Enhancing Worker Digital Experience: A Hands-on Workshop for Partners
Local Search Optimization, Google+ Local, and the Future of Local Search - AAFPRS 2012
1. Local Search Optimization, Google+
Local, and the Future of Local Search
Mike Wilton
www.plasticsurgerystudios.com
@psurgerystudios
@mwilton13
#AAFPRSLocal
2. AAFRPS Fall Meeting Washington, DC | September 5-8, 2012 | #AAFPRSLocal
Who Am I?
Internet Marketing Manager:
Writer:
mwilton13
3. AAFRPS Fall Meeting Washington, DC | September 5-8, 2012 | #AAFPRSLocal
Doctor searches made up 27%
of the total local business
searches conducted by
consumers last year.
(Source: Bright Local's Local Consumer Review Survey 2012)
mwilton13
4. AAFRPS Fall Meeting Washington, DC | September 5-8, 2012 | #AAFPRSLocal
Local doctor searches saw a 6%
growth over 2010 data, second
only to restaurants.
mwilton13
5. AAFRPS Fall Meeting Washington, DC | September 5-8, 2012 | #AAFPRSLocal
Consumers find local listings
to be the most relevant and
trusted in search engine results
(Source: 5th Annual 15miles/Localeze Local Search Usage Study)
mwilton13
6. AAFRPS Fall Meeting Washington, DC | September 5-8, 2012 | #AAFPRSLocal
How Do You Get Your Piece of the Traffic?
mwilton13
7. AAFRPS Fall Meeting Washington, DC | September 5-8, 2012 | #AAFPRSLocal
Build a Local Presence
mwilton13
8. AAFRPS Fall Meeting Washington, DC | September 5-8, 2012 | #AAFPRSLocal
The Anatomy of a Local Listing
1. Owner-verified business data in
Google+ Local
2. Data via citation sources
3. Approved User Generated Content
4. Scraped data
(Source: Joel Headly, Google Maps team, June 2009)
mwilton13
9. AAFRPS Fall Meeting Washington, DC | September 5-8, 2012 | #AAFPRSLocal
mwilton13
10. AAFRPS Fall Meeting Washington, DC | September 5-8, 2012 | #AAFPRSLocal
Local Listing & Citation Best Practices:
● Claim and complete your listings
● Keep your NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) consistent
● Create one listing per location
● Use unique phone numbers for each doctor/location
● Utilize categories (e.g. "Plastic Surgeon", "Facial Plastic Surgeon",
"Facelift Surgeon," etc.)
● Don't get spammy
mwilton13
11. AAFRPS Fall Meeting Washington, DC | September 5-8, 2012 | #AAFPRSLocal
Local Citation Sources and Local
Listings on Google, Bing, and Yahoo
Generated an Average of 8% of the
Total Website Traffic for Our
Doctors in 2011.
mwilton13
12. AAFRPS Fall Meeting Washington, DC | September 5-8, 2012 | #AAFPRSLocal
Build an Authoritative, Locally Relevant Website
mwilton13
13. AAFRPS Fall Meeting Washington, DC | September 5-8, 2012 | #AAFPRSLocal
Local Search On Site Factors
In February 2012, Google launched the
Venice update, which improved the
triggering of Local Universal results by
relying more on the ranking of main search
results as a signal.
Additionally they launched a system to find
results from a user's city more reliably.
Allowing Google to better detect when both
queries and documents are local to a user.
(Source: Google Inside Search, Feb. 2012)
mwilton13
14. AAFRPS Fall Meeting Washington, DC | September 5-8, 2012 | #AAFPRSLocal
mwilton13
15. AAFRPS Fall Meeting Washington, DC | September 5-8, 2012 | #AAFPRSLocal
On Site Factors That Influence Local Relevance
● Website authority
● Localization of website content
● Website contact matching local listings
● Microformatted contact info
● KML Files
"By using structured markup to describe a business or organization mentioned on your page, you not
only improve the Web by making it easier to recognize references to specific places but also help
Google surface your site in local search results." (Source: Rich Snippets for Local Search, Google)
"KML is a file format used to display geographic data in an Earth browser, such as Google Earth,
Google Maps, and Google Maps for mobile. You can create KML files to pinpoint locations, add image
overlays, and expose rich data in new ways." (Source: Google Developers KML Documentation)
mwilton13
16. AAFRPS Fall Meeting Washington, DC | September 5-8, 2012 | #AAFPRSLocal
The Future of Local:
Google+ Local
● Bridges the Social/Local Gap
● Creates new signals
○ +1's
○ Engagement
○ Reviewer Authority
● Unifies Business Data
mwilton13
17. AAFRPS Fall Meeting Washington, DC | September 5-8, 2012 | #AAFPRSLocal
The Future of Local:
Siri & Apple Maps
● First major competitor against Google for
mobile map space.
● 4.758% of all local searches take place on Siri
(Source: David Mihm/GetListed.org)
● Apple Maps has partnered with Localeze,
Axciom, and Yelp for business listings and
reviews
mwilton13
18. AAFRPS Fall Meeting Washington, DC | September 5-8, 2012 | #AAFPRSLocal
The Future of Local: Yelp
= Siri Rankings
=
mwilton13