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Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Farnham Brightwells objectors lay out material changes to scheme as they seek judicial review
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/farnham-brightwells-objectors-lay-out-12666868
AA wants mobile phone use while driving to be as socially unacceptable as drink driving
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/aa-wants-mobile-phone-use-12668289
Mobile phone use while driving explained: Tougher new penalties now in force
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/mobile-phone-use-driving-explained-12668731
Camberley International Festival set to return this summer
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/camberley-international-festival-set-return-12667465
Locked up in Surrey: See the county's criminals jailed during February 2017
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/locked-up-surrey-see-countys-12668542
Teenage girl taken to hotel for sex acts, court hears
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/teenage-girl-taken-hotel-sex-12671037
Lidl supermarket in Hersham set for autumn 2018 opening
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/lidl-supermarket-hersham-set-autumn-12670705
New £1 coin: Call to 'dig out your round pounds' ahead of launch of new 12-sided money
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/new-1-coin-call-dig-12671137
Pancake Day race: Shopping centre beats the council in final in Staines
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/pancake-day-race-shopping-centre-12669778
A320 roadworks: Road reopens as water firm delays work to 'minimise disruption'
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/a320-roadworks-road-reopens-water-12670693
Traffic lights will 'keep the public safe' during waterworks disruption in Camberley
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/traffic-lights-keep-public-safe-12666809
South West Trains improvements: 'Significantly fewer' trains running during weekend of major track upgrades
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/south-west-trains-improvements-significantly-12669692
Tunisia terror attack inquest: Surrey survivor agrees with coroner that local police 'didn't fancy the fight'
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/tunisia-terror-attack-inquest-surrey-12669080
Tunsgate Quarter: Exclusive tour inside Guildford's latest retail development
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/tunsgate-quarter-exclusive-tour-inside-12668855
Missing person: Police 'increasingly concerned for welfare' of University of Surrey student Viktor Ivanelo
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/missing-person-police-increasingly-concerned-12669075
Determined squirrel tries utmost to steal food from bird feeder
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/lifestyle/fun-stuff/determined-squirrel-tries-utmost-steal-12668301
Woking attempted murder probe: Pair appear in court in connection with chicken shop attack
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/woking-attempted-murder-probe-pair-12663524
Mobile phone use while driving: What's YOUR excuse?
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/mobile-phone-use-driving-whats-12667248
Magna Carta School 'bomb scare': Police and bomb disposal teams called after item 'confiscated from student'
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/magna-carta-school-bomb-scare-12667844
Molesey Road crash: Motorist taken to hospital with 'potentially serious injuries' following Walton collision
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/molesey-road-crash-motorist-taken-12667830
Government could step in over Surrey councils' failing development plans
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/government-could-step-over-surrey-12640289
Food documentary about wheat to be screened across UK including Roost café in Bagshot
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/whats-on/food-drink-news/food-documentary-wheat-screened-across-12666511
Molesey Olympian Andrew Triggs Hodge hangs up oars from professional rowing
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/molesey-olympian-andrew-triggs-hodge-12666492
Surrey potholes: YOUR views on Surrey's 'terrible' roads and cycle lanes
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/surrey-potholes-your-views-surreys-12666072
Where did the South West Trains disruption LLAMA go?!
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/south-west-trains-disruption-llama-12666026
How to Create Content That Keeps Earning Links (Even After You Stop Promoting It)
Posted by kerryjones
Do your link building results look something like this?
- Start doing outreach
- Get links
- Stop doing outreach
- No more links
Everyone talks about the long-term benefits of using content marketing as part of a link building strategy. But without the right type of content, your experience may be that you stop earning links as soon as you stop doing outreach.
In this sense, you have to keep putting gas in the car for it to keep running (marketing “gas” = time, effort, and resources). But what if there was a way to fill up the car once, and that would give it enough momentum to run for months or even years?
An example of this is a salary negotiations survey we published last year on Harvard Business Review. The study was picked up by TechCrunch months after we had finished actively promoting it. We didn’t reach out to TechCrunch. Rather, this writer presumably stumbled upon our content while doing research for his article.
So what’s the key to long-term links? Content that acts as a source.
The goal is to create something that people will find and link to when they’re in need of sources to cite in content they are creating. Writers constantly seek out sources that will back up their claims, strengthen an argument, or provide further context for readers. If your content can serve as a citation, you can be in a good position to earn a lot of passive links.
Read on for information about which content types are most likely to satisfy people in need of sources and tips on how to execute these content types yourself.
Original research and new data
Content featuring new research can be extremely powerful for building authoritative links via a PR outreach strategy.
A lot of the content we create for our clients falls under this category, but not every single link that our client campaigns earn are directly a result of us doing outreach.
In many cases, a large number of links to our client research campaigns earn come from what we call syndication. This is what typically plays out when we get a client’s campaign featured on a popular, authoritative site (which is Site A in the following scenario):
- Send content pitch to Site A.
- Site A publishes article linking to content.
- Site B sees content featured on Site A. Site B publishes article linking to content.
- Site C sees content featured on Site A. Site C publishes article linking to content.
- And so on…
So, what does this have to do with long-term link earning? Once the content is strategically seeded on relevant sites using outreach and syndication, it is well-positioned to be found by other publishers.
Site A’s content functions as the perfect citation for these additional publishers because it’s the original source of the newsworthy information, establishing it as the authority and thus making it more likely to be linked to. (This is what happened in the TechCrunch example I shared above.)
Examples
In a recent Experts on the Wire podcast, guest Andy Crestodina talked about the “missing stat.” According to Andy, most industries have “commonly asserted, but rarely supported” statements. These “stats” are begging for someone to conduct research that will confirm or debunk them. (Side note: this particular podcast episode inspired this post – definitely worth a listen!)
To find examples of content that uncovers a missing stat in the wild, we can look right here on the Moz blog…
Confirming industry assumptions
When we did our native advertising versus content marketing study, we went into it with a hypothesis that many fellow marketers would agree with: Content marketing campaigns perform better than native advertising campaigns.
This was a missing stat; there hadn’t been any studies done proving or debunking this assumption. Furthermore, there wasn’t any publicly available data about the average number of links acquired for content marketing campaigns. This was a concrete data point a lot of marketers (including us!) wanted to know since it would serve as a performance benchmark.
As part of the study, we surveyed 30 content marketing agencies about how many links the average content marketing campaign earned, in addition to other questions related to pricing, client KPIs, and more.
After the research was published here on Moz, we did some promotion to get our data featured on Harvard Business Review, Inc, and Marketing Land. This data is still being linked to and shared today without us actively promoting it, such as this mention on SEMRush’s blog and this mention on the Scoop It blog (pictured below).
