Community Discussion: Miriam's 2017 Local SEO Predictions ... And Yours?
-
I want to start this thread by thanking everyone in our community who has started and contributed to great threads this past year. You guys are an inspiration!
I want to offer up a few predictions for the Local SEO industry in 2017 and ask you to contribute your own:
-
Attribution will be big in 2017. Google will roll out a more thorough set of attributes in the GMB dashboard as we move forward through the new year.
-
We'll see further rollout out of paid packs in service industries in which Google can play the middle man role. Free-packs won't be gone by the end of the year, but there will be fewer of them.
-
Even SMB local businesses will have to start to tackle the ramifications of voice search.
-
Local SEO will continue to merge with traditional, offline marketing.
-
Local business websites will still matter, but Google will continue to do all it can to keep users within layers of its own local product, and some people will find this maze a bit bewildering.
-
Reviews will finally be recognized as an integral facet of citations, rather than as something separate from them.
Now, please, look into your own crystal ball and share your predictions with the community. What are your predictions for Local SEO in 2017? I'd love to know. And, while I'm at it, please let me wish each of you a busy and profitable new year in our exciting industry!
-
-
Hi Julie,
I wouldn't predict that happening in 2017 (or any time soon). Google has simply positioned themselves too well. That being said, Facebook is definitely one of the major deterrents to Google having the whole pie, and Apple Maps has made some improvements in the past year that could lead to them taking a little bit of a larger slice
-
Do you think anyone can make a dent in Google's dominance? I had expected Facebook to gain some share this year, but it doesn't seem like they've made an impact.
-
Nice predictions, Brett! Count me as one of the folks who thought G+ was simply irrelevant for most local businesses after the big G+/Local break-up. Lo and behold, I've spoken with industry folks I respect who have told me they are still getting traction from it in 2016 for some clients. I'd love to see more people writing about the specifics of this.
-
I see Google focusing on mobile more and more. The launch of Pixel was specifically done to maintain search share (people rarely change default browsers on mobile devices, which Microsoft used to their advantage in Europe by releasing phones preloaded with Bing).
That said, mobile friendliness will be ever more important. This means the mobile first index will be fine tuned, and I expect to see more ad revenue focused on mobile this year. Site speed will continue to play a factor, and further integration of video into the SERP and paid ads is where I'll put my money.
HTTPS is already a ranking factor, but I expect that to become more important in the future once a certain threshold is crossed. Once Google can force the issue without impacting their own search quality I'm sure it will happen. Unknown if that will be a 2017 advancement or further down the line.
And of course Google will continue to try and make G+ relevant
-
I can see that, Donna. The race will be to the swift, for sure. Go small local businesses, go!!!
-
Good ones, Gyi! Thank you for contributing. Agree with everything on your list ... with the possible exception of (hopefully) less spam. This always seems to be at the bottom of Google's own list. Haha
Really enjoyed your points.
-
Small business owners' frustration will grow as Google continues to add layers and nuances to an already crowded and overly-complex process making it harder for them to allocate the time and resources needed to compete.
-
1. Paid Local Packs
2. (Hopefully) Improved local pack data (i.e. Google My Business, local phone tracking).
3. More SERP to lead capture (i.e. schedule appointment, message, etc).
4. (Hopefully) Less spam.
5. More local packs appearing lower in SERPs (i.e. organic outranking packs).
6. Links will still matter.
7. More local pack filtering options.
-
Good ones, Sean! Thanks for contributing to this. Especially like your prediction about 'near me' searches
-
Hey Miriam,
Whatever happens, I would LOVE Google to roll out a more comprehensive way of exporting Google My Business data - the API is still massively limited and the manual process of exporting data for clicks, calls, website visits etc. is an absolute killer!
Referring to your prediction number 3 on voice search, I'm thinking there's going to be way more of a focus on geolocation and we're going to see another huge rise in 'near me' searches.
All the best,
Sean
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Rankings preferring English URL above local URL
We've recently had a redesign for our website and it has influenced our rankings a little bit. However, what I mainly noticed is that for some keywords in MOZ the English URL is looked at in terms of ranking, instead of the local URL. It used to be just the local URL ranking, even for keywords that are more English oriented, and I'm wondering if that might be hurting our rankings. And more importantly, why it's happening. An example of a page where it's happening is: https://www.bluebillywig.com/online-video-platform/
Local SEO | | Billywig0 -
Does popup ads affects SEO?
