The document provides an overview of local businesses and the importance of local search for consumer engagement and sales. It explains factors affecting local search visibility, including the necessity of a correctly set up Google My Business listing and strategies for enhancing ranking through relevance, trust, and social proof. Additionally, it emphasizes the role of online reviews in attracting customers, with a significant percentage of new visits attributed to them.

1. Some questions I will address
•What is a Local Business?
•What is Local Search and why it is important?
•Why do some businesses not appear in Local
Search results, even if they have a website?
•What determines how businesses rank in Local
Search results?

2. What is a Local Business
•Premises based businesses
• e.g. Hotels, Restaurants, Venues, Solicitors etc.
• i.e. Where customers come to you
•Trades based businesses
• e.g. Electricians, Plumbers, Builders etc.
• i.e. Where you go on site
•Or a combination of both

3. Desktop Mobile
What is Local Search?
The “3-Pack”

4. What do you notice?
•Looks the same on Desktop and Mobile
•A Map is involved (local search by definition)
•Only 3 businesses shown by default (3-Pack)
•Clicking “More Places” requires extra effort to
see beyond the top 3 results (3-Pack)

5. Point 2
Point 3
Clicking on “More Places” reveals a bigger map and many more businesses

6. Why Local Search is important

7. Why local SEO is important?
• Four in five consumers use search engines to find local information.
• Fifty percent of consumers who conducted a local search on their
smartphone visited a store within a day, and 34 percent who searched
on a computer or tablet did the same.
• Local searches lead to more purchases than non-local searches.
Eighteen percent of local searches on smartphones lead to a purchase
within a day vs. 7 percent of non-local searches.
• What does this mean for your business? Not only are people searching
locally, they’re taking action when they do! Building a strategy that
promotes your business locally will do more than drive website traffic -
it will drive sales.
Source - http://searchengineland.com

8. Why do some business not appear in
Local Search results?
•They may not have a Google My Business
(GMB) Listing
•Their GMB listing may be set up incorrectly
(e.g. wrong category)
•Their location may be too far away from the area
of search

9. What determines how businesses
rank in Local Search results?
•Relevance (category, location, images, videos)
•Trust (where else are you listed – citations)
•Social Proof (reviews, posts, shares, mentions)
Please note that this is by no means an exhaustive
list, it is a huge subject changing all the time.

10. Relevance (Category & Location)
When you log in to your GMB dashboard you can amend many things including your
Category, Address, Images, Videos and other relevant information.

11. Relevance (Images)
• GMB Dashboard for Photos
• Divided into types (Interior, Exterior, Team etc.)
• Businesses making good use of this are more relevant

12. Relevance (Tagging Images/Videos)
In the old days people wrote
on the back of photos to
remind them what they
were about. The digital
equivalent is TAGGING.

13. Point 2
Point 3
Trust (where else are you listed – Citations)
• This report
compares how you
are listed to how
you should be
listed so that errors
and omissions can
be corrected.
• Google will not
“trust” you if your
Name, Address &
Phone do not
match your GMB
listing.

14. Point 2
Point 3
Trust (where else are you listed – Citations)
• The higher the
“authority” of the
directory the greater
the “trust” and this
monitoring report
also shows the
authority of each
directory as well as
where your
competitors are listed
and you are not.

15. Point 2
Point 3
Social Proof (reviews and mentions)
• For maximum
ranking effect you
should spread your
reviews as equally
as possible across
review sites.
• This monitoring
report helps you
achieve that.

16. Recent Local Search Survey Quote
“If you have a hammer you look for a nail. I think that is true for Local Search
Engine Optimizers as much as anyone. That being said, in client research I am
seeing that digital word of mouth (reviews) and traditional word of mouth are the
largest contributors to having new customers find you. In one case study in a client
that was spending ad money on radio, billboards, Yellow Pages, AdWords and
Facebook:
• 0% of new customers said they came in because of Facebook
• 9% of new customers attributed their visit to radio, billboards or the yellow page
• 33% of new customers said that traditional word mouth was the reason that they
visited
• A whopping 58% said that they came in because of reviews. That is word of
mouth for millennials.
Mike Blumenthal”

17. MyLocal Services - Basic
•Advice on improving your local attractiveness
(DIY or full service to suit all budgets)
•Individual reports to monitor your progress over
time and in comparison with your competitors
•Client feedback system to screen dissatisfaction
and encourage online reviews from happy clients

18. MyLocal Services - Advanced
•Onsite improvements (done by your webmaster)
•Setting up your YouTube channel, Explainer Videos
•Business Systems (CRM, Email Marketing etc.)
•Workflow advice (blogging, social media posting
etc.) for maximum benefit to your business
whether done in-house or outsourced.

19. Have I answered these questions?
•What is a Local Business?
•What is Local Search and why it is important?
•Why do some businesses not appear in Local
Search results, even if they have a website?
•What determines how businesses rank in Local
Search results?

20. MyLocal
• Helping Local Businesses stand out when customers
are looking for their products or services.
• Most people using local search are looking for a
product or service that they need NOW and they
don’t have a supplier in mind - otherwise they would
simply call you in the first place.
• Local Search is therefore arguably more useful for
customer acquisition than organic search (i.e. where
your website ranks).