Local SEO Presentation

How To Rock
Your
Local SEO
With Vivek Patel

What I Will Cover
 What Is Local SEO Why Do You Need
 Local SEO different from Traditional SEO
 Local Search Result on Google
 Who Needs Local SEO
 Benefits Of Local SEO
 Local Ranking Factor
 On the Page Factors Optimization from Local SEO Perspective
 Detailed on-site Local SEO Audit
 On-Site Optimization for Local Search
 Google+ Pages for Business (Google My Business Vs Google+ Local)
 Local SEO Plugins
 Citations Building (Multiple location pages Perfect dental, Choice pet supply)
 Fix up the Local Presence
 Encourage Customers to Leave Reviews
 Link Building for Local Keywords
 Local Marketing on Social Media Sites
 Some Additional Local Social Media Optimization Tips
 Google Update for Local SEO
 Looking at Local Analytics
 Local Search Engine Ranking Report
 Expert in Local SEO
 Q & A

What Is Local SEO
 Local SEO basically is the optimization process for the local results in search engines.
 In simple words, local SEO services is ranking your online business website in top level in search engines for local
searches.
 Prospective customers to find information about your company online, either when they search specifically for your
enterprise or for any businesses that provide particular goods and services nearby them. Ex: SEO Company India.
Why Do You Need
 Becoming one of the essential components to every business and brand that wants long-term success across search
engines.
 If your business has a physical location, you’ve undoubtedly been told that you need local SEO.
 Any business that gets some or all of its customers or clients locally should consider local SEO.
 Let’s See some interesting statistic:
• 70% of mobile searchers will call a business DIRECTLY from a search results page.
• 59% percent of searchers use Google every month to find a local business
• 87% of searchers who search for a local business will call or actively go to that business within 24 Hours
• More people carrying out a search online trust local search results than any others.

Here is what I mean;
I’m based in Ahmedabad.
If I search for “restaurants” (very generic I know) on my mobile here is what I see in return:
Image of result page:

Local SEO different from Traditional SEO
Website ----------> Business
Inbound Links ----------> Citations
Content Relevance ----------> Local Prominence
Anchor Text ----------> Business Name/Address/Phone Number
Keywords ----------> Local Keywords

Local Search Result on Google
Paid Local
Organic

Who Needs Local SEO
Any business that gets some or all of its customers or clients locally should consider local SEO. That could be a
local restaurant, retail outlet, doctor, dentist or lawyer, but it could just as easily be a local ad agency. If you
have a physical address in a city and expect people to go there, you should be doing local SEO for that location.

Benefits Of Local SEO
 The main and biggest benefit for choosing Local SEO is, it cost less when compared to global SEO.
 By using Local Business Listing, you will get more exposure to your business.
 You will get targeted traffic, conversions and online traffic to your website.
 Choosing Local SEO, will always bring more popular to you locally and you can see the conversion within few days.
 It Takes Advantage of Enhanced Google Features
 A map showing your location
 Pictures of your business
 Reviews posted by other users

Local Ranking Factor
 First published in 2008 by David Mihm
 Local Search Ranking Factors 2013 identified 83 foundational ranking factors.
 I’ve taken the top 20 most important factors

Onthe Page Factors Optimization from Local SEO Perspective
On the page factors optimization from Local SEO perspective for Imaginovation.net
Analysis Section
Level of
Importance
Optimization
Status
Priority Current Status Recommendation
On the page factors optimization from Local SEO
Business and website listed in Google with proper category associations High Low High
We cannot find Imaginovation.net business and website
listed in Google under the proper category
We should create a Google Places listing for
business and get listed your business in
Google Place.
Physical address in city of search High Good -
Consistency of structured citations High Good Low Phone number is missing in footer address section
We should include phone number in contact
details
Quality/authority of structured citations High Low High Business is not listed on high-quality websites
We should get listed on a handful of really
authoritative local business indexes and
directories.
HTML NAP matching place page NAP High Good -
Google+ Local page dashboard address matches the one
found on the website
-
Domain authority of website High Low High Domain authority is low
We should start working to build your domain
authority, and the higher it is, the better your
chances of ranking well for your most
important terms.
Individually owner-verified local Plus page High Low High Missing verify ownership of your listing
We should add business in google place and
get vrified.
City, state in Places landing page title High Good -
Website have city and state names in your landing page
title tag
City, state in Places landing page description High Good -
Website have city and state names in your landing page
meta description
Quality/authority of inbound links to domain High Low High
Website is having less number of backlinks from external
website. Here is the reference provided using third party
Link Popularity Checking
tool:http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/links?site=http
%3A%2F%2Fwww.imaginovation.net%2F
We should start creating a quality backlinks
towards website using targeted keywords as
an anchor text in order to improve the link
popularity of website in search engines
Quantity of native Google Places reviews Low Low Low Less number of reviews
We should start earning a number of Google-
based reviews
Quantity of citations from locally relevant domains High Low High
Your business NAP mentioned on a website that relates
specifically to your geographic community.
Locally relevant domains on which you might
earn citations could include local news sites,
local professional association sites and local
blogs that publish content about your