Hi, webmasters, As a part of Christmas, we have enabled some pop-up advertisement on our homepage. However, we are doing SEO for our services, and if there any SEO experts here, please share your view on my question. Reference of the website which im saying is https://www.cash4carremovalsydney.com.au/ However, if this affects SEO, tell me an alternate solution for this concern for promoting our Xmas offer for our cars removal services.
Local SEO | | AnuManish0 -
Happy Local New Year from Miriam
First, I want to thank all of our awesome community members here who continuously post interesting, tough and good Local SEO question in the Moz Q&A forum. I love chatting with you all, and I hope you'll keep asking away, giving us all the opportunity to muse and learn together. I think 2018 is going to be challenging and fun, and have a few thoughts on that I'd like to share, hoping you'll reply with your own tips and predictions. In the new year, I believe: Quality is going to further solidify as the most apparent differentiator of local businesses, giving those companies with the most considerate and excellent service and policies the upper hand. Memorably good customer service will drive the high-star reputation and word-of-mouth marketing that leads to success. Small local businesses have an advantage here, in their agility to implement the most genuine home-town excellence, but bigger brands can strive for this, too. From skilled phone service, to adequate in-store staffing, to employee training, to dedicated management of all online local assets, to initiatives that make a lasting, positive impression on consumers, quality is the key ingredient to loyalty, which is what every local business should most pursue in 2018. Speaking of loyalty, I would especially advise SABs to leave no stone unturned in earning it. Google's LSA program will be a serious disruptor of business-as-usual in this sector, changing the makeup of local SERPs and striving to become the middleman in the service industries. SAB owners won't love having to rent back their customers for a fee to Google, so developing Google-independent streams of leads and repeat customers will be vital in any city where LSA rolls out in the coming year. Serving in a smaller town? Begin working on Google-independence anyway, particularly via word-of-mouth marketing so that you have these streams running in advance, should LSA move beyond the more densely-populated areas. While developing Google-independence, don't overlook Google opportunities that are still free. I think Google Posts was the most interesting development of 2017, and there has been some anecdotal evidence that weekly use of this form of knowledge panel microblogging may give a small ranking boost. Be an early adopter and take advantage of that. 2018 may be the year in which Google finally cracks down on two things: keyword stuffing of the business title and review spam. I'm sure they're tired of the complaints surrounding the former and if Google's commitment to identifying quality remains in place, sooner or later, they have got to deal with this false signal of relevance the same way that have with EMDs. As to the latter, Google's increased focus on reviews over the past year is apparent in the sheer number of emails they are now sending out regarding them. Also fascinating to see that we're closing out 2017 with third-party reviews finally reappearing in Google's local products, after years of absence and trouble with the FTC. Overall, Google knows that their review corpus is dependent on consumers trusting it, and better spam detection methodologies and better/faster response to review spam reporting has got to be on their to-do list. This could be the year! For local businesses, protection lies in abandoning any type of spammy practice (from keyword stuffing to self-reviewing). And, being proactive if you are the victim of review spam. Report it. Raise a polite but firm hullabaloo. Let Google know you hold them to reasonable standards of accountability in their role as public arbiter of brand reputation. The best Local SEO agencies and local business will dig deeper into the history and tactics of organic SEO than ever before. We need to understand Hummingbird, RankBrain, and matching content to the buyer journey with the best of them. We need to master not just linkbuilding, but the relationship building that makes it most authentic and of most lasting value - and this is an area in which local businesses have a massive advantage over virtual ones, in that we can actually meet our neighbors face-to-face to build beneficial bonds. And we need to get a real handle on the technical side of SEO, understanding how site structure, handling of the robots.txt file, and the management of indexation and accessibility issues impact us. When we put high-level knowledge of all these considerations together with our Local SEO know-how, we can be successful in new, exciting ways we may have overlooked in the past. Oh, there's so much more I could say about the interesting things I see coming in 2018, but I'd love it if you'd talk now. What do you see in our industry's near future? I'd love to know. And let me take this opportunity to wish you all a fun, exciting and prosperous new year!
