Richard Beverly's Blog

With years of experience in both SEO and digital marketing, Steve Wiideman is a trusted pro in his field. In this article, he sheds light on the ins and outs of voice search and explains how you can optimize your website content for voice search.� Contents: What Is Voice Search? Why Is Voice Search Important? Optimizing Your Website and Content for Voice Syndicating Short Summaries and Lists Claiming and Testing Google Actions and Alexa Skills Citations and Voice Search Summary What Is Voice Search? Voice Search refers to the technology behind searching the internet without the use of a keyboard, where an assistant (such as Siri, Alexa, Cortana, or Google Assistant) replies to a query with an answer or action. This technology was built to encourage safer driving and provide general convenience over using a keyboard. As humans continue to untether themselves from handheld devices, technology companies push forward to bring in innovations for performing tasks using Virtual As

With more than a decade’s worth of experience in internet marketing, Ann Smarty is a real pro when it comes to the ins and outs of SEO and content. Here, she provides a guide to performing local keyword research. Would you like to boost your local website’s online visibility? A well-organized keyword research process is your first step. Keyword research is fundamental to any digital marketing strategy, for both global and local businesses. Why is keyword research important? Keyword research is important for the following reasons: To create landing pages that focus on searchable words and phrases. To understand searching behaviors better and, overall, understand your target audience better. To find related markets to expand into, and/or refocus your products or services to. To discover more ways to attract target customers (through providing answers to their questions). The anatomy of a local keyword When it comes to local keyword research, we usually have to deal with a three-

In this article, I’ll reveal the pros and cons of listing your business on nine of my favorite business listing sites for local businesses, as well as sharing tips for optimizing for better visibility. As shown by Moz’s Local Search Ranking Factors Study from 2018, citation signals appear to be one of the core elements in ranking success.� By now, you should have mastered the art of optimizing for Google My Business , but what about alternative options to consider for better SEO and visibility? With free listings and directories available, you may want to create a business profile elsewhere, too.  I’m not suggesting you create a business listing on every possible directory, after all, as someone in SEO you know the “quality over quantity†principle holds true. But there are numerous sites that are worth optimizing for as part of your foundational local SEO strategy. In general, it’s worth choosing the most relevant platforms where your target audience “lives†and settin

When Kogneta’s Jordan Choo contacted us saying he’d created a brand-new free tool using our Reviews API (find out more about our APIs here ), we just knew we had to share the results with you. Here, Jordan shares his exciting new tool designed to help you analyze your own reviews and mine competitor reviews for insights. Read on to find out how you can benefit from the Kogneta and BrightLocal Reviewalyzer… There’s no doubt that reviews should be a critical part of a business’s local marketing strategy, not only from an SEO perspective but from a reputation standpoint as well. This is perfectly illustrated in these online review statistics . With more and more businesses generating reviews on a yearly basis, how do you use not only your reviews but your competitors’, to successfully grow? Thanks to a new tool that I put together using BrightLocal’s handy Review API, you’re now able to mine your competitors’ reviews at scale and incorporate these findings into your SEO and overall m

In this Local Search Clinic, Two Octobers’ Niki Mosier and Noah Learner unite to answer your questions on managing multiple GMB listings. Got problems only the pros can answer? Looking for tips to boost your online search presence? Or just want to chat with fellow local SEOs? Join us each week for an hour of expert insights with new topics each week. Read on to find out how to get your questions answered! For any questions or issues registering for the webinar, please email us at content@brightlocal.com .� Can’t see the button to register above? Click here to save your spot. How to register and ask your question 1. Click the green ‘Save my spot!’ button at the top of this page. 2. Click ‘Email me a login link’ 3. Click ‘Confirm & sign in’ in the email from Crowdcast 4. Click ‘Ask a Question’ and submit your question using the popup (you can do this before or during the broadcast ) See a question in the popup that you’d also like the answer to? Ju

