When it comes to local media, Mike is one of the industries true foot soldier. Starting out as a Verizon Yellow Page media sales representative in 2000, Mike quickly made his disruptive presence known. While his dinosaur colleagues pushed phone book advertising Mike was busy steering millions of dollars worth of print ads into local online media that produced measurable results. Verizon recognized Mike's though leadership and sales success with 4 Verizon National President Awards, the most in company history. More importantly, Mikes's high integrity and outspoken commitment to local online media earned him a loyal following among business owners who are tired of loosing money to pushy local sales reps.

Today mike continues his crusade for local business owners as the founder of SMB SEO, Status26, and Board of Directors for Dallas/Fort Worth Search Engine Marketing Association www.DFWSEM.org

You can follow him @dallasseoguru and find him at one of the Dallas area’s many 8th mile drag race tracks or playing disc golf.

My name is Mike Stewart

Internet Operations for Small to Enterprise Brands

Tweet Tweet to @dallasSEOguru

#pubcon #localseo @dfwsem

Local SEO is not local searchTactical Differences

Local SEO is CONTENT strategy aimed at increasing website traffic from visitors using geo concatenated search queries in search engines.

Local Search is a LEAD GENERATION strategy aimed at increasing foot traffic and phone calls to a physical location.

YOU NEED BOTH!   

REGGIES CHICKEN SHACK

Submit and/or Claim Business and Directory Listings

Verify Listing Information

Complete and Optimize Profiles

Connect / Cross Promote Social Medial

Monitor and Respond to Reviews

Announce Promotions

Maintain Listings

Local Search Marketing Basics

Duplicate listings with no options to remove, incompletes and partials

Lack of phone support for non-ads

Existing Accounts Locked Out

Verification w/ Owner – Outgoing Caller ID

Claiming existing listings via call to location

Paying to fix bad data – referring visits data

Postcards don’t come

Phone verification bugs

Common Listing Issues

Claiming a listing is much better than submitting a listing.

Claiming listings is easy IF… • All locations have been submitted

previously.• Information is accurate and up to

date.• Someone else hasn’t claimed the

listing first!!!

Pulling info easier than pushing new information.

Claiming improves content linking to your site via filling every field.

Claiming > submitting

Provisioning B1 lines with local prefixes

Setting up tele-branches to the main PBX

Installing browser side call tracking scripts

Report calls to weblogs and analytics

Directory Assistance & NAP Consistency

Configuring call center call routing systems

Verify data sent to data aggregators

Local RBOC > CLECs with Data

Issue #2 Telco Nightmares Wear You Down

The PayoffVerified Local businesses get preferred treatment on SERP Pages

Local listings ALSO direct traffic to your social media profiles and website (cookies for retargeting, web logs, etc)

Guide seekers using location aware smart phone devices to your place of business (FOOT TRAFFIC)

Each individual store's location as a page as the Google Maps url vs the root domain….. SHARE OF VOICE + CTR

Increase customer referrals

Increased / Decreased Local Search RankingsPigeon updates impacts both map and Google web search results

Knowledge graph, Spelling, directions,Synonyms, Location ranking factors,

IYP and Directory Sites are relevant again

• National brands need better "local SEO"• Audit for better localized content

- can be complex

Google “Pigeon” UpdatesLocal Search Algorithm

With Traditional WebSearch Ranking Factors

You want something out of the relationship, often times it has a similar “life-cycle”and sometimes they fix other issues

Hiring an Agency Should Not be Like Dating

Someone to help pay the rent or light bill.

Who’s handling your listings?

DIY approach Agency audit

Choosing the right solution

vs.

Winging itOdesk

ReachLocal

RFP'sDocumentationConversion data

Attribution

Duplication and scale is great for manufacturing

Duplication in systems and process is great

Makes 30,000 McDonalds franchises possible

McDonalds has only ONE marketing department They have folks who cater to local tastes The Marketing "Management Team" outsources work to local shops with regional affiliation

Local Marketing Governance

Local client with national product running on WordPress WooCommerce

Prepare website for exposure on local level

7pm show airs, 45 people

7:03pm name and logo flash on screen

10,220 visitors in under 2 minutes

Server clocking 30,000 page views per minute

Resulting in avg. of 100 orders per minute

Next up WEST COAST.

Takeaway: Server environment was localized & equipped. 90% of site #FAIL to serve in the Tank!

Mitigate Problems in the Local Sales Funnel First

Case Study  

• Started in 2003 in Fort Worth, Texas

• Since 2007 have grown from one restaurant to 78 locations across 10 States

• Franchises are independently and owned and operated.

Fuzzy’s Goals 

• Drive Local Foot Traffic

• Increase Awareness

• Encourage Repeat Visits

Fuzzy’s Situation #1

I’m sitting at home on Saturday and suddenly I get that craving…. “man, I sure could use a taco right now. I’m so sick of Taco Bell…. I want to try something new.”

Google: Plano, Texas Taco

THE KING WILL NOTBE Denied

STOPIGNORING

GOOGLEPLUS

• Solve the Local Search Puzzle

• Organize and Mobilize

How to Improve Fuzzy’s Results

• Info about what food they make, not seeing any signature cuisine

• Pricing or preview of menu• Hours/days of operation

mentioned anywhere• Mention delivery service and

payment options• Phone number must match

the number on the location page.

• Offers and Events should be consistent too.

Local SEO Content Must Match Local Search

Local origin story

Location specific services pages and variable content:Hours, promotions, local descriptions

Indexable page in sitemap to all locations

Avoid using duplicate low quality pages or blog posts with swapped geographic keyword modifiers …

Stop focusing on local keyword content, unless it actually makes sense to do so.

Review fixed vs. variable "localized" content

Are you payingattention?

Are you payingattention?

Organize and MobilizeListing Management

Command Center

Data aggregators collect vital details about the business such as name, address, phone numbers (NAP) and other vital details. These large companies have full time staff dedicated to extracting new data from court records, calling business owners to get updated and expanded information, and entire technical teams who do nothing buy validate records!

Local Search Value Chain in a Nutshell

Search, Internet Yellow Pages and Directories (SID) collect data too. Using raw data from the DAs as a baseline, they encourages local business owners and the general public to fill in details about the business from there personal computers and mobile devices.!

Content Publishers (CP) creates websites use SIDs. For example, a wedding planner blog, restaurant review site, hotel location, etc. often feature a directory that is “powered by” the SID.!

InfoGroup's point of interest (POI) data is used by the top 5 internet search engines, 90% of in-car navigation systems in North America, mobile navigation, GPS, and internet yellow pages.

Acxiom's InfoBase data powers internet yellow pages and local search applications. Companies like Google, Superpages.com, Local.com and Yellowbook/Hibu look to Acxiom as a primary source for listing information.

Dun & Bradstreet is the world's leading source of commercial information and insight on businesses. D&B's global commercial database provides quality business information that customers rely on to make critical business decisions.

Founded in 2005, Neustar®

 Localeze® empower businesses of all sizes to quickly and actively manage their local business listings. A single source for distributing listings through the largest local search platform network in the industry. Neustar® Localeze® has direct, authorized relationships with over 100 local search platforms and promotes continuous business listings identity management and verification.

Factual provides access to definitive, global data to power web and mobile apps. Thousands of mobile apps and websites use Factual's data, including Booyah,Foursquare, and Trulia.

nSphere powers local search on over 500 niche vertical directories like Car and Driver, Computer User, Dogster, EZTrader, Fathers.com, Golf Week, JD Power, Kiplinger, Outdoor.com, and many more.

LOGIN MANAGED INTERNALLY

UBL submits your business information to the top data centersincluding Acxiom, Factual, Compass, nSphere and Dun & Bradstreet. The end result is that your business ultimately is listed in 100s of online business directories.

About UBL service

Do What Matters Most First

Speed of Data Updates at Major Local Search Engines

Listings@website.com vs company.local@yahoo.com

Our Old Method

What Order Should I Claim and Submit Listings?

1. Data Centers2. Data Aggregators

3. Top 20 Sites4. Hyper Local Citation Creation

5. Incompletes and Partials6. Ongoing Listing Management and Research

You will need a kickass spreadsheet like this to eat the local search listing elephant.

Data Centers:

nsphere.com

ubl.org

yext.com

expressupdatesusa.com

neustarlocaleze.biz

mybusinesslistingmanager.com

BusinessDirectory.BizJournals.com

Data Aggregators:

Factual.com

LocalEze.com

2FindLocal.com

6QubeDirectory.com

ABLocal.com

Aboutus.org

Abumba.com

AskLocalPages.comB2BYellowPages.comBBB.orgBigwigBiz.comBingPlaces.comBirectory.comBizHwy.comBizListOnline.usBizVotes.comBizWiki.comBlueBoomerang.comBrownBook.netBusinessDB.comBusinessPatrol.comCBSYellowPages.comChamberofCommerce.comCherrp.comCliqSearch.comCommunityWalk.comCompany.comCornerstonesWorld.comConnectorLocal.comCity-Data.comCityFos.comCitySearch.comCitySlick.netCitySquares.comCMAC.wsCraigslist.orgDexKnows.comDigaBusiness.com

GoMyLocal.comHelloMetro.comHotFrog.comHWhere.comiDirectory.comiBegin.comImmersiFind.comInfignos.comInfoSpace.comInsiderPages.comInter800.comJayde.comJudysbook.comJustClickLocal.comJustDial.comKudzu.comLinkedIn.comList-of-Companies.orgLocal.BOTW.orgLocal.comLocal.Yahoo.comLocalCensus.comLocalDatabase.comLocaler.meLocalGuides.comLocalizedBiz.comLocalPages.comMagicYellow.comMakeItLocal.comMajon.com

PaintingNetworx.comRateMDs.comSeniorHomes.comSeniorLivingAssistant.comServicesListed.comShopCity.comSpaFinder.comSportsTavern.comStorageFront.comTopGranitePros.comUrbanSpoon.comVisionDirectory.comVitals.comWeddingWire.comWellness.comZagat.comZillow.com"Events" Sites:Cityseekr.comEventBrite.comEventCrazy.comEventful.comEventseekr.comEventSetter.comFestivals.comPatch.comSchmap.comTicketBud.comTicketLeap.comUpcoming.Yahoo.comYelp.com/eventsZVents.com

Primeplace.Nokia.com

RadarFrog.GatehouseMedia.comRadiateLocal.comRateItAll.comRevark.comSalesSpider.comSeekItLocal.comShowMeLocal.comShowSmart.comSmartGuy.comSnapLocalBiz.comSnoopItNow.comSocialRaves.comSocialStreets.comSoMuch.comSpotaBusiness.comSuperPages.com

SureWestYellowPages.comSwitchboard.comSysBeat.comTenList.com

TheUltimateOnlineDirectory.comTheUSAExplorer.comThinkLocal.comThumbtack.comTopix.comTripAdvisor.comTrueLocal.comTrueYellow.com

DirectoryCentral.comDirectoryM.netDiscoverOurTown.comDreamLocal.comEAscend.comeBusinessPages.comeLocal.comeLocalFinder.comExportFocus.comExpressBusinessDirectory.comEZLocal.comFind-Your-Biz.comFindItNow.comFindTheBest.comFourSquare.comFyple.comGenieKnows.comGeodelic.comGetFave.comGetFreeListing.comGigPark.comGo2.comGoby.comManta.comMapQuest.comMatchPoint.comMeetLocalBiz.comMerchantCircle.comMetroBot.comMojoPages.com

PageLink.comPatch.comPegasusDirectory.comPetesDirectory.comPowerProfiles.comPremiumPages.netTupalo.comTyloon.comUrbanSpoon.comUSBDN.comUSCity.netUserInstinct.comUSYellowPages.comViewPoints.comViselka.comWand.comWhere.comWherezIt.comWhitePages.comWhoFish.orgWimgo.comYalwa.comYellowAssistance.comYellowBot.comYellowBook.comYellowee.comYellowHours.comYellowise.comYellowOne.comYellowPages.AOL.comYellowUSA.comYelloYello.com

Yelp.comYippie.bizYP.comZidster.comZip.proZipCodez.comZipHip.comZipLocal.comZipperPages.comZoomInfo.comIndustriy Specific Sites:AllAboutCounseling.comAllAboutVision.comAlphaLegal.comAmericanTradesman.comAOA.orgAssistedLivingFacilities.orgAssistedLivingInfo.comAssistedLivingWay.comAutoMD.comAvvo.comBailBond.comBoorah.comBuildersYellow.comChiroDirectory.comCyberAtty.comDealerRater.comDentistComparisons.comDentistDig.comDoctor.comeLocalPlumbers.com

Eventective.com

EverydayHealth.com

EveryDentist.com

EyeOnJewels.com

Fixr.com

Frommers.com

GatheringGuide.com

GetMowed.com

HealthGrades.com

HealthLine.com

HG.org

HomeExpo.com

HomeOwnersCircle.com

HomeStars.com

HotelClub.com

HotelsCombined.com

Houzz.com

Justia.com

LawFirmDirectory.org

LilaGuide.com

LocksmithIndex.com

LocalGranite.com

LuxuriousLandscapes.com

MacRaesBlueBook.com

MenuPages.com

MetroMix.com

Networx.com

OpenTable.com

OurParents.com

DirectoryCentral.comDirectoryM.netDiscoverOurTown.comDreamLocal.comEAscend.comeBusinessPages.comeLocal.comeLocalFinder.comExportFocus.comExpressBusinessDirectory.comEZLocal.comFind-Your-Biz.comFindItNow.comFindTheBest.comFourSquare.comFyple.comGenieKnows.comGeodelic.comGetFave.comGetFreeListing.comGigPark.comGo2.comGoby.comManta.comMapQuest.comMatchPoint.comMeetLocalBiz.comMerchantCircle.comMetroBot.comMojoPages.com

Directory.AGreaterTown.com

Akama.com

AllPages.com

AlltheLocal.com

AngiesList.com

Directory-Net.com

MyCityBusiness.net

MyGreenPages.com

MyHuckleberry.com

MyLocalServices.us

MyServiceConnection.com

MyWebYellow.com

NetHulk.com

Nexport.com

OneClickLocal.com

Oodle.com

OpenWiFiSpots.com

Quality over Quantity and Topical Relevance 1st.

1) No quick view of pricing info

2) No clear indication of service hours

3) not auto tracking IP location and showing locations of nearest shop.

4) Navigation bardifficult to read

5) Mobile version of website nonexistent

UX Audit

Service area zone of coverage not explicitly mentioned.

Services are scattered, no overview of services from homepage

No pricing info might discourage users from calling

End users might think its a small company based on the outdated U/I

No mention of speed of arrival, no option for emergency support

No actual photos of equipment/stylists at work

Only Facebook social link seen (missing twitter)

Testimonials might helpBefore/After photo might also be

ideal

UX Audit. Mobile 1st ALWAYS

Internet Operations for Small to Enterprise Brands

Have a brand with multiple locations that needs help? www.status26.com

Please join me at StateofSearch.org in D/FW in November