For many small business owners, local SEO can be a confusing and overwhelming challenge on your website. In this edition Portent's monthly webinar series, you'll learn how to maximize your success as a small business against the competition in your area and industry. Portent's Director of SEO, Josh Patrice, will walk through the role local directories play, how to use social media to your advantage, the on-site factors to pay attention to, and much more. Whether you run a brick-and-mortar shop or do business through an ecommerce website, this webinar is for you. To watch the video and find other Portent webinars, visit the blog: http://www.portent.com/blog/seo/smb-seo-tips-video.htm

1. SEO TIPS
FOR SMALL BUSINESSES
The Portent Webinar Series
Josh Patrice
@syzlak
josh@portent.com

2. #PORTENTU

3. portent.co/smbSEOwebinar
(Yes, use .co, not .com)

5. THIS IS YOU

6. THIS IS YOU
I am brick
I am mortar

7. WHERE YOU WANT TO BE

8. THIS IS YOU

11. THIS IS YOU
Same joke?
No.

12. It really is a
series of tubes.

13. WHERE DO YOU START?

14. START
S TA RT
START

15. Al Gore

16. WEBSITE

18. SEO
SEO
SEO

20. WHAT DOES IT MEAN? On-site
Navigation
Keywords
Images
Headings
Page titles
Content

21. WHAT DOES IT MEAN? Off-site
Image searches
Fitness anchor text

24. GOOGLE ANALYTICS
GOOGLE
A N A LY T I C S
G O O G L E A N A LY T I C S

25. SMALL BUSINESS DASHBOARD
http://portent.co/R2fkVG

26. SMALL BUSINESS BLOG POST
http://portent.co/XnKLiZ

27. Visits
Pages
Referrals

28. Referrals
=
Links

30. LINKS, NOT LINCS

31. INTERNAL LINKS
Optimize your site with
internal links to deep pages
on your site.
Images, titles, logos, and
content are all great places
to add links.
2
2
2

32. EXTERNAL LINKS
Attract links from other
websites to your site.
Remember to get links to all
your pages, not just your
homepage.
2
2
2

33. Ask
Friends
Social

34. SOCIAL
SOCIAL
SOCIAL

35. Twitter to the rescue

36. TWITTER OUTREACH
Follow peers and competition
Follow local news, businesses, chambers of commerce
More Advanced:
#PRRequest – find PR pros looking for a quote
search with your business category – “fitness”
HARO - https://twitter.com/helpareporter
setup alerts with your category – “fitness” “health”
“diet”

38. FACEBOOK PLACE PAGE

39. FACEBOOK POSTS
Post interesting, relevant content …with pictures
4 likes, 6 comments, 2 shares
Those 2 shares had 5 likes and another share
Post a coupon, before/after, ask questions, etc.

40. posts
likes
shares
visits

41. FACEBOOK ADS
Target your audience by
Demographics
Location
Specific interests

42. FACEBOOK ADS

44. LINKEDIN OUTREACH
Your Profile
Your Business Profile
Setup Products/Services

46. WHY FOURSQUARE?

47. BRYDEN SAID SO

48. “EVEN SMALL BUSINESSES IN
PERU ARE ON FOURSQUARE”
--BRYDEN

49. FOURSQUARE OUTREACH
BECAUSE BRYDEN SAID SO

50. FOURSQUARE OUTREACH
Get an online profile
Automatically links to
facebook and twitter
Foursquare is becoming
local search
resource/engine
Oh, and Bryden is the mayor
of Portent

51. REVIEW SITES

52. YELP REVIEWS
Both Bing and Apple
Maps are using Yelp
for reviews
A couple bad reviews
can do major damage
to your business
online

55. WHY GOOGLE+
Pictures for Authors
Me: you have a Google+ account tied to your authorship?
Joe: No. Is Google+ even a thing still?
Me: yes, it's very important I'll send you instructions
Joe: I'm incredulous. I've never known anyone on it
Me: that doesn't matter. Do you want your picture to show up next to your articles in Google? Then you need to
sync up your G+ account. Oh, and you do want your pic next to your articles because people click on those
results 35% more often1

56. WHY GOOGLE+
Pages for Places
Joe: OK. But I thought you couldn't have a
google+ account for anything but your personal
identity.

57. WHY GOOGLE?
Google+ = Local

58. Google+
=
Local

59. LOCAL
LOCAL
LOCAL

60. LOCAL SEARCH

61. LOCAL SEARCH
Get Listed is a useful tool for businesses
to check all their online listings at once.
Get Listed also provides local SEO tips in
their Learning Center, Blog, and at their
Local University educational series.
So, go on, get …listed

62. DIRECTORIES

63. GOOGLE PENGUIN
blah blah
blah blah blah blah
blah blah
blah blah
blah blah

64. LOCAL
NEEDS
DIRECTORIES

65. DIRECTORIES
Local still needs
directories
Directories build citations
Local needs citations

66. DATA PROVIDERS
These 3 providers power the
most influential services
Google pulls data from both
Localeze and Infogroup to
provide their listings.
Acxiom provides data for Apple
Maps

67. “IF YOUR BUSINESS INFORMATION IS
INCORRECT AT ANY OF THESE MAJOR
PROVIDERS, YOU’RE JUST NOT GOING TO
RANK AS WELL IN GOOGLE, YAHOO, AND
BING”
--DAVID MIHM, GETLISTED.ORG

68. NAP

72. NAP – LOCAL SEO
Name
Pick your business name; acronyms, ampersands,
apostrophes
LLC or Inc & or n’ Momma’s or Mamas
Address
Find your address as it’s listed in Google
Phone number
Have a phone number and stick to it in your listings &

73. NAP
Needs address

74. CONTENT IS KING
IN LOCAL
CONSISTENCY IS KING

75. BUT, I’VE BEEN INCONSISTENT

76. HOPE IS NOT LOST

77. GOOGLE MAP MAKER
Update information about places you know through Map Maker
Updates are reviewed and approved.
Track the history of changes to the listing.

78. GOOGLE MAP MAKER

79. GOOGLE MAP MAKER
Update information about places you know through Map Maker
Updates are reviewed and approved.
Track the history of changes to the listing.

80. FIX YOUR LISTINGS

81. BUILD FOLLOWERS

82. OPTIMIZE YOUR SITE

83. GROW YOUR BUSINESS

84. PORTENT.CO/smbSEOwebinar
(Yes, use .co, not .com)

85. Q&A
#PORTENTU

86. THANK YOU
Me:
@syzlak