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Should You Make It a Page or a Post?

May 8, 2017 by Phil 20 Comments

You’ve got content you want to stick on your site. Maybe it’s about a specific service or product you offer, or it’s in-depth “educational” info, or it’s your answer to a frequently asked question, or it’s some attempt to reach people in a specific city, or something else.

You know what you want to put on your site, but aren’t as sure how best to weave it in: Should you create a static page or a blog post?

That depends on many factors – your goals, your preferences, and other specifics of the situation. More on those in a second.

You might have heard soundbites like “Google likes fresh content,” or “blog posts are search-engine-friendly,” or “every small business should have a blog,” or “blog posts rank better” (especially if you use WordPress or are considering it). Not necessarily. Those statements are true to one degree or another, depending on the situation, but in my experience reality is a little more complicated.

It’s complicated partly because the goal isn’t necessarily to get a page or post to rank, but maybe instead for it to (1) drive leads, (2) to impress however many people find it, or (3) to get shared and linked-to and help make your name. Or some combination of the above.

If you pressed me to suggest one to err on the side of using more, I’d go with pages. At least in my experience, static pages tend to rank a little better than do blog posts, and often go farther in converting the right leads into the right kinds of customers/clients/patients. If that’s true, I can only speculate as to why. That’s a topic for another day.

Anyway, if the question is “Should I create a page or a blog post for this info I want to put up?” and the answer is “It depends,” then what does it depend on? Well, here’s how I decide when to make a page vs. a post:

Make it a page if you:

Want to convert readers to customers/clients/patients right away (if possible). If your content has “commercial intent” it should probably be a page, rather than a post. People expect posts to be educational.
Want most or all visitors to see whatever you’ve written. Posts usually are a little harder to navigate to. Even if you have a prominent “Latest Posts” display, the posts you want everyone to see will probably get buried by more-recent posts sooner or later.

Plan to make it an evergreen resource – one you may significantly edit or add to later. Posts tend to have at least one indication as to when they were written. An old post with new, up-to-date info may confuse people.
Want it to rank for very specific keywords. Again, people generally expect blog posts to be informational. There’s just a little more footwork you can do on a page – and not have it look weird – from the title, to the name of the page, to the internal links you can weave in, and so on. Even more important: it’s possible any link-rustlin’ outreach you do will result in more links, if ultimately you’re asking people to link to your “resource” rather than to your “latest blog post.”
Want it to rank in a specific city, or for certain city-specific search terms, or both. (See this.)
Want to point AdWords traffic to it. If you’re running AdWords competently, most people who click on your ad have an imminent need for what you offer. Don’t confuse them by using a blog post (meant to appear kinda-sorta educational) as your landing page URL.
Need to be able to tell people the URL verbally. Blog post URLs tend to be longer and messier (example).
Need people to be able to type the URL.
Created it as a post already and now want to revive it. Let’s say you created a post 3 years ago, and it didn’t accomplish what you wanted it to, or it’s slipped in the rankings. Simply updating the URL and timestamp to reflect the current year won’t help you.
Care much which subdirectory it’s in.

Care much what’s in the URL slug.

Want it to appear as a sitelink in the search results for your brand name.

Don’t want people to leave comments, as they can on most blog posts.
Aren’t yet sure what to call it.
Plan to migrate to a new CMS soon.

Make it a post if you:

Want mostly non-customers and non-leads to consume your info. Sometimes the people who read and share and link to your posts aren’t people who will ever pay you a dime for anything. That’s how it is on my blog, for one: Many of the people who “spread the word” about my posts, site, and business aren’t my clients. That’s a good situation, and it’s a good situation for you, too. You want “cheerleaders” in addition to customers.
Feature news or other info with a shelf life shorter than that of a Slim Jim.

Think it will still look good in the search results even when the timestamp is 5 years old.

Can’t figure out a good way to incorporate a static page into your navigation.
Have a dedicated audience of people who expect posts from you. That’s why what you’re reading now is a post, and not a page 🙂
Want to make an announcement.
Offer a discount or make a special offer.
Are just testing out an idea and aren’t sure you want it to be a permanent fixture. A blog post can make a fine Petri dish.
Want to serialize your work.

