Who We Are
Local University (Local U) is a learning platform focused on delivering on-demand Local SEO education, online local SEO agency courses, need-to-know industry news, and in-person training seminars throughout the United States & Canada.
The faculty at Local U are all highly-experienced Local SEO professionals who possess an intricate understanding of the local search ecosystem. Our instructors and training staff have worked hands-on in a wide range of business verticals such as law, real estate, auto, home services, retail, professional services, healthcare, & many more.
Local U brings together some of the top minds in the local search space, including but certainly not limited to:
- Joy Hawkins
- David Mihm
- Mike Blumenthal
- Mary Bowling
- Joel Headley
- Colan Nielsen
- Greg Gifford
- Krystal Taing
- Mary Bowling
- Carrie Hill
On occasion, representatives from Google attend our events to help walk business owners through the myriad of features Google Business Profiles offer to small businesses.
We pride ourselves on our collegial focus and our end goal is to have every attendee go home with a lengthy list of ideas and action items they can apply to their own in-house, enterprise, or agency-client relationships.
Our Events
Local University (Local U) is a learning platform focused on delivering on-demand Local SEO education & training, need-to-know industry news, and in-person training seminars throughout the United States & Canada.
The faculty at Local U are all highly-experienced Local SEO professionals who possess an intricate understanding of the local search ecosystem. Our instructors and training staff have worked hands-on in a wide range of business verticals such as law, real estate, auto, home services, retail, professional services, healthcare, & many more.
"VERY SATISFIED" ATTENDEE
LocalU Advanced Virtual
June 2020
Typical Local U Agenda
Each Local University event features a full day of learning that combines the latest in tactics with tested tips and case studies – sure to provide you with a lengthy “to-do” list when you return to your office! While we previously conducted half-day events, we now reserve those for corporations to add to their own conferences – so if you’re looking to add LocalU content to your event, get in touch with us!
- Local, Social, and Voice – The Trifecta of Local Online Success – Erin Jones
Cultivating raving fans within the local and social communities via tried and true methods incorporating local recommendations, social content, and brand voice online. - The Best Content for Locally Targeted Pages – Carrie Hill
We’ll take a look at what content works for a localized page – from reviews to product and service descriptions and a few stops and starts in-between - Reported vs Actual – What’s Stealing Local SEO Visibility – Cindy Krum
You know what Google and other tools are reporting on your rankings and visibility but what about the things that push you down in search results that are not reported in most local SEO tools? Things like ads and PLAs in both the Map Pack and in the regular search result can push you down, and you might not even know. Similarly, things like Knowledge Graph and Knowledge Graph disambiguation can be impacted by location, making it easier or harder for your SEO efforts to be successful. In this talk, Cindy will outline how you can know when things like this, that are not regularly reported in your local SEO tools, might be impacting your ability to rank and get traffic from local SEO. - PR for Local Business: Crafting a Unique Story and Befriending Gifted Storytellers – Craig Mount
Utilize public relations for local businesses to 10x local marketing campaigns. Find out how to successfully implement PR into your agency workflow and get meaningful media mentions for local businesses. - The Power BI presentation you never knew you needed – Greg Gifford
Power BI is an amazing reporting tool, but the user interface is confusing and there’s no real documentation to help you learn how to use it. In this presentation, Greg will show you how Power BI works, basically giving you a cheat code to skip several levels ahead in knowledge. He’ll also share a life-changing agency-level rollup report that lets you slice and dice tons of client data, from life-span to organic results. You’ll wonder how you ran your agency without it…
- Entity Entropy: Managing Local Search for a 2400-Location Academic Health Center – David Mihm
Helping enterprise clients manage their local search presence isn’t easy to begin with, but Google My Business’s historically-poor understanding of the relationships between facilities, clinics, and providers makes it even more challenging in healthcare. David will share an in-depth case study of his sole consulting client for the past four years — including how he’s dealt with clinic-practitioner listings and his data-backed view of the 2020 patient journey. - The State of Reviews – Mike Blumenthal
What changes have we seen in the review landscape, how does that affect how we can market our products and services – and what can we expect to see in review marketing in the near future. - Breakout Sessions:
- Agency AMA
Joy Hawkins, Allie Margeson, Dana DiTomaso
This is your chance to get all of your Agency questions answered. How do you hire? What tactics work best for training? What tools are in your kit? - Site Reviews
Various Speakers
If you submitted your site to the site review lottery and were informed that you were chosen, this is the time to see your site through new eyes. We’ll have a variety of speakers from the day weighing in! - Expand and Conquer
Amanda Jordan, Locomotive.com
The perspective of an experienced SEO can help businesses decide where and how to expand. Learn how to use data to propose business expansions into new territories. - AMA About Managing Multiple Locations/Enterprise Accounts in GMB
Krystal Taing, Greg Gifford
Here’s your chance to ask and answer all of your multiple location GMB questions.
- Agency AMA