In today’s digital landscape, having a strong online presence is crucial for the success of any auto shop. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the key to ensuring that potential customers can easily find your services when they search online.

As an SEO agency, we have decades of experience running local SEO campaigns, and we’ve managed several successful accounts for auto shops in the Midwest. While every shop is different, there are some general principles that you can follow to boost your rankings and grow your revenue.

So we put together a step-by-step guide of the strategy that we implemented for these shops.

Measuring Your Success: How to Set up Tracking

While it’s possible to optimize your site and improve your SEO without tracking your performance, it’s important to know what’s working and what isn’t so you can adjust your strategy.

We recommend setting up three free-to-use tools to measure your progress: 

1. Google Analytics
2. Google Search Console
3. Google Tag Manager

In order to link your site to these tools, you will need to insert a snippet of code. Most web builder platforms like Wix, Kukui, etc., make this super easy.

Step 1: Link your site with Google Analytics. 

Google Analytics provides data about the activity that occurs on your website. This includes your web traffic, where users are coming from (e.g. organic search, paid search, email campaigns, etc.), and their behavior on-site.

You’re also able to track custom conversions or key events, like when a user schedules an appointment or signs up for a rewards program.

Get started with your Analytics set up here.

Step 2: Link your site with Google Search Console. 

Google Search Console tracks how your website is ranking on Google. It provides data on the search queries you’re ranking for and can be broken down by page, country, device type and more.

Get started with your Search Console set up here. 

Step 3: Link Your Site with Google Tag Manager

Finally, Google Tag Manager is great for setting up custom events such as form submissions, clicks to particular links, and more.

This tool is a bit more advanced and will require some time to get the hang of.

There are a ton of great resources out there for learning the ins and outs of Google’s tools and how they all work together. Analytics Mania is one of them, and he has a Tag Manager tutorial for beginners. 

Get started with your Tag Manager set up here.

Google Business Profile

Step 4: Complete Your Business Profile

Google Business Profile is the cornerstone of any local SEO strategy. For our primary auto shop client, about 30%–40% of their organic traffic comes from their Google Business Profile. 

If you do nothing else for search marketing, complete your Google Business Profile!

And check out our complete guide to setting up Google Business Profile!

Step 5: Remain Active of GBP

But your Google Business Profile isn’t a “set it and forget it” kind of tool. Once your profile is set up, it’s important to remain active. 

Activity such as updating holiday hours, uploading photos, creating posts for deals and promotions, and responding to user reviews has been shown to impact your GBP rankings.

Positive user reviews are also a huge influence on click-through rates and, ultimately whether or not a user decides to schedule an appointment. Be sure to follow up with customers in an email and ask them to share their experience. Don’t forget to include a link to make it as easy as possible.

Know Your Keywords

Step 6: Write a List of Your Target Keywords

Generally, auto shops are going to target the same cluster of keywords. This may change between shops depending on the services you offer or areas you specialize in.

But generally speaking, we can break down our keywords into three categories based on how users search for mechanic services.

Step 7: Map Your Keywords

For SEO, we typically map a keyword (or keyword topic) to one landing page.

For instance, your homepage will usually be mapped to the most frequently searched and broadly applicable terms (head terms). So the content of your homepage will be optimized to target terms like mechanics and auto shop. We’ll discuss this more in the next step.

The secondary terms (the terms by vehicle and service) will need separate landing pages in order to target effectively. We typically recommend that our auto shop clients build a landing page for each service they offer and for the most popular brands of vehicles they service.

Website Optimization 

Step 8: Optimized Your Homepage

Your homepage is critical for both users and search engines.  It sets the tone for your website and helps users understand what you do and how you can help them.

Your primary terms will likely include “auto repair,” “auto shops,” or “mechanics near me.”  These are the keywords your homepage will target.

It’s also beneficial to add localization to your keywords. If your shop is in Jacksonville, then we’d include “Jacksonville Auto Repair” as a keyword.

Title Tags

The title tag is the main title of your webpage that appears in search engine results. Make sure it includes your target keywords and is under 60 characters.

For example: Auto Repair Shop in Jacksonville | Jax Automotive Service

Header Tags

Use effective headers that incorporate relevant keywords.  For instance, your H1 (the main header) should be something like “The Premier Jacksonville Auto Repair Shop.”

Your other header tags (H2s, H3s…) don’t necessarily need keywords. However, they should be relevant to the page topic.

If you were to look at the header tags in isolation, you should be able to tell they were taken from an auto shop website (i.e. “We’ll Get You Back On The Road In No Time!”)

Body Content

Write informative paragraphs that communicate what your business is and who you serve. Including strong sentences like: “Jax Automotive Service is a proud Jacksonville mechanic serving drivers from across the county!”

Best practices recommend page content to be at least 300 words. This gives search engines enough “meat” to decipher what the page is about and who it’s best for.

Call to Action

Make sure you have a clear call to action.

Prefer your customers call to schedule an appointment? A prominent phone number on your page or header is key.

Have an online appointment scheduler instead? Make sure the form is clearly present on the page or obvious buttons that link to the form page.

Step 9: Create (or Optimize) Your Secondary Landing Pages

Secondary landing pages target search queries with lower volume like your vehicle or service terms.

While search queries like “auto shop” or “mechanic near me” are going to be your primary focus, it’s still important to have content that will pick up those less frequently searched terms like “mercedes mechanics”

The same principles apply to these pages just as they did for your homepage. Think about title tags, header tags, body content and call to actions.

Step 10: Blog articles

Regularly publishing blog articles is a great way to supplement your SEO efforts. Writing about common car problems, seasonal maintenance tips, or even featuring customer testimonials can signal to search engines that you are an expert authority that users can trust.

Blog content also keeps users engaged, leading to longer visits and higher interaction rates—signals that search engines use to gauge a site’s quality and relevance.

