Search engines use signals on the internet to rank different web pages for their search results. An example of a signal is a link from a web page to another web page. This link signal is that one web page recommends the other web page. However due to the rise of social media the number of signals increased. A short description of social media is a web application for mobile as for desktop based on user generated content. On social platforms like Facebook or Twitter users share and value web pages, articles, product reviews, video’s, pictures and much more. For example if someone appreciated a picture on Facebook they can press the Like button. Furthermore other users see how many times this picture has been liked. Search engines see this linking as a signal how popular the content is. However search engines, if they have access to the content, can see which users liked the content. This information is being used by search engines to provide better search results. Furthermore search engine know that for some searches people are better off with localized search results.

Why personalization for local business?

In the real world local companies are more likely to have a personal contact with there clients then companies that operate national or international level. For the local business this has many advantages. The client knows the company and the company knows the client. There is customer relationship where both sides trust each other and there is no need to negotiate every time. Also the client might be more loyal which can lead to a more steady cash-flow. Besides this there are much more benefits that cut costs, generate more income or make your cash-flow less risky. Search engines and social media know that users value local business higher and, therefore, they want to involve local businesses on their social network platform. In this article I will bring localization and personalization together with a free on line service:

• Google+ Pages for Local Business or Place

Google+ page

Google+ is a new social media from Google. Google wants to integrate all their products with Google+, like in Google Search, the search engine from Google. The big difference between a profiles and pages is that pages are for mainly businesses while profiles are personal accounts with real names. The three main differences are:

• A page can have multiple administrators. Administrators are real people with a Google account. Although you can invite anyone as a manager by email, they have to make a Google account.
• Pages cannot add profiles unless the profile has added them first.
• A page has a +1 button. A +1 button is a public action from a profile where the profile recommends the page to others. It is a public action and, thereby, it can be seen by anyone.

Google+ Page for Local Business or place

Google+ offers different page types and for the local business there is a special page: Page for local business or place. In regard to other page types this special type has a number of advantages:

• A Google map will be added to the page.
• The page contains a local address.
• The phone number will be added.
• The hours of operation will be made visible.

During the creation for your page you are asked to give your business phone number. Google will then search if there is a business listing with that phone number on Google Maps. If that is true the information from Google Maps will be imported automatically. You can alter this data. The number of categories is very limited, just pick one that fits best with your business. After you created your page it is best practice to link to your web site and visa versa. You can add a link to your web site in the about section in the link block. There are three ways to link from your web site to your page:

• Google does recommended to use the Google+ badge to link to your Google+ page. With this tool you can easily generate the code needed to link back. You get a code with rel=”publisher” that you need to add in the header of your home page and a code for your body that you can embed anywhere on your home page.
• If you do not want a link that is visible on your home page you can only use the header code:
  <link rel="publisher" href="https://plus.google.com/[yourID]" />
• If you do not have access to the header of your web site you can use a normal link with rel=”publisher”. To me this looks the most easiest:
  <a rel="publisher" href="https://plus.google.com/[yourID]">Google+</a>

You can check your code in the Rich Snippet Testing Tool.

What are the benefits for local businesses in Google Search with a Google+ page for loacal business or place?

Google announced that it will integrate Google+ as a social layer throughout their products. With the links to your web site and back you do give Google additional information that Google Search does use to serve search results for their users. First because you have linked between your site and the Google+ page you will get a priority in regard to other pages with the same subject that are not linked when people search your business on Google+. Furthermore Google+ is heavily integrated into Google Search with Search Plus Your World. This new service in Google’s search engine is not rolled out internationally. However it is very likely that Google will roll out this internationally.

With search plus your world users that are logged get personalized search results based on the data in Google+. That is, if an user follows or added a profile or page on Google+ then the posts from those profiles and pages are embedded in the search results, the blue area B. Furthermore on the left side profiles and pages are suggested to the user, the blue area A. Especially for local businesses this is important. If someone is searching for your company it likely that not only your web site is in the search results but also your Google+ page. This makes it more likely that the client calls you and not your competitor. In other words, by using the Google+ page for local business or place you can generate leads on your own. Furthermore you do make your business more visible on the internet and, thereby, it is more likely that your rank well in Google’s search engine.

