How to Get More Local Business Reviews from Travelers

Image credit: JPreisler.com

Call me a hopeless romantic, but I delight in extending the enjoyment of travel by writing reviews of the places I’ve been after returning home. It’s almost like typing a mini travelog, remembering the new experiences, for good or not-so-good, I had along the road.

I know that when I write a positive review of a local business or public amenity, it will give a lift to online reputation, rankings, and revenue. If I write a judicious critique of something that wasn’t so great, it can help business owners make improvements that should build up their metrics and success over time. And while pursuit of the great outdoors is often the search for silence, quiet is the one thing no local business owner should ever hope for in their online review profiles.

If you and your town depend on tourism for part of your economic health, today’s column is for you. I’ve got an original poll, stats, and tips to help your local business earn more reviews from travelers.

How many reviews do travelers write?

Image credit: MiriamEllis.com

"Elizabeth was delighted. She had never seen a place where nature had done more, or where natural beauty had been so little counteracted by an awkward taste.” - Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

For a long time, I’ve wanted to know if Jane Austen and I were alone in loving to write about our travels through Derbyshire and, you know, Peanut, California. Does anyone else re-live the inns and parks and restaurants and shops and public places visited like we do, by jotting it all down, I wondered. So, I did what any lady of wit and intelligence would do and took a Twitter poll to ask how many local business reviews other people write as the result of a trip. Thank you to everyone who took the time to respond so that we can all see the data:

It’s good to know that 37.5% of people write at least 1-3 reviews as a result of travel, and that 13.8% find even more pleasure in writing as many as 4-6 reviews, and those who find themselves equal to penning 7-10 reviews are praiseworthy local business supporters, indeed. All told, 52.6% of wayfarers write at least some reviews. All good news!

But on the other hand, the fact that nearly half (47.5%) of vacationers and travelers write zero reviews about their experiences on the road or abroad is ill news, because of the lost opportunity this represents for local brands. In fact, it’s not just ill news…it’s familiar ill news. As we shall see.

Why don’t travelers write reviews? Stats tell the story.

Image credit: Nik Gaffney

“Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.” - Doctor Seuss

From a previous large-scale Moz survey, we know that only 14% of US adults never write reviews and that is quite a different figure than the 47.5% of travelers who never write reviews:

We also know that over half of US adults will either always or usually leave a review if asked to do so by the local business:

But, unfortunately, 39% of respondents simply haven’t been asked by anyone to review a local business in the past five years. That number deserves its own graphic:

So not asking customers, including travelers, to write reviews could be a significant reason why your business isn’t getting the maximum benefits it could be enjoying from earning more reviews. But do you know what the #1 reason is that visitors to your town aren’t reviewing you on the road or when they get back home again? Forgetfulness.

The dominant 38% of respondents simply don’t remember to write you a review when they have free time. You can easily imagine this scenario. The vacationer has returned from touring Derbyshire (or Peanut) and they are sunburned, and their offspring and dogs are covered in sand, and they have to unpack the traveling coach, and they discover the power was shut off in their absence and now their refrigerator smells otherworldly. It’s probably the last thing on their mind right now, or even this week, to sit down and review the B&Bs, shops, state parks, and carriage rental service they enjoyed on the trip.

In order to win reviews from passers-by, your best bet will be to capture their text number or email address at the time of service and remind them.

But when should you do that?

Thank you Near Media (and university researchers) for answering my question

It’s been a standard best practice recommendation for many years to send local business review requests shortly after the time of service. Common wisdom has asserted that you should collect a customer’s email address or text line when they make a purchase from you and then follow up with them quickly with an email or text mentioning how much you would appreciate their review. This seems logical, but recent research from the University of Nevada and Arizona State calls this whole timeline into question. As highlighted in a must-read article from Greg Sterling and Mike Blumenthal at Near Media, this survey found that:

• In the first 5 days following a transaction, customers leave more reviews if you don’t ask for them!

• However, once 9 days have elapsed since the transaction, customers start leaving fewer reviews unless your business asks for them.

• The window of time that results in the most reviews earned via solicitation appears to be between 9-14 days post-transaction.

• The university researchers speculated that review requests that appear too quickly can feel pushy or annoying, whereas those which are received later feel like friendly reminders.

These findings are both novel and surprising, and this new suggested review request timeline strikes me as ideally adapted for businesses that depend, in part, on tourism. Travel, however much it may be enjoyed, is generally a bit of an ordeal. There are well-known memes about needing time to rest from the rest you were supposed to have on vacation.

A 9-14 day window gives visitors a recovery period, by which point they will also have strayed into the forgetfulness territory identified in Moz’s own survey. Your request in this slot could be just what is needed to remind the customer and warmly invite them to relive the good memories they made on their trip by writing them down in review format.

Near Media urges you to experiment, of course, with the behaviors and preferences of your own customers. Their activity may or may not match the findings of the university research, but to get an accurate reading on this, please look again at this statistic:

The #2 contributor to lack of reviews (coming in right behind forgetfulness amid busy-ness) is that the process of leaving a review is confusing and difficult. In our survey, we found that the younger your customers are, the more help they may need in leaving a review. Be sure your email or text includes instructions and a link to your Google review profile. You can get that link by looking up your business in Google (while logged into your account that governs your Google Business Profile) and then clicking on the “Ask for reviews” tab in the New Merchant Experience interface, as shown here:

You’ll see this popup generating the link to review your business:

You can copy that link and paste it into your texts and emails. By making it easier for customers to review you, you’ll get a more accurate picture of what the ideal time window is for requests in the community you serve.

A station wagon load of other tips for earning vacationers’ reviews

In addition to experimenting with your request timeframes, give these tips a try to maximize the number of reviews your business is receiving:

• Pour everything you’ve got into great customer service. 63% of review writers take the time to provide reviews to show appreciation for businesses that take good care of them.