Plus, well-written articles can generate backlinks. Other website may link to your article which increases your site’s authority and improves its ranking on search engine results pages.

The Potential Numbers

As mentioned, we’ve implemented this strategy in the past with great success. 

To give you an idea of one potential outcome, here’s a breakdown of where traffic comes from after a few years of implementation and refining. 

Most of our business traffic (meaning non-blog traffic since blog traffic typically doesn’t convert into customers) comes through the Google Business Profile, which is why it’s such an important piece of the SEO puzzle. 

Google Business Profile traffic is followed by organic traffic to the homepage; this is traffic that clicks through to our site via the blue links instead of the GBP.

Following the homepage, our Service and Vehicle pages collectively make up about a quarter of our business traffic. While it’s a smaller piece of the pie, it’s definitely not something to ignore.

Wrapping Up

Optimizing your auto shop’s online presence involves a multifaceted approach that includes understanding your target keywords, effectively mapping these keywords to specific landing pages, and ensuring that your homepage and secondary pages are optimized for search engines.

By focusing on strong SEO practices, regularly updating your blog with relevant content, and engaging with customers on social media, you can significantly enhance your visibility and attract more potential customers.

Remember, consistency and continuous improvement are key to maintaining a strong online presence and achieving long-term success.

If you’re interested in learning more about how we can help improve your search visibility, check out our auto shop SEO services!

The post A Guide to Auto Shop SEO appeared first on Fanatically Digital.

Duplicate content is a persistent concern for website owners and SEO specialists alike. From near-identical pages to sections of content reused across a site, the ramifications of duplicate content on search engine rankings are often debated. 

In this article, we delve into the nuances of duplicate content and its impact on SEO. We explore different scenarios, from full-page duplicates to spun content, to understand when and how duplicate content can affect your site’s performance in search engine results pages (SERPs).

TL;DR

• There are different ‘degrees’ of duplicate content (from spun copy to identical full-page content)
• Generally, duplicate content won’t severely impact your rankings. Google will usually pick the most appropriate page to rank
• But full-page duplicates carry the potential to hurt your rankings, especially if there are other conflicting signals.
• Duplicate sections (as opposed to full pages) also shouldn’t impact rankings; so long as the primary focus of the page is not duplicated content
• Spinning content can be a useful tool, depending on the intent of users. Informational content isn’t good for spinning but commercial/transactional content is usually okay

There is a Range of Duplicate Content

Duplicate content can refer to a range of cases. Sometimes we’re talking about duplicates of pages, differentiated only by their URLs.

It can also refer to sections of content that appear on multiple pages across your site. 

And other times, duplicate content can refer to text that has been lightly edited–or spun–in order to appear original.

We’ll take a look at all three cases and what impact (if any) it can have on your ability to rank on the SERPs.

Full Page Duplicates

Full-page duplicates are when the same page is effectively copied and pasted.

Search engines especially dislike this type of duplicate content because it makes it more difficult to determine which pages to prioritize in the rankings. 

Although most of the time, Google doesn’t have too much trouble and can select one version of the pages to show.

However, as we found out the hard way, this isn’t always the case. There are some instances in which duplicate content can hurt SEO performance. The case study below demonstrates one of those instances.

Case Study of Full-Page Duplicate Content

We have an e-commerce client that has thousands of product pages. Last year, they had a technical hiccup in which some of their pages were republished under a new URL. 

So for a while, we had two identical versions of many product pages.

While their developers quickly solved the main issue, there were still a few duplicate pages out there that we didn’t catch right away. 

But once we did, it gave us an interesting peek into what can happen when you have identical content on your site. And the results are kind of frightening.

Here are some screenshots of Search Console performance when filtered to include both versions of the duplicated page.

When the issue occurred in late March, performance tanked for pages with duplicate versions. Neither the existing page nor the new version ranked well.

This is what we believe happened:

The original pages had a longer history with a more robust backlink profile, which gave it a fair amount of “ranking power.”

However, the links from the client’s internal catalog were overwritten and instead linked to the new versions instead of the original, which sent mixed signals to search engines regarding which version to prioritize.

And this bumped us down quite a bit in the rankings.

This was an easy fix once we caught it and performance for those pages soon recovered. But it demonstrates vulnerabilities when publishing identical content (whether intentionally or not).

Duplicate Sections

By duplicate sections, I mean identical content that doesn’t make up the primary focus of the page. Generally speaking, duplicate sections won’t have a negative impact on rankings. 

As long as the remainder of the page’s content hits the criteria required for ranking, then duplicate sections aren’t going to slow things down.

For example, one of our clients has a section that serves as a call to action with a fair bit of text that they post on their blogs, FAQs and other information-serving pages.

Since these are primarily informational pages, the call to action isn’t going to play a big role in Google’s analysis of the page.

But if these sections take up a more substantial portion of the page, it might be worth rewriting the content in order to ensure its originality.

It’s useful to think about it like this: If you were to remove the section in question, would the page still make sense? Would it still accomplish its goal? If we remove the CTA of the pages mentioned above, then yes, the page would absolutely still make sense and accomplish its goal of informing our audience.

But there are some instances where rearranging, rewriting, or spinning the content would make sense (more on that below).

Similar (or spun) Content

Sometimes, it’s necessary to rewrite existing content–called spinning. 

But this raises similar questions. Does Google view spun content as ‘legitimate’? Can “spun” content hurt my SEO performance?

Spinning Content is the practice of rewording existing text to communicate the same ideas but avoiding the appearance of duplicate content or–for some black-hat actors–plagiarism.

As usual, the answer is–annoyingly–it depends.

While Google won’t manually penalize sites unless there is obvious malicious behavior, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that publishing spun content can hurt SEO.

It’s more accurate to say that spinning content is often just a waste of time. Not always. But often.

When Spinning Content is a Waste of Time

I’d argue that spinning content is a waste of time when you’re trying to rank for queries with informational intent.

