Last week, we published the findings of the BrightLocal Local SEO Industry Survey 2013. The objective of this survey is to gain greater understanding about the health and nature of the local SEO Industry. Through this survey, we aim to find out what life is like "on the ground" for those in the local SEO industry and share those findings publicly to help improve the knowledge and insight within our industry. This is the 2nd wave of the survey. The 1st wave was conducted in 2011 and looked ahead to 2012.  Wave 1 survey results can be viewed here. About The BrightLocal Local SEO Industry [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Local Search | Search Marketing: Local Search Marketing | SEM Industry: Stats | SEO - Search Engine Optimization | SEO: Local

A local SEO industry survey, managed by SEO software company Brightlocal, revealed that the most in-demand SEO services are on-site SEO and Google+ optimization. Conducted between January 20 and February 20 of this year, the survey evaluated the health and nature of the local SEO industry by focusing on five key areas: agency size and turnover, clients and industries, marketing and sales, services and tasks, and future outlooks. The majority of survey respondents included freelancers, small digital agencies and web designers, with a total of 1,409 respondents. On-site SEO and Google+ opt [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Search Marketing: Local Search Marketing | SEM Industry | SEM Industry: Outsourcing | SEO: Local | Stats: General

The momentum of Google's PLA program didn't slow after the holidays. After seeing Google Product Listing Ad traffic jump 82% in Q1 over Q4, CPC Strategy followed up its latest quarterly review of top CSEs with a closer look. The agency hadn't been surprised to see the 87% increase in PLA traffic in Q4 over Q3 as Google's pay-to-play program ramped during the holiday season. However, the huge traffic spike from Product Listing Ads that occurred after the holiday shopping rush did catch them by surprise. Bucking the typical trend of CSEs (and e-commerce in general), paid Google Shopping traf [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google | Google: AdWords | Google: Product Search | Google: Universal Search | Search Marketing: Shopping Search Marketing | Top News

Typically, the country-code top level domain (ccTLD) is just that -- a country code. For instance, example.co.uk has content for the UK, and example.com.au has content for Australia. Usually, registration of these domains is restricted. You have to prove that you are operating the site from the designated country. However, some countries have opened up registration to everyone. And of course, some top level domains, such as .com, are inherently generic. Google uses the location of a site in its ranking algorithms. A searcher in the UK is more likely to see sites from the UK in results. But [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: Algorithm Updates | Google: SEO | Google: Webmaster Central

Stop a search marketer on the street, whether a grizzled veteran or relative newcomer, and ask him/her to list the top goals of ranking in the search results; they will talk to you about traffic, revenue and conversions. Likewise, in reflecting what is top of mind for search marketers, a perusal of industry websites shows a majority of articles focused on the same. Far less covered -- whether research, POVs or even "thinking-out-loud" blog posts -- is content focused on other benefits of appearing in the search results, such as brand development. For decades, marketers have invested in g [...]

Related Topics: All Things SEO | Channel: SEO | Search Marketing: Branding | SEO - Search Engine Optimization | Stats | Stats: Search Behavior

Google's head of search spam, Matt Cutts, posted a YouTube video talking about a recent SEO misconception that he would like the SEO and webmaster world to "put to rest." Matt said, just because Google has a search quality or ranking patent it does not mean that the patent was or is currently part of the algorithm. Matt explained that there was a patent named ranking documents, which we covered in our story named Patent: How Google May Trick Search Spammers. He said that was one example of a patent Google holds that is currently not built into the ranking algorithm. Mr. Cutts added th [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: SEO | Top News

Earlier this month, local search marketing leaders from the U.S., Canada and 12 other countries gathered in Las Vegas for the Local Search Association’s 2013 annual conference, "Search Starts Here." Over several days, attendees engaged in informative discussions about the numerous opportunities and challenges facing our industry, ranging from the growing importance of original digital content to the rise of mobile and social media. In this month’s column, I will highlight my key takeaways from the LSA conference, which are focused on both the strides I believe local marketers should [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: AdWords: Enhanced Campaigns | Local Search | Search Marketing: Local Search Marketing | SEO: Local | SEO: Mobile Search | Social Media Marketing

Google doesn't always use the HTML title tag of a web page, choosing instead to make its own title for a page, if it thinks it can do a better job. Here's an example of it getting this completely wrong. I was searching for Dana Point Jet Ski, which is a real business in Dana Point. Google instead listed the official page for Dana Point Harbor first: Listing the wrong site first is a relevancy problem. But changing the title of the page to "Dana Point Jet Ski & Kayak Center" is a double-fail. That's Google reinforcing its error, because it's so sure that it's right. See, Google [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Features: Analysis | Google: SEO | SEO: Titles & Descriptions | Top News

After seeing a 15 percent increase in Google News sources last year, a recent study conducted by SearchMetrics discovered that a majority of the News integrations displayed in Google Universal Search results are coming from AOL-owned Patch.com. Analyzing several hundred thousand keywords, the study found that Patch.com made an appearance in the News integration results 4,352 times, followed by HuffingtonPost.com which made a total of 3,530 appearances. According to the SearchMetrics study, the top ten sites to appear in Google News integrations were: Patch.com HuffingtonPost.com Go. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: News | Google: News Keywords Tag | Google: Universal Search

