LocalU Search Manual Advanced Edition 2019 © 2019 LocalU Marketing Seminars, LLC. © 2014-2019 LocalU Marketing Seminars, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Not to be reproduced or reprinted without permission. Table of Contents Foreword 01 Introduction 02 Knowledge Graph 03 Keyword Research 04-06 Location Data 07 Google My Business 08-09 Website Optimization 10-12 Architecture 13-14 Reviews 15-17 Building Your Brand 18-20 Paid Campaigns 21-22 Endnotes 23 © 2019 LocalU Marketing Seminars, LLC. Foreword LocalU seminars were started to help small businesses market themselves online. The idea grew to include the best minds in local search, with appearances at regional conferences to show local businesses why they should care about NAP, verify their listing on Google, and invest in a marketing plan to grow their business. Shortly after that, the LocalU faculty found marketers wanted more help to address the unique challenges of promoting a local business. As a result, the Advanced LocalU seminars were born. Twice a year, the faculty now brings new in-depth insights to marketers about the constantly changing local search landscape. Personally, I got my start in local when I became frustrated with the healthcare experience while my wife was pregnant with our first child. Scheduling medical appointments was a nightmare, and finding information about obstetricians near us was difficult at best. I wanted the journey to be much better for patients - and with that in mind, the idea for PatientPop was born. Today, the company delivers our practice growth solution to doctors across the US, and as part of that solution, we help them effectively build their local presence online. I went to my first LocalU conference in Minneapolis, 2015, where I met Mike Blumenthal, who was introduced as ‘Professor Maps.’ He became an early advisor to PatientPop, shaping our initial platform vision. Mike then introduced me to Joel Headley, who, at the time, was working in search at Google, having previously led the operations and support teams for Google My Business. Joel now heads our SEO efforts at PatientPop. We’re now honored to host the LocalU faculty for a second time for LocalU Advanced, and I look forward to our continued partnership and collaboration across our organizations in years to come. Luke Kervin Co-CEO, PatientPop Santa Monica, CA February, 2019 © 2019 LocalU Marketing Seminars, LLC. 01 Introduction Local University covers a range of internet marketing topics, with a focus on Local Search Engine Optimization. Simply put, we teach business owners and the agencies that serve them to thrive online. This manual is a companion to our Small Business Edition (localu.org/smb), which helps businesses get a head start tackling local search topics and activities related to opening a new business, developing a local-ready website, getting reviews and citations, creating email and paid marketing campaigns, and tracking success. The advanced topics included in this manual touch upon subjects covered in LocalU Advanced seminars, which are designed to help SEO experts deepen their understanding of local search challenges and opportunities. Local SEO is the art of talking to a machine, usually Google, and coaxing that machine to help your business appear more often, and in a better position, in search results. However, you don’t need to approach the task strictly from a machine’s perspective. Ideally, think beyond that single outcome to find ways to promote your business or client, increase website size, and improve your visibility. Content developed for local SEO can also be used for email marketing and social media to further benefit your business. Contributors: Mary Bowling, Ignitor Digital Kirby Kushner, PatientPop Mike Blumenthal, GatherUp David Mihm, ThriveHive & Tidings Jason Brown, Over The Top Marketing & Mike Ramsey, Nifty Ventures ReviewFraud Ed Reese, Sixth Man Marketing Dana DiTamoso, Kick Point Will Scott, Search Influence & UpScribed Joel Headley, PatientPop Darren Shaw, Whitespark Carrie Hill, Ignitor Digital Aaron Weiche, GatherUp Paula Keller French, Search Influence JJ Workman, PatientPop © 2019 LocalU Marketing Seminars, LLC. 02 Knowledge Graph: Entities and Keywords Right now, search involves searching things, not strings. That means your keyword research and content creation should take into account not only the keyword relevance of your website, but also how your keywords and content represent your local business. Background Technology companies today use entities to organize information and deliver search results. Entities are organized into the form of: subject, predicate, and object. For Google, this information is known as the Knowledge Graph. The Knowledge Graph uses a subject, object, predicate (S,P,O) format to answer questions. A simple relationship may be: Tzur Gabi is a dentist. Google can evaluate this statement as true or false. Subject Predicate Object Valid Tzur Gabi is a dentist True The Knowledge Graph extends the entity to include Google uses these extended relationships