So you dove into Google Search Console (GSC) after reading “An Introduction to Google Search Console for Local Businesses,” or you took a look under the hood and thought, “That is just way too much search data. How can I make sense of it all?” Don’t worry, you’re not alone. That was one of the reasons I created a Looker Studio report to help break down and visualize the data in easy-to-understand chunks. The search data in GSC can be overwhelming, especially for many business owners venturing into GSC for the first time. But after following the steps in our first GSC post, we can now show you how to take a slightly deeper look at the search data from a more local perspective. (Not read the first post but eager to get advanced with GSC? No problem! Let’s dive in.) In this guide, I’ll show you how you can filter through the search data in Google Search Console to help you with:
Filtering the Search Data Using RegexWe’re mostly going to use something called ‘Regular Expressions’ (or ‘regex’) to filter the search data. What is regex?Imagine regex as a special kind of search tool within Search Console. It lets you zoom in on specific patterns in your website data, helping you uncover hidden insights about how people find your business online. Think of regex as a special search language that you write to tell Search Console exactly what you’re looking for. It’s like giving it a set of clear instructions to follow. In regex, instead of regular words, you use a few special symbols and characters to create these instructions. It might look a bit strange at first, but it’s not too hard to learn. When you apply a regex pattern, Search Console goes through your data and only shows you the parts that match your instructions. It’s like filtering out the clutter and zooming in on the important stuff. For example, if we want to find all queries that contain the word “local” or “near me”, it would look something like this:
What does it mean?
Example Matches If we looked at the search console data for a local restaurant we might see queries such as:
Note:
We are going to use the example above later in this post but let’s start with something a little easier. Let’s start with your local town/city and state It’s time to roll up your sleeves and dive into the search data. We’ll start easy and then increase the complexity of our regex filters. We’ll start by looking at how to filter the results just to show queries that contain just your town or city. The regex would look like this:
Just copy the above example and replace ‘cityname’ with the name of your town or city, but first, let me show you how and where we’re going to add it. Log into your GSC dashboard, and under ‘Performance’ choose ‘Search results’. Now, above the main table of search data, we’re going to edit the settings and apply our first filter. Select ‘+ New’ and then ‘Query…’ Select ‘Custom (regex)’ We now want to copy the regex example:
And paste it as follows: You will have replaced cityname with the name of your town or city. Now just click “APPLY”. Your ‘Queries’ table should now only contain the top queries containing the name of your town/city. Look at the search data and see what your customers are searching for that includes the name of your town. It can be very revealing. Well done, you’ve done your first filter using regex! Now let’s build on this. We’re now going to filter the search data by town/city and state. For example, my next example is going to use Atlanta, which is in the state of Georgia, which may also be written as ‘GA’. My regex would look something like this:
Note the use of the pipe ( | ) – the OR operator. Using this means that any of the three options, ‘atlanta’, ‘georgia’, or ‘ga’, can be matched. Now my search data will list any query containing the words ‘Atlanta’, ‘Georgia’, or ‘GA’. Local IntentIn our very first regex example, we used this example:
Now let’s expand on this just a little and include a couple more variations:
Example matches:
Context matters. Analyze queries within your specific industry and location. Intent can be implicit or explicit. Not all local queries contain obvious location terms. Tip: Increase the date range from 3 months to at least 12 months. This will increase the amount of query search data you are filtering and give you more insights. What questions are your users asking?Have you ever wanted to know what questions your potential customers are asking to find your product or service? Well, you can do so by using the simple regex snippet below. Just copy and paste the following, as we have done before.
You can now use the results from your search data on your website and GBP to:
Tip: You can always just trim down the regex and start with the what, where, when, and why.
You can adapt any of these patterns to include additional words beyond common question words. For example: Commercial Intent:
Transactional Intent:
Question and KeywordWhat if I wanted to know what questions were being asked that contained a particular keyword? For example, I have a personal injury lawyer and I want to know what questions are being asked concerning trucks. The regex for this would be:
Example Questions:
Just change the word ‘truck’ for the service or product that relates to your business. Company Name TrackingWith this regex snippet, you can gain valuable insights into your company’s online presence. By tracking trends in brand awareness, identifying top-performing pages, and even uncovering potential issues, you can use this information to improve your content, SEO strategies, and overall brand visibility. Pinpoint your company name variations. List all possible ways people might search for your company:
Replace placeholders with your actual company name variations.
Remember to monitor the results and adjust the pattern as needed, based on your specific needs and search trends. UTM TaggingIf you’ve been being a good local SEO, then you’ve been using UTM tagging within your GBP for many years now, for everything from your website links to GBP posts. If you haven’t, then read Claire’s guide on UTM Tagging for Google Business Profiles and fix that right away! You can see your UTM data quite easily within your GSC search data. However, because UTMs are associated with the page URL, we have to apply the regex to ‘Page…’ and not ‘Query…’. …and paste, as before:
Then, switch between the ‘Pages’ tab to see the top pages that are performing, and then switch to the ‘Queries’ tab to see which queries are producing clicks from your GBP. Tip: GSC and basic exports are limited to displaying a maximum of 1,000 rows of data per report (property). This can be frustrating, especially for large websites or specific scenarios where you need to analyze more data points. A workaround to get more data is to create more properties for the same website. In the example below, I’ve created six properties for different sections of the site. This way we’ll get 1,000 rows of data for each property and not just 1,000 rows for the whole domain. Verification is easy once the main domain has been verified. ConclusionFor local businesses, mastering regex can unlock a hidden vault of Google search data about your customers. But like any powerful tool, precision and ongoing adjustments are key to keeping up with evolving marketing goals and staying ahead of the game. I hope these regex examples prove valuable. Should you have any questions, please reach out to me on X (formerly Twitter). Additional GSC Resourcesvia BrightLocal https://ift.tt/RO9ToWi Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/
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Do things ever quiet down in December? In the search world? Are you kidding? As we wrote about recently, at the start of the month, Joy Hawkins of Sterling Sky caused a slight thunderclap in the local search world. She announced a new local ranking factor: opening hours. You can read the thread of events in the piece linked above. But with such heated discussion on the matter, and only several small-scale tests conducted so far, we wanted to carry out a study with a greater breadth of business types, covering various US states and timezones. So, we took 50 business locations across 10 primary business categories and used BrightLocal’s Local Search Grid to analyze their local rankings outside of their listed opening hours and during opening hours. Study MethodologyFive businesses were chosen at random within each of the following primary categories, for a total of 50 locations. We selected a variety of business types to reflect different searcher intent. Business categories:
Each location was set up in Local Search Grid, using the following criteria for the report: Grid size: 7 x 7 Note: Grids were only adjusted if automatically placed over large bodies of water, national parks, or rural areas etc. Reports were run manually, twice a day for three days: once outside of business opening hours and once during opening hours. Exceptions are marked where some businesses are listed on Google Business profile as open 24 hours or have no opening hours associated. Local Search Grid Study ResultsThe charts below show the average local ranking for each primary category outside of business hours against their open hours. This average looks at all keywords tracked in the Local Search Grid reports. Across the board, it’s clear to see that Local Search Grid reports run during each business’s opening hours reflect higher local rankings, on average. The primary category ‘Fast food restaurant’ appears to show the biggest fluctuation, with local rankings improving by 2.4 positions on average during opening hours. However, if we compare these results with some of the previous tests conducted in recent weeks, the fluctuations we see are much less severe. While previous tests have shown dramatic fluctuations between reports for individual business locations and specific keywords, taking the average across a list of 10 keywords reflects a more steady variation. We can look in more detail at some of the business categories and show their results day by day. Open vs ClosedCoffee ShopWith the exception of Coffee Shop #3, each coffee shop business in the chart above reflects a fairly steady result across three days and shows higher local rankings during open hours. Although we did not use any navigational keywords for the coffee shop report (i.e. ‘coffee shop near me’), it does make sense that a coffee shop listing would be prioritized higher in local rankings if it is open when the user is searching. This doesn’t necessarily mean it is the most helpful result. As we’ll discuss later on, there are plenty of reasons a user might be searching for something like a coffee shop other than to visit it in the immediate future. DentistWe have included the above chart for Dentist here, as you will note that Dentist #1 and Dentist #2 offer slightly differing opening hours and are closed entirely for some days of the study. For example, Dentist #1 was closed on Fridays and Dentist #2 closed on Wednesdays. We continued to run manual Local Search Grid reports in the timeframe they would normally be open (10am CST for Dentist #1 and 9am EST for Dentist #2) to note what happened to local rankings. We can see here that their local rankings during the day—when other nearby dental practices are likely open and operating—drop much lower than their typical local rankings outside of normal practice hours. Businesses set to ‘Open 24 hours’Some locations selected for the study are listed on Google Business Profile (GBP) as ‘open 24 hours’. So, it’s interesting to compare their local rankings to similar businesses listed with standard business opening hours. HVAC ContractorFor HVAC Contractor #3, despite being listed as ‘open 24 hours’, we ran the reports at two different times of day (8am and 10am PST) to determine any fluctuations in local rankings. As you can see above, this remained steady across the three days at 3.5, except for one result showing an average of 3.6. However, Contractor #4 also shows a good level of consistency in its local rankings across the three-day study. It also maintains an average local ranking of around 2, so it does not appear that setting opening hours to ‘open 24 hours’ necessarily gives an advantage for better rankings. Real Estate AgentFor real estate agents, it does not look like setting opening hours to ‘open 24 hours’ helps maintain consistency in local rankings. Both Real Estate Agent #1 Real Estate Agent #3 show fluctuations across the three days. It’s not clear why this might be from just these results, but I do wonder if Google has somehow weighed up the legitimacy of these business opening hours. It makes sense for service area businesses to work outside of standard hours and on an emergency basis, but real estate agents? It feels a little bit like a ploy to be more visible on GBP (see also: Lawyer in Appendix). What if there are no opening hours listed on the Google Business Profile?Movie TheaterIt’s interesting to note that some business types appear not to show any opening hours on their GBPs as a sort of ‘industry standard’. We found that this was the case with the category ‘Movie theater’, which makes sense given the changing nature of movie releases and schedules, as well as one-off screenings such as late-night premiers. But would local rankings be penalized as a result? These results are particularly compelling as they show that movie theaters do not appear to be affected at all by using opening hours as a local ranking signal. It could be the case that each business has opted to show as ‘Open with no main hours’ as per the GBP editing screenshot below, and that they are technically shown as ‘always open’. However, a quick Google search for three of the five movie theaters’s names plus ‘opening hours’ does return an immediate snippet-type result by Google. So, it’s not entirely clear if Google is pulling this from other business listing sites like Yelp. Either way, it does not appear that any of the movie theaters are impacted by the existence of opening hours. ElectricianAs with the movie theaters, Electrician #1 has no opening hours listed on its GBP and is not ‘open 24 hours’. We ran two LSG reports a day, at times when most electricians would typically be closed (6am HST), and when they would typically be listed as open (8am HST). In this instance, as we saw with the dentists that were closed on typical days you might expect to be able to visit, it appears the local rankings suffered more for Electrician #1 at a time when searching for an electrician is deemed more common. Electrician #4 appears to follow the same pattern as discussed with HVAC Contractors listed as ‘open 24 hours’ and shows consistent local rankings throughout the study. What do these results mean?As of December 15 2023, Google Search Liason confirmed that Google has long used “openness” in its local ranking systems, but that it has recently become a stronger signal. However, given such polarized reactions within the local search community, this may change if Google decides to ‘dial back’ the signal strength.
And there are plenty of reasons why they should dial it back. Although for navigational queries or searches that demonstrate the intent of wanting/needing something ‘right now’, it makes sense to prioritize businesses that are open and available to you in that moment, there are a whole host of other reasons why people may be researching different businesses outside of typical open hours. I, for one, am an avid food researcher when I travel. I could be looking for brunch, lunch, street food, or dinner establishments in another European country at any given point in the day, weeks before I’m due to visit. For professional services such as law and real estate, or healthcare like dentistry, a prospective customer will likely be doing their research in several stages before deciding to book an appointment or instruct a professional.
As we stated in our previous write-up, it’s important not to make any drastic changes to your business’s GBP as a result of what we’re seeing currently. At the very core, your business information should be accurate so that it meets your customers’ needs and provides them with the most helpful and useful information. A refresher on managing your business's opening hours in GBP. As we found in the Local Business Discovery and Trust Report 2023, 62% of consumers would avoid using a business if they found it had incorrect business information listed. The report also delves into how things like incorrect opening hours can affect their trust in a business, therefore potentially damaging a business’s reputation, and even highlights the industries in which information like opening hours are deemed as most important to consumers. So, for the sake of a couple of ranking positions that may or may not fluctuate throughout the day, and may also change if Google does re-evaluate the signal strength, please ask yourself: is it really worth it to mess with your opening hours?! SummaryFor full study data, including the local rankings for each business category across the three days of the study, you can find the remaining charts in the appendix below. Publications and individuals are welcome to use the study findings, charts, and data, provided BrightLocal is credited and linked to via this page’s URL. If you have any questions about this study, or what the results mean, please do not hesitate to contact us via X (formerly Twitter), The Local Pack, or by emailing us at [email protected]. AppendixKeywords
Day SpaDepartment StoreFast Food RestaurantLawyervia BrightLocal https://ift.tt/AyVdbaJ Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ These past few months have seen a variety of Google tweaks, tests, and updates, leaving some users uncertain of when a change is a permanent one. Alongside these changes, we’ve been witnessing some serious heat on our Local RankFlux algorithm monitoring tool. Meanwhile, the Local Search Forum was lighting up with chatter about strange rank fluctuations. And, right around the same time that we saw RankFlux’s average score jump to a 4.38 out of 10, Joy Hawkins announced that she and her team at Sterling Sky had discovered a new local ranking factor: the opening hours stated on a business profile. This announcement has led to lots of discussion throughout the community, with local SEOs sharing their take on the matter, speculating Google’s intentions, and running tests to verify the claim. With no current consensus on the matter, what’s the best course of action? Leave those opening hours alone for now, and keep an eye on what’s going on. So… what exactly is going on? What happened?The announcement came during Sterling Sky’s Local Search Seminar with Joy Hawkins, Darren Shaw, and Luc Durand. Joy shared an image of two drastically different local search grids, noting that the two reports were run only two hours apart—one at 7am, before the business opened, and one at 9am, right after opening. The initial tests determining this were done on three businesses—seemingly in the categories lawyer, psychiatrist, and phone repair—and were all seen on desktop.
