Local SEO is a potent way to drive people to your physical business location. It also helps ensure that your business appears real, legitimate, and authoritative within the Google search results of nearby potential customers.

Consider these 5 things when optimizing your website for Local SEO in 2022:

Local SEO Thing #1: Optimize For Voice Search

No one thinks that customers always and only search for things with their voice (although 41% of users now search using their voice once per day). However, we strongly suspect that the way your customers search for your product or services is closer to the way they speak; people tend to search with natural language (phrases or meaningful sentence fragments) more so than with the keyword-only searches typical in the past.

When someone is out on the town and feeling hungry for pizza, they do not typically Google “Pizza.”

Instead, they will look for ‘Pizza Near Me’ or ‘Best Pizza In [CITY NAME].’

Optimizing your site and content for the way people actually look for things online will help you rank better for these localized searches. It will also futureproof your site for the continual growth of voice assistants.

For more talk on voice search, check out How to Optimize for Voice Search.

Local SEO Thing #2: Be Consistently Consistent

The little details matter when it comes to Local SEO. Presenting your business information consistently—especially the physical address—is crucial because Google assesses your legitimacy through such consistency.

It may sound like nitpicking, but if your business is located at 123 North Christmas Ave, then you should always refer to it as such—and never 123 N. Christmas Ave. Be consistent with your location information because it helps reduce issues with local listings, and it shows the bots you care about your local business data.

Local SEO Thing #3: Actually, this is Hyperlocal SEO

You don’t just live in your city, you live in a neighborhood. So do your customers.

When optimizing your content for hyperlocal SEO, make sure you include the neighborhood you are located in and also the locations your customers may live, work, or shop in. This helps drive local searches including those specific keywords, as the algorithms will understand the local nature of your content and deliver it to local searchers.

If you have a business in Bushwick, Brooklyn, your business is located THERE—not just the more general New York City. Optimizing for all three—Bushwick, Brooklyn, and New York City—will net you the best possible ranking potential.

Thing #4: Own Your Listing

Your Google Business Profile listing is one of the most important tools in driving local traffic online. Make full use of it.

If you haven’t already claimed your listing, do so. If you have, then optimize! Here are five easy to complete areas you can use to improve your Google Business Profile listing.

1. Flesh out your business description to include language that will drive a user to want to engage with your business.
2. Showcase your products directly within your listing.
3. Add photos. Photos help boost engagement on your local listings.
4. Use the Posts functionality of Google Business Profile; it’s like a micro-blog for your local listing page that gives information to users directly within the search results and allows you to promote sales and products to local searchers.
5. When it comes to your Primary Category within GMB make sure you choose wisely. If you are a pizza place, make sure you choose the category Pizza Restaurant and not just Restaurant. This attention to detail is necessary for Google to understand when to show your business over another location.

The more you put care into your business information online, the better it will likely perform in search.

Thing #5: Show Authority

It’s not enough just to rank locally. If potential customers have doubts that you are a reputable business, they are not likely to spend their money on your goods or services. To satisfy the need for credibility, you need a local review strategy.

Encourage your customers to leave 5-star reviews when they are satisfied with your business. Whether this is via a card you hand out to a customer or through a follow-up email, reviews are a major factor in convincing a local customer to make a purchase. They will have a big impact on your local performance.

Once you have reviews, show them off. Use plugins to feature the reviews on your website, and share every good review you get on social media. Respond to the reviews you get from customers on Google and Facebook. It is this attention to detail and care that may sway another customer to your side. And it shows local searchers that you are to be trusted.

When it comes to local SEO, no one of these tactics alone will bring your business success within the search engines; rather, a finely optimized and cultivated combination of the 5 areas above can help drive traffic with higher buyer intent.

At DOM, we’re local SEO wizards and more than ready to get you optimized for local traffic. Feel free to reach out today and let’s put together a plan that works for your SEO needs.

The post How to Do Local SEO in 2024 appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

Imagine that it’s 1984 and you have just earned your business degree. Your father, Mick, owns a tavern and has always instilled in you the importance of hard work. Unfortunately, his tavern is on the verge of bankruptcy and you realize that maybe, just maybe, you can help!

Your first job, prior to college, was at a local pizza restaurant and you got pretty good at making a superior-quality pizza. So, you swallow your pride and sell your most-prized possession. A gorgeous 1971 Z28 Camaro for $2,800.00.

You use the money to buy used restaurant equipment and turn the broom closet at the back of the tavern into the perfect spot to make your pizza.

Fast-forward one year. Your pizzas are delicious; the locals love them: you are able to open your own space (close to the tavern, of course).

Do you know whose story I’m telling yet?

Fast-forward 15 more years to 2001, and now you are the first pizza chain to offer national online ordering. Fast-forward a further 7 years to 2008, and you have topped $1 billion in e-commerce sales and $1 million in mobile web orders.

Does “Better Ingredients. Better Pizza.” Ring a bell? If you haven’t figured it out yet, I am telling the story of John Schnatter, the founder of Papa John’s.

Why Is an Online Marketing Company Telling This Story?

Why is an online marketing company telling stories about a pizza chain?

Well, thank you for asking!

