Category: SEO

How to Create Content that Works

01 Mar 17 by Chris Jenkin

As a website owner, your content is one of the most important things in your business. Since this is what your website visitors will be reading, you have to make sure you provide articles that are relevant and of high quality. But this does not always mean that your website will be a success. Even though you spend a lot of time writing quality articles, you still have to know how to attract readers to your website so you can get your message across.

Because of this, you have to invest in quality articles. These are articles that will likely get your audience engaging on your posts and sharing your website. Here are some important tips on how you can attract people to your content:

Tip #1: Use Lists 

Do you know what makes websites such as BuzzFeed and Listverse so successful? It’s because they provide articles that are in a list form. Unlike long articles that are difficult to read, articles that are in list forms are small and easily digestible. They will attract the attention of your readers who like skimming through an article to pick up the main idea along the way. This is also useful for readers who don’t skim articles as they will likely stick to the post until they have finished reading it.

A list type of article has a higher tendency of being read and shared by your audience. Not to mention, it’s likely to stick to their memory so you can be sure that your content has been thoroughly understood.

Tip #2: Make it Quick

As a writer, you have to make sure you have understood the psychological power of your articles. Nowadays, many people have a fear of missing out, which is why they want to always be connected with things that are new and fresh.

In order to do this with your content, make sure to keep your audience relevant to today. Your readers don’t want something from yesterday. This is why you need to let them want to read it now.

Tip #3: Work With Influencers

You can make the most out of your content when you partner with influencers. With your website, you can invite guest bloggers to submit an article. This will help boost your website since the followers of your guest blogger will likely visit your website too.

Always keep your options open so you can find the best influencers in your niche.

Tip #4: Know Your Target Audience

If you want to stop writing articles that won’t get you anywhere, it’s important that you fully assess your website and who it aims to speak to. You need to capture the right people so that you won’t end up wasting your time, energy, and resources on content that won’t get you anywhere. Once you know who your target audience is, you can specifically address your content to them.

Creating content for your website can be pretty overwhelming. Once you have the right nuggets of wisdom, you’ll be able to kick-start your website and let people visit it because they are attracted to the articles you have shared.

Content MarketingDigital MarketingSearch Engine MarketingSEO

How Important is Keyword Strategy to Your Digital Marketing Campaign?

23 Feb 17 by Chris Jenkin

Google continually changes its algorithm to make sure it captures spam websites. Because of this, digital marketers also need to keep improving their knowledge of SEO and other practices to stay relevant and on top of things. One big change that Google has implemented over the past years is the use of keywords. It has since penalized websites that practice keyword stuffing and continues to be strict with how it analyzes websites. With this, one big question that exists today is this—is keyword strategy still relevant in today’s websites?

Before determining its relevance, let’s discuss what keyword strategy is and how it works.

What is a Keyword Strategy?

When you own a website, you need to make sure it is optimized to gain website visits and traffic. The best way you can do this is by using the right keywords. This means you need to do proper keyword research in order to determine the terms your audience is looking for. Before you post anything, you should always run a keyword strategy search so you are able to make the most out of your content.

How to Build a Keyword Strategy

Although it may seem easy, deciding which keywords to use may be a bit of a challenge. You need to make sure that the keywords you use are relevant to your industry and what people are searching for. You also have to make sure that the keyword you use has a relatively low amount of competition so you don’t end up using a dead-end keyword.

Thankfully, there are tools you can use to help you pick the right keywords for your website.

Using Keywords on Your Website

Although it was widely used in the past, it is no longer advisable to pepper keywords around your website mindlessly. Once Google crawls your pages, it takes a look at certain areas to determine what your page is all about. These things include your title tag, URL, H1 tag, body, image tags, and the meta description. If you want your page to rank and not be penalized, you have to pay close attention to these things.

Because of how important keywords are to your website, you need to make sure you are using the right ones that your audience is searching for. This is where a keyword strategy comes into the picture. You need to make sure that your website stays relevant to your keyword so you are able to rank on a search page. At the same time, Google will not penalize your website for keyword stuffing.

Content MarketingDigital MarketingSEO

3 Important SEO Tips for 2017

01 Feb 17 by Chris Jenkin

As a business owner, you need to make sure your website is seen by your target audience. Especially if you do business locally, you have to do everything you can to have a good rank on a search page. This is essentially the reason why SEO is such an important skill for business owners.

