seosolution, Author at Search Engine Optimization Chicago

Do local citations matter anymore? Mike Blumenthal and other SEO experts share their opinions about how much attention we should be really giving to structured citations.

For any local business, managing their local citations i.e. submitting to top local search engines and directories is still one of the things that make it to the top of the local SEO checklist. With a key focus on quick (automated) submissions and consistency, many local businesses turned to Yext as their go-to service and helped it propel to a $170 million business in 2018!

Local citations were historically seen as one of the top ranking factors but things are not the same now. SEO experts such as Mike Blumenthal (GatherUp) now dismiss citations as almost of no use.

Here’s what Mike Blumenthal has to say.

“If a business has their data correct on their website and can get their data straightened away at Google, Facebook and maybe Yelp, there is no need for a citation campaign and certainly no need for a recurring cost to do so.

Google cares about local sites and web-references that users engage with and occur on pages on some amount of prominence. So it isn’t just a matter of having a citation at Yelp or HealthGrades or Trip Advisor, but of having a listing that ranks well at those sites and can pass some authority to your local entity. The strongest industry vertical sites, in some industries, do send some traffic so a citation and content build-out is relevant there.

But the idea of getting listed at 80 sites and paying for it annually is an idea whose time has passed. And the traditional idea of an unstructured citation, (i.e., being cited at an authoritative journal or news source even without a link) has merit. But that is more along the lines of PR than a citation campaign and it can have significant influence over the rank of a business.”

Similar to Mike Blumenthal, this is what Joy Hawkins from Sterling Sky has to say.

“I often find that people are surprised to hear that my agency doesn’t focus much on citation building or “maintaining” as a strategy. We’ve found that time is better spent on other high-impact tactics.

We only bother with citation work if the client has recently moved locations. Even then, we notice that it doesn’t make a huge difference.

We don’t ignore it completely; it’s just labeled here as a low-impact tactic so it’s not what we tackle first.”

What’s our take on this?

The consensus now appears to be that citations are declining in importance. It’s quite true that our industry’s perception of the role of citations has changed a lot. However, we continue to believe local citations still have an important role to play and are not yet ready to throw them out of our toolkit.

Every location-based business needs to own as much of its branded and core keyword SERPs as possible. Taking maximum control of citations is one of the most obvious and sensible ways to achieve a high degree of ownership. Because all forms of citations could be points of entry for consumers, businesses need to manage them for accuracy and consistency.

However, we feel that the idea of getting your business listed on multiple sites and paying for it annually makes no sense at all. Instead, we focus more on manual submissions which are much quicker to show up as compared to automated submissions, you can select which directories to submit to and you have full ownership and control over these sites.

Reference: searchengineland.com/do-local-citations-matter-anymore-five-local-seos-sound-off-320015

SEO Solutions is a Chicago based search engine optimization company. We deliver results by curating great content that people want to connect with, link to and share. We believe that every customer deserves a unique internet marketing solution that fits their needs and solves their problems. As SEO, PPC & SMO specialists, creating fresh and easy to navigate websites that deliver more consistent lead generation is also one of our main areas of focus. All of our content is high-quality, fresh, and unique. We work hard to earn links and we never link farm or build inappropriate links. Our client retention rate is over 80% and we have over 2,500 competitive keywords on the first page of Google for our existing clients. With over 300 providers of SEO services in Chicago, we know achieving this annual award was no easy feat. Specifically, we’ve been named one of the top B2B companies in Illinois.

To see the full list of award winners in Illinois, please visit the announcement published on Clutch’s website. All companies are organized according to state, one of 5 categories, and Clutch rank.

clutch-award-2019-top-illinois-seo-companies

As a B2B services ratings and reviews agency, Clutch uses typical reviews process with a personal touch. Their analysts often speak with a company’s clients directly, gathering feedback that is insightful and offers a true window into a partnership with that firm. Clutch uses this research to organize the thousands of companies on the site into a directory with multiple shortlists, guiding buyers in their decision-making process. Following this process, SEO Solutions received a perfect rating of 5/5 on Clutch’s platform.

We worked with The Institute of Real Estate Education and their President, Daniel Naylor, told Clutch “The results speak for themselves.” And they do, their company ranks # 1 in search results and 200 of their keywords rank on the first page of major search engines.

Due to our growing presence on Clutch, we have also been featured among other leading advertising agencies in Chicago on The Manifest and advertising companies on Visual Objects. Both are sister sites of Clutch, providing different information and opportunities for companies to efficiently select a partner that meets their budget and project goals. The Manifest gathers and verifies hard data, expert insights and actionable advice to help firms grow and Visual Objects helps creative and design agencies showcase their portfolios.

