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Whether you can hardly remember what SEO is an acronym for (it’s search engine optimization) or you can tick off black hat tricks like nobody’s business, it’s worth taking a refresher from Matt Cutts. He’s the head of Google’s Webspam Team and originally joined the tech giant in 2000 as an engineer. With a PhD in computer Graphics, a master’s and bachelor’s in computer science, and author of the first SafeSearch version—Google’s family filter—he’s a pretty hefty top dog in the world of SEO.

In April 2014, Cutts released a video on his official Google blog aimed at debunking the biggest SEO myths that just won’t die. Basically, he split everything into two key be locally seo googlecategories: Ads along with their influence on scoring organic results, and fast fixes that can allegedly “break” the Google algorithm. Of course, there’s a lot of other misinformation out there, but Cutts considers these two camps the most frustrating. But what about them exactly is false?

Debunking the Ad Rumors

Cutts noted that a lot of people say Google changes organic results in order to favor those who buy ads. They see it like a Publisher’s Clearinghouse approach where the more you buy, the better your odds of winning the jackpot. In the world of SEO, the “jackpot” is Google’s top ranking for your keywords and phrases. However, he says this is completely untrue—but it does make some people feel better when they can’t quite make the top spot.

He points out that there’s truly only room for one at the top, and your odds of getting it decrease when facing a more competitive market. For example, if you’re the only hot yoga teacher in a rural area, it’s probably going to be pretty easy to rank number one for “hot yoga Nowheresville,” whether you buy ads or not. On the other hand, if you’re one of several florists that ship around the country and don’t have a geo-target, good luck taking on the biggies like 1800 Flowers and FTD for “order flowers” as a key phrase.

Stop Looking for a Shortcut

When it comes to quick fixes and breaking algorithms, Cutts simply points to the abundance of what he calls “groupthink” in black hat forums. It’s easy to get a rumor started, and the thrill of trying to break a Google design is tempting. You can easily spend hours, days, or even weeks trying to find that shortcut—but Cutts says they don’t exist, and even if they did are you really saving time or effort at this point?

Perusing forums, you’ll find that some gossip mongers hawk guest blogging as a tactic, others say link wheels, and then somebody else comes up with an entirely new theory. If one person says X tactic works like a charm, they’ll send everyone on a wild Panda chase. The truth, according to Cutts, is that if a real loophole existed, it would have been well taken advantage of and addressed long ago. Plus, it’s kind of like finding a massive gold treasure trove—you keep that secret to yourself and don’t share the address with the world.

The fact is that SEO is both a skill and an art that requires a variety of white hat techniques over time to produce results. Anyone who promises to get you to number one in 90 days or less is not only lying to you but clearly does not know anything about internet marketing.

Rich snippets are an increasingly important piece of the SEO landscape. One study suggests that they can increase your click through rates by up to 30%, regardless of what position you hold in the search results. They can also improve your search rankings and give searchers a better sense of what information is on your website. Consider the following example, which shows the Google search engine results for a search for “blueberry pie recipes.”

be locally seo rich snippets

 

The first example displays significantly more information. You quickly can see user reviews, how long the recipe takes to make, and even the calorie count. The second result, while probably equally good, feels scant by comparison. More detailed information is the result of using rich snippets.

What are the benefits of rich snippets?

There are four primary benefits of using rich snippets, from both an SEO and user experience perspective:

  1. Rich snippets help increase the visibility of your site, by enhancing the chances that your results will display a thumbnail image and other information.
  2. They improve the quality of the information that you provide to people viewing your site description, resulting in a better user experience.
  3. Snippets potentially help your site rank better overall in the search engine results, as Google is able to provide better results to their searchers thanks to the more detailed information.
  4. Reduce bounce rates, as more information increases the relationship between searcher’s expectations and on-page content.

How do rich snippets operate?

