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SEO Myth-Busting: The Truth About Using “Near Me” as a Keyword

Last Updated: May 29, 2024

Welcome to another edition of our SEO Myth-Busting series! Today, we’re tackling a common misconception that still manages to confuse people: the idea that optimizing for the words “near me” as if they were actual keywords will boost your local SEO. Let’s delve into why this simplistic approach is outdated and what you should be focusing on instead.

The Myth of “Near Me” Keywords

At first glance, it might seem logical to optimize your website content with “near me” keywords. After all, many people use phrases like “restaurants near me” or “gas stations near me” when they search. However, this is a misunderstanding and oversimplification of how local search algorithms work. Using “near me” as a keyword in your content, business name, or URL is not beneficial.

How Google Handles “Near Me” Searches

When someone types “near me” into Google, the search engine uses various data points to determine the user’s location and provide the most relevant results. This includes:

IP Geolocation: Identifying the user’s location based on their IP address.
GPS Data: For mobile devices, Google can access precise GPS data.
Account Information: If the user is logged into a Google account, location data from their profile can be used.
Cell Tower Data: For mobile users not on Wi-Fi, approximate location can be inferred from cell towers.

Google automatically incorporates these location signals to return the best local results, effectively treating “near me” as a variable. This means the search engine dynamically inserts the user’s location into the query to find the nearest relevant businesses. Therefore, there’s no need to include “near me” in your site’s content; Google handles this on its own.

What You Should Do Instead

Rather than stuffing your content with “near me” keywords, focus on more effective local SEO strategies:

Google My Business (GMB) Optimization:
- Ensure your GMB profile is complete and accurate, including your business name, address, phone number (NAP), hours of operation, and categories.
- Encourage satisfied customers to leave reviews on your GMB listing.
Local Keywords:
- Use specific local keywords that include your city or neighborhood. For example, “best plumber in Kalamazoo” instead of “plumber near me.”
- Include landmarks and neighborhood names in your content to provide more context for Google.
Consistent NAP Information:
- Make sure your NAP information is consistent across all online directories and your website.
Mobile-Friendly Website:
- Since most “near me” searches are done on mobile devices, ensure your site is mobile-friendly and loads quickly.
Structured Data Markup:
- Implement schema markup to provide search engines with detailed information about your business, improving your chances of appearing in rich snippets and local search results.

Myth Busted!

The belief that using “near me” as a keyword will enhance your SEO is a myth. Google’s algorithms are sophisticated enough to handle local searches without needing such direct prompts in your content. Instead, focus on optimizing your Google My Business profile, using specific local keywords, and ensuring your website is mobile-friendly and contains accurate information. These steps will help you rank better in local searches and attract more customers.

Stay tuned for more SEO myth-busting insights in our ongoing series!

SEO Myth-Busting: The Truth About Having Multiple Websites for One Business

Last Updated: May 28, 2024

Welcome back to our SEO Myth-Busting series! Today, we’re debunking a myth that can seriously mislead business owners: the idea that having more than one website for your business will provide an SEO benefit. Let’s dig into why this isn’t just ineffective, but also against Google’s guidelines, and how it can end up hurting your SEO efforts rather than helping them.

The Origins of the Myth

The concept of using multiple websites to boost SEO might sound logical at first glance. More websites mean more chances to rank, right? However, this strategy is outdated and misinformed. Years ago, some businesses tried to game the system by creating multiple sites to dominate search results. But Google’s algorithms have evolved, and they now penalize such practices.

Google’s Stance on Multiple Websites

Google’s guidelines are very clear about this: creating multiple websites for the same business can be harmful to your SEO efforts. According to Google, having duplicate or very similar content across multiple sites can confuse both users and search engines, leading to a poor user experience and diluted SEO value.

In fact, Google strongly advises against this practice. They recommend focusing your efforts on one strong, comprehensive website rather than spreading your resources thin across multiple weaker ones. This ensures that all your SEO efforts contribute to a single, authoritative site that can perform well in search rankings.

