General Articles

But what happens when you’ve created what you thought to be a perfect landing page, yet somehow it’s not ranking nearly as high as you thought it would?

To most SEO’s, the answer is obvious: it needs more links.

…Or does it?

Today I’m going to explain how I moved a city page from the second page of Google, all the way to the top 5 results without links (hint: it has to do with content).

How I Moved A City Page From Page 2 to The ‘Top 5’ Without Links

The Situation

Before I spill the beans, let me quickly explain the situation, and what my goal was.

One day, I was looking through All American Locksmith’s Search Console property for “opportunity keywords:” high-value, 2nd page terms with lots of impressions. I quickly set my sights on “locksmith norwalk ct.”

The Norwalk city page was ranking at the top of page 2 for that term, and it was generating tons of impressions, so I quickly knew that I had found the perfect candidate to try my experiment on.

What I Did

For reference, the Norwalk page used to be very similar to the other city pages. Check out the North Branford page: https://www.allamericanlocksmiths.net/coverage/new-haven-county/north-branford/

Something had to change. But what? Here’s what I did…

• Removed all redundant instances of “Norwalk” from the H2’s
• Revamped the “more about Norwalk” section. I’ve heard a lot of SEO’s talk about mentioning specific landmarks in the copy, so I decided to give it a try:

Now most people might view this as spammy, and I agree to an extent; however, in a world where clients rarely give us original, local imagery or content, we have to do what we can to improve their rankings.

We recognized that this irrelevant block of text about popular Norwalk attractions is not ideal for the user; that’s why we added some padding around it. This way users know to scroll past.

The result?

So there you have it. Sometimes fresh content can do the trick, even if it’s not super useful to the user.

If you would like to know more about how we can improve your site’s local SEO, then contact us today!

If you want help putting this into practice, our link building services are a good place to start.

The post How to Improve the SEO of City Pages Without Links appeared first on Keyword Performance.

SEO Tips for Restaurants, Step 1: Get Your Google Business Profile Right

For local searches, your Google Business Profile is the most important listing you have. Think of it as a second homepage. It is often the first thing a hungry searcher sees, so it needs to answer their questions before they ever visit your website.

Fill In Everything Google Asks For

Start with the basics: your restaurant name, address and phone number, your hours, your cuisine or restaurant type (pizza, Thai, steakhouse), a link to your menu, and a short description of what makes you different. Add links for ordering and reservations if you offer them. Then keep your hours current, including holidays. A listing that shows the wrong hours sends customers to a competitor, and it costs you reviews when people show up to a closed door.

Add Photos, Videos and Posts

People choose restaurants with their eyes. Upload clear photos of your best dishes, your dining room, your bar, your outdoor seating and your storefront so people can recognize it when they arrive. Photos also answer questions before anyone asks them. Can I sit down? Is it casual or dressy? Is there parking nearby? Add short videos when you have something worth showing, and use posts to promote specials, events and seasonal menus.

Answer your reviews, good and bad, in a friendly and professional tone. Reviews are a major factor in local rankings and in whether someone picks you.

2. Keep Your Business Details Consistent Everywhere

A citation is any mention of your business name, address and phone number (NAP) on another site. Search engines compare these details across the web to decide whether your listing can be trusted. If your name, address or phone number differs from site to site, you create doubt. It is the same as one menu listing a steak at one price and another listing it at a different price. Customers start asking questions, and so do search engines.

The Listings That Matter For Restaurants

You do not need hundreds of listings. Focus on the ones people actually use: Google Business Profile, Apple Business Connect, Bing Places, Facebook, Yelp and TripAdvisor. If you take reservations, add OpenTable or whichever platform you use. If you deliver, make sure your DoorDash, Uber Eats or Grubhub profiles are accurate and complete. Fill these profiles out fully, with photos and your menu, because they can bring in customers directly.

Find and Fix Duplicate Listings

Duplicates make it harder for search engines to decide which listing is the real one. To find them, run a quick NAP audit. Make a simple spreadsheet with one row per site and columns for the listing URL, name, address, phone number and website. Then search Google for your restaurant name along with the site name, for example “yelp your restaurant name.” Check any old addresses or phone numbers you have used too, since those are where duplicates tend to hide.

If you find a duplicate, claim it and ask for it to be merged or removed. Many sites, including Google, have a “suggest an edit” option for this.

3. Write Title Tags and Descriptions People Want to Click

The title tag is the clickable headline for each page in search results, and the meta description is the short text under it. Neither one makes your food better, but both decide whether someone clicks your result or the one below it.

Good restaurant titles say what you are and where you are. Compare “Home” with “Wood-Fired Pizza in Hartford | Dine-In, Takeout and Delivery.” The second one tells searchers right away that you match what they typed. Use the words your customers use. Start typing your cuisine and city into Google and see what it suggests, and check the “People also ask” box for the questions people raise before they choose a place to eat.

Keep titles short enough that they are not cut off. Around 55 to 60 characters usually works, and your SEO plugin will show you a preview of how the result will look. Write a different title and description for every page, including your menu, catering and private event pages.

4. Add Schema Markup

Schema is code that tells search engines what your content means, not just what it says. For a restaurant, it can tell Google your name, address, phone number, hours, cuisine, price range, menu link and reservation link in a format it can read easily. It is not a direct ranking factor, but it helps search engines understand your pages and can make you eligible for richer results.

Many people avoid schema because it looks like code. You do not have to write it by hand. A tool like Merkle’s Schema Markup Generator builds it for you. Choose the Local Business type, then pick Restaurant, and fill in the fields. Before you publish, check it with Google’s Rich Results Test or the Schema Markup Validator.

On WordPress, the safest way to install it is an SEO plugin that supports local business schema, or a header and footer snippet plugin. Avoid editing theme files like header.php directly, because a theme update can overwrite your changes. Once it is live, run your homepage through the Rich Results Test again to confirm it is detected.

One More Thing: Put Your Menu On the Page

Many restaurants upload their menu as a PDF or a photo. Search engines and screen readers cannot always read those well, and they are hard to use on a phone. Put your menu on a page as real text, with dish names and short descriptions. It gives you something to rank for, and it makes it easy for hungry visitors to see what you offer.

If you want help with any of this, take a look at our local SEO services. If you are a restaurant owner in Connecticut, drop us a line. We are always glad to help businesses in our own backyard.

The post 4 Powerful SEO Tips for Restaurants appeared first on Keyword Performance.

“Understanding the intent behind the keywords you target simplifies the entire SEO process,” wrote Search Engine Land contributor Marcus Miller. “Trying to rank content where the intent of your message is different to the intent of the search term is doomed to failure.”

Instead he advises, “Creating content that ranks well and converts users requires a crystal-clear understanding of what the searcher is looking for. By simply searching for the terms we want to target and reviewing what content ranks well, we can identify what type of content we should be creating.”

An Understanding of Searcher Intent Starts With Three Categories

In general, there are three types of search intent: informational, navigational and transactional. Let’s take a closer look at those:

Informational intent. This is simply web surfers looking for information about a subject, whether it’s the weather, advice about child-rearing, recipe suggestions or what’s involved in ripping up and replacing old kitchen tiles. Informational searchers are looking to educate themselves on a topic before they take any concrete actions.

Navigational intent. Web surfers with navigational intent are trying to get to a specific website for whatever reason. They might be looking for a specific social media site or seeking information on a store’s hours, for example.

Transactional intent. The third major type of search intent is transactional intent. This is a web searcher looking to do something specific: make a purchase, submit an application or pay a bill. These individuals may also browse a little between sites to find the best deal, but the end goal is to complete a transaction.