To date, it’s been featured on more than 80 root domains and earned dozens of co-citations. It’s worth noting that this has been about far more than acquiring high-quality links; this research has been extremely effective for driving new business to our agency, which it continues to do to this day.
Debunking industry assumptions
But research doesn’t always confirm presumptions. For example, Buzzsumo and Moz’s research collaboration examined a million online articles. A key finding of their research: There was no overall correlation between sharing and linking. This debunked a commonly held assumption among marketers that content that gets a lot of shares will earn a lot of links, and vice versa. To date, this post has received an impressive 403 links from 190 root domains (RDs) according to Open Site Explorer.
How to use this strategy
To find original research ideas, look at how many backlinks the top results have gotten for terms like:
- [Industry topic] report
- [Industry topic] study
- [Industry topic] research
Then, using the MozBar, evaluate what you see in the top SERPs:
- Have the top results gotten a sizable number of backlinks? (This tells you if this type of research has potential to attract links.)
- Is the top-ranking content outdated? Can you provide new information? (Try Rand’s tips on leveraging keywords + year.)
- Is there a subtopic you could explore?
Additionally, seeing what has already succeeded will allow you to determine two very important things: what can be updated and what can be improved upon. This is a great place to launch a brainstorm session for new data acquisition ideas.
Industry trend and benchmark reports
Sure, this content type overlaps with “New Research and Studies,” but it merits its own section because of its specificity and high potential.
If your vertical experiences significant change from one year, quarter, or month to the next, there may be an opportunity to create recurring reports that analyze the state of your industry. This is a great opportunity to engage all different kinds of brands within your industry while also showcasing your authority in the subject.
How?
People often like to take trends and add their own commentary as to why trends are occurring or how to make the most of a new, popular strategy. That means they’ll often link to your report to provide the context.
And there’s an added promotional benefit: Once you begin regularly publishing and promoting this type of content, your industry will anticipate future releases.
Examples
HubSpot’s State of Inbound report, which features survey data from thousands of HubSpot customers, has been published annually for the last eight years. To date, the URL that hosts the report has links from 495 RDs.
Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs have teamed up for the last seven years to release two annual content marketing benchmark reports. The most recent report on B2B content marketing has earned links from 130 RDs. To gather the data, CMI and MarketingProfs emailed a survey to a sample of marketers from their own email marketing lists as well as a few lists from partner companies.
In addition to static reports, you can take this a step further and create something dynamic that is continually updated, like Indeed’s Job Trends Search (171 RDs) which pulls from their internal job listing data.
How to use this strategy
Where can you find fresh industry data? Here are a few suggestions:
Survey your customers/clients
You have a whole pool of people who have been involved in your industry, so why not ask them some questions to learn more about their thoughts, needs, fears, and experiences?
Talking directly to customers and clients is a great way to cut through speculation and discover exactly what problems they’re facing and the solutions they’re seeking.
Survey your industry
There are most likely companies in your industry that aren’t direct competitors but have a wealth of insight to provide to the overall niche.
For example, we at Fractl surveyed 1,300 publishers because we wanted to learn more about what they were looking for in content pitches. This knowledge is valuable to any content marketers involved in content promotions (including ourselves!).
Ask yourself: What aspect of your industry might need some more clarification, and who can you reach out to for more information?
Use your internal company data
This is often the easiest and most effective option. You probably have a ton of interesting data based on your interactions with customers and clients that would benefit fellow professionals in your industry.
Think about these internal data sets you have and consider how you can break it down to reveal trends in your niche while also providing actionable insights to readers.
Curated resources
Research can be one of the most time-consuming aspects of creating content. If someone has pulled together a substantial amount of information on the topic in one place, it can save anyone else writing about it a lot of time.
If you’re willing to put in the work of digging up data and examples, curated resource content may be your key to evergreen link building. Let’s look at a few common applications of this style of content.
Examples
Collections of statistics and facts
Don’t have the means to conduct your own research? Combining insightful data points from credible sources into one massive resource is also effective for long-term link attraction, especially if you keep updating your list with fresh data.
HubSpot’s marketing statistics list has attracted links from 963 root domains. For someone looking for data points to cite, a list like this can be a gold mine. This comprehensive data collection features their original data plus data from external sources. It’s regularly updated with new data, and there’s even a call-to-action at the end of the list to submit new stats.
Your list doesn’t need to be as broad as the HubSpot example, which covers a wide range of marketing topics. A curated list around a more granular topic can work, too, such as this page filled with mobile email statistics (550 RDs).
Concrete examples
Good writers help readers visualize what they’re writing about. To do this, you need to show concrete evidence of abstract ideas. As my 7th grade English teacher used to tell us: show, don’t tell.
By grouping a bunch of relevant examples in a single resource, you can save someone a lot of time when they’re in need of examples to illustrate the points they make in their writing. I can write thousands of words about the idea of 10x content, but without showing examples of what it looks like in action, you’re probably going to have a hard time understanding it. Similarly, the bulk of time it took me to create this post was spent finding concrete examples of the types of content I refer to.
The resource below showcases 50 examples of responsive design. Simple in its execution, the content features screenshots of each responsive website and a descriptive paragraph or two. It’s earned links from 184 RDs.
Authority Nutrition’s list of 20 high-protein foods has links from 53 RDs. If I’m writing a nutrition article where I mention high-protein foods, linking to this page will save me from researching and listing out a handful of protein-rich foods.
How to use this strategy
The first step is to determine what kind of information would be valuable to have all in one place for other professionals in your industry to access.
Often times, it’s the same information that would be valuable for you.
Here are some ways to brainstorm:
- Explore your recent blog posts or other on-site content. What needed a lot of explaining? What topics did you wish you had more examples to link to? Take careful note of your own content needs while tackling your own work.
- Examine comments on other industry articles and resources. What are people asking for? This is a gold mine for the needs of potential customers. You can take a similar approach on Reddit and Quora.
- What works for other industries that you can apply to your own? Search for terms like the following to see what has been successful for other niches that you can apply to yours:
- [Industry topic] examples
- types of [industry topic]
- list of [Industry topic]
- [Industry topic] statistics OR stats
- [Industry topic] facts
No matter which way you choose to proceed, the time investment can help you garner many links down the line.
Beginner content
Every niche has a learning curve, with various words, concepts, and ideas being foreign to a beginner.
Content that teaches noobs the ins and outs of your vertical has long-term linking potential. This type of content is popular for citations because it saves the writer from explaining things in their own words. Instead, they can link to the expert’s explanation.
