Regardless of the election outcome this week, some key decisions relevant to investors may be made by regulators who won’t change right away.
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Day: November 3, 2020
Is Getting “Google Guaranteed” Worth It?
Google has rolled out a new consumer protection feature called Google Guaranteed. Businesses advertising through Local Services Ads can apply for a Google Guaranteed qualification, offering extra reassurance to customers.
Google Guaranteed could be a powerful lead generation tool to help you stand out from your competitors.
The program helps showcase home service providers who have been pre-screened. With an easily visible green Google Guaranteed Badge showing a checkmark, these ads may draw customers’ notice more than others will. And it’s not just because of the eye-catching badge—it’s the knowledge they’re able to choose a business already certified by Google.
What should you know before applying? Let’s have a look at what Google Guaranteed is, who it benefits, and why you might want to consider it for your business.
What Is Google Guaranteed?
Google Guaranteed is a certification program created to increase customer confidence in local businesses. Customers who are vetting companies online can look for the Google Guaranteed Badge, which offers protection if something goes wrong.
Many businesses are already using Google’s Local Services Ads to generate leads for their companies through paid search efforts. The Google Guarantee offers help for businesses who want to draw more organic traffic instead.
Services booked through Local Services Ads are automatically insured up to a lifetime cap, which varies by location. Any customer booking this way has the comfort of knowing they can claim the amount of the invoice should they be dissatisfied with the service.
How to Tell If a Business Has Been Google Guaranteed
Google Guaranteed adds a green checkmark “badge” underneath the names of qualifying companies. If a customer uses an audio search on Google Assistant or Google Home instead of searching on a screen, there will be an audible confirmation of this guarantee.
How Does Google Guaranteed Work?
If your business uses Local Services Ads, you can apply to the program by signing up for Local Services Ads and applying to be Google Guaranteed. If the service is available in your area and you receive certification, a badge or logo will be displayed next to your ad.
When you apply, Google will check your business license, insurance, and online reviews. They’ll also conduct background checks on employees—at no cost to you. Owners’ backgrounds are always checked, and other backgrounds are checked based on the nature of your business. Â
If your company passes this screening, you’ll receive a badge to show customers Google has prequalified you.
If a customer is unhappy with your service, they can submit a claim to Google to be reimbursed for the amount of their invoice. Google will then reach out to you to learn more and may request additional information from the customer. You’ll have the opportunity to resolve things with your customer. If that doesn’t work, Google will decide on a fair resolution based on its discretion and findings.
What Does the Google Guaranteed Program Cover?
Google Guaranteed will cover customers the amount of the invoice in question up to $2000 in the US and Canada, with varying limits in other countries as the program expands.
Lifetime limits in different regions are as follows:
- United States: $2,000 USD
- Canada: Â CAD $2,000
- United Kingdom: Â ÂŁ1,500
- Germany:  €1,500
- France:  €1,500
- Ireland:  €1,500
- Italy:  €1,500
- Spain:  €1,500
- Belgium:  €1,500
- Netherlands:  €1,500
- Austria:  €1,500
- Switzerland: Â â‚Ł2,000
What Isn’t Covered by Google Guaranteed?
There are limitations to the coverage that should be noted by both companies and customers. For instance, customers must have booked the work through Local Services Ads itself and claim reimbursement within 30 days of service completion.
The claim must be for the amount on the invoice for the original service performed, up to a lifetime maximum. It cannot include any additions, future projects, damages, or cancellations, and a customer’s dissatisfaction with the price is not considered a valid reason for a refund.
Is My Business Eligible for the Google Guaranteed Program?
If you’re eager to enroll, you may be in luck! Google Guaranteed has rolled out in many areas over the last couple of years, focusing on home services. The eligible industries for Google Guaranteed vary from region to region and may continue to change as the program expands. One of the first steps is to check eligibility to see if the program is available to you.
What Industries Are Eligible in the US?
In the USA, the following industries are eligible for Google Guaranteed: Appliance repair, auto glass, auto repair, carpet and upholstery cleaning, electrical, event planning, financial planning, garage door installation, home cleaning, HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning), junk removal, lawn care, locksmith services, pest control, pet grooming, photography, plumbing, roofing, tree services, water damage restoration, window cleaning, and window repair.
What Industries Are Eligible in Canada?
In Canada, Google Guaranteed covers HVAC companies, locksmith services, and plumbing businesses.
Does Google Guaranteed Cover All Professional Services?
The Google Guaranteed Program only covers home services for now. However, Google has a program called Google Screened, which covers professional services like financial planning, law, and real estate.
How Are Local Service Ads Related to Google Guaranteed?
