About a month or so ago I had the opportunity to speak with Ryan Stewart. Ryan’s a web developer and SEO guy and he also owns a company called Webris. His passion for helping small to medium size businesses with search comes through the moment he begins speaking.
If you’ve performed an online search for local products in your area lately you’ll notice a different type of result than in years past.
Now, search engines are figuring out what people want to see instead of a pitch message from a local business.
For example and in his article titled, ‘Why I Stopped Selling SEO Services and You Should, Too’ Ryan performed local searches on a few different types of businesses within his geographical area. (And he invites the reader to do the same thing)
The common thread among all of the search results (SERPS) came down to this; the SERPS were all review or directory listings and not links to businesses that sell the products and services he searched on.
Although I may want to see a local businesses web site, I think I first want to hear how they do business and how they treat their customers. Online word of mouth will let you know instantly if it’s a business you want to patronize or pass by.
A word of advice; you need to start paying attention to this shift in the way SERPs are displayed and how it can effect your business.
On today’s podcast Ryan talks about why SERPS are different, what has changed and what it means for local businesses.
We’ve entered into a ‘pay to play’ era where organic search is shrinking across the web, especially on social platforms and what businesses need to do to keep up.
It’s our featured article of the day on this REWIND episode of your A Slice a Day.
