Highlights of the survey:

• Google Places (Google Maps) drives 33% of all website visits to local business websites
• Organic search drives 25% of all website visits to local business websites
• Yahoo & Bing account for less than 7% of all website visits to local business websites
• 59% of consumers use Google every month to locate a good local business
• 71% of search users value local search results & actively use these results
• 60% of consumers give more consideration to local results that have images

Read “Survey: Where do local business websites get their traffic & do consumers appreciate local search results?”

For more into

Optimizing for Local Search Even More Important With Google’s New Blended Local Search Results

The post Where do local business websites get their traffic? appeared first on eVision Online Marketing.

Their last SEO was having low quality articles written for them and submitting them to article submission sites. Checking their analytics we see that no traffic ever came from these sites, ever! It’s very unlikely that these articles helped their search engine rankings at all. We found none of these articles in any of the tools we use to identity strong links, those that may be helping improve search positions. Finally none of the articles were ever picked up and run by any other site (they’re not very good or useful).

Link Building often leads to the wrong behavior, wasting time and resources

Calling this process Link Building and of course explaining that link building is a task performed to improve search engine rankings leads many web marketers to employ link building techniques solely to influence their rankings.

Most of these techniques work, at best, only for a while before the search engines devalue their effect, resulting in wasted time .  We’ve all seen these techniques rise and fall over the years – submitting to low quality directories, link farms & exchanges, reciprocal linking with off target sites, low quality article submissions etc.

In addition, some marketers buy link building services that promise XX number of links a month.  And that’s exactly what they get – XX low quality links each month that never result in meaningful referral traffic and almost certainly will do nothing to help improve search positions.

All of these practices take time and resources that could have been expended on efforts with long lasting benefits.

We’ve changed the name of our service to
Referral Site Development (RSD) & Online Promotion

The primarily goals of our link building services, which we’ve offered for about 10 years, have never changed –

To build targeted traffic from referral sites – Traffic that may convert into inquiries, leads, subscriptions, memberships, sales, etc.

Brand awareness – You can only hope to build awareness by being mentioned on sites that people actually look at!

We go on to explain that a secondary benefit is that some, often a small percentage of the links we acquire will likely help improve search engine rankings and that some of these mentions (citations) will help confirm local business addresses etc which should help local search positions (Google Maps etc).

So we are changing the name of our service to Referral Site Development (RSD) & Online Promotion to more accurately reflect the more important purpose of building targeted traffic and awareness. Yes we are showing “AKA Link Building” for awhile but we hope that in time we won’t have to mention this anymore.

eVision’s Social Media Service

Today, Social Media (such as Facebook, twitter, blogs etc) should be an integral part of a businesses’ marketing plan.

However the implementation of Social Media can be very time consuming, so eVision has a service to help our client’s with this…

Learn about eVision’s Social Media Service

The post Can we stop calling it Linking Building? It leads many to the wrong behavior appeared first on eVision Online Marketing.

41 positive ranking factors ranked by relative importance

8 negative factors that can hurt your rankings in Google (Maps) and Yahoo local search results.

It’s from last May, but most of the factors are still valid.

Follow these guidelines and you’ll have a decent chance of getting your Google local search results to appear in a 7-pack, 3-pack, etc in Google’s main search results. (Watch our video for an overview of local search results that appear in the main search results page (7-pack etc) as Blended or Universal Search has continued to evolve) –

Also see our article “Google Maps SEO, How to get top rankings and improved search results in Google’s local search listings” which covers many of the ranking factors rated in David’s article including descriptions and screen shots.

Read “David Mihm’s “Local Search Ranking Factors”

For More Information

Video on Google Local Search Results appearing in the main search results – Watch our video for an overview of local search results that appear in the main search results (7-pack etc) page as Blended or Universal Search has continued to evolve.

Google Maps SEO, How to get top rankings and improved search results in Google’s local search listings –  Covers many of the ranking factors rated in David’s article with more detailed descriptions and screen shots

Video:  How to find, claim, update and add listings in Google’s local search (Google Maps)

Ask for customer reviews. Good reviews = more business (And will likely help your local search rankings)

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The post 49 Local Search Ranking Factors Rated by Importance appeared first on eVision Online Marketing.

In past articles about Google Maps we’ve covered:

• Video Demonstration of Google Maps since the emergence of Blended/Universal Search

• Video on How to claim & update or add local search listings in Google Maps.

In this article I’ll cover the important factors for getting the best results in Google Maps (Not just rankings but overall results including enticing people to take action). Let’s get right to it –
 

Find & claim your listings.  The simple act of finding and claiming your Google Map listings, even if you don’t update them, will likely improve your rankings as it verifies the listing  (Learn how find & claim your listings in our video blog).
 

Proximity to the search location. You’d think this one’s pretty obvious, that the closer your listing is to the location being searched on the better you should rank (all other things equal). So if the search is for “lumber New Haven” the listings from within New Haven should rank higher than the listings outside of New Haven, again all other things equal. And this is often the case with cities.

However Google’s results when there are not enough listings in a location, such as a smaller town, or when the search is for a wide area like a state can be skewed towards downtown areas of cites etc.

This tendency of weighting towards the centers of cities has diminished as other ranking factors have evolved (the “all other things”) and this should continue as Google is “constantly tweaking our ranking factors” (From a Google representative in a Google Maps forum about this issue)

Note – The letter in front of the following items corresponds to the letter in the following Google Maps “Edit/Add” Listing screen shot.

A: The Company/Organization Name in the Listing.  Having the service keyword in the name, such as “Acme Web Design” should help both with rankings and usability (making it quickly clear what you do). But see the Google Maps Guidelines linked to below: You are you required to use your actual business/organization name. However I’ve seen this rule broken repeatedly (see how to report spam below).
 

B. The Web Site/Landing Page. You don’t even need a web site but if you do…

Think about the best page to link to, just like you would when developing PPC ads. Should you link to the home page? Possibly it you have a single location and a limited focus.

Many of our clients have multiple locations. We’ve had the best results with one or more web pages per location. We link the Google Maps listings to the appropriate page. This has been helping with rankings. Plus, getting people directly to the location page they are interested in helps with conversions.

Have a site or page that is optimized for your key products & services along with local phrases; such as towns served, should definitely help your listings for searches on those products or services and locations. Many times I’ve seen the description developed by Google for the local search listing include text from the web site rather than from the Google Maps listing.

Some specific page elements to think about including on the web pages.

The location address in text.
A local phone number in text.
The location and/or towns severed in the HTML Title Tag.

C: The Google Maps Description. Spend lots of time on this 200 character description. As much time as you would developing an HTML Page Title and Meta Tag Description combination for an important page on your web site.

This description should be developed to help “sell” your business or organization to those who read it. If you include the keyword(s) and/or location being searched on in the description, for example “Web designers in the New Haven area since 2005”, it should help with rankings too.
 

Categories in the listing. If you are listed in a category that is being searched for, such as “web design New Haven, CT” this should help your listing rank better.

You can be listed in up to 5 categories. You can even suggest new ones. Do some searches on some important products or services and locations and check what categories are being used by others.

See the video for a demonstration of categories in “Google Maps Video: How to find, claim, update and add listings in Google’s local search”

Pictures & Video. Pictures and video can help you sell your business and its products and services.

Often a picture will be included in the Google Maps listing like our client’s below. That’s probably not going to help rankings, but could help click-throughs and conversions.

Picture in a Local Listing Result

Additional Details
Use the Additional Details fields to show more information about your business, its products and services (see the screen shot of an additional details area below).

These Additional Details can help sell your business, its products and services and they appear to help with rankings too. I’ve searched on some details that appear no where else but in the Additional Details and the listings where retuned in the results.

An example of Additional Details displayed in a listing

Citations (mentions and links on other sites).  You’re used to link popularity (PageRank, trust etc) for the traditional organic listings. It works very much the same for local listings.

Having Citations (mentions or links) on other web pages that help validate your local listing are a very important factor in local search rankings. These mentions don’t even have to link to the site, just verifying a local address and/or phone number helps.

