Hiring a skilled SEO consultant is critical for modern business success.

SEO is arguably the most important of all digital marketing channels for an online business.

Until your SEO is right and search engines are serving you for your target keywords your brand will lack visibility and authority and you will have to rely on paid search advertising to get traffic.

Relying on paid search advertising can feel like running on a hamster wheel. Although you can pay money and get clicks, optimizing a campaign and closing leads and making sales through paid clicks isn’t automatic and it requires analysis and fine-tuning to be profitable. The analysis and tweaks costs add up over time, and once you stop paying – you’re done. No more traffic.

Social Media Marketing can work for some businesses but most e-commerce and local businesses especially with local searchers searching for actionable information regarding local services are not going to discover answers to their questions from a social media profile. It’s usually going to be a website.

Search engine optimization is part art, part science, with thousands of factors going into the mechanics of what page makes one-page rank higher than another, it’s important to have an experienced SEO consultant or SEO agency with data-backed decision making and expertise to guide you.

Choosing the right type of online marketing to promote your business is unique for each business. Factors like what stage the business is in, short-term and long-term goals, the local market, and the online competitive landscape, will all play a role in which type of digital marketing the owner chooses.

What is an SEO Consultant?

An SEO consultant is an SEO specialist that offers SEO consulting services for businesses.

The role of an SEO consultant is to guide a business’s decision-making process and implementation of SEO tasks with the objective of yielding more search engine traffic and maximizing SEO strategies’ impact.

What do Search Engine Optimization Consultants Do?

The ultimate goal of hiring SEO specialists is to increase top-of-funnel organic traffic for targeted keywords that bring in revenue for businesses. This is typically done by:

Increasing the Number of Keywords a Site Ranks For

You want to increase the total volume of keywords a site ranks for. Ranking for 10 keywords will be tough for a business to squeeze profit out of. On the other hand – ranking for 10,000 keywords will provide more traffic and brings us to:

Identifying Keywords that Drive Business and Formulating a Strategy To Rank Them

Following up on the point above – a business owner needs to work on keywords that have commercial intent and can earn business online. A local business not targeting actionable keywords or blogging about any old local thing are missing out on the point of search engine optimization – to drive ACTIONABLE, COMMERCIAL business via search engines.

Improving the Position of Ranking Keywords (First Page Rankings)

Once commercial keywords are identified you can then begin working on improving their positions moving them up the rankings from whatever page they start on, on up through Page 3, Page 2, the bottom of Page 1 to the top of Page 1.

SEO is a long journey with top of Page 1 keyword rankings being the final destination.

SEO Consultant Responsibilities

The SEO consultant job description will vary from job to job and the specific needs of each company looking to hire their own SEO specialists. But ultimately you can expect the job description to contain some or all of the following regarding the process of SEO:

Working with an SEO Consultant – The Process

Keyword Analysis

Understanding and performing in-depth keyword research and analysis determines what keywords will bring traffic to a site, which will bring sales to a site, and how to target these keywords to create an influx of traffic and leads and/or sales.

Latent semantic indexing is a technology used by Google that analyzes not only targeted keywords, but the surrounding topics to determine the quality of a potential search result so hammering away on your top 3 keywords and keyword stuffing will most likely not get you where you want to be if you have decent competition.

Thorough keyword analysis and strategy is the basis of successful SEO consulting engagement.

Technical Audit

A technical SEO audit is a critical part of the SEO process because it helps identify any technical issues with a website that could be preventing crawlers from crawling the website, indexing content, or preventing the site from ranking well.

Some common technical SEO issues:

• Meta Robots NOINDEX Set
• No HTTPS Security
• Missing or Incorrect Robots.txt
• No XML Sitemaps
• Canonical URL Issues
• Multiple Versions of the Homepage
• Broken Links
• Slow Website Loading Speed
• Poor Mobile Experience
• Rel=Canonical Errors
• Missing Meta Title Tags & Meta Descriptions Tags
• Indexing Issues
• Problematic HTML Markup

This is just a tiny sample of potential technical issues and ultimately each of these can result in the website not being crawlable, not being crawled properly, and pages not being indexed for desired keywords, thus rendering you invisible to the internet.

Through an in-depth technical SEO audit you can discover opportunities to improve the mechanics of your website and earn more organic search engine traffic.

Onsite Audit

The term “onsite” in regards to SEO is typically referring to the website content:

• Do you have the right pages onsite to rank for desired keywords?
• Do you have the related keywords onsite?
• Is there a content marketing strategy in place or are articles and pages being published all willy-nilly with no plan or strategy involved?
• Site Structure

These are all critical elements to examine on site. A skilled SEO consultant will be able to spot issues with your onsite fast and formulate a strategy with actionable tasks, based on your unique landscape, to tweak or generate pages that will bring you more online visibility.

Competitor Analysis

Above I mentioned “your unique landscape” and how we don’t do basic “gold”, “silver” and “bronze” packages. This is because your entire strategy and plan of attack should be based on your competitors. To shorten the time it takes to rank you must:

Examine Competitor Content

• What are they ranking for?
• What keywords have volume?
• What keywords are keywords that would drive sales?
• What supporting content do they have on site?
• How much content do they have onsite?
• How much content are they publishing monthly?

Examine Competitor Onsite

• Site layout: How is the site laid out visually?
• How is the website content structured?
• What is the URL structure?
• What are the meta titles and descriptions?
• What schema is being used?
• How are they interlinking pages?
• What pages are in the navigation?

These are all super important issues that dictate how search engine spiders crawl pages, how authority flows through pages, what pages rank for desired terms, and how link juice flows through the site. Expert SEO consultants can help guide you through understanding your competitive landscape and help to make the best decision on how to proceed for your business.

Backlinks Analysis

Link building aka off site SEO is key to building the authority of a website. You must conduct a backlink audit:

• How many backlinks does the competitor site have?
• How is the competitors overall backlink profile?
• What pages are getting links?
• Are they quality backlinks or low-quality links?
• What’s the DR of the incoming links?
• What sites is the competitor getting backlinks from?
• What is the backlinks anchor text?
• How many backlinks per month?
• Are they doing press releases and public relations?

The backlink profile of a website has a lot to do with how a site ranks so the above are all very important aspects that need to be identified.

Search engine optimization is part science, part art, but having a clear idea of what a competitor is doing for their link building will not only provide an idea of how you should tackle your own link building but how to make it cleaner and more effective to rank ASAP. SEO consultants can help paint this picture and make the process and strategy clear for you.

SEO Strategy

Once all the data from the elements above is gathered, you can then formulate an SEO strategy. Typically an SEO strategy is focused more on what you will do based on opportunities afforded by competitors and what order to attack tasks.

SEO Implementation

The order in which you attack tasks can be the difference between a rockstar campaign and a campaign that gets shut down because the owner didn’t see value in how the project was progressing.

Each campaign will have different objectives and therefore will have different means to meet objectives. It’s important to have swift and skillful implementation as search engine optimization is very tech-focused so implementing something haphazardly will yield weak results. Strong attention to detail for implementation and analysis is essential for successful SEO campaigns.

SEO Reporting

In SEO, monthly reporting is how you convey progress. You want to get periodical reporting showing increases in:

• Google Search Console Organic Visibility (Impressions)
• Google Analytics Organic Traffic
• Form Fills & Leads Generated
• Time Onsite & Pages Visited
• Number of Keywords a site ranks for
• Target Keywords Positions
• Brand Searches & Direct Traffic

Highlighting strategic SEO wins along the way is important as it shows you are moving down the intended path to achieve your search marketing goals.

What Does it Take to Become an SEO Expert?

What does it take to become an SEO expert? This is a great question. I think an SEO expert must be tried and tested in the field, understands how the Google Algorithm works and has maintained success through multiple Google Algorithm updates. Not only just being able to talk about theory, but actually producing desired results, and rectifying negative impact from Google updates.

The sad fact is that search engine optimization has received a bad reputation because of the number of charlatans in the industry. To be a true SEO expert requires passion, years of dedication, unpaid hours of uncovering layers of information, reading Google white papers, understanding and mastering SEO tools, Google updates, and finally – how to put it all together. An expert SEO has a natural inclination for discovering how things work and becomes obsessed with using these machines for their own benefit.

Are SEO Consultants Worth It?

Yes. Very much so.

When it comes to ranking factors and what it takes to rank higher, we barely scratched the surface above.

Add an element of “it depends” to every situation and search engine optimization SEO is an endless series of unique situations that for an amateur at best can lead to an endless sequence of questions and analysis paralysis, and at worst actually negatively affect rankings and possibly de-indexing your website.

From the very foundation of a search engine optimization project from the keyword research to the content creation to the off site, hiring an SEO consultant for their expert advice and past experience will yield better results for your business.

Whether you have a full-time employee you think can handle SEO, or a traditional marketing team you think can handle the SEO, SEO is really a beast of it’s own and it’s critical you have a true SEO expert on your side with the required skills and past experience to know how to execute an effective SEO campaign for your business website.

Does SEO Really Work?

Yes, SEO really works.

Millions of local businesses rely on local SEO for lead generation and to bring in streams of potential clients and new customers consistently.

Millions of media organizations rely on SEO to optimize their websites to rank at the top of search engine results pages to earn the clicks and traffic to get the volume of traffic needed for advertisers to advertise on their website.

Millions of ecommerce websites rely on SEO to increase sales in competitive online marketplaces and drive sales from searches on search engines.

In all these instances, SEO is needed to remain competitive in competitive search results.

Working with an SEO Consultant for Website Redesign & Digital Marketing Success

If you’re creating a new website for your business it’s important to hire an SEO consultant or have a competent SEO on your marketing team review the new website and ensure that you don’t kill your rankings when you hit go live.

In addition, there are specific elements that need to be intact for different types of websites:

Local Brick & Mortar Businesses

• Mobile-friendliness
• Schema
• Service page setup
• Passing core web vitals
• Great user experience

Service Area Businesses

• Service area pages
• Hyperlocal SEO with Neighborhoods & Local Landmarks
• Schema
• Mobile-friendliness
• Optimized for conversion

E-commerce Businesses

• Choose a website design that complements the type of searchers that search for your products. Some products learn towards a desktop searcher while some lean towards a mobile searcher.
• A Canonical URL strategy to minimize duplicate content
• A handful of other technical SEO factors that are specific to ecommerce websites

Enterprise SEO

Enterprise SEO is a different beast. A small mistake can cost millions of dollars in lost revenue. Your in-house marketing teams may not have the skill needed for a project of this level of importance hiring an SEO consultant with enterprise experience is super important to make sure you maintain and improve the existing SEO of the website.

Multi-location SEO

• Multiple City Pages
• Schema
• Local Phone Number for Each Location Onsite
• Local Optimized Copy
• A Locations page with all locations address and phone numbers

How Long Does it Take to See Results in the Search Engines from SEO?

There are a few levers that SEO pulls on to drive traffic:

• Impressions
• Rankings
• Traffic
• Conversions

The level of actual traffic you see will vary based on keyword targeting, competitors, and the specific strategy you choose to go with but in general, you should see rankings and impressions improvements within 3 months of making changes to your website.

Do You Offer Ongoing SEO Consulting Services?

