Google’s Local 3-Pack might soon be a Local 2-Pack (on mobile at least). This week, Joy Hawkins at Local U (via Mariano Rodriguez from LawRank) shared findings of 2-Packs being spotted in local search results on mobile. Since the news was first shared, more and more people have reported seeing a set of just two results when performing local searches on mobile.
Both Android and iPhone users are being presented with 2-Pack results:
What’s new?When performing a local search, users are usually presented with three top results. This is referred to as the ‘Local Pack’ or the ‘3-Pack’. Here’s how that usually looks on mobile: Now, we’re seeing results on mobile where just two businesses are present. What do we know?This news, which came as a surprise to many given how long the 3-Pack has been in place, was initially speculated to be just a test. As we know, Google tests things all the time. That said, Local 2-Packs have been spotted on mobile devices when performing searches in the US, UK, and Canada, so this would be unusually widespread for just a test. Here’s a search performed from the UK by Claire Carlile:
To see if I could replicate the 2-Pack, I performed a few local searches using an iPhone in Brighton, UK. I tested several queries, and many returned the typical 3-Pack as expected. Three queries, however, returned Local 2-Packs: “Drug stores” “Italian restaurants” And “Burgers”. The inconsistency of the 2-Pack could support the idea that this is just a test. Alternatively, it could be that Google is rolling this out across different industries to begin with (interestingly, though, a search for “pizza” returned a normal 3-Pack). Something we know for sure is that this update (test or not) is only happening on mobile searches right now. So far, nobody has reported being able to replicate the 2-Pack on desktop. Again, to check this, I performed the two searches which resulted in 2-Packs on mobile, this time on desktop, and was presented with the usual 3-Pack. This one is for “Drug store”: What do local SEOs think?So far, the reaction has been one, mostly, of shock. As Whitespark’s Darren Shaw said, “It has been proven that 3 is the magic number for choices.”
(It’s worth noting that this comment was made before we saw more reports of the 2-Pack on mobile.) In local SEO, we’re used to seeing tests and being kept on our toes by Google, but it seems no one anticipated the 3-Pack to be going anywhere — likely because the 3-Pack has been a staple of local SEO for so long, and it’s hard to see an immediate benefit to the consumer of showing two businesses instead of three. When challenged by the local SEO community about its updates and decisions, Google has often purported to making changes that help the user make better, faster decisions. You’d think, though, that seeing two businesses instead of three would make it more difficult for users to easily compare and contrast businesses and reach a decision. One theory circulating is that Google is creating more space for ads. A Twitter user shared a screenshot of a Local 2-Pack with the addition of an ad:
It’s possible that this could be something we see more of, and the Local 2-Pack is providing more search real estate for Google to include extra ad results on mobile searches. This is something that local SEO expert Attorney Sync’s Gyi Tsakalakis has also voiced:
In recent years, there have been plenty of predictions about Google moving to more paid models, and we’ve seen paid-for options like Local Services Ads be invested in more and more. So the decision to create space for more ads wouldn’t come as a huge surprise. What should you do?Right now, this news is very early doors and it’s not clear if it’s a test or being rolled out fully. Recently, we’ve seen Google be much more communicative about any updates it’s made (we had a full year to prepare for the Page Experience Update!) Given that we don’t know if this will be a permanent change, we wouldn’t suggest making any reactive movements. That said, this change could mean that getting into the Local Pack is going to be even more competitive (on mobile at least) so it’s important to keep up your local SEO strategy and work. If you’re interested to know if the change might affect your business, we’d suggest performing your own tests and seeing if the Local 2-Pack is present for searches within your vertical. Finally, as always, we recommend that you keep an eye on your local search rankings. If you have dropped out of the top three spots on mobile, this could lead to a dip in traffic, phone calls, or footfall. You can also sign up for daily, weekly, or urgent Local RankFlux alerts to be kept in the know if there are many shifts happening in the Local Pack that might affect your rankings. We’ll keep you posted as this news story progresses, so keep an eye on this post. In the meantime, what do you think of a potential Local 2-Pack? Let us know in the comments below. The post Local 2-Packs Spotted in Google Mobile SERPs appeared first on BrightLocal. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/3ud4ndM Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/
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We’re only a few weeks away from the rollout of Google’s Page Experience update and, while we don’t yet know what impact it will have on rankings, it’s undoubtedly something that needs to be on the radar of every SEO. As this is arguably the biggest change to Google’s algorithm we’ve seen in recent years, we enlisted technical SEO virtuoso, Niki Mosier, to get her expert opinion on everything worth knowing about the update. Listen to learn:
ResourcesWant to check if your site is protected against the Page Experience update? These tools and resources (as recommended by Niki) will help you identify and resolve any Core Web Vitals issues:
Subscribe todayIf you like what you hear and want instant access to the latest episodes, be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts:
Leave us a review If you’re an avid listener of the podcast, we’d really appreciate it if you could leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. Your review will help more local marketers find our podcast, and while you’re there feel free to tell us what topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes. The post on Google-proofing your Page Experience appeared first on BrightLocal. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/2PagCsF Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ We’re pleased to announce the arrival of a new BrightLocal Academy module all about how to use our latest tool: Local Search Grid. The module is called Put Your Rankings on the Map With Local Search Grid and is part of the ‘Level Up Your Local SEO with BrightLocal’ course. It includes lessons on:
The module also has two short quizzes to test your knowledge and understanding. What is the ‘Level Up Your Local SEO with BrightLocal’ course about?The ‘Level Up Your Local SEO with BrightLocal’ course uses the power of interactive content to guide you through the theory of local SEO and shows you how to tackle it more effectively using BrightLocal. So if you’re not sure where to start with BrightLocal, or want to uncover new insights in your data to improve results quicker, then this is the course for you! How can I access the new module?BrightLocal Academy Members If you’re already enrolled on the Level Up Your Local SEO with BrightLocal course, simply click here and sign in to complete the module called ‘Put your rankings on the map with Local Search Grid’.
If you’re not enrolled on the Level Up Your Local SEO with BrightLocal course, click here to enroll. Non-BrightLocal Academy Members If you’re a BrightLocal customer, you can access the academy via your BrightLocal account. Simply log in, click ‘Learning Resources’ at the top of the screen and select ‘BrightLocal Academy’ from the dropdown menu. You’ll be taken straight to your academy account page where you can enroll on the ‘Level Up Your Local SEO with BrightLocal’ course. If you’re not a BrightLocal customer, you can join BrightLocal Academy for free here and follow the same steps above to enroll on the course. Discover 9 Ways Local Search Grid Can Level Up Your Local SEO Analysis and Reporting Want to know more about BrightLocal Academy?Check out the official BrightLocal Academy FAQs here:
If you have any questions of your own, feel free to get in touch with us or leave a comment below. We hope you find this fresh new module useful, and we look forward to hearing how it’s helped you.
The post New Local Search Grid Module Added to BrightLocal Academy appeared first on BrightLocal. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/3flU4Qf Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ In this guide to Google Local Services Ads, Google My Business Product Expert Tom Waddington explains what LSAs are, how they work, and everything else you need to know about the increasingly popular paid option. What are Google Local Services Ads?Google Local Services Ads are pay-per-lead ads that appear at the top of the search results, above organic results and traditional Google Ads. In order to participate in Local Services Ads, a business must first pass a screening process that involves background checks, license checks, and insurance checks. The specific checks will vary depending on the business type and where they are located. Here’s how Local Services Ads might look in desktop search results: Meanwhile, here’s an example I’ve sourced from a mobile search: The user is presented with three ads on desktop and two ads on mobile. At the bottom of the ad unit, the user can click or tap to view additional ads for businesses. The number of ads in a market and within specific categories can vary quite a bit. You might see only a few or you might see dozens. It just depends on how many businesses are in the category in that market. The most ads I’ve seen after clicking through to view the entire list for a specific search is 100, so that may be the maximum. This is what you’ll be presented with if you choose to expand the ad unit on desktop: The post What Are Google Local Services Ads and Why Should You Care? appeared first on BrightLocal. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/3cYRahv Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ This week, Google released a new tool that allows Google My Business account holders to handle the removal of Google reviews, one by one, and see the status of these review removal requests. This is big news in the fight against fake reviews on Google, and comes hot off the heels of a report that shows a marked decrease in trust in reviews over the last few years. However, it’s not particularly suitable for agency accounts managing lots of listings. As Joy Hawkins, who first reported on this tool, points out:
