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Author: Mike

Mike Wilton is a cross-channel digital marketer who has worked in online marketing for over a decade. His roots in music and design have helped him develop unique strategies leveraging creative writing and imagery to tell brand stories, engage with audiences and generate visibility for brands online.
Google Officially Launches the Local Carousel: What You Need To Know

Google Officially Launches the Local Carousel: What You Need To Know

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Like Bigfoot, Google’s Local Carousel had been seen in the wild but aside from random sightings no one could verify it’s true existence.  That is, until today. Earlier this morning, Google made an official statement about the update on its Google+ Page confirming that the “carousel” was in fact real, and was rolling out to English local search results in the U.S. The initial tests I have run, along with observations from other local SEO’s seem to indicate that at…

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The Rankings Trap, Or Why That Number One Ranking Obsession Could Kill Your Business

The Rankings Trap, Or Why That Number One Ranking Obsession Could Kill Your Business

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Rankings. They’re the sole reason SEO ever came into existence, yet it has gotten to the point that businesses are so obsessed with rankings that they have a tendency to ignore greater opportunities.  In my years in internet marketing I have dealt with a number of different clients who have varying degrees of obsession with rankings.  From the “All I want from you is to rank me for these five keywords” to the “I know traffic and conversions are up,…

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Local Search for SMB and B2B Lead Generation

Local Search for SMB and B2B Lead Generation

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It’s no secret that I have a special love for local SEO.  It’s a field that is ever changing, often frustrating, but in the end can be very rewarding for small businesses and that, is rewarding to me.  Over the years I’ve written about, spoke about, and ranted about this crazy niche of SEO I love so much.  So a few weeks back when Terry Van Horne of SEOPros hit me up to do a Google+ Hangout on local SEO I…

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Why Google’s Data Highlighter Shouldn’t Be Used As a Replacement For Structured Markup

Why Google’s Data Highlighter Shouldn’t Be Used As a Replacement For Structured Markup

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Last December Google released Data Highlighter.  The tool was designed to allow webmasters a means of easily letting Google know about structured data on a page, without having to add any additional code to their website.  In its initial launch it was only available for events, however last week Google announced updates to the tool that expanded its use to products, local businesses, articles, software applications, movies, restaurants, and TV episodes.  But as I pointed out in my post last week,…

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Why I Hate SEO Tools

Why I Hate SEO Tools

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I hate SEO tools, and yes that’s a double entendre.  It seems harsh, but I do.  Tools make many SEO’s lazy.  Tools make many SEO’s look better than they are.  Tools, are just that. Tools. #protip The data from any SEO tool is only as good as how you interpret it. — Mike Wilton (@mwilton13) April 29, 2013 In truth, I don’t hate SEO tools.  After all, I am the self proclaimed biggest fanboy of Raven Tools.  That said, SEO…

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