Local #SEO Stats You Need to Consider for Your Strategy by Tamara Weintraub #296

Hi, and welcome to the SEO Podcast, Unknown Secrets of Internet Marketing. My name is Chris Burris, owner of eWebResults. I am Charles Lewis, your client results advocate. Welcome back to another fun-filled edition of our podcast. This is podcast number 296. You can see that right behind us if you're tuning in. As always, we do have a tip from our previous podcast, and that tip is accumulate data and analyze prior to making internet marketing decisions. You don't want to make dumb decisions. The best decision you can make is an educated decision, so get analytics, check it out, and then realize what's working, then make a decision. Then make a decision. All right, that is our tip from our previous podcast. All right, please remember we are broadcasting live from Houston, Texas, and we are your friendly local neighborhood top position snatchers where our mantra is. Don't be a deuce. Got a little funny story about our mantra today. It's kind of cool. I got one too, actually. Oh, yeah? Yeah. So we've got a good article that we're actually discussing today, and that article is. Oh, man, first off, I want to give a huge punch in the face to Tamara, Tamara Weintraub, and the good people. Good people. Good people. People over at Search Engine Journal. Yes. Right? No transcription issues. Yeah. So, man, title book, SEO 101 Local, hashtag SEO stats you need to consider for your strategy. All right. So some pretty good stats in here. We'll dive in a little later. Excellent. So if you're in a position to have some sort of electrical device that enables you to, we're hoping that you would tweet, and that device is going to look something like this. Or probably newer than his, but something like that. Hey, you're right. But, yeah, you should tweet. Be sure you tag us in it, at bestseopodcast, at eWebResults. Use hashtag SEOpodcast. This is number 296. That way we can follow you back and do all of our social networking stuff. Excellent. So if this is the first

time you're listening to the podcast, howdy. Welcome to the podcast. You can actually watch the video. We'll tell you where you can do that afterwards. If you've listened to this podcast before, you know exactly what's going to happen now. We do have a review, and we did actually get like 500 follows on our new Twitter page. Hopefully that's everybody kind of converting from our own. This eWebResults. Yep. Twitter.com slash eWebResults. I was just hesitated there. Yeah, I was like, man, did it not say eWebResults or something? What was going on? What did that say? All right. So we're not going to request that you write. Well, we'll request that you write a review. We won't get into the details of how you can do that. Just go leave us a review. We will tell you how you can be social with us. So there's a whole bunch of ways. And they start with, I don't know, facebook.com slash eWebResults. YouTube.com slash eWebResults. Twitter.com slash eWebResults. Instagram.com slash eWebResults. We need to get more pictures on our Instagram page. Is it? We've got ourselves four or five? I think that's it. Like everything. Yeah. EWebResults. Anything else you can think? EWebResults. If you are a PHP guru or a WordPress programmer extraordinaire, we are probably looking for you. Please go ahead and leave an audio resume at 713-510-7846. If you would like a free website analysis, we actually have a form on our page. All you have to do is go to eWebResults.com and you will find that form even on the home page. And do we have any algo cats today? We do not have any algo cats today. So we're going to jump right into a little bit of news. Okay. So some of it, anyway, this is good news. So YouTube came out with Red where they're- It's a streaming service, isn't it? Yeah. It's streaming where they can, well, they'll charge and you don't get any commercials. It's $9.99, something like that. Netflix competitor, basically. Yeah. Basically. So that's kind of cool.

