Local SEO & Why It Is Vital

By Sandy Edwards

About Who I Am

• Currently, Work with over 150 businesses on their websites and online marketing.

• Built over 100 WordPress websites

• Claimed over 1000 Local Listings

• Worked on over 60 Citation Campaigns

What is Local SEO?

•Components to Local SEO• Local Listings

• Google+ My Business

• Yahoo Local

• Bing Maps

• Yelp

•Citations Sites•Online Reviews

Why Local SEO?

On Page Signals21%

Link Signals18%

External Local Signals15%

My Business Signals15%

Review Signals10%

Social Signals6%

Behavioral Signals7%

Personalization8%

OVERALL RANKING FACTORS

Local Effects 53% of the Ranking Factors

According to Moz.com

Google+ My Business

• Local Listing Leader

• Social Media Platform

•Most Used Search Engine

•Heavy Mobile Traffic

•Greatly Improves SEO

Yelp Listing

•Used by Iphone's Siri

•Mobile Review App

•Consumers Trust It

•Greatly Improves SEO

Bing Listing

•Used by Windows Phones

•Displays in Bing Local

•Only used by 20% of searchers

• Improves SEO

Yahoo Listing

•Displays in Yahoo Search

•Uses Yelp Reviews

•Only used by 10% of searchers

• Improves SEO

Claiming Listings

•NAP (Name, Address, Phone) Identical on all listings

• Listings are 100% filled in

•Add at least 10 photos when possible

•Add a video when possible

•Respond to Reviews

Top 5 Negative Ranking Factors

1. Listing detected at false location

2. Incorrect Business Categories

3. Mismatched NAP (Name, Address, Phone)

4. Keyword Stuffing in Business Name

5. Presence of Multiple Listings

*Data from moz.com

Google+ My Business

Google+ My Business

Google+ My Business

Unclaimed Claimed

Google+ My Business

Google+ My Business

Google+ My Business

Yelp Listing

Biz.yelp.com/claiming

Yelp Listing

Yelp Listing

Yelp Listing

Bing Listing

Bing Listing

Bing Listing

Bing Listing

Bing Listing

Bing Listing

Bing Listing

Yahoo Listing

Yahoo Listing

Yahoo Listing

Yahoo Listing

Yahoo Listing

Citation Listings

• Used for building domain strength

• Can be claimed Manually

• Several claiming services exist

• Moz lists citations by category• http://moz.com/learn/local/citations-by-category

Top Things to Remember

• Always keep NAP (Name, Address, Phone) identical

• Slowly distribute citations over time

• Do not duplicate listings

• Use Local based Citations, and National Citations

Top Citation Sites – Depends on Industry

• Yellowpages.com

• Manta.com

• Facebook.com

• Local.yahoo.com

• Superpages.com

• Yelp.com

• Urbanspoon.com

• Weddingwire.com

• Local.com

• Dexknows.com

• Angieslist.com

• Yellowbook.com

• Bbb.org

• Gigsalad.com

• Thumbtack.com

• Merchantcircle.com

Citation Submission Companies

• BrightLocal – brightlocal.com

• MozLocal – moz.com/local

• Whitespark – whitespark.ca

• Local Site Submit – localsitesubmit.com

• Local Citation Services – localcitationservices.com

• Citation Building Group – citationbuildinggroup.com

Reviews, Reviews, Reviews

• 10% of Rankings come from Reviews

• Can set you apart from competitors

• No such thing as a bad review

• Respond to Reviews when possible

• Always respond to negative reviews

• Increases Potential Conversions

• Increases Consumer Trust

Reviews, Reviews, Reviews

Questions?