Google prioritizes content that:

• contains original information, reporting, research, or analysis
• provide a substantial, complete, or comprehensive description of the topic
• offers insight or information beyond the obvious
• and avoids simply copying or rewriting those sources

While it’s not perfect, Google is generally pretty good at ranking content that offers more than generic or regurgitated answers to common questions.

And in our experience, spun content–and even content that’s relatively original but offers little more insight than the sources we used to write it–almost never generates traffic for informational queries.

However, we have had success when spinning content for queries with commercial or transactional intent. Here’s a case study to demonstrate.

Case Study of Spun Content

We have a client that serves Los Angeles with moving services.

L.A. has a huge geography with many towns and smaller cities within it. So, as part of our SEO strategy, we published Areas Served pages that target localized search queries (e.g., anaheim movers and movers in beverly hills, etc.).

With hundreds of these pages to publish, it’s incredibly difficult and time-consuming to write completely original content for each one. So oftentimes, we’ll spin the content.

While this content is relatively unique on the surface, it’s functionally identical. Google’s crawlers won’t process a distinction between synonyms such as hassle-free transition and hassle-free move.

So if the content isn’t unique (i.e. duplicate content) why doesn’t this hurt SEO performance? 

I’d argue it’s because the commercial intent to purchase moving services in a specific geography–Beverly Hills–means the pages’ different geographic focus is enough to make them sufficiently unique.

A user in Anaheim doesn’t want a page on services in Beverly Hills and vice versa.

Given the relative success of these particular pages and our Area Served page strategy, it’s safe to assume that Google considers this kind of spun content to be acceptable. 

Wrapping Up

Navigating the intricacies of duplicate content in SEO requires a nuanced understanding of search engine algorithms and user intent. While some instances of duplication may have negligible effects or even prove beneficial, others can significantly impact your site’s visibility and ranking potential.

By recognizing the various forms of duplicate content and implementing strategies to address them effectively, website owners can optimize their SEO efforts and enhance their online presence in a competitive digital landscape.

The post Does Duplicate Content Hurt SEO? appeared first on Fanatically Digital.

On the surface, SEO’s role for B2B is simple: help generate sales. However, where SEO comes into play for sales impacts the SEO strategy. 

Business-to-business is often discussed as if there is a monolithic go-to-market strategy that somehow applies to all B2B companies. Obviously, this isn’t the case. So, when we talk about SEO, we have to go beyond B2B and beyond the specific industry to understand the individual company’s sales process.

The Target Metrics For A Website

Websites are marketing tools. Like any other marketing tool, successfully developing and managing a site depends on defining its purpose/goal. 

In general, we find that the website, and therefore SEO, plays a role in one or more of three areas.

Direct Online Sales

The easiest and most direct metric for a successful website is e-commerce revenue. When selling services, equipment, parts, or consumables online, we have a direct attribution to organic search. 

Lead Generation

Lead generation is more commonly a target metric for B2B. While measuring leads and attributing them back to the sources is relatively straightforward, tying back the quality of these leads is less so. This becomes more challenging as the sales cycle becomes more complex.

Sales Support

This is more amorphous. For complex or longer-cycle sales processes, websites often become the go-to channel for prospects. Making sure content is easily accessible and discoverable or appears in Google search results when prospects continue with research can make or break a sale. While there is no hard metric for Sales Support, UX and SEO visibility play a key role.

The Purchase Process

What is the process from shopper to prospect to customer? For some industries, there may be a standard that applies to most companies, but that is not always the case. Two companies in the same industry may have different growth strategies. One may have an active Outbound Sales Team, while another may have a Product Lead Growth strategy. These involve two distinct buyer experiences even within one vertical.

Short-Cycle

From the time a customer identifies a need to the time the purchase is made, it can be a day or perhaps a few days. We often see this in parts and consumables. There is not a lot of research taking place. So, you have to make it to the shortlist quickly, identify and communicate the KSP immediately, and have a 1-3 day communication plan. 

There is very likely an e-commerce component or a rapid response lead generation program. Once the transaction is complete, the buyer will unlikely visit the site again until another need arises. 

Mid to Long-term Sales Cycles

Longer sales cycles tend to involve higher costs or longer-term commitments. They also involve more touch points, research, and a greater need for rich content. The website must support the communication coming to the customer during the sales process as well as support the prospect in providing information during their research. 

At this point, there is another discussion on customer relationship management involved, which is beyond our scope here. 

Key Content For Websites in B2B Sales

Knowing the target audience is vital to prioritizing and developing the website’s content. While all three of the following areas are important, their weight and focus on a site depend on the purchase process and sales strategy. 

Product/service education

This can span the category or the company’s specific offerings. The website has to provide sufficient information to educate prospective customers and demonstrate a level of expertise to make prospects comfortable.  

Company Authority

Higher costs and longer commitments come with more risk and require more support. But even with lower cost/commitment services, sellers must convey their authority and expertise in the marketplace to make it to a buyer’s shortlist. It is not enough to just describe products or services. The website must convey experience in the industry.

Company Trustworthiness

From transaction/information security to post-sale fulfillment, a website has to communicate trust. Verifiable customer reviews, a commitment to providing references, and real case studies are critical to establishing the trust needed to make it onto a prospect shortlist. It is not sufficient to simply list what a company sells; websites have to convey trust. 

What about SEO for B2B Websites?

We didn’t forget. But SEO comes after all the above. While we work on SEO strategy, SEO is a tactic within the sales and marketing areas. So, first, all the above-mentioned needs to be figured out, and then search engines and how to structure content for them can be considered.

One challenge for digital agencies is when clients or prospects begin with SEO discussions (or digital marketing in general) prior to the marketing and sales strategy.  We can work to get content to rank with search engine optimization, but if it is not the right content or not targeted to the right part of the sales funnel, then even page one ranking is not going to move the needle… well, maybe a little. But the point is that we must have the right goals in place for SEO to be effective.

