Get Your Local business more Local in the search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing!

1. Local Search for the Less Informed. “Not for the Weak of Heart” BY: Mike Stewart Director of Search MARKETING @ @dallasSEOguru @smbSEO #DFWSEM #LocalSearch #SEO ©2011 SMB SEO Dallas Internet Marketing Agency Advocate & Board of Directors Member

2. The Rules of Power Point Presentations If you are going to proceed to break the rules… it might be wise to know them first! Don’t use too many pictures…. Don’t use bullet points blah blah… Logo on every slide? ©2011 SMB SEO Dallas Internet Marketing Agency

3. A Little About Mike: ©2011 SMB SEO Dallas Internet Marketing Agency

4. In the early days of local search….. The early days of local search content publishing and ad optimization, right? 2000-2009 “Sales Strategist” ? ©2011 SMB SEO Dallas Internet Marketing Agency

5. uhh So …… Why the Weak of Heart? ….besides a more dramatic title to get you to {Read, ReTweet, RePost, Reply, Regurgitate, or just ShowUp!} People face common problems that prevent success… EXTREMELY BUSY ©2011 SMB SEO Dallas Internet Marketing Agency

6. Local Search Optimization is… Taking action is the beginning. It is not... ©2011 SMB SEO Dallas Internet Marketing Agency

7. LOCAL SEARCH IS FOREVER EVOLVING… ©2011 SMB SEO Dallas Internet Marketing Agency

8. What has been my secret To Local Ranking Success? Honesty. Transparency. (whether you are in sales or fulfillment.) Holistic “All the Angles” Approach Will Never Go Out of Style. Sometimes having A.D.D. can help. “Stick and move… stick and move!” Local SEO is like “National SEO.” The best local search expertsare just great SEO experts. The difference is really maps, geo keywords, and reviews. ©2011 SMB SEO Dallas Internet Marketing Agency

9. Google leads in local ©2011 SMB SEO Dallas Internet Marketing Agency

11. 90% of consumers use some type of local search to locateproducts/services (Comscore, Dec. 2010) Online search influenced over $471 billion worth or offline sales in 2009. In that same year only $136 billion in sales using e-commerce. (eMarketer, 2009) ©2011 SMB SEO Dallas Internet Marketing Agency

12. Map Search = Local Search “Google” Kills “MapQuest” By 2009 in Searches TIP: embed MapQuest instead of Google on location pages. ©2011 SMB SEO Dallas Internet Marketing Agency

14. www.listings.local.yahoo.com

15. www.ssl.bing.com/listingsYou Do Not “Have To” Have a Website to Claim or List Your Business Locally. ©2011 SMB SEO Dallas Internet Marketing Agency

16. Build a Complete Profile ©2011 SMB SEO Dallas Internet Marketing Agency

17. 5 Tips on Dealing with Bad Google Places Listings Worst case scenario could see your company information, including positive reviews, with a competitor's contact information, or a competitor's negative reviews attached to your listing. 1. Change the address and claim the listing. Use the same business name, address and phone numbers as the old or wrong Maps business and you should be given the option to claim it. 2. Use the “REPORT A PROBLEM” link on the listing. 3. Find the citation that is causing the error. Correct it. 4. Your website is the best citation… where is your address? 5. Remember, Google Modifies Titles in Blended Results. ©2011 SMB SEO Dallas Internet Marketing Agency

18. Keyword Rich Domains They still work… Easy way to rank for a specific “search phrase.” www.BailBondsDallasTx.com is the same as www.Bail-Bonds-Dallas-Tx.com to a search engine. But try sticking that on your truck! I prefer .com, .org, and .net. .info doesn’t rank as well (Blackhats Killed Them off). I prefer hyphens over .ws, .tv etc How many keyword rich domains do you own. Can you scale an Onsite and Offsite content strategy for that many sites?? Cat/Geo mini sites rock! www.OneSpecialty.com has 12 mini sites! Ex: CustomPoolsDallasTx.com and LandscapeDesignDallasTx.com ©2011 SMB SEO Dallas Internet Marketing Agency

19. WebSite Content Strategy Using Your Thumb as a Ruler: OpenSourced CMS (remember honest & transparent) 300 Words = OffSite Content 600 Words = OnSite Find a comfortable schedule that you can stick to and stick to it. Both OnSite and Off! BIO pages are great links. Your offsite links do not have to be in your niche. Contribute content to a great site, an SEO Expert can help you choose the right anchor text. Comment on articles. Build your online authority. Why are you the expert? TIP: Site Search is Great Content Research ©2011 SMB SEO Dallas Internet Marketing Agency

20. Keywords in Content The more keywords you try to stuff on a page the more you risk your page sounding awkward and unnatural. This should be avoided at all costs. Topic Modeling (LDA - Latent Dirichlet Allocation) SuperMan Clark Kent Man of Steel Kryptonite http://www.seomoz.org/blog/lda-and-googles-rankings-well-correlated (DO NOT STUFFYOUR KEYWORDS!) ©2011 SMB SEO Dallas Internet Marketing Agency

21. Blog Weight vs Pages Site Blog another smbSEO client ©2011 SMB SEO Dallas Internet Marketing Agency

22. Measuring Local SEO Efforts w/ Analytics and stats Other Ways to Measure Success: Shares, Likes, Comments, Calls, Emails, Forms, etc. ©2011 SMB SEO Dallas Internet Marketing Agency

23. Measuring Local SEO Efforts w/ Ranking Reports ©2011 SMB SEO Dallas Internet Marketing Agency

25. Unknown brands can beat great brands with SEO.

26. KML files and Hcard Format Reviews Can be Citations ©2011 SMB SEO Dallas Internet Marketing Agency

27. Reviews: Encourage Reviews • URL Shorteners bit.ly/smbSEOreview • Page w/links (your url) • Business Cards • Postcards • Emails • Receipts Make it a process. Keywords in reviews helps. Diversity of review sources is good. Keep them coming. Review frequency is important. Don’t self review. PERIOD! Too easy to spot. Watch out for: Lunatics Trolls Competitors Former Employees ©2011 SMB SEO Dallas Internet Marketing Agency

28. Google Paid Search for Novices Google Boost is Google AdWords for Dummies. Google Tags…… Next slide please… ©2011 SMB SEO Dallas Internet Marketing Agency

29. Google Paid Search for Novices ©2011 SMB SEO Dallas Internet Marketing Agency

31. Plano – Cat (Product/Service) Campaigns

32. The most accurate Google local traffic information is AdWords.Tip: SEO vs PPC… Stop the Debate! 40/40/20 local budgeting ©2011 SMB SEO Dallas Internet Marketing Agency

33. Local + Social = Hyper-Local Search User Generated Content, Blogging, Social Networks etc. Take it a step further: Own Your Niche! Create an industry review site. Create an industry forum. Become the Expert. ©2011 SMB SEO Dallas Internet Marketing Agency

34. More Off-Site Link Tips: AllExperts.com, MechantCircle Answers, Wiki , Quora, Yahoo Answers Press Releases are great links, often from news sites. In many cases you can get local area news site links. Sure beats other ways of getting in the press! Industry Forums and Industry Associations website links. Pimping Your Company for Non-Profit Links (donating to a non-profit is technically not buying links!) Not Recommended… (but works regardless of what the search marketing evangelicals tell you!) Comment spam, article marketing, link cloaking (show the search engines one thing and users something else) URL shorteners as 301 redirects. Publish these links ©2011 SMB SEO Dallas Internet Marketing Agency

35. Content Based Directory sites like LeadMaverick.com ©2011 SMB SEO Dallas Internet Marketing Agency

36. FaceBook “ If I tell my Facebook friends about your brand, it is because I like my friends – not because I like your brand.” – Mike Arauz, Undercurrent ©2011 SMB SEO Dallas Internet Marketing Agency

37. Flickr +30,000 views to OneSpecialty.com Flickr Album… how many of these were clients? Probably only a few. Use with Creative Commons and Give Attribution… YouTube Title of the video is PRIMO! -Unique Descriptions with a link. YouTube is not the only video site. Build your channel. Your Channel is another website! YouTube Videos can rank on the first page for local search queries and names. ©2011 SMB SEO Dallas Internet Marketing Agency

38. Why Not Embed YouTube In Your Website. ©2011 SMB SEO Dallas Internet Marketing Agency

40. The SEO industry is growing rapidly. Your niche is probably still open for the taking!

41. If you write great authoritative content you will get better links.

42. Local SEO + Local PPC + Web Conversion = $$$$!

43. Social Media is not a fad. We are all becoming more social. Social engagement is the new repeat and referral. In my 10 year career of working with small businesses, the #1 answer to the question of where you get most of your business has always been Repeat and Referral. Social Media is the new R&R!©2011 SMB SEO Dallas Internet Marketing Agency

44. If you want to learn more…. Find the real experts! ©2011 SMB SEO Dallas Internet Marketing Agency

46. Local Search Basics Thank you for taking the time to listen… Mike Stewart “SMB SEO” www.smbSEO.com dallasSEOguru www.facebook.com/DallasSEOguru ©2011 SMB SEO Dallas Internet Marketing Agency