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How to Get Your Local
Business on the Internet
2012 Edition
by
Cliff Calderwood
Erika Slater
New England Local Marketing
www.NELocalMarketing.com
508 479 2840
How to Get Your Business on the Internet in 2012
Contents
The Problem You May Not Know You Have: ................................................................... 4
1. Google Maps and Mobile: .............................................................................................. 6
The Anatomy of a Search Results Page: ......................................................................... 7
1.1. Claiming and Modifying your Business Listing in Google: .................................... 9
1.1.1. Go to Google Places to Claim Your Listing: .................................................... 9
1.1.2. Adding your Business Listing:........................................................................ 10
1.1.3. Claim your listing if it’s found: ...................................................................... 13
1.1.4. Service Areas and Location Settings: ............................................................. 14
1.1.5. Hour of Operation, Payment Options, Photos, Videos and Additional Details:
................................................................................................................................... 14
1.1.6. Verifying Your Listing: .................................................................................. 15
What if somebody else has claimed my listing? ....................................................... 15
2. Yahoo Local: ................................................................................................................. 16
2.1. Listing Details: ....................................................................................................... 17
2.2. Select Category: ..................................................................................................... 18
2.3. Preview and Confirm: ............................................................................................ 18
2.4. Additional Information about Yahoo Local Listing: ............................................. 18
3. Bing Maps: .................................................................................................................... 19
3.1. Listings Details: ..................................................................................................... 20
3.2. Selecting Categories: ............................................................................................. 20
3.3. Review and Submit: ............................................................................................... 20
4. Internet Yellow Pages and Other Places: ...................................................................... 22
5. Optimizing Your Business Listing: .............................................................................. 24
Competitor Analysis: .................................................................................................... 25
6. Optimizing Your Web Site: .......................................................................................... 26
6.1. On-Page Factors: .................................................................................................... 26
Title Heading: ........................................................................................................... 27
Description Tag:........................................................................................................ 28
6.2. Off-Site Factors:..................................................................................................... 30
7. Monitoring Local Search Campaigns: .......................................................................... 32
7.1. Google Analytics: .................................................................................................. 32
7.1.1. Useful Stats to Know for Local Search: ......................................................... 34
7.2. Google Maps: ......................................................................................................... 35
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8. The Importance of Local Business Reviews:................................................................ 37
9. Rich Snippets and How they Can Help Your Business: ............................................... 39
9.1. Rich Snippet Code: ................................................................................................ 40
Final Words:...................................................................................................................... 41
Sign-Up For a Free Local Internet Marketing Education Seminar: .................................. 42
Grab Our Free Web Site Evaluation and/or Competitor Analysis:................................... 42
Learn More About Our Services: ...................................................................................... 43
About New England Local Marketing .............................................................................. 44
FRIENDLY LEGAL DISCLAIMER ............................................................................... 45
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The Problem You May Not Know You Have:
If you’re a small business owner and offer a local service or product and you
want to grow your business by getting more customers and profits, then we’ve
written this special report for you because of a problem you may not know you
have.
If you don’t have a website yet then this report and the associated course “The
Internet Marketing Guide for the Local Business Owner” you’ll also get access to,
will show you how to get your local business on the Internet and then getting
beyond your competitors.
Maybe you have a website already and performed online marketing in the past
but have been disappointed with the returns of your effort. If this has led you to
view the Internet with skepticism then we understand. We own local businesses
ourselves and can relate to the frustration and complexity of getting good ROI
using the Internet. However, events in the last few year have changed the game
and there is a short window of opportunity today for a local business to dominate
their competitors online, and for most small businesses it’s not hard to achieve.
But you have to act today before your competitors do.
Right now people are searching on the Internet for your local services and
products in preference to using the Yellow Pages phone book or newspapers,
and if they’re not finding your business online when they search BEFORE your
competitors then you have a problem - you’re giving customers and profits
away to your competitors.
If you’re a local business that relies on referrals from Yellow Pages and
newspaper ads then your “slice of the customer pie” is shrinking daily.
But by reading and implementing the actions in this report you’ll get an unfair
advantage over your competitors, and instead take customers and profits
away from your competitors. Now what local business wouldn’t like that?
To make it easy for you I’m going to show you the exact initial steps towards
more customers and profits using resources that are free. Before we begin here
are some interesting stats for you to consider:
97% of consumers use the Internet to find
and research products or services in their
local area - (The Kelsey Group). The Yellow
Pages phone book is dead and filling up
dumpsters and landfills.
82% of people performing an online local
search follow-up via an online inquiry, phone
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call or visit to an offline local business. This means these searchers decide which
local business to spend their money at by the businesses they find on the
Internet - (Local Marketing Source).
43% of all searches on Google are related to searches for local services or
businesses – (comScore Networks).
If a potential customer doesn’t find your local business when they perform a local
search online then as far as they’re concerned you don’t exist and they’ll contact
one of your competitors instead.
Not good for you.
However, by the time you’ve finished reading this report you’ll know exactly what
to do to get your business on the Internet and listed in the major search engines and found - when a person online performs a local search for the service or
products you offer.
Most of this report focuses on the initial activities you’ll
need to do to get listed correctly, and optimally, in the
local searches for Google, Yahoo and Bing.
While you may already be listed as a business with
these engines through offline advertising activities such
as the Yellow Pages phone book, you need to claim the
listing as the legitimate owner before somebody else
does, and then optimize your listing to ensure you’re
found before any of your competitors.
Let’s begin getting you listed correctly so you’re found
when people are searching online for your local services
or products.
We’ll start with the 800lb gorilla – Google.
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1. Google Maps and Mobile:
We’ll start with Google as it’s by far the dominant player when it comes to search
engines. Depending on whose stats you believe it accounts for 75% - 85% of all
searches worldwide.
Google Maps can be found here: http://maps.google.com/
Google Maps has been around for awhile and
used mostly to get travel directions, but Google
was working behind the scenes for a long time
preparing Google Maps to be the dominant
player in local search.
In April 2009 Google introduced Local Business
Results (LBR) into their normal search results
using Google Maps as the basis for determining
which listings to show.
