Cathy Rhulloda created this using the Google Search Stories video creator on YouTube.

Post from: Denver SEO - Local Search Expert

Local Search Stories

The whole point of GLBC is to create indexes that yield pertinent, real and helpful information for communities that improve the quality of  life for local community.

For lots of business owners seeking better local exposure claiming their business at the Google Local Business Center is their first step into the realm of search marketing. With all of the fancy new features the GLBC has rolled out, now is a great time to get started.

Google Local Business Center Categories – The Complete List

Picking the right category with the Local Business Center is one of the keys to success in Google Maps. Categories are critical to being considered relevant on.

Get Your Business Ranked At Google Without A Website

The search engine Local Business Listing is how you can use the Internet to generate sales. This is a service that is a part of Google Local Business Listing via Google Maps, Yahoo Local Listing and Bing Local Listing. …

Use Google Local Business Center to Attract Clients

Create an account on Google’s Local Business Center to ensure clients can find and contact you with the click of a button.

Google Local Business Business Center Introduction

Google Local Business Center Introduction … Google Friend Connect, Denver Colorado community blog. Demonstrating the social features on blogger you can use to create your own communities like IM in Denver CO. …

Local Search Ranking Factors

David Rodecker from Local Splash is up next. He wants you to go take care of your Google Local Business listing. Aha! His last name is Rodecker. [Look at that! Why do I bother? --Virginia] …

Google Local Listing

Google Local Business Centre (GLBC) listings are becoming a serious element in the SEO mix. Discover how to optimize your local listing search engine rankings. … Try to include up to five industry types to categories your business. For example if you own a restaurant, you might choose categories like restaurant, takeaway, cafe, business catering, Italian and so forth to describe your business. It is essential that your primary category is the most accurate description …

Post from: Denver SEO - Local Search Expert

Google Local Business Center Tips

Search using the city modifier:

In my opinion the 10-pack took up to much space. it hogged the top of the page making it impossible for a local website to get the #1 position. It still impossible for a local website to get the number one spot on the page organically but at least cutting down the 10-pack to 7-pack moves a few organic listing above the fold.

Search w/out the modifier:

I’d still like to see 3 or 4 local websites listed first in the results like in universal search and then the Lucky 7-pack. I think having organic results for sites that deserve it would only be fair.

The site owners have worked hard to gain the #1 position and should be prominently displayed towards the top in either search results.

Post from: Denver SEO - Local Search Expert

Local Search Results – The Lucky 7 Pack

This is not the same old Internet.

Google Goes Local; Begins Limited Test Of Listings Ads

Although Google has always trained its AdSense products at smaller business, the Local Listing Ads represents what Broadpoint analyst Ben Schachter calls the first real monetization of the search giant’s Local Business Center. …

Google Local Listing Ads Shake Up Local Search

If you market brick and mortars or local service businesses, you need to be paying attention to the new Local listing ads Google announced Monday that…

Google Local Listing Ads

Google recently announced it would start testing a new text ad format called local listing ads. These ads are available to small businesses with physical locations and will appear at the top of a search results page …

Google Answers Some Local Listing Ad Questions

The newly announced Local listing ads are starting to appear on a limited basis in the wilds of San Francisco. David Mihm, the talented Local Search Expert, and.

Google Local Listing Ads Debut

Greg Sterling was introduced to an experiment called Google Local Listing Ads yesterday evening. They’re small, text-only ads of the sort Google often displays, only the trick is that …

This seems all great and I hope this turns out to be a huge boost for SMB’s but the best statement of the week has to go to David Mihm;

“To that end, Google simply must get into customer service or else it’s going to end up with a lot of unhappy SMB’s and a big PR black eye.”

No matter how good something appears to be without customer service (which Google has non of) you have a lot of pissed off people that can’t get answers they’ll take their business elsewhere.

Post from: Denver SEO - Local Search Expert

Google Testing Local Listing Ads

Over the weekend I had a chance to  read David Mihm’s results from his 2009 Local Search Ranking Factors survey that was conducted in May 2009 with  27 prominent bloggers and practitioners in the local search arena.

They were asked to rate the importance of 49 criteria with respect to their influence on rankings in the Google and Yahoo Local “Universal” search algorithms (those that drive the 10-pack, 3-pack, and authoritative one-box search results; NOT the standard organic algorithms).

While all the points in David’s study are interesting I have found that there are 5 things that really have the most influencing on the position of your listing.

Claiming your Local Business Listing

I put this as #1 on my list. I can’t tell you how many unclaimed listing I still see in the Local search. Most businesses have not taken the 15 minutes and claimed their listing. As Mike Blumenthal said in the study – “You can’t see the game if you don’t enter the gate.”

Keywords in the Title

When I first claimed my business listing I just put my company name in the title. When I went to look for my listing I couldn’t find it unless I search for the exact company name. After adding a good targeted keyword to the title along with the company name my listing immediately showed up #2 in several 10-pack and 3-pack results when preforming a broad keyword search.

