CTR manipulation can be legitimate or illegitimate, although the latter brings a quicker yield with more risks.

A robust CTR will, by default, increase your interaction with your audience and bolster your revenue, sales, or engagement if you offer products or services people need.

Every entity, from businesses to political campaigns to sports teams, can benefit from CTR manipulation, provided they do it right.

Here is all you need to know about CTR manipulation and how you can use it to bolster your web response rates.

What Does CTR Stand For?

The CTR of a website is the number (expressed in a percentage) of people that see a website or digital content link and click on it.

It gets compared against the total number of people that saw the link.  

What Exactly is Click Through Rate?

When people see a website or digital content link and click on it, investigating the attached site, article, or blog counts as a point for their CTR.

A CTR lets managers and searchers gauge the popularity of a website or digital content.

Why Is CTR SEO Important?

Websites or digital content with high CTR are usually popular with end users.

Higher popularity means higher engagement.

What Is CTR Manipulation?

CTR manipulation is a process some managers of web content use to bolster their CTR and make it look like their content is more popular than it is.

There are a few reasons for doing this:

• Generate interest in a website or digital content
• Increase exposure to the content for increased engagement
• To justify advertising on a website by a third party

How CTR Manipulation Works in SEO

CTR manipulation aims to either prompt more people to respond or make it look like more people are organically responding.

There are two suspect ways to prompt responses or make it look like your content is getting a huge response.

Both exploit inherent flaws in algorithms that manage internet search processes.

The first is through bots. The second is through people.

Bots

Bots are called different things, including “traffic bots” and “bot farms.”

They are used to drive web traffic to targeted websites or online content.

Bots are programs that repeatedly access a website or web content (like an article), and once they activate a website, they cease their activity.

Traffic bot farms are run on a program and include multiple engagements targeted toward specific websites or content.

A bot farm can be used to access content hundreds or even thousands of times, artificially bolstering that content’s engagement rate.

That, in turn, helps with search algorithms that use engagement to rank popularity and relevance.

Traffic bots are a clear violation of Google’s terms of service.

If you get using a bot, you can have your content suspended. However, the risk of discovery and suspension is worth it to many marketers because of the short-term boost in user traffic.

People (Micro Workers)

Micro workers are paid employees that work for a company that is contractually committed to visiting content on a planned basis to engage in CTR manipulation.

A marketer might hire a micro worker farm to Google a specific search term or a list of keywords and then click on a specific site.

Each micro worker gets a proxy or Virtual Private Network (VPN) to hide their location and make their engagement look real.

This way, without really digging into user activity on a site, a micro worker can access a site multiple times a day or boost specific keywords, and there is no way of telling if they are a legitimate user.

Ways to Implement CTR Manipulation

Bots and micro workers are the two methods of CTR Manipulation and multiple forms of implementation.  

What is the Most Popular Method of CTR Manipulation?

By far, the most popular way to implement a CTR Manipulation scheme is to use automated software (bots)

Automated Software

It is popular because human error is not possible as long as the input is accurate, and the development of automation is much less expensive than paying 25 workers.

Developing your bot or bot farm is cheaper once development gets done than paying humans to physically perform searches.

Mobile Proxies

Proxies are ways to mask an IP address.

There are a few different methods of using proxies to perform CTR manipulation.

Mobile proxies are portable devices, such as a smartphone, that provide access to the internet.

Most CTR Manipulation schemes using a mobile proxy will have multiple connections assigned to devices that are programmed to access search terms.

A mobile proxy masks an IP address because it uses random and numerous devices to search on the same term.

How Can You Use Emails as a Method of CTR Manipulation?

Emails and newsletters can be used by including links in either body to prompt users to access web content.

The content might or might not be as advertised, or it might be disguised under related but different content.

To be effective, an extensive distribution list must be used.

How Can You Use Social Media to Help With CTR Manipulation?

Social media can use bots or humans to promote different sites using catchy headlines (called clickbait) to prompt users to explore a link.

Another approach is to have a list of human workers send out social media posts asking their followers, friends, or supporters to click on a link.

Social media can artificially boost performance one time over a short period.

It is also easily trackable.

Organic Social Media Posts

Another way to engage in CTR manipulation is to use organic services.

Organically driven SEO includes tailoring your SEO content on your website and in linked content to drive traffic to you via wide use of search terms.

So if you are a plumber looking to get people to your company’s website, all your content must be search term rich, with links to your site.

