Posted by TaliaGw

Allow me to start with a quick summary of this article:

There’s a 270% gap in conversions between desktop and mobile, because mobile websites suck and we’re all doing it wrong. (Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I’ll explain why and what needs to be done to fix this.)

At its essence, responsive design is supposed to make a cross-device world a more seamless experience by adapting your desktop design to a smaller mobile screen. Unfortunately, condensing all that desktop content into such a small screen has the exact opposite effect — it’s actually causing huge loss in conversion rates. But how?

Responsive design clutters mobile sites with irrelevant content for on-the-go visitors. Built with a desktop user in mind, a mobile visitor who has different intentions and a different state of mind may not find what they’re looking for, and leave your site feeling frustrated and confused. This is the source of your huge loss in conversions.

This isn’t to say you should abandon responsive design altogether. Rather, you must think more specifically about the mobile web experience and the mobile visitor’s state of mind instead of simply transferring the desktop design to a mobile one.

To develop a useful responsive mobile experience we must do two things:

1. Most importantly, consider why a mobile customer has come to your site;
2. And understand their intent.

(Here are 5 metrics you should follow to understand your mobile visitors better.)

These two parameters will help determine what you need to highlight, remove, or optimize on your mobile site and give greater clarity to what your responsive design should include. Below are the 5 basic elements you should consider when designing your mobile experience:

5 Steps for Optimizing Your Responsive Site

1. Optimize image scaling and consider value

Most images scale down with responsive design. However, an image that looks nice on a desktop can suddenly become a dominant and distracting part of a mobile site. Although images are scalable, depending on their value, they might not be necessary to mobile design. Consider the way an image appears within your responsive design. Is it an effective use of visuals? If the image is taking up the entire screen on a phone, or simply serves as nice centerpiece to the site, it’s time to rethink how that image is used device-to-device. For example, Simpsons Solutions’ desktop image doesn’t scale well and overtakes the mobile screen, cluttering the design and making it hard to comprehend what’s going on on that page.

Images (both logo and main image) that work well on desktop completely overtake the mobile screen, have almost no value on a phone, and make it difficult to understand the product.

Outdoor retailer REI’s website, on the other hand, uses the same photo as a focal point on both mobile and desktop, but it scales to the appropriate needs of the visitor.

2. Simplify navigation

Perhaps one of the most important features a mobile site can include is a clear and functional navigation bar. Having a visible, easily accessible menu or search bar helps mobile visitors get where they’re going quickly. Most mobile visitors are coming to a mobile site with a single objective in mind; they’ll waste no time in finding the menu bar, searching for a keyword, and clicking to the page they need.

Analyzing what your mobile customers are doing on your site and searching for is integral for understanding how to tailor your mobile site to those needs. You may discover most mobile visitors use the search bar rather than click on your main call-to-action button; as a result, you might redesign your mobile site to feature the search bar more prominently, helping mobile visitors achieve their goals more quickly. In addition, understanding what people are actually searching for on the site will give you an indication to what’s missing, what isn’t clear, and what needs optimizing.

Because they’re on the go, mobile visitors are often in need of a contact page, usually looking for an address or a phone number to easily reach your company. Brick-and-mortar businesses should be especially cognizant of this, ensuring they have an easy-to-find contact page directly via the site navigation or on the homepage itself. Customers are much more likely to complete an order, visit your physical shop, and leave satisfied with the experience if finding you is simple and straightforward.

3. Kill responsive pop ups, use mobile overlays

Overlays and pop ups built for desktop experiences on mobile tend to distract from a mobile visitor’s primary purpose for landing on your site. Instead, guide them and focus them on a singular goal — their goal. Using a desktop solution for a mobile experience kills conversions. Since desktop overlays/pop-ups aren’t designed to fit the 19,000 combinations of screen size and resolutions found on mobile devices today, it’s wise not to use them on mobile. You don’t want an overlay fit to the resolution and specs of a desktop — these won’t scale down, making mobile navigation unbearable.

A bad overlay, like the examples below, completely take over the mobile screen, prevent you from seeing any other content, are hard to click out of, and do not fit the mobile screen (see how the email field is cut on the LastKings example).

Instead, studying how a mobile visitor behaves on your site can help you determine what your overlay should ask for, lead to, or even just what information should be included. Take into consideration both the mobile technical necessities and the customer’s mobile behavior to design an overlay to the exact needs of your mobile visitors.

4. Less is more: simplify, shorten and optimize your text

While it might seem obvious, text is often one feature that very few brands take the time to develop for effective desktop (let alone mobile) sites. To avoid overcrowding and confusion, it’s always better to keep text brief and to the point in terms of how many words appear on a site. This is where information hierarchy comes heavily into play. Your company can rearrange, rewrite, and reformat any headlines and taglines to feature only the most important information for a mobile visitor. This practice also ensures that the text isn’t taking over a page with long and wordy visuals.

