THE THREE MOST IMPORTANT CITATIONS FOR A CONSISTENT ONLINE BRAND
Dun & Bradstreet, Assumed Names & Secretary of State Records
But First, Are Citations Still Important for Search Rankings?
In regards to Local search engine optimization, citations are mentions of a business name, address and phone on an authoritative site, and they still play a role in rankings online. Search engines like Google use this data to understand where your business is located and what it is called.
In the most recent Moz study of Local SEO ranking factors, citation consistency is still a top contributor. 15.5% of the reason your business or a competitor ranks well in local results is due to a consistent business name, address and phone number online.
Brand signals are also becoming more important in 2015 and will continue to affect organic results. The number of customers searching for your business name in Google, is a widely speculated ranking factor, revealing strong brand awareness. Press and media should refer to your business name and products correctly, spelled correctly. Ideally, all online mentions of the business name and address, should match Dun & Bradstreet, Assumed Name Records and Tax Records.
These three citations in particular are often overlooked by business owners and SEO consultants, yet reveal issues in NAP (name, address and phone) and the brand, that can plague a business online and cause more headaches if ignored.
The Most Official Citations
Dun & Bradstreet, Doing Business As (DBA) or Assumed Name records and Secretary of State Listings are the most official citations, created when the business was originally started or each year during tax season. Dun & Bradstreet is the oldest business directory in existence, since 1841. That predates YELP by a few years I believe!
The first task of a local SEO campaign is to lock down the business data: the official business name, address, phone, website, pictures, categories etc. Here’s the problem, you can’t simply ask the business owner what the official name of the business is… In the same way you should check address formatting using the USPS zip code tool, it should be a mandatory step to check the legal business name on all three of these official sources.
More reasons why these three citations are important
- The NAP is indexed by Google and visible to customers
- The NAP is shared with other data aggregators, meaning inconsistency on these three citations will affect many other sites.
- The NAP is official government information and a strong signal of brand name and geolocation signals.
Ready to get started? Find out how to update and claim these citations in the following guide. As a bonus, we will even address several common questions around business names and the implications it can have online.[contact-form-7 404 “Not Found”]
TOP 20 BEST NEW GTLDS BASED ON QUALITY
As a part of Globe Runner’s New gTLD SEO Power Rankings Index, we gathered data from over 20,000 websites that have been actually built–or developed, on New gTLD domain names. From that list of over 20,000 websites, we have studied these websites’ qualities, and pulled a lot of other interested data. We were able to find the best New gTLDs based on quality.
Sure, there have been a lot of New gTLD domain names registered, but just because a domain name is registered doesn’t mean that an actual website has been built on that domain name. Globe Runner took the time to come up with an extensive list of fully developed websites–most of which are indexed in the search engines, and some actually ranking well in the search results.
One of the data points that we analyzed was related to the quality of the websites built on the New gTLD domain names. What we wanted to know is which New gTLDs have been more successful in attracting quality websites to be built on their TLD.
Based on quality–mainly the Majestic.com Trust Flow factor. Here is our list of the top 20 New gTLDs with the best domain names, based on Trust Flow.
Top 20 TLDs with Best Domains Based on Trust Flow
.nrw
.scot
.brussels
.eus
.bzh
.agency
.wiki
.foundation
.tips
.today
.bayern
.hamburg
.nyc
.digital
.farm
.domains
.london
.marketing
.beer
.guru
Trust Flow is defined by Majestic.com in this way:
Trust Flow, a trademark of Majestic, is a score based on quality, on a scale between 0-100. Majestic collated many trusted seed sites based on a manual review of the web. This process forms the foundation of Majestic Trust Flow. Sites closely linked to a trusted seed site can see higher scores, whereas sites that may have some questionable links would see a much lower score.
Globe Runner considers Trust Flow to be a very important factor when gauging the overall quality of a website, as the most trusted websites have a higher Trust Flow value.
