Did you know that optimization of local listings, maps, reviews, & check-in promos can help customers find you before they find your competitors?
Local listings are increasingly used by people who are searching for products and services in their vicinity, who are also ready to make purchases either online or offline.
Widespread Internet access and mobile devices enable customers to find what they need instantly on the go with high-buying intent. This also comes with the high tendency to share experiences online in the form star ratings and reviews.
Through Local Marketing, you can ensure your business is visible in local business listings and maps on major sites like Google Places, Bing Local, Facebook Places, and Foursquare. This will allow your potential customers to easily find you and know exactly how to get to you – and by reading reviews, learn why they should choose you! Keep your competition at bay and expand your business to new horizons. We are here to help you make that happen, right here and right now!
Local search marketing has been a tremendous boost and help for smaller businesses and bigger businesses with multiple locations. When optimized correctly, a local business can easily stand out in the local search results. Unfortunately, this is often easier said than done. Google, in line with their commitment to providing exceptional user experiences, continuously tweaks its local ranking algorithms. These continuous updates can make it difficult for businesses to maintain the results of their current online marketing strategy.
We understand that such scenarios can be frustrating. As a leading online marketing agency, we constantly monitor changes in the local search landscape and adjust the components of our Local Marketing techniques to ensure our service remains effective and efficient.
Before adjusting your current local SEO strategy, take a look at some of the most important ranking factors Google uses for its local search. A good understanding of these ranking factors can help you determine the most effective measures to include in your current strategy.
Each of these ranking factors plays a significant role in determining your local search ranking. With that in mind, here is a more in-depth look at each ranking factor:
It’s only natural that establishing a presence on Google My Business is an important ranking factor for Google’s local search. Google My Business complements your existing website by giving your business a public identity and presence on Google maps.
Google primarily looks at information pertaining to relevance, distance, and prominence of a business to help determine its ranking. By completing the following tasks on Google My Business, you can provide Google with the necessary information to help boost your rankings:
Simply put, you must update your Google My Business profile and keep it updated—or have someone optimize your profile for you. If you don’t have an existing profile, it is high time to make one.
Citations are still a crucial factor, but make sure that your citations are consistent and of high-quality. According to the report from Moz, “citations went from 15.5% to 13.6% as a general ranking factor, but specifically, citation quality and consistency remain top-five factors for both pack results and in competitive markets.”
Google’s algorithms treat high-quality citations as indicators of the credibility of your business. Local Marketing makes sure your business is listed on Yelp, Foursquare, YellowPages, Manta, HotFrog, and numerous other listings. These established sites are great for building up the number and quality of your citations.
On-page signals are important because they provide Google’s spiders vital information about your business. This is where your SEO strategy should shine the most.
Optimize the structure of your website with location landing pages and URLs if your business has multiple locations, or for a certain business location covering multiple cities. Optimize the titles, meta descriptions and header tags of your pages. You also want to make sure the keywords in your content are right on the spot and to include relevant keywords as well.
Make sure that your NAP (name, address, and phone number) is listed correctly on your site, as well as your business hours. This information has to be consistent with the NAP indicated on your Google My Business listing and other business directories.
Keep in mind that you should also optimize your page for people as well. Be sure to write engaging content. Users are much more likely to stay and keep your business top of mind if your content is useful and easy to navigate. Furthermore, this will help keep bounce rates to a minimum.
Links continue to play a vital role in determining to rank. As with citations, you should focus on building high-quality inbound links. Be on the lookout for respected and authoritative sites. Link buying is a strict no-no. Optimizing anchor texts for both the keyword and your city also has a significant positive impact.
In a recent Google Q&A, Andrey Lipattsev, Search Quality Senior Strategist at Google, confirmed that On-Page Content and Links are two of the most influential ranking factors Google uses. Both factors have a weight of 20 percent in the Moz study.
Overall, we are proud that our efforts to improve our Local Marketing services are well in line with the recommendations of Google. Hopefully, the topics covered above help you maximize the returns of your online marketing strategy.
What are some of the local marketing challenges that have left you feeling frustrated? How have you been able to tackle these challenges? Were the solutions you came up with effective? I would love to hear from you.
