Review Tactics for Local Rankings - SearchFest 2013

Review Tactics for Local Rankings

SEMpdxSearchFest 2013

Darren Shaw
@EdmontonSEO
http://www.whitespark.ca

Summary
Tracking Offline Conversions

Google+ Local Reviews
1. Why I’m Focusing on Reviews
2. Review Acquisition Tactics
3. Business to Business Reviews
4. Finding Top Reviewers
5. Review Filtering Factors
6. Review Tips

Yelp
1. Why It’s Awesome
2. How To Improve Your Yelp Rankings

Call tracking is expensive and problematic for local SEO

MUST use your actual number
on your website for NAP
consistency

solution is to put the call
tracking number in as an image
then put your actual number in
the footer in schema.org

NEVER use call tracking on citation sites

Using a call tracking number in
your citations will massively
mess up your NAP consistency

There is no automated solution
for tracking these calls (unless
the site is implementing an
image or some kind of cloaking)

Solution: build a
form on your site
that pushes
conversions
to Google Analytics.
Ask callers how they
heard about you.

On submit, fire a
conversion over to
Google Analytics.

This is going to take
a bit of technical
expertise that many
SMBs won’t want to
bother with though.

Offline Conversion Tracker (free tool)
http://www.whitespark.ca/offline-conversion-tracker

Tracking Form
Opens the search in a
new window with the
“near=“ parameter set to
the location entered on
the add/edit business
page so you can visually
check if you rank
organically or locally
(Google only)

Google Analytics
Tracks a breakdown of each source, keywords, caller, notes


Google+ Local Reviews
1. Why I’m Focusing on Reviews
2. Review Acquisition Tactics
3. Business to Business Reviews
4. Finding Top Reviewers
5. Review Filtering Factors
6. Review Tips

Yelp
1. Why It’s Awesome
2. How To Improve Your Yelp Rankings

Why am I focusing on reviews?
Recently worked on research for a businesswith
thousands of locations

Gathered ranking factor data for 100 locations

Rank, Location age, Competition, # Citations, #
Reviews, Keywords in reviews, Categories, Links

Reviews were the
key factor between
locations that ranked
and locations that
didn’t.

Listings with reviews provide a better user experience

VS

Google is all about user experience

Review Acquisition Tactics
PERSONALIZED Email Follow Up

Follow Up on your follow up

Third time’s the charm

Sales receipt, email signature, back of business card

… leave us a review

Put a sign on the counter

Put a sign on the counter
That shit don’t work

Create a page on your site

Matthew Hunt’s Review Funnel
http://www.smallbusinessonlinecoach.com/blog/

If they select “Excellent” send to this page

Click Yahoo, get page with video and iFramed review page

Click Google, go to page with video (can’t iFrame it)

How to review us handout

Developed by Phil Rozek
“The Reviews Guy”

How to review us hand-out
Follow him

Read his blog

Get on his
mailing list
WTF?

Review Handout Generator - FREE!
http://www.whitespark.ca/review-handout-generator

Review Handout
Generator
Printable PDF

Business to Business Reviews

http://www.davidmihm.com/blog/google/plus-review-as-business/

Business to Business Reviews

Call your clients and
make a list of who
they work with. Ask
them to think about
the invoices they pay.

B2B Review Exchanges - How To

Sign into G+ using your personal account


Scroll down and click More > Pages on the left


Click “Switch to this page”


You’ll see a status bar appear at the top that
Says “You are now using Google+ as a page”


You can now click the Local icon on the left side, find the
business you want to review, and leave them a nice
keyword rich review.

Finding Authority Reviewers

Click “Local” in G+, enter a non-restaurant keyword and
city, and click search. Scan through the results. This pro
tip is courtesy of Mike Ramsey.

Engaging Authority Reviewers

Check out their profiles, learn about what they like, circle them, follow them on
twitter, leave comments on their posts. ENGAGE with them in a positive, non-
promotional, manner. After a relationship is established, you could maybe say
something like "I'd love for you to come by the shop sometime." Keep it simple.

Review Filtering Factors
Review Velocity

Keep it natural, which will depend on your industry and past history. No spikes.
No mass "please review us" mailouts to your mailing list.

Reviews from the same IP

No review stations. Don’t take customer comment cards and post them as
reviews from your office computer.

Reviews that come from the same referrer

Google likely tracks the referring source on each review created. If you always
send people to your “please review us” page on your site and all your reviews
come through links on this page, it can indicate that the reviews were solicited.

If you’re paranoid about referrer tracking…

Reviews that come from the same user agent

There are hundreds of different user agents that identify the browser, browser
version, platform, and operating system version. If all your reviews are tagged
with the same user agent it could be a spam signal.

