UNDERSTANDING LOCAL SEARCH RANKING FACTORS

This new search engine results page (serp), known as a blended search result, has made traditional SEO efforts more important than ever for any business aiming to benefit from the ever-expanding market of online search.

Blended Search Result (left) versus “pure” or “7-Pack” result (right)

David Mihm’s 2011 Local Searching Ranking Factors report was published Friday, proving only that Google’s local results change more than Roger Ebert’s twitter status. More than Charlie Sheen goes through girlfriends. Faster than Ashton Kutcher can destroy Two and a Half Men. Even faster than Apple releases new junk to clean out my wallet. You get the idea. One of Google’s most dramatic adjustments transformed the “pure” local search result, otherwise known as the “7-pack,” by weighing SEO elements of business websites into corresponding search results, putting an end to any local SEO strategies focusing only on Google Places. This new search engine results page (serp), known as a blended search result, has made traditional SEO efforts more important than ever for any business aiming to benefit from the ever-expanding market of online search.

David Mihm’s report includes charts, graphs, unicorns, and everything else you could possibly imagine, all beautifully organized and illustrated, so I will only include some of the most important findings here. I’ll also emphasize what I’ve found to be most important in my own experience this year.

Top Ten Factors in Google Places Search Results

  1. Physical Address in City of Search
  2. Manually Owner-verified Place Page
  3. Proper Category Associations
  4. Volume of Traditional Structured Citations (IYPs, Data Aggregators)
  5. Crawlable Address Matching Place Page Address
  6. PageRank/Authority of Website Homepage/Highest Ranked Page
  7. Quality of Inbound Links to Website
  8. Crawlable Phone Number Matching Place Page Phone Number
  9. Local Area Code on Place Page
  10. City, State in Places Landing Page Title

Hold on a second! What hasn’t changed?

The basics of local search remain the same to a large extent. It’s still important to have your business’s physical address in the city where the search occurs, and there’s nothing easier, or more beneficial, than simply claiming your listing in Google Places. The significance of choosing proper categories* hasn’t changed either – if your business doesn’t have well-chosen categories, it’s probably not going to appear in related search queries. Acquiring citations from a slew of business directories (Internet Yellow Pages, Yelp, Kudzu, MerchantCircle, etc.) still remains highly important.

But you said local results have changed!

Though many searches continue to yield a “pure” result or “7-pack,” blended search results are responsible for the majority of changes in importance of ranking factors. PageRank/Homepage Authority has become much more significant in local search over the last year, meaning that a business can no longer rely solely on the strength of their Google Places page to rank well – at least not for blended search results. It also means that it is vital for Google to recognize your business website within your Places page. Your website should be one of your first citations, as shown below.

Business Website Citation for Surratt Law Practice of Reno, Nevada

If Places doesn’t recognize your website, chances are you aren’t benefiting from optimizing your site, and your business is not going to show up in any blended search results. Doh!

Name, Address, Phone Number (NAP)

NAP Consistency is the key to happy search.

A missing connection between your website and Places page could also mean your business has some inconsistencies in Name/Address/Phone Number (NAP) across the web. NAP consistency is crucial — it shows Google that your business is not only legitimate, but is also a valuable asset to its users, making it more likely that your page will rank well. Ensure your business name, address, and phone number are identical across all platforms. If your official business name has “,LLC.” in it, it should be “,LLC.” everywhere. If your office is in a suite, decide whether your address will be written as  “Suite#” or “Ste#,” and stick to it. Format your NAP as consistently as possible on every print ad, website, press release, and publication. It’s not only great for your brand, it’s great for your SEO. Consistency makes the crawlers happy.

NAP consistency includes avoiding duplicate Places listings, which can cause citations to be assigned to a listing you aren’t optimizing. It takes weeks to months to have this corrected, if Google gets to it at all. Avoid the whole mess by having only ONE Places listing for your business. This is especially true for doctors and lawyers, who are often incorrectly advised by SEO consultants and marketing companies to create Places listings for every physician or attorney in the office. Don’t do it!

Links, Links, Links.

Of course, blended search results have also made it that much more important to acquire meaningful inbound links to your business’s website. As Andrew Shotland of Local SEO Guide says, “no linky, no ranky.” Not sure how to do this? Start a marketing alliance in your city. Write a guest blog post. Write a press release. Connect with your industry and your community in a way that gets your business noticed. Don’t resort to blackhat techniques that will not only get your website penalized, but will also hurt your brand.

Conclusions

Last thing, and it’s true no matter how Google changes. To business owners looking for an SEO consultant: read Google’s quality guidelines. Though 2011 has proven to be a year of tremendous development for Google and local search results, spammers continue to rampantly exploit the system. While this may be beneficial in the short-term, it almost guarantees your business website will be penalized or de-listed altogether at some point in the future.

Whether you’re doing your own local SEO or hiring a consultant, make sure you know nothing is going to cause your business to be penalized or de-indexed. Local SEO may still be rife with blackhat techniques and spammers, but long-term success requires adherence to Google’s rules.

TL;DR (too long; didn’t read)

  1. Optimize your website for products/locations, etc. Geographic keywords are good on your website.
  2. Choose smart categories for your business in Places. Don’t stuff them, or spam geo-keywords.
  3. Make sure your website is a citation in your Google Places page.
  4. Keep your NAP consistent across all directories and websites, especially your own.
  5. Acquire as many meaningful links as possible through doing cool stuff.
  6. If you haven’t already, start getting some positive reviews from your customers.
  7. Read Google’s Quality Guidelines.

 

*If you’re confused about where to start in picking categories that will yield search impressions, and ultimately turn impressions into clicks and then transactions, try using Google Keyword Tools. Seek out keywords that are heavily searched but are also less competitive seacrh terms. This will increase your chances of ranking in the first page of Places quickly for certain search queries, rather than slogging your way up toward queries you may not compete in for several months. For instance, “san diego personal injury attorney” is highly competitive, but “san diego car accident lawyer,” is a little easier of a search query to place in.

Google Updates 2018

Apologies for the spoiler in the title, but let’s just get it out of the way now. Hummingbird hasn’t killed local SEO, and there’s no indication it will.

Still, it’s a good time to take another look at your local search campaigns with the changes of Google’s new algorithm in mind. Hummingbird intends to improve Google’s user experience by gaining a deeper understanding of an entire search query. A bit vague, right? While I won’t go into too much detail (you can find all the necessary background information at Search Engine Land), Google’s explanation revolves around “conversational search.” Construed by Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan,

Google said that Hummingbird is paying more attention to each word in a query, ensuring that the whole query — the whole sentence or conversation or meaning — is taken into account, rather than particular words.

“What’s the closest place to buy the iPhone 5s to my home?” A traditional search engine might focus on finding matches for words — finding a page that says “buy” and “iPhone 5s,” for example.

Hummingbird should better focus on the meaning behind the words. It may better understand the actual location of your home, if you’ve shared that with Google. It might understand that “place” means you want a brick-and-mortar store. It might get that “iPhone 5s” is a particular type of electronic device carried by certain stores. Knowing all these meanings may help Google go beyond just finding pages with matching words.

So how does this affect strategy? Simply put, the best search result is going to be the one that can answer a user’s query directly. This means it’s time, if you haven’t yet, to build some simple, good FAQ content. I’m sure if you’re a local business owner, a lot of your staff are asked the same questions repeatedly. That’s a good place to start. Fortunately, the content doesn’t even need to be explicitly local. Local SEO Guide’s Andrew Shotland explains:

There’s nothing inherently local about the phrase, “how to get rid of mold spots on ceiling,” and the current Google SERP for that query shows a lot of national DIY site results.

But if you think about Hummingbird’s goal to “focus on the meaning behind the words,” you’ll see that sooner or later, Google is going to start to put the fact that you have mold spots on your ceiling together with the idea that you might want to remove those spots and that’s where local businesses that target these queries can gain an unfair advantage over the eHows and DIY.coms of the world.