Local business owners who wanted to claim and
optimize their Google Maps listing could do so
by creating a Local Business Center account.
In 2010 Google renamed Google Local Business Center to Google Places.
So as we stand in early 2011 you’ll hear three different terms used for the same
thing. Google Maps and Local Business Center are the same as Google Places.
As mentioned earlier the Google Maps feature is used to populate these local
listing results on the search page. Within a few short months both Yahoo! and
Bing also started to show local listings in their search results.
Google used to show the Local Business Results (LBR) in a special display box
with 7 or 3 listings – hence the term Local 7-pack or Local 3-pack. However, in
October 2010 Google began changing the way they display LBR and now they
are blended in with the paid advertising and organic search results.
Be aware Google continues to experiment and in the local search arena next
time you check search results it may be different again. Google’s first priority is
with its users and not advertisers or web site owners. Their sole aim is to make
the results better for users and provide them what they’re searching for.
While I don’t want to throw too much at you in the report there’s a change in our
customer habits you need to be aware of… and it’s that sleeky looking
smartphone people seem to have grafted to their ears or fingers.
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So before we press ahead and dissect
the blending results page searchers
currently see, I want to briefly mention
Google Mobile.
It’s covered in depth in our eCourse
you’re receiving but I wanted to just
emphasize while it’s a different search
product nonetheless it integrates with
the Maps Listings.
This means getting your listing address located appropriately on Google Maps is
critical for mobile searchers. Think about it – cell phone users can be pinpointed
using tower triangulation, and so can be provided with specific businesses close
to their current location when performing a mobile search.
In a competitive niche, just being a hundred yards off in your Maps listing as
regards location, can be the difference between you getting a client or your
competitor getting them. Ouch!
While this scenario may seem far out at the moment its coming fast and you
should invest a little of your time in following and keeping up to date with trends
in the mobile field – especially for your local business.
Start out your education at Google’s mobile site here:
http://www.google.com/mobile/
The Anatomy of a Search Results Page:
So back to our “blended” search listings, and how this can all be a tad confusing
as regards where to find these various components now on a search result page.
So, on the next page you’ll find a sample search results page for the term
“pizza.” This term always generates a local search. I’ve broken it down for you so
you can see currently the various components that go to make up a Google
search results page.
I’ve identified where you’ll find Google paid advertising – also known as Google
Adwords and PPC for Pay-Per-Click advertising - organic search results, and the
Local Business Results.
As you’ll see the Google Maps display is now on the right-hand side of the page
and above the paid advertising on the right column.
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You may be wondering already if you’re in a highly competitive service industry –
such as the first example above of Pizza in Boston, MA where there are
hundreds of listings, how do you ensure your business gets listed in local search
results on the first page?
Good question and I’ll cover this later when we talk about optimizing your
business listing.
Now you’ve got an idea of what Google Maps is all about and how the
information it contains is integrated into the Local Business Results, it’s time to
show you how to get your business listed in Google Maps so you have control
over where and how it appears in the LBR listing.
Go get your favorite beverage and snuggle up to your computer because you’ll
be spending the next 30 minutes or so, creating a knock out Google Places
listing, that’ll be a foundation for getting prospects through your doors and into
your business for the coming years.
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1.1. Claiming and Modifying your Business Listing in Google:
This is a multi-step process but at the conclusion your business will be listed in
Google exactly the way you want so you can begin getting customers when they
search online for the services or products you offer.
1.1.1. Go to Google Places to Claim Your Listing:
NOTE: Google Places used to be called the Local Business Center but was
rebranded by Google in April 2010.
This is a critical step you must do to ensure Google knows you’re the legitimate
owner of the business. Yes, there are some non-ethical people who can hijack
your business listing for themselves so they can get their products in front of
customers meant for you.
Signup for a Local Business account at Google Places – here is the URL:
www.Google.com/places
You should see a screen similar to the one below. Google is always changing its
interfaces. Click on the link at the bottom for “Places for Business.”
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This will take you to the Google Places login/sign-up screen.
If you already have a Google account then just log-in using that account,
otherwise there is a link on the page to sign-up for a new account. If you have a
gmail account such as [email protected] then you already have a Google
account and can use this as your login to Google Places.
I’ll walk you through how to set up and claim your listing the right way and include
additional pointers and optimization you should know about.
1.1.2. Adding your Business Listing:
After you’ve logged in click on the button that reads “List you business” or “Add
new business” and you’ll be asked to enter information about your business.
Company/Organization: This should be the legal name of your company or
what you call it on your business cards, advertising, website, etc. If your business
name also includes one of the primary search terms somebody might be using to
find your service such as “pet grooming” then definitely add this in, but don’t just
stuff search terms in so you come up when somebody types in that service.
Good example: Allsorts Worcester Pet Grooming
This example has the primary service – pet grooming - in its name. Now Google
knows what the business is about - perfect. If the pet grooming business offers
other services such as boarding or product sales then these can be listed
appropriately in the description section later. While this example company just
happens to have a location in their name it isn’t necessary as Google will decide
on a geographic match from your business address.
Bad example: Melrose Fitness Center Exercise Weight Loss
In the second example this business is
trying to stuff as many terms into its name
as possible. As you can tell it doesn’t even
read like a business name and so it’s an
obvious attempt at “gaming” the system and
likely to be interpreted by Google as
“spam” and you just don’t want that to
happen.
There are some professional local search
agencies out there suggesting it is still okay
to put additional terms in your company
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name because they still see names showing up in the LBR using these tactics
and ranking well. Don’t fall into the trap of trying to trick the algorithm – it’s a nowin game.
Google came out and specifically told businesses not to do this, and they will
eventually ban those businesses that violate the rules from showing in their
results or banish them to last place. I’ve seen it happen to at least one company
in one of the competitive niches I’m involved in, and it’s just a matter of time
before you get found out and disappear as well.
Bottom line – enter your real company name!
Address & Phone Fields:
The next few fields are important for
consistency. The business address
and business phone should match
what you have on your web site and on
what you had on your original Yellow
Pages listing. Never use a P.O. Box
number.
Decide on one format for your address
and then stick with that going forward.
