Recently in Local Search Category

I spoke to our main Google contact today about the imminent AdWords Quality Score changes.  These changes have only been rolled out to a small percentage of accounts so far, but will go system-wide soon (she didn't give me a specific date).

Here's a summary of what I discovered.  No, it's not in interview format, what she told me is written up in summary form.  Less reading for you!

Quality Score Rating Quantified!
We're going to see a 1-10 scale for quality score, along with the same old poor->great continuum... but quantified now!  You'll be able to see room for improvement with keywords that are Great but not the Greatest.  You could get them even Greatester if you work on it.

Micro-microsites are BAD!
Lead generation sites with only one page are BAD and have been for a long time, but this is going to get worse.  If you do lead generation in the future, do not created isolated new microsites or you'll pay much higher cost per click.  Instead, create new pages on existing sites that have other information on them.  Give it some semantic weight and something searchers can benefit from immediately.

The "Ad Display Frequency Algorithm" is Complicated
AdWords has a sub-algorithm that I've never read about that determines how often ads are shown when keywords are searched for (how many impressions they get)- I'm calling it the Ad Display Frequency Algorithm.  It's complicated.  (That's me being confused on the left.)

Automated CTR Optimization, Time of Day, and Geotargeting
Even our Google rep, who's quite smart and in the know, is not clear on all the details- but this display frequency algorithm will now be affected by historical data on click time of day and CTR in various geographic regions.  The geo-part is key for our local clients, but she said the differences we'll see will be small. 

STILL, the implication is we might want to relax some of our geotargeting to allow for better auto-optimized performance in locations we're not sure of either way- and we're going to have to watch state by state metrics before and after to see if anything important changes.

Google Cares About Their Clicks, Not As Much About Your Conversions
All of this is CTR and relevance based, and we also care about conversion rate and booking amts, etc., so we still have to watch for high CTR low CR situations.  I questioned her about why Google doesn't incorporate conversion rate for customers that track it, and she mentioned customer concerns about privacy- I said those who use AdWords conversion tracking probably aren't as worried about that- even an opt-in would be cool.  I also said I understand Google gets paid based on CTR and that's their business model- so we still have to watch the conversion rate, ROAS, average revenue per conversion, etc. 

We already have to keep CTR vs CR in mind when optimizing- an automated optimization of CTR makes that a bit more complicated.

Advertising on Not So Relevant Keywords Will Be Virtually Impossible
AdWords will be more harsh on irrelevant keywords.  For example, one of our clients recently requested a test of the "myrtle beach" keyword which isn't highly relevant to their exact offerings- only 10-20% of people searching MB are interested in that product/service.  We weren't surprised to see them get 10% their typical CTR and much higher cost per click.

These sort of attempts to place ads on irrelevant keywords will be more expensive and get fewer impressions.  Basically, learn that AdWords is all about relevance, or suffer zero results.  And that's good.

Summary
Our rep said they would roll these changes out cautiously- and that advertiser reaction could destabilize things temporarily, but over time it should result in improvements.  Still, I'm uneasy about automated CTR optimization- it could be great, but then again, sometimes a really high CTR results in lower CR... so I'm going to wait until the results are in.

The number of new articles on these topics per day is at least 50... 50 good ones.  How do you keep up?  How do you know which ones to read?  How can you filter the god from the bad?

You don't have to.  We do that for you.

Josh Williams, Shannon Sell, and I (Brian Carter) post the best of the best SEO, PPC, social media, and online marketing articles in a special FriendFeed "SEM, SEO, PPC, social media, media placement links, articles" room.  (If you don't use FriendFeed, check that out too- it's a way to aggregate all your most important social networking feeds in one place.)

Get most useful, most relevant-to-the-real-business-world info there.  Check it out!

Yes, my actual presentation had a much funnier name...

Five (5) "POWER" Tactics for POWERful Local/Mobile Marketing Campaigns that Give You Super-POWERful Results... A Cheezy Presentation On Purpose from Brian Carter, Director of Search Marketing @ www.FuelInteractive.com for SMX Local

And I'm presenting it here to you in a variety of ways, since I know some of you like video, some like slideshows, some just like blog posts... for the blog post only, keep scrolling down.  Best way to get it all?  Watch the video in a separate window while skimming the blog post notes below.

Disclaimer: the presentation starts with a rather controversial tip, which I'm going to be blogging about in more detail later this week, and that is my advice that agencies use only AdWords, not all three major PPC engines.  Turns out I need to justify that a bit better for some people... ;-)

First up is my video narration of the "5 Powerful Local Search Marketing Tactics" PowerPoint:

Next is the slideshare version:

Finally, here are the blog details:

Tactic #1: Put All Your Money in Google AdWords!

• Yes, Seriously.
• No, I don't work for Google.
• Cost vs Return of Other Engines
• Search (60%+ of global share), search partners, content network, media placement, local business ads, and mobile ads...
  

I'm a little biased.  Doing PPC in an agency...

