Local search rankings have evolved significantly over time. Print directories have been replaced by online maps and reviews as the primary sources for local searches. Key players like Google, Facebook, and Yelp now dominate local search results. Local SEO requires normalizing business name, address, and phone number across listings and prioritizing consumer-generated content like reviews. Recent trends show the importance of mobile optimization and social media integration for local search visibility.

1. Local Search Rankings Simplified
by Mike Stewart @dallasSEOguru

2. About Me:
During High School, I had quite a few jobs
(all Dallas area local small businesses)
feed store, bar and grill, and I sold Nationwide
800# Voicemail & Pager telemarketing
Experienced Local Search consultant for over 12
years.
9 years with Verizon Yellow Pages
3 years with a local SEO agency

3. Local SEO is about Building Local Networks
People are Closely
Connected.
The SEO Industry is Tightly
Connected.
Webmasters are the “Switchboard Operators” for Local Commerce

4. Thank your for attending this session
The Agenda
•The Evolution of Local
•Local re-defined
•Recent Trends
•Strategy

5. The Evolution of Local Search:
Print directory
saturation and spam…
• Monopoly
• Fragmentation
• Internet
1878 1990’s 2000-2007
So what happened after 2008?

6. Google Maps (7-pack) became #1 for Local Searches
very quickly!

7. YOU AGREE?
BUSINESS AND CONSUMERS COMMUNICATE IN
DIFFERENT WAYS TODAY THAN THE PAST.
.

8. Everyone is Now Engaging in Local.
Times have changed for most of Us.
• SEOs no longer “preach to the choir.”
(although we push our client content like crazy!)
• Blogs are common.
Local Search sites are extremely fragmented
(“What goes around comes back around”)
• We all can agree that old excuses will no longer work
• 1. expensive website design
• 2. expensive webmasters
3. expensive web hosting

9. No More Excuses.
Where is this guys shirt?
Can’t Type (I Hate Writing)
Doesn’t work!
Maybe just this week 

10. All of these communication platforms are localized…
blogging ● reviewing ● commenting ● sharing ● photographing

11. We have evolved from disengaged local search to more engaged local search
• On-page SEO will be semi-
automated. (Yoast, All-in-One)
• Consumer driven content will
become the standard. (Reviews)
• The bar is rising fast.

12. What has local search become?
•allows consumers to consume media content in more locations
•connecting them in real time to their social graph, their network, peer
opinions and advice
•Key players = Google, Facebook, Apple, Foursquare, Groupon and Yelp

13. Defining local search:
“ LOCAL SEARCH IS THE USE OF SPECIALIZED INTERNET SEARCH ENGINES
THAT ALLOW USERS TO SUBMIT GEOGRAPHICALLY CONSTRAINED SEARCHES
AGAINST A STRUCTURED DATABASE OF LOCAL BUSINESS LISTINGS.
TYPICAL LOCAL SEARCH QUERIES INCLUDE NOT ONLY INFORMATION ABOUT
"WHAT" THE SITE VISITOR IS SEARCHING FOR (SUCH AS KEYWORDS, A
BUSINESS CATEGORY, OR THE NAME OF A CONSUMER PRODUCT) BUT ALSO
"WHERE" INFORMATION, SUCH AS A STREET ADDRESS, CITY NAME, POSTAL
CODE, OR GEOGRAPHIC COORDINATES LIKE LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE.
LOCAL SEARCHES ARE LARGELY TIED TO CONSUMERS SEEKING A PHYSICAL
BUSINESS; NAP INFORMATION, BUSINESS LISTINGS IDENTITY MANAGEMENT IS
THE FOUNDATIONAL ELEMENT FOR MARKETERS SEEKING TO ADD LOCAL INTO
THEIR MARKETING ARSENAL. “

