Using Schema Markup to Boost Your Google Rankings

As a marketer or someone involved in SEO, you’ve probably heard of Schema markup, but if you haven’t, it’s okay. While frequently viewed as a relatively new technology to increase search engine rankings and the accessibility and usability of your pages, the markup has actually been around for years. If it’s not currently part of your SEO strategy, now is the time to make a change.

Keep reading to learn more about the basics of schema markup, along with 3 compelling reasons to start using it on your website today.

What is it and How Does it Work?

According to Dan Shewan at WordStream, schema is “a type of microdata that makes it easier for search engines to parse and interpret the information on your webpages more effectively so they can serve relevant results to users based on search queries.”

To make that even simpler, schema markup takes the information that matters most for search engines to find your information, puts it front and center as far as the backend of a website is concerned and serves it up to increase the odds of a website using the markup standing out above a website that does not. It’s wholly designed to increase the ease and effectiveness of search engine crawlers.

Additional information is available on Schema.org, launched in 2011 as a result of the Schema project – a collaboration between multiple large search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo!. The site brings Schema markup to the forefront of website design by providing a large collection of schemas – largely viewed as html tags – that can be used by web designers, developers and average users to improve search engine placement.

Schema works similarly to other markup formats by applying microdata to page content by easily defining – in html terms – exactly what a webpage contains and how it should be treated. It presents data in an easy-to-read format for search engine crawlers and makes it more likely that relevant information will be presented to searchers. It makes the crawlers’ jobs easier and is therefore generally rewarded.

1. Matt Cutts has Been Recommending it For Years.

Matt Cutts – head of Google’s Webspam team, single-handedly responsible for shutting down multiple websites utilizing questionable SEO strategies and other actions – has been recommending schema markup for years. This is big – as someone who has helped to write the technology behind the largest search engine in the world, his words carry weight.

Back in 2012, in a webmaster help video, Cutts shared the following information about schema markup.

“Just because you implement schema.org doesn’t mean you necessarily rank higher. But, there are some corner cases, like if you were to type in ‘lasagna,’ and then click over on the left hand side and click on ‘recipes,’ that’s the sort of thing where using schema.org markup might help, because then you’re more likely to be showing up in that at all.”

While he was reluctant to outright say that it would help rankings, he made it clear that it definitely wouldn’t hurt anything. Coming from one of the top names in Google, these matters.

2. Rich Snippets, Like Those Featured in Google SERPs, Result in Higher CTRs.

Schema markup leads to tangible benefits, including enhanced search engine results pages – SERPs – that stand out among the competition. While these results generally include items like titles and snippets of a full webpage, targeted schema markup can be created to include customer rankings, photos and more.

Yes, visually it’s more appealing, but, it’s also more effective. Information shared by Search Engine Land indicates that rich snippets, listings that include more information than standard search engine listings, can increase click-through rates by 30%. Thirty percent more web traffic can do a lot to take a company to the next level, while looping back and increasing search engine visibility even more. Schema markup allows for this circle and as such, should be a serious consideration for increasing rankings and website effectiveness.

3. Pages with Schema Markup Rank an Average of 4 Positions Higher on Google

A recent study by Searchmetrics revealed that while less than 1 percent of sites on the Internet have implemented Schema markup, those who have done so rank an average of 4 positions higher on Google. That can mean the difference between page 1 and page 2, or being displayed in the top results or being buried, never to be found by searchers and prospective clients.

The study goes on to explain that Google shows results for sites with Schema markup – like those mentioned in reason number 2 – for over 36% of keyword queries, while keywords without markups are shown less frequently.

The bottom line is simple. Schema has been recommended by individuals behind the top search engines in the world and cannot hurt anything, the rich snippets that the practice enables lead to higher click-through rates and those with the markup rank higher in search engine results than sites that do not. Not using the markup – based on these reasons alone – just doesn’t make sense.

If you’re ready to put schema markup to work for your site, or are interested in learning more, check out Schema.org’s getting started guide. The time to start is now.

Local Listing Management Priorities: How & Where to Syndicate Local Data

Multi-location businesses face unique challenges in the management, optimization, and distribution of local business listing information. Accuracy is critical for every business, but those with a number of locations must also master scale.