While all this text seems to work well on desktop, mobile is a completely different story. The text completely hides the page, is impossible to read, and all conversion elements (such as trust symbols and call-to-action buttons) have been pushed below the fold. This is yet another case of failed responsive design:

Another factor to consider is the automatic nature of scrolling on a mobile device. A desktop can capture a full message, words, and pictures in a single glance. While less people scroll when on a desktop, on mobile, visitors instantly begin scrolling hoping for something to catch their eye. This should influence how you write a headline based on where and how it scrolls. Text should be short and concise so it catches the eye and is valuable to the reader.

5. Reconsider and clarify your calls-to-action

A mobile site should have one clear goal that the call-to-action button should support. The call-to-action button should be the first element a mobile visitor pays attention to and it should instantly tell the visitor what to do. For example, Udemy, an online learning platform, puts a very clear call-to-action at the top of their mobile landing page that aligns with the company’s overall goal. They know their customers have come to their site to learn, so to help them accomplish this goal instantly, they provided a button for finding courses and a search bar for enhanced navigation.

Create seamless design today

While the goal is to create a seamless experience across all channels for your customers, in order to increase conversions and create a better experience on mobile or any other device, companies must get to know their customers better, understanding their behavior and state of mind before choosing to implement the simple, common solution that may kill their conversions and experience. Remember to always have your mobile customers’ specific behavior and needs in mind before designing your next landing page or site.

What mobile design tactics have worked for you? Let us know in the comments below.

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Posted by SarahBird

Hi Moz community,

We wouldn’t be here without you, so I wanted to give you a brief update on some big changes happening at Moz.

Tl;dr: We’re focusing our efforts on core SEO such as rank tracking, keyword research, local listings, duplicate management, on-page, crawl, and links. In the future, we’ll no longer offer Moz Content or Followerwonk.

How is Moz’s strategy changing?

Back in 2012, we started to invest in a broad feature set because we wanted to serve all aspects of inbound marketing. We thought it would increase retention by providing more value to customers, and also align with where we believed the industry was headed. Thus, we invested in many new directions: social media marketing, local SEO, content marketing, keyword research, on-page optimization, topic analysis, a next-generation link index, enterprise sales, customer success, ambitious infrastructure projects, events, education programs, and more.

Increasing the breadth of the product suite added a lot of complexity to the business, but didn’t result in the growth we expected. We do, however, have momentum in our core SEO products, especially Moz Local and the new features in Pro.

Moz Local continues to provide a ton of value for customers who care deeply about Local SEO. Our new duplicate management features are cutting-edge. We’re seeing passion and enthusiasm like we haven’t seen in years about our Keyword Explorer feature in Moz Pro. We believe it’s the best of its kind in the market. Our rankings technology has also improved by leaps and bounds with more coming soon. Really soon.

Churn rates are at all-time lows and Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) is climbing for all of our SEO-focused products.

After a lot of analysis and soul searching, we decided to radically simplify our strategy to re-focus on what we love and what our customers value from us: search. Reducing product complexity also creates space for us to invest in the technical and business infrastructure we need to support growth. We’re also increasing investment in product marketing, CRO, SEO, and email marketing.

<3 Search is our hedgehog <3

We believe the search industry is as important as ever, and surprisingly doesn’t see near the investment it should, given the clear value of SEO as a channel. Organic results still get 80% of the clicks and a fraction of the marketing spend. Further, with a phone in every pocket, mobile and local searches continue to grow. Organizations ignore search at their peril.

We’re passionate about search, we’re good at it, and it’s driving the growth in our business. Classic hedgehog.

What does this mean for the company?

This is the gut-wrenchingly painful part. The hardest part of my job is asking people who have put their hearts and souls into Moz to part ways. To align the organization with this strategic shift, we will be asking about 28% of Mozzers to leave. They are a part of the Moz family and it is heartbreaking that they will not be working alongside us in the future.

We will do everything we can to give them the Mozziest transition possible, including severance, coaching, and assistance finding new roles. Because I know the caliber of folks we’re parting with, I am confident they will go on to do great things.

What does this mean for customers?

Customers will enjoy increased investment in core SEO features, especially in local. We’re on a roll with these products; we’re out to win this market and we believe we can. We’ve got updates planned for crawl and rank tracking that we think you’ll love. We know we’re behind in link technology right now, and we’re working on something ambitious. If you love SEO, please keep watching the blog for updates.

The strategy shift means we will not be investing in Followerwonk or Moz Content. Despite our efforts, we’re not seeing the growth we hypothesized from these products. We will find a graceful way to sunset Moz Content. We’re also looking for a good home for Followerwonk. It is beloved by many, but isn’t having the revenue impact we believed possible, and isn’t close enough to our core base to make sense in our product offering. More details to come.

Send good vibes.

As you can imagine, this is an emotional time for us internally. Hug a Mozzer near you because we need it this week. We’re so grateful for this community’s support and look forward to making SEO software you truly love.

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Posted by rjonesx.

