INTRO TO LOCAL SEO & PPCMARCH 2015

2@renee_girard @imcassy

HELLO! I’M RENEE

• Senior Organic Search Specialist

• 3+ years digital marketing experience

• Google Analytics certified

• WordCamp MKE Speaker

• B2B, B2C, professional association

expertise

• Avid puppy stalker

3@renee_girard @imcassy

HI THERE! I’M CASSY

• Senior PPC Specialist

• 6+ years digital marketing experience

• Google AdWords certified

• B2B & B2C clients

• National & international experience

• Business Marketing Association (BMA)

Breakfast Workshop speaker

• Collects band t-shirts

2500+ EMPLOYEES

24U.S. LOCATIONS

OFFSHOREEUROPE, CHINA AND INDIA

800+ PET LOVERS

WE ARE38

TRIATHLETES

$500 MM+ REVENUES

5@renee_girard @imcassy

AGENDA

• Introduction

• What is local?

• Placement Opportunities

• What is Pigeon?

• SEO

• Create & verify Google My Business

• Optimize WordPress landing pages

• Claim citations

• Earn backlinks

• Encourage reviews

• PPC

• Geo-targeting

• Measuring geo-targets

• Adjusting bids for geo-targets

• Location ad extensions

• Tools

• Discussion

6

LET’S GET LOCAL!

7@renee_girard @imcassy

WHAT IS LOCAL?

Local search is the

practice of increasing your

visibility for localized and

non-localized search

queries based on

proximity and other ranking

factors.

8@renee_girard @imcassy

HOW LOCAL RESULTS ARE SERVED

Physical location

● IP Address

○ Unique number assigned by Internet Service Providers

to each computer connected to the Internet.

● Mobile device location (proximity)

○ GPS depends on signal and connection

○ Wi-Fi access range of a typical router

○ Google’s cell ID (cell tower) location database

■ Absence of Wi-Fi or GPS. Dependent on number of

cell towers within an area along with available data

9@renee_girard @imcassy

HOW LOCAL RESULTS ARE SERVED

Areas of interest

● Recent locations

○ Approximate physical location or location of interest

based on a person’s past searches or physical

location

■ Geo-targeted search queries

■ Country-specific domain

● Related cities

○ Nearby, closely related cities, suburbs, etc. that

normally couldn't be targeted because of low

population, insufficient data about the geographic

area, or because city-level targeting isn't available.

10@renee_girard @imcassy

HOW DOES LOCAL WORK?

ALGO

LOCATION

AREAS OF INTEREST

Source: http://selnd.com/1rfWU6V

Hai! I iz Pigeon.

12@renee_girard @imcassy

GOOGLE “PIGEON” ALGORITHM

Source: http://selnd.com/1rfWU6V

• Born on July 24th, 2014

• Provides more useful, relevant and

accurate local search results

• Improves distance and location

ranking parameters

• Boosts local directories (Yelp)

• More closely tied to traditional

Google ranking signals

• Introduced new Snack Pack

• Cut down 7-packs

• Still being updated

13@renee_girard @imcassy

PLACEMENT OPPORTUNITIES: LOCAL 3- OR 7-PACK

Local 3-packs are quickly

replacing 7-packs, especially

on mobile.

15@renee_girard @imcassy

WHAT HAPPENED TO LOCAL CAROUSEL?

The Google Local Carousel was recently removed and is no

longer a placement opportunity for local results. Now, it only

appears for select lists and collections, such as movies, music,

amusement parks, and other points of interest.

16@renee_girard @imcassy

PLACEMENT OPPORTUNITIES: SNACK PACK

The Google Snack

Pack replaced the

Carousel and includes

the top 3 local results.

It appears across all

devices. Each category

features filters and

opens a new page with

full local listings.

18@renee_girard @imcassy

IGNORE LOCAL SEARCH AT YOUR OWN RISK

The opportunity cost of not doing local is less visibility

across all devices, especially mobile, and essentially

the loss of business to your competitors who are

optimized for local searches.

19@renee_girard @imcassy

UNOFFICIAL LOCAL RANKING FACTORS

REVIEWS11%

ON-PAGE22%

CITATIONS56%

BACKLINKS11%

20@renee_girard @imcassy

GOOGLE MY BUSINESS RANKING

FACTORS FOR LOCAL

21@renee_girard @imcassy

22@renee_girard @imcassy

GOOGLE MY BUSINESS BASICS

Suite of Tools

• Business Pages

• Brand Pages

• Google+

• Maps

Functionality

• Bulk local uploads

• +1 (Shares)

• Food Reviews (Zagat)

• Communities

• Photos

• Videos (YouTube)

• Updates

• Hangouts

• Mobile app

23@renee_girard @imcassy

❑ Product/service keyword in Google

My Business title

❑ NAP of the landing page = NAP of

Google My Business

❑ Local phone number

❑ Links to your website & other

profiles

❑ Photos

❑ Reviews

❑ Hours of operation

❑ Proper Google My Business

category association

GOOGLE MY BUSINESS RECOMMENDED OPTIMIZATIONS

❑ Claim your Google My Business

listings

❑ Must have physical location

(no P.O. boxes)

❑ Must have local phone

number (no toll free numbers)

❑ Must be able to see

customers during all hours of

operation

❑ Verify your listings (phone or snail

mail)

❑ Manage reviews

https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en

24@renee_girard @imcassy

PRIMARY CATEGORY IS NOW REQUIRED

Log in Google My

Business Center and

select the primary

category that best

represents what your

business is. All

locations must share

that one category.

25@renee_girard @imcassy

ON-PAGE RANKING FACTORS

FOR LOCAL

26@renee_girard @imcassy

❑ Individual landing pages (if multiple

locations)

❑ Locally descriptive about us page (if

single location)

❑ Schema.org markup

❑ Google Map embedded

❑ Landing Page NAP = Google My

Business NAP

❑ City, State in title tag, H1/H2 tags &

URL

❑ Product/service keyword in title tag,

H1/H2 tags & URL

ON PAGE RECOMMENDED CONTENT

❑ NAP (Name, Address, Phone

Number)

❑ Hours of operation

❑ Unique location descriptions

❑ Parking/transit information

❑ Promotions

❑ Testimonials & other trust signals

❑ Images

❑ Links to reviews on claimed

profiles for authoritative sources

(Google, Yelp, etc.)

27@renee_girard @imcassy

LOCAL WORDPRESS PAGE MOCK UP

http://www.sterlinglawyers.com/locations/menomonee-falls-wi

28@renee_girard @imcassy

OFF-PAGE RANKING FACTORS

FOR LOCAL

29@renee_girard @imcassy

WHAT IS A CITATION?

A citation is not a backlink. It is a mention of a business

name in close proximity to its address, phone number, or

both. Citations are used by search engines to weigh both

the accuracy and popularity of businesses.

30@renee_girard @imcassy

UNSTRUCTURED VS. STRUCTURED CITATIONS

Unstructured Citation: A mention of any part of your

NAP (Name, Address or Phone number). Ex. – Blog post

Structured Citation: A mention of your entire NAP

(Name, Address and Phone Number). Ex. – Business

listing sites

31@renee_girard @imcassy

❑ Domain Authority of your entire site

(1 – 100)

❑ Page Authority of your local landing

page URL (1 – 100)

❑ Number of citations (both

structured and unstructured)

❑ Consistency

❑ Number of backlinks

❑ Quality of backlink / citation

sources

OFF PAGE RECOMMENDED STRATEGIES

❑ Get citations

❑ Manual

❑ Paid services / tools

❑ Local data aggregators

❑ Claim social profiles

❑ Publish locally relevant content to

attract backlinks

❑ Nearby local business guides

❑ Earn backlinks

❑ Local event sponsorships

❑ Chamber of Commerce

❑ Clean up duplicate/inconsistent

local listingshttps://moz.com/local

32@renee_girard @imcassy

TOP REVIEW SITES FOR CONSUMERS

Not all review sites are created equal.

33@renee_girard @imcassy

TOP CITATIONS FOR YOUR CITY

34@renee_girard @imcassy

GOOGLE MAP PACK REVIEW SOURCES

35@renee_girard @imcassy

REVIEWS

36@renee_girard @imcassy

GETTING REVIEWS IS HARD

78% of customers will never leave a review. Out of the

customers who do give reviews, only 16% will give 1 to 5

reviews per year.

37@renee_girard @imcassy

❑ Number of reviews

❑ Quality of reviews

❑ Domain Authority of review sites

❑ Diversity of review sites

REVIEWS RECOMMENDED STRATEGIES

❑ Remind your customers to leave a

review

❑ Respond promptly to reviews

❑ Manage your reviews with a tool like

ReviewTrackers

❑ Automate review requests with

software or through your ESP

❑ Always comply with the law - never

pay for reviews!

❑ Know which review sites are most

important to Google, for your

industry, and your city

https://www.whitespark.ca/review-handout-generator

http://www.reviewtrackers.com

38@renee_girard @imcassy

PAID SEARCH

39@renee_girard @imcassy

GEO-TARGETING

40@renee_girard @imcassy

GEO-TARGETING

Location targeting helps focus advertising on areas where

you'll find the right customers and restrict it in areas where

you don't based upon performance.