Yes. We work with companies in different capacities:

Strictly SEO Consulting

Larger size companies tend to have their own team in place. We do enterprise SEO with enterprise companies and this tends to be:

• Analysis
• Strategy
• Managing Implementation

Complete Outsourced CMO

For local businesses and e-commerce businesses we can work on purely SEO, or what tends to happen most often, is that we take on more of an outsourced CMO role, managing the entire digital marketing process from A to Z doing not only SEO consulting, but strategy and implementation including Paid Search, Social Media Management, and Email marketing.

How Much Does it Cost to Hire an SEO Consultant?

SEO consultant’s costs can vary there is no standard pricing and it depends on the type of work you need to be done.

How Much Do Your SEO Consulting Services Cost?

If you hired us for a year-long engagement our SEO services and consulting start at $48,000 a year and can go up into the 100’s of thousands of dollars depending on your competition and your goals.

One thing about our SEO consulting services is that we do not offer cookie-cutter packages.

Quite frankly companies that offer cookie-cutter gold, silver, and bronze type packages tend to not be the most effective.

Impactful SEO requires a custom SEO strategy based specifically on your business and its competitors.

There are so many elements of SEO that your strategy needs to be dialed – from your keyword strategy to your onsite strategy, to your content strategy, to your link-building strategy.

To be truly impactful this must be based on your competitors – not a blind package-based approach.

Let me repeat that again:

To be truly impactful this must be based on your competitors – not a blind package-based approach.

What Kind of Companies Do You Work With?

Any and all companies that need search engine presence.

Digital marketing and search optimization are here to stay. As expert SEO consultants with over 15 years of professional experience, with both in-house and agency experience we know the in’s and out’s of the industry, the latest search engine algorithm updates, the latest SEO software, and tools and SEO best practices and I can help you dominate the search engines for your targeted keywords in any industry, guiding your to have a better understanding, and make better decisions for your unique market and goals.

Whether a new company, a startup, or an established business I, an expert SEO consultant with 15 years of professional experience, can help you increase your online visibility, leads, and sales from organic traffic to your website.

The post Hire an Expert Organic SEO Consultant – Mark Fabela appeared first on SEO Los Angeles - Formula Internet.

To get organic site traffic, you will need to understand the concept of search engine optimization. A good SEO ranking will place you on the front line for visibility when people search for related content. 

Voice search SEO keeps your website visible despite the global shift towards voice search, and this article will teach you exhaustively on how to optimize for voice search.

Definition of Google Voice Search

Google voice search is one of the products of Google lab that is activated by voice command. It is powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and allows users to search by speaking instead of typing. 

To activate the Google voice search, you simply say “OK Google” or tap the mic icon on your Google search bar and speak. The features of Google voice search are limitless and can range from typical internet search to Google assistance, which is the reason many people use it.

Available voice command programs

Optimizing for local SEO and “near me” searches will also bring more traffic through voice assistants. You will now learn about Google Home, Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and Microsoft Cortana.

Google Assistant

This voice assistant from Google reached great strides since its launch in 2016. During that time, it was an extension of Google Now. The original design was that the latter is assigned to retrieve information from the search engine while the former gets the user’s commands and replies to him. Google Now has been retired; however, its function has been combined with Google Assistant and various accessible devices.

To activate the Google Assistant feature, all you have to do is start your command with “OK, Google” or “Hey, Google.” After that, you can ask it to tell the weather, look for music to play, and even how to learn the coronavirus situation in your area.

Google recently launched a special markup that would enable various websites to be visible for voice assistant programs. The program is called “speakable,” and it can be used repeatedly throughout the site to help your content reach voice assistant users. You can find out how to use it through Google’s guide here.

Amazon Alexa

Alexa, also known as the Alexa Voice Service, is Amazon’s voice command program. You can activate it by starting a sentence with its name. It is designed as a cloud-based program that intelligently recognizes voices and makes use of natural language processing.

Several features make it unique. Unlike other voice-activated programs, you can set its wake word to “Computer” or “Echo” when needed. Aside from that, it can be used through various smart home products such as Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, and Fire TV.

One of the many ways you can be noticed more through this voice assistant is to aim your company’s products to be featured on Amazon’s Choice program. They will choose it based on the product’s price, rating, reviews, and shipping speed. Aside from that, being on Amazon Prime or the Seller Fulfilled Prime program will give you a chance for it to be chosen.

Apple’s Siri

Originally introduced at the launch of the Apple iPhone 4S, this voice assistant has been in use through Apple devices since the 4S’s launch. It is known as a built-in voice program that can help you by sending a message to set appointments on your device’s calendar. This feature is the company’s wireless, hands-free option for its users.

As it is embedded in each Apple device, it has access to all applications installed with it. Activating it is as simple as saying the phrase “Hey Siri” before searches or commands or tapping the Home button on some Apple devices. Aside from essential functions, it can also follow silly instructions.

Increasing your chance of being spotted on Siri involves listing your business onto Apple Maps Connect. Aside from that, make sure that your business has lots of reviews on sites such as Yelp.

Microsoft Cortana

Cortana is the youngest voice command service on the list. It was introduced to the public with the release of Windows 10 in 2015. Since then, it is also accessible across Android and iOS Smartphones. As of 2018, more than 148 million people were using this service.

Most first-time users of this product encounter Cortana once they open a Windows 10 device for the first time. After that, it is next to the search bar with a circle icon. Most commands can make use of any applications installed within the operating system, including those from Microsoft Office. It can be activated by clicking the ring-shape or enabling the “Hey Cortana” voice command.

Being seen by Cortana involves listing your business in Bing Places. Doing this will help you gain a slice of the 20% market share for desktop web searches for your business.

Using Keyword Research for Voice Search

Depending on what your business is, your keyword research approach will be different. However, the voice search SEO strategy is not very different from the regular SEO keyword research. 

• Like standard SEO, you need to look for related content history―what do people search for using hey Siri, or Google
• Make a new list of keywords by fitting them into question tag modifiers like who, are, could, when, is, which, and more
• After organizing this list, remove the adjectives that do not describe your brand from the keywords list
• Do a test run and see how the keywords work on voice search, then make edits and repeat

Reasons for Voice Search Popularity

There are many reasons why people use voice search, but the first reason anyone can give is convenience. It is quite similar to messaging applications where you send voice messages rather than type out long words. 

Easier and Faster

An average human speaks up to 150 words a minute but can type just about 40 words in the same duration. With voice searching, you can quickly say what they need and find it within the same time it takes to type it. 

Convenient and Appropriate

The ease of using voice search makes it quite convenient. It is also perfect during multitasking operations to simply activate it on voice command and get results on the go. Another perk of voice searching is the conversational process of searching. For example, if you search for a person, you can simply continue using pronouns, and the results will be related to the initial search.

Compatible for Mobile Devices

Unlike during the onset of voice searching, most mobile devices use voice search currently. Lately, it is more difficult to find a smart device that doesn’t have a voice assistant than one that has.

Difference between Voice Search and Traditional Search

Taking out the hassle of typing does not change too much with search engine optimization(SEO). Most of what it affects stems from the ease and specificity of talking. Another factor that stimulates difference is Google’s need to work optimally.

 So, while your page may have the best keywords on the net, if it is not human friendly, it reduces the chances of being seen on voice search results.

• Keywords for voice search are longer, natural and more conversational
• Voice search prioritizes local listings
• Results from voice search are direct

Strategies to Optimize Personal Content for Voice Search

Because voice search plays a crucial role in digital marketing in 2020, it is necessary to be able to optimize your content to be featured in its results. If you already use SEO practices, then you just have to make a few tweaks. However, if you haven’t started using SEO, you have a lot of adjustments to prepare for your page to be optimized for voice search results.

Make use of featured snippets

If you have been doing SEO for a while now, you already know the importance of featured snippets. They are displayed below the page title as a concise description of your product or an answer to a question (Meta description). With them, users can easily see if they will move further to open your page or not.

Another factor with snippets is that it takes less time for Google to sort through the volume of data on your page, so it will be easier to display your page first.

Restructure your content to be direct

Like with snippets, short, immediate answers will be picked over wordy content. Voice search is conversational, so materials that answer a question or lists are displayed first because of directness.

An easy way to optimize this is like keywords, use frequently asked questions (FAQs) on your page. Also, ensure the answers are direct so they can be optimized for snippets on voice search.

Content should be easy to comprehend

A good readability score is a no brainer with SEO. The more readable your content is, the higher the stakes are of being featured in voice search. Always aim for a readability score above 50% and a natural language tone.

Content should have a conversational tone

Since voice assistants are conversational, they will display content that fits the same note. Some helpful tips to optimize the tone of your page content for an excellent voice search SEO ranking include:

• Taking note of frequently asked questions related to your content
• Note the question style or tone
• Figure out the best answers to those queries
• Research the materials that are thriving as results for such questions
• Organize your content based on the data you get

Note long-tail keyword phrases 

With manual search, a shorter keyword works best because typing is tasking. However, because of the conversational nature of voice search, people use fillers in keywords when searching. Using long-tail keywords makes your page more visible on voice search results.

A keyword like voice search SEO will work better than how does voice search transform digital marketing for a manual search. But the reverse is the case for a voice search optimization.

Enhance your websites loading time 

If you have used a voice assistant before, you will note that replies are speedy and upbeat. If your site takes too long to load, it will be omitted from voice queries. Some ways to can optimize your site speed for voice searches includes:

• Reduce redirects as much as possible
• Use HTTPS instead of HTTP because secure pages are usually picked first
• Try using a Content Delivery Network

The bottom line is, speed doesn’t affect just voice search optimization; a slow page will have higher bounce rates.

Focus on mobile devices 

One of the main reasons why voice search is thriving is simply due to mobile compatibility. If your page does not function optimally on mobile devices, it will be more difficult to find on the voice search result.

To optimize for voice search SEO, try to make sure your page and its content are as mobile-friendly as possible.

Write extensive content

Google tends to pick answers from pages with more comprehensive information. The reason is that more content makes it easy for Google to find what matches a query than less content.  A helpful tip is to go for content above 1000 words with concise sentences.

The more information found in your content, the easier it is to see it among voice search results.

Request Google My Business Listings 

People already use voice for “near me” searches. If your business is featured on Google my business listings, it will increase the possibility of being found by locals. 

Another approach you can take is to use location-specific keywords through your article to improve discoverability. Optimizing your page for voice search helps if it is featured on google my business as one of the local establishments.

Include details like contact information, name, and address in text on your page so that it can be displayed as a snippet readily.

Endeavor to test it

A rule of thumb is to test anything that will bring you money or cost you money. Testing is quite easy, activate your device or a friend’s device and try using voice command to search for your keywords or title.

If you don’t make the first page of voice search results, take note of what came up first and pick pointers from it

The Bottom Line

The world is tending towards voice search, and you need to flow with the tide for an optimally functioning page. It is wise to start optimizing your page for voice search now because soon enough, the competition will be high, and you may be outshined and lose the top page among search results.

Meta Description: The world is steering toward the use of voice command applications, and voice search so here is an Ultimate guide for voice search optimization for business growth

The post Voice Search SEO – 11 Tips & Strategies on How to Optimize Your Website for Voice Search appeared first on SEO Los Angeles - Formula Internet.

With that in mind, businesses should jump into investing in being on top of voice searches. Doing this will help you as a business owner as it will strengthen your SEO strategy and rank for “near me” searches.

Today, you will learn how to optimize for “near me” searches and voice searches. This will be followed by four of the most common voice command programs. After that, there will be ten tips that you can use to optimize your website for “near me” searches and any local search results.

What is Local SEO?

Whether you own a family restaurant or a small apparel shop in your community, investing in local SEO is one of the best strategies to attract your target audience.

