Sources of Local Business Reviews

on July 23rd, 2008 by Michael D Jensen

Online Customer Reviews for Local Businesses can be found in dozens of local search engines and directories. Some local search sites will re-use customer reviews from other sites to provide a thorough selection of reviews for users. This diagram, “Sources of Local Business Reviews” highlights the biggest players in local search and the connections between each with regards to online customer reviews.

Sources of Local Business Reviews

This diagram is not intended to cover every source that feeds reviews into local search sites, but to highlight the most prominent players and review contributors in local search.

Local businesses benefit the most by pointing their customers to review sites that have the most pull in the popular local search engines. For example, besides the four most popular local search sites themselves, InsiderPages provides reviews to both Yahoo! Local and Google Maps, as well as MerchantCircle.

Ratings by customers in online reviews can influence local search rankings, but the ratings may be limited to certain sources. For example, Yahoo! Local does not include the ratings of other sources (which include lots of smaller niche review sites), only ratings from Yahoo! users leaving a review at Yahoo! Local. Pointing customers to these primary sources may provide the best impact.

While online customer reviews are not sole determinants of rankings, reviews can make a significant difference very quickly in non-competitive local searches, both in the universal one box results as well as the full local results.

Check back periodically for updates to this diagram, and feel free to contact me with suggestions and updates.

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Unbiased Reviews, Except More Reviews = More Money

on July 22nd, 2008 by Michael D Jensen

One of my favorite topics in local search is Online Customer Reviews. I think its a fascinating element of local search ranking algorithms as well as for attracting customers to your local business.

I haven’t been to epinions.com for a while, frankly because their reviews are always sparse. The first thing that stood out to me on the homepage was this giant fake bill (see below), advertising how they’ll pay you $10 for 10 reviews (the more you write, the more money you make). Then I saw the headline above it “Unbiased Reviews by Real People”.

epinions-unbiased-paid.jpg

I’m a huge fan of incentives for getting online customer reviews, but here’s why I don’t think this falls into that category:

This ploy will attract people who want a quick buck, not actual customers. Who wants reviews from people who have never used it? This is my complaint about the iPhone AppStore where anyone can leave a review for any application, even a $65 application they’ve never bought. Sure it’s hard to control for most sites whether you’ve used the product or been to the business (except in Apple’s case), but going out of your way to incentivize ANYONE to review, especially in volumes, will significantly hurt the quality of customer reviews.

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Inside Scoop on Google Maps Rankings

on July 14th, 2008 by Michael D Jensen

Eric Enge held a fantastic interview, well worth a full read, with Google’s Carter Maslan, the Director of Product Management for Google Local.

Several gold nuggets can be found in the interview, so I wanted to highlight the ones that popped out to me the most:

1) Proximity to city center not important anymore

Carter Maslan: Exactly, as for proximity to centroid that is an old issue which we’ve addressed, so that is not too important any more. Early in the history of local search people would try to setup locations near the centroid, but that is just not that important any more.

2) Claiming a listing not the important thing, its the content

Carter Maslan: Sure. So claiming your listing by itself is not so much the issue but what is important is having good control over the way that your business is described.

3) Reviews are looked at and considered, but don’t carry as much weight as other factors

Carter Maslan: We do look at reviews. It is not so much something that will radically change where you are in the results, but we do consider it.

I think reviews may teeter totter a bit in the algorithms, and find a happy medium of weight they give to rankings. Why not rank a local business better if it has quality reviews, much more beyond its competitors? When there is that extra layer of content about their content (dare I say meta data), local search engines would be dumb to ignore it because that’s exactly what I want to see.

4) Links AND citations are both significant contributors, more so links (specifically anchor text)

Carter Maslan: Just the fact that there is an implicit link in the geospatial world, is not as strong as the explicit anchor text that goes straight to an URL that we know is a definitive domain for a business. But yes, it does help to have your business well-described and geo-coded in references on different pages.

This is where not having a website is a major disadvantage, not only for missing traffic from general searches, but the weight it carries in Local Search.

