YouTube Keyword Research: How to Get More Views

YouTube videos are a great way to promote brand awareness and get your product out there. High-ranking videos can also be a great tool for pushing customers through the sales funnel at a lower cost than services like Google Ads.

But when you create a YouTube video, you want to make sure you’re reaching the best audience for your services. That’s why you should know how to use keywords effectively.

After performing keyword research to determine the best keywords for a topic, you can use them to create highly targeted content for your audience and gain more subscribers to your YouTube channel. This increases the likelihood that your video content will show up in YouTube searches, bringing traffic to your business. 

In this guide, we’ll show you what keywords are, why they’re important, and how you can use them to get more views on your YouTube videos.

What Is a Keyword on YouTube?

YouTube keywords are words in your video description, title, or anywhere else that give YouTube’s algorithm clues as to what your video is about. The term “keyword” is a little bit misleading because keywords can be a group of words or a phrase. In fact, long-tail keywords (longer keyword phrases) typically have higher conversion rates than shorter ones and less competition.

For example, if your video is about how to play simple acoustic songs on guitar, one of your keyword ideas might be “easy guitar songs.” To use this keyword, you might title your video something like “Easy Guitar Songs You Can Play for Your Friends.” When someone searches for “easy guitar songs” on YouTube, your video could show up somewhere in the results.

How Do You Research Keywords on YouTube?

There are various ways you can find keywords for any particular subject. Methods can vary greatly in price and effectiveness. Here are a few ways to find different keywords related to your subject:

Use YouTube’s autocomplete feature. Start typing any word into your YouTube search bar, and you’ll notice that beneath your search, YouTube lists several related keyword suggestions.

Find keywords from other popular videos. When you have a video displayed, right-click next to but not in the YouTube search bar. Scroll down to “View Page Source.” The hypertext markup language (HTML) source code will open up in a new window. Click “Ctrl + F” or “Command + F” and type in “keywords” in the search bar. You’ll see the word “keywords” highlighted with all the video’s keywords listed to the right. You can also use certain Chrome extensions that can help you see video keywords. 

Use keyword research tools. Several tools can help you find keywords for any topic. Some tools are free, while others have paid monthly subscriptions. Semrush offers multiple keyword research tools like the Keyword Magic Tool, which offers millions of keyword suggestions to help you pick the best ones for your YouTube videos.

Explore Our Keyword Generator

Use the Keyword Magic Tool

How Do You Get More YouTube Views With Keyword Research?

Now that you’ve discovered your keywords, it’s time to use them to build traffic to your YouTube videos. This process doesn’t have to be quite as complicated as you might imagine. Over the next few sections, we’ll walk you through a few ways to make your keywords work for you:

Try Keyword Mapping

Use YouTube Keyword Tools

Figure Out Search Intent

Try a Google Search to Further Optimize YouTube Keywords

Make Use of YouTube Hashtags

How Do You Add Keywords to YouTube 2021?

Try Keyword Mapping

Use your research to make a keyword map. Keyword mapping means matching specific keywords to content pages, or in this case, YouTube videos. The process requires making a chart or spreadsheet of your top keywords and the specific videos they work best with. Your YouTube keyword map can include elements like:

A list of important keywords for your channel topic (acoustic guitar music, software development, or whatever your channel is about)

Monthly keyword search volumes 

Your YouTube video URLs that best match with each keyword (if you have one)

Each video’s current search ranking for its corresponding keyword

The amount of competition each keyword has

The two reasons that you want to create and maintain a keyword map include: 

It helps you keep track of what keywords you have and haven’t created content for. You don’t want to duplicate your effort. 

It lets you see what keywords you’d like to create content for in the future. If you don’t have content for a specific top keyword, you know what your next video should be about. 

You can make videos optimized for multiple keywords, but you shouldn’t make multiple videos optimized for the same keyword because they will compete in YouTube search results. For example, if you have a marketing site, and you make two videos optimized for the keyword “target ad,” the videos will take clicks and views away from each other. 

Use YouTube Keyword Tools

Some of the best keyword research tools can really make your job easier. Keyword tools do more than just provide you with a list of potential keywords. They give you data to help you find the best keywords for your video and create highly targeted content for your intended audience. 

Keyword Keg, VidIQ, and TubeBuddy are just a few tools that can help you find and evaluate different YouTube keywords. They can also show you things like how often a keyword is searched and how often users click on the results.

In particular, our Keyword Magic Tool can help you discover long-tail keywords that can help your YouTube videos stand out even more: 

easy guitar songs keyword magic tool screenshot

Figure Out Search Intent

YouTube is a giant search engine. Like other search engines (Google, Bing, and Yahoo), it wants to make sure it brings users the information they’re looking for. Search intent is the content that a user wants to see when they type in a specific keyword.

For content to rate high for a keyword, it has to get the search intent right. 

Sometimes, search terms have intents that are easy to determine. If the keyword is something like “iPad Pro Review,” you can assume a user is looking for content that reviews the product.

Other times, it can be difficult to tell what the search intent is. If the user simply types in “iPad Pro,” you don’t know if they’re looking for reviews, features, or even tutorials. The best way to find out is to type the keyword in the YouTube search bar to see what’s trending. 

A user’s search intent can also explain where they fall in the sales funnel. Each type of user query (keyword) corresponds to a part of the sales funnel. To build your influence and increase your conversions, you should create content for users with each query type. The four types of queries and their matching sales funnel stages are:

Awareness: Search intent is to learn about a product. (“What are noise-canceling headphones?”)