Sterling Sky has since run tests on “at least a dozen” businesses across multiple verticals, according to the webinar that announced the finding. Hawkins also noted a difference between ranking patterns for more competitive keywords and less competitive ones: competitive keywords seem to encourage more variation in ranking.
Note: This change doesn’t seem to stop businesses from ranking at all, simply prioritizing the open ones instead. The Community RespondsIt’s generally agreed upon that such a change to the algorithm could have big implications for both businesses and searchers. Alongside this, the announcement itself was met with apprehension and confusion, with many questioning Google’s intent.
Additional questions have arisen regarding the significance of the long-standing ‘Hours’ dropdown, a Google feature that allowed searchers to filter their local pack results by hours. It’s been posited that in the case of an intentional change by Google, perhaps data from this dropdown led Google to believe that searchers would appreciate hours being taken into the algorithm’s consideration. After all, there are conceivable benefits to hours as a ranking factor, according to some. Usually, these revolve around minimizing the possibility of searchers showing up to a closed business.
However, alongside many others, Darren Shaw of Whitespark notes the potential issues of such a ranking factor, citing a variety of situations that would lead a searcher to look for a business that might not be open at that very moment.
Immediately following the announcement, Shaw expressed skepticism at the prospect.
In fact, his initial tests showed no indication to verify the effect of opening hours. However, following further investigation, Shaw later went on to say that opening hours having an effect on ranking was “definitely a thing.” He also notes that opening hours aren’t a “binary ranking factor”—meaning that changing your ranking hours one way or the other won’t ensure that you rank… or that you don’t. Yan Gilbert of Local Falcon also corroborated Sterling Sky’s data.
Others posted their own examples of the change.
However, despite these endorsements across the community, many are still uncertain as to the longevity of these ranking fluctuations.
What Google Has to SayUltimately, most seem to be looking towards Google for answers, with many echoing the sentiment that it could be a bug. And, while Google’s Search Liaison has answered briefly, Google has yet to elaborate on the matter.
So… what next?What does this mean for BrightLocal?So far, we haven’t seen enough to say whether this is definitely a ranking factor long-term. Before we confirm anything, make recommendations or change processes, we want to do due diligence to offer our customers the best service and insights possible. That’s why we’re currently using Local Search Grid to run a wide-ranging and comprehensive study using data from 50 businesses across 10 verticals to truly understand whether a business’s opening hours impacts its ability to rank in the Local Pack. We’re aiming to be analyzing the results of this study early next week, and intend to publish them shortly after. We hope that this study will allow the local SEO community to better understand the impact that opening hours have. In addition to this, we are looking into what this means for our rankings tools as a priority and will be sure to let you know if any platform or report updates are required. What should I do?Until we know more, whether that be from the rash of studies that are cropping up or from Google itself, we would say to sit tight, don’t panic, and don’t make any huge changes to your opening hours in response. It does seem that changing your opening hours to 24/7 has an impact on ranking. However, there are risks associated with this, whether it be the big kind (a profile suspension) or a smaller kind (a scathing review), so we would advise against making any changes at this moment. The last thing you want is an onslaught of one-star reviews. In fact, according to BrightLocal’s 2023 Local Business & Trust Report, 62% of consumers would avoid using a business if they found incorrect information online. In some verticals, correct opening hours were especially significant, with consumers viewing correct opening hours as the most important factor for retail businesses (53%), food and drink businesses (51%), and entertainment businesses (47%).
If you’re looking to investigate more closely, you can always run your own Local Search Grid reports during your business’s opening hours and compare them to the results of when it’s closed. Otherwise, just keep your eyes peeled for more information on this as we have it. And, in the very wise words of our very own Claire Carlile:
Claire Carlile weighs in on opening hours Local SEO Expert at BrightLocal
Waaaa, the sky is falling down! Quick, quick—set your hours to open 24/7! No, seriously, don’t do that. It makes sense that Google would take opening hours into account when deciding how to rank results—especially when someone is very specific in their search query (for example ‘coffee shop near me open now’) or is looking for a service where immediacy is a factor (for example ’emergency plumber near me”). I feel pretty sure that Google will turn down the dial on opening hours as a generic (in the sense that open businesses are better ranked and closed businesses are not ranked so well) ranking factor soon. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/9l3UpHb Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ There’s no doubt about it. Yelp (could) be big business for your local business. The reason we say could be? It all comes down to how visible your listing is. At last count, more than 80 million people head to the site each month in search of somewhere to eat, someone to fix an issue at home, or someone to get them on the road. With dozens of categories and a vast directory of local business information, it’s an indispensable tool for local consumers. It’s also a great way to grow your online presence, generate leads, and boost your sales figures. From takeout joints to locksmiths and home cleaners to body shops, Yelp is a great way to put your business in front of local consumers. While you may not see it as such, Yelp is kind of like a search engine. As with any other search engine, the more time and effort you pour into search engine optimization (SEO), the better your results will be. So we’re going to talk to you about Yelp SEO. The good news is that there are plenty of steps you can take to increase the prominence of your Yelp listing, no matter how competitive or overcrowded your particular category may be. Why does Yelp SEO matter?Yelp isn’t just a key review platform or a place to claim a free business listing. It’s also a business discovery tool in its own right. It ties these three elements together, and that makes it particularly useful for local business owners. What makes SEO for Yelp especially important is the proactive nature of the directory’s user base. According to its own figures, 83% of Yelp users hire or buy from a business they find on the platform. What’s more, 57% of users contact the business directly within 24 hours. Those are powerful incentives to make your business as visible as possible. Get that right and you can realistically expect your foot traffic, reservations, and bookings to increase by a notable margin. Claiming your Yelp listing is also free. As with any other business directory, it’s a useful way to boost your local citation count. Plus it provides a wealth of useful information to consumers. Information such as opening hours, street address, and services offered along with reviews and images are all contained within your Yelp listing. This information makes it that much easier for consumers to match your local business with their immediate needs. You also won’t be charged for any user interaction with your business. That means calls, emails, and website visitors are all free. You just have to make sure your listing is visible and receiving traffic. That’s where knowing how to optimize Yelp business listing information comes in. Not only this, but users themselves go to Yelp to perform searches. And, as with other platforms, Yelp has its own algorithm for ranking the businesses it returns. 7 Ways to Optimize Your Yelp ListingThe internet is full of information and tips, but much of it is outdated, confusing, and time-consuming to wade through. Yelp doesn’t tend to share as much insight or best practice advice as Google or Bing, which can make it even harder to know where to start. The tips below will guide you through optimizing your Yelp business listing. These essentials include category selection, review responses, and the importance of regular updates. Ready to tap into the enormous potential that Yelp offers? Read on. 1. Choose a Relevant Business CategoryIf you’ve been responsible for your business’s local listing management for a while now, you may be familiar with the importance of business categories. It’s a vital part of Google Business Profile optimization and similarly important when it comes to acing SEO for Yelp. Yelp allows you to select up to three categories when claiming or updating your business listing (more on that later). But that’s not to say you should select three if only one or two are actually a good fit.
