Local Search Strategies & Live SEO Video Lab

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Local Search Strategies

&

Live SEO Video Lab

Presented By:

July 22, 2009

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Cory Barbot

Senior Natural Search Specialist

Apogee Search

Darby Tober

Manager of Natural Search

Apogee Search

http://www.apogee-search.com?source=presentation


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LOCAL SEARCH STRATEGIES

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Agenda

What is local search & why you care:

Definitions, Facts, Figures

How to take advantage of local search:

Turning Thought Into Action

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Terminology4



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most searches

have local intent

(eventually)

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Online search influenced

$471 billion worth of

offline sales last year …

versus only $136 billion

in e-commerce sales

(eMarketer, 2008)

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Product research and comparison

shopping happen online. But 67% of

those purchases happen offline.

(Accenture)

90% of purchases are made within 50

miles of a person's home. (Kelsey)

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Google moved from three to ten results in February 2008

Google 10-Pack

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Shows as a blended result. Can expand your search results

to get more info without leaving page

Integrated Map

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Google now searches locally based on IP address if

keyword is a service.“House Painting” renders local

referrals and shows the map

No Geo Keywords Needed

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How to Submit your Company

• Register individually with Google, Yahoo!, and Bing

• local.google.com

• listings.local.yahoo.com

• ssl.bing.com/listings

• Register all your addresses

• Tip: Be as robust as possible when registering

• Include coupons, pictures, hours of operation, videos,

etc.

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Provides users with an overview of their local search

presence in all three search engines plus Best of Web

GetListed.org

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Google Local Business Center

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Additional Options

• In addition to categories and hours of operation

features, you can also add:

• Payment Options

• Photos of your product or storefront (limit of 10)

• Tip: Host photos on Flickr and geotag images

• Videos (limit of 5)

• Tip: Host videos on YouTube and optimize

• Additional Details

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Listing Validation

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Listing Details

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Local/Map SEO

1. On Page Optimization

2. Citations

3. Link Building

4. Reviews

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On Page Optimization

• Include “City, State” in title tag

• Include physical address to pages

• Customize by page for multiple localities

• Keywords

• Do not overdo inclusion of keywords

• Content should be interesting enough to entice user to link back

to site

• Address

• Ensure each page of your website contains the address of your

business

• Internal Linking

• Turn the keyword into a link point at the page it does target

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Tagging

Goal is to...

Accurately describe content of page

Create unique tags for each page

Keep tags short when possible

Include city within tags to improve association and local

ranking

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Tagging Continued…

Title tags – Very important to SEO. Informs both search

engines and users about the content of your page. First bit

of information to appear in search results

• <title>Keyword City, State | Company Name</title>

Meta tags: keywords and description – Like title tags,

provides information about content of page

Keywords viewed by search engines, description sometimes

pulled in search result

• <meta name=”description” content=”Located in City, State, Company

Name specializes in Keyword...” />

• <meta name=”keywords” content=”Keyword” />

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Tagging Continued…

Header tags – On page elements provide information about

content of page as well. Given extra weight by search

engines

• <h1>Keyword</h1>

• Vary from H1 to H6, most important to least important

Alt text tag – Specifies text that will appear to search

engines since images can not be rendered

• <img src=”images/Keyword.jpg” alt=”Keyword”>

URLs – Not a tag, but can be tagged. Use static URLs and

include keywords in URL along with dashes, not

underscores: /austin-custom-software, not

/austin_custom_software

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Title Tags25



Header Tags26



Alt Text27



URLs28



On Page Optimization

• Keywords – important content of each page contains its

targeted keywords

• Do not overdo inclusion of keywords, though

• Content should be interesting enough to entice users to link to

website

• Address – make sure each page of your website contains

the address of your business

• HTML and hCards

• Internal Linking – it's inevitable you will use keywords on a

page it does not target. Don't fret! Turn that keyword into a

link pointing at the page it does target

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Internal Linking

Toys

Red ToysBlue Toys

Green Toys

Red Toys

Toys

Blue Toys

Toys

Green Toys

Toys

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Citations Explained

• In local search a citation is a mention of your business

name and address on a website even if it isn't a link

• Search engines do not only look at incoming links to

help determine local search rankings, but also citations

• Citations help search engines validate information they

have about a business

• Improving the number of citations to your business'

website consists of submitting your site to a variety

websites

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Citations

• Appearance of business name and location on same

page is a signal that boosts rankings

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Major Local Search Data Centers

• A number of websites act as data centers providing

secondary local search websites with information about

your website

• After Google Local Business Center, submit info to centers

• Universal Business Listing

• For $30/year, will submit your business information to infoUSA and

a number of other locally focused websites

• InfoUSA

• Localeze

• Acxiom – not able to submit online, search web on their

own acquiring data

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Local Search Sites

• On one level, function as directories in that they help

categorize businesses by their metadata

• Much more interactive than directories, social media

directories: Send listing to a friend, social bookmarking,

send to phone, write reviews, create a profile, acquire

friends

• Provide incoming links and citations

• Examples: Yelp, Yellowbot, Local.com, TrueLocal, HotFrog

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Local Business Directories

• Finding local business directories is as easy as searching

for “[your city] directory”

• These directories are highly associated with a city/region

and crawled often by the search engines

• Better Business Bureau functions as a high value, highly

localized business directory

• Provide incoming links and citations

• Examples: Better Business Bureau, TheCityofAustin.com,

Austin.com

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Reviews: Get Them

The importance of reviews is growing. Not just for SEO,

but for every local business

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Reviews Continued...

Google prefers

different sources

for different

industries. Do

your research

and get reviews

where Google

shows they

matter

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Don't Forget The Video!

• Easy to implement in SEO

• Produce once, get recurring benefits

• Minimal equipment, make it real

• Many online profile listings accept video

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• Algorithms getting better, more accurate

• More results with local flavor

• Reviews help filter the best local venues

• Take advantage of blended search results

• Develop mobile version of site - .mobi

What's on the Local horizon?

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Video Optimization



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Who watches online video?The percentage of Internet users in each group who watch or download online video.

Gender %

Men 63

Women 51

Income %

Less than $30K 52

$30K - $50K 63

$50K - $75K 63

$75K+ 62

Age %

Ages 18 – 29 76

Ages 30 – 49 57

Ages 50 – 64 46

Age 65+ 39

Education %

HS Grad or less 76

Some college 57

College grad 46

Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project Tracking Survey, 2.15 – 3.7.07



On-Site Video Optimization

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Embedded video instead of a

pop-up window.

HTML content describing the

video.




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Add your keywords and the word “videos” to the page’s

tags and content.

<title>Coronary Artery Disease (Ateriosclerosis) Video

| Videos by St. Jude Medical, Heart Library</title>

<meta name=“description” content=“Coronary Artery disease

is the leading cause of death for men and women in the

United States. Learn more about it in this

informational video.” />



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Video Sharing Sites



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Video Sharing Sites



YouTube Video Guidelines

Video length and size:

• Up to 10 minutes long

• Up to 1,024 MB file size

File formats:

• .AVI

• .MOV

• .WMV

• .MPG

Resolution:

• YouTube recommends 640 x 480 pixels.

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Creating a YouTube Presence

1. Sign-up. Choose a username that includes your business

name.

2. Adjust your channel page settings.

i. Add a title, description, and tags.

ii. Set channel comment options.

iii. Change channel type to Director.

3. Upload your videos.

i. Optimize titles, descriptions, and tags with keywords.

ii. Set sharing options.

4. Design your channel page.

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Local Search Strategies & Live SEO Video Lab

Technology

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