Fortunately, we have been around long enough to help our clients lay the groundwork for a good digital marketing program, including SEO.

The post The Role of SEO in B2B Marketing appeared first on Fanatically Digital.

A no-follow link is a hyperlink that looks like this:

<a href = “https://fd.idatatools.com/” rel= ”nofollow” >

See the no-follow tag? This tag tells search engines to ignore the link.

A Brief Refresher on Search Engine Crawlers

Search engines use hyperlinks like these to create a map of the web.

They’ll read the content of web pages and use hyperlinks to jump from page to page and website to website.

The more links that a page has pointing to it, the more valuable the page is assumed to be and, therefore, the more potential that page has to rank.

No-follow tags tell search engines not to include the link in their web map.

Why Do Websites Use No-Follow Links?

You’ll most often find no-follow links in social media posts, comment sections, and forums.

Back in the early days of Google, savvy folks realized you could spam blogs and forums by linking to their own websites in the comments. 

This would artificially inflate the number of links pointing to their own website, making it seem more valuable.

To combat this, Google introduced the no-follow tag in 2005, and other search engines quickly followed suit.

Nowadays, search engines have become smarter and can detect spammy behavior regardless of no-follow tags.

But you’ll still find them across the web, like on social media, certain blog posts and news sites like Forbes and Huffington Post.

No Follow Links & SEO

There’s a fair amount of debate in the SEO world over the value of no-follow links.

And Google doesn’t help clarify the issue, saying “In general, we don’t follow them.”

When it comes down to it, a no-follow tag is merely a suggestion that search engines ignore the link.

Do No-Follow Links Help SEO?

In short, yes. No-follow links have the potential to help your SEO.

Let’s take a look at a few case studies that correlate no-follow links with improvements in organic rankings and traffic.

Case Study 1

An agency called Teknicks ran a case study in which they increased a client backlink portfolio over 16 months, 89% of which were no-follow links.

The client saw a 288% increase in organic traffic.

Now, this is not a perfect study (SEO studies never are). It doesn’t control for other factors, such as the impact of on-page content changes or the 11% of new links that were do-follow.

However, the gradual increase in keyword rankings and traffic suggests that no-follow links could absolutely have contributed to their success.

Case Study 2

Another case study conducted by SEOJet does a better job of demonstrating a more direct relationship between no-follow links and improved rankings.

After being stuck on the third page for “backlink software,” SEOJet placed a no-follow sidebar link on an SEO blog.

Although it was only a single backlink, the results were immediate. They jumped to the first page within a week.

Why would this be?

Google May Still Follow Them

Again, a no-follow link is merely a request that search engines ignore the link.

This second case study suggests that Google does follow certain backlinks, especially if the content is relevant.

Referrals Matter Too!

When discussing backlinks and SEO, we often forget about the value of referrals.

Links placed in relevant locations can bring in referral traffic, people who navigate to your site from the hyperlink.

These are real human beings who check out your website and could potentially share it with others. This is a valuable benefit that shouldn’t be overlooked.

So, Do No Follow Links Help SEO?

In summary, no-follow links do have the potential to help your SEO by increasing organic traffic and referral traffic.

However, the impact of no-follow links is often indirect and can be difficult to measure. 

In addition, Google’s algorithms are constantly changing and evolving, making it challenging to determine the exact impact of no-follow links on SEO.

Ultimately, while no-follow links may not necessarily directly contribute to your website’s rankings on search engine results pages, they can still play a role in driving traffic to your website and increasing its overall visibility.

So, the next time you come across a no-follow link, don’t dismiss its potential value.

The post Do No-Follow Links Help SEO? appeared first on Fanatically Digital.

Website Speed

Website speed can be tricky in that site owners may not fully understand the elements involved. From their perspective, when they go to their site, it seems to load fast, and they’re lulled into believing that they have good site speed. But this is not necessarily the case.

Browser Cache & Load Speed

Browser caching is fairly standard practice. This means that the content one sees after visiting the site for the first time is rendered from the browser’s memory or cache, a very fast experience. This was developed to improve the user experience and to decrease the load on servers and bandwidth. For a site with frequent repeat visitors and few content changes, this is great. But, new visitors to a page may have a very different experience, and perhaps not a good one.

Because site owners frequent their own sites often, their experience comes from the cache more often than from the server. When Google assesses a website’s speed, it does so from the perspective of a first-time visitor with no browser cache. Google’s assessment and a site owner’s speed experience can be very different.

Content and Speed

When site owners think of content, they typically think of what they see. But, when Google assesses site speed, there is a great deal more involved. Using PageSpeed Insights, SEOs can see the various elements of a page that are causing issues with load times. Here are three common speed bumps for websites.

• One of the most common issues with non-optimized sites usually involves images that are way too large and not web-optimized.
• Unused CSS and JS code is also an inhibitor to page loading
• Render-block scripts cause issues with visible content not being loaded because it has to wait for js or other scripts to load first.

Improving site load speed is one of the more difficult things to do. Balancing image size with creativity/quality and knowing what parts of the scripts are vital to the initial load versus what can wait or be eliminated, it is time-consuming to optimize for speed.

Page Architecture

Behind the content people see is code. Website architecture, including the code structure, helps search engines parse and understand the content. One of the tricky things is that you can use different approaches to render content the way you want users to see it, but those methods may not be good for search engines to understand it. The content needs to be rendered well for users and structured well for search engines. Both are absolutely compatible, but often one is forgotten.

General User Exprience

Beyond load speed, Google also looks at what happens when content is rendered. Is it within the screen, does it shift once loaded, is the contrast between elements visible, how is the element spacing, and so on? These elements play into how users will see and navigate the site.

