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 October 2019 | Page 2 of 2 | Linkhelpers SEO

How to Set Up Google Posts on Your GMB Account

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If you have a Google My Business account, you should never miss the Google Posts feature. Launched back in 2017, this tool lets you publish posts as part of your Knowledge Graph tab on search results. You can use this to announce events, promos, invitations, memberships, and so on. Below, we discussed a brief guide on how to use it on your account.

However, you should remember that this is only available on GMB accounts.

What is Google Posts?

Google Posts is a complementary tool inside Google My Business account. It was experimentally launched in 2016 and was limited to presidential candidates’ use. After a few months, Google released it to all GMB account owners.

Using the Google Post tool, you can publish posts, much like social media posts, below the Knowledge tab of your search result. Take note that this will only be displayed or triggered upon the search of your brand or business.

You can use Google Posts to promote your e-commerce site, send an invite to your customers, publish CTAs, and more. Most of all, it allows your audience to know more about your business with only a little nudging.

How it works

Through your Google My Business account, you’ll see the “Posts” tab where you can create the Google Posts.

Upon clicking “Create Post”, you can now add an image which should have a minimum of 344 x 344 pixels and a maximum of 750 x 750 pixels. Take note that Google will crop the image in a square format.

You can also add text up to 300 words as well as a CTA button from the indicated options. Just tick the one that you need and publish it.

Overall, you can publish up to 10 posts that will be displayed in a carousel format on search results. Take note that the more posts you have, the smaller the displayed image becomes.

Also, each post will expire within seven days. An exception to this is events-based posts that will be removed once the event date has finished.

In addition, you can view the click stats of your post on your GMB account to gauge how each one is performing in engagements.

Benefits of using Google Posts

If you own a business, regardless of the niche, you will benefit from utilizing Google Posts. It gives you an additional platform to send your message and encourage readers to click through your CTAs.

It’s not as comprehensive as social media sites, but Google Posts has its advantages. No doubt, it’s added visibility for no added cost and platform.

Also, there’s no doubt that Google Posts reach a wider audience. You just have to use it right to drive traffic to your site and possibly improve sales.

Conclusion

Google Posts is an intuitive tool that you should utilize within your Google My Business account. It comes for free and it gives you an added edge when it comes to reader engagement.

We’re yet to know if this feature is a ranking signal. Nevertheless, there’s no reason not to use it for your benefit.

What You Need to Know When Ranking a New Location on Google

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Opening a new location in your Google My Business listing may seem easy and hassle-free. Just add a new place and optimize the keywords on your site, then you’re done. However, there are some technicalities involved here. As you expand your business, you also have to pay attention to your location-specific pages and listings rank on the web.

 

If you’re opening a new branch and listing its location on your GMB, you have to understand the following points first.

How Google ranks places for locations

When it comes to ranking location keywords, Google considers three essential factors: relevance, proximity, and prominence.

Relevance

For this part, Google indexes your pages based on how relevant the optimized keywords are to the search query. Whenever an internet user searches for a specific query, say a restaurant, laundry service, supermarket, and more, Google will show the most relevant results within the local area.

This is possible through optimizing relevant keywords, location modifier keywords, specifically. This way, Google, can possibly include you on the search results. However, your ranking is a whole different story.

Proximity

When it comes to ranking locations, the proximity of the keyword to the local intent search (within or outside the area) will determine if you’re going to show up on search results or not.

Proximity is a two-edged sword. We have the local intent search within the area and the local intent search outside the area.

The local intent search within the area is when a person within the location looks up a certain query. It can go like this “XYZ near me” for a person living in Fort Lauderdale, for example. However, in the case of local intent search outside the area, it can go like this “XYZ in Fort Lauderdale”.

These are two ways to rank your location. Also, it will require different approaches to ensure that your location-specific keywords will see its purpose.

Prominence

Another make-or-break ranking factor is prominence. It’s how popular and trustworthy your website is across the internet.

