we get three results here. Eight
- 0:42reviews, number one, wow, 111 reviews,
- 0:45number two, and 44 reviews, number
- 0:47three. Fascinating. Ah, and this is a
- 0:49relatively new button, have AI get
- 0:51prices. This will have an AI agent
- 0:53actually call these businesses and get
- 0:55information for me. Now, what is
- 0:57interesting is all three of these are
- 0:59showing an actual address. That's why we
- 1:01have the directions button. Not a
- 1:02surprise. A service area business,
- 1:04that's a business where your address is
- 1:06hidden, gets severely punished by
- 1:09Google's algorithm. It's horrible,
- 1:11right? It's so misleading because if
- 1:12you're creating a GBP, Google is going
- 1:14to ask you, "Do you see customers at
- 1:16your address?" If you're a mobile
- 1:17mechanic, you'll probably say no to that
- 1:19because mobile mechanics are, well,
- 1:22mostly mobile. So, they don't often see
- 1:24customers at their actual business
- 1:26address. So, they'll say, "No." And when
- 1:28you say no, Google then says, "Well, you
- 1:30should be a service area business." And
- 1:32you don't know any better, so you say,
- 1:33"Okay, sure." And then Google penalizes
- 1:35you for it, okay? It's miserable. I hate
- 1:38this. Google tells you to hide your
- 1:40address and then penalizes you for it.
- 1:42Don't hide your address, have your
- 1:43address visible. It's okay if your
- 1:45address is your primary residence, but
- 1:47if you hide it, you will hurt in
- 1:49ranking. You will rank worse if you hide
- 1:51your address. Now, let's take a look at
- 1:53the organic pages. Another quick check
- 1:55competitiveness is to see how many of
- 1:57the GBP listings actually rank
- 1:59organically. Looks like none of them are
- 2:00ranking in the organic. So, that's a
- 2:02sign that this is not a super
- 2:04competitive space, but let's hit more
- 2:06businesses. I want to look at more than
- 2:07just the top three. Nobody ever does
- 2:09that, but here we go. Now, I will almost
- 2:12always start by taking a look at the top
- 2:13result. I'm not going to differ. Let's
- 2:15take a look at HMLS. Very interesting,
- 2:18right? Cuz look at this, the fourth
- 2:19result, which I often call the first
- 2:21loser because they're completely
- 2:22invisible. No one ever clicks more
- 2:23places, but this fourth result has the
- 2:26most reviews out of any of the top
- 2:28three. Very interesting. Let's take a
- 2:30look at their photos. We like to see a
- 2:31couple dozen photos, and they have 10.
- 2:35Kind of disappointing. Maybe they're a
- 2:36relatively new business, but it's very
- 2:38easy to get more photos. Basically,
- 2:40whenever you're doing a job, take a
- 2:42photo of it and then put it on your GBP.
- 2:44Geotagging photos is helpful. A study
- 2:46came out last year that showed more rank
- 2:49improvement if you upload geotagged
- 2:50photos than if you upload photos that
- 2:52don't have a geotag. Taking an actual
- 2:55photo with a smartphone will
- 2:56automatically geotag the photo, so you
- 2:58don't need to do anything. It'll geotag
- 3:00it with where you actually are, which
- 3:02can help show Google that you do service
- 3:04at that location. It can help to improve
- 3:06your rank map at that hyper-local spot.
- 3:08Very simple to do. Every time you're at
- 3:09a job, take a photo, upload it to your
- 3:11GBP. We should be seeing dozens of
- 3:12photos, not like eight. All right. Now,
- 3:15let's take a look at their reviews. I do
- 3:16want to see that they've replied to all
- 3:18of their reviews, and they haven't
- 3:19replied to any of their reviews. A
- 3:21strange thing to see for a number one
- 3:23ranked business that they don't have
- 3:24very many photos, they don't have very
- 3:26many reviews, and they haven't replied
- 3:28to their reviews. Let's take a look at
- 3:29their services. Battery. Okay, so not
- 3:32like auto battery maintenance, that
- 3:34sounds fine. Auto battery replacement,
- 3:35that sounds fine. But like battery
- 3:38brakes, like you need a little bit more
- 3:39detail on what the service actually is.