We are grateful and deeply honored by this recognition and are excited to accumulate more reviews as time goes on, showing the world that this Illinois-based SEO company is in it to win it. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or want to get an estimate about your next project. We are here to serve you!

seo-solutions-clutch-award-2019

To see the full list of award winners in Illinois, please visit the announcement published on Clutch’s website. All companies are organized according to state, one of 5 categories, and Clutch rank.

Due to our growing presence on Clutch, we have also been featured among other leading advertising agencies in Chicago on The Manifest and advertising companies on Visual Objects. Both are sister sites of Clutch, providing different information and opportunities for companies to efficiently select a partner that meets their budget and project goals. The Manifest gathers and verifies hard data, expert insights, and actionable advice to help firms grow and Visual Objects helps creative and design agencies showcase their portfolios.

As of July 1st, Google started, by default, to use its mobile Googlebot to index all of the new websites that come online. This move will help to ensure that the users’ needs are placed at the forefront of the search engine results pages. Besides, Mobile-First indexing is something that Google has already been doing with over half of the search results anyways.

Want to find out whether your site is being indexed by the Googlebot Smartphone?

Chances are, if your site is responsive and mobile-friendly, then it is already being indexed using the mobile bot and you have nothing to worry about. However, if you still want to check whether your site is being indexed using Mobile-First indexing, then it is fairly easy to do so.

Typically, you would receive an email notifying you that your site has been migrated to mobile first indexing. In case you missed that email, you can check using Google’s URL Inspection Tool. All you have to do is add your homepage URL in the top search bar in Google Search Console account and hit enter.

The page that comes next will show you whether the site is being indexed using Google smartphone bot or not.

googlebot-smartphone-crawl-inspection

If while using the tool you are unable to understand the results you get, go through Google’s URL Inspection Tool guide that provides details on all the different types of results displayed.

Google rolled out Google My Business agency dashboard in June. It was launched to help agencies manage a large number of listings. But many agencies faced issues while migrating to the new agency dashboard. To help them out, Google has launched a new tool to streamline the entire process.

First, you have to decide whether you want to shift completely to the GMB agency dashboard or not. So far the migration of the location has been the biggest hurdle. In case you decide to shift to the new GMB, Google is offering you two ways to do so.

Assisted Migration: In order to encourage hesitating agencies to shift to the new GMB agency dashboard, Google is ready to offer them personal assistance in migrating the locations and accounts. It’s good for agencies who have a lot of locations to move. You just have to request for the assisted move and for that, you will need to log into your GMB agency account, then go the Overview tab, click the Got existing locations to transfer? and follow the instructions from there. It will take around 48 hours to complete the entire process and then you can see all of the locations in the manage location tab of your agency account.

Self Migration: You can opt for this option if you are managing only a few locations. In order to transfer the locations into your new agency account, you will have to request access to each location or location group manually from your agency account and then accept the request from your personal account. The steps can differ based on the number of locations, so make sure you read Google’s support page.

We would like to inform you that it’s far easier to manage multiple locations and accounts on the agency dashboard than the private account. Google has also fixed the bugs from the initial launch, so we highly recommend you to use the agency account.

For more information on Google’s new agency dashboard and other strategies, Connect with us!

Google is soon going to roll out three new types of searches: Q&A, FAQ & How To content. It will be pulled directly from the pages & will appear on the search engine result page for enquires that falls under the above mentioned three categories.

Here’s a snapshot of Google’s developer manager, Stacey Chan unveiling the new search types at Google Dance in Singapore.

The sites that are using structured data properly can expect to benefit from it. The three categories are as follows:

1. Q&A Schema — Use this to markup a page with Q&A or FAQs

2. Questions Schema — It works in conjunction with the above schema

3. How To Schema — Use this to markup step by step instructions (How to) As of now, the above schema types are not included in their featured schema guides. In order to locate it, go to Google Developer’s page, click on the Left menu > Structured data > Feature guides.

If you want to see the Q&A structured data in action then head straight to StackOverflow.com. They are appearing on the top of the Google search results for the Q&A from quite some time. The best answers are displayed first, which is really convenient for the users.

Some people might argue that this is good for the users and Google but bad for the site, since users will get the entire answer in the SERP itself and they will not bother to enter the website. Most of the Q&A, FAQS & How To answers are short. So displaying the entire answer will not do any good. But, it will give you exposure and will also send visitors to the site since most of them would like to know more about it, but before entering into the website, they would want to confirm that the site is worth their time and actually offers genuine answers.

