I’m one of those people who thinks I can usually handle things by myself — I don’t need or want anyone’s help. It’s been tough for me to let go of that attitude when it comes to link building, but I’ve been doing much better lately after realizing that it really is beneficial to have more involvement from various people. Sometimes that extra involvement has been kind of forced on me. Sometimes I’ve had to beg for it. But all in all, I’ve slowly come to the conclusion that the best links we get these days come from working together with the client, their own internal teams and webmasters. The who and the whyFirst of all, let’s think about who should be involved in a link campaign and why.
The howHow should you all try to work together to best benefit the link campaign?
If you take nothing else from this post, just remember that you will never be as clued in to a business as the people who own it, work there every day, know its ins and outs and depend on its success. Involving them is good for everyone. The post Content and links: It really does take a village appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2q2TldE
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Today, Google has reaffirmed that 15 percent of Google searches done by users on a daily basis have never been seen before. Google said this back in 2013 and now has restated that metric as Google announced Project Owl this morning. Google wrote:
Last year, Google told us they handle over 2 trillion searches per year. In 2012, Google claimed they processed 1.2 trillion searches per year. Google did not give a more specific number today, saying “trillions” of searches are performed yearly on Google. Google was specific in saying that 15 percent of the queries Google sees are brand-new, which is why search is a challenge in general. Back in 2007, that figure was closer to 20 to 25 percent. The post Google reaffirms 15% of searches are new, never been searched before appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2q2HDj0 Google knows it has a search quality problem. It’s been plagued since November with concerns about fake news, disturbing answers and offensive search suggestions appearing at the top of its results. “Project Owl” is an effort by the company to address these issues, with three specific actions being announced today. In particular, Google is launching:
We’ll get into the particulars of each of those items below. First, some background on the issue they aim to fix. Project Owl & problematic contentProject Owl is Google’s internal name for its endeavor to fight back on problematic searches. The owl name was picked for no specific reason, Google said. However, the idea of an owl as a symbol for wisdom is appropriate. Google’s effort seeks to bring some wisdom back into areas where it is sorely needed. “Problematic searches” is a term I’ve been giving to a situations where Google is coping with the consequences of the “post-truth” world. People are increasingly producing content that reaffirms a particular world view or opinion regardless of actual facts. In addition, people are searching in enough volume for rumors, urban myths, slurs or derogatory topics that they’re influencing the search suggestions that Google offers in offensive and possibly dangerous ways. These are problematic searches, because they don’t fall in the clear-cut areas where Google has typically taken action. Google has long dealt with search spam, where people try to manipulate its results outside acceptable practices for monetary gain. It has had to deal with piracy. It’s had to deal with poor-quality content showing up for popular searches. Problematic searches aren’t any of those issues. Instead, they involve fake news, where people completely make things up. They involve heavily biased content. They involve rumors, conspiracies and myths. They can include shocking or offensive information. They pose an entirely new quality problem for Google, hence my dubbing them “problematic searches.” Problematic searches aren’t new but typically haven’t been an big issue because of how relatively infrequent they are. In an interview last week, Pandu Nayak — a Google Fellow who works on search quality — spoke to this: “This turns out to be a very small problem, a fraction of our query stream. So it doesn’t actually show up very often or almost ever in our regular evals and so forth. And we see these problems. It feel like a small problem,” Nayak said. But over the past few months, they’ve grown as a major public relations nightmare for the company. My story from earlier this month, A deep look at Google’s biggest-ever search quality crisis, provides more background about this. All the attention has registered with Google. “People [at Google] were really shellshocked, by the whole thing. That, even though it was a small problem [in terms of number of searches], it became clear to us that we really needed to solve it. It was a significant problem, and it’s that we had I guess not appreciated before,” Nayak said. Suffice it to say, Google appreciates the problem now. Hence today’s news, to stress that it’s taking real action that it hopes will make significant changes. Improving Autocomplete search suggestionsThe first of these changes involves “Autocomplete.” This is when Google