Prominence is determined through many factors, but the most popular are backlinking from authority sites, online reviews, and citations.

All of these build your image on Google. In return, web crawlers find your location and web pages more accurate.

If paired with proximity and relevant, prominence will help rank your location on SERPs.

Important reminders

When adding or ranking a new location, make sure that you avoid location cannibalization. This is a product of faulty keyword optimization where two locations pit for the same keyword. In the process, one location will be filtered out, causing some locations to rank poorly and in improper proximity.

Also, your business will benefit from creating unique landing pages for every location that you’re ranking for. While you’re getting visibility on your GMB listing, you’re also gaining organic traffic from the additional pages. It doubles the benefit, especially if you’re continuously expanding your business.

Final words

Adding new locations to your GMB listing or website helps you rank your business locations better. However, you should keep the aforementioned points in mind to prevent any hiccups on your ranking.

 

Using Local Schema Markup to Your Website 

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Schema markup is a string of code used to help search engines index pages correctly. Also, it’s used to generated rich snippets for search results. It highlights the information about a business or a professional, specifically their NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number).

The goal of this code is to provide internet users with accurate information about a specific business category they’re searching for. It will increase the visibility of a website or person online. Therefore, it increases their sales and traffic.

Who should use Schema Markups?

Anyone who wants to highlight their business or profession should use the schema markup. Also, those who have websites should utilize this code to increase the indexability of their pages. Since it helps web crawlers, it increases their ranking factor, another benefit that web developers should seek.

Overall, schema markups can increase traffic, drive sales, and boost your presence online. It’s slightly technical, but with the help of pre-coded plugins and platforms, even non-programmers can learn about this code.

How to add schema markups on your website

Here, we will discuss brief steps on how to generate and integrate this code on your website.

Step 1. Display NAP in HMTL text

If you don’t know it yet, Google and other search engines can’t crawl text within an image. So for schema markups to work, you have to place it in plain HTML text. It can be on the footer or the header of your website based on your preference.

By encoding it in plain text or HTML, crawlers can easily read and recognize the information. Also, it will make the next step effective.

Step 2. Adding the schema code

You don’t have to be a coding geek just to learn how to add schema markups for your website. The first thing that you have to do is to install a schema plugin, something that you can easily find if you have a WordPress-based site.

After that, you should go to Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper. Paste the URL of your website on it and click the “start tagging” button.

Once it’s set, click “Create HTML” This will generate the schema code that you will add on your site. Make sure that you add it properly, so the rich snippets will be generated properly once an internet user enters a specific query.

Important reminders

When adding schema markups, make sure that you don’t make it spammy. Google is smart, and the search engine will detect this unacceptable practice. Moreover, your site will be penalized and you’ll lose all your SEO efforts.

Aside from that, you should always adhere to the Google guidelines in integrating schema codes. This will be your lodestar to prevent any penalties on your website.

Also, you should always use proper schema markups. Avoid misleading web crawlers. By doing so, you’re not just exposing your website to penalties, you’re also making your readers a big disservice.

Last but not least, you should never make invisible content on your markups. This is a black hat tactic that Google will penalize.

 

Reasons Why Responsive Websites are the New Trend

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Millions of internet users browse the web every single day. A big chunk of this web population use mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. With the growing mobile-based activity on the internet, businesses and companies must switch to responsive websites.

The responsive website design was first introduced to web developers back in 2010. Since its inception, many things have changed and improved. A big part of this is Google recommendations.

If you’re wondering why responsive websites are a big trend nowadays, here are some of the important reasons:

*Increasing mobile device usage

Since smartphones have experienced its boom in the market, mobile-based browsing has also skyrocketed. More than 50% of the entire internet traffic is from tablets and smartphones, making it very critical for businesses to follow suit.

Also, mobile responsive sites are becoming the industry standard. Even small businesses are investing in a responsive site as an effort to widen their audience and to reach more leads.