Finally,

This new product from Google is free and it is a social network. That is, people do expect that you do interact on the platform by posting regularly. Of course this will make your business looks better. Also you can optimize your Google+ page. However this is just an introduction and, thereby, I did not mention that. Furthermore I believe that a non-optimized Google+ page where you do not interact is better then none at all. But, on the other hand, that is not best practice and you might not want to signal that to your potential customers. Google+ is a new social network and not well know internationally like in the Netherlands. However it is very likely that Google will promote Google+ in the near future.

A great opportunity for small businesses is that they can market their products and services locally. Besides that, frequently it is needed for a local business to operate in a region. For example it is necessary that a plumber you call is in an area where you live. Search engines do recognize that people search for local businesses for specific searches. There are companies that use this by providing services on the internet, like making web sites to target a specific region. Normally these companies use phone numbers and web forms to generate leads for small business that are affiliated with this company. Normally they charge per lead. However small business owners can generate their own leads quite easily by using free services on the internet and, thereby, small businesses can save the costs they would pay for the leads.

What is Localisation for Search Engines?

If someone searches for a restaurant in a specific city it is very likely that the search results served are restaurants from that specific city. This is especially true if a search user uses a city name as a search term, but these days mobile searches are quite common too. In short, search results are adjusted for the location. In this article I will look at two ways to give search engines the right signal that you are a local business:

• Web site optimization for localisation
• Google business places optimization

Web site optimization for localisation

This is one of the most important signals for search engines. That is, you want to be found for local search terms and that information has to be on your web site. Furthermore there are free on-line services for local businesses where you as the owner can link towards your web site and your web site needs to make clear to it does operate locally.

Usually a phone number is placed on every page. However it is not a necessity to add your phone number to every page, but it is recommended to add a phone number to your contact page and home page. Frequently the phone number is in the upper-right corner with a larger font. If you do have a local phone number it is a pretty clear signal. Sometimes web sites use an image to serve a phone number because they added a nice looking effect. That is not optimal because search engines cannot read images well. To overcome this you can add your phone number in the alternative text. That is, if an image does not load properly this text will be served. However there are browser plug-ins, for example Skype, where html text is converted into a click-able action to call. In short, I prefer text.

Besides a phone number it is common to add a business address to your contact web page. Although it is not needed to add your address on every page it does help to add it to your home page and where you think it is helpful. For example if you have a special offer where visitors need to make a reservation.

Google business places optimization

Google business places is a product from Google where you can add your business place to Google Maps. Google Maps is a very popular product and many people use it. Therefore besides the search engine it does make sense to add you listing for your local business. And Google Maps does have a search engine specific for maps. Google Search, the search engine from Google, uses the data from Google business places to serve search results. There is advertisement on the search result page. On the search result page the advertisement is on top, can have a different background but are also served on a right sidebar and in the footer of a page. The business place optimization only affects the organic search results. The blue area in the following image:

During the registration for your business place you should fill in as much as possible. That is, fill in every field, but be honest. For example if you fill that you are open on Sunday while you are not, people can fill complain at Google which might even lead to a suspension of your business listing.

Filling in your web site is pretty much a no-brainer. Besides that the links in the search results do link to your web site and not to Google Maps. In the description you can fill a short description of your business and which products or services you offer. You should use keywords in this description. Keywords are words where you want to be found for. For example if you sell product from a specific brand you can mention that brand. The field category is special field mainly for search. The name of the category will be used as a keyword. When you are filling in a category a dropdown appears with predefined categories. Try different terms to see which one describes your business best. However be specific and do not choose the most broadest term. For example if you are the owner of a comic book store you can fill in comic book store. The computer program that Google uses for their search results, called algorithm, understands that people searching for book stores might be interested in a comic book store. Furthermore if someone is searching specific for a comic book store it is very likely that you rank higher then general book stores. You can add 10 pictures maximum. Choose the best picture you have that fits best with your business. If you are a cabinet-maker your workshop might not be the most attractive picture, while your cabinets set in a nice setting might be very attractive. In other words, visitors are more likely to be interested in your products then your workshop. Additional details are also important because frequently it is looked over. Here you can fill in additional information like which brands you sell or if parking is available.

