Denver SEO – Local Search Marketing

This is a guest post by Jerry McGovern, a content strategist for Acquisio, a company that develops PPC management software and advanced bid management tools.

As more consumers go online and use major search engines to find local businesses, local merchants have to supplement their advertising strategy. While it used to be enough to take out an ad in the local phone book, such as the Yellow Pages, now local merchants also have to consider SEO.

Although this seems like an overly complicated strategy for the average mom-and-pop, it’s not. First of all, you don’t even need a website to rank locally (which cuts costs considerably). Secondly, ranking locally is much different than ranking nationally/internationally, meaning that it can be much less competitive and, therefore, much more cost-effective.

The 10 Pack

The most important part of localized search result is “the 10 Pack.” This is the first set of results that appear alongside a Google map whenever you search for a certain kind of local business. Since the 10 Pack can include anywhere form 3-10 results, it monopolizes much of the SERP real-estate above the fold, making it considerably more impactful than the second and third results. You need to get into the 10 Pack. There are both onsite and offsite elements that your business can leverage to rank in the 10 Pack.

Offsite Factors for Local SEO

Because you don’t even need a website to rank in 10 Pack, offsite factors carry a lot of weight in local SEO. These include: verified local business listings, citations and offsite references, local directory listings, customer reviews, and backlinks with the right anchor text.

Search Engine Business Listings: the first thing to do for local SEO is make sure that you have a map listing with the Google Local Business Center. Not only is it free, but anyone can create one. So if you haven’t created one already, check if someone else has. If one already exists, revise it to include the terms you want to rank for. If one does not exist, create one that includes all those key terms.

Citations: it’s also important to have as many offsite references as possible. this includes getting mentioned on community blogs and other local business sites. If there aren’t any offsite references to your business, reach out to the webmaster and find out how to get mentioned. And if you have a site, see if they will link to you. If you don’t have a site, see if they’ll link to your Google Local Business Center.

Local Directory Listings: just because directories like the Yellow Pages aren’t the only game in town anymore, that doesn’t mean that they’re not important. By having a listing in the online editions of these directories, you can increase the odds of ranking in the 10 Pack. Just make sure to place your listing in the right category, otherwise you can end up ranking for terms that aren’t relevant to your services.

Other Verified Listings: although the 3 major search engines all have their own business listings, they also get data from sites such as Acxiom, infoUSA, and Localeze. So you want to get your business info listed with third party sites, as well. Just make sure that your business info is consistent across all sites, because Google can interpret inconsistent listings as different businesses. Some of the more reputable online local directories include:

• SuperPages
• CitySearch
• Yelp
• InsiderPages
• BizJournals
• AreaConnect
• MagicYellow
• and SwitchBoard

Customer Reviews: once you have a Google Local Business Center listing, you’re going to need reviews. The more reviews you have, the more that Google will see your business as relevant for the keywords you’ve targeted in that review. So reach out to colleagues and customers about leaving such a review. But do not try to write 20 reviews yourself. If Google flags you as spam, there’s a good chance that it’ll hurt your rankings. Google will also pull local business reveiws from all over the web, so reach out to local bloggers and communities about getting reviews there, as well.

Because of the importance of reviews in local search optimization, you should use your site to build trust. First, devise a way to encourage happy customers to generated positive reviews. Second, link to your map listings so that Google has some indication that that listing is relevant to your business. And then, get links from local trust sites, such as the Better Business Bureau and any local chambers of commerce.

Backlinks: finally, whether you’re building links back to your site or your business listing, you want to pay attention to the anchor text of those links. While traditional SEO dictates that you want keyword sensitive anchor text, in local SEO, you want that anchor text to actually be the name of your business.

Onsite Optimization for Local SEO

If you do have a company website, there are also a number of things you can do to help enhance your local SEO efforts. First, make sure that your business name is in all your title tags. Second, having a domain name that includes your business name will also enhance your local ranking.

Finally, have a page that includes the address and telephone number of your business. The info on this page should also be consistent with your other listings on the web. For example, if you have separate phone numbers for tracking purposes, that can hurt your local rankings. So if you can’t avoid having different tracking numbers, try to keep them restricted to pages that you can tell Google not to index, such as PPC landing pages.

Think Global, Act Local

As Google continues to personalize search results, localized data is going to become more and more important. The web is evolving from local users getting worldwide answers to global users getting local answers. This is why local SEO is more about optimizing for locations, and less about optimizing for keywords.

What you should be focusing on to get included in the 10 Pack, then, is having your business info appear in multiple locations, and making sure that that info is consistent. And when building links back to your site or reviews, those backlinks need to have a strong geographic scent. Finally, because local search is about people searching for local answers, customer reviews are very important. So if you have a site, use it to build trust and encourage users to leave reviews.

Many local businesses are still unaware of local SEO. So by optimizing now, you can put yourself in a position to dominate the 10 Pack for years to come. After all, if your site is super relevant today, it’s easier to convince Google that it’s still relevant in several years when it’s still in business, and still serving its community.

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