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With Superpages ranking highly in Google for a ton of local search queries you may want to figure out how to get your listing to the #1 spot so when folks click-thru from these top rankings you become the number 1 choice. This is just a little twist on barnacle seo using SuperPages PPC to get high quality traffic to your website.

Search Results Page For What Is Sure To Be A Very Popular Query

Begin by doing a search on Superpages.com for your type of business, get a feel for it. Think about what a consumer would type in when looking for a business like yours. Is your competition there? If not keep looking, you might be in the wrong category? Think about what a consumer would type, not what YOU think they SHOULD type

You found your category? Good. Now go back to the results and look in the left-hand most column. You’ll find suggested related categories under best match. Write down the ones that apply to you. Below that you’ll see headings: Products, Services & Brands. I’ll tell you how to get your business listing in those “categories” when we talk about the business profle later in this post.

Let’s talk about the layout. Superpages has 2 columns of listings, in a well-searched heading both are dominated by advertisers. As you would expect the left column of listings is going to get the majority of traffic. Forget about the right unless your interested in advertising nationally.

The left column contains up to 25 listings with up to 10 pay-per-click advertisers. The rest of this post will be dedicated to using pay per click on superpages as it is only way to grab the top spots.

Ok, here’s how it works – the Algo. Like Google, placement is based on relevance so placement is determined by your Click-Thru-Rate (CTR) as well as your Bid Amount. So like Google you want to write compelling copy.

Unlike Google, superpages has 4 campaign types and you need to understand them to know in what types of searches your ad will show and the types of searches in which your ad will not show.

1. Local
2. Metro
3. State
4. National

Your account can have as many campaigns as you like.

Advertisers that use a Local and/or Meto campaign will show in the results when a town or city is included in the searcher’s query. For example, Chiropractor Paramus NJ would display only advertisers in Local & Metro campaigns (covering the Paramus area).

In a Local Campaign you can advertise in your
a) Your Home City
b) Your Home County which will obviously include your home city.
c) Your Home County + ANY County That borders that County.
Counties separated by water are in most cases ok when reasonable. Bergen County NJ borders Westchester County NY despite the Hudson but Orange County Ca is not considered local to Hawaii.

Metro areas are pre-determined by superpages and coverage area maps are provided in the account set up tools in the PPC portal.

State campaigns are shown when the city is omitted and just the state is typed-in. For example, Chiropractor NJ.
This isn’t very practical for a local business and I don’t use it. If, however, you target the whole state you can and probably should include this.

National – No geography is used by the searcher indicating they want to search the whole country. Not a good option for a local business.

Local and Metro campaigns are your best bet so let’s talk more about those options. Your goal is to cover your entire service area without showing your ad in areas you don’t service. Obviously showing ads outside your service area is going to cost you money without any hope of a return.

If your service area is larger than just your home & contiguous counties, you will need to go to a Metro campaign to cover your whole service area. Maps of Metro areas are provided as you set up your progam on the superpages.com ppc portal. If your service area is bigger than Local but smaller than a Metro, you’ll have to decide. Perhaps start with a Local and move up if you find the ROI is there.

If you do a metro campaign, you will want to include a local campaign as well. The more local you get the more local signals you can provide at the listing level. You may choose to display your actual address in the local campaign and hide it in your metro. There are advantages to displaying your actual address in a local campaign I’ve been told, but I think I’ll save that for a future post.

As you go through the portal, superpages walks you through setting up a campaign step by step in the fashion of a wizard. When you get to the business profile option you’ll want to fill out as best you can as each word you include in your business profile becomes a keyword that will allow you to come up in a keyword search.

Superpages.com is kind of a hybrid between a search engine and IYP as it will search for business categories like a traditional Internet Yellow Pages but it will also search for keywords if the query demands it. And the place it seaches for keywords is the business profile.

You will also need to determine what links you want to do display at the listing level. Go back to superpages.com and do a search. Under the listings you will notice links. Phone, More Info, Map it, Email etc. These are all clickable and in a pay per click you can imagine what that means. You guessed it, you’ll pay the full price of the click and might never even get traffic to your website if you decide to display these links. You are also likely to have a higher CTR than a business that doesn’t display them. I’ve made the decision that I will only pay for a click to my website, so the only clickable item I will display as part of my listing is the url. If I need to bid higher because of decreased CTR I will do so.

Because I track my site using Google Analytics I also use url builder otherwise the traffic will show as direct traffic in Google Analytics. If you don’t understand that last sentence. Don’t worry about it. Use the tracking provided by superpages.com and don’t give this paragraph another thought.

I read an interesting post recently by David Wallace on On Increasing the Visibility of a Small Business Website on a Shoestring Budget. He gave some interesting advice for a small business starting on the web. I would like to build on this the way George Lucas built on the Star Wars series; with a prequel.

You see, David assumed the business already had a website. This post will provide advice on getting started with a website, use very little money and generate enough revenue to begin investing in David’s advice. I actually used what follows in this post to get a friend started on a shoe string.

1. Sign up for Yahoo! Site Builder.
   • Yahoo! Site Builder(aff) provides an easy way for the do-it-yourselfer to have a website and it is easier to use than PowerPoint.
   • URL is included.
   • Comes with Domain Based email, which you need to look professional. No more mybusiness@aol.com.
   • Yahoo! indexes this site quickly… I used this service earlier in the year for a quickie and the site was indexed within a couple of days. And came up on the first page of search results for the keyword + regional term on Yahoo!. Like David said, if this was a mortgage broker it would have been more difficult but for a Painting Contractor it worked just fine.
   • $100 credit for Yahoo! search marketing (will need a $30 initial deposit)

Price Tag: $25 + $11/mo.

2. Read some good, practical and free advice on SEO:
   • This one from Jill Whalen’s High Rankings Advisor about title tags alone might be enough to get a local site ranked.
   • Here is one from Seomoz that is a good read for anyone but especially a newbie because it will educate you enough that you will be insulated from the garbage written about SEO on the web. It will also familiarize you with the rock stars of the industry… read their blogs often and you won’t go wrong. And lastly, it will educate you about the factors that really matter when optimizing your site.
   • Read this post from Local Biz Bits if you are going to create a site with multiple pages: Break Up With Your Services Page
   • And you can find a good SEO e-book for free from Dan Thies at Seo Fast Start

   Price Tag: $0

3. Buy Perry Marshall’s Ultimate Guide to Google’s Adwords and use Google’s how-to resource

Price tag: $16.47

4. Begin your paid search marketing program
   • Sign up for Google Adwords
   • Sign up for Yahoo Search Marketing

   Try and get your ads to the top of the search results so they are above the natural results by writing your way to to the top.

Price tag: Difficult to say: I spent less than $30 before I started seeing conversions.

5. Devise your IYP/Maps/Local site strategy
   • Figure out the most popular IYPs in your area
   • Sign up if the price is right and you are able to follow Dick Larkin’s advice and get to the top. Superpages offers a PPC program that will allow you to get to the top with little money down and no contract… $50 at set-up covers the cost of clicks with a $15 monthly minimum.
   • Go to the local sites mentioned above and set up your business profiles.
   • Call satisfied customers and ask them to review you on these sites as well.

Price tag: $50

Your business is now all over the web and the phone calls and emails will begin coming in from new customers. For a local service service business this list should provide you with the opportunity to get Thousands of dollars in revenue before you spend $200. And the credit card bill hasn’t even arrived yet… woo hoo!

Now, you have the money to invest in David’s advice.

If you are able to completely fill out the Business Profile offered free from sites like Yahoo! Local and Superpages.com, you will enhance your credibility big-time, which means more customers for you . But you have to fill it out completely… y’know even the certifications and affiliations part. Oh! you left that section blank? Why?

Certifications and affiliations are what give you credibility and set you apart from the newbie hacks in your industry. And I have seen studies that show in print ads these mentions help the ad convert.

Here’s how I would recommend going about it… Let’s use a Lansdscape Architect as an example. Go to Google and do a search for Landscape Architect plus your state. I did it for Landscape Architect NY. The first listing is for the ASLA, an organization devoted to the industry. If I am serious about my business, I should belong to this organization, don’t you think? Ya, I know it costs money to join but if you believe in what they do it should be worth it. Plus you can now put ASLA Member on your website with their nice logo. Instant credibility for you. Also, the site has a search box that allows people to search the site to find a local Landscape Architect – qualified traffic… perfect.

The next result is the NYSCLA. This site offers all the same benefits as above but with an added bonus – I can write it out and get the keywords ‘New York’ and ‘Landscape Architect’ on the page. Oh! it’s all good.

Next, if I have been in business for over a year and have no complaints on file, I can join the Better Business Bureau.

Now when someone is looking in my area for my service they will see that I am a member of the ASLA, the NYSCLA (spelled out or with the <abbr> tag), and the BBB, whether they come to my site or my business profile… Voila’ – instant credibility.

Next, does your industry require you to be licensed? It does… good. Typically the state or whomever else requires and issues the license will have a website. Find the page that shows that you are licensed and copy and past the url into your site and create a link to make it easier for your visitors to find… more credibility for you and if your competition didn’t take the time to do this simple step, their visitors maybe wonder why, don’t you think?

Your certifications and affiliations may also provide you with the best possible links for your site. Which is as it should be… as you build credibility with your customers, you also build credibility with search engines. Hmmm… those search engines are getting pretty smart, eh?

Now, if you haven’t done it already, do some searches for your line of business and then add some geographic modifiers. I bet there are some folks working pretty hard to improve your industry. Support them… your customers will appreciate it and so will they. And let me know what you find out; I’d love to hear about it.

Most of the web sites I see local businesses use are 5 page sites set-up something like:

• Home Page
• About Us
• Services
• Page Under Construction
• Contact Us

Now let’s take 3 simple steps to improve this site’s visibility and conversions.

Clean up the Website

Obviously, you’ll want to get rid of the page under construction. Next, check for broken links and fix those. Then read your website again… make sure it reads well and clean up any grammar and spelling issues. Now we can get to the fun stuff.



Break Out Your Services Page

The typical website layout described above with tongue in cheek is actually a good start for local businesses, that’s why it’s so popular. Home Page, About Us and Contact Us pages are essential for a local business. I would add to that list a Privacy Policy but that’s a post for another day.

But the services page needs to be changed and here’s how to do it. For each service you have as a bulleted item on that page, create a seperate page and remove the services page.

For Example, a house painter with a services page listing Exteriors, Interiors and Power Washing should create a new page titled Exterior Painting, another for Interior Painting and a third for Power Washing. The bulleted items on these pages should list the benefits of doing business with you. Explain why a local searcher should choose you over the competition.

This will give your site a much better chance of showing up in the search engines for these keywords but more importantly it will help you convert searchers to customers.

Focus on Usability

Now despite all that hard work a lot of your visitors are still going to arrive at your site via the home page. They want to find the one thing they’re looking for quickly, so help them out. Make the navigation to these newly created pages prominent. It should be very easy for your customers to find the things they want to buy. Don’t make it hard it and frustrate them into using the back button. Put focus on these links… you can use a different color or the best way might be to highlight the link with a graphic that depicts that service. Also put the links in a prominent section of the home page.

Adapting these steps to your website should increase it’s visibility and conversion. Please let me know.