Our Brothers and Sisters in Ukraine, a Year OnA year ago today, Russia invaded Ukraine in a terrifying act of aggression. At BrightLocal, we have a direct link with the people of Ukraine, through our 30-strong team of talented people. These people had their lives turned completely upside down. Over that time we have been working hard to support our Ukrainian brothers and sisters, whether that’s relocating them, providing generators, emergency aid, or through other means. We made it clear that we’d support our colleagues however they decided to cope with the invasion. We are consistently reminded of the strength, bravery, resilience, and unwavering commitment of our colleagues. Among air raids, power outages, and hours of waiting through debilitating uncertainty, they have carried on and continued to show up for the rest of us. We are immensely proud of and thankful for them. People from our team have bravely shared their stories on how the last year has affected them, their loved ones, and the nation of Ukraine. Slava Ukraini! Valentyna, Yana and AlexDima LMy story began as for many on February 24 at 5 am. We lived in Kharkiv on the northern part of the Salotovka, on this year’s day we woke up and did not understand what is happening. We thought that someone was doing bad jokes and that on the street, someone was launching fireworks. But, it became louder and louder. Opening the window, we saw that it was not a joke. The war had begun. Our parents called us and asked us to leave Kharkiv for safer places. More missiles flew. Having collected a disturbing suitcase which included: dry rations, documents, funds, and a laptop, we began to move. The way from Kharkiv to Transcarpathia took 4 days. It was a long four days. Columns of civilian cars were moving from refueling to refueling, fuel was becoming less and less. All cars were cautious when near large cities and critical infrastructure. I remember very well that in those first two weeks, significant attention was paid to the news. All the news in the telegram channel was filled with pain and despair, and from time to time reflected the courage and resilience of our soldiers. Hope is alive! Friends offered their home where we moved. I went to the military Committee and became registered. Since I had a military education in one of the specialties, I became a reserve, and waited until I may be useful. The evening of one of the Friday rallies, a phone rings, which will turn my life upside down. Having picked up the phone, there is a proposal from which you will not be able to refuse, to appear immediately at the military commons. Having come to the military commons I was given directions for selection and training. At the end of the study, it was possible to choose where I could serve–without delay I chose the city closer to my home. The feeling was this was where I had to serve. From that moment it became clear that everyday life ended with an inherent routine. Lived in cold rooms where there were always constant draughts and dampness. During the rain, I counted droplets that were seeping through the ceiling. But we paid no attention because everyone had one wish–to stop the enemy and win., The company in which I work very strongly supports me and my country at the whole stage, it has provided help of the funds for the purchase of necessary things for the Armed Forces and food for civilians. This impressed me very much how everyone in the company got into our pain, everyone wanted to help. This supports us! At present, the true face of the enemy is already known–we are not afraid. There is already a plan to begin rebuilding construction–we are approaching our victory together. Mykola BZdorovia (Бажаю здоров’я)! It is the Ukrainian military greeting, my friends. It translates to ‘I wish you health!’ So almost one year passed after Russia started the big, unprovoked war against us (Russia started a hybrid war 8 years ago). I remember how everyone talk about what would they do in that scenario. And, to be honest I didn’t know my answer to that question. I just knew I can’t step aside. What should I do? On the 3rd day, I realize I want to help to defend our capital. But, as I had never been in the army before and didn’t know how to use weapons I was sent home, as I could harm myself or a friendly unit. Then I came to TRO and left my phone number, but they didn’t call me yet. There were hundreds of men and women waiting for their turn. I remember a girl, who was a student at the medical institute, she didn’t live close, and she walked over 20 kilometers to get there to leave her phone number in case they need her as a war paramedic. She was so small, and tiny but she has a big heart and desire to help our country. I hope she is well now. I stayed in the capital for 2 weeks. There were a lot of explosions, air alarms, and nights in a basement with other neighbors. Finally, me and Katya, my girlfriend, decide to move to my relatives in Ivano Frankivsk. After we came there on the third day I came to the military commissariat and was sent to a training camp where my military life started. I remember the first night. Air alarms at night, four hours of waiting, that sound of Russian missiles that fly above our heads and struck a barracks of friendly units just 1.5 kilometers from us, more than 30 people died that night. That spring everything changed. And as soon as I could I took vacation for 3 days and got married. I realized how much I love my Kateryna and want to create a family with her. Her love and support give me the strength to be in my place. In August my squad finally went to war and now we are 7 months there. Most of that time we spend defending Bahmut, we were in Soledar and somewhere in Lugansk Oblast. During that time I learned how to deal with different kinds of weapons, military tactics, and medicine. I know how to do my work. It is definitely not easy, but it is my way. Here, there are a lot of great people, even from different countries, who joined our military force. I know what I do and for what. For freedom, for our families, for our children, for our future. If we gave away it will ruin not only our country. Russian greed doesn’t know borders. So the only way is to defeat them on our land, once and for all time. I’m very lucky I joined Brightlocal a few years ago. It is more like a family than a usual company, which consists of great people. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how strong their support would be. Cars, armor, warm clothes, medicine, sweets, drones, chemical heaters, and far more things were sent to me and my squad here. Hard to imagine what would I do without you guys. Brightlocal even continues to pay my salary while I’m here, which is great support for my family. Guys, you are awesome! Thank you for all, can’t wait for when we will defeat those enemies and I could hug you all. Cheers guys! via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/VGLxqlf Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/
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BrightLocal Spotlight is a brand-new series exploring the human side of digital marketing. This month we’re hearing from BrightLocal CEO and Co-founder, Myles Anderson, about his personal experiences dealing with the crisis in Ukraine, going head-to-head with Google, and what he’s learned about leadership. BrightLocal itself was born out of my own personal crisis. Losing my job resulted in an all-time personal low, and it was a huge learning experience for me. In the time since BrightLocal was born, we’ve had four instances of true crises. Each of these has helped shape both who I am as a person and BrightLocal as a business itself. The crises I’ve worked through since starting BrightLocal have made me acutely aware that people look to you much more in these times to see how you react and behave. I’ve had to accept that responsibility. Now, a year on from the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, I wanted to reflect on what leading through a crisis means for me. And it’s simple… it always comes back to the people.
When I think about the crises we’ve been through over the last 13 years, there are four distinct moments or periods of time that come to mind. The first of these came when Google made major changes to how they work. Many in the SEO industry worry about algorithm updates, but for us as an SEO tool provider, the important part is access. Rarely, Google changes how scraping happens on their platform, and on two of these occasions, they’ve completely blocked us out. As we go to Google to provide data, not only for rank tracking insights and monitoring but also for reviews and Google Business Profile audits, you can imagine how much of a nightmare this was None of our tools worked. No data was coming through because of bot detection. That’s an instant crisis. We had to work out:
To better focus our efforts, and to avoid butting up against future Google changes, we diversified our data sources. These are crises that, while predominately technical, have a big human impact, which to some may not be easy to see. The other two times of crisis are more immediately obvious for their human impact. And, while the Google fixes could generally be resolved in a few fractious days, these have taken huge chunks of time.
