The Best of 2015: Top Posts and People of the Year

Posted by FeliciaCrawford

We've got another year under our belts, and that means it's time to continue an annual blog tradition. Yes, that's right, folks — the Moz Blog Best of 2015 is hot off the presses! (This makes me wish we had real presses. We don't. I think there's a 3D printer somewhere around here, though...)

We’re going to highlight just what hit it off with you fantastic little blog readers, you. We'll slice and dice the top posts of the year a few different ways, take a peek at what dominated YouMoz, check out which comments drove the collective convo, and highlight the community members that contributed the most-liked and most-often-liked commentary.

(Spoiler alert: You went absolutely nuts for Rand this year. He holds a lot of top ten real estate, across multiple categories. Maybe I should get his autograph or something...)

Buckle in and get comfortable, friends, ‘cause we’re about to take a wild ride with this data.

Table of contents

1. Top posts by 1Metric score
2. Top posts by unique visits
3. Top YouMoz posts by unique visits
4. Top posts by number of thumbs up
5. Top posts by number of comments
6. Top community comments by thumbs up
7. Top commenters by total number of comment thumbs up
8. Top commenters by top number of average thumbs/comment

1. Top posts by 1Metric score

You may have heard mention of this mysterious 1Metric score in the past. It's a proprietary metric we developed a few years ago to measure content marketing success. We use this score regularly to check up on how our content’s doing.

The theme encompassing this year's highest-scoring posts seems to be centered around sparking discussions, debate, and new ways of thinking about quotidian tasks. That, in and of itself, is immensely exciting to me — it's the essence of what makes our community so flippin' vibrant and innovative.

Here’s the full rundown for your reading pleasure:

1. The Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet 3.0 by Cyrus Shepard, May 18th
Introducing the new and improved Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet. Download info on SEO best practices for online marketers and developers. Updated for 2015.

2. Why I Stopped Selling SEO Services and You Should, Too by Ryan Stewart, October 7th
It's no longer just about optimizing your website for Google. It's about optimizing your presence across the web. SEO has tentacles that extend well beyond your website, so it's important that you begin to think of search holistically, taking into account all of the areas that can be optimized.

3. Why Effective, Modern SEO Requires Technical, Creative, and Strategic Thinking - Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin, August 7th
While SEO is a different field than it once was, technical chops are still required to do things really well. In this Whiteboard Friday, Rand pushes back against the idea that those skills are no longer necessary.

4. Why Good Unique Content Needs to Die - Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin, May 22nd
If we're talking about creating "good, unique content" and are hoping for it to rank in competitive SERPs, we're not setting the right bar. In this Whiteboard Friday, Rand shows us what we should be going for instead.

5. How to Write for the Web—a New Approach for Increased Engagement - Whiteboard Friday by Dan Petrovic, October 30th
16%. That's the percentage of people who read everything you write word-for-word. That number hasn't changed in two decades, which tells us that we've never really learned how to write for the web. In this Whiteboard Friday, Dan Petrovic illustrates a new approach to writing for the web to increase reader engagement, and offers some tools and tips to help along the way.

6. Stop Ghost Spam in Google Analytics with One Filter by Carlos Escalera, August 2nd
Don't be distracted by web spam. A simple, easy-to-use filter could remove the majority of your worries surrounding spam.

7. Why We Can't Do Keyword Research Like It's 2010 - Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin, June 12th
From selection to the actual research, keywords simply aren't the same beast they were five years ago. In this Whiteboard Friday, Rand shows you how to do keyword research in 2015, ensuring you don't harm your site with obsolete tactics.

8. Google Keyword Planner's Dirty Secrets by Russ Jones, December 1st
Google Keyword Planner has some pretty scary skeletons in its closet! Learn about all the dirty secrets that should make you think twice about relying on Google's volume estimates.

9. The Absolute Beginner's Guide to Google Analytics by Kristi Hines, June 24th
If you don't know what Google Analytics is, haven't installed it on your website, or have installed it but never look at your data, then this post is for you.

10. Announcing the 2015 Search Engine Ranking Factors Study by Cyrus Shepard, August 11th
We're excited to announce the results of Moz's famous Ranking Factors study. The study helps to identify which attributes of webpages and sites have the strongest association with higher rankings in Google. Ready to dive in?

2. Top posts by unique visits

Unique visits are a big deal. This metric throws around more weight than any other, because it indicates how we’re driving traffic to the rest of the site. Check out what brought the most new eyes to the blog this year, and compare it to the top posts by number of thumbs below.

1. 15 SEO Best Practices for Structuring URLs by Rand Fishkin, February 24th
It's been a long time since we covered one of the most fundamental building blocks of SEO — the structure of domain names and URLs — and it's high time to revisit.

2. How to Stop Spam Bots from Ruining Your Analytics Referral Data by Jared Gardner, March 18th
Don't give spam bots a free ride on your website. Create an inhospitable environment for the invasive pests in a few simple steps.

3. Technical Site Audit Checklist: 2015 Edition by Geoff Kenyon, January 19th
Back in 2011, Geoff wrote a a technical site audit checklist, and while it was thorough, there have been a lot of additions to what is encompassed in a site audit. He's gone through and updated that old checklist for 2015.

4. The Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet 3.0 - Moz by Cyrus Shepard, May 18th
Introducing the new and improved Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet. Download info on SEO best practices for online marketers and developers. Updated for 2015.

5. 9 Things You Need to Know About Google's Mobile-Friendly Update by Cindy Krum, April 6th
Cindy Krum and her colleague Emily Grossman wanted to cut through the noise and bring online marketers a clearer picture of what's in store when it comes to Mobilegeddon. In this post, you'll find answers to nine key questions about the update.

6. Subdomains vs. Subfolders, Rel Canonical vs. 301, and How to Structure Links for SEO - Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin, February 6th
Subfolders or subdomains? 301 redirect or rel canonical? What about optimal link structures for SEO? Some of the basic questions are the ones that crop up the most frequently, and in this Whiteboard Friday, Rand tackles those three.

7. The Alleged $7.5 Billion Fraud in Online Advertising by Samuel Scott, June 22nd
Online advertising is often based around the idea of an "impression," but few of us actually know what that means. We assume it means some sort of interaction with a human being, but as it turns out, we're quite wrong. We dive into some staggering statistics with Samuel Scott.

8. How to do Keyword Research in 90 Minutes by Jeremy Gottlieb, January 28th
Using a hypothetical client, Jeremy Gottlieb shows you just how much keyword research you can get done in 90 minutes (and walks you step-by-step through how to do it).

9. Spam Score: Moz's New Metric to Measure Penalization Risk by Rand Fishkin, March 30th
Moz's Spam Score metric helps quantify the relative risk of penalization/banning by search engines using a series of correlated flags. This post helps explain where you can find Spam Score, how to use it, and the R&D behind its development.