It’s difficult to dispute that local search is more important than ever right now. There are countless stats that underpin this assertion, such as the fact that 46% of all Google searches are made with the intent of finding local information . It’s also impossible to deny that user-generated content (UGC) is quickly growing in importance against this backdrop, with an expanding body of data suggesting that it is a critical tool in the decision-making process. In this online landscape, Google Local Guides have taken on new relevance. Let’s quickly go back a step though before diving into Google Local Guides, as the role of user-generated content in the customer journey and online user’s psyche is extremely relevant to the Local Guides concept as a whole. According to research performed by Salesforce , user-generated content was already showing signs of its importance in 2016. It reported that pages with user-generated content enjoyed a range of performance benefits, including a 90%

Advance Your Agency is a BrightLocal series designed to equip you with the skills, knowledge and advice necessary to take your agency operations to the next level. Web design is a great career. It’s creative and consultative, you get to use the latest techniques to solve very modern problems, and as an industry, web design isn’t likely to be going anywhere soon. But there are downsides, too. It can be quite repetitive work, it can be hard to price if you can’t foresee required amends, and it can be hard to attain new clients in such a saturated market. The greatest stress put on web designers, though, is that because web design tends to be contract-based, they’re always on the lookout for the next job, and always a little concerned about whether the work might dry up. It’s no surprise, then, that more and more web designers are looking to expand their services to offer ongoing value to their clients. Offering local SEO to your local business clients is a natural next step in expand

As lockdown measures begin to ease, many businesses across the US and globally are being allowed to reopen. While this is welcome news for business owners, the world has changed. Companies will be reopening to a climate where strict health measures are in place, and most transactions are taking place online. The upcoming reopening period will be unlike anything we’ve seen since the Spanish Flu. According to a report by PwC , 54% of business owners reported that the pandemic has negatively impacted their business: Source: Facility Executive Similarly, BrightLocal’s study on how local marketers are dealing with the business consequences of Covid-19 showed that 35% of marketers were losing customers and 27% were temporarily closing. This is hardly surprising when you consider the sharp rise in unemployment rates, meaning services are less in demand than ever. Luck and hard work alone will not be enough to keep your business afloat in the new normal. You’ll need to be smart a

Billed as one of BrightLocal’s ‘ 11 Women in Local SEO Doing Great Things Right Now’ , Crystal Horton is a fount of knowledge and always happy to share her wisdom. That’s why we decided to enlist her help to guide you through the process of getting Facebook recommendations. Read on to learn how you too can grow your Facebook recommendations in a few simple steps. With over 80 million businesses listed on Facebook, 1 in 3 consumers use the platform to specifically look for recommendations. But, what we have discovered is that many business owners are uncertain about how to get started and what steps to take to gather recommendations quickly and easily. Business owners come to us (at Accelerate Marketing), often asking what types of reviews will produce results for their business and how to access their recommendation link. Why do Facebook recommendations matter? Facebook Recommendations provide a simple way for potential customers to find and interact with a local business. In a rec

Do you know what happened in local SEO in June? Test your knowledge of the news with the latest edition of Local Quizness – our monthly look at the top stories that affected local marketers last month. Complete our 10-question quiz to find out how much you remember about the news affecting your business, and share with your colleagues to find out who’s been paying attention! Only 10% of quizzers last month scored 7 or more – can you beat their scores? Create your own user feedback survey Now, hop on over to Twitter to share your score using #LocalQuizness , or leave a comment below! Have you been keeping up with this month’s local SEO news? #LocalQuizness via @brightlocal challenges you to put your knowledge to the test I got 9/10 this month….not bad https://t.co/1olLz4CVl1 — Brian Barwig (@BrianBarwig) June 9, 2020 Also, if you need to catch up on any of the news we’ve covered in this quiz, we’ve shared a reading list: Search Engine Roundtable – Google Se

We Asked the Experts is a brand-new series designed to provide you with the most relevant insights from local search experts. Each month we’ll cover a different question and share insights from key figures in the local SEO community in an effort to help you further your knowledge and strategy. This month we’re tackling local SEO campaigns and, more specifically, how to measure the success of them. We asked ten local SEO experts, when all’s said and done – reviews have been generated, citations built, and GMB listings optimized – how do you know whether what you’ve done has actually worked? Below, we’ve compiled the very best insights to help you understand the most effective way to report back to clients – including what metrics to cover and more. Plus, at the end of this article, you’ll find a whole host of resources to help you do things just like the experts. Read on to benefit from the unique tips, tricks, and opinions of local SEO pros, from quick snackable knowledge morsels