People usually love talking about themselves, and most people are naturally interested in the intricacies of others, whether it's business or personal. When you do an interview or put together a crowdsourced piece (and yes, I know many of you hate that term!) you're linking to the people involved. At first, this may seem counter-intuitive to earning links for yourself -- however, linking out to influential people while pumping out great content can be one of the best link building tactics out there, and here's why: Some people find it easier to promote themselves indirectly. By promo [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | How To | How To: Links | Link Building | Link Building: General | Link Building: Linkbait | Link Week

I've been thinking a lot recently about the term "SEO" and what it really means today. After a record run of attending conferences ranging from San Jose, Toronto, London and Leeds (soon to be joined by Seattle and Riga), I've become very conscious of a cloud of what can only be described as "SEO Depression" unfolding over conference panelists (though much less so for the delegates themselves). The recurring narrative seems to be that Matt Cutts, like some kind of demon, is always about to unleash a torrent of difficulties for SEO folks. One area which has come under heavy scrutiny in lig [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Multinational Search

Chasing after one specific keyword set can not only be frustrating, but also inefficient. The marriage of keyword research and content can result in strong, targeted pages that perform, reach the ideal demographic, and result in conversions -- if you're willing to test and think "outside the box." Targeting keywords solely because they have a high search volume isn't necessarily the best way to go about creating your keyword roadmap for on-site copy and inbound tactics. As selfish as we like to be with keyword targeting, it can't exist as its own siloed research anymore. At the end of [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Keywords & Content | SEO: Keyword Research

In a recently published video, Matt Cutts, Google's head of search spam, listed off the top five SEO mistakes webmasters make. Matt said these are not the most devastating mistakes, but rather, the most common mistakes. (1) Not having a website or having a website that is not crawlable is the biggest mistake he sees. (2) Not including the right words on the page. The example Matt gave is: don't just write, "Mt. Everest Height" but write, "How high is Mt. Everest?" because that is how people search. (3) Don't think about link building, think about compelling content and marketing. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Features: Analysis | Google: SEO | SEO: General

Clearly I've broken my own resolution when it comes to not talking about responsive Web design, as I've done so for the past two months. This month, I'm taking a break so I can focus on resolution #1: giving more tactical advice on how to do mobile SEO well. Today's column will focus on mobile SEO tips for m-commerce and retail -- the topic of a webinar I’m doing this month for Mobile Commerce Daily. Tip #1: Make Pages Accessible To Mobile Searchers This tip may seem like a no-brainer in a world where at least 25% of all search traffic comes from mobile devices and 90% of consumers use [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: Mobile | Mobile Search | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines | Search Marketing: Mobile | SEO: Mobile Search

Bing announced two new features for Bing Webmaster Tools. First, you can now see more details on malware issues impacting your site and be able to submit a malware re-evaluation request. Second, you can now geo-target specific pages, directories or your whole site within Bing Webmaster Tools. Bing Malware Re-Evaluation Bing always had a notification of malware issues impacting your site. Bing, as does Google, will notify you if they detect malware on your site. Both search engines will also label the search results with a warning (or remove the result) so the searcher is aware and protected. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Microsoft: Bing Webmaster Tools

I spoke recently with John Shehata, the director of search for ABC News. Since he owns the SEO responsibility for a number of large media properties, I leapt at the chance to explore some of the things he has learned along the way. We dug in and explored the challenges of educating a large media company, dealing with multiple content management systems, syndicating content and query deserves freshness, all viewed through the eyes of ABC! Interview Transcript Eric Enge: Can you provide a brief outline of your responsibilities at ABC News? John Shehata: I’m the Executive Director of Se [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Enterprise SEO | Google: News | Search Engines: News Search Engines

What to do if Google sends you a penalty notice, and you can't figure out exactly what it's for? Turn to Google's webmaster help forum, says the head of Google's Web spam team, Matt Cutts. If you're still confused after that, you can file a reconsideration request where you might be given more details. The issue of confusing notices came up this week after Mozilla received a "manual" penalty notice because of a single page of spam found on its site. This followed the BBC receiving an "unnatural link" warning last month because of links pointing to a single page on its site. The good new [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Features: Analysis | Google: SEO | Top News

In a recent Matt Cutts video, where the head of Google's search spam team answered the question "Does linking my two sites together violate the quality guidelines?" The short answer is no; but, there is always a but. If you link hundreds of unrelated sites together, then it would violate Google's guidelines. Matt Cutts explained that if you had a few sites, related, part of your network of sites, you can link them together. That is, especially if they are related and useful to each other. But when you start linking thousands of sites together and they are unrelated, then that would be a [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: SEO | Link Building: General

According to a new Transparency Report released today, Google received 4,096 government requests to remove 42,249 pieces of content during 2012. The purpose of Google's Transparency Reports is to record the number of worldwide government requests to censor content on Google services, and offer insight into the amount of censorship happening across the globe. The latest report demonstrates an uptick in the number of requests to remove political content, as well as the number of areas where the requests originate. According to Google's announcement, "In this particular time period, we [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google | Google: Privacy | Legal: Censorship | Legal: Crawling & Indexing | Legal: Regulation

Google has quietly changed the user interface for how they display the authorship snippet in the search results. The largest difference is that they removed the "more by" link that linked to additional stories written by that author. The other changes include that now clicking on the author's image and name will take you to a similar result set that you would have seen if you clicked on the old "more by" author link. I believe the author image and name use to take you to that author's Google+ page, when available. Now, the only way to get to the Google+ page of the author is to click o [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: Authorship | Google: Google+ | Google: User Interface | Google: Web Search