10. Why Good Unique Content Needs to Die - Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin, May 22nd
If we're talking about creating "good, unique content" and are hoping for it to rank in competitive SERPs, we're not setting the right bar. In this Whiteboard Friday, Rand shows us what we should be going for instead.

3. Top YouMoz posts by unique visits

YouMoz is a wondrous, magical place where our insightful community members may submit their own ideas for blog posts. When they go live, they can even be promoted to the main blog to share with an even bigger audience. The majority of the posts below may have gotten bumped from YouMoz up to that big blog in the sky, but it’s a testament to how well they did.

1. How to Stop Spam Bots from Ruining Your Analytics Referral Data by Jared Gardner, March 18th
Don't give spam bots a free ride on your website. Create an inhospitable environment for the invasive pests in a few simple steps.

2. How Hashtags Work on Twitter, Instagram, Google Plus, Pinterest, Facebook, Tumblr, and Flickr by Ann Smarty, February 15th
Hashtags, which make it easier to find, share, and curate content on social platforms, can be an invaluable tool in your marketing arsenal.

3. Why I Stopped Selling SEO Services and You Should, Too by Ryan Stewart, October 7th
It's no longer just about optimizing your website for Google. It's about optimizing your presence across the web. SEO has tentacles that extend well beyond your website, so it's important that you begin to think of search holistically, taking into account all of the areas that can be optimized.

4. Stop Ghost Spam in Google Analytics with One Filter by Carlos Escalera, August 2nd
Don't be distracted by web spam. A simple, easy-to-use filter could remove the majority of your worries surrounding spam.

5. 9 Simple Tips For Making An About Us Page That Works For Your Brand by Ben Austin, March 15th
Your brand's About Us page is prime real estate for prospects looking to do business with the company. Reward visitors for their efforts by showcasing an engaging, insightful page.

6. 14 Ways to Find Any Email Address in 10 Minutes or Less by Freddie Chatt, March 26th
Content promotion and amplification are the lifeblood of content marketing, and it all starts with outreach. Don't allow the lack of an email address to hold back your outreach efforts.

7. Everything You Need To Know About Sponsored Content by Chad Pollitt, January 20th
Has your business considered sponsored content? Research says it can be a worthwhile addition to your business's marketing efforts.

8. A Beginner's Guide to Google Search Console by Angela Petteys, September 1st
If the name "Google Webmaster Tools" rings a bell for you, you might already have an idea of what Google Search Console is. This post shows you how to successfully set up Search Console for your site.

9. Case Study: How I Turned Autocomplete Ideas into Traffic & Ranking Results with Only 5 Hours of Effort by Jamie Press, July 14th
Don't sleep on Google Autocomplete for helping you uncover some low-hanging-fruit content ideas.

10. Become Intelligent: Use Google Analytics Intelligence Alerts to your Advantage by Martijn Scheijbeler, February 25th
Use Google Analytics Intelligence Alerts to help you more effectively recognize changes to your website's performance.

4. Top posts by number of thumbs up

Just take a moment and think about where we’d be without thumbs. No rocket science, no masterpieces of human creativity, no spaces between the words in our sentences, and definitely no raw indication of just what you folks liked in 2015 on the Moz blog! Thank goodness for thumbs. Here are the top posts by thumbs up, as indicated by anyone with a favorable opinion and a community account.

1. 15 SEO Best Practices for Structuring URLs by Rand Fishkin, February 24th
It's been a long time since we covered one of the most fundamental building blocks of SEO — the structure of domain names and URLs — and it's high time to revisit.

2. Why I Stopped Selling SEO Services and You Should, Too by Ryan Stewart, October 7th
It's no longer just about optimizing your website for Google. It's about optimizing your presence across the web. SEO has tentacles that extend well beyond your website, so it's important that you begin to think of search holistically, taking into account all of the areas that can be optimized.

3. Technical Site Audit Checklist: 2015 Edition by Geoff Kenyon, January 19th
Back in 2011, Geoff wrote a a technical site audit checklist, and while it was thorough, there have been a lot of additions to what is encompassed in a site audit. He's gone through and updated that old checklist for 2015.

4. 10 SEO Myths that Friggin' Tick Me Off by Cyrus Shepard, March 9th
Most non-SEO folk you talk to are generally very nice people. Then, though, there's the non-SEO "expert" (loosely defined as someone who has a cousin in marketing). Well-intentioned but misinformed, they believe SEO is urban legend, no better than a Ponzi scheme. In this post are a few of the worst offenders.

5. Spam Score: Moz's New Metric to Measure Penalization Risk by Rand Fishkin, March 30th
Moz's Spam Score metric helps quantify the relative risk of penalization/banning by search engines using a series of correlated flags. This post helps explain where you can find Spam Score, how to use it, and the R&D behind its development.

6. 10 Predictions for the Marketing World in 2015 by Rand Fishkin, January 6th
The beginning of the year marks the traditional time for blogger prognosticating, and Rand's created a tradition of predicting the big trends in SEO and web marketing over the last decade.

7. Subdomains vs. Subfolders, Rel Canonical vs. 301, and How to Structure Links for SEO - Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin, February 6th
Subfolders or subdomains? 301 redirect or rel canonical? What about optimal link structures for SEO? Some of the basic questions are the ones that crop up the most frequently, and in this Whiteboard Friday, Rand tackles those three.

8. A Universal SEO Strategy Audit in 5 Steps - Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin, January 30th
Starting your SEO strategy with questions only works if you're asking the right questions. In this Whiteboard Friday, Rand covers the five that'll lead you in the wrong direction, and the five steps you should be taking instead.

9. How to Provide Unique Value in Your Content - Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin, January 9th
Marketers of all stripes are hearing more about providing unique content and value to their audiences, and how that's what Google wants to show searchers. Unique content is straightforward enough, but what exactly does everyone mean by "unique value?" What does that actually look like? In this Whiteboard Friday, Rand illustrates the answer.

10. How Hashtags Work on Twitter, Instagram, Google Plus, Pinterest, Facebook, Tumblr, and Flickr by Ann Smarty, February 15th
Hashtags, which make it easier to find, share and curate content on social platforms, can be an invaluable tool in your marketing arsenal.

5. Top posts by number of comments

It's always thought-provoking to see the differences between top posts by thumbs and top posts by comments; they don't always overlap. Maybe these had a shade of controversy to them, maybe a particularly interesting discussion ensued, maybe a group of rebels broke community guidelines, got off topic, and posted the lyrics to their favorite Neil Diamond songs (I wish). Regardless of the reason, these posts generated the most conversation in 2015 — read through to find out why, and maybe add your own here and there!

