Google My Business (GMB) recently brought back the business description field, which has caused those of us working in the local search industry to say “hooray” and raise eyebrows. Here are a few things you should know about the description and some useful tips to help you make the most of this new change. 1. […]
Hooray! Google My Business descriptions are back Read More »
Digital marketing agency Location3 has released a new study that argues more review stars translates into higher paid-search conversion rates. While this finding makes intuitive sense, the study documented it with 16 months of SEM campaign data. The data come from campaigns for national brands with local stores. In this context, “conversions” means post-click consumer
Study: Responding to reviews can improve paid-search conversion rates Read More »
E-commerce and local search might seem to be exclusive functions. Local search is typically associated with store locations and driving offline purchases, while e-commerce usually involves online transactions. But recently the crowded e-commerce space has led online-only stores to encroach on the turf of local stores and services. Amazon opened a bookstore in Seattle and
6 smart e-commerce lessons to boost local business Read More »
As someone who works regularly with small businesses, I am frequently asked: “Should I advertise on Yelp”? Since this came up again recently, I thought I would share my insights and experience in hopes my answer helps someone else. Yelps makes it hard The last person asking about Yelp owns a European auto repair garage in
Are Yelp ads worth paying for? How to figure it out Read More »
The growing importance of reputation management in business growth needs no introduction. If you want a single statistic to showcase why every business person and their dog encourages great reviews more than ever, it’s this: 85 percent of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. That statistic is from a recent piece of
Google’s growth in online local reviews continues to dominate, but… Read More »
Over the past decade, Google has continued to increase the amount of personal data they collect from people querying information or supplying data to them. A story on Quartz brought this practice to light last year when a researcher discovered Google tracking location information from Android devices even if they have location services disabled: Since the
Why entities may power the future of location-based data Read More »
If your business sells internationally, then your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts need to operate around the world, and international SEO can be complicated. Multiple countries, multiple languages, and often, multiple languages within a given country. It’s easy to get tied up in knots. And even easier to confuse a search engine and create a
For years, the use of voice search and voice assistants to answer questions has been on the rise. According to Google, 20 percent of all mobile search queries are voice search, and that number will only go up. Voice recognition technology is getting better and better: Google’s technology is now 95 percent accurate. Yet for
How do you optimize content for a voice-first world? Read More »
The rise of mobile search has led to many changes in SEO, but none more dramatic than the area of local search. By now, most of us are familiar with the Google update known as Pigeon. Launched in 2014, it allowed greater search visibility for local directories, which helped local search engine optimization (SEO) establish
How to create content to support local SEO and rock the rankings Read More »
Google is testing a new local service called Bulletin. The company describes it as a “lightweight app for telling a story by capturing photos, video clips and text right from your phone, published straight to the web.” It’s currently only available in Nashville, Tennessee, and Oakland, California. Google envisions this as a way to contribute