There are other ways to boost traffic organically (which is technically CTR manipulation):

• Designing the site to be easy to access
• Driving traffic by vague information that prompts a user to visit for specific information
• Making the website or content user friendly
• Including a lot of other links to build a reputation as a source of information
• Tailoring your site and content to be search engine friendly

Paid Social Media Posts

The paid social media approach is similar to organic social media strategies, but you pay a company to post the information with your content link to commercially managed lists of users.

The paid social media entity can be a corporately managed account or can be the account of a specific influencer or influencers.

They recommend a link, and traffic gets driven to your content.

Sharing Social Media Platforms Via Email

Sharing social media platforms via email follows the same email strategy outlined above.

The difference is that you encourage users to click on a social media account recommending your content as worth investigating.

Can You Use Google Ads to Manipulate CTR?

The best way to use Google ads to build CTR is through sound SEO strategies.

Some of the strategies you can use to perform CTR manipulation are:

• Create multiple website listings with alternative titles and descriptions
• SEO enriched titles and descriptions
• Rich snippets
• SEO enriched copy

In terms of less than legitimate CTR manipulation, it is challenging to do in Google Ads, and the risk of getting caught is not worth the return.

When Is the Best Time to Implement CTR Manipulation?

CTR manipulation works any time it is used (for the short term at least,) but the most effective strategy is to use it when your webpage is stuck at a certain engagement rate and not moving.

Another time to consider a manipulation strategy is when your links are stuck on page 2 or 3 of the SERP.

Are There Any Risks Associated With CTR Manipulation?

The answer is that it depends on what type of CTR manipulation you use.

You should be fine if you use legitimate ways of manipulating CTR, like SEO enrichment.

Google Penalties for CTR Manipulation

If you use illegitimate CTR manipulation techniques, like bots or worker farms, you risk suspension of your Google account if caught and even banishment.

Does CTR Manipulation Still Work?

In the short term, any CTR manipulation can work.

Getting caught using illegitimate methods, however, is a significant risk.

It is so much of a risk that the question becomes whether the reward justifies the risk, and in most cases, the answer is no unless you use legitimate CTR Manipulation.

Where Can You Learn CTR Manipulation?

The best way to learn CTR manipulation is to search online for courses from organizations that offer marketing classes.

What Companies Teach CTR Manipulation?

1. Hussle Marketing
2. Link Daddy
3. Chris Palmer Marketing
4. CTR Geeks Course
5. Rank Fortress Academy

Top CTR Manipulation Tools

Multiple websites offer tools to help with building CTR.

• SearchSEO: This site offers a massive toolkit to help you build CTR
• GMB Crush: This site can help you build a CTR strategy and track it
• Klicktr: This site provides real humans to perform searches on your behalf

Do CTR Manipulation Services Actually Work to Improve Rankings?

It depends on what you do and how you do it.

Illegitimate methods almost always work in the short term but are also usually found out.

Legitimate CTR manipulation, such as using SEO-enriched copy, can work if your SEO is sound.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are a few commonly asked questions regarding CTR and CTR manipulation.

Final Thoughts

There are good and bad types of CTR manipulation.

Good methods can help you improve your SERP results and drive more traffic to your site.

The bad can do the same, but the risk is much higher, and the penalties are not worth the risk in most cases.

The type of CTR manipulation you use should be tailored to your specific needs with SEO and SERP ranking and not driven by how effective something might be in the short term.

Your Bounce and Exit rates are one potential indicator, but what do those two terms mean?

How are they different?

Between bounce rate vs. exit rate, which is more important?

Most importantly, how can they help you manage your website?

The following is a summary of each term, what they meant to you and how you can use them in the future to improve your web presence.

Bounce Rate Vs. Exit Rate Overview

Both bounce and exit rates are very fancy terms for very easy-to-understand concepts.

Here is a rundown.

What Is Bounce Rate?

Technically, a bounce rate is a percentage of total visitors that are single-engagement.

Single-engagement means the number of people that stop by your site, either by happenchance or because of search results, but their only action on the site is to leave it.

What Does a High Bounce Rate Indicate?

A bounce rate is one potential indicator of how many visitors did not find your website all that engaging or valuable.

There can be a few reasons why someone might visit and not engage:

• Lack of content usefulness (for them)
• Lack of product usefulness
• Irrelevant or outdated content
• Differences between search results and site relevancy

What Is an Exit Rate?

An exit rate is the number of people that have left your website from a specific page.

An exit rate gets recorded no matter what a visitor did or did not do on that page.

