Daily Search Forum Recap: December 27, 2018 http://bit.ly/2CDHJTT Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web. Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
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Search Engine Land Stories:Other Great Search Stories:Industry & Business Links & Promotion Building Local & Maps Mobile & Voice SEO SEO via Search Engine Roundtable http://bit.ly/1sYxUD0 December 27, 2018 at 03:01PM
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Year in Review: Top 10 expert PPC columns of 2018 https://selnd.com/2EP8Lcj SEO via Search Engine Land https://selnd.com/1BDlNnc December 27, 2018 at 11:07AM
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9 Types of Content That Will Help Your Local SEO by @annaleacrowe http://bit.ly/2BHfwK6 Ranking for local SEO used to be pretty straightforward. You’d add your NAP to the footer, build a few directory links, and voila! You were on your way to the local 7-pack. Somewhere along the line, the 7-pack reduced to a 3-pack and local directory links are no longer enough. To move up the ranks in local SEO, you need content. Say you’re the lucky owner Blue Star Donuts (yes, it is my dream to own my a donut shop one-day #lifegoals), it’s unlikely you’re going to be able to compete with big chains for keywords such as ”best donuts”. But you may be able to rank for a term like “best donuts in Portland.” Don’t believe me? Just look at what the team at seoreseller.com did. They increased traffic almost 300 percent by creating custom local content. And, they aren’t alone. Search Geek Solutions saw a 300 percent increase in organic visibility for Bloomfield Dental Designs by developing local content. Content is a super effective way to rank for less competitive, local keywords. So unless your local business has achieved Beyonce and Jay-Z status, you’ll want to keep reading. 9 Examples of Content for Local SEODo I really have to create content for each of my locations? I always find myself answering this question post-content audit because my clients dread the whole content creation situation. And, secretly, I kind of dread it, too — watching the mind-blowing moment (watch this GIF for full effect) when my clients realize the content they worked so hard to produce isn’t cutting it. Still, not creating content for your locations is risky. No one is going to come to your party without an invitation. The solution: Become a local content machine. It isn’t enough to be unique. You have to be local. Your local content needs to be relevant and useful. Every piece of content needs a reason to be on your website. Here are some different types of content that will help your local SEO. 1. City-Specific Landing PageHere’s a fun challenge: Can you rank for local keyword terms without a location webpage? While you might succeed after a few sleepless nights, it’s much easier to rank in the local SERPs if you’ve got a location webpage. If you’re a multi-location local business, take a note from Ambient Edge, an air conditioning repair company with multiple locations. They created a separate page for each location. Here is a look at their Las Vegas location page. Di Bruno Bros., an Italian market, is another great example: And, Roto-Rooter joined the game too. Here’s their New York location page. Now, if you want to go one step further, you could create location-specific webpages like Goodyear does. Here is one of their Long Island locations. But, then you can visit the store website here: https://www.marbrentire.com/. Because local SEO is nothing to mess with, I’d recommend sticking to a strategy like Ambient Edge or Di Bruno Bros. If you’re a smaller local business, building separate websites for each location is overwhelming and may dilute your authority. Keep it simple with one page per location. 2. State or Regional Landing PageIt’s hard to get any client excited about creating more content. But, when you’re competing in the local SEO space, content could make or break your move from Page 2 or 3 to Page 1. If creating multiple city-specific location pages sounds like a daunting task, start with the city or region of your locations. Take New Life Appliance Repair, for example. They created county-specific webpages, then city-specific pages. This is one of the best examples of local content silos I’ve seen. And, they aren’t alone. Incfile, a LegalZoom type of company for solo entrepreneurs (but better), built state-specific pages. (Full disclosure: Incfile was a client while working with First Page Strategy.) Before building these state location pages, the team did a deep dive into buyer personas to understand their audience. They determined that state location pages would make the UX better for their customers. And, it worked. Incfile not only increased organic traffic, but improved conversions. 3. FAQ PagesFAQ pages are this close to being my one stop shop for everything local SEO content. With voice search changing the way people search, the industry is seeing a shift in how people consume content. Think about it: Nearly a third of mobile searches are related to locations. And, according to BrightLocal, 58 percent of consumers have used voice search to find local business information in the last 12 months. Let me prove it to you. Do a Google search for [what vaccinations does my dog need to be boarded?]