And the best part is you can tap your internal experts to provide great insights that can serve as the foundation for this type of content.
Examples
101 Content
Moz’s Beginner’s Guide to SEO is a master class in how comprehensive beginner-level content becomes a link magnet. Not only does the guide have backlinks from more than 1,700 RDs, it also edges out the home page as the most-trafficked page on the site, according to SEMrush.
“What is...?”
Beginner content need not be as massive and thorough as the Moz guide to be linkable. It can be as simple as defining an industry term or concept.
Moz’s meta description page, which has backlinks from 244 RDs, is a solid example of an authoritative yet simple answer to a “what is?” query.
Another example is the first result in Google for the query “what is the Paleo diet,” which has 731 links from 228 RDs. It’s not a 10,000-word academic paper about the paleo diet. Rather, it’s a concise answer to the question. This page has served as an excellent source for anyone writing about the Paleo diet within the last several years.
If a lot of adequate top-level, definition-style content already exists about topics related to your vertical, consider creating content around emerging terms and concepts that aren’t yet widely understood, but may soon be more mainstream.
The perfect example of this? Creating a definitive explanation about content marketing before the entire world knew what content marketing meant. Case in point: Content Marketing Institute’s “What is Content Marketing?” page has amassed an impressive from 12,462 links from 1,100 root domains.
How to use this strategy
Buzzsumo recently released a new tool called Bloomberry which scours forums including Reddit and Quora for questions being asked about a keyword. You can search by time period (ex. questions asked within the last 6 months, all-time results, etc.) and filter by source (ex. only see questions asked in Reddit).
Use Bloomberry to see what beginner questions are being asked about your keyword/topic. Keyword ideas include:
- [Industry topic] definition
- How does [industry topic] work
- [Industry topic] guide
- What is [industry topic]
After doing the search, ask yourself:
- What questions keep coming up?
- How are these common questions being answered?
Bloomberry is also useful for spotting research opportunities. Within the first few results for “SaaS” I found three potential research ideas.
Pro tip: Return to these threads and provide an answer plus link to your content once it’s published.
Yes, you still need to promote your content
Don’t mistake this post as a call to stop actively doing outreach and promotion to earn links. Content promotion should serve as the push that gives your content the momentum to continue earning links. After you put in the hard work of getting your content featured on reputable sites with sizable audiences, you have strong potential to organically attract more links. And the more links your content has, the easier it will be for writers and publishers in need of sources to find it.
What types of content do you think are best for earning citation links? I’d love to hear what’s worked for you – please share your experiences in the comments below.Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!
from The Moz Blog http://tracking.feedpress.it/link/9375/5428622
Thorpe Bypass crash: Cyclist fighting for his life in hospital after colliision with van
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/thorpe-bypass-crash-cyclist-fighting-12665995
Monday, February 27, 2017
Council tax rise: Surrey Heath Borough Council approves £5 increase for Band D property
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/council-tax-rise-surrey-heath-12661563
See spectacular views of Guildford from the town's cathedral
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/see-spectacular-views-guildford-towns-12663236
Ultra White Collar Boxing challenge as Staines man joins fundraising fight for Cancer Research UK
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/staines-dustman-training-charity-boxing-12630338
Blue plaque honours John Rhodes Cobb, former world land speed record holder
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/motoring/motoring-news/john-rhodes-cobb-blue-plaque-12665671
Hope for Alix: £36,000 raised for life-saving treatment for Woking mum with cancer
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/hope-alix-36000-raised-lifesaving-12665762
Molesey Road collision involving two cars in Walton
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/molesey-road-collision-involving-two-12665586
From 'Nightmare on Elm Street to Disneyland' - developer submits apartment plans for former Walton pub building
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/nightmare-elm-street-disneyland-developer-12665418
The Restaurant at Tante Marie launches 'pay as you wish' academy lunches and suppers
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/whats-on/food-drink-news/restaurant-tante-marie-launches-pay-12664689
Pancake Day races in Guildford have been saved by Waitrose
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/pancake-day-races-guildford-been-12664569
Addlestone Salvation Army charity shop attack suspect pleads not guilty to attempted murder
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/addlestone-salvation-army-charity-shop-12664267
Thorpe Park Half Marathon: Organisers apologise for 'tight timings' which resulted in logo being cut off medals
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/thorpe-park-half-marathon-organisers-12663431
Guildford Belmont Avenue fire: Neighbours pay tribute to "lovely" elderly man
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/guildford-belmont-avenue-fire-neighbours-12663331
When is Pancake Day 2017 and the first day of Lent?
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/whats-on/food-drink-news/when-is-pancake-day-2017-8591697
15 places to tuck into delicious pancakes (if you can't be bothered to cook them!)
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/whats-on/food-drink-news/7-places-tuck-delicious-pancakes-10862877
A3 crash northbound: Major delays after car hits barrier at Ripley Bypass
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/a3-crash-northbound-major-delays-12664114
Pedestrian suffers multiple injuries after collision with car near Camberley Arena Leisure Centre
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/pedestrian-suffers-multiple-injuries-after-12663126
YOUR views on 'rowdy' patrons at Woking theatre Whitney Houston fans' night
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/your-views-rowdy-patrons-woking-12663381
Woldingham serious two-vehicle crash leaves 'number of people injured'
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/woldingham-serious-two-vehicle-crash-12662648
Man who once ran away from police in his BOXERS jailed after breaching suspended sentence
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/man-who-once-ran-away-12654403
UK Cat Killer: Mutilated bodies of two cats found in Chertsey and Ashford are 'latest victims of killing spree'
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/uk-cat-killer-mutilated-bodies-12662163
Surrey potholes: Is this the county's worst cycle lane?
