"Spamming the search engines" and PPC for local

[earlpearl]

I read Dazzlin's coverage of Pubcon at SERoundtable and was inspired by her coverage of what Jake Baille said.

I've pm'd a little with this guy. He is evidentally very well known in the industry--Randfish has called him one of the masters.

Two years ago he got into Local- developing and enhancing a version of a local engine.

Boy did his words ring true. I've been doing this stuff for a few years and learned by paying attention in forums like this and experimenting.

Jake spoke very well to things I've learned and applied. What I got out of DD's summary was a far simpler and better descriptionto develop your own sites or how to optimize and manage ppc for clients. I wanted to reitenate some of that here.

Keyword Expansion

Geo keyword expansion:

City and state names and zip codes. Also use initials and local familiar terms for the city(s).

He described non obvious terms: neighborhoods, area codes, counties, airport codes and metro areas. Town names have worked very well for me also (the famous DD method). Also add directional descriptions-like Northern Virginia or Western New York. They work well. He mentioned airport codes- LAX. Also use the locals' name for a neighborhood - The loop rather than downtown Chicago.

Product Service phrases

Jake suggested terms like: product names, brand names, sku's, slang/industry terms, government terms, regional names for products (pop versus soda)

I've used about a dozen variations for my service. They all add up.

Use Ads. It really works. (I can vouch for that) Make sure that if you have a geo term in the ad-have that geo term in the landing page.

lots of advertising opportunities; G, MSN, Y, Ask, IYP, and a variety of the local engines (truelocal (Jake's) local.com) Newspaper sources, vertical industry sites, local industry groups, local business development groups, hobbyists, geo vertical directories, etc.

I'm big on PPC. I don't like IYP - since I've found that I can outrank most IYP terms for most towns. I've marketed in vertical industry groups and that works well. I've done very well with craigslist.

I loved his descriptions. They are very powerful. Be creative. One example he used was to target phrases that generate lots of traffic for your particular service/product; DUI lawyers will often target phrases like (state name) DMV. Bingo that is a great one.

We've done similar stuff and it works.

Check out Dazzlin's review over at SERoundtable. http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/006710.html It is far more thorough and covers the topics from other speakers.

Dave

[rmccarley]

Use Ads. It really works. (I can vouch for that) Make sure that if you have a geo term in the ad-have that geo term in the landing page.

Can you expand on that a bit?

[earlpearl]

PPC.

write ads like Sacramento SEO
Sacramento web marketing
Internet marketing Central California.

When you have the geo location there make sure you tie it with a landing page that has the same geo description as the ad.

In other words don't have ads for San Fran SEO and Sacramento SEO and have them all go to a landing page that just discusses San Francisco SEO business.

[pittbug]

With AdWords raising the bar on quality, now more than ever you really need to split up your adgroups. So in Dave's example I would split it up into a Sacramento geo targeted campaign, with 2 adgroups: seo and internet marketing, then group the similar keywords together and write very specific ads which reference those types of terms. Also make sure that the destination pages have those terms, even if you have to create specific (robots.txt excluded) flat html pages.

Once you are happy with the Sacramento campaign use the adwords editor to copy the campaign and adgroups and adjust settings for a new geo targeted area if you need to. It's much faster than using the web interface.

[rmccarley]

I have very few clients in Sac so a promotion is definately in order. I was thinking of creating a subdomain on 14thC specificly for Sac-area SEO services. The tagline would be something like "Did you know there's an International SEO Consultant right here in Sacramento? You can have world-class service..." and then do the work to tie the subdomain to local community stuff and then use the third tip from Donna to see what happens.

The thing is I kind of enjoy not having local clients. It serriously reduces my meeting time and travel expenses.

I think my desire to get better with local SEO will win out over my frugal nature.

[earlpearl]

More critically from the beginning and on an ongoing basis is what DD reported that Jake said first, keyword expansion. You have to be broad and expansive with keyword phrases. Additionally you need to look at the motivation of customers and do it in the language of the locals (again as Jake mentioned). The creative example he used, and I copied, was placing ads for DUI attorneys for searches for state DMV.

