Google My Business has rebranded to Google Business Profile. What does this mean for you?

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Google has recently launched the biggest update to business profiles yet. They have completely changed how businesses manage their listing and rebranded GMB to Google Business Profile.

So What’s New?

The biggest, and most glaring, change is that you, a local business owner, no longer need to go into Google Business Manager to manage your profile. It is now all done on Search. All you have to do is type your business name into Google Search and you’ll be presented with the following screen:

What About Managing Multiple Locations?

If your business has multiple locations to manage, nothing changes. You can still access the existing GMB manager. This will continue to be the way to manage multiple businesses or locations.

Can I still use the GMB Business Manager pages to manage my single listing?

Yes you can for the time being. Google is planning to migrate business owners who manage a single business to the new way of using Search for managing your listing though. As a part of this rebrand and recent changes, Google will also be retiring the Google My Business app in 2022.

3 Steps to Improve Search Ranking for You

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Small Business

Small businesses have to face a new reality: the digital world may provide the only support during uncertain times. In 2020, many small businesses faced the risk of bankruptcy and closure due to the pandemic. Despite the promise of economic resurgence in 2021, more than 9 million small businesses in the United States alone feared they won’t make it through the crisis.

More and more small businesses have come to realize that improving their online presence and search engine visibility is the key to retaining a robust customer base. Some have even branched out to connect their search engine optimization with social media.

However, it’s easy to get distracted by the numerous strategies. But you should always focus on improving your website’s search rankings.

Below are some compelling reasons to focus your efforts on improving search rankings and three effective methods you can use to achieve such a goal.

Why You Need to Improve Your Search Rankings

Many digital marketing agencies may try to dazzle you with different metrics, but expert providers of SEO services for small businesses understand that improving search rankings is the most important goal of all. Without enhancing your search rankings, all other metrics may be impossible to achieve.

Here are some of the best reasons for pursuing a spot on the first results page for your business
website.

● People look for locations
According to the experts at Google, as many as one in three of all Google searches from mobile phones are related to location. This is because people actively use search engines to look for locations they wish to visit. If your business website appears first on such results, that means more people will be able to find your physical location.
● Users search for businesses
The internet is useful for looking up many things and users have turned to it to find local businesses. According to a survey of consumers, an overwhelming 90 percent of respondents use search engines to locate a local business. If your business is struggling to remain afloat or need substantial revenue, appearing in these searches ahead of your competitors is essential.
● First-term gets the most clicks
People and users look for swift results from their search engines. Most users click the first result on the
first page. Experts calculate that whichever website occupies the first spot can have an average click-
through rate of over 28 percent. This means that if your website can take that spot, you have a higher
chance of getting new customers.
● First pages get almost all views
Search engine engines rank their results based on multiple factors, with those scoring the highest appearing closer to the top. But this means that users barely pay attention to the results that appear on the following pages. As many as 93 percent of users never scroll past the first page of search results. This makes it vitally important that you appear on the first page or else have to fight for the few users who bother to check the second page.

Improving Your Search Rankings

So how does your business make it onto the first page of the SERP?
Digital marketing companies throughout the country, from SEO experts in Dallas to content marketers in Duluth can tell you just how effective the following methods can be.

1. Create Compelling Content

Content is the key to winning over customers and search engine algorithms alike. Compelling content takes many forms. It can be appealing metadata and title, both of which are factored in algorithms when they crawl your website. It also includes regularly updated pieces, like educational videos and expertly written blog posts.

Of course, compelling content is also essential for retaining the interest of your readers and customers. The more compelling your content, the more likely people are to share it with their friends and social networks. This ensures that your website gets good traction and visibility from multiple angles.

How do you produce content that consistently engages?

● Routinely inspect your entire website for outdated or wrong content. This could be information that’s no longer relevant, data that has been overturned by new evidence, or simply articles no
one cares about anymore. Articles with erroneous information can affect your credibility and outdated data may lead to lost traffic, which could also mean lost revenue. Once you’ve discovered these old blog posts or copies, schedule content refreshing and republishing. This strategy will not only save you time in creating content, but it could also help you generate new traffic.