Finally,

There are more free services like Google Places for Business. However, mainly because of the great integration between Google Places and Google Search, Google Places for Business is a good start. Furthermore you need to have a Google account. The verification goes through a postcard, SMS or phone where you get a PIN, a number for verification. Personally I choose for the postcard because it is faster then SMS, SMS can take up to six weeks while with the postcard it takes up to two or three weeks, and I have good experience with the postcard service.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is optimizing a web site for search engines. Frequently those adjustments are small and don’t look important. However these small changes can make it easier for search engines to understand your web site. And by that your web site can rank better in search results.

What does a search engine do?

Search engines goal is to visit and copy every web page on the internet. This copy is called index. In other words, if someone says: “this web page is indexed” it means that a search engine has visit this web page and made a copy in their database. It is pretty impossible for search engines to visit every web page manually. That is why search engines use crawlers. Crawlers are computer programs that visit web pages automatically.

What do search engines do with the index?

The index is being used by search engines to serve search results to their users. On this web page with search results there is advertisement served by a special program and is frequently called paid search results. These advertisements frequently have a different background, are frequently on top of the page and are served independent from the organic search results. Organic search results are search results where people do not pay for while for the paid search results people pay per click. Organic search results is the target of SEO.

How do search engines determine the order of the search results?

The order is determined by an number of factors, which search engines call signals. These signals are used by a computer program that values those signals differently and the web page with the highest value ranks number one. This computer program is called algorithm. The algorithm is secret and is not public. However we do know that search engines value the follow signals heavily:

• Words on a web page
• The title of a web page
• The number of links to a web page
• The words of the links to a web page
• Reputation

Words on a web page

Search engines look at the words on a page to understand the web page. For example a web page about jeans does have the word jeans while a web page about cars does not have the word jeans. Therefore, if someone searches on a search engine for the word jeans the web page that is about jeans comes up while the web page about cars doesn’t.

The title of a web page

Every web page on the internet has a title. You may not notice it because it is in the source code. Most web browsers, like Internet Explorer, FireFox, Chrome or Safari, do serve the title in the tab. Search engines value this information because it summaries the web page. Like a human reading the headlines of a newspaper first to make a choose which article to read search engines use the title to choose which web page serve the search command better.

The number of links to a web page

If a web page links to another web page it is like a recommendation. For example if you receive a recommendation about a restaurant you are much more likely to eat at that restaurant. And if you receive more recommendations about a restaurant then for another restaurant you are much more likely to go to the one with the most recommendations.

The words of the links to a web page

If web pages link to another web page then they frequently use words and the URL. The URL is the way to a particular web page. For example http://www.idesthost.com/web-design/ where www.idesthost.com is the web site and web-design is the web page. However that does not read well and therefore words are used to link to a page. For example web design. These words are called anchor text. Search engines use these words to understand the web page better. Like the title of a page the anchor text is a small summary of the landing page and search engines do value those signals.

Reputation

Web sites that frequently serve fresh or new information with quality content and that gets more and more quality links over time can be seen as a source for good information. Frequently it is new, high quality and unique content. Besides that the links to a web site need to be of high quality. That is, the links have to come from other reputable sites. Especially this last concept is much more then just links and good content. For example a known writer that releases his new novel is more likely to be successful then a new novel from a novice writer. Therefore it is needed to have a reputation on the internet.

Finally

Although the algorithm isn’t public SEO is not a black box. Best practices are known. Besides that search engines do publish information about best practices and how they like to see the internet. However because the algorithm is unknown it is impossible to predict if your site will be ranked number one or not. Furthermore it is more important that your visitors value your web site high then that search engines value your site high. That is, make a web site for your visitors and not for search engines.