My own research on searches with state name terms has confirmed his comments. Lots and lots of searches for state govt services like Florida DMV or state universities. Great opportunities to run ads for services and products off these popular search terms. There are a lot of other opportunities but you have to dig for them with your keyword expansion and keyword research.

As far as DD's comments...I'm not sure what she meant by that. I'm seeing something different; Not a onebox submission but the map of a site from google maps and citations back to google maps. That is different and I need to ask her about it and look into it further. In any case the Maps insert is powerful. Damn....its screwed up my rankings with regard to some far reaching phrases. It makes it valuable to enter your site in Google Maps.

Get a decent ranking in google maps and you will get a first ranking for long tail search phrases for your specific town/city in normal google search. I assume the "one box" is the little map of your site on Google.

My site never got the "snail mail" from G. It is in G Maps and has been updated. We don't have the "one box" impact that others have. And that is valuable.

I've seen its effect with regard to other suburban competitors. It has taken away a little advantage we have had for phrases for our service and a town name.

Many more searches come up with state or city names than town names. Regardless I'm wondering how it plays out with bigger metropolitan areas with several competiting businesses all in the same city.

For more on Google maps check out Bill Slawski's various pieces on Google Maps. http://www.seobythesea.com This single integration of Google Maps into Google search is, in my mind, the single most important reason to get into G Maps.

[rmccarley]

EP the 'one box' is the first result that sometimes carries information like "did you mean..?" or "Image results for..."

Check this diagram: http://www.google.com/help/interpret.html

Imagine getting one box placement for your local terms!

[earlpearl]

I checked everywhere and DD is the first to mention this. There is also a little semantic distinction and a bigger marketing/serps distinction.

Onebox defined by google is....

Google's search technology finds many sources of specialized information. Those that are most relevant to your search are included at the top of your search results. Typical onebox results include news, stock quotes, weather and local websites (my emphasis) related to your search.

The more powerful representation is that if you have a reasonably strong google maps entry AND you are the only service of its kind in a particular city or town a map from google maps shows up next to your site ranked 1st in serps. This will both reference your site directly and the google maps entry.

That is a great marketing tool from a number of perspectives. The map and #1 serps ranking gives you great "real estate" in the serps. Its far more compelling than onebox listings of several competing businesses from google local all sort of close to the point from where you started.

Its pretty logical and frankly it has screwed some of my efforts in using the pre-referenced DD method of mentioning towns throughout the region.

Prior to this my biz was outranking competitors in various suburban towns in the region, simply through overall optimization. Now my biz site falls behind these listings even as they aren't as well optimized for anything but that town name.

Of further interest, if there are several competing businesses in the same town or city then a onebox description from google maps will show with a variety of businesses from the same town/city. (not as effective as the map). If there are other places with the same town name (like Newark--Delaware or New Jersey and possibly other states) then google shows the "most popular" version of the town name (Newark New Jersey-not Newark Delaware and associated businesses. If you add the state name, Newark Delaware in the search query then it will show either a onebox or map insertion where available.

If you have the single business of its type in a city its a great tool. If its the only such business in a town then it won't get the volume of searches that a big city gets and or a city that sort of defines its metropolitan region.

If you want to learn more about the algos and effectiveness of Google Maps, Bill Slawski has written lots on it at seobythesea.com.

From a marketing perspective I've looked through lots of examples now. Its still critical to cover lots of keyword phrases as Jake Baille suggested. There are so many variations on both business phrases and geo terms that total traffic volume will be strong if you are optimized for many phrases.

On the other hand having checked this stuff for a couple of years I'd be pretty inclined to open a location within a city in a metro region especially if I have only one competitor in that city that gets the google map benefit or if there isn't one in the major city in the region. The city name will gain lots of geo traffic and will be extremely valuable.

Dave

[pittbug]

My site never got the "snail mail" from G. It is in G Maps and has been updated. We don't have the "one box" impact that others have. And that is valuable.

You'll only get the postcard if you opt to receive it (the other option is a phone call) as an authentication method if you sign up within the Google Local Business Center (http://www.google.com/local/add/businessCenter)

I'm sure you know this Dave, but I thought I throw it out there for others too.

[dazzlindonna]

Good info to add Pittbug.