🚦 Getting Started Selling Local SEO

I was surprised after yesterday’s email to get so many questions about starting a local SEO agency.

Seems like a lot of you are interested in taking it on as a new project.

So, by request, I’ll be sharing some pointers on that.

This will be too much info for one email, so I’ll spread it out into multiple emails.

What You Need?

Results.

I know, sounds like putting the cart before the horse, but that’s the way that it is.

Once you build a reputation, you don’t have to worry about this. You’ll notice there are currently no case studies on the Growth Cupid site.

That being said - I should really get some up on the site cause it’s just good practice and may have even cost me potential clients who don’t know me from this industry.

Anyways, you’ve got two options here -

Work for free to show results or just rank your own site (or sites) to use as proof of results.

I would probably choose to create a rank & rent site and then once it’s ranking, that is my case study site. If it doesn’t rank, then try again with a different site until one pops.

Give yourself an easy win by using and EMD or PMD.

Best practice is to niche down - so try to sell to just roofers or just med spas or just animal hospitals, etc. So, try to do the rank & rent in the same niche.

Ditto if you’re doing free work for friend’s business or a random business you hit up.

Don’t get caught up in trying to sell to only the businesses where you live. If I only worked with Vegas clients, then I would literally have just one client right now.

BUT - do pay attention to job listings for marketing directors, SEOs, social media strategists, etc. in your area. The client that I have here in Vegas I landed by responding to a job listing with the offer of I’d be cheaper than them hiring in-house.

The job listing was for “marketing director” but the job description was literally SEO + PPC management.

This strategy works because 1) you are cheaper than them hiring in-house and having to deal with benefits and 2) knowing you are a local gives them peace of mind that they’re not getting scammed.

Plus, you can see the budget they have for hiring in-house and use that for your own quote for them.

So, notice that we don’t have a business name, LLC, business bank account, website, or anything yet. That’s cause you need those results!

Both for yourself and to show off. Cause nobody wants to pay you to rank them if you can’t actually do it.

Let’s circle back to picking your niche. It needs to be something with a good customer LTV so that you can charge a decent amount for your work.

Skip the super lucrative and super competitive stuff like lawyers and dentists.

Home service businesses are always great. So, look at a list of these somewhere and then pick one that you think you wanna go with.

Then, determine the market (aka city) where you wanna try ranking your own site in that niche. And just try it.

I mean, I hope you take the time to assess the competition first to make sure you can do it easily, right? If it looks too competitive, then try a shoulder city.

For example, I grew up just outside of Nashville so maybe I’d try in an easier area like Franklin or Hendersonville.

And here in Vegas, an easier option would be Pahrump or Boulder City.

It’s okay to stack the deck in your favor for an easy win when doing your case study site - just make sure you can deliver in a more competitive market!

Stay tuned for part two….

Coming up…

More on what I’m working on and how it’s going.

Stay awesome,

Shawna

P.S. If you’re looking for high level discussions or tips on things like local SEO and Rank & Rent, I highly recommend Jacky Chou’s Advise community. I’ve been in it for several months and there’s tons of value in it, including a SOP for local SEO.

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