1. How to Stop Spam Bots from Ruining Your Analytics Referral Data by Jared Gardner, March 18th
Don't give spam bots a free ride on your website. Create an inhospitable environment for the invasive pests in a few simple steps.

2. Why I Stopped Selling SEO Services and You Should, Too by Ryan Stewart, October 7th
It's no longer just about optimizing your website for Google. It's about optimizing your presence across the web. SEO has tentacles that extend well beyond your website, so it's important that you begin to think of search holistically, taking into account all of the areas that can be optimized.

3. Local Search Expert Quiz: How Much Do You Know about Local SEO? by Cyrus Shepard, January 13th
Last year, Moz introduced the SEO Expert Quiz, which to date over 40,000 people have attempted to conquer. We're proud to announce the Local Search Expert Quiz. Written by local search expert Miriam Ellis herself, the quiz contains 40 questions to completely challenge your knowledge of Local SEO.

4. Subdomains vs. Subfolders, Rel Canonical vs. 301, and How to Structure Links for SEO - Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin, February 6th
Subfolders or subdomains? 301 redirect or rel canonical? What about optimal link structures for SEO? Some of the basic questions are the ones that crop up the most frequently, and in this Whiteboard Friday, Rand tackles those three.

5. Spam Score: Moz's New Metric to Measure Penalization Risk by Rand Fishkin, March 30th
Moz's Spam Score metric helps quantify the relative risk of penalization/banning by search engines using a series of correlated flags. This post helps explain where you can find Spam Score, how to use it, and the R&D behind its development.

6. Stop Ghost Spam in Google Analytics with One Filter by Carlos Escalera, August 2nd
Don't be distracted by web spam. A simple, easy to use filter could remove the majority of your worries surrounding spam.

7. 10 SEO Myths that Friggin' Tick Me Off by Cyrus Shepard, March 9th
Most non-SEO folk you talk to are generally very nice people. Then, though, there's the non-SEO "expert" (loosely defined as someone who has a cousin in marketing). Well-intentioned but misinformed, they believe SEO is urban legend, no better than a Ponzi scheme. In this post are a few of the worst offenders.

8. How Hashtags Work on Twitter, Instagram, Google Plus, Pinterest, Facebook, Tumblr, and Flickr by Ann Smarty, February 15th
Hashtags, which make it easier to find, share and curate content on social platforms, can be an invaluable tool in your marketing arsenal.

9. 9 Simple Tips For Making An About Us Page That Works For Your Brand by Ben Austin, March 15th
Your brand's About Us page is prime real estate for prospects looking to do business with the company. Reward visitors for their efforts by showcasing an engaging, insightful page.

10. Technical Site Audit Checklist: 2015 Edition by Geoff Kenyon, January 19th
Back in 2011, Geoff wrote a a technical site audit checklist, and while it was thorough, there have been a lot of additions to what is encompassed in a site audit. He's gone through and updated that old checklist for 2015.

6. Top community comments by thumbs up

These comments were good. If these comments were ancient Roman gladiators, they would definitely be spared. We've got a healthy mix of advice, humor, TAGFEE, and pure humanity in this year's batch — reading these, I know I couldn't be prouder to be involved with this community. Here are 2015’s top comments by number of thumbs up.

Bonus points: See if you can divine the identity of our enigmatic "mystery guest"...

1. Gianluca Fiorelli | June 12th
Commented on Why We Can’t Do Keyword Research Like It’s 2010 - Whiteboard Friday

2. Rand Fishkin | January 6th
Commented on 10 Predictions for the Marketing World in 2015

3. Rand Fishkin | October 7th
Commented on Why I Stopped Selling SEO Services and You Should, Too

4. Phil Nottingham | July 21st
Commented on Moz Local Officially Launches in the UK

5. Rand Fishkin | April 22nd
Commented on 7 Days After Mobilegeddon: How Far Did the Sky Fall?

6. mystery_guest | January 6th
Commented on 10 Predictions for the Marketing World in 2015

7. Rand Fishkin | August 7th
Commented on Why Effective, Modern SEO Requires Technical, Creative, and Strategic Thinking - Whiteboard Friday

8. Erica McGillivray | August 20th
Commented on Is Online Marketing Gender-Diverse?

9. Sarah Bird | August 20th
Commented on Is Online Marketing Gender-Diverse?

10. Samuel Scott | May 29th
Commented on Is Brand a Google Ranking Factor? - Whiteboard Friday

7. Top commenters by total number of comment thumbs up

Writing thoughtful, discerning commentary is more valuable than just contributing to the discussion at hand and supporting the betterment of the online marketing industry as a whole. Heck, the best comments earn thumbs up, and writing the best comments time and time again will net you some serious MozPoint cheddar. I present to you today the one percenters of the Moz blog commenters from 2015.

1. Samuel Scott, username SamuelScott
MozPoints: 3324 | Rank: 25

2. Peter Nikolow, username Mobilio
MozPoints: 1330 | Rank: 81

3. Umar Khan, username UmarKhan
MozPoints: 1671 | Rank: 64

4. Marie Haynes, username Marie Haynes
MozPoints: 5739 | Rank: 6

5. Matt Antonino, username MattAntonino
MozPoints: 3623 | Rank: 21

6. EGOL, username EGOL
MozPoints: 19,316 | Rank: 1

7. Nick Stamoulis, username Brick-Marketing
MozPoints: 1087 | Rank: 104

8. Bill Slawski, username billslawski
MozPoints: 1117 | Rank: 102

9. Eric Enge, username EricEnge
MozPoints: 2099 | Rank: 44

10. Kelsey Libert, username KelseyLibert
MozPoints: 1140 | Rank: 98

8. Top commenters by average number of thumbs/comment, 20 comment minimum

Here's another way to showcase some of our most consistently prolific commenters whose words strike a chord with the community. These are the folks with the highest average number of thumbs up per comment, who have contributed at least 20 total comments over 2015. To all our commenters and silent, lurking readers thumbs-up-ing everything, we thank you for sharing your wisdom, your wit, and your critiques all — you make this blog a good place to be.

1. Peter Nikolow, username Mobilio
Total comments: 131 | Total thumbs: 489

2. Martin Pezet, username mpezet
Total comments: 20 | Total thumbs: 73

3. Samuel Scott, username SamuelScott
Total comments: 272 | Total thumbs: 965

4. Brady Callahan, username BradyDCallahan
Total comments: 26 | Total thumbs: 88

5. Igal Stolpner, username Igalst
Total comments: 22 | Total thumbs: 73

6. Bill Slawski, username billslawski
Total comments: 42 | Total thumbs: 136

7. Angular Marketing, username Angular
Total comments: 30 | Total thumbs: 92

8. Marie Haynes, username MarieHaynes
Total comments: 102 | Total thumbs: 286

9. Mark Traphagen, username MarkTraphagen
Total comments: 40 | Total thumbs: 101

10. Matt Antonino, username MattAntonino
Total comments: 76 | Total thumbs: 191

This is a salute to you — the hard-working, generously-contributing, tirelessly thoughtful Moz blog community. Where would we ever be without you? Our heartfelt thanks for all you do and say. Here's to a 2016 that's even better!