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What are some criteria you use to decide when to make a page vs. a post?

Do you have a resource where you’re not sure you got it right (and want a second opinion)?

Leave a comment!

Top-3 Local SEO “Content” Wins for People Who Hate to Write

July 30, 2015 by Phil 6 Comments

You shudder at the thought of having to write content for your site or pay someone to write it until the day you sell your business or buy Depends.

Don’t get me wrong: writing and sharing your best info over a period of months or years can have enormous payoff. My post “100 Practical Ideas for Small-Business Blog Posts” and its follow-up can help you on that.

You’ll probably find a way, if that’s what it takes for better local rankings and more customers. But must creating “content” feel like a trip to nowhere?

No.

Is there another way to make progress?

Yes.

Focus on one-time content first. Build on the content you have, the knowledge you have, and the site you have.

You’ll still have to write or get someone else to, but the point is you’re focusing on the highest-payoff work.

So, before you worry about what to create and share long-term, here’s what you should do on your site to make the most of a limited tolerance or budget for writing:

Priority 1: Perform “content CPR.”

Find short, undetailed pages on your site and beef them up with all the info a potential customer might want to know. Focus on pages where you describe a specific service you offer. If possible, find pages that rank very low on page 1 or somewhere on page 2. Those pages may just need a little life breathed into them to start moving in the rankings.

Not sure what to put on those pages? My post on “25 Principles of Building Effective City Pages for Local SEO” might get the juices flowing (even if you’re not creating “city” pages).

Priority 2: Fill in the gaps.

For example, do you have a giant “Services” page with one paragraph on each service you offer? Break it up. Create a separate page for each service, and go into more detail on each of those pages. You can keep the main “Services” page if you want: just add some links to the more-specific subpages.

In general, is there a service you want to promote that doesn’t have a page you’re really proud of?

That’s low-hanging fruit, especially if it’s a less-popular search term. The benefits of getting really granular with your pages are that (1) it’s an easy way to pick up rankings for niche terms (e.g. “blower door test Atlanta”), and that (2) the people who’d type in those niche terms probably aren’t tire-kickers, know exactly what they want, and are just looking for the right person or company.

(For more suggestions on busting out more pages, this other post of mine might help: 21 Pages a “Small Local Business” Site Needs for Tip-Top Local Visibility.)

Priority 3: Cannibalize your other resources.

Do you have underperforming microsites or old websites that have some decent info in them?

Did you put a lot of time into writing a blog post that not even your mom would read?

Did posters on your Facebook page ask questions that you get asked all the time, and that should maybe go on an FAQs page?

Do you have customer reviews that would be a shame not to show off on your site? (As I’ve explained, it’s OK to do that.)

Was the “about us” section on your Yelp page a labor of love?

If you think your site would be a higher-payoff place for anything you’ve written, online or offline, bring it on home.

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Only once you’ve taken those 3 steps as far as they’ll go should you turn to creating blog posts, videos, or whatever other content on an ongoing basis. The timing matters. At least the one-time stuff can start paying off while you’re wrestling with the ongoing content-creation. Or you can just conserve your energy.

What are your “content priorities”?

Any you’d add to the list?

Leave a comment!

20 Local SEO Techniques You Overlooked (Almost)

February 26, 2015 by Phil 27 Comments

We local-SEO geeks talk about the same old basic principles a little too much: clean up your citations, don’t get penalized by Google, be mobile-friendly, earn “local” links, create “unique” content, deserve reviews, ask for reviews, etc.

It’s all good advice. I’ve devoted many of my blog posts in the last 4 years to unpacking that advice so it’s easy to act on.

The trouble is we’re repetitive. We’re almost as bad as the talking heads at CNN. We rarely move on to what you should do once you’re pretty solid on the basics – and there is a lot you can and should do.

(In fact, many of the overlooked wins can also help you even if you just started working on your local SEO.)

Here are 20 stones I find unturned way too often:

1. Nail the categories on your non-Google listings: Pick out the most-relevant ones, and as many of them as are applicable. Dig them up with Moz Local’s free “Category Research” area and with my category lists for Apple Maps and Yelp.

2. Do a second round of work on your citations. Do it a couple of months after the initial blob of work. You might be amazed at how many stragglers you find. Might be enough to motivate you for a third go-round.

3. Try to find and possibly hire a MapMaker editor to join the Forces of Good in your local anti-spam war. Of course, there’s no guarantee that even a MapMaker editor can stop your competitors’ spam offensive, but it’s worth a shot.

4. Become or get to know an “Elite” Yelper (like this recruit). Got a review that’s viciously personal, un-PC, or is obviously from an imposter? The Elite Yelper may know just how to phrase the takedown request for the best chances of a takedown. Also, because most Elite Yelpers don’t really have lives, Yelp seems to expect them to report data-errors (like wrong addresses), and usually acts on them.

5. Embedding on your website the Google map that’s featured on your Places page. Don’t embed a map of a generic address. You want Google to know people are looking up directions to you.

6. Get a Google Business View photo shoot. (10 reasons here.)

7. Pick the right itemtype for the blob of name / address / phone info that you’ve marked up with Schema.org markup. Or take a few extra minutes to go bananas with your Schema.

8. Join a couple of local and industry associations. I’m talking about your local Chamber of Commerce and the sorts of organizations you’d find if you Google the word that describes your business + “association” or “organization.” They’re often worth joining for the offline benefits, and you’ll probably get a good link.

9. Diversify the sites where you encourage customer reviews. The benefits are many.

10. Create a “Reviews” page. Use it to showcase your reviews (possibly with widgets and badges) and to ask any customers who visit the page to put in a good word. You can pretty easily create a page from scratch, or you can make a nice one with a service like Grade.us. Link to it in the signature of your emails, as a gentle way to encourage any customers you email to pick up a quill.

11. Write blog posts to answer super-specific questions that a customer might type into Google. Don’t try to rank for your main keywords (“How to Pick the Best Dentist in Cleveland: a Guide by Cleveland Dentists for Cleveland Dentist Patients”). It won’t work and you’ll look stupid. (Refer to this post and its follow-up.)

12. Get some barnacle SEO happening. By now, Will Scott’s concept isn’t new, but most business owners still don’t even try to do it. But just start with the basics: if you pick out all the right categories (see point #1) and encourage reviews on a variety of sites (see point #9) you’ll be in pretty good shape.

13. Use wildcard searches for keyword-research. (This one was new to me until very recently.)

14. Lengthen pages that aren’t ranking well – including and perhaps especially your homepage. Yes, this sounds old-school, and about as cool as a pocket protector. But I’m not telling you to add gibberish. Go into detail about what makes you different, describe your service / process, address concerns the reader might have, etc. Google likes having meat to sink its teeth into. One-paragraph Wonder Bread pages tend not to do as well.

15. Ask for reviews twice. People forget, and it’s a nice excuse to keep in touch. Follow up with customers you asked for a review – especially if they said they would. It’s easy to avoid making yourself a pest: just say you’d still appreciate their feedback, ask them if they have any questions for you, and thank them in advance.

16. Include links to sites where you have reviews. (Be sure to have those links open into a new browser tab, so nobody’s leaving your site.) Use review widgets and badges when you can.

17. Cannibalize underperforming microsites, bad blog posts, or other online carcasses. Grab (and edit as need be) any content that’s redeemable, and use it to make your site bigger and better.

18. Get listed on Apple Maps. Yes, everyone knows about aMaps by now, but I’m amazed at how many times I start working for clients and see only their competitors on Apple.

19. Try hard to reach non-English speakers, if applicable. Don’t just stick Se Habla Español (for example) in your footer as an afterthought. Include a paragraph in that language on your homepage and on your “Contact” page. Maybe create a whole page geared toward those customers. Be sure to use the hreflang tag if you have more than one version of the same page.

