A Trip To Venice!

Melanie Morrison MEB Management Services

Xxxxxday, April XX, 2012

View from Above Local Search

• Local Search has changed the way people find goods and services.

• Including apartments!

What is it? Definition of Local Search

• The use of specialized search engines that allow users to submit geographically constrained searches against a structured database of local business listings.

Why has Local Search Become so Prominent? It combines: • The usefulness of the phone-book

• The convenience of the internet

• The “trust-factor” of word-of-mouth marketing with consumer reviews

Why has Local Search Become so Prominent?

(Source: 540 SE)

Google’s “Venice” This Update Changed Everything Related to Local Search • Dramatic improvement in Local Search results

• Relies more heavily on local rankings

Post-Venice Benefits to Local Search - Cost

• NO COST! Local listings can be posted on various sites for free.

• These free sites include: Yelp, Google Places, Yahoo Local, CitySearch and Google+

Post-Venice Benefits to Local Search - Trust

67% of consumers have consulted online reviews of local businesses to determine whether or not that business is a “good” business.

(Source: DVX Marketing)

Post-Venice Benefits to Local Search – Competition • ILS services are not able to create local listings

• When you compete locally, your competition pool is now simply “your neighbors next door” instead of the big boys (or girls) of the ILS world

What’s Driving Local Search? Key Areas

• Better Targeting

• Increased Mobile Usage

• Improved Product Integration

• Word-of-mouth Trust Factor

Don’t Miss Out! How to Take Advantage of New Local Search Opportunities

• Study the methods of companies that do well in the SERP rankings

• There is one common trend… they do MORE than the competition

Go Above and Beyond Tactics to Maximize Results

• Build Local Search Citations

• Use Images

• Site Architecture

• Unique Localized Page Content

Go Above and Beyond Build Local Search Citations • Citations are directory type web pages that list your company information • Google, Bing and Yahoo crawl these directories for new content • Increased Local Search Citations = Increased relevance to Google’s algorithm • Each listing should match exactly to your Google Places page according to your NAP.

Go Above and Beyond Top Directories

1. Yelp 2. Foursquare 3. Merchant Circle 4. Manta 5. CitySearch 6. LocalEze 7. LinkedIn 8. Whitepages 9. Supermedia 10. Yellowbook

11. Brownbook 12. Mapquest 13. SmartGuy.com 14. Local.com 15. YellowPages.com 16. ThinkLocal 17. CitySlick 18. USYellowPages 19. MyCity 20. Kudzu

Go Above and Beyond Use Images

Go Above and Beyond Site Architecture: Rethink Local

• Index your pages

• Localize your content

Go Above and Beyond Unique Localized Page Content

• Remove “cookie cutter” content

• Make each page unique

• Avoid penalties for duplicate content

Go Above and Beyond Some Additional Ideas:

• Location based reviews – Unique testimonials for each market

• Gather “Why I love my city” user generated content

• Write out directions to each property

Travel Tips For Hard-Core Venetians

• Markup addresses in Schema and hCard

• Add a KML File and GeoSitemap to your website

• Authoritative Local Link Building

Travel Tips Markup Addresses in Schema and hCard

Use: schema-creator.org and microformats.org

Travel Tips Add a KML File and GeoSitemap to your WebSite

Most underutilized tactic but highly effective Use: Geo Sitemap Generator

(Source: SEOmoz)

Travel Tips Authoritative Local Link Building

• Microsites: Build microsites for the submarkets of a large city.

• Local Guest Posting: Find hyperlocal blogs in your city.

Utilize your “Local Connections” Combine Local Search with Local Touch

Utilize your “Local Connections” Use Local in conjunction with “In Person” Promotions

• Social Media

• Craigslist

• Newspaper

• QR Codes

• Business Community

• Other Media

Don’t Forget…

Don’t Forget…

Don’t Forget…