Local SEO

[casper434]

To date local SEO seems to be the weak part of my SEO efforts. Are there any good references for local SEO?

[IXBrandSEO]

Brett, another resource to consider would be a Local U session, either Local U or Local U Advanced.  Local U is organized by Mike Blumenthal and David Mihm and it includes the expertise of faculty like Aaron Weiche, Matt McGee, Ed Reese, Mike Ramsey, Mary Bowling, and others.  The Local U half-day sessions are scheduled around the country and Local U Advanced is next scheduled as a workshop following SMX Advanced in Seattle, June 13.  If you're interested in attending Local U Advanced in Seattle, early bird rates expire on Saturday.  There's more information about the curriculum at LocalU.org.  I've attended two Local U sessions and Local U Advanced in the last year and it's transformed what I can do for my clients -- I recommend it!  Good Luck! Paul

[ThompsonPaul]

Most welcome, Brett. Main thing to keep in mind with local SEO is that citations are the local equivalent to links. (though links are still important, especially if they contain local intent e.g. Comox real estate agent).

Citations are essentially other sites mentioning your NAP or Name Address Phone. These don't even have to be direct links to your site.

Good luck and have fun with it!

Paul

[casper434]

thanks Paul, great list

[casper434]

thanks very much Kevin

[ThompsonPaul]

For a real estate professional like you, Local SEO will likely become your bread and butter, Brett. It's a very challenging subset of SEO because its parameters and processes change even faster than general SEO. On the other hand, it holds tremendous opportunities because so few other small businesses are doing it well.

Here's a comprehensive list of Local Seo resources created by the guys at Whitespark - a Canadian bunch.
www.whitespark.ca/blog/post/9-essential-local-search-resources

Their blog is also useful because it gives Canadian perspective on some of the processes, which are substantially different from US. For example, here's their review of essential Canadian places to get reviews. Many of the usual recommended US sites just aren't that useful to us Canucks.
www.whitespark.ca/blog/post/10-canadian-local-business-reviews-ecosystem

Paul

[GuestBlogPoster.com]

David Mihm seems to be a big local voice in the industry. I think this article on all of his ranking factors should give you a pretty good idea of what to do:

• http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml

To build citations (similar to link building), you have a few options (or all):

• https://www.ubl.org/
• https://www.whitespark.ca/local-citation-finder/
• http://www.neustar.biz/infoservices/solutions/localeze

Does this help?

Kevin Phelps
http://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinwphelps