Frank  Soukup  Director  of  Marke-ng  Cote  Family  Companies  Grand  View  Lodge  

Tom  Kavanaugh  Owner    

Kavanaugh's  Sylvan    Lake  Resort    

WHY MANAGE?  •  There  are  more  opportuni?es  than  ever  before  to  quickly  rank  nega?ve  or  slanderous  results.  

•   If  you  don’t  protect  yourself,  someone  can  easily  post  a  comment,  make  a  video,  create  a  blog  post,  file  a  complaint,  promote  your  compe??on,  develop  a  hate  site  and  more.    

•  Or  even  worse,  an  angry  employee  will  leave  the  company  with  revenge  on  their  mind  and  reek  havoc  with  to  yours.    

•  Managing  your  online  reputa?on  isn’t  shameless  promo?on,  it’s  a  means  of  defense  and  best  prac?ce.  

Who Reads Them?  

•  Consumers  •  Business  partners  •  Stock  holders  •  Marketers  •  Journalists  •  Prospec?ve  employers  •  Co-­‐workers  •  Personal  contacts  

google.com/think

The 2013 Traveler

November 2013

How Can It Affect Me?  •  A  User  clicking  on  a  compe?tor’s  search  result  instead  of  yours  

•  Legal  ramifica?ons  that  could  dominate  your  ?me  and  cripple  your  financial  sustainability,  as  well.  

•  News  and  legal  results  in  the  top  search  rankings  so  that  even  if  a  case  is  dismissed  or  resolved,  you’ll  be  living  with  the  consequences  for  years  to  come.    

•  Determining  who  is  responsible  for  the  nega?ve  reputa?on,  if  you’ll  have  to  reposi?on  or  remove  certain  employees  or  dealing  with  poten?al  losses  in  workforce,  add  further  monetary,  morale  and  growth  consequences.  

How Can It Affect Me…  

•  The  fact  you  don’t  know,  is  a  problem  all  itself;  you  cant  defend  what  you  don’t  know  

•  And  the  most  important  reason…  

•  Search  results!!!  Most  review  sites  are  integrated  into  local  search  results  

Top 5 Hints About Review Sites

– Own  Your  Search  Engine  Results  Page  (SERP)  – Be  Social  – Blog  – Think  Outside  the  Box  – Have  an  Ac?ve  PR  Strategty  

Reviews after Trip Advisor

– Yelp  – Yahoo  – Google  – Foursquare  – Bing  – Facebook  – And  there’s  more,  because  all  of  these  are  involved  in  another  online  science.  

What Science?  

LOCAL SEARCH!

Local search is any search made with the goal of finding something in a

SPECIFIC GEOLOGICAL AREA

73% of all internet activity is related to

local content

65 percent of smartphone users said their

searches were “driven by a need for

information on the go.”

Four out of five searches via mobile devices lead to a purchase, often within a few hours, the survey said.

Compared with other devices, the mobile phone showed the highest conversion rate, with nearly 80 percent of mobile phone searches ending in a purchase.

And, nearly three out of four of those mobile phone searches that

converted…

brought the customer into a brick-and-mortar store.

Local Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

is the practice of improving the quantity and quality of traffic from search queries with a geological

intent

If you don't have a solid foundation for listing management,

it will have a negative impact on your overall local SEO program and

online reputation.

Listing Management Trumps All Local SEO Efforts

Lis4ng  management    has  been  and  con4nues  to  be    

the  required  founda4on  for  a  successful    Local  SEO  program.  

4 Considerations of a Listing Management Strategy  

•  How  frequently  to  push  your  data  to  the  ecosystem:  in  most  instances,  the  more  o]en  the  be^er;  lis?ngs  data  should  be  distributed  at  least  once  or  twice  each  month.  

•  How  to  ensure  data  consistency  across  all  channels  so  search  engines  will  index  your  lis?ngs  properly:  put  a  system  in  place  to  ensure  Google  and  other  search  engines  properly  index  your  loca?ons  and  lessen  the  odds  they’ll  pull  incorrect  data  for  any  of  them.  

•  Iden?ty  and  suppress  duplicate  lis?ngs:  automa?on  technologies  can  help.  