14. Local Search may be classified in 3 areas:
Business directory searches conducted on internet yellow pages and local
#1 search sites. (Traditionally known as two-box search)
IYP Search:
DID YOU KNOW: • SuperPages.com • Yellowpages.com (YP.com) • DexKnows.com
The only local • Yellowbook.com • Local.com • Yellowbook.com • Switchboard.com
search type that Maps & Directions #2
is declining year • Google Local/Maps • Yahoo! Local • Bing Local • Citysearch.com Local Map
over year is IYP • Ask.com/maps • Mapquest.com • Yelp.com Search:
Search? #3
Local Portal Category & Geography search phrase organic rankings or blended
“PlaceRank” Results
Search: • Google.com • Yahoo.com • Bing.com

15. Don’t Advertise Brownbook.net
Until You Do Your
Homework!
The greatest value in local
listing sites is the FREE listings
and optimized profiles.
•Some sites (like YELP in
California) and some mobile
applications (like YellowBook)
have higher traffic value from
increased market share…
BOTW.
Who Ranks On Google??? com
That is the question!

16. Great Local SEO Requires:
NAP Normalization
 Name – Consumer Facing Business Name, be consistent.
 Address – Make sure it’s postal coded (USPS.com) Resolves
to a Lat/Lon
 Phone – A local customer facing Phone Number (no
tracking numbers, advise against 800 numbers)
Awesome Website Architecture
We will cover this in a second

17. Local Search Trends
Trend 1 Trend 2 Trend 3
US Search & Local Search Explosion of Tablets and New Methods for Finding
Market Continues to Grow Mobile is shaping new Local Local Business Information
at an Impressive Rate Search and buying habits Including Social and Daily
resulting in a fragmented Deals like
marketplace. As developers • Mobile phones are second to Living
increase content platforms Tablets in local search activity. Social, Groupon, Beacon, et
• Desktop local searches are now c
TIP: Find the top trailing tablets and smart phones. • Daily deal sites are over
authorities and trafficked • Responsive designs the norm 8o% PC/Laptop driven
sites in your business niche. searches
• Tablets can be Coded for PC
Experience • Daily Deal sites get
• Google Can Detect a Mobile Site
significant repeat usage
from Daily Deal subscribers.
(Consider the challenges before advertising: Budget minded clients who may
not repeat business due to price differences.)

18. Local Search Trends
Trend 4 Trend 5 Trend 6
Local Listings are Most Relevant Ratings & Reviews – Used Local Searches Have Shifted from
and Trusted Search Results for Often, But Lack Complete Business Name to Category Searches
Consumers Content •2012 marked the first year where the
•Online searchers do not believe • 3% of satisfied customers majority of local searches conducted
paid results for local searches leave a review online, over on portal sites have shifted From
(location extensions have helped 30% of dissatisfied specific business searches (business
make paid search more relevant) customers do the same name) to non-specific business
searches (category/keyword).
•Local search results get (Control your local reviews) (Approx
significantly higher traffic than 30% of consumers have left an To use a traditional media analogy;
paid results online review in 2012) users have shifted from “white page”
searching behavior of “finding”
(I recommend covering your organic • Deals and Ratings and
listings to more of a “yellow pages”
rankings with paid exact match campaigns) reviews drive more
behavior of “searching and shopping”
categories vs. business
Add social signals, like Google+, for additional trust to local search resources to determine
local PPC campaigns! Social Networkers are 63% more name searches
likely to do business with social networking brands where to buy products and services.

19. What results do people trust most?

20. State of Local Search

24. The BBB is a great citation too!

26. FIX YOUR WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE PROBLEMS.
IF YOU HAVE MORE THAN 1 LOCATION:
GOOD:
MikesPizza.com/locations/Texas/Dallas/
MikesPizza.com/locations/Texas/Dallas/356
BAD:
Texas.MikesPizza.com/Dallas
MikesPizza.com/DallasTexas
MikesPizza.com/store/locator/index
MikesPizza.com/stores/storenumber

27. Create a
WordPress
Editorial
Daily
Content
Calendar
∞
Your
Content
Strategist
Has
Governance

28. Quick Tips:
• Include Content for Guest blogs to offer your publisher network…
• If a site has recent content posted on a blog and is built in a CMS
like WordPress, add it to your list. This is a signal that you can
outreach for links to the webmaster.
• Schedule Creative Content For Authority:
Infographics, How-To Videos, and Photo shoots, and content for
new niche (EMD/Keyword Rich Domain) websites
• Do you qualify for a Wikipedia page? Do you have a page that
contains researched authority on a particular subject that earns you
a link as a citation on the subject from Wikipedia?