Interest: Search intent has a specific goal. (“Sony WH-1000XM4 noise-canceling headphones”)

Decision: Search intent is knowledge about a possible purchase. (“Top noise-canceling headphones”)

Action: Search intent is to make a purchase. (“Purchase Sony WH-1000XM4 noise-canceling headphones”)

Try a Google Search to Further Optimize YouTube Keywords

You can drive even more traffic to your videos if they rank on YouTube and Google. To see if you can use Google to get traffic for your YouTube videos, do a Google search for your keyword. If you see a list of videos on the search engine results page (SERP), you have a shot at getting your video to rank in Google. 

If you see featured videos at the top of the SERP, your chances are even better. That means that most of the people who search Google for your keyword are looking for videos.

You can also use the Keyword Magic Tool to see what SERP features are being shown for keywords you're interested in using for your videos. If you search your keyword, you can see if the SERP shows videos:

noise canceling headphones serp features keyword magic tool

Keyword Magic Tool: SERP Features

Make Use of YouTube Hashtags

YouTube hashtags are a great way to get more views for your videos. Hashtags are popular keywords that you can add to your videos to help them get more attention from specific audiences.

YouTube lets people search for relevant keywords or hashtags that interest them. By adding popular hashtags to your videos, you’ll be able to appear in more searches.

YouTube hashtags example screenshot

However, adding hashtags doesn’t necessarily help you rank higher in YouTube searches, so you should only add them if your content is appropriate to them.

How Do You Add Keywords to YouTube 2021?

Tags can be added to video titles, but you may prefer to add them to the video description or thumbnail. For new YouTube videos:

Sign in to your YouTube Studio account and click “Create” in the top-right corner (there’s a picture of a little camera)

When you choose the video you want to upload, click “More Options.”

Then, you can type in your tags. 

For videos already on your channel:

Sign in to YouTube Studio.

Click “Content” in the menu to the left.

Choose which video you want to add tags to.

Then, type in your tags.

YouTube Keyword Research FAQs

How Do You Create Channel Keywords on YouTube?

After conducting keyword research, you can add keywords to your channel description, assign channel tags, and optimize your YouTube video titles.

What Are the Best Keywords for YouTube?

The best keywords vary depending on the topic of each video. Some videos may cover wide-ranging, top-level topics. You'd likely want higher-volume keywords that attract an audience. If you're looking to create niche videos, your keywords should be more targeted to those who want to watch your videos.

For example, someone looking up an "oil change" on YouTube might be understanding why they should get an oil change. If someone else were searching for "how to do an oil change," you'd want to optimize your post to attract an audience that's looking to perform the action themselves and is already knowledgable about the topic. 

How Do You Find the Best Keywords for YouTube?

You can use the YouTube autocomplete feature, the HTML source code for other videos, or keyword research tools. Also, don't forget about what you can do with Semrush to help your research!

What Are Meta Descriptions and How to Write Them

 This article will cover everything you need to know about the basics of meta descriptions. We will talk about what they are, why they are important, and how to leverage them for your website’s SEO.

• What is a Meta Description?
• Why are Meta Descriptions Important?
• How to Write Meta Descriptions
  • Meta-Description Example
  • Meta Description Tips 
• Meta Description Length: Make it SEO Friendly
• Using Multiple Meta Descriptions for a Single Page
  • Purposefully Using Multiple Meta Descriptions
  • How To Implement Multiple Meta Descriptions
  • Should You Use Multiple Meta Descriptions?
• Helpful Online Tools for Checking your Meta Descriptions

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What is a Meta Description?

A meta description is an HTML tag used to describe the content of a web page. This description will show up below the title and URL of your page as it appears in the search engine results. In order to remain visible within Google, your meta description should be kept somewhere between 140-160 characters.

Meta descriptions will appear below the page title and URL in the search results.

Example of meta description in code:

<head> <meta name="description" content="When writing a meta description, keep it between 140 and 160 characters so Google can display your entire message. Don’t forget to include your keyword!"></head><br/><br/>

Why are Meta Descriptions Important?

Since meta descriptions appear with your title and URL on the results pages, they have the power to help or hurt your results’ click through rates. Research has shown that having the keyword in the body of the meta description is a relevancy signal for search engines that can help your rankings.

It isn’t a huge signal, but it can certainly play a positive role if used naturally without keyword stuffing your descriptions. In terms of your search result, your meta description has the most real estate (two lines of text compared to one line for the title and one line for URL), so take advantage of the opportunity to sell your website with a meaningful message to searchers.

How to Write Meta Descriptions

Since the click-through rate on the SERPs is seen as a potential ranking factor, the best way to make your meta descriptions SEO-friendly is to write them with the intention of getting more clicks.

Think of your search results like a traditional ad in a newspaper or magazine. Classic print advertising used headlines and taglines to entice a person to call a phone number or travel to an address to buy a product in-store.

With your search results, your page title is your headline, your meta description is your tagline, and the URL is the address. Since a meta description is essentially a micro-pitch for a webpage, you should fill it with active language that will make people want to click on your result.

Meta-Description Example

You want to write a description that conveys your website’s unique selling point (USP). 

Think: why is my page specifically better than all the other pages in the results? 

Don’t be afraid to make an emotional appeal with your message. Emotional advertising has traditionally found a lot of success tapping into people’s feelings.

Let's look at an example: 

From this simple description in the SERP, we see this company can repair and install air conditioning (a needed service in Florida). More importantly, they "provide comfort and trusted advice when people need it most" — imagine your A/C is broke while sweating in a hot and humid area. Who do you trust? 

A study in 2014 conducted by the Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of Glasgow suggested that human emotion can be categorized into four main buckets:

• Happy

• Sad

• Angry/disgusted

• Afraid/surprised

This company used emotion the right way to pull in potential customers. Very smart. 

Meta Description Tips 

Google gives room for about a 1-2 sentence (160-character) summary below every search result. So, in one to two sentences, your descriptions should offer a compelling reason to visit the webpage. Add a clear call to action, address an emotional pain point, or offer a specific benefit to visitors.

