Local SEO Best Practices 2020

Local SEO benefits companies advertise their products and services to local prospects and customers. When it comes to collecting information for local search, search engines rely on signals such as local content, links, social profile pages, and citations to provide the most relevant local results to the user.

Local Search is a need for any online business. To help you optimize your business for local SEO, here we go with the best practices that will cover local SEO tips.

1. Optimize Google My Business:

When you plan to benefit your business by using search engine optimization (SEO), your major focus goes on ranking the website in Google's search results using various content and keyword strategies. There’s a touch of a twist with local SEO and Google My Business. When you search “grocery shops near me,” you’ll view a huge map at the top of your screen with information on shops listed in the main search results such as the name, address, phone number, reviews, etc. for a specific business. 

Many people don’t recognize that the data does not come from the business’s website but from the Google My Business profile page. You are dropping out on a valuable opportunity if you don't have a Google My Business profile. These pages are free and they take around 20 minutes to form: Set Up Your Google My Business Profile Today

Make sure to verify your profile. Verification is important to ensure you’re the owner of your page so that you can do edits to your page in the future. Google will mail you a postcard with a verification code and you’ll need to enter this code in order to verify your profile.

2. Improve Your Internal Linking Structure:

Although external links pointing to your site are perfect, adjusting your internal linking structure will also boost your SEO rankings.

Why internal linking is important? It does the following:

• Supports website navigation
• Assists with data structure and website hierarchy
• Distributes page authority and ranking power amidst pages

3. Improve URL, Title Tags, Headers, Meta Description, and Content:

Whenever you write an article, you need to optimize the content for search engines by using high-volume keywords in the URL, title, header, meta description, and body. Consider highlighting customer success stories and case studies if having trouble coming up with geo-targeted content.

4. Add the Location Page to your Website:

If your business has more than one location, create location pages with your name, address, phone number, store hours, unique store descriptions, parking/transit information, promotions, and testimonials from happy customers.

It's also crucial you avoid duplicating content across multiple location pages. For single-location businesses, create a locally descriptive About Us page and add a Google Map to your website on your respective location page(s).

5. Publish Weekly "Posts" to Your Google My Business Profile 

Publish weekly updates to your Google My Business profile using the “Posts” function. Did you know that posting regularly to Google My Business can have a positive effect on local rankings?  Google’s posting function is alike to social media posts on sites like Facebook and others. You write a short blurb and add a picture. Some ideas for posting updates include Promotions and sales new blog posts quick tips, announcements about brand-new services, current hires, etc.

6. Ask or request For Google Reviews

Reviews are the best ways that your business can stand out from the competition. Specifically, you should strive to have more reviews, higher average ratings, and more frequent reviews. To accomplish this, you’ll need to ask for reviews on a continuous basis. Most businesses struggle to get customer reviews online because it takes effort on your customers’ end to write a review. At the same time, reviews are remarkably essential for building your online reliability and therefore improving your local Google rankings. 

Request your customers for reviews and make the process as easy as possible for every customer to write a review for you. Gaining positive reviews will likely be a slow process, but over time it adds up and will give you a real competitive advantage that is difficult to replicate. 

7. Ensure Your Website is Mobile-friendly

Now in 2020, nearly 60% of online searches are carried out on a mobile device. Many businesses still haven’t adapted. It is necessary to create a mobile-optimized website in order to compete in the local search results.

Local and mobile search go hand in hand. The most common ways people will use your site in a mobile environment are to view reviews, find directions to your location, and search for contact information. Make it simple for your prospects and customers by making your site mobile-friendly.

8. Ensure your Name, Address, and Phone number are up to date Online

A critical factor in local rankings is the flexibility of your business contact information specifically, your business’ Name, Address, and Phone number (NAP). The more regular this data is, the more trust Google will have in displaying your Google My Business profile. 

First, make sure that your business contact information is steady between your website and Google My Business profile. Go to your website and make sure that your contact page and your footer both list your business NAP so that this information matches the information listed on your Google My Business profile. Avoid the usual mistake of only adding the NAP within an image as it can't be crawled from search engines like HTML text.  

