What is Authoritative Google Map Citations for local SEO

When You Search for Something on Google Even Generic Search Queries, Google Frequently Triggers Map-Driven Local Business Listings, Delivering Users a Selection of the Most Relevant Local Businesses, While Dominating the Coveted First Page of Search Engine Results.

You May Find That Your Business Doesn’t Show Up for Relevant Searches in Your Area. to Maximize How Often Users Find Your Business in Local Search Results, Ensure That Your Business Information in Google My Business Is Accurate, Complete, and Engaging.

These Days, Your Consumers Are Going Online to Find You. Local Search Engine Optimization Is Simply One of the Ways to Position Yourself to Generate More Leads from the Internet.

With Authoritative Google Map Citations, Your Business Listings Stand a Fighting Chance. 

Your Business Citations Typically Appear in Directories and Other Website Resources That Search Engines Use to Determine the Accuracy and Relevance of Your Business Location. the Most Authoritative Google Map Citations for Local Seo Are Those That Are Consistent with Your Google Business Page.

How Does a Citation Affect Your Search Engine Rankings?

Citations Help Internet Users to Discover Local Businesses and Can Also Impact Local Search Engine Rankings. Local Businesses Can Actively Manage Many Citations to Ensure Data Accuracy. 

The Most Authoritative Google Map Citations for Local Seo Are Those That Are Consistent with Your Google Business Page. the Way You Publish Your Business Name, Address, and Phone Number (Nap) on External Websites and Directories Should Be an Exact Match to the Nap on Your Google Business Page. Listen to Our Recent Podcasts on Citation Distribution.

Where Can I Find a Local Business Citation?

as I Already Mentioned, a Local Citation Is Any Online Mention of the Name, Address, and Phone Number of a Local Business. Citations Can Occur on Local Business Directories, on Websites and Apps, and on Social Platforms. Citations Help Internet Users to Discover Local Businesses and Can Also Impact Local Search Engine Rankings.

What About Local Business Directories?

There Are Many Prominent Local Business Directories Online, with Business Citation Opportunities You Do Not Want to Miss. in Fact, There Are Over 200 Local Online Business Directories Offering Free Listings to Your Business. Adding Your Business to These Online Directories Is Certain to Improve Both Local and Organic Search Results, and Is Highly Recommended.

I've Accumulated Years of Local Business Citation Building Experience for Various Countries Included but Not Limited to the USA, Canada, Uk, & Australia.

I Create a Local Business Directory Listing with Consistent Nap and Full Business Information Without Any Error. I Create Citations Manually and Personally So Your or Your Client's Information Is Fully Secured.

You Can Find My Citations Gig on Fiverr: Do 100 prominent local citations for google maps seo by Freshcitation | Fiverr

and on Upwork: Google Maps Citations for GMB ranking and Local SEO

Hope to Work with You Soon and Give You My Level of Best Service.

Sincerely

Sohel Parvez

Contact Me on Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/fl/sohelparvez

See My Fiver Gig: https://www.fiverr.com/freshcitation

Let’s Say Goodbye to the Google Old Search Console

After over two years since the new version of the Google Search Console has come out, Google has finally removed access to the old version.

Google's Old & New Search Console

After over two years of testing the new Google Search Console and bringing it out of just about a year ago, Google has announced it has shut down the old Google Search Console.

In their Webmaster Central Blog, Google said,

Today we are reaching another important milestone in our graduation journey, we are saying goodbye to many old Search Console reports, including the home and dashboard pages 👋. Those pages are part of the history of the web, they were viewed over a billion times by webmasters from millions of websites. These pages helped site owners and webmasters to monitor and improve their performance on Google Search for over a decade.

From now on, if you try to access the old homepage or dashboard you’ll be redirected to the relevant Search Console pages. There are only a few reports that will still be available on the old interface for now - check the Legacy tools and reports in the Help Center. We're continuing to work on making the insights from these reports available in the new Search Console, so stay tuned!

The announcement also shared on the twitter account:

We’re saying goodbye to our beloved old Search Console 👋. Join us in celebrating this moment 🥳 by sharing your memories using #SCmemories - check out our tribute in the blog https://t.co/2UijlU3jLq pic.twitter.com/oD2Pf1D0qS

— Google Webmasters (@googlewmc) September 9, 2019

Interface Redirect: Google is redirecting all attempts to reach the old Google Search Console into the new Google Search Console interface. There are several legacy reports that are still not migrated over or replaced in the new interface. Those reports will be accessible via an option in the new Google Search Console named “legacy tools and reports.” You will be able to access those legacy tools and reports via the links.

