One of the toughest aspects of working in SEO is convincing clients that what you’re doing will pay off. Choosing to optimize for long-tail keywords can be a tough fight to win, with some clients not immediately understanding why we’d opt to target lower volume keywords. While it might seem totally counterproductive to optimize for less popular search terms, the truth is, targeting long-tail keywords results in increased traffic and conversions. Pages optimized for long-tail keywords have a click-through rate up to 19% higher than those optimized for short-tail keywords. More clicks mean more traffic and more chances to turn visitors into customers. The statistics are tremendous, obviously. But this article will really prove to you the benefits of optimizing for long-tail keywords, along with the most effective ways to find them. What Are Long-Tail Keywords?Long-tail keywords are low volume, less competitive search terms. As they are super-focused search queries, long-tail keywords generally convert better. It’s important to note that the length of the search query doesn’t determine whether or not it’s considered long-tail. An Ahrefs study showed that 29.13% of keywords with a search volume of 10,001+ contain three or more words. Source: Ahrefs Hence, around a third of high volume search queries are actually longer phrases, rather than just one or two words. Remember that longer keywords might not necessarily be less popular keywords. Do your research to determine volume and competition. Why Are Long-Tail Keywords Important?Long-tail keywords are important because the large majority of online searches are long-tail. They make up around 70% of search traffic. The other thing about long-tail keywords is that they are easier to rank for. Think about it: if you only go after popular keywords you’ll be constantly battling with major brands for a top spot on the SERPs. What did you search for last? I searched “what to do for a strained neck”… Ahh, the joys of laboring over a computer all day. Anyway, this is a low volume keyword with low competition: Chances are your last Google search comprised a long-tail keyword, too. Because the large majority of online searches are long-tail. They make up around 70% of search traffic: Source: Moz This proves that if you overlook long-tail keywords you could be missing out on a lot of potential traffic. The other thing about long-tail keywords is that they are easier to rank for. Think about it: if you only go after popular keywords you’ll be constantly battling with major brands for a top spot on the SERPs. These big brands have been at it for a while and they have a lot of authority on the web. To be in with even a chance of ranking alongside them would take a lot of time and effort on your part. But, if you optimize for less competitive, long-tail keywords, you’ll rank and increase traffic much quicker. Then, as you build momentum, increase traffic, and prove your authority on the web, there’s a chance you’ll start ranking for popular, high volume keywords, as well. Win. Not only are long-tail keywords easier to rank for but they also bring in qualified traffic. When users make specific, intentional searches, they’re much more likely to convert. According to Google’s advice on improving your conversion rate,
How does this work in a real life scenario? Well, let’s say a user searches “hairdressers that do box braids”, (which is a long-tail keyword): Obviously, there’s a crystal clear objective behind this search query. If your page is optimized for this query and satisfies the user’s objective, then it’s more likely to result in a salon visit. Pages optimized for short-tail keywords suit broader audiences. While those optimized for long-tail queries serve the needs of a specific audience. And as a result of you serving the needs of searchers better, you’ll get more customers. Now you understand the value of long-tail keywords, but where do you find them? 1. Audience QuestionsNowadays, Google’s main concern is satisfying the needs of the user. As such, a key pillar of their mission statement is “Focus on the User”. Source: Google Here, they explain how they perform testing and make changes to the search engine so that they always provide the most useful and relevant results for the user. And, of course, we know they’re referring to those pesky algorithm updates. So, SEO these days is less about traditional keyword research and more about providing value to the user. Which means you have to create content that is rich in the information that real users are searching for. To do this, consider what questions users ask in relation to your product or service, as well as your industry. This is an easy way to generate long-tail search queries that respond to the information they most desire. Thankfully, there are several ways to find question-based long-tail keywords. The first place to look is Google’s “People Also Ask” box. This SERP feature generates tons of questions related to the main search term. For example, if you type in “counselling services”, these questions pop up: It illustrates the type of information those who search for counselling services also want to know. To show Google that you care about the user, you’ll need to answer these questions somewhere within your content. Other places where you can find real user questions are forums and platforms where people tend to ask their peers questions. Find industry-specific forums through a simple Google search – “your niche + forum”: The most useful forums will have high membership numbers and lots of recent activity. This is because older questions don’t represent current trending search terms or topics. Larger platforms with multiple categories, such as Reddit and Quora, are also good choices. Let’s say you run a careers service. A quick search of Reddit reveals a relevant subreddit r/careerguidance. The page features questions, such as “How to get remote jobs?” and “How do you deal with career FOMO?” These are great long-tail keyword ideas. But, to get even more value from a forum page like this, look out for similar questions that appear multiple times, as well as the questions users engage with most. On Reddit, this would mean the most comments and up-votes. This indicates what kind of information your audience is looking for most. Another useful resource is AnswerThePublic. Type in one of your main keywords and you’ll receive a chart packed with all of the questions search engines autosuggest in relation to your keywords. For example, here’s what a section of the chart looks like when you type in “florist”: There are questions, such as “where to buy florist supplies”, “when to do floristry for the wedding”, and tons more great suggestions. Click “Download CSV” to get a spreadsheet containing all of the search terms. Sort through these terms and delete those which are not relevant to your niche or the services you provide. Once you have a list of relevant, question-based long-tail keywords you can begin to target them. These keywords make for excellent blog post topics. Or you can create dedicated support pages around the keywords on your website. For instance, the following flower delivery service has dedicated FAQ pages for each of their main categories. Here, they answer questions about the type of flowers you should send for new baby, whether it’s okay to deliver flowers to a hospital and so on: Source: FloristOne Like this company, you can serve your audience’s needs by seeking out and answering their most pressing questions. As a result, you’ll also please Google and likely see a rise in rankings. 2. Google’s SuggestionsIf you want to find long-tail keywords closely related to your niche or topic, it makes sense to go straight to the source. There are two main spots where Google makes suggestions. The first is via their autosuggest function. Here’s an example: Type in “hire a contractor” and you see more specific, less popular search terms, such as “hire a contractor app” and “hire a contractor to build a house”. The next option is to look at the related search section at the bottom of the SERP. Here we have even more related long-tail search queries: When you perform this kind of keyword research, the trick is to take similar keywords and bundle them together. The reason being, many are so similar that it wouldn’t make any kind of sense to create dedicated pages or blog posts for each. Neither from a business perspective nor an SEO perspective. But your keyword bundles are still extremely useful. You may be thinking… Ahh, because of LSI keywords. Well, I’m going to bust another SEO myth wide open and say LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords aren’t really a thing.