suggests topics to search on as someone begins to type in a search box. It was designed to be a way to speed up searching. Someone typing “wea” probably means to search for “weather.” Autocomplete, by suggesting that full word, can save the searcher a little time. Google’s suggestions come from the most popular things people search on that are related to the first few letters or words that someone enters. So while “wea” brings up “weather” as a top suggestion, it also brings back “weather today,” or “weather tomorrow,” because those are other popular searches beginning with those letters that people actually conduct. Since suggestions come from real things people search on, they can unfortunately reflect unsavory beliefs that people may have or problematic topics they are researching. Suggestions can also potentially “detour” people into areas far afield of what they were originally interested in, sometimes in shocking ways. This was illustrated last December, when the Guardian published a pair of widely-discussed articles looking at disturbing search suggestions, such as “did the holocaust happen,” as shown below: For years, Google’s had issues like these. But finally, the new attention has prompted it to take action. Last February, Google launched a limited test allowing people to report offensive and problematic search suggestions. Today, that system is going live for everyone, worldwide. Here’s an illustration of it in action from Google: A new “Report inappropriate predictions” link will now appear below the search box. Clicking that link brings up a form that allows people to select a prediction or predictions with issues and report in one of several categories: Predictions can be reported as hateful, sexually explicit, violent or including dangerous and harmful activity, plus a catch-all “Other” category. Comments are allowed. The categories correspond to new policies that Google’s publishing for the first time about why it may remove some predictions from Autocomplete. Until now, Google’s never published reasons why something might be removed. Those policies focus on non-legal reasons why Google might remove suggestions. Legal reasons include removal of personally identifiable information, removals ordered by a court or those deemed to be piracy-related, as we’ve previously covered. Will this new system help? If so, how? That remains to be seen. Google stressed that it hopes the feedback will be most useful so that it can make algorithmic changes that improve all search suggestions, rather than a piecemeal approach that deals with problematic suggestions on an individual basis. In other words, reporting an offensive suggestion won’t cause it to immediately disappear. Instead, it may take days or longer for it to go, as Google churns the data and figures out a solution that hopefully removes it, along with any related suggestions. However, there is a chance that feedback might cause a particular suggestion to get quickly pulled. Google said that if there’s enough volume coming in about a suggestion, it might get it prioritized for a quick review and possible manual removal. Google’s done those types of removals in the past. But the goal is to get enough data so that over time, such suggestions are far less likely to show at all. Improving ‘Featured Snippets’ answersGoogle has also been criticized over the past few months for some of its “Featured Snippets.” These are when Google elevates one of its search results above all others in a special display. Google does this in cases when it feels a particular result answers a question much better than others. That’s why I’ve dubbed this the “One True Answer” display. Featured Snippets are also used with Google Assistant on Android phones and in Google Home, where they become the answer that Google gives in response to a question. That’s a serious issue when those answers are problematic, as was demonstrated last December when Google, asked if “are women evil,” responded that all have “some degree of prostitute” and “a little evil” in them:
This is far from the first bad Featured Snippet that Google’s had. Issues with them go back for years. But problematic featured snippets have drawn major attention in the past few months, especially magnified by how terrible they sound when read through the still-new Google Home devices. One of the two ways Google is now combatting the issue is through an improved feedback form associated with Featured Snippets. Google already had a “Feedback” link for these, but the form itself is changing with new options. Here’s another Google animation on how it works: Here’s a close-up of the new form: Previously, the form just asked if the Featured Snippet was helpful, had something missing, was wrong or wasn’t useful. The option to mark it as helpful remains. New options added allow someone to indicate if they don’t like an answer; find it hateful, racist or offensive; vulgar or sexually explicit; harmful, dangerous or violent; misleading or inaccurate. As with feedback for Autocomplete, Google says that the data gathered will be used to make algorithmic changes. The goal is to figure out ways to keep such problematic snippets from showing overall, rather than use this to do instant removal. In fact, Google said it’s very unlikely the form will