In part one of this two-part blog series, we looked at some of the important basics and value of local reviews within your SEO or other digital marketing campaign. Reviews are often very important for businesses of all kinds, and local reviews tend to carry particular importance for many due to proximity to clients.
At Be Locally, we're here to offer an extensive range of SEO and other digital marketing services, including local SEO, web design, PPC services and more. Today's part two of our series will shift gears a bit and look at some of the top ways you can organically generate local reviews, the problems with fake reviews and why you should never consider them, and how to manage your review content over time.
There are several ways to generate local reviews organically, meaning through genuine and legitimate means that follow the rules of review platforms. These include:
While it may be tempting to try and boost your ratings with fake reviews, it is never a good idea and can actually do more harm than good. Not only is it against the terms of service for many review platforms, but it also damages your credibility and trust with potential customers. Additionally, platforms such as Google have advanced algorithms that detect fake reviews and will penalize your business accordingly.
As your business grows and your online presence evolves, it's important to regularly monitor and manage your review content. This includes responding to reviews in a timely and professional manner, addressing any negative feedback constructively, and seeking out opportunities for improvement based on customer reviews.
In addition, you can also analyze your review data to identify patterns or areas of improvement within your business. This information can be invaluable in shaping your marketing and business strategies moving forward.
At Be Locally, we understand the importance of local reviews and their impact on your overall digital presence. Our team of experts can help you develop a comprehensive review management strategy that aligns with your business goals and values. Contact us today to learn more about our services and how we can help your business thrive locally.
There are a few potential elements of a locally targeted SEO campaign that can be extremely important to your brand's visibility and success, and online reviews are a great example. While reviews can be important for varying SEO and digital marketing campaigns, they tend to hold particular weight for local campaigns where people in a given area are looking for a product or service and comparing their options.
At Be Locally, we're proud to assist clients with a wide range of online marketing and SEO solutions, including local SEO for various businesses that may benefit from it. In this two-part blog series, we'll discuss everything you should know about reviews for your local search campaign - why they're important, how to get them, how to manage your reputation and boost your review quality, and more.
While most readers have at least a general understanding of how reviews work, it's important to understand their specific mechanics. Let's think about Google reviews, which are some of the most common and important types for local SEO:
Within any local campaign, reviews are extremely important for a few key reasons. For starters, they provide valuable social proof for potential customers who are considering your business. Seeing positive reviews can increase trust and credibility in the eyes of consumers, making them more likely to choose your business over competitors.
Additionally, as mentioned previously, reviews play a role in search rankings. Google's algorithm takes into account the quality and quantity of reviews when determining where a business should rank in local searches. This means that having a strong review presence can directly impact your visibility and search performance.
Furthermore, reviews also allow for customer feedback and give businesses the opportunity to improve their products or services based on this feedback. Responding to negative reviews and addressing any issues can demonstrate excellent customer service and show a commitment to improving the overall customer experience.
In part two of our series, we'll go over some tips on how to get positive reviews, how to manage your review reputation, how to respond to certain kinds of reviews, and more. At Be Locally, we understand the importance of online reviews for local SEO and are here to help your business succeed in this area. Stay tuned for more helpful insights in our next blog post!
In part one of this two-part blog series, we looked at some of the important areas to keep in mind if you have a limited budget for your website's SEO content, but still want to succeed in this vital area. It's definitely possible to achieve great content that helps draw in customers to your site even if you have limited dollars to spend, especially if you know what you're doing and are working with professionals who are in the same boat.
At Be Locally, we're here to offer a wide range of SEO and other digital marketing solutions, including local SEO, PPC, social media marketing and more. While part one of our series looked at topics like content plans, use of technology and the prioritization of quality over quantity, today's part two will dig into some other specific approaches to achieving strong SEO content despite a limited budget.
One important topic when it comes to SEO content for any budget level is the idea of outsourcing. Outsourcing some or all of your SEO content needs to a professional agency like Be Locally can often provide significant value and save time, meaning it's an efficient use of budget dollars.
Now, deciding whether to outsource or not is often a budget-based decision. But in some cases, even if you're trying to save money, it may make sense to invest in outsourcing certain aspects of your SEO content. This might include tasks like keyword research and optimization, content creation and distribution, or technical SEO work – these areas are all crucial for strong SEO performance but can be time-consuming and require specialized knowledge. At Be Locally, we have the expertise and resources to handle these tasks efficiently and effectively, helping you get the most out of your budget.
Another budget-friendly approach to SEO content is finding ways to re-use or repurpose past content. This can save time and money while still providing valuable material for your audience. For example, you might take a popular blog post from the past and turn it into an infographic, video or podcast episode that can be shared on various channels.