One of the easiest ways to optimize a Yelp listing is to only select the most relevant business category or categories. There are 1500 categories available in total, so you’ll need to be as specific as possible to ensure you’re getting seen by the right kinds of consumers. If you’re a home automation expert, for example, you may be tempted to also select electrician as a secondary category. But, unless you’re also an electrical contractor offering services such as appliance repair or rewiring, you could be undermining your listing’s effectiveness. 2. Add Relevant ServicesWhile a category is a broad definition of your business offerings, services allow you to be much more specific. Here, you can select as many services as you offer. And, you can do so for each category you select. This gives both Yelp and local consumers a much clearer idea of what you can offer. It provides both Yelp and local consumers with a much clearer idea of what your business does, helping to boost your listing’s relevance within search results. Make sure you select every service that your business offers. Again, don’t add irrelevant services in the hope of attracting more traffic. Focus instead on what you do offer so that your efforts to optimize Yelp listing information deliver meaningful traffic which could boost your sales figures. 3. Carefully Craft Your ‘From This Business’ TextYelp research suggests that as many as 90% of Yelp users use the platform to compare local businesses. Your ‘From This Business’ text is your opportunity to connect with Yelp users and introduce some keyword-rich content to your listing at the same time. The ‘From This Business’ area of your listing is split into three sections:
Each of these components provides a space to connect with local consumers, highlight how your business can meet their needs, and feed the Yelp algorithm with more intel about your local business. Try and include keywords, such as products or service names, within the text. The specialties section in particular will naturally be keyword-rich, but you can also add other useful information in the intro and history sections. Remember to make sure it reads properly and you aren’t just stuffing in keywords that make it read like you’ve only written it for bots. At the end of the day, you’re still writing for people. 4. Ensure Your Opening Hours Are CorrectGetting your opening hours right is a basic but necessary Yelp optimization task to tick off. Having incorrect hours can be frustrating at best and at worst, could actively cost you custom. BrightLocal’s Local Business Discovery & Trust Report found that 53% of consumers saw opening hours as the most important information for a business to get right on their listings. A consumer who sees that you’re open on Yelp and travels to your location isn’t likely to have a great impression of your business if they arrive to find you closed. Chances are, they won’t risk it a second time and will go to a competitor instead. One of the nice things about Yelp--and key to managing your Yelp business listing effectively--is the option to add special hours. If you’re closed on Thanksgiving for example but open 24 hours on Black Friday, you can add special hours to your listing. You can add as many special hours or extended closure details as needed, so be sure to keep this area updated.
To add special hours, just navigate to the business information section of your listing and hit edit. 5. Take a Proactive Approach to Photos and VideosVisual content is a very powerful asset for any local business. Images and videos allow consumers to build a detailed picture of your business without ever having visited or tried your services. They help in decision-making and allow you to showcase the quality of your offering, the ambiance of your venue, and the professionalism of your staff. What’s more, when you head to the Yelp home page, it’s impossible not to notice that the top spots are invariably occupied by listings that have plentiful visual assets. Images and videos are also an easy way to build trust. This is especially true if your Yelp SEO activity leads to more consumers uploading images alongside their reviews. Yelp’s official advice states ‘Upload multiple photos to look your best’. That’s frustratingly ambiguous, so as a good rule of thumb, we’d suggest mirroring Google Business Profile photos best practice and uploading a well-rounded selection of images.
Aim to include shots of the interior and exterior of any location open to consumers, team photos, and product and service offerings. For bars, restaurants, and other hospitality venues, you’ll also want to include shots of your best dishes and most striking spaces. It’s very simple to upload images.
6. Respond to Reviews (Good and Bad)Review management is a critical part of any local SEO activity. Yelp users are known to be very engaged, are prolific reviewers, and often call, message, and visit local businesses. We already know that reviews are a primary Google Business Profile ranking factor. They’re also vitally important to consumers, with 88% citing business owner responses as a top influencing factor when deciding which local business to choose. Responding to reviews doesn’t only show Yelp users that your business is active, engaged, and values customer feedback; it also sends those same messages to Yelp, which could help you stand out from less responsive, less active competitors. It’s worth noting that how you respond to reviews matters too. We’ve shared lots of tips here to help you navigate responses to feedback both good and bad.
7. Encourage a Regular Influx of New ReviewsA regular influx of good reviews is also important. Many consumers will only browse the most recent reviews. New reviews also help Yelp to understand more about your business, its popularity, and its relevance for consumers searching for specific products and services. Yelp discourages local businesses from soliciting reviews. Suspected requested reviews are tagged as ‘not recommended’, with Yelp saying they can be more biased. However, there are ways that you can nurture a steady stream of incoming reviews to keep your business listing current. One easy way is to link to your Yelp listing on your site. The platform also suggests using a ‘Find us on Yelp’ sticker at your physical location. You can take this a stage further by adding a link to your Yelp listing within your email signature, adding a Yelp logo to your business card, or including it within your physical marketing material. Remember, you’ll need a plan to respond to your incoming reviews as quickly as possible. It’s Time to Work on Your Yelp ListingKnowing how to optimize a Yelp business listing is easier than you may think. With many similarities to Google Business Profile optimization, it shouldn’t take too long to get to grips with. Even better, growing your visibility on Yelp can directly impact the success of your business. With an engaged user base and the ability to share useful business information, it’s well worth adding Yelp SEO to your local SEO to-do list. Need help building citations? Building up your citations across the web is a surefire way to solidify your online presence, ensuring that you’re putting the right information in front of the right eyes. At BrightLocal, our Citation Builder service allows you to streamline that process: you simply pick the sites that you’d like to be listed on, and we do the rest. Not only will it help you be easier to find within Yelp itself, but optimizing your business listings is beneficial for your local SEO too. Making sure that each of your listings is accurate and working harder for you, rather than just building and forgetting, is a good move for any business. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/WBD7prI Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ In May this year, Google announced that it would begin deleting inactive Gmail accounts (of 2+ years) in December 2023. Well, the time is upon us, and I imagine there’s a significant number of people that haven’t acted. Many people may even be wondering “what’s the big deal?”—but there are a lot of things to consider that may be attached to your Gmail account beyond emails. And for brands, it could mean bad news for your Google Reviews. What will I lose if my Gmail is deleted? Think about the suite of Google apps your account is connected to, as well as the various website and account logins it’s associated with.. There’s a lot you won’t be able to access if your account is removed, such as:
So, consider this a good time to do a bit of account housekeeping! Check all of your logins and either update the email address if you’re not using Gmail, or log in to your Google account to ensure it’s active. What does this mean for my business reviews?Users who leave business reviews on Google must have an active account, so it could be the case that brands will see a drop in the total number of reviews their profile has if they are removed. However, it hasn’t been confirmed if Google will remove the reviews or simply highlight the review poster as inactive/anonymous. According to Reputation America, reviews from deleted accounts do remain visible on business profiles but are no longer linked to personal information. It makes sense, given the importance of various review factors for building trust with businesses—and Google will want to maintain this integrity. As we know from the Local Consumer Review Survey, consumers are interested in more than just the top-level star rating for a business, looking at the experiences customers are describing. What does this mean for Google Business Profiles?To claim and manage your Google Business Profile (GBP) listing, you’ll need a Google account. If you’ve had various people associated with your GBP over the years, it’s a good idea to review the owners associated with the Profile and ensure the users with account access are up to date. You can do this by heading to your GBP dashboard, clicking the three dots next to the profile strength indicator, and selecting ‘Business Profile settings’. Although it has not been confirmed what would happen to a GBP if its sole user was deleted, we can assume the profile would revert to an unclaimed business listing. A GBP will still remain visible if it is not managed, so it doesn’t seem likely that Google would