John Mueller, a Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google, wrote a blog post explaining how SEOs and webmasters can handle site outages or closures that last for a day or longer. This is when a webmaster intentionally takes down their site for maintenance, site moves, religious reasons or other reasons. John offers three options: (1) Block the cart functionality from Google and your users. Each option can be handled differently but the easiest option to me seems to be blocking the cart functionality if you don’t want people to buy from your site. This is common for religious practices where they are offline for the Shabbath once a week. They do not want customers to transact with their web site and earn money on the Shabbath. But some webmasters want to take the whole site offline and offer a warning, such as an interstitial or pop-up with an explanation on why the site is not accessible. Google told those who were worried about this that interstitials for religious purposes are within their acceptable use guidelines. These sites won’t or shouldn’t be hit by the Google interstitials penalty in this case. When doing this, John Mueller said “the server should return a 503 HTTP result code (“Service Unavailable”).” “The 503 result code makes sure that Google doesn’t index the temporary content that’s shown to users. Without the 503 result code, the interstitial would be indexed as your website’s content,” he added. Same with turning off the site, but also add these tips to your to do list:
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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:Local & Maps
Link Building
Searching
SEO
The post SearchCap: Google Assistant, local finder test & Bing hospital finder appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2mDTsH2 It’s not enough to build a martech stack… you’ve got to build the right stack for your organization. Strategy, efficiency, integration, and resources all play significant roles in martech stack decisions. Join martech expert Matt Heinz and Linda West, Act-On’s Senior Director of Marketing Services and Operations, as they discuss the stack-building challenges facing marketers and provide practical solutions for how to build the ultimate martech stack for your business. Register today for “Build Your Ultimate Martech Stack” produced by Digital Marketing Depot and sponsored by Act-On Software. The post [Reminder] Upcoming webinar — Build Your Ultimate Martech Stack appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2lgUmZ4 Google is rolling out the Google Assistant to more devices. The announcement coincides with the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, Spain. Currently available on the Pixel smartphone, Android Wear, Google Home and its messaging app Allo, it will soon be available on Android 6.0 and 7.0 devices. Google Assistant is essentially an AI-powered successor to voice search. Google Assistant aspires to be conversational and go beyond simple voice query input and text-to-speech playback. However most users won’t see a dramatic difference between Google Assistant and voice search today. As third party services and transactions (“actions“) are increasingly integrated, Google Assistant experiences could become very different vs conventional search. A recent survey by Stone Temple Consulting found that the majority of users (60 percent) wanted more “direct answers” without having to visit another website. In other words, “answers not links.” This desire/request and Google’s effort to fulfill it will have significant implications for SEO and third party exposure in search results. Google says the rollout will start this week to the US market, followed by UK, Canada, Australia and Germany. More countries and languages will be added “in the coming year.” Virtual assistants are starting to become a critical battleground for Google, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon. We’re likely to see accelerating development of these services as a differentiator for devices that are increasingly hard to differentiate on the basis of hardware alone. The post Google Assistant to roll out across newer smartphones appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2lMRu9D New businesses need all the help they can get to attract customers, generate revenue and establish themselves to compete with existing companies. And for brick-and-mortar storefronts, being found on Google Maps is key to driving traffic to the business. Due to the economic explosion in the Plano and Frisco suburbs of Dallas, opening of new local stores is rampant. New commercial developments are being built and filled with shops within a matter of months. This growth also provides the ability to make some interesting Google Map search observations, as comparisons can be made between stores with similar attributes. I’ll take a look at new restaurants located in the map area below. It’s a less-than-one-mile stretch of a busy road running north to south. The east side of Preston Road is substantially built out and has many established businesses and restaurants that have been there for several years. The west side of Preston Road is very new — all five restaurants there opened between summer and fall of 2016, with one more slated to open this spring. As you can see, there is a marked difference in Google Map search results for the established restaurants (on the right) compared to the new restaurants (on the left — yep, you can’t see them except for one red dot). Yet one of those new restaurants is consistently listed in Google Map results for the search term “restaurants” while the other four are not. Below, I compare the online presence of these businesses to figure out why one shows up in results when the others don’t, and I provide five tips on how you can put your brick-and-mortar business on the map even being the new kid on the block. The importance of Google Maps to Local SearchEighty-four percent of consumers perform a search for local businesses. It’s no secret that mobile’s on-the-go capability is key to local search, and nearly a third of all searches performed on mobile devices are related to location. And that number