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Timeboxing Local SEO 

For the first time in over a decade, the future of search engine optimization seems to be a complete uncertainty. While the algorithms have always been a bit of a black box, there was never a question as to whether or not improving search rankings was worth the effort. Now, in the age of AI, chatbots are taking a bite out of search queries and our willingness to hunt and peck through links for answers is on a steep decline. At the same time, it’s never been easier to spin up keyword-rich articles and ‘SEO content’ that is now flooding the internet.

All that being said, I tend to look at this problem more as a user than a marketer. When I do, it leads me to the conclusion that the last aspect of search that I believe will be disrupted is local. From my own experience, whenever I am looking for a physical service or good where proximity matters, I am still relying on Google for these queries 100% of the time. Until I can get as rich of an experience elsewhere (which includes maps, reviews, photos, links, etc.) then it’s safe to assume that this is not likely to change anytime soon.

So this all leads me to the point of this article, which is that local SEO is still a safe bet for MSPs and an area that I believe could use some time and attention. The problem is that “time and attention” is the most valuable resource that you have. If you are going to invest that into an activity such as this, you want to make sure that it is in minimal, controlled doses and with a high likelihood of an expected result.

This is why I reached out to some of the best Marketers in our industry to ask them the following question:

“What is a proven, local SEO hack that MSPs can implement in 30 minutes or less?” 

Here is what they said…

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Complete Missing Details

Nate Freedman, Founder of Tech Pro Marketing & MSP Sites made a suggestion that at the surface may seem obvious, but is rarely executed to the extent required. As he pointed out; “In just 30 minutes, MSPs can significantly boost their local SEO by optimizing their Google Business Profile. Start by ensuring all information—like your address, phone number, and business hours—is accurate and consistent with your website. Add relevant keywords to your business description and list your service areas and specific services. For many IT support-related searches, Google Business Profiles often rank higher than websites on the SERP, making these quick updates even more impactful for local visibility.”

As an experiment, I did a local search for IT Support companies and I noticed that as I got past the 3rd page of Google results, almost all of the listings were missing key business details. This included information such as social links, images, products, services and categories that were consistently present in the top ranking providers. It became pretty obvious that while proximity to my exact location was being heavily weighed, the more detailed the listings, the higher they were ranking. The exceptions to this were almost always companies that had detailed listings but also had poor reviews. 

Upload Team Photos 

Hunter Nelson of Tortoise & Hare Software also had some really tactical advice to share. As he explained, “Just like other social platforms, Google Business Profiles love fresh content, especially when it includes rich media. One of the simplest ways to keep your profile active and maintain visibility is to upload photos regularly. This could be something as easy as snapping a quick picture of your team working on a project in the office, attending a networking event, or engaging with clients on-site. Do this once a month to maintain an active presence and expand the reach and visibility of your brand’s profile on Google search.”

What I love about this idea is that it is easy to stack onto other activities and delegate. You can make taking photos part of a project scope or meeting agenda and guarantee that it gets done on a routine basis by whomever is responsible for performing the actual work. You can also set up a shared folder so that team members know exactly where to deposit the photos after they are taken. From there, the posting of the photos can be done in just a few minutes on your lunch break, or can even be outsourced to a virtual assistant. 

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Ask For Feedback

Scott Millar of IT Rockstars put an interesting spin on his idea that I had never thought of. He suggests to; “Encourage your clients to leave a review and incorporate keyword-rich details. For example, if you helped them recover a server, ask them to mention the specifics of the issue and how your team resolved it. This not only adds authenticity to the feedback but also feeds Google with niche keywords that aren’t as common. Over time, these details can help boost your ranking for longer-tail keywords and less competitive search terms, making it easier for potential clients to find you when they’re searching for highly specific services or solutions.” 

Adding an automated feedback loop to your service delivery and project processes may take more than 30 minutes of time and effort to implement, but sending a one-time bulk or individual email doesn’t. You can easily export customer info from your PSA and pull it into your marketing platform (if these are not already connected) and segment the audience by those who are most likely to have had a positive experience. From there, getting these keyword-rich details is really just a matter of the context of your email – and how nicely you ask. It may even be helpful to include an example review so that you can show them, rather than tell them, the type of feedback you are hoping for. 

Syndicate Your Content 

Paul Green of MSP Marketing Edge definitely took the prize for the most creative idea. He suggests that MSPs should; “Take your latest blog post and use ChatGPT to generate a concise summary. Once you have that, log into your Google Business Profile and post it as an update. Be sure to add a button—’Learn more’ for example—and link it directly to the full blog on your website. This not only drives traffic but also signals to Google that your site is active and engaging. If you really want to maximize the value of that content, take it a step further by adapting the blog into a LinkedIn Newsletter. This way, you’re repurposing the same material across multiple platforms, expanding your reach, and engaging different segments of your audience with minimal extra effort.”

I thought this was an excellent example of how to utilize the “updates” feature on your Google Business Profile. Coming up with original content is always tedious and time consuming and doing so for the sole purpose of a profile update can seem like it’s not worth the effort. As Paul suggests, taking content that already exists, summarizing it as original content, and then syndicating it on your Google Business Profile with a call-to-action is something that can easily be done in less than 30 minutes. You can also just add this into your content workflow so that every time you publish a blog post, you create this update in the same way you would post the article to LinkedIn, Facebook, or X. 

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Check Your Schema

Scott Millar earned some extra credit on this project by offering multiple great ideas. Probably the most technical, but equally important suggestion was to; “Ensure that your schema is properly set up—this is essentially how you tell Google what your website is about. Schema markup helps search engines understand the content and structure of your site, which is crucial for SEO. If you’re using WordPress, tools like RankMath make it easy to configure this. You can set your business type as a ‘local business,’ connect all your relevant social media profiles, and provide key business details. Doing this sends strong signals to Google, helping it categorize your site accurately and improving your visibility in local search results.”

I had never used RankMath before, so I did some research into the schema markup settings for local SEO specifically. In doing so, I came across this great knowledgebase article that they produced which details a video and step-by-step instructions that explain how to fill out each detail. Given that most of these are just basic details about your company that you should have memorized (such as your phone number) I would imagine it should take no longer than 30 minutes to install this plugin and complete the local SEO tab. To close the loop, a lot of these are the same details that Nate Freedman had suggested completing on your Google Business Profile, but in this case you are setting it on the backend of your website in hopes that Google then pulls that into their results. 

Conclusion

My first observation from working on this project was that having smart friends that help MSPs grow everyday really makes my job that much easier. My second observation was that there is so much low-hanging fruit here for MSPs to grab onto that can improve local SEO rankings. Some of these ideas are simple one-off tasks that you can knock out immediately, while others can be stitched into recurring workflows to the point where they become almost automatic. Now that you are armed with the knowledge and have a clear expectation of the time commitment, the only thing left is for you to make it happen.

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