David McSweeney

New article live over on the PPC Live blog! 📍 Local Services Ads: The Ultimate Guide to Getting Guaranteed by Google📍 For service-based business, LSAs are massively underutilised. Ads sit at the very top of search results alongside the Google Map pack, are "pay-per lead" (not per click), offer direct contact methods customers love, and feature the coveted “Google Guaranteed” badge that instantly builds trust with potential customers. I share my setup secrets and optimisation best-practices with Anu Adegbola, plus: ✨ Which businesses are eligible for Local Services Ads? ✨ Nailing the setup process ✨ Optimisation tips ✨ How to run alongside traditional Search ads Happy reading! (from the comments, obvs)

15

1 Comment

Link building doesn’t work anymore! That’s what I see so many "SEO's" say... "Can you believe your agency buys links" "How to know if your agency is buying links" "Can you still believe SEO's still pay for links" Half of these people, haven't ranked anything... Just saying. Most have corporate SEO roles with massive brands that carry a ton of authority already. But for the average business, acquiring link DOES still work. Better than ever. This page was stuck. Buried. We built one high-quality, relevant niche edit at the end of May. 📈 It jumped to Page 2. One link. Not 100. Not some fancy AI hack. Just relevance, quality, and strategy. 🚫 Don’t waste money on poor links. 💡 Use that cash to barter for real links in your space. The ones that make Google pay attention. Links still work. If your page isn’t moving, maybe you don’t have a content problem. Maybe you just have a no-authority problem.

148

73 Comments

Google needs to do a much better job at supporting local businesses operating a Google Business Profile. GBP has become very strict in 2025. The current state looks a bit like this: > Suspensions on a whim > Barely any human support > No warnings or guidance within the UI for owners The average business owner doesn't know that updating their business name or their address if they have moved location, will result in an instant suspension. Even categories and service area updates can sometimes result in a re-verification requirement... So if you run a business with a Google Business Profile, please be careful and consider the following if you're needing to update a your GBP: > Before making any changes, make sure you're prepared for a verification video. You will need signage, bills, internal access proof etc. > When changing name and/or address, update all other citations and your website first. Let those changes index, then process your GBP updates > This is anecdotal, but go slow when updating categories and service areas. It shouldn't happen, but if you make a dozen changes at once, from what I've seen, that's more likely to trigger a re-verification. > If suspended, reach out to Google support before submitting appeals. You only get 2 chances at an appeal! > Request a live video call for your video verification. Steps here: https://lnkd.in/gwahKYkA

9

3 Comments

Clicks don’t pay settlements. Cases do. . . . Personal injury SEO in 2026 is about: → Local authority → Reviews & reputation → AI visibility → Brand demand If your marketing isn’t built for this shift, you’re already behind.

35

19 Comments

I LOVED speaking brightonSEO and I bumped into many amazing people (I'll do an appreciation post and will tag everyone) but for this post I wanted to share resources. QUERY COUNTING DECK - https://lnkd.in/ePWKAVb5 QUERY COUNTING WEBINAR https://lnkd.in/eST3kq5y Here's the long and thick of why query counting works and how it can help you: 1. It gives you a VISUAL representation of a pages weighting by the volume of queries it is served for over time 2. It allows you to see what trajectory a page / group of pages / domain is heading in 3. It gives you a much better way of interpreting whether the things you are DOING are having the intended effect 4. It's easier to ascertain whether clicks are lost to either content DEVALUATION or SLIPPAGE - devaluation being worse, slippage being easier to recover from in most instances It's the same process I've used over and over again for our assets, clients etc. It's how I've ranked for SEO consultant, SEO Audits, Play Blackjack Online, No Deposit Bonus, Online Pharmacy, Secured Loans and loads of high competition queries. LEARN IT - It honestly will help you with your SEO endeavours. Are you query counting already? if so leave a comment let me know your thoughts or if you have any questions. PS whoever the guy is with that awesome t-shirt, someone tag him so I can buy him a beer 😂 #seo

159

13 Comments

From speaking to a number of senior stakeholders across a few businesses recently, I've discovered that the public perception of what "Technical SEO" is sometimes differs somewhat from my own - I've seen a few posts on here saying that Technical SEO is just pagespeed and CWV! Still, it made me think about how I'd define it, and I think for me technical SEO is about improving the Crawlability and Indexability (as in, making it possible for a page to be indexed) of a site, whereas "Content" SEO is about taking those foundations and making the pages more likely to be indexed and more likely to outrank competitors. Yes, there's some overlap there and both teams can always help each other out, but I'm absolutely sick of seeing people say technical SEO doesn't matter then listing five or six technical SEO fundamentals that should just be taken as given. Am I totally off piste here?

