How can you make your shopping ads stand out this holiday season? Columnist Purna Virji suggests some ways to optimize your campaigns for the valuable omni-channel shopper. The post SEO and voice search-proof your shopping campaigns this holiday season to win the omni-channel shopper appeared...
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Automatically adjusts bids within a range depending on estimated likelihood of a user to convert. The post Bing Ads adds Enhanced CPC bid strategy to optimize for conversions appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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Google has rolled out expanded text ads to all advertisers, so how does this new ad format compare to standard text ads? Columnist Andy Taylor shares some data from a recent Merkle study. The post Getting to the bottom of Google expanded text ad CTR and CPC appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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The testing feature goes beyond search. The post Google extends Drafts and Experiments to Display Network campaigns appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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The new features includes an overall score for search campaigns and a top line checklist of opportunities. The post Google tests showing an overall Health Score for AdWords accounts appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article. via Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing http://searchengineland.com/google-adwords-account-health-score-test-256626 Posted by TaliaGw Allow me to start with a quick summary of this article: There's a 270% gap in conversions between desktop and mobile, because mobile websites suck and we’re all doing it wrong. (Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I’ll explain why and what needs to be done to fix this.) At its essence, responsive design is supposed to make a cross-device world a more seamless experience by adapting your desktop design to a smaller mobile screen. Unfortunately, condensing all that desktop content into such a small screen has the exact opposite effect — it's actually causing huge loss in conversion rates. But how? Responsive design clutters mobile sites with irrelevant content for on-the-go visitors. Built with a desktop user in mind, a mobile visitor who has different intentions and a different state of mind may not find what they’re looking for, and leave your site feeling frustrated and confused. This is the source of your huge loss in conversions. This isn’t to say you should abandon responsive design altogether. Rather, you must think more specifically about the mobile web experience and the mobile visitor’s state of mind instead of simply transferring the desktop design to a mobile one. To develop a useful responsive mobile experience we must do two things:
(Here are 5 metrics you should follow to understand your mobile visitors better.) These two parameters will help determine what you need to highlight, remove, or optimize on your mobile site and give greater clarity to what your responsive design should include. Below are the 5 basic elements you should consider when designing your mobile experience: 5 Steps for Optimizing Your Responsive Site1. Optimize image scaling and consider valueMost images scale down with responsive design. However, an image that looks nice on a desktop can suddenly become a dominant and distracting part of a mobile site. Although images are scalable, depending on their value, they might not be necessary to mobile design. Consider the way an image appears within your responsive design. Is it an effective use of visuals? If the image is taking up the entire screen on a phone, or simply serves as nice centerpiece to the site, it’s time to rethink how that image is used device-to-device. For example, Simpsons Solutions’ desktop image doesn’t scale well and overtakes the mobile screen, cluttering the design and making it hard to comprehend what’s going on on that page. Images (both logo and main image) that work well on desktop completely overtake the mobile screen, have almost no value on a phone, and make it difficult to understand the product. Outdoor retailer REI’s website, on the other hand, uses the same photo as a focal point on both mobile and desktop, but it scales to the appropriate needs of the visitor. 2. Simplify navigationPerhaps one of the most important features a mobile site can include is a clear and functional navigation bar. Having a visible, easily accessible menu or search bar helps mobile visitors get where they're going quickly. Most mobile visitors are coming to a mobile site with a single objective in mind; they'll waste no time in finding the menu bar, searching for a keyword, and clicking to the page they need. Analyzing what your mobile customers are doing on your site and searching for is integral for understanding how to tailor your mobile site to those needs. You may discover most mobile visitors use the search bar rather than click on your main call-to-action button; as a result, you might redesign your mobile site to feature the search bar more prominently, helping mobile visitors achieve their goals more quickly. In addition, understanding what people are actually searching for on the site will give you an indication to what’s missing, what isn’t clear, and what needs optimizing. Because they're on the go, mobile visitors are often in need of a contact page, usually looking for an address or a phone number to easily reach your company. Brick-and-mortar businesses should be especially cognizant of this, ensuring they have an easy-to-find contact page directly via the site navigation or on the homepage itself. Customers are much more likely to complete an order, visit your physical shop, and leave satisfied with the experience if finding you is simple and straightforward. 