It's easy to get bogged down in spreadsheets and a hodgepodge of tools. After all, most marketers struggle to see the ROI from local campaigns, so it can be difficult to justify putting budget here to streamline your efforts. You might simply rely on Yext, or have an agency do the work for you.

Looked at on-page validation or SEO factors, local landing page user experience, and local listing management together as components of your blueprint for multi-location brand success. This post will dive deeper into local data syndication – where to focus your efforts, how to do it properly, and scaling your efforts for maximum ROI.

1.Start With the Essentials: Google, Bing, Yahoo

The "big three" are free and account for 94.2 percent of search traffic. This March, 13.1 billion – or 65.5 percent – of the 19.4 billion explicit core searches in the U.S. took place on Google sites. Together, Microsoft (Bing) and Yahoo sites powered another 28.7 percent of searches.

Many major brands focus on Google alone, forgetting about Yahoo and Bing. This is a huge missed opportunity to rank higher through better optimization for these free platforms.

Even worse, incorrect or outdated local business information served up to the 28.7 percent of people who search with Bing or Yahoo can result in poor customer experiences .

2.Focus on Lowest-Cost Data Aggregators: Accuracy, Optimization & Automation

Once you're straight with the Google, Bing, and Yahoo, focus on your lowest cost data aggregators. These are your options less than $99 a year, per location, combined – Infogroup, Acxiom, Localeze, and Factual, among others.

Aggregators are a low-cost solution that can deliver great value, enabling your brand to build hundreds of valuable, relevant backlinks to your local landing pages. They help you offer a better user experience, increase your local presence, and rank higher in local organic search results.

How Can You Get Right With Your Low-Cost Data Aggregators?

Make sure you include and verify as much of the following information as you can:

• Business name
• Address
• Telephone
• Landing Page URL
• Neighborhood Information
• Cities, Areas Served
• Brand Logo and Storefront Images
• Business Description with services (keywords) offered and city you serve
• Categories that match your services (keywords)
• Hours
• Holiday Hours Taglines & Brands Carried (keywords)
• Events
• Social Networks URLs
• Local Map URLs
• Review Site URLs

3.Home in on Your Higher-Cost Local Listings Management Solutions on Popular Networks

 Now it's time to get right with your higher-cost, more niche local listing management solutions on popular networks – Yelp, Yext, Foursquare, Facebook, and others. These are your $299 to $499 per year, per location options.

Social networks have evolved from a place to post cat pictures and chat with your high school friends to a valuable source of information for mobile consumers. Real-time data distributors like Yext and niche directory sites like Yelp, Foursquare, and even Facebook function as social networks, but also act as or power business review sites and house local business listing information.

Automating the process of populating, verifying, and updating your listings on these networks makes this a far less daunting task with a higher quality outcome.

4. Track, Evaluate & Optimize: Tactics for Ongoing Best Practice Management

Alongside the automation of your local listing syndication, look to citation management and ranking tools for ongoing improvements. These will help you track performance, measure increases in ranking and traffic, and more effectively optimize your local listings across the top search engines, data aggregators, and popular networks.

Using citation management and ranking tools increases ranking and traffic, and will you give you the insight and reporting you need to move the needle:

• Bright Local
• Moz Local
• Whitespark
• Chatmeter
• Yext
• Places Scout
• Google Analytics.

Key Takeaways

• Automate, automate, automate! It not only saves you time, but ensures greater accuracy and therefore higher rankings and a better user experience.
• Start with essential free listings and systematically work your way through the above items to get it right. Optimize, measure, and improve on a consistent basis. Get out of the weeds of the niche directories and start with the three major ones for the biggest win.
• Take advantage of the different types of information you can share on various listings solutions; go beyond NAP (name, address, phone number). Connect to your social networks, offer holiday hours and other relevant operational information, add images, etc.

If you're finding yourself drowning in spreadsheets and constantly playing catch-up to keep your local listings up to date and accurate, it's time to implement a smarter, more effective local listings syndication strategy.

