Successful Sites- Issue 020 - Misreading Cause and Effect and Local Search

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Cause and Effect - Not Always Easy to Determine

Analytical types will tell you that for every event, there are factors that caused that event. Makes perfect sense, no? That's how we learn. My hand got burned because I tried to pick up a hot dish. In the future, I'll know to use a potholder. That's learning for survival and well-being.

However, much like early humans thought that sacrifices to the rain god brought the rain and praying made the sun rise each day, website owners often believe their actions have caused changes in the rankings. They truly believe that every little thing they do is instantly reflected on the changes they see in search rankings. And it makes them nuts!

How Urban Legends Are Made

A primitive man is out hunting in an area he's never been to before. Just as he kills a deer next to a pine tree, the volcano under the mountain rumbles and shakes. The man assumes killing the deer next to the pine tree caused the rumbling and the gods are mad. He returns to his village to tell the others what happened and no one ever kills a deer in a grove of pine trees again. It works! The volcano remains dormant.

Webmasters often see a decline (or an increase in rankings) after doing something to their site. Maybe they changed the meta keywords, or put Adsense on their site, or changed headings to h tags or took headings out of h tags. Whatever they did, shortly afterwards they saw a change in search rankings and assumed that they caused the change.

Even though they can't duplicate the event, they continue to believe they did something that caused their site to rank better or worse. They will not listen to anyone who tells them otherwise. They won't touch the site again for fear of losing their rankings.

If the change "caused" a drop in rankings, they put their site back the way it was immediatly and yet the site doesn't go back to where it was. Instead of coming to the conclusion that the change didn't cause the ranking issue, they instead believe they've angered the search engine gods and head to the forums to find out how to beg forgiveness.

You Don't Control the Sun

We want control. We can't stand the idea that some things are simply out of our control; that we didn't cause them and we can't change them. We simply assume we haven't found the right key, the right code, or the right formula. But once we do, watch out! We'll be able to easily manipulate the engines to do our bidding.

Just as early humans didn't actually cause the sun to come up every day, minor changes to your site generally don't trigger massive changes in search engine results. If you can't duplicate the event, it was probably just a coincidence.

Search engine rankings are complex and involve many factors that you don't control, such as the number of other pages that use your desired terms. If you truly believe something you did caused a great change, then duplicate it. Try it again. Change it back and see what happens. Try it on another site. Do you get the same results? Do it again. If you can get the same change to happen in a predictable pattern, you may actually be on to something that counts.

Changes That Make a Difference

Some changes do have a very real effect on your site. An example of some changes that msy influence your rankings are:

Impactful Changes Often Take Time

While the above activities can impact your rankings, you may not see an immediate reaction in the search listings.

If you are making changes only for the search engines and waiting for them to appear, you will drive yourself crazy trying to figure out why this or that happened when it did. There are a ton of factors you can't control: algo changes, new competitors, changing competitors, server issues, even database issues where you may see different indexes from one day to the next in the search engines.

If you continue to improve your site, make search-friendly, focused changes to your site when needed (and not every week), gain quality incoming links and continue to build a better web experience for your visitors, long term rankings should be achievable. So don't freak out if your #3 drops to a #12 every now and then... that's just the nature of the game.

Scottie Claiborne is the Web Marketing Strategist for Right Click Web Consulting and the facilitator of the Successful Sites Newsletter. She is a speaker at the Search Engine Strategies conferences and the High Rankings Seminars as well as the administrator of the High Rankings Forum. She encourages her clients who check rankings every day to find other hobbies.

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Getting Results from Google Local Search

These listings appear either by entering business information to the Google Local Business Center, advertising with companies like CitySearch, SuperPages, DigitalCity, other local portals, or to simply have a Yellow Pages listing (more on this below).

Google Local started to make news in March 2004 when they took the program into beta testing. At the time, their results were average at best. They had minimal information other than where these businsses were actually located. It was common for listings to display incorrect titles, addresses and zip codes.

Their results and information have greatly improved since then. Google really dug deep to think about the user and how they use the Internet to find local businesses. Business listings can now include contact information, hours of operations, payments accepted, specific business categories, a link to their website and even user reviews.

Businesses who have a local Yellow Pages listing might already be in Google's index whether they have a website or not. In May 2005, Google reached a deal with InfoUSA to use their data for local searches. If they're in the Yellow Pages, InfoUSA probably already has the business data and Google most likely uses it in their local listings. The question is where. Are they prominently displayed or back where users won't find them?

