SEO For Local Search

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Optimized!www.MaryBowling.com

Mary BowlingTwitter: @MaryBowling

Blog: www.MaryBowling.com

www.LocalU.org

SEO is…

• Search • Engine • Optimization

www.LocalU.org

For Local Businesses, SEO is

Making it as easy as possible for prospective customers to find

information about YOUR BUSINESS

wherever they may be looking online for you or for the

goods and services you sell!

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To Achieve That, We Need To:

• Create and improve our website so that it will rank highly on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) to help potential customers find the business’ website.

• Create and improve business listings in important local places across the web to help potential customers find the business’ information on other websites.

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SEO Helps You Rank in 2 Ways

PAID ADSLOCAL MAP

PAID ADS

LOCAL RESULTS

ORGANIC RESULTS

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Who Gets The Clicks?

US Search Engine Market Share August 2012

66%GOOGLE

Other5%Bing

14%Yahoo

BingHoo 29%

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Bing provides organic search results for Yahoo! Search

Aim for Ranking on Page 1 !

#1 - 42.13%#2 - 11.90%#3 - 8.50%#4 - 6.06%#5 - 4.92%#6 - 4.05%#7 - 3.41%#8 - 3.01%#9 - 2.85%#10 - 2.99%

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The SEO Process

• Pick the right keyword phrases• Decide which pages on our website to optimize for

which terms• Implement the keyword phrases within the content

of your web pages appropriately • Link between your own pages• Gain links and citations from other websites• Eliminate technical problems

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The Algorithms(What’s the secret formula?)

Optimized!www.MaryBowling.comwww.LocalU.org

Google Algo Super Simplified!

Incoming Links

On pageKeyword

Everything Else

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Google Says:

“People often talk about “the Google results” but the truth is there is no single “Google” — at any given time there are 50-200 different versions of our core algorithm out in the wild. Millions more when you realize your search results are personalized to you and you alone.”

In other words, we are all seeing differing results all the time. Source:http://www.google.com/insidesearch/playground/underthehood.html

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Local Organic Search Trends

• Google increasingly favors businesses with powerful websites that are well-optimized for local terms.

• There is much more personalization of results, including personalization for the searcher’s location

• It’s getting harder and harder to spam, which helps legitimate businesses

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To Dominate the SERPS

Organic SEO (optimizing website)+

Local SEO (optimizing location)

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What Search Engines Want

• To return the most relevant, useful results for every search query.

• So, we have to demonstrate and reinforce the relevance and usefulness of our pages to searchers.

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Relevance=Location

Google knows where we are:• via automatic detection • via our settings and info in our Google account

The business’ location and distance from the searcher help the Search Engine determine relevance.

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Relevance=Keywords in

HTML titles and headline tags we place on our web pages:

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The text content we place on our pages

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The text in the links that point to our web pages

Link text: insurance agentLink text: Cannizzaro InsuranceLink text: austin renters insuranceLink text: car policyLink text: affordable auto coverage

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A link tells Search Engines and humans what the page it points to is about.

Recap on Relevance Signals

Our location in relationship to searcher’s location

Keywords in • page titles and html tags• website text• text in links pointing to pages

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On-Site Optimization(What we put on our own web pages)

Start with Keywords

On-page Keyword

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We have total control over what we put on our own pages

Which Keywords? Don’t Guess!

Keyword research = foundation of SEOLearn:

• Search terms• Search volumes• Competitiveness

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Free Keyword Research Tools

•Google AdWords Keyword Tool • generate keywords and get competition data

•Keyword Discovery • generate keywords and get competition data

•WordTracker Questions Tool • see questions people are asking in the search boxes

•Market Samurai • use for research and competition data – lots of free

training material

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Google Keyword Tool

• Sign into your Google account • Use “phrase” match numbers

• Searches include all the words in the phrase in any order (bike austin, buy a bike in austin, austin bike rentals)

• Local Monthly Search numbers are NOT for your particular location. They are for the entire country. https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

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What Makes a Good Keyword?