9. Optimize Online Directories and Citations

Did you know that a mention of your NAP on another website is called a “citation”? In addition, to make sure your citations are consistent, it’s also important to build up a healthy number of citations, and here are some tips on how to achieve that: 

• Submit Your Business to Directories to Create More Citations

It’s possible your website isn’t being listed on major directories that could give you more citations and could help boost your rankings in Google. Start using the Moz Local search tool to check if you're missing major listings. If you see any opportunities, then simply add all of your business information to the websites. In addition, submit your website to dozens of additional directories to create more citations. 

• Publish Online Press Releases to Create Citations

Another way to create citations is to distribute online press releases. If you have significant news updates, distribute an online press release via a quality press release service. 

10. Get Active On Social Media

There’s been a lot of discussion about whether social media activity is one of the signs Google practices to rank businesses. There’s no doubting the fact that social media is a great possibility to create more exposure and buzz about your business. Social media is also an excellent way to promote the content you’ve created, which in turn can also help you draw more links over time. In addition to being active on social media sites, it's essential to double-check that your social media profiles include consistent NAP information and have detailed keyword-rich descriptions. 

Now that you've carved out a nice Google My Business page, share the page on social media, further aligning social and search.

5 Mistakes to Avoid in Facebook Ads

 

Facebook Ads are the best way to market your products and services on the platforms that your consumers are using the most.

 

The only problem with Facebook Ads is that many people lose a lot of money with Facebook Ads because they don’t know how to use them correctly. In other words, they make many costly mistakes.

 

To avoid budget-draining Facebook advertising mistakes, I’d like to share five of them with you.

 

1. Not Targeting the Right Audience

Facebook allows advertisers to choose groups of people they want their ads to show to while they are using the social network. The groups of people can be based on interests, fields of study, demographics, and behaviors. If you choose the wrong groups of people, you won’t end up with as many conversions as you would if you selected the groups of people who are interested in your products and services.

 

To avoid this mistake, know your audience. Come up with a buyer persona and be as detailed as possible. As you target your Facebook Ads, look back to your buyer persona and choose the interests, demographics, and behaviors that match it.

 
2. Underusing Analytical Tools

Facebook Analytics is amazing as it tells you which ads performed better than others did. You can use this information to hone in on what is effective among your consumers on Facebook.

 

One of the most powerful ways to succeed with Internet marketing is to track your efforts, analyse them, and then improve your strategy. With every fresh strategy, you gain insight into what brings you better conversions.

 

3. Ignoring Custom Audiences

Facebook’s intelligent advertising platform enables you to reach many different audiences, including those who have been to your website before or have purchased from you in the past. These people are warm leads and may just want a reminder to come back to you.

 

Creating a remarketing campaign, you can send specific ads to different groups of people. For example, you can have an ad that asks your blog readers to sign up to join your mailing list. This means you will have a better way to keep in touch with them and bring them back to your site. You can target past consumers by uploading their email addresses to Facebook, and then they will notice your ad with a special offer. Even people who visit one of your landing pages can be targeted, so you can show them again why your services or products are the best.

 

4. Forgetting to Exclude Past Converters

It doesn’t help at all if showing the same ad to people who have already converted. Sadly, this is a blunder that people make all the time.

 

Create a Custom Audience by using the EXCLUDE feature and select people who have already converted. This will save your money and ensure that you’re not wasting time showing your ad to people who have already converted.

 

5. Designing an Ineffective Ad

By learning your audience, you can also figure out what they like best in ads. You can do this by testing different ads (image, text, slideshow, carousel, video, etc.), and then check which ones perform the best.

   

Once you know which ones perform the best, always remember that less is more with ads. You don’t want too much text because people are scrolling their feed, which implies you only have a split second to catch them. The image in your ad has to be striking and send a prompt message.

Are looking out for the latest Facebook Ad templates? Download today the trending freebies that help your Facebook ads to perform better.

Latest Updates on Google Search Console API

Over the past year, Google has been working to upgrade the infrastructure of the Search Console API, and finally, they have announced few updates that would help to enhance the performance of the API as demand increases.

NOTE: If you’re not querying the API yourself, you need not take action.

If you are querying the API for your own data or if you maintain a tool which uses that data (e.g. a WordPress plugin), read on below changes:

1.   Changes on Google Cloud Platform dashboard: you’ll see is a drop in the old API usage report and an increase in the new one.

2.   API key restriction changes: if you have already set API key restrictions, you might need to change them.

3.   Discovery document changes: if you’re querying the API using a third-party API library or querying the Webmasters Discovery Document directly, you will require updating it by the end of the year.

