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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

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LOCAL SEARCH STRATEGIES

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

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Terminology

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most searches
have local intent
(eventually)

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

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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)

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

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

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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

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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.

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

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Google Local Business Center

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Google Local Business Center

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Google Local Business Center

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Google Local Business Center

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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

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Listing Validation

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Listing Details

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

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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

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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

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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” />

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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

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Title Tags

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Header Tags

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Alt Text

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URLs

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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

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

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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

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

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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

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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

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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

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

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

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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

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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

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Video Optimization

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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

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On-Site Video Optimization

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

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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.” />

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Video Sharing Sites

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Video Sharing Sites

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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.

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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.

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Other Video Sharing Sites

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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