When we talk about local SEO, “traffic + prospect/lead/customer experience + conversions” make up the trifecta of what it takes to run a successful local website. These three items feed off each other—powering rankings, visibility, user engagement, and experience. And the hub of this process is the local landing page. Local landing pages drive visibility in specific areas, and for specific products or services. They work to engage the user and deliver information on what they’re looking for, where they’re looking for it. And ultimately they facilitate contact and ongoing communications to get you down the lane towards a conversion. This article will lay out a blueprint to gathering and structuring information for a local landing page, so that it helps both users and search engines understand what it is you do, and where you do it. Determine the What and the WhereBefore we put a single word down on paper, we need to understand what the client wants to gain from their website by undertaking keyword research. It’s also helpful to discuss any regional colloquialisms you should be aware of…things like “Tribeca” in NYC, or “SFO” for San Francisco. Combine this knowledge with solid keyword research tactics (like those outlined in Claire Carlile’s course, How to Master Local Keyword Research), and you’re headed down the right path! It’s imperative you talk to your client and understand what types of work they desire and which products are important to them. I’ve built landing pages based on keyword data only to be told, “Yeah, I don’t really want any more of those jobs!” They might have the content on their website when you start, but that doesn’t mean they want it emphasized in the future. Have the conversation before you build out your content plan. Once you’ve talked to your client and compiled your keyword research, look at the data you’ve gathered and pick out the highest volume keywords that match your “where” and/or “what” opportunities. These can help you prioritize which locations—and which products and services—can offer you the biggest wins, first:
Now that you know what you need to write about, and the locations to focus on, it’s important to figure out the best place to insert this new content on the website. You may have to do some cleanup and redirecting before you actually start publishing content, but doing the legwork now instead of after you’ve published a bunch of pages can save you a lot of time down the road. When building out architecture, I like to follow a few rules:
Find Some “Fast Wins”It’s also helpful to look at what we call a “striking distance” report. This is basically Google Search Console data on which keywords are within striking distance of the 3 pack for your client. If you can combine good keyword phrases with just a bit of effort on an existing page, fast wins make you look good while you work on the harder stuff by building out new content. What Information Should I Include?This is where the modular nature of content comes into play. For some markets, you may get the best visibility with an ordered list towards the top of your page. In others, an embedded map or FAQ might get you where you want to be. Here are some of the sections I love to place on my local landing pages:
Local Landing Page ContentAt last! Here’s where you talk about the work you do, and where you build on the modular content above to test and refine. You might see different results based on where on the page this content lives, so consider building out content for every single point below—you’ll rarely be sorry you did everything, but you might be sorry you didn’t do enough!
Get the Basics RightYou have your content, and you know where you’re going to put it on the website. But don’t overlook the basics of on-page SEO! There’s no magic wand that creates rankings for posting words on a website. What holds true for on-page optimization in a national/international market still holds true for local landing pages:
Done? I Don’t Think So…Just when you thought you were done…it’s now time to actually test your work. It’s really easy to say “Google says” about content and technical SEO, but what Google says does not always match with what Google does. By running tests on content positioning, internal links, market relevance, etc. you’re ensuring you’ve got the best version of the page possible. Here’s the thing about testing—you have to be humble (and prepared to be wrong!) but the insights you’ll gain will be invaluable. Before I ran the test below using Google Optimize, I was convinced that adding a “make an appointment” button would increase phone calls/conversions. I was wrong: As Joy Hawkins always tells us, “My data doesn’t care about your opinions.” Your success lies in the tests you perform…what works for a lawyer in NYC may not work for a dentist in Denver. That’s why I introduced this as a modulated concept, so that you can test tweaks to measure ranking/visibility improvements, contact forms/SMS/live chat interactions, or even scroll depth and engagement. Local Landing Page Myth-BustingThere’s a lot of misinformation about what actually works and what doesn’t work for local rankings. We’ve done a lot of testing and research to separate fact from the fiction, and here are just a few that we’ve debunked:
The Final Word on Local Landing PagesWill following this plan for local landing pages guarantee a top spot in the map pack or search results? No, and frankly anyone who says they guarantee a tactic will get you top rankings in every scenario is lying. What this blueprint will do is give you a framework to gather information and put it together in a format that delivers quality information to website visitors. You can rewrite and rearrange and modules as needed, while the underlying content—the data you provide to the search engines via these pages—improves the understanding of what you do and where you do it. And then…fingers crossed…the leads will follow the breadcrumbs you lay before them! via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/3FeSr1t Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/
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You know the feeling. That sinking feeling. You see you’ve got a new review, you pull it up expecting to see good things, and then bam! It’s a one-star bombshell. And then the disappointment grows when you realize the poor feedback has been shared on Yelp. With over 31 million app users and millions more web visitors, Yelp is a platform with a high level of visibility. A poor experience amplified on Yelp can have immediate fallout and impact your bottom line. Yelp’s own research suggests that 90% of Yelp users make a purchase within seven days of visiting the platform, so you’ll need to act quickly to protect your business. So can you delete a Yelp review? The good news is that ‘yes it can be done’ (mostly), but with a caveat that users can’t do it themselves. It takes a little work and know-how, so either skip straight to the steps, or read on to find out more about bad reviews and the Yelp platform first. Why You May Need to Remove a Bad ReviewWhether a review is a fair assessment of a customer’s experience or not, any poor review is potentially problematic because peer feedback is so intrinsic to the modern decision-making process. Today’s consumers use reviews to:
Consumers reading positive reviews are more likely to interact with that business—by visiting the website (31%), traveling to the business location (17%), or contacting the business (12%). Conversely, negative reviews make 92% of consumers less likely to use a business. Removing fake or malicious reviews can therefore have a very tangible real-world impact. Yelp and Fake ReviewsThe Harvard Business Review says there is a “large and thriving market” for fake reviews. Given that reviews not only influence consumers and sales figures but also search engine rankings, it’s no surprise that they’re big business. As a real-life example, data cited as part of a 10-month study of restaurant reviews suggests that Yelp filters out about 16% of reviews as ‘being fake’ with its own algorithm. That leaves a high proportion of risk for local business owners in that industry. Yelp also says that it is a “community-driven site” and doesn’t take the removal of third-party content such as images or reviews lightly. It also says it won’t take sides in factual disputes. Clearly, it’s not a cut-and-dried process, so the best thing to do is to approach the review as genuine, whilst also looking for any evidence that it’s fake or malicious. 1. Responding to bad Yelp reviewsThe temptation will be to rush in quickly with a strongly-worded reply. Resist that temptation! Poorly worded review responses can quickly create a negative impression of your business and put other customers off using you. In the worst-case scenario, they could also go viral, creating exactly the kind of publicity you don’t want for your business. You’ll need to keep a cool head, and show that you’ve tried addressing the bad review in a constructive and professional way.
For a genuinely negative experience, this should impress the reviewer with your commitment to putting things right, allowing you to ask them to update (or even delete) the original review to give a more balanced opinion. We’ve put together an article on dealing with negative reviews like a pro. 2. Deleting a malicious Yelp reviewIf the above fact-finding mission fails, then take comfort in knowing you’re now in a stronger position to report the review to Yelp as being false, defamatory or malicious in nature. Yelp has clear guidelines governing reviews left on its site. It specifies that reviews:
Start with “Should be factually correct”. Collate as much information from your business records as you can, including your documented attempts to address their concerns as genuine. See if you can prove that the review has a clear conflict of interest, such as a review left by a disgruntled former employee or a competitor. Highlight any examples of inappropriate material, such as threats, hate speech, or harassment—either in the original review or in subsequent communications. You can now skip to the step-by-step process of requesting a review removal from Yelp. 3. Deleting a fake Yelp reviewAs noted above, fake reviews are big business in some corners of the internet, and they’re a pain to investigate if there’s no genuine information to cross-reference within your business. Instead, make a strong case for removal by gathering evidence to present to Yelp:
Once you’ve collected enough evidence of fakery to present to Yelp moderators, you’re ready to submit your request. How to Get a Yelp Review RemovedHere’s the nitty-gritty of how to remove bad reviews from Yelp—and always keep in mind that the more evidence you can present here the better. Step 1 – Claim your Yelp business profileIf you’ve not done so already, then the first step to remove Yelp reviews is to claim your Yelp business profile. This is easy to do—go to Yelp For Business and follow the steps outlined. This Yelp blog post also provides more detailed instructions if you need help with this essential step. Step 2 – Log in and find the reviewLog into your Yelp business account. From your dashboard, navigate to “Reviews” and then scroll down to find the review you’re asking Yelp to remove. Step 3 – Go to the “Report review” buttonYou’ll see three dots to the side of the review text. Click on those dots to pull up a menu and from there, select “Report review”. Step 4 – Complete the formSelect the most appropriate reason for requesting the Yelp review removal, and complete the form with as much information as possible. It will then be reviewed by the platform’s Moderators. Step 5 – Be patient!Now comes the hard part…the wait! Yelp will inform you of the outcome of their investigation, and in the event that the Yelp review is removed, the original author will also be notified. This process can take up to a week, but either way, you should be notified of the result. If you don’t hear anything, then contact Yelp directly with your case number to try and secure an update. What if the Yelp Review Isn’t Removed?Yelp may not uphold your complaint. If that’s the case, then the negative review will remain on your profile. While this is frustrating, your best course of action is to learn what you can from the feedback so that future reviews will be more positive. Our complete guide to building positive reviews is packed with tips, strategies and advice to help you do just that. Got any tips on how to remove reviews from Yelp? Let the community know in our comments section below. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/3u6Zyng Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ Let’s get straight to it—what is local SEO, and why should you care? Local SEO stands for “local search engine optimization”, and as any business knows, attracting local customers can be key to success or failure:
So the definition of local SEO can be thought of as ‘the practice of applying search engine optimization tactics to specifically target these valuable local customers’. Who Needs Local SEO?Quite simply, local SEO marketing is needed by:
If one of these describes your business, then your business will benefit from local SEO The Benefits of Local Search MarketingLocal search engine marketing plays a crucial role in getting customers (and so more $$$), as it favors smaller businesses over the larger players. Access research found that 92% of consumers traveled just 20 minutes or less to purchase their day-to-day essentials. Search engines know this, and so apply a specific set of local SEO ranking factors for searches that:
Local SEO marketing is the process of convincing search engines that your business should appear in the results for these location-based searches. How Do I Start Doing Local SEO?The most effective way to start getting your business seen for local searches is to focus on Google. Other search engines (such as Apple or Bing) will be valuable later on, but to start with it makes sense to target the search engine with 92% of the world’s market share. Google presents its local search results in Maps and in its Local Pack: Also known as the 3-Pack, this area includes additional information on businesses such as opening times, contact information, photos, and reviews. You’ll need to supply Google with this information to get noticed in the Local Pack, which you can through a Google My Business account. Getting a GMB account involves:
We’ve written a guide on setting up your Google My Business listing that will take you through this process, step-by-step. How to Do Local SEO MarketingOnce you’re set up with a GMB account you can then use our complete guide to succeeding with Google My Business. You can look at each search engine ranking factor and show Google why your business deserves to appear by:
All of these topics (and more!) are covered in our complete guide to local SEO. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/2Uvuf5E Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ Looking to get business listings on a host of relevant local citation sites instantly? You’ve come to the right place! We’ve collated all the local citation sites that require no verification for listing publication for quick citation building opportunities, and separated these by country (UK, USA, Canada, Australia).