cause any quick removals of individual Featured Snippets. More emphasis on authoritative contentThe other and more impactful way that Google hopes to attack problematic Featured Snippets is by improving its search quality generally to show more authoritative content for obscure and infrequent queries. It’s a change that means all results, not just the snippets, may get better. Google started doing some of this last December, when it made a change to how its search algorithm works. That was intended to boost authoritative content. Last month, it added to that effort by instructing its search quality raters to begin flagging content that’s upsetting or offensive. Today’s announcement is about republicizing those changes, to give them to fresh public attention. But will they actually work to solve Google’s search quality issues in this area? That remains to be seen. Is the authority boost working?A search for “did the Holocaust happen” today sees no denial sites at all in the first page of Google’s results. The results had been dominated by them last December, when the issue was first raised. In contrast, at the time of this writing, half of Google rival Bing’s top 10 results are denial listings. Success for Google’s changes! Well, we don’t really know conclusively. Part of the reason that particular search improved on Google is that there was so much written about the issue in news articles and anti-denial sites that sprang up. Even if Google had done nothing, some of that new content would have improved the results. However, given that Bing’s results are still so bad, some of Google’s algorithm changes do appear to have helped it. For a similar search of “was the holocaust fake,” Google’s results still have issues, with three of the top 10 listings being denial content. That is better than Bing, where six of the top 10 listings contain denial content, or eight if you count the videos listed individually. At least with both, no denial listing has the top spot: When & how results might change furtherThe takeaway from this? As I said, it’s going to be very much wait and see. One reason things might improve over time is that new data from those search quality raters is still coming in. When that gets processed, Google’s algorithms might get better. Those human raters don’t directly impact Google’s search results, a common misconception that came up recently when Google was accused of using them to censor the Infowars site (it didn’t; they couldn’t). One metaphor I’m using to help explain their role — and limitations — is as if they are diners at a restaurant, asked to fill out review cards. Those diners can say if they liked a particular dish or not. With enough feedback, the restaurant might decide to change its recipes to make food less salty or to serve some items at different temperatures. The diners themselves can’t go back into the kitchen and make changes. This is how it works with quality raters. They review Google’s search results, to say how well those results seem to be fulfilling expectations. That feedback is used so that Google itself can tailor its “recipes” — its search algorithms — to improve results overall. The raters themselves have no ability to directly impact what’s on the menu, so to speak, or how the results are prepared. For its part, Google’s trying to better explain the role quality raters play through a new section about them being added to its How Search Works site, along with new information on how its ranking system works generally. Why an authority boost can helpHow’s Google learning from the data to figure out what’s authoritative? How’s that actually being put into practice? Google wouldn’t comment about these specifics. It wouldn’t say what goes into determining how a page is deemed to be authoritative now or how that is changing with the new algorithm. It did say that there isn’t any one particular signal. Instead, authority is determined by a combination of many factors. Of course, it’s not new for Google to determine what’s authoritative content. The real change happening is twofold. First, it’s developing improved ways to determine authority in the face of fake news and similar content that might appear authoritative but really is not. Second, it wants to surface authoritative content more often than in the past for unusual and obscure queries. Why wouldn’t Google have already been serving up authoritative content for those types of queries before? Google again wouldn’t get into specifics. So, it’s speculation time. My best guess is that for infrequent and unusual queries, Google has been giving more weight to pages that seem a better contextual match, even if they lack strong authority. For many cases, this might be a good approach. For example, if you were looking for something very specific, such as a solution to a weird computer error, an obscure forum discussion about that error might be a better match than a page from a popular computer site that’s talking about errors generally. Unfortunately, that same approach might be bad when it comes to problematic searches. It might be why pages trying to argue that the Holocaust was faked or a hoax would come up over more general pages about the Holocaust — because those denial pages were more contextually related to the exact search. With the