20. If you’re a local SEO-er, find steps your clients might be able to do better than you can. Don’t just look for more billable hours; look for the best person for the job, or the best combination of people. Don’t spend hours trying to dig up all their old phone numbers and addresses; ask them first. Whenever a writing task comes up, pump your clients for info. When you need to find link opportunities, send them my link questionnaire. They know the business better than you do. If you don’t get much cooperation, fine. At least you tried, and you’re giving them options. But I’ve found that most clients recognize when they’ve got just the right wrench for the oddly-shaped bolt.

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What’s an “overlooked” local SEO tip you like?

Any that you’re considering but not sure about?

Leave a comment!

Best Mike Blumenthal Blog Posts (So Far): a Poll of Longtime Fans

August 1, 2014 by Phil 18 Comments

https://www.flickr.com/photos/smallbusinesssem/5485107542/

Mike Blumenthal needs no introduction to anyone who pays close attention to Google Places and the rest of the crazy world of local search.

If you’re reading this, either you’re already a fan of Professor Maps (as he’s known) and his blog, or you’re becoming one.

I’ve read his posts throughout my local-search career so far. I’m not alone when I say they’ve been a huge influence on my thinking, to say the least.

The only trouble is: of the 2400+ posts Mike has done so far, it’s hard to know where to start, or which posts are the most evergreen.

That’s why I asked some of the longest-time / hardest-core readers of Mike’s blog what their all-time favorite posts are. They also added some great commentary.

Even this list of favorites probably has the shelf life of sushi, given how much Mike publishes (see the July 2014 storm of posts). But it’s still worth a try.

Here are the top picks of some long-time readers:

Miriam Ellis

1) In the Trenches: The Reality of Smb Marketing – Bruce’s Sew Handy Interview

This is an oldie from 2008. I’ve always remembered this post for the picture it painted of how marketing looks and feels to a small business owner. The story told in this interview should help any marketer to act with empathy and great respect when supporting hard-working SMBs. I admire Mike’s ability to surface interesting man-on-the-street stories like this one.

2) What Should You Tell a Client When Google Loses Their Reviews – a 4 Part Plan

Remember the great Google review loss fiasco of 2012? Mike not only wrote great posts like the above helping marketers to support clients who had lost reviews, but he also came up with the idea of consolidating as many complaints as possible onto a Google And Your Business Forum help thread. I would bet I’m not alone in saying that Mike’s work has made me feel less alone during many Local crises!

3) What Does My Business Tell Us about the Future of Google Plus?

Years of experience in Local and Mike’s one-of-a-kind insight are beautifully showcased in this piece. This is what we’ve all come to rely on Mike for, over the years. Just fantastic! Hats off to you, Mike – it’s been a privilege learning from you for the better part of a decade!

David Mihm

No one, and I mean no one, has chronicled the evolution of Google’s local and mapping products more closely than Mike Blumenthal. The man probably knows more about legacy systems and rationale for why things are built the way they are than all but a few product managers at Google.

Small business owners and the search community — possibly even the world of local searchers — owe Mike a debt of gratitude for helping make local search at Google what it is today. He has been a positive thorn in Mountain View’s side, exhorting Google to improve their products to a level where they are actually usable by small business owners and searchers — a task that continues even today in the aftermath of the “crappy” Pigeon update.

The fact that business owners finally have a usable interface from which to manage their listings, the option of phone support, and countless other amenities is due in no small part to Mike’s direct and indirect feedback to Google (and the tireless efforts of internal SMB advocates like Joel Headley and Jade Wang).

I’m proud to call Mike a friend for almost seven years (!) since first discovering his blog.

Here are some of my favorite Blumenthal articles:

Yelp: Real People. Real Reviews. Deceptive Sales Tactics.

29prime – Would You Buy A Used Car from These Guys Let Alone SEO?

Google Local: Train Wreck at the Junction

Which Review Sites Should You Use?

10 Likely Ranking Factors of Google’s Local Search Algorithm

Ranking Factors in Google Maps – Cracking The Code SMX Local

Dave Oremland

(aka Earlpearl)

Favorites:

1. Early articles about the Google local patent. Bill Slawski might have initially written about them but Mike studied them and drilled down into them with greater degree and specificity.