Managing all listings from a single CMS reduces your time investment and will help you increase your rankings. This approach will also grow your local presence and ultimately achieve the lowest cost per visitor for your multi-location business.

 

 

How to Increase Engagement and Get More “Good” Links

The more people in your community that are actively commenting on your content, the more likely they are to link to it. There has been a lot of concern about content linking, and whether it is good or not, but if it is done correctly, there is no question that it is beneficial. So, the more active your community, the better audience you build, and all of this stems from good engagement.

Encourage Blog Comments

When you take the time to write good content, you want some feedback, right? Well, the truth is, most people who read an article never leave a comment, and the main reason is that you did not ask. When you write something, encourage a blog comment by asking for the reader’s feedback. Ask questions like, What do you think?, Do you agree? Did I miss something? All of these questions encourage interaction, and that is what you are after, so do not wait for them to respond, ask them to!

Set up your blog page to allow any comments made on the page to go to your social media pages as well. This helps keep content flowing through your social networks, and helps encourage more engagement from your community.If no one is responding to your content, even with your requests, you may need to take it a step further. You can send out emails to everyone on your mailing list, post a tweet, or post a status update with a question linked to the content. Make sure you take it easy on this method though, every time you write something there is no need to spam everyone on your list, otherwise you will just be deleted, and that is not the type of engagement you are looking for.

Use Surveys

You are not going to get any links through a survey, but it does help built community interaction. By creating a quick survey for your community, you can let them know you care about what they have to say, and learn more about what they are interested in. Use the survey as a marketing tool, knowing what they want to talk about, what they care about, and how they like to engage with the content is the key to writing good engaging content.

Use Feedback Questions


In addition to asking for a comment on content you create, ask for feedback. Asking the reader’s opinion is a great way to encourage engagement. Ask what you could have done better, if they know of a way to handle the situation at hand better, or just simple ask if they liked what they just read.

Positive feedback is great, but you learn more from your negative feedback. Feedback is a great tool to use for email campaigns. If you have several people opting out of your newsletter, knowing why would be very beneficial, right? So, you may want to add a quick feedback app to your unsubscribe button, so when they leave, they are asked why. If you see that 100 people unsubscribed due to the overwhelming amount of email they were receiving, you know to tone it down. Without that feedback, you would never know that you were driving your subscribers crazy, and you may actually start sending out more emails in fear of losing more….and that would certainly make sure you did.

The main goal for any feedback you receive is to learn from it. You may not necessarily want negative feedback in your comments section, but you do want it, so have a separate section where users can enter their answers in a private format that only you see.
 
Create Relevant Inbound Links

This topic has had some heated attention lately, and many web site owners have been leery of having their content linked on other sites, but there is no need to stress, as long as you do it right. Make sure you create content that is relevant to the site it is linked on, NEVER link your content to a site just because you can, have a good reason to place it there. You want your inbound links to bring you traffic, so the ones you create on your own, be very, very meticulous where they go.

Use Internal Links 



Using internal links throughout your site helps keep users engaged, and keeps them on your site. A well-organized web site that offers related content and relevant topics for the reader after each article is more likely to keep a reader on their page than one that does not use internal linking. Make sure you actually link to related and relevant content though, just having random links to your other pages can cause confusion, appear unorganized and sloppy, and lose the traffic you worked so hard to gain.

4 Changes Google Is Making And How They Affect Content Creation

SEO experts and webmasters spend a lot of time worrying about Google algorithm changes. In 2013, the search engine giant tweaked the algorithm 15 times, and in 2012, it was updated 37 times.

Worrying about algorithm updates may make sense for SEO experts and webmasters, but content creators don’t have time to keep up with that. Here are some major changes Google has made and how they apply to content:

Move to Secure Organic Searches:
This means that you can no longer mine Google Analytics for keyword data, leaving website owners in the dark about what word searches were used to find or stumble upon their site. Remember when that “Not Provided” section first appeared? This percentage of search data has been growing since 2010, and on September 23, 2013, Google finally shut off all information.