So, for instance, if a website has three pages, the exit rate will show what visitors departed the website from what pages.

What Does an Exit Rate Indicate?

The exit rate of a website shows when visitors find what they want and take a specific action or decide to depart, having done nothing.

Every website visitor eventually leaves but knowing if they left at the product page or the transaction or sales confirmation pages can help you formulate marketing, sales, and product strategies.

Bounce Rate vs. Exit Rate: What’s the Difference?

The difference between a bounce rate and an exit rate is simple:

A bounce rate indicates a visitor that came on the site and left without taking any other action.

In and of itself, a high bounce rate suggests nothing of significance.

It would be odd if your website had no bounce rate because no company has a 100 percent conversion rate from website visitors.

Even news aggregate sites have people who only look at headlines and leave.

An exit rate indicates the page a visitor to your website left.

It will include those who took off after just accessing the site and those who took an additional step to visit another page.

If your website is linear, it will show the pages a user visited and give you an idea of what got them to a certain point in their engagement with your site.

Which Metric Is More Important?

Neither a bounce nor an exit rate is “more important” because they serve different functions.

Both might indicate a problem with your website, content, or SEO setup, but neither is superior to the other. The difference is in how each gets used.

A bounce rate is an excellent way to assess how many visitors to your website are stopping at one page and leaving.

An exit rate indicates that visitors can navigate your site and do so but leave at a certain point.  

Bounce Rate vs. Exit Rate: How Are They Calculated?

Both bounce and exit rates are calculated using a straightforward formula.

Here both are.

How Is Bounce Rate Calculated?

A bounce rate uses the following formula:

R = Total One Page Visits / Total Visits to the website.

For example, if a website has 100 visitors and 25 leave after only seeing one page, the bounce rate of that website would be .25.

How Is the Exit Rate Calculated?

An exit rate is calculated by dividing the total number of exits by the total number of views for one page.

So if a page has 100 exits and 150 total views, its exit rate would be .66.

An effective way to think about this is that all bounces are exits, but not all exits are bounces.

Bounce Rate vs. Exit Rate: How Do They Impact SEO?

While bounce and exit rates can indicate an issue with everything from SEO to technical difficulties, one can directly affect your SEO and search engine results.

• Bounce Rate SEO Impact: A bounce rate can negatively influence search engine rankings and thus impact the effectiveness of SEO. When a user bounces from your link page back to search engine results, it is called “pogo-sticking.” Pogo-sticking can cause Google to adjust the results on pages for that specific query to rank sites that users spend time on rank higher.
• Exit Rate SEO Impact: The exit rate has no impact on SEO.

Why Does It Help to Measure Bounce Rates and Exit Rates in Marketing?

Both measurements can identify issues with a website or page.

If a website has a high bounce rate, one possibility is that its SEO is using the wrong keywords or phrases.

If a particular page on a website has a lot of views, but people leave, it indicates that the page might not be as effective as marketers think.

The exception to both are sites that have a single function or page.

How To Find Your Bounce and Exit Rate

To find your bounce rate, you divide your total one-page exits by the total number of visitors.

To find your exit rate, divide your total number of exits for a page by the total number of views.

What Values Should Bounce and Exit Rates Have?

Bounce and exit rates vary based on a specific website.

Here are some industry averages.

• What Is a Good Bounce Rate? A reasonable bounce rate is 20 to 40%. An ideal bounce rate is under 20%.
• Is a Bounce Rate of 45% Good? A 45% bounce rate is average.
• What Is a Good Exit Rate? A reasonable exit rate is harder to pin down. A better way to look at it is if you have a particular page with a high exit rate (over 50%) unless it is your confirmation page. It is an issue if people leave a specific page before making a purchase.

What Might Increase Bounce and Exit Rates?

Either could be a sign of operational or SEO problems.

Operational problems would include:

• Pages loaded slow
• The site kicked them out
• Odd formatting that makes a page hard to read
• External processes like payments do not work

Marketing and SEO problems could include:

• Search criteria that do not match what the website offers
• Overly broad keyword engagement
• Content and product issues
• Overly complicated or uninformative pages

A user might decide to leave a page in any of these instances.

Still, if a user visits a site and leaves without looking at other pages, the causation usually falls into one of these categories.

How To Reduce Your Bounce and Exit Rate

The best way to reduce either or both is to use a customer survey.

The key is to be succinct.

Placing an on-site survey or prompting people to take a survey when they navigate away from the website will let them tell you exactly why they bounced or exited when they did.