is growing — local search on mobile is growing 50 percent faster than general mobile search. Google controls 95 percen of mobile search market share. Even if you use Safari on your iPhone to search for “coffee shops near me,” Google’s snack pack results and map show up. According to comScore’s 2016 US Mobile App Report, Google Maps overtook the Google Search app for fourth place in number of unique visitors with over 95 million users. It trails only Facebook, Messenger and YouTube in unique visitors. That means appearing in Google map results is critical for local businesses. Local search results in Google automatically pull up with a map in the snack pack, and clicking on the request for more places takes you to a Google map based results page. With 90 percent of purchases still happening offline in stores, showing up in Google Map search results is critical to local businesses being found. The Google Maps problem facing new storefrontsYou type your business name into Google Maps, and a nice red pin shows up marking your business in the right spot, and the knowledge graph with your business profile information and reviews is accurate and complete. That means searches in a local map area that match your business category will list you in results now, right? Not always, especially if you are a new business. There seems to be a perception among SMBs that searches in Google Maps are different than those utilizing the Google search box. It makes sense and is partially true. The intent apparent through a search for restaurants located within a defined geographic area is much more targeted, and thus the results are pared down significantly from a similar search box query that might result in millions of “results.” But the belief that every restaurant on the map will show up on the list of results at some point if you kept scrolling is misplaced. If a user hits the “next” button for more results (PC) or continues scrolling down (mobile), Google Maps often zooms out and leaves the area of original search, instead providing search results from a broader geographic area. So in my restaurant example, some within the map area are omitted from search results in favor of restaurants up to five miles away. What made one new business shine on Google MapsNew businesses have it especially tough. About 50 percent of local search ranking factors are related to third-party recognition and interaction with your business. And because we’re talking local search, broad traditional brand reputation even from national franchise brands has limited or even negligible impact. In fact, of the five new restaurants I’m about to compare, all but one have many other locations, and the one new restaurant that consistently showed up in search results on Google Maps has the second fewest locations. The restaurants I compare are all on the same side of the road (west) within a 1/2 mile of each other and that opened within a five-month period between July and November of 2016. I did not include Menchie’s, a frozen yogurt store. The restaurants are:
Each of these restaurants has claimed their business profile, provides similar information in their knowledge graphs and has a material number of reviews. I was able to rule out the following Google profile factors as influencing ranking or impacting appearance in search results: dining style, restaurant or business category, number of months in business, number of Google reviews, quality of reviews and images included in the profile. Thus, it seems the difference lies in external signals to Google. In a search performed in a map area along a one-mile stretch of Preston Road that includes all five of these restaurants, only Lazy Dog appeared on the map as a red dot or icon in search results. If I zoomed in, the other restaurants eventually would appear, but as orange icons instead of red. Some never showed up until I was practically on top of them in the map. Those restaurants in red icons show up in the list of results that displays when the search is performed (I minimized the list in the above screen shots). Those in orange did not show up on the list. Instead, other more established restaurants, even farther away, appeared as I scrolled down. Each listing contains useful information for making decisions such as food type, rating and reviews, a short description and hours of operation. Thus, showing up in the search result listing is a big advantage. Here’s what made the difference for Lazy Dog Restaurant in appearing on the map and in the list even as a new restaurant. These lessons should apply to any business with a storefront that appears in Google Maps. 1. Claim your third-party listing profiles and make sure the information listed is accurate and completeSometimes it’s easy to forget that Google considers third-party data, even when it has first-hand data from you about your own business. I Googled the restaurant names to see what showed up on their SERP (search engine results page) to find what third-party data Google sees or finds. One of the page one SERP results for Lazy Dog is its TripAdvisor page with 20 reviews. Grub Burger Bar had individual TripAdvisor reviews show up in search results, but not its main TripAdvisor listing. The TripAdvisor listing is unclaimed, even though there are 15 reviews, and Trip Advisor categorizes Grub Burger Bar as a bar and not a restaurant. The one restaurant that performed consistently worst in my tests also had not claimed its Yelp profile, TripAdvisor profile or Community Impact (a local newspaper) profile, all of which showed up on page one of its SERP. Inconsistencies in information or neglecting listings from authoritative sites will hurt the strength of your Google listing. 2. Post frequently on FacebookFacebook is a valuable signal to Google, with each restaurant’s Facebook page appearing on the first page of its respective Google SERP. Since its opening in November 2016, which makes it the newest restaurant on this list, Lazy Dog has posted a picture and a short comment on its location-specific Facebook page promoting a special offer, a dish, a drink, an event or a (usually furry) guest every single day. That kind of fresh content and engagement is a positive online signal to Google of the restaurant’s relevance and potential interest to searchers. The one restaurant that did not have an active Facebook page consistently performed worst in the test searches I conducted. Others had fairly regular posts if sometimes inconsistent in frequency. But my tests showed that as a new business, weekly or even biweekly posts may not help enough. 