Hibu Local Ranking – Product FAQs

A client's budget is determined by selecting keywords on the Local Ranking Budget Tool, which sales reps can access through Salesforce. Keyword pricing is based on the competitiveness of the search term in that marketplace. Competitiveness and pricing will vary from market to market.

If the keyword the client wants to target isn't in the list of keywords on the budget tool, you are able to manually enter keywords.

Yes, Local Ranking can accomodate national campaigns. 

A client needs to have a Hibu Smart Site Pro or a 3rd party website that they can provide admin access to in order to purchase Local Ranking.

We require full admin access to the client's website in order to launch Local Ranking. Informing the client ahead of time that we will need them to provide us with this access during consultation ensures that there are no delays in launching their campaign. 

The following counts as full admin access:

• Ability to edit on-site content for the pages that require optimization
• Ability to edit H1s for the pages that require optimization
• Ability to edit title tags for the pages that require optimization
• Ability to edit meta descriptions for the pages that require optimization
• Ability to add new pages
• Robots.txt file can either:

             - Be editable

             - Be non-editable but has no issues

             - Does not exist on the site

A client needs to have Listings Standard in order to purchase Local Ranking, so if a client has Listings with another vendor, they will need to cancel their Listings product with the other vendor before they can purchase Local Ranking.

Unlike Search, a client's Hibu website must be on the permanent domain before we are able to launch their Local Ranking campaign. We cannot launch the Local Ranking campaign until the website is on the client's permanent domain.

Currently, we cannot offer Local Ranking to vape shops.

A client works with their sales rep to select the keywords they want to target at the point of sale. The client's budget is based on the keywords selected.

Since a client's budget is based on the keywords selected, changing the keywords will change the client's budget. If this happens during consultation, Local Ranking will be put on query and the client will need to work with the sales rep to create a new Local Ranking budget based on the new keywords.  Sales will then need to amend the contract to pull in the new keywords, then submit.  The client will need to do a consultation based on the new keywords.  

In the event that a client wants to add or remove a keyword at any point in time, they will need to work with their sales rep to run a new Local Ranking budget based on the keywords they want to target. Please keep in mind that SEO is a process and it takes time to see the impact of SEO efforts. Changing keywords will affect this timeline and the client's site will need to be re-optimized. As a result, proper expectations should be set with the client.

Though it is possible to select just one keyword for your Local Ranking campaing, best SEO practices recommend using a diversified approach. Google recommends that each page of your site focus on a different keyword topic and using a variety of anchor texts for your backlinks. Optimizing each page of your site for the same keyword and using the same anchor text can hurt your search engine rankings. 

When considering what geos to target for a client, it's best practice to consider how a user might search for a business like theirs. 

For most businesses, it is best practice to target the local area(s) in which the business is located or serves. The reason for this is that most searches for a business or service includes a specific area, such as "plumbers in King of Prussia, PA."

For businesses that serve a larger area, such as an entire state, multiple states, or even the entire country, it is important to consider how a user typically searches for that type of business or service. If a user would search for the business at the state-level, such as "tank removal PA", targeting an entire state may make the most sense. Please keep in mind, however, that the site will only be optimized for the state, and not every location within the state. 

Yes, when a business is targeting keywords at the state level, they are eligible to be returned when someone searches for the keyword phrase + near me, such as "tank removal near me", and the user is located somewhere in the state that is being targeted. However, if the business is not located in or optmized for the specific area that the client is searching in, it may take longer or be more difficult to show in search results. That is why for most businesses, it makes sense to target keywords on a local level, as long as that's how users are searching for that type of business or service.

No, you should not add custom keywords to include “near me.” You will not see “near me” keywords when completing a budget estimate for Local Ranking because, by default, “near me” versions of the keywords are automatically applied for the client, and these are added to the campaign as part of the Related Keywords list. For example, if a client wants to target “plumbers King of Prussia, PA”, the keyword “plumbers near me” with automatically be added as a Related Keyword for the campaign. 