The Local Services Ads program already offers you the ability to advertise to potential customers in your area through paid search.
Google Guaranteed is a feature of Local Service Ads intended to instill confidence in local businesses. It offers companies a way to potentially attract more organic traffic without investing the time and money needed for paid search engine marketing.
As a business owner, you may appreciate that it’s simpler to use, targets organic traffic, and costs you an easy-to-understand flat rate.
Is Google Guaranteed Worth It?
It depends on your business needs. You’ll need to decide if Google Guaranteed is worth the cost for your business, weighing the program’s cost and the time it will take to get and maintain the certification against the potential rewards.
You should also consider how much competition you typically have for your services. If you usually have to compete with a large number of other businesses, you’ll probably benefit more from having your ads highlighted.
How Does Google Guaranteed Benefit Businesses?
The Google Guaranteed Ads program offers a distinct way for businesses to rise to the top of search results, as they are displayed above the normal pay-per-click (PPC) Google Ads. Just keep in mind the ad format only allows you to show your company name, city, phone number, hours of operation, and customer rating.
What Does Google Guaranteed Offer Customers?
Google Guaranteed works to cut down on the confusion some experience when comparing local competitors by building customers’ trust in certified companies. The program acts as a consumer protection service, opening up a valuable avenue for customers to spend money with confidence. Vetting potential providers may become quicker and easier as customers know they have Google backing the quality.
Are There Any Drawbacks to the Google Guaranteed Program?
Applying to Google Guaranteed doesn’t result in an overnight acceptance, and you need to maintain your standing with the program. There are also costs associated with using the program, so any business should expect a bit of a learning curve to figure out how to measure results.
There is an in-depth certification process that includes background checks of some or all employees. Depending on the company’s size, this can take significant time to complete, so interested businesses should apply early and be patient while Google reviews their application.
It’s also worth noting this is a revenue source for Google, and they’re likely to expand it. While it may offer valuable benefits now, it will be interesting to see what happens in the future as more businesses sign up.
How will you stand out from the competition if they all get certified?
Is the Google Guaranteed Program Right for Your Business?
For many small businesses struggling to navigate the complicated world of pay-per-click search marketing, the Google Guaranteed Program could make a significant impact. It may allow you to spend less time worrying about keyword research and bidding strategies, so you could devote more of your time running your business.
While paid search can be a powerful tool, many businesses haven’t been able to devote the time or budget necessary to see a return on investment. While there is always expert digital marketing consulting available, those just getting started may want to try it out first.
How Much Does Getting Google Guaranteed Cost?
The program costs a base fee of $50 per month, for an annual cost of $600. However, there are also costs for every lead.
Google Guaranteed differs from pay-per-click. You’ll only pay when a customer calls or connects to engage your services, rather than paying each time a potential customer clicks on an ad.
Costs vary depending on your market and industry, but the average cost per Google Guaranteed lead seems to be about $25. Businesses are able to dispute leads that aren’t legitimate— for instance, if the customer is outside of the local area in your ad or if incomplete customer contact information is provided, preventing you from following up.
Similar programs have rolled out by other companies, such as Yelp’s Verified License, which you might compare with Google Guaranteed. Google’s new certification may resemble Yelp’s on the surface, but the Google Guaranteed program offers a powerful quality guarantee that Yelp doesn’t.
How to Set up Google Guaranteed for Your Business
To set up Google Guaranteed for your business, you’ll send in your application for consideration with Google.
You’ll indicate what country you’re in, what industry your business is in, and your zip code or postal code. This step will confirm if Google Guaranteed is available in your area, as mentioned above. Once that’s been confirmed, you can finish your application.
How to Get Ready for Google Business
If Google Guaranteed is not available in your area yet, there are still steps you can take to get ready for when it is. Ensure your business license and insurance are up to date. You should also check your Google reviews, encouraging your satisfied customers to review your business online, and address any negative reviews.
Maintain Your Google Guaranteed Standing
If you’ve been accepted into the Google Guaranteed Program, congratulations! However, your effort shouldn’t stop there. You’ll need to maintain the standards you established in order to receive the certification in the first place. These standards mean keeping your business license and insurance up to date. Monitor your Google reviews to address any issues, and continue to encourage your customers to provide reviews to begin with.
Conclusion
Google Guaranteed could be a powerful source of lead generation for businesses looking to grow. It may help small and medium-sized companies pull more organic traffic and compete without wading into paid search platforms.
Will you be signing your business up for Google Guaranteed?
The post Is Getting “Google Guaranteed” Worth It? appeared first on Neil Patel.
How to Find and Fix 404 Errors
Do you know what sucks when browsing a website?
Getting a 404 page.
