In 2020, we took a deep dive into how proximity impacts organic rankings for law firms. Fast forward to 2025, and we’ve revisited the concept of proximity, but this time looking at a wider variety of keywords.| Sterling Sky Inc
If you’ve read Google’s guidelines, you’ve probably seen what they say: “Choose the fewest number of categories it takes to describe your overall core business.”| Sterling Sky Inc
I’m going to share a story about one of the most frustrating issues I’ve seen business owners face with their Google Business Profile (GBP).| Sterling Sky Inc
Can you use a Google My Business virtual office? Google says NO! Learn why a virtual address for Google My Business risks suspension and why your Google Business Profile virtual office is not allowed.| Sterling Sky Inc
Wondering how to manage Google Business Profile hours? Should you set GMB opening hours to 24/7? Discover best practices, pros, and cons of optimizing Google business hours. Don’t miss these expert tips to enhance your visibility!| Sterling Sky Inc
Looking for expert SEO for homecare? Sterling Sky is a trusted home care SEO agency, offering local SEO services like GBP optimization, content creation, and reputation management to help you grow. Call today!| Sterling Sky Inc
Google reviews play a huge role in a business’s online reputation. But what happens when a review violates Google’s policies and community guidelines? Here’s a breakdown of what counts as a review policy violation and what kind of content Google is likely to remove, such as inappropriate, fake, or unauthorized reviews that may appear biased,…| Sterling Sky Inc
Recently, a user on Reddit said they had a landscape construction company and they wanted to start a landscape design business with a different name at the same address. I replied and clarified that this set up would not be allowed. But that doesn’t mean that you’re never allowed two listings at the same address.| Sterling Sky Inc
Want more Business? You Need Local SEO Services.| Sterling Sky Inc
🌟 Unlock the Secrets of Service Area Pages SEO! 🚀 Are you struggling to drive traffic to your service area pages? Need to boost your rankings for location-specific searches? Dive into this must-read blog for invaluable insights and practical tips tailored for local businesses like yours. Explore real-life service area page examples, supercharge your SEO game, and master the art of local SEO for service area businesses. Apply these strategies to your key service area pages today and witn...| Sterling Sky Inc
Local businesses should be creating and publishing content to drive traffic and conversions from their website. One of the most powerful, but in my opinion underused, online tools a business should be utilizing is a strong, local blog.| Sterling Sky Inc
We monitor changes to the Google Business Profile categories list used in the United States of America (USA), providing the most comprehensive and updated list of Google My Business categories. Explore the latest additions, changes, and removals with Sterling Sky!| Sterling Sky Inc
2025 UPDATE: Does the Number of Google Reviews Impact Ranking? [Case Study]| Sterling Sky Inc
Sick of seeing competitors beat you? Sterling Sky Inc is owned by Joy Hawkins, who has been working in the Local SEO space since 2006. Our team of experts love everything related to Local SEO & PPC.| Sterling Sky Inc
I’m extremely excited to officially announce that Sterling Sky, our renowned local SEO agency, has acquired Classy Brain.| Sterling Sky Inc
If you’re building a local SEO agency, you’ve probably heard every “growth hack” under the sun. Contracts. Cold calls. Overpromising. Churn and burn.| Sterling Sky Inc
The truth is, most local businesses are flying blind when it comes to why they rank the way they do. They’re guessing. Winging it. Making “educated” assumptions that are neither educated nor strategic. So let’s fix that. These five tools give you real visibility into what’s actually happening in your local market, and what to…| Sterling Sky Inc
Google Business Profile disappeared? Wondering why my Google Business Profile disappeared without warning? Learn the top reasons it vanishes — like deletion or suspension — and what steps you can take to recover your listing fast. Don't panic, see how to fix it now!| Sterling Sky Inc
There are a lot of courses and a lot of articles online that will tell you how to do Local SEO. The thing is, they won’t make you successful with it. There are so many ways to do it wrong which is why I want to share the three strategies that are working best today, in 2025.| Sterling Sky Inc
The Google Business Profile Forum is peer-supported and managed primarily by a group of Product Experts that have the ability to escalate issues and cases to| Sterling Sky Inc
One of the ways to improve your local SEO ranking is by optimizing your Google Business Profile (GBP). While it might seem like a simple task, small oversights—like selecting the wrong category—can severely impact your visibility in local searches. In fact, choosing the right settings can make the difference between being found by potential customers…| Sterling Sky Inc
Imagine waking up one morning and seeing ALL your Google reviews—GONE. Thousands of them… just disappeared overnight. Sounds like a nightmare, right? Well, that’s exactly what happened to a business that made one critical mistake. Not only did they lose their reviews, but their rankings tanked. And the worst part? A year later, they STILL…| Sterling Sky Inc