remove it, but you may need to go through the claiming and verification process again. Need help claiming your Google Business Profile? We’ve got you! Check out our guides for how to set up a Google Business Profile and how to verify your business on Google. What’s exempt and how do I know if my Google account is inactive?Well, if you’re an Android or Google device user, there’s a good chance you won’t have to worry. If your system is logged into Google and connected to apps like Calendar, Chrome, Photos and Play Store, your use of any of these will count as activity. Likewise, if your YouTube account has videos posted to it, this is also safe. According to Forbes, exemptions also include Google accounts that are connected to educational establishments and those that are business accounts. What should I do?If your personal Google account has been inactive for two years or more, but you have personal files, photos, and memories stored there that you don’t want to lose, you’ll want to consider logging in before it’s too late. It’s not clear whether the mass deletion has commenced, but Google initiatives tend to take several weeks to fully roll out. For GBP owners and managers, the chances of your GBP being associated with an inactive Google account seem quite unlikely, but take the time to review who has access to the account and update the details if necessary. And as for reviews, there isn’t much you can do to prevent these changes. For now, we’ll just have to wait for the effects of the great Google account purge. Remember, it’s always good to keep your eyes on forums like X (formerly Twitter), the Local Pack, and Local Search Forum to see if any big changes or updates have been spotted, and how people are responding to them. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/eNfd4mH Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/
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Navigating local SEO for sprawling multi-location brands presents a unique set of challenges. The biggest e-commerce companies typically deal with just a single website. Sure, there are potentially thousands of pages to track, but it’s all essentially the same entity they are trying to rank. Meanwhile, multi-location brands must treat each of their locations as separate entities. Every location needs to be managed, optimized, and reported on. This means marketers in large multi-location brands, like you, manage SEO for hundreds or even thousands of “websites.” Marketers working within e-commerce are equipped with specialized tools to help them manage SEO at scale. However, the same cannot be said for their multi-location counterparts. Until now, marketers at multi-location businesses have had to rely on two less-than-ideal solutions:
You’ve lacked the right tools for the job. This has put multi-location marketers, like you, into a cycle you can’t escape. You struggle to navigate measuring performance and uncovering insights to boost results. Engaging stakeholders to show how local SEO contributes to business growth is difficult. The result? Your teams are underpowered, overstretched, and underappreciated. Thankfully, we’re breaking that cycle and rewriting the rules with the launch of BrightLocal Horizon: A Search Command Center for Multi-location Brands. BrightLocal Horizon isn’t just another rank-tracking tool; it’s the only rank-tracking solution that’s purpose-built for multi-location SEO. Let’s get to the good stuff. A new Horizon for multi-location SEOHorizon is more than just a report or dashboard. It’s a command center for tracking and understanding your performance. It’s the springboard for deeper analysis and prioritization. And, it’s a powerful communication tool for sharing insights and impact with stakeholders. BrightLocal Horizon overview
Measure real-world search visibility at scaleBrightLocal Horizon simplifies local rank tracking for multi-location brands. It consolidates rankings across hundreds and even thousands of locations into a single, intuitive dashboard. Instantly gain insights into your brand’s nationwide and regional search presence. And, measure performance over time with top-level ranking metrics. Focus on what mattersForget the days of sifting through endless ranking reports. BrightLocal Horizon turns noise into a signal by highlighting underperforming regions. Making it easy to home in on the locations that need action. Our simple interface helps you navigate from a broad national overview to specific local issues in a few clicks. Attention-grabbing reportingLet’s face it, ranking tables don’t turn heads in the boardroom. Our visual reports are easily understood by stakeholders so that the value of local SEO is recognized across your organization. You’re not just sharing numbers—you’re telling a story that everyone can get behind. Identify your top search competitorsWhen competing across hundreds of different local markets, you’re likely to face off against thousands of distinct competitors in search. Unlike traditional SEO, where major players can dominate search results, local search offers a more level playing field. It allows small businesses to compete directly with big brands in search results. This situation makes it tough for businesses with many locations to figure out who their main search competitors are. It’s hard to know where to start when there are so many. Luckily, Horizon finds the top competitor in search for each of your locations, as well as the top one in each state. This way, you can quickly see who you’re up against the most all over the country. Then, you can check out what they’re doing well, plan your strategies to do better, and stay ahead in the game. Steer your strategy with the right dataWe know that marketers don’t have the time to analyze each location on a regular basis. Which is why Horizon gives you a bird’s-eye view of performance. This strategic overview is essential, but we also recognize the need for in-depth analysis in certain scenarios. Each location tracked in Horizon is powered by its own Local Search Grid report. Local Search Grid is our geo-map rank tracker that gives marketers the ability to measure the real-world search visibility of a location. Each report can be customized to ensure it reflects the customer catchment area and can track up to 30 keywords. With each keyword, you get benchmarking data on the top-ranking competitors against key local ranking factors. Horizon equips you with the insights needed for impactful decisions. Whether that’s tweaking a Google Business Profile category or addressing a shortfall in reviews and ratings. Because Horizon is powered by the most accurate and comprehensive ranking data and the best local-level insights, you can have complete confidence in where you point your strategy. Local search is still an untapped opportunityWhile the surge in online shopping is undeniable, it represents only a fraction—about one-fifth—of total retail revenue. The current trends, particularly in the post-pandemic era, show a big shift back towards in-person shopping, with a remarkable 81% of retail revenue still coming from physical store visits. This raises a crucial question: Why is local SEO still eclipsed by traditional SEO strategies? As brands intensify their focus on e-commerce, many are missing a huge opportunity. They’re bolstering their SEO and PPC to capture online revenue and overlooking local consumers. These consumers are predominantly shopping in physical stores. But, they are increasingly relying on online searches to discover and research brands ahead of purchasing. Google itself revealed that 83% of U.S. shoppers perform an online search before visiting a store. This oversight is costly: potentially billions of dollars in sales are being lost because brands aren’t visible during these crucial local searches. BrightLocal Horizon is here to address this gap, equipping multi-location brands with the ability to turn overlooked opportunities into tangible business growth. Ready to expand your Horizon?BrightLocal Horizon is now available for brands with over 100 locations, as well as agencies working with them, in the US and UK. Fit the bill? Request a demo today and we’ll show you what’s possible. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/qrfQlhD Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ I’ve written two introductory sections for this resource, pick the one that you most resonate with.
If either of my “sales pitches” above reached you, then let’s move on to discuss how to get started with publication diversity (which is what I will be referring to this process as throughout this guide). Diversity supports performance and perception
Branding can be an incredibly potent business driver, and how your business is perceived is central to all your branding efforts. If your “About Us” or “Authors” page is completely homogeneous, then you may only be appealing to members of one sliver of your target audience. For most businesses, the potential consequences of treating your audience as a monolith include:
Now that I’ve briefly touched on the risks associated with ignoring diversity in your publication and brand messaging, Iets focus on how incorporating diversity supports your business. The impact of diversity on brand perceptionIf you do something well, you generally want people to know about it. The same should be true for your diversity efforts within your marketing campaigns, whether that means authors on a traditional company blog or featuring people of diverse backgrounds within your imagery and messaging. Earn industry coverageWhile brand perception is a somewhat intangible aspect of marketing, one of the concrete benefits is mentions from reputable sources. For my publication, the Wix SEO Learning Hub, diversity was non-negotiable from the outset (I’m a person of color and so is our publication’s chief SEO, Crystal Carter). Though the main objective was never industry coverage, our results were highlighted in The Freelance Coalition for Developing Countries’ Race Gap in SEO Authorship report for publishing the most BIPOC authors, as well as in SEO Consultant Lidia Infante’s Gender Gap in SEO Publishing analysis for a near 1:1 ratio of female to male authors. We aren’t the only brand making positive change here, and we couldn’t be more grateful that our peers share our passion.
