Andrew Shotland - Advanced Search Summit Napa 2019

Andrew Shotland
CEO, LOCALSEOGUIDE.COM
REVERSE ENGINEERING
GOOGLE’S LOCAL
SEARCH ALGORITHM
Advanced Search Summit
Archer Hotel
April 2019
REVERSE ENGINEERING
GOOGLE’S LOCAL
SEARCH ALGORITHM

Local SEO At Scale Advanced Search Summit 2019 andrew@localseoguide.com
Ecommerce SEOs are total
badasses...
2

They have to deal with
THOUSANDS of Categories...
3

Not to mention a MASSIVE amount
of product SKUs....
4

Local SEO At Scale Advanced Search Summit 2019 andrew@localseoguide.com 5
Mr. President, Local SEOs who
work at scale are the MOST
badass...

@LOCATION DATA
https://whitespark.ca/local-search-ecosystem/

https://www.localseoguide.com/should-you-trust-googles-search-analytics-report/
8

Base Keyword Keyword In City City + Keyword Keyword Near POI Keyword Near Me
Mattress Store Mattress Store in
Napa
Napa Mattress Store Mattress Store Near
Archer Hotel
Mattress Store Near
Me
X # of Locations
for Local Pack + Local Organic
+
Provider That Tracks Localized Whole SERPS
9

• E-commerce | Service SEO
• Local Pack
• Local Organic
• Google Maps
• Apple Maps
• Facebook Local
• Customer Support
• Wherever Your Customers Are (Reddit? Instagram? TikTok?)
?
11

THIS IS A LOCAL SERP

THIS UNFORTUNATELY IS A LOCAL
SERP
13

14
Mattresses SERP
“Above the fold”
Local SEO At Scale Advanced Search Summit 2019
andrew@localseoguide.com

15
Mattresses SERP
“Below the fold”

SERP LOCALIZATION AT SCALE

GROWTH RATE OF PACKS IN THE
JOBS QUERY SPACE

GMB: MORE THAN JUST LOCAL PACKS
19

20
GMB: KNOWLEDGE PANEL

REVIEWS
21

“REVIEWS”
22

LOCAL SERVICE ADS
23

TRANSACTIONS
24

FILTERS/MOBILE IMAGES
25

PRODUCTS
26

GMB POSTS
WTF?!??!?!?!?

GMB FEATURES LAUNCHED IN PAST
2 YEARS
• Posts
• Offers
• Services
• Description
• Q&A
• Websites
• Videos
• Messaging
• Local Service
Ads
• Products
• App
28

THESE FEATURES DRIVE LEADS
https://www.getfivestars.com/blog/google-as-the-new-home-page/
In this case
study, 70% of
KPIs happened
on Google!
29

2019 LOCAL SEO RANKING FACTORS!
100,000+ Local Businesses
3,000+ Queries
100+ Factors
2 PhDs
30

TOP CORRELATING FACTORS!
Correlation Rank Factor
1 Distance from Center of Search
2 Total Additional Organic Rankings
3 # of Reviews w Keyword
4 >0 Google Reviews
5 % of Reviews w Keyword
6 # of Reviews Not Responded To
7 Avg. Yearly Reviews
8 # of Reviews w Likes
TLDR: Organic + Reviews
31

BUT OVERALL, THE FACTORS HAVE
NOT CHANGED MUCH
GMB “AUTHORITY”
• GMB Reviews
• GMB Photos
• Keyword in Business Name
BACKLINKS
• Quality
• Quantity
• #/% Backlinks w City in Anchor Text
• #/% Backlinks w Keyword in Anchor Text
WEBSITE FACTORS
• # Words on GMB Landing
Page
• # Images on GMB Landing
Page
http://www.localseoguide.com/guides/local-seo-ranking-factors/
32

FACTORS VARY BY VERTICAL!
Content Links Citations Reviews
Retail
Legal
Finance
Health & Beauty
Grocery
Hospitality
33

MOST RATINGS ARE EITHER +4 OR 0

MOST BUSINESSES DON’T RESPOND
TO ANY OF THEIR REVIEWS

MOST BUSINESSES HAVE CRAP FOR
LINKS

LOCAL SEO: THE BASICS
• Website with Location Pages
• GMB
• Links
• Local Citations

WHAT CAN HAPPEN WHEN YOU
FIX YOUR LOCAL CITATIONS
http://www.localseoguide.com/enforced-nap-consistency-scale-happened/

DOES FIXING CITATIONS ALWAYS
WORK?

