Good Things Come in Small (Business) Packages: Beat Competition using
Local Search Marketing
Bryan Phelps
twitter.com/seocomLinkedin.com/company/seo.com
Director of Local and Small Business SEO
Getting Started
What is local search marketing?
What is local search marketing?
This is:
What is local search marketing?
This is:
What is local search marketing?
This is:
What is local search marketing?
Some people even use these:
What is local search marketing?
It’s directories:
What is local search marketing?
It’s vertical and geo specific:
What is local search marketing?
It’s mobile:
What is local search marketing?
It’s mobile:
9 out of 10 users take action as a result of mobile internet search!
77% contact a business when searching59% will visit a store58% use phone to look up a business for driving directions54% will visit your website from local searches88% will take action within 1 daySource: Google
What is local search marketing?
Over 53% of ALL local searches are performed on a
mobile device.
Source: Google
What is local search marketing?
It’s social:
What is local search marketing?
It’s reviews:
What is local search marketing?
It’s reviews:
What is local search marketing?
It’s sometimes even:
What is local search marketing?
Basically, it’s not this:
What is local search marketing?
Or this:
What is local search marketing?
Or this:
What is local search marketing?
My definition:
“Any online means of generating more website traffic, walk-ins, phone calls or other actions to your website or physical store.”
Your 6 Step Blueprintto beating the competition using local search marketing
Step 1 – Setup, Research & Tracking
Website TrackingGoogle Analyticsgoogle.com/analytics
Step 1 – Setup, Research & Tracking
Website Tracking– Contact Form Goal
Step 1 – Setup, Research & Tracking
Dashboards
Google PlacesBing/Yahoo LocalDirectoriesSocial RankingsPPCWebmaster Tools
Step 1 – Setup, Research & Tracking
Call Tracking – Not Advised
Step 1 – Setup, Research & Tracking
Old School Tracking
Step 1 – Setup, Research & Tracking
“Half of my [online] advertising budget is wasted. The problem is that I don’t know which half”
Step 1 – Setup, Research & Tracking
Keyword Research– Cities (Provo Dentist)– Zips (Dentist 84065)– Local Lingo (Utah Valley Dentist)– Landmarks (Dentist near BYU)– Free Tool: adwords.google.com/o/KeywordTool
Create Content!
Step 1 – Setup, Research & Tracking
Step 1 – Setup, Research & Tracking
Companies that blog receive 55% more
website traffic.
Source: Hubspot
Step 2 – Your Business DataData Publishers
Consistent Name, Address, Phone Number (NAP)
Step 2 – Your Business Data
• Google+ Local• Bing• Yahoo! Local• Best of the Web• Yelp
• YellowPages• Citysearch• Superpages• Foursquare• Yellowbook
Claim & Verify Yourself
Consistent Name, Address, Phone Number (NAP)
Step 2 – Your Business DataBusiness Listing Optimization Tips
Utilize ALL 5 categories
Step 2 – Your Business DataBusiness Listing Optimization Tips
Publish Your Address
Beware of the Google Phone Call!
Step 2 – Your Business DataBusiness Listing Optimization Tips
Local Search Ranking Factors – DavidMihm.com
Step 2 – Your Business DataBusiness Listing Optimization Tips – What Not To Do
Step 3 – Your Website
Step 3 – Your Website
Make it easy:
60% of SMB’s don’t have a phone number on the homepage
75% of SMB’s have no email address on their site66% of SMB’s don’t have a contact form on their site
Step 3 – Your Website
Step 3 – Your Website
Specific to Local Search:Venice Update – Local Content
“Improvements to ranking for local search results. [launch codename “Venice”] This improvement improves the triggering of Local Universal results by relying more on the ranking of our main search results as a signal.
"Improved local results. We launched a new system to find results from a user’s city more reliably. Now we’re better able to detect when both queries and documents are local to the user."
Step 3 – Your Website
Step 3 – Your Website
Step 3 – Your Website
Local Landing Pageshttp://lawyers.findlaw.com/lawyer/firm/Divorce/Las-Vegas/Nevada
Step 3 – Your Website
Local SchemaStructured Markup, Crawlable N.A.P.
Free tools:Schema-Creator.orgMicroformats.org
Step 3 – Your Website
KML File / GEO SitemapTells search engines exact address of your company
Free tool:http://www.geositemapgenerator.com/
Step 4 – Business Citations
Name
Address
Phone #
Step 4 – Business Citations
• Avvo – Legal/Health• FindLaw - Legal• Health Grades – Health• Directories for every
industry• Local directories / media
Industry/GEO Specific
Also drives traffic, calls, customers.
Step 4 – Business Citations
Whitespark Local Citation FinderCitation Tools & Tips
https://www.whitespark.ca/local-citation-finder/
Step 4 – Business Citations
Best Citation Sources by CityCitation Tools & Tips
http://getlisted.org/resources/local-citations-by-city.aspx
Step 4 – Business Citations
Best Citation Sources by CategoryCitation Tools & Tips
http://getlisted.org/resources/local-citations-by-category.aspx
Step 4 – Business Citations
Unstructured Citations– Blogs– Forums– Partners Sites / Related
Businesses– Look for Link Building +
Citation Opportunities
Citation Tools & Tips
Step 5 – Review Strategy
Strategy Tactics
Planning Doing
Large Scale Smaller Scale
Why How
Difficult to Copy Easy to Copy
Long Time Frame Short Time Frame
Create a Review Strategy:
“Ask for reviews” alone isn’t a strategy
Fake reviews DEFINITELY isn’t a strategySet review outreach goals
Step 5 – Review Strategy
Strategy Tactics Goal
Get reviews from our raving fans
• Contact known raving fans via phone• Research Facebook fans and reach out
• Look through existing reviews and reach out to happy customers and ask for a review on another site.
10 reviews per month
Get reviews from in-store visits
• Install in-store kiosk for customer use• Add “review us” verbiage to receipts
• Start collecting emails in-store for email blasts5 reviews per
month
Manage reputation issues of current reviews
• Prioritize list of most harmful reviews• Respond to each negative review personally• Contact bad reviews within 2 business days
Address all bad reviews within 1
week of being posted.
Vendor & Partner Reviews• Prioritize list of vendors/partners by relationship
• Provide detail on how to review us on various portals• Reciprocate reviews within 5 business days
2 reviews per month
Step 5 – Review Strategy
Reviews Help You Rank & Convert
70% of online users trust consumer opinions posted online
Consumer recommendations and opinions are the most trusted source of product info
61% of people rely on user reviews for product information before a buying decision is made.
63% of consumers indicate they are more likely to purchase from a site if it has ratings and reviews
Step 5 – Review Strategy
Social Proof!
Step 6 – Local Meet Social
Where do your customers spend their time?
Users: 90mm 900mm 200mm 120mm 10mm
Users: 15mm Millions 14mm 7.5mm 18mm
Step 6 – Local Meet Social
So about Google+…
Step 6 – Local Meet Social
Why be on Google+?
Step 6 – Local Meet Social
Why be on Google+?
Step 6 – Local Meet Social
Why be on Google+?
Step 6 – Local Meet Social
Google+ Predictions
Step 6 – Local Meet Social
Google+ Predictions
Step 6 – Local Meet Social
Google+ Predictions
Resources
Local Search Resources & Data Sources
•SEO.com•GetListed.org•NiftyMarketing.com•SEOMoz.org•DavidMihm.com•Whitespark.ca•Hubspot.com
Thank you!Bryan Phelps, SEO.com