SEO for Local Pet Businesses. John Curtis SEO Expert

Transcription

1 SEO for Local Pet Businesses John Curtis SEO Expert

2 SEO 101 What small business owners need to know about SEO 1. Defining SEO 2. Brand vs Non-brand queries 3. SEO Myths and Misconceptions 4. Local SEO

3 Defining SEO SEO stands for search engine optimization. It is the process of increasing traffic to a website from the free, organic, editorial or natural search results on search engines.

4 Brand vs Non-brand Queries Types of queries Informational - intent is to ( dogs, hiking trails in oregon ) Navigational - intent is to reach a specific destination ( youtube, facebook ) Transactional - shows intent to complete transaction ( blue buffalo dog food, pet store ) Non-brand opportunity is in transactional queries Brand queries are navigational SEO is about growing non-brand traffic

5 SEO Myths and Misconceptions SEO is misunderstood frequently as magic or tricking Google and gets a bad reputation because many prey on business owners lack of knowledge Buying Adwords improves SEO We tried SEO once It s a scam SEO is dead SEO is magic that tricks Google Blogging is SEO Your SEO agency works directly with Google It s a quick fix

6 Local SEO Local SEO is a subset of SEO but is the most important organic search aspect to a local business. What is it?: Searches on Google.com that have local intent Searches done on local search engines (Google Maps, TomTom, Yelp)

7 Action Items What you should do to be visible in Google 1. Google My Business setup 2. Local Business Listing Sites 3. Reviews Matter Yes, Really 4. Start with Page Titles 5. Structured Location Data 6. Google Tracking Tools

8 #1 Google My Business Setup

9 Google is your homepage Like it or not, Google is where many of your customers will stop their search for information. When both looking for a type of business or information specific to yours.

10 Setting Up Google My Business Claim your listing!! Use your real business name Categorize appropriately Add photos - picture or logo that will make your listing stand out and get clicked Get creative with the Posts feature Consider a Google certified photographer for a Indoor Street View tour of your business Get reviews!

11 #2 Local Business Listing Sites

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13 Consistent Data Matters Easiest to use a service like Yext, Moz Local, BrightLocal $50 - $500 annually for various service providers Easily 80 hours of your time every year to manage listings (assuming minimal changes to your business info) Reviews matter on these sites, too. Facebook Yelp What else in your region is important? GPS is driven by these data platforms

14 Your Brand is Built Where Customers Choose

15 #3 Reviews Matter Yes, Really

16 84% of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation

17 More stats to convince you reviews matter 7 out of 10 consumers will leave a review for a business if they're asked to 90% of consumers read fewer than 10 reviews before forming an opinion 54% will visit the website after reading positive reviews 73% of consumers think reviews older than 3 months are no irrelevant 74% say that positive reviews make them trust a local business more 58% of consumers say that the star rating of a business is most important

18 Getting More Reviews Many customers are willing to review you - just ask Set up a system for ing customers after transactions Hand out cards asking for reviews Verbally ask them The more customers review you, the more stable your aggregate rating Services exist for generating customer feedback (GetFiveStars, Grade.us)

19 #4 Start with Page Titles

20 Page Titles need to be keyword rich and appealing to customers The page title is simplest major ranking factor for a webpage Good page titles tell Google what the page is about and stand out from the competition: Common mistake is business name only: Windy City Paws Include value proposition and major key term(s): Windy City Paws: Chicago's Dog Walker for Busy Professionals

21 #5 Structured Location Data

22 Use Schema.org LocalBusiness markup on your website Schema.org is a microdata language respected by search engines and is a trust point for your business information. Wordpress plugins and other simple generators exist. JSON-LD markup is what you want Create: Validate:

23 #6 Google Tracking Tools

24 Google tracking tools offer free tracking and insight Google Analytics: Track traffic, leads, sales. Know what works and what doesn t. (google.com/analytics) Google Search Console: Track what Google search terms lead customers to your website. Identify any issues Google has crawling your website. (google.com/webmasters)