Local SEO is a search engine optimization strategy that makes sure that your local business is visible in local search results and maps. This is especially true for people who want to look for places near them through local search and “near me” searches. For businesses, investing in this is the first step to appear on “near me” searches.

Google’s algorithm has its proximity factor, which takes the searcher’s location when they search. This means that wherever you search on Google, it will change the search results. Let’s say anyone tries to search for a pizza restaurant around your neighborhood. If you own one yourself, it will show up in their results.

Benefits of optimizing for local SEO and “Near Me” Searches

There are various benefits when it comes to ranking your business information in search results for local SEO. They are the following:

• Gain snack pack traffic. This feature is available on Google. It is defined as a boxed area that displays the top 3 local business listings that are the most relevant in a search. Getting a spot here will help your website get 33% clicks from these results.
• Legitimize your presence as a business. It has been found that 71% of people who visit a local business for the first time look them up online to make sure of their address and phone number. This means that if you put your website up with information about your business, this will jumpstart your relationship with your customers and clients.
• Increase your chances of selling a product. Half of those who do a local search on their phone will head to a physical store within the day, according to the Search Engine Journal. With that in mind, keeping your website active through “near me” searches can help you get to your target sales goal for the day, month, and year.

How to optimize for “near me” searches

This section will then help you create a “near me” SEO strategy to help promote yourself among voice programs and “near me” searches.

List down possible voice searches and answer them

Usually, people make use of these voice programs to look up basic information about a person, item, or business. With that in mind, you should list your business information on your website. Doing this will make sure “near me” Google searches such as “Where is the nearest pizza restaurant,” “what time does it open,” and “call their phone number.”

Write down possible searches in a casual tone

A strategy on how to target “near me” keywords is to rank towards natural questions. There is a difference between how people enter through their phones or PCs compared to what they want to search from a search engine. Creating content that answers straightforward and natural questions, such as learning the name, address, and opening hours of your business, will be a stepping stone towards how to rank for “near me” searches.

Have your business listed on digital maps

Appearing in Google “near me” searches can start from listing information about your business onto various digital maps. For example, if you know a local listing or app that compiles all the local shops in your area, make sure to add your name, address, and business page to it.

Reorganize your website’s links efficiently

Voice assistants find the information their users want through sifting through search engines for the closest answer to the question. However, if your website contains broken links, unused pages, and outdated information, they will be used as their search results. These should be reorganized as often as possible to keep your website relevant and increase your ranking while making sure that your most popular pages are linked in the top-level navigation.

Pro Tip: Speaking of including pages in top-level navigation, include your FAQ page with the FAQ schema in this navigation. Doing this will help make your website easy for crawlers to discover.

Optimize for a local audience

Ranking for “near me” searches includes being visible on various local search results, including Yelp, local bloggers, local social media pages, and local influencer instagrams. This can be done by simply posting your business name, address, and phone number on your web pages. Make sure to have your business address in the footer of your website so that it shows up on every page, and also in the body of your contact us page. Aside from that, you should create content about your local neighborhood and add “near me” inside the article for a rank boost.

Pro Tip: Use Local Business Schema Markup to markup your business address for added power and likelihood in attaining voice search and “near me” search traffic.

Include a frequently asked questions (FAQs) page on your website

A frequently asked questions (FAQ) page is defined as a page that contains information about a company that its usual visitors might ask. Creating one will also help various voice command programs to retrieve valuable information from your website.

Pro tip: Make use of the FAQ schema markup on this page on your website. Doing this will help crawlers and voice assistant programs spot your business information faster. Read about how it works here.

Add your website to Google My Business

Google My Business is a listing program where business owners can list their business information for their past, present, and future customers. Regularly updating this entry will help your company rank high in local searches. This will also help people find your business for “near me” results as Google My Business is your Maps Pack results. 

Invest in options that would load the website faster

This strategy is one of the best investments a company would have when it comes to how to optimize for “near me” searches. Page loading times in voice search results have an average of 4.8 seconds and usually come up with one answer to a voice command. With that in mind, business owners should perform SEO audits and update their websites regularly. Doing this will help optimize the website and make it mobile-friendly for all its viewers in the future.

Rank high in search engines

Aside from the tips mentioned earlier, there is an identifier for websites that rank high in search “near me” results. This is known as a domain score, which is based on its authority and quality. You should keep a high ranking in any search engine used by voice assistant programs for your company to show up in any “near me” search.

Invest in HTTPS

HTTPS is an acronym for “Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure.” It is one of the latest website technologies that aims to create a secure, encrypted connection between your business website’s server to your visitors. Getting this for your website will encourage your visitors to visit it more often.

Let your business page be shown more often in social media searches

Voice assistant programs correlate high social media engagement when they search for their users. According to Backlinko’s study, the average search result has been shared 1,200 times over Facebook or 44 times over Twitter. This means that actively engaging through clients and customers over social media will increase the chance of the business being mentioned by any voice assistant program.

Mark your content using the speakable markup

Google recently launched a special markup that would enable various websites to be visible for voice assistant programs. This is called “speakable,” and it can be used repeatedly throughout the website to help your content reach voice assistant users. You can find out how to use it through Google’s guide here.

Put your products on Amazon’s Choice program

One of the many ways you can be noticed more through this voice assistant is to aim your company’s products to be featured on Amazon’s Choice program. They will choose it based on the product’s price, rating, reviews, and shipping speed. Aside from that, being on Amazon Prime or the Seller Fulfilled Prime program will give you a chance for it to be chosen.

List your business on Apple Maps Connect

Increasing your chance of being spotted on Siri involves listing your business onto Apple Maps Connect. Getting this listing requires you to have an Apple ID. If you have more than one branch, you can add these under the same ID. Aside from your name and address, you can list the working hours of each branch.

Be active on various review pages

Aside from that, make sure that your business is listed with lots of reviews on sites such as Yelp. Most voice assistant programs and search engines sift through them before referencing them on 

Add your business in Bing Places

Being seen by Cortana involves listing your business in Bing Places. Doing this will help you gain a slice of the 20% market share for desktop web searches for your business.

Include several inbound and internal links

Inbound links are defined as other credible pages that are related to the topic of your webpage. Doing this will help any of your pages gain credibility while benefiting said links to rank higher on their search results. Meanwhile, internal links are other pages on your website. Combining these two in highly engaging, interesting content for your visitors will increase your rank.

Pro tip: Make sure to add geographical anchor text in each of your pages. For example, if you are a business located in California, add context cues to become listed under search results such as “restaurant in California,” “women’s apparel in California,” and “rest stops in California.”

Sell your products on Amazon

Aside from getting into the Amazon’s Choice program, you can list your products on Amazon under your own name. Being listed and sold on Amazon can increase your product’s visibility in the platform, search results, and voice assistant searches. This will also help your customers review it themselves on the platform, thus hitting two SEO goals in one.

Make use of an online lookup tool to check your progress

Being visible online means checking how you look to your customers. One way to do this is to set up alerts on search engines such as Google or third-party services. Using these tools can help you decide which part of your online presence you should fix next: your reputation through reviews or spreading information such as your name, address, and contact numbers.

Conclusion

We hope this article helped you understand the importance of how to rank for “near me” searches, business websites, and voice command programs. All in all, these can help you make your website mobile-friendly, alert your customers in “are near me” searches and encourage customer reviews. Investing in local search SEO will help you and your business grow. Like and share this article if you think it’s helpful.

The post How to Optimize for “Near Me” Searches – 20 Tips for Near Me SEO Strategy appeared first on SEO Los Angeles - Formula Internet.

High-quality and consistent traffic flowing to your e-commerce website is what you should be aiming for right now. If you can get free organic traffic without paying for advertisements – the better!

SEO has everything to do with free organic traffic. This article offers priceless SEO tips that will equip you with all you need to know to get you started on your e-commerce venture.

What is E-commerce SEO?

You need to first understand what SEO means. SEO is the abbreviation for Search Engine Optimization. SEO is simply the process of getting free organic traffic directly from search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

This is when somebody goes to Google Search and enters a certain keyword(s). Google will scan the web and provide him/her with a list of results known as the search engine results page. The first page is usually the default page for most users and the results there get the highest number of traffic.

E-commerce SEO is all about optimizing your Shopify e-commerce website so that it is listed on the first page and even better, as the first result.

Why Shopify?

You’ve probably heard that Shopify is the recommended platform for hosting and building your very own Shopify store/website. This is mainly because Shopify comes with unique SEO features straight out of the box.

These features are:

Automatic sitemap creation

A sitemap simply shows how web pages are arranged and linked on your e-commerce website.

If you did this manually, then you’d have to be very careful and ensure that all your webpages are properly linked to one another. This might be a long and tiresome task. Shopify makes it easier for you by automatically updating the sitemap every time a new page or product is added. This means that all your webpages will be ready for indexing and ranking by search engines.

Shopify manages your robots.txt file

Robots.txt is a special file that tells search engine crawlers what pages to crawl and the pages not to crawl.

Unlike other platforms, Shopify automatically knows what pages need to be indexed and the pages that are supposed to remain hidden. This means you can’t make the mistake other shop owners are making and end up losing out on precious traffic simply because you did not add your pages to the robots.txt file.

Canonical URLs

Sometimes you’ll find it necessary to have multiple URLs for just one product. A good example is a cool T-shirt that is available in more than one color. This might cause problems with search engines that might see it as duplicate content and immediately punish the page with a low ranking.

Canonical URLs explain to Google that the multiple pages are copies of the original, and only the original page is viable for ranking.

Shopify automatically identifies and issues canonical URLs to multiple pages without you lifting a finger.

Does Shopify have good SEO?

Yes, Shopify is an SEO-friendly platform that will no doubt do a lot good for your e-commerce website. But again, this puts you on the same level as other store owners in an industry with a lot of competition.

I’m sorry to burst your bubble but if you are to comfortably compete with other stores for favorable ranking on SERPs, you’ll have to apply all of these SEO tips.

1. Optimize your homepage

You need to pay special attention to your homepage title and meta description because they are the first things a visitor sees on the search engine results page.

You can access these two features by going to your Online store>Preferences>Title and Meta description.

You need to use the right wording that will prompt the user to notice and engage with your store.

Having the right title and meta description will drastically boost your Click Through Ratio.

Let’s say your site is currently ranked 6th position on the search engine results page but many visitors are clicking and engaging with it. Google will surely notice and improve on your ranking.

The important thing is to make sure the wording stirs your visitor’s emotions prompting them to make a move. Including a Call-to-Action is not a bad idea.

2. Have an SEO friendly website structure

You need to make sure that your website is well structured and its content is well organized.

This is not only important when it comes to boosting your SEO score, but also to reduce your visitors’ bounce rate. If your pages and content are organized in a simple appealing manner then visitors are more likely to stay and engage with your website.

How do you do this?

Start by first identifying your main pages such as the home, products, about, and contact page. You can thereafter create categories and sub-categories for your products under the product page.

Remember to keep it clean and simple. Here is a good example of an efficient framework:

Homepage>products page>categories page>sub-categories page>product page

Such a simple but effective website structure makes it easier for search engine crawlers to explore and index your Shopify e-commerce website.

And always make sure that all your product pages are linked to the homepage. This makes it easier for visitors to navigate other pages if they happen to first land on the product page.

You can have a static navigation bar on top of your page with the main pages homepage, products, about, etc.

Oh, and don’t forget to add in a search bar.