Experts tend to agree that although LSI keywords don’t technically matter, Google does require synonyms or related words and phrases to understand what a web page is all about. So, take a bundle of long-tail keywords and integrate them into one page or one piece of content. It’s an efficient way to optimize your content for the long-tail and it’s super beneficial for your overall SEO strategy. The added bonus here is that content can rank for multiple, even hundreds of long-tail keywords. In one case study, an agency found a rather tasty piece of low-hanging fruit in the form of a content gap for one long-tail keyword: “What happens to your old number plate when you change it?” And their blog post ended up ranking for another 594 search terms. Anyway, your key takeaway here is to go straight to the horse’s mouth and see what Google thinks the best related search terms are. Then, integrate them into your content to rank for multiple terms at once. For instance, if you wanted to create a post on the dangers of vaping and Google suggests these terms: It wouldn’t be difficult to integrate “vaping dangers”, “vaping health risks” and “harmful effects of vaping” into one piece of content. You simply need to combine the terms which fit together naturally. 3. Google ToolsGoogle’s own tools should be a part of your SEO toolkit. You may have your fave research tool. But we like to kick it old school with Google tools because they’re accessible and free. Keyword Planner is a natural place to do keyword research and analysis. Head to Keyword Planner and type in one of your overarching keywords. Switch Avg. monthly searches to ascending order. Sort through the results to find keywords with a low search volume (up to 1,000). And finally, pick out those with low or medium competition. For example, when you type in “accountant”, there are heaps of great suggestions, such as “sap financial accounting” and “chartered tax advisor”: Don’t worry if there’s a low search volume. Remember that specific searches like these are more likely to result in a conversion. So, using such keywords is still worthwhile. Another Google tool you can utilize is Google Analytics. Within Analytics head to Acquisition > Search Console > Queries. Here you’ll see the keywords that you currently rank for. Go through these results with a fine-tooth comb. You may find some low-hanging fruit of your very own. In other words, long-tail keywords that you have ranked for accidentally. Then you can go back and refresh content with a relevant section on the search query. By optimizing old blog posts, HubSpot increased organic search views by 106% on average. Which shows just how fruitful historical optimization can be. Essentially, you should use the tools and data at your disposal for research and analysis. It removes guesswork when it comes to choosing long-tail keywords that are going to perform well for your site. Summing UpLong-tail keywords have a serious advantage over short-tail keywords. There’s a higher search demand for them, they’re easier to rank for and they generate qualified traffic that lead to more customers. Once clients start seeing their traffic increasing, they’ll too understand the value of optimizing for the long-tail. To find long-tail queries, you first need to look at genuine questions that your audience are asking. If you can create pages that answer user questions and satisfy their needs, you’ll get a gold star from Google. You can also go straight to the search engine itself to find related terms suggested by Google. These make excellent synonyms to sprinkle throughout your content, which will ultimately lead to higher rankings. And finally, there are the tried and tested tools, Keyword Planner and Analytics. They will help you take a data-driven approach to keyword research. Now it’s over to you to start targeting long-tail keywords. The first step is to head over to Google, type in your main keyword and see what insight the PAA box holds for you. The post Long-Tail Keywords – 3 Key Ways to Find Super-Focused Keywords appeared first on BrightLocal. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/3jpknE5 Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/
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Do you consider reporting a chore? Do you frantically scramble to pull all your data together at the end of the month? And does your reporting ultimately lead to more questions than answers? If you answered ‘yes’ to any of the above, then this is the episode of ‘Adventures in Local Marketing’ for you. Dana DiTomaso believes reporting doesn’t have to be so soul destroying! On this episode, we talked to Dana to learn:
Listen to the episodeResourcesLooking to revitalize your reporting? Need another fix of Dana? Here’s some content to get you going.
