The Internet is going mobile. Every week, tens of millions of people search on Google from their mobile phones and generate hundreds of millions of searches. Using mobile ads, you can reach these consumers while they’re on-the-go.
Please join us for an upcoming webinar about what we’re seeing in the mobile ad space and how you can incorporate mobile advertising into your marketing strategy.
Specifically, we’ll cover how you can:
* Understand mobile trends and what they mean for your business
* Drive consumer action online and in the store
* Optimize your strategy for the mobile platform
Register here for the webinar to be held on March 2, 2010 at 11:00am PST / 1:00pm CST / 2:00pm EST.
Google, Yahoo, and other search engines have revolutionized how we learn, how we communicate, how we shop, and in general have helped billions of people around the world develop the full strength of the internet’s bright glow. Sometimes we may take the strong ability of the local search engine for granted, but what we should do is take the time to appreciate and understand the benefits of local search.
Why is it so important? (We, as business owners and personal explorers, know now that we could not live without its delectable taste and modern ability to make life easier).
Today, there are well over 10 billion unique searches done each month online, and that’s just in the United States! Of those searches,
40% of queries have Local intent (1)
5% use the city and/or state name
2% use informal terms, like neighborhoods
0.5% use zip codes.
Recent research states that on Yahoo alone, 100 Million unique visitors per month search with “local intent” (2). We can extrapolate that there are half a billion unique Local searches per month on Google, based on Yahoo’s ~15% market share (though we’ve not seen any “hard numbers” released by Google about its average Local Search volume). We’ve seen both Google and Yahoo make dramatic shifts in how they return results in 2008, and all the trends point to Local.
WOW!!!
On top of that data, respected technology experts from around the world think the creation of mobile search is ready to take off even further in 2010. Japan is already involved in numerous mobile search technologies. The United States is starting to catch up with more sophisticated devices like the iPhone and future Verizon phones. (Mobile searches primarily pulling their searches from Local Search Engines).
This leads to one overwhelming fact: The potential to attract new customers via Local Search is enormous. Of course it is!
GetListed.org will hopefully help your business get started building and improving its search engine presence. And if you find yourself overwhelmed by the world of Local Search, help is here below for you:
http://getlisted.org/resources/
So, let’s not take these Local Searches for granted anymore, but understand that it is only the beginning of success for you, your business, your personal life, and this world. We are involved in a new world of technological communication that is just beginning to bloom and prosper. This is why Local Search, from the simple to the complex, is so valuable and important! You better believe it and use it to your expense!
Google announced that its launching new service called DoubleClick for publishers to help web content creators in their advertising.
Its a one-stop shop for content creators to find advertisers,manage advertising on their sites and manage data to increase ad effectiveness.
DoubleClick for Publishers also includes a new API, which will allow users to create their own Web-based advertising applications and integrate them into the service.
Google’s decision to launch DoubleClick for Publishers is a shot over the bow of start-ups like Rubicon Project that attempt to optimize and sell publisher ads.
hree out of four people surveyed said they think using the Internet is making us smarter, not more stupid, according to a study jointly done by the Pew Internet & American Life Project and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center. The question was posed in reaction to tech author Nicholas Carr’s cover story in a 2009 issue of The Atlantic Monthly — “Is Google Making us Stupid?”
The study polled 895 technologists, business executives, scientists and analysts as part of Pew’s fourth annual Future of the Internet study.
Carr’s article, which ran last summer, contended that the ease of online search and the distraction of browsing could be limiting his mental abilities.
“The kind of deep reading that a sequence of printed pages promotes is valuable not just for the knowledge we acquire from the author’s words but for the intellectual vibrations those words set off within our own minds,” wrote Carr. “In the quiet spaces opened up by the sustained, undistracted reading of a book, or by any other act of contemplation, for that matter, we make our own associations, draw our own inferences and analogies, foster our own ideas.”
Most of the people in the survey disagreed, however.
According to the study, 76% of everyone polled said that by 2020, intelligence will be enhanced by the ease of access to information, and that people will become smarter and make better choices. Only 21% said the Internet could be lowering the IQs of avid users.
Carr, responding to the survey, said he hasn’t changed his position.
“I feel compelled to agree with myself,” he wrote in a response that was attached to the survey’s findings. “But I would add that the Net’s effect on our intellectual lives will not be measured simply by average IQ scores. What the Net does is shift the emphasis of our intelligence, away from what might be called a meditative or contemplative intelligence and more toward what might be called a utilitarian intelligence. The price of zipping among lots of bits of information is a loss of depth in our thinking.”
Peter Norvig, research director at Google, also wrote a response, noting that skimming countless sources of information and having good concentration can coexist.