3. Optimize your website loading speed

A slow website scares away visitors and chances are they’ll never come back. If your website takes more than 5 seconds to load a page then you need to optimize it fast!

• Start off with a fast simple and smartphone-friendly theme
• Uninstall all apps that are not in use
• The smaller your images are the better. Use tools like TinyPNG to compress them
• Don’t use sliders on your website

The faster and responsive your website, the higher search engines will rank it.

It also needs to look good on smartphones, desktops, tablets, and laptops. Search engines determine how User-friendly your site is by analyzing how long visitors stay on your site.

4. Do intensive keyword research

You don’t just build a website and start filling it with all sorts of content you feel is related to your niche or industry. This is a recipe for disaster because you might end up filling in content no one is interested in.

Start off by listing down 5 topics your customers might be interested in and are closely related to your business niche and product.

Just ask yourself this question, “If I were my customer what words would I use to search for my desired product on Google?”

You might want to check on Google’s and Amazon’s auto-suggest that tries to complete your sentences whenever you search for something. This will be of great help if you already have some keywords in mind. Just fill them in and the search engines will complete them using search queries your customers are currently using.

Long-tail keywords

Apart from one-word keywords, we also have long tail keywords that usually consist of 2-3 words.

The longer the keyword, the more specific it is. This results in low competition and higher conversation rates.

Keyword research tools

You can also use keyword research tools such as SMRush. These tools make it easier for you to identify the right keywords to use.

All you have to do is fill in a product name such as “iPhone”. The tool will scan all related keywords with that word and give you a list showing the number of queries made with that keyword and its competition.

Once you’ve come up with the list, go ahead and create content around your keywords.

5. Optimize all your product pages one at a time

Each product needs to have unique content lest you get penalized by search engines for duplicate content. With your list of deeply research keywords, you can go ahead and add flesh to those skeletons.

Start with pages that already have some traction so that you can maximize the traffic you are already getting. If yours is a brand new Shopify site, then the best page to start with would be your homepage.

Make sure that your keywords naturally blend with the page content. The flow must good and with just the right amount of keyword mentions to avoid being penalized for spammy content by search engines.

Make sure you include the focused keyword on the title tag and at the beginning of a paragraph.

6. Avoid publishing thin content

Thin content is any content that is shallow and doesn’t give any value to users.

Google crawlers usually scan your web pages and decide which keywords to rank your page with. The shorter the content, the slimmer your chances of getting higher rankings.

Long and relevant product descriptions not only work for search engines, but also for the benefit of your customers. After all, I’m sure they won’t mind some extra info.

7. Use the secure “https” instead of “HTTP”

Not long ago Google announced that secured websites have an added SEO advantage over non-secure websites.

How do you know if your Shopify e-commerce website is secure?

If your website address starts with a small lock followed by “https://” then it means your site is secured using SSL (secure socket layer). However, if yours is “http://” then you need to make arrangments and secure it.

Browers are now warning visitors on websites that are not secured. This usually happens when a visitor wants to fill in important details such as name or e-mail address. Such warnings lower the levels of trust visitors have with you.

If yours is a new Shopify e-commerce website, then activating the SSL is easy.

If you have been in business for quite some time, you’ll need to be careful when making the changeover. It is best to first contact Shopify customer support before you try anything.

8. Register your Shopify e-commerce site with Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster tools

This should the first thing you do after creating your e-commerce website. If you don’t how do you expect search engine crawlers to find and index your website/store? It is, in fact, the most important thing to do when it comes to SEO.

While you are at it, make sure you register both your “www” and “non-www” websites. For example www.seo.com and seo.com. And if you happen to have an “http://” (non-secure) and an “https://” (secure) website make sure you register both.

9. Submit your Shopify sitemap to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster tools

Once you’re done with registration, it is now time to submit your website’s site map. Don’t worry you don’t have to go through the hustle of creating one because Shopify automatically generates one for you.

All you have to do is access it here “www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml” (replace ‘your domain’ with your store’s name) then login into your webmaster tool and submit it.

10. Integrate your store with Google Analytics

This is a must-have tool that helps you monitor and track your traffic. With its information, you’ll know how your visitors are interacting with your store and what changes to make to your site so that you can increase your traffic.

Got to Shopify store Admin>> Online store>> preferences and paste your tracking ID in the Google Analytics field.

11. Use SEO friendly names for your product images

Google might be able to analyze huge chunks of data but it is not capable of identifying and ranking your images. Search engines will only be able to rank your images if there are words attached to them that explain what the images are all about.

We advise you to change your image name before uploading them onto Shopify. It is even better if you mention your focused keyword in the image title.

A good example, if your Shopify deals with self-improvement books, instead of IMG-00001.jpg rename the image to Think-big.jpg. (Remember to separate words using hyphens).

12. Use alt text on your images

We mentioned earlier that Google can’t see or understand your images by just looking at them. This means that you’ll have to add in some words that explain to Google what the image is all about and if it is related to the content on the page. These words are what we call alt text.

Here’s how to go about it…

For page pictures and images, just double click on the images and a toolbox will appear that will give you a few options one of them will be “alt edit”.

For product pages, just hover on the image and click on “ALT”. Edit then save your changes.

13. Proper use of headlines

This is a very common but fatal mistake done by many Shopify website owners. Instead of using proper headlines (H1, H2, H3 and so on), they increase the font and bold their titles. This not only interferes with your content structure but also makes your page look bad.

It’s very easy to use these headlines if you are editing your post and pages on Shopify. Just go to “A” on your edit toolbar and a dropdown menu with all sorts of headlines will appear.

Of all the headlines listed, give special attention to H1, it is the one title search engines use to rank your page. Make sure you include your focused keyword.

14. Use short clean URLs

With search engines, the simpler the better. Make sure that all your URLs are short, simple, and easy to understand in a way that visitors and search engines can tell what page they’re in.

Your URLs should be 50-60 characters long and avoid the use of words like “a”, “and”, and “of”.

Here is a good example of what I’m talking about if your store dealt with toy cars.

Good URL- www.yoursite.com/products/blue-ferrari

Bad URL- www.yoursite.com/prds/ct/p223.php?ref=14556bluefr

And try to make sure you include the focused keyword for that product or page its URL

The good thing with Shopify is that they try to automatically ensure that your URLs are in good shape. But even so, it’s better if you edit your URLs,

Here’s how to go about it…

Go to the page or post, scroll down to the bottom of the page, and click “Edit Website SEO”.

Do the necessary changes in the “URL and handle” box then tick the “create URL redirect” box to let Google know that you’ve changed your URL.

Note: Changing the URL for low ranking pages is a good idea but you need to be careful with high ranking pages. Changing them might reset your social media shares and affect your current ranking.

15. Add rich snippets

Rich snippets are extra features that give more information on what the page is all about. They make it easier for visitors and search engines to understand your content.

Do they affect your SEO? Yes. This is because they help improve your Click Through Rates. If your result is getting a lot of clicks, the higher Google will rank it,

A good example of a rich snippet is the star ratings you see below search results titles and above the meta descriptions.

Rich snippets are usually brought about by special HTML codes known as Schema Markup. Learn more from Schema.org

You can start by downloading rich snippet apps from the Shopify app store.

16. You can’t do it alone- Use the best SEO tools

SEO and the rush for high ranking can be a tough game to play and it will take a lot of time and expertise to get it right.

Here are the top 5 tools that will help you on your quest and save you some time in the process:

Smart SEO

This SEO plugin deals with product and collection meta tags, blog meta tags, and page meta tags. Smart SEO automatically generates relevant meta tags for you and saves you the struggle of editing each one of them manually. Plus, it submits your e-commerce website data to search engines in the correct way and format.

• Saves you time
• No need for manual meta tag entry
• Automatically submits website data to search engines

Plug in SEO

This automatically scans your store and informs you of any SEO problems that might need your attention. It checks on things such as website loading speed, page titles and headings, meta tags, content structure, and so much more.

• Ensures that your website is always optimized
• Your site is updated every time search engines algorithms change or are updated
• Multilingual

SEO Image Optimizer

An E-commerce website without images is like a store without racks and products. But if those images are huge, they can work against you and end up lowering your SEO score. SEO image optimizer ensures that you have the right size quality images for your e-store.

• Quickly optimizes all images
• No technical coding knowledge required

SEMRush

This is an important tool to help you as you do your keyword research, It will let you know what keywords are trending and have the highest traffic. You don’t have to use keywords that have no traffic or high competition.

• Investigate and find out what keywords your competitors are ranking for
• See the pages your competitors are ranking for

Yoast

This is another must-have SEO tool that makes sure you are using your focused keywords in the right way and amount.

• Correct multiple pages with just a click
• Checks all your pages and measures your SEO score
• Always inline with Google’s algorithm updates

17. www and non-www

Your choice will be determined by your website’s usage. Make sure you change Shopify’s settings so that you’ll have all your traffic redirected from www to non-www (if non-www was your choice) and vice-versa.

Check on the feature “Online store>>Domains” and ensure that the “re-direct all traffic” box is checked.

The post Shopify SEO Guide – 17 Tips to Optimize Your Shopify E-commerce Website appeared first on SEO Los Angeles - Formula Internet.

There are many SEO guides available but most of them are too technical and have intermediate to expert users at heart with very little to offer to beginners. However, this guide is meant to give you an easy time and literally spoon feed you on everything you need to know about WordPress SEO and how you can make it better.

Is WordPress a good choice for SEO?

If you have been snooping around WordPress forums then you must have heard some users claiming that WordPress is “naturally” SEO friendly. This is why you’ll find a lot of people choosing WordPress when it comes to setting up sites or blogs.

But is this true about WordPress? Yes, however, that’s not the end of it. There is still a lot more you can do to improve your site’s SEO and gain that upper hand against other users when it comes to search engine page ranking.

Let’s get started…

What is SEO?

Some of you might be wondering what kind of sorcery this is. SEO is the short form for Search Engine Optimization. Huh?? This is simply a strategy applied by website owners to be able to get higher rankings on Search Engine Results page and as a result, get a lot of traffic.

Please remember that SEO is not some sort of trickery to gain favor from search engines such as Google. It is about creating website codes that are optimized to make your website easily accessible to search engines. By the end of it all, you’ll find that it’s the users’ interests that are placed above everything.

If your Website is Optimized it means that its content is well arranged. And what is your reward? You’ll be first in line on search engine pages and as a result more traffic will naturally be directed to your website. Who doesn’t want more traffic?

Why the big fuss about SEO?

If you aren’t new to the game then you should know that a huge part of your website traffic comes from search engine results.

Your ranking on these results is usually determined by Google and other search engines algorithms that work to try and understand your website content and see whether or not it will be of use. But these algorithms can’t do everything, they still need your help. This help is now referred to as optimizing your website.

If you don’t optimize your site then search engines will have a hard time trying to figure out whether or not your site has useful content. If this is the case then it means that when people are searching for answers from Google, your website will not appear on the results page and you’ll end up losing a lot of traffic.

How do I make my WordPress site SEO friendly?

Does SEO sound hard to you? It doesn’t have to be. You only need to make a few tweaks on your website that will improve your SEO score and throw you up the search engine rankings.

You don’t need to be a guru to get that amount of web traffic you’ve always been dreaming about. If you already have your site on WordPress then you’re halfway there.

Here are some tips you can work on today to improve your SEO score:

1. Confirm that your site is visible.

WordPress gives you the ability to choose whether or not you’ll want your site to be visible to search engines algorithms or not.

