#Google Business Profile Optimization Stuart

[bcdlistings]

Brandon Cooper Design

Brandon Cooper Design provides marketing and creative services in Stuart, Palm City and across the Treasure Coast — helping small businesses get found, trusted and chosen through strategic branding, website design, content creation, local SEO and video storytelling.

Service Area (In Florida): Stuart, Palm City, Martin County, Port St. Lucie, Hobe Sound 33455, Jensen Beach 34957, Port Salerno 34997, Sewall’s Point 34996

Business Hours: Mon-Fri: 9AM — 5PM EST Payment Methods: Credit Cards, DCH Direct Deposit Contact Name: Brandon Cooper

Contact Info: Brandon Cooper Design Address: Stuart, FL 34996, USA Phone: +1 (772) 210–4318 Mail: hello@brandoncooper.com Website: https://www.brandoncooper.com

Find Online: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BrandonCooperDesign

[marketingguide07-blog]

How To Maximize A Limited Marketing Budget During Covid-19

Chances are, your marketing strategy has had to pivot due to the coronavirus crisis. And now you could be feeling the strain of a limited marketing budget too. But Blue Water Marketing is here to help you make the most of it no matter what you're working with. People all around the world are tightening their budget belt as we deal with unprecedented economic changes on both the global and local scale. And that includes marketing campaign budgets.

Has your marketing budget been cut?

Your marketing strategy has probably had to adapt to current events. Along with changes to social media campaigns, marketing teams have been instructed to cut back on ad spend to save money wherever possible. Making smart financial choices is more important than ever right now. But if your marketing strategy isn't bringing in money, you risk losing your business entirely. Just because your marketing budget is reduced doesn't mean you can't get effective results...you just need to pivot! And we're here to help.

How To Maximize A Limited Marketing Budget During Covid-19

First things first: you need to know exactly what kind of budget you're working with. Has your ad spend been cut in half? By a third? Or have you just been instructed to "cut back?" Once you get really clear on what you have to spend, you can make more informed decisions about how to move forward. Now, if it's up to you to come up with a marketing budget, our next point is critical.

Key takeaway

If there's one thing you take from this article, let it be this: fight the urge to cut your marketing budget for as long as possible! As tempted as you might be to cut back here, it could result in long-term cuts to consumer spending that are even harder to come back from. Now, if you cut back on your ad spend, you can expect your revenue to decrease at the same rate. And for businesses trying to remain afloat, every dollar of revenue is critical.

Tip #1: Do Your Research

Let's say you started your business seven years ago. You did hours and hours of research into your target market. You found out everything you needed to know about your target demographic so your marketing campaigns would be successful. Maybe you even hired someone to do this research for you. But things have changed. It's time to do your research again. Your marketing report needs to be updated (. As consumer spending habits change, your customer demographics can too. We know this can feel daunting, even under the best of circumstances, which is why we're here to help. When you work with Blue Water Marketing, our content writers do this research: from your keyword rankings to your top-engaged social media posts, this research allows us to craft content that will drive both engagement and traffic to your website.

Tip #2: Utilize Social Media

If most of your marketing efforts have been focused on Google Ads in the past, now is a good time to turn some of your attention to social media marketing. A variety of social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have seen a major uptick in usage: 27% among Gen Z, 30% among Millennials, 29% among Gen X and 15% among Boomers. Now, if your business doesn't have a social media presence to begin with, this is an obvious place to start. Harness the power of social media to connect with current and potential consumers. Creating social media profiles for your business is one thing, but there are ways to make social media marketing even more effective. Businesses often used paid campaigns to strategically target consumers, and your basic content can also be tailored to reach your target market. Of course, it takes research and insight to do this effectively. And that includes researching your competitors. For more on conducting competitive research, take a look at . this post

Tip #3: Maximize Email

Just like social media, email campaigns can be a cheap AND effective way to boost your business. Depending on your business, there are different ways to do this. Do you already have an impressive list of email subscribers? Reach out to them! Do this in an organic, natural way and check in with them. Let them know you're there. Maybe your brick and mortar store isn't back up and running yet. But this is a great way to remind consumers that you're offering curbside pickup, free shipping, etc. If you regularly update your website's blog (if not-what are you waiting for?), email is a good way to tell subscribers about new posts to get more traffic.

Tip #4: Utilize SEO

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is the use of keywords, links, and content marketing to increase your digital footprint on search engines. SEO marketing is a set of strategies with the broad goal of bringing more people to your website by improving your search engine rankings. By increasing rankings online and in your general area, more people are likely to visit your website and convert into paying customers...something every business wants! Is your website optimized for SEO? If your content doesn't include the terms consumers are likely to search to find your product, you're missing out on business. Including SEO optimized keywords in your content is a way of reaching your target demographic that doesn't require spending money on ads. Higher search rankings for the right keywords can have a huge impact on the amount of traffic and quality of traffic your website receives. When you entrust your SEO services to Blue Water Marketing, we use the latest tools, strategies, and trends to help you move up in the search engines for the right keywords to get noticed by the right audience.

Don't lose hope

Historically, economic downturns eventually turn up. Over time, you'll start to see consumer spending increase. People will return to work and have more spending money. Things will get better. Many of us are feeling financial pressure right now. But don't lose hope.

We'll help you maximize your marketing budget

We're here to help you make the most of your marketing budget, no matter what it is. Contact Blue Water Marketing in Stuart, Fl. today for a free consultation! We can't wait to hear from you.

[charlenejpatterson]

The Best Local SEO Tools + Free Expert Audit Checklist

The internet has brought the world to our fingertips, but research shows that four out of five consumers search online for products or services in their own backyard. Every day, consumers are using all devices for local searches. And within 24 hours of their search, 50% of smartphone users visit a store and 18% purchase. Local searches offer a powerful opportunity for businesses.

Local Search Engine Optimization (local SEO) is the process for optimizing a website, and usually its Google My Business listing, to improve search visibility for businesses that serve communities in person. Businesses who ignore local SEO do so at their own peril; it is critical to reaching 80% of your potential customers.

This guide will cover how to build a local SEO strategy to take full advantage of better online local visibility, and the best local SEO tools to get you there.

Local SEO Tools & Services

We know there are dozens of SEO tools and services available to help you with local SEO. And we also know most business owners don’t have the time to comb through them all. So we’ve done the work for you.

Here are the top 10 local SEO tools that can help you create a data-driven local SEO strategy.

BrightLocal

4.8 stars 

What It Does: Integrated and Local Citation Platform Price: Free trial, then $29/month or $2/citation Pros: 14 day free trial, easy citation building, adaptable Cons: Not as user friendly as other tools

What Experts Say:

“I’m a big fan of Brightlocal for businesses with more than 3 locations. The reason for this is that it allows for bulk updates to local citations and the ability to manage profiles across multiple platforms within one interface. This is vital for pushing offers live, changing opening times for seasonal periods and updating tagging and categorisation across a number of profiles.” – Nathan Thompson, Pavilion Broadway

“My favorite local SEO tool is BrightLocal’s Local SERP Checker! I love this tool because you can view Map and SERP results for queries from any location. One pro of this tool is that it allows you to go beyond page one of the search results. It is also an excellent way to see whether our clients are showing up in the local pack since some tools don’t track the SERP feature.” – Katie Stone, Leadhub

MozLocal 

4.3 stars 

What It Does: Automated listing management tool Price: Limited free option, $129 – $299/year Pros: Free option available, easy to set up, extensive resource center Cons: Updates can take a long time to appear online, expensive plans

What Experts Say:

“Moz Local is a great local SEO tool that does a great job of managing local profiles, listings and data for businesses with more than a handful of local listings. It also helps with review management and even social posting, both great features for any local business.” – Stacy Caprio, Accelerated Growth Marketing 

“One of the most helpful local SEO tools is Moz. Like other local sites, Moz will send your business’s information to hundred of other directories on the web. Moz is great because it does most of the work for you and when it can’t, it will inform you of the exact information that you still need to add. In my opinion, the best part about Moz is the ability to check your online presence. This tool gives you a comprehensive look at how your local efforts are working.” – Andrea Bailey, Tandem Interactive

SEMRush

4.6 stars

What It Does: Listing management tool Price: $99 – $399/month Pros: Easy to use, good data visualization Cons: Expensive plans

What Experts Say:

“SEMrush is a marketing software that allows you to conduct keyword research, track search rankings, SEO status and helps you analyze backlinks. If you want to know what position your pages are ranking and how well your pages are performing from an SEO standpoint, SEMrush is one of the best tools.” – Stuart Leung, VP of Marketing at Breazy

Ahrefs

4.6 stars 

What It Does: Toolset for SEO analysis and backlinks [Location Rank Tracking] Price: $99 – $999/month Pros: 7-day trial for $7, can view the ranking history of a website and its pages Cons: Short trial period, costs more than most tools

What Experts Say:

“Ahrefs provides an easy overview into any and every competitor site that we need to do research on, whilst at the same time, allow us to stay on top of every site that we are currently building through the dashboard feature. We have used Ahrefs for anything under the SEO sun really, be it from Outreach Campaign through guest posting to actual SEO optimization for our own internal sites.” – Chloe, Undrcut Digital Marketing

“I love Ahrefs.com and use it everyday. It keeps track of my websites’ rankings, my competitors’ rankings, backlinks, how much traffic I’m getting, how much my website is worth and more. One of the best uses for it is to spy on competitors and see what they have done in order to be successful. You can see each and every backlink they have and especially what pages of theirs are popular. It even allows you to analyze other websites to see what keywords they are ranking for that you are not. It basically tells you what to write about, what kind and how many backlinks you need, and how far away you are from that #1 spot!” – Dane Kolbaba, Watchdog Pest Control

Google My Business (GMB) 

What It Does: Online presence management tool Price: Free Pros: Free tools directly from Google, applies across Google platforms Cons: Limited data (keyword, custom fields or tags), displays basic business info, so users might not click through to website

What Experts Say:

“GMB is a must for local and online presence, as well as ranking in the local map pack. As the saying goes: “No GMB, no local ranking” (at least on Google). GMB can also be used to showcase products, services and posts detailing events or others goings on of a company. As well, actively posting on GMB is a local ranking factor.” – Andrew Jacobson, 9thCo

Google Search Console 

9/10 rating

What It Does: Service to monitor, maintain and troubleshoot your site’s presence in Google search results Price: Free Pros: Free tools directly from Google, applies across Google platforms Cons: None, these tools are necessary for everything SEO

What Experts Say:

“The Google Search Console (GSC) is a free tool that gives its users a lot of helpful information about their pages, search queries, errors, etc. A small snippet of javascript is all that is required for a lot of helpful information.” – Jef Romero, Octiv Digital

Google Structured Data Testing Tool 

9/10 rating 

What It Does: JSON-LD Schema Generator Price: Free Pros: Can load into the tool directly Cons: None really – just make sure there are no mistakes in your coding

What Experts Say:

“Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper makes it easy for almost anyone to implement markups. Without any knowledge of coding, you can simply highlight and tag your content according to their appropriate category within the tool. When you’re done, insert the generated snippets into your web page.” – Shawn Lim, Traffic Bees

Keywords Everywhere

5 stars

What It Does: Browser add-on for keyword research Price: 1 credit = 1 keyword, buy 100,000 keywords for $10 Pros: See keyword search volume/CPC and other info right in the SERPs (use [keyword + geo location]) Cons: Used to be free but now is a paid tool where you purchase credits to see keyword suggestions and volume

What Experts Say:

“I use the Keywords Everywhere plugin and see what search volume is for keywords generated by Moz. I can then gear content to fit local keyword research. The upside to Keywords Everywhere is that it’s extremely cheap and you pay for what you use (they have a credit approach instead of subscription).” – Josh Hastings, Money Life Wax

Surfer

4.6 stars

What It Does: Cloud-based on-page optimization tool Price: Starts at $29/month Pros: Ease of use, affordable pricing Cons: Not the best dashboard

What Experts Say:

“One of my favorite SEO tools right now is a platform called Surfer. Instead of trying to guess what Google likes to rank, this tool offers you a data-driven analysis of exactly what’s missing from your page. It also allows you to select competitors within the first page of the SERP to compare your content against. Things like LSI/NLP/TF-IDF keywords, meta tags, images, and structural elements like Hx tags. It’s essentially the playbook to help your pages jump past your competitors.” – Corey Trjanowski, Valve+Meter Performance Marketing

Yoast

8.9 stars

What It Does: WordPress SEO plugin Price: Free to $89/year Pros: Free, comprehensive plugin Cons: Slow site speed, premium version required for advanced SEO settings

What Experts Say:

“We like using Yoast for SEO it doesn’t matter if it is local or national but if you know your local market it will help you by making sure you’re hitting all the proper on site items like keyword usage, headlines & much more.” – John Walko, Solten Marketing

SEO Profiler

3.5 stars

What It Does: Web-based SEO software solution Price: Starts at $69.95/month Pros: Easy-to-use interface, can start right away Cons: Slower system

What Experts Say:

“SEO Profiler is my favorite Local SEO tool. I love it’s easy to use interface and the tooltips which are present throughout the tool’s interface. It is beginner-friendly. Instead of investing a lot of time exploring the tool, I was able to utilize its core functionalities within a few minutes.” – Jeremy Ong, Hustlr

Bing Places

4.8 stars

What It Does: Service that allows businesses to add their listings to Bing Price: Free Pros: Free local listing Cons: Bing search results are not as visible as Google

What Experts Say:

“Bing Places is a much simpler version of GMB, as you simply need to fill out the relevant form about your business, and your listing will be shown when using Mapquest or another Microsoft navigation service.” – Andrew Jacobson, 9thCo

Georanker 

4 stars

What It Does: Rank tracking tool Price: Free to $490/month Pros: Choose keywords and locations for true keyword tracking Cons: Can be pricey

Local Falcon

5 stars

What It Does: Local search ranking tracking tool (shows and tracks Google Maps rankings) Price: Pay as you go, 5 cents per map scan Pros: Specifically designed for maps, real-time analysis Cons: No longer a flat rate subscription

Whitespark

4.5 stars

What It Does: Managed citation and local SEO services Price: Free to $80/month Pros: Great for enterprise companies, offers international options Cons: Expensive, small/medium-size businesses cannot use

Places Scout

What It Does: Rank tracker software Price: Quote required Pros: Dedicated local SEO platform Cons: Only dedicated to local and lead gen, must get a quote for a price

ZipSprout

What It Does: Matches brands who need local SEO and marketing/nonprofits with sponsorship opportunities Price: Quote required Pros: Unique offering for local SEO Cons: No package pricing, quote required

Advice Local

What It Does: Local listing management software Price: Quote required Pros: White-labeling and citation submissions Cons: Costs more than other services of the same type

Local University Brand Page Score

What It Does: Scores brand pages (including competitors) Price: Free Pros: Free from a reputable source Cons: None to list

EZLocal Map Radius Calculator

What It Does: Generates information of areas covered in a service area radius Price: Free Pros: Free tool for identifying business radius on map Cons: None to list

LocalViking

What It Does: multi-location management for GMB Price: Starts at $39/month Pros: Affordable, caters to all business sizes, saves times Cons: None that we can tell

What Is the Difference Between SEO & Local SEO?

Search engines are in business to give their users the best possible online experience. Google and other search engines spend massive amounts of energy and resources determining what people want when they search online. The rise of local results in organic search proves users find that information valuable, and Google has noticed.

In fact, from 2016 to 2018 alone “near me” mobile searches that contained some variation of “can I buy” or “to buy” grew more than 500%. And “78% of local mobile searches result in an in-store purchase.”

National SEO focuses more on ranking in searches from a wide area—the country or the world; local SEO prioritizes appearing in search results in a specific location. The goal of local SEO is to help your business get found online by people who are searching for nearby products or services. Location-based searches are a valuable avenue for potential customers, especially for companies with a brick-and-mortar store, or that provide a service to a certain area.

How Does Local SEO Work?

In many ways, local SEO is a component of standard SEO, but there are some differences that must be taken into account. The biggest is that local SEO has a geographical component. It can include searches with certain geo qualifiers like city, state, zip code, etc. and “near me” searches, where Google picks up the geo-location of the searcher and provides results from that area.

Local search results show up through Google Maps, and when Google determines that a search has local intent or purchase intent, even if the query doesn’t specifically state it, and even if the query wasn’t entered in Google Maps. The three core elements of local search ranking are:

Proximity – How close your business is to the searcher.

Relevance – How relevant your products/services are to the search query.

Prominence – What other consumers say about your business, products, and services.

One of the optimal results for local SEO is a position in the “local pack,” which is a block of business listings that appear below a map in Google results for a search with local intent. Local pack results include things like business hours, review ratings, and even photos.

The local pack is prime real estate, but businesses don’t get placement there from standard SEO. The local pack info comes from a business’ Google MyBusiness profile, which is a critical part of local SEO marketing. This is just one of the different strategies required for local search engine optimization.

Why Local SEO Is Important for SEO

The influence of local searches on all SEO is expanding, with 46% of all Google searches seeking local information. Moreover, 97% of search engine users report having searched online to find a local business. Therefore, if your business has any sort of localized presence, it is essential that you include a local SEO component in your overall SEO plan.

What Are the Benefits of Local SEO?

Local SEO is extremely beneficial for small businesses, but it can also provide advantages for any business, large or small, that serves a specific locale. That makes a local SEO strategy important for most businesses, including:

Retail stores

Restaurants

Hair salons

Medical offices (like doctors and dentists)

Health spas

Florists

Any other business with a brick and mortar location

While all these businesses can reap the full benefits of local SEO, it is also important for service companies, such as:

Lawn and yard care

Cleaning services

Electricians

Repair services

Locksmiths

Mechanics

Tax preparers

And more

Here are some of the specific benefits to your business:

Local SEO helps potential customers discover your company. In addition to residents, you can capture business from non-locals who are searching for certain products or services.

Local SEO helps your business stand out in local searches, even if you don’t have a website (although we suggest you get one). You can drive more foot traffic through the online leads you get through local searches.

Local SEO gives potential customers valuable information when they want it. For example, if your business offers a free consultation or is pet-friendly, displaying that information can attract customers who are looking for that feature.

Local SEO provides an easy way for people to call your business. Many people who perform a local search end up calling the business directly from search results. Local SEO gives potential customers the power to take this action with a simple click, and gives your business a qualified lead you can convert.

Local SEO helps build trustworthiness in your brand. When there is more data about your business, people tend to trust it more, and this helps influence people’s decisions in favor of your company. Greater trust is a valuable component for a better online reputation as well.

