Top 5 Google Local Maps and Local Search Strategies and How to Get Found Online

Top 5 Google Local Maps and Local Search Strategies and
How to Get Found Online

Ron: Good morning!

This is Ron Rodi, Sales and Business Growth Consultant with PME360. On the line, I have Ryan
d On
Paul Adams with me.

Ryan, good morning!

Ryan: Good morning, Ron!

Ron: PME360 works with local small and medium sized businesses to power their growth online.

And we power local small to medium sized business by providing local internet marketing
services, strategies and consulting.
ices,

Today, we’ll talk about why that local search is still important.

We really believe that small to medium sized businesses are the life of our nation’s economy.
life
What Ryan and myself do is work with these local small to medium sized businesses to really
hat medium
help navigate the complex landscape that has become local search and local internet marketing.

The businesses that we work with obtain growth. And today, we are going to talk about some
of the local search changes, strategies and what you can do to help start your 2013 off on the
and
right foot.

So Ryan, why is local search so important and what changes have occurred?

There have been a lot of activities and I am excited about today’s topic.

Ryan: I think this is a good one. We’ve dedicated a lot of time to this for our client and I think
his dedicated
it’s exciting to share it in this format.

Ron: Just to go through some statistics of why local search is so important.

It’s obvious that Google and the other search engines have revolutionized the wa in which we
way
do business and the way in which we as consumers behave, collaborate, shop and such.

Powering Growth Online for Local Businesses
http://www.PME360.com

There are over 10 billion unique searches in each month, done online. That’s in the United
States alone. Of those searches, there’s been a tremendous shift to local search, and just to go
to
through some quick statistics, it’s been shown that 20% of desktop queries now have local
intent. So that’s a pretty good amount of people that are searching for localized keyword terms
and localized businesses –whether it’s a geographic location, a zip code, a street name.
whether

People are starting to search longer tailed and those longer tails are contained in local search
longer
terms. 5% of those terms include a city and state.

2% contain informal terms like neighborhoods. Like if you are in the Chicago area, you’re
you’
searching for a pizzeria in Old Town or perhaps you are searching for a bar in Lakeview or
Wrigleyville, 2% of those searches have local intent.
,

Then 50% of those mobile queries have local intent. So t there’s really a big shift. And just looking
at these statistics, 10 billion in excerpt, what can we surmise from those numbers?
se excerpt,

Ryan: Doing the math, 10 billion searches per month on Google is just massive. It’s just a
massive numbers. And it can be absolutely life changing for a local business just to be in front of
for
a small percentage of those searches in a local market.

I can’t think of any other marketing vehicle out there that could put you in front of these many
people that quickly – unless you have a million dollar budget for TV. And even that isn’t
budget
guaranteed to work as well as this does.

It’s just a massive opportunity here. And that’s just Google search. We pulled our data from just
Google, Yahoo! and Bing, right?

Ron: Yes, that’s correct.

Ryan: That doesn’t even include people who are on ESPN.com and can see an ad for a local
company in some other way. So there are other opportunities out there.

There’s even more than what they’re showing here.

Ron: So in other words, this doesn’t factor in those searches being done within social media
being
sites and YouTube. It’s only Google searches. Then, this is pure, raw data.

Ryan: This is just pure search. That’s it. It’s a massive opportunity for local businesses.

Ron: So what can businesses do to ensure that they can cap capture a little piece of this. Because,
really one of the things that we’ve run into in the past is that there’s been a high barrier to
entry for businesses to be able to compete.


But really, what we’ve learned about local and what PME360 has done is to remove those high
remove
barriers to entry for these local small to medium sized businesses.

So if you had to come out with a list of 5 quick and easy things to do to start the new year –
whether they are quick, whether they are easy is of course up to the individual.
individual.

But what are the 5 things that the business can do to try to capture some of this traffic?

Of course, I know that we have a formula for it. What do you think those 5 things could be?

Ryan: I can share some of my top process here. But if you want to do this the right way, have
your local business found in your local market and get new customers, then these are the steps
then
that I would take.

The number one thing is, you can do this without a website. You can actually get new clients
and prospects without a website.

But if you really want to do this, you need a website. I mean, it’s pretty obvious.

I don’t think you need to go and build a 100
100-page website, or even a 20-page website. Start off
page w
with what you can afford to do, like 3 to 5 pages. And here’s what I’d focus on that website.

First is making sure that you’ve got a good a call to action up in the header area – up on the top
right. It could go like this, “Call us today for XYZ and then, phone number”. It must be in an easy
to read format.

Make sure that the “1” is in front of the phone number. The reason I’m saying that is if
somebody is on a mobile device and they’re outside of your area (but they’re still looking to
work with you), if you don’t have that “1” in front of your number, then most cellphone carriers
ork
won’t complete that call.

So it’s the little details that matter. I see it all the time, people don’t put “1” in front of their
phone number. So if the website is set up in the right way as far as a mobile device recognizing
that site, people can click on that number right on their mobile device and connect them right
through your office. So include that.

Next is a good webform containing your offer on every page. Again, have a good one. Have a
page.
good offer to pull them in. Don’t be afraid to offer a discount or something to entice them to
pick up the phone or complete that webform.

These are more general ideas. Some of them don’t ne
necessarily relate to local. Thes are stuff
hese
we use for a lot of different things.


Ron: But one of the few things that the business has to mention is where they are located. In
addition to having their phone number and call to action on the top, you want them to
reference where they are located. You want to mention your neighborhood, proximity or your
ocated.
location within some of the wordings and verbiage on the site,

But let’s go back to the first point, creating a new website. And I don’t want to throw you off
track here as I appreciate where you’re going with the other things.
e

Business owner says, “Here we go. I’ve got to create a new site.” My question is, how complex
is that for a small to medium sized business?

Let’s say they’re working with a third party firm. Possibly they are working with PME360 or
someone else. What are the things they should look for and how quickly they expect the
website to be up and running?

I think that’s what we run through a lot. Businesses think that it’s a huge undertaking. Yes it is a
undertaking
lot of work. So maybe we should focus a bit more on that.
e

So I want to create a website. I want to make sure it’s more local. I want to do the things I need
to do to attract local customers. Can you shed a little light on that?

Ryan: One of the biggest questions you can ask you web developer, if they’re saying they
tions your ,
understand local search and they understand how to build a website for your local market, is if
understand
they have ever worked with microformat.

Just simply ask them and I think you’d be able to weed out 95% of the posers or the pretenders
and the spades. Because if they don’t know what microformats (schema, hCard, hReviews) are
know
at this point, then they are not the right choice to develop this website. Because they don’t
understand the local landscape.

Ron: So that’s good. That’s very good. Can you delve more into that? Microformat as supposed
at’s
to what? Perhaps you can elaborate more on that. We don’t want to get technical here but
what are some of things to sniff out?

Ryan: So the next step on my list here is to create what we call a NAP – your name, address and
phone number. And this is really, really important. It has to be consistent everywhere that it’s
consistent
going to appear online.

So decide right now, how you want to be known online. You might already have a Google+
known
Local listing. So Google your name and see how Google is treating you and see how they


register your name online as you might want to run what they already have. Because it is much
easier to run with the name the way Google sees you right now versus changing it.

Ron: Sure. And this is just an example, if some people are asking questions. Well, my business
name is my business name and my phone number. Well, these are small details such as if you
are LLC, if you are LTD, if you are incorpo
incorporated of so and so.

So these small details are what you’re referring to, right?

Ryan: Yes. You don’t want Google to see you as two separate businesses. So if you are Fred’s
Roofing Company and if you spell out the “company” and you don’t want to use the LLC at the
end.

You want to be known as Fred’s Roofing Company right? You don’t have Chicago or Portland in
ou
your business name. Fred’s Roofing Company – that’s the N part of your NAP. Your name.
na
We’ve established that moving forward.

Ron: Consistency all throughout. Whether it’s your website, the directories or where you’re
listed with Google – everywhere.

Make sure that you determine how you’ll be known and roll with it.

Ryan: Google can establish a really tight relationship between your website and all of these
links, citations, directories and everything else that’s out there. Your profiles should all match.

Ron: So you’re essentially making it easier for Google to recognize you, right? In layman’s term.
recognize
There is no confusion.

Ryan: Think about it in a customer’s standpoint, Google’s trying to make a better user
experience for the people who pay the bills for Google.

Google makes money when users click on ads on search engines. So they’re looking at it, we are
not doing it just for Google purposes, we are doing this for customers looking for your
businesses. They want to see consistency. They don’t want to see 10 different business names
for the same company.

You don’t want confusion in your market.

Ron: User experience.

Ryan: All goes back and ties back to that. And it makes Google’s life a lot easier if they can
es
establish that consistency really quickly.


The next part of that is the address. Make sure you established how you want to be known
you’ve
online with your address. Again, do a Google search and see if you have data out there and
,
what it’s already listing as your address.

Ron: Just to interject, let’s say your business is at one time was using a PO Box or you’ve moved
locations or you’ve moved down the street. You want to make sure that you’ve gone in and
t
cleaned those information up.

Again, user experience.

There should be no confusion as to whether this company is located in 4th Street or on 3rd
Street.

Ryan: This data has to be consistent. Every directory, every local listing, every website you
listing,
appear on – that address has to be the same. This takes time. This takes effort. This is not easy
to do but it has to be done.

Ron: And there are a number of directories that are just auto populated. So you have to go in
auto-populated.
and verify those directories. And that takes a little bit of time.
e

For example, Google+ Local could have your business name, if you are a business owner who
has yet to claim your listings, then that’s what you want to do. And you want to do that
multiple times for other directories, correct?

Ryan: Yes, you got it.

And, phone number. I’ve seen this mistake made a lot: call tracking numbers.

Lots of local businesses have hired a third party service to do some marketing for them. And
they’re using a call tracking number tha not their actual phone number.
that’s

And again, this just creates confusi in the market. Because you got multiple numbers that go
confusion t
to the same business but they are just not consistent.

So establish what phone number is going to be part of your NAP. And that’s the one you want
that’s
to appear everywhere, moving forward.

Ron: So you’re saying to get rid of call tracking?

Ryan: I’m not. You can use call tracking. Though, it has to be used in a certain way.

The way we do it at PME360 is we have developed a system to dynamically insert the call
tracking number into the site. So we can provide call tracking data and really zero in on how


well your website is performing, how well your blog is performing and how many phone calls
you are getting. Our system allows us to get that data, too.

But the search engines will still see your actual NAP and your actual phone number that we
want for data consistency. It is only when an actual visitor comes to your site will yo phone
your
number be switched to a call tracking number. That’s the only time that it will change for an
number.
actual visitor.

But for bots and Google, they just need a regular phone number. There is nothing wrong with
doing that. What you’re trying to do is provide a way to track what’s going in on your site.
provide

Ron: But at the same time, you’re providing the actual phone number that’s in your name,
address and phone number – the NAP that you’re talking about.

Again, user experience and consistency are there. At the same time, you can do call tracking,
great! Because I know a lot of businesses have done that. And some businesses have 12
different call tracking numbers. But you want to use the main number and figure out a way to
dynamically switch the number.

Ryan: And you don’t want to use the call tracking number anywhere else. You don’t w want to use
it in a listing or your social media account. You want to make sure that the phone number that
you’ve established as your main nu number is the one that you use in your citations, local listings
ions,
and elsewhere.

Ron: That’s important. That’s a huge thing right there. Because I know a lot of business are
businesses
using call tracking numbers to call track. But you can’t just use that in your citations. That’s very
track.
important.

Ryan: And so you’ve established your NAP, now you make sure it’s inserted to your site, in the
right format. So that Google can establish a clear relationship with that NAP and other
directories.

The other places that use the microformat data can identify that this is Fred’s Roofing Company
in Chicago, Illinois. All that data matches and it is in the right format. I can find it easily on your
site.

The formats I’m talking about are schema and hCard. I would recommend putting both of those
king hCard.
in your site. One in maybe a sidebar. Then, one in your footer.
aybe

Ron: It’s not something that’s complex but it’s something that the local web marketing
company that you’re working with should know and should be able to do. These are just tips to
look for while you’re doing it.


It sounds very technical but at the same time, it’s not. You just have to make sure you are doing
t
it properly. I’ve seen so many websites being built and the business owner says, “Well, okay. I
just built my website and they’ve got the finished product. And it’s completely worthless.”

Ryan: For example, there’s a big company in Portland that has grown substantially and they do
web design. And they claim to do internet marketing as well. They do some other things. And
their whole focus is local businesses.

So I looked at some of the sites they’ve been doing. And the designs are nice. They do a great
job.

These are all local businesses. These people all need new customers in the local market.

Ron: They need new leads. They need more web presence. They need to be found where
people are searching locally, right?

Ryan: Absolutely.

So I went and I did some local intent searches online to see whether these sites are coming up.
And none of them where being found in Google Maps. Some of them were being found
organically as they have the right keywords in place. But as far as local optimization, it’s really
ly
poor.

I went back to the site to look again and they really don’t have any data.

Their data was inconsistent for one and the data wasn’t formatted in the right way. So it’s
simple things like that. Maybe it leads to all of a sudden your entire internet marketing local
strategy will come together just by making these changes.

And then I noticed that a lot of their listings and business names were different in one site. And
then the address is written a little bit differently.

Ron: It’s been a recent shift, isn’t it not? It’s been a recent change. Google and search engines
are giving a lean towards local.

Would you say that these are new rules or newer rules? Would you call them rules? What
m
would you call them, best practices?

Ryan: Google and all the search engines are really trying to figure out local search. And they’re
trying to figure out how to make this experience better for people who use these search
engines and the importance of these things that I’m talking about they’ve been around for a
while. But you could rank organically. You still probably can for some of those terms without
having to do some of the stuff I’m saying.


But if you really want to stand out in local search presence and be found mobily. Then you can’t
not do this.

You just won’t be able to compete.

This leads me to another point. This landscape relating to internet marketing and search
engines is a rapidly evolving landscape.

For small business owners to keep up with it…

Ron: It is impossible.

Ryan: This is all I do. This is all that my team does and we still cannot keep up with every single
thing that changes on every single directory. It’s just crazy. There is just so much to this.

And while I’m giving you these tips, I don’t necessarily know if you’re a smart business owner
m
that you even attempt to do this stuff yourself.

Not that you should look at hiring us, but you must leverage your time and your resources the
best you can. What do you want to focus on – is it becoming an internet marketer and learning
t
all this stuff or finding somebody to help you do this?

Ron: Really, finding a company that focuses on small to medium sized businesses. I mean, we
said it in the beginning, these businesses are very important to the economy. And like you said,
are
finding a partner and what to look for.

Sure, by all means, people should look at us. They don’t have to. But people should at least at
least,
least sign up for strategy sessions. Talk about what they need to do. We will be more than
happy to give them some tips on how to go about this.

Ryan: Absolutely.

If you are a smart business owner, you’ve got to find ways to leverage. And internet marketing
is one of the easiest things you can leverage your time and outsource to somebody else.
outsource

Get it off your plate. Get it to somebody who can handle this. Because you are going to be
spinning your wheels trying to figure it out.

But if you want to attempt to keep doing this, I’ll give you a couple more points.

The next thing you need to build this website and expand it is to get started building geo
ng geo-
targeted pages.


You talked about neighborhoods and zip codes. And think of all the areas outside of your city
that you want to target for new business. Think of all the services that you offer. Now you want
to combine all the services you offer with a targeted page around the area you are trying to get
business from.

So for instance, if I was trying to target Decatur and I wanted to target Fred’s Roofing Company,
I should create a page on my site around Decatur roofing contractor.

Decatur roofing contractor would be the title of the page. Decatur, Illinois – whatever you are
trying to target, zip code and then in the page, I’d have good content about what I did for the
residents of Decatur.

I would also include information about the area, directions to my nearest office from Decatur.
You can pull that from Google Maps. And maybe a review for positioning. If it’s formatted in the
right way, perhaps the search engines would pull tha in if you use an hReview format. And,
that
there you go.

Ron: I’ve got a question. And this is for the business owner who’s listening.

I’m targeting Decatur. But I also want clients from Champagne, Kankakee and wherever else
within that area. So are you saying that I need to develop a geo targeted page with all these
ng geo-targeted
content and with all the things you’ve just mentioned for each and every area that I’m trying to
target?

Ryan: Yes, for each and every area. For each and every service that you offer. So if you a a
are
remodeling company that offers bathroom remodeling, kitchen remodeling, decks and windows
then you need a page for every single service for that area.

You will do this over time as you are not probably going to do it all at once. But that’s what you
should think about. This is one the big things that most local businesses are missing.

And I don’t typically give away this type of information.

Ron: Yes. This is good stuff.

Ad you’ve mentioned, the key point there is over time. And I thing you want to w
work with a
company that evolves and has your best interest in mind.

This is not a one and done type shop. If you want to create a website and you just want to get
started then that’s great.

But if you’re ready to start trying to drive business, drive traffic monthly and do a lot of things
traffic
that might be a fit for you, too.


As you mentioned, this could occur over time. It does not need to happen on day one.

Ryan: I think most companies should look into building internet marketing, local search
marketing into their budget. And then, continue to grow it and expand on with good content
continue
like geo-targeted pages, blogging, social media, integrating all that in a mix of content.
targeted

Which would be my next piece of advice: providing a good mix of content in your site as you
grow.

Do this with photos and videos. You can optimize YouTube videos for geo locations. You can do
the same with photos.

This is a little tip that we use. We have this theory. And although, we are not 100% sure if it’s
correct. But the theory is that, the more of Google stuff that you use, the better results you get.

Ron: Now, I know you are on a roll here. Because that’s not part of the stuff you normally talk
about and give away.

So hey, happy new year! Let’s get people started off right, here.

I know it was an Aha! moment for you. I actually felt the energy coming from your brain when
you thought of that one.

Ryan: Google won’t outright come out and say this is true or not. They won’t confirm or deny it
but you think about Google as a business. Their primary business is search. But they’re building
all these other tools.

Ron: …portfolio and other products.

Ryan: Google+. They have all these other products that they’ve spent time developing.

Ron: Google Drive, Picasa, Google Translate.
,

Ryan: Wouldn’t it make sense then that you use Google stuff, that perhaps your marketing and
your website will rank a little bit better and will be found a little bit better?

I think it does.

Ron: I think you are right.

I think you can tie this back into as a small business owner how to leverage someone who just
small
knows all Google’s products because I know I have a hard time keeping up with Google’s
products so I think you are right.


And also at the same time, offering this info with the notion that it’s very difficult for a business
difficult
owner to do this by themselves and to try to understand all these products.

Ryan: Absolutely.

Even YouTube is massive, It’s a massive Google product. I don’t have the statistics right in front
of me but the amount of time and searches sspent on YouTube is just crazy.

But every YouTube video can come up organically in search as well. So if you are optimizing
very
your video correctly, you can get found through your videos, as well as your website, as well as
a directory – on the same page.

Back to my point on Picasa. It’s a photo albu It’s a photo organization tool that Google has
. album. l
developed.

If you geo-target your photos, upload all your photos in Picasa and before you do that, you can
edit the settings on your photo. You can also edit them i Picasa as well. Put your NAP into the
in
photo settings.

So you got another citation source and now you’re using a Google product. Then pull these
images into your site. Don’t just put your images in and upload from your desktop. Use the
Picasa tool which Google wants you to use to get found online.
oogle

You can integrate photos from Picasa right in there.

And, last two things before we go here: links and citations.

Let’s touch on them a little bit.

A citation is basically your NAP: your name, address and phone number on some other sites. So
you want lots of citations that are all consistent. There are tons of directories, lots of local sites,
social sites and lots of other places where you can get citations.

And also you can get some links from there as well. No all of them allow links back to your site.
Not llow
So at the very least, you get the citation which is still valuable for local search.

The more citations you have, you can rank better on Google+ Local and other local sites.

And then reviews are huge.

Ron: I was going to say, that’s the last one we’re missing – the reviews.


Ryan: Nobody really knows how well reviews influence the ranking of your site on local search
but if you are getting lots of user generated content, which what a review is, out there on Yelp
and other review sites, it can only help.

Ron: It is very important to make sure that you have accuracy on all of those sites, correct?

Ryan: Exactly.

Your NAP is perfectly displayed on the site. And you have all these user generated content
about you like,

“Hey, Fred’s Roofing Company is awesome! We used them last year.”

Confirming to the user again, that this is the right decision. And also, you’ve got all this great
content, Google is going to look at that and see that there are a lot of people talking a about you.
And so, you must be good.

Ron: A little bit of a tangent or talking points on review sites such as Yelp. As a business owner,
yes it’s great to have those sites. It’s great to have those reviews. But you also have to make
sure that you are actively seeking reviews from clients.
ly

So Yelp is really a user experience review site and you are not sure what you are going to get
from those review site. So good or bad is what’s going to happen there.

More often than not, you are not going to influence that review. What I’d suggest is using a
third party platform where you actually go out, take the time to have a third party company like
PME360 to call your satisfied clients and generate third party reviews and have those reviews
tho
posted on its own website, on its own platform.
n

Ryan: I think you need a mix of both. You need to consolidate that within your site so you’ll
have a review page or testimonial page on your site. And link right out to your Yelp profile and
Zagat – a Google-owned review site.
owned

Link right out to your profile and if there are satisfied clients, they might leave a review.
ut
Facilitate that process.

But also be proactive and this is where we talk about reputation marketing.

Be proactive. Call your clients up. Ask them how the job went. Ask them how things went. Ask
them
them if they wouldn’t mind if you use that in your marketing and collected that review.

Post that up in your website in a hReview format or if you have a service that we use.
an eview


We can facilitate that for you. You just have to give us the names of the people you want to
contact.

Never ever post a review you collect on one of these review sites directly like Google+ Local or
Yelp. It’s a violation of their terms of service. You cannot do it.

Ron: Say that again.

Ryan: If you collect a review in your office, you cannot go in and create an account for that
view
person on Yelp and post that review on your review page.
Ron: In other words, you cannot go and create reviews yourself.

Ryan: No. There ways for facilitating that process. And it’s something we’ve been doing for a while. And
something
it works awesome.

Ron: So those are some ways. I hope you’re all taking notes. It’s as easy as that, right? I know it’s a lot of
work. Again, that’s why you should consider leveraging a professional firm to do this all for you.
al

And we’ve talked about in the past. We’ve talked about what our offer is.

We are offering a 45-minute strategy session – that is free of charge and with no obligation. We can get
minute
with you to talk about your business. Talk about your goals and what you’re looking to do. It’s
what
something that both Ryan and I can help you with.

Go ahead and take a look at our website, www.pme360.com.
ake

Ryan, I know as far as building this website, our plans start as low as $595 a month. That amount covers
th.
building a website, just to get you started.

We also have plans for the advanced business that really wants to dominate. Again, check out our
website. Everything is transparent and online there.

When you are ready to get started, raise your hand. We’ll be more than happy to have this discussion
raise
with you.

Look it may not make sense to work with one another. It doesn’t mean you are our next client. It just
means that you are interested in talking and trying to determine if we are the right fit for each other. So
we encourage you to do that.

We appreciate your time today Ryan. I kind of cut you off there. I hope you don’t have anything more.
ur


Ryan: I would just say that if you are going to pursue this, if you want to go down this road, then you
hat
really want to look at having a good website and getting a reputation going online, I think it’s crucial.

That is all about reviews and web presence. It’s not just reviews or web presence, which are local listings
s presence,
and going social. Having the reputation is a combination of a lot of things.

So make sure that whatever strategies you want to implement that you are including that.

And the other things we talked about may be advanced for some people. But still, just get going. The
some
longer you wait, the harder it is to catch up. You’ll just be behind competitors that have a 3-year
headstart on you. Those who have been doing this.
.

So I would stress that you put it into action.

Ron: It is something that can be affordable, right? It is something that you can implement and develop
over time. And it’s something that works.

We’ve seen it. We’ve helped businesses. We’ve changed their lives.

Ryan: Money loves speed. The faster you can implement these things we talked about, the faster you
get new leads, new clients and grow your business.

If it takes you a year to build this out because you are trying to do this by yourself, then you are another
because
year behind. So just figure out a way to get speed into your business, to get this thing going and
implement. You’ll reap the rewards for sure.

Ron: Ryan, good chat today. Thank your time.

Ryan: Thank you.


Top 5 Google Local Maps and Local Search Strategies and How to Get Found Online

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