Who would prefer their website to be invisible to search engines? Some check this setting when their site is undergoing maintenance services and they don’t any external interruption.

For now, make sure that your site is set to visible. Simply log in to your WordPress admin account and go to Settings >> Reading page.

You’ll then need to scroll down until you see “Search Engine Visibility” setting. There’s a box right next to a text that reads ‘Discourage search engines from indexing this site’ make sure that this box is unchecked.

Once you’re done, click on save to apply the settings.

2. Use SEO friendly URL structures.

URL is simply the web address to a site for example www.google.com. The URL structure shows how webpages are arranged, for example, www.yoast.com/homepage. This means that you’ll be directed to Yoast’s homepage.

SEO friendly structures need to have words that are easy to read and understand. Here are some examples of SEO friendly URLs:

• www.yoast.com/homepage
• www.companyexplained.com/about

Have you noticed that the words used are easy to read and you can also tell where you’ll land should you click on them?

Now that you have seen the good guys, this is how SEO unfriendly URLs look like:

• www.yoast.com/?p=10467
• www.companyexplained.com/archives/123

Have you noticed that the numbers on the URLs have nothing to do with the onsite content and you can’t also tell where exactly you’ll end up should you decide to click on them?

Here are the steps to take to ensure that your permalinks are SEO friendly so that you get favorable rankings on search engines.

Got to the Settings>>Permalinks page and choose on the post name option. You’ll then have to click on save for your new settings to be applied.

Important: If your site has been live for more than 6 months then don’t change your permalink structure unless it has initially been on the numeric post. If that is the case then you can go ahead and change it to post name. However, if it had initially been on Day and Name or Month and Name, then you go ahead and leave it as it is. Changing it might cause you to lose your blog shares and current SEO ranking.

3. Choose the best SEO WordPress plugin.

One of the major perks of WordPress is the fact that it is so customizable that there plugins for just about anything including SEO. You might be confused when it comes to choosing the right SEO plugin because there are thousands of them.

We want to save you the headache by giving you the two best SEO plugins on WordPress that are ABSOLUTELY FREE! These are All in One SEO and Yoast SEO. Since you only get to use one at a time, then we’d recommend you go for Yoast SEO. Yoast is the best plugin for beginners because it has a simpler user interface plus a dozen more functions.

4. Add your website to Google Search Console.

Google has also decided to help us on our SEO mission by giving us the Google Search Console also known as Webmaster Tools. This is simply a toolkit that helps website owners to see their websites just as Google and other search engines view them.

There you get access to a collection of information on how your website is performing on search engine results. This information includes what keywords users search to find you, the number of clicks your pages are getting, and how each page is seen on the search engine results page. This information is to help you plan your content strategy.

Apart from the information, Google Search Console also warns you of any malfunctions like when web crawlers are not able to find your website or when they find duplicate content on your site.

5. Create XML sitemaps to your WordPress Site.

An XML sitemap is a special file format that has all of your website’s pages listed on it. It works like some sort of ‘map’ that makes it easy for search engines to access your site’s content.

Please note even though adding sitemaps doesn’t contribute to improving your SEO, it does make it easier for search engines to find and rank your site. If you are using the incredible Yoast SEO plugin then you can skip this because they’ve automatically done it for you.

To see you XML sitemap simply use this URL:

https://example.com/sitemap_index.xml 

Don’t forget to replace ‘example’ with your website’s name.

After you have created your sitemap, you can now go ahead and submit it to Google Search Console.

Go to your Google console dashboard and click on crawl. A drop-down menu will appear where you’ll be required to click on sitemaps.

After that, go ahead and click Add/Test sitemaps button.

Copy Paste sitemap-index.xml click on submit sitemap.’

6. Optimize your blog posts.

If you are dumb as I was then you’re probably thinking that adding Yoast Plugin is enough to do the trick. The search for the perfect SEO score never stops, with every post, there are things you’ll have to check on so that you can maintain or possibly increase your search engine ranking.

Yoast SEO will require you to fill in a title, short description, and focused keywords for every blog post you publish. The description and title are what you normally see on search engine page results. They easily give short previews on what your posts are all about.

On-page SEO is crucially important if you want to have high search engine results pages. This includes mentioning focused keywords in your titles and text. It is even better if you can also mention your keyword in the first paragraph of your text.

Also, write to ensure that your blog is long-form, around 2000+ words. This is because it has been proven by researchers and even SEO specialists like Neil Patel that long-form blogs and articles get higher rankings. Having long form posts also means that you’ll still be in the game if Google decides to switch and start ranking based on long-tail keyword variations.

7. Use categories and tags on WordPress.

I know that most of us make the mistake of ignoring categories and tags. I’ll confess that I used to ignore them as well. Do they help with search engine ranking? Yes. How? By categorizing and tagging your articles, you make it easier for search engines to access and understand the content on your website.

Here is how you go about it:

Categories are used for grouping large numbers of blog posts. You can have different categories for lifestyle, health, business, music, etc. You can even have mini categories under them.

Tags can be specific keywords that are unique to one blog post. For example, if you have an article on cake bakery then the tags might include low-calorie cake, etc.

8. Internal Linking.

Let me let you in on a secret most website owners don’t know, Google and other search engines usually keep authority scores for each of your web pages. This authority score then contributes to your SEO score.

To increase this authority score, you’ll need to portray your webpage as an authority in the industry you are in. How do you this? By getting other posts to link back to you. It doesn’t have to be an external post, you can increase your authority score by inter-linking your posts.

9. Optimize your WordPress Comments.

Comments are another way you can build your authority score which in turn increases your search engine ranking. But you need to make sure that your comments are real and not spammy. Spammy comments usually have broken links that slow down your page loading speed.

To deal with spammy comments you should install Aksimet. This plugin automatically helps you in removing spammy comments.

There’s also a threat if your real comments are so many that they end up also slowing down your load speed. You can choose to reduce them or split them into different pages. You will be able to do this once you go to settings>>discussion and check the ‘Comment must be manually approved’ checkbox.

10. Add “NoFollow” to External Links

We talked about Authority Score which is increased if other articles link back to you. If the reverse happens where you link out to other external posts, then you’ll lose your Authority score to them. You should ensure that you are getting more Authority score then the link backs you are giving out.

To avoid losing your authority score, you have to add the “nofollow” attribute to the external links. This code tells search engines not to follow that link.

Here is what I mean:

This is a normal external link

<a href=”http://example.com”>Example Website</a>

This is a “nofollow” external link

<a href=”http://example.com” rel=”nofollow”>Example Website</a>

11. Google Analytics

Once again we see Google trying to lend us a hand. Google Analytics is very similar to Google Search Console only that it gives very detailed information about your website. You can also use it as your SEO score sheet that lets you know whether or not your SEO efforts are working. Do their charge for their services? No, it’s 100% free to open an account with them. Once you’ve created your account, the very first thing to do is to link it to your Google Console account.

12. Optimize your website for Mobile usage

Google announced not long ago that they will be testing their mobile-first indexing tool. This means that search engine algorithms will now be looking to see if your site is mobile friendly. Mobile friendly sites are set to have higher rankings on search engine results page. To test and see whether your site makes the cut, you are free to use Google’s mobile-friendly tool.

13. Fix or delete broken links.

Broken links in WordPress are usually treated like viruses in computers. We don’t like them and neither does Google or any other search engine. The best place to start is in your Google Search Console. Quickly head over to “crawl errors” under “crawl” and check to see if there are any. If you find some, you can go ahead and see their location.

14. Have a multi-language WordPress website

Neil Patel, an SEO guru, did some research and found that having your website in different languages can increase your website traffic by 47%! This research is based on his website which he translated to over 82 languages. I’m not saying that this will be your super serum, there are many other factors such as location and audience that determine whether or not it will be a success.

You don’t have to worry about content duplication because there is a code that automatically tells Google that the English version is the real deal. Despite the fact that there are many translator plugins, it is best to always go for human translators.

15. Local SEO.

Local SEO is still a grain field that many websites and business owners are yet to exploit. Local SEO improves your website ranking when a local user is looking for products or services from your area. Once he\she searches for something like “ice cream shops” your business will automatically appear on the search engine results page. Setting up an account at Google Business and Bing Places is free.

16. Link your social media accounts,

Chances are your traffic spend most of their time on social media platforms. In fact, by just searching for your website’s name, your social media page will rank on the first page. Despite most social media backlinks being “nofollow”, websites are still enjoying most of their website traffic redirected from their social media accounts. Start off today by using Namechk, this tool lets you see what names are available across all social media platforms so that you can go ahead and claim them.

While you are at it, you can also make your content shareable by adding social media buttons to your website. Not only does this improve your Authority score when your content is shared but it also boosts your website traffic. It’s now or never, harness your social media power today!

17. Create evergreen content

Ever had the saying “Content is King”? It’s true! It doesn’t matter how many plugins or “tricks” you use, if your content is not high quality, your SEO score will be less.

Evergreen content is the key to WordPress SEO and long-term supply of traffic. Evergreen content refers to content that is always relevant and is not dependent on time. There are bits of updates you’ll have to make but at least you won’t have to rewrite everything every year or even month.

Another perk of evergreen content is you are still able to reshare it on social media and add backlinks to social posts. If given the choice between evergreen content and news, then definitely go for evergreen.

18. Use schema markups.

What is this guy talking about?? Schema markup or schema structure is simply a tool code that enables Google to avail more data to users straight from the search engine results page.

Have you ever seen those stars on SERPs pages right next to product pages or videos that appear on SERPs? Those are as a result of website owners using schema markup codes.

There are a lot of themes on WordPress that automatically have schema markups in them. However, there are some that don’t. You can use Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool to find out. If there aren’t any then you can use the free schema plugin that will automatically add in all of the necessary schema codes.

19. Use Social Markups.

These are very similar to schema markups. They are behind the thumbnails you see on Facebook and Twitter posts that are shared from your WordPress website. Again, we see the Yoast plugin proving its worth. Yoast automatically does the work for you by adding all the necessary social markups. It’s never bad to let Google know that your social media profiles are linked to your WordPress site.

Simply go to your Yoast plugin dashboard and click on “Socials”. Fill everything out. You also get to choose what type of social media card you want. Once you are done click on save your changes.

20. Limit your affiliate links usage

Many websites and blog users add a lot of affiliate links because they can be a very good source of income. Unfortunately, Google and other search engines don’t approve these efforts. In case you have no idea what affiliate links are, these are links you add to your website that allow you to track commissions on purchases made through you.

To be able to use affiliate links without sacrificing on your SEO score, we advise you to use affiliate plugins such as Preetylinks or ThirstyAffiiliates. They automatically add “nofollow” codes to your affiliate links that instruct Google crawlers not to follow them.

21. Go for non-www domains

In case you didn’t know, there are two types of domains out there, the www as in www.google.com or non-www for example https://yoast.com. It’s important for you to know that this doesn’t affect SEO. It’s just a matter of personal preferences. Though we would advise you to go for a non-www domain because your domain will be shorter.

But why then do large companies still use www domains? The process of changing domains can be very time consuming and risky. After all, they already have huge amounts of traffics they cannot afford to risk losing.

22. Be careful with keywords

Hey, keywords matter! Frequent updates in Google’s algorithms mean that they now pay closer attention to keywords used in webpages and blog posts. Most people write with their audience in mind but forget to be consistent with their keywords for Google’s sake. But this doesn’t mean you can’t please both your readers and Google.