- 3:41But okay, closes at 3:00 a.m. That's a
- 3:43really weird hour. 9:00 a.m. to 3:00
- 3:45a.m. So, they take 6 hours off to sleep.
- 3:47I guess that kind of makes sense, right?
- 3:49We know that if somebody searches for a
- 3:52service, your service, and you're
- 3:54closed, you're less likely to rank,
- 3:56right? Your opening hours affects your
- 3:58rank position. So, it's super common
- 4:00that we see a bunch of 24-hour
- 4:01businesses to take advantage of that.
- 4:03Google says that if you are shown as
- 4:05being open, you have to be able to
- 4:07dispatch to actually serve customers. I
- 4:09guess they figure 9:00 a.m. to 3:00
- 4:10a.m., maybe it's a one-person shop, they
- 4:12can answer the phone, and then they take
- 4:14this time to sleep. Anyway. All right.
- 4:16Let's take a look at their actual
- 4:17website here. I'm interested in seeing
- 4:19what they've done to rank considering
- 4:21the weaknesses in their GBP. But, quick
- 4:23check for the size of the website, how
- 4:25much relevance have they built, is how
- 4:27many index pages they have, and they
- 4:29have four. So, almost none. Wow. Okay.
- 4:33If I look at their title tag, I want to
- 4:35see mobile mechanic, and I want to see
- 4:37the city name. I see mobile mechanic,
- 4:39but that's because of their brand name,
- 4:41and uh San Jose and Orange County. So, I
- 4:43don't see Irvine. And then their H1,
- 4:45they also don't mention it. They do have
- 4:47it here, mobile mechanic, uh but they
- 4:49don't mention it in their H1. I don't
- 4:51like how big this hero image is. I know
- 4:53it looks really fancy and smooth and
- 4:55clean, but I'd like this to be smaller,
- 4:57so this content below the fold is
- 5:00actually above the fold. Ask our AI
- 5:02mechanic, really weird that they're
- 5:04highlighting that. This very much looks
- 5:06like a vibe coded website. It's a very
- 5:09common, like this line scroll here kind
- 5:11of gives it away. 20 years of
- 5:13experience, 500 repairs, feels weird
- 5:15considering they have eight reviews, if
- 5:17I'm honest, right? I do like this that
- 5:19you know, what happens after you call,
- 5:21what we can help with. Okay, pricing is
- 5:23good, but these aren't links. These are,
- 5:26you know, so we I would want to see a
- 5:28lot more content here. Again, they're
- 5:29ranked number one, so this is really
- 5:30kind of a surprise. Just general owner,
- 5:33serving Orange County and San Jose, and
- 5:35that's it. This looks like a rank and
- 5:38rent website. This looks like a rank and
- 5:40rent. This does not look like a real
- 5:42business. What do the reviews actually
- 5:43say? Yeah, so I just randomly choose
- 5:46someone, and most of the reviews are in
- 5:48the same region, so they don't look like
- 5:49fake reviews at least at first glance.
- 5:51This does not look like a real business.
- 5:53I got to be honest. Um yeah, I'm
- 5:56interested in the John and Steven. I
- 5:57just want to see to compare it to what
- 5:59HMLS looks like. Now, what is
- 6:01interesting, right? We know that Google
- 6:04rewards businesses that keyword stuff
- 6:06their service into their business name.
- 6:08So, they have HMLS mobile mechanic. So,
- 6:12my search phrase mobile mechanic is in
- 6:14their GBP name. Now, I wish this weren't
- 6:16true. I wish Google didn't reward
- 6:18businesses for keyword stuffing services
- 6:20into their name, but Google does, right?