• Respond to all your reviews. The #3 reason people don’t write reviews (as shown above) is that they don’t believe the business will care enough to read their sentiment. Indicate that you care a ton by responding authentically to what other customers have written.

• Use space in your physical premises to clearly message that you want reviews. Windows, interior and exterior walls, front desks, tables, night stands, shelves, fences, business vehicles and other surfaces can all be places where you can put up a large or small sign letting patrons know how much their review will be appreciated.

• Use print to further your messaging. Menus, receipts, mailers, bags, and packaging can all include review requests.

• Train staff to request reviews at their discretion. I don’t recommend making employees repeat the same message to every customer that comes through a checkout. It sounds robotic and inauthentic as the line moves along. But when valued staff are encouraged to see review opportunities in more personalized interactions, a direct request from a helpful team member to a happy customer could add to your review count over time.

• Avoid negative reviews by ongoing management of your local business listings across the local search ecosystem. A vacation can really go sour when inaccurate information about locations, hours, and phone numbers is live on your profiles. Manually update all of your listings any time there is a change, or use a helpful service like Moz Local to update your listings across the major platforms in a few clicks.

• Use social media for storytelling about the role reviews are playing in the success of your local business. Most reviewers are unlikely to realize on their own how profoundly aspects of reviews impact the rankings of small brands that serve local communities. By talking on social profiles about how earning new reviews might enable your business to afford some beautiful new chairs for the dining patio or switch to an electric vehicle for delivery, it makes customers’ actions a powerful part of your story. Just be careful that you are not incentivizing reviews. Don’t offer gifts, perks, or money in exchange for reviews.

• Speaking of things not to do, never engage in any form of review spamming. 40% of customers have received requests to spam the web with ineligible reviews that violate platform guidelines and are illegal in many countries. Don’t lose customers’ precious trust and respect by engaging in review spam of any kind.

• Don’t forget that Google is not the only review game in town. Diversify your review requests to ask customers to review you on their favorite platforms. Our survey showed that while 66% of US adults spend the most time writing reviews on Google, others spend lots of time on Yelp, Facebook, TripAdvisor, Nextdoor and a variety of additional platforms. Google has a habit of losing reviews periodically, and by having your customers’ sentiment visible in multiple online places, you’ll be sure that visitors can read about you around the web, even when your Google Business Profile is experiencing a bug.

Finally, if this article is motivating you, take some time this week to think about visitors to your town. Hospitality business owners spend part of every day strategizing around making guests welcome, and this kind of care can apply to almost any kind of business located in a town or city that hosts lots of travelers. What kind of special welcome are you offering newcomers to your community? What are you doing to make them love their time with you, want to come back to you if they are ever in your area again, tell their traveling friends and family about you, and take the time to review your business?

Maybe you offer a vacationer’s special. Maybe you have a pretty sign in your window warmly welcoming tourists and asking them to stop in to ask your staff about fun things happening in the community. Maybe it's your shop with the bench outside for footsore walkers around your downtown, or your porch that has the dog watering station for people vacationing with their pets.

In a popular place near me, a community has signs posted asking visitors to tune their car radios to a particular station for information about the area. That’s an idea your town could take and run with, and I know listening to that station makes me have a special feeling of being considered and included in local life. Little things mean a lot.

One of the nicest aspects of local business reviews is that they are a lengthy novel rather than a short story. Whether you are operating in Derbyshire or Peanut, what you seek is a modest and ever-running stream of fresh reviews across time. Time to experiment, to try new things, to adjust your strategy on the basis of new data like we’ve seen today. 96% of US adults read reviews and 86% write them. It’s a form of content people can really enjoy under the right circumstances. With a little well-timed encouragement, more of your traveling customers will put their creative writing skills to work for your business, gifting you with better local search rankings, a persuasive reputation, and a lucrative upward trend in transactions.

Eager for more local business review tips? It is a truth universally acknowledged that Moz’s review survey is worth reading!

Your GA4 Migration: 10 Things You DON’T Want to Miss

Universal Analytics is officially done collecting data. Cue one single tear running down every marketers’ cheek.

Now all of your site data will flow solely through Google Analytics 4.

Are you sure you’re ready for that? The only reason I ask is because, well, GA4 is a bit of a beast with tons of hidden settings that need to be addressed for optimal data collection.

In the admin section of GA4 you will see two columns: Account and Property. The Property column is where the majority of important setting options are hiding.

1. Timezone

Your property timezone can be set under the Property Settings section of the Property column. (Yes, this is very meta.)

This one may seem like a no-brainer, but it’s an easy one to overlook.

When you created your GA4 property, you had the option to set your timezone. If you’re anything like me, you probably just hit the “next” button.

But not so fast! You need to double check this setting.

We already know that different platforms track differently so we aren’t tracking apples to oranges, but if we aren’t even using the same time zones for reporting, well we may as well be tracking apples to cucumbers.

The TL;DR: Using the same timezone everywhere allows you to compare data a bit more easily.

2. Currency

Turns out, there is more than one thing to touch in that Property Settings section in column two.

In the same place you set up your timezone, you have the option to change your currency.

By default Google sets the currency to USD for all reporting.

Note: If you’re doing business with multiple currencies, Google will do the conversions on the backend to continue to report in USD.

3. Enhanced measurement

Enhanced measurement is perhaps one of the biggest changes with Google Analytics 4.

If you’re not sure what enhanced measurement is, it’s essentially pre-built event tracking. Which is actually great, except when it tracks things incorrectly.

You can view all of the automatically collected events in the Data Streams section once you click on your desired data stream.

Now don’t worry, most of these events and parameters will be tracked just fine, but there are a few instances that may require additional debugging.

This most pertinent issue for users revolves around form interactions, especially for those who have the Meta pixel on their site. False form interactions tend to be triggered by Facebook pixels because Facebook uses a “form submission” to pass data from your site to theirs.

