Here are 6 ranking factors to consider when creating your local search business profiles:

1. Street Address: A business’s street address is one of the most important parameters for appearing in local search results and enabling consumers to locate their stores, but many businesses seem to be careless in correcting or adjusting them to function well online. There’s lots of variation that can happen in how addresses are written, and the top online mapping systems may not universally recognize the variations and pinpoint them identically.

In particular, streets which have both a North and South or East and West version are typically incorrectly interpreted by search engines and mapping systems, resulting in bad maps/directions. For instance, “2020 East Main Street may not be interpreted the same as “2020 Main Street East.

While a human user might see and interpret your address correctly, you should check to see if major online mapping systems like Mapquest, Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, and Bing Maps can pinpoint correctly as well. Mild correction or adjustment to how you write your address in each directory may ensure that maps and driving directions work.

Make sure to include as much accurate information as possible, including longitudinal and latitudinal data.

2. Business Name: While this element may seem straightforward, it’s possible for you to adjust your company name or name usage convention in such a way as to derive more natural referral traffic online. When you have keywords in your business name it will help improve ranking, but it is not necessary, or advised, to saturate listings with keywords.

For example, if you own a hamburger restaurant named Hodad’s and your local listing displays only “Hodad’s,” consider altering the listing to “Hodad’s Hamburger Restaurant.” Many people will use the keywords “hamburger restaurant” to search for this type of business.

3. Business Category: Make sure your business is categorized correctly. In many directories, millions of businesses have been automatically assigned to a category. Businesses should check to be sure they’re in the correct categories for their industry, and add multiple categories which are appropriate.

This ensures that the listing will come up for business type searches as much as possible. Select a few categories over time to see which ones positively influence your position and traffic.

4. Local Phone Number: The phone number is often the gateway between a consumer and your business, so naturally these must be correct. Local phone numbers build trust – both from customers, and from search engines. Often, businesses such as plumbers only have one service location but multiple local phone numbers to gain trust from small town customers, which they then forward to a singular call centre. ALWAYS use a local phone number as the main contact number in the format (123) 345-6789.

5. Citations: A citation is a reference to your local business. This reference includes your business name, address, phone number, and other relevant information to your business. Often times, citations will also include links back to your website, thus fueling your link building efforts and higher rankings in the SERPs.

The beautiful thing about citations is the fact that even if it doesn’t have a link back to your website, just the mention of your business, including exact matching data (address and phone number) will help you improve your local search marketing results. Citations build trust with the search engines and give your business a boost when it comes to ranking.

Citations can be references from big local directories all the way down to smaller more niche directories. Review your competitors and make an attempt to obtain citations from the same or related sources.

6. Reviews and Ratings: Reviews are more for human readers then they are for search engine metrics, but good reviews and ratings will have a positive effect on your local listing, and will encourage the click-through rate of your listing. Encourage clientele to submit reviews and reward them when they do.

Take time to fill out your local business profiles completely. Add business hours, payment options and craft a well-written description of your business. Add pictures, videos and list awards and achievements. Also, be sure the information on your local profiles is consistent across all directories to build trust with the search engines.

Following these tips, you should update and expand the data in your business profiles in all the major yellow pages, directories, and local search engines in order to maximize your online presence. Take advantage of the free advertising through all the business profile directories out there and you’ll start pulling your business ahead of the pack.

While often tedious to complete and validate, these efforts will more than pay for themselves in the form of quality local traffic.

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Step 3: Participate in Online Local Community

As mentioned in our previous blog post about blog comment strategy, participating in online community that is relevant to your business and industry is a key way to increase your online visibility.

Blog comment strategy was discussed as a way to build relevant links to your site and to increase visitors within a targeted industry.

In local search optimization, your participation does not have to lead to obtaining a link, but it should lead to increasing your business name’s relevancy to your local information such as your address, local phone number, city, or any other neighborhood area names. The ideal local business profile would be the following, as demonstrated on this local ABC Chennel 7’s special Valentine’s Day coverage web page:

Your Business Title
Street Address
City, State Zip Code
(Local Area Code) Phone Number
Link to Your Website

Obtaining your local information on other websites doesn’t have to wait till another Valentine’s Day coverage of local broadcast station website. You can start with free online local directory that offer reviews and generate good traffic, such as Yelp.

The key to obtaining local references is to make sure those sites are crawled by Google for local content. Since local references do not get a link back, if a local directory site is not on the list to be crawled by Google for local content, your efforts to build local relevancy for local SEO won’t be so effective.

One of the ways to check is to look through “Web Pages” tab when you search for a relevant local keyword in Google Maps.

In the example above, you can tell SignOnSanDiego.com is one of the San Diego local sites that are crawled to find local business information, by looking at the Web Pages tab.

One thing you need to keep in mind in building your local relevancy through an off-page SEO campaign is that you should not just pick the local listing ranked at #1 and try to obtain all the local references that company has. Your company is unique from any other local companies, and it should be reflected in your local reference portfolio. You should have a unique combination of keywords and service areas, and optimizing for those local keywords to reach your targeted local audience should naturally lead to having a unique local reference portfolio. Besides, if you just follow them, you will never get ahead of them.

To be unique and outstanding, your local reference portfolio shouldn’t be just about Internet Yellow Pages or few major local directories. Be active in your online local community to find more local resources your locals visitor to find local information and contribute helpful content about your industry, and your local references should naturally grow with the trust you gain within the community.

Overall, optimizing for local search engines offers an opportunity to turn online traffic into your offline visitors, and in the process of local search optimization, you will get plenty of chances to create buzz about your business and gain trust as an industry expert within your online local community.

If you haven’t read about Local Keyword Discovery and Exploring Google Maps Features for Local Business Listings, check them out.

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Step 2: Registering Your Business for Google Local Business Center

Last week, I began this series by stressing the importance of local keyword research. This week, let’s talk about how to use those local keywords when you add your business listing in Google Local Business Center.

Claiming your business listing in local search engines is one of the most crucial steps to take, in order for your company to appear on Google Maps results. Adding your business in Google Local Business Center (LBC) is like having your business indexed by Google, and your listing will be in the Google’s local business database to be used for geo-targeted queries.

Another reason you should claim your business in Local Business Center (LBC) is that if you do not claim your business listing, your listing can be stolen by your competitors or any random people, also called Google Maps Hijacking. They can edit however they want. But, once you claim your business listing, Google will send you postcard notifications when someone attempts to change your phone number, to prevent your listing from being stolen or displaying wrong information.

One of the most important features to utilize in LBC is the category. The key here is to use the keywords you discovered during your local keyword research as your categories. If you know that your local customers are using a particular search term to find your listing, don’t be afraid to create a new category.

Having that keyword in your category or in your business title will make a difference in your rankings for that keyword. However, you should not change your business title just to include your keyword, and so, category is THE place to list your important keywords. You can choose multiple categories, but use them wisely as you might risk diluting the focus of your keywords.

You should also work on the description of your company. Do not copy and paste from your website’s description or from your About Us page. Think about what your local customers are seeking when they are searching for local keywords. For example, if you are a car dealer, and #1 reason for locals to choose a local car dealership is service packages, then tell them about the value of having a lifetime oil change package from a local dealership.

Once you’re done with providing essential information such as your phone number and address as well as the categories and description, all the rest features are there to help users get additional information, and from business owners’ perspective, to help your business listing standout from other listings at a glance.

Here are two features that take a second to use, yet makes a big difference in attracting locals’ eyes.

1. Photos: Uploading photos of your business in LBC will increase your listing’s visibility by having your picture displayed right under your thumbnail along with the text results.
2. Business Hours: Once you provide your business hours, your “more info” page will display a big table of open hours. Knowing the hours will also help locals plan their visits before you close.

Other features that would help serving your local customers include parking availability, brands carried, and prices for major services or products you offer. You can post additional information by using custom attribute tags.

You can also post a coupon through LBC. Posting a coupon through LBC will encourage searchers to choose your business over others and help track your ROI for local marketing.

Lastly, now Google Maps give an option to search videos within the mapped area. If you have a promotional videos or branded educational videos, don’t forget to post them through LBC. It will be another way to increase your brand recognition.

With your local business listing posted with local-keyword focused materials, now the real marketing begins. Next week’s Local Search Wednesday series will discuss how to obtain local relevancy by targeting off-page local information online.

This blog post is a part of the BusinessOnLine’s Local Wednesday series. If you have not read the previous one about How to Get Your Business Listed in Local Search Engines, read about it or you can go to the next one that is about The Right Techniques & Attitudes for Local SEO. I really appreciate your feedback in the previous blog post and if you have any other new questions, I will try to get them answered in the next post.

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The Three Things You Can Do to Increase Offline Traffic: Part 1

You might have heard about local search as a buzz word, and wondered what it meant exactly or how it differs from traditional SEO in developing an online marketing strategy or an SEO implementation process. In this BusinessOnLine’s Local Search Wednesday series for the next 3 weeks, we will explore how users may experience local search, what it is & the three major steps in local search optimization.

First, let’s explore how users may experience local search features from certain types of keywords that trigger search engines to suspect the possibility of searchers’ intent to look for local (geo-specific) information.

For example, if you search for “pizza” in Google, whether you wanted some web pages about pizza’s history or recipes, you will be prompted to enter your location in case you wanted local restaurant information.

If you enter your city or zip code, you’ll then see what’s called Google OneBox, which displays 10 relevant local business listings with their locations marked with thumbnails on a map of the city.

If you’re a sophisticated searcher and use a long tail search term such as “pizza san diego ca” from the beginning, your search results will display OneBox at once, and your web search results following OneBox will be different too. Notice how Domino’s Pizza’s general web site listing stays with OneBox if you have entered a zip code after being prompted above. The results page above shows a mix of local business search results and general web search results. However, the search results for “pizza san diego ca” display all localized results (See below) as Domino’s Pizza result is gone and San Diego location of Woodstock’s Pizza shows up. PPC listings are changed as well, as they show addresses in San Diego below.

We will explore more scenarios from the users’ end as we continue this Local Search Wednesday blog series. For now, let me provide a clear definition of local search optimization before we move on to the first step of the local search SEO process.

Definition of Local Search Engine Optimization

Local search optimization is an online marketing campaign that targets local audiences on the Internet by using various off-page local relevancy building strategies and by using keywords with geo-modifiers, such as city names or zip codes. For example, local search SEO would optimize a local business listing for keywords such as “sushi restaurants 92101” or “sushi san diego ca”, while traditional SEO will focus more on keywords like “how to make sushi” or “sushi market”.

Local search optimization’s goal is to increase visibility on local search engine result pages, such as Google Maps. This would ultimately lead to offline, in-store sales, increased brand recognition and even long term relationship building.

Step 1: Local Keyword Discovery

Like all marketing campaigns, a local search optimization campaign should start with learning about the audience you want to reach. Understanding and finding effective keywords to reach your local consumers who are interested in your business is very crucial in local search SEO, as it begins with defining the service areas your business covers. For example, if you own a sushi restaurant, you would want your city and cities nearby as well as different names locals might use to refer to certain areas or neighborhoods in your town. If you own a car dealership, the areas your business serve would be much bigger than a sushi restaurant because people are willing to travel farther to get a good deal on a car than they would for sushi.

In addition to defining your local business’ service areas, you should also research whether there are unique keywords your local customers use to land on your business listing. You can use keyword research tools that show which keywords are searched in which areas.

After defining your local service areas, you may discover the needs to develop geo-targeted content for each area. For example, if you discover your customers come from only one specific area, you may want focus on optimizing your About Us page or Contact Us page for that area mainly. If you find out, your local customers come from several different areas or use different geo-modifiers (city names or zip code, etc) to find your local business listing online, you may want to create new pages for each major area and use those specific search terms throughout the pages. However, the focus is to develop helpful local information about your service or industry, while using the right term to refer to the area, rather than repeating your local keywords over and over for the sake of SEO.

You will also want to set a page that would satisfy the intent of local searchers as a landing page for local search engines. If local customers would be wondering about a particular service, make that service page as a landing page. For the sushi restaurant example, it might make sense to submit an About Us page with customer testimonials about how tasty your sushi is compared to other local restaurants and allow that to serve as a landing page.

For next Wednesday, we will examine how to get your business listed in Google Maps through Local Business Center. It would be best if you subscribe to our RSS feed so you won’t miss it!

Local Search Wednesday Part 2 is up now: Exploring Google Maps Features for Local Business Listings. Part 3 is about The Right Techniques & Attitudes for Local SEO.

I appreciate your feedback, and if you have any other new questions, I will try to get them answered in the next post.

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• November 18, 2010 -- 6 Techniques for Optimizing Your Local Search Business Profile (0)

Now don’t get me wrong. Maximizing your visibility on the front page of Google for your related keywords to as many users as possible is still the end goal of any good search engine optimization campaign. But the truth is that its getting harder to know what users see. In the old days, if you were #1 for a particular keyword in Google (and for us old timers, Altavista), that was consistent across the entire users base of the search engine. And it was good to be King! But in today’s search engine technology landscape, there are a number of factors that change what users see for their search results.

Currently the biggest cause of two users seeing different results for the same query is geography. Google serves different data to different users in different locations in order to try to best serve that user. So someone in San Diego that searches for pizza would see different results than someone in New York.

Another big differentiator is personalization. Users who are signed into their Google accounts when they do a search, will have their results colored by known preferences and past search history. And as Google continues to grow, so does the number of users that this affects.

Universal search is another recent development that has impacted the value of a top ten listing because their is more competition within the top 10 for the click. Now that images, videos, news results, maps and reviews have all been incorporated into the front page real estate, it is harder to capture the attention of the user.

Still another factor in all this is that Google has a number of different data centers that it uses for load balancing, and these data centers are not always in sync. It is not uncommon therefore to do a query in Google, hit refresh, and see different results.

So what does all this mean? Well not much in terms of the way you optimize (except for obviously making sure you have elements of image optimization, video optimization and local optimization built into your over SEO campaign), but it impacts the way that you measure a successful search campaign.

For those of us who grew up on Webposition software, search engine rankings have always been the natural barometer of our success. But because of the shift in technology to less homogenized search results, it makes more sense to place greater emphasis on analytics like search engine referrals and conversions (which is really where it always should have been to begin with). Search engine rankings are going the way of Toolbar Page Rank. It will always be a barometer, but it will continue to mean less.

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• November 18, 2010 -- 6 Techniques for Optimizing Your Local Search Business Profile (0)