Tomorrow, Google will be joining us as we host an interactive digital marketing seminar in Louisville, KY. Before this event, we wanted to point out some of the online marketing wins of one of the major employers in the area. And who doesn’t LOVE pizza?

Headquartered in Jeffersontown (a suburb of Louisville), Papa John’s continues to be on the top of its game when it comes to technology and its website’s search engine optimization (SEO).

Local SEO Tips For Better Search Optimization

What Do Papa John’s Best Local SEO Tips Teach Us?

There are a number of key factors that should be considered when optimizing your website’s franchise location pages for local search engine optimization.

For the sake of this post, let’s take a look at the Papa John’s franchise located at 5709 Bardstown Rd., Louisville, KY 40291.

1. Search Engine Friendly URLs

The first thing that Papa John’s did right for local search engine optimization was creating a dedicated page for each franchise location. In such a situation, the URLs should include the country, state, town, zip code, and street address.

https://www.papajohns.com/locations/usa/ky/louisville/40291-1913/5709-bardstown-road/10

While this may be a bit long for some types of franchises to duplicate, it certainly helps your customers and search engines determine where each franchise is located. Keep in mind that when your customers do a search for your products or services, Google usually knows where they are located and will serve results that it believes to be most relevant to that user. Including location information in the URL can boost your local SEO efforts.

2. Meta Titles for Local SEO

While meta titles cannot be seen on your site itself, they are one of the first things that visitors will see in search engine results. Meta titles are the bold headings above each search result. Below, you can see the meta title for the page that we are reviewing.

The title includes the street address, brand name, city, state, and zip code. When optimizing for local SEO, keep in mind that you want to use the most relevant keywords for each page. You should also keep your title between 50 and 60 characters (although Google has been displaying up to 70 characters in the recent months). The more relevant your meta title is, the less likely Google will re-write it and the more likely it is to catch your customer’s attention!

3. Meta Descriptions for Local SEO

Like meta titles, meta descriptions are not visible on your site, but rather in the search engine results. You want to think of this as being the place to describe what the page is about while including relevant keywords ranging from 150 to 160 characters. Google will bold the words that match those in the user’s query.

We can see in the image above that Papa John’s included their top keyword “pizza” as well as the street address, city, and state in their meta description. They also let the searcher know that this page will give hours and contact information for the exact location being searched.

4. On-page Local Search Optimization

Let’s now take a look at some of the tactics that Papa John’s has used for on-page local search engine optimization.

Each page on your website should have one heading or H1 tag that contains your top keywords and one that tells your visitors what the page is about. Since this is a franchise location page, it makes absolute sense to include the brand name (Papa John’s Pizza) and the city and state (Louisville, KY). Directly beneath that, the street address (5709 Bardstown Road) is tagged as an H2, as well as the second mention of the address beneath that.

Mobile searches are popular. So it’s a great idea to have the phone number prominently displayed and coded so that a user can click on it and instantly be connected with the store to place an order.

5. Local Citation Link Building Best Practices

As an agency that offers local SEO services, we can assure you that local citation link building must be one of your first off-site tactics. Once you have your location pages optimized, you’ll want to then ensure that you list your NAP (name, address & phone number) consistently across all areas of the local search ecosystem.

In general, the top citation sites are the same; however, Moz has published a super helpful list of citations by city that links to each directory in the order of importance for that area. If nothing more, you would want to ensure a proper listing in each of these sites.

If you need to check the status of your local listings, Moz Local will show you where your listings are complete, incomplete, and inconsistent, as well as if you have any duplicate listings.

Using these resources as a guide will help ensure that you have a good basis for local link building by displaying exactly what is missing to ensure a complete profile on each site.

A Great Story Always Ends “Happily Ever After!”

Just like John Schatter’s “happily ever after” of having the world’s third largest take-out and pizza delivery chain AND getting his 1971 Z28 Camaro back in 2009 . . .

. . . we hope that these local SEO tips from Papa John’s will help you optimize your company’s location pages and have a “happily ever after” of your own.

PS – this post from our friends at DesignRush have even more helpful trends to take advantage of as part of your efforts to improve SEO for franchises.

The post 5 Local SEO Tips for Your “Happily Ever After” appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

If you’re interested in getting a better understanding of the digital marketing landscape in Pittsburgh, you’ve come to the right place. Learn everything you need to know about the Pittsburgh DMA, plus a thing or two about what we’ve learned about growing your digital presence in the biggest city in the Ohio Valley (or the Paris of Appalachia).

What is the Pittsburgh Media Market?

Media markets – or Designated Market Areas (DMAs) – as we know them are largely defined by Nielsen, the company you might also know as the ratings folks. They are a marketing measurement firm that keeps track of consumer behaviors for the benefit of advertisers, media creators, broadcasters, radio stations, etc. Their defined media markets are the industry standard whenever we talk about, say, the Pittsburgh Media Market.

Mini FAQ: The Pittsburgh DMA

Data sources: Nielsen Insights, US Census Bureau QuickFacts

How Many People Are in the Pittsburgh DMA?

According to numbers provided in the 2020 Census for the counties included in the Pittsburgh DMA, the estimated population is 2.85 million people.

