Study: Google Reviews Determine Local Carousel Rankings

Since the the launch of the Google “Local Carousel” in June, SEOs and marketers have been trying to reverse engineer the ranking variables that elevate listings into that hallowed ground. Mike Blumenthal offered a good early roundup of stories and analysis. Now Digital Marketing Works…

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What is the Value of Embedding a G+ Post on Your Blog? Is there a Local Search Use Case?

Google+ has recently implemented the ability for a Google + post to be embedded on a page with comments on a different domain. It is simmple to implement requiring a small snippet of javascript (<script type=”text/javascript” src=”https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js”></script>) be embedded in your header and then simply copy the embed code from the post at + and embed […]

So You Want to Talk About Linking on the Web

Everyone has the right to earn a reputation for being resourceful and clever in whatever field they work in. The World Wide Web is a great platform for doing that. However, in search engine marketing there are two kinds of content that prove you’re not ready to earn a good reputation for being resourceful and clever: Articles that tell people how to create their own manipulative links Articles that tell people how to sneak past search engine filters If you have a competitive advantage in the SERPs, being the first person to talk about that competitive is asking for trouble. Sooner or later you have no competitive advantage because other people follow in your footsteps. And in time you may find that new search engine rules turn your once competitive advantage into a disadvantage, maybe even a penalty. As we just learned, sharing your favorite linking resources on the Web is a very short-sighted idea. Not because people don’t already know about these great linking resources, but because bringing more people in to abuse and exploit those services only shortens the window of opportunity you have to enjoy your competitive advantage and increases the probability that one day your clever […]

Local U Advanced – NYC Sept 30th

Fall has descended (and I am riding my bike in 40 degree temperatures ….brr) and our SMX Local U Advanced Workshop is only 11 days away. We have sold 75% of the available tickets so there are only 14 left. If you are thinking of coming now is the time to sign up. If you […]

Look Out Tumblr, Here Come the Link Spammers

Takehshi Young reveled in seeing one of his YouMoz posts promoted to the main blog yesterday. And then I came along to pee on his parade and call him a spammer. I am sure few people would delight in that experience and he would be right to be annoyed with me. Nonetheless, I am right to point out that openly sharing how to use a service for Tumblr for search-manipulative linking is spammy. This is one of those sensitive areas of SEO bloggery where some people just absolutely feel vindicated in telling the world how to go out and get all the manipulative links you want. After all, we’re “giving back to the community”, right? But what happens is that the community rushes over to the newly targeted service like a herd of drug addicts in need of a fix and then they start beating the crap out of that service by loading it up with cheap content placed just for the sake of “building links”. I know Tumblr has been used for years for link building. I know that Blogger and WordPress and other popular platforms have been used that way, too. But not every social media platform can […]

Paid Search Drives Store Revenue… But How Much?

RKG has long been interested in the question of online to offline spillover. We’ve also long been critical of the sloppy, ill-conceived tests that have misled many advertisers on this spillover in the past. We’ve recently participated with a few of our retail-chain clients on more…

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The End Of One-Size-Fits-All SEO Reporting

If your organization is like most, the process of establishing KPIs to track natural search probably looks something like this: “Put together high-level KPIs such as X and Y, and run it by a few key stakeholders.” At first glance, that process likely seems to have worked pretty well…

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No Budget for SMX East? Register For A Free Expo+ Pass

Attend sessions on internet and search engine marketing presented by Google, Covario, Quantcast, and Page One Power. Be inspired by two keynotes. Meet over 40 leading solution providers. Participate in SMX Theater presentations and attend invaluable networking events. All for FREE – as long…

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