Local SEO Case Study: The Power of Press Releases

Until July 2013, press releases were a great tactic for building high quality links to your website.

And the process was simple.  Write a press release that includes links to your website, pay a press release distribution service like PRWeb, and then watch your search engine rankings improve as more and more legitimate websites posted the press release with links to your site.

Of course, that all changed in July 2013 when Google announced the death of press releases for search engine optimization (SEO).

But was it really the end of press releases as an SEO tactic?  No, and in this case study I'll prove there is still a lot of power in press releases (if you know how to use them correctly).

What Changed in July 2013?

In July 2013, Google announced they would now consider links in press releases as "paid links" and encouraged distribution services to use "nofollow" links in the releases.  This change makes sense since businesses were paying press release distribution sites in order to get high quality links to their websites.

In case you're not aware, Google does not count paid links or "no follow" links in their ranking algorithm.  Those types of links are ignored by the algorithm.  That means all of the links you get from the press release would not directly improve your search engine rankings.

Hence, the resounding cry that press releases were dead for SEO.

While it's true the links do not directly improve your rankings, there is another powerful SEO benefit of press releases.

The Key Benefit is Citations

A citation is a mention of your NAP (business Name, Address, and Phone number) on another website.  For example, if your business is listed in Yelp, then your profile on Yelp is a citation because it lists your NAP.

When drafting a press release, if you include your business NAP in the byline of the release, then when your release is published across the internet, each published page is a new citation for your business. You can see an example below: 

That means you could issue one press releases and within a day or two have dozens or even hundreds of new citations.

That sounds great, but why are citations important?

Citations Are Critical For Local Rankings

One of the biggest factors in ranking high in the local "map" results is the quantity and quality of your citations.  Sure, you can create accounts on business directories and build up a nice foundation of citations, but so can your competitors.

To gain a competitive advantage, you can use press releases to rank higher in the local results.  To prove this works, let's look at a case study...

How Our Client Jumped from #20 to #2

One of our dentist clients was stuck around #20 in the local "map" results.

We had already completed our website tune-up and set up all the relevant business directories, but the rankings would not improve beyond #20 for his top priority keywords, "Savannah dentist," "dentist Savannah," and "dentist in Savannah."  At this point we knew we had to take it to the next level to overtake the competitors ranking on the first page of Google.

Here's what we did...

Over a 4-month period, we issued 4 press releases for our client.  Of course, in the press release we included links to our client's website, but as you know those links were "nofollow" so they did not directly help for SEO.  The power was in the citations, or the mentions of our client's business name, address, and phone number.

As more and more websites published the press releases, our client began to jump up in the Google local rankings.  Eventually he was #2 on the first page of Google in the local results for his primary keywords.

As you can see from the screenshots above, the citations helped our client rank in the local "map" results on the first page of Google.  When Google determines the searcher is looking for a local business, then often Google displays a map with local businesses listed below.

To rank high in these local search results, you must have citations, and that's one of the reasons you should consider using press releases as part of your Local SEO strategy.

[Local SEO Tip] Spoonfeed Google Your Business Info

Local SEO Tip: How to Spoonfeed Google

Your Correct Business Information 

The simple days of static Google Places business pages are long gone.  They have been replaced by dynamic, social, and ever changing Google+ Local business pages.  Not only did Google overhaul the look and feel of their business pages, but they also changed the administrator dashboard and the algorithm that ranks all the pages.  In other words, just about everything has changed since the original Local SEO Formula!

With that said, the fundamentals have remained the same.  You must have accurate, consistent data across the internet if you want to rank high in the local results.

 

Why is Accurate & Consistent Data Important?

One of the most important ranking factors in local SEO is accurate and consistent data.  More specifically, I’m talking about business information like your name, address, and phone number.  This is often referred to as your NAP for short (Name, Address, Phone).

If you think about this from Google’s perspective, then it makes perfect sense. Google’s mission is to provide the best possible results for any given search.  In the case of local results, that means showing searchers reliable local business information.  If Google’s results were full of inaccurate business names, addresses, and phone numbers, then that’s a big problem.  Searchers would eventually lose faith in Google and turn to Yahoo, Bing, or another business directory like Yelp.  Ultimately, that would mean lost revenue for Google.

To mitigate that risk, Google scours the internet to confirm business information is accurate.  If they find your business name, address, and phone listed consistently across many websites, then there’s a pretty good chance that info is correct.  On the other hand, if Google finds inconsistent information, then they are less likely to display your business high in the results.