First came COVID-19. While there were rocky days early on (we lost a full 15% of our customers in the first three weeks), we were lucky to be working in an industry that thrived during the pandemic. After eight weeks we’d already regained what we’d lost, as local businesses turned to their websites, offered curbside pickup, and other workarounds. We were lucky that this crisis allowed us to play specifically to our strengths, offering market-leading local marketing tools when people were pivoting to online, during a time of digital transformation. Finally, and most critically, there’s the Russia-Ukraine invasion and subsequent escalation into war: a crisis that we are still well within. With 30 members of our team based in Ukraine, this introduced a completely different set of circumstances that affected us and our wider team directly. It has led to intensely personal and professional stress for them and those within BrightLocal. Not only that, but the war itself has caused wider shockwaves across the marketing world and economy, with price increases all over the world. Each crisis provided its own unique set of challenges and stresses. Each offered me the opportunity to step up and lead in a way I’d not had to before. Being a Leader During Times of CrisisIf I’m being honest, these times really bring out the best in me. I functioned well during these periods. I’ve discovered that I function at my best with time pressure. I always did university papers last minute and thrived in time-pressured exams. Having all the balls up in the air lets me dial up my skills to their maximum potential. I completely understand that this way of working isn’t for everyone. It’s perfect for me, but understanding that there are all sorts of different types helps me lead more effectively. Personally, though, I come alive and deliver my best work when under pressure. It’s imperative not to try and manufacture these situations though. While pressure brings out my best qualities as a leader, it’s not something I seek out. The crises I’ve worked through as a leader since starting BrightLocal have made me acutely aware that people look to you much more in a time of crisis to see how you react and behave. I’ve had to accept that responsibility. This focus means you need to take a lead and assess how bad the situation is. I have a habit of internalizing my panic and fear. The concern is very real and something that impacts me—my sleep and my stress levels in particular. While this is the case, I know I can’t panic everyone around me. I have to moderate my own outward behavior to be much calmer. While I will make sure I don’t completely hide my stress and concern, I strive to make it clear that I’m not visibly shaken. I exude calmness to keep the team steady. The theory goes: if the people around me see I’m not panicking, then they’ll have faith that they’re okay and that the situation is fixable. For example, on the two occasions that Google effectively shut down our key tools, members of the team were naturally questioning their immediate and long-term employment. What if Google blocking the scrapes simply meant “that was it”, and we’d have no other way to find the data? I had to show my team that I understood the situation and that I shared some of their stresses. But, at the same time, I had to show I was calm and that I was working toward a solution.
Communication is key to successfully navigating any crisis. Regular, detailed, and clear communication is imperative, especially internally within the business. You can’t let people feel like something major has crept up on them. Control your own narrative and you’ll stop people from creating their own myths about what’s going on. Be open. You never want hidden skeletons suddenly emerging from the closet. I’ve always found that you need to make sure you work with a group to solve key issues, too. You want to involve enough people, but not everyone. If you’re not careful, you burden everyone with the responsibility, and the rest of your business can grind to a halt. You need to let most people carry on doing what they do best, to help keep everything running, then dedicate the right focused resource to fixing the problem. All of this allows for trust in leadership. It shows you have at least some element of control over the situation at hand. Trust and authenticity are key. Be truthful. Don’t hide anything. Show that you understand the situation.
Communicating with our customers during a time of crisis is also critical. It’s important that we make sure we’re open and honest, but, it needs to be said, it does work a little differently. We don’t always give our customers the full insight immediately. We don’t want to panic them, or cause alarm. We want to show them that, whatever the situation, we can rectify or minimize the impact of it, and that we are always able to find a solution and get back on track. It’s essential to make sure they aren’t impacted. We’re lucky that we have an incredibly loyal customer base that has supported us through thick and thin over the years—especially during those early issues with Google, as I mentioned earlier. The key, we’ve found, is that you can be a lot more open in a retrospective sense. Once you’ve found a solution, you can talk about a positive future and avoid causing customers completely undue concern. Company Culture Is Essential at Times of Crisis; Don’t Let It SlipWe’ve been big on culture at BrightLocal right from the start. It’s always been about treating individuals as individuals and caring on a personal level. We are generous and considerate to each other, and to our customers and suppliers. We’ve always wanted a combination where we offer long-term value to our customers that provides great value, while we create a good environment for people to work in. Time and effort go into recruiting and developing our people. We have to make sure we get stronger with each addition to the team. In good times, it’s very easy to maintain this and to invest in culture, whether that’s training, coaching, expanding your benefits, or company socials. But, when bad times come along, it’s easy for panic mode to kick in. It becomes easy to lose sight of the culture you’ve been building. It’s when a good company culture is tested the most. Can you be as strong and true to your culture when you’re grappling with major issues? When the sun isn’t shining, and everything isn’t rosy, are you still investing in your culture? A great test of our own culture has been when people have really come together around a challenge or problem. It’s been excellent proof of our investment in culture paying off. People are willing to put in hard shifts to solve problems. The openness has made communication and collaboration smooth and made people willing to put in the effort to solve challenges. The way our team dug in to solve the Google blocking issue is one example of this, as is our transition to virtual teams during COVID-19. There’s no greater example, however, than how our teams have reacted to the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022—how we rallied and came together.
When the invasion began, we helped people to flee. We had to get properties in western Ukraine to give them a safe place to go, and we had to help them get there. We supported our Ukrainian brothers and sisters to do what they needed to do. We had to help in every way we possibly could. On the other side of things, we also had to keep the lines of communication open with our customers to show them that not only were we still operating, but that we were keeping our people safe. It was a true test of, and proof of, our strong culture. When the bad times hit, we still saw investing in culture as valuable. We never stopped providing training and coaching. We continued to support our team members in whatever ways we could. We leaned into the strongest parts of our culture. Never Forget the Human Aspect of a CrisisDealing with a crisis can make you laser-focused on a solution, especially if it’s a technical problem. You want to instantly know what’s gone wrong and how you can fix it. It makes it easy to ignore the human impact and the toll it can have. The instant urge is ‘to do anything’ to get a fix in place. This can put intense pressure on team members: asking them to do extra hours, drop other tasks, skip breaks, and all sorts of other things. Leaders at these times can forget that there are always people they’ll be impacting. Niceties can go out the window. They shouldn’t. It can be simple to find a solution that resolves the crisis at hand but that has huge human capital damage. When this happens:
People will think, justly, “Well, you didn’t look after me during a testing moment. My humanity was thrown out the window. Why should I trust you?” You must recognize their contribution. And recognize if something is too much for someone. Don’t put them in a situation where they can’t cope. At these times, pressure can make people reluctant to speak up as they feel the need to go “all-in”. You need to make sure they aren’t put in this position to begin with. Keeping an eye on the long term allows you to recognize the human impact. If you let it slip, it could tarnish people’s view of you and your relationships with them. Focus on teamwork and collaboration. Understand this is a real test for your culture. You must keep doing what’s important. People around the crisis will see that culture means something to you when they can see you’re focusing on the human aspect. Morale is important and should be protected. Don’t Ignore the Impact on You as a PersonEach of these crises has impacted me on a personal level, particularly during the Ukraine war, which began a year ago this week. During the Christmas of 2022, I took a long break. I hadn’t realized just how exhausted I was. I’d taken holidays, and had time away from work over the year, but at the end of it, I was truly shattered. What I worked out was that even though I’d taken time off, I’d never truly disengaged from the crisis. I realized that my daily routine had become update-centric. I’d wake up earlier than usual. Often 5 or 6 am. First things first: check the news and social media stories. Work out what’s going on in Ukraine and see whether our colleagues are affected. Across the day I’d be taking any chance I could to get updated. It would also be the last thing I was doing before attempting to sleep. It took a big emotional toll. It was always in the back of my head. Of course, it hopefully goes without saying that this was nothing compared to the realities of our colleagues in Ukraine. But, when you can’t switch off, it’s constantly chipping away at your energy and undermining your mental and physical health. It makes it harder to lead. Even when I’d take holidays, I’d be checking in, or arranging some aspect of our Local SEO for Ukraine supply trip. I simply wasn’t having a real break. When Christmas finally came around, I slept. Finally. I spent some time reflecting on how I dealt with the crisis and came away with some key learnings. Next time I’m in such an intense crisis, I’m going to properly manage my energy levels and make sure I maintain what’s important to me. I realized that sleep and exercise are key to my own wellbeing, and I’d let those slip. I didn’t exercise for the first three months of the Ukraine war. I slept horrendously, often getting to bed at 1 am and waking up at 5 am. And I’d go from that straight into the news cycle… I left myself no chance to recuperate. It made me a bad husband and father. It reduced my effectiveness as a leader. All this took a remarkable toll on me. I learned that while I am desperate to be engaged, you have to take breaks occasionally. If I’m not careful, being consistently “on” actually makes me less effective. I have to understand that those around me can also provide support. Self Belief is KeyEach of the four crises I’ve mentioned in here has shown me that people can, and will, come through these things. Maintaining that belief is important. BrightLocal was born out of this deep, personal crisis. Before Ed [Eliot, BrightLocal Co-founder] and I jumped off the deep end and founded BrightLocal, I’d just been made redundant. I had been working at eHarmony for 11 months, looking after business development in the UK. I loved it all, from the ethos to the culture, but unfortunately, it just didn’t work out. When I lost my job, I questioned everything about myself. It hit my self-esteem hard. I felt like a total failure. Hated myself. Hated the experience. I had two young children and was desperate that they wouldn’t look at their father as a loser, and say “you can’t do this!”. What if they thought I’d never amount to anything? At this point, I decided I had to do something for myself. I had to put myself in control of my life to make my kids proud of me. And so BrightLocal was born out of this deep, personal crisis.