Rich snippets enable Google to extract more than the usual information from your site. In addition to page titles, URLs, and basic descriptions, rich snippets allow you to highlight information such as author data, images, and logistical details. For example, if you have a restaurant you could include information about reviews and star ratings, average menu prices, and hours of operation. If you’re promoting an event, you could provide information about the location, date, and ticket prices. As you specify this microdata through some simple coding, Google is able to read the information and integrate it with your listing. Let’s take a closer look at the different types of Snippets.

Types of Snippets

In order to simplify the process, Google has provided different types of snippets that webmasters can use to categorize their data. Several are particularly useful to small businesses. These include:

Author snippets: This highlights your name, displays your Google + image, the number of followers you have on the Google + network, and links to other articles of yours as connected to the Google Authorship program.

Business snippets: Business snippets provide detailed information about location, contact data, pricing details, hours of operation, and reviews if applicable.

Product snippets: Product snippets include descriptions, cost, images, and product ranges.

While these three types of snippets are the most relevant for most small business owners, it’s possible to take advantage of the other snippets types as well. These include people snippets, event snippets, album snippets, video snippets, recipe snippets, and review snippets.

Making the most of snippets

If you’re interested in learning more about the programming behind rich snippets and the markup that you need to use in order to implement them on your site, Google’s in-depth tutorial can get you started. To test the effectiveness of your snippets, use Google’s Structured Testing Tool. Finally, be aware that it can take up to 30 days for rich snippets to be properly crawled, indexed, and displayed in the search results. Once it does, you can expect to see an increase in your traffic and ultimately in your rankings.

Rich snippets can have a big impact on your search visibility, click through rates, and organic traffic. But getting started with rich snippets and the markup needed to make them happen can be a challenge for a novice. Contact us today to discuss how our experienced SEO team can evaluate your overall strategy and work with you to implement rich snippets and other search engine best practices into your online marketing plan.

 

Keeping up with Google is challenging—especially when you’re talking about search engine optimization (SEO). Changes are constantly being made, and understanding what Google wants is crucial to controlling where your website is in search rankings. Of the algorithm incarnations over the years, Hummingbird made its debut in August 2013 and with it came massive changes. Today, businesses are still struggling with a sharp learning curve. And if you don’t have an SEO guru? You’re falling behind.

 

be-locally-seo-search-engine-optimization-300x97Hummingbird required big modifications to previously successful web marketing campaigns as well as SEO approaches. A good SEO strategy audits websites to glean current perspectives of what SEO efforts are working and which aren’t. Post-Hummingbird, business website rankings were all over the place—some instantly improved, others plateaued and yet others started slipping. What does Hummingbird want?

The Sweet Stuff

Just like the bird it was named after, Hummingbird wants the good stuff—but there’s a shift in methods necessary to get there. For example, you need a solid internal link structure as well as overall architecture designed to help consumers navigate your website easily. This means lightning fast page loading, clear sitemaps and high quality images. It’s the end-user experience that really (still matters). But at the end, it’s what’s on the page that gets them there.

For a while, there were rumors that the basic elements on pages no longer mattered much. That’s not true. Those ALT image tags, title tags, H1 tags and URLs still play a huge SEO role. In fact, they seem to be more important than ever. Solely focusing on these on-page elements have helped some businesses drastically improve their SEO. However, content is still key.

Beating a Dead Hummingbird

You’ve heard it time and time again, but it bears repeating—content is at the heart of SEO. Hummingbird agrees. Stay away from duplicate content, keep the quality premium, and remember that audience relevance is crucial. Hummingbird has responded favorably to sites that are accurate, consistent, and customer-focused. The bird wants sites to have one goal: Benefit the customer (and make it really obvious for Google).

To get on the fast track, make sure all content is natural—which will require a skilled SEO writer (not your college intern majoring in English). Make use of website signage and URLs, which should also read conversationally and point visitors where they want to go. Updated title tags lower bounce-back rates, while accurate meta descriptions and title tags should showcase what the page content has. Strong geo-targeting can garner great results for companies focused on local areas.

