Local SERPs describe the results that show up for a local-based query based upon where the customer is. Local SERPs usually include a local 3-pack on top and show the most relevant results on the map.

Why are local SEO rankings important?

If you have a brick-and-mortar store or other local business listing, then local SERPs can have a significant impact on how easily people can find your business online. Local SERPs, as we mentioned, are the results that show up for a local-based query based on location. In other words, for in-person customers, it is valuable to you to rank highly in local queries around your area. This will boost your visibility for the most relevant customers.

Are local rankings different from global queries?

When it comes to local search, local SERPs can differ greatly, and it is important for businesses to be aware of the changes.

The SEO team at Fathom, using our technology at BrightEdge, conducted a study to see the differences between local SERPs and global ones. They wanted to monitor the changes for non-branded keywords-- keywords that did not include a specific business name-- in local Google search engines versus Google US. The study was specifically looking local searches related to universities in Michigan. This study found the following:

• Non-branded keywords in Google’s geo local engines had an average ranking difference of 11.06 positions compared to the Google US engine.
• An average of 51.9 percent of the non-branded keywords in the study also had varied rankings across the different local search engines and had noticeable differences in rankings from one week to the next.

How can I improve my local search engine ranking?

1. Use software, like BrightEdge, to monitor keywords locally so you understand how they perform in particular areas versus how they perform for the entire US.
2. Create measurable goals based upon these new keywords to focus your content development and marketing efforts.
3. Make sure that you also optimize your site for US search, including using various forms of content, leveraging social profiles and employing clear images. The credibility you build on a nationwide level will also impact your local results.
4. Check that your site is optimized for local search (link to local search project page).
5. Measure your results and adjust your campaigns as needed.

Monitoring local SERPs can be a valuable resource for identifying how well you are performing in local search and the keywords that will give you the best local advantage in your community.

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What do LinkedIn and SlideShare have in common?

LinkedIn is the premier networking social media platform, helping businesses and professionals advertise themselves and their abilities to gain connections. It has more than 400 million members, and thanks to its reputation, the profiles created on the site rank highly for related queries on Google.

In 2012, LinkedIn announced that they were buying SlideShare, which is a platform that allows people to upload slideshows and presentations. The site receives about 70 million visitors and there are more than 18 million uploads on the site. It is also a well-regarded site by Google, so the content in the presentations often rank well on the SERPs.

Both platforms are heavily used by experienced professionals working to build themselves up as leaders in their field. When used wisely, you can leverage the two platforms together to build your exposure.

How does SlideShare and LinkedIn?

LinkedIn allows you to embed your SlideShare presentations in your profile, which helps to boost your profile and demonstrate thought leadership and expertise to the people who visit your page. Visitors can engage with your presentation through your profile or click through to SlideShare and engage with you and your brand on the platform. This can help increase traffic to your presentation, thereby increasing its position in the SlideShare internal algorithms. Raising your rank on SlideShare can further increase your visibility when people perform searches looking for presentations as well as increase the odds of your presentation appearing highly on Google SERPs for related queries.

Creating a quality presentation on SlideShare can also work in the reverse. SlideShare allows you to place links in your presentation to your website or LinkedIn profile. This will help build backlinks and drive traffic towards your LinkedIn profile. As more people visit your profile, your personal brand and your professional brand will have greater exposure and grow.

How can I leverage the SlideShare and LinkedIn connection?

1. Upload a few of your most popular presentations to SlideShare. Choose ones that engage the audience while offering valuable, helpful information that demonstrates your expertise and leadership.
2. Use engaging, interesting images in your presentation to make it as inviting as possible.
3. Include a link to your LinkedIn profile in the presentation.
4. Build out your LinkedIn profile to ensure that all of the sections have been filled in well.
5. Embed your presentation on your LinkedIn profile as a means of personal advertising
6. Promote your presentation on SlideShare on other platforms as well to drive traffic

LinkedIn and SlideShare both have a number of benefits to offer professionals. Using them together can help promote your personal brand and raise the ranking and visibility on both sites together.