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 hear your thoughts on this episode and to learn about your own experiences with reporting. Drop a comment below to let us know. If you’ve got a spare minute, we’d really appreciate a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. We’ll use this feedback to improve what we do here and it also helps us get in front of more local marketers. Thanks in advance! The post Dana DiTomaso on Learning to Love Reporting appeared first on BrightLocal. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/2E1hwlJ Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ Google My Business Product Expert, Steady Demand’s Ben Fisher, explains what Google My Business’ factual attributes are, how to set them, and gives an overview of the latest attributes added to GMB since Covid-19 measures were put in place. What are GMB factual attributes?When Covid-19 struck, everyone was surprised by the shutdown. Most people had no clue what to do, where to shop, what was safe, and what was not. To make matters worse, it seemed like every day brought new challenges. During this time, the Google My Business (GMB) Product Experts met with GMB every week to brainstorm what could help merchants the most. We would make a suggestion and then, by the next week, changes would have been implemented. It was, and it is still, amazing to see how fast Google reacted to the pandemic. Many other companies reacted, too, but Google had a duty to respond particularly quickly due to its influence on search. One key area of improvements was in GMB attributes, which are snippets of information that quickly provide details on a business, allowing consumers to make faster decisions. According to Google My Business, there are two types of attributes that a merchant can have, and they will vary based upon your GMB category. Check out this article for a list of all GMB attributes available. A Few Notes
Above is an example showing supported and unsupported attributes. In the above example, the merchant has selected that they do or do not offer ‘Dine-in’, so it is marked with an ‘X’. Factual AttributesThe first type of GMB attribute is a factual attribute. These are set by the merchant and considered to be objective facts (i.e. not subjective) as they can be easily verified and agreed as true. Subjective AttributesThe second is subjective attributes; these are sourced by locals or those who have an opinion on your business. When browsing Google Maps, for example, you may see “Know this place? Share the latest info” in the business profile. This is so a user can share opinions that may or may not show up in GMB. Why do GMB attributes matter?According to Google, “Attributes in a Google My Business profile let customers know what a place has to offer so they can make informed decisions about where to visit.” But, attributes also have very real-life consequences, too… A Short StoryThis is a use case where attributes come in handy. Informing a consumer about merchants’ options helps people to make more informed decisions about what merchant they will do business with. One day Bob had a moment to break up his day and venture out of the house to get some air and food from his favorite restaurant. He knew that there was limited capacity, so he looked up the business profile for this restaurant on Google and was surprised to see on their GMB profile that, while they did have ‘online ordering’ as an attribute, they didn’t have ‘curbside pickup’ However, the restaurant below did have this attribute. As Bob was very conscious about Covid-19, he decided to go to the other restaurant, considering it the safer alternative. If Bob had preferred, he could have chosen some merchants that offered delivery with no contact, using these attributes. How do you set factual attributes in Google My Business?While subjective attributes are entirely down to your Google Maps-using customers, merchants have control over the factual attributes that display with their business information on Google My Business. It’s easy to set your factual attributes. If you are on a desktop computer:
On Android: (sorry, Apple smartphone users cannot edit attributes!)
Notable changes to GMB attributes and new Covid-19 GMB attributesNew Attributes for HealthcareHealthcare did not get a ton of new attributes after Covid-19, but they got a massive number of new features like Virtual Care Covid-19 support links, Covid-19 Google Posts, Covid-19 Testing Sites, Temporary Closures, and Covid-19 Schema. (It’s worth noting that some other business categories got some of these features as well). Here are the new attributes healthcare businesses did get:
New Attributes for Food Businesses (Restaurants)
New Attributes for Retail
New Attributes for Online ServicesDue to Covid-19, many merchants have had to adjust how they do business, and GMB has reacted in such a way to allow businesses to not only look at the near-term impact but to adjust for the long term as well. So, if a merchant offered in-home, educational, or professional services they will now have the option to designate the kinds of online services that are available. NOTE: You still need to have a physical location — be that a storefront or service area business — to be eligible for these attributes. If you offer at least one of these types of online services, fully remotely and in real-time, then you can choose this attribute.