When Nielsen measures the population of the Pittsburgh DMA, they do not measure the population by people. Instead, they measure the number of homes. Based on data from Nielsen, Pittsburgh has about 1,166,130 homes, ranking it 26th out of their 210 defined media markets.

Which Counties Are in the Pittsburgh DMA?

There are 16 counties in total in the Pittsburgh DMA – 13 in Pennsylvania, 2 in West Virginia, and 1 in Maryland. That three state surface area covers 10,083 square miles (or, for those of you outside of the USA – 26,110 km). Other definitions of the “Pittsburgh region” extend into Ohio border counties with some sources including several Ohio counties and as far south & west as the Kentucky border and north into the extreme southwest of New York State.

Want A Map of the Pittsburgh DMA?
Grab A PDF For Your Cork Board Here.

The counties included, in alphabetical order, by state, are listed below.

• Pennsylvania
  • Allegheny
  • Armstrong
  • Beaver
  • Butler
  • Clarion
  • Fayette
  • Forest
  • Greene
  • Indiana
  • Lawrence
  • Venango
  • Washington
  • Westmoreland
• West Virginia
  • Monongalia
  • Preston
• Maryland
  • Garrett

Sure, there are other definitions of the “Pittsburgh region” that extend it into Ohio and Kentucky, or even parts of New York State. But just because these parts of the country call carbonated beverages “pop” doesn’t mean they qualify as being part of the Pittsburgh DMA. When most business professionals reference this DMA, they’re talking about the 16 county, 10,000+ square mile area we documented above.

SEO and Digital Advertising Tactics to Grow Confidently in Pittsburgh

Google Business Listing with a Defined Service Area (and Local SEO)

Formerly called Google My Business (GMB), a Google Business Listing lets you access a heaping helping

of tools that firmly establish and enhance your business’s representation on Google’s many properties. Claiming your Business Listing is just the first step–then you get to optimize it for maximum utility.

As part of the GMB claiming process, you will want to set your defined service area. As you move forward with Google Business Profile optimization, this is going to be done by naming your locations, not by setting a service area by drive distance radius.

Check out our Guide to Local SEO in 2022 for more details.

Location Web Page with Location Schema

Do you have a page on your website about Pittsburgh? If not, you should (if you want to do more business in Pittsburgh). Once you do have one, you need to optimize it.

How do you optimize it? Glad you asked. There are three steps you should follow:

Step 1: Use Structured Data

As SEO professionals, we’re bully for schema codes and structured data on websites. Google likes it, too, which is nice. And no wonder Google likes structured data: it’s a clear, concise way to tell web browsers and search engines exactly what kind of page it is.

By using the Location Schema code somewhere on your page, you can tell Google that your page is in Pittsburgh, and is relevant to people looking for businesses like yours in the region. Fun fact: it doesn’t matter where on the page that Location Schema goes, although you will typically find it inserted in the header of a page or between your <body> tags. This can also be done without being a developer if you have a plugin in a CMS like WordPress.

Check out our guide on event SEO if you want to learn more about successfully using structured data.

Step 2: Give it a Pittsburgh URL

Another thing Google likes is a clear URL structure. One of the best things you can do to hammer home that your page is in Pittsburgh is by adding “pittsburgh-pa” in the URL (or slug, as WordPress calls it).

Step 3: Mention Pittsburgh on the Page and in the Meta Descriptions

While we’re on the subject of clear and concise, let’s go over one of the best ways to communicate where your business is: by saying “we’re in Pittsburgh” with the copy you write for your Pittsburgh page.

You don’t have to write about french fries on salads or pierogies, but you should mention the city in a few key areas:

• the meta description
• the alt tags of your images
• the first paragraph
• the subheadings
• and a few times in the page copy itself

As with any keyword, don’t overdo it.

Find Out the Top Search Queries in Pittsburgh Over the Last 12 Months

See the Top Search Queries in Pittsburgh Here

Geotargeting Your Search Ads (NOT Geofencing)

Geotargeting your ads is one way to get the most digital advertising benefit from the physical location of your business without wasting money by spending on impressions or clicks that you won’t be able to serve.

If you want to target people with your ads in a designated area (say, the Pittsburgh DMA) then geotargeting is the most effective method for reaching the right people. If your service area is limited geographically, then your ads should be limited geographically, too. Facebook calls this “Location Targeting,” and other platforms may call it something else, but in today’s digital landscape every major ad platform supports some form of geotargeting.

Geofencing your ads is different than geotargeting your ads. How so? Because unlike geotargeting which allows your advertising to cover an entire service area, geofencing is meant to be used only when you want your ads to be placed around a specific business or location.

Geotargeting vs Geofencing: Why You Should (Almost) Always Choose Geotargeting

Here’s a quick example to illustrate when a regional bank may want to decide to use geotargeting or geofencing to promote its products and services:

• Geotargeting: when targeting residents of the Pittsburgh DMA regardless of where they bank
• Geofencing: when targeting residents of the Pittsburgh DMA to show compare their rates to PNC

The thing that makes geofencing so attractive as a mobile marketing strategy is the fact that you can target a customized message to a potential customer at a specific place at a very specific time. Alternatively, there are a lot of factors that can cause geofencing to be a bad use of your ad spend, including:

• Location accuracy
• Reliance on beacon technology
• Dependence on your target customers having bluetooth and GPS enabled
• Inability to have your audience see your ads in their moment of need

Despite its popularity as a marketing buzzword, geofencing often doesn’t make sense for a better targeted digital ad campaign. Instead, you will find it more effective to use behavior data from search engines or social networks with a layer of geotargeting for best results.

