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Seo can be very complicated, and it’s continuously evolving. Keeping up with the industry is very important if you plan on using seo as a long-term marketing strategy. Here are some of the best seo resources:
traffic think tank
google’s seo starter guide
matthew barby
how to improve google rankings
9 of the biggest seo trends that will rock 2019
seo title optimization
seo or ppc: which should you choose?
using google trends to boost your.
Anchor text—the text that features the embedded hyperlink to your site—used to be a huge deal. Before google’s panda algorithm in 2011 (and then google’s penguin algorithm in 2012), anchor text manipulation was rampant because it worked so damn well. In those days, to get the most out of your link, you’d embed at least one keyword into your anchor text. Today, this could still theoretically be beneficial, but to a much lesser degree; aside from that, it’s actually the #1 way google identifies link spam, so i recommend avoiding it altogether. Having too many links with unnatural anchor text (such as anchor text that includes a keyword within it) is the easiest way for google to identify rank manipulation, and can quickly earn you a devastating penalty that can be extremely difficult to recover from.
Keyword research is the first step in any successful seo strategy, and there are several tools designed specifically to help you identify the best possible keywords for your business:
google keyword planner
ubersuggest
keywordtool. Io
Niche Genetics
for more information, check out our resource on cro and seo.
After you complete your google seo keyword research and have a list of google seo keywords you want to target, it’s time to write! your seo keywords need to appear in your content – just don’t overdo it or your content will look spammy. Place your most valuable keywords in:
body of the text. No brainer, right? remember not to just use the same keywords over and over again. Add in modifiers (ex. “best”, “top”)and long-tails. Title. Having the keyword in your title will improve your ctr from the serp. (see our title tag guide for more help with writing seo-friendly titles. ).
Search engine listings are today’s phonebook listing. Often people know what they are looking for, but they may not know how to find it. So, when a consumer is in search of a product or service, they’re most likely to go to google to search for it. We start with keyword research and then create a strategy tailored to facilitate achievement of our clients’ goals and target the keywords that will provide the most value to our clients’ businesses. We constantly monitor the traffic and rankings and look for improvements. By utilizing the best tools and staying on the cutting edge of the seo field, we provide superior seo strategies, insights, and results for all of the clients we work with.
Speaking of stuff in proximity to the image, any text content that you have on the page is relevant to google. Text right above or below the image provides useful context for your image. And if you can display actual image iptc data, even better: seo guide – 39. Display image iptc metadata
google’s own webmaster guidelines explain it further:
“the page the image is on, and the content around the image (including any captions or image titles), provide search engines with important information about the subject matter of your image. For example, if you have a picture of a polar bear on a page about home-grown tomatoes, you’ll be sending a confused message to the search engines about the subject matter of polarbear.
Welcome to the google seo guide, your complete, all-in-one guide to ranking competitively in google’s search engine. What is seo? seo refers to search engine optimization, or the process of optimizing a website in order to make it easy to find via search engines like google. So how do you optimize your site content for google seo? let wordstream lead the way!.
Study an seo guide such as my “ seo how-to ” series. Other helpful and free beginner seo guides include moz’s “ the beginner’s guide to seo ,” search engine land’s “ guide to seo ,” and google’s “ search engine optimization starter guide. ”for quick updates on seo changes, try two youtube channels: moz’s “ whiteboard friday ” and “ google webmasters. ”also, read trusted seo blogs.
Off-page seo is often referred to as link-building. This process is done away from your site, and you don’t have much control over it. Its purpose is to increase your site’s authority in your niche. Backlinks
higher authority means that other websites refer to your pages, signalling google that your content is high-quality. Your best bet is to create amazing content and get links (aka backlinks) from other sites. Learn how to build high-quality backlinks using these 32 link building strategies. Also, be sure to check out our quick and dirty guide on how to rank your brand new website fast.
There are only so many ways to get traffic — social media, paid ads, email or search. Search traffic is the only one of these ways that’s reliable, free and fairly easy to get. If you want your site to get hundreds, thousands or even hundreds of thousands of monthly visitors, you need to learn ecommerce seo today. A simple seo campaign can result in hundreds of extra sales. And it doesn’t have to take you years to achieve, either. Follow the steps in this guide and you’ll be leagues above your competition. You’ll start to rank on the first page — and even in the top 3 results — for all your shop’s main keywords. It really is a no-brainer.
As you know, i’m playing the long-term entrepreneurial game instead of just trying to get a quick buck out of it. It’s the same with search engine optimization. Some people are in it to make a few grand really quickly while others are in it for the long haul. If you want to work seo like a get-rich-quick scheme, you’ll probably end up doing black hat seo. This type of seo focuses on optimizing your content only for the search engine, not considering humans at all. Since there are lots of ways to bend and break the rules to get your sites to rank high, these are a prime way for black hat seos to make a few thousand dollars fast.
After initial seo work is complete, the plaudit design internet marketing team monitors the results of this initial search engine optimization in order to set performance goals and inform future ongoing efforts, it is important to have a plan for continued improvement in order to maintain a positive trajectory when gaining ranking in search results. It’s also important to monitor competitor websites in order to prevent them from reclaiming higher search rankings. Continually building relevant content, and exploring additional ways to reinforce content quality will result in long-lasting search ranking.
Along with types of search, we also need to consider the types of keywords that are used to find results on the web. There are two types of keywords: head tail and long tail. They refer to the two extremes you can see in the image below and correspond to different stages of the process. The farther to the right the keyword lies, the more specific it is from a user closer to the purchase decision. For an seo strategy, it’s important to work with both types of keywords to reach potential clients at all stages of the process.
I hope this guide helped you realize that search engine optimization isn’t optional anymore. While it doesn’t take a lot of effort to get a few basics right, it might kill your online presence if you don’t. Don’t worry if you’ve already made some seo decisions in the past that might not have been the perfect choices. Just commit to getting started today as it can take you 6 months to a year to see results. Do your keyword research before you write your next blog post. Then, use your keyword data to optimize the basics, such as your title tags and descriptions.
The majority of this guide has focused on google as the main consideration in seo, which is a good thing— google still dominates the web with two-thirds of all search traffic —but there are other search engines to optimize for. For example, youtube has its own ranking system. It’s somewhat similar to google’s, drawing on keywords in the title and tags, as well as the quality and support for the content itself, but it’s worth considering as a secondary route of optimization. This is especially important because how you optimize your youtube videos will affect how and whether they show up in straightforward google searches. Post new videos on an occasional basis and optimize all of them for both modes of search.
This article aims to give an overview of what seo is, why it is important, how google functions, and a guide to what you can do. This article is not a definitive guide to every aspect and subtlety of seo — search engine optimization. This is a vast subject that cannot be fully covered in a single article.
Googlebot can only find content that is textually visible. For example, text in videos is
invisible to googlebot. To make sure that google search understands what your page is about:
make sure that your visual content is expressed in text form. For example, a product category page that contains a list of images of shirts with no textual
context about each image is suboptimal. The product category page should include some
textual explanation for each image. Make sure that every page has a descriptive.
A tool like google analytics can give you feedback about the search terms people use to find your docs,
your most popular pages, and lots of other useful data. Search term feedback can be used to help you optimize content for certain keywords or for related keywords. For sphinx documentation, or other technical documentation that has its own search features,
analytics tools can also tell you the terms people search for within your site. Knowing your popular pages can help you prioritize where to spend your seo efforts.
There are three big categories of on-page seo that you’ll need to take a look at. The first and most important is content. You’ve probably heard it before: “content is king. ” bill gates made this prediction in 1996 , and it’s as true as ever today. Why?
because a google search engine customer is happy when he finds the result that serves his needs in the best way. When you google “quick and easy homemade mac and cheese,” google will put all its energy into delivering to you what google believes is the best recipe for homemade mac and cheese (that takes little time and uses few ingredients) on the entire web.
For non-sensitive information, block unwanted crawling by using robots. Txt
a “robots. Txt” file tells search engines whether they can access and therefore crawl parts of your site. This file, which must be named “robots. Txt”, is placed in the root directory of your site. It is possible that pages blocked by robots. Txt can still be crawled, so for sensitive pages you should use a more secure method. You may not want certain pages of your site crawled because they might not be useful to users if found in a search engine’s search results. If you do want to prevent search engines from crawling your pages, google search console has a friendly robots. Txt generator to help you create this file.
Google (and bing, which also power yahoo search results) score their search results largely based upon relevancy and authority of pages it has crawled and included in its web index, to a users query to provide the best answer. Google uses over 200 signals in scoring their search results and seo encompasses technical and creative activities to influence and improve some of those known signals. It’s often useful to not focus too much on individual ranking signals and look at the wider goal of google, to provide the best answers for its users.
Have you ever considered exactly what google does when you search for something? despite only taking milliseconds, there’s a long process to be able to display a list of results that answer your question. In general, search engines have three stages:
first, search engines crawl through web content using bots, also known as spiders. At google, it’s known as their googlebot. These bots follow the connections of links across the web, searching for new and updated pages. After that, the crawled pages are added to the search engine’s index, which serves as a vast library for the web’s content.
A web site map, which you can submit to google’s search console, is a way of helping google understand the overall structure of your site. This allows the crawler to understand the organizational mapping of your site, from the homepage, navigation menu, to the rest of your connected content. A site structure that is overly complex and leads users through a rabbit hole that is difficult to navigate out of, can have a negative effect on the way that google ranks your site. Google does not reward content that offers their users a negative experience. Every page on your site should be 3 clicks away.
Link text is the visible text inside a link. This text tells users and google something about the page you’re linking to. Links on your page may be internal—pointing to other pages on your site—or external—leading to content on other sites. In either of these cases, the better your anchor text is, the easier it is for users to navigate and for google to understand what the page you’re linking to is about. With appropriate anchor text, users and search engines can easily understand what the linked pages contain.
Lucky orange is not specifically an seo tool, but if google values user experience, you should understand how visitors are engaging with the content on your website. Lucky orange is a heat map and site recording tool that allows you to understand the behaviors of real users on your website. Understanding this data will shine light on site blindspots and offer opportunities for you to make iterations to your site content, keeping users engaged with your content, ultimately helping your seo.
Optimizing your social media profiles won’t help the domain authority of your existing site, but it will boost the visibility of those profiles in search engines. For example, if you fill out your facebook profile with keywords related to your industry, there’s a higher chance that your facebook profile will appear in those types of searches , not just in google, but in facebook, too. Furthermore, having robust social media profiles will increase the likelihood that they populate the search results for searches on your brand name. This is crucial for online reputation management. Fill out every field you can for as many platforms as you have for your brand, and be as descriptive and concise as possible.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, it’s understandable. It’s a full-time job to manage and implement a successful google seo strategy for your business, which is why webfx works as an extension of your team. With our competitive and results-driven seo strategies , we’ll help you not only rank on the first page of search results but also earn more revenue from that ranking — and we mean it. Take reynolds building solutions, for example. With webfx, reynolds building solutions increased its year-over-year organic traffic by more than 40 percent. Even better, the company’s year-over-year organic contact form submissions jumped by more than 70 percent.
