I had a chance to interview Chris Silver Smith at DFWSEM and we had a really good conversation about local search. Here’s a link to his SEO Blog.

Transcription
Eric McGehearty: Hi, it’s Eric with Globe Runner SEO, and I’m here today, I’m excited. I’ve got Chris Smith; he’s the director of KeyRelevance, which is a great SEO company here in Dallas, just like Globe Runner. And I’ve actually heard Chris speak before and I was pretty impressed with his knowledge of local search. You were citing patents, bringing out all the facts and really referencing everything you had to say.

So, I thought this was a good opportunity, I cornered Chris. And, Chris, can you give us some insight in what you see going forward in local search? What’s big right now that, as a small business that’s trying to get a presence or even a large company that needs to worry about local, what’s the big things we need to be thinking about? And then what’s coming out next? What do we need to be watching out for?

Chris Smith: Sure, thanks, Eric. Yeah, Google’s changing local almost daily. They’re deploying lots of different little iterations to their interface and how listings and businesses can show up on Google and under place search as well as in Google Maps, and on mobile. And all of those little iterations in how businesses are displayed and presented are areas of interest for businesses, because it impacts how they’re interpreted by consumers, how they’re selected.

And we have only limited ability to be able to affect some of that, how that’s displayed. The areas where you are able to make changes, primarily in Google places, you’re able to associate images with your listings, such as logos or photos of your product, services, and your business place. You’re able to add in descriptive terms, description of the business. Make sure that your address is correct. And some other criteria, like products, services, add in particular lists, make sure you’re categorized correctly.

Those are fairly straightforward things. Behind the scenes, though, there’s stuff that you can do, also, to insure that your business appears to begin with. And that’s kind of the big thing for most businesses.

Eric: But just trying to put this on the front page for them, it’s their major selling points.

Chris: Exactly. And so, there are lots of people that are very focused on that. It kind of boils down to making sure that you have a lot of links or what we call citations, which are mentions of your business or mentions of your location. So, a mention of your business name plus your address, or business name plus phone number.

And then the classic search optimization criteria, how many links do you have pointing to you and what sources they’re coming from. All of those things are things that businesses have to be paying attention to in order to rank well in local.

Eric: Well, that’s a good question that I think is always something that we’re interested in, and I’d like to talk a little bit more. How does your backlink profile to your website affect your local listing? Or does it?

Chris: It does affect it, and in fact I believe it’s become more influential with the changes that they’ve made over the last year or two put forward place search, which kind of changed how local was presented to the regular web search.

Eric: So, it’s almost co-mingled.

Chris: Exactly.

Eric: It looks like a regular web, yeah, it looks like a regular web result, but it’s got some local information, it’s got the star review, there’s a little more space between listings.

Chris: Right.

Eric: Yeah, so, yeah, that made me feel like I was probably going to be looking at a backlink profile.

Chris: Yes.

Eric: But I’m tied to the local page.

Chris: Well, we know that it became… Links, backlinks became more influential as a side-effect from that change, because when they merged business listings, which were all part of just a little inserted map listing, you know, widget, essentially.
Eric: Like a 10-Pack or whatever.

Chris: They integrated those business listings with actual web listings. And before the change, if you had a business that didn’t have a website, it still could rank within what we call the 7-Pack or 10-Pack. After the change, those businesses that don’t have websites aren’t showing up. And so we know that they had to integrate regular web search results with those business listings in order to make them appear within the regular search results.

And so, like you said, they’re co-mingled and I believe that after the change, links and backlinks became more influential than they already were. Now, as part of the total ranking algorithm, the usual traditional SEO criteria, how many links you have pointing to your website, in addition to key-order relevancy stuff, you know. The link text pointing to your site in those links, the titles that you use on the web pages, the text content, images, all of that goes together and it’s part of the ranking criteria.

A really great resource to look at is David Mihm’s “Local Search Ranking Factors” survey, which has a number of us from the industry that have been watching how rankings work within local. We all contributed to it, and voted for what criteria we thought ranked higher. And it’s kind of amazing how similar our perspectives are just from, you know, all over the country, in all different industries that we’re doing optimization for.

Eric: I’ve got one last question. I know we’ve gone long, I try to keep these really short, but Chris is such an intelligent, knowledgeable guy, I’m going to go long.

