Feedback Requested -- Local SEO Plan

[ebz]

Hi all,

I just began a broad Internet marketing role and am trying to formulate a plan to help my company rank better in local search. Having worked in pure SEO from 2006-2009 before burning out and making it a more tangential part of my job, I kind of missed out on the local explosion and feel like I'm starting from scratch. Can anyone provide some feedback on my local SEO plan?

Background: This is a primarily B2B services company with disparate offerings and locations across several states. They had already claimed both their Google Local and Google+ Business listings. We do not rank well in the local listings, perhaps because of a slight inconsistency in the title we used there vs. the one used on our site.

I spent the morning catching up one what I could and have come up with this:

1. Ensure N.A.P and URL consistency across site, Google+ Business Listing, Bing Local, social media, and existing citations.
2. Ensure appropriate categories have been selected in Google+ Business listing, optimize description.
3. Use Schema.org microdata to create address footer - check in Google Rich Snippets tool.
4. Check out locations in Google MapMaker to ensure accuracy.
5. Embed Google map on individual location pages.
6. Begin tracking citations with Whitespark.ca.
7. Claim additional citations on appropriate directories.
8. Optimize on-site (and other) images and YouTube videos for geo searches where appropriate.
9. Create Panoromio account (linked to Google+) and upload optimized images. Use these on Google+ page?
10. Add local extension to PPC campaigns.
11. Encourage use of local modifiers when posting events and other appropriate content on social media pages.
12. Create internal guidelines to ensure that any external materials (PR, job listings, etc.) also follow consistent N.A.P.
13. Encourage client reviews if possible.
14. Create ongoing local content relevant to our niche at each location.
15. Be sure to log in to Google+ every so often and do a null submit.

Any feedback?

[chinthen]

Hi EBZ,
Like you mentioned spread our consistent NAP on every authority resources, URLs should be consistent, reviews are also very important, and most importantly search for our competitors' citations with their phone numbers or address. Get some real strong citations towards the website in the marketing process.

Thanks from Mishoplocal

[ebz]

Thanks for the feedback! I've noted the importance of reviews and am trying to reconcile it with the nature of the B2B services we provide (corporate stuff not typically reviewed online).

[vaspers]

Are you implementing Schema.org structured data markup only for address footer? Why not use it for all content on the website?

You can help the client company get G+ Local Business profile reviews by suggesting they contact satisfied customer businesses and politely ask them to write a review. They should send customers an email, with a link to their G+Local Business page, to expedite it. Of course, there can be no incentives or compensation for the reviews.

Take a close look at the page titles and descriptions. Make sure keywords are in front on the page titles and brand on the end of them.

Their local branch pages: are they subfolders (hopefully) or subdomains? Do they contain local content, like mention of pride in community and local landmarks, tourist attractions, etc.?

[ebz]

Thanks for your feedback, vaspers. Can you tell me more about using structured data for the rest of the content? Right now we are implementing it for addresses (footer on every page with all locations), events, and authors on our blog posts. Are there more areas that would be appropriate? I am very much still learning (then passing on recommendations to our developers).

We are following your other suggestions (trying to get approval to solicit reviews) and using a locations subfolder to host individual office pages -- perhaps a folder for each location would be better?

[vaspers]

Just go to Schema.org for more info on structured data markup for all pages. Be careful with footers. That's where some webmasters put spammy links (irrelevant). Instead of all locations linked in a footer on every page of website, maybe just a View All Locations page would be better. You want search engines to find one theme per page, and not dilute your link juice. You should probably use subfolders for locations, under the same domain. Get client to print out fliers to put at each location that says something like "How Are We Doing? Your Feedback is Important." and then encouraging reviews at the GooglePlus Local Business page, without any incentive, just a request.