Efficient Keyword Research in 2014

The SEO industry keeps changing with each new Google's update. And, no doubt, these changes affect the very cornerstone of your SEO campaign — keywords. Are you keeping up?
Wave goodbye to the old-school ways, and learn the basic concepts of modern keyword research that you can't afford missing!
How to find the best traffic-rich keywords? How to discover the phrases your competition doesn't know about? And how can you do keyword research quicker with maximum results?

Here's what you'll learn in each part of the guide:
Part 1: The whole new way to brainstorm keyword ideas — See how the new niche-based approach to keyword ideas doubles and triples the list of profitable keywords in your SEO arsenal.
Part 2: New ample sources of keywords to go beyond Google Keyword Planner — Learn why Google Keyword Planner is not enough to get a powerful list of keywords and discover new tools you can use.
Part 3: New efficient metrics to hit only most money-making keywords — See why search volume can be a misleading metric and discover new factors to determine the quality of a keyword.
Part 4: The not-yet-used powers of competition analysis in keyword research — Boost your keyword strategy with a strategic approach to competition research
Before you dive into the guide, here are the tools you might want to install so to practice the how-to recommendations straight ahead:

best practicies for local rankings improvement

Though the changes in SERPs now seem to be quite considerable, the basic principles of local SEO are expected to remain the same. So here are some general recommendations for your local business to get better Google exposure.

1. Individual Google+ Local page for your business

Creating a Google+ Local page for your local business is the first step to being included in Google's local index. Your second step is to verify your ownership of the listing. This typically involves receiving a postcard/letter from Google containing a pin number which you must enter in order to complete verification.

2. Proper category for your Google+ Local page

If you wish to appear in the local results for a search like "dentists in denver", your business must be categorized as a dentist. If it is categorized as a certified public accountant, you have no hope of appearing for your important search terms.

3. Local area code on Google+ Local page

Using local area code phone number as a primary phone number on Google+ Local page is considered a best practice. The area code of the phone number should match the area code/codes traditionally associated with your city of location.

4. NAP on your website matching NAP on your Google+ Local page

Google will be looking at the website you've linked to from your Google Places/Google+ Local page and cross reference the name, address and phone number of your business. If all elements match, you're good to go.

5. NAP consistency in all your business listings

Make sure your business name, address and phone number are also consistent in all local directories where your business is listed. Different addresses listed for your business on Yelp and TripAdvisor, for instance, may put your rankings to nowhere.

6. Large number of positive customer reviews on Google+ Local page and on third-party sources

The number of positive reviews has a proven influence on local search rankings. So make sure to encourage happy customers to leave positive reviews of your biz.

7. City or state included into your website's title tags.

Another important factor for your "local" landing page is to have the city or state you're targeting included into its Title tag.

8. Product/service keyword in business title

It is also believed that having the name of a core product or service in your business name may give you some advantage over competitors who lack this.

GOOGLE LAUNCHES NEW PIGEON UPDATE — how does it affect your website?

A few days ago Google pushed out a new and major algo update for local search (which industry's leading SEO resource "Search Engine Land" called "Pigeon" update). There aren't many details disclosed about the so-called Pigeon yet, but webmasters report considerable changes in their local rankings over the past few days.

 Google had rolled out yet another update which is named as pigeon by marketing land and everyone follow suit. So how does that impact your site? It is believed that the update is focused on local site listings, map listings with Yelp taken into account. While checking out a couple of 100 local clients, the results are very encouraging.

To make sure you've got all the freshest information at your fingertips, we've put up this short compilation to explain what "Pigeon" is, how it affects your rankings and how to adapt your SEO strategy for the changes.

Now, to give you a better idea of the update, we've tried to outline all the changes going on (both those claimed by Google and noticed by webmasters) and give some advice for website owners who've been affected.

1. Local listing packs disappear for a huge number of keywords
2. Local rankings are expected to depend more on website authority
3. Ranking boost is seen for Yelp and other local directories.
4. Local carousel remains a way to gain extra exposure.