Detailed on-site Local SEO Audit
Issue
Id Issue Type Issue
Failed
checks
Total
checks
Changed from
last audit
1 ERROR Duplicate content 0 23 0
2 ERROR Duplicate meta description 0 21 0
3 ERROR Duplicate title tag 0 21 0
4 ERROR HTTP 5XX server errors 0 23 0
5 ERROR HTTP 4XX client errors 2 23 0
6 ERROR Title tag is missing or empty 0 21 0
7 ERROR Internal broken links 2 59 0
8 ERROR We couldn't crawl the page 0 23 0
9 ERROR We couldn't resolve DNS to crawl your site 0 23 0
10 ERROR We couldn't open the page's URL 0 23 0
11 ERROR External broken links 4 51 0
12 ERROR Internal images are broken 0 24 0
13 ERROR External images are broken 0 1 0
14 ERROR Malformed robots.txt 0 1 0
15 ERROR Sitemap files have format errors 0 1 0
16 ERROR Wrong pages found in sitemap 0 0 0
17 ERROR WWW domain configured incorrectly 0 0 0
18 WARNING Images without an ALT attribute 4 24 0
19 WARNING Page has a low word count 0 21 0
20 WARNING Missing h1 heading 0 21 0
21 WARNING Doctype not declared 7 7 0
Issue
Id
Issue
Type Issue
Failed
checks
Total
checks
Changed from
last audit
22 WARNING Multiple h1 tags 1 21 0
23 WARNING Sitemap file not found 0 0 0
24 WARNING Title element is too short 15 21 0
25 WARNING Title element is too long 0 21 0
26 WARNING H1 and title tags have duplicate content 14 23 0
27 WARNING The meta description tag is missing 6 21 0
28 WARNING Too many on-page links 0 21 0
29 WARNING 302 redirect 0 23 0
30 WARNING Slow loading speed 0 1 0
31 WARNING Text/HTML ratio 0 1 0
32 WARNING Overly dynamic URLs 0 21 0
33 WARNING Language is not specified 0 21 0
34 WARNING Encoding not declared 0 21 0
35 WARNING Flash is used 0 21 0
36 WARNING Frame is detected 0 21 0
37 WARNING Underscores in URLs 0 21 0
38 WARNING Internal links use a nofollow attribute 0 7 0
39 WARNING Sitemap exist but not found in robots 1 1 0
40 NOTICE Long URL 0 21 0
41 NOTICE External links use a nofollow attribute 0 18 0
42 NOTICE No robots txt 0 1 0

Apart from this what we need to cover for Local SEO Audit
1. Google My Business page audit
I. Locate the proper Google My Business page we should be working with
II. Find and destroy duplicate pages
III. Is the page verified?
• Is the correct NAP used?
• Proper category association
• Map & search photos
1. Business hours

2. Website & landing page audit
I. Correct crawlable NAP on landing page
II. Site structure
III. Business hours
IV. Landing page content
V. Check and ensure your landing page is indexed
VI. Landing page meta title tag and meta description
• Heading tags
• Driving directions & embedded map on landing page
I. Alt text on landing page
II. Customer reviews on page in Schema /Review
III. Load time of landing page

3. Citation Audit
I. Check data aggregators
a) Infogroup
b) Localeze
c) Acxiom
d) Factual
II. Check the top 50 citations
• Identify new high quality citation sources (Whitespark)

