As the local search industry continues to grow, so does the terminology! While there are certain terms and phrases that are standard across the industry, there are some that are less commonly used or have alternative terms. Below is a list that might help you navigate your way through the streets of local search and in the process provide a basic understanding of local search marketing. In most of the definitions here, since I just can’t help but get carried away when talking about local search, I have also given some tips on how to best utilize these features to help your local search rankings.

Category: When listing your business with Google Places especially, you will want to choose a category for your business. This is a very important factor in their algorithm. If you have not claimed your business on Google Places, it will choose a category for you from a set of approximately 2,000 default business types based on the North American Industry Classification System. Be sure to select the correct category for your business and up to 4 subcategories to be sure the search engines know what your business is all about.

Centroid: As determined by the local the search engines, the centroid is the very center of a neighborhood or metropolitan area. A business’ proximity to the centroid plays a role in where it ranks in the local search results; however there is debate on how important it is. In my opinion, I believe it matters more in competitive markets. For example, if there are 1,000 plumbers in San Diego and someone searches for “plumber, San Diego, CA” the businesses that are closer to the centroid and have nicely optimized listings are more likely to show up towards the top.

Citation: Citations are to local search optimization as links are to website search engine optimization. Citations are viewed by the local search engines as a listing of a business on a website, preferably with a matching address and phone number to that which is provide on the business website and on that search engine’s local listing. Ideally, you have your complete address and local phone number on your website, you have claimed your search engine listings, and you have matching listings on sites like Yelp, CitySearch and Internet Yellow Page sites. The search engines see these listings as verification and as votes for your business. This will help your rankings in the local search results.

Data Provider, Aggregator, IYP: Companies such as infoUSA, Localeze, and Superpages are major data providers, also known as data aggregators and Internet Yellow Pages. The search engines often crawl these sites to gather business data. These companies often have contracts with the search engines to provide this data. So, if you see that your business is already listed on the search engines, these sites are very likely where the search engine got your information. You will want to claim your listings to ensure all the information is correct.

Directory: A website that lists business contact information in an organized manner, typically in alphabetical order and/or by business type. Just as the search engines look to data providers and aggregators to gather information, they also crawl directories.

Geospecific search: When a user searches for a business or company with a geographic modifier such as a city, state or zip code. For example, “plumbers, San Diego, CA”.

Google 7-Pac: The 7 local listings that appear alongside a map at the top of a search engine result for a geospecific keyword. These results are determined by the search engine’s algorithm. If a particular neighborhood or metropolitan area does not have a large concentration of the type of business the user is searching for, Google might only show 3 results. Similarly, Yahoo and Bing have a certain number of results that will show up next their maps.

Local algorithm: Just as the search engines have an algorithm for the organic search results, they also have a specific formula that determines the ranking for business listings relevant to a particular geographic area. Various factors play a part in this algorithm, some carrying more weight than others.

Review: A customer’s summary of his/or experience with a particular business. Reviews cannot be controlled by the business owner. Reviews can be left on Google Places and on most other local search listing sites like Yelp, Foursquare and Gowalla. Business owners should pay attention to these reviews and use reviews as an opportunity to engage with customers. This touches on online reputation management.

This list covers the basic terminology that you will likely hear when you start talking to a local search professional. Knowing these terms will get you on your way to having a better understanding of local search. To continue your journey in learning about local search, check out our “Go Local or Go Home” webinar on the Vertical Measures webinars page.

Sarah Moraes

Sarah Moraes, Marketing Manager, heads the tactical planning and implementation of cross-platform marketing activities for Vertical Measures including; blogging, social media marketing, webinars, content marketing, email marketing and promotions. In addition, she published the Local Search Marketing for Business How-To-Guide, a part of the Vertical Measures How-To-Guide Series.

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To wrap up our Local Search Optimization interview series, I thought it only fitting to get first hand advice from David Mihm of DavidMihm.com and the Director & COO of GetListed.org, an online resource that helps small business owners claim and enhance their listings at major search engines. His 2008 Local Search Ranking Factors, and recently released 2010 version is recognized among the most important studies of Local Search Engine Optimization.

Elise Redlin-Cook: There are just so many local search sites out there. I’d like to know your opinion…Do you see the market continuing to grow, or narrowing down to a few key players?

David Mihm: Unfortunately for small business owners, I see the market continuing to fragment.  15 Miles does an annual study of the space–the most recent version from October 2009 and it seems like each year Google remains below 40% in Local market share…which is pretty astonishing when you consider its dominance in traditional search.  There are a bunch of long-tail players like Superpages, Insider Pages, Citysearch, and Yelp that cumulatively make up a major chunk of the market.  Now, this year, it looks like we’ll be adding Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare to the mix as significant players.  I say it’s unfortunate for small business owners because they’re typically the ones with the fewest resources to devote to online marketing, and it’s truly becoming important to be involved in a lot of different places in Local.  Even before the addition of Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare, I illustrated the complexity of the Local Search Ecosystem last year.

Elise: What would you say are the best free local search sites today?

David: Well, I think we cover most of the big guys on GetListed.org — Google, Bing, Yahoo, Yelp, along with Best of the Web Local — and an even fuller list, for those who have the time, is on that same Local Search Ecosystem page I mentioned earlier.  It’s also important to note which directories and Internet Yellow Pages are ranking well organically for some of the keywords your business is trying to rank for & ensure you have plenty of visibility on those sites.

Elise: How about the best paid local search sites today?

David: As with any other branch of search marketing, it’s important to track ROI…and in Local, that means tracking ROI across individual verticals (for instance, paid ads on Yelp may be terrific for restaurants but not cost-effective for plumbers) and geographies (Kudzu ads may be great for Atlanta businesses but not so much for Seattlites).  As a general rule, though, three of the most worthwhile places to spend money are on the major data aggregators for local search sites–infoUSA, which has just launched a new product called Express Update, Localeze (enhanced listings only currently available in bulk), and Acxiom–currently only accessible via Universal Business Listing.

Elise: Merchant Circle allows you to add coupons, reviews, blog posts, etc. Will the other local search sites continue to adopt this trend of allowing more user generated content?

David Mihm: I wouldn’t single out MerchantCircle as a shining beacon of customer service, but they surely have done a nice job with their SEO and some of the features you note above help quite a bit with long-tail search traffic.  It’s going to be more important after Google’s MayDay update for IYP’s–already sucking wind since the introduction of the 10-pack–to create as much unique content alongside their business listings as they can.

Elise: Is it more important to be listed on niche sites that are specific to your industry, or the big sites with lots of traffic?

David: Depends completely on the vertical…not only for rankings at Google Maps/Google Universal, but also for the degree to which the particular players have established themselves in a particular market.  For instance, if you’re a hotel and you have a weak presence on TripAdvisor, you’re in serious trouble–both for searches at Google, and on TripAdvisor, because Google relies so heavily on TripAdvisor ratings, reviews, and business data for its own hotel/hospitality index.  There are plenty of longer-tail examples, including HealthGrades.com for doctors and medical professionals, AngiesList.com for plumbers, etc.  You can almost always count on the major IYPs to have a solid presence across multiple verticals, though.

Elise: So, I’ve got to ask…do you see value in the paid listings versus the free listings?

David: I think Google by-and-large has done a nice job with its flat-fee product offerings via Places…including Tags.  I’m not sure that their earlier Local Listing Ads wouldn’t ultimately make them more money, since they essentially guaranteed a slot in/near the 7-pack, but it certainly is easy–and relatively inexpensive–to set up a Tags campaign for a single-location business.  I think the more complex the paid offering, and the more complicated the billing procedures, the harder it is for small businesses to understand what they’re getting.

To answer this question from a marketer’s perspective, again, it’s important to track ROI using your analytics.  On some sites, paid listings might be incredibly worthwhile, but not so much on others.  Experiment frequently and track assiduously.

Elise: If a business doesn’t actually have a brick and mortar location, should they still try to list themselves on local search sites?

David: There’s no solution (PO Box, UPS Store, fake address, etc) that will really work in the long term.  Although Tim Coleman did quite a thought-provoking post recently about some of the difficulties Google may face in combating the latter.  Yes, Google recently started allowing go-to-client and service businesses to include service areas and hide their address, but given the reliance of its algorithm on location information, if the only place you’re listing yourself is Google, your chances at ranking are pretty poor.

Elise: That’s the perfect segue into my next question. What would you say are the top local search ranking factors right now?

David: Funny you should ask, given that this year’s Local Search Ranking Factors came out only a couple of weeks ago .  Most panelists felt that claiming your listing, having a physical location in the city being searched, categorization, and what I would call traditional citations (from IYPs and data providers) remained at the very top–where they’ve been since I began this survey in 2008.  I was somewhat surprised to see unstructured or non-traditional citations (such as those found in a newspaper article or blog as opposed to another local search site) ranking so highly since those haven’t been showing up for all that long–folks are obviously finding that those mentions of your physical location are critical for ranking, no matter where the search engine spiders find them.

Some of the other traditionally-important factors like keywords-in-business-title and proximity-to-centroid seem to be declining somewhat.  And frankly, I’m a bit surprised that review quality isn’t rated higher by the panel (positive ratings were only #42 out of 58 total positive factors)…but I can’t say I disagree, based on all the local search results I’ve looked at in the past year.

Elise: Well, thanks David. It sounds like I have some reading to do!

If you are interested in learning more about Local Search, check out our our  webinar, “Go Local or Go Home“, tomorrow, on  July 15th at 11:30 a.m. EST (8:30 a.m. PST, 10:30 a.m. CST). In this webinar, attendees will hear from Sarah Moraes, Internet Marketing Specialist, and Jason Hendricks, SEO and Link Acquisition Specialist of Vertical Measures as they explore everything from the basics of setting up a local search listing to what it means for SEO.

Elise Redlin-Cook

Elise is the Content & Marketing Manager at Vertical Measures, an internet marketing company in sunny Arizona providing services ranging from content marketing, to social media marketing, link building, and advanced SEO. She’s fully immersed herself into the world of content marketing and content strategy and is the managing editor of this blog.