The truth is, we tend to come out the other side. We always have done. This means I always have faith that the good times will come and that better things lie ahead. I’ve learned how important it is to let others in, and to share responsibility with the right people. Not everyone needs to be involved in solving a problem directly. Make sure you keep enough people focused on what they’re good at too. But, and I cannot stress this enough, do not do it alone. Share the responsibility. Done properly it will provide real empowerment for others. And finally: never, ever, lose sight of the people, as without them, what are you? via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/OlGpxnX Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ Google has started to roll out a new label for Google Business Profiles, visible to all managers on the GBP NMX (New Merchant Experience). This was tested back in June 2021 but now appears to have been rolled out worldwide. TL;DR? Your local business clients with access to manage their Google Business Profiles will be seeing a label in the in-SERP NMX telling them whether Google thinks they have a ‘complete’ profile or not. As we’ll see below, local businesses are already reaching out to agencies to ask why their profiles are incomplete. Our advice? Get ahead of it. Get in touch with your clients today to let them know this profile label exists and why Google has put it there (detail/theories on this below), remind them how your local SEO work is making an impact and point out that it’s more reliable than this label. While this information was previously available in another part of the profile, what’s particularly interesting is how this, and data such as ‘customer interactions’ and ‘views’, is being surfaced much more prominently in the NMX, clearly in an effort to encourage more engagement with the platform. Claire Carlile noted those performance indicators being made more visible last week:
What is the ‘profile strength’ label?It’s a traffic-light-based label that shows managers how complete their Google Business Profile is. You’ll see a circular label in the top right-hand corner of the NMX, colored in either orange (for a partly complete profile), or green (for a fully complete profile). Underneath any incomplete profile, there is a call to action for managers to complete info. Underneath any complete profile, there is a label that says ‘Looks good!’. So far, we’ve not seen a profile less than partially complete, so we cannot comment on what this looks like. What does this mean for local businesses?For anyone managing a Google Business Profile, this profile strength on the surface seems to provide a fairly simple way of quickly establishing whether or not your profile is complete or not, and if there is more information to add (or more likely, features to use). However, what constitutes ‘completeness’ doesn’t seem to be objective, as Google clearly has a goal in mind for a truly ‘complete’ profile, as this example shows:
Google seems to have money on the mind. When clicking the ‘Complete info’ button on an incomplete profile, the NMX takes you to a new screen, explaining the benefits of completing your profile. When following this user flow, it takes you to a screen inviting you to sign up for Google Ads, with the option to claim $600 free advertising credit. We’ve also seen reports that incomplete profiles are also labeled when a business hasn’t opted into Messages. As local SEO expert, Claudia Tomina, points out:
What does this mean for local SEO agencies?So far, we’ve heard of some frustration from agency clients seeing their GBPs as incomplete. Colan Nielsen, VP Local Search at Sterling Sky, has said that clients have already approached him, worried about incomplete profiles.
Meanwhile, Andy Simpson, Senior SEO Specialist at Digital Law Marketing, has also reminded people that profile strength is not a ranking factor, and not to worry about an incomplete profile.
What is Google trying to do with this more prominent label?Well, we know there is a strong prompt to get business owners and profile managers to sign up for Google Ads if they aren’t doing so already. This seems to be one of the main blockers which keeps you from having a ‘complete’ profile. The profile strength label could be a useful feature for profile managers to make sure their new GBPs are set up as much as possible. However, good local SEOs have the expertise to know when a profile is completed, especially if their clients don’t want to use such functionality as Google Ads or Messages. Our advice echoes Colan’s: ignore the label if it is telling you to complete your profile but that you know yourself, as an expert, the profile is as complete as you need it. However, as mentioned above, you’ll need to work fast to let your clients know about this before they see it, and to prove to them that your work is more reliable and successful than Google wants to admit. Always, remember, though: don’t just set it and forget it. Your Google Business Profile is something you should monitor and optimize regularly. It’s a continually evolving environment, with new features added to it regularly. It’s important for local marketers to check the progress or quality of your business profile over a period of time, and make sure you’re not missing out on features important for ranking or conversions. What’s your take on the profile strength label? Love it? Hate it? Let us know on Twitter or start a conversation in our friendly Facebook community, The Local Pack. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/iHkgeKU Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/
In our next webinar, two of digital marketing's most successful agency operators, Greg Gifford and Jen Salamandick will discuss how to grow an agency with strategy and culture at its core.
