Why Local Search Is About More Than Showing Up [Podcast]
It wasn’t long ago that having a great website, getting your URL in the top three search results through ads, and then riding the wave of traffic was an acceptable search strategy. But as consumer search habits have evolved, so has the way marketers need to optimize for search.
According to this week’s guest on the Conex Show, having a complete and compelling Google profile is just as important as having a website. Thanks to how Google is now compiling and rearranging information, consumers can find more and more answers to their questions before they ever click on a search result link—making it more important than ever to keep your business’ Google profile up to date.
Neil Crist, Head of Product and Engineering at Moz, joins the Content Experience Show to discuss the ins and outs of local search.
How Local Search is Evolving
Crist touches on how there’s been a great amount of change from a monetization perspective when it comes to local search results. When people search locally, they’re typically on their phones looking for an answer that will lead to a transaction, so the opportunity to monetize those local SERP snippets is becoming increasingly valuable.
Why Your Business Needs a Detailed Google Profile
If you look at the way Google is handling local search, in a lot of cases they're keeping the user from search to discovery and even to action. They're keeping them on the Google property itself, and it's no longer just a gateway to your website like you would expect.
Why There’s More to Local Search Optimization Than Simply Showing Up
Within the Google My Business profile, there are a number of things to be conscious of, from basic profile elements, to imagery, to questions and answers. It’s now essential to not just appear in search results, but think about how you appear as well.
“Take some time to pretend to be the user on Google trying to find your business and find out what those search results look like.” — @neilcrist
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Resources:
- The Content Experience Report
- Convince & Convert
- Instagram for Tourism Marketing from Convince & Convert
- Moz
For more insights from your favorite marketers, visit the Conex: The Content Experience Show stream.