Rank Ranger Blog

The conception of a pay to play Google My Business (GMB) recently hit DEFCON 1. While many in the industry have considered the notion of Google asking small businesses to open up their wallets to be inevitable for some time now, recent developments have blown the conversation wide open. As an uncovered Google survey clearly implies, monetization of Google's local business listings could very well be on its way!

Take a look back at how a heck of a lot of Google's updates to local features over the past year (or so) all point towards GMB monetization!

We speak to link building maven Garrett French all about local link campaigns:

• How to target a local site for link outreach
• Making even the blandest local business a linkable proposition
• Making sure your local link campaigns are diverse and location appropriate

Plus, we take a look at the development of Google’s Topic Layer in the Knowledge Pane

Another month has come and gone and in some respects, the Google SERP is not what it once was. As April becomes a distant memory, the SERP is now a far more visual place with multiple search features showing display level increases. AMP also eked its way back into the news throughout April with a motley collection of announcements & updates. Of course, there were various spikes in rank fluctuations and a myriad of changes to a plethora of SERP features!

Ready to jump into the thick of it all?!

In this episode we talk to Jeannie Hill, the founder of Hill Web Creations all about intent & how it shapes the consumer's search journey:

• The role of intent in the consumer's path towards conversion
• Addressing consumer bias as part of the intent equation
• The advantage of targeting intent gaps

Plus, we discuss the possibility of Google heavily monetizing Google My Business.

I'm on the hunt for user intent insights in 2019. I've resolved to make this year about going deep into intent and how Google handles it. Instead of getting into the finer points of user intent and Google's proficiency in meeting it on multiple levels, I'm going to showcase where it doesn't work. Meaning, while I generally think Google's increased ability to parse user intent and pick it apart is a fantastic step forward, it does not work universally. As Google offers users results that would satisfy any number of intents the search engine is going to increasingly be faced with the issue of not meeting any of them adequately. Allow me to demonstrate.

Joining us is Zack Bedingfield of CallRail who shares his wisdom on all things automation inside of Google Ads:

• What should you automate in your Google Ads campaigns? What shouldn’t you?
• What automation works best for what Where is the future of Google Ads automation heading!

Plus, we talk about the long term impact of Featured Snippets on your site’s traffic.

Google's job listing search engine, Google for Jobs, has been around for a nice while at this point. Though, despite having spread to markets such as India and Japan, not much is known about how vast of a resource Google's job compilation database is. For job sites such as CareerBuilder, how big a traffic determent is Google's job SERP feature? For job seekers, how deep does this canyon of job listings go? Is the job depository growing or is it stagnant? Simply, what is the state of Google for Jobs?

Care to find out?

Related Questions, or as most of us know them, People Also Ask (PAA), has developed into one of the more intriguing features on the Google SERP. The feature is both prominent and powerful. This dynamically loading set of what are all but Featured Snippets has the potential to seriously alter a user's search process or search 'journey' if you will.

I wanted to qualify that potential a bit by analyzing what intent looks like inside the PAA box.

• How many intents are represented by the initial four PAA questions?
• Does Google prefer to dig deep into one specific topic or does Google prefer to offer a broader topical look with its PAA questions?
• Does Google give one intent more attention than another?
• Does Google treat one keyword category and type differently than another in regards to the PAA?

Joining us is Niki Mosier of SEER Interactive to get us caught up on the hidden world of local SERP features.

• What to consider when creating Google Posts
• What local features are we all forgetting about & how can you capitalize on them?
• Where we stand in tracking local SERP feature progress

Plus, we take a hard look at how advantageous it is for multinational companies to focus on voice search.

When Danny Sullivan recently tried to explain the difference between neural matching and RankBrain I was initially left scratching my head. I thought, why does this have to be so complicated? Couldn't the difference between neural matching and RankBrain be explained in a tangibly concrete well structured and "scaffolded" manner?

In this episode, we welcome LinkedIn expert Yoel Israel of Wadi Digital who discusses:

• What you can do to get your LinkedIn and your business's LinkedIn profile on the Google SERP
• Getting your LinkedIn content noticed
• How to make your LinkedIn profile more "linkable”

Plus, we analyze the effectiveness and purpose of getting into a Google update at the site level.

In this episode, we welcome the world-renowned Lukasz Zelezny who discusses all things "organic" with us:

• Why organic search is stronger than ever
• Organic brand building
• What still works on social media without having to pay for it

Plus, we delve into how machine learning has changed what keyword research should look like!