No, you do not. The Local Ranking product will account for both the singular and plural versions of the keyword. To determine which version to select for your client's campaign, think about how a user would typically search for that business or service. Typically, we recommend the plural version of the keyword. However, in some cases, it may make more sense to select the singular version.

There's no one-size-fits-all strategy when it comes to optimizing a site for specific keywords. Whenever possible, it's important to match keywords to the page dedicated to that subject or geographical location. Additionally, there are many other factors to consider as well, including:

• A site's existing keyword rankings and the pages that are ranking for them
• A business's physical location
• The competitiveness of the keywords selected
• The topic of the page

It is also important to keep in mind that the Local Ranking keywords will overwrite the existing content on the client's site. That is why it's so important for clients to purchase keywords in the target areas that they want to appear on their site so that they can continue to market to those areas.

During the first month of the client's Local Ranking campaign, a number of onsite optimizations are applied to the client's site. The client's site will be reviewed every 6 months and additional optimizations applied if needed. These updates include:

Content:

• Keyword insertion into on-page content
• Title tag and meta tag optimization
• Adding keyword-rich alt text to images
• Header tag optmization

Technical:

• Resolve robots.txt issues
• Resolve 404 errors
• Scan for and report duplicate content
• Create sitemaps
• Create 301 redirects and canonicalizations
• Resolve NAT schema deficiencies 

During the 2nd month of the client's Local Ranking campaign, Voice FAQs will be optimized and applied to your site. 

Additionally, throughout the client's Local Ranking campaign, blog posts will  be created and posted to their website on their behalf. 

Current best practices are to include no more than two keyword/geo combinations (and close variations of those keywords) per page. Search engines, such as Google, have preferred lengths for title tags and meta descriptions and it’s generally in the client's best interest to stay within those recommended guidelines. Within the content of the site, it’s important to target specific keyword phrases so search engines can understand what a website page is about, thus increasing the probability that a website will rank higher for those keywords.

Client-requested onsite optimization will replace some or all of the scheduled deliverables, including backlinks, blogs and social posts, during the service month that the onsite optimization is applied. Backlinks, blogs and social posts will resume the following month. How many deliverables are replaced is dependent on a client’s monthly budget (i.e. – if a client has a high budget, some deliverables that month may remain, while a client with a lower budget may have all scheduled deliverables replaced). 

Applying all geos "everywhere" is typically not best practice. Search engines, such as Google, have preferred lengths for title tags and meta descriptions, and it's generally best to stay within those recommended guidelines. Within the website's content, it is essential to target specific keyword phrases that the website is trying to rank for so that search engines can understand what the website is about, thus increasing the probability that a website will rank higher.

Using the exact versions of keywords the client purchased and wants to rank for in onsite content is the best practice for the client’s Local Ranking campaign, so Hibu endeavors to do that whenever possible. Because of this, it’s important that the client selects keywords that they want to rank for, are legally allowed to use, and are comfortable using on their site. Changing the keywords in the onsite content can impact the successfulness of the campaign, including the client’s rankings for those keywords.

We are unable to accept custom blog post requests but if a client wants to publish their own blog posts to their site, we strongly encourage them to do so. We will continue to post to their blog as well, and the additional posts from the client will enhance the impact of the client's Local Ranking campaign. 

In order for a Local Ranking campaign to be effective, all target keywords need to be incorporated into the visible content of the site. This does mean that existing site content will be overwritten in order to incorporate the target keywords into the content on the site. 

Clients will receive content approvals for the following:

• Onsite Optimizations
• Blog Posts
• Voice Optimized FAQs

Yes, sales reps will be cc'ed on content approval requests.

Hibu support and sales reps are able to approve the content on a client's behalf by navigating to the appropriate case in Salesforce, and clicking the Approve Content at the top of the screen.

Clients have 5 calendar days after receiving the content approval request to approve their content. On the 6th calendar day, the content will be auto-approved by the system and implemented on the client's site.