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Content syndication is the process of republishing part of an article or blog post on another, more popular site. You might elect to republish the entire piece, only the title, or just a small opening portion. The goal with syndication is to attract readers by encouraging them to click from the blog post to your site to consume the content. Syndication provides you with the opportunity to expand your reach and demonstrate your authority and expertise to more people.

How can I utilize content syndication?

There are a number of ways to use content syndication. You can repost an entire article, a paragraph or even just a headline. This second posting is done on a more popular website with the goal of increasing the number of people who see your content. Your headline, paragraph or article would then attract the attention of these readers, drawing them back to your website to read the rest of the article or see what else you have written.

Increasing authority with content syndication

Since your article was published on a site that receives more traffic than your own, you can also increase domain authority. The readers who regularly view the hosting site have already established trust with this site. By posting your content and encouraging people to visit your original site, the host site helps to build your credibility, which can then help increase your lead generation.

Will content syndication hurt my rankings?

Your site and brand reputation is a common concern for many when it comes to content syndication, but when done properly, the process will only help your rankings.

To successfully syndicate content, you want to let Google know that this content has been duplicated on purpose and that it is not an attempt to trick the search engines. You can do this by using a rel=”canonical” tag, which is Google’s preferred means of signifying syndicated content. Other potential options would also be NoIndex tags or including an attribution link. All three of these options let Google know that you are not trying to get two pages indexed and ranked, and that there is one page in particular that should be ‘counted’ for the search engine. Google’s main concern is to avoid having multiple copies of the same content appear in search results, as this can hurt the user experience. With the right tags, you can avoid being penalized.

Why should I syndicate content?

Syndicated content can help you grow your audience and attract the attention of new readers. Since your material will be posted on websites that have a larger and potential different audience than your own, you have an excellent opportunity to grow your reach and reputation. Ideally, the content you syndicate should be high-quality so that you attract positive attention and create a strong reputation for yourself. At the same time, do not syndicate all of your best content, because you want to have at least some material on your website for new users who arrive.

How to do content syndication?

1. Select a website that has the audience and traffic rates that you want to attract to your website. It should target the same ideal audience as your own site while also having more authority than your personal web property.
2. Choose some of your highest quality content to syndicate. It should be on par with the quality that is typically seen on the host site. At the same time, do not repost all of your best work. You want some material to be fresh on your website for when new visitors arrive.
3. Decide how much you want to syndicate. This will depend on your goals for the syndication process. If you want to grow traffic, you might only repost a headline or paragraph. If you want to build brand awareness, you might repost the entire article.
4. Avoid duplicate content penalties. There are a number of options for avoiding Google penalties.
   1. A canonical tag is often the preferred means of avoiding problems with content syndication. This tells Google that this version of the article is just a copy and lets the search engine know where the original is.
   2. You can also put a NoIndex on the copy, so that Google does not ‘read’ the reposted version.
   3. You can also use an attribution link, as some host sites do not want a NoFollow or canonical tag. The attribution link should generally be enough to let the search engines know that this version of the article is a copy.
5. Track your traffic rates from your syndicated content to get an idea of how successful your efforts were. Another helpful metric might be Share of Voice to determine its impact on brand awareness.

Content syndication can be a valuable tool in the marketer’s toolbox when working to attract attention to content and improve the brand’s reach and reputation. If you decide to use this method, always follow the steps precisely to avoid incurring penalties.

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What is the hreflang tag?

The hrefLang tag is used to tell Google the language that you are using on a specific page. This helps Google return results to users that are most likely to match their needs, based upon their location. For example, if you wanted to create a French version of your website, then you would include hreflang=”fr”. Google would then know to show this version of the website when displaying results to a customer in a French speaking country.

You can also use the tag to specify regions where the content has been localized for the audience. For example, if you had Spanish content that was localized for Spain, you would include hreflang=”es-es”, while Spanish content for Mexico would be written hreflang=”es-mx”.