• If it is too long, it won’t fit, Google will truncate it, and people will not understand what your site can provide.

• If it is too vague, people just won’t care. There are always other results to click on.

You should aim to connect with a searcher’s emotion in two sentences or less. 

It is also important to have unique descriptions for every page on your website. Our on-site SEO study found that nearly 30% of the sites had duplicate meta descriptions and 25% had pages with no meta description at all.

Meta Description Length: Make it SEO Friendly

To encourage clicks and bring visitors from search to your website, do the following with your descriptions:

1. Aim for about 1-2 sentences (140-160 characters) long

2. Include your target keyword

3. Target an emotion

4. Add a call-to-action to entice opening the link

5. Avoid duplicate meta descriptions

6. Make it meaningful and descriptive, matching your content

7. Double check how it looks with a SERP view generator tool

You can also check out the newest Google's recommendations - Better Snippets for your Users.

Download this checklist!

Using Multiple Meta Descriptions for a Single Page

In May of 2020, Google's John Mueller answered a question about using multiple meta descriptions. He said, "So, if you’re including a second meta description tag on a page we will treat that the same as if you just extend the existing meta tag on the page... there’s no kind of bonus to using a second meta description tag on a page compared to just adjusting your existing one."

SEJ reported that John Mueller stated Google can handle extra title and meta descriptions, but that publishers should stick to writing a single meta description and a single title tag per page.

Generally speaking, you will find that most pages will only have one meta description and that instances of multiple meta description tags are generally down to human error. 

However, in some instances, multiple meta description tags are used deliberately. The reason for this is to give a search engine additional options when it comes to displaying meta information that matches a user’s search query.

Purposefully Using Multiple Meta Descriptions

The aim of their use is to match the search engine queries with an appropriate meta description tag, which in turn could help improve the click-through rate.

For example, at Semrush we might build a post that explores the various aspects of keyword research. Within this post we might look to target the following search terms:

• “What is keyword research”

• “Keyword research tools”

Naturally, these have two significantly different search intents but are inherently related to one another. The idea of having multiple meta descriptions is then to craft two separate descriptions that relate to each phrase.

Therefore, if a user queries “what is keyword research” search engines would display our result with the meta description tailored to the “what is keyword research” search query. Equally, if a user was to search for “keyword research tools”, the second tailored meta description would maybe be displayed.

It is worth noting that there is no guarantee that a search engine will adhere to picking your desired meta description so it is at your own risk to implement multiple descriptions.

How To Implement Multiple Meta Descriptions

The meta description is found in a page’s HTML source and so, therefore, adding an extra meta description to a page is dependent on the application you use to build the website.

To add multiple meta descriptions, you need access to the HTML pages of your site and the ability to edit and amend them.

A meta description tag is required to sit between the head tags in the HTML code, and for best practice, below the title tag of the page. For example:

<head> <title>Title of the page</title> <meta name="description" content="Enter description here."> </head>

This will add one meta description to your page. In order to add multiple, you must repeat this process, adding a second meta description between the <head> tags. This would appear as follows:

<head> <title>Title of the page</title>  <meta name="description" content="Enter description one."> <meta name="description" content="Enter description two."> </head>

To maximize the effectiveness of multiple meta descriptions, they should reflect the search intent of the highest volume keywords the pages rank for or are trying to rank for. This will then give search engines the opportunity to select the most relevant meta description for the user’s search.

Should You Use Multiple Meta Descriptions?

Unless you are purposefully trying to influence the search engine results as outlined above, then it’s generally considered best practice to only include one meta description for each post created.

Within a page that you are optimizing you should include your target topics & keywords, whilst also ensuring the content is 100% unique and satisfies the user intent of the top queries you are trying to rank for. 

Helpful Online Tools for Checking your Meta Descriptions

Below are some helpful tools that you can use to test your meta descriptions as you write them.

• Semrush Site Audit — This tool analyzes the health of a website. It will provide you with a list of issues that makes it easy to see where exactly a website is struggling, including missing and duplicate meta descriptions: 

• Semrush On-Page SEO Checker – This Semrush Project tool checks if you have a keyword in your title and meta tag and suggests the right one if you don’t. Also, check the detailed analysis for keyword usage info in meta descriptions. On-Page SEO Checker also provides you with a detailed list of actionable, tailor-made optimization tips for each page of your website.

• Portent – This SERP view generator lets you enter your meta description along with a title and URL to test how your search result will appear. You can check the pixel width of your title, the character length of your description, and test how different keywords within your description will look when bolded.

Local Business SEO: Tactics to Improve Your Ranking

Every small-to-medium-sized business, or the agency working on behalf of a small business, has one central goal with local business SEO: to get more leads.

Ranking in Google Maps and local organic search is an important part of getting those leads.

You can have great technical and on-site SEO, but if your reviews are non-existent or are below a 3.0 average, you have other issues that need to be dealt with first.

So, how do you rank in the local pack and local organic results?

In this guide, I’m going to walk you through the most important success factors for both Google Maps (the local map pack) and local organic search.

I’m also going to be touching on some “tactics” that don’t help you rank at all, and I’ll finish up by providing a priorities list based on you or your client’s current positioning.

Two Different Opportunities for SMBs

I’ve said this before, but it’s worth mentioning again: local business SEO is not just the map pack/local pack. Below those three map pack results are regular organic results.

The algorithms in play for Google Maps are different from the algorithms used in localized organic results. With that in mind, I’ll be covering the different strategies to optimize for both of these types of results.

Before we get into specific success factors, I have to reiterate the importance of keyword research. Instead of covering it again, check out the two posts I’ve done on local keyword research:

On-Page Strategies for Local SEO: Ranking in Multiple Cities

How To Do Local SEO Keyword Research In 2021

Knowing what keywords (topics) you want to rank for is critical but backing it up with Google Search Console data is invaluable to any local business SEO campaign.