So far, responsive websites are seen as the future of web search.

*Google favors responsive websites

Since it introduced responsive website designs about a decade ago, Google has been focusing on rewarding websites which are prioritizing mobile search. In fact, they recently rolled out the mobile-first indexing.

This means the algorithm crawls the mobile version of the site before the desktop version. That’s a big turn from the previous algorithm that crawls the other way around.

A responsive website will rank better in SERPs as a result. Moreover, this will translate into better visibility for businesses.

*Improving the user experience

When it comes to business owners, user experience matters a lot. The first step here is to ensure that their business website or online store is optimized for mobile browsing.

It means that all pages of the site are easily navigable and the buttons can be pressed comfortably.

By providing the customers with the ease of use, your business stands the chance of landing a conversion. Still, you should structure an effective sales funnel to pair with this.

*Faster loading time

A responsive website will automatically switch its format based on the device where it’s being accessed. Through this, the content will be optimized to load fast. It reduces bounce rate and it helps keep your visitors interested on your site.

You should remember that online users have very short attention spans. If your site loads longer than 3 seconds, the user will look for another site. That means you’re going to lose customers along the way.

*Higher sales conversion

Like what we said earlier, mobile-responsiveness has a lot to do with your website’s conversion. The speed, design, appearance, and ease of navigation are just some of the make-or-break parts of a website.

By switching to a responsive site, you can improve user experience and encourage potential customers to choose your product or service.

Final words

Responsive websites are long-standing trends on the web. It’s seen to become more revolutionary as internet users switch to mobile devices. As for the companies and businesses, following this recommendation will bring a lot of benefits to their revenue.

The Role of Meta Descriptions in Small Businesses

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It’s a fact that local businesses will benefit from a successful SEO campaign. But for this to happen, they need to master the basics, including meta descriptions. These little details make a big difference to a business’ ranking and visibility on the web. All of which will reflect on their sales.

The role of meta descriptions

Meta descriptions are short descriptions that provide internet users with enough information about what a page contains. This is displayed on the search pages, which allow users to understand what the page is about even before clicking through the result.

Also, meta descriptions are the first thing that will push a lead towards your sales funnel. How you write this part will play a big role in how effective the description is when it comes to convincing potential customers.

Aside from that, meta descriptions are a big part of indexing your pages. Search engine crawlers of Bing and Google use meta data like title tags, descriptions, and robot tags to index pages properly. If utilized well, your pages will be indexed to the queries where it’s most related to.

Descriptions, along with other tags, help display your pages on the right places and with the right queries. Through this, you can target the right customers and increase your conversion rate in the process.

Important meta data tags

If you’re revamping your SEO efforts, make sure that you focus on the following tags:

Meta description

This 160-character description is displayed just below the title tag. It’s the first bit of information that the user will see before deciding to click through or not on your site.

For this part, you should utilize keywords and supply as much information as possible. Although short, meta descriptions play a big role in opening the door to your sales funnel.

If written well, meta descriptions will help rank your site better. At all costs, you should write a unique meta description for each page to avoid duplication.

 Title tags

Title tags are short headlines that will be displayed as the largest portion of the search result. It should be informative enough to give the users the idea of what they will see inside the page.

For local businesses, this should include the location and specific service or product that the business offers.

Take note that title tags are 60-character long texts. Just like meta descriptions, you should utilize keywords here, ideally at the beginning for better indexing.

Robot tags

The robot tag is responsible for identifying which pages should be indexed or not. Also, it ensures that your pages are being crawled properly.

Take note that some pages are better to be unindexable, especially if the content is still thin. However, this is a slightly technical matter.

If you can’t perform the optimization, you can always tap the help of SEO experts.

Final words

Meta descriptions are an integral part of ranking a website and boosting your pages’ click-through rates and conversion.

It’s a simple and basic component, but it should be done right to ensure that your business website will enjoy the benefits.

 

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