Ask no more than three multiple choice questions and have a comments section if they elect to use it.

The following are good questions:

• Did you find what you are looking for?
• Did the search engine results match what you were looking for?
• What could make your visit better?

The comment section should ask them how they would change your site to make it more responsive to your needs.

Letting them comment is an essential step because it engages the user further.

In addition, several tools are available for analyzing the behavior of visitors to your site.

A heat map is one option.

Another is to record user behavior on the site to see where they leave.

Starting with a survey, however, guarantees you direct feedback with at least a portion of those that bounce and

Final Thoughts

Bounce and exit rates are great measurements of search engine results to understand why a person exited a site.

Both, however, must be taken with a grain of salt.

Sometimes, a higher rating does not indicate any problem on your end.

Understanding why your rates might be high can help you create a more effective website.

The takeaway is that you must track your bounce and exit rates, or you will not know if you have an issue or why.

While neither is a definitive answer to why someone might leave a site prematurely, a tool like a survey can get them to pinpoint the reason for you.

If you do not check your bounce and exit rates, you might never realize you have an issue.

A study conducted by Moz found that 44 percent of users clicked a Snack Pack listing after performing a local search, whereas only 29 percent clicked a traditional organic listing and 19 percent clicked a paid listing.

With Snack Pack rankings, more prospective customers will discover your local business when using Google.

What Is the Snack Pack?

Also known as the local 3-pack, the Snack Pack is a section of local business listings that’s located at the top of Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs).

It consists of three organic Google My Business (GMB) listings either with or without a single paid GMB listing.

At the bottom of the Snack Pack is a “More places” link that users can click to view other related GMB listings.

Most Snack Pack listings contain the following information about local businesses:

• Business’s name
• Industry or service
• Address
• Phone number
• Average customer rating
• Operational hours
• A clickable button for directions
• A clickable button to visit the business’s website

The Snack Pack receives its name from its shortened format.

When Google originally rolled out this SERPs feature, it displayed seven GMB listings.

Google later reduced the number of supported GMB listings to five and then three.

With its shortened format, this section of GMB listings has been colloquially referred to as the Snack Pack.

Why It Matters To Appear in the Google Snack Pack

So, why is getting in the Google snack pack so important?

Here’s why you should always aim to get in the snack pack of the Google search results.

1. Get More Clicks

Results at the top of the page get more clicks.

Did you know that the first website in the search engine results gets over 31% of all clicks?

The snack pack is at the top of the local results page, and it has eye-catching elements like reviews and pictures that increase the click-through rate.

2. More Store Visits

You’ll also get more physical visits to your local store.

People will click on your business listing in the local pack and then on the call or Google Map/directions button, leading to an in-person visit.

3. Impacts Overall Business

Overall, landing a spot in the local pack of the search result page will help you get more business.

Even if someone doesn’t click on your Google local listing right away, it will increase brand awareness.

Getting in Google’s snack pack also boosts your authority and increases trust.

How Google Selects the Snack Pack

Once you know how Google determines which businesses appear in the local pack, you can create a search engine optimization plan to get your business into the pack.

Distance From Searcher

A significant factor determining whether you will appear in any particular local search result is your distance from the searcher.

That isn’t something you can control other than getting a place in the center of town.

Overall Prominence

Your overall authority is the other major factor.

If Google regards you as an authority in the industry, it will push you to the top of the snack pack.

In the next section, I’ll discuss specific strategies for boosting your authority and increasing your prominence.

It mostly depends on your reviews, GMB listing, website authority, and local listings.

How To Use Snack Pack To Rank Your Content

Now let’s take a look at how you can use Google’s Snack Pack to rank your content and capture additional search traffic to your blog.

Video Overview:

1. Complete Your GMB Profile

You’ll need a GMB profile to rank your local business in Google’s Snack Pack.

While Snack Pack listings may link to your local business’s website, they aren’t traditional organic listings.

Rather, they are GMB listings, each of which is connected to a local business’s GMB profile.

As a result, Google will only rank your local business in the Snack Pack if it has a GMB profile.

There’s no cost associated with creating a GMB profile.

You can create a free GMB profile for your local business at google.com/business.

When creating your GMB profile, Google will ask for your business’s name, address and other basic information.

After entering this information, you’ll need to verify ownership of your business.

Google only shows verified GMB profiles in the Snack Pack, so you shouldn’t postpone the verification process.

Instead, select one of the available verification options after completing the setup.