I go over this in the first article I linked to above, but I’ll repeat it: people search differently in different locations. 

If you’ve built your keyword list based on Semrush or any other third-party tool, that’s great. But don’t forget to match it up with your GSC data!

Ok, off my keyword soapbox, let’s dive into key aspects of optimization for local business SEO.

Key Map Pack Optimizations

Google My Business has a Help article that talks about how Google determines local ranking.

Specifically, they mention Relevance, Distance, and Prominence.

google map pack local ranking

Relevance refers to the completion of your Google My Business profile. You can influence Relevance.

Distance is just how it sounds. You can’t influence the distance from someone searching for your product or service.

Prominence refers to how well-known a local business/entity is. You can absolutely influence Prominence.

Google My Business Listing Completion (Relevance)

The second sentence from the Google Support article states:

“Add complete and detailed business information to help Google better understand your business and match your profile to relevant searches.”

So, make sure your Google My Business listing is filled out.

Business name: Use your legal business name. 

We have to bring up a sad point about the business name and its influence on map pack rankings.

If you have a keyword and/or location in your business name, you have a massive advantage.

This is why Google My Business spam is alive and well (more on this soon). If you violate the guidelines and create fake Google My Business listings that have the business be the main keyword, it will likely rank prominently, even without a website or any reviews.

Example - ABC Heating & Cooling of Portland vs. ABC Inc.

ABC Heating & Cooling of Portland has keywords and a location in their business name. ABC Inc does not. 

This brings up somewhat of a controversial topic. As a legitimate business owner (ABC Inc), should you change your business name?

That decision needs to be thought out and done correctly if implemented.

If you can’t infer what your business does by the name, you might consider changing it.

If you decide to update your business name, it’s not as easy as getting a DBA (Doing Business As) and updating your business name on Google My Business.

Here’s a checklist of things to do before updating your business name on Google My Business:

Create a business name that doesn’t just add a keyword modifier to it

Make sure the original brand name is in your new business name

File a DBA/ABN for the new business name

Get a new logo for the new business name

Update any brand mentions on your website to the new business name

Get utility bills updated in the new business name

Get any insurance the business has updated in the new business name

Update claimed local listings to the new business name or use a tool like Semrush’s Listing Management service

If a governing body licenses your business, get it updated in the new business name

Have signage? It needs to be updated

Submit a press release announcing the new business name

Once all of the above has been completed, you can then change your business name within Google My Business.

Address: If your business is a traditional brick and mortar, make sure your address is visible. 

If your business is a Service Area Business that does not see customers from your location, you should be hiding your address and then set your Service areas.

If your business is a Service Area Business but does allow customers to come to your location, include the address AND set your service areas.

Categories: The primary category you choose for your listing will have more weight than the additional categories you add. 

Selecting your primary category can also depend on if your business has any seasonality.

As an example, HVAC companies typically offer heating and cooling services. During the winter months, their primary category should be related to heating. During the summer months, their primary category should be related to cooling.

If you need help figuring out your primary category, do some searches for your primary keywords in Google Maps and take note of the primary category being used for the top listings. 

If you want to find more related categories to your primary or additional categories, the GMB category tool by PlePer is very helpful.

Start by typing in a product or service you offer to find relevant categories

Once you find a good category, over to the right, you’ll see Related categories; click it

The tool will show you related categories and their usage from analyzing more than 50k listings

Products and Services: Although products and services don’t have an impact on rankings (yet), they are helpful to searchers and can help aid in conversions. 

After all, that’s our job, isn’t it?

If you’re a service-based business, do add your services. When adding services, add as much relevant information as possible. Don’t keyword stuff the Service description!

If you’re adding Products, you have a slight advantage over Services. You can add photos of the Product and a link to the product page. 

Hours of operation: Simple enough, add your hours of operation. Don’t lie about your hours of operation; it can lead to a suspension of your listing.

Phone number: Add your phone number. It’s ok to use a call tracking number as your primary phone number. Just make sure you add your real phone number as an additional phone number. 

Ideally, your real phone number and call tracking number should be in your local area code.

Website: More often than not, you’re going to add your homepage in this field. 

If you’re a multi-location business, you’ll link to the location page.

There is some nuance here that should be brought up. When you edit/add/update the website field, it automatically triggers a crawl. 

The title tag and content on the page you’re linking to should be related to at least your primary category.

If your primary category is Heating contractor, but you’re linking to a page that doesn’t talk about or mention this service, what do you think will happen?

When adding your website link, do make sure to add a UTM tracking code so you can see traffic within Google Analytics.

This is the template we use:

?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=maps

Appointment links: If you use a third party for your appointments, add that link. If your appointment link is your contact page, add that.

Again, use a UTM tracking code.

This is the template we use:

?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=maps&utm_content=appointment

Attributes: Select attributes that are relevant to your company. Don’t add attributes that aren’t true.

Description: This will not help your rankings at all, but do add a description. Don’t keyword stuff the description field.

Opening date: Add the date the business opened. 

Photos and Videos: We humans are visual creatures. Add photos and videos to your listing that best represent your business. 

Google My Business Posts: Although they don’t help rankings (yet or that we definitely know of), why not post a few times a week? 

Use visuals and a call to action when talking about a product or service. 

I've covered Google My Business listing completion and how it can help Relevance within Google Maps. Now, I’ll dive into prominence.

Influencing Prominence for Your Google My Business Listing

This is where a lot of traditional SEO strategies are going to come into play.

The Google My Business Help article specifically mentions:

“Prominence is also based on information that Google has about a business, from across the web, like links, articles, and directories. Google review count and review score factor into local search ranking. More reviews and positive ratings can improve your business's local ranking. Your position in web results is also a factor, so search engine optimization (SEO) best practices apply.”

