Google Place Search: Emphasizing on Local Businesses

The next time you search anything by name and place then do not be surprised if Google presents a combination of local and organic listings. This new version of search is known as “Place Search”. It will prioritize the results of local businesses if the person queries for anything based on location.

The new results will have longer description and it will also have reviews. The map will scroll upwards or downwards in sync with the user’s upward or downward movements. The “Place Search” will result in escalating the competition for local rankings. Earlier, if business listing could not find its place in the sevens results for local searches, i.e. in the Google’s Seven Pack for the local results then also a relevant query led the business’ listing to rank in the Web Results around the map. So what could not be achieved through map SEO was easily achievable through web SEO.

This would imply that non-local organic listings will be pushed down the page. Businesses that had the map listings and also showed in organic searches will now find booth these listings combined into one. This also implies that websites not having a local address would now be pushed down in the search results.

Now, this asks for some change in the strategies and extra works for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) professionals. First, they will have to focus on the extensions of the websites like .com .ca .co.uk .co.in etc. Secondly, they will have to focus on information in the “contact us” page of the website and in the footer.

The “Place Search” is all slated to give tough times to the current competitors like Yelp, CitySearch and other local directories and provide users with a refined local result.

Google’s Advice for Getting Front Rankings in Organic Searches

Google has recently launched a book called “SEO Starter Guide” to help the webmasters understand the exact requirements for good ranking in its search research results. It comes straight from Google, so you might jump at the thought of getting a magic wand for good ranking. But it is not like that, all you get to know are some practices that can help your website to get good rankings. So, there is nothing called “secrets revealed” with this book, but since it comes from Google and everything is presented in a very simple way so you can read it and benefit from the enhanced knowledge.

You can perform certain tweaks and webmasters can also learn few things that work and few which don’t. You can find a detailed discussion of the following things and implementing them will definitely yield good results.

• Focus on creation of the page titles that are unique, relevant and accurate.
• Use the “description” Meta tags in clear and effective manner.
• The URLs of the site must be improved.
• Navigation of the site should be made easy and hassle free.
• Do not compromise with the quality of content and services.
• Anchor text should be given due importance while writing.
• Images should also be optimized.
• Use the Heading tags in appropriate manner.
• Robot.txt should be utilized carefully.
• “rel=nofollow” links should always be utilized in an efficient and non redundant manner.
  

There are tips and suggestions for the promotion of sites on mobile phones. Lastly, you must always rely on honest and sustained promotion for your website.

Is Your SEO Strategy Missing “Bing”

There is no doubt that, with a share of 65% of the global searches, Google reigns supreme in the Search Engine business. And naturally, many businesses are targeting Google only. But, what about 35% of the remaining searches? Are you focusing on them? It is seen that most SEO strategies focus around Google but a good and comprehensive strategy would be to include a rapidly growing search engine from Microsoft viz. Bing.

It has been observed that almost 47% of the businesses do not focus on optimizing on Bing or Yahoo! and hence, they are losing out significant traffic. Recent times have also seen a tie-up between Yahoo and Bing and hence the combined duo is at the second position. So, it makes logic to include the No. 2 in SEO strategy. In the current circumstances where Google is finding it hard to maintain the share of 65%, Bing, with its current share of 14%, is rising slowly. The noticeable part about “Bing” is that it is on the rise. Though the rise is not steep to be noticed, still it is on the move and in coming years it is slated to become strategically important.

It is good and even important to promote your site focusing on Google but do not undermine Bing for a successful and inclusive SEO. After all, SEO is all about smart moves to promote your business and smart moves you must make.