I mean, come on. YouTube is already on everybody's phone. Yeah. I mean, I see us, you know, smart move, Google. Yeah. Yeah. So next is, I thought this was, the title of this particular article I thought was really good. Tesla Autopilot Drifts Towards Driverless Cars. Tesla Autopilot Drifts Towards Driverless Cars. Okay. So it's a great play on words because the cars aren't drifting towards other driverless cars because, first off, there's no other driverless cars. But it's moving in the direction of driverless cars. And use the word drift and that's kind of, you know. Yeah. It's kind of cool. So my business coach actually has a Tesla, got the upgrade. So he's at, and he was describing to me, one challenge that it has is it's following a car and that car turns left. The Tesla will go like a little left, a little left. Oh, you're still going straight. That's a week if somebody in that next lane over there, right? Well, I don't think it crosses the lane, right? Okay. But it just is kind of putting the pieces together. I'm following that car. If the road were to veer, then I'm going to follow the car and the road. And then all of a sudden they're going different directions. And so it kind of figures that out. So what if the guy in front of you just... Yeah. Who knows? Yeah. It would be kind of fun to just make videos. I'm sure there's some videos out there. Some people are saying that it's done weird things, of course. Right? Yeah. Of course it will. But I mean, yeah. It's a little scary. Yeah. And great. Facebook is draining the iPhones. They actually did an upgrade to it. It was some of the features that they had in it. They said it was funny. The Facebook technical guy was like, so this bug was kind of the equivalent of, are we there yet? Are we there yet? It's just draining the phone. Are we there yet? Yeah. With no response. And this is

interesting. I haven't heard of this. Rogue Hotel Booking Sites. Rogue Hotel Booking Sites. Okay. There's sites. Like Booking.com and all those. But Rogue ones. Yeah. They've kind of mirrored the logos and all of this stuff. And they take your money. Yeah. Because you've been booked on there and then you know. You don't have a room when you get there. So keep an eye out for those. A little kind of more internet marketing related. Yahoo partners with text. With Yext. So this is pretty cool. Chuck, you know a little bit more about this. Oh, this is really awesome news. So, you know, we already talked a lot about Google My Business, right? Which is kind of the platform for managing your Google Local Business page. But Yahoo has Yahoo Local as well. Right. Well, they did. They just partnered with Yext. And so now Yext is really the platform management tool for your Yahoo Local profile. Okay. So do this. It makes perfect sense. And it used to cost. Right. Right. And so now you can still manage your Yahoo profile for free through Yext. But if you upgrade to like their pro listings. Right. Then you can upgrade all your listings and take advantage of the full Yext suite that would include, you know, local management for Foursquare and Bing and Yahoo included. And, you know, all the other profiles that Yext works with. So anytime we're talking about NAP, name, address, and phone number, Yext is a tool to help you take care of that. That's a power move for Yext. Oh, yeah. That's a big deal. Yeah. You know, that kind of blows out companies like UBL and those guys. This kind of leverages them with more than them. So. Absolutely. I can dig it. Yext. Very cool. Hey, Bing is finally profitable. Go Bing. They're contributing to Microsoft's bottom line. And then, yeah. Well, I think that was, I heard that was due to, you know, the, a lot of users on Windows 10. Right. Windows 10 has a lot of Bing

integration. And so, you know, a lot of people upgraded and it's apparently a lot better than 8 and what they had previously. Matter of fact, I read something on, what was that, CNN? Comment that said that they meant Windows 10 was the best Microsoft release ever. Yeah. So, I was like, ever? Yeah. Better than XP? Yeah. Or 7? Yeah. Because 7 works well. We have not had many, if any, complaints about 7, at least with us. And this is finally the final piece of news. We got Yahoo, who I think not too long ago partnered with Bing to provide search results, is now in negotiations. They signed a three-year deal. So, dig this. They signed a three-year deal. They gave them the option to display Google results in their search. They don't have to. They can literally say, you know what? We're not going to sell no Google results. But then they also had a flexibility to show Google results based off of certain queries. So, anytime somebody's searching for, let's say, a specific service, then we want to display Google results. But if they're searching for, let's say, some type of product or whatnot. And maybe airline tickets or something like that. So, we might want to show Bing results. You know, or we want to display our own because they have their own algorithm as well. So, I think that's an interesting positioning move to do that. I think they're going to run into some challenges because at the end of the day, Bing do have an agreement with Bing to display ads. And I think, more importantly, the quality of the paid ads is what's going to come into question. Right, right. Right. So, I'm going to say... And speaking of Yahoo, it kind of makes me think. I know you're a big fantasy football guy. There's a whole lot of stuff going in the fantasy football industry, right? Like, websites popping up, doing massive advertising, getting federal indictments. Well, that's because they found a loophole to make gambling legal, basically. Right,