All businesses can elect for postcard verification.

With postcard verification, Google will mail a code to your business’s address, which you can then enter in your GMB profile to verify ownership of your business.

Other verification methods supported by Google include phone, email and instant verification, but they are only offered to certain businesses.

2. Upload Photos

Adding photos to your GMB profile can help your local business rank in the Snack Pack.

GMB photos are valuable to users because they help them identify businesses.

If a user has visited your local business in the past but can’t remember the address, he or she may search for it on Google.

With photos added to your GMB profile, the user will recognize your local business.

And because photos are valuable to users, Google may rank your local business in the Snack Pack.

GMB profiles support three types of photos: a logo photo, a cover photo and additional photos.

The logo photo is displayed alongside your local business’s name, whereas the cover photo is the main photo that’s displayed at the top of your GMB profile.

Additional photos are extra photos that proceed the cover photo.

You can only have a single logo photo and cover photo, but you can add multiple additional photos to your GMB profile.

Regardless of the type, all photos uploaded to your GMB profile must use either the JPG or PNG format.

They must also be no larger than 5 MB each.

3. Build Backlinks to Your GMB Profile

Like traditional search rankings, Snack Pack rankings are influenced by backlinks.

If your GMB profile has more high-quality and relevant backlinks than your competitors’ GMB profiles, Google will likely show your local business in the Snack Pack.

In a local SEO study, Moz found that backlinks were the second-most important ranking signal for the Snack Pack.

If your local business has a website or blog, you can link to your GMB profile from it.

You can also link to your GMB profile from your local business’s social media pages and YouTube channel.

4. Ask Customers for Reviews

Customer reviews can affect your local business’s ability to rank in the Snack Pack.

Google pays close attention to the total number of customer reviews local businesses have, as well as their ratio of positive-to-negative reviews, when deciding which ones to rank in the Snack Pack.

With a lot of stellar customer reviews, your local business will have a better chance of ranking in the Snack Pack.

Keep in mind, incentivizing reviews and review gating violates Google’s terms of service.

Incentivizing reviews means rewarding customers with free products, discounts or anything else of monetary value in exchange for a review.

Review gating, on the other hand, is the practice of inquiring about a customer’s experience, and asking the customer to leave a review only if he or she had a positive experience.

You can solicit customer reviews, but you shouldn’t engage in incentivization or review gating.

5. Respond to Customer Reviews

When customers leave a review on your GMB profile, you should respond to them.

Responding to customer reviews shows Google that you actively manage your GMB profile.

At the same time, it allows you to build stronger relationships with your local business’s customers.

Customers will have a more favorable perception of your local business, so they’ll visit it more frequently.

Assuming you’ve verified your GMB profile, you can respond to customer reviews.

Just log in to your GMB profile and click the “Reply” link next to the review to which you’d like to respond.

Whether a customer left a positive or negative review, you should write a response.

How To Maintain Your Place in the Snack Pack

Once you get a spot in the local pack, your work isn’t over.

A competitor could still elbow their way into the coveted three-pack and push you out if you’re not careful.

Here’s how to maintain your place in the snack pack.

1. Stay Up-to-Date

Always keep your business information up-to-date.

If you change your hours of operation, for example, publish a GMB post about it and update the details on your profile.

Upload new pictures regularly, and always encourage customers to leave recent reviews.

2. Improve SEO Strategy

Keep working on your local SEO strategy.

Always search for new keywords to target, and keep building local backlinks.

Stay updated about Google algorithm updates and adapt your local SEO strategy accordingly.

3. Reply to Reviews

Responding to reviews shows that your business is active.

It also demonstrates that you care about what customers have to say.

Responding to positive reviews is easy; the tricky part is responding to negative reviews.

Try to steer clear of a hostile or emotional back-and-forth.

Instead, apologize for their experience and promise to improve.

4. Continue Posting Content

Finally, continue posting content on all of your channels.

Start a blog on your local site and publish new content at least a few times a month.

Continue publishing GMB posts a few times monthly to show that your business is active.

Final Thoughts

You now know the importance of the Google snack pack and the correct steps to take to get there.

Of course, you won’t earn your spot in the local pack overnight; it requires dedication, hard effort, and excellent customer service.

Semantic analysis is becoming increasingly important as search engines learn the meaning behind queries.

Knowing what associations a search engine has with words allows you to find keywords that will put your pages at the top of search results.

In this article, I will discuss what semantic search is, how semantic analysis works, and why it’s vital to the success of your business and content.

