Google is the “Gatekeeper to the Internet” and the one in charge of making sure that search results match the user’s query. It has developed several algorithm updates to ensure the quality of content that appears in search result pages.

The two algorithm updates that most people are familiar with are Panda and Penguin. These updates are designed to keep some of the lower quality websites from appearing in search results. If a website was previously penalized by a Google update, it could redeem itself if it had improved the quality of information being presented on the site.

Why Is There a Need to Monitor Sites for Quality?

There are a few people who have figured out ways to fool Google into ranking their websites higher and bringing them more traffic in the past. The problem is that the sites getting all this traffic were low-quality sites with thin content which is very frustrating and disappointing to the user.

For the past few years, Google has been working to improve the search engine and the quality of information it collects and presents to the searcher. User experience is very important and something that weighs heavily into customer satisfaction.

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Ask many small business owners about online ads, and you might hear something like this:

“I tried AdWords, but it just didn’t work for me.”

Or worse still, perhaps they bought ads from Yelp and received little to no return on ad spend (ROAS). Then they threw up their hands despairingly and concluded that Internet ads are no good.

(Protip: Never buy Yelp ads.)

Here’s the thing: most people don’t use AdWords correctly because, admittedly, it’s not 100% intuitive without some understanding of Internet marketing and search engine traffic. Even when you do have a working knowledge of those things, it’s not always simple to maximize AdWords to its full potential.

But on the other hand, if you do use AdWords correctly, it can be a terrific channel. Here’s how to do it right. If Charlton Heston were here today, these are the commandments he would have for you.

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You shouldn’t spend money on digital marketing unless you have the proper analytics set up to measure the results. But what if customers aren’t buying something directly from your website like they would on an e-commerce store?

For local businesses, a conversion is usually when a lead contacts them. This can be through:

• a contact form
• a phone call
• an email
• a scheduled appointment

Luckily, it’s possible to track these website actions. Yes! It can be done with the power of an amazing free tool called Google Tag Manager (GTM).

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How Google Works

If Google’s algorithm is proprietary, how do SEO professionals know what factors can help a business optimize for top rankings in the search results? There are a couple different ways.

We can:

• Look at Google’s filed patents, including the initial patent that described how PageRank works.
• Follow Google’s own SEO recommendations from their webmaster guidelines, their blog, and videos Google releases about SEO.
• Review the results of case studies and experiments conducted by some of the companies that offer SEO tools and tips. (See video and post below).
• Refer to experience with clients we’ve seen achieve top rankings. We see local Wisconsin companies jumping to page one in the results by step 4 of The Phases of SEO for a Local Business.

Here’s a talk I recently gave at PechaKucha Madison on this subject. It’s a neat format, 20 slides in 20 seconds apiece, that forces you to be concise.

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It’s worth questioning whether manual search engine submission is still worth doing. Here’s some information that calls into question the need to manually submit your site to Google and Bing:

“You don’t need to submit your website to search engines because search engines have evolved beyond the point of needing to be directly notified when a new website, or page on a website, is created.”

Source: http://www.seomark.co.uk/submit-website-to-search-engines/#ixzz4T0imBPfD

“Since 2001, not only has search engine submission not been required, but has become virtually useless.”

Source: https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/myths-and-misconceptions-about-search-engines

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Now that we have the proper gratefulness for “GA,” let’s talk about what metrics a business owner should focus on in the busy and complicated-looking interface.

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Why ask for Google reviews and how many should I have?

Five (UPDATE: Three) is the magic number when it comes to reviews on your Google Local or Google My Business (GMB) page. That’s because once you have 5 reviews, Google shows your star rating visually to potential customers on Google Maps and in the result page 3-pack. Something about seeing stars just makes a person want to click and check out that business.

Not having those stars when other businesses do just makes it look like you’re lacking somehow. And you are, really, because you should regularly be using social proof (like testimonials and reviews) to sell to your future customers. Anybody can say their own company is great, but new customers are more likely to believe your past customers.

How do I get more reviews on Google?

So how do you encourage your customers to leave you reviews on Google? There’s no obvious link URL like there is for your main website.

Fortunately, someone has made it easy by creating a tool. Check out how it works in our YouTube video here.

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