A Bank Rebranded.
See How We Helped Them Double Conversions.

There you have it, a whole guide to how you can make your location work for you, and how you can firmly establish yourself as a Pittsburgh-based business (and we only said “yinz” once!). You can read more about how to get local with digital marketing by reading some of these other blogs on DOM’s Pittsburgh Marketing Agency website:

• What is Hyperlocal SEO and Why Should I Be Doing it Right Now?
• How You Can Use Hyperlocal Ad Campaigns
• How Local Service Ads Can Help You Connect
• 5 Local SEO Tips for Your “Happily Ever After”

The post How to Grow (Digitally) In the Pittsburgh DMA appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

Through all of the consternation about which companies are passively listening to every noise we make, from the airy grunt when we pick up a laundry basket to the curse words that fly when we drop the basket on our foot, the reality of market commerce is this: those devices wouldn’t be so ubiquitous if people weren’t using them. According to Google, around 27% of us are already using our voices to search–and that’s just on mobile devices.

We don’t need to tell you what you’ve already learned from all those context clues (and the title of the blog): optimize your site for voice search. Here are our six top tips for doing it.

Tip 1: Don’t Be Afraid of a Conversational Tone

Specifically, those headings that ask a question. Whenever we write something that we want to communicate to an audience, we tend to use a more formal approach. This probably has something to do with what we learn makes for a good heading on papers we write for school. This is why a lot of blogs opt for a more serious, informative, professional-sounding heading.

The Appearance of Formal Headings

See how formal that is? It’s SO formal. It’s not at all how people talk, is it? This wouldn’t be as big of a problem if voice search weren’t becoming so prevalent. People tend to use voice search the same way they talk. One of the reasons why we use headers at all is to delineate the content we present in chunks. Since Google is getting better and better about crawling pages and identifying the chunks we prepare for it, we should be making our headers look like the searches people are making.

What Does a Conversational Heading Look Like?

You’ll see a lot of headers that look like the above–chunks of content that pose questions followed by content that answers it. This is one way to optimize for voice search, sure, but increasingly we are finding people are typing searches like that, too. What a world!

Tip 2: Use That Schema

You might be wondering why you should use schema on a blog post that isn’t anywhere near the zeroth position. We’ll give you a big one, and you probably already guessed what it is. That’s right, for voice search!

Schema doesn’t just give Google a ready-made outline for presenting your content to searchers, it also has another big benefit: it contextualizes your page so Google gets a better understanding of what’s on it. If you include FAQ schema on your page, Google sees that your page is answering questions, and will use that information to populate searches. This might not instantly create higher rankings, but it will let readers, especially long-tail searchers, quickly find exactly the answer they’re looking for.

This doesn’t just apply to FAQ schema, either. There are tons of different kinds of structured data you can use, and each one will help contextualize your page for Google and, by extension, the folks who find your page.

Tip 3: CWV and We Really Mean It This Time

How many times do we have to tell you to optimize your page for core web vitals? Well, whatever that number is, here’s one more:

Core web vitals are more important than they’ve ever been! Your pages need to be fast, they need to load quickly, and they need to do all the other stuff that Google says to do which you can read about in this post about core web vitals.

Tip 4: Get Local

A lot of voice searches are made by people looking specifically for something local to their current whereabouts. In fact, voice searches are somewhere around 3 x more likely to be local than other types of search. If you have a business that could benefit from that local footprint, make sure those search engines know about it. If you need some help getting your business up to snuff for those “near me” searches, check out our Guide to Local SEO.

Tip 5: Go For the Longer Tails

There’s a joke here about cats and rocking chairs but there’s nothing funny about long tail keywords! Actually, there’s a lot that’s funny about long tail keywords because they go against what we’ve been led to believe about writing for the internet. They’re not short and simple, they’re big and occasionally complicated.

Longer tail keywords tend to be lower-funnel searches and are usually used by people who are ready to buy. If I want to know “what is the best litter box,” it’s going to look different than somebody who’s learning what a litter box is. That conversational, longer-tail key phrase is also, coincidentally, how we use our voices to search.

Tip 6: Optimize for Mobile

It only follows that if most searches voice searches are made on a mobile device, then you need to optimize for mobile results, too. Your website and the design template you use should already be doing most of the heavy lifting for you regarding how your website presents on a mobile device, but it doesn’t hurt to check on it yourself. You have a phone, right? Look at the page you’re optimizing in a phone browser.

Hey Siri, these tips hopefully helped you get a handle on optimizing your page for voice search. If you liked what you saw, stick around and read more. Here are a few blogs to get you started:

• Why SEO Titles and Meta Descriptions Are Still Important
• How to Make a Plan For Your SEO 
• Event SEO in These Uncertain Times…and Beyond!
• How Can Website Design Affect SEO

The post How to Optimize for Voice Search appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

Okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. Hyperlocal results have been around for a few years, but with Google’s increasingly targeted search capabilities, we can get extremely specific about where our audience lives, works, drives, shops, and basically anything else they do that has a geolocational footprint.

