local search sizzle

Local Search Sizzle

What’s Hot in Local Search?

presented by Mike Belasco and Mary Bowling

• seOverflow is a search engine optimization and pay per click marketing company in Denver, CO.

• We specialize in offering solutions that enable web design companies, marketing consultants, and otherSEO companies to offer high end SEO services to their clients.

• Mike and Mary both have specialized expertise in Local Search and participated in David Mihm’s Local Search Ranking Factors Survey in 2008 and 2009.

Who Is seOverflow?

• Why recent changes in the Google 10 pack are so important and how to optimize for it.

• What you need to know about David Mihm's 2009 Local Search Ranking Factors Survey

• How to pimp out Google Analytics to track Local Search

Today’s Topics

The Google 10 Pack

Anatomy of a SERP

Organic

Pay Per Click

Pay Per Click

Local Ten Pack

The Anatomy of the 10 Pack

The linked name goes to the associated website. The More link goes to the Local Business listing.

Notice the Reviews linkNotice the phone number.

Ranking in the 10 pack is now critical for more niches.

Within the last 2 months Google began showing the 10 pack for searches that do not include a

geographic identifier.

More are being rolled out.

The Google 10 Pack

This enables exposure for broad search terms, like dui lawyer, without a location term, like

Denver, included.

It’s good news for you if you are in the 10 pack and bad

news if you are not.

The Google 10 Pack

It’s showing up for more searches

It’s often pushing the organic listings below the fold.

The 10 pack is what searchers AND clients see.

Clients want to be in it.

How can you deliver?

The Google 10 Pack

The 10 pack has it’s own algorithm

I believe it is based mostly on the Local Search results.

But ranking well in the Universal Results has an influence, too.

The Google 10 Pack

• Optimize for your keywords+location.• Put correct physical address on all pages of

the site.• Check your website for location confusion, and

correct it.• For multiple locations, create a page optimized

for each location.• Use internal contextual linking to convey link

reputation for your location+keywords .

Website SEO for the 10 Pack

Contact Us page:• Optimize for your name, location and phone

number.• Place links here pointing to your Google Maps

and Yahoo Local profile pages, using good link text.

• Consider using the hcard format.• Avoid any location confusion on this page

Website SEO for the 10 Pack

The Basis for Local Search:• It’s all about real world businesses with physical

locations.• It’s all about factual business information,

although• Opportunities do exist for marketing messages:

descriptions, photos, videos, coupons, attributes.

Local Search Optimization

Set Reasonable Expectations

It’s unreasonable to think you should rank in Local Search for places where you are not

located.

If you want to rank for places where you are not located, but where you do business,

it’s best to concentrate on optimizing your website for those terms.


For specific tactics for optimizing for Local Search, please see the slides from the presentation Mary made at SearchFest

last winter:

Local Search Optimization Tips


http://www.seoverflow.com/blog/download-local-search-optimization-tips-presentation/

Local Search Factor Rankings Survey

Consensus on Important Factors• Claim and Verify Listings• Get Reviews• Get Citations

Local Search Ranking Factors

Claim and Verify Listings• This is a huge trust factor!• Google is bribing people to do it.• Bonus: You get control of the information

shown about you


Get Reviews• It’s helpful in most niches and locations to have

online reviews for your business.• More reviews probably help with better rankings.• You need to develop a way to get reviews on an

ongoing basis.


Get citations from the right sources• There’s increased agreement on the importance

of citations. • The right sources probably vary by industry.• There are some standard, trusted sources that

are probably good for everyone, like the Internet Yellow Pages and Yelp.

• Citations from hyper local sources may be gaining in influence.


Google Analytics For Local Search

• If your site is dependant on local search it is important to configure your analytics package to quickly access and analyze important data

• 7 part blog series starts on our blog today

• You get a sneak peak at 3 GA for Local Search Tips here today

7 Ways To Pimp GA For Local Search

• Identify traffic from “10 pack” type local universal search results as being different from “regular” organic traffic

GA For Local Search Tip 1

1. Use a 'local vanity' URL as your URL in your Google Local Business Center listing

2. Create a 'tracking' URL

3. Set up a redirect to 301 redirect your vanity URL to a real 'tracking' URL

4. Update your GA Snippet to allow # instead of ? to denote URL parameters (or use the canonical element)

5. Configure Advanced Segmentation in GA to view results


• redirect 301 /vanityurl http://www.yourdomain.com/#utm_source=google&utm_medium=localpack&utm_campaign=google-universal-local


• <script type=”text/javascript”>var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker(”UA-XXXXXXXX-X”);pageTracker._initData();pageTracker._setAllowAnchor(true); pageTracker._trackPageview();</script>

• OR• <link rel="canonical"

href="http://www.yourdomain.com"/>


• Create an advanced segment to quickly identify and analyze traffic coming from your target “location”


• Create a custom report to quickly identify which cities/states your conversions are coming from


• An audit of your local listings in Google Maps and other important local platforms for lack of standardization of business data, location confusion, multiple listings and other issues that may be causing poor rankings.

• Inside information on what your competitors are doing to rank well.

• Tips on getting reviews on local websites and how to handle negative reviews.

• Specific recommendations for improvement.• Retail $750 per location, discounts for multiple

locations and wholesale prices available

seOverview: Local Edition

• Local Search Ranking Factors Survey• seOverflow Blog• Optimized! • Google Lat Long Blog• LocalSearchNews.net

• Mike on Twitter http://twitter.com/belasco• Mary on Twitter http://twitter.com/MaryBowling

Resources

http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml

http://www.seoverflow.com/blog/

http://www.seoverflow.com/blog/

http://www.marybowling.com/

http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/

http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/

http://www.localsearchnews.net/

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