Review Tactics for Local Rankings - SearchFest 2013
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Transcript of Review Tactics for Local Rankings - SearchFest 2013
Review Tactics for Local Rankings
SEMpdx SearchFest 2013
Darren Shaw@EdmontonSEOhttp://www.whitespark.ca
SummaryTracking Offline Conversions
Google+ Local Reviews 1. Why I’m Focusing on Reviews 2. Review Acquisition Tactics 3. Business to Business Reviews 4. Finding Top Reviewers 5. Review Filtering Factors 6. Review Tips
Yelp 1. Why It’s Awesome 2. How To Improve Your Yelp Rankings
Tracking Offline ConversionsCall tracking is expensive and problematic for local SEO
MUST use your actual numberon your website for NAP consistency
solution is to put the call tracking number in as an image then put your actual number in the footer in schema.org
Tracking Offline ConversionsNEVER use call tracking on citation sites
Using a call tracking number in your citations will massively mess up your NAP consistency
There is no automated solution for tracking these calls (unless the site is implementing an image or some kind of cloaking)
Tracking Offline ConversionsSolution: build a form on your site that pushes conversionsto Google Analytics. Ask callers how they heard about you.
Tracking Offline ConversionsOn submit, fire a conversion over to Google Analytics.
This is going to take a bit of technical expertise that many SMBs won’t want to bother with though.
Offline Conversion Tracker (free tool)http://www.whitespark.ca/offline-conversion-tracker
Tracking Form
Opens the search in a new window with the “near=“ parameter set to the location entered on the add/edit business page so you can visually check if you rank organically or locally (Google only)
Google AnalyticsTracks a breakdown of each source, keywords, caller, notes
Tracking Offline Conversions
Google+ Local Reviews 1. Why I’m Focusing on Reviews 2. Review Acquisition Tactics 3. Business to Business Reviews 4. Finding Top Reviewers 5. Review Filtering Factors 6. Review Tips
Yelp 1. Why It’s Awesome 2. How To Improve Your Yelp Rankings
Why am I focusing on reviews?
Recently worked on research for a business with thousands of locations
Gathered ranking factor data for 100 locations
Rank, Location age, Competition, # Citations, # Reviews, Keywords in reviews, Categories, Links
Reviews were the key factor between locations that ranked and locations that didn’t.
Listings with reviews provide a better user experience
VS
Google is all about user experience
Tracking Offline Conversions
Google+ Local Reviews 1. Why I’m Focusing on Reviews 2. Review Acquisition Tactics 3. Business to Business Reviews 4. Finding Top Reviewers 5. Review Filtering Factors 6. Review Tips
Yelp 1. Why It’s Awesome 2. How To Improve Your Yelp Rankings
Review Acquisition TacticsPERSONALIZED Email Follow Up
Review Acquisition TacticsFollow Up on your follow up
Review Acquisition TacticsThird time’s the charm
Review Acquisition TacticsSales receipt, email signature, back of business card
… leave us a review
Review Acquisition TacticsPut a sign on the counter
Review Acquisition TacticsPut a sign on the counter
XThat shit don’t work
Review Acquisition TacticsCreate a page on your site
Review Acquisition TacticsMatthew Hunt’s Review Funnelhttp://www.smallbusinessonlinecoach.com/blog/
Review Acquisition TacticsIf they select “Excellent” send to this page
Review Acquisition TacticsClick Yahoo, get page with video and iFramed review page
Review Acquisition TacticsClick Google, go to page with video (can’t iFrame it)
Review Acquisition TacticsHow to review us handout
Developed by Phil Rozek“The Reviews Guy”
Review Acquisition TacticsHow to review us hand-out
WTF?
Follow him
Read his blog
Get on his mailing list
Review Handout Generator - FREE!http://www.whitespark.ca/review-handout-generator
Review Handout Generator - FREE!http://www.whitespark.ca/review-handout-generator
Review HandoutGeneratorPrintable PDF
Tracking Offline Conversions
Google+ Local Reviews 1. Why I’m Focusing on Reviews 2. Review Acquisition Tactics 3. Business to Business Reviews 4. Finding Top Reviewers 5. Review Filtering Factors 6. Review Tips
Yelp 1. Why It’s Awesome 2. How To Improve Your Yelp Rankings
Business to Business Reviews
http://www.davidmihm.com/blog/google/plus-review-as-business/
Business to Business Reviews
Call your clients andmake a list of whothey work with. Askthem to think aboutthe invoices they pay.
B2B Review Exchanges - How To
Sign into G+ using your personal account
B2B Review Exchanges - How To
Scroll down and click More > Pages on the left
B2B Review Exchanges - How To
Click “Switch to this page”
B2B Review Exchanges - How To
You’ll see a status bar appear at the top thatSays “You are now using Google+ as a page”
B2B Review Exchanges - How To
You can now click the Local icon on the left side, find the business you want to review, and leave them a nice
keyword rich review.
Tracking Offline Conversions
Google+ Local Reviews 1. Why I’m Focusing on Reviews 2. Review Acquisition Tactics 3. Business to Business Reviews 4. Finding Top Reviewers 5. Review Filtering Factors 6. Review Tips
Yelp 1. Why It’s Awesome 2. How To Improve Your Yelp Rankings
Finding Authority Reviewers
Click “Local” in G+, enter a non-restaurant keyword and city, and click search. Scan through the results. This pro
tip is courtesy of Mike Ramsey.
Engaging Authority Reviewers
Check out their profiles, learn about what they like, circle them, follow them on twitter, leave comments on their posts. ENGAGE with them in a positive, non-promotional, manner. After a relationship is established, you could maybe say
something like "I'd love for you to come by the shop sometime." Keep it simple.
Tracking Offline Conversions
Google+ Local Reviews 1. Why I’m Focusing on Reviews 2. Review Acquisition Tactics 3. Business to Business Reviews 4. Finding Top Reviewers 5. Review Filtering Factors 6. Review Tips
Yelp 1. Why It’s Awesome 2. How To Improve Your Yelp Rankings
Review Filtering FactorsReview Velocity
Keep it natural, which will depend on your industry and past history. No spikes. No mass "please review us" mailouts to your mailing list.
Review Filtering FactorsReviews from the same IP
No review stations. Don’t take customer comment cards and post them as reviews from your office computer.
Review Filtering FactorsReviews that come from the same referrer
Google likely tracks the referring source on each review created. If you always send people to your “please review us” page on your site and all your reviews
come through links on this page, it can indicate that the reviews were solicited.
If you’re paranoid about referrer tracking…Review Filtering Factors
Review Filtering FactorsReviews that come from the same user agent
There are hundreds of different user agents that identify the browser, browser version, platform, and operating system version. If all your reviews are tagged
with the same user agent it could be a spam signal.
Review Filtering FactorsReviews that come from the same user agent
No iPad out in the field (“10% discount for a review on the spot?”). They might not use user agent as a spam signal now, but they could later.
Review Filtering FactorsReviews from inactive users
Someone signs up, leaves you a review, then never uses their account again.It’s filter time!
Review Filtering FactorsUnnatural review content
Pretty sure that those super smart PhDs at Google have methods to identify if reviews are fake based on the content.
http://reviewskeptic.com/
Tracking Offline Conversions
Google+ Local Reviews 1. Why I’m Focusing on Reviews 2. Review Acquisition Tactics 3. Business to Business Reviews 4. Finding Top Reviewers 5. Review Filtering Factors 6. Review Tips
Yelp 1. Why It’s Awesome 2. How To Improve Your Yelp Rankings
Review Tips#1 – Get at least *some* reviews
Review Tips#2 – Get 10 reviews, get the Zagat rating in SERPs
Review Tips#3 – Get keywords in your reviews. They really help. Ask reviewers to mention the service.
Review Tips#4 – After you have 10 G+L reviews, diversify
http://getlisted.org/resources/local-citations-by-category.aspx
“Best” places for third party reviewsGetListed/Whitespark Study Best Citation Sources by Category
“Best” places for third party reviewsAdam Steele’s studyhttp://www.leanmarketing.ca/lean-top-50-best-local-citation-sources-in-the-usa/
He scraped 3rd party review sources from 45,570 listings and categorized them by city and category. I don’t think it says much about them being the best
citation sources, but it’s super valuable for identifying 3rd party review sources.
