SEO Local is involved with helping a number of clients develop their Local search standings, and one of the benefits of getting involved with a number of clients is that we get to see a number of things clients are doing right, and also a number of things they’re doing wrong. That’s why we thought it’d be a great idea to have a recurring feature documenting some of the things we’re seeing ‘out in the field’, so to speak, so that everyone can learn together about what to do and what not to do in Local SEO.
Author Archives: Michael
Top 7 tips for getting a Better Ranking Google Places page
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Do you have your business’s Google Places page filled out yet? You should! It’s a free web marketing service that you can use to describe your products and services as wellas list your hours of operation, business address, phone number, email address, and add a link to your website. You can even add photos and videos to your Places page,you’re your customers can leave you glowing reviews.
Google Places are also frequently affecting how Google search results are ranked. A properly maintained Google Places listing is much more likely to be ranked more highly by Google than a poorly filled out page. That’s why you need these 10 tips for how to properly fill out, maintain and improve your Google Places listing:
There you are!: Why Google’s Check-In Service is Better for Business
Google has added check-ins to its Latitude location service. “Oh big deal,” you say, “there’s a half dozen other check-in services out there.” True, but count on Google to come up with some inspired twists to a familiar idea.
Most location services require you to manually load up their apps, wait for the GPS fix to come in, and then make you jump through a couple more hoops just to share that information or log it on your profile. It’s not a huge hassle, or people wouldn’t do it, but what if it were automatic? That’s what Google’s persistent location feature will allow. Users can check-in automatically at certain locations. (For the tech-inclined, you can read about it on their blog here.)
How To Correctly Delete A Google Places Listing
Google Places is a great service. No one disputes that. It allows a businesses to easily and accurately list their information on the web. But it isn’t the most straight-forward service in the world, and it’s got a few oddities and idiosyncrasies that are not immediately obvious. As such, business owners will occasionally make an error in their listing, like including a geo-modifier (that’s SEO talk for location) in the Business name or categories segment. That’s a pretty easy mistake to make, and it’s also a really quick way for Google to devalue that listing’s rank. That sort of error is a straight forward fix, though. You just log in to that Places account to make the correction, and then wait for Google to document the change. Those kinds of fixes can spring a listing right up to the top of the pack.
Facebook App Adds Local Features: How to Leverage Them for Your Business
Mashable reported yesterday that Facebook has just updated their official iPhone app to include support for a feature that allows users to “check-in” to local events. They also included a new map view for the “Places” section of the app, which allows users to see the geographical location of a business or event on a satellite image. We’re going to break down these features and how people will use them, and then tell you how you can leverage these features for your local marketing efforts. Using the “check-in” feature on the app, a user can note that they are attending local upcoming events and then tag their friends to let them know about it.
The New York Times Paywall: An Opportunity in Disguise for Local Marketing
Last Thursday, March 18, the New York Times finally announced their plans to monetize their previously openly available online content. Starting on March 28, users of their site will be limited to viewing 20 articles a month. Once they reach that limit, they’ll be invited to sign up for a subscription plan that starts at $15 a month. This announcement has understandably caused a stir in the online news world.
3 Reasons Why Paying For Reviews is Bad Business
The Federal Trade Commission reported just last week that they had fined the Legacy Learning and Smith company $250K for using an online “affiliate” promotion program that essentially paid bloggers to write endorsements for their product sin order to encourage their readers to click through to the Legacy site and purchase their products. The blogger then receives a piece of the action, so to speak (source). These sorts of pay-per-post schemes have definitely raised the ire of the FTC. In 2009, they revised their guidelines concerning testimonials and endorsements to explicitly underscore that this sort of cozy relationship between online “critics” and companies selling a product is definitely not okay.
Groupon is great, but is it worth $25 billion?
Bloomberg News is reporting today that, according to an unnamed source, Groupon is anticipating an initial public offering that would value the company at upwards of $25 billion. That is a staggering sum, over $2 billion higher than Google’s own IPO seven years ago.
Groupon is an interesting web service for local businesses. Its meteoric rise has turned a number of heads, but the idea of selling group discounts is hardly new or unique. LivingSocial, BuyWithMe, BloomSpot and many other sites all operate using the same basic concept. But none of these sites are turning down offers from Google (who reportedly offered $6 billion last December to buy the company), nor are these competitors making headlines about historic IPOs.
Why Google Wants You to Build the Local Web
Some recent changes to the Local Search algorithm indicate that Google is trying to encourage us to build out what you might call the “local web”. If you do it well, you may be rewarded with better SERP rankings.
But what is the local web? It’s essentially any location based information that can be added to a map. Geo-tagged photos, videos and webcams, geo-tagged Wikipedia articles, Google My Maps, and KML mapping files are the additional layers of location based information that Google wants to see users creating so as to build a richer local experience online.
Beginning Local SEO Optimization
Local SEO optimization is generally much cheaper than optimizing for Natural Rankings. That is not to say, however, that it is easy. The problem is in finding which keywords and phrases result in displaying a map, and then, which of those keywords and phrases are most relevant and are searched with the most frequency.
Our specialty is in identifying those keywords and phrases that your website should be ranking for in the local results. We then follow-up that research with aggressive actions to keep your business listed, and we can go from there to spread out the results to more and more keywords as time goes on.