So, my last question for you is, in Webmaster Tools I can go in and I can actually say, “Hey, this website is intended for a local audience.” I can pare it down to the United States; I can pare it down to Dallas/Fort Worth. And I can tell Google Webmaster Tools that my website itself is intended for a specific geography.

Does that play a…? How much of a role do you think that plays in local search? Do you recommend that as a strategy? What are your thoughts there?

Chris: I don’t think that that’s all that critical for local websites.

Eric: OK.

Chris: I think, eventually, it becomes [unintelligible 06:36] based on the business’s address and the type of industry it is. So, I wouldn’t set that. I know, in a lot of cases where people were very concerned about which country their website is associated with or whether it’s considered national or international, people would make their settings. I think it makes more sense if you’re here to do some very country-oriented content, or if your content is illegal in other localities and stuff.

You know, gambling comes to mind; they try to limit it from showing up in their different, in some other…

Eric: If you’re a multinational and you have different websites for different countries, you might want to leave those.

Chris: Right. Like, that could help to specify to Google which ones you should show for, particularly if you’re a dot com trying to show up in a foreign country, you don’t have that top-level domain name that’s going to be an incubator for… that you’re specific to that particular country.

Eric: That’s a way to go in and just kind of say, “We really are here for a reason.”

Chris: And I think if you’re a dot com trying to… a dot com, but you’re a company located in Canada, it could be useful in that case. But for most cases, I don’t think it’s necessary [unintelligible 07:51] to set that.

Eric: Good. Well, thanks, Chris, this was great information, I really appreciate your time.

Chris: Sure, yeah.

Eric: And again thanks for taking a minute and letting me hijack you.

This was Eric with Globe Runner SEO. Once again, a great interview, Chris was really knowledgeable, and take what he had to say for it with a lot of seriousness, because this guy really knows local search and he’s impressed me and that’s sometimes hard to do.

Chris: Thanks very much.

There are so many elements to a sound SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy that it’s common for digital marketers to fail to see the forest for the trees. They are so focused on the more noteworthy, often complex, elements that they forget about the basics. They want to throw fancy pitches—sliders and knuckleballs—when they haven’t yet mastered the fastball. It’s a common SEO mistake.

You can argue that certain elements of an SEO strategy are more important than others, but that’s not the point. If something is helping get visitors to your website, it’s important. What’s really important is that the basics aren’t skipped. Glossing over the basics could be the most common SEO mistake we see on websites we evaluate.

The following 5 are the other most common SEO mistakes, whether committed by someone new to the world of digital marketing or by a seasoned professional.

1. No Sitemap

If your website doesn’t contain a site map, how can you expect Google to easily crawl it? A sitemap tells search engines about website pages that are ready for crawling. Sitemaps are created in a standardized XML format and include information about webpages, their titles, the last time they were updated, associated metadata, and more. You can also add images and videos to your sitemap, but if you have a lot of pages (online retailer, for instance), you should create separate XML files for each.

2. Lack of Internal Links

No question, having a solid linking strategy is important, just don’t forget the internal links. Marketers often get so focused on getting external links that internal links get short shrift. They’re both important. 

Internal links help keep visitors on your site longer, which is duly noted by search engines. Internal links also help search engines better navigate your site and can augment the sitemap. If a sitemap directs visitors to a page but it doesn’t have links pointed to it, search engines may consider the page unimportant and index it accordingly.

3. Too Focused on Traffic

Yes, SEO is about getting visitors to your website, but how helpful is it if you’re attracting the wrong ones? 

If you’ve invented the latest, greatest iOS golf app and are trying to attract visitors to your booth at the PGA Merchandise Show, you don’t want Android users showing up (unless, of course, they are ready to switch to an iPhone). Who cares that your briefcase is full of business cards if you’ve attracted the wrong prospects? 

When creating and deploying a SEO strategy, it’s very common for marketers to focus on getting the most visitors possible to the website. All those visitors will look great in Google Analytics, but it’s not going to accomplish your ultimate goal—generating more business. Do you want 10,000 visitors that deliver 10 customers or 1,000 visitors that deliver 20? 