- 6:22So, that could be a huge part of why
- 6:25they're ranking with the fewest number
- 6:27of reviews, a tiny website, very little
- 6:30relevance. They've just keyword stuffed
- 6:31their name and they've said mobile auto
- 6:33service, not mobile mechanic. All right,
- 6:35let let's take a look at how else
- 6:36they're doing. Where are the photos?
- 6:38Let's see. Okay, almost no photos. Same
- 6:41issue. Get more photos. Just take a
- 6:43photo of the jobs you do and put them on
- 6:45there. Uh reviews, no negative reviews,
- 6:47but they are replying to the reviews.
- 6:49So, good to see that. What do their
- 6:51services look like? Almost no services.
- 6:54Why would you only list five things? You
- 6:55can you can put as many services as you
- 6:57want. You're mobile mechanic. You can
- 6:59list anything that come to mind for what
- 7:01you would be able to help people with
- 7:03and you've gone with these five things.
- 7:06Battery, brakes, tires, air and cabin
- 7:08filter replacement, oil change. That's
- 7:10it. That's all they do. You really need
- 7:12more more services than five. Let's take
- 7:14a look at what their website looks like.
- 7:16They don't have a website. I I was
- 7:18looking for the website link. I was
- 7:19like, "Where's the website link?"
- 7:20There's no website. Okay. So, they're
- 7:22doing extraordinarily well. They're
- 7:23ranked number two. They don't have a
- 7:26website and they list five services on
- 7:29their GBP. So, their 111 reviews really
- 7:32doing some heavy lifting for them here.
- 7:34Notice they're in Laguna Hills. They're
- 7:35not even in Irvine. That's what I
- 7:37searched for. So, really impressive that
- 7:40they're ranking this well with just a
- 7:42GBP. We rarely rarely see GBPs with no
- 7:46website ranking for any search term that
- 7:48has any competitiveness at all. So, HMLS
- 7:52Mobile Mechanic, yeah, they have a vibe
- 7:53coded website that's eight pages, but
- 7:56it's a lot more than what John and
- 7:57Steven have. So, another reason that
- 8:00HMLS is ranking so well is that John and
- 8:02Steven don't even bother to have a
- 8:03website. All right, so maybe this is
- 8:05just a really low competition space.
- 8:07Let's take a look at Johnny's Mobile
- 8:08Auto Repair. He seems to have a bunch of
- 8:10photos. Still not very many. Still not
- 8:12very many photos. This is such an easy
- 8:14niche to get lots of photos for. Still
- 8:16missing a bunch. What do we have on his
- 8:18services?
- 8:19>> [laughter]
- 8:19>> Come on.
- 8:20Auto engine diagnostic, battery, oil
- 8:22change, steering, suspension repair.
- 8:23That's it. Just those four. Different
- 8:26than the five services John and Steven
- 8:28offered, right? The first thing we do
- 8:30for any new client is we audit their
- 8:33GBP. We look at their category, their
- 8:36primary category. We look at their
- 8:38secondary categories. We look at their
- 8:39services. Our goal is to have at least
- 8:42five or six categories and 30 to 40
- 8:45services on their GBP. That's what we
- 8:47want to see. There's no dilution, right?
- 8:50Sometimes people say there's dilution,
- 8:51you add secondary categories, it hurts
- 8:53your ability to rank for the primary.
- 8:55That's wrong. There's no dilution effect
- 8:57at all. We've tested this so so many
- 8:58times. There's no dilution. But, when
- 9:00you add secondary categories, when you
- 9:02add services, you increase the chance
- 9:03that you're going to rank for those
- 9:05things. So, we want to add everything
- 9:08you do, everything you offer onto your
- 9:11GBP to have the highest probability of
- 9:14actually ranking for them. Now, let's
- 9:16take a look at their reviews. They have
- 9:17some negative reviews. Are they
- 9:18responding? They're not responding to
- 9:20the positive ones. Let's take a look at
- 9:21the low reviews. So, they are responding
- 9:23to the low reviews, but not great.
