Finding out how you rank on Google should be pretty simple, right? It feels like a quick search for your business name is all you’d need to do. Unfortunately, Google makes this way more complicated than it has to be. Although it’s perfectly logical for you to assume you can check your ranking just by […]
Raise your hand if you wish Google would stop making secret updates already! Just when you think you’ve mastered local search, Google launches a change that turns everything on its head. This time, it’s the Hawk update. This latest update has serious, wide-reaching consequences for small, local businesses like yours. It’s crucial you understand the […]
When it comes to SEO, how important is your social media strategy? It’s an ongoing debate. In 2014, Google’s Matt Cutts proclaimed that “social signals,” like posts on Facebook and Twitter, have nothing to do with Google’s search algorithm. This directly opposed what many industry specialists believed at the time. In fact, numerous SEO experts […]
When we shared our online marketing predictions for 2017, we detailed how Google is doubling-down on catering to its users’ expectations and experiences. And as virtual personal assistants like Cortana and Siri become more prominent in users’ lives, Google is seeing a significant increase in voice searches. What Do Voice Searches Have to Do With You? You’ve probably […]
At the end of the year, we find it useful to take stock of all the industry developments we’ve observed over the past 12 months and try to predict what trends the new year will bring. Understanding the industry’s online marketing predictions for 2017 is the best way to make sure you start the new year on […]
We’ve recently heard from a substantial number of clients who were concerned about whether their LeadTrax™ sites were optimized for mobile. Before we delve into an explanation, let us just say this: Yes, your site is optimized for mobile devices. You have nothing to worry about. All of this concern came from the announcement of Google’s latest […]
Having trouble understanding exactly what goes into your site’s local search rankings, no matter how many times your account manager attempts to demystify it? This should help. Linda Buquet, a local search specialist and community leader of Local Search Forum, recently posted this illustration that simplifies the “puzzle” of local search. As the image shows, the four main […]
At Prospect Genius, we’re pushing to improve our own web presence through increased customer reviews and social media activity. As we embark on this long-term project, we thought it would be helpful to illustrate why it’s so important for your company to have a large pool of customer reviews online. In fact, customer reviews might […]
Did you know that Google is rolling out new updates every month or so? Did you know that just ignoring these changes can negatively impact your online advertising efforts? Here at PG, we talk to local business owners each and every day, and most folks we come across have a “who cares” attitude when it […]
Navigating Your Online Identity Here at Prospect Genius, we know how important it is for our clients to be able to track the return on their investment with our SEO program. That’s why we create a metered number and trackable microsite (with a URL that follows the format “some-service-city.state-biz.com”) so you know which leads are […]
Changes at Google As you’ve probably heard, Google made some algorithm changes at the end of February. Called the “Farmer” update in the media, these changes are designed to help Google produce higher quality results for their customers. In short, the Farmer update targeted “content farms” to make it harder for these sites to rank […]
Facebook and Bing Team Up As you may have heard, Facebook and Bing (Microsoft’s search engine) announced a new partnership last fall. This new collaboration may change the face of search results by connecting Bing search results and info from Facebook. Now, in addition to displaying the most popular local results when you search for […]
The New Google In a past blog post, we looked the different parts of Google: maps, organics, and sponsored (pay per click). But since then, Google has changed its look—and its game. Now, when you search for a local company or service, the results display as a combination of the maps and organics, with a […]
Googling Yourself: Too Much of a Good Thing Are you one of those people that googles themselves every day? Then you might want to reconsider. Of course, googling yourself isn’t going to make you go blind or anything like that, but it can skew the results you see. That’s because Google is designed to provide […]
At Prospect Genius, we work with hundreds of local business owners, and we’re often surprised to learn about the misconceptions and misunderstandings they have about online advertising. One of the most common we come across is the idea that Internet marketing should be fast. Because we hear about this false impression all the time, we […]