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE SELECTED A
GMB COVER PHOTO
• Pro-actively audit GMBs
• Flag in report – context dependent

GMB PROBLEMS: SOFT OPENINGS

GHOSTS IN THE GMB MACHINE

IF THERE’S SOMETHING STRANGE IN
YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD...

IF THERE’S SOMETHING WEIRD & IT
DON’T LOOK GOOD...

WHO YA GONNA CALL?

THE BORG IS OUT OF CONTROL

DO NOT FEAR SKYNET...

GMB PROBLEMS: Q&A

GEOTARGETING = SEO DEATH
What Users See
What Google Sees
https://www.localseoguide.com/geotargeting-location-by-ip-address-seo-death/
50

DAY 1: LOCAL SEO PROCESS
• How are we tracking?
• Paid & Organic cannibalization
• Assess state of GMB – Don’t trust 3rd party ”product” vendors
• Sample GMB data set
• Check links, NAP
• Check competitor categories – how are query class buckets (service+city) affected by
categorization
• Once you get the basics done, move on to BIG strategies

MEASUREMENT: TRACKING
• UTM on the GMB Landing Page to roll it up it organic search
reporting to tie it to revenue
• Ability to report revenue increases
• If SAB then use call-tracking – sales training for GMB traffic
https://www.localseoguide.com/seriously-track-your-google-my-business-pages/
52

OPPORTUNITY: GMB NAMES
Guess which one ranks better?

OPPORTUNITY: GMB STORE WITHIN
A STORE

OPPORTUNITY: GMB POSTS ARE
CHEAP IF YOU CAN SCALE!
• 20 retail location pilot
• Post 3x a week
• Target multiple points in the funnel
• Post numerous types of assets (Sales, services, videos,
announcements)
• (above) Average Results
• 25 clicks to website
• 5 digits of impressions (large range depending on market)
• Only needs 1 conversion per year to be successful

MEH, STRUCTURED DATA...
https://www.localseoguide.com/structured-data-can-mehseo/
56

HEY NOW, STRUCTURED DATA!
https://schema.org/Corporation https://searchengineland.com/bizarre-
review-schema-implementation-
spotlights-gaps-googles-guidelines-
rich-results-really-work-289691
57

OPPORTUNITY: REWRITE LOCATION
PAGES
• Buy geographic data to inject
from Neilsen Metro Data
(alternate names for city, nearest
school, etc.)
• Do annual store surveys
• Keyword research by store based
geographic preferences
• The more regular the updates,
the better it’ll do
https://www.homedepot.com/l/Newark-CA/CA/Newark/94560/6964

PAGE REWRITES CAN WORK
Location 1 Location 2
Location 5
Location 3
Location 6
Within a month of rewriting, these pages started ranking for a wider variety of keywords
59

FIX YOUR STORE LOCATORS
ALREADY!
Search-Only Locator Locator + Location Pages
2,325 5,760
Median # of Keywords
Source:SEMRush Top 50 Retailers

OPPORTUNITY: LINK TO E-COMM
CATEGORIES FROM LOCATION PAGES

OPPORTUNITY: GEO-CAT PAGES
https://www.uhaul.com/Locations/Self-Storage-near-Pleasanton-CA-94566/815026/

OPPORTUNITY: EVENTS ON
LOCATION PAGES

OPPORTUNITY: ULTIMATE LOCATION
PAGES
• Articles
• E-comm Category Links
• Events
• Geo-Cat Pages
• Local Deals
• Local Content
• Media
• Nearby Stores
• Reviews
• Shop In Store

EXAMPLE MULTI-LOCATION SEO
PROGRAM
• Started in December 2018
• 5 Locations
• 3x week GMB Posts
• Improve Internal Linking to Service Area & Long-Tail Pages
• Rewrote 11 Pages/Site w Optimized Content

ORGANIC TRAFFIC PERFORMANCE
Location 1 Location 2
Location 5
Location 3
Location 6
66

NO PHYSICAL LOCATIONS? NO
PROBLEM

http://www.localseoguide.com/near-local-seo-ranking-factors/
ARE YOU “NEAR ME?”

THE NEAR ME UPDATE?

IN SUMMATION

THANK YOU!

Andrew Shotland - Advanced Search Summit Napa 2019

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Andrew Shotland - Advanced Search Summit Napa 2019