In my last blog i wrote about the Google Pigeon update, how it has now rolled out to the UK and what effect it has had on the local search results. Pigeon was a game changer for local search, as the update altered local results and changed the way that the search engine interpreted location tools. Pigeon also affected the search results within Google Maps, you may have noticed a change in rankings for your Practice over the xmas period.
Mobile optimisation is really becoming important due to the increased traffic from the this channel (predicted to overtake desktop during 2015) and because less results appear on the 1st page on a mobile compared to desktop due to the screen size.
Here are a few tips on how you can optimise your Practice’s website for mobile now the pigeon update as been rolled out.
Google have recently announced that mobile usability is actually going to be a ranking factor (see here) so making sure your website is designed responsively and to get that all-important “Mobile-Friendly” tag from Google is one of the most important things your Practice can do to optimise for mobile.
Google and other search engines like mobile responsive websites because they only have to crawl one page for business info versus two or three. However, businesses with dedicated mobile sites aren’t necessarily penalised as long as dedicated mobile points back to a mobile responsive page.
If you would like some more information about the mobile responsive solutions we offer please click here.
Schema markup is a great and easy way for businesses to make sure that search engines pick up relevant information for maps and other geo-location search queries. “Schema’s one of the directions that everyone is kind of leaning right now because it makes it easier for the search engines and for you to have a little more control over what’s displayed,” says Rachel Gordon Lindteigen, senior director of SEO at PM Digital. “Schema is a great thing to add because it allows businesses to very easily mark up the information on websites to location information, hours of operation, and reviews.”
Businesses can no longer ignore their presence on online directories like Foursquare and Yelp. Absence from popular directories could be rendering them invisible to local search. “In many instances, online directories are actually outranking local websites,” Lindteigen says. “Local businesses can’t just focus on their own websites like they’re one and done or else they’re going to miss out in rankings. If local businesses ignore attention to Google Places or Yelp they’re very likely not going to show up in search or the information that shows up might be outdated.”
While no one can be certain which exact signals Pigeon picks up, businesses with reviews show up on mobile and map searches more often than businesses with no reviews. “It’s pretty obvious that reviews do factor into Google search results because reviewed businesses show up in map listings with star ratings,” Lindteigen says. “If businesses actively seek online feedback and have good reviews on Yelp and Google Places, that information is going to show up at the top of a mobile search.”
Perhaps the most important advice for staying relevant in the age of Pigeon is to pay attention and make sure websites, directory information, and social media profiles are current and accurate.
“What I see more than anything is that businesses let their online presence become inactive,” Lindteigen says. “They’re not filling in all the information or taking the time to really optimize sites. A lot of local sites have no title tags, no meta descriptions, no header tags. They’re not helping Google understand what the website’s about. If local businesses do basic optimization on sites they will see improvement in their rankings.”