Recently I have spotted a test that Google is doing that prominently displays how long a business has been open: This is something I have only spotted a few times so it is something Google is testing and is not fully rolled out. Google is taking this from the opening...

Posted by MiriamEllis Image credit: Sharon Mollerus A new client comes to your digital marketing agency and says their competitors are stuck to the local packs like mussels cleaved to coastal rock. “How do we edge our way up in Google’s local finder, and find our place above the tideline? We don’t even know where to begin,” the local business owner says. The rough truth is that Google’s local search engine results often don’t make sense at first glance, or even at second or third glances. Local brands are left to puzzle out how to achieve maximum growth when they’re consistently being outranked by sticky competition for their core search phrases. Methodology About a year ago, I decided to run a study in which I’d track a local finder for a single query — “breakfast (X city)” — to see if anything brands or the public did over the course …

Search Engine Land’s daily brief features daily insights, news, tips, and essential bits of wisdom for today’s search marketer. If you would like to read this before the rest of the internet does, sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox daily. Good morning, Marketers, and how much do you automate in your job and life? My spouse loves to talk about automation in modern workplaces. He believes that robots will eventually be able to replace us all on the job. And while he may be right… one day , I think for now, they’re often a great complement to what we do as search marketers. We can use automation to create ad copy and meta descriptions (see the new data below on how often Google rewrites these), search testing, and ads research. Automation makes our lives easier so much of the time. However, there’s definitely something to …

Local SEO is important. In fact, 46% of all searches on Google are local . That means if you’re a local business and you don’t have your local SEO in order, you’re missing an opportunity every time someone searches for your products or services online. And there’s a lot of people searching. About 89% of people search for a local business on their smartphone at least once a week, with 58% searching daily. And from that search, 72% will visit a store within five miles . These searchers are unlikely to find you if your local SEO is poor. What, Exactly, Is Local SEO? Local SEO is the practice of increasing the online visibility of local businesses. It’s similar organic SEO , but with an added geographical component. Specifically, you’re aiming to rank high in the search engine result pages (SERPs) for local searches. There’s no point in a New …

Posted by MiriamEllis Image credit: J.B. Hill What’s the good of a survey if it doesn’t result in at least a few surprises? I know my own eyebrows leapt skyward when the data first came in from the Moz State of the Local SEO Industry 2020 Survey and I saw that, in a break with tradition, participants had placed user-to-business proximity at a lowly third place in terms of influencing Google local pack rankings. Just a year ago, our respondents had voted it #1. If you’re feeling startled, too, here’s our chance to take a more granular look at the data and see if we can offer some useful theories for proximity’s drop in perceived dominance. First, a quick definition of user-to-business proximity What do local SEOs mean when they speak of user-to-business proximity? Imagine an Internet searcher is standing in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, looking on their …

Posted by MiriamEllis Image credit: J.B. Hill What’s the good of a survey if it doesn’t result in at least a few surprises? I know my own eyebrows leapt skyward when the data first came in from the Moz State of the Local SEO Industry 2020 Survey and I saw that, in a break with tradition, participants had placed user-to-business proximity at a lowly third place in terms of influencing Google local pack rankings. Just a year ago, our respondents had voted it #1. If you’re feeling startled, too, here’s our chance to take a more granular look at the data and see if we can offer some useful theories for proximity’s drop in perceived dominance. First, a quick definition of user-to-business proximity What do local SEOs mean when they speak of user-to-business proximity? Imagine an Internet searcher is standing in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, looking on their …

Posted by MiriamEllis Image credit: J.B. Hill What’s the good of a survey if it doesn’t result in at least a few surprises? I know my own eyebrows leapt skyward when the data first came in from the Moz State of the Local SEO Industry 2020 Survey and I saw that, in a break with tradition, participants had placed user-to-business proximity at a lowly third place in terms of influencing Google local pack rankings. Just a year ago, our respondents had voted it #1. If you’re feeling startled, too, here’s our chance to take a more granular look at the data and see if we can offer some useful theories for proximity’s drop in perceived dominance. First, a quick definition of user-to-business proximity What do local SEOs mean when they speak of user-to-business proximity? Imagine an Internet searcher is standing in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, looking on their …

Are you a local business that serves customers at a physical address? Then you must snatch the golden opportunity to grab consumer attention with the ultimate local guide, on a mobile device including the iPhone and iPad as well as all Android device products. ⅓ of mobile searches are based on location. Overall, local searches are growing 50% faster than overall mobile searches. As of 2013, 70% of searchers used the “ click-to-call ” function directly from the search engine result pages (SERPs). Searches including the phrase “best place to buy” with the applicable product or service keyword grew by 70% between 2015 and 2018. “Near me” searches also rose by 500% in recent years. These include searches like “car dealerships near me” and “wedding dresses near me.” Google also realizes that your business is ‘special.’ And, it released an algorithmic update, in July, 2014, to favor local businesses for …

Posted by MiriamEllis Local businesses know better than any other model what it means to fully participate in community life. You are the good neighbors who are there to serve, inspire, and sustain the people and traditions that make your town a unique and enjoyable place to call home. As we explore this topic of what local businesses can do during the COVID-19 pandemic, I want to honor all that you have always done to take care of your community as a local business owner or marketer. Thank you. In this article, you will find local SEO tips that could make a difference for your business in the coming weeks, innovative resources for support, advice from my own tight-knit community of some of the world’s best local SEOs, and some serious thinking about building a better local future. Adhere to all regulations First and foremost, start each day with a …

If you have a website that publishes content, you know there’s one thing that’s super important… monetizing your traffic. You’ve poured tons of time and effort into creating a great site, and there’s nothing better than turning all that hard work into cash. But monetizing your site isn’t as easy as it might seem at first. To get the most out of it, you’ll need to utilize some solid strategies. Strategies for Monetizing Traffic to Your Website There are a lot of ways to monetize your website. I’ll explain a few of the most common ones below. But first, let’s talk about traffic: The More Traffic You Have, the Easier It Will Be to Monetize Your Site. Some of the common ways to monetize a website (like running ads) won’t necessarily be worth it until you have a certain amount of traffic. There are still ways you can monetize a …