Makes sense right?

How to Spoonfeed Your Data to Google

Up until recently Google was on their own to find your accurate business name, address, and phone number on your website.  There are some obvious places to look like your contact page, but in some cases (like businesses with multiple offices) it’s not always easy for Google to determine the most authoritative Name, Address and Phone number for your business.

Plus, who wants to leave it up to a 3rd party? Shouldn’t the business provide this information first hand?

Well you’ll be happy to know you can do just that… Now you can spoonfeed Google this information.

Introducing Schema.org.  Before you click that link and get lost in a world of tech jargon, I’ll give you another handy tool called the Schema Creator.  Click that link and simply complete the form to generate the code your webmaster should add to your website.  It’s basically just HTML code that tells Google exactly what you want to use for your name and address.  Unfortunately that tool doesn’t include your phone number so you need to do a little hacking.

Feel free to copy our code below and then replace the information with your own.  Or ask your webmaster to view the source code on our Contact Page and she’ll be able to easily copy the code.

<div itemscope itemtype=”http://schema.org/Organization”> 
<a itemprop=”url” href=”http://www.mainstreetroi.com”> 
<div itemprop=”name”>Main Street ROI</div> </a> 
<div itemprop=”address” itemscope itemtype=”http://schema.org/PostalAddress”> 
<span itemprop=”streetAddress”>116 West 23rd Street, Suite #500</span> 
<span itemprop=”addressLocality”>New York</span>, 
<span itemprop=”addressRegion”>NY</span> <span itemprop=”postalCode”>10011</span> 
Phone: <span itemprop=”telephone”>(646) 470-3753</span> 
<span itemprop=”addressCountry”>United States</span></div>

Once the code is added to your website, then you’ll want to verify it’s set up properly using Google’s Data Verification Tool.  Simply copy/paste your website into that tool and Google will tell you if they have the correct information or if there are any errors.

Why "Negative Keywords" Are Critical to Google AdWords Success

Getting your AdWords campaigns seen by more prospects is a good thing, unless those prospects have very little chances of becoming customers.

That's where negative keywords can help.

Negative keywords instruct AdWords not to display your ads with specific search queries. They follow all the same rules of your standard keyword lists, meaning you can specify broad-, phrase- and exact-match negative keywords.
The only difference is you're filtering your audience rather than growing it.
If you're new to search advertising, you may be asking: "Don't more eyeballs on your ads eventually lead to more business on my website?"

Not always. Especially if you're showing your ads to the wrong people. Rather than get more conversions, you're likely to see a declining click-through rate and a rise in costs per click and end up paying more than you need to.

But fear not. By the end of this article, you'll understand the power of negative keywords and how to use them in your AdWords account. And more good news - you'll likely see an immediate boost in your conversion rate after implementing negative keywords.

What Exactly Are Negative Keywords?

Imagine you're launching an AdWords campaign for a hair salon. Your keyword list contains the phrase-match term "haircut" to make sure your ads are seen by folks searching for all kinds of haircut-related terms. But after a week of running ads, you realize a good portion of your clicks are from people searching for "dog haircuts," and not one of these people has visited the salon.

Clearly, this is a problem - but an easily fixable problem. Just go to your negative keyword list in AdWords and add the broad-match keyword "dog." Immediately, anyone searching for any variation of "dog haircuts" won't see your ads.

Then you can be proactive and take it a step further. Add "pet," "cat," "grooming" and other pet-related terms to your negative keyword list.  That will prevent your ads from showing for irrelevant search phrases.

How to Create Negative Keyword Lists

Building a negative keyword list is easy. You can do it at either the campaign or ad group level, and you'll end up using both options as you get more comfortable with using these keywords.

In scenarios like the "dog haircut" example above, a campaign-level negative keyword list would make more sense considering no part of the business caters to pet haircuts. If you're building campaigns for a multi-faceted business, then you may find ad-group level negative keyword lists to be more beneficial.

To create a negative keyword list, log into AdWords, click the Keywords tab and then click the Negative Keywords tab. Then simply add your negative keywords to either the "Ad group level" or "Campaign level" tables.

Benefits of Using Negative Keywords

Earlier in this article, we discussed why you need negative keywords for your campaigns to be successful. Now we'll go deeper into how negative keywords can help.

#1: Weed out shoppers looking for discount prices.

Online shoppers often search for discounts, coupons, free trials and other bargains. But what if your business doesn't offer discounts or coupons?
Bargain-hunters who click your ads are more likely to bounce if they don't find those deals.