Bonus Round

To seal the deal, ensure your architecture is intuitive and reveres clear navigation. Your visitors aren’t Alice in Wonderland (and don’t want to be). Finally, make sure your site has responsive design and works in a mobile world. It’s slated that mobile users will outrank desktop users in 2014, and if you don’t keep up, you’ll lose visitors. Hummingbird isn’t a brand new species of algorithm, but it is quickly fluttering into the evolution of Google. It’s simply taking previous algorithm lessons and building on them.

 

As a business owner, you need to focus on search engine optimization (SEO) and maybe even local SEO (LSEO). It’s what drives traffic to your site, improves your click through rate (CTR), and ultimately can lead to new customers. However, your SEO toolbox needs to be packed well, and that includes using “Schema” to make it happen. This sole tool can better direct targeted traffic to your site, converting “potential customers” into full blown leads.

Schema consists of a certain data markup structure that all the major search engines have embraced since 2011. Whether your customers use Bing, Yahoo!, Google or maybe even be locally seo schemaYandex, these search engines are leaning on Schema structures more than ever before. If your SEO incorporates it, you automatically make your SEO better. It all starts with Schema’s focus on “rich snippets” which better catch the reader’s eye, whether you’re number one or number three on Google search results.

Get Rich Quick

“Snippets” are those (aptly named) snippets of information you get about certain links when searching online. Let’s say you’ve Googled “florist Salt Lake City.” You’re going to get dozens of Google pages, but (studies show) you’re never going to look beyond the first page and probably not beyond the first five results. You’ll notice the results have a link, URL, and a few words displayed about the page. However, not all snippets are created equally.

A “rich snippet” that utilizes Schema might have reviews, a complementary photo, and a drastically improved link visibility. Studies using eye tracking heat maps show that people are more inclined to click on a rich snippet than a regular one, even if the rich snippet is number four on Google search results. You may not be able to make it to the number one spot for your keywords of choice, but you can certainly employ rich snippets to get more CTRs.

Great Things Come in Small Packages

Schema is a way to increase your organic leads—ultimately helping your business grow. It’s made up of “microdata” which is read and translated by every big search engine. “Microdata” is created via “tag sets” (which were released with HTML 5) and allows you to mark up your website using vocabulary that engines like Google and Yahoo! understand. For the most part, this microdata is either Microformats or RDFA.

Algorithms that translate data, and determine your SEO standing, prefer simplicity and to-the-point information. Don’t make search engines “guess” what your content is. They want things to be structured and easy, and Schema gives you the tools necessary to properly label content and categorize them. Schema is the Martha Stewart of SEO, it makes sure things are incredibly organized but looking gorgeous, too. Get those ratings, breadcrumbs, images, and relevant listings in the public eye with Schema—it’s an accessory to your SEO campaign that you simply can’t go without.

You may have heard over and over how important “quality content” is with your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. However, quality is more than providing digestible content that’s informative or entertaining, and gives your target audience what they want. Let’s go back to the basics for a minute and focus on two key things your fourth grade teacher warned you about: spelling and grammar. Spell-check is a great tool, but don’t depend on it to keep your writing anywhere near perfect.

In February 2019, search engine giant Bing confirmed what the SEO pro’s have thought for years—grammar and spelling can make a huge difference with your SEO. That lastbe locally seo grammar and spelling sentence was a doozy, but spell-check would only have caught a few of those mistakes. SEO may certainly be an acronym for something (just not what you intend), and if Bing is confirming things years in the future, maybe it really does deserve to be formidable competition for Google.

Search Engines are Judging You

You know when you’re reading a book or the newspaper and you’re in the zone, then you get pulled out of it because of a typo or (even worse) a genuine spelling mistake? Not only does your flow get interrupted, but you probably think whoever published or wrote this piece isn’t the most professional person. The Senior Product Manager of Webmaster Outreach at Bing, Duane Forrester, says, “If you struggle to get past typos, why would an engine show a page of content with errors higher in the rankings when other pages of error-free content exist to serve the searcher?”