Think CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization). CRO tells you how effectively you are getting the right visitors to your website. It answers the question, Are the visitors I’m attracting converting to customers? Calls to Action (CTAs), such as form fills to download content or watch a webinar, will help determine if you’re attracting the right visitors. If not, it’s time to create better, more compelling content and cast a smaller but more profitable net.

4. Focusing on the Wrong Keywords

Everyone thinks they know about keywords and understand their importance. It’s an important part of an SEO strategy, but it’s common for marketers, even seasoned ones, to get too hung up on the keywords they assume are important. Here’s the issue—without using valuable keyword tools available, it may be hard to focus on the right ones and think like a customer. You may be too close to the messaging and unable to see through customers’ eyes. Also, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed buying behaviors. Customers may be searching for your products or services differently now than they did prior to March 2020.

Also, you need to consider the keywords your competitors are focusing on and here’s why—if you haven’t been, they’ve been building authority related to those keywords. You need to begin filling that gap. If they’re also bidding on those words through paid ads, they have gotten an even bigger lead. You have some catching up to do.

By using SEMrush, you can easily find out the keywords your customers are focusing on. In short, you need to think both like a customer and a competitor. Use Ahrefs to see pages on competitors’ sites that are getting a lot of traffic. It’s a great way to do some detective work on content and keywords that are attracting visitors. Use this information to help craft more high-value content for your website. 

5. Thinking You’re Done

SEO isn’t a set-it-and-forget it proposition. You don’t revisit it every few months. The 5 SEO tactics listed here are some of the more common techniques marketers overlook. If you want SEO to work for you, you’ve got to work at it. Whether all your competitors are focusing on SEO is irrelevant; just know that some definitely are. And they’ll be getting that traffic you want.

Contact the SEO Experts

If you need the help of a digital marketing agency with more than a decade of SEO experience and expertise, Globe Runner is the partner you’re looking for. We are here to help inject your digital marketing initiatives with rocket fuel and launch it to success. If you’re ready to blast off, call us at (972) 472-8528 for a free digital marketing consultation.

Mom used to say, “it’s not what you say, but how you say it.” When it comes to effective keyword strategy, it’s both.

Keywords have long been the building blocks of any solid SEO foundation, but the tactics that reliably drive organic traffic have changed considerably.

Today, if you’re looking to tap into the phrases your customers are actually searching for, you’ll not only have to optimize your site’s content with the right keywords, you’ll probably need to do so for hundreds of other relevant keywords.

First, you have to find them.

Whether you’re trying to get certain key pages to rank higher in SERPs, increase your web traffic, or both, this 2019 guide to keyword research can help.

The Basics of Keyword Research and Search Intent

We’re sure you’re anxious to start finding valuable keywords to add to your website, but let’s start at the beginning.

Keywords are individual words or short phrases that internet users plug into a search engine. Let’s take the most searched keyword on Google for example. Someone might type in the keyword “Facebook” or a phrase like “how do I get more followers on Facebook?” Regardless of what set of words are strung together, the most important aspect of finding the right ones comes down to one thing: search intent.

Search intent, the ultimate goal of the searcher, is different from search volume, which is typically expressed as the number of searches in a month. Keyword intent generally falls into one of four categories:

• Informational: The searcher might have a problem or query they’re looking to solve. Generally these are expressed as “what’s” or “how to’s.” For example, “how to rank higher in Google” would be an informational search intent.
• Navigational: As it sounds, navigational search intent helps the user get to a specific site. For instance, if you were attempting to log in to LinkedIn, you’d likely type that branded inquiry into the search engine to direct you there.
• Commercial investigation: If a user wants to compare two things (SEO vs Paid Advertising) or find the, “best keyword research strategies,” they’re making an investigation intent.
• Transactional: With a transactional intent, someone is ready to take action. Usually, this involves making a purchase or downloading a piece of marketing content.

Brainstorming Keywords

Guessing the best keywords for your site is never a good idea. At the same time, you definitely need a solid jumping-off point, and brainstorming some possible keywords could lead you to the relevant, traffic-increasing phrases you’re after.

