We’ve just released the 2023 annual SEO mad scientist test report, which includes our previous updates on this custom signals test.

 Dive deep into the world of SEO, covering everything from Faster Indexation of Citations to AI replacing SEO work.

🔬 SEO Mad Scientist 🔬

How Referencing Keywords in Citation Descriptions Can Impact Rankings

The primary focus of the original test was on insulation terms. But insulation is included in the brand name, and therefore the listing. This slightly clouds the test results for terms including “insulation”.

However, we did find correlations between other terms that were included in the citation descriptions, but not referenced in the listing.

“Can Foam”:

We were ranking for both “can foam service” and “can foam service Littlestown, PA”.

When we search “CanFoam service Littlestown, PA”, our test listing, homepage, and the can form page is ranking at the top.

We also see some of our signals that referenced the “can foam” ranking. This term is not included anywhere in the listing, yet the listing still appears in the SERP. This demonstrates a strong brand association with the service, which was likely supported by our signal creation.

We can definitely say that the citation references were the driving force behind the rankings though since there was a dedicated page for it, and the term was mentioned in other parts of the website.

Soundproofing Littlestown:

We did find one service term used in citation descriptions that wasn’t mentioned on the homepage of the website or the listing – soundproofing. Month 1 is the only month we didn’t reference soundproofing terms in our citation descriptions. All months after that there were at least a few citations referencing soundproofing.

When we searched “soundproofing littlestown” our homepage and GBP listing were ranking. There was a strong brand association with this service. But there was also no soundproofing page on the website.

All citations built linked to the homepage, which could explain why we were seeing the homepage rank for a term that wasn’t mentioned anywhere on the homepage.

However, we assumed one of the 3 service pages that mentioned soundproofing would be ranking above the homepage…

fiberglass insulation page – 3 references

• 1 mention in a paragraph
• 2 mentions in a structured list

cellulose insulation page – 6  references: 

• 4 mentions in paragraphs ad
• 2 mentions in the structured list

mineral wool insulation page – 3 references

All mentions were only in structured lists or paragraphs. There was no mention in headings, URLs, page titles, or other prominent references.

We did see other keywords included in citation descriptions also ranking higher, but those had dedicated pages on the website. Soundproofing was one of the only ones we could find that didn’t have a page, which is why the results were so interesting.

While we didn’t have comparison data for the GeoGrids, organic rankings showed a correlation with the citation descriptions.

More testing is needed to better isolate the impact of citations on rankings – both local and organic. There are too many influencing factors in this current test.

Watch the full video update here to see analysis on additional keywords and deeper insight into potential explanations: https://youtu.be/HbkibqF8XLs

Happy testing!

The SEO Mad Scientist testing team

💰 Better Understand SEO Campaigns w/ Algorithm Annotations & Robust Data Views 💰

The SEO Vault: Episode 222

For all you data lovers out there, our latest episode of the SEO Vault (Episode 222) is a must-listen.

Mike shares insights on custom GPT applications and some interesting real-life use cases. Plus, learn how you can add algo update annotations, SEO product annotations, and custom annotations over your Google Search Console data.

Lastly, we discuss the results of our Custom Signals test. The results showed the citation descriptions have some impact on local rankings.

Catch the episode on your preferred podcast platform or watch it here.

This Week in the LCT Facebook Group…

How a Law Firm Received 348 Phone Calls in a Month (691% Increase)

Having spent many years across multiple agencies working on Personal Injury campaign strategy, I learned that PI case types can be highly profitable for law firms. Lawyers want those higher potential profits. 

PI keywords are also some of the most competitive and challenging local terms that you can come up against as a local SEO. Combine that competition level with the potential payout and will compensate you generously for providing these cases. 

We’ve ranked hundreds of law firms for their respective keywords, and it is always satisfying to crush these campaigns. If we can crush competitive campaigns, in high comp markets, we can rank your business!

In this article, my goal is not to introduce a magic bean tactic; quite the opposite. I want to reinforce that we ought to strive toward a consistent approach that generates optimal outputs. 