“My conclusion is that when the only information on a topic is a handful of essays or books, the best strategy is to read these works with total concentration,” wrote Norvig. “But when you have access to thousands of articles, blogs, videos, and people with expertise on the topic, a good strategy is to skim first to get an overview. Skimming and concentrating can and should coexist.”
Attention Business Owners: Listed below are some important data providers and second-tier listings that may get lost in the database, but are very valuable in the Local Search Engine process. Don’t take these for granted anymore!
1. InfoUSA – InfoUSA is basically the original YellowPages data provider, and should be a high priority for Local online business. Why? Many secondary directories (and some primary ones, like Yahoo Local and CitySearch) purchase data from InfoUSA and publish it online.
Just perform a search for “business data provided by infoUSA” (in quotes) and add your city name at the end.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=business+data+provided+by+infoUSA+portland&btnG=Search
istings in these kinds of directories that have scraped InfoUSA data often count as citations. Additionally, a large percentage of Local Business Listings will also show a citation from “daplus.us,” usually as the very last in the list. DaPlus is a subsidiary of InfoUSA, as in the website below describes.
http://daplus.us/
The address below is where one is able to submit their business to InfoUSA.
http://infousa.com/cgi-bin/abicgi/abicgi.pl?bas_session=S36596880122127&bas_vendor=190000&bas_type=LC&bas_page=350&bas_action=UpdateDB
2.SuperPages.com – Superpages.com is one of the best-crawled sources for citations. Many times you’ll see Superapges.com profiles showing up in the ‘Web Pages’ tab of your Google Local Business Listing within a couple weeks of submitting it, and is common for uncompetitive searches and details. It is free to sign up and utterly painless. The link to do so is below:
https://advertising.superpages.com/spportal/spportalFlow.do?_flowExecutionKey=_c267C71B6-584F-67AD-3F0E-A7EE88FD0005_kF38722C4-FED3-A3A3-BA39-1FC6A3C07C8C
3. Acxiom – This connects with InfoUSA. Again, lots of secondary directories, now even more than from InfoUSA, have bought their data set from Acxiom. An example is below.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=business+data+provided+by+acxiom+portland&btnG=Search
Additionally, as before, lots of those directories show up as citations. The problem is, with Acxiom, there’s no way to submit your business online, without the requirement of a listing in some subset of print yellow pages.
4. Localeze – While InfoUSA and Acxiom are old fashioned and may become obsolete online, Localeze is the evolving organ that is poised to be a MAJOR provider for our businesses. Localeze provides data to a broad array of Local search engines—and often with a greater “depth” of information than others. So while Localeze might not carry as much weight now, we encourage businesses to sign up with them for future success. It is a strong combination with a never failing end for advertisement. A link is available below for submitting your business with Localeze.
http://webapp.localeze.com/bizreg/add.aspx
5. Yelp – Google Maps in particular seems to love Yelp as a citation source, as well as a source of reviews. This site is wonderful and very informative for learning more about busineses. Submitting your business to Yelp is not as easy as for some of the other portals, but do a search for your business in your town; if you don’t show up, look for the button at the bottom right side of the main content area that says “Add Business.” It is definitely worth the lengthy process of submitting your business.
6. InsiderPages – Insider Pages results rarely show up as a citation in Google Local, but when you do see one, it seems to carry a lot of weight. Interestingly enough, it looks like InsiderPages is affiliated with CitySearch, judging by links in the footer. The link is below for how to submit your business with InsiderPages.
http://www.insiderpages.com/advertiser/find_business
7. OpenList – The OpenList network is a nationwide “directory of directories” in which a national data set compiled by Marchex is broken down by region and industry type. The great thing about OpenList, in terms of citations, is that multiple directories often show the same businesses. What that means is that submitting your business to OpenList once can actually lead to multiple citations for your business almost instantly. The link for submitting your business is below for you:
http://www.openlist.com/update/
Many Local search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, Best of the Web, and MSN/Live, allow you to place your business into a number of categories (usually between 2 and 5) that help describe what your business does to visitors online. Though this task may seem unnecessary and tedious, it is a very important task for your business, as the search engines use this data to decide which business shows in particular searches, and if it is properly placed in the engine.
As Yahoo Local’s Shailesh Bhat explains to business owners, “In cases where we do not have a self-serve listing, in which the merchant has not provided any data, but we have data from other sources, we essentially look out for the degree of agreement between various sources. That is one heuristic element that helps us in figuring out the right category.”
As a set rule, search engines will not display businesses that are not categorized, or even worse, mis-categorized, for particular sets of keywords. This usually happens among very competitive keywords and phrases, and also ones who already have a number of businesses associated in particular categories, that will satisfy what the searcher is looking for (such as pizza parlor).
This can be a problem for many businesses that are getting lost in the search engine crowd. For example, if a pizza parlor is only set in the “general restaurants” category (whether cities are large or very minute), they will lose the opportunity for the search engine category of “pizza parlors / places”, as there are already a large amount of pizza places to satisfy the visitor’s curiosity. This creates big problems for that particular pizza company, as when one is looking for pizza, “general restaurants” is a category that takes place after pizza parlor, pizza place, Italian food, and fast dining. Attention to these pizza places and thousands of businesses fallen into this tunnel: find a shovel, dig yourself out of those dirt boring categories and generalities, and look for the grass of a thousand opportunities and key words. Place your business and yourself into as many categories as you possibly can…it will pay off with success and a better local search by visitors.
Don’t be the mis-categorization sample that Mike Blumenthal, author of “Understanding Google Maps and Yahoo Local” blog, highlights here below:
http://blumenthals.com/blog/2008/06/12/what-does-google-maps-have-against-advertising-agencies/
The search engines have since done a pretty good job of cleaning up dramatic, horrific mistakes like this one, but it helps describe the need for proper categorization. Start fixing those categorical errors now people!
In early 2009, Patrick Sexton and David Mihm launched GetListed.org, a new website that allows small businesses to take advantage of free listings at major search engines, and list their businesses effectively online for viewers to see. This site is now one of the most valuable sites a business owner can click onto, for both his business and his esteem. However, some business owners are still trying to understand: What can GetListed.org do for me?
http://getlisted.org/
“We hope this tool will help small business owners become aware of the free opportunities to market their companies online, and alleviate some of the confusion many of them feel when it comes to the search engines,” commented Sexton.
“The search engines rely on so many different providers for their Local business data, it’s hard even for experts to keep track of where it’s all coming from,” said Mihm. “This tool really puts the power in the hands of the business owners and helps make sure the engines provide correct data to people searching for these businesses.”
GetListed.org’s flagship product, the LocalDashboard™, is easy to use for business owners, as it shows business owners clearly where their business exists on major search engines like Google Maps and Yahoo! Local. This tool displays the general stats of your business service, such as the business name, address, phone number, and website address as indexed by these major engines.
This tool allows business owners to see for themselves immediately whether their business is accurately described on search engines, and whether their listings are claimed. All in all, this is a very beneficial tool of great service and absolutely free of charge.
The Local Dashboard additionally provides easy links for business owners to claim and update their information directly at each individual search engine. Personable features of the business are included as well, including pictures, videos, customer reviews, and any mention of their business, making this tool very effective and always up to date. “These features combine to form a “Listing Score,” a simple percentage that indicates how effectively a business is taking advantage of the tools at its disposal. A checklist is provided for business owners interested in taking specific steps to improve their listings,” says Mihm.
He continues, by saying, “”The search engines rely on so many different providers for their Local business data, it’s hard even for experts to keep track of where it’s all coming from. This tool really puts the power in the hands of the business owners and helps make sure the engines provide correct data to people searching for these businesses.”
A Resource Center is always available to business owners interested in getting started on GetListed.org, providing easy to understand articles and small business marketing strategies. (The link to the Resource Center is below).
http://getlisted.org/resources/)
GetListed.org is free to use for all business owners and is designed for businesses based in the United States. An international version is currently in the works now, and will be developed later in the near years.
When asked about the services of GetListed.org, Sexton says, “GetListed.org was created as a resource for small business owners to learn more about the way their businesses are listed online. The company’s goal is to help these business owners claim and enhance their listings at major search engines. The founders of GetListed.org are advocates for search engine optimization best practices that will lead to sustained, long-term search engine rankings for small businesses.”
So…go get started and watch what your business can achieve, with just a few clicks of your computer mouse and all of your business savvy. Success is in your path…start walking.
For additional information about GetListed.org, contact:
David Mihm
david@getlisted.org
(503) 560-2755
An exasperated in-house SEO recently asked colleagues on Twitter how to respond after upper management had met with an agency that had offered suboptimal, but eagerly digested, SEO advice. How indeed. Sooner or later, most in-house SEOs will face a similar situation, and how you respond may impact the budget you have to work with, the size of your team, and even your continued employment.
I should start by noting that “agency” is all-encompassing term, and that companies of any size are increasingly being approached by a wide variety of vendors offering search marketing products and services. These may include link builders, content providers and tool developers, in addition to dedicated SEO agencies or marketing agencies with a search component.
Given that you have an in-house SEO program can these proffered products and services be dismissed out of hand as either unnecessary or redundant? Absolutely not. For any number of reasons – a lack of internal resources, perceived competitive advantage of adopting a new technology, cost savings – it may benefit an in-house SEO program to work with external vendors. And as the in-house expert, you have a responsibility to give any proposals due consideration.