Local SEO drives relevant, qualified traffic to your website. Local searches are often conducted with the intent to use a product or service. Therefore, local SEO directs qualified leads to your site, with a higher probability of converting.

What Factors Affect Local SEO?

Like standard SEO, local SEO is ever-changing. More and more businesses recognize they need to optimize for local searches, which has created a more competitive environment. As a result, it’s more difficult to get a local business to rank highly on search engines because local SEO has become more competitive. Then add in the fact that Google has reduced the number of businesses shown on their local pack from seven to three, and the field narrows even more. 

This makes it more important than ever to understand how Google evaluates a business for local search results. Take a look at the top local SEO ranking factors below. (See Moz 2018 Local Search Ranking Factors for more details.) 

Google My Business (GMB) Signals

As of the end of 2018, GMB signals (including proximity, categories, keyword in business title, and more) are the largest single factor for local pack placement. They are also among the top factors for localized organic search results. 

Google has been adding features to My Business at a fast rate, with recent additions including more control over photos, welcome offers, short names, off-site materials, and local favorites to reward businesses that provide excellent customer experiences. Businesses who take full advantage of GMB will be rewarded with better local SEO.

Link Signals

Links are key differentiators, or ranking factors, in local SEO. Google looks at the presence of links in deciding which businesses should rank higher in search engine results. Indeed, links are the top factor for localized organic search. Link signals (inbound anchor text, linking domain authority, linking domain quantity, etc.) are also the second most impactful factor for local pack placement. Topically and locally relevant links work best.

Review Signals

Over the last few years, review signals (review quantity, review velocity, review diversity, etc.) have been playing a larger role in SEO. This factor is especially helpful when reviews contain keywords.

On-Page Signals

On-page signals come from your website and include the presence of NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number), keywords in titles, domain authority, etc. In particular, the correct NAP info across all online profiles/sites is critical for local search results.

Citation Signals

A citation is an online reference to your business name, address, and phone number (NAP). Google looks at listings in places like:

Local directories

Industry specific directories

InfoUSA

Citysearch.com

Local chambers of commerce

The BBB

Yelp

Internet Yellow Pages sites

411.com

MerchantCircle.com

Foursquare.com

And others

Behavioral Signals

Behavioral data is also used to inform local rankings. These signals include things like:

Location of the searcher

Branded search volume

Click-through rate

Mobile clicks to call

Check-ins

In-store visits

And more

Personalization

Personalization signals are associated with the user:

Search/browsing history

Language

Social media usage

Device type

Social Signals

Local search rankings also factor in how people interact with a brand’s content on social media, their engagement, as reflected in comments, shares, likes, reviews, votes, links, and more. The idea is that the more engagement content has, the higher its quality, value, and relevance.

Other Ranking Factors

It’s important to note that Google uses hundreds of different ranking factors, and they are pretty tight-lipped about exactly what those are. SEO experts have knowledge from experience and information that has been shared, but local SEO can’t be boiled down to a specific checklist. We simply know that Google does take into account certain factors, like the main ones listed above.

Some other factors that make an impact include:

3rd party reviews and testimonials

Attached Google map on your site

Schema

Photos

Clickable phone numbers

Local keywords

How Can You Improve Your Local SEO Results?

Improving your local SEO results is a focused strategy, but if successful can help you compete more effectively for customers. See how we helped SwimJim capitalize on local SEO, which resulted in rankings on page one of the search results as well as spots in Google’s local packs.

There are several things businesses can do to start improving their local SEO results. Start with these 10 tips and best practices:

1. Claim and Optimize Your Google My Business Account

Google My Business is a free tool for businesses to manage their online presence across Google (including search and Maps). If you haven’t claimed or added your listing, this is the very first step you need to take for local SEO. To optimize your listing, make sure to completely fill out your listing with accurate information, logo, images, payment methods, etc. Then respond to reviews and create content with Google Posts.

2. Collect Customer Reviews

Encourage satisfied customers to leave Google reviews of your business. This not only improves your local SEO, it also encourages more customers to buy your products or services. The key to getting more reviews is to ask your customers for them. Ask in person after the close of a sale or through a post-purchase email or text. Above all, make the process as easy as possible for your customers.

3. Optimize Your Website for Mobile

 In 2018, over half of the total internet website traffic was through mobile devices, and that data shows that 75% of mobile searches with local intent result in store visits within 24 hours. The takeaway? Your site must be mobile-friendly to do well in local SEO.

4. Mine Local News Stories or Events for Content

To grab the attention of local customers, create content that has local relevance and appeal. You could write blog posts around local news stories, events, or activities, or feature local charities or causes.

5. Use Local Keywords

Compile a list of locally relevant keywords (use some of the tools mentioned earlier to help). Once you have your list, pepper those keywords in your site’s meta content, copy, and URLs. You can also include mentions of region-specific landmarks or popular destinations in your content

6. Improve NAP Consistency

Your business name, address, and phone number need to be consistent everywhere online. This includes the LLC, Co., or Inc. if it’s part of your official business name. Suite numbers and how street, avenue, and road are written need to be the same as the location information displayed on your website.

7. Build Backlinks from Partners/Sponsorships

Make a list of all the businesses and organizations you partner with or sponsor, including charitable or fundraising events your business has been a part of. Reach out to them and ask them to include a link back to your website.

8. Boost Your Social Media

Since social signals are one of the top local SEO ranking factors, it’s no surprise that being active on social media can improve your local SEO. 

9. Use Location Pages or a Location-Specific About Us Page

If your business has more than one location in an area, location pages are crucial for local SEO. Be aware that there needs to be unique content for each page though. If your business only has a single location, then focus on relevant local information on your About Us page. Local information could reference events or activities.

10. Create a Page for Each Product/Service

Rather than lumping all your products or services on the same page, dedicate a page to each unique product or service you offer. If your business doesn’t have different products/services but does have different locations, then create location-based copy for each page.

How to Build a Local SEO Strategy [& Beat Out Your Competitors]

Businesses who serve a specific geographical area should have a local SEO strategy to avoid missing out on qualified leads. Follow these steps to build a successful strategy to secure high ranking positions in a particular location.

Step 1: Review Ranking Factors

Take a look at the section What Factors Affect Local SEO and to see where you have opportunities to improve.

Step 2: Conduct an Audit

Go through your website, social media, your Google My Business account, and find anywhere your business is listed online to see exactly where you stand.

Step 3: Determine Where to Focus Your Efforts

After conducting an audit, look for gaps or where you can focus your efforts for the most impact. Start with the factors that make the most impact (Google My Business signals) and work your way through the list. Use the tips from the How Can You Improve Your Local SEO Results section to build your plan of action.

We’ve found that the following tools are frequently helpful for creating strategies that achieve good results:

Moz Local

Ahrefs

BrightLocal

Whitespark

SEMrush

Other Considerations

When creating a local SEO strategy, you will improve your chances for success by also factoring in these additional considerations.

Understand Your Business Model

Your local SEO strategy should be adapted to the type of business you have:

Do you have a single brick and mortar location where customers visit, or multiple locations?

Does your service business staff a single office employees leave from to go serve customers, or multiple offices?

Is your business home-based?

Is your business the type with a multi-office campus or with multi-practitioners, like legal firms or medical offices?

Match Your Strategy to Your Model

Each business model has slightly different ways to follow Google’s guidelines:

Single, Brick and Mortar Location (customers visit you) – Build out one GMB listing with a visible street address (no PO Boxes or virtual offices).

Multiple Brick and Mortar Locations (customers visit you) – Create one GMB listing per location and have a visible street address on each (no PO Boxes or virtual offices). Make sure each location has a unique phone number. It is common for businesses to have a single phone number that routes to different offices, depending on which option the caller chooses, but GMB might see them as a single office because there’s only one phone number. If you want to route calls to your different locations through a single IVR, it will improve your local SEO to have callers access the IVR with a separate phone number for each location.

Single Office Service Provider (staff leaves office to serve customers) – Use one GMB listing. If customers can be served at your location or at theirs, then check the appropriate box in the address section of GMB (no PO Boxes or virtual offices). If you always go to them, then hide your address.

Multiple Location Service Provider (staff leaves office to serve customers) – Make sure to have one GMB listing per location, and each location must have its own phone number. If customers can be served at your location or at theirs, then check the appropriate box in the address section of GMB (no PO Boxes or virtual offices). If you always go to them, then hide your address.

Multi-Practitioner or Multi-Office Campus – Create one GMB listing per forward-facing office or practitioner. Format practitioners under their own names, not with the company name (for example: David Smith, not David Smith, Farmers Insurance). Each should have its own unique phone number.

Home-Based Business – You will have one GMB listing. Hide the address if you don’t want it public (no PO Boxes or virtual offices).

Technical Criteria

When it comes to the technical aspect, the same approaches for traditional SEO apply to local SEO. Your website needs to be:

Indexable

Multi-device-compliant

Well-structured

Error-free

Properly optimized

Other criteria include:

Your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) is consistent every place it is mentioned on your website. (Beware mixing up NAP elements between multiple locations or practitioners).

A Contact Us page with complete NAP info for each location.

Use Schema markup for your location data.

A highly visible phone number on your website, and clickable on mobile devices.

 Link to all location pages from a high-level navigation menu.

If you have 10 or fewer locations, the complete NAP of each should be in the sitewide footer element.

With addresses that are kept private or hidden, even though you don’t publish them on your site, make sure there is a phone number staffed during your business hours.

Citation/Directories Criteria

What is a local citation?