Sure, Near Me is Cool, But What About “Extremely Near Me?”

If you spend any time looking at your analytics (and please say you do), you’ve seen a meteoric rise in the volume of searches that include the phrase “near me.” This is great news if you have a business that relies on a local footprint. Even the pressures of COVID-19 haven’t slowed the growth of local business listing opportunities. Well, maybe it slowed it down a little. The point is, the sooner you start implementing these strategies, the better positioned you’ll be when people start more freely moving around again.

Set Up Your Google My Business Profile

You probably already have this well in hand, but just in case you don’t, or just in case you’re new to local SEO, you should definitely 1) activate your Google My Business account and 2) claim your business. If it’s already owned by somebody else, let’s hope they work for you, or you have access to the email listed on the GMB page. If it’s already owned and you don’t have access, well, that’s a whole post by itself.

Make sure your business information is correct, up to date, reliable—all that stuff. After all, there’s not much point in trying to get people to visit your website for local service if they don’t know you’re just down the street from their dentist’s office (or whatever).

Optimize Those Hyperlocal Keywords

It’s not enough just to include the location of your business. Why not talk about your neighborhood, or mention the streets nearby, or identify some cool landmarks near you that might help searchers hone in on your home base. Hyperlocal is all about specifics, but you might have to get a little fuzzy, too, when it comes to where you’re hyperlocated.

Add Those Schema Markups

Dust off that copy of HTML For Dummies and roll up your sleeves. It’s time to add that delicious markup code to your <head> tags! You know what schema are, right? They’re little snippets of code that give Google some rich data to display on the SERP where your business appears. Google loves schema, and it will even recognize some cool restaurant-specific features like hours of operation, and some menu features you need your future diners to know about.

If you’d like even more help getting to the bottom of getting to the top of Google’s search result pages with Local SEO Services, get in touch with us today.

The post What is Hyperlocal SEO and Why Should I Be Doing it Right Now? appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

The Basics

Local Service Ads (LSAs) are designed to help connect local companies with people who search on Google, looking for a specific service.

Examples of some of the industries eligible to run LSAs include locksmiths, HVAC, plumbers and electricians, roofers, water damage restoration, house cleaners, pest control, and window contractors. Google is continuing to expand the eligible industries, so if your company is not yet included, keep checking back.

The ads only show up for customers in your service area. Keywords relevant to the specific service will typically trigger the ads, which appear at the top of the search results. The main ad format displays the company name, city, phone number, hours of operation, and review rating.

How to Make an Ad

Start with creating an account. Tell Google where you’re located, what services you offer, and set a budget. Google will run a background check to ensure all licensing and insurance requirements are met, and you will be Google Guaranteed!

Some benefits of Google Guaranteed:

• If a customer is not satisfied with your work quality and they came to your business through Google, Google may refund the amount paid for the service.
• The Google Guarantee covers claims up to the amount on the job invoice up to the $2,000 lifetime cap for coverage.

Now, customers can see your local listing, and if they choose, schedule an appointment, or contact you directly through the ad. From there, you can choose which jobs to accept and track appointments.

Notable Differences

While there are some similarities to Google Ads and Google My Business, Local Service Ads are completely independently operated. Unlike the Google platform, these ads are on a pay-per-lead instead of a pay-per-click basis, so you only pay if a customer contacts you directly through the ad.

Also note, businesses are not able to designate targeted keywords. Simply pick your job types, and Google takes over, deciding which keywords are relevant for your business.

What’s New?

Users are now able to book appointments directly from clicking on a Local Service Ad, making it easier for the client to book, and the business to accept.

Before this update, users could only call or send a message to the business for service requests or quote information. A new customer could now be just a click away.

Google continues to impress us with their ability to bring the right businesses to the right audience. These trying times make it even more important to support local businesses and Local Service Ads could help make your service-based business easily-identifiable to users in your area.

To get more information on this topic, contact us today for a free consultation or learn more about our status as a Google Premier Partner before you reach out.

The post How Local Service Ads Can Help You Connect appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

The Google knowledge panel gets clicks and attention – it’s usually the first thing you see when you search for a business, brand, or noteworthy person online.

If you work for a brand that has an unclaimed knowledge panel created by Google, or you represent a public figure with an unclaimed Knowledge Panel, you really have two options:

1. Cross your fingers and hope Google showcases the information you want.
2. Claim it and cut to the chase by telling Google what the web needs to know.

After all, if Google can find you and has collected enough data about you to create a knowledge panel, potential clients and customers are reading it to learn about you, too.

Often before they’ve ever visited your website or social media accounts.

Below, we break down everything you need to know about Google knowledge panels. Whether you are a brand or public figure, you will learn how to claim your panel and optimize it to put your best presentation forward on the web’s go-to destination for discovery.

What Is The Google Knowledge Panel?

You might not know what it’s called, but you’ve definitely used it. When you search for something on Google, you often see a block of text to the right of the regular search results. On mobile, the panel appears part way down the list of results.

