putting your business on the map - david mihm
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Check out David Mihm's presentation from the Deluxe Small BusinessTRANSCRIPT
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Putting Your Business on the Map
Optimizing for Local Search Results
Deluxe Mobile TourPortland, Oregon
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Presentation Outline
- What Local Search Looks Like- Major Ranking Factors
- Inside the Local Business Centers- Local Search Data Providers- The Importance of Citations
- Traditional SEO Considerations- Reviews and Social Media for Local- Paid Search Options in Local- Developing Your Local Mindset
Exclusively for Deluxe for Business© 2010 GetListed.org
Presentation Outline
- What Local Search Looks Like- Major Ranking Factors
- Inside the Local Business Centers- Local Search Data Providers- The Importance of Citations
- Traditional SEO Considerations- Reviews and Social Media for Local- Paid Search Options in Local- Developing Your Local Mindset
Exclusively for Deluxe for Business© 2010 GetListed.org
What Local Search Looks Like
• Explosive Growth – Local search grew 58% in 2008 (traditional search up only
21%) – Comscore, March 09
• Over 2,000,000,000 Local queries on Google alone EACH MONTH
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What Local Search Looks Like
Largely guesswork on the part of search engines....– 5% of searches use the city and/or state name – 2% use informal terms, like neighborhoods – .5% use zip codes
--Ian White, Urban Mapping
+ Search engines are now trying hard to “get at” Local intent
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The Old Local Search
+ No real attempt to “get at” Local intent
Paid Results
TraditionalOrganic Results
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Getting At “Local Intent”
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The Big Game-Changer
• 4/1/2009:Google rolls-out IP-targeted Local Search results for generic keywords (i.e. no geo-modifiers)
Also:+Mobile Targeting+Browser Awareness
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The Big Game-Changer
Paid Results
TraditionalOrganic Results
Local Results
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What Local Search Looks Like
• The 10-pack: • Driven by the maps.google.com
and local.yahoo.com algorithms (different from “organic”)
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The 10-pack is now the “7-Pack”
Photo: Flickr/John Biehler
Ch..Ch..Ch..Chaaanges
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What Local Search Looks Like
+ It’s not just about Google
- Even when it’s just about Google!
+ “Other” is the third-largest Local search engine (Gib Olander, Localeze)
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What Local Search Looks Like
Comscore / 15milesOctober 2009
Google Maps (26%) +Yahoo Local (17%) + Bing Local (4%) = 47%
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Presentation Outline
- What Local Search Looks Like- Major Ranking Factors
- Inside the Local Business Centers- Local Search Data Providers- The Importance of Citations
- Traditional SEO Considerations- Reviews and Social Media for Local- Paid Search Options in Local- Developing Your Local Mindset
Exclusively for Deluxe for Business© 2010 GetListed.org
Local Search Ranking Factors
Local has its own set of ranking factors...+ remember that this is the maps.google.com
algorithm (and local.yahoo.com and local.bing.com, etc.)
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Local Search Ranking Factors
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Local Ranking Factors
Importance of General Signals• Verified Local Business Listing (4.40) • Off-Page / Off-Listing Criteria (3.35) • Customer Reviews (3.35) • Traditional On-Page Criteria (2.36)
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Google Places
Claim Your Places Listing: google.com/places
Google’s most trusted source of business data.
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Yahoo + Bing Listings
https://ssl.bing.com/listings/ListingCenter.aspxhttp://listings.local.yahoo.com/csubmit/index.php
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Why Is Claiming Your Listing So Important?
• If Possible, Claim Manually (even for multiple locations...)
• Engines like to know they are displaying correct information about a business.– In general, trust and ranking are directly correlated– Claiming at search engines = maximum trust.– Bulk uploads = vulnerable to spam
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The Dangers of Hijacking+ Google Maps has historically been
very vulnerable to hijacking
+ They claim they’ve fixed the issuesMindset is still very much “wiki” for unclaimed listings
Source: Danny Sullivan / Mike BlumenthalSearchengineland.com
Why Is Claiming Your Listing So Important?
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The Dangers of Hijacking--This affects REAL businesses
Source: Cathy Rulloda,FlowerChat.com
Why Is Claiming Your Listing So Important?
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The Dangers of Hijacking--This affects REAL businesses
Why Is Claiming Your Listing So Important?
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LBC Ranking Factors
MAX THESE OUT!Don’t be afraid to use custom categories
LINK w/YOUTUBE
Describe Productsor Services
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LBC Ranking Factors
Use (one or two) Keywords in Business Title
Good: Janet Thompson, DentistBad: Janet Thompson, DDSBad: Portland, OR Dentist – Cosmetic Dentistry Portland – Dental Surgery + Could create problems with data provider mis-matches
Consider incorporating your business using keywords
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The Factor You Can’t Really Optimize
#2 Factor: Address in City of SearchEssential to have a physical location in the area being searched
(#12 = Proximity to Centroid)Used to play a larger role
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Beyond the Local Business Center
Where do the major Local search engines (especially Google) get their data?
