Newsletter #44

Bring Your Review Data to Life with the Reputation Builder

December 19, 2018

Whitespark's Monthly Local Search Newsletter

Local InsiderDecember 2018

 Gain Actionable Insights into Customer Activity & Identify Themes in FeedbackOur latest Reputation Builder updates have been designed to help you take advantage of the rich customer experience data that is available in your account. Transform your data from stagnate to actionable. 

Learn more about Reputation Builder's new Customer Activity screen, advanced filtering, and Auto-Tag feature.

LocalU Advanced - Santa Monica, CAIf you're looking to grow your local search skills in 2019, registration for LocalU Advanced is now open. This full-day workshop offers action-packed sessions that present the latest information about what's working in local SEO and what's not.

Around The Web

The team at Sterling Sky conducted a case study looking at the localized organic algorithm and what impact proximity has on these result types. Can a business move the needle, and dominate in local organic results? 

Google as your "homepage" has been a significant topic in local since 2017. Google continues to monetize search engine result pages (SERPs), and provide features and content to answer most queries right in the results; which has many businesses wondering if there is any point in having a website? Miriam Ellis discusses why websites are integral more than ever, regardless of how SERPs may change over time.  

"We in the Local Search industry are not served by relying so heavily on traditional SEO logic and tools—in our approach to the Local Pack, our understanding of the ranking factors, and even what we suggest to clients as appropriate activities." David Mihm and Mike Blumenthal discuss the recent results of the Local Search Ranking Factors Survey in their Street Fight commentary series.   

Make your citations work for you, by getting them indexed. Inbound Authority shares just how to do it in this guide. 

Google is serious when they say page speed matters. Stop struggling with your page loading times, and start boosting your performance. Ryan Engley at Unbounce discusses what you can do to remedy your poor speed performance. 

After Google Posts moved to the bottom of the Knowledge Panel in September, many are reevaluating the strategy as low-impact. Joy Hawkins shares examples of traffic declines and drops from Google Post engagement. 

Upcoming Conferences 

January 26, 2019Philadelphia, PA

February 6, 2019Santa Monica, CA

February 11 - 12, 2019Phoenix, AZ

We're Closing For the Holidays

Wishing you a wonderful holiday season and a happy New Year. We're shutting down the Whitespark office from December 24, 2018 - January 1, 2019 to enjoy time off with our families.