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MARKETING GUIDES
2A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
1
What is Local Search Marketing
2
Local Search Optimization
3
Business Category
4
Geographic Proximity
5
Quantity and Consistency of Citations
6
Authority and User Experience
7
Quantity of Credible Reviews
A Small Businesss Guide to Local Search Marketing
By Cory MillerContent Marketing Manager
Table of Contents
COVER IMAGE DOCMOREAU CREATIVE COMMONS
3A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Local search marketing matters We believe in it so much
that we built our business around it Whether you realize it
or not local search marketing is impacting your business
right now
The Internet offers your business a tremendous opportunity If
yoursquore willing to take advantage of it that is Donrsquot underestimate
the impact of marketing to your community According to Google
73 percent of all online activity is related to local content What are
you doing to keep up with this change in consumer behavior
This guide will serve as your introduction to local search
marketing Wersquoll detail a few of the most important factors that must
be accounted for when optimizing for local search These are the
factors that will likely determine if consumers are finding you or not
IntroductionIMAGE PASCAL CREATIVE COMMONS
4A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Local search marketing is a form of search engine optimization
(SEO) that is designed to grow and sustain your businessrsquos local
presence on search engine results pages (SERPS)
Think about it this way If you type ldquoPizza Deliveryrdquo into Google
Bing or Yelp why do some businesses show up while others are
nowhere to be found Why are some businesses ranking well
on Google but not on Bing Well it has a lot to do with their local
search marketing strategy or their lack of one
Curious to see if your business is showing well locally Try This
1 First clear your browserrsquos search history for uninfluenced results
(search engines like to predict what yoursquore searching for by
looking at your search history)
What is Local Search Marketing
1
IMAGE NEW OLD STOCK
5A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
2 Next type a general category keyword that represents your
business (do not enter your business name) into Google or Bing
For example dentist lawyer pizza auto repair etc Just so you
know not every keyword will trigger local search results If you
donrsquot see a map or lettered pushpins on your SERP your search
query is not one that the search engine deems relevant for local
search results
3 What do you see Is your business being displayed on the map
Does it have its own push pin Are you even seeing it Do you
recognize your local competition
6A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Local Search Optimization
Search engines use information from online directories and
databases to create display and rank local listings Local listing
pages are profiles that contain information about your business
These local listing pages need to be fed with information and
continually updated to achieve maximum results This information
often includes your business name address phone number
website etc Some of the more popular local listing directories
like Google Bing and Yelp require additional information for a local
listing page to be considered fully optimized
Seems simple right Create and optimize local listing pages for
your business and yoursquoll start dominating the local search results
Itrsquos actually a lot more complicated than that In fact Googlersquos local
search algorithm uses over 200 indicators to rank local search
results This includes keyword category geographic proximity
quantity and consistency of structured citations inbound links
domain authority and consumer reviews just to name a few And
remember wersquore just scratching the surface Oh and then therersquos
the fact that search engines are continually changing their search
result algorithms to display the best results possible
Wersquoll touch on a few of these examples to give you a better
understanding of how search engines work and how we help
optimize your business for local search
2
IMAGE WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
7A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Business Category
Business categories are a fundamental element of local search
optimization When creating a local listing page nearly all online
directories require you to submit categories that describe your
business Itrsquos important to remember that categories describe what
your business is not what it does or sells For example a correct
category would be ldquoItalian Restaurantrdquo while an incorrect category
would be ldquoPizza amp Pastardquo
Herersquos the tricky part Not all categories are created equal
Unfortunately the major local listing directories didnrsquot get together
one day and decide on a master list of business categories For
example Google and Yelp differ greatly in their approach to
business categories Google My Business allows you to choose
up to 10 categories that describe your business Yelp on the other
hand only allows you to select three of its 698 categories Yelp also
structures its category selection much differently than Googlersquos
Yelp makes you choose a primary category secondary category
3
Not all categories are created equal
8A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
and a tertiary category for each keyword For example if yoursquore a
divorce lawyer you would first select ldquoprofessional servicesrdquo then
select ldquoLawyersrdquo and finally ldquoDivorce and Family Lawrdquo
And herersquos the thing You must select the correct categories
Spend time researching the category list for the respective
directory yoursquore creating a local listing page for Otherwise you run
the risk of losing out on valuable local search traffic
And if you didnrsquot think business categories were confusing
enough search engines like Google and Bing improve local search
results by aggregating information (including categories) from
your businessrsquos local listing pages on third-party directories That
means an incorrectly assigned category on your Yellow Pages local
listing page can negatively affect your Google My Business page
Categories seem simple but theyrsquore tremendously important
9A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Geographic Proximity
Why do search engines display different local search results
for the exact same keyword search at home than they do at work
which are only a few miles apart Again this is a fairly complex
answer but wersquoll give you the basic rundown
Google and other search engines use your computerrsquos Internet
Protocol (IP) address to determine your location An IP address is
an unique number assigned by Internet Service Providers to each
computer connected to the Internet The unique IP address of your
work computer and your home computer is how Google and other
search engines know yoursquore in different locations
Where it gets a little more complex is how search engines
decide which local search results are most relevant to your
search Search engines donrsquot want to offer a searcher results that
are a significant distance from a searcherrsquos location if they can
4
IMAGE NEW OLD STOCK
10A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
help it Google determines proximity of a businessrsquos address to a
predetermined ldquocentroidrdquo which is usually the city center of the
respective city yoursquore searching in Make sense
So if your business is located on the outskirts of town are you
playing against a stacked deck No therersquos still plenty of hope
for you The first interesting thing to note about address proximity
is that Google will actually move the centroid to the center of an
industryrsquos hub in the city yoursquore searching in
Letrsquos look at an example Yoursquore visiting Columbus OH and
yoursquore looking for a place to grab a bite to eat When searching
restaurants Columbus Google will move its ldquorestaurantrdquo centroid
slightly west of the city center because of the cluster of popular
restaurants nearby and the lack of restaurants east of downtown
And herersquos the other huge factor in address proximity mobile
searches Eighty-eight percent of searches on smartphones have
local intent Mobile devices provide search engines with your
exact location instead of the general vicinity of your IP Address
Search engines understand that consumer intent is much different
for mobile searches than desktop searches which is why search
engines place more relevance on the businesses closest to your
search
11A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Try it yourself Search for the same keyword on your
phone and your desktop in the same location Look at
the differences between results Of course address
proximity is only one factor in local search optimization
but it is one thatrsquos often misunderstood
12A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Quantity and Consistency of Citations
As we mentioned before search engines rely on information
from third-party directories to determine the authenticity of a local
listing page These are called citations Citations are mentions of
your business name address and phone number (NAP) on third
party directories Citations are a key component of Google and
Bingrsquos ranking algorithms With all factors being equal businesses
with a higher number of citations will likely rank higher than
businesses with only a few
Citations are a great way to earn trust from search engines
if you have your facts straight However if search engines find
inconsistencies in your citations you could be severely penalized
For example your business may have moved or changed its phone
number over the years If old information is still populating third-
party directories then your citations arenrsquot telling Google and Bing
the same story This is a problem
5
Directories should tell Google the same story
IMAGE WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
13A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Letrsquos use Wilt Chamberlainrsquos 100 point game to better explain
citations
On March 2 1962 Wilt Chamberlain set the NBA single-game
scoring record by scoring 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors
in a 169-147 win over the New York Knicks This is commonly
accepted as a fact but with no video footage or any members of
the New York press in attendance how do we know for certain
With little ldquofactualrdquo proof you have to trust the sources that
were in the attendance Letrsquos say there were 4000 people in
attendance that night which means there were 4000 individual
accounts of the events that transpired Letrsquos also assume that the
firsthand accounts of certain individuals hold more weight than
others This more influential group would include players coaches
scorekeepers and local press
If all 4000 people left the arena and agreed that with 46
seconds to go in the game Chamberlain scored his 100th point
then therersquos little reason to dispute the story despite the lack of
factual proof We can even go one step further and check the score
sheet to confirm Chamberlainrsquos point total
However if there were a large number of discrepancies in the
IMAGE WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
14A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
story then the record feat will seem more suspicious And what if
the record was even disputed by a few members of the local media
that were present Perhaps a couple of reporters published stories
claiming that Chamberlain was incorrectly awarded a basket in
the first half because it was actually tipped in by Chamberlainrsquos
teammate Paul Arizin What do you believe Did Chamberlain
score 100 points or actually finish with 98
This is exactly how citations work Search engines will be
forgiving if you have minor inconsistencies on a lesser valued
directory However there are a handful of directories that have a
lot more authority than others (similar to the reporters at the game)
If inconsistences are found on authoritative databases (a trusted
database that feeds information directly into Google and Bing) then
the validity of your business information is in doubt and your local
search presence is likely suffering
15A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Authority and User Experience
Your businessrsquos website URL is a key element of all online
directories In fact itrsquos so important that the common mention of
your businessrsquos name address phone number (NAP) citation is
typically referred to as a NAPU (name address phone number
URL)
Unfortunately just having a website isnrsquot enough Your website
has to be constructed in a way that search engines can easily find
the important information that theyrsquore looking for Typically search
engines are looking for the proper formatting and location of your
NAP Theyrsquore also looking at indicators like keyword presence in
your URL geographically optimized page titles geographically
optimized tags location of on-page keywords etc
Again every search engine has an extensive list of on-page
factors when determining local search rankings
An increasingly important ranking factor when determining
page authority is mobile usability In other words is your businessrsquos
website optimized for mobile devices Mobile experience is so
important to Google that itrsquos expected to release an algorithm
update that rewards businesses that provide a positive mobile
experience (For more on user experience check out our blog post
about mobile usability)
6
IMAGE NEW OLD STOCK
16A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Quantity of Credible Reviews
A search enginersquos number one goal is to deliver the most
relevant results possible for any given search A powerful
indication of a businessrsquos relevance to a search query is the
amount (and quality) of consumer reviews Most online directories
allow consumers to leave reviews on a local listing page that
reflects their experience with that business Some directories
would allow your cat to leave a review while others have more
rigorous policies than the TSA
Much like citations search engines aggregate consumer
reviews from third-party sites as part of their ranking algorithms As
you can imagine the more credible the review the more weight it
holds as a local search ranking factor Google and Bing award the
highest value to reviews left on their respective local listing pages
but they also seriously value reviews left on Yelp TripAdvisor
Angiersquos List and many others
7
The more credible the review the more weight it holds
IMAGE DOUGWOODS CREATIVE COMMONS
17A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Wait Before you ask everyone in your office to leave a review
on your local listing pages consider this Only authentic reviews
are valuable Google and Yelp are notorious for filtering suspicious
reviews Both companies strongly condemn reviews that are
solicited or incentivized For example if your business has only
earned two reviews in the last six months and suddenly seven new
reviews come in on the same day a red flag is immediately raised
Google and Yelp look at several indicators to determine whether
a review is authentic or not First theyrsquoll look at the profile history of
the person leaving the review They want to see how old the profile
is whether the reviewer has left reviews before and the reviewerrsquos
location Search engines will also take into account the rating of
the review itself For example if your business has received 40
reviews all with a perfect five star rating it might seem a little fishy
Itrsquos our experience that good reviews are important but a few ldquoOKrdquo
reviews make the good ones more trustworthy
18A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Local search marketing is all about being found online
What happens when you search for your business Is your
business being found
Local search optimization is dependent upon hundreds of
constantly changing factors Submitting your businesss
information to one directory alone isnt enough
Business categories are a fundamental part of local search
marketing Be sure to spend some time researching before
you choose yours
Geographic proximity plays a big part in your businesss
search results Google will decide which results are most
relevant to the searcher based on their location
How many citations (or times your business is mentioned
on the internet) does your business have How consistent
is the information These are important questions
Your businesss website URL is key to success in local
search marketing Your website should be constructed
in a way that translates to search engines especially on
mobile
Search engines hold reviews in high regard Review sites
are always on the look out for manipulation so make sure
your reviewers are credible
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Local Search Marketing Take-Aways
We connect powerful systems with powerful people
Like what you learnedRead more about what we do
TALK TO AN EXPERT
LOCAL SEARCH PAID ADVERTISING SOCIAL CONTENT
Ready to Get Started
Copyright copy 2015 RevLocal All rights reserved
2A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
1
What is Local Search Marketing
2
Local Search Optimization
3
Business Category
4
Geographic Proximity
5
Quantity and Consistency of Citations
6
Authority and User Experience
7
Quantity of Credible Reviews
A Small Businesss Guide to Local Search Marketing
By Cory MillerContent Marketing Manager
Table of Contents
COVER IMAGE DOCMOREAU CREATIVE COMMONS
3A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Local search marketing matters We believe in it so much
that we built our business around it Whether you realize it
or not local search marketing is impacting your business
right now
The Internet offers your business a tremendous opportunity If
yoursquore willing to take advantage of it that is Donrsquot underestimate
the impact of marketing to your community According to Google
73 percent of all online activity is related to local content What are
you doing to keep up with this change in consumer behavior
This guide will serve as your introduction to local search
marketing Wersquoll detail a few of the most important factors that must
be accounted for when optimizing for local search These are the
factors that will likely determine if consumers are finding you or not
IntroductionIMAGE PASCAL CREATIVE COMMONS
4A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Local search marketing is a form of search engine optimization
(SEO) that is designed to grow and sustain your businessrsquos local
presence on search engine results pages (SERPS)
Think about it this way If you type ldquoPizza Deliveryrdquo into Google
Bing or Yelp why do some businesses show up while others are
nowhere to be found Why are some businesses ranking well
on Google but not on Bing Well it has a lot to do with their local
search marketing strategy or their lack of one
Curious to see if your business is showing well locally Try This
1 First clear your browserrsquos search history for uninfluenced results
(search engines like to predict what yoursquore searching for by
looking at your search history)
What is Local Search Marketing
1
IMAGE NEW OLD STOCK
5A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
2 Next type a general category keyword that represents your
business (do not enter your business name) into Google or Bing
For example dentist lawyer pizza auto repair etc Just so you
know not every keyword will trigger local search results If you
donrsquot see a map or lettered pushpins on your SERP your search
query is not one that the search engine deems relevant for local
search results
3 What do you see Is your business being displayed on the map
Does it have its own push pin Are you even seeing it Do you
recognize your local competition
6A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Local Search Optimization
Search engines use information from online directories and
databases to create display and rank local listings Local listing
pages are profiles that contain information about your business
These local listing pages need to be fed with information and
continually updated to achieve maximum results This information
often includes your business name address phone number
website etc Some of the more popular local listing directories
like Google Bing and Yelp require additional information for a local
listing page to be considered fully optimized
Seems simple right Create and optimize local listing pages for
your business and yoursquoll start dominating the local search results
Itrsquos actually a lot more complicated than that In fact Googlersquos local
search algorithm uses over 200 indicators to rank local search
results This includes keyword category geographic proximity
quantity and consistency of structured citations inbound links
domain authority and consumer reviews just to name a few And
remember wersquore just scratching the surface Oh and then therersquos
the fact that search engines are continually changing their search
result algorithms to display the best results possible
Wersquoll touch on a few of these examples to give you a better
understanding of how search engines work and how we help
optimize your business for local search
2
IMAGE WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
7A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Business Category
Business categories are a fundamental element of local search
optimization When creating a local listing page nearly all online
directories require you to submit categories that describe your
business Itrsquos important to remember that categories describe what
your business is not what it does or sells For example a correct
category would be ldquoItalian Restaurantrdquo while an incorrect category
would be ldquoPizza amp Pastardquo
Herersquos the tricky part Not all categories are created equal
Unfortunately the major local listing directories didnrsquot get together
one day and decide on a master list of business categories For
example Google and Yelp differ greatly in their approach to
business categories Google My Business allows you to choose
up to 10 categories that describe your business Yelp on the other
hand only allows you to select three of its 698 categories Yelp also
structures its category selection much differently than Googlersquos
Yelp makes you choose a primary category secondary category
3
Not all categories are created equal
8A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
and a tertiary category for each keyword For example if yoursquore a
divorce lawyer you would first select ldquoprofessional servicesrdquo then
select ldquoLawyersrdquo and finally ldquoDivorce and Family Lawrdquo
And herersquos the thing You must select the correct categories
Spend time researching the category list for the respective
directory yoursquore creating a local listing page for Otherwise you run
the risk of losing out on valuable local search traffic
And if you didnrsquot think business categories were confusing
enough search engines like Google and Bing improve local search
results by aggregating information (including categories) from
your businessrsquos local listing pages on third-party directories That
means an incorrectly assigned category on your Yellow Pages local
listing page can negatively affect your Google My Business page
Categories seem simple but theyrsquore tremendously important
9A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Geographic Proximity
Why do search engines display different local search results
for the exact same keyword search at home than they do at work
which are only a few miles apart Again this is a fairly complex
answer but wersquoll give you the basic rundown
Google and other search engines use your computerrsquos Internet
Protocol (IP) address to determine your location An IP address is
an unique number assigned by Internet Service Providers to each
computer connected to the Internet The unique IP address of your
work computer and your home computer is how Google and other
search engines know yoursquore in different locations
Where it gets a little more complex is how search engines
decide which local search results are most relevant to your
search Search engines donrsquot want to offer a searcher results that
are a significant distance from a searcherrsquos location if they can
4
IMAGE NEW OLD STOCK
10A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
help it Google determines proximity of a businessrsquos address to a
predetermined ldquocentroidrdquo which is usually the city center of the
respective city yoursquore searching in Make sense
So if your business is located on the outskirts of town are you
playing against a stacked deck No therersquos still plenty of hope
for you The first interesting thing to note about address proximity
is that Google will actually move the centroid to the center of an
industryrsquos hub in the city yoursquore searching in
Letrsquos look at an example Yoursquore visiting Columbus OH and
yoursquore looking for a place to grab a bite to eat When searching
restaurants Columbus Google will move its ldquorestaurantrdquo centroid
slightly west of the city center because of the cluster of popular
restaurants nearby and the lack of restaurants east of downtown
And herersquos the other huge factor in address proximity mobile
searches Eighty-eight percent of searches on smartphones have
local intent Mobile devices provide search engines with your
exact location instead of the general vicinity of your IP Address
Search engines understand that consumer intent is much different
for mobile searches than desktop searches which is why search
engines place more relevance on the businesses closest to your
search
11A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Try it yourself Search for the same keyword on your
phone and your desktop in the same location Look at
the differences between results Of course address
proximity is only one factor in local search optimization
but it is one thatrsquos often misunderstood
12A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Quantity and Consistency of Citations
As we mentioned before search engines rely on information
from third-party directories to determine the authenticity of a local
listing page These are called citations Citations are mentions of
your business name address and phone number (NAP) on third
party directories Citations are a key component of Google and
Bingrsquos ranking algorithms With all factors being equal businesses
with a higher number of citations will likely rank higher than
businesses with only a few
Citations are a great way to earn trust from search engines
if you have your facts straight However if search engines find
inconsistencies in your citations you could be severely penalized
For example your business may have moved or changed its phone
number over the years If old information is still populating third-
party directories then your citations arenrsquot telling Google and Bing
the same story This is a problem
5
Directories should tell Google the same story
IMAGE WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
13A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Letrsquos use Wilt Chamberlainrsquos 100 point game to better explain
citations
On March 2 1962 Wilt Chamberlain set the NBA single-game
scoring record by scoring 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors
in a 169-147 win over the New York Knicks This is commonly
accepted as a fact but with no video footage or any members of
the New York press in attendance how do we know for certain
With little ldquofactualrdquo proof you have to trust the sources that
were in the attendance Letrsquos say there were 4000 people in
attendance that night which means there were 4000 individual
accounts of the events that transpired Letrsquos also assume that the
firsthand accounts of certain individuals hold more weight than
others This more influential group would include players coaches
scorekeepers and local press
If all 4000 people left the arena and agreed that with 46
seconds to go in the game Chamberlain scored his 100th point
then therersquos little reason to dispute the story despite the lack of
factual proof We can even go one step further and check the score
sheet to confirm Chamberlainrsquos point total
However if there were a large number of discrepancies in the
IMAGE WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
14A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
story then the record feat will seem more suspicious And what if
the record was even disputed by a few members of the local media
that were present Perhaps a couple of reporters published stories
claiming that Chamberlain was incorrectly awarded a basket in
the first half because it was actually tipped in by Chamberlainrsquos
teammate Paul Arizin What do you believe Did Chamberlain
score 100 points or actually finish with 98
This is exactly how citations work Search engines will be
forgiving if you have minor inconsistencies on a lesser valued
directory However there are a handful of directories that have a
lot more authority than others (similar to the reporters at the game)
If inconsistences are found on authoritative databases (a trusted
database that feeds information directly into Google and Bing) then
the validity of your business information is in doubt and your local
search presence is likely suffering
15A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Authority and User Experience
Your businessrsquos website URL is a key element of all online
directories In fact itrsquos so important that the common mention of
your businessrsquos name address phone number (NAP) citation is
typically referred to as a NAPU (name address phone number
URL)
Unfortunately just having a website isnrsquot enough Your website
has to be constructed in a way that search engines can easily find
the important information that theyrsquore looking for Typically search
engines are looking for the proper formatting and location of your
NAP Theyrsquore also looking at indicators like keyword presence in
your URL geographically optimized page titles geographically
optimized tags location of on-page keywords etc
Again every search engine has an extensive list of on-page
factors when determining local search rankings
An increasingly important ranking factor when determining
page authority is mobile usability In other words is your businessrsquos
website optimized for mobile devices Mobile experience is so
important to Google that itrsquos expected to release an algorithm
update that rewards businesses that provide a positive mobile
experience (For more on user experience check out our blog post
about mobile usability)
6
IMAGE NEW OLD STOCK
16A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Quantity of Credible Reviews
A search enginersquos number one goal is to deliver the most
relevant results possible for any given search A powerful
indication of a businessrsquos relevance to a search query is the
amount (and quality) of consumer reviews Most online directories
allow consumers to leave reviews on a local listing page that
reflects their experience with that business Some directories
would allow your cat to leave a review while others have more
rigorous policies than the TSA
Much like citations search engines aggregate consumer
reviews from third-party sites as part of their ranking algorithms As
you can imagine the more credible the review the more weight it
holds as a local search ranking factor Google and Bing award the
highest value to reviews left on their respective local listing pages
but they also seriously value reviews left on Yelp TripAdvisor
Angiersquos List and many others
7
The more credible the review the more weight it holds
IMAGE DOUGWOODS CREATIVE COMMONS
17A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Wait Before you ask everyone in your office to leave a review
on your local listing pages consider this Only authentic reviews
are valuable Google and Yelp are notorious for filtering suspicious
reviews Both companies strongly condemn reviews that are
solicited or incentivized For example if your business has only
earned two reviews in the last six months and suddenly seven new
reviews come in on the same day a red flag is immediately raised
Google and Yelp look at several indicators to determine whether
a review is authentic or not First theyrsquoll look at the profile history of
the person leaving the review They want to see how old the profile
is whether the reviewer has left reviews before and the reviewerrsquos
location Search engines will also take into account the rating of
the review itself For example if your business has received 40
reviews all with a perfect five star rating it might seem a little fishy
Itrsquos our experience that good reviews are important but a few ldquoOKrdquo
reviews make the good ones more trustworthy
18A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Local search marketing is all about being found online
What happens when you search for your business Is your
business being found
Local search optimization is dependent upon hundreds of
constantly changing factors Submitting your businesss
information to one directory alone isnt enough
Business categories are a fundamental part of local search
marketing Be sure to spend some time researching before
you choose yours
Geographic proximity plays a big part in your businesss
search results Google will decide which results are most
relevant to the searcher based on their location
How many citations (or times your business is mentioned
on the internet) does your business have How consistent
is the information These are important questions
Your businesss website URL is key to success in local
search marketing Your website should be constructed
in a way that translates to search engines especially on
mobile
Search engines hold reviews in high regard Review sites
are always on the look out for manipulation so make sure
your reviewers are credible
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Local Search Marketing Take-Aways
We connect powerful systems with powerful people
Like what you learnedRead more about what we do
TALK TO AN EXPERT
LOCAL SEARCH PAID ADVERTISING SOCIAL CONTENT
Ready to Get Started
Copyright copy 2015 RevLocal All rights reserved
3A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Local search marketing matters We believe in it so much
that we built our business around it Whether you realize it
or not local search marketing is impacting your business
right now
The Internet offers your business a tremendous opportunity If
yoursquore willing to take advantage of it that is Donrsquot underestimate
the impact of marketing to your community According to Google
73 percent of all online activity is related to local content What are
you doing to keep up with this change in consumer behavior
This guide will serve as your introduction to local search
marketing Wersquoll detail a few of the most important factors that must
be accounted for when optimizing for local search These are the
factors that will likely determine if consumers are finding you or not
IntroductionIMAGE PASCAL CREATIVE COMMONS
4A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Local search marketing is a form of search engine optimization
(SEO) that is designed to grow and sustain your businessrsquos local
presence on search engine results pages (SERPS)
Think about it this way If you type ldquoPizza Deliveryrdquo into Google
Bing or Yelp why do some businesses show up while others are
nowhere to be found Why are some businesses ranking well
on Google but not on Bing Well it has a lot to do with their local
search marketing strategy or their lack of one
Curious to see if your business is showing well locally Try This
1 First clear your browserrsquos search history for uninfluenced results
(search engines like to predict what yoursquore searching for by
looking at your search history)
What is Local Search Marketing
1
IMAGE NEW OLD STOCK
5A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
2 Next type a general category keyword that represents your
business (do not enter your business name) into Google or Bing
For example dentist lawyer pizza auto repair etc Just so you
know not every keyword will trigger local search results If you
donrsquot see a map or lettered pushpins on your SERP your search
query is not one that the search engine deems relevant for local
search results
3 What do you see Is your business being displayed on the map
Does it have its own push pin Are you even seeing it Do you
recognize your local competition
6A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Local Search Optimization
Search engines use information from online directories and
databases to create display and rank local listings Local listing
pages are profiles that contain information about your business
These local listing pages need to be fed with information and
continually updated to achieve maximum results This information
often includes your business name address phone number
website etc Some of the more popular local listing directories
like Google Bing and Yelp require additional information for a local
listing page to be considered fully optimized
Seems simple right Create and optimize local listing pages for
your business and yoursquoll start dominating the local search results
Itrsquos actually a lot more complicated than that In fact Googlersquos local
search algorithm uses over 200 indicators to rank local search
results This includes keyword category geographic proximity
quantity and consistency of structured citations inbound links
domain authority and consumer reviews just to name a few And
remember wersquore just scratching the surface Oh and then therersquos
the fact that search engines are continually changing their search
result algorithms to display the best results possible
Wersquoll touch on a few of these examples to give you a better
understanding of how search engines work and how we help
optimize your business for local search
2
IMAGE WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
7A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Business Category
Business categories are a fundamental element of local search
optimization When creating a local listing page nearly all online
directories require you to submit categories that describe your
business Itrsquos important to remember that categories describe what
your business is not what it does or sells For example a correct
category would be ldquoItalian Restaurantrdquo while an incorrect category
would be ldquoPizza amp Pastardquo
Herersquos the tricky part Not all categories are created equal
Unfortunately the major local listing directories didnrsquot get together
one day and decide on a master list of business categories For
example Google and Yelp differ greatly in their approach to
business categories Google My Business allows you to choose
up to 10 categories that describe your business Yelp on the other
hand only allows you to select three of its 698 categories Yelp also
structures its category selection much differently than Googlersquos
Yelp makes you choose a primary category secondary category
3
Not all categories are created equal
8A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
and a tertiary category for each keyword For example if yoursquore a
divorce lawyer you would first select ldquoprofessional servicesrdquo then
select ldquoLawyersrdquo and finally ldquoDivorce and Family Lawrdquo
And herersquos the thing You must select the correct categories
Spend time researching the category list for the respective
directory yoursquore creating a local listing page for Otherwise you run
the risk of losing out on valuable local search traffic
And if you didnrsquot think business categories were confusing
enough search engines like Google and Bing improve local search
results by aggregating information (including categories) from
your businessrsquos local listing pages on third-party directories That
means an incorrectly assigned category on your Yellow Pages local
listing page can negatively affect your Google My Business page
Categories seem simple but theyrsquore tremendously important
9A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Geographic Proximity
Why do search engines display different local search results
for the exact same keyword search at home than they do at work
which are only a few miles apart Again this is a fairly complex
answer but wersquoll give you the basic rundown
Google and other search engines use your computerrsquos Internet
Protocol (IP) address to determine your location An IP address is
an unique number assigned by Internet Service Providers to each
computer connected to the Internet The unique IP address of your
work computer and your home computer is how Google and other
search engines know yoursquore in different locations
Where it gets a little more complex is how search engines
decide which local search results are most relevant to your
search Search engines donrsquot want to offer a searcher results that
are a significant distance from a searcherrsquos location if they can
4
IMAGE NEW OLD STOCK
10A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
help it Google determines proximity of a businessrsquos address to a
predetermined ldquocentroidrdquo which is usually the city center of the
respective city yoursquore searching in Make sense
So if your business is located on the outskirts of town are you
playing against a stacked deck No therersquos still plenty of hope
for you The first interesting thing to note about address proximity
is that Google will actually move the centroid to the center of an
industryrsquos hub in the city yoursquore searching in
Letrsquos look at an example Yoursquore visiting Columbus OH and
yoursquore looking for a place to grab a bite to eat When searching
restaurants Columbus Google will move its ldquorestaurantrdquo centroid
slightly west of the city center because of the cluster of popular
restaurants nearby and the lack of restaurants east of downtown
And herersquos the other huge factor in address proximity mobile
searches Eighty-eight percent of searches on smartphones have
local intent Mobile devices provide search engines with your
exact location instead of the general vicinity of your IP Address
Search engines understand that consumer intent is much different
for mobile searches than desktop searches which is why search
engines place more relevance on the businesses closest to your
search
11A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Try it yourself Search for the same keyword on your
phone and your desktop in the same location Look at
the differences between results Of course address
proximity is only one factor in local search optimization
but it is one thatrsquos often misunderstood
12A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Quantity and Consistency of Citations
As we mentioned before search engines rely on information
from third-party directories to determine the authenticity of a local
listing page These are called citations Citations are mentions of
your business name address and phone number (NAP) on third
party directories Citations are a key component of Google and
Bingrsquos ranking algorithms With all factors being equal businesses
with a higher number of citations will likely rank higher than
businesses with only a few
Citations are a great way to earn trust from search engines
if you have your facts straight However if search engines find
inconsistencies in your citations you could be severely penalized
For example your business may have moved or changed its phone
number over the years If old information is still populating third-
party directories then your citations arenrsquot telling Google and Bing
the same story This is a problem
5
Directories should tell Google the same story
IMAGE WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
13A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Letrsquos use Wilt Chamberlainrsquos 100 point game to better explain
citations
On March 2 1962 Wilt Chamberlain set the NBA single-game
scoring record by scoring 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors
in a 169-147 win over the New York Knicks This is commonly
accepted as a fact but with no video footage or any members of
the New York press in attendance how do we know for certain
With little ldquofactualrdquo proof you have to trust the sources that
were in the attendance Letrsquos say there were 4000 people in
attendance that night which means there were 4000 individual
accounts of the events that transpired Letrsquos also assume that the
firsthand accounts of certain individuals hold more weight than
others This more influential group would include players coaches
scorekeepers and local press
If all 4000 people left the arena and agreed that with 46
seconds to go in the game Chamberlain scored his 100th point
then therersquos little reason to dispute the story despite the lack of
factual proof We can even go one step further and check the score
sheet to confirm Chamberlainrsquos point total
However if there were a large number of discrepancies in the
IMAGE WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
14A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
story then the record feat will seem more suspicious And what if
the record was even disputed by a few members of the local media
that were present Perhaps a couple of reporters published stories
claiming that Chamberlain was incorrectly awarded a basket in
the first half because it was actually tipped in by Chamberlainrsquos
teammate Paul Arizin What do you believe Did Chamberlain
score 100 points or actually finish with 98
This is exactly how citations work Search engines will be
forgiving if you have minor inconsistencies on a lesser valued
directory However there are a handful of directories that have a
lot more authority than others (similar to the reporters at the game)
If inconsistences are found on authoritative databases (a trusted
database that feeds information directly into Google and Bing) then
the validity of your business information is in doubt and your local
search presence is likely suffering
15A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Authority and User Experience
Your businessrsquos website URL is a key element of all online
directories In fact itrsquos so important that the common mention of
your businessrsquos name address phone number (NAP) citation is
typically referred to as a NAPU (name address phone number
URL)
Unfortunately just having a website isnrsquot enough Your website
has to be constructed in a way that search engines can easily find
the important information that theyrsquore looking for Typically search
engines are looking for the proper formatting and location of your
NAP Theyrsquore also looking at indicators like keyword presence in
your URL geographically optimized page titles geographically
optimized tags location of on-page keywords etc
Again every search engine has an extensive list of on-page
factors when determining local search rankings
An increasingly important ranking factor when determining
page authority is mobile usability In other words is your businessrsquos
website optimized for mobile devices Mobile experience is so
important to Google that itrsquos expected to release an algorithm
update that rewards businesses that provide a positive mobile
experience (For more on user experience check out our blog post
about mobile usability)
6
IMAGE NEW OLD STOCK
16A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Quantity of Credible Reviews
A search enginersquos number one goal is to deliver the most
relevant results possible for any given search A powerful
indication of a businessrsquos relevance to a search query is the
amount (and quality) of consumer reviews Most online directories
allow consumers to leave reviews on a local listing page that
reflects their experience with that business Some directories
would allow your cat to leave a review while others have more
rigorous policies than the TSA
Much like citations search engines aggregate consumer
reviews from third-party sites as part of their ranking algorithms As
you can imagine the more credible the review the more weight it
holds as a local search ranking factor Google and Bing award the
highest value to reviews left on their respective local listing pages
but they also seriously value reviews left on Yelp TripAdvisor
Angiersquos List and many others
7
The more credible the review the more weight it holds
IMAGE DOUGWOODS CREATIVE COMMONS
17A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Wait Before you ask everyone in your office to leave a review
on your local listing pages consider this Only authentic reviews
are valuable Google and Yelp are notorious for filtering suspicious
reviews Both companies strongly condemn reviews that are
solicited or incentivized For example if your business has only
earned two reviews in the last six months and suddenly seven new
reviews come in on the same day a red flag is immediately raised
Google and Yelp look at several indicators to determine whether
a review is authentic or not First theyrsquoll look at the profile history of
the person leaving the review They want to see how old the profile
is whether the reviewer has left reviews before and the reviewerrsquos
location Search engines will also take into account the rating of
the review itself For example if your business has received 40
reviews all with a perfect five star rating it might seem a little fishy
Itrsquos our experience that good reviews are important but a few ldquoOKrdquo
reviews make the good ones more trustworthy
18A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Local search marketing is all about being found online
What happens when you search for your business Is your
business being found
Local search optimization is dependent upon hundreds of
constantly changing factors Submitting your businesss
information to one directory alone isnt enough
Business categories are a fundamental part of local search
marketing Be sure to spend some time researching before
you choose yours
Geographic proximity plays a big part in your businesss
search results Google will decide which results are most
relevant to the searcher based on their location
How many citations (or times your business is mentioned
on the internet) does your business have How consistent
is the information These are important questions
Your businesss website URL is key to success in local
search marketing Your website should be constructed
in a way that translates to search engines especially on
mobile
Search engines hold reviews in high regard Review sites
are always on the look out for manipulation so make sure
your reviewers are credible
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Local Search Marketing Take-Aways
We connect powerful systems with powerful people
Like what you learnedRead more about what we do
TALK TO AN EXPERT
LOCAL SEARCH PAID ADVERTISING SOCIAL CONTENT
Ready to Get Started
Copyright copy 2015 RevLocal All rights reserved
4A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Local search marketing is a form of search engine optimization
(SEO) that is designed to grow and sustain your businessrsquos local
presence on search engine results pages (SERPS)
Think about it this way If you type ldquoPizza Deliveryrdquo into Google
Bing or Yelp why do some businesses show up while others are
nowhere to be found Why are some businesses ranking well
on Google but not on Bing Well it has a lot to do with their local
search marketing strategy or their lack of one
Curious to see if your business is showing well locally Try This
1 First clear your browserrsquos search history for uninfluenced results
(search engines like to predict what yoursquore searching for by
looking at your search history)
What is Local Search Marketing
1
IMAGE NEW OLD STOCK
5A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
2 Next type a general category keyword that represents your
business (do not enter your business name) into Google or Bing
For example dentist lawyer pizza auto repair etc Just so you
know not every keyword will trigger local search results If you
donrsquot see a map or lettered pushpins on your SERP your search
query is not one that the search engine deems relevant for local
search results
3 What do you see Is your business being displayed on the map
Does it have its own push pin Are you even seeing it Do you
recognize your local competition
6A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Local Search Optimization
Search engines use information from online directories and
databases to create display and rank local listings Local listing
pages are profiles that contain information about your business
These local listing pages need to be fed with information and
continually updated to achieve maximum results This information
often includes your business name address phone number
website etc Some of the more popular local listing directories
like Google Bing and Yelp require additional information for a local
listing page to be considered fully optimized
Seems simple right Create and optimize local listing pages for
your business and yoursquoll start dominating the local search results
Itrsquos actually a lot more complicated than that In fact Googlersquos local
search algorithm uses over 200 indicators to rank local search
results This includes keyword category geographic proximity
quantity and consistency of structured citations inbound links
domain authority and consumer reviews just to name a few And
remember wersquore just scratching the surface Oh and then therersquos
the fact that search engines are continually changing their search
result algorithms to display the best results possible
Wersquoll touch on a few of these examples to give you a better
understanding of how search engines work and how we help
optimize your business for local search
2
IMAGE WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
7A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Business Category
Business categories are a fundamental element of local search
optimization When creating a local listing page nearly all online
directories require you to submit categories that describe your
business Itrsquos important to remember that categories describe what
your business is not what it does or sells For example a correct
category would be ldquoItalian Restaurantrdquo while an incorrect category
would be ldquoPizza amp Pastardquo
Herersquos the tricky part Not all categories are created equal
Unfortunately the major local listing directories didnrsquot get together
one day and decide on a master list of business categories For
example Google and Yelp differ greatly in their approach to
business categories Google My Business allows you to choose
up to 10 categories that describe your business Yelp on the other
hand only allows you to select three of its 698 categories Yelp also
structures its category selection much differently than Googlersquos
Yelp makes you choose a primary category secondary category
3
Not all categories are created equal
8A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
and a tertiary category for each keyword For example if yoursquore a
divorce lawyer you would first select ldquoprofessional servicesrdquo then
select ldquoLawyersrdquo and finally ldquoDivorce and Family Lawrdquo
And herersquos the thing You must select the correct categories
Spend time researching the category list for the respective
directory yoursquore creating a local listing page for Otherwise you run
the risk of losing out on valuable local search traffic
And if you didnrsquot think business categories were confusing
enough search engines like Google and Bing improve local search
results by aggregating information (including categories) from
your businessrsquos local listing pages on third-party directories That
means an incorrectly assigned category on your Yellow Pages local
listing page can negatively affect your Google My Business page
Categories seem simple but theyrsquore tremendously important
9A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Geographic Proximity
Why do search engines display different local search results
for the exact same keyword search at home than they do at work
which are only a few miles apart Again this is a fairly complex
answer but wersquoll give you the basic rundown
Google and other search engines use your computerrsquos Internet
Protocol (IP) address to determine your location An IP address is
an unique number assigned by Internet Service Providers to each
computer connected to the Internet The unique IP address of your
work computer and your home computer is how Google and other
search engines know yoursquore in different locations
Where it gets a little more complex is how search engines
decide which local search results are most relevant to your
search Search engines donrsquot want to offer a searcher results that
are a significant distance from a searcherrsquos location if they can
4
IMAGE NEW OLD STOCK
10A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
help it Google determines proximity of a businessrsquos address to a
predetermined ldquocentroidrdquo which is usually the city center of the
respective city yoursquore searching in Make sense
So if your business is located on the outskirts of town are you
playing against a stacked deck No therersquos still plenty of hope
for you The first interesting thing to note about address proximity
is that Google will actually move the centroid to the center of an
industryrsquos hub in the city yoursquore searching in
Letrsquos look at an example Yoursquore visiting Columbus OH and
yoursquore looking for a place to grab a bite to eat When searching
restaurants Columbus Google will move its ldquorestaurantrdquo centroid
slightly west of the city center because of the cluster of popular
restaurants nearby and the lack of restaurants east of downtown
And herersquos the other huge factor in address proximity mobile
searches Eighty-eight percent of searches on smartphones have
local intent Mobile devices provide search engines with your
exact location instead of the general vicinity of your IP Address
Search engines understand that consumer intent is much different
for mobile searches than desktop searches which is why search
engines place more relevance on the businesses closest to your
search
11A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Try it yourself Search for the same keyword on your
phone and your desktop in the same location Look at
the differences between results Of course address
proximity is only one factor in local search optimization
but it is one thatrsquos often misunderstood
12A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Quantity and Consistency of Citations
As we mentioned before search engines rely on information
from third-party directories to determine the authenticity of a local
listing page These are called citations Citations are mentions of
your business name address and phone number (NAP) on third
party directories Citations are a key component of Google and
Bingrsquos ranking algorithms With all factors being equal businesses
with a higher number of citations will likely rank higher than
businesses with only a few
Citations are a great way to earn trust from search engines
if you have your facts straight However if search engines find
inconsistencies in your citations you could be severely penalized
For example your business may have moved or changed its phone
number over the years If old information is still populating third-
party directories then your citations arenrsquot telling Google and Bing
the same story This is a problem
5
Directories should tell Google the same story
IMAGE WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
13A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Letrsquos use Wilt Chamberlainrsquos 100 point game to better explain
citations
On March 2 1962 Wilt Chamberlain set the NBA single-game
scoring record by scoring 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors
in a 169-147 win over the New York Knicks This is commonly
accepted as a fact but with no video footage or any members of
the New York press in attendance how do we know for certain
With little ldquofactualrdquo proof you have to trust the sources that
were in the attendance Letrsquos say there were 4000 people in
attendance that night which means there were 4000 individual
accounts of the events that transpired Letrsquos also assume that the
firsthand accounts of certain individuals hold more weight than
others This more influential group would include players coaches
scorekeepers and local press
If all 4000 people left the arena and agreed that with 46
seconds to go in the game Chamberlain scored his 100th point
then therersquos little reason to dispute the story despite the lack of
factual proof We can even go one step further and check the score
sheet to confirm Chamberlainrsquos point total
However if there were a large number of discrepancies in the
IMAGE WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
14A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
story then the record feat will seem more suspicious And what if
the record was even disputed by a few members of the local media
that were present Perhaps a couple of reporters published stories
claiming that Chamberlain was incorrectly awarded a basket in
the first half because it was actually tipped in by Chamberlainrsquos
teammate Paul Arizin What do you believe Did Chamberlain
score 100 points or actually finish with 98
This is exactly how citations work Search engines will be
forgiving if you have minor inconsistencies on a lesser valued
directory However there are a handful of directories that have a
lot more authority than others (similar to the reporters at the game)
If inconsistences are found on authoritative databases (a trusted
database that feeds information directly into Google and Bing) then
the validity of your business information is in doubt and your local
search presence is likely suffering
15A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Authority and User Experience
Your businessrsquos website URL is a key element of all online
directories In fact itrsquos so important that the common mention of
your businessrsquos name address phone number (NAP) citation is
typically referred to as a NAPU (name address phone number
URL)
Unfortunately just having a website isnrsquot enough Your website
has to be constructed in a way that search engines can easily find
the important information that theyrsquore looking for Typically search
engines are looking for the proper formatting and location of your
NAP Theyrsquore also looking at indicators like keyword presence in
your URL geographically optimized page titles geographically
optimized tags location of on-page keywords etc
Again every search engine has an extensive list of on-page
factors when determining local search rankings
An increasingly important ranking factor when determining
page authority is mobile usability In other words is your businessrsquos
website optimized for mobile devices Mobile experience is so
important to Google that itrsquos expected to release an algorithm
update that rewards businesses that provide a positive mobile
experience (For more on user experience check out our blog post
about mobile usability)
6
IMAGE NEW OLD STOCK
16A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Quantity of Credible Reviews
A search enginersquos number one goal is to deliver the most
relevant results possible for any given search A powerful
indication of a businessrsquos relevance to a search query is the
amount (and quality) of consumer reviews Most online directories
allow consumers to leave reviews on a local listing page that
reflects their experience with that business Some directories
would allow your cat to leave a review while others have more
rigorous policies than the TSA
Much like citations search engines aggregate consumer
reviews from third-party sites as part of their ranking algorithms As
you can imagine the more credible the review the more weight it
holds as a local search ranking factor Google and Bing award the
highest value to reviews left on their respective local listing pages
but they also seriously value reviews left on Yelp TripAdvisor
Angiersquos List and many others
7
The more credible the review the more weight it holds
IMAGE DOUGWOODS CREATIVE COMMONS
17A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Wait Before you ask everyone in your office to leave a review
on your local listing pages consider this Only authentic reviews
are valuable Google and Yelp are notorious for filtering suspicious
reviews Both companies strongly condemn reviews that are
solicited or incentivized For example if your business has only
earned two reviews in the last six months and suddenly seven new
reviews come in on the same day a red flag is immediately raised
Google and Yelp look at several indicators to determine whether
a review is authentic or not First theyrsquoll look at the profile history of
the person leaving the review They want to see how old the profile
is whether the reviewer has left reviews before and the reviewerrsquos
location Search engines will also take into account the rating of
the review itself For example if your business has received 40
reviews all with a perfect five star rating it might seem a little fishy
Itrsquos our experience that good reviews are important but a few ldquoOKrdquo
reviews make the good ones more trustworthy
18A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Local search marketing is all about being found online
What happens when you search for your business Is your
business being found
Local search optimization is dependent upon hundreds of
constantly changing factors Submitting your businesss
information to one directory alone isnt enough
Business categories are a fundamental part of local search
marketing Be sure to spend some time researching before
you choose yours
Geographic proximity plays a big part in your businesss
search results Google will decide which results are most
relevant to the searcher based on their location
How many citations (or times your business is mentioned
on the internet) does your business have How consistent
is the information These are important questions
Your businesss website URL is key to success in local
search marketing Your website should be constructed
in a way that translates to search engines especially on
mobile
Search engines hold reviews in high regard Review sites
are always on the look out for manipulation so make sure
your reviewers are credible
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Local Search Marketing Take-Aways
We connect powerful systems with powerful people
Like what you learnedRead more about what we do
TALK TO AN EXPERT
LOCAL SEARCH PAID ADVERTISING SOCIAL CONTENT
Ready to Get Started
Copyright copy 2015 RevLocal All rights reserved
5A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
2 Next type a general category keyword that represents your
business (do not enter your business name) into Google or Bing
For example dentist lawyer pizza auto repair etc Just so you
know not every keyword will trigger local search results If you
donrsquot see a map or lettered pushpins on your SERP your search
query is not one that the search engine deems relevant for local
search results
3 What do you see Is your business being displayed on the map
Does it have its own push pin Are you even seeing it Do you
recognize your local competition
6A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Local Search Optimization
Search engines use information from online directories and
databases to create display and rank local listings Local listing
pages are profiles that contain information about your business
These local listing pages need to be fed with information and
continually updated to achieve maximum results This information
often includes your business name address phone number
website etc Some of the more popular local listing directories
like Google Bing and Yelp require additional information for a local
listing page to be considered fully optimized
Seems simple right Create and optimize local listing pages for
your business and yoursquoll start dominating the local search results
Itrsquos actually a lot more complicated than that In fact Googlersquos local
search algorithm uses over 200 indicators to rank local search
results This includes keyword category geographic proximity
quantity and consistency of structured citations inbound links
domain authority and consumer reviews just to name a few And
remember wersquore just scratching the surface Oh and then therersquos
the fact that search engines are continually changing their search
result algorithms to display the best results possible
Wersquoll touch on a few of these examples to give you a better
understanding of how search engines work and how we help
optimize your business for local search
2
IMAGE WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
7A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Business Category
Business categories are a fundamental element of local search
optimization When creating a local listing page nearly all online
directories require you to submit categories that describe your
business Itrsquos important to remember that categories describe what
your business is not what it does or sells For example a correct
category would be ldquoItalian Restaurantrdquo while an incorrect category
would be ldquoPizza amp Pastardquo
Herersquos the tricky part Not all categories are created equal
Unfortunately the major local listing directories didnrsquot get together
one day and decide on a master list of business categories For
example Google and Yelp differ greatly in their approach to
business categories Google My Business allows you to choose
up to 10 categories that describe your business Yelp on the other
hand only allows you to select three of its 698 categories Yelp also
structures its category selection much differently than Googlersquos
Yelp makes you choose a primary category secondary category
3
Not all categories are created equal
8A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
and a tertiary category for each keyword For example if yoursquore a
divorce lawyer you would first select ldquoprofessional servicesrdquo then
select ldquoLawyersrdquo and finally ldquoDivorce and Family Lawrdquo
And herersquos the thing You must select the correct categories
Spend time researching the category list for the respective
directory yoursquore creating a local listing page for Otherwise you run
the risk of losing out on valuable local search traffic
And if you didnrsquot think business categories were confusing
enough search engines like Google and Bing improve local search
results by aggregating information (including categories) from
your businessrsquos local listing pages on third-party directories That
means an incorrectly assigned category on your Yellow Pages local
listing page can negatively affect your Google My Business page
Categories seem simple but theyrsquore tremendously important
9A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Geographic Proximity
Why do search engines display different local search results
for the exact same keyword search at home than they do at work
which are only a few miles apart Again this is a fairly complex
answer but wersquoll give you the basic rundown
Google and other search engines use your computerrsquos Internet
Protocol (IP) address to determine your location An IP address is
an unique number assigned by Internet Service Providers to each
computer connected to the Internet The unique IP address of your
work computer and your home computer is how Google and other
search engines know yoursquore in different locations
Where it gets a little more complex is how search engines
decide which local search results are most relevant to your
search Search engines donrsquot want to offer a searcher results that
are a significant distance from a searcherrsquos location if they can
4
IMAGE NEW OLD STOCK
10A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
help it Google determines proximity of a businessrsquos address to a
predetermined ldquocentroidrdquo which is usually the city center of the
respective city yoursquore searching in Make sense
So if your business is located on the outskirts of town are you
playing against a stacked deck No therersquos still plenty of hope
for you The first interesting thing to note about address proximity
is that Google will actually move the centroid to the center of an
industryrsquos hub in the city yoursquore searching in
Letrsquos look at an example Yoursquore visiting Columbus OH and
yoursquore looking for a place to grab a bite to eat When searching
restaurants Columbus Google will move its ldquorestaurantrdquo centroid
slightly west of the city center because of the cluster of popular
restaurants nearby and the lack of restaurants east of downtown
And herersquos the other huge factor in address proximity mobile
searches Eighty-eight percent of searches on smartphones have
local intent Mobile devices provide search engines with your
exact location instead of the general vicinity of your IP Address
Search engines understand that consumer intent is much different
for mobile searches than desktop searches which is why search
engines place more relevance on the businesses closest to your
search
11A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Try it yourself Search for the same keyword on your
phone and your desktop in the same location Look at
the differences between results Of course address
proximity is only one factor in local search optimization
but it is one thatrsquos often misunderstood
12A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Quantity and Consistency of Citations
As we mentioned before search engines rely on information
from third-party directories to determine the authenticity of a local
listing page These are called citations Citations are mentions of
your business name address and phone number (NAP) on third
party directories Citations are a key component of Google and
Bingrsquos ranking algorithms With all factors being equal businesses
with a higher number of citations will likely rank higher than
businesses with only a few
Citations are a great way to earn trust from search engines
if you have your facts straight However if search engines find
inconsistencies in your citations you could be severely penalized
For example your business may have moved or changed its phone
number over the years If old information is still populating third-
party directories then your citations arenrsquot telling Google and Bing
the same story This is a problem
5
Directories should tell Google the same story
IMAGE WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
13A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Letrsquos use Wilt Chamberlainrsquos 100 point game to better explain
citations
On March 2 1962 Wilt Chamberlain set the NBA single-game
scoring record by scoring 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors
in a 169-147 win over the New York Knicks This is commonly
accepted as a fact but with no video footage or any members of
the New York press in attendance how do we know for certain
With little ldquofactualrdquo proof you have to trust the sources that
were in the attendance Letrsquos say there were 4000 people in
attendance that night which means there were 4000 individual
accounts of the events that transpired Letrsquos also assume that the
firsthand accounts of certain individuals hold more weight than
others This more influential group would include players coaches
scorekeepers and local press
If all 4000 people left the arena and agreed that with 46
seconds to go in the game Chamberlain scored his 100th point
then therersquos little reason to dispute the story despite the lack of
factual proof We can even go one step further and check the score
sheet to confirm Chamberlainrsquos point total
However if there were a large number of discrepancies in the
IMAGE WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
14A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
story then the record feat will seem more suspicious And what if
the record was even disputed by a few members of the local media
that were present Perhaps a couple of reporters published stories
claiming that Chamberlain was incorrectly awarded a basket in
the first half because it was actually tipped in by Chamberlainrsquos
teammate Paul Arizin What do you believe Did Chamberlain
score 100 points or actually finish with 98
This is exactly how citations work Search engines will be
forgiving if you have minor inconsistencies on a lesser valued
directory However there are a handful of directories that have a
lot more authority than others (similar to the reporters at the game)
If inconsistences are found on authoritative databases (a trusted
database that feeds information directly into Google and Bing) then
the validity of your business information is in doubt and your local
search presence is likely suffering
15A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Authority and User Experience
Your businessrsquos website URL is a key element of all online
directories In fact itrsquos so important that the common mention of
your businessrsquos name address phone number (NAP) citation is
typically referred to as a NAPU (name address phone number
URL)
Unfortunately just having a website isnrsquot enough Your website
has to be constructed in a way that search engines can easily find
the important information that theyrsquore looking for Typically search
engines are looking for the proper formatting and location of your
NAP Theyrsquore also looking at indicators like keyword presence in
your URL geographically optimized page titles geographically
optimized tags location of on-page keywords etc
Again every search engine has an extensive list of on-page
factors when determining local search rankings
An increasingly important ranking factor when determining
page authority is mobile usability In other words is your businessrsquos
website optimized for mobile devices Mobile experience is so
important to Google that itrsquos expected to release an algorithm
update that rewards businesses that provide a positive mobile
experience (For more on user experience check out our blog post
about mobile usability)
6
IMAGE NEW OLD STOCK
16A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Quantity of Credible Reviews
A search enginersquos number one goal is to deliver the most
relevant results possible for any given search A powerful
indication of a businessrsquos relevance to a search query is the
amount (and quality) of consumer reviews Most online directories
allow consumers to leave reviews on a local listing page that
reflects their experience with that business Some directories
would allow your cat to leave a review while others have more
rigorous policies than the TSA
Much like citations search engines aggregate consumer
reviews from third-party sites as part of their ranking algorithms As
you can imagine the more credible the review the more weight it
holds as a local search ranking factor Google and Bing award the
highest value to reviews left on their respective local listing pages
but they also seriously value reviews left on Yelp TripAdvisor
Angiersquos List and many others
7
The more credible the review the more weight it holds
IMAGE DOUGWOODS CREATIVE COMMONS
17A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Wait Before you ask everyone in your office to leave a review
on your local listing pages consider this Only authentic reviews
are valuable Google and Yelp are notorious for filtering suspicious
reviews Both companies strongly condemn reviews that are
solicited or incentivized For example if your business has only
earned two reviews in the last six months and suddenly seven new
reviews come in on the same day a red flag is immediately raised
Google and Yelp look at several indicators to determine whether
a review is authentic or not First theyrsquoll look at the profile history of
the person leaving the review They want to see how old the profile
is whether the reviewer has left reviews before and the reviewerrsquos
location Search engines will also take into account the rating of
the review itself For example if your business has received 40
reviews all with a perfect five star rating it might seem a little fishy
Itrsquos our experience that good reviews are important but a few ldquoOKrdquo
reviews make the good ones more trustworthy
18A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Local search marketing is all about being found online
What happens when you search for your business Is your
business being found
Local search optimization is dependent upon hundreds of
constantly changing factors Submitting your businesss
information to one directory alone isnt enough
Business categories are a fundamental part of local search
marketing Be sure to spend some time researching before
you choose yours
Geographic proximity plays a big part in your businesss
search results Google will decide which results are most
relevant to the searcher based on their location
How many citations (or times your business is mentioned
on the internet) does your business have How consistent
is the information These are important questions
Your businesss website URL is key to success in local
search marketing Your website should be constructed
in a way that translates to search engines especially on
mobile
Search engines hold reviews in high regard Review sites
are always on the look out for manipulation so make sure
your reviewers are credible
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Local Search Marketing Take-Aways
We connect powerful systems with powerful people
Like what you learnedRead more about what we do
TALK TO AN EXPERT
LOCAL SEARCH PAID ADVERTISING SOCIAL CONTENT
Ready to Get Started
Copyright copy 2015 RevLocal All rights reserved
6A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Local Search Optimization
Search engines use information from online directories and
databases to create display and rank local listings Local listing
pages are profiles that contain information about your business
These local listing pages need to be fed with information and
continually updated to achieve maximum results This information
often includes your business name address phone number
website etc Some of the more popular local listing directories
like Google Bing and Yelp require additional information for a local
listing page to be considered fully optimized
Seems simple right Create and optimize local listing pages for
your business and yoursquoll start dominating the local search results
Itrsquos actually a lot more complicated than that In fact Googlersquos local
search algorithm uses over 200 indicators to rank local search
results This includes keyword category geographic proximity
quantity and consistency of structured citations inbound links
domain authority and consumer reviews just to name a few And
remember wersquore just scratching the surface Oh and then therersquos
the fact that search engines are continually changing their search
result algorithms to display the best results possible
Wersquoll touch on a few of these examples to give you a better
understanding of how search engines work and how we help
optimize your business for local search
2
IMAGE WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
7A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Business Category
Business categories are a fundamental element of local search
optimization When creating a local listing page nearly all online
directories require you to submit categories that describe your
business Itrsquos important to remember that categories describe what
your business is not what it does or sells For example a correct
category would be ldquoItalian Restaurantrdquo while an incorrect category
would be ldquoPizza amp Pastardquo
Herersquos the tricky part Not all categories are created equal
Unfortunately the major local listing directories didnrsquot get together
one day and decide on a master list of business categories For
example Google and Yelp differ greatly in their approach to
business categories Google My Business allows you to choose
up to 10 categories that describe your business Yelp on the other
hand only allows you to select three of its 698 categories Yelp also
structures its category selection much differently than Googlersquos
Yelp makes you choose a primary category secondary category
3
Not all categories are created equal
8A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
and a tertiary category for each keyword For example if yoursquore a
divorce lawyer you would first select ldquoprofessional servicesrdquo then
select ldquoLawyersrdquo and finally ldquoDivorce and Family Lawrdquo
And herersquos the thing You must select the correct categories
Spend time researching the category list for the respective
directory yoursquore creating a local listing page for Otherwise you run
the risk of losing out on valuable local search traffic
And if you didnrsquot think business categories were confusing
enough search engines like Google and Bing improve local search
results by aggregating information (including categories) from
your businessrsquos local listing pages on third-party directories That
means an incorrectly assigned category on your Yellow Pages local
listing page can negatively affect your Google My Business page
Categories seem simple but theyrsquore tremendously important
9A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Geographic Proximity
Why do search engines display different local search results
for the exact same keyword search at home than they do at work
which are only a few miles apart Again this is a fairly complex
answer but wersquoll give you the basic rundown
Google and other search engines use your computerrsquos Internet
Protocol (IP) address to determine your location An IP address is
an unique number assigned by Internet Service Providers to each
computer connected to the Internet The unique IP address of your
work computer and your home computer is how Google and other
search engines know yoursquore in different locations
Where it gets a little more complex is how search engines
decide which local search results are most relevant to your
search Search engines donrsquot want to offer a searcher results that
are a significant distance from a searcherrsquos location if they can
4
IMAGE NEW OLD STOCK
10A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
help it Google determines proximity of a businessrsquos address to a
predetermined ldquocentroidrdquo which is usually the city center of the
respective city yoursquore searching in Make sense
So if your business is located on the outskirts of town are you
playing against a stacked deck No therersquos still plenty of hope
for you The first interesting thing to note about address proximity
is that Google will actually move the centroid to the center of an
industryrsquos hub in the city yoursquore searching in
Letrsquos look at an example Yoursquore visiting Columbus OH and
yoursquore looking for a place to grab a bite to eat When searching
restaurants Columbus Google will move its ldquorestaurantrdquo centroid
slightly west of the city center because of the cluster of popular
restaurants nearby and the lack of restaurants east of downtown
And herersquos the other huge factor in address proximity mobile
searches Eighty-eight percent of searches on smartphones have
local intent Mobile devices provide search engines with your
exact location instead of the general vicinity of your IP Address
Search engines understand that consumer intent is much different
for mobile searches than desktop searches which is why search
engines place more relevance on the businesses closest to your
search
11A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Try it yourself Search for the same keyword on your
phone and your desktop in the same location Look at
the differences between results Of course address
proximity is only one factor in local search optimization
but it is one thatrsquos often misunderstood
12A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Quantity and Consistency of Citations
As we mentioned before search engines rely on information
from third-party directories to determine the authenticity of a local
listing page These are called citations Citations are mentions of
your business name address and phone number (NAP) on third
party directories Citations are a key component of Google and
Bingrsquos ranking algorithms With all factors being equal businesses
with a higher number of citations will likely rank higher than
businesses with only a few
Citations are a great way to earn trust from search engines
if you have your facts straight However if search engines find
inconsistencies in your citations you could be severely penalized
For example your business may have moved or changed its phone
number over the years If old information is still populating third-
party directories then your citations arenrsquot telling Google and Bing
the same story This is a problem
5
Directories should tell Google the same story
IMAGE WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
13A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Letrsquos use Wilt Chamberlainrsquos 100 point game to better explain
citations
On March 2 1962 Wilt Chamberlain set the NBA single-game
scoring record by scoring 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors
in a 169-147 win over the New York Knicks This is commonly
accepted as a fact but with no video footage or any members of
the New York press in attendance how do we know for certain
With little ldquofactualrdquo proof you have to trust the sources that
were in the attendance Letrsquos say there were 4000 people in
attendance that night which means there were 4000 individual
accounts of the events that transpired Letrsquos also assume that the
firsthand accounts of certain individuals hold more weight than
others This more influential group would include players coaches
scorekeepers and local press
If all 4000 people left the arena and agreed that with 46
seconds to go in the game Chamberlain scored his 100th point
then therersquos little reason to dispute the story despite the lack of
factual proof We can even go one step further and check the score
sheet to confirm Chamberlainrsquos point total
However if there were a large number of discrepancies in the
IMAGE WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
14A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
story then the record feat will seem more suspicious And what if
the record was even disputed by a few members of the local media
that were present Perhaps a couple of reporters published stories
claiming that Chamberlain was incorrectly awarded a basket in
the first half because it was actually tipped in by Chamberlainrsquos
teammate Paul Arizin What do you believe Did Chamberlain
score 100 points or actually finish with 98
This is exactly how citations work Search engines will be
forgiving if you have minor inconsistencies on a lesser valued
directory However there are a handful of directories that have a
lot more authority than others (similar to the reporters at the game)
If inconsistences are found on authoritative databases (a trusted
database that feeds information directly into Google and Bing) then
the validity of your business information is in doubt and your local
search presence is likely suffering
15A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Authority and User Experience
Your businessrsquos website URL is a key element of all online
directories In fact itrsquos so important that the common mention of
your businessrsquos name address phone number (NAP) citation is
typically referred to as a NAPU (name address phone number
URL)
Unfortunately just having a website isnrsquot enough Your website
has to be constructed in a way that search engines can easily find
the important information that theyrsquore looking for Typically search
engines are looking for the proper formatting and location of your
NAP Theyrsquore also looking at indicators like keyword presence in
your URL geographically optimized page titles geographically
optimized tags location of on-page keywords etc
Again every search engine has an extensive list of on-page
factors when determining local search rankings
An increasingly important ranking factor when determining
page authority is mobile usability In other words is your businessrsquos
website optimized for mobile devices Mobile experience is so
important to Google that itrsquos expected to release an algorithm
update that rewards businesses that provide a positive mobile
experience (For more on user experience check out our blog post
about mobile usability)
6
IMAGE NEW OLD STOCK
16A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Quantity of Credible Reviews
A search enginersquos number one goal is to deliver the most
relevant results possible for any given search A powerful
indication of a businessrsquos relevance to a search query is the
amount (and quality) of consumer reviews Most online directories
allow consumers to leave reviews on a local listing page that
reflects their experience with that business Some directories
would allow your cat to leave a review while others have more
rigorous policies than the TSA
Much like citations search engines aggregate consumer
reviews from third-party sites as part of their ranking algorithms As
you can imagine the more credible the review the more weight it
holds as a local search ranking factor Google and Bing award the
highest value to reviews left on their respective local listing pages
but they also seriously value reviews left on Yelp TripAdvisor
Angiersquos List and many others
7
The more credible the review the more weight it holds
IMAGE DOUGWOODS CREATIVE COMMONS
17A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Wait Before you ask everyone in your office to leave a review
on your local listing pages consider this Only authentic reviews
are valuable Google and Yelp are notorious for filtering suspicious
reviews Both companies strongly condemn reviews that are
solicited or incentivized For example if your business has only
earned two reviews in the last six months and suddenly seven new
reviews come in on the same day a red flag is immediately raised
Google and Yelp look at several indicators to determine whether
a review is authentic or not First theyrsquoll look at the profile history of
the person leaving the review They want to see how old the profile
is whether the reviewer has left reviews before and the reviewerrsquos
location Search engines will also take into account the rating of
the review itself For example if your business has received 40
reviews all with a perfect five star rating it might seem a little fishy
Itrsquos our experience that good reviews are important but a few ldquoOKrdquo
reviews make the good ones more trustworthy
18A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Local search marketing is all about being found online
What happens when you search for your business Is your
business being found
Local search optimization is dependent upon hundreds of
constantly changing factors Submitting your businesss
information to one directory alone isnt enough
Business categories are a fundamental part of local search
marketing Be sure to spend some time researching before
you choose yours
Geographic proximity plays a big part in your businesss
search results Google will decide which results are most
relevant to the searcher based on their location
How many citations (or times your business is mentioned
on the internet) does your business have How consistent
is the information These are important questions
Your businesss website URL is key to success in local
search marketing Your website should be constructed
in a way that translates to search engines especially on
mobile
Search engines hold reviews in high regard Review sites
are always on the look out for manipulation so make sure
your reviewers are credible
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Local Search Marketing Take-Aways
We connect powerful systems with powerful people
Like what you learnedRead more about what we do
TALK TO AN EXPERT
LOCAL SEARCH PAID ADVERTISING SOCIAL CONTENT
Ready to Get Started
Copyright copy 2015 RevLocal All rights reserved
7A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Business Category
Business categories are a fundamental element of local search
optimization When creating a local listing page nearly all online
directories require you to submit categories that describe your
business Itrsquos important to remember that categories describe what
your business is not what it does or sells For example a correct
category would be ldquoItalian Restaurantrdquo while an incorrect category
would be ldquoPizza amp Pastardquo
Herersquos the tricky part Not all categories are created equal
Unfortunately the major local listing directories didnrsquot get together
one day and decide on a master list of business categories For
example Google and Yelp differ greatly in their approach to
business categories Google My Business allows you to choose
up to 10 categories that describe your business Yelp on the other
hand only allows you to select three of its 698 categories Yelp also
structures its category selection much differently than Googlersquos
Yelp makes you choose a primary category secondary category
3
Not all categories are created equal
8A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
and a tertiary category for each keyword For example if yoursquore a
divorce lawyer you would first select ldquoprofessional servicesrdquo then
select ldquoLawyersrdquo and finally ldquoDivorce and Family Lawrdquo
And herersquos the thing You must select the correct categories
Spend time researching the category list for the respective
directory yoursquore creating a local listing page for Otherwise you run
the risk of losing out on valuable local search traffic
And if you didnrsquot think business categories were confusing
enough search engines like Google and Bing improve local search
results by aggregating information (including categories) from
your businessrsquos local listing pages on third-party directories That
means an incorrectly assigned category on your Yellow Pages local
listing page can negatively affect your Google My Business page
Categories seem simple but theyrsquore tremendously important
9A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Geographic Proximity
Why do search engines display different local search results
for the exact same keyword search at home than they do at work
which are only a few miles apart Again this is a fairly complex
answer but wersquoll give you the basic rundown
Google and other search engines use your computerrsquos Internet
Protocol (IP) address to determine your location An IP address is
an unique number assigned by Internet Service Providers to each
computer connected to the Internet The unique IP address of your
work computer and your home computer is how Google and other
search engines know yoursquore in different locations
Where it gets a little more complex is how search engines
decide which local search results are most relevant to your
search Search engines donrsquot want to offer a searcher results that
are a significant distance from a searcherrsquos location if they can
4
IMAGE NEW OLD STOCK
10A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
help it Google determines proximity of a businessrsquos address to a
predetermined ldquocentroidrdquo which is usually the city center of the
respective city yoursquore searching in Make sense
So if your business is located on the outskirts of town are you
playing against a stacked deck No therersquos still plenty of hope
for you The first interesting thing to note about address proximity
is that Google will actually move the centroid to the center of an
industryrsquos hub in the city yoursquore searching in
Letrsquos look at an example Yoursquore visiting Columbus OH and
yoursquore looking for a place to grab a bite to eat When searching
restaurants Columbus Google will move its ldquorestaurantrdquo centroid
slightly west of the city center because of the cluster of popular
restaurants nearby and the lack of restaurants east of downtown
And herersquos the other huge factor in address proximity mobile
searches Eighty-eight percent of searches on smartphones have
local intent Mobile devices provide search engines with your
exact location instead of the general vicinity of your IP Address
Search engines understand that consumer intent is much different
for mobile searches than desktop searches which is why search
engines place more relevance on the businesses closest to your
search
11A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Try it yourself Search for the same keyword on your
phone and your desktop in the same location Look at
the differences between results Of course address
proximity is only one factor in local search optimization
but it is one thatrsquos often misunderstood
12A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Quantity and Consistency of Citations
As we mentioned before search engines rely on information
from third-party directories to determine the authenticity of a local
listing page These are called citations Citations are mentions of
your business name address and phone number (NAP) on third
party directories Citations are a key component of Google and
Bingrsquos ranking algorithms With all factors being equal businesses
with a higher number of citations will likely rank higher than
businesses with only a few
Citations are a great way to earn trust from search engines
if you have your facts straight However if search engines find
inconsistencies in your citations you could be severely penalized
For example your business may have moved or changed its phone
number over the years If old information is still populating third-
party directories then your citations arenrsquot telling Google and Bing
the same story This is a problem
5
Directories should tell Google the same story
IMAGE WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
13A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Letrsquos use Wilt Chamberlainrsquos 100 point game to better explain
citations
On March 2 1962 Wilt Chamberlain set the NBA single-game
scoring record by scoring 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors
in a 169-147 win over the New York Knicks This is commonly
accepted as a fact but with no video footage or any members of
the New York press in attendance how do we know for certain
With little ldquofactualrdquo proof you have to trust the sources that
were in the attendance Letrsquos say there were 4000 people in
attendance that night which means there were 4000 individual
accounts of the events that transpired Letrsquos also assume that the
firsthand accounts of certain individuals hold more weight than
others This more influential group would include players coaches
scorekeepers and local press
If all 4000 people left the arena and agreed that with 46
seconds to go in the game Chamberlain scored his 100th point
then therersquos little reason to dispute the story despite the lack of
factual proof We can even go one step further and check the score
sheet to confirm Chamberlainrsquos point total
However if there were a large number of discrepancies in the
IMAGE WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
14A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
story then the record feat will seem more suspicious And what if
the record was even disputed by a few members of the local media
that were present Perhaps a couple of reporters published stories
claiming that Chamberlain was incorrectly awarded a basket in
the first half because it was actually tipped in by Chamberlainrsquos
teammate Paul Arizin What do you believe Did Chamberlain
score 100 points or actually finish with 98
This is exactly how citations work Search engines will be
forgiving if you have minor inconsistencies on a lesser valued
directory However there are a handful of directories that have a
lot more authority than others (similar to the reporters at the game)
If inconsistences are found on authoritative databases (a trusted
database that feeds information directly into Google and Bing) then
the validity of your business information is in doubt and your local
search presence is likely suffering
15A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Authority and User Experience
Your businessrsquos website URL is a key element of all online
directories In fact itrsquos so important that the common mention of
your businessrsquos name address phone number (NAP) citation is
typically referred to as a NAPU (name address phone number
URL)
Unfortunately just having a website isnrsquot enough Your website
has to be constructed in a way that search engines can easily find
the important information that theyrsquore looking for Typically search
engines are looking for the proper formatting and location of your
NAP Theyrsquore also looking at indicators like keyword presence in
your URL geographically optimized page titles geographically
optimized tags location of on-page keywords etc
Again every search engine has an extensive list of on-page
factors when determining local search rankings
An increasingly important ranking factor when determining
page authority is mobile usability In other words is your businessrsquos
website optimized for mobile devices Mobile experience is so
important to Google that itrsquos expected to release an algorithm
update that rewards businesses that provide a positive mobile
experience (For more on user experience check out our blog post
about mobile usability)
6
IMAGE NEW OLD STOCK
16A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Quantity of Credible Reviews
A search enginersquos number one goal is to deliver the most
relevant results possible for any given search A powerful
indication of a businessrsquos relevance to a search query is the
amount (and quality) of consumer reviews Most online directories
allow consumers to leave reviews on a local listing page that
reflects their experience with that business Some directories
would allow your cat to leave a review while others have more
rigorous policies than the TSA
Much like citations search engines aggregate consumer
reviews from third-party sites as part of their ranking algorithms As
you can imagine the more credible the review the more weight it
holds as a local search ranking factor Google and Bing award the
highest value to reviews left on their respective local listing pages
but they also seriously value reviews left on Yelp TripAdvisor
Angiersquos List and many others
7
The more credible the review the more weight it holds
IMAGE DOUGWOODS CREATIVE COMMONS
17A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Wait Before you ask everyone in your office to leave a review
on your local listing pages consider this Only authentic reviews
are valuable Google and Yelp are notorious for filtering suspicious
reviews Both companies strongly condemn reviews that are
solicited or incentivized For example if your business has only
earned two reviews in the last six months and suddenly seven new
reviews come in on the same day a red flag is immediately raised
Google and Yelp look at several indicators to determine whether
a review is authentic or not First theyrsquoll look at the profile history of
the person leaving the review They want to see how old the profile
is whether the reviewer has left reviews before and the reviewerrsquos
location Search engines will also take into account the rating of
the review itself For example if your business has received 40
reviews all with a perfect five star rating it might seem a little fishy
Itrsquos our experience that good reviews are important but a few ldquoOKrdquo
reviews make the good ones more trustworthy
18A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Local search marketing is all about being found online
What happens when you search for your business Is your
business being found
Local search optimization is dependent upon hundreds of
constantly changing factors Submitting your businesss
information to one directory alone isnt enough
Business categories are a fundamental part of local search
marketing Be sure to spend some time researching before
you choose yours
Geographic proximity plays a big part in your businesss
search results Google will decide which results are most
relevant to the searcher based on their location
How many citations (or times your business is mentioned
on the internet) does your business have How consistent
is the information These are important questions
Your businesss website URL is key to success in local
search marketing Your website should be constructed
in a way that translates to search engines especially on
mobile
Search engines hold reviews in high regard Review sites
are always on the look out for manipulation so make sure
your reviewers are credible
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Local Search Marketing Take-Aways
We connect powerful systems with powerful people
Like what you learnedRead more about what we do
TALK TO AN EXPERT
LOCAL SEARCH PAID ADVERTISING SOCIAL CONTENT
Ready to Get Started
Copyright copy 2015 RevLocal All rights reserved
8A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
and a tertiary category for each keyword For example if yoursquore a
divorce lawyer you would first select ldquoprofessional servicesrdquo then
select ldquoLawyersrdquo and finally ldquoDivorce and Family Lawrdquo
And herersquos the thing You must select the correct categories
Spend time researching the category list for the respective
directory yoursquore creating a local listing page for Otherwise you run
the risk of losing out on valuable local search traffic
And if you didnrsquot think business categories were confusing
enough search engines like Google and Bing improve local search
results by aggregating information (including categories) from
your businessrsquos local listing pages on third-party directories That
means an incorrectly assigned category on your Yellow Pages local
listing page can negatively affect your Google My Business page
Categories seem simple but theyrsquore tremendously important
9A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Geographic Proximity
Why do search engines display different local search results
for the exact same keyword search at home than they do at work
which are only a few miles apart Again this is a fairly complex
answer but wersquoll give you the basic rundown
Google and other search engines use your computerrsquos Internet
Protocol (IP) address to determine your location An IP address is
an unique number assigned by Internet Service Providers to each
computer connected to the Internet The unique IP address of your
work computer and your home computer is how Google and other
search engines know yoursquore in different locations
Where it gets a little more complex is how search engines
decide which local search results are most relevant to your
search Search engines donrsquot want to offer a searcher results that
are a significant distance from a searcherrsquos location if they can
4
IMAGE NEW OLD STOCK
10A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
help it Google determines proximity of a businessrsquos address to a
predetermined ldquocentroidrdquo which is usually the city center of the
respective city yoursquore searching in Make sense
So if your business is located on the outskirts of town are you
playing against a stacked deck No therersquos still plenty of hope
for you The first interesting thing to note about address proximity
is that Google will actually move the centroid to the center of an
industryrsquos hub in the city yoursquore searching in
Letrsquos look at an example Yoursquore visiting Columbus OH and
yoursquore looking for a place to grab a bite to eat When searching
restaurants Columbus Google will move its ldquorestaurantrdquo centroid
slightly west of the city center because of the cluster of popular
restaurants nearby and the lack of restaurants east of downtown
And herersquos the other huge factor in address proximity mobile
searches Eighty-eight percent of searches on smartphones have
local intent Mobile devices provide search engines with your
exact location instead of the general vicinity of your IP Address
Search engines understand that consumer intent is much different
for mobile searches than desktop searches which is why search
engines place more relevance on the businesses closest to your
search
11A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Try it yourself Search for the same keyword on your
phone and your desktop in the same location Look at
the differences between results Of course address
proximity is only one factor in local search optimization
but it is one thatrsquos often misunderstood
12A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Quantity and Consistency of Citations
As we mentioned before search engines rely on information
from third-party directories to determine the authenticity of a local
listing page These are called citations Citations are mentions of
your business name address and phone number (NAP) on third
party directories Citations are a key component of Google and
Bingrsquos ranking algorithms With all factors being equal businesses
with a higher number of citations will likely rank higher than
businesses with only a few
Citations are a great way to earn trust from search engines
if you have your facts straight However if search engines find
inconsistencies in your citations you could be severely penalized
For example your business may have moved or changed its phone
number over the years If old information is still populating third-
party directories then your citations arenrsquot telling Google and Bing
the same story This is a problem
5
Directories should tell Google the same story
IMAGE WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
13A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Letrsquos use Wilt Chamberlainrsquos 100 point game to better explain
citations
On March 2 1962 Wilt Chamberlain set the NBA single-game
scoring record by scoring 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors
in a 169-147 win over the New York Knicks This is commonly
accepted as a fact but with no video footage or any members of
the New York press in attendance how do we know for certain
With little ldquofactualrdquo proof you have to trust the sources that
were in the attendance Letrsquos say there were 4000 people in
attendance that night which means there were 4000 individual
accounts of the events that transpired Letrsquos also assume that the
firsthand accounts of certain individuals hold more weight than
others This more influential group would include players coaches
scorekeepers and local press
If all 4000 people left the arena and agreed that with 46
seconds to go in the game Chamberlain scored his 100th point
then therersquos little reason to dispute the story despite the lack of
factual proof We can even go one step further and check the score
sheet to confirm Chamberlainrsquos point total
However if there were a large number of discrepancies in the
IMAGE WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
14A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
story then the record feat will seem more suspicious And what if
the record was even disputed by a few members of the local media
that were present Perhaps a couple of reporters published stories
claiming that Chamberlain was incorrectly awarded a basket in
the first half because it was actually tipped in by Chamberlainrsquos
teammate Paul Arizin What do you believe Did Chamberlain
score 100 points or actually finish with 98
This is exactly how citations work Search engines will be
forgiving if you have minor inconsistencies on a lesser valued
directory However there are a handful of directories that have a
lot more authority than others (similar to the reporters at the game)
If inconsistences are found on authoritative databases (a trusted
database that feeds information directly into Google and Bing) then
the validity of your business information is in doubt and your local
search presence is likely suffering
15A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Authority and User Experience
Your businessrsquos website URL is a key element of all online
directories In fact itrsquos so important that the common mention of
your businessrsquos name address phone number (NAP) citation is
typically referred to as a NAPU (name address phone number
URL)
Unfortunately just having a website isnrsquot enough Your website
has to be constructed in a way that search engines can easily find
the important information that theyrsquore looking for Typically search
engines are looking for the proper formatting and location of your
NAP Theyrsquore also looking at indicators like keyword presence in
your URL geographically optimized page titles geographically
optimized tags location of on-page keywords etc
Again every search engine has an extensive list of on-page
factors when determining local search rankings
An increasingly important ranking factor when determining
page authority is mobile usability In other words is your businessrsquos
website optimized for mobile devices Mobile experience is so
important to Google that itrsquos expected to release an algorithm
update that rewards businesses that provide a positive mobile
experience (For more on user experience check out our blog post
about mobile usability)
6
IMAGE NEW OLD STOCK
16A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Quantity of Credible Reviews
A search enginersquos number one goal is to deliver the most
relevant results possible for any given search A powerful
indication of a businessrsquos relevance to a search query is the
amount (and quality) of consumer reviews Most online directories
allow consumers to leave reviews on a local listing page that
reflects their experience with that business Some directories
would allow your cat to leave a review while others have more
rigorous policies than the TSA
Much like citations search engines aggregate consumer
reviews from third-party sites as part of their ranking algorithms As
you can imagine the more credible the review the more weight it
holds as a local search ranking factor Google and Bing award the
highest value to reviews left on their respective local listing pages
but they also seriously value reviews left on Yelp TripAdvisor
Angiersquos List and many others
7
The more credible the review the more weight it holds
IMAGE DOUGWOODS CREATIVE COMMONS
17A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Wait Before you ask everyone in your office to leave a review
on your local listing pages consider this Only authentic reviews
are valuable Google and Yelp are notorious for filtering suspicious
reviews Both companies strongly condemn reviews that are
solicited or incentivized For example if your business has only
earned two reviews in the last six months and suddenly seven new
reviews come in on the same day a red flag is immediately raised
Google and Yelp look at several indicators to determine whether
a review is authentic or not First theyrsquoll look at the profile history of
the person leaving the review They want to see how old the profile
is whether the reviewer has left reviews before and the reviewerrsquos
location Search engines will also take into account the rating of
the review itself For example if your business has received 40
reviews all with a perfect five star rating it might seem a little fishy
Itrsquos our experience that good reviews are important but a few ldquoOKrdquo
reviews make the good ones more trustworthy
18A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Local search marketing is all about being found online
What happens when you search for your business Is your
business being found
Local search optimization is dependent upon hundreds of
constantly changing factors Submitting your businesss
information to one directory alone isnt enough
Business categories are a fundamental part of local search
marketing Be sure to spend some time researching before
you choose yours
Geographic proximity plays a big part in your businesss
search results Google will decide which results are most
relevant to the searcher based on their location
How many citations (or times your business is mentioned
on the internet) does your business have How consistent
is the information These are important questions
Your businesss website URL is key to success in local
search marketing Your website should be constructed
in a way that translates to search engines especially on
mobile
Search engines hold reviews in high regard Review sites
are always on the look out for manipulation so make sure
your reviewers are credible
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Local Search Marketing Take-Aways
We connect powerful systems with powerful people
Like what you learnedRead more about what we do
TALK TO AN EXPERT
LOCAL SEARCH PAID ADVERTISING SOCIAL CONTENT
Ready to Get Started
Copyright copy 2015 RevLocal All rights reserved
9A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Geographic Proximity
Why do search engines display different local search results
for the exact same keyword search at home than they do at work
which are only a few miles apart Again this is a fairly complex
answer but wersquoll give you the basic rundown
Google and other search engines use your computerrsquos Internet
Protocol (IP) address to determine your location An IP address is
an unique number assigned by Internet Service Providers to each
computer connected to the Internet The unique IP address of your
work computer and your home computer is how Google and other
search engines know yoursquore in different locations
Where it gets a little more complex is how search engines
decide which local search results are most relevant to your
search Search engines donrsquot want to offer a searcher results that
are a significant distance from a searcherrsquos location if they can
4
IMAGE NEW OLD STOCK
10A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
help it Google determines proximity of a businessrsquos address to a
predetermined ldquocentroidrdquo which is usually the city center of the
respective city yoursquore searching in Make sense
So if your business is located on the outskirts of town are you
playing against a stacked deck No therersquos still plenty of hope
for you The first interesting thing to note about address proximity
is that Google will actually move the centroid to the center of an
industryrsquos hub in the city yoursquore searching in
Letrsquos look at an example Yoursquore visiting Columbus OH and
yoursquore looking for a place to grab a bite to eat When searching
restaurants Columbus Google will move its ldquorestaurantrdquo centroid
slightly west of the city center because of the cluster of popular
restaurants nearby and the lack of restaurants east of downtown
And herersquos the other huge factor in address proximity mobile
searches Eighty-eight percent of searches on smartphones have
local intent Mobile devices provide search engines with your
exact location instead of the general vicinity of your IP Address
Search engines understand that consumer intent is much different
for mobile searches than desktop searches which is why search
engines place more relevance on the businesses closest to your
search
11A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Try it yourself Search for the same keyword on your
phone and your desktop in the same location Look at
the differences between results Of course address
proximity is only one factor in local search optimization
but it is one thatrsquos often misunderstood
12A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Quantity and Consistency of Citations
As we mentioned before search engines rely on information
from third-party directories to determine the authenticity of a local
listing page These are called citations Citations are mentions of
your business name address and phone number (NAP) on third
party directories Citations are a key component of Google and
Bingrsquos ranking algorithms With all factors being equal businesses
with a higher number of citations will likely rank higher than
businesses with only a few
Citations are a great way to earn trust from search engines
if you have your facts straight However if search engines find
inconsistencies in your citations you could be severely penalized
For example your business may have moved or changed its phone
number over the years If old information is still populating third-
party directories then your citations arenrsquot telling Google and Bing
the same story This is a problem
5
Directories should tell Google the same story
IMAGE WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
13A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Letrsquos use Wilt Chamberlainrsquos 100 point game to better explain
citations
On March 2 1962 Wilt Chamberlain set the NBA single-game
scoring record by scoring 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors
in a 169-147 win over the New York Knicks This is commonly
accepted as a fact but with no video footage or any members of
the New York press in attendance how do we know for certain
With little ldquofactualrdquo proof you have to trust the sources that
were in the attendance Letrsquos say there were 4000 people in
attendance that night which means there were 4000 individual
accounts of the events that transpired Letrsquos also assume that the
firsthand accounts of certain individuals hold more weight than
others This more influential group would include players coaches
scorekeepers and local press
If all 4000 people left the arena and agreed that with 46
seconds to go in the game Chamberlain scored his 100th point
then therersquos little reason to dispute the story despite the lack of
factual proof We can even go one step further and check the score
sheet to confirm Chamberlainrsquos point total
However if there were a large number of discrepancies in the
IMAGE WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
14A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
story then the record feat will seem more suspicious And what if
the record was even disputed by a few members of the local media
that were present Perhaps a couple of reporters published stories
claiming that Chamberlain was incorrectly awarded a basket in
the first half because it was actually tipped in by Chamberlainrsquos
teammate Paul Arizin What do you believe Did Chamberlain
score 100 points or actually finish with 98
This is exactly how citations work Search engines will be
forgiving if you have minor inconsistencies on a lesser valued
directory However there are a handful of directories that have a
lot more authority than others (similar to the reporters at the game)
If inconsistences are found on authoritative databases (a trusted
database that feeds information directly into Google and Bing) then
the validity of your business information is in doubt and your local
search presence is likely suffering
15A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Authority and User Experience
Your businessrsquos website URL is a key element of all online
directories In fact itrsquos so important that the common mention of
your businessrsquos name address phone number (NAP) citation is
typically referred to as a NAPU (name address phone number
URL)
Unfortunately just having a website isnrsquot enough Your website
has to be constructed in a way that search engines can easily find
the important information that theyrsquore looking for Typically search
engines are looking for the proper formatting and location of your
NAP Theyrsquore also looking at indicators like keyword presence in
your URL geographically optimized page titles geographically
optimized tags location of on-page keywords etc
Again every search engine has an extensive list of on-page
factors when determining local search rankings
An increasingly important ranking factor when determining
page authority is mobile usability In other words is your businessrsquos
website optimized for mobile devices Mobile experience is so
important to Google that itrsquos expected to release an algorithm
update that rewards businesses that provide a positive mobile
experience (For more on user experience check out our blog post
about mobile usability)
6
IMAGE NEW OLD STOCK
16A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Quantity of Credible Reviews
A search enginersquos number one goal is to deliver the most
relevant results possible for any given search A powerful
indication of a businessrsquos relevance to a search query is the
amount (and quality) of consumer reviews Most online directories
allow consumers to leave reviews on a local listing page that
reflects their experience with that business Some directories
would allow your cat to leave a review while others have more
rigorous policies than the TSA
Much like citations search engines aggregate consumer
reviews from third-party sites as part of their ranking algorithms As
you can imagine the more credible the review the more weight it
holds as a local search ranking factor Google and Bing award the
highest value to reviews left on their respective local listing pages
but they also seriously value reviews left on Yelp TripAdvisor
Angiersquos List and many others
7
The more credible the review the more weight it holds
IMAGE DOUGWOODS CREATIVE COMMONS
17A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Wait Before you ask everyone in your office to leave a review
on your local listing pages consider this Only authentic reviews
are valuable Google and Yelp are notorious for filtering suspicious
reviews Both companies strongly condemn reviews that are
solicited or incentivized For example if your business has only
earned two reviews in the last six months and suddenly seven new
reviews come in on the same day a red flag is immediately raised
Google and Yelp look at several indicators to determine whether
a review is authentic or not First theyrsquoll look at the profile history of
the person leaving the review They want to see how old the profile
is whether the reviewer has left reviews before and the reviewerrsquos
location Search engines will also take into account the rating of
the review itself For example if your business has received 40
reviews all with a perfect five star rating it might seem a little fishy
Itrsquos our experience that good reviews are important but a few ldquoOKrdquo
reviews make the good ones more trustworthy
18A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Local search marketing is all about being found online
What happens when you search for your business Is your
business being found
Local search optimization is dependent upon hundreds of
constantly changing factors Submitting your businesss
information to one directory alone isnt enough
Business categories are a fundamental part of local search
marketing Be sure to spend some time researching before
you choose yours
Geographic proximity plays a big part in your businesss
search results Google will decide which results are most
relevant to the searcher based on their location
How many citations (or times your business is mentioned
on the internet) does your business have How consistent
is the information These are important questions
Your businesss website URL is key to success in local
search marketing Your website should be constructed
in a way that translates to search engines especially on
mobile
Search engines hold reviews in high regard Review sites
are always on the look out for manipulation so make sure
your reviewers are credible
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Local Search Marketing Take-Aways
We connect powerful systems with powerful people
Like what you learnedRead more about what we do
TALK TO AN EXPERT
LOCAL SEARCH PAID ADVERTISING SOCIAL CONTENT
Ready to Get Started
Copyright copy 2015 RevLocal All rights reserved
10A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
help it Google determines proximity of a businessrsquos address to a
predetermined ldquocentroidrdquo which is usually the city center of the
respective city yoursquore searching in Make sense
So if your business is located on the outskirts of town are you
playing against a stacked deck No therersquos still plenty of hope
for you The first interesting thing to note about address proximity
is that Google will actually move the centroid to the center of an
industryrsquos hub in the city yoursquore searching in
Letrsquos look at an example Yoursquore visiting Columbus OH and
yoursquore looking for a place to grab a bite to eat When searching
restaurants Columbus Google will move its ldquorestaurantrdquo centroid
slightly west of the city center because of the cluster of popular
restaurants nearby and the lack of restaurants east of downtown
And herersquos the other huge factor in address proximity mobile
searches Eighty-eight percent of searches on smartphones have
local intent Mobile devices provide search engines with your
exact location instead of the general vicinity of your IP Address
Search engines understand that consumer intent is much different
for mobile searches than desktop searches which is why search
engines place more relevance on the businesses closest to your
search
11A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Try it yourself Search for the same keyword on your
phone and your desktop in the same location Look at
the differences between results Of course address
proximity is only one factor in local search optimization
but it is one thatrsquos often misunderstood
12A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Quantity and Consistency of Citations
As we mentioned before search engines rely on information
from third-party directories to determine the authenticity of a local
listing page These are called citations Citations are mentions of
your business name address and phone number (NAP) on third
party directories Citations are a key component of Google and
Bingrsquos ranking algorithms With all factors being equal businesses
with a higher number of citations will likely rank higher than
businesses with only a few
Citations are a great way to earn trust from search engines
if you have your facts straight However if search engines find
inconsistencies in your citations you could be severely penalized
For example your business may have moved or changed its phone
number over the years If old information is still populating third-
party directories then your citations arenrsquot telling Google and Bing
the same story This is a problem
5
Directories should tell Google the same story
IMAGE WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
13A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Letrsquos use Wilt Chamberlainrsquos 100 point game to better explain
citations
On March 2 1962 Wilt Chamberlain set the NBA single-game
scoring record by scoring 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors
in a 169-147 win over the New York Knicks This is commonly
accepted as a fact but with no video footage or any members of
the New York press in attendance how do we know for certain
With little ldquofactualrdquo proof you have to trust the sources that
were in the attendance Letrsquos say there were 4000 people in
attendance that night which means there were 4000 individual
accounts of the events that transpired Letrsquos also assume that the
firsthand accounts of certain individuals hold more weight than
others This more influential group would include players coaches
scorekeepers and local press
If all 4000 people left the arena and agreed that with 46
seconds to go in the game Chamberlain scored his 100th point
then therersquos little reason to dispute the story despite the lack of
factual proof We can even go one step further and check the score
sheet to confirm Chamberlainrsquos point total
However if there were a large number of discrepancies in the
IMAGE WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
14A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
story then the record feat will seem more suspicious And what if
the record was even disputed by a few members of the local media
that were present Perhaps a couple of reporters published stories
claiming that Chamberlain was incorrectly awarded a basket in
the first half because it was actually tipped in by Chamberlainrsquos
teammate Paul Arizin What do you believe Did Chamberlain
score 100 points or actually finish with 98
This is exactly how citations work Search engines will be
forgiving if you have minor inconsistencies on a lesser valued
directory However there are a handful of directories that have a
lot more authority than others (similar to the reporters at the game)
If inconsistences are found on authoritative databases (a trusted
database that feeds information directly into Google and Bing) then
the validity of your business information is in doubt and your local
search presence is likely suffering
15A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Authority and User Experience
Your businessrsquos website URL is a key element of all online
directories In fact itrsquos so important that the common mention of
your businessrsquos name address phone number (NAP) citation is
typically referred to as a NAPU (name address phone number
URL)
Unfortunately just having a website isnrsquot enough Your website
has to be constructed in a way that search engines can easily find
the important information that theyrsquore looking for Typically search
engines are looking for the proper formatting and location of your
NAP Theyrsquore also looking at indicators like keyword presence in
your URL geographically optimized page titles geographically
optimized tags location of on-page keywords etc
Again every search engine has an extensive list of on-page
factors when determining local search rankings
An increasingly important ranking factor when determining
page authority is mobile usability In other words is your businessrsquos
website optimized for mobile devices Mobile experience is so
important to Google that itrsquos expected to release an algorithm
update that rewards businesses that provide a positive mobile
experience (For more on user experience check out our blog post
about mobile usability)
6
IMAGE NEW OLD STOCK
16A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Quantity of Credible Reviews
A search enginersquos number one goal is to deliver the most
relevant results possible for any given search A powerful
indication of a businessrsquos relevance to a search query is the
amount (and quality) of consumer reviews Most online directories
allow consumers to leave reviews on a local listing page that
reflects their experience with that business Some directories
would allow your cat to leave a review while others have more
rigorous policies than the TSA
Much like citations search engines aggregate consumer
reviews from third-party sites as part of their ranking algorithms As
you can imagine the more credible the review the more weight it
holds as a local search ranking factor Google and Bing award the
highest value to reviews left on their respective local listing pages
but they also seriously value reviews left on Yelp TripAdvisor
Angiersquos List and many others
7
The more credible the review the more weight it holds
IMAGE DOUGWOODS CREATIVE COMMONS
17A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Wait Before you ask everyone in your office to leave a review
on your local listing pages consider this Only authentic reviews
are valuable Google and Yelp are notorious for filtering suspicious
reviews Both companies strongly condemn reviews that are
solicited or incentivized For example if your business has only
earned two reviews in the last six months and suddenly seven new
reviews come in on the same day a red flag is immediately raised
Google and Yelp look at several indicators to determine whether
a review is authentic or not First theyrsquoll look at the profile history of
the person leaving the review They want to see how old the profile
is whether the reviewer has left reviews before and the reviewerrsquos
location Search engines will also take into account the rating of
the review itself For example if your business has received 40
reviews all with a perfect five star rating it might seem a little fishy
Itrsquos our experience that good reviews are important but a few ldquoOKrdquo
reviews make the good ones more trustworthy
18A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Local search marketing is all about being found online
What happens when you search for your business Is your
business being found
Local search optimization is dependent upon hundreds of
constantly changing factors Submitting your businesss
information to one directory alone isnt enough
Business categories are a fundamental part of local search
marketing Be sure to spend some time researching before
you choose yours
Geographic proximity plays a big part in your businesss
search results Google will decide which results are most
relevant to the searcher based on their location
How many citations (or times your business is mentioned
on the internet) does your business have How consistent
is the information These are important questions
Your businesss website URL is key to success in local
search marketing Your website should be constructed
in a way that translates to search engines especially on
mobile
Search engines hold reviews in high regard Review sites
are always on the look out for manipulation so make sure
your reviewers are credible
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Local Search Marketing Take-Aways
We connect powerful systems with powerful people
Like what you learnedRead more about what we do
TALK TO AN EXPERT
LOCAL SEARCH PAID ADVERTISING SOCIAL CONTENT
Ready to Get Started
Copyright copy 2015 RevLocal All rights reserved
11A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Try it yourself Search for the same keyword on your
phone and your desktop in the same location Look at
the differences between results Of course address
proximity is only one factor in local search optimization
but it is one thatrsquos often misunderstood
12A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Quantity and Consistency of Citations
As we mentioned before search engines rely on information
from third-party directories to determine the authenticity of a local
listing page These are called citations Citations are mentions of
your business name address and phone number (NAP) on third
party directories Citations are a key component of Google and
Bingrsquos ranking algorithms With all factors being equal businesses
with a higher number of citations will likely rank higher than
businesses with only a few
Citations are a great way to earn trust from search engines
if you have your facts straight However if search engines find
inconsistencies in your citations you could be severely penalized
For example your business may have moved or changed its phone
number over the years If old information is still populating third-
party directories then your citations arenrsquot telling Google and Bing
the same story This is a problem
5
Directories should tell Google the same story
IMAGE WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
13A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Letrsquos use Wilt Chamberlainrsquos 100 point game to better explain
citations
On March 2 1962 Wilt Chamberlain set the NBA single-game
scoring record by scoring 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors
in a 169-147 win over the New York Knicks This is commonly
accepted as a fact but with no video footage or any members of
the New York press in attendance how do we know for certain
With little ldquofactualrdquo proof you have to trust the sources that
were in the attendance Letrsquos say there were 4000 people in
attendance that night which means there were 4000 individual
accounts of the events that transpired Letrsquos also assume that the
firsthand accounts of certain individuals hold more weight than
others This more influential group would include players coaches
scorekeepers and local press
If all 4000 people left the arena and agreed that with 46
seconds to go in the game Chamberlain scored his 100th point
then therersquos little reason to dispute the story despite the lack of
factual proof We can even go one step further and check the score
sheet to confirm Chamberlainrsquos point total
However if there were a large number of discrepancies in the
IMAGE WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
14A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
story then the record feat will seem more suspicious And what if
the record was even disputed by a few members of the local media
that were present Perhaps a couple of reporters published stories
claiming that Chamberlain was incorrectly awarded a basket in
the first half because it was actually tipped in by Chamberlainrsquos
teammate Paul Arizin What do you believe Did Chamberlain
score 100 points or actually finish with 98
This is exactly how citations work Search engines will be
forgiving if you have minor inconsistencies on a lesser valued
directory However there are a handful of directories that have a
lot more authority than others (similar to the reporters at the game)
If inconsistences are found on authoritative databases (a trusted
database that feeds information directly into Google and Bing) then
the validity of your business information is in doubt and your local
search presence is likely suffering
15A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Authority and User Experience
Your businessrsquos website URL is a key element of all online
directories In fact itrsquos so important that the common mention of
your businessrsquos name address phone number (NAP) citation is
typically referred to as a NAPU (name address phone number
URL)
Unfortunately just having a website isnrsquot enough Your website
has to be constructed in a way that search engines can easily find
the important information that theyrsquore looking for Typically search
engines are looking for the proper formatting and location of your
NAP Theyrsquore also looking at indicators like keyword presence in
your URL geographically optimized page titles geographically
optimized tags location of on-page keywords etc
Again every search engine has an extensive list of on-page
factors when determining local search rankings
An increasingly important ranking factor when determining
page authority is mobile usability In other words is your businessrsquos
website optimized for mobile devices Mobile experience is so
important to Google that itrsquos expected to release an algorithm
update that rewards businesses that provide a positive mobile
experience (For more on user experience check out our blog post
about mobile usability)
6
IMAGE NEW OLD STOCK
16A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Quantity of Credible Reviews
A search enginersquos number one goal is to deliver the most
relevant results possible for any given search A powerful
indication of a businessrsquos relevance to a search query is the
amount (and quality) of consumer reviews Most online directories
allow consumers to leave reviews on a local listing page that
reflects their experience with that business Some directories
would allow your cat to leave a review while others have more
rigorous policies than the TSA
Much like citations search engines aggregate consumer
reviews from third-party sites as part of their ranking algorithms As
you can imagine the more credible the review the more weight it
holds as a local search ranking factor Google and Bing award the
highest value to reviews left on their respective local listing pages
but they also seriously value reviews left on Yelp TripAdvisor
Angiersquos List and many others
7
The more credible the review the more weight it holds
IMAGE DOUGWOODS CREATIVE COMMONS
17A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Wait Before you ask everyone in your office to leave a review
on your local listing pages consider this Only authentic reviews
are valuable Google and Yelp are notorious for filtering suspicious
reviews Both companies strongly condemn reviews that are
solicited or incentivized For example if your business has only
earned two reviews in the last six months and suddenly seven new
reviews come in on the same day a red flag is immediately raised
Google and Yelp look at several indicators to determine whether
a review is authentic or not First theyrsquoll look at the profile history of
the person leaving the review They want to see how old the profile
is whether the reviewer has left reviews before and the reviewerrsquos
location Search engines will also take into account the rating of
the review itself For example if your business has received 40
reviews all with a perfect five star rating it might seem a little fishy
Itrsquos our experience that good reviews are important but a few ldquoOKrdquo
reviews make the good ones more trustworthy
18A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Local search marketing is all about being found online
What happens when you search for your business Is your
business being found
Local search optimization is dependent upon hundreds of
constantly changing factors Submitting your businesss
information to one directory alone isnt enough
Business categories are a fundamental part of local search
marketing Be sure to spend some time researching before
you choose yours
Geographic proximity plays a big part in your businesss
search results Google will decide which results are most
relevant to the searcher based on their location
How many citations (or times your business is mentioned
on the internet) does your business have How consistent
is the information These are important questions
Your businesss website URL is key to success in local
search marketing Your website should be constructed
in a way that translates to search engines especially on
mobile
Search engines hold reviews in high regard Review sites
are always on the look out for manipulation so make sure
your reviewers are credible
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Local Search Marketing Take-Aways
We connect powerful systems with powerful people
Like what you learnedRead more about what we do
TALK TO AN EXPERT
LOCAL SEARCH PAID ADVERTISING SOCIAL CONTENT
Ready to Get Started
Copyright copy 2015 RevLocal All rights reserved
12A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Quantity and Consistency of Citations
As we mentioned before search engines rely on information
from third-party directories to determine the authenticity of a local
listing page These are called citations Citations are mentions of
your business name address and phone number (NAP) on third
party directories Citations are a key component of Google and
Bingrsquos ranking algorithms With all factors being equal businesses
with a higher number of citations will likely rank higher than
businesses with only a few
Citations are a great way to earn trust from search engines
if you have your facts straight However if search engines find
inconsistencies in your citations you could be severely penalized
For example your business may have moved or changed its phone
number over the years If old information is still populating third-
party directories then your citations arenrsquot telling Google and Bing
the same story This is a problem
5
Directories should tell Google the same story
IMAGE WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
13A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Letrsquos use Wilt Chamberlainrsquos 100 point game to better explain
citations
On March 2 1962 Wilt Chamberlain set the NBA single-game
scoring record by scoring 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors
in a 169-147 win over the New York Knicks This is commonly
accepted as a fact but with no video footage or any members of
the New York press in attendance how do we know for certain
With little ldquofactualrdquo proof you have to trust the sources that
were in the attendance Letrsquos say there were 4000 people in
attendance that night which means there were 4000 individual
accounts of the events that transpired Letrsquos also assume that the
firsthand accounts of certain individuals hold more weight than
others This more influential group would include players coaches
scorekeepers and local press
If all 4000 people left the arena and agreed that with 46
seconds to go in the game Chamberlain scored his 100th point
then therersquos little reason to dispute the story despite the lack of
factual proof We can even go one step further and check the score
sheet to confirm Chamberlainrsquos point total
However if there were a large number of discrepancies in the
IMAGE WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
14A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
story then the record feat will seem more suspicious And what if
the record was even disputed by a few members of the local media
that were present Perhaps a couple of reporters published stories
claiming that Chamberlain was incorrectly awarded a basket in
the first half because it was actually tipped in by Chamberlainrsquos
teammate Paul Arizin What do you believe Did Chamberlain
score 100 points or actually finish with 98
This is exactly how citations work Search engines will be
forgiving if you have minor inconsistencies on a lesser valued
directory However there are a handful of directories that have a
lot more authority than others (similar to the reporters at the game)
If inconsistences are found on authoritative databases (a trusted
database that feeds information directly into Google and Bing) then
the validity of your business information is in doubt and your local
search presence is likely suffering
15A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Authority and User Experience
Your businessrsquos website URL is a key element of all online
directories In fact itrsquos so important that the common mention of
your businessrsquos name address phone number (NAP) citation is
typically referred to as a NAPU (name address phone number
URL)
Unfortunately just having a website isnrsquot enough Your website
has to be constructed in a way that search engines can easily find
the important information that theyrsquore looking for Typically search
engines are looking for the proper formatting and location of your
NAP Theyrsquore also looking at indicators like keyword presence in
your URL geographically optimized page titles geographically
optimized tags location of on-page keywords etc
Again every search engine has an extensive list of on-page
factors when determining local search rankings
An increasingly important ranking factor when determining
page authority is mobile usability In other words is your businessrsquos
website optimized for mobile devices Mobile experience is so
important to Google that itrsquos expected to release an algorithm
update that rewards businesses that provide a positive mobile
experience (For more on user experience check out our blog post
about mobile usability)
6
IMAGE NEW OLD STOCK
16A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Quantity of Credible Reviews
A search enginersquos number one goal is to deliver the most
relevant results possible for any given search A powerful
indication of a businessrsquos relevance to a search query is the
amount (and quality) of consumer reviews Most online directories
allow consumers to leave reviews on a local listing page that
reflects their experience with that business Some directories
would allow your cat to leave a review while others have more
rigorous policies than the TSA
Much like citations search engines aggregate consumer
reviews from third-party sites as part of their ranking algorithms As
you can imagine the more credible the review the more weight it
holds as a local search ranking factor Google and Bing award the
highest value to reviews left on their respective local listing pages
but they also seriously value reviews left on Yelp TripAdvisor
Angiersquos List and many others
7
The more credible the review the more weight it holds
IMAGE DOUGWOODS CREATIVE COMMONS
17A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Wait Before you ask everyone in your office to leave a review
on your local listing pages consider this Only authentic reviews
are valuable Google and Yelp are notorious for filtering suspicious
reviews Both companies strongly condemn reviews that are
solicited or incentivized For example if your business has only
earned two reviews in the last six months and suddenly seven new
reviews come in on the same day a red flag is immediately raised
Google and Yelp look at several indicators to determine whether
a review is authentic or not First theyrsquoll look at the profile history of
the person leaving the review They want to see how old the profile
is whether the reviewer has left reviews before and the reviewerrsquos
location Search engines will also take into account the rating of
the review itself For example if your business has received 40
reviews all with a perfect five star rating it might seem a little fishy
Itrsquos our experience that good reviews are important but a few ldquoOKrdquo
reviews make the good ones more trustworthy
18A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Local search marketing is all about being found online
What happens when you search for your business Is your
business being found
Local search optimization is dependent upon hundreds of
constantly changing factors Submitting your businesss
information to one directory alone isnt enough
Business categories are a fundamental part of local search
marketing Be sure to spend some time researching before
you choose yours
Geographic proximity plays a big part in your businesss
search results Google will decide which results are most
relevant to the searcher based on their location
How many citations (or times your business is mentioned
on the internet) does your business have How consistent
is the information These are important questions
Your businesss website URL is key to success in local
search marketing Your website should be constructed
in a way that translates to search engines especially on
mobile
Search engines hold reviews in high regard Review sites
are always on the look out for manipulation so make sure
your reviewers are credible
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Local Search Marketing Take-Aways
We connect powerful systems with powerful people
Like what you learnedRead more about what we do
TALK TO AN EXPERT
LOCAL SEARCH PAID ADVERTISING SOCIAL CONTENT
Ready to Get Started
Copyright copy 2015 RevLocal All rights reserved
13A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Letrsquos use Wilt Chamberlainrsquos 100 point game to better explain
citations
On March 2 1962 Wilt Chamberlain set the NBA single-game
scoring record by scoring 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors
in a 169-147 win over the New York Knicks This is commonly
accepted as a fact but with no video footage or any members of
the New York press in attendance how do we know for certain
With little ldquofactualrdquo proof you have to trust the sources that
were in the attendance Letrsquos say there were 4000 people in
attendance that night which means there were 4000 individual
accounts of the events that transpired Letrsquos also assume that the
firsthand accounts of certain individuals hold more weight than
others This more influential group would include players coaches
scorekeepers and local press
If all 4000 people left the arena and agreed that with 46
seconds to go in the game Chamberlain scored his 100th point
then therersquos little reason to dispute the story despite the lack of
factual proof We can even go one step further and check the score
sheet to confirm Chamberlainrsquos point total
However if there were a large number of discrepancies in the
IMAGE WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
14A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
story then the record feat will seem more suspicious And what if
the record was even disputed by a few members of the local media
that were present Perhaps a couple of reporters published stories
claiming that Chamberlain was incorrectly awarded a basket in
the first half because it was actually tipped in by Chamberlainrsquos
teammate Paul Arizin What do you believe Did Chamberlain
score 100 points or actually finish with 98
This is exactly how citations work Search engines will be
forgiving if you have minor inconsistencies on a lesser valued
directory However there are a handful of directories that have a
lot more authority than others (similar to the reporters at the game)
If inconsistences are found on authoritative databases (a trusted
database that feeds information directly into Google and Bing) then
the validity of your business information is in doubt and your local
search presence is likely suffering
15A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Authority and User Experience
Your businessrsquos website URL is a key element of all online
directories In fact itrsquos so important that the common mention of
your businessrsquos name address phone number (NAP) citation is
typically referred to as a NAPU (name address phone number
URL)
Unfortunately just having a website isnrsquot enough Your website
has to be constructed in a way that search engines can easily find
the important information that theyrsquore looking for Typically search
engines are looking for the proper formatting and location of your
NAP Theyrsquore also looking at indicators like keyword presence in
your URL geographically optimized page titles geographically
optimized tags location of on-page keywords etc
Again every search engine has an extensive list of on-page
factors when determining local search rankings
An increasingly important ranking factor when determining
page authority is mobile usability In other words is your businessrsquos
website optimized for mobile devices Mobile experience is so
important to Google that itrsquos expected to release an algorithm
update that rewards businesses that provide a positive mobile
experience (For more on user experience check out our blog post
about mobile usability)
6
IMAGE NEW OLD STOCK
16A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Quantity of Credible Reviews
A search enginersquos number one goal is to deliver the most
relevant results possible for any given search A powerful
indication of a businessrsquos relevance to a search query is the
amount (and quality) of consumer reviews Most online directories
allow consumers to leave reviews on a local listing page that
reflects their experience with that business Some directories
would allow your cat to leave a review while others have more
rigorous policies than the TSA
Much like citations search engines aggregate consumer
reviews from third-party sites as part of their ranking algorithms As
you can imagine the more credible the review the more weight it
holds as a local search ranking factor Google and Bing award the
highest value to reviews left on their respective local listing pages
but they also seriously value reviews left on Yelp TripAdvisor
Angiersquos List and many others
7
The more credible the review the more weight it holds
IMAGE DOUGWOODS CREATIVE COMMONS
17A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Wait Before you ask everyone in your office to leave a review
on your local listing pages consider this Only authentic reviews
are valuable Google and Yelp are notorious for filtering suspicious
reviews Both companies strongly condemn reviews that are
solicited or incentivized For example if your business has only
earned two reviews in the last six months and suddenly seven new
reviews come in on the same day a red flag is immediately raised
Google and Yelp look at several indicators to determine whether
a review is authentic or not First theyrsquoll look at the profile history of
the person leaving the review They want to see how old the profile
is whether the reviewer has left reviews before and the reviewerrsquos
location Search engines will also take into account the rating of
the review itself For example if your business has received 40
reviews all with a perfect five star rating it might seem a little fishy
Itrsquos our experience that good reviews are important but a few ldquoOKrdquo
reviews make the good ones more trustworthy
18A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Local search marketing is all about being found online
What happens when you search for your business Is your
business being found
Local search optimization is dependent upon hundreds of
constantly changing factors Submitting your businesss
information to one directory alone isnt enough
Business categories are a fundamental part of local search
marketing Be sure to spend some time researching before
you choose yours
Geographic proximity plays a big part in your businesss
search results Google will decide which results are most
relevant to the searcher based on their location
How many citations (or times your business is mentioned
on the internet) does your business have How consistent
is the information These are important questions
Your businesss website URL is key to success in local
search marketing Your website should be constructed
in a way that translates to search engines especially on
mobile
Search engines hold reviews in high regard Review sites
are always on the look out for manipulation so make sure
your reviewers are credible
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Local Search Marketing Take-Aways
We connect powerful systems with powerful people
Like what you learnedRead more about what we do
TALK TO AN EXPERT
LOCAL SEARCH PAID ADVERTISING SOCIAL CONTENT
Ready to Get Started
Copyright copy 2015 RevLocal All rights reserved
14A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
story then the record feat will seem more suspicious And what if
the record was even disputed by a few members of the local media
that were present Perhaps a couple of reporters published stories
claiming that Chamberlain was incorrectly awarded a basket in
the first half because it was actually tipped in by Chamberlainrsquos
teammate Paul Arizin What do you believe Did Chamberlain
score 100 points or actually finish with 98
This is exactly how citations work Search engines will be
forgiving if you have minor inconsistencies on a lesser valued
directory However there are a handful of directories that have a
lot more authority than others (similar to the reporters at the game)
If inconsistences are found on authoritative databases (a trusted
database that feeds information directly into Google and Bing) then
the validity of your business information is in doubt and your local
search presence is likely suffering
15A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Authority and User Experience
Your businessrsquos website URL is a key element of all online
directories In fact itrsquos so important that the common mention of
your businessrsquos name address phone number (NAP) citation is
typically referred to as a NAPU (name address phone number
URL)
Unfortunately just having a website isnrsquot enough Your website
has to be constructed in a way that search engines can easily find
the important information that theyrsquore looking for Typically search
engines are looking for the proper formatting and location of your
NAP Theyrsquore also looking at indicators like keyword presence in
your URL geographically optimized page titles geographically
optimized tags location of on-page keywords etc
Again every search engine has an extensive list of on-page
factors when determining local search rankings
An increasingly important ranking factor when determining
page authority is mobile usability In other words is your businessrsquos
website optimized for mobile devices Mobile experience is so
important to Google that itrsquos expected to release an algorithm
update that rewards businesses that provide a positive mobile
experience (For more on user experience check out our blog post
about mobile usability)
6
IMAGE NEW OLD STOCK
16A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Quantity of Credible Reviews
A search enginersquos number one goal is to deliver the most
relevant results possible for any given search A powerful
indication of a businessrsquos relevance to a search query is the
amount (and quality) of consumer reviews Most online directories
allow consumers to leave reviews on a local listing page that
reflects their experience with that business Some directories
would allow your cat to leave a review while others have more
rigorous policies than the TSA
Much like citations search engines aggregate consumer
reviews from third-party sites as part of their ranking algorithms As
you can imagine the more credible the review the more weight it
holds as a local search ranking factor Google and Bing award the
highest value to reviews left on their respective local listing pages
but they also seriously value reviews left on Yelp TripAdvisor
Angiersquos List and many others
7
The more credible the review the more weight it holds
IMAGE DOUGWOODS CREATIVE COMMONS
17A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Wait Before you ask everyone in your office to leave a review
on your local listing pages consider this Only authentic reviews
are valuable Google and Yelp are notorious for filtering suspicious
reviews Both companies strongly condemn reviews that are
solicited or incentivized For example if your business has only
earned two reviews in the last six months and suddenly seven new
reviews come in on the same day a red flag is immediately raised
Google and Yelp look at several indicators to determine whether
a review is authentic or not First theyrsquoll look at the profile history of
the person leaving the review They want to see how old the profile
is whether the reviewer has left reviews before and the reviewerrsquos
location Search engines will also take into account the rating of
the review itself For example if your business has received 40
reviews all with a perfect five star rating it might seem a little fishy
Itrsquos our experience that good reviews are important but a few ldquoOKrdquo
reviews make the good ones more trustworthy
18A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Local search marketing is all about being found online
What happens when you search for your business Is your
business being found
Local search optimization is dependent upon hundreds of
constantly changing factors Submitting your businesss
information to one directory alone isnt enough
Business categories are a fundamental part of local search
marketing Be sure to spend some time researching before
you choose yours
Geographic proximity plays a big part in your businesss
search results Google will decide which results are most
relevant to the searcher based on their location
How many citations (or times your business is mentioned
on the internet) does your business have How consistent
is the information These are important questions
Your businesss website URL is key to success in local
search marketing Your website should be constructed
in a way that translates to search engines especially on
mobile
Search engines hold reviews in high regard Review sites
are always on the look out for manipulation so make sure
your reviewers are credible
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Local Search Marketing Take-Aways
We connect powerful systems with powerful people
Like what you learnedRead more about what we do
TALK TO AN EXPERT
LOCAL SEARCH PAID ADVERTISING SOCIAL CONTENT
Ready to Get Started
Copyright copy 2015 RevLocal All rights reserved
15A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Authority and User Experience
Your businessrsquos website URL is a key element of all online
directories In fact itrsquos so important that the common mention of
your businessrsquos name address phone number (NAP) citation is
typically referred to as a NAPU (name address phone number
URL)
Unfortunately just having a website isnrsquot enough Your website
has to be constructed in a way that search engines can easily find
the important information that theyrsquore looking for Typically search
engines are looking for the proper formatting and location of your
NAP Theyrsquore also looking at indicators like keyword presence in
your URL geographically optimized page titles geographically
optimized tags location of on-page keywords etc
Again every search engine has an extensive list of on-page
factors when determining local search rankings
An increasingly important ranking factor when determining
page authority is mobile usability In other words is your businessrsquos
website optimized for mobile devices Mobile experience is so
important to Google that itrsquos expected to release an algorithm
update that rewards businesses that provide a positive mobile
experience (For more on user experience check out our blog post
about mobile usability)
6
IMAGE NEW OLD STOCK
16A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Quantity of Credible Reviews
A search enginersquos number one goal is to deliver the most
relevant results possible for any given search A powerful
indication of a businessrsquos relevance to a search query is the
amount (and quality) of consumer reviews Most online directories
allow consumers to leave reviews on a local listing page that
reflects their experience with that business Some directories
would allow your cat to leave a review while others have more
rigorous policies than the TSA
Much like citations search engines aggregate consumer
reviews from third-party sites as part of their ranking algorithms As
you can imagine the more credible the review the more weight it
holds as a local search ranking factor Google and Bing award the
highest value to reviews left on their respective local listing pages
but they also seriously value reviews left on Yelp TripAdvisor
Angiersquos List and many others
7
The more credible the review the more weight it holds
IMAGE DOUGWOODS CREATIVE COMMONS
17A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Wait Before you ask everyone in your office to leave a review
on your local listing pages consider this Only authentic reviews
are valuable Google and Yelp are notorious for filtering suspicious
reviews Both companies strongly condemn reviews that are
solicited or incentivized For example if your business has only
earned two reviews in the last six months and suddenly seven new
reviews come in on the same day a red flag is immediately raised
Google and Yelp look at several indicators to determine whether
a review is authentic or not First theyrsquoll look at the profile history of
the person leaving the review They want to see how old the profile
is whether the reviewer has left reviews before and the reviewerrsquos
location Search engines will also take into account the rating of
the review itself For example if your business has received 40
reviews all with a perfect five star rating it might seem a little fishy
Itrsquos our experience that good reviews are important but a few ldquoOKrdquo
reviews make the good ones more trustworthy
18A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Local search marketing is all about being found online
What happens when you search for your business Is your
business being found
Local search optimization is dependent upon hundreds of
constantly changing factors Submitting your businesss
information to one directory alone isnt enough
Business categories are a fundamental part of local search
marketing Be sure to spend some time researching before
you choose yours
Geographic proximity plays a big part in your businesss
search results Google will decide which results are most
relevant to the searcher based on their location
How many citations (or times your business is mentioned
on the internet) does your business have How consistent
is the information These are important questions
Your businesss website URL is key to success in local
search marketing Your website should be constructed
in a way that translates to search engines especially on
mobile
Search engines hold reviews in high regard Review sites
are always on the look out for manipulation so make sure
your reviewers are credible
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Local Search Marketing Take-Aways
We connect powerful systems with powerful people
Like what you learnedRead more about what we do
TALK TO AN EXPERT
LOCAL SEARCH PAID ADVERTISING SOCIAL CONTENT
Ready to Get Started
Copyright copy 2015 RevLocal All rights reserved
16A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Quantity of Credible Reviews
A search enginersquos number one goal is to deliver the most
relevant results possible for any given search A powerful
indication of a businessrsquos relevance to a search query is the
amount (and quality) of consumer reviews Most online directories
allow consumers to leave reviews on a local listing page that
reflects their experience with that business Some directories
would allow your cat to leave a review while others have more
rigorous policies than the TSA
Much like citations search engines aggregate consumer
reviews from third-party sites as part of their ranking algorithms As
you can imagine the more credible the review the more weight it
holds as a local search ranking factor Google and Bing award the
highest value to reviews left on their respective local listing pages
but they also seriously value reviews left on Yelp TripAdvisor
Angiersquos List and many others
7
The more credible the review the more weight it holds
IMAGE DOUGWOODS CREATIVE COMMONS
17A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Wait Before you ask everyone in your office to leave a review
on your local listing pages consider this Only authentic reviews
are valuable Google and Yelp are notorious for filtering suspicious
reviews Both companies strongly condemn reviews that are
solicited or incentivized For example if your business has only
earned two reviews in the last six months and suddenly seven new
reviews come in on the same day a red flag is immediately raised
Google and Yelp look at several indicators to determine whether
a review is authentic or not First theyrsquoll look at the profile history of
the person leaving the review They want to see how old the profile
is whether the reviewer has left reviews before and the reviewerrsquos
location Search engines will also take into account the rating of
the review itself For example if your business has received 40
reviews all with a perfect five star rating it might seem a little fishy
Itrsquos our experience that good reviews are important but a few ldquoOKrdquo
reviews make the good ones more trustworthy
18A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Local search marketing is all about being found online
What happens when you search for your business Is your
business being found
Local search optimization is dependent upon hundreds of
constantly changing factors Submitting your businesss
information to one directory alone isnt enough
Business categories are a fundamental part of local search
marketing Be sure to spend some time researching before
you choose yours
Geographic proximity plays a big part in your businesss
search results Google will decide which results are most
relevant to the searcher based on their location
How many citations (or times your business is mentioned
on the internet) does your business have How consistent
is the information These are important questions
Your businesss website URL is key to success in local
search marketing Your website should be constructed
in a way that translates to search engines especially on
mobile
Search engines hold reviews in high regard Review sites
are always on the look out for manipulation so make sure
your reviewers are credible
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Local Search Marketing Take-Aways
We connect powerful systems with powerful people
Like what you learnedRead more about what we do
TALK TO AN EXPERT
LOCAL SEARCH PAID ADVERTISING SOCIAL CONTENT
Ready to Get Started
Copyright copy 2015 RevLocal All rights reserved
17A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Wait Before you ask everyone in your office to leave a review
on your local listing pages consider this Only authentic reviews
are valuable Google and Yelp are notorious for filtering suspicious
reviews Both companies strongly condemn reviews that are
solicited or incentivized For example if your business has only
earned two reviews in the last six months and suddenly seven new
reviews come in on the same day a red flag is immediately raised
Google and Yelp look at several indicators to determine whether
a review is authentic or not First theyrsquoll look at the profile history of
the person leaving the review They want to see how old the profile
is whether the reviewer has left reviews before and the reviewerrsquos
location Search engines will also take into account the rating of
the review itself For example if your business has received 40
reviews all with a perfect five star rating it might seem a little fishy
Itrsquos our experience that good reviews are important but a few ldquoOKrdquo
reviews make the good ones more trustworthy
18A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Local search marketing is all about being found online
What happens when you search for your business Is your
business being found
Local search optimization is dependent upon hundreds of
constantly changing factors Submitting your businesss
information to one directory alone isnt enough
Business categories are a fundamental part of local search
marketing Be sure to spend some time researching before
you choose yours
Geographic proximity plays a big part in your businesss
search results Google will decide which results are most
relevant to the searcher based on their location
How many citations (or times your business is mentioned
on the internet) does your business have How consistent
is the information These are important questions
Your businesss website URL is key to success in local
search marketing Your website should be constructed
in a way that translates to search engines especially on
mobile
Search engines hold reviews in high regard Review sites
are always on the look out for manipulation so make sure
your reviewers are credible
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Local Search Marketing Take-Aways
We connect powerful systems with powerful people
Like what you learnedRead more about what we do
TALK TO AN EXPERT
LOCAL SEARCH PAID ADVERTISING SOCIAL CONTENT
Ready to Get Started
Copyright copy 2015 RevLocal All rights reserved
18A SMALL BUSINESSrsquoS GUIDE TO LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING sdot REVLOCALCOM
Local search marketing is all about being found online
What happens when you search for your business Is your
business being found
Local search optimization is dependent upon hundreds of
constantly changing factors Submitting your businesss
information to one directory alone isnt enough
Business categories are a fundamental part of local search
marketing Be sure to spend some time researching before
you choose yours
Geographic proximity plays a big part in your businesss
search results Google will decide which results are most
relevant to the searcher based on their location
How many citations (or times your business is mentioned
on the internet) does your business have How consistent
is the information These are important questions
Your businesss website URL is key to success in local
search marketing Your website should be constructed
in a way that translates to search engines especially on
mobile
Search engines hold reviews in high regard Review sites
are always on the look out for manipulation so make sure
your reviewers are credible
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Local Search Marketing Take-Aways
We connect powerful systems with powerful people
Like what you learnedRead more about what we do
TALK TO AN EXPERT
LOCAL SEARCH PAID ADVERTISING SOCIAL CONTENT
Ready to Get Started
Copyright copy 2015 RevLocal All rights reserved
We connect powerful systems with powerful people
Like what you learnedRead more about what we do
TALK TO AN EXPERT
LOCAL SEARCH PAID ADVERTISING SOCIAL CONTENT
Ready to Get Started
Copyright copy 2015 RevLocal All rights reserved