Below you can compare the current Google Maps 7-pack layout for “dentist philadelphia” with the tested version:

• Current 7-Pack  Layout:

Current Local Search Layout main Features:

Click to see Large Image of "normal" 7-Pack

• 7 links straight to the local  websites
• the name of the business is a title of the listing
• phone number is displayed, no address
• some of the  “web” results are still above the fold
• below the Google Maps results you can see 10 “web” results
• take a note of the site rankings

• Tested Local Search Layout (Maps 7 Pack results are more integrated)

Tested Local Search Layout main Features:

Click to see a large image of the "new" (tested) Google Maps 7-Pack

• The HTML titles are used as the titles of the listings (instead of business names as it is currently)
• in addition to the phone number the full address is displayed
• you can see that the ranking order of the business was reshuffled a little bit
• the description from the home page meta tag was used in the local snippet
• notice however that the last three results do not display any descriptions.  We initially  thought  that the listings with descriptions do not have meta tags (which is the case for dental.upenn.edu), however emergencydentist24/7 and demeonline have them.  Not sure how to explain this inconsistency.
• below the Google Maps results we can see 6 “web” results” (mostly IYPs)

Also, in the first screen shot (the current layout) below the 7-pack we still have 10 “web” results (a few local dentistry websites and a few internet yellow pages). In the tested version you can see only 6 “web” results. In the tested version the business listings (i.e demeonline  centrecitydentist) appears in Google Maps 7-Pack, but they don’t appear in th “web” results. In the current version, however, the local dentistry listings appear in both the 7-Pack and “web” results.

I wonder how this will play out. We will have to wait and see the fate of the new local search layout.

New Google Local (Google Maps 7-Pack) Layout Spotted is a post from: Philadelphia SEO - Local Search Marketing Consultancy and Blog

For example with an e-commerce site, rather than giving them the choice of would you like to buy now (yes) or not (no), we say would you like to buy now (yes) or learn more about how you will benefit (yes)?

Adding more persuasive elements on to a page can serve to increase the likelihood of a purchase.  Any of these following options would be great to add on as an additional choice:

-          Case Studies

-          White Papers

-          A video on the product or benefits of the service

Each of these could then steer the visitor in the direction of making a purchase.

How to Make Calls To Action More Effective is a post from: Philadelphia SEO - Local Search Marketing Consultancy and Blog

Save your money and retain control over your AdWords campaign by performing a simple duplicate keywords test.

You can do this in two ways:
1. Use AdWords Editor: By far the simplest and fastest way to do this. Under tools, choose Find Duplicate Keywords and then delete from the list it provides.

2. Within the AdWords Interface: In AdWords Interface
i. Under all campaigns, select Keyword tab
ii. Sort keywords alphabetically
iii. Manually scan through

I make it a practice to run the test every time I make a major update to an account or add in multiple closely-related ad groups. Google AdWords can be an invaluable tool for businesses if used correctly, and I will continue to share more tips.

Money Saving AdWords Tip- Watch out for Duplicate Keywords is a post from: Philadelphia SEO - Local Search Marketing Consultancy and Blog

Philadelphia Restaurant Week is a popular event where participating restaurants offer a multi-course menu at a fixed price (much like other restaurant weeks around the world). Obviously this popular event is searched for locally (click on image to enlarge it):

Google Search Trend

Example 1.  Google Maps Spam

The other day I was looking for a list of the restaurants  participating in “Philadelphia Restaurant Week” and naturally I headed to Google and typed in “Philadelphia Restaurants Week”.  Among the organic listings Google “threw in” universal search listings from its local index (click to enlarge):

"philadelphia restaurants week" in Google

Also, this rather irrelevant listing shows up in Google Local index  in the 1st position- before the “real” Philadelphia restaurant  listings:

Whoever set this up in Google Local Business Center had a clear plan – get the seasonal traffic/online visibility  from the local event -  ‘Philadelphia Restaurant Week’.  Not sure how much qualified traffic this “cell phone text messaging” company  receives from the search term ” philadelphia restaurants week” but I’m pretty sure that I’m not the only Google user unhappy with this result.