Let’s start with the happy ending, which is actually a happy beginning, too. Moz Keyword Explorer has utilized clickstream-derived keyword data in a novel manner since day 1, allowing us to provide consistent keyword volumes despite Google Keyword Planner’s dramatic shifts in data availability and reporting. You probably haven’t noticed any changes in our keyword volume, and you probably won’t notice any going forward, which is just how we built it to begin with: resilient, evolving, and trustworthy.

That being said, the truth is that keyword data has been on shaky ground lately as the foundation upon which most keyword tools are built — Google Keyword Planner — has been grossly disrupted. This single point of failure has put a lot of tools at risk, so let me explain how we preemptively addressed this concern and subsequently haven’t lost a step.

Problem 1: Keyword Planner has started aggressively grouping keywords

You have probably seen this story floating around for quite some time. Google Keyword Planner has always combined some words, especially misspellings, so when we built Moz Explorer, we already planned out a strategy to correct for these wherever possible. It turns out that same volume disambiguation technology works for other types of grouped terms. For example, Google Keyword Planner groups “SEO” and “Search Engine Optimization” together, recognizing that one is an acronym of the other.

As you can see, Keyword Planner reports “SEO” and “Search Engine Optimization” as having identical average monthly searches and suggested bid price. Even worse, because Google has grouped the words when making volume predictions, but not un-grouped the words when building the graph, it appears that if you were to advertise on both of these terms, you would get over 200,000 impressions per month (at least, according to the graph). Well, you don’t have to worry about this if you’re a Moz Keyword Explorer user, because we get it right, showing the two phrases as having different volumes in the correct proportions.

Another classic example of keyword grouping we see in Keyword Planner is related to stemming. Take, for example the word “play,” which is also the stem of “plays” and “playing.” Google groups these three terms together in Keyword Planner and presents them as having identical average monthly searches and suggested bid. Once again, we see the same graph problem as well, where it appears that someone ranking for these terms could enjoy nearly 1 million searches per month. This is actually a misrepresentation of already grouped keywords.

Sometimes you can get lucky and, if the keywords are commercial enough, you can see their actual proportional relationship in Keyword Forecaster. This is not always the case. Forecaster has very peculiar behavior when it perceives a grouped keyword as a misspelling rather than simply a similar term. This differing treatment of lexically vs. semantically related terms makes Forecaster an unreliable replacement for Keyword Planner alone, but in this case it serves as a decent illustration. If we were to set identical bids in Google for these terms, the keyword “play” would return far more impressions and clicks than “playing” or “plays.”

We can confirm this with our clickstream data, which gives us similar representations. We can marry clickstream data with historical data, forecaster data, and planner data to build our own volume predictions.

Which, when all worked out, looks something like this:

Problem 2: Keyword Planner has started throttling access to raw data for users not running active campaigns.

In perhaps a bigger bombshell announcement, Google has started obfuscating data for users who aren’t spending enough money in Adwords. The ranges are very large and, frankly, unworkable for anyone looking to do keyword research (for Adwords or SEO). But, once again, Moz Keyword Explorer’s blended technology keeps us ahead of the curve. Even if we were never able to get keyword volume again from Google Keyword Planner, we would be able to continue to provide users with a stable set of volume metrics that models closely to actual Google search volume.

How we do it:

1. How do we determine when words are grouped together?

This is one place where size really does matter. Moz has a huge keyword corpus of over 2 billion keywords, and we have collected volume from Google for hundreds of millions of them. Because of this, we can identify the rare occasions where two words have identical search data histories (same CPC, competition, volume, etc.). Sometimes two words share the same history just by chance, so we then use a variety of NLP and string-similarity measurements, including an incredible deep learning model built by Dr. Matt Peters to determine if the keywords are related to one another. It is important to use multiple methods because string-similarity methods are notoriously finicky. Once we apply these various string similarity metrics to the set of keywords with identical metrics, we can identify those that are grouped by Keyword Planner.

2. Once we know what words are grouped together, how do we determine the volume of each?

Once we have a group of related terms, we apply a predictive model based on data both from Google and our clickstream sources to determine the appropriate percentage of traffic that should be allocated to each word or phrase. Again, this is where having a huge data set really shines. Without detailed data on the constituent phrases, we would have to make unjustified assumptions about how to divide the grouped volume. Luckily, this is rarely the case, and we choose to be explicit with our customers and state “no data” when we do not have sufficient data to make a prediction.

3. How do we determine the volume for keywords when we don’t have Google Keyword Planner data?

Luckily, we can rely on our vast clickstream data to make these calculations. Clickstream data is intrinsically noisy and biased, so our models are quite comprehensive to remove random occurrences, strip out bias in the sampled data, and model projected traffic against the general Google corpus. There is a chicken/egg problem here, to a degree, because we can’t model against the Google data if it has grouped-keyword problems, but we can’t solve all the grouped keyword problems without the clickstream data. However, as long as we are reasonably certain that the clickstream data is internally proportional, then we can rely on it to solve the grouping problem first, and then use the ungrouped Keyword Planner data to model against with general clickstream data. It is a complex procedure, but in the end we can reasonably predict monthly search volume without ever having data from Google.

