increasing revenue through local seo & google places
DESCRIPTION
There are over 20 million local businesses in the US alone, and not even half of them are utilizing free tools on the internet to promote their business. Learn how to increase your revenue using Google Places and local search engine optimization (SEO) tactics.TRANSCRIPT
Formic Media Seminar Series:Increasing Revenue through Local SEO
Presented by:
Formic Media, Inc.
www.formicmedia.com/seminars
503-517-9059 x122| [email protected]
Agenda
� Why is Local Search Important?
� What is Local Search?
� Local Search Eco System
� Local Search Components � Local Search Components
� Local Paid Search
Why is Local Search Important?
Local Search Volume by Month
� Why is Local SEO so important?
� Roughly 20% of all searches have local intent
� June 2010
� Google = 10.1 billion searches
Yahoo = 2.9 billion
Google = 10.1 billion searches
� Yahoo = 2.9 billion
� Bing = 1.9 billion
� Total of Big 3 = 14.9 billion searches
2,980,000,000 searches had local intent!
Local Search User Stats
� 97% of American internet users shop online, of
which 57% say they purchase offline (NPD Group)
� 90% of online commercial searches result in offline
brick and mortar purchases (comScore)brick and mortar purchases (comScore)
� 82% of local searchers follow up offline by an in-store
visit or phone call (comScore)
� 80% of all budgets are spent within 50 miles of the
home (DMA)
Local Search Business Stats
� Roughly 25 million SMBs in the US
� Approximately 2 million Place pages have been
claimed
� 8% of SMBs have claimed their Google Place page� 8% of SMBs have claimed their Google Place page
Huge Potential and Opportunity!
Local Search Definition
� Local search is the use of specialized Internet search
engines that allow users to submit geographically
constrained searches against a structured database
of local business listings.
� - Wikipedia
Difference Between Local & Organic
� Location, location, location
� Organic/Paid search = “the what”
� Nike running shoes, Sony DSLR camera
� Local Search = “the what” & “the where”� Local Search = “the what” & “the where”
� Nike shoe store Portland, Camera World Portland
What is Local Search?
Evolution of Local Search
Online Yellow Pages
� Iconic yellow-pages books, but online:
Business Listings in Search
� Google joins local with 10-pack:
Google 7-Pack
Google O-Pack
Google O-Pack
Google O-Pack
Local Gets Social
� Yelp
Local Gets Mobile
Local Gets Mobile
Local Gets Mobile
Local Gets Social & Mobile
Local Search Eco System
The Major Players in Local Search
Google Place Pages
Bing Local Listing
Yahoo! Local Listing
Yelp Business Listing
Top Ranking Factors
1. Business address must be in the city that is being searched
2. Manually owner-verified Place Page
3. Choose the most appropriate categories for your business
4. Volume of traditional structured citations (IYPs & data
aggregators)
5. Crawlable address on-site matching Place Page address
6. PageRank, authority of website homepage and highest 6. PageRank, authority of website homepage and highest
ranked page
7. Quality of inbound links to the website
8. Crawlable phone number on-site matching Place Page
phone number
9. Local area code phone number on Place Page
10. City and State in Places landing page title
Source: David Mihm, Local Search Ranking Factors:
http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml
Business Address in the City Being Searched
Proximity:
�Having an address in the city
and close to the city center
helps with local ranking.
�Importance is determined by
competition.
Manually Owner-Verified Place Page
� Trust is a huge signal for Google
� Only 2MM claimed in U.S. so far
� http://www.google.com/places
� No duplicate listings!
� Do the same at Yahoo (listings.local.yahoo.com)� Do the same at Yahoo (listings.local.yahoo.com)
� And the same at Bing
(ssl.bing.com/listings/BusinessSearch.aspx)
Manually Owner-Verified Place Page
Claiming:
�Enter business info.
�Verify your listing.
Choose the Most Appropriate Categories for
Your Business
Add
Relevancy
Factors:
�Search Engines use
categories to help
define your business
accurately.