Let’s start with Reviews.

Reviews absolutely influence your local business SEO ranking. It’s clear as day as to why but Google specifically mentions it.

It’s not just the quantity of positive reviews you have, but the content within them also plays a role.

Google users can simply add a 5.0 rating to your business without any context. It’s nice to have, but I would rather have 10 positive reviews with context than 50 positive ratings with no context.

If the review contains mentions of specific products or services within the review, not only does it help your Prominence, reviews can show within the map pack.

affordable heater repair portland map pack example

Even though the first result uses a modifier on their business name, a snippet from one review is shown within their result, and the keyword affordable is bolded. 

The second result includes a review snippet, too, likely because reasonable rates are related to my search for affordable heater repair.

You can have the best content, on-site SEO, and links, but if your review portfolio is negative or non-existent, your rankings will suffer.

How do you get people to add keywords to their reviews? When the ask comes, you can include starter questions to help stoke your customer. An example using the image above would be (sent via email);

“Dear Ms. Customer,

Thank you very much for using ABC Heating & Cooling of Portland for your heater repair needs.

We take great pride in providing an affordable service and rely on our customers' feedback to improve our services.

We would greatly appreciate it if you could write a review of your experience with our company.

If you need some help with coming up with what to write, here are a few starter questions to help:

Why did you call ABC Heating & Cooling of Portland?

Were we able to provide the service you requested in a timely fashion?

Would you recommend us to your friends and family?

The link below will take you to our Google listing to provide feedback.

Thank you again, Ms. Customer, for choosing ABC Heating & Cooling of Portland. If you need anything else from us, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Signature”

The purpose of the starter questions helps Ms. Customer to remember why she called, comment on the service, and provide the recommendation.

Links, Articles, and Directories

Citations have a long history as an important aspect of local SEO, but their impact on rankings has dwindled over the years.

I’m not saying that you should NOT build or do any citation building. 

I am saying that if your “link building strategy” is solely around building hundreds of citations, you’re going to have a hard time ranking.

Citations can help build up Prominence, but how much of an impact could you get? A little. It’s not a silver bullet. Citations can be really beneficial for an overall strategy if you’re utilizing them for barnacle SEO.

Let’s move on from citations to explore the topic of local link building.

Links are a big local ranking signal within the local pack and local organic results, but not all links are created equal.

Link building for local search is a complex topic, and it would be difficult to cover everything within this guide.

A high-level view for local link building: Links for local businesses can be classified as Topical, Local, or a Citation.

In my opinion, I think local links have the potential to carry more weight than most other types of links. 

Check out my post titled Why Local Links May Reign Supreme for a detailed overview!

Local Organic Success Factors

Most factors we’re discussing for localized organic rankings will help you in the map pack results, too. There might be some carryover from what we’ve already discussed.

Technical, On-Page SEO, Content, and Site-Speed

Google uses thousands of different signals within their algorithms to determine local rankings.

Traditional SEO tactics like technical and on-page SEO are going to be taken into account. Again, these are large topics that deserve guides in their own right. 

Check out these guides on on-page SEO and PageSpeed insights if you want to explore these topics deeper.

“Just write great content” is often echoed throughout the industry, and content plays a vital role, but it’s how you approach content in the first place.

Again, making sure you have performed great local keyword research will aid you in the content you’re writing.

When you approach content writing, make sure what you’re planning on writing matches Google’s perceived intent of the main topic of the page. 

Do a simple Google search for the primary topic and read through the content that’s ranked highly.

This analysis will help you shape a great outline for your content.

Site-speed has always been important for user experience and accessibility to pages, but it will be even more so by the end of May 2021. 

Having a fast website is also great for users. 

Slow websites often plague small-to-medium-sized businesses. Bloated theme templates, website builders, and gated CMS’ are affordable but tend to slow websites down.

Simple tips to speed up your website:

Use lossless image compression on all photos. If you’re running WordPress, I like the TinyPNG plugin.

When uploading photos, make sure you upload the right size before uploading.

If you’re using cheap/shared hosting, consider upgrading hosting to a better provider. 

Caching and utilizing a CDN can have a nice impact on your site-speed. If your site is running on WordPress, Nitropack is great.

For WordPress websites, don’t rely too much on plugins. Plugins can have detrimental effects on site-speed. Consider working with a developer to implement what you want instead of relying on another plugin for one design element on a page.

Structured Data

Using structured data can have a positive impact on your local search appearance. The rich results it can bring to your search result can help increase your CTR. Here are a couple of examples of how it can enrich your appearance on the SERPs:

• buffalo chicken recipe structured data
• Recipe markup on the SERPs
• best buy samsung tv product schema with pricing and reviews
• Product schema on the SERPs

Links

Why yes, we’re going to talk about links again. Inbound links are a large ranking factor, but again, not all links are created equal. I think it’s imperative to benchmark your links against your local competitors.

Grab a copy of this sheet: bit.ly/link-benchmarking. The second sheet has an example. 

Using Semrush's Backlink Analytics Tool, export your referring domains and your top 5 competitors' referring domains.

In the appropriate column, add the referring domains, then get classifying links.

Once you’ve finished, you’ll see how your website compares against the competition.

If the example above was our client, we could see that the client is lacking everywhere across the board. Internal links can fall within on-site SEO, but they’re critical, too.

bad cta just says learn more

If you go to your website and look at the internal links and Learn More is used, you need to change this.

Learn more provides absolutely no hint as to what you’re linking to. 

The image above is from a website (on page 2 for their primary keyword). Do you have any idea of what kind of website or the linked-to page is about?

Nope.

A bot crawling this page (it’s a personal injury attorney) will get to this link, and the anchor is 'Learn More.' The bot has no context on what the page is about.

Internal anchors should be more descriptive!