 

Here are some campaign details: 

Mid Size City | Car Accident Lawyer | Mid/High Competition 

Below we have a year-over-year comparison of listing engagements. We achieved remarkable results across the board…

• 348 calls in 1 month – 691% increase
• 446 website visits in 30 days – 431% increase

 

When comparing 5 months of data, we still saw strong growth in listing visibility, impressions, phone calls, and site visits.

 

We started this campaign with zeroes across the board. This business was nowhere to be found in maps. 

 

106 Days Later, here are the local rankings our campaign achieved.

Just a hair over three months, we brought the SOLV (share of local voice) to 85%, which is metric that measures how often a listing appears in the Map Pack per scan radius. The greater the SoLV, the greater the local search visibility.

This location still ranks well and has weathered the tumultuous storms Google has thrown at it this past year.

We are still kicking after a name change, a small bump in SoLV, and many more number-one rankings. 

 

The SEO Strategy

Sometimes, SEOs overlook the “small” foundational things that can pack a big punch. I want to cover some things many people breeze over and bring to light implementations specific to this campaign that you can swipe for your projects. By building a strong foundation, we were able to dominate the map pack – you can too.

 

The Typical SEO Stuff

Deep diving into and explaining things like complete A-Z link building, on-page, etc., if done right, commands large pieces of content. We will not do them justice here, but we will break down our new and improved on-page and link-building in future posts. 

Geo and Niche networks, essential business citations and secondary citations, and tactics like this have been beaten to death. While not exciting, they have their place in a campaign. So I want to tip my hat to the use of them in this post, but focus a bit more on less talked about aspects you should be incorporating into your campaigns. 

 

Authority Building

I wanted to split this section from links because even though we are “technically” building links, these links focus purely on building authority and establishing the business as the most prominent option for our desired local queries. 

Grabbing your Bing, Apple Maps, Yelp, etc., is a non-negotiable. But also consider impactful opportunities like Waze, Monster, Eventbrite, Crunchbase, etc. These can be easily achieved with a domain email and all these profiles have one thing in common: they are on platforms that real businesses are on. 

Furthermore, one of my favorite link types for local businesses is niche citations. Compiling a niche link list for each campaign is an essential starting point. You should not go without these links, they’re critical to campaign success, especially in more competitive niches. 

To maximize impact, optimize the profiles well. For the best citation, take it a step further and amplify as needed for more competitive metros and niches. 

Be sure to keep track of the links built during the campaign. You can use these to build a citation library for use in future campaigns in the same niche. You’ll be surprised how quickly you’ll amass niche resources.

 

Link Building

This campaign can be broken into three focuses from a linking perspective. The first, which we will spend little time on today, is a robust body of unstructured citations, localized parasites, and niche content networks we built atop different 2.0s like Google sites, WordPress, etc. 

I want to focus on a few of the other impactful things we did that often get overlooked, especially when people look to outsourcing firms where everything is overly productized. 

What we do at Web20 Ranker, and have been working hard on improving, is the custom outreach we perform for local and national campaigns. In this case, we pulled backlinks from the competitors and dumped them in a sheet.

From here, we parsed through this list, removed some junk links, and then bucket the sites by typing into the worksheet to keep everything organized. This makes it easy to divide the workload among our team.

Most of your competitors are not reverse engineering better-ranking websites and doing proper outreach to reduce their link deficiencies, not in the local SEO arena. So this type building step can give your campaigns a leg up…

My SEO friends, please do not negate paid citations. We pull those into a dedicated tab in the link building workbook. This is far from a new or imaginative strategy, but we see so few agencies taking advantage of their power. Don’t forget the basics. 

If you dig deeper into some hyper-local authority sites, the transformation even a single link can have on a campaign is immense. One of the biggest movers regarding local links for this old case study we did was a $600 local chamber link. Everyone was taken aback by the cost of a single link in the local space, but we engaged, and rankings skyrocketed even further after that article was published.

That isn’t a rarity or one-off experience. We repeated it for highly competitive local SERPs in monster metros and saw similar results. 

