Recently, someone emailed me some information about a private Facebook group run by an SEO company in Austin, Texas, that is encouraging businesses to “swap reviews” on Google. In the post, the SEO company owner said: “It’s that time again – Let’s swap Google reviews! I have a REAL level 5 Local Guides account with […]
What are the risks for businesses that are getting fake reviews on Google? Read More »
Keyword research is underrated. Many SEOs have gotten the idea that keyword research just doesn’t hold the value it once did, especially in today’s environment of voice search, extreme long-tail phrases and so on. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Not long ago, I wrote a post outlining 13 uses for keyword research,
Face it: You’re not a literary author, and people aren’t hanging on to every word you write. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to have comprehensive information on a web page, but users also don’t want to scroll forever — especially on mobile. Content on mobile needs to make it easier for users to get
Successful websites are built on popular, useful pages that attract and delight new visitors. These pages capture valuable traffic by serving a specific purpose or need. However, these pages don’t happen by accident. Building useful pages requires research and strategic planning. You should be thinking about links and search opportunities during the ideation phase, before you
If you own SEO at a multi-location brand (or an agency that works with them), it can be hard to sleep at night. Once upon a time, we were approached by a multi-location retailer about a Google My Business (GMB) problem. Apparently, at some point, Google updated the phone number on a decent percentage of
If your GMB page updates & no one knows, does it make a sound? Read More »
Most SEMs are aware by now that Google is parsing JavaScript and processing content within the DOM. We know this not only because Google has flat out told us, but also because it has been tested. We know all of this — and yet, tools which provide backlink data are only seeing classically formatted <a
Did you know? Google sees JavaScript links you don’t Read More »
Whenever I’ve trained link builders, I’ve been consistent about one major process over the last decade: throw them in and let them learn by doing it, screwing up and finding their own way. I always tell them to expect to make mistakes, and they always do — some worse than others. But making mistakes is, in
On June 13, 2017, in Seattle, Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan sat down with Google’s Gary Illyes to talk about all things Google. You can read live blog coverage from the session here. In this post, I’ve organized the content of this session into topical groups and added my own analysis. Note: The questions and
What I learned from the Danny Sullivan/Gary Illyes keynote at SMX Advanced Read More »
Summer conference season is in full swing, and this month I’m stepping off Greg’s Soapbox to share some in-depth knowledge. With the release of the 2017 Local Search Ranking Factors and several studies, local SEO sessions are all pushing the importance of building local links. Even when tips are shared that explain how to get
Google has been cranking out the updates this year for Local Search, and the latest thing to hit the SMB market is Google Posts. This new feature allows you to publish your events, products and services directly to Google Search (in the Knowledge Panel) and Maps. Here’s an example of what a Google Post looks like