Audiences and communities share industry narratives widely. If you’re mentioned favorably, you can generate a lot of good will for your brand—and more diverse professionals will be attracted to that. If your diversity efforts lag behind your peers, you can expect to be known for that as well, which can add to the inertia that holds you back from reaching your goals. Attract new audiences and collaboratorsAn engaged readership is the dream for just about any publication. But, creating a community from scratch can take a very long time. Through publication diversity, you can reach members of various communities that may never have otherwise paid attention to your content:
Additionally, members of underrepresented communities are looking to make the most out of opportunities that come their way. In the SEO industry, publishing an article is typically seen as part of the path to more publication and conference speakership opportunities. These professionals often have the talent or experience, and are simply looking for a platform. If that platform is yours, you could be making foundational connections with future thought leaders.
The impact of diversity on performanceThe advantages of diverse teams have been well documented. According to an article published on the Harvard Business Review, diverse teams:
But, these realities haven’t moved the needle for many, many businesses—namely all the ones you can see that have no diversity in their campaigns. Build relevant linksIf you’re just starting to focus on diversity, partnering with communities and their leaders helps you distribute your content and build links to it. Your contributors should link back to your content on domains they control (like the community’s official website or their individual portfolio site).
As your diversity initiative becomes a permanent part of your content workflow, you might also start attracting industry coverage (as mentioned above). This, too, should result in more backlinks, which can bring in traffic and help you rank better. Superior content
Different audiences may view your product/services/industry from entirely different perspectives, and a homogeneous team is unlikely to understand (let alone address) those needs. Homogeneous teams won’t even know the value of the perspectives they’re missing out on due to their own shared biases or perhaps simply because of a homogeneous upbringing (for example, as a child who was fortunate to grow up with two parents, I have no idea how to address the needs of an audience of adoptees). From an even more “common sense” angle, businesses in high-competition niches need every advantage, and that certainly includes comprehensive content.
What you’ll need to get startedAt first, publication diversity might seem straightforward, but think about how many of your competitors have actually done a good job. To lift perception and/or performance, you need to sustain that diversity over the long run and enact a plan that produces content as well as brand advocacy. There are countless potential ways to do that, but I’m going to focus on the core elements that will help you get started and make diversity sustainable for your publication. You will need to:
A fundamental understanding of why most publications aren’t diverseOnboarding diverse expert writers to work on a publication led by a homogeneous editorial team may introduce power dynamics and communication issues. Freelancers may feel uncomfortable expressing feedback that could improve your publication because of:
Your internal team(s) need to get the best out of your freelancers, which is especially true if those external experts are going to represent your brand in some capacity. This means the editors that communicate with your experts need to not only be advocates for diversity, they must also be educated (or have experience with) the issues that diverse professionals deal with. Fortunately, there are many resources available online to help you educate yourself on these issues. If you’ve got a budget to work with, then you could (and should) also increase your in-house editorial team’s diversity. But, know that without education or experience on these issues, your initiative is still likely to fail over the long run as schisms form due to disparate motivations across all parties involved. Buy-in from stakeholdersStakeholder buy-in is absolutely essential. They don’t need to be champions of diversity, but they do need to support your diversity initiative with understanding, patience, and hopefully, budget. If your managers and C-suite don’t recognize the value here, then they will likely redirect you to a more “business-critical” task the instant they have to decide between diversity and… well, unfortunately, most other things. If your business tends to focus on short-term goals, then you have more moving targets that will divide your time (and team). Publication diversity is already a moving target—and, like SEO, it’s not necessarily the right choice if you need to showcase wins to your stakeholders in the immediate future. On the flip side, a strong advocate in your leadership (and resources) will empower you to publish at the highest levels of your industry, without sacrificing quality in favor of diversity—a fallacy that many marketing decision makers use as a crutch when speed takes precedence over values. Unfortunately for those businesses, publications, and their audiences, when speed takes precedence, quality also generally takes a backseat. Diverse expertsMost SEOs, editors, and content marketers either work in-house for a brand or agency side with multiple clients. This distinction influences whether your publication should rely on freelancers or in-house writers, which in turn influences how you approach diverse experts to partner with and the dynamics of the relationship. A highly regulated industry, like finance, would likely be easier to cover with in-house writers because you can continuously educate them on compliance. A consumer technology blog, on the other hand, could more easily choose between in-house or freelance authors. In either case, I highly recommend partnering with engaged communities within your industry to identify diverse talent for your publication. Word-of-mouth referrals can prove very fruitful, but that depends on the strength of your existing network. And, while networks like LinkedIn can give you access to experts worldwide, I’ve experienced very mixed results. Partner with diverse professional communities to:
If you’re diversifying your in-house team, you’re working with business and diversity requirements that should guide your recruiting process. Since these factors can vary, I’ll leave you with one basic piece of advice on where to start: it can be incredibly helpful if your writers resonate with your audience (or the audience you aspire to reach). Don’t limit your thinking to just ethnicity and gender--learn more about your audience to understand their circumstances to find the best fit. It could be that your audience includes a large proportion of single parents, or live in a multi-generational household, for example. This type of diversity can be incredibly important for certain businesses and their audiences. BudgetTo be clear, you don’t need a generous budget to run a successful, diverse publication—and no amount of budget is going to make a publication magically diverse. But, if you understand and embrace the need for diversity and have stakeholder buy-in, then a decent budget can open a lot of doors and dramatically speed up your progress. I’ve worked to diversify publications with and without a budget.
How to sustain your diversity initiativeNotice that I’ve chosen the word “sustain”—not “maintain.” You’ll need to continuously invest energy and resources if you want diversity to help generate business outcomes and differentiate your brand. Measure your progressI’m not suggesting that you approach experts according to rigid diversity criteria (the kind you have to tick off on the government census or standardized testing). But, even if you’re not monitoring your progress, other players in your industry likely are. As I’ve already mentioned, this is already the case in the SEO industry. Companies with plentiful resources (like Salesforce) are able to study and publish their equality data, which enables it to:
The vast majority of businesses don’t need to publish equality reports (but mature industry leaders should). Nevertheless, every diversity initiative benefits from an understanding of where you’re starting and how you want to improve. As a first step, confer with your team to agree on what diversity means for your publication. Then, benchmark your publication to understand where you’re starting from (avoid benchmarking first, as that may heavily influence the goals you set and ultimately lead to results that don’t move the needle). If industry benchmarks for diversity are available, seek them out and evaluate your publication against that standard. This can help you understand whether you’re currently lagging behind your industry or helping to lead it. The system you develop to measure and ensure your progress can take many forms. It could be a spreadsheet that contains data about what your authors identify as. Or, it could be as simple as “every other article needs to be written by an expert from a member of an underrepresented group in our industry.” It all depends on your goals and, to an extent, what you’re comfortable with. Here are some criteria that are commonly used by publishers to understand and improve publication diversity:
It’s helpful to figure out the ratio of content written by members of these groups—a common KPI for diversity initiatives. From another perspective, measuring progress also helps you take stock of the good work you’ve already done to diversify your business blog. For example, I once received critical feedback via social media for appearing on a webinar with two other males—in a vacuum, that homogeneity doesn’t look good. However, over half of the articles on the Wix SEO Learning Hub were written by women (which industry coverage substantiated), so we were able to take that context into account when receiving that feedback. Give back to diverse communitiesUnlike the communities I referred to previously, these don’t have to be professional groups (although they certainly can be). If you want diverse experts or audiences to support your brand, you need to show them that your commitment goes beyond optics. While sponsorships and compensation certainly help, it’s too easy for profitable businesses to throw cash at the problems they play a part in creating, instead of taking accountability for the good that they could be doing.