right. You know, like all these fantasy drafts where you really get paid. Like, I know people who have won money on FanDuel and things like that. That's what's killing Yahoo. Yeah. That functionality isn't there. Well, and if you can make money there, Yahoo is always a free service or minimal. Yeah, it's free. Yeah. So, yeah. So, you're still Yahoo? Yeah, we're making... Yeah, I'm looking at it yesterday because I mess around and luckily, Seattle was my defense and I had them in the game. Right. And so, I was flipping through the channels. I was like, oh, Thursday Night Football. I didn't check my line up. And so, luckily, I had them in the game. I really thought it was good. And so, yeah. Yahoo needs some reminders. Then I got a reminder. I just didn't look at it because, you know, it's Yahoo. I don't really need to listen to Yahoo. Hey, I've got a couple pitifs. Okay. One is from David Arant. He's actually with DeltaBluesRice.com. Punch in the face. Had a really good conversation with him. So, talking about internet marketing. And then Jim Sinnott actually had a conversation with him today. He's with CampaignPaintball.com. He's out of the UK. They're just about 25 minutes outside of London. And a big punch in the face to Jim. I've got to tell you this. So, we're wrapping up. CampaignPaintball. Yeah. So, we're wrapping up the phone call with him. And the last. All right, Jim. We'll talk to you in a week. Because I scheduled a call with him. And he's like, don't be a douche. Click. Like, that's what's up, dude. Punch in the face to you. Punch in the face to Jim. Mm-hmm. And I've got a couple reviews. You've got to unaccumper. I've got a pitif I want to get over real quick. This pitif goes to, you know, Liad Makabi. Okay. I'm going to say that. And I think he became a friend to us through Kelly. Oh, yeah. You talked to Kelly before. Because he tagged her in it

as well. He says, at Kelly El Couture, at EWebStyle. It should be at EWebResults. Yeah. I love these guys. Punch in the face to you all. Punch in the face. Punch in the face. Smiley face. So, yeah. Punch in the face to you, dude. Thanks for tuning in. Appreciate your support. Awesome. And then I see your next piece is something else. All right, Brent. So, here we got some reviews. And, of course, these reviews are. Five stars. This is from, by the way, Jim Sennett, when I mentioned reviews as part of my presentation, he actually was like, five stars. That was awesome. So, this one is, oh, literally, it was just five stars. Oh, that's all I got. And then we responded to him. And then next was Hank Rosen. The title is Best SEO Podcast on Planet Earth. That's what's up. That's all right. Thank you. Punch in the face. We've been saving that for 296 podcasts. Yes. And then, finally, Joe Gonzalez. This says, you guys are a huge time saver. Nobody's said that before. I listen to your podcast on my way to work once or twice a week as one of the ways I stay up to date with the latest SEO, social, and overall digital marketing strategies. You're a bit quirky and nerdy. I guess you're the quirky one. I'm the nerdy one. Yeah, something about right. Mainly because you have glasses. Yeah, I know. There's the nerd. But if it keeps the podcast real, no, but it keeps the podcast real, fun, and light. Thanks for all the real world examples and continuously great info. Punch in the face to you both. Yeah, punch in the face. Dude, what's his name? Yeah, thank you, Mr. Joe Gonzalez. Joe Gonzalez, dude. Punch in the face, dude. That's what's up. Yeah, it is what's up. So, that's what I've got. All right. Well, let's get into some potatoes. Apparently, that's Joe Gonzalez calling. Thank you for the punch in the face. We are live on the air. All right, cool. So,