To stay on top of latest structured data, one can not rely on plugins since they are not up to date and often take time to catch up to the latest version. But there are some plugins that can help you leverage structured data. If you are using WordPress, the SOGO & Kansas City SEO’s plugin will come in handy.

Contact us For more information on all of Google’s latest updates.

Sign up for The SEO Solutions Newsletter to read up on all the latest updates!

In order to lure more business owners, Bing keeps introducing new features. Latest in the series is Bing Merchant Center promotions, which until now was in the testing mode. They have rolled it out for all the merchants in the US and one can enjoy this new feature as of today.

The new merchant promotions enable the advertisers to highlight offers in the product ads. The users will see the ads with a special offer extension. If a user clicks on the special offer, it will pop up with an expiration date, link to the product, promotional codes, and description.

You can utilize this new feature by filling out a form. The approval usually takes 3 to 4 business days. After approval, the seller will be able to see the new promotion tab within the Bing Merchant Center account.

It’s a good feature and will come handy to those who come up with special offers, very often. You won’t have to rely on third party websites to highlight your promotional codes, as users can directly know about the current offers on the ad itself!

So Google’s mobile first index might go live this month. Although Google has said that those with responsive websites don’t have to worry, but we still think that there will be some big changes as well because this is the first time that a giant search engine like Google is entirely shifting the base. We are resisting our urge to write a long list of predictions & scare you on what might happen, and just providing you with the facts & tips.

– First time ever Google is basing its search results on the mobile version of your site.
– If you already have a responsive website, then you don’t have to worry about the shift.
– However, you’ll need to have your structured data on both, the mobile and desktop version of your site.
– Go to Google console and claim both versions of your site.
– If your website’s mobile version is lacking comprehensive content, then you will lose rankings. So make sure both version of your site have the same content.
– In case you have opted for AMP and don’t have mobile version of your site, then Google will use desktop version for rankings.
– Utilize robots.txt testing tool & make sure that mobile version of your site id accessible to Googlebot.

“Thou shalt be familiar with Social Media Etiquette”

Social media, the new-age marketing mantra, has fast engulfed the business ideologies of many a modern entrepreneurs. The trends set are in line with the recent approaches to branding and advertising. One thumb rule, however, does not change. And that is – “Customer was, is, and will always remain the BOSS!”. Big and small brands are actively exercising new techniques furnished by this whole new world of interactive marketing to win more hearts. While social media is a global window to connect to a larger audience, it can equally tarnish the brand reputation if not channelized in the right way.

Symbolically put, mistakes leading to a blemished brand image are nothing short of sins! We move on to explain how to avoid some grave mistakes commonly found on Social Media sites.

Sin 1: Thou shalt be familiar with Social Media Etiquette

Often, in business, what seems like a small goof-up may be magnified into a big disaster. Social media marketing can win accolades for your business if you pitch effectively. A very fundamental policy that does the trick is to follow the Social Media Etiquette.

The 4 basic Social Media Etiquettes are:

Transparency
Authenticity
Sincerity of communication
Proactive Engagement with users

Personal identity is of utmost significance on networking sites as the social media involves a lot of interaction. Hence the norms of conduct expected here is somewhat similar to a face-to-face conversation. According to McKinsey report, two-thirds of the overall purchasing decisions are influenced by word of mouth. These interactions are mostly taking place on the Web through social media networking. Friends’ opinion has more weight than advertisements.

In such a scenario, it is not only very important to identify new trends, but also to build relationships. The benefit of social media is that you get both, provided you essentially follow some ground rules to maintain healthy social ties. Social media is a platform where a lot interesting information are swapped within a community or a group and smaller businesses can benefit a lot through it. Seeking the social media way, they can target audiences and prompt them into building strong connections with enhanced loyalty. However, there’s a word of caution. If used inappropriately, these mediums can do the adverse. It is vital to follow certain norms of user interaction.

Some pointers that will help you effectively utilize social media for business are:

Polite behavior is a requisite here, as it controls your brand image projected to the online community. People representing your business on the social media must be proactive and should be capable of handling critical business situations.
For a healthy social media interaction, it is necessary to have representatives who can hold on to honesty, transparency and authenticity.
Listen to what your customer has to say. Engagement in conversation is one of the essentials in social media networking.
Conversations on social media sites are similar to a real-life face-to-face interaction. So they are best when kept real rather than using formal language.
Post meaningful content. Be careful about the content that you provide on social media sites. Good and relevant posts, tweets or any other content prop up your brand image.
Act on users’ suggestions. Don’t just stop at interactions. Leverage the power of social media and do an extensive research among users for FREE. User suggestions can be a useful way to bring about improvements in your products & services.