What does this all mean? Well, Hummingbird hasn’t had a huge impact on local SEO, yet. It’s just like all algorithm changes — by staying on top of the intent behind an update, you can employ strategies designed to keep your clients, or your business, ahead of the curve. It’s not good enough to have a well-optimized page with citations, unstructured citations, and name/address/phone consistency. As always, you need good content. Hummingbird is just driving the significance of unique content even further, and that’s a good thing for hard-working SEOs, business owners, and Google users.

IMPROVING GOOGLE SEARCH: ALGORITHM CHANGES

 

Ever been curious about how often Google’s algorithm changes, how they test them, and how search results are improved? Check out a video just released by the search engineers @ Google below.

From Google:

“Beyond our talk and various blog posts, we wanted to give people an even deeper look inside search, so we put together a short video that gives you a sense of the work that goes into the changes and improvements we make to Google almost every day. While an improvement to the algorithm may start with a creative idea, it always goes through a process of rigorous scientific testing. Simply put: if the data from our experiments doesn’t show that we’re helping users, we won’t launch the change.

In the world of search, we’re always striving to deliver the answers you’re looking for. After all, we know you have a choice of a search engine every time you open a browser. As the Internet becomes bigger, richer and more interactive it means that we have to work that much harder to ensure we’re unearthing and displaying the best results for you.”

 

Marketing Reno

Marketing Reno

Understanding the Concept of Marketing

The American Marketing Association, a board of directors of organizations that promote the study of marketing, defines marketing as “the process of defining, creating, communicating, exchanging, and delivering offerings for a profit.” The definition of marketing is often used to define the activities that companies must perform to achieve a successful business. According to the definition, marketing is the “process of building and protecting a brand and the relationships it develops with customers.”

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Marketing

Regardless of whether a company’s products are made to serve a global or local market, marketing is a critical and necessary part of the business. In order to achieve profit, a company must satisfy the needs and wants of its customers. For this, it must be integrated into all aspects of the organization. It is not just about the product itself, but also the process of customer interaction. In other words, marketing must be a way of life for all employees and customers.

The process of marketing involves selecting a product or service, determining its demand, developing a promotion, and selecting distribution channels. It is the process of identifying the product or service and making it desirable for consumers. In some cases, marketing also includes making the product look more appealing to potential buyers. Other times, marketing can involve a company’s agreements with retailers or trade shows, distributing products, and promoting their products. To understand the concept of marketing, it is important to understand the basic concepts that underpin this business.

The most common method of marketing is advertising, but it is not the only method. There are many other methods that marketers use, such as guerrilla marketing, which uses unconventional tactics to achieve maximum results with limited resources. For example, guerilla marketing is a strategy that involves putting out advertisements wherever a consumer enters a keyword or phrase. The goal of guerrilla marketing is to maximize results with the least resources. Inbound and outbound marketing are two distinct strategies, and each has its advantages.

The goal of marketing is to create a relationship with customers by providing them with value and services. This involves creating a relationship with the customer by using the appropriate vehicles and stories to reach the target. It also involves providing the right product and service to the right target. The best way to accomplish this is to know your target audience and their needs. Knowing this will help you create the most effective campaigns. There are many examples of how a product or service can help you reach your customers.

Regardless of the type of product or service, a good marketing strategy is essential for any business to grow and succeed. It will increase a company’s sales and create long-term relationships with its clients and end-users. By ensuring that the marketing strategy meets these goals, a company will continue to benefit from a healthy growth in the market. This can be done by conducting a survey of its customers. In addition, a marketing team may work in tandem with other departments to find out what their customers want and need.

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A marketing strategy should include a variety of activities that will increase the company’s sales. In addition to promoting a product, marketing also involves selling. This includes identifying and pursuing sales leads. A good marketing strategy will also incorporate an effective distribution strategy. The best distribution strategy will help the company reach its target audience. In a business, this is critical to its overall success. This is why the marketing department is an essential part of a business.

Moreover, the marketing plan should also include a competitor’s strategy. A marketing strategy must include research to see what is working in the market. This can be done with the help of a growth tool, like GrowthBar. If you’re new to the blogging world, this is essential for your success. If you are a seasoned blogger, it is important to know what your competitors are doing in order to get noticed. This can give you an idea of how to improve your marketing strategy.