A local citation is an online reference to your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) on a local site or directory. This can include local business directories, websites or apps, or on social media.

What is a Google MAP citation?

Like local citations, Google Maps citations are instances where Google uses your NAP info published online to determine the accuracy and relevance of your business location.

What is citation link building?

Citation link building is the process of increasing mentions of your business online through local directories and other websites.

Duplicates

Look for anywhere online that you have duplicate information or profiles, and combine them. For example, if you have more than one GMB listing or duplicate citations on the same directory.

Reviews

An online business review is left by a customer on any website or platform (Google, Yelp, Facebook, TripAdvisor, etc.). Not only are reviews extremely valuable for your business, they are crucial to perform well for local searches. If your business doesn’t have a review management strategy, move this up high on your priority list.

First, you need to ask your customers for reviews—especially from satisfied or happy customers (see One Powerful & Easy Trick to Get More Google Reviews). Then you need to respond to reviews, both positive and negative ones. Negative reviews give your business a unique opportunity to shine and show your excellent customer service, because others are watching.

Social Media

Social media is a great place to reach out to customers, increase brand visibility, and improve your local SEO. However, it’s important to identify the best social media network for your business so you don’t waste time and effort where your clientele aren’t looking. This article can help you narrow it down: What Is the Best Social Media Network for Your Business?

It can be helpful to designate someone, or a team on your staff, who is responsible for maintaining your social media presence. This includes posting new content, monitoring activity, and actively participating with those who are engaged. Remember that social media is primarily about making a connection with your audience, not selling to them.

Who Can Benefit the Most from Local SEO?

Any business that serves a local target market can benefit from local SEO, but certain ones are perfectly positioned to enjoy a greater impact from the right local SEO strategy. However, with some creative strategy, even bigger companies can find ways to capitalize on local SEO. 

Small, Local Businesses

Businesses who rely on a small, target audience may find local SEO less expensive, and easier to manage, often yielding better results than nationwide SEO. These include:

Medical Services

Businesses who offer medical services, such as doctors’ offices, urgent care clinics, and dental practices are tailor-made for local SEO. These providers typically provide high-quality content (which Google loves) and other valuable information for the online community, like FAQs or health tips.

Law Offices

In general, when people are looking for legal counsel they want someone nearby. Local SEO is therefore especially important for law offices. They have a specialized set of skills that are very important to potential customers, and typically remain in the same geographical location. To keep their services in demand, law offices have wide-open opportunities to provide quality content on their websites.

Restaurants and Bars

The primary goal of any eating establishment is to become a staple in the community. To do that, they need repeat local customers. Bars and restaurants serve a specific geographical area and operate on a local level. When people search online for restaurants, it is frequently followed by “near me.” Reviews are especially crucial for a restaurant’s local SEO strategy.

Plumbers and Electricians

Local SEO offers many advantages for those who work in trades like plumbing and electrical work. Typically the people searching for these services need them as soon as possible. In addition, plumbers and electricians don’t generally travel far out of their area. Therefore, they are in a great position to benefit from local SEO. And competition may not be as fierce because many tradespeople don’t worry about digital marketing.

Repair Shops

Like plumbers or electricians, repair shops are usually contacted when there’s an emergency or something has gone wrong. From repairing appliances to cars to computers, repair shops can gain an advantage over competitors in ranking higher in local SEO. There is a wealth of information they can share to help consumers, like tutorials or product guides. Couple quality content with a robust customer review campaign and they are in a good position for local search.

Pet Services

Another highly specialized industry that would greatly benefit from local SEO is pet services—grooming, pet sitting, veterinarians, training, supplies, etc. Pet owners want the best for their pets, so high-quality content and reviews will go a long way to improving local SEO for pet services.

Beauty Parlors, Hair Salons, or Makeup Artists

Beauty services are in high demand during special occasions, like weddings, high school dances, or the holidays, when people are going to work/family parties and want to look their best. In general, people want providers who are close and convenient as well. These businesses can get a lot out of more online visibility through local SEO. 

Local SEO in Action

We’ve seen firsthand the difference a targeted local SEO strategy can make, both for large companies with several locations across the country and smaller businesses with just a few locations. 

Honest 1 Auto Care came to Big Leap for help in improving their online visibility. With more than 300 locations, each with its own dedicated website, local SEO techniques were applied for a pilot program in 10 locations. Those 10 locations experienced an incredible 230% increase in organic traffic year over year. See more about how local SEO helped Honest 1.

A local SEO strategy was the perfect fit for Cascade Collision Repair, who hired Big Leap as they opened a new location. We helped them achieve local search engine visibility and lead flow for their new location, while strengthening their presence at established locations. As a result, they saw visible differences in search result performance and more business. Read more of Cascade’s story.

If you want to start taking advantage of the opportunities provided by local SEO, but aren’t sure how to juggle it all yourself, Big Leap can help. Contact our SEO experts today and see how we can make your business the next local SEO success story.

The post The Best Local SEO Tools + Free Expert Audit Checklist appeared first on Big Leap.

[kellykperez]

How to optimize your local business for voice search

Voice search is growing, a statement appearing time and time again throughout the web. It has fundamentally changed the way people search and it’s here to stay.

With a simple command, users can conduct searches for information, products, services and local businesses.

It’s such a hot topic that our Head of Search and Strategy Stuart Shaw spoke at one of the UK’s largest SEO conferences a few weeks ago to talk about the details of voice search and why it’s important for brands.

While voice isn’t likely to surpass traditional search any time soon, it has spurred us to explore how local businesses can optimize, adjust their marketing strategies and understand the potential voice search could have on their bottom lines.

The opportunity for local businesses

To get information about a local service near to us, we pull out our phones and we search for it:

‘Plumbing services near me’

‘Local pizza delivery’

‘What are the opening times for…’

‘Is so and so open today?’ etc.

In fact, a recent study by Brightlocal highlighted that 53% of people owning smart speakers such as Amazon’s Alexa & Google Home are performing searches like these for local businesses every day in the US:

Putting that in context for the UK

A recent YouGov study showed that people in the UK owning a smart speaker had doubled between Q3 2017 and Q1 2018 to 10% of the total population.

A study by radiocentre predicted that this growth could reach as high as 40% by the end of 2018.

Looking a little deeper, we could say that per household there is more than one occupant. In fact on average there’s actually 2.3 people per household, according to the most recent UK gov statistics:

Source: Office of national statistics

So, if the 40% of UK households prediction is correct, that is potentially 11 million households exposing voice search content to 25 million people in the UK.

Who’s leading the smart speaker market?

Three-quarters of the market share in the UK in Q1 2018 was taken up by Amazon’s Alexa. This, of course, will change but right now this is where the biggest opportunity lies for local businesses optimizing for smart speakers in the UK:

 Source: Office of national statistics

Although voice search is still in a stage of infancy, and we have only talked about smart speakers, it’s clear to see just how relevant this technology is to brick and mortar businesses.

And, it’s constantly evolving…

Here’s a timeline from Stuart’s presentation, highlighting significant changes in voice search, and it’s becoming increasingly accessible for more and more people to conduct a voice search every day:

3 Biggest steps to optimize your local business for voice search

1. Take ownership of your digital footprint

Although voice assistants seem all-knowing, they rely heavily on information they can find around the web about your business.

A big part of optimizing for local SEO is ‘citations’ which are online references to your business name, address and phone number (NAP).

Voice assistants use these citations from trusted sources to provide information to users that are conducting local search queries.

So, where should I cite my business?

Each voice assistant relies on different and sometimes multiple data aggregators for answers to local search queries:

Siri

Search: Google

Business listings: Apple maps

Reviews: Yelp

Alexa

Search: Bing

Business listings: Yelp and more recently Yext

Reviews: Yelp

Google Assistant

Search: Google

Business listings: Google my Business

Reviews: Google my Business

Cortana

Search: Bing

Business listings: Bing

Reviews: Yelp

So, these data sources are the most important places to make sure your business is correctly cited, up-to-date and optimised:

Google My Business – Create a listing

Apple Maps – Create a listing

Bing – Create a listing

Yelp – Create a listing

2. Utilize schema markup

Schema is a type of on-page data markup that allows webmasters to provide search engines with data about their business in a more structured way.

The structured format allows search engines to understand the contents and context of web pages much easier (less algorithmic interpretation) and, subsequently, the engines can better understand the relevance of pages to particular search queries and present richer results.

Schema is only going to play a bigger part in ranking for rich results and featured snippets which are heavily used in for voice search content.

What does schema markup do?

Search engines experiment with how they display rich results all the time and by having your site marked up, you have the opportunity to be featured in new rich results.

For example, Google experimented with a ‘prominent knowledge panel card’ shown on mobile devices which displays when users conduct a branded search for the business. In the knowledge card you can see ‘place actions’ such as ‘find a table’ or ‘book an appointment’ which would direct searchers into an appropriate webpage to conduct the action.

These rich results went on to influence the structure of Google My Business which is now heavily used by local businesses. The point here is that the business websites shown in the example image below were ‘future proofed’ and optimal which qualified them for this rich result.

In other words, as Gary Illyes – web trends analyst at Google puts it:

“If you want your sites to appear in search features, implement structured data.”

The biggest benefit and ‘thing it does’ is help Google understand relevance much more fluently. Another few quotes from Gary Illyes helps explain this:

“Add structured data to your pages because, during indexing, we will be able to better understand what your site is about.”