Keywords in the Description

While this might not be as important as having keywords in the title, leaving them out of the description does appear to have a negative effect on where your listing ranks in the packs. Adding targeted keywords, without spamming, somewhere near the beginning of the description can help to pull your listing deep from within the results into the 10-pack.

On-page Optimization

While most who participated in the survey agree that you don’t even need a website to rank high in Local search I’ve found that adding the City, State and Zip code along with a keyword-rich anchor text back to the site in the footer has definitely had an impact on my listing position.

Quality/Quanity of Inbound Links

In my experience the quality and quantity of inbound links has been  a huge  contributing factor in ranking well in Local search. As David Klein said – “from the beginning Google has judged sites based on the quality and quantity of inbound links. It is my opinion, that quality, and quantity of inbound links with the right anchor text will just possibly overcome everything else in doing well in Local search.”

Conclusion

Where there is a search engine involved you will always have a 100 different views on how to optimize the content to increase your chances of get listed on page one of the serp’s.

A lot of the information you find about rankings is aimed at trying to exploit the serp’s with keywords and linking. While this may be a contributing factor for organic search results when it comes to Local search listings keywords and incoming links don’t carry the same weight but do have a positive effect on the Local search results and where you will show up.

If you do any one thing make sure it’s to claim your listing.

Post from: Denver SEO - Local Search Expert

Top 5 Ranking Factors for Local Search

Did you know a companies online reputation can be destroyed before they even have a chance to claim their listing?

It’s true. Some even resort to what could be considered black-hat tactics to control their competitors as Tod Minzt talks about in his article a Fresh Look At Local Search Ranking Factors. His third review is crazy stuff!

I’m what’s called a WhiteHat SEO guy thus when I optimize sites I practice ethical strategies. None of that crapped mentioned in the third point of Tod’s article. I watch my reader everyday looking for trusted information about local search and SEO in general and today I ran across 2 WhiteBoard Friday video presentation at SEOmoz. I’ve broken down the videos and posted the time line in the video for specific information.

Local Business Center

This video covers all the things you should know as a business owner and getting your listing included into local search.

SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday – Local Search Inclusion with David Mihm from Scott Willoughby.

1:00 – Local Business Center. Adding your business to local search.

4:36 – Other crucial sites to list your business on.

Optimizing For Local Search

In this videos below David Mihn and Randy Fishkin cover the simply steps to optimizing your local search. Tweaking  just a few things will get you better results.

SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday – SEO for Local Search from Scott Willoughby.

1:21 – Getting your business name associated with your contact information.

3:15 – Categories

5:24 – Location. Being on a geographical website.

6:10 – Reviews. Volume over ratings.

7:29 – See what matters

9:00 – Citation is the new link

The local listings are far more important than most SEO’s realize but many services are simply overlooking local search.

Are you or your SEO firm doing these things for your website?

If you own a business and you haven’t claimed your business listing yet then do one thing; do a search on Google. If your business is listed CLAIM it before someone else does. If your not listed add your listing.

See ya in local search!

Post from: Denver SEO - Local Search Expert

SEO Tactics For Local Search

To see what I’m talking about go to Google and type in a competitive “core” keyword or phrase,  “mexican restaurant”,  into the search box and examine the results that were found. Chances are you will see local search results for your geographical area, in either the 1st position or around 4th position. These results are extracted from Google’s Local Business Center data which allows business owners to add their business to Local Search.

There is another way to get into the search results , not only in local search but organic search, and be identified as a local business. All you have to do to rank well in local search results is to have your city, state and zip code on every page on your site. Google’s spiders will find this and identify you as local business and drop you right into the search results.

The best place to do this would be in the footer of your site. If you use a content management system like the Wordpress platform I use here on this blog then changing every page is a piece of cake. Simply edit the footer.php file , add your local modifiers into the code and save the file. If you are not tech savvy and are using a web designner to manage your site for you, make sure he/she adds your local information to every page of your site.

See you on Google.

Post from: Denver SEO - Local Search Expert

How To: Ranking In Local Search

A lot of the business owners don’t seem to know how to use a computer or don’t want to learn… Whatever the reason, they should start.

Post from: Denver SEO - Local Search Expert

Google’s Local Business Center

Local business owners have big challenges when it comes to  search optimization:

• Often, Google doesn’t even know their site exists (this is VERY common)

• Even if Google does know about their site, it never shows up in search engine listings.

• Even if their site does show up in some kind of search, it’s hardly ever the “keyword phrase” that the owner would like.

• Even if the owner could dictate to Google what keywords to show their site for, most business owners don’t know which words and phrases are the money makers!

Even with the grim outline above, there are proven techniques that you can employ to get your site into the top of the listings fast and it’s easier to achieve than you think.

What is your biggest question, problem or obstacle you have with your local search marketing?

Post from: Denver SEO - Local Search Expert

Local SEO Success