If you were searching for information about, say, a little company called Microsoft, you would see a panel of information telling you what Google thinks you’re looking for. Since Microsoft is a large, well-known brand, you’ll see a whole lot of helpful information pulled from a mysterious database called the Knowledge Graph.

There can be only one

If you asked around, through Google or your SEO-minded friends and colleagues, you would have heard that there are two kinds of Google Knowledge Panels, one for local business and one for a brand. While this was the case, it is no longer true. 

There is only one kind of knowledge panel: the brand panel. Google provides a service for local businesses called Google My Business, which displays to searchers as a panel-like block next to the search results. You can do so many different things as a local business that simply does not apply to brands or people that Google has siloed them into two completely different concepts. While they might look the same, they most definitely aren’t. We will feature the Google Business Profile in a future blog post, but until then, read on about this valuable digital asset.

We’re going to focus on the only official knowledge panel type, which focuses on people, places, and things.

Google’s mission is to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” and this is exemplified in the Knowledge Graph, which is where Google keeps all of the information it collects – and it collects a lot.

Only Google knows exactly what’s in the Knowledge Graph, but it’s possible to help it along and get some of that knowledge working for you.

But before we get to that, how do you know if you have one? Easy, just do a Google search for your name or your brand. If you don’t have a knowledge panel, there are steps you can take to get one, but none of them are guaranteed.

How Do I Get A Google Knowledge Panel?

First Things First: Guide To Claiming a Knowledge Panel

This is a vital, time-saving tip for claiming a knowledge panel: verified owner status in Google Search Console through an email address on the domain name associated with the panel.

Assuming you have this level of access with an account that matches the website associated with the brand or person you’re claiming, all you have to do is:

1. Click the “Claim this knowledge panel” button under your knowledge panel
2. When the Google Search Console verification screen loads, click “Confirm”
3. You will then be redirected to the Google search engine results page to suggest edits to your listing.

How do you know you’re a verified owner in Google Search Console?

The process to determine if you are a verified owner of a Google Search Console is pretty straightforward.

1. Login to Google Search Console
2. Click “Settings” on the bottom left of the screen
3. Review the Property Settings. You should see a green checkmark and the statement “You are a verified owner” immediately to the left of the checkmark.

If you currently only have “Delegated Owner” status or lower (“Full” or “Restricted” access), then Google will provide you with a variety of options to elevate your access level to verified. While we prefer the option of verification through Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager because it’s the easiest method, Google may only present you with HTML tag or DNS verification methods. Consult with your webmaster to determine which option is best for your organization for increasing your access level.

As of this writing, verified owners in Google Search Console with an email account on a company domain are the only users able to take this step of claiming a panel.

Are you an agency professional who represents a company or celebrity, media personality, or other public figure? Unless you have an email account on the same website domain as the one Google associates with the panel you are trying to claim, you will need to follow the steps below for verifying your identity.

Once the panel is claimed, you will have the ability to add other delegated owners who do not have a direct affiliation with your company, like agency representation (screenshot below). You can also continue to claim and gain access to knowledge panels for suggesting edits that may be loosely affiliated with your company.

How do I claim a knowledge panel without a Google Search Console account?

Step 1: Make sure you have a Google Account. It’s free and you’ll need one to get the most out of what Google can offer.

Step 2: Click the Get Verified link: https://posts.google.com/claim/?mid=/g/1hcp5gdf2

Step 3: Select either “I represent another person, organization or entity (sports team, musical group, film, etc.) that is not myself” or “I am a person with a knowledge panel”

Step 4: Fill the form out to the best of your knowledge and with the most up-to-date information you have available.

What information will I need to verify myself in Google Knowledge Panel?

Google wants to know that you are you, or that you are a legitimate representative of your organization. This is as important for you as it is for Google – they want to have the most correct information, and you want to be able to have a say in what Google displays about you.

In support of that, you’ll need to prove to Google that you are who you say you are. You will need to provide a name, even if you are claiming the knowledge panel for your business. You will also submit web pages that belong to you or your company. Your company’s homepage is a good start. Google also accepts social media profiles.

The way Google wants you to prove you have access to those social accounts and web page edits is surprisingly low-tech – you log in to those accounts and take screenshots of your successful sign-in. You can attach those screenshots to the verification form. You will also need to provide an official document that reassures Google that you are the right person to claim the knowledge panel. This “business verification” can take the form of any official document that outlines your role in promoting the company, from a document of incorporation with your name on it to an official social media partnership agreement, also with your name on it.

The last item that you’ll need is a photo of you holding some form of photo ID, with any sensitive information covered up or blacked out. Your driver’s license should be fine, but you can also use a passport or other government-issued ID card.

Once this process is complete, it may take a few days for Google to let you know, via your Google Account’s email address, that you have access. Congratulations!

Okay, I have my knowledge panel. What can I do with it?

This is where the real fun begins! You are now free to supply Google – and anybody searching for you or your company – the most accurate data possible. This is your opportunity to contextualize the parts of your business that are most valuable to people searching for you. These are your future or current customers, searching for your company or your name – they already know who you are, now they want to know what you can do for them.

Stuff to Check

Is the name of your business within Google Knowledge Panel correct?