“And don���t just think about the structured data that we documented on developers.google.com. Think about any schema.org schema that you could use on your pages. It will help us understand your pages better, and indirectly… it leads to better ranks.”

Why it’s important for local businesses

Schema is a tool which search engines and subsequently voice assistants are using to paint a clearer picture of a business website’s central topic and the services the site can offer users.

With structured data present, it is much more likely that your business (if relevant) will be identified as a good candidate for answering local voice search queries.

Using local business schema will:

Future-proof your website for richer search features (which voice search content is heavily influenced by)

Reinforce your online digital footprint

Bolster relevancy signals & geographic accuracy

Help drive more conversions both online and offline

Indirectly help your website rank better (important for voice)

So how do you take control?

There are hundreds of schema types which can be utilised for hundreds of business and content types.

There are also multiple ways of marking up schema in your page source code. By far the easiest is using JSON-LD. Using the example from above the marked up code looks something like this:

The best way to get your code ready is to go to SchemaApp.com, follow the instructions or use this tutorial and locate the schema types that are most relevant to you and your business.

Types of local business data that can be marked up:

Business name

Address

Phone number

Main email address

Business opening hours

Geo-location information (latitude and longitude)

Reviews

Company logo

Business description

Social profile links

Site name

Bear in mind there are guidelines for usage summarized below:

‘Data must not deceive or mislead experience for search users’

‘Use only the most specific types and property names defined by schema.org’

‘Marked-up content must be visible on the page where the script is added’

See Google’s policies for structured data for more information.

Once you’ve gone through SchemaApp, copy and paste the output code into relevant pages before your closing </head> tag or, if it’s content specific schema (such as the review rating above), paste the code before the closing </body> tag in the HTML of your page.

Finally, check your mark up with this structured data testing tool which will highlight any errors once implemented.

Note: Avoid using Google Tag Manager for this markup, apply the code natively where possible.

3. Produce content relevant to voice search needs

There are great ways of optimizing specifically for voice search using your on-site content.

The simplest is to explore the realm of user intent and uncover the types of questions people may want answering, when it comes to your business.

That doesn’t mean you need to create 1000s of pages that are optimized specifically for voice search terms. Instead, search engines such as Google pulls answers to voice queries directly from page content, even if it is a snippet that makes up a small section of the content.

Work long tail queries into long-form content

Conduct some long tail keyword research and look for questions people ask about your local business and work them into your content, where it is relevant to do so. I highly recommend Answer the Public to scale your efforts here.

Here’s an example of what I mean.

This is a query I searched recently that could be relevant to any local business:

‘Does tesco take american express?’

Here’s what was shown at the top in a featured snippet (the content that will be read out if conducting a voice search with Google Home):

And here’s the content that Google has pulled out from halfway down the page from choose.co.uk:

FAQ pages can be perfect for voice search

Written correctly, an FAQ page can serve voice search queries really effectively and if you struggle to work in your long tail optimisation into relevant pages, an FAQ page is a great way to get around it:

People use voice search conversationally, which you can naturally replicate on an FAQ page without the content appearing out of place

It appeals to long tail voice & traditional searches which widen your reach

Voice search often seeks concise information, under 30 words, which an FAQ page can clearly communicate

Creating a dedicated page specifically with this key information in mind could help with higher placement in SERPs for voice searches, which is vital for capturing that first click/interaction

Conclusion

However, you look at SEO, voice is the future and it’s growing exponentially and it’s being integrated into more and more of our everyday tech. Local business marketers should be making specific efforts to capitalize on voice search to maximize their online and offline conversion.

The caveat here is not to let your standard SEO practice fall behind. Having a fully mobile responsive website, fast site speed and good quality local backlinks, among many other optimizations, are still, and will remain, vital for ranking in local search and will greatly impact your voice search efforts.

Get a deeper dive to voice search or get help with your voice search strategy.

The post How to optimize your local business for voice search appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

source https://searchenginewatch.com/2018/11/20/optimize-local-business-voice-search/ from Rising Phoenix SEO http://risingphoenixseo.blogspot.com/2018/11/how-to-optimize-your-local-business-for.html

[evaaguilaus]

How to optimize your local business for voice search

Voice search is growing, a statement appearing time and time again throughout the web. It has fundamentally changed the way people search and it’s here to stay.

With a simple command, users can conduct searches for information, products, services and local businesses.

It’s such a hot topic that our Head of Search and Strategy Stuart Shaw spoke at one of the UK’s largest SEO conferences a few weeks ago to talk about the details of voice search and why it’s important for brands.

While voice isn’t likely to surpass traditional search any time soon, it has spurred us to explore how local businesses can optimize, adjust their marketing strategies and understand the potential voice search could have on their bottom lines.

The opportunity for local businesses

To get information about a local service near to us, we pull out our phones and we search for it:

‘Plumbing services near me’

‘Local pizza delivery’

‘What are the opening times for…’

‘Is so and so open today?’ etc.

In fact, a recent study by Brightlocal highlighted that 53% of people owning smart speakers such as Amazon’s Alexa & Google Home are performing searches like these for local businesses every day in the US:

Putting that in context for the UK

A recent YouGov study showed that people in the UK owning a smart speaker had doubled between Q3 2017 and Q1 2018 to 10% of the total population.

A study by radiocentre predicted that this growth could reach as high as 40% by the end of 2018.

Looking a little deeper, we could say that per household there is more than one occupant. In fact on average there’s actually 2.3 people per household, according to the most recent UK gov statistics:

Source: Office of national statistics

So, if the 40% of UK households prediction is correct, that is potentially 11 million households exposing voice search content to 25 million people in the UK.

Who’s leading the smart speaker market?

Three-quarters of the market share in the UK in Q1 2018 was taken up by Amazon’s Alexa. This, of course, will change but right now this is where the biggest opportunity lies for local businesses optimizing for smart speakers in the UK:

  Source: Office of national statistics

Although voice search is still in a stage of infancy, and we have only talked about smart speakers, it’s clear to see just how relevant this technology is to brick and mortar businesses.

And, it’s constantly evolving…

Here’s a timeline from Stuart’s presentation, highlighting significant changes in voice search, and it’s becoming increasingly accessible for more and more people to conduct a voice search every day:

3 Biggest steps to optimize your local business for voice search

1. Take ownership of your digital footprint

Although voice assistants seem all-knowing, they rely heavily on information they can find around the web about your business.

A big part of optimizing for local SEO is ‘citations’ which are online references to your business name, address and phone number (NAP).

Voice assistants use these citations from trusted sources to provide information to users that are conducting local search queries.

So, where should I cite my business?

Each voice assistant relies on different and sometimes multiple data aggregators for answers to local search queries:

Siri

Search: Google

Business listings: Apple maps

Reviews: Yelp

Alexa

Search: Bing

Business listings: Yelp and more recently Yext

Reviews: Yelp

Google Assistant

Search: Google

Business listings: Google my Business

Reviews: Google my Business

Cortana

Search: Bing

Business listings: Bing

Reviews: Yelp

So, these data sources are the most important places to make sure your business is correctly cited, up-to-date and optimised:

Google My Business – Create a listing

Apple Maps – Create a listing

Bing – Create a listing

Yelp – Create a listing

2. Utilize schema markup

Schema is a type of on-page data markup that allows webmasters to provide search engines with data about their business in a more structured way.

The structured format allows search engines to understand the contents and context of web pages much easier (less algorithmic interpretation) and, subsequently, the engines can better understand the relevance of pages to particular search queries and present richer results.

Schema is only going to play a bigger part in ranking for rich results and featured snippets which are heavily used in for voice search content.

What does schema markup do?

Search engines experiment with how they display rich results all the time and by having your site marked up, you have the opportunity to be featured in new rich results.

For example, Google experimented with a ‘prominent knowledge panel card’ shown on mobile devices which displays when users conduct a branded search for the business. In the knowledge card you can see ‘place actions’ such as ‘find a table’ or ‘book an appointment’ which would direct searchers into an appropriate webpage to conduct the action.

These rich results went on to influence the structure of Google My Business which is now heavily used by local businesses. The point here is that the business websites shown in the example image below were ‘future proofed’ and optimal which qualified them for this rich result.

In other words, as Gary Illyes – web trends analyst at Google puts it:

“If you want your sites to appear in search features, implement structured data.”

The biggest benefit and ‘thing it does’ is help Google understand relevance much more fluently. Another few quotes from Gary Illyes helps explain this:

“Add structured data to your pages because, during indexing, we will be able to better understand what your site is about.”

“And don’t just think about the structured data that we documented on developers.google.com. Think about any schema.org schema that you could use on your pages. It will help us understand your pages better, and indirectly… it leads to better ranks.”

Why it’s important for local businesses

Schema is a tool which search engines and subsequently voice assistants are using to paint a clearer picture of a business website’s central topic and the services the site can offer users.

With structured data present, it is much more likely that your business (if relevant) will be identified as a good candidate for answering local voice search queries.

Using local business schema will:

Future-proof your website for richer search features (which voice search content is heavily influenced by)

Reinforce your online digital footprint

Bolster relevancy signals & geographic accuracy

Help drive more conversions both online and offline

Indirectly help your website rank better (important for voice)

So how do you take control?

There are hundreds of schema types which can be utilised for hundreds of business and content types.

There are also multiple ways of marking up schema in your page source code. By far the easiest is using JSON-LD. Using the example from above the marked up code looks something like this:

The best way to get your code ready is to go to SchemaApp.com, follow the instructions or use this tutorial and locate the schema types that are most relevant to you and your business.

