Local Search Q&A with 6 Leading Local Search Experts

[Linda Buquet]

There are so many questions in local search, but experts in the industry usually have some good answers.

Here are 13 great questions posed by Vedran Tomic to 6 experts including: Mike Blumenthal, Mary Bowling, Mike Ramsey, Andrew Shotland, Nyagoslav Zhekov and yours truly.

Vedran interviewed us a few months ago and the interview just posted at Moz.

Local Search Interview: 13 Questions For 6 Experts - YouMoz - Moz

For a while now, I’ve wanted to do a big interview with the rock stars of the local search industry...

Local search has gotten extremely complex during the last couple of years. Too complex for an average small business to navigate and too fast paced and multifaceted for most Internet marketers. This is why I got the best and the brightest in local search to help us by answering these 13 questions.

1. Measuring success in local search
In SEO and Internet marketing, in general, there’s always a lot of talk about KPIs and rightfully so. Proximity of business to centroid of town/geo would be an important KPI (and a ranking factor). Are there any KPIs that are uniquely local that we could find useful?

2. Map rankings
Let’s say you had a great listing and it suddenly doesn't rank in the “maps.” There are no pinned results and no obvious signs of foul play. What are the first few things you would check in situations like this?

3. Authorship
It’s obvious that Google has big plans for Authorship. How do you see Google Authorship influence local search visibility? What are some things businesses can do to position themselves for success in the future?

4. Website-related ranking factors
The influence of website-related ranking factors in Google Places is undeniable. What are some things we can do to maximize this influence beyond embracing structured data?

Click above to read questions 5 - 13 and to see all the great answers.

Thanks Vedran for a great interview and for asking me to weigh in.