September 15, 2015 – After a brief summer respite, SEMpdx kicked off its new year of educational events with local search expert David Mihm from Moz. David shared with us the state of local search and several key developments to pay attention to. Here are just a few of the takeaways from the night:
- While the “table stakes” are still important (i.e. store locator, location data), other factors increasingly matter as well. For example, brands and authority, in-store visits and more.
- Organic local search results are becoming unrecognizable. In fact, there is no longer a standard search result. Google has become very smart about user behavior.
- As the space continues to fragment rapidly, unpaid local search on Google faces pressure. With this is mind, it’s essential to focus on traffic sources far beyond Google.
- Barnacle SEO will help drive long-term visibility for your business. Authority barnacles work well on Yelp, Facebook and TripAdvisor, among others.
- In a recent study, 90% of participants said they would give a review if they’d had a positive experience with a company. Of those, only 7% were asked to leave a review. The takeaway, of course, is this: engage your customers in reviews. They can impact your search efforts.
Once again, David brought us a jam-packed session on local search, leaving us with several action items to consider. Attendees also benefited from his generous Q&A session afterwards.
Sarah is a search marketing consultant, helping clients improve ROI through paid search, SEO and social media initiatives. She is also the Official SEMpdx Event Blogger and can be found at all of the monthly events.