29. Clean-up Duplicate Local Content Issues
NICHE OR INDUSTRY
WEBSITE
DEVELOPERS OFTEN
MAKE GOOGLE
PA N D A S A D !

30. Unique
Content
Map of
Location
Unique
NAP
matching
local
listings

31. Focus your internal “link juice” of
each of your content pages or
related blog posts for a particular
theme onto the desired landing
page that you WANT to rank on
Search Engines
•preferably the page that
converts the best
Do you have SILOs created for
your pages ????

32. Add “Social” and “Authorship”

33. Add Employee or Staff
BIOGRAPHY pages
Include Links to Social
Profiles
(unless “Corporate”
restricts such
awesomeness)
Mix in some local
flavor…
•Hometowns
•High Schools

34. Add directions to your
office or location in
both HTML and .PDF
versions
Include parking
information
If you are a
restaurant, hotel, eve
nt center, or local
meeting facility, I also
recommend including
directions from the
local airports and bus
stations

35. Your Blog is the tool that feeds content to your social
profiles!
Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn are the key social platforms…
Don’t forget the others!
Flickr profile - http://www.flickr.com/
Instagram profile - http://instagram.com/
Pinterest profile - http://pinterest.com/
Foursquare profile - http://foursquare.com/
Technorati profile - http://www.technorati.com/
Bloglines Answers - http://answers.bloglines.com/
WordPress blog - http://site.wordpress.com/
Blogger blog - http://www.blogger.com/
LiveJournal - http://www.livejournal.com/community/
Quora - http://quora.com

36. Community Events and Engagements Online
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ Schedule:
(80% Non- Business Related Engagement)
Mon: Fun Industry Fact
Tues: Picture with Comment
Wed: Another Fact
Thurs: Question
Fri: Picture with Comment
(Fridays are never promotional)
Shares, Pins, Tweets, and +1’s from your profiles to your platform reach
Pro Tip: Offsite Article Content can link to profiles vs. your pages
($ Link Laundering)

37. Building Prominence: Online & Offline!

38. Community Events and Engagements Offline
Brand Mentions and Brand Searches are Factor in Local Rankings
•Business Networking meetings (BNI’s)
• Industry Associations and Conferences
• Chamber of Commerce Events
• Meetup.com
• Create an event at your location (Website outreach)
• Host an event at your location (AA meetings)
• Donate to Charity
• Donate to the local College
• Sponsor a local youth baseball or sports team
• Get your company on the news and pay close attention to the local news for content
ideas. (Or pay to advertise on news sites too?)
TIP: Record emails, phone conversations, and business cards from offline networking
opportunities in an excel spreadsheet. TOOLS Rule!

39. Publisher Prospecting for Backlink Development

40. • Setup local Google Alerts on your brand
terms and top 20 local SEO Cat/Geo terms
• Track your social engagement signals
(EdgeRank etc)

41. Backlink Tools
Broken Link Tools

43. Home Service Professionals:
• Use you ranking reports to measure
ranking improvements on geographic
keyword terms in your service area
• Track you competitors rankings
• Run your ranking reports weekly or
monthly, depending on your offsite and
onsite content publishing schedules
• Rankings will fluctuate - Google and other
search engine algorithms want results that
get high click thru rates
(massage your titles and descriptions)

44. Questions? For More Information:
www.smbSEO.com
mike@smbSEO.com
801 Forest Ridge Dr.
Bedford Tx 76022
Phone: 214-267-9553