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The Rise of Etail & What It Means for Enterprise Local Brands

…As marketers worldwide put their 2020 plans into motion, e-commerce was on a fairly stable trajectory of growth and consumer acceptance. Retail was in the process of gradually restructuring to accommodate the increasing adoption of e-commerce, alternative shopping methods like BOPIS (buy online, pickup in-store), and technologies such as beacons, contactless payment, and the Internet of Things. COVID blew that growth curve wide open. Suddenly consumers’ legitimate fears and anxieties over a…… entire country went into a period of lockdown, prompting even the late adopters to hastily accept a new means of acquiring goods. I had the good fortune to tune in and listen as two esteemed retail experts—Naveen Jaggi, President of Retail Advisory Services with JLL, and Ken Madsen of Mad Creative Production—discussed the pandemic’s impact on retail at Localogy 2020 (online) and what the future holds for retailers globally. In their ‘eTail Triggers Retail Transformation’ session mode…

Google’s November 2021 Local Search Update: What Does it Mean for Enterprise Brands?

…earch update has concluded. It began Nov 30 and ran through Dec 8. It involved a rebalancing of various factors we consider in generating local search results. General guidance for businesses remains the same as covered here: https://t.co/uyXFfmUEIR — Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) December 16, 2021 Dubbed the “Vicinity” update by Sterling Sky’s Joy Hawkins, it seems to have been largely centered around the concept and weighting of proximity in local search rankings. As part of ……ne prominence shooting to the top of the local results, going from zero to hundreds of Top 3 rankings, suggests this was part of the update. You can dig into more local ranking factors and which ones experts feel are more heavily weighted in Google’s local algorithms in 2021 Local Search Ranking Factors: A Guide for Brands in 2022. What are you seeing in the aftermath of this local search update? Reach out to Rio SEO on Twitter and share your experience or get in touch with your Account Direct…

Visual search: What it means for your SEO strategy

…ool that allows developers to quickly and easily test Artificial Intelligence (AI) models in the cloud. The tool enables users to upload images and videos and apply various pre-trained AI models for tasks such as image classification, object detection, facial recognition, landmark or logo recognition, explicit content detection, and more. In addition, this tool allows developers to experiment with various techniques to solve specific problems. Finally, Google's Image Schema guidelines and Sch……Visual search technology marketers need to know Best practices for image SEO Conclusion Google Search has become a far more dynamic and visually interesting place than it was back when there were only ten simple blue links. One of the ways Google has improved is through its advancement of machine perception – that is, enhancing a machine’s understanding of images and other media. It’s an important area of research for the search giant that deeply impacts the search experienc…

Google’s Link Spam Update: What It Means for Enterprise Brands

…Google completed rolling out its link spam update on August 24, 2021, according to Google Search Central. Google notes that this particular update was part of its continued efforts to improve the quality of search results for its users, which is the underlying motivation for pretty much every algorithm update, such as the recent Page Experience update which also completed rolling out on September 2, 2021. In this post, you’ll learn what the link spam update entails, what Google aims to achie…

Local SEO Spring Cleaning 101: SEO, Content, and Technical Issues to Fix

…ur webinar audience said their SEO efforts could use a spring refresh. And 27%, said their content efforts specifically are the first effort they’re looking to refresh this spring. Content Fixes We asked our panel to share their top fixes, both short-term and long-term, they’d recommend businesses focus on improving the user experience, and boost their natural search performance in the process. Sherry recommends refreshing older website content and starting by targeting pages that are close ……Spring has sprung, and there is no better time than now to revisit and revamp your local presence. Just as you’d deep clean your house or plant your garden for spring (and hopefully at least a few other times of the year), your SEO strategy needs routine maintenance too, and refreshing to yield long-term results. Your local SEO spring cleaning can start today, with the strategies shared during our recent webinar. To help your business improve your local rankings, rise in the Search Engine Res……ar. To help your business improve your local rankings, rise in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS), and start spring off right we assembled a panel of local marketing and Google Business Profile experts to discuss essential updates to make to your existing marketing campaigns, and sound SEO strategies. During the webinar, our panel also discusses: The current local search ranking factors driving listing views and conversions Simple SEO fixes you may be overlooking in your current mark…

European Wax Center strips away local listings issues to reveal lucrative local marketing gains across the brand

…European Wax Center European Wax Center strips away local listings issues to reveal lucrative local marketing gains across the brand Tools used Local Reporting Synopsis A leader in the beauty franchise category, European Wax Center needed a local presence reflective of the brand’s exceptional reputation to drive online visibility and waxing service reservations across its nearly 1,000 US locations. Rio SEO’s bespoke solution combined powerful Local Listings and Lo…

