local seo presentation for level up silver spring

Delivering deep insights to improve your online presence

@kwatier


@kwatier

About Me

• Founder of Taproot Digital LLC

• 17 years of communications experience

• 10 years of online marketing experience (SEO, SEM, social media, web analytics)

• Built my first website in 1994

• Once crashed a website for 4 days and still received almost 1.3 million visitors/mo. (up from 300K)

• Wrote master’s thesis on consumer adoption of wearable computers

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@kwatier

Brands I’ve worked with:

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@kwatier

Today’s Mental Journey:

1. Quick update/overview of search & social personalization

2. How to be effective and efficient with social media

3. Local SEO 101

4. Tips for how to build traffic to your website through links, citations, and

reviews

First pro tip:

Today’s slides are here: http://bit.ly/1HUZpcr

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http://bit.ly/1HUZpcr


@kwatier

ONLINEPERSONALIZATION

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@kwatier

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@kwatier

Google Search Today:

“With your permission, you give us more information about you, about your friends, and we can improve the quality of our searches….we don’t need you to type at all.

We know who you are

We know where you’ve been

We can more or less know what you’re thinking.”

- Eric Schmidt, Google

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@kwatier

Organic Social Reach - Facebook

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Average organic reach was 11% of number of fans for pages with fewer than 10,000 likes.

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@kwatier

Organic Social Reach - Twitter

Even Twitter acknowledges that you may have to tweet 14-21 times in a week in hopes of reaching only 30% of your total audience.

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@kwatier

Organic Social Reach - LinkedIn

LinkedIn has found that 20 posts per month can help you reach

60% of your unique audience.

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http://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/c/14/1/sophisticated-guide-for-marketing.html







@kwatier

Personalization on LinkedIn

• Results and rankings are unique to each user/query

• Profile keywords of both parties (searcher, results) play a significant role

• Rankings are adjusted based on how prior searchers have reacted to your

profile

• LinkedIn usage and interaction with profiles/content/groups, etc.

• Skills feature - crowd-sourced classification of skills

• If user is logged in with Gmail, they will use Google search history and

Google+ interactions

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@kwatier

Key Takeaway

At current rates:

➔ If a brand that has fewer than 1 million followers on Facebook or

Twitter

➔ That brand is better off paying to promote its best content via

sponsored updates

➔ Than it is paying someone to post social content all day long.

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@kwatier

Effective Organic Social

Free ways to still play the social game:

● Make it easy for people to share your social content

○ Social media “like” and “follow” buttons on your site

● Prioritize building your team’s social media footprints over your corporate

accounts

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@kwatier

LOCAL SEO 101

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@kwatier

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https://moz.com/local-search-ranking-factors


@kwatier

Local SEO Ranking Factors

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❖ Relevance

❖ Distance

❖ Prominence

➢ Based on information we have about a business from across the web

and offline

❖ Local CTR? ***

➢ In the past how many times has the listing been clicked on by users

searching with the keyword

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@kwatier

Mobile Friendly Website

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Local Search Association (LSA) research shows that:

● 50% of consumers state they are extremely likely to look at business

websites when searching for a local business, the second highest source

behind search engines

● 67% of consumers want improvements or mobile-optimized sites

from those businesses, according to Yodle.

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@kwatier

CITATIONS, LINKS, AND REVIEWS...Oh My!

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@kwatier

CITATIONS

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@kwatier

Citations

What is a Citation? – A citation is a mention that references your site or

domain. It doesn’t have to link to it.

Tips:

● Create a unique description for each citation, but always remember to

keep your NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) the same across the

web.

● Just pay for this: https://moz.com/local $84/year.

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https://moz.com/local


@kwatier

Citations - Google My Business

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Answer: ● For maps, pick a service area● For Google+, set up a brand page.


@kwatier

LOCAL LINK BUILDING

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@kwatier

Building Local Links

Focus on links that:1. Will drive direct referral traffic

2. Build visibility with your target audience for your brand

3. Build your reputation

- Eric Enge from Stonetemple

Don’t: 1. Pay for them2. Get links from sites not related to your offering. They all need to look local3. Spam people when asking for links

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https://www.stonetemple.com/


@kwatier

Local Link Building Ideas

● Generate news (Chamber of Commerce, news publications, and major publications)

● Local business awards● Sponsor a Meetup● Host a community event● Local community development center business directory● Speak at a college● Sponsor or donate to a local club or organization● Create and promote a local resource● Get links from manufacturer websites that provide you products● Build relationships with local bloggers● See where your competitors get links

Other ideas: http://www.seerinteractive.com/blog/35-local-link-opportunities-you-missed/

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http://www.seerinteractive.com/blog/35-local-link-opportunities-you-missed/


@kwatier

How Do you Ask for Links?

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How do you ask for links?


@kwatier

Tips:

➔ Collection of link building email templates here

➔ Track your responses (all free).

◆ Gmail - Sidekick

● Tracks email opens

◆ Google Sheets

◆ Gmail - Boomerang

● Re-send your email if person doesn’t reply to, open, or click

◆ Gmail - Streak

● Has a “Journalism” pipeline to track the link building process

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http://watier.org/katherine/a-collection-of-link-building-email-templates/


@kwatier

REVIEWS

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@kwatier

Power of Local Reviews

● 88% read/used reviews to determine the quality of a local business

● 93% said they checked reviews before dining or shopping.

● 88% said they trusted online reviews as much as they’d trust a

personal recommendation

● 85% read up to 10 different reviews while researching their purchase

- BrightLocal’s 2014 Local Customer Review Survey 2,000+ consumers

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http://www.brightlocal.com/2014/07/01/local-consumer-review-survey-2014/

http://www.brightlocal.com/2014/07/01/local-consumer-review-survey-2014/


@kwatier

How to get reviews

1. Let your customers know that feedback is welcome and accepted.

2. Remind the customer to review you at the end of the transaction

3. Put up signs at your business location

4. Showcase the reviews you have

5. Use remarketing campaigns to target those who purchase from your

website

6. How to get Google+ Reviews today

29- 2015 Yodle study

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http://searchengineland.com/get-google-review-links-g-update-237190

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s90/res/f2f20224-8129-469c-8e5e-28dac6fe93a8/what-consumers-want-from-local-businesses.pdf

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s90/res/f2f20224-8129-469c-8e5e-28dac6fe93a8/what-consumers-want-from-local-businesses.pdf


@kwatier

How to Manage Reviews

● If you remain silent, only the reviewer’s perspective will be visible.

● Customers want to see that your brand cares about their concerns.

● How to monitor your reviews?

● https://www.freereviewmonitoring.com/

● https://www.brightlocal.com/seo-tools/reviewflow/

● http://www.trackur.com/using-trackur-to-monitor-local-reviews

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https://www.freereviewmonitoring.com/

https://www.freereviewmonitoring.com/

https://www.brightlocal.com/seo-tools/reviewflow/

https://www.brightlocal.com/seo-tools/reviewflow/

http://www.trackur.com/using-trackur-to-monitor-local-reviews

http://www.trackur.com/using-trackur-to-monitor-local-reviews


@kwatier

Katherine Watier [email protected]/in/katherinewatiergplus.to/katherinewatierkatherine@taprootdigitalllc.comwww.taprootdigitalllc.com

Contact

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http://www.linkedin.com/in/katherinewatier

http://www.linkedin.com/in/katherinewatier

http://gplus.to/katherinewatier

http://gplus.to/katherinewatier

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.taprootdigitalllc.com

http://www.taprootdigitalllc.com

local seo presentation for level up silver spring

Marketing