Look for listings and mentions on sites (See the screen shots at the bottom of the article). Check any current listings you have for accuracy of the address, phone numbers, categories, and for issues such as duplicate listings, etc as Google often imports this information into your Google Places listing:

• The online yellow pages like SuperPages that are used as a source for search engines like Google. (See URL’s to the online yellow pages below).
• Regional listings such as on Yahoo, Business.com, local directories (eg chambers etc).
• Listings in sites like CitySearch, Yelp, etc.
• Local listings on the other major engines will help as they all crawl each others listings.

Try “reverse linking” the sites reaching the top local search listings for your local product and service keywords. Find which sites mention or link to them and what sites Google includes information from within the Maps listings. Might they be a fit for your site? (See the screen shots at the bottom of the article).

Ask for Reviews
I do not believe that reviews per se are a ranking factor. In my testing it does not appear that the number of reviews or the user ratings are affecting the rankings in Google Maps, however…

Having reviews may help verify a local listing and help build trust, but I haven’t been able to verify this.

Much more important, having good reviews can help you sell your business online.

Plus, snippets from your reviews are often included by Google in the local listings (see the screen shot below)

Local Listing with Review snippet

Also, searchers can exclude Google Maps listings by User Rating.

You need good reviews!!! (See the video for a demonstration this in “Google Maps Video: How to find, claim, update and add listings in Google’s local search”

Look at the sites reaching the top local search listings for your local product and service keywords and see which sites Google includes reviews from. Then ask for reviews on them as well as directly in Google Maps.

See “Ask for Reviews” for much more 

Where to Find Citation and Reveiw Sites

A: Review Sites Google Extracts From

B: Infobases Google Uses

C: Find More Possible Citation Sites In This Section

Resources

The Major Local Search Sites

• Google Local Business Center (LBC)
• Yahoo Add/Edit Local Listings 
• Bing Add/Edit Local Listings

Check this site out too: getlisted.org. The site will attempt to find your local listings for you, get you started on updating the listings, and they have lots of tips.

Google Maps Resources

• Business Listing Quality Guidelines
• Report Google Maps Spam 
• LBC Help Forum
• Problems & Errors forum

Recently posted in the Google Maps forum by a Google employee about reporting problems with listings “The best way to escalate these types of errors is to use the “Report a problem” link at the lower right-hand corner of the map. You’ll be able to provide details of the issue and subscribe to be notified of when the error is corrected.” 

The Major Online Yellow pages and Info sources to the majors

• InfoUSA (Database for many online yellow pages such as Yahoo’s)
• Yellowpages.com (ATT)
• SuperPages.com – Verizon (Database for other online listings: Google, Bing). Last known tel number for issues,  800-320-1395

More Info

Blended or Universal Search results.

Video Demonstration of Google Maps since the emergence of Blended/Universal Search

Video on How to claim & update or add local search listings in Google Maps.

How Flickr Can Help Your Local Business Get More Traffic – An article on Web Marketing Today about hosting images on Yahoo’s Flickr photo & video sharing site. These images are sometimes shown in the Blended search results including on Google

49 Local Search Ranking Factors Rated by Importance – The results of a survey of 27 folks who work on local search; 41 positive ranking factors, 8 negative factors

How to Promote and Syndicate Your Local Business Listings – More about citations on Web Marketing Today

The post Google Maps SEO, How to get top rankings and improved search results in Google’s local search listings appeared first on eVision Online Marketing.

Often when people search for companies or specific  products and services there are reviews in the search engine listings even is people don’t specifically search for reviews (More and more people do search for reviews too).

A quick example. A Facebook friend’s daughter posted that they were going zip lining in our area one day so I sent her a message, “Sounds like fun. Where is it?”

She sent me the name of the place and the town it’s in. I searched for it on Google. All I wanted was to find their web site, check it out, get the hours, that kind of stuff.