How important is hreflang?

With the hreflang tag, you are able to create localized pages for different languages and locations to get the correct information into your customers hands. If you have separate offerings for customers in Spain versus Argentina, you need to have a way to let Google know which site is for which country.

How do I add hreflang?

To generate the tag, you need to carefully watch your language and country codes. For example uk is used to indicate Ukraine and Ukrainian, not United Kingdom. If your content is for England, then you use gb, which is for Great Britain.

There are generators that will help you spit out the code you need, or you can create it yourself by using the language code from the ISO 639-1 format or the country codes from the ISO 3166-1 Alpha 2.

This tag goes in one of three places:

• Your site map
• The HTTP header
• The on-page markup

You only need to include it in one place. It is important to note that Google and Yandex both recognize this tag, but Bing does not.

The Hreflang tag offers website developers considerable control over the localization of their site internationally. If you have a site that will need to serve customers from different counties, this is a valuable tool to use to get started.

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What is digital marketing automation?

Marketing automation is a process that brands can use to effectively target their ideal audience with the right content at exactly the right time. Since the process is automated, brands can make sure that leads are followed up upon immediately, rather than having to worry about a delay before they can be contacted. Remember than an estimated 50 percent of sales go to the vendor that contacts a prospect first, so marketing automation can be a valuable resource in helping brands get in front of the crowd and connect with a new prospect or lead.

The brands that have begun to use automation report successful numbers, with 80 percent reporting an increase in leads and 77 percent saying they see an increase in conversions.

Execute Successful Email Campaigns

What is online marketing automation primarily used for?

Marketing automation involves setting up certain rules that dictate actions that will be completed in response to customers’ behaviors. For example, if a customer visits your pricing page but does not buy, they might receive a certain follow-up email that offers them a free trial or other enticing offer that fits with their activities on the website.

This type of care is also highly personalized since it is dependent upon someone’s individual behavior. Personalization is a central component of building a relationship with customers. It helps to show that you care about their needs. The rising importance of personalization will likely increase the prevalence of automation.

How do I start using marketing automation?

1. Determine the actions that will be triggers with your marketing automation system, such a visiting a pricing page or downloading a free trial.
2. Begin drafting emails that will be for particular people at certain points in their journeys.
3. Get to know the people on your page, including details such as their location, the information they are looking at and the landing pages that convert them.
4. Capture the information the lead offers on landing pages.
5. Send out your triggered emails at the appropriate moments.
6. Measure your results and make adjustments as needed.

Marketing automation can be an efficient way for brands to get the right content in front of people at the right time. Those interested in implementing these stages can see great results for their marketing efforts.

What is SEO for YouTube?

SEO for YouTube is optimizing videos to rank better for your content on search engines and increase your organic traffic. YouTube is a powerful tool for boosting your brand awareness and your thought-leadership. The platform has a user base of an estimated 1 billion people, which provides ample opportunity for reaching an audience of your intended buyer personas.

Videos are also increasingly becoming a preferred means of communication. An estimated 78 percent of people watch at least one video a week and they have been found to help customers feel more confident in their purchases.

How do you get more search on YouTube?

When people visit YouTube, they are generally looking to be entertained or learn something new from their chosen videos. For your videos to be a success, they must acknowledge and address this need. People do not visit YouTube because they want to hear a sales pitch-- save that for videos you post on your own website. Focus on using YouTube as a way to demonstrate why you are an industry leader and start to build that initial relationship of trust that will eventually lead to the customer converting.

The videos you post on YouTube should be designed for a broad audience. You should focus on primarily creating videos that people can understand and appreciate, even if they have no previous exposure to your brand. Great video topics might be:

• helping people understand a complicated topic related to your industry
• how to’s
• news or thought-leadership videos that introduce people to new ideas, and cast you as the leading brand that first explained it to them.

How to create a video for SEO?