 

Press Releases 

Press releases are a familiar concept in the SEO space. I have seen their effectiveness fluctuate over the years, but with a quality release and some of the bells and whistles you can implement (embedded media, do-follow link, etc.), they have been testing through the roof in terms of impact for the past few years. 

We ran a Premium Local Press Release and a Do Follow Press Release with Map Embeds during this specific campaign. Our expansion of the press service continues to test very well regarding influencing ranks and brand prominence indicators. Check out one of our recent Mad Scientist SEO PR test results for more information. 

Again, we are not dealing with a new and innovative strategy but a tried and true methodology that has worked well for years and continues to drive results. 

 

Exact SEO Campaign for Results Rapid

My goal was to give a little bit of context and reasoning to the “why” behind-the-line items in some of our packages. Implement these items into your workflows and make them your own. Do some SEO testing and follow along as we do ours. 

Now you know we don’t gate keep our secrets to success. So without further adieu, here are the services ordered to bring success to this client. 

 

Phase 1 Local SEO Strategy, Local and Niche Signals, and Brand Foundation:

Content Creation

(10) Write GBP Posts for Phase 2

Write Custom GBP Description for Phase 2

Write GBP Site Content for Phase 2

Website Local Optimization

Location Page Optimization

Local and Niche Signals

Google Profile Photo Review

Custom Signals

Niche Citations or Level 1 Custom Signals

PDF, E-Doc, and Image Sites

Local Article Submissions

Press Release

Premium Local Press Release

PBN W Map Embeds

(10) PBN Map Embeds w NAP Mentions

Tiered Links for (10) PBN Map Embeds

Mini Networks

(10) Create and Optimize Geo-Network

Brand Foundation (Data Aggregator)

Submit to Data Aggregators (45 to 60 days for reports)

Social Essential/Fortress/Ultimate/Power Up

(25) Create and Optimize Social Essentials Accounts  

25) Create and Optimize Social Fortress Accounts

(50) Create and Optimize Social Ultimate Accounts

 

Phase 2 GBP Listing Optimization, Niche Signals, and Brand Boost

Content Creation

(10) Write GBP Posts for Phase 3

GBP Listing Optimization

GBP Listing Optimization

GBP Description Posting

(10) Optimize GBP Services

GBP Site Optimization

(10) Schedule and Publish GBP Photos and Posts

(5) GBP Q&A’sQ&A’s

(5) GBP Review Responses

Local and Niche Signals

Level 1 Custom Signals

PDF, E-Doc, and Image Sites

Local Article Submissions

Mini Network

(10) Create and Optimize Niche Network

Brand Boost

2X (40) Brand Authority Links

(66) Essential Business Citations with GPS Listings

(50) Secondary Citation Creation

Custom List

Yelp Optimization (Domain Email Required to Claim) Crunchbase Optimization (Domain Email Required to Claim)

Bing Places – Claim and Set-Up

Waze Business Submission

Proven Expert Company Profile Submission

Monster Profile – Claim and Optimize

Manta Profile Submission and Optimization

 

Phase 3 Local Maps Boost and Custom Signals

GBP Listing Optimization

(10) Schedule and Publish GBP Photos and Posts

(5) GBP Q&A’sQ&A’s

(5) GBP Review Responses

Local and Niche Custom Signals

Level 1 Custom Signals

PDF, E-Doc, and Image Sites

Local Article Submissions

Local Maps Boost

DR30+ Branded Guest Post with Map Embed

Additional Custom Signals and Custom List:

Level 1 Custom Signals

(3) Top Ranking Listing Service

Press Release

Do-Follow News Release w Map Embed

PBN W Map Embeds

(10) PBN Map Embeds w NAP Mentions

Tiered Links for (10) PBN Map Embeds

 

If this looks like a lot of work…it is. Let us handle the campaign for you! Just choose your competition level and we’ll take it from there.

Not sure what level or add-ons you need? Get specific recommendations for a campaign,. All you have to do is fill out this form, and we will perform an audit and a roadmap for rankings. If you have any questions about this specific article or SEO in general, get in touch. I love geeking out about this stuff. 