to multiple relationships. answer questions. The knowledge panel is one of the ways Google organizes much of the information stored in the Knowledge Graph for a local business. Los Angeles Connecting businesses to potential customers relies on content that brings the entities together in the located in Knowledge Graph and answers questions. Your local business can be considered an entity, but so is a are its categories, location, and services. Each entity Tzur Gabi Dentist needs to be connected in the Knowledge Graph as provides the service Google moves closer to answering questions, and moves away from simply showing links on a Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Marketers who can Teeth help make these connections for Google will be whitening effective regardless of the search surface used — whether through web search, voice search, or maps navigation. © 2019 LocalU Marketing Seminars, LLC. 03 Keyword Research Move away from only using keyword research tools Also, research the types of results Google returns to help increase your business reach and rankings. for key terms. Does Google return local results, Your primary source for keyword research should images, or answer boxes? Do businesses like yours come directly from your business and its current appear on the first page? If not, consider other customers. Use words your customers and clients keywords where there’s a likelihood of landing use frequently, and answer these questions: among similar businesses. • What does your business want to be known for? • How do your customers describe their needs? Here’s an Example • What are the current search behaviors of your prospects and customers? • If you have onsite search, what searches are most The SERPs for informational queries about medical popular? conditions, symptoms, and treatments are owned by Google’s most trusted topical sources such as MayoClinic, • Which pages on your site are read the most? WebMD, Migraine, Healthlines, etc. So, if you’re in this business, you should only optimize for informational queries specific to your niche, in your location. For instance, if you’re Your obvious search terms are the ones most an ear, nose, and throat specialist in Dallas, what do people likely to have the highest search volume. Typically, in that particular city need to know about the cedar pollen optimizing for the obvious brand, location, and there? category (each its own entity) in local search will Keyword research can be a deep and distracting black hole. cover the majority of key or head terms. Focus on Know when to stop, and remember that keyword research these entities to naturally help you explore related is only as valuable as the content you actually develop and terms and expand the content menu. By including publish. Therefore, you can take an iterative approach to related terms in content, performance for the head research and content development, and discover what is likely to help your site perform better over time. terms improves. After researching, organize search terms in a meaningful way: • Create groups of closely related terms • Create groups of keywords that answer the same question or a set of closely related questions • Note groups of search terms where new content and pages are needed for your business • Don’t disregard low search volume terms (they can still be valuable) Keyword research will help inform your website navigation structure and primary pages, and keyword use within your website content. Low search volume terms can still be sprinkled through relevant pages, or used as internal link text and alt image text. © 2019 LocalU Marketing Seminars, LLC. 04 Keyword Research Google Trends Use Google Trends to see the relative popularity of entities, topics and search terms. The Topic Layer in the Knowledge Graph groups Search trends are available for YouTube, Images, everything related within your website content News and Shopping, and the Web. Use related into a single topic with related subtopics. Google topics and queries to mine for additional keywords has just begun offering immersive experiences in to target, paying attention to rising terms showing search and Google Discover as a result of the Topic upward changes in search traffic. Layer, which often provides the context needed to determine searcher intent. Google Trends can help you determine if your local business is a recognized entity in the Knowledge All topics are also search terms. So, topics and Graph. The ‘compare’ function of Trends tracks the entities will likely provide the biggest buckets of relative popularity of an entity or topic, allowing you terms to kickstart your research. Start with topic to track the relative popularity of your business and research and keep digging into additional topics competitors over time. and subtopics, as needed. Google Trends already defines searches as topics, search terms (i.e., keywords), or entities. Example of Compare: The relative popularity of two local entities, Shamsah Amersi, MD and Caroline Colin, MD. Up to five search terms can be compared.