3. Kill responsive pop ups, use mobile overlaysOverlays and pop ups built for desktop experiences on mobile tend to distract from a mobile visitor’s primary purpose for landing on your site. Instead, guide them and focus them on a singular goal — their goal. Using a desktop solution for a mobile experience kills conversions. Since desktop overlays/pop-ups aren’t designed to fit the 19,000 combinations of screen size and resolutions found on mobile devices today, it’s wise not to use them on mobile. You don’t want an overlay fit to the resolution and specs of a desktop — these won’t scale down, making mobile navigation unbearable. A bad overlay, like the examples below, completely take over the mobile screen, prevent you from seeing any other content, are hard to click out of, and do not fit the mobile screen (see how the email field is cut on the LastKings example). Instead, studying how a mobile visitor behaves on your site can help you determine what your overlay should ask for, lead to, or even just what information should be included. Take into consideration both the mobile technical necessities and the customer's mobile behavior to design an overlay to the exact needs of your mobile visitors. 4. Less is more: simplify, shorten and optimize your text
While it might seem obvious, text is often one feature that very few brands take the time to develop for effective desktop (let alone mobile) sites. To avoid overcrowding and confusion, it's always better to keep text brief and to the point in terms of how many words appear on a site. This is where information hierarchy comes heavily into play. Your company can rearrange, rewrite, and reformat any headlines and taglines to feature only the most important information for a mobile visitor. This practice also ensures that the text isn’t taking over a page with long and wordy visuals. While all this text seems to work well on desktop, mobile is a completely different story. The text completely hides the page, is impossible to read, and all conversion elements (such as trust symbols and call-to-action buttons) have been pushed below the fold. This is yet another case of failed responsive design: Another factor to consider is the automatic nature of scrolling on a mobile device. A desktop can capture a full message, words, and pictures in a single glance. While less people scroll when on a desktop, on mobile, visitors instantly begin scrolling hoping for something to catch their eye. This should influence how you write a headline based on where and how it scrolls. Text should be short and concise so it catches the eye and is valuable to the reader. 5. Reconsider and clarify your calls-to-actionA mobile site should have one clear goal that the call-to-action button should support. The call-to-action button should be the first element a mobile visitor pays attention to and it should instantly tell the visitor what to do. For example, Udemy, an online learning platform, puts a very clear call-to-action at the top of their mobile landing page that aligns with the company’s overall goal. They know their customers have come to their site to learn, so to help them accomplish this goal instantly, they provided a button for finding courses and a search bar for enhanced navigation. Create seamless design todayWhile the goal is to create a seamless experience across all channels for your customers, in order to increase conversions and create a better experience on mobile or any other device, companies must get to know their customers better, understanding their behavior and state of mind before choosing to implement the simple, common solution that may kill their conversions and experience. Remember to always have your mobile customers’ specific behavior and needs in mind before designing your next landing page or site. What mobile design tactics have worked for you? Let us know in the comments below. Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read! via The Moz Blog http://tracking.feedpress.it/link/9375/4174729