I highly suggest using the GA4 debug tool or by looking at your real time analytics to double check that the “form_destination” is correct.

Another major pain point in enhanced measurement is that it relies on site searches passing one of the following parameters into the url: q, s, search, query, keyword. Should you use a different parameter, it can be defined in this enhanced measurement section by clicking the gear icon next to the events.

4. Events

The Events section is a great place for a tracking gut check.

This is basically just a massive list of all of the events being tracked and how often they are being fired. If you don’t see your events here or the numbers seem low, you may need to go check your setup.

Also, new in GA4, you can create and modify your events directly in the platform.

If you were a destination goal type person in Universal Analytics, this is the section that allows you to create events based on page location.

Tons of other changes can be made using the modify event tool like reconciling event names, creating sub events from collected events, etc.

5. Conversions

Much like the Events section, this Conversion section is the best place to do a quick gut check and make sure the most important things are being tracked on your site.

If you don’t see one of your conversions on this screen, you will need to head back to the Events sections and click the toggle to the right of the event name.

(Yeah, it really is that easy to create conversions in GA4. Thank goodness.)

If you do see your conversions, but the numbers look odd, you may want to click the three dots to the right of the conversion to see the counting method.

By default, Google counts conversions for each event completion. However, you may only want to count conversions once per session. If that is the case, click on those three dots and change the counting method to “Once per session.”

6. Define domains

For all of my friends out there using different domains for their stores, their courses, their main site, and/or their blog - your time has come.

The good news is, cross-domain tracking in GA4 is much easier than it was in UA. The bad news is that this is only true if you know where to find the setup widget.

To define all of your domains, navigate to Data streams > select data stream > Configure tag settings > Configure your domains.

Taking this step is especially important in GA4 because outbound clicks are tracked using Enhanced Measurement. Thus, not defining all of your domains can lead to false “click” counts.

7. Internal traffic

Ah, now this is a question I’ve been asked over a dozen times. Yes, you can filter out internal traffic.

To filter internal traffic by IP address, you will need to go to Data streams > select data stream > Configure tag settings > Show all > Define internal traffic.

Unfortunately, in the GA4 platform, this is currently the only way to define internal traffic.

8. Unwanted referrals

E-commerce folks, this one's for you.

If you’re using a third-party payment processor like Stripe or Paypal, this is a big one.

Unless you want all of your purchases to be attributed to your payment processors, you have to specify to Google that there are unwanted referrers.

If you’re not sure if you have sites you need to mark as unwanted referrals, check your Traffic Acquisition report and change the primary dimension to Session Source/Medium.

9. Custom dimensions

If you’re anything like me, and send 80% of your events using Google Tag Manager, you’re going to want to listen up!

Most of the time, people use GTM to send extra data with their events in the form of event or user parameters. GA4 does collect and process these parameters, but it DOES NOT retain this data unless you’ve defined the dimensions.

So if you want to be able to see your parameters, you need to create a custom dimension for each one. It’s pretty easy, you just name the dimension and select the coordinating parameter.

10. Data retention

Lastly, and maybe most importantly, you are going to want to extend your data retention window.

This is perhaps one of the most important but most overlooked settings.

In the property column, you’ll navigate to Data settings > Data retention. Once you’re here you will find that by default GA4 properties are only set to retain event data for 2 months.

That’s just 60 days. That’s not even a whole season of Big Brother.

The good news is that you can change this from 2 months to 14 months with three clicks of a button.

A quick note: Any changes made under this Data settings section should be discussed with a privacy expert or lawyer. Many of these changes have the possibility to affect your compliance status with GDPR and other privacy legislation.

You’ve got this!

It seems like a lot. And it is. But you’ve got this.

GA4 is a monster, but if you’re here, you’re already tackling it. Way to go!

Now, go triple check all of those properties you created a year or two ago… We’re gonna do the same.

Brie will be speaking at MozCon 2023 this August in Seattle! Join us for inspiring sessions with our incredible lineup of speakers. 

We hope you're as excited as we are for August 7th and 8th to hurry up and get here. And again, if you haven't grabbed your ticket yet and need help making a case we have a handy template to convince your boss!

Register for MozCon

How SEOs and Content Writers Can Work Better Together — Whiteboard Friday

This is part two of a three-part series of Whiteboard Fridays with Helen Pollitt on how to work better with folks within your company.

Learn all about how SEOs and content writers can work better together. By working more closely and more effectively, you can create great content that ultimately converts and drives traffic.

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Hello, I'm Helen, head of SEO at Car & Classic, and today we're looking at how SEOs and content writers can work better together. "SEO copy," it's one of the worst phrases that you can possibly hear in any office environment alongside, "Oh, the website? Yeah, we migrated that last week."

Or, "I'm really sorry, but the coffee machine is broken. Will instant do?" The reason that "SEO copy" is such a terrible phrase is because it just makes the content writers think that all we're after is a bunch of words to be put on a page for the sake of a robot and not a human visitor. As SEOs, we'll flatly deny that that's the reason that we want content on a page because it's against Google's guidelines, isn't it?

But hands up if you have ever just thrown a bunch of keywords at a copywriter, wished them well, and then slunk off back to your Core Web Vitals audit. But really, we need our content writers to feel respected and empowered to be their brilliant, creative selves because at the end of the day, we know that it's really important for good content, for our users and for the search engines.

So how can we go about making our content writers understand why we need content on the page for SEO purposes, but also why that shouldn't be limiting their creativity? I think we've got a bit of a work to do, and also, at the same time, maybe we can just ban "SEO copy" from our vocabulary. So where do we start?

How to create good briefs

Well, first off, really we need to be looking at how we can create good briefs. So start off by really thinking about what is the purpose of the page, and no, it's not so that Google really likes your website. That is not the purpose of the page. You need to reinforce that to the copywriters that actually the reason for this page is because we want conversions, or actually we want to inform and educate about something, or we want to enlighten and engage for some reason.