This might seem like a simple one, but it’s important enough to warrant a mention straight at the top. Is the name spelled correctly? Even if you tend to use a common initialism or acronym for your brand, you’ll want to spell it out for this listing.

If this is a person’s knowledge panel, you’ll want to include the correct suffixes. They earned that MD or Ph.D., so why not put it next to their name?

Are those social media profies in your Google Knowledge Panel right?

Google’s Knowledge Graph will pull what it thinks are your brand’s social media profiles, but you can edit that block to make sure the correct ones are being displayed. This is a great opportunity to focus audience attention exactly where you want them to see your most recent social media updates.

Add A Website Button To Google Knowledge Panel

This is possibly the most important element on this page, and the one you absolutely need to make sure is correct – users will click that button to visit your page. That’s what Google’s all about, after all.

If you found this article helpful, you might want to check out one of these helpful posts on getting the most out of Google Search Console for your SEO efforts.

Other Articles About Google Knowledge Panel

• How and Why to Link Google Search Console in Google Ads
• Set Your Course In Google Search Console With International Targeting
• What are Core Web Vitals and What Should I Do About Them?

To get more information on this topic, contact us today for a free consultation or learn more about our status as a Google Premier Partner before you reach out.

The post How To Claim Your Google Knowledge Panel appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

What percentage of consumers find local goods and services on the web?

1. 1. A. 75%
   2. B. 97%
   3. C. 66%

I’ll give you a moment . . .
Take your best guess!

What percentage of business owners have claimed their local business listing on a search engine?

1. 1. A. 53%
   2. B. 45%
   3. C. 37%

Do you think you know the answers?

If you attended our Let’s Put Wheeling on the Map workshop, you already know the answers!

Previously we introduced you to Google’s GYBO program when we hit the road and helped Frederick, MD and Charleston, WV businesses get on the map. This time we took the program to our own backyard!

We love our hometown of Wheeling, WV and were eager to hold a Wheeling GYBO (Get Your Business on the Map) workshop to assist our local small business owners in getting on Google Maps.

We weren’t the only ones excited about bringing this program home. Several local organizations helped us spread the word and make this event happen! A huge thank you and shout out to:

• West Virginia Northern Community College
• Weelunk
• WTRF
• Wheeling CVB
• Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce

Check out the rest of our photos from the event.

At the workshop, we shared some mind-blowing statistics!

97% of consumers find local goods and services on the web, while only a mere 37% of business owners have ever claimed their local listing on a search engine.

I’m not referring to just any search engine either; I’m talking about the big one! You’ve probably heard of Google once or twice before, haven’t you?

Direct Online Marketing is a certified Google Partner in their Managed Agency Program. We were thrilled to once again partner with them for this awesome program. With help from the above organizations, we reached several businesses and helped them claim and optimize their Google listing.

Some of the awesome non-profit organizations and local businesses included:

• The Vagabond Kitchen
• Wheeling CVB
• The Children’s Museum of the Ohio Valley
• Sandscrest Conference & Retreat Center
• Easter Seals
• Wheeling Country Day School
• Mmm…Popcorn
• King’s Daughter Child Care Center
• Comcast Spotlight
• Gabriel Project of West Virginia
• Engineered Foundation Solutions

Look them up!

The event began with our president, Justin Seibert, giving an overview of how search engine marketing can help small businesses grow. I then had the pleasure of speaking to the group specifically about Google My Business.

Moving forward, we plan on holding more of these events, not only in Wheeling but in surrounding areas as well. We also plan to hold open office hours in the near future where business owners will be able to stop in to our office to have our digital marketing experts assist with their listing.

Be sure to stop by often and follow us on social media to keep up with all of our upcoming events!

If you are local, please join us on Monday, October 12th for the Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce Lunch & Learn. We will be presenting and exploring search engine marketing further.

Hope to see you there!

The post We Helped Put Wheeling on the Map! appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

I’m talking about GYBO!

Still confused?

Well, let me introduce you to Google’s Get Your Business Online team (otherwise known as GYBO). This team was formed in 2011 with a single mission: to get every business (big or small) online.

The team has traveled to all 50 states and helped thousands of businesses. However, there is much more help to be had, as only 37% of businesses have claimed a local business listing on a search engine.

Did you know that 4 out of 5 people use search engines to find local information, such as business hours, directions, and reviews?

How often are you out and about and simply whip out your phone to check the hours of your favorite local establishment? Or possibly for directions to that great new restaurant you heard about?

We were shocked at the small percentage of claimed listings!

As DOM’s local optimization guru, I committed to partnering with the GYBO team to help spread the word and get your businesses “on the map!” Since DOM is already a certified Google Partner in the Managed Agency Program, we were eager to join hands with Google once again to help businesses grow.

Has Your Business Been Googled?

When was the last time that you Googled a business online?

Have you ever Googled your own business?

What do you see?

You would probably be amazed to learn that much of what is shown in search results is information pulled directly from your Google My Business (GMB) listing.

Here is an example of branded local search results for Direct Online Marketing. I have highlighted all the information that is pulled in from our GMB listing.

That’s some pretty important information. And we absolutely want it to be correct!

Is yours?

Can your customers find your information?

Here is an example of generic local search results for “online marketing companies west virginia.” Once again, I’ve highlighted the information that is pulled in directly from GMB.

