Google has updated its reviews help document page in the Google Business Profile support area to say that Google values all reviews, not just positive. Now Google says it is “more trustworthy” to see a mix of both positive and negative reviews on the business profile. What is new. Google has added a bullet point to the document that reads “Value all reviews: Reviews are useful for potential customers when they’re honest and objective. Customers find a mix of positive and negative reviews more trustworthy. You can always respond to a review to show the customers that you care and provide additional context. If the review doesn’t follow our posting guidelines, you can request to remove it.” Here is a screenshot: Ranking impact? This will probably not impact rankings in any way but it might be a sign that if a business has 99% all positive reviews, maybe – just maybe – Google will flag that business and manually audit the reviews of that business. It is simply not natural for all customers to only leave positive reviews on a business online. Why we care. If you manage local businesses and some of your customers feel anxious about having negative reviews on their business listing, then show them this new update to the Google help document. Maybe that will alleviate some of the anxiety around getting negative reviews? The post Google says it values all local reviews; both positive and negative appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/3rkt4Xe
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Google Merchant Center is now automatically showing retailers when their products are eligible for badges, a Google spokesperson has confirmed to Search Engine Land. Available badges include, but are not limited to, the “sale price,” “price drop,” “amount off,” “percent off,” and “buy quantity, get percent off” badges. Tip of the hat to Kirk Williams, who first posted about this new feature. Why we careBadging isn’t new. However, the column showing which badge your products are appearing with is new and it can help merchants understand how potential customers are seeing their ads, without needing to manually figure it out for themselves. This can help retailers identify the types of promotions that are (or aren’t) working out for their business. The latest shopping search news
The post Google Merchant Center now automatically displays badge eligibility for products appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/3ljIlE2 Since the pandemic started we’ve been tracking how COVID-19 has affected the way marketers attend conferences and other business events through our Event Participation Index. And, as you’d expect, overall comfort with attending in-person events has grown since vaccines became available and activities like dining and movie-going have resumed. But with the Delta variant wave having caused major spikes across the country, and the new Omicron variant sparking fresh concern, we thought it would be a good time to check in again about your attitudes toward in-person events. The data we gather helps organizers to better make plans and accommodations. So, please answer this quick, 3-minute survey and tell us how you are feeling about attending conferences in the coming year. We will publish the results here in the next few weeks. Click here to answer our survey. The post Tell us if you are planning to attend in-person events in 2022 appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/3d0IBDk Building links isn’t easy and navigating the link-building landscape nowadays is complicated. Many agencies and platforms out there claim to do incredible work, but it’s hard to know who to trust. Some services use white hat link-building tactics that search engines love, and others build low-quality links using unnatural tactics. What is link building, and why is it important?Link building is the process of actively seeking out backlinks from another website back to yours. Having high-quality links to your site is one of Google’s most important ranking factors. It’s a key trust signal for search engines and an indication that people like your content and your brand. A number of ethical, white-hat link-building strategies can be used to accomplish this, including broken link building, guest posting, and outreach campaigns to show people your incredible content. What is a link-building service?A link-building service is a company or platform that will help you to accelerate the number of backlinks to your website. While that sounds great, the problem is that genuine quality link-building services are hard to come by, with many providers simply ending up acquiring low-quality links through spammy strategies which Google doesn’t like. That’s why we’ve put together a list of the best link-building services to consider helping you achieve improved SEO results in an ethical, white-hat manner. The 7 best link-building services to help improve search rankings1) Reputable link-building companyRecommended provider: LinkBuilder.io Using a specialist link-building agency is the best overall option since they’ll use a number of different link-building strategies at their disposal to build high-quality backlinks to your website. This option is best for those who want to outsource all of their link-building efforts entirely and depend on experts who will develop a custom link-building strategy for your website. The quality of services out there varies greatly, and you’ll need to do your due diligence to make sure that any provider is the right fit for you. Key considerations for hiring a link-building company: Analysis – They should be doing detailed competitor analysis to figure out exactly how many links and what types of links other successful sites are building. This is something we place a huge emphasis on at LinkBuilder.io. Bespoke link-building strategy – Make sure they’re proposing link-building tactics to build topically relevant links for your industry. Additionally, they should have a roadmap for how they’re going to structure a link-building campaign. Pricing – Most agencies will offer a variety of link-building packages with different pricing tiers. If the price seems too good to be true versus other services, that could be a red flag that the quality of links isn’t good. Samples – Always ask for link samples and link-building case studies. This is by far the best way to evaluate their quality of work to make sure they’re getting links from high-quality websites. Size of the team – Often, large link-building companies see their quality decreases as the size of the team increases—the shift in mindset changes from focusing on high quality to focusing on scaling their own business. 2) Outreach platformRecommended provider: Pitchbox or GroupHigh Link-building outreach platforms will help you to find relevant bloggers & websites that you can email and connect with to try and earn a backlink. They are an essential game-changer for anyone serious about link building. This service option is much more suitable for an in-house marketing professional who manages link building in-house. You’ll essentially have your own link-building CRM, which can save time on prospecting, emailing and chasing leads for link building. 