While marketing is often characterized by advertising, it can also include branding. In contrast to sales, marketing is an important component of the business. It can also include market research to better understand what customers are looking for. In the case of startups, it may be the best time to start a new marketing strategy. If you are interested in learning more about this topic, check out some of the following articles. They can help you choose the right marketing strategy for your business.

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Reno Marketing Firms

Reno Marketing Firms

The Reno SEO, Marketing & Web Design Agency offers a variety of services to help your business grow. They offer a wide range of marketing services that include:

-Website design

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-Email Marketing Campaigns -Conversion Rate Optimization

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Marketing agencies are usually in charge of producing marketing materials for their clients. They are the ones who design marketing plans, create marketing campaigns, develop social media strategies, and help create advertising content.

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A marketing agency is a company that provides marketing services to other companies. A marketing agency can help with advertising, public relations, branding, and copywriting, just to name a few.

The market for reno marketing agencies has grown exponentially in the past few years. Nowadays people are more open to advertising, especially when it’s done right. Marketing experts are always eager to grow their expertise and offer their services to any company who needs them.

Marketing agencies offer a wide variety of services, from online marketing to social media marketing, from Google AdWords to SEO.

In addition to the aforementioned services, they have a team of copywriters and content writers who provide their clients with useful and engaging content. They also have a team of designers who will create the most stunning visuals for the company’s social media graphics or ads.

A competent agency is essential for an organization’s success in the competitive world of business. Marketing agencies also play an important role in customer retention and acquisition by managing campaigns that are responsible for keeping consumers interested in their company’s product or service.

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Marketing Agencies in Reno Help Local Organizations Achieve Their Goals

A comprehensive digital marketing strategy requires more than a fancy website to succeed. In addition to creating and maintaining a dynamic website, DMAs in Reno help local organizations and businesses achieve their goals by surgically targeting large audiences. These agencies help businesses, nonprofits, and even individuals in local communities stay on top of their competition. The following are some of the services offered by a Marketing Agency in Reno. Let us take a closer look.

Marketing Agencies in Reno

A quality marketing agency should have proven results in a particular industry. While the results of an internet marketing agency can be difficult to separate from the performance of a company overall, there are certain indicators that can help you select the best agency. Consider the portfolio of a marketing agency, their revenue, and customer feedback. In addition, digital marketing agencies should focus on your industry and be highly experienced in your particular niche. They should be able to adjust their strategies quickly to meet the unique needs of your business.

One of the most important considerations for choosing a marketing agency is the type of service it offers. A full-service digital marketing firm should have a focus on your industry, not just a generalist approach. A company that specializes in a specific industry should have a portfolio of work. A firm that specializes in a single niche should be able to offer a range of services, including SEO, PPC, social media, web design, and more.

The best marketing agencies in Reno are often local. While many marketing agencies work across the country, a local Reno marketing agency will be more effective for your business. The local experts will understand the specific requirements of your business, including your unique niche. A marketing consultant in your area will be able to settle any strategy issues and help you find a better company to handle your marketing strategy. It can also provide you with expert advice on the best way to promote your business in the local market.

In addition to digital marketing, the agencies that specialize in advertising and public relations are also available. A Reno marketing agency that specializes in a particular area will be able to better meet your needs than a company that works with clients throughout the country. Its expertise can be invaluable to your business, so don’t miss this opportunity. A local company in Reno will know how to get your message in front of potential customers and generate revenue for your company.

A marketing agency specializing in advertising in Reno will help you develop the best strategy for your business. By creating and implementing a strong marketing strategy, the agency will be able to generate higher sales, conversions, and ROI. A successful advertising agency is an essential part of your business, and can be a vital asset to your growth. A local company can be a valuable asset for your business, so you need to find one that works well with your brand.

Whether you’re a new business or an established business, marketing agencies will help you reach your target audience. By creating an effective strategy, they will ensure that your business gets the attention it deserves. An experienced advertising agency will use innovative techniques to increase their client’s presence in online media and in the public. Boosting your sales with effective advertising is a key objective of a marketing agency. These companies are a great way to increase the amount of traffic your website receives.

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