● Don’t write solely for algorithms. Instead, focus on writing content that your customers and readers will genuinely care about. Doing so can draw more organic traffic than creating for
search engines. Look up what sort of information your customers and potential customers want to know. Providing them with this information is key to drawing in more traffic, backlinks, and the like.
● Optimize keywords connected to your website. Everything, from the title of the website to its metadata and even the alt-text for your images, are evaluated by search engines when determining rankings. Make sure that they correctly incorporate keywords, search phrases, and important information.
● Don’t ramble, but don’t be too brief either. Both readers and search engines prefer longer content rather than short articles that don’t offer any substantial information. When writing articles for your website, make sure they provide in-depth knowledge; edit them to ensure they don’t contain unnecessary words and erroneous information.

2. Optimize for Mobile

As of 2021, the majority of internet users are accessing it through their mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets. According to expert sources, as many as 55 percent of all global internet traffic originates from mobile devices. This makes it a necessity that your business website, not just accessible but optimized for mobile traffic.

Although your website may appear on a phone’s web browser, it can be distorted. Or several features may be rendered unusable by the shift. Or it may not appear at all. Such problems will undoubtedly drive away customers.

Here are ways to optimize your site for mobile use.

● Ensure your website changes ratio and resolution to fit into mobile devices. Smartphones have significantly smaller screens than other devices and your site may not translate properly if you
don’t alter it. You should also optimize your site for all sorts of mobile devices, including tablets because they have different screen sizes and capabilities.
● Choose your fonts for readability and appeal. You must not forget that mobile devices have smaller screens or they may not access the same font types as larger computers. If you don’t, visitors to your site may find it difficult to read your content. This will put off many visitors and render your website unusable.
● Test all the buttons and clickable features of your website on a mobile browser. If you want to be absolutely sure your site works properly, invest a lot of time in inspecting each of its clickable
features. Are the buttons big enough on a phone screen that users can press them easily? Are they responsive at all? Catching such errors will be important before launching a mobile version
of your site.
● Phones have different internet capabilities than desktop setups. They may not be able to handle huge, intricate websites as quickly as their desktop counterparts. If you don’t optimize your site for speed, it may take a long time for pages to load, causing users to go to your business competitors instead.

3. Reach Out to Local Directories and Sites

Search engines connect with local business directories and similar sites to pinpoint shops and other commercial establishments accurately. It is crucial to enlist your business in these online directories. Users value the reviews left by other customers on these sites and can lead to more revenue.

Furthermore, search engines connect the address you input in such directories with online searches,
allowing customers to find your business easily.

● Register your business with sites like Yelp and Google My Business. Make sure you complete the registration and verification processes of these directories because your business won’t appear in their listings until your do.
● Double-check that all details of your business address are correct when you sign up for such a site. This is crucial for connecting your online site to a searchable physical location.
● Encourage customers to leave reviews on your directory pages. Users frequently trust the reviews left by other users on business sites. However, your satisfied customers may forget to indicate how pleased they were with your company. Ask them to write about their positive experience with your product or service. Reach out in a friendly manner while they’re online, and if at all doable, offer an incentive, from a charitable donation on their behalf to a discount.

With millions of small businesses clamoring for the attention of consumers, you need to be smart about your digital marketing strategy. Improving your search ranking position is the best possible way for your small company to succeed in the uncertain times ahead.

 

Author:

Itmar Gero

Itamar Gero is the founder of SEOReseller.com, a digital marketing solutions provider that empowers agencies and their local clients all over the world. When he isn’t working, he’s traveling the world, meditating, or dreaming (in code).

Crafting the Perfect Response to a Negative Review

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Crafting the perfect response to a negative review on Google and Facebook takes time. It’s not something that should be taken lightly. How you respond to a negative review will reflect on your business and whether people will want to spend their money with you.

These negative reviews are not an indictment against you, the person, but each review is about an experience at your business. You may be thinking – I should write this long, elaborate reply going into minute detail about your business, but I’m here to tell you that’s not the answer. A review response should never be long winded, save that type of content for a social media post or blog piece, if you write them. People reading review responses, including the person who initially left the review don’t want to read paragraph upon paragraph of verbiage.

