Local University Search and Social Workshop

By: Wendy Roe

Whew, okay, I’m fueled up from lunch and ready to move my fingers at a break-neck pace again.  We’re here with Andre Jensen (SEO), David Mihm (Local) and Will Scott (Social) talking about a mash-up of these big 3 on the web.  We’re excited about some live reviews and Q/A after each presenter’s mini-presentations. Let’s do it!

Topic:
Your chance to get your website viewed by our star-studded “Nerd Herd,” featuring SEO wizard David Mihm of GetListed.org, Andre “the Search Giant” Jensen, owner of FreelanceSEM, and Will Scott, owner of Search Influence. After 60 minutes of each one sharing search and social tips, each member of the trio will offer randomly chosen attendees a 20-minute personal review of their website from an organic, local or social perspective (a $200 value). Attendees also have the opportunity to valuable insights from other site reviews along the way.

***

Andre’s up first talking about SEO:

1. Optimize your site so that your home and your inside pages can be indexed and rank well, not just your home page
2. Andre is going to focus on the organic/natural side of SEO, not the paid search results today (just a heads up!)
3. Selecting the right keywords first is critical for your marketing campaign.  You gotta make sure that the keywords you want to rank for are the keywords that your customers will search for.
4. Use Google’s Keyword Tool for some helpful suggestions on what customers are search for.
5. Gather targeted keywords (ex: product model numbers).  Less volume but highly qualified traffic!  (ahhem, the tool doesn’t always know best but it’s helpful to read between the lines and use your best judgement).
6. On and of page factors to consider: Infrastructure and Navigation, Coding, Design, Content  (a whole bunch of factors in 10 px type is on the slide…lot’s o’ stuff).
7. Types of content that impacts relevancy and rankings: Body content, headlines, alt image tags, link text, titles, meta description.  In other words, make sure you have your keywords in these places.
8. Focus on a balance between keywords and brand.
9. Link text is another great factor to focus on.  Include your (keywords go here) in your link text…just like that!
10. Add Google Analytics to your site.  It gives you great metrics on traffic to your site.
11. Interested in more?  Andre teaches Search Strategies up at COCC, check it out!

Will Scott in Site Reviews

Will’s diving into ‘Getting Social Online’

1. Will has been doing this for “a long ___ time.”  Nice!  His words, not mine
2. Reviewing Matt McGee’s SEO Success Pyramid
3. 70% of social searches are within range of a purchase opportunity
4. How do you start the conversation?  On your blog…ahhem, you don’t own Facebook.
5. Your BLOG: you have time, you have something to say, it’s your home base.  Oh, if you want to leverage your blog, find other bloggers like you and contribute content to their blogs.
6. Twitter CAN be helpful (depending on your industry).  Keys to Twitter engagement: Follow, Presence, and Interaction
7. Following Tools: Twitter Search or FriendOrFollow
8. ADTD = Attention Deficit Twitter Disorder …don’t worry to repeat your content a bit because some will miss it the first time ’round.
9. You have to give to get and plan ahead with your social media!  What do you have to offer?  Where is your editorial schedule?  Social Media doesn’t have to be spontaneous.
10. Facebook is an INCREDIBLE marketing tool…pretty much everyone in the US is on it.  You can even advertise on their BIRTHDAY.
11. There’s fantastic granular level of targeted advertising on Facebook Ads.
12. People will be more comfortable to convert within Facebook, instead of taking them elsewhere.
13. Listen first: Social Mention; Blog Pulse, Yelp
14. …. I blinked and missed the last slide, whew that was fast!

***

Bend WebCAM repeater, David Mihm is next up!

1. Local is the best opportunity to small businesses (less busy, less technical, huge HUGE market)  2.4 B-I-L-L-I-O-N searching for local results!  Yeozah.
2. Mike Blumenthal’s Web Strategy Diagram
3. Types of Local SERPS: 7 pack or Blended results
4. Local: You MUST have a physical location.
5. Local search is dependent on your physical location (because of their proximity to center algorithm)
6. Before you start: keyword research, business name audit, description of business (under 200 words), Dedicated corporate email account
7. Google Insights for Search (Local Google Keyword Tool)
8. Use popular categories first, then custom categories on your place page.
9. Claim your Google Place page at http://www.google.com/places.
10. Your business identity is your thumbprint (Google needs to see all web references with the SAME information)
11. Google operates their own index and pulls information from other outside sources and if they all match, then Google’s confidence in your business is elevated.
12. Localeze, Acxiom, Infogroup….places where Google gets information.  i.e make sure you have profiles in these sites!
13. Use GetListed.org to help jumpstart the local listing process.
14. Research your competition and learn why they may be outranking you on Google local.  Grab their address on their place page and copy/paste into Google search to get their NAP information.  Go get profiles where your competitor has them!
15. Reviews are now front and center on Google local.  Pay attention to negative reviews.  The more reviews and the higher the stars the better.
16. Reviews creates customers that creates more reviews….it’s all cyclic.  The more credible, the better the business…go get reviews
17. Don’t be afraid to ASK for reviews.
18. David REALLY likes Mike Blumenthal.  Just sayin’
19. Blended Local Search = SEO, SEARCH, LOCAL blend  They are all important.
20. Where do you need to improve on for Local: Incoming links, citations, reviews, proximity to centroid (Google’s view of the city center)
21. To Do List: Treat your customers ‘righter’, verify your identity in many places, Give Google a strong local ‘scent’ on your website, build your email list, message your customers appropriately.
22. Geo Sitemap and KML generator- for those advanced local guru’s out there (not me).

****

Q/A Session and Site Reviews

—> Oy, there’s some funny dissent on the panel about having your blog as a subdomain (blog.domain.com) or a subdirectory (/blog).  They agreed to disagree.