Most of you in the Local SEO business have probably heard of KML, but consider it a buzzword, Chinese or something they don’t want to get their hands dirty on.
But what is KML and how can it help you in your local SEO strategy? Recently Eric Enge from StoneTemple consulting interviewed Google’s Director of product management for Google Local, Carter Maslan, where he said that having a KML available in a geositemap that is authenticated with Google will automatically result in authentication of your KML file with Google and thus act as a trusted source for your business locations.
So I decided to write a tutorial to make it all a bit more easier to understand, and especially, giving step by step instructions on how to implement the KML.
If you would like to know more about using KML implementation for Local Search Engine Optimization you can head on and read my tutorial! You can find it here :
The definitive guide on using KML for SEO
If you think something is missing, have feedback or suggestions, don’t hesitate to leave a comment!
Martijn, BRILLIANT guide you wrote. Unfortunate that it came out during SMX Local or else I would have seen it sooner! I’ll be sure to link to it shortly in an upcoming recap
dm
Hi David! Thanks for dropping by on my blog, glad you liked the guide. I wished to have launched it before SMX local but I had some trouble with my blog template which would made it look awful
Would like to read your recap!
Martijn,
I’m assuming the new geo sitemap generator at http://www.geositemapgenerator.com replaces all the steps with Google Earth Plus!!?
Also, do you have any suggestions for optimizing the descriptions?
Thanks for the great article.
Scott.
Hi Scott,
was nice meeting you at SMX! In fact, you are right. Although the visual interface of Google Earth gives you a ‘verification’ method (when you know where your whereabouts of your business are located). The tool however will make things more easy.
I will write a detailed post about it this week! stay tuned
@Scott @Martijn,
I assume this is a hidden tip?
I will add a map in the Geositemap generator to verify your locations visually. Good thinking 
Arjan
Arjan,
It was a little tip I got from Martijn at a conference in Stockholm.
Scott.
Wow! This really works.
I posed a question to David via email a few days ago about a client of mine that was not showing a correct address in Google Maps correctly. He suggested I use KML. Well I did and it fixed it the next day.
It actually seemed to improve the rank in the 7-pack (formerly 10-pack) as well.
All around, I think Google definitely wants to see more of this based on the results.
Thanks David!
Dan
hi Dan!
First of all thanks for commenting on my blog. Great to hear that it all worked out for you. I really recommend people to pick up KML files for their locations and its good to hear that is might have some influence in ranking as well!
Thank you very much for this seo information.