Similarly, look for opportunities to update or expand on past content that may have performed well in the past. Maybe you can add new statistics or research, update images, or provide a fresh perspective to keep it relevant and engaging for your audience.
Finally, don't underestimate the power of user-generated content (UGC) when it comes to SEO efforts. Not only is UGC often more authentic and engaging than branded content, but it can also save you time and resources. By encouraging customers to share their experiences or reviews on your website or social media channels, you can create a valuable source of SEO-friendly content that will help drive traffic to your site.
Overall, with some strategic planning and the right approach, it's entirely possible to achieve successful SEO content even on a limited budget. And with Be Locally as your partner, we'll work closely with you to make the most of every dollar and help your business thrive in the competitive digital landscape. Contact us today to learn more about our services and how we can help boost your SEO performance despite budget constraints.
There are a few needs that are absolutely vital within any sort of SEO or digital marketing program, and creation of quality content is at or near the top of any such list. For companies with limited budgets to put toward content, never fear - there are a variety of robust ways to generate good content even without breaking the bank.
At Be Locally, content creation is just one of numerous areas we're proud to assist clients with as we help them with SEO programs, web design services, social media marketing solutions and various other parts of the online marketing sphere. Here are some basic tips we offer clients who are working with limited budgets on how to still ensure they have great content across their sites and other important areas within digital marketing, across this two-part blog series.
One of the single most important steps throughout the content generation process is planning and mapping out what you're going to create. This stage allows companies with limited budgets to be more efficient with their efforts, ensuring they don't waste time or resources on content that won't have a positive impact.
For instance, using tools like Google Analytics can give you an idea of what kind of content your audience is drawn to, and what keywords they're searching for. This information can then be used to plan content that will attract and engage your target audience. Additionally, creating a monthly or quarterly content calendar can help you stay organized and on track with your content creation goals.
As you're planning and creating content, there are various technology and tools you can use to help make the process easier and more efficient. For example, many SEO programs offer keyword research tools that can help you find relevant keywords to target in your content. There are also numerous free or affordable graphic design and video editing tools available online for those looking to incorporate visual elements into their content.
There are also now more and more AI-based content creation tools on the market that can help generate written articles or social media posts with minimal human input. While these tools may not be able to fully replace human creativity and writing ability, they can still be helpful for those on a tight budget.
One major mistake that companies with limited budgets often make is trying to produce as much content as possible, thinking this will increase their online presence. However, quality should always take priority over quantity when it comes to digital marketing.
In fact, search engines like Google value high-quality, informative and engaging content over a large quantity of mediocre content. So don't feel pressured to constantly churn out new content - instead, focus on making each piece of content the best it can be.
In part two of our series, we'll cover more tips for generating good content on a budget, including leveraging user-generated content and repurposing existing content. Check back soon! For more on this or any of our SEO and digital marketing solutions, contact our team at Be Locally today.
In part one of this two-part blog series, we looked at some of the basic differences between goals and KPIs (key performance indicators) within your SEO and other digital marketing programs. Both these terms speak to general objectives you have for your business and the metrics you're using to track and accomplish them, and both are vital for your long-term SEO efforts.
At Be Locally, we're happy to assist clients with a wide range of SEO solutions, including proper goal and KPI planning and management throughout your campaign. While most of part one of our series focused primarily on goals, which are broad objectives for your business's SEO efforts, today's part two will look at KPIs - what they are, why they're vital, and some top examples of them within SEO.
As we alluded to in part one of our series, KPIs are specific metrics or data points that are used to measure the success of your SEO campaign. Unlike goals, which may be broader in nature and encompass several related objectives, KPIs are more precise and make it easier to track overall progress.
This is why many professional digital marketers refer to them as key performance indicators - they provide a snapshot of how well you're doing with your efforts at any given point in time. And as with goals, it's important to set KPIs in the beginning and track them regularly to make sure you're on the right path to achieving your overall SEO objectives.
So which specific metrics might serve as solid KPI examples within an SEO program? Here are a few of the most commonly-used:
There are also many other KPIs you might track depending on your specific objectives, from bounce rate and time on site to click-through rates (CTRs) and overall engagement metrics.
For more on this or any of our SEO services, speak to the staff at Be Locally today. We're dedicated to helping our clients reap the full benefits of strong goals and KPIs within SEO.
There are a few key concepts when it comes to managing SEO and other digital marketing efforts for your business, and working toward basic goals is at the top of this list. Ensuring you know your most important goals and KPIs (key performance indicators) makes a huge difference in organizing and optimizing your entire online marketing approach.