Now that it is 2017, it’s important to know how you can customize your website to fit current SEO trends. Here are 3 vital tips for you to improve your local SEO ranking:

Go Mobile

If you still haven’t created a mobile-friendly website, there’s no point of being on the internet. Nowadays, a responsive website is no longer an only option. The reason is because of the immense demand by mobile users. In fact, the number of people who use their mobile device to search for a local business has far surpassed searches conducted on a desktop computer. Because of this, Google has started to rank websites that are mobile-friendly.

When you implement a mobile-friendly website, you are able to reach your target audience more effectively. So if you’re still not using a responsive website, you have to make that switch today.

Direct Data is Important

As a business on the internet, you have to know that you’re not the only one with a unique business. And even so, there are other websites that will make use of the same keywords you are using. In order to land a good position with search engines, you have to realize that direct data is important.

With this in mind, you have to provide more detailed information about your business. If you are a restaurant, this means including your location, pricing, phone number, and whether or not you offer take-out. This extra information can play a huge part in improving your visibility to other people looking for you.

Voice Search is on the Rise

In the past years, there has been a big number of voice assistant products that have been released to the public. This new technology has become very efficient as a way for people to help them locate something very quickly. Many find that it’s even faster to speak into their device instead of having to type down something they are looking for.

Because of this, it’s recommended that you optimize your website with this strategy. You should use voice search friendly phrases that your potential customers could be using.

Apart from concentrating on improving your local SEO ranking, you need to remember to work on providing quality customer experience. Throughout the years, this has always been proven as the best way you can grow your business. In doing so, you get to have an edge over your competitors.

Digital MarketingSEO

15 Social Media Tips You Should Live By

26 Jan 17 by Chris Jenkin

If you’re planning to put up a business this year, it’s important that you also have some knowledge on how to conduct the business online. Especially with the growth of social media, you need to know how you can make this work for your advantage. Here are some social media tips that will help you grow your brand:

Tip #1: Have a Strategy

Before implementing social media channels, make sure you have a social media plan or strategy that you can follow. Otherwise, you might not be able to grow your business. You won’t be able to regularly post things on social media without a strategy to follow.

Tip #2: Differentiate Each Social Media Channel

One thing you have to remember is that not every social media channel is the same. Each one works in a different way so you have to remember to follow what works best for each one. As the business owner or social media manager, you have to learn what works best on each channel you plan to use. You should also learn when and how often to post things on these accounts.

Tip #3: Don’t Be Spammy

While the reason your business is on social media is so you can sell to your customers and attract new people, you should not spam your followers. Avoid ending your posts with “Buy Now” or “Sign Up Now” as this will hurt your reputation on social media. These words are counter-productive and will not be good for your campaign.

Tip #4: Be Consistent

Even though you should be customizing each post according to which social media channel you’re posting to, you should remain consistent. This means that you should use the same logo, brand colors, links, and other things that identify your brand. This way, your followers can easily recognize you whenever you use a new social media platform.

Tip #5: Don’t Buy Fake Followers

While it’s good to have a lot of followers on your social media channels, you should also identify whether these followers are real or fake. This is because there are so many fake profiles on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram that are used to follow certain accounts. If you are hiring a social media manager who promises you can get a certain number of likes in a short amount of time, you should be cautioned already. This is a dirty tactic that could potentially backfire on you in the long run.

Tip #6: Avoid Talking About Your Brand Too Much

The idea behind social media is to be, well, social. This is why it is good that you don’t only post things about your business. You should also take time to post about your industry and things that are related to it. Your followers might find it annoying to see you talking about yourself all the time. If this happens, they’re likely to unfollow you or see you as spammy.

Tip #7: Share Original Content Too

Even if you’re sharing the posts of other individuals you feel is relevant to your business, you should also remember to share your own unique content. Invest in a blog so your followers get more acquainted with your business. If you haven’t put up a blog yet, it’s important that you get this up online before starting a campaign on social media.

Tip #8: Make Use of Social Media Tools

Thankfully, there are a number of tools you can find online to help out with your social media strategy. These tools can help you manage your posts so you don’t have to stay connected to the Internet 24/7. Try to do more research on which tools will best work with your business.

Tip #9: Be Wary of Your Metrics

From time to time, try to see how well your social media campaign is working. This will give you a deeper look at how efficient your efforts are. Since most social media channels have their own analytics features, you can take advantage of these tools to help you see your progress.

