Data Management for Local Search

Data Management
for
Local Search
Mary Bowling
Small Biz Marketing: www.IgnitorDigital.com
Blog: www.MaryBowling.com

Twitter @MaryBowling

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+ MaryBBowling@gmail.com

About Me

LocalU.org

Optimized!
MaryBowling.com

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Slides and Checklists
Get This Powerpoint & Checklists Here
http://www.IgnitorDigital.com/DataManagement


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NAP Consistency Matters
Critical 2013 Local Search Ranking Factor!*
“Your Places page may be naked. Your
website may beg for a mercy killing. You
may not have a single customer review.
But you still may rank OK…if your NAP is
accurate and consistent everywhere it
appears on the web. This is do-or-die.”
Phil Rosek
“Citations will always be a major factor
and can help or seriously hurt a listing if
the data is incorrect across the
ecosystem.” Mike Ramsey
“…I've hardly had a case where the
NAP of the business was perfect across
the board." Nyagoslav Zhekov

*http://www.davidmihm.com/localsearch-ranking-factors.shtml

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Why Everyone Doesn’t Do It
Don’t understand or believe positive impact
Mini Case Study:
Tracked 8 terms in very competitive niche and location
 Did not rank in top 50 organically for any of them
 Did not appear in Local Pack for any of them
 Best Places ranking #17
After 90 days of proactive data cleansing (no organic
work)
 Ranked in Local Pack for 6 of the 8 terms
 Ranked 7 and 8 in Google Places for the other 2

8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0

For 8 fat head terms, went from 0 Local Pack
listings to 6 in 90 days JUST by scrubbing data


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Be the One That Does It!
It’s a tough, tough job
Some of the battles you have to fight:
Don’t understand the process
Can’t just add new, correct listings-must update/delete old
ones
Time consuming and frustrating
 Usually you don’t have logins to modify listings
 Most require creating and verifying a new account
 What you need to do is different at nearly every site
 Takes attention to detail, patience and persistence

Clients/Bosses don’t want to pay for the time it takes
 People think it’s easy, so they give job to lowest paid workers

When you think you’re done, you’re not –check & recheck

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Data Scrubbing Process
One way to do it
 Quick check the extent of data inconsistency*
 Determine your strategy*
Check/update NAP info on ALL websites for that client
 Gather the information you need
 Discover inconsistent data and prioritize updates
 Report duplicates and problems at Google ASAP
 Correct/submit/report problems at data providers
 Correct/submit/report problems at Tier 2 directories
 Correct/submit/report problems at add’l trusted places
 Wait 45-90 days
 Recheck and repeat
*TIP: You need this info before pricing a job

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Quick Audit
Quick check for data
inconsistency
Tools to use:
 GetListed.org Tool
 Yext.com Tool
 Google Places Tool (log in to G)
www.google.com/local/add/g?hl=e
nUS&gl=US#phonelookup

If you have many locations:
Spot check 6-8 in large cities
Ask client where problems are
Ask client which locations are most
important to business

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Determine Your Strategy
How will you tackle the job?
 How many locations involved?
 How much inconsistency discovered?
 Budget for submissions?
 Time by which you NEED to see some results?
 Is the company planning a move?
Will you bite off in chunks or do it all at once?
Time, manpower, budget to do manual updates ?*
Time to wait for new data to flow through the ecosystem?*
Have logins to most of the places where listed?*

*Tip: Once you claim a listing, you have to keep it updated
Tip: All of the above helps determine cost and time frame.
You can do it fast or you can do it cheap, but not both.

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Discover Inconsistent NAP
Ask the business owner!
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Business name
Business street address
Business mailing address
Business local phone number w/area code
Have you changed phone numbers? (Old numbers?)
Do/have you use more than 1 phone number. (All numbers?)
Have you moved? (All old addresses?)
Have you used call tracking numbers? (All numbers?)
Have you used local phone numbers for areas you serve, but where you don’t
have an office, shop or store? (All numbers?)
What are the URLs for all of your websites?
Have you done internet advertising through a phone/yellow pages company?
Have you used more than one business name, including variations? (Names?)
What does the sign outside your business say on it?
What name, address , phone number are listed in your local phone book?
Have you ever used a PO Box, UPS Store, virtual office or employee or friend’s
address for your business? (All addresses?)


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Get the Info You Need, First
Gather info for each location before starting
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Business name
Business street address
Business mailing address
Business local phone number w/area code
Days and hours of operation, methods of payment
List of main services offered
List of main products and brands offered
Pertinent certifications, education, memberships, licenses, etc
Where customers will park ( ex: free adjacent lot, parking garage 1 block)
ZipCodes of areas served and/or radius of area served
Images (must live on Unique URLs on website)
 Logo (square and small 100x100)
 Storefront (with sign if possible)
 Staff (headshots and in action performing services)
 Main products
 Show people what’s of interest in your niche (wedding cakes, menu
items, hotel lobby, apartment swimming pool, etc.)


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Look!
 Check NAP on all websites – correct? in text form?

(preferably in local business schema format)
Confusing or conflicting info? Correct it now!
 Check address at USPS database
https://tools.usps.com/go/ZipLookupAction!input.action


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Use Google
Google Places – search all numbers used
www.google.com/local/add/g?hl=enUS&gl=US#phonelookup

Google Maps search – look at Google’s suggestions

Google organic search for name address/phone


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Use Darren Shaw’s methods

Get Google search tips and learn ways to use some other tools to help
uncover NAP inconsistency
http://www.slideshare.net/DistilledSEO/darren-shaw-audit-and-fix-citations-for-local-search-gains


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Report Problems at Google
Use Google Support Options
Google Support has improved
 Report/Edit using Mapmaker
 Directly from listing
 Find answers
http://support.google.com/places/bin/ans
wer.py?hl=en&answer=176504

 Report using trouble shooter
http://productforums.google.com/forum/#
!forum/business

 Get a call back-talk to support!
 login to Google account
https://support.google.com/business/cont
act/business_c2c


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Check Exact Location
Google Map PINs are Critical!
Check Map Pin Location(s)
Type full street address into Maps
Zoom in on Street View
Make sure it’s in the right place
Correct, as needed

TIP: You can rarely do this accurately w/o client involvement.
TIP: Check Google’s driving directions for accuracy, too.

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Use tools!
 GetListed.org – enter business
name(s) and ZipCode(s)
 Yext.com – enter business
name(s) and phone(s)
 Whitespark Citation Finder Tool
enter name(s) and phone(s)
www.whitespark.ca/local-citation-finder/

Tip: None are 100% - double check

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Check & Modify or Submit at Data Providers
Use all methods to check for existing listings for best results

 InfoGroup http://www.expressupdate.com/search
Localeze http://www.neustarlocaleze.biz/directory/index.aspx

 Acxiom https://mybusinesslistingmanager.myacxiom.com/

Universal Business Listing http://search.ubl.org/

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Data Provider Tips
Localeze
Support slow
More listings in account, harder to manage
Can’t always tell if modification incurs a charge or not
Defaults listings to auto-renew – change to do not renew
If they lapse, they are still in account and can be renewed

UBL
Slow support
Data probably not as trusted, but widely distributed
Data feeds to Acxiom and InfoGroup

InfoGroup and Acxiom
Use these to check for bad/duplicate listings
Modify/delete, as needed
If data doesn’t match, phone verification is done
Infogroup – they call biz
Acxiom – biz calls them from listed phone

TIP: Each requires different formatting & info for bulk uploads

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Data Distribution

From David Mihm : http://moz.com/blog/2013-local-search-ecosystems


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Process
Scrub Your Data Clean – Phase 1
Find & Correct Data: Company Website(s), Google Places and
Major Data Providers
 Check and correct any confusion on company website(s)
Use schema coding for NAP

Discover old/bad/duplicate Google Places listings
Use Google

 Report Google duplicates, near duplicates, listings w/bad info
Use Report a problem (takes you into Mapmaker)
Use other Google support options

 Discover and update/modify bad listings at data providers
 Use data providers’ tools

 If no listing at data provider, add it (paid is better than free)

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Process
Update or Submit Listings at Tier 2 Local Directories
Trusted industry Directories
 Vary by industry – start here:
https://getlisted.org/static/resources/local-citations-by-category.html

Trusted Local Directories
 Vary by location – start here:
https://getlisted.org/static/resources/local-citations-by-city.html

 Local phone provider – print and online directories
Historic providers of business data & still matter
Google tends to trust local landline numbers and info

associated with them

Bing Business Portal
Yahoo Local

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Process
Prioritize Updating and Submissions at Other Directories
Google web search and Whitespark tool
Search for business name/address/phone at Google
Look at first 20-30 results to see which listings Google finds most
important

Experience will help you to spot the good outliers , scraper
sites and junk sites
The more work you do in a niche or location, the easier this gets
 Don’t bother updating listings on low quality sites - SEOmoz
domain authority provided by Whitespark Tool
 Eyeball the site – you can tell its quality


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How Long For Updates?

From Mike Blumenthal & David Mihm :
http://blumenthals.com/blog/2012/09/26/infographic-citations-time-to-live/


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Many Locations?
Enterprise-level solutions for data management
are expanding
Placeable from Location Insights
Rio SEO From Covario
Local business listing management & distribution
Store locators
Optimized local landing pages for websites


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Many Locations?
Create your own database solutions
Get APIs for data submissions
Input data once and be able to pull it out into
properly formatted spreadsheets for data providers
and other directories important for you industry
Enable local operators to log in and update some of
their own data
Use database to populate individual location pages
that matches data you’re pushing out


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Many Locations?
But you still need to do most data cleanup
manually right now. How?
One chunk at a time, prioritized for your goals:
City, region or state?
Large cities or small towns? (most to least competitive)
Most profitable or least profitable?
*YOU need to provide direction/training


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Many Locations
Enlist local staffs to:
Check Google driving directions
Check Google Places listing
Look for duplicate Google listings
Check Google map pins
Check Google driving directions
Check accuracy at GetListed
Check accuracy at Yext
Check accuracy at major data providers
Provide direction and training


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Measuring Success
Baseline and Compare
 Organic rankings
 Rankings in Local Packs and Maps
 Number of inconsistent listings at trusted sites
 Amount of website traffic in general
 Amount of traffic from Google Maps
 For multiple locations, amount of website traffic to
location-specific landing pages
Number of referrals from sites important in your niche

TIP: Can happen more quickly, but give yourself 3-6 months.


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Moving Forward
Advise clients about how to keep data
consistent forward so they don’t have to go
through this again.


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Thanks!

Mary Bowling
Blog: www.MaryBowling.com
SMB Marketing: www.IgnitorDigital.com
Get Slides & Checklists: IgnitorDigital.com/DataManagement


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Data Management for Local Search

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