Friday, 20 May 2022

Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing

Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing

Google search results spam for ‘Bill Slawski obituary’ shows the dark side of SEO

Posted: 20 May 2022 12:40 PM PDT

We reported yesterday the sad news that Bill Slawski has died.

It’s less than 24 hours later and no actual obituary has been published (either by a news site or funeral home). Yet, Google’s search results are littered with spammy results.

Look at what is ranking on a Google search right now for [bill slawski obituary]:

This is a horror, especially for anybody seeking trustworthy information on Slawski’s funeral arrangements.

To me, this SERP looks like Google, before the Panda Update, for certain queries where content farms reigned. That’s the easiest way to describe it. 

A ton of low-quality websites have created thin content with the sole purpose of optimizing it to rank whenever someone searches for an obituary for Bill Slawski. And they are monetizing whatever traffic they get through display ads.

What’s worse – there are many of these types of sites. And these sites have one thing in common: the content reads like it was either automatically generated or written (poorly) by people whose first language is not English.

Let’s look at some of the sites so you can understand how gross this all is:

1. AReal News

The content is pure garbage. Look at this paragraph:

“He was hale and hearty until he suffered a broken leg which caused his death. Before his death, he suffered a Brian clot, due to which he was admitted to the hospital. This information was shared on Twitter. This did not affect his ability to think and write. He was only facing issues with waking properly. He was very much active on Twitter before his death.”

Aside from the obvious content problem, this site looks like it should be in clear violation of Google’s page layout algorithm (aka Top Heavy). Before you even get to the content, you get nothing but ads, ads, ads.

And searching for [obituary site:arealnews.com] reveals this isn’t a one-off. It’s a strategy:

2. OnTrend

Some of the garbage content:

“No doubt, he was surrounded by his wife and children when he took his last breath peacefully. The further insights of Bill’s partner are inaccessible at this time. We are keeping an eye on this topic.”

3. CowdyCactus

If this isn’t outright search spam, it’s certainly about as low-quality content as you can publish before reaching that threshold:

“Twitter mourns the lack of lifetime of web site positioning skilled Bill Slawski at age 61. However, his clarification for lack of life has remained secret. What occurred?”

In fact, when I turned my adblocker off to take that screen capture, it was infested with so many ads and redirects to spam I could no longer even view the site. Hopefully, my computer didn’t get a virus.

4. CmaTrends

Before we look at this example, make sure you check out this site’s homepage title tag: “CmaTrends « We SELL Entertainment Periodt!”

And the opening of their “article”: 

“Bill Slawski, the author of Search Engine Land, died at the age of 61, #Bill #Slawski #author #Search #Engine #Land #died #age Welcome to O L A S M E D I A TV N E W S, This is what we have for you today:”

I could cite more examples, but you get the point. 

Google’s new information problem. The quality of this search result is bad. But it goes beyond just Slawski.

This is a known issue. For certain new search queries, often there isn’t enough content on the web for Google to rank. So you get a bunch of content that, otherwise, has no reason to have any visibility. 

Sometimes you also see this after a broad core algorithm update. Suddenly, Google starts surfacing iffy content from suspect sources – as if they hit a sort of reset button. Typically, Google eventually figures it out and more appropriate content returns to where it should be (though not always). 

The profits of death. Aside from the clearly bogus “news” sites, there are a couple of spammy obituary websites in there – deathobits.com and death-obituary.com. Both are also loaded up with display ads. Including Google ads.

Yet this is not a new problem. And it goes far beyond Slawski. In fact, some brands are even helping fund this low-quality content. 

Marketing Brew published a report in November detailing how spammy sites rip off obituaries and actually end up being monetized by ads from major brands (e.g., Nike, Nordstrom, Zola, Burt's Bees). Google told Marketing Brew it has:

"strict policies that explicitly prohibit Google–served ads from running on sites that use disruptive advertising formats, including pages with more ads than publisher content. We also prohibit ads from running alongside content that's been copied from other sites. When we find pages or sites that violate these policies we take appropriate enforcement action."

I’ve reached out to Google to comment on this story. I will update if/when I receive a response.

The post Google search results spam for ‘Bill Slawski obituary’ shows the dark side of SEO appeared first on Search Engine Land.

New mobile Google ad experiment puts favicon in-line with display URL

Posted: 19 May 2022 04:11 PM PDT

Google has confirmed that the search company is experimenting with a new Google Ads label display, this was after this has been spotted in the wild by some in the industry. The test includes different verbiage like “advertisement” and “sponsored” above mobile search ads, instead of just saying “Ads.” In many cases, the site’s favicon is featured directly to the left of the ad domain & display URL.