These are the sites that upon submission, the business listing will go live right away = instant citations! With these quick citations, you should see your listing live as soon as you hit ‘Submit’. Not got time to build citations yourself and could do with a helping hand? Check out BrightLocal’s fast and accurate service, Citation Builder. Instant Citation Sites to Submit to in the USA
Instant Citation Sites to Submit to in the UK
Instant Citation Sites to Submit to in Canada
Instant Citation Sites to Submit to in Australia
That’s it for our list of instant citations to submit local businesses to! We hope this helps you improve your citation profile online. For further insights into the online directories that your business is listed on and to find new citation sites, try out Citation Tracker. And, if you’d like someone to take on the heavy lifting of building citations, get started with our pay-as-you-go service Citation Builder. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/2VihCea Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ I’ll let you into a little secret. If you’re super-duper into local SEO, and you’re not already attending LocalU Advanced you’re missing a trick. This is where the top minds and actual practitioners in the space get together and share ALL-NEW content including research, case studies, how-tos, and much, much more. I got the chance to attend the last event on August 31, and, as always, I bloody loved it. So much that I wrote up the key takeaways from my favorite talks from Joy Hawkins, Rachel Anderson, Greg Gifford, Dana DiTomaso so that you can enjoy them too! Joy Hawkins: Make Your Images Worth a Thousand WordsAh, I do love Sterling Sky’s Joy Hawkins, I always get some great takeaways any time I listen to her speak, and using images more effectively is something I’m always looking to upskill on! Joy starts by summing up three objectives for having great images:
Let’s start with ‘Look better’Marketers often forget to check how images are showing in mobile SERPs: This doesn’t show for all queries—and not many people talk about these and how to get them. For the best photos on mobile: 1. Make sure with the images your head isn’t chopped off 5. Make sure the image is a square Joy uses BrightLocal’s Local Search Rank Checker to keep a record of the mobile results as screenshots. She uses it to identify opportunities in the SERP where competitors have photos showing and her clients do not for multiple keywords. Joy noticed when she was conducting her research that there were two different types of ‘Image 3 packs’. The first shows when you add a query, and Google chooses to show you photos that match this—like in this example for Michelin tires where Google chooses to show photos of tires in the SERP:
The second type shows the cover photo instead. This second type formed the majority of the results for Joy’s research: If you’re struggling to get Google to show the cover photos you want, Joy recommends trying Ben Fisher’s method. (A personal note: If you’re situated in one of the countries where Google chooses to show an ‘image result’ rather than your profile photo this won’t work (usually EU and the UK). You can read more about that here.) Let’s move onto ‘Rank better’Let’s talk about ‘geotagging’. Joy quotes Joel Headley when he says, “The ‘tagging’ is happening upon upload. It doesn’t matter if the meta data exists.” Joy wanted to test this. She tracked 15 keywords and saw zero change in rankings when she geotagged photos she uploaded to Google My Business. Next, she tested geotagging photos on businesses’ websites. For the ones where they were able to tag the photos and upload them into the CMS, there weren’t any changes to rankings (WordPress allowed them to do so, a custom CMS a client was using stripped them out). TAKEAWAY – don’t bother! After this, Joy investigated the impact adding relevant photos had on local (map pack) ranking. Photos that were relevant to the search terms being tracked were added into GMB. However, nothing happened in terms of ranking changes. Next, the photos were added onto the website page that the GMB listing was linking to. For example, photos of tires were added to a page, but tires weren’t mentioned anywhere else on the page (including in HTML or meta data). Within three days they saw a slight ranking increase in the local organic listings—this grid used to be all red and then it changed to this: When looking at the SERP Joy found that Google was using the image alt text as a justification for that business:
They replicated this across a couple of clients and saw very slight ranking increases. Next, it was time to test the impact of images on local organic rankings. Joy added a relevant image with alt text to the top of a page about lawn care. As well as grabbing the featured snippet, the page also saw a little bump in rankings. However—don’t get TOO excited—she saw the result with a lawn care client, but not with a law client. And finally, let’s look at ‘get more leads’Joy showed the example of a dentist. Adding images to a page that previously hadn’t had an image saw an increase in traffic to the site via Google Images: When they looked at the increase in traffic they extrapolated (in Google Analytics) that the bump in organic traffic from image search represented a big chunk of cash in terms of conversions: N.B. I don’t know at what rate organic traffic via Google image search converts against organic traffic—I guess it all depends on the conversion that’s being tracked and the searcher intent for the query. My key takeaway here is that images are important, and that sometimes image search could be useful for your business and drive conversions. Rachel Anderson: E-A-T is GREAT but have you tried CUSs(ing)?I’ve been in awe of Rachel Anderson for a while, from back when she taught me to use the CASE function in Google Data Studio to tidy up borked UTM tagging in GMB. Rachel covered the concept of E-A-T (expertise, authority, trust)—but explored the fact that websites are ranked by machines, so there must be some way that Google is measuring these (or similar) concepts in order to judge the fit of the page in their results. Are there therefore ways that we, as marketers and data analysts can measure this? Enter CUSs(ing). It’s different from E-A-T because it’s not based on feelings. Like ‘awesomeness’, E-A-T isn’t measurable! Content Usefulness Signals, or CUSs, differs as it is measurable, and starts with the assumption that we can measure and make specific content recommendations based on content differences across multiple sites. Rachel shared some examples of content usefulness signals that can be seen on the site Seniorly:
And then some other examples of Content Usefulness Signal from around the web:
Rachel then went on to talk about how she’s measuring these things by building out processes to measure content in different circumstances. What followed was some clever shizzle which even I could follow. So—listen up! 1. Entity extractionThere are many models for entity extraction—some specific to particular industries and some applicable across industries (e.g. BERT) The salience score is how sure it is that the data is about that entity. 2. Clustering methodsLike entity extraction, there are many clustering methods. Clustering models are able to identify themes within datasets and group the data by topic. 3. K-MeansK-Means takes many data points and determines clustering groups, and we can use K-means to compare topic clusters between sets of pages. This allows us to see topics that a competitor with a higher market share is covering. Anyone feeling lost yet? You don’t need to be a super whizzy data genius to understand the topics—after all, when you’re working with SMB clients you’re quite probably doing this to an extent—but perhaps in a much more manual way. For Rachel, who works purely with enterprise clients, these activities need to be done at scale—they can’t spend years looking through pages and making manual (and less empirical) assessments! Real-world examples:Rachel goes on to give some real-world examples of Content Usefulness Signals: Patio furniture category pages on two websitesRachel gives the example of taking content blocks from the pages and comparing entities that exist within those content blocks using XPath. They chose just the main content ‘SEO text’ block on that page and the categories, but not products or the full page as they didn’t want the data to be cluttered by ads, filters, and navigation, etc. They took the patio furniture from each site and ran it through entity extraction, and looked at the number of unique entities, and ordered them by salience scores (how important or ‘central’ that entity is to the text). Although the Lowe’s page ranked for MORE keywords (according to SEMRush), Home Depot ranked for queries with higher search volume and ranked higher—which means more impressions and higher CTR. Location pages from big box stores: Entity + K-MeansRachel took content clocks from location pages for big box stores and ran entity extraction: Location pages are notoriously thin on content, and here entity extraction allowed Rachel to identify the pages with the richest content. She then ran those individual domains content blocks through K-Means to identify topic clusters: As you can see above Lowes was mainly hours, pickup options, and addresses, whereas The Home Depot had specific products, services, and store attributes. SEMRush showed that home depot ranked for a lot more keywords on their location pages. The primary differences between these pages were that The Home Depot page included store reviews, plus lengthy (and/or dense with important keywords) content blocks. Rachel then spoke a bit about different clustering models, if this is making you feel excited about clustering models you can go do some research—see the models named below: Rachel rounded up the session by reminding us that as an industry we need to stop talking about unmeasurable concepts like E-A-T and focus on how to instead measure pages in the same way that search engines do. Greg Gifford: The Wyld Stallyns’ Guide to Link BuildingLinks are still important, yo. In Greg Gifford’s talk, he told us that most local business websites have fewer than 100 pages. They don’t need a gazillion dollars in budget for huge link dev campaigns. Local link building is a different process. Greg’s top tips:
Easy tactics
But what’s the PROCESS?You need a process for local link building. Keep a record of what’s been done so you can follow up, and also so the management and team members can see what’s been done. 1. Onboarding clientsYou need to ask the right questions when you onboard clients—see Greg’s useful resource for this. Asking detailed questions helps you uncover plenty of easy opportunities. 2. Research phaseUse as many tools as you can (Greg mentions Moz, Ahrefs, SEMRush) to pull the client’s link profile. Drop them into a spreadsheet and dedupe. Then pull your competitors’ link profiles and do the same. Remember though that you’re looking for unique opportunities—not just to replicate your competitors’ links (even though you can crack on with that first for quick wins!) Greg linked to this useful sheet for analyzing your clients’ and competitors’ links in bulk in order to understand the relative domain authority distribution: Break out of your competitive bubble by looking at small businesses in other geographic areas and other verticals to find inspiration for different tactics to build new links that your clients’ competitors don’t have. Localized informational blog content can really help with link opportunities. Create a spreadsheet that details the opportunities as you uncover them. Include the source website, the cost of the link, the target page, the timeline, and the contact information. If you find any ‘free’ immediate links during the research phase go ahead and get them! Finally, show the opportunities to the client and explain the value of the potential opportunities. 3. Outreach and acquisitionCall a prospect (using an actual telephone) when you can. If you DO have to send an email, keep it short and simple, and explain why it’s valuable to them. You won’t typically be speaking with web-savvy people. Rinse and repeat the process every quarter. Dana DiTomaso: Let’s Get Cosy with Google Analytics 4Ah – Google Analytics 4 (GA4)—that ‘thing’ that happened in GA that I haven’t had a chance to think about yet, and every time I think about it I’m filled with dread. I’m looking forward to this talk so Dana DiTomaso can help GA4 and I get acquainted, and maybe even learn to love each other! Yep, this sums it up. Dana covers ‘how did we get here?’ GA1: Urchin, 2005 Changing from GA3 to GA4 is a painful switch, but it’s necessary because eventually, Google is going to force you to change. GA4 is a fundamental rethink of analytics. It measures things very differently. Universal tracking—you have the Google Analytics code on your page. Universal is all built around the idea of SESSIONS. Everything is a session. A session is 30 minutes long by default (tab hoarders—you are a problem on the internet!) If your computer hits midnight while you’re on a site, that will also be two sessions. This can be an issue if you have a website with a lot of international traffic--contact Dana if you do and she’ll send you some resources on dealing with this issue. GA4 still has sessions, so doesn’t completely remove the idea of them. But it does change how sessions are calculated. Because GA4 records more events it’s more likely to accurately capture the length of the session. Sessions do turn off after 30 minutes of inactivity, but you’re less likely to have the problem where people could spend 50 minutes on a page but they didn’t make any ‘actions’ as far as the browser or GA is concerned. GA4 doesn’t start a new session if someone comes back to the site via a new campaign. For example with GA3, if you’re on a website researching stuff via a paid ad, then you open a new tab and make a search to investigate their hours of operation, then you click the website link in their GMB profile (which of course is UTM tagged because you’re a great SEO!) that’ll be a new session attributed to organic search. GA4 handles this a little bit better. It also handles multiple tabs better. Everything is an event in GA4. Everything is more equal so it’s easier to be able to measure people along their path from start to finish. And the best news, BOUNCE RATE is gone in GA4 – yay! GOODBYE! However—there is a new metric which is called ‘engagement rate’ which I am sure will become the new bounce rate! At least these will be slightly more accurate than the horrible bounce rate we have now. GA4 has automatic event tracking, which is great. Before you had to use something like Google Tag Manager to be able to track things like click to email. Automatic event tracking is added by default as soon as you set it up: Here’s a list of everything that GA4 tracks out of the box. If there’s something you want to track that GA4 can’t measure in the default event settings you’ll need to set up custom events: GA4 also has a list of recommended events—this will give you ideas of things you could track as well as a good format for naming conventions. Looking at the GA4 interface (with a caveat that GA4 changes the interface regularly), you’ll see there are NO CHANNELS in the ‘Acquisitions overview’ tab. Maybe they’ll add these back in later? In the ‘Library’ section you can set up different reports for different users so people can see only what they need to see when they access GA4. According to Dana, the built-in explorations are excellent—you’ll find these in the Explorer tab on the left—including a template gallery. Path Analysis is the thing we always wanted in GA3 and we never really got it. In GA4 you can look at both ‘pages’ and ‘events’—so you can do an event-based path analysis. You can also choose the END of the path (which wasn’t possible in GA3)—for example, if you want to see people that ended up on your contact page and the path they took to get there. The funnel report is also great—click around and find out! Configuration for GA4Events look like this: These are all tracked by default, and have more privacy built-in. For events, you can ‘Mark as NPA’ which means that event can’t be used for retargeting and personalized ads. You can also create events based on events! You can trigger events based on people doing certain things. One thing you could do is create an event to trigger when someone scrolls 90% down your blog post and then signs up for your newsletter: You can also create events based on several conditions. For example, you could create an audience using the Audience tab which is very granular. When you have your audience set you can fire an event based on people entering this audience. This can be really useful for things like repeat businesses – for example, someone booking an oil change. Goals are now based entirely on events. You just click the slider to make your event a conversion. But be careful—the only things you should be setting as goals are things that RELATE to your goals. A page view isn’t a conversion! Conversions in GA4 are now much more flexible, in GA3 you could have 20, and that was it. You can’t delete conversions in GA4 but you CAN shut them off. How to set up GA4You can click the Upgrade button in your universal property. But Dana instead has been creating a separate GA4 property and ‘double tagging’ – running the tags for universal and GA4 in the same Google Tag Manager container. You need to be using GTM if you’re going to use GA4. Dana has some resources to help you with this – tap her up if you’re a GTM newbie. When you set it up make sure you have ‘Enhanced measurement’ enabled: Add a trigger in GTM with the measurement ID that GA4 gave you and BOOM, you have data! Next, you need to add your events. If you have events already set up in GA3 you’ll need to rename Universal Events to GA4 Events. Dana is working on a course in LinkedIn that’ll explain how to do this. In a nutshell—event names should be all lowercase using underscores as separators. And remember, you’ll need to document everything! How do you know it’s working?GA4 has a great debugging mode. You can turn on preview mode in GTM or there’s a GA debug extension for Chrome. Use GA4 to see every single event as it comes in: You can click on those events to see exactly which parameters and user properties are being sent along with the individual events. The best way to learn is by testing—so crack on! That’s it for now! There were 7 great presentations and some awesome Q&A and panel discussions--I’ll be covering some of this in the next roundup. Get your discounted access to LocalULocalU is offering a 10% discount for BrightLocal readers to access on-demand videos and/or 10% off tickets to November 30 LocalU Advanced – just use BRIGHTLOCAL10 on checkout. These offers both expire on October 15, 2021. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/3u1GE1j Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ Are you running a local business struggling to get visibility and sales in your area? If the answer is yes, then one of the best things you can do for your business right now is to focus on hyperlocal marketing. Searching for services like hospitals, hotels, and restaurants on Google will give you local establishments at the top of the results. This is entirely by design. Google uses your location to provide you with a list of businesses in your area. But what exactly is hyperlocal marketing, and what does it involve? And how does it differ from the traditional marketing strategies you’ve been deploying? This brief guide will go through the basics and benefits of hyperlocal marketing. I’ll then show you six practical examples of how to run a hyperlocal campaign for your audience. By the end, you’ll understand what “hyperlocal” really means, and how to run this sort of marketing campaign for your business. What is hyperlocal marketing?Hyperlocal marketing involves targeting prospects in a specific geographic location. The idea behind this strategy is to optimize a business for “near me” searches to generate more foot traffic or inquiries. Let’s say you’ve moved to a new city and are looking for a gym. You don’t want to drive for miles to get to your old gym, so you’re probably going to search for something like “gyms near me.” The search results that appear at the top are not there by chance. These businesses have optimized their online presence with hyperlocal marketing strategies to show up at the top. The same strategy can be employed by virtually any business operating a physical store. Coffee shops, restaurants, hotels, grocery stores, bookstores, salons, and many other businesses all run hyperlocal marketing. Consumers’ attitudes on “near me” queries have shifted dramatically in the last few years. Previously, most people used to include the tag “near me” in their queries. That’s not the case anymore. Data from Google shows that people simply search for a restaurant or store and expect the search engine to serve the nearest results automatically: Google has adjusted its algorithm in recent years to enhance local search. Not only does it serve the specific results the user is asking for, but it also provides related businesses under the “More Things To Do” and “Discovery” sections. This means that businesses using hyperlocal marketing can get more foot traffic and overall brand visibility from exact local queries and other related searches. Now let’s look at how this marketing technique is beneficial and why you should employ it in your company. What are the benefits of hyperlocal marketing?One of the most significant benefits of hyperlocal marketing is its cost-effectiveness. The strategy is localized, so you’re only spending a portion of your marketing budget to target a well-defined population. It keeps you from straining your limited budget with ads reaching people who probably won’t visit your store anyway. Hyperlocal marketing also yields a high return on investment. First of all, people searching ‘near me’ queries typically have a high purchase intent. That means you won’t need to spend as many resources getting them to convert. Secondly, optimizing your business for specific local queries is more affordable. In essence, the cost of acquiring leads is considerably lower, and a higher proportion of those leads will turn into customers. Finally, running hyperlocal marketing is easier to manage. You don’t need a big marketing team to keep track of performance metrics. The campaign is a localized market segment within a restricted geographical location, so it’s much less overwhelming compared to larger campaigns. Next, let’s look at some real examples of hyperlocal marketing in action. Real examples of hyperlocal marketing campaignsThere are various hyperlocal marketing strategies out there, some more effective than others. The costs involved also vary. The choice of which strategies to run will ultimately depend on your marketing budget. Key data on your customer base, for example, their presence on social media, will also influence which ones to pick. Having said that, businesses generally get better results when they run multiple hyperlocal marketing strategies and tests. So, let’s look at some of the best techniques you should consider for your next campaign. 1. Hyperlocal marketing on Google AdsRunning hyperlocal marketing campaigns is easy using Google Ads. They provide tools that let you customize your target location as much as you want. The beauty of this is it allows you to focus on the specific location you want without wasting resources on unnecessary areas. Setting up a hyperlocalized campaign is pretty straightforward. First, you need to choose the location for your campaign. To do this, log into your Google Ads account and pick the campaign you want. Next, click on “Settings” then “Advanced search,” and you will see two options, “Location” and “Radius,” choose ‘radius’. From here, you’ll need to pick the center of your campaign, preferably your store’s physical location, and then set up your ideal radius. To get the best results from your campaigns, conduct simple research to identify where your customers are based. You can then use the data to choose the perfect radius that covers all the necessary neighborhoods you want. In the example below, we used ‘2110 El Cajon Blvd in San Diego’ as our central point, and set the radius to 10 miles: With the geolocation done, it’s now time to identify your keywords. You’ll need to do local keyword research to identify relevant opportunities. Referencing the gym example mentioned earlier, a gym could bid for keywords such as “gyms near me,” “gyms san diego,” and “gyms in san diego.” Establishments like drug stores can target keywords such as “24-hour drug store near me” and “24-hour drug store san diego.” 2. Hyperlocal marketing with social adsSocial media platforms also provide incredible hyperlocal marketing capabilities, and as you may have guessed, no-one does it better than Facebook. Hyperlocal marketing on Facebook was introduced back in 2014 under “Local awareness ads.” The format allows businesses to customize their ads extensively for highly targeted campaigns. Setting up the campaign is very intuitive. Just click on the green “Create” button from your ad manager dashboard: Choose “Brand awareness” from the next menu. You’ll then be asked to provide additional details on your campaign, including campaign name, budget, etc. What you need to pay more attention to target when running hyperlocal marketing is the location setting. Choose your central point and desired radius: If you’ve set it up already, the tool will pull your business address automatically. If it doesn’t, you’ll need to set it up manually before proceeding. The tool will then show your central point and coverage. You can increase or reduce the radius as you wish. Next, it’s time to customize the campaign. Facebook allows you to customize your campaigns in different ways. For example, you can choose the age, gender, language, and even interests of the people you want to target. Here is how our example for a gym business could look like with specific targeting: Moreover, you can determine who sees the ads in a given location. You could, for instance, choose to display your ads to everyone living within your coverage area. That includes individuals who have the area set up as their residence on their profiles and people who Facebook determines live in the area. There is also the option of “people recently in this location.” The option targets both the residents and visitors of your coverage area: Facebook coverage areas do not extend to other countries. So, if your business is located in a border town, don’t expect your ads to show up for customers located in nearby countries within your target radius. You’ll have to create a separate campaign for them. Besides the customization options, Facebook’s local awareness ads are also a favorite among many marketers due to how easy they are to monitor. The company provides various analytics to help you keep track of who sees your ads. They don’t provide specific figures, but they offer a percentage that is still useful. Of course, I’d be remiss without mentioning that hyperlocal marketing through social media goes beyond just getting your display ad in front of your target audience. You need to also engage with them. According to recent research, 64% of consumers feel more connected to brands that engage with them on social media. An intuitive way to ensure you’re not missing out on conversations with your audience is to monitor Facebook ad comments for responses, mentions, and helpful feedback. 