You have to get on his mailing list to get the data
Where to get third party reviewsPhil Rozek’s Local Review Ecosystemhttp://www.localvisibilitysystem.com/2012/07/06/the-local-business-reviews-ecosystem/
Some sites feed the reviews to many other sites, so it’s good to know which ones will give you additional distribution and encourage reviews there.
Citysearch and Yelp stand out.
Tracking Offline Conversions
Google+ Local Reviews 1. Why I’m Focusing on Reviews 2. Review Acquisition Tactics 3. Business to Business Reviews 4. Finding Top Reviewers 5. Review Filtering Factors 6. Review Tips
Yelp 1. Why It’s Awesome 2. How To Improve Your Yelp Rankings
Yelp It’s one dang awesome site
Way more (and better) data on Yelp
YelpIt’s all over the local SERPs
YelpIt’s all over the local SERPs
YelpIt’s all over the local SERPs
Yelp often ranks abovethe local pack
YelpIt dominated the GetListed/Whitespark study
http://getlisted.org/resources/local-citations-by-category.aspx
NotJust
Restaurants!
YelpAnother reason to spend time on Yelp: Bing
YelpFurniture Outlet in Chicago
YelpFurniture Outlet in Chicago
Yelp
I called Andy to ask him some questions
Yelp“How has Yelp helped your business? How is business?”
It has helped a lot. A lot of people say they find me on Yelp. Business is great.
NOT ACTUALLY ANDY
Yelp“What percentage of your new business comes throughYelp? Just a rough estimate would be great.”
I would estimate about 70%
NOT ACTUALLY ANDY
Yelp“Are you doing other forms of online marketing, orjust Yelp?”
Nope. Nothing else. Well, we have a website.
NOT ACTUALLY ANDY
Andy’sWebsite
Yelp“How are you promoting your business on Yelp? Stickers?A sign in the store? On your website?”
I don’t do anything. It just happened naturally.
NOT ACTUALLY ANDY
Yelp“So what do you think is the secret to success on Yelp?”
Just take care of your customers and run a good business
Oh man! If only all our clientswere like Andy.
NOT ACTUALLY ANDY
YelpThis small business is killing it thanks to Yelp
Yelp#1 ranking with review stars and he does no SEO
DAYUM!!
Yelp
Are your SMB clients tweeting and facebooking to no listeners?
Try allocating some of that time to Yelp.
Tracking Offline Conversions
Google+ Local Reviews 1. Why I’m Focusing on Reviews 2. Review Acquisition Tactics 3. Business to Business Reviews 4. Finding Top Reviewers 5. Review Filtering Factors 6. Review Tips
Yelp 1. Why It’s Awesome 2. How To Improve Your Yelp Rankings
YelpCan’t ask for Yelp reviews. *Awareness* not solicitation
http://officialblog.yelp.com/2010/08/dont-ask-for-reviews.html
YelpClaim and fully complete your Yelp business page
http://biz.yelp.com
YelpClaim and fully complete your Yelp business page
http://www.reviewtrackers.com/yelp-help-ultimate-guide-optimizing-yelp-business-page-listing/
YelpPut up your stickers. *if you have them
These stickers have to be earned.you can’t request them. The company doles them out 4 timesa year to businesses with lots ofreviews and and average of 3.5stars
YelpAdd a “Find us on Yelp” badge to your website.Totally sanctioned.
They have a Flickr account where you can downloadimages, badges, signs, etc.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/yelp/sets/72157623054478330/detail/
YelpPut up a sign in the office/lobby/whateverTotally sanctioned.
YelpAdd a link to your Yelp listing in your email signature.Totally sanctioned.
http://www.wisestamp.com
YelpUse a badge to show off your Yelp reviews on your websiteTotally sanctioned.
http://www.refmobworks.com/yelp.jsp
YelpUnfiltering reviews
YelpUnfiltering reviewsGet them back on Yelp. Respond, friend, compliment, message
YelpFinding people you know that are on Yelp
Welp, that was easy!
Thanks!
Darren Shawhttp://www.whitespark.ca@EdmontonSEO