At Be Locally, we're happy to help with everything from local SEO to web design, social media marketing and more for any business looking to expand their digital reach. In this two-part blog series, we'll go over both goals and KPIs - what both are, how they differ, and some examples of each. Today's part one will go over goals, while part two will dig into KPIs in more detail.
Before we get to those details, however, let's define both goals and KPIs. Goals are the general objectives you have for your business or marketing efforts - they can be long-term or short-term, but they represent what you ultimately want to achieve.
KPIs, on the other hand, are specific metrics used to measure progress towards those goals. They should be quantifiable and measurable, making it easy to track progress and see if you're on target to meet your goals.
Within SEO and any other element of digital marketing, having clear and defined goals is critical. There are several reasons for this:
Goals will vary for each business, but some common examples of digital marketing goals include:
In part two, we'll delve into KPIs and how they relate to these goals. Stay tuned!
At Be Locally, we're dedicated to helping businesses achieve their digital marketing goals. Contact us today for a free consultation and see how we can help your business grow online!
There are a few concepts that play a major role in SEO and online marketing in general, and links are definitely on this list. There are a number of things to be considering within the world of website backlinks, and one of the most important is steering clear of spammy or otherwise undesirable links that, rather than contributing positively to your site's visibility and popularity, actually do the opposite.
At Be Locally, we're proud to assist with a huge range of SEO services for clients across numerous industries, and link-building and management are key elements of these programs. In this two-part blog series, we'll go over what backlinks are and why they matter, why staying away from spammy links is so important, and some specific types of spammy or otherwise poor links to stay away from.
For those who are just learning about SEO, backlinks are links from another page pointing back to a page on your website. These can be incredibly powerful when it comes to increasing the visibility and popularity of your site online, as they allow for other websites and sources to point towards you.
Despite this power, there's one thing that you must never do in the world of backlinks: accept spam. Generally speaking, "spam" is defined as any link that has been forged or created with the sole purpose of increasing artificial page rank in search engine results. This can include links on foreign websites and other sites that are not related to your content, links with overly-optimized anchor text, and more.
Our next several sections, and on into part two of our series, will go over specific forms of undesirable links, plus why they're problematic and how to steer clear of them.
While they're less common in recent years as Google has cracked down on them, link-mill websites are still out there. These sites are designed to create a web of backlinks between pages, all for the purpose of increasing SEO rank. The vast majority of these links will do nothing beneficial for your site - in fact, some could even have negative impacts on your online visibility.
Be sure that any backlinks you accept come from respected, authoritative sources. Never accept links on link-mill sites - or any other type of spammy website, for that matter.
This is a bit of a more nuanced problem - but it's still problematic. Whereas link-mill links are obviously created for the purpose of manipulating search engine rankings, some websites may offer backlinks with seemingly good intentions.
The problem is that these "good intentions" don't factor in the potential harm they could do to your online visibility - and even if you can get traffic from them, it won't be of the same quality as from respected, authoritative sources.
It's best to steer clear of any website that looks like it might have been created for the purpose of spamming - this includes sites with long urls, ones with a large number of outbound links, and those that are obviously selling backlinks or other SEO services.
In part two of our series, we'll cover a few more types of spammy links, plus methods you can use to check whether or not a link has the potential to help - or hurt - your website's SEO rank. Stay tuned! In the meantime, contact us today at Be Locally for any assistance with backlinks and other SEO-related services. We're here to help you take your online visibility to the next level!
There are several forms of pages that may be valuable to your SEO and digital marketing efforts, and one important type here are location pages. What are these pages, and what are some of the key elements that should often be included in these pages?
At Be Locally, we're happy to offer a wide range of SEO and digital marketing services, including local SEO and many others. Let's go over what location pages are and why they are often important for your marketing efforts, plus go over some of the key elements you may want to include in your location pages, across this two-part blog series.
If you're unfamiliar with location pages, they are simply pages on your website that focus on a specific geographic location. This can be a city, state, country, or other such area. These pages are important for several reasons.
For one, they help you to target potential customers in specific locations. If someone searches for something like "restaurants near me," your location pages can come up and help to bring them to your business. Additionally, if you have a brick-and-mortar store or other physical locations, these pages can be used to list each individual location, complete with important information like the address, hours of operation, phone number, and more.
Location pages are also beneficial for SEO purposes. They can help you to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), which in turn can lead to more website visitors and potential customers. And, they can be a great way to build up your backlink profile, as you can include links to your location pages on other websites and online directories.
As you're creating location pages, having unique content is extremely valuable. Our next several sections, and on into part two of our series, will go over some of the content and related elements it often pays to include in your pages.
