Optimizing for Local Search for RV Dealers
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With increased competition squeezing traditional market areas, it is becoming increasingly important for dealers to maximize their digital visibility. In his presentation, Tim will share how to scale local search engine marketing best practices in order to drive prospects to your lot.
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Optimizing for Local Search for RV Dealers
- 1. SELL MORE RVS BY DOMINATING THE SEARCH ENGINES
- 2. WHY YOU ARE HERE TODAY • You’ve seen competitors pick away at you online • You want to attract new customers onto your lot • You don’t want to break the bank
- 3. WHAT WE WILL COVER 1. Why is Search Engine Optimization so important and how big is the opportunity for RV dealers 2. What is Local Search Engine Optimization 3. SIX steps you can take to immediately start improving your local search engine presence
- 4. FIRST, LET’S DO THE NUMBERS
- 7. A LOT OF YOUR PEOPLE ARE SEARCHING ON GOOGLE
- 10. BABY BOOMERS MEAN BUSINESS
- 11. A LOT OF YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE SEARCHING ON GOOGLE
- 12. YOU WANT TO MEET THEM IN PERSON
- 13. …SO DOES YOUR COMPETITION
- 14. 50% 50%
- 15. “ROBO” Online influence is much bigger than e- / m-Commerce http://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom- UnitedStates/Local%20Assets/Documents/RetailDistribution/us_retail_Mobile-Influence-Factor_062712.pdf
- 16. $20 B
- 17. TIME VS. AD DOLLARS SPENT Source: Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield, Byers;
- 18. A LOT OF YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE ON THE GO
- 19. 890
- 20. THE ONLY CONSTANT IS CHANGE
- 21. 35
- 22. [SLIDESHARE]
- 23. WE WILL COVER 1. Why is Search Engine Optimization so important and how big is the opportunity for RV dealers 2. What is Local Search Engine Optimization 3. SIX steps you can take to immediately start improving your local search engine presence
- 24. THE BASICS OF LOCAL SEARCH
- 25. THE REALLY OLD RANKING ALGO Two proven tactics: 1.An advertising budget 2.The alphabet
- 26. DO MORE OF EVERYTHING Usually BEST OPPORTUNITY FOR BRICK-AND-MORTAR STORES (also includes Mobile)
- 27. YOU MUST OPTIMIZE FOR LOCAL, ORGANIC, MOBILE AND SOCIAL
- 28. THE BASICS OF ORGANIC SEARCH It’s all about optimizing websites Links Trust Stuff on your page + = Your Search Engine Rank
- 29. It’s all about optimizing locations
- 30. GLOSSARY OF TERMS On-page Pertaining to content or source code on your site <title>Your Page’s Title</title> <h1>Your Page’s Most Important Heading</h1>
- 31. GLOSSARY OF TERMS Google+ Local Page A Page on Google+ specifically for businesses with a physical location
- 32. GLOSSARY OF TERMS N.A.P. (+W.) Refers to a business’s Name, Address, Phone number (and website); the virtual thumbprint of a business
- 33. GLOSSARY OF TERMS Citation A mention or partial mention on the web of a local business’s NAP
- 34. GLOSSARY OF TERMS Local Knowledge Graph Google’s collection of structured data about a local business (NAP, hours, pricing, photos, etc.)
