BrightLocal Opens Its 2014 Local SEO Industry Survey
Local SEO firm BrightLocal has posted its third annual local SEO industry survey, asking SEO professionals to answer 20 questions on SEO business related topics like company turnover, services and fees. Anyone interested in taking the survey can do so on BrightLocal’s website up until this…
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Using Autocomplete To Hijack Local Search Results & Improve Online Reputation
Google is constantly refining its search engine algorithm in an effort to root out spam and improve the search experience for users. Over the years, this refinement process has largely rewarded those employing ethical search engine optimization (SEO) p…
How To Generate Customer Experience Reviews For SEO Profit – Part I
Here’s a question for all you search marketers out there: given the option, would you prefer to optimize a site that sells products, or services? Personally, I find product-based websites far easier to optimize than service-based sites due to their generally clearer site architecture, access…
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A Review Handout Alternative: Try P&P To Get More Local Reviews
Everyone knows how important reviews are — they factor in to the local algorithm and they play a huge part in click-throughs and building trust. Good reviews can make you, and bad reviews can break you… so businesses do everything they can to get positive reviews. Since Google doesn’t…
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88% Of Consumers Trust Online Reviews As Much As Personal Recommendations
We at BrightLocal have released the findings of our annual Local Consumer Review Survey, which reveals the growing importance of online reviews in the purchasing decision. About Local Consumer Review Survey 2014 This is the 4th year we have conducted this study into consumer usage and attitudes…
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What Local Business Leaders Must Know About Search Engines And SEO
When I write about SEO and business success, I often realize that I’ve touched upon a point that merits a column of it’s own. This is one such column. It will focus on the fact that online and offline marketing have grown inextricably codependent — especially for local businesses….
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Survey: Mobile Dominates Vacation Search Queries
Local SEO provider Placeable, which competes with a range of companies in the increasingly crowded national-local segment, has released new travel-related survey data (n=1,000). The study’s findings, at least as presented, don’t tell an entirely coherent story about user behavior…
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Top 10 Tips For Local Search Success
Many local businesses today are overwhelmed by the variety of local marketing choices available. Unlike the old days when a small handful of advertising outlets would cover the majority of your audience, the sheer volume of marketing options has seemin…
Use Products As Pawns To Win The Local SEO Chess Game
In the competition to rank highest in local search results, you must employ a number of tactics in coordination. It’s not unlike playing a chess game. However, many businesses have yet to bring all their chess pieces into play on the board. There are many types of products which consumers…
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A (Pretend) Open Letter From Google To Local Directory Sites
To: Local Directories From: Google Re: Local Search Rankings Hey guys… You may have noticed that over the past year, a lot of the organic traffic to your sites has been… well, we guess the right word is “tanking.” As you know, it is our […]
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GetListed Tool Relaunches As Moz Local
Last year David Mihm’s GetListed service was acquired by then SEO Moz (now Moz). Today it relaunched as Moz Local. It’s a similar service with a number of enhanced capabilities, the most important of which is local listings submission. Agencies and business owners can use the tool to…
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Which Is The Most “Generous” Search Engine To Local Businesses?
Earlier this month, one of our customers asked an interesting question in a training workshop. They wanted to know which search engine displayed the most local results for different types of search terms. Google gets the lion’s share of focus in the SEO world, particularly in Local. They also…
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10 Local Marketing Myths Hamstringing Your Business
As an internet marketer, I frequently encounter local business owners (and large chain store companies with many local outlets) that haven’t had time to really understand online marketing. Many of them have latched onto some myth that’s completely false — and which can keep their…
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5 Tips To Kill The Competition In Local Search
If your business has a local presence — anywhere — you must take advantage of Google+ Local. Creating and optimizing Google+ Local profiles is a critical marketing practice for local small businesses, multi-location enterprises, national franchises and companies with a single physical…
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Local SEO Scam Of The Month: Craigslist SEO
Most SEO consultants I have met are pretty decent, hard-working folks. But there are plenty of SEO con artists out there, and it kills me every time I see a small business (or a big business) get taken. Recently, I had the privilege to witness a true P…
There’s No SEO Without Mobile SEO
It’s 2014, which means we are officially one year away from the year that Kelsey Group predicted mobile search will eclipse desktop search. Are you making your mobile resolutions to ensure you’re ready for when that time comes? I’d like to start the new year with a short…
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Yelp Turns Up The Heat: 285 Consumer Alerts Issued Over Fake Reviews
It’s been almost a year and a half since Yelp began issuing Consumer Alerts when a business on its site has been caught trying to get fake reviews; but after a cautious start, that program appears to be turning up the heat. According to an interview with CEO Jeremy Stoppelman in The…
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62% Of Marketers Say Local Search Is Getting Harder
During the recent InsideLocal webinar series, I’ve had the chance to gather the opinions and feelings of the hundreds of search agencies, consultants, “in-bound” marketeers and business owners who logged in to listen. We ran a number of on-the-spot surveys (or polls) during each…
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How To Leave Anonymous Business Reviews In Google+
For a long time, I’ve had some doctor friends complaining to me that once Google Places changed over to the new Google+ format, all their patients lost the ability to leave anonymous reviews (thus hurting their business and their rankings). They asked me what to do; and I, in turn, asked my…
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Survey: Quality Of Citations Matters More Than Quantity
At the start of August, David Mihm published the findings of the latest installment of the Local Search Ranking Factors Survey. This year, the breakdown & presentation of survey results has been taken to a new level. Ranking factors are grouped by signal type (e.g., Place Page Signals), then…
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