First, check the client's record in Salesforce to ensure the correct email address is recorded for the client. Once you're sure the email address is correct, you can resend the email by clicking on the original email in the system and clicking Resend Email.

Generally speaking, backlinks have two goals. The first is to increase the authority of the website. The second is to help the site rank higher for specific keywords they are targeting. This is done by providing backlinks from high-quality sources, regardless of location or specific article topic of the backlink. The anchor text included should be relevant to the keywords/verticals we target on the client’s behalf. Consistently adding quality backlinks over time increases a domain’s authority, thereby increasing a site’s Domain Rating (DR) over time, allowing sites to be more competitive in search results. Important note: The majority of sites on the Internet have a DR of 0-5 out of 100. 

No. The location or specific content of the site that the backlink is coming from does not factor into the quality of the website's domain rating. The most important aspect of a backlink is that it comes from a quality website defined by its domain rating.

If Hibu provided the backlink, it can typically (but not always) be removed. However, this is not recommended. If a backlink is removed, it will not be replaced, and increasing the number of quality backlinks is one of the most critical aspects of building an effective Local Ranking program. 

No. Requesting backlinks from specific sources is not part of the Hibu Local Ranking product. If there is a specific website a client wants to obtain a backlink from, Hibu encourages the client to reach out to that organization directly and work with them to establish that connection. 

The client can view their backlinks by logging into their Hibu Performance Dashboard, clicking on the Local Ranking Dashboard, and navigating to the section titled Backlinks to your Website. Here, they will be able to see any backlinks created through their Local Ranking campaign.

Social Posts are posted to the client's Facebook and GMB Pages, as long as these platforms have been connected to Listings Management. 

If a client is only connected to one service, posts will only appear on the connected social platform. 

If a client isn't connected to either platform, we will not be able to fulfill the social posts deliverable for that client.

If the client isn't connected to either Facebook or GMB via Listings Management, we will not be able to fulfill the social posts deliverable of their Local Ranking campaign. 

If the client connects these at a later date, we can begin fulfilling these deliverables at that time.

Due to the fact that the content for social posts is derived from the content on the client's website, social posts are not sent to the client before being posted to GMB and Facebook.

No. We cannot accomodate posting to just one platform if the client is connected to both. Although we don't recommend it, a client is able to opt out of social posts.

No. If a client is unhappy with a post, we are able to remove it at their request. The post will not be replaced.

Some websites use Open Graph, or OG, tags to communicate certain things to search engines and social media platforms. If your website uses the "og:image" tag and you're seeing strange images on your Facebook posts, it's possible that there is a default image being used on your site and you'll want to update or remove this. 

Wix  users may find these instructions helpful: https://support.wix.com/en/article/wix-editor-changing-your-ogimage

Site audits are conducted on a daily basis and include the following checks:

• 404 error checks
• Title tag logging
• Page load time logging
• Keyword occurrence checks
• Domain statistics
• Anchor text statistics

If the audit finds an error, the client will be notified via email of any issue that requires their attention.

Your Local Ranking campaign helps position your business to be returned in voice search results. Your Voice Optimization Score lets you know how easily voice assistants like Alexa, Google, and Siri can understand the information on your site and return it in voice search results. This score also includes how much voice-ready content is available on your site (based on the number of Voice FAQs on your site, as well as how much schema is on your site).

If your business address is publicly available, your Voice Search Optimization score is calculated as follows:

“Alexa…” Ready – 25%

“OK Google…” Ready – 25%

“Hey Siri…” Ready – 25%

Voice-Ready Content – 25%

• 12.5% is based on the number of schema elements on your site
• 12.5% is based on the number of Voice FAQs on your site

If your business address is hidden (typically for a service-area business), your site is not able to be optimized for Siri. As a result, your Voice Search Optimization score is calculated as follows:

“Alexa…” Ready – 33%

“OK Google…” Ready – 33%

“Hey Siri…” Ready – Unavailable

Voice-Ready Content – 33%

• 16.5% is based on the number of schema elements on your site
• 16.5% is based on the number of Voice FAQs on your site

The Website Traffic section shows the total number of visits to your website, as well as a breakdown of traffic from various sources, and allows you to toggle to Organic-Search Traffic, which is the primary source of traffic impacted by your Local Ranking campaign.