like I said, we're going to get into some meat. Yeah, so that's the potatoes. Let's get into the meat. So, I want to give a good punch in the face to Tamara. Tamara Wintraub, I'm sorry if I pronounced that wrong, she posted this article at Search Engine Journal, SEO 101, local hashtag SEO stats you need to consider for your strategy. And so, the reason I brought this article to you guys today was because I'm a stats guy. Yeah. I spent a lot of time in analytics looking at numbers, percentages. You're a client results advocate, and really, you can't talk about results unless you're talking about stats. But don't know the numbers. Exactly. And so, I spent a lot of time looking at stats and numbers and traffic and things of that nature. So, of course, stats intrigued me. I will preface this by saying that the whole stats he's focusing on are local. And most small businesses are local. Like, well, you know, probably half of our client base is local. Yeah. Probably half of the people watching right now or listening right now are local businesses. Responsible for local businesses. Exactly. And so, local is important to understand that when you consider what types of local businesses we have. And I think it's clear that we indicate that. Right there, there's local brick and mortar businesses, like restaurants, movie theaters, retail stores, and things like that. Then there's local service providers, AC guy, plumber guy, a roofer guy, still a local service. And then there's even local mobile type services, if you will, food trucks, and things of that nature. And so, when you consider local, it's a big, it's a big deal. Yeah. It's a majority. Exactly. There's so many different categories that fall in the local. And so, let's see how some of these stats kind of affect that. So, she starts off with saying the local pack and reviews. The first stat, she says, is the Google three pack appears in the top spot in 93% of searches. Wow. The Google

three pack, remember that was a recent algorithm change, shows in 93% of searches. 93%. That's like, that's like almost nine out of 10 searches or the local three pack is being shown. What does that mean? That means you need to try hard to be in the local three pack because that's what's being shown nine times out of 10. And so, if you're Google, my business page isn't set up right, it isn't claimed, you haven't optimized it, then you're likely not to show in that three pack, which reduces your chances of getting any traffic. She also says, in regards to that local and reviews, 88% of consumers have read reviews to determine the quality of a business. Right. Makes sense. 72% of consumers say that positive reviews make them trust their local business. So, what does all that mean? Well, to me, that means three out of four people actually rely on what somebody else said, ironically. And so, with that being said, people are relying on your clients, on your previous clients, on your, uh, uh, anybody who's used your service. If they post it, then people are relying on what they said. So, it's in your best interest to make sure that they're posting something good. She goes on to say, now that Google has reduced the number of results it shows in a local pack from seven to three competition for the top spot is stronger than ever. She's absolutely right. And that's kind of reiterates what I was just saying that since there's only three and you provide a local service that could follow any number of categories, uh, it's just going to be extremely imperative that you take advantage of all local things you could do. Um, she goes on to say some more stats in regards to mobile friendly sites. She says, in regards to mobile friendly sites, 87% of smartphone owners use a search engine at least once a day. 87% use a search engine at least once a day. That's about right. That's about eight to 10 people.

Yeah. I'll probably search for at least one thing daily. Yeah. At least. At least. At least. On my phone. At least daily. I'm going to probably use Google app and search for one thing at least daily. And so I think she's right about that. In regards to those mobile friendly sites, she also says that, uh, 60% of American adults use smartphones and tablets to search for a local product or service. 60% of them. Think about that. And, and I'm going to tell you how I know that's right because we do it. Right. And I think this really correlates to, to people being at home or people in their leisure time is when I notice people like myself or my wife or, or other people tend to really have an increased tablet usage and mobile usages when you at home watching TV. I think what people don't realize is that this is a great opportunity to, um, to work well with whatever traditional media you may be having going on. So because these people are likely in an environment where they're on a tablet and they're searching off something that they just saw, that's what usually happens. You see a commercial, like, Oh, that looks pretty interesting. And the commercial gives you some CTA, like check us out at blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.com. And you do. And then you do. Blah, blah, blah. That's a hotel Transylvania website. Exactly. But you do. I do not say blah, blah, blah. But you don't even follow the CTA directly. They said, check us out at blah, blah, blah.com. We'll just go search blah, blah, blah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. That's that one search. And then, and that usually happens immediately after following. And so I think companies, there's some companies who recognize this and take advantage of it. I think about people like, uh, Domino's, right? Right. Domino's the whole tweet to order deal. That is a great way to use traditional media, like a commercial for TV or a radio ad and get people online placing orders.