The above is what not to do. No one on the internet is going to sit there and read a wall of text. Consumers don’t have the attention span, online, to read through walls of text. Writing a long reply with the thought that your response is providing education, informative, or otherwise necessary information is not the proper way to approach crafting that perfect response. A consumer is moving on from a response within two seconds.

Keep It Short & Simple.

Crafting that review response to a negative review should have two parts: an apology and an offer to discuss the situation further and the intent to rectify the situation. There is no need to add anything past that. Everything else is irrelevant to the matter at hand.

You want to show that you can handle a negative review objectively.If a reader gets the sense that your emotional or defensive in the response, it may dissuade them from spending their money at your business. Take a couple of days before you respond to a negative review, really assess the situation, and then begin crafting that response. And remember to keep it short and simple!

However, if you’re the type that has trouble separating yourself from your business when crafting those reviews, fret not. We’re here to help. We’ll help you craft that succinct and apologetic response that will get customers wanting to shop with you because of how you handled a negative review.

How to Claim an Unmanaged Facebook Page

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As a business owner you may find that even if you have not created a Facebook business page, one already exists. This can happen from people ‘checking in’ at your business or a variety of other reasons.

This unmanaged or unofficial Facebook page can be an unwanted problem, but something that isn’t too difficult to resolve. We’ll outline the steps you need to take in order to claim or remove the page.

How Do You Claim An Unmanaged Page?

You will be able to tell if a Facebook page is unmanaged by viewing the page and seeing the ‘Unofficial Page’ label on it. By the ‘Unofficial Page’ label, there will be a question prompted that asks ‘Is this your business?’. You will want to click that question and it will redirect you to a new link.

You can then verify that you own the business a few different ways.

1. Verify By Phone Number

If you have access to the phone number that is listed as the publicly listed business phone number. Facebook would then call the number and give you a 4 digit code. That code can then be entered on Facebook 

2. Verify By Documents

If you do not have access to the phone number associated with the business you can provide some documents as well. The types of documents that could be provided are business tax files, business licenses, phone bills, electricity bills, etc. It’s just important that you scan a document to the business name and address.

3. Verify By Email

Another option that you have is verifying through your business-associated email address (name@businessemail.com). You will need to connect your business email to your Facebook account in order to verify it this way. Once you have that connection established, you will be able to choose your email as a verification method. 

After the Verification

Typically it will take Facebook a minimum of 72 hours to get back to you regarding your request to claim a Facebook page, but it can take up to a week. If you haven’t heard anything after a week, try reaching out to Facebook support to further assist you in your attempt. 

 

Improving Landing Page Experience and Quality Score for Google Ads

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What are landing page experience and quality score and how do they drive your Google ads? Knowing what these two things are and how to optimize them are essential to running good and cost-effective ads on Google. 

Landing Page Experience

Google Ads describes landing page experience, as the measure of how well your website gives the people who click on your ad what they are looking for. This landing page experience will affect how your ad is shown to people, so it’s important to make sure that you have some of the key elements of a good landing page. 

These elements are:

  • Offering relevant and useful content
    • Your landing page should be directly relevant to your ad group and the keywords within it. If you’re targeting people looking for a specific thing, then the landing page they land on should not end up on a general page for all products like that product. However, if someone is looking for more generalized information, they shouldn’t end up on a landing page that is geared towards one particular product or service. 
  • Be transparent and clear on your website 
    • Your website should clearly state what your website does and what services or products you provide. Your contact information should be easily accessible to visitors of the site. When requesting personal information from customers be clear about where it is going and what you’ll do with it. 
  • Navigation on mobile and website should be easy
    • People don’t want to hunt for information, so make sure that what people are searching for is easy to find. Your site shouldn’t feature a lot of pop-ups that annoy customers and distract them from their intent. Help customers find the content they’re looking for by prioritizing the content that is above-the-fold.
  • Landing page that loads quickly
    • When someone clicks on your ad, the landing page should load quickly for them, whether it’s on mobile or desktop. 
  • Make your site faster
    • Your website should be quick and efficient to use. The longer people have to wait for a site to load the more likely they are to exit from it, and the less likely they are to view other pages on the site.  