My experience is that in the early years after a new patent one often sees the most dramatic impact of those patents. Before Google makes algo changes. They are crucial to follow. Mike has done a great job on those issues.

2. The annual Loci articles. Very thoughtful pieces from guest authors. A worthwhile element of his blog.

3. In a general context Mike jumped on the review issues early on. He’s covered it and dissected it with clarity. Of the many many articles referencing reviews the one that stuck with me were the two articles about the dentist in Washington State. Those stories added an astonishing human element to the overall review saga, in particular, if one believes the dentist’s side of the story it revealed a “fatal attraction” kind of element to reviews. Really amazing human drama connected to the business function of trying to respond to reviews. That was fascinating.

Nyagoslav Zhekov

Chances are I have missed A LOT of extremely important posts, but I tried very hard to keep the number under 20

What Is Location Prominence?

Principles for a Review Plan: Considerations in Encouraging Customer Reviews

Google Places and Their New Rejection Algo – It Is Like 7th Grade All over Again!

Graphic: How an SMB Solves a Problem in Google Places

Review Management: 7 Tips on Avoiding Bad Reviews

An Imagined Conversation with Google about Reviews, 29Prime & Sock Puppets

The Untold Story of 2011: Google’s Significant Investments in a Google Places Support Structure

Will Citations Stop Being Effective for Local Optimization in the Future?

9 Questions to Assess Your Review Management Stress Levels

Google Local: Train Wreck at the Junction

What Makes for a Good Author Photo in the Local Results? (Part 1)

What Makes for a Good Author Photo in the Local Results? (Part 2)

Video Snippets vs. Author Images – Which Have Higher Click Through Rates?

10 Reasons That the Google Knowledge Graph Sucks More Than the Local Graph

Yahoo and the “Everybody But Google” Realities of Local Search

Mike Blumenthal is rightfully the top authority in local search in the last 5+ years. His infinite energy and will to look for answers, to share thoughts, to inform the community, and to urge development where improvement is needed are hardly matched by anyone in the Internet marketing world. Mike’s articles on local search, Google Maps, Google Places, review strategies, small business marketing, and Google-related issues have been the first ones I started reading while I was still “learning how to walk” in the industry. As I joined the game a little later (early 2011), the majority of my favorite articles of Mike are naturally from the period after that.

Mike’s articles are both informational and raising questions and topics for discussion. His word is so influential that he has frequently provoked revisions of strategies in the SEO world, as well as urgent processual or technical changes within companies such as Google, for instance. I believe our industry is happy to have him, and I hope he will stick around for many more years.

Andrew Shotland

I have to start with one of Mike’s very first posts – The Basics of Listings Success. As he put it back then:

“Unlike optimization for organic search, optimization for local search at the major engines is in a much less developed state. It seems to have many fewer people poking, prodding and testing the hypothesis of local search and coming up with a definitive set of best practices. This is list is an attempt to create that model that we can all test. Have a go and let me know.”

Every couple of years a new wild west emerges via the Web. This post documents a time when Local still had room in it for wide-eyed optimism and Mike’s eyes proved to be both the widest and the narrowest at the same time. Getting a bit misty…

Of course I loved when he first started acknowledging how screwed up this Local stuff was for small businesses, in his own inimitable style. From the classic “Local Data Accuracy – a Veritable Beehive“:

“The group is a regular beehive of activity with a surprising amount of input from small business owners. But it is a beehive in which the keeper just stuck his hand into the hive and stirred things up by sticking the bees in the wrong place and the bees are mad!”

I think Mike’s post about the difference between ValPak’s coupons and everyone else’s in Google Maps was when I first started to be in awe of Mike’s obsession with the minutiae of Local. I mean who else was writing about the pixel size of fucking coupons at that point?