The best strategy depends on what your business does, your budget, and the needs of the communities you’re serving. A word of warning: It’s often better to do nothing than to do something disingenuously. The more noteworthy your brand is, the more scrutiny you’ll likely face. For example, creating an industry diversity award, promoting it, and announcing a winner is a lot of fanfare, but people remember if you never collaborate with that diversity award winner again. These kinds of attempts seem surface-level because they are, and the more diverse experts see these vanity initiatives coming from your business, the more cynical they will be about supporting you. Instead of hastily slapping together diversity campaigns, prepare until you’re sure resources and buy-in are aligned for a better, longer-lasting partnership. Diversity work is never “done” because the world is an inequitable placeYou may feel like the header above this sentence is a blunt statement. I’ve written it that way so that it evokes an emotion in you, the reader. Explore that emotion—if you resent the statement, ask yourself whether that’s because “diversity work” doesn’t benefit you, or because you disagree with the sentiment that the world is unfair. For the diverse communities at the center of your initiatives and in your target audiences, these are simply the truths of our lives. Only once you accept that can you begin to understand the ocean of identity, emotions, and humanity that you’re actually attempting to tap into with your diversity initiative. Execute it well and you can begin to appeal to some of those human elements—or, botch it and alienate your brand from swaths of the population entirely. Special thanks to Areej AbuAli and Crystal Carter via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/i54w8sp Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ Whether they’re looking for answers, or looking for a lawyer, legal services consumers turn to Google. Many of these searches have local intent. Therefore, local search engine optimization (SEO) strategies are remarkably effective for lawyers to “get found” by potential clients. Defining local
For our purposes, I’m going to define local SEO to include all of the things that a law firm can do to improve visibility in search results for relevant local queries and convert that visibility into a client.
By local queries, we mean terms like ‘michigan dui lawyers’ or ‘lawyers near dallas’. Location modifiers make it obvious to Google that searchers want something local to them, or a specific area. Too many articles about local SEO focus solely on ranking. You can rank for irrelevant queries and it won’t help you grow your firm. You can rank for relevant queries, but if you don’t have a competitive number of reviews, potential clients won’t call. It’s not that ranking isn’t important, but it’s a means to an end. In the context of law firms, one of those ends is earning new clients. Your Local SEO Checklist for Lawyers
Why Local SEO is Important for Law FirmsAt AttorneySync, we surveyed 5,000 Google Consumer Survey respondents. We asked: “If you thought you needed a lawyer, how would you find one?” The top two responses?
Most recent legal profession research that I’ve come across reports similar results. Clio’s Legal Trends Report 2019 found that 57% of respondents searched for a lawyer on their own, as opposed to a referral, with leading sources:
Martindale-Avvo’s Hiring An Attorney 2019 survey respondents were asked: “What resources did you use to find an attorney?” If you hadn’t guessed by now, search came out right near the top:
Further, online review sites, like Yelp, Avvo.com, Lawyers.com, Google and online directories came in at 46.53%. And how do many people access sites like these? Yes, a Google search. Search engines (organic search), particularly Google, are a leading destination on a legal services consumer’s journey to hiring a lawyer. Local SEO is how you attract and convert clients from organic search. Understanding the Local Legal Services SearcherPerhaps the most important aspect of successful local law firm SEO is understanding the local legal services searcher. Too many lawyers and legal SEO consultants fail to prioritize audience research. While most focus on bottom-of-the-funnel lawyer searches (i.e. chicago personal injury lawyers), few focus on potential clients that are at an earlier stage in their hiring journey. The overwhelming majority of local legal searches relate to research on a life-legal issue. For example, many people are searching for answers to questions about getting arrested, well before they search for a criminal defense lawyer near them. Another common local legal services searcher oversight relates to geographic modifiers. Many legal queries lack geo modification altogether (i.e. lawyers near me). In the U.S., others are modified by state, county, and city. In fact, in major metropolitan areas, these searches may also be modified by neighborhoods and other local community districts. While you should conduct research for your own firm, here are a couple of additional observations from my experience:
Understanding the interplay between how legal services consumers search and how Google localizes results is essential to maximizing local SEO results. Local Law Firm SEO BasicsFirst, it’s worth distinguishing between Local Services Ads, the Local Pack, and localized organic results. Here is a Google SERP for the query “lawyers near chicago”: Local Service Ads for LawyersNotice the first two results. These are Local Services Ads listings (denoted by red x and Ad). With this advertising product, lawyers pay Google per lead. The third result (also denoted by red x and Ad) is also an advertising listing. This time from Google Ads, their pay-per-click auction platform. Lawyers are eligible to run Local Services Ads where available. Lawyers participating in Local Services Ads are also eligible to apply for Google Screened designation. At the time of writing, Google Screened is currently only available in select verticals in the US and the UK. On Local Services Ads listings, lawyers who meet the eligibility criteria receive the Google Screened icon: At the risk of stating the obvious, advertising is not SEO. While I won’t go deeper into Local Services Ads here, I encourage you to learn more from Tom Waddington’s guide for BrightLocal.
The fourth result of that SERP starts the organic Local Pack results (denoted by green check and Organic SEO): Local Pack for LawyersLocal Pack listings come from a business’s Google Business Profile (GBP) listings. If you’re new to Google Business Profiles, check out BrightLocal’s GBP Guide. Generally speaking, according to Google, these results are generated based on the relevance, distance, and prominence ranking factors. In my experience, the lawyers and law firms that tend to have the most local pack visibility share the following three characteristics:
Whether you’re hanging your shingle for the first time, moving, or opening new office locations, you ought to consider the importance of proximity to your law office’s physical location in the context of local SEO. In my experience, you should be weighing the following factors:
Andy Simpson provides an excellent personal injury attorney example in How to Choose the Next Location for Your Business Using Local SEO.
In my experience, you ought to try to avoid being at the same location as other law firms, and in particular, those with the same GBP categories as yours. Beyond distance, prominence is the factor to spend most of your resources. Law firms that are able to earn a competitive number of reviews on GBP and around the web, tend to enjoy the highest local pack visibility. Lawyers should focus on earning a competitive number of reviews on GBP first. These are essential both for visibility, as well as converting local pack visibility into potential clients. Get Reviews for Your Firm
BrightLocal’s Get Reviews lets you build reviews to the sites that matter for your firm. You can ask for reviews from your clients by SMS and email.