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. The post SearchCap: AdWords preview tool, Moz layoffs & AdWords Express appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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Moz, a company many SEOs have grown to love, announced they have made a strategic change to focus more on search, which means they are killing off Moz Content or Followerwonk. The post Moz trims product line to focus on search, lays off 28% of staff appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article. via Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing http://searchengineland.com/moz-trims-product-line-focus-search-lays-off-28-staff-256605 Posted by SarahBird Hi Moz community, We wouldn’t be here without you so I wanted to give you a brief update on some big changes happening at Moz. Tl;dr: We’re focusing our efforts on core SEO such as rank tracking, keyword research, local listings, duplicate management, on-page, crawl, and links. In the future, we’ll no longer offer Moz Content or Followerwonk. How is Moz’s strategy changing?Back in 2012, we started to invest in a broad feature set because we wanted to serve all aspects of inbound marketing. We thought it would increase retention by providing more value to customers, and also align with where we believed the industry was headed. Thus, we invested in many new directions: social media marketing, local SEO, content marketing, keyword research, on-page optimization, topic analysis, a next-generation link index, enterprise sales, customer success, ambitious infrastructure projects, events, education programs, and more. Increasing the breadth of the product suite added a lot of complexity to the business, but didn’t result in the growth we expected. We do, however, have momentum in our core SEO products, especially Moz Local and the new features in Pro. Moz Local continues to provide a ton of value for customers who care deeply about Local SEO. Our new duplicate management features are cutting-edge. We’re seeing passion and enthusiasm like we haven’t seen in years about our Keyword Explorer feature in Moz Pro. We believe it’s the best of its kind in the market. Our rankings technology has also improved by leaps and bounds with more coming soon. Really soon. Churn rates are at all-time lows and Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) is climbing for all of our SEO-focused products. After a lot of analysis and soul searching, we decided to radically simplify our strategy to re-focus on what we love and what our customers value from us: search. Reducing product complexity also creates space for us invest in the technical and business infrastructure we need to support growth. We’re also increasing investment product marketing, CRO, SEO, and email marketing. <3 Search is our hedgehog <3We believe the search industry is as important as ever, and surprisingly doesn't see near the investment it should given the clear value of SEO as a channel. Organic results still get 80% of the clicks and a fraction of the marketing spend. Further, with a phone in every pocket, mobile and local searches continue to grow. Organizations ignore search at their peril. We’re passionate about search, we’re good at it, and it’s driving the growth in our business. Classic hedgehog. What does this mean for the company?This is the gut-wrenchingly painful part. The hardest part of my job is asking people who have put their hearts and souls into Moz to part ways. To align the organization with this strategic shift, we will be asking about 28% of Mozzers to leave. They are a part of the Moz family and it is heartbreaking that they will not be working alongside us in the future. We will do everything we can to give them the Mozziest transition possible, including severance, coaching, and assistance finding new roles. Because I know the caliber of folks we’re parting with, I am confident they will go on to do great things. What does this mean for customers?Customers will enjoy increased investment in core SEO features, especially in local. We’re on a roll with these products; we’re out to win this market and we believe we can. We’ve got updates planned for crawl and rank tracking that we think you’ll love. We know we’re behind in link technology right now, and we’re working on something ambitious. If you love SEO, please keep watching the blog for updates. The strategy shift means we will not be investing in Followerwonk or Moz Content. Despite our efforts, we’re not seeing the growth we hypothesized from these products. We will find a graceful way to sunset Moz Content. We’re also looking for a good home for Followerwonk. It is beloved by many, but isn't having the revenue impact we believed possible, and isn't close enough to our core base to make sense in our product offering. More details to come. Send good vibes. As you can imagine, this is an emotional time for us internally. Hug a Mozzer near you because we need it this week. We’re so grateful for this community’s support and look forward to making SEO software you truly love. Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read! via The Moz Blog http://tracking.feedpress.it/link/9375/4170337
Three new features arrive for small businesses using Google's automated ad service. The post AdWords Express expands deeper click-to-call reporting, adds ad scheduling and more appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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It can be difficult for businesses with multiple locations to craft unique, rich content for each individual location page, but columnist Joy Hawkins has some advice for how to do just that. The post How to solve duplicate content local SEO issues for multi-location businesses appeared first on...