This is a blow to those still focused on keyword bombing and density rates; however, those who create quality, creative, and helpful content should see this as reaffirming. Google is giving those trying to game the system less firing power. Instead of focusing on keywords, pay attention to user actions on your site.

A Nonexistent Update to PageRank:
PageRank is a ranking of how many links your site has pointing back to it. Links essentially work as votes, raising your credibility and showcasing your site as high-quality. The problem? Google hasn’t updated the PageRank meter since early 2013, and there isn’t a clear idea of when — or even if — it will be fixed.

If you’re still focused on getting links from sites with a high PageRank, you can stop — immediately. While there might still be some value, the main idea is that Google doesn’t want to emphasize page ranking. Instead, you should be focused on driving traffic, converting visitors, and becoming an authority within your own niche.

The Hummingbird Conversation:
One of the more recent updates to the Google algorithm is Hummingbird, which was released in September 2013.

Google wants to understand conversations, concepts, and relationships. In voice searches, for example, you can ask, “Where is Miley Cyrus from?” After the answer is delivered, you can follow up with, “How old is she?”

Hummingbird is still evolving and doesn’t always work, but Google is putting serious effort into making search more conversational and less keyword-focused.

Google Authorship for Ranking:
It’s still not very apparent how Google Authorship — or the still unconfirmed Author Rank — will affect searches. Experts predict that Google will use your author profile to determine your credibility, expertise, and authority on a subject in order to determine the quality (and therefore ranking) of your content.

In his recent book, “The New Digital Age,” Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt wrote, “Within search results, information tied to verified online profiles will be ranked higher than content without such verification, which will result in most users naturally clicking on the top (verified) results. The true cost of remaining anonymous, then, might be irrelevance.”

Google could also use your social profile to gauge how many shares an article has, your individual following, and the authority of the site you’re publishing on. If you’re consistently publishing quality content on authority sites that relate to your niche, Google may rank your article higher than articles not associated with an author.

Google Algorithm and Content Creators:
Ultimately, the key to Google’s algorithm changes lies in its guidelines for content creation:

Content is key. Good content — clear, concise, informative — is better than bad content.

Use plain English. Write for real people.

Keep links to a reasonable number. Make your content readable.

Really, it all goes back to one idea: Create quality content, and you won’t have to worry about it riding the Google update rollercoaster.

Google Dispels Top 10 “Myths” Associated With Google Glass

Google took to the Google+ page of Google Glass yesterday in an attempt to dispel the top 10 “myths” associated with the product. They claim Glass has seen several myths develop around it in its relatively short existence, and Google would like to clear the air.

The 10 myths are as follows:

Myth 1 – Glass is the ultimate distraction from the real world
Google’s explanation: Unlike a phone or tablet, Google says Glass allows users to better engage with the real world. It’s an enhancement to the real world, rather than a distraction.

Myth 2:  Glass is always on and recording everything
Google’s explanation: Glass is off by default and isn’t even capable of always-on recording. The battery won’t last more than 45 minutes before needing to be charged.

Myth 3 – Glass Explorers are technology-worshipping geeks
Google’s explanation: Glass users are made up of people from all walks of life who “see the potential for people to use technology in a way that helps them engage more with the world around them.”

Myth 4 – Glass is ready for prime time
Google’s explanation: Glass is a prototype, and early adopters  are playing a critical role in how it’s developed.

Myth 5: Glass does facial recognition (and other dodgy things)
Google’s explanation: Google says that’s not true, they have made the decision based on feedback not to release or even distribute facial recognition Glassware.

Myth 6: Glass covers your eye(s)
Google’s explanation: The Glass screen is deliberately above the right eye, not in front or over it. Google claims it was designed this way because they understand the importance of making eye contact.

Myth 7 – Glass is the perfect surveillance device
Google’s explanation:  Google says there are better and more discreet options out there for secretly recording people, if that’s what one wishes to do.

Myth 8 – Glass is only for those privileged enough to afford it
Google’s explanation: Google understands the $1500 price tag is out of the range of many people, but says the people who have it aren’t necessarily wealthy and entitled. Some people have either had it paid for through work, raised money to purchase one, or received one as a gift.