Tip #10: Properly Use Hashtags

Hashtags are important. It’s important that you use hashtags sparingly and not at every single word you post. One or two hashtags is recommended. Anything more than that is considered overkill. You should research on the best hashtags to use so you can achieve the right results you need.

Tip #10: Engage with Your Followers

Remember to reply to all the comments, messages, and the shares you get on your social media channels. This is a good practice to follow, especially if you are a startup.

Tip #11: Identify Your Target Audience

One of the best ways you can do a good job on your social media campaign is to properly identify who your target audience is and find out where they are found. If your business targets other businesses, the best platform to use is LinkedIn. If your target includes women, Pinterest and Instagram are the best websites to use. Do a lot of research to get the results you need so you can have an effective strategy.

Tip #12: Don’t Share Too Much

You should also remember not to post too often on your social media channels. Even though you share other people’s content, you have to limit the number of posts you share.

Tip #13: Make Use of Paid Ads

Set aside a small budget that you can use for paid ads. Though this will cost you some money, you’ll be able to reach other people who do not have access to your posts.

Tip #14: Work with Influencers

Look for influencers whom you can work with to promote your business. These are individuals that have established profiles and a large follower count. With just a few posts, you can get your business noticed by these individuals.

Tip #15: Show Your Culture

Let your followers peek into your business. If you can do this, you’ll have a winning social media strategy. Your followers want to see the people who are behind your brand, letting them realize that you are human after all.

Try these tips to see how well your followers will respond to them. As always, social media is a continuous experiment that you get to learn a lot from. Don’t be afraid to explore your options and research new trends.

Content MarketingSearch Engine MarketingSEOSocial Media

How Does Fake News Affect Content Marketing

17 Jan 17 by Chris Jenkin

Last year, we saw the prevalence of fake news vastly shared via social media. There have been rampant sharing of fake news camouflaged as a legit website. But even if these websites turned out to be fake (or sometimes satire), the damage has already been done. It was too late to retract such rumors as it had already been perceived by individuals as the truth. Because of this, marketers have been faced with the problem of having to deal with the effects of fake news. As for the readers, they’re left struggling with distinguishing the difference between fake news and bad news.

The truth is, fake news has always been around. The only reason we’re dealing with it right now is because there has been a sudden spike in the number of stories that were either partially untrue or meant to mislead the readers. This has been pretty evident in the recently concluded Presidential elections, as things got heated and led to the exchange of harsh words amongst friends and family members on social media.

Thankfully, both Facebook and Google have become alarmed by the prevalence of fake news. This prompted them to announce their plans of tracking down stories that were of such nature. But how does it affect content marketing? How do you even determine whether a story is fake or not? Let’s look at things deeper.

How to Identify Fake News

According to FactCheck.org, it doesn’t take a genius to determine fake news. Here are some of the things to look out for:

  • Source Credibility. One of the easiest ways to determine whether or not you’re reading legit news is to look at the URL of the page you’re reading. Try to remember the real URL names and extensions of the legit websites. Simple things like using ‘z’ instead of ‘s’ in ‘news’ can already tick you off. And of course, the extension of the domain is usually in ‘.com’ instead of ‘.website.’ or ‘.com.co.’ Remember, these websites were meant to mislead its readers into thinking they are reading something from a trustworthy news network.
  • Go Beyond the Headline. Most of the time, these websites attract readers by using clickbait titles that are sure to catch your attention. Before you believe the headline, make it a point to read the entire article. Don’t stop at the headline.
  • Look for Quoted Sources. You should also check whether or not the article is linking to another questionable website. This is because there are tons of fake news websites that link to one another. As much as possible, check that the source of the article is a real government website or another credible publication.
  • Check the Author’s Name. Take a look at the name of the author. If there is a name attached to the article, you can perform a quick search to tell you how credible that person is.

So How Does This Affect Content Marketing?

Fake news does not only affect those in content marketing, but everyone in the field of journalism. It creates a bad image for authors, writers, and editors. As a content marketer, it could also hurt your campaign as it could destroy your readers’ trust in the things they find online.

The best way you can combat this is to make sure every content you publish on your website has been fact-checked and verified. If you have any stories to pitch, make sure to do this with reputable reporters and media outlets. This is the best way you can fight against fake news.