While not perfect for everyone, this is still a step change in how Google treats review removal, and perhaps even indicates a renewed focus on review quality. To show how it works in practice, let’s look at a real-world example of a typical situation in which you’d want reviews taken down, doing so using this new Google My Business review tool. Here’s a review of Google’s review takedown management tool… (I’ll aim to update this post when there are updates about the reviews we’re removing, so keep an eye out for that!) Prologue: A Case (Study) of Mistaken IdentityIn sunny Brighton, UK, there’s a non-profit arts organization called Carousel. They’re based on Queen’s Road, near the train station and not far from the beach. On the nearby seafront sits a traditional fish and chip restaurant. It’s called ‘Carousel’s’ on its signage as well as its Facebook and Tripadvisor pages. However, rather confusingly, it’s named ‘OW Smith & Son’ in its Google My Business profile. Most likely because of this mismatch of business names, any sun-seeking tourists looking to review their fish and chips at Carousel’s on Google will naturally land on the arts organization Carousel‘s GMB profile when searching ‘carousel’s brighton’ in Google search or Maps. You’re probably ahead of me here, but suffice it to say, this has led to 5 of the 6 Google reviews of the arts organization mentioning their crispy cod and not-so-crispy fries, rather than their work in the learning disability arts community. Most frustratingly for the team at Carousel (who have been kind enough to grant me access to their GMB profile for the purposes of this case study), these reviews not only bring their overall star rating down, but they are also appearing front and center in the Knowledge Panel, potentially causing all sorts of confusion for philanthropists looking to donate to the charity. As we’ll see, Carousel has been fighting Google on these reviews for some time, to little avail. But with a dedicated review takedown and escalation tool at our fingertips, perhaps this time it’ll be different? Let’s go through this new process and see what, if anything, can be done differently or better. How to Report a Review for Removal Using Google My Business’s ‘Manage Your Reviews’ ToolFirst, we log in to our Google My Business account and head over to the tool, which sits within Google Help. Make sure you bookmark the link as it’s not particularly easy to find! Select the business you’re looking to manage reviews for, and click ‘Continue’. Here you can select whether to look at the status of current review reports and escalations or report a new review for takedown. Right now we’re looking to remove a review, so select this and click ‘Continue’. Here you’ll see all reviews that aren’t currently being escalated for takedown. (Yes, you’re seeing right: only two of the six reviews for the arts organization aren’t already sitting in takedown limbo, but more on this shortly.) The top review is clearly not about this business, so let’s click ‘Report a problem’. Here, we’re shown a short list of reasons you might need a review taken down. In this instance, ‘This review is not relevant to the place’ applies, so we’ll click that. You’ll see this message and then receive an email letting you know that the review is being assessed. We can now confirm that the review has been reported, leaving it in the hand of the Google Gods. With one review reported, let’s now look at how we can track its status using this tool. How Does Status Tracking Work in Google My Business’s ‘Manage Your Reviews’ Tool?Log in to your Google My Business account, then visit the ‘Manage your reviews’ tool in Google Help. As before, select your business and click ‘Continue’. This time we’re looking for the status of reported reviews, so next select ‘Check the status of a review I reported previously’ and click ‘Continue’. Here we see a list of reported reviews and some info on where in Google limbo they sit: As you can see, most of these reviews are still in the ‘Decision pending’ phase, including the one we’ve just submitted. Apart from the top one, all these reviews were reported on January 27th of this year (almost two months ago). In my opinion, that’s a very long time to make such a cut-and-dry decision, especially when this tool notes that “Reported reviews may take up to 72 hours to be evaluated”, but it also highlights why this kind of tool is necessary. We can see that one of these reviews previously reported, for the same reason as every other one (“we’re not a restaurant!!!”), has come back as ‘Report reviewed – no policy violation’. It’s worth noting that none of these reviews were actually ever reported for violating Google’s review policies, which include offensive or sexually explicit content. They were reported for being about a completely different business, which is strangely absent from these policies. It’s interesting that the reason given is ‘no policy violation’ when that was never in question. We can appeal against decisions on reviews, but we can only do it one at a time. As I’ve noted, this tool doesn’t allow for the selection and management of multiple reviews so it’s not particularly well-suited for scale or for businesses with multiple locations. If we select the review we want to appeal against, and click ‘continue’, we’re shown the following message about a ‘one-time escalation for a second assessment’. The message only talks about policy violations, and doesn’t offer any option to highlight the review as ‘not about this business’. Clicking ‘submit an appeal’ just takes you to the very serious ‘Request Removal of Inappropriate Reviews’ form, which is completely irrelevant in this case. This process should work really well for those businesses having to deal with fake reviews that violate Google’s policies, streamlining the process and allowing for a single location to understand review takedown request status. Sadly, though, it’s of no use to Carousel, which is still having to go down the frustrating route of manually requesting review removal via Google’s team, to no avail so far. Epilogue: The Reviews That Returned from the DeadIn finishing up this process for the purposes of this case study, I realised there was a screenshot I hadn’t grabbed from within the tool. I logged back in to take it and found that, lo and behold, all the earlier reviews that were in ‘Decision pending’ were now no longer in the review removal status page… …and instead they’ve moved into the list of live reviews you can report for evaluation. Apparently, the decision had been made in the 10 minutes I was navigating the tool and collecting screenshots, but crucially none of these reviews entered the ‘Report reviewed – no policy violation’ phase, and no emails were sent to GMB account holders to advise that any decision had been made. No, they just bounced right from ‘Decision pending’ to ‘Report a problem’, as if the reviews had never been reported in the first place. This is not a great experience for GMB users and makes it seem pretty unreliable. And so the cycle begins again… I “report a problem” and tell Google these old reviews are still “not relevant to this place”. Let’s see what happens in 72 hours, shall we? The VerdictUltimately, in its current state this feels like a tool that’s been designed to allow Google to push back on claims it’s not doing enough to combat fake reviews rather than one that makes the removal process any better. The functionality of seeing review report statuses is pretty neat, but I can’t help but feel it’s just there to reduce the number of support tickets following up removal requests, asking for updates. Instead of emailing a Google representative to find out no decision has been made on your reported review for 2 months, you can just use this tool to find out for yourself! I will admit that this tool makes the process of reporting reviews a little easier, but what I think the local SEO community would rather see an improvement in is the quality and speed of these requests from Google’s end. I might be wrong, though! This is purely my own opinion based on the above experience and my time watching community sentiment around fake reviews over the years. Have you had a different experience with this tool? Perhaps you’ve submitted a report and had it dealt with much more quickly than usual? Let us know in the comments below. The post How to Manage Your Google Review Takedown Requests: A Guide, Review, and Case Study appeared first on BrightLocal. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/3s5c6tp Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ In this article, guest contributor Elliot Mark explores how local businesses can create online customer experiences to complement physical brick-and-mortar stores, and provides customer service tips for retailers. Throughout recent years, the growth of the online retail industry has made it increasingly difficult for brick-and-mortar retailers to compete, pushing them to adapt to maintain their viability. The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic has only added urgency to this process. Unable to carry on as usual, even the staunchest holdouts have had to embrace online operations. While there are some notable distinctions, online and offline retail overlap far more than they differ. Consider what it takes to bring a customer back, for instance. Superb customer service, whether it involves providing key advice concerning product options or calmly and productively fielding complaints, is a necessity for every type of retailer. Now that in-person shopping has become so limited, with people being much less willing to spend significant time in stores (and much more likely to use straightforward click-and-collect systems with minimal interaction), traditional retailers can take advantage of this overlap. They can’t provide rich service in person, but they can provide it through the internet. In this post, I’m going to set out four ways in which exceptional online customer experience can help you make your customers happy, bolster your reputation, and encourage patrons to return to your physical store. Let’s get started. Field queries quicklyBeing attentive is a key part of customer service. It shows that you’re invested in helping shoppers get what they need as quickly and easily as possible and that you’re eager to secure their business. It’s nice to feel valued, after all. And where in-person service can be particularly friendly, online service can reach a level of efficiency that isn’t otherwise possible. This is especially true when you implement live chat, a system that has become commonplace in customer service because it’s so much easier than the alternatives. Phone support is frustrating, requires focus, and must be handled one call at a time. Email support, however, has little sense of urgency. Live chat manages the best of both worlds. It’s happening in real-time but can be dealt with while you get on with other things. Plus, support assistants can typically field multiple live-chat queries simultaneously. You can further improve a live chat system through the implementation of chatbot software. Tools such as Crisp Chat were designed to accommodate customer service workflows, making it possible to automate the handling of common queries and concerns (leaving support assistants with time needed to field the more complex matters). Source: Best Buy You can see this type of system in action on the Best Buy site. If someone wants to check up on an order without going through the (often frustrating) process of waiting for an assistant to be available, they can. Knowing how easily they can get support will prove encouraging to your customers, and build trust before the time comes to return to physical stores. Showcase in-depth product contentThe best thing about checking out products in a physical store is that you can physically inspect them (well, to some extent: you may only be able to pick up the box). Very often there will be sample products on display to allow customers to look at them more closely. This in-store experience is great for showing the quality of materials and other things that might not be obvious from text descriptions. Unfortunately, that experience can’t be reproduced online—but the advantage of the online world is that it takes away the rush that’s often present while shopping in person. Even someone very interested won’t stick around in a brick-and-mortar store for hours on end unless they really have time to kill, but it’s possible to spend