41@renee_girard @imcassy

BASIC LOCATION SETTINGS

● Targeted locations

● Excluded locations

● Edit > Advanced Search

42@renee_girard @imcassy

BASIC LOCATION SETTINGS

43@renee_girard @imcassy

LOCATION OPTIONS (ADVANCED)

● Further refine traffic to selected location targets and

exclusions

● Defining REACH

44@renee_girard @imcassy

MEASURE GEO-TARGETING

45@renee_girard @imcassy

MEASURING GEOGRAPHIC PERFORMANCE

❏ Select your location and click View location reports

❏ Geographic (physical location + location interest)

❏ User location (physical location only)

46@renee_girard @imcassy

MEASURING GEOGRAPHIC PERFORMANCE

❏ View performance by multiple location breakdown options

❏ Identify most important pre-click or post-click metrics

based upon goals (visibility vs. goal

completions/transactions)

❏ Increase/decrease bids by location

47@renee_girard @imcassy

ADJUSTING BIDS FOR LOCAL

48@renee_girard @imcassy

CALCULATING LOCATION BID ADJUSTMENTS

Maximize leads or transactions at a particular cost-per-

acquisition (CPA) or return-on-investment (ROI) level by setting

bid adjustments to equalize target metrics across all locations.

As a math formula, it looks like this:

Location bid adjustment =

100% * ( ( Campaign goal ÷ Actual performance ) - 1 )

49@renee_girard @imcassy

CALCULATING LOCATION BID ADJUSTMENTS

50@renee_girard @imcassy

APPLYING BID ADJUSTMENTS

❏ Add new locations in

campaign settings

❏ Input percentages under

Bid adj. column, next to

appropriate location

❏ If searcher meets

location criteria,

AdWords will

increase/decrease bids

based upon set

percentages

51@renee_girard @imcassy

LOCATION AD EXTENSIONS

52@renee_girard @imcassy

LOCATION EXTENSIONS

● Location extensions show

your business address,

phone number, and a map

marker with your ad text.

● On mobile, they include a

link with directions to your

business.

● Clicks on ads with location

extensions cost a standard

cost-per-click.

On average, ads with location extensions

generally see a 10% boost in clickthrough rate!

Desktop Example

Mobile Example

53@renee_girard @imcassy

SET UP LOCATION EXTENSIONS

● With same

email address

used to login

and manage

AdWords, set

up Google My

Business

account

● Link Google

My Business

account to

Google

AdWords

54@renee_girard @imcassy

SET UP LOCATION EXTENSIONS

Feature pulls locations associated to login email address

55@renee_girard @imcassy

SET UP LOCATION EXTENSIONS

● Syncing locations may take up to 24 hours

● Once synced, assign location(s) to campaigns

● If multiple locations, select one or more that apply per

campaign

56@renee_girard @imcassy

TOOLS

57@renee_girard @imcassy

LOCAL SEARCH RESOURCES

Source: http://selnd.com/1rfWU6V

❑ Google My Business - www.google.com/business

❑Moz Local Learning Center - moz.com/learn/local

❑Whitespark - www.whitespark.ca/tools

❑ Andrew Shotland - www.localseoguide.com

❑ David Mihm - www.davidmihm.com

❑Mike Blumenthal - blumenthals.com/blog

❑ Greg Gifford - www.slideshare.net/GregGifford

58@renee_girard @imcassy

WORDPRESS PLUGINS

Source: http://selnd.com/1rfWU6V

❑ WPTouch (starting at $49) - wordpress.org/plugins/wptouch/

❑ WordPress Local SEO - wordpress.org/plugins/dh-local-seo/

❑ MapPress Easy Google Maps -

wordpress.org/plugins/mappress-google-maps-for-wordpress

❑ WP Google Map Plugin - wordpress.org/plugins/wp-google-

map-plugin

❑ Local Business SEO - wordpress.org/plugins/mdp-local-

business-seo

❑ Yoast Local SEO Plugin ($69) -

yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/local-seo

59@renee_girard @imcassy

LOCAL SEARCH TOOLS

Source: http://selnd.com/1rfWU6V

❑ Google Local Business Category Tool -

blumenthals.com/Google_LBC_Categories

❑Moz Local ($99 listing / year) - moz.com/local

❑Whitespark Local Citation Finder (starting at $20 /

month) - whitespark.ca/local-citation-finder

❑ ReviewTrackers ($29 / month) - reviewtrackers.com

❑Moz Local Category Research - moz.com/local/categories

❑ Schema.org Local Business Markup -

schema.org/LocalBusiness

❑ Google Webmaster Tools Data Highlighter Tool -

support.google.com/webmasters/answer/3106959?hl=en

60@renee_girard @imcassy

KEY TAKEAWAYS FOR LOCAL SEO

VERIFY & OPTIMIZE

GOOGLE MY BUSINESS

PAGES

CREATE & OPTIMIZE

WORDPRESS PAGES

CLAIM CITATIONS &

SOCIAL PROFILES

EARN BACKLINKS

ENCOURAGE REVIEWS

ONGOING

ONE-TIME TASKS

61@renee_girard @imcassy

KEY TAKEAWAYS FOR YOU

STAY UPDATED BE PATIENT

REPORT/FIGHT SPAMDON’T IGNORE

BRANDING

62@renee_girard @imcassy

QUESTIONS?

63@renee_girard @imcassy

THANK YOU!