4. Organic link & penalty analysis
I. Ensure there is not a manual web spam action
II. Check for algorithmic penalties
III. How many links do the site and page have?
IV. Anchor text of links
V. Does a disavow exist?
5. Review Analysis
I. Google My Business reviews
II. Identify top 3rd party review sites
6. Social Media Audit
I. Facebook review
II. Google Plus audit
III. Foursquare audit

On-Site Optimization for Local Search
Properly optimizing your website could account for as much as 18% of what Google considers in its algorithm when
determining which local results to serve up to users.
 Domain
 Keyword Research for Local Search
 Title and Meta Descriptions
 Create "Local" Content
 H1 heading
 URL Structure
 ALT text on images
 Internal link between related pages
 Optimizing Blog with Local Targeted Keywords
 Local Address & Phone Number on All Pages
 Location-Specific Pages Ex: Perfect Dental, Choice pet supply (Use clint email)
 Embed a Map
 Create a Geo Sitemap
 Local Markup Schemas And Structured Data
 Authorship verification & Publisher Markup

 Domain name should reflect business type

eyword Research for Local Search
 Find the terms that triggers a local result.
 Let’s say you offer “Home Security Systems” that you sell and install in your city.
 Try a variation of your original search term.
 Lets try “Security Systems Fresno” and see what happens:

Locally Optimized Title Tags
 Title of each page should reflect your business, services and location.
Locally Optimized Meta Descriptions
 Descriptions of each page should reflect your business, services and location.
Title
Description

Create "Local" Content
 Far too many sites forget to include City/ST information inside the site content. Optimizing for local search
won’t work unless you’re talking about your local area in your content.
 Write a simple case-study on a job you did in your target city.
 Write about what you like about working in your target city, or what you like about its residents.
 Write about any local laws or regulations that your potential customers might want to know about.

H1 heading
 What’s important here is to include your city and state in the page heading to further show local
relevancy
URL Structure
 If you’ve got the ability to edit your URL structure, try to include your city and state information in
your URLs

ALT text on images
 Google can’t see what’s in your images, so alt text helps provide a better understanding of your page
content. Including City/ST information can really help boost local relevancy.
Internal link between related pages
 Crosslink between related pages with descriptive terms and add location to content where it
makes sense.

Optimizing Blog with Local Targeted Keywords
 Instead of having a generic how to blog, try to make it more city or locality specific.
 For example, if you offer plumbing service in Ahmedabad, why not write on How to find the right
plumbing company in Ahmedabad?
Local Address & Phone Number on All Pages
 Most businesses will place this information in their website’s footer. Be sure that it is actually in the
text and not in an image.

Location-Specific Pages
 Create separate location page on your website if your business serve in multiple locations.
 This way, anyone searching for your business in a particular region, city, state or country should be
directed to the appropriate page.

Embed a Map
 If you enter an address on Google Map, you can get an HTML embed code to add the map to your
website. Just click on the link icon to get the code. Copy and paste this HTML to embed in your
website.
 This is a great way to help visitors to your website find your location easily.

Create a Geo Sitemap
 Want to make absolutely sure Google knows where you are? Then create a geo sitemap and a KML file for
your website.
 Geo Sitemap Generator makes it easy. Just fill in your company details, download the files and upload them
to your website’s root folder.
 Verify it using your Google Analytics code, and then add your geo sitemap’s URL under Site Configuration >
Sitemaps in Google Webmaster Tool.

Local Markup Schemas and Structured Data
 Schema and structured data allow you to markup your web content with special tags that help Google extract
specific types of information and then display them in search results.
 For example, here's what the code would look like after the microdata markup:
 And this is the difference it can make in Google:

Authorship verification & Publisher Markup
 Authorship verification is not available.
 Publisher Markup is a rich snippets schema which can be used to further promote and highlight your
company within the SERPs, and it’s called ‘Rel=Publisher’. (Not available)

Google+ Pages
Google Business Page Vs
Google Brand Page
Google Business pages appear in Google Maps, the 3 local
packs in Search results. Business that is eligible for a Google
Business Page ( physical location requirement ) can also have a
Google Brand page, however a website that is only eligible for a
Google Brand page cannot have a Business Page.
Google Brand pages, only appear within the Google+ verse.
Brand pages promote organizations that don't have a physical
address. If you operate a business with a physical location, you
may want to create a local business page instead.
Google+ Local and
Google My Business
platforms are
separate, they can
be combined and
accessed under one
profile.