3. Create location-specific contentOwners of businesses with multiple locations may believe that brand reputation as a whole helps boost search ranking of individual locations. While it might help in other areas, it does not seem to be helpful for local search. A search for Lazy Dog Plano returns results that are almost all specific to the Plano location (with the exception of one other Yelp result). Similar searches on the other restaurants returned noticeably more results on other locations. Thus, make sure that there’s plenty of online content that consistently mentions specific location information. For example, a restaurant can create location-specific content on sites with online menus or third-party ordering platforms. Or better, get local media to write content about your location. 4. Make it easy for local media to write about your businessLazy Dog is the only establishment that has writeups from three well-known Plano media outlets that cover new restaurant openings. One of those writeups is also a more comprehensive article that tells a story and includes many high-quality photos. Writers for media publishers are busy and often appreciate both ideas for content and resources that help make writing fast and easy. Providing content, stories, quotes, interesting facts and pictures in a package that is easy to digest may help get you a better-written and more complete article about your business. 5. Go deep in building your online presenceGoogle searches can reveal whether your location’s online presence is robust or thin. Lazy Dog gets mentions of its Plano location six pages deep in SERPs. And none of them are as insignificant as a three-comment Reddit thread that appears on page one of another restaurant’s SERP. That’s evidence Google had few options in finding relevant information on the business — not what you want. If you look around, you’ll likely find opportunities to be mentioned online, usually for free. There are third-party listings aplenty. Do some searches on your competition and find out where they get mentioned online. Chambers of commerce, local government organizations that support business, community organizations, blogs, coupon sites, industry groups, local guides and publications all often are looking for content. Any mention of your business in content published by these groups will help much more than an expired Reddit thread. ClosingIt’s important for new businesses to get on the map quickly, both figuratively and literally. Most of the restaurants discussed above did a decent job building their online presence, boosting their Google listing and outperforming even some of the more established restaurants on the other side of the road. But they remained relatively obscure on Google Maps, and it is clear that with the right moves and some elbow grease, a strong online presence can be accelerated that will provide immediate returns in Google Map search results. And that superior visibility will serve a new business well in trying to establish itself. The post 5 ways you can improve your new business’s visibility on Google Maps appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2m31JrB According to the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), the publicly-funded national healthcare system has been working with Bing UK during the last year to improve search results for general practitioner and hospital queries. “Over the last year, we have collaborated with our friends at Bing to provide users with a comprehensive GP and hospital search experience,” reports a recent post on the NHS Choices blog. The NHS says that queries for “GP in [location]” on Bing UK will now surface a list of local options with information on specific locations, open times and user reviews – all data that has been pulled from the NHS. Clicking on a result will display more information for the GP’s office. The post Bing UK now displaying National Health Service data for GP & hospital search queries appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2lgHBxq It’s the end of the month, and that means it’s time for another edition of Greg’s Soapbox! Except this time, it’s not so much me standing on the soapbox and ranting; I’m more standing near it and politely providing helpful advice. Almost two years ago, I wrote a post here about using Google phone support if you had issues with Google My Business (yes, I’m not linking to the post on purpose). Depending on your particular keyword phrase when you search, that post usually ranks anywhere from #2 to #5 for any variation of “Google My Business support” — and it’s always the highest-ranking non-Google result. The problem is, while phone support supposedly still exists, it’s IMPOSSIBLE to get to anymore. And, since it’s the highest ranking non-Google answer, a ton of messages come through every month from people who are pointing out that the method in the post doesn’t work anymore. I wanted to write this month’s post and update everyone on the best way to get support for any problems you might be having with your Google My Business listing. We all know that Google My Business can be frustrating. All too often, the person with access leaves a company and doesn’t share that access. It’s incredibly difficult to get access to an account once it’s lost. You might need to update your address, or phone number, or uploaded photos. You’ll definitely need to reply to reviews. Without easily accessible phone support, it doesn’t appear that there are any alternative options. In reality, there’s a much better support option that most people don’t know about: Twitter support! Simply shoot a quick tweet over to @GoogleMyBiz, and their support team will jump on your request and help you out. When the service first rolled out, responses were incredibly quick. Now that