via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/jySPGRk Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ Location pages are essential for many multi-location businesses. With unique and valuable content, these pages can rank in search engines and attract customers. In order to do that, though, they need to be backed by a robust SEO strategy. Otherwise, they run the risk of bloating the site with low-value, duplicative URLs. In this guide, we’ll be walking through how to make sure your site’s location pages are optimized for local SEO success. What is a Location Page in Local SEO?Location pages are web pages that give detailed information about a particular business location in a specific city, county, or state. They help potential customers find the nearest physical location of the business, as well as provide search engines with enough info to index and rank the page for “near me” and “city name + industry” keywords. You may also hear location pages referred to as ‘local landing pages’ or ‘location landing pages’. These are essentially the same thing. Why Bother with Location Pages?Location pages are a worthwhile effort because they give valuable information to customers, which in turn adds value to your local SEO strategy. Without location pages, multi-location businesses can struggle to get found in search engines like Google. If you want to create a location page that stands a chance to rank in SERPs and convert customers, you have to justify each new page with unique and valuable content. In other words, the amount of value on your location page has to merit its own URL. How to Make Location Pages ValuableValue on a location page comes from information that only applies to the specific location. If you copy and paste content to another location page and it remains true, it’s not unique. Yes, it’s okay to Include non-location-specific information (such as the brand mission statement or service descriptions), but let those be the exception rather than the rule. Bottom line: Your location page should be largely comprised of information that only applies to that location. Exactly how much content on the page should be unique? Try to make more than half of the page content unique to that location. But, a margin of 40% to 60% should be a safe enough bet to justify the unique URL for the location and showcase its value to Google. The short answer to this question is “as much as possible.” While that may not be the most helpful insight, it is more helpful than “it depends.” (Even though it does, in fact, depend.) Location Pages vs Geo PagesThere’s an important distinction between location and geo-pages. In short, location pages are tied to actual, brick-and-mortar locations while geo pages are not. A location page is about a specific location; a geo page simply describes the services offered by a business in a specific location. Often, geo pages are used when a business wants customers from a specific region but doesn’t have an office there. Service area businesses can find it particularly tricky to rank in an area when they don’t have a physical store or office, for instance. Ranking Geo pages is DifficultRanking geo pages is challenging because it’s difficult to prove that a business is relevant to an entire area if they don’t have a physical store/office there. Even if the business typically serves clients from far away (e.g. attorneys), this may still be difficult to show on a geo page that isn’t tied to an address, Google Business Profile, etc. Geo pages Can Easily Become Doorway PagesAnother concern with geo pages is that they can slide down the slippery “is this a doorway page?” slope. What is a doorway page? Simply put, a doorway page is a type of spam that uses slight variations of a similar page in an attempt to rank for many variations of many queries. As you can probably tell, a few hundred pages sans actual locations and addresses targeting small cities in the same county could, ostensibly, fall into this category. Proceed with caution. You can see what Google has to say about doorway pages here. Differentiating Between Nearby LocationsLocations under the same brand in close proximity to one another create a unique challenge. Not only are they providing the same (or similar) products & services to each other, but offering those services to the same pool of customers. The truth is some element of competition will always exist between these types of locations. That said, there is one way to help differentiate them: content with unique value. In other words, you’ll want to provide as much information as possible on these locations that only applies to each individual location. This is the goal of any location page but is especially important for ones in close proximity. Sure, NAP information (Name, Address, Phone Number) is a great start, but try to find other ways to differentiate the pages. This could include:
The more information you have about each location–its features, services, amenities, etc.–the easier it becomes to differentiate between them and create a unique set of pages that add value to customers and search engines alike. Things to Avoid and Common Mistakes1) Saying the same thing with different wordsOne of the biggest and most common mistakes you can make when creating location pages is thinking your content is unique when it really isn’t. For many business types (plumbers, cleaning services, lawyers, chain restaurants, etc.) location pages run the risk of being rewritten home pages or service page content. If you find yourself creating location pages with a unique address and phone number but content that isn’t really saying anything new, it’s not really unique. This type of content – I like to think of it as “diluted-value content” is bad because it takes time to create but doesn’t give anything new or helpful to the humans and search engines you’re hoping to impress. 2) Making it hard for customers & search engines to find your location pagesIn order for people to find your location page, Google (or your search engine of choice), needs to find, crawl, render, index, and rank it. Google needs to be able to find your pages, which means they should be included in XML and HTML sitemaps. It’s also helpful to link to the page internally, as this makes it easier for Google to discover. Unfortunately, internal links aren’t always easy to create for location pages. From an SEO standpoint, we tend to prioritize linking between pages of content that are topically related (as we should). But, if the topic of your page is a location, linking to it from another page can feel stilted or unnatural. Here are a few tips for creating internal links to your location pages: For businesses with just a few locations
For businesses with many locations
The goal is to avoid creating location pages that are “orphaned” from the rest of the site (e.g. inaccessible via navigation from other pages). Not only does this make it harder for humans to find your content, but Google as well. Search Intent and Why it Matters for Location PagesSearch intent refers to what someone is looking for when they type a search into Google. At the most basic level, location page search intent can be broken down into two categories:
Someone looking for a service, for example, might type “plumber in Seattle” into Google. If done right, your location page should rank for that query because it is relevant to the search intent–someone looking for a plumber in Seattle. On the other hand, if someone was typing “ABC Plumbers Seattle” into Google, they would be looking for information about ABC Plumbers specifically. The search intent is different, and the content of your location page should reflect that–it should be focused on ABC Plumbers and how they are different from their competitors in Seattle. In the grand scheme of search query intent, both of these are pretty close to the bottom of the conversion funnel. Someone looking for “how to unclog a drain without calling a plumber,” for example, probably won’t land on a location page because the query is more easily satisfied by a video or how-to article. So, it’s pretty safe to assume that location pages are almost always targeting bottom-of-funnel searches. Search Intent & Page StructureBy understanding the search intent of location pages, you can create content that speaks to what your potential customers are looking for and then prioritize the right content on the page. Branded searches benefit from “conversion” focused content like unique selling propositions, coupons, or information that distinguishes the brand from competitors. If the majority of your location page content is branded, it may be wise to structure your page to focus on conversion-focused content items. Searches like “plumbers in Seattle” should focus on informational content like where the business is located and what types of products and services they offer. If your page attracts more clicks from these types of queries, be sure to focus your page structure accordingly. Conclusion & TakeawaysCreating location pages isn’t difficult, but building pages that are truly helpful to humans can be a challenge, much less ones that stand a chance to rank in search engines. That said, well-crafted location pages can provide the value customers are looking for if your strategy focuses on the right things:
via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/aswvWUf Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ After over a year of hard work, we’re thrilled to announce the launch of Active Sync, our brand-new listings management API solution. Active Sync enables us to offer a unique hybrid approach to listings management. Managing listings through an API is not a new concept. There are many established companies offering API listing management solutions, and we understand the appeal of this approach. APIs make it quick and easy to make bulk edits, such as updating holiday opening hours. However, over the years, we have heard from customers who are looking to move away from a traditional API solution about its drawbacks. They’re expensive. Often exorbitantly expensive. They effectively force you to “rent” your listings. This leaves you stuck in a painful cycle of paying over the odds to avoid your listings reverting to inaccurate data. And these solutions often have a one-size-fits-all network based on the partnerships the company has built, rather than the specific needs of different types of businesses Our Citation Builder service has long been a successful alternative for many businesses, offering a broader network of sites in different niches, control over site selection, and no recurring fees at a fraction of the cost. It has proved hugely popular with businesses and agencies of all sizes. Last year alone, our team handled over 1.4 million site submissions for over 72,000 locations. Until now, businesses faced a trade-off when it came to managing listings. A trade-off between the speed of an API solution and the cost-effectiveness and flexibility of a manual submission service such as Citation Builder. However, with the launch of Active Sync, we’re happy to say that trade-offs are now a thing of the past. The local listings landscape has evolvedBefore diving into the details of Active Sync, let’s take a step back to look at the evolution of local listings. Watch our launch video and read on learn more. Over the past decade, the local listing landscape has undergone a significant transformation. Previously, there were hundreds of sites where consumers could discover local businesses. But now just a few major players dominate consumer engagement. As a result, the listings landscape has split into two layers. We call these the Engagement Layer and the Authority Layer. The Engagement LayerOur research found that just four publishers–Google, Apple, Facebook, and Bing–account for 92% of consumer engagement in the local listing space. It’s these dominant players that make up the “Engagement Layer”, where consumers discover, evaluate, and interact with brands today. This layer expands beyond traditional listings to include voice search and smart devices. For instance, Amazon’s Alexa uses Bing data to provide local business information to users. Think of these publishers as your digital storefronts. It’s crucial to keep them up-to-date and protected from rogue edits to maintain your brand reputation and provide a superior customer experience. The Authority LayerThe “Authority Layer”, on the other hand, comprises hundreds of listing sites that contribute to building authority with search engines. These sites include Manta, Merchant Circle, Tupalo, Hotfrog, and Superpages, among others. While customers rarely visit these sites directly anymore, the accuracy of basic information such as Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP) is critical in establishing trust with search engines and enhancing your business’s online presence. The listings landscape evolved, but traditional listings management software didn’tDespite the shifts in the local listing landscape, most API solutions still treat all listings the same and charge you a premium for it! These solutions don’t deliver return on investment against the huge fees they command. And their “one-size-fits-all” approach only covers the sites they’ve built partnerships with, not the sites that actually matter to your business. But it doesn’t have to be that way… The best of both worldsWe’re pleased to reveal the first-of-its-kind, hybrid listings management solution: Active Sync is our easy-setup API solution for the Engagement Layer that keeps your most important listings accurate and protected at all times. Updating information such as opening hours is a breeze–simply make the changes and Active Sync will push the updates to all listings in one go. Citation Builder is our trusted managed service for the Authority Layer. Our team of experts will build and clean up your listings on the most relevant, authority-boosting sites, ensuring that your business gains the visibility it deserves. There are no recurring fees. The listings are yours to keep, forever. And if you need to make more significant changes down the line, our team is on hand to help. The best part? They work together seamlessly to give you the best of both worlds. The speed of Active Sync with the flexibility of Citation Builder, at an unbeatable price. How unbeatable? Consider this: If you’re a marketer working for a 100-location business and you go with Yext, Synup, or Moz, you could end up spending anywhere from $20,000 to $50,000 per year. With BrightLocal, you’ll pay just $18,000 in the first year (which covers a Citation Builder campaign), and only $6,000 each year after that. Over the course of five years, you could save anywhere from $58,000 to $200,000–that’s up to 75% saved. Use our calculator to find out much you could be saving. Ready to rescue your marketing budget?Active Sync is the result of careful consideration and valuable feedback from both brands and agencies. Our team has shared our plans with many organizations in advance, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. With the potential to save up to 75% on listings management budgets, it’s easy to understand the excitement. To accommodate this anticipated demand, we will be rolling out Active Sync in a phased approach over the next few months. At present, Active Sync is exclusively available to brands or agencies managing 50+ locations as a brand-new Enterprise Listings Management offering. If you meet this requirement and are eager to make significant savings on your listings management spend, we invite you to get in touch with our Enterprise team. They’re eager to demonstrate the power and potential of our new hybrid approach. Don’t worry if you’re not managing 50+ locations. We’re dedicated to making Active Sync available to businesses of all sizes and types. Soon, every organization will have access to the listings management solution built for the web of today! Take back control of your listings via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/UEPTm1q Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ The AI wars are really kicking off! Hot on the heels of Microsoft’s private event revealing plans for ChatGPT in Bing, today saw the release of ‘Google Presents: Live from Paris’, in which Prabhakar Raghavan, SVP at Google, announced more information about their chatbot, Bard, as well as other AI-driven initiatives for search. Introducing BardGoogle recently announced Bard, “an experimental conversational AI service, powered by LaMDA”. (Language Model for Dialogue Applications). Bard will simplify and make sense of information when answering questions. For example, you can ask it to explain the pros and cons of buying an electric car. You can then ask it to plan your next road trip and ask it to tell you the best places to stop at along the way and show you interesting things to do with your family. Google says it “draws information from the web to provide fresh, high-quality responses.” Whilst tools like ChatGPT have the capability for content creation, and that’s what we’ve seen most SEOs using it for, it feels like Bard could remain more of a search engine, with increased power for business discovery. Bard is launching to Trusted Testers this week before launching broadly in the future. Like Microsoft, Google has also now made a valid effort to remain responsible in this new world of AI, highlighting that it has been in their DNA from the start. NORA – No One Right AnswerThe latest acronym to come from the event is NORA (No One Right Answer) which displays multiple sources of information at the top of search results, alongside additional questions for the user to explore more around their search query. Currently, Google uses featured snippets for quick, factual answers to a query, but because people might actually want a diverse range of opinions, Google is using generative AI to search results, to give users more choice of results to find the answer they’re looking for. What this might mean for local SEO however, is a little more unclear. When searching for “best pizza in Brighton”, the search intent there is to find one specific pizza place. If NORA starts sharing multiple choices, then we might as well continue with our usual search on Maps. Source: Google Immersive ViewImmersive View was announced at last year’s Search On event, but Google has given us a few more visuals into how it will look and how it will work as it rolls out globally. When using Immersive View, you can get a sense of what the area is like at different times of day, how busy the area is, and get a sense of what else is surrounding the place you’re searching at. You’ll also be able to use it to explore things like restaurants in the area, plus take a look at what the restaurant is like inside. This technology uses 2D images alongside AI, to create 3D images of the locations you’re in. For local SEOs, the importance of great photos of your location could become vital for this new technology to be effective. Source: Search Engine Roundtable Augmented reality is another new way to interact with the map. Search with Live View uses AI to find things nearby. A quick search for coffee shops near you, whilst holding your phone up to the street in front of you, will show you nearby businesses. The AR view will show the business’ star rating and the number of reviews, as well as how busy it is at that time. But how useful is this for users? Whilst a more visual map is fun to use, the key thing here is there’s not a lot you can’t get already from Maps. In real life, you can see the business name and how far away the business is just by looking up, so what this AR view really highlights, is the business’ reviews. There’s now even more of a business case for local businesses to consider reviews, as it’s another place reviews are surfaced. Source: Search On 2022 via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/EUyYuzm Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ Getting your client to rank higher, drive more traffic, and ultimately increase conversions, consists of a range of tactics; some more effective than others. We know the same few tips always get all the attention, but some of those can take a while to implement, and ultimately require more expertise, sign-off, and resource! That’s why we asked a group of local SEO experts to share their most under-appreciated tactics for local SEO success. These are the simplest of tips that most busy marketers might overlook.
Colan Nielsen VP Local Search at Sterling Sky
Become an expert at utilizing geo-grid ranking reports. Understanding how you rank across your entire market is just the tip of the iceberg as far as what you can use them for.
Greg Gifford Chief Operating Officer at SearchLab
Meta keywords, baby…
Joy Hawkins Owner/President at Sterling Sky
A lot of people that focus on local pack rankings seriously neglect traditional SEO factors onsite. They think ranking has more to do with the actual listing when it really has more to do with the content on the website.
Elizabeth Linder SEO Strategist at Kick Point
I’m not sure these are necessarily underrated or overlooked by everyone, but they can be depending on the client:
Amy Toman SEO Analyst at Digital Law Marketing
One of the most underrated tips is the use of photos on Google listings. Adding new photos on GBPs are a great way to “teach” Google and users about the services you provide, especially if there is not a category that matches them. Because Google’s systems can understand the content of images, these can be almost as important as posts at portraying your business.