This means if you have 202 Ashland Drive, Hopkinton, MA 01450 on your web
site then don’t put a variation like 202 Ashland Dr, in your business listing.
Use the same format throughout your web site pages and on the Internet
wherever you get a listing for your businesses.
DO NOT use an 800 or other toll free phone number as the primary number in
the business listing. Always use a local phone number as this confirms to Goggle
you’re a legitimate local business, and not operating out of an answering service
in Boise, Idaho.
The company name and address and phone number together make up what is
know as your NAP – Name, Address, and Phone Number. I can’t emphasize how
critical it is you’re consistent with your NAP wherever it appears on the web.
Web Site: While this is an optional field you have the chance to display your
web site URL in your listing. If you have a web site then put it in your listing. If
you don’t have a web site then I strongly suggest you get one. You’ll be at a
major disadvantage in the local search competition without a web site as you’ll
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discover later. It’s also getting to the point where people view a business without
a web site with suspicion or behind the times – neither good for growth. More on
this later.
Description: This field is optional but it
would be dumb to bypass it. This
represents the best opportunity you have
for describing your service and products
for both human eyes and Google. Always
write your description first for humans.
What you write here can dictate whether
somebody calls your business or visits
your web site.
So make it readable, an accurate portrayal of your services and compelling to
contact you.
Add in your primary search term again such as with the business example earlier
of “pet grooming” but also add in terms such as “dog boarding” and “dog
beds” or “cat food” but don’t put too many in the description or Google will think
you’re spamming and ban you. I take a long time over writing my description and
use as much of the 200 character maximum as possible.
Category: You can list your business in up to 5 categories. The categories you
choose are very important as they’re used to determine what local terms your
business will rank for. Use the categories that describe your business and most
likely to send you customers. You can use whatever words you want to describe
your category or choose from the dropdown menu suggestions. I tend to use
mostly suggestions from Google as they’ve already decided they get searched,
and use a few of my own categories I know my target market will use – you do
the same.
Marker Location: As you enter your address
you’ll notice the map on the right side of the page will
reflect your business location. This is Google Maps
in case you haven’t seen it already. If the marker
depicting the location for your business isn’t in the
right position then you have the opportunity to
correct it here.
To correct the marker just click on the link that says
“Fix incorrect maker location” and well... fix it and
save.
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Click the “Next” button when ready.
1.1.3. Claim your listing if it’s found:
The next step depends on whether Google
finds it has your business already listed but
not claimed, or feels this is a brand new
listing.
As Google draws a lot of its business listings
from an array of resources both online and
offline there’s a good chance your business
is already listed in Goggle if you’ve been in
business for a few years.
If this is true you’ll be asked if you want to
claim your listing. You most certainly
should to stop somebody else from
claiming your listing.
Google provides two options for verifying
you own a business and they are:
•
Calling the phone number that’s in your Google Maps listing and providing
you with special PIN to enter when the automated call is made. This is the
fastest way to get verified but requires you to be located at the local phone
number the Google automated system calls. I recommend you use this
option.
•
By sending you a postcard with the PIN number to your business address.
This can take 2 weeks or longer and is not my recommended option to
you.
If it doesn’t find a match for your business you’ll be presented with a second
screen of information to complete. While this screen doesn’t seem on the surface
to contain important information spend time reviewing defaults and completing as
much as you can. This is an opportunity to make your business listing standout in
a competitive search term.
If it does find a match for your business then you should review and edit the
following fields in your claimed listing anyway as it may continue inaccurate
information or not be optimized for local search.
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1.1.4. Service Areas and Location Settings:
This setting allows you to define a service area if you’re a business that services
customers at their location – this can be set by a radius or by zip codes. You can
also elect not to show your physical address. Google got this half right as it still
doesn’t allow a local business to set their target locations for clients if they’re a
service – like a dentist – where people will travel up to 20 miles to visit the
Dentist’s office.
1.1.5. Hour of Operation, Payment Options, Photos, Videos and
Additional Details:
Whatever information you submit here just
ensure it matches what is on your web site
and at other listings of your business around
the Internet.
Personally, I like to know what hours of
operation are for a business and if they don’t
accept credit cards.
Including photos and videos about your
business and service is a chance to “market”
your business to a prospect.
Pictures of your location confirm to people you’re a real business and videos can
be used to describe your service in a compelling manner.
Videos can engage people quickly and when done professionally make your
business memorable. Upload your video to your YouTube account and paste the
video URL into the submission box.
The “Additional Details” field is free format and can be used for whatever you
want such as parking availability, products you carry, etc. However, it also offers
the opportunity to provide prospects with direct links to your social media pages
at sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and specific service pages at your web
site.
Type in the text you want to be clickable in the left-hand box and the URL of the
page you want people to be directed to in the right-hand box. I haven’t found a
limit yet on how many links you can put in one listing but I wouldn’t go overboard
here. Put in your Facebook and Twitter pages, and 4/5 services or products in
this section.
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When you’re satisfied you’ve completed as much on this page as you want to
display in your business listing click the “submit” button.
You’ll now be asked to verify you’re the owner of the business.
1.1.6. Verifying Your Listing:
Verifying is the same process as detailed earlier about claiming your business
listing. Choose one of the methods to verify as described in “Claiming Your
Listing” above. Again, my recommendation is to have them call the local number
so you can verify the listing immediately.
What if somebody else has claimed my listing?
Believe it or not this does happen,
and one of the reasons why it’s so
important for a local business to
claim their listing at Google.
If you find your business has been
“hijacked” by a “spammer” then you
can still recover the listing but it will
take some extra steps and
additional proof you really are the
business owner.
Call or contact our office and we’ll send you the steps in an email or work with
you to get you started in recovering your listing.
Spammers hijack unclaimed business listings so they can deflect customers
meant for you to their own web site and put product offers in front of their eyes to
earn a commission.
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2. Yahoo Local:
You can find Yahoo Local at: http://local.yahoo.com/
The Yahoo search results have also begun to feature local business listings on
their first page of results for local terms. Currently Yahoo is showing 5 business
listings along with a map.