3) HAROWebsite: Helpareporter.com “Help a Reporter” is a platform that connects journalists seeking expertise to sources who have expert knowledge in a given subject matter. Active journalists use the platform to crowdsource insights from experts in any given field, and there are hundreds of requests every day from writers at huge sites like Shopify, Yahoo and American Express. If you can answer their request and feature your opinion within their article, they’ll give you a source link back to your website. It’s an incredible (and free) link-building service that can help you land some extremely high authority backlinks. 4) Citation building serviceRecommended provider: SEOBuilder.com or BrightLocal The fact is the vast majority of local businesses only have links from directories. Pull up the backlink profile of any local dentist or optician in your area, and you’ll notice that even websites ranking at the top of Google have a ton of directory links. This tells us that citation links (also known as directory links) are an extremely natural type of link for local businesses. Given that most sites are ranking well with only this link type, it’s obvious that they are very effective. If you’re a local business owner or agency owner whose clients are local businesses, I’d strongly recommend finding a good citation building service. Building out niche-relevant directory links is a real pain, and they’re going to make your life so much easier. 5) Facebook & Slack groupsRecommended Group: B2B Bloggers Boost Group Social media & Slack provides an incredible opportunity for link building for those willing to spend the time. There are a huge number of people out there creating amazing content for so many different brands and companies. What these groups do is leverage that into a link-building opportunity. Here’s an example of how it works:
So basically, the currency in this system is links. However, because these are all vetted & talented writers, they’re only going to link to great content. What you end up with is a self-moderated system where people share links to other great stories – It’s a win-win for everyone involved. This caveat is that this particular type of link building works best in the B2B / SaaS space. If you were looking to build links to your website about pets, you’d be better off finding a group that various pet bloggers reside in. 6) Podcast booking serviceRecommended provider: Podcast Bookers There’s an ever-increasing number of podcasts in every industry imaginable, and the podcast hosts are always looking for great guests to interview. This is an incredibly great way of combining brand & company awareness in addition to backlinks, since the host will always link back to your site. If you were lucky enough to land a podcast with the likes of Tim Ferris (highly unlikely), then it could literally explode your business into the stratosphere. The only downside is that it can be very time-consuming and mentally draining to do lots of podcast interviews unless you enjoy that kind of thing. 7) Digital PRRecommended provider: Fractl Digital PR involves taking high-quality content and sharing it with relevant journalists who might want to cover the story. If you can find a digital PR company that’s able to create content that gets picked up by real journalists consistently, then you’re going to be rewarded with links from some super high authority news websites, which is the Holy grail of link building. There has always been an interesting crossover between PR (public relations) and link building since both activities often seek the same end goal. The value of backlinks is something that is becoming increasingly prominent within the PR industry. Link-building services to avoidThis wouldn’t be a comprehensive guide if we didn’t also discuss the link-building services you should outright avoid.
Be careful investing in link buildingWe all want the best possible search engine rankings, and most SEOs understand the value of inbound links. That’s why it’s so important to be vigilant and careful when it comes to investing in link building, take the time to do your own research, and make sure you pick a service that will give you a positive ROI in the long run. The post 7 best link-building services for SEO performance appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/3xwuNd2 The post 20211129 SEL Brief appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/3DYpcPf PPC Strategist @ Portent (U.S. remote)
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The post November 29: The latest jobs in search marketing appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/3p8B6zZ Google’s mobile-first indexing deadline is no longer a deadline and it decided to leave the “timeline open for the last steps of mobile-first indexing,” John Mueller of Google said on the company blog. Previously, Google postponed the deadline from September 2020 to March 2021, and that deadline came and past. No timeline. Now, Google said there is no specific timeline, instead Google said the search company “decided to leave the timeline open for the last steps of mobile-first indexing.” Google added currently Google does not “have a specific final date for the move to mobile-first indexing.” Why no deadline. Google said the deadline has been removed because after “analyzing the sites that are not yet indexed mobile-first” the company “determined that some of these sites are still not ready to be shifted over due to various, unexpected challenges that they’re facing.” Google added that these “sites were facing unexpectedly difficult challenges and we wanted to accommodate their timelines.” Thus it was to be “thoughtful” of these sites and not move them over until they are ready. Previously. Google in early March, before all the lock-downs began across most of the world, announced the deadline for all sites to switch over to mobile-first indexing would be September 2020. At that time, Google said, “To simplify, we’ll be switching to mobile-first indexing for all websites starting September 2020.” Then in July 2020, Google moved that deadline once again to March 2021. Sites will move. Google said as these sites make changes that enable them to switch over to mobile-first indexing, it will “gradually to move those remaining sites over.” Google said that if a website is not verified in Google Search Console, then Google won’t be able to inform it of a pending switch to mobile-first indexing. You can learn more about this in their blog post. Why we care. Chances are, most, if not all, of your sites and the sites you manage have been moved to mobile-first indexing. If not, this means you have more time to worry about it. If your site is not ready for the