Local Search Forum - 1,2,9,10,14,16,19,20,21,22,27,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60 http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/ Local Search Forum, Local SEO Forum and Google Places Forum en Sun, 26 May 2013 01:03:47 GMT vBulletin 5 http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/images/5Star/misc/rss.png Local Search Forum - 1,2,9,10,14,16,19,20,21,22,27,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60 http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/ Happy Memorial Day Weekend, Locallers! http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/break-room/7432-happy-memorial-day-weekend-locallers.html Sat, 25 May 2013 19:26:08 GMT LOL too funny David! Thanks for reminding me I lost the battle. :D LOL too funny David!

Thanks for reminding me I lost the battle. :D ]]> Break Room Linda Buquet http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/break-room/7432-happy-memorial-day-weekend-locallers.html 4 Critical Google Maps Changes that will Impact Local Search http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/google-maps/7231-4-critical-google-maps-changes-will-impact.html Sat, 25 May 2013 17:33:09 GMT Thanks, good to know! Thanks, good to know! ]]> Google Maps Linda Buquet http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/google-maps/7231-4-critical-google-maps-changes-will-impact.html How to Rank in Google Places AKA Google+ Local http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/google-local-101/7428-how-rank-google-places-aka-google-local.html Sat, 25 May 2013 16:22:55 GMT I've been needing to find more good content to populate our new Google Local 101 forum.

Here is a great, solid, beginner article about how to rank in Local
by Chris Silver Smith, written over at Web Marketing Today.

Quote:
Basic Checklist for How to Rank in Google Places » Web Marketing Today

How to rank in Google Local Searches, Google Place Search, and Google Maps is mystifying to many small business owners. I’ve tried to cut through the complexity and misinformation with this simple checklist.

If you’re wondering how to enable your business to rank well when people search for your products and services in your city and area, these tips can help you establish yourself pretty thoroughly. Since many businesses do a poor or haphazard job of optimizing themselves to be found in local search results, just following the steps in this checklist may position you for some of the top rankings for your type of business in your city.

This checklist is in rough order of importance, and some of the steps are a bit sequential. So follow the list in order.
Chris is a real pro at local and knows his stuff!

What do you think? Any questions or anything to add? ]]> Google Local 101 Linda Buquet http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/google-local-101/7428-how-rank-google-places-aka-google-local.html Penquin 2.0 hit today. Anyone get hit in the Google Local 7 Pack? http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/local-search/7354-penquin-2-0-hit-today-anyone-get.html Sat, 25 May 2013 13:54:18 GMT Well we took a hit. Last two days had the lowest aggregate total of organic google search traffic to the site for this year. All other sources of... Well we took a hit. Last two days had the lowest aggregate total of organic google search traffic to the site for this year. All other sources of traffic look fine.

Its no mystery. We plugged in a lot of cheap crappy free directory links with anchor text years ago. We have added other links. There is no doubt though that a lot of the anchor text links are now valued as worthless by google and with panda 2.0 they have expanded their ability to discern a level of link based manipulation that used to work.

I still see the PAC rankings as a combination of citation and link strength and will work on substantial link opportunities. Its definitely always been out of the box creative work that has mostly borne fruit for the smb's we spend time on. The SMB's don't normally have content that attracts links but we have found ways to develop value laden links in the past with other smbs.

The site has had very strong pac rankings for key phrases, and separate organic rankings. The site, by any measure or analytical basis on which I've checked has a far more complete listing of citations that can push up the rankings. Regardless the PAC is subject to combinations of organic and citation(local) measurements and the PAC took a hit.

Besides working on the strict seo work we follow revenues into the smbs and work to create more value with revenues, not simply reports on strict seo type data.

At the bottom line for services wherein the sales price usually requires some additional interaction beyond simply filling out contact forms...we work to turn those leads into sales.