3. Local content marketingHyperlocal marketing works even better when you localize your content strategy to address the needs of your target location. To do that, start creating content with that location in mind. That means adjusting the tone and references used in your content to match the area you’re targeting. Say you are a kayaking business located in San Diego, and you have a blog. Instead of creating generalized kayaking blog posts, you can center your content around San Diego. Not only does this boost your local SEO, but it also makes the content more relatable to your target audience. Combine this with a Google My Business listing, and you’re likely looking at a high position on the SERP. But that alone isn’t enough. Businesses that cover local events perform even better. Do your research and identify festivals, corporate events, community activities, pop-ups, and other similar events you can participate in. Then create relevant content covering these events and share it with your audience. Remember, you don’t have to publish hyperlocal content on your website all the time. Sometimes even simple Instagram posts are enough to show that you’re integrated with the local community. Here’s an example from the restaurant Pies ‘n’ Thighs: The New York-based restaurant partnered with other local businesses to support essential workers during the pandemic. Aside from helping essential workers, Pies ‘n’ Thighs also managed to collaborate with like-minded businesses, which could lead to business later on. Your business doesn’t have to bear the burden of local community engagement on its own. Find another business or two with shared interests and organize some activities for your community. 4. Advertisements to raise local awarenessThere’s no doubt that digital marketing has transformed the way brands advertise their products. However, there’s still room for offline advertising, especially in hyperlocal marketing. And the best part is that it’s super affordable since you’re focusing your efforts on a small location and not an entire city or country. What offline marketing techniques are available to you? Local newspapers, magazines, flyers, pamphlets, and business cards are some of the options at your disposal. You can work with your staff to distribute these items around your coverage location. You can also partner with a reputable business in the area and have your flyers displayed in their establishment. Community engagement is another great offline marketing technique. Participate in community service and be an active player in events taking place in the area. Doing so will help raise your profile and bring your brand and community closer together. 5. Local SEOYou need an effective local SEO strategy to boost your visibility online. There are three main items to take care of here: customer reviews, citations, and Google My Business optimization. Customer reviews are vital for your SEO and buyer journey. Great reviews act as social proof and can drive more traffic to your business. Increased traffic signals to search engines that your content has authority, and this increases your rankings. In fact, it’s become widely known that reviews and ratings are one of the most important local SEO factors to consider. Citations boost your business’s trustworthiness, so they’re a crucial ranking factor. Moreover, citations give you tons of referral traffic, especially if your business is listed on reputable online directories. Additionally, multiple studies show Google My Business is another important ranking factor: Listing your business on GMB alone isn’t enough to move the needle. What you need to do next is ensure your listing is optimized. Analyze the competition and optimize your GMB profile for the best results. You may do it by adding your address, contact details, business hours, and business description. To further optimize, you can schedule GMB posts like events, special offers, hourly updates, any local mandates (like we’ve seen with the pandemic), and other news. Be sure to continuously monitor your metrics and adjust your strategy accordingly to stay ahead of your competitor—there are plenty of local SEO tools to make this process simple! These tools provide valuable analytics to help you make informed decisions. Some tools will even place your data side by side with the competition, showing you where you can do better. 6. Business phone marketingFinally, when your store shows up in the near-me search results, prospective customers may want to contact your business with questions regarding something they didn’t catch in your GMB posts or updates. One of the most common ways you’ll be contacted is through your business phone number: Some of the best hyperlocal marketing your business can do is answering customer inquiries and resolving complaints via phone. I know, it’s technically an offline activity, but the data above supports that this is the type of service customers expect from their local businesses. Larger businesses may have a virtual phone number listed on their website or Google My Business page which routes calls to a hosted contact center. The difference here is that instead of a store employee answering the phone, it’s an off-site team of support agents. Regardless of who’s picking up the phone on behalf of your business, make sure the service is customer-centric around their question or issue. The service should be prompt and the customer shouldn’t be bounced around between multiple teams. Finally, be empathetic to your customers over the phone. A lack of empathy could reflect poorly on your brand and detract someone from visiting your business. Your customer experience over the phone could be the difference between a customer leaving a positive or a negative review that then shows up on your GMB page. The bottom lineIn this post, we learned that hyperlocal marketing can benefit your business in various ways. By running ads that target a small geographical location you can boost foot traffic to a store or location, as well as improve the visibility of the brand. One of the best things about focusing on hyperlocal marketing is that it achieves its goals without taking too much of your time or budget. Hyperlocal is affordable, has a high ROI, and is fairly easy to manage for the local business owner. I hope these actionable examples help to bring hyperlocal marketing to life, and that you’ll use these as inspiration to emulate within your own businesses, or those of your clients. I wish you the best of luck finding new customers in your neighborhood! via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/3k5XTem Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ Last updated September 2021 IntroductionGoogle My Business (GMB) Posts were rolled out by Google in 2017, and since then there has been a plethora of ‘How to Use Google My Business Posts’ content written and published across the internet. As Google regularly changes the way Posts are populated, who they’re available for, how and where they display across devices and platforms, and even their functionality, we’ve written this guide to be your ‘one-stop shop’ for making the most of Google My Business Posts. Whether you’re a multi-location business, a chain, or a single-location store, we’re here to spill the beans on GMB Posts and help you make the most of this opportunity to gain eyeballs, clicks, and customers! What are Google My Business Posts?Google My Business Posts are social feed-like updates, mostly created and controlled by the business, that generally contain an image/video, text and link. They can be used to promote offers, advise customers about Covid-19 updates, highlight products and events, and much more. What does Google tell us about Google My Business Posts?Google provides some solid resources on Google My Business Posts. As always, be sure to read these first.
I’m always surprised how many people skip over information from the horse’s mouth, and I do like to bookmark these resources to refer back to. Sometimes, when you notice changes to Google’s literature, it can give you a clue as to where Google is going with the feature, so keep your eyes peeled! Which business types are Google My Business Posts available to?Much like Google Products, GMB Posts are not available to all businesses. One of the most high-profile industries that laments the inability to add Google My Business Posts is the hotel and lodgings industry. There have been ongoing rumblings regarding GMB Posts being made available to hotels, usually fueled by carrot-dangling from Google when they include ‘add post’ functionality for hotels in the ‘in-search’ editing options. Top Tip: Find out if your business category is allowed to use GMB Posts. Sterling Sky has a great list of industries with no (or limited) GMB Posts access. Google used to restrict organisations with multiple locations from creating Google Posts en masse. This changed in light of the pandemic and the ongoing requirement for chains to make quick and easy updates regarding both their health and safety measures, and their opening times. Google has since decided to allow chains the ability to create Google Posts via the API on an ongoing basis. A multi-location business could set up their own access to the API, or they could use one of many third-party tools to allow them to schedule their Posts via the API. How long are GMB Posts ‘active’ for?When Google Posts were first launched, they would only appear in the business profile for a certain period of time, depending on the Post type—for example seven days for an Update Post, until the end date for an Event Post, and until an offer’s expiry date for an Offer Post. Google used to prompt business owners to continue to post by emailing them when a Post was about to expire: Google probably got peeved that businesses couldn’t manage to post regularly (when they’d invested in making this lovely shiny posts functionality) and in January 2021 this changed and Google started showing GMB Posts for six months. Currently, if no Posts have been made for six months, Google shows a link ‘View previous updates on Google’: This change has various implications. It’s good news for business owners who found it a challenge to post regularly in order to ensure they were making use of the GMB Posts real estate in the business profile at all times. As long as you posted in the previous six months, you’ll have something visible to customers in this area. The change does mean that you’ll need to make sure your Posts are fresh and relevant, though. A Post about a special offer that you added three months ago, that’s no longer valid and now links to a 404 error page, isn’t going to offer a great user experience. Before the change, the number of views on your GMB Posts as reported in GMB Insights was affected by the longevity of the Post in terms of the Post type: Offer Posts got more eyeballs because they could be visible for longer periods of time, and Update Posts usually got fewer views because they were visible for a much shorter period of time. You’ll need to take this into account if you’re using impressions and clicks from GMB Insights in your client reporting, or if you’re analyzing this data in order to judge the relative success of individual Posts / Post types / content types. In what order do GMB Posts appear?In the ‘Posts carousel’ on a mobile and a desktop, Posts appear in the order they were published. Before Google shifted in terms of the longevity of Posts, ‘event’ Posts always used to show first in the ‘Posts carousel’ and only shifted once the event has expired. However, Posts now show purely in the order they were published, reverse-chronologically. Even if an event Post or an offer Post is still ‘in date’, newer Posts will show first. Conversely, once an event of offer has expired, if it is one of the last 10 GMB Posts that were added, it will no longer show on the Posts carousel, but it will show (in order of date the GMB Post was added) in the ‘View all’ Posts pop-out. Where do Google My Business Posts appear?Up until September 2018, Google Posts enjoyed a great level of visibility high up in the business profile. Since then, though, Google Posts have been moved to the bottom. Sadly, where businesses had been successfully using GMB Posts to drive potential customers to their website, many experienced a significant drop in users from this method. However, many businesses continued to explore the efficacy of Posts in driving user actions on their GMB profile, for driving users to their site, and for informing Google about their business entity. Yay for them! Here’s where you can find Google My Business Posts today: On Desktop in the Business ProfileAt present Google Posts appear on a desktop in the business profile, which appears in the knowledge panel, directly underneath the business description and above the link to the social profiles (if present). I call this the ‘Posts carousel’. The ten most recent Posts will be shown. A click on ‘View all’ will generate a popout where a user can scroll through all historical Posts. The exception to this is the Covid-19 Post. When you add one of these, it shows much higher up in the business profile and will show instead of your other Posts. Covid Posts remain active in this position for 28 days. Unless you have a very important Covid-19 related announcement to make I’d recommend not using this Post type, and using the other Post types to post content about your response or product/service delivery changes. Google Maps on a DesktopOn a desktop in Google Maps, Google Posts show just under the primary business information. If you click on the Post you can then scroll through all GMB Posts from that business. In the local finderGoogle Posts can also be pulled through into business profiles on the local finder (see the ‘justifications’ section below). In Search on a Mobile DeviceWhen using a mobile device, GMB Posts show up in search in the ‘Updates’ tab if you scroll down a little. In the Google Maps App on a Mobile DeviceOn the Google Maps app you’ll see Posts if you scroll down in the ‘Overview’ tab and in the ‘Updates’ tab: In the ‘Discover’ Feed on Google MapsAh, the ‘Follow’ button. The functionality that time (and local marketers) forgot (or actually never knew about in the first place). Read what Google says about followers here and here. Launched in October 2018, the ‘Follow’ button was perhaps Google’s play at making Google Maps a sort of ‘social transactional’ landscape. Maps users could choose to ‘follow’ a local business in order to get a ‘new follower offer’ and to get updates from that business pushed into their “For you” tab—an area in Google Maps where Google curates recommendations based upon users preferences. On following a business on Google Maps, you’ll see their Posts featured in your ‘For you’ tab on the Google Maps app. N.b. we think that the ‘Follow’ button has died (RIP) as we’re no longer seeing it on Android or iOS devices. On Your GMB Website (if you have one)If you published your GMB website (which some small businesses do) then your Posts will populate your content, like on this Escape Room business. In ‘Justifications’You’ve probably read something about ‘justifications’ on search results in the SERP. If you haven’t heard of them, I’d recommend reading this post from Joel Headley from way back in 2017, and this 2021 post on justifications from Joy Hawkins. ‘Justifications’ do just that—they ‘justify’ a listing’s presence in the SERP by featuring (and usually bolding) relevant content related to that listing. These indicate that that business will likely meet that searchers’ need and intent. GMB Posts can power justifications using relevant content from GMB Posts that are up to 60 days old, like in this search for ‘coasteering for families’: If a user clicks on the justification it will open the local finder, and the related Posts for that business will show under the heading ‘Related to your search’. On Third-Party Sites (perhaps?)I added a new Post today on a desktop in the GMB interface (August 25th, 2021) and saw this new message: I’m not sure which third-party sites GMB Posts could appear on. Watch this space! Google My Business Post TypesThere are currently four Post types you can choose from in Google My Business (I’ll explain the deal with number five below): 1. Covid-19 UpdateThis Post type was rolled out in response to the pandemic in April 2020. Google describes how to use this Post type here, and suggests you use the Covid-19 Posts for this type of information:
This is what a Covid-19 Post looks like in the business profile on a desktop: Covid-19 Posts are great if you have a Covid-19-related update to make—something important about the way that you’re offering your products and services—and you can include a link through to the relevant page on your website. However, they can’t include a photo, and on a desktop they’ll suppress other Posts until they ‘fall off’ 28 days later. 2. Offer PostMy favourite Post type! Whenever I’m working with a new client, I’ll work through the types of offers they can Post. They might already have an established schedule for offers (for example ‘May half-price sale’) or it might be that they hadn’t thought about offers before. Keep an open mind about what constitutes an ‘offer’: it doesn’t have to be a discount; it could be something that you give away for free, such as a download, a whitepaper, or a brief consult. If you have an ‘evergreen’ offer (something you offer year-round), make it into an Offer Post with a long valid period. Many businesses fail to package their ‘value added’ elements into an offer, and these are great opportunities to populate an evergreen offer Post. For example:
Offers have to include a start date and an end date (with an option to also add timings). The maximum you can run your offer for is 12 months from the offer start date. The ‘Add more details’ fields are optional, but I’d always suggest adding a link to the relevant offer content on your website in the ‘Link to redeem offer’ field. That way you can gauge the success of the offer Post in terms of driving visits to the website and any subsequent conversions. Offer Posts that are valid (within the start and end date range) will show on a mobile in search and in the Google Maps app in a special ‘Offers’ section in the business profile: The desktop business profile does not have an equivalent offers section. Instead, your current offers will show in the ‘Posts carousel’ in the order that the Posts were added. However, Offer Posts are annotated with a little yellow tag, which is quite eye-catching and makes them look a little different from other Post types. Offers also allow the use of a ‘coupon’ code, and the Post includes this messaging along with your code: Top Tip: This is another avenue to measure the success of a Google Post—how many people come into a brick-and-mortar location and show the offer? Offer codes often make their way onto offer websites such as Voucher Codes, so be aware and monitor for this. Be clear if your offer T&Cs include the stipulation that the code must be shown natively on the user’s device when they make an in-store visit. This is perhaps one of the contexts where a Google Post might be shared (more on this later)—see this Offer Post for details. If you have multiple Offer Posts that are valid on a mobile device, Google will show them all, so for greater impact I’d recommend sticking with one or two that are valid at the same time. 3. Update PostAlso known as the ‘What’s new’ Post, this Post type can include images, some copy, and a CTA. GMB Update Posts sit on the ‘Overview’ tab on a mobile, low in the profile, and also in the ‘Updates’ tab. On a desktop, they appear in the ‘Posts’ section down in the business profile: 4. Event PostAn Event Post can include a photo, the event title, start date and end date (with optional start/end times), optional ‘Add more details’ text, and an ‘Add a button’ CTA for a link. On a desktop, Event Posts will show in the business profile while they are in their valid date range, but after that they’ll no longer show in the ‘carousel’ (but they will show if you select ‘See all’). On a mobile device, they’ll no longer show on the ‘Overview’ tab, but they’ll still show in the ‘updates’ tab. N.b. Event Posts do not populate the ‘Events’ section in a business profile (as seen below): If your business offers events, I’d recommend creating a page on your site for that event and marking it up with event schema. Then you can create a GMB Event Post, and link it to that page. Google has a history of pulling in spammy / third-party / unrelated events into business profile (see this thread on the GMB support community for some eye-watering examples) so making sure that you have your own events on your website, on a unique page for each one, marked up with event schema is one of the best ways of solving this issue. 5. Product PostProduct Posts used to be a Post-type independent of Google Products, but this changed in 2020 when they started to directly populate the Google Products section rather than Google My Business Posts. If you used Google Product Posts in the past, you’ll see them featured in a products category called ‘From product posts’: Before You Get StartedYou’re no doubt excited to get stuck into setting up GMB Posts for your business or clients, but there are a few things you need to be aware of before you do. GMB Posts and MessagingBe aware that if you’ve turned on the ‘messaging’ functionality for your business in GMB, you’ll see a ‘Message’ button included on your Google Posts when they’re viewed in search on a mobile device: The ‘Message’ button on your GMB Posts isn’t an ‘opt-in’ function on the Posts themselves—it’ll be added automatically if you switch on messaging for a business. If someone messages you via the message button on a GMB Post, you’ll see which Post the message came from when you view the message in the GMB app: This is another (very manual) way to measure the efficacy of your Posts—how many of your Posts prompt a customer to message you? The number of messages a location has received is reported in GMB Insights, but it’s not granular enough to tell you which messages came via Posts and which came via the ‘Chat’ or ‘Message’ button on the business profile. Can a business control GMB Posts?I’d say mostly yes, but also a bit no. It used to be that when a business updated their opening hours or added new photos, Google added these automatically as a new GMB Post. This was originally thought by businesses to be a bug, but Google quite likely did this as an attempt to keep the ‘Posts’ section more active across devices and platforms. Google solved this issue when they changed the ‘expiration’ schedule for Posts so that they remain active for a much longer period, and (for the moment) stopped adding these automatic updates into a business’s Posts timeline. In early 2021, Google added a new area named ‘For visitors’ in the ‘Updates’ tab in Google Maps, and in this section visitors are able to add images along with captions for that image. In this case, an area of the GMB profile that businesses are used to 100% curating via GMB Posts is now open to user-generated content. Find out more about how to manage this GMB photo updates feature. Potential IssuesSometimes Google Posts can be a little buggy and a Post can be rejected, even when you’re adhering to Google’s guidelines. If a Post is rejected, it won’t get published and you’ll see a ‘Rejected’ label on the image in your GMB dashboard. Sometimes, just by starting again, you can get the Post published: In other cases, the rejection might require a little more investigation… The Google Posts content policy can be found here, so take a look at the guidelines, particularly with regard to ‘inappropriate’ content: If you’re having an issue with rejected Posts that you think could be caused by the image you’re using, you can use Google Vision API to check to see if Google would consider the content of your image ‘explicit’. The ‘SafeSearch’ feature detects explicit content, such as adult content or violent content, within an image, using five categories:
To use SafeSearch, upload your image here and check the results: Google’s SafeSearch detection (for me at least—as you can see above, I work with attractions like farms) can often trip a rejected Post, as well as the inclusion of certain words, in the Post content or in the image filename. If you’re having an issue with Posts, check your image, image file name, and your Post copy to see if there is something in them that could be tripping some sort of filter. Failing that, check the GMB help community or Local SEO Twitter etc. to see if anyone else is having an issue with GMB Posts—bugs do happen from time to time. GMB Posts CTA OptionsUpdate Posts, Covid-19 Posts, and Event Posts all have the option for you to ‘Add a button’, where you can use the following microcopy options:
When you choose options 1-4 you’ll usually be adding a link to your own site—because, after all, you’ll want to send traffic there to measure the efficacy of your Posts. When you choose the ‘Call now’ option, anyone that clicks on that button will call you using the number that you’ve added as your primary contact phone number in GMB. You won’t be able to measure this unless you have call tracking in place. Offer Posts have fields named ‘Link to redeem offer’ and ‘Terms and conditions’ where you can add relevant links to your website. Sharing GMB PostsMy main question here is: why? Why would anyone share a GMB Post?! This might have been added as part of the glorious mish-mash of GMB functionality, and fits in with the idea of GMB somehow replacing Google+ and the element of ‘social’ that this represents. I can think of a small handful of scenarios where someone might want to share a Post, as per the Offers Post example I gave above. Another example could be a small business that had no website and was relying on GMB to secure their online presence. To be honest, I don’t think you need to spend a lot of time thinking about this feature! How to Create a Google My Business PostYou’ve been patient enough—now it’s time to get stuck in and create a Post for yourself. But how should you format it, can you automate it, and crucially, what on Earth should you post? How to Format Google My Business PostsA GMB Post can include an image, images or videos. Posts are displayed differently across devices and platforms, so there’s not a one-size-fits-all approach, but here are some general guidelines to start you off! As always, I recommend testing and seeing what works best for your clients and audiences. ImagesGoogle gives us these general photo guidelines for images in Google My Business:
Regarding image size—I’ve always used a 1200px wide by 900px tall image, and I make a Canva Post template for each of the businesses that I work with using their brand guidelines. Top Tip: Use my Canva template guide for GMB Posts to make it easy to create great-looking Posts! If your image for your Google My Business Post is too small, you’ll get this message while posting: So images in GMB Posts need to be a minimum of 400px by 300px. For a quick fix you can also generate GMB Posts using ‘Marketing Kit’ from Google. Just enter your business name and it will generate free materials. You can currently choose your content from these predefined content categories:
The assets can then be downloaded onto your device and used as and when required. Interestingly, the images are sized at 1080px by 1080px—yet another variation on sizing! Whatever image size you choose, I’d recommend monitoring how these look across devices and platforms. Choose an image that has a center focus and will ‘make sense’ whether it’s shown as a square or as a rectangle. When you upload an image for a Google product, Google will keep these in an ‘album’: The ‘Scrapbook photos’ folder seen above is perhaps related to the old Google+ images (I’m also seeing much newer images in the Scrapbook in my own account), and you’ll see other images that you’ve already uploaded for Google products in the date-stamped albums. Google changed the width that it displays Posts on a desktop, meaning that a single image, when uploaded, will have a black line either side. You can get round this by uploading multiple images or, if your brand allows, by using a black background for your Google Posts. Tips for Quick and Easy Access to Your Images for Google PostsCanva Use Canva to design a set of images for Posts that could be used for various Post types across the months, make them in-keeping with your brand and tone of voice guidelines. Upload these images into Google Products. Google will then store these in the ‘Album’ section. You can then delete them from your Products section. Dropbox You can upload your Google Posts images to Dropbox. Copy the ‘link’ to the image once it’s uploaded into your dropbox. The URL will end with this parameter: ?dl=0 Change the ?dl=0 to ?raw=1, so the image URL will look something like this: https://ift.tt/2XalJNy You’ll now be able to use that URL in Postamatic or any other third-party posting tool that requires a media URL: Should images include text?In her analysis of 1,000 Google Posts, Joy Hawkins found that, in her test sample of GMB accounts, images that included text performed better than those that didn’t. In my experience, using text in images can be problematic because of the range of ways that an image is displayed across devices and platforms, so I tend to avoid text in images. This just highlights the importance of testing, testing, testing for your own business or clients. VideosYou can of course use your own video content, but a quick and easy free option is to make one using Google’s Video Maker in Marketing Kit. Here you can add your logo, strapline and other features, and download to your device. From there you can upload it to GMB. These are very customisable and a really quick win in terms of video content creation. Here’s an example Post made using Video Maker. Google provides the following guidelines for video uploads:
Top Tip: Don’t sweat the length too much—I’ve found that much longer videos will get uploaded fine. WordsThese general tips for Google Posts from Ben Fisher are super useful:
Point three is particularly relevant if you’re looking for your Post content to get pulled into the SERP as a justification. Make sure you’ve done your search query research and that you have a rolling schedule for Posts that include these important terms. Remember, this doesn’t mean stuffing your Posts with ‘keywords’—Google is all about ‘things not strings’, so use words and phrases that are related to each other conceptually. If you’ve not covered this in your keyword research, then you need to check out the BrightLocal Local SEO keyword research course! We’ve already talked a little about how we’re looking to grab the attention of our potential customers via Google Posts—we need to come up with compelling and click-worthy content that sets us apart from our competitors. In the study mentioned above, Joy Hawkins found that Offer Posts got more clicks than Event Posts or Update Posts, and that Posts with a sense of urgency, and Posts with a special or a discount, performed the best. Posts that used emojis also performed better. Of course, take these findings into account when planning your GMB Posts, but you absolutely should test these for your own business or client rather than slavishly following someone else’s results. Different verticals and different businesses will of course all perform differently! LinksAll types of Google Posts allow you to add a link. Make sure the landing page you send visitors to matches the content of the Post and meets a visitor’s expectations given the content of the Post. For example, an Event Post should link to that event landing page, an Offer Post should link to that offer’s landing page, and so on. Take care to make sure that you link to the correct URL—double-check that the links go straight to the canonical URL, and not go through any redirects (the Redirect Path extension for Chrome is useful for this). Redirects can strip out the UTM tracking from our URLs, and we really don’t want that! Can I use gifs in Google Posts?As I covered in our guide to GMB products and services, it should possible to add a gif to a Google Product if you save it as a jpg. However, I tested this for a GMB Post and it didn’t publish. Sad times! Let us know if you manage to get a gif to post on a Google Post. How do I know how my Google My Business Posts look across devices?You can, of course, manually check on your desktop and on your mobile devices. Depending on the number of GMB profiles you’re managing, you might do this straight after you add a Post, or (if you’re posting for a few businesses) maybe check once a week to make sure everything is in order. I like to use Mobile Moxie to allow me to track how my Posts are displayed across a number of devices—you can see how they look across Google search and Google Maps on both a desktop and on a huge range of mobile devices. Manual Posting vs AutomationManual PostingYou have a few options here. Small businesses and those with just a few locations can add Posts via the GMB dashboard on a desktop, or via the SERP using the new GMB in-search interface. You can quickly and easily add Posts using the Google My Business app, which is super useful if you’re taking photos on your phone to add to your Posts. For businesses with multiple locations, or for agencies managing posting on behalf of a number of locations, you’ll probably need to look into third-party automation. Automated PostingTo automate posting GMB Posts you’ll need access to the GMB API—one of the easiest ways to do this is to use a third-party tool. PostamaticPostamatic is a free Google Sheets add-on that allows you to schedule Posts for one or many locations. Simply install the extension, run through the setup process, and go ahead and schedule your Posts. You’ll need to have a URL for the image you want to add with your Post, so you’ll need to upload these to your CMS in advance, or you can link to an image using Dropbox. UTM tagging for your Posts is built in, but is also customizable according to how you want to tag source, medium, campaign and campaign content. N.b. It’s not possible to add videos or multiple images via Postamatic at this time. DBA PlatformDBA Platform is a paid platform that allows you to schedule Posts for many locations, and includes a useful feature called ‘location placeholder’ that allows you to personalise GMB Posts for thousands of locations at the touch of a button. DBA has built-in UTM tagging—though you’ll need to customize this, as the default settings might not work with your existing reporting setup. Other Tools for Scheduling GMB PostsThere are other platforms that allow you to automate posting including Publer, Sendible, Oneup, Socialpilot, Zoho, and eClincher. You’ll need to do your own research on these. I’d suggest considering these options when you’re choosing automation tools:
How often should I post?When the Update Posts only had a limited shelf life (seven days) it was important to post regularly, or to make sure you had a longstanding Offer Post or Event Post so that you always had a GMB Post showing natively in your business profile. However, we now know that justifications can be pulled from Posts that have been published in the last 60 days. If you’re seeing your Posts pulled into the local finder as justifications for important search terms then you’ll want to make sure that you have a rolling schedule of Posts. These should all include semantically-relevant content to ensure that you continue to have Post content that could be used as a justification by Google. What should I post about?We’ve heard GMB Posts described as ‘micro-blogs’ but in my experience they’re not really like blogs at all. GMB Posts are your opportunity to grab the attention of a potential customer, much like you would in the copy of an ad. When we make ads, we craft something compelling and eye-catching with just a few words…something that encourages the reader to take the next step…be that calling the business or clicking a button to follow a link. We need to do the same with our GMB Posts. Top Tip: If you’re repurposing blog posts or long news items in your GMB Posts, you’re not doing it right! Google talks about using GMB Posts to ‘connect with existing and potential customers’, but in terms of ‘existing and potential’ the lion’s share of views will likely be from potential customers—those at the top of the marketing funnel. These aren’t people who have followed you on social media, or subscribed to your newsletter, or are checking back in on your blog to read your new Posts. Google makes some solid suggestions for GMB Posts content, including these points:
When you’re thinking about GMB Post content, I’d suggest running through the these two key questions:
How to Measure GMB Post EffectivenessIn Google My BusinessYou have a couple of options here. When you view your GMB Posts in the dashboard or in the GMB app you’ll see the number of views and the number of clicks. Clicks can be a useful metric as it’ll give you an idea of the relative effectiveness of that Post in terms of driving user actions. GMB Insights will also give you an idea of how many people clicked through to your website from your GMB listing, but this isn’t specific enough to let you know which of these was via GMB Posts versus one of the other links on your business profile. In Google AnalyticsWhen you tag your Google My Business Posts (and indeed any links to your website in GMB) with UTM tags you’ll be able to see how many visitors GMB Posts are driving traffic to your website as well as what they actually do when they reach it. In my guide to UTM tagging for Google My Business, I detail the process of tagging your GMB Posts using the ‘Campaign content’ field, which will describe the content of that Post. By adding UTM tagging, a business can see which type of Posts (Update, Event, Offer) plus the content of those Posts, and can help you test what works best in terms of driving website visits, conversions, and micro-conversions. If you have your goals and events set up in Google Analytics, and you have a process for UTM tagging, you can answer questions on which Post types and content types:
…and any other goals and events you are tracking in Google Analytics! Should I bother with Google My Business Posts?Yes! Google My Business Posts offer a great opportunity to attract and convert customers, as well as providing Google with lots of information about your business in terms of ‘entity’. Are they worth investing in? Only you can answer this, in the context of your business or the businesses that you serve. Bookmark this guide, test some testing, and see what works best for you in terms of Post types and Post content. Good luck! via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/3z5oj4j Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ For the longest time, SEO and PPC have been viewed as two separate entities. Many businesses would have the departments siloed separately, which can result in the two teams competing for funds. That shouldn’t be the case. It’s rather clear that they are two different channels. Search engine optimization focuses on increasing organic traffic from search engines. Pay-per-click campaigns generate leads through paid ads. However, both strategies have the same goal—they aim to capture more leads and improve sales. So why not use SEO and PPC together…it’s only logical, right? You’ll dominate the SERPs, drive more traffic, get more brand visibility, and so on. The question shouldn’t be whether to use PPC or SEO, but rather how do you combine the two to get the best possible results for your business? This review will show you how to use each strategy to support the other. You’ll learn about the different types of paid ads you can employ for your business, and the importance of selecting the right attribution model when combining these two marketing techniques. Why Use SEO and PPC Together?SEO and PPC are different in various ways, but they can work harmoniously to produce amazing results. Here’s how they’ll benefit your business: 1. Brand PresenceRelying on SEO alone to boost brand visibility is a tall order. That’s because search engine optimization strategies can take months or even years to produce results. Until then, your business will remain buried with the thousands of websites that never make it to the first page of the SERPs. That essentially means that your business won’t be getting any meaningful visibility. All that changes when you introduce a local PPC campaign to work alongside your SEO efforts. Pay-per-click ads help you bypass the algorithms and appear at the top of the SERPs for specific keywords. So everyone searching for those keywords will come across your ads and, by extension, your brand. That means more visibility for your business. Combining PPC and SEO allows you to establish your brand’s presence for both the short- and long-term. PPC will help you get the exposure you need right now as SEO works in the background to ensure the results are sustainable. 2. Increase Sales and Generate More LeadsWebsites on the first page of the SERPs get 71% of the online traffic, as reported by Moz. In fact, most of this traffic is limited to the top five websites: Source: Moz A pay-per-click ad takes your store to the very top of search query results. So it’ll be the first thing people see, and this will naturally attract more clicks. Assuming your landing page converts, more clicks mean more leads and, consequently, more sales. But you’ll still need a robust SEO strategy because not everyone will click on the ads. In fact, a report by Wordstream showed the average click-through rate of PPC Adword ads is around 2%. Your goal should be to dominate the SERPs as much as possible, and the only way to do that is to have an effective PPC and SEO campaign in place. It takes a lot of effort and investment, but the results are well worth it. In fact, if you do it properly, you will get double exposure on the SERPs. Potential customers will see your ads first thing at the top and then in the organic results. Something else very interesting about dominating the SERPs is the psychological effect it has on consumers. When potential customers come across your store multiple times on the same page, they’re likely to see your store as reputable and authoritative. That increases the chances of winning their confidence and clicks. 