Content MarketingDigital MarketingSearch Engine MarketingSEOSocial Media

2 Important Tips on Creating Content

11 Jan 17 by Chris Jenkin

No matter how good your article is, if it’s not getting the traffic it deserves, it might as well be buried on the Internet. But how do you make sure that your articles will be read by your target audience? After going through the different strategies online, it all boils down to how well you practice content marketing. The success of your content is not derived from your industry, your writing skill or the number of keywords you include in the article. Instead, it has more to do on how well you thought out the content, created the headline, and used the right meta description and tags for search engines to pick up your article.

If you run a content marketing agency, it’s important that you know how to provide content that people are searching for. The reason behind this is so you don’t waste time and energy preparing a post that will not be read by your targeted audience. After all, this costs you a lot of money to produce. Here are some tips to help you create content that your audience is looking for:

Tip #1: Make use of content ideation

According to studies, consumers spend up to 79 days to check out their options before they decide to make a purchase, especially if it is a big one. They do so by conducting their own research of their other options and what they can do to make this decision better. This is why you need to have your content available to them and offer valuable information. In doing so, your consumers can trust your brand. When it’s time for them to make their decision, they’ll remember your company right away.

The best way you can do this is to conduct a research of your own. This means you should take advantage of social sites and keyword tools to help you get the information you require. Apart from searching for ideas online, you can ask other people to give you ideas on what they would normally inquire about a particular product they are interested in purchasing. With this wealth of information, you can already come up with some topics to write. You can compile these ideas into your editorial calendar so you can keep producing content consistently.

Tip #2: Make the most out of your headline

Sure, you may be using the right keywords for your article, but if your headline is not interesting enough, it might not get the notice needed. When coming up with a title for your article, you have to remember to be clear with what you are presenting in your article. You don’t need to have a witty title as it does not always get people to click your article. Remember, you only have around 65 characters to work with so make each one count. Here are a few tips for a clickable headline:

  • Be descriptive. Include a bracket that summarizes your content, like [Infographic] or [Video].
  • Announce if you have added photos. Include “Photo(s)” in your headline as these perform better.
  • Use “How To” to solve a problem.
  • Create a list. This will give your readers an idea of how many items they are going to browse through in your article.

Follow these tips and you’ll be well on your way to producing quality content all the time.

Content MarketingDigital MarketingSearch Engine MarketingSEOSocial Media

What Your Audience Wants to See on Your Social Media Pages

01 Dec 16 by Chris Jenkin

As they all say, content is king! But how do you continue to provide the best content when the demands for content marketing continually change over time? How do you make sure that your content marketing efforts don’t go to waste? One good thing to remember is to pay close attention to your audience. Do you still know who your audience is? Are you giving them content that’s useful to them?

HubSpot Research recently made a remark on how 2016 initiated a new phase of technology, one wherein consumer preferences and new innovations are important factors to consider for every marketer. If you are trying to improve your content marketing practices, the key to doing so is to identify if you are providing your readers the right content. So how do you determine this?

Here are some of the latest trends as told by industry experts:

 Videos

Video has largely become a vital part of content marketing. As projected by experts, 80% of web traffic will come from video by the year 2019. This will represent an impressive increase in video content and especially the amount of time people spend watching YouTube and Facebook videos.

How to make use of video content for your advantage?

  • Keep videos within two minutes in length to ensure viewers watch the entire clip.
  • Add captions and animations to your video so it’s easy for viewers to understand the message, even without listening to anything.
  • Cover breaking news, since this is something more users are interested in seeing.

 Social Media

Social media is never going to die, at least anytime soon. As a matter of fact, its audience is only growing bigger every day. To date, there are 1.7 billion daily active users on Facebook, 500 million on Instagram, 313 million on Twitter, and 150 million on Snapchat. These individuals are consuming more content compared in the past. Because of this, content creators have started to make use of these channels to connect with their target audience.

How do you maximize social media for your brand?

  • Use relevant hashtags sparingly. It’s not good to use multiple hashtags that aim to increase Twitter engagement. You can use a branded campaign hashtag for your audience to easily find content.
  • Use social media for your videos to gain more engagement through likes, shares, retweets or replies.

 News Articles

Nowadays, more and more people are using the internet to stay updated with the latest news. Based on the findings of experts, readers want to keep up with news articles; however, they don’t really read these articles thoroughly. Many readers tend to skim-read the articles or even get the gist of the content through the headline of the article.

How to boost engagement through news articles?

  • Provide an accompanying video to a long article so that those who don’t have time to thoroughly read the text can use the video.
  • Maintain your reader’s attention by using bullets, images, and by breaking up larger text paragraphs. 