However near the top of the search results was a Yelp review about the place, so I read it. The review was pretty negative as was the only other Yelp review. So I searched for more reviews by searching on the name of the place and adding “reviews” to my search. I found about 5 more reviews. Most of them where also negative talking about lots of opening season problems. So I’ll wait till next season and hope they listened to the reviews and fix the problems!

Ask for Reviews
You should consider asking your clients for reviews like Amazon.com does. A few weeks after buying something you’ll get a message from Amazon asking for feedback in their customer rating system.

Many shopping sites run their own customer rating systems, like Amazon, or use a shared review system like Power Reviews. Most ask for reviews.

You should consider asking for reviews too. Otherwise you could end up with mostly negative reviews.

Its human nature, many people will not take the time to write a review unless they are upset. So reviews can tend to be mostly negative.

You should be able to improve your ratings if you ask for reviews (assuming you have mostly satisfied customers!)

You can ask for reviews even if you don’t have your own customer rating system just point them to the best online review site.

Find what review sites are best for you
First search to see what reviews sites are best for your company and industry.

Search on your company and product names and add “reviews” to the search phrase.

Search on your competitors’ names and their product and service  names and add “reviews” to the search phrase

Search on generic product and services for your industry and add “reviews” to the search

Send a message to some existing clients
You can send a message out to some existing clients if it hasn’t been too long since they purchased or used your service etc.

See “How to Ask for Customer Reviews” on salesandmarketing.com in the ”For More info” section below for some tips; such as not sending out a blanket blast to all clients as this could back fire.

Set up a system to send a message to new customers
Have a message sent to new customers after just enough time has passed for them to have used your product or uservice long enough.

Tip – If you find more than one important review site you can cycle the messages for each review site.

You could just ask them to “please provide your feedback”. You might also mention it you’re not happy, “please call us at xxx-xxx-xxx. We’d appreciate the opportunity to correct the issue”

If you offer something to get them to write a review you want to make sure it doesn’t cross the line and look like you’re paying for reviews (See How To Ask For Customer Reviews – Nicely. Tips and examples, below)

Include simple step by step instructions on how they should do the review (I may post an article or a video on how to submit Google Maps Reviews in the future)

For more info

“How to Ask for Customer Reviews” – Tips from Sales & Marketing Magazine

“How To Ask For Customer Reviews – Nicely”. Tips and examples

Your Customers are talking about you! And your potential customers are listening!

The post Ask for customer reviews. Good reviews = more business (And will likely help your local search rankings) appeared first on eVision Online Marketing.

I’ll also talk about how to improve your rankings in Google’s local search results (Google Maps).

Local search has grown in importance with the advent of Blended search results the past year or two. For example, Google often shows some local results in its main search page (See below for more on Blended Search). Local search results are being used more and more to find local services and products, find specific business, to get directions and contact information, and to check user reviews.

What this Part 1 Video Covers –

A demonstration of local search listings using Google’s local search results (Google Maps).

How updating your local search listings in Google Maps with descriptions, hours, pictures and video etc should help you “sell” your products and services to those searching for the products and services you sell.

Reaching top results in the local search listings, which are often displayed at the top of the main search results in Google, can lead to a significant increase in search traffic.

Taking ownership of your local listings and updating them appears to be a significant factor in improving the rankings of Google’s local search results.

Searchers can submit reviews of your business or organizations via Google Maps. Google summaries these reviews with a star (*) rating system. Getting good reviews is and will become more and more important.

To Enlarge the Videos:  Hover your mouse over the YouTube logo in bottom right corner of the video and you should see a “Watch on YouTube” link (the videos plays wider there) or click on the full screen button in the bottom right corner

In future articles I’ll show you how to take ownership of your Google Maps listings, how to update them, as well as how to add new listings. I’ll probably also show you a tip to get more good user reviews.

More info

Part 2 – How to find, claim, update and add listings in Google’s local search (Video)

Blended Search Overview – I mentioned how local search has grown in importance with advent of Blended search. This article is an overview of Blended Search

Learn How eVision Can Help With
Google Local Search Optimization

The post Video: Check your local search listings (like Google Maps) if local search results are important: Part 1 appeared first on eVision Online Marketing.