A merchant that does contactless services where you visit a client’s location (such as garage door repair or HVAC) will not qualify for these attributes, even if booked online. (Although, honestly, I do not see how GMB will police this.) New Attributes for HotelsHotels get a ‘Covid-19 Responder Policy’ – They can use this attribute to show that they are providing special accommodations or discounts for Covid-19 responders. SummaryAttributes are a great way to communicate to consumers what options are available to them within your Google My Business profile and within their searches. This helps them make an informed decision when browsing merchants. During this pandemic, it is more important than ever to help the consumer decide to do business with you, not only for them but for yourself. Every customer that does not decide to do business with you is revenue lost. So if you have not already audited your clients’ GMB attributes today, then get to it! The post GMB Attributes: How to Set Them and What’s New for Covid-19 appeared first on BrightLocal. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/2EmMR1I Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ We are in a voice search revolution — or at least that’s what the internet would have you believe. Nearly 40% of all internet users in the US and a third of its total population (111.8 million people) are users of voice search. And studies suggest its popularity is only going to continue to grow, with an expected 9.7 percent increase to 122.7 million users by 2021. Voice search is being used on mobile phones, smart speakers, laptops, and desktops. In fact, 49% of Amazon Echo and Google Home users say they cannot imagine life without one. Whatever your feelings towards voice search may be, it’s important to ensure your business is in the best possible position should anything change (whether that’s voice search falling off the face of the earth or its popularity skyrocketing beyond belief). Can you optimize for voice search?Optimizing for voice search is not black and white. Like other types of search results, there are things you can do to increase your chances of surfacing for voice search, but just because you do these things doesn’t mean your content will get read aloud. Given the convenience aspect of voice search, it’s being used in more places than ever before. With the apparent rise in popularity of voice search, basic local SEO techniques remain as relevant as ever. Increasing your chances of getting foundThere are many ways to try to surface for voice search queries. Here I will explain the easiest ways to increase your chances of appearing for voice search. Keep business listings up-to-date and optimizedAs part of your local SEO strategy, you should already be updating your local business listings (specifically Google My Business). But if you’re hoping to rank for voice search it’s more important than ever to keep listings active and up to date, promptly respond to reviews, and create posts with localized content. As you ought to know from optimizing for local search results, the more complete a local listing is, the more likely it is to rank well. Write relevant contentArguably the simplest way to gain prominence in voice search queries is to determine the searcher’s intent by finding out what questions users are already asking, either about your business in particular or the wider industry and your competitors. Be conciseVoice search has made it even easier for users to search on the go. As a result of these on-the-go searches, it is crucial that your website gives visitors exactly what they need. When you’re out and about you don’t have the luxury of time and voice search assistants will be searching for the most accurate and discoverable solution, so make sure the content on offer is concise and succinct. It’s worth bearing in mind that the answers read out by voice search assistants tend to hover around the 40-50-word mark. So try to keep content short but sweet. Research and implement long-tail keywordsGiven the nature of most voice search queries being questions, it’s important to optimize your content for long-tail keywords. Try researching long-tail keywords commonly found in your target audience’s questions (for a quick bit of insight, you can even use Google’s autocomplete or People Also Ask functions). Then include the most commonly searched long-tail keywords in your site’s content — but avoid keyword stuffing or adding in phrases unnaturally. If you’re looking for more in-depth keyword research, make use of a tool like Ahrefs or Answer the Public. Make use of FAQsI’d also recommend you create an FAQ page, if your site doesn’t already have one that is. Since voice search usually involves conversational language, you can mimic the tone and phrases on your FAQ page. FAQs also provide answers in a concise manner, which as we discovered earlier, is just what voice search looks for. Once you’ve created an optimized FAQ page, why not go the extra mile and implement FAQ schema? Marking up your FAQ content can create rich results that not only rank for voice queries but also dominate the SERPs.
Vie for featured snippetsAnother way to try to rank for voice search is through occupying featured snippets (although it’s worth bearing in mind you can’t have FAQ schema AND a featured snippet). The relevance of featured snippets has been somewhat debated since Google’s deduplication update, but they still prove to be useful when it comes to having Alexa or Google Home read out results. According to Google, without a featured snippet, you won’t be able to rank for voice search queries at all: one of the dangers of using the rel=nospittet command. Be discoverableA basic principle of voice search optimization and again, something you should already be doing, is ensuring you have a strong online presence, comprised of accurate online references or citations of your business name, address, and phone number (NAP). Voice assistants use these citations to provide answers to local searches and currently rely on these for brand searches. If you don’t already have a citation building plan of action, it’s worth at least checking where your business appears and whether or not those instances are accurate and up to date. Among the most important directories where you should cite, update, and optimize your business information are Google My Business, Apple Maps, Bing, and Yelp. If you’re just starting out with local SEO, Google My Business is a great place to begin. Claiming your business is your only chance at showing up in Google’s Local Pack, Google Maps, and Local Finder. So claiming your free business listing, which includes information on your company address, phone number, business hours, payment methods, and so on and so forth, gives you the necessary tools you need to grab your audience’s attention and ultimately rank higher. Take advantage of schema markupSearch engines try various approaches to how they can display rich results. Leveraging schema markup means you have a greater chance of being featured. You can do this by having a structured format that lets search engines understand