Types of local business data that can be marked up:

Business name

Address

Phone number

Main email address

Business opening hours

Geo-location information (latitude and longitude)

Reviews

Company logo

Business description

Social profile links

Site name

Bear in mind there are guidelines for usage summarized below:

‘Data must not deceive or mislead experience for search users’

‘Use only the most specific types and property names defined by schema.org’

‘Marked-up content must be visible on the page where the script is added’

See Google’s policies for structured data for more information.

Once you’ve gone through SchemaApp, copy and paste the output code into relevant pages before your closing </head> tag or, if it’s content specific schema (such as the review rating above), paste the code before the closing </body> tag in the HTML of your page.

Finally, check your mark up with this structured data testing tool which will highlight any errors once implemented.

Note: Avoid using Google Tag Manager for this markup, apply the code natively where possible.

3. Produce content relevant to voice search needs

There are great ways of optimizing specifically for voice search using your on-site content.

The simplest is to explore the realm of user intent and uncover the types of questions people may want answering, when it comes to your business.

That doesn’t mean you need to create 1000s of pages that are optimized specifically for voice search terms. Instead, search engines such as Google pulls answers to voice queries directly from page content, even if it is a snippet that makes up a small section of the content.

Work long tail queries into long-form content

Conduct some long tail keyword research and look for questions people ask about your local business and work them into your content, where it is relevant to do so. I highly recommend Answer the Public to scale your efforts here.

Here’s an example of what I mean.

This is a query I searched recently that could be relevant to any local business:

‘Does tesco take american express?’

Here’s what was shown at the top in a featured snippet (the content that will be read out if conducting a voice search with Google Home):

And here’s the content that Google has pulled out from halfway down the page from choose.co.uk:

FAQ pages can be perfect for voice search

Written correctly, an FAQ page can serve voice search queries really effectively and if you struggle to work in your long tail optimisation into relevant pages, an FAQ page is a great way to get around it:

People use voice search conversationally, which you can naturally replicate on an FAQ page without the content appearing out of place

It appeals to long tail voice & traditional searches which widen your reach

Voice search often seeks concise information, under 30 words, which an FAQ page can clearly communicate

Creating a dedicated page specifically with this key information in mind could help with higher placement in SERPs for voice searches, which is vital for capturing that first click/interaction

Conclusion

However, you look at SEO, voice is the future and it’s growing exponentially and it’s being integrated into more and more of our everyday tech. Local business marketers should be making specific efforts to capitalize on voice search to maximize their online and offline conversion.

The caveat here is not to let your standard SEO practice fall behind. Having a fully mobile responsive website, fast site speed and good quality local backlinks, among many other optimizations, are still, and will remain, vital for ranking in local search and will greatly impact your voice search efforts.

Get a deeper dive to voice search or get help with your voice search strategy.

The post How to optimize your local business for voice search appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

from Digtal Marketing News https://searchenginewatch.com/2018/11/20/optimize-local-business-voice-search/

[alanajacksontx]

How to optimize your local business for voice search

Voice search is growing, a statement appearing time and time again throughout the web. It has fundamentally changed the way people search and it’s here to stay.

With a simple command, users can conduct searches for information, products, services and local businesses.

It’s such a hot topic that our Head of Search and Strategy Stuart Shaw spoke at one of the UK’s largest SEO conferences a few weeks ago to talk about the details of voice search and why it’s important for brands.

While voice isn’t likely to surpass traditional search any time soon, it has spurred us to explore how local businesses can optimize, adjust their marketing strategies and understand the potential voice search could have on their bottom lines.

The opportunity for local businesses

To get information about a local service near to us, we pull out our phones and we search for it:

‘Plumbing services near me’

‘Local pizza delivery’

‘What are the opening times for…’

‘Is so and so open today?’ etc.

In fact, a recent study by Brightlocal highlighted that 53% of people owning smart speakers such as Amazon’s Alexa & Google Home are performing searches like these for local businesses every day in the US:

Putting that in context for the UK

A recent YouGov study showed that people in the UK owning a smart speaker had doubled between Q3 2017 and Q1 2018 to 10% of the total population.

A study by radiocentre predicted that this growth could reach as high as 40% by the end of 2018.

Looking a little deeper, we could say that per household there is more than one occupant. In fact on average there’s actually 2.3 people per household, according to the most recent UK gov statistics:

Source: Office of national statistics

So, if the 40% of UK households prediction is correct, that is potentially 11 million households exposing voice search content to 25 million people in the UK.

Who’s leading the smart speaker market?

Three-quarters of the market share in the UK in Q1 2018 was taken up by Amazon’s Alexa. This, of course, will change but right now this is where the biggest opportunity lies for local businesses optimizing for smart speakers in the UK:

  Source: Office of national statistics

Although voice search is still in a stage of infancy, and we have only talked about smart speakers, it’s clear to see just how relevant this technology is to brick and mortar businesses.

And, it’s constantly evolving…

Here’s a timeline from Stuart’s presentation, highlighting significant changes in voice search, and it’s becoming increasingly accessible for more and more people to conduct a voice search every day:

3 Biggest steps to optimize your local business for voice search

1. Take ownership of your digital footprint

Although voice assistants seem all-knowing, they rely heavily on information they can find around the web about your business.

A big part of optimizing for local SEO is ‘citations’ which are online references to your business name, address and phone number (NAP).

Voice assistants use these citations from trusted sources to provide information to users that are conducting local search queries.

So, where should I cite my business?

Each voice assistant relies on different and sometimes multiple data aggregators for answers to local search queries:

Siri

Search: Google

Business listings: Apple maps

Reviews: Yelp

Alexa

Search: Bing

Business listings: Yelp and more recently Yext

Reviews: Yelp

Google Assistant

Search: Google

Business listings: Google my Business

Reviews: Google my Business

Cortana

Search: Bing

Business listings: Bing

Reviews: Yelp

So, these data sources are the most important places to make sure your business is correctly cited, up-to-date and optimised:

Google My Business – Create a listing

Apple Maps – Create a listing

Bing – Create a listing

Yelp – Create a listing

2. Utilize schema markup

Schema is a type of on-page data markup that allows webmasters to provide search engines with data about their business in a more structured way.

The structured format allows search engines to understand the contents and context of web pages much easier (less algorithmic interpretation) and, subsequently, the engines can better understand the relevance of pages to particular search queries and present richer results.

Schema is only going to play a bigger part in ranking for rich results and featured snippets which are heavily used in for voice search content.

What does schema markup do?

Search engines experiment with how they display rich results all the time and by having your site marked up, you have the opportunity to be featured in new rich results.

For example, Google experimented with a ‘prominent knowledge panel card’ shown on mobile devices which displays when users conduct a branded search for the business. In the knowledge card you can see ‘place actions’ such as ‘find a table’ or ‘book an appointment’ which would direct searchers into an appropriate webpage to conduct the action.

These rich results went on to influence the structure of Google My Business which is now heavily used by local businesses. The point here is that the business websites shown in the example image below were ‘future proofed’ and optimal which qualified them for this rich result.

In other words, as Gary Illyes – web trends analyst at Google puts it:

“If you want your sites to appear in search features, implement structured data.”

The biggest benefit and ‘thing it does’ is help Google understand relevance much more fluently. Another few quotes from Gary Illyes helps explain this:

“Add structured data to your pages because, during indexing, we will be able to better understand what your site is about.”

“And don’t just think about the structured data that we documented on developers.google.com. Think about any schema.org schema that you could use on your pages. It will help us understand your pages better, and indirectly… it leads to better ranks.”

Why it’s important for local businesses

Schema is a tool which search engines and subsequently voice assistants are using to paint a clearer picture of a business website’s central topic and the services the site can offer users.

With structured data present, it is much more likely that your business (if relevant) will be identified as a good candidate for answering local voice search queries.

Using local business schema will:

Future-proof your website for richer search features (which voice search content is heavily influenced by)

Reinforce your online digital footprint

Bolster relevancy signals & geographic accuracy

Help drive more conversions both online and offline

Indirectly help your website rank better (important for voice)

So how do you take control?

There are hundreds of schema types which can be utilised for hundreds of business and content types.

There are also multiple ways of marking up schema in your page source code. By far the easiest is using JSON-LD. Using the example from above the marked up code looks something like this:

The best way to get your code ready is to go to SchemaApp.com, follow the instructions or use this tutorial and locate the schema types that are most relevant to you and your business.

Types of local business data that can be marked up:

Business name

Address

Phone number

Main email address

Business opening hours

Geo-location information (latitude and longitude)

Reviews

Company logo

Business description

Social profile links

Site name

Bear in mind there are guidelines for usage summarized below:

‘Data must not deceive or mislead experience for search users’

‘Use only the most specific types and property names defined by schema.org’

‘Marked-up content must be visible on the page where the script is added’

See Google’s policies for structured data for more information.

Once you’ve gone through SchemaApp, copy and paste the output code into relevant pages before your closing </head> tag or, if it’s content specific schema (such as the review rating above), paste the code before the closing </body> tag in the HTML of your page.

Finally, check your mark up with this structured data testing tool which will highlight any errors once implemented.

Note: Avoid using Google Tag Manager for this markup, apply the code natively where possible.

3. Produce content relevant to voice search needs

There are great ways of optimizing specifically for voice search using your on-site content.