5) Get a KML file, it helps

Carter Maslan: Yes, it helps a lot in knowing the precise geographic location that is being described by a page so it is definitely good to have a sitemap that references a KML file with an accurate description of the entities referenced geographically.

I have blogged several times about doing whatever it takes to gain “trust” with Google, and a KML file is great because it is somewhat “authenticated” when you get the coordinates, etc. and gives Google another reason to acknowledge your business and its location.

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I’m Speaking at SMX Local, You Should Come!

on June 21st, 2008 by Michael D Jensen

I’ve been accepted to speak at SMX Local this July in San Francisco, and hope you’ll come and join me! The session I’ll be speaking at is the first session on the first day, “Ranking Tactics for Local Search”.

I’m looking forward to it being a smaller, more niche-centered conference. If you want to learn more about Local Search, Mobile Search, or just want to meet me (ok, find another reason to go please), register for SMX Local. There are tons of great sessions, plus lots of opportunities for networking!

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CityMarketer.com on Alltop.com! Plus more Local Search Blogs!

on June 20th, 2008 by Michael D Jensen

I’m very excited to announce that the CityMarketer.com blog is now listed on Alltop.com in the SEO category!

Alltop is kind of like a “magazine rack” on any given topic, each “authoritative” blog listing recent posts on the topic. When you’re interested in a new subject, it’s a great place to start in finding blogs to subscribe to and posts to read. Let’s say you want to sharpen your business’ “customer service skills”, head on over to customerservice.alltop.com and you’ll find some great resources, tips, ideas, and practical advice all on Customer Service.

I had been communicating with Alltop.com for a couple of weeks about adding a category for “local business” or “local SEO”. Instead of adding a new category, the local search blogs I listed in my email were added to the SEO category.

The other Local Search Blogs that were added:

Understanding Google Maps & Yahoo Local Search
http://blumenthals.com/blog/

Convert Offline - Local Search Engine Marketing
http://www.convertoffline.com/

Local SEO Guide - Local search engine optimization & marketing made simple
http://www.localseoguide.com

Small Business Web Design and Local SEO
http://www.davidmihm.com/blog/

Local Search and SEO
http://stephenespinosa.com

SEO Igloo Blog - Local SEO
http://www.solaswebdesign.net/wordpress/

Local Internet Search Marketing for Small Business
http://www.localbizbits.com

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Report on Ranking Factors for Local Search

on June 17th, 2008 by Michael D Jensen

David Mihm released an important report on Local Search Ranking Factors today. I was happy to be a contributor to the report, among many others in local search.

The top 10 factors with moderate to high agreement among the contributers were:

1. General importance of claiming Local Business Listing
2. Local Business Listing address in city of search
3. Proper Categorization of LBL
4. Product / service KWs in LBL title
5. Proximity to centroid
6. Validation with third-party providers
7. Number of inbound links to website
8. Location KWs - anchor text
9. Number of customer reviews
10. General importance of on-page criteria

Certainly the local business listing (LBL) plays a huge role in local search rankings, along with the location of the business, and then basic SEO things like links and on-page optimization. The report is a great read, especially the comments from the contributors. I’m sure you’ll learn something interesting!

Local Search Ranking Factors Report

Thanks David, great job on putting that together!

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Yelp bringing local reviews to your iPhone and the World

on June 5th, 2008 by Michael D Jensen

June has arrived, the much anticipated month for Apple to launch iPhone 2.0, where 3rd party developers can create apps and games for the iPhone. Yelp has told CNet News that they are developing an application for the iPhone that will make use of its My Location (GPS or GPS-like) capabilities to give restaurant (and local business) reviews for locations near where you physically are. Currently the iPhone has a “Maps” app that uses Google maps, but it doesn’t give any reviews or ratings information.

On a separate note, but still on local reviews, later this year Yelp will let users leave reviews for businesses outside the US, starting with Canada and other English-speaking countries. I’d love to hear not only where locals like to eat when I’m out of the country, but also where tourists enjoyed eating, so this will be a nice expansion for Yelp.