your site’s contents and context. Implementing structured data like schema markup means search engines have to do less guesswork, so they can then better understand the relevance of your pages in relation to search queries, and thus provide richer search results – with your page included. Schema is a data markup that lets webmasters provide search engines with structured data about their site. It is poised to play a larger part in ranking results because it helps search engines and voice assistants have a clearer understanding of what a website is about and the services it offers. If you have structured data, your site can have a higher likelihood of showing up in voice search queries. If you implement structured data, your site will be better understood by voice assistants during indexing, which, in theory at least, should lead to higher rankings. Local business schema future-proofs your site for richer features reinforces your digital footprint and improves relevance and geographic accuracy. ConclusionThe tips I’ve provided here today, while important when ranking for voice search, should already be on your agenda as someone who works with local SEO. Whether you agree with its apparent significance or not, voice search is already an important part of the local search landscape, and your competitors may be in a better position to serve your customers if you are not prepared for it. With its continued growth, voice search is certainly part of the future. So if you can keep up with it, you may reap the rewards of competitive advantage. The post How to Optimize Your Content and Business Listing for Voice Search appeared first on BrightLocal. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/3iU6cqn Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ Advance Your Agency is a BrightLocal series designed to equip you with the skills, knowledge, and advice necessary to take your agency operations to the next level. So, you’ve just landed your first proper local SEO client. How do you ensure that you provide them with sufficient value in the first six months? Showing the benefits of your local SEO work within the initial six months is vital if you’re hoping to retain clients and build positive relationships, as well as securing your agency as a competent player in the world of local SEO. With so many tasks to manage, from review generation to Google My Business optimization and beyond, it can be a challenge knowing what to prioritize. In this month’s issue of Advance Your Agency, I’ll talk you through the most important steps to take in the first six months with a local SEO client. But, I won’t be doing it alone… Throughout this article, I’ve enlisted the help of three key players in the world of local SEO, who have advanced their agencies and lived to tell the tale. Thank you to Sterling Sky’s Joy Hawkins, Bowler Hat’s Marcus Miller, and RicketyRoo’s Blake Denman for sharing their perspectives and helping to inform this piece. Read on to benefit from their top tips, actions, and tactics to undertake during the initial half-year period with a new local SEO client. Contents/Six-Month Checklist
Month 1: First StepsIn this section, I’ll explain how to approach your first contact with a new local SEO client. Talk to Your ClientFirst things first, you need to know what your client wants to achieve. The best way to do this is to have an in-depth chat with your client. What do they want to gain by performing local SEO? Often, you’ll get a response like “I just want to rank higher!” but it’s important to delve deeper. Why does the client want to rank higher? Is it because they want to drive more traffic to their site, get more phone calls, or improve their reputation? Beyond just taking the opportunity to get to know your client and their business, there will generally be a few housekeeping bits to get out the way. Founder of RicketyRoo, Blake Denman, advises that it’s important to lay out the process of what’s to come as clearly as possible.
There are also ways to streamline the process of identifying a client’s business history and future, such as creating an “onboarding questionnaire”, as Blake refers to it. This allows the client to tell you in their own words exactly what they’re looking for from a local SEO agency and what they’re currently working on.
Once you’ve spoken to the client and sufficiently familiarized yourself with their work and understanding of local SEO, you can move on to the next part of the process: setting goals. Identify and Set GoalsEnsuring you and your client have a shared vision for your local SEO work is vital. It’s important to understand that local SEO shouldn’t be seen as a “quick win”, but instead, a way to take your client’s business to the next level, provide them with more visibility, and elevate their current business efforts. Similarly to Blake, Founder of SEO agency Bowler Hat, Marcus Miller, agrees that speaking with a client early on in the process is vital. Here, he discusses the importance of setting goals.
As Marcus mentions, sometimes the client’s goals will span beyond SEO, and you’ll need to be prepared to adapt accordingly. In fact, sometimes you’ll need to be prepared to say no altogether if the client’s goals just aren’t a good fit for your skillset or culture. Like I said, sometimes a client will come to you saying their “goal” is to rank number one in Google searches, but it’s your job to unpack this and ensure you have an awareness of the client’s real-world business goals and how local SEO fits into those. SMART goals can be a great way to ensure you’re both working towards the same target. To begin setting SMART goals with your client you’ll need to agree on targets that are:
A SMART goal might be something like:
Whatever it may be, this will help you to determine the kind of work needed to put your client where they want to be. Manage ExpectationsDuring this six-month process, you’ll also want to be clear about setting and managing expectations. It’s important not to overpromise, which can be especially hard when just starting out as a local SEO agency. A good local SEO strategy is a hugely powerful tool and can be what really takes a local business to the next stage of success. That said, it doesn’t happen overnight. Local SEO is an ongoing process, and the ability to rank well is owed to numerous factors — proximity, relevance, and prominence, being the top three. Try not to make promises to your client (“We’ll get you ranking number one in no time!”) and instead be realistic, refer back to your agreed upon SMART goals, and keep your client updated when things go out of your control (unfortunately, local SERPs get their fair share of ranking flux, too). Complete a Local SEO AuditOnce you’ve established the client’s goals, our experts unanimously agree that the next step is to undertake a thorough audit. Sterling Sky’s founder, Joy Hawkins, says that, although they don’t have a set “checklist” of tasks to perform, there are some projects her agency tackles first.
From here, Joy and her team can identify high priority tasks. Of course, these are the tasks the SEO agent will tackle first.