Allow me to give a huge shout out to Trevor, Tori, and Cyrus, without whose help we would all be lost — especially me, when compiling all these numbers. Thanks for everything!

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

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Protegemos a cientos de millones de usuarios móviles más

Durante años la tecnología Navegación Segura de Google ha protegido a más de mil millones de usuarios de ordenador contra el software malicioso o no deseado, y los sitios web de ingeniería social en Internet. Tenemos el placer de anunciar que desde principios de Diciembre, hemos ampliado nuestra protección a cientos de millones de usuarios de Chrome en Android.

Cómo conseguirla

Si eres usuario de Android, probablemente ya dispongas de ella. Este nuevo cliente de Navegación Segura en Android forma parte de los Servicios de Google Play a partir de la versión 8.1. La primera aplicación en la que hemos usado esta tecnología es Chrome a partir de la versión 46. Ahora ya protegemos a todos los usuarios de Chrome para Android de forma predeterminada. En la configuración de Chrome > menú Privacidad, podrás verificar que Navegación Segura está habilitada y que estás protegido. Chrome te advierte de los sitios web peligrosos tal y como se indica a continuación. Lo hace al mismo tiempo que protege tu privacidad, igual que en el ordenador.

Anteriormente

La plataforma Android y Play Store llevan mucho tiempo protegidas de las aplicaciones dañinas. Como nuestros adversarios han mejorado sus habilidades para intentar esquivarnos, nosotros hemos mejorado nuestra detección para mantener protegidos a los usuarios de las aplicaciones de Android. Sin embargo, no todos los peligros que corren los usuarios móviles proceden de las aplicaciones.

Novedades

Para evitar los ataques de ingeniería social, y especialmente la suplantación de identidad (phishing), es necesario otro tipo de protección: debemos disponer de una lista actualizada de sitios web maliciosos en el dispositivo para asegurarnos de que podemos advertir a los usuarios antes de que caigan en una trampa. Proporcionar esta protección en un dispositivo móvil es mucho más difícil que hacerlo en un ordenador, en buena medida porque debemos asegurarnos de que la lista no quede desfasada. Sin embargo:

• Los datos móviles cuestan dinero a la mayoría de usuarios de todo el mundo. Por lo tanto, el tamaño de los datos es muy importante.
• La velocidad de los datos móviles es inferior a la de una conexión Wi-Fi en la mayor parte del mundo. Por lo tanto, el tamaño de los datos es muy importante.
• La calidad de la conectividad móvil es muy desigual, de forma que transmitir rápido los datos adecuados al dispositivo es fundamental. Por lo tanto, el tamaño de los datos es muy importante.

Protección máxima por bit

Los bytes ocupan espacio: nuestro mantra se basa en que todos y cada uno de los bits que Navegación Segura envía a un dispositivo móvil deben aumentar la protección. El ancho de banda de la red y la batería son los recursos más preciados en un dispositivo móvil, de modo que tuvimos que volvernos a plantear cuidadosamente cómo proteger mejor a los usuarios móviles. Algunos ataques de ingeniería social solo se producen en determinadas partes del mundo, así que solo enviamos información para proteger un dispositivo si es pertinente para la región geográfica en la que se encuentra.

También enviamos primero la información sobre los sitios web más peligrosos: si solo podemos procesar una notificación muy pequeña, como pasa a menudo en las redes de poca velocidad de las economías emergentes, la notificación debe ser relevante. También trabajamos con el equipo de compresión de Google para conseguir que la pequeña cantidad de datos que enviamos tenga el menor tamaño posible.

Junto con el equipo de seguridad de Android, creamos un software para el dispositivo que hiciera un uso muy limitado de la memoria y del procesador, y fuimos muy cuidadosos al minimizar el tráfico de red. Todos estos detalles son importantes para nosotros: no podemos desperdiciar ni los planes de datos de los usuarios ni un solo segundo de su batería.

Más móvil

Perseguimos a los malhechores en Internet para que no tengas que sufrir las consecuencias de sus acciones; lo hacemos de forma que nuestra protección nunca suponga una carga excesiva en tus costes de red ni en la batería del dispositivo. Como cada vez más usuarios recurren a la Web para móviles, queremos asegurarnos de que dispongas de la máxima seguridad con la mayor eficacia posible.

Escrito por Noé Lutz, Nathan Parker, Stephan Somogyi; Google Chrome and Safe Browsing Teams. Publicado por Javier Pérez equipo de calidad de búsqueda

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What Big Brands Need to Know About Google's Filter

Posted by JoyHawkins

I work with a lot of insurance agents and they often tell me that their biggest competitors are the other insurance agents that work for the same company as them. As it is with most big brands, there are multiple offices in the same city and those individual locations all want to rank first on Google for the exact same thing.

An accidental discovery

I stumbled across something a few months ago when troubleshooting ranking for one of our insurance clients, and everyone I've shared this with was just as surprised as I was.

The discovery? Google filters out a ton of pages for big brands (organically), which seems to have a direct impact on which locations rank in the local 3-pack.

To illustrate this, I'll look at a few examples. Usually when I search for a branded term, the people that rank high in the 3-pack also rank high organically, as illustrated below.

What's interesting is that you'll notice there are only 3 organic results that belong to this brand before you start seeing small business directories like Yellowpages or Yelp.

However, when you add &filter=0 to the end of the URL string, you will see that most of these location pages are being filtered out. Adding this search operator to the URL is the same as if you went to the last page of results and click the message that states:

In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries very similar to the [X] already displayed. If you like, you can repeat the search with the omitted results included.

This isn't just happening to one brand; it's happening to most.

It also doesn't just happen in the insurance industry. Any big brand that has multiple offices/branches that are serving the same city would possibly run into this. Here is another example for the search "H&R Block Houston":

Why is Google doing this?

Most people are aware that Google filters duplicate content. They want to provide their users with unique results, not a repetitive list of the same thing over and over. This is part of why they have a filter — to keep a single domain from completely dominating the search results page.

How does Google decide who gets filtered?