Learn how to improve your retail website landing page & experience HERE.

Quality Score

Quality score is described as an estimate of your ads, keywords, and landing pages. Quality score essentially factors in every aspect of your ad and how relevant and effective it will be for the users who it is displayed too. Having a high-quality score can lead to lower ad bids and better positioning. Improving the 3 factors that determine your quality score is essential in your ad performing well.

These 3 factors are:

  • Expected Click-Through Rate
    • Your expected click-through rate determines how likely it is that your ad will be clicked on when shown for your keyword. Google looks into how this keyword has performed in the past when looking at this. This is a prediction and has the ability to affect the prominence and visibility of your ads.
  • Ad relevance
    • The ad relevance score is indicative of how well your keywords relate to your ads. To keep your ad relevance in good standing it’s good to keep a tight group of keywords that are fairly specific together.
  • Landing page experience 
    • As discussed earlier, landing page experience is very important for your ad. You want to make sure that your page loads quickly and that the customer can easily find the information that they were looking for on the page. 

In Conclusion

Overall, there are a variety of different factors that can alter the effectiveness of your Google ads. Landing page experience and quality score are just 2 factors that you should consider and pay attention to. The landing page experience of your ad has the ability to impact your quality score, but it is not the only thing that impacts your quality score. Therefore, you may have a low-quality score and a great landing page experience or a bad landing page experience and a good quality score. If you can keep both of these operating at high levels, then you are in good shape to pay lower for your bids and have better placements and results for your ads!

 

For great digital marketing advice, use our website chat or contact us to schedule a consultation!

Resources:

https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2404197

https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/1659696

https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/14086?hl=en&ref_topic=24936

https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/140351?hl=en&ref_topic=24936

How to Setup Your Google Analytics Account

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In today’s digital world, your business presence online and understanding your presence online is essential for vitality. Google offers a web analytic service called Google Analytics that tracks and reports your website traffic. 

 

Step 1

Navigate to the Google Analytics homepage.

Step 2

You will want to make sure that you are signed in to your G Suite email account. In the top right corner of the Google Analytics homepage, you see the option to ‘Sign in to Analytics’ or to ‘Start for Free,’ you are going to click the ‘Start for Free’ button. 

This will bring you to the landing page to set up Google Analytics. Click ‘Set up for Free’ and begin personalizing your account.

Step 3

Here is where you will begin to create and customize your account with the following information:

  • Account Name
  • What are you looking to measure? (Web, Apps, Web & App)
  • Property Setup (Website name, Website URL, Industry Category & TImezone)

 

Step 4

Once your account information is set up, you will be brought to the page that gives you your tracking code.

Copy this tag and apply it to the header of every page on your associated website. This code will be how Google tracks your site’s analytics. 

 

Setting up your Google Analytics account is quick and easy while also providing you with valuable information about your websites visitors. Follow these steps and get analytics up and running on your site today!

Best CT SEO Services

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Best SEO Experts in Bridgeport

3Prime was ranked as one of the best SEO Service providers in Bridgeport, CT area. Check out what the article had to say about 3Prime CT SEO services and see what we can do for you.

3 Tips for Enhancing Your Local SEO Efforts

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Whether you own a small business or one with multiple locations, local SEO can provide a massive assist in boosting sales.

For those not quite sure what local SEO entails, simply think about your standard search engine optimization tactics. Yet instead of targeting a general topic, it is more specific to your local area. Take an automobile repair shop located in Chicago as an example. Rather than aiming for the general term of “automobile repair shop”, local SEO will go with “automobile repair shop in Chicago”. 

Although local SEO reduces your overall reach, it increases the possibility of your business being found by people that matter: local customers. Did you know that, out of all Google searches in the world, 46% of them are from consumers searching for information about local businesses?