Myth 9 – Glass is banned… EVERYWHERE
Google’s explanation: Google says since Glass functionality mirrors the cell phones, it’s understandable that the same rules apply, such as bans where someone can record.

Myth 10 – Glass marks the end of privacy
Google’s explanation: Google says more cameras doesn’t necessarily equal less privacy. They suggest looking at YouTube to see examples of the kinds of footage being shared since cameras became so ubiquitous.

8 Tips for a Solid Digital Marketing Strategy

1.Review History:

Try to look at both qualitative and quantitative data as much as possible as opposed to relying on your own personal feelings about a strategy; your favorite approach may not have been the one that connected with customers.

2.Define Goals:

This is the most important aspect of digital marketing: your strategy and goals must align with your business goals. As obvious as this may seem, it can be all too easy to get caught up in an exciting marketing plan that looks flashy but does little to actually grow your business.Use numbers, dates, percentages and monetary signs to map out the growth you want to see.

3.Understand your Audience:

Understand your demographics and whether you are largely marketing to a homogenous group or if your customers can be divided into several different homogenous groups. You can gather demographic information through surveys and tracking tools.

4.Plan your Content:

Start with brainstorming. See what the competition is up to. Don't reject anything at the stage of generating ideas. Some experts advise using an editorial calendar like journalists do in order to take advantage of important dates although it's best to plan your content only a few months ahead.

5.Consider your Channels:

You will deliver content differently and to different audiences depending on the platforms that you choose although most businesses will benefit from using a mix of digital media.Photographs, podcasts, videos and infographics are just a few ways to keep variety in your content. Don't forget tried and tested techniques like email newsletters as well.

6.Plan for Mobile:

Looking ahead, a strong mobile strategy is essential. Be sure your website is optimized for viewing on screens of different sizes. Consider whether you can develop any apps that will be helpful for your business. Explore opt-in SMS and text message marketing.

7.Set up a Google+ Business Account:

This has also become essential for businesses because it is so important to your search rankings. Even if you are not very active on the platform, post updates there so they will appear instantly in Google searches.

8.Measuring with Analytics:

Learn your way around Google analytics and other analytics tools that show you how you are doing relative to the goals that you have set. Set up a custom dashboard of metrics and KPI’s. Keep a close watch on results in connection with weekly and monthly goals and make adjustments accordingly.

Digital marketing brings unique challenges and opportunities to businesses. Effective planning is key. With an understanding of the audience and a consistent message, your digital marketing strategy can align with your company's goals
 

6 Google+ Tools to Improve Your Marketing

1.Take Advantage of the YouTube Integration:

If you have a YouTube channel but haven’t taken advantage of its relationship with Google+, you need to. Whether you’ve already established yourself on YouTube (or Google+), you’ll reach a wider audience when you use them in conjunction. Take advantage of the integration!

2. Increase Your Reach:

Webinars are a powerful tool for building email lists and a loyal audience. Unfortunately, webinar software can be clunky and expensive. Google+ has an easy alternative.Hangouts On Air provides a free video broadcasting service that lets you stream a live feed to your YouTube channel for recording, and of course is completely integrated with Google+.

3. Keep the Conversation Going:

With Google Drive, Google’s cloud-based file management and storage service, you can share an incredible amount of information with your Google+ audience, including presentation slideshows, PDFs and even password-protected documents.

4.Store Your Pictures:

How are you backing up the pictures from your phone? Did you know you can use Google+ to store your pictures for safekeeping? Google+ is a reliable way to store your pictures, and then delete them from your phone.Once uploaded, you can highlight the important pictures, enhance them so they look better or create image galleries—and easily share all of them.

5.Extend the Life of Your Content:

Google+ Embedded Posts is a cool feature that lets you share your Google+ posts on your blog.The benefits of embedded posts are twofold. First, post content created within Google+ is eventually lost within the news stream. Embedding that same post on your blog extends the life of the content.

6. Use Relevant Hashtags:

Just like Twitter and Instagram (and unlike Facebook), hashtags can have a notable impact on reaching a targeted audience on Google+. The Explore feature uses hashtags to help Google+ users quickly find and interact with topics they’re interested in.