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/surrey-potholes-countys-worst-cycle-12644299
Woman denies attempting to murder police officer at Farncombe railway station
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/woman-denies-attempting-murder-police-12662279
Dorking and Oxted chocolate fairs make an indulgent return
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/whats-on/food-drink-news/dorking-oxted-chocolate-fairs-make-12661314
Woking Lockfield Drive crash: Teenager fighting for his life in hospital following accident
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/woking-lockfield-drive-crash-teenager-12661763
Peterson's Fund urgent appeal for new home for fancy dress wardrobe as current base set to be redeveloped
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/petersons-fund-urgent-appeal-new-12632586
Gruffalo River Ride opens next month at Chessington World of Adventures
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/whats-on/family-kids-news/gruffalo-river-ride-opens-next-12661207
Thorpe Park Half Marathon: Medal cut was 'only option' in trademark issue that was 'outside of organisers' control'
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/thorpe-park-half-marathon-medal-12661009
M4 westbound closure following early morning collision near Heathrow Airport
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/m4-westbound-closure-following-early-12660990
How to spot fake new £5 notes after police fraud warning
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/how-spot-fake-new-5-12661017
Fiery Bird crowdfunder makes nearly £6k as plans for live music and arts venue move a step closer
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/fiery-bird-crowdfunder-makes-nearly-12643822
Sunday, February 26, 2017
'I'm 30 years old and can't afford to move out of my mother's house': Meet the people struggling to afford to live in Surrey - or have already been 'priced out'
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/im-30-years-old-cant-12658511
Serial offenders jailed for five years after Woking jewellery raid and burglary spree
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/serial-offenders-jailed-five-years-12659038
Stompard Lane Development: Plans submitted to build more than 50 houses in Walton
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/stompard-lane-development-plans-submitted-12655384
Appeal launched after 265-home development in Cranleigh rejected
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/appeal-launched-rejected-265-home-12653029
Thorpe Park Half Marathon: There's something not quite right about your medal, isn't there?
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/thorpe-park-half-marathon-theres-12659855
Thorpe Park Half Marathon: Best pictures as thousands of runners take part in inaugural event
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/thorpe-park-half-marathon-best-12659775
Why is Ryan Gosling looking for a new home in Surrey? (note: must have decent water feature)
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/ryan-gosling-looking-new-home-12659448
What happened to the M24? We have the M23 and the M25 in Surrey, so where is our 'missing motorway'?
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/local-news/what-happened-m24-m23-m25-12659462
Woking police incident: Attempted murder probe launched after 'targeted' knife attack at chicken shop
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/woking-police-incident-police-launch-12659378
Thorpe Park Half Marathon: Thousands of runners turn out for inaugural dash around famous theme park
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/thorpe-park-half-marathon-thousands-12659200
Chertsey Aldi: Work continues at site ahead of supermarket's spring opening
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/chertsey-aldi-work-continues-site-12654409
Tributes pour in for 'amazing and unique' former Mytchett councillor John Emuss
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/tributes-pour-amazing-unique-former-12646573
'Our whole school community can be proud': Headteacher's joy as Guildford County School rated 'Outstanding' by Ofsted
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/our-whole-school-community-can-12641608
Cheryl 'moves in with Liam Payne in Surrey' as couple prepare for arrival of first child
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/cheryl-moves-liam-payne-surrey-12658745
M3 Smart Motorway: Motorists facing week of night-time closures as £174m scheme works continue
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/m3-smart-motorway-motorists-facing-12652054
Barclays apologises for systems crash which took out cards, cash machines and phone banking
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/barclays-apologises-systems-crash-took-12658581
Dramatic picture shows aftermath of scary smash in Guildford as car ploughs into roundabout
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/dramatic-picture-shows-aftermath-scary-12658540
Cranleigh firefighters attend almost 100 medical emergencies as co-responding pilot scheme hailed a success
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/cranleigh-firefighters-attend-100-medical-12651170
Stem cell transplant 'gave me a second chance in life' says Frimley man
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/stem-cell-transplant-gave-second-12641370
Saturday, February 25, 2017
Surrey stars Keziah Rodell and Dannii Barnes storm into The Voice battle rounds
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/surrey-stars-keziah-rodell-dannii-12651693
Who is Gavin Rossdale on The Voice UK?
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/who-gavin-rossdale-voice-uk-12653022
Royal Surrey County Hospital fundraisers walk on red hot coals to raise money for Early Pregnancy Unit
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/royal-surrey-county-hospital-fundraisers-12657968
Shepperton Studios could start hosting autism-friendly cinema screenings
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/shepperton-studios-could-start-hosting-12653173
BBC Top Gear: 'Around 50 audience members' turned away from Dunsfold set due to being full
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/bbc-top-gear-around-50-12657732
Guildford Rotary Club celebrates knock out 40th anniversary of annual Boxing Dinner
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/guildford-rotary-club-celebrates-knock-12657423
Berkeley Homes reassures Cranleigh residents it WILL build all 425 homes proposed for the village
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/berkeley-homes-reassures-cranleigh-residents-12653178
Missing Cobham teenager Tyler Cotton found 'safe and well'
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/missing-cobham-teenager-tyler-cotton-12656862
Has Surrey become TOO expensive? Get Surrey readers say they are being 'priced out' of the county
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/surrey-become-expensive-surrey-readers-12656760
Beauty and the Beast filming in Surrey raises nearly £400,000 for depleted county council coffers
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/beauty-beast-filming-surrey-raises-12656268
'We already have a garden village - it's called Chobham!': Residents voice fears over 1,500-home Fairoaks 'garden village' development at planning workshops
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/fairoaks-garden-village-chobham-meeting-12655741
Woking Lockfield Drive crash: Teenager suffers serious head injuries in horrifying early morning smash
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/woking-lockfield-drive-crash-teenager-12656386
Guildford Belmont Avenue incident: Body of man in his 70s found at burned out house in Stoughton
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/guildford-belmont-avenue-incident-body-12656373
Guildford Belmont Avenue incident: Investigation under way after fire tears through roof of house
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/guildford-belmont-avenue-incident-investigation-12656078
New £1 coin: Did you know Britain's new quid nearly featured an engraving of a full English breakfast?
