Because local SEO is such a crucial element to an overall SEO strategy, it is important to stay on top of the ever changing local search ecosystem and the influence it has on search engines to ensure you are not wasting your time or efforts. The local search ecosystem is the network of directory websites and data aggregators that publish or aggregate local citations across the web. These websites publish citations and also pass their data onto other websites to publish, who then pass their data onto more websites, and the cycle continues to trickle down to smaller and smaller websites.

In the early days of SEO, the local search ecosystem was much larger than it is today. The main focus of a successful local SEO strategy was to create as many citations as possible that include identical name, address, and phone number (NAP) information. It was also easier to “scam the system” by not appropriately representing a business online in hopes of ranking higher in search engine results pages (for instance, keyword stuffing the business name to rank for a certain keyword or not adding a service area to a listing if the business is a service area business).

Although these tactics may have worked in the past, they will not get you very far in today’s local SEO world and could even push your account into penalization on major sites such as Google. The local search ecosystem has shrunk over the past couple years as search engine’s algorithms have evolved to better understand content and citations. Instead of reading hundreds of citations’ NAP information to determine if a business is legitimate, search engines are now able to understand the NAP information and enhanced content of a smaller amount of listings on authoritative sites such as YP.com. Instead of spending time creating hundreds of listings on obscure sites, a local SEO strategy should focus on building out NAP and enhanced listing content on a smaller list of authoritative sites.

Here is an example from the Clix local listings of how a fully built listing might look.

Search engines have also evolved to understand different variations of NAP information. For instance, if Yelp publishes your address as “32 W Broadway Ave” but City Grid publishes it as “32 West Broadway Avenue,” Bing is not going to count it against you when determining your business’s accuracy in their search algorithm. This is important to know because on some sites, such as Google, a business’s address will be abbreviated no matter how you submit it to their system.

Keeping up with the local search ecosystem is an ongoing task. As local SEO grows in importance, Google and Bing are constantly testing new capabilities of their local map pack and the different factors that can affect its results. Staying on top of these updates is crucial, as falling behind could dramatically affect the local visibility of a business.

An example of this happened recently when Google started testing a more thorough verification process in San Diego for local service area business industries that typically have a lot of spam in the local search ecosystem (plumbers and locksmiths). After this new verification process was implemented, 89% of listings in the plumbing and locksmith industry on Google were removed from the local search results.

Suffice to say, it is critical to stay informed on the latest local search updates. If this SEO strategy is neglected, it could mean lower rankings or even penalization from a search engine. For more on how to stay on top of these updates and increase your local online visibility, contact us today.

The post The Ever Changing Local Search Ecosystem appeared first on Clix.

Digital marketing offers a number of solutions for getting honest, constructive customer feedback. Through a variety of channels such as automation marketing and a focus on local citations, you can use the tools and software digital marketing offers to collect and analyze evaluations of the services or products you provide.

Automation Marketing and Customer Feedback

One of the most clear-cut ways to use digital marketing to benefit your business, automation marketing, allows you to create campaigns that drive engagement and feedback from customers. Campaigns might be focused on surveys to gauge customer satisfaction, or even something as simple as an automated follow up to an opened promotional email can help you determine whether or not your marketing efforts are paying off.

But automation does not exist in a vacuum, and neither do any of your other marketing efforts. An effective automation marketing campaign still relies on high quality customer service from your team, such as personal phone calls to customers or email checkins to touch base when appropriate.

Your automation campaigns are also an opportunity to increase usage of your website, using blogs, website pages, and other digital resources to benefit your customers, giving them the right information they need to make decisions.

Customer Service Software

When people think about digital marketing, they might not realize they can use tools like tracking numbers to not only record their own business calls, but to make more informed decisions about what their staff are doing on the front lines. Using call recording can open up a lot of avenues for internal improvement and allow business owners to hear the questions their customers ask in real time.

At Clix, we have had clients use call recordings to make informed decisions about their staffing and better serve customers’ needs in the office. We also take a proactive approach and give recommendations following our call reports in order to continue to be an active partner in your business success.

Form fills also provide our clients insight into the information customers are seeking. More often than not, having a report of the number of form fills and quality of leads helps our clients determine new information about customers they might have thought about or make adjustments to their website copy in order to move their campaign along. Plus, unlike having an email address on your website – an email address that could be in many other places or handed out by customers via word of mouth – a lead from a form fill can be directly correlated to the success of your digital marketing campaign.

Website Content and Customer Participation

Many businesses may not realize the kind of resources available to them to make their customer service even better, but using your website and other avenues for sharing your content can make a difference. From regular blogs and news updates, to using video and social media to drive engagement to your website, a robust website can set you apart from competitors in big ways.

If you’re ready to use digital marketing to gain customer feedback and grow your business, contact us today!

The post How to Use Digital Marketing to Get Customer Feedback appeared first on Clix.

The following steps outline how to add users to a desired account/property/view in Google Analytics.