As you begin to brainstorm, start with a few basic questions to get the ball rolling:

• What would someone typing this keyword expect to come up?
• What keywords are most relevant to your business, industry, etc.?
• What questions or problems is a user mostly likely to have that your brand can solve?
• What types of content would someone searching this keyword be most interested in?
• What other terms might a customer use to describe what you do? (ie: Digital marketing agency vs. online marketing firm)

Remember that even similar phrasing might have very different intents so start by coming up with as many variations, associated words, and related search topics as you can and test them individually later. Keep a spreadsheet of your ideas and different keyword iterations to help you keep track.

How to Find Long-tail Keywords

Once you have a general idea of the main keywords you’ll be targeting in your copy and content, you’ll want to build on them with long-tail topics.

Despite what the name suggests, long-tail keywords don’t improve your rank and direct web traffic to your site based on their length alone. Instead, these search queries are high in search demand despite their unimpressive search volume. This means less competition for these highly targeted phrases.

Perform some Google searches with the keywords you identified in the step above, then use them to discover additional long-tail keywords by looking critically at the “searches related to” field at the bottom of the page.

Tools to Help with Keyword Research

Not sure how to find keywords on your own? There are several reliable paid and free keyword tools that can help.

Three of our favorites include:

•  Google Keyword Planner. The gold standard in keyword research.
•  Keywordtool.io. To spy on what types of questions people are searching for.
• Keywords everywhere. Simply download the Chrome or Firefox extension to see how often a particular word has been searched for in a given month.

Dad used to say, “Say what you mean, and mean what you say.” Though they may not have known it at the time, your parents actually gave you some sage advice when it comes to executing an effective keyword strategy. Employ a little old wisdom and new-age advice, and you’re sure to have traffic streaming in from all angles.

Need some help keying in on keywords? We’ll give them something to talk about.

The average layperson probably doesn’t give much thought to Google’s search algorithm. As long as they can type their query into the search bar, hit a button, and get relevant results, then they’re happy! However, most business owners and professional bloggers have a vested interest in making sure that their site shows up on the first page of the Google’s search results. If you’re part of the aforementioned demographic, then it’s actually essential for you to know how Google finds and ranks pages.

Here’s the bottom line: a high ranking on a Google search can turn someone who’s never heard of your company into an interested, paying customer. So don’t let technical issues trip you up! Take the time to do things right, and your relationship with Google will be an advantageous one.

A lot of people grumble when they call a business or customer service line and wind up talking to a recording instead of a real person. But how would you feel if you spent several minutes conversing with someone on the phone and then later learned that the “person” you spoke to was actually a computer? This may sound like something straight out of science fiction, but with the advent of Google’s new technology, this scenario may become more and more common in real life!

In this video, we’ll discuss Google Duplex, a program that acts as a “virtual concierge” for consumers. Here’s how it works: if you tell your phone to make you an appointment at a local business, the program won’t just reserve one using an online scheduling interface—it will actually call the business and “speak” to an employee. And it’s so skilled at parsing language and responding in a realistic way that the employee may not realize that they’re talking to a digital application. In fact, the AI was initially so convincing that, after its debut, Google later agreed to add a forewarning of sorts to the digital calls so that people wouldn’t be fooled.

As far we’re concerned, this technology is astonishing, thought-provoking, and maybe just a little bit spooky…

By definition, ‘meta’ describes a thing that refers to itself. The word might also conjure something small. Both of these descriptors appropriately characterize the snippet that HTML tags use to summarize a page’s primary content and focus.

But these brief precursors are no small matter. They’re arguably the most significant determinant for whether or not your site gets visited or passed over by a potential customer.

And yet, in short supply these shorties are not – every second, search engines flash millions of metas in response to search queries. Here’s how to stay above the fray and increase your web traffic with compelling meta descriptions.

More about Metas

Meta descriptions are the short block of text that sits below a suggested website on the search engine results page (SERP) – see below. The space in which they appear is limited, and so are your characters.

In late 2017 Google released an algorithm update that lengthened meta descriptions to 320 characters. Since then, there’s been some debate about length. Our recommendation? Pack in the most critical elements within about 160 characters. Otherwise, you risk all that compelling content being trunked (by the search engines that be).

How do Meta Descriptions Improve your Page Rank?

