"Local Content, Local Search" - Chris Sherman (SearchEngineLand.com) 2009 AIM Conference

Local Content, Local Search Chris Sherman, Executive Editor SearchEngineLand.com May 1, 2009

Let’s Start With Some Stats

Search Is Now Habitual Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project

Flavors Of Local Search
Major search engines maps/local
Internet Yellow Pages (IYPs) & city guides
“ Local/Social” search sites that combine things like business listings, classified ads, reviews & ratings, comments and “community”
“ Vertical” or niche sites focusing on specific categories (real estate, service providers (florist, lawyer, plumber), retailers, restaurants, etc)
You can easily reach searchers through all of these channels

Local Search Is Bigger Than You Think
March 2009: 14b total queries at major search engines (comScore)
Depending on which stats you believe, 20-40% of all search queries have local intent
That’s roughly 300-600 million local search queries per month, and that doesn’t include searches on IYPs, local/map sites, or other local verticals

Local Search Is Growing Fast
Traffic to “pure” local search/map sites grew 58 percent in 2008, reaching an annual total of 15.7 billion searches
By comparison, overall U.S. Web core searches grew at a much smaller rate of 21 percent year-over-year, nearing 137 billion searches by the end of 2008 (comScore, YPA)

Why Search Is Important
89% of consumers making in-store purchases have conducted research online (BIG Research)
82% of people using local search sites followed up with an offline action, e.g., in-store visit, phone call (TMP Directional Marketing)
77% searched the Internet for real estate related information during their research process compared to 34 percent for print (Yahoo)

Google Search Term Popularity

Searcher Behavior Is Growing More Sophisticated
Searcher queries are longer - 2 to 4 words
More “tail” queries (specific rather than general)
Searchers are increasingly using niche, vertical, or “local/social search” sites
Surprisingly, Internet Yellow Pages sites are gaining traction as well

Types of Local Search
Explicit:
“ denver apartments”
“ colorado housing”
Implicit:
“ property manager”
“ apartment rentals”
Search engines can serve up targeted results for either explicit or implicit queries thanks to geotargeting capabilities

Natural vs. Paid Listings

Search Engine Visibility
You can improve your odds of being found in general search results by “optimizing” your content and conducting a link building campaign
And if you’re willing to pay, you can also get visibility through search advertising
A well-balanced search marketing campaign uses both approaches

Local Search Ranking Factors
Business name in title tag <title>
Similar business name or category keyword in domain name
Local address on web pages or contact us page
Phone number on web pages or contact us page
# of user ratings (also not having negative ratings)
Business categorizations in Yellow Pages
Business site tied to Google Maps listing

Links: The Most Important Ranking Factor
Chamber of Commerce
Local government & community guides
Colleges & Universities (.edu “gold”)
Local libraries
Local and regional newspapers and online magazines
Blogs about the area
Targeted vertical directories

Even More Targeted: Local/Maps Results
Maps are emerging as a key interface for interacting with many types of information
All major search engines have local/maps “catalogs” that let searchers search specifically for local information
And people aren’t just using them for local search – Google Maps is the #1 travel site (Hitwise)

Showing Up On Maps: Business Listings
Business listings are yellow-page like company info
Be sure to claim your business listing! If you don’t, someone else may, or it may be inaccurate
How?
Google: www.google.com/local/add
MSN: https://llc.local.live.com/ListingCenter.aspx
Yahoo: http://listings.local.yahoo.com/

Google Business Listings

Advertising On Google Maps
“ Local business ads” appear directly on Google maps results, associated with a specific address
Can be icons or images
Great for showing pictures of locations
Not yet available on Yahoo or Microsoft (well, kinda)
How?
http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/ answer.py?hl=en&answer=34033

Google Maps Sponsored Listing

Where You Want To Be Listed
Search engines:
Google, Yahoo!, MSN / Live.com, Citysearch, Local.com
“ Local-social" search sites:
Craigslist, Insider Pages, OpenList, Yelp, Topix
IYPs:
YellowPages.com, SuperPages, WhitePages, InfoSpace/Idearc, Dex, Yellow Book, Yellow Page City
Business data aggregators:
infoUSA Express Update, Acxiom

Consider Apartment-Specific Sites
Rent.com (#7 real estate site – Hitwise)
Apartments.com (#15 real estate site – Hitwise)
ForRent.com
DenverApartments.com
StapletonApartments.com
Bonus: Link to your listings from your own website, blog, social media sites, etc. for added search engine visibility

The Value Of Local Blogs
Local blogs can serve two purposes:
Valuable source of links pointing to your sites
Good word-of-mouth marketing
Consider starting your own blog. Local blogs may not be interested in linking to your corporate/sales site, but will link to interesting/compelling content on your blog

Other Online Marketing Channels
Upload videos of your rentals to YouTube
Engage with social media sites (carefully!)
Twitter
Facebook
MySpace
Consider mobile advertising

Future Trends: Search Engines vs. MLS

Already The #2 Real Estate Site

Take Aways
Search, and specifically local search, is a huge marketing opportunity for the multifamily industry
Local search opportunities come in many flavors, and many are extremely cost effective compared with other types of marketing and advertising
Be creative in your approach, by exploring lots of different channels and embracing “new media” such as blogs, video and social media sites

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"Local Content, Local Search" - Chris Sherman (SearchEngineLand.com) 2009 AIM Conference

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"Local Content, Local Search" - Chris Sherman (SearchEngineLand.com) 2009 AIM Conference Presentation Transcript