NOTE: The API is backward compatible and there are no changes in scope or functionality.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) changes

In the Google Cloud Console dashboards, you will see a traffic drop for the legacy API and a rise in calls to the new one. This is the same API, just under the new name.

API key restriction changes

These instructions are important only if you query the data yourself or provide a tool that does that for your users.

NOTE: If you have added an API restriction for your API keys, you will need to take action by August 31.

In order to allow your API calls to migrate automatically to the new API infrastructure, you need to make sure the Google Search Console API is not restricted.

->     If your API restrictions are set to “Don’t restrict key” you’re all set.

->     If your API restrictions are set to “Restrict key”, the Search Console API should be checked as shown in the image below.

Discovery document changes

If you’re querying the Search Console API using an external API library or querying the Webmasters API discovery document directly you will require taking action as they would drop the support in the Webmasters discovery document. Google's current plan is to support it until December 31, 2020.

Source: Google

8 FREEBIES for Freelancers in 2020

The freelance market is becoming one of the most saturated markets at this moment. Many individuals need the adaptability that comes with working at home, which means that more and more of us are trying to make it at the moment.

Standing out in this very noisy freelancer marketplace can be very challenging. The most important question is how to keep updated with the latest trend as a freelancer so you can get the best clients and be able to charge what you're worth.

So, here are quick 8 hacks that can help to stand out among others in the marketplace. 

1. FACEBOOK AD IDEAS:

If you are a freelancer and would like to start with Facebook Ad Campaigns, then get the secret of winning the Facebook Ads for your business. This ebook consists of peppy ideas to improve visibility and reach of your Facebook Ads with 250+ examples. 

GRAB NOW: Get Inspired with These Winning Facebook Ads

2. 4 E-COMMERCE PROFIT LEVERS:

Take advantage of the 4 E-Commerce Profit Levers if you are a Consultant, Freelancer, or Coach. If you are more inclined towards knowing the different strategies that work best for the E-Commerce domain then this is the perfect webinar to attend. 

UNLOCK NOW: Watch Ecommerce Profit Levers for Coaches Now

3. LANDING PAGE HACKS E-BOOK:

Are you looking for more organized and trending content for your landing page? Get your free ebook for the best writing tips and landing page templates.  Fill me up with content ready landing page templates now.  

DOWNLOAD NOW: Get fool-proof formulas to writing high-converting lead pages 

4. HIGH-CONVERTING LEAD NURTURE EMAILS:

Get mastered with this secret Lead nurture email ebook and turn your subscribers into customers. Unlock the access to this high-converting lead nurture copywriting training now. 

DISCOVER NOW: Discover the secrets to high-converting email campaigns.

5. WEBSITE WORKBOOK:

Set and test your website and track conversions weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly in your workbook. Grab your website goal setting workbook today.

GRAB  NOW: Learn how to make your website work for your business

6. TRAINING ON BUILDING YOUR WEBSITE:

Do you plan to start your own business? Get this free training on how to bring your business into conversion without coding. Unlock this secret ingredient now.

DISCOVER NOW: Discover the secret ingredients to a high-converting website (without knowing code or CSS)

7. FREELANCERS TEMPLATE BUNDLE:

Save time and stress less by effectively making and managing content briefs when you unlock these professional templates for email marketing, blog articles, and press releases. 

UNLOCK NOW: Working with Freelancers Template Bundle

8. 2020 CONTENT CALENDAR:

Better be late than Never. If you still looking for a specific 2020 calendar, then grab this tailor-made calendar that will keep up with your content.

DOWNLOAD NOW: Create your 2020 content calendar in a flash

7 Ways to Improve Your Google Ad Template!

Like many people, you would probably be aware of Google Ads headlines.

 

Just 30 characters required, but it’s the most difficult 30 characters you’ll ever draft.

 

It is necessary to know what matters, which is why it can be remarkably difficult to come up with a powerful headline.

 

The good news is that after you’ve had some practice with writing them, they can be quite easy. It’s literally just identifying what types of headlines work best, and then securing your product or service into it.

 

Let's gear up by writing some strong headlines for Google ads.

 

 

#1: The Question

Example: “Looking for ________?”

It is always great to draw someone's attention with questions that they are looking for on Google. Many individuals feel satisfied when you trigger them with a question related to what they are searching for.