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/new-1-coin-you-know-12656108
Urgent appeal to trace 'vulnerable' missing Cobham teenager Tyler Cotton last seen in Farnborough three days ago
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/urgent-appeal-trace-vulnerable-missing-12655828
Surrey Heath food hygiene: Six restaurants and takeaways have the second worst possible rating
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/surrey-heath-food-hygiene-six-12655045
Woking Lockfield Road crash: 'Serious collision' sees police shut road between Brampton Way and Denton Way
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/woking-lockfield-road-crash-serious-12655752
Thorpe Park Half Marathon: Find out which roads will be affected by closures
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/thorpe-park-half-marathon-find-12651223
Thorpe Park Half Marathon - everything you need to know
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/whats-on/family-kids-news/thorpe-park-half-marathon-everything-12653497
Royal Mail map shows how far people have gone to escape living in Surrey
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/royal-mail-map-shows-how-12645676
Friday, February 24, 2017
Farnham Neighbourhood Plan clears latest hurdle after independent examiner gives the nod
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/farnham-neighbourhood-plan-clears-latest-12652299
Michael Gove visits exhibition to learn about Fairoaks garden village proposals
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/michael-gove-visits-exhibition-learn-12654802
Firearms and ammunition recovered following Redhill burglary
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/firearms-ammunition-recovered-following-redhill-12654676
Surrey Union hunt 'whip' incident follows a rise in anti-hunting violence, says the Countryside Alliance
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/incoming/surrey-union-hunt-whip-incident-12649576
M25 anticlockwise crash: Road blocked after three-vehicle crash during rush hour
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/m25-anticlockwise-crash-road-blocked-12655267
Weekend weather forecast: Storm Doris clears leaving unsettled conditions with sunny spells and rain
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/weekend-weather-forecast-storm-doris-12655211
New Spelthorne fire station: Councillors back calls for two fire engines at Ashford base
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/new-spelthorne-fire-station-councillors-12654023
Hapless drug dealers who concealed wraps of Class A drugs between their BUTTOCKS jailed for seven years
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/hapless-drug-dealers-who-concealed-12654590
Love Island: ITV2 looks for contestants to take part in next series of steamy show
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/love-island-itv2-looks-contestants-12651817
Police called to Woking Theatre during production of Whitney - Queen of the Night due to 'rowdy' patrons
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/police-called-woking-theatre-during-12654484
Frimley Health Trust CEO tops list of UK NHS bosses, rating him best in UK
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/frimley-health-trust-ceo-tops-12639280
Council has 'head in the sand' says campaign group demanding action over Heathrow aircraft noise
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/council-head-sand-says-campaign-12636670
Motown the Musical holding open auditions to cast young Michael Jackson in West End production
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/whats-on/arts-culture-news/motown-musical-holding-open-auditions-12652532
RSPCA Millbrook nursing four-day-old pup dumped by bins and named after Storm Doris
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/rspca-millbrook-nursing-four-day-12653205
Tesco Express will NOT open in Godalming almost two years after devastating arson halted plans
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/tesco-express-not-open-godalming-12652754
River Cottage chef to bring special five course tasting menu to Thursley pub
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/whats-on/food-drink-news/river-cottage-chef-bring-special-12651195
McLaren launches new MCL32 2017 Formula 1 car - and it's bright orange!
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/sport/other-sport/motorsport/mclaren-launches-new-mcl32-2017-12652815
First look inside refurbished Duke of Wellington gastro pub
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/whats-on/food-drink-news/first-look-inside-refurbished-duke-12651610
UKIP defections: Tories quit during meeting as new group is formed on Spelthorne Borough Council
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/ukip-defections-tories-quit-during-12650607
Storm Doris: South West Trains apologises for disruption after 60mph winds ripped up trees across network
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/storm-doris-south-west-trains-12650158
Man charged with firearms offences in connection with Leatherhead incident
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/man-charged-firearms-offences-connection-12650756
Archbishop of Canterbury warned CofE would not 'rescue' cash-strapped Guildford Cathedral if homes plan failed
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/archbishop-canterbury-warned-cofe-would-12650859
M25 Chertsey crash: Road reopens after rush hour collision leaves motorcyclist in hospital
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/m25-chertsey-crash-motorcyclist-taken-12650644
A30 disruption: Motorists warned to expect disruption at Camberley during water pipes project
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/a30-disruption-motorists-warned-expect-12644928
Eminem announced as third headliner for Reading Festival 2017
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife-news/eminem-announced-third-headliner-reading-12648486
M25 motorbike crash
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/m25-motorbike-crash--12650238
3 Tactics for Hyperlocal Keywords - Whiteboard Friday
Posted by randfish
Trying to target a small, specific region with your keywords can prove frustrating. While reaching a high-intent local audience is incredibly valuable, without volume data to inform your keyword research, you'll find yourself hitting a wall. In this Whiteboard Friday, Rand shares how to uncover powerful, laser-focused keywords that will reach exactly the right people.
Video Transcription
Howdy, Moz fans, and welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. This week we're going to chat about hyperlocal keyword research. Now, this is a big challenge, not only for hyperlocal-focused businesses, but also for all kinds of websites that are trying to target very small regions, and many of them, with their keyword research and keyword targeting, on-page optimization.
The problem:
So the problem tends to be that most keyword research tools, and this includes things like the Google AdWords Tool, it includes Moz's Keyword Explorer, or KeywordTool.io, or Ãœbersuggest, or anybody you want to use, most of them are relying on volume data.
So what happens is when you see a bunch of keyword suggestions, you type in "Sequim," for example, Sequim is a tiny town on Washington's peninsula, so across the Puget Sound from where we are here in Seattle. Sequim has a population of like 6,500 people or something like that, so very tiny. So most searches related to Sequim have no volume data in any of these tools. As a result, you don't see a lot of information about: How can I target these keywords? What are the right ones to go after? You don't know whether a keyword has zero searches a month, or whether it has four searches a month, and those four searchers are exactly who you want to get in front of, and this is really problematic.
There are three solutions that we've seen professional SEOs use and that some of us here at Moz use and the Moz Local team uses, and these can be real handy for you.
Solution 1: Use keyword data for larger, similar regions
So the first one is to basically replicate the data by using keyword information that comes from similar regions nearby. So let's say, okay, here we are in Sequim, Washington, population 6,669. But Port Angeles is only a few miles away. I think maybe a couple dozen miles away. But its population is more like 20,000. So we've got four or five times the keyword volume for most searches probably. This is going to include some outlying areas. So now we can start to get data. Not everything is going to be zero searches per month, and we can probably backtrack that to figure out what Sequim's data is going to be like.
The same thing goes for Ruidoso versus Santa Fe. Ruidoso, almost 8,000. But Santa Fe's population is almost 10 times larger at 70,000. Or Stowe, Vermont, 4,300, tiny, little town. Burlington is nearby, 10 times bigger at 42,000. Great. So now I can take these numbers and I can intuit what the relative volumes are, because the people of Burlington are probably similar in their search patterns to the people of Stowe. There are going to be a few differences, but for most types of local searches this will work.
Solution 2: Let Google autosuggest help
The second one, Google autosuggest can be really helpful here. So Google Suggest does not care if there's one search a month or one search in the last year, versus zero searched in the last year. They'll still show you something. Well, zero searched in the last year, they won't show you anything.
But for example, when I search for "Sequim day," I can intuit here, because of the ordering that Google Suggest shows me, that "Sequim day spa" is more popular than "day care." Sequim, by the way, sounds like a lovely place to live if you are someone who enjoys few children and lots of spa time, apparently. Then, "day hikes."
So this technique doesn't just work with Google itself. It'll also work with Bing, with Google Maps, and with YouTube. Another suggestion on this one, you will see different results if you use a mobile device versus a desktop device. So you might want to change it up and try your mobile device. That can give you some different results.