The “business owner” of this local listing has clearly taken advantage of the well known Google  Local index weaknesses.  Unfortunately, for the end users,  it was  easy enough for somebody to game the system by adding the “Philadelphia Restaurant Week” in the listing titles and purposefully assigning the listing to the wrong categories:

From Google Local Listing Quality Guidelines:

Represent your business exactly as it appears in the offline world. The name on Google Maps should match the business name, as should the address, phone number and website. Do not attempt to manipulate search results by adding extraneous keywords or a description of your business into the business name

Example 2. Bing Local

After encountering  the above spam in Google I headed to Bing to see if the same result  will display. It did not. What I was presented in Bing was a positive surprise:

'philadelphia restaurants week' in Bing

In this case, the business owner (or the person responsible for online marketing for Moshulu Restaurant) has planned ahead and optimized the relevant restaurant listing in Bing Local for “Philadelphia restaurants week’.   The optimization was very simple, however very effective and most importantly was done in a legitimate way.

Adding  just  “Philadelphia restaurant week’ keywords was enough for Bing to display this listing for the relevant search query.

As a result, Moshulu Restaurant’s  local listing  visibility was increased and the opportunity  of capturing the Philadelphia Restaurant Week search traffic was maximized. Simple but brilliant.

The Bing example can be used as a case study showing that small business should actively use search engine local listings as promotional tools.  The changes you make to your business local listing have a direct impact on its search engine visibility and on your pocket.

Philadelphia Restaurant Week in Search Engine Results is a post from: Philadelphia SEO - Local Search Marketing Consultancy and Blog

Let’s say you are running a local fitness club/gym and would you like to open one more studio in Philadelphia.  Some of the most important questions might be : 1) where are competing fitness clubs located in Philadelphia? 2) what are the demographics of Philadelphia major neighborhoods? 3) Are the local residents happy with their current club?  The good news is that by spending very little time and virtually no money you can get the answers to these crucial questions.

Google Maps

where are your competitors located?

Head to Google Maps and type in ‘fintess‘ (remember to set your default location as Philadelphia or type in ‘fitness loc:Philadelphia’ ).

Google Maps result for 'fitness' - as Philadelphia default location

The above  search result map gives you a quick overview of the local fitness market. Each red “dot” on the map represents fitness related business.   You get a good idea about which part of the city is most competitive, and where there are opportunities.  For instance, I’ve marked (with green lines) the south Rittenhouse and Graduate Hospital neighborhoods as locations for potential expansion opportunities. It makes sense to investigate this part of the city further and learn more about its residents.

Local Real Estate Websites

What are the demographics of your local customers?

Knowing the geographical presence of your local competitors  is undoubtedly helpful, however it is equally important to know more about residents of a particular neighborhood.   To get basic demographic information you can use local real estate websites such as PruFoxRoach for example. This popular Philadelphia real estate company lets you check any Philly neighborhood demographic information (to change address click on ‘Revise Search’ button).  Since the source  of the data is the US Census,  you could go directly to census.gov however the real estate  sites tend to be easier to navigate and present data in a more user friendly format.

Going back to our example of opening our gym, knowing the age group and income level of a neighborhood we are looking to break into, will help us with both offline and online marketing efforts. This demographic insight could be considered when designing a landing page for your local ppc adds, creating seasonal promotions or creating creative for ads in local magazines/newspapers.

Social Media

What are the expectations of your local customer base?

Sites like Yahoo! Answers or Twitter are great local market research tools. They enable you to directly ask users from specific a geographical area about their needs, expectations, preferences or feedback:

From Yahoo! Answers

A local fitness club owner could for example use Twitter or Yahoo! Answers to ask residents of Philly’s Graduate Hospital if they are happy with their current gym (if they are not happy- why), which equipment they prefer to exercise  on  or which membership rules are most annoying. On Twitter  to encourage people to participate  in your polls (you can use twtpoll.com) offer prizes or discounts for your services.

