When a business needs to show up in local (maps) search results, and on mobile devices and GPS units, it’s important to start out by assessing that business’ local presence before deciding on a quick once-and-done makeover or a more intensive monthly treatment.
Local presence is how visible a specific store or office location is to searchers – Read more →
In a recent study released by Chikita, data collected between September 21st and September 27th by the ad network showed that 24% of all searches done on Google either on desktop or mobile devices had local intent. Chikita established this percentage based “against its extensive database of local keywords and Read more →
By: Ryan Miller
Earlier this week, Google announced and rolled out two major updates in how they provide Places Profile data for businesses directly from the search result pages. One is targeted for search results for a specific business while the other is targeted for non-branded geo-targeted business searches, and both reinforce just how important it is to have a claimed Places Profile that has been optimized.
Let’s take a look first at how Google is updating results when doing a branded search for a business, that is, the search contains the actual business’ name. We’ll do a search for my favorite Thai restaurant, Pad Thai in Highland Park, NJ:
As you can see, the search for “Pad Thai Highland Park” is a detailed enough search to bring up the specific restaurant. While the organic search results on the left hand do not appear affected, you’ll notice immediately that on the right hand where there previously was just a map and paid results, there is now information displayed about the restaurant being pulled directly from the Places Profile.
For comparison about what is being pulled, here is a view of Pad Thai’s profile:
Almost all of the text details information and links to reviews are available directly from the Google’s search results, without having to click-through to the profile. One thing to note in this example is that the photos of the food are not displayed in the right sidebar in the search results. This is because the photos are being highlighted from the restaurant’s website, rather than having been uploaded directly to the Places Profile. If the business were to upload them directly, some of the photos would have shown in the right sidebar. This is just one of several missed opportunities for the business, who it should be noted have yet to claim this listing.
The second update for non-branded locally-focused business searches. Now, after eating some super spicy thai food, I need to cool down with a few glasses of beer, so let’s do a search for “New Brunswick bars”:
This search gives me several destinations in the area in the organic results and a map on the right hand side as usual. However, if I roll over the instant previews arrow on one of the local listings, now after a second or two the right hand sidebar updates to show details from that specific Places Profile much like we saw when searching for a specific business:
Google has been putting more and more emphasis on their Places Profiles over the last few years, and it’s no surprise with 20% of all searches done on Google having local intent and 40% of all searches on mobile devices having local intent). This latest update once again reinforces how vital it is for local businesses to claim and optimize their listings as part of an online marketing strategy, as users will now be able more easily compare multiple businesses all without even leaving the Google search results page. Now get out there, get claimed and get optimized! [Google Inside Search]
Ryan Miller is the SEO Manager for Advance Digital, and always on the lookout for great Thai restaurants and local dive bars. You can follow him on Twitter @cromiller and add him to your circles on Google+.
By: Ryan Miller
Google, in association with Intuit, is rolling out state-by-state an initiative to get small and local businesses online. The first state targeted is Texas, and the full details can be found at http://www.texasgetonline.com/
The promotion provides qualified businesses an assortment of free services for the first year of the contract, and is designed to get businesses involved and working with online advertising space. As part of the program, businesses can expect to receive at no cost:
After one year of service, the business may maintain their website for a monthly fee. There are some limitations to the hosted website as well; it must be built on Intuit’s Website Builder using their templates, and the free website is limited to three pages.
Beyond the monthly cost after the first year, a deeper look into the offer reveals plenty of opportunities for the business to be upsold by Intuit, including costs to have more pages on the website, email service, and the ability to run an ecommerce website. For Google, this is an opportunity to get more detailed business content into their Places section to drive search traffic and to get businesses hooked on using Adwords.
This service is not for businesses that already have any established online presence, but is instead targeted toward businesses that have zero online presence and are looking for a way to break into the digital space for the first time and get their name out there. This is not a SEO or comprehensive marketing service by any conceivable means.
How Can Agencies Respond to Prospects That Ask About This Service?
While agencies’ products and services may differ in terms of deliverables, KPIs and goals, there are some overall truths that can universally apply when discussing with prospects:
Is The Service Worth It?
