It was one of the BEST beach days of the year. The weather was over 35 degrees (celcius) and LMS co-founder Scott Gallagher found himself drinking beer on his family beach one afternoon with LMS Student Gem Webb who runs an Owen Sound web design firm. When the discussion turned Internet Marketing, the cameras came out.
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Local Marketing Industry Weekly Update – #175 – 8/26/15
Weekly Update Overview
This week’s agenda:
- Study: Google’s New Local Pack Shows In The Number One Spot 93% Of The Time
- Is Responsive Design A Ranking Factor?
- STUDY: Customers Won’t Consider Businesses With Low Ratings
The Local Marketing Industry Weekly Update, presented by Scott Gallagher. Scott is the co-founder of Local Marketing Source and has become the recognized expert in providing local marketing services to local businesses.
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR CHANNEL TO BE NOTIFIED OF WEEKLY AND CRITICAL UPDATES IN THE LOCAL SEO INDUSTRY, ALONG WITH STRATEGY.
Local Marketing Industry Weekly Update – #174 – 8/19/15
Weekly Update Overview
This week’s agenda:
- Facebook Advertising
- GOOGLE TESTING PLACE ACTIONS FORMS VIA DEMAND FORCE TO INITIATE SCHEDULING
- Larry Page Changes Google’s Name To Alphabet
The Local Marketing Industry Weekly Update, presented by Scott Gallagher. Scott is the co-founder of Local Marketing Source and has become the recognized expert in providing local marketing services to local businesses.
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR CHANNEL TO BE NOTIFIED OF WEEKLY AND CRITICAL UPDATES IN THE LOCAL SEO INDUSTRY, ALONG WITH STRATEGY.
Local Marketing Industry Weekly Update – #173 – 8/12/15
Weekly Update Overview
This week’s agenda:
– Targeting an Audience
– Thoughts About The New Local Stack Display
– Moz Releases 2015 Search Engine Ranking Factors Study
Thoughts About The New Local Stack Display
Note: I am heading out for a 5 day vacation. Responses might be limited. Please fill in the blanks for me and keep the conversation going. Dave would get lonely otherwise.
Google seems to have completed the roll out the new local search result with reports of its Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. from Western Europe, Eastern Europe, UK, Australia, South Africa and even Canada (which is usually last in these sorts of things).
I would suggest for the sake of clarity and expediency that we name the new display the Local Stack to distinguish it from the Snak Pak that is used in the hospitality searches. Regardless Dave Oremland has special dispensation and can call it the Crap Pack.
Some thoughts:
The simultaneous world wide release is different than many previous local display rollouts. I am wondering if that is due to the fact that the European anti trust issue around local has dissipated or if it was viewed as important to put the final nail in the coffin of G+ Local with one fell swoop.
The new display certainly provides an increased opportunity for organic results. I am not sure what will happen on clicks for Adwords but those businesses that were lower in the old display may feel compelled to double down on their Adwords activity.
The display aligns neatly with the new Home Service Ad booking tests and could easily be replaced in those market segments that rely on bookings. Obviously complaints about Google not showing answers and being evil will be heard. Google, being driven by the capital markets, has one overriding interest that supersedes all others regardless of their happy talk and that is profits.
This reduces opportunity in the pure local display on the front page but the total local opportunity may not be less as ALL links that previously went in disparate directions now head off to the new Local Finder (operative word is may) . That includes links that went to G+ but Maps as well.
The roll over that used to produce the Knowledge Graph now goes to the Local Finder. In that display there are 20 opportunities for visibility.
The lack of phone numbers will necessitate additional click throughs to the Local Finder. So much for Google surfacing answers on the first query but at least it increases local opportunities.
I am not convinced that exposure will come close to what has been possible in the 7-Pack but here’s hoping that the dashboard analytics (unreliable in the best of times) have been upgraded to handle the new display and can provide meaningful comparisons.
Clearly every link to G+ has been removed. This has been a long time in coming as has been in play for quite a while. Concurrently Google will also be removing “shell” pages, those auto created pages for non verified listings, from G+. Google+ is becoming Streams and as of now, its value as a local social platform is minimal.
Reviews, long disassociated from Plus are not really affected as they continue to display in the shadow box wherever they are selected from search, Maps or the new Local Finder. They continue as an element of the local Plus page but I doubt those ever got many views and will get fewer now. And seeing reviews is now a two click process into the Local Finder and then another click on the reviews. Not easy and not friendly.
A single location branded search still brings up the Knowledge Graph with phone number BUT a search for a brand that has multiple locations shows this new pack with NO phone number and requires what should have been a quick recovery search into a two click two step. Very bad form on that one.
There are some oddities in the display around service area businesses and those without websites as those two prominent icons are missing. As Phil Rozek has pointed out the current Local Finder seems to expose the exact location of those who have hidden their address. Not good for those seeking a modicum of privacy.
I would love for folks to send me their Local Analytics a week and a month from now as well as report on their traffic
Moz Releases 2015 Search Engine Ranking Factors Study
Moz released their ranking factors study which interview 150 SEO expert and applied that to a data correlation study.
Moz has now published their 2015 search ranking factors, which they claim to the largest study they’ve done yet on this topic.
The study ranks the various search ranking factors based on (a) asking industry experts their thoughts on over 90 factors and (b) using correlation studies to measure the search results and rankings. This year, Moz interviewed 150 leading search marketers who provided expert opinions on over 90 ranking factors. Moz didn’t only use their data for the correlation portion of the study, but they also used data from SimilarWeb, DomainTools, and Ahrefs.