It is imperative that you ensure your information is correct and optimized for local search.

Google actually bases its local search results on relevance, distance, and prominence. Businesses can’t pay or request for a better ranking because Google Maps and Google My Business are both free services. Storefronts and service area businesses can appear on Google Maps by setting up a free Google My Business account.

Where to Begin?

What if you have no idea how to do that?

What if you have a GMB page but it’s not optimized?

No worries, you are in luck! During our Grow with Google event in Frederick MD, you will have the opportunity to sit with me or one of my awesome teammates to ensure that your listing is claimed and up to date!

The really great part about this, we have a communication line directly into Google My Business. We can help get your listing verified within 24–48 hours, rather than the 2 weeks that it can take otherwise.

“Swag,” You Say?

As GYBO partners, Google has armed us with some awesome swag specific to each city!

We’re talking t-shirts, tote bags, note pads, pens, and much more! So not only will we be offering free expert assistance and advice, we’re going to give you free stuff to show some love for Frederick, MD!

Oh, and breakfast is included too!

Why would we do this?

Because we are passionate about helping companies grow their businesses online and we actually enjoy it!

The post Let’s Put Frederick on the Map! …Another reason to attend Grow with Google! appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

OK, so I may be over exaggerating a bit, but now that I have your attention let me explain why it is imperative that you have optimized your hospital or health care facility for local search.

Google will create listings not only for the main hospital or medical facility but also for each doctor and department within the facility that has its own contact information. All too many times we have seen listings for doctors or departments that don’t even exist anymore. There are many patients who are simply trying to reach the switchboard to get to someone who can help them and quickly connect them to the party they need.  If optimized correctly, your main facility and contact number should appear on the top of the list.

There are several factors in how potential patients search that affect the results, including:

• Search engine (e.g. Google, Bing)
• Privacy settings (e.g. incognito while they are logged into the search engine)
• Actual search queries (e.g. “cancer doctors” vs. “emergency room”)
• Device Type (e.g. desktop, tablet, or phone)

Google My Business

Let’s take a look at just a few possible Google searches for ‘hospitals’ below. First I searched from my desktop while logged into my Google account with my location set as Wheeling, WV 26003:

I then did the same search from my mobile phone:

The mobile version also shows seven listings.  However with a much smaller screen, it requires some scrolling.  No big deal, right? Wrong! People don’t scroll!  (Especially if they are in urgent need of attention!) You want to be on the top of the list. Luckily for East Ohio Regional Hospital, they do rank in the top position in both of my keyword searches.

In many ways, you are in control of what information is listed in the local search results for your business. These results come from Google Maps, which is now linked to your Google+ page through Google My Business (previously Google Places).  When you claim your listing you can ensure that your information is updated and correct.  Hospitals or medical facilities should always use the main switchboard number for this listing. You will also have the opportunity to add your website, description, hours of operation and pictures.  With the mobile results, Google has made it easy for the patient by allowing them to call your facility or visit your website with a quick touch of the screen.

If you get nothing else from this blog post, at least get this: Claim and optimize your Google+ page to at least be “put you on the map”.

Helpful tips for Local Search Optimization

Local search optimization is a lengthy process which does not have to cost you a dime as long as you have the time and knowledge.  While Google My Business is a good place to start, it’s just the beginning of local search optimization.  To help you along, here are a few more suggestions to aide you in this process:

• Complete a spreadsheet with your NAP & details
  • In this scenario, NAP doesn’t refer to an afternoon siesta.  What it does refer to is your company’s name, address, and phone number.
  • Best practices include using your local telephone number- not your toll-free number – as well as your official business name.  Adding keywords to the business name does not help your cause; it only makes it harder for your patients to find you.

• Research the top Medical directories and citation sites
  • A good place to start would be Moz’s Top Citation Sources for Medical Services.
  • The more mentions of your site, the more value it will have in Google’s eyes and the more places your patients can find you.

• Keep a record of the sites where you have added and optimized your business and include:
  • The name of citation or directory site
  • Log in information
  • Date submitted
  • URL of your company’s listing
  • Any notes for things to be followed up on
• Always follow up to ensure accuracy
• Check your listing every few months to ensure your NAP is current.
• Make updates as needed for new services, any relocations, phone number changes, or website changes.

Now that you are no longer ‘killing people’ and know the steps you need to take to help your patients contact you, you probably feel much better!

We would love to hear if these steps have assisted you in your local search optimization and look forward to your comments. Should you find that you have further questions on best practices or just don’t have the time to complete this on our own, it’s one of our specialties!

To get more information on this topic, contact us today for a free consultation or learn more about our status as a Google Premier Partner before you reach out.

Want to check out more of our actionable ideas to grow confidently online in the medical and health industry? Check out some of these blog posts below.

• 12 Addiction Treatment Marketing Tactics To Kickstart Rehab Growth
• Google Medic: How to SEO Proof Your Site in the Trust Authority Era
• 30+ ‘Best Month Ever’s’ for an Eating Disorder Treatment Center
• How do People Find Answers to Health Related Questions?
• Healthcare Marketing Research & Survey Results

The post You Are Killing People if You Haven’t Optimized Your Hospital for Local Search! appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.