Summary

I hope that the above examples illustrate how any small business providing services or products to the local market can easily access online tools which help to make strategic decisions.  The above insights should be included in your local marketing strategy to ensure your  services and products meet customer expectations.

Basic Market Research for Local Small Business is a post from: Philadelphia SEO - Local Search Marketing Consultancy and Blog

Brands’ Local Popularity

Firstly lets look at the brand searches (“zip car” and “philly car share”) Googled in the Philadelphia Metro area (click on the image to enlarge it):

Google searches: "zip car" vs "philly car share" in Philadelphia

Clearly from the Google Insights graph we can see that Zip Car brand steady receives more searches than Philly Car Share.  The latter car sharing club’s popularity has been continuously decreasing after peaking in September 2007. Many factors can contribute to decreasing the popularity of a brand, however in the Philly Car Share example I suspect the customer service and fee policies to be the main drivers of brand decline.

Philly Car Share Ratings on Yelp

Keyword Strategy

Let’s leave brand issues behind us and take a look at the generic phrases both companies are targeting.

Zip Car

I was surprised that Zip Car, a nationwide service, is ignoring the phrase “car share” in their HTML titles in favor of the less popular “car sharing”:

Click on images to enlarge

"car share" vs "car sharing" - Google searches in USA

One could say that since they rank 1st in Google for “car share” it does not matter. Sure but they are not number one in Yahoo! or Bing and with a slightly better constructed homepage HTML title they could improve on this. Optimizing the <title> element of a page is a quick win without draining resources.

Moreover, by building some content around “car share” Zip car could “steal” some mid weight search terms from rivals like CityCarShare or PhillyCarShare who have a natural advantage with their more generic domain name.

The opportunities are lost not only on the homepage but also on the deeper pages.  Having duplicate titles on so many pages (around 68% of indexed pages have duplicate titles) is just bad practice. One quick fix would be adding the location or name of a sponsored institution   i.e  “Occasional Driving Plan for Colby College Students – Zipcar”

PhillyCarShare

Our local car share scheme has even worse “SEO sins”.  Again optimizing the HTML title and meta description are basic SEO on-page tasks which have an impact on both rankings and click-through-rates from the search result pages.  Beside branded “PhillyCarShare” there are barely any other keywords words on their key pages’ HTML titles.  The PhillyCarShare homepage “ignores” search engines completely:

HTML code from homepage of PhillyCarShare

By neglecting basic on-page optimization, PhillyCarShare is hurting its click through rate from search engine result pages as well as the perception of its brand. Would you  click on a listing like this?:

PhillyCarShare search engine listing

With over 10,000 external links pointing to PhillyCarShare’s homepage URL, and many of links editorially given (from local blogs), the care sharing club can successfully target and rank for any relevant key phrases.

On a positive note PhillyCarShare does present car locations on HTML titles, however they could extend this by adding zip codes and names of neighborhoods.

Like Zipcar, PhillyCarShare is not targeting mid weight  search terms like: “car share program” , “car share club” , “car sharing  scheme” or “car sharing service”

Summary:

Judging by the marketing push both companies are conducting on the Philadelphia streets, one would think that their search marketing  strategies would be mastered to perfection.  Unfortunately it seems that both Zipcar and PhillyCarShare are ignoring the online channel with the highest return on investment. Tip:  Maybe if PhillyCarShare had analytics tagged on their pages they would be able to make more favorable business decisions.

Zipcar.com vs PhillyCarShare.org – Quick SEO Review is a post from: Philadelphia SEO - Local Search Marketing Consultancy and Blog

Hyperlocal journalism covers community-level events

Technically Philly has published an interesting  article about “hyperlocal” news sites in Philadelphia.  Because the traditional journalism industry is going through difficult times, trying to adjust to the general offline to online shift, hyperlocal reporting or blogging  is increasingly taking over the streets in major US cities.  The ease and accessibility of online publishing paired with the popularity of cheap digital devices and social media enables both amateur and professional journalists to cover events in a local context instead of national or global issues.

These local modern  “chronicles” provide a big opportunity for small businesses. They become yet another marketing channel for local garages, fitness studios or interior designers.  The physical proximity of hyper-local news site readers to local businesses creates a natural connection.  I hope that here in Philadelphia neighborhood bloggers and reporters will create a new innovative way for local small business to advertise online. This will monetize their news sites and they may become a permanent fixture  in our local landscape.

The online local news sites / blogs are also a great source of “citations” , so include them in your small business marketing mix.

List of Philadelphia neighborhood news sites  (collected by Technicallyphilly.com)

Do you know any other local news sites from the Philadelphia metro area?

Philadelphia Hyperlocal News is a post from: Philadelphia SEO - Local Search Marketing Consultancy and Blog

• Acxiom,
• InfoUSA – direct business entry to InfoUSA database
• Localeze/Amacai – direct business entry to Localeze database

These primary or legacy data providers deliver local  data to a number of search engines, internet yellow pages, local directories, and vertical sites.

Key Points

The key take home points from the webinar revolve around how to best provide information to these 3 primary data providers, and how important this information can be for your business’ bottom line. The 3 data providers each supply several varied sources (none of the provider reps would specifically identify which sources they supply). These sources create the  online footprint of your business, and serve as local citations, and therefore it is in your interest to make sure primary data providers have accurate and comprehensive information about local business.  As TMP writes in their webcast details:

With more than 90% of local search traffic and car navigation data coming from three primary data base providers, it’s critical that marketers keep this information current and accurate at all times

Because potential customers can find your online business listing on various types of websites, it is crucial to understand how primary data providers work, what they recommend, and how people are searching for local products and services.

Below are my notes from TMP Directional Marketing ‘s “Local Business Listings: Straight Talk With the Data Providers” webcast:

Localeze – Gib Oladder

Simple Categorization is not enough

Gib Olander from Localeze stressed that businesses should not rely on  standard categorization/taxonomy in local search directories.   Local searchers change and refine their behavior constantly (he gave a good example of people searching for “pet friendly hotels in Chicago”   as opposed to  “hotels in Chicago”).  Therefore we cant rely on standard categorization and we should enter more relevant information. When creating a business listing, think about what is unique about your business, and what feedback customers have given you in the past.  I very much like Gib’s  content strategy which groups  keywords in two categories: “recovery”  and “discovery” (this graphic from his site illustrates “recovery”  and “discovery” types of local queries  very well). Basically “recovery” searches are the type where the searcher knows the particular thing or business that he is searching for and “discovery” searches are where the searcher knows what he needs and where he needs it, but not the name of the business.  The point is small business should  target the “discovery” type  queries and drive qualified traffic to both their business listings and websites- a business should aim to be discovered!

Keep it fresh, update often

Gib also recommended that a business verify and update their business listings on a regular basis. He suggests typing your business name in a search engine and see what comes up.  By updating your business listings with new data (new products, services) you will ensure that the  local directories and search engines have “fresh” and accurate information about your business (this will ensure your business will be visible under a “recovery” type of search query) .  Because search behavior frequently changes, you should review the keywords you use in the copy of your business listing.

Business Listing as a centralized place for your business

A business listing should serve as an “anchor for online brand assets management”. For instance, if you have a new video about your business- add it to a  business listing. Also promote your business and social media profiles in business listings. Gib says that you should care about your business listing in the same way you care about your official website.

Axicom  – Jon Cohn

Primary Data Providers – Business Listing Build Process

Jon presented a slide showing how primary data providers process local information. It’s a complicated process but worth the trouble to understand how they process local information. All three data providers spend lots of time on:

• de-duplication & address cleansing: by deleting inactive records, cleaning addresses by USPS standardization, making corrections, doing business name normalization, and  applying latitude and longitude
• classifications include keyword assignments, inputting data provided by small business/advertiser, assignment of standard Yellow Pages categories and codes
• custom expansion of data

Getting listed in Axciom database

Jon also mentioned that they are increasingly  scrapping  business websites for local data, therefore it is important that your website mirrors the exact same information you input to various local search directories. They take and verify local data from sources like the Better Business Bureau, state professional license boards (doctors, lawyers), Chambers of commerce, and the business credit card database.

Currently you can  get your business directly listed in Axciom database only through services like UBL , TMP Directional Marketing (search marketing agency), eLocal, however Jon said that soon any small business would be able to make a direct entry to Axicom database at databyacxiom.com (I believe that they are finalizing  verification methods).

Trends

Jon revealed that extraction of local data from social media sites (i.e twitter, facebook), the inclusion of reviews, and other unique content is the next step for them. Therefore it is  important that businesses invest time and resources to develop social media  strategies.

InfoUSA – Pankaj Mathur

Pankaj gave an overview of the resources needed for InfoUSA to “clean” and update local business information:

• about 700 people compiling data
• over 27 million  phone call interviews completed

All this to standardize data elements (i.e. Av, Avenue, Ave), cover missing business categories, improve accuracy, and remove duplications. Pankaj stressed that business owners should claim their listings and act responsibly.  Once the listing is claimed, data providers  rely on you to manage and keep it up to date.

In the end, Pankaj along with all three representatives and the host Gregg Stewart, agreed that small businesses should invest money and time into “data optimization” (accuracy and consistency), and updating business listings frequently.  The local search space is very dynamic so try to keep up to date and consider hiring an expert.  Monitor your business’s online footprint and set a benchmark (where you started and track results).

My thoughts

It takes time and persistence to build a strong small business profile online. By claiming your listing on Acxiom, Localeze and InfoUSA and by committing to keep it up to date, you are laying solid foundations.  The vast distribution network of primary data providers (i.e. internet yellow pages, local directories, car navigation software) will ensure that customers are able to  “recover” your business name across many online entities.  To succeed you must do your homework;

• regularly research how people are searching for your products or services online
• monitor your business listings for accuracy
• measure and analyze the results of your ongoing campaign for optimization of business listings
• never forget that local search is not just about Google, don’t disregard other important local search channels

Although overall the webinar was an informative session, it is my hope that in the future both search engines and local directories will improve at providing small businesses with insightful tools and meaningful data that is easy to digest and then act upon.

You can access the full webcast here: http://searchmarketingnow.com/on-demand

Local Business Listings: Tips from Primary Data Providers is a post from: Philadelphia SEO - Local Search Marketing Consultancy and Blog

Example of Google's Search Result Page with Google Products /Shopping Listings

Additionally, optimization of product feeds for broad, popular terms (i.e. “laptops”) is a great strategy to support your PPC campaigns (when CPC (Cost per Click) is too expensive). Google Product Search is also a great way to gain a competitive advantage (even over a “bigger” competitor).

ChannelAdvisor has created a table showing the top trafficked comparison search engines (comScore data May 2009).  As you can see below, the Google Product Search vertical was the 4th largest  CSE site in May 2009, and the only one which allows merchants to list their products for free (Yahoo! Shopping, Shopzilla.ocm,Shopping.com operate on a Cost per Click basis)

Traffic in May 2009 (comScore)

Google Search Product doesn’t just drive traffic to your site, but also delivers customers who are ready to spend money on your products. The below pie chart illustrates comparison shopping sales of ChannelAdvisor  clients.

Where ChannelAdvisor customers are seeing sales distributed on comparison shopping engines.

Drop in Traffic from Google Product Search

In the USA in mid June 2009 , online marketers, agencies, and website owners noticed a significant drop (30%-40%) in traffic from Google’s shopping vertical (unfortunately I was not able to find the graph presented during the webinair). Interestingly enough, a few weeks earlier, a very similar drop was noticed by merchants in the UK (I can confirm this first hand, in June I was still working for a UK retailer who experienced the drop in traffic from the Google Product Search vertical.)

One of the causes of the drop in traffic from Google Product Search can be attributed to Google’s change to their search result pages. As early as February 2009, I had been noticing that more and more of the  GPS universal search results have been directing users  to  an additional Google page, as opposed to the  merchant’s product pages.  This was especially the case for broad/head terms.

For example if you had typed in ‘portable dvd player’ into Google in 2008, you would be presented with the below results:

Google Product Search: Direct Links to Product Pages in SERPs

The above three product search results in GPS’s “onebox” linked directly to the merchants’ product pages.

No direct links to merchants' product pages

However starting in 2009, more and more of Google’s search result pages for the  most popular queries have stopped “linking” directly to online stores.  As you can see, the name of the merchants are replaced with “x stores“. If a user decides to click on one of the three GPS links he or she is presented with:

The layout and elements of the page are similar to a typical comparison search engine i.e shopping.com

Taking away these direct links to the merchants’ product pages from the search result pages had a significant impact  on traffic  from Google Product Search.  While most of the  medium to long tail keywords return GPS results with direct links , the majority  of Google’s results for head (broader and popular)  queries  feature an additional page.

From Google’s point of view, such a shift makes perfect sense, since a user spends more time on Google ‘s “property”.

Reviewing Google Product Search strategy for small and medium  ecommerce

The ChannelAdvsior’s webinar did not offer a silver bullet strategy to counter this drop in traffic from GPS, however  there  are some good points of which  any ecommerce site should take notice.

• If you have experienced a drop in traffic from Google Product Search do not be discouraged.  This  organic search vertical still  presents a great opportunity to deliver qualified consumer  to your site at exceptional ROI.  The principle of optimizing product feeds stays the same, focus on improving quality by:
  • describing your products in a meaningful way (chosen keywords backed by research, focused on accurate and unique product identifiers i.e UPC)
  • paying attention to the  required and optional  attributes, these change from time to time. Any changes are announced on the official Google Product Search blog.
  • keeping an eye on how your competitors are using attributes in their xml feeds -  I believe this great tool is the only one which lets you look up anybody’s feed
  • keeping your product feed “fresh” and sending it to Google regularly – set up scheduler so Google crawls your product feed regularly and you don’t have to worry about timely submissions.
• Try to think of ways to encourage your customers to leave reviews and ratings on your products i.e quick surveys on the receipt page, after sale feedback requests. Some of the most popular sources for reviews are : Google Checkout Reviews, Shopzilla.com, epinions.com , pricegrabber.com, reviewstream.com , merchant-reviews.com or readprint.com
• If you haven’t done  it yet, add campaign variable tags to the URLs in your feed and track  the performance of your feed in Google Product Search
• Diversify  your comparison search engine strategy, do not rely on just one site as the main source of conversion. Google likes to test and change things around and this can have a negative impact on your bottom line (Bing CPA model limits risk and is great for testing, try Amazon Product Ads- not a typical CSE type of site but recommended for  high conversion)

Traffic Drop from Google Product Search – ChannelAdvisor Webinar is a post from: Philadelphia SEO - Local Search Marketing Consultancy and Blog

After talking for a while with local business owners (all have had their websites for some time now), I realized what an opportunity they are missing by not signing up with Google Local Business Center or Google Analytics (or any other free analytics program). These businesses provide local services but are not tapping into local search and don’t even know who their visitors are- sounds almost suicidal.

I know running a small business can be daunting and time consuming, but fortunately local SEO Meet ups like this can help many people take advantage of the opportunities search marketing has to offer.

I really enjoyed meeting everybody at Manayunk Brewing Co. Thanks everybody for a warm welcome and looking forward to seeing you regularly.

If you are interested in joining the local SEO discussion simply sign up on here, meetings take place at the end of every month.

After my first SEO Meet-up in Philly is a post from: Philadelphia SEO - Local Search Marketing Consultancy and Blog