Trickier still, how the site is rendered is different for desktop vs mobile. Generally speaking, if the site is mobile-friendly, it will be good for the desktop. But, the reverse is seldom true. Whether using a mobile-first approach or depending heavily on responsive design (which should be ever-present anyway), the site code has to adjust the rendering appropriately for the users’ devices.

These more common elements of technical SEO need to be addressed for every website to some degree. How deep you have to go and how much effort is needed really depends on your starting point.

While there are tools out there that can identify problems, their proposed solutions are not always easily achieved by the average site owner. The process needs to set priorities and provide the right resources, which are often not available. If you are wondering how to improve site speed for your website, give us a call.

The post Technical SEO An Overview appeared first on Fanatically Digital.

In the rapidly evolving digital landscape, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a game-changer, particularly in the realm of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

As we reflect on the pivotal year of 2023, it is evident how large-language-models (LLMs) and generative AI tools have revolutionized SEO practices, akin to the transformative impact of internet and smartphones.

In this post, we’ll delve into the impacts and implications of AI on SEO, highlighting the efficiency and value brought by AI tools in simplifying labor-intensive SEO tasks, while also examining the yet-to-be-realized potential of AI-generated search results in influencing website traffic.

AI & SEO Tools

When it comes to search engine optimization, the biggest impact AI had was in the available toolset. Copywriting programs, bulk on-page optimization, and rank tracking tools have streamlined the more tedious aspects of SEO.

Content Generation

After the release of ChatGPT’s API, content generation software quickly became ubiquitous throughout the SEO and content marketing space.

Tools like Jasper and Copy.ai  can assist SEOs by suggesting blog topics, assist in writing the blogs posts themselves, as well as generate website copy like product descriptions.

As you can imagine, these tools helped to cut down the time and effort for tasks that many SEOs may find tedious like researching new potential blog topics and content spinning.

Data Analysis and Trend Identification

AI tools have also revolutionized data analysis and trend identification in SEO. Tools such as Pro Rank Tracker and MarketMuse can automatically perform keyword research, identify content gaps on a website, and suggest topics for future posts.

These AI-assisted programs allow for a new level of precision to keyword research and trend identification, enabling quicker response to search trends.

SEOs also find value in the predictive insights that these tools provide, allowing content to be appropriately tailored for future search algorithm changes.

When used properly, these advancements in natural language processing (NLP) and AI free up SEO from the more tedious elements of their job to focus on the strategic side for their clients.

Impact on Search Engines

Natural Language Processing & Search Engine Algorithms

In the early days, search engines relied heavily on keywords to understand a given text and match search queries to the appropriate results.

However, with the advancements in natural language processing (NLP) and AI, search engines can now analyze content more comprehensively and better understand context and intent, allowing for more accurate results.

This has rendered old SEO tactics such as keywords stuffing obsolete. Over the years, content marketers have had to place a greater emphasis on the quality and relevance of their content.

One example of these NLP algorithms in action is Google’s BERT, which uses AI to understand the meaning behind a search query and deliver more relevant results.

With systems like BERT, search engines are able to understand more complex and conversional queries and factors in context from previous searches.

This has led to the rise of voice search and the need for SEOs to optimize their content for natural language queries.

In essence, AI has forced SEO professionals to shift their focus from optimizing for robots to creating valuable and user-friendly content.

Generative Search Results

While advancements in NLP has had a massive impact on how search engines’ process language over the past decade, much of these improvements have occurred behind the scenes. However, technologies unveiled in the past year and a half have the potential to advance the capability of search algorithms to a new stage in their evolution.

We’ve seen these NLP and AI advancements go from improving search engine’s ability to understand and interpret text to actually generating text themselves. No longer simply selecting the best results for a particular query but understanding intent well enough to formulate a response itself.

Programs such as Google’s Search Generative Experience and Bing’s Copilot use generative AI to create answers to search queries on the spot by cross referencing relevant organic results with their own internal knowledge graph.

This technology has vast implications for SEO, as websites will need to compete not only for top placement in search results but also for generating the most relevant and accurate information.

As of now, these AI-generated search results have yet to achieve widespread prevalence that significantly impacts website traffic. However, as this technology continues to advance,  it may dramatically alter the current SEO landscape.

Wrapping Up

In conclusion, AI has already had a significant impact on the world of SEO, primarily through automation and optimization of tasks. But as we’ve seen with NLP advancements and generative search results, the potential for AI to shape the future of SEO is immense.

While it’s unclear exactly how these technologies will continue to evolve, it’s safe to say that AI will be a driving force in the world of SEO for years to come. As search algorithms continue to improve and become more sophisticated, so too must our strategies as SEO professionals.

The post The Impact of AI on SEO (So Far) appeared first on Fanatically Digital.

In the digital age, visibility on platforms like Google Maps is crucial for driving business growth. Whether you’re running a restaurant, plumbing service, law practice, or car dealership, it’s a safe bet that Google Maps is how most of your clients and customers find your business. 

This guide will provide insights on methods to improve your Google Maps ranking, helping you leverage online tools to amplify your business presence.

Complete Your Google Business Profile Setup

Google Maps results are linked to your Google Business Profile (GBP), formerly Google My Business. 

So, if you want to rank on Google Maps, that’s step one. If you need help setting up your business profile, check out this guide over on BrightLocal. For this post, we’ll assume that your GBP is already set up and ready to go.

Be Active on Your GBP

Maintaining an active Google Business Profile (GBP) establishes credibility and authenticity in the eyes of both search engines and your customers. Regular updates to your GBP, such as posting about ongoing deals, responding to customer queries, and uploading recent photos of your business, show that your business is operational and attentive to customer interactions.

Solicit and Respond to Reviews

Reviews are one of the most important pieces for ranking well on Google Maps.

To gather reviews, reach out to satisfied clients or customers and ask them to share their positive experiences on your GBP. This can be done at the point of service, through a follow-up email after a purchase or service, or by placing a review link on your business’s website or social media pages.