I've found that dealing with lots of clients and little resources - it can be overly complicated to do three or more PPC engines at once.  If you do AdWords well, there's no need to do Yahoo or MSN.  I'm not convinced the extra time in the other engines is worth it. 

It's impressive for salespeople to be able to say your search firm can advertise them in lots of engines, but considering that AdWords itself allows you to do search (60% of global share), search partners, content network, media placement, local business ads, and mobile ads... that's a pretty strong one-stop-shop, and it's really efficient for us right now. 

No I don't work for Google.

Tactic #2: Learn & Use the 4 Methods of AdWords GeoTargeting

1. GeoCampaign + Broad Keywords
2. Broad Campaign + Geomodifier KWs
3. Locally-focused Placements
4. Local Biz Ads (Local biz profile)
   

#1 Campaign targeted, keywords general: works well for something like a vacation destination- targeting people who drive down from NC or other parts of SC with an offer for gas reimbursement, we've gotten some good mileage from that

#2 Campaign broad, keywords geospecific: is the no brainer but also the best volume and effectiveness.

#3 Locally focused placements: can work but depends on how good the locally-focused sites are in that area

#4 Local profile + local biz ad: can work but click volume is lower, so takes more time to optimize the right ads- so far, the results are mediocre, but we're still testing it for clients in several verticals

Case Study: U-SAVE Car Rental in Myrtle Beach Airport

• Metrics for local- showing promise
• Need to optimize with more ads
• Best results from #2 (geomodifiers in keywords nationally targeted)

Read more about the 4 AdWords GeoTargeting Methods here.

Tactic #K: Measuring Success: the KPI Spectrum

The best key performance indicator (KPI) is your goal- whether that's ROAS, ROI, Cost per conversion, or even sheer profit numbers- you should have an ultimate KPI in mind.  But work toward it. 

• If you aren't spending enough, spend is your KPI. 
  
• Once you're spending enough, if you can't optimize based on conversions, CTR is your KPI. 
  
• Once your conversion data is coming in, move to your target KPI.

Tactic #3: Spend the Budget & Spend it Well

• Client Expectations
• Optimizing Requires Data   
• Targeting vs. Volume
• Campaign Optimizer!

Clients' Advertising Spend Expectations: clients are used to advertising channels where it's never a problem to spend the money.  "What do you mean you couldn't spend the whole budget?"  They're also not used to variable spends.

Targeting vs Volume: Sometimes too much targeting yields low click volume.  That's one reason I like to use all four methods I just described.  I suppose if you're an AdWords newbie and happen on the right settings, you might not run into this problem- you're more likely to run into high cost per conversion and low ROAS... but when you get a little sophisticated and start targeting, you can sorta turn off the faucet. 

Optimization Requires Data: You can't optimize something without data- so sometimes you have to focus on click volume before you can hone in on your preferred KPI. 

Campaign Optimizer: low spend problems are the one time I use AdWords' Campaign Optimizer, the main purpose of which seems to be to make Google more money.  There are two phases to growth: expansion and optimization.  This is about expansion.

Tactic #4: Avoid Local Tunnel Vision

• Destination vs. Origin: Origin-specific Offers
• Competing Locales: Not There, Here!
• Competing Offerings: What else meets prospect needs?

Local businesses sometimes can get business by advertising to people a bit beyond their locale; this is thinking about customers both near and far in location and interest.

Destination and Origin: Is your locale a destination?  Where do people come from?  Can you target them there?  What different kind of ads can you use for that?  Example: The previous example of the gas credit for driving to the vacation destination.

Competing Locales: Are your competitors just other businesses, or also other locales?  Do people go to nearby cities and regions for what you offer?  Can you intercept them? Example: Golf Holiday "Are you crazy?" ad.

Competing Offerings: What business are you in?  If people don't choose your type of offering, what else meets their needs?  Can you intercept them there? 

Example: we're very close to getting the fairly new Hard Rock amusement Park as a client- their prospects aren't just looking for roller coasters, they're looking for entertainment and family fun, so we could also find those people searching for restaurants and water parks, maybe even movie theaters, and convince them to come to the park instead.

Tactic #5: Apply PPC Best Practices to Local Marketing

• Segmentation- Locale vs Brand
  Myrtle Beach Hotel vs. Beach Cove Resort
  
• Testing Beats Common Wisdom
  e.g. Content Network
• Never Stop Testing Offers
  #1 Driver of AdWords Excellence

Testing Trumps Common Wisdom

• Landing Pages: most people say deeper more targeted landing pages convert better, right?  Wrong, not always e.g. myrtlebeach-resorts.com homepage converted better than individual hotels.
• Content Network: Dictums like "the content network is a waste of money and converts poorly" don't always serve the client, because they're not always true.  Plus you may need the content network and other options for narrow niches as discussed earlier
  

 
Segmentation Case Study: Endless Fun Resorts

• Brand keywords get the best ROAS
• Separating the brand-naïve into the MB and NMB campaigns allows us to focus on the right message for noobs- and optimize to get more new business
• This is a key test of PPC's persuasive muscle- brand aware customers are more warmed up, conversion rate can be 3-4x as high; so getting good ROAS from colder prospects was the real work
  

Ad Testing Drives AdWords Excellence

• Best practices keep you from getting crappy performance, but
• Constantly testing new ads, offers, copy, and punctuation lead to the highest, most winning results
• Wining at AdWords is ultimately about scientific copywriting
  

This is a huge topic, since Google's universal search results include images, locations, business listings, videos, news, and now/coming-soon merchant services... so I can't cover everything, but I want to give our SEO clients a short primer on what universal search is, how important it is, and what we can do to optimize it, especially for local businesses.

