WITH Ali Salman

Google local search training

What we will learn today:

Basics of Local search – what is Local Search and why is it important for SMBs Local search ranking factors – what really matters right now

Analyzing the competition of your local search industry How to conduct local keyword research

Optimizing your website with local search best practices How to effectively get more positive reviews for your business online / offline

Local citation discovery and management Measuring success in local search campaign

Why local SEO is important?

Local search engine optimization isn’t just about local mom-and-pop shops anymore. Practically any business can take advantage of local SEO’s benefits. Since Google’s fan-named “Pigeon” update in 2014, the importance of local SEO has grown, leading many entrepreneurs to focus on their strategy despite going years without considering a local tangent to their inbound marketing campaign.

Going from 7 pack to 3 pack

97% of consumers use internet when researching local products/services (BIA/Kelsey)

95% of smartphone users have looked for local information (Source: The Mobile Movement Study, Google/Ipsos OTX MediaCT , Apr 2011)

Local search ranking factors – what really matters right now

City, County in Landing Page Title

Quality & Authority of Structured Citations

City, County in Landing Page H1/H2 Tags

Consistency of Structured Citations

NAP Matching My Business Page

Location Keywords in Anchor Text of Links

Proper Category Associations**

Quantity of Structured Citations**

Local search ranking factors – what really matters right now

The City and County should be in the home page that you want to position in the search results.

By including your city and county in your landing page title tag, you will be letting both search engines and human visitors know that your business serves and is located in a specific geographic location.

A Local citation is a reference to your business from another online source. This citation in ideal cases include Business Name, Address and Phone Number ( NAP ). These can be linked via your business name or just referenced without an actual link to your site.

Local search ranking factors – what really matters right now

Making sure your city and state (county) is present in the title, H1 and H2 tags of your organic landing pages is very important for search engines understanding the intent of the page.For your main page your H1 should include name and overall service and the H2 would include town and county. On a product specific page the H1 would be the actual product / service and the H2 would ideally contain the area again.This is not set in stone and could migrate to the H3 tag, but be aware of a proper structure.

For your Local SEO campaign to work, having consistent and correct business citations is at an all time high for ranking in Google locally. So it essential that you find and correct any duplicate and inconsistent citations.

If any part of the NAP information found on an external site is incorrect, Google may not pass the credit onto your business.

Local search ranking factors – what really matters right now

NAP Format: Business Name, Address & Phone NumberThese are the crucial details that need to be consistent across the web. They should accurately reflect the crucial Starting Point for this information … your Website. If any part of the NAP information found on an external site is incorrect, Google may not pass the credit onto your business.

Having a location keyword in the anchor text of a link would be ideal, however in the age of penguin this could cause problems in the long term as they may appear or flag up an unnatural element to the link.

In general, it’s still a best practice to obtain keyword– and topic–specific anchor text when possible. However, SEOs may get better results by striving for a variety of anchor text rather than the same keyword each time.

Local search ranking factors – what really matters right now

NAP Format: Business Name, Address & Phone NumberThese are the crucial details that need to be consistent across the web. They should accurately reflect the crucial Starting Point for this information … your Website. If any part of the NAP information found on an external site is incorrect, Google may not pass the credit onto your business.

Having a location keyword in the anchor text of a link would be ideal, however in the age of penguin this could cause problems in the long term as they may appear or flag up an unnatural element to the link.

In general, it’s still a best practice to obtain keyword– and topic–specific anchor text when possible. However, SEOs may get better results by striving for a variety of anchor text rather than the same keyword each time.

Analyzing th

e competition of y

our

local search in

dustry

Competitive analysisWhen you’re looking into your competitors, ask yourself a few key questions to help you see what you need to do to

take down your villains:

● What local citations do they have?

● What local listings are they missing?

● What’s their total number of citations?

● How many total reviews do they have?

● Do they have reviews from a diverse set of sites or only a select few?

● What categories are they associating their business with?

● What keywords are they targeting?

By keeping those questions on your mind as you dive into the structure of your competitors’ local optimization, you’ll

be able to find areas of opportunities for your business to capitalize upon and conquer.

Tools: SemRush and Moz Chrome Tool Bar

Local Long Tail Keywords

Pick less competitive keywords first. Long tail keywords bring higher conversion rate.

Tools: Google keywords Tool & SemRush

Optimizing your website with local search best practices

**Handout

ali@rapidboostmarketing.com

Pick less competitive keywords first. Long tail keywords bring higher conversion rate.

Tools: Google keywords Tool & SemRush