Claire Carlile Local SEO Expert at BrightLocal
Improving site speed, improving internal linking, on-page optimization, and link earning are the nuts and bolts of our industry, and rightly so in many cases. The part that is so often missed out is sitting down and drawing out the marketing insights that exist within the organization—especially small and medium-sized businesses. This is a lesser utilized building block for success and something which so much of marketing strategy and tactics should rest upon. Ask questions like:
You get the picture!
Crystal Horton Local Service Ads & Google Product Expert at Crystal Horton Digital
Adding photos to a Google Business Profile increases views you wouldn’t otherwise have, which could turn into a potential inquiry.
Emily Brady Sr Manager, SEO at Podium
One thing a lot of businesses overlook is updating their GBP category to accommodate seasonality. Your primary category is one of the strongest “ranking factors” you can actually control on your Google listing. So, if you’re in an industry that’s impacted by seasonality, don’t be afraid to change your primary category as your customers’ needs change. A great example of this is HVAC companies, which can update their business category to be more “air conditioner” specific during the summer months.
Dayna Lucia Strategist, SEO at Amsive Digital
Are there any tactics you often overlook? Perhaps this list has inspired your local search strategy and reminded you of the most underrated ideas to get your client to rank higher. What are your preferred local SEO tactics that most people ignore? Let us know over on Twitter or in our Facebook Community, The Local Pack.
via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/wuf7IPr Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ Would you believe that BrightLocal has been exploring the relationship between consumers, online reviews, and local businesses for almost 13 years? Since 2010, we’ve seen significant developments in the perceptions of online reviews, the ways businesses engage customers to leave feedback, and the channels or platforms consumers choose to do it on. Whilst a simple star rating may have been enough to persuade potential customers back then, our findings over the years show that the most important review factors have evolved. This, plus an increasing savviness when it comes to detecting fake reviews, and shifting perceptions of different review platforms, makes for an ever-changing landscape. We wanted to continue exploring the perennial theme of fake reviews this year, and explore how reviews may be evolving outside of traditional platforms. So, what does the consumer review scene look like in 2023? Let’s get straight to it. Key Findings
How are consumers using business reviews?We’ve been asking consumers a number of the same questions year on year, helping us to determine trends in user behavior and benchmark the results. To begin with this year, we asked about the frequency with which consumers are searching for and reading business reviews online. How often are consumers researching businesses online?
In 2020, 34% of consumers used the internet to gather information about local businesses every day. This figure dropped to 21% in 2021, and the percentage of people finding information about local businesses online remains static in 2022. Despite this, last year’s Local Consumer Review Survey revealed that the general frequency in which consumers used the internet to find information about local businesses had increased. It appears the frequency of people looking for business information online decreased slightly in 2022, as 7% of consumers stated that frequency as less than once per month, compared to 5% in 2021. 2% of consumers said they have not used the internet to research local businesses at all in the last 12 months. It’s important to note that, on the whole, these changes are slight, so the general pattern remains fairly stable. However, the minor change in frequency could be an indicator of the current economic climate and how the typical US consumer’s needs have shifted as a result. According to Medallia, 44% of US consumers described their financial status as “worse off” in 2022 than in 2021—so, with less disposable income to spend on goods and services, there is arguably a lesser need to search for local businesses as frequently. How often do consumers read online business reviews?As for the consumers “regularly” reading business reviews, this figure has also remained static, holding at 41%, since 2021.
The fact that 2022’s results are pretty similar to 2021’s suggests that consumer reliance on using the internet to read online business reviews has remained about the same, which doesn’t come as much of a surprise. If anything, this consistency in how often people are reading reviews is good news for local businesses—those that are investing time and effort in growing their review profiles, anyway. Where are users looking for business reviews?For the last couple of years, we’ve been analyzing which review platforms consumers navigate to as part of their local business research.
The biggest story around review sites in 2022? It’s clear that more people are using Google to research local businesses. This rose from 63% in 2020 to 81% in 2021, and now up to 87% in 2022. According to ReviewTracker, Google holds the largest number of reviews—at a whopping 73% of all online reviews. And, while it follows that more people would be using a site with the most reviews to search for local business information, Google also regularly tests and introduces updates to the reviews platform to improve the experience for users. If Google can shorten the journey between search and results as much as possible, why would a user need to navigate to another review site? This impressive gain certainly goes to show that local businesses cannot afford to ignore the opportunity to claim—and maintain—their Google Business Profiles. More people using Google to research businesses has natural implications for other leading platforms like Yelp and Facebook. Following a significant rise in 2021, the percentage of people using Yelp to research local businesses dropped from 53% to 48%. Meanwhile, following the pattern of 2021, Facebook continues to lose its share of consumers choosing it to browse business reviews. As we’ll discuss a bit later, consumer trust in the social platform has continued to fall since its many data controversies, and usage of the channel has decreased among US adults since 2019. Although they are smaller decreases, two other notable drops came from Tripadvisor and Better Business Bureau (BBB). It’s interesting to see that fewer people used BBB to read reviews in 2022, because there is evidence to show that the platform still has its place as a trusted review site for certain industries. Meanwhile, 29% of consumers used Tripadvisor for business reviews in 2022 compared to 36% in 2021. Given that Tripadvisor specializes in hospitality businesses and more consumers tend towards BBB for businesses in professional trades, it could be a reflection of the economy throughout 2022: did consumers just pull back in terms of ‘luxuries’ like travel and home improvements? What types of reviews are consumers writing?What causes someone to leave a business review? And are they more likely to write one following a positive experience with a business, or a negative one? We surveyed our consumer panel to find out what reviews they left in 2022.
As you’ll note from the chart above, the percentage of consumers leaving reviews for positive experiences increased slightly year on year, from 34% to 37%, while the percentage of consumers leaving reviews for negative experiences shrunk by 1%. Why are people more inclined to leave reviews of positive experiences these days? Well, the economic difficulties of 2022 have thrown many local businesses into turmoil, so it could be the case that consumers are more aware of the implications that negative reviews can have on local businesses. With this in mind, they may feel more forgiving in the face of a negative experience and willing to think twice before leaving a bad review. What influences consumers to write a positive review?When we examine the factors that are most likely to influence a consumer to leave a review, we can see a pattern around positive experiences.
Naturally, the top two factors that are most likely to influence people to leave a positive review are similar in that they center around the experience provided by the business. Following those, there’s a theme of consumers wanting to show support for businesses and give them a chance (e.g. ‘the business is fairly new’, ‘the business has an undeservedly low star rating’). As discussed above, these reasons appear to support the theory that consumers might be feeling more generous towards local businesses during economic uncertainty. This year, we added two new options to the survey questions: one around supporting communities and the other around eco-friendliness. In writing these questions, we hypothesized that consumers would have stronger opinions about communities and sustainability in 2022. In fact, these were the two answers that most consumers claimed would not affect their decision to leave a review. Digging deeper into these responses, we can see more of a pattern when it comes to what types of consumers would consider these aspects more strongly as reasons to write a review.
