Hot on
the heels of the latest Penguin update, marketers are scrambling to measure its
effects. Penguin 3.0, the first update since October 4, 2013, completed its
rollout early Monday, October 20. That's right, those who were hit by the last
Penguin update waited more than a year without an update or refresh to see if
their cleanup efforts had done the trick.
As if elusive penguins weren't enough to worry about, marketers
and brands have also had to contend with the finicky new local search algorithm
Pigeon, which launched in July this year. Designed to provide more useful and
relevant local search results, Pigeon brought hundreds of traditional Web
search algorithm factors into play for local search. It also improved on
distance and location ranking parameters.
Late in September, Google also
released the Panda 4.1 update,
affecting 3 to 5 percent of queries – just to keep things interesting.
In the constantly shifting local search landscape, where it can
feel like the targets are forever on the move (and interspersed with furry and
feathered but unfriendly animals), what's a marketer to do?
Pigeon- and Penguin-Proofing Local Search
A year is an awful
long time to wait out an algorithmic penalty – longer than many brands can
afford. Though Google has suggested they'll refresh Penguin more often from
here on, there are no guarantees.
We recently did a
client survey at Rio SEO of the top retailers (those with hundreds of thousands
of visits) and examined search traffic analytics right after the Pigeon update.
What we found was that those with optimized local landing pages saw a 10 to 20
percent increase in traffic to those pages from search and an average of a 20
percent increase in their local positions on SERPs (ie: local map positions,
etc.).
You don't often hear
these stories right after an algorithm update; typically, doom and gloom
stories of the biggest losers plaster the Web. In every algorithm update,
though, those who have prepared and followed best practices rise above when the
biggest losers fall.
If you want to be one
of the former, read on.
Tracking and Measuring the Effects of Algorithmic Changes
Beyond anecdotal
evidence, how can you tell if your site has been impacted (either positively or
negatively) by a Google algorithm update? Accurate tracking, measuring, and
reporting on the key performance indicators (KPIs) that actually matter is key.
These include, but are
not limited to:
o Your rankings on the big search engines
o Rankings in local search
o Citation consistency across the ecosystem
o Traffic from all engines, directories, and
niche sites
o Link activity analytics
o Number of reviews per location
o Average review ratings
You can learn more about each of these and how to use them for
local search success in my last column on defining local SEO KPIs.
Improve Your Local Search Strategy With Best Practices for
Organic and Local Results
Each year, Moz
conducts a survey of industry experts on local search ranking factors. The 2014
survey results were released in September and this year, Moz asked survey
respondents to rate specific factors that contribute to rankings across
pack/carousel and localized organic results. Participants also addressed which
factors have increased or decreased in importance since the introduction of the
Penguin algorithm.
The study points to
critical areas of focus for local marketers. If you need to prioritize your
optimization efforts, start with these areas identified as most impactful by
local search experts (just don't forget to move on to the rest afterward!).
First, experts ranked the influence of eight groups of ranking
factors across the two types of local results: pack/carousel and localized
organic. You can see more on Moz's methodology here.
On-page signals (21 percent)
– the presence of name, address, phone number (NAP); link signals, and external
location signals – ranked most important, according to industry experts.
Looking into the
factors ranked most important for either pack/carousel or localized organic results,
we see different areas of focus that point to opportunities for marketers
struggling in one area of the other:
In localized organic
search results, industry experts rated on-page signals and link signals as of
almost equal importance. Together, they are considered about equally as
influential as all other factors combined.
For pack/carousel
results, however, experts feel on-page signals are far less significant – and
link signals even less so. My business signals – categories, keyword in
business title, proximity, etc. – are considered significantly more important
here than for localized organic results. External location signals like YP and
aggregator NAP consistency and citation volume are also given more weight for
pack/carousel results by industry experts.
Moz identified the top
five localized organic ranking factors as:
1.
City, state, and
landing page in title
2.
Domain authority of
the website
3.
Page authority of the
landing page URL
4.
Quality and authority
of inbound links to the domain
5.
Quality and authority
of inbound links to the landing page URL
Their top five
pack/carousel ranking factors are:
1.
Physical address in
city of search
2.
Proper category
associations
3.
Consistency of
structured citations
4.
Quality/authority of
structured citations
5.
HTML NAP matching My
Business Page NAP
For the full list of Moz's top 50 local ranking factors
segmented by localized organic and pack/carousel and commentary from their
survey experts, see The 2014 Local Search Ranking Factors.