- 9:26Hello, great job on creating a false
- 9:28narrative. So, when we respond to
- 9:30negative reviews, we don't want to be
- 9:32insulting cuz remember, we're not
- 9:34responding to the person who left the
- 9:36review. What we're doing is responding
- 9:39to everyone who sees this review and is
- 9:41thinking about calling your business,
- 9:43right? You're not responding to Ernest,
- 9:46you're responding to the people who read
- 9:48Ernest's review. So, you want to be
- 9:50apologetic, you want to say you're going
- 9:51to make it right, you're sorry about
- 9:53what happened, please give me a call and
- 9:55we'll fix this, etc., etc. Come on,
- 9:58they're bringing like text message
- 9:59receipts, not awesome. Like, I don't
- 10:01like this response. I'm Johnny, maybe
- 10:03they're completely right. And Ernest had
- 10:06horrible brakes that he brought in,
- 10:08Johnny said don't do it, but frankly it
- 10:10doesn't matter. Like, he still installed
- 10:12it, he still has to stand by it. This is
- 10:15why if you bring your own parts to a lot
- 10:17of shops, they won't install them for
- 10:19you to avoid this type of situation.
- 10:22Beyond that, this is not an appropriate
- 10:24response. This is not bad, like they're
- 10:26basically just saying I believe you'd
- 10:28reviewed the incorrect business, but not
- 10:30the standard I hold yourself to I mean,
- 10:32again, not a great response if I'm being
- 10:34honest. It would be something like,
- 10:36"Hey, we don't have a record of anyone
- 10:38with that name that we've ever served
- 10:40before. Are you sure this is the right
- 10:41business, etc., etc.?" And then we have
- 10:44a bunch of no responses. So, not great.
- 10:47Johnny gets pretty defensive in his
- 10:48negative reviews. Let's take a look at
- 10:49his website. What can I say? Well, that
- 10:52explains why HMLS is able to rank number
- 10:54one with a website that has eight pages
- 10:56indexed. This is not a competitive space
- 10:59to rank in. Number one has eight pages
- 11:01indexed, kind of looks like a fake
- 11:02website, fake business. Number two, no
- 11:05website at all. Number three is linked
- 11:08to a broken Instagram profile. Let me
- 11:10look at number four. Mecca Medix, how
- 11:12many photos does Mecca Medix have? Let's
- 11:14see. They have a good number of photos.
- 11:16Still not as many as I'd like to see,
- 11:17but a decent number. How are they doing
- 11:19on the reviews? Are they responding? Not
- 11:22a great response to negative review.
- 11:24Incorrect. At least he responded. Looks
- 11:27like they're responding to all of the
- 11:28reviews, that's good. Let's take
- 11:30specifically at the lowest. This is a
- 11:33solid negative review response, right?
- 11:35This is the type of response that we
- 11:36want to see. This is This is good,
- 11:38right? We're happy to address it.
- 11:39Contact us directly, etc. So, that is
- 11:41the way to do it. What do we say here?
- 11:43All right, so this is I take it back cuz
- 11:45this is obviously just the same exact
- 11:47thing copy-pasted. That doesn't look
- 11:48very good. Cuz remember, most of the
- 11:50time when people are seeing your
- 11:52negative reviews, they've clicked lowest
- 11:54and then they're scrolling through,
- 11:56right? So, if your negative review
- 11:57responses are the exact same thing
- 11:59copy-pasted, it's going to be very
- 12:01obvious, right? This is very obvious.
- 12:04And of course, Safety Prime US
- 12:06Incorporated is a weird name, chosen not
- 12:09to show them on their profile. So, this
- 12:11is often a sign spam, basically. Spam,
- 12:15fake reviews, competitors leaving you
- 12:17negative reviews, stuff like that, when
- 12:19they've decided to hide their reviews,
- 12:21to not show them. So, obvious signal
- 12:23there that this maybe was just a
- 12:26competitor or something else. Maybe it's
- 12:28real, but anyway, what do we have here?