We (mostly Nate) are hard at work polishing up the new dashboard to provide the most holistic view of campaign opportunities and wins. The new dash will include:

• GSC data filtering
• Longtail keyword extraction

• Populating filters with impression/click counts

 The SEO Mad Scientist’s Annual Testing Report is dropping next week, including everything from indexation to CTR tests.

 Don’t miss the Q1 SEO webby – on Monday, February 26, 2024, at noon EST. Mark will lift the lid on some new on-page strategies we’ve been using, so sign up now!

This Week in the LCT Facebook Group…

Whether there’s a leftover budget or just want to pay less in taxes, store credits are the perfect solution.

Secure the 25% savings now (& reduce your tax bill). Then redeem the credits when you need more SEO.

+ Today only, get a $50 off Niche Citation coupon with every $200+ purchase – earn as many as you’d like!

💰 Local Engagement Signals & Quick Holiday Updates 💰

The SEO Vault: Episode 220

If you’ve been seeing volatility in the SERPs recently, it could be from a “spam attack”. Or, maybe not.

Listen to the latest episode of the SEO Vault to find out!

+ We discuss new local engagement signals for 2024.

Watch the episode here or listen on your favorite podcasting platform. 

We’ve also invested hours into building three, brand-new courses…

Needless to say, we’re excited to share them with you.

Right now, you can only access these gems by qualifying for bonuses but don’t worry.

You’ll have the chance to qualify soon, starting next Friday with our Year-End Sale. More will be shared next week, so watch your inbox.

+ Mike is adding even more to his Productivity with AI course, sharing even more ways you can use AI to save you valuable time.

🔬 SEO Mad Scientist 🔬

Hey Mad Scientists,

This week we’re back with another update on Google’s new SERP notes feature. 

We’re still seeing the feature only rolled out to our more aged Google accounts. Newer accounts we have access to are still not seeing the feature available for use. 

After reviewing the notes we’d posted in the SERPs from our previous update, we noticed issues arising…

Many of the notes we’d originally posted were removed from the SERPs completely. There were a variety of notes removed, but below we cover some of the trends we saw. 

Personal Information

This includes 

• addresses
• phone numbers (possibly all numbers like 24/7 and times)
• names (even the businesses possibly)

URLs

When we originally added URLs to the notes, we were unsure if Google would even let us post them. But the notes with links were published…

Then taken down.

We had an inkling that the party wasn’t going to last long. There are too many ways for SEOs to take advantage. 

Repetitive Note Posting

This one we could’ve guessed…

Mike loves to push tools to their breaking point (& beyond). 

But if you’re planning to use notes in any facets of your campaigns, be sure to post thoughtful notes.   

If you think of any new ways to leverage Notes, be sure to drop them in the Local Client Takeover Facebook group!

We will head back to the lab to create more notes, and push more boundaries.

Happy testing, 

The SEO Mad Scientist Team

💰 Rank Higher Using Entities & Schema With Simon Cornelius 💰

The SEO Vault: Episode 218

Entities have been a hot topic for a while…

Simon Cornelius, an entity expert, shares his insight in episode 218. If you want to rank higher in the SERPs, this is a ca n’t-miss.

Dive into the world of in-depth entities and Schema strategies, simplify concepts to soar higher in rankings, connect entities in the Knowledge Graph, and reinforce those relationships.

 Ready to skyrocket in the SERPs?  Watch the episode or listen on your favorite podcasting platform.

This Week in the LCT Facebook Group…

🔬 SEO Mad Scientist 🔬

6+ Months of Signal Building in 30 Days

Hey, SEO testers!

If you remember from a couple of months back, we started a signal-building test on a brand-new listing – no links, no brand, no optimization done.

After our 1st month of Custom Signal building didn’t produce much visibility improvement, we decided to front-load the test with signals.

The listing wasn’t optimized, so we also optimized the Google listing before our 2nd our round of signal building.