Research Content

Readers are also looking for original research they can easily consume and understand. An evidence of this is proven by how successful infographics have become over the years. Your readers no longer want to spend long periods of time trying to decipher the information you provide them. Instead, they are more likely to appreciate it if you spent some of your resources providing a visual element that could prove to be useful for the content they are searching.

How does one make the most out of research data?

  • Make sure to provide effective data visualization through an infographic.
  • Remember to use color in providing the information you have collected as this improves your content’s readership and the attention span of your audience.
  • Break up text in easily digestible images. Remember, people tend to skim-read now instead of reading the entire text.
  • Provide actionable content so your readers know how they can apply what they just learned.

Information provided through an infographic can be more easily remembered by an individual compared to their reading text.

Knowing these things can help you with your content marketing strategy. You no longer have to second guess your tactics since you already know what it is your readers are searching for. In this way, you know that your efforts won’t go to waste.

Content MarketingDigital MarketingSearch Engine MarketingSEOSocial Media

Content Marketing Goals You Should Aspire to Accomplish

23 Nov 16 by Chris Jenkin

For years, the saying “content is king” has been used online to discuss how important content truly is. As a matter of fact, it has turned into a cliché that people try to use to justify their actions. But at the end of the day, no matter how good your content is, it’s just content unless it gets read by the right people. This is the big difference between those who have found success on content marketing. If you are a digital marketer and you wish to excel in your line of work, it’s time to know more about the secrets of content marketing and just what you really ought to be doing with your time.

In order to be successful with content marketing, you need to thoroughly understand your business goals and your marketing efforts. Having knowledge in this can be a big help for you to create content that serves these goals. It can be useful for you to know how you will be able to convey your message through blog posts, eBooks, email marketing, advertising, and podcasts. By knowing how to make your content work, you don’t waste any time with what you publish online.

Here are some content marketing goals you should be setting for yourself:

#1: Gain the trust of your audience

As someone who’s into content marketing, you should know that your ultimate goal is to gain the trust of your readers and build rapport with them. Whenever you post interesting and valuable content, your readers learn from it. And in the process, they start to trust in what you have to say. With continuous work, they’ll see that you know your topic and what it is all about. They start seeing your personality and what it would be like to work with you.

#2: Attract new visitors to your system

One way you can get new visitors to your website is to know how to stand out. You need to be able to publish compelling content that will attract your website visitors to share your content online and even start a conversation with you. Through this, new people start to discover you and your content. The reason why you need new customers to find you is so you can keep your business healthy. And with content that gets shared online, you’ll be able to start doing business with new people.

#3: Be open to prospect pain

As a content marketer, you have to realize that not everyone will be accepting of what you post. This is particularly true in a time when people can easily find a solution to all of their problems—health, parenting, money, technology, and even what to cook for dinner. The trick, therefore, is to understand how you can be of help to your readers. You have to understand what their problems are so you can target to answer these. It’s also possible that you can use this as a topic guide for future content.

#4: Talk about solutions

Going back to the previous point—you have to provide a solution to the problems brought up by your prospects. You have to identify the fixes you may know for those problems. If you are selling a business that can help them solve their problem, you don’t need to tell them that anymore. Instead, focus on showing them how they can get the help they need from the product you are offering.

By knowing how to set goals with your content marketing, you’ll be able to find success with it in no time.

 

 

 

Content MarketingDigital MarketingLocal SEOSearch Engine MarketingSEO

Important Digital Marketing Tips Every Startup Company Needs to Remember

11 Nov 16 by Chris Jenkin

For anyone who’s ever launched a startup, you already know how difficult it can be to kickstart the business and let other people know about it. Even if you are alone in your line of field, you may be competing against other startups who are doing the same practices as you. This is why you need to know how to properly launch your business so that it will become a success. The best way to go about this without it costing you a lot of money is to invest heavily in digital marketing.

Considering you’re a startup business, you are most likely deciding to do as much as possible on your own. This is so you can save money by not hiring another individual to take over the tasks you need to accomplish for your brand. Thankfully, there are a number of tools you can use to help you kickstart your brand online. Here are a few of the important digital marketing tips you need to remember:

Invest in Social Media

Social media is every startup business’ best friend. As a matter of fact, it is one way you can create buzz about your brand and the products you intend to sell to your customers. Prior to setting up accounts on these websites, you have to know how best to make use of social media. This includes knowing which sites will work for your brand and which ones won’t. You also need to know how often you need to post in these websites so that you don’t end up putting off your audience. At the same time, you need to know how best to speak through your social media posts so that your personality will shine through. You will need to learn these things especially since you will be the only one to handle your social media accounts.