- 35. ANATOMY OF A SERP Local Knowledge Graph
- 36. ANATOMY OF A SERP PAID RESULTS … PPC ORGANIC (“NATURAL”) RESULTS … SEO LOCAL (“PACK”) RESULTS …LOCAL SEO
- 37. ANATOMY OF A SERP PAID RESULTS … PPC ORGANIC (“NATURAL”) RESULTS … SEO LOCAL (“PACK”) RESULTS …LOCAL SEO 75%
- 38. ANATOMY A RESULT -- BLENDED
- 39. ANATOMY A RESULT -- BLENDED WEBSITE INFORMATION – TITLE TAG
- 40. ANATOMY A RESULT -- BLENDED GOOGLE+ LOCAL INFO
- 41. ANATOMY A RESULT -- BLENDED PLACE / “Google My Business” INFO
- 42. WHY DOES THIS MATTER? WEBSITE INFORMATION PLACE INFO GOOGLE+ LOCAL INFO
- 43. PLACE INFO WEBSITE INFORMATION GOOGLE+ LOCAL INFO
- 44. WEBSITE INFORMATION GOOGLE+ LOCAL INFO PLACE INFO
- 45. THE MORAL 1) Traditional SEO: Optimizing websites Local SEO: Optimizing locations 2) Essential to have a physical location for long-term Local success. 3) Blended search means you have to do both Traditional AND Local SEO
- 46. 2014 RANKING FACTORS 1. Google Place Info (Google My Business) 2. External Signals 3. On-page Signals
- 47. Google+ Local Signals Proper Category Associations Physical Address in City of Search Completeness of Local G+ Page
- 48. External Signals NAP Consistency in Citations Quantity of Citations Quality/Authority of Citations
- 49. On-page Signals HTML NAP Matching G+ Local NAP G+ Local Business Title in Title Tag City/State in Title Tag
- 50. OTHER IMPORTANT SIGNALS Link Social Signals Signals Review Signals Behavioral Signals Personalization
- 51. WHAT WE WILL COVER 1. Why is Search Engine Optimization so important and how big is the opportunity for RV dealers 2. What is Local Search Engine Optimization 3. SIX steps you can take to immediately start improving your local search engine presence
- 52. 6 LOCAL OPTIMIZATION TIPS FOR RV DEALERS
- 53. START WITH KEYWORD RESEARCH #1
- 54. KEYWORDS: HOW IT WAS “RVs” “used travel trailers” “used travel trailers Las Vegas, Nevada” SEARCH VOLUME / COMPETITIVENESS # OF WORDS IN KEYWORD
- 55. KEYWORDS: HEAD VS. LONG TAIL
- 56. THE BEST (AND QUICKEST) TOOLS • Google Trends • Google Suggest
- 57. GOOGLE TRENDS
- 58. GOOGLE TRENDS
- 59. SUGGEST
- 60. SUGGEST Lead with a space
- 61. ALL-IN-ONE SUGGEST http://soovle.com - all-in-one auto-suggest tool
- 62. SITE OPTIMIZATION IS YOUR FOUNDATION #2
- 63. • #1: Smart Website Structure If you don’t link to me, Google won’t find me
- 64. IT STARTS WITH SITE ARCHITECTURE Make sure you provide the engines a clear crawl path HOMEPAGE Product Line 1 Product Line 2 Product 1 Product 2 Procut 3 Product 1 Product 2 Product 3 Locations Boise, Idaho Seattle, WA Portland, OR Link to locations that have these products? Link to products that are available in these locations
- 65. LOCATION PAGE BEST PRACTICES [[Brand Name Here]] – Portland (SE Hawthorne) – Buy Blue Widgets In-Shop http://www.bluewidgets.com/shops/us/portland/hawthorne BLUE WIDGET BRANDING + NAVIGATION RECEIVE 10% OFF YOUR WIDGET WITH THIS AD CALL 555-555-5555 AND MENTION THIS AD ([[COUPONNAME]]) Blue Widgets, Inc. – Portland (SE Hawthorne) Blue Widgets Store – Hawthorne 2500 SE Hawthorne Blvd Portland, OR 97214 555 555-5555 Branch Manager: John Neville John.neville@bluewidgets.com See this location on Google Maps Nearest other Portland store locations: • Blue Widgets Portland (Gresham) • Blue Widgets Portland (Jantzen Beach) • Blue Widgets Beaverton Popular widgets carried by this store: Indigo Widget Baby Blue Widget Navy Widget “Got a great deal on my blue widget!” --Kristine Williams from Gresham Have you been to our Hawthorne location? We love getting feedback! Tell us about your experience here
- 66. 1. Title tag MUST include +Local business title
- 67. 2. URL should be short but include city name at minimum
- 68. 3. +Local Business Title should be in H1 tag
- 69. 4. Embedded MyPlaces map
- 70. 5. Collect feedback; also push people to prominent local review sites (Yelp, Citysearch, G+, etc)
- 71. 6. Include nearby locations for organic linkjuice + stronger location scent
- 72. 8. Code contact info schema.org
- 73. 8. Code contact info schema.org
- 74. DEALING WITH MULTIPLE LOCATIONS Get your store locator right!
- 75. DEALING WITH MULTIPLE LOCATIONS Looks great, but…
- 76. DEALING WITH MULTIPLE LOCATIONS …It’s in JavaScript and not crawler friendly
- 77. DEALING WITH MULTIPLE LOCATIONS • #1: Smart Website Structure
- 78. DEALING WITH MULTIPLE LOCATIONS Get your store pages right!
- 79. DEALING WITH MULTIPLE LOCATIONS If you have 20Locations how many pages do you need? You need 20 separate pages
- 81. 10. Make each page unique by creating rich content
- 82. OPTIMIZE GOOGLE+ LOCAL PAGE #3
- 83. Local SEO experts agree that proper category associations are the most important ranking factor
- 84. Pick the right categories: keep your categories as consistent as possible across review sites and directories https://moz.com/local/categories/engine/google
- 85. Own your Branded Knowledge Graph – Rel=Publisher + Wikipedia
- 86. Own your LOCAL Knowledge Graph – Completeness is key! Courtesy Todd Mintz: https://plus.google.com/+ToddMintz/posts/Sx68wqbVqry
- 88. TYPICAL REVIEW PROCESS IS CLUNKY 1 2 3 4 User Visits Site Navigates to business page Signs up for account Completes Profile Receives confirmation email Confirms account Leaves Review 6 5 7 8
- 89. USE A SMARTER REVIEW PROCESS User Visits Business Page Directly Logs in with Facebook Leaves Review Logs in with existing account 1 2 3
- 90. Allows Facebook Logins Full graphic courtesy of Phil Rozek
- 91. TARGET EXISTING CUSTOMERS NO YES Accepts Facebook login Send direct links Send direct link
- 92. Pick “vertical” directories that rank organically for your target keywords:
- 93. Pick “vertical” directories that appear in the Local Knowledge Graph
- 94. KNOW THYSELF THROUGH BETTER DATA #5
- 96. GET IT NOW – WEBMASTER TOOLS Google Webmaster Tools can help you diagnose and repair issues w/ your site http://google.com/webmasters - can help you diagnose and repair issues w/ your site
- 97. GET IT NOW – GOOGLE ANALYTICS http://google.com/analytics - track how visitors get to you and what they do on your site
- 98. CITATIONS ARE KING #6
- 99. 73% people lose trust in a brand when listing are incorrect 2014 Placeable Survey of 1,000 people
- 100. Up to 40% of business listing have inconsistent or missing data
- 105. And don’t forget about phones.
- 107. AUDIT YOUR CITATIONS
- 108. https://moz.com/local/search - Check the consistency and completeness of listings
- 110. WHAT WE WILL COVER 1. Why is Search Engine Optimization so important and how big is the opportunity for RV dealers 2. What is Local Search Engine Optimization 3. SIX steps you can take to immediately start improving your local search engine presence
- 111. TTHHEE LCOHNAGLL REONGADE AAHHEEAADD
- 112. THANKS! TIM RESNIK TIM@MOZ.COM @TRESNIK [SLIDESHARE]
Editor's Notes
- So, how are we going to do that? What are we going to cover today? Why is SEO so important for you guys and your industry and how big is that opp What is Local SEO and how does it differ from traditional SEO Now, I am going to give you six steps that you can walk away with today and start building a solid foundation for local search engine optimization But, first… :30 (1:30)
- Let’s do the numbers…
- One thing this number represents is the population of the earth (about 7 billion) multiplied by 14, But, that’s not why it’s important Why it is important is because 100B is the number of searches that are performed on Google every single month globally That mean 14 searches for every living breathing person on earth
- This point only illustrates the obvious. I don’t need to tell you… There are a lot of people out there online, looking for information, Looking for information on RVs Looking to buy things… Looking to buy RVs 1:00 (2:30)
- This number is a little smaller, but still astronomical 6 Billion, 500 Million Of those 100B searches globally, 6.5 billion of them are performed in the U.S. AND Have local intent –> //Comscore 20 billion mthly desktop searches in US, 4 billion are local, mobile search is 5 Billion, 50% of that is local
- -- meaning that every man and woman > in this country on average perform 32 searches per month that are specifically looking for something in a geographic/physical location. That means, your customers are searching for YOU and YOUR competitors online. That also means, it is time (if you aren’t already) to dedicate the necessary resources to be where your customers are looking. // 240M Adult population 32 local related searches per month for every single adult in the US….wowzers
- A many of these searchers are right in your wheelhouse: they’re boomers In fact One-third of the 195.3 million internet users in the U.S., adults aged 50+ represent the Web's largest constituency (Jupiter Research). And In 2012, baby boomers (47-65) spend 27 hours per week online, 2 hours more per week then Millennials (16-34) at 25 hours per week (WSL/Strategic Retail).
- This means a lot of your customers are searching on google, and…
- People buy big expensive RVs when you look them in the eye and shake their hand
- So does your competition 2:00 (4:30)
- Of all searches initiated from a mobile device, 50% of them have local intent… By the end of 2014, 50% of all searches will be initiated from a mobile device. If my math is right, that’s 50Billion searches per month that are done on a smartphone… And Google is starting to aggressively adapt: For the first time in Google history Mobile design has informed desktop search design. Mobile is driving the design and layout of what the search page looks like. In mobile search they are using a carrot and stick. If you’re site isn’t optimized for the mobile experience they will put a tag that’s visible to the user telling them as much (obviously destroying your CTR) So, Don’t just optimize your site for a mobile layout, but you have to optimize for the mobile search experience When optimizing for local, put mobile on at least equal footing as desktop or browser based search What are the tendencies of your customers? Well, there is some data for that…
- Your customers are researching online and buying offline In fact the amount of mobile influence on physical sales is going to increase 500% in the next couple of years. 1:00 (5:30)
- $20B is the Surplus of ad inventory on mobile
- This graph represents the relationship between ad dollars spent and the amount of time spent in different media. 6% of people’s time is spent in print media, while disproportionally 23% of all ad dollars are spent. TV has an even ratio of dollars vs. time spent But in mobile there lies an opportunity. 12% of people’s time (and growing) is spent on mobile devices but only 3% of the total ad budget.
- Your customers are on the go If you have an ad budget that you use to drive qualified customers onto your lot You have to consider spending some of that on mobile. 1:00 (6:30)
- Google is constantly changing this is the Number of Google algorithmic changes over the last year They are changing how they rank and display at an unprecedented rate Many search marketers are having a tough time keeping up Whether you are doing this stuff yourself or hiring someone to do it for you Make sure current best-practices are being used, because the only constant is…
- Stay on top of it. :30 (7:00)
- And finally 35 The number of practical and tactical, “do it now” search engine optimization tips in this presentation that you can use today to drive more customers to your lot
- Furious note taking is not necessary, I’ve put my presentation here It’s slightly different than the one you have in front of you. :30 (7:30)
- So, that is why organic search optimization, Local optimization and mobile is critical to your success in increasing visibility for your RV dealership.
- Now, let’s build a foundational understanding of what Local SEO is all about… :30 (8:00)
- In the not too distant past, the only ranking algorithm you had to concern yourself with was the yellow pages There were two proven tactics: Spend a little bit of money and place your listing in front of your competitors, maybe pay a little extra for bold text, a picture, some color… And/or, chose a name that starts with the number 1 or letter ‘A’ In a digital world of indexation, the algorithm and the tactics a quite a bit more complicated…first…
- Your main goal for local search is optimizing a location, and to do so you must consider 3 different disciplines of digital marketing, each with a very unique set of tactics. The key to optimizing a physical location for search is all about balance
- You must optimize for all three: Organic, Local and mobile, And social The good news, is that compared to traditional means of marketing, like the YP there is far… More opportunity More reach Better qualified customers, but… Of course this means: More work, more budget More complicated More competition (you’re not only now competing with the folks down the street, but the faceless corporation in another timezone.) 1:00 (9:00)
- Let’s start with the basics of organic search Although there are over 500 different factors that Google uses to rank one page over another, the foundation of this system is pretty simple, and pretty ingenious… It’s all about links…Links that they can trust The more trust worthy links pointed at a domain, the more they will trust that domain If you have a lot of those links pointing at stuff on your page, you’re going to do pretty well in search Ultimately, Google wants to answer the question: how relevant and authoritative are you for a certain topic? It’s all about optimizing HTML pages that exist in the digital world, on the other side local search is about optimizing something that exists in the physical world and the basics of the ranking algorithm are a bit tougher to grasp
- Here, Google is bridge a gap that exists between information that exists in a digital world and a location that exists in the physical world > First, do you really exist, do you offer what the searcher is looking for, what’s your proximity to the searcher, what’s your popularity compared to others in the same geographic area that offer the same products and services… There’s a lot more going on here Google is not simply crawling the web and looking for links and relevance. They are relying on data from third party aggregators and directories. And if your information is incorrect, inconsistent or missing, it will hurt you. More on that in a bit. 2:30 (11:30)
- When talking about local search engine optimization, you are going to hear these terms thrown around a lot. I want you to be familiar with them… First, when you hear someone say “on-page” optimization, they are referring to the content and/or code that exists on your site, within your HTML If you go to your site and click on “view source” from the menu you’ll see a bunch of HTML code. A few of the important ones look like this. > The great thing about on-page SEO is that we have complete control. You are the architect to make it more crawlable by the search engines and make it more relevant for the search terms you are trying to rank for. :30 (12:00)
- You Google+ Local Page – simply your business profile page on Google+ This is the canonical source of your business information for local search on Google. The information that lives within this profile page is the most critical source of data for Google to understand your business. :15 (12:15)
- How many of you are familiar with this? NAP stands for Name Address and Phone number. Sometimes there is a W on the end with stands for “website” and also makes it incredibly hard to pronounce So what is this? This is the digital thumbprint of your business online and one of the most important factors ranking in local search, and with the NAP comes… :15 (12:30)
- Citations Which is a mention or partial mention of your business on the web of your NAP or portion of your NAP The quantity and the quality (where the citations are coming from) are important But what is paramount to strong rankings is the consistency If Google sees inconsistencies in your phone number, address name of the business, they are going to turn down the dial of trust, and with lower trust comes lower rankings. :30 (13:00)
- A collection of “structured data” Data about about your business, and is digitally represented in the search result like this…
- You own this area You have control over it, more-or-less, by maintaining your Google + local page :30 (13:30)
- Other anatomical features of the search engine results page that you will hear referenced Paid results – in pink Organic results – typically non-local results that generically match the search query in blue And Local results in grey, with what is referred to as the “Local Pack” and is the primary area in which we optimize foe when talking about “Local” SEO.
- 75% of clicks go to organic results. The line between local and organic is not always so black and white… :30 (14:00)
- There are a lot of results that are blended, or include both local and organic elements. Google is grabbing as much information about the business as possible and cramming into 1 organic look search result If the info doesn’t exists or is not optimized either the CTR goes down, or worse it doesn’t show at all So what are the elements of a blended result?
- First, you have the website information being take from the Title tag that lives within the HTML code of this particular page Title tag optimization is organic SEO at its best
- Here you have data that is directly from Johnny Walker’s Google + Local page
- Finally, is information that is entered directly into the businesses “place” or Google My Business dashboard.
- So why does this matter, FAST Optimizing for a physical location involves all three disciplines of non-paid digital marketing. First, you have to have your website and its content optimized , next
- You have to have your Place info and aggregator info correct and consistent
- Finally you have to have a strong Google+ social presence with reviews, interactions and proper categorization. The moral of the story is… 2:00 (16:00)
- :30 (16:30)
- So, when it comes to optimizing for your location, what are the most important ranking factors? Now, of course Google is a blackbox, and Google doesn’t publish what the most important factors are… But, there are a lof of smart Local SEOs out there who have a pretty good idea. Every year at Moz we poll 40 of these people and we ask them: “What are the most important ranking factors for local…what factors are the most important to be competitive..what factors are most important when you are just starting your business” And consistently, these were the top three. Number 1: Your Google + and Google place information Number 2: External signals. That would be citations, your NAP consistency, how your name is distributed over the web And finally, ON-page signals, which we learned earlier means the information that exists on your webpage Now, let me give you a few examples… So, no one knows how many total ranking factors there are for local. In our survey we had about 90. There are probably hundreds. I am going to show you a few of the most important ones… :30 (17:00) //http://moz.com/local-search-ranking-factors
- Of the 3 most important ranking factors for you Google+ Local page, proper categorization ranks as the most important >You must make sure you have the right categories picked >The actual address you have on your + page matches the proximity of the address being searched >And finally the completeness of your Google+ page. Make sure you have your hours, some photos and actually participate on Google Plus. Respond to comments, post content, etc. :30 (17:30)
- External signal, or signals that exist off of you web page and off of your Google + local page. This includes >the consistency in the citations of full or partial NAP. Again, Google wants to be confident that you are who you say you are to ensure the quality of their results >The total number of citations that mention your full or partial NAP >Finally, the quality and/authority of your citations. When you are mentioned is it coming from a source Google trusts? The more Google trusts it, the more it’s worth in ranking value :30 (18:00)
- Now, for the ranking factors that are completely under your control…on-page signals, again elements on your website. >Make sure that your NAP is in HTML on the Page ANDIt matches your Google + local page information…this is the single most important connection when we talk about consistency. Of course we want it to match every where else, but if nothing else start here >Ensure that the business name that you use on your Google+ Local page is exactly the same in the title tag on your location page on your website >And finally, Google is looking for some signals that tell it where you are located. And including city and state in the title tag and other places like the URL string can help :30 (18:30)
- Other important signals include > number and authority of links from other sites pointing at yours >The number and types of reviews that you are getting on Google+ and other review sites >The chatter about your business on social >Behavioral signals, such as how searchers interact with your listing on the search page. Do they click but then ditch your site? Aww, there’s a lot to think about… :30 (19:00)
- So, we’ve have set a good foundation for what the most important elements for optimizing a physical location in the digital world… If there is one word that I would use to summarize the previous section it’s “consistency”, when it comes down to it: GOOGLE WANTS CONSISTENT AND CORRECT INFORMATION…Because…SEARCHERS WANT CONSISTENT AND CORRECT INFORMATION, and hey, that’s how Google rings the cash register At this point, your saying…oh my god, this is overwhelming…where do I start. Well, here you go. 1:00 (20:00)
- Here’s 6 tips and tactics
- Every journey needs a beginning. In the case of optimizing a digital presence for a physical location, start with understanding the keyword market that you operate in In other words what are your potential customers searching for? Without it we would be trying to sell RVs to people searching for used cars…obviously not a good match Understanding our keyword market also gives us a measuring stick to evaluate our success in search marketing. We can answer questions such as, what is the total number of people searching for a keyword? And, nased on my ranking for that keyword, what sort of exposure can I expect vs. the effort that I’ve put in. Without understanding the keyword we are essentially blind, But like so many things over the last few months, there have been changes in how we view it… 1:00 (21:00)
- Not too long ago We would focus keywords that described as having a “long-tail” – terms that were highly specific and had relatively few searches and consequently low compeitiveness. On the flip side there is what we call “head-terms”, like “RV” that we never had a snow ball chance in hell for ranking for. We would only focus on the terms that we had a chance, But, with recent updates to the algo, Google is trying to do a better job matching location intent, and because of this a whole new opportunity has arisen… :45 (21:45)
- Many broad search terms are now within our reach. If someone is searching for a head term like “recreational vehicle” Google is now hedging its bets and guessing that this particular searcher for Seattle may want to see some local results. Therefore, for this user, they are serving 2 local results and 2 non-local results along with a map. While you will probably not out-rank Wikipedia in non-local results, you can now at least be on the same page. So, where do you start. :45 (22:30)
- I could dedicate this entire hour presentation on the different tools r keyword market research Today, I will show you the 2 most impactful and easiest to use. Remember the goal for KW research is 2 fold\ understand the opportunity – i.e. how many people search and the likelihood that you can rank, i.e. competitiveness These 2 tools will help you with the first. :30 (23:00)
- How do you find the right combinations and variations of terms and keywords to target on your pages and category associations on review sites? The place I would start is Google Trends. It’s based on the largest search history data – Google, and It’s free The first factor that you are checking here is the relative volume. You can compare multiple terms and see which one is more popular. In this case you can see I am comparing RV Sales vs RV Dealers. The volume is pretty close, but RV Sales edges it out. If the term is relevant to the customers you are targeting pick the one that has the higher volume. If it is very close, like in this case
- , you can quickly check the regional popularity of each 1:00 (24:00)
- Next is one of my favorite KW research tools, and it’s right under your nose We all use auto-suggest everyday when using Google. Google is telling you what modifiers to your search term are most popular. If you are looking for a local modifier for a keyword term, this is a good place to start.
- Lead with a space to prepend a modifer on your search phrase. In this case, you can see the “used” RVs is more popular than “New” RVs
- This is a free tool that puts all of the auto-suggest tools on a single page called Soovle In the case of selling RVs Ebay would be a great tool to use for Keyword research 1:15 (25:15)
- The first thing to consider is the architecture of your site and how all the pages link together. Google gets to know your content by crawling links across your site. If you don’t link to your own content, Google assumes that you don’t think it’s very important If there is no link to a page, that page will be orphaned and very sad You don’t want to overlink to a page, but do it in a natural way that is good for the user. If it is good for the user it will be goood for the search engines. Here’s and example. :30 (25:45)
- Say you have a a basic website with products and locations Why not link to locations from those products? Not necessarily every product from every location, but the most popular. Your product pages are likely to be popular pages. Pass some of the (what we call) equity from the product pages to the location pages. Do the same with your location page and link to products from the location. :30 (26:15)
- I’d like to get into specific examples for optimizing a location page that lives on your website… This is a mock with locations in Portland oregon First…
- First, the title tag, the tag that lives with in your HTML code on your site. This is the text that shows up in the browser bar, and also is the clickable link in an organic blended result that I showed you earlier. You want the business name in the title tag on your site for that location to match EXACTLY the business name on your Google + Local page. For example if I had “Tim’s RV Portland SuperStore” in the Title of my site it should be “Tim’s RV Portland SuperStore” as the name of my business on Google+. If I name “Tim’s Recreational Vehicle Superstore” on Google +, Google will have a hard time making the connection, lose a little bit of trust and I’ll lose a little (or a lot) of my rank. :45 (27:00)
- The URL should be short. You don’t want your URL so long it goes in to tomorrow. If possible put a few location signals in it. include the city and state :15 (27:15)
- Your H1 title is also very important. That’s the heading in the code that Google puts a little more weight on then other content tags. Put your business name that is within the content of the site in that Tag, and also make it consistent with Google + business name :15 (27:30)
- Throw in a snippet of code for a Google map. Clearly this is structured data that Google understands :15 (27:45)
- Ask people for reviews on review sites that are most relevant for your business…more on this in a minute. :15 (28:00)
- Again, cross link to your other lots that are near
- We are going to get a little techie. You want the NAP of the location to be in HTML (not an image) AND Make that NAP more immediately understandable to the search engines by using tags within the code that describes each element within the NAP We call this “structured data” And, the standard that Google and other search engines have adopted is call schema.org. Here’s what it looks like in the code: :30 (28:30)
- Trust me, it looks more complicated that it is. Essentially you are taking each each element of the address: name, street, city, state, zip and phone number and wrapping them in tags that will allow Google to quickly understand what it is Consider this a little Google handholding…and every bit helps. Suck up to them as much as possible. :30 (29:00)
- If you are lucky enough to be dealing with an optimization effort for multiple locations under management, it is imperative to give each location it’s own digital thumbprint AND provide the search engines with a clear path to get to that location on your page… It starts with the store locator. :15 (29:15)
- This store locator is for a tire center that serves the Northwest called Les Schwab They are known for their great service And, from the appearance they are also great web designers…this is a great locator page. But WAIT! There is something that is killing their ability to rank. So, it’s great for the user…but, Not great for the crawlers -> :30 (29:45)
- It’s in JavaScript. Google doesn’t effectively crawl JS for local search. So, what are we trying to do here? Think of your website as a portal. Not only for your customers, but for the spiders that the search engines are using to crawl the web. They’re jumping into your site and looking at your links and they want to cralw those links to see what locations you have If you put all of your locations in a JavaScript uncrawlable map how is Google going to know about all these great locations that you have? They’re not, and that is a problem :30 (30:15)
- [removed animation] This is an example of a really great store locator page. It balances form providing an easy to navigate site for the user and function By providing clear crawl paths for the search engines. :15 (30:30)
- [QUICK] If you have multiple locations, make sure that One full HTML page per store/lot WITH Full “NAP” information for each location in HTML Cross link Rich content
- [QUICK] Say you have 20 lots under management You would need 20 html pages – 1 for each location
- Johnson RV has 4 locations and they are all on the same page The optimal way in this situation, would be to have 4 unique pages that can be easily access by the crawlers. :15 (32:15)
- General RV center is doing it right Let me point out some of the key elements Unique content, by way of an image and a little bit of text describing the store…it doesn’t take much to signal to Google that this is a unique page Links to review sites for this particular location (plus some curated reviews at the bottom of the page…more unique content) A link to a store directory that is going to lead the crawlers (and their customers) to links to their other stores :45 (33:00)
- Back to the annual survey that we do at moz. What is the most important ranking factor as recognized by industry experts?: …Your Google+ Local page And what is the single most important ranking factor on your Google+ Local page?: …Proper category association When creating a local listing for your business you will be prompted to choose a category (in some cases several) that describe your business. This is an incredibly important step. In general, search engines will consider your business listing as being primarily relevant for sets of keywords that relate to your chosen categories. Failure to choose categories or miscategorization will severely limit the visibility of your local business listing. You'll find yourself edged out of the results by competitors who have properly categorized their businesses. I have good news, there is a tool to help you… 1:00 (34:00)
- And it’s free, there’s the link It’s a Moz.com/local What this is going to do is look through all the different review site and tell you what the optimal categories to use for your business As mentioned previously Do a little research to see the terms that people are actually searching for. 15 minutes can pay dividends later :30 (34:30)
- Own your BRANDED local knowledge graph. This is your real estate, This is a gift from Google and it is your responsibility to claim it as yours. And, it’s relatively easy. All you need to do is put a link with the attribute of rel=publisher in the code of your home page that connects your business website with your Google+ Local page. Now, when a users searches for your brand name, they will see this nicely curated right-hand column of information about your brand. :30 (35:00)
- Complete your profile. Guess what happens when you don’t images uploaded to your plus page? Yawp, Google will choose for you. In this case Google found some incriminating photos from a deep deep directory on their website and well This is how they are representing their brand online. It is Portland, so perhaps that’s not a problem :30 (36:00)
- Let’s move to our 4th tip and tactic and talk about removing friction from the review process
- This is supposed to be an ugly and cumbersome flow chart It helps build empathy for your customers when you send them down review site hell in order to leave you a review. >They first come to your site They navigate to your business page If they don’t have an account they have to sign up for one Complete a profile Wait for an email…go back to the site a resend the email when they can’t find it…check the spam folder…confirm their account Finally if you are lucky they leave a review. 95% of people are going to drop off somewhere in that process and you will end up having a frustrated customer and no review… There is a lot of friction here, Let’s do it a better way 1:00 (37:00)
- Link to review sites that allow Facebook logins or Google+ logins There is very little friction here, People are already logged into facebook doing whatever they do. They visit your site, click on the review site and leave a review. The customer is not frustrated and you have your review. :30 (37:30)
- Here are the sites that allow Facebook logins. Where possible use these. :15 (37:45)
- Here’s another idea Segment your email database Go into your email database that you have for a newsletter, or that you’ve captured point of sale. Segment for users that have a gmail.com domain. Send all those people a direct link to your Google + Local page. They are most likely logged into google already. For those who don’t have gmail, send them to a review site that accepts facebook logins No more friction. 1:00 (38:45)
- So we have talked about some of the big review sites. The review sites that matter no matter what vertical you are in: Yelp, Google, Yahoo Yellow Pages, CitySearch, etc. But what about the vertical directories that matter for the RV dealers? Here’s a way to find some: Process: Do a search in which you want to rank (top-rated RV dealers Portland OR) Which review sites rank organically Get reviews Google is crawling these sites and obviously finds them important. You’ll want to get reviews there. 1:00 (40:00) //Tips for responding to negative reviewshttp://blog.vendasta.com/2014/03/26/teach-businesses-how-to-respond-to-negative-reviews/
- Further down on the page is the local pack. Process: Do a search in which you want to rank (top-rated RV dealers Portland OR) Which review sites are shown in the knowledge panel in the 7 pack Get reviews Google is saying hey we care about these. Go make sure your listing is in there and cleaned. 1:00 (41:00) Tips for responding to negative reviewshttp://blog.vendasta.com/2014/03/26/teach-businesses-how-to-respond-to-negative-reviews/
- There’s a lot of data out there that can help you…use it.
- You gotta be Be honest with yourself…the TRUTH lives within the data I am giving you a lot of tips today, and realistically you aren’t going to be able to do them all It takes time, it takes money, it takes organization The days of the yellow pages are over. We live in a highly complex marketing world and you have limited resources. In order to make the best use of those resources you have to honestly and rigorously assess your efforts. Invest in the winners divest in the losers. This is also a subject I could talk to for hours, but at very least, I want to give you the 2 most important data analysis tools for organic search…first: 1:00 (42:00)
- First, when optimizing your own site, it’s best to see how google sees your site. This is the closest look that Google will ever give us into the blackbox. Google is basically giving you Webmaster Tools to tell you how they see your site: what errors are they getting, where are they having problems crawling your site. You can see how deep they are crawling, how much they are indexing You can see the keywords you rank for, how much they are clicked. This is free, and easy to implement. 1:00 (43:00)
- Critical – Google Analytics. Very rich data, but only as powerful as you make it. Take some time to learn how to use it. Google provides free training videos at the Google Analytics academy Again free and easy to implement :30 (43:30) //https://analyticsacademy.withgoogle.com/explorer
- We are nearing towards the end and I have one last thing I want to talk to you about Now, you have heard me mention consistency of your name address and phone number several times throughout this presentation This is how you fix and maintain it over time…
- 73% lose trust in a brand when a listing is incorrect or inconsistent/. Having wrong phone numbers and addresses makes people lose trust in you It also makes Google lose trust in you :15 (44:00)
- And 40% of business listing have something wrong with it… It’s not entirely the business’ fault. The local search eco system is build upon 1000s of pieces of data from a large group of aggregators. Someone else could have created the wrong information, but it’s still tied to your business. There is opportunity here as well: a lot of your competitors aren’t so good at this either. Ding ding. That means an opportunity for competitive leverage. You need to get your NAP data to distributed to these places because they are all source of data for Google Local. The more consistent your data is here, the better off you’re going to be in ranking. 1:00 (45:00) http://searchengineland.com/yellowpages-sites-beat-google-in-local-data-accuracy-test-118467?utm_campaign=wall&utm_source=socialflow&utm_medium=facebook
- [QUICK] Every aggregator has its own network of sites that it pushes to.
- Each aggregator has its strengths and weaknesses. Moz Local makes it so you don’t have to worry about these details. You can do this yourself. Some of the aggregators charge to update/claim your listing, some are free. The biggest cost is your time. We can also do it for you for about $80 per location. We have relationships with these aggregators and can push data automatically. It saves some time. :45 (48:00)
- The first step to recovery is to admit you have a problem, and the only way to do that is to know what you don’t know… Do this by auditing your citations and understanding if there is missing or incorrect data. Another free tool for you to do this. :30 (48:30)
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- So what lies ahead? There will be continued challenges and we are at the whim of Google and pressures from competitive factor But we are resourceful folks With a little elbow grease and determination you can flip the challenges in your favor and compete at a much higher level Thanks! 52:00