Yoast SEO plugin helps you out by calculating the keyword density in your text. You should aim for a keyword density of around 0.5%.

23. Do some keyword research

It’s important that your posts sound natural to your readers but you also have to write smart. You don’t just start writing, you need to first use tools such as SMErush, KWFinder, and Ahrefs to know which keywords are searched for the most. Once you find them, you can now go ahead and write content that is built around these keywords to ensure you get the most out of search engine traffic.

24. Track your keyword’s ranking

Since you were smart enough to do some little bit of research to find the best keywords to use in your niche and went ahead and used them appropriately, it is now time to check if they are actually working. We advise you to use AccuRanker tool for this task. The best strategy is to start monitoring the focused keywords in posts that are already at the top of the second page. Work the content in these posts to ensure that they make it to the first page.

A little tip: Don’t forget about multi-lingual keywords. These are keywords that are commonly searched for in other languages. You can choose to do this since English keywords are saturated.

25. Boost your Click through ratio (CTR) with quality Meta descriptions.

CTR refers to the ratio of the number of people who are clicking on your results to the number of people who don’t. Meta descriptions have nothing to do with your SEO rankings but they do help in convincing users to visit your website.

Meta descriptions are the small texts your see under search result titles. You need to have Meta descriptions that are going to attract and entice users to click on them. The character range for Meta descriptions is currently 150-170 characters. As you are writing your Meta description, it is also good to include your focused keyword.

Please note that sometimes Google might rewrite your Meta description to match users’ wants. Don’t panic if you see the change.

26. Use header tags appropriately

Again we go back to the site content, blog post or article. You need to make sure that you are properly using HTML tags like H1, H2, and H3. If you use Google Docs then you know what I’m talking about. Make sure that you have one H1 title per posed and several H2 titles that have mini H3 titles under them. This helps you in breaking down your content in a way that makes it easier for your audience to read.

Extra tip: It’s mandatory to mention your focused keyword in the H1 title. You should also try to at least mention it in H2 and H3 titles as well.

27. Add image ALT text.

I know it sounds complicated but it’s actually very easy to do. ALT text refers to the alternative text that is usually added to images. They tell Google that a certain image is relevant to the text around it. Take this as one of the laws of WordPress SEO, you should always add ALT Texts to your images.

If you’ve been using images without ALT text then quickly go to your post editor and follow the following instructions:

1. Go to your blog editor and choose an image then click on the small pencil in the toolbar to access the visual editor.
2. You then enter the ALT Text in the space right next to ‘Alternative text’. It is advised to include your focused keyword if it is applicable to the image. Don’t just throw it in there or Google might pick it up as spam.

28. Use short URL links

We talked about using SEO friendly links that try to at least explain what a page is all about. Today, we emphasize that your page and post links should also be short.

Is there a way to shorten long post links? Yes, not only does it boost your Click through ratio (CTR), but it also improves on your WordPress SEO score.

How to go about it:

1. Go and edit your blog post.
2. At the top of your page just below the title, you’ll see the permalink
3. Click on edit and shorten your blog post link. Just make sure you put hyphens in between keywords.

You need to also make sure that every URL is unique.

Don’t use one URL for two different blog posts.

29. Edit and rename your image names

This is yet another mistake that many WordPress users are making unconsciously. Before you upload an image for your blog post, make sure you rename it from let’s say DA00001.JPG to wordpress-tips.JPG.

Always make sure that the new name is related to the content found in the blog post.

Don’t space the words using underscores or periods because Google won’t be able to read them. Instead, use hyphens to separate your words. For example, wordpress_tips.JPG and wordpresstips.JPG are wrong since Google won’t be able to read them.

Make sure that the featured image has the same name as the blog’s title so that the focused keyword is mentioned.

30. Submit your sitemap to Bing Webmaster Tools

This is webmaster tool is very similar to Google’s Search Console.

31. Submit your sitemap to Yandex Webmaster Tools

After you’ve submitted your sitemap to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, you should also do the same for Yandex. This is a Russian Search engine but since you really want to maximize on your traffic then it is good to be one step ahead of your competitors.

32. Check on your website’s speed

Having a website that has a high loading speed is a big plus when it comes to SEO. Page speed matters because it has a huge effect on how users interact with your page.

• You have a span of about 5 seconds to convince a user to stay on your website.
• 46% of users never go back to low performing websites
• ¼ of visitors will leave your website if it takes more than 4 seconds for your page to load.

Reducing your image size will go a long way in increasing your page load speed. The average web page size is 3MB. You’ll be digging your own grave once you upload several 3MB images. There are many tools you can use to compress your images such as TinyPNG or plugins such as Smush Image Compression and Optimization plugin.

33. Be on the lookout for Negative SEO

This is a very important topic that many web users are yet to fully understand. I talked about getting backlinks and how they increase your Authority Score which in turn increases your overall SEO score. However, this trick can be altered by evil people to bring harm to your website.

Always make sure that you frequently monitor your backlink profile for any suspicious activity. It might sound like a trivial matter but a company website once fell victim to this. Its owners woke up one day to find 200,000 backlinks put against it. This mess took 2 years to clean!

If this ever happens to your website, use Google’s Disavow tool to create a list of domains you wish to ignore.

34. Claim the HTTPS/SSL SEO Advantage

Not long ago Google announced that HTTPS will be a ranking factor in SERPs!

What is HTTPS? See that little green lock that appears next to your domain URL in your browser’s search bar? It means that your website is secure and users are free to share their information without having to worry about piracy.

If your domain is HTTP then you are at risk of falling behind in Search Engine Rankings. Migrate to HTTPs and save yourself the stress.

35. Force crawl for early ranking

Once you publish a new blog post or web page, it might take a while before search engines send out web crawlers to check and index your site. It might take minutes, hours, or even days before Google decides to do this.

But there is a way to ‘force’ Google and Bing to read and rank your post immediately.

For Google Search Console:

1. Go to your Google Search Console dashboard and click on crawl.
2. A drop-down menu will appear where you’ll be required to click on Fetch as Google. Input the URL then click on Fetch

For Bing Webmaster Tools:

1. Go to Configure My Site dropdown menu and click on Submit URLs. Paste your URL then click on Submit.

The post WordPress SEO Guide – 35+ Tips to SEO Optimize Your WordPress Website appeared first on SEO Los Angeles - Formula Internet.

What is Schema Markup?

Schema is a coding markup language that enables your website to communicate with search engines further than just keywords and numbers. Once you use this semantic vocabulary on your website, it will be able to communicate with search engines telling them exactly what to show on search engines results pages.

Schema markup is recognized by search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing. However, it does more than just telling search engines about your page, it goes ahead and even explains to them what the content is about.

Here’s what I mean.

Let’s say you go to your search engine and search for “Timberlake.” The search engine will send out its web crawlers and they will pick up on pages that have the word “Timberlake” then show these pages as search engine results. However, if you have added a Schema code around the word “Timberlake”, then your site will go ahead and explain that Timberlake is an artist. This means that search engines will not only be providing mentions of the word but also useful information related to it.

Schema .org goes ahead to explain that most webmasters only use HTML tags on their sites. But HTML tags only tell search engines how certain words should appear on search engine results pages. For example, Avatar tells search engines to bring up all site pages that have the word “Avatar” in headline 1. But Avatar could have so many meanings like a profile image or the movie Avatar, this means that the user will be hit by so much irrelevant information that might take some time to sort through.

Read more from Schema.org

What about its difficulty level?

There’s no need for alarm, you don’t have to go spend hours learning from a coding guru. See, Schema markup uses a unique semantic vocabulary in microdata format. All you have to do is simply go to schema.org and add some of their vocabularies to your HTML 5 Microdata coding knowledge.

Here’s something interesting:

See, Schema.org which acts as the website and resource place for Schema was built by Yahoo, Bing, and Google. Who would have thought that these competitive big dogs would be able to work together? Do you know why they did it? So that users can have a smoother experience when navigating their search results.

Schema was made to benefit users not search engines.

If you use schema on your website, it means that users will be able to easily access information on your business. Like where you are located, the services you offer, and even your working hours. Some enthusiasts have even labeled Schema as the new virtual business card.

Still wondering why Schema is such a big deal?

Schema provides us with more than the good old web text, you can actually use it to show snippets on a lot of things. For example, books and movie descriptions. There are so many schema markups you can use to make your site content easily accessible to users. In case you didn’t know, schema is behind those snippet images and appearances you see on search engines. These snippets are also known as Search engine results page features (SERP features).

SERP Features

So what is a SERP feature? This is simply any result you see on search engine result pages apart from the good old web text. These features include images, appearances, search bars, and many others.

Examples of schema and their SERP features

1. Company markup

If you head over to google and search for any well-known company or organization, chances are you’ll see the company’s logo, a little intro, social media accounts, contact details, and location. This schema markup provides users with all this information right from the results page without them clicking on any link or result.

2. Personal schema markup

This is very similar to the company markup but specifically meant for famous individuals like celebrities and political leaders. The information listed here is usually a bit personal such as the individual’s name, birth date, marital status, career, education, colleagues, and relatives. Again, all this information is thrown at your face giving you the privilege of accessing everything from one place without having to navigate several pages.

3. Local business schema markup.

This one is likewise very similar to the company markup but with one major feature, the map. This schema markup is mostly used by local businesses so that their customers can easily search and locate them. Apart from the map, you also have access to other information such as operating hours, contact details, and the business address.

4. Product schema markup.

This means that customers will now have access to product racks without necessarily visiting online stores and sites. Not only does it give a short product description, but it also shows the product’s ratings and price. If you use this schema code and your competition is not yet up to date, then you’ll automatically stand out and chances of customers visiting your site or online store are high.

5. Breadcrumbs schema markup.

This is a simple one that works as a tracker that shows the link where a page is situated. It makes it easier for visitors to navigate your website thus reducing your bounce rates.

6. Video schema markup.

Use this when you have an awesome onsite video you’d love your audience to see but are disadvantaged since Google and other search engines prefer YouTube videos. Video schema markup gives Google’s web crawlers a good time and betters your chances of your video being listed alongside the great YouTube videos.

7. Event schema markup.

This schema markup is used by event websites to show a brief snippet of scheduled events such as concerts and webinars. The information listed includes the date of the event, venue, and ticket prices. This information quickly gives users an idea of what the site is offering.

8. Recipe schema markup.

As expected, this schema type is meant for cooking sites. Apart from the delicious picture, some snippets also include small meal descriptions and even cooking steps. This allows users to make a quick assessment of the cooking page and decide whether or not it’s worth visiting.

9. Article schema markup.

This markup is popular with publishing sites. It gives a sneak peek on a news article or blog post. The information showed there includes the featured image, title, date of publishing, a brief intro or at times bullet points users can easily go through without clicking on the page. Take note that there are different types of article schema markups for different news and blog posts.

10. Website schema markup.

Not only does this schema markup make your website look cool with a search bar, but it also makes it easier for users to navigate your site with ease.

How Does Schema Markup Help SEO?

Schema markups sound cool and all but do they have something to do with your website SEO ranking? The answer is Yes. Website pages that use markups will definitely stand a chance at high rankings on search engines. Why? Because search engines are built with the user’s experience at heart, the easier a website is for users to access its information, the higher its ranking.

