putting your business on the map with local search
TRANSCRIPT
Michael King | SEO Manager / Publicis Modem | @ipullrank
Put Your Business on the Map with Local Search
Traditional Media Doesn’t Cut It AnymoreTraditional Marketing Channels simply do not have what it takes to compete with Online Media’s ROI or measurement capabilities.
Traditional Media vs Paid Search
Ad Type Campaign Cost
Response Rate
2” x 2” Newspaper
$120,000/yr ?
TV $500,000/month
?
Radio $20,000/month ?Direct Mailers $1500/
thousand?
Magazine $5000/month ?With traditional media you get very high untargeted impressions and a very low response rate. Whereas with Paid Search you only pay for the click-throughs or responses and your ads are placed in front of people who have displayed interest.
The Yellow Pages are Dead.
Inbound Marketing Wins
Inbound Marketing beats Northbound Marketing by allowing you to engage a more qualified target audience and definitively measure the success.
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Learning by Doing
The Local Search Tactics you will learn in the next 30 minutes come from years of practice for small businesses not just conjecture from blogs.
Meet Parker’s Barber Shop
Parker’s Barber Shop came to us as a 2-chair operation and is now considering opening another location
We Encouraged Social Engagement
We put up posters with QR codes to encourage reviews on Google Places & Yelp, check-ins on Foursquare and Likes on Facebook
Location Demographics
Our efforts resulted in Parker’s Barber Shop appearing regularly in searches by people in the target Service Area.
We Helped Parker’s Business Grow
The efforts resulted in 488 clicks for driving directions, 214 Facebook fans, 587 Foursquare check-ins, 500 new customers and the hiring of 2 additional barbers – in one year.
Meet MyPoolGuy
In his first year of business Jason from MyPoolGuy came to us with a small client base of 25 and a small marketing budget opting to place it in a website rather than traditional advertising.
We Made MyPoolGuy a Busy Man
Since mid-March 2011 the site has generated over 100 leads at a near 10% conversion rate and he receives 3-6 phone calls daily from the website. 9 months into Year 1 Jason currently has 130 customers. His Year 3 Projection was 125.
TALKING ABOUT
BEST PRACTICES
Keyword Research
Use Google Insights, Trends and the Adwords Keyword Tool to determine the search volume for broad terms in your local area in addition to geotargeted keywords.
On-Page: GeoTargeting
Include the target towns, cities, counties and states in your copy, filenames, anchor text and alt tags.
On-Page: NAP
Include the Name, Address and Phone Number (NAP) in crawlable text throughout the site and ensure exact consistency within external sources such as Google Places, Yahoo Local, et al. For example “3rd FL” & “Third Floor” are not the same.
On-Page: KML GeoSiteMaps
Create KML GeoSitemaps with:http://www.geositemapgenerator.com/ by informing rich snippets.and submit them with Google Webmaster Tools. More on KML Sitemaps: http://code.google.com/apis/kml/documentation/kmlSearch.html
On-Page: Microformats
Implement the LocalBusiness Schema.org Microformat to increase visibility. Specification: http://schema.org/LocalBusiness
Multiple LocationsEach Location needs its own
landing page on your website with a crawlable NAP.
CITATIONS & REVIEWSSHOW GOOGLEWHAT YOU GOT
Off-Page: Claim & Complete Listings
Claim your listings to ensure that they are accurate and that no one else can edit them. Complete listings adding pictures, keywords and relevant categories and ensure accuracy across the web to send strong signals to Google. This gives a strong validation signal to Google.
Off-Page: 5 Steps to Eliminate Duplicates
From Mike Blumenthal: http://blumenthals.com/blog/2009/05/08/google-maps-how-to-remove-duplicate-records-in-the-local-business-center/
1. Choose the listing that you’d prefer to keep in your account. Make sure that you have all your enhanced content (photos, business hours, description) attached to this listing and this listing only.
2. For duplicates of this listing in your account (the ones you want to remove), remove all enhanced information. Keep only required information, like the business title, address, and one phone number.
3. Submit these changes and verify as necessary.
4. Now, sit tight for a couple of weeks – just for good measure.
5. Delete the duplicates from your account, choosing Remove this listing from my Local Business Center account.
Off-Page: Encourage Reviews
Encourage reviews on relevant sites. Hyperlocal review sources such as PhiladelphiaRestaurants.com are have more impact than Yelp so find relevant review sites to your niche and area.