Solution 3: Use lexical or related SERP suggestions
All right. Third tactic here, last one, you can use sort of two styles of keyword research. One is called lexical, which is basically the semantic relationships between words and phrases. The other one is related SERP suggestions, which is where a keyword research tool — Moz Keyword Explorer does this, SEMrush is very popular for this, and there are a few others — and they will basically show you search terms the links that came up, the search results that came up for "Sequim day care" also came up in searches for these terms and phrases. So these are like SERPs for which your SERP also ranked.
You can see, when I searched for "Sequim day care," I did this in Keyword Explorer, because I happen to have a Moz Keyword Explorer subscription. It's very nice of Moz to give me that. You can see that I used two kinds of suggestions. One are related to keywords with similar results, so that's the related SERPs. The other one was based on closely related topics, like the semantic, lexical thing. "Sequim day care" has given me great stuff like "Banbury School Nursery," a nearby town, "secondary schools in Banbury," "Horton Day Nursery," which is a nursery that's actually near there, "Port Angeles childcare," "children's nursery."
So now I'm getting a bunch of keyword suggestions that can potentially be relevant and lead me down a path. When I look at closely related topics, I can see things like closely related topics. By the way, what I did is I actually removed the term "Sequim," because that was showing me a lot of things that are particular to that region. But if I search for "day care," I can see lots of closely related topics, like day care center, childcare, school care, special needs children, preschool programs, and afterschool programs. So now I can take all of these and apply the name of the town and get these hyperlocal results.
This is frustrating still. You don't have nearly the data that you have for much more popular search terms. But this is a good way to start building that keyword list, targeting, experimenting, and testing out the on-page work that you're going to need to do to rank for these terms. Then, you'll start to see your traffic grow from these.
Hyperlocal may be small, but it can be powerful, it can be very targeted, and it can bring you exactly the customers you're looking for.
So good luck with your targeting out there, and we'll see you again next week for another edition of Whiteboard Friday. Take care.
Video transcription by Speechpad.com
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Thursday, February 23, 2017
Aggressive dog grabs terrified Cocker Spaniel by throat in vicious Guildford attack
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/aggressive-dog-grabs-terrified-cocker-12647127
A320 roadworks to continue with road closures and two-way traffic lights
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/a320-roadworks-continue-road-closures-12645077
Surrey Heath boasts the lowest crime figures in west Surrey, report reveals
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/surrey-heath-boasts-lowest-crime-12647833
Warning for owner after 'repeatedly allowing dog to foul' in three Walton roads
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/warning-owner-after-repeatedly-allowing-12642360
‘Disquiet’ over Cranleigh developer’s phased building approval for 425 homes
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/disquiet-over-cranleigh-developers-phased-12649941
South East Water announces flushing work in Ash to remove harmless deposits from pipes
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/south-east-water-announces-flushing-12646474
Surrey County Council leader David Hodge receives CBE at Buckingham Palace
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/surrey-county-council-leader-david-12649765
Vulnerable missing Redhill man Joseph Waterworth believed to be in Wandsworth or Harrow
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/vulnerable-missing-redhill-man-joseph-12649803
Storm Doris: Trees uprooted, roof tiles ripped off and roads and railways blocked after 60mph winds hit south east
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/storm-doris-trees-uprooted-roof-12649516
Storm Doris: See roof tiles hanging from Waitrose Egham roof in high winds
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/storm-doris-see-roof-tiles-12649277
Prince Edward, The Earl of Wessex, visits four Surrey charities in one day
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/prince-edward-earl-wessex-visits-12649242
Dorking resident and fellow Chinese national to stand trial accused of running a brothel
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/dorking-resident-fellow-chinese-national-12649138
Storm Doris: Man hit by flying debris outside London Victoria station
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/storm-doris-man-hit-flying-12648572
Hurst Green man reunited with dog seven days after she fled when he was attacked at station
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/hurst-green-man-reunited-dog-12648328
Chertsey police presence: Officers descend on property following report of domestic incident
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/chertsey-police-presence-officers-descend-12646374
See flames which engulfed van and stopped traffic on M23 near Gatwick Airport
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/see-flames-engulfed-van-stopped-12647415
Storm Doris: See 'loose and dangerous' banner in Guildford High Street made safe by firefighters
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/storm-doris-see-loose-dangerous-12647032
Storm Doris: 'Big creak' as huge tree comes crashing down at Frimley school while children out on morning break
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/storm-doris-big-creak-huge-12646887
Storm Doris: Dozens of trees ripped up across Surrey as county battered by 60mph winds
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/storm-doris-dozens-trees-ripped-12647024
Ed Sheeran and Stormzy swap T-shirts after stealing show at Brits 2017
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/ed-sheeran-stormzy-swap-shirts-12645863
10 of the best rated and cheapest hotels in or near Surrey
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/lifestyle/travel/10-best-rated-cheapest-hotels-12639281
Cheryl confirms pregnancy with Liam Payne as she's pictured cradling bump in Prince's Trust campaign
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/cheryl-confirms-pregnancy-liam-payne-12645937
Ed2
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/ed2-12646010
Chertsey woman used home as base for child sex trafficking ring, court hears
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/chertsey-woman-used-home-base-12644583
Surrey Heath shops pass police purchasing test with 'excellent results'
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/surrey-heath-shops-pass-police-12643026
Deepcut Barracks development: Protests continue over Frimley Green traffic lights which 'will change village life forever'
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/deepcut-barracks-development-protests-continue-12629546
Brooklands College demolition: Developer halts tear down after finally heeding council stop notice
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/brooklands-college-demolition-developer-halts-12644717
Interpreter helped driving theory test candidates cheat by giving answers in secret Ukranian code instead of Russian
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/interpreter-helped-driving-theory-test-12642869
Storm Doris: Trains and planes hit as Surrey lashed by 60mph winds and heavy rain
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/storm-doris-trains-planes-hit-12644076
Local SEO & Beyond: Ranking Your Local Business in 2017
Posted by Casey_Meraz
In 2016, I predicted that ranking in the 3-pack was hard and it would continually get more competitive. I maintain that prediction for 2017, but I want to make one thing clear. If you haven't done so, I believe local businesses should start to look outside of a local-SEO-3-Pack-ONLY focused strategy.
While local SEO still presents a tremendous opportunity to grow your business, I'm going to look at some supplementary organic strategies you can take into your local marketing campaign, as well.
In this post I'm going to address:
- How local search has changed since last year
- Why & how your overall focus may need to change in 2017
- Actionable advice on how to rank better to get more local traffic & more business
In local search success, one thing is clear
The days of getting in the 3-pack and having a one-trick pony strategy are over. Every business wants to get the free traffic from Google’s local results, but the chances are getting harder everyday. Not only are you fighting against all of your competitors trying to get the same rankings, but now you’re also fighting against even more ads.
