Local SEO - Pearl District Business Association - Jan 2013

Twitter: @AmplifySEM

LOCAL SEO

Hi! Thanks for checking out my presentation

on Local SEO Ranking Factors. Look for these

bubbles in the presentation for extra info

from the actual presentation.


WHO IS THIS PERSON?

JESSICA WARD | DIRECTOR OF SEO

• Focused on SEM / SEO since 2006

• Participates in developing client-strategy for SEO, Social, & PPC

• Manages both B2B and B2C clients of varied industries and sizes

• @JessicaWardPDX


AMPLIFY INTERACTIVEOverview

Boutique Agency – All We Do is Search

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

• Pay Per Click (PPC)

• Link Development & Site Marketing

• Social Media Optimization

• Web Analytics

2010 + 2011 AMA MAX AWARD – BEST SINGLE MEDIUM ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN

Clients benefit from industry experience and strategic perspective

• Established agency – Started 2003

• Established experts – Ben Lloyd started in 1998

• Experts: Speaker at Search Engine Strategies, SEMpdx & more

• Results: Work wins awards

• Approach: Established, proven strategies, tactics and processes


WHAT ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?

• What is SEO?

• Local SEO Ranking Factors

• Domain Authority

• Business Listings

• Google+ Local

• ONE LINK TO RULE THEM ALL– http://bit.ly/WuOHug


WHAT IS SEO?


DEFINITION

“Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is

the process of affecting the visibility

of a website or a web page in a

search engine‟s „natural‟ or un-paid

(„organic‟) search results.”

- Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization


ORGANIC VS. PAID

Paid Search Results

Organic Search Results

This is something that a lot of non-

search people get confused about.

Paid search results are denoted by

Google with “ads” or “sponsored by.”


SO HOW DO YOU RANK #1?

The next slide has the top 5ish Ranking Factors for

Local SEO. There‟s not enough room to have

annotations so I‟m doing it here.

The link at the bottom will bring you to a study by

David Mihm that includes many more ranking

factors for Local SEO. Check it out for additional

ways to rank locally.


LOCAL SEARCH RANKING FACTORS

1. Physical Address in City of Search

2. Proper Category Associations in Listings

3. Accurate & Consistent Business Citations

4. Domain Authority of Website

5. Google+ Local Reviews

http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml


WHO’S AUTHORITY?

What is Authority and what makes a person or a company an authority in a

topic?

The answer: Other people thinking they‟re an authority in the topic!

Domain authority is essentially other people believing your website, your

company is an authority. They do this by mentioning you on the web and

linking to your pages / content.


SEO: LINKS = AUTHORITY = RANKINGS

21%

21%

15%11%

7%

7%

7%6% 5%

Overall Ranking Algorithm

Page Level Link Metrics

Domain Level Link Authority

Page Level Keyword Usage

Domain Level Keyword Usage

Page Level Social Metrics

Domain Level Brand Metrics

Page Level Keyword Agnostic Features

Page Level Traffic/Query Data

Domain Level Keyword Agnostic Features

The takeaway? On-site optimization is critical, but links and other off-

site factors are a tremendous part of the ranking algorithm-Source: 2011 SEOmoz study “Search Engine Ranking Factors”


• Blogging

• Onsite engagement

• Community building

• Community participation

Social

• Directories

• Competitive placement

• Use content to build links

• Conversational (Comments, Q&A)

• Outreach (PR, Guest Posts)

Links

• Keyword targeting

• Optimize existing content

• ID content gaps & develop the right content

• Map content to the inbound marketing sales funnel

Content

• Bot & user accessibility

• Canonicalization

• URL structure

• Page markup

• Structured markup

• Internal linking

Technical

SEO: AUTHORITY PYRAMID

Technical is always

important – no website, no

rankings. Ideas are listed

on ways to build on the

technical aspects.


BUSINESS LISTINGS


WHERE TO PLACE LISTINGS?

Overwhelmed? We all are. Just

find where your customers are

and make sure you‟re listed

there.


BUSINESS LISTINGS IN SEARCH

Business Listings can help you

dominate the search results –

especially for your branded term!


CATEGORIESMake sure your categories are

relevant and accurate to your

business and use as many category

slots as possible while being

relevant.


CONSISTENT BUSINESS INFO

Name

Address

Phone

If you use LLC in your

name, use it that way on

your website and business

listings. If you spell out

4th in your address, do it

everywhere. Consistency

is the name of the game!


GETLISTED.ORG


GOOGLE+ LOCAL


GOOGLE+ LOCAL


GOOGLE+ LOCAL PAGE Google+ content is being used

in Google‟s search results. If

you don‟t have a Google+ Page,

you really need to create one!


REVIEWS

72% of consumers trust online reviews as

much as personal recommendations

52% said that positive online reviews

make them more likely to use a local

business

The Local Consumer Review Survey 2012 From Bright Local (4,500 surveyed)

Google Places didn‟t let you

respond to reviews. Google+

does and it‟s wonderful!


TAKEAWAYS


RANKING FACTORS

• ONE LINK TO RULE THEM ALL– http://bit.ly/WuOHug

1. Physical Address in City of Search

2. Proper Category Associations in Listings

3. Accurate & Consistent Business Citations

4. Domain Authority of Website

5. Google+ Local Reviews


Thanks for your time!

Questions?

That‟s it! Thanks for taking a

look at my presentation and

feel free to send along

feedback. =)