more people know about it, you might have to wait up to 30 minutes for a response, but once you get a response, they’re amazingly fast at resolving your situation. They’ll ask you to send a Direct Message with full details of your situation, and in almost every situation, the issue will be resolved shortly thereafter. Big shoutout to Jared, who’s an absolute beast. I know there are other people on the team, but somehow he’s been the one to help with every request I’ve made in the last six months or so. It’s all US-based, Google employee-staffed support. They won’t follow any sort of script; they’ll simply ask for more details, then they’ll jump in and get you sorted out. If you haven’t used it yet, you need to try it — it’s amazing. The post Need to get with Google My Business support? Use Twitter! appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2lr0Buf An elderly man storms into his doctor’s office, steaming mad. “Doc, my new 22-year-old wife is expecting a baby. You performed my vasectomy 30 years ago, and I’m very upset right now.” “Let me respond to that by telling you a story,” the doctor calmly replies. “A hunter once accidentally left the house with an umbrella instead of his rifle. Out of nowhere, a bear surprised him in the woods … so the hunter grabbed the umbrella, fired, and killed the bear.” “Impossible,” the old man snaps back. “Someone else must have shot that bear.” “And there you have it,” the doctor says. Persuasion come from understandingAt the heart of things, persuasion is about your audience understanding what you’re communicating. Understanding leads to acceptance when the argument is sound, well-targeted, and the conclusion seems unavoidable. When it comes to creating effective understanding, analogies are hard to beat. Most of their persuasive power comes from the audience arriving at the intended understanding on their own. The doctor could have simply said that the old man’s wife had to be cheating on him. But the analogy allowed the cranky patient to come to that conclusion on his own, which is much more persuasive. Let’s take a second to make sure we’re all on the same page with analogies. It first helps to distinguish them from their close cousins, metaphor and simile. A metaphor is a figure of speech that uses one thing to mean another and makes a comparison between the two. A simile compares two different things in order to create a new meaning while using the words “like” or “as.” An analogy is comparable to a metaphor and simile in that it shows how two different things are similar, but it’s a bit more complex.
When you deliver an analogy, you demonstrate how two things are alike by pointing out shared characteristics (a hunter with an unloaded umbrella and an elderly man who is “firing blanks” sexually). The goal is to show that if two things are similar in some ways, they are similar in other ways as well. Let me give you an example of a killer persuasive analogy. It comes from that master of sophisticated rhetoric, Arnold Schwarzenegger. No, really. The Terminator analogySchwarzenegger is an advocate for renewable energy, both for California and the world at large. Given his celebrity status and prior political experience as Governor of California, he has quite the platform to share his views. Just over a year ago, Arnold published a piece on Facebook called I don’t give a **** if we agree about climate change. That provocative title set the stage for what could be called a “terminator” analogy, in the sense that it puts any intellectually honest person in an inescapable box that supports the conclusion Schwarzenegger wants you to arrive at. First, Arnold says forget whatever you think about climate change. He goes so far as to say that climate change deniers can assume that they’re right. He then turns to the facts of the here and now:
Then, Arnold turns to an analogy that illustrates his argument in a very personal way:
Talk about putting someone in a box — literally. By sidestepping the controversy over climate change and making the outcome of exposure to fossil fuel emissions a matter of personal life or death, Arnold likely changed the minds of more than a few reasonable people. Now, this is the internet. So, I’m sure some people simply refuse to be swayed no matter what, and some trolls probably said they’d rather choose the deadly Door Number One than do anything perceived as good for the environment. Well, there is a way to set up a real-life demonstration of this analogy if anyone’s interested. Why marketing analogies work like a charmI shared Schwarzenegger’s analogy because it’s a brilliant example. But keep in mind that unlike with contentious social issues, your prospects want you to convince them. If someone has a problem they want solved or a desire they want fulfilled, they want to find a solution. If they’re currently a part of your audience, they want you to be the solution. That means they want to understand why you’re the best choice. Which means they want to be persuaded. And that’s the essence of content marketing strategy. Tell your particular who exactly what they need to hear, exactly how they need to hear it. The right analogy, at the right time, told the right way, may be exactly what they need to do business with you … And there you have it. The post The Persuasive Power of Analogy appeared first on Copyblogger. via Copyblogger http://ift.tt/2l40oAQ Google is now testing a new format for their local search results on mobile when bringing up the Google Maps local finder. The new results are not in a vertical list view but rather a horizontal card style view. The card style view requires you swipe the cards horizontally to see more local results. This is different from the natural scroll up and down for the list view. Mike Blumenthal published a GIF of this in action: I am personally not able to replicate this but Google is frequently testing Google Maps and local finder search interfaces. This one is one of the more extreme tests. The post Google local finder tests cards with horizontal scroll for map search results appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2m2oKuJ |
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