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A Look at Local SEO Changes

Posted by: Omaha SEO Company , April 8, 2015
Posted in SEO | Tags: Local SEO | | 453 Views

A Look at Local SEO Changes

If you stop to think about how far Google has progressed in the past 15 years, you will likely agree that it is nothing short of amazing. Just 15 years ago Google was little more than a directory of sites. When you use Google today, the beginnings or your search are met with suggested searches, pulled from the behavior of millions of users. Google has progressed an equal amount with local searches and considering the growing prevalence of local search, it is a good thing they have.

The recent announcement of giving preference to mobile friendly sites is one that many of you should have seen coming a few years ago. A study conducted in 2012 revealed that over 40 percent of the queries mobile users are local based. That number has only grown since then.

A Look at Local SEO Changes

In order to provide the best user experience, Google makes between 500 and 600 algorithmic changes every year. While most of these changes are subtle and will have little effect in the way you rank, some of the changes made by Google are large enough to shake the foundation of local SEO to the core. Here are some of the big changes made by Google in the past few years.

1.GOOGLE MY BUSINESS

This tool actually started out as Google Places, which was part of the Google+ program. 2012 brought about the Google+ Local Business. A few years later, we now have Google My Business. For local business owners, this set of tools serves as a one-stop shop where they can look at what is happening in the local landscape, update their business information, make proper use of photos, and receive reviews.

For the local SEO marketer, this tool is a goldmine because it becomes very easy to manage your visibility and boost your rankings if you are paired up against other businesses whose SEO is not as good as yours is. Chief among the tools on this platform is Google analytics, a tool that helps you track the process of managing your marketing campaigns in an instant. Google My Business now also provides notifications when someone leaves a review about your business. This allows you to respond quickly and engage with clients more efficiently. Throw in AdWords Express and you are a moving target, monitoring campaigns from any point with your smartphone or tablet.

2. CAROUSEL

This feature was launched in 2013, when Google started using images as a prominent search component. It started at the desktop and the resources were impressive. Those business owners who used high-resolution images received more attention from users and were therefore able to attract more visitors to their site. Later, Google, moving toward its mobile leanings, started inching closer toward mobile-targeted formats, effectively dealing Carousel a deathblow. However, this feature has moved on, with Bing showing a lot of preference to it in the final months of 2014. The three pack which Google used to replace Carousel could see some areas in local SEO suffering lower volumes of traffic, while local businesses using general business SEO and PPC will fare well.

3. PIGEON

Local SEO gurus believe that this update was essentially a better rendition of the  Venice Update which was one of the major changes of 2012, where Google choose to prioritize local organic results over global results. This made it far easier for local businesses to generate traffic without having to worry about global results coming up before them in searches that were supposedly giving region-based results. What pigeon did in 2014 is what Venice was supposed to have accomplished two years prior. At this point, local directories are be favored by Google, such that their results are coming up ahead of others. This change has benefitted those running startups and small companies while bigger companies have suffered as their results decreased. While traffic to insurance, job, and movie sites decreased, those in education, food and hospitality have seen increased traffic across the board.

These major changes in the way local SEO works have had a major impact in optimization at the local level, with some ranking factors decreasing in important while others increased in their pull. Factors whose importance increased include:

  • authority of URLs of landing pages
  • domain authority of a website
  • click-through rates emanating from specific search results
  • importance of inbound links to a particular domain
  • presence of a city or state in the title of the landing page as seen by the end user
  • quality of inbound links to the url of the landing pages
  • authority and authenticity of structured citations in a website
  • specific physical address of a particular business in the city the users are searching from
  • factors in local SEO that have taken a hit from these updates include:
  • proper category association
  • nearness of a location to centroid
  • business pages that have been individually verified
  • keywords that have a geographical edge in the url of a website
  • amount of structured citations
  • location of a keyword in the title of the business of the title modifier

In addition to these changes, Google released two new updates in 2015. Both of these have leaned heavily toward mobile, where sites had to increase the mobile responsiveness of their sites as the search giant made a final push toward high-level mobile functionality.

Local SEO

Local SEO has always been a huge focus of Google’s, and the near future is going to see even more changes than the past has. While this area of optimization keeps changing, the fundamentals of good SEO are not changing. You need to have a well-optimized site that loads quickly from any device and provides users with the useful and timely content.

Omaha SEO Company

We are premier internet marketing company providing:

  • Omaha SEO services
  • Website Design
  • Local SEO
  • Email Marketing
  • Social Media Marketing
  • And More

Our goal is to continually over-deliver to each and every client we work with. We are a team of SEO experts, web design wizards, social media master-minds, and online reputation management specialists. With over 10 years of experience we have developed a system that insures the success of our clients.

Our SEO agency is here to ensure your website is ranking high. Our goal is top position. Exactly where the best most qualified traffic is. Give us a call for your FREE Consultation.