Volume of Traditional Structured Citations
Submit to Free and/or Paid directories
Add & verify business information with local Data Providers
Crawlable address On-Site Matching Place Page
Address
Rich snippets and hcard formatting on your website
<div class="vcard"> <div class="vcard">
<div class="adr">
<h2>Contact</h2>
<div class="street-address">300 NE Failing St.</div>
<span class="locality">Portland</span>,
<abbr class="region" title="Oregon">OR</abbr>
<span class="postal-code">97212</span>
</div>
<div class="tel"> <span class="type">Work</span> +1-503-517-9059 x122 </div>
<div class="tel">
<span class="type">Fax</span> +1-503-517-9068 </div>
<div>Email: <span class="email">[email protected]</span></div>
</div>
PageRank, authority of website homepage
and highest ranked page
� Building authority to your actual site build the
authority of you Place Page
� Google takes into account both the homepage and
the next highest ranked page on your site
Quality of Inbound Links to the Website
� Having quality links to you site will help build organic � Having quality links to you site will help build organic
ranking and local ranking
� Inbound links also help improve PageRank
Crawlable Phone Number On-Site Matching
Place Page Phone Number
Rich snippets and hcard formatting on your website
<div class="vcard"> <div class="vcard">
<div class="adr">
<h2>Contact</h2>
<div class="street-address">300 NE Failing St.</div>
<span class="locality">Portland</span>,
<abbr class="region" title="Oregon">OR</abbr>
<span class="postal-code">97212</span>
</div>
<div class="tel"> <span class="type">Work</span> +1-503-517-9059 x122 </div>
<div class="tel">
<span class="type">Fax</span> +1-503-517-9068 </div>
<div>Email: <span class="email">[email protected]</span></div>
</div>
Local Area Code Phone Number on Place
Page
� Goes hand-in-hand with being in the city of the
search
� Adds relevance to your locale
� Avoid toll free numbers
City and State in Places Landing Page Title
Local Search Components
Local Search Components
� Google Place Page (Yahoo/Bing Local Listings)
� Off-site Optimization
� On-site Optimization
Google Place Page (Yahoo/Bing)
� Claim & verify your Place page
Google Place Page (Yahoo/Bing)
� Claim & verify your Place page
Google Place Page (Yahoo/Bing)
Google Place Page (Yahoo/Bing)
Google Place Page (Yahoo/Bing)
Google Place Page (Yahoo/Bing)
Google Place Page (Yahoo/Bing)
Google Place Page (Yahoo/Bing)
Google Place Page (Yahoo/Bing)
Google Place Page (Yahoo/Bing)
Address/Phone
Business Title
URL
Categories
Hours of Operation
Business Description
Additional Details
Photos & Video
Local Search Components
� Google Place Page (Yahoo/Bing Local Listings)
� On-site Optimization
� Off-site Optimization
On-site Optimization
� Still need to focus on website optimization
� Geo-specific keyword targeting
� Title Tags
� Meta Tags� Meta Tags
� H1 tags
� Body Copy
On-site Optimization
On-site Optimization
� Microformats help parse out business data for
the search engines
� hCard
� hReview� hReview
On-site Optimization
� hCard
On-site Optimization
� hReview
On-site Optimization
� Local phone number = Good
� 800 phone number = Not ideal
� Tracking phone number = Bad
On-site Optimization
� If you have multiple store locations, you
should:
� Create unique pages for each location
On-site Optimization
Local Search Components
� Google Place Page (Yahoo/Bing Local Listings)
� On-site Optimization
� Off-site Optimization
Off-site Optimization
� Web citations are to local search, what
inbound links are to organic search
� More citations = more trust + higher rankings
Off-site Optimization
Off-site Optimization
Off-site Optimization
� User reviews also help gain trust from both
the search engines and users
� Quantity is still more powerful than quality
� Engines are working to understand sentiment� Engines are working to understand sentiment
Off-site Optimization
� Get reviews through:
� Email campaigns
� Encourage employees to ask for reviews
� Incentivize your employees if necessary� Incentivize your employees if necessary
� Google window sticker
� Utilize collateral
� Social media
� Use website widget
Local Paid Search
AdWords Express
� Utilizes Google Places Platform
� Ads appear in the ads section on Google.com and
Google Maps
� Advertisers pick categories to advertise under, but
not keywordsnot keywords
� Ideal for small businesses with smaller budgets
AdWords Geotargeting
� Target users by country or all the way down to a 10
mile radius
�You can exclude certain locations much like you
can choose negative keywords to not have your ads
show forshow for
AdWords Location Extensions
� Provides a physical address where users can locate
the product or service they are looking for
AdWords Click-to-Call Extensions
�Extension allows users to simply tap the phone
number in the ad and call
�Quick and easy way for the user to call your company
� Over 500 million users Facebook
� Facebook gives you the option to not only target
users by age, gender, interests, but by location as well
�Increase local visibility by targeting users close to
your locationsyour locations
� Good for B2C businesses
Are you a Portland
small business looking
to increase your local
online presence? Learn
how Formic can help.
Formic Media
� Over 100 million worldwide users
� Target users by age, gender, company, job title and
location
� Good for B2B businesses� Good for B2B businesses