Local SEO & You: Kickstart Your Online Marketing

Simon Poulton

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Manager of Inbound Marketing Programs

SEO Overview

‣ What is SEO?– Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the

process of affecting the visibility of a website in a search engine’s organic search results.

‣ Why should I care?– SEO ultimately drives conversion.

According to the MarketingSherpa 2012 benchmark report, traffic from organic search accounted for 29% of conversions versus:

• 12% paid search• 6% social media• 25% e-mail marketing

What is “Inbound Marketing” anyway?

‣ Originally coined in 2005 by Brian Halligan, CEO of HubSpot.

‣ Inbound Marketing encompasses a wide range of advertising tactics used by marketers to “earn” their way into a prospective buyers view by providing high quality content at the right times, in the right places. This includes:

– Blogs, Podcasts, Video, eBooks, Whitepapers, Search engine optimization (SEO), Websites, Landing pages, Social media marketing and more recently, Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.

‣ Created as a reaction to “Interruption Marketing” not connecting with the right prospects at the right times. This includes:

– Search spam, Paid email lists, Print ads, Sales cold calls, Trade show booths, Paid app reviews, Banner/display ads

Online Marketing Model: See, Think, Do

See-Think-Do Content Marketing Model

‣ Recently adopted “See, Think, Do” model for content creation.

‣ Goal: Match different “levels” of content with prospect interests.

‣ Why? Most content we have is focused on customers, or prospects who are in the final buying stages.

Local Search Trinity

BRAND

LOCATIONWEBSITE

KML, Site Architecture

Google Places

For Business

Google PlusAuthorship, Publisher

SEO vs. PPC

‣ AdWords profits up 42% in 2013.

‣ NY Times Article: Massive inflation of AdWords CPC over time. Why?

SEO vs. PPC

SEO vs. PPC – AdWords Everywhere!

SEO vs. PPC

‣ A 2012 study of 1.4 billion searches by GroupM UK and Nielsen showed the organic listing won 85 percent of the clicks.

Have you seen this movie?

Search Engine Ranking Factors - 2013

‣ How does a search engine work?

Search Engine Ranking Factors - 2013

‣ What do we think the Google algorithm looks like?– Domain level authority factors:

• Backlink profiles (positively correlated with urls including .gov, .edu, highly linked & visited)

• MozRank, MozTrust, Social Signals• SERP CTR• More info: http://

moz.com/learn/seo/domain-authority– Page level factors:

• Avoid keyword cannibalization• Ensure appropriate use of keywords (no rule, but

focus on the person reading it, not the search engine)

• More info: http://moz.com/learn/seo/page-authority

Credit: Matt Peters - http://moz.com/blog/ranking-factors-2013

Search Engine Ranking Factors - 2013

‣ Factors we are watching in 2013

This is old news, right?

Content Development

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Content Creation & Syndication

‣ New eBooks – “Think”– Ultimate Guide to Document

Scanning – Ultimate Guide to Business

Continuity Planning– Related SlideShares

‣ What’s next? – Ultimate Guide to Records

Management– A Short History of Records

Management [Infographic]– Ultimate Guide to AP Automation

Blogging

‣ Simplicity 2.0‣ ECM Blog

– Guest blogging experiment

‣ Embedded value propositions

Landing Pages

‣ After multiple (30+) variations and tests of our value proposition landing pages, we were able to increase conversion by an average of 31.6%

‣ Example: Quicker, Better, Safer‣ How?

– Changing CTA language (Download vs. Get)

– Changing volume of text– Changing variety of graphics

Pictured: Volume of Copy Test

Anatomy of an optimized landing page

Example: Solbrekk

‣ Outsourcing is cheap & easy– Fiver– oDesk

Inbound Lead Generation - Demos

‣ At the end of 2012, we created the first “Request a Demo” landing page, since then, the volume of demo requests has grown significantly.

‣ During Q 2+3, there were a total of 631 demos requested.

‣ New initiatives:– ES Demo– Demo remarketing– Demo CTA on more pages

across website

Content Syndication Strategies

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LinkedIn

‣ LinkedIn has become our most strategically important social networks. Since January 2013, our number of followers has grown by 105% from 1060 to 2170.

‣ Why has growth accelerated?– Content experiments (Blog posts vs.

Company Announcements)– More users on LinkedIn– Targeted sponsored updates

‣ Moving forward, we are looking to include LinkedIn sponsored updates as part of the annual vertical marketing plans.

Social

‣ LinkedIn– Company

• Content sharing within network

• Products– Personal– Groups

LinkedIn

‣ No longer just HR pros and job hunters‣ Number 1 B2B network!‣ Growing all the time‣ “Accepted Social Media”‣ Over 100 million US users

LinkedIn: Profile

‣ Your personal brand‣ Not an online version of your resume‣ Best practices:

– Make your profile SEO friendly– Catchy headline– Professional profile picture– Endorsements– Recommendations– Make your profile robust with information– Showcase achievements – Update regularly

‣ Make yourself easy to find!

LinkedIn: Networking

‣ Who should you connect with?– Acquaintances, Friends & Family– Colleagues & Business Partners– Prospects– Customers

‣ LiONs – Who are they?

LinkedIn: Newsfeed

‣ LinkedIn version of Twitter‣ Content best practices:

– Target content– Make readers want to engage– Include images– Like posts from people you want likes from!

LinkedIn: Groups

‣ Research is key! ‣ Find your niche‣ Find event-specific groups‣ Monitor conversations‣ Engage when appropriate (not necessarily around the

brand)

Next Steps

‣ Optimize your profiles– Profile– Connections

‣ Research engagement opportunities– Events– Groups

‣ Set goals & execute!

Local SEO Quick Wins - Website

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Proper category associations

‣ Google Places for Business category tool

Consistency of structured citations

‣ A citation is any web-based mention of your company's partial or complete name, address, and phone number (NAP). A "structured citation" refers to a listing of your business in an online local business directory such as YP.com, HotFrog, or Best of the Web.

Quality/authority of structured citations

‣ concentrate on getting listed on a handful of really authoritative local business indexes and directories. Use the tool at GetListed.org 

Domain authority of website

‣ "Domain Authority" is a metric used to predict how well a website may perform in search results compared to other websites. Moz offers a Domain Authority toolbar called the MozBar that makes it easy to see the DA of any website in the search engine results.

Individually owner-verified local Plus page

‣ Creating your Google+ Local page for your local business is your first step to being included in Google's index. Your second step is to verify your ownership of the listing.

City, state in Places landing page title

‣ Your Google+ Local page should link to a page on your website. This page on your site will have an element in its code called a "Title Tag."

Quality/authority of inbound links to domain

‣ Because organic signals play a big part in local rankings, earning high quality links from authoritative sources will help your business to improve its visibility in the search engine results. A tool like the Open Site Explorer can help you to begin understanding both the number and quality of links currently pointing to your website:

Quantity of native Google Places reviews (w/text)

‣ Note: No local business needs to earn a ton of Google-based reviews at once. In fact, if you earn reviews at too great a velocity, you may find that some of them get filtered out.

Product/service keyword in business title

Quantity of citations from locally relevant domains

‣ Having your business NAP (name, address, phone number) mentioned on a website that relates specifically to your geographic community acts as a locally-relevant citation.

Questions?

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