google places
TRANSCRIPT
Google Places: A Quick Google Places: A Quick OverviewOverview
Presenter: Carl Larson – Presenter: Carl Larson – Search Engine Search Engine Optimist Optimist - SEO Team Lead- SEO Team Lead
Selected Client Portfolio
Why Google Places?Why Google Places?• Google Places is FREE
• It is suitable for businesses of any size or scale
• Easy for customers to find your business online
• Great power in competing with bigger giants
• 80%+ of clickers want to BUY NOW
• It is easy to manage the business listing
• It is easier to rank than on standard searches
Did you know….Did you know….• 97% of internet users in the US gather information for purchasing decisions
online• 86% of users online will at some point in time use the Internet to search for
local business• Consumers are 69% more likely to use a company if they can find their
information online (comScore) • 73% of all searches have a local element (Google) • 20% of all searches online are for local information, which is over 600 million
searches worldwide PER DAY for local companies, services and products
• 54% of the US now uses the internet instead of the phone book• Phonebook usage DECLINES 2-4% per year
Google Places is the New “Yellow Pages” Google Places is the New “Yellow Pages”
Why we focus on GoogleWhy we focus on Google PlacesPlaces
• We believe that every local business deserves its spot in “Google’s Yellow Pages” and should not be intimidated by the complexity of getting there
• Few other SEO firms offer in-depth Local SEO support
What does it mean…What does it mean…• Impressions - How many times users saw your business listing as a
local search result • Actions - How many times users showed interest in your business
listing and clicked on it• Link Building - practice of obtaining links from external web sites to
your own • Google AdWords – main advertising product on the Internet and main
source of revenue for Google. Offers pay-per-click advertising, cost-per-thousand advertising, and site-targeted advertising for text, banner, etc.
• AdWords Express – special advertising method for local business. It's for business owners who want the benefits of a targeted online ad campaign, without having to spend time managing it.
Local Search Ranking Factors 2011
• Pure Local Factors – when the Place page is not merged with the website on the results page. Website irrelevant
• Blended local factors – when the website and Place page are merged on the results page. Website adds 30% value
The ranking factors were divided into two separate lists
Local Search Ranking Factors 2011Local Search Ranking Factors 20111. Physical Address in City of Search2. Manually Owner-verified Place Page3. Proper Category Associations4. Volume of Traditional Structured Citations (IYPs, Data Aggregators)5. Crawlable Address Matching Place Page Address6. PageRank of Website Homepage / Highest Ranked Page7. Quality of Inbound Links to Website8. Crawlable Phone Number Matching Place Page Phone Number9. Local Area Code on Place Page10. City, State in Places Landing Page Title
Source: David Mihm www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml
Where are you?
Get Listed
Claim Listing
Getting it to rank well part 1: IYP-submissionsGetting it to rank well part 1: IYP-submissions
* Google’s search algorithm places a strong importance on the number of incoming links to your site
Link and citation building is a continuous process. You must consistently seek new sources of links and citations and stay ahead of the competition.
If you want your listing to appear in Google’s 7 pack then you need your business to be listed by as many sources as possible!
Getting it to rank well part 2: ReviewsGetting it to rank well part 2: Reviews
• Reviews are one of the factors that affect SERP rankings
• The Google algorithm searches the website and pulls reviews of your site not only from Google users, but also from sites like yelp, insiderpages, yahoo, citysearch.
Google wants listings to be informative and useful to their users.
Positive reviews are important for customers who visit your site!
Getting Reviews
Search Engine Optimist
www.MarketingPugetSound.com
Get Listed Around the ‘Net
Claim Listings/Add Content
Encourage Reviews
Opportunities
Opportunities
Negative Reviews
Opportunities
"The Other Three" - Yahoo, Bing & Yelp"The Other Three" - Yahoo, Bing & Yelp • The Yahoo Directory is still one of the oldest and most important directories on the Web
• Having a listing in the Yahoo Directory is a quality inbound link to your site.
• Yelp is important because it is emerging as the leading consumer review site for many types of businesses and it currently receives high priority from the Google Search Engine results
• However, their “spam filter” is not working properly in many cases, and usually new users’ reviews get filtered out
Google still controls 65% of all searches in the US followed by Bing-powered search with 29%, Yahoo Search with 16% and Bing with 13%
• Google and Bing are remarkably similar – building two different sites/pages to separately target the two engines would appear to be a waste of energy
• Google doesn’t allow verifying new listings by phone. • Google Places listings have a changed interface• Third-party reviews have been removed from Places pages • Citations are no longer visible in Google listing• Google starts notifying business owners of Google Places
listing changes• Google starts calling business owners to verify business
address
Constant ChangesConstant Changes! Google is a Rolling Stone
2011 was a year of dynamic changes to Google Places :
What to Do When Things Go WrongWhat to Do When Things Go Wrong • It is no secret that in most cases Google doesn’t provide support
for Google Places problems. What should you do?
Hiring an SEO FirmHiring an SEO Firm
• No Guaranteed Placement• Strong Track Record with
case studies• Logical + Long Term
Approach• Transparent Methods +
Analytics• Regular Reporting
Local SEO ResourcesLocal SEO Resources
1. Small Business Guide to Google Placeshttp://www.gplacesseo.com/docs/Small%20Business%20Guide%20to%20Google%20Places.pdf
2. How to use Google Places to Market Your Businesshttp://www.inc.com/guides/201106/how-to-use-google-places-to-market-your-business.html
3. A Brief Guide to Google Placeshttp://itseeze.co.uk/_webedit/uploaded-files/All%20Files/Resources/googlebusinesslistings.pdf