1. The Listing/Places Centers
2. Third-Party Data Providers
3. Web Crawling
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Data Providers + Citations
What are “Citations”?• Mentions of your business name in close
proximity to either your address, phone number, or both
• May or may not be accompanied by a link to your website.
• Come from Data Providers AND Web Crawl• “Citation is the new link”
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Where to Find Citations
Look Under “Web Pages” on Your Local Business Listing / Places Page
• Google is obfuscating
• Check the “Web Pages” of your competitors• See what kinds of Internet Yellow Pages/directory
websites show up in top organic results for your geographic queries
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Where to Find Citations
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The Organic Search Ecosystem
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The Local Search Ecosystem
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The Key to Citations
• Consistency: Name Address Phone Number are absolutely critical– Don’t Use Tracking Phone Numbers– Don’t Try to Stuff KW’s in Business Name
– “NAP” – Gib Olander, Localeze
Why? Trust in proper information
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Citations: Data Provider Example
+Citation from directory website fed by major data provider
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Major Data Providers + Citation Sources
infoUSA - http://expressupdateusa.com/ Localeze - http://localeze.com/manageAcxiom – via UniversalBusinessListing.org
“The Big Three”
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Secondary Data Providers + Citation Sources
Superpages.com – http://advertising.superpages.com/spportal/business
-listing
YellowPages.com – http://listings.yellowpages.com/Services/ServiceClaimSearch.aspx
BOTW Local - https://local.botw.org/secure/signup.aspx
CityVoter.com - http://cityvoter.com/signup
InsiderPages - http://www.insiderpages.com/advertiser/find_business
HotFrog - http://www.hotfrog.com/AddYourBusiness.aspx
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Web Crawl Citations
Search“yourcity, st directory” “yourindustry, st directory” “yourindustry yourstate directory” etc. e.g., portland directory –maine
http://oregon.uscity.net/http://www.oregondirectory.com/ (Localeze)http://www.eatinoregon.com/www.portlandneighborhood.comwww.jewishportland.comwww.pdxcreativedirectory.comwww.pdxyz.com
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Presentation Outline
- What Local Search Looks Like- Major Ranking Factors
- Inside the Local Business Centers- Local Search Data Providers- The Importance of Citations
- Traditional SEO Considerations- Reviews and Social Media for Local- Paid Search Options in Local- Developing Your Local Mindset
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Traditional SEO Considerations
...OK, wait, one more Places consideration
Submit your contact/location page as your Places URL +Stronger geographic scent = higher Local ranking+Stronger geographic scent = higher conversion
...Example of a good contact page coming later...
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Traditional SEO Considerations
Use geographic keywords in Title Tags where appropriate
YES
NO
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Traditional SEO Considerations
Use geographic anchor text throughout your site; especially when linking to your contact page
YES
NO
-Westside where? Eastside where?- should link to a page on OWN site,not Mapquest
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Traditional SEO Considerations
Code your contact information in HTML
+ Bonus points for hCard microformathttp://microformats.org/wiki/hcard
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Traditional SEO Considerations
BAD
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Traditional SEO Considerations
BETTER
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Traditional SEO Considerations
BEST
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+ Ensures that your citations will get picked up by web crawl – you submitted your contact URL to G / Y!
+ Increase potential for reviews on those platforms
Traditional SEO Considerations
Link Out to Major Citations from Location Pages. Why?
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+ Increase potential for indented listings in organic search with link juice
+ “Barnacle SEO” (Will Scott, searchinfluence.com)
If you have a YouTube video, link to it from your contact page, too (Steve Espinosa, localsearchnews.net)
Traditional SEO Considerations
Link Out to Major Citations from Location Pages. Why?