Full administrative permissions will  have to be granted to your digital marketing agency in order for them to take full control of the account.

Adding Users

(taken from Google)

1. Sign in to your Google Analytics account.
2. Select the Admin tab and navigate to the desired account/property/view
3. In the ACCOUNT, PROPERTY, or VIEW column (depending upon whether you want to add the user at the account, property, or view level), click User Management.
4. Under Add permissions for, enter the email address for the user’s Google Account. (Be sure that all four permission settings are check when adding Administrators to an account)
5. Select the permissions you want. (More about this below)
6. Select Notify this user by email to send a notification to each user you’re adding. Click Add.

Be sure to access User Management under the ACCOUNT column when adding users with FULL Admin permissions. Anything else will NOT provide full access at the account level.

User permissions

(taken from Google)

The post How to Add Users to Google Analytics appeared first on Clix.

I recently signed up to test and give feedback on Google’s alpha version of their new Search Queries report, and I was one of a delicate few Webmasters selected to try out the new report. The current Search Queries report will most likely be replaced with the Search Impact report.

When released to the public, the Search Impact report will be located in the Search Traffic section in Google Webmaster Tools. The new report will give Webmasters the ability to breakdown clicks and position metrics by one of these six dimensions: date, popular queries, top pages, leading countries, user device and Google Search property. Additionally, you can filter and compare across these dimensions.

Here are some screenshots of the new Search Impact report in Google Webmaster Tools (not yet released to the public):

By Date Report:

By Popular Queries:

By Top Pages:

By Country:

By User Device:

By Google Search Property:

The post Google Webmaster Tools: Search Impact Reports appeared first on Clix.

Google Webmaster Tools – Register your site with Google Webmaster Tools for search queries, to check for HTML improvements, structured data markup, internal links, crawl errors and more.

Google PageSpeed Insights – Improve your page speed

Google Structured Data Testing Tool – Check your site’s structured data markup

Siteliner – Find duplicate content, broken links, and more…

Screaming Frog SEO Spider – Complete website audits

Feedthebot – Ensure your site is following Google’s webmaster guidelines

XML Sitemaps – Create an XML sitemp (up to 500 pages)

PageRank Link Juice Calculator – Find out how much PageRank juice flows through any given link from any page. Use this tool to help optimize your site’s navigation.

W3C Link Checker – Check links and anchors in Web pages or full Web sites

GTmetrix – Can help you develop a faster, more efficient, and all-around improved website experience for your users.

The post 10 Useful SEO Tools for On-Page Optimization appeared first on Clix.

Google Webmaster Tools

First and foremost, there’s Google Webmaster Tools.  Google Webmaster Tools is a free service offered by Google that helps you monitor and maintain your site’s presence in Google Search results. You don’t have to sign up for Webmaster Tools for your site to be included in Google’s search results, but doing so can help you understand how Google views your site and optimize its performance in search results.

Google Webmaster Tools

Google Analytics

Google Analytics provides powerful digital analytics for anyone with a web presence, large or small. It’s one of the most powerful digital analytics solutions available.  Google Analytics allows you to track your website’s traffic, goal conversions, and much more.

 Google Analytics

Google PageSpeed Insights

Page Speed Insights measures the performance of a page for mobile devices and desktop devices. It fetches the url twice, once with a mobile user-agent, and once with a desktop-user agent.  The PageSpeed Score ranges from 0 to 100 points. A higher score is better and a score of 85 or above indicates that the page is performing well.

Google PageSpeed Insights

Google Keyword Planner

Keyword Planner is like a workshop for building new Search Network campaigns or expanding existing ones. You can search for keyword and ad group ideas, see how a list of keywords might perform, and even create a new keyword list by multiplying several lists of keywords together. A free AdWords tool, Keyword Planner can also help you choose competitive bids and budgets to use with your campaigns.  Whether you’re new to online advertising or an experienced pro, you can use Keyword Planner to lay the groundwork for a successful campaign.

Google Keyword Planner

Google Places

More people search for businesses online than anywhere else, so it’s important to make sure your local business listing can be easily found on Google.com and Google Maps. With Google Places, creating a great listing takes just a few minutes and doesn’t cost a thing.

Google Places

Google Structured Data Testing Tool

The structured data testing tool lets you check your markup and make sure that Google can extract the structured data from your page. This tool will display the markup found on a specific web page, as well as a preview of how that page might appear in Google search results. You can also see examples of extracted markup for specific information types. If you’ve created rich snippets for a Google custom search engine, you can also use this tool to preview the results.

Google Structured Data Testing Tool

Google Structured Data Markup Helper

Structured Data Markup Helper shows you how to update your site so that Google—and potentially other companies’ products—can understand the data it contains. Once Google understands the data on your site, your data can be presented more attractively and in new ways. In addition if you send HTML-formatted email to your customers, Markup Helper can show you how to change your email templates so GMail can present the data in your email in new and useful ways.