change, my guess — and it remains only my guess — is that Google is boosting the ability for authoritative content to rank better against contextually explicit content. That means a page from Wikipedia about Holocaust denial, as well as other authoritative pages about the Holocaust generally, might perform better. It won’t be perfect, but Google will tryIn the end, much of this — as I wrote before — is a bigger public relations issue than an everyday problem for most Google users. The search engine processes nearly 6 billion searches per day. Few of these searches fall into the problematic category. Google’s even put a number to it today, saying 0.25 percent of all queries are like this. Still, that’s a sizable number of searches — over a million per day. More important, the goal should be to get every search as right as possible. It shouldn’t be that the way to get change is to wait around for the next article that embarrasses Google into making a fix. The reporting forms may help. They can certainly allow individual users to feel that they’ve got an easier way to tell Google when it’s going wrong. The search quality changes, if they work, will be even more important. Still, despite all that Google tries, it knows it won’t solve the problem perfectly. “There’s already been a significant amount of progress, but there’s a long way to go. And we don’t believe it will ever be solved fully. It is in some ways like spam. There’s a little bit of an effort of people trying to game the system, while we try to stay one step ahead of them,” said Ben Gomes, vice president of engineering, Google Search, during the same interview Nayak was at last week. While perfection might not be achievable, that doesn’t mean those at Google are disheartened or are not going to try. “We are super energized by this, I have to say, super energized to fix these problems. People [at Google] came out of the woodworks offering to help us with this. People felt really passionate about helping. And so it was easy to staff a really strong team who worked hard. They cared deeply about the kind of situations being described and are very passionate about fixing it,” Nayak said.
The post Google’s ‘Project Owl’ — a three-pronged attack on fake news & problematic content appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2phoAkr The first time I rode a motorcycle, I fell in love. Between the power, the speed, and the freedom, I knew it was something I wanted to keep doing for a long time. But I also knew I had a lot to learn. Learning to ride a motorcycle requires several new skills. You have to learn how to maneuver and balance a heavy, two-wheeled vehicle, how to change gears, how to let the clutch out smoothly and at the right time, and how to work the hand and foot brakes. And that’s before you leave the parking lot. Learning to advertise on social media is a similar experience: there’s a lot to be excited about, but all the options, features, and adjustments can leave you dazed. Start with the fundamentalsAfter that first ride, I spent a couple months brooding. I knew I wanted to ride, but I didn’t feel ready for a full-sized motorcycle. Then, one day, I decided to check out the local Vespa dealership, just to see … A week later, I bought myself a scooter. On my scooter, I learned the fundamentals of riding — how to balance, how to maneuver on two wheels, and how to stay safe on the road — without having to worry about the full weight of a motorcycle or shifting gears. By the time I bought my first full-sized bike a year later, all I needed was 45 minutes in a parking lot and I was ready to roll. If you’ve always wanted to try social media advertising, but found it overwhelming, I’m here to hand you the keys to your scooter. How ads help new prospects discover your content
Yes, it was a bit crummy of Facebook to give brands amazing organic reach and then take it away. But they have a business to run, just like you. I, for one, welcome our benevolent-ish (read: self-interested) paid social overlords. In fact, I would still recommend you use social media ads, even if the reach of “organic posts” never changed. Why?
And, how much do you even know about people who like your page? For example, if you’re running a promotion with Facebook ads, you want to reach people who have recently considered buying your product, and are therefore most likely to buy — not necessarily an existing, longtime customer.
So, ready to get rolling? Let’s start with five foundations that produce powerful social media advertising campaigns. 1. Set up tracking on your websiteAfter you open your ads account, the first thing you should do is set up website tracking, which sends your website visitors’ information back to the ads platform. On Facebook, you’ll get a “pixel.” On Twitter and Pinterest, you’ll get a “tag,” but it’s all the same thing: a snippet of code to pop in the header on every page of your site. If you use the Rainmaker Platform, StudioPress Sites, or just about any site builder, there should be a “header scripts” box where you can paste in this code so it’s automatically output on all your pages. Otherwise, you will need to work with your developer to make sure the code is deployed properly. Even if you’re not going to run ads for a while, you should still do this now.