Search engine optimization, commonly referred to as seo, is the process of optimizing your website to get organic traffic from search engines (google, yahoo, bing, etc). By making small changes to your website’s appearance and content, you can make it more attractive to search engines, which causes your site to gain higher placement in search results. Seo also means that search engines are delivering results that are high quality and relevant to what searchers are looking for. By improving your seo, you will expand your visibility online, which will help you to reach and engage with a wider audience! you can learn more about search engine optimization here.
Think about the words that a user might search for to find a piece of your content. Users who know a lot about the topic might use different keywords in their search queries than someone who is new to the topic. For example, a long-time football fan might search for [fifa], an acronym for the fédération internationale de football association, while a new fan might use a more general query like [football playoffs]. Anticipating these differences in search behavior and accounting for them while writing your content (using a good mix of keyword phrases) could produce positive results. Google ads provides a handy keyword planner 34 that helps you discover new keyword variations and see the approximate search volume for each keyword.
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Hi friends, it’s me Dan. Your friendly SEO curmudgeon in training.
Recently the SEO community (cough cough, SEO Twitter) has been caught up in a veritable tizzy about knowing HTML. Beyond the obvious epistemological considerations, I think there is a real ontological question raised by the primacy of HTML as a programming language in the SEOs toolkit.
It’s hard to have these conversations when we probably aren’t all on the same page about what “knowing” something means.
When can I say I “know” a language? How technical do I have to be to be a “Technical” SEO? It requires a conversation within a conversation.
— Kim Doughty (@howdydoughty) September 3, 2020
So I ask you:
Spoilers, yes and I do.
Let’s start up front, HTML is a front end web development language. If you don’t do front end work, things like HTML don’t really mean much to you. Here is a spoiler for you; not all SEO roles involve front end auditing. I guess I can see why this is a little controversial, as the traditional conception of SEO is based around this idea of an SEO freelancer jill-of-all-trades. However, this doesn’t make much sense as a way to organize modern SEO functions. First of all, because teams are cool, and collaboration is cool. Even if your teams have 10x SEOs (think mythical 10x engineer) the idea of a freelancer centric model of SEO feels very dated. I think Local SEO Guide CEO Andrew Shotland (sound trumpets) is the perfect person to get a quote from here. Andrew has been in the SEO game a long time and here is what he has to say about how it has changed over time:
In some ways, how I help our clients succeed at SEO hasn’t changed since I started doing this strange form of marketing almost fifteen(!) years ago. The advice we are delivering to clients this week could easily be in an audit from 2005. But whereas in 2005 you only needed one guy behind the curtain turning the knobs, these days there is a entire team of Oompa Loompas, and they all are really good at turning their specific knobs, and the don’t need to be masters at every other knob.
Nowhere is this shift in how SEO is organized more clear then the difference between how successful in-house teams work and how SEO agencies generally work. More and more in-house marketing and SEO teams have analytics and data roles and are becoming cross functional. A lot of the work they are doing is to integrate SEO more fully into their internal business intelligence systems. That is often a full time data role, and some of the most cutting edge enterprise SEO orgs have multiple full time team members with analyst-type pokemon skill sets. But don’t take my word for it just look at this job posting Adobe has for an SEO Insights Manager. Nowhere in there is HTML, but Python/R/SQL are def core to this job. I reached out to enterprise SEO badass Jackie Chu (Senior Manager SEO; Uber) to get her thoughts:
Funnily the core charter of my team (Intelligence) is to build bespoke tooling for the SEO team, so I’m no longer in the day to day “traditional SEO activities” around ideating new page types or localization. The majority of my day is spent cleaning up data, feverishly checking Kibana, QAing dashboards and working on setting requirements for the future of tooling for the team. We’re currently hiring for another headcount, but outside of this person my team will mostly be supported by adtech product and engineering to see the bespoke tooling and warehousing of the underlying datasets to fruition.
At other companies like Square and Dropbox, it was pretty standard to get at least partial Analyst support for business exercises like forecasting and reporting, and also for measuring A/B tests, experiments, and the impact of traditional SEO efforts like optimizing page templates or link building. Most of these companies use their own internal data warehouses, and while you inevitably need baseline SQL skills most SEOs won’t be able to pull the data with the same rigor and speed as someone who is in the tables day in and day out. It’s also great to have hard numbers provided by an unbiased 3rd party to use to get resourcing in the future and quantify your contribution to the company’s bottom line. After some successes my old colleague, Chris Yee, even secured data science hours to build bespoke SEO research tools. The pilot was so successful that the Data Science lead later went on to another company and immediately added an SEO-dedicated headcount to his team.
I think when you work in enterprise, you want to break down the walls of SEO being seen as something only the “SEO team” does. Whether your peer’s skillset is Analytics or Engineering, If their success metric is growth realized organically on the website, then they’re part of the SEO team.
I saw Jackie give a talk entitled “Soft SEO: How to Win Friends and Influence Leadership” and I think it’s one of the best SEO talks I have seen recently. Everyone should bug her on Twitter to put the slides online.
This isn’t just relegated to in-house teams. We have 3 backend/analyst roles ourself. While they all “know” html it is totally irrelevant to their day-to-day work (except for Sam who owns our Puppeteer instance.) And it’s not just us. Orgs like Merkle, SEER etc all have dedicated analytics teams that are exclusively data roles. Python/R/SQL are all more useful across these roles than superficial knowledge of HTML. These are the very normal and very traditional tools of the trade for data analysts.
Before you are like “but that isn’t SEO!!”.
Now we are firmly back at the ontological question of the day; What even is an SEO?
Just to be totally transparent, I’m going to just flat out reject definitions related to “what is an SEO” that marginalizes team members across our organization. And that is exactly what people are saying when they say HTML (or insert X skill here) is critical to be an SEO. For some roles HTML or general front end auditing skills are not critical. Some examples of these roles that we have in our org are:
In fact, in a not so funny quirk, linkbuilding and technical development/data analysis overlap with us in terms of leadership which should tell you that linkbuilding is super technical, and the most core function of SEO (getting links) is 100% detached from front end auditing. Here, they count as real SEOs.
None of the SEO work we do as an org would be able to happen without being able to integrate people with non-front end skill sets into our SEO flow. For more about this, and how this has led to a huge empowerment of people and teams across our org, I highly recommend you check out my talk at VirtuaCon on going from Automation Zero to Hero. Andrew is going to be giving an updated version of this talk at Whitespark’s Local Search Summit next week. In fact, just yesterday I had a call with Tealium in order to work on integrating some client data into our Google Big Query stack so we can use it to do analysis. No HTML required.
Alright, I’ve said basically everything I have wanted to say here so let’s bring it home. SEO is a rapidly diversifying role/function and needing to know how to do everything doesn’t equate being able to do everything well. To succeed in SEO moving forward the discipline needs to throw off the shackles of its past and embrace new ways of thinking.
Oh, and we are hiring. So if this sounds like an interesting place to work you may want to apply.
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Planning a long-distance move is a major undertaking, and when you are moving to a new state like Texas the process can be even more complex. To take the stress out of your next interstate relocation, call on the professionals at The Texas man And Van Network
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All sales begin with leads, and plumbers are always on the lookout for ways to add to the pipeline of leads that turn into sales. One of those ways can be through a number of different pay per lead services for plumbers, like:
While these services can sometimes offer some short term help, they ultimately aren’t a key part of the quality lead generation machine of a plumbing business.
In this blog, we take a close look at pay per lead services and what dive into the pros and cons of each.
Have questions at the end? Blue Corona specializes in plumber marketing. So give us a call or contact us online to learn more about how we can help you increase leads and sales while reducing your marketing costs.
A pay per lead service is pretty close to what it sounds like. There are millions of directories and sites on the internet that target specific industries or specific geographic areas. These directories aren’t just there to provide a public service, they are ways of collecting data that can be sold to an audience. If you want access to these audiences, you are going to have to pay to be listed in those directories, which can then be one way to generate leads.
There are also companies that specialize in pay per lead services. Instead of charging you for a listing, as some of the big directories do, they will give you a free listing with a tracked phone number and web form in order to figure out how many leads they sent your way. You are then charged per lead.
This is a big industry with lots of competition, so we’ve decided to focus on the four biggest pay per lead services plumbers use.
HomeAdvisor is the 800-pound gorilla in the home improvement directory space. The service is free for homeowners, but plumbers who want to be listed have to pay an annual fee to advertise and pay for every lead generated by HomeAdvisor.
Pros:
Cons:
Thumbtack takes the opposite approach from HomeAdvisor in that instead of homeowners doing the searching, they simply post a project and plumbers can then examine those projects and contact the homeowners if they’re interested.
Pros:
Cons:
In May 2017 it was announced that Angie’s List had been acquired by its largest competitor at the time, HomeAdvisor. “If you can’t beat ‘em, buy ‘em.” You could describe Angie’s List pay per lead service as “free to join, but pay to play.” If you do decide to go the paid route, you’ll pay the same fee each month whether you get 100 leads or 0.
Pros:
Cons:
Porch, like Thumbtack, puts the power of contacting primarily in the hands of contractors. Plumbers can see the leads before they choose to contact the lead, for which they will then be charged. Porch also touts its relationships with Lowe’s and BBB.
Pros:
Cons:
After seeing some of the pros and cons for each of the big plumber pay per lead services, there are four main reasons to avoid them altogether:
Everything we’ve been discussing so far revolves around what happens when other people control the audience and your marketing assets.
This puts you into a position of renting your advertising instead of owning it. When it comes to lead generation for plumbers, owning is always better than renting. Here’s why:
Here are replacements you can use today that are going to increase leads and sales more efficiently than plumber pay per lead services:
As we said at the beginning, leads are what sales are made of. But if your leads aren’t good, the sales won’t happen.
If you aren’t excited about the pay per lead universe and want to develop a top notch plumber marketing plan to help you increase leads and sales, contact us online today!
The post Are Pay Per Lead Services for Plumbers Worth? appeared first on Local SEO Resources.
A Complete Guide To Multiple Location SEO For Chains and Franchises
Expanding your online presence for local search is hard enough as it is. When you add multiple locations to the mix, things get even more daunting.
You are faced with decisions about website architecture, URL structure, whether you need location pages or a store locator, and how best to avoid filtering all of your multi-location Google My Business listings.