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Quickly let others see how ads appear in the search results. The post Now you can share results from the AdWords Ad Preview Tool with clients appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article. via Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing http://searchengineland.com/google-adwords-ad-preview-tool-share-this-result-254798 Sam Thorogood, Developer Programs Engineer Today, we're announcing that the open source version of Google's Santa Tracker has been updated with the Android and web experiences that ran in December 2015. We extended, enhanced and upgraded our code, and you can see how we used our developer products - including Firebase and Polymer - to build a fun, educational and engaging experience. To get started, you can check out the code on GitHub at google/santa-tracker-weband google/santa-tracker-android. Both repositories include instructions so you can build your own version. Santa Tracker isn’t just about watching Santa’s progress as he delivers presents on December 24. Visitors can also have fun with the winter-inspired experiences, games and educational content by exploring Santa's Village while Santa prepares for his big journey throughout the holidays. Below is a summary of what we’ve released as open source. Android app
Android Wear
On the web
We hope that this update inspires you to make your own magical experiences based on all the interesting and exciting components that came together to make Santa Tracker! via Google Developers Blog http://developers.googleblog.com/2016/08/a-google-santa-tracker-update-from.html
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. The post SearchCap: Google vote, AMP errors, Bing Ads & more appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article. via Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing http://searchengineland.com/searchcap-google-vote-amp-errors-bing-ads-256569 Posted by rjonesx. Let's start with the happy ending, which is actually a happy beginning, too. Moz Keyword Explorer has utilized clickstream-derived keyword data in a novel manner since day 1, allowing us to provide consistent keyword volumes despite Google Keyword Planner's dramatic shifts in data availability and reporting. You probably haven't noticed any changes in our keyword volume, and you probably won't notice any going forward, which is just how we built it to begin with: resilient, evolving, and trustworthy. That being said, the truth is that keyword data has been on shaky ground lately as the foundation upon which most keyword tools are built — Google Keyword Planner — has been grossly disrupted. This single point of failure has put a lot of tools at risk, so let me explain how we preemptively addressed this concern and subsequently haven't lost a step. Problem 1: Keyword Planner has started aggressively grouping keywordsYou have probably seen this story floating around for quite some time. Google Keyword Planner has always combined some words, especially misspellings, so when we built Moz Explorer, we already planned out a strategy to correct for these wherever possible. It turns out that same volume disambiguation technology works for other types of grouped terms. For example, Google Keyword Planner groups "SEO" and "Search Engine Optimization" together, recognizing that one is an acronym of the other. As you can see, Keyword Planner reports "SEO" and "Search Engine Optimization" as having identical average monthly searches and suggested bid price. Even worse, because Google has grouped the words when making volume predictions, but not un-grouped the words when building the graph, it appears that if you were to advertise on both of these terms, you would get over 200,000 impressions per month (at least, according to the graph). Well, you don't have to worry about this if you're a Moz Keyword Explorer user, because we get it right, showing the two phrases as having different volumes in the correct proportions. Another classic example of keyword grouping we see in Keyword Planner is related to stemming. Take, for example the word "play," which is also the stem of "plays" and "playing." Google groups these three terms together in Keyword Planner and presents them as having identical average monthly searches and suggested bid. Once again, we see the same graph problem as well, where it appears that someone ranking for these terms could enjoy nearly 1 million searches per month. This is actually a misrepresentation of already grouped keywords. Sometimes you can get lucky and, if the keywords are commercial enough, you can see their actual proportional relationship in Keyword Forecaster. This is not always the case. Forecaster has very peculiar behavior when it perceives a grouped keyword as a misspelling rather than simply a similar term. This differing treatment of lexically vs. semantically related terms makes Forecaster an unreliable replacement for Keyword Planner alone, but in this case it serves as a decent illustration. If we were to set identical bids in Google for these terms, the keyword "play" would return far more impressions and clicks than "playing" or "plays." We can confirm this with our clickstream data, which gives us similar representations. We can marry clickstream data with historical data, forecaster data, and planner data to build our own volume predictions. Which, when all worked out, looks something like this: Problem 2: Keyword Planner has started throttling access to raw data for users not running active campaigns.In perhaps a bigger bombshell announcement, Google has started obfuscating data for users who aren't spending enough money in Adwords. The ranges are very large and, frankly, unworkable for anyone looking to do keyword research (for Adwords or SEO). But, once again, Moz Keyword Explorer's blended technology keeps us ahead of the curve. Even if we were never able to get keyword volume again from Google Keyword Planner, we would be able to continue to provide users with a stable set of volume metrics that models closely to actual Google search volume. How we do it:1. How do we determine when words are grouped together?This is one place where size really does matter. Moz has a huge keyword corpus of over 2 billion keywords, and we have collected volume from Google for hundreds of millions of them. Because of this, we can identify the rare occasions where two words have identical search data histories (same CPC, competition, volume, etc.). Sometimes two words share the same history just by chance, so we then use a variety of NLP and string-similarity measurements, including an incredible deep learning model built by Dr. Matt Peters to determine if the keywords are related to one another. It is important to use multiple methods because string-similarity methods are notoriously finicky. Once we apply these various string similarity metrics to the set of keywords with identical metrics, we can identify those that are grouped by Keyword Planner. 