| Time | Topic | Presenters | ||||
| 8:00 – 8:30 |
Registration & Check-in | |||||
| 8:30 – 8:45 |
Kickoff and Conference Introduction | Aaron Weiche Spyder Trap |
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| A few very brief housekeeping items before we dive headfirst into a full day of Local Search presentations and discussions! | ||||||
| 8:45 – 9:15 |
Keynote: How the Search Engines Think About Local | Duane ForresterBing | ||||
| Learn what the world is in the eyes of a search engine from veteran Duane Forrester. He’ll discuss how the search engines think about local search and maps, how that thinking evolved over time and why. He’ll also share his insight on successful local marketing via Bing Places for Business. | ||||||
| 9:15 – 9:40 |
Understanding Local Search | Mike Blumenthal Get Five Stars |
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| Mike will take you through all the must-know basics of Local to get the day going, including types of Local results, the concept of location prominence and the factors involved in ranking, and how to prepare your company (or your clients) for an increasingly mobile future. | ||||||
| 9:40 – 10:10 |
Local Keyword Research & On Page Optimization | Mary Bowling Ignitor Digital |
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| Many of you are probably well-versed in keyword research for traditional organic search. But local keyword data is often difficult to find and analyze, and there are some additional criteria to consider when looking at your ranking opportunities. Mary will take you through her process for deciding which terms to target with your Local SEO campaign and how to prioritize them and how to use them on your website. | ||||||
| 10:10 – 10:30 |
Local Landing Pages – What Really Works | Dana DiTomasoKickPoiint | ||||
| Dana then follows up with her insights for the ideal local landing page and discusses how to make sure that page is optimized for both mobile visitors and conversions. | ||||||
| 10:30 – 10:50 |
BREAK | |||||
| 10:50 – 11:20 |
Keynote: Having Success with Google My Business | Google Representative TBD |
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| Learn about the new Google My Business and some of the latest feature releases to help your business take ownership of its local presence. Google will address some of the most common issues from their support forums, take your questions on how to make the most of My Business and explain how to get help with your local listings when you need it. | ||||||
| 11:20 – 11:50 |
Mobile SEO and Usability | Aaron Weiche
Spyder Trap
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| Being mobile-friendly is no longer an option. It’s a must. Learn what the Search Engines and users want and need from their mobile experiences with your website and how to give it to them. | ||||||
| 11:50 – 12:30 |
End-to-End Citation Discovery and Management | Darren Shaw Whitespark |
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| Darren will help you sort out a frequently messy Local Search Ecosystem by taking control of your company’s (or clients’) baseline location information, identifying and cleaning up duplicate and out-of-date listings, and proactively seeking out difference-making citations specific to your niche. | ||||||
| 12:30 – 1:00 |
Morning Q&A | All Panelists |
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| Get answers to your questions from the morning sessions! | ||||||
| 1:00 – 2:00 |
LUNCH: BIRDS OF A FEATHER ROUNDTABLES | |||||
| We’ll bring our lunches back to the seminar room, where you’ll have the ability to self-select among tables hosted by Local U faculty to help you troubleshoot and get advice on your most pressing local search issues. You’ll also get a chance to talk and problem solve with a rep from Google My Business . | ||||||
| 2:00 – 2:30 |
At the Intersection of Local and Social | Dana DiTomaso Kick Point |
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| Social media can be a great source of new leads and repeat customers for local businesses, but how do you decide which platforms to concentrate on when resources are limited? Learn how to help businesses determine the social platforms, strategies and tactics that hold the most potential for them. | ||||||
| 2:30 – 3:00 |
Learning from Your Local Competition | Darren Shaw Whitespark |
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| With Google obfuscating more and more data, it’s getting harder for marketers to research all of the factors above that lead to higher rankings. Darren will take you through his process for identifying top competitors in a given market, and how to leverage THEIR tactics to your own advantage. | ||||||
| 3:00 – 3:30 |
Link and Brand Building for Local Search | Mary Bowling Ignitor Digital
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| Mary Bowling gives you a better understanding of how local links help you build your brand, increase business from your own community and provides specific tactics to use in gaining quality links for your website. | ||||||
| 3:30 – 3:50 |
BREAK | |||||
| 3:50 – 4:20 |
Local Agency Processes and Reporting | Dana DiTomaso Aaron WeicheDarren Shaw | ||||
| Join the principals of 3 leading local agencies in a panel discussion of how they serve their clients, what they’ve found works and what doesn’t, how they do reporting, how they’ve adapted to the Pigeon update and more. | ||||||
| 4:20 – 4:50 |
How to Get More Good Reviews – Even in Tough Niches | Mike BlumenthalGet Five Stars | ||||
| On the social web, reviews have become increasingly important. Developing a process for garnering real reviews is critically important for any local business. Mike Blumenthal will explore ways to make reviews work for everyone. | ||||||
| 4:50 – 5:30 |
Putting It All Together | All Speakers | ||||
| Our speakers from the entire day summarize the key points of their presentations and leave you with their step-by-step process for a holistic local search campaign. This timeslot will also feature tons of Q&A. | ||||||