The document is a presentation by Will Scott, CEO of Search Influence, about how local media companies can grow their advertiser base through search and social tactics. It discusses optimizing local business directories and listings to expand revenue opportunities by making the directories more relevant in search results and attracting more advertisers. It also provides tips on on-site search engine optimization techniques local media companies can use like keyword research, proper keyword placement in content, and creating locally relevant content.

1. Confidential, Property of Search Influence, LLC © 2013
@w2scott Presented to Inland Press Association
Search & Social Tactics
to Grow Your Advertiser Base
How Do You Make Money from Listings?
Will Scott, CEO, Search Influence

2. Confidential, Property of Search Influence, LLC © 2013
@w2scott Presented to Inland Press Association
About Search Influence
• Helping customers successfully market online since 2006
• We work with thousands of clients, directly and as a white-label provider
• Scalable Solutions Powered by Experts
• Search Influence:
• 50+ full-time employees
• 70+ contract writers
• 12 Google AdWords Pros
• 3 Google Analytics Pros
• Reputation:
• 2011 Inc. 500 honoree
• Recognized leader in search and social for local business
• Over a decade in online media

3. Confidential, Property of Search Influence, LLC © 2013
@w2scott Presented to Inland Press Association
About Me: Will Scott
• First website online in 1994
• Deployed over 2,500 customized web sites
in 18 months (with a production staff of
12).
• Former Vice President of
YPsolutions (now Local Matters)
• Online Directory vendor to 20 independent
Yellow Pages
• Deployed over 300 online yellow pages a
year with print “look and feel”
• Part of team which took Sprint BestRedYP
from zero to 1,000,000 monthly visitors in
18 months
• Uniquely qualified to help publishers’
online marketing

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@w2scott Presented to Inland Press Association
As Seen In:

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@w2scott Presented to Inland Press Association
CUSTOMERS
The reason we’re all here

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Source: name.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/women-business-owner.jpg

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@w2scott Presented to Inland Press Association
Sometimes They
Look Like This…

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@w2scott Presented to Inland Press Association
Your Advertisers Want Digital
• More dollars are being dedicated to digital in
2013 and beyond
• That budget is estimated to keep growing
• This will affect your share of wallet
• Will you supply the digital solutions your
advertisers want / need?

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Everyone Is Doing it!
Photo Credit: Missourian Kiwanis Club
Everybody’s Doing it!

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Source: www.ima2seven.com
But Who Do Those Advertisers Trust?

11. Confidential, Property of Search Influence, LLC © 2013
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Why You Want to Do It?
• Easy way to stay relevant in a digital world
• Wider Reach
– Sell to more advertisers
• Recurring Revenue
• Give the people what they want
– Our model agency sold 1.5 mil last year
• Great margins
• You are the trusted source

12. Confidential, Property of Search Influence, LLC © 2013
@w2scott Presented to Inland Press Association
How Can I do it?
Step 1: Build relevance as the authority on
everything local, including “local media”
– Do this by optimizing your own digital properties
– Local directories will benefit from on-site & off-
site SEO
– Social Media properties will benefit from fan
growth within your market
– Viral techniques will help build local market share

13. Confidential, Property of Search Influence, LLC © 2013
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YOU MUST MATTER
Why worry about all this?

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Proprietary and Confidential. Copyright © 2013 BIA/Kelsey. All Rights Reserved.
Media Fragmentation Continues to Increase
4.4
5.6
7.8
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Wave 14 2010 Wave 15 2011 Wave 16 2012
Number of Media used
has increased by 77%
since 2010.
Average Number of Media Used by SMBs
for Advertising and Promotion

17. Confidential, Property of Search Influence, LLC © 2013
@w2scott #RevSummit - Local Media Association16
Proprietary and Confidential. Copyright © 2012 BIA/Kelsey. All Rights Reserved.
Top 2 Box (Extremely or Very Important)
Sample Size = 139
Source: LCM Wave 16, Q3/2012 (and prior waves, if relevant). Methodology: Online panels. Findings may not be
statistically significant.
Q320
31.4%
32.4%
38.0%
42.0%
49.0%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Yelp
Twitter
Blog
Google
Facebook

18. 18
Proprietary and Confidential. Copyright © 2013 BIA/Kelsey. All Rights Reserved.
SMB Spend Split: Acquisition vs. Retention
29.5%
41.2%
6.5%
19.2%
3.7%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%
Roughly 50/50
>50% for Acquiring
>50% for Retaining
Hard to Say
Not sure
6:1 Ratio
Loyalty Opportunities:
• 4-10x more expensive for SMBs to acquire new customers than retain existing ones
(Patrick Barry, DemandForce)
• Businesses that retain 5% more customers increase profit by at least 25%
(“The Loyalty Effect”)

19. 19
Proprietary and Confidential. Copyright © 2013 BIA/Kelsey. All Rights Reserved.
Primary Purpose of Facebook Page
41.7%
30.9%
19.4%
5.0%
2.2%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%
Acquire
Build Awareness
Build Community
Retain
Not sure Customer acquisition is now the #1
objective of SMBs using Facebook
(up 15% wave-over-wave).

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21. Confidential, Property of Search Influence, LLC © 2013
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THE LOCAL SEARCH ECOSYSTEM
Don’t forget, in the 80s and 90s, we shipped our phone books offshore to
have them turned into “data”.

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Local Search:
More Important Than Ever

24. Confidential, Property of Search Influence, LLC © 2013
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Local Search:
More Important Than Ever

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PC Users Accessing the Internet Flat-lined
In 2012, growth in the number of PC users accessing the Internet flat-lined for the first
time.

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Web Traffic from Non-PC Devices Spikes
By contrast, the share of web traffic from non-PC devices including smartphones
and tablets more than doubled to 15% in December 2012 versus 7% in
December 2011.

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THE SEARCH ENGINES
Optimize your directory to expand revenue opportunity

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Search Engine Market Share
74%
10%
10%
4%
2%
Search Share
Google
Bing
Yahoo! Search
Ask
AOL Search

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Top 5 Searches on Google
facebook
youtube
yahoo
yahoo mail
facebook login

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Top 10 Social Media Sites
64%
28%
2% 1%
1%
1%
1% 1%
1% 0%
Visits Share
Facebook
YouTube
Twitter
Pinterest
Linkedin
Yahoo! Answers
Google+
Tumblr
Tagged
Reddit

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HOW SEARCH ENGINES WORK
Yes, I know, they don’t always work

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Understanding the Search Results
PAID
Search Results
LOCAL
Search Results
ORGANIC
Search Results

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How Search Engines Work
Crawling
• Scouring the web for new content and links between
web sites
Indexing
• Parsing, normalization, categorization and recording
of these data for later use
Searching
• Presenting data to searchers in response to their
queries in relevant and useful way

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37% of clicks go to the #1
position
60% of clicks go to the top 3
97% of clicks go to sites on
page 1
Why is SEO Important?
Source: Optify Study, December 2010

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(WebVisible/Nielsen Study 2008)

36. Confidential, Property of Search Influence, LLC © 2013
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Why Your Directory Matters
• Prospective advertisers may find you
– Name Searches (vanity searches)
– Category Searches
• Your directory may act as an entrée
– Digital Services
– Print and Online Display
• It’s an advertising platform

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ON-SITE SEO
Let’s Start at the Base

38. Confidential, Property of Search Influence, LLC © 2013
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Onsite SEO Tactics
• Use relevant keywords – keyword research
• Top Level Categories
• Locally/Niche Relevant Content
• Advertiser Communities
• Social Networks for Advertisers
• Blogging

39. Confidential, Property of Search Influence, LLC © 2013
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Keyword Research for Content
• Don’t Guess - Use Tools
• Google = Free
• https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExtern
al
• Google Trends
• http://www.google.com/trends/

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41. Confidential, Property of Search Influence, LLC © 2013
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Deciding on Keywords
Group like themes based on account structure and
personas

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Proper Keyword Placement
• With on-site keywords in content, you should use
them wisely and integrate them as naturally as
possible.
• Keywords should generally be placed near the top of
the page and at the beginning of paragraphs but they
should not be forced.

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About That…
• “The first time you mention a word, you
know, ‘Hey, that’s pretty interesting. It’s about
that word.’ The next time you mention that
word, ‘Oh, okay. It’s still about that word.’ And
once you start to mention it a whole lot, it
really doesn’t help that much more. There’s
diminishing returns,”
– Matt Cutts, Google Guru

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Core Concepts
• Search Engines Only Read Text
• Flash and Images don’t contain text
• Don’t Slow Down The Spiders
• Fast loading sites get indexed faster
• Text links are unambiguous
• Every Page is An Island
• Just because you’ve built it…

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Content – “Invisible” Content
• Title Tag
• MOST IMPORTANT TEXT ON PAGE
• Meta Description
• Low ranking value; high marketing value
• Meta Keywords
• Widely ignored; still useful in lesser search
engines
• Image Alt Tags
• Most valuable in image search; critical for search
in image based navigation

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Invisible Content Examples
Title Tag
Meta Description
<title>New Orleans Chiropractic | New Orleans
Chiropractor - Dr. Gordon DuBois D.C.</title>
<meta name="description" content="New
Orleans Chiropractic - Gordon Dubois specialized
in Chiropractic Adjustment and TBM. Let New
Orleans Chiropractor Dr. Dubois ease your Back
and Neck Pain and help you on the path to
wellness." />
Alt Text

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Content – Visible Content
• Heading Tags
• HTML (the language of the web) was developed
by engineers – they think in outline form – the
higher the heading level, the more important
<h1> being foremost
• Text on Page
• It is possible for a page to rank without saying the
phrase for which it ranks but it is definitely harder

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Visible Content Examples
H1
On Page Text

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Techniques for Visible Content
• Internal linking structure
– Get rid of image, JavaScript or Flash Links
– Use keyword relevant anchor text
– Link consistently throughout your site
– Give Google an XML Sitemap
– In Content Linking
• Whenever you are creating new text content look for
other internal pages to link to

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51. Confidential, Property of Search Influence, LLC © 2013
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52. Confidential, Property of Search Influence, LLC © 2013
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A Relatively Simple Model
• He/She who has the most relevant content
and the greatest number of relevant inbound
links…

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Wins!

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How do you Know What to
Optimize?
• Much of it lies in how the site is setup
• You can natively have optimized title
tags, meta & H1 on every page
• You then need to decide where to place some
extra effort.

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Use Google Analytics
• Use your Google Analytics data to see
• What keywords driving people to your site
now?
• What pages are being visited the most?

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Local/Niche Relevant Content
• Know your community—what is the local/niche
buzz?
• Take advantage of topics that are trending in the
your local/regional/niche community.
• Look for trending topics and conversations ideal to
target the community
• Research your market to assure relevancy
– Ex: (You will find “snow removal techniques” irrelevant in
South Florida but highly relevant in Maine)

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58. Confidential, Property of Search Influence, LLC © 2013
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Local/Niche Relevant Content
• Are there upcoming events that you could mention
in your social media alongside posts on your
directory?
• The more engaged you can be with your
audience, the easier it will be to source info for
local/niche relevant content.
• Don’t overlook opportunities to be part of the
conversation in your community.

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60. Confidential, Property of Search Influence, LLC © 2013
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Advertiser Communities
• Build your community by creating your own
social network.
• “Employ” the general public to report on
relevant local content.
– This keeps content fresh and abundant.
– Use what www.Patch.com does as a model.
– Hold contests and reward the community points
for contributions.

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62. Confidential, Property of Search Influence, LLC © 2013
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Blogging
• Your blog should live on the site
• Posts should be a minimum of 500 words
• Much like other on-site content, blog content
should be unique.
• Optimize posts with targeted keywords to
rank organically for terms.
• The content written would be completely
relevant to the blog goals.

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Blog Examples

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Optimization Techniques
• Directory Listings
–Collect local data from advertisers such as
their NAP information.
–Keep business profiles on their own landing
page.
–Add photos & video.

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The Anatomy of NAP
What is a local citation?
N A P + W
Name
Address
Phone #
Website

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PAGINATION
Pa-g-un-a-shon

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rel=“next” & rel=“prev”
• These codes will tell Google that it should
recognize your series of content (multiple
pages) as a whole entity
• It will send users the most relevant page/URL
– Typically the first page of the series

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Source: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/09/pagination-with-relnext-and-relprev.html

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OFF-SITE SEO

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Offsite SEO Tactics
• Quality Links
• Quality Content
• Viral Content
• Infographics
• Video
• Guest Blogging
• Social Bookmarking

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73. Confidential, Property of Search Influence, LLC © 2013
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Links Build Credibility & Trust
• Sincerity is the most important thing…
• In non-competitive categories even low value will do
the trick
• Not hip, not sexy, but effective nonetheless
• Lots ‘o links if you know where to look
• Many categories (particularly for state Searches)
don’t show maps
• Making top of Organic Search all the more important

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How to get Good Links
– Create the “Best of” awards in your local markets.
• Take nominations
• Get people to vote
– Make “Review me on” or “Find us on” badges
available to business to put on their websites.
• Publicize this.

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Infographics

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SOCIAL MEDIA

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Social Media for Your Advertisers
• Using promoted posts
– Add value by promoting advertiser posts through your own
social channels
– Using promoted posts to increase visibility of your own
content
• Create groups and events
– Providing them with advertiser knowledge through this
group
– Better engagement & relationships with your advertisers
• Brand awareness in the community & for advertisers

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Create Facebook pages for highly followed local interests

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Promote Advertisers Socially

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Just because you paid for it doesn’t make
it less satisfying…

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Sponsored Stories

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• Pinterest: Top 10 social site
(CNET, December 2011)
• Pinterest hits 10 million U.S.
monthly unique faster than any
standalone site ever
(TechCrunch, February 2012)
• Pinterest drove more referral
traffic than Twitter in February ‘12
(PC Magazine, March 2012)
Pinterest
Source: www.pinterest.com

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Newspapers on Pinterest
http://pinterest.com/joannephillips/newspapers-on-pinterest/

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87. Confidential, Property of Search Influence, LLC © 2013
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Takeaways
• Optimizing your directory will help to build
gross revenue
• Implement on-site and off-site SEO to build
the visibility of your directory
• Make sure you have local/niche relevant
content
• Use social media in your SEO Strategy
• Don’t be afraid to offer SEO & Social to your
advertisers, they want it

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Thank you!
Will Scott
– searchinfluence.com/blog
– wscott@searchinfluence.com
– twitter.com/w2scott