- 12:30And yeah, this is the response I saw
- 12:32before, just flat-out incorrect. This
- 12:34isn't a bad response, but I want this to
- 12:37be less defensive. This comes across
- 12:39very defensive, right? Yeah. So, not
- 12:43horrible, but not great. See, this is
- 12:45not bad. And then they thank you. Yeah,
- 12:47so So, not bad, but he could be a lot
- 12:49better. Mecca Medex, if that's how it's
- 12:52pronounced, could be a lot better. How
- 12:53are their services? Kindly. Look at
- 12:55this. Look at this list of services. How
- 12:56are they number four? It's interesting,
- 12:58right? So, yeah, they have a ton. And I
- 13:01like this. Mobile engine like This is a
- 13:03decent tune-ups, tune-ups.
- 13:06It's repeated. The spelling Oh, yeah,
- 13:08they have a space there and no space
- 13:10there. That's keyword stuffing. We don't
- 13:12need to do that. Tire change, tire
- 13:13changes. We don't need to do that. We
- 13:15don't need to pluralize like this.
- 13:17Google works based on entities, not
- 13:19keywords. So, we don't need to keyword
- 13:20stuff services like this. Water pump,
- 13:22water pumps. It's better than just
- 13:24having four, right? Having more services
- 13:27rarely causes issues unless it's like
- 13:29very obvious spam, but yeah, we still
- 13:32don't want to keyword stuff like that.
- 13:33Let's take a look at how their website
- 13:35looks. Oh, this is a franchise.
- 13:38Okay, so when I do the site colon search
- 13:41like this, I'm telling Google I want to
- 13:42see all the pages underneath this
- 13:45folder, and you can see there's only
- 13:47one. So, they only have the one page for
- 13:51Newport Beach, and they have Newport
- 13:53Beach listed here. Now, I of course was
- 13:55looking for Irvine. They have Newport
- 13:57Beach listed here. Do they have anything
- 13:58that actually talks about Newport Beach?
- 14:01No, they have nothing that actually
- 14:02talks about Newport Beach, and I don't
- 14:04like this, right? They they give a phone
- 14:06number for a different location there.
- 14:08Is the phone number Newport Beach? 3932,
- 14:11does it match? 3932, so the phone number
- 14:13for Newport Beach matches, but they give
- 14:14another phone number on there. Let's
- 14:16take a look at how big their overall
- 14:17domain is. Yeah, 382, so it's a
- 14:20franchise a multi-location site. Let me
- 14:22Can I see another location? Yeah, so
- 14:24look at what they've decided to do here.
- 14:26Mobile Mechanic, they have one page for
- 14:28each, and if I click on Bakersfield,
- 14:31it's almost the same page. Now, it's
- 14:34This is a different page, but again,
- 14:36this doesn't actually talk about
- 14:37anything related to Bakersfield. This
- 14:39just spams Yeah, this is the Newport
- 14:42Beach copy, right? This is the almost
- 14:44exact copy of the Newport Beach page.
- 14:46So, they rank number four in a space
- 14:49where there's no competition. There's no
- 14:50competition, right? Horrible like
- 14:53eight-page website, no website, broken
- 14:56Instagram profile. How are they not able
- 14:58to beat that? Easy, okay? Because they
- 15:00haven't built any relevance. They have
- 15:02the exact same page for Lebec and for
- 15:05Newport Beach. All they've done is find
- 15:08and replace the city name. That simply
- 15:10doesn't work, and there's absolutely no
- 15:12excuse to do that when AI exists to
- 15:15write your content for you. Like if I
- 15:17pull up my Core 30 Agent, this is our
- 15:19software that researches and writes
- 15:21local SEO content for you. So, if I pull
- 15:24this up, I can easily come in here and
- 15:26do mobile mechanic, tick the box, say
- 15:29that I want service page for mobile
- 15:31mechanic with six images, and then I'll
- 15:34hit full auto, start build, and start.