LINK BUILDINGYES, YOU NEED IT
Local Link Building is Always Important
All the broad link building tactics apply here they are just easier to do as a member of an actual community.
Better Business Bureau
Chamber of Commerce
Local CharitiesProfessional
Organizations
Become a News Source
Leverage HAROBecome a
News PublisherConferences
Webinars
Referral ProgramsWeb-Only Coupons
Leverage KnowEm
Twitter SearchGoogle AlertsSocial Mention
ORGANIZATIONS PROGRAMSMAKE NEWS SOCIAL MEDIA
Social Media
Use KnowEm to create a ton of Social Profiles and use Google Alerts, Social Mention and Twitter Search to jump into the online Conversation.
Above All…
Be Agile!
BE AGILE.
COMPETITIVE ANALYSISWATCH THE OTHER TEAMS
Reverse Engineering Competitor Citations
Find out where your competitors citations come from by finding aggregators and from standard broad searches.
Use Standard Search Results
Perform standard searches using competitor business names and numbers to uncover the local and niche directories that the competitor is getting links from.
Use Standard Search Results (Co-Citations)
Search for multiple businesses at once to uncover new aggregators. For more info on these tactics see: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-research-local-citations-after-google-removed-them-from-places
TRICKS OF THE TRADEMY FAVORITE MOVES
Service Area Pages Build Service Area pages that leverage location based content to ground them in cities and towns in your service area and create places for zip codes.
ProTip: If you don’t have location based content, leverage events, news, gas price and weather RSS feeds.
Greasing the Review Wheel
Segment the existing mailing list and push users to their respective services Google, Bing and Yahoo and other (for Facebook). * *Tip from @edmontonseo
TOOLS & SERVICESYOU DON’T NEEDTOO MANY
WhiteSpark Local Citation Finder
Find citation sources to add your site to. http://www.whitespark.ca/local-citation-finder/
getListed Listing Checker
See what have listings you have at a glance. http://getlisted.org/Snapshot.aspx
MapMaker
Add your business to Google’s map maker service and embed maps into your site to further associate the site with the location.
Localeze
Get your information correct and consistent across and build citations in dozens of places. Also use Infogroup, and Acxiom.
CONVERSION RATE OPTIMIZATIONGUARANTEEDSCORING
Conversion Form
Prominently display your conversion form above the fold on every page if possible or put it on the homepage and a “contact us” page but make the path to it obvious.
Building Trust
Place phone numbers, addresses above the fold to assure the user that you are a legitimate business. The especially helps if you sell online.
Testimonials
Use testimonials to further legitimize your product or business in the eyes of visitors.
Organizations
Proudly display your Better Business Bureau badge and/or license number above the fold.
TURN YOUR MISSINTO A SWISHWITH LOCAL SEARCH
Appendix A2011 Local Search Ranking Factorshttp://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml
How to Research Local Citations After Google Removed them from Placeshttp://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-research-local-citations-after-google-removed-them-from-places
WhiteSpark Local Citation Finderhttp://www.whitespark.ca/local-citation-finder/
Localezehttp://localeze.com/
InfoUSAhttp://infousa.com/
getListedhttp://getlisted.org/
GeoSitemap Generatorhttp://www.geositemapgenerator.com
Appendix BMore Data Aggregators:Acxiom: http://www.acxiom.com/Pages/Home.aspxInfogroup: http://www.mybusinesslistingmanager.com/Dun and Bradstreet: https://www.dandb.com/establish-business-credit/Experian: http://www.businesscreditfacts.com/pdp.aspx?pg=SearchForm&link=5202
Review Sites:Angie’s list: http://www.angieslist.com/bloomspot: http://www.bloomspot.com/CitySquares: http://citysquares.com/CityVoter: http://cityvoter.com/DailyCandy: http://dailycandy.com/all-cities/Eventful: http://eventful.com/venuesKudzu: http://www.kudzu.com/lilaguide: http://www.lilaguide.com/reviews/Yellowbot: http://www.yellowbot.com/
Niche Review Site Examples:hotels.com: http://www.hotels.com/grubHub: http://www.grubhub.com/Menuism: http://www.menuism.com/TravelMuse: http://www.travelmuse.com/TripAdvisor: http://www.tripadvisor.com/UserReview-e__2F__Urbanspoon: http://www.urbanspoon.com/chooseOpentable: http://www.opentable.com/