The Secrets of Local Search Marketing

Local Search

BIG Problems

Big Problems

NAP (Name, Address, Phone)

Citations

Reviews

Name - Address - Phone Number

(NAP)

NAP

HUGE problem in local

Bad to focus on just your Place Page

Align all data across all providers and locations

NAP

Start with your website

Dedicated page for each locationYour official address (North vs N.), phone number, and business name

Marked up with the proper schema

http://schema.org/LocalBusiness

NAP

Maps pages are set up and claimedYour official address (North vs. N.), phone number, and business name

NAP

Major Data Providers

InfogroupAcxiomLocaleze

Other Big Players

Yellowpages.comSuperpages.comUniversal Business Listing

Get your data fixed upstream

NAP

Citation Building

Citations

Citations are to Place Pages as links are to web pages

External web pages that reference your exact business name, address, and phone number

I still don’t get it….

CitationsBathroom renovation in Salt Lake City

Okay… how do I get these?

Citations

Used to be easy…

Citations

Not anymore…

Citations

YelpJudy’s BookMerchant CircleInsider Pages

KudzuCity SquaresBOTW LocalHot Frog

Start with my favorites….

Citations

Competitive research

Citations

Citations

Tools

http://www.whitespark.ca/local-citation-finder/

Citations

Review Generation

Reviews

Reviews are huge

Build trust with the engines

Build trust with your potential and current customers

How do I go about getting reviews?

Reviews

ASK and make it easy!

Unless your customers are socially savvy… they probably won’t go online and give you a review

Reviews

Ask at point of sale or service

“Don’t forget to review our product / service / customer service by visiting…”

Print on receiptsProvide a separate flyerVerbally ask

Reviews

Ask via email

First we must build the email list

Built in if you are an online shop

Much harder if you are a brick-and-mortar store

Reviews

Incentivize the opt-in (don’t incentivize review)15% off your next purchase or service

Segment your list by type of email accountGmail, Yahoo / Ymail, MSN / Hotmail, All OthersSend them to appropriate page to leave review

Reviews

Gmail Google Places PageYahoo/Ymail Yahoo Local ListingMSN/Hotmail Bing Local ListingAll Others Take your best guess (Google Places, Yelp)

Reviews

Ask via package inserts

** works amazingly well if you ship product **

Reviews

Ask via site badges

Prominently display on your website

Examples…

Disclaimer #1: I do not condone the use of copyrighted logos

Disclaimer #2: I am not a graphic designer… These are pretty ugly!!!

Reviews

Conclusion

Get your NAP cleaned up and standardized

Build citations… as many as you can

Get creative to get more reviews

Let’s Answer Some Questions