Also, set up tracking for your primary conversions (sales, subscriptions, email list opt-ins, free ebook downloads — basically any transaction with a “thank you” page) inside each platform, so you have that data available when you’re ready. 2. Define your strategyIt’s tempting to get into the weeds with social media ads, but just like with most marketing channels, a smart strategy will have a bigger impact than any number of tiny, detailed tweaks. A good, basic ads strategy includes the following elements:
And you don’t have to start from scratch. In fact, it’s probably better not to start from scratch.
An approach we’ve come to rely on at Rainmaker Digital goes something like this:
Yep, it’s that simple. By priming people with persuasive content — good, persuasive content, that has inherent value and builds trust — you create a specialty retargeting audience, ready to hear your offer. As for the “new” audience, I recommend starting with a lookalike audience on Facebook — either based on people who purchased your product or people on an email list. It’s a great way to use the power of Facebook ads without getting too complicated. 3. Develop the ad creativeIf you’re using your existing content, you should already be well on your way to a solid campaign. But whether or not you’re starting from scratch, here are a few pointers for developing ad creative that converts:
4. Launch … and monitorTake a deep breath, double-check your links and budget, and just go for it! The longer you agonize over your ads, the less time you spend learning what works. If you get overwhelmed by all the settings, just use the defaults. Remember, Facebook and Twitter want your ads to do well so you’ll spend more money with them. There will be plenty of time for you to tweak and test as you go. While the ads run, check in on them regularly. If some ads spend a lot but don’t convert, stop them and work on new variations to replace them. Maybe you optimize the text. Maybe you change the audience. Whatever you do, take your time, and don’t lose sight of your goal. 5. MeasureSpeaking of goals, it’s easy to get bogged down in all the metrics these platforms provide. In all frankness … most of them are not very useful. If your campaign is doing its job — i.e., if it’s accomplishing your goal at a reasonable cost to you — then it’s a success. Period. Other metrics, such as click-through rate or reach, are useful in diagnosing problems with your campaign, but they mean jack squat if your campaign isn’t doing what you need it to do. Keep your eye on the ball. Aim for results over timeOverall, yes, social media ads can be a lot to swallow. But don’t feel that you have to succeed right away, and don’t get discouraged if your ads take a while to show results. It’s like riding a motorcycle — honing your skills takes time and practice. The technology of social media ads is new, but the strategy is exactly what you’ve known all along. You’ve got this. The post Your No-Nonsense Guide to Getting Started with Social Media Ads appeared first on Copyblogger. via Copyblogger http://ift.tt/2qalYlf We’re two weeks away from the MarTech Conference in San Francisco, May 9-11 — the world’s largest independent marketing technology conference designed for senior-level marketers and technologists. I stress the the word independent because unlike most of the big marketing events these days that are run by Adobe, HubSpot, IBM, Marketo, Oracle, Salesforce, or alliances of smaller vendors, MarTech is produced by Third Door Media with no conflict of interest. Those other events are fantastic — but they’re inherently and intentionally biased. With MarTech, there’s no pay-for-play or hidden agenda in the editorial program and no rules excluding who can exhibit. There is only one goal: to illuminate successful real-world practices at the intersection of marketing, technology, and management — no matter which software products or analyst frameworks are employed. This independence lets us ruthlessly call out fact from fiction in examining today’s rapidly evolving marketing technology environment. For instance: Fiction: The marketing technology landscape is consolidating. Fiction: Best-of-breed marketing stacks are a mess to integrate and manage. Fiction: AI, big data, and analytics are squeezing the “art” out of marketing. Fiction: CMOs have to be technologists themselves to lead in today’s environment. Fiction: The hardest part of modern marketing is implementing the technology. And that’s just a taste of the issues that will be candidly tackled in over 70 sessions with more than 100 speakers from leading brands such as AARP, Adobe, Campbell’s, CapitalOne, Electronic Arts, Equinix, Facebook, Forrester, GE Digital, Google, Heifer International, Hilton, IBM, IDC, Legendary Entertainment, LogMeIn, Lowe’s, McKesson, McKinsey, Medtronic, Microsoft, MongoDB, Mozilla, Oracle, Pinterest, Salesforce, San Francisco 49ers, Sapient