There has been a change to Google’s algorithm that is substantially changing traffic for tons of businesses we’ve been analyzing. I’ve spent the last 3 months analyzing tons of our clients and doing tests to see if I can figure out what changed and why. It took me so long because I actually didn’t believe what I was seeing. The good news is that I have figured out some patterns which I’m going to share with you today, and it is going to completely change advice that myself and other...| Sterling Sky Inc
Expanding your business to a new location? Optimizing for one location is simple, but things get tricky when you open multiple locations in the same city. Here’s how we helped a home service business dominate an entire market without tanking their existing rankings.| Sterling Sky Inc
Unlock the power of Local SEO for Dentists and drive more patients to your practice. Discover expert Dental SEO services designed to improve your online visibility and increase your practice’s growth!| Sterling Sky Inc
Want a simple, high-impact Local SEO tip that takes 10 minutes to implement? This one change can boost local pack rankings significantly.| Sterling Sky Inc
Discover 5 powerful SEO strategies that will skyrocket your divorce lawyer rankings and dominate local search results. Don't miss out on these game-changing tips for family law firms!| Sterling Sky Inc
✅ Yes, you can merge two Google My Business listings! ➡️ Learn how to merge duplicate Google business listings, how to delete a duplicate Google Business Profile, and more on the Sterling Sky blog. This updated guide will show you how to identify and handle different types of duplicate listings in order to successfully merge your Google Business Profile listings.| Sterling Sky Inc
Updated February 28, 2022| Sterling Sky Inc
Google business verification is key to legitimacy. Avoid common google business profiles verification reasons for failure, and ensure a smooth Google business page verification. What mistakes can get you rejected? Let's find out!| Sterling Sky Inc
Included in this Guide| Sterling Sky Inc
You’ve probably noticed Reddit absolutely dominating Google’s search results lately – especially with all the recent algorithm changes. Since links from Reddit are no-followed, I wanted to see if we could measure the impact of them.| Sterling Sky Inc
Wondering what URL you should link your GMB listing to? The homepage? A location page? Something else? See what we found when we measured how the Google My Business landing page impacted ranking in the local pack (3-pack).| Sterling Sky Inc
If you read Google’s spam report from 2022, it seems like they are doing a decent job of tackling fake reviews. In 2022, they blocked or removed over 115 million policy-violating reviews, with the majority of them caught before they were ever seen.| Sterling Sky Inc
Learn how to remove bad reviews from Google My Business. Solve "Google review decision pending" issues and remove negative Google reviews with these proven steps!| Sterling Sky Inc
On December 8th, one of our forum users asked about some serious differences they were seeing in the local pack results. The thread quickly started getting a| Sterling Sky Inc
This article is part 1 of 9 from my LocalU presentation from March 2020. If you missed the event, the videos are available for purchase here.| Sterling Sky Inc
According to Brad Wetherall, former Director of Google Business Profile Team at Google, in order to understand the difference between a disabled and suspended listing, you first have to understand the fact that Google works with multiple databases.| Sterling Sky Inc
Last year, I wrote about how frustrated I was about this business that was buying fake 5-star Google reviews. It seemed that no matter what anyone did, this business was going to get away with Google review manipulation. Every time Google took down a batch of hundreds of reviews, they just continued to buy more.| Sterling Sky Inc
Find out how to change business hours on Google Business Profile easily. This guide shows you how to edit Google Business Profile hours to keep your listing accurate and highlights additional features of Google business hours. Check it out!| Sterling Sky Inc
Sterling Sky Inc was founded in 2017 by Joy Hawkins. Joy has been working in the SEO industry since 2006, and is considered a leader within the SEO community.| Sterling Sky Inc
Keyword Stuffing is the practice of adding keywords to your name (or practitioner listing) in Google My Business to help it rank higher. It's still a very| Sterling Sky Inc
There are times when a service area business listing (a listing without an address showing) is already claimed in a Google account you don’t have access to. When that happens, Google want you to create a new listing, verify it, and then merge it with the existing one that’s live. This process can take weeks before you gain control of the live listing, and it often leads to issues with duplicate listings if Google doesn’t merge them properly. This workaround makes claiming the service ar...| Sterling Sky Inc
Those of us who work with local businesses know that strategies often always center around the business’ location. Our goal as marketers is to drive more| Sterling Sky Inc
If you’re a local business that needs help ranking on Google in either the 3-pack or organically, this is where Local SEO fits in. The issue with most SEO| Sterling Sky Inc
A Local SEO Audit is a thorough examination of the most important aspects which make up your local search strategy. It is a who, what, where, when, why, and| Sterling Sky Inc
Sterling Sky's Colan Nielsen tests whether setting a service area in your Google My Business listing affects your organic or maps ranking. Read on to find the scoop!| Sterling Sky Inc
Sterling Sky provides custom local SEO consulting and training services for agencies and businesses of any size. ✓ Monthly consulting. ✓ Advanced training.| Sterling Sky Inc