24

11 Comments

Great to be featured today on the Ahrefs blog in their latest post "SEO for Financial Services: How to Build Trust and Rank Higher in 2025." SEO in the finanical services industry is slightly different to many others with it sitting under the YMYL category. Google relies more heavily on wider trust signals to determine the credibility of a brand in the financial services industry; things such as reviews, brand mentions, and brand searches have more weight assigned to them. After some recent case studies of success for clients in the financial services industry, I've contributed some tips & advice along with others on how to succeed with SEO. [link in comments] If you're a finance brand looking to gain an SEO advantage in 2025, this is a must read and if you have any questions on anything, feel free to drop me a message. #finance #seo #seoconsultant #RobMaySEO ------------------------ Hi, I'm Rob - A freelance SEO consultant with over 14 years experience. By constructing SEO strategies that put results and ROI at the heart of everything I do, my track record of delivering growth for clients speaks for itself. Get found online by your target customers and improve your SEO performance today.

23

4 Comments

Another thing a lot of 'experts' are forgetting when it comes to SEO/GEO/AI-SEO - none of it works the same for EVERYONE. B2B service providers are not the same as B2C or YMYL clients. Local tradespeople are different to UK e-commerce sites. SEO is not one size fits all, so "this is what works" advice shouldn't be either.

22

3 Comments

Day 5 to Local SEO Mastery Want to strengthen your local signals on your website? 👉 Embed your Google Map location on your Contact page. Why it's effective: ✔️ Reinforces your location to Google ✔️ Improves user experience ✔️ Adds credibility to your site ✅ How to Do It: 1️⃣ Go to Google Maps 2️⃣ Search your business name 3️⃣ Click “Share” → then “Embed a map” 4️⃣ Copy the HTML and paste it into your Contact page Daily Reminder: Embed your map today. Make it easy for Google (and customers) to find you. #30DaysToLocalSEOMastery #GoogleMapsEmbed #location #LocalSEO #LocalSEOHackWithManpreet

16

6 Comments

Crawled - currently not indexed It's becoming more and more common to see sites with loads of pages marked as CCNI. In tomorrow's note on The SEO Pub, I'm going to cover a few quick tips on how to fix this problem... or to make sure it never shows up on your site in the first place. If you are not currently signed up, the link will be in the comments.

60

34 Comments

Caught up with a former MSO partner who left us for a cheaper SEO provider. They walked me through what their current SEO agency is delivering for a high four-figure retainer. For reference we were in the low five figure range for 13 locations. Here’s what they’re getting: • 3 to 5 blog posts every 60 days • Vague “technical SEO” • Reports focused on impressions, not clicks • No clear link building strategy or roadmap And the results were not helping either. Most non brand dispensary focused keywords all stuck positions 5 and below. I was seething. Not because we lost the account. More often than not, we get a call back at some point. But because they were lead to believe this McDonald’s of an SEO strategy would support growth in the name of value and price. Dispensaries deserve better than this. There are minimum standards every dispensary SEO program should meet, whether it’s handled internally or by an outside team: • A clear roadmap built around visibility growth • Top 3 rankings for “dispensary + city” and deal-related keywords for every location • Clear KPI reporting focusing on non brand traffic and revenue. • Google Business Profile strategy and communication around engagement signals like reviews, photos, and citations • Local content published monthly • Clean technical SEO that aligns with your development environment • Consistent off-page signals for both the website and GBP We call it the grind. It works. It is what leads our partners to success and even when things don’t work out, we don’t stop. Hopefully we get a chance to work with this partner again. But more importantly, I hope more operators raise the bar for what they expect.

31

17 Comments