Whichever pages have the highest ranking power and are the most relevant are the ones that end up showing first and avoid the filter. As no surprise to anyone in the SEO community, the common factor I see influencing this the most is links. Often the first couple that show up have some good local links from some charity they sponsored in town or some professional organization they're a part of that the other offices don't have.

What should big brands be doing differently?

1. Make the pages for your locations more different. When I compared two of the filtered pages for one insurance brand, the content on the two different agents' pages was 77% the same. I looked at two location pages for a tax accountant business in the UK and they were 81% the same. A lack of unique content is an easy way to trigger Google's filter since the pages look like duplicates. Be wary of using widgets that copy the same content to every page.
   
2. Take advantage of targeting zip codes or community names so that each location can rank better for different types of keywords that are more central to their area. For example, there's a community called Unionville which is inside the city of Markham, ON, yet most franchises target only Markham on their sites.
3. Try to get more links to the individual location pages so they're more authoritative. Many sites automatically link to the homepage for a big brand instead of linking to the page that lists the information about that specific location.

Other uses for &filter=0

I also use this feature regularly to find out if Google is confused about which page to show for the keyword I'm targeting. If I want to do a good job at local SEO, I don't want Google to be confused! Often it will reveal pages that Google thinks is related to that same keyword, even if it's slightly different ("dog trainer" vs "dog training"). I once had a client who had his homepage ranking and service page (that we wanted to rank) filtered. By removing some of the duplicate content on the homepage and changing some things in the meta tags, we were able to solve that problem and saw his ranking increase over the next couple months.

Have you found other good uses for the &filter=0 search operator? Tell me about them in the comments.

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10 Predictions for 2016 in SEO & Web Marketing

Posted by randfish

It's that magical time where, once again, I examine my predictions for the year that's just ended, and make new ones for the one ahead. As is my personal tradition, I'm going to first look at the accuracy of what I've suggested would happen in 2015. Based on how I've done, you can get a sense of how seriously to take my ideas for the future. But, if you'd prefer, you can just skip right to the 2016 predictions.

For posterity, here's my post from January 6, 2015, but I won't make you go through it. A short synopsis of each prediction and my relative correctness is below. Here's how I'll grade myself:

• Nailed It (+2) - when a prediction is right on the money and the primary criteria are fulfilled
• Partially Accurate (+1) - predictions that are in the area, but are somewhat different than reality
• Not Completely Wrong (-1) - those that landed near the truth, but couldn't be called "correct" in any real sense
• Way Off (-2) - guesses which didn't come close

If the score is positive, prepare for more predictions, and if it's negative, I'm clearly losing the pulse of the industry and will flee to a remote corner of the Northwest and take up a profession to which my mustache is better suited... Perhaps crafting artisanal contact lenses?. Let's tally up the numbers on my 2015 and hope it doesn't come to that:

#1: We'll see the first major not-for-profit University in the US offer a degree in Internet Marketing, including classes on SEO.

+1 This is one where I should have done more research. Several universities already offered degrees in online marketing, and the only technicality may be what one considers "major." That said, given that places like Penn State, Vanderbilt, and Georgetown all either released or announced programs in online marketing in 2015, I'm giving myself partial credit.

#2: Google will continue the trend of providing instant answers in search results with more interactive tools.

+1 While it certainly couldn't be argued that Google backed down from the trend of more instant answers in results, the number of new interactive tools in 2015 was somewhat limited. They tried out a new hotel finder interface, some new home services results, and some fun results for queries like "I'm feeling curious", but the only ones I'd consider truly interactive and pervasive were their rollout of a mortgage calculator and their enhanced. re-launched flight finder, complete with affiliate program.

#3: 2015 will be the year Facebook begins including some form of web content (not on Facebook's site) in their search functionality.

-1 In some ways, you could argue that Facebook's hosting of instant articles (which began in March and now has substantive coverage across many publishers) matches this prediction, but since Facebook technically is putting these articles on their site, I'm marking it as "not completely wrong," rather than "partially accurate."

#4: Google's indexation of Twitter will grow dramatically, and a significantly higher percentage of tweets, hashtags, and profiles will be indexed by the year's end.

+1 It's true that Google's indexation of Twitter grew (as Stone Temple's analysis shows), but the much more substantive gains came from the renewed partnership between Twitter & Google, which my prediction didn't perfectly cover.

#5: The EU will take additional regulatory action against Google that will create new, substantive changes to the search results for European searchers.

+2 The EU filed formal antitrust accusations against Google in April. We may not see resolution for a while, but this certainly fits with what I thought might happen.

#6: Mobile search, mobile devices, SSL/HTTPS referrals, and apps will combine to make traffic source data increasingly hard to come by.

-1 Mostly thanks to Facebook correcting their lack of referral passing on mobile and in their app, this trend reversed in 2015, and we're seeing less misreported "direct" traffic than in the two years prior. That said, as Marshall Simmonds showed at Mozcon, a large portion of search traffic is still "dark," and isn't giving search marketers the credit they deserve. There's more detail in his public SMX presentation on the topic.

#7: The content advertising/recommendation platforms will continue to consolidate, and either Taboola or Outbrain will be acquired or do some heavy acquiring themselves.

-2 As best I can tell, neither Taboola nor Outbrain made any big acquisitions in 2015, and there wasn't much M&A activity in the space overall. The biggest transaction by far was Taboola's $117mm financing round, which I assumed would lead to them making some purchases but so far, no dice.

#8: Promoted pins will make Pinterest an emerging juggernaut in the social media and social advertising world, particularly for e-commerce.

+1 In December, Pinterest finally opened up promoted pins via self-service (and claimed 1 million active business accounts), but even before that, it appears the program's been going gangbusters. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any specific numbers, so it's hard to know how well the testing and ramp-up has gone, which is why I'm only giving myself a "partially accurate" score.

#9: Foursquare (and/or Swarm) will be bought, merge with someone, or shut down in 2015 (probably one of the first two).

-2 Despite a struggling business, Foursquare and Swarm both stayed alive and independent. The company is now raising a rough down-round (they were valued at half the valuation of prior funding rounds, which sucks for employee shareholders and founders), and pundits are saying a sale to Microsoft or another tech giant is likely, but it hasn't happened yet, so my prediction loses out.

#10: Amazon will not take considerable search share from Google, nor will mobile search harm Google's ad revenue substantively.

+2 No one touched Google's market share in 2015 (91%+ globally), and Google appears to be making great steps to continue their ad-driven growth in mobile. Their stocks, revenue, and market position feel just as unassailable today as they did a year ago, despite all the chatter suggesting otherwise.

FINAL SCORE: +2

I skated in just above the cutoff and so will continue my tradition of trying to predict the future. This year, I'm going to focus a bit more heavily on web marketing and SEO, rather than going broader across the tech industry.

