Local Search Strategies & Live SEO Video Lab

1 Local Search Strategies & Live SEO Video Lab Presented By: Cory Barbot Darby Tober Senior Natural Search Specialist Manager of Natural Search Apogee Search Apogee Search July 22, 2009

2 LOCAL SEARCH STRATEGIES

3 Agenda What is local search & why you care: Definitions, Facts, Figures How to take advantage of local search: Turning Thought Into Action

4 Terminology

5 most searches have local intent (eventually)

6 Online search influenced $471 billion worth of offline sales last year … versus only $136 billion in e-commerce sales (eMarketer, 2008)

7 Product research and comparison shopping happen online. But 67% of those purchases happen offline. (Accenture) 90% of purchases are made within 50 miles of a person's home. (Kelsey)

8 Google 10-Pack Google moved from three to ten results in February 2008

9 Integrated Map Shows as a blended result. Can expand your search results to get more info without leaving page

10 No Geo Keywords Needed Google now searches locally based on IP address if keyword is a service.“House Painting” renders local referrals and shows the map

11 How to Submit your Company • Register individually with Google, Yahoo!, and Bing • local.google.com • listings.local.yahoo.com • ssl.bing.com/listings • Register all your addresses • Tip: Be as robust as possible when registering • Include coupons, pictures, hours of operation, videos, etc.

12 GetListed.org Provides users with an overview of their local search presence in all three search engines plus Best of Web

13 Google Local Business Center

17 Additional Options • In addition to categories and hours of operation features, you can also add: • Payment Options • Photos of your product or storefront (limit of 10) • Tip: Host photos on Flickr and geotag images • Videos (limit of 5) • Tip: Host videos on YouTube and optimize • Additional Details

18 Listing Validation

19 Listing Details

20 Local/Map SEO 1. On Page Optimization 2. Citations 3. Link Building 4. Reviews

21 On Page Optimization • Include “City, State” in title tag • Include physical address to pages • Customize by page for multiple localities • Keywords • Do not overdo inclusion of keywords • Content should be interesting enough to entice user to link back to site • Address • Ensure each page of your website contains the address of your business • Internal Linking • Turn the keyword into a link point at the page it does target

22 Tagging Goal is to...  Accurately describe content of page  Create unique tags for each page  Keep tags short when possible  Include city within tags to improve association and local ranking

23 Tagging Continued… Title tags – Very important to SEO. Informs both search engines and users about the content of your page. First bit of information to appear in search results • <title>Keyword City, State | Company Name</title> Meta tags: keywords and description – Like title tags, provides information about content of page Keywords viewed by search engines, description sometimes pulled in search result • <meta name=”description” content=”Located in City, State, Company Name specializes in Keyword...” /> • <meta name=”keywords” content=”Keyword” />

24 Tagging Continued… Header tags – On page elements provide information about content of page as well. Given extra weight by search engines • <h1>Keyword</h1> • Vary from H1 to H6, most important to least important Alt text tag – Specifies text that will appear to search engines since images can not be rendered • <img src=”images/Keyword.jpg” alt=”Keyword”> URLs – Not a tag, but can be tagged. Use static URLs and include keywords in URL along with dashes, not underscores: /austin-custom-software, not /austin_custom_software

25 Title Tags

26 Header Tags

27 Alt Text

28 URLs

29 On Page Optimization • Keywords – important content of each page contains its targeted keywords • Do not overdo inclusion of keywords, though • Content should be interesting enough to entice users to link to website • Address – make sure each page of your website contains the address of your business • HTML and hCards • Internal Linking – it's inevitable you will use keywords on a page it does not target. Don't fret! Turn that keyword into a link pointing at the page it does target

30 Internal Linking Red Toys Toys Toys Blue Toys Red Toys Toys Blue Toys Green Toys Green Toys Toys

31 Citations Explained • In local search a citation is a mention of your business name and address on a website even if it isn't a link • Search engines do not only look at incoming links to help determine local search rankings, but also citations • Citations help search engines validate information they have about a business • Improving the number of citations to your business' website consists of submitting your site to a variety websites