Globe Runner also looked at the actual websites with the highest Trust Flow values assigned to them from Majestic. The following is a sample of the best New gTLD domain names that we found based on Trust Flow:
URL Trust Flow
https://land.nrw/ 71
http://www.gov.scot/ 69
http://be.brussels/ 69
http://www.eitb.eus/ 67
http://www.bretagne.bzh/ 67
http://yanntiersen.bzh/ 66
http://www.leefmilieu.brussels/ 65
http://rabbithole.agency/ 62
http://www.berria.eus/ 61
http://kodi.wiki/ 61
http://lgbt.foundation/ 61
http://www.argia.eus/ 60
http://thehub.tips/ 60
http://www.flowercarpet.brussels/ 60
http://www.kreuzfahrten24.today/ 59
http://cirb.brussels/ 59
http://www.gruenderland.bayern/ 58
https://www.medianet.hamburg/ 57
http://www.pik.bzh/ 56
http://gaycitynews.nyc/ 56
GOOGLE CHANGES NAME OF GOOGLE WEBMASTER TOOLS TO SEARCH CONSOLE
Google has changed the name of Google Webmaster Tools to Search Console, announcing the new Webmaster Tools. They have updated Google Webmaster Tools to now include the Search Analytics, but right now the only real change that’s taken place is the name change.
As you log into the Google Webmaster Tools, which is still available by going to Google.com/Webmasters, I have a feeling that that URL will soon be removed, and we’ll need to go to the Search Console URL, which Google says is at http://g.co/SearchConsole
My suspicion is that over time, we will be phased out of Google Webmaster Tools, and eventually will be using something different then Google Webmaster Tools. For example, we may be losing some tools that we’re used to using, and we may continue to see other tools that are either more helpful or pretty much useless.
Typically, when we see a name change of a product or service, that comes along with some other major changes, and the name is only a small part of the changes. For what it’s worth, frankly I have been fairly happy in the past with using Google Webmaster Tools, as that’s what it’s intended for: a site’s webmaster to use, and not the typical “business owner” or website owner. There are a lot of business owners that I know who would not feel comfortable with using Google Webmaster Tools, and they generally wouldn’t understand what it all means (nor do they care to use it).
As of this post, though, the only major change that’s happened to Google Webmaster Tools is then name change (and the addition of the Search Analytics tool). Let’s wait and see what other changes happen. I’ll keep you posted.
5 MYTHS OF B2B MARKETING
5 Myths of B2B Marketing
B2C marketing is trendy. There’s a glut of information available about how a business can reach out to individual customers. There is relatively little information available regarding B2B marketing. Because of this lack of information, it’s important to take a discerning look at B2B on its own instead of lumping it in with B2C. Let’s take a look at 5 common myths of B2B marketing to elucidate some key differences and challenges of B2B marketing.
1. B2B Marketing is Essentially the Same as B2C Marketing
Although there are many aspects of B2B marketing that overlap with B2C, B2B marketing is still a completely different beast than B2C. Your target audience in B2B marketing is going to be a business and employees within said business. B2B customers usually have a pretty good idea of what they want. They may desire to be educated to some degree, but they have honed in on their goal much more completely, in general, than your average B2C customer. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that all of your standard B2C techniques will transfer over to B2B marketing.
2. Social Media is Always Beneficial for B2B
Social media is an incredibly powerful tool in this digital age in which we live. It allows a company or individual to reach out to millions of people in a moment through numerous compelling media channels. Despite this value, it is not always ideal for B2B marketing. The customers you attempt to target often won’t be interested in finding product or service information on Facebook. They may feel that Pinterest is not professional enough to yield valuable results. LinkedIn can be among the social media networks that are effective for B2B, but before you start to launch a concerted social media campaign, make sure that you first verify that your audience is interested in using social media for business.
3. Outbound Marketing is Ideal for B2B
Let’s start by clarifying that outbound marketing most certainly has its place in an effective marketing strategy as a whole. However, it may be more effective in B2C than in B2B, and here’s why: As previously mentioned, B2B customers usually have a better idea of what they are looking for than B2C customers. This means that reaching out to them with outbound marketing can be ineffective or even counterproductive. B2B customers are used to parsing through the fluff to get what they want, and pestering them with constant outbound marketing can drive them away. Instead of outbound marketing, take a look at inbound marketing for an effective B2B strategy. Inbound marketing is basically marketing that focuses on helping customers to find you, instead of reaching out to them. Therein lies its B2B marketing power.