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Rand's 10 Predictions for 2016

#1: Data Will Reveal Google Organic Results to Have <70% CTR

For many years, Google gave public numbers about the ratio of ads to organic click-through rate. Historically, these were between 80-85% for organic results and 15-20% for ads. But for years now, Google's been getting incredibly aggressive with non-organic results (knowledge graph, various AdWords formats, instant answers, etc). I think 2016 is the year we get better data and real results despite the search giant's silence on the subject.

That's in part going to come from the search marketing industry, where folks like AWR have built tools to track CTR reported in Google Search Console, and from outsiders like SimilarWeb and/or Jumpshot, who have access to clickstream-level data.

My prediction is that, on average, across Google's billions of daily searches, even accounting for searches that generate multiple clicks, less than 70% of searches result in at least 1 click on an organic result.

That's not particular gloomy though, given Google's growth. Even if we found the number to be 50%, there's still more opportunity in Google's organic results today than there was 4 years ago thanks to the incredible growth rate of searches (desktop's flattened, but hasn't shrunk in that time, and mobile's skyrocketed to more than double total search volume).

#2: Mobile Will Barely Cut In to Desktop's Usage and Its Growth Rate in Developed Countries Will Slow

I'm not sure if 2015 was the year of mobile, but I think 2016 will be the year that growth rates for mobile begin tapering off. Note - I'm not saying we're at "peak mobile" but I am saying the growth rate has reached its apex and I think in 2016, the percentage growth numbers will fall.

Mobile isn't killing desktop. It's killing all our free time. http://pic.twitter.com/pXb7F7aWsP
— Rand Fishkin (@randfish) December 20, 2015

Simultaneously, I think we may have reached the peak of desktop/laptop decline, and I expect that in 2016, desktop usage rates will stay largely unchanged. Most everything that mobile was going to replace or take away from desktop use has been taken, and I'm skeptical that things like creative work, programming, long-form writing, computer gaming, and other tasks that big monitors and full keyboard+mouse inputs were made for can be successfully cannibalized by the screen that fits in our pockets.

#3: Twitter Will Figure Out How to Grow Again

It's been a rough couple years for Twitter, but I'm bullish on the company in 2016 and long term. It takes new CEOs some time to right the ship and it takes time for changes in a company's leadership to impact their growth. It might be toward the end of 2016, but I believe we're going to see numbers from Twitter that improve their market position and their stock price (note: I hold no public market stock).

Via Twitter Has a Serious Growth Problem

For marketers, this means investments in Twitter will pay bigger long-term dividends. I think folks who learn how to effectively advertise with Twitter, how to earn an audience there, how to leverage the conversations not just to promote but to learn and participate will have remarkable opportunity. The flexibility features afforded by Twitter, combined with the way their stream and amplification function makes for much greater creative and content potential than the limits imposed by Facebook and Instagram in their organic streams (which is not to say that Facebook and Instagram aren't incredible opportunities themselves - they both are).

#4: Social Content Engines Will Become a Force

In 2015, I started using 5 new content recommendation engines:

• Pocket's New, Beta Recommendations which recommends content to me based on how other Pocket users are employing it, and lets me follow other Pocketers who publicly "recommend" content they read. BTW - if you want to follow my recommendations, you can see those here.
• Nuzzel - a great app and website that's very nearly a replacement for my favorite content engine of all time, the long-defunct Trunk.ly. It aggregates links shared on Twitter and Facebook by folks you follow, and shows content from "friends of friends," too.
• ProductHunt - a popular website in the startup & tech world that works like Reddit for software and apps. Creating an account and following others can help personalize the site's suggestions and what appears in their daily emails.
• Snapzu - a new(ish) service that aggregates content that's been shared in other places. They call themselves a "community of communities" and have an invite system that keeps signal:noise ratio high.

My prediction is that one or more of these will rise to the level of some of the second-tier social networks in popularity, referral traffic, and active users. That's probably Pocket, but it wouldn't surprise me to see Feedly or even a brand new player like Refind make a big splash. Social networks make content delivery and signal:noise secondary priorities behind engagement and conversation. I believe some of the players focused on this space will have an outstanding 2016 - content consumers need them.

33K followers only a month after the beta launch?? That's a powerful platform...

Of course, as these platforms take off, they also become of deep interest and importance to marketers, especially content marketers, as social amplifiers, influencers, and probably, as a result, some level of search rankings will get a boost if content does well on them.

#5: Yext Will IPO, Prompting Even More Interest in the World of Local Listings

In 2014, there were numerous articles predicting Yext's IPO. It didn't happen in 2015, but I think this is the year. They've executed well, built a moat with their contracts and their powerful sales team, and they play in a space where businesses desperately need help - local listings.

I think Yext's rise will create a great deal more interest in the local listings world from tech, financial, and business folks who've previously mostly ignored it. I'm also bullish on Moz Local's growth (a semi-direct competitor to Yext), and I actually think Yext's making of this market will help with that, just as Hubspot's IPO helped so many companies in the inbound and content marketing worlds.

#6: The Death of Normal Distributions Will Hit Both Publishing and Search Results Hard

I found Alex Danco's recent post about the death of normal distributions to be prescient (despite some criticism of the lack of data underlying the graphs). I agree that we're moving away from a world of normal distributions in demand curves and towards a winner-take-all model. The "long tail" theory of digitization has been mostly proven false (with a few notable exception areas like keyword search demand and social network connections).

Via Taylor Swift, iOS, & the Access Economy: Why the Normal Distribution is Vanishing

In 2016, I think we're going to see more of what happened to GigaOm and what was described in The Sad Economics of Internet Fame. That is, content becoming so ubiquitous and so hard to monetize that only the big winners will be able to keep up the game. Ad-blocking's growth may play a part in that, as will Google's algorithms that reward faster-loading, higher-engagement pages that don't drive away visitors with interruptions and annoyances.

Likewise, I think we're going to see more consolidation overall in search results, with fewer unique domains in the top 10 rankings of search results (we should be able to measure this via Mozcast). I'm not happy about this prediction -- my hope is that it's wrong. I believe in and love the diversity of content the web and its organic marketing channels have enabled.

#7: The Rise of Adblocking is Going to Trigger Attempts at Legislation and Incite More Sites to Restrict Adblocking Users

Via Adobe/Pagefair Report

Ad-blocking was part of a huge conversation in 2015, and my guess is that the reaction to this growing technology is going to mimic how entrenched players have reacted to technology leaps in the past - by trying to legislate it away. I anticipate that in either the US or the EU, some form of government action will arise (in the US, most likely due to lobbying AKA our legalized system of bribery) to "protect the interests of publishers and journalists who serve the public good."