The Website Traffic section shows a breakdown of visits by the following sources:

Hibu Sites:

Organic - Search Traffic - traffic to your site that is generated by a user clicking on your site from a search engine, such as Google or Bing

Organic - Referral Traffic - traffic to your site that comes from a visitor clicking on a link back to your site from a 3rd party site aside from a search engine.

Organic - Direct Traffic - traffic to your site that comes from a visitor arriving directly on your site without having to click on another site to get there.

Hibu Paid Products Traffic - traffic to your site that comes from your Hibu Paid Products, such as Search, Display and Social

Non-Hibu Sites:

Organic - Search Traffic - traffic to your site that is generated by a user clicking on your site from a search engine, such as Google or Bing

Organic - Referral Traffic - traffic to your site that comes from a visitor clicking on a link back to your site from a 3rd party site aside from a search engine.

Organic - Direct Traffic - traffic to your site that comes from a visitor arriving directly on your site without having to click on another site to get there.

CPC - traffic to your site that comes from your paid campaigns, such as Google Ads, Bing Ads, Facebook Ads, etc.

If you see a “No data available for time period selected” message, this either means that your campaign is in its first month of service and you’ll start seeing data in this section the following calendar month, or we are not able to access Google Analytics data for your campaign.

The “No data available for time period selected” message means that either Hibu was just granted access to the client's Google Analytics account and data will populate in this section the following calendar month, or Hibu has not been granted access to the client's Google Analytics account.

The Local Ranking dashboard shows a snapshot of the client’s ranking. These snapshots are provided by an industry-leading, independent, 3rd party provider. They are taken every 3-4 days and do not represent a client’s “real-time” ranking. Additionally, many factors contribute to a website’s ranking for each search. These include the exact search terms entered in the search engine, a user’s location and location settings, the user’s search history and preferences, their browser history, etc. Because of this, the rankings you see when you search may vary from what you see on the dashboard. You can get a more accurate idea of your true organic rankings by starting a private browser session (such as by using Google Incognito mode). However, this does not eliminate all factors that may contribute to a user seeing different results, such as their location.

Since the Local Pack or Maps section of organic search results is incredibly valuable in capturing new customers for clients, Hibu's enhanced reporting also shows if the client's site is ranking in the top positions in the Local Pack or Maps section of organic search results. If the client shows in one of these top positions, this will show as a #1 ranking in reports.

In instances where the client is ranking both organically and in the Local Pack, the higher ranking will take precedence. For example, if the client is ranking in the #3 position in the Local Pack and in the #1 position organically, the ranking would show as 1.

To provide the most relevant ranking information for local businesses, the ranking data for all Local Ranking campaigns is based on the zip code in which the primary business is located. This enables the customer to have a better understanding of how they're performing at the local level, which is particularly important for "near me" searches.

Blog posts will appear here once they have been added to the client's site. The number of blog posts a client gets will vary depending on the client's budget.

Domain Rating scoring is defined by Ahrefs, an independent SEO scoring company, and refers to the strength of a site's backlink profile. The majority of sites on the Internet have a DR of 0-5 out of 100. Your DR will increase over time with your Local Ranking campaign as you continue to add quality backlinks to your site, though slight fluctuations are expected to occur and are normal.

Local Ranking Backlinks represent the number of backlinks to your site that have been generated by your Local Ranking campaign.

Total Backlinks represent the total number of links on other websites that point to your site. This include backlinks that may have been generated outside of your Local Ranking campaign.

Total Referring Domains refers to the number of unique websites that are linking back to your site. Some sites may have several links that point to your site, so this number may vary from backlinks.