The simplest is to explore the realm of user intent and uncover the types of questions people may want answering, when it comes to your business.

That doesn’t mean you need to create 1000s of pages that are optimized specifically for voice search terms. Instead, search engines such as Google pulls answers to voice queries directly from page content, even if it is a snippet that makes up a small section of the content.

Work long tail queries into long-form content

Conduct some long tail keyword research and look for questions people ask about your local business and work them into your content, where it is relevant to do so. I highly recommend Answer the Public to scale your efforts here.

Here’s an example of what I mean.

This is a query I searched recently that could be relevant to any local business:

‘Does tesco take american express?’

Here’s what was shown at the top in a featured snippet (the content that will be read out if conducting a voice search with Google Home):

And here’s the content that Google has pulled out from halfway down the page from choose.co.uk:

FAQ pages can be perfect for voice search

Written correctly, an FAQ page can serve voice search queries really effectively and if you struggle to work in your long tail optimisation into relevant pages, an FAQ page is a great way to get around it:

People use voice search conversationally, which you can naturally replicate on an FAQ page without the content appearing out of place

It appeals to long tail voice & traditional searches which widen your reach

Voice search often seeks concise information, under 30 words, which an FAQ page can clearly communicate

Creating a dedicated page specifically with this key information in mind could help with higher placement in SERPs for voice searches, which is vital for capturing that first click/interaction

Conclusion

However, you look at SEO, voice is the future and it’s growing exponentially and it’s being integrated into more and more of our everyday tech. Local business marketers should be making specific efforts to capitalize on voice search to maximize their online and offline conversion.

The caveat here is not to let your standard SEO practice fall behind. Having a fully mobile responsive website, fast site speed and good quality local backlinks, among many other optimizations, are still, and will remain, vital for ranking in local search and will greatly impact your voice search efforts.

Get a deeper dive to voice search or get help with your voice search strategy.

The post How to optimize your local business for voice search appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

from IM Tips And Tricks https://searchenginewatch.com/2018/11/20/optimize-local-business-voice-search/ from Rising Phoenix SEO https://risingphxseo.tumblr.com/post/180310659455

[bambiguertinus]

How to optimize your local business for voice search

Voice search is growing, a statement appearing time and time again throughout the web. It has fundamentally changed the way people search and it’s here to stay.

With a simple command, users can conduct searches for information, products, services and local businesses.

It’s such a hot topic that our Head of Search and Strategy Stuart Shaw spoke at one of the UK’s largest SEO conferences a few weeks ago to talk about the details of voice search and why it’s important for brands.

While voice isn’t likely to surpass traditional search any time soon, it has spurred us to explore how local businesses can optimize, adjust their marketing strategies and understand the potential voice search could have on their bottom lines.

The opportunity for local businesses

To get information about a local service near to us, we pull out our phones and we search for it:

‘Plumbing services near me’

‘Local pizza delivery’

‘What are the opening times for…’

‘Is so and so open today?’ etc.

In fact, a recent study by Brightlocal highlighted that 53% of people owning smart speakers such as Amazon’s Alexa & Google Home are performing searches like these for local businesses every day in the US:

Putting that in context for the UK

A recent YouGov study showed that people in the UK owning a smart speaker had doubled between Q3 2017 and Q1 2018 to 10% of the total population.

A study by radiocentre predicted that this growth could reach as high as 40% by the end of 2018.

Looking a little deeper, we could say that per household there is more than one occupant. In fact on average there’s actually 2.3 people per household, according to the most recent UK gov statistics:

Source: Office of national statistics

So, if the 40% of UK households prediction is correct, that is potentially 11 million households exposing voice search content to 25 million people in the UK.

Who’s leading the smart speaker market?

Three-quarters of the market share in the UK in Q1 2018 was taken up by Amazon’s Alexa. This, of course, will change but right now this is where the biggest opportunity lies for local businesses optimizing for smart speakers in the UK:

  Source: Office of national statistics

Although voice search is still in a stage of infancy, and we have only talked about smart speakers, it’s clear to see just how relevant this technology is to brick and mortar businesses.

And, it’s constantly evolving…

Here’s a timeline from Stuart’s presentation, highlighting significant changes in voice search, and it’s becoming increasingly accessible for more and more people to conduct a voice search every day:

3 Biggest steps to optimize your local business for voice search

1. Take ownership of your digital footprint

Although voice assistants seem all-knowing, they rely heavily on information they can find around the web about your business.

A big part of optimizing for local SEO is ‘citations’ which are online references to your business name, address and phone number (NAP).

Voice assistants use these citations from trusted sources to provide information to users that are conducting local search queries.

So, where should I cite my business?

Each voice assistant relies on different and sometimes multiple data aggregators for answers to local search queries:

Siri

Search: Google

Business listings: Apple maps

Reviews: Yelp

Alexa

Search: Bing

Business listings: Yelp and more recently Yext

Reviews: Yelp

Google Assistant

Search: Google

Business listings: Google my Business

Reviews: Google my Business

Cortana

Search: Bing

Business listings: Bing

Reviews: Yelp

So, these data sources are the most important places to make sure your business is correctly cited, up-to-date and optimised:

Google My Business – Create a listing

Apple Maps – Create a listing

Bing – Create a listing

Yelp – Create a listing

2. Utilize schema markup

Schema is a type of on-page data markup that allows webmasters to provide search engines with data about their business in a more structured way.

The structured format allows search engines to understand the contents and context of web pages much easier (less algorithmic interpretation) and, subsequently, the engines can better understand the relevance of pages to particular search queries and present richer results.

Schema is only going to play a bigger part in ranking for rich results and featured snippets which are heavily used in for voice search content.

What does schema markup do?

Search engines experiment with how they display rich results all the time and by having your site marked up, you have the opportunity to be featured in new rich results.

For example, Google experimented with a ‘prominent knowledge panel card’ shown on mobile devices which displays when users conduct a branded search for the business. In the knowledge card you can see ‘place actions’ such as ‘find a table’ or ‘book an appointment’ which would direct searchers into an appropriate webpage to conduct the action.

These rich results went on to influence the structure of Google My Business which is now heavily used by local businesses. The point here is that the business websites shown in the example image below were ‘future proofed’ and optimal which qualified them for this rich result.

In other words, as Gary Illyes – web trends analyst at Google puts it:

“If you want your sites to appear in search features, implement structured data.”

The biggest benefit and ‘thing it does’ is help Google understand relevance much more fluently. Another few quotes from Gary Illyes helps explain this:

“Add structured data to your pages because, during indexing, we will be able to better understand what your site is about.”

“And don’t just think about the structured data that we documented on developers.google.com. Think about any schema.org schema that you could use on your pages. It will help us understand your pages better, and indirectly… it leads to better ranks.”

Why it’s important for local businesses

Schema is a tool which search engines and subsequently voice assistants are using to paint a clearer picture of a business website’s central topic and the services the site can offer users.

With structured data present, it is much more likely that your business (if relevant) will be identified as a good candidate for answering local voice search queries.

Using local business schema will:

Future-proof your website for richer search features (which voice search content is heavily influenced by)

Reinforce your online digital footprint

Bolster relevancy signals & geographic accuracy

Help drive more conversions both online and offline

Indirectly help your website rank better (important for voice)

So how do you take control?

There are hundreds of schema types which can be utilised for hundreds of business and content types.

There are also multiple ways of marking up schema in your page source code. By far the easiest is using JSON-LD. Using the example from above the marked up code looks something like this:

The best way to get your code ready is to go to SchemaApp.com, follow the instructions or use this tutorial and locate the schema types that are most relevant to you and your business.

Types of local business data that can be marked up:

Business name

Address

Phone number

Main email address

Business opening hours

Geo-location information (latitude and longitude)

Reviews

Company logo

Business description

Social profile links

Site name

Bear in mind there are guidelines for usage summarized below:

‘Data must not deceive or mislead experience for search users’

‘Use only the most specific types and property names defined by schema.org’

‘Marked-up content must be visible on the page where the script is added’

See Google’s policies for structured data for more information.

Once you’ve gone through SchemaApp, copy and paste the output code into relevant pages before your closing </head> tag or, if it’s content specific schema (such as the review rating above), paste the code before the closing </body> tag in the HTML of your page.

Finally, check your mark up with this structured data testing tool which will highlight any errors once implemented.

Note: Avoid using Google Tag Manager for this markup, apply the code natively where possible.

3. Produce content relevant to voice search needs

There are great ways of optimizing specifically for voice search using your on-site content.

The simplest is to explore the realm of user intent and uncover the types of questions people may want answering, when it comes to your business.

That doesn’t mean you need to create 1000s of pages that are optimized specifically for voice search terms. Instead, search engines such as Google pulls answers to voice queries directly from page content, even if it is a snippet that makes up a small section of the content.

Work long tail queries into long-form content

Conduct some long tail keyword research and look for questions people ask about your local business and work them into your content, where it is relevant to do so. I highly recommend Answer the Public to scale your efforts here.

Here’s an example of what I mean.

This is a query I searched recently that could be relevant to any local business:

‘Does tesco take american express?’

