On March 8th every year, we come together to celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women globally for International Women’s Day. But today is not just a day to celebrate how far we’ve come. It’s a time to look at the journey still ahead and to reflect on what we are doing in the ongoing fight towards gender parity. In the SEO space, as is the case in many industries worldwide, there’s still some way to go before women are fairly represented. Last year, North Star Inbound’s Nicole DeLeon ran and released an eye-opening study surrounding gender equality in the SEO industry. Unfortunately, for many women the findings were likely not such a surprise. But for many others, the gender gap study unveiled a shocking disparity in our very own industry. Nicole’s study found that retainers for those who identify as male are 28.6% higher than for those identifying as female. In our own Local Search Industry Survey, results showed that respondents who identified as women earned 14% less than their male-identifying counterparts. It also showed that fewer women occupied senior positions. All this goes to say, while celebrating women’s achievements is absolutely something we should be doing, we cannot become complacent when gender pay gaps like those found by these studies are still present. Top tip: A lot of consumers will be looking to support women-led businesses. If your business is women-led or owned, make sure to include that as a GMB Attribute! The post #IWD2021: How Can We Support Gender Parity in SEO and at Work? appeared first on BrightLocal. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/2MZVqnX Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/
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This guide to Google My Business (GMB) explains what GMB is, how to use it, and the features available to local businesses. Read on to learn how Google My Business can help your business gain more visibility online! As years go by and our reliance on the internet only seems to increase, Google has become even more present in our day-to-day lives, whether that’s in the form of its video search engine, YouTube, its voice assistant, Google Assistant, or just a simple Chrome search on your phone. But for local SEOs and local business owners, no Google product is more important than Google My Business. In this complete guide to Google My Business, I’ll talk you through everything you need to know, asking and answering questions like: In each chapter, we’ll cover a different topic, and by the end of the guide, you should have a foundational understanding of what Google My Business is and how to use it to gain more visibility in local search for your, or your client’s, business. Throughout the guide, keep your eyes peeled for top tips, expert advice, and recommended resources. Bookmark this page and come back to it to put your learnings into practice as you go! Let’s get started! The post Google My Business: The Complete Guide appeared first on BrightLocal. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/38gLsGn Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ On February 24-25, our local algorithm monitoring tool, Local RankFlux, showed some turbulence – suggesting that there may be changes being made to the local algorithm. For those of you not so familiar with Local RankFlux, every day, we track around 14,000 keywords from a set of locations in the US, and compare these to the previous day to provide a daily score showing how much has changed in local rankings. Different ranking positions carry different weights – with movement in the top-ranking positions counting more towards the overall score than those ranking at the bottom of the top 20. You can learn more about how Local RankFlux works here, or sign up for regular emails to be alerted of possible local algorithm updates. On a ‘normal’ day, we tend to see the overall score ranging from 2.0-2.8. In fact, since some above-average flux in November, daily scores have been closer to 2.0, which makes any unusual change even more noticeable. The average daily Local RankFlux score for the month January 24 – February 23rd was 2.14. Last week, scores jumped to 3.44 on Wednesday, and 3.79 on Thursday – a 61% increase in daily flux for the Wednesday compared to the monthly average, and 77% up for the Thursday. And when you drill down into the individual scores per industry, some niches saw even more change than usual – with car dealerships being particularly notable, climbing from a norm of 2.2-2.6 in the previous month to 5.27 on the 25th – around double the rate of normal daily change. But, does this mean there was a local algorithm update?No, it doesn’t. As of yet, there has been no confirmation from Google that there was a local algorithm update, and discussion around ranking changes hasn’t been as widespread as in some previous official algorithm updates (see November 2019’s Bedlam update). Google has upped its communication game over the last few years, and tends to warn of Core Updates affecting the search algorithm – though we’re still yet to receive warning before a local update occurs. We’ll be sure to update this post if/when we have more information. Of course, while Google updates its algorithm hundreds of times a year, change in local rankings tends to be seen less frequently. Last May, above-average flux turned out to be a bug, and other instances of change often seem to resolve themselves after a few days. Sometimes, Local RankFlux reports a couple of days of flux, but little change is noticed in the real world as movements are only short-term. This was not the case this time, with Joy Hawkins reporting examples of shifts for some clients over on Local Search Forum.
In Barry Schwartz’s writeup of the potential update, many commenters also shared their own examples of rankings changing. If you’ve seen changes to your business’s or clients’ local rankings, let us know in the comments. Local RankFlux Change February 2021To try and see how rankings changed last week, I looked at a small subset of the data to compare daily changes compared to ‘normal’. To do this, I looked at two industries – car dealerships and legal practices across three different cities in the US (Atlanta GA, Austin TX, and Milwaukee WI.) Local RankFlux compares to the previous day, so a one-day blip can stretch to two days of flux – for example, if a business ranks in position #1 on Day One, drops to position #10 on Day Two, then returns to #1 on Day Three, this will show as two days of higher fluctuation. I’ve compared each day to a fixed day (21st February), and also compared some key dates to see how rankings changed between these days.