When responding to reviews, be sure to address both positive and negative feedback.

For positive reviews, express gratitude for their patronage and provide a personalized response where feasible.

For negative reviews, maintain a professional tone, apologize for any inconvenience caused, and offer solutions. If possible, suggest discussing the matter privately to show proactive customer service. This can turn a negative experience into a testament to your dedication to customer satisfaction.

Post About Deals & Events

Posting regularly about ongoing deals, promotions, and other updates can be helpful for maintaining an active profile.

Frequent updates signal Google that your business is active, and ultimately, this fosters a vibrant and dynamic business profile that appeals to both your current customer base and potential new customers.

Strong On-Page SEO

In addition to an active Google Business Profile, another key factor to ranking on Google Maps is your website content. This is where Google draws much of what it understands about your business and, therefore, what keywords it will rank your profile for. 

The ideas is to send Google “signals” about who you are and what your business offers.

Identify Your Keywords

The first step is to identify what keywords you want to rank for. Some of these are obvious. 

Restaurants will want to target “restaurants” and “restaurants near me.” If you’re located in Springfield, then you’ll want to target “restaurants in springfield.” These will be your primary keywords.

However, there may be secondary keywords you’ll want to target as well. For instance, if you’re located near an event center and want to target customers searching for a place to eat before and after an event, you’ll want to target queries like “restaurants near EVENT CENTER NAME.”

This is where SEO intersects with your overall marketing strategy. Where are your customers coming from, who are the audiences you’re targeting, and what would they be searching for?

On-Page Optimization

Once you have your keywords, you’ll need to optimize your pages. This optimization will not only help in the organic rankings (the blue links on the results page) but in Google Maps as well.

Your page title tags are the most important part of on-page equation. If you want to target people looking for restaurants in Springfield, then your homepage title should be something like:

RESTAURANT NAME | Gourmet Restaurant in Springfield

In addition to title tags, it’ll be important to include geo-modified content in your on-page copy. That means using words like “Springfield restaurant” instead of simply “restaurant.”

Embed Google Maps

Embedding Google Maps on your site serves a dual purpose for SEO. Firstly, it provides clear, easy-to-follow directions to your physical location, enhancing user experience. Secondly, it sends strong local signals to search engines, reinforcing the geographical relevance of your site.

Create Supporting Content

Supporting content is great for expanding the topics covered by your website and for targeting those secondary keywords.

For example, if your restaurant wants to target those customers searching for a restaurant near the event center, consider creating a page dedicated to those customers. “If you’re looking for a restaurant near THE EVENT CENTER, our restaurant is the perfect choice.”

Be sure to include relevant details. This can include content like directions from the event center to your restaurant, any specials you offer on event night, etc.

Content like this signals to Google that your profile is relevant to a specific location or event, thereby increasing its chances of ranking for related searches.

Off-Page SEO

But it’ll take more than signals from your GBP and your own website to achieve good rankings. Google also looks to other websites in order to gauge your credibility and trustworthiness.

For local business, an important category of websites includes business name address, & phone number (NAP) citations.

Business NAP Citations

While your Google Business Profile is the most important business profile, it’s not the only one that matters. In addition to Google, there is Yellow Pages, Yelp, as well as many niche-specific NAP websites.

These sites not only serve as sources of reviews, but also provide valuable business information to search engines.

To improve your off-page SEO and Google Maps ranking, it’s crucial to ensure that your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) are consistent across all directories. This consistency helps create trust in the accuracy of your business information and avoids confusion for potential customers.

Wrapping Up

In conclusion, optimizing your business for Google Maps involves a comprehensive strategy that includes your Google Business Profile, on-page SEO, and off-page SEO.

By ensuring consistent NAP information across all platforms, actively managing customer reviews, and carefully implementing keyword strategies, you can enhance your visibility and attract more customers.

Remember, digital marketing is an ongoing process, and staying proactive in your efforts is key to maintaining a strong online presence.

The post How to Improve Your Ranking on Google Maps appeared first on Fanatically Digital.

At some point in their lifecycles, many businesses will undergo a rebrand or website redesign, and with it often comes the fear of losing SEO rankings.

This can be both an exciting and scary undertaking, especially if your website has had success with SEO. Nobody wants to lose all that traffic and revenue, not to mention all the resources you put into achieving those rankings.

So the question most businesses will ask is, ‘How can I rebrand my website without losing SEO rankings?’

The short answer is continuity. That means (1) retaining the same URL structure & architecture where possible and using 301s where it’s not, (2) ensuring the title tags and content of high-performing pages are kept consistent, and (3) using links and content to signal your new brand/identity.

In this post, we’ll detail each of these steps to ensure a successful rebrand without losing rankings

Rebranding Considerations 

Rebrands exist on a spectrum. On one end, you have minor cosmetic touch-ups. This can be something as simple as altering the color scheme or getting a shiny new logo. 

On the other end are total identity overhauls. Changing your company name, business focus, or offering a dramatic shift in tone and messaging requires more work than just swapping out logos.

In this post, we’ll focus more on the latter. Specifically, cases that involve changing domain names.

Site Architecture & URL Schemes

URLs

One of the most critical steps for a successful rebrand is establishing consistent URLs between your old and new site. For example, if your old site was www.olddomain.com/product-category/, then you’ll want to make sure the new URL is something like www.newdomain.com/product-category/.

Why?

Within its index of web pages, Google has a ‘map’ of your website layout. It knows which pages link to which others and has an idea of how they relate to each other. This informs how Google will rank your pages for search queries.

The closer the structure of your new site matches your old site, the better understanding search engines will have right off the bat, and the more likely you are to retain your SEO rankings.

301 Redirects

But sometimes, rebranding requires splitting or consolidating content. When this is the case, 301 redirects are a critical step in guiding Google and other search engines to the new URL. 

