1.
LOCAL SEO
seOverflow
presented by Mike Belasco
@belasco

2.
• SEO, Link Building, Social Media Marketing
and PPCs in Denver, Colorado.
• Specialize in outsourced work for web
designers, marketing consultants, advertising
agencies, etc. Always looking for good
partners.
• The only company with 2 Local Search Ranking
Factors participants. We know Local!
Who Is seOverflow?

3.
• What is Local Search?
• Searching For Local
Information
• The Challenge of Local
Search
• The Algorithms
Today’s Agenda

4.
What is Local Search?

5.
What Exactly is Local Search?
Local Search is any search made
with the goal of finding something
in a specific geographic area.
This is known as searching with
local intent.

6.
Local Search = what? + where?
People are searching online
forsome thing in some place.
What Exactly is Local Search?

7.
Local expert, Greg Sterling,
defines Local Search as:
“seeking information online with
the intention of making a
transaction off line”
What Exactly is Local Search?

8.
What Exactly is Local Search?
Essentially, anything that you
would traditionally look for in the
print Yellow Pages becomes a
Local Search
when it is conducted online.

9.
Nearcasting is when a searcher
is looking for something close to his
or her current location.
Farcasting is when a searcher is
looking for something elsewhere,
often in a place where he or she
hopes to be in the future.
Where are the Customers?

10.
Conservative estimate:
70%
of all searches are made with
local intent.
For some types of business,
nearly ALL searches
are made with local intent.
73% of online activity is related to local content (Google - May, 2007)
Why is Local Search So Important?

11.
ROBO – Research online, buy offline
– 82% of local searchers follow up offline via an in-store visit, phone
call or purchase (TMP / comScore)
– 90% of online commercial searches result in offline bricks and
mortar purchases (proprietary research / comScore)
– 66% of American use online local search, like Google local search
to locate local businesses (TMP / comScore)
– 54% of Americans have substituted the internet and local search
for phone books (comScore networks)
– 43% of search engine users are seeking a local merchant to buy
something offline.
http://www.thelocalone.com/why.htm
Why is Local Search So Important?

12.
Where and How People Search for
Local Business Information

13.
The searcher decides how and where to
search for local information and what
information is important to them.
A local business needs to be in as many of
those places as possible with all the
information a prospect may be seeking.
Resources are limited. Research to
determine what’s most important for each
niche and each location.
How People Search for Local Info

14.
People search in the
regular Search Engines with and
without geographic qualifiers
In Universal Search

15.
People search within the
local search engines
of the big search brands with and
without geographic qualifiers:
Google Maps,Yahoo!Local, Bing Local
In the Big Three Local Search Engines

16.
People search on
Superpages, DexKnows,
Yahoo!Yellow Pages, YellowBook,
Switchboard, etc.
In the Internet Yellow Pages

17.
On Websites Featuring Local Info:
Local newspapers, Chamber of
Commerce, regional tourism site,
Better Business Bureau, local
business directories, etc.

18.
Yelp, Merchant Circle, Angie’s List,
Topix, CitySearch, InsiderPages,
etc.
On Social/Local Websites

19.
LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook,
MySpace, etc.
On Social Networking Sites

20.
TrueLocal, Localeze, Local.com, etc.
In Lesser Local Search Engines

21.
Craig’s List
Online newspapers
Niche and local shopping sites.
In Online Classifieds

22.
BedandBreakfast.com,
Business.com,
GunDogBreeders.com
In Vertical Directories

23.
Truveo, Planet-Cars, Hotpads,
Google Image Search, etc.
In Vertical Search Engines

24.
Consider where most of a business’
potential customers are located and
what the company should rank for
when working on a Local Search
strategy.
Then, fish where the fish are.
Where are the Customers?