But there should be a reason behind that page, and it shouldn't just be so that Google thinks it's highly relevant for a search phrase and lands more organic traffic on it. Next up, we need to think about what the key message is, and we really have to communicate this to the content writers so, again, they understand the full purpose of the page. What is it that you want readers to go away with?

Because essentially that's the key message that the search engines will go away with as well when they're looking at the relevancy of the page. Also, start talking about things like keyword clusters and try and move content writers away from thinking that SEO means shoving one particular keyword onto a page just over and over again and trying to make it look natural. But actually, we look at more of a total topical relevancy for a page, and we're looking at things like keyword clusters.

So what are the synonyms? What are the other high-trafficked keywords? What is it that you are wanting your reader to really engage with on that page? Because if they've searched for it and landed on the page and seen it on the page, that's going to help them understand that page is relevant for them. So try to communicate that to your content writers, but also relieve them of that fear that it's got to be formulaic and there's some kind of formula for how often you need a keyword to appear and all that kind of garbage that we've probably all grown up on.

Really, it's a case of trying to undo some wrong thinking. So content writers have probably heard from other SEOs or they've misunderstood some stuff that they've been told in the past that means that their approach to writing, when an SEO is involved, is different if they were just left to get on with it themselves. We kind of don't want that to be the case. We want them to be empowered and given data to help them with their writing, but not really limited by us as SEOs.

Train content writers in the ways of SEO

What we need to do is try and train them in the ways of SEO and how it actually complements the work they're doing and doesn't detract from it. So things like how search works. Have you ever actually tried to talk to your content writers about how search works and not just how you should put keywords on a page and page relevancy and all that kind of stuff, but actually the real broad, top level about how search engines understand pages, how they crawl them, all that kind of stuff?

Give them the context so that they can understand what their part is within the whole ecosphere of making a website really good for search. Look at things like the importance of relevancy. So no, it's not just about keywords and keyword density and all of that kind of stuff, but it's about making that entire page sing about a particular topic, but whilst also understanding the intent behind a person who's landing on that page and making sure that it is relevant to them.

Give them access to keyword research tools and actually give them a bit of training in how to use them so they can do a little bit of research themselves, because it will probably help them to really understand the topic more if they're given access to the kind of data around what people are looking for when they are landing on that particular page. It just helps to inform them about the style, the tone, what sort of things they might like to include on the page.

So don't just tell them what those things are, but actually give them the access to the data themselves so they can do a bit of extra research for you. Give them an idea of how to identify what search intent is. So suggest that they maybe want to have a bit of a search around Google themselves so they can understand a little bit about what is ranking on the SERPs already and what kind of content it is.

Is it informational? Is it commercial? What is already ranking in the search engines so that they can take that information and try to use it to inform their own writing. This is the big one, EE, EE, EEAT. I'm just future-proofing the video in case Google adds some more Es before it gets published.

EE, EEAT is really important for writers because they need to understand that actually their writing style really impacts how the search engines, in particular Google, are going to understand the experience, the expertise, the authoritativeness, and the trustworthiness of the website. It's all about what they are saying and who they are themselves as writers. That's really important.

Hopefully, that kind of information, that enlightening will really empower the content writers to see how important their work is for the success of your organic traffic. AI, most content writers I've come across are either really excited about how AI is going to help them with their work, or slightly terrified that it's going to take their jobs. So let's not shy away from it.

Let's start those discussions now. Let's talk about how to use AI well within content writing and the sorts of things that we need to avoid so that we don't end up with our content writers trying to pass off a load of AI-generated work as their own, but that they're also not completely afraid of using AI where it's appropriate. So how can they use it well, and what kind of safeguards do we need to put in place to make sure that they're not overly reliant on AI to a detrimental way?

Look at editorial and user-generated content

So we also need to look at editorial and user-generated content. Now, this is going to have a big impact on EEAT because, let's be honest, it's all about people's opinions, it's all about their experience of something, their knowledge, and their authority in the subject. Editorial is great for that because it's a place where people, that your content writers can really go to show off their knowledge and their expertise about your product or your service or your industry.

That's great for demonstrating EEAT. User-generated content, on the other hand, has a similar impact in that it can really demonstrate the relevancy of a page to the topic that people are searching for. It can give other opinions and experiences. Reviews, for example, that's great. That's a great sign of EEAT because it's showing people's experience of your actual product or service.

But people on the internet aren't always incredibly well-behaved. Just fire up your social media platform of choice and just take a bit of a scroll. People can't always be trusted with the things that they are saying on your website. So you do need to have some moderation and guides in place. So moderation can be that actually your content team are really informed about how to respond to negative reviews or they are given the equipment to be able to moderate comments in any kind of comment section that you have on the website, but they just need to know about the risks and rewards of having user- generated content on the website.

Maybe some guides. Maybe some guides for people who are adding that content to your website, so the users themselves. Give them some tips about how if they are adding a question to a forum, they can write that question in a way that's likely to get more organic visibility and therefore more answers for them. So you can actually help teach your users how best to write for the web through those kind of prompts and guides that you're putting in your user- generated sections.

Get buy-in from your content writing team

Finally, you want to get buy-in from your content writing team. You want them to see that actually you should be working really closely together. So let's start by just dismissing the idea of SEO copy entirely. It's not about the bots, because if you're writing copy for the bots and people land on your website because you've made it really relevant to the search engines, they're there because they want information or they want to be able to do something.

So that copy really has to meet their needs first, because otherwise, what's the point of sending traffic to that page? So this kind of concept has to be really communicated to your content writers, because they've probably been told that actually copy written for the purposes of search is really boring, formulaic, and just full of keywords. So we need to kind of dispel that myth.

But it is really good to help them to understand what sort of copy does need a little bit of SEO input. So not all of the words on a website need an SEO to look over them and optimize them. Your terms and conditions probably don't need to be looked at by an SEO. Your directions to the office probably don't need to be looked at by an SEO. But your landing pages, your core content, your guides, and your how-tos, they do probably need to have at least a passing glance from an SEO who can say, "Actually, this kind of content is really important for us. We'd love to work closely with you on it."

Or, "Actually, this stuff isn't as important for our purposes. We don't really need to collaborate with you on it." But helping your content writers to know when you do want to be involved and you don't need to be involved will help their processes. Try to give them a bit of an overview as to the impact of their work. Give them data. Show them how their work has had an impact on your organic rankings or your traffic or conversion rates even.

Now, a lot of content writers don't necessarily have a digital marketing background, so they might not be familiar with how to use things like Google Analytics or Adobe Analytics or other tracking and measurement tools. But why don't you be a pal and make them a little dashboard so that they can see how their latest article performed or how the landing page tweaks that they've made have actually impacted conversion?

Give them that information so that they can see that the work they're doing is really paying off in a big way and they don't feel so siloed from the rest of the company. SEO should empower content writers. It should give them more data. It should give them more insights into users. It should give them the tools they need to make really informing, engaging, brilliant content.

So let's remind them of that and help them to see that. That allows us to work a lot closer with them and hopefully end up with some really good content that converts and drives traffic. I really want a coffee now I've said all of that. Thanks for listening.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

How to Prepare for an SEO Conference, Including MozCon

Conferences are a whirlwind experience. Regardless of your industry, conferences give you the chance to step out of your home office and into a dynamic environment filled with non-stop sessions, vendor booths, networking galore, and unforgettable after-parties.

It can be overwhelming, but SEO conferences like MozCon can bring incredible rewards with the right preparation. This guide will equip you with essential tips to make the most of SEO conferences, in-person or virtual. Discover how to strengthen your team, boost your energy, and enhance your enthusiasm for work during and after the event. Get ready to dive into the world of SEO conferences and virtual experiences.

Before you touchdown at MozCon

With MozCon just a few weeks away, it's time to gear up and make the most of this SEO conference, whether you're attending in person or via the remote-friendly livestream option. Don't worry, there's still plenty of time to prepare. Follow these essential steps to maximize your MozCon experience and ensure you're fully equipped for the event. Get ready to dive into the world of SEO and make valuable connections.

Familiarize yourself with the agenda

You might have already glanced at the speaker lineup. Take a closer look at the minute-by-minute agenda to identify the topics that align with your learning goals. Even if a particular topic seems unrelated to your work, it can still provide valuable insights. At MozCon, the conference follows a single-track format, allowing you to attend every session. Don't miss out on the opportunity to explore diverse topics and expand your knowledge base.

Clear your calendar

That meeting can wait! MozCon is only two days a year! If your weekly team sync can wait, and we know it can, then block out of your calendar in advance.

Define your goals and objectives

Knowing what you want to achieve will help you make the most of your time and focus on the sessions and activities that align with your interests. Think about what you want to have achieved once MozCon wraps. What do you want to feel? Aside from more than a little bit spent. Do you want to feel more connected? Do you want to have an answer to a burning question? Do you want to meet someone IRL? Do you want to have a cache of valuable notes to take away and share with your team? Sing Karaoke for the first time?

MozCon gives you the ability to achieve all these things. Find like-minded people through our Linkedin group and arrange a meetup. Connect with people on Twitter. Attend a Birds of a Feather table during breaks. Drop by the vendor booths to explore a new solution to a problem. Pack your comfy shoes for the conference, as well as your party shoes and your best Karaoke jam, for the Tuesday night after-party at MoPOP.

“If you want to meet someone specific, talk to a speaker, or organize dinner with friends, plan in advance. Conferences move quickly, and nothing is more disappointing than trying to connect with someone on the last day only to realize they had to catch an early flight. Most speakers are happy to meet new people and talk about our topics and interests.” - Dr Pete Meyers

Plan to mingle between sessions, don't forget to drop by the vendor booths!

Gather your note-taking tool of choice

MozCon is a conference where you'll likely take a lot of notes. Make sure you have all the necessary tools at hand. Charge your laptop or tablet or choose any other preferred method for note-taking. If you plan on sharing takeaways with your team, well, unfortunately, telepathy won't work, but you can still find ways to communicate effectively.

“At the end of each day, take five minutes, go through your notes, and turn them into a few bullet points and ONE action item. If you have one action item per day at the end of an event, that's great. Otherwise, if you're like me, you'll come home to a page of notes like "SEO! AI!! INTERSECTION OF FUTURE!" and have no idea what you were talking about.” Dr Pete Meyers

Connect with the speakers before the event

Check out our impressive lineup of speakers, perhaps there is someone speaking you’ve not yet connected with? Take some time to understand their specialty. Even if you’re not currently working within that field, it may be a new learning opportunity for you, or it may help you gain a better understanding of the challenges your colleagues are facing. Ultimately, conferences are a great opportunity to develop a more well-rounded understanding of the entire search industry, what’s on the horizon, and what to pay attention to in search.

Ramp up your SEO learning

Define what you want to achieve at MozCon and create a plan to maximize your experience. Having clear goals will help you stay focused and make the most of the event. Subscribe to the Moz blog or sign up for a Moz Academy course. These will give you access to a wealth of content to boost your knowledge in advance of the big event. From basic SEO to local search and technical details, there's something for everyone. Additionally, the blog will provide conference recaps after each day, so you won't miss out on any important updates.

Prepare to network and engage

MozCon, and many other SEO conferences, offer you ample opportunities to meet new people and expand your professional network. Maximize your networking opportunities before you get there. Before you arrive in Seattle, get familiar with the digital landscape by following the #mozcon hashtag on Twitter. Join the LinkedIn group, and while you're there, follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and Threads, because why not?

If you are in the Women in Tech SEO group, you can join the MozCon channel. This will keep you updated on MozCon fellow attendees’ plans and movements and allow you to engage with speakers and ask questions.