4. B2B Marketing Should Only be Done Through Networking
This is actually a rather common, and surprising, viewpoint. Many marketers, both agency and in-house, have become jaded after watching various marketing efforts not show results in the B2B sphere. This is largely due to our first myth. After various marketing techniques fail, very traditional methods such as networking are reverted to. There is definitely a place for networking in B2B marketing and business development. However, it most certainly is not the only effective method. There are numerous marketing techniques available today that, when slated for B2B effectiveness, can produce sustained positive results.
5. B2B Marketing Starts At the Contact Form
There’s a rather pervasive belief in many B2B businesses that the sales and marketing process only begins when a potential customer submits a request for quote. This belief hampers marketing efforts to a very significant degree. Although you may not hear directly from a customer until they submit an RFQ, make no mistake, they have been researching and vetting your product or service long before they get to this point.
It is for this reason that SEO is such a valuable tool for B2B marketing. SEO allows a B2B company to get involved in the pipeline earlier and more effectively. If you actually believe that you have no control over the process until an RFQ is submitted, then you have already missed an opportunity. Making sure that not only what you present is the message your customer wants, but also that they can find said message is absolutely crucial to marketing in a B2B world.
SEO allows a B2B company to have some control in the initial search stage over what the customer finds and how quickly they find it. This is critical to not only bringing satisfactory volume to your product or service, but also to closing the sale. The less a potential customer needs to search to find what they want the more likely they are to convert into a paying customer. SEO for B2B marketing is about enabling potential customers to find and be delighted by what you have to offer.
Sometimes we forget that for anyone desiring to perform effective marketing for any business, one must first understand their market. B2B is a unique market and there are many tactics that simply don’t transfer from B2C. If you make sure that you are marketing within the proper context you will have much more success in the long term.
Andrew Dean is an account manager at Globe Runner.
Photo credit: Zachary Korb
TOP WEBSITES BUILT ON NEW GTLD DOMAINS WITH THE MOST BACKLINKS
As a part of our generating the Globe Runner New gTLD SEO Power Ranking Index, where we gather a list of the websites that have actually been built on New gTLD domain names. Once we gather the URLs (this latest update has over 20,000 websites included in it), we look at lots of interesting data. One of the data points that I was very interested in looking at is the number of backlinks that these New gTLD domain names have. Keep in mind that we’re only really talking less than two years of availability, since around January 2014 when these started to get registered.
This time, I looked at the top fifty websites with the most backlinks to them. Interestingly enough, I found that there was a broad spectrum of backlinks and types of websites that were built. But only ONE website with over 1 million backlinks. There are a few others with a lot of backlinks, and I was amazed by the fact that there are so many insurance and .cheap domain names on the list. Here is the most interesting data points that I gathered from our list of the top 50 websites that have the most backlinks. All built on New gTLD Domains.
10 of the top 50 sites with the most backlinks are “pills” websites.
24 of the top 50 sites with the most backlinks are insurance websites.
Only 4 of the top 50 sites with the most backlinks are adult websites.
Only 1 websites of the top 50 sites with the most backlinks have over 1 million backlinks. 3 have 900,000 backlinks, one with 800k backlinks, one with 700k, 6 with 600k, and 9 with over 500,000 backlinks. The rest have over 200,000 backlinks.
27 of the top 50 sites with the most backlinks are hosted on .cheap domain names.
The top 50 New gTLDs for backlinks include:
.careers
.cheap
.center
.life
.wtf
.build
.buzz
.today
.bid
.estate
.nyc
.systems
.sexy
.foundation
.discount
.guru
.black
There is only one “backlinks” website on the list, in the business of building backlinks, and it has 600,000 backlinks.
The website that has over 1 million backlinks is an employment website.
Only one website of the top 50 sites with the most backlinks uses a subdomain other than the www subdomain.
Online 3 of the top 50 sites with the most backlinks use the www subdomain on their website. ALL the other 47 websites do not use a www in their main URL, they use the non-www version of their site. For example, they use keyword.gtld rather than www.keyword.gtld. I find this to be a very interesting trend amongst the New gTLD domain names.