Competing with Yourself

When you have multiple websites for the same business, you’re essentially competing with yourself. Each site vies for the same keywords and audience, which can split your traffic and reduce the overall impact of your SEO strategy. Instead of one strong site, you end up with several weak ones that don’t perform as well in search results.

Real-World Example

Even Google itself has faced issues with managing multiple websites. An internal audit revealed that they had developed several near-duplicate sites for different campaigns, which ended up confusing users and search engines alike. By consolidating these sites into one cohesive website, they saw a significant increase in organic traffic and a higher click-through rate on call-to-action buttons. This clearly illustrates the benefits of focusing on a single, strong website (Think with Google).

Protecting Your Brand

The only valid reason to buy multiple domains is to protect your brand. For instance, buying variations of your primary domain (like .com, .net, .org) can prevent competitors from using them to mislead your customers or damage your brand. However, these should not be developed into separate websites but rather redirected to your main site to consolidate your SEO efforts.

Myth Busted!

The myth that having multiple websites for your business will boost your SEO is just that—a myth. Following Google’s guidelines and focusing on building one strong, authoritative website is the best strategy for sustainable SEO success. By doing so, you’ll ensure that all your efforts contribute to improving the visibility and ranking of your main site, rather than diluting your SEO potential across multiple weaker sites.

Stay tuned for more myth-busting insights in our ongoing series!

SEO Myth-Busting: The Truth About Buying Multiple Domains

Last Updated: August 2, 2024

Today we’re kicking off a new series about SEO Myths that just won’t die. In this post, we’ll cover the idea that buying multiple domains and redirecting them to your main site will boost your SEO. Spoiler alert: it won’t. Let’s dive into why this tactic is outdated and what the real purpose of buying multiple domains should be.

The Origins of the Myth

Once upon a time in the early days of SEO (over 15 years ago), some clever marketers discovered that owning and redirecting multiple domains to a primary site could give a slight boost in search engine rankings. This was back when search algorithms were relatively unsophisticated and could be easily manipulated with such tactics.

Fast forward to today, and the landscape has drastically changed. Search engines like Google have become incredibly advanced, using complex algorithms designed to prioritize user experience and relevant content over outdated tricks. The idea of boosting your SEO through multiple domain redirections is not just ineffective—it’s ancient history.

Why It Doesn’t Work Anymore

Modern search engines are wise to the tricks of the past. Here are a few reasons why buying and redirecting multiple domains no longer works:

Algorithm Advancements: Search algorithms have evolved to recognize and devalue manipulative practices. Google’s algorithms, for instance, now focus on content quality, user experience, and genuine backlinks.
No Value in Redirections: Redirecting multiple domains to your main site doesn’t add any significant SEO value. In fact, it can be seen as a spammy tactic if overdone, potentially harming your site’s credibility.
Content Relevance: Search engines prioritize sites with relevant, high-quality content. Simply owning multiple domains without unique and valuable content on each won’t improve your SEO.

The Real Reason to Buy Multiple Domains

While buying multiple domains for SEO benefits is a thing of the past, there is still a legitimate reason to do so: protecting your brand. Here’s why you might consider purchasing various domain extensions:

Brand Protection: Owning multiple domains like prospectgenius.com, prospectgenius.net, and prospectgenius.org ensures that competitors or malicious actors can’t use these domains to mislead your customers or harm your brand reputation.
Preventing Competitors: By securing common variations and extensions of your main domain, you prevent competitors from using similar domains to siphon off your traffic or create confusion among your audience.
Typo Value: If you suspect that users will ever need to type in your domain, and that they’re likely to mistype it, you might want to grab the misspelled version as well and then redirect the user to the correct one with a 301 redirect. This is valid, but has nothing to do with SEO. Instead, you’re just preventing a lost visitor due to human error.

Myth Busted!

The myth that buying and redirecting multiple domains will enhance your SEO is just that—a myth. This tactic hasn’t been effective for many years, and search engines have moved far beyond such simplistic manipulations. The only valid reason to invest in multiple domains today is to safeguard your brand from competitors and negative influences.

Remember, the best way to improve your SEO is through high-quality, relevant content, a great user experience, and genuine, authoritative backlinks. Stay tuned for more myth-busting insights in our ongoing series!

8 Easy Ways to Ruin Your PPC Campaign

Last Updated: June 17, 2024

There are many ways that business owners go wrong with Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns. Most of them are borne out of very good and responsible goals, but none the less cause problems. These 8 are the ones we find to be most common.

1. Googling Yourself

Curious about how your ad looks? Resist the urge to Google yourself! Here’s why:

Cost Per Impression: Every time you search for your own ad, you’re driving up the cost per impression.
Paying for Clicks: If you click your ad, guess what? You just paid for that click!
Hurting Your CTR: Even if you don’t click, you’re signaling to Google that your ad wasn’t a good result for that search, making it less likely to be shown to the next person. Plus, you’re hurting your click-through rate (CTR) by adding to the impressions but not the clicks.

2. Monkeying with the Campaign Too Often

Constantly tweaking your campaign? You truly need to be patient.

Spotting Trends: Too many changes mean you can’t spot trends or collect usable data.
Stable Data: Let your campaign run for a while to gather enough information for meaningful analysis.

3. Ignoring Negative Keywords

Negative keywords might sound like a downer, but they’re essential.

Avoid Unwanted Traffic: Without negative keywords, you’re paying for traffic you don’t want.
Pro Tip: Seasoned pros never skip this step, but it’s often overlooked by rookies. Don’t make that mistake!

4. Spending Too Little

We get it, you’re trying to be thrifty. But in PPC, being a penny-pincher can backfire. If you spend so little that you get nothing, 100% of your investment is wasted.

Traffic Threshold: If you don’t spend enough, you won’t get enough traffic to matter. Spending $10/day when each click costs $8 means you’re getting a maximum of 1 click per day.
Conversions: As a rough rule of thumb, it takes about 10 clicks to get an action. At this rate, you’re looking at 10 days for a single conversion and maybe 3 per month. Is that really worth it?

5. Not Protecting Your Trademark

Your business name is valuable—protect it!

Register Your Trademark: Register your business name as a trademark with Google. This will stop others from buying traffic using your name.

6. Accepting Google’s Defaults and AI Suggestions

Google’s default settings and AI suggestions can be tempting, but be cautious.

Overspending: Google’s recommendations benefit Google first. That often means overspending on traffic for you.
Optimization Score: You need to carefully consider which of their suggestions to accept. Blindly following the AI can drain your budget fast.

7. Geotargeting Problems

Finding the right balance in geotargeting is crucial.

Too Small or Too Large: Targeting too small of an area can limit your audience, while too large of an area can waste your budget.
Proper Targeting: Make sure your campaign’s geotargeting is just right for your goals.

8. Running Two Campaigns at the Same Time

Thinking of running two PPC campaigns for the same website? Think again.

No A/B Test: Google doesn’t see this as an A/B test. Instead, they see it as abuse.
Google’s Wrath: If Google sees you doing this, they’ll shut down both campaigns and dream up unpleasant things you’ll need to do in order to get one of them back.

There you have it! By avoiding these common mistakes, you’ll be on your way to a successful PPC campaign. Remember, the key is to be thoughtful and strategic about your approach. Now go out there and make your PPC campaign shine! 🌟

Pay Per Click (PPC) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – How They Work Together

Last Updated: May 28, 2024

Digital marketing breaks down into three main categories: PPC, SEO, and Social Media. Of course, there are many sub-categories, but these are the main three. Each one interacts with and influences the others, so it’s important to understand how they work together to best target your efforts. This post will focus on PPC and SEO and how they interact.

The TLDR Version

SEO makes PPC cheaper
PPC makes SEO faster

Order of Operations

We always suggest that people get their SEO house in order first. This typically means a decent cash outlay upfront to get some groundwork laid. The downside of SEO is that you have to spend money before seeing results. However, once you do, your spend is much less over time than with PPC. SEO takes time to ramp up because many moving parts need to come together and start working in harmony. You can think of SEO like building a house: you need to spend money on the foundation before building the walls, roof, and floors. But once the house is done, your expenditure drops significantly. Over a long timeline, your costs will generally be lower than if you just rented the whole time.

PPC starts working faster and requires less upfront commitment, but it remains an expensive way to get traffic forever. This is the rental model previously mentioned. That means you are in the same situation on day 5 as you are on day 555. Sure, you avoided the upfront costs, but you never get the benefits of ownership over time.

Why Do SEO First?

Several factors determine your CPC (cost per click) for a PPC campaign. One of the most significant is how well the content of the page you’re sending traffic to matches the search that was performed. If a user clicks on your ad for “green chairs” but you send them to a page all about “orange donkeys,” you’re going to pay what I like to call the “stupid tax.” Google will let you do it, but they will charge you heavily for that mismatched click. You want to ensure that you’re showing the user something all about “green chairs” so you don’t spend 3x or 10x the amount on that click due to the “stupid tax.”

How to Avoid the “Stupid Tax”

This is a simple, if not entirely easy, problem to solve. You need to ensure you have a well-optimized landing page for every ad you run in your PPC campaign. That means spending time writing this content, putting it on your site, and ensuring it’s properly linked in the menus, footers, body text, etc. By doing this SEO work, you will save a ton of money on your PPC ad spend. This is the main reason why we say you must do SEO first.

Once you’ve optimized your site for all the search terms you need to rank for, you can start running PPC to drastically speed up the timeline. This is because SEO takes weeks, if not months or years, to ramp up your traffic. PPC can do this in a day. That’s not to say you’re likely to see peak performance in a day, but you will see something on day one, and it will move up quickly from there. Once you dial in your ad rotations, keywords, negative keywords, geographic targeting, etc., you will see your traffic move up quickly.

A Rule of Thumb to Remember

Everyone asks how much to budget for a given campaign. Typically, you can estimate with this rule of thumb: 100 impressions will produce 10 clicks, which will produce 1 contact. That means you need to be prepared to spend 10x the CPC for each contact you want to make. Assuming you will close 25% of your contacts, you need to spend 10 x 4 x CPC to get where you want to be. Let’s assume your CPC is $10, and you need 5 jobs per week. That breaks down into:

5 jobs/week x 4 weeks = 20 jobs/month
20 jobs x 4 contacts x $10 CPC = $800/month

Of course, all these numbers are pulled from thin air and may be very different from your situation, but you can see how this rough math is done.

Timelines

Again, we’ll use a couple of rules of thumb here, so please realize that your mileage may vary. That said, you shouldn’t bother with an SEO campaign unless you plan to give it at least 90 days. That’s truly the bare minimum to even be worth a try. There are many things that have to happen to kick off one of these, and many of those are outside of what your SEO provider controls. It takes time to build a site, write the content, create graphics, and start building some backlinks. That, however, is the stuff your SEO company controls. From there, those backlinks often require approval from the site owner, and Google needs to crawl/index/discover your site and catalog its contents. That same discovery needs to happen for every one of those profile pages and backlinks that the SEO company created, which also takes time. Then Google will spend time processing and cleaning the data it just scraped and run tests on it to ensure it’s ready for production. Once they do all that, they start to release it out to the world. All of that takes significant time.

PPC is pretty close to instantaneous, but still isn’t. Yes, you can throw together a basic campaign in under an hour, but it won’t be optimized, so the performance will not be great. Great campaigns require the writing of many ads and rotating through them as you discover which ones perform well and which don’t. The same goes for keyword choices. It’s important to remember that you have to give a new campaign at least 30 days to draw even the earliest conclusions. If your campaign has a large budget, you can accelerate the timeline because you’ll have more data to work with. If it’s small, you might have to wait a few months to really see how it’s going. It’s important to make sure you’re making decisions based on data sets that are sufficiently large to capture trends and anomalies. If you bail out of an ad because 3 of 5 people didn’t click, you have made a horribly rash decision with no statistically significant data backing you up. A good bare-minimum number to keep in mind is 100. If you don’t have at least 100 impressions, you know literally nothing about what’s happening. Even at 100 impressions, you know only very slightly more than nothing. Be patient.

By following these guidelines and understanding how PPC and SEO interact, you can better target your digital marketing efforts and achieve more effective results.

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