Razorfish, Sears, Spotify, Sprint, Staples, The Economist, Unum, Visa, Zendesk, and more: Want to learn more? You can read a more in-depth preview of the program here. 2 ways to attend MarTechThe ultimate MarTech experience: All Access Pass Get the full MarTech experience for just $1,795, a $100 savings off on-site rates. You’ll get 3 days of networking with martech leaders and experts, more than 70 presentations and keynotes across 8 tracks, and demos and solutions from over 100 leading martech vendors. Also, you get breakfast, hot lunches, snacks all day and all of the structured and unstructured networking activities and conveniences that make attending MarTech a unique, productive and enjoyable experience. Register now. Dive into the martech ecosystem with an Expo+ Pass Meet more than 100 amazing martech vendors in the Expo Hall. You’ll find solutions and providers, attend full-length presentations and connect with your peers at the 2 networking receptions including the Stackies Awards ceremony. Buy an Expo+ pass now for just $99. I hope to see you there! P.S. – You’ll find even deeper savings if you register as a group! Team discounts of 10%-20% are available. Learn more. The post Separate marketing technology fact from fiction at MarTech Conference in 2 weeks appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2oFvqg5 Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land:
Recent Headlines From Marketing Land, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Internet Marketing:
Search News From Around The Web:Industry
Local & Maps
Link Building Searching
SEO
SEM / Paid Search
The post SearchCap: Bing Shopping feeds, Google HTTPS & local SEO appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2oEgyhs Many brands continue to be challenged by location-based search despite its importance to customer engagement and store visits. Consider these numbers to understand why brands need to make location a priority:
Yet it is common for major brand stores to not show up in location-based searches. Alternately, some are outperformed in search results by other brands that are doing a better job managing their online location presence. Some brands are much more visible in location-based search than othersLocation and maps are practically synonymous. With Google controlling 95 percent of mobile search market share, Google Maps is critical to local search. Consider the dominance of two brands in a search for “fast food restaurants” in Google Maps (see below). The search area was randomly selected; I picked a non-urban area northwest of Philadelphia. Twelve of 20 search results were from Wendy’s and Arby’s, with Wendy’s making up eight and Arby’s making up four search results. These two brands not only took the most spots, they also took the top results. The remaining eight search results were divided among five other brands: McDonald’s, Burger King, Dairy Queen, Popeye’s and Taco Bell. In a repeat of the test, Wendy’s and Arby’s actually increased their superior metrics, occupying 14 of 20 search results. The numbers suggest more than coincidence. They reveal intentional and strategic decisions by the two brands — especially considering that there are easily over 20 McDonald’s restaurants in the search area. Location is especially important to spontaneous purchase decisions such as travelLocation-based search is critical to restaurants, counter service and fast food establishments, where purchase decisions are usually spontaneous. David Kaplan at Geomarketing reports that location plays a “gargantuan role” in customer decisions to eat at Wendy’s. Brandon Rhoten, Wendy’s VP/head of advertising, digital/social media, stated, “When it comes to food, you need to know what’s near you. We’re not a ‘considered purchase’ at all. We’re one of those brands that has to catch you as you’re making a decision.” This is also true for other business categories, such as gas stations and hotels — especially those located along the roughly 47,000 miles of busy interstate highway in the US. As retail spending is down, travel spending is booming, and AAA reports that low gas prices are prompting 69 percent of vacationing families to take road trips. Hotel occupancy is at record levels since a 2009 low. Food and beverage sales have grown at double the rate of other retail spending, and for the first time, Americans spend more eating out than at grocery stores. I experienced firsthand the difference that good location search marketing can have while driving on America’s highways. My family took a trip to Big Bend National Park for spring break, a nine-hour drive from Dallas. Needless to say, we looked for gas and meal stops along the way. It was surprising to me the number of times my wife would be looking along the route on Google Maps for places to stop and was unable to locate many of the places that we would see driving by. For example, she’d see map results and say, “The next Subway is about 10 miles away, and there’s a Dairy Queen in six miles. I don’t see much before then.” Yet we’d pass two different Subway restaurants and many other fast food joints that advertised on highway signs. That experience prompted me to take a closer look at why major brand stores were not showing up in Google Map search results. Below, I examine four ways I found brands being hurt by poor location practices and how they can improve customer traffic with better marketing strategies. 