If you thought it was hard to get top placement today in the local pack, just consider that you're also fighting against 4+ ads before customers even have the possibility of seeing your business.
Today's SERPs are ad-rich with 4 paid ads at the top, and now it's not uncommon to find paid listings prioritized in local results. Just take a look at this example that Gyi Tsakalakis shared with me, showing one ad in the local pack on mobile ranking above the 3-pack results. Keep in mind, there are four other ads above this.
If you were on desktop and you clicked on one of the 3-pack results, you're taken to the local finder. In the desktop search example below, once you make it to the local finder you'll see two paid local results above the other businesses.
Notice how only the companies participating in paid ads have stars. Do you think that gives them an advantage? I do.
Don't worry though, I'm not jaded by ads
After all of that gloomy ad SERP talk, you're probably getting a little depressed. Don't. With every change there comes new opportunity, and we've seen many of our clients excel in search by focusing on multiple strategies that work for their business.
Focusing on the local pack should still be a strong priority for you, even if you don't have a pay-to-play budget for ads. Getting listed in the local finder can still result in easy wins — especially if you have the most reviews, as Google has very handy sorting options.
If you have the highest rating score, you can easily get clicks when users decide to sort the results they see by the business rating. Below is an example of how users can easily sort by ratings.
But what else can you do to compete effectively in your local market?
Consider altering your local strategy
Most businesses I speak with seem to have tunnel vision. They think it's more important to rank in the local pack and, in some cases, even prioritize this over the real goal: more customers.
Every day, I talk to new businesses and marketers that seem to have a single area of focus. While it's not necessarily a bad thing to do one thing really well, the ones that are most successful are managing a variety of campaigns tied to their business goals.
Instead of taking a single approach of focusing on just free local clicks, expand your horizon a bit and ask yourself this question: Where are my customers looking and how can I get in front of them?
Sometimes taking a step back and looking at things from the 30,000-ft view is beneficial.
You can start by asking yourself these questions by examining the SERPs:
1. What websites, OTHER THAN MY OWN, have the most visibility for the topics and keywords I'm interested in?
You can bet people are clicking on results other than your own website underneath the local results. Are they websites you can show up on? How do you increase that visibility?
I think STAT has a great tracking tool for this. You simply set up the keywords you want to track and their Share of Voice feature shows who's ranking where and what percentage of visibility they have in your specific market.
In the example below, you can see the current leaders in a space I'm tracking. Notice how Findlaw & Yelp show up there. With a little further research I can find out if they have number 1–2 rankings (which they do) and determine whether I should put in place a strategy to rank there. This is called barnacle SEO.
2. Are my customers using voice search?
Maybe it's just me, but I find it strange to talk to my computer. That being said, I have no reservations about talking to my phone — even when I'm in places I shouldn't. Stone Temple recently published a great study on voice command search, which you can check out here.
Some of the cool takeaways from that study were where people search from. It seems people are more likely to search from the privacy of their own home, but most mobile devices out there today have voice search integrated. I wonder how many people are doing this from their cars?
This goes to show that local queries are not just about the 3-pack. While many people may ask their device "What's the nearest pizza place," other's may ask a variety of questions like:
Where is the highest-rated pizza place nearby?
Who makes the best pizza in Denver?
What's the closest pizza place near me?
Don't ignore voice search when thinking about your localized organic strategy. Voice is mobile and voice can sure be local. What localized searches would someone be interested in when looking for my business? What questions might they be asking that would drive them to my local business?
3. Is my website optimized for "near me" searches?
"Near me" searches have been on the rise over the past five years and I don't expect that to stop. Sometimes customers are just looking for something close by. Google Trends data shows how this has changed in the past five years:Are you optimizing for a "near me" strategy for your business? Recently the guys over at Local SEO Guide did a study of "near me" local SEO ranking factors. Optimizing for "near me" searches is important and it falls right in line with some of the tactical advice we have for increasing your Google My Business rankings as well. More on that later.
4. Should my business stay away from ads?
Let's start by looking at a some facts. Google makes money off of their paid ads. According to an article from Adweek, "During the second quarter of 2016, Alphabet's revenue hit $21.5 billion, a 21% year-over-year increase. Of that revenue, $19.1 billion came from Google's advertising business, up from $16 billion a year ago."
This roughly translates to: "Ads aren't going anywhere and Google is going to do whatever they can to put them in your face." If you didn't see the Home Service ad test with all ads that Mike Blumenthal pointed out, you can check it out below. Google is trying to find more creative ways to monetize local search.
Incase you haven't heard it before, having both organic and paid listings ranking highly increases your overall click-through rate.
Although the last study I found was from Google in 2012, we've found that our clients have the most success when they rank strong organically, locally, and have paid placements. All of these things tie together. If potential customers are already searching for your business, you'll see great results by being involved in all of these areas.
While I'm not a fan of only taking a pay-to-play approach, you need to at least start considering it and testing it for your niche to see if it works for you. Combine it with your overall local and organic strategy.
5. Are we ignoring the featured snippets?
Searches with local intent can still trigger featured snippets. One example that I saw recently and really liked was the snowboard size chart example, which you can see below. In this example, someone who is interested in snowboards gets an answer box that showcases a company. If someone is doing this type of research, there's a likelihood that they may wish to purchase a snowboard soon.
Depending on your niche, there are plenty of opportunities to increase your local visibility by not ignoring featured snippets and creating content to rank there. Check out this Whiteboard Friday to learn more about how you can get featured snippets.
Now that we've looked at some ways you can expand your strategies, let's look at some tactical steps you can take to move the needle.
Here's how you can gain more visibility
Now that you have an open mind, let's take a look at the actionable things you can do to improve your overall visibility and rankings in locally centric campaigns. As much as I like to think local SEO is rocket science, it really isn't. You really need to focus your attention on the things that are going to move the needle.
I'm also going to assume you've already done the basics, like optimize your listing by filling out the profile 100%.
Later last year, Local SEO Guide and Placescout did a great study that looked at 100+ variables from 30,000 businesses to determine what factors might have the most overall impact in local 3-pack rankings. If you have some spare time I recommend checking it out. It verified that the signals we put the most effort into seem to have the greatest overall effect.
I'm only going to dive into a few of those factors, but here are the things I would do to focus on a results-first strategy:
Start with a solid website/foundation
What good are rankings without conversions? The answer is they aren't any good. If you're always keeping your business goals in mind, start with the basics. If your website isn't loading fast, you're losing conversions and you may experience a reduced crawl budget.