Additionally, I will show you the benefits of semantic search and describe how you can optimize your content accordingly.

What Is Semantic Search?

Semantic search is a method of keyword analysis that takes into account the context of a query.

In other words, it’s not just looking for keywords but actively trying to understand their connotations.

It’s different from traditional keyword-based search.

Semantic research looks at individual words and their relationship to each other.

What Is NLP?

NLP stands for natural language processing.

It’s a branch of artificial intelligence that deals with understanding human language.

NLP is what enables semantic search, and is the backbone for some platforms like Surfer SEO.

How Does Semantic Analysis Work?

There are a few different methods that semantic analysis can use to understand the meaning of queries.

One is word sense disambiguation, which looks at the different meanings of words in a query.

Entity recognition is another.

It looks for proper names and other entities in a query.

Finally, there’s semantic role labeling, which assigns semantic roles to the different words in a query.

Why Is Semantic Search So Important?

Semantic search is important because it helps search engines provide users with more relevant results.

You want your content to be relevant and, by understanding and utilizing semantic analysis, you can make your content become more relevant to search engines.

Semantic search is more than knowing the definitions of words, it’s understanding the relationships between and contexts behind words.

Association and connotation are important to take into account when using keywords.

How Does Semantic Search Impact SEO?

One of the most important applications of semantic search is SEO.

To truly optimize your content, you need the search engines to recognize the intent of your content.

When search engines understand your content and its intent, your content will rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs).

The more relevant search engines say your content is, the more clicks and general attention your content gets.

Examples of Semantic Search

Let’s take a look at a few examples of semantic search in action.

Voice search is a solid example.

With the rise of digital assistants, more and more people use voice search.

Voice search relies on understanding the more casual, conversational meanings of words.

Another example is Google’s Knowledge Graph.

The Knowledge Graph is a semantic database that contains information about entities and the relationships between them.

Try searching for “Barack Obama.”

The Knowledge Graph will show you information about his family, career, and other relevant information.

Does Google Use Semantic Search?

Yes, Google uses semantic search.

Semantic search is part of what makes Google successful.

The concept is a key part of the Hummingbird algorithm, which the search engine first released in 2013.

For example, if someone types in “pizza near me,” Google will show them a list of pizza places in their area.

It will also provide information such as:

• Addresses
  
• Phone numbers
  
• Hours of operation

What Are the Benefits of Using Semantic Search?

There are many benefits of semantic search, both for users and businesses.

Some of the benefits of semantic search include:

• Improved search results: Semantic analysis uses the user’s intent.
  Doing so leads to improved search results.

• Increased traffic: Your content has a better chance of ranking in Google when optimized for semantic search.

• More qualified leads: Utilizing user intent generates more qualified leads than other methods.

• Improved ROI: With improved search results and increased traffic comes an improved ROI for businesses that use semantic search.

Why Does Semantic Search Matter for Your Users?

As a business, it’s important to understand why semantic search benefits your users.

Help Them Find What They’re Looking For

The goal of semantic search is to provide users with only the most helpful results.

By understanding the user’s intent, semantic search can do a better job of ensuring that searchers land on pages that perfectly deliver the best content.

Personalize Their Experience

Semantic search improves personalization by taking into account a user’s location, search history, and other factors.

Search engines show different results to different people for the same query.

In the aforementioned pizza example, a search engine might show a Domino’s to one user and a Pizza Hut to another based on location or what the user clicked the last time they searched “pizza”.

Fosters Trust

When users see that you understand their needs, it builds trust.

When users trust your brand, they’re more likely to do business with you.

What Is a Semantic Search Example?

Let’s look at an example.

Say you’re looking for a new pair of shoes online.

You enter the query “shoes” into a search engine.

The results that come back are a mix of different types and styles of shoes, from sneakers to stilettos.

How does the search engine know to show you all these different types of shoes?

That’s where semantic search comes in.

The search engine looks at the meaning of your query and returns results based on that meaning.

In this case, it knows that when you’re searching for “shoes,” you’re looking for a type of clothing item and not a specific brand or style.

How Google Uses Semantic Search

Google semantic search uses something called latent semantic analysis (LSA).

LSA analyzes and extracts how a piece of text uses words and determines the context around those words to assign their meaning.

For example, Google knows that the word “cars” can have different meanings.

It could refer to vehicles or it could refer to the “Cars” movie franchise.

By seeing the context around “cars”, Google can determine which meaning is more relevant to your query.