. You’ll see that Pet Hotel Hadley has optimized their FAQ pages and are now a featured snippet. This featured snippet is now one of the second result when I ask Siri the same question. That’s why FAQ pages can help boost your local SEO. Here’s another good example. Do a Google search for [is there an age limit for getting waxed]. You’ll stumble upon Waxing in the City’s featured snippet. 4. SpecialsSpecials and discounts are the crème de la crème for local business owners. In today’s smart shopper age, everyone is an extreme couponer (guilty). Give your customers what they want by personalizing specials to local residents. Hotels are known for this. Take the Trade Winds Resort in St. Petersburg, Florida. They offer a 13 percent discount for Florida residents. And, the Monterey Bay Aquarium has a “locals only” section on their site with discounts and special events. By offering a location-specific discount, you’re appealing to your local audience. You’re making them feel special. It’s an intense race to the top of the local SERPs. No discount is too small. 5. Host Local EventsEvery Friday, almost like clockwork, I dig through my Facebook events to see what’s happening this weekend. There’s always a festival, free yoga class, or some charity dog wash going on. As a marketer, I love seeing local businesses use Facebook events to drive awareness. But, what I don’t love is not seeing the event on their webpage. Whomp whomp! If you’re hosting a local event without announcing it on your website, you’re losing out on some major local SEO mojo. Here’s how Core Power Yoga announces their Austin events. Or, follow STORY. They host weekly happy hours at a local brewery. Or, how my buddies over at The Wonder Jam host in-person workshops. On the flip side, you could rent out your location as an event space like WeWork. Green Bench Brewery does this, too. If hosting events isn’t your cup of tea, keep scrolling for your next option. 6. Partner with Local EventsIs the idea of hosting a local event too overwhelming for you – like the first time you tried to order off the dollar menu at McDonald’s? Then consider partnering with a local event. Like Suncoast Credit Union did with Swantoberfest. They sponsored the event and provided a discount for the VIP experience. And, it works. I work with Jason Hennessey Consulting on The Law Offices of Anijdar & Levine. Some of the best backlinks they have received were from local sponsorships. Here they are at the Riptide Festival. And, again at the Sheriff’s Cup. And, again at the 55th Christmas on Las Olas. If you don’t have the budget to sponsor local events, then talk about the local events. For example, New York-based digital agency LaunchMetrics put together a report on digital trends at NY Fashion Week. And, The Mountain talks about how they got involved with a local college to help campers develop STEM skills. Or, consider offering local experiences like Airbnb. And, Backwoods. 7 . Blog ContentBlog content is where the magic happens. If you’re a local business looking to compete in the local SERPs having an active blog will help improve rankings. Not sure what to write? Here are a few ideas to get you started: New Location Announcement Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream wrote a blog post on their new Wrigley location. Mother Kombucha does something similar by announcing new stores that are carrying their products. Pricing Kanopy Insurance published a blog post on how to find cheap insurance for California residents. Laws Jeffcot Law answers questions about marijuana laws in Ohio. Product Announcements Evergreen Home Heating and Energy shares how a new Trane product is going to improve Seattle home heating. Interviews & Testimonials Asana interviews their clients that acts as a testimonial. 8. ‘Best of’ GuidesWhen it comes to creating a “best of” list, I’d like to quote rapper T.I., “You can have whatever you like.” With a “best of” list, you want to build a guide that gives your readers whatever they like about a topic. For example, the Coffeebar created these amazing coffee guides. Movoto designed this Moving to Lakeland, Florida guide. PetYen built New York City specific pet-friendly neighborhood guides. And, the Restoration Hotel developed this interactive map webpage. 9. Press PagesPress pages is like the Wendy’s of fast food. You know its there, but you rarely pay attention. When I came across WeWork’s press page, I couldn’t help but marvel at the images of each location they had. This local content makes me drool. You could also consider partnering with the press on a press release like Dale Adams, general manager of Gila River Arena at Westgate Entertainment Center in Glendale did here. Start Creating Local Content NowOnce upon a time, local business owners had tunnel vision for NAP and directory links when it came to local SEO. But what about content? For years, so many local business owners developed an innate fear of creating local content. But, times are changing. Content is crucial if you want people to find your local business online and visit you IRL. Search engines have seriously upped the ante on all things local. Sure, you still want to have the correct NAP and build directory links. But you want if you want to grow revenue and your business, you need to create hyperlocal content. Image Credits Featured Image: Paulo Bobita SEO via Search Engine Journal http://bit.ly/1QNKwvh December 27, 2018 at 08:49AM