1. Analyze your buyer personas and your buyer journey and look at the topics that fall towards the beginning of the cycle - the ideas that fit into the early awareness and consideration stages
2. Develop a video idea based on what you can realistically communicate in less than three minutes
3. Create a video script and determine your cast with the goal of engaging the audience and inviting them into a relationship with you in mind.
4. Shoot the video using professional grade equipment when possible to ensure that the quality of the video will be to the highest standard.

YouTube is a powerful tool for marketers because it helps them reach customers and engage them, typically early on in the buyer's journey. By creating high-quality videos, you increase your chances of expanding your base and achieving your long-term goals.

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When a YouTube video gains a high number of views and strong engagement numbers, it has the potential to tremendously boost the brand. However, given that there is an estimated 300 hours of video unloaded each minute, it can be a struggle to get your video noticed.

Part of this challenge is creating YouTube marketing materials that people will respond to and optimizing YouTube videos correctly. The second part, however, is understanding the technical specifications of the most successful videos to ensure that the images themselves are clear, welcoming and engaging for viewers.

What makes a successful YouTube video?

1. Length: Statistically, the ideal length is just under 3 minutes—2 minutes 54 seconds.
2. Opening: Your video will need to grab the attention of your viewer within 10 seconds. Studies have found that you will lose 33 percent of your visitors by 30 seconds, 45 percent by 1 minute and 60 percent by 2 minutes.
3. Branding: Including branded footage helps your viewers recognize your work.
4. Thumbnail: Find a frame that conveys the content and the emotion that is found in the video. Ideally, you want to find a frame that includes the main speaker looking directly at the viewer, as eye contact can be a powerful motivator and helps to engage users.
5. Format: Have a format that makes your video crisp and clear. Use MPEG-4 and keep your resolution around 1280 x 720 (16:9 HD) and 640 x 480 (4:3 SD) when possible.

Your YouTube video can have a fantastic impact on how you engage your audience and therefore your Share of Voice and brand engagement. Following these guidelines can help make sure that your video obtains the maximum result.

Related materials

• How to succeed with YouTube SEO?
• What is the latest Google update?
• How to create quality content that measurably performs?

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What is a guest post?

A guest post is when you are offered space to write a post on someone else’s blog or website. When you create a post for another site, you are given the opportunity to engage with a new audience and present your ideas, which can be a great chance to promote your brand and provide technical benefits for your own site and content.

Why is guest blogging important?

When you write a guest post, you can cast yourself as a thought leader within your industry. The site you are posting on has their own audience that has come to trust that particular website and their opinions. By inviting you to create a post, they are telling their audience that you are trustworthy as well.

Writing a post for another site provides you with an excellent opportunity to promote your ideas and build your brand as one that this new audience should listen to. If your new readers like what you have to say, you can help expand your brand’s prospects and encourage new people to enter your sales funnel.

Is guest blogging good for SEO?

Guest blogging opportunities can be a great way to boost traffic and encourage backlinks. Depending on the site where you're writing a blog post, you may be able to create backlinks to your guest piece as sources or in your biography.

Keep in mind that your host is not looking to post a sales pitch, so do not overuse links to your site. However, if you have a page with incredible insight into a relevant subject, it can be a good opportunity to link to it. This helps build quality backlinks, which can boost your rankings.

If the host wants to NOFOLLOW any links back to your website, there are still opportunities to promote yourself. You will be encouraging people to check out your background and visit your website, even if it does not count as a backlink. The traffic and engagement rates will also help improve your page’s ranking.

How do you write a guest post?

1. Identify a few websites and blogs that have strong visitation numbers and would be open to having you write a post.
2. Create content for your own site that is strong and offers the level of insight that the host site will want to see.
3. Nurture relationships with the host site by engaging with their material and form relationships with the people at that brand.
4. Ask if they accept posts from guests and have content available to promote. They will want to see sample articles so they can judge the quality of your writing and how well you will fit with their audience.

Writing a guest post can be a great way to build visibility and take advantage of the enormous crowds that follow a variety of sites. If you intend on guest blogging, take the time to find the right blog and develop a high-quality piece to get started.

