Local Search Tips and Bunnies – SEM Synergy Extras

You might ask what local search and bunnies have to do with each other. Well, the answer is “nothing,” unless you’re searching for them locally. However, they do both tie into today’s SEM Synergy, because after poking around MySpace due to my interview with Tony Adam, I found a boatload of user-generated videos, one of which happened to be cute baby bunnies in cups. Stick around because I promise later in the post we’re talking some important local stuff like keyword selection and PPC campaigns.

Cute Baby Bunnies in Paper Cups

Viral Videos | Myspace Video

I had a good time on the show today with Tony Adam, director of online marketing at MySpace. I incorporated something new at the end of the show, did you notice? It was a fun little Q&A that I hope will add a personal touch to the interviews moving forward. Tony was good sport – thanks, Tony! In case you missed it, here’s a transcript:

Me: Coffee or Tea?
Tony: Coffee (he says emphatically).

Me: San Francisco or New York?
Tony: Los Angeles.

That one caught me off guard. [Team LA! –Susan]

Me: Android or iPhone?
Tony: Wow, iPhone moving to Android.

Me: Jazz or Rock?
Tony: Rock.

Me: Rockmelt or Spindex?
Tony: (Long pause) … Wwwwhat?

That moment was edited out, but was golden.

Me: Scarves or hats?
Tony: Scarves.

Local Search: Keyword Selection and PPC

On to local stuff. In today’s show, we talked once again about the phenomenon of local and its rapid-changing elements. There’s been more change to Google search in the past year than there has been in a long time, leaving many of us wondering what the future of search will be. Businesses and search marketers alike are all scrambling to keep up. Luckily, when you have someone like Bruce on your team, you can tap into a lot of wisdom and foresight.

On that same note: when you have really talented people in the way of search marketing within arm’s reach, it always makes for great education. This is why I usually turn to the team here at Bruce Clay, Inc. to learn more about search issues. I asked a couple staff members here at BCI about how local has affected keyword selection and PPC campaigns.

First, I spoke with Javier Ruesga, an SEM analyst and PPC pro here at BCI. He had this to say about how he’s been handling the local focus with regards to PPC:

“For my clients, I have had to create campaigns that target the United States, as well as local campaigns targeting metro areas. In addition, I’ve added their business location from Google Places into their location extension in AdWords to give them some additional exposure and gain more market share. For clients that do have brick and mortar in multiple locations, I would suggest that they add the Google Tags to further increase exposure.”

In addition to tweaking PPC campaigns, optimizing for geotargeted keywords are now more important than ever if you’re a national business. One recommendation from Scott Fowles, an SEO analyst here at BCI, is for national businesses is to optimize for local by creating silos based on each one of the cities they serve and optimize the content with geotargeted keywords.

“Geotargeting has always been used for businesses that serve even multiple regions. The only businesses that have traditionally not geotargeted that might need to consider it now are the national and international businesses. So mostly big business,” says Scott.

“And the only reason they need to do that now is because Google has forced geotargeting even for general terms,” he says. “So for instance, General Motors might rank for ‘cars’ in most cities, but maybe not Los Angeles. So, they would then need to target Los Angeles more heavily to rank for ‘cars’ there. Before, however, if you ranked for ‘cars,’ then you ranked for ‘cars’ regardless of geolocation.”

Scott concludes by saying that local versus general keywords won’t necessarily impact the quality of traffic, but it can definitely impact rankings, which will impact quantity of traffic.

Jessica Lee is the founder and chief creative for bizbuzzcontent Inc., a marketing boutique that focuses on digital content strategy and professional writing services for businesses.

See Jessica's author page for links to connect on social media.