Here’s what it looks like for a local search I performed for plumbers in the
Worcester MA region:
Unlike Google, Yahoo doesn’t seem to have fixed on a design yet and continues
to experiment with information they include, location of map, and prominence of
reviews.
While Bing (MSN) now provides organic and paid search results for Yahoo, its
local search listings are still provided by Yahoo itself. The process for getting a
free basic listing at Yahoo is straightforward enough that you should go ahead
and get one.
Start the process of getting your free basic Yahoo business listing at:
http://listings.local.yahoo.com/
You’ll be presented with a similar sign-up page as below:
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As with Google you’ll need to create an account unless you already have a
Yahoo ID for other reasons. Once you have a Yahoo ID then sign into Yahoo
Local Listings using that ID and password.
Yahoo has a four step process for you to complete:
1. Listing Details
2. Select Category
3. Preview
4. Confirm
2.1. Listing Details:
This page has a lot of the same information that will show on your business
listing as Google except there is no box for a business description which is
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reserved for a paid listing, so you don’t get an opportunity to describe in a
compelling manner about your services and products. Shame.
Use the Product information box to list any services and products you want to
highlight. In addition you can list any specials you’re offering at this stage,
although this can be done at anytime if they are time sensitive.
Click “Continue” button when ready to move on.
2.2. Select Category:
Yahoo forces you to choose from their list of categories and sub-categories for
your business. Mostly this should be fine but you may need to use their
suggestion tool if you’re finding it difficult to locate and categorize your service or
products.
You can list your business in multiple categories similar to Google. When you’ve
finished choosing your categories and sub-categories click “Continue” button.
2.3. Preview and Confirm:
The final two steps are to preview your listing for
accuracy and completeness and then confirm by
agreeing to a terms of service legal document and
pressing “Submit”.
Be aware Yahoo has people review your listing and so
be accurate about your listing and select the right
categories otherwise it will be rejected.
2.4. Additional Information about Yahoo Local Listing:
While the basic listing at Yahoo is free they also offer what they call an
Enhanced Local Listing for $9.95 a month. This allows you to put a business
description and tagline, additional links to specials at your site and additional
photos. It’s a worthwhile investment for your business if you have a web site.
While Yahoo also doesn’t require you to own a web site you should get one
before submitting to them.
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3. Bing Maps:
You can find Bing Maps at: http://bing.com/maps
Bing is the last search engine for submitting a Local Business Listing we’ll cover.
As mentioned earlier Bing – which is the former MSN search engine and owned
by Microsoft – has contracted with Yahoo to provide Yahoo with their search
results. This happened in 2010.
Currently, Bing has the smallest percentage of searches compared to the other
two. Showing local business results for a local search is similar to the others with
a map, etc.
Here’s how listings are currently showing…
The interesting element to watch about Bing is they’re innovative when it comes
to local search. Google and Yahoo usually implement what Bing comes out with,
and so my sense is they have big plans for local search in 2011 and I would at
least get your business listed in their local listing center.
Bing offers a free listing for businesses and you can start at the Bing Local
Listing Center here: https://ssl.bing.com/listings/ListingCenter.aspx
To add a new business listing just click on the “Add a new listing” button and
you’ll be taken directly to the first input screen. At a later point you’ll need to
create a Windows Live ID to modify your listing but you can register an existing
email as your Windows Live ID.
Bing has mirrored the Yahoo submission process with the same 4 step process
of adding listing details, choosing categories and final review and submission.
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3.1. Listings Details:
When creating your listing details Bing will first ask for your business name,
address, and phone number. Bing will then perform a search to see if it already
has the business listed. If it has then you’ll be presented with the opportunity to
claim the listing if nobody else has.
If Bing doesn’t find your business in its database then you’ll be asked to sign-in to
Bing with your Windows Live ID. If you don’t have one there’s a button on the
same screen to sign-up for one.
Once you’ve signed-in to Bing then you can complete the business listing details
stage. Again the fields are very similar to the same page at Yahoo except Bing
gives you the opportunity to add company tagline, business description and if you
carry products information about the brands you carry.
Bing provides you with a lot more business listing capabilities for their free listing
than either Google or Yahoo so make the most of it as regards the details you
provide, but as always don’t try and spam as these listings are reviewed by
humans as well.
Press “Next” button to choose categories.
3.2. Selecting Categories:
Bing provides you two ways to select categories: either by typing in the search
terms you think your customers will searching for online, and then it will provide
you appropriate categories from which to choose, or you can choose from a drop
down box. Just click the relevant categories for your business – you can have up
to six – and then prioritize them. Be sure you have your primary category you
want to be found for at the top.
When you’re happy with the categories press “Next” button.
3.3. Review and Submit:
At this stage you’ll be presented with a Bing Maps view of your business location,
and you have the opportunity to correct the location marker if it’s incorrect.
Once you’re satisfied with the map view then click “Next” and you’ll be asked to
choose a verification process. Similar to Google you can verify it by having an
automated service call your business phone and require you to input the Pin
Number generated on your computer screen. This is fastest and best.
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Alternatively, you can ask Bing to mail to your business address a confirmation
letter which explains the final step of completing the process to get your listing
active. This can take at least two weeks.
Be aware even if you verify using the phone your listing will still go into Pending
Status until a human has reviewed your site to ensure it has been completed
correctly. This can take 3-5 business days. Make sure you check back regularly
to see status of review. I’ve found sometimes they don’t let all the changes I
made through and so it can take a few attempts to get the listing right.
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4. Internet Yellow Pages and Other Places:
Beyond the three local search engines
of Google, Yahoo, and Bing there are
the various Internet Yellow Pages
(IYPs).
While I would not recommend you
spend a lot of time or money submitting
to these sites to get customers – fewer
and fewer people are using these
Yellow Pages when searching for a
service – they can help improve your
rankings in the local search engines.
And who knows you might just pick up
some customers from your free listing.
Most of the major IYPs offer a free basic listing and we advise you to start with
these below as they syndicate to other business listing sites and the Local
Search engines take notice of a listing at these sites.