Let me give you an example. Khizr Khan, father of Purple Heart recipient Captain Humayun Khan, has caused quite a political stir following his speech at the DNC convention. His story represents a common issue in keyword data in that, prior to his speech, no one ever searched his name. After his speech, his name shot up on Google Trends but, even then, Google Keyword Planner has lagged in reporting his numbers due to the month-long delays in releasing data. Because our clickstream data can pick up on rising trends, we can predict Google volume without needing to have Google Keyword Planner data.

This is also the case for keywords that are not trending. If we see a term that is regularly searched in our clickstream data, but is not represented in our Google data set, we can make predictions without having to rely on the potentially misleading (grouped volumes) or inaccessible data sources that Google Keyword Planner has become.

A long story short

If you’re a Moz Keyword Explorer user, you can be confident that we will continue to deliver you state-of-the-art metrics, regardless of how difficult Google makes it to get data from Keyword Planner. This is just another way that Moz Keyword Explorer continues to lead the way in keyword research. If you need keyword data, come and get it.

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Posted by Casey_Meraz

In this article I’m going to address the current state of local SEO in 2016, review some findings from a new data-driven local SEO study, and provide you with some actionable tips to win the local SEO game.

If there’s one thing that’s consistent about Google, it’s the fact that it’s always changing. Over the years we’ve seen many changes in local search. The most recent changes included ads that display in the 3 pack of local results, leaving only two positions. Since Google removed the sidebar ads, you now have to scroll further down the page just to see the local results. These days, local SEO is more competitive and more confusing. So where do you start?

I suggest that you start by defining your primary goals. You can’t get to your destination if you don’t know where you’re going. If you’re promoting a hotel, for instance, your primary goal is probably to get more reservations — local SEO for you will mean ranking high in Google’s local results, attracting positive reviews on websites like Tripadvisor, etc.

The reality of local search in 2016

The algorithm, the amount of effort business owners are putting in, the amount of effort marketers are putting into their local SEO — it’s all changed. Where just a few years ago there were many businesses on the sidelines not doing much in the way of optimizing for local search, you now see more people trying harder.

Just the other day at the gym, my personal trainer told me how his business partner figured out what was necessary to rank higher in Google’s local results. But how does Google decide which business deserves to rank higher than another when most of them have followed the same guides that preach the same basic optimization tactics?

Do you see the problem here? If everyone is doing the basics now, the bar has been raised.

Speaking of goals, keep this in mind: There isn’t just one way to search. #1 rankings don’t mean everything.

Let’s talk user behavior for a moment, because it’s super important. Imagine you find yourself in the bummer of a situation I was in last week. I needed a plumber. To find one, I decided to turn to Google (since I spend all day there anyway) to search for a local plumber. Here’s my personal journey.

Step 1: Search for a local plumber. I skip the paid ads because I feel bad clicking on them.

Step 2: Look at local results. Ahh, that’s more like it! Let me click on the one with the most reviews. I like reviews. They make me feel good.

Step 3: Let’s be honest — I wasn’t really happy with a 3.1 rating. I’m going to look at the finder results now. I skip over the first result and move to the one that looks the best based on the star rating. I’m in the industry, I know how people can spam these things, and yet I still like shiny objects. I find myself overly critical and biased.

Step 4: After judging everyone at face value, I decide to click on Master Blaster and read the reviews.

Step 5: I’m not convinced with the reviews for whatever reason. After this, I ended up turning to Yelp and reading reviews which I thought were from real people. I decided on this company, which did a great job at a fair price.

My behavior seems really weird in retrospect, but it proves a point. There’s not just one way to search. Some users may not click on the first result; some will click the third result. They may click into the local pack and look at reviews. They may go to another website to check out your reviews. I think this proves my point: you need to focus on your primary goals.

Let’s look at a data-driven local SEO study & what it means for you

At the end of June, Local SEO Guide and PlacesScout.com published a great study on local SEO ranking factors. (Props to Andrew Shotland, Dan Leibson, and Mark Kabana.) While there are other studies that are mostly opinion-based, they looked at data to come to their conclusions (which I really like and respect).

As with any SEO study, there are more data points we could analyze and many we can’t, as we don’t have access to the necessary data (because Google hates us). That’s why you hear “correlation is not causation” a lot in our industry; this is especially true with machine learning. However, I think Mike Blumenthal said it best:

“Dan and the team at LocalSEOguide have done some great work attempting to bring some clarity & discipline to an otherwise opinion-based and myth-rife topic: local search ranking factors. While correlation studies can never elucidate causal effects, particularly in an era of machine learning, they can provide real and solid clues on where to look.”
– Mike Blumenthal

I agree. To be honest, there haven’t been very many data-driven local SEO studies done yet; I hope this is the first of many. Now, let’s look at some of the top factors from the study and break them down.