Examining demographic factors, you can see above that female consumers are more likely (33%) to leave a positive review than male consumers (20%) when the business is owned by a community they resonate with. (Of course, it could be that this data is skewed by the fact that one of the attributes mentioned—as per Google Business Profile attributes--is ‘female-owned’.) Statistics around minority-owned businesses in the US highlight the following:
With substantial gaps in business ownership and earnings within minority communities, it would make sense that female consumers might be more aware of the challenges marginalized groups face. Therefore, they may be more likely to consider business ownership as a factor that would influence them to leave a local business review. Note: In last year’s survey, ‘family-owned’ stood alone as its own factor. That year, 74% of consumers stated that they would be likely to leave a positive review knowing this. In 2023, we consolidated this into the community question, where 54% of people indicated they would likely leave a positive review. A sadly notable failing of our chosen survey tool (more detail in the Methodology below) is that it only asks participants for binary genders. This is something we’ll be looking into resolving in future research. How do consumers respond to review requests from businesses?As marketers and business owners, you’ll know that you can’t always rely on a consumer going out of their way to leave a business review. This is where timely prompts—or clever review campaigns—come in incredibly handy. We asked the consumer panel how often they responded to business requests for reviews in 2022, as well as the methods they are most likely to respond to.
We asked consumers about the methods of review requests that they would most likely respond to, from in-person or on-premise tactics to follow-up emails and text messages.
The top method for requesting reviews is email, as 34% of customers stated they would be likely to leave a review this way. This is a significant finding as it shows just how effective a timely email reminder is. However, as you’ll no doubt be aware, email inboxes are highly competitive spaces; according to Statista, over 306 billion emails are sent every day. So keep this fierce competition in mind when sending your review requests. In-person experiences came in as the second-most-popular way for businesses to request reviews from customers. As we discussed earlier, businesses going above and beyond stand the best chance of securing positive reviews. This new data goes further to highlight the influence that your teams and employees can have on the customer’s decision to leave a review. Interestingly, receipts and invoices came out as the third most popular method for review requests, while business cards and on-premise signage were the two that ranked lowest. So, while we’re not necessarily recommending you abandon business card design and signage, there is a clear finding that utilizing space on important documentation like receipts and invoices goes much further than just for accounting or tax purposes. Additionally, businesses that are highly focused on customer service could find that combining in-person requests with instructions or QR codes on receipts is very powerful. Do business responses to reviews affect consumers’ opinions?As we’ll learn more about later, consumers like it when businesses respond to reviews. But what if that business owner only responds to positive reviews? Does the type of response affect a consumer’s perception of the business?
Only 12% of people state they would not be affected by a business owner responding to both positive and negative reviews, which highlights the continued importance of taking the time to read and respond to your business reviews. Additionally, with the finding that consumers will likely leave reviews where an initially negative experience had been turned into a positive one, we can assume that consumers are aware and appreciative of businesses’ efforts to make amends when they fall short of expectations. A higher percentage of consumers would consider using businesses that only respond to negative reviews (60%) than those that only respond to positive reviews (50%). This finding might also suggest that people see the efforts to respond to poor experiences in a positive light. It’s worth noting that 42% of consumers are still likely to use a business that doesn’t respond to any of its reviews. However, this doesn’t mean you should be resting on your laurels! Essentially, consumers are more than twice as likely to consider your business if you’re taking the time to respond to all types of reviews. You can find guidance on responding to your online business reviews within our Learning Hub dedicated to review management. What matters to consumers about online reviews?So far, we’ve examined where and how often people are reading reviews, and in what circumstances they’re writing their own—but what elements of review content can convince someone to use a local business? We wanted to find out how important reviews are for businesses across different industries, as well as whether star ratings are still seen as important as other factors. Does the importance of online reviews vary by industry?In 2022’s survey, consumers highlighted service businesses and tradespersons, care services, and healthcare as the industries in which business reviews were most important to them. As it was noted at the time, high-risk industries—or those often used in unplanned situations and emergencies, like healthcare and care services—unsurprisingly came out on top. It’s worth remembering that those results analyzed 2021 behavior, when the world was still very much in the middle of the pandemic. This time, we introduced several new industries:
The most interesting change trend we’re seeing here is the year-on-year increase in the importance of reviews of finance and legal businesses. This change may have been driven by squeezes in consumer spending power due to rising inflation and increasing reliance on credit services, leading to more seeking financial and legal services. At the very least, these economic factors will have likely influenced the typical consumer’s perspective of the importance of these services—and therefore their business reviews. Although there is no comparable data for travel and transportation, 76% of consumers ranked these types of business reviews as important. As well as considering local transport services, this bracket mentions travel agents. Deloitte notes that demand for travel services in 2021 and 2022 showed strong signs of recovery since the pandemic and, while we may be a long way from the travel restrictions faced back then, consumers will likely look to professionals like local travel agents for up-to-date advice. What review factors influence consumer decisions when choosing a local business?When it comes to reviews, consumers need to be reassured by what they see. But that might look different for different people. Does seeing an average rating cut it for making a decision, or do they need to read into the details?
The pattern of responses in 2022 (shown above) remains consistent with those of 2021, albeit with slight drops in percentage points across the options. Although it might seem obvious that most consumers see reviews describing a good experience as a positive indicator, it emphasizes the point that consumers are paying attention to the written content of the review itself. However, 74% of people did not indicate a lengthy or detailed review as important in their decision-making. Why is this interesting? Well, once upon a time, lengthy essay-like reviews were often written and read on the likes of Tripadvisor, but we can see that the way consumers engage with review content in 2023 has shifted. Although, as marketers, we can’t control the content of consumer reviews (and absolutely should not try to, but more on that later!), it does highlight the importance of aspects like keywords that many review platforms utilize to assist consumers. For example, Google enables filters based on keywords in reviews, and displays snippets of key information, allowing people to quickly find the reviews that are most relevant to their needs. How important is the average star rating in 2023?If 58% of consumers feel that a high star rating would make them feel positive about using a business (as seen above), then what do they consider “high”? We asked consumers what minimum average star rating they would expect to see before they considered using a business. But this year, we also considered the option that a star rating might not be important to some consumers at all.
It’s clear that, for those who see high star ratings as important, 4 stars and above is the expectation. But with 21% of people happy to accept 3.5-star ratings and 6% saying that star rating isn’t important to them at all, some readers aren’t just taking star ratings at face value, and clearly do assess supporting review content. The average rating for businesses on Yelp stands somewhere between 4.5-5 stars. So, while consumers may be willing to consider businesses with lower ratings, it’s worth considering how lower ratings could affect your business visibility and discoverability on these platforms. How much do consumers trust online business reviews?It’s all very well studying how people use business reviews, but can we measure how much they trust what they’re reading? And how do business reviews stack up against the recommendations of others—such as personal connections, influencers, or professional reviews?
Comparing the results with last year’s findings, we can see that results have fallen slightly in each area. This could suggest that consumers have become more suspicious of the content in online reviews or that they are increasingly placing more importance on personal recommendations. However, the finding that almost half of consumers trust consumer reviews as much as personal recommendations from family and friends should still be seen as positive. It highlights the relationship between real experiences and how consumers relate to these types of reviews, compared to those of influencers or experts. On that theme, more consumers trust recommendations from social personalities (35%) as much as online reviews than those trusting professional reviews (27%). Although the relatability of social personalities could be a whole topic of discussion in itself, it further suggests that consumers are looking for realistic comparisons when searching for business information. Does trust in reviews vary by review platform?While we know that Google is the most frequently used platform for reviews, is it also the most trusted? Do people’s perceptions of trustworthiness vary by platform—and does this vary by business type or industry? We asked consumers which of the market-leading review platforms they would be most likely to trust for businesses in different industries.