The top site, with more than 1 million backlinks, has a “create date” of March 5, 2014. That means that they built over 1 million backlinks in 14 months. That’s 74,360 backlinks per month. Would you call that unnatural building of backlinks? Apparently it’s not a huge problem, because the site ranks #1 in Google for the keywords in their domain name (i.e., keyword1.keyword2).
Because of the nature of these sites (the topics of the top 50 websites built on New gTLD domain names with the most backlinks), we feel that we don’t want to reveal the actual URLs publicly but listing the full list in the post. If you are genuinely interested in the list, feel free to contact us and we’ll be happy to send you the list offline. However, here is the list of the top 20, in an image file:
We use the Majestic toolset to gather the link statistics, and we use a variety of Google search queries to gather our list of over 20,000 websites that have been developed on New gTLD domain names. Our process is proprietary to identifying the list of these websites, but generally the process involves starting with the list of New gTLD domain names, sorted by the most registrations. We then use Google search queries, over a period of a few weeks, to identify websites that have actually been developed on New gTLD domain names. No “parked”, redirected, or “low quality” content websites are included in our list. Once we gather the initial list, we use Majestic.com to gather link data and other data that Majestic’s variety of tools provides.
In an upcoming post, we’ll reveal the updated New gTLD SEO Power Rankings Index.
USING MARKETING AUTOMATION FOR ECOMMERCE 10 BEST PRACTICES
Marketing automation has become a buzz word online and with anything related to SEO marketing, but do you know what it really means and how best to use it? In a nutshell, marketing automation helps streamline, automate and measure marketing tasks and workflows to increase operational efficiency. In an even smaller nutshell, marketing automation helps companies effectively market on multiple channels such as social media, websites, and emails and automate tasks that would otherwise be repetitive to a human being. With this in mind, here are ten best practices for using marketing automation for ecommerce.
- Study Your Data
Understanding your customer’s hesitations is a great starting point to knowing how your customers need to be served. For example, are customers leaving items in their cart? Consider a, “Fetch Back,” email sent to a prospect that has an abandoned shopping cart. Knowing why there are abandoned shopping carts in the first place and determining if the problem is technical or due to site design can really help you get to the root of the issue first.
- Understand the Buying Cycle
Customers do certain things in a certain timeframe, and 9 times out of 10, they don’t know that they’ve fallen into this buying habit. Understand this funnel process by looking at it backwards. What steps are customers having to take? Is there a catalyst along the way that’s pushing customers to buy? Focus on these “assists” and top performing interactions to find the holes—places where you may need marketing automation to intervene and connect with the customer. Perhaps an email or something more personal.
- Key is in Keyword for a Reason
Revenue generating keywords are your best friend. They help build your site, your reputation and your business. Find these keywords to see why customers are coming to your site. Use these keywords in your emails or social media to draw more attention while building your credibility.
- Be a Collector
Collect contact information as much as possible and weed out the good from the bad. This is one of the best ways to ensure that you can touch base with loyal customers and build new ones.
- Be a Tracker
See where a buyer’s curiosity takes them by tracking their clicks. This can also help with your messaging in your marketing automation; do they click on your blog? Your contact page? Tailor your content to pique your customer’s interest.
- Keep it Real…time Communication
Did you know that 90% of ecommerce leads go cold within just one hour? Again, maybe someone left something in a cart then got distracted. Remind them of their pending purchase with a three-step sequence, without harboring on being annoying. A customer service email should be sent within an hour, an email reminding them of say, their abandoned purchase, should be sent within 24 hours and if you have a coupon to add to your sale, send it within 72 hours as an incentive email.
- Always Offer Customer Service
Marketing automation often seems like a one-way road. Instead of talking at your customers, start a conversation by asking fun and shareable questions. Even more important is offering customer service and ways to reach you should they have questions or need help.
- Be Diverse
Don’t just stick to emails. Make use of social media and other outlets so you can cross-sell and up-sell in very strategic ways.
- Be Mobile
According to Litmus, 53 percent of emails are now being opened on a mobile device. Make sure that you incorporate responsive design into your eCommerce email marketing strategy.
- Have a Compelling Call-to-Action (CTA)
Don’t defeat the purpose of marketing automation. Sure it does the work for you but you need to give it legs with a strong CTA. Use your subject line, images, and copy to communicate a single, compelling CTA. More than one and you may frustrate your potential buyer.