Campaign Keywords are the keywords that the client bought when purchasing Local Ranking and these are the keywords their site is being optimized for. 

Related Keywords are keywords that the client's site isn't being optimized for, but rankings for them may increase as a result of their Local Ranking campaign. These include "near me" versions of the client's Campaign Keywords, as well as other keywords that search engines view as related to the client's Campaign Keywords.

Yes, clients can add or remove keywords from the Related Keywords list at any time by clicking Edit in the Related Keywords section of the dashboard.

Yes, slight fluctuations in either direction for keyword rankings is completely normal and expected. 

The Local Ranking team analyzes each campaign every month. This analysis includes a review of the campaign’s performance and metrics. A summary of the analysis is included at the top of the client’s monthly report.

The Campaign Keyword Rankings section of the monthly report shows the top Campaign Keywords (the keywords the client purchased and the site is being optimized for) in the client's Local Ranking campaign.

The Campaign Keyword Rankings section of your report only shows the top Campaign Keywords (the keywords the client purchased) for the client's Local Ranking campaign.

The Full Keyword Rankings List shows all the client's Campaign Keywords (the keywords the client purchased and the site is being optimized for) as well as Related Keywords (keywords that the site isn't being optimized for, but rankings for them may increase as a result of the client's Local Ranking campaign. These include "near me" versions of keywords, as well as the keywords that search engines have recognized as being related to the client's Campaign Keywords). 

After changes are made to your website or Google makes an algorithim update, you may initially see your site’s keyword rankings decline. This is a result of search engines, such as Google, needing to re-index the site. Once the site is re-indexed, which typically takes place within 2 weeks, rankings will adjust and begin to improve . When onsite optimization has been applied to your site, you may even see improvements to your rankings right away, though it can take up to six months to see the full impact of your digital marketing campaign on your rankings.  

We cannot guarantee rankings. Search engine results will vary by user based on a user’s browser history, exact location, settings, and other factors.

A Local Ranking campaign has three primary goals:

1. Increase rankings for the target keywords
2. Increase organic traffic to the website
3. Increase organic phone calls

The combination of these three goals help drive more leads for the client and increases the value of the solution. Its important to consider the performance of all of these goals when evaluating a campaign.

Local Ranking, like all SEO products, is a longer term strategy. This means that it takes time for search engines to index the client’s site for the campaign’s target keywords. With a proper and continuous SEO strategy, the client’s rankings will improve over the first six months. It’s important to continue with the Local Ranking campaign after rankings have improved to maintain rankings and ensure that the client’s business can continue to be found by potential customers. 

If the client is looking to show up on search engines immediately, we recommend our Search product.

With Local Ranking, we will optimize the client’s site for the target keywords purchased. That means that if the client wants to continue to rank well for specific keywords in specific target areas, they should purchase them for their Local Ranking campaign.

Additionally, it is important to keep in mind that the Local Ranking keywords the client purchased will overwrite the existing content on the site. That is why it's so important for clients to purchase keywords in the target areas that they want to appear on their site so that they can continue to market to those areas.

Yes, all Local Ranking campaigns qualify for a tracking number on Lisitngs and their Websites. This will provide clients with data on how many phone calls are generated by their Presence products, including all calls coming from Organic Search. Social and Display products will not qualify for RCFs with the purchase of Local Ranking.

Yes, a client can opt out of having an Solution Call Tracking phone number. However, we strongly encourage them to use it as it will allow them to better measure the success of their Local Ranking campaign. It's important that the client understands that although there will be a tracking number of their site, calls will still be directed to their main phone number. 

As a part of a client's Local Ranking program, Hibu uses a forwarding number on the client's website that allows them to track the calls they receive from online searches. These calls will be available to see and review on their dashboard. All calls are forwarded to the client's main number, so they won’t miss any leads from customers. If tracking these phone leads is not something they would like to do as a part of their Local Ranking, they can notify Hibu and Hibu will update their account accordingly.