Google Structured Data Markup Helper

Google Alerts

Google Alerts are emails sent to you when Google finds new results — such as web pages, newspaper articles, or blogs — that match your search term. You can use Google Alerts to monitor anything on the Web.

Google Alerts

If you work in the SEO field I highly suggest you take advantage of these free Google SEO tools. Google has provided them for a reason (hint hint).

The post Google SEO Tools (Free) appeared first on Clix.

What is the MozBar SEO Tool?

It’s nothing like a Klondike bar… it’s better. Moz describes this free SEO tool as an application that “provides on-page access to Moz’s link metrics and site analysis tools.” It’s safe to say that the MozBar has saved many people tons of time and headache since 2008, which is why it has gained popularity with many SEO’s and Inbound Marketers.

The free MozBar tool provides insight into three main areas of concern:

• SERP analysis
• Site/competitor research
• Link profile analysis

Here is a run through of some cool features of the MozBar SEO Tool

Create custom search profiles

With the MozBar users don’t have to use modifiers and perform multiple searches in multiple browser. The MozBar also gives users the ability to toggle between different browsers and location settings with just a few clicks.

See important page attributes and elements on the page

The capabilities of the the MozBar’s page analysis tools are some of the strongest features of the application. These tools allow you users to have an instant on-page audit of any URL visited. With a tiptap of the keys and point of the finger, users can instantly see important on page factors like title tags, meta description, canonical tags, page load time, HTTP status and they can easily distinguish between followed or nofollowed links.

Social Media at a Glance

Some new and exciting features of the new MozBar are being able to view social activity and having the ability to quickly view the semantic markup. So, if you want to make sure a Twitter card is properly set up or get a quick G+ follower head count, you can do it without burning a single calorie.

Pro tip from Moz: MozBar obscuring your page? Hit Shift+Ctrl+Alt+M to show / hide the bar!

The post Cool Features of the New MozBar: Version 3 appeared first on Clix.

One of the key components of SEO is creating backlinks (inbound links).  Traditionally, the more backlinks a website has, the better off it will be in the SERP (search engine results page), and to an extent that is still true.  However, you have to be careful where and how you acquire backlinks to your site.  Getting a backlink from a low-quality, spammy site that Google has devalued will not help your site’s search engine rankings. It will hurt your site’s rankings, and thus it’s crucial to utilize link analysis software to make sure your site’s rankings aren’t suffering from poor inbound links.  Link analysis software also allows you to spy on your competitor’s to see where they’re acquiring their links from.

There are many options out there when it comes to SEO backlink analysis software, but my personal favorite is cognitiveSEO due to it’s robust functionality and extensive metrics.  Below, I’m going to show you some important things you should be looking for when conducting a link analysis for either your site or a competitor’s site, and will also elaborate on some of cognitiveSEO’s powerful features.

Link History

The first metric cognitiveSEO displays in your link analysis is your site’s link history.  Here, you’ll be able to see your site’s total link count and total referring domain count by date.  The more quality referring domains your site has pointing to it the better.  One good way to acquire more referring domains is by creating high quality, informative content that people want to share on the web.

Think about what makes your website unique, valuable, or engaging. Make your website stand out from others in your field.

– Google’s Webmaster Guidelines

Note: All of data in cognitiveSEO’s graphs and tables is clickable, and can bring up separate internal windows with clickable links

Top Linked Pages

The next metric that cognitiveSEO displays in your link analysis is your top linked pages.  It shows what pages on your site have the most backlinks pointing to them.  This metric is very important.  When creating backlinks for your site you want to make sure your linking to relevant pages on your site, not just your homepage.

Anchor Text Cloud

Good ole’ anchor text metrics in a nice, easy-to-read “cloud”.  This is one of my favorite aspects of cognitiveSEO.  Instead of having to enhance an excel worksheet to make crucial data more scannable, cognitiveSEO does all that for you.

Although anchor text isn’t as significant as it used to be, it’s still important to use your keywords/phrases in your anchor text, but do so in a balanced manner.  Nowadays, it’s more importnat to focus on the content around your backlinks (co-citation).  Check out Rand Fishkin’s whiteboard Friday on that subject.

Link Pie Charts

These charts are pretty straight forward, but I thought I’d share a graphic of them, and I noted earlier, all of the data in cognitiveSEO’s graphs and tables are clickable, and can bring up separate internal windows with clickable links.  Quite convenient for those SEO’s who manage numerous campaigns.

Links

This is cognitiveSEO’s inbound link table.  It includes all of the metrics that are analyzed in the report.

You’ll notice two lost links in this particular analysis.  Those are the things you’ll want to look for when analyzing your website’s backlinks.  Those links could have been part of a low-quality directory or article network, and you may want to disavow them.

That’s all I’ve got for this week.  I hope you find this information useful.  Thanks for reading and happy optimizing!

The post Using Cognitive SEO For Link Analysis & Research appeared first on Clix.