“Officially” you’ll reap no explicit ranking benefits from your meta descriptions. True, they aren’t directly built into the algorithm, but they still heavily impact your site’s click-through-rate (CTR). This, in turn, tells Google whether or not you’re a good match for specific search queries and subsequently where to order you on the SERP.

Writing Magical Meta Descriptions

Google Dallas SEO agency and you’ll get an onslaught of companies vying for your business. Before a customer ever has the chance to be swayed by your company’s prestigious awards, expert web design, or testimonials, the 2-3 sentences in your meta description will form the basis of their decision.

Meta descriptions are a fantastic way to your showcase services and collect clicks, so long as you:

1. Write them like an elevator pitch. If you had just 15-seconds to make your sell, what would you say? Now’s the time to make sure your words are concentrated and direct, punchy and enticing. There’s no room for fluff. Every syllable counts.
2. Create one for each page. Unique meta descriptions are a critical element of every page on your website. The more context and clarity you can provide up front, the more clicks you can solicit. Give each page the stage for a few brief seconds to capitalize on its full potential.
3. Proofread then re-read. Give your meta copy the same level of care you would a billboard. Though the spacing may be small, the impact is substantial. Typos in your meta descriptions rob you of legitimacy and could very well cost you potential sales.
4. Include a CTA. Whether you want them to learn more about your product, try it out risk-free, or redeem a discount code, the more action-oriented perks you give, the more clicks you’ll get.
5. Make them keyword-focused. You aren’t turning up in searches by pure luck. Users are on the hunt for something specific. Make sure you target that special something with well-researched keywords. Not only does it make the search engines take notice, potential customers will, too.

Get meta with your meta descriptions and optimize them down to the smallest detail. Doing so could mean the difference between ranking on Google’s first page and being crowded out by a louder, more compelling online elevator pitch.

Want to increase your page ranking on Google SERPs? Let us give you a lift.

The Possum update. Yet another animal update from Google. This one actually wasn’t named by Google. The search industry as a whole came up with the name.

What is the Possum update? It specifically addresses the map search portion of Google. It doesn’t address the rest of search. If you are affected by Possum, it would only be the maps or the locations part of your search. I have five points I want to cover about the Possum update.

The first one is separating the maps algorithm and the organic algorithm. Possum really pushes those algorithms apart and we find a stronger differentiator between what shows in maps versus what shows in organic. Back in the day, it was pretty muddled and a little more mixed. Now with Possum, there are very distinct algorithms.

Point two is the location of the searcher. The location of where I am physically standing when I do the search plays a massive part in results. That’s gone up tremendously since Possum. Google has gotten much more sophisticated about picking up the exact location of the searcher and serving the best result based on that location.

It completely makes sense. It’s actually a really good part of this update, I would say.

Another one is outside of city limits or surrounding areas are getting included more often. Before Possum, the name of the city that you were physically in made a big impact.

If I, for instance, looked for plumbing companies in Frisco, I would get plumbing companies that physically were in Frisco. It was less likely that I’d get a plumbing company in a neighboring city, even if that plumbing company was the best result for me.

Now, Google is much more likely to pull results from surrounding cities or adjacent cities into that result if they’re physically in good proximity and have good user reviews and things like that.

Another one is stricter filtering. Stricter filtering applies to a lot of businesses that maybe were trying to game the system a little bit by having locations that maybe weren’t their headquarters or weren’t their main location.

Maybe they had a Regus office or something like that, or maybe they were using their home address as their business address. Google has gotten much better with stricter filtering.

My last point is double location. Google has gotten much better at filtering out double locations. A lot of business owners had a building that they could split into two parts and have two different addresses and try to rank twice for the same search term.

Google has gotten much better identifying that. In fact, they’re going all the way up to the business ownership information to identify facts like these.

Let’s look at an example. Maybe somebody owns two buildings on the same street. There are two different addresses but they are really the same business, even if they have completely different names. Google can identify that through the business ownership information and will now only show one result.

Your likelihood of getting two listings by naming your business two different things has gone down dramatically. Local search has gotten a little more complicated, and just managing your citations is not enough anymore.

We’ve come up with a strategy specifically for Possum to help our clients get better results with these new algorithm updates. If you’d like to learn more about our strategy and have that implemented for you, give us a call. We’d love to talk to you and come up with a strategy that fits your business needs.