building a future proof plan for organic local search rankings by mike stewart pubcon new orleans...
DESCRIPTION
How to build Google penalty proof local search rankings by Mike StewartTRANSCRIPT
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ORGANIC LOCAL
Building a Future Proof Plan For
SEARCH RANKINGS
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“Computers are incredibly fast,
accurate, and stupid. Humans are
incredibly slow inaccurate and brilliant. Together they are
powerful beyond imagination.”
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“Greatness is won, not awarded.”GUY KAWASAKI
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Making that moneyyy!ME
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MY STORY
2000
2009Media
ConsultantGTE/Verizon Yellow Pages
Decided to build“a better mousetra
p”
Yellow Pages
Multi Product
Digital Marketing
Local Search
Paid Search
Organic Search
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Double TruckI THINK
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INSPIRATION TO DO GREATNESS?Telling Stories is Much Better Than “Buying Links or Ads”
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MORE THAN EVER
- SOMEONE SMART
“The opposite of networking is NOT working"
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MORE THAN EVER
- ALBERT EINSTEIN
“Imagination is more important than knowledge"
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WE THINKGOOGLE WON
VS.
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THE LOCAL SEARCH S-
CURVE
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MONOPOLIES DIE…
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THINK BEYOND GOOGLE SEARCH…
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SEARCH WILL BE COMMANDS
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Siri, Amazon, Facebook, Bing
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#SEOLIFE
SEO SEOVS.
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GUIDELINES FOR LINK BUILDING:
Google says, “Any links intended to manipulate PageRank or a site's ranking in Google search results may be considered part of a link scheme and a violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. This includes any behavior that manipulates links to your site or outgoing links from your site.”
Google even allows you to report
paid links here: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/paidlinks?pli=1
Google also reverse engineers link data with disavow tool in Webmaster Tools
Bing says, http://www.bing.com/webmaster/help/link-building-7a3f99b7
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WHAT GETS YOUR SITE IN ‘TROUBLE”?
Buying Links Automated Link Building
Large Scale Article Marketing
Unnatural Link Acquisition Rates
Footer Links Unnatural Networks
Blog Roll Links Duplicate Content
Links Pages Heavily Optimized Anchor Text Link Profile
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THAT’S NOT ALL
Excessive Forum Comments Excessive Blog Comments
Low Quality Directory Links Hidden Links
Paid Advertorials Guest Blog Posts
Press Releases with Optimized Anchor Text
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HOW GOOGLE DEFINES PAGERANK:
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PAGERANK IS LIKE HIGH SCHOOL
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Dumb it down forSTAKEHOLDERS
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SEO 101
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WHAT IS SEO?
Back to basics: SEO is about creating, editing, organizing and delivering content and metadata to increase relevance to specific keywords on the web.
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INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
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SALES “FUNNEL” MOVES
FASTER IN LOCAL.
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Directional Media Hasn’t Changed in 100 Years
CAT/GEO KEYWORDS ARE LOCAL INTENT!
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BUT NOBODY SEARCHES:
I love “Content Marketing” …
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Keyword Rich Anchor Text is
Dead.
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HOW MANY SEARCH?
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LOCAL SEARCH DATA IS NO LONGER FREE
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The ONLY Accurate TOOL for LOCAL
KEYWORD DATA is
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Must have a “LOCAL PPC GURU”
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Starts with a strong
foundation
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PRODUCT/SERVICE CITY APPEAL
• NAP information• Hours• "Doors" - email, form, online chat, etc• Trust signals / Credibility factors• Compelling strategic statement• Call to action• Location specific metadataBonus:• Unique location specific details on page
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60-90 SECOND VIDEO OVERVIEW
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PPC ARCHITECTURE
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CITY TARGETED SERVICE TERMS 3- KEYWORD
MATCH TYPES
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METRO TARGETED CAT/GEO TERMS
KEYWORD MATCH
TYPES
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DYNAMIC NUMBER INSERTION
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CLICK TO CALL ATTRIBUTION BY SOURCE
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YOU KNOW WHAT CITATIONS ARE?
Local Citation is simply where your company is mentioned on other websites and places found on the Internet.
Consistent “Normalized” NAP – Name Address and Unique Phone Number
Any Website May Provide a Local Citation, Emphasis on IYP and Directory Sites
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PHONE DATA DRIVEN SYSTEMS
RCF / Telebranch from Local Telco Provides Advantages especially for Service Area Businesses
• Create New Franchise Locations • B1 Line Feeds to Data Centers vs Ambiguity of
Cellular Business Data• Match Your Listed Address to a “Physical Mail Box
Service Address”• Make Sure Office Staff Confirm NAP for “India”
Record Update Calls
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25% OF THE IS CREDITED TO CITATIONS
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The moment you realize the best answer to a question seldom gets the link.