Local SEO | | MiriamEllis11 -
Does having 3 city's in my Title Tag help or hurt me?
Hello!! I have a health insurance agency located in a small city. I need to reach more area's, and I'm wondering if adding a couple more cities to the Title Tag actually helps? Or should I go the other route and try achieving it with location landing pages? I've seen other websites do it, but I'm hesitant. Any advice welcome 🙂 The site is http://wilkersoninsuranceagency.com/ in Coppell, Tx It currently ranks 3rd on Google. Thank you in advance!! 🙂 xx
Local SEO | | MissThumann0 -
How to find best local websites?
For example, I'd like to type in a zipcode and get the highest ranking websites by DA/whatever metric the software uses, within a 25 mile radius? Does that type of service exist? I'm looking to build up our local links, but most of the websites have extremely low authority. I'm trying to find some good ones without having to manually check each one. Thanks, Ruben
Local SEO | | KempRugeLawGroup1 -
My First SEO strategy - What's next?
I have recently embarked on an SEO strategy for my website. I've done a lot of reading and researching here on Moz and on search engine land and have got a good idea of how to build a basic SEO strategy. My own expertise is in PPC, so keyword strategy came easy to me. I rebuilt my website and focused on the on page SEO with every single page, this has brought really great results - instantly. For some of my chosen keywords I have gone from not being ranked to being on Google's first page - within a couple of days of my new website going live, for other's I've gone from being outside the top 50 to being ranked in the top 50, so my on page SEO has really strengthened my position and I now understand how important it is as a ranking factor. I've also started to create content on a regular basis with 2 or 3 new blogs being uploaded each week, the blogs are based around my businesses main target market's - PPC, Web design, digital marketing etc. These blogs have a lot of links out to good websites, EG "to learn about adwords check out the adwords fundamentals course on lynda.com" and useful info like that. I also signed up to whitespark for citation idea's so have started adding my site to all relevant directory suggestions that it gives me. So my question is this, after seeing great early results because of my on page SEO, what are my next steps to increase my rankings? And more specifically how do I use Moz to help increase my ranking? During the week, I've started using Open site explorer to find my competitors backlinks, should I now spend my time trawling through these links to find opportunities to add links for my website where I can. Is this a good thing to be doing at this stage? Anything else that I should be doing now to capitalise on my early results please let me know what it is and please tell me how to take full advantage of Moz to gain a better ranking. I appreciate all insight!
Local SEO | | michealbren0 -
Transfer Local SEO rankings to another domain
The question is specifically about local rankings, not the organic ones. My client recently acquired another Law firm. Acquired firm's website is ranking well in Google local and has a decent SEO authority. Its Google mybusiness page is also established and has a lot of positive reviews. Client's main website is comparatively new and doesn't currently rank well in Google local. The Google mybusiness page is sort of incomplete and doesn't have any review. Both businesses are listed in local directories (client's main business is listed in lot less directories and has fewer citations). The client wants to merge the newly acquired website with his main website, without losing Google local rankings the acquired website has. Or in other words, transfer newly acquired website's local rankings to his main site. Client wants to transfer the website to his main website in all cases while minimizing the damage. I'd transfer acquired website's content to main website, properly map the pages and place 301 redirects. Regarding Google my business pages, what would you suggest? I can either update main business NAP and Website address in Acquired business's mybusiness page, or transfer acquired business's mybusiness ratings to main mybusiness page via this form: https://support.google.com/business/contact/business_move_reviews I've also heard that Google support can merge two business page, however not sure about that. I'd also need to update the business listings and citations. Could you please suggest the best way of doing this? And have you practically tested it?
Local SEO | | Woofire0 -
Is my link structure hurting my SEO?
Moz says I have too many links on the homepage - could this be hurting my SEO? I have a lot of links on my homepage - especially from the services menu. I also have a few in the intro paragraph that are unnecessary but are linked to other pages using keywords - such as "veterinarians" which go to Meet our Veterinarians, etc. I'm afraid to make changes as I don't want to go overboard and actually hurt our rankings further. Any thoughts on this? Brant
Local SEO | | BCB11210