 

#2: Numbers

Example: “________ Ways to ________”

Place a number in the first section. It should be a remarkable one that will attract most people. The second section should be what your product or service commits. For example, if you sell a product that reduces people's stress, your headline possibly “6 Ways to Reduce Stress.”

 

#3: Location

Example: “__________ in __________” or “_________ _________”

This covers "WHAT ARE YOU?" and "WHERE ARE YOU LOCATED?". Place your professional title followed by a location in the first part such as "Lawyer in Toronto." The second part sets the location followed by a professional title, therefore "Toronto Lawyer".

 

Though look simple to work, that’s the plot. Google Ads headlines demand to be easy. You have a blink of an eye to snatch the attention of online searchers, and showing them you are what they are seeking is the best way to do it.

 

#4: Buzzwords

Example: “Get __________ w/ Free Shipping”

Well, this one is quite focused on product-based companies. The buzzwords are get, shipping, and free. These words, along with your, save, online, and you seem to lead to more clicks.

#5: Offer

Example: “Save 20% On Our ________”

Many people love a great deal, particularly those willing to make a purchase. An offer headline catches people’s attention because as they state, “Money talks.”

#6: Leverage FOMO: Use the Countdown Timer

Example: “Winter Boots Sale – Flat 25% Off, Only 2 hours left”

FOMO—fear of missing out—may have only begun the marketing dictionary in 2013, but the trick is much more traditional.

 

Paid search marketers can draw into FOMO by creating a sense of urgency or scarcity, usually through limited-time offers or showcasing peer-group buyers.

 

The Google Ads countdown timer really counts down the days or hours until the end of a special offer. This way your ad has a better chance of knocking out your contenders’. A countdown builds an immediate threat of loss, drawing into psychological beliefs to boost clicks.

 

#7: Mix and Match

This one is more of art instead of just filling in the blanks. Depending on what your main keyword is, you will have between 20 characters and 5 characters to use once you have entered your main keyword.

 

Certainly, if you only have 5 characters left, your choices will be limited. The following list is to get your creative thoughts rolling and come up with the best achievable headlines:

 

Effective headlines are ones that get your target audience clicking through to your landing page. You never know which ones will be the most dominant till you make then live. It is better to do some A/B testing to detect which ones give the best results. Once you know which one gets the most clicks, you’ll be ready to modify those a little to see if it enhances click-through rates even further.

10 Best SEO Hacks to Boost YouTube Visibility

After doing lots of research on YouTube, I came to the conclusion with the best results for increasing the visibility of YouTube videos. At times you feel lazy to go through and do that needful task. So in order to make it fun loving- Assume you are on the mission of ' Increase Visibility ' and to clear each step you have to complete your mission. So, start your task now by reading these mission. You get rewards for completing each mission. Try it and all the very best. Please go step by step.. No cheating...

Mission#1-  Create a YouTube video of  5 minutes long.

If you have completed your Mission#1, then here's your reward.

Congrats! You have become the  Field Marshal

Mission#2-  Make use of Keyword in the video filename.

If you have completed your Mission#2, then here's your reward.

Congrats! You have become the General

Mission#3- Find the video keywords that have YouTube results on the first page of Google. You can also make use of Google Display Planner. But keep in mind Avg Monthly Search  for those keywords should be minimum 300.

If you have completed your Mission#3, then here's your reward.

Congrats! You have become the Lieutenant General

 Mission#4-  Video Title should be at least 5 words long. Make use of keyword at the  beginning of the title.

If you have completed your Mission#4, then here's your reward.

Congrats! You have become the Major General

Mission#5-  Make use of YouTube search auto suggest, also known as auto complete for better keywords.

If you have completed your Mission#5, then here's your reward.

Congrats! You have become the Brigadier

Mission#6-  Make use of the Closed Caption feature. Captions are a great way to make content accessible to viewers. YouTube can use speech recognition technology to automatically create captions for your videos. These automatic captions are triggered by machine learning algorithms, so the quality of the captions may vary.

If you have completed your Mission#6, then here's your reward.

Congrats! You have become the Colonel

Mission#7-  Write a super long video description. Use keywords in the description for better visibility and include keywords 3-4 times.

If you have completed your Mission#7, then here's your reward.