Personalization/Behavioral Signals

Google has a lot of information on users. They are using this information to help shape the SERP for each user doing searches. 

How can you influence personalization and behavioral signals? Focus on building a better local brand.

I believe Google wants to rank what’s popular in the offline world on the online world. 

Not just landmarks and points of interest like mentioned within the GMB Help article. This applies to local brands, too.

The more a local business gets involved in the local community and builds up their brand (local entity), the more likely they tend to rank more prominently for their desired keywords.

I also believe that Featured Snippets will become more localized as websites add more FS-worthy content to their sites.

If you're publishing content at the top and middle of the funnel and local users engage with that content before they need your product or service, you’re likely going to benefit from personalization if/when that customer needs your product service.

“Tactics” That Won't Help You Rank

Keyword stuffing review responses

Yes, the content in reviews will help Google My Business rankings, but only from the REVIEWER! 

Responding to reviews is recommended by Google My Business and shows users that you care about your business. Respond to both positive and negative reviews but don’t worry about adding keywords to your reply

Keyword stuffing your Google My Business description

The description field in Google My Business does not influence rankings. I tested this on my own listing last year by plugging in instances of a keyword in the description, and after two months of tracking, nothing, absolutely nothing happened to rankings. 

The description you add to Google My Business should be useful to users.

The same advice applies to products and services on the listing. They don’t influence rankings at all. They are great to add, but don’t worry about stuffing keywords into all of them.

Building links to the Google My Business CID number

We did some testing on this in early 2020. We built PageRank passing links directly to the Google My Business CID number with keyword-rich anchor text. I’ll let the image results show what happened this year. 

Don’t waste your time building links to the Google My Business CID number/GMB listing.

Local Business SEO: Tactics to Improve Your Ranking . Image 8

Custom Google Map with dozens of layers all with directions to your location

Interesting concept, but it doesn’t do squat. I’ve yet to see someone show a test where this works. Google has a ton of information on users, and they likely rely on user data instead of your multi-layer custom Google Map to influence rankings.

Customizing EXIF data on images

Having great photos and videos overall are great for your Google My Business listing. Google My Business is not using EXIF data for rankings. Again, I’ve yet to see any test that proves otherwise.

Your biggest takeaways should be to provide the best experience for your customers while focusing on building a better, local brand. 

When it comes to improving local business SEO, it's key to follow the recommendations for most sites: looking at your on-site content, ensuring your site is technically clean and paying attention to your online reputation.

Infographic Submission Sites to Promote Your Infographic (and Get Backlinks)

 Have you ever created an awesome infographic and waited for weeks for authority sites to link back to your content?

I know I have!

Top 40 Infographic Submission Sites: Patient Lenny Meme

In this scenario, there are two things you could do.

First, wait patiently for an influencer to notice your infographic and include a contextual link to your article. (Which may never happen!)

Or…

Go out of your way to promote your infographic proactively and fetch the backlinks that your infographic deserves.

If you’re like me, you’ll probably lean towards the latter option.

The best way to promote your infographic is, of course, through blogger outreach. Using an outreach tool like Ninja Outreach, you can reach out to tons of like-minded bloggers and urge them to include your infographic in their articles.

Side note: Need help with blogger outreach? Check out this in-depth guide on how to create infographics and generate high-quality backlinks. You can also download the free PDF of the guide here to access it offline. The outreach technique has been discussed in detail in this article, so do check it out if you need help reaching out to bloggers.

Aside from blogger outreach, the next best option to promote your infographic and gain contextual backlinks would be to leverage infographic submission sites.

To help you further in the endeavor of promoting your infographic, I’ve decided to compile a list of sites where you can submit your infographic.

Aside from a short description and submission process, I’ve also mentioned the site’s domain authority, so you can prioritize your efforts accordingly.

So without further ado, here are the top infographic submission sites you can leverage to promote your infographic.

Top 40 Infographic Submission Sites

#1 Infographics-submission.blogspot.com

Domain Authority: 89

Infographics submission is the leading resource for data visualization and creative infographics. The site aims at providing you the latest infographics on various topics from sports to environment, travel to technology and other niches.

Based on the theme, infographics are classified into different categories and the latest charts, graphs or infographics will get displayed at the top of each category.

To date, infographics-submission.blogspot.com has published over 6000 infographics and they receive over 300 submissions on a monthly basis.

How to Submit: Free submission is allowed, but it can take several weeks to get your infographic published. You can opt for their express service which is priced at $25/submission wherein your infographic is published in 1-3 days. To learn more, check out their submission page.

Price: Free; 

#2 Infographics Archive

Domain Authority: 54

Infographics Archive was started by a group of designers, programmers, and enthusiasts with a deep passion for infographics.

How to Submit: There is no free submission. Standard submission is priced at $20. Standard listings will be published within 5 business days. If you’d like social promotion or feature your infographic on the home page, you’ll need to pay extra.

Price: $20 for standard submission

#3 Infographics Showcase

Domain Authority: 50

Infographics Showcase collects the best infographics on the web with exciting graphic design.

How to Submit: Infographics Showcase no longer allows free submissions. Standard submission fee is $25 and you can expect your infographic to be live on the site within 7 business days. For more details, check out their submission page.

Price: $25

#4 Infographic Bee

Domain Authority: 25

Infographic Bee is obsessed with scouting the web for the best and most exciting infographics to share with their audience.

How to Submit: While you can submit your infographic for free, it can take several days to get it approved. If you’d like your infographic to be reviewed quickly, then you’ll have to pay $9.95. Click here to submit your infographic.

Price: Free; $9.95 for express review

#5 Cool Infographics

Domain Authority: 60

Owned by Randy Krum, Cool Infographics highlights some of the best examples of data visualizations and infographics found in magazines, newspapers, and on the web.

The site gets over 7000 visitors per day and 300,000 page views per month.

