Local SEO Getting More Local Business
Agenda • • • • •
Introductions About Local SEO Local SEO Ranking Factors Local SEO Tips & Tricks Conclusion
Introductions Who we are and what we do
Tyler Horvath
CEO
tytonmedia.com
What is Local SEO? • Local SEO is the methodology of gaining traffic from search engines based on geo-located searches.
Who Needs Local SEO? Local SEO is needed by any business with a physical location. Restaurants, Doctors, Retail, Dentist, Lawyers, etc. Businesses looking to gain customers in their local area
Benefits of Local SEO
Increased Local Customers
More Targeted Traffic
More Business Reviews
Increased CTR (click through rate)
Local SEO Ranking Factors
My Business Signals Add your business to Google My Business 1. Upload photos of your business 2. Choose the best category 3. Add a your local phone number 4. Submit your business address 5. Add and verify a domain based email
External Location Signals
Citation Volume
Internet Yellow Pages (IYP)
NAP Consistency
Data Aggregators
Citation Volume A citation is a reference to your business on the web, either containing a backlink or not.
• Structured citations are usually found on business listings like yelp.com, superpages.com, yellowpages.com, etc. • Unstructured citations are found on job websites, event listings, online newspapers, or blogs.
Building Citations •
Use the local citation finder to find opportunities
•
Create an event at your business location and submit it to online newspapers
•
Write a press release with your business address on it
•
Join your chamber of commerce or local business association
NAP Citation Consistency
•
It’s important to keep NAP citations consistent
•
Consistent business titles, zip codes, phone numbers and street numbers
•
Use google chromes auto-fill for better consistency
Internet Yellow Pages (IYP) Internet Yellow Pages are directories where you can add your business with (consistent) NAP citations.
Data Aggregators Data aggregators are companies that collect local data and distribute the data to search engines and online directories.
There are 4 main data aggregators: • • • •
Infogroup Acxiom Nuestar Localeze Factual
Use ExpressUpdate to add your business to all data aggregators
On-Page Signals On page signals are the most important ranking factor for local SEO
Most important signals • Header tags • Title tags • Meta descriptions • Images • Maps • NAP Citations on every page
On-Page Signals (cont.) Add your service, location and brand in page titles, meta descriptions, title tags, images and in-content.
Use schema.org to structure your data. Try the Google Structured Data Testing To ol to validate markup
Link Signals Link signals are similar to link building for normal SEO with a focus on local sources instead of high authority links. 1.
Give an interview to a local reporter about your website or business
2.
Offer a scholarship or job to students in college
3.
Create a AMA on Reddit in your local community (and relevant subreddit)
4.
Build a local meetup community and cite your NAP on the events page
5.
Join a meetup.com local event. Contact them about sponsoring an event and get a local citation
Review Signals Google correlates good reviews with a good business so they will naturally rank that business higher for local searches. These reviews come from a large list of sources:
Building Review Signals
Simple ways to get more reviews from your customers: • • • • •
Link to review profiles on your website Try this review handout generator by whitespark that walks your customers through reviewing your website Get a ‘Find Us On Yelp’ Sticker Add your review profiles to your order confirmation email Set up an email to send 30 days after your customer receive their product, asking for a review
Social Signals Social signals can be tweets, shares, +1’s, retweets, shares, etc.
• Create a how-to guide and share it on all your social media profiles • Make a paid page like ad on Facebook • Like and follow other profiles to get return likes & follows • Be active on social media using hashtags frequently • Add all your social links on your Google+ page
Behavioral Signals These signals are based on user behavior both in google and on your website. Search engines use the following behavioral ranking factors:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Time Duration Frequency Type of access Click-through rate (ctr) Navigational paths
Behavioral Signals (cont.)
Time
Duration
Time of day can have an impact on behavioral signals. Whether people tend to click on certain website more in the morning.. or at night.
The average time a user stays on your website can give search engines a good idea whether your website is good or not.
Frequency The average time a user stays on your website can give search engines a good idea whether your website is good or not.
Behavioral Signals (cont.)
Type of access Having a website that is responsive (works on all devices) is very important for this ranking factor.
CTR (click through rate) This is one of the most prominent search quality feedback in many algorithms for search. Increasing your CTR can be done by adding rich snippets, getting reviews, add phone extension and schema.org structured data.
Personalization Personalization refers to the unique results per user. Its the convergence of local, social and mobile which is personalized to each persons search results.
Wrapping Up
tytonmedia.com