What it looks like. Here is a screenshot from Brodie Clark of a few variations:

Courtesy of @brodieclark

Google confirmed. A Google spokesperson confirmed the test saying “This is part of a series of experiments to help users more easily identify the brand or advertiser associated with the Search ads they may see for a given query. We are always testing news ways to improve the experience for users on the search results page, but we don't have anything specific to announce right now.”

A more organic feel? Google has consistently evolved the visual display of ads over the past 15 years. Ads have graduated from a heavy blue background to today’s smaller bolded “Ad” text typically found to the left of the domain:

A current ad in the wild.

One can argue that this new test has ads taking yet another step towards replicating an organic result. In this view, the ad/sponsored/advertisement text is removed from the right side of the ad and moved above the site and domain. Replacing that label in some cases in now a favicon that is appearing to the left of the domain/display URL, much like a mobile organic result:

Image courtesy of Bastiir

The combination of the removal of the ‘ad’ notification horizontally next to the ad along with the favicon may well drive more clicks for those thinking they are clicking on an organic listing.

Why we care: If this experiment goes mainstream, both PPCers and SEOs could see a slight change in click-through rates. While the Google spokesperson isn’t wrong that users may more “easily identify the brand or advertiser associated with the Search ads” it is possible that they may less easily identify ads. With the Favicon on the left of the results, webmasters may notice increased CTR on ads, and less clicks on organic listings.

The post New mobile Google ad experiment puts favicon in-line with display URL appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Google launches video health tools to help publisher monetization

Posted: 19 May 2022 04:08 PM PDT

Maximizing the return on video inventory is a problem likely to be found at the top of most publishers’ lists. Help is on the way for those using Ad Manager thanks to new video specific tools from Google.

The new features are part of the Programmatic Video Health Tools and real-time video reporting, both with goals of using automation to surface insights and information quickly.

Programmatic video signals

This card will create views that show performance across the various video platforms being used.

Some elements that are automatically reported on include: app/web domain, viewability and audience information. Users will also be able to see the impact of each on revenue.

According to Google “publishers with high programmatic inventory signal coverage see an average 25% revenue uplift compared to inventory with low programmatic inventory signal coverage.”

VAST errors

The Video Ad Serving Template (VAST) errors insight cart will help with error reporting on lost ad requests. This automated view will surface the number of errors on inventory caused by improper settings or broken creative.

These can also be sorted to find errors that are having the highest impact on revenue.

Video performance alerts

Publishers will also have the ability to configure custom alerts based on requirements most important to them. This tool, Video Performance Alerts, can create a customized email based around campaign metrics and dimensions. The Video Performance Alerts feature is currently in beta.

Real time video reporting

Lastly a final tool, real-time video reporting, will help users resolve problems sooner.

This is for those serving ads on YouTube via Ad Manager and will give them the ability to test ad delivery and view ad requests, key values and details on the winning line items.

Why we care: Publishers that run video ads through Ad Manager have more tools to help identify and fix issues with their campaigns. These tools bring automation to your troubleshooting and should help save publishers time and revenue.

The post Google launches video health tools to help publisher monetization appeared first on Search Engine Land.

SEO pioneer and expert Bill Slawski passes away

Posted: 19 May 2022 01:08 PM PDT

Bill Slawski in memoriam

We have just learned the shocking news that Bill Slawski, an SEO expert, educator and pioneer, has died.

Slawski was the Director of SEO Research at Go Fish Digital, a digital marketing agency. His company just shared the news of his passing on Twitter, moments ago.

We don’t know many details about his death. He was last active on Twitter on May 16 and passed away on May 17.

What we do know is he leaves an incredible void in our industry. Slawski was a wealth of knowledge. Countless SEOs are better off – both directly, and indirectly – as a result of his mentorship, insights and expertise.

About Bill Slawski

Slawski did SEO before Google existed. Heck, he did SEO before SEO was even called SEO.

He started when all of this online stuff was simply known as internet marketing and web promotion, in 1996. He provided consulting services to help make websites easier to find online, help make them easier to use, and increase conversions and revenue for clients.

Throughout his career, Slawski worked on all types of sites – nonprofits, Fortune 500, educational institutions, e-commerce, professional services, consumer goods, B2B and more.

Prior to his search marketing career, Slawski earned a Juris Doctor degree and was a legal and technical administrator at the highest level court in Delaware for 14 years. Slawski lived in Carlsbad, California.

SEO by the Sea

For many in our industry, Slawski was probably best-known for researching, analyzing, interpreting and writing about Google and search-related patents and algorithms at SEO by the Sea. He started the SEO by the Sea blog in June 2005.

On SEO by the Sea, Slawski covered it all – from the classics (PageRank, TrustRank, information retrieval) to today (machine learning, the Knowledge Graph, entities).

Contributions to the search community

They were many.

Aside from writing on his own blog, Slawski contributed articles to the Go Fish Digital blog and other search marketing publications. Slawski was a contributing author here at Search Engine Land from December 2006 to July 2008. You can read Slawski’s articles here.

Slawski was also a popular speaker at several search conferences, including several SMX events. He also did several webinar presentations and was an in-demand guest for multiple SEO podcasts.

Slawski had been active in SEO forums, including serving as a co-administrator on Cre8asite Forums.

In addition to all of that, he was extremely active on Twitter, sharing his own insights and content, as well as from others. He was particularly vocal about debunking SEO myths and misinformation.

‘Our teacher, our professor, our mentor’

That is how Search Engine Land’s own Barry Schwartz described Slawski in 2020.

After Slawski suffered a stroke, Schwartz created a tribute site: billslawski.com. Schwartz asked SEOs for stories about how Slawski had helped them in their career. And they sure delivered.

The site is filled with hundreds of stories and memories, published on a near-daily basis, from Dec. 15, 2020 until May 10, 2021.

One of those stories from Slawski himself, who updated the community on his status:

Thank you to everyone who took a moment to write something, or to send me something while I was in the hospital. I had a small brain clot, and am now taking aspirin as a blood thinner. The clot caused a stroke, which had the effect of throwing off my center of balance, and made it difficult to walk and made me concerned about falling over. I was in hospitals for 2 months going through 3 hours of rehab a day. A lot of that was learning to use a wheeled walker and then a cane to help me get around. By the time I was discharged, I had started walking unassisted. At home, I spent a lot more time walking without a walker or a cane. I am a little clumsier than I was before but can walk fairly well. I am riding a stationary bike 40 minutes a day, and tracking my steps walking too. The stroke did not impact my ability to think or talk or do SEO. The Speech therapists checked me on that, giving me logical puzzles to work through to make sure that I could. They were puzzles that could have fit into spreadsheets, and to someone used to doing site audits were just not very challenging – they kept on saying that they needed more advanced books.

A shoutout to my team at Go Fish Digital, who sent me plants to look at, and to a number of local SEOs who sent me a succulents and a couple of Doordash gifts so that I could order breakfasts directly from them. I managed to keep my connection to Twitter working during that time, and a couple of people who were local ending up helping me make sure that I made it home, and took care of some issues with the DMV and paying my bills during the hospital stay. After 2 months away from a computer, it took me a few tries to write and send emails. I have written about a few patents already, and am now chatting weekly about SEO. I agreed to a chat this week on the future of SEO, 9 years after Penguin, on Twitter Spaces. Have to learn how to use that first. I hope to talk to everyone soon Thank you for setting this website up, Barry. It really has been nice to see a new post on it every day as I continue to work on relearning how to walk.

Community reaction

We are all still in shock and processing this devastating loss.

News quickly spread of Slawski’s passing on Twitter and word-of-mouth. Here’s just a small sampling of reactions from the search community, upon learning of Slawski’s death.

Rest in peace, Bill. We all miss you.

The post SEO pioneer and expert Bill Slawski passes away appeared first on Search Engine Land.

New Yelp feature: Request a Call

Posted: 19 May 2022 12:01 PM PDT

Yelp has added a new Request a Call feature to help service businesses more easily connect with potential clients. Users can specify a preferred call-back time. It’s then up to businesses to either confirm or ask for a different time.

How Request a Call works. People who land on your Yelp business page can click on a Request a call button. They must then select a service they want from you, then enter their phone number and preferred call time. This time could be super specific or a larger time window. 

When someone requests a call from your business, you will get a message in your Yelp for Business inbox, asking them to call the potential customer at the requested time window. Businesses then have three response options:

  • Confirm call time. You will be prompted to specify a date and time you will call the customer (e.g., “I will call you this Friday at 1:30 p.m.”)
  • Reschedule/unavailable. You can suggest a different call time to the customer.
  • Need more information. You can ask the customer for whatever additional information you need before confirming the call. 

Businesses won’t be able to call a user on their actual phone number. That’s because, for privacy, Yelp creates a masked, temporary phone number. There is also an authentication PIN (personal identification number).

Now available. Request a Call is now available to Yelp business pages that have opted into receiving leads via Request a Quote. Support for iOS and Android will come later.

Built upon Request a Quote. Yelp noted the “why” behind this feature was in part due to the success of its Request a Quote feature, which launched in 2016, was updated in 2020 and has gained wider adoption in the past year, according to Yelp. Two stats of note:

  • In the first quarter of 2022 Request a Quote requests were more than 30% above 2019 levels.
  • There was a 10% increase in total projects started on Yelp's website.

Why we care. It can be difficult for people to reach local service businesses. Missed phone calls are lost leads. Hopefully the new Request a Call will help local service providers more easily connect with consumers and convert qualified leads into customers. 

From the customer side, I’ve experienced the never-ending game of phone tag, most recently trying to contact landscapers and plumbers in my area. It’s annoying leaving messages and waiting, hoping you don’t miss that call if or when they finally do call back. 

New search filters. Yelp also has introduced job-specific filters for more than 80 categories (e.g., landscaping, pest control, massage, auto repair, real estate agents, salons, junk removal). So when users search for a plumber, for example, they can choose from unique filters for specific types of jobs or repairs (e.g., installations, sewers, faucets).

The post New Yelp feature: Request a Call appeared first on Search Engine Land.

10 reasons to enter the Search Engine Land Awards

Posted: 19 May 2022 08:18 AM PDT

The global events of the past two years have made it more important than ever for brands and agencies to stand out against the competition. Being able to call your company "award-winning" is one of the most powerful differentiators you can have.

That's just one amazing reason to enter the 2022 Search Engine Land Awards. Keep reading for more.

Deadline alert: Super Early Bird rates expire at the end of this month! Submit your entry by Friday, May 27 for just $395 — $200 off last chance rates!

  1. Showcase exceptional work. The campaigns and initiatives you feature in your application will demonstrate to the judges, the community, and the industry at large just how talented you and your team are.

  2. Generate new business. Customers and clients want to work with the best in the biz. And when you take home a Search Engine Land Award, that's exactly what you'll be.

  3. Dazzle existing clients and customers. New work aside, your existing contacts will be thrilled to tell their circle they're associated with an award-winning company.

  4. Boost company morale. Winning a Search Engine Land Award is a wonderful way to put the spotlight on your hardworking colleagues and praise them for their tremendous work. You'll ride those good vibes for years to come.

  5. Earn international recognition. Search Engine Land Award winners — like Search Engine Land readers — come from all corners of the earth. When you win, you'll be in the company of some of the world's most exceptional organizations.

  6. Unlock legit bragging rights. New business is terrific. Industry praise is humbling. Bragging to friends, family, and your entire LinkedIn network is no less a well-deserved perk!

  7. Secure a spot on the front page of Search Engine Land. As a Search Engine Land Award winner, you'll be featured in editorial coverage on Search Engine Land, the industry publication of record.

  8. Enjoy potential speaking opportunities at Search Marketing Expo (SMX). Search Engine Land Award winners are often invited to speak at our sister conference, SMX — yet another opportunity to showcase your expertise and boost brand awareness.

  9. Display a stunning trophy. Because, at the end of the day, who doesn't love something beautiful and shiny to look at?

  10. Take home the highest honor in search. The. Highest. Honor. In. Search. This is your field. This is your career. This is your chance. You deserve that honor.

Super Early Bird entry fees are $395 per application — and you can submit to as many categories as you like. But hurry! This rate expires Friday, May 27.

Click here to create your account and begin your application. Have questions? Reach out to us at awards[at]searchengineland.com.

Our judges look forward to reviewing your work. Best of luck to you and your team!

The post 10 reasons to enter the Search Engine Land Awards appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Google Ads issue with access to video pages frontend

Posted: 19 May 2022 06:04 AM PDT

Google is current having access issues with video pages in Google Ads. If you currently try to access video pages in Google Ads you will likely be presented with a red banner about an error message.

Notice. Google posted this issue over here saying:

We’re aware of a problem with Google Ads affecting a majority of users. We will provide an update by May 19, 2022, 6:00 PM UTC detailing when we expect to resolve the problem. Please note that this resolution time is an estimate and may change. The affected users are able to access Google Ads, but are seeing error messages, high latency, and/or other unexpected behavior.Users trying to access Video pages in Google Ads Frontend will see an error message with the red banner.No workarounds are available at this time.

Fix coming. Google is clearly aware of the issue and working on a fix, but there is currently not estimated time on when this will be fixed.

If you notice this issue, try it again later in a few hours and move on to other areas of your Google Ads accounts.

Why we care. This is just a heads up that if you are noticing this error, you are not alone. Google has confirmed the issue and is working on a fix. We will update this story when the issue is fully resolved.

Resolved. A couple hours later, Google has resolved the issue. Google wrote “the problem with Google Ads has been resolved. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience and continued support.”

The post Google Ads issue with access to video pages frontend appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Everything you should know about evaluating your competitor’s backlink profile

Posted: 19 May 2022 04:00 AM PDT

Competitive backlink research is one of the first steps in either building your own link-building strategy or figuring out what it takes to achieve your competitors' organic rankings.

Links are certainly not the only ranking signal, but they are still one of the most powerful factors (if not the most powerful one).

When selecting your competitors to analyze you will likely choose those that rank particularly well for your target queries, which makes sense because you want to know what has worked for them.

There's one important thing to keep in mind here: It's generally best to select your peers (sites directly in your vertical or niche). In other words, stay away from large websites that play within a variety of verticals but happen to rank above you (big box stores, Wikipedia, etc.).

There's not much you can learn from Amazon's backlink profile, for example, apart from the fact that being a web giant is working well for them.

Likewise, there's less to learn from your oldest competitors apart from starting early (and earning all those age and trust signals over time) is certainly a good idea. 

Instead, look for sites that have seen a recent growth in rankings to zero in on tactics working well for them. These are the types of sites you can best learn from, and this is what will make your competitive research actionable, i.e. help you build and implement your own strategy.

Once you have 2-4 competitors to analyze, make sure you rule out all the red flags you want to avoid first. In other words, start with what you don't want to do. Filter those lower-quality and often risky links out to be able to find the best links common amongst the peers within your industry.

Step 1: Filter out red flags

When it comes to link building, too much of any questionable tactic can be detrimental but let's get a bit more specific. Look for the following red flags:

Exact match anchor text

Are you seeing a lot of backlinks that repeat the same (or almost the same) anchor text over and over again? This is always a sign of poor and outdated link building that may get (or may have gotten) your competitors into trouble.

Very often when you see a backlink profile that is full of obviously SEO-driven links, you may also notice that the site lost visibility at some point: look for dips in organic visibility that may have happened over the years using Semrush or your favorite SEO toolset.

You cannot access their disavow file, so chances are they have gradually revived their rankings by urging Google to discount those low-quality links. But if those links haven't caused them to lose rankings yet, chances are it will eventually happen.

It doesn't have to be a manual penalty though: Google may be already discounting those links, so they have zero impact on their organic visibility at this point.

In either case, these are not the types of links you'd want to be after.

There are still quite a few outdated link-building patterns found in lots of backlink profiles out there.

These include:

  • Directory links
  • Links from blog networks
  • Article directory links
  • Content syndication (Press releases or other)
  • Low-quality guest posting links

Look out for links from websites that invite one to submit an article or "sponsor content" on them. Keep an eye on thin content that was obviously created for the sake of linking to your competitor. More importantly, try and see obvious patterns behind those backlinks: The same link building tactic appearing over and over throughout a backlink profile.

These links are probably also discounted by Google; none of these link types are worth your effort or investment.

Step 2: Learn from their success

Now that you know what to stay away from focus on what you can learn from your competitor’s backlink profile.

If you choose your competitors wisely based on organic visibility, there will likely be more to learn than to avoid. After all, if those sites rank well, Google obviously likes their backlink profile, or at least they are doing something right.

So, what can you learn from your competitors' backlink profiles?

1. Your competitors' content marketing tactics

Which content seems to work for your competitors in terms of link generation? What's their most linked content? Have they managed to get any of their content assets viral or picked up by notable web publications? Can yours do better?

Obviously, you don't know what happens behind the scenes of them achieving those links, but it is usually obvious when a particular content asset did extraordinarily well for generating solid backlinks.

It is usually easy to identify content that went viral and generated hundreds of links or a resource page that got cited by highly trusted websites like universities and government organizations.

Can you recreate those types of assets for your website and bring them up to date or make them better?

It is also a good idea to identify your competitor's high-ranking content. Content that ranks on top of Google tends to bring in links naturally as bloggers and journalists use Google to find sources. Getting your articles to rank is also a link acquisition tactic bringing organic link equity on a continuous basis without you having to actively build those links through traditional outreach.

  1. Find your competitors' articles that rank high for searchable keywords.
  2. Check backlinks of those articles to identify if that works for them.
  3. Try and claim those rankings by creating much better content.

Keep an eye on higher-level tactics that bring your competitors rankings and links. What type of content is delivering topical links? Oftentimes these would be:

  • Glossaries and knowledge bases;
  • In-depth how-to content;
  • Statistical studies and survey results (these tend to be the most powerful), etc.

2. Your competitors' outreach tactics

Who are your competitors reaching out to when trying to build links?

It is usually easy to tell by the type of links they are getting:

  • Links from news outlets come as a result of journalistic outreach
  • Trusted links from educators (college professors, teachers, etc.) require targeted trust-bait content and outreach
  • Links from blogs are built through blogger outreach (and often creation of viral assets, like free tools and infographics)

Which of those links seem to dominate your competitors' backlink profile? Knowing the answer will inspire your own link acquisition strategy and help you make more informed decisions.

3. Your competitors' influencer marketing tactics

Who are your competitors' content amplifiers? In other words, who are those people (authors, niche experts, etc.) behind those links your competitors are getting?

Influencer marketing is a great way to generate backlinks on many levels:

  • Lots of niche influencers have sites and blogs they can use to link from
  • Influencers (if you choose them wisely) can drive organic links by simply sharing your content or mentioning it in their newsletters.
  • You may be able to actively engage with influencers within your niche via interviews, podcasts, Q&As, etc.

Sometimes, influencer-based tactics are hard to track in your competitors' backlink profiles. It is often hard to correlate a sudden surge of backlinks to your competitor's site without knowing the root cause of the spike.

This is where well-organized social media research and listening can help your competitive backlink analysis. Search Twitter and Instagram for your competitors' brand names to see who is talking about them and what kind of an audience is involved in listening to those messages. Tools like Keyhole (a social media analytics platform) and Milled (a newsletter archive) can help you distinguish those sources of influence and match them with your competitor’s backlink profile.

Conclusion

Competitive backlink research is often enlightening if you know what to look for.

It is no use in trying to go after each and every one of their good links, though. Instead, take a higher-level approach: What is it they are doing to generate links and how can I do the same but better?

Trying to be as good as your competitor means there's no reason for Google to rank your site higher. You need to always strive to do better: Better content, better outreach, better promotion tools. There's often a lot of "heavy lifting" internally to get this right, and many companies choose to hire a better link-building company in order to do it right. Whichever direction you go, staying on top of your competitor's backlinks (and your own!) will help you earn and maintain top rankings as time goes on.

The post Everything you should know about evaluating your competitor’s backlink profile appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Surprise: ‘Near me’ brand names don’t rank higher for ‘near me’ searches

Posted: 19 May 2022 03:00 AM PDT

A recent Think With Google article suggests that optimizing for "near me" searches will pay out a bonanza in extra good rankings and qualified referral traffic.

"Near me" has been one of the term optimizations that many of us have recommended for local SEO benefit for years now.

But, there are reasons to think this tactic has completely jumped the shark, making it a waste of time.

And for those who optimized by creating a business name around the phrase, Google's changes have essentially destroyed their brand name search in Maps.

‘Open now near me’ searches up 400%

In March, Bill Ready, president of commerce, payments and next billion users at Google, penned 2022 Retail Marketing Guide: Drive foot traffic and in-store sales. This part grabbed my attention:

"Searches for "open now near me" have grown globally by over 400% YOY."

"Near me" searches are queries for local products or services that include qualifier terms like "near me" when consumers want to narrow down to see the businesses closest to them only or primarily.

Also, during its Q1 earnings call, Google revealed that Maps searches for [shopping near me] were up 100% globally year-over-year.

"Open now" is a similar type of qualifier that is often used outside of the typical 9-to-5 timeframe or used later at night, such as to find restaurants that are still open, or clinics and other types of stores that stay open late at night.

While searches for businesses "near me" or "open now" separately are used more frequently, it is not surprising that both qualifying phrases might be used simultaneously in queries.

The rise of ‘near me’ search optimization

If you’ve worked in local SEO for a good length of time, this isn’t particularly surprising. We’ve known for about a decade that "near me" search optimization held huge potential for many types of businesses in many markets.

The 400% YOY growth rate is eye-opening, indicating that consumers have increasingly grown to expect that these qualifiers will help them locate more precisely what they need.

The rising use of mobile devices when conducting searches has influenced the "near me" trend a lot and has helped to drive overall increases in the volume of local searches.

Google Trends demonstrates the increasing popularity of "near me" searches, which is what Ready based his statement upon:

The related searches including "open now" also show considerable growth over time:

Along with others in the industry, I strongly recommended that local businesses optimize for their ideal keywords in combination with "near me" phrases. There are a number of these types of phrases that are used by consumers, including:

  • "around here"
  • "nearby"
  • "close by"
  • "close to me"
  • "local"

I also performed optimizations using these phrases on behalf of clients. In one case (a specialized attorney), keyword research showed that no other competing attorneys in the niche were using "near me" phrases. I created an optimized page for his "near me" specialization phrase. His referrals increased by about 20%.

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Optimizing for "near me" phrases was a solid gold recommendation for a long time in local search. It was nearly a slam-dunk.

Why?

Because when you had a website and webpages that included a page or pages for "near me," along with the industry business category name, for many businesses where people wanted local providers this would connect local consumers with webpages and Google Maps boxes for those businesses that had optimized for it. As a great many businesses were clueless about the optimization, this provided a stealth marketing weapon that virtually guaranteed valuable referral increases. 

The rise of ‘near me’ businesses

In the last few years, several businesses have taken this optimization to the next level.

How?

By engineering their business name itself to include "near me".

If you check the business registration databases across the U.S., you quickly find there are a number of businesses across the U.S. that have included "near me" into their official business names.

This includes many business categories beyond just a few of the more predictable kinds (e.g., locksmiths).

Clearly, many companies took the idea of optimizing for "near me" queries and made it into a core piece of their strategy that could be expected to return a lot of referrals.

With all of their online collateral materials associating "near me" with their business, how could they not rank for these searches?


Business registrations for "Near Me" in Nevada


Business registrations for "Near Me" in New York (partial list).

The examples are hilarious:


Dentist Near Me in El Paso, Texas 

Sushi Near Me in Los Angeles, California


Custom Signs Near Me, Denver, Colorado


Boxes Near Me, Phoenix, Arizona


Locksmith Near Me Miami, Florida – a service area business


24 HR Locksmith Near Me, Jacksonville, Florida – a service area business


Locksmith, Massage, and Moving Company "Near Me" businesses, Manhattan, New York
It is unclear if these are service area businesses or fake alternate name business listings.


Exterminator Near Me, Indianapolis, Indiana

I’ll take some of the blame for this.

In the distant past, I jokingly promoted some "extreme local SEO tactics" – such as the infamous advice to "change your business name to include a few of the top keywords that users type into search engines when seeking your type of business in your area." (This was not against the rules at that time, by the way.)

I also had blogged some "ultimate local SEO tactics" which included the idea of having streets named after one's company, or even having a city or country named after one's company or brand name!

Part of the point of these joking articles was to educate people as to how Google, and Google Maps search, relied so heavily on literal keyword matching that finagling of keyword optimizations could hotwire a company into appearing more prominently for local business searches. 

Google has finally figured it out

Around 10 years ago – when it became clear that consumers were increasingly searching for local businesses while combining the phrase "near me" in their queries – I wondered why Google did not engineer special handling for the phrase.

I asked a Google Maps representative about this issue and was told they had many things on their development priority list – but this was something they would likely get around to.

Well, it seems that Google finally got around to it.

Google has made it now so that a "near me" query will return the closest matching local businesses for one's search terms within the Maps/Local listings. To do this, Google clearly extracts the "near me" portion of the user's query and matches the remainder of the query with businesses and websites it believes are closest in location proximity to the user. This handling negates the efficacy of performing keyword optimizations with "near me" phrases for Google Maps/Local search.

Local ranking showdown: business name vs. proximity

I saw this was happening anecdotally, but after locating a number of the businesses pictured above to investigate how they were ranking in their localities for "near me" search phrases that exact-match their business names, the results are striking. 

When searching with a Dallas IP address for "ER near me," 11 businesses come up in the Maps results before a listing for the "ER near me" business is listed. By contrast, searching for other businesses in the list by name results in them being displayed first in the list, and sometimes by themselves in the results.

Searching for another generic-sounding brand by name, "ER of Texas," produces results listing two of their locations first in Google Maps, followed by other businesses interspersed with more locations for "ER of Texas".

This is what makes the results for the "ER near me" searches interesting – if Google determined that query was likely a business name search, their listing would come up first in the list.

This dynamic is truly striking. Google has done a lot of work to try to feature a business's listing first in the search results for its exact brand name search. This is being negated for those listings with "near me" in the business names.

There is a caveat for ranking for the name search if the name appears to be spammy (such as those with keywords crammed in). One could conjecture that the businesses with "near me" names could be treated as keyword-stuffed, which would then negate their keyword benefit. However, I found that they can still rank for the "near me" queries – it’s just dependent upon proximity to the searcher.

Testing for "dentist near me" searches in El Paso in Google Maps, I found a hundred lists in Maps and gave up – the business named Dentist Near Me did not show up when using an IP address location associated with the downtown area of El Paso.

However, the business is located on the eastern edge of town, and by changing the browser's IP address to a location much closer to that address, I was able to get the Dentist Near Me listing in the fourth organic position in Maps. "Locksmith near me" in Miami was in the 16th position. 

Searching for "Sushi near me" in Los Angeles likewise did not return the business with that name in the first three search results. Searching for "Boxes Near Me" in Phoenix produced the business's listing in the fifth position. The "24hr Locksmith Near Me" was in the 24th position in Maps for a "locksmith near me" search in Jacksonville. Search for "Exterminator Near Me" in Indianapolis placed the business's listing in the 56th position.

"Custom Signs Near Me" in Denver seems to be an exception to how this is working. But, I believe that is largely because the business is located near the centroid of Denver, and there are few other custom sign businesses that close to the center point.

Switching to a search from Lakewood, which is smack next to Denver, moves the listing's position down a number of slots. It also could be that "custom signs" might be less-recognized as a business category than "sign shops" by Google. Performing a "sign shops near me" search in Denver places the business's listing down at the fifth position. It is likely the business only ranked prominently due to its location near the city's centroid – not because of keyword optimization for "near me" in its business name.

While searching to find examples of businesses with "near me" in their official names, I ran across a great many more instances that are fake business names and locations. A number of companies have created additional listings in Google Maps for "_______ near me" names. These often use the same exact address as their regular business, perhaps expecting consumers to search "near me", see the location, and arrive in a hypnotized state to walk into the business with the real brand name signage.

The three listings I show above from Manhattan (a locksmith, a moving company and a massage provider) potentially could be fake listings. In many cases, some "near me" listings appear to be completely fake, appearing for service area businesses, and once you view their pinpoint locations they are next to police stations, under overpasses, next to parks or next to shared workspace locations. Predictably, these listings are for moving companies, locksmiths, roofing contractors, plumbers and the categories of businesses that have long been rife with fake listing issues. 

Now, for the real "near me" businesses I documented, a number of their websites did appear prominently in the regular, keyword search results outside of Google Maps – often in the first organic position, but not always.

The "near me" keyword optimization does appear to still work there, and there may be some level of value to that in terms of referral traffic. But, experience indicates that the greater value was to be had in Maps search.

Many consumers seeking a local provider are conducting searches directly in the Google Maps app, and those will see other businesses the majority of the time for "near me" searches, and not these over-optimized companies.

Google itself indicates that consumers are showing local intent with these queries, because every one of the test queries reflected blended search results with the Maps 3-Pack at the top, before regular keyword search results.

Is ‘near me’ optimization a detriment to businesses?

When those of us in local SEO first began recommending keyword optimizations for "near me," there was some light criticism that the keyword optimization was difficult to incorporate on websites and directory listings in a natural-looking manner. But doing so, by adding it into business names, is far more of a smack-you-in-the-face option than merely including it in some isolated paragraphs, page titles and headings.

Incorporating it into business names seems likely to detract from building a non-generic-sounding brand.

While including valuable keywords in a business name can often have a synergetic value if done well, these near me brand names seem to be brute-force functional search marketing above all other marketing and brand-building considerations.

Some would undoubtedly call these brand names spammy-sounding. I think these would not work as well for word-of-mouth marketing or repeat business.

Because Google is now using the "near me" parts of users' queries as a type of proximity indicator, rather than a literal keyword matching phrase, the use of this in brand name optimizations is arguably a serious disadvantage at this point.

Customers inclined to use a business again will often search online by business name, and if they do so in Maps they will have a lot of trouble finding these businesses because Google's functionality is now damaging their ability to rank well for their brand name searches.

I do not believe this is necessarily any sort of a penalty. Google simply determined that the "near me" queries are far more frequently consumers' expressions that they desired to get the specific types of businesses nearest to their physical locations rather than businesses with names that match "near me" queries.

For established businesses, one of the top types of search queries that will refer traffic over time is brand name queries. Whereas using "near me" in brand names may have paid dividends in the past, the tactic is now a major detriment to a local business's online strategy.

A gimmick whose time has passed

The Think With Google article that references the 400% YOY growth of "open now near me" searches advised businesses to optimize for local to capitalize on those queries. Google didn’t provide instructions on how to do that.

However, I believe this optimization should no longer mean the inclusion of "near me" keywords, in the web marketing materials, much less should it involve hotwiring the business name to include the "open now" and "near me" phrases.

Optimizing for this will mean updating your hours of operation, truthfully, in your Google Business Profile, and including all the address and location signals in your online collateral materials to make your location signals very strong.

Proximity to the user isn’t the sole criteria. Optimizing for prominence signals is vital (e.g., volume and velocity of reviews, having other websites mention and link to your business website).

Bottom line: Any benefits of Incorporating "near me" in your business name are largely canceled out by the disadvantages.

The post Surprise: ‘Near me’ brand names don’t rank higher for ‘near me’ searches appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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