 

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Omaha SEO Company Reviews

Omaha SEO Company
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Jared Mertz
Jared Mertz
13:58 16 Dec 19
Omaha SEO company does an excellent job, and the team is great. Their response time is quick, any requests are taken care of immediately, and the service is unbeatable. Thank you!
Ash H
Ash H
13:54 09 Dec 19
My husband and myself were looking for a company to not only build our website, but also attract people to it. Nabil and all Omaha SEO staff were beyond amazing and exceeded our expectations in every way. I am so grateful for their guidance throughout this whole process and I recommend them ten times over!
Kevin Blackmon
Kevin Blackmon
17:10 01 Dec 19
I had them to create my “Save the Date” announcements, I worked with the Graphic Designer, gave them what I was picturing and they took the concept I had in mind and made it better than I could have imagined. The turnaround was speedy. I highly recommend this company, very professional and customer oriented.
Arik Solberg
Arik Solberg
20:39 26 Nov 19
At the start of the year I had decided to invest in a company to help me grow my landscaping business and reach a new market here in Colorado. Omaha SEO Company was the right choice and I began seeing results right off the bat. Their team started by stream lining my website and making sure all my internet search information appeared correctly and professionally. I was even given help designing my logo, which I absolutely love! Ive since recieved quality leads increasing my business this season. I couldnt be happier being backed by their aid/support, and I look forward to growth in 2020!
Larissa Carlson
Larissa Carlson
17:40 22 Nov 19
We love supporting local, small businesses as we are one as well. Omaha SEO did our new website. Nabil was very quick to respond during the process and completed our project in a timely fashion at a fare price.
Carl Jarl Locksmiths
Carl Jarl Locksmiths
20:59 18 Oct 19
We've had a great experience with Omaha SEO Company these past few months. Partnering with these guys was the right way to go. Thanks Omaha SEO Company for your expertise and hard work.
Tonya Boeckenhauer
Tonya Boeckenhauer
16:35 09 Oct 19
Omaha SEO is so professional and totally on top of everything. They are super knowledgeable and are definitely the best I’ve ever worked with!
Phil Labadie
Phil Labadie
22:10 26 Sep 19
Omaha SEO Company Gets FIVE STARS!We have been working with Nabil and Omaha SEO Company for the past five months. When we first started with Omaha SEO, our Company, Visiting Angels was down around the 20th position on Google Search. In just three months Omaha SEO Company has us in 3rd ranking and we are still climbing. This is remarkable considering how competitive the Non-Medical Homecare space is in Omaha. This has also had a direct positive impact on new business for us over these past several months. Nabil is great to work with and truly cares about our business and our success, making sure we are doing the right things to keep us at the top!
Bob Fritz
Bob Fritz
16:07 28 Aug 19
Most SEO companies over promise and under deliver. Nabil and his team have knocked it out of the park and have been so good to work with. Personable, knowledgeable, prompt, and accountable. We feel we have a partner in our business to drive growth. Leads have increased and we made some operational changes to ensure the phones were being answered for a winning combo.
Robert Kraft
Robert Kraft
20:00 27 Aug 19
I had worked with Omaha SEO and felt that they were doing a lot of work for me and we still were not getting results like I wanted in a very competitive market. We tried some different ways to look at what was happening and then he got an idea. We tried it for a couple of weeks, and the phone rang almost every day. After a couple of weeks, "crickets" again. We knew what was made the difference--his idea worked. He kept working until I got results that brought clients to my door. I am very grateful for his professionalism and tenacity. It paid off.
Susan Mortensen
Susan Mortensen
16:21 16 Aug 19
They did an AMAZING job redesigning our website and our FB pages get far more interactions than before! Love their work and they are ALWAYS on top of things when we request something!! Definitely recommend!
Ryan Ross
Ryan Ross
14:08 27 Apr 19
Just wanted to say thank you to you and your team for all you are doing for us. We definitely feel like we hit a home run by going with OMAHA SEO! Nothing but a positive experience! Almost immediate feedback and responsiveness! Keep doing what you’re doing!!!! Ryan R.
Julie Fowler
Julie Fowler
19:39 05 Feb 19
We recently partnered with Omaha SEO Company for marketing for our small business. He has delivered as promised and at affordable rates for a small company.
Charles Farley
Charles Farley
19:58 07 Dec 18
Omaha SEO company was the right choice for Advanced Dermatology of the Midlands. The team is the best and Nabil is a talented straight-shooter. It is a pleasure to work with them.
Legacy School
Legacy School
14:35 02 Nov 18
Omaha SEO company has helped our school tremendously! They are timely in their responses to any questions we have, give us quality feedback, and have increased our web presence through SEO. Thank you Omaha SEO company.
Kathleen Cavanaugh
Kathleen Cavanaugh
23:35 07 Sep 18
Nabil helped me update my 10 year old business website. He listened to my concerns, made suggestions and was very responsive in applying the updates. I wholeheartedly recommend Omaha SEO Company.
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