Google looks at synonyms and related terms when semantically analyzing a piece of text.

If you search for “boots,” the search engine might also return results for “shoes” and “sandals.”

How To Use Semantic Search to Your Advantage

One way to use semantic search is by using semantic keywords.

These keywords relate closely to your main keyword.

For our “shoes” example, some semantic keywords could be “sneakers,” “flats,” or “wedges.”

Many search engines disfavor “keyword cramming”, so only use semantic keywords where relevant and spread them throughout your content.

How To Optimize Your Content for Semantic Search

Below are three ways to use semantic search in your content.

Use Semantic Markup

Semantic markup is a code that you can add to your web pages to give search engines more information about your content.

For example, you can use semantic markup to specify the type of content on your page, such as articles, videos, or reviews.

You can also use semantic markup to add structured data to your page.

Structured data is information that’s organized in a specific way.

One common type of structured data is schema.org markup.

Schema.org is a collaborative project between Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, and Yandex to create a common vocabulary for semantic markup.

Break Keywords Into Multiple Tiers

When you’re thinking about the keywords you want to target, break them down into multiple tiers.

Start with broad, general keywords that describe your main topic.

Then, create a second tier of more specific keywords.

For our “shoes” example, some second-tier keywords could be “men’s shoes,” “women’s shoes,” or “children’s shoes.”

Finally, create a third tier of long-tail keywords.

Long-tail keywords are phrases that are very specific to what you’re offering.

They tend to have lower search volume but higher conversion rates.

When creating content around “shoes”, you might use long-tail keywords like “men’s running shoes,” “women’s black dress shoes,” or “children’s rain boots.”

Consider Your Audience

Your audience will influence the language you use in your content.

If you’re writing for a general audience, you might use simpler words and sentence structures.

If you’re writing for a more technical audience, you can use jargon and industry-specific terms.  

Frequently Asked Questions

Let’s answer two commonly asked questions about semantic search.

Wrapping Up

Semantic search is a powerful optimization tool that can help your website rank higher on search engine results pages.

Semantic analysis allows you to create content optimized for semantic search engines like Google and Bing.

The benefits of semantic search include improved relevancy rankings, increased click-through rates, and more engaged users.

If you’re not already using semantic search to optimize your website, now is the time to start.

Do you have questions about this exciting topic?

Ask in the comments and I’ll answer your questions.

While there are are plenty of SEO best practices that every blogger should follow, if you are a brick and mortar store that has a physical storefront, ranking your business locally can help you acquire more customers and increase traffic to your blog or storefront.

Here are my favorite ways to do just that.

Have the Right Category Associations

Based on a survey conducted by Moz, this is considered the most important factor in getting ranked locally.

And, for an obvious reason. How can people locate you if your business is not in the right selected category?

For example, if you are an electrician in Chicago, then you have to select electrician in Google’s (or Yahoo! or Bing) pre-set category taxonomy.

If you select restaurant, then your business will not rank in relevant search terms. You can select up to 9 categories to help narrow down results.

Also remember that while describing the details of your business, make sure that you do key word research so that you use the right keywords that describe the business; proximity of business’s address to the town/city of search; and the you include the most up-to-date information for your business.

Have On-Site Optimization

On-page optimization simply means that your website contains both locally optimized title tags and and meta descriptions.

These are what people will notice when they search for local businesses since they will appear the title.

You also want to make sure that your website contains geo-targeted keywords on everything from page titles to the content that you create.

Your NAP (name, address, phone number) contact information should appear on the header or footer of every page of your website.

And, please make sure that all of this contact information remains consistent (same spelling, punctuation, wording and address).

Bonus Tips: Embed a map by getting a HTML code when you enter your address on Google Maps.

And, make sure that you use stronger keywords. We’ve listed 8 SEO and keyword research tools to help you discover what people are searching for.

Get Listed on Local Search Directories

Whether it’s a hyper-local directory or a national directory, getting included in a third-party local business directory is an absolute must.

Just remember that you need to submit and have your business verified first, which is why you everything that described you business is current and accurate.

Some of the most well-known local business directories are:

• Google Places
• Yahoo Local
• Bing Local
• Yelp
• MerchantCircle
• Superpages
• Yellow Pages

Citysearch, Angie’s List and Zagat are a few other suggestion.

You can also use a tool like Whitespark Local Citation Finder to discover more local directories.

One final word about citations: don’t submit your site to every directory out there

You may think that getting featured on hundreds of local business directories will cast a wider net, but that’s not going to happen.

