Local SEO Panel
What is SEO
Search Engine Optimization – employing techniques
that help your website rank higher in organic (natural)
search results.
Organic vs. Paid Search Results
Paid
Organic
Local Search Results
Impact of Rankings on CTR
“On average, over 50% of
users click on the first result
on the page. From there we
see a significant drop, with
less than 1% of people
clicking on the 8th link on the
page.”
– Bing, 4/13
US Search “Powered By” Marketshare
5%
25%
Google
Bing
Other
70%
Local Traffic Sources
Search Engines
Google Places (Google+ Local)
Bing Local
Yahoo Local
Ask Local
Locators
SuperPages
YellowPages
FourSquare
Yelp
Local.com
Manta
Google, Bing, and Yahoo incorporate local results depending on query
Local SEO Formula
Links
+
Link Architecture
•Text in hyperlinks
•Anchor text diversity
•Quality of link pages
•Relevance of link pages
•Content on link pages
•Local citations
•Social Media mentions
•Reviews
On-Page
Content
Content
•Title tags
•Meta tags
•Headlines
•Bullet/numbered lists
•Bold and italic text
•Link text
•Body copy
•Keyword distribution
•NAP
•Images & video
•Rich media & PDF’s
+
Search
Friendly
Site
=
High
Rankings
Site Architecture
•Code base
•Robots.txt file
•XML sitemap
•Image hosting
•Site speed
•Folder structure
•Javascript, Flash, Ajax
200+ factors in Google’s organic ranking algorithm * Formula constantly changing
Key Points
Target local keywords like “Omaha contractors” or “Omaha
chiropractors”
Ask customers for reviews (Google Places, Yelp, etc.)
Embed map of your location along with directions
Social sharing icons
“NAP” – name, address, phone in footer (local # and not 800 #)
Get your business listed in local directories (consistent data!)
Goal: show Google that you are a local, legit, brick and mortar business
Keyword Selection
A critical component of SEO is choosing
the right keywords for optimization.
If you are a law firm, you may be
tempted to want your website to rank
for “lawyer,” (a head term), but chances
are you might have some trouble
there…
A keyword like “omaha dui lawyer” (a
long-tail term) is a better target
keyword. Sure, the number of people
that search for this keyword will be
much lower than the number that
search for “lawyer,” but you are more
likely to rank for this term, and the
traffic is much more relevant to your
business, resulting in a higher
conversion rate.
Measuring Success
Traffic
Measuring overall traffic to your website from organic search is
something you should look at on a monthly basis at a minimum. To
factor out seasonality, be sure to look at year-over-year sessions.
Unique Keywords
The number of unique (particularly non-branded) keywords driving
traffic to your site is an important metric which indicates the “health”
of your SEO efforts. You should see gradual increases in the number of
unique keywords over time.
Leads/ROI
Web analytics tools like Google allow you to see how many
conversions have occurred on your website as a result of organic
search traffic and keywords, provided you have some way of tracking
the desired customer action (contact form, order confirmation page,
email signup, etc.)
Questions?