Key takeaways from the study:

Here are the top 5 ranking factors they identified:

1. Locations with a lot of reviews tend to rank higher.
2. Profile views correlate with higher rankings.
3. Sites with high Majestic AC Rank have a strong correlation with high local rankings. (According to a representative from Majestic SEO: “Some of our download files contain AC Rank, but generally we’ve moved from it to use only Trust & Citation Flow scores.” I interpreted this as: “Don’t expect to see this anymore.”)
4. Referring subnets had high correlation with strong local rankings.
5. The total number of referring IP’s also had high correlation with strong local rankings.

Obviously there were many more data points than those top five. You can see the whole graphic they made above, published with permission from Local SEO Guide.

Now, let’s break down the top 5 local ranking factor from the study.

1. Locations with a lot of reviews seemed to rank higher

We’ll talk more about this later, but if you do a lot of local searches you’ll also see that businesses without many reviews (or less reviews than their competitors) can certainly still rank high.

On the other hand, if you’ve seen some of the click studies I’ve run, we’ve consistently seen that local listings with reviews tend to get more clicks. This will tie into #2 below:

2. Profile views seemed to correlate with higher rankings

If you’re new to SEO, you may not have seen some very interesting click-through rate studies done by Darren Shaw of Whitespark and Rand from Moz. There seems to be measurable correlation that, when a result is clicked more, it’s given a higher ranking.

This being the case, you can see why reviews might be important and also correlate with higher local rankings. On a side note, I always click my client’s websites in the local results and stay on the page for a bit when searching.

3. Majestic AC Rank seemed to have a high correlation

There are tons of backlink measuring tools out there. Moz has one, Majestic SEO, Ahrefs, Link Research Tools… and the list goes on. This study compared Moz & Majestic. In the future, it would be nice to compare other tools, as well, to get a better sample. Link tools don’t detect every link that Google does, as of course Google itself has the most resources for web indexation.

Importantly, 3 out of the 5 top correlation ranking factors from this study involve link signals. So should you believe all of those “SEO is dead” posts? No. Links still carry a tremendous amount of weight. Not only does this study help show that, I can tell you from personal experience that moving the needle in competitive law firm niches requires good-quality links (assuming you’re doing everything else right).

What was missing from the top factors?

Noticeably missing from the top factors were citations and website landing page (on-site) factors. I know what you’re thinking: “But wait, Casey, everyone says to build those darn citations!” I’ll address this in the section below.

Overall the study had lots of great insights. I suggest you check it out yourself and dig in when you have a chance. But now I want to shift the focus a bit and talk about what you must do to rank higher in competitive local niches.

Conquering the competition

Are you ready for the top-secret super-formula we use to get our clients ranked in competitive niches? Well, it’s probably not a secret. We just work hard and take into consideration that tools are not 100% accurate.

Speaking of being competitive here and beating your competition, I’m going to assume you’ve put in the elbow grease to get your Google My Business listing optimized. If not, I suggest you read the best practices in my Ultimate Local SEO Audit guide and make sure your listing adheres to Google’s guidelines.

And if you’re not ranking organically for your keywords, you have a lot of work to do. Don’t expect to rank locally unless your website deserves to and does rank organically. Here are the things I look at once everything else is in order.

If you have major outlying issues, fix them first

If you’re not ranking in the local finder’s top 20 results for the keywords you’re targeting, this article may not be for you yet. First make sure you don’t have any underlying problems with your website or listing. If you’re sure you’re doing everything else right and seeing movement, then feel free to follow along. Otherwise, here are some common problems you may want to look at first:

1. Duplicate listings // Do you have duplicate listings for your business? Read this.
2. You’re suspended // If you spammed GMB, check this out.
3. You’re trying to rank for a keyword you can’t // Are you in the city of search? Keep in mind that if you’re outside the city limits you’re going to have trouble for searches using a city modifier.
4. Incorrect categories // Bro, are your categories even right?

Stop taking shortcuts // Report spam

Seriously. If your competitors are spamming, be sure to call them out. Google has made this much easier now. If you need practical advice, check out Joy Hawkins’ article The Ultimate Guide to Fighting Spam on Google Maps. Those of us working in this industry have the ethical and professional responsibility to avoid spamming local results and to report those who are behaving badly.

Traditional signals go a long way

Although I’ve been seeing more variation than normal, it still rings true that companies who rank high in organic, non-local search results will also rank high in local search results. Your organic optimization should be in order, both from a ranking perspective and a user experience perspective. Don’t treat these as separate, isolated channels.

Reviews // Reviews are cool

Let’s talk millennials for a second. According to a study from The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation,
millennials like me are review-happy. According to the study, millennials “use mobile devices to read user reviews and explore information on social networks. Having grown up with mobile and digital technology as part of their everyday lives, they switch their attention between media platforms 27 times per hour.” While millennials aren’t the only user group by any means, this showcases my point from earlier: reviews are important to many.

