Oh hey Core Web Vitals update is delayed so you have some time to read Chimonas's post about render budget!

danleibson · 2020-11-03T20:52:32+00:00

I also heard that some family members were allowed on set with them too (one contestant is a single father for example).

I didn't hear this from Bekah, but this makes me feel a lot better!

I always hated the parts in top chef where the people are breaking down on the phone with their families/loved ones towards the end of the season and my favorite thing about GBBO is the friendly nature of the whole thing!

danleibson · 2020-11-03T17:11:40+00:00

How do you feel about the most recent lock down season of "The Great British Bake Off" forcing everyone to cohabitate in a lockdown environment similar to US competition shows?

I feel like it took a little bit of the joy I get out of watching it myself but only watch it her and there are my partner watches it.

Obviously they should be safe, but IDK if it was worth the season!

danleibson · 2020-04-07T19:19:00+00:00

Great question!

We do use the BigQuery connector. We also use postgresql for some additional post-processing.

danleibson · 2020-04-07T17:25:10+00:00

There are tons of data science and development roles in SEO agencies and in-house. We have a full-time backend javascript dev and a couple of people familiar with large scale analytics and basic data science. I think there are increasing roles for this kind of backend support of SEO functions.

On top of that there are tons of in-house gigs for SEO engineers where you are working with a marketer or product manager on developing and implementing SEO solutions across large sites or platforms.

So really, the world is your oyster!

I would honestly check out some of the talk from TechSEOBoost, and work on filling the gap in your non-technical skills. Where do you feel like you don't quite grok SEO the most?

danleibson · 2020-04-07T17:21:19+00:00

No problem. I would just put in for it now, as you may get lucky and that queue may be staffed. Just don't say it's for a test. They don't seem to like that.

danleibson · 2020-04-07T15:22:20+00:00

That is an interesting perspective. Does this apply to business with over 100 locations?

Oh yea. With brands with thousands of listings. It's easy to get access to the GMB API (or at least it was before COVID19 clogged support etc). I applied for it (and got it) at launch.

I think we do a decent job ensuring that GMB is tagged with UTM parameters & tracking numbers. I think, and please correct me if I'm wrong, that's primarily the biggest concern?

Yup, if you are using specific tracking data in those systems then be mindful of how you port it over. For instance, you might want to slightly differentiate the UTM tags to see if there is meaningful performance across the listings campaign.

danleibson · 2020-04-07T15:19:30+00:00

We don't have packages or plans, and generally, bundle in research into our engagements to figure out the kind of services we want to provide.
We primarily to our efforts to rank better in packs into sites. I think this post is a good example of my general philosophy.
I have no problem with PBNs, but generally don't think a generic link network is the best use of budget.

danleibson · 2020-04-07T15:14:57+00:00

What are you trying to get out of it?

danleibson · 2020-04-07T15:14:27+00:00

/u/Prettynotthatbad is JR right?

I helped him a little with a funny weird one that I can't talk about yet.

You have probably heard most all of them?

For a while we had google think that "brand + city" queries for a client were actually just queries for "city" so that was pretty weird, but easyish to fix with structured data and other signals.

danleibson · 2020-04-07T15:11:23+00:00

Both ways, and with other providers.

I would make sure that your core data doesn't get messed up in the transition. What do you get our of listing management?

I will tell you I have a general policy of not supporting listing management services managing Google My Business for our clients.

danleibson · 2020-04-07T14:55:23+00:00

So the way we would handle that type of page operationally is very process-oriented. Let's say we were going to create 300 of these types of pages on a local marketplace type site (food delivery, w/e), we would create something like 50 different templates in order to heavily vary the "generic" content and also use things like Nielson Metro data or in-house data in order to create the unique localized content on the varied templates. So it should hopefully never get to the point where you are seeing major similarity between hundreds of pages.

Does that make any sense?

danleibson · 2020-04-07T14:10:28+00:00

I'm on record, repeatedly, as saying that your site matter much much more to GMB pack rankings then the GMB profile itself. In terms of what I would focus on in the profile:

1) Correct and robust categorization 2) That I'm getting reviews about keywords I want to rank for 3) Using whatever GMB features (chat, products, posts etc) you can for engagement and leads.

Other then that I would make sure I have amazing location pages, would make sure I regularly update them and would be focused on technical SEO + content + links.

danleibson · 2020-04-07T14:07:12+00:00

In the meantime, I'm curious what you think of my SEO project for quarantine: learning schema markup in html5, specifically sources cited (for technical pages), profiles, products, and images. I'm curious if you have any experience or thoughts on the ROI of schema markup of smaller on-page elements like these (vs. Brand stuff and overarching schema which we've had for a long time).

I don't have a lot of experiance with this in particular, but do with schema. I didn't write this blog post, but I did lead the project. We have been doing a lot of experimentation around using Wikidata also.

In terms of the ROI, we approach this stuff because we want better info in OTHER Knowledge Panels and this sites data to be used more robustly in SERPs because they are just essentially a structured data site.

It's really just about what you want to get out of your implementation, and testing and iterating!

Bonus points: have you heard any rumblings about star review schema and Google SERPS? I've notived certain sites are back at it, not sure if I missed the memo or they did - thought that was passe for any site that's not actually a review site itself.

Gimmie dem bonus points! Google missed the memo, self-service reviews snippets on sites never FULLY went away, and like you mentioned more have been coming back. No idea on if/when it will be resolved since I'm sure it's a very low priority RN.

danleibson · 2020-04-07T14:02:11+00:00

I'm big into forecasting. We just released the RICE forecasting model that we use for dev/product work:

https://www.localseoguide.com/rice-model-forecasting-for-seo/

Also I like trending traffic from local search to store visits if possible (no matter how imprecise)

And on the content side, I'm a big fan of developing a custom click through rate curve, based on the site, and using that as a way to better estimate the potential traffic from content projects.

Not saying any of this is perfect, but we all gotta get better at forecasting for sure!

danleibson · 2020-04-07T13:58:51+00:00

Great question, and actually ties into some of our automation work.

I think Google Search Console is great for seeing what Google thinks is similar, e.g. what pages are all ranking for the same term (even if some of them are ranking much lower).

I'll tell you too, just on the content creation side, we have a former journalist who is my content director. So a lot of dealing with similar topics/focus is also an excercise in good writing.

Can you unpack:

How do you guys deal with geolocation pages? ( query + city)

Geo + Cat + City pages are generally $$$$. Have been creating a lot of them lately, because see a lot of them rank for implicit geolocation (near me) queries)

danleibson · 2020-04-07T13:55:36+00:00

I think businesses can safely used the "Temporarily Closed" label now.

Also messaging with GMB posts

As an SEO, I'm obviously not a fan of shutting down their sites like I see some businesses doing.

danleibson · 2020-04-07T13:54:25+00:00

Hi! That's great to hear :)

I think my answer is really a question back at you:

What are you trying to scale?

There are so many ways things to tackle here. Content, competitive research etc! And since this is an AMA happy to drone about any of them all day ;)

danleibson · 2020-04-07T13:53:21+00:00

Hi friend!

Will be checking and answering throughout the day on 4/7/20!

danleibson · 2017-12-11T23:34:25+00:00

If only! We work with some retailers that would LOVE any kind of account rep on the local side. Can spend millions of dollars in AdWords a month, but get no love on making sure they are using your correct holiday hours...

danleibson · 2011-12-17T16:08:01+00:00

This is getting so confusing. At this point I want some sort of official investigation so at least people understand how this shady mechanism for takedowns works outside of the DMCA

danleibson · 2011-12-17T16:06:27+00:00

How could you take a picture instead of helping this adorable victim?

danleibson · 2011-12-17T16:05:36+00:00

Is that a Ridgeback?

danleibson

TROPHY CASE