Right. Right. If I'm watching TV and I'm hungry and I see a commercial that says tweet and I'm probably on my tablet already, I'll do it. Take advantage of it. She says the use of smartphones to search for local businesses in the U.S. is growing. So having a website that shows up and looks good in mobile searches is a must. Yes. It's a must. It's definitely a must. I'll give you a quick story. I took a call the other day, yesterday. Yep. From a client we have, um, e-commerce client. And so we were debating. Just, by the way, this is just worth explaining. Yeah, go ahead. So we've got a, we've got a client who is an e-commerce site and had kind of a different approach from, from day one to, to, to generating business. And he actually didn't want to have a phone number on his website. Um, we, uh, we are called eWebResults because all we care about is results. So we actually took, and it's a brand new site, so it doesn't have that much traffic. So we weren't worried about getting inundated with phone calls, but we, we put our own phone number, right? So our own tracking number and forwarded it to us so that we could answer calls and get feedback from people on the site. It, it's actually guided some of our actions on the website already. And that's just an example of things that we do for our clients. Um, and really the, at the end of the day, we've proven to this particular client, you must have a phone number. Yeah. Cause he debated it. Now nobody's going to call. I don't want to have a number. And we were like, dude, let's try it. Yeah. And so he pushed back. And so we front up the cost. We put the number and it's been getting probably one call every day. Yeah. Ever since we've done it. The call I took yesterday, um, she literally says, uh, Hey, I'm on the site and you know, she

has some questions about, um, uh, but Oh, this is why I brought this up. I asked her if she was at a computer. Oh yeah. And then she says, well, I had to call you. My phone is my computer. So she can't get on the computer while she's on the phone. Yeah. She says my phone is my computer. And I was like, wow. So in my mind, I immediately thought this must be a millennial. I'm talking to you. You know, and I started making those kinds of assessments. Uh, but the point I'm making is that your site must be mobile friendly. And so looking for, in our case, it was, she was able to navigate and find some products and find phone number obviously and place a call. So, uh, yeah, you, you want to make sure your site is mobile friendly. Um, she gets some more stats. I'm almost wrapped up in regards to on the go searches. And I thought these were pretty cool. She said, uh, Google's search interest in near me has increased 34 times since 2011 and increased in near me searches 34 times in near 11. I think it's clear to point out that all near me searches are 90% voice searches. So this is Italian restaurant near me, a bus stop near me, a movie theater near me, a gas station near me, whatever that search is, it's likely a voice search and there's an increase in those. So that means that's even more of a reason why you need to have your, your, your information marked up schema. You need to have it. Google my business needs to be set up. You need to have your hours of operation there because near me's also includes time. Anybody near me open right now, right? Right. You need to have your hours and things like that set up. Yeah. I've, I've actually hit, um, get directions on the way and Google maps will come back and say they might be, they might be closed. Exactly. Like, yeah. Okay. I

know what I'm doing. Let me go. But, but the reason Google knows that it's because the hours are posted in Google. Exactly. They have it set up. She also says 51% of smartphone users look for local information while on the go. Yep. I do it. Me and wife will leave all the time. Hungry, going to eat somewhere. Don't know where. Yeah. It don't really matter. Yeah. Just drive. And then once we get to somewhere. Restaurant area. Yeah. Italian restaurant over here. Yeah. Near me. Yeah. Frankly. Yeah. So, so it's a lot of people who do that. I like this. I can say I've never done a near me search. I've never added near me because I usually just go into maps and then it's automatically. So I do near me when I'm voicing. I don't near me typing. But voice search, yeah, I always do near me. Makes sense. Well, I'll say closest or something like that. So on your, on your galaxy, do you, do you, do you do like a double click? Do you, how does that work? Okay, Google. Oh, wow. Seafood restaurant near me. I don't think I have that. Because I'm driving. So I really don't even want to type. Do you know? I'm usually one hand on the wheel, phone on my lip, and then. Is that supposed to be on like all the time? It's automatically on. Okay, Google. Well, not from that screen, but. Oh, you have to be on. Well, I don't know about the GS3. Yeah, I know. It's an old device. So I'm just going to test. So if I were here. If I was on my phone, it would work right now. Just directly to. Okay, cool. Yeah, just what, you know. I mean, I can hit, I can hit like. Okay, you had a mic icon. Try it. Yeah. Well, no, I don't have it yet. If I go there. Yeah. But if I hit the mic icon, then I'll upgrade. Needs an upgrade. I think I need an upgrade. Yeah. But