BrightLocal’s Local Search Audit tool When identifying your client’s priority items, it’s important to remember that few local SEO tasks are “one and done”. As Joy says, projects such as link building tend to operate on a more ongoing basis. Additionally, there are some aspects of local SEO that are commonly seen as foundational and, while they may not be game-changers, will need to be done if your client hopes to compete. Regardless of what tasks you’ve identified as high priority, the next steps will be the same for everyone: getting to work on implementing a great local SEO strategy. The post What Should I Do in My First 6 Months With a Local SEO Client? appeared first on BrightLocal. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/33Ymb2q Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ It’s time to test your knowledge of last month’s local SEO news! In the latest edition of Local Quizness, we’ve explored all of the biggest stories that hit local SEO headlines in July. The challenge is on! In just 10 questions, find out if you and your team noticed all of the news that matters. And not to worry if you miss any; we’ve compiled a full reading list at the bottom of this page so you can be sure you’re on top of all the updates and tests that could affect your local marketing this month. Create your own user feedback survey As always, if you’re proud of your score or want to see how others fared, you can share this over on Twitter using #LocalQuizness. If there’s anything in the quiz that piqued your interest, you can read more in the links below:
Thanks for quizzing! We’ll be back next month with another challenge. The post Local Quizness August 2020 – Test Your Local Marketing News Knowledge! appeared first on BrightLocal. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/3fCgidj Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ Building a strong Twitter following for a local business is tough. It seems like only big brands, politicians, and celebrities get attention. There’s also a ton of information on how to do it, making you feel lost and out of sync with what you really need: a guide on how to use Twitter for local businesses. And before we dive into this guide, here are a few stats showing you why Twitter isn’t only for big brands, politicians, and celebrities…
Now, let’s say you’re sharing video content (either as ads or organic posts) that is relevant to the culture of the locations your business is serving. What’s going to prevent your followers from buying and becoming loyal customers? Let’s dive into how to use Twitter to help your local business grow. Getting started with TwitterWhen you’re getting started on Twitter, you want to make sure that your customers are already using the platform. This way, you’ll avoid investing time and money, only to realize that you could have invested the same into other platforms to get a better ROI. Determining if your local business should use TwitterHere are four questions you should ask yourself to make sure that Twitter is right for your local business:
If you don’t know the answer to these questions, you should talk to your customers to create a detailed customer persona. Setting up your profileOnce you’ve verified that Twitter is a great platform for your local business, you’ll need to set up a profile. If you haven’t created an account, head over to Twitter’s signup page and sign up using your business name and email address. Choosing a username (including sources to check for available usernames)Next, choose a memorable username. You also want to maintain brand consistency among all other social media platforms you’re active on, so use a similar username to what you’ve used on other platforms such as Facebook. Make sure you use a tool like Namechk to see if your desired Twitter handle is still available. If someone has already taken it, there’s no need to worry. You might choose to get around this by including a location in your username. Kumon, one of BrightLocal’s clients, has done this for a specific location on Twitter. However, their Facebook page has the company name without tagging any location: Now take a look at their Twitter account: It has three different handles targeting different locations, meaning that you’re not limited to the amount of Twitter handles you can create for your business based on the locations you serve. This is an especially helpful strategy when expanding your business into global markets, or even just opening up additional locations. Just bear in mind that this won’t always be worthwhile, depending on how many locations you have. For example, if you just have a couple of locations, then it may make more sense to streamline them into one account unless there are major cultural/language differences between the two audiences. However, if you have multiple locations and the resources to manage the accounts without letting them go to waste, then this is definitely a strategy to look into to grow your business’s reach and awareness. Optimizing your bio for local businessYour bio should communicate what you do in a brief, yet clear, manner to help customers understand what’s in it for them in the shortest time possible. You also want to use relevant keywords to increase the chances of the profile showing up in search results. While your username should act as a branded keyword, you can use your bio space to say what your handle alone cannot. The key is to think of search engine optimization (SEO) best practices when writing your bio, and make sure it is good for search. In other words, don’t be afraid to use keywords and hashtags! Here’s a great example of this from Growth Hackers: Choosing a header and profile photoYour header and profile photo should have a similar color scheme to what is used on your website. This makes it easy for potential and existing customers to recognize you on Twitter and pay attention to what you post. One suggestion is to use your logo as your profile photo and a picture of the team as the header photo, as Sterling Sky Inc does: Alternatively, use logos on your profile photo, and a similar high-quality image on the header photo just like Nifty Marketing do: For the profile photo, the image should be 400 x 400 pixels, and its maximum file size should be 2MB. For the header photo, the image should be 1500 x 500, and the maximum file size should be 5MB. Upload images in either .JPG or .PNG formats. Setting objectives/KPIsAfter setting up your Twitter account and optimizing your profile, you’ll need to set objectives and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These help you know how you’re going to position your local business on Twitter in order to achieve your wider business goals. Defining goalsSome of the goals you might want to set could include:
Once you’ve defined the goals, you can use a marketing workflow to map out how you’re going to reach said goals. The difference in strategies between B2B and B2CWhen thinking about the goals you want to achieve, keep in mind that a B2B business will have a different approach to Twitter when compared to a B2C business. B2B sales cycles are known to be longer. These businesses are better off using the platform to build brand awareness and generate leads, then set up email sequences to nurture these leads until they are ready to buy: On the other hand, B2C businesses typically have short sales cycles. Twitter comes in to help B2C businesses build awareness, drive more traffic, and run ads to get sales faster. That said, here are some common objectives you’ll want to consider as an example:
For example, Swagbucks tweets about making money online then refer that traffic to this landing page where they can collect emails and signups via this form: Source: Swag Bucks Once you set your objectives, think about some of the metrics you’ll need to track to help you achieve the objectives you set. These are your KPIs:
Source: Loganix
Measuring analyticsTo track your KPIs, you’ll need to use Twitter analytics. Given that 80% of small businesses in the U.S rely on a SaaS tool to help run their business, consider using a social media scheduling tool like Hootsuite or Sprout Social to help you manage your account and get access to more analytics reports, such as brand mentions and brand sentiment. While using social media platforms to schedule posts and view analytics, consider also using a project planning template from a company like Monday to plan projects and stay on top of deadlines and KPIs. That way, you’ll have no trouble demonstrating ROI/ROAs when it comes up in meetings. Alternatively, you can use a data visualization tool to demonstrate the data in your monthly or quarterly meetings: Source: Zoho My clients always appreciate data they can easily see and understand with visual graphics and references. Developing a Twitter strategyTo do well on Twitter as a local business you’ll need a solid strategy that helps you achieve the objectives you have set. Below, we’re going to cover key elements of your Twitter strategy. Content strategyGiven that you already know your goals and objectives, your content strategy will help you know how you’re going to keep followers engaged through the content you share. Start with the content you post on your blog. To make your tweets stand out, repurpose your blog post images and post them on Twitter with a short description, a link, 2-3 relevant hashtags, and a call-to-action: Source: Each Night Use the correct size of image sizes by using a graphic design tool that helps you automatically resize images for Twitter to save time. You also want to make sure that you never run out of content to post. Break down the infographics you create into separate images and share them with your followers. These two approaches work well with evergreen content because it has a long shelf life. Finding accounts to follow and engage withLook for trending topics in your niche and/or a given location that you’re going to follow and engage with. Alternatively, you can also use your business’s city as a hashtag to engage with the local community. These topics will help you understand the type of content that resonates with your potential and existing customers. Remember to retweet, like, and reply to relevant threads and start building connections with these users. Post frequency and timingHow often you post your content and the time you decide to post your content should be determined by when your target audience is using Twitter. At what time do they log into Twitter? How often do they use Twitter in a day or given week? While best times to post on Twitter exist, rely on your testing to see what works best, and when in doubt, fall back to the recommended posting times, as suggested by experts. Interacting with your customersAs you continue posting content on Twitter, you’re going to engage with your customers. If you’re using Twitter for customer support, make sure that you respond within 12 hours. Respond to these complaints with empathy and make sure you take them to a private channel such as email and take it away from the public domain. SummaryDone right, using Twitter for local business can be a cost-effective way to build brand awareness, drive traffic, and awareness for your local business. You’ll be leveraging what other big brands have been using while still getting great results from your efforts, and you’ll be spending less trying to reach more people and generate leads and sales. To get started right away, evaluate whether Twitter is right for your local business, then create an account, and optimize your profile. Set your goals, relevant objectives, and KPIs you’re going to track. Next, look at what the competitors are doing then create a content strategy that helps you stand out and start engaging with followers consistently. Look at analytics reports to identify areas where you need to improve. Over time, your efforts will start building up and results will start trickling in — new leads, sales, and revenue for your business. Now it’s over to you: are you currently implementing Twitter into your local business’s marketing strategy? Why or why not? Let us know in the comments below! The post How Local Businesses Can Get Started on Twitter appeared first on BrightLocal. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/31kMigO Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ On July 22nd, Google My Business Product Expert, Tom Waddington spotted a new feature being tested in Google Business profiles.
What he saw caused SEOs to think that their fears were being realized: Google My Business was becoming a paid-for product. But as we well know in local SEO, things are not always as clear as they first seem. With so much speculation out there, we wanted to clear things up. That’s why I’ve waded through the mass of information and chatter circulating the internet to work out exactly:
What we knowSo, as I mentioned and as Tom’s tweet showed, the news broke on July 22nd that Google was testing paid-for Google My Business profiles. This tells us two things:
Shortly after Google’s survey slipped out, we conducted our own poll, which showed that 59% of respondents felt worried about the prospect of GMB becoming a paid-for product. So before we continue, it’s important to remember, first and foremost, that this potential profile upgrade is only being tested. There is no sign that GMB is going to be paid for just yet, if ever. Aside from the tweet that sparked this whole news cycle, we do have some additional information to work with. Search Engine Land reached out to a Google spokesperson, who said:
A typically vague Google response, but at least we know for sure, that as of right now at least, this is just a test. The next thing shown in Tom’s original discovery is the ‘Google Guarantee’ badge. From this we can also see that an ‘upgraded’ Business Profile fits perfectly with the Google Guarantee badge. And if that sounds familiar, it’s because it already exists, and has done since 2018. According to Google:
In practical terms, it means that Google will refund customers who are dissatisfied with your services if you’re backed by this badge. Although there aren’t any formal studies on this, many SEOs also speculate that Google Guaranteed badges will have a positive impact on CTR and conversions, especially in the current spam-dominated landscape. Source: Search Engine Land Outside of this test, the Google Guarantee is part of an ad offering, originally linked to Google’s Local Services Ads (LSAs), which are only available for eligible service-area businesses and professional services. LSAs for the latter category are currently rolling out across the US. That covers what we can confirm as true. But what don’t we know about these upgraded profiles? What we don’t knowIn the screenshot Tom shared, Google states that the upgraded Business Profile is available to “eligible businesses”. Right now, we don’t know what those are. While eligible businesses really could mean anything, Tom has speculated that the upgraded GMB profile could be available for businesses currently available in Local Service Ads. He also mentioned that he’s currently only seeing this test for HVAC listings on the home tab of the GMB dashboard.
