tracking local search - smx toronto 2011

Challenges and Solutions

presented by seOverflow

Tracking Local Search

My Favorite Tracking Hero

@belasco / @seoverflow

• Creators of LocalSearchToolkit.com – Free tool• Specialize in providing outsourced SEO services

to agencies including SEO agencies.• Recognized speakers at SEO conventions

nationally and internationally.• Awarded one of Denver’s Fastest Growing

Private Companies by the Denver Business Journal in 2010.

Who Is seOverflow?

• Website Traffic• Rankings• Reviews• Citations• Form Conversions• Phone calls• Google Places Data (impressions, clicks,

etc)• Offline Conversions/Walk-ins

“Local” Things You May Want To Track

@belasco / @seoverflow

Rank Tracking: The Great Ricky Bobby Said:

@belasco / @seoverflow

Challenge: • support for new blended

local listings.

• more to local than organic rank (piggyback or barnacle SEO)

Rank Tracking

@belasco / @seoverflow

• Solution: Use one of the many new tools coming – AuthorityLabs.com– BrightLocal.com (Coming to Canada soon)

Rank Tracking

@belasco / @seoverflow

Challenge: • Call tracking solutions

are not typically ‘SEO friendly’

• Call tracking can be expensive

• Most solutions don’t tie into web analytics

Call Tracking

@belasco / @seoverflow

Call Tracking - Warning

@belasco / @seoverflow

•WARNING: NEVER, EVER USE CALL TRACKING NUMBERS IN YOUR LISTINGS.

•ANOTHER WARNING: You may be a cloaker if you use call tracking according to Chris Silver Smith in this article: http://selnd.com/f0EZvq (not true according to Vanessa Fox)

• Solution: Roll Your Own Call Tracking. Also check out www.callrail.com

The Perfect Call Tracking Solution (IMHO):– affordable for most clients

– ability to port numbers out

– integration with Google Analytics for conversion tracking

– call recording, whispering where the call came from is nice to have

– email alerts when after call was made

– shows the ‘real’ phone number in the HTML code to help with local search

– easy to implement

– ability to track only non-branded organic search traffic if desired

– advanced feature would include ability to track at keyword level and page level (requires enormous number pool)

Call Tracking

@belasco / @seoverflow

Challenge: • Place Page Analytics

doesn’t tie in with Google Analytics.

• Difficult to gather data for more than one location.

Google Places Analytics

@belasco / @seoverflow

• Solution: UseLocalSearchToolkit.com’s Mozenda Extraction Agent to scrape and download data for each of your locations in one click.– You’ll need a Mozenda account (free 14 day

trial)– You’ll need a Windows machine– You’ll need to download agent and follow

instructions for customizing and running.

Google Places Analytics

@belasco / @seoverflow

Thank you!

@belasco / @seoverflow

• Speaker Contact Info• mike@seoverflow.com

• 303-905-1504 ext 1

• @belasco

• @seoverflow

• @localsearchtk

• linkedin.com/in/miketheinternetguy