Google doesn't say (nor should they) how a business can be listed toward the top of these results. Just like their standard search engine, there are many contributing factors. Currently, location, Yellow Page listings and local Internet advertising do seem to help. Although you don't need a website to be listed in Google Local, a properly optimized site can be a big plus.

Location
The closer businesses are to what Yellow Pages consider the center of "your city" can play a big part. How about a search for Minneapolis pizza? The majority of local results are located in the Minneapolis city limits. Location plays a big part in many different Google Local searches and it makes sense that they will continue to consider this valuable.

Local online advertising
Advertising with companies such as SuperPages, CitySearch and other local online portals that provide information to Google Local can also help. Many of the Minneapolis accountant examples (currently) show SuperPages product and service information along with an interactive map, contact information and web references.

The Minneapolis pizza example mentioned above shows more enhanced and detailed information. The first result (currently) is a listing from Pizza Luce (my personal favorite). In addition to the short SuperPages information, they provide enhanced information from CitySearch, DigitalCity and different restaurant portals. This includes payments accepted, public transit and parking options, hours of operation, specialties, price information and reservation requirements. CitySearch even lets you get interactive by showing user reviews. This is common with them.

Optimizing your website
Although businesses don't need a website to be listed in Google Local, it's a good idea to have a properly optimized website. Clearly showing a physical address and placing city/state names in the content and tags certainly cannot hurt.

Entering your own business information
None of these listings include information supplied directly from the business itself. This can be done for free by signing up at the Google Local Business Center. This is a way to get listed both prominently and properly, even for those who already advertise with the companies mentioned above. They can custom write their own descriptions, list their business hours, payments accepted, and show contact information including an email and link to their website.

National companies with many locations
For companies with multiple locations, it can certainly take a lot of time to manually enter information for each locality. Companies with ten or more locations can now send Google a Froogle business listing feed. This can really be helpful for national chains such as restaurants, sporting and clothing stores, hotels, and others.

Part of this concept can be accomplished by advertising with companies listed above. However, chains of local restaurants, hotels and specialty stores can have different hours, specials and pricing for each locality. This is something that can be remedied by submitting a business feed.

Does Google Local work?
In a real world example, about a month ago I purchased some new furniture and fixtures. Since other things were going to be moved around, it was a good idea to go rent a Rug Doctor carpet cleaner. I did a quick Google search for Minneapolis rug doctor. One of the local results was just a couple miles straight north of me. I called them up, they had a few Rug Doctors available, they were open until 4:00pm, I went up and rented it, bought some shampoo and accessories, and they just made 70 dollars.

This is only one example. I was going to rent a Rug Doctor that day regardless. Potential customers searching for professionals in fields such as orthodontics, accounting and real estate aren't normally as far along in the buying cycle as people searching for a Rug Doctor. However, the fact that there is enough information listed for a potential customer to call them is a big asset for local business owners.

In standard search engine marketing, the efforts normally work if potential customers think sites or businesses they find are worthy enough to buy from them. The same concept applies here as a local Internet marketing plan is just one part of having a successful local business.

Paul Jahn is with Localmn who can customize your local Internet marketing strategies depending on your needs and budget. To find out more on your small business web possibilities, send him an email.

Wrap Up

Make Plans for a Fall Trip!

I am so excited about the first ever Powerhouse Linking Seminar in Charlotte. It's coming up at the end of October, so start making your travel plans now. Linking is critical in search marketing today, and Debra, Eric, and Dan have some creative strategies for long term success. It's well worth the investment!

Jill-the-slacker finally has her registration page up for the High Rankings Seminar, so if you need to learn all there is to know about marketing a site online, save the dates and check flight prices to Philadelphia now. Then click that link and register online!

Happy Birthday To Me!

Although I've stopped counting the exact years, Thursday was the day I came into the world many moons ago. So, I just want to say,

The kids are "took me" to the Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant for my birthday. We all love going there- it keeps everyone entertained and it's really yummy. And hey, nothing like letting a 3-year-old poke sharp skewers into food and stick it in boiling broth for some family birthday fun.

More Silliness at the In Search of Stuff Blog

Mike has had even more fun introducing UPONG-Underpanters Professional and Openly Naked Guild, the organization for search marketers that he calls "underpanters" because they often don't get dressed or leave the house for large stretches of time. (Don't ask about the openly naked- you don't want to know.

Last issue I promised an article to help you determine if you are too close to your site to be objective, and whether you are letting rankings dictate your actions. The cause and effect article wanted to be written NOW and if you don't obey, they disappear. So we'll have the objectivity article next issue. See ya then! -Scottie

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Issue #020- Google Local Search and the Dangers of Drawing Conclusions

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