Internet Yellow Pages – http://www.yellowpages.com
SuperPages – http://superpages.com
CitySearch.com – http://www.citysearch.com
Yahoo Yellow Pages – http://yp.yahoo.com
AOL Yellow Pages – http://yp.aol.com (AOL takes it’s listings from Yellow Pages)
SwitchBoard – http://switchboard.com (Switchboard takes its listing from
Supermedia family of sites which includes SuperPages.
MagicYellow – http://www.magicyellow.com/
Local.com – http://www.local.com
YellowBook.com – http://www.yellowbook.com
Also consider getting a business listing at these sites:
Yelp - http://www.yelp.com
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HotFrog - http://www.hotfrog.com
Merchant Circle – http://www.merchantcircle.com
Insider Pages – http://www.insiderpages.com
Some of these sites are review sites and in the case of a few by signing up at
one of the IYPs you may be listed already in places like Insider Pages, but you
should still create an account and claim your business. This will also allow you to
customize your listing, putting in your keywords and search terms you want
people to find you on and a photo and special offers to make your listing more
attractive and stand out.
There are many local Yellow Page sites and business directories you can get
your business listed at but these will get you started.
WARNING: In listing with some of the Yellow Pages sites you’re likely receive a
call from one of their sales associates offering you featured or sponsored listings
– meaning they’ll cost you bucks - and offering to optimize your listing for you.
These listings can get expensive really quickly, and these sales associates are
amateurs when it comes to search engine marketing as even the most basic
SEO question will stump them. Stay with the free listing and politely refuse
anything more.
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5. Optimizing Your Business Listing:
Earlier in this report I said I would cover
some pointers to get your business
listing more likely to appear in the Local
Business Results if there were more
listings than the search engines will
show on their first page of results.
While this is not a report on search
engine optimization or ranking – the
topic is too deep – there are some
basic things you should be doing to get
good rankings in the Local Business
Results at any of the major search
engines.
•
The first rule is to be consistent on your listings. Same NAP every time –
NAP stands for Name, Address and Phone Number. Additionally, have
each page on your web site contain the same NAP. Again, don’t use a 1800 number or cell phone as your primary number – it should be a local
phone number. And don’t use a P.O. Box or UPS Box it must be a real
physical address somebody can visit.
•
Reviews about your business matter. While the mechanism for ranking
businesses for specific search terms in the Local Business Results is a
“secret sauce” at Google, Yahoo and Bing, we do know getting reviews
about your business helps get you ranked higher and more likely to
appear in first page of LBR than a business with no reviews.
Google, Yahoo and Bing provide a mechanism for a customer to review
and rate a business. Other sites such as Yelp encourage their users to
review and rate businesses although specifically forbid a business to
encourage their customers to post a review of them. Personally, we don’t
understand their position on this and Yelp has come under attack from the
business community about some of their practices with reviews. So just
read Yelp’s guidelines when you sign up your business with them.
Reviews of a business are somewhat a double-edged sword because
sooner or later as a business you’re going to get a bad review and have to
decide what to do about it. First, don’t panic. Being perfect is beyond any
business because it consists of humans who make mistakes. Contact the
reviewer to see if you can help with their issue.
If the review contains willfully damaging remarks not true then contact the
site to see if they will remove the review. Most sites do not want to be
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associated with these situations particularly if it’s suspected the review
has been posted by a competitor. This topic is covered in more detail in
one of the modules in the eCourse you get when you signed up for this
report.
•
Citations can be important for a local business listing and almost certainly
help with ranking in the LBR listings. A citation is a mention of your
business anywhere on the web without it being a “live” link to your web
site. The more mentions you get the better for you provided they are
positive.
Competitor Analysis:
We would all like our business to be the first listing in the local search results. If
you’re not then learn from who is, and what they’re doing. Review your better
placed competitor for the following:
•
Is the page listed in LBR optimized for the local search term? If so
this would suggest they have incoming links to that web page – see below
section on optimizing web site pages.
•
Are they consistent with their NAP? – see above for more on this.
•
Do they have an optimized Google Places page? – If they have videos,
and categories, images, coupon, then they’ve claimed their business
listing and updated it.
•
Do they have reviews? Businesses ranking high in the LBR almost
always have a large number of reviews. Get moving on getting some!
•
Do they have citations? Mentions of their business on trusted sites goes
a long way to the search engines trusting the cited site as well.
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6. Optimizing Your Web Site:
As stated earlier none of the major local
search engines require you to list a web site.
However, there are many reasons why it
benefits your business to have a
professional and clean-looking web site to
promote and support your business.
One of the reasons is to help with your
Local Search Result ranking. A business
with a prominent web site listed in local
directories and cited in community web sites
with stories and articles is more likely to get
higher rankings in local search results.
When it comes to optimizing your web site for local search there are two factors
that help with achieving better rankings and these are known as On-Page and
Off-Site Factors.
Before I go any further, let me be clear about search engines. Search engines –
like Google – rank web pages and not web sites. That is pages of your site rank
in the search engines index and not your web site. This means everything that
follows is repeated for every page at your site you want to rank for a search term.
6.1. On-Page Factors:
On-Page optimization relates to the pages on your web site and how they can be
structured and formatted with content to aid the search engines.
Let’s be clear here - the goal of Search Engine Optimization is not to “trick” the
search engines into ranking your site high but rather providing them information
about what each page at your site is about, and the importance you place on
specific pages. This helps the search engines index and rank your pages for the
terms most appropriate. I view this as helping the search engines put the right
pages in front of searchers looking for a service or product.
On-page factors generally cover the subject of
search term (or keyword) focus and for local
search making sure you have information about
the geographic region your business covers.
This is about the content on your page. Let me
repeat that because it’s important – great
content first and then optimization second.
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Always cater for your visitor’s first – and the search engines after. You’ll get
nowhere if you have great search rankings for your pages because it makes
sense to the search engines but is completely unreadable to your human visitors.
Other factors include headings, page titles, and descriptions.
While this report can’t cover all the nuances of these factors there are two, that if
done correctly, will put you streets ahead of your competitors because most are
just not doing it and you can… well… kick their butts!
Title Heading:
The title tag is an unseen part of your web page when its displayed in the
browser, but its contents are displayed at the upper left of the web browser
window. It’s also displayed in the search engine organic listing for your page.