How to Submit: To submit an infographic to the site, you’ll need to fill the contact form with a link to your infographic. If your infographic is approved, you’ll get an email. Cool Infographics gets tons of requests daily, so make sure your entry is a little different from the others.

Price: Free

#6 Infographics Journal

Domain Authority: 54

Infographics Journal is an infographic archive that focuses solely on showcasing the best infographics all in one place.

How to Submit: Infographic Journal gives you three options for submission – basic, express, and featured. Basic submission is free and your infographic will be reviewed by one of their editors, and if approved, you can expect your infographic to be live in 2-3 weeks. Express submission costs $25 wherein your infographic is submitted on the same day. Featured submission costs $75 wherein your infographic will appear in the scrolling “Featured” section on the site’s home page for 7 days.

Click here to submit your infographic.

Price: Free for Basic Submission; $25 for Express Submission

#7 Visual.ly

Domain Authority: 80

Visual.ly is a platform that seamlessly connects designers, journalists, animators, and developers with clients.

It is perhaps one of the most popular infographic submission sites on this list. You can submit your infographics on Visual.ly for free.

How to submit: Create an account with Visual.ly and submit your infographic.

Price: Free

#8 Infographic Reviews

Domain Authority: 23

Infographics Reviews is a site where you can submit infographics and also get them reviewed. The infographics are rated on a scale of 0 (your infographic sucks and will never get any tweets) to 5 (Dynamite Infographic – the best infographic on the block and going viral soon).

How to Submit: You can get your infographic reviewed here. You’ll get an email if it’s approved.

Price: Free

#9 Submit Infographics

Domain Authority: 45

Submit Infographics is one of the longest-running infographic submission sites online. The site provides a platform for designers and companies alike, to get their hard work seen as well as critiqued.

How to Submit: You can submit your infographic by filling this form. A fee of $15 is charged for regular submission and your infographic is published in a month’s time. There are other pricing options available if you’d like your infographic to be published sooner.

Price: $15 for regular submission

#10 Behance

Domain Authority: 92

Behance is used by designers all over the world to showcase their latest work. If you’ve designed infographics that you’re really proud of, you can showcase them here and earn a high-quality backlink.

How to Submit: Create an account, click on ‘Add Work’, and upload your infographic.

Price: Free

#11 NerdGraph

Domain Authority: 45

NerdGraph is an infographic submission site run by a team of three who are passionate about infographics.

How to Submit: You can submit your infographic from here. They get tons of submissions each day, so make sure your infographic meets their quality guidelines and is different from the rest of the pack.

Price: Free

#12 Infographic Post

Domain Authority: 29

Infographic Post is a place to find the most interesting and informative infographics on the web. Infographics need to be creatively designed and visually stimulating to be featured on the site.

How to Submit: There is free submission allowed, but there is no guarantee that your infographic will be approved and published. The site offers 2 payment options – $10 for infographic published within 5 days and $20 for infographic published within 2 days. For more details, check out their submission page.

Price: $10 (published within 5 days) and $20 (published within 2 days); Free option available but no guarantee that your infographic will be published.

#13 Infographic Plaza

Domain Authority: 30

Infographic Plaza is an infographic blog that showcases great infographics, cool infographic ideas, and infographic inspiration.

How to Submit: You can submit your infographic for free, but the review process can take well over a month. For express review and publication, you’ll need to pay $10. For more details, check out their submission page.

Price: Free; $10 for express publication

#14 Daily Infographic

Domain Authority: 79

Daily Infographic curates some of the most interesting infographics on the web on a plethora of subjects.

How to Submit: The best way to submit your infographic is through their contact page. If your infographic is approved, you’ll get an email from the Daily Infographic team. This is one of the most popular infographic submission sites, so make sure your infographic is creative and filled with interesting data.

Price: Free

#15 Directory of Infographics

Domain Authority: 14

Directory of Infographics, as the name suggests, has a huge database of infographics from different categories and niches.

How to Submit: You can submit your infographic for free, but there’s no guarantee it will be published. For instant publishing of your infographic, the site charges you $10. Click here to submit your infographic.

Price: Free; $10 for instant publishing

#16 Visulattic 

Domain Authority: 18

Visulattic is a project with an aim to curate the best information graphics or visual data.

How to Submit: You can submit your infographic for free by filling this form here.

Price: Free

#17 Shit Hot Infographics

Domain Authority: 20

Owned by David Eaves, Shit Hot Infographics was launched to feature the very best infographics from the internet.

How to Submit: To submit your infographic, you’ll need to get in touch with David Eaves. If your infographic meets their quality standards, it will be published in a couple of days. Check out their submission page for more details.

Price: Free

#18 Infographic Database

Domain Authority: 24

Infographic Database has a huge collection of infographics which is frequently updated.

How to Submit: The site charges $20 for submission. For more details, check out their submission page.

Price: $20

#19 Galleryr

Domain Authority: 16

Galleryr is a premium infographic gallery site. The site publishes only high-quality infographics that add value and provide valuable and trusted information.

How to Submit: Galleryr allows you to submit your infographic for free. You need to provide a unique description of a minimum of 100 words for your infographic to be reviewed and published on the site. If you’d like to get your infographic instantly reviewed and published, you need to pay $10.

Click here to submit your infographic.

Price: Free; $10 for instant publication

#20 Winfographics

Domain Authority: 16

Winfographics is an infographics directory that has a cool collection of infographics.

How to Submit: The submission fee is $9.99 which you can pay via PayPal. Once you’ve completed the payment, you need to fill a form with your infographic details, and you can expect your infographic to be featured on the site shortly.

Click here to submit your infographic.

Price: $9.99

#21 The Infographics

Domain Authority: 29

Started by Tom Cumpsty, The Infographics contains some really cool infographics.