Using Google My Business is one of the simplest ways to get started with local SEO. This is a free platform from Google that allows you to list your business, complete with important information like your hours, address, phone number, and more. Once you've completed your listing, it will appear in SERPs when potential customers search for related terms.
Your pages should also include paragraph content discussing your locations. This is a great opportunity to include important information like your hours of operation, special offerings, and anything else that may be of interest to potential customers. You can also use this space to discuss your company's history, if you have multiple locations, and more.
Another vital element to include on your location page is your hours of operation. This lets potential customers know when they can come and visit you, and can help to avoid any disappointed customers who show up outside of your hours. You'll also want to include your name, address, and phone number (NAP), so that potential customers have all the information they need.
In part two of our series, we'll go over some additional elements to include in location pages for SEO. For more on this, or to learn about any of our SEO, PPC or other online marketing solutions, speak to our team at Be Locally today.
In part one of this two-part blog series, we went over some basics on the realm of topical authority in SEO and digital marketing. Referring to how much authority and reputation your brand has built up within your field, topical authority is a valuable metric that helps with everything from improved SEO rankings to increased customer interest.
At Be Locally, we're happy to assist with a wide range of your possible SEO needs, including authoritative content and other solutions that will help in this area. In today's part two of our series, we'll look at some simple tactics for how to build a strong topical authority on any website or page you're creating for your brand.
One of the single most important aspects of building topical authority is making sure you're thoroughly researching the topic at hand. Not only does this help you to avoid any potential issues later on down the road, but it also ensures that your brand will be perceived as an expert or leader in the field.
To get started, try to look up other content that's been written on the topic. See what others are saying, and find any potential holes in the current conversation that your brand could fill. Additionally, be sure to use only the most reliable sources for your research. This will help to further build up your brand's reputation as a go-to source of information.
From a technical standpoint, one of the best ways to build topical authority is to focus on creating what's known as a content "cluster." This essentially means creating a group of content pieces (usually blog posts) that all revolve around a similar topic or keyword.
To do this, start by identifying what's known as a "pillar" piece of content. This will be a longer, more in-depth article that thoroughly covers the chosen topic. Once you have this piece, you can then create a number of "cluster" articles that link back to the pillar. These cluster pieces can be shorter and more focused, but should still provide valuable information to your readers -- especially if you "map" them all correctly.
Mapping is the process of planning out all your content pieces in advance, and making sure that they all link back to each other in a logical way. This can be done manually with a simple spreadsheet, or you can use one of the many mapping tools that are available online.
Another great way to build topical authority is to make sure you're sharing your content in all the right places. This involves more than just posting it on your own website or blog, but also making sure it gets in front of the right people on social media, forums and other websites.
To do this effectively, you'll need to first research where your target audience is spending their time online. Once you know this, you can then focus on sharing your content in those specific places. Additionally, be sure to always include a link back to your website or blog whenever possible. This will help to increase traffic to your site, and also make it more likely that people will see your brand as an authority.
For more on this topic, or to learn about any of our SEO, PPC or other digital marketing services, speak to our team at Be Locally today.
Authority is one of the most important concepts within digital marketing and the SEO world, and there are several different forms of authority that may play a key role in your efforts here. One of the most notable and possibly significant such forms is known as topical authority -- what exactly is this?
At Be Locally, our team of search engine optimization (SEO) experts is happy to explain a variety of different terms or industry concepts to our clients -- and to show you how these themes may factor into your own company's marketing decisions. What do those in our sector mean when they talk about topical authority, why is it important for your business, and what can you do (in coordination with our team of professionals) to improve it? This two-part blog series will discuss everything you need to know.
As its name somewhat indicates, topical authority refers to how much authority your brand or site has built up within the specific field or topic that it covers. That is to say, this metric showcases how much of an expert or leader your company is considered to be on the products, services, or information that you provide.
When we talk about authority in SEO and digital marketing, it's important not to confuse this with things like domain authority (which measures how well your site will rank as a whole) or page authority (which looks at the strength of individual pages). Instead, topical authority is all about your business's niche, and determining how well you are considered to be an expert on that topic.
There are a couple of different reasons that topical authority may matter for your business, and why you'll want to work on increasing this metric. For one thing, it may have an indirect impact on some of the other authority metrics that we mentioned above.
If your business is seen as a leader and an expert in its field, that will likely lead to improved rankings and authority scores across the board. Furthermore, a strong topical authority can help you to attract new customers and clients, as they will be more likely to trust a company that is considered to be an expert in its field.
There are a few different factors that can contribute to strong topical authority. These include:
In part two of our series, we'll go through some tips on increasing your topical authority. Stay tuned! For more on this, or to learn about any of our SEO, PPC or other digital marketing solutions, contact our team at Be Locally today.