yeah, our boy search it and it picks it up. She says a 78% of local mobile searches result in an offline purchase. 78%. Yeah. That's about right. Consider the previous example. Restaurant. Restaurant near me. I'm on the way there. I'm hungry. I might even call it and make reservations. Like, I will do this. You know, shoe store near me. Because I'm going to purchase shoes. The only way I'm not going to purchase is if the food is nasty. The place isn't clean. The reviews are bad. Or they don't have my shoe size. And so, she's right. 78% of local mobile searches typically result in an offline purchase. She also says, so having your business name, address, and phone. Consistent across all local citations. Not only improves SEO performance, but also improves, but also provides your prospects with information they are looking to call or visit or make a purchase. Great article. Well, I'm going to add this to it. Pro tip. Right? So, she's right. You should have this name, address, and phone information very consistent across your site. It should be marked up. I'll take it a step further. Link them. Okay? So, not only have that phone number listed in this marked up schema and it's identified exactly what it is. Link it so people can tap to call it. Same thing with your address. Link that address over to, I don't know, maybe the Google Maps page with that address. So, that way, whatever device their own, if they tap it, is going to open up the Maps app and convince to giving them directions on how to get there. Take that extra step. Yeah, you should see an increase in conversions when you do that. Man, punch in the face to Tamara. There's a great article. SEO 101, local SEO stats you need to consider for your strategy. Pretty good information. Actually, I did see that you have a little bit of blank stare. I do have a little bit of blank stare at me. I do have a little bit

of blank stare news. What? Yeah, this is kind of blank. So, first off, this is not a negative blank, if you will, because I can appreciate somebody making a career change. Right. Especially if there's something that they feel led to do. But, so, Dwayne Forrester, right, guy, he's the head of search and SEO over at Bing. And so, remember, last year, Bing fired him. They had a huge, massive layup. Now, he's their go-to guy. He's like the Mac Cuts of Google. He's the base of Bing. Yeah, he's that guy, right? And so, they had some massive layoffs, and then they cut him. Then he got fired. And then, like, two months later, they rehired him. Interesting. And then, now we're at the 10-month mark. It hasn't been a four-year since he's rehired. He's like, I quit. I'm done. He quit? Yeah, he quit. He's leaving. He says, you know, he said, basically, everything was moving too fast. He wants to scale back, get into some small business ownership, and do something different. Ah, okay. So, what that really means is he's probably going to start an SEO agency. And or a search engine. Yeah, and or a search engine, exactly, and try to run it himself. So, that's my blank step. Interesting. I thought you were going to talk about that. One news item that I skipped was how a number of people who used to work with Elon Musk at Tesla, I mean, at, yeah, Tesla, are over at Apple. And Elon Musk was very vocal in saying, yeah, if they can't hack it with us, they go to Apple. So, I thought that was pretty cool. Let's see. All right. So, hey, if you're looking to grow your business with the largest, simplest marketing tool on the planet, the internet, give us a call. You can reach us, eWebResults, at 713-592-6724. Remember, we are having a November special. That is free social media marketing with any one of our packages. Free social. Take advantage of it. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, consistent posts, hashtagging,

social graphics, like the whole nine. Take that off your plate and listen to my home for you. Don't worry about that anymore. And if you get one of the packages that has social media in it, you will get a $250 discount per month. So, go ahead and call us and take advantage of that. Anything else? Hey, if you have a referral, somebody who's interested in internet marketing, you send them to us. They pay their bill. We pay you. We have a structured referral program in place. We were filmed live at 5999 West 34th Street, Suite 106, Houston, Texas, 77092. Until the next podcast, my name's Chris Maris. Charles Lewis. Bye-bye for now. Balance check. Balance check. Mic check. One, two. One, two. SEO podcast 296. We live in the mix. Tune in to Chuck and Chris. Sound check. And it sound good. Pay attention. Marketing, man. You really should shout out to the photographer to say cheese. Uh, SEO rapper. Put you on your knees. So, pay attention. It's time to go on get it fast. It's the hashtag SEO podcast. Uh, and we out. Oh, yeah. Let's get ready.