Google has officially launched its Google My Business (GMB) Featured Partners Program. Initially announced at the Local Search Association’s LSA18 event in May 2018, the program is designed to offer more support and access to approved agencies and providers that offer GMB services to local businesses. For partners (below), benefits include customized support to match the…
Domain names are more critical than many people realize. They play a central role in brand image and influence how easy it is for customers to find a business online. Plus, they can be important for ranking well on search engines. This is true even for businesses that have a physical brick-and-mortar location. After all,…
As an off-the-cuff statement, it might be tempting to say that, ten minutes after Google debuted, people were already trying to manipulate search results. Spammy search engine optimization techniques (SEO), though, are even older than the creation of Google, with rudimentary SEO tactics in operation since the early 1990s. It’s now 2018 and we’ve become…
Imagine you have an appointment with a potential new client who is looking for small business marketing services. A week or two before you are supposed to meet in person, you decide to take a look at what the client already has going on, including the website. You lean back in your chair to relax…
In late April 2018, Google Research published a paper titled Ask the Right Questions: Active Question Reformulation with Reinforcement Learning that shares a vision of a new way to rank pages. This research paper is not a notification of a new algorithm being implemented or an announcement that it will be used. But, this new…
During a tactical session at LSA18, local SEO experts David Mihm and Andrew Shotland explore the changing landscape of the local search engine results pages (SERPs). They broke down the discussion into four sections: Understanding the SERP context Current state of play What you can do about it (agencies and brands) What you can do about…
As a digital marketing firm, you are competing against the elite — clients that eat, sleep, and breathe SEO. To make matters worse, more SEO agencies are popping up all the time. To continue bringing in new clients, you need to stand out. There are several SEO tactics you should be using to improve your…
It may seem like everyone understands the value of SEO by now. However, some small business owners are still unconvinced that their companies could benefit. Much of this is due to misconceptions about what SEO is and how it works. To sell to business owners who have such a mindset, you need to uncover their…
Google’s annual Year in Search yielded another batch of interesting search outcomes. Not only were people more likely to make nuanced searches (‘how to make buttered slime’ as opposed to ‘how to make slime’ – Google’s example, not mine), consumers had developed an added layer of complexity when making ‘near me’ searches. Think With Google,…
In the latest LSA webinar, Mike Blumenthal and David Mihm discussed their predictions for the local marketing space and what they mean for digital agencies and media companies in 2018. Topics included local SEO, Google and GMB, reviews and reputation management, local ads and voice search. In addition to reacting to the predictions in LSA’s…