Resource:

Know more about the innovative and inventive world of Social Media and the wonders it can do to your business. Download an entire chapter of Sales 3.0 – The New Contact Sport How To Use And Leverage Social Media Marketing For Small Business Sales Success by Doug Dvorak – CEO Digital Marketing Group & Milind Mody – CEO eBrandz.

About the Author:

I am actively involved in social media marketing and also write for the same. The book – “Sales 3.0 – The New Contact Sport How To Use And Leverage Social Media Marketing For Small Business Sales Success” has helped me get a detailed insight about the growing need of social media in today’s net-savvy world. This book is a must-read for people who want to win business and build concrete network through social media.

Doug Dvorak helps companies and professionals achieve results through customized, creative and non-traditional sales training systems that are “one size fits one” and developed to the unique business needs and “sales pain points” of each client. He is available to speak on these topics.

For more information visit http://www.salescoach.us or call 847-359-6969

Permission is granted to reprint this article in print or on your web site as long as the paragraph above is included and contact information is provided.

Sales Skills Training Strategic Sales Coaching

In the recent times, Social Media has gone abuzz among entrepreneurs with its novel approach and business promotion tactics. Sound PR activities have been influential measures to reach out to the masses. The costs incurred for conventional PR are high. Modern marketers are looking for sources that lets them address the audience through innovative and cost-effective means of communications, while maintaining brand image.

Online PR and marketing, incorporating new digital techniques and informal consumer interaction, is a brand new formula to beat conventional PR. A high percentage of customers are more savvy with social media sites. Innumerable social media platforms are utilized to make the brand appear more convincing. Personal interactions have replaced conventional emails, formal invitations, faxes, etc. on Social Media sites. Customers prefer informal interaction and have well accepted the new-formed world of social media. Industry bigwigs have made note of this and have taken personal efforts to reply to customer queries or comments via blogs and tweets.

Journalists and media personalities too have resorted to social media in order to bridge the gap between conventional media and contemporary society. NewsBasis and PRNewswire’s ProfNet are a few online news publishing sites widely used for press releases. Social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and Youtube are also used to promote latest announcements or offers in business. The response has been staggering.

As you can see, Social Media has had a lasting impression on users. So does this mean that Social Media can traverse the success rate of conventional PR? In today’s time -Yes. Tone and approach are two vital ingredients of Social Media and the audience have accepted this whole-heartedly. With appeal and connectivity this new media for brand building and marketing seems to have magnetized its audience.

Customers take a liking to a clear-cut and down-to-earth interaction rather than a formal mode of communication. They understand and identify with the brand to a higher extent on use of informal messages. Businesses intending to spread their brand presence must take quick measures to leverage these new decorums of communication in their businesses.

Thou shalt grasp the differences between traditional PR and Social Media Marketing to fine tune your marketing strategy

Social Media may be a smart switch. But these networking platforms have their own norms and it’s wise to adhere to these. Stick to guidelines and refrain from false marketing such as fake reviews or other deceptive means as they may repel potential customers. Reviews build up a brand image and manipulating these would mean infringing rules set up by the Social Media platforms. This may lead to serious charges or actions. It is therefore important to learn and comprehend the details of branding and marketing on such platforms.

Remember the following rules while implementing Social Media marketing for your business:

Unlike conventional PR, Social Media marketing cannot be based on ballyhoo. People have a different perception about Social Media and have other expectations from these platforms. So flashy, unrealistic advertising may not work here. Moving beyond the one-way communication of traditional PR, Social Media channels have open communication between consumers and brand representatives, and hence are very result-oriented.
Conventional PR activities can cause a big hole in your pocket, besides using up a lot of your resources and time. Social Media, on the other hand, is a smart and interactive way of connecting to your audience — at very little cost!
Marketers have a more consumer-centric approach towards selling their products or making their brand known. With traditional PR activities the information and resources are disseminated with little scope for user interaction. Social Media overcomes this shortcoming with focus and constant interaction with users. It has permanent solutions unlike conventional PR.
Many popular brands are drifting towards new media for better marketing results as it overcomes many of the demerits of conventional PR.

Resource:

About the Author:

For more information visit http://www.salescoach.us or call 847-359-6969