When it comes to local SEO, many people wonder how to keep their website ranking strong and grow their brand authority quickly. One common question is whether you should keep building foundational assets like GStacks, press releases, and Batch Geo profiles if your website already ranks well with just tier one backlinks, Web 2.0s, and citations. The short answer is yes, but with some important details to consider.
In this article, I’ll walk you through the steps I take to build a solid local SEO campaign. I’ll explain why building branded assets and focusing on site efficiency is important, how to check the health of your campaign, and what to do if you’re working with a new or existing business. Whether you’re managing your own SEO or running campaigns for clients, these tips will help you create a strong foundation for long-term success in local search.
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Always Build Branded Assets to Strengthen Your Brand
Even if your website is already ranking well, it’s a good idea to keep building branded assets. What are branded assets? These are online properties and profiles that mention your business and help Google understand your brand better. Examples include Google Stacks, G Sites, press releases, and geo-batch listings.
When a campaign is performing well in search results, you might think it’s okay to stop building links or other assets. But I don’t recommend taking your foot off the gas entirely. Instead, keep adding to your brand’s online presence over time. This steady effort helps maintain your rankings and build stronger brand authority.
In fact, setting up Google stacks or at least a G Site is part of my standard process when starting any local SEO campaign. These tools help improve what Google knows about your business’s branded location, which is a big factor in local search rankings.
How I Schedule My Local SEO Work
To keep my local SEO projects organized and effective, I use a schedule I call the “Local SEO Schedule.” It helps me know what to do and when to do it. Here’s a simple version of how I approach things:
- Start with an Audit or Competitive Link Analysis
For existing businesses, I do a full SEO audit to check the health of the campaign. For new businesses, I do a competitive link analysis because they often don’t have much of a digital presence yet. - Build or Improve Website Structure
I focus on site efficiency, which means making sure the website is easy for Google to crawl and understand. For most of my local clients, especially tree care contractors, I build a new site myself. If clients want to keep their existing site, I provide detailed instructions for their webmaster to follow. - Start Building Brand Authority with Branded Assets
This step involves creating profiles and other online assets that help Google recognize your business location as strong and trustworthy.
This schedule helps me focus on the two most important things in local SEO right now: brand authority and site efficiency.
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What Does a Full SEO Audit Include?
A full SEO audit is a detailed checkup of your online presence. There are four main parts:
- Google’s Understanding of Your Local Entity: What does Google know about your specific business location? This includes checking your Google Business Profile (GBP) and how it’s set up.
- On-Page Analysis of Your Website: How well is your website optimized? This looks at things like keywords, site structure, and technical SEO.
- On-Page Analysis of Your Google Business Profile: This includes checking categories, descriptions, photos, and other GBP details.
- Off-Page Analysis (Backlinks): I review the links pointing to your site and see how strong they are.
For my own local SEO clients, I also look at engagement signals by checking Google Business Insights, Google Search Console, and website analytics. These tools show how people find and interact with your business online, whether through maps, organic search, or your website.
Site Efficiency and Structure Matter a Lot
Many websites I audit have poor structure and a lot of technical SEO problems. This causes what some call “crawl resistance” — meaning Google’s bots have trouble crawling and understanding the site properly. When this happens, Google is less likely to rank the site well, especially in local search.
Site efficiency includes having a proper site structure that is easy to navigate and free from errors. This helps Google index your pages correctly and improves your chances of ranking higher.
That’s why I usually build new websites for my clients rather than fixing old, inefficient ones. If they want to keep their existing websites, I provide clear instructions for their webmasters to make the necessary improvements.
Building Brand Authority for Each Location
Brand authority means how trustworthy and well-known your business is in Google’s eyes. For local businesses with multiple locations, each spot is treated as its own “branded location.” Google creates a knowledge graph for each branded location, showing information about that specific store or office.
Our goal is to help Google build out this knowledge graph with many supporting assets. This is why I created the Brand Builder service — to quickly create profiles and other online assets that support your branded location. When this is done right, within about six weeks, Google usually shows your branded assets on the first two pages of brand search results.
Building brand authority fast is about showing Google consistent, trustworthy signals that your business is real and active in your local area.
Keep Adding Branded Assets with Brand Expander
Brand Expander is another service I use to continuously build out branded profiles and interlink them. This helps keep your brand authority growing over time. Once a profile is published, I recommend adding its URL to your website’s ID page, including it in schema markup, and embedding it in Google Sheets linked on the site. This creates a strong web of connections that Google loves.
One great thing about Brand Expander is that it’s designed to be easy to manage. You don’t need to do it yourself – a virtual assistant or data entry employee can handle the work. This makes it affordable and efficient to keep building brand authority for every client or location.
Answering the Question: Should You Keep Building Foundational Assets?
To sum up, even if your website starts ranking with just tier one backlinks, Web 2.0s, and citations, you should still build foundational branded assets like GStacks, press releases, and Batch Geo listings. These are part of the “brand builder” process and are set up at the very beginning of a campaign.
Building these assets helps improve brand authority, which is one of the two most important factors in local search today (the other being site efficiency). Stopping this process too soon can slow your progress or make your rankings less stable.
So, keep adding new assets over time, monitor your campaign’s health with audits and analytics, and make sure your website stays efficient and easy to crawl. This approach will give you a solid foundation for local SEO success.
FAQs About Local SEO and Brand Authority
1. What are branded assets and why are they important?
Branded assets are online profiles, websites, and pages that mention your business. They help Google understand your business better and build trust, which improves your local search rankings.
2. Can I stop building backlinks if my site is already ranking?
It’s okay to slow down on building tier one backlinks if your site is ranking well, but don’t stop building branded assets and other foundational elements. These keep your brand authority strong and support your rankings over time.
3. What does site efficiency mean?
Site efficiency means your website is structured well and easy for Google to crawl and understand. This includes fixing technical errors and making sure the content is organized properly.
4. How long does it take to build brand authority?
With a good brand builder strategy, you can start seeing stronger brand authority in about six weeks as Google indexes your new branded assets.
5. Can a virtual assistant help with building branded assets?
Yes! Services like Brand Expander are designed so that a virtual assistant can manage most of the work, making it easier and more affordable to keep building your brand.
Conclusion
Building a strong local SEO campaign is about more than just getting a few backlinks. It’s about creating a solid foundation with proper site structure and building brand authority through multiple online assets. Even if your website starts ranking with basic backlinks and citations, you should continue to add branded assets like GStacks, press releases, and batch geo listings to keep your campaign moving forward.
Start every campaign with a full audit or competitive analysis, focus on site efficiency, and then build your brand authority with a steady flow of new profiles and assets. This approach will help you rank better in local search and make your business more visible and trusted by Google and potential customers.