Website Promotion Company: Search Influence - Economical SEO New Orleans, LA SEO / Internet Marketing » will scott

Results Pagination in Google Places View

Will Scott — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 11:45:29 +0000

For a while now, Google has been showing “Related Places” AKA “The Competition in places view.

Google Related Places - AKA The Competition

While looking at the results for one of our clients who has recently opened a new office for his law practice in a New Orleans LA suburb I came across this.

Paginated Google Places Results

Clearly Google is trying to offer some alternative results for “Metairie Divorce” than our guy Will Beaumont at 3814 Veterans Memorial Blvd #302, Metairie, LA 70002 – (504) 834-1117.

You’ll have to click through as I can’t figure out how to link directly.

Beyond going down the page to look at the “Related Places” (AKA “The Competition”) you can now conveniently scroll through them. And, better still, hovering over your searched for phrase at the top of the page gets you this drop-down list.

Select Your Competitor - Google Places Drop-Down List

Local Search Ranking Factors 2011

Will Scott — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:11:35 +0000

It’s always interesting to see the outcome of the annual “Local Search Ranking Factors” study. As contributors we have strong opinions about many elements, and like you, we’re always learning as well.

Now that we’ve had a chance to review, we’ve identified:

Places where we agree
Criteria where, for us, the jury is out
Things we question

The Top Ten from This Year’s Local Search Ranking Factors Study:

Physical Address in City of Search
Manually Owner-verified Place Page
Proper Category Associations
Volume of Traditional Structured Citations (IYPs, Data Aggregators)
Crawlable Address Matching Place Page Address
PageRank / Authority of Website Homepage / Highest Ranked Page
Quality of Inbound Links to Website
Crawlable Phone Number Matching Place Page Phone Number
Local Area Code on Place Page
City, State in Places Landing Page Title

Identified Factors We Are Totally Behind

Pure Local – This is defined as results in maps.google.com and on Google.com when a 2, 3 or 7 pack exist

Place Pages criteria – those changes you can make to your Place Page

Sara Tweedy: ”A business’s Place Page is the foundation of a business’ online local presence. {don’t love this image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/matsuyuki/198736304/} The targeted, specific criteria on the Place Page is essential to Google understanding what your business does”. These criteria include:

proper categorization of services/products your business provides
explicit, developed usage of the details section
basic optimization including pictures and video.

A complete Place Page sets the groundwork for a stellar local presence, which will then allow for higher rankings.

Off Site / Off Place Page

Sara Tweedy: Volume of citations is an integral component of any local presence. Citations reinforce a business’s name, address and phone number to Google. It is a necessity to obtain many authoritative citations to back up a Place Page. Without these citations, Google won’t give the deserved credibility to your business. Tweedy says, “When discussing the most recommended factors in the results of the survey, I was a little concerned that NAP consistency did not make the list. Ask anyone that works here, I am a consistency pusher. It is imperative that a business’ NAP is consistent EVERYWHERE it is seen online, and it should all feed back to the Place Page. When this does not happen, it could lead to a convoluted local presence, and will ultimately wreak havoc on rankings. “

Reviews

Amy Arnold comments, “We found that velocity, in other words, a consistent review pattern over time, is much more important than sheer volume, i.e. loading in a whole bunch at the beginning and never having reviews after that.”

Reviews are an important Local Search Ranking Factor, but in our experience website criteria may play a stronger role than volume of reviews. By no means do we suggest Reviews are unimportant. But perhaps not as strong a factor in our collective minds as website criteria. Paula Keller states, “With the new integrated or “blended” results Google rolled out in October 2010, the organic strength of your website and the correlation between the information it displays and your Place page is more important than ever in local.”

Website Criteria

In going through the Local Search Ranking Factors 2011 from David, we discussed website factors passionately! One opinion put forth was that if your phone number on site is crawlable, it best match the Place Page. I think we can all agree on this. The preference is to have the phone number crawlable on-site and accurate match.

To have the City, State in the landing page appears to be a strong factor. We have done some testing on this; it’s not 100% conclusive, but it seems to be a positive move with some qualifications.

Clearly, there are dependencies on the client’s industry and market.

For example, besides the Pizza Hut, pizza places are not super competitive in a city of <100,000 population, so we have had some obvious success with this technique with a locally-owned-pizza-franchise client in moderate sized market. As soon as the City-State landing page rolled live, the client experienced a nice bump in rankings within 1 week:

keyword 1 jumped 4 positions in ranking from position 8 to 4
keyword 2 jumped 6 positions in ranking from position 12 to 6
keyword 3 was just added to the site and already stands at position 7

Fast and effective – we like.

However, a personal injury attorney (read: highly competitive) in one of the top 30 metro areas in the country (read: more highly competitive), didn’t see as much obvious success. It strengthened the attorney’s site and Place Page, but didn’t have as immediate and noticeable impact as the pizza place.

keyword 1 — 6th, was 7th
keyword 2 — 9th, was 10th
keyword 3 — 13th, was 16th
keyword 4 — 15th was nowhere

We do have some pretty strong feelings about the strength of the website and it’s influence on the total local-online package. Website strength has so many factors:

domain age (always good)
internal links
on-site optimization
external linking
diverse and unique content on-site, etc.

All of these factors have to be built over time, and a young business with a young domain may not have all of these elements created yet. Domain age is not directly the sole effect on site authority; it’s all of the online authority that is built over time. With age comes wisdom, or … with age comes authority.

CONTRIBUTORS

Photo Credits:

Yellow Pages & SEO – Print Dollars for Internet Dimes

Will Scott — Fri, 06 May 2011 14:02:04 +0000

The Pets.com Sock Puppet

I was having a conversation today with one of our clients for whom we do Yellow Pages SEO, and I swear I was transported back to the year 2000. It’s amazing to me that more than a decade after Yellow Pages companies first started getting their feet wet on the internet, they still don’t quite get it.

“Trading print dollars for Internet dimes,” they say.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. The online opportunities are immense for well established brands like the Yellow Pages for SEO, websites, paid search advertising, social media. With feet on the street combined with the power of SEO, the Yellow Pages, if they could ever get their act together, would eat our lunch.

Some of you may not be aware of my history. In fact, I’ll bet that the majority of you aren’t aware of my history.

First things first – I’m old. I’m over 40, live my life on the Internet, and I’m an avid user of Social Media. I represent a growing demographic online. And I remember when the Yellow Pages were a valued and viable advertising medium.

For the first six years of the Internet as we know it, I built websites. I put my first website online in 1994.

At first it was simple sites for individual clients who thankfully knew less than I did. They must have, because they paid me. And then I built database driven sites used for things like distance learning, e-commerce, digital uploads, and much more functional uses.

Then I got to lead a team. We cranked out literally 2,500+ websites in the span of two or three years. In fact, we built a very early content management system, and I personally wrote the code for the first CRM I ever worked on. That content management system is actually still running today, believe it or not.

Oh yeah, that company, it was founded by a guy who got his start in Yellow Pages. In fact, my boss at the time was a visionary. He knew the internet was hurtling toward print media like a meteor. He was just a little ahead of his time.

Oh Yellow Pages, Wither Goest Thou?

After my boss, later my partner, successfully blew through $1 million with little to show for it, we had to switch gears. We built Yellow Pages online. We took the data files from those old dusty books and turned them into the online Yellow Pages.

It seemed to us at the time that the best way to transition publishers from print to online was to make an online version of the book that looked just like the Yellow Pages. SEO barely existed in those days. This was pre-Google. Our idea of optimizing for search included renaming the domain name 1A-whatever.com, submitting to directories, and stuffing the keywords meta-tags with anything even vaguely relevant.

And then came Google.

We had to figure out how to make those big fat sites that looked like Yellow Pages rank well in Google. And we did it.

Our team took the Sprint Yellow Pages from 0 to 1 million unique visitors a month in 18 months. We were so good we were actually profitable. And along came another company who, interested in our customers and our profitability, bought our company.

Yellow Pages companies of the day realized, many as early as the late 90s, that print was dying. They realized that to remain viable businesses they had to take advantage of their one real asset.

Yellow Pages have feet on the street and long relationships with advertisers. IRL.

Sellin' Yellow Euro Style

So first we sold online Yellow Pages, then we built online Yellow Pages. Yes, that’s right, we sold them before we built them. So what came next for the Yellow Pages? SEO.

We sold them, we built them, and now we had to get them traffic. And now they’re all hooked. They can’t walk away from the Internet. In some cases it’s about all they’ve got.

So a decade later, I’m talking to one of our Yellow Pages customers, and he’s got his sales force in the field trading print dollars for Internet dimes.

If only he’d come to us when he was pricing the product. We could have shown him how Yellow Pages SEO and websites can be profitable. We know from experience that, if done well, our customers trade print dollars for Internet dollars.

And the Yellow Pages knows how to sell the value! Yellow Pages have been proving the value through call tracking numbers and metrics for decades. But here again, in this “new” medium, they forget what they’re good at.

My favorite slogan from the Yellow Pages was “making phones ring and doors swing”. With those six words they told the merchant “we’re here to bring you new business”. And they weren’t afraid to prove it.

These days, the Yellow Pages, SEO, and websites are really just an extension of the old message. With 60% of searches demonstrating some kind of the local intent, it’s still about making phones ring and doors swing.

Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me Yellow Pages sales reps can’t sell online marketing.

What’s that sound? Sounds like phones ringing and doors swinging.

Never Forgive, Never Forget The Meteor

What do you think? Can the dinosaur get out of the way of the meteor?

Image Credits:

Matt McGee’s 7 Questions – How does Hall Piano stack up?

Will Scott — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 16:54:06 +0000

I posted a link to Matt McGee‘s 7 Questions Small Businesses Should Be Asking and got this question from one of our customers, Steve Kinchen at Hall Piano Company.

It was a great excuse to do a little impromptu analysis. We may do a brief series of these.

Hall Piano Company Local Search Analysis using Matt McGee's 7 Questions Businesses should be asking.

Steve Kinchen: Read the article… How does HPC stack up?

Will Scott: Pretty darn good, I’d say.

By @mattmcgee‘s standards you’re pretty well covered

1. How do the search results look for my company name?

- http://www.google.com/search?q=hall+piano – you have the top 1/2 of the page with no negatives.

2. Have I put all my marketing eggs in one basket?

- Definitely not. You do TV / Radio, print, PR and Web / Social thanks to Dee Clubb

3. Have I claimed my local business listings?

- If not, they’re in progress (I know Bing is in the works):

- http://maps.google.com/places/us/la/metairie/david-dr/901/-hall-piano-company?gl=us
- http://local.yahoo.com/info-18122605-hall-piano-company-metairie
- http://www.bing.com/local/details.aspx?lid=YN365x6567331
- and more, of course

4. How do my reviews look on Google Maps? Yahoo? Bing? Yelp?

- We could always use more reviews but those we have are looking great.

5. Am I using social media wisely?

- I would say yes. And in your case that means using it conservatively. You’ve got great presence on Video and are developing on Facebook. You’ve got a nice twitter following. There’s always room for more but, yes, wisely for sure.

6. Am I focusing on metrics that matter?

- Definitely – Brand + Conversions are where one with a product so niche as yours needs to be.

7. Am I earning trust with everything I do online?

- For sure. Online, you and your team represent @hallpiano with the class and professionalism due your product and customers.

http://www.facebook.com/HallPiano
http://twitter.com/hallpiano
http://www.hallpiano.com/

Will Scott Speaking at SMX Advanced June 8-9

Paula Keller — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 19:25:36 +0000

Next week’s SMX Advanced Conference in Seattle is sure to prove itself a valuable experience for all in attendance. On June 8 and 9, some of the brightest minds in search marketing will gather in Seattle for a conference that has come to be know as a must-attend for those interested in gathering high level actionable information to apply to their strategies.

Will Scott will be speaking on two panels at the two day conference. On the 8^th he’ll be joining Marty Weintraub and Lisa Williams on “Opening The Contracts Kimono: Translating Your Pricing Model To Legal Agreement,” to speak on search marketing contracts, who will be defining the overall scope of contracts, and discussing making them performance-based, respectively. Will will discuss the liability aspect of contracts from the perspective of a search marketer who is actively updating and optimizing clients’ sites. This panel will be especially valuable for search marketing consultants and owners of search marketing companies.

Will is also part of a group of search marketers who have taken the initiative to conduct the first ever Foursquare advertiser sentiment survey! The exciting results of this first-of-its kind survey will be presented during the SEO & Vertical Search Track at “Location Services: The New Local Search?” on June 9.

This panel will be moderated by Greg Sterling, Founding Principle of Sterling Marketing Intelligence and the other speakers are to include Vince Blackham, Michael Martin, Mat Siltala, and Dylan Swift. More information about the Foursquare Advertiser Survey can be found on our blog, including profiles on the great companies that took part in making it happen!

Both of these panels will be must-sees next week in Seattle. For more information on SMX Advanced, visit their website. Will looks forward to meeting you at the conference!

Will Scott Interview on Search Engine Journal

Will Scott — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 19:53:19 +0000

A quick thanks and a link, for your information, to an interview Mat Siltala did with me on Search Engine Journal.

Picture of Mat Siltala and Will Scott at SMX West

Mat and I often speak about search, local, social media and his favorite viral marketing. I appreciate the opportunity for the exchange of ideas and am always happy to spend time with Mat.

In the interview we talk about some of the Top Local Business Listing questions we receive.

For those who don’t know Mat Siltala, his Internet Marketing Firm Dream Systems Media is one of the best in the industry. With customers ranging from small businesses to some of the biggest names on the Internet, Mat and his team are a worthy choice for any business, seriously thinking about online marketing who recognizes that Investment is the first part of Return on Investment.

Again, a big thanks to Mat and the Search Engine Journal team for helping spread the word about the value of Local search for small business.

Written at 38,000 ft somewhere over Indiana

Will Scott at SMX West March 2-4, 2010

Anthony Coleman — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:02:18 +0000

Search Influence’s president, Will Scott, will be speaking at Search Marketing Expo (SMX) West on March 3, 2010.

The topic of discussion will be Facebook Ad Tactics For Search Marketers.

For the full agenda and exhibitor list, please visit Search Marketing Expo West.

Will Scott Head Shots for SMX Local Search Ranking Tactics

Will Scott — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:50:40 +0000

I’d like a little help here please. Like my friend, Portland OR Web Designer, David Mihm I needed a head shot for SMX Local Mobile where I’ll be on a panel with a fine bunch of fellows on ranking factors for local search.

I went to see one of our clients Jessica Johanningmeier a New Orleans Wedding Photographer to have her shoot a few.

“Make me look young, thin and beautiful” I said and she felt right at home.

So without further ado I give you the choices. Please have a look and tell me in the comments which is your favorite:

Will Scott Head shot 01

Will Scott Head Shot 02

Will Scott Head Shot 03

Will Scott Head Shot 04

Will Scott Head Shot 05

I’ve got a favorite but interestingly my wife disagrees

And… remember what grandma used to say… “If you don’t have something nice to say” — I think you know the rest.

Thanks for your help!

Will