In other words, search engines are judging your writing just like a “real” reader does. Google hasn’t confirmed this as clearly as Bing, but the head of Google’s Webspam Team, Matt Cutts, has come close. Back in 2011 (and yes, that’s the correct year), Cutts hinted that there’s a strong connection between PageRank and spelling. Google is known for constantly updating its algorithm, and it would be foolish to think that spelling doesn’t play a factor.

A Tip from HR Departments

Some recruiters have “basic” red flags that automatically move applications into the slush pile. In the world of Human Resources, there are so many applicants rolling in that any excuse to reject some is a good thing. The same works with search engines: There are thousands of potential websites and links to choose from, and if search engines can “reject” yours because of spelling or grammar, then why wouldn’t they?

A good editor costs money and it’s an easy shortcut to get as many eyes on the content as possible to avoid embarrassing (and SEO-harming) errors. The best approach is to partner up with an SEO company that reveres the importance of comprehensive quality content so you don’t have to face an embarrassing faux pas. It’s all too easy to leave the “L” out of “public service.”

Many current and prospective clients ask how an active blog helps attract traffic, leads, and customers to their business. We’d go so far as to say that an active blog is the be locally seo bloggingbedrock of a successful SEO campaign. Consider this: a striking 81% of consumers trust information from blogs. Regularly updating your blog has far reaching consequences for your business, from improving organic SEO rankings to building your brand with customers and prospects. Here’s a closer look at how an active blog can help you achieve your SEO goals.

Blogs add fresh content: With Google’s Panda update which launched in 2011, one of the criteria that the search engine giant rolled into its algorithm was a freshness component. The Freshness Update remains in full force today. The concept is simple: the more regularly your site is updated with new, high quality content, the better it will perform in the search engine results. A frequently updated blog is one of the easiest and most natural ways to do that.

More opportunities to rank for priority key terms: Another benefit of active blogging that’s not frequently discussed is indexing. As you add new content to your site, Google’s search bots come back to index your new content. Each new piece of content in turn represents a fresh opportunity to rank for your priority keywords. One Forbes expert aptly described it as “each blog post serving as another entry into the SEO raffle.”

Regular content inspires trust: Regularly updating your blog has several relationship building benefits with your audience. From a customer perspective, it shows that you’re active and engaged in your business. Customers looking for credibility indicators are more likely to trust a business with an active blogging and social presence. In fact, one study showed that 81% of customers expect companies they do business with to have an active online presence. Blogs also provide a natural opportunity to showcase your expertise, share up to date commentary of factors influencing your customers, and address your audience’s most frequently asked questions.

Blog content helps build new links: Companies that blog attract 97% more links. There are a number of reasons for this – blog posts that are fresh and timely are more likely to be shared and noticed. Blog posts also allow you to discuss a wide range of topics that interest your audience. From an SEO perspective, this is critical. The more you can do to create opportunities for organic link building, the better.

Blog frequency impacts customer acquisition: Blogs improve lead generation numbers throughout the buying cycle. 92% of companies that blogged daily attracted a customer through their blog but at least once weekly is a good baseline to get started.

Developing your blog gives you a channel you control: From Google algorithm changes to Facebook decreasing the reach of Business pages to somewhere in the 1 – 5% of followers range, depending exclusively on outside platforms for your marketing leaves you at the mercy of the industry’s changing forces. Focusing on developing channels that you own – such as your blog and your email marketing list – ensure that your communication efforts and customer relationships stay intact regardless of algorithm or other industry shifts.

An active blog is a core component of any successful SEO strategy. From providing opportunities to connect with your customers to make it easier to attract natural links, there are numerous benefits. What impact are you seeing an active blog have on your business?

 

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