Still curious if other smb sites got hit by this version of Panda and to what do they attribute the hit??? ]]> Local Search Dave http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/local-search/7354-penquin-2-0-hit-today-anyone-get.html Greetings from Bucharest http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/introduce-yourself-were-friendly/5054-greetings-bucharest.html Fri, 24 May 2013 21:16:29 GMT Hi Dorothea I am glad you found us! You will learn a lot just digging through old posts in the forum. enjoy! But be careful I found the forum very... Hi Dorothea I am glad you found us! You will learn a lot just digging through old posts in the forum. enjoy! But be careful I found the forum very addictive when I first discovered it. Lots of really great reading material. ]]> Marie Ysais http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/introduce-yourself-were-friendly/5054-greetings-bucharest.html SweetIQ - anyone use it? http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/local-seo-tools-software/1410-sweetiq-anyone-use.html Fri, 24 May 2013 21:13:43 GMT Great thread! I have tried out the free trial but I just didn't feel comfortable with it during the trial phase to make the purchase at the end. I planned to go back and try it out again but have been to busy lately. Some of the feedback has my curiosity peaked again! thanks. ]]> Marie Ysais http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/local-seo-tools-software/1410-sweetiq-anyone-use.html Any Way to Move Google Local Listings to a New Account without Re-verifying? http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/google-local/7349-any-way-move-google-local-listings-new.html Fri, 24 May 2013 18:54:40 GMT ---Quote (Originally by Jason)--- Thanks for the feedback all. a11c, are you referring to the Google + Social Network? I cant seem to find what...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jason View Post
Thanks for the feedback all.

a11c, are you referring to the Google + Social Network? I cant seem to find what you are referring to but transferring ownership is exactly what I need to do.
I believe he's talking verified Google+ Business pages meaning social pages merged with Google Place pages.

But I doubt that's the case with these listings as merging with GP is not supported for multi-location businesses yet.

My guess is these are Place pages (Google+ Local) in which case Colan's advice is correct.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Colan Nielsen View Post
There is no way to transfer them over per se. You will need to re-claim them all in the new account and re-verify.
However if you end up with the new Places dashboard it will no longer let you REclaim listings that were previously claimed. You need to get support to intervene to get the other accounts unverified and prove you are the rightful claimant that should be managing the accounts now. ]]> Google+ Local Linda Buquet http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/google-local/7349-any-way-move-google-local-listings-new.html Google Penguin 2.0 Goes Deep - But What Does That Mean? http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/organic-seo/7397-google-penguin-2-0-goes-deep-but.html Fri, 24 May 2013 16:52:30 GMT *Google Penguin 2.0 Goes Deep - But What Does That Mean?* (http://www.seroundtable.com/google-penguin-deep-16837.html) by Barry Schwartz May 24,... Google Penguin 2.0 Goes Deep - But What Does That Mean?
by Barry Schwartz
May 24, 2013

Quote:
As you know, Penguin 2.0 #4 is live and webmasters and SEOs are buzzing about that. The thing is, some misconceptions about Penguin 2.0 are driving me absolutely crazy.

Matt Cutts, in his video about this update, talks about how Penguin 2.0 will be "more comprehensive," how this version "goes deeper" and will result in "more of an impact" than Penguin 1.0.

The SEO community is translating "goes deeper" to mean that Penguin 1.0 only impacted the home page of a web site. That is absolutely false. Deeper has nothing to do with that. Those who were hit by Penguin 1.0 know all to well that their whole site suffered, not just their home page.

What Matt meant by "deeper" is that Google is going deeper into their index, link graph and more sites will be impacted by this than the previous Penguin 1.0 update. By deeper, Matt does not mean how it impacts a specific web site architecture but rather how it impacts the web in general.

Read more... ]]> Organic SEO djbaxter http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/organic-seo/7397-google-penguin-2-0-goes-deep-but.html Google Data Highlighter Now Supports Local Business Markup http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/local-search-news/7255-google-data-highlighter-now-supports-local-business.html Fri, 24 May 2013 16:50:50 GMT Here is example of how it might look for a local listing. Attachment 735... Here is example of how it might look for a local listing.

Name: data-highlighter-rich-snippet-example.jpg Views: 14 Size: 15.4 KB

And Target Local show you exactly how to do it.

Google add Local Businesses to the Data Highlighter in Webmaster Tools » Target Local
Attached Images
 
]]> Local Search News Linda Buquet http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/local-search-news/7255-google-data-highlighter-now-supports-local-business.html Google Review Problems? New Help Doc Here http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/google-local-reviews/7351-google-review-problems-new-help-doc-here.html Fri, 24 May 2013 15:05:40 GMT Thanks Linda. Great resource! Thanks Linda. Great resource! ]]> Google+ Local Reviews Colan Nielsen http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/google-local-reviews/7351-google-review-problems-new-help-doc-here.html Organic Ranking Vs. Blended http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/google-places-help-support/7335-organic-ranking-vs-blended.html Fri, 24 May 2013 04:48:04 GMT
Quote:
Originally Posted by JoyHawkins View Post
This one stumped me so I wanted to see if anyone else had any ideas.