If I had to pick a favorite, it probably has to be Google Local: Train Wreck at the Junction. Mike seems to be pretty tight with the Google Local team, or at least as tight as they can be with anybody. And still Mike cannot stop speaking truth to power as it were. While there have been plenty of SEO bloggers bitching and moaning about Google Local’s shortcomings, this post solidified his rep as perhaps its finest critic.

And of course any post mentioning Barbara Oliver, one of Buffalo’s finest jewelers, is always a winner.

Andy Kuiper

(late addition)

Mike Blumenthal’s blog is the go-to place to find out what’s what when it comes to Local search & Google. Every day I look forward to seeing what Mike and his followers (several of whom are the top Local SEO ‘gurus’ in North America) have to say. Mike’s blog, and his follower’s comments have helped so many SEOs and SMBs understand what’s going on in Local… and there is always something strange going on in Local 😉

Here are three posts that may be of help to SMBs:

How Does Google Choose a Profile Photo? It’s the Algo Dummie!

Google+ Custom URLs – Facts, Tidbits and Concerns

Google+ Local Quality Guideline Update Allows for Multiple Departments

(Note: I asked Andy at the same time I asked everyone else for top picks. He just took a while :))

Me

This is too tough. But I’ll channel my inner monk-like ascetic powers and name only 7 posts (in no particular order):

Principles for a Review Plan: Considerations in Encouraging Customer Reviews

Infographic: Citations – Time to Live – a joint research project / post with Mr. David Mihm

Asking For Reviews (Post Google Apocalypse)

Which Review Sites Should You Use?

What Does My Business Tell Us about the Future of Google Plus?

Yext & Local SEO

What Does a Link Campaign Look Like for Local?

To sum up all thoughts on Mike’s posts:

What are your favorites so far?

Leave a comment!

How to Structure Your Site for Local Search Visibility That Lasts

May 5, 2014 by Phil 16 Comments

The Ise Shrine is pretty cool. The Emperor of Japan had it built in the 7th Century. It’s made of untreated wood, yet it’s stood for over 1300 years. How?

Because master carpenters rebuild the whole thing – board by board – every 20 years.

Your site won’t have to serve you for quite that long, but you can build it to last. If you structure it according to a few best-practices, it’s more likely to rank well in the local results, and to be easy for customers to use. It will also be easier to make changes later on if you need to.

I’m not talking about internal link structure (how your pages should link together). Other posts deal with that nicely. Nor am I talking about what should be on your pages. I’ve talked about that, too.

I’m talking about where to put stuff. Simply having “content” on your site isn’t enough. You need to organize it in a way that Google and customers can understand all your business offers.

For my clients’ sites, there are some points I really harp on, and some that I don’t consider crucial – but wise to do. Let’s go through the former – my “hard rules” – first.

My hard rules:

1. Have one site – or as few as possible. Avoid microsites. Avoid mirror sites.

2. Put your blog on the same domain. Preferably it’s at yoursite.com/blog. You want your posts and any links to benefit the site you’re trying to rank. (By the way, if you don’t have a blog because your wheels are spinning, see this and this.)

3. Your page structure should be granular: Have a page for each service, each location, each practitioner or employee.

4. Form a “bulls’-eye” pattern with your content. You should have an area of your site – like your blog – where you’re concentrating useful content, but you should also have “content” spread throughout the rest of your site. That stuff can rank. Think FAQ pages, bio pages, or city pages.

5. Your homepage should be a static page, rather than feature your latest blog posts. One reason (of many) is that Google needs a consistent picture of what your business offers, if you’re to rank for those services. The blog post du jour won’t necessarily do that.

My softer rules:

6. Your navigation should be dummy-simple. You want to avoid pogo-sticking. If you want people to see your “Products” page, it should probably be in your top menu.

7. Avoid “island” pages – pages that have no internal links to them, or only links that are buried in pages few people see. This is in the same vein as point #6. Everything should be findable in 1-2 clicks from your homepage. Google needs to be able to crawl those pages easily. And if you don’t want people to find those pages easily, you should reconsider whether they even should be on your site.

8. Use as few subdirectories as possible. (Or else you get this.)

OK, time for a quick break.