For the competent SEO, fielding and responding to a vendor or agency pitch should not present significant problems. When that same pitch is made directly to your CEO, head of IT or other management stakeholder it can, however, present a significant challenge. On one hand, an interloper might cast unfounded doubt on the focus or effectiveness of your SEO efforts. On the other, an executive might be seduced by an illusory promise of search engine domination. Both can deplete your resources and hard-won credibility, and need to be dealt with deftly.
My robot thinks your SEO sucks
“Your title is 50% relevant. … Your SEO score is 70%.”
If there is any doubt where this unsolicited email is going, it is clarified by the next paragraph, which goes on to say that “if you can stomach more bad news about what your site needs” then their sales team would be delighted to talk with you.
As absurd as this may seem to the seasoned search professional, a missive like this can raise doubts about your competency in the mind of an executive with little SEO knowledge, as evidenced by the fact that this was forwarded to an SEO from his employer. You need to nip this in the bud. Explain, caustically, that this was an automated message generated on the basis of a script with no actual insight regarding your site’s structure, business goals or the or industry space it occupies, let alone any knowledge of search marketing efforts already underway.
If it was even produced as a result of a robotic assessment… I’m 50% certain that 70% of site owners receive this exact email.
The blind pitching the blind
That same uneducated executive may also be susceptible to pitches that rely upon an antiquated, inaccurate or flat-out wrong-headed understanding of SEO best practices. This is often the case with agencies that do not actually specialize in search marketing, but nonetheless cast themselves as SEO experts. This is as good an opportunity as any to embark on educating your CEO, as a rebuttal of suggested tactics is the prudent course.
No, the secret to our success is not six percent keyword density for a core term on every page. And yes, our link-building scheme is considerably more expensive than the proposed reciprocal link exchange that has been recommended, but it’s considerably more effective.
Magic bullet syndrome
There are many competent and enterprising search marketing agencies out there, and they well approach your boss with a very professional audit, itemized recommendations and a price tag. Perversely enough, the fact that an agency attaches a price tag to a proposal is often very attractive to marketing executives, even when that proposal mirrors the requirements that have already identified in-house. It creates the appearance that your search challenges are easy to solve: all I need to do is write a check.
Of course, just because this advice is coming from an outsider, it does not mean the solution being offered is going to be any easier to implement than it is in-house. Indeed it is likely to take longer, be more difficult to accomplish and be more expensive. It may well be that the excited executive is unaware that you are already addressing issues that the agency has identified, but that the process requires continuing perseverance, not the wave of a magic wand. Bring him or her up to speed, and be sure to enumerate any resource issues or lack of internal support that may be impeding your progress.
A nasty variation on this theme is the miraculous technology solution. Forget building links and content, quit spending precious time on keyword research: plug, play, and watch the search traffic pour in! I was not long ago approached by a vendor peddling a product that promised I would “never have to do on-page SEO again.” Perhaps smoke and mirrors to an SEO, but potentially tantalizing to a senior manager as a quick, cost-efficient fix. De-constructing the product in the context of a necessarily holistic SEO strategy usually a sufficient response.
The risks of a risk-free guarantee
Executives can get downright giddy when they have been offered a “risk-free” SEO guarantee. You don’t pay unless you see an increase in search traffic, or the vendor is paid in proportion to a site’s increased search traffic, either at a set rate or through revenue sharing (this is becoming increasingly popular from vendors of SEO tools and content optimization overlays.)
If you have a viable in-house SEO program that is actually rolling out optimization improvements on an ongoing basis, you should never allow an outside agency or vendor to be paid on the basis of improvements to organic search engine rankings or traffic. The reason, obviously, is that it is impossible to determine which efforts resulted in improved organic search metrics. In fact, if your in-house SEO work continues at pace, your outside SEO services provider could do nothing at all and still be rewarded under such an arrangement.
Again, this is not to say that you should not avail yourself of such services if you deem them useful and necessary, and if you have the budget to support them. This is not uncommonly the case where an SEO department is understaffed, but lacks either the funds or desire to add new hires. But pay by the hour, the link, a set contract price or some other basis that is independent of search-derived traffic.
With any luck your organization boasts a competent management team, with a good collective grasp of SEO and faith in your professional abilities. Do not be chagrined, however, if you must occasionally defend yourself in the light of vendors that cast doubts on the effectiveness or efficiency of your SEO program. The same expertise that has you guiding your company’s search marketing efforts is the key to weathering such storms.
Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.
Numerous great advertising opportunities and accomplishments are available for business