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More Link Juice from Inbound Links in Local Area

on June 4th, 2008 by Michael D Jensen

I have always said about Google, they will always try to be as human-like as possible. When you are in a new area and want to find a clean, yummy restauraunt, who do you ask? The locals.

Andrew Shotland notes that inbound links from the same state of a local business may have more weight in Google’s eyes, based on something said by Richard Zwicky of Enquisite (details to come from Andrew on that).

As Google et al. have more “location data” based on IP address and even more detailed data like from KML files, they should basically be able to say “this website is at this location” by now. It only makes sense to then take the whole basis of Google, links as a vote of authority/trust, one step further and give them one more level of context.

So what does that mean for local businesses and local search marketers? Make friends, network at local activities, and get links from partners, friends, and companies in your area/state.

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Google on Local Search: “Always changing how we determine relevancy”

on June 3rd, 2008 by Michael D Jensen

A great interview by Greg Sterling with Google’s Carter Maslan vocalized what I think many of us are thinking in Local Search:

The results that appear among the top 10 local listings are based off how relevant we think the listings are to the search terms. Of course, we’re always changing how we determine relevancy.

I like to think about the field of Local Search as what SEO was like at the very beginning. Lots of wondering, lots of real experimental testing, lots of changes and improvements, and of course lots of tricks to rank better!

Some other gems from the interview:

1) If you’re not at a physical location, the best you can do is to have a PO Box.

SEL: What about cases where people want to appear in results for areas where they don’t have a physical location (e.g., a “service area”). Is Google going to address that scenario?

CM: Yes, we will. We currently don’t allow for service areas, but we recognize that many businesses don’t have physical locations and are working to accommodate those businesses. We recommend that businesses without a physical location register themselves as a single business listing using a PO Box.

2) Use a Geo Sitemap, called a KML file. How to create a Geo Sitemap KML file, and more on Geo Sitemaps

3) If you think what you are doing is spamming, you may want to think twice because of the potential “indefinite” consequences:

I can say, however, that spamming Google Maps is a surefire way to remove your listings from the top 10 indefinitely.

Hat tip to Mike Blumenthal on covering the interview, particularly in regards to KML files.

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iPhone 2.0 Impact on Local Search

on May 22nd, 2008 by Michael D Jensen

In June 2008, one year after the iPhone was first released, Apple will update the iPhone with new software, “iPhone 2.0“. Existing iPhones will get the update and new iPhones (with 3G) will come with the software. Among the new features include “executive” features like exchange support for email and the ability to run 3rd party applications from the iPhone SDK.

Being a Local Search guy, as well as an iPhone guy, I am seeing the potential for a big impact on local search with iPhone 2.0. None of the major local search players (Google maps, Yahoo Local, etc.) can afford to not cater to the iPhone, which is already second (28%) in the smart phone market share to the Blackberry (40%). And if the major players are catering to the iPhone, that means local businesses and Local SEO will need to as well.

iPhone 2 and Local Search The key feature of iPhone 2.0 that makes the most significant impact is the “My Location” capability that will be accessible by any 3rd party application. The Maps application on the iPhone already uses this capability to find local businesses, without needing to add a city specific keyword. So if any application can tap into this feature, and figure out your location (accurate within 10 blocks usually I think), what is next for Local Search?

Google could have a search app that limits results to what is locally relevant, based on your query and location. Google could serve up ads based on where you are at the moment, not just what you are searching on.

A news related app could alert you to events that happen in real-time based on where you are, not only with obvious critical events like natural disasters but other events like a band playing at a local club, a limited time art exhibit, or a special sale at a local retailer.

A real estate app could show you all homes for sale in your price range close in proximity to where you are, or the direction you are heading to.

An application could take your reservation or even your order at a restaurant at the nearest location (or least busiest?) without you having to try to find which location to use.

As the iPhone’s market share continues to increase, local businesses will have more opportunities to get their foot in the door with local customers using an online device, such as the iPhone.

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