It’s a clear picture. Google is perceived as the most trustworthy review platform for businesses across all industries. Although when it comes to hospitality businesses, such as those specializing in accommodation, there is a review platform that rivals Google: Tripadvisor.
We wanted to dive a little deeper into the data around hospitality businesses, which you can see in the chart above. Considering Tripadvisor specializes in tourism, covering food and drink, accommodation, entertainment, and even landmarks, it is interesting to note that it is only considered a highly trusted platform for accommodation, and much less so for food and drinks. Google and Yelp lead the way as far as food and drink businesses are concerned, but there may be other elements taking away from Tripadvisor’s authority. With how popular visual social media platforms tend to be for food and drink discovery, as well as third-party delivery apps containing their own review systems, the choice for browsing has widened considerably beyond Tripadvisor, while the same hasn’t happened in nearly as great a scale for hotels and accommodation. What other platforms do consumers use for business information?As social platforms like TikTok skyrocket in popularity, and almost act as search engines in their own right, we wanted to find out where else people might be looking online for information about local businesses.
It was interesting to discover that 35% of consumers consult local news platforms as sources of information about local businesses. While this question doesn’t dig into the specifics around ‘local news’ featuring local PR or its acting as more of a business directory, it goes to show that some of the more traditional methods like local news aren’t to be dismissed. YouTube and Instagram came in as the other top two channels for business discovery which, given their highly visual nature and focus on video content, is good for businesses to consider. While you can’t control the nature of the content that users might be posting to these channels, you certainly can take control of your own social presence and aim to get your content seen and shared by your customers. With Instagram, ensuring business information is set up correctly can boost your visibility on its maps feature and makes it easier for users to tag their photos with your location. For now, 20% of consumers said they look for business information on TikTok. Considering our sample did not contain any consumers under the age of 18, and TikTok’s relative newness as a social platform, this is quite an impressive figure. There is a lot of discussion around the adoption of TikTok for search, so I’d expect the number of consumers using it for local business discovery to grow by 2024’s survey. Finally, 28% of consumers stated that they don’t use any of the alternative methods we presented for finding local business information. It could be that there are alternatives they do use that we had not listed, such as service booking apps. But it might also suggest that they don’t see a need to look outside of review platforms. So a takeaway here is: yes, diversifying your online presence is good, but that shouldn’t take away from your efforts in traditional review campaigns. Where have people seen fake business reviews?Of course, we can’t begin to talk about trust without raising the big issue of fake reviews. We’ve been studying consumer perceptions of fake reviews since 2017, and it’s fair to say the issue has only grown in prominence since then. Some platforms, more than others, are fighting back against the issue of fake, misleading or even potentially harmful reviews. The recently issued 2022 Yelp Trust and Safety Report highlights the actions taken throughout 2022 to protect consumers from misinformation and maintain the integrity of its reviews. The report outlines the software and moderation processes Yelp uses to assess usefulness of content, and details the key reasons for review removal. 25% of over 206,000 reviews were found not to be detailing first-hand customer experiences! As the digital landscape continues to evolve, it’s important to measure the perception of trust across specific platforms, so we asked consumers where they feel confident they’ve seen a fake business review. We’ve continued to include Amazon in this question as, although not strictly a business review site, it is often at the forefront of news around fake product reviews—and provides a good (read: bad) example of how sellers can incentivize fake reviews.
Unsurprisingly, Amazon came out as the top website for suspected fake reviews again, with the percentage increasing slightly year on year. More interesting, however, is the finding that a far larger proportion of consumers are confident they’ve seen fake reviews on Facebook in 2022, rising from 37% in 2021 to 42%. Coinciding with our finding that fewer consumers are using Facebook as a review platform, it’s fair to say that overall trust in the platform has dwindled for another year. Business Intelligence statistics show that US consumer trust in Facebook has fallen more significantly in 2022 than in other social networks, with 82% of consumers unable to trust the giant when it comes to privacy and data. Google remains static at 50% and, given the sheer size of the platform, as well as the number of consumers using it regularly, it doesn’t really come as a surprise that people see fake reviews there. What’s more interesting is that, given the number of consumers saying they’ve seen fake reviews there, Google still stands as the most used website for local business reviews, as well as the most trusted across industries. All of this feels like it’s reinforcing the fact that consumers are more switched on and take care in assessing the content of the reviews they’re reading. We also asked what factors might make people suspicious that the review content they’re seeing is fake.
The fact that consumers highlighted a lack of detail in reviews as suspicious shows there has been a greater shift toward the importance of written review content. It correlates with our finding that consumers feel positive about reviews where positive experiences are outlined. Does review incentivization still take place?Before we delve into this section, I’d like to start with a disclaimer: BrightLocal does not endorse or recommend incentivizing online reviews in any way. It’s an important statement to make because, upon reading various articles on the subject across otherwise respectable publications, there is still plenty of confusion on the topic and marketing personalities encouraging “creative” methods of incentivization. To be clear, any form of incentivization is viewed as bad practice, and, in some cases, you might even get your account flagged publicly as one that engages in it--as seen on Yelp. In September 2022, Google updated its guidelines in a bid to crack down on businesses using incentives to get reviews. With that terse disclaimer ringing in our ears, then, just how many businesses are still doing it? This one was a bit of a shocker! After the percentages of consumers who recalled being offered incentives fell in 2020 (which likely came as a result of the pandemic instead of any moral changes to incentivization) our findings show the practice is still very much alive and kicking. More worrying is the significant increase in consumers being offered cash in exchange for business reviews (from 6% in 2021 to 12% in 2022). For the first time this year, we also added ‘prize draw entry’ and ‘loyalty points’ as options for incentivization methods. While they may seem harmless or more of a “gray area”, it’s important to note that these methods technically count as incentives for customers as they are being offered something in exchange for leaving a review. We’ve got a breakdown of review guidelines by platform, but the general rule on incentivization? Just don’t do it! SummaryApart from a few significant trend changes, our comparable results reflect a similar pattern year on year, so we can assume that what was important to consumers in 2022 is still important today. And we can’t expect too much to change in just a year, right? What does stick out, though, is that while consumers remain aware of issues with fake reviews, there has been a positive shift in how consumers are engaging with review content. This means not just taking top-level details at face value but judging the detail and feeling confident in spotting fake content. We’ve summarised some key takeaways from this year’s Local Consumer Review Survey for you to consider within your local marketing and review strategies. Key Takeaways for Businesses
Thanks for reading the Local Consumer Review Survey 2023! Tell us what you think—you can tweet us @BrightLocal or leave a comment below. Methodology and More InformationBrightLocal has been conducting the Local Consumer Review Survey since 2010. We repeat many of the same questions year on year to measure changes in behavior, and occasionally introduce new questions to reflect the continually evolving landscape of consumer reviews. Sample ConsiderationsA representative sample of 1,117 US-based consumers was used to conduct the Local Consumer Review Survey in January 2023. The survey was distributed to an independent consumer panel via SurveyMonkey, in which age group breakdowns and gender are balanced. However, it is significant to note that SurveyMonkey’s consumer panels only consider participants that identify as male or female and therefore do not consider where participants may identify outside of binary genders. Additionally, no consumers under the age of 18 participated in this survey. Using Our DataPublications and individuals are welcome to use the survey findings, charts, and data, provided BrightLocal is credited and linked to via this page’s URL. If you have any questions about this year’s report, please contact the content team, or leave a comment below. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/Fo1qkOi Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ |
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