From keywords to conversations: how generative AI is redefining search experiences

…the weather in June?' This dynamic interaction makes exploring complex topics effortless. ChatGPT’s search capabilities offer detailed, cohesive responses instead of lists of links. For example, asking, “What are the health benefits of meditation?” might generate an explanation of its effects on stress, sleep, and focus, along with beginner tips and app recommendations. This cohesive delivery helps users quickly move from curiosity to informed action, creating opportunities for brands t…… experience: a paradigm shift How generative AI improves search intent matching AI-generated featured snippets and dynamic rich results Key takeaways Search has come a long way since the early days of simple keyword queries. Back then, search engines focused on matching exact words, often missing the mark on what users actually wanted. For example, typing "bank" could show results for riverbanks or financial institutions, failing to understand your intent. Fast forward to tod……customer experiences. Ready to take your search strategy to the next level? Learn how to win the search battle in an AI webinar by watching our free on-demand webinar featuring a panel of AI experts and view Rio SEO's AI technology solutions. Related resources Newsletter Get industry insights that matter, delivered direct to your inbox We collect this information to send you free content, offers, and product updates. Visit our recently updated …

What is the local experience?

…nd customer service experiences. And with the right technology stack, you can see incoming reviews in near real time, respond to positive and negative feedback within a centralized dashboard, assign tasks, and mine for common complaints or areas where you're excelling. This comprehensive view can help inform your business strategy, promote transparency in user feedback, and nuture customer relationships. By having a measurable indicator of success, these insights can inform leadership teams o……What is the local experience? In today's dynamic and ever-evolving economic environment, customer experiences can serve as a guiding light for building a successful business. From the very first touchpoint to the follow up feedback post-sale, the buyer's journey is now intricately intertwined with a series of customer experiences. These experiences occur at every stage of the buyers journey, and they extend beyond the final sale too. Each step of this journey presents a u…

Is More Content Better for Enterprise SEO? Does Longer Content Perform Better?

…You’ve probably heard a lot of conflicting information about your content strategy and how it supports search engine optimization (SEO). Many brands are asking themselves the same questions: How long should each piece of content be? Does Google prefer more or fewer web pages per site? How often should we be publishing new content? In this post, we’ll tackle some of the commonly held beliefs and misconceptions about content for enterprise SEO. You’ll learn best practices for your enterp……You’ve probably heard a lot of conflicting information about your content strategy and how it supports search engine optimization (SEO). Many brands are asking themselves the same questions: How long should each piece of content be? Does Google prefer more or fewer web pages per site? How often should we be publishing new content? In this post, we’ll tackle some of the commonly held beliefs and misconceptions about content for enterprise SEO. You’ll learn best practices for your enterp…

What is customer experience management?

…looking for? How is the buying experience? Is it smooth to complete? Do you answer any follow-up questions or comments the customer makes? How is the after-sale period? Do you follow up to ask for feedback on how you could improve the customer experience? Considering how customer experience feels at each stage of the customer journey will help you solidify your customer experience management and get the most of your efforts to deliver a best-in-class customer experience. CR……Customer experiences begin the moment a consumer finds your business – through a search engine, from a voice-activated device, word of mouth, or social media. It also extends post-sale, when you have the opportunity to turn a one-time customer into a loyal advocate for your business. To build an effective, cross-channel local experience starts with customer experience management (CEM or CXM). What is customer experience management? Customer experience management is the combination of all…

How local advertising is changing (and where to focus now)

…How local advertising is changing (and where to focus now) Content The evolving Google Search ecosystem The opportunities and impacts of generative AI Combating consumer distrust The increasingly visual search landscape Increasingly fragmented customer experiences Where to focus now Local advertising has been in a constant state of flux since the pandemic took hold across the United States. The resulting impact on advertisers and the brands they serv…

What is Customer Success – The Ultimate Guide

…Act in line with customer success insights to retain clients. Review to make continual improvements, especially as changes in the wider business strategy may affect objectives. More frequently asked questions Can customer success apply for every business? The approach behind customer success, and its mission to achieve your customers’ goals to achieve your own, fits most industries, across all regions. But customer success management as a practice has been developed to respond more spec……What is customer success? Customer success is a method for ensuring customers reach their desired outcomes when using an organization’s product or service. Alternatively, it’s a long-term, scientifically engineered, and professionally directed business strategy for maximizing customer and company sustainable proven profitability. At Rio SEO and Forsta, we consider customer success as an approach to customer satisfaction that’s centered around the relationship between the customer and the…