Here are examples:
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The titles are inside the red boxes. There is a limit to the number of characters
displayed by Google – it’s around 65 characters. As you can see the first listing is
clean and reads like English. The others are loaded with keywords in an attempt
to cram as many search terms they want to rank for the page as possible – they
do not read well.
You want to aim to get your primary search term or two in the title tag. This in
effect is the first part of your “ad” as it is supposed to grab attention from the
searcher scanning the search results.
What’s the second part of your “ad” and equally important as your title? Glad you
asked… it’s the contents of your description tag.
Description Tag:
The contents of the description tag is also an unseen part of your web page
when the page is displayed in the browser window but its contents are also
displayed in the search engine organic listing.
Here are examples:
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The description examples are inside the red boxes. Again, there is a limit to the
number of characters displayed by Google – it’s around 155 characters. Again,
you can see the first listing is clean and reads like English and attempts to
provide a reason for the searcher to click this listing – they offer free vacation
guides to download.
Again, you want to aim to get your primary search terms in the description and as
you have more space you should be able to get an additional 2 or 3 in this
section. The description is the second piece of your “ad” and together with the
title it should “sell the click” through to your web site.
You’ll notice that for these examples we had searched on the term “new england
vacations” and where these appeared in the title and description you can see
Google “bolded” them and because of this they stand out! This is another reason
to get your primary search terms you want to rank for in your title and description
tags.
So now you know what to do about your title and description tags but you’re
probably asking now how do you get them updated? Good question.
If you don’t know HTML and maybe don’t even have access to your web site
pages then you’ll need to have your webmaster or web developer make these
changes for you on each of the pages. They’re simple to implement but you do
need to add or change the contents of these tags in the header section of the
page. If you run a wordpress blog then this is also easy to change by your
webmaster.
Here’s what the HTML code looks like with the tags:
If your webmaster or web developer does not know how to change these tags on
your web site or blog then go hire another webmaster because you’re in deep
trouble.
Now go and create your title and description tags for every important page on
your web site you want to be ranked for specific search terms. Take your time –
getting this right can mean the difference between your business making a profit
or loss online.
Okay enough on on-page factors and on to off-site factors.
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6.2. Off-Site Factors:
In many respects if you follow our recommendations on getting your business
claimed and listed correctly in Google, Yahoo, Bing, and the Internet Yellow
Pages and local directories then you’ve already made a great start in off-site
ranking factors.
The next step would be to obtain links to your web site pages from other sites in
the same geographic area and community to you. Obtain links from sites that
compliment your services as its unlikely you’ll get a competitor to link to you –
although we’ve been successful in achieving this when it’s mutually beneficial.
When obtaining links from other sites located in the same area as you it’s
important to be specific about the words they use to link to your page. Get them
to link to you using the search term you want to rank for and include a
geographic modifier as well.
For example a typical local web site link we see includes just the site’s URL such
as the following:
“Helpful Hands offers cleaning services for residential and commercial property
clients in the Springfield, Massachusetts area. For more details visit their web
site at: http://www.helpfulhandsservice.com”
Instead a more valuable listing would be:
“Helpful Hands offers Cleaning Services in Springfield Massachusetts area to
residential and commercial property clients. For more details visit their web site
at http://www.helfulhandsservice.com”
This listing is more valuable because it contains in the actual link one of their
primary search terms – cleaning services - and location information –
Springfield Massachusetts. This helps the search engine understand what the
page the link is pointing to is all about and helps it rank for a specific geographic
area – cleaning services in Springfield Massachusetts.
Getting external links to your web pages is important
because effectively it’s a third-party endorsement of
your page – a vote for you if you will.
You see getting a link to your site from an independent
web site provides the search engines with a more
objective opinion about you, but also provides them
information about what the page is about.
This is called link reputation, and is so named
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because the words they use to link to you tell Google what this independent
source feels the web page they’re linking to is all about – that is their reputation.
So in the example above a search engine is more likely to believe your web page
is about cleaning services in Springfield Massachusetts because an independent
person said so, than if you had got up on your soapbox and shouted it.
Make sense? Okay, I think this is enough about SEO for this report and you’ll get
more details in the eCourse over the next few weeks. So stay tuned.
Now I want to briefly cover monitoring and tracking of your local search
campaigns as all this work is great but you need to be able to see what is
working and what isn’t, so you can make course adjustments.
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7. Monitoring Local Search Campaigns:
In the offline marketing world it can be
difficult to track and monitor the
effectiveness of marketing campaigns.
P.T. Barnum once said “I know 50% of my
advertising is wasted but I just don’t know
which 50%.” I may have paraphrased his
sentiment a bit but you get the drift.
Direct response marketers have long been
using special phone numbers and tracking
codes in display ads to understand which
ads provide profitable visitors for them.
But it can still be hard to test and “ad” and
understand how many saw the “ad” and
who took action and what they did.
In the online world much of the tracking at your website can be done
automatically. While there is third-party software out there the best, in my opinion
is free, and it’s Google Analytics. It’s also easy to install and use.
The drawbacks to using Google Analytics is Google effectively has access to all
the data about your site. This is only a concern if you believe Google is “evil” or
you’re doing stuff you don’t want Google to know about. If this is you then use
third-party software like Web Trends but you’re on your own if you go that route
as what follows is relevant only to Google Analytics.
In addition to Analytics, after you’ve set-up your Google Places account you’ll
receive monthly stats from Google on your Maps listing. More on this later.
7.1. Google Analytics:
Installing Google Analytics requires putting a snippet of code on each page of
your website in a specific section of the code called the header section. In the
earlier section where we discussed titles and descriptions we gave an example of
where these belong on the <head> section. Your analytics code will go after the
title and description tags.
The snippet of code is specific to a web site and so first step is signing up for
Google Analytics and getting this code. Go here to sign up:
http://www.google.com/analytics/
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You’ll see a screen like this:
On the right hand side where the big red arrow is click this link to sign-up for
analytics. You’ll get this screen:
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Use the Google account you signed up with for Gmail or Google Places – there is
no need to create another one. Google ties all this together automatically for you.