             Congrats! You have become the Lieutenant Colonel

Mission#8-  Add Link of your Video in Email Signature

If you have completed your Mission#8, then here's your reward.

    Congrats! You have become the Major

Mission#9-  Embed your video in Blog Post.

If you have completed your Mission#9, then here's your reward.

Congrats! You have become the Captain

Mission#10-  Mention your Video on Quora and other Question & Answers Web Sites.

If you have completed your Mission#10, then here's your reward.

Congrats! You have become the Lieutenant

Best tools for YouTube Video Advertising

                        For Keywords-     Keyword YouTube Tool, Display Planner

                        For Tags-             Tube Buddy

Best 5 Inbound Marketing Tools !

Inbound Marketing:

1. AB Testing Tool
   1. Visual Website Optimizer
   2. Google Website Optimizer 
2. Landing Page Creation
   1. Unbounce 
3. Web Analytics Tools
   1. Kissmetrics
   2. Mixpanel 
4. Life Cycle Email tools
1. Customer.io
2. intercom.io 
5. Visitor feedback tools:

1. Google Analytics
2. CrazyEgg 
3. User testing

Goodbye buffering, Hello YouTube Offline

With YouTube Offline you can enjoy our favourite videos anytime, anywhere, without buffering.

  

How to Offline a video

FAQs

Q) What is the Offline feature?

The Offline feature allows you to watch videos over and over again, without buffering or internet connection. You can add videos to your device, and see them inside the Offline section of your YouTube app.

Q) How do I Offline a video?

Touch the Add to Offline     icon below the video, or select Add to Offline from a video's context menu     to get started. Remember, you need to be signed-in to be able to Offline videos.

Q) On what versions of the YouTube app can I use the Offline feature?

You can use the Offline feature in all the latest versions of the YouTube app (10.0+ on Android, 2.16+ on iOS). Upgrade your app now to start Offlining videos.

Q) Where can I find all the videos that I have Offlined?

An available offline   icon will appear below the video once it has been added to offline. To access videos or playlists that have been added to Offline, touch Offline in the Guide menu.

Q) Will my mobile data be used for Offlining videos?

By default, videos are only added to Offline over Wi-Fi. To allow videos or playlists to be added to offline over mobile networks, go to Settings > Background & Offline and un-check the box next to Add over Wi-Fi only (mobile data charges could apply in this case).

Q) Can all videos in the YouTube app be Offlined?

While a majority of videos in the YouTube app are available for Offlining, you may find that some videos are not, and are marked with the   icon. We continue to work hard towards making more and more videos available for Offlining every day.

Source: YouTube

Omg! The Best 6 Social Bookmarking Tools Ever!

1             

1.    Digg − It is a prevalent bookmarking site that gives you a chance to arrange, store, and shares your web joins. It gives per user the most relevant stories they search for. On the off chance that your substance is shared on Digg, you will get loads of important activity and your site will most likely rank high.

2.    Stumble Upon − It is a popular site that gives you a chance to effectively find pictures, features, pages, etc. It is a giant collection of the best pages on the Internet.

3.    Pinterest − It permits you to share and find pictures and features on the web. You can get a speedy connection by bookmarking. For this, you have to include 'pin it' and 'follow me' buttons.

4.    Reddit − It permits enrolled individuals to submit content. Clients can vote any content "up" and 'down'. On the off chance that your post is preferred by numerous, it turns into a hit.

5.    Delicious − It is a social bookmarking site that permits its enrolled clients to share, store, and find bookmarks. It is a user-friendly site. It saves your bookmarks and searches through them using keywords. Generally, it searches through popular and newly-added websites added by a large community of users.

6.    Diigo − It is a social annotation, highlighting and social bookmarking site that permits enlisted clients to bookmark pages and highlight any piece of it and attach sticky notes. 

Advantages of Being a Registered User on a Bookmarking Site

Being an enrolled client on a bookmarking site, you can spare, oversee, and share your content. It is gainful from numerous points of view.

·       You can arrange your content and bookmark them for future utilization. When you would require them, you will have piles of very much incorporated stock to look over.

·         You can make significant labels to alter the pages in the future.

·    You can impart your thoughts and words to different groups identified with your business.

·         You can stay informed concerning your connections. You can record backlinks.

·     You can make 'social mentions' by keeping a track of notice about you for reference or testimonials in your own compositions.