It doesn’t matter if they mistyped the URL or the page no longer exists. 404 errors can seriously harm your brand and negatively impact your SEO by making it harder for search engines to crawl your site.
That means finding and fixing 404 errors needs to be a priority.
In this post, I’ll cover everything you need to know about 404s, why they are bad for business, how to find them, and how to fix them. Â
What Is a 404 Error?
A 404 error is a code that indicates a requested page cannot be found.
Whenever a page loads in a browser, it has a response status code in the HTTP header that usually isn’t visible to viewers. These responses are grouped into five categories:
- 100-199 are informational responses
- 200-299 are success responses
- 300-399 denote redirects
- 400-499 denote client errors
- 500-599 denote server errors
So what exactly does a 404 error mean?
A 404 error (also known as an HTTP 404 or 404 code) is a very specific type of client error. It means the page the viewer is trying to reach can’t be found on the server.
Hard 404 vs. Soft 404 Errors
There are actually two types of 404 errors you need to watch out for.
While you’ll have probably come across a hard 404 request when browsing a website at some point, you’re unlikely to see a soft 404 error unless you get notified by Google Search Console.
A soft 404 happens when a non-existent page on your site displays a “not found” message to users but returns a 200 OK status to search engines.
This tells Google and other search engines there’s a page at that URL. As a result, crawlers waste time trying to crawl and rank the URL.
Here’s the thing: Google is pretty good at identifying these false pages.
When it finds a page returning a 200 OK status with all the attributes of a page that should return a 404 code, it slaps a soft 404 error on it and notifies the site owner in Google Search Console.
What You Need to Know About Your Site’s 404 Errors
Okay, so you know what these errors are. Now you need to understand what causes 404 errors.
There could be many reasons why your site is returning 404 errors.
You’ll get 404 errors if you’ve deleted or removed pages from your site recently without redirecting their URLs.
404 errors can also occur if you’ve relaunched or transferred your domain and failed to redirect all your old URLs to the new site.
Sometimes 404 errors can be the result of changing a page’s URL. Altering any part of the URL, whether that’s a category name or the page’s slug, will result in a 404 error.
Even mistyping a URL in an internal link can result in a 404 page and a broken link.
Why Are 404 Errors Bad for Websites?
A large number of 404 errors could spell big trouble for your website.
Let’s start with the user’s viewpoint. Continually running into 404 errors when browsing your site will result in a terrible user experience.
Even finding one 404 error can be enough to send a visitor packing.
Read that again: just one 404 error could cost you a customer.
It gets worse, because 404 errors can also damage your rankings.
404 errors aren’t a ranking factor per se, and Google won’t penalize you directly for having lots of them.
But they can harm your SEO.
The more broken links your site has, the harder it will be for Google and other search engines to crawl your site. Link equity won’t be passed around your site well, either.
Both of these can cause a drop in rankings.
You may also suffer from high bounce rates if users leave your site after landing on a 404 page. Unlike 404 errors, bounce rates are a ranking factor, and Google could penalize your site if its bounce rate is too high.
How to Find and Fix 404 Errors on Your Site
Now you know how bad 404 errors are, let’s look at how we can find them and fix them.
Finding 404 Errors
Site crawlers like Screaming Frog are a great way to find broken links that lead to 404 errors quickly. Screaming Frog is also free if your site has 500 URLs or less.
Start by running a site audit.
Then click on Response Codes in the top menu.
Filter for Client Error 4XX to get a list of every page returning a 404 error.
Site crawlers won’t give you a complete list of 404 errors, however, as they only show broken links.
But you can find every 404 error on Google Search Console.
Google Search Console provides a list of every 404 error Googlebot finds on your site. This includes both hard 404s and soft 404s.
Login to the Search Console, click Coverage, and select the Excluded tab.
You’ll see a list of hard 404 errors marked Not found (404) and soft 404 errors marked Soft 404.
Click on each to see a full list of pages returning 404 errors.
You can also find 404 errors in Bing Webmaster Tools by clicking Reports & Data and then Crawl Information.
Finally, you can find 404 errors using my SEO tool, Ubersuggest.
Head to the site audit tab in the left-hand sidebar.
Run a Site Audit and then click Critical Errors.
Then click on the Warnings tab at the top of the page.
If any pages return 404 error codes, they’ll be listed here. Click on the issue to see a full list of the pages.
Fix 404 Errors
Now it’s time to fix all the errors you’ve found.
Here are four ways to do it:
- Redirect the 404 error: Redirecting users to another relevant page is the easiest way to fix 404 errors on your site. Just make sure you redirect them to something relevant — don’t just send them back to your homepage.
