So you’ve decided submitting your location to Google Local Business Center would be a smart way to increase your visibility in local search. Couldn’t agree with you more.

Confused about where to start? Not to worry. Let’s walk through it, step by step.

1. Head over to Google Local Business Center. Make sure you have a Google account – that you want your business account to be tied to.
2. Click “Add New Business”.
3. Fill out as much as humanly possible:



4. Categories. In Google Local, you can choose up to 5 categories that describe your business. You’ll have choose at least one category, but I would suggest adding 2-3 categories available by Google, then 2-3 of your own:



5. Is your map marker in the right place? If not, fix it!

That’s it for now, boys and girls! Tomorrow we’ll finish the process of submitting your business!

See the entire guide here.

Nicki Hicks
You’re halfway there!

Ever come home from a conference, start sorting through your notes and think I know I learned something, but what the heck was it? Closely following will often be: Now I remember what I learned, what can I use to help my business?

There’s a lot of information in the SMX live blog recaps, a lot of which involves quick note taking and scattered thoughts. So in an effort to consolidate (in an admittedly very long post) and walk away with something helpful, here are my takeaways:

Analytics

PPC Analytics

• The better your quality score (Ad Rank  = Bid x quality score), the less you pay. So…
  • Split keywords into smaller ad groups, then sort out what works/doesn’t work
  • Create relevant ad copy for each ad group (dissuade as many people from clicking as you’re trying to persuade)
  • Optimize your landing pages; make sure they give your potential customer exactly what you told them they’d find in the ad
  • Experiment with matching options – don’t settle for just exact
  • Don’t forget about SEO (link building to your landing page, implement keywords, etc.
• Don’t forget about negative keywords – often, they can be more valuable than your positive keywords

Google Analytics

• Site Overlay will help you…
  • Show redundant areas (links which should be removed)
  • Show successful areas (links whose real estate should be increased)
• Top pages – which are the most successful pages on the site?
• Funnels – what paths are people taking when they convert?
  • Helps with on-click events, and
  • WILL track PDFs, videos, and links
• Block IP addresses using the filter manager of your designer, developer, office, etc.

Related posts:

• Web Analytics You Should Know

Ecommerce

General Info

• Huge opportunity for video promotion and branding on YouTube
• What do you offer that no one else does? Free shipping? Tell people: make it prominent.
• Test, test, test. What works for someone else may not work for you.
• Get product recommendations!
• Watch out for duplicate content (Use canonical tag, 301 redirects, URL restructuring)

Where do you start?

• Top landing pages
• Pages with high bounce rate/exit rate

Category Pages

• Think of them as landing pages
• Add keyword rich copy below the fold

Related posts:

• Ecommerce Search Marketing Tactics

Local Search

What should you do to rank better locally?

• Verified local business listings on every IYP (Internet Yellow Page) you can get your hands on
• Off-page/off-listing criteria (LINKS to your website and business listings)
  • Links that include your business name and/or address
  • Anchor text that includes your business name and/or address
• Customer reviews
• Traditional on-page criteria (SEO)
  • Business name in title tag
  • All/part business name in domain

Building out & Optimizing your business profile

• Use your main keyword phrase and complementary terms in your profile descriptions
• Grab the long tail by including: products, services, brands you carry, locations you serve
• Choose or create the right categories for your business
• Create attributes but do not keyword stuff

Optimizing your website for local

• Add your location
• Put street address and phone number on every page of the site
• Optimize your Contact/About pages for business name and location

Where to submit (IYPs and other hidden gems)

• Google Maps/Local/Business Center
• Yahoo! Local
• City Search
• Super Pages
• Insider Pages
• Yelp
• Yellow Pages
• BrownBook.com
• Wire Fan
• Mixx
• Biz Journals
• AreaConnect
• MagicYellow
• Switchboard

Other key thoughts

• Strike a balance between optimizing for local and Google

Related posts:

• Ranking Tactics for Local Search

Pay Per Click, PPC, and AdWords

Ad

• Always reinforce ad message by…
  • Giving what you promised
  • Including keywords on landing page

Analytics

• Make sure your funnels, goals, and conversion metrics are set up correctly
• Use bounce rate and time on site to show how your landing page are performing
• Use analytics to test multiple landing pages: what works, what doesn’t?
• Use advanced segments to create custom reports
  • Create segments to make dayparting decisions: to those who arrive during a time you worry about, limit to PPC, then connect with conversions

Conversions

• Are there certain keywords that just aren’t converting? Maybe they cause people to click, but do they convert? Get rid of them! (Note: make sure you use 1 year + of data before you start deleting keywords)
• Tool mentioned more than once: Google AdWords Conversion Optimizer

Keywords

• Buy branded keywords – often they aren’t expensive, don’t let your competition beat you out on them

Social Media

• White paper research: Search Influence

Related posts:

• Actionable PPC Insights from Analytics Data
• Ecommerce Search Marketing Tactics
• The Interplay of Social Media & Paid

Social Media

• #1 Rule: Always add value. Give followers/friends/customers something they don’t get on your website.

Analytics

• Track traffic with GA and outgoing link tracking code
• Track links with bit.ly or HootSuite

Facebook

• What are people talking about on Facebook?
• Know the sites your customers visit? Get the demographics of that site with Quantcast.
• Ads
  • Keywords are cheap
  • Segment, segment, segment by your target audience!
  • Drive people to your fan page, but not the wall; instead send to a call-to-action page. Could even be your site w/ iFrame
• Optimize your photo albums
• Groups
  • Make the name unique and interesting. Think: why would someone want to join this group?
  • Address a need
• Link to your Facebook Page/Group/Event

Reputation Management

• Best advice: the best defense is a good offense
• Use social on social – submit tweets/social sites to social bookmarking sites (Digg, Reddit, etc.)
• Outrank negative press with:
  • Social media profiles
  • Wikipedia submissions (related topics, brand articles, etc.)
  • Videos, images, news

Twitter

• Leveraging to get traffic
  • Give useful information (read: value)
  • Sprinkle with links to your site/blog/Facebook (or other cross-social media spaces)
• Think about how you can use Twitter for your company with…
  • Resources
  • Fast customer service
  • Out-of-the-box techniques that work for you (e.g. contests)
• Engage your followers
• Join conversations (without being obtrusive)
• 80/20 rule: 80% content about account, 20% content unrelated

Related pots:

• Analytics for Social Media
• Facebook Marketing Tactics
• Twitter Marketing Tactics
• Social Media, Search & Reputation Management
• Web Analytics You Should Know

Usability

• What is the goal(s) of your website? Optimize to that goal(s) to increase conversions!
• Give people what they want!
• Test with landing pages…lots and lots of landing pages.

Related posts:

• Increasing Conversions Through Better Usability

Web Marketing

Press Releases/PRWeb

• Write about relevant topics, what people are searching for
• Use images and video, optimize them
• Optimize the release: title, description tag, anchor text, alt tags, URL keywords

Related posts:

• Ecommerce Search Marketing Tactics

Other Great Live Blogging, Notes, and Recaps from SMX East

• 10e20 coverage
• Outspoken Media coverage
• Search Engine Land coverage: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3
• Search Engine Roundtable coverage

David Mihm, Designer & Local Search Marketer, davidmihm.com

What local search looks like

• the 10-pack
• driven by google.com, yahoo.com, etc.

Organic search ecosystem

• Google
• Yahoo/Bing

Local search ecosystem

A little more complicated…

Local search ranking factors

• Verified local business listing
• Off-page/off-listing criteria
• Customer reviews
• Traditional on-page criteria
• 7/ top 10 are specific to local

Developing your local mindset

• SEO is about optimizing sites, local is about optimizing location
• Consistency: name, address, phone number are critical (don’t use tracking phone numbers, don’t stuff keywords into business name)
• Building out business profile, you’re not creating an ad

Local Search

• location (verification, claiming, off-site references, categoreies, reviews)
• website

Traditional

• Website (on-page, title tags, link building)

Mike Blumenthal, Owner & Local Marketing Expert, Blumenthals

How Google Ranks your listing

• Web page totals in Maps (citations)
• Geo references and reviews
• Business name
• Business category
• content

The “new” PageRank

• Score of website
• # links referring to business
• Highest score of those links

How Google scores your website

1. In-bound links from documents that mention the business with full or partial name and/or address
2. in-bound links with business name in anchor text
3. business name in title tag
4. all or part of business name in domain

Takeaways

1. Choose your business name and domain carefully for use in local
2. Think about gaining inbound links with your business name as anchor text
3. Be sure your title tags reflect your name
4. Strike a balance between optimizing your site for local and Google Maps

Mary Bowling, SEO, Director of Search Marketing, seOverflow

• Sometimes the local 10-pack is a 3-pack
• 10-pack isn’t exactly the Maps results
• You cannot be in the 10-pack if you don’t have a Google Local Business Listing

Optimize your Maps listings

• Use your main keyword phrase and complementary terms in your profile descriptions
• Grab the long tail by including:
  - your products and services
  - the brands you carry
  - the locations you serve
• Choose – or create – the right categories (choose two/three existing categories, then create the remaining two/three that apply to your local listing)
• Create attributes (other information not already included – but DO NOT KEYWORD STUFF)

Create citations

• AKA web references
• They don’t have to include a link
• Mine competitors’ web pages (would that site also be willing to give you a citation?)

Get reviews!

• Reviews are exactly what people (and Google) are looking for
• Google pulls reviews from across the web (so it doesn’t matter where your customers leave them)
• Come up with a system to encourage reviews by happy customers
• Yahoo has mentioned after a certain number of reviews, they’ll start figuring out whether your reviews are positive or negative

Your website and the 10 pack

• Use your website to build trust and reinforce you LBL info by:
  - linking to your Maps lisitng
  -  get links from local websites (Center of Commerce,e tc.)

On-page optimization

• Add location!!
• Place full street address and phone number on every page of your website
• Optimizae your Contact/About page for business name/location

Standaradize

• Use same name, address, phone number everywhere
• Got to sources of business data and standardize
• Get listed on local directories

Check for Location Trust

• Check data providers
• Search for your business name
• Search for your phone number
• Search for your address

How to track the pack - how to track the 10-pack with Google Analytics

Will Scott, President, Search Influence

Barnacle SEO: attaching oneself to a large fixed object, then waiting for customers to float by in the current.

Local search: how?

• “Web references” = links, Links = trust
  - Yellow Pages
  - Local directories
• Links aren’t critical – the correlating factors are name, address, and phone

Places to submit:

• Wire Fan
• Mixx
• Yahoo! Local
• City Search
• Super Pages
• Insider Pages
• Yelp
• Yellow Pages
• BrownBook.com

How can you do the same

• Maximize local listings with SEO
  - Keywords in titles and copy
  - Links to local profiles (even low-quality links will do, leverage social bookmarking/directories)

Andrew Shotland, Proprietor, Local SEO Guide

Top SEO’d IYPs (Internet Yellow Pages)

1. SuperPages
2. CitySearch
3. Yelp
4. Yahoo Local
5. InsiderPages
6. Yellow Pages
7. Biz Journals
8. AreaConnect
9. MagicYellow
10. Switchboard
11. Here are more

Rankings by site type

1. Local Business – 32%
2. IYP – 27%
3. Vertical – 17%
4. Article – 6%
5. Local Vertical – 5%
6. LYP – 5%
7. Natl Chain – 4%
8. Unrelated – 2%
9. Gov – 1%
10. Edu – 1%
11. Social – <1%
12. Video – <1%

Which Yellow Pages sites should you use for which categories?

Questions

• Google’s Local Listing bulk upload instructions
• Choose a certain number of “barnacle” or IYP sites, because you’ll want to continuously update them.
• Like traditional SEO, keep profiles “fresh”. For example, in Google Maps, update coupons, photos, videos, etc. especially if your customers are used to it.
• What social media sites are good for local businesses? Twitter for a company like a pizza place, for a company like a plastic surgeon: Facebook. For a more professional company, LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the easiest SM site to talk people into, and to ease them into others.
• Vertical is important for review sites (Urbanspoon and Yelp is mandatory for restaurants, TripAdvisor for hotels)
• Barnacle sites outrank you: you can get ahead of yourself.
• Other important sites that will get picked up by a ton of others: Openlist, Zvents, Local.com, Mojopages, Immercifind
• How to prevent local listings sabotage? Make your listing consistent across every IYP and every submission.

For every local client we have, we always submit and verify them to the major local search engines – including Google Local Business Center (essentially Google Maps). Recently, Google added a great addition to the works – the Local Business Dashboard! Here’s Google’s official story on it.

Some say the addition was simply for those with limited web presence, although if sites are even showing up in local search results, I’d say they’re doing something right. Regardless of the reason behind it, these statistics will be helpful for any local business: from those with a huge search presence to those with none. Furthermore, even with Google Analytics, this information is awesomely powerful; not to mention, you wouldn’t be able to figure it out any other way.

Your business info

If you already have an account, you know that there is a ton of information you can include in your local listings –  from what you do, to payment taken, to business hours, to tags, to photos, to video. What’s more, the dashboard acts as many social profiles do, with a % complete meter – to further persuade you to continue filling out information.

Activity & Totals

Activity is set up very similar to Google Analytics – impressions indicating how many times (in the past month – or whatever timeframe you select) your listing has shown up as a result. What I find even more impressive is the fact they drill down into actions: those people who click for more info on the Map, for driving directions, and those who click the link to your website.

Top Search Queries

Here’s where you can verify that you’re being found for the correct keywords. The only problem I can see: you don’t see the locations searchers used. In other words, for flyte, all of these keywords look great. But we don’t know if they were looking for website design in Portland, Maine or Kennebunk, Maine. My guess would be the former; but for a lot of our clients who are in lesser-known towns in the middle of Maine, that information is vital.

Where driving directions requests come from

Again, priceless statistics: who’s thinking of coming to your location? Are you investing in those opportunities enough? This information may be a little less important for a company like ours than, say, an Inn or hotel who finds they get a ton of driving directions requests from the Boston area. That might convince them to advertise a little more in Massachusetts.

Coupons are another addition to the dashboard. You can further enhance your local listing by adding coupons for customers who find you via Google Maps.

Nicki Hicks
What are you waiting for? Go submit your local biz!

I don’t expect clients to entirely understand search engine optimization when they come to us – or really even know what it is at all. And in all honesty, that’s fine, because that’s why I have a job. (Thanks for that.) 

But, after reading this perhaps you’ll know a lot more and be that much the wiser when you talk to your Search Marketer.

1. How bad is it to use white on white and write in a bunch of keywords?

Umm really bad. Probably as bad as you can get actually. In the olden days (probably all of 10 – 12 years ago), you could possibly get away with stuffing keywords. Today? Not so much.

2. I know SEO is important, so I’m going to do it this once and get it done with It’s a one-step process, right?

Sorry, no such luck. We’ll talk about it a little more later, but with search moving toward other venues like social media, local reviews, RSS, blogging, and other modern forms of web marketing, there’s no way you can do it once and be done. SEO requires constant massaging and experimentation.

3. What are these meta-keywords I keep hearing about? Can you make me a huge list of them?

Well I could. But it probably wouldn’t do a whole lot.

The thing with meta-keywords is 1) only Yahoo uses them and 2) if you use too many, they’ll hurt you. So, what do I suggest? Using a small group of focused keywords for each page if you’re intent on using them. And remember – even though Yahoo uses them, they don’t have much weight at all.

4. I just don’t have time for social media. Plus, I can get away without doing it.

Again, it’s really not an option any more. Soon, folks who haven’t hopped on the social media bandwagon are going to be struggling to catch up with the rest of the crowd.

So…create a LinkedIn account, get yourself on Facebook, and – if you’re feeling really socially frisky - join Twitter!

5. I’ve heard about this nofollow thing. Do I need to do that to all of my outgoing links?

Nofollowing links is sometimes a good strategy. But that doesn’t mean you should do it to every single outgoing link. 

Nor is it PageRank sculpting. To demonstrate that point, I like this short, sweet description by @Halfdeck.

6. Building links seems like a lot of work. Can’t I just buy them?

Well sure you can. The problem is…search engines typically know that you bought them. Although, there are ways to do it without looking like a spammer.

7. Does Google rank me higher if I have an AdWords campaign with them?

No, Google may be the search engine of choice, but they aren’t tyrants. At flyte, we focus on the organic; but if you want to try Paid Search, this will help get you started.

8. Should I purchase a keyword rich domain and redirect it?

That one actually inspired a blog post out of me. Jill Whalen, much of the same opinion as me, also wrote a great piece on it over at High Rankings.

9. Can I post great local reviews for my own company?

Also an inspirational question.

10. My Dad actually asked me this one: If I start a business, wouldn’t it be smart to figure out what people are searching for first?

Brilliant, Daddy-O. Problem is, as #2 eludes, those words change all the time. However, the following are the top 3 according to Keyword Discovery’s Business sector:

1. barbie
2. Bank of America
3. aol.com

Should be interesting what kind of business you come up with using those! But in all seriousness, every day is different. Google has Trends to track the latest and greatest searches; and SEOmoz has Popular Searches where you can look up searches by day.

Nicki Hicks
The only stupid question is the one you don’t ask