•  Monitor  and  report  on  the  accuracy  of  the  data  being  distributed:  this  helps  to  gauge  overall  performance  and  iden?fy  specific  loca?on-­‐level  problems.  

Let’s Break it Down: Ecosystem  

Let’s Break it Down more…  

And again…  

Start With the Essentials: Google, Bing, Yahoo  

•  The  "big  three"  are  free  and  account  for  94.2  percent  of  search  traffic.  This  March,  13.1  billion  –  or  65.5  percent  –  of  the  19.4  billion  explicit  core  searches  in  the  U.S.  took  place  on  Google  sites.  Together,  Microso]  (Bing)  and  Yahoo  sites  powered  another  28.7  percent  of  searches,  according  to  comScore.  

Focus on Lowest-Cost Data Aggregators: Accuracy,

Optimization & Automation •  Once  you're  straight  with  the  Google,  Bing,  and  Yahoo,  focus  on  your  lowest  cost  data  aggregators.  These  are  your  op?ons  less  than  $99  a  year,  per  loca?on,  combined  –  Infogroup,  Acxiom,  Localeze,  and  Factual,  among  others.  

Home in on Your Higher-Cost Local Listings Management Solutions on

Popular Networks  

•  Now  it's  ?me  to  get  right  with  your  higher-­‐cost,  more  niche  local  lis?ng  management  solu?ons  on  popular  networks  –  Yelp,  Yext,  Foursquare,  Facebook,  and  others.    

Verify Content •  Make  sure  you  include  and  verify  as  much  of  the  following  informa?on  as  you  can:  •  Business  name  •  Address  •  Telephone  •  Landing  Page  URL  •  Neighborhood  Informa?on  •  Ci?es,  Areas  Served  •  Brand  Logo  and  Storefront  Images  •  Business  Descrip?on  with  services  (keywords)  offered  and  city  you  serve  •  Categories  that  match  your  services  (keywords)  •  Hours  •  Holiday  Hours  Taglines  &  Brands  Carried  (keywords)  •  Events  •  Social  Networks  URLs  •  Local  Map  URLs  •  Review  Site  URLs  

Track, Evaluate & Optimize: Tactics for Ongoing Best Practice

Management •  Using  cita?on  management  and  ranking  tools  increases  ranking  and  traffic,  and  will  you  give  you  the  insight  and  repor?ng  you  need  to  move  the  needle:  

•  Bright  Local  •  Moz  Local  •  Whitespark  •  Chatmeter  •  Yext  •  Places  Scout  •  Google  Analy?cs  

Key Takeaways

•  Automate,  automate,  automate!  It  not  only  saves  you  ?me,  but  ensures  greater  accuracy  and  therefore  higher  rankings  and  a  be^er  user  experience.  

•  Start  with  essen4al  free  lis4ngs  and  systema?cally  work  your  way  through  the  above  items  to  get  it  right.  Op?mize,  measure,  and  improve  on  a  consistent  basis.  Get  out  of  the  weeds  of  the  niche  directories  and  start  with  the  three  major  ones  for  the  biggest  win.  

•  Take  advantage  of  the  different  types  of  informa4on  you  can  share  on  various  lis?ngs  solu?ons;  go  beyond  NAP  (name,  address,  phone  number).  Connect  to  your  social  networks,  offer  holiday  hours  and  other  relevant  opera?onal  informa?on,  add  images,  etc.  

Tips to Takeaway About Online Reputation

–  Set  up  alerts  (Google,  SocialMen?on,  etc)  –  Try  to  get  low  reviewers  to  return  to  re-­‐review  –  Address  reviews  head-­‐on;  apologize  if  needed  –  Comment  on  posi?ve  reviews  –  Increase  your  Local  Search  focus  –  Be  accessible  –  Invest  in  Customer  Service  –  Have  a  plan  in  place  for  a  PR  /  the  i-­‐wish-­‐and-­‐want-­‐to-­‐be-­‐a-­‐travel-­‐cri?c-­‐because-­‐i-­‐am-­‐hoping-­‐i-­‐can-­‐gain-­‐followers-­‐socially-­‐for-­‐my-­‐crazy-­‐ran?ng  styled  guest  Plan  

Have fun with it. It’s our business!