2. Once we know what words are grouped together, how do we determine the volume of each?Once we have a group of related terms, we apply a predictive model based on data both from Google and our clickstream sources to determine the appropriate percentage of traffic that should be allocated to each word or phrase. Again, this is where having a huge data set really shines. Without detailed data on the constituent phrases, we would have to make unjustified assumptions about how to divide the grouped volume. Luckily, this is rarely the case, and we choose to be explicit with our customers and state "no data" when we do not have sufficient data to make a prediction. 3. How do we determine the volume for keywords when we don't have Google Keyword Planner data?Luckily, we can rely on our vast clickstream data to make these calculations. Clickstream data is intrinsically noisy and biased, so our models are quite comprehensive to remove random occurrences, strip out bias in the sampled data, and model projected traffic against the general Google corpus. There is a chicken/egg problem here, to a degree, because we can't model against the Google data if it has grouped-keyword problems, but we can't solve all the grouped keyword problems without the clickstream data. However, as long as we are reasonably certain that the clickstream data is internally proportional, then we can rely on it to solve the grouping problem first, and then use the ungrouped Keyword Planner data to model against with general clickstream data. It is a complex procedure, but in the end we can reasonably predict monthly search volume without ever having data from Google. Let me give you an example. Khizr Khan, father of Purple Heart recipient Captain Humayun Khan, has caused quite a political stir following his speech at the DNC convention. His story represents a common issue in keyword data in that, prior to his speech, no one ever searched his name. After his speech, his name shot up on Google Trends but, even then, Google Keyword Planner has lagged in reporting his numbers due to the month-long delays in releasing data. Because our clickstream data can pick up on rising trends, we can predict Google volume without needing to have Google Keyword Planner data. This is also the case for keywords that are not trending. If we see a term that is regularly searched in our clickstream data, but is not represented in our Google data set, we can make predictions without having to rely on the potentially misleading (grouped volumes) or inaccessible data sources that Google Keyword Planner has become. A long story shortIf you're a Moz Keyword Explorer user, you can be confident that we will continue to deliver you state-of-the-art metrics, regardless of how difficult Google makes it to get data from Keyword Planner. This is just another way that Moz Keyword Explorer continues to lead the way in keyword research. If you need keyword data, come and get it. Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read! via The Moz Blog http://tracking.feedpress.it/link/9375/4162401
Google's latest search feature for voters includes a "2016 Election: How to Vote" box with information on voter IDs, deadlines and mail-in ballots. The post Google adds new state-by-state voting guide for “how to vote” searches appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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In addition to launching a hub for the Olympics, Google Trends has released new tools for viewing and exporting search data. The post Google Trends refresh includes geographic comparisons & export to Excel feature appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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Capitalizing on sporting events can be a great opportunity for advertisers, but will this strategy work for everyone? Columnist Laura Collins looks at the results of some recent campaigns to find out. The post Should you hitch your campaigns onto the sporting bandwagon? appeared first on Search...
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Wondering how much follow-up is too much? Columnist Julie Joyce gives us advice on how to follow up on link requests without bugging your contacts. The post How to follow up on link requests appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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Advertisers can begin migrating from destination URLs to final URLs and tracking parameters. The post Bing Ads rolls out Upgraded URLs globally appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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AMP error notifications now are showing in the core search results, but only if you are the site's owner. The post Google showing the site owner AMP implementation error warnings in search results appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article. via Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing http://searchengineland.com/google-showing-site-owner-amp-implementation-error-warnings-search-results-256510 Posted by Casey_Meraz In this article I'm going to address the current state of local SEO in 2016, review some findings from a new data-driven local SEO study, and provide you with some actionable tips to win the local SEO game. If there's one thing that's consistent about Google, it's the fact that it's always changing. Over the years we've seen many changes in local search. The most recent changes included ads that display in the 3 pack of local results, leaving only two positions. Since Google removed the sidebar ads, you now have to scroll further down the page just to see the local results. These