Reviews that come from the same user agent

No iPad out in the field (“10% discount for a review on the spot?”). They might
not use user agent as a spam signal now, but they could later.

Reviews from inactive users

Someone signs up, leaves you a review, then never uses their account again.
It’s filter time!

Unnatural review content

http://reviewskeptic.com/

Pretty sure that those super smart PhDs at Google have methods to identify if
reviews are fake based on the content.

Review Tips
#1 – Get at least *some* reviews

Review Tips
#2 – Get 10 reviews, get the Zagat rating in SERPs

Review Tips
#3 – Get keywords in your reviews. They really help.
Ask reviewers to mention the service.

Review Tips
#4 – After you have 10 G+L reviews, diversify

“Best” places for third party reviews
GetListed/Whitespark Study Best Citation Sources by Category

http://getlisted.org/resources/local-citations-by-category.aspx

“Best” places for third party reviews
Adam Steele’s study
http://www.leanmarketing.ca/lean-top-50-best-local-citation-sources-in-the-usa/

You have to get on his mailing
list to get the data

He scraped 3rd party review sources from 45,570 listings and categorized them
by city and category. I don’t think it says much about them being the best
citation sources, but it’s super valuable for identifying 3rd party review sources.

Where to get third party reviews
Phil Rozek’s Local Review Ecosystem
http://www.localvisibilitysystem.com/2012/07/06/the-local-business-reviews-ecosystem/

Some sites feed the reviews to many other sites, so it’s good to know which
ones will give you additional distribution and encourage reviews there.
Citysearch and Yelp stand out.

Yelp It’s one dang awesome site

Way more (and better) data on Yelp

Yelp
It’s all over the local SERPs

Yelp
It’s all over the local SERPs

Yelp often ranks above
the local pack

Yelp
It dominated the GetListed/Whitespark study

Not
Just
Restaurants!

http://getlisted.org/resources/local-citations-by-category.aspx

Yelp
Another reason to spend time on Yelp: Bing

Yelp
Furniture Outlet in Chicago

Yelp

I called Andy to ask
him some questions

Yelp
“How has Yelp helped your business? How is business?”
It has helped a lot. A lot of people say they find me on
Yelp. Business is great.

NOT ACTUALLY ANDY

Yelp
“What percentage of your new business comes through
Yelp? Just a rough estimate would be great.”

I would estimate about 70%

NOT ACTUALLY ANDY

Yelp
“Are you doing other forms of online marketing, or
just Yelp?”

Nope. Nothing else. Well, we have a website.

NOT ACTUALLY ANDY

Yelp
“How are you promoting your business on Yelp? Stickers?
A sign in the store? On your website?”

I don’t do anything. It just happened naturally.

NOT ACTUALLY ANDY

Yelp
“So what do you think is the secret to success on Yelp?”

Just take care of your customers and run a good
business

NOT ACTUALLY ANDY
Oh man! If only all our clients
were like Andy.

Yelp
This small business is killing it thanks to Yelp

Yelp
#1 ranking with review stars and he does no SEO

DAYUM!!

Yelp

Are your SMB clients
tweeting and facebooking to
no listeners?

Try allocating some of that
time to Yelp.

Yelp
Can’t ask for Yelp reviews. *Awareness* not solicitation

http://officialblog.yelp.com/2010/08/dont-ask-for-reviews.html

Yelp
Claim and fully complete your Yelp business page
http://biz.yelp.com

Yelp
Claim and fully complete your Yelp business page
http://www.reviewtrackers.com/yelp-help-ultimate-guide-optimizing-yelp-business-page-listing/

Yelp
Put up your stickers. *if you have them

These stickers have to be earned.
you can’t request them. The
company doles them out 4 times
a year to businesses with lots of
reviews and and average of 3.5
stars

Yelp
Add a “Find us on Yelp” badge to your website.
Totally sanctioned.

They have a Flickr account where you can download
images, badges, signs, etc.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/yelp/sets/72157623054478330/detail/

Yelp
Put up a sign in the office/lobby/whatever
Totally sanctioned.

Yelp
Add a link to your Yelp listing in your email signature.
Totally sanctioned.

http://www.wisestamp.com

Yelp
Use a badge to show off your Yelp reviews on your website
Totally sanctioned.

http://www.refmobworks.com/yelp.jsp

Yelp
Unfiltering reviews
Get them back on Yelp. Respond, friend, compliment, message

Yelp
Finding people you know that are on Yelp

Welp, that was easy!

Thanks!

Darren Shaw
http://www.whitespark.ca
@EdmontonSEO

Review Tactics for Local Rankings - SearchFest 2013

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