• How many searches?Ideal = low competition and high volume

• How competitive? And how strong is your website?• MOST IMPORTANT: How likely is the searcher to

turn into a customer?

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Focus on Most Targeted Terms

“BWI airport hotel with pool and free wi-fi”

“BWI airport hotel”

“hotel”

Research Local Keywords

Google Trends Tool

http://www.google.com/trends/explore

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Add search terms Choose locationChoose time period

Keyword List Tips

After you’ve done your keyword research:

• Eliminate• “Iffy” terms• Very competitive terms

(unless you have a strong website).

• Terms without search traffic • Organize your list in a way

that works for you and your website.

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Keyword Mapping

• Create a plan of how your keywords will be used to optimize your website.

• Critical step that will guide all of your ongoing search engine optimization efforts

• Begin by mapping your site structure.

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Map Your Site Structure

The higher up a page is in the site structure the more natural potential ranking power it has.

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Match Pages to Keywords

Keeping the terms you choose relevant to the content on the page, match a page’s potential ranking power with the competitiveness of the term.

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Focus Your Optimization

Target 1-3 closely related keywords per page: • Okay to optimize for only 1 term, especially on

interior pages and new/weak sites. The more closely related the terms are, the easier it will be to rank for all of them.

• Match a more competitive term with 1-2 longer tail terms.

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Sample Keyword Map

Where to Use Keywords

Use assigned keywords in the important TEXT areas of your pages:

• URLs• HTML Page Titles• H1, H2 (headlines and subheads)• Text-based content• Navigation links• Other internal link text• Image file names, alt tags and captions

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Page Title

Header (h1)

Subheader (h2)

Location

Navigation

Content

Optimize Your Search Results

When a page appears in the SERPs, people usually see:

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HTML Page title

HTML metadescription

Create Good Ads

Page title + Meta description + URL = “Free Ad” in the SERPs

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Make Ads Enticing

Focus on the searcher, who’s thinking:• What’s in it for me?• What problem can this help me solve? • Why should I go to this page instead of another?

Include a call to action : call today, get a free quote, get help, learn how, download , etc.

Ads read better if they are not cut off in the search results

• Page Title: No more than 65 characters • Meta Description: No more than 130 characters.

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Local SEO Tips for Your Website

Help with Location Trust

To make your location absolutely clear to the Search Engines:

• Place your business name, full street address and local phone number on all pages of your website in text form.

• Consider using www.Schema.org microdata format for this

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Contact or About Page

Use the natural ranking potential by:• Putting business name, city and phone number in

page title• Embedding a Google Map showing your location on

page• Writing out directions to your location on the page

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To Rank for Multiple Locations

With a physical presence (you have an office, shop or store in the location) you do qualify for a business listing for each location. It is eligible to rank in Maps and in the organic results.

Without a physical presence (you service the location, but do not have an office, store or shop there) you do not qualify for a business listing and you are not eligible to rank in the Maps results.

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To Rank for Multiple Locations

In either case (with or without a physical presence), create a separate website page for each location.

• Unique, useful page about that location•Optimize the page for main service or product + location•Use good internal linking (between your own pages)•Build external links to each page (from other websites)•For each local page on Google+, point your link to your website URL about that particular location

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Manhattan Insurance

Office Located Here

Bronx Insurance

Service area – No Office

Brooklyn Insurance

Service Area – No Office

Website pages

Queens Insurance

Service Area – No Office

Manhattan Insurance

Local Business page on Google+

Maps SERPs

Organic SERPs

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Internal Link Text

When linking from one of your pages to another, use descriptive link text to tell Search Engines and humans what the page they will be taken to is about:

• Replace click here, view more, learn more, etc to location+keyword terms to point to the page optimized for those terms.

