As search engines continually evolve, we must be receptive to those changes and use them to our advantage. Here are some of the big changes coming in 2016 and how you can leverage them to improve your online exposure.

1. Digital Domination
CORNERING THE LOCAL SEARCH MARKET

2. Key Takeaways for a Better Local
Presence
What Are the Local SERPs Composed Of?
How Can You Create and Improve a Presence on Google Maps?
How Can you Create and Improve a Presence in Organic Local
Results?
Identify and Create Listings on 3rd Party Sites Prominent in Your Area.
Leveraging Social Media to Attract Local Traffic
Content Creation for Local SEO
Increasing Conversions with Proper KW Pairing
Diversifying Traffic and Maximizing Your Presence with Paid Search.
Bringing it all Together
Measuring and Improving

3. Composition of the
Local SERPs
Local SEO encompasses a combination of
localized map results as well as geo-targeted
keywords that return organic listings specific to
a geographical location.
As you likely know, earlier this year Google
reduced the “7-pack” of local results to a “3-
pack”.
This change reduced the first page real estate
for map results but increased the prominence
of both paid and organic listings.

4. Local Search
Composition- Continued
Often times directory sites like Yelp, Yellow Pages,
or niche specific directories take up several of the
top organic listings below the map results or in lieu
of when maps are not triggered
Social media can also be returned in local results.
This usually entails a social profile ranking or a post
on the profile. Since earlier this year, Tweets have
been appearing in various mobile and desktop
searches.
Rounding out the local results you will find
properties like YouTube, Blogger, and assorted
web 2.0 sites such as Rebel Mouse.

5. Local Search Composition - Continued
In addition to local and organic listings, pay
per click advertising is an important part of
localized search results, and in some test
markets, paid search is the dominant
presence in local search.
Many web professionals speculate that the
reduction in map listings from 7 to 3 was
done to increase the prominence of the paid
search options.
The listing type pictured to the right is still in
testing so we will have to wait and see how
things shake out in 2016.

6. Local SEO – Map Listings
The first thing you need to do if you want to get on the map is to create a free Google Business
Listing. Simply visit: https://www.google.com/business/ and follow the instructions provided to
create and verify your listing.
Once you have created your listing, you will need fill out all of the details to increase the
likelihood of your page being found. Thankfully, Google has added a status bar so you know
when you have filled out your profile completely.

7. Building Citations
Whether you know it or not when you setup your Google page you created a citation to your
website.
Citations are listings on external websites that include the name, address, and phone number
for your business.
Currently citations are one of the most important factors in how your business will appear in the
map results.
As with link building, the focus of citation building should be quality. One of the simplest ways to
find quality citation opportunities in your industry is to find out which directory sites are ranking
for your ideal keywords.
Another method of finding citation sources is to see what citations your competitors who are
ranking above you have.

8. Identifying Citation Sources
The most simplistic way to find citation opportunities is with a quick Google search. As an
example I have searched for “plumbers St. Louis”. Within the top 10 organic results the following
directories are ranking:
BBB.org
Yellowpages.com
Angieslist.com
Yelp.com
Homeadvisor.com
Creating a listing on each of these sites would establish a new citation for your business while
giving you a “Barnacle” listing that could also rank for your target keywords.

9. Competitor Citation Analysis
There are several tools that allow you to identify citations that your competitors have. You can do a
search by the business name or you can simply search for citation sources using your keyword + city &
state. Some tools allow you to search a keyword and see competitors and citation opportunities.
My personal favorite tool for this is Whitespark.

10. Citation Building Done Right
While finding citation opportunities is pretty straightforward, you need to pay close attention to
how your listings are created.
Many sites will create an automatic but unverified listing for your business, Yelp is one such
example. For this reason, it is important to search each site to make sure you do not already
have a listing as duplicate listings can be harmful to your Google Maps positioning.
The second and equally important thing you must remember is to list your business consistently.
Your business name, address, and phone number should be listed the EXACT same way each
time you create a citation. You should also use a local number instead of a call tracking or 800
number to ensure consistent listings.
You should also keep a spreadsheet with all of your login information in one place so you can
easily update your listings in the future as needed.

11. Ranking Your Citations
As mentioned earlier, many of the localized organic results are filled by directory sites. Let’s say that in
your market a competitors Yellow Pages listing is ranking #3 organically. You have just created a Yellow
Pages listing and yours is not ranking, what can be done?
What many people do not realize is that your listings can be ranked just like any other web page and if
a page on the root domain is already ranking, you have an even better shot at ranking your citation.
The most simplistic way to rank citations is by building links to them. Since quality citation sites often
have a lot of authority, they can withstand link building in high volume, and from lower quality sites.
Aggressive link building to citation sites poses no threat to your website but if you prefer to do things
naturally, simply linking out to your profiles from guest posts can send enough authority to get them
ranking. If you are a wild child, GSA, PBNs, and Sape Links will still do the trick.
You should also note that boosting the authority of your citations will positively impact your Google
Maps ranking.