Google is officially sunsetting the old version of the Search Console. Users who try to access the old version will be redirected to relevant pages in the new Search Console.
There is still no 1-to-1 replacement for every old tool and report in Search Console, so Google will still be keeping these alive for now:

1. Disavow Tool
2. Remove URLs tool
3. Crawl stats report
4. Robots.txt testing tool
5. URL Parameters tool
6. International targeting
7. Google analytics association
8. Data highlighter tool
9. Messages report
10. Crawl rate settings
11. Email preferences
12. Web tools

Google will continue to work on making the above tools and reports available in the new Search Console. However, Google recently stated that users shouldn’t expect all tools to be ported over to the new version.

Below are some tools and reports which Google will be working on to make them permanent in the new search console but not all the tools will be ported over to the new version.

• Structured Data Testing Tool
• Structured Data Markup Helper
• Page Speed Insights

Currently, there are few reports from the old search console which is accessible in the New Console under Legacy Tools and Reports below Security issues and above the Links tab.

Legacy Tools And Reports In New Search Console

In the new Webmaster Search Console, when you click the Legacy Tools and Reports, a drop-down menu displays the following items:

• International targeting
• Removals
• Crawl stats
• Messages
• URL parameters
• Web Tools

Later I'll Explain How to Use Search Console New Legacy Tools And Reports.

Google paid tribute to the occasion by gathering its team for a group photo in front of the old Search Console interface in their blog post and a tweet.

Why Webmaster and SEOs Should Care: This is a big change for a lot of SEOs who were familiar and comfortable with the old google webmaster tool interface. Google removed features slowly from the old interface, but some SEOs continued to hang on to it.

By now, we should be used to the new interface and check out the new option to see some of the legacy reports. However, Google promised to add new tools in the new search console.

TOP 10 Advanced SEO Techniques to Improve Your Search Rankings in 2019

First of all, the search engine isn’t going to rank your site overnight; it’s takes hard work and time. But the question is, Where do you focus all your energy when you’re trying to improve the SEO ranking of your website?

There are certain areas you can work to increase your chances of getting ranked fast. Let’s take a look at some of the best SEO techniques that can help you improve your search rankings in 2019.

10 SEO Techniques to Improve Your Site Rankings Fast.

1. Improve your page loading speed: Your page loading time is important for a few reasons. First of all, if your load speed is too slow, Google will recognize this, and it will harm your ranking. But a slow website will also impact the way your website visitors engage with your pages.

As a result, those negative interactions will hurt your ranking too. So, make your site fast.

2. Useful, high quality, relevant content: When you provide useful content, visitors tend to stay longer on your website to consume the information and therefore increase the dwell time. “Dwell time” is the amount of time visitors spend on your website and it can affect SEO ranking.

3. Optimize site images: Besides image file format and sizing, there are other ways to make sure your images are working hard for you on the SEO front. You can signal relevancy of your content to search engines by using keywords for your image file name, alt tag, title, description, and caption.

4. Break up your content with header tags: Headings are another way to help improve the user experience on your website. They break up the content and make it easier to read or skim. Plus, headers make everything look more appealing, which is always beneficial.

If your website is just a wall of text, it’s going to discourage people from spending a long time on it. Proper use of header tags can help break up your content into sections that are easier to read and utilize.

5. Keep Updating Old Content: To make the most out of your content, go through your older blog posts. Are any of the topics that you have written about still relevant? For example, perhaps you wrote about the best SEO techniques two years ago. But since then, Google announced major changes to its algorithm. Then you need to update your article.

5. Outbound links: To make your content more useful and relevant, you can link out to authority sites for more in-depth information your readers can use. Linking out to well-respected authority sites will not only increase the relevancy of your content and time readers spend on your site, but it is also believed to send trust signals to Google and improve SEO ranking.

6. Add more than text uses Different multimedia: The content on your website shouldn’t be only written words. Images, videos, slideshows, and audio can help enrich the user experience and allow you to deliver information in a way that is most suited to your ideal site visitors.

7. Improve Site Readability: Keep your audience in mind when you’re writing content on your website. If you want people to visit your site and spend time there, speak in terms they can understand. Making your content easy to read and understand helps make it useful to your readers. Some experts also believe that Google takes readability into account when ranking webpages.