The Intent May Lie in the Keywords

So how do you customize your SEO by determining search intent? The clues lie in the words people use in their searches. If browsers are using words like “buy,” “deal” or “discount,” or naming specific products, they are probably transactional searchers. Searchers using words like “information,” “how to” and “best way to” probably have informational intent. Navigational searchers will search by website name.

Optimizing the Content for Search Intent

The next step is to make sure your landing pages fit search intent. If web surfers are doing research and searching for information, you don’t want to put them off by flashing them a product page (not yet, anyway). You might scare them away. On the flip side, if searchers want are looking to buy your product, you don’t want to bore them with hypotheticals and long articles. Instead, your goal should be to present your products and services in an accessible way.

If you’re having trouble determining searcher intent, you should consider asking your audience a short pop-up survey. Keep it short and simple, though…your searchers will become annoyed with anything that takes more than a few clicks.

SEO continues to change along with market shifts. As more and more web surfers use their voice to conduct search, it’s also changing the way keywords and targeting works.

In need of SEO Consulting? Keyword Performance offers expert services that take into account the specific needs of each client. We work closely with clients to learn what it makes their business unique, and what is needed to be successful on the Internet, and show you how to get there.

Contact us today!

The post For Better SEO, Gain An Understanding of Searcher Intent appeared first on Keyword Performance.

It may be the fact that Americans are increasingly using their mobile devices to interact with companies, but those companies are still designing Web pages that are optimized for viewing on a desktop computer.

If your site isn’t mobile friendly and doesn’t load within seconds, potential customers are going to move on.

The Mobile User Experience: Three Seconds. Seriously. Three Seconds

A study conducted by Google entitled “The Need for Mobile Speed” found that 53 percent of mobile site visits are abandoned if pages take longer than three seconds to load. Unfortunately, average page view loading time is closer to 19 seconds. That’s a lot of would-be customers logging off and looking for something speedier.

The same study found that mobile sites that load in five seconds earn up to twice as much mobile ad revenue than those sites that took the average of 19 seconds to load. Another study by Aberdeen Group found that even a one-second delay in page-load time causes a drop in page views (11 percent), conversions (7 percent), and customer satisfaction (16 percent).

Simply put, a speedy mobile website leads to more revenue.

It’s Not Just About Speed, It’s About SEO Ranking

We’ve known that faster-loading pages rank higher on Google since 2010. The issue is about to become more urgent, however. Back in January, Google announced a new SEO ranking algorithm designed for mobile search. This “Speed Update,” which will significantly penalize slow-loading pages in SEO rankings, will go live in July 2018. Google has recommended that companies make use of its user experience tools to test their existing websites and apps for mobile usability.

A Single Test May Not Be Giving You the Full Picture

So you tested your website or your app, and it loaded in six seconds. No sweat, right? In reality, according to Google’s Philip Walton, your speed may not be your site’s real speed.

“Load times vary dramatically from user to user, depending on their device capabilities and network conditions,” he wrote. “Presenting load times as a single number ignores the users who experienced much longer loads. In reality, your app’s load time is the collection of all load times from every individual user.”

For this reason, you need a variety of metrics to measure the real performance of your mobile experience when it comes to SEO. You also need the expertise to interpret them and take action on them. Also, the hosting provider and technology you choose can have a significant effect on your page load times.

Responsive Web Design

Responsive design means creating an experience for optimal viewing of your site on any platform, including mobile phones, tablets and PCs. This formatting allows for proper display, easier reading and short loading times for the end user.

Keyword Performance can build you a new site – or fix the one you already have – to ensure that your website is an optimal tool for developing your brand.

Visit our website or call (203) 284-1929 for a consultation.

Our technical SEO services cover page speed and mobile performance. Our web design services build fast, mobile-friendly sites from the start.

To see the full list of tasks, read what website maintenance includes.

Redesigning a website goes more smoothly when search and design are planned together from the start. Steady WordPress website maintenance keeps your site fast, secure and easier to rank. Clear website pricing should spell out pages, design, content and what happens after launch.

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