Pay Per Click Insider TipsBetter Pay-Per-Click Results Start Here – We Guarantee It!

By John McPhee, Senior Account Executive, Anvil Media, Inc.

Before the wonderful world of the Internet, most small to medium sized businesses (SMB) were able to rely on good ol’ marketing & promotional efforts through storefront signage and a Yellow Pages listing. Oh my, how things have changed. eCommerce websites are popping up across the Internet and folks are becoming more comfortable purchasing online. This is generating a shift in marketing budgets as dollars are being allocated to focus more on online efforts. Your storefront has now become your website, and it’s imperative your storefront be visible within the search engine rankings.

Given the number of exciting advancements in the search marketing industry over the past several years there are now more opportunities to rank in the search results and track performance than ever before. Take Universal Search, for example. The engines are now including all forms of content (video, image, news, etc) directly within the natural, or organic, results instead of keeping this content secluded to the individual search verticals like Google video, Google blog search or Google news, which is allowing businesses the opportunity to gain more visibility in the organic results for multiple content types. Now with the creation of Google Maps, Yahoo Local and Bing Local (MSN’s new search engine), SMB’s are able to compete at the same level as the giants with multi-million dollar marketing budgets by getting listed in these local engines. The major search engines are incorporating local results into Universal Search, providing the potential for increased online visibility and revenue.

Now that local search has leveled the playing field it’s important to understand what SMB’s need to do in order to optimize their current website and their local business listings to ensure they are visible in the local search results.

Ensure Your Own Website is Optimized
Before you will be able to rank within the local search results, you’ll want to put some time and effort into your current website. Unfortunately, website optimization is a topic deserving of its own article (or several), so I’d recommend reading the 3 C’s of Search Engine Optimization to gain a better understanding of how to optimize your own website. You certainly can’t expect great search results if you haven’t gotten your hands dirty. After you’ve spent time focusing on your own site optimization, implement these three tactics to ensure the engines understand you’re a local business.

1. Be sure to use geo-specific keywords in your title tags, Meta descriptions and content. It’s important to also use cross streets and any additional neighborhood information throughout the site as well. Here’s a good example of utilizing keywords in the title tag and Meta description. Notice this example even includes a phone number, which is always a good idea.

Downtown Portland, Oregon Hotels | Hotel Lucia Portland
Hotel Lucia (866-986-8086) is a hip and trendy Portland, Oregon hotel
located in Portland’s downtown core. Its boutique, contemporary style is unique….
www.hotellucia.com/ – Cached – Similar

2. Local search engine algorithms use address information to identify businesses for relevancy to a specific search query. To help ensure local search engines are able to “match” your website with a search query it is crucial to include your exact business address and your local phone number in your website’s footer (it’s okay to include your 800 number if you have one as well).

3. Another technique used to help the local search engines verify you correct business address is to link to other credible profiles from your Contact Us page. Sites like Yelp, Citysearch, TripAdvisor (if applicable to your business) or even YouTube are all credible sites, so creating profiles with your business information helps the local engines more easily validate this information.

Optimize Your Local Business Listing (LBL)
Now that you’ve worked so hard in getting your own website ready, it’s time to begin work on your actual local listing.

1. The first thing you should do, no matter what, is claim your local listing. In order to do so, take a look at Google Maps, Yahoo Local and Bing Local for information on how to correctly create and submit your listing.  If you don’t claim your listing, someone else might. If that happens, you’re in for a real headache to correct the situation. Once you claim and verify your listing, you can log in to each engine’s local business center and change your information at any time.

2. As you go through the claiming process you’ll have the opportunity to add details about your business, starting with company name (local listing title). There has been debate about how much weight the local search engines put on the title, but David Mihm’s most recent study, where he interviewed 26 local search experts, had “Product/Service keywords in LBL title” ranked the fifth highest. I trust and respect all of these search experts so I still recommend the strategy, but you should avoid keyword stuffing your business name at all costs. Here’s a good example of appropriately using keywords in your business title.

Rack Attack – Vehicle Rack & Hitch Center – www.rackattack.com
1737 SW Morrison Street, Portland – (503) 226-7300)
*****11 reviews, directions, hours and more >>

3. Followed by the business title, you’ll have the opportunity to write a business description, add images, video and additional information, such as products, services, pricing, etc. The more information you provide, the higher the probability you’ll engage visitors and they’ll click through to your website.

4. Choosing the proper category, or categories, for your local listing is extremely important as this is how local search engines determine which search queries your listing may appear for. Don’t be afraid to use both broad and specific categories as Google allows up to five, Yahoo allows four and Bing allows six. Google even allows you to create your own business category if you don’t see one relevant to your business/industry.

5. Finally, Google Maps allows you to create special coupons that will appear in your local listing. It is unclear how effective they are in increasing local search rankings, but it’s a great way to provide value to those who have clicked through to your listing. Unfortunately the other engines don’t allow for this tactic.

Optimization Off-Site and Outside of the Local Business Center (LBC)

Google, and the other engines, don’t just use the local listing you created as the only source of information when determining your local search rank. They use everything from your local listing to business listings on directories and a number of other local sites.

1. The big data providers that you need to be concerned with are InfoUSA, Localeze and Axciom. InfoUSA and Localeze allow you to add or update your business listing, which I would recommend doing. In addition to the big three, the local search engines also look at IYP’s (Internet Yellow Pages) and other local sites like Citysearch, Yelp and MapQuest. The best way to ensure your data is updated and accurate is to use UniversalBusinessListing.org (UBL). It carries a yearly cost of $30. The service allows you to input your information using one interface and UBL will update all of the major engines, directories and data providers for you. Very slick.

2. Citations, also known as “references” or “web pages,” are listings on other websites that cite your business name, address, phone number and sometimes a URL. Citations, comparable to inbound links for SEO, play a large role in your local search ranking. The main difference between citations and inbound links, citations don’t have to contain a link to your website like an inbound link does. As long as the business information contained on a website matches what the local search engines are seeing across the other sites mentioned above, they will count it as a citation. If you are seeing your business information differ across sites, this is where UBL comes into play and can help clean up all of your listings. If your competition has more citations than you, do some research to see where they are getting theirs from, and then work to get your business listed on the same sites or directories. The more citations you have, the more trusted your local search listing will be.

So, there you have it. I hope you feel armed with enough ammo to begin establishing rankings and visibility in the local search results. Remember that your website is your new storefront. You must make it visible and user-friendly to ensure your site visitors return. There is a huge opportunity for SMB’s as many have not even claimed their local listings, which is highly surprising considering the potential for increased revenues. With how difficult it is to rank in the natural search results, local businesses should be jumping all over this strategy. Of the roughly 15-20 million businesses in the US, only a few hundred thousand have actually claimed their listings. This is astonishing, but also provides a huge opportunity to gain a competitive advantage and increase your market share and the awareness of your business.

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John McPhee began his professional career in Internet Marketing at Conseco Finance in 1999 before moving to Portland, from Minneapolis, in 2003. Upon his arrival in Portland, McPhee found employment with BetterManagement.com, where he immediately began managing their PPC efforts, and researching/studying SEO. McPhee began work at Anvil in 2005, working with travel/tourism clients, as well as on the B2B side.  Now in his 4th year at Anvil, McPhee is a senior account executive in charge of client strategy for PPC, SEO and Social Media Marketing.