days, local SEO is more competitive and more confusing. So where do you start? I suggest that you start by defining your primary goals. You can't get to your destination if you don't know where you're going. If you're promoting a hotel, for instance, your primary goal is probably to get more reservations — local SEO for you will mean ranking high in Google's local results, attracting positive reviews on websites like Tripadvisor, etc. The reality of local search in 2016The algorithm, the amount of effort business owners are putting in, the amount of effort marketers are putting into their local SEO — it's all changed. Where just a few years ago there were many businesses on the sidelines not doing much in the way of optimizing for local search, you now see more people trying harder. Just the other day at the gym, my personal trainer told me how his business partner figured out what was necessary to rank higher in Google's local results. But how does Google decide which business deserves to rank higher than another when most of them have followed the same guides that preach the same basic optimization tactics? Do you see the problem here? If everyone is doing the basics now, the bar has been raised. Speaking of goals, keep this in mind: There isn't just one way to search. #1 rankings don't mean everything.Let's talk user behavior for a moment, because it's super important. Imagine you find yourself in the bummer of a situation I was in last week. I needed a plumber. To find one, I decided to turn to Google (since I spend all day there anyway) to search for a local plumber. Here's my personal journey. Step 1: Search for a local plumber. I skip the paid ads because I feel bad clicking on them. Step 2: Look at local results. Ahh, that's more like it! Let me click on the one with the most reviews. I like reviews. They make me feel good. Step 3: Let's be honest — I wasn't really happy with a 3.1 rating. I'm going to look at the finder results now. I skip over the first result and move to the one that looks the best based on the star rating. I'm in the industry, I know how people can spam these things, and yet I still like shiny objects. I find myself overly critical and biased. Step 4: After judging everyone at face value, I decide to click on Master Blaster and read the reviews. Step 5: I'm not convinced with the reviews for whatever reason. After this, I ended up turning to Yelp and reading reviews which I thought were from real people. I decided on this company, which did a great job at a fair price. My behavior seems really weird in retrospect, but it proves a point. There's not just one way to search. Some users may not click on the first result; some will click the third result. They may click into the local pack and look at reviews. They may go to another website to check out your reviews. I think this proves my point: you need to focus on your primary goals. Let's look at a data-driven local SEO study & what it means for youAt the end of June, Local SEO Guide and PlacesScout.com published a great study on local SEO ranking factors. (Props to Andrew Shotland, Dan Leibson, and Mark Kabana.) While there are other studies that are mostly opinion-based, they looked at data to come to their conclusions (which I really like and respect). As with any SEO study, there are more data points we could analyze and many we can't, as we don't have access to the necessary data (because Google hates us). That's why you hear "correlation is not causation" a lot in our industry; this is especially true with machine learning. However, I think Mike Blumenthal said it best: "Dan and the team at LocalSEOguide have done some great work attempting to bring some clarity & discipline to an otherwise opinion-based and myth-rife topic: local search ranking factors. While correlation studies can never elucidate causal effects, particularly in an era of machine learning, they can provide real and solid clues on where to look." I agree. To be honest, there haven't been very many data-driven local SEO studies done yet; I hope this is the first of many. Now, let's look at some of the top factors from the study and break them down. Key takeaways from the study:Here are the top 5 ranking factors they identified:
Obviously there were many more data points than those top five. You can see the whole graphic they made above, published with permission from Local SEO Guide. Now, let's break down the top 5 local ranking factor from the study. 1. Locations with a lot of reviews seemed to rank higherWe'll talk more about this later, but if you do a lot of local searches you'll also see that businesses without many reviews (or less reviews than their competitors) can certainly still rank high. On the other hand, if you've seen some of the click studies I've ran, we've consistently seen that local listings with reviews tend to get more clicks. This will tie into #2 below: 2. Profile views seemed to correlate with higher rankingsIf you're new to SEO, you may not have seen some very interesting click-through rate studies done by Darren Shaw of Whitespark and Rand from Moz. There seems to be measurable correlation that, when a result is clicked more, it's given a higher ranking. This being the case, you can see why reviews might be important and also correlate with higher local rankings. On a side note, I always click my client's websites in the local results and stay on the page for a bit when searching. 3. Majestic AC Rank seemed to have a high correlationThere are tons of backlink measuring tools out there. Moz has one, Majestic SEO, Ahrefs, Link Research Tools... and the list goes on. This study compared Moz & Majestic. In the future, it would be nice to compare other tools, as well, to get a better sample. Link tools don't detect every link that Google does, as of course Google itself has the most resources for web indexation. Importantly, 3 out of the 5 top correlation ranking factors from this study involve link signals. So should you believe all of those "SEO is dead" posts? No. Links still carry a tremendous amount of weight. Not only does this study help show that, I can tell you from personal experience that moving the needle in competitive law firm niches requires good-quality links (assuming you're doing everything else right). What was missing from the top factors?