that time browsing a site without even thinking about it. Source: Ikea Through your website, you can offer so much rich product information. Booklets, guides, dimensions (see how Ikea does this, nesting further figures for anyone who wants them), guarantees, tutorials, demonstrations, explainer videos. If you think that a piece of content would help someone choose what to buy (or help them use whatever they bought), then you can include it, and it won’t take up valuable in-store space you can’t afford to lose. Offer dynamic recommendationsTraditional stores order their items in particular ways. Supermarket chains are notorious for positioning their staple foods at the most hard-to-reach parts of their stores, requiring shoppers to walk past myriad tempting items (chocolate bars, for instance) to reach them. You can’t do this online, but you can draw upon previous purchases to inform dynamic recommendations. Suppose that someone buys something from your physical store (creating a store account in the process), then heads to your website at a later date. With the systems linked, you can provide them with hyper-relevant product suggestions as they browse, and at the checkout stage before they place an order (there are countless systems for doing this, such as Dynamic Yield). Source: Amazon Amazon (pictured above) takes this one step further through using all sales data to offer relevant recommendations without requiring the user to sign in. If you add several items to your basket, you’ll be recommended items frequently purchased alongside that particular combination, making it hyper-convenient to take up new hobbies. This example may be from an ecommerce brand, but it’s a tactic that could useful for your physical store because it increases your online store’s utility (improving the perception of your brand in general) and reminds the buyer of everything you stock, leading them to wonder what else you have to offer — something they could investigate further through visiting your store in person. Whichever store they choose, you benefit. Provide exceptional after-sale careLastly, digital service allows you to assist your customers after they’ve bought from you in a way that wouldn’t be possible through your physical store alone. In addition to being there when they need you, you can reach out to them through social media to see how they’re faring. Are they satisfied with what you’ve sold them? Is there anything you can help with? More often than you might think, customers will have minor issues with their buys that they don’t consider serious enough to actively pursue (but can certainly influence their decisions). By taking a proactive approach to service, you can learn about these issues and take action to resolve them. The result will be happier customers who want to support your brand. Source: Twitter There’s also the possibility that they just want to know more about what they’ve paid for, in which case popping up with relevant information would improve their experience and make them more likely to be positive about it. It isn’t for retail, but Spotify support (as evidenced above) is fantastic at picking up on such things — notice how it found and addressed a mention with no hashtags or profile targets. Keeping physical stores going is certainly a challenge at this point for all businesses that don’t focus on staple buys (particularly grocery stores), and you can’t rely on the offline world to cover all your costs (let alone produce adequate profits). Working the digital world into your operation to achieve a hybrid strategy is the best way to proceed. By concentrating on the customer service you can provide through your website and social media presence, you can find compelling ways to make your customers happy, resulting in a general boost to your company’s reputation. Good luck. The post How to Use On-site Features to Complement Physical Stores appeared first on BrightLocal. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/38Xsqou Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ What’s one topic that comes up time and time again in local SEO? How to launch and maintain a successful agency. It’s something we get asked about a lot, and so we enlisted the help of Claire Carlile. Claire’s got 12 years of managing her own boutique agency under her belt, so you’ll be sure to take away some game-changing tips. Listen to learn how to:
If you’re at the start of your journey or further down the path, you’re going to learn a lot from Claire in this episode. Resources:If this episode has you hungry to learn more, then you’re in luck! Claire has created an entire course in BrightLocal Academy to guide you through the key steps to take when setting up your agency. It’s called How to Land Your First Local SEO Client and it’s free to enroll! Subscribe todayIf you like what you hear and want instant access to the latest episodes, be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts: Tell us what you thinkWe’d love to learn about your own experiences of setting up your agency or going it alone as a freelancer. What worked really well for you? What mistakes did you make? Share your advice in the comments below. The post on Setting Your Agency up for Success from Day One appeared first on BrightLocal. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/3cKbtiH Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ How many of February’s biggest local marketing news stories did you spot? Answer our quick-fire 10 question quiz to test your knowledge of last month’s news, and catch up on any stories you might have missed so you can feel certain you’re up-to-date on all of the news that matters. And, if you wanted to show off your score, you can do that over on Twitter using #LocalQuizness. To refresh your memory of February’s news, take a look at the linked stories below.
