Why Most Local Businesses Fail at SEO: Ronald Osborne

Nov 11, 2024

I’m Danny Leibrandt, founder of Pest Control SEO, where we help pest control companies grow their businesses through search engine optimization. Recently, I sat down with someone who’s kind of a legend in the local SEO game—Ronald Osborne. If you follow the local SEO scene on YouTube, you’ve probably seen his channel, Osborne Digital Marketing, which has close to 990,000 subscribers at the time of this writing. That puts him among the top local SEO channels on YouTube, right alongside names like Ranking Academy and Sterling Sky.

But Ronald’s expertise goes way beyond SEO. He originally launched a telecom business, became a millionaire by age 27, and has spent the last five years or so doing digital marketing and consulting for local businesses. He also runs three different tools and companies—Osborne Digital Marketing, Rank Lightning, and CTR Driver—so to say he’s got experience scaling companies would be an understatement. I’m thrilled to share some of his insights on working hard, building relationships, and growing local businesses.

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Ronald’s Telecom Days: Becoming a Millionaire at 27

Early Beginnings and Military Influence

When Ronald told me he joined the military because of his family’s Special Forces background, it all started to make sense. He learned how to work on comms (communication) equipment, which, as Ronald puts it, is where all the secrets lie. It was natural for him to transition from the military to launching a telecom company with his brother and a former Army buddy.

Explosive Growth in Telecom

What began as a modest operation quickly exploded into a 30-employee business. Ronald became a millionaire by the age of 27, but not without sacrifice. He shared how he spent a chunk of his 20s working insane hours, giving up weekends, vacations—basically his entire social life—to reach those financial goals. He credits that “work harder than everyone else” mentality and a focus on building relationships as the main reasons he was able to scale so quickly.

Why Relationships Matter More Than Quick Wins

For Ronald, real success comes from cultivating strong relationships. He shared stories about how, after moving from Dubai back to Australia, he made a single phone call to former business connections and instantly added $12,000 in monthly revenue. That’s the power of relationships in any business, SEO included. A lot of us focus on short-term tactics, like quick SEO hacks or instant leads—but Ronald’s experience shows that nurturing long-term relationships can keep you in business for decades.

Transition to Digital Marketing and Consulting

From Telecom to SEO

After stepping away from telecom (he tried to sell it but ran into obstacles with Australia’s high tax regulations), Ronald realized local business owners still needed help growing their revenue. Because he’d already built websites and dabbled in marketing, SEO felt like a natural evolution—especially local SEO for service-based businesses.

Coaching, Agency Work, and Hybrid Services

Ronald doesn’t just “sell SEO.” He’s more of a consultant who dives deep into his clients’ business structures, operations, and even employee relationships. (He once had to help settle a situation where an employee drove home a company truck in a huff.) All these hands-on experiences allow him to offer more holistic, business-focused advice rather than just standard SEO packages.

Introducing Rank Lightning and CTR Driver

Rank Lightning: A Local-Focused SEO Tool

Ronald’s frustration with other SEO tools—especially expensive all-in-one platforms that small businesses often don’t fully need—pushed him to create Rank Lightning. This tool is designed specifically for local business owners who need to analyze competition, understand keyword difficulty, and review their Google Business Profile data without spending a fortune each month. According to Ronald, if you’re a seasoned SEO with giant national or international clients, you might still need an enterprise tool like Semrush. But if you’re a smaller local business, Rank Lightning can cover your core needs.

CTR Driver: Quality Over Quantity

CTR Driver tackles a specific SEO method: click-through rate (CTR) manipulation. While it sounds edgy (and, yes, Google always claims to frown on manipulation), Ronald has built the tool to rely on real devices rather than suspicious proxies. He insists that genuine signals, even in low volumes, can make a significant difference in local map pack rankings. It’s all about consistent, authentic engagement with your Google Business Profile.

Ronald’s Biggest Local SEO Tips

1. Clarify Your Business Vision

It might sound basic, but many local business owners don’t have a clear plan for growth. If you don’t know what you want from your marketing—more calls, more hires, more revenue, or all of the above—you’ll never know if your SEO efforts are on track. Ronald emphasizes that your marketing should always align with your long-term goals.

2. Build the Right Content Strategy (Topical Maps)

Ronald swears by topical mapping—which is the process of creating content clusters that cover every aspect of a topic. If you want to rank for “Roofing Miami,” for example, produce in-depth content around Miami, sub-services like roof repair or replacement, plus local resources like the best times of year for certain repairs. Covering all angles helps Google see you as an authority in that location.

3. Leverage Authoritative Links

Data-driven articles or resources that only you can create make for amazing linkable assets. If you’re a pest control company, gather real data on how many calls you get for ants vs. termites or how much damage certain pests cause. Journalists (especially local news outlets) love citing unique stats, which can lead to high-authority backlinks. This tactic might be time-consuming, but the payoff in rankings can be huge.

4. Don’t Overlook Internal Links

In local SEO, internal linking can be a game-changer. Ronald mentioned pointing a ton of internal links with exact-match anchor text for a very competitive keyword, which shot his page from the 30th spot to 6th. By strategically linking all those supporting topic pages back to your main service or location page, you send Google a strong signal that it’s important.

5. Expect SEO to Evolve

We all know AI tools like ChatGPT and Google’s own AI features are changing how we create content. Ronald suggests the future of SEO might look different—fewer “ordinary” backlinks and more emphasis on truly credible sources, brand recognition, and even pay-to-play search engines. That’s why focusing on real expertise and unique data is the best way to future-proof your website.

Wrapping Up: Key Insights from Ronald

Hard Work Never Goes Out of Style
Ronald’s journey to building multi-million dollar companies boiled down to years of sacrificing evenings, weekends, and any semblance of a typical “social life.” If you want big results, you have to be ready to work harder than the next person.
Relationships Are Everything
Whether you’re hiring employees or trying to land new deals, personal connections will get you further than any trendy tactic. Ronald’s story of instantly boosting revenue by calling old colleagues proves that point perfectly.
Local SEO Is Part of an Overall Business Strategy
SEO alone doesn’t fix a broken sales process or dysfunctional team. Make sure your internal operations are in place before scaling up with online marketing.
Authoritative, Quality Over Quantity
From CTR manipulation to backlinks, Ronald preaches focusing on authenticity. Low-quality anything—content or links—won’t hold up in the long run.