Stick with directories that can help people find your business.

For example, we’re been building up citations to PBInstitute for helping children with substance abuse.

If I were to build up citations from a plumbing site…it’s really not going to help at all. It’s actually going to hurt them in the long run.

Keep it all related and it’ll help you 10x more in the long run.

Earn Positive Reviews

One of the best ways to get your local business to rank is through positive reviews.

To accomplish this, having outstanding customer service is required.

Kate Morris states on the Moz Blog when you do this, you are giving “them no choice but to tell people about you.”

Other ways to have people leave reviews is by dropping hints, like including buttons/badges from sites like Yelp on your website; reminding people to leave a review by mentioning a local business directory on receipts; and/or asking customers to rate their experience via an email following a purchase.

Finally, make sure that you engage your audience through the social media platforms where your customers spend the most time.

However, don’t plead for reviews.

You can run Facebook contests on your blog, which is a great way to earn reviews for your prodcut or service.

Use social media to interact with customers, such as announcing an event; resolving concerns or questions; or sharing relevant content.

Also include social buttons on your website, it just makes life easier for your fans.

Reviews will follow this type of engagement.

Related: Tips to format review blog posts

Measure and Analyze

Finally, use Google Analytics to discover information about your customers, which local sites are increasing traffic to your site and even the type of opportunities that are available to capitalize on for local search.

My schedule these days does not warrant my 5 paragraph, in-depth, blog comment whoppers.

Too busy promoting my eBook, publishing posts to Blogging From Paradise and guest posting to craft these types of comments.

I still comment regularly on blogs from a genuine, abundant energy.

Said comments grow my online business too.

Yesterday I received a message from a travel blogger who bought my eBook.

How did I connect with her?

Through blog commenting of course.

Why An Online Business Builder?

Commenting on blogs:

• drives new business to your blog via clicks courtesy of interested readers
• build friendships between bloggers; blogging buddies promote you, endorse you, hire you and buy your stuff, growing your online business

I laugh when some bloggers say blog commenting is a waste of time.

Any medium through which you share value and make friends is not a waste of time.

Me being featured on Virgin, Forbes, Fox News and Entrepreneur was partly due to my genuine blog commenting campaign.

Follow these tips to grow your online business through blog commenting.

1: Comment on Popular Blogs in Your Niche

Comment in front of prying eyes.

Comment before a high volume of folks.

Publish blog comments on popular blogs in your niche.

Get some online business building bang for your blog commenting buck.

Sure you can publish comments on lesser known or off topic blogs but do this only a few times daily.

No sense speaking to small, non-targeted audiences when you can increase your exposure in front of large, targeted audiences.

2: Publish Personalized Comments

Use blogger names in blog comments.

My name sounds awesome to me.

If someone drops my name in comments it shows they care enough to learn and use my name, to address me properly.

Personalizing blog comments makes you stand out from the crowd of mindless bloggers who publish generic comments.

3: Write Helpful Comments

Comment to help.

Even though I generally publish 3-5 sentence comments these days I jam-pack helpful pointers related to the post into the short, sweet but valuable comments.

Go in-depth or simply write a thoughtful paragraph sharing your insights.

Add content to the blog post through your comment to help fellow bloggers and readers.

4: Comment Persistently

Comment at least once weekly on blogs.

Be a persistent presence.

Friendships and traffic and online businesses grow through persistent, genuine blog commenting.

5: Avoid Drive-By Comments

You and I know dry-by comments well:

• “hey great post”
• “nice post”
• “the author knows his information”

Generic comments flow from mindless, careless individuals who could care less about you but certainly care about building a backlink to their blogs.

Refer to at least 1 point made in the blog post.

Break down that point.

Get a discussion going while showing off your knowledge.

People seek informed, mindful, compassion bloggers.

People buy from or hire informed, mindful, compassion bloggers.

Show off your knowledge and care through genuine, helpful, personalized blog comments.

6: Do Not Advertise Your Online Business through Comments

Sometimes people try to advertise their online business through comments on my guest posts.

Big time mistake guys.

Bloggers see any direct promotion of business as spam. Meaning the comment winds up in the spam or trash folder.

Show off what you know, not what you want to promote. Be helpful. Comment to serve and bond with bloggers.

Wrap Up

Be patient.

Growing business through blog commenting takes time but this is time well spent.

I have spoken at NYU about blogging and have appeared on world famous websites through the power of blog commenting.

Build your online business through this largely ignored medium.