what you need to know about getting found online
DESCRIPTION
Mary Bowling and Mike Belasco of SEOverflow of Denver share their expertise in local search marketing with the Deluxe Small Business Heroes Tour.TRANSCRIPT
What You Need to Know About Getting Found Online
presented by seOverflowMary Bowling & Mike Belasco
Do I Really Need a Website?
presented by seOverflow
YES!
Website = Branding & Control
•Your website isTHE authoritative web document about your business.
•Your website ranks #1 for business name.
•Your website helps you own your own brand name online.
Website = Marketing & Trust
•Your website gives you the opportunity for much more promotional messaging than any where else on the web.•Your website enables you to provide as much information as you want to prospects.•Your website helps build searchers’ trust and confidence in you.
Website = Rankings
•When well-optimized, a website gives you the opportunity to rank well in organic search.
•A website can also help your Google Local Business Listing rank better by building the Search Engines’ trust in the info they have about you.
Shopping for a Website
Get something simple that you can make simple changes on
yourself!
But make sure it’s professional looking.
What Is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization
presented by seOverflow
Creating and improving a website so that it will rank
highly on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)
to help potential customers find the website.
For Local Businesses, SEO Is…
Anatomy of a Google SERP
Organic Web Results
Local 7 Pack
Pay Per Click
Pay Per Click
• Default search settings = 10 per page
• #1 spot = 42% of visits
• The top 5 spots get about 3/4th of the traffic!
Organic Rankings Are Worth…
#1
Who Gets The Clicks?
Source:
COMSCORE
US Search Engine Market Share June 09
65%GOOGLE
20%Yahoo
Bing8%
•65% of searches are made on Google
•Now, Yahoo Search Engine powers the Bing Search Results.
•Yahoo now powers about 30% of all searches.
The Google Algorithms
There are 3 distinct algorithms (ranking formulas) in Google that concern local businesses:• Organic Search• Google Places (aka Maps or Local)• The Google Local 7 Pack
The Algorithms are Different
Organic Search
Organic Web Results
Searches made here
Results displayed here
Organic Search = Web Pages
Organic Web Results
Web pages are shown in the organic results –you need a website to rank here
Maps Search (aka Local or Places)
Searches made here
Results displayed here
Maps Search
Local Business Listings are shown in Maps results-You need an LBL to rank here
Web Search With Local Intent
Local Pack
Searches made here
Results displayed here, when there is local intent
Web Search With Local Intent
Local Pack
LBLs are shown in Local Packs. You need an LBL to rank here. Your website can help you rank better here!
•Search using a geographic term (explicit intent) Denver Aurora Colorado Springs
•Searching for something traditionally found nearby you (implicit intent)
ATM Chinese Take Out
Haircut Veterinarian
What Is Local Intent?
Local Pack Variations
Local Packs at Yahoo & Bing
Small Business Advantage in Maps
RESTAURANT SITE
RESTAURANT SITE
Local Directory
National DIrectory
National Directory
Local Directory
Wikipedia
Local Directory
Local Directory
National Directory
ALL RESTAURANT
WEBSITES
Maps (Places) and Local Pack algorithms give local businesses a BIG advantage!
SEO BasicsOn-page and Off-Page Optimization
The Search Engines want to return the most relevant results for every search query.
So, we have to demonstrate the relevance of our pages for appropriate search queries.
What the Search Engines Want
• By the titles and tags we place on our web pages.
• By what they learn for themselves when they spider or read our pages.
• By what we and others tell them the web pages are about through the text in the links pointing to them.
The SE’s Determine Relevance…
Google Ranking Factors…Simplified
Incoming Links
On-page Keyword Use
Everything Else
On-page Optimization
Keyword Usage on Your Web Pages
Keyword research lets you find out exactly what your potential customers are searching for on the Search Engines.
Don’t Guess! You can get free information on how many people are searching for which words and how hard it will likely be to rank for those keywords.
Keyword Research
•How much many searches are made for it?•How many other webpages are trying to rank for it?•How likely is someone using that keyword to find your site to turn into a new customer?
What Makes a Good Keyword?
• Google Suggest - find popular search terms you didn’t think of – just start typing into search box
• Yahoo Suggest –start typing into Yahoo search box
• WordTracker Questions Tool – see questions people are asking
• Google AdWords Keyword Tool - generate keywords and get competition data
• Market Samurai – use for research and competition data – lots of free training material
• Google Wonder Wheel – visually brainstorm keywords
Free Keyword Research Tools
• Pick keywords with a balance towards low competition and high volume.
• Toss out non-specific and highly competitive terms (e.g. “restaurant”) despite the high volumes.
• Include terms that may not get many searchers but are very specific to what you do and sell – easy to rank for.