switch, I’d be concerned there are other issues with the overall platform that you may need to upgrade before it becomes a larger issue outside of just mobile-first indexing. The post Google drops its mobile-first indexing deadline, leaves it open-ended appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/3D7Kxol “COVID itself has changed the way that people interact with businesses online,” said Amanda Jordan, director of local search at LOCOMOTIVE Agency, in her session at SMX Next, “which means that search engines, businesses and marketers had to pivot to meet those demands and needs.” The events of 2020 have changed how local businesses operate as well as Google’s search results. And, while these shifts are designed to make search easier for consumers, many businesses have been caught unawares, losing visibility on Google. Local marketers are at the forefront of these SERP updates, helping clients adapt to changes in features such as their Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) and Google Maps. But, the differences in these updates are not lost on local marketing professionals. “Google, as always, is changing the layout and testing new things, so that’s not surprising,” said Jordan. “The thing that I found most interesting were the changes to reviews and the knowledge panel.” To help local SEOs navigate these developments, Jordan provided the following strategies. Improve the quality of local reviews“Google has grouped reviews together by topic,” said Jordan. “This is one of those updates that were mentioned in a timeline. You can see that there is a new badge for the new reviews.” Google also seems to be reorganizing how it displays third-party reviews. “Third-party reviews are going to continue to be important because those are being shown in the knowledge panel,” said Jordan. “They’re being shown in regular organic search results, so it’s important to know where you stand.” Review topics, sources, relevancy, and recency each play a major role in how the local algorithm ranks them. Marketers should know where their clients stand in terms of each of these factors and help facilitate the creation of quality reviews. Edit your knowledge panels using on- and off-site sourcesGoogle is revamping its local knowledge panel in major ways. It seems to be shaping into “its own entity, which includes lots of third-party data,” says Jordan. This means more of your clients’ panel information could be coming from sources you have no access to. “While these things may seem out of our control, sometimes we can influence what Google uses,” Jordan said. Here are some areas Jordan recommends marketers check if their panels contain inaccurate data from sources across the web: On-site sources
Off-site sources
Make corrections to your data sources and test your knowledge panel appearances when possible. Even if the corrections seem small, Google can still find the new information if the changes are made in one of these key areas. Prepare to adapt to mobile SERP changesBusiness information isn’t the only thing changing in this local landscape; mobile SERP layouts are transforming as well. While marketers know this happens, SERPs have begun transforming them frequently — and not always for the better. Jordan highlighted an instance in which one of her clients’ local panels lost some important information: “We had a client that had their site links not showing up only on mobile only if you search from their city; anywhere else in the world everything was fine.” Local SERP issues like these can seem complicated to fix, but marketers can use insights from competitor analysis to determine the best course of action. In Jordan’s case, her team worked on updating their client’s local panel so that it would include each element the competitor used. It should be noted that Google often experiments with local results, which could result in temporary changes to how they display in the SERPs. Moving forward with local SEO“Google is going to continue focusing on online reputation and customer sentiment,” Jordan said, pointing to what she believed marketers should expect from local SERPs going forward. Getting clients onboard with these areas of focus can help future-proof their campaigns in the long run. These changes to local SERPs, coupled with the rise in features focused on purchasing products and booking appointments, will require marketers to become more adaptable. But if Google provides actionable data along the way, businesses can rest assured they’ll be ready for what comes next. “I would hope that Google’s insights for businesses get even better so that trends and user experience and customer experience show up in your panel,” said Jordan, “So that you’d be able to look at that data and make changes in your business.” Watch the full SMX Next presentation here (registration required). The post How marketers can adapt to Google’s local SEO changes appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/3d0NU5T The post 20211124 SEL Brief appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/2ZpsTi0 Beginning on March 1, 2022, Google AdSense’s Matched content widget will only show ads, the company announced Wednesday. To go along with the change, Google is also rebranding Matched content as “Multiplex ads.” What’s changing. Launched in 2015 as a free recommendation service that enables sites to promote their own content, along with ads (which can be disabled), to visitors, the Matched content widget will continue to function that way until February 28, 2022. “Due to decreasing usage of the content promotion service, and positive customer feedback and performance results from the ads-only Matched content ad format, we’ve decided to turn down the content promotion service and convert all existing Matched content units to only show ads,” Google said in the announcement, “This also applies to Matched content units that have the ‘Monetize with Ads’ option turned off.” Fresh rebrand, new rules. To be eligible for Matched content, sites must contain a minimum number of unique pages and meet a traffic volume requirement. With the change and subsequent rebrand as Multiplex ads, these requirements will be lifted and the ad type will be available to all AdSense publishers. After March 1, 2022, the Matched content page in the AdSense interface will be removed and the Matched content unit editor will be updated to show the new ads-only format. Why we care. Sites that were using the Matched content widget to show users a mix of their own content and ads will, as of March 1, only be showing ads. This change will happen automatically, even if you have the “Monetize with Ads” option switched off. If you don’t want the widget to only show ads, you should remove it before March 1. The post Google AdSense’s Matched content widget will only show ads starting on March 1, 2022 appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/3cJLLLt |
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