To help you out, we’ve put together this guide on what multi-location SEO is, common issues, and how to ensure that your multiple locations stay unfiltered and ready to dominate the local 3 pack.
Local searches are searches where the location of the result is a relevant factor. For example, if a user is in City A and needs to find a restaurant to eat lunch, chances are that they want the search results to be specific to City A and their keywords would include the likes of “restaurants near me” or “italian restaurant in City A”.
Though it’s typical these terms don’t always need to have an explicit location keyword modifier, as long as the target of the search is a product or service that’s commonly consumed locally, like food or retail shops or appliance maintenance then an approximate GPS location of the user will be used to determine locally relevant results.
When considering that 72% of customers who conduct a local search visit a nearby store, and over 75% of users don’t typically go past the first page of search results, it’s clear that optimizing for local is beneficial for traffic and sales, if not critical.
The ultimate goal of Local GMB SEO is to rank in the local map pack, which is also known as the three-pack or snack pack. Commonly known tactics include optimizing your Google My Business listing, building citations, collecting reviews, and crafting locally-relevant content for your website.
Multi-location SEO is the process of ranking your website pages and GMB listings in their relevant locations.
This can get tricky because you have to target both niche and geo-specific search queries without diluting the rank of another store or causing a local filter to be sure you are increasing their visibility in the SERP and driving results, rather than harming their rank.
Below are some of the most common issues that we identify when auditing multi-location SEO campaigns at Web 20.
It’s a widespread misconception that local optimization only applies to your Google My Business listing when in fact it needs to start with the foundation of your online presence – your website.
We highly recommend creating distinct pages for each location you’re trying to rank in. The general rule is that each location should have it’s own page optimized for a singular location aka a location page. If you already have location pages, the next step is to ensure that they’re discoverable by search engines. Make sure they’re easily crawlable and indexable so that they can be delivered to users.
Due to internal and external links, the homepage should be the most authoritative page of the website, so be sure to optimize it for the main target location.
In some cases, however, if the brand only has a few locations and they are local to each other then it may be beneficial to optimize the page for all of them and use it across the GMB’s as well.
Some examples where I would use just the home page for multiple locations include:
A business has 4 locations in Las Vegas. I would optimize the home page for Las Vegas and link all four GMB listings to the home page.
A business has 6 locations in New York City. Even though I would probably build location pages for each for the boroughs of New York, I would most likely link all of the GMB listings to the more authoritative home page since it will be optimized for New York City. And the borough pages would link home using keyword anchors with modifiers such as “car accident lawyer Bronx NYC”.
Even though GMB is at the center of most local SEO efforts, you’d be surprised to learn that more than half of listings on the platform haven’t been claimed. If you don’t claim your GMB listing, then you won’t have control over how your brand is presented on perhaps the most important business directory on the internet.
The information on your GMB profile is what shows up in the local pack or knowledge graph in the SERP. Having complete and up-to-date information is essential not just for search engines but for potential customers too.
Each location should have its own distinct and fully verified GMB listing that includes the business name, address, phone number, website, business category, attributes, description, photos, and more. Two or more locations for the same brand name using the same street address OR phone number would be considered duplicates and could lead to potential spam and filtering issues.
Most storefront locations already have completely unique NAPs, but the same should apply to service area based listings as well. Even if the visible address is removed from the listing, and unique service areas are added, the GMB will still be registered at the address where it was verified.
Additionally, when working with multi-location SABs be careful not to allow any service areas to overlap between the listings as this may cause one or more to be filtered from the search results. Check out Google’s own GMB guidelines if you want to learn more about what you can and cannot do with your listings according to TOS.
Ensuring NAP consistency is a simple yet surprisingly effective way of improving your rank.
While Google is getting better at crediting brand mentions to the right entities, we all know the algorithm is still far from perfect so if each location doesn’t have a consistent name, address, and phone number used it could cause some NAP citations to go uncredited towards local prominence.
With multi-location SEO, the risk and impact of inconsistencies exponentially increase as signals may get mixed between locations.
This risk becomes more apparent when you consider bulk verified chains are required to use the exact same GMB listing name across all locations, so the phone number, city, and zip code becomes the prime elements by which Google has to identify one listing from another.
I am a huge believer in providing quality signals to the search engines and your location pages are no exception. One of the most common mistakes made with multi-location websites is reusing the same basic content across all locations and only swapping out the city name, state, etc where mentioned.
I know many local SEO’s that will say there is no duplicate content penalty for local SEO, and they are correct. But what there most definitely is, is a Panda filter and if you have too many low quality pages you can receive an algorithmic filter.
And while a few duplicate location pages may not affect you negatively, there’s a reason why mass page builders went out of fashion four years ago, multiple spam pages just don’t index or rank like they used to.
All pages on a site should always have a high percentage of unique content and I strive to make sure none are less than sixty percent unique.
When creating a content plan be sure that you’re providing all of the info that users need for that location. The more value the page has, the more likely you’ll get higher SERP rankings.
Location pages should include information about the targeted area, services offered in that area, and sub-categories of those services. Word count can vary greatly depending on the niche and competition level but should be based directly on what the top-ranking competitors are doing.
Always try to include local elements such as your operating hours, contact details, driving directions, and anything else that users normally search for.
Although you’re peddling the same brand, think of the things that make each of your stores stand out from the rest. This includes information related to the area (e.g. history, landmarks), an embedded map, events that are unique to that location, and the like.
It’s obvious that on-page optimization is a must for Local SEO, but are you optimizing the right page? And how do you optimize for more than one location?
In this section, we’ll lay out the six stages to optimizing your online brand and helping search engines deliver the right location to the users searching for it.
Before you can begin to optimize your website, you’ll need to lay the foundation of your local SEO strategy first. This involves researching your keywords, planning the site structure, and understanding what the top ranking competitors are doing.
Like most search engine optimization, in local SEO you start by finding keywords that you want to target. This is called your semantic core.
Once you have a shortlist of keywords, you can then create different variations for the various locations you want to target. Then, choose your main keyword for each of your locations.
The ideal main keyword is a keyword that has a high search volume and high buyer intent.
You want a keyword variation set that will drive online traffic, but also a keyword that will drive phone calls or deliver shoppers to your store.
After you select the top target keywords, it’s time to build out the structure of your site. Figure out your main pages aside from your home page, contact page, and about page and ask yourself, “what kind of information is my target audience looking for the most? What content will drive the most views and visitors to the site?”
Then, group those ideas in a way that’s intuitive for the user – usually this is by topic, but you can structure it any way you want as long as it’s logical, simple, and consistent.
Your location pages – one for each store or area that you want to target – will naturally be grouped together for this and your URLs need to reflect your site structure. If you only have a few locations, this is relatively easy. You can have each page directly under the locations category, like so:
| Site structure | URL structure |
| Locations > Brooklyn | locations/brooklyn |
| Locations > Manhattan | locations/manhattan |
| Locations > Berlin | locations/berlin |
Alternatively, for only a few locations it might be beneficial to skip the location folder altogether and simply write your location page URLs like this:
|
Site structure |
URL structure |
|
Locations > Brooklyn |
/brooklyn |
|
Locations > Manhattan |
/manhattan |
|
Locations > Berlin |
/berlin |
But if you have more than a dozen local pages, you might want to add even more subcategories to make navigation easier. For example, a business that operates in multiple countries could implement this hierarchy:
Locations > [Country] > [State/City] > [Exact Area]
In practice, that could look like:
| Site structure | URL structure |
| Locations > USA > New York | /locations/us/ny |
| Locations > USA > New York > Brooklyn | /locations/us/ny/brooklyn |
| Locations > USA > New York > Brooklyn > Coney Island | /locations/us/ny/brooklyn/coney-island |
| Locations > USA > New York > Brooklyn > Prospect Park | /locations/us/ny/brooklyn/prospect-park |
| Locations > UK > England > London > King’s Cross Station | /locations/uk/london/kings-cross |
| Locations > UK > Scotland > New Town | /locations/uk/scotland/new-town |
| Locations > Germany > Berlin | /locations/germany/berlin |
| Locations > Germany > Munich | /locations/germany/munich |
Here are a few examples of a great multi-site structure that was well-researched and performs very well in the local SERPs for brands with a high number of locations across the United States.
Still skeptical about building out multiple location pages? Here are some additional benefits to consider:
Keep in mind that this is just one way of structuring your website. No matter what method you choose, just make sure that you stick to one consistent system.
Navigation serves two purposes: to help users find their way around the site, and to help search engines discover (and index) new pages.
With that in mind, you’ll probably want to add your location content categories to the main navigation, where they are most visible to users.
Alternatively, the pages could be placed in the footer of the website but remember that if you have more than just a few location pages, it’s better to drop just one link to the main location page (/locations) rather than a link to each.
Some sites integrate a store locator function into their navigation menu, and even dynamic menus based on the location selected.
Some sites with multiple locations integrate a store locator function into their navigation menu and even use dynamic menus based on the location selected.
Look into top ranking businesses in the target areas.
What keywords are they targeting?
How do they structure their websites?
What does their Google My Business listing look like?
What directories are they on?
After all, how are you going to compete for a higher rank in the local SERP if you don’t know what your competitors are doing?
Understanding why the competitors are so successful with their SEO goes a long way in replicating that success for your own client.
That being said, be warned that you should never copy the competition outright as this can hinder your own efforts – but you can typically learn a lot from what they’re doing and identify important gaps to fill.
Now that you know where the pages are going, you need to optimize them so that search engines are able to differentiate between them and crawl the necessary info.
There are countless factors that play into on-page SEO, but when looking at the content structure we will focus specifically on the meta titles & descriptions, headings, photos, and (of course) the content itself.
A good meta title describes what the user (and Google) can expect when they visit the page and should incorporate your main keyword since search engines use this feature to better understand your content. The title should also be enticing and clickable with a max of about 60 characters, as it is also one of the first things that users will see in the SERPs.
For location pages, you can stick to a format that includes the main product or service that you offer (which is, more often than not, part of your main keyword), the store location, and the business name.
This way, you establish both geo- and niche relevance for your location page.
Here are a few examples, but typically your best example to use would be the top ranking competitor:
Best tacos in Columbus, OH | The Taco Mill
Car Titans – Affordable rent-a-car in New Orleans
The meta description goes hand-in-hand with this and is the snippet of text that appears below the title on the search results page – here you have 160 characters to summarize the content and encourage users to click on the link.
It’s best to include a couple of keywords, as that will not only help Google categorize your content better, but it also helps users figure out if your content answers their query. Round it off with a convincing CTA (Call to action), and you’re good to go.
