@DavidMihm @SLCSEM Local Search Ranking Factors 2012

Local Ranking Factors SLCSEM
ca. Early June, 2012 June 12 2012

© David Mihm / GetListed.org, Inc. 2012

Screenshot: Linda Buquet, Catalyst e-Marketing


We haven’t quite gotten there…


We haven’t quite gotten there…

…but we’re pretty close!


Author markup
Today—Blended Search Website information
Place information
Plus page

Blended Local
results


―We want to show everything we
know about a business.‖
--Paraphrase of Joel Headley
Local University Edmonton
May 1 2012


…the envelope please…


The Top Ten
for 2012


2008 vs 2012
1 Individually Owner-verified Place Page (PLACE PAGE)

2 Physical Address in City of Search (PLACE PAGE)

3 Proper Category Associations (PLACE PAGE)

4 Product / Service Keyword in Business Title (PLACE PAGE)

5 Proximity of Address to Centroid (PLACE PAGE)

6 Quantity of Structured Citations (IYPs, Data Aggregators)
(OFF-SITE)
7 Quantity of Inbound Links to Domain (OFF-SITE)

8 Location Keywords in Anchor Text of Inbound Links to Domain
(OFF-SITE)
9 Quantity of Native Google Places Reviews (w/text)
(REVIEWS)
10 Product / Service Keyword in Place Page Description
(PLACE PAGE)


Many of the Fundamentals are still the same.
• Having a physical location in the right city is
paramount.
• Categories are huge.
• Citations and location data are still critical.
• Quantity of reviews are still way more important
than quality.

…and yes, proximity to centroid still has influence.


Categories

…a little more difficult with +Local.

Citations
- Importance of Local Ecosystem is NOT
changing anytime soon
- Exclusive focus on Places is pure folly
- You MUST fix your data at upstream data providers
- AND at Google Mapmaker


NAP Audit –
Getlisted.org


+


Duplicates are still an issue.


Centroid Bias


Centroid Bias

Some factors may
be country or
region-specific
depending on the
quality of Google's
data.


What’s new?

Blended Search.


Remember this?


Remember this? (~October 2007)


But we HAVE come a long way!


What’s new?

Blended Search.
It’s now critical that Google is able to
associate your website with your
location(s).

And for you large corporations…the ball is
now in your court.

Blended Search

Advantages for
Larger companies


Blended Search for Large Companies

• Optimized, indexable store locator & location
pages
• Utilize Schema.org and KML*
• Put some thought into your data strategy
• Submit individual location URLs to +Local and
aggregators

*not so much for ranking but to let your other factors work for you!


What Else Is New?


What Else Is New?

(#31)

(#24)

(#18)

Every single one of these is interesting (to me at least).


!


Unstructured Reviews

Hat tip: Michael Cottam


+Local less reliant on the link
graph than Google.com?
“It appears that sites, for which the
backlinks anchor text style is mostly
“converting keywords”-rich, are regarded
with much lesser value in the Google+
Local search results, compared to sites
whose backlink anchor text profile consists
mostly of “branded” keywords (domain
name, business name).”

@nyagoslav

„There seems to be a trend (and it is not just in
local search) towards decreasing the importance
of “keyword” anchor text, and increasing the
importance of “branded” anchor text.‟

@nyagoslav


„There seems to be a trend (and it is not just in
local search) towards decreasing the importance
of “keyword” anchor text, and increasing the
importance of “branded” anchor text.‟

???


What Else Is New?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Debutante-dress.jpg


What Else Is New?

1 Individually Owner-verified Place Page (PLACE PAGE)

2 Physical Address in City of Search (PLACE PAGE)

3 Proper Category Associations (PLACE PAGE)

4 Product / Service Keyword in Business Title (PLACE PAGE)

5 Proximity of Address to Centroid (PLACE PAGE)

6 Quantity of Structured Citations (IYPs, Data Aggregators)
(OFF-SITE)
7 Quantity of Inbound Links to Domain (OFF-SITE)

8 Location Keywords in Anchor Text of Inbound Links to Domain
(OFF-SITE)
9 Quantity of Native Google Places Reviews (w/text)
(REVIEWS)
10 Product / Service Keyword in Place Page Description
(PLACE PAGE)


Other Interesting Tidbits

.
.
.
.
.
.


Other Interesting Tidbits


Putting It All into Perspective


Birth

Ten Blue Links.


The First Critical Period

Citations / First
10-Packs.


Early Adulthood

Generic 10-Packs
-> Hotpot.

Citations start to become a “sine qua non”
Reviews start to become a differentiating factor
1 Review volume
2 Keywords in reviews

Recent History
- Links
Mostly domain level for SMBs
Volume of linking domains
Strength of top links
- Citations
Volume
Particular sources
- Reviews
Volume
Particular sources


Where We’re Headed

(!)

What are the features / business evolutions where we haven’t seen
[semi-permanent] interface changes yet?
Sentiment
Plus
Social Proximity
Authority Influencers
Offers
Mobile/Checkins
Wallet

The pace of evolution just continues to increase.


Putting It All into Perspective
Visually


Title Tags
+ Links


Citations +
Location Data
Title Tags
+ Links


Reviews
Citations +
Location Data
Title Tags
+ Links


Social / Offline / +Local???

Reviews
Citations +
Location Data
Title Tags
+ Links


Vs.


The Bottom Line
SEO’s like to focus on easy, discrete, technical items they can
“check off their lists.”

Title tags with geo-keywords
Data syndication
KML / Geositemaps
hCard / Schema.org
Etc.

There is still plenty of value in these items, especially in
less competitive markets. But…

The Bottom Line

The algorithm is getting
frighteningly complex.

The reality is that you [will]
need a holistic marketing
strategy in order to ensure
long-term success.

The dust still has not settled
(at least for me).

The good news:

More complex algorithm
+ Frequent change
Job security FTW!


@DavidMihm @SLCSEM Local Search Ranking Factors 2012

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