As you can see in the table above, the proportion of businesses that saw no change in their local rankings tended to be around 57-61% on a ‘normal’ day. On the two higher-flux days, this dropped to above half its usual rate (34% saw no change on the 24th compared to the 21st, while 26% saw no change between their ranking on the 25th compared to the 21st). Between the two days of higher flux, 32% saw no change – a similar rate to the day before. When you compare the rankings on the 25th and 26th, 57% saw no change. This suggests that the changes that were made during the fluctuation may have stuck around, rather than just reverting right back to the rankings seen prior to the 24th. In fact, if you compare rankings between the 21st and the 28th, only 26% saw no change – which could indicate that rankings have seen a longer-lasting change, rather than a one-day blip. However, please note that I’m looking at this data in a vacuum – I do not have a ‘normal’ proportion of rankings that would see changes over the course of a week to compare if this is any different than a normal week (but I’ll look into it!) The majority of changes seem to be small, with businesses most likely to see changes between 1 and 3 places – 20% saw a change of more than 4 places over the course of the full week. However, we all know that even small changes to a business’s ranking can have a big impact on both traffic and leads. What To Do NowIf your business has seen drops over the last week, pay close attention to your rankings over the next few weeks. Ranking changes are often temporary and can bounce back to normal – especially if this turns out to be a bug or short-term test. You may want to consider checking your rankings across a wider local area to see how you’re ranking further afield. When it comes to changes, Mike Blumenthal’s advice tends to be the best option to follow:
Don’t make any rash decisions – and remember that some changes to your Google My Business listing are known to cause suspensions. SEO should always be a proactive, rather than reactive strategy, so continuing to focus on the key local SEO ranking factors is the best possible way to improve your rankings in the long-run. For further advice on improving your local rankings, check out the following resources from some of my excellent colleagues and our wonderful contributors:
Have you seen changes to your local rankings? Let us know what you’ve spotted in the comments below! The post Are We Experiencing a Local Algorithm Update? [Local RankFlux Data – February 2021] appeared first on BrightLocal. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/3sS2Qc3 Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ Google is currently putting together the final changes for a search algorithm update that they’ve announced will land in May 2021. The update is being called the Page Experience update because of its focus on usability rather than things like keywords or search relevance. Google has already provided some information on the update, which aims to measure and potentially rank the experience that a user encounters when visiting a page. The fact that Google have given so much warning about the update says all you need to know about how seriously to take it. We know it’ll impact organic search results but as of yet, there’s no word on whether there will be any specific impact on Google My Business rankings. Although this update is due to hit the algorithm in May, there’s no reason not to get ahead of it now and ask yourself, “what will the Page Experience update mean for my local SEO efforts?” Here we’ll look at how the update will work and provide some clear and actionable steps to help you optimize your local business website for it. What is the Page Experience update?At the very highest level, the update will for the first time implement the Core Web Vitals that Google defined in 2020 into the search algorithm. The aim of those metrics is that users should have a web experience that is straightforward, reliable, safe, and works great on any device. The Page Experience update is ultimately the leveling up of those metrics from a ‘request’ to a ‘demand’, in that, theoretically at least, your local business site will perform worse in search if a comparable competitor is performing better in Core Web Vitals. Source: Google That said, the Page Experience update isn’t just about the new Core Web Vitals. It includes a bunch of usability factors that are already important in search, but that may become more important with the release of this update. Let’s take a look at the key elements of the Page Experience update: Core Web VitalsMoving further than simple page loading speed, Google’s Core Web Vitals are a relatively new way of measuring sites’ performance across the web. In recent times the average user expects seamless, fast browsing experiences, particularly on mobile devices. What are the Core Web Vitals metrics?