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Traditional SEO Considerations
“Barnacle SEO” (Will Scott, searchinfluence.com)
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Model Contact Page City / St in H1 (and Title Tag)
Links OutTo Citations
hCard microformat
Not pictured: HTML directions
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Model Contact Page Results
“New” Citations
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Presentation Outline
- What Local Search Looks Like- Major Ranking Factors
- Inside the Local Business Centers- Local Search Data Providers- The Importance of Citations
- Traditional SEO Considerations- Reviews and Social Media for Local- Paid Search Options in Local- Developing Your Local Mindset
Exclusively for Deluxe for Business© 2010 GetListed.org
The Social Side of Local: Reviews
+Volume of reviews seems to affect Local ranking
+Quality of Rating DOES seem to affect Local click-throughs but NOT ranking
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The Social Side of Local: Reviews
+Specific platforms are more important for specific verticals
+Hotels: TripAdvisor, Priceline+Restaurants: Yelp, Citysearch+Plumbers: Judy’s Book, Kudzu
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The Social Side of Local: Incentivizing Reviews
+Offer Free Wi-Fi (Michael Jensen, SoloSEO)
+ Comment Cards / Raffle+Email Newsletter signup
+SurveyMonkey
+Event sponsorship / promotion
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The Social Side of Local: Incentivizing Reviews
+Be Vigilant+Google Alerts / Yahoo Local RSS Feed+Twitter Search RSS feed
+Reviews are an opportunity for engagement+Use them to improve your business!+Build customer loyalty
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The Social Side of Local: Blogs + Twitter
+“yourcity, st blog”+ “yourindustry, st blog”+ “yourindustry yourstate blog”
Courtesy Matt McGee, HyperLocalBlogger.com
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The Social Side of Local: Blogs + Twitter
• Twitter Search – “near:97209 within:50mi”
• Twellow:
• http://www.twellow.com/geo_search?q=("BEND,+OR")|("BEND,+Oregon")&m=BEND,+Oregon
• LocaFollow
• Outside.in
• PlaceBlogger
• Flickr Groups
• Yahoo Neighbors Courtesy Matt McGee, HyperLocalBlogger.com
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The Social Side of Local: Blogs + Twitter
• Mine your LOCAL virtual community– Neighborhood organizations + non-profits– Chambers of commerce + related
organizations– BBB
• It’s likely that quality of citation as well as quantity matters (more info: search “Mike Blumenthal Location Prominence”)
• Links still help with Local SEO, too Courtesy Matt McGee, HyperLocalBlogger.com
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Presentation Outline
- What Local Search Looks Like- Major Ranking Factors
- Inside the Local Business Centers- Local Search Data Providers- The Importance of Citations
- Traditional SEO Considerations- Reviews and Social Media for Local- Paid Search Options in Local- Developing Your Local Mindset
Exclusively for Deluxe for Business© 2010 GetListed.org
Paid Options in Local Search
+ Pretty much every portal has its own advertising program
+ Some of them have distribution networks - Citysearch ads power MySpace and many other sites
- Yellowpages.com ads power Bing Local and others
- Google, Yahoo, Microsoft all have “content networks”
+ Facebook Ads + Twitter Coupons!
(Briefly!)
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Google Advertising Options
Setting Up Adwords:
- Best to create two separate campaigns- One targeted nationally, with geographic
keywords- i.e. “restaurants in bend, oregon”
- One targeted locally, with generic keywords- i.e. “restaurants”
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Google Advertising Options
Drilling down on Local targeting
After you've created your campaign, return to the Settings tab to add location information to the campaign.
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Google Advertising Options
Advertising on Mobile Network ONLY can be much cheaper, more targeted, and more effective.
Worth investigating if you’ve got “time, not money.”
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Google Advertising Options
“Tags”
$25/mo.
Don’t affect placement
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Yahoo Advertising Options
http://listings.local.yahoo.com
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Yahoo Advertising Options
http://listings.local.yahoo.com
Fed by DexKnows.com
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Yelp Advertising Options
http://biz.yelp.comNot cheap -- $300 - $1,000/mo.
In the right verticals, could be well worth it.
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Presentation Outline
- What Local Search Looks Like- Major Ranking Factors
- Inside the Local Business Centers- Local Search Data Providers- The Importance of Citations
- Traditional SEO Considerations- Reviews and Social Media for Local- Paid Search Options in Local- Developing Your Local Mindset
Exclusively for Deluxe for Business© 2010 GetListed.org
Developing Your Local Mindset
Requires a Different Mindset from Traditional SEO+ Traditional SEO is about optimizing websites;
Local SEO is about optimizing locations
+ Everything about a location should “match up” across the web
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Developing Your Local Mindset
Local SEO Traditional SEO
+ Location + Website - Verification / Claiming - Content
- Citations / Off-site Refs. - Title Tags
- Categories - Site Architecture
- Reviews - Social Media
+ Website + Links
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Developing Your Local Mindset
YES NO
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Takeaways
• Claim your listings at the major search engines• Claim/submit your listings to the major data
providers– infoUSA, Localeze, Acxiom (via UniversalBusinessListing.org)
• Submit your business to as many additional local and industry directories as you have time for
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Takeaways
• Use geographic keywords on your website, especially:– In the title tags– In your anchor text
• Include your address in HTML on your website• Link out to your major citations
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Takeaways
• Incentivize customer reviews any way you can• Respond to what people are saying about you in
an honest, polite way• Get involved in locally-oriented social media
• Consider small $$, geo-targeted paid campaigns
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Learn More About Local Search
www.davidmihm.com/blog/
http://getlisted.org/resources
http://blog.getlisted.org/
http://blumenthals.com/blog/
http://www.searchinfluence.com/blog
http://www.seoverflow.com/blog
http://www.localseoguide.com
http://www.smallbusinesssem.com
GET IN TOUCH
David Mihm(503) 560-2755