“MozCon doesn't do Q&A after talks - it's difficult to manage for an event of this size, with a packed schedule and a single stage. But, if you have a question that is actually about a speaker's talk, they'd almost certainly love to hear it. It's implicitly great feedback to know that someone was engaged and interested in what I was saying, even (especially!) if they don't entirely agree.” - Tom Capper

During the conference

MozCon takes place over two jam-packed days. To maximize your SEO conference experience, here are our tips to keep you energized and focused and avoid running yourself into the ground and potentially missing a big career opportunity. Whether you’re attending online or in person, we’ve got some tips from seasoned MozCon speakers and attendees to keep you engaged during the event.

Register early

When attending any conference, it’s helpful to get the lay of the land prior to the event so you can float on through to the action uninterrupted. At MozCon, we offer early registration on Sunday, August 6. If you are arriving early and want to get a jump on badge collection and a sneak peek at the new venue, drop by registration to check in and pick up your badge. Unable to make it to registration early? No problem. Set your alarm and arrive at the conference bright and early Monday morning so you're not rushing your morning cuppa and missing the opening remarks!

Attend every session

Remember when we advised clearing out your calendar? This is so you can make the most of this once-a-year-SEO conference experience by attending every single session. Even if it’s outside your area of focus. It also means you have the chance to network with every speaker if you bump into them in the conference hall or after-party. Luckily MozCon is a single-track event, so you don’t need to make any difficult decisions. You can find your spot in the auditorium, set up camp, and let the inspiration absorption begin!

“Because I work in local SEO, I attend MozCon's livestream with my ears tuned to pick up any great tips that can be applied to local business marketing. Even if the main topic of a talk isn't local search, I can come away with half a dozen tips that are relevant to my own area of marketing because organic and local SEO have so much overlap.” - Miriam Ellis

Hydrate

Even if you’re solely powered by caffeine and SEO insights no one can deny the boost a bit of H2O provides (especially if you’re jet-lagged.) Folks travel to MozCon from near and far, as the below attendee pin-map attests. Make sure you're able to be your best self despite the impact of travel on your energy levels.

“Make sure you have a water bottle and snacks in your bag - nothing hinders memory and productivity like hunger and dehydration!” - Meghan Pahinui

No matter where you have travelled from remember to stay hydrated - and caffeinated!

Jot down hot tips immediately

You've been following these steps diligently, haven’t you? If so, you have already prepared your note-taking tool of choice. Whether it’s a giant Gdoc filled with links and screenshots, the notes app on your tablet, the twitter app loaded up filtered by the #mozcon hashtag and a finger poised and ready to hit fav, or a trusty notepad and pen. Even if you’re not a massive note-taker there is nothing more valuable than jotting down a few lines as your grey-matter is percolating. Light bulb moments happen in a flash. If your boss or colleague asks you what you learned, you’ll be pleased you thought of your future self and kept a few bullet points for yourself and anyone else who asks.

“Write down ideas as soon as you have them. As you’re listening to talks and interacting with conference-goers, you’re bound to get ideas for your own strategy. Be sure to write them down ASAP - with so much information flying around, you’re bound to forget them if you don’t. It can be as simple as using the notes app on your phone or slacking yourself a quick reminder note. That way, when you get home from the conference, you’ll already have a list of ideas to springboard off of.” - Meghan Pahinui

“I make a live list of everything I hear that could be of value to local brands. Then, if I want to revisit a particular tip later, I re-watch the presentation via the video bundle. It's helped me write some really good blog posts!” - Miriam Ellis

Bring your note-taking tools of choice!

Let yourself think

Thinking and doing are two very different things. If you are, like many of us, busy executing projects five days a week/52 weeks a year, this may be the time you need to let thoughts enter your brain and connect with other thoughts in order to, in some abstract way, find a solution.

“Let your mind wander. It's ok. I don't know why, but when I'm planted in a seat at a conference, and my mind is fully on SEO, I get more quality thinking done than just about anywhere else. If you solve a few difficult work problems by ignoring three minutes of my presentation, I'll get over it. You can watch the video later.” Dr Pete Meyers

Mingle in-between sessions

“Talk to Strangers - The most rewarding part of MozCon, IMO, is meeting new people that you may know for years after. Sit down at an unfamiliar lunch table, strike up a conversation over breaks, visit the sponsor booths, and work up your courage at events. You don't need any special networking skills - simply asking people where they are from is often enough to get started.” - Cyrus Shepard

Network network network!

There is one experience that isn’t replicable outside of a conference event, and that’s the opportunity to connect with people in real life. Maybe you know them through LinkedIn, maybe you follow each other on Twitter. Nothing cements a professional connection more than chatting over breakfast, grabbing a much-needed coffee.

“Don't be afraid to walk up to a table at lunch and ask if you can sit with them! MozCon is a really welcoming place, and making new friends and connections can be as easy as having the confidence to say hello!” - Hannah Waye

MozCon 2018 attendees sharing stories at a 'birds of a feather' table.

Grab a selfie with Roger

Roger is Moz's SEO robot who recently underwent an AI transformation and is somewhat partial to taking selfies with MozCon attendees.

Grab a snap with Roger, Moz's lovable robot mascot.

Tips for attending virtual events

Many of our tips are translatable to attending virtual events, like the MozCon livestream option. You just need to get creative about how you network and stay engaged. To get the most out of any virtual event you will still want to arrange how you will take notes, connect with speakers on social media, and set your team up to get the most out of the talks.

Treat it like an IRL event

We still recommend booking out your calendar when attending virtual events. It’s so easy to get distracted, and as much as we tell ourselves we are capable of multitasking, how much are we really absorbing? Clear your calendar and your headspace, take as many notes as you feel would be helpful to you, and filter your Twitter feed by #mozcon to stay in the fold and be part of the fun.

