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- Newsletter #8
Newsletter #8
Whitespark Local Insider
Whitespark's Monthly Local Search Newsletter
Local Insider August, 2015 If there's one thing we love here at Whitespark it's all things local! This summer we've been basking in the sun and taking part in all the amazing festivals and fun to be had in our locales. We hope you've been able to enjoy your favorite summer activities and get the most out of the last few weeks. Here are a few of our favorite moments: Admiring St. Vincent at Interstellar Rodeo.We can't get enough of all the music festivals...FolkFest.Kayaking and beach fun.Hiking the Rhodope Mountains. Before you head off on your next summer adventure, take a moment to catch up on the latest reads from the Whitespark blog and the local sphere. Cheers,Team Whitespark
New Free Tool
When you're looking at the individual result in Maps, just click the bookmarklet and you'll magically be sent directly to the Google listing (or, as a fallback, to the search results with a link to the Google+ page).
Recent Blog Posts
Whitespark had the opportunity to contribute one of the new chapters in Paddy Moogan's Link Building Book, Introduction to Local Link Building, and we're giving you an exclusive sneak peek at the scholarship link building strategy (1 of 7 local tactics covered in the chapter).Learn how to implement and maintain a Scholarship Link Building Strategy:
Getting Started,
Prospecting & Finding Opportunities
Being Creative, and
The Outreach Process.
Miriam Ellis scrutinizes the reviews of 3 well-known American eateries, discovers their most-cited problems and provides solutions. This is a process that can be used for almost any business that has earned a substantial number of reviews.
The Basic Review Audit Process
First, go to the major review sites for your clients and make a simple list of all negative sentiments from the past 3 years. Want to automate this step for a faster turnaround? Use a service like Review Trackers or Free Review Monitoring, pull the data into a spreadsheet and then use search and replace to isolate and count the incidence of specific sentiment.
Circle any negative sentiment that appeared 3 or more times in the last 3 years.
Discard any that appeared less than 3 times, unless the review in question makes an accusation of a hazardous or illegal situation. You might want to keep your discard list on file for your client, in case a less-cited issue is an emerging one instead of an isolated one.
Categorize complaints by type and make a final list for the client in an easy-to-read format.
Summarize your findings and recommend solutions.
Around The Web
Google shocked the world last week when they mixed up how local results are displayed in search results. Local queries that used to return result pages containing up to seven businesses were replaced with the new three pack format. Before this update your business could have easily shown on the first page of Google’s localized results if you ranked within the top 7 results, which gave more visibility to lower-ranking businesses. But now the 7 pack is gone!
Google's John Mueller said in a Google Hangout [on August 10th] that there are no Google algorithms that specifically look at user actions on your web site and use that as a ranking factor.
The first phase of Map Maker’s re-opening began on August 10th, starting with six countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, India, Philippines and Ukraine. There have been a few major changes; there are now Regional Leads who will moderate edits and Polygon editing is temporarily unavailable. Map Maker will re-open in phases over the next few weeks in other countries.
Local businesses have unique competitive advantages over larger brands, and columnist Wesley Young analyzes a study by Yodle to find ways to leverage them into an effective search strategy.
LocalU is celebrating great minds in the local space. Each week they will feature an interview with a pro in the local sphere and cover questions on business, life, local, and whatever else suits their fancy. Check out the first interview with Darren!
Phil has one of the sharpest minds in the field of local and has spoken at events like SMX, co-builds products like LocalSpark, and is recommended by companies like Moz.
Featured Rad Deal
$250 Off SearchLove San Diego - September 10 - 11, 2015A two-day conference, SearchLove brings together some of the most forward-thinking leaders in online marketing.
Upcoming Conferences
September 8-11
Cleveland, OH
September 8-11
Boston, MA
September 10-11
San Diego, CA
September 18
Brighton, UK