You can use a variety of tools to test your content’s readability, including:
https://readable.com/
https://www.webfx.com/tools/read-able/

8. Fix Broken links: If you’re using authority websites for hyperlinks, you shouldn’t have to worry about the links breaking. Who wants to get a 404 page after clicking on a link? Broken links make for bad usability. Not only that, search engines consider a large number of broken links as a signal of an old, neglected site and this can impact your SEO ranking.

You can use tools like Screaming Frog SEO Spider, Google Search Console, and W3C Link Checker to search for links with errors on your website.

9. Site architecture and navigation: When visitors can’t find what they need on a website right away, they most likely leave the site and this contributes to high bounce rate, low dwell time and a low number of pages viewed. A “flat” site architecture not only makes content easier to find, but it can also help improve SEO ranking as it surfaces links of all critical pages making it easier for search engines to crawl the entire site.

Read More: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7451184?hl=en#hierarchy

10. Optimize your site for mobile devices: As I’m sure you know, mobile use is on the rise. It’s rising so fast that it’s actually overtaken computers and laptop devices. In the USA, 94% of people with smartphones search for local information on their phones. Interestingly, 77% of mobile searches occur at home or at work, places where desktop computers are likely to be present.

Obviously, Google recognizes this and ranks sites accordingly. Your website needs to be optimized for mobile users. There’s no way around this. If your site isn’t optimized, it’ll hinder the user experience, adversely affecting your ranking.

Everyone wants to improve their site search rankings and get more traffic. But only a few use the right SEO techniques to improve their websites. Which SEO techniques working for you in 2019? Please share your views in the comments.

Sohel Parvez Achieves Yext Certified Professional Status

I’m pleased to share the news that I become a Yext Certified Professional. This certificate marks the completion of the Yext Certified Partner Product and Sales Curriculum. Yext partnership program offers professional marketers, digital agencies, Local SEOs more control over brand experiences via AI technology and ensures a strong online presence for clients.

This Certification is just a credential that I'm expert in Yext technology.



As a Local SEO Expert, I'm partnering with Yext to level-up my Local SEO Service. This means I will be able to offer the powerful Yext platform to my clients local SEO campaign and giving my clients the ability to control even more local business listings online.

Yext is a location management service that helps to list your business on different local directories. Yext started off as a local advertising agency in 2006.

About Me

Search Engine Optimization Expert Focusing on Full Service Local SEO, SEO Audit, Technical SEO, Backlink Building, Yoast SEO and Speed Optimization, with 8+  Years’ of Experience in Freelancing.

I'm Helping my Clients for:-
✔️ Google My Business Setup and Optimization.
✔️ Local Business Listing Management - Citation Building and Cleanup.
✔️ Local and Organic SEO Strategy Development & Implementation.
✔️ BrightLocal, SEMrush, Moz, Ahrefs, Google Search Console & Analytics Property Management.
✔️ CMS & eCommerce Site Optimization.
✔️ In-depth Keyword Research.
✔️ Safe & Efficient Link Building & Links Profile Audits.
✔️ Technical SEO Audits and Fixing.
✔️ Spying On Competitors Site and Link Profiles.
✔️ Boost WordPress PageSpeed & Performance.

Marketing Agency and Business Owner Contact Me, I’m Happy to provide Specific details on Experience or References from past Projects.

6 Tips for Researching and Attracting Local Markets

If you met someone from British Columbia, Canada for the first time and they told you that they live in West Van, you might question whether they live in a vehicle or something. However, the term “Van” is used by many locals in Vancouver to describe different parts of the city. And fyi...West Van is quite posh.

Having an online business allows you to sell to customers from anywhere, at any time. But if you aren’t speaking to local markets in a language that they understand and appreciate, you’re missing opportunities to connect with that market in a meaningful way.

Likewise, there are many local advertising and tax laws, plus important government regulations to be aware of before entering into and selling to new markets.This may be something that you wish you had the time to research. Or, perhaps it seems overwhelming to know where to start. To make your life easier, I’ve collected some useful tips and resources to help you to better understand and attract local markets. So, let’s get started.

1. Discover The Local Markets That Are Right For Your Business

Just because your business is online, doesn’t mean that you have to be all things to everyone.

So, if you’ve already been running your online store for a while, a good place to learn more about the customers who are already seeking out your products, and where they are coming from is your web analytics data.

This will help you to zero-in on your primary local target markets.

Image via webanalyticsworld.net

If you are using Google Analytics, check out the Locations Report which can be found under Demographics within the Audience tab. In Canada and the U.S. you can look at specific regions (like States and Provinces) – and even major cities tied to your customers’ IP address.