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What Is a Local Link & How to Find More Local Link Opportunities by @sllewuy http://bit.ly/2QPtaFn Inbound links play a large role in a website’s rankings, whether it’s a local service or brick-and-mortar business. But how do you find links for these types of businesses? This article will help you figure out how to get your local link building campaign started. What Is a Local Link?The traditional thought process when we think about link building is that we want high authoritative domains to link back to our websites and we want as many of them as possible. However, that way of thinking might not always be relevant for a small or medium-sized local business. If you’re tasked to build links for a local brick-and-mortar store, it’s important to understand what you’re looking for when building those links. Local links are done with the intention to build relevance for a website towards its locality. Local SEO professionals fixate on:
These tasks are all done to serve the purpose of establishing a presence within the SERPs for local terms in the local pack with Google My Business, and the organic search results for geotargeted keywords. So, a local link should serve the following criteria:
Those who influence your specific local market might not command a highly authoritative site. They might be small themselves. However, because they have influence in your small market, getting a link from them might be more valuable than from Forbes, Huffington Post, or The New York Times. While it is always great to get these type of links, we must understand the limitations that local businesses are dealing with – and, more often than not, the lack of budget to produce the type of content that these big publishers are looking for. It’s amazing to reach for the stars, but we need to understand the parameters we’re working with. A local business will only do business in the confines of the local space it’s in, so doing business in San Francisco and getting traffic from New York might prove to be worthless to the business in the end. Start with CitationsCitation building, finding general directories, and correcting the information you are currently in will help you get started. Citations are great because they offer the ability to place your NAP information somewhere and allow you to put a link down on some fairly decent websites that are not spam and might even be seen by some random searches if the query is low enough in competition. The idea behind this process is to get into the habit of getting the business’ name out there in as many sources as possible. Services that allow you to tackle citation building include: These are both good platforms that I have used and can also be great auditing tools. Where Do The Opportunities Lie? – Anywhere You Can Find It!
There is a general idea floating around that local link building might not be beneficial, might not be natural, or (in some cases) might seem impossible. But that is why those who do local SEO need to be more creative than those doing SEO for a giant brand. Link opportunities are much more limited. You’re fighting to rank for hyper-local keywords, which tend to not have a lot of search volume, and you will be working with websites with low authority to start. To answer the anonymous quote above, here are some types of local links you can build for a sandwich shop.
The opportunities are vast. If you’re doing SEO for a local space, it’s important to understand where the limits of that local space are and make that space your new earth. Everything you do to promote this business exists in the confines of the radius you set forth. Understanding your limitations will allow you to think more creatively and effectively find opportunities in that space, which will ultimately lead to the most value for the business website you’re working on. Open Up a Link Tool & Start Finding ProspectsFor as long as I can remember, I’ve used Ahrefs for anything related to links. However, any good SEO tool should work for you. To start building your list of prospects you first need to understand where the business stands within its space and how competitive it will be to rank moving forward. Start with the terms that you believe will offer the most value to your business. Then see what businesses currently rank on the first page of the SERPs. Collect the list of websites and see what links they have acquired in the past. Compare what are mutual links among them, and what are the different links they have acquired. These are direct competitors so most of the links will be related to the specific business you’re working on. Compare the lists you collected with the link profile of the site you are currently working on and see where you are lacking. Remove all duplicate links your website has in common with the competition and then go after the links that you do not have but your competition does. Do this link building as well as possible. If you’re able to acquire all the links that the competition has acquired then you’re able to stand on a more level playing field as far as links are concerned. How to Find More Link OpportunitiesIf you’re caught up with your assumed competition for your space in search in respects to links, then the natural next step for you is to get more links than your competition. Explore other local businesses and where they have acquired press. Doing this will help you get some insights on how other businesses not in our industry have built links in the same local space. By looking at popular businesses in general within our local space we can start