In 30 days, our team built 6+ months of signals to expedite our test (and the results). We let those signals sit for about a week, then began investigating the impact.

All grids we pulled were from this Tuesday 12/5.

First, we saw “insulation contractors” starting to rank in the outskirts of the grid.

We expected ranking to be easier here due to less competition…

But the nodes jumped from 20+ to 4-5, which is a bigger jump than we expected to see.

We also saw movement with “insulation installation” in a similar area…

We also saw “insulation contractors” started to rank in more nodes…

This was the only keyword with visibility improvement from the 1st month of signal building.

But after our 2nd round signal burst, we saw movement pick up some…

This is the most competitive keyword we are targeting in this test, so it was expected that visibility would be weaker here.

So just to recap of what’s been done so far:

1. Built 1 month of Custom Signals
2. Optimized the Google listing
3. Built 6+ months of signals in 30 days for our 2nd round of signal building.

We will continue to monitor grids as the signals index, but we’re not the type to just let things sit.

So we’re going back to the lab to build a stronger brand.

Where do you think this test is headed next? Let us know in the Local Client Takeover Facebook group.

Happy testing,

SEO Mad Scientist Lab

💰 Press & SERP Notes SEO Tests + Product Improvements & More 💰

The SEO Vault: Episode 217

Episode 217 is heavy on test updates (& Mike trying to push Chat GPT beyond the brink), including insight into Google Notes in the SERPs and the efficacy of press in SEO.

We also discuss how you can expand your reach with paid social accounts, like X Premium, which Mike has been playing around with.

 Ready to dive in? Watch the episode, or listen on your favorite podcasting platform.

This Week in the LCT Facebook Group…

 

🔬 SEO Mad Scientist 🔬

Google Notes Test

Google recently released a Notes feature, allowing users to add notes directly in the SERPs. Now that we’re seeing it live in the SERPs, we decided to test it!

This update could have significant implications for SEO strategy…

The integration of indexed notes in SERPs introduces a new layer of relevance, user engagement, and potential link-building opportunities in search results.

Here’s how they appear in the SERPs:

YMYL results don’t appear to have the notes feature, but we expected that.

We tested notes on multiple different SERPs and industries. Below is what we’ve seen so far…

1. Notes must be approved
2. Google doesn’t like it if you try and put links in posts 
3. You can like and share notes

Here’s an example of a SERP note we created

https://www.google.com/viewer/content/u2vz3evm/qgXdMf?hl=en

Once a note is created, there are 2 URLs created for each note…

One URL is indexed, and one looks like it’s not (as of now).

User profiles are also indexed, which is where all notes are accumulated.

You can also add links to profiles for social accounts like YouTube, Facebook, and X.

Long story short, this is one of the biggest SERP features we’ve seen released in a while. 

We don’t know the full impact or usability of notes yet, but the feature seems promising. We will keep you updated as we continue to test. 

If you think of any new ways to leverage Notes, be sure to drop them in the Local Client Takeover Facebook group!

Happy testing, 

The SEO Mad Scientist Team

💰 Google Notes Live & Indexing + Crawler Changes & Power Of Press 💰

The SEO Vault: Episode 216

Our latest podcast episode is hot off the press!

 We’re spilling the tea on major changes in SERP features, including Google Notes, Site Crawler shake-ups, and Bard understanding videos.

 Ready to dive in? Watch the episode, or listen on your favorite podcasting platform.

This Week in the LCT Facebook Group…

Our Black Friday SEO Sale is in full swing.

25% Off Sitewide – code: BFDeals

30% Off New Monthly Campaigns + Add-Ons – code: 30Monthly

> Mark also just dropped some serious wisdom bombs in his latest data-driven content training. It’s a two-parter with no salesy stuff – just pure content marketing gold.

💰 Crucial Components Of Campaigns SEOs Often Overlook & Google Notes In SERPs 💰

The SEO Vault: Episode 215

Our newest SEO Vault episode (number 215, baby!) is like a virtual treasure hunt.

We’re spilling the tea on Google’s “Notes” experiment, taking a deep dive into SEO testing, unveiling the Client Management Dashboard, and throwing in tips to dodge those pesky fraudulent DMCA notices.

It’s basically your roadmap to SEO success – press play now!

 Ready to dive in? Watch the episode, or listen on your favorite podcasting platform.

This Week in the LCT Facebook Group…

Our Black Friday SEO Sale is just around the corner – starting Wednesday, the 22nd.

🔬 SEO Mad Scientist 🔬

Hey SEO Mad Scientists!

We’re back with a quick update on our Custom Signals test.

It’s been nearly a month since the signals were built and the 2.5km grids aren’t seeing much movement.

While we saw one additional node jump from 20+ to 11 in the “insulation services” grid, this doesn’t really constitute a measurable improvement.

So we moved on to the next step…

On Tuesday, 11/14 we completely optimized the GBP listing. We plan to circle back next week to see the impact of the optimized listing.

Then, in a couple of weeks, we will complete our 2nd month of signal building.

We hypothesize that the newly-optimized listing combined with a second round of signals will generate more movement.

But we will wait and see…

Thanks for tuning in,

The SEO Mad Scientist Team

💰 Ranking Impact Of Press Releases SEO Test, How To Find Authority Press & More 💰

The SEO Vault: Episode 214

The ranking impact of press releases has been long debated… 

In this week’s episode of the SEO vault, we circle back to a PR test we ran months ago to check how rankings fared. So if you’re wondering about the impact of press on SEO campaigns, don’t miss this episode.

We also cover recent Algo updates, how to find authority press mentions, and how to redefine your content game, including using AI content tools!

 Ready to dive in? Watch the episode, or listen on your favorite podcasting platform.

This Week in the LCT Facebook Group…

Automatically unlock our Level 1 Black Friday bonus, just by signing up for our BF SMS notification.

…it’s that easy!

🔬 SEO Mad Scientist 🔬

Yahoo! Finance PR Still Dominates “US CTA Filing Service” Featured Snippet)

Hey, SEO Testers!

While we are working on getting another press test launched, we decided to circle back to a previous press test…

It’s been nearly three months since our last update on our PR test with CTA Filer to see “How Much Do Press Releases Impact Rankings?” You can find the full, previous test update here: https://web20ranker.com/seo-updates-august-18-2023/

The press release was published June 16, 2023, nearly 5 months ago.

First, the Yahoo! Finance press release continues to hold the featured snippet for the search term, “us cta filing service”. While this isn’t entirely shocking, it does demonstrate the power authoritative press features can bring.

But this SEO test focuses more on how press releases impact rankings.

So, we compared current organic rankings a week after publishing the release(6/23/23) to now…

You can see the press release was ranking for more organic keywords a week after publishing.

However, the release also gained a new keyword since our last update on 8/18 – “cta business”.

We also reviewed the organic rankings of the target website, comparing rankings now to rankings right after the release was published.

The target site gained 6 new organic keywords since publishing the release, with one at the bottom of page 1!

The ONLY other work done since publishing the release was one large AI content piece about beneficial ownership.

While not all keywords directly correlate with the release, the correlation between website rankings and press releases underscores the importance of optimizing press releases for target keywords.

In the coming weeks, we plan to delve deeper into our press tests, exploring the impact of press releases linking to your website pages and local listings.

We also plan to investigate the influence of tier linking between the current press releases, also known as “pr stacking”. However, this test is not slated until 2024.

Stay tuned for our next update as we continue our exploration of SEO.

Thank you for your support. Happy testing!

💰 AI Writing V. Human Content + Custom Signals SEO Test Update 💰

The SEO Vault: Episode 213

Are you leveraging custom instructions in ChatGPT? This episode is all about boosting your agency’s productivity.

In episode 213, we discuss why custom instructions are crucial in generation. Plus…

The impact of custom signal building on maps rankings, and how to make the most of AI content.

 Ready to dive in? Watch the episode, or listen on your favorite podcasting platform.

This Week in the LCT Facebook Group…