| Package Name |
Entry Level Local Marketing Services |
Intermediate Local Marketing Services |
Advanced Local Marketing Services |
Advanced Plus Local Marketing Services |
Advanced Ultra Local Marketing Services |
| Services/Products | Up to 5 | Up to 10 | Up to 15 | Up to 20 | Up to 20 |
| Business Categories | 1 | Up to 2 | Up to 3 | Up to 5 | Up to 5 |
| Month 1 Services | |||||
| Local Business Listing Research and Creation | |||||
| Local Places Research | |||||
| Duplicate Google Places Analysis | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Duplicate Foursquare Analysis | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Duplicate Facebook Places Analysis | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Duplicate Bing Local Analysis | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Business Address Consistency Check among Existing Directories | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Google Places Compatibility Check | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Business Information | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Business Information Validation | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Business Address Verification (if applicable) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Email Account and Logo | |||||
| Unique Email Account Creation for Local Listing Creations* | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Turn Over of Email Account | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Uploading of Logo for Linking into Local Listings | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Primary Local Business Directories | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Google Places - Creation and Optimization | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Google Plus User Account Creation | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Google Plus Business Page Creation | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Bing Local - Creation and Optimization | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Facebook Places - Creation and Optimization | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Foursquare - Creation and Optimization | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Additional Major Local Business Directories | |||||
| Major Local Directory Account Creation and Optimization | 5 | 10 | 20 | 30 | 40 |
| Major Niche or Geo Related Directory Account Creation and Optimization | 5 | 10 | 20 | 30 | 40 |
| Image Creation, Optimization, and Publication | |||||
| High Quality Image Sourcing | 2 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 12 |
| Image Optimization | 2 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 12 |
| Image Uploading/Publishing in Major Local Business Directories | 2 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 12 |
| Misc. Service Items | |||||
| Dedicated IP Services | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Reporting and Auditing | |||||
| Internal Report Auditing and Analysis | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Work Reports | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Month 2 & Ongoing Monthly | |||||
| Custom (Citation) Building | |||||
| Specialized Directory Creation | 5 | 10 | 20 | 30 | 40 |
| Blog Comment Posting OR Review Publication | |||||
| Blog Comment Posting OR Review Publication | 4 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 20 |
Duplicated listings for a single business can be problematic when they appear in Google search results or in a business owner's Google Places account. There should only be one listing per business location, both in the Google Places account and in search results. We will develop the best solution should your business appear more than once in your account or in search results. We will present the proposed changes before implementing any modifications.
Foursquare is one of many secondary local search engines where you will need to list/claim and verify your business. Listing and claiming your business properly with Foursquare is an essential step to improving your local presence.
One can't create duplicate listings in Foursquare. If there's an existing listing, we will report it to you so you can decide if you would like us to claim it. Otherwise, should Foursquare creation be part of your package, we will create and optimize a new listing for you.
Facebook allows people to share where they've been, where they're headed and where they are now. This feature is an opportunity for businesses to promote their products and services within their local area.
We will find duplicate Places for your business by searching for its name or locations where people made when they checked in. If we found duplicates, we will claim and merge the duplicates to keep your customers' likes and check-ins in one place.
Having your business added properly in Bing Business Portal is an important step in improving your local presence. Bing is one of the major search engines where you can have your business listed and verified.
We will find duplicate listings in Bing by searching for its name or locations and report it to Bing if we find any duplicates.
It's important for your Business Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP) to be recorded consistently across all the main search engines and local directories. Inaccurate information can be confusing for customers and more so for Google. Google likes to verify the information it holds about your business with other sources such as local online directories.
It is ideal that your Name, Address, and Phone Number are the same on each site. If there are any discrepancies, appropriate measures should be implemented. Addressing inaccurate results by claiming your listing on those directories and correcting the erroneous information effectively resolves this issue.
This section analyzes your performance in Google Places. We will examine your website's categories, rank, verification status, number of reviews, and Google's star rating. We will also pay close attention to your current listing if it includes any type of coupon promotions. In doing so, we are able to quickly analyze the flaws in the current Google Local Listing. Should one exist, we will immediately determine if it matches your Company Name, Phone Number, and Address.
This form is provided to gather all the necessary information to facilitate the optimization process and should be filled out in full and returned so we may proceed with the optimization process.
It is very important that all company information on the Internet is consistent with your website. We will use the pieces of information on the form and verify them against the target website and any other directories we can find online. We do this to ensure that the information we are using is updated. This also guarantees that all information about your business on the Internet is consistent.
We check to make sure the address given for the business location matches a verified location in the USPS official database. It is not confirmed, but heavily believed that Google cross references the USPS official database to check the validity of a business location. We will be able to tell if the address is residential or commercial. Note: This is only for USA clients.
Unique Email Account Creation for Local Listing Creations*
*If an email account and its password are not provided once the campaign launches, we will create a unique email account for the Local Business Listing Creation process.
We will be providing you with the email account and password upon delivering the monthly report. Please note that we would like to be notified if the email account's password is changed while the campaign is still in progress so we may update our records accordingly.
In order to upload a logo to a Local Business Listing, the logo must first be hosted online and assigned a corresponding URL.
Our Google Local services include the creation, optimization and submission of a Google Local Business Listing. The listing must be claimed by receiving a PIN number. This PIN number will be sent to you within 2 weeks after we make the request. Once you receive the PIN number on the post card, you will need to email it to us so we can claim the listing for you.
