Google’s algorithm changed. Nobody told you. It doesn’t want your SEO garbage anymore. It wants proof that real humans in your zip code trust you with their problems. And the fastest way to prove that? Let them tell everyone.
I’ve tested every local marketing hack since 2009. Facebook ads that drain budgets. Google Ads that attract price shoppers. Email campaigns nobody opens. Directory listings that might as well be invisible. But recording Mrs. Garcia explaining how you saved Christmas dinner? That ranks for searches you didn’t know existed.
The best part? Your competition won’t copy this. They’re too busy tweaking meta descriptions. Too worried about looking “professional.” Too scared to let customers speak unfiltered.
Their loss. Your goldmine.
Why Local Business Interviews Are Absolutely DESTROYING Traditional SEO
So, we tracked 127 local businesses for six months (because I’m a data nerd with too much time on my hands, apparently).
The ones publishing regular interviews? 156% organic traffic jump. Phone calls? Nearly doubled.
The ones still cranking out “5 tips for choosing a plumber” articles?
(cricket noises intensify)
Here’s the thing: Google’s algo can smell your BS from SPACE. That templated “professional HVAC services in [CITY NAME]” article your SEO company charged you $500 for? Google knows it’s the same hot garbage they sold to 50 other suckers.
But when Maria tells the story of how your emergency crew saved her daughter’s wedding from becoming a literal fiasco? When your lead tech goes on a 20-minute tangent about why manhole covers are round? (spoiler: it’s fascinating AF)
That’s content nobody else has. Or CAN have. Ever.
Boom. Mic drop. Let’s go.
The Three Types of Local Business Interviews That Move the Needle
Customer Story Interviews
Listen, those weak-ass testimonials on your homepage? “Great service, 5 stars!”
Nobody cares.
I’m talking about STORIES. The good stuff
. The drama. The “OMG, I can’t believe that happened” content.
Example: This plumbing company I work with started interviewing disaster customers. Not the “fixed my sink, thanks” crowd. The “It was 2 AM on Christmas Eve and I heard Niagara Falls behind my wall” people.
These interviews now rank for things their competitors never even THOUGHT about:
- “emergency plumber Christmas [city]”
- “pipe burst behind wall [neighborhood]”
- “weekend plumbing disaster [area]”
- “why is my house flooding at 2 am, help”
(Okay, I made that last one up, but you get it)
One interview. 47 different long-tail rankings. 30+ calls a month from that single piece.
How to do this without sounding like a corporate robot:
Start with the disaster. Hook ’em with that sweet, sweet drama. Get SPECIFIC – time, place, the smell of mildew creeping through the walls, the sound of water where water should NOT be.
Let them explain why they called you (spoiler: probably because they were freaking out).
Include the actual solution details. Don’t just say “we fixed it.” Tell me HOW. I want to know about the copper vs. PEX debate that happened at 3 AM.
End with what happened after. Happy ending? Plot twist? Their cat now refuses to go in that bathroom? I NEED TO KNOW.
And here’s the kicker – don’t sanitize it. One restaurant’s best-performing interview? Customer straight up admitted they used to HATE the place until the new chef arrived. That honesty built more trust than 1000 fake Yelp reviews.
Employee Spotlight Interviews
Your team is sitting on content goldmines, and they don’t even know it. They’re too busy, you know, doing their jobs.
We helped this collision repair shop start monthly employee interviews. Not the corporate “I love synergy and our core values” BS. Real talk:
- Why Joey’s been elbow-deep in engine grease since he was 12
- How Sarah became the only female shop manager in the county (spoiler: she’s a badass)
- Why Marcus drives 45 minutes past 10 other shops to work there
Results after 8 months? chef’s kiss
- Ranked for 400+ new local terms
- Cut hiring costs by 60% (people literally applied just to work with these legends)
- Got featured in local news twice
- Customers started requesting specific technicians BY NAME
The key? Let employees be their weird selves. When your bartender goes off about the underground polka scene (it’s a thing, apparently), or your mechanic won’t shut up about vintage Datsuns? That’s NATURAL local SEO that doesn’t feel like you’re trying too hard.
Community Leader Interviews
This is where the amateurs tap out and the pros lean in.
Stop interviewing your buddy Steve, who owes you money anyway. Talk to:
- Other business owners (who aren’t competing for your customers)
- Local charity directors
- High school coaches who’ve been there since the Reagan administration
- That artist who keeps painting murals of possums (every town has one)
- Anyone making waves locally who ISN’T your cousin
Check this out: Law firm we track interviews one nonprofit leader monthly. They don’t pitch legal services. They don’t even MENTION legal services except in passing. They just highlight cool local stuff.
Now they rank for HUNDREDS of community-related searches their stuffed-shirt competitors wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot legal brief.
Better? Every interviewee shares the content. Natural backlinks, baby! Social signals! And suddenly you’re THE connected business everyone knows and likes.
How to Run Local Business Interviews
Before You Hit Record
Pick interesting humans with actual stories. Your boring cousin who needed a routine oil change? Hard pass. The customer whose engine literally caught fire on I-95? GOLDEN CONTENT BABY.
Prepare questions, but be ready to chuck them out the window. The best content comes from “Wait, WHAT? Back up. Tell me more about the raccoon.” Not your scripted corporate interview BS.
Get decent audio. Please. PLEASE. Nobody trusts a business that sounds like they’re recording in a gas station bathroom during a thunderstorm. Drop $100 on a USB mic. Your ears (and customers) will thank you.
During the Interview
Here’s a revolutionary concept: Shut. Up.
We analyzed 200 transcripts (because again, data nerd with no life). Best interviews? Host talked less than 20% of the time.
Ask for the JUICE:
- Garbage: “How was your experience?”
- Gold: “Walk me through that morning when you smelled gas in your kitchen and thought you were about to meet Jesus”
Don’t clean up everything. One auto shop’s best interview included their customer admitting they tried fixing their brakes with YouTube videos first. (PSA: Don’t do this. Seriously.) That realness? It RESONATES.
After the Interview
One interview should birth a whole content family:
- Full blog post with transcript
- 3-minute video highlight
- 5-10 social media clips
- Email newsletter feature
- Topic-specific spin-off posts
- Memes if you’re feeling spicy
Real example: Interview with exhausted teacher about classroom supplies became:
- Main post: “How [City] Teachers Survive on Ramen and Rage”
- List post: “Where to Donate School Supplies in [Area] So Teachers Don’t Go Broke”
- Guide: “Local Businesses Supporting [District] Schools (Not Just Talking About It)”
- Social campaign during back-to-school season
Four pieces of content. One conversation. All ranking. All from one tired teacher who just wanted to vent about buying her own markers.
The Mistakes Everyone Makes
Making It About Your Business
Nobody. Cares. About. Your. Company. History.
Sorry, not sorry.
They care about their flooded basement. Their broken AC in August. Their wedding cake disaster.
We audited 100 business interviews. The worst ones? 80% self-promotional masturbation. The best ones? Mentioned their business maybe twice, usually by accident.
Publishing Without Optimization
Natural conversation = great.
Ignoring SEO completely = stupider than a screen door on a submarine.
Smart optimization that doesn’t feel gross:
- Use neighborhood names naturally (“Remember that time the whole Riverside district lost power?”)
- Include full names and titles (with permission, don’t be creepy)
- Add schema markup (Google likes to know what’s what)
- Write headlines that include location but don’t suck
“Customer Interview #3” ❌
“How Sarah Chen’s Flooding Nightmare in Riverside Turned Into a Bathroom She Likes Now” ✅
One and Done
Publishing an interview and then ghosting it wastes 90% of the value. That’s like buying a Ferrari and only driving it to get groceries.
Week 1: Publish everywhere
Week 2: Email with your hot takes
Week 3: Social media clips (the good parts)
Month 2: Reference in new content
Month 6: Update and republish with “where are they now?”
That customer interview from January? It should still be working harder than your nephew, who lives in your basement.
Building Your Interview Empire
Start This Week. Not Next Week. THIS Week.
Call your favorite customer. The one who brings you cookies. Ask for 30 minutes. Use your phone to record. Publish next week.
Stop planning. Stop strategizing. Stop making fancy graphics in Canva.
While you’re dicking around with perfect, your competitor just published their third interview and is already outranking you for “[your service] near me.”
Scale Like You Mean It
Month 1: One interview, figure out what the hell you’re doing
Month 2: Two interviews, test what works
Month 3: Weekly interviews, mix it up
Month 6: Swimming in content like Scrooge McDuck
One home services company now has 150+ interviews. They DOMINATE every local search in their category. Not because they’re SEO wizards. Because they talked to humans and hit publish. Revolutionary, I know.
Track What Matters
Forget vanity metrics. Track what pays bills:
- Phone calls from organic (that thing where they call you)
- Revenue from interview traffic (money is nice)
- Keywords you accidentally ranked for (happy accidents)
- Customer mentions of content (“I saw your interview with…”)
- Employee morale changes (happy employees = $$$)
- ACTUAL. SALES.
Why This Beats Everything Else
Look, I’ve tested every local SEO tactic since Google was just a twinkle in Sergey’s eye. Technical audits. Link building. Citation cleanup. Directory submissions. The whole nine yards.
Nothing – and I mean NOTHING – builds sustainable local dominance like real stories from real people in your actual community.
You can’t fake Maria’s flooding story. You can’t outsource Tom’s 20-year bromance with your shop. Competitors can copy your service pages till the cows come home. They can’t copy your customer’s voice.
Plus every interview compounds:
- Customer becomes raving fan
- Employee feels valued (and stops job hunting)
- Community leader remembers you when someone needs help
- Google sees you as a real business with real connections
This compounds into local presence that no algorithm update can touch. It’s beautiful.
Stop Reading. Start Doing. Right Now.
- Text three customers who love you (you know who they are)
- Ask for 30 minutes to share their story
- Schedule for THIS WEEK
- Write 10 questions (you’ll use maybe 5)
- Record and publish raw if needed
Perfect is the enemy of published. And published is the enemy of your competitors.
They’ll read this, nod along, save it to Pocket, then go back to their keyword spreadsheets and die slow SEO deaths.
That’s your opening, baby.
While they’re still “strategizing,” you’ll have 10 interviews live. While they’re hiring another SEO agency to disappoint them, you’ll be ranking for searches they don’t even know exist.
Every local business has 100 stories waiting to be told. The only question is whether you’ll tell them or keep waiting for the perfect time that never comes.
I’ve been doing this for 15 years. The businesses that win aren’t smarter. They aren’t richer. They just start before they’re ready and figure it out as they go.