We’ll be back soon with all of the news from March – keep your eyes peeled! The post Local Quizness March 2021 – What’s The Story in Local SEO? appeared first on BrightLocal. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/3vid3ko Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ We’re incredibly excited to announce the launch of our second free course for BrightLocal Academy, called ‘How to Land Your First Local SEO Client‘. We’ve created this course in collaboration with local SEO specialist Claire Carlile because we realized that while there’s plenty of content out there that helps people learn how to do local SEO, there’s little that helps people get their local SEO agencies off the ground. Winning that first client is a massive milestone for anyone starting out, but there’s a lot of work needed to get to that point. For the most part, it’s trial and error but early missteps can have negative knock-on effects as your agency grows. For example, you might find yourself in a tricky situation down the line after having underpriced your services at the start, leaving you struggling to deliver work in a cost-effective way. This course is here to give you clear guidance on how to build a thriving local SEO agency from day one. Ensuring long-term success and long-lasting, amicable relationships with clients. Throughout the eight lessons, Claire shares her pearls of wisdom on how to:
Watch this video to find out what it’s all about…
Enroll today and save yourself some time by learning from Claire’s successes and mistakes. Who is this course for?The course might be called ‘How to Land Your First Local SEO Client’, but it’s definitely not just for people wanting to start a local SEO agency from scratch. If you’re one of the following, you’ll still get a ton of value from enrolling:
How can I join?Whether you’re a BrightLocal customer or not, you can get access to this course, and be among the first to find out when new courses drop, by enrolling for free. Here’s how… If you’re a BrightLocal customer, you can access the academy via your BrightLocal account. Simply log in, click ‘Learning Resources’ at the top of the screen and select ‘BrightLocal Academy’ from the dropdown menu. You’ll be taken straight to your academy account page where you can enroll on the ‘How to Land Your First Local SEO Client’ course. If you’re not a BrightLocal customer, you can join BrightLocal Academy for free here and follow the same steps above to enroll on the course. Want to know more about BrightLocal Academy?Check out the official BrightLocal Academy FAQs here:
If you have any questions of your own, feel free to get in touch with us or leave a comment below. We hope you find this fresh new course useful, and we look forward to hearing how it’s helped you kick-start your career in local SEO!
The post New Academy Course: How to Land Your First Local SEO Client appeared first on BrightLocal. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/38xZhQL Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ Last month we launched our latest tool, Local Search Grid. By now, you’ve hopefully had a chance to try it out and see for yourself how it can add a new dimension to your local SEO analysis and reporting. If you haven’t, then head over to our launch post to learn all about it. On the surface, it’s clear to see how Local Search Grid offers more ways to understand ranking performance, but dig a little deeper and there’s a whole host of new insights now at your fingertips. I’ve been using Local Search Grid for a number of weeks now—creating reports for different businesses in different industries to really test the limits of the insights that can be uncovered. And long before release, I spoke to eager BrightLocal customers to learn how they’d want to use it. In this post, I’m revealing everything I’ve found along the way. So here they are: nine ways Local Search Grid can truly level up your local SEO analysis and reporting. 1. Compare keyword performance in more detailWe spoke about the limitations of single-location rank tracking in our launch post, so I won’t go over the same ground, but essentially, Local Search Grid will give you much greater insights into how well you’re really ranking in local search by showing you what’s happening in local searches made in the area around your business. One of the first decisions you’ll need to make when setting up a Local Search Grid report is choosing what keywords to track. You can monitor up to five different keywords, so you’ll want to make sure you’re tracking your most important keywords. Local Search Rank Checker is a great place to start when deciding which keywords for your report. These could be keywords that have the highest search volume, and therefore the highest traffic potential. You’ll be able to quickly reference this in the ‘Count’ column in your Local Search Rank Checker report. (Quick note: search volume estimates are only available on our SEO Pro plan) They could be keywords that are the most profitable to your business, or client’s business, despite having lower search volumes. For dentists, these could refer to more expensive procedures like ‘cosmetic dentistry’ or ‘dental implants’. They could be keywords where you’ve struggled to see improvements, and where