Due to this, your company needs a strong plan in place for local SEO. To help you along the way, consider the following three tips for enhancing your local SEO efforts:

1. Find the right local SEO keywords

First of all, you should identify the local SEO keywords which will bring maximum visibility for your company. Thankfully, this is a simple task. While you can do this with Google Keyword Planner, you also have the option of taking a closer look at your competition and see what keywords they are targeting.

When deciding on local SEO keywords, here are a few other pointers:

  • Don’t forget to do variations on keywords. For instance, “Dallas electricians”, “electricians in Dallas”, “Dallas’s best electricians”. 
  • Google, in most cases, will already know where a potential customer is located. As a result, they will search for “electricians near me” rather than specifying their local area. Keep in mind to also use “…near me” keyword variations. 
  • Long tail search terms are easy to ignore, but they can produce high conversion rates. If you rank first for, say, “Dallas electricians who install solar panels”, this will generate a concentrated customer base.

2. Optimize landing pages

Linking to the aforementioned point about keywords, you should create landing pages that are optimized for a specific topic. This could be for a location, service, feature, or ad campaign. 

When you utilize local landing page optimization, you have a greater chance of targeted customers visiting your website. You can truly highlight a certain topic and improve its local search authority in the process.

Once you have the customer on the landing page, you need to sell them on your business. To do this, you can: 

  • Provide a clear, informative description of what you are offering.
  • Use customer reviews as social proof. 
  • Utilize visual content such as videos and images.

3. Google My Business

This point is short and sweet: sign-up and get your business listed on Google My Business. 

If your business is verified on Google My Business, the rewards can be lucrative. If someone does a local search on Google, for example, your company might end up with a coveted place on their sidebar space. Although even having your location, opening times, reviews, etc. just a quick search away will help customers find the information they desire in a convenient manner.

How to Improve Your Website’s SEO Strategy

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Search Engine Optimization is one of the best strategies you can invest in for your website. It isn’t just about making your website attractive in the eyes of Google’s algorithms. Nowadays Google has made updates that reflect user experience. What this means is that, in most cases, providing a great experience for your visitors will translate in a higher ranking on Google.

Keep Up To Date with the Latest SEO Changes

For example, a few key updates that benefit both search engines and users is site speed, site stability, and site security. Without these three pillars, your users will get frustrated, and search engine algorithms will mark you down for it.

The other fact you need to keep in mind is that even professionals in the industry don’t actually know 100% what these search algorithms look for. Google keeps this information under lock and key. Their algorithms also update regularly, which keeps the SEO industry on its toes.

You need to stay up to date with SEO changes at all times, and generally speaking aim to always provide an exceptional experience to your users. The latest changes, for example, reflect the growing use of mobile searches and mobile internet use.

Improve the Structure of Your Website

One area that we know search engines look at is the website’s structure and integrity. From a user point of view, this makes sense. Users are not likely to use a website if it takes long to load, and they won’t check out if they have reason to doubt your site’s security. In order to improve the overall structure of your website, you are going to need to invest in a great host like Onyx.io, which offers a triple-redundant 100% NVMe SSD platform for your website. This keeps it stable, fast, and secure.

What to Fix on Your Website

Once you have switched hosts, you will want to go through and clean up your website. Old SEO strategies, in particular, can actually hold you back more than you think, even if that effort at keyword stuffing is on a page that no longer links up to your website. Unless it is unpublished or deleted, Google’s bots can still find it.

 

  • Delete or Unpublish Unnecessary Pages

 

Go through and delete or unpublish all pages that are not necessary. You would need to otherwise optimize them all.

 

  • Fix Broken Links

 

Go through all your links and ensure that they work. If they don’t, either remove them or replace them.

 

  • Update Old Information

 

Rather than making a new post, guide, or page, update it. Updated content is more valuable to you than posting again.

How to Improve SEO From There

There are a few more ways that you can improve your SEO. To help you get started follow these steps:

  1. Commit to Keyword Research
  2. Optimize Your Site’s Content
  3. Keep a Valued Blog
  4. Optimize Site for Mobile
  5. Optimize Site for Voice Search

The most important thing you need to remember about SEO is that it keeps changing, and therefore you need to continuously update and improve your site.