It’s important that you use properly implemented 301 redirects for any pages where content is no longer available, as this helps Google understand your new website structure and pass ranking signals to the new URLs. 

www.olddomain.com/best-sightseeing-spots-in-alaska/

www.olddomain.com/10-most-beautiful-tourist-destinations-alaska/

— both pages 301 redirect too —

www.newdomain.com/sightseeing-and-tours-alaska/

While Google will eventually piece everything together, effective redirects will ensure that your rankings don’t take as big of a hit when you finally launch your new site. Think of it as helping Google redraw these old maps instead of waiting for it to reindex everything on its own.

On-Page Content

Consistent Title Tags & Content

The next step is to make sure your title tags, meta descriptions, and content are consistent with the pages you had before the rebrand. This helps preserve rankings since these elements are some of the most important signals for search engines.

In addition to title tags and meta descriptions, your old page content should match up to the new pages you’re creating. Not only will this help keep rankings intact, but it will also give users the same familiar experience they had before the rebrand.

Updating Internal Links

Any internal links pointing to pages that are no longer in use should be updated to point to their relevant counterparts on the new domain name. Doing this will help ensure a smoother experience for visitors and keep your page crawling efficient and effective.

Signal Your New Brand to Customers & Search Engines

One of the biggest losses in potential traffic is through your company’s old branded searches. Customers will continue to search for your old brand, but without proper signals, Google (and your customers!) may have trouble connecting the old with the new. 

In order to counteract this, it’s important to signal the connection between both before and after your launch.

This can be done through blogs posts on your site detailing the upcoming rebrand, sections or FAQ pages on your new site that mention the change, and by clearly displaying your new brand throughout all of your content. 

Wrapping Up

Rebrands can pose a risk to your high ranking content. But by taking proactive steps, you can ensure that your new brand sends the proper signals to search engines, and minimize any negative impact of your rebrand.

The post Rebrand Your Site Without Losing SEO Rankings appeared first on Fanatically Digital.

There are tons of components that go into a successful local SEO strategy. But for digital marketers and business owners, building citations is one of the easiest and most effective steps to building a comprehensive local SEO program.

In this blog post, we’ll provide a beginner-friendly guide on the process of building citations and links so that you can begin optimizing your website and draw more customers through organic search results. Read on to learn the basics of citation building as part of a successful local SEO strategy.

• Our complete guide to local SEO

What are Local Citations and Why are They Important for SEO

Local citations refer to online mentions of a business’s name, address, and phone number (sometimes abbreviated as ‘NAP’) on various directories, review sites, and blogs. 

Citations on reputable directories and review sites like Yelp, Open Table, and Angies List, signal to Google and other search engines that a website is trustworthy and relevant to a particular locality. 

With local search becoming increasingly competitive, having a robust citation and link profile has become paramount in improving a website’s search engine rankings and driving more traffic to a business’s website.

How to Find the Best Citation Sites for Your Business

We’ve all heard of the big business directories. Angi, Yelp, etc. And there are tons of lists and resources out that can point you towards some of the lesser known, but still important, national directories.

But to really maximize the benefit for local SEO, it will be important to find niche or local-specific directories. How do you find these?

One of the best ways to find these directories is to simply Google the keywords that you’d like to rank. 

For example, restaurants can Google “best restaurants in [town].” The results page will contain a mix of restaurants but more importantly the directories, and review sites that cater to your niche and location.

From here, you can begin to either claim your business profile if it already exists or sign up for the website and create a profile yourself.

Finding the right citation sites can take some time and effort, but it is well worth it to ensure your business is seen by the right people in the right places.

Creating a Consistent NAP Profile Across All Directories

One of the critical elements of citation building is ensure your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) are the same across all directories. 

If your business has been around for a while, chances are that some of the information has changed. Maybe you’ve relocated or altered the services you provide. 

Most aggregators and directories don’t spend a whole lot of energy keeping their listings up to date so it falls on the businesses themselves to ensure everything is accurate.

Doing so will solidify the authority and trustworthiness of your business and increase your chances of ranking for the keywords that matter to you.

Citation Builder Tool

Of course, most business owners are pressed for time as it is. So most folks don’t have the time nor the patience to scroll through SERPs and creating profiles and verifying emails.

That’s why there are many tools and citation building services out there such as SEMRush, Moz, BrightLocal and many more.

Services like these will recommend directories and other sites to create new NAP on. And many will even create these profiles for you.

Wrapping up

In conclusion, local SEO is an important tool for any business to stay competitive and gain visibility in the current digital marketing landscape. 

By building local citations and links with consistent NAP profile, businesses are able to improve their visibility on search engine results pages. 

With these best practices, businesses will be on their way to optimizing their local SEO rankings for maximum online success.

The post <strong>Citation Building for Local SEO: A Beginners Guide</strong> appeared first on Fanatically Digital.

One of the primary selling points of popular SEO tools such as Moz, Ahrefs, and SEMRush are the website authority metrics. These metrics proport to calculate a website’s “authority” based, for the most part, on the quantity and quality of its backlinks.

Website Authority Tools

• Moz: Domain Authority (DA)
• Ahrefs: Domain Rating (DR)
• SEMRush: Authority Score (AS)

While these metrics measure roughly the same thing, each tool uses different factors in their calculations which can result in radically different scores.

In this post, we’ll offer a head to head of Domain Authority vs Domain Rating vs Authority Score by first looking at the original authority metric, PageRank. Then we’ll dive into each metric, their individual input factors, and compare the outcomes by looking at our own website’s performance on each.

But first, a short history lesson.

It all Begins with PageRank

What is Google PageRank? This was one of the most important SEO metrics a decade ago. Back then, an update to the PageRank toolbar provided an opportunity to determine if the recent steps you took helped to improve the positioning of the website – and that Google viewed your site as one with more authority. Where does PageRank fit into metrics today?