​

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What are high-quality backlinks?

Within the context of SEO, backlinks are a form of acknowledging the authority and knowledge of another site. When another site links to yours, they are trusting their visitors and traffic to you. They are telling their valued audience that you are a good source for them if they want to learn more about a particular topic.

High-value backlinks are the links that come from quality websites. Analyzing these backlinks help search engines understand how reputable your site is. 

How do I get quality backlinks?

Here are six steps on how to get backlinks:

1. Create your target buyer personas and map them to their buyer's journey.
2. Create content that offers high value to a specific persona at a particular point in their journey.
3. Distribute your content wisely across social media, newsletters and email to attract as much attention to it as possible.
4. As more people are exposed to your content, they are more likely to link to your website.
5. Use this content to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry.
6. Look for opportunities to write guest posts on other websites or for industry publications.

High-quality links have a tremendous amount of value to site owners. They help to establish credibility so that Google knows they can trust your website, therefore raising your ranking and possibly helping to gain a Quick Answer box. They can also help draw more traffic to your site when people click through links on other websites to learn more. Cultivating these links takes work, but when you follow these steps, you will be able to make the power of the backlink work for you.

What is the value of high-quality backlinks?

Search engines are always looking for ways to understand how reputable your site is and whether people trust the information you publish. Backlinks are regularly viewed by algorithms as a factor in determining the value of your website.

Google interprets backlinks from quality sites as an indication that this is another quality, trustworthy site. Building a good backlink profile, therefore, can help boost your rankings in the SERPs.

Backlinks can also help you increase your traffic, especially if they are high-quality backlinks. As more people link to your site, you will have visitors that arrive from these other various web properties, interested in learning more about the topic at hand. This will grow your brand awareness and can further boost your rankings through higher traffic and engagement rates.

Is there any danger from bad backlinks?

Just like Google wants to see high-quality backlinks coming from high-quality sites, it also does not want to see links from low-quality, spam sites. Although it is not clear whether or not these links can actually harm a site’s ranking, it is recommended that you disavow any links that you do not want included in your backlink profile. By disavowing the links, you let Google know that you want no part of them.

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An influencer is a person who is regarded as an expert within their particular field that also has a steady following. People trust their opinions, and thus their endorsements carry a considerable amount of weight. There is a growing interest in experts who have a large social influence and presence via social media.

Why is influencer marketing so important?

Trust is an important part of modern marketing. According to Nielsen, customers trust ‘earned media’, such as reviews and recommendations, more than any other type of marketing. Influencer marketing acknowledges that need for trust and recommendations that consumers want to see.

Since people already follow the influencer and regard them as an industry leader, the recommendations that they make about brands are very important.

When you develop a relationship with an influencer, you can tap into that power and grow your own brand. There are a number of ways that influencers can help promote you and your business.

• They can like or share the content you post on social media which will promote a social influence.
• They can offer you space on their website for you to write a blog post.
• They can endorse you on their own platforms.

The more personal the recommendation the influencer makes, the more value it will hold for your efforts. Some studies have found that the average engagement rate for influencer marketing is 16 times higher than it is for other forms of marketing, such as paid advertising. You can find the best influencers for your brand or business through contractors or an influencer agency. Working with an influencer agency may provide you with a more structured relationship.

How can I get started using influencer marketing?

1. Identify influencers who are active in your industry. Make sure to narrow the list down to those who have an audience that mirrors your own.
2. Build a relationship with the influencer. No one likes being asked to do someone else a favor that they just met. Interact with the influencer, such as commenting on their content or engaging with them in conversation on social media.
3. Produce high-value content that actually offers something new to the influencer’s followers.
4. Ask the influencer for a blog post, endorsement or other acknowledgement.

Influencer marketing is a valuable resource for many brands. It helps to make marketing personal and build relationships with large audiences. Evaluate your own industry and see who might be able to help propel your brand forward.

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