After reviews on your own GBP, I recommend focusing on legal services review sites, review sites that rank for searches on your name, and then the general review sites. Of course, you should also build citations. Start with the top citation sites for attorneys. As with links, make sure you prioritize citation sites that rank for your target queries. Google is already telling you these sites are relevant since they are surfacing them for your queries. Finally, despite recent reports of their demise, in my experience, links still matter a lot. But, not all links have equal value. Instead of trying to scale links from high DA sites, find ways to earn topically and locally relevant links. Here are a few ways to do effective local link-building:
I know there are many other local search ranking factors. I’m well aware of the impact of changing your firm’s name to include keywords, adding services, and the impact of behavioral signals (engagement with your GBP profile). But, if I had to narrow it to three, I’d take distance, reviews, and links. You may also see examples of local pack listings that don’t have these characteristics.
More often than not, these are the result of spam or otherwise incompliant Google Business Profiles (i.e. lead generation sites, etc). Like all spam, these tactics work, until they don’t. In some cases, participating in these schemes, at least in the United States, may also run afoul of the Rules of Professional Conduct governing a lawyer’s conduct. GBP Guidelines for Individual Lawyer PractitionersGoogle Business Profile Help provides guidelines for individual practitioners:
There are several issues to be solved when deciding whether to create individual practitioner profiles. First, note that the guidelines only permit one listing per practitioner. Per the guidelines, lawyers ought not create GBP listings for every practice area they serve. Multiple practice areas should be addressed through categories. Second, Google may prefer one business listing over another for the same business. For example, a physical office location listing may compete with an individual practitioner listing for the same query. Sometimes, individual practitioner listings with fewer reviews may appear instead of an office listing with many more reviews. This may be undesirable from a branding and conversion perspective. Third, law firm owners should have clear policies relating to ownership of individual GBP listings. Keep in mind that reviews are attached to listings. Therefore, if an individual lawyer earns reviews on their individual practitioner listing, those reviews travel with that listing and may travel with the lawyer to a competitor firm.
Generally speaking, solo and small firms that aren’t serving a high volume of clients should consider consolidating their “GBP equity” in fewer profiles. Creating profiles for several locations and practitioners, without earning a competitive quantity of reviews, is unlikely to deliver value in terms of new clients from those profiles. On the other hand, larger firms with high volumes of clients ought to be strategic in terms of maximizing their visibility across locations and practice areas. Tactical Google Business Profile Optimizations for LawyersBusiness NameIf you perform any bottom-of-the-funnel “lawyer lookup” search for a competitive location and practice area, you’ll likely see at least one firm that has keywords in their business name. In fact, in many competitive legal SERPs, you will likely find all three listings taking advantage of this tactic. Like it or not, at the time of writing, this works really well. Before you go updating your GBP’s business name field, there are a few things you ought to consider. First, what are the potential consequences for your brand? By adding keywords, you may actually dilute or harm your brand equity. Second, you should be sure that your jurisdiction allows for the use of trade names. Third, if you’re inclined to change your firm name, be sure to officially change it with both your state bar and your state’s business registry. Failing to officially change your name may lead to issues with your GBP listing including suspension. Business CategorySelecting business categories can have significant consequences on both your firm’s local pack visibility and conversion. Ideally, you will be able to select a primary category that is most relevant to your practice. You should also add as many additional relevant categories as are available. While some local SEO consultants have suggested that adding several additional categories may “dilute” a listing’s visibility, that has not been my experience. Keep in mind that those categories are displayed in local pack listings. While Google will generally match the most relevant category with the query, the machine doesn’t always get it right. Conduct your own tests and experiments to see what impact various category settings have on your visibility and ability to convert searchers into potential clients. Choosing the Right Category with BrightLocal
BrightLocal’s GBP Audit lets you compare the categories of all the ranking profiles so you can choose the right one for your business. Help yourself stand out from the crowd.
Photos & VideosPeople tend to hire lawyers, not logos. Using photos and videos on your GBP is one of the most effective ways to motivate a searcher to engage with your listing and convert them from a searcher to a potential client. Here are some examples of photos and videos that tend to be effective for lawyers:
Products & ServicesLawyers tend to think in terms of services, not products. However, in the context of GBP, lawyers should consider adding Products to their profiles. GBP Products get a lot of real estate in SERPs. They’re also highly visual. In addition to this, GBP Services seem to disproportionately impact visibility. Put simply, adding as many relevant services as possible seems to impact local pack visibility more than it ought to. Services also enjoy prominent visibility in local pack and map finder results. Consider the impact of various Services on your firm’s ability to convert searchers into potential clients. Check out Claire Carlile’s Add and Manage Google Business Profile Products and Services.
UpdatesGBP updates are effective for driving engagement and conversion. Law firms ought to test updates for various stages of the legal services consumer journey. Use UTM tagging with Google Business Profile Update links. That way, you can test which Updates are driving the most engagement and even clients! Localized Organic for LawyersNow let’s turn to localized organic results. Here are some of the localized organic results for the same example query “lawyers near chicago”: Bear in mind that for most bottom-of-the-funnel legal queries (i.e. include lawyer or law firm), localized organic results appear below Local Services Ads, Ads, and Local Packs. Instead of prioritizing ranking for these queries, your localized organic search strategy should focus on top-of-the-funnel research queries (i.e. how do I file…). These types of queries tend not to show LSAs and Local Packs. Therefore, the traditional localized organic results appear much more prominently. Notice that this query is not geomodified but Google is still showing localized results based on what they know about the location of the searcher (in this case me, in Michigan). When planning your local content strategy, be sure to research and analyze localized organic SERPs to understand what Google is showing for both geographically modified and unmodified queries. While these queries might not convert to clients at the same rate as bottom-of-the-funnel searches, based on their volume, they can be quite valuable. Try it out:
BrightLocal’s free Local SERP Checker lets you see what a localized search looks like anywhere in the world.
The below example shows that same search but with a location of Dallas, Texas.
In my experience, localized organic search success depends even more heavily on links than the local pack. These results tend to be dominated by large sites with many links. These typically include:
If you have a newer site with limited content or a site that has struggled to earn links, it will be difficult to rank in competitive localized organic search. However, you may find success in the long tail if you go hyper-local and practice niche. There tends to be much less competition in these SERPs and there can still be a lot of value even without much volume. Final ThoughtsLocal law firm SEO can be extremely competitive. If you’re in any major metropolitan area with a direct-to-consumer practice (i.e. personal injury, criminal defense, divorce, etc), it can be very difficult to command the most local pack market share. Nonetheless, you should commit to making a long-term investment in improving your local pack visibility. It is among the most valuable online attention you can earn. Begin by developing excellent systems for potential client and client experiences.This must include empathetic and professional intake. Too many firms focus on ranking only to end up with negative reviews due to poor intake experiences. Reviews are the most valuable aspect of local law firm SEO. Next, get active in your local community.Ideally, find local organizations and events that overlap with the clients you serve. For example, personal injury lawyers might co-sponsor an event with a physical therapy or rehabilitation company or organization. These investments can have a remarkable impact on your business. Plus, they can drive valuable local links. These local links are among the most competitive difference-makers in local SEO. Finally, get social.The impact of social media on local SEO is undeniable. Social tends to be one of the most effective distribution channels for content marketing. Not to mention that video content from YouTube and other social platforms regularly surfaces on local legal queries. Further, Google’s announcement of Perspectives is likely to increase the importance of publishing on social and forum sites in the context of local SEO. Publish video content on these platforms regularly. Follow this plan and regularly execute and you will begin to see meaningful results. Local law firm SEO lends itself to measurement. Measure the value of new clients all the way back to a local search. You will likely find that it remains one of the most valuable online legal marketing channels. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/eBqZjE4 Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ |
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April 2023
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