Source: Google To support the release of Core Web Vitals, Google has released or updated a whole suite of tools to help webmasters keep on top of their site’s performance. Source: Google For local businesses, significant CWV gains above and beyond your competitors can place you as the leader in your area, shooting you up the search rankings for local search terms. Intrusiveness of site designWe’ve all experienced an overload of intrusive widgets and pop-ups while browsing the web. In fact, it seems that these are getting more and more prevalent in recent years. With cookie acceptance, newsletter opt-ins, basket reminders, and reminders that you are about to leave, it’s no wonder that Google has decided to do something about these negative experiences. It’s not just about malevolent bad experiences. Your local content marketing efforts could be providing a negative experience without you realizing it. Elements could load differently on other devices, with different screen ratios, for example. Mobile-friendlinessMobile friendly has now become mobile-first. With so much of the web being accessed via mobile devices, it’s imperative for Google that sites provide experiences that work just as well in the palm of your hand as they would on a desktop or laptop. With over 3.5 billion smartphone users out there, it’s not surprising that Google is placing more emphasis on this metric than ever before. Google has indicated that the Page Experience update will take particular consideration of how your site appears on mobile. For local SEOs, this is even more important. Local searches are performed predominantly on mobile (60%), making it a fundamental part of any local SEO to optimize for mobile. Privacy and safe browsingSpammy and malicious websites have long been in the crosshairs for Google. Naturally, it doesn’t want users to land on a harmful website from its search results, harming the search experience. Expect this to be one of the most dangerous things you could do as a local business owner. But beyond malicious activity, page experience means that Google will prefer secure sites (HTTPS). SSL certification will no longer be optional if you want your SEO efforts to bear fruit in 2021. How to stay on top of the Page Experience updateSo how do you get ahead of this update and ensure that these changes don’t hamper your local SEO efforts? As with anything Google, they will be looking at the page level. Sure, your site’s overall ranking can be important, but remember, Google ranks pages, and I’d be surprised if this metric is applied differently. Take a look at your pages and use this to form an action plan. Take your blog posts and product/services pages and apply these tips to each to get an idea of where you need to improve. Increase speed and reduce errorsIt doesn’t matter whether you’re a store owner creating product pages or someone into B2B content marketing and blogging, one of the most powerful things you can do to get your site looking good in the eyes of Google is to speed it up. It’s no coincidence that Google has released a whole range of tools to help you do just this. Combine metrics such as page speed with the Chrome User Experience report to get on top of how your site performs for users. You can use Google’s page speed toolkit to get ahead of these vitals for your business’ website. Simply head to this link, and Google will give you a detailed breakdown of how your property is performing. Alongside this, make sure you are running regular local search audits on your site. These will help you to discover pages that aren’t running as fast and need your focus. If speed is an area where you can focus on positive signals, make sure you also don’t ignore the negative ones. These aforementioned audit tools will also help you to identify errors. ‘400 errors’ will need to be snuffed out, for example. There’s a whole range of related errors that we think will be included in the update. Luckily these are all common technical SEO errors that most tools can check for and help you solve. There’s never been a better time to tackle the technical SEO of your site and, while you’re at it, make your site look great in the eyes of Google. Compare page experience with main competitor websitesSo you might think browsing your local business website is a great experience, and you might have taken a look at your Page Experience metrics and decided they look pretty good, but what about your competitors? What are they doing that is working better than you, and how can you use this to benefit once the update is rolled out? Time to perform a competitive audit. Check the local search terms that you want to rank for and see who is ranking well for these terms. Take their websites and plug them into the page experience tools linked to above. Are they doing better than you, meaning you need to up your game? While you’re auditing, don’t just focus on the new metrics. Take some time to look at the other ways in which their page experience might be better than yours. Identify common themes amongst your competitors. Do they have a lot of positive reviews? Do they have a chat feature? Do they have structured content that is helping them appear in local searches? Sometimes looking at your competitors is the best and most humbling way to help you decide which changes you need to make on your website. I like to do this at least once a year and ensure that my site hasn’t slipped behind the best page experience in the field. And remember, don’t just try to match these sites. Try to beat them. Aim for an even better experience than they are offering, and Google will reward you in the long term. Take the time to analyze your site layout and designAfter looking externally, it’s time to look at yourself. We’ve discussed what a bad experience looks like. It’s time to make sure that you aren’t making the same mistakes. It can be tempting to try to capture customers with as many methods as possible. But these multiply quickly, and the negative effect it has on-page experience compounds. I see many small businesses making these content mistakes. You must optimize your pages for Google My Business. If your page layout or design doesn’t work with this goal, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage from a local SEO perspective. Depending on what type of local SEO business you are, you might be hampering the chance of someone jumping on the phone or stopping by your physical location by trying to ask site visitors to sign up for a newsletter or get in touch via a form on your site. You’ll need to identify these obstacles preventing your users from attaining an optimal experience on your site. The best way to do this is via a heatmap tool like Hotjar. Once you obtain explicit consent from a user, the tool can track where the users click and provide detailed session logs or video to see where your users are experiencing blockers or bad UI. Take the insights from this and try and understand how people are using your site. Are they looking for a local phone number that is hidden from view? Are they looking for a price list or a menu that you don’t have on your site? ConclusionGoogle is getting better and better at understanding the value that users get from visiting sites. While the Page Experience update will likely have less of an effect on your site rank than off-page SEO, it can make all the difference when vying for the top organic search terms. This difference can be worth huge amounts for your business. It’s not just the financial benefits that you should be thinking of. It’s generally good practice to think about how your competitors are structuring their sites. Set regular intervals to perform the steps in this article, and you’ll be on your way to page experience success! The post Core Web Vitals and the Page Experience Update: What They Mean for Local Businesses appeared first on BrightLocal. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/30b4A3O Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ |
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