If your business doesn't offer any discounts or coupons, you can eliminate this problem by adding "discounts," "coupons" and "free" to your campaign-level negative keyword list.

#2: Get the biggest bang from your ad budget.

Negative keywords filter out people who are most likely to click on your ads without becoming customers of your business. If you cut out those clicks, then you're instantly saving money! And if you don't trim your ad budgets, then you're essentially reinvesting that money to attract other prospects who are more likely to become customers. The result is more traffic with higher conversion rates, which means more profits without spending more money.

#3: Focus on buyer-oriented keywords.

Earlier, we mentioned how negative keywords can help prevent your ads from being shown to people who are doing research. This is important because folks who are researching goods and services are usually not ready to make purchases.

By adding keyword terms such as "compare," "what is" or "what are" to your negative keyword list, you'll immediately stop your ads from being shown to people who are most likely in research mode instead of shopper mode.

#4: Cut out non-consumers.

In addition to shoppers doing research before buying, some Web users who see your ads might not even be consumers at all. Consider again our hair salon example; in most cases, you wouldn't want your ads to be seen by unemployed hair stylists searching for "haircut jobs." Entering campaign-level negative keywords such as "jobs," "job openings," "careers," "part-time" and "internships" can keep your ads exclusive to consumers.

Conclusion

Negative keywords are often overlooked when you're just learning how to use AdWords. However, failing to use negative keywords can put a strain on your campaigns and drag down their performance, leading to frustration and unnecessary second-guessing. Always think carefully about negative keywords and use them with all of your new campaigns.

The good news is that even a few basic negative keywords can make a big difference. Just remember - success in AdWords isn't just about who sees your ads, but also who doesn't see your ads. Why waste money on clicks that don't convert? Fortunately, you don't have to.

3 SEO Lessons from the Presidential Election

As we approach the end of the presidential race, it’s time to reflect on what we’ve learned.  More specifically, what are the key takeaways that we can apply to our digital marketing?

 

That’s right, while you were watching the debates you were subconsciously learning about marketing. :)

 

In this article, I’ll walk through 3 of the SEO lessons you picked up along the way…

 

1. The Wisdom of the Crowd

We’re all familiar with how our presidents are elected in the United States.  On Election Day, we go to the polls and cast our vote.  Those votes are tallied up and the candidate with the most votes wins.

 

While this is not a perfect example, it does loosely follow the phenomenon known as the “wisdom of the crowd.”

 

Studies have shown that when you average the guesses, or votes, of a crowd you’ll end up very close to the correct answer.  The classic example is when a crowd of people try to guess the weight of a cow.  It turns out that the average of the weights guessed will be remarkably close to the actual weight.  You can learn more about this by reading The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki.

 

This is important to understand because Google uses this phenomenon to rank websites in their search engine.  Every time you use Google and click on the search results you’re casting a vote.  You’re either telling Google you like what you see on the first page or you don’t like what you see.  Over time, Google uses that data to ensure the best webpages show up at the top of the results.

 

Think about that for a minute.  You have the power to influence Google’s search results just like you have the power to influence the election!

 

2. The Skeletons In Your Closet

In politics, your past will certainly haunt you.  We’ve seen this time and time again during this election.  Every other day there’s a new audio recording of a candidate flip flopping on a key topic or a video revealing unsavory behavior.  I don’t even have to mention a specific example because we can all quickly think of a handful on our own.

 

Depending on the size of the skeleton in the closet, candidates can easily lose elections because of something they did or said in the past.

 

The same is true with SEO.  Just because you’re ranking well now doesn’t mean Google won’t eventually find a skeleton in your website’s closet.  For example, Google may discover that you paid for other websites to link to you.  Or maybe you created several websites that are using nearly identical website copy.  These tactics may go unnoticed for a while, but once Google finds out, your SEO candidacy can come to an end.

 

3. Reputation By Association

In politics, you need to be extra careful about who you hang out with and who you do business with.  Trump received a lot of backlash when he praised Putin and gave an impression that he and Putin were friends.  Then Hilary found herself under fire for receiving money from Morocco.

 

Both examples hurt the respective candidate’s reputation, and in turn, hurt their campaign.

 

Guess what, this can also happen with your SEO.  Google reviews the websites that are linking to you (and that you’re linking to) because those are your “online friends.”  If a lot of low quality (aka spammy) websites are linking to you, then that can hurt your website’s reputation, which in turn, will hurt your Google rankings!