How to Control Google Search Results with Anchor Text (Yes, It Still Works!)| Sterling Sky Inc
Does the Service Area in Your Google Business Profile Impact Ranking?| Sterling Sky Inc
One of our dental clients had no option on their Google Business Profile (GBP) to edit an appointment booking link. However, even though they couldn’t edit the booking link, they still had an old non-functioning appointment URL shown on their Google Business Profile.| Sterling Sky Inc
Should You Update Citations After Moving Your Office?| Sterling Sky Inc
Why Guest Posting Is Still the #1 Link Building Strategy (And Not Spammy!)| Sterling Sky Inc
Why Guest Posting Is Still the #1 Link Building Strategy (And Not Spammy!)| Sterling Sky Inc
We recently analyzed one of our PI Lawyer clients that was declining in traffic. We mainly looked for pages with declines over the last 28 days, due to Google’s most recent algorithm updates. To be accurate, we started conducting a search for their top 2–3 keywords and took some screenshots to provide us with a “before” picture of the situation.| Sterling Sky Inc
This article explains the 2 types of suspensions, how you know if you received a suspension, why listings get suspended, clarification on if suspensions impact ranking, how to avoid a suspension, and how to get your listing reinstated if you end up getting a suspension.| Sterling Sky Inc
Service area pages are a great tactic in local SEO. Recently, we have seen service area pages perform well for some of our clients more than others. For certain industries, such as lawyers, the pages that do not perform necessarily well, still can generate an ROI because one conversion in their world can lead to thousands of dollars in revenue.| Sterling Sky Inc
Navigating the competitive legal industry requires strategic marketing. Discover essential SEO strategies tailored for Divorce Lawyer SEO and SEO for Family Lawyers to boost your online presence and stand out.| Sterling Sky Inc
Recently, I asked one of my link builders to build a link to a new page for a client of ours. Getting links is hard and generally takes hours of time.| Sterling Sky Inc
We previously wrote about a lawn care company that had 35 service area pages that were 85% similar to each other. And guess what? They all ranked well and led to new sales for the business.| Sterling Sky Inc
The guidelines for representing your business on Google are like the "Bible" of Google Business Profiles (GBP). They are referred to and studied more than any other article in the GBP help center.| Sterling Sky Inc
Discover Sterling Sky's latest insights into optimizing images for mobile search results. Explore our findings on image visibility in Google's mobile SERPs and unlock strategies for getting an image next to Google search result.| Sterling Sky Inc
If you are a business owner or a marketer who forgot the credentials to your Google business listing or a listing you manage, you can follow these steps to claim access to your listing.| Sterling Sky Inc
Do keywords in your Google Business Profile name increase ranking? See the results of our testing. And, does Google allow keyword stuffing a business name?| Sterling Sky Inc
Video verification has become the mainstream verification method for Google Business Profiles (GBP). In this article, we are covering the top three issues we see people running into with video verification and how to solve them.| Sterling Sky Inc
Are you seeking guidance on enhancing your automotive local SEO? Look no further! Our dedicated team specializes in SEO for car dealerships, delivering tailored solutions to elevate your online presence. With our expertise in car dealer SEO and auto dealer SEO, we're equipped to attract qualified leads and drive sales through effective strategies. Learn more about the techniques we have learned to help auto dealers with seo.| Sterling Sky Inc
Are you wondering "can i turn off google reviews for my business?" Negative reviews can be scary and painful as a business owner. Fortunately, there are a handful of situations where Google can disable google reviews. Read on to find out when and how to manage google reviews for business.| Sterling Sky Inc
Discover the Ultimate Guide: Remove Phone Number from Google Business with Ease! Learn the Secrets on How to Get a Business Phone Number Removed and Master the Art of Hiding Your Phone Number on Google Business. Say goodbye to unwanted calls – Unleash the Power Now!| Sterling Sky Inc
Earlier this year we discovered that pre-defined services impact ranking.| Sterling Sky Inc
When I acquired this site in 2018, a lot of people gave me weird looks and told me this type of site was dying. “Joy, who uses forums anymore?”. Well according to traffic in the last 30 days on the Local Search Forum, the answer to that question is: A lot. To be more specific, thanks to the massive increase in ranking on Google in the last 60 days, we are getting 144% more traffic than we did at this point in 2023.| Sterling Sky Inc
When people talk about what strategies they utilize in Local SEO to get their client's ranking, I often hear references to geotagging images.| Sterling Sky Inc
Business owners receive seemingly countless calls, most of which are legitimate. Unfortunately, scammers are getting better and better at emulating those legitimate calls in order to take advantage of business owners.| Sterling Sky Inc
Everyone wants to know what the key is to ranking well on Google. There are many theories about reviews being a ranking factor, but what is it about| Sterling Sky Inc
Do you need more reviews to rank better? Is your lack of reviews hurting your business? Our case study tests the impact of Google reviews on local ranking.| Sterling Sky Inc