Noticeably missing from the top factors were citations and website landing page (on-site) factors. I know what you're thinking: "But wait, Casey, everyone says to build those darn citations!" I'll address this in the section below. Overall the study had lots of great insights. I suggest you check it out yourself and dig in when you have a chance. But now I want to shift the focus a bit and talk about what you must do to rank higher in competitive local niches. Conquering the competitionAre you ready for the top-secret super-formula we use to get our clients ranked in competitive niches? Well, it's probably not a secret. We just work hard and take into consideration that tools are not 100% accurate. Speaking of being competitive here and beating your competition, I'm going to assume you've put in the elbow grease to get your Google My Business listing optimized. If not, I suggest you read the best practices in my Ultimate Local SEO Audit guide and make sure your listing adheres to Google's guidelines. And if you're not ranking organically for your keywords, you have a lot of work to do. Don't expect to rank locally unless your website deserves to and does rank organically. Here are the things I look at once everything else is in order. If you have major outlying issues, fix them firstIf you're not ranking in the local finder's top 20 results for the keywords you're targeting, this article may not be for you yet. First make sure you don't have any underlying problems with your website or listing. If you're sure you're doing everything else right and seeing movement, then feel free to follow along. Otherwise, here are some common problems you may want to look at first:
Stop taking shortcuts // Report spamSeriously. If your competitors are spamming, be sure to call them out. Google has made this much easier now. If you need practical advice, check out Joy Hawkins' article The Ultimate Guide to Fighting Spam on Google Maps. Those of us working in this industry have the ethical and professional responsibility to avoid spamming local results and to report those who are behaving badly. Traditional signals go a long way
Although I've been seeing more variation than normal, it still rings true that companies who rank high in organic, non-local search results will also rank high in local search results. Your organic optimization should be in order, both from a ranking perspective and a user experience perspective. Don't treat these as separate, isolated channels. Reviews // Reviews are cool
Let's talk millennials for a second. According to a study from The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, Reviews, in my opinion, can have a positive impact on rankings due to the resulting increase in click-through rates. Reviews will also help you build trust in your business and earn more business. I'm excited that the next big local SEO study is slated to take a deeper look at reviews. Build reviews & customer feedback into your business modelIf you haven't already done so, you need to be sure you're getting customer reviews. They need to be built into your business processes. It's as simple as that. If you don't have a review strategy, you're going to struggle with this forever. If you're in-house or need a solution for your clients, check out a review service like Get Five Stars. It's easy to use and allows you to easily streamline reviews from your customers. It also allows you to easily add a review widget on your website. Easily create a review link for customers
If you're using your own marketing system like Infusionsoft you can generate direct review links for your emails by using tools like this one. This will bring up a direct link to the "leave a review" screen for your business if your user is logged into Google. Check out the sample link we created for ourselves here. Put reviews on your website
One thing I like to do for my legal clients is add reviews on the website. Not only do we like to add yellow stars, customers' faces, and quotes on actual website pages, but we also like to add the review schema to help get stars in organic search results. Although this is more of a conversion rate and organic play, you should try it. On-page SEO // Technical SEOI bring up on-page and technical SEO because of the shocking number of people I speak with who say things like "Well, I don't care about organic SEO, I just want to show up on the map." That's still a common misconception. Try to be the best in all of your marketing efforts and you'll be rewarded for doing things the right way. How's your site speed? If you don't know how Google sees your website's site speed, check out their mobile-friendly test here. Is it bad? Is it slow? If you get traffic to your website, you're probably missing out on conversions unless you're taking site speed and usability into consideration. UsabilityWhat's the conversion you care about? Now ask yourself this question: "If I was given a list of search results with an ad, my business, and one competitor, would the user click on my result before the others? And once they've clicked, will they be satisfied with the results?" If the answer is no, you have to consider why. It's nice to have a high ranking for an important keyword, but you have to think about the customer journey. If the user sees your listing, clicks on your website, and then bounces back to click on another result, how does that look? Why would they do that? It's probably because a) they couldn't easily find the information they need, b) it took too long to load, or c) there were usability issues. Why