1. Link to location-specific pages on individual store Google Maps listingsIn the above example, map results to the search query “fast food restaurants” found mostly Wendy’s and Arby’s stores. Both brands link to a location-specific page with address, maps and hours in the web page section of the Maps listing. Wendy’s uses locations.wendys.com and Arby’s uses locations.arbys.com. On the other hand, McDonald’s and Dairy Queen link to the general websites McDonalds.com or DairyQueen.com, where there are some promotions for the brand as a whole. Each site offers the ability to find nearby store locations by typing in a ZIP code or address and has location-specific pages, but these are not directly linked to a store’s specific Google Map listing. Burger King does link to a specific page, even though the website address is listed simply as bk.com. Perhaps a clearer URL that signals it provides location information to Google would perform better. On my trip, the worst-performing fast food restaurant was Subway. Even zoomed in on a small intersection in Google Maps, the store pin often appears as an orange circle instead of a red circle. For restaurants, only the red circles or dots appear in Google Maps’ list of search results. Subway links to a menu and online ordering page via order.subway.com. While this alone may not account for the vast difference in Google Maps visibility, it seems an easy one to fix. 2. Separate bundled retail outlets into individually located storesAs we were driving through Baird, Texas, there appeared to only be one dining option: Dairy Queen. At least, that’s how it seemed based on Google Maps. Yet about 300 feet away from the Dairy Queen was a Love’s Travel Stop that had a Subway and Chester’s Fried Chicken located inside the store. Below is the profile picture of the Love’s Travel Stop that clearly shows signage for both fast food restaurants. However, they are virtually impossible to find searching on Google Maps. The Subway store doesn’t even appear in search results for the search term “Subway” in the area, let alone a search for fast food restaurants. In this case, separate Google listings should be created for all three stores: Loves, Subway and Chester’s. Google allows multiple storefronts to occupy an identical address. In creating unique Google listing pages, the most helpful differentiator appears to be a unique phone number for each listing. Other ways to distinguish and promote each business would be to link to unique (location-based, see #1 above) web pages, and if possible, add suite numbers. Make sure that other citations (e.g., Yelp, TripAdvisor, YellowPages.com) likewise distinguish the separate stores with those unique phone numbers, addresses and website/pages. 3. Double down on descriptions of services to cover multiple business categoriesThe need for gas is a necessity that forces a stop on a road trip. But customers often refuel more than their cars, and gas stations depend on it. Gas has one of the lowest profit margins in retail, so the drinks and snacks that customers buy are often what supports the store. That explains the common partnership between gas station and convenience store. It also offers the opportunity to get two bites at the apple as customers may search for either keyword: “gas stations” or “convenience stores.” The problem is that gas stations commonly split the two business categories into their respective brands. So a search for gas stations would pull up a Shell, Alon or Exxon. A search for convenience stores pull up a 7-Eleven or Allsups. Yet a store may be more attractive if a customer who searches for gas stations can also see a nice convenience store like a 7-Eleven attached to it. The screen shots below show that 7-Eleven and Allsups convenience stores in Clyde, Texas, are not showing up in searches for gas stations. The blue markers indicate they are not a search result and only show up as a surrounding business when the map is zoomed in to an area smaller than a football field. Stripes (a convenience store/gas station brand in the Southwest) seems to do a nice job being found regardless of what search term is used. It will often have two or even three pin drops per store — one for the gas station, one for the convenience store and even one for an ATM located on site. Every listing, even the ATM listing, will include a description that indicates it carries gas, snacks, drinks and sundries, and thus all listings appear on the map in searches for “gas station.” Increase the odds of being found, and make sure customers know all of your core products and services no matter which part of your business they locate, by providing a concise yet complete description of your business for each listing. 