you really need those extra insights to figure out what could be holding you back. Or you could come at it from a position of protectionism: by tracking your top performing keywords so you can react faster to any loss in visibility. Whatever you decide, I’d personally recommend going for a spread of different keywords to reveal greater insights into the competitive landscape and the level of relevance Google places on your business for each service you offer. Now that you’ve got a good understanding of what to track, let’s take a look at what you might find. In this post, I’m going to be using a dental practice in Tampa, Florida as an example. For the query ‘cosmetic dentist’ you can see that this business is ranking in the top three positions in every single grid point—awesome! That’s a lot of potential traffic and leads. For the query ‘teeth whitening’, though, it’s a different situation. Yes, they rank in the top spots in search locations very close to the business, but the rest of the map is made up of orange and red grid points. A standard single-location rank tracking tool, simply reporting the ‘Position 1’ at the business address, wouldn’t reveal the disparity of search visibility between these two keywords. Without having this broader view on rankings, further optimization to increase search visibility for ‘teeth whitening’ might not be considered a priority. 2. Spot previously unseen changes to search visibilityAs well as being able to compare keyword performance in much more detail, Local Search Grid is also useful for spotting drops in search visibility that you might normally miss. Let’s say a local algorithm update hits. You check your single-location rank tracker and everything looks pretty rosy—a few keywords have dropped a couple of positions but there’s nothing to suggest you’re going to lose a huge amount of traffic. However, that might not be entirely true… Because Local Search Grid tracks rankings over multiple search locations, you’re now able to see if a slight drop in rankings is actually more significant. Within Local Search Grid, you’ll have a single metric to tell you this right away: Average Map Rank. It measures the average of all your rankings within your selected grid so you can instantly understand broader changes in search visibility. The color-coded timeline at the top will also help you monitor any changes over time. With this added insight, you’ll be able to react quicker, and start reversing the situation earlier. 3. Benchmark against competitorsLocal Search Grid doesn’t just tell you how your business is performing, it also measures the search visibility of all the businesses ranking within your grid. When you hover over a Grid Point, you’ll see the top three ranking businesses from that search location—pretty handy, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. If you scroll down, you’ll see a competitor benchmark table that shows you the top ranking competitors within your grid. It’s ordered by the Average Map Rank, so you’ll know exactly which rivals you need to overtake. Local Search Grid also provides review benchmarks that show you how many reviews each competitor has, as well as their average star rating. Reviews are an important ranking factor that influences a business’s ability to rank, so if you notice that your business has significantly fewer reviews or a lower average star rating than the top ranking competitors, it might be time to prioritize review generation. Note: we’ll soon be adding more metrics to this table to help benchmark against more ranking factors, so keep an eye for that update! 4. Identify competitors that are outperforming their locationProximity is a big part of how Google determines which businesses to show in local search results. Makes sense, right?! When someone performs a local search for a business, they’ll likely want to see businesses close to where they’re searching from (depending on the business type). But that doesn’t mean you can’t rank beyond the constraints of proximity; there might even be competitors that are doing just that already. Here’s how to find these… Just below the competitor benchmarking table, you’ll see a map that shows the business locations of the top ranking competitors. In the example above, we can see that most of the top ranking businesses are located fairly close to each other— but there’s one business that’s further afield, at the bottom of the map. Even though this business is only the 7th-highest ranking business within the grid, they’re clearly doing something that’s allowing them to outrank competitors who are much closer to the original search locations. If there was one competitor we’d want deeper insights on, it’s definitely this one. So what are they doing right? Well, Local Search Audit can help you figure that out. You could take this competitor and run a full audit of their search performance to learn what’s helping them rank so well. The post 9 Ways Local Search Grid Can Level Up Your Local SEO Analysis and Reporting appeared first on BrightLocal. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/38n9uPJ Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ |
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April 2023
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