To understand the value and place of PageRank and authority scores, you need to consider the application in today’s industry and how they may or may not matter to your link building strategy. 

What You Should Know About PageRank

PageRank is quite a complex algorithm. It provides a score in a numerical format that is supposed to give you an idea of where your website stands. PageRank is more of a linear representation of that rather than a true way to know how well your website is going to rank in the search engines.

A low score, for example of 0, means that your website is low quality. That often means that it is not seen as an authority website by Google, and as such, Google may not value it high enough to position it high in search engines. 

A score of 10, on the other hand, seems like a good figure, and it does indicate that the website is more authoritative than other sites. 

What Factors Influence PageRank?

While we know that PageRank is no longer used in the way it once was, there are still some key components of it that do make a difference. For example, things like anchor text and how likely it is that the link will be followed can still play a role in your success. 

While Google retired the PageRank Toolbar that was often used to help with this figure, we know that PageRank still matters to some degree. That’s why several other organizations decided to create their own tools to help you better understand how well your website ranks. 

Difference Between DA, DR, and AS

When considering website authority scores, you will find a lot of different acronyms out there. It is easy to become overwhelmed with trying to navigate all of your options. Here are some of the explanations you need to do that.

Domain Rating

Domain Rating, DR, is one of the terms you will see readily used. This metric was developed by Ahrefs. It helps to show the strength of your website’s backlink profile. It provides this information on a scale that ranges from 1 to 100. How does Ahrefs determine what this number is? 

Key factors that DR uses

To calculate this information, the tool will look at the following:

• Referring domains
• Link root domains
• Domain age
• The total number of links

Fanatically Digital’s Domain Rating

Fanatically Digital’s Domate Rating is 39, apparently. Cool.

They have also found 139 unique websites that link to us. Ahrefs relies heavily (if not exclusively) on backlinks in order to calculated their score.

This can be a positive because it keeps things relatively simplified. We know what is being measured. That is, where a website generally stands within the backlink hierarchy of the internet.

However, having only a few variables impacting this score (quantity and quality of links) means it’s more susceptible to spamming and manipulation.

Anyway, let’s see how this compare to what the others found.

Domain Authority 

Domain Authority, or DA, is a bit different. It is a Moz calculation. That means it provides a bit of a different source of data. It aims to provide you with insight into how well your website may rank in the search engines.

What factors does DA use?

• The age of the domain itself
• The spam score it has
• The amount of traffic volume the website sees
• The total number of backlinks that are on the website
• The quality and the quantity of backlinks in comparison to each other
• Social signals pointing to the website
• The linking root domains

Fanatically Digital’s Domain Authority

Rather than focus exclusively on backlinks, which is what PankRank did, Moz takes things a step further by factoring in performance on search engines.

Domain Authority isn’t merely attempting to mirror PageRank. It’s not trying to gauge the quality of the inputs (i.e. quality of it’s backlinks). It’s using the outputs (i.e. search engine performance) to predict Google’s assessment of authority.

You can see this reflected in Fanatically Digital’s lower Domain Authority, only 22 compared to our 39 Domain Rating. That’s because Moz’s evaluation of our search engine performance is lower than one might expect given our backline profile. Only 44 keywords, according to Moz (although according to Search Console, this metric is off by a factor of 100).

They also take into account our Spam Score, which is only 1% so that’s nice, I guess.

Authority Score

The third option is Authority Score, or AS, which SEMRush designed. It provides a different viewpoint as well. Here, the score is more explicitly a prediction of the overall quality of the webpage or the website itself. It is best used to compare domains.

What factors does AS use?

Your AS is dependent on numerous factors but specifically focuses on these areas:

• The link power of the domain. By this, the organization focuses on the quality as well as the number of backlinks for the website.
• Organic traffic. The second key factor here is the amount of organic traffic that is coming to your website. This is estimated on a monthly average. Organic traffic stems from people landing on your page from search engine results often thanks to your SEO efforts.
• Spam factors. The third factor that plays a significant role in this process is spam. That is, the tool looks for anything that seems spammy and whether or not there is a natural link profile.

To provide some additional insight into Spam Factors, SEMRush shares that there are six key things it does to determine this:

• If you get no organic rankings on the search engine results page
• Having a super high percentage of do follow domains
• Having too many referring domains that come from the same IP address or the same IP network
• An imbalance in the amount of organic traffic the website gets compared to the number of links it has
• Another domain that has the same (identical even) backlink profile

Fanatically Digital’s Authority Score

While our Domain Rating is a cool 39 and our Domain Authority was a respectable 22, our Authority Score is a meager 5.

These are all out of 100.

As you can probably tell just from these numbers here, SEMRush weighs organic search performance A LOT. Our organic traffic is 0 visitors per month, apparently (also heavily contested by Search Console).

So despite our relatively respectable backlink profile, our Authority Score has been given an F–

This all begs the question, what exactly are these tools purporting to be measuring? And how do we as search marketers or business owners find value in them.

It’s interesting how, over time, these tools try less and less to be mirrors of PageRank, focused exclusively on the quality and quantity of backlines. Instead, they shift further towards an all encompassing SEO score.

Where Do You Stand on the Use of PageRank?

We find that these website authority metrics are a viable bit of information, and all of these versions, AS, DR, and DA, are great tools to have. However, this is just one component of a much larger picture. You cannot determine how well your website is optimized for search engines using these tools. They cannot provide you with enough insight to know what you need to improve either.

The key here is that these scores can be used as a component of an overall marketing strategy but not the total picture. They are merely proxies, and what is worse, they are highly susceptible to manipulation. For that reason, they are often overvalued in today’s use.

Don’t rely on this as the sole component of your marketing campaign. Instead, use it along with the help of a professional organization to customize your marketing strategy.

The post Comparing Website Authority Scores (DA vs DR vs AS) appeared first on Fanatically Digital.