For "Salon Brisbane" this business (https://plus.google.com/106573299264...24/about?hl=en) ranks first in the blended results (A).

For "Hair Salon Brisbane" it ranks 3rd organically but doesn't attach to the local listing.

What should she do if she wants her local listing to show for "Hair Salon Brisbane"?

---------- Post Merged at 07:38 AM ---------- Previous Post was at 07:30 AM ----------

Here's something odd. Most of the businesses that rank locally for "hair salon brisbane" appear to have "hair salon" listed twice in Mapmaker.

Examples:

Google Map Maker (letter D)
Google Map Maker (letter C)
One issue is they say " Google's No.1 hair and beauty salon in Brisbane" Google doesn't like it when people make claims using Google as the authority. Also the phrase is technically inaccurate as it isn't "Google's number 1" rather it is the number 1 ranked hair and beauty salon on Google+ Local. Not sure if this is affecting things but something I would avoid especially if they don't change it the minute they aren't number one, especially if they're an ad-words client.

Also the following review on the website appears on a G+ page for Simply Me|Hairdressers Cleveland Qld|Hair Salon|Beauty Salon (talk about keyword stuffing):
"This salon is fantastic, friendly and professional. My experience was wonderful. I was really happy with the end result from my cut and colour and I enjoyed my brow shape and lash and brow tint while my colour was developing. The salon had the feel of a friendly local salon but all the results and treatment you would dream of from a team that really cares. I am not Australian and I am often impressed with the high level of customer service offered in Australia. I am delighted to say that my experience at Elysium Hair And Beauty has further added to my view of Australian customer service. Thanks so much to the team I will find my way back to Elysium Hair And Beauty for certain."


On the ranking issue I'm really not sure what can be done. I have the New Maps and found that the place ranks #2 on a Maps search, likely due to the large numbers of reviews they have. One thing they may want to due is remove the repetitive "Brisbane" use in the header next to the address. My guess is there is a lot of little things that likely require tightening up the language and organization of the website to make it more user friendly.

]]> Andrew Sawyer http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/google-places-help-support/7335-organic-ranking-vs-blended.html How do you track and measure for your clients? http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/google-local/7170-how-do-you-track-measure-your-clients.html Thu, 23 May 2013 18:05:27 GMT You are definitely right, Sergiu. I wasn't trying to minimize the importance of SERP results. My comment rather tried to offer a broad view over all available monitoring options (with ups and downs :) ) + offer a few speculations on how we might track results in 1-2 years from now.

At the present moment local SERP monitoring (+ a mix of few other variables) is what best works for me and my clients. Even though the search engine is pretty unpredictable, in most of the cases my time/work is directly reflected by a site's SERP evolution. ]]> Google+ Local dorothea http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/google-local/7170-how-do-you-track-measure-your-clients.html New Google Dashboard Rolling out to Existing Places Accounts http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/google-local-important/7237-new-google-dashboard-rolling-out-existing-places.html Thu, 23 May 2013 15:22:17 GMT Thanks Linda. Your input is so valuable and appreciated. I'm sure your answer will help others out too. I know it's been discussed on your Forum before - I think it was a post and it was funny. When we write blog posts or lessons for our clients, we need to make sure that we are using the proper names - this helps!

As far as the new dashboard, we will have an online celebration on the elSue business page. Right now, we'll be patient - or at least try to be. ]]> Google+ Local IMPORTANT Susan Walsh http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/google-local-important/7237-new-google-dashboard-rolling-out-existing-places.html RCMP Google Doodle salutes 140 years of Mounties http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/break-room/7342-rcmp-google-doodle-salutes-140-years-mounties.html Thu, 23 May 2013 15:21:27 GMT Oh Canada! Oh Canada! ]]> Break Room Colan Nielsen http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/break-room/7342-rcmp-google-doodle-salutes-140-years-mounties.html New Schema Creator WordPress Plugin http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/local-seo-tools-software/503-new-schema-creator-wordpress-plugin.html Thu, 23 May 2013 15:14:29 GMT Now that is pretty slick. I've used a number of schema based wordpress plugins but I haven't tried this one. Looks like I'm gonna test another lol. ]]> seopros http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/local-seo-tools-software/503-new-schema-creator-wordpress-plugin.html