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THE GOOGLE WAY TO BUILD LINKS
• The only authentic link building method for small businesses is to build brand ambassadors, perform real outreach with relevant and useful content and PR.
• Specific business branding goals should have nothing to do with rankings... Blah blah blah blah blah…..
• Google says: “The best way to get other sites to create high-quality, relevant links to yours is to create unique, relevant content that can naturally gain popularity in the Internet community.”
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#CUREMIGRAINE
S
How do you build content engagement?
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FIRST, DETERMINE:Is the client an expert? Do they have a marketing team? Determine early if they (the client) can execute tactics.
You can’t fake the funk because it costs too much to do it consistently enough. Natural links originate from natural organic solutions to customer problems and ideas.
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AUTHORSHIP EFFECTS LINK EARNING
• Direct impact on CTR of content which is factored into the algo (google tests results to see what sites drive better engagement)
• Authors post share worthy content to your (fully complete personalized social Profile Pages (Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn and twitter) to attract more links.
• Make content easy to share by adding relevant social share buttons
• Link out to profiles from profiles (this should be common sense)
• This will legitimize/increase AUTHORity ranking signals
• Comment, Engage, and Tweet to industry authorities about your topic.
• It you don't have an Author take advantage of rel=publisher
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REPUTATION MANAGEMENT LINK BUILDING 101
“What others say about you matters
more than what you/your brand says
about you/it”
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You need about this many links for most competitive
LOCAL KEYWORDS:
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THE BEST LINK IS….The best local link is the one on Google local front page for your keyword and city.
The second best links are the ones that ultimately get you on the first page of Google for that product or service local cat/geo term… including PPC!
Reviews and reputation --- Reviews directly impact local page rankings. Don’t forget that Reviews are also links.
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“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” ROBERT LOUIS
STEVENSON
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Like content marketing on your site, Offsite you also must decide "who is your audience" and what they want to know.need
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Teach your customers and friends to talk about your brand and blog about you. Ask customers where they go for information and how they search. Find out what customers are authors (mommy bloggers, journalists, critics, forum members, personalities, publishers, etc.)
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WHAT DO
YOU SEE?
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WHAT REALLY GETS SHARED?
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7 SIMPLE CONTENT IDEAS THAT DRIVE SHAREABILITY:
1. GIVE: Offers, discounts, deals or contests that everyone can benefit from
2. ADVISE: Tips, especially about problems that everyone encounters; how to do something
3. WARN: Warnings about dangers that could affect anyone
4. AMUSE: Funny pictures and quotes, as long as they’re not offensive to any group- sometimes
5. the humor isn’t quite as strong
or edgy- it has to appeal to a general audience
5. INSPIRE: Inspirational quotes
6. AMAZE: Amazing pictures or facts
7. UNITE: A post that acts as a flag to carry and a way to brag to others about your membership in a group that’s doing pretty darned good, thank you very much.
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DON’T CREATE SILLY GOALS!Like’s – Tweets – Retweets – Shares
Good KPI for: Content QualityEngagement RatesMeasuring a Loss of Exposure
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1. Shareable Content On You Site. Got a WordPress Plugin?
2. Content People Want to Share
3. Great content has social proof.
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DIGITAL ASSETS ANYONE?Origin Stories Contest or Quiz or SurveysTreasure HuntGiveaway gifts to charity Frequently Asked QuestionsTips and Adviceinterview an expert who is influentialinterview a political candidate Questionable/controversial content gets shared, opinions do matter)Paid celebrity endorsementsProduct ReviewsBIO pages
How To pagesResearch info White papersCase studies InfographicsStatisticsPolling Links PagesReviews/RecommendationsQ & A customers and vendors Customer journey storiesHow you fixed a migraine personal testimony/story
Live Streaming Video (webinars, ustream, hangouts)Blog CommentsPosting about postsLive BloggingEvent coverage Community engagement Charities Volunteer locallyTours News reporting Press releases
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EMAIL OPEN RATES REALLY DON’T MATTER TO CLIENTS
Outreach email via Brand Persona
Requires Client Approval
Using @website.com client email
You are “networking” on behalf of…
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UNDERSTANDING BACKLINK DATA
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UNDERSTANDING BACKLINK DATA
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Roughly 50% of link data is in MajesticSEO, OpenSiteExplorer, Webmaster Tools, AHREFs
All it takes to make that % higher is for the webmaster to block a few bots
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Variables move in same direction. Value of one increases the value of the other.
POSITIVE CORRELATION
STRONG CORRELATION
NEGATIVE CORRELATION
WEAK CORRELATION
Variables move in opposite direction. Value of one decreases value of the
other.
Variables are tight together. Variables are spread apart.
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COMPETITOR LINKS?
