Understanding and Competing against Blackhat Local SEO tactics

Understanding & Competing against Blackhat local tactics

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Mike RamseyNiftyMarketing.com

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The “Hat” scale

Pure white

Pure black

My Focus

Cause Harm

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Negative Local SEOhas been in practice for

years…

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Fake Reviews

“Wait… That’s not real”

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of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

said that positive online reviews make them more likely to use a local business.

The Local Consumer Review Survey 2012 From Bright Local (4,500 surveyed)

Reviews Matter

52%

72%

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It’s Freaking Easy

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Fake reviews are everywhere that reviews can be found

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Seatitlite would edit the review every few days to keep this at the top.

Re-Submitting Negative Reviews

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Google Places Forum has 160+ threads since March on Fake Reviews

Common Story…

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Interesting…. Lorena really visits a lot of cell repair shops she hates.

Only Positive Review

Competitor

Competitor

Competitor

Competitor

Competitor

Competitor

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Interesting…. Emmanuel really visits a lot of cell repair shops he hates.

Only Positive Review

Competitor

Competitor

Competitor

Competitor

Competitor

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IDEA!

Emmanuel Lorena

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Only Positive Review

Competitor

Competitor

Competitor

SameCompany

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IDEA!

Emmanuel

Lorena

Aboule

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Matt McGee is Team Edward

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The Cell Specialist has

8Fake Negative Reviews

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8 Negative Reviews

32 - 5 star reviews

It would take The Cell Specialist 32 – 5 star reviews to bring average star rating to 4.

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local

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Before

After

Google account

GoogleUser

Google+ Local hides the identity of all reviews unless the user links them to +

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Everyone will be seeing this…

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Warning!!!

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Last Chance to Back Out!

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What if I don’t want to leave reviews with my

full name?

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That’s a lot of fake Google+ accounts

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It is now more difficult

to get REAL Google reviews...

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Track Your Reviews…

Getmelisted.net

LocationMonitor.com

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Track Your Reviews (cont.)

Getlisted.org

Reviewpush.com

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If you are notified of negative reviews…

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Breath…

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Research…1. Look at the reviewer account (if applicable)

Hint: You have to sign up for a Google+ account to see review history.

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Research (cont.)2. Match Story and Date with Employees to find out more details on the event.

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Flag as inappropriate

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http://support.google.com/places/bin/static.py?hl=en&ts=1386120&page=ts.cs

Tip: This is the most important link in local.

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Warning: From Google

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Post in Google and Your Business Forum and pray that Vanessa and TC’s are

having a good day.

Forum at http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!forum/business

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Publically HumiliateGoogle

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Carefully Respond

?

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The Best Defense is a Good Offense

Hint: Create a review business card that points people to yourdomain.com/reviews

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N.A.P. Information

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Google counts all of these directories you can be listed on as a “Citation”

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Spammers can submit wrong info out on these places.

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DAAANG…. Someone submitted 3 business names with a different phone number.

1

2

3

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Claim ALL the listings you can with the correct

information by hand.

Tip: This is the best way to fight against bad data.

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You =

Bad NAP +

ED

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Images

Image from SearchEngineRoundTable.com

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Pointed to by Nyago + Mike Blumenthal.

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Tip: Visit Mike Blumenthal’s blog to get the email address.

How to Flagem…

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SPAM

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Hijacked listing using mapmaker

Hijacked Listings

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Marked as duplicate of Spam BusinessChanged Address

Changed Phone

Changed Website

Changed Category

TIP: My secret weapon is viewing a listing’s edit history.

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WTF?

This listing is in the process of being hijacked.

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TIP: Watch your phone number…might be the only thing that gets changed.

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Dragging map pins outside of service area can hurt rankings.

Uninhabited Island

Moving Locations

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Example from MAY 21st of a business marked as closed.

Marked as Closed

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This is what the search result looks like.

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Tip: Click not true, have your staff click it, and your friends, and their friends.

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Log in to your listing often…

And do a “null” submit

Tip: This is the most important denfensive tactic….ever.

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The “Hat” scale

Pure white

Pure black

Don’t Do This

Cause Harm

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Worst Blackhat Ever

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Mike “Black”menthal

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He Beet Bombed Aaron Weiche

Uploaded an image of beets because Aaron didn’t eat them at the Olean Conference.

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He Closed Google

Featured in the New York Times for his “Blackhattery”

THANK YOU

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Mike RamseyNiftyMarketing.com

gplus.to/MikeRamsey