12. Google Map & Citation Ranking Recap
Setup and verify your Google Business page.
Fill out all of the details until your profile is 100% complete.
Identify citation opportunities by simply looking at the SERPs for your target keyword or by
using tools such as the WhiteSpark Local Citation Finder.
Create citations on quality directories and make sure you are listing your N.A.P data the exact
same way on each site and be sure to check for existing listings before creating a new listing.
Rank your citations in the organic local results by building links to listings on sites that already
rank for your ideal keywords.
Keep a record of all citations for future updates.

13. Ranking Your Website in the Localized
Organic Results
Ranking a website comes down to three basic
elements.
1. On Page SEO
2. Website Content
3. Link Building Strategies
Within these main categories there are several
sub-categories of factors that influence how well
your website performs.

14. Local On Page SEO
While we could write a book or 10 about on page SEO, today we are going to focus on factors
specific to local search. As you can see below, on page signals and links are the most important
two factors in 2015.

15. Most Important On Page Factors for
Local SEO
1. City and State + product or service in the title of the Google My Business landing page. –
Many people debate whether you should link your GMB page to the home page of your site
or a location specific page. Either way, you should try to include the aforementioned
information.
2. City/state in h1 & h2 headings of GMB landing page
3. NAP data with Schema Markup on GMB landing page
4. GMB landing page speed
5. Geographic keyword relevance of domain content
6. Physical address in the city of search
7. Geographic keyword in domain

16. Developing Effective Content
When creating content for your local business website, you should include the following
elements.
1. Click Enticing Meta Data – The CTR of your listing can influence your ranking making it
important to write captivating titles that earn clicks.
2. Topical Relevance of Content – Gone are the days of creating a separate page for every
keyword variation. Each page of your site should have a clear topic that is supported by text,
images, and videos. You should also include information unique to your physical location.
3. Including LSI Keywords in your content will increase the topical relevance of the page while
allowing you to rank for numerous keyword variations.
4. Remember above all to write content that people are likely to engage with and share as it
can assist the link building process tremendously. Tools like Buzzsumo will allow you to find
popular content by industry, helping to generate content that will be consumed.

17. Proper Keyword Pairing for Increased
Conversions
One of the main areas I see small businesses fail is in the development and promotion of
content for different phases of the buying cycle. When selecting keywords to target you MUST
consider the most likely intent behind the search. Here is an example:
What is SEO? – This is a terms used by someone in the research phase, they are looking for
information comparing SEO to marketing strategies that currently use or understand.
Local SEO Services – A buyer will often search for terms like this when they are interested in
comparing the services/pricing/strategies offered by various companies.
Company Name + Reviews – This is a keyword a buyer will use when they have compared
several companies and are trying to narrow the shortlist to a single firm.
While those are just examples, the important thing to remember is that you should aim to
identify the intentions behind a user search so that you can provide them with the most useful
information.

18. Link Building for Local SEO
Link building for localized organic results consists primarily of citation building and traditional
organic link building. Here are the most important end goals according to the recent Moz Local
Ranking Factors Survey.
1. Domain Authority of Website
2. Quality & Authority of Inbound Links, including GMB Landing Page.
3. Diversity & Velocity of Inbound Links to Domains
4. Quality, Authority, and Consistency of Structured & Unstructured Citations
5. Descriptive Anchor Texts (don’t overdo this one!!)
6. Inbound Links & Citations from Locally Relevant Domains

19. Local Social Media Marketing
While you are able to rank and even be a dominate force in your area without the use of social
media, there are some basics that you should implement to increase your search presence as
well as user engagement and retention.
As with your Google Business listing, you have to start by setting up your profiles. At a minimum
you should create listings on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google +, and Twitter. Even if you stopped after
setting up your profile, you would have properties that could rank well for your brand name,
giving your control over your online reputation.
Even if you don’t want to make regular posts on social media, you can rank your profiles in many
cases just as you would your citations. This could be for your brand name or target keywords.
Simply look to see if any of the social sites are currently ranking for your keywords and if so,
build links in the manner you would for your citations.

20. Socially Engaging Social Marketing
Assuming that you don’t plan on setting up your profiles and then forgetting about them, here
are some tips for creating a locally focused social strategy:

21. Local Paid Search Marketing Strategies
Desktop PPC with call direction extensions
Mobile PPC ads with location extensions
Call Only Campaigns
Etc..

22. Paid Search

23. Paid Search

24. Paid Search

25. Tracking Your Efforts
Launching an effective local marketing strategy can be time consuming and labor intensive so
you definitely want to make sure your efforts are working. While there are hundreds of potential
KPIs you could track, I like to stick with the following.
 Increase in traffic from your targeted region,
Breakdown of traffic sources: i.e. social media, referral, organic
User engagement: time on page, bounce rates, return visitors, goal completion, then segment
by traffic source to find the best sources of traffic.
Average position for keywords in maps and localized organic results, rankings of citations, social
profiles, and videos or other web 2.0 sites.
 Return on your time or financial investments.

26. Fine Tuning Your Strategies
Once you have a clear idea of where your traffic is coming from, you can identify sources that
are likely to reach your ideal audience and are not currently sending you traffic.
If you find you are spending a lot of time on social media or guest posting but not getting a
return, you should look to re-allocate your time.
Does organic or paid traffic convert better than referral? Increasing your efforts in the strategies
making the biggest impact on your bottom line.

27. Questions?
Stellarseo.com | Info@stellarseo.com | 618-694-7282