- 15:37And now, it's doing the research for
- 15:38mobile mechanic, generating the outline,
- 15:40doing the research, and it's going to
- 15:41write me fabulous content about a mobile
- 15:44mechanic in this location that matches
- 15:46Newport Beach, right? That builds the
- 15:49right trust and relevance so that Mecca
- 15:52Medics can actually rank here. This is
- 15:54the kind of thing that you can only see
- 15:57when you actually start to pull up map
- 15:59packs and dive in and get an idea of
- 16:02who's doing what and who's ranking. And
- 16:03every single Tuesday I sit down with the
- 16:05people in my pro community and do this
- 16:06exact same thing, except it's their
- 16:08business that we pull up on the screen.
- 16:10They'll share their screen, we can pull
- 16:11up their GBP, their website, and their
- 16:13categories, their rank maps, and we can
- 16:15work out what's actually broken and what
- 16:17needs to be fixed. It's not
- 16:19pre-recorded, there's no general advice,
- 16:20it's a real diagnosis on their real
- 16:23businesses, okay? So, if you want to be
- 16:25one of those, the link to join the pro
- 16:27group is in the description. It comes
- 16:29with the core 30 agent local SEO
- 16:31software. If you join, come hang out
- 16:33with us. Yeah, so I'm just curious. So
- 16:36far, these are horrible. Let me take a
- 16:37look. Who is all the way down here and
- 16:40how are they ranked so poorly? So,
- 16:42mobile mechanic, just playing up mobile
- 16:44mechanic. That's the business name,
- 16:45right? Solid business name. Again,
- 16:47keyword stuffing their GBP. Their
- 16:49service area business, they don't have a
- 16:50listed address. Makes sense, but it
- 16:53hurts their ability to rank. Almost
- 16:55certainly, one of the reasons they're
- 16:56all the way down here is because they're
- 16:58service area business. I would guess if
- 17:00they added an address to their GBP,
- 17:03their rank position would get so much
- 17:05better overnight, okay? Let's take a
- 17:07look at their photos. No photos, like
- 17:09six photos. They need more photos. Let's
- 17:11take a look at their at their reviews.
- 17:14They responded to this one, this one,
- 17:16great, but they didn't respond to the
- 17:17negative review. Let's take a lowest.
- 17:19Negative reviews are so much more
- 17:21important to respond to than positive.
- 17:23No response, no response, no response.
- 17:25And here's this one, AND WOW! OH, MAN.
- 17:29Imagine being so entitled that you call
- 17:31a business and tell them how much they
- 17:33should charge for services. Boy, if I
- 17:35were them, I would want to edit this. I
- 17:37don't want to call a business that talks
- 17:39to their customers like this. I mean,
- 17:41would you? Do you see this and think,
- 17:43"Yeah, I'm going to give them a call."
- 17:45Oh, man. Imagine being so entitled. Who
- 17:47talks to their customers like that? And
- 17:50a venue where other customers are going
- 17:52to see it. Wow. Okay. And they have no
- 17:55website. So, not only do they have no
- 17:58address shown, they have no website
- 18:00shown. Very, very easy to fix this
- 18:02problem. Show an address, build a
- 18:04website. This is not a challenging space
- 18:07to rank in, okay? You should be able to
- 18:09rank in the top three pretty readily.
- 18:12All four of these, they're all making
- 18:13some pretty basic and fairly significant
- 18:16errors in terms of building up trust and
- 18:18relevance with Google's algorithm, with
- 18:20AI systems. They're still ranked on top
- 18:22because this is a very low competition
- 18:24space. All right, that's Mobile
- 18:25Mechanics in Irvine. If you want to see
- 18:27what this looks like in a category
- 18:28that's full of the exact opposite, a
- 18:31very, very competitive space, Personal
- 18:33Injury Lawyer Houston is the one. I'll
- 18:35link to that video right here. See you
- 18:37guys later.
About this transcript
This page contains the full transcript of SEO... But Everyone's Doing It Wrong by Caleb Ulku, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 3,760 words across 545 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.
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