Delete Duplicate Pages
Google+ Brand Page Audit
http://www.steadydemand.com/Google-Plus-Brand-Audit-Tool.php
When you want some clear information about how
well your Google+ page is performing, use this tool
you’ll receive a free report on what you’re doing
right and wrong.

Local SEO Plugins
 Yoast Local SEO - $69, $129, $249. Marks up your contact page
 WordPress Local SEO – FREE
 Local Search SEO Contact Page – FREE Generates QR Code
 Local Business SEO - Simple way to add important microdata information about your site for SEO purposes

Citations Building
 A citation is any mention of your business out on the web, with or without a link.
 It can come in various forms:
 Company Name, by itself.
 Company name & phone number.
 Company name, phone number, & address.
 Company name, phone number, address, & link.
 etc.
 There are 5 basic types of sites we'll want to get listed on:
 Data-aggregators (e.g. LocalEze).
 Horizontal directories (e.g. Yelp).
 Industry-specific directories (e.g. Avvo).
 Region-specific sites (e.g. Denver.com/places).
 Sites where you can get an "unstructured" citation, like a mention in a newspaper or by a "local" blogger.

Citations Building
 Citation Building Process
1. Prepare a baseline report Considering the MOZ tool and Yext
a. Start date
b. Overall status (include number of approvals, pending, already exist, inconsistent, duplicate etc.)
c. Project summary

2. Prepared Local business questionnaire

3. Prepare Phase 1 (Moz report), Phase 2 (list of sites we have) report

4. Different location page create separate listing
5. Check NAP Across the web and prepare a list of directories that have the wrong NAP.
6. Ask client for credentials if they already did business listing. So we can save our time and directly
update those listings.
7. Now you have a bunch of sites, including wrong NAP and fresh sites in which listings haven’t done.
8. Set up Yext account. This is the best and easy way to get listed on a certain number of sites.
9. Data aggregator & Call verification sites
Creating a local listing for any clients and verifying if the phone call is the only verification option that is
very important. We’ve planned separately for those directories. Here are the steps:
a. Prepare a list of those directories.
b. Identify the way to do listing.
c. Create and account and make detail procedure note with screenshots for their team.

10. Start citation building and put the remarks for all the sites which helps to take any decision.
10. At the end, we do outreaching for those sites in which we are unable to add our listing manually and
regularly takes followup.
12. Before preparing a final report, once again we check for new approvals and then after we prepare
final report.
13. Updating on overall progress.
If client has more than 1 Location? What is different?
Steps which we follow for multiple location based business.
1. Perform location based audit report:
2. Determine our location and priorities:
3. Create unique page for each location:
4. Create A Location Specific Social Account For Each Location:
a. Facebook
b. Google + page
• Follow the same procedure which we follow for single
location

up the local presence where NAP Inconsistence and Duplicate
Three types of citations we're trying to fix during this process
1.Duplicates: Duplicate listing on the same directory.
2.Mismatches - Listings for your business that have the wrong Business Name, Physical Address, or
Phone Number.
3.Incomplete Citations - It's important that you fill out the profiles to complete once you've claimed
them. This includes adding photo and filling out every field there is an option for.
 Identify possible NAP variations & record them in the spreadsheet.
1.How we find incorrect citations.
•1st Technique: Search in specific directories and website
Example: site:hotfrog.com "Company name" –phone number
•2nd Technique: Find listings with incorrect phone numbers
Example: Main company’s phone number –Exclude local phone number
Main company’s phone number –Exclude local phone number +Company Name
•3rd Technique: Find incorrect business names that have the proper phone
Example: Phone Number -"Company Name"
•4th Technique: "Business Name"+"Address" and "Business Name"+"Zip code"

Encourage Customers to Leave Reviews
Provide review gathering strategy
Prepare a strategy doc.
Ask customers you’ve served to leave a genuine review on your
Google+ local page.
Sample Review Gathering-Handout
Here are some tips for getting great social local search reviews.
1.Add Buttons/Badges to Your Website
•Encourage Reviews in Your Store
•Encourage Reviews via Emails
•Simply Ask
Respond to all review types.

