ranking factors

Local SEO Basic Ranking Factors Explained With Accountants

Today we are just going to look at some key local ranking factors as we spot them in the wild, by using a state-level search for a business CPA. The specific search was for "best business CPA NJ". This is a typical search someone in NJ might make when looking to find a new CPA [...]

Scratch That Niche: Google Business Profile Performance Boost from Easy Edits

For small businesses in an increasingly competitive digital marketplace, it is always great to find new and easy ways to help set you apart from your competitors.  Here's a tip that can boost Google Business Profile performance for you. Coming off of great research done by the folks at Sterly Sky, we are learning that [...]

Growing Local Search Ranking Factors in 2023 that You Control

I wrote earlier in the week about some of the basics and biggest local ranking factors from the recent annual Whitespark study. I always recommend taking a deep dive into their study because they do a great job with it, but I also like to try to provide easily digestible headlines for the small business [...]

Search Basics: The Top 5 Local Search Ranking Factors from the 2023 Study

Sometimes we get too far down our own silo in our industries to remember to address some of the basics. I will have a discussion with a client or prospect that will ask a question that reminds me once again that they don't dig into the weeds of this stuff every day.  Whitespark just came [...]

The 3 Fundamental Pieces of the Small Business SEO Puzzle

SEO can be complicated. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands of ranking factors.  Every factor has a balance in terms of the search term and competition, so things can get a bit complicated. When I started in the SEO world over 15 years ago, there were some basic and consistent overall ranking factors. Then [...]

Core Web Vitals for Small Business SEO in 2021

Google will tell you that User Experience (often seen as UX) is the most important ranking factor. This basically means that they have the user in mind for all of their algorithm tweaks, but is also quite vague and encompasses everything. UX includes good content, fast loading pages, easy to navigate websites, and trusted sources. [...]

Does This or That Matter for My SEO? It is a Bit More Complicated

Probably the most common question I get from business owners or marketing managers around SEO is some form of "Is this a factor?" or "Will this matter for my SEO?" I wish there was a simple answer to that. Actually, I probably don't because it would make me less useful.  The truthful answer is really [...]

What Links Matter for Small Business SEO?

On the heels of a brilliant article that Cyrus Shepard put out about what is given value in the world of link building, I wanted to do my job and simplify things a little bit for the normal business owner.  Those of us in the search industry salivate at the thought of ranking factor studies [...]

Google’s Latest Update Dials Back Some Changes From Last Year?

Have you seen your site take a turn in traffic in recent weeks?  Was it a reversal of what happened last fall?  Google just had yet another major algorithm update on March 12. Rumors around the industry are that this update is a bit of a rollback from some of the big changes that were [...]

2019 Growing Ranking Factors: Lighthouse and UX

In the second of my posts on growing SEO Ranking Factors in 2019, I want to touch on Google's Lighthouse tool. As Google tries to turn more and more of your user experiences into specific metrics, the Lighthouse tool is an open window into much of the data that they are using to determine UX. [...]

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