Your goal with this data is to find out which cities or regions are visiting your website most frequently. Is there a pattern that helps you identify which cities spend more with your website? And is this because you are actively targeting these markets, or are they coming to you because of what you sell?

Check out this helpful blog post which explains how to navigate your location data reports.

Once you have this information, you’ll be able to determine which regions or cities you need to tailor your message to through online promotions and your website.

2. Understand The Cultural Nuances In Each Market

Image via Pixabay
Most businesses already know that if you are selling your products in both Canada and the U.S., it is important to know the quirky cultural differences between the two countries.

However, as I described earlier, people from different regions in the same country might use unique words and expressions to describe a product (or a place in the case of Vancouver locals).They also might have different habits, beliefs, or use different languages than people in another city in the same state or province.For example, in some parts of the U.S., if you order a “Coke,” your server might think that you want to order a soda. And their next question would be “what kind?” Here’s a regional breakdown of who says what and where in regards to asking for a “soda” versus a “pop” versus a “Coke."

So, it’s really important to use the right cultural language in order to speak directly to different markets within the same country. Otherwise, your message might get lost in translation.

In fact, according to this Stanford University Business School story, “cultural biases influence purchasing behavior when information is processed in a cursory and spontaneous manner.”

In other words, when someone is in a hurry to buy something, or they see an ad on a billboard or banner ad for just a brief moment, their interpretation of your marketing message is reliant on some of their cultural beliefs.

In the case of the Stanford advertising study, many Asian American students favored one promotional message which talked about the “preventative and security” features of Welch’s grape juice, whereas most Anglo American students identified more with a different promotional message which spoke to the key personal benefits that could be gained from the beverage, such as “having more energy.”

And while you need to do your homework and research important nuances for each target market, there is something to be said for physically visiting key markets, and immersing yourself in the culture, to get to know your customers personally.

Here are a few ways you might do this:

• Hire people as “boots on the ground” in key markets where you really want to dive deep into the local culture, climate (does it rain a lot or snow a lot and how does that impact what people do for fun or to stay connected as a community?) and history. These people don’t necessarily have to be running a physical store in that location - they could be remote or “virtual” employees who simply add an extra dynamic to your local marketing team.
  
  For instance, let’s say that you wanted to target the province of Quebec in Canada. You’d need to develop a separate local marketing strategy for the City of Montreal versus Quebec City and Rural Quebec, for example.
  So, you would need people in each location who can tell you more about the rich history of each of these regions, how the political climates differ (e.g. some parts of Quebec support the Bloq Quebecois, whereas other parts are more supportive of the NPD or Liberal party).
  
  In Montreal, many people are bilingual (speaking both English and French). Still, many locals will appreciate it if you try to communicate in French with them first. But in some parts of Quebec, people would want to access your site exclusively in French. So, that would play a role in how your craft your marketing messages.
  
  And Montreal is a melting pot of cultures, religions and personal beliefs, whereas other parts of Quebec are devoutly Catholic. So, although this example may sound a little crude, you could target Montreal if you sell XXX adult entertainment or toys online. But you probably wouldn’t want to target your website to the heavily Catholic populations in rural Quebec, as it may not be well tolerated.
  

• Set-up a pop-up shop in each of your target cities and invite some of your best customers to meet your team face-to-face, provide feedback and learn more about your products and brand experience.
  
  In fact, Shopify recently conducted a retail tour of major cities across Canada (via local pop-up shops) to get up-close and personal with existing customers. The goal of the tour was to “teach” versus “sell” to customers through ecommerce best practices workshops that were hosted in a casual setting. Here’s a full description of how this concept was created and successfully executed.

3. Ensure You Are Following Local Laws And Restrictions

Following the laws for each specific market in which you are going to promote and sell your products can get tricky if you are an online business. So, it’s helpful to familiarize yourself with consumer protection and truth in advertising laws which can differ across states and provinces in North America.One example in Canada is the contest laws that exist in Quebec versus the rest of the country. As this article explains, it is important to “pay special attention to Quebec” because you have to register your contest with a provincial regulator and you may have to “pay a 3% tax on the total prize value.”
Both the contest registration process and the tax payment can be a bit of a hassle. So, to the detriment of Quebec residents, a lot of companies choose to exclude the province from national contests – especially when under a time crunch to get a promotion up and running quickly.
In addition, there are different language, pricing and labeling laws across Canada and in the U.S. This Huffington Post article breaks down a lot of the key cross-border and cross-cultural challenges and differences to note.