to find some low hanging fruits of opportunity to build links, find local writers, local blogs and sites in general that want to (or have supported) local businesses in the past. A method I have used is finding businesses with a lot of traction and putting their website through a link analysis tool. One way you can find a high traction business is through review sites like Yelp. Go to Yelp and search within your city and filter by the most reviewed business. These businesses might not be related to your value proposition at all, but they offer a wealth of information on promotional opportunities for your site in the local space. The top reviewed business for San Francisco was for the Tartine Bakery. If you throw this site into a backlink analysis tool you might be surprised with the results you find. According to Ahrefs, this website has more than 3,000 links. I’m more than willing to bet you that not all of these are related to food. So, if you’re working with a small restaurant that is dealing with food, then you now have a goldmine of potential links that are local to your space, even if you aren’t providing the same type of food. Do this method with the businesses that have gotten the most reviews and businesses within a handful of different verticals to get a variety of potential links. When you’re going through these lists you will find links that are completely unrelated or unobtainable. But that’s OK. The whole point of this exercise is to find the few diamonds in the rough and build connections with those in the local area who have some influence when possible. Image Credits Featured Image: Paulo Bobita SEO via Search Engine Journal http://bit.ly/1QNKwvh December 27, 2018 at 07:24AM Sundar Pichai: Google Has Over A Thousand People Working On Core Search http://bit.ly/2SlSLCp Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai, testified before congress not too long ago (as you may remember) and one thing that he said that stood out to me was that Google has over a thousand people working on core search. It wasn't clear if those were just engineers or it also included contractors, designers, Doodlers, etc. But he did specifically say "core search." At around 3 hours and 6 minutes into the testimony, a congressman asked Sundar Pichai how many staffers do they have working on search at Google. Sundar said "Congressman, today it is our search team, which works on core of our search team, and there is well over a thousand people." Here is the video embed that starts at the time he said it: VIDEO I suspect this is just people on core search, but not just core ranking. Things like search quality, search ranking, snippets, indexing, crawling, etc etc. I do not know if he was including those who work on user interface design or not. But when Google says core search, my head goes to core search algorithm updates. It was a brief question with a brief answer. Forum discussion at YouTube. SEO via Search Engine Roundtable http://bit.ly/1sYxUD0 December 27, 2018 at 07:07AM
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Ask an SMXpert: New approaches in customization can build better analytics reports https://selnd.com/2BJalZX Data-driven digital marketing expert and senior director of digital intelligence at Wpromote, Simon Poulton, was one of the SMX East speakers during the “Making Your Analytics Work Harder And Smarter” session. There were a lot of questions during this popular program so Simon took the time to answer a few more. Here are five questions submitted by session attendees and his responses. Do you have experience linking Google My Business Insights data into Data Studio in combination with Google Analytics? Poulton: Yes, there are various solutions available here. If you’re just getting started, you can simply export the data from GMB Insights and pass this into a Google Sheet that has been synced as a data source within Data Studio. For those looking for a more automated solution here, you can make this connection using a pre-built connector (Supermetrics released one earlier this year) or develop for the API yourself to pass this data into a sheet or a database that can be connected to Google Data Studio. As far as I’m aware, there is no simple method to displaying this data coming from Google Analytics, and it would be challenging to tie this data to other user interactions on site, making it simpler to go with a GMB > Database (or Sheets) > Data Studio approach. Any tips for integrating data that isn’t built into Data Studio automatically? For example, a call tracking platform that is not built into Google Data Studio. Poulton: There are a number of platforms that do not natively connect to Data Studio – although based on how we’ve seen the number of connectors grow, I’d imagine more companies are looking to add a connection here. Many of these platforms – especially in the call tracking space, do have a native integration with Google Analytics where they pass back Event data to Google Analytics that can be tied to Client IDs and be unified with the rest of the user’s journey onsite. This is incredibly powerful and allows for the ability to connect these user actions with other data like an attributable source that can easily be visualized in Data Studio. This is as simple as passing the Events for calls into Google Analytics from the 3rd party platform and visualizing these within Data Studio like you would with any other Event data. In general, if you can find a way to