Take Time to Learn About SEO

If you already have a website, you have to make sure it has been optimized across all platforms. This way, it will be the first website to pop up on a search results list. On the other hand, if your website is being used for e-commerce, you have to make sure that it is secure. On both, you have to check that your headers, tags, and descriptions are used appropriately. Avoid stuffing your content with keywords just so you can get a higher ranking on your page.

Produce Quality Content

Whenever you’re posting content for your readers, you have to make sure that it contains the right information and is valuable to them too. The content you produce should have a conversational tone with a mix of some humor in it. Every time you post on social media, you can use the content to connect with your readers so you can invite them to engage in.

Consider Sending a Newsletter

A newsletter can help your business grow because it helps remind your followers about the products and services you are offering. You just have to remember that the newsletter you send should contain all the right information that is relevant for your industry. If you can, start out with a monthly newsletter so that your readers will not be bombarded with information all the time. If you see that the newsletter is working, you can increase it to every two weeks instead of just once a month.

Offer Rewards to Loyal Customers

While you’re still budding as an entrepreneur, you may have already come across some customers who swear by your brand and trust in what you bring to the table. These customers may have even recommended your business to their friends and family, which is why you should be ready to reward them with something they will enjoy. As a bonus, you can also offer them a discount whenever they sign up for your newsletter.

Don’t Forget to Network Offline

You should not limit your business practices to just online. Instead, see to it that you expand your network by meeting more people from different walks of life. This is a great way you can introduce your business to other people so they will be aware of it. By tapping on offline networks, you’ll be able to continue your business’ growth and not just solely rely on social media to do it for you.

These tips are a great way for you to let people know of your brand, especially if you’re working with a tight budget. When you are able to put money into your marketing efforts, you can upgrade your strategy to include other things that can help grow your brand more. But until then, these tips will do a great job on their own.

Content MarketingDigital MarketingSEO

Understanding Google’s Three Listing Snack Pack

24 Aug 15 by Chris Jenkin

While many of us were trying to make sense of Google’s recently announced restructuring, Google once again shook up the world of search. Google scaled back the amount of real estate it provides for featured search results by rolling out its three-listing Snack Pack, which gives preference to the top three results instead of the top seven. The advent of the Snack Pack underscores the need for enterprises to practice sound search engine optimization (SEO) at the local level.

To recap: Google’s Snack Pack format highlights only the three top listings in search results, as opposed to the seven-listing format previously used. The three-pack takes a mobile-first design approach, whittling results to basic address, weblinks, and driving directions, as this example illustrates by revealing search results for “gyms downtown Chicago”:

There is no other way around it: the total amount of local and local organic listings on the first page of Google’s search results just dropped by almost a quarter, and some businesses are dropping out as a result. If you are concerned about losing search traffic in a post-Snack Pack world, here’s what you should do:

  • Review your local organic search strategy. Why? Because if you were in the 4-7 spots of of the local pack, there is a likely chance that Google will send less traffic your way moving forward. So make sure you are following all best practices for optimizing your local business pages for organic search and continue working to build additional local links.
  • On the other hand, don’t neglect to continue optimizing your Google My Business listings and creating additional citations, both structured and unstructured. The conflation of local and local organic signals continues; so ignoring one in favor of another is not in your best interest.

Incidentally, I suspect many businesses will notice a decrease in site traffic and onsite conversions attributable to Google thanks to the Snack Pack. The decrease is beyond the control of your own efforts to optimize for Google and SEO. Rather, Snack Pack listings now show fewer trackable links to websites. In the example I cited for a search for “gyms downtown Chicago,” Google reveals a website and links for the three businesses listed: East Bank Club, Lakeview Athletic Club, and Quads Gym. When you click on the website links, you are indeed taken to the websites for each business. But when you click on the other links associated with each name, you are taken to Google’s Local Finder:

Visiting this Local Finder is not a trackable action from the standpoint of your Web analytics.

So don’t panic if you see a dropoff in measurable Web traffic. The dropoff doesn’t necessarily mean that your local performance level is decreasing, but rather the trackable performance level from Web analytics is decreasing. Instead, look to other metrics like Google My Business reporting, call volume, and in-store visits.

Author Credit: Adam Dorfman

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