If that exact quote appears from a source, I think I should get double the points, don't you? :-)

#8: DuckDuckGo Will Be the Fastest Growing Search Engine of 2016

Google had a good 2015. So did Bing, actually (given they now power AOL and had relative success with Windows 10 and the Edge browser). But in 2016, I think our fastest growing broad, web search engine will be DuckDuckGo, whose growth in 2015 was pretty remarkable, too:

Via DuckDuckGo's wonderfully transparent Traffic Stats page

Part of this is the continuing storylines of privacy, part of it is the early adopters in the tech world moving to DDG, and part of it is DDG's accomplishments as an engine - for a lot of queries they're now truly as good as Google (although they miss some, too). If I weren't in SEO, with a professional need to see as many Google results as possible, I'd honestly consider switching.

Given DDG has many fewer queries to being with, I'll make a slightly bolder claim - their growth rate in 2016 will exceed their 2015 growth rate, and no currently existing other major web search engine will grow as quickly. If Apple or Facebook decide to get directly into search, well... A) they should buy DuckDuckGo and B) all bets are off.

#9: Content Marketing Software for the Non-Enterprise Will Finally Emerge

For a long while now, large enterprises and big content shops have been the sole beneficiaries of content marketing software that tracks performance, suggests improvements, helps with publishing, ideas, outreach, etc. But I think 2016 will be the year that some of the SMB and mid-market players emerge. There are numerous players poised to take this market, including:

• Buzzsumo - to date they've been the strongest performer of the bunch, but I'd categorize them primarily as a research tool (albeit an amazing one). They've broken into content alerts, but I think they might do more with ongoing campaigns, suggestions, and analytics in 2016.
• Kapost - built for content creators to pitch and share ideas, manage the content publication process, and distribute effectively across channels, Kapost has been around for a few years, but continues to improve and gain market traction among their target B2B customers.
• Priceonomics - I think these folks will make a big splash with this product once it's public. They've almost exactly followed Moz's model, first building an impressive blog and a passionate following, and now launching what looks like very interesting software that they themselves have been using internally.
• Quicksprout - Like Priceonomics, Quicksprout was first a popular blog in the marketing space and according to a blog post from cofounder Hiten Shah, they'll be launching a SaaS product to help people produce better content in the near future.
• Moz Content - one of the quietest launches we've done at Moz was in November of last year, when we announced Moz Content, which provides audits, ongoing tracking, analytics, and competitive research tools for content marketers. It's hard for me to be objective, but I think Moz Content has a good chance of growing substantially this year.

My prediction is that one or more of these will gain significant market share of 2,000 or more new, paying users in 2016.

#10: The "Big" Trends for 2016: Wearables, VR, Smart Home, and Internet of Things Will Have Almost No Impact on the World of Web Marketing (yet)

I've been known to be a skeptic about a lot of supposed "game-changers" in tech and marketing, and this year, I'm sticking to that archetype. I know that all the tech publications are basically saying the same thing - it's the year of wearables, virtual reality, smart home, Internet of things, and personal transport.

I won't argue against any of those (though I'm not sure VR will be as mainstream by next Christmas as the tech blogosphere is prognosticating), but I will argue that none of them will have a big impact on how we do web marketing. There may be a few niche opportunities, but my prediction is that none of these new trends will create marketing/advertising platforms or potential in the $50mm+ range. If ads on refrigerators or in VR helmets or if new social media platforms on wearables attract that kind of business, I'll lose my 2 points.

BTW - I'm obsessed with my Fitbit; I just really hope no one can market to me through it.

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There we have it! My ten predictions for 2016 are set in stone (errr... an easily editable blog post, but I'd never abuse your trust or Google's cached snapshot like that). I look forward to your comments, critiques, and any predictions you'd like to share here. We'll see how it plays out next January.

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Don't Just Manage Your Reputation—Improve it

Posted by MaryBowling

In ranking businesses in the local search results, Google's goal has always been to model the real world. It aims to reward the companies that are the most popular and prominent within their own market areas — those that are the most highly regarded by their customers, considered to among the best at what they do and that people generally patronize, talk well about and recommend to their friends. Those are the local businesses that Google wants to show in its local search results.

That’s what searchers want to see in their results, too! After all, no one wants to get awful or even so-so service if they can choose to use a business that has a history of making its customers very happy, instead. Whether people think you’re doing a stellar job or a stinky one, there’s no way to hide from your reputation anymore. Prospective buyers can now see the collective history of a business’s ability to keep its customers happy 24 hours a day via online reviews.

Why are reviews so important?

Depending on which survey you see, somewhere between 75% and 90% of consumers read online reviews when considering a purchase. A slightly smaller number of us trust online reviews as much as we trust recommendations made by people that we know.

While it may at first sound a little crazy, that trust is developed via our ability to read multiple opinions on a variety of websites made by a diverse group of people with differing standards and tastes. Then, while considering the public’s overall opinion of a business, we take into consideration the factors that are most important to us.

For example, a light sleeper may be more concerned about the noisiness of a hotel than they are about whether it offers a hot breakfast or a clean pool, and a traveler with an early flight may be looking at guests’ opinions of the reliability of a hotel’s airport shuttle service more than at any other amenity.

Moving beyond reputation management

Marketers have long used the term reputation management to refer to a company’s efforts to impact what prospective customers see about them online. Here’s Wikipedia’s definition of that term:

The practice of managing one’s online reputation has mainly consisted of getting more good reviews to help drown out the poor ones, owning the first page of the SERPs for brand name searches, and using the ability to respond to reviews on many sites as a method of damage control.

However, in 2015 and beyond, we need to think less about reacting appropriately to poor opinions and trying to reduce the visibility of bad online reviews. We need to concentrate on reputation development, instead.

Developing a better reputation

In the past, it wasn't hard to for a small business to survive and perhaps even thrive while providing poor to mediocre products and services. If there was enough foot traffic to a shop or office or store, or if it was in a good location, or if it did enough advertising in the places people used to find that type of business, new people would keep coming in the doors and buying from it — despite how bad it might actually be. While its customers might share their experiences with the people in their social circles, those circles were relatively small and word of mouth didn't travel very far unless extraordinary measures were taken.

However, in the age of the Internet, a business can no longer hide from its customers' opinions. We’re connected to each other online in ways that were not possible in the past. Most consumers have at least one mobile device with them at all times. We have our smartphones in our pockets and purses. They lie next to us while we sleep. We use them while we’re driving to be entertained and educated. We use them to communicate, get directions, and gather information, and we use them to find businesses to patronize and to learn about the experiences others have had there. People can read others’ opinions of local enterprises just about anytime and anywhere.