Another interesting question raised was whether or not this offering would replace LSAs. And although we can’t say for certain, Tom seemed pretty confident that that wouldn’t be the case:
However, LSAs haven’t gone down as well in other parts of the world. For this reason, UK-based SEO Tim Capper commented that he was intrigued to see if Google would attempt to roll this out in the UK:
On top of this, a couple of people have asked about eligibility in the UK and Australia, to which Tom responded that he “wouldn’t expect to see it there anytime soon”. Because of this, I’d be surprised to see Google Guaranteed, upgraded profiles rolling out outside the US any time soon, even if the test does roll out across the US. What this could mean for local businessesSo, we’ve established what we know and what we don’t. But you may be wondering what this test could mean for local businesses. Firstly, yes, this could mean that GMB is going to go down the route of pay-to-play. In fact, some SEOs have been predicting things would go this way for a while.
However, it’s far too soon to jump to conclusions. Even if Google was to implement this, we don’t know if the cost would remain at $50, we don’t know if it would be in place for all businesses and categories, and we don’t know what perks or disadvantages users would receive. There are a huge number of unknowns, so the best thing to do is — apart from keeping on top of the news — continue to optimize your existing GMB and engaging with potential customers as you normally would. Some SEOs have suggested that this test could be an attempt by Google to tackle the rampant problem with Google My Business spam. Just a few weeks ago, Google Search Liaison Danny Sullivan shared this tweet, in response to complaints about spam, that got the local search community talking:
We may be reading too much into this here, but the tweet suggests that Google was planning some pretty big steps to clamp down on GMB. I don’t think it would be a huge jump to speculate that upgraded and verified business listings could be one way to push out inauthentic listings and favor verified businesses. What the community thinksOkay, now we’ve worked out what we know and done some additional crystal ball gazing, it’s time to take a look at what local SEOs actually think about this potential new profile option. Almost every tweet I saw about this test (and there were a lot of them) showed some very unhappy SEOs. They didn’t mince their words — poop emojis, curse words, and angry gifs filled my timeline.
Carrie’s fellow Sterling Sky teammate, Brian Barwig, was similarly displeased. He also raised the idea that he was confused about where this offering would fit in with other paid-for products such as pay-per-click ads and Local Service Ads.
And, as with all important conversations on Twitter, memes made their way into the discourse:
Although the response was overwhelmingly negative, there were a few people who seemed to see the benefit of a paid-for profile:
As well as looking at the organic comments that arose in response to Tom’s tweet, we also passed the mic to our own Twitter followers to see what they thought of the whole affair. Interestingly, the responses were a lot more mixed than expected. While some local SEOs seemed pretty concerned by the test…
…others viewed it as potentially positive and something that could become a concrete option:
Local SEO pro and Local Search Clinic panelist, Niki Mosier, also chimed in on the debate, raising both pros and cons:
For those working with local business clients from an agency perspective, like Niki, if this test were to become a reality it could certainly introduce some new challenges as SEOs would need to weigh up the cost versus the benefits of getting involved with the scheme. SEO Analyst Amanda Jordan also raised an interesting point. In order for a $50/month GMB profile to be worth it for her, she’d need to see significant improvements in Maps spam-fighting.
In a similar sentiment, SEO Levi Williams-Clucas said she’d be happy to pay the price if she saw a notable improvement in the form of GMB’s (widely acknowledged as misinformed and under-resourced) support options. Again, Levi mentioned she would need to heavily consider her clients’ best interests.
Some users thought the prospect of paid-for GMB profiles was straight-up unfair, such as Sarah Blocksidge:
And finally, some — such as ‘We Asked the Experts‘ contributor, Amy Toman, just want more details.
SummaryAt the end of the day, as with many Google My Business tests, there isn’t a whole lot of information out there just yet. As always, we’ll be keeping a keen eye on the situation should any more information emerge, so look out for updates to this post as they come in. What do you think of the upgraded GMB profile test? Is it just that — a test? If it rolled out would you pay for it? Share your thoughts in the comments below! The post Google Tests $50/mo Upgraded GMB – What Does it Mean for Local Businesses? appeared first on BrightLocal. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/31aA3mU Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ |
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