32 Citations • Appearance of business name and location on same page is a signal that boosts rankings

33 Major Local Search Data Centers • A number of websites act as data centers providing secondary local search websites with information about your website • After Google Local Business Center, submit info to centers • Universal Business Listing • For $30/year, will submit your business information to infoUSA and a number of other locally focused websites • InfoUSA • Localeze • Acxiom – not able to submit online, search web on their own acquiring data

34 Local Search Sites • On one level, function as directories in that they help categorize businesses by their metadata • Much more interactive than directories, social media directories: Send listing to a friend, social bookmarking, send to phone, write reviews, create a profile, acquire friends • Provide incoming links and citations • Examples: Yelp, Yellowbot, Local.com, TrueLocal, HotFrog

35 Local Business Directories • Finding local business directories is as easy as searching for “[your city] directory” • These directories are highly associated with a city/region and crawled often by the search engines • Better Business Bureau functions as a high value, highly localized business directory • Provide incoming links and citations • Examples: Better Business Bureau, TheCityofAustin.com, Austin.com

36 Reviews: Get Them The importance of reviews is growing. Not just for SEO, but for every local business

37 Reviews Continued... Google prefers different sources for different industries. Do your research and get reviews where Google shows they matter

38 Don't Forget The Video! • Easy to implement in SEO • Produce once, get recurring benefits • Minimal equipment, make it real • Many online profile listings accept video

39 What's on the Local horizon? • Algorithms getting better, more accurate • More results with local flavor • Reviews help filter the best local venues • Take advantage of blended search results • Develop mobile version of site - .mobi

40 Video Optimization

41 Who watches online video? The percentage of Internet users in each group who watch or download online video. Gender % Age % Men 63 Ages 18 – 29 76 Women 51 Ages 30 – 49 57 Ages 50 – 64 46 Age 65+ 39 Education % Income % HS Grad or less 76 Less than $30K 52 Some college 57 $30K - $50K 63 College grad 46 $50K - $75K 63 $75K+ 62 Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project Tracking Survey, 2.15 – 3.7.07

42 On-Site Video Optimization

43 On-Site Video Optimization Embedded video instead of a HTML content describing the pop-up window. video.

44 On-Site Video Optimization Add your keywords and the word “videos” to the page’s tags and content. <title>Coronary Artery Disease (Ateriosclerosis) Video | Videos by St. Jude Medical, Heart Library</title> <meta name=“description” content=“Coronary Artery disease is the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States. Learn more about it in this informational video.” />

45 Video Sharing Sites

46 Video Sharing Sites

47 YouTube Video Guidelines Video length and size: • Up to 10 minutes long • Up to 1,024 MB file size File formats: • .AVI • .MOV • .WMV • .MPG Resolution: • YouTube recommends 640 x 480 pixels.

48 Creating a YouTube Presence 1. Sign-up. Choose a username that includes your business name. 2. Adjust your channel page settings. i. Add a title, description, and tags. ii. Set channel comment options. iii. Change channel type to Director. 3. Upload your videos. i. Optimize titles, descriptions, and tags with keywords. ii. Set sharing options. 4. Design your channel page.

49 Other Video Sharing Sites

50 THANK YOU! Cory Barbot Darby Tober Senior Natural Search Specialist Manager of Natural Search Apogee Search Apogee Search info@apogee-search.com www.apogee-search.com Follow Apogee on Twitter: http://twitter.com/apogee_search Apogee videos on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/apogeesearch

Local Search Strategies & Live SEO Video Lab

by Apogee Search on Sep 24, 2009

Accessibility

Categories

Tags

Upload Details

Usage Rights

1 Embed 11

Statistics

Local Search Strategies & Live SEO Video Lab — Presentation Transcript