Reviews, in my opinion, can have a positive impact on rankings due to the resulting increase in click-through rates. Reviews will also help you build trust in your business and earn more business. I’m excited that the next big local SEO study is slated to take a deeper look at reviews.

Build reviews & customer feedback into your business model

If you haven’t already done so, you need to be sure you’re getting customer reviews. They need to be built into your business processes. It’s as simple as that. If you don’t have a review strategy, you’re going to struggle with this forever. If you’re in-house or need a solution for your clients, check out a review service like Get Five Stars. It’s easy to use and allows you to easily streamline reviews from your customers. It also allows you to easily add a review widget on your website.

Easily create a review link for customers

If you’re using your own marketing system like Infusionsoft you can generate direct review links for your emails by using tools like this one. This will bring up a direct link to the “leave a review” screen for your business if your user is logged into Google. Check out the sample link we created for ourselves here.

Put reviews on your website

One thing I like to do for my legal clients is add reviews on the website. Not only do we like to add yellow stars, customers’ faces, and quotes on actual website pages, but we also like to add the review schema to help get stars in organic search results. Although this is more of a conversion rate and organic play, you should try it.

On-page SEO // Technical SEO

I bring up on-page and technical SEO because of the shocking number of people I speak with who say things like “Well, I don’t care about organic SEO, I just want to show up on the map.” That’s still a common misconception. Try to be the best in all of your marketing efforts and you’ll be rewarded for doing things the right way.

How’s your site speed? If you don’t know how Google sees your website’s site speed, check out their mobile-friendly test here. Is it bad? Is it slow? If you get traffic to your website, you’re probably missing out on conversions unless you’re taking site speed and usability into consideration.

Usability

What’s the conversion you care about? Now ask yourself this question: “If I was given a list of search results with an ad, my business, and one competitor, would the user click on my result before the others? And once they’ve clicked, will they be satisfied with the results?” If the answer is no, you have to consider why.

It’s nice to have a high ranking for an important keyword, but you have to think about the customer journey. If the user sees your listing, clicks on your website, and then bounces back to click on another result, how does that look? Why would they do that? It’s probably because a) they couldn’t easily find the information they need, b) it took too long to load, or c) there were usability issues.

Why I still talk about citations // What you should do

As I mentioned above, citations were notably missing from the local ranking factors study. This is probably because Google’s gotten much better with data and data sources. Devaluing citations as a ranking factor has been a discussion in the local SEO world for quite some time. I’m in the camp that citations should be cleaned up, but probably won’t help you much outside of the basics. Here are a couple of thoughts to go along with that.

First off, many citations are links, or have a place to add a link. Those sources where your link is hidden between millions of businesses and given a nofollow aren’t really going to help you move the needle, in my opinion. At the same time, you have to value your citation sources as link sources, too.

Second, you still need to correct the data at the data aggregator and top citation levels because of potential bad data issues. If you’re a new business, you can just create these and go. If you’re an established business that has moved in the past, you need to get this stuff right. Why? It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve seen an incorrect listing created off of bad or old data. If a new Google My Business page is created off of this bad and old data, you’re going to shoot yourself in the foot. Alternatively, if there aren’t a lot of signals sending bad or wrong info, you should be fine. Just sign up for Moz Local to fix this issue — it’s super easy to use.

Third of all, you can still get business from 3rd-party websites. Like the example I gave earlier, if you’re promoting a hotel, you want to be listed on TripAdvsior. This provides value towards your primary goals. You don’t need to be listed on ThisAwesomeHotelBookingWebsiteThatNobodyWillSee.com.

I will say that you should only really focus on the top citations, though. Let’s face it… Nobody is visiting YourCitysIndustryDirectory-CitationSourceofAwesome.org, which is ranking on page 47 for your city and industry keywords. I’ve done that in the past. Don’t get that tunnel vision. Focus on what’s going to make a difference.

Outside of the top citations, be sure to turn your attention to links instead of citations to avoid diminishing returns. I have not seen an example where getting more low-quality citations helps a business rank better in local results… but I have seen quite the opposite with link penalties from low-quality websites.

On a side note, also make sure your citations are indexed. I recently did a study that showed an automated platform didn’t work that well.

Get some links // Don’t get more crap links, get fewer great links

If you’ve done everything else, my advice is to focus the majority of your efforts on links. Links still work and they still make the most difference — not only in my opinion, but also based on data from studies like the ones discussed here. Out of curiosity, I also reached out to Garrett Mehrguth at Directive Consulting for his #1 tip to move the needle:

“The top thing you can do to move the needle in local SEO today, in my opinion, is to build authoritative links.