Why emotional connection is the missing piece in scalable local marketing

…Why emotional connection is the missing piece in scalable local marketing Content The power of emotional connection in local marketing Understanding your local audience: building a foundation for connection Personalization: the heart of local emotional engagement Creating memorable local experiences How to build long-term emotional loyalty Measuring success: KPIs for emotional engagement at the local level The lasting value of emotional connection in loca…

What Is SeekToAction Markup? Here’s What Brands Need to Know

…As video content becomes increasingly important for brands in their local marketing strategy and Google continues to support new schema types, local businesses must adopt this engagement tactic to help their searchers more easily find what they are looking for. To better help brands showcase their video efforts, a new video schema markup called SeekToAction is available. This has been in beta since it was first announced at Google I/O earlier this year. Now, Google says it supports SeekToAction …

How Google is Helping Healthcare Brands Boost Visibility for Vaccine Availability

…what to expect during their visit. Use other Health & Safety attributes in GMB to proactively let searchers know whether staff and visitors get regular temperature checks, are required to wear masks, etc. Overall, it is crucial that your GMB listings are accurate and up-to-date for every location. Work through one location’s listing from the perspective of a local searcher. Consider each of the available fields and features—are you proactively and fully answering questions a person mi……The Coronavirus has kept the entire world on our collective toes, and the world’s most popular search engine is not slowing down in making new features and functionality readily available. In December, Google revealed that it had launched over 200 new products, features, and initiatives in response to COVID-19. One of these new features is ensuring vaccine availability information is visible to searchers. New Google My Business listings features of particular importance for enterprise brands …

Rio SEO Introduces More Accurate Rank Reporting for Google Local Search

…Measuring brand performance at the local level is not only critical to your understanding of ROI but also in improving the interactions that drive customers to your doorstep in every location. Rio SEO’s Local Reporting provides a universal dashboard in which brands can track engagement, measure citation accuracy, evaluate performance against competitors, and more. Now, we’re making it easier for brand marketers to see precise local rankings within specific areas around each location. New:…

Apple Maps iOS 15 Updates: What Multi-Location Brands Can Expect

…Recently, Google announced a bevy of new features and enhancements coming soon to Google Maps. These updates intend to improve the user experience, enabling users to find their desired destination more seamlessly. Not to be outdone by their competitor, Apple Maps similarly made an equally impactful announcement regarding new updates coming to iOS 15. The Apple Maps iOS15 updates will bring more detailed maps, improvements to pedestrian navigation, and more accurate navigation. These improvemen…

Tap into the potential of Bing image creator: 6 expert tips for local marketers

…ake this universal so anyone using the Bing Chat experience can use “draw an image” or “create an image” prompts and a description of the desired image to put the generator to work. If you ask the Bing search engine to draw you a picture, you’ll be prompted to install Microsoft Edge and use chat mode to generate an image. ‘Boosts’ make image generation faster Bing Image Creator has a system of credits called Boosts that prioritize images so they are created faster. Eac……Tap into the potential of Bing image creator: 6 expert tips for local marketers Generative AI tools are taking the digital marketing world by storm, and Bing has one you’ll want to check out. As the first browser-based AI-powered image creator, Bing Image Creator offers a seamless way to generate AI images from within the Bing and Microsoft Edge experiences. Yusuf Mehdi, Corporate Vice President & Consumer Chief Marketing Officer, announced its launch on the Offici…

Local Marketing Trends with Acronym: Client Interview

…John Albin is the SEO Manager at Acronym. In this interview-style post, John shares his local marketing tips and insight into the latest trends in local search marketing. Rio SEO is fortunate to work with exceptional businesses, one of those being Acronym, a top search agency headquartered in New York City. Together, Rio SEO and Acronym partner to provide local listing support for a global hospitality client. In our latest client conversation, we interviewed John Albin, SEO extraordinaire wh…

Internal Linking Best Practices for Enterprise Local Brands

…trategy. When you outline a new piece of content, include information for the writer(s) about which pages they can link to and what other resources on the website they can surface and refer to. Also ask a webmaster to backlink to your website (preferably once or twice in the main body content) if you are guest posting original content on third party website. However be careful not to overdue this particular backlinking strategy. One way to stay safe is to make sure to backlink brand mention……ternal links are incredibly useful and effective, though sometimes complicated, aspect of your SEO strategy. While external backlinks are an effective search engine optimization (SEO) signal, in that they tell search engines, such as Google, others endorse your content, internal linking helps search engines understand the structure, importance, and hierarchy of your content. In its 'Importance of Link Architecture' resource on the Google Developers Blog, Google states: "Link architecture—the…