The basics are this: without you asking, Google gives you more than just websites in web search results.  It's been like that for more than a year, so I'm sure you've noticed... but you may not know how this impacts SEO.  Here's an intro to Google's blended search and what's included in the results.

 There's a New Definition for "Number One Search Results"

A bunch of our clients are local businesses.  For example, we have some clients who are either golf courses or advertising cooperatives for golf courses in Myrtle Beach, SC. 

Look what happens these days when you Google "myrtle beach golf":

The Division of Search Results Real Estate

This is on a 1024 pixel wide browser-

• There are 345,000 square pixels of area in these search results above the fold
• 51% of the space is local search results
• 49% is AdWords ads
• Natural search results (individual webpages apart from local results) take up 0%

Yes, zero.  Ye ol' natural website listings are not visible above the fold for this local search.  And we didn't ask for that- that's just what Google naturally gives us for this search- it decides this is an important search to show local business results for.

So if your critical target keywords show local business results in Google's search, YOU MUST BE IN THE TOP LOCAL BUSINESS LISTINGS.  If you have any doubt about that, check out independent research that shows that blended search changes searcher behavior.

Getting in Google's Top Local Business Listings Search Results

How do you do that?  Luck? Voodoo? 

• Some have alluded to the importance of reviews on the third party sites Google aggregates- sheer number of reviews, and keywords in the reviews.  Note, you cannot optimize that in a white-hat manner. 
• Many of these third party sites also discourage businesses (hotels, for example) from telling their customers to post reviews. 
• I'm certain Google would frown on you telling them to post a positive review with specific keywords in them. 
• What about keywords in the local business profile?  I regret to say I don't have enough data on that to comment yet.  My SEM stock answer?  Test, test, test.  But don't spam.
• Check out Matt McGee's 10 likely elements of the local search algorithm

Some businesses are lucky (or smart) to have keywords in their URLs and brand names.  Look what happens for "Myrtle Beach Resort" when you type in the popular keyword "myrtle beach resort"...

...instead of a variety of local listings, the one business is featured.  And they have the number one website ranking, so they get all 51% of the non-ad space above the fold.

The hotel group "Myrtle Beach Resorts" does not get the same privilege for the search "myrtle beach resorts":

Evidently, Google lets the plural form trigger a listing of multiple results, and MyrtleBeach-Resorts.com does not appear to be optimized to win in the top local business listings for this keyword.  Looks like they need more backlinks and more reviews with that keyword in it!

An interesting question that comes up is: what keywords bring up local business listings in the Google search results?  We tested a bunch of keywords in multiple cities, and it turns out that it depends on the city and what the businesses there are. 

For example, "myrtle beach mosque" does not produce local listings...

...but "new york mosque" does:

Why?  There aren't any mosques in Myrtle Beach, but there are a bunch in New York City. 

How Do You Know Which Keywords Will Have Local Business Results?

The easy answer is search all your target keywords to see if local business listings come up and see how your client does for them.  Every business should be managing a Google local business profile anyway- and that's part of the solution.

NEW! Google Merchant Search

Google Merchant Search was just outed by Search Engine Land -  it's still in beta in the UK. 

This is like the local biz results but not local and only service providers- so if you want to compare secured loans, you can compare rates and even fill out a lead form to get rate quotes. 

Will it replace websites that get business leads?  Probably not, but will it be another important channel?  Yes.  And will someone have to manage that information for these service businesses?  Yes.  Who?  SEO's, of course! 

Doncha think?

Videos in Local Search Results

Just a few tests demonstrate that you can get locally relevant video results not just from keywords that contain video like "myrtle beach funny video"...

(note "myrtle beach video" brought up listings of video stores like Blockbuster)

You can also get video results from keywords closely enough related to the title of the video, e.g. "myrtle beach funny commercial"...

My Tips on Video SEO Optimization are:

• Know which keywords will NOT bring up local business results, avoid the ones that do bring up local biz results, because I suspect the local results will trump video results, and your video won't show up in those search results. Let me know if you ever see blended search results with both local biz listings and videos on the first page- I haven't seen it.
• Upload videos to multiple sites via tubemogul, especially youtube, as youtube videos generally rank highest
• Put your target keywords in the video title, the video description
• Put your website link in the video description
• Put a title on the video itself with your website url so viewers know where to go for more info
• Link to your video from your websites and blogs

Herewith endeth ye ol' lesson.