Barry Schwartz was able to have an interview with local search expert, and founder of local SEO agency Sterling Sky, Inc during last months MozCon event. The two spoke about Hawkins decision to break out on her own, why she bought Local Search Forums from her mentor, and how her team has been able to make sure it remains top-notch resource for the SEO community.
Hawkins also shared a surprising finding after performing a test with businesses that lost 98% of Google reviews because they practiced review-gating, which is against Google’s review policies. In every case, Hawkins discovered that the businesses rankings hadn’t been impacted by the loss of reviews.
Check out the interview below: