DAVIDMIHM

1
presented at smx local / mobile july 24, 2008 san
francisco
2
Goal of the Study

• What helps businesses rank...

3
A Quick Vocabulary Lesson

• 10 pack

4
A Quick Vocabulary Lesson

• 3 pack

5
A Quick Vocabulary Lesson

• Authoritative OneBox

6
The Challenges of a Local Search Survey

• Far less discussion of Local than of traditional
  algorithms
• Relatively few well-known experts and bloggers
  (20 included in the survey)
• Newness more shot in the dark factors
• Comprehensive scale no separation of negative
  factors from positive

7
A Very Important Note!

• In general, there was a LOW level of agreement
  among the experts.
• Why? (my hypotheses)
• Variation by industry and location
• Newness of algorithms
• Larger grey area of best practice vs. spam than
  with traditional algorithms

8
The Top Positive Factors

• General importance of claiming Local Business
  Listing
• LBL address in city of search
• Proper Categorization of LBL
• Product / service KWs in LBL title
• Proximity to centroid

• Validation with third-party providers
• Number of inbound links to website
• Location KWs - anchor text
• Number of customer reviews
• General importance of on-page criteria

contributors felt that Yahoo and Google might
differ
9
1. Claim / Initiate a Local Business Listing

• https//www.google.com/local/add/
• http//listings.local.yahoo.com/csubmit/index.ph
  p
• BLEW away the other factors in terms of
  importance AND agreement.

The fact that there are businesses with no web
site who are ranking highly for local queries
simply because they own a listing at the search
engine speaks volumes. M. McGee
10
Local Business Listing Yahoo
11
Local Business Listing Yahoo
12
Local Business Listing Google
13
Local Business Listing Google
14
2. Local Business Listing Address in City of
Search

• Obviously location is the biggest factor in any
  local algorithm. T. Coleman
• The problem is that, with some queries, there
  arent enough matches in the city. So a matching
  address is important, but not for some queries.
  M. McGee
• Factor 1 Factor 2 ? Claim your listing in ALL
  locations.

15
Local Business Listing in City of Search(yes)
16
Local Business Listing in City of Search(no)
17
3. Proper Categorization of Local Business Listing

• If youre in the wrong category...youre done.
  T. Coleman
• If you dont place yourself in categories, the
  Local SEs will pull them from other sources
  such as the IYPs. M. Bowling

18
Improper Category(!)
(Hat tip to Mike Blumenthal, Blumenthals.com)
19
Proper Category
20
4. Product/Service KWs in LBL Title

• This probably depends a lot on how competitive
  things are. M. McGee
• Its working great for spammers, but leads to
  some pretty ridiculous results. M. Ellis
• See Chris Silver Smiths Extreme Local Search
  Tactics (NaturalSearchBlog.com)

21
Effective vs Ineffective LBL Titles
YES
NO
22
5. Proximity to Centroid

• This used to be the entire algorithm in Google
  for Local, and now appears to account for 20 to
  40 percent. D. Klein
• Looking at the Universal SERPs its remarkable
  how tightly bunched the locations are. G.
  Goldenberg
• Centroid what Google/Yahoo consider to be the
  default center of town

23
Proximity to Centroid
24
6. Validation with Third-Party Providers

• Matters more for Yahoo than Google. B. Geddes
• Gives you control over your reviews and business
  information, and prevents competitors from
  hijacking your results. I. Lurie
• Specific providers and other citation
  sources vary significantly by industry and
  location

25
Who are the most important providers?
26
A Few Words About the Negative Factors...

• Associating multiple LBL's with same address
• Associating multiple LBL's with same phone
• Associating multiple LBL's with same business
  name
• Negative customer reviews
• Associating an 800 Number with LBL
• Listing multiple addresses on website

think in terms of both SPAM and CONFUSION
27
A BIG thank-you to all the contributors.
And thanks to SEOmoz for the insipration for the
study. http//www.seomoz.org/article/search-rankin
g-factors
28
GET IN TOUCH David Mihm [phone] davidmihm
_at_gmail.com www.davidmihm.com
Slides and links to relevant blog
posts http//www.davidmihm.com/smx