Reviews as a ranking factor

In the first years of local search, reviews weren’t much of a ranking factor. That changed in 2009 when Yelp rejected acquisition by Google. The search giant then made reviews a significant ranking factor in the local algorithm in order to incentivize small businesses to encourage more online reviews at Google.

We quickly suffered a plague of fake reviews and Google then had to take steps to reduce them. Among its tactics were the reduced impact of reviews on rankings, the development of a Yelp-like reviewer algorithm, and the requirement by Google+ to have a legitimate-looking profile in order to leave a review.

In 2015, reviews still have an impact on ranking in Google Maps and the local pack results, but the crowd-sourced opinion of local search practitioners pegs it at less than 9%. We can still get rating stars showing in some of the SERPs once we have 5–6 Google reviews, and it’s generally believed that 10 reviews left at Google provides a little bit of a ranking boost. Google may also be trying to incorporate review sentiment into its ranking algorithms. If and when this becomes a reality, Google will have come quite close to its goal of modeling the real world.

Beyond reviews as a ranking factor

While you should definitely take advantage of these features, we really need to look beyond rankings for motivation for getting reviews. Instead, we need to think about getting more and more good reviews over time in order to develop our reputation, rather than just managing it.

The newish Local Finder results shown below give users the opportunity to sort the results they see by ratings in some verticals. I anticipate that more industries will get this feature in the future, allowing us to choose just how good a local business must be before we’ll consider patronizing it. So, ranking well probably won’t do much for your enterprise unless those rankings are accompanied by ratings that are average (3 stars) at the very least.

People are also learning to search in better ways and many of them are asking to see the "best of something," rather than just "something." No one wants to go to an average or below-average oral surgeon, for example. If I need a root canal, I want the best dentist that I can find in my area to operate on me. And if I can’t find a good one in my town, I’ll likely be willing to travel elsewhere to be seen by a specialist that nearly everyone raves about.

Understanding Net Promoter Score

A company’s Net Promoter Score® is an easy way to determine how your reputation is developing over time. Customers are asked a single question: How likely is it that you would recommend [brand] to a friend or colleague?

A score is then calculated using a simple formula.

If the NPS increases over time, the company is doing a good job of keeping its customers satisfied, which is reflected in the body of online reviews about it and in the steady overall growth of the business.

While you may or may not wish to use Net Promoter Score® to assist you in improving your business, the idea behind it is a solid one. Actively ask for feedback from all of your customers. Then act on what you learn to constantly improve your products and services.

Refining the process allows you to quickly respond those who have complaints or concerns and to make things right before they get a chance to criticize you in public, while those who are happy with you can be encouraged to tell others about their experience, both on- and offline.

Contrary to what some business owners believe, most customers are not anxious to leave bad reviews. People tend to leave reviews only when their experience is exceptionally good or exceptionally bad. Mitigating bad experiences by sincerely asking for feedback and doing what’s needed to immediately make the customer happy is a fairly clear path to getting more good reviews and fewer bad reviews online.

Fixing problems takes more than talk

It’s easy to find examples that demonstrate how a business’ refusal to correct deficiencies when they’re brought to the staff’s attention can result in scathing reviews. It’s obviously much better to listen and correct a problem than it is to keep writing apologies for bad service. The hotel referred to in the examples below has dozens of reviews similar to this one commenting on poor experiences with its housekeeping department.

And the manager keeps writing insincere apologies that do nothing to reassure readers that the problem has been corrected.

A serious commitment to a cycle of continuous improvement based on customer feedback is what it takes to be one of the best businesses of its type in your area. This type of strategy will bring in more and more new customers over time and encourage past customers to return.

Google’s local algorithms have improved exponentially since 2004. Google wants to reward us online for being prominent and popular in the offline world, so we have to make sure our companies shine. Businesses that are unwilling to do so are doomed to a slow death because there’s no longer anywhere to hide from a bad reputation.

Best practices for reputation development

Get company-wide buy-in.
Everyone within the organization must be committed to asking for feedback from customers and sincerely listening for areas that can and should be improved. This needs to start at the top and flow through the entire organization. Always keep in mind that you have asked for ways to improve your business, so even the happiest customers are very likely to make suggestions. Take this as a positive, not a negative.

Problems should be identified and mitigated as soon after the customer has experience with the business as possible.
Ideally, that’s before the person leaves the business location or before the service provider leaves the location where work was performed. This is your best opportunity to learn from your customers and to delight them.

Provide a way for customers to complain right on your company’s website.
Even at the most conscientious businesses, people can have less-than-ideal experiences and sometimes people just need to vent, so give them a place to communicate with you away from the public eye. Closely monitor your on-site complaints and respond immediately.

Contact the customer soon after their visit with you to thank them and ask about their experience.
While a phone call is sometimes in order (such as with an oral surgeon checking up on a patient), in most cases, an email works fine. Send it out within a few days after the interaction asking about their experience and asking for suggestions on how it can be improved. Even those thrilled with their experience may have good ideas for your consideration.

Provide an appropriate response to the customer’s comments.
Address both their praise and concerns and thank them for helping you to improve your business.

Politely ask happy customers if you can use their comments or your website and if you can also include their name and photo.
Also suggest that they can help you and others by commenting on their positive experiences at popular online review sites. Provide links to your listing on several popular review sites to make it easy for them to do so.

Honestly address the concerns of those who had negative experiences.
Offer what you can to make it right and tell them what you plan to do to prevent it from happening again.

Take suggestions to heart.
Enthusiastically do what you can to continuously improve your business to satisfy the needs and wants of your clientele. In this way, you’ll always be improving your online and offline reputation and growing your business.

Resources

• Google My Business Help Forum – Google provides review monitoring and responses via its Google My Business dashboard.
• Moz Local provides a foundational education in online review development.
• 60+ Questions to Troubleshoot and Fix Your Local Reviews Strategy
  How to Know If Your Local Reviews Strategy Works – Both of these articles from Phil Rosek will help you to understand and implement successful strategies for developing the online reputation of your local business.
• Review Handout Generator from Whitespark provides us with an easy way to create handouts to encourage more reviews from happy customers.
• How to Do Review Audits That Turn Clients’ Worst Reviews Into Actionable Solutions – Miriam Ellis schools us on providing the tough love businesses often need to help them get their online reputation cleaned up quickly and effectively.
• How to Conduct an Online Patient Review Audit – Incredible Marketing’s advice on review audits for medical practitioners.
• GetFiveStars – A customizable platform that helps you to easily monitor, share and respond to reviews. Free trial.
• Review Trackers – An all-in-one dashboard for keeping an eye on reviews about you across the web. Provides multi-location monitoring and the ability to respond quickly to reviews. Demo and free trial.
• ReviewPush – A review request, monitoring, and reporting tool. Free trial.

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