Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

If we can figure this out, then we would know how to dominate local SEO.

I did exactly that. I set out to discover how Google’s local algorithm works. To do so, I turned to the only answer source I know:  Data.

What you’re reading is one of the first ever massive data research projects that seeks to uncover how Google’s local algorithm works and what it takes to gain rank in local SEO....

Type in a generic search term for nearly any local service and you’re likely to see listings for national brands and retail chains. Local businesses have largely been pushed out of the first page of organic results for generic product/service keywords. Although Google displays a higher percentage of local search results for generic search terms than Bing or Yahoo, non-local, non-SMB websites still take up roughly 50% to 65% of the page-one space, according to a study by BrightLocal.

In order to get back on top, local merchants have to make a change in their SEO strategies. That means using more geo-modified terms, and it means relying more heavily on long-tail keywords — for example, “top hair stylist” or “wedding hair stylist” rather than just the generic “hair stylist.”

Here are six strategies for local merchants looking to compete for page-one real estate on Google, Yahoo, and Bing....

FA primer on location-based marketing on mobile.Location-based marketing blurs the line between the digital and physical world. To drive foot traffic and sales at bricks-and-mortar stores, marketers target shoppers on their devices.

To do that though, marketers need to effectively identify and utilize consumers' locations. New services are giving people a much better incentive to share where they are, while new technologies are emerging to make location-based marketing a more exact science. In a new report from BI Intelligence, we look at the three of the primary types of location-based marketing approaches: geofencing, geoconquesting, and geoaudiencing, each of which uses location somewhat differently. We also look at some the latest and most effective location-based apps that are giving consumers' good reason to share their location....

An article in HBR today discusses what we've known and been writing about for some time now: location analytics is a major "must-do" opportunity for retailers and others (airports, hospitals, casinos, colleges, mall owners, entertainment venues). See also: Report: "Mapping the Indoor Marketing Opportunity."

The HBR piece discusses various provider-vendors (RetailNext, Placed, Euclid) and retail scenarios (operations, staffing, merchandising) that will benefit from indoor and offline analytics. However one of the major issues in the space is privacy and consumer acceptance. The article neglects to discuss privacy at all, although many of the comments raise the issue.  

Location analytics can be done in such a way to avoid any PII collection while giving customers the ability to opt out of any indoor tracking (save closed circuit TV). The Future of Privacy Forum has introduced an opt-out (a kind of do not track indoors) website SmartStorePrivacy.org. This is a voluntary thing at the moment, though with many analytics firms signing on. But it will likely become mandatory at some point in the near future....