Now I can’t make this a tutorial on Google Analytics for you, but essentially once
you’re signed in you’ll need to tell Google the web site address (URL) you want
to capture stats about, and then verify you’re the real owner. Again, you’ll need
access to your web site folders where all your files are stored. So if you don’t
know how to access them ask your webmaster or developer to do what Google
asks you to do.
Once you’ve verified you’re the owner then you can get the snippet of code to
add to each page at your website, or in the case of a Wordpress Blog site there
is a plugin you can get that’ll take of it for you.
Google has really good help for the analytics product for where to find the code
and how to install in the support center for the product here:
http://www.google.com/support/analytics/?hl=en
Once the code is installed on your site it will take a few days before stats will be
gathered. I recommend you leave it 30 days before trying to get and interpret any
of your analytics stats.
7.1.1. Useful Stats to Know for Local Search:
One of the most useful stats to know is where visitors to your site are located.
This helps confirm you’re targeting the right local locations.
You can find this in Visitors > Map Overlay > Country > Region > City and it’ll
look something like this:
This site caters for the northeast region and you can see the top visitors are
located in cities in Massachusetts and New York.
Another useful stat to know is knowing who is sending you visitors and this you
can find under the same section but filtering on > source and > medium. It will
look something like this:
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Here you can see most of the traffic is coming from Google and organic
searches.
Before we leave our Google Analytics introduction we’ll just cover Advanced
Segments. Advanced segments allow you to view any of your web site stats by
visitor location. Creating a new customized segment filtered by city can be done
from the dashboard and you can find a tutorial on Advanced Segments in Google
Analytics Help pages here: http://www.google.com/support/analytics/?hl=en
7.2. Google Maps:
Once you sign-up for Google Places, Google will send you stats every month on
your Maps listing. In addition, you can see a running month of the same
information when you log into your Places account. It will look something like this:
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The stats include number of impressions – which is the number of times visitors
saw your business listing when they searched on a term - and how many clicked
through to your places page and/or your actual web site.
The business in this example is also using the Google Tags paid service which
makes your listing stand out. You get separate stats for how many people clicked
on your tag listing. The current fee for this feature is $25 per month.
Whether you need this or not can depend on the competitiveness of your niche.
Google introduced this with first month free so you can try it out to see if it helps
with more traffic and customers. We’ve seen this make a difference in some
situations and not in others. So try before you buy is the way to go.
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8. The Importance of Local Business Reviews:
Earlier when discussing Local
Business Results – LBR – we touched
on reviews and how it helps get you
higher rankings.
While nobody knows for sure how
much the local search engines factor
reviews into their algorithm, there is
enough circumstantial evidence to
suggest it’s a significant factor.
But there is another more important reason to get reviews of your business and
that is it helps get customers. “Word of mouth” advertising has long been the
best way of getting referrals for an offline business. Getting a recommendation
for a business is always a better way to find a service than pull out a Yellow
Pages and start calling around based on the alphabet.
Online reviews are the closest we can get to offline “word of mouth” marketing,
and businesses with lots of positive online reviews are more likely to get
customers.
So you should make effort to get customers who are happy with your service to
post a review for you. There are a few words of caution here but before that here
are the primary review sites:
Google
Yahoo
Bing
Yelp
Citysearch
Judy’s Book
Tripadvisor
Yelp expressly forbids you asking customers for reviews which is dumb and
makes my blood boil but whatever. Just don’t ask people to post reviews on Yelp
but elsewhere. You should also not post Fake Reviews – this is bad and can get
you prosecuted in some states and certainly undermines the reputation of your
business!
Make it easy for people to post reviews – most people don’t know they can do it
and so you’ll need to show them as it’s not intuitive. Make note of their email
address and based on that make a direct link to your business listing at where
they have an email address. For example if they have a gmail account then send
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them to your Google Places listing. If you notice they have a Yahoo email
address send them to your Yahoo! listing, etc.
In addition to the sites we detailed earlier in Section 4 we also suggest you get a
business listing at these sites so people can post reviews about your business
easier:
CitySquares.com - http://citysquares.com/
GetFave.com - http://www.getfave.com/
Judy’s Book - http://www.judysbook.com/
Kudzu - http://www.kudzu.com/
Kaboodle - http://www.kaboodle.com/ (Focus on shopping)
Urbanspoon.com - http://www.urbanspoon.com/ (Restaurants only)
In addition to getting your business officially listed at these sites they also offer
paid advertising. These go under the name of “Featured Listing” or “Sponsored
Listing” or “Enhanced Listing” or “Preferred Listing.” Do your research before
signing up for advertising. Make sure your spending money at sites where your
target audience can be found.
As we said in an earlier section – track and monitor when your money is on the
line. You can burn through a lot of cash with no results quickly at these sites.
My preference is to use Google Adwords for paid advertising but that is another
subject covered in the eCourse you signed up to get as part of your package.
Adwords works fine for local businesses.
The next subject to cover is Rich Snippets. It’s one of the newest areas the local
search engines have introduced and it probably comes under the banner of an
advanced topic.
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9. Rich Snippets and How they Can Help Your Business:
This is going to be an introduction to the concept of Rich Snippets – a recent
feature to the local business playing field.
On the surface rich snippets is just a bunch of code you can wrap around specific
information at your site to tell the local search engines what the business is,
where it is, what people are saying about it, and information specific to your niche
such as menus for restaurants, and show times for cinema’s.
Here’s an example of event rich snippets:
Rich snippets allows the search engines to include information in their results
from your web site without the searcher having to go to your web site. This is
important because it ensures when you get a visitor to your site they’ve been
matched with the services or products you offer.
This is also important for the search engines as it provides a positive user
experience for them, and they’re more likely to use the search engine again in
the future.
Most common examples of Rich Snippets together with examples are:
Reviews
People
Products
Business Contact Info.
Menus
Recipes
Events
So for example, if you have reviews of your business, posted at your web site,
then by wrapping them in Rich Snippet code the search engines will pick those
up and display them on your listing. This is in addition to those reviews left
around the web at other locations.
You can see how powerful this can be for you.
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9.1. Rich Snippet Code:
Rich Snippet code is like HTML and of course this means you’ll need access to
your web site pages in order to leverage this technology. Again, if this is beyond
you, or you just don’t want to be bothered with it then talk to your friendly
webmaster or developer.
The most common code to implement is the hCard Microformat as both Google
and Yahoo! have indicated they use them when indexing a site.
Basically, you’re going to wrap information at your site in specific tags depending
on the type of information you want the search engines to take notice of. In the
case of reviews you’d use the hReview tag.
Here’s a sample of the sort of code you’d wrap around a review:
If you’re comfortable with rudimentary HTML then this is not a big jump for you.
There is also plenty of help with all the Microformats at Google and other sites.
Basic Microformat info.
Google Webmaster info.
I’ll provide more information on Rich Snippets towards the end of the eCourse
you’ve also signed up to receive.
Whether you decide to implement Rich Snippets at your site or not, you should at
least know what is available, especially if your competitors use them and you
wonder why they’re getting all the traffic and you aren’t. Right?
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Final Words:
While we’ve only scratched the surface of using the Internet to get more
customers and profits for your local business, if you follow the recommendations
and suggestions included in this guide, you’ll have taken a first step that takes
you way beyond what most of your local business competitors are doing.
If you received a copy of this free report from a business associate or at one of
the business expos we attend then you will not be on the list to get the free
eCourse “Internet Marketing for a Local Business” which goes way beyond
what’s covered here. This eCourse is the companion to this eBook and will take
your business on the web way beyond your competitors.
You’ll also not obtain our local search frequent updates and other free reports
and special communications as they become available. We urge you to ensure
you get this free valuable information for your local business success on the
Internet by registering here: http://www.NELocalMarketing.com/membership
In April 2009 Google put the last nail in the coffin of the Yellow Pages Phone
Book and in 2010 it continued to bury the casket deeper. 2011 is shaping up to
be more of the same. People are already finding services and products like yours
using the Internet and not the phone book or newspapers. You need to decide if
you want to be the business in front of those people looking for services or
products you offer, or are willing to let a competitor get their business instead.
The window of opportunity to get and stay ahead of your competitors in the Local
Search arena will not last for much longer. Your competitors will eventually wake
up from their slumber and join the Local Search freight train, but by acting now
you’ll make it difficult, if impossible, for them to catch-up and overtake your
speeding bullet.
Feel free to contact us if you have questions about this material.
New England Local Marketing
www.NELocalMarketing.com
[email protected]
[email protected]
508 479 2840
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Sign-Up For a Free Local Internet Marketing Education
Seminar:
We realize this is not deep training on the
topic of web site optimization and search
engine marketing but the fact is it can
quickly wander into areas where it’s
possible to do more damage than good to
your web site rankings in local search if the
approach is wrong. There is a right and
wrong way to implementing a Local Internet
Marketing strategy to dominate your niche
locally.
New England Local Marketing conducts 90-minute content packed education on
Internet Marketing for a Local Business. You can register for one of these local
sessions at our website at http://www.NELocalmarketing.com/seminar/ or just call
us at 508-479-2840.
We also conduct the same session on webinars. This means it doesn’t matter
where you are in the country or world we can provide the same education to you.
Grab Our Free Web Site Evaluation and/or Competitor
Analysis:
New England Local Marketing doesn’t only help
local businesses in the New England region get
on the Internet. We help small businesses around
the country take their business online or improve
their profitability if they’re already online.
If you already have a web site we offer a free
service we call our First Step Program. Our local
internet marketing experts perform a web site
assessment, site conversion review, and
competitor analysis for you. There is no obligation
to have this service performed.
It takes us a few hours to prepare and about one hour to deliver to you. At the
very least you’ll discover what you need to do to be or remain competitor in your
niche.
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If you don’t have a web site yet then we will perform a free competitor analysis
for you, so you know what others are doing in your niche and will understand
what it’ll take to have a successful web site for your offline local business.
Web site design and development goes hand-inhand with Internet Marketing and we provide a
service for building web sites if that is needed as
part of a project. More at
http://www.nelocalmarketing.com/services/website-design-service/
You can find more details about our First Step Program at
http://www.nelocalmarketing.com/services/free-first-step-program/ or just call us
at 508-479-2840.
Learn More About Our Services:
New England Local Marketing provides a full array of local internet marketing
services for its client small businesses. To discover what these are and learn
more about them visit us at http://www.nelocalmarketing.com/services/
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About New England Local Marketing
New England Local Marketing provides: Local Search Optimization, Email
Marketing, Online Advertising, Web Site Design and Building, and Competitor
Analysis, for local businesses.
Cliff Calderwood and Erika Slater own online and offline small businesses and
rely significantly on local search for obtaining leads and new customers.
Jim Hyde is our resident web site and graphic designer, and also runs his own
regional online publishing business.
Everything you’ve read in this report is utilized in promoting their local
businesses, and because of this they remain current with the dynamic and
changing world of local search. This benefits their own businesses and their
client’s.
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New England Local Marketing – All Rights Reserved 2012
How to Get Your Business on the Internet in 2012
FRIENDLY LEGAL DISCLAIMER
While all attempts have been made to verify information provided in this
publication, neither the author nor the publisher assumes any responsibility for
errors, omissions or contradictory interpretation of the subject matter herein.
The search engine marketing space is always in a state of flux and though the
instructions and steps laid out in this guide worked as depicted when the
information was compiled they may not work exactly as described today.
We also cannot make any guarantees as regards your business’s ability to
compete and rank higher than your competition in the local business listings. The
ranking is controlled by the search engine companies who are always changing
factors that can impact results, and by your ability to execute the instructions
contained in this report accurately.
The guidelines presented in this report are based on what has worked in the past
and when it was written, and this may or may not hold true in the future.
The purchaser or reader of this publication assumes responsibility for the use of
these materials and information and following instructions. Adherence to all
applicable laws and regulations, both federal, state, and local, governing
professional licensing, business practices, advertising and any other aspects of
doing business in the US or any other jurisdiction is the sole responsibility of the
purchaser or reader. New England Local Marketing assume no responsibility or
liability whatsoever on behalf of any purchaser or reader of these materials.
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New England Local Marketing – All Rights Reserved 2012