What are your marketing automation tips and have you found works for you?
BEFORE BUYING A DOMAIN NAME, PERFORM DUE DILIGENCE OR RISK IT ALL
Before you purchase a domain name, even a premium domain name, you absolutely must perform the proper due diligence. Or, you could potentially risk it all, and find out the hard way: your site could get banned in Google for pure spam. This is what happened recently to Michael Krigsman and ZDNet when they moved CXO Talk on a new domain name, CXOTalk.com.
Mr. Krigsman, in his recent article titled “When Google errs: A cautionary tale of great power”, explains that he purchased a domain name, CXOTalk.com, in order to move their site on CXO-Talk.com. He explains that CXO-Talk.com has been up and running for at least two years, and everything has been fine. But, after they moved the site to a newly purchased domain name, everything went downhill.
“Without the hyphen, I hoped the new web address would make the site just a bit easier for users to find. Little did I know that this change would serve as a catalyst for Google to incorrectly take a “manual action” and classify the entire cxotalk.com domain as “pure spam.”
In the article, Mr. Krigsman explains that ” Bing Webmaster Tools accepted the change of address immediately and showed no problem with the site”. However, it sounds as if Google almost immediately banned the site and sent the following message to the site owner of CXOTalk.com via Google Webmaster Tools:
Google was correct in giving this domain name a manual action. However, Bing was NOT correct, in my opinion.
After spending some time reviewing this situation, and looking at the redirects that were set up, I personally looked into the history of the “new” domain name, CXOTalk.com. I used the patent-pending process that I am currently working on to analyze the CXOTalk.com domain name, and make a determination as to whether or not that domain name “passes the test” so to speak. I performed extensive due diligence on this domain name, and found that, in fact, there is absolutely NO WAY I would have recommended redirecting the current CXO-Talk.com domain name to CXOTalk.com until that domain name was “cleaned up”. Performing some basic “due diligence” on the domain name, the domain name you’ve purchased at a domain name auction, before using it in commerce is absolutely necessary nowadays. You need to look at the history of the domain name you’re buying.
In the case of CXOTalk.com, I started to look into the history of the domain. I looked at the whois record. I looked at the whois history (who previously owned the domain name). I looked at the history of the topic of the domain name (checked it at the Internet Archive). Then I looked at the links to that domain name. That’s where I ran into the obvious problems:
There are a lot of other links pointing to this domain name, but there are also a lot of backlinks to that domain name that reveal a very spammy and scummy past of that domain name. If you want more history of the backlinks pointing to that domain name, you can use Majestic.com or another link tool. I prefer to use Majestic, as links are updated very often, on a regular basis. For full disclosure, I am one of Majestic’s US Brand Ambassadors.
As someone who has been practicing organic SEO since the mid 1990s (around 1996), I have just about “seen it all” and I can say that I’ve “been there, done that” so to speak. In the case of the ZDNet domain name, the article written by Michael Krigsman is wrong. The title “When Google errs: A cautionary tale of great power” is wrong, because Google absolutely did NOT make a mistake this time. Google is correct for banning CXOTalk.com, and removing it from the Google index. The history of that domain name is, in fact, pure spam. The current content, however, is not spam, it is all above-board, great content.
Whenever you combine two websites, or whenever you redirect one domain to another domain name, keep in mind that all the data from both domains is combined. The links, the history, the PageRank, and other search engine ranking factors are combined when you redirect one domain name to another domain name. So, make sure you do your due diligence on the domain names that you are redirecting to your current website. Or, you could end up risking it all, and getting banned in Google, just like CXOTalk.com has been banned.
Our New Verified Domain Name Service
This post, and this article from ZDNet is very timely. I am putting on the finishing touches on our new patent-pending service, which does exactly what Michael Krigsman needed before purchasing his domain name. Globe Runner, very soon, is launching a new verified domain name service, which performs the necessary due diligence for you (so you don’t have to). We check over 30 different issues in order to make sure that the domain name that you’re going to use does not have any problems. Some of these checks include:
– review whois history
– review former topic of domain name
– review email blacklists
– review domain blocklists
– review domain reputation
– plus over 30 other manual reviews of various data points
During the Globe Runner verified domain names process, we collect the data, and review it. Then we make a determination on whether or not that domain name passes our rigorous process and qualifies as a verified domain.