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This week, as the Vertical Measures “Go Local or Go Home” webinar approaches on July 15th, at 8:30AM here in Arizona I spoke with Chuck Reynolds from rYnoweb a nearby local search expert who provides professional web strategy, search engine optimization (SEO), and local SEO services for individuals and businesses alike. He had some fantastic advice on the topic:

Elise Redlin-Cook: There are many local search sites out there. Do you see the market continuing to grow, or narrowing down to a few key players?

Chuck Reynolds: I’d lean towards growth.  Local search is still fairly new and with location-based services being the new gold rush, expect it to grow.  Originally there are a few data providers for business information but with the boom in LBS and human-edited and human grown biz databases the old school names are getting pushed out for things like Foursquare, Yelp and SimpleGEO etc.  Big key players will still be there for years to come but with newer better competition don’t expect to hear much from them down the road.

Elise: What are the best free local search sites today?

Chuck: There’s a little site called Google, and they offer a product called “Places”. It’s free and awesome, do it!
Bing’s version
Yahoo’s version
Yelp
Best of the Web Local (free version)
Manta.com has been popping lately pretty good too
Local.com
Also any industry specific (to yours) directory or blog listing is great.  Those are a great start.

Elise: Great advice, so what are the best paid local search sites today?

Chuck: I don’t do much paid stuff but any industry-specific directory or blog is something at least worth looking at – not all are great but they’re a targeted link.
Google Local just added “Tags” – get in on that, it’s fairly cheap and not many people are jumping on it yet.  Once you have your business setup and verified in Google Places you can highlight photos or your URL for about $25/mo.
Also spending directory buys on http://dir.yahoo.com (after you purchase make sure to edit as you can add a 2nd category), business.com, botw.org (better than the free mentioned above), joeant.com…

Elise: What local search sites would you recommend for businesses with multiple locations?

Chuck: First off if you have multiple locations, remember that good SEO starts on your site with good architecture and clean code, so make sure you have independent pages for the locations – turn them into landing pages for that local search market.  Google Places is key, also if you’re service industry put all the locations into Yelp. Optimize each location not just the main site.

Elise: Merchant Circle allows you to add coupons, reviews, blog posts, etc. Will the other local search sites continue to adopt this trend of allowing more user generated content?

Chuck: Yes and no – blogging on Merchant Circle is pointless – they tried to create some “social media” site and failed horribly.  Coupons and deals are gold, so are reviews.  So yes in the fact that user generated brings the public some addition from business owners, but SMB’s don’t have time to do blogs and stuff on 15 different ‘local search sites.’  Google and Bing are watching reviews of businesses even though people spam them but keep good reviews coming in, they’re not going anywhere.

Elise: Is it more important to be listed on niche sites that are specific to your industry, or the big sites with lots of traffic?

Chuck: Both  I’d say niche for conversions and the “big sites with lots of traffic” to get traffic and do virals, which can maybe lead to conversions.  Niche sites are very targeted, focus a little more of your attention on those but don’t ever forget about the big guys with lots of traffic to send your way.

Elise: Do you see value in the paid listings versus the free listings?

Chuck: Some of them are okay but I don’t focus too much on paid inclusions too much, free is good and there are more of them to makeup for the one big paid link.

Elise: There are mass distribution sites that blast your listing out to various search sites. Are there any that you’d recommend or that you’d recommend staying away from?

Chuck: I’m not going there, usually not safe for people to mess with because they get out of hand.  Twenty thousand links in a few weeks sounds cool, in theory, but that’s bad lol.  For the purposes of this questionnaire - stay away.  Focus on niche and local biz info sites and focus on making your site better – it works.

Elise: If a business doesn’t actually have a brick and mortar location, should they still try to list themselves on local search sites?

Chuck: That’s a little more limited in what you can do as all the sites focus on the assumption that all businesses have an office, which most do but this isn’t 1980 anymore.  Cool thing with that issue is Google Places, earlier this year, allows service-based businesses to set up an “area of service” where you set a radius from a central point and Google will list you when your keywords are searched in those areas.  They also allow you to input a bunch of zip codes if you want that, too.

Elise: What would you say are the top local search ranking factors right now?

Chuck: Standard info here, have a good clean coded site with well-written fresh content with your local keywords, make sure if you have addresses that they’re searchable and different locations have their own page. Claiming your Google Places page and setting that up in the right category with the right keywords. Get good real customer reviews on Yelp, Yahoo and Google.

Elise: So, lets wrap up with my favorite question…tell me, are you driven by any great passions outside of the business arena?

Chuck: You mean something that’s not work? Like hobbies? Hah… what are those?   To be brief: mountain biking, motorcycle rides, anything to do with racing vehicles, hiking/trail running and camping.  I really don’t know – my passion is my work honestly – I love what I do, just perhaps need to take more time for myself one day.

Elise Redlin-Cook

Elise is the Content & Marketing Manager at Vertical Measures, an internet marketing company in sunny Arizona providing services ranging from content marketing, to social media marketing, link building, and advanced SEO. She’s fully immersed herself into the world of content marketing and content strategy and is the managing editor of this blog.

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