Your heading tags have a significant impact on your ranking. Like your title tag, the headings send critical ranking signals to search engines, so you’ll want to incorporate a main keyword variation into your H1, and make sure that it contains the location as well.
We recommend sticking to one H1 tag per page, and information should be organized in a hierarchical format according to importance (H1 > H2 > H3).
H2s and H3s have a lesser impact, but they’re still important for organizing the content on the page. They also give more detail about what the page is all about. Generally, an H2 is a subtopic of the H1, while an H3 is usually a subtopic of the H2.
This is not a hard-and-fast rule, however. And many pages have an H1 immediately followed by an H5, which is in turn followed by an H2. This is because many site designers also use heading tags to dictate format and layout. H1s are usually the largest text element and H5s are the smallest (next to the body text, that is).
Let’s move onto the “meat” of your optimization – your content. Creating content for your local pages is always going to be tricky but you have to come up with unique content on every page.
So how do you do this without thinning out the content too much? Repetition cannot be avoided completely as after all, it’s the same brand on the same website that likely offers the same products/services across multiple locations. Maybe even with the same operating hours.
But there will always be something unique to write about each location. Some examples of information to include would be:
– Address – Phone Number – Reviews
– Unique Services or Products – Staff – Photos/Videos
– Driving Directions – Local Attractions or Landmarks – Contact Info
When you think about it, there are fewer similarities and more things that make each location stand out from the rest.
Remember that you don’t want your users to merely consume the content – you want them to act on it. This is why it’s crucial to have at least one call-to-action on your local page. Whether it’s “buy now”, “see offers”, “sign up for our newsletter”, or something else, the important thing is that it’s visible. You can have multiple CTA buttons if you want, but be sure not to overwhelm the user.
Both driving directions and maps are essential elements of a local SEO strategy because they push location relevant signals. An embedded map with your pinned location is a great way to tell Google where your business is located, and users will have an easier time locating your store if you have the Google Maps widget attached to the page.
As of 2018, the Google Maps API is no longer free to use and they now charge websites $0.50 per every 1000 page loads. Don’t worry though because if you have a high-traffic website you’ll be granted a $200 credit every month, which means that most businesses won’t have to shell out any money for the map embed. This is just to prevent spammers from adding a map to every single page on their website to increase their location signals.
If you only add the embedded map, below-the-fold, to your essential pages (e.g. location pages, potentially your contact/about us pages), and defer the loading, you can reap the benefits without significantly slowing down time to contentful paint.
Many times I prefer embedding the GMB Places listing directly rather than using the Google Maps API.
Technically, this still falls under “content”. But your contact information is so fundamental to local SEO that we’re going to shine the spotlight on it for a moment.
Every location page should have a contact section that lists that location’s name, address, and phone number (NAP). Each NAP should remain consistent and accurate, no matter where it’s found on the web because a consistent NAP ensures that your business gets credited for every online mention, which in turn increases your chances of ranking.
Other important contact info should be added as well when available. You can also add your business’ email address or a link to a contact form in this section of the page.
A long wall of text might provide a lot of information, but it’s not exactly enticing to users. Break the monotony of the page by adding images or graphics to your local pages.
Most photo galleries include pictures of the storefront, products/services you offer, and any employees/staff working at the location. You can even add photos of the city or neighborhood itself, especially if you talk about nearby landmarks or attractions. On the user’s side, this can enhance the article and retain reader attention.
On the search engine’s side, however, it’s not as simple. As sophisticated as the algorithm is, it’s still not able to understand images well enough on its own. If you want Google and the others to know what the image is pertaining to, you need to tell them through the metadata on the image.
Instead of a default file name (image1.jpg) try renaming it to something more descriptive. For example, if it’s a photo of a bowl of fruits, fruit-bowl.jpg would be a good file name. You should also geo-tag them for local relevance and optimize the alt-text so that, if the image can’t be displayed for one reason or another, users will know what the context of the photo is.
Although this isn’t specifically for local SEO, keep in mind that images impact the page speed and loading time. Don’t add too many to a single page and minimize the file size where possible.
Amazing, optimized pages are virtually useless if search engines cannot discover them. If they can’t discover them (or parse them), Google won’t know if your content answers a specific search query.
Let’s walk through some of the different ways you can help search engines find and understand your content.
Internal links – or links from your content to other pages on your website – are essential for seamless website navigation. A user could be browsing through your blog and want to learn more; an internal link encourages them to explore further.
Then of course there are the search engine benefits to consider as well. Crawl bots commonly discover new pages by following links so proper internal linking can speed up the crawling and indexing process, which means that you can rank in the SERP much faster. Your local landing pages need to be linked from and linked to to create an internal silo.
When thinking of pages to link to, prioritize relevant content that you referenced on the page. For example, if you mentioned another location, you can link to that store’s page – or if you talked about client testimonials, you can link to a case study.
Don’t forget that other pages on your website need to link to your local pages as well. This is extremely important, not just for crawling and indexing, but also for passing link equity from your high-performing pages. For example, if you have a resource page that’s ranking well and has high authority, you can pass some of that “link juice” to your location pages by linking to it.
Another way to implement internal links is by using breadcrumbs. Breadcrumbs are a “trail” or navigation path that shows you where you are on the website, and how that page relates to other content on the site. Through breadcrumbs, it’s clear which pages are the “parent topics” and which are the more specific subtopics.
Schema markup, also known as structured data, is a way to categorize information so that search engines understand what type of data they’re dealing with. So what does that mean?
Say that you want to include your phone number on a page: 123 456 9780. To us it’s obvious that it’s a phone number, but to search engines it’s just a string of numbers. To help Google understand that it’s a phone number, you would implement schema markup.
Schemas are added to the HTML code of a page and there are many different types of schemas – more than 800 in fact, with over 1300 properties. The information that you mark up can be displayed as a “rich result” in the SERP, which goes a long way in making it stand out from the other results on the page. It also helps Google deliver rich snippets if someone searches “[your business] operating hours” or “[your brand] address” so make sure all the basic info is added at a minimum.
You don’t have to structure each type of data on the page, but it also helps Google deliver rich snippets if someone searches “[your business] operating hours” or “[your brand] address” so at the very least, you should include the basic local business information.
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Finally, the last step of this stage is to update your sitemap and submit it to search engines.
A sitemap is a file that contains the most important URLs in your site – the URLs that you want Google to crawl and index. Therefore, when you update your website with new location pages your sitemap needs to reflect that.
If you have a particularly large or new site, updating your sitemap can spell the difference between a ranking page and a page that doesn’t even show up in the SERP.
After making sure that the URLs are up-to-date, the sitemap can be submitted via Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools. It probably won’t index immediately, but more often than not it’s faster than if you’d left it to the crawlers.
When we talk about local SEO, we’re talking about controlling how your brand is perceived across Google’s different properties. We’re also talking about trying to get your GMB listing ranked in Maps for your target keywords.
This next stage is all about the GMB and how you can set up & optimize specifically for multiple locations, but for further details on ranking a GMB (multi or single location) check out this updated guide to ranking in the 3-pack.
Google My Business is Google’s business directory. Your GMB profile can show up in one of three places – the local map pack in search, Google Maps result pages, and the knowledge graph when someone searches for your business directly.
There’s a convenient way to verify multiple locations at the same time through the bulk upload option. Instead of claiming each listing separately, you can fill out the fields in the spreadsheet and submit it to GMB (Google My Business) – this is ideal for franchises and chains with ten or more locations.
When you finally have control over your listing(s), the next thing to do is to optimize them.
According to the GMB guidelines, your business name on the listing should accurately reflect your business name in the offline world.
So if your business is “Pet Supply Hub”, it shouldn’t be “Pet Supply Hub – Pet Store” or “Pet Supply Hub 24/7 Store”, etc.
To pass bulk verification every listing needs to be named the same, without any modifiers.
So there’s a trade-off if you currently use any modifiers in the listing name, you’ll lose the relevance from the name which can affect your local ranking but gain the ability to open and launch new locations faster and without the hassle of waiting for a postcard to arrive.
To prevent a spam filter or suspension, brand formatting should be kept consistent, no matter where it appears on the web. For example, if a city name or keyword is not included typically in the branding of each location across the website, socials, citations, etc then it should not be added to the GMB listing name. This is actually against Google’s TOS and can result in the suspension of the listing.
You also will need to choose business categories for the listing. If it’s the same brand across multiple locations, you should use the same primary category across all locations (this is also a requirement for bulk Google My Business verification). You should always do competitor category research first to be sure the selected categories correspond with the target terms and try not to have secondary categories that are unsupported by content on the website and location page. Diluting your secondary categories has been shown to on occasion prevent the GMB listing’s knowledge graph from displaying for branded queries.
If you feel the need to add additional secondary categories, then be sure that there is plenty of relevant content on the site to support whichever categories you add.
Then, you can fill out the rest of the profile. For the website URL, you can link to your website’s home page or to the location page for that store. Make sure that each listing accurately reflects the correct address, operating hours, and attributes, and for storefronts, the map pin should be precise as well.
The Google My Business description should be a summary of what the business does. It’s a great way to explain to potential customers what they can expect from you.
Don’t forget to add real photos and videos to the listing, check out the guidelines for more information on photo/video requirements as well as the different kinds of visuals that you can add to your profile. When you add a photo to your listing, make sure that the metadata is optimized and geo-tagged.
One of the most important local ranking factors is the quantity and quality of your online NAP mentions. Citations are any mention of your brand’s NAP on the internet. This can be divided into structured citations, which are citations on a business directory like Yelp or GMB, and unstructured citations, which are any non-directory mentions on blogs, news articles, or social media posts.
Imagine that every citation you have is a “point” towards your business. The more “points”, the more popular Google thinks you are, the more popular Google thinks you are, the more they will display you in the search results. Plus, having mentions on relevant sites increases the likelihood that someone will learn about (and visit) your business.
However, not all citations are created equal. Citations from major business directories tend to carry more weight than citations from personal blogs or web 2.0 sites. A spammy citation can even harm your rank if search engines think you’re trying to game the algorithm by amassing a bunch of low-quality mentions.
You don’t need a listing on every possible directory, but you do need to hit the major ones. This includes Facebook, Google My Business, Bing, Yelp, Better Business Bureau, Yellow Pages, Angie’s List, Foursquare, and ExpressUpdate just to name a few. We have seen great success from our national citation service that specializes in submitting to the most authoritative platforms for each country.
We also recommend getting listed on industry or niche-relevant directories. For example, if you’re a medical practitioner, you may want to have a citation on WebMD’s doctor directory. This helps you rank for industry terms and related search queries. Do a couple of manual searches for the top keywords, and do your best to get the business listed on any directories that rank on the first 2-3 pages.
There are also local business directories for your town, city, state, or region (such as a local Chamber of Commerce) – get citations from there to add geographical signals to your brand and get a leg up on the competition.
No matter where you decide to build your listings, the most important thing is that your NAP (and other business information) is consistent. Any inconsistencies could result in a citation not being properly credited to your brand, which could in turn affect rankings (Just in case you missed that the first few times we mentioned it).
Although there’s quite a debate in the industry as to whether or not review rating directly affects GMB rankings, reviews are an integral part of any SEO strategy.
A whopping 97% of consumers read business reviews, and more than 85% trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation from someone they know. Having plenty of positive reviews and a good rating is critical if you want to convert people into customers.
There are known SEO benefits to reviews as well. A high rating signals to Google that you are a trusted brand, which means that you’re more likely to show up in the local SERP. Also, note that your rating and the number of reviews are displayed prominently in the three-pack.
Reviews are even more so important for multi-location brands because reviews are always location-specific – a customer’s experience at one store won’t accurately reflect the experience at another, so you have to collect reviews individually for each listing. Just be wary about offering anything in exchange for a review (e.g. free items, discounts, etc.) because that goes against Google’s guidelines.
When you have a system for collecting reviews in place, the next step is to monitor them. If you only have a few listings, you can check on them individually. But if you have more locations – or if you want to monitor reviews across multiple platforms – you might need reputation management software to help you out.
A business should also respond to all reviews, good and bad. If someone leaves a positive review, be sure to thank them for their review and encourage them to come again. You may be tempted to sweep bad reviews under the rug, but replying to them demonstrates that you’re ready and willing to address the problem, which goes a long way towards building goodwill with your customers.
The thing about SEO is that it’s always growing and changing – what worked yesterday may not work tomorrow. Plus, you’ll want a way to monitor your progress, identify what you’re doing right, and improve where you’re lacking. But what can you use (besides a typical rank tracker) to see progress?
This stage is all about working with your tools, interpreting data, and using those insights to refine your local SEO strategy. For this, you’ll need access to Google Analytics and Google My Business Insights.
Google Analytics is a powerful tool for tracking your website performance.
Through the dashboard, you can see how many people have visited your site, where they are clicking from, what keywords they’re using to find your content, and which specific content brings in the most traffic.
You can even set up goals for your page like phone calls, appointment bookings, and contact form submissions.
The most important metrics for organic SEO are usually phone calls and form-fills as these most closely represent a lead for your business.
You can also implement urchin tracking modules with Google Analytics to track website and appointment URL clicks from your GMB listing inside of your Analytics dashboard.
I prefer having the team set-up Google Data Studio reporting to better visualize the Google Analytics data and it makes it easily presentable for client reporting too.
Unlike Google Analytics which combines both organic and local SEO tracking (using UTM parameters), GMB Insights is strictly for your listing.
The dashboard lets you see your data at a glance and manage multiple locations easily. From there, you can check what keywords people are using to find your business, which platform they’re using (Maps vs search), and what actions they’re taking on your listing.
Unfortunately, the GMB dashboard only lets you review the most recent months worth of data, so if you need to view more than that or if you would like to have the ability to compare month-over-month, and be able to access up to sixteen months of historic GMB insight data, we would recommend a Google My Business management and reporting tool like Local Viking.
Use these tools wisely, and you’ll have more than enough information to tweak your local SEO strategy for better rankings.
To sum it up, here’s a recap of everything we covered in the guide:
Here are other things you can keep in mind to maximize your local SEO efforts:
Multi-location SEO is a little more difficult than local SEO for a single business.
There are more considerations at every stage from location pages and URL structure to potential filtering issues because of overlapping service areas.
Brand dilution and keyword cannibalization can present major obstacles.
But if you forecast your total locations, follow a consistent process, and plan out your expansion strategy correctly you’ll build a viable and thriving multi-location brand that will dominate the local SERPs, organically and in maps.
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Your question of; “What is a Static Website?” is often asked, and is answered here, and that’s not all as we also spill the beans on just how you make a Static Web Page with an example.
A static web page (sometimes called a flat page or a stationary page) is a web page that is delivered to the user’s web browser exactly as stored, in contrast to dynamic web pages which are generated by a web application.
Consequently, a static web page displays the same information for all users, from all contexts, subject to modern capabilities of a web server to negotiate content-type or language of the document where such versions are available and the server is configured to do so.
Static web pages are often HTML documents stored as files in the file system and made available by the web server over HTTP (nevertheless URLs ending with “.html” are not always static). However, loose interpretations of the term could include web pages stored in a database, and could even include pages formatted using a template and served through an application server, as long as the page served is unchanging and presented essentially as stored.
Static web pages are suitable for content that never or rarely needs to be updated, though modern web template systems are changing this. Maintaining large numbers of static pages as files can be impractical without automated tools, such as static site generators. Another way to manage static pages is online compiled source code playgrounds, e.g. GatsbyJS and GitHub may be utilized for migrating a WordPress site into static web pages. Any personalization or interactivity has to run client-side, which is restricting.
A static website contains Web pages with fixed content. Each page is coded in HTML and displays the same information to every visitor. Static sites are the most basic type of website and are the easiest to create. Unlike dynamic websites, they do not require any web programming or database design. A static site can be built by simply creating a few HTML pages and publishing them to a Web server.
Since static Web pages contain fixed code, the content of each page does not change unless it is manually updated by the webmaster. This works well for small websites, but it can make large sites with hundreds or thousands of pages difficult to maintain.
Means it’s fixed and can’t modification unless changes made in source code. A static web site will only show info that’s written into the HTML. Once a web browser requests the particular static web page, a server returns the page to the browser and also the user only gets whatever info is contained within the HTML code.
The advantages of a static website? Here are a few:
The pages on a static website once created will remain static and cannot be updated or changed without coding skills. That is, if a novice business owner wants to update certain information on his/her static website, he/she would have to get a website developer to perform the needful task.
Time-Saving: The biggest advantage of a static website is that it is quick to develop. A professional web developer can develop a static website much faster than a dynamic one. Unlike a dynamic website, static websites are cheaper to develop. They are apt for businesses working on a shoestring budget.
Static websites can get dedicated servers at a cheaper price and that too with much ease so an advantage of status here is the inexpensive website hosting. Similarly, easy indexing comes with that static website. Search engines like Google, Bing etc., can easily index a static website as they are just a series of coded HTML or CSS files.
But the following disadvantages of static webpages and ultimately, whole websites is that static sites are costly to update or change. The website hosting and maintenance costs are too high if you have a greater no. of pages on the website which are static and stored at the webserver. It is very slow to design and develop.
It is laborious to keep it up-to-date. The other disadvantage is that as a site owner, you cannot change or add content or make any modification without having knowledge of HTML and other programming languages on which your website is built. The second main problem is flexibility. If you wish to sell products on your website and you have a lot of them, then you may have to construct or develop individual pages for each one, which can take huge time, effort and cost. Static site generators are also often overlooked due to their often-unfriendly installation process and lack of a user interface.
Yet, despite these issues, in some instances, an SSG (static site generator) can be better suited for your project than a CMS, or when a CMS may be overkill.
Dynamic websites are much more efficient than static websites for large sites that contain numerous pages, news articles and/or products. Example of static vs. Dynamic code. In the example above, outlined in green is the section of code that has an effect on the respective date area in the final result.
A dynamic website is one that changes or customizes itself frequently and automatically. Server-side dynamic pages are generated “on the fly” by computer code that produces the HTML (CSS are responsible for appearance and thus, are static files).
It’s hard to have a discussion on static websites without comparing them to dynamic sites – especially given the prevalence of dynamic sites – I’ll try to constrain my focus to the benefits that you leverage by developing websites using a static methodology.
Most websites are a mix of static and dynamic content. A dynamically generated search request, for instance, may appear side by side with static sidebars, headers, and footers. For the sake of this discussion, though, we’re going to focus on websites that are “static first”.
Businesses also find making simple changes to the call to action can be of benefit, thus the focus should never be solely on the animated or static website banner conversion rate.
The traditional web designing model is also time-consuming. It required you to find out the latest technology and include them in your website all at one go. It would also mean loads of prospects missed as most parts of your site would be out of bounds due to work on the new site.
Developing basic layouts and designing a website takes time. Web app testing is a tedious and time-consuming process as well as prone to errors. Basic web development decisions depend on the developer, which slows down the release.
No, not at all. It doesn’t matter if your site is dynamic or static—the design can still be the same. By simplifying the development process, more time and money can be allocated to the actual design of the website.
For small websites, a fixed (static) website works fine. But for any website to be ranked higher among the competitors should have been built up with strong and quality content. The following are considered to be the importance of a high-quality relevant content on a website.
if any website isn’t brought up to date constantly it will wither and eventually die, as they do so they would damage your SEO in the process. Several factors can improve your site’s usability, starting with the type of website itself. Whether your site is static or dynamic can have a big impact on your user experience and your SEO.
We are convinced that static websites will become commonplace shortly. In the meantime, it’s super easy to beat a bloated dynamic website at the SEO-game using a static one: now is the time to play!
Unlike static websites, dynamic websites are built-in real-time and are programmed to be responsive. Easy to target multiple keywords for SEO – as dynamic websites allow quick updates, the website operator can quickly change its list of target keywords to achieve the desired SEO results.
Gatsby takes markdown and other static data sources and turns them into dynamic blogs and websites using “reactjs”. By supporting the component-driven development model of React, Gatsby is able to re-use components across a site, adding consistency and speed.
While larger websites require frequent updates and hence cms is the best choice. There are numerous static websites available on the internet. It’s easy to distinguish a static and a dynamic website.
Budget for coders to cure bugs that arise during development. At first you ought to look into this aspect so as to fix on the right solution that fits your budget seeing that a dynamic website costs a lot more than the static websites. Are you still with me? Hopefully, I haven’t lost you already. In a sense, every website that you see in your browser is static. But despite this, a considerable share of all websites online are actually so-called “dynamic” websites. The results we observe are consistent with our experimentations. Dynamic websites are prone to be stuffed with unnecessary scripts and bloated. While the cleaned version of the NYT we analysed is still not a static website, it gives us a peek of what an optimized and lightweight NYT website might look like.
That’s where dynamic website design comes in. Static and dynamic web design both come with pros and cons, but dynamic web design comes out on top. Here’s a primer on dynamic web design: what it is, how it differs from static web design, and what makes it so worth the investment.
The post What is a Static Website? and How to Make a Static Web Page With an Example appeared first on GQ Central.
The post What is a Static Website? and How to Make a Static Web Page With an Example appeared first on Local SEO Resources.
Posted by izzismith
Google Search Console is by far the most used device in the SEO’s toolkit. Not only does it provide us with the closest understanding we can have of Googlebot’s behavior and perception of our domain properties (in terms of indexability, site usability, and more), but it also allows us to assess the search KPIs that we work so rigorously to improve. GSC is free, secure, easy to implement, and it’s home to the purest form of your search performance KPI data. Sounds perfect, right?
However, the lack of capability for analyzing those KPIs on larger scales means we can often miss crucial points that indicate our pages’ true performance. Being limited to 1,000 rows of data per request and restricted filtering makes data refinement and growth discovery tedious (or close to impossible).
SEOs love Google Search Console — it has the perfect data — but sadly, it’s not the perfect tool for interpreting that data.
In order to start getting as much out of GSC as possible, one option is to use an API that increases the request amount to 25,000 lines per pull. The wonderful Aleyda Solis built an actionable Google Data Studio report
using an API that’s very easy to set up and configure to your needs.
You can also use something out of the box. In this post, the examples use Ryte Search Success because it makes it much easier, faster, and more efficient to work with that kind of data at scale.
We use Search Success for multiple projects on a daily basis, whether we’re assisting a client with a specific topic or we’re carrying out optimizations for our own domains. So, naturally we come across many patterns that give a higher indication of what’s taking place on the SERPs.
However you use GSC search performance data, you can turn it into a masterpiece that ensures you get the most out of your search performance metrics! To help you get started with that, I’ll demonstrate some advanced and, frankly, exciting patterns that I’ve come across often while analyzing search performance data.
So, without further ado, let’s get to it.
When we analyze core updates, it always looks the same. Below you can see one of the clearest examples of a core update. On May 6, 2020, there is a dramatic fall in impressions and clicks, but what is really important to focus on is the steep drop in the number of ranking keywords.
The amount of ranking keywords is an important KPI, because it helps you determine if a site is steadily increasing its reach and content relevancy. Additionally, you can relate it with search volumes and trends over time.
Within this project, we found hundreds of cases that look exactly like the examples below: lucrative terms were climbing up pages two and three (while Google perceives ranking relevance) before finally making it up to the top 10 to be tested.
There is a corresponding uplift in impressions, yet the click-through-rate for this important keyword remained at a measly 0.2%. Out of 125K searches, the page only received 273 clicks. That’s clearly not enough for this domain to stay in the top 10, so during the Core Update rollout, Google demoted these significant underperformers.
The next example is very similar, yet we see a higher altitude on page one due to the fact that there’s a lower amount of impressions. Google will likely aim to get statistically relevant results, so the fewer impressions a keyword has, the longer the tests need to occur. As you can see, 41 clicks out of 69K impressions shows that no searcher was clicking through to the site via this commercial keyword, and thus they fell back to pages two and three.
This is a typical Core Update pattern that we’ve witnessed hundreds of times. It shows us that Google is clearly looking for these patterns, too, in order to find what might be irrelevant for their users, and what can kiss goodbye to page one after an update.
We can never know for sure when Google will roll out a Core Update, nor can we ever be fully confident of what results in a demotion. However, we should always try to rapidly detect these telltale signs and react before a Core Update has even been thought of.
Make sure you have a process in place that deals with discovering subpar CTRs, and leverage tactics like snippet copy testing and Rich Results or Featured Snippet generation, which will aim to exceed Google’s CTR expectations and secure your top 10 positions.
Of course, we also witness these classic “Top 10 Tests” outside of Google’s Core Updates!
This next example is from our own beloved en.ryte.com subdomain, which aims to drive leads to our services and is home to our vast online marketing wiki and magazine, so it naturally earns traffic for many informational-intent queries.
Here is the ranking performance for the keyword “bing” which is a typical navigational query with tons of impressions (that’s quite a few Google users that are searching for Bing!). We can view the top 10 tests clearly when the light blue spikes show a corresponding uplift in impressions.
Whereas that looks like a juicy amount of impressions to lure over to our site, in reality nobody is clicking through to us because searchers want to navigate to bing.com and not to our informational Wiki article. This is a clear case of split searcher intent, where Google may surface varying intent documents to try and cater to those outside of their assumptions. Of course, the CTR of 0% proves that this page has no value for anyone, and we were demoted.
Interestingly enough, this position loss cost us a heck load of impressions. This caused a huge drop in “visibility” and therefore made it look like we had dramatically been hit by the January Core Update. Upon closer inspection, we found that we had just lost this and similar navigational queries like “gmail” that made the overall KPI drop seem worse than it was. Due to the lack of impact this will have on our engaged clicks, these are dropped rankings that we certainly won’t lose sleep over.
Aiming to rank high for these high search volume terms with an intent you’re unable to cater to is only useful for optimizing for “visibility indexes”. Ask yourself if it’s worth your precious time to focus on these, because of course you’re not going to bring valuable clicks to your pages with them.
In my SEO career, I’ve sometimes gone down the wrong path of spending time optimizing for juicy-looking keywords with oodles of search volume. More often than not, these rankings yielded little value in terms of traffic quality simply because I wasn’t assessing the searcher intent properly.
These days, before investing my time, I try to better interpret which of those terms will bring my business value. Will the keyword bring me any clicks? Will those clickers remain on my website to achieve something significant (i.e. is there a relevant goal in mind?), or am I chasing these rankings for the sake of a vanity metric? Always evaluate what impact this high ranking will bring your business, and adjust your strategies accordingly.
The next example is for the term “SERP”, which is highly informational and likely only carried out to learn what the acronym stands for. For such a query, we wouldn’t expect an overwhelming number of clicks, yet we attempted to utilize better snippet copy in order to turn answer intent into research intent, and therefore drive more visits.
However, it didn’t exactly work out. We got pre-qualified on page two, then tested on page one (you can see the corresponding uplift in impressions below), but we failed to meet the expectations with a poor CTR of 0.1%, and were dropped back down.
Again, we weren’t sobbing into our fine Bavarian beers about the loss. There are plenty more worthwhile, traffic-driving topics out there that deserve our attention.
Something that we were glad to act on was the “meta keywords” wiki article. Before we have a moment of silence for the fact that “meta keywords” is still heavily searched for, notice how we dramatically jumped up from page four to page one at the very left side of the chart. We were unaware of this keyword’s movement, and therefore its plain snippet was seldomly clicked and we fell back down.
After some months, the page one ranking resurfaced, and this time we took action after coming across it in our CTR Underperformer Report. The snippet was addressed to target that of the searcher’s intent, and the page was enhanced in parallel to give a better direct answer to the main focus questions.
Not only did this have a positive impact on our CTR, but we even gained the Featured Snippet. It’s super important to identify these top 10 tests in time, so that you can still act and do something to remain prominent in the top 10.
We identified this and many other undernourished queries using the CTR Underperformer Report. It maps out all the CTRs from queries, and reports on where we would have expected a higher number of clicks for that keyword’s intent, impressions, and position (much like Google’s models likely aim to do, too). We use this report extensively to identify cases where we deserve more traffic, and in order to ensure we stay in the top 10 or get pushed up even higher.
Speaking of Featured Snippets, the diagram below demonstrates what it can look like when you’re lucky enough to be in the placement vs. when you don’t have it. The keyword “reset iphone” from a client’s tech blog had a CTR of 20% with the Featured Snippet, while without the Featured Snippet it was at a sad 3%. It can be game changing to win a relevant Featured Snippet due to the major impact it can have on your incoming traffic.
Featured Snippets can sometimes have a bad reputation, due to the risk that they could drive a lower CTR than a standard result, especially when triggered for queries with higher informational intent. Try to remember that Featured Snippets can display your brand more prominently, and can be a great sign of trust to the average searcher. Even if users were satisfied on the SERP, the Featured Snippet can therefore provide worthwhile secondary benefits such as better brand awareness and potentially higher conversions via that trust factor.
Want to find some quick Featured Snippet opportunities for which you need only repurpose existing content? Filter your GSC queries using question and comparison modifiers to find those Featured-Snippet-worthy keywords you can go out and steal quickly.
Another one of our keywords, “Web Architecture”, is a great example of why it’s so crucial to keep discovering new topics as well as underperforming content. We found this specific term was struggling a while ago during ongoing topic research and set out to apply enhancements to push its ranking up to the top 10. You can see the telltale cases of Google figuring out the purpose, quality, and relevance of this freshly renewed document while it climbs up to page one.
We fared well in each of our tests. For example, at positions 10-8, we managed to get a 5.7% CTR. which is good for such a spot.
After passing that test, we got moved up higher to positions 4-7, where we struck a successful 13% CTR. A couple of weeks later we reached an average position of 3.2 with a tasty CTR of 18.7%, and after some time we even bagged the Featured Snippet.
This took just three months from identifying the opportunity to climbing the ranks and getting the Featured Snippet.
Of course, it’s not just about CTR, it’s about the long click: Google’s main metric that’s indicative of a site providing the best possible result for their search users. How many long clicks are there in comparison to medium clicks, to short clicks, and how often are you the last click to demonstrate that search intent is successfully fulfilled? We checked in Google Analytics and out of 30K impressions, people spend an average of five minutes on this page, so it’s a great example of a positive long click.
It’s not about pages, it’s about individual pieces of information and their corresponding answers that set out to satisfy queries.
In the next diagram, you can actually see Google adjusting the keywords that specific pages are ranking for. This URL ranks for a whopping 1,548 keywords, but pulling a couple of the significant ones for a detailed individual analysis helps us track Google’s decision making a lot better.
When comparing these two keywords, you can see that Google promoted the stronger performer on page one, and then pushed the weaker one down. The strong difference in CTR was caused by the fact that the snippet was only really geared towards a portion of its ranking keywords, which led to Google adjusting the rankings. It’s not always about a snippet being bad, but about other snippets being better, and whether the query might deserve a better piece of information in place of the snippet.
One thing we always like to stress is that you shouldn’t always judge your data too quickly, because there could be underlying technical errors that are getting you down (such as botched migrations, mixed ranking signals, blocked assets, and so on).
The case below illustrates perfectly why it’s so much better to analyze this data with a tool like Ryte, because with GSC you will see only a small portion of what’s taking place, and with a very top-level view. You want to be able to compare individual pages that are ranking for your keyword to reveal what’s actually at the root of the problem.
You’re probably quite shocked by this dramatic drop, because before the dip this was a high-performing keyword with a great CTR and a long reign in position one.
This keyword was in position one with a CTR of 90%, but then the domain added a noindex directive to the page (facepalm). So, Google replaced that number one ranking URL with their subdomain, which was already ranking number two. However, the subdomain homepage wasn’t the ideal location for the query, as searchers couldn’t find the correct information right away.
But it got even worse, because then they decided to 301 redirect that subdomain homepage to the top level domain homepage, so now Google was forced to initially rank a generic page that clearly didn’t have the correct information to satisfy that specific query. As you can see, they then fell completely from that top position, as it was irrelevant, and Google couldn’t retrieve the correct page for the job.
Something similar happened in this next example. The result in position one for a very juicy term with a fantastic CTR suddenly returned a 404, so Google started to rank a different page from that same domain instead, which was associated with a slightly similar but inexact topic. This again wasn’t the correct fit for the query, so the overall performance declined.
This is why it’s so important to look not just at the overall data, but to dig deeper — especially if there’s multiple pages ranking for a keyword — so that you can see exactly what’s happening.
The final point is not exactly a pattern to consider, but more a wise lesson to wrap up everything I’ve explored in this post.
At scale, Google is testing pages in the top 10 results in order to find the best placement based on that performance. With this in mind, why can’t we ask people to go to the SERPs, click on our results, and reap the tasty benefits of that improved position? Or better yet, why don’t we automate this continually for all of our top-10-tested queries?
Of course, this approach is heavily spammy, against guidelines, and something against which Google can easily safeguard. You don’t have to test this either, because Marcus (being the inquisitive SEO he is!) already did.
One of his own domains on job advertisements ranks for the focus keyword of “job adverts”, and as you can imagine, this is a highly competitive term that requires a lot of effort to score. It was ranking at position 6.6 and had a decent CTR, but he wanted to optimize it even further and climb those SERPs to position one.
He artificially cranked up his CTR using clever methods that ended up earning a “very credible” 36% CTR in position nine. Soon in position 10, he had a CTR of 56.6%, at which point Google started to catch wind of the spammy manipulation and punted him down the SERPs. Lesson learned.
Of course, this was an experiment to understand at which point Google would detect spammy behavior. I wouldn’t encourage carrying out such tactics for personal gain, because it’s in the best interests of your website’s health and status to focus on the quality of your clicks. Even if this test was working well and rankings improved, over time your visitors may not resonate with your content, and Google might recall that that lower position was initially in place for a reason. It’s an ongoing cycle.
I encourage you to reach your results organically. Leverage the power of snippet optimization in parallel with ongoing domain and content improvements to not only increase the quantity and quality of your clicks, but the very experiences on your website that make an impact to your long-term SEO and business growth.
To summarize, don’t forget that GSC search performance data gives you the best insight into your website’s true performance. Rank trackers are ideal for competitor research and SERP snapshots, but the position data is only one absolute ranking from one set variable like location and device. Use your own GSC data for intrinsic pattern analyses, diagnostics, and growth discovery.
But with great data, comes great responsibilities. Make sure you’re finding and understanding the patterns you need to be aware of, such as struggling top 10 tests, underperforming snippets, technical faults, and anything else that deprives you of the success you work so hard to achieve.
You’ll uncover even more SEO goodness from Izzi and our other MozCon speakers in the MozCon 2020 video bundle. At this year’s special low price of $129, this is invaluable content you can access again and again throughout the year to inspire and ignite your SEO strategy:
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The post Identifying Advanced GSC Search Performance Patterns (and What to Do About Them) appeared first on Local SEO Resources.
83% of Instagram users say they find new products or services by browsing the platform. So, how can you ensure your brand attracts new audiences on Instagram?
One way is with Instagram Live.
The live feature is part of Instagram Stories and allows you to stream video and engage with followers in real-time. When a user goes live, Instagram notifies their followers and highlights their profile picture in the Stories section, making it appear first in line on their followers’ feeds.
Live video can be an effective tool to highlight your business offerings and host engaging events for users to join. In fact, 82% of people prefer live video over social posts from a brand according to a survey hosted by Vimeo Livestream and New York Magazine!
But enough from me — now, I’ll let you take inspiration from those already using Instagram Live to grow their brand.
Global Citizen is a non-profit organization with a mission to end extreme poverty by 2030. Earlier this year, the brand used Instagram Live to promote their #TogetherAtHome campaign — an effort to encourage social distancing in order to slow the spread of coronavirus.
To attract viewers, Global Citizen partnered with numerous celebrities to host an at-home concert series. Below is their Instagram Live collaboration with H.E.R., a musical artist.
In this livestream, H.E.R. advocated for quarantine, performed a few songs, and responded to live comments to lift spirits during difficult times. Besides the many heart-eye emoji reactions, viewers also shared comments such as, “This song brings me so much peace.” and “Music does heal.” to express their enjoyment.
Our socially-distant world also helped to make the #TogetherAtHome campaign popular because it was able to bring people together virtually.
The takeaway for your business: Research influencers in your industry to collaborate with and host Instagram Live takeovers. By doing so, your business will likely reach new audiences who are more willing to learn about your brand. You can also interact with the viewers in real-time in the comments or have your guest share a message about your business.
Lastly, consider tying Lives to current events to make your livestreams relevant to national or global conversations. These actions will boost your brand awareness.
Barry’s Bootcamp is a worldwide fitness studio offering workout classes. The company has been using Instagram Live to their advantage by sharing high energy workout sessions.
The live feature works well here because it can be more engaging for viewers to follow along with a live class rather than watching a pre-recorded session. In Live, they can also see how many other viewers are tuning in and watch their reactions to the class. The instructors also offer motivational words of encouragement to keep the energy going.
For Barry’s Bootcamp, live fitness classes align with their company brand and mission while providing valuable content to fitness enthusiasts. This helps to increase their brand equity and capture future converting customers.
The takeaway for your business: Instagram Live can also be used to host live workshops from your business. Lives make it easy for users to follow along and can serve as something people look forward to in their day.
Think of Instagram Lives as a way to create a virtual community of people coming together to do something. Similarly, a wellness company may host live meditation sessions. Any activity is up for grabs as long as it supports the business vision.
Chipotle is a fast food chain serving Mexican food and the company uses Instagram Live to share tasty recipes. In the below example, Chipotle’s executive chef shares how to make margaritas for Cinco de Mayo.
In this Live, Chef Chad takes viewers step-by-step through his margarita-making process and explains his thought process behind each step. This tutorial is one that viewers can trust and learn from since it comes from a top chef at the restaurant, especially if they’re already a fan of Chipotle.
It’s also worth noting how this Instagram Live celebrates Cinco de Mayo, which naturally ties into the restaurant’s Mexican cuisine. Chipotle leveraged this holiday as a great opportunity to provide entertaining and informational content.
The takeaway for your business: Ask yourself: What can we, as a business, teach members of our audience? Depending on the answer to that question, Instagram Live could be a great place to educate your audience while responding to their feedback and questions in real-time.
From the above Chipotle example, you can also better understand how acknowledging well-known events and holidays (e.g. cultural events, sports, and awards seasons) can work in your favor for this type of marketing strategy.
Speaking of food, Bon Appetit is a magazine all about cooking and recipes. Recently, Bon Appetit used Instagram Live as an opportunity to host a virtual dinner party with various celebrity guests. Each guest pairing was also creatively named after courses of a meal, from appetizer to digestif. Below is a screenshot from dessert:
Throughout the series, the chefs and guests carried out relaxed and casual conversations about anything and everything (you know how it goes at a dinner party). Bon Appetit was able to create a laid-back, yet engaging atmosphere. For those watching, this could’ve been an immersive experience to feel as if they were chatting with their friends over dinner.
The takeaway for your business: Instagram Live doesn’t have to be formal. Let your guard down and show your authenticity. Bon Appetit’s Dinner Party concept is both fun and creative — brainstorm potential themes you may be able to incorporate into your livestreams to achieve the same results.
Moreover, creating a series of Lives will incentivize people to follow your account and stay tuned for new content. Also, take advantage of Instagram’s guest feature to add someone else into your brand’s conversation.
If you prefer more structured programming, then look to Chewy, an online retailer for all pet essentials, for inspiration. Targeting pet owners, Chewy provides educational content on how to care for a variety of pets. An example of this is their Vet to Vet Live:
These Q&A sessions provide valuable insight from experts for pet owners. Pet parents can also input their questions in the comment section for instant expert advice. As a brand, these informational videos help Chewy establish itself not only as a place to shop, but also as a resource they can turn to for any pet-related needs.
The takeaway for your business: Using Instagram Live to conduct Q&As and interviews can provide insightful tips and advice for your audience. This educational content will be appreciated by your audience members who are eager to learn and help you increase customer loyalty. Additionally, listening to a conversation between multiple people, and watching that interaction live, can also be more enjoyable than a one-man show.
Origins is a cosmetics company creating products from naturally-derived ingredients. Origins aligns Instagram Live with their brand by showcasing products and hosting conversations about skincare.
As shown in the screenshot, the Origins representative presents one of their products up close to the camera. This is important because products online often only show the packaging of the product, so revealing what the product itself looks like lends potential customers a better understanding of how they might expect the product to look and feel.
The two hosts also share what they like about the products and how they use it in their day-to-day lives. Sharing their stories provokes viewers to consider how they can incorporate the product into their own routines, which ultimately pushes them closer to purchase.
The takeaway for your business: Live is the perfect place for product demos and to show customers what they can expect from your business. This can resolve any hesitations related to making a purchase. It also offers a place for experts and current users to answer any concerns about the product a prospect may have. Assess your current offerings and create a live session to discuss how the customer can use and benefit from your products.
No matter which industry your business is in, all successful Lives have one theme in common — they provide valuable content for viewers that’s entertaining and/or educational.
Now that you know how other companies are marketing with Instagram Live, see the exact steps you need to start your next Live.
The post How 6 Brands Use Instagram Live in Their Marketing Strategy appeared first on Local SEO Resources.
Google Stack Ranking is actually shorthand for Google entity authority stacking which in plain language is SEO using your Google Drive and sharing your documents freely on as many as possible of the Google Apps (word processor, presentation app, calendar, spreadsheet etc) as possible. These are all apps which Google provides for free (initially – with set usage limits) and with which you can conveniently store all your files in the Cloud (on your Google Drive). In fact, it’s pretty much what a bricks and mortar business user would do perfectly naturally when they use Google’s tools to the fullest. This includes creating a personal or business Gmail Account, a Google My Business (GMB), their Google Calendar for appointments etc completely naturally. Their business also has a premises (or operates from a geographic location), so they claim their Google Maps location, and all non-sensitive files about the business are included and shared on their G-Drive. Everything is linked together, verified, and openly visible to Google. Naturally, “Big-G” is able to keep a close eye on every move a Google stack business makes. It’s safe to assume that such a high level of transparency of a business, is what gives them the confidence to list genuine business sites with authority. Read on for our in-depth analysis of what we think this means:
We like it when this is referred to as “authority stacking”. So, what is Google Authority stacking? OK. At one level you might say that it’s an SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) strategy, which we have seen described as “leveraging google properties (entities) in the hope of improving rankings using each property’s “high-authority-status”. The reality seems to be that in the eyes of Google if a person or business is using their software in the manner intended, sending emails, creating word-processor documents, doing calculations, and on spreadsheets, making appointments, taking and sharing notes, sharing downloads, etc., it’s highly likely that the business is trustworthy. It’s not going to be a “fly-by-night” spamming operation, or “cloak and dagger” hacking campaign etc., which pops-up overnight and will disappear just as quickly to avoid prosecution.
So, is it a good idea to do this for SEO purposes? The truth is nobody knows for sure whether this is a safe thing to do because Google isn’t exactly open about how they assess and calculate “trust” and “authority”. And, it is “authority” in the eyes of Google which counts here, not “Search Engine Optimisation”, although that’s not to say that an SOE’s aim of optimising the Google Stack Ranking of a client’s website isn’t the ultimate goal.
The term used is “stacking” because when the effect was first discovered by SEO’s as a way to leverage the power of Google entities (Google apps, webspace, web sites, cloud storage, geo-related services, blogs etc) they linked from one app to the next. They really just crudely experimented with passing Google’s “authority” from Google site to site, and they found that when done that way “Google authority” was increasing all the time as the “link- juice” moved ever upward through their silos until reaching the businesses “money website” or sales video.
If a business does not use for Google apps, or a Google Drive to store their files, (and most won’t as users of Microsoft office, or the Apple office software suite etc.) it seems reasonable to also show Google the workings of that business by creating a Google Authority Stack. By seeing the natural workflow taking place as evidenced by real files produced within the business it is assumed that Google is able to attribute the trust and authority to businesses and their web presence. A degree of trust that such a company would naturally accrue by using Google products (while within these products Google is still assumed to be doing his anonymously/ within GDPR (privacy law requirements)) – for example, via AI systems looking at public-shared documents only.
That’s where so-called “stacking” started and is still, in essence, the synchronising of a range of file types with Google drive with natural inter-linking. However, it was soon realised that when shared publically Google competitor services could be used to perform the same role, including publicly shared files on the likes of Dropbox and Github.
It has long been the primary function of marketing to spread the word about a company as widely as possible. An early example, and still relevant today, is the use of Press Releases, for example, to offer journalists the information they need to write stories for their newspapers, magazines, current affairs programmes etc. SEO’s may lay claim to instigating the publication of company news and articles as blog posts to Blogger, WordPress and Zendesk but they are simply perpetuating a long-standing tradition within the modern media. So, good “authority stacking” practice can seem to be no more than an extension of the ancient art of “spreading the word as far and widely as possible”.
Some marketing agencies offer stacking services, but is it safe to use this service?
Nobody can state categorically either it is safe or unsafe. It might be seen as building backlinks by Google, and as such, that would be against their Terms of Service (TOS) for website inclusion in their SERP (Search Engine Ranking Page) listings. Conversely, the Google TOS is clearly an unreasonable request and in many countries, the test of “reasonableness” is a common law right, a valid defence against non-compliance, and embedded in the legal system. In their defence, however, it is arguable that they are within their rights to apply whatever terms they wish to their TOS. There are other Search Engines and in theory, at least, businesses can “take or leave it” and go elsewhere. Unfortunately, the problem for businesses is that Google has done such a good job of their Search Engine and it has become such a dominant force, that going elsewhere is unlikely to allow them anything like the level of exposure that Google Stack Ranking in the Google SERPS would bring.
Surely, Google would not seriously complain about, or act against, any bonafide organisation which issues a Press Release, at the same time including a link back to their website? Even before the internet, hand-outs at Press Announcements would without-fail always include contact details for readers to find out more. Typically, when a business engages a marketing company to provide a stacking service. The marketing company creates one, or more, separate websites with a combination of different Google-owned entities stacked in. Their clients’ desired keywords are mentioned tactically. Essentially different Google properties are embedded on one or more free Google sites with all of them having a central hub and all are hyperlinked internally. Marketing companies offering such services often show evidence of previous clients showing those clients to have benefited with multiple Page-1 Google SERP rankings. These are usually for, various, low to medium competition keywords.
Few, if any, reputable marketers would reasonably claim that Google stacks are any more than a small but important part of an overall marketing strategy. But, when used with other acceptable SEO efforts stacking can be worthwhile. In particular, in the opinion of the author, when done sensibly it does work for local businesses especially for trades which provide services in a fairly restricted geographical area.
We hope you now have a general understanding of the background to the risk landscape relating to the creation of a Google marketing stack and how stacking might benefit your business. Also, never forget that Google’s decision will be final if they judge that your stack contravenes their TOS. Should they do so they would be quite likely to remove all your business’ SERP listings. Little or no warning would be given to allow enough time for the worst effects on the business to be ameliorated.
The act of creating a Google stack creates links from Google properties such as Google Sites, Google Drive and Google Docs to client websites and other online properties. That is against the Google TOS because for registration eligibility you are required to desist from making backlinks as the web property owner or causing others to create links on your behalf. For Google’s purposes, it is clear that doing so is likely to distort backlink frequency in your favour if you create multiple backlinks, especially if you incentivise backlinking to your site in any way.
Stacked links would be easy for Google to find, and therefore you should consider Google stacking as a strategy, but only if you are open to the presence of risk. It’s hard to understand how simply creating diverse documents and media using Google entities could be against any rules – but Google may not agree.
In the real world (Google’s rules apart), using Google Sites to build a free website paid for by Google, and at the same time embedding all the elements and drive folders is simply an action it makes sense to do (i.e. stacking). Does Google really think that astute small businesses, who are already at a disadvantage against the big multinationals with their enormous online budgets, can afford not to use every opportunity to raise their online presence?
In fact, it would arguably be a discriminatory action for Google to penalise users for doing exactly what they want them to do, namely to use their apps freely – and not the apps of their competitors, thus allowing Google’s influence and presence on the internet to become even more dominant?
Those that are willing to chance a Google de-listing are using stacking in their marketing plans. There is no hiding from Google’s inspection when they do this – using Google Analytics means you open the whole site to their full view. In fact, most stackers ensure that all their elements are publicly accessible via shared documents and wait for the full effect to appear in 6 to 8 weeks after posting the article (that delay period is our estimate of the average according to opinions we have seen).
Conclusion: We don’t know if stack creation actions will result in a negative response from Google. Use it at your own risk.
When setting up an account on any number of Google services, did you look at the small print? By signing up you are accepted that Google services are made available to you by a named Google company with which you entered into a contractual relationship for this purpose. For those in the US, it is Google LLC. For US citizens you also accept that the contract you enter will be “Organized under the law of US state Delaware and operated under the law of the United States”. Other Google entities apply according to location.
It is easy to forget that Google services are provided to businesses and individuals on the basis of a contract. Not as a benevolent act by Google. Your rights are governed by their Contracts and how they implement them, as long as their conditions are reasonable. And, even that would vary according to the nation/ state you live in. Consider their one-time motto ” Don’t be evil“, in this light.
In the IT industry, Google’s ever-rising list software apps are referred to as the “Google Technology Stack”. In fact, a large part of what makes Google such an amazing engine of innovation is its internal technology stack. These amount to a set of powerful proprietary technologies that makes it easy for Google developers to generate and process enormous quantities of data. But, where do you think that data comes from? It comes from the users of Google apps of course. Never forget that by participating in using Google apps you are also contributing to their dominance in data acquisition.
It cannot be denied that Google currently reigns supreme when it comes to marketing stacks and startup companies, it’s Google’s world, and almost all other technology providers are just living in it. If you cannot beat them many people would say “let’s join them”, and that is part of what makes Google stacks so attractive that it is tempting to ignore the risk of de-listing and membership and do some Google Stack Ranking digital marketing.
A group called Semantic Mastery offers a service in which they build an RYS Drive Stack for their clients. In their own words taken from their website:
Testimonial:
“Bradley, co-founder of Semantic Mastery, likes to show, his initial RYS Stack from years ago is still powering his ranking results for “Virginia SEO [redacted]”!”
“An RYS Google Stack combines several different components of the Google ecosystem (like Google Drive, Google Sites, and more) that are then interconnected in various ways to provide powerful results to the property of your choosing.”
At the most basic level, many would say that businesses clearly need to use the best services available online to run healthy businesses efficiently. There are many competitors which also offer cloud data storage. So, how does Google Drive stack up against the cloud competition? Web reports appear to agree that Google’s cloud-based document and storage solution is priced aggressively. It is no surprise that it is a natural winner, boasting as it does to have “the-best-in-class” integration with other Google services — including Google docs.
To answer this question from another level, this time the perspective of IT professionals, we refer to stack services provider “Stackdriver”. They say that “Stackdriver logging allows you to store, search, analyze, monitor, and alert on log data and events from Google Cloud Platform and Amazon Web Services. This appears to be a little different from the previous Google Stack Ranking example given.
Google Stackdriver is natively integrated with Google cloud platform and hosted on Google infrastructure, but the monitoring capabilities can also be used for applications and virtual machines (VMS) that run on amazon web services elastic compute cloud (AWS eC2).
The low-risk way to take advantage in a completely “white-hat” manner of the trust and authority benefits which are available to users of Google’s services for businesses is to quite simply adopt a business strategy of the fullest use of Google’s online services right across the business. encourage all staff to place all non-sensitive business documents on the company G-Drive as public-shared documents as they are produced. Use Google web space for your website and through doing that naturally link between all these properties. However, before doing that, the question arises of just how reliable are Google’s services.
We would assume that their uptime is second to none, and that seems to be borne out by the lack of negative comments we found online. We did see a comment that at its peak, Downdetector received over 2,800 reports from users having trouble with the Google suite of services.
“For about two hours back in March (year not available), Google and its main services, such as Gmail, Google Docs, and YouTube were down for US East Coast users.”
If that’s the worst that has occurred I think it is safe to say here that Google’s Apps Services are reliable!
We noticed this question being asked not of a Google Stack Ranking service provider, but of an emulator with which to play android games on PSs. But, given the nature of authority stack ranking, we don’t see why a new Google Account would be needed.
This query is being made by online game players and the context is different from authority stacking as discussed in this article. It appears to be about introducing an added App Centre to a Google Account which personalizes game suggestions, an accounting system, chat, new keymapping interface, and “multi-instance”. We gather that “multi-instance” allows users to launch multiple stacks windows using either the same or different Google Play account.
The advice given seems to be, like ours, that it is preferable to host the stacks in the same Google Account as the entity’s GMB.
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