This is a guest post from Darren Shaw, the founder of Whitespark –– a local search software and services company. He has been working on the web for over 19 years and loves everything about local SEO. Darren leads research initiatives such as the annual Local Search Ranking Factors survey and the Local Search Ecosystem. He…

Many people don’t realize that small, local businesses have a major advantage when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO). Unlike big corporations or e-commerce sites that need to rank for the most competitive keywords nationally or even globally, small enterprises can focus on what they do best: reaching customers in their own backyard. To…

NAP Consistency refers to the accuracy of a location-based business’s Name, Address, and Phone number across all business listings, local directories, social media profiles, and websites. It is widely considered a search ranking factor for local SEO. Don’t forget about your homepage URL as well as this is the most important element to keep consistent.…

A featured snippet provides a summarized answer to a users search query at the top of the Google search engine results page (SERP), right above position 1. These answers are scraped from other sites content that best satisfies the user’s search. Also referred to as position zero, the featured snippet answer is contained in a…

Latent semantic indexing (LSI) is a complex system used by search engines to analyze the relationships between terms and concepts on a page in an effort to provide the most accurate and relevant search results.   The importance of latent semantic indexing for search Latent semantic indexing uses natural language processing (NLP) to help a…

To gate or not to gate, that is the question — content, that is. The dilemma over gated content is near the top of the pack when it comes to the choices facing marketers today. Gated content has emerged in the past 10 years as a major method of lead capture and nurturing, but recent…

Multichannel marketing is considered a top-of-the-line advertising method, but finding the best marketing channels for your agency can be a daunting prospect. With your precious marketing budget on the line, you naturally want to avoid missteps and keep waste at a minimum. Fortunately, finding the best marketing channels can be achieved by following a simple,…

Small business marketing isn’t easy. It can often feel like there are plenty of options — but not enough time or budget — to figure out what works. Marketing is never one size fits all, but these do’s and don’ts will help you keep your small business moving in the right direction. Don’t: Push your…

If you’re reading this, you’re likely a marketer who sometimes really hates being marketed to. Chances are you’ve been served annoying ads, sent excessive emails, or simply dealt with being sold products that you don’t like or don’t need. But consider another perspective: Have you ever knowingly or unknowingly run annoying ads, sent excessive emails,…

Image optimization involves making your website images useful to both visitors and search engines. This includes techniques like reducing file sizes without sacrificing quality in order to increase site speed, or providing alt text for screen readers and search engines to identify what an image is about.   Why is it important? Image optimization is…

Link building is a crucial element in off-page search engine optimization (SEO). This guide will explain the basics of link building and tactics, to help you get the most from your call tracking software to improve your link building efforts. What is link building? Why are links important? Types of link building Types of link…

What is Google Analytics? Google Analytics is a tool that offers in-depth data and reporting on the acquisition, behavior, and conversion of website traffic. This tool can track… How users get to a website (organic search, paid search, social, referrals, etc.) What users do when on a site (what pages they visit, how long they…

Over the past several years, I’ve answered hundreds of questions, written several guides, and given multiple presentations on how to harness the benefits of call tracking and analytics for local SEO campaigns without interfering with one of the most critical ranking factors, NAP (Name, Address, Phone number) consistency. Today I’d like to dive into the…

What is SEO? Search engine optimization (SEO) is the set of techniques and methodologies dedicated to improving online visibility for a website’s organic search rankings. All major search engines have primary search results and set algorithms to rank organic search results based on what’s most relevant to the user’s search query. SEO involves both on…

If you’ve recently wandered into the admin area of your Google Analytics account, you may be wondering, “What is this new gtag.js script showing as my tracking snippet?” We’ve come to know the Universal Analytics (analytics.js) script since 2013, when it replaced Classic Analytics (ga.js) as the script for tracking the interactions on our websites.…

A solid understanding of what happens during phone conversations is fundamental for reaching marketing or departmental goals. CallRail alleviates much of this frustration by providing predefined keywords via Keyword Spotting. While this is a game-changer when it comes to categorizing and scoring calls, it is only as effective as the words or phrases you know…

Introduction [Madelyn] Hi everybody. Welcome to today’s webinar. We’re really excited that you could join us today. We’re going to be talking a ton about SEO and how you guys can improve moving forward, especially as you’re getting ready to plan for 2018. So let’s go ahead and get started. So my name is Madelyn…

Guest post by Dsquared Media In the world of today, with the help of the internet, an increase in technological advancements and numerous print options, people are starting to find the services they need differently. While many service-based businesses have thrived off of word-of-mouth and referrals for years, they’re starting to realize that these efforts…

How Do Search Engines Work? Search engines crawl websites for information, index and store the data, and then retrieve the most relevant and popular result specific to a user’s search query. Crawl Most search engines crawl through the vast expanse of material on the internet through links. “Links allow the search engines’ automated robots, called…

Last month, Google announced that businesses could choose to participate in messaging directly from their Google My Business (GMB) profiles. This option allows local businesses to connect directly with searchers to answer questions and potentially attract more in-store visits and conversions. In theory, the messenger is a huge step forward for more direct, search-to-business communication…

SEO is Not Dead The search industry has been suffering under “SEO is Dead” headlines for ages. If that were true, SEO jobs wouldn’t be growing 5 times faster than the overall job market.  By now, most SEOs consider this headline mere clickbait, but there is a small grain of truth in these article titles.…

A few weeks back I presented at a small workshop for entrepreneurs, small business marketers, freelancers, and individuals in similar business situations. My presentation was geared toward helping people who don’t typically deal with SEO, covering the topic from a broad perspective and diving into the details from there. While I was talking to some…

Changes to layout of Google search results point to growing clout of AI & mobile Google recently made some significant alterations to how they serve up search results and index pages, which point to shifting priorities that digital and SEO marketers would be wise to consider. Namely, a de-prioritization of organic search results and an increasing…

What Matters in SEO Right Now? SEMRush released its Rankings Report last week using data collected from all their users. As expected, the report determines that user signals are some of the most important ranking gauges. Indicators like bounce rate, time on site, and pages per session are three of the top four ranking factors…

SEOs and Keyword Research: A Complex Relationship A recent Advanced Web Ranking survey (AWR) of digital marketers across industries found that SEOs believe keyword research is one of the top three most difficult SEO tactics to implement (just behind link building and content creation). This might be because 88% of digital marketers perform keyword research in-house,…