Link Building for Local Keywords
 Once you’ve built your local business listings up, the next thing you should start doing is
building links to your website.
 Related Local Businesses – Look for businesses that are in the same industry, but are not competitors.
 Local Bloggers – Find bloggers that are in your region whose audience might be interested in your
business.
 General Local Resource Pages – Search for local business resources that may not have come up in
your local directories search and find out if you can get your site listed.
 Competitor Backlinks – Using tools like Open Site Explorer, find out what backlinks your local
competitors’ websites have to see if you can get yourself listed on them as well.
 Local Events and Charities – Lookout for events in your area and sponsoring and donating to local
charities.

Local Marketing on Social Media Sites
Facebook:
 Optimizing Your Facebook Page for Local
 Invite Your Friends
 Become a Fan of Local Business Pages
 Target Status Updates by Location
 Use Facebook Ads
Twitter:
 Optimizing Your Twitter Profile for Local
 Connect with Local Twitter Users
 Check out Followers for Local Businesses
 Follow Local Discussions
Linkedin:
 Optimizing Your LinkedIn Profile for Local
 Invite Email Connections
 Connect with Colleagues & Alumni
 Open Networkers Groups
 Local Networking Groups
 Email Your Local Contacts
Google+:
 Optimize Your Google+ Profile for Local
 Optimize Your Google+ Page for Local
 Make Sure Your Google+ Profile is Publicly Visible
 Add Local Google+ Users to Circles
 Interact with Local Connections
 Suggest Your Google+ Business Page to Local
Followers
 Follow Your Local Connections Back on Your
Business Page

Some Additional Local Social Media Optimization
Tips
 Include Social Links in Your Emails
 Include Social Buttons on Your Website
 Add Social Mentions to Printed Materials and Advertisements like HIRAL
 Stay Active
 Encourage Sharing

Google Update for Local SEO
 Pigeon Update - Launched on July 24, 2014
 The Pigeon update, designed to give users a better search experience when looking for local
businesses.
 The Algorithm Affects Search Results Within Both Google Maps Search & Google Web Search
 Local Results Are More Closely Tied To Traditional Web Ranking Signals
 The Update Provides More Accurate Results For Yelp-Specific Queries
 The Local Search Algorithm Is The Biggest Local Search Update That Google Has Released

Looking at Local Analytics
 To make sure that your local marketing strategies are getting local results, check out the following analytics.
 Google Analytics
When reviewing traffic to your website, look at your Google Analytics’ Audience Demographics data.
 Facebook Insights
Check out your Facebook page’s Insights to see demographics information for your page’s likes, reach, and
people talking about your page content.

Local Search Engine Ranking Report

Questions that client ask
1. Can you suggest ways we can improve things in the way we currently provide the service?
2. How can we speed up the process with the directories? I've been trying to get you the business
information as soon as I can as 1 way of doing that.
3. Can you give more info on how you do the directory process on you end? From what I understand you do
multiple passes over the directories.
4. If we're trying to fix up the local presence that's been contaminated (like in the case of Alpha Plus Dental
Center) then I think doing Google searches with the information that's wrong will help to find where are
the things that need to be fixed. See my note from earlier today.
5. How are things different on your end if it's a client that has 1 location vs more than 1 location? What is
different?
6. Our website’s local MOZ is still 45%.
7. It was like this over 12 weeks ago when we discussed this. What’s the reasoning for this?
• How come nothing is increasing? We are shocked that this number has not increased.
1. Etc………..

Some Good and Bad Example of
Clients
Good One:
1. Client1:
• 1 Location
• Status:
• Attempted sites: 396
• Approved: 194
• Pending: 25
• Already Exist: 76
• Error site: 101
2. Clinet2:
• 10 Location
• Phase I and Phase II
• Status:
• Attempted sites: 127+140=267
• Approved: 52+88=140
• Pending: 16+33=51
• Already Exist: 1+3=4
• Error site: 58+16=74
Bad One:
1. Client3:
• 1 Location
• Status:
• Attempted sites: 241
• Approved: 153
• Pending: 37
• Already Exist: 28
• Error site: 23

Expert in Local SEO
David Mihm
@davidmihm
Casey Meraz
@caseymeraz

Local SEO Presentation

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