Set up a watch party

Book out your office conference space and order some snacks so you can watch MozCon live from whichever city you are located in. If your team is distributed, set up a lunchtime sync to check in and chat about what you’ve learned so far. If you are all in different time zones, create a new Slack channel to share insights with your teammates.

Why are conferences more important than ever?

With so many teams moving towards partial or fully distributed setups, finding time to get together is more valuable than ever. Conference attendees have the unique opportunity to connect with industry contacts, ask questions, and establish genuine professional relationships with experts in search marketing and SEO. And remember:

“No one is truly a stranger at MozCon. You may never attend another event where so many people have so much in common with you.” - Cyrus Shepard

We hope you're as excited as we are for August 7th and 8th to hurry up and get here. And again, if you haven't grabbed your ticket yet and need help making a case we have a handy template to convince your boss!

Register for MozCon

Google SGE: Early Local Search Data

If the local version of Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) experiment rolls out broadly, what will that be like for local business owners and their marketers?

This is the question I set out to answer with a small study geared to gather some early basic data. Bearing in mind that there is no guarantee that the present version of SGE will roll out or will look exactly as it does now, I have what I hope are some interesting takeaways for you today!

Methodology

With SGE enabled, I performed 50 manual local searches. 100% of these searches generate local packs in the non-SGE setting, and 100% of them also generate local packs beneath the SGE box in the SERPs. I included both branded and non-branded terms (e.g. Safeway vs. grocery store), and modified and non-modified terms (e.g. bookstore vs. bookstore in novato). I tracked the data in a spreadsheet and took screenshots along the way.

How many local searches return SGE results?

100% of my keyword phrases (things like pizza, women–owned cafe near me, and bookstore in San Francisco) returned a local pack, signifying that Google recognizes their local intent, but of those searches:

• 10% returned no SGE display

• 34% returned a “generate” button to prompt to SGE display

• 56% auto-generated an SGE display without prompting

Takeaway: At this stage, Google isn’t sure whether users will automatically want SGE for everything or only as an option for some searches.

How many SGE results included an SGE local pack?

While 100% of my searches yielded a traditional local pack outside the SGE display:

• Only 77.6% of the SGE results included a local pack

• 22.4% resulted in an SGE display of something other than a local pack

For example, most of us would expect a search for “shoes” to generate a local pack in Google’s interface these days, but here we see this SGE result, instead:

Similarly, we’ve been trained by Google to think we only need to type “Catholic churches” into a search box to be shown houses of worship near us, but SGE provided this very broad definition instead of any type of local result:

And SGE is really taking a surprising view of my intent in looking up “EV charging stations”. Instead of showing me a pack of nearby places where I can charge my electric vehicle, I’m being shown products to purchase:

When clicking on these products, I’m given an interstitial card of places to buy these products, like eBay and Best Buy, which feels quite remote from my intent:

Takeaway: There is a different logic powering SGE than what we’ve become accustomed to in pre-SGE Google. This may impact both your keyword research and your local search marketing strategy. Just because a search used to be perceived by Google as having an obvious local intent that would then be reflected in the SERPs returned, that doesn’t mean that the same logic applies in what SGE thinks your intent is. You’ll need to re-study the SERPs for your core keyword phrases if SGE rolls out broadly and is adopted by your customers.

The big question: Do SGE packs match traditional local packs?

The short answer is a decisive “no”. In my case study, 62.8% of SGE packs did not exactly match the contents or precise ranking of traditional local packs. That’s right, well over half the time, SGE rankings are different from local pack rankings.

As seen in the above side-by-side comparison, the SGE pack has a completely different business in first place, and the ranking order of restaurants 2, 3, and 4 is in a different order than its traditional local pack analog. These are significant differences for the businesses involved and one is left wondering why that #1 spot is being awarded to an eatery that isn’t strong enough to make it into the familiar local pack.

Takeaway: While I observed many instances of overlap of pack contents between SGE and traditional SERPs, the % of differentiation means that your traditional local pack rankings in no way guarantee the same spot in SGE’s recommendations. You’ll need to study and audit your SGE competitors separately if SGE rolls out to the public and is widely adopted.

How many businesses are included in SGE local packs?

Once upon a time, Google’s local packs contained 10 results. Imagine! Then we had 7. Now, we mostly have 3. SGE packs have their own variation. In my study, I found that:

• 46.6% have a 5-pack

• 22.2% have a 4-pack

• 4.4% have a 3-pack

• 4.4 have a 2-pack

Takeaway: In 68.8% of SGE packs, more local businesses are being displayed that would be shown in a traditional 3-pack in the organic SERPs. This provides more opportunity for you to be visible without a searcher having to click through an initial interface to something secondary like the Local Finder.

Is there an escape route out of SGE, and what about the ongoing importance of links and citations?

In my June live-tweeted thread documenting my first encounter with SGE, one of my first reactions to the interface was that it felt very enclosed. The SGE packs don’t click to the Local Finder or Google Maps or the reviews interface, making me feel sort of stuck. No matter where I was clicking around in the results, I was kept within the walled garden. Since that first experience, I’ve realized that the local version of SGE does contain an escape route in the form of these carousels to the right of the SGE packs:

In my case study:

• 53.3% of the carousels linked to Yelp

• 6.6% linked to Wikipedia

• 4.4% linked to TripAdvisor

• 4.4% linked to YP

• 15.5% linked directly to brands’ own websites

• 8.8% linked to a local informational site, like local online tourism sites or online local travel magazines

• There was also a smattering of Facebook, Michelin, UberEats, GrubHub, and Superpages

• This did not come up in my study, but I would like to anecdotally mention that in playing around with SGE, I am seeing a lot of citations of LinkedIn. Local businesses that don’t yet have a Linkedin profile should consider creating one.

Takeaways: Your structured citations in the form of formal local business listings still matter very much in the SGE setting. Your unstructured citations in the form of mentions on relevant local and industry sites still matter, too. The number of direct links from these carousels to local business websites is quite meager, and I would like to see Google reconsider this.