4. Tap Into Local Government Resources For Market Data

Local government databases are an excellent source for market data about cultural nuances and consumer demographics. And since a lot of this information is free online, you don’t have to have a large market research budget to uncover great insights.

If you live in the U.S., here’s a link to a list of available databases that you can tap into by state. And if you are looking to target Canadian consumers, here’s a website that includes links to various databases like Statistics Canada which provides census data that can be broken down by region.You can also access information from individual cities like the City of Toronto’s open data catalogue. By open data, I mean information that can be freely used and manipulated by anyone. You’ll have to do a little bit of digging (and by digging, I mean web searching) to find specific open data sources by city. But tapping into this information will help you grow your business.

5. Evaluate Local Payment And Shipping Options

Image via Pixabay

Another challenge for doing business across borders and with different local regions are variances in taxes and shipping rates.

For example in Canada, each province charges a different sales tax rate. So, it’s important understand what each of those rates are and when to apply them to the products to that you sell (you might be exempt for certain products).

Luckily, if you use Shopify as your ecommerce platform, you can easily set-up the taxes for different countries and regions using the Tax Settings feature. Shopify keeps that information up to date (so you don’t have to stay on top of all of the changes) and automatically applies the rate to whatever countries or regions that you add into tool. Here’s a link to the manual to help you get started.

In addition, you should consider offering free shipping to customers wherever you ship your products – even if it means cutting into your margins a little bit in certain regions. That’s because studies have shown that the cost of shipping is a big deal breaker when it comes to shopping cart abandonment rates.

For more stats and details on how to resolve this issue, check out this blog post about how to choose a shipping strategy for your online store.

Keep in mind that if you cannot offer free shipping to a specific region or country, then it’s important not to show those customers the free shipping option that is available to everyone else on the site. It’s definitely a turn-off to know that other customers are getting a better deal. See the next section for more details on local marketing strategies.

6. Tailor Your Marketing Strategies For Key Regions And Cities

Once you have all of the data and resources you need to identify your top target cities or regions, how you should speak directly to each market, and what you can and cannot do to sell to them, it’s time to build a local marketing and website targeting strategy.

While I could spend an entire blog post writing specifically about local marketing strategies, here are a few ideas to get you started:

Landing page for Florida residents



Landing page for Colorado residents

Images via Barilliance

• Create locally targeted landing pages for key markets. The screenshots above show how an online store displays two different promotions (one for Colorado residents and one for Florida residents) based on their visitors’ geographic location.
  To explain this concept further, here’s a link to a guide from Moz.com on the importance of geo-specific landing pages and what to consider when building your own. To do this with Shopify, you can either create a separate page for each market, or use Landed – a third-party partner app.
  Likewise, you can work with Shopify partners like Visual Website Optimizer or Optimizely to help you geo-target specific content areas on your homepage. While this will require a bit of time to set-up, it is worth doing in order to provide a tailored experience for your local customers.
  
• Segment your customer email lists by location and customize your content to increase conversions. Again, this could mean letting specific locations know that they can get free shipping (or other promotional discounts) while excluding this information from other local market lists.
  
  This informative post from the Shopify blog explains how to segment your email list and the best email marketing tools to use.

• Geo-target your digital ad campaigns. Many ad platforms let you geo-target (meaning to deliver an ad online to a specific geographic location) right down to the postal code. This can be especially useful if you are trying to drive customers to a local retail store via mobile advertising.
  Just like the email strategy described above, you can create targeted messages and creative that will resonate with each local market. And if you are focusing on paid search or SEO, make sure you target regionalized keywords in addition to developing location-specific creative.
  Check out this overview from SiteSpect on how to leverage geo-targeting to increase engagement and conversions.
  
• Target location-specific events like the weather or local holidays. You’ll have to do research on what the key events are in each of your biggest target markets.
  But the information you uncover can help you to tailor specific promotions and offers associated with those events – like a sale on rain gear if it has been raining non-stop for a number of days in one location. Or if people in Quebec, Canada are planning to celebrate St.-Jean-Baptiste day.

• Continue to track everything in Analytics to see if your local marketing strategy is working or if it needs refining. Here’s a simple guide to making the most out of your web analytics data.

Researching and developing local marketing strategies can seem overwhelming if you sell to a lot of markets online. So, if you are just getting started, it may be worthwhile to begin by researching and testing your strategies in just one or two markets.

Then, once you have developed a set of best practices (and perhaps learned from some mistakes), you can put together a plan to roll out your strategies to other markets that you have identified and properly researched – one step at a time!