If a Google Plus User account and its password are not provided once the campaign launches, we will create a Google Plus User account for you. This is required for us to create your Google Plus Business Page.
Your Google Plus Business Page is your brand's home on Google. When your customers search on Google, the results may include relevant posts, photos, and videos from your Google+ page. Get found across Google, right when your customers are most interested.
We will create and optimize this page for your company to have maximum exposure in Google Plus. We will help you stand out from the competition by including compelling online content such as photos and logos. We will also add your business hours, services, and other information.
Our Bing Local services include the creation, optimization and submission of the Bing Business Portal. We will help you stand out from the competition by including compelling online content such as photos and logos. We will also add your business hours, services and other information. It typically takes two to three weeks for a Bing Local listing to be published.
If your business is located outside of the US, we will be creating a Yelp listing instead since the Bing Business portal is not available in your location. As with Bing, it will typically take two to three weeks for your Yelp listing to be published.
We will set up a Facebook Places Page on your behalf. People can check in to this Page when they're nearby. We will make sure that your Facebook Page contains accurate information. We will add your company description, phone number, location, hours of operation, specialties, services, payment options, etc. Facebook Places requires phone verification.
Claiming and verifying your listing in Foursquare is the first step to get discovered and be successful in Foursquare. Foursquare has millions of business listings, all submitted by customers who go to those places.
We will find your business and make sure that the information for your claimed business is accurate. We will add your company description, phone number, hours of operation as well as links to your website and social media profiles – Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Verification of Foursquare will require a credit card payment of $1.
While setting up your listings in Primary Local Business Directories, we will also submit your business information to major local directories such as Yelp, Judy's Book, and Insider Pages. As more and more local consumers turn to the Internet to find information about local businesses, these citation directories are growing in popularity. These citation directories can be a direct source of new customers, and they can also boost your local presence.
We will conduct a research to find niche specific or geo related directories. Using this data, we will be able to not only target the directories that is niche specific or geo targeted for better local presence, but we will be also able to find directories where your target market hangs out. Our ability to use specialized research and citation/directory tracking resources will give us a leg up on your competition.
We will find compelling, high quality, relevant images to represent your brand. Finding the right image is crucial in increasing your sales, market share and brand recognition.
We will optimize the branded images without changing their look or visual quality. These images will load fast, which
increases the likelihood of being exposed to consumers in the World Wide Web. Images will have the ability to index
in the search engines when your clients type in relevant keywords describing your business. Images are often times
part of the first page search engine results.
Branded images will also be uploaded to the primary 2 local business directories in a form of an update. This will help in increasing brand awareness, which could later lead to sales and conversions.
We will provide a dedicated IP* for link building purposes. We do this to ensure the link building quality and increase the likelihood of approval for the links we are building. This is because having a dedicated IP allows for a higher approval percentage of the links we build and increases the indexing power behind those links in the major search engines.
*Dedicated IP services will also be utilized when creating your accounts and are used by TeamVFM internally for client campaigns.
All Reporting is subjected to a monthly routine auditing and assessment process. We perform this auditing on a monthly basis to assure that all reports are up to date, error-free, and properly formatted.
The auditing process includes, but is not limited to, the checking of the following:
All tasks will be tracked throughout the whole month and are reflected on the monthly report, which includes all progress and final outcomes.
We will conduct research to find all the directories your competition has listings in, and use other variables to research additional directories you should be listed in, but are currently not. Using these data, we will be able to not only target the directories that really matter, but we will also be able to track the number of active directories you are listed in versus the average number of directories your competitors are listed in. Our ability to use specialized research and citation/directory tracking resources will give us a leg up on your competition.
The purpose of this analysis is to gauge where your competition is. In doing so, we can better tailor a unique citation building campaign in line with your Local Listing Optimization Campaign and overall SEO efforts.
Collectively, Local Online Citation Directories are the modern equivalent of the Yellow Pages. As more and more local consumers turn to the Internet to find information about local businesses, these citation directories are growing in popularity. These citation directories can be a direct source of new customers, and they can also boost your local places rankings.
The directories we decide to build new listings in will be determined by the "Directory Research" as described in the above line item. Another way to gain prominence on these citation directories is to enhance your listing with more detail about your business.
We will create directory listings using (limited to) the below information.
Collectively, Local Online Citation Directories are the modern equivalent of the Yellow Pages. As more and more local consumers turn to the Internet to find information about local businesses, these citation directories are growing in popularity. These citation directories can be a direct source of new customers, and they can also boost your local places rankings.
We will create directory listings using (limited to) the below information.
You may choose between Blog Comment Posting AND Review Publication
For the Blog Comment Posting: we will conduct research to find blogs that are relevant to your business, and perform posting of relevant comments with reference to your business.
For the Review Publication: Upon being furnished with reviews you have collected, we will publish each of them to one of the major review publication websites.