At any rate, there is some escape from SGE to third-party destinations, but here’s what I really want to emphasize:

• 100% of SGE results containing SGE packs include carousel links to local.google.com

When moused over, these bring up a local.google.com URL, including a Place ID, like this:

I was puzzled at first by that local.google.com subdomain. I feel like I hadn’t seen a URL from Google like that in a long time, but when clicked on, these types of URLs in the SGE carousel redirect to a google.com/search URL and this familiar display:

Takeaway: I could be 100% wrong about this, but looking at the way SGE is currently structured makes me feel like it’s not the ultimate way this will work. As it currently is, you’re already sitting right above the organic results while in SGE, and then there are these tiny cards in the carousel taking you back to the organic results, and the paths just feel a bit bewildering. So, while I like the escape routes out of the confines of AI, there’s something non-intuitive about the CTAs in these SGE packs.

What about local attributes in SGE?

I’m sorry to report that the work you’ve put into adding excellent attributes to your Google Business Profiles to serve specific customer intents seems to be wasted when it comes to SGE at this point. If you’ve taken the time to proudly add self-selected attributes like Black-owned or women-owned to your profiles, these results may let you down. Here’s a side-by-side comparison of my search for “women-owned clothing store Novato”:

The traditional local pack tells me my intent will be met at these two stores on the left with their clear women-owned attributes. On the right, though, SGE is apparently ignoring my modifier and just showing me women’s clothing stores, which may or may not be owned by women. The nuance is being lost. This made me lack confidence in using SGE to search for other businesses with particular attributes.

Takeaway: This version of SGE is coming off as a bit less “smart” about local nuances than the local results to which we’re accustomed.

How standardized are the results when SGE thinks your intent is local?

The answer is not very standardized at all. There’s something very vague and Google-y about the fact that some packs are headed with a simple message like “There are lots of yarn stores in Novato” or:

Whereas, for quite similar queries, Google suddenly wants to tell me a bunch of other information, which, quite frankly, seems rather random. A lookup of nearby Chinese restaurants generated a long list for me of people’s favorite Chinese takeout dishes (which I hadn’t asked about), and look at this example for Mexican restaurants. Explain to me the logic behind a 4-pack (when there are clearly enough choices for a 5-pack) being followed by a list of non-clickable “other” restaurants. What am I supposed to do with that list? What’s the CTA?

Another odd variant I encountered more than once is this one, where the “other” restaurant is clickable but, for some reason unknown to me, is being portioned off outside the other results. Why Google, why?

We won’t even get into the fact that Toast is not a Thai restaurant and is characterized (categorized?) right there in the results as an “American” eatery. So what is it doing there, being labeled a Thai restaurant? Ah, well.

Meanwhile, local business owners will likely be most curious to know how they appear for a branded search in the SGE world. Typically, you’ll see yourself presented like this, with location info, a descriptive summary, some photos, a couple of review boxes, and one of those local.google.com links:

Unless you have that special misfortune of having branded your business something that defies Google’s intent logic, as in the case of the great brand, Patagonia. SGE is uncertain as to whether I’m searching for a store or a geographical region here, and I get this:

Takeaway: As we can see, there is not strong standardization across SGE at this point, and while in some cases, you’d think time might yield a more uniform presentation, I wouldn’t count on it with Google. Traditional local search has changed continuously over the past two decades. Branding, features, pack counts, guidelines, and mysterious ranking logic are all in flux, all the time. I would expect the same from SGE, necessitating ongoing study.

SGE packs vs. local packs: which is better?

I may have oodles of objectivity from studying Google’s local results for nearly 20 years, but this opinion is entirely subjective: right now, SGE is simply not providing as good of an experience as traditional packs and GBPs for basic local search functions. Why do I say this?

1. If I just want to see an actionable set of local businesses, local packs are faster to access and easier to understand in terms of layout.

2. SGE is a whole new interface for people to learn without any obvious added benefit to learning it. I did not get into asking SGE further questions in this case study because such activity isn’t basic to basic local search. I want to talk directly to the business after finding it online - not to a bot, given that I have no idea how current its information is.

3. I really don’t like that I don’t get a review interface when clicking on the reviews portion of the SGE pack. It almost feels like an error that nothing comes up.

4. I am really surprised by, and not a fan of, the map disappearing when I click on one of the results. How can it be that Google, which has based its entire local search enterprise out of Google Maps, is letting maps take such a backseat in the local SGE interface?

5. The SGE results for branded searches in no way touch the depth of information provided by a direct look at a Google Business Profile. If Google is betting that people would rather see a bare-bones summary than a novel full of info, then maybe this approach will be popular, but I am not wowed by what I am seeing as the SGE replacement for a GBP. It feels very empty.

6. Looking at a branded SGE result really makes me wonder about the pressure for conversational search to become ‘a thing’. Local search has accustomed us to getting the name, address, phone number, and hours of operation in a neat little package, nicely organized, almost like a list. If you go back and look at the branded SGE result for The Good Earth Market, Google is expecting you to read through paragraphs of text to find this information. In many ways, local search has been like a giant experiment in shorthand, giving you quick data at a click so that you can make fast decisions. Conversational search presumes you want to read a lot and talk a lot before finding a place for a fast box of tacos. Conversational search is a real 180, and I have to wonder if, like voice search, it will struggle to find the kind of use cases that lead to longevity.

7. I remain unconvinced that AI, in general, is a natural match for local search. The introduction of an AI-based review filter has caused havoc in local business reviews, and I feel that this movement towards automation simply takes us further towards a virtual world and further away from the local world that local searchers want.

Takeaway: Do your own research and monitor your presence in SGE to see how it evolves. Be wary of hype. Every new thing that is being launched in the AI era comes with claims that it will “change the world forever.” Wait, watch, and see, and keep working on the things that you know work in local.