The process that I have personally developed, based on over 15 years of SEO experience with websites and domain names, is proprietary. Globe Runner is so confident in our assessment of the domain name that we guarantee it. Purchasing a domain name assessment from Globe Runner includes a warranty of up to $50,000.
If you would like to be one of the first ones to get an invite for our new verified domain names service, feel free to get in touch with me (bill at globerunner.wpengine.com), and I will put you on the invite list.
MATT CUTTS’ FIRST DAY AT GLOBE RUNNER
Okay all you doubters, here is Matt Cutts posing with the rest of the Globe Runner team.
Bet you didn’t think we could pull all these illustrious names to our humble agency. Fellow newcomer Darth Vader summed up this disappointment best: ‘I find your lack of faith disturbing’.
Seriously, we had no idea that Matt Cutts was a worldwide celebrity — until our site crashed on Saturday. Here’s a three-day snapshot of the traffic spawned by the infamous blog post which, by the way, was written by Bill Hartzer:
After we picked ourselves up off the floor seeing the 10K+ visits to a single blog post, we ran to check out where all this traffic was coming from. Based on that one blog post, here is a list of Matt Cutts’ top 10 fan bases worldwide:
- United States
- United Kingdom
- Germany
- France
- India
- Japan
- Canada
- Australia
- Netherlands
- Sweden
Twitter was the foremost social media contributor to this deluge of visitors at 25%.
Not everyone was impressed with our miraculous hiring of Matt Cutts. There was the ritual knocking of Texas:
Now now Gabriella, Texas happens to have great steaks and no income tax.
Blackhatters were divided. Some thought it was a good stunt.
Others: Nope.
Matt’s German admirers raised an eyebrow, but it was all good-natured.
Our Japanese friends, on the other hand, were horrified. Matt, you’ll have to buy a round of sake the next time you’re in Tokyo.
Perhaps two of the best comments came from Jill in one forum:
Jill could do with a cookie, don’t you think?
If you see the humor in this as much as we do, we’ll buy you a drink the next time you’re in Dallas. Thanks for joining what has been a mighty entertaining conversation (we’ve collected some of the best comments on Storify).
Check out more momentous news announced today, like Virgin moving its headquarters to Missouri, Samsung’s release of the first ever smart phone and smart knife in one, the Galaxy Blade Edge, and our newest employee’s launch of AutoSEO.
GLOBE RUNNER EXTENDS REACH WITH NEW FORT WORTH SEO SERVICES
It’s official: Globe Runner’s Fort Worth operations are now up and running under the helm of local entrepreneur Chris Miller.
Extending our operations to Fort Worth was logical given the growing number of clients we have in the area.
Miller was one such client of Globe Runner. A native of Fort Worth, his online business Jerky Dynasty flourished and saw improved traffic under Globe Runner’s proprietary SEO methodology.
“Fort Worth has the highest population growth right now in the US, which is spurring a never-before-seen level of business activity,” Chris says. “Whether an entrepreneur plans to benefit from this surge with a bricks-and-mortar or online business, SEO is critical to getting buyers through the door.”
Artistic links with Fort Worth
In addition to business reasons, Globe Runner’s other ties with Fort Worth are artistic. In 2007, Globe Runner CEO Eric McGehearty, a sculptor by profession, created United We Stand, an outdoor bronze sculpture and window installation for Fire Station #8.
Eric’s work was nationally recognized at the 2007 Public Art Year in Review as one of the 40 best public art projects of the year. It was also voted that same year as Best Outdoor Art by Fort Worth Weekly’s Reader’s Choice Award.
Eric has since been commissioned by the city of Fort Worth to create another public art piece, this time for Six Points Urban Village.
The mission to provide Fort Worth world-class SEO has started
We’re happy to be part of Fort Worth’s artistic and economic evolution. In November, Globe Runner Fort Worth founded the Fort Worth SEO/Online Marketing Meetup group which has 95 members. The group has already held two Meetups talking about SEO and remarketing.
For more information about our Fort Worth SEO services and joining the Fort Worth SEO/Online Marketing Meetup group, contact Chris Miller for details.
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