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The key to success with local search engine optimization is to start small and stay focused on your customers. But by building slowly on your success, you can accomplish big things! In this presentation at David Mihm's Local University at SMX Advanced 2012 in Seattle, Jonathon Colman, the in-house SEO at REI, walks us through how he and his colleagues made the case to pursue local SEO and how REI later bought into a wide-ranging cross-channel customer strategy that had big wins for local search visibility. Watch out for a special guest appearance by Data the android from TV's "Star Trek: The Next Generation"! You can learn more about Jonathon Colman at http://www.jonathoncolman.org/
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Photo © Flickr user iL.C.Nøttaasen at flickr.com/photos/magnera/3157602186/
MAKING THE
CASEFOR LOCALSEARCH
Jonathon Colman
www.jonathoncolman.org
Twitter @jcolman
Agile SEO for REIwww.REI.com
AN INSIDE STORY OFSMALL CHANGES
AND SOME BIG WINS
Photo © Flickr user Sonofabike at flickr.com/photos/oyj/2609205311
We operate 123 stores in 30 states
Such as our Seattle Flagship Store:222 Yale Ave. NSeattle, WA 98109
Oooooh, a citation!
Traffic to our store pagesfrom local organic searchis growing at +25% YTD
+25%
It wasn’t always this way
BUT
Just 2 years ago, we weren’tgrowing our organic trafficto local store content at all
2
Photo © Flickr user Petereed at flickr.com/photos/petereed/496392956/
Photo © Flickr user Petereed at flickr.com/photos/petereed/496392956/
Other priorities
Better opportunities
Right idea, Wrong time
Wrong idea, Wrong time
No budget right now
Who willown it?
This is not what we do
This not how we do this
Someone else’s job
Someone else’s budget
Someone else’s metrics
Someone else’s fault
It will take too long
ROI can’t be measured
How do we find this?
Photo © Flickr user loop_oh at flickr.com/photos/loop_oh/4541017817/
Photo © Flickr user Thomas Hawk at flickr.com/photos/thomashawk/540936323/
By assigning value to indicators of off-line
activities.
Photo © Flickr user Thomas Hawk at flickr.com/photos/thomashawk/540936323/
• Store locator use
• Store page views
• Rentals pages
• Local event pages
• Local class pages
• Local volunteer opportunities
• Links, Likes, Tweets for local content
Photo © Flickr user Thomas Hawk at flickr.com/photos/thomashawk/540936323/
They’re all worth something. So make an estimate.
Don’t fall into the trap of making your estimate perfect.
Perfection takes up lots of time and stops good work from happening.
Just be reasonable.
Use these values to estimate the worth of total off-line activities
Voilà! Now you’ve created a simple
business case
Photo © Flickr user Koen Vereeken at flickr.com/photos/koenvereeken/2088902012/
…and a vocabulary that you can teach
to your organization
Photo © Flickr user nilsrinaldi at flickr.com/photos/nilsrinaldi/5158417206/
But how do you convince the
HiPPOs?
Photo © Flickr user Thos003 at flickr.com/photos/thos003/5822205888/
Bring in the
BIG GUNS
We engaged David Mihm to audit our local visibility and help us understand the total landscape of opportunity.
Photo © Flickr user Thos003 at flickr.com/photos/thos003/5822205888/
The result:A prioritized series of changes and optimizations, big and small, that we could pursue.
Photo © Flickr user Thos003 at flickr.com/photos/thos003/5822205888/
chose the SMALL onesand that was ENOUGH
WE
Photo © Flickr user Akira ASKR at flickr.com/photos/akira_1972/3104076736/
We used our new “value vocabulary” and
business case to win tiny bits of support
from all our partners
Photo © Flickr user 401K at flickr.com/photos/68751915@N05/6355308765/
The low-hanging fruit
of local search, if you will
Photo © Flickr user Sherwood411 at flickr.com/photos/sherwood411/4864128553/
We optimized a few ofour <title>s here…
Photo © Flickr user tamburix at flickr.com/photos/tamburix/6928172860/
Wrangled a tiny UX improvement there…
Photo © Flickr user baldiri at flickr.com/photos/baldiri/5735003580/
Ran a quick A/B test onour content here…
Photo © Flickr user mil8 at flickr.com/photos/mil8/2164167813/
We even ran a tinylocal Link campaign
Photo © Flickr user Dunechaser at flickr.com/photos/dunechaser/1883086933/
Mad props if youknow who Link is!
Our data-intensive reporting and incremental gains caught the imagination of leadership and garnered further support
Photo © Flickr user Francesco Schwarz at flickr.com/photos/isellsoap/6885674187/
Because they had the vision to be able to see
that this isn’t about SEO.
Photo © Flickr user Jeremy Brooks at flickr.com/photos/jeremybrooks/2294396074/
It’s about the cross-channel
customer experience.
A cross-channel story is one that everyone in your organization can support …because it’s all about the
customer, not about you.
Photo © Flickr user Daniel Y. Go at flickr.com/photos/danielygo/5391176827/
Success often breeds success.Little changes lead to big wins.
Photo © Flickr user istolethetv at flickr.com/photos/istolethetv/3887342134/
Now our mobile app helps you find our
physical stores
Now we provide local store product inventory
visibility on our site…
As well as on Google.
Now we’re working with an agency to manage our local information across Google properties, IYPs, wayfinding services, etc.
Now we’re running local/social presences all across the country
Now we’re running local/social presences all across the country
Now we’ve marked up our local store content with Schema.org microdata
Now we’ve got local staff engaged in creating local
media… with our members!
…is just the beginning.
+25%
Photo © Flickr user istolethetv at flickr.com/photos/istolethetv/3887342134/
Our conclusions:1. Shrink the change by
starting off small
Photo © Flickr user ipuntxote at flickr.com/photos/dia-a-dia/7046151669/
Our conclusions:1. Shrink the change by
starting off small
2. Use data to tell your story
Photo © Flickr user jayneandd at flickr.com/photos/jayneandd/4450623309/
Our conclusions:1. Shrink the change by
starting off small
2. Use data to tell your story
3. Don’t chase the perfect at the cost of getting things done
Photo © Flickr user istolethetv at flickr.com/photos/istolethetv/3887342134/
Our conclusions:1. Shrink the change by
starting off small
2. Use data to tell your story
3. Don’t chase the perfect at the cost of getting things done
4. Seek outside counsel and guidance from experts
Photo © Flickr user iL.C.Nøttaasen at flickr.com/photos/magnera/3157602186/
Our conclusions:1. Shrink the change by
starting off small
2. Use data to tell your story
3. Don’t chase the perfect at the cost of getting things done
4. Seek outside counsel and guidance from experts
5. Small changes lead to big wins for you and your customers
Thank you!Jonathon ColmanAgile SEO for REI
Home: www.jonathoncolman.org
Twitter: @jcolman
E-mail: [email protected]
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