Selecting the Right Keywords
Implement your optimization plan by using your chosen keywords naturally in the important areas of your pages:
• HTML page titles• HTML meta descriptions• H1, H2, H3 tags (headlines and subheads)• Unique content – 250+ words per page!• Internal links• Image alt tags
Implementation
Page title + Meta description = Your “Ad”
Your Ads in the Search Results
Title: no more than 65 charactersMeta descriptions: no more than 170 characters
Title
Description
Links = “Votes”– When another website links to yours,
that site is essentially casting a “vote” for your website.
– The more votes you have the better, although the quality of the votes is very important, too. Not all links are equal.
– Continually build new links to your pages.
Linkbuilding
Use your website to reinforce your Local Business Listing by:
• Using location terms in your on-page optimization: keywords plus location
• Getting links from local trust sites, like Chambers, BBB, CVB, local newspapers, schools, business directories and other sites that rank well for location searches.
Your Website and the Local Pack
Make Your Location Absolutely Clear– Place your full street address (with
Zip Code)– and local phone number (with Area
Code) on all pages of your website in text form.
Help Establish Location Trust
Technical Issues
What you don’t know can really hurt
If the Search Engines can’t find or can’t read your
pages, they cannot appear in the Search Results –
NOT EVER!
Crawlability
Use Free Google Webmaster Tools!
Crawlability – Can They Find You?
http://www.google.com/webmasters/
View the text only cache of pages
To See (Mostly) What Google Sees
Duplicate content is bad for searchers.– Do not expect it to rank.– Often, it is automatically generated by
certain types of websites.– You (and your web
designer/developer) may need help from an SEO pro to deal with it.
Duplicate Content
Local Business Listings
The single most important factor in ranking well in Maps and in the Local Pack.
Google Maps (aka Google Places)
www.google.com/local/add
Yahoo Local
http://listings.local.yahoo.com/
Bing Local
https://ssl.bing.com/listings/ListingCenter.aspx
If you never do anything else online, do this!
Claim Your Local Business Listings
Local Business Listings
• Google has gotten much stricter in the past year. Spammers are being penalized or removed from Maps.
• Follow the guidelines given here:– Business Listing Quality Guidelines – Local Business Center User Guide
• LBLs should be good landing pages-searchers may never go to your website.
Do Not Spam Google Maps!
Core Data = Name, Address, Phone (NAP)
These should be the same everywhere online.
Confusion about these can keep you from ranking well in Google Maps and in the Local Pack.
Standardize Core Data
• Internet Yellow Pages• Local/regional online
newspapers and magazines
• Local business directories
• Convention & Visitor’s Bureau
• Chamber of Commerce
Partner Instead of Competing
• Trade associations• Industry directories• Local city guides• Locally focused
powerhouses, like Kudzu, CraigsList, Yelp, CitySearch, etc.
• Better Business Bureau
Partner Up for More Customers
RESTAURANT SITE
RESTAURANT SITE
Local Directory
National DIrectory
National Directory
Local Directory
Wikipedia
Local Directory
Local Directory
National Directory
2 of the Top 10 organic search results are for this restaurant’s own websites
AND the business is also listed on every other page that ranks in the top 10 for italian dinkytown mn
Local Business To Do List
•Optimize your Local Business Listing for Google Maps & Local Pack search results.•Optimize your website for Google Organic search results.•Optimize your website to help your Local Business Listing in the Local Pack results.•Partner up for links and more customers.
Be Relevant!
Reviews and ReputationReviews are not going away!
• Google thinks reviews are exactly what people looking for a local business want to see.
Get Reviews
• Google pulls reviews from all across the web
• Different industries have different trusted review sources & they change
Sources of Reviews
There is general agreement among experts that having online reviews associated with your business can help your Local Business Listings rank better in the Local Search Results.
Reviews Help Local Rankings
Don’t wait until you have a problem to pay attention to what people are saying.
Join the Conversation. It’s About You!
as of Sept 1, 2008,
85% of all the reviews on Yelp are
3, 4 or 5 stars.
Do Not Fear Reviews (unless you suck)
Have a process in place for encouraging reviews from happy customers and for resolving complaints from unhappy customers.
Use reviews to improve your business!
More happy customers = more good reviews = more happy customers!
Use Reviews to Improve
• Look at the reviews your competitors have and see if you can get them in the same places.
• Look at the reviews businesses like yours in other areas have.
• Look at the reviews of businesses related to yours.
• HINT: Use www.LocalSearchToolkit.com
Find Sources for Reviews
THANKS!
seOverflow
http://www.seoverflow.com/
Local Search Toolkit
http://www.localsearchtoolkit.com
Optimized!
http://www.marybowling.com
3457 Ringsby Court Suite 307 Denver 80216
(303) 905-1504