I still talk about citations // What you should doAs I mentioned above, citations were notably missing from the local ranking factors study. This is probably because Google's gotten much better with data and data sources. Devaluing citations as a ranking factor has been a discussion in the local SEO world for quite some time. I'm in the camp that citations should be cleaned up, but probably won't help you much outside of the basics. Here are a couple of thoughts to go along with that. First off, many citations are links, or have a place to add a link. Those sources where your link is hidden between millions of businesses and given a nofollow aren't really going to help you move the needle, in my opinion. At the same time, you have to value your citation sources as link sources, too. Second, you still need to correct the data at the data aggregator and top citation levels because of potential bad data issues. If you're a new business, you can just create these and go. If you're an established business that has moved in the past, you need to get this stuff right. Why? It wouldn't be the first time I've seen an incorrect listing created off of bad or old data. If a new Google My Business page is created off of this bad and old data, you're going to shoot yourself in the foot. Alternatively, if there aren't a lot of signals sending bad or wrong info, you should be fine. Just sign up for Moz Local to fix this issue — it's super easy to use. Third of all, you can still get business from 3rd-party websites. Like the example I gave earlier, if you're promoting a hotel, you want to be listed on TripAdvsior. This provides value towards your primary goals. You don't need to be listed on ThisAwesomeHotelBookingWebsiteThatNobodyWillSee.com. I will say that you should only really focus on the top citations, though. Let's face it... Nobody is visiting YourCitysIndustryDirectory-CitationSourceofAwesome.org, which is ranking on page 47 for your city and industry keywords. I've done that in the past. Don't get that tunnel vision. Focus on what's going to make a difference. Outside of the top citations, be sure to turn your attention to links instead of citations to avoid diminishing returns. I have not seen an example where getting more low-quality citations helps a business rank better in local results... but I have seen quite the opposite with link penalties from low-quality websites. On a side note, also make sure your citations are indexed. I recently did a study that showed an automated platform didn't work that well. Get some links // Don't get more crap links, get fewer great linksIf you've done everything else, my advice is to focus the majority of your efforts on links. Links still work and they still make the most difference — not only in my opinion, but also based on data from studies like the ones discussed here. Out of curiosity, I also reached out to Garrett Mehrguth at Directive Consulting for his #1 tip to move the needle: "The top thing you can do to move the needle in local SEO today, in my opinion, is to build authoritative links. After working with a client who received a nasty manual penalty a few years ago, I changed how we get our links for our clients. If you can get your city name or type of business in the anchor text naturally, then that's great. Don't overdo it though. Now, let's get you 4 links that are legitimate for your business. 1. Sign up for HelpAReporter.com 2. Sponsor a local event 3. Get listed on your local business directories 4. Run a community initiative; give back. Need more links? Check out Point Blank SEO's guide on link building here; it's a very good list for any industry. If you're a law firm in need of links, check out these specific resources. Moving the needle furtherIf you're having trouble moving up in the SERPs to at least that number 3 position, remember that it gets harder to rank the higher you get. The people competing in that landscape are probably investing resources. You don't have to outspend their resources, but you do have to outsmart them. In addition to this, I believe that Google's much slower than it used to be. The effects of the links you do get may take longer to have a positive effect.In situations where I have to move the needle in a tough market, you'll find me doing this:
Keep in mind that tools are imperfect. If your metrics look better on one tool versus another, that's not a stopping point. It's a point where more effort needs to be put in to figure out what you're missing. Broaden your toolset, rack your brain, and work to outsmart the people trying to outsmart you. Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read! via The Moz Blog http://tracking.feedpress.it/link/9375/4157121
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. The post SearchCap: Google restricts Keyword planner, quality score changes & more appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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Search Engine Land’s SMX East is every SEO and SEM’s dream: a tactic-packed agenda, more than 100 dynamic and authoritative speakers, keynotes, exceptional networking, and more. If you’re involved in SEO, SEM, PR, social media or any other customer-facing activity, you owe it to...
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Users no longer have to generate Report Editor reports from scratch or rely on pre-defined options. The post Google adds Export to Report Editor option in AdWords appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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