Joy Hawkins (sitting in for Mary Bowling) and Mike Blumenthal discuss review spam, ranking, local content ideas and GMB updates for the week ending 4/24. Due to technical issues this week is audio only.
If you have a special topic you would like us to discuss for our other weekly feature, the Deep Dive in Local, or if you would like to be on one or the other of our segments, reach out and send us the topic and your availability. If you are interested in sponsoring this weekly show also please let us know.
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Our weekly discussions are also now available as a podcast as well.
Mike’s links:
Frustration With Digital Marketing Vendors Boils Over for One SMB | Street Fight
Let’s start with the very real drag on the entire digital marketing industry that over-aggressive sales tactics and under-performing products have had on our target customers’ willingness to purchase from any of us in the future.
Video Deep Dive: Why some big brands lag behind in local & how they could improve – Local University
Ranking articles:
The MozCon Local 2017 Video Bundle Is Here! – Moz
We are sharing one of this year’s highly rated sessions at MozCon Local for free. GetFiveStars’ Mike Blumenthal digs into factors that determine relevance of non link-based signals and develops a model for how Google might use them to determine rank. Even if you feel that the whole bundle is not for you, you won’t want to miss this informative session:
Content Articles:
The Best Types of Content for Local Businesses: Building Geo-Topical Authority
Preparing for local reach in a ‘post-rank’ world, Part 2: Create content for local research
The problem is, this content will rarely fit into nice keyword buckets. Instead, brands will need to get better at showing off their personality at the local level, treating their local landing page like a guide to the brand experience and leaving the keyword brainstorming to the searcher.
The GMB User’s Guide Google Forgot To Publish
Joy’s links:
The Largest Review Spam Network Ever Or… Who is Shazedur Rahman and why should you care?
Can Google really not detect these massive abuses of reviews?
How to Remove Fake Google Reviews
It is possible to get a review taken down. It may require a few too many steps and a bit of frustration in getting a clearly wrong review down.
What You Need to Know About Ads in the 3-Pack | Imprezzio Marketing
Ads are always in the mobile 3 pack, in almost every vertical. Here’s what you need to know about this new pack result.
Who knew that Google Docs could be used as a company website and rank? It might have a roll in certain legitimate situations.
SEO firms seem to ever stoop lower and lower. In the process of a new client audit the client’s new SEO found that the previous provider had submitted the clients URLs to be removed Google via the Google Search Console.
Google Adds Product & Service Menu Links to the Knowledge Panel
A small but useful feature that gives users one more way to find your website.
GMB Now Allows All Dashboard Accounts to Access 18 months of Data
The availability of the data helps with audits and y/y comparisons. A tool that all agencies should welcome. And not just bulk accounts.
In another GMB upgrade, Google is now showing frequent visitors and busy hours to the dashboard.