automate passing data into Google Analytics or Google Sheets, then there is a simple way to have this automatically update in Data Studio. Can you import first-party audiences (e.g., loyalty members) into GA and/or Data Studio? Poulton: On the surface – no, you cannot import first-party PII into Google Analytics or Data Studio. However, there is a method that you can use to append this type of data to users identified on your site using the Client ID. Out of the box, Client ID is not an accessible dimension for matching to imported data. However, you can create this as a Custom Dimension, and work with your developers to push in the Client ID that Google Analytics has already created for you. The next step is to push this value as a hidden field with your conversions and create a list of key pairs where you identify the user within your CRM, along with the client ID and the customer state (Loyalty Member or not) – once you have this, you can upload this data using the Data Import function in Google Analytics to append this value to users. It’s important to note however, this is not retroactive and can only go back as far as you’ve been tracking Client ID as a custom dimension. Once this has been configured, you can refresh your GA Data Source in Google Data Studio (to ensure you’re bringing in this new custom dimension) and start to bring this data into Google Data Studio. You can use it as a report itself showing the difference between loyalty and non-loyalty customers or you can use it as a Segment to isolate data for specific reports. This is very similar to the pCLV Cohort Import example that I provided during our session on Making Your Analytics Work Harder & Smarter. Have you tried using the “compare to” toggle for scorecard vs. blending data? Poulton: No – and I’m not entirely sure what this would achieve. As far as I’m aware the “compare to” toggle is for time-based comparisons only. When blending data, we are using a key to join two similar data sets that make sense to be viewed together. If you’re looking at the difference between the two sources, then it likely wouldn’t make sense to blend them within a scorecard format.
Search Engine Land’s SMX West, the go-to event for search marketers, returns to San Jose Jan. 30-31. The agenda, packing more than 50 world-class speakers, teaches you actionable search marketing tactics you can implement immediately to drive more awareness, traffic and conversions. About The AuthorWendy Almeida is Third Door Media's Community Editor, working with contributors for Search Engine Land, Marketing Land and MarTech Today. SEO via Search Engine Land https://selnd.com/1BDlNnc December 27, 2018 at 07:01AM
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Google: The Trailing Slash Is Implied For Canonicalization http://bit.ly/2QUZyqc Google's John Mueller said on Twitter some time ago that the trailing slash after the domain name is an implied canonical. He said "The trailing slash after a domain name is always there, even if it's not shown." "It's always implied for canonicalization," he added. Here are the tweets about this:
So if you see http://bit.ly/1sYxUD0 it really means http://bit.ly/1sYxUD0 Forum discussion at Twitter. SEO via Search Engine Roundtable http://bit.ly/1sYxUD0 December 27, 2018 at 06:53AM Google: Don't Wait For Us To Change For Technical SEO http://bit.ly/2SlQx61 Google's John Mueller was asked on Twitter about Google's plans to upgrading their crawling to better support GoogleBot as Chrome 41. Basically giving GoogleBot the ability to crawl modern sites and JavaScript better. John said, don't wait for Google to change - you should deploy sites that work with what GoogleBot currently supports. The specific question was: At I/O 2018 you specified making Googlebot closer to modern chrome. My site is not getting properly indexed as it's not compatible with Chrome 41. Should I make it backwards compatible or wait for Googlebot to become modern? Insights will help me take the right decision. John responded: I'd recommend making it work with the status quo, rather than waiting for bigger changes, if you care for search.
Good advice for pretty much everything in life also. Forum discussion at Twitter. SEO via Search Engine Roundtable http://bit.ly/1sYxUD0 December 27, 2018 at 06:40AM
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Flying A Drone Indoors At Google's Office http://bit.ly/2CD5ifz Here is a video posted on Instagram of a Googler flying a drone indoors around the cubicles at the Google Dublin office. It appears that no one got hurt but from what I hear, it is pretty dangerous to fly drones like this, espesially indoors. Although, he seems to have some really good control over the drone. Here is the video: This post is part of our daily Search Photo of the Day column, where we find fun and interesting photos related to the search industry and share them with our readers. SEO via Search Engine Roundtable http://bit.ly/1sYxUD0 December 27, 2018 at 06:26AM Daily Search Forum Recap: December 26, 2018 http://bit.ly/2SlM6Z7 Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web. Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
Search Engine Land Stories:Other Great Search Stories:Analytics Industry & Business Links & Promotion Building Local & Maps Mobile & Voice SEO PPC Other Search SEO via Search Engine Roundtable http://bit.ly/1sYxUD0 December 26, 2018 at 03:01PM |
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