While it is not clear whether or not schema markups have everything to do with search engines rankings, you can’t deny the fact that there is some hidden SEO potential here. Studies have shown that less than a third of websites are using scheme markups for rich snippets. A slight tweak on your website and you might find yourself in the first position.

How to Use Schema Markup for Local SEO

Even though things are a little vague when it comes to search engines results ranking, it’s proven that schema markups do wonders for local SEO.

What is local SEO? This is all about how you optimize your local business for higher ranking in local business listing. This makes it easy for your local audience and customer to access your business page or website.

Remember when we talked about local business schema markup? This is where it does its magic. By providing accessible on page information about your business, schema markup communicates to Google that your website has users’ interests in mind. Google goes ahead and ranks your website at the top. This means that you’ll be the first business to appear in your area when an industry-related question is asked.

Here’s how you can use schema markups on your website.

Now that you’ve seen how important schema markup is, it’s only fair to use it on your website. You will be surprised, it might be the missing puzzle that will boost your website up the search engine rankings.

1. Start by going to Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper.

See here: https://www.google.com/webmasters/markup-helper/u/0/

2. Fill in what type of data you intend to mark up.

Now there’s a list from which you are supposed to choose what you intend on marking up.

3. Fill in your URL in the space below.

Simply go to the page with data you want to markup and copy the URL then come back and paste it there. If it so happens that you are yet to publish your website, then you can just copy paste the HTML code and click on “start tagging”.

Once the markup tool loads, a workspace will appear where you’ll see your webpage to your left and data items to the right. This is also known as the “tag data” stage.

4. Highlight specific elements on the page you’d like to markup.

If let’s say you had chosen an article, then you are going to highlight the title then click on ‘name’ in order to mark it. Once you are done highlighting and selecting, the highlighted data will be filled in the ‘name’ space at the top right of the page.

5. Continue adding markup items.

Just use the list of data items as your guide and go on highlighting and selecting the specific data you want to mark up until all spaces are filled. Don’t be hard on yourself when you fill the list and still feel there’s more you could have highlighted, just fill in what you can and feel is important.

6. Create the HTML.

Click on ‘CREATE HTML’ and proceed.

Look for the HTML code in the page that follows. You’ll find that all the microdata you felt was important is fitted in the code.

7. Adding schema markup to your web page.

Head back to your CMS or source code and add the highlighted snippets in the right positions. To find the schema code, just click on the yellow markings on the scroll bar.

You can choose the easier path and automatically download the HTML code form markup tool then just copy-paste it into your CMS or source code.

8. Use the Structured Data Testing Tool to test your schema markup.

See here: https://search.google.com/structured-data/testing-tool/u/0/ – This will let you see how your web page will look like with the schema markup code. Just paste the HTML code and press preview. It also allows you to check on all schema markups you have added.

Tips on schema markup

Go to schema.org and check on commonly used schema markups, it is advisable to use as many schema markups as possible. The full list is found on Type Hierarchy.

Schema markups might be the next big thing for SEO but a lot of website owners are still in the dark about it. Now is the time to utilize this new found tool before it is soon crowded since people are always on the lookout for ways they can get higher rankings on search engines.

The post What is Schema? 10 Examples of How to Use Schema Markup on Your Website appeared first on SEO Los Angeles - Formula Internet.

This tactic depends on marketing your products, services, and brands to customers and local leads. When you apply effective local tips to your existing SEO strategy, your business automatically becomes more relevant to local customers, which leads to greater site traffic, conversions, and leads.

Small business owners must chalk out an effective, multi-layered strategy to go head-to-head with the competition without spending a fortune. By focusing your efforts on certain aspects of your competitor’s business website, you stand a chance to outrank them. Take a look at these factors below:
Analyze the Competitor Website – fortunately there are things you can do that can outrank

Loading Speed

SEO is constantly changing, and your competition is probably evolving their strategy to fit the new rules. So, map out their strengths and weaknesses. The first thing you should test out is the website’s loading speed. How does it compare to your own? Most visitors don’t have the patience to deal with laggy websites. So, if the competition manages to retain users, they must be doing something right.

Improve page load speeds by reducing image sizes and minimizing unnecessary HTML. Reduce the server response time and select the proper hosting option for your requirements. Allow compression and minimize the HTTP requests.

Quite frankly I’ve seen ridiculous improvements just updating to high performance WordPress hosting like WP Engine, Siteground or

Improve CTR

Title Tag

Title tags are significant. Google will often change the title of your site to something different than what was mentioned in the title tag. This might seem like an unnecessary move, but Google does this only when your title fails to meet one of three major criteria, including length of the title, the way it describes the page, and relevance to the searcher’s query. So, ensure you have write a decent title.

Metadata

Take a look at their metadata as well. Find out if they’re using LSI keywords and how they’ve integrated alt text on their images and meta descriptions on their web pages. If they are lacking on one of these fronts, you have a shot at outranking them by completing every detail on your site.

Improve the User Experience

While it is impossible for Google to compare websites on the basis of usability and determine a domain’s SEO value, user experience and ranking factors are related. Google prefers websites that are easy-to-use and responsible. Your website must be located easily and deliver the right information in the right places. Visitors should not have to hunt around for contact information, and they should not have trouble viewing your website on a mobile platform.

All these little elements are considered essential by the algorithm and bolster the SEO of your website. Apart from this, quicker images and response times push the site higher in the SERPs. Communicate with your site designer and include H1 tags wherever applicable. Also, never lock text within images. A picture will lack SEO value if Google is unable to read it.

Understand the Need for On-Page Optimization

When it comes to website visibility and accessibility, nothing beats on-page optimization, except maybe the use of a third party service. But even then on-page optimization for search intent is necessary.

The thing is, Google decides if your website is what users are searching for online. So, if your content is deemed subpar, Google will never let you rank high. Make sure your visitors see the type of content they like on your website. Google’s whole business model depends on websites offering the most suitable result at the top.

Use this to your advantage by checking your instincts against what presently ranks for the target keyword.

What’s more, Google is now smart enough to figure out synonyms and keywords that are semantically-connected. Thus, you’re no longer required to obsess over the strategic location of exact-match keywords on your site.

Try using brief descriptive URLs as well as schema markup for improving CTR. These actions improve the clickability of your website in the SERPs. Also, work on improving topical relevance so that Google finds things more quickly.

Do More with Content

Always prize the quality of your content above all else. Check for things like originality, publication date, nature, usefulness, validity, bias, and length. Never commit the cardinal sin of rewriting or copying existing content. Avoid publishing content that’s been featured on other sites, even if it is your own. Make sure there is some text with the non-text content. Even videos posted on your site should have a text description.

Neither search engines nor visitors wish to read posts that are hastily written and poorly researched. Compose long articles since they rank better compared to shorter ones. When writing about a specific subject or answering some question, ensure what you write is valid and covers both sides of the story.
Above all else, make sure your content copy is readable and simple. Do not use big words; give preference to shorter paragraphs and sentences. Make sure everything is conversational.

Use Keywords to Your Advantage

Start by reviewing the keyword strategy followed by your competitors. Find out which keywords drive the maximum traffic to every one of your neighbor sites. Then work backwards to figure out how they get this ranking. See if the competitor frequently publishes high-quality videos or blogs referring this keyword. Check if they include the keyword numerous times in the copy body. Also, determine if any other high-quality websites link back to the competitor’s website.

After this, it’s time to update your site’s keyword list. Know which keywords you wish to rank for. For every web page, pick a primary keyword and make sure you’ve included it in areas like meta description, subheads, title, body copy, URL, and hyperlink anchor text. Don’t forget to include words connected to that keyword to fulfill LSI requirements.

Local Business Citations

After you’ve gone through each section of their website 1×1 and upgraded yours to match or exceed them, finally you can create new citations. By creating new citations you will increase local relevance and also increase your domain authority so if you were already showing improvement, this is will give you a nice bump to compliment all of the onpage seo. When the business owner follows the tips above and implements them into their existing local SEO strategy, they will be able to notice the benefits in a short while. The key is to help Google understand what you’re trying to do through your content and then provide the information to users who require similar services and products. The better the distribution of content to search users, the better your CTR and ROI will be in the long run.

The post Outrank Your Competitors Next Door – 18 Tips How To Analyze & Outrank Local Business Websites appeared first on SEO Los Angeles - Formula Internet.

If you rank in the maps pack for your local brick and mortar or service area business safe to say your phone is ringing and you’re happy. If not though you are in big trouble!

Google maps is no longer a basic application to show users the location of your business; now, it plays a key role in helping you acquire more search engine traffic, instill trust and also update potential customers to sales, specials or holiday hours of operation. 

Earlier, factors like industry category and proximity determined your company’s Google Maps rankings. But now other factors like business description, up-to-date details, reviews, media all play a role in the calculation of the rankings. These blended results bode well for SMBs whose listings are often overshadowed by chain companies and large organizations.

Earning a spot on the first page of Google Maps is something most businesses dream about but few achieve. However, you can use the tips below to rank higher in Google Maps and catch the attention of your target customers. Check out the 17 Tips Improve Your Google My Business Listing to learn more about how you can improve your listing.

Optimize Your Google My Business Listing

Is Is your GMB listing optimized as well as it could be? When was the last time you updated it? Take a look at your profile you may be surprised at what you see! Read on to learn how to optimize your Google My Business profile:

Update Your Description

Listing descriptions on Google Maps have character limits. Make sure to maximize the space you have to use. Rather than use generic information to describe your company make sure to use SEO optimized copy, including local SEO keywords that apply to your business. See example below:

“Gregory’s Computer’s has over 25 years in business. Call us today to set up an appointment to learn more about how we can help your business. ”

“Gregory’s Computer is a Brooklyn computer repair company with best prices in New York City. Contact us today for new computers, computer repair, and IT Services.”

Include a Local Phone Number

Google isn’t particularly fond of toll-free (877 and 800) numbers – they lack local relevance and are commonly associated with spam calls.

Adding a local telephone number tells Google that your business is an actual service area or brick-and-mortar business

in the address mentioned in the listing.

Make sure you add a local telephone number with an area code that is common to that location. Having a toll-free number for your site is not a bad idea, but making it the sole point of contact can harm your chances of ranking higher on Google Maps.

Are Details Correct?

As a general rule of thumb, Google displays your listing with greater precision if it has more information about your business. Accuracy and completeness are key here, so make sure you’ve provided all the relevant information including business hours and contact details.

Also, avoid duplicating any details as it sets a bad precedent and invokes Google’s penalty. Include every shred of information, like name, website, phone number, and address so that Google has more details to choose from. The inclusion of business hours in the listing provides your target audience the impetus to use or get in touch with the company.

Remember, Google has a strict policy against repetition. So, don’t add multiple locations or phone numbers for a single business as you could get discredited. Remove all irrelevant information from your listing and verify the accuracy of the included details.

Include Your Business in the Correct Category

During the process of creating your Google Maps listing, you must choose a primary industry category as well as a keyword to describe your company. Most business owners, however, are unaware that they are capable of adding five more additional categories. Use them to your advantage. While the primary category indicates the main classification of your company, the five other categories can be used to incorporate some local SEO keywords that act as business descriptors.

Keep in mind that the categories suggested by Google might not always fit your business. In this case, ensure the primary keywords matches the main keyword you’re trying to rank as closely as possible. You can do this by typing your main keyword along with different big city names into Google and then copying the ones that are most commonly ranked. Max out the secondary categories as well so your impressions for other keywords are increased.

Max Your Your Business Category Choices

You can choose up to (3) categories. Make sure to choose all the relevant categories. For FORMULA INTERNET we have: internet marketing service, marketing agency & marketing consultant.

Add a Bunch of Photos

A strong yet simple way to stand out on Google Maps involves adding pictures to your Google My Business listing. Select a good picture of your business that’s also featured on your business site and presents your company in a positive light. You’re able to select multiple photos so select the ones that prompt customers to give your business a try. If your business does not include any pictures, a generic map will show up in the listing.

Log In & Update Frequently

Part of Google’s local algorithm checks to see how often you log into your account. Log into your account a couple times a month and switch something up to make your account active and Google may show you favoritism.

Having a Google listing is not enough. You need to rank you business higher on Google Maps. You need to take care of the various points listed above if you want your business to shine bright on Google Maps and attract potential customers.

Create Local and Niche Citations

Focus on your local SEO by creating local and niche relevance through on- and off-page optimizations. In case of off-page, try building local and niche citations. Get the citations indexed by linked out to them from your website, running them through Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test, or submitting them to some indexing service. Keep in mind that unless they are Google indexed, they won’t be of any use in SEO.

Add Local Schema Markup to Your Website

Schema markup was created to structure information better and help search engines understand data. In this case –  location related data. Through schema we can declare business name, business type, address, phone number, hours of operation & more. Google uses this markup to enhance search results with rich snippets like answer boxes, hours of operation, knowledge graph & more. Adding schema markup to your website will increase maps rankings, local SERPs and generate more rich snippets.

Embed a Google Map on Your Website

Doing so helps your business secure a higher rank on Google Maps. That is precisely why most companies add a map to their contact page. When you embed a Google Map on your business site, you’re letting Google know for sure that your business is situated exactly where your listing states it to be.

Do not forget to use the same address that’s present on your Google My Business listing. Start embedding a Google Map on your site by first searching the name of your business in Google Maps. Now, click the three lines that appear next to the name of your business and choose the option marked “Share or Embed Map”. Remember to copy and paste the link on the contact page of your business.

Add GPS Coordinates to Your Website

The “near me” search has become prevalent across every vertical of local businesses from dining to professional services. One method that can help you get to be ultra relevant for “near me” searches is embedding GPS coordinates throughout the site and in image metadata. I also like to get keyword optimized text + “near me” in html on the site.

Use Google Reviews to Your Advantage

The more user reviews your business has, the more trustworthy it appears to potential customers. Google understands this and ranks businesses with more positive reviews higher on the Google Maps app. However, keep in mind that reviews can be a bit of a mixed bag – you have no control over what’s being said about your business. So, it could be either positive or negative.

The good thing is, unless your products or services are exceptionally bad, people don’t leave bad feedback. Plus, having good reviews on your Google Maps grabs the attention of potential buyers faster and makes your business seem more attractive and reliable.

So, if you want to go through with this process, head over to your Google Map listing, click on “more information” and copy the Google review link. Now, it’s time to share the link through social media channels and wait for the reviews to come in. You might also consider adding a landing page to your site that redirects you to the Google Maps listing review form.

For a quick boost, request some of your existing loyal, trusted users to write a review for your business. Even a few positive reviews has enough clout to give you an instant boost in your rankings.

Write a Press Release

Believe it or not, but a well-written press release is capable of offering high quality backlinks for your company. Many services write press releases for businesses at low rates. Or, you can write one yourself after going through a few samples on the Internet. Apart from the obvious backlinking benefits, press releases impress customers since it’s rare for businesses to have links from news stations.

Embed Maps Listings on 3rd Party Websites

You can get really tricky embedding maps. The more embedded maps that are indexed in Google in general the better the rankings you get. Getting your maps listings embedded around the internet on locally relevant sites will help you improve your Maps Rankings.

Local Link Building

Part of a local business presence is links from other local businesses. Whether from “Friends” or “Resource” pages on other local websites, links from community websites, social media, guest books or blog comments it’s important to get some links from local

Guest Posts

The post How to Rank Higher on Google Maps – 17 Tips to Improve Your Google My Business Listing appeared first on SEO Los Angeles - Formula Internet.

Why is Google My Business Important?

First thing’s first, let’s start by understanding why you should prioritize marketing efforts on Google My Business:

Free Traffic – Google My Business sends you free traffic. As Google Ads ost Per Click (CPC) continues to rise for local business, each visitor you receive from GMB is saving you money. If you can spend a little time on your profile each month and get free traffic you are saving money on monthly advertising costs.

Proximity Traffic – Proximity is a top factor in Google’s local algorithm. Simply by having a live GMB listing you can appear for local searches in your proximity next to businesses who have been actively marketing for years. Get that GMB listing up ASAP and to take advantage of local searches in your proximity.

Near Instant Traffic – Based on the proximity aspect mentioned above, you can get traffic instantly as soon as you take your GMB profile live. As soon as you publish you can start getting inbound leads so what are you waiting for?

No Website Needed – GMB enables users to get more visibility and leads for their businesses without searchers even having to click through to their website. Searchers can contact businesses straight from the search results and can call and even schedule appointments without even clicking a search result.

Thanks to Google My Business potential buyers have an easier time finding businesses that meet their requirements or deciding whether a particular company is suited to their needs with a quick click or tap. This gives you a leg up on your competitors who leave their GMB accounts dormant. By routinely logging in and working on your profile you can improve your position in the Maps Pack and interact with customers interested in your products or services will visit your business straight away.

How to Set Up Google My Business Page?

The Basics

The first thing on your to-do list when it comes to creating your Google My Business page is to ensure it is not only complete but ACCURATE as well. Accuracy is a huge issue for Google’s local algorithm. We need to ensure that NAP, Hours of Operation and Website URL match the information listed on your website – identically.

NAP / Name, Address & Phone Number – Your NAP information should match your local business citations, and the address on your website (footer and contact page) identically

Business Category – select the most appropriate Category for your business

Website URL – make sure you link to your Canonical URL

Hours of Operation – this should match the information on your website and local business citations

Photos – your logo, pictures of staff and your premises are all mandatory and will help welcome potential patrons to your business

Reviews – how many reviews does your profile have? do you have any? put together a list of your 10 favorite customers and ask them to review you. It’s important to get reviews ASAP or increase the number of reviews you have ASAP.

These are the basics that are absolutely mandatory. But the basics are powerful. If you execute the basics perfectly these basics are very powerful and can propel you to the top 3 of the Maps Pack and even help your organic website listings.

Remember and live by this – a Google My Business profile will not rise up to its full potential if you fail to include any of the important information mentioned above, period. So make sure at a minimum you fill all this info out and again pay attention to accuracy.

How to Engage in Google My Business Profile?

Once you’re done setting up your Google My Business page, you need to move on to the content so that your profile appears active and relevant to customers needs and overall just looks like somewhere they want to be and support!

What constitutes a strong and engaging Google My Business profile?

Log In & Update Your Profile Regularly

Google updates its algorithms constantly but one factor that will remain prominent for local is account activity. You need to login consistently and keep your Google My Business profile updated to attract local customers consistently and grow your business.

Schedule Weekly Posts

Come rain or shine, you should definitely add one post per week to your Google My Business page. Every post on Google My Business expires after seven days. Thus, you need to make sure that your business profile has a minimum of one active post at all times. These new GMB posts are showing up in the search results like website and image results so posting SEO optimized posts is a great way to take up additional spots in SERPs.

Pay Attention to the Quality of Your Content

Don’t post the same sort of content over and over again. Mix and match types of content for better engagement. Throw in some industry-related posts, articles, announcements etc. – high quality, engaging content.

Add Some Personality

Whatever type of business you have from a car wash to a restaurant to a chiropractor give potential patrons a snapshot into your business and give them an idea of what to expect. Emojis and modern lingo are OK light use makes your organization human but overuse is a common mistake we see as well.

Use CTAs

Make sure to use a call-to-action CTA button in your Google My Business profile to nudge patrons toward the direction you would like them – your business! Add a link a link and give people a chance to click through to your page. Use image call to actions and photos to promote.

Add Photos and Videos on Google My Business

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to add images and video content. Like any other post, accompanying visuals increase the appeal of the content to visitors and get’s infinitely better engagement.

Google My Business Photos in Posts

It’s simple to post videos in your GMB status updates. Posting photos keeps your profile active, engages visitors and also takes up space in the SERPs taking up potential real estate that would otherwise be filled with competitor listings.

Google My Business Videos

Videos are the best way to improve engagement on your GMB listing. When it comes to in-store purchases, 55 percent of consumers feel more comfortable buying an item once they see it in action. So make sure you post a preview of you playing with the latest gadget, and letting your potential customers know you have what they are looking for in stock. Again – Google My Business posts are showing up in the SERPs like website results and we are seeing Local GMB Posts of products showing up as a result for E-commerce intent, effectively hacking local traffic originally intended for global e-commerce.

GMB Video Length

The best part about enriching your listing with video, Google has set a time limit of 30 seconds for videos featured in your Google My Business profile. That means you can use brief, engaging clips to add teasers, previews, tutorials, and tips to your page. Do a short tour of your company in video format so customers have a better idea of your company. No need for highly produced expensive content. Which leads us to our next point…

Keep It Short

In Google My Business, your posts need to be brief and to-the-point. While there is a character limit of 1500, only the initial 100 characters are seen on the listing, so it’s best to include all relevant info as succinctly as possible. Also, avoid using any technical or fancy jargon that your target customers might not be familiar with.

Avoid Hashtags

Never use hashtags in your Google My Business profile. While hashtags have different advantages, they are useless here as they don’t factor into the platform’s search functionalities. They merely take up valuable space that you could otherwise use to include interesting details capable of convincing users to click on your post.

Promote Offers and Events in Your Profile

Businesses can now include their content like special offers, promos, and upcoming events on Google maps and Google Search. This is a unique opportunity as it allows your buyers to know your business better along with your services and products.

Most people consider different businesses before making the final choice. Thanks to Google My Business, you’re able to share relevant, timely updates on Maps and Google Search so your business stands out and draws the attention of prospective buyers.

Moreover, by including customized CTAs on the business listing, you’re able to choose how you wish to connect with potential customers. Keep in mind, however, that including more than one promotion in a single post is likely to confuse buyers. In fact, some might get overwhelmed and avoid taking any action.

Monitor Your Brand Reputation in Google

Google Reviews

The reviews section in Google My Business can be quite effective if used carefully. After all, 84 percent of users trust online reviews so you need to monitor them properly. You should respond to both positive and negative customer reviews.

Try resolving issues and ensure customers come back happy. This will show other potential buyers that you value your customers and hear them out. You will also pick up new reviews this way.

Brand Mentions

Set up Google Alerts for your Business Name to be alerted when Google indexes content with your businesses name. This is super important for local businesses as a Brand Search of your business name can result in potential unfavorable information. By using Google Alerts to monitor your brand mentions you nip these problems in the bud.

Maintain Your Google My Business Listing

Updating your information is crucial to staying relevant and gaining customer’s trust. Change your contact info even if it’s something as small as taking a second business number. Your pictures should be lively and current.

If your physical space has undergone some change, make sure you share pictures of it. Keep your customers in the loop and make sure they come in and see for themselves. Also, list your holiday hours so customers stay in the loop.

As Google My Business continues to evolve, regular adjustments will be necessary. But with a little attention and knowledge, you’ll soon be at the top of the game.

The post How to Create a Great Google My Business Profile appeared first on SEO Los Angeles - Formula Internet.