25.
Research to determine the right
places to get listed for each niche
and location.
– Resources are limited-prioritize
submissions.
– Track results.
– Devote more attention to what’s working.
– Rinse and repeat.
Fish Where the Fish Are

26.
Where you fish may depend on the
geographic location.
– Yelp – Northern California
– City Search, Superpages – Denver
– Kudzu - Atlanta
Fish Where the Fish Are

27.
Where you fish may depend on the
type of business
– Trip Advisor - hotels, limos, tours
– Zagat’s - Restaurants
– Service Magic - Contractors
– Superlawyers - Attorneys
Fish Where the Fish Are

28.
Where you fish may depend on the
type of customer
– Online yellow pages for seniors
– CraigsList for bargain hunters
– Topix for news hounds
– LinkedIn for B2B
Fish Where the Fish Are

29.
Get in front of more customers
more often using Barnacle SEO.
“Barnacle SEO: attaching oneself
to a large fixed object and waiting
for the customers to float by in
the current.”
Will Scott http://www.localsearchnews.net/local-search-engine-
optimization-for-the-sams-club-crowd-with-barnacle-seo/
Barnacle SEO

30.
Use Barnacle SEO to turn
competitors into partners.
Examples:
Merchant Circle
Yahoo!Local
Yelp
Insider Pages
Superpages
Barnacle SEO

31.
Use Barnacle SEO on those sites to
help you own more real estate in
the SERPs.
They may already rank for what you
want to rank for.
They are trusted sites for Local
citations.
Barnacle SEO

32.
Point links at your pages on
these sites to boost them up in
the SERPs.
This is especially effective with
long tail terms.
Research and prioritize for each
niche and/or location
Barnacle SEO

33.
– Internet Yellow Pages
– Convention & Visitor’s
Bureau
– Local/ regional online
newspapers and
magazines
– Local business
directories
– Chamber of Commerce
Barnacle SEO
– Trade associations
– Vertical directories
– Local city guides
– Locally focused
powerhouses, like
Kudzu, CraigsList,
etc.
– Better Business
Bureau
Where to Attach Yourself:

34.
The Challenge of Local Search

35.
Universal Search is all about
relevance to a search query:
– What we say a page is about (page titles,
etc.)
– What the Search Engines see that the page
is about (content, internal linking)
– What others on the web say the page is
about (links, link text)
What’s Different?

36.
Local Search is all about Local
business information relevance to a
search query:
– Location makes you more or less relevant
– Factual information – what and where
– Customer opinions
– Trust in information and opinions
What’s Different?

37.
Rank well in Universal Search
Rank well in the Local 3, 7 & 8 Packs
Rank well in the Local Search Engines
Be on Social Networking Sites
Be in the Internet Yellow Pages
Be on Local/Social web sites
Be in vertical directories and search
engines for your industry and location.
The Challenge of Local Search

38.
The Challenge of Local Search

39.
Own the SERPs!

40.
The Algorithms

41.
There are 3 distinct Google
algorithms:
–Universal Search
–Google Maps
–The Google 7 Pack
The Algorithms are Different

42.
The Algorithms are Different
Google Universal vs Maps

43.
The Algorithms are Different
Google 7 Pack vs
Universal

44.
The Algorithms are Different
Google 7 Pack vs Maps

45.
The 7 Pack algorithm is
mostly based on the Maps
algorithm, but also has a
layer of the Universal
algorithm on top of it.
The Algorithms are Different

46.
The Maps and 7 Pack
algorithms give true local
businesses a distinct
advantage over directory type
sites, like IYP’s and Yelp,
which they do not enjoy in
Universal search.
The Algorithms are Different

47.
The Maps and 7 Pack algorithms
are not that great for
– Home based businesses
– Business that aren’t in the city they want
to rank for, including service businesses
that travel to the customer.
The Algorithms are Different

48.
• Mike Belasco
• @belasco
• mike@seoverflow.com
• www.seoverflow.com
• www.linkedin.com/in/miketheinternetguy
• www.facebook.com/seoverflow
Thank You!