Showing up for local search results is a pillar of success for many local businesses. Join us to learn the most important elements when trying to show in the search results, maps, and local packs for searches with local modifiers. What you will learn: What are the local ranking factors? What are the most important? How to optimize your website for local search. What offsite factors need to be accounted for? WHO: Nic Jolin has been working in SEO for over 4 years. He has experience in building a variety of SEO strategies, including local, and providing the tactics for doing so. Join Nic Jolin as he provides the insights into gaining local visibility in the search engine results pages.

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Gain Local Online Visibility in
2018 and Beyond
May 2018
Nic Jolin
SEO Specialist
nic@anvilmedia.com1

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Contents
• What is Local
• Local statistics and why you should care
• Local ranking factors
• Methods of local search optimization
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What is Local SEO?
Local SEO entails optimizing your brand for better visibility for local audiences. Local
businesses need Local SEO to appear for searches that include local modifiers. Many of the
characteristics for Local SEO overlap with traditional SEO. Some of the unique local ranking
factors:
Google My Business
Citations
Reviews
On-page signals (NAP, local keywords)
Site structure and local markup
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Local SEO Statistics
v v97%
97% of consumers use the
internet when researching
local products and
services
98% of search engine
users end up choosing a
business that is on page
one of SERPs
18% of local searches
generate a sale within 1
day
82% of smartphone users
use search engines when
looking for local
businesses
98% 18% 82%
6.2 BILLION search queries per month have local intent!
Mobile searches for ‘where to buy’ have grown 85% since 2015.

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Local SEO Statistics
v v50%
50% of consumers who
conducted a local search
on their phone visited a
store within a day
34% of consumers who
conducted a local search
on their desktop visited a
store within a day
78% of local-mobile
searches result in offline
purchases
71% of people surveyed say
they confirm the location of
a business before going for
the first time
34% 78% 71%
Seven out of ten customers visit a business or make in-store purchase based on info they found online
46% of all Google searches are local!

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Local Ranking Factors
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Ranking factors pulled from MOZ

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Optimizing for Local Searches
How to optimize your site and online visibility for local consumers
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Google My Business
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What is Google My Business?
GMB is a master dashboard where many aspects of a local
businesses are pulled and displayed in Google SERPs.
Local packs, maps, knowledge panels all pull information
from a Google My Business listing.
Verifying and editing business information will help
customers find your business.
56% of local retailers have not claimed their Google My
Business listing

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Benefits of Google My Business
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Google My Business:
Businesses with complete GMB information are twice as
likely to be considered reputable by consumers
Read and respond to reviews from customers. Can flag if
review appears to be fake/spam
Post photos. Listings with photos receive 42% more
requests for driving directions and 35% more clicks to
their website.
It’s FREE!

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Optimizing Google My Business
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Ensure GMB Listing is Optimized
Make sure GMB is claimed and verified (https://www.google.com/business)
Optimize with all pertinent business information
• NAP
• Business Hours
• Quality images
• Description of the company (750 characters, only 250 display in knowledge
panel)
• Ensure categories/labels are filled in
• Provide website domain link
Login and check GMB periodically to ensure nothing has been altered and
information is accurate

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Citations
Ensure business citations are correct across the web
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Citations
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Citations are places where your business information (NAP)
appear on the web. Certain data aggregators are known to be
places where the NAP appears and where search engines
learn about businesses.
Common Data Aggregators:
Yelp
Yellow Pages
Express Update
Neustar Localeze
My Business Listing Manager
Factual
Check NAP accuracy in these data aggregators

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Reviews
Monitor and respond to reviews
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Reviews
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The Significance of Reviews:
85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations
73% of consumers say they trust a local businesses with positive reviews
49% of consumers say they need at least a 4-star rating in order to trust a business
97% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses in 2017

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Reviews
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The Significance of Reviews:
Hansen Orthodontics office appears on the 3rd page of a local pack
VAST majority of offices outranking them in local pack have stellar
reviews
Two – 1-star reviews
One – 3-star review
Five – 5-star reviews
One response to negative
Responding to reviews and encouraging reviews from satisfied
customers is highly recommended
Studies show 4.2-4.5 rating is ideal

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Local SEO – Onsite Content
Ensure your website is optimized for local search
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Optimize Website for Local Search
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Core Concept
Traditional SEO elements matter in local search. Here we will discuss elements that are unique to
local.
Page titles – Page titles should include geo-modifiers such the city, state, address, region etc.
Typically, the city name is the most important.
Meta Descriptions – Include geo-modifiers
Headings – Include geo-modifiers
Page Copy – Include geo-modifiers

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Local Search Examples – Titles and
Descriptions
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Search Query:
buy shoes portland oregon
cooking classes san francisco
tool rentals philadelphia
kitchen appliances miami

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Subheadings and Page Copy
19
Number one result for “kitchen appliances Miami”
includes Miami in the heading and page copy. Miami
appears a grand total of 5 times on the page.

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Subheadings and Page Copy
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Number one result for “cooking classes
san francisco” includes San Francisco in
the heading and page copy. San
Francisco appears a grand total of 6
times on the page.

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Creating Local Content
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Core Concept
Creating content around local events, recreational
activities, interviews with locals (local experts,
celebrities etc) can help gain visibility for high-volume
and more long-tail keywords.
Learn what the local interests are and create content
around those interests if possible.
Using Next Adventure as an example…

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Creating Local Content
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Next Adventure
Next Adventure sells and rents outdoors
equipment
Much of the Pacific Northwest culture is
centered around outdoors activities
Next Adventure does an incredible job of typing
their core business around the local interests

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Creating Local Content
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Next Adventure blog content speaks to the core audience
interest and drives significant traffic to the website

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Site Architecture
Organize and optimize specific location pages
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Site Architecture
25
On individual location pages, include LocalBusiness markup from Schema.org
(https://schema.org/LocalBusiness). Include the:
• Address
• Phone number
• Opening hours if possible.
Make sure there is an organized crawl path to all individual location pages.

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Local Schema
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With local schema markup, you can tell search engines exactly what your business name is,
your company logo, address, phone number, hours of operation and more.
Never show NAP in image format. All business information should be in the form of crawlable,
HTML text.
Local schema markup will enhance your business listings in search engine results pages.
Google Structured Data Markup Helper provides a simple way to generate schema code
snippets that can be copied and pasted into the head section of a page.

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Crawl Path – Home Depot
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Local SEO Checklist
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To enhance your chances of dominating local search, ensure the following items are marked off if applicable:
Google My Business – Claim and optimize
Page Content – Ensure page content including title, meta description, heading tags, body copy and images are
optimized with local/geo modifiers (DON’T OVERDUE IT!)
Citations – Check citations on data aggregators across the web
Reviews – Pay attention to reviews positive and negative responding where necessary
Local Schema – Utilize local schema markup
Site Organization – Ensure every local page is unique and optimized for each location. Ensure there is a organized
crawl path to every local page

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Thank You!
anvilmedia.com29