- Restore the page: If you find there’s still a lot of demand for a page you’ve deleted and there’s no suitable page to redirect users to, consider restoring the original page.
- Correct the link: If broken links exist on your site, you can simply edit the link to point to the correct URL. You won’t be able to fix links on websites you don’t control, however.
- Create a 404 page: By creating a custom 404 error page, you can make sure no visit is wasted—more on this below.
If you have a lot of 404 errors, you’ll need to prioritize your efforts. If you have 404 errors on any major pages, fix these first. Product pages, contact pages, and service pages with 404 errors should be fixed first.
Other pages may not be so pressing. Google Search Console may uncover 404 errors on pages that a human user would never be able to navigate to. You’ll want to fix them eventually, but these errors shouldn’t impact your rankings too much.
Find and Fixing 404 Errors on Your WordPress Site
If you have a WordPress site, you can use the same steps above to find 404 errors.
Found them? Great, now let’s fix 404 errors in WordPress.
If you’re getting site-wide errors, it’s probably an issue with your permalinks. Head to “Settings →  Permalinks to update your settings.
Click “Save Changes” at the bottom of the page once you’re done.
If specific pages are returning 404 errors, you’ll want to set up a 301 redirect for them. WordPress will try to do this automatically, but sometimes it doesn’t work.
The easiest way to do it yourself is by getting Yoast Premium or installing the Redirection plugin.
Once it’s installed and activated, head to Tools → Redirection.
You’ll need to answer a few quick questions to set up the tool.
Then you’ll be able to redirect any URL on your WordPress site. Just enter the URL you want to redirect in the Source URL field and the URL you want to redirect the page to in the Target URL field.
Then click Add Redirect.
If this seems confusing or complicated, it might be best to have a website developer or your website hosting support team help you with this to make sure all 404s are redirected properly.
How Often Should You Check for 404 Errors?
How often you should check for 404 errors depends on the size of your site.
Smaller sites with less than 50 pages can probably check for 404 errors every month or so. Larger sites may want to run checks for 404 errors every week or every other day.
Other Top Tools to Find and Fix 404 Errors
The methods I’ve mentioned above aren’t the only ways to find and fix 404 errors. Here are some of the other leading tools you can use.
Dead Link Checker
Dead Link Checker is similar to Screaming Frog. You can use it to check up to 2000 links on your site to see if any are broken.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics doesn’t track 404 errors out of the box, but you can use it to find 404 errors if you have a custom 404 page.
Start by finding the name of your 404 page.
Mine is Page not found – Neil Patel.
Then open Google Analytics and head to Behavior → Site Content → All Pages
Now add Page Title as a Secondary Dimension.
Click Advanced next to the search bar, then change the rule from Page to Page Title and type your 404 page title into the Containing box.
You’ll now have a report of how many people landed on your 404 page, and where they came from.
MonsterInsights
If you have a WordPress site, MonsterInsights can do all of the hard work for you. Rather than creating a manual report in Google Analytics, simply install the MonsterInsights plug-in.
It automatically tracks your 404 errors as soon as you connect your Google Analytics.
Crafting a Unique 404 Error Code Page
I highly recommend creating a unique 404 error code page for your site.
Most standard 404 error messages are way too technical for the average user to understand, and they don’t help them find another relevant page.
With a unique 404 page, you can provide more value to your users and even help them find the information they are looking for.
You can also boost your branding and marketing efforts.
Many companies use a custom 404 error page to reinforce their brand image and inject a bit of humor. Creating a custom URL page also makes it easier to track 404 errors in Google Analytics.
Don’t go overboard, however. A clean and straightforward 404 page is much more effective than an overly elaborate one.
Make sure you include a 404 header status on your custom page, too.
If you don’t, search engines won’t recognize the page correctly. Google will keep displaying the page in search results and send you a deluge of soft 404 error messages in the Search Console.
If you need some inspiration, here are some of my favorite unique 404 page examples:
Airbnb
Airbnb makes the most of a 404 error by showing users a fun GIF and offering links to their site’s main pages.
Southwest
Southwest takes full responsibility for the mistake and explains how it may have happened if users want to try to find the page again.
Wendys
Wendys goes above and beyond with their 404 page. There are no links to other parts of their site here; just a free game users can play to pass the time.
Conclusion
If you have a website, 404 errors are inevitable. But there’s no reason to let them damage your site’s user experience and hurt your rankings.
Use the strategies and tools above to regularly run checks to find 404 errors and fix them quickly. The faster you fix them, the less damage they can do.
How many 404 errors have you been able to fix on your site? Let me know in the comments.
The post How to Find and Fix 404 Errors appeared first on Neil Patel.