How to Submit: The best way to submit infographics to this site is connect with Tom Cumpsty on Twitter.

Price: Free

#22 All Infographics

Domain Authority: 31

All Infographics tends to save your time from reading long and lengthy articles with their collection of top-quality infographics.

How to Submit: Submission is free, but your infographic may take weeks to get reviewed and published. For more details, check out their submission page.

Price: Free

#23 Best Infographics

Domain Authority: 30

Best Infographics showcases infographics that are some of the best, which may simply mean they are more creative, experimental or even vintage and rarely seen. They also include infographics that were created for print media, both now and from the past, as well as digital infographics created for today.

How to Submit: Submissions to this site are free. You need to send an email to the editors with details of your infographic. For more details, check out their submission page.

Price: Free

#24 Visual Kiwi

Domain Authority: 20

Visual Kiwi is a leading visual content community that allows you to feature your infographics on their website for free. Once your infographic is approved, it will be featured in the Visual Community section of the website.

How to Submit: Visual Kiwi allows free submission. For more details on how to submit your infographic, visit their submission page.

Price: Free

#25 Infographic Portal

Domain Authority: 36

Infographic Portal has a collection of infographics that contain high-quality information and data.

How to Submit: There is a $10 fee for express infographic submission. If your infographic meets their quality guidelines, it will be published within 24 hours. Click here to submit your infographic.

Price: $10

#26 I Love Charts

Domain Authority: 49

I Love Charts is a Tumblr blog that specializes in highlighting and portraying the best data visualization charts in the internet.

How to Submit: Visit their submission page, and attach your infographic in .png file with a fun caption.

Price: Free

#27 Infographic Website

Domain Authority: 27

Infographic Website was created with an aim to help infographic creators get more visibility for their infographics.

How to Submit: You can submit your infographic for free. Check out their submission page for more details.

Price: Free

#28 Reddit

Domain Authority: 91

Reddit has several subreddits dedicated to infographics. The most popular infographic subreddit is /r/infographics which has over 160,000 members. Submitting your infographic here can easily make it go viral.

How To Submit: Before submitting your infographic to /r/infographics or any other subreddit for that matter, read the guidelines carefully.

Price: Free

#29 Flickr

Domain Authority: 92

Flickr is a Yahoo-owned site that combines picture galleries with a community of millions of amateur and professional photographers and designers.

While Flickr is mainly used for photos, you can also use the platform to showcase your infographics.

How to Submit: Create an account, create an album, and submit your infographic.

Price: Free

#30 SlideShare

Domain Authority: 95

SlideShare is the largest professional content sharing community owned by LinkedIn where you can discover, share, and present presentations and infographics.

How to Submit: Create an account with SlideShare and upload your infographic in PDF format.

Price: Free

#31 Infographics Zone

Domain Authority: 42

Infographics Zone has a decent collection of infographics and data visualization.

How to Submit: If you have an infographic to submit, please send us an email with all the info unique introduction of 200 – 250 words and a “Unique Title” of the infographic. Visit their contact page to submit your infographic.

Price: Free

#32 News I Like

Domain Authority: 37

News I Like was started in 2010 with an intention to feature stories from around the world displayed visually.

How to Submit: Visit their contact page to submit your infographic. All submissions are free.

Price: Free

#33 Submit Visuals

Domain Authority: 16

Submit Visuals is not just an infographic website, it’s a visual website, that features user-friendly graphics, videos, infographics, memes, presentations, screenshots, animated GIFs, and more.

How to Submit: The site accepts quality infographic submissions along with short descriptions for free. Click here to submit your infographic.

Price: Free

#34 Amazing Infographics

Domain Authority: 33

Amazing Infographics has a good collection of high-quality infographics.

How to Submit: Visit their submission page and send a short description of your infographic. If your infographic is approved, you’ll get an email from them.

Price: Free

#35 uCollect Infographics

Domain Authority: 9

uCollect Infographics is a site that showcases some of the best infographics or data visualizations around the globe.

How to Submit: You’ll need to create an account before submitting your infographic. You can submit your infographic for free, but they have certain guidelines which your infographic should meet before it’s accepted. Visit their submission page for more details.

Price: $19

#36 Infographics Posters

Domain Authority: 30

Infographics Posters provides a platform for infographic fans to come together and share their work. Here, you will find infographics on diverse topics from food to travel, web designing to technology, and fashion to gaming that are submitted by infographic creators.

How to Submit: The price of submission is $20. Visit their submission page for guidelines and more details.

Price: $20

#37 LKRLLC

Domain Authority: 14

LKRLLC is a paid infographic submission site. One of the key benefits of having your infographic displayed here is that you’ll be publishing on a 12-year old domain.

How to Submit: The site charges $10 for infographic submission. Visit this page to submit your infographic.

Price: $10

#38 Only Infographic

Domain Authority: 34

Only Infographic showcases some of the best infographics on the web.

How to Submit: Only Infographic allows free submission. Visit their submission page to read their quality guidelines and to submit your infographic.

Price: Free

#39 Infographic List

Domain Authority: 49

Infographic List compiles high-quality infographics and articles on their website. They are very picky and publish only the best infographics.

How to Submit: You can submit your infographic for free. If your infographic is accepted, you’ll receive an email with more information. Visit their submission page for more details.

Price: Free

#40 Mashable Infographics

Domain Authority: 93

Founded by Pete Cashmore, Mashable is one of the most popular tech blogs on the internet. You can also submit infographics to Mashable as long as it’s covered as a news story.

How to Submit: Mashable generally accepts infographics that are related to social media, technology, marketing, current events, and entertainment.

Before you submit your infographic to Mashable, visit the resources below:

• 12 Tips for Getting Your Startup Featured on Mashable
• 12 Things Not to Do When Pitching a Story to Mashable

Visit Mashable’s submission page to learn more about their submission process.