• For a page optimized for Towson Accounting, change Click Here to See all of our Towson accounting services or Tax advice in Towson

• Mix up your link text to make it look more natural

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Recap: On-site Optimization

• Pick the right keyword phrases• Map keywords to pages• Implement keywords on chosen pages• Make your “ads” enticing• Put location information in text form• Give each location its own unique, useful web

page• Use location terms in your internal links

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Off-Page Optimization(aka link building)

Off-Page Optimization = Links

Incoming Links

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Links = Votes

The more votes you have the better,

BUT not all links are equal.

Quality counts and crummy links can hurt

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Links and Local Search

Aim for a natural link profile. Get links: • From different domains• From different types of sites (blogs, forums,

directories, news sites, etc)• To different pages on your site (not all to home

page)• With varied link text

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Improve Existing Links

You can see links with this free tool: http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/

Look at the pages that link to you• Is all the information correct?• Can you add more detail? (Description, photos,

videos, services, hours, payment types, etc.)• Are you in the right categories?• Can you add a link?• Can you improve the link text?

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Links from Relationships

• Business groups • Social groups • Charities and sponsorships• Local school and college websites• Clients and partners• Businesses you already have referral

relationships with

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Links from General Directories

• BestOfTheWeb.com• Manta• HotFrog • Brownbook.net• DirectoryM• GetFave • MojoPages

Some links are worth paying for, especially if you have a new website.

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Links from Industry Sites

• Trade associations• Licensing organizations• Your suppliers & resellers• Manufacturers of your products• Commercial directories for your industry:

• Martindales.com (lawyers)• ServiceMaster.com (trades like electricians,

plumbers, carpet cleaners)• UrbanSpoon.com (restaurants)• Trip Advisor (hotels, attractions)

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Links from Niche Sites

• Free Wifi• ATM• Minority-owned• Woman-owned• Non-profit• Other Languages• Maps • Adult only• Handicapped accessible

• Blog• Product Types• Videos• Images• Coupons• In something• Near something• Kid-friendly• Pet friendly

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Links from Local Directories

• Yelp• Kudzu• CitySearch• InsiderPages• DiscoverOurTown• Topix• WCities

• AngiesList• CitySquares• MerchantCircle• CityVoter• JudysBook• Foursquare• Internet Yellow Pages

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Links from Local Sites

• Better Business Bureau• Convention & Visitor’s Bureau• Local Media - Newspapers, Magazines, TV• Chamber of Commerce• Local Business Directories• Local city guides• Local blogs• Local and regional tourism sites

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Links from Social Media Sites

Social Media Profiles:• LinkedIn • Flickr • Facebook Fan Page

And from interaction on Social sites:• In Tweets• On Facebook pages• Google+ interactions (conversations, reviews, etc)• Commenting on appropriate blogs and forums• Guest posting on the blogs of others

• Twitter • YouTube Channel• Google+ profile

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Partner Up

Get listed in all of the places where prospective customers may be looking for you

Technical Issues(stuff you may need help with)

Check Crawlability

If the Search Engines can’t find or crawl your pages, they cannot appear in the Search Results.

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Why Don’t Pages Get Crawled

• Blocked from the Search Engines• No follow-able links to the page(s)• Redirect improperly• Search Engines perceive them as duplicate

content• Weird, jacked up things or combinations of

things

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Duplicate Content

• Do not expect it to rank• Having a lot of it can hurt the entire website• Automatically generated by some CMS sites• Some possible causes:

• duplicate page titles• tracking codes• pages in multiple categories• multiple URLs for the same page (www.home.com ,

www.home.com/ ,www.home.com/index.html )• insufficient text content on pages

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To See What Google “Sees”

Check your home page and all other important pages on your website

Use Free Webmaster Tools

http://www.google.com/webmasters/ http://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmasters/

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THANKS!

Mary BowlingTwitter: @MaryBowling

Blog: www.MaryBowling.com

Online Class information: http://www.marybowling.com/local-search-optimization/local-search-classes-at-planet-ocean

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SEO For Local Search

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