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DON’T JUST LOOK FOR COMPETITOR’S LINKS
Subject Matter Expert Blogs
Journalists
Related or Complementary Service Sites
Review Sites
Contribute Good Advice to Negative Reputation Sites
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GEOARBITRAGE YOUR CAMPAIGN WORK
Geoarbitrage: to leverage global pricing and currant differences for profit or lifestyle
purposes
This does not mean outsource and automate natural human networking
efforts.
India can speak “YES/NO”
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LINK LIST QUALIFICATION PROCESS
How to Use Amazon Mechanical Turk to Qualify URLs from a Link List?
Gather link prospect list in spreadsheet
Upload to Amazon Mechanical Turk
Define the question you are posting to Amazon Turkers: “Is this website relevant to this specific topic (yes/no)?”
Score this on a 1 to 10 scale. (2 cents or 5 cents each task)
Dig Deeper: Get Contact Information from the relevant links with a second Amazon Mechanical Turk job
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WOULD YOU PAY THIS FOR CONTACT INFO?
Review over 1000 Scored URLs for Outreach Opportunities
• Separate Contact HITS in Groups of Hundreds
• Title Your Tasks “Quick and Easy”
• Start by Going After the 7-10 Scored URLs
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BUYING TEXT LINKS
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IS THIS LINK QUESTIONABLE?
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SPAMMY LINKS POINTING TO:
White Hat Sites Black Hat Sites
Shielded from Spammy links, paid links, and link
networks or Negative SEO.Links cause serious harm. Negative SEO harms the
site
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White Hat Sites Black Hat Sites
The Holistic & Multi-Channel Approach
• Uniquely Original Content Produced by Owner with Customer Journeys
• Link Profile is Out of the MajesticSEO “Gutter”
• Minimal % of Reciprocal Links• No Spammy Paid Directories• Minimal % of Forum Links• Zero: dofollow: comment
Spam Links
The “SCROOGLE” Approach
• Keyword Based Content That is SEO-Targeted without User Consideration
• Link Profile is All in the MajesticSEO “Gutter”
• High % of Reciprocal Links• Spammy Paid Directories• High % of Forum Links• Many :dofollow: comment
Spam Links
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LINK WHEELS & FARMS
Link farms. Setting up a lot of sites just to link to the sites you wish to help rank better is very easily detected through link analysis.
Instead of focusing on getting links through tricks and shortcuts, instead focus on developing compelling content for your site, and interacting with the public through blogging and social media activities.
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WEBRINGS“Webrings are similar to link exchanges, but they involve more than two sites. They’re essentially a club of sites that are associated by a common subject matter topic, and they link to each other in a ring.”
Webrings started way before WordPress blogs, BlogSpot, and open-sourced content management systems.
Now Google Hates THEM!.
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RECIPROCAL LINKS
Since When is Reciprocity a Bad Thing?
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DOES GOOGLE REALLY PENALIZE FOR SPAM?
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HOW DID I GET TO THE PAGE?
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Ranks on the 1st Page
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WHY PEOPLE USE BLACK HAT PRACTICES:
• Because they can get away with it
• Because they disagree with Google’s policies
• Because the “quick” money is good
• Because white hat strategies just don’t work on a very small budget
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It hurts when people get what they do/don’t deserve.
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Ask Yourself: Do You Follow All Rules to a Tee?
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BAD ADVICE• Multiple Hosting
Accounts / VPS
• Separate Class C’s
• Multiple Link Types & No Keyword Anchor-Text
• Unique Templates/Themes
• No Google Ban From Building Links Quickly
• Block the Bots w/ .htaccess Block List
• Great User Content “Related” to Money Site
• No Interlinking and strictly :nofollow:
• Expired Domains
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WAIT FOR IT
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TIPS FOR AGENCIES• Avoid the following clients:
• Won’t invest in real work (lazy)
• Have very little to risk (rank, bank, and tank approach)
• Have no brand
• Hired a dirty link building company in the past (most of the cleanup crew happens to be the guys that built the mess, don’t be surprised the they offer cleanup or sell access to cleanup (negative
SEO is real)
• Have something to hide (no persona behind the business)
• Reputation and customer service issues galore
• #1: Have never hired an agency before… learning how to work with you vs against you on your dime?
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LINKBUILDING TOOL BAG• My Favorites:
• http://www.buzzstream.com/link-building
• http://www.analyticsseo.com/
• http://ubersuggest.org/
• http://getlisted.org
• https://followerwonk.com/
• http://majesticseo.com
• My Ultimate Favorite: https://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome
@smbSEO @dallasSEOguru
GET IN TOUCH WITH ME:[email protected]
Slides available atwww.slideshare.net/smbseo
Understanding The Basics of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) (Internet Marketing Series) [Kindle Edition]