3. Test Keyword and ContentKeyword optimization is crucial for both SEO and PPC campaigns. Your SEO team needs to know which keywords to use to optimize content and boost rankings. Similarly, your ad campaigns can’t be successful if you don’t know which keywords to bid for. So how do you know which keywords and phrases to target? There are various tools to help you out with this. However, you can’t truly know which keywords work best for your specific business until you put them into action. Using SEO and PPC at the same time provides the perfect opportunity to do exactly that. You could, for instance, run a PPC campaign targeting multiple keywords. Then compare the data of each keyword after a month or so. Which keyword and content generated the most engagements and leads? Pass this information to your SEO team, and they can run campaigns targeting these keywords. The beauty of using PPC for such tests is it produces results instantly. You can get all the data you need in a matter of weeks. SEO can also be used for keyword and content testing. However, search engine optimization takes time to produce results, and that’s why most businesses complement it with PPC. But, if your company already has a successful SEO strategy in place, then you should have enough keyword data for your ad campaigns. Next, let’s look at how you can run each method to support the other. How to Start an SEO Campaign to Support PPCSEO is a long game, but it generates valuable insights that can support your PPC efforts in various ways. For instance, once your website’s SEO finally kicks in, you’ll see a massive increase in traffic. As you probably already know, most leads do not convert during their first visit to a website. You’ll need to interact with a potential customer several times to move them down the marketing funnel until they take the desired action. And that’s where PPC comes in. SEO provides valuable data on potential customers to whom you can run a retargeting campaign using PPC. Moreover, local SEO techniques like Google My Business listings and optimization can significantly improve the performance of your PPC campaigns. Listing your business on Google My Business allows you to utilize tools such as ad extensions. The extension allows you to provide more details through your ads. For example, they’ll display customer reviews providing social proof for your business. How to Start a PPC Campaign to Support SEOOne of the biggest advantages of PPC campaigns is how quickly they generate results. Whether you want more brand visibility, leads, or sales, a pay-per-click ad will deliver the results faster than SEO can. Therefore you can use PPC to get the quick results that your SEO team needs. You could, for instance, use PPC to build brand awareness quickly. Potential customers will get familiarized with your brand making it easier for them to interact with your business organically. PPC can also enrich your SEO keyword data. A single PPC campaign can generate lots of data on customer search habits. You can then use this data to improve your website’s SEO to drive more traffic. Let’s say, for instance, you are running Google Ads for your Salon. Two weeks in, you start noticing that the keyword “hair salon” is performing much better in terms of clicks and CPC than something like “hairdresser.” Yet your website keeps on mentioning “hairdresser” and nothing about “hair salon.” Such data will help your SEO team adjust your website to cover all the traffic you lose by not mentioning “hair salon.” Type of Paid Ad Campaigns You Might RunThere are various types of paid ads out there. Below are two strategies for paid ad campaigns that can actually produce meaningful results for your business: 1. Direct SalesAs the name suggests, direct sales ads are all about selling a product or service. That means that ads are aimed at consumers towards the end of the customer journey and ready to make a purchase: Source: Facebook Under direct sales, you can run remarketing ads targeting the website visitors who visit your sales page and fail to take the desired action. PPC campaigns on branded terms are also a great option here. They’ll help you crowd the SERPs, thereby increasing clicks. Targeting branded terms also helps to counter any competitors who could be creeping into your market. Many businesses bid on the branded terms of their competitors. So if you are not careful, your competition could bid on your brand terms and steal a significant portion of your traffic and sales. That happens a lot to hotels where companies like Booking or Agoda bid on branded terms for a specific hotel. 2. Lead CaptureUp to 92% of website visitors aren’t ready to make a purchase during their first visit. Most of them are merely curious to learn more about a company, product, or service. Therefore, trying to sell a product to such visitors is usually a waste of resources. That’s why a lead capture campaign is important. It helps you capture consumers who are still in the early stages of the buyers’ journey. You can then use their information to retarget them later on and move them down your sales funnel. The basic idea behind a lead capture ad is to get the lead’s contact details. It could be an email address or their phone number. To get this information, you may have to incentivize the consumer. If, for instance, you have a small interior designing business, you can target a lead with a free ebook or guide on something like “Tips On Choosing The Right Color Palette For Your Home.” Most leads will freely trade their contact details for such a guide. So you’ll get the contact information you want, and they’ll acquire the resources they need. Win-win. The marketing agency, King Kong, takes this approach, for example. If you visit their site, you will get retargeting ads sending you to the following landing page. Instead of trying to directly sell to the customer, they send them to a landing page that they created with a website builder where they give away a free resource. It’s a smart move that helps warm a lead before a pitch. The Importance of Attribution When Tracking ResultsRunning marketing campaigns across different channels does come with a few challenges. One of them is identifying the channel that was responsible for a conversion. Did the customer buy your product after encountering your local service ads or the organic search results? Getting the answer to this question is beneficial. Attribution provides valuable insights into how the various marketing channels are performing. It shows you which channel has the biggest impact. With this information at hand, you can refine your marketing strategy to prioritize the best-performing channels. There are several types of attribution models that you could use here. These include First Interaction, Last Interaction, Last Non-Direct Click, Linear Attribution, Time Decay, and Position-Based attribution. It’s imperative that you understand how each model works and its implications. For instance, both first and last interaction models credit a single channel for a conversion: Source: Search Engine Land The first interaction credits the first channel the buyer interacted with, while the last interaction credits the last channel before a conversion. While this makes the models very easy to implement and evaluate, it also oversimplifies a buyer’s interaction with your marketing channels. The last interaction model, for example, ignores all the touchpoints that occurred prior to the conversion. To avoid such issues, it’s advisable to use more than one model. That will make the attribution process a bit more complex, but you will get a holistic picture of how all your marketing channels are performing. ConclusionLet’s do a quick recap, shall we? In this article, I shared four main things. First, I showed you why you need to use PPC and SEO together. Then I explained how the two complement each other to boost brand awareness, increase sales and leads, and facilitate keyword testing. Next, I took you through practical examples on how you can use each strategy to support the other. We saw that SEO could generate leads that you can retarget through PPC. On the other hand, PPC enriches your SEO keyword data and delivers quick results that are hard to achieve with SEO. We then looked at the two types of paid ads you can run, direct sales and lead capture. Finally, I gave you three reasons why you’ll need attribution when tracking the results of this multi-channel marketing strategy. To sum it up, your local business needs SEO as much as it needs PPC. The benefits you’ll harness by integrating the two are far greater than anything you can achieve using just one of them. So, sit down with your marketing team and develop an effective strategy on how to run the two techniques together. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/3DZ6E1I Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ Business listings have long been a core part of local SEO. From their early dominance of local search rankings to today, where appearing on the core business directories is considered table stakes—the very least a business needs to do to rank. But, while there is plenty of debate on how much Google uses business listings when deciding where to rank local businesses, it’s important to think about how much consumers are really using listings in their searches. We set out to uncover how consumers are really using business listings. To do this, we surveyed more than 1,000 US-based consumers to uncover their citation-related challenges and give local marketers the vital statistics they need to create a strategy for business listings in 2021. What do we mean by ‘business information sites’? ‘Business information sites’ include search engines such as Google and Bing, maps providers such as Waze and Google Maps, social media networks such as Facebook and Instagram, voice assistants such as Siri and Amazon Alexa, and online directories such as Yelp, Tripadvisor, and the Better Business Bureau. Why do consumers use business listings?Ensuring you have an accurate presence wherever potential customers are online can be a key step to winning new business. The Business Listings Trust Report finds that 94% of consumers used an online directory to find information about a new or previously used business in the last 12 months. Respondents were able to choose multiple reasons they had used a business information site in the last year. 66% of consumers used business information sites to find new businesses, while 66% found information on businesses they were already aware of but hadn’t used. Many consumers will make a decision on a business far before visiting or getting in touch. Without a presence on the most important business listings sites, you may miss customers you never even knew about. But it’s important to remember that business listings aren’t only used by new customers, and can have a far-reaching impact beyond the first interaction. 48% of consumers use listings to find information on businesses they have used before. This could be double-checking an address, or phone number, or viewing more in-depth details, such as the products in stock, any safety measures, or deals that the business might have. Google My Business, Bing, Yelp, and other big sites contain many different criteria to optimize and update, so keeping information up to date is essential to avoid confusing your loyal customers. Which business listing sites matter for local businesses?Survey respondents were given a list of more than 20 different business listings sites to choose from—including online directories, social media sites, and voice assistants, and asked which they recalled using in the previous 12 months. Unsurprisingly, the most commonly-used source of local business information is Google—with 89% of consumers using one of Google’s search functions at least once in the past 12 months, including Google Maps and the Local Finder. But, it’s important to go beyond the usage of core sites, and to think about the other outputs they may provide data for. For example, we found that 11% of consumers used Waze, 15% used Google Home, and 18% Siri (which uses Google for its broad search results, and Apple Maps for local information). This means that a grand total of 91% of consumers used the Google search engine for local business information. While only 15% of consumers recalled using Bing to find out about a business in the last year, it also powers Microsoft’s voice search agent, Cortana, as well as Amazon Alexa. This means that 28% of consumers used Bing for local business information in the past 12 months—whether they knew it or not! Sites such as Yelp and Tripadvisor are well-known by consumers in search of restaurants or entertainment, but may not be as well used for other business types. The proportion of consumers that used business information sites in the last 12 months
While some of the named business listing sites weren’t used by many of the respondents in the last year, this isn’t to say you should write these off. If these are showing in the first few pages of Google for your key local search terms, or if your competitors are already represented on these, it would be worthwhile to secure your listing. In most cases, these won’t need to receive a lot of your time and attention once they’re live—merely tracking that these remain accurate over time. At BrightLocal, we recommend appearing on the business listing sites that potential customers are really using—whether that’s the big directories such as Google My Business, smaller local listings that are important in your local area, or niche-specific listings that competitors are dominating. Which sites do consumers expect to hold accurate information?It doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of faith in the accuracy of information across the different types of business information sites. Consumers are most likely to trust the information on the business’s own website, followed by their social media sites and online directories. Information gathered from voice assistants is a lot less likely to be trusted. Sadly, it can be pretty easy for inaccuracies and errors to sneak into business listings. Moving location, changing phone number, or even incorrect updates from the public can all lead to confusing information that holds customers back from getting in touch. Our Citation Builder team is committed to improving the perception of accuracy in online directories—one listing at a time! Services exist to help you keep track of your citations so that you can simply spot any Name, Address and Phone number (NAP) inconsistencies that could be damaging, such as our very own Citation Tracker. How business listings cause consumer confusionTrust is a vital component in any business relationship, and it’s well-known that mixed messages may impact a customer’s perception of you. Even so, the majority of consumers we polled have spotted incorrect, incomplete, or conflicting information across a businesses’ listings—mighty confusing! 85% of consumers found incorrect or incomplete information on a business listing in the last year. In addition, 77% saw conflicting information on a business across different online directories. In the last year, 75% of consumers contacted or visited a business but it didn’t offer the product or service that it said it did online. With services such as Pointy from Google making it possible to add up-to-date product availability information, the proportion of consumers being frustrated by outdated stock information may see a drop over the next few years. If customers frequently appear to ask you for products you no longer hold, it would be worth asking for the source they found that said you had this in stock, and making sure that it gets updated. While it’s always good to get visitors to the store, it’s not a great customer experience if they feel misled or as if they’ve had a wasted journey. Why does accurate information matter?The benefits of accurate citations aren’t just about helping prospective customers find you. Inaccuracies in the listings you do have can have a negative effect—with 63% of consumers saying that finding incorrect information would actively stop them from choosing your business. Misinformation can be damaging trust in the reliability of a brand. This could be something as serious as an outdated address or mistyped phone number stopping a customer from reaching you, or errors in your opening hours or services offered that cause confusion. Audit your business listings by checking the accuracy of your key contact information one by one. Inaccuracies and inconsistencies could be confusing, so this process should be performed regularly in case the sites or their visitors change your business information without your knowledge. Only 8% of consumers said they definitely wouldn’t be stopped from using a business due to incorrect listings. Is ignoring accuracy really worth the risk? Which business listing errors affect consumer trust?In our survey, we listed some of the most common inaccuracies we see in businesses’ listings (incorrect or inconsistent NAP information, errors in opening hours and email addresses, and outdated or poor-quality photos) and sought to find out how these impact trust in businesses. Consumers are most likely to lose trust in businesses if the phone number (66%) or address (60%) is wrong or inconsistent across listings. Having incorrect contact details can have far worse consequences than a mistake in the name or photos. You wouldn’t want a consumer to believe they have been ignored or misled if they couldn’t reach the business. Problems with photos are less likely to negatively affect consumers, with 45% of consumers saying that poor-quality or outdated photos would damage their trust. The impact of an incorrect addressWe can all agree that an incorrect address could have a negative impact on potential customers—whether a business has moved location and not updated the data, mistyped a zip code, or even had its address nefariously updated. For businesses with a physical presence, inaccuracies in addresses could lead to a lot of unhappy people arriving on the wrong doorstep. Luckily, for the majority of businesses, a lost customer wouldn’t automatically equal a lost sale. 42% would call the business if the contact details were wrong online, while 20% would look elsewhere online to check the address. But, 39% would either jump ship to an alternative business or give up their search entirely. Of course, it’s likely that this abandonment level will differ drastically depending on the type of business. If a coffee shop is located in a different area, it may be likely a consumer would be more likely to hop to a different café, while a more niche or specialist service may warrant a further leg of the journey. Back in 2018, we ran the Local Citations Trust Report, and asked this same question. Interestingly, consumer behavior has seen some changes between the two surveys. Consumers are now far less likely to completely abandon their search. Instead, they are a little more likely to look for an alternative business nearby (online or physically), check the address elsewhere online. This could suggest a trend towards consumers being more likely to research local businesses on the move? The trouble with opening hoursMost online directories have plenty of features that stretch beyond the NAP—with opening hours being particularly useful. We found that 93% of consumers used a business information site to see opening hours in the last 12 months, making this absolutely crucial for businesses to get right. Unfortunately, all too often opening hours can have issues. In the last year, 76% of consumers arrived at a business too early or late because its opening hours were wrong online. Hours can vary by location or change over the holidays, and it’s important for potential customers to feel that they can trust the accuracy of your information—or risk waiting, red-faced, outside a closed business. Business owners—please, check your opening hours ahead of the next holiday! Missed connectionsThe biggest problem with failing to keep business listings accurate are the high-intent customers that have every intention of contacting a business, but aren’t able to due to incorrect name, address, phone number, and website information (NAPW). Whether that’s trying and failing to click through to a linked website, contacting a business through its listing or social media channels but not hearing back, or calling or visiting the wrong location because of incorrect information, it’s bound to cause upset among potential customers. Make sure it’s as simple as possible for potential customers to get in touch—and if you change your phone number, website, or address, update this as soon as it changes! Also, make sure you have someone monitoring social media channels, email inboxes, and the phone so you don’t miss customers that want to buy from you. The impact of Covid-19 on business listingsOur survey respondents were asked questions about a range of situations in the previous 12 months. However, let’s remember, the previous 12 months have been far from normal. In the same way that the pandemic impacted how consumers interact with reviews, for many consumers, business listings were incredibly useful for peace of mind over the past year. 74% of consumers surveyed looked at a business’s listings to see if there were Covid-19 measures in place—with many of the bigger online directories developing options that outlined additional Covid-19 measures. For many consumers, business listings will have played a part in understanding which businesses were still operating during the pandemic. However, it seems that not every affected business thought to update their listings before closing their doors. 81% of consumers visited a business that said online it was open, but that was actually closed due to the pandemic. In summaryBeing able to trust that the information available online is accurate can go a long way in helping consumers feel ready to trust—and use—a local business. Yet, the majority of consumers having faced a frustrating experience, such as visiting a closed business or calling a dead number, as a result of inaccurate information in business listings. With business information sites such a common way to discover local businesses today, failing to keep this information up to date and correct could put off a significant proportion of potential customers. But, it appears too many local businesses aren’t making accuracy a priority—despite the relatively low amount of time and effort required to track business listings. Local businesses, and marketers with local business clients, should make it their mission to make every source of information positive and useful. Starting with the most commonly-used sources of information (e.g. Google My Business, Facebook, Bing, etc.), ensure that all information is completely up-to-date—including NAP, contact details, photos, and opening hours. While other sources, that aren’t as frequently used by your consumers, won’t need to be checked and changed as often, it’s important to check that these don’t hold incorrect information that could be diverting high-intent customers. While the pandemic has highlighted a need to keep information updated as it changes, the accuracy of information should always be critical. MethodologyThe Business Listings Trust Report explores how consumers are interacting with business listings in their search for a local business. The statistics and findings are focused on interactions with business information sites. These include search engines such as Google and Bing, maps providers such as Waze and Google Maps, social media networks such as Facebook and Instagram, voice assistants such as Siri and Amazon Alexa, and online directories such as Yelp, Tripadvisor, and the Better Business Bureau. Based on the views of a sample of 1,141 US-based consumers, the survey was conducted in August 2021 using Survey Monkey’s consumer panel. The sample is representative of age and gender demographic breakdowns in the USA. Publishers are welcome to use the charts and data, crediting BrightLocal and link to this URL. If you have any questions about the report, please get in touch with BrightLocal’s content team, or leave a comment below. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/3l9iWfv Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ This is an edited excerpt of the ‘What are Keywords?’ lesson from Claire Carlile’s free How to Master Local Keyword Research course in BrightLocal Academy. We’re going to explore what we mean when we say ‘keywords’, and think about some of the concepts to keep in mind when putting together our own list of keywords. Why keyword research is importantKeyword research is vital for successfully being found online. It heavily impacts on-page SEO, as well as how pages are organized and shaped—or what we call the ‘information architecture’. It also affects how you talk about your business, products, and services in both your offline and online marketing materials. Keyword research can give you a great insight into your target audiences, your niche, your competitors, and also how your marketplace is changing. Through conducting in-depth keyword research you’ll develop a detailed understanding of your potential customers and how they’re searching, what they’re searching for, the problems they’re looking to solve, and how you—and your products and services—can best meet their needs. Google back then…All searches performed by users start with a search query or search ‘string’—these are the words that you type into the search engine. Back in the olden days, when dinosaurs roamed the earth (also known as the 1990s), when we optimized a web page for search engines we entered popular terms into the ‘meta keywords’ field. At the time, search engines were dependent on this field to assess the relevance of a search query in relation to the content on a page, and meta keywords were a powerful ranking factor. So, if you entered ‘donuts, best donuts, london, sprinkles, donut boxes’ into the keywords meta tag, Google would know that this page was about all of these things. Of course, as more and more people created websites, the keyword meta tag became misused for the manipulation of rankings. It became less important as time went on, and in 2009 Google finally confirmed that the meta keyword tag was no longer relevant for rankings. …And Google todaySince 2012, Google representatives have been advising the search community to focus on “things, not strings”. The key here is that Google is looking to better understand the context of the page, not just the content of the page. It wants to ‘understand the world a bit more like people do.’ These days, you still need to include relevant keywords on the page (and variations on those keywords, plurals, synonyms, related phrases, etc.) but it’s now also super important to understand searcher intent, to build your page around that intent, and recognize the importance of your website becoming an authoritative topical hub. Defining keyword researchThe definition of keyword research is: “The process of discovering words and phrases that people use in search engines like Google, and determining which of these matter most for the objectives of a given website.” We say ‘words and phrases’ because when people search, their query strings typically include more than one word. Using more words gives a search query more context, and allows Google to serve a set of results that are more relevant to the query. The context of searchWe need to keep in mind that searcher behavior isn’t fixed and the queries people use, the length of those queries, and the context in which the searches are made is constantly changing. And because of this, keyword research is never a ‘one and done’ process. Take for example the explosion of mobile search. Mobile devices now account for approximately half of web traffic worldwide, and Google asserts that a third of mobile searches are related to location. Google coined the term ‘micro-moments’ to describe when people turn to their smartphones:
Covid-19 has also affected what people search for and when, and the way in which they look for products and services. Shoppers aren’t just turning to Google for things they want to buy online, they’re also using Google to find out what is available nearby. Google tells us that searches for local business have grown by more than 80% year over year, including searches for “near me” and “support local businesses”. And searches for “who has” + “in stock” have grown by more than 8,000% year on year! Staying abreast of how world events affect search is essential for each and every business that wants to appear in the SERPs. Wrapping upSo that’s it for now. We’ve talked about what we mean when we say keyword and keyword research. We’ve talked about how important it is to understand searcher intent when we start to look at keywords. And we’ve talked about how various contexts affect how, where, and why people search. Want to learn more from Claire? Head over to BrightLocal Academy and enroll on the How to Master Local Keyword Research course for free! via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/38AZItm Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ |
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April 2023
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