4. Location-based search ads appear to boost organic mobile map search resultsIt makes more financial sense for businesses such as hotels to pay for search ads than it does for smaller transaction-based businesses like fast food restaurants or gas stations. And it seems to make a difference in organic search results on the Google Map app, too. A search for hotels around Sweetwater, Texas, pulled up a few major brand hotels, including a Holiday Inn Express, a La Quinta and a Best Western. All three purchased ads that show up on a desktop Google Maps search. A less visible Hampton Inn doesn’t show up on the map until it is zoomed in, and there is no indication it purchased any advertising. A search on a mobile device using the Google Maps app for hotels in the area pulls up a limited list of seven hotels, including the three brands that advertised. Hampton Inn doesn’t appear on the list or on the map. It only appears next to the Holiday Inn when I’m zoomed in as far as I can on the map, and the brown marker for the Hampton Inn indicates it is not included in the search result for “hotels.” In other words, it is highly unlikely to be found in a search for hotels. Hampton Inn’s lack of visibility is despite its having a higher Google reviews rating and a higher TripAdvisor rating, with more than double the number of reviews. Thus, if your business isn’t showing up on Google Map results, it may be worth trying some paid advertising to see if that will help. Final thoughtsEven major national brands struggle with getting location marketing right all the time. The numbers show that strong location marketing can make a big difference in being found, driving traffic and boosting sales. Take a look and see whether any of these tips might help improve visibility on Google Maps in crowded and competitive search results. If you’re an agency working with brands, also make sure to get pre-campaign benchmarks that can help demonstrate the work you do is making that difference. The post 4 ways brands are losing store traffic — and how to use location marketing strategies to reverse course appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2q7o5qj Bing Ads rolled out three new features this week for Shopping Campaigns.
The post Bing Shopping Campaigns get inventory feeds, search query reports at product level appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2ontTPH “You are going to build what makes you happy.” Whitney Husband shows us time management strategies from a single mom of two. And also, social media tips to build a large organization online. Learn to create 2 more hours in your day using my Extreme MLM Productivity regimen so that you can work on your business and still have time for your friends and family. Who is Whitney Husband?Whitney Husband is a single mom with 2 kids and has built a successful MLM business with over 200,000 distributors and she’s a consistent 7 figure a year earner. She got started in network marketing because even with a college degree in business administration, she made little money as a bank teller and things got even more challenging when she was pregnant with her first child. Once Whitney got started in MLM, she was able to reach the top of her company in just 4 months and won a $10,000 cash bonus. Whitney and her 2 kids live out in her dream home in Lufkin, Texas with a 50 acre farm with 2 dogs, 3 horses and 2 cows. Favorite Quote“There’s really no such thing as motivation.” Must Read BookHow To Build Network Marketing Leaders Volume One by Tom “Big Al” Schreiter Recommended Online AppRecommended Prospecting ToolContact InfoWhat Did You Learn?Thanks for joining me on the show. So what did you learn? If you enjoyed this episode please share it on social media and send it to someone that needs extra motivation in their MLM business. Do you have any thoughts or comments? Please take 60 seconds to leave an HONEST review for the MLM Nation Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely important for me to make this show better. Finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes so that you get updates and new episodes downloaded to your phone automatically. Click Here to Subscribe via iTunes Click here to Subscribe via Stitcher Click Here to Subscribe via RSS (non-iTunes feed) The post 325: How A Young Single Mom Of Two Is CRUSHING Her Business by Whitney Husband appeared first on MLM Nation: Network Marketing Training | Prospecting | Lead Generation | Leadership | Duplication | Motivation. via MLM Nation: Network Marketing Training | Prospecting | Lead Generation | Leadership | Duplication | Motivation http://ift.tt/2pXGx85 |
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