My #1 recommendation that affects all aspects of SEO and conversions is to start with a solid website. Ignoring this usually creates bigger problems later down the road and can negatively impact your overall rankings.
Your website should be SEO-friendly and load in the 90th percentile on Google's Page Speed Insights. You can also see how fast your website loads for users using tools like GTMetrix. Google seems to reduce the visibility of slower websites, so if you're ignoring the foundation you're going to have issues. Here are 6 tips you can use for a faster Wordpress website.
Crawl errors for bots can also wreak havoc on your website. You should always strive to maintain a healthy site. Check up on your website using Google's Search Console and use Moz Pro to monitor your clients' campaigns by actively tracking the sites' health, crawl issues, and domain health over time. Having higher scores and less errors should be your focus.
Continue with a strong review generation strategy
I'm sure many of you took a deep breath when earlier this month Google changed the review threshold to only 1 review. That's right. In case you didn't hear, Google is now giving all businesses a review score based on any number of reviews you have, as you can see in the example below:I know a lot of my colleagues were a big fan of this, but I have mixed feelings since Google isn't taking any serious measures to reduce review spam or penalize manipulative businesses at this point.
Don't ignore the other benefits of reviews, as well. Earlier I mentioned that users can sort by review stars; having more reviews will increase your overall CTR. Plus, after talking to many local businesses, we've gotten a lot of feedback that consumers are actively using these scores more than ever.
So, how do you get more reviews?
Luckily, Google's current Review and Photo Policies do not prohibit the direct solicitation of reviews at this point (unlike Yelp).
Start by soliciting past customers on your list
If you're not already collecting customer information on your website or in-store, you're behind the times and you need to start doing so immediately.
I work mainly with attorneys. Working in that space, there are regulations we have to follow, and typically the number of clients is substantially less than a pizza joint. In pickles like this, where the volume is low, we can take a manual approach where we identify the happiest clients and reach out to them using this process. This particular process also creates happy employees. :)
- List creation: We start by screening the happiest clients. We then sort these by who has a Gmail account for priority's sake.
- Outreach by phone: I don't know why digital marketers are afraid of the phone, but we've had a lot of success calling our prior clients. We have the main point-of-contact from the business who's worked with them before call and ask how the service they received was. The caller informs them that they have a favor to ask and that their overall job performance is partially based off of client feedback. They indicate they're going to send a follow-up email if it's OK with the customer.
- Send a follow-up email: We then use a Google review link generator, which creates an exact URL that opens the review box for the person if they're logged into their Gmail account.
- Follow-up email: Sometimes emails get lost. We follow up a few times to make sure the client leaves the review...
- You have a new review!
The method above works great for low-volume businesses. If you're a higher-volume business or have a lot of contacts, I recommend using a more automated service to prepare for future and ongoing reviews, as it'll make the process a heck of a lot easier. Typically we use Get Five Stars or Infusionsoft integrations to complete this for our clients.
If you run a good business that people like, you can see results like this. This is a local business which had 7 reviews in 2015. Look where they are now with a little automation asking happy customers to leave a review:
Don't ignore & don't be afraid of links
One thing Google succeeded at is scaring away people from getting manipulative links. In many areas, that went too far and resulted in people not going after links at all, diminishing their value as a ranking factor, and telling the world that links are dead.
Well, I'm here to tell you that you need good links to your website. If you want to rank in competitive niches or in certain geographic areas, the anchor text can make a big difference. Multiple studies have shown the effectiveness of links to this very day, and their importance cannot be overlooked.
This table outlines which link tactics work best for each strategy:
Strategy Type | Link Tactic |
---|---|
Local SEO (3-Pack) | Links to local GMB-connected landing page will help 3-pack rankings. City, state, and keyword-included anchor text is beneficial |
Featured Snippets | Links to pages where you want to get a featured snippet will help boost the authority of that page. |
Paid Ads | Links will not help your paid ads. |
"Near Me" Searches | Links with city, state, or area anchor text will help you in near me searches. |
Voice Search | Links to pages that are FAQ or consist of long-tail keyword content will help them rank better organically. |
Barnacle SEO | Links to websites you don't own can help them rank better. Focus on high-authority profiles or business listings. |
There are hundreds of ways to build links for your firm. You need to avoid paying for links and spammy tactics because they're just going to hurt you. Focus on strong and sustainable strategies — if you want to do it right, there aren't any shortcuts.
Since there are so many great link building resources out there, I've linked to a few of my favorite where you can get tactical advice and start building links below.
For specific tactical link building strategies, check out these resources:
- Link Building Tactics by Jon Cooper - This is the most comprehensive list I have found.
- Link Building: The Definitive Guide from Backlinko
- 21 Link Building Tips from Juris Digital
- The Ultimate List of Local Link Building Ideas from Nifty Marketing
If you participate in outreach or broken link building, check out this new post from Directive Consulting — "How We Increased Our Email Response Rate from ~8% to 34%" — to increase the effectiveness of your outreach.
Get relevant & high-authority citations
While the importance of citations has taken a dive in recent years as a major ranking factor, they still carry quite a bit of importance.
Do you remember the example from earlier in this post, where we saw Findlaw and Yelp having strong visibility in the market? These websites get traffic, and if a potential customer is looking for you somewhere where you're not, that's one touchpoint lost. You'll still need to address quality over quantity. The days of looking for 1,000 citations are over and have been for many years. If you have 1,000 citations, you probably have a lot of spam links to your website. We don't need those. But what we do need is highly relevant directories to either our city or niche.
This post I wrote over 4 years ago is still pretty relevant on how you can find these citations and build them with consistency. Remember that high-authority citations can also be unstructured (not a typical business directory). They can also be very high-quality links if the site is authoritative and has fewer business listings. There are millions of listings on Yelp, but maybe less than one hundred on some other powerful, very niche-specific websites.
Citation and link idea: What awards was your business eligible or nominated for?
One way to get these is to consider awards where you can get an authoritative citation and link to your website. Take a look at the example below of a legal website. This site is a peanut compared to a directory like Yelp. Sure, it doesn't carry near as much authority, but the link equity is more evenly distributed.
Lastly, stay on point
2017 is sure to be a volatile year for local search, but it's important to stay on point. Spread your wings, open your mind, and diversify with strategies that are going to get your business more customers.
Now it's time to tell me what you think! Is something I didn't mention working better for you? Where are you focusing your efforts in local search?
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Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Spectacular views of restoration work at under-threat Guildford Cathedral
from getsurrey - News http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/spectacular-views-restoration-work-under-12640415