Here’s what was shown at the top in a featured snippet (the content that will be read out if conducting a voice search with Google Home):

And here’s the content that Google has pulled out from halfway down the page from choose.co.uk:

FAQ pages can be perfect for voice search

Written correctly, an FAQ page can serve voice search queries really effectively and if you struggle to work in your long tail optimisation into relevant pages, an FAQ page is a great way to get around it:

People use voice search conversationally, which you can naturally replicate on an FAQ page without the content appearing out of place

It appeals to long tail voice & traditional searches which widen your reach

Voice search often seeks concise information, under 30 words, which an FAQ page can clearly communicate

Creating a dedicated page specifically with this key information in mind could help with higher placement in SERPs for voice searches, which is vital for capturing that first click/interaction

Conclusion

However, you look at SEO, voice is the future and it’s growing exponentially and it’s being integrated into more and more of our everyday tech. Local business marketers should be making specific efforts to capitalize on voice search to maximize their online and offline conversion.

The caveat here is not to let your standard SEO practice fall behind. Having a fully mobile responsive website, fast site speed and good quality local backlinks, among many other optimizations, are still, and will remain, vital for ranking in local search and will greatly impact your voice search efforts.

Get a deeper dive to voice search or get help with your voice search strategy.

The post How to optimize your local business for voice search appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

from Digtal Marketing News https://searchenginewatch.com/2018/11/20/optimize-local-business-voice-search/

[sheilalmartinia]

How to optimize your local business for voice search

Voice search is growing, a statement appearing time and time again throughout the web. It has fundamentally changed the way people search and it’s here to stay.

With a simple command, users can conduct searches for information, products, services and local businesses.

It’s such a hot topic that our Head of Search and Strategy Stuart Shaw spoke at one of the UK’s largest SEO conferences a few weeks ago to talk about the details of voice search and why it’s important for brands.

While voice isn’t likely to surpass traditional search any time soon, it has spurred us to explore how local businesses can optimize, adjust their marketing strategies and understand the potential voice search could have on their bottom lines.

The opportunity for local businesses

To get information about a local service near to us, we pull out our phones and we search for it:

‘Plumbing services near me’

‘Local pizza delivery’

‘What are the opening times for…’

‘Is so and so open today?’ etc.

In fact, a recent study by Brightlocal highlighted that 53% of people owning smart speakers such as Amazon’s Alexa & Google Home are performing searches like these for local businesses every day in the US:

Putting that in context for the UK

A recent YouGov study showed that people in the UK owning a smart speaker had doubled between Q3 2017 and Q1 2018 to 10% of the total population.

A study by radiocentre predicted that this growth could reach as high as 40% by the end of 2018.

Looking a little deeper, we could say that per household there is more than one occupant. In fact on average there’s actually 2.3 people per household, according to the most recent UK gov statistics:

Source: Office of national statistics

So, if the 40% of UK households prediction is correct, that is potentially 11 million households exposing voice search content to 25 million people in the UK.

Who’s leading the smart speaker market?

Three-quarters of the market share in the UK in Q1 2018 was taken up by Amazon’s Alexa. This, of course, will change but right now this is where the biggest opportunity lies for local businesses optimizing for smart speakers in the UK:

  Source: Office of national statistics

Although voice search is still in a stage of infancy, and we have only talked about smart speakers, it’s clear to see just how relevant this technology is to brick and mortar businesses.

And, it’s constantly evolving…

Here’s a timeline from Stuart’s presentation, highlighting significant changes in voice search, and it’s becoming increasingly accessible for more and more people to conduct a voice search every day:

3 Biggest steps to optimize your local business for voice search

1. Take ownership of your digital footprint

Although voice assistants seem all-knowing, they rely heavily on information they can find around the web about your business.

A big part of optimizing for local SEO is ‘citations’ which are online references to your business name, address and phone number (NAP).

Voice assistants use these citations from trusted sources to provide information to users that are conducting local search queries.

So, where should I cite my business?

Each voice assistant relies on different and sometimes multiple data aggregators for answers to local search queries:

Siri

Search: Google

Business listings: Apple maps

Reviews: Yelp

Alexa

Search: Bing

Business listings: Yelp and more recently Yext

Reviews: Yelp

Google Assistant

Search: Google

Business listings: Google my Business

Reviews: Google my Business

Cortana

Search: Bing

Business listings: Bing

Reviews: Yelp

So, these data sources are the most important places to make sure your business is correctly cited, up-to-date and optimised:

Google My Business – Create a listing

Apple Maps – Create a listing

Bing – Create a listing

Yelp – Create a listing

2. Utilize schema markup

Schema is a type of on-page data markup that allows webmasters to provide search engines with data about their business in a more structured way.

The structured format allows search engines to understand the contents and context of web pages much easier (less algorithmic interpretation) and, subsequently, the engines can better understand the relevance of pages to particular search queries and present richer results.

Schema is only going to play a bigger part in ranking for rich results and featured snippets which are heavily used in for voice search content.

What does schema markup do?

Search engines experiment with how they display rich results all the time and by having your site marked up, you have the opportunity to be featured in new rich results.

For example, Google experimented with a ‘prominent knowledge panel card’ shown on mobile devices which displays when users conduct a branded search for the business. In the knowledge card you can see ‘place actions’ such as ‘find a table’ or ‘book an appointment’ which would direct searchers into an appropriate webpage to conduct the action.

These rich results went on to influence the structure of Google My Business which is now heavily used by local businesses. The point here is that the business websites shown in the example image below were ‘future proofed’ and optimal which qualified them for this rich result.

In other words, as Gary Illyes – web trends analyst at Google puts it:

“If you want your sites to appear in search features, implement structured data.”

The biggest benefit and ‘thing it does’ is help Google understand relevance much more fluently. Another few quotes from Gary Illyes helps explain this:

“Add structured data to your pages because, during indexing, we will be able to better understand what your site is about.”

“And don’t just think about the structured data that we documented on developers.google.com. Think about any schema.org schema that you could use on your pages. It will help us understand your pages better, and indirectly… it leads to better ranks.”

Why it’s important for local businesses

Schema is a tool which search engines and subsequently voice assistants are using to paint a clearer picture of a business website’s central topic and the services the site can offer users.

With structured data present, it is much more likely that your business (if relevant) will be identified as a good candidate for answering local voice search queries.

Using local business schema will:

Future-proof your website for richer search features (which voice search content is heavily influenced by)

Reinforce your online digital footprint

Bolster relevancy signals & geographic accuracy

Help drive more conversions both online and offline

Indirectly help your website rank better (important for voice)

So how do you take control?

There are hundreds of schema types which can be utilised for hundreds of business and content types.

There are also multiple ways of marking up schema in your page source code. By far the easiest is using JSON-LD. Using the example from above the marked up code looks something like this:

The best way to get your code ready is to go to SchemaApp.com, follow the instructions or use this tutorial and locate the schema types that are most relevant to you and your business.

Types of local business data that can be marked up:

Business name

Address

Phone number

Main email address

Business opening hours

Geo-location information (latitude and longitude)

Reviews

Company logo

Business description

Social profile links

Site name

Bear in mind there are guidelines for usage summarized below:

‘Data must not deceive or mislead experience for search users’

‘Use only the most specific types and property names defined by schema.org’

‘Marked-up content must be visible on the page where the script is added’

See Google’s policies for structured data for more information.

Once you’ve gone through SchemaApp, copy and paste the output code into relevant pages before your closing </head> tag or, if it’s content specific schema (such as the review rating above), paste the code before the closing </body> tag in the HTML of your page.

Finally, check your mark up with this structured data testing tool which will highlight any errors once implemented.

Note: Avoid using Google Tag Manager for this markup, apply the code natively where possible.

3. Produce content relevant to voice search needs

There are great ways of optimizing specifically for voice search using your on-site content.

The simplest is to explore the realm of user intent and uncover the types of questions people may want answering, when it comes to your business.

That doesn’t mean you need to create 1000s of pages that are optimized specifically for voice search terms. Instead, search engines such as Google pulls answers to voice queries directly from page content, even if it is a snippet that makes up a small section of the content.

Work long tail queries into long-form content

Conduct some long tail keyword research and look for questions people ask about your local business and work them into your content, where it is relevant to do so. I highly recommend Answer the Public to scale your efforts here.

Here’s an example of what I mean.

This is a query I searched recently that could be relevant to any local business:

‘Does tesco take american express?’

Here’s what was shown at the top in a featured snippet (the content that will be read out if conducting a voice search with Google Home):

And here’s the content that Google has pulled out from halfway down the page from choose.co.uk:

FAQ pages can be perfect for voice search

Written correctly, an FAQ page can serve voice search queries really effectively and if you struggle to work in your long tail optimisation into relevant pages, an FAQ page is a great way to get around it:

People use voice search conversationally, which you can naturally replicate on an FAQ page without the content appearing out of place

It appeals to long tail voice & traditional searches which widen your reach

Voice search often seeks concise information, under 30 words, which an FAQ page can clearly communicate

Creating a dedicated page specifically with this key information in mind could help with higher placement in SERPs for voice searches, which is vital for capturing that first click/interaction

Conclusion

However, you look at SEO, voice is the future and it’s growing exponentially and it’s being integrated into more and more of our everyday tech. Local business marketers should be making specific efforts to capitalize on voice search to maximize their online and offline conversion.

The caveat here is not to let your standard SEO practice fall behind. Having a fully mobile responsive website, fast site speed and good quality local backlinks, among many other optimizations, are still, and will remain, vital for ranking in local search and will greatly impact your voice search efforts.

Get a deeper dive to voice search or get help with your voice search strategy.

The post How to optimize your local business for voice search appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

from Search Engine Watch https://searchenginewatch.com/2018/11/20/optimize-local-business-voice-search/