The short version is that links to the domain and page level, including the anchor text, still is the highest factor for Google rankings. The lowest ranking factor is social metrics, TLDs and basic on-page markup, such as href lang and schema.
Here is the infographic of the summary of the results:
Local Marketing Industry Weekly Update – #172 – 8/5/15
Weekly Update Overview
This week’s agenda:
- Google Removing Non-Mobile Friendly Websites From Search Results?
- Google Testing Snak Pak Layouts for Local Search, What’s The Verdict?
- Reviews, How They Support Local Business & Yelp
Find Us On Facebook
The Local Marketing Industry Weekly Update, presented by Scott Gallagher. Scott is the co-founder of Local Marketing Source and has become the recognized expert in providing local marketing services to local businesses.
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR CHANNEL TO BE NOTIFIED OF WEEKLY AND CRITICAL UPDATES IN THE LOCAL SEO INDUSTRY, ALONG WITH STRATEGY.
Local Marketing Industry Weekly Update – #171 – 7/29/15
Weekly Update Overview
This week’s agenda:
-
Google Removing All Non Verified Local Pages From Plus?
-
Google Testing Sponsored Home Services Marketplace Snak Paks
-
Google Alerting Accounts Deleted For TOS Violations
Google Testing Sponsored Home Services Marketplace Snak Paks
Dr. Pete Meyers of Moz posted this screen shot of a sponsored Snak Pak test displayed for the search “plumbers” in San Francisco. It was captured on a desktop search last night.
Reports of Google getting into home services first surfaced this spring with reports at Inc. (h/t David Mihm) and Buzzfeed where they noted:
The product will be integrated into Google’s core search offering and is intended to capitalize on search intent, turning queries about home improvement tasks into engagement with home-service providers.
Essentially in this scenario captured by Pete, the Snak Pak becomes pay to play and the goal isn’t a website visit but a call for a booking. Although it doesn’t appear to go so far as to creating a booking, that would not be hard to imagine as a next step.
As Dr Pete noted at Twitter: potential game-changer, IMO.
I’ll say. We always wondered when paid listings would enter the pack. The time seems to be getting closer.
Google Alerting Accounts Deleted for TOS Violations
Google is apparently removing My Business accounts for TOS violations and sending along notices to owners and managers.
It is not clear to me the specifics of that triggered this action although clearly this has happened to more than a few accounts as there is at least one other report in the forum.
This message confirms that the Google Account – xxxxx@gmail.com – was deleted due to a violation of our Terms of Service that was left unresolved. To attempt to restore access to the account, please visit our password-assistance page immediately:Recover account Google Accounts can only be restored within a short period of time after deletion.
Sincerely,
The Google Accounts team
This email can’t receive replies. For more information, visit the Google Accounts Help Center.
If xxxx@gmail.com isn’t your Google Account, you can safely disregard this email.
You received this mandatory email service announcement to update you about important changes to your Google product or account.© 2015 Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA
The poster in the forum noted:
This has happened now to two of the companies that I assist with their SEO. They have not been active for awhile however, that doesn’t mean that we don’t still want the account. What terms of service were violated so I can find out what to make sure others watch for? This is unacceptable and without warning, years of emails are now gone. Please help me to understand what is going on so I can make sure that no other of us lose our accounts!!!
I received the notice for an account that I last touched almost 5 years ago. This was before managers were allowed. And I don’t think I have had any current relationship to this account although it is interesting that Google sent me the email.
I am at a loss to answer the poster’s questions although my assumption is that perhaps it was a duplicate, unused account that Google was cleaning up.
If you have more specific information about receiving the email and know the reasons, prey tell.
Google Removing All Non Verified Local Pages from Plus?
I have received a copy of a post made to Google Photographers’ forum. This was also recently posted at Linda’s forum:
Dear photographers and agencies,
In the past few months, you may have seen some changes in the look of Google+ pages that have been associated with Google My Business (GMB) accounts. These changes, including how we treat business pages without owners, are part of Google’s ongoing effort to simplify people’s experience with our tools. We are constantly working to provide only valuable and rich content to our users.
On July 28th, Google will begin shutting down those GMB–associated Google+ pages that have not been associated with user accounts and are also not verified. You may find that some of your Business View tours also sit on such pages, but note that after their removal of unverified Google+ pages, the Business View tours will still remain available on Google Maps and Google Search.
Essentially, it appears this means that if a page is verified it will also have a G+ Page and if it isn’t, its main presence will be through the Knowledge Graph in the main Serps or in Google Maps. It seems to me that this change was foreshadowed by the many recent minor changes we have seen with the inability to get to Plus from Maps, the removal of the Local search from Plus, the removal of the G+ Page link from search results that weren’t verified and the change of the name of the link on closed pages to Place.
Clearly this is a final step in separating local from Plus. Whether local will stay “debranded” or possibly take on a Local Finder essence beyond basic search and Map results isn’t clear. What is clear is that G+ and Google Local are no longer going to be bed partners.
As to what this means for G+, in my opinion not much. It appears to me that it is being lead down the path of sinking or swimming unaided by props from across Google.
The Local Marketing Industry Weekly Update, presented by Scott Gallagher. Scott is the co-founder of Local Marketing Source and has become the recognized expert in providing local marketing services to local businesses.
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR CHANNEL TO BE NOTIFIED OF WEEKLY AND CRITICAL UPDATES IN THE LOCAL SEO INDUSTRY, ALONG WITH STRATEGY.