While I believe that citations and NAP consistency are essential, these to me are requirements more than needle-pushers. For action items, we have seen success with chamber of commerce links, local scholarship links, links from industry partners (wholesale plumbing supply company linking to a plumber for example), hyper-local directory links (we find these by searching:”city name” and then looking at any directories associated with the area that rank well organically), local newspaper links via press releases to business journals, and creating content for local magazines. All of these are big wins that definitely move the needle once you already have your keyword targeting, content, NAP, citations, site design, and other fundamentals in place.”

After working with a client who received a nasty manual penalty a few years ago, I changed how we get our links for our clients. If you can get your city name or type of business in the anchor text naturally, then that’s great. Don’t overdo it though.

Now, let’s get you 4 links that are legitimate for your business.

1. Sign up for HelpAReporter.com
Dedicate 10 minutes every morning to read the daily emails from HARO. HARO stands for Help a Reporter Out and it’s awesome. Daily there are a couple of emails that come through from journalists looking to interview experts. The business owner or even an employee of your company should be able to get a request. Don’t be afraid of failure or rejection and pitch often. Here’s a great starter guide for getting links using HARO.

2. Sponsor a local event
Find a cause that’s dear to your heart and sponsor the organization. Many causes list sponsor logos and links to their websites on their local landing pages. If you host your own event, you can usually get listed on the town’s website (if it’s a community-approved event).

3. Get listed on your local business directories
You know about the top citation sources. Now Google your city name and see which websites rank for your city. Does the chamber of commerce? Join. Does the BBB? Join. Are there city-specific directories? Join.

4. Run a community initiative; give back.
I work with a lot of law firms these days and we’re always looking for ways to give back to the community. Some of our more successful campaigns this year are free cab ride programs on holidays, toy drives, and food drives. These are all ideas that get media exposure and are real marketing ideas.

Need more links? Check out Point Blank SEO’s guide on link building here; it’s a very good list for any industry. If you’re a law firm in need of links, check out these specific resources.

Moving the needle further

If you’re having trouble moving up in the SERPs to at least that number 3 position, remember that it gets harder to rank the higher you get. The people competing in that landscape are probably investing resources. You don’t have to outspend their resources, but you do have to outsmart them. In addition to this, I believe that Google’s much slower than it used to be. The effects of the links you do get may take longer to have a positive effect.

In situations where I have to move the needle in a tough market, you’ll find me doing this:

1. Making sure I’m doing everything right that I possibly can
2. Creating content that earns links to other pages of my website
3. Focusing on more ways I can earn links and boost my authority ← This is my top tip!

Keep in mind that tools are imperfect. If your metrics look better on one tool versus another, that’s not a stopping point. It’s a point where more effort needs to be put in to figure out what you’re missing. Broaden your toolset, rack your brain, and work to outsmart the people trying to outsmart you.

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Posted by Lesley_Vos

This post was originally in YouMoz, and was promoted to the main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author’s views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of Moz, Inc.

I write every day for my blog as well as other publications. I’m a big fan of guest posting, and every day I do everything I can to reinforce better writing.

The problem: Content creation is time-consuming.

• Content marketers deal with multiple tasks: social media content (93%), newsletters (81%), articles for websites (79%), blogs (81%), in-person events (81%), and more.

• Lack of time is one of top 5 challenges for 51% of content marketers, while 50% face the challenge of producing truly engaging content.

• 76% of marketers will create more content in 2016 versus 2015.

As a result, we have to find and apply different tactics to become more productive and efficient, as well as optimize our work to achieve better results.

Yes, creating content is hard work. Every time I read works of Neil Patel, Rand Fishkin, or Jon Morrow, I wonder, “How do they write so many articles every week, together with dozens of other tasks to complete?”

Do they “work 80-hour weeks?” Do they have an “army of assistants?”

It seems Neil Patel somehow heard my silent moanings when he wrote How to Write 5 or More Articles a Week and Not Burn Out, explaining the best tactics available for content marketers anytime and anywhere.

His article made me think of using alternative habits for writing more content in less time.

Famous writers didn’t hesitate to use their weird habits for more efficient work. So, maybe it makes sense to follow their lead and find benefits in our love for coffee and music for better content writing?

So, I’ve taken my daily habits and decided to learn how to develop them for writing better content in less time.

#1 — Read the news

I can’t help but read the news online. Turns out, this daily habit holds benefits for content writers:

• It improves writing skills, encouraging better cognitive skills and brain functioning. Plus, it enriches vocabulary.

• It provides ideas for new content.

• It lets them learn from professionals and follow their methods.

To make this work, avoid reading everyone and everything. Make a list of channels and resources that inspire you, as well as educate you.

Learning from experience, I can say Moz, Copyblogger, QuickSprout, and Smart Blogger are the best helpers in my niche. Rand Fishkin and Neil Patel teach me all the aspects of and latest trends in content and Internet marketing, while Brian Clark and Jon Morrow demonstrate the art of writing and encourage me to polish up my writing skills.

And applications such as Digg or Newsbeat have helped me organize my newsfeed in a way that gleans the most from my reading habit.

#2 — Free writing

If your daily habit is getting up early, your free writing is ripe for development.

It’s a writing technique described by Julia Cameron and Mark Levy as a way to free the subconsciousness by telling all your worries to a piece of paper. All you need to do is start every day with writing three pages of text.

The topic doesn’t matter. Just sit and write.

When developed, the habit of free writing can be a big help, including providing topics for new content and allowing you to create drafts quickly.

To develop this habit and use it for content creation, you should do nothing but write three pages of text every morning. Don’t try too hard. Simply allow your thoughts to flow, write quickly, and set some time limits.

I dared to try it after I had read Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. While I’m a night owl, and it’s an act of bravery for me to wake up early, I was faithful in writing three pages of text every morning and even discovered the site 750 Words. Working and spending 8–10 hours at a computer regardless the day of a week, I supposed it would be easier for me to free write online.

The most helpful thing about this website was its analytics and charts about every piece I wrote:

It let me analyze my writing and see what I needed to change for faster and more accurate work: I decreased the number of distractions and the level of wateriness in my writing (the tool showed which words I used the most).

My final attempt to fall in love with free writing was a master class by one local artist. Armed with a pen, a notebook, and cappuccino, I was in a good mind to give free writing a chance…

She gave us three tasks:

• “You have 5 minutes. Write about the latest problem that worried you and how you solved it.” It helped me realize what a slow writer I was. Five minutes wasn’t enough time for me to describe the problem, much less speak of the solution.
• “You have 10 minutes and three topics. Choose one and write about it.” Mine was to take a phrase and begin a story with it. It taught me to start my writing with a hook, as it saved time and made me write faster.
• “You have 15 minutes. Make a to-do list for 2016.” The trick was to write 100 items and avoid mentioning the same deed twice. It taught me to concentrate on my train of thought to avoid wateriness and save time for editing my writing afterward.

Now I use free writing when I need to come up with writing ideas. It saves time for brainstorming, and every free writing session gives me 2–3 ideas for future articles. Plus, I write faster now. (Yes, time frames matter.)

The moral of this story: free writing is a daily habit worth developing. Don’t give up. Just write.

This technique is a big hit today, and many tools have been developed to use it with comfort. Try 750 Words, Write or Die, or Written? Kitten!

#3 — Drinking coffee

A daily habit of drinking coffee has its scientifically proven benefits, too:

• Coffee stimulates productivity.
• Coffee helps to stay more alert.
• Coffee increases creativity and mood.

I’m a coffee addict, so I can say with full confidence that it helps with my content marketing endeavors. The trick is to know when and how much coffee to drink for better writing.

I drink two cups per day.

Although the perfect time is between 10 a.m. and noon, and between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m., I take my first americano with milk on early mornings. It stimulates my workflow and gets me into the swing of writing.

My second cup comes between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. It works like a charging system to revive spirits and, therefore, support a sufficient level of productivity in the afternoon. After my second cup of coffee, I have the energy to research and write outlines for my content.

#4 — Plan everything in advance

Does your organized nature make your friends smile? Mine still don’t understand why I want to be ahead of the game and plan everything two or three months before deadlines.

This habit is my savior:

• It leads to better and more organized research.
• It sets time limits, stimulating you to write faster.
• It lets you create content plans and schedule like a boss.

With that in mind, I’ve chosen Trello to make this habit of planning flourish. My favorite thing about this tool is its keyboard shortcuts that allow me to manage tasks with one click. Plus, I use its Google Drive integration and desktop notifications to share and edit content quickly, as well as remember deadlines for planning my time properly.

Besides Trello, Asana, Evernote, or Wunderlist are worth exploring as well.

#5 — Listening to music

This one is my favorite.

Working in an open-plan office with 14 people, half of whom regularly practice idle chitchat, I’ve found the perfect escape from frustration and, therefore, procrastination: music.

Music helps me concentrate on work, lowers my frustration, helps me write letter-perfect text, and speeds up my writing.

Listening to music in the office has also helped my writing accuracy.

Image via Music Works For You infographic

Following the advice from Neil Patel on “youifying” content (I love that word), I use music to cheer up, gain inspiration, awaken creativity, and put me back on a productive track while writing my articles.

Listening to music also helps me save writing time:

• It signals to others that they shouldn’t interrupt you. (Headphones work perfect for me!)
• It stimulates thinking.
• It makes writing more enjoyable. (Thank you, Karl Frierson!)
• It raises efficiency. (Jazz is my #1 choice here.)

Numerous studies confirm music’s positive influence on productivity and efficiency at work. University of Birmingham, England shares that music makes repetitive work more enjoyable. And according to researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, music boosts moods and helps us focus.

(HubSpot shared six science-based playlists to choose from for listening at work.)

But when it comes to tasks requiring more brainpower, sounds of nature, songs without lyrics, or classical music seem to have the best impact on our productivity.

Are there any daily habits you use for writing content and organizing your time for better productivity? How do they work for you?

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