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Engine-Specific Optimization Info for Local Search
Optimize Your Online Local Presence
Part 3
By Esoos Bobnar
www.searchenginehelp.com
Courtesy of
SearchEngineNews.com
| April 2005
Originally Published: April 2005
Continued From:
<<< Targeting Internet Yellow Pages
Engine-Specific Optimization Info for Local Search
Having covered the role that Internet Yellow Pages (IYPs) play in optimizing for local search, let's delve into the specific techniques essential to ranking well in each of the major local search engines.
Google analyzes the content within their 8 billion web page index and combines that information with data pulled from IYPs to provide the listings for their local search. Thus, if you want to optimize your business for Google Local, it helps greatly to have your
IYP business listings
be accurate and consistent.
It also helps to have a business web site that Google can correlate with those IYP listings. While a website is not
technically
required to be listed in Google Local, it does give you an advantage, even if your site is just a one-page
online business card
type of page.
This next step is especially critical, not just for Google, but for all local search engines. Since you never know which page on your website Google will use to create your local listing, it's important (pertaining to local search optimization) to list your business contact and location information on every page. Put it all together in one place on the page, such as in a header or footer, so that Google can find the information easily and recognize it as being related to your business.
Something simple like the following works very well:
Joe's Affordable Plumbing
333 N. Palm Canyon Dr.
Palm Springs, CA 92262
1-800-555-2345
Avoid using special or decorative characters in your business address or contact information. They might make the formatting look prettier, but they will just confuse search engine spiders.
Again, you can get listed in Google Local with nothing more than an Internet Yellow Pages (IYP) listing, but your chances of ranking well are improved by also having a business website to complement those listings.
You can also
add
and
edit
your local listing on Google Local using the
Google Local Business Center
(you have to have a Google account, such as a GMail account, in order to log in). Once logged in, you can edit and update your business name, address, contact information, payment types, hours, and business description and categories.
Google will send you a letter containing a PIN and activation instructions to the business address associated with your listing. After you validate your listing, you may edit your Google Local listing at any time by logging in to the Google Local Business Center. (Note that the Local Business Center is currently available only to U.S. businesses.)
Google uses its
Google Maps
technology to display the location of and directions to your business. They also include other relevant information about your business (which, as mentioned, you can personally edit), along with further details and user reviews pulled from such sites as InformationPages.com, CitySearch, Dine.com, SuperPages.com, Gayot.com, AOL CityGuide, WCities.com, Frommers.com, and RestaurantRow.com.
Although Google doesn't accept
user submitted reviews
like Yahoo does, they do pull some of their reviews from user submitted reviews on Yahoo Local and Yahoo Travel . So if you want to, um ...help
yourself a little by giving your business a favorable review in Google, the easiest way to do that (short of bribing a Frommers editor) is to bop on over to Yahoo Local or Travel and write yourself the kind of review you know you deserve. Chances are good it will show up in Google Local sooner or later.
You may notice that Google presents two kinds of local search results: those that appear for searches conducted on its local search engine and those that appear in the
local snippet
at the top of many of the organic search results displayed by the regular Google search engine:
Both the ranking of the sites in the local snippet and the ranking of the sites in Google's local search results are largely based on location. For example, doing a search for
pizza 96750
in the regular Google search engine produces the following results:
Paparoni's Pizza & Pasta
Keauhou Shopping Center: Rocky's Pizza and Family Dining
Cuz'NS Deli Pizza & Ice Cream
This matches exactly the top three results you get if you do a search for
pizza 96750
in Google local. And those listings are ranked according to their distance from what Google has determined to be the geographical center for that zip code or city.
So an important part of ranking well in the local listings is to be located close to the geographical center of your zip code. That can make optimization tough (or easy, depending on your location).
Incidentally, proximity to the geographical center of a city or zip code is also part of the key to ranking well in the mobile version of Google local, and is important to ranking well in nearly every other local search engine (such as Yahoo, MSN, Ask Jeeves, etc...).
However, there are a few other factors to consider. If a site already ranks near the top of the organic search results, then it won't appear in the excerpt of the local listings that Google puts at the top of their organic search results page. This is to prevent Google from having a site listed twice on their search results page. For example, doing a search in Google for
palm springs timeshare
brings up the following local snippet in Google's organic search:
Hotel Timeshare Resales
Timeshare Resale Alliance
Plaza Resort & Spa Timeshare The
However, if you were to do the
same search
in Google Local, you'd find that
Time Share Liquidators
occupies the top spot. However, since
Time Share Liquidators
also occupies the top spot in Google's organic search results, giving it top billing in the local snippet would mean that
Time Share Liquidators
would be listed twice in the organic search – once in the regular search results and once again in the local snippet. So, Google filters it out of the local snippet to prevent redundancy.
You'll also notice that Google filters out of the local snippet any local search results that don't contain the searched-for keyword in their title. Thus, Tricom Realty Services Inc, Adriatic Villa, and Desert Isle of Palm Springs Resort don't appear in the snippet, even though they're ranking high in the local search results. This is one reason why it's always good to place your keywords in your page titles. And if you're targeting local search, then it's critically important that your
location
be among your keywords.
In addition to the Google Local Business Center, you can also submit your site to Google's Local Search by sending an email to
local-listings@google.com. Give them the name of your business, a brief description, and your web site's URL. Unlike Yahoo, Google does not offer a paid Local Search inclusion program. You can get more information at the
Google Local FAQ.
Yahoo offers a free basic listing at
http://listings.local.yahoo.com/. If you do a search for your business name in Yahoo Local and you don't come up, then be sure to go to that page and add your listing. And, even if you do come up, you can still go to that page and edit, update, and otherwise improve your listing.
Yahoo doesn't prevent you from, ...uh,
helping your cause
by creating a Yahoo account under one of your favorite pen-names and then writing that glowing review you know you deserve under that assumed moniker.
Yahoo also offers enhanced listings for $9.95 a month. These include a company tagline, a business description, two links to offers on your web site, and up to ten photos. This seems like a reasonable price to pay for two authoritative and trusted links along with greatly expanded control over how your site is presented in Yahoo's local listings.
Having the ability to upload pictures is also something that shouldn't be overlooked – particularly for companies that specialize in visually orientated products and services. A construction company might wish to post pictures of their completed projects. A restaurant might find it effective to show photos of their most delectable entrees. The update feature is also nice for retailers who want to target special events like holiday sales and other limited-time offerings.
What's especially nice about the Yahoo local listings is that you can update them as often as you like, unlike the cheesy doorstop version which can only be updated once or twice a year.
Submit your site at
Yahoo's Local Listing
page. You
can
get listed for free – but, at $9.95 per month, Yahoo's
Enhanced Listing
is not a bad deal when you factor in the extra benefits.
AOL recently launched
My Locations, which allows 55 million registered subscribers (as well as registered users of AOL's instant messaging products) to access and save locations and to communicate exactly where they are, down to their zip codes and billing addresses.
Even if you're not an AOL subscriber, you can still set your location with AOL through their search interface. In fact, you'll need to set your location before conducting an AOL local search. AOL will then use a cookie to associate your location with the searches you conduct. And, yes, you
can
have multiple
saved
locations.
Local content is pulled primarily from
AOL Yellow Pages, with editorial reviews coming from
AOL CityGuide. If your site is not found in AOL Local, the cheapest way to get listed is to add your business to the AOL Yellow Pages at
http://yp.aol.com. Near the bottom of the page you'll see a link titled Add/Update a Listing. After adding your listing, it can take 6 to 8 weeks for your site to show up in the AOL Yellow Pages – and often an additional 4 to 6 weeks for your site to show up in AOL local.
While getting a free listing in AOL Yellow Pages does not
guarantee
that your site will be listed in AOL Local, it does seem to help in most cases. However, you may not want to leave it up to chance.
In that case, you can also get very prominent placement in AOL Local by paying for a listing from
AOL Self-Serve. AOL offers two kinds of paid listings – the more affordable
enhanced
listed, and the more expensive
featured
listing.
The price for a
featured
listing is based on your location and business, and can range from as little as $15 per month to more than $100. The featured listing includes the following benefits:
-
Premium placement in search results for your selected business category and geographic reach.
-
Bold business name.
-
Business logo or graphic.
-
Business tagline.
-
Four additional lines of promotional text.
-
Link to business Web site.
-
Choice of city or county geographic reach.
-
Single business category inclusion.
While AOL does a smaller search volume than most of the major search engines, it's still one of the most highly trafficked portals in the world, so it's fair to expect good things from this kind of exposure. Of course, you should monitor the amount of traffic and sales conversions you're getting to ensure the price you're paying is justified.
At the very least, you should test the enhanced listing. Track your results to see if having your site displayed prominently on both AOL Yellow Pages and AOL Local for only $9.95 a month is worth the fee.
Dariusz Paczuski, VP marketing at AOL search and directional media, says...
If you represent a local business, we recommend going into the Yellow Pages listing and update your product there. We also do have an ambassador program to work with resellers and businesses having franchises in multiple locations. You can send us your data and we will integrate and distribute that data for free across all of our local properties.
Time-sensitive information regarding events like
sales at local retailers
is provided by ShopLocal.com. You can contact them about getting your business's sale info listed at their
retailers contact page
Ask Jeeves licenses its Local Search results from
CitySearch, a local search Pay-for-Performance (PFP) service. Pay-for-Performance, in this case, means that you can choose to be charged based
on the number of clicks
or
on the number of phone calls
that your ad generates (or both). You can get your business listed with CitySearch by enrolling in their
Pay-for-Performance program.
CitySearch has a fairly large distribution, providing Local Search results not just for Ask Jeeves and MSN, but also locally targeted advertising for Expedia.com, Match.com, TicketMaster.com, and a number of other high-profile sites.
Like Ask Jeeves, MSN also licenses much of its Local Search results from
CitySearch. Thus, a CitySearch listing is your best path into MSN Local.
Amazon has been very aggressive about adding new businesses to their local listings, so chances are quite good that your business has already been listed. If so, click on your business listing, and you'll see a button on the right-hand side of the page that says Update Business Info. Clicking that link will allow you to modify and update your business's details.
While modifying your business's existing listing in A9 Local is a piece of cake, getting your business into A9 in the first place can be frustrating. A9 takes its local listings from data provider Acxiom, who in turn get much of their data from the print Yellow Pages. Thus, as we mentioned earlier, it's critical that you get your business listed in your local Yellow Pages if you expect to be found in the major local search engines.
Get
on
the bus...
Considering the speed at which search – especially local search – is evolving, you really
are
running out of time to get your business listed and your listing optimized if you haven't done so already. Not because you won't be able to in the future, but because you won't be able to do it
cheaply!
Right now the learning curve
costs
are affordable. Sooner or later (and probably sooner than you'll like), the listing prices will increase. That means that the expenses involved in
testing to see which local search services are worth the money
for
you
is likely to become prohibitive for businesses that lack a big marketing budget and expertise in the field of web-metrics.
Every brick-n-mortar retail or service business will need to have an online
local search
presence – similar to the way a
Phone Book
listing has been essential in the past. We suspect that
last call for cheap local online listings
may be quickly approaching. You'll most certainly want to
get on the bus before it leaves the station
– and well before the masses toss out their cheesy doorstops in favor of the feature-rich instant gratification already being more efficiently delivered by local search.
Wanna buy a doorstop?
Esoos Bobnar
SEM Specialist and Technical Analyst
Planet Ocean Communications
Continued From:
<<< Targeting Internet Yellow Pages
This article is copyrighted and has been reprinted with permission from FirstPlace Software.
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