For businesses that are expanding into the online space for the very first time, do not have budget to fully invest in online marketing and aren’t afraid to get their hands a little dirty, the Get Your Business Online route works as a good stepping stone to see what online marketing has to offer.
For any businesses though that are seriously looking to invest in online marketing, the best bet is to begin speaking with a trusted SEO Agency that can provide expert knowledge and a comprehensive strategy to meet your goals.
Ryan Miller is the SEO Manager for Advance Internet. You can follow him on Twitter @cromiller and add him to your circles on Google+.
By: Ryan Miller
In late July Google gave their Places Profiles a major facelift, including cleaning up how the profile data is presented, removing the 3rd party reviews of the location and most importantly removing the citations for the business, or to define it another way, where else on the web the business was being listed.
The update, however, is only an interface change within Google Places, and is not an algorithmic change in the way that Google ranks local listings. Citations for businesses from authoritative websites, such as Yelp.com or MLive.com’s Business Listings, with consistent data are still as important today for local ranking success as they were last month.
In this POV, we will discuss some of the visual changes that business will see within their Google Places profile, why citations remain an important piece of local optimization and the methods you can use to show prospective clients where else their business is (or isn’t) listed when discussing local SEO products.
On-Page Reviews
With the new layout, Google is putting a much greater emphasis on users writing reviews using their Google account:
And while they have removed the text reviews that were previously being imported from 3rd party websites, they are still providing links to these websites, along with a total count of the reviews, beneath their own:
Understanding Citations
Business listings (citations) on other websites that Google crawls for their Places profiles are the equivalent of external links pointing back to a website. External citations are like votes of confidence for a business. The more there are, from authoritative business listing websites, the better understanding Google has that the business is relevant to search queries.
But it is not just having the business listed on other websites, it is equally important the information is consistent on other websites, and matches the information that Google has, including name, address and phone number.
Finding Citations Post-Update
Prior to the update it was very easy to see the citations, or lack thereof, that Google had crawled and indexed for a business. While this information is no longer directly provided, we can still find the references that Google is seeing with a bit of work.
One way to find where a business is listed on the web is to simply do a search query using the business’s name and phone number.
Remember to put quotes around the phone number, so that Google will only return results for the entire number, and not pieces of the phone number. In the example above searching “451-4677” will *only* return results that have all seven numbers, while searching 451-4677 would return results with just 451 or 4677 as well.
This can be done live along with prospective clients to show how many places they are being listed, where they are not listed, and any inconsistency in data that may be negatively affecting the authority of their Google Places profile.
This method could also be used to search for competitors of the prospective client, as a way to show websites where the competitor is listed when the prospect is not. This search should be done ahead of time so that you can point out any potential glaring omissions from well-known websites that a local SEO product would allow the client to be listed on.
Another way to get a list of citations for a business is to use WhiteSpark’s Local Citation Finder Tool which can be found on http://www.whitespark.ca/local-citation-finder/. Please note you will need to create an account to use this tool. WhiteSpark has a free account set-up available, though it does limit the number of searches you can do in a 24-hour period and provides only a partial list of citations. A Pro account provides more searches per 24-hour period and returns a full list of citations.
Once you have an account, to find the prospective client’s citations via WhiteSpark, use the search by phone number tab which can be found here:
http://www.whitespark.ca/local-citation-finder/search/#/phone
Just fill in the data for the prospective client, and the results will be mailed to the email address you used to create the account. Please note that WhiteSpark takes approximately 1 hour to return the data, so you would need to do this in advance of speaking with the prospect. This tool can be used just as easily to collect data on the prospect’s competitor.
The Takeaway
While Google may have removed the transparency of what other websites it is seeing a business being listed on, this does not mean that it has reduced or eliminated the importance of business listings elsewhere on the web from their algorithm. Google still relies on these listings to understand a business’s listing information, its overall reach and relevancy to potential searchers.
At the same time, it is equally important that the Google Places profile be fully filled out and optimized for the business. Now that a business cannot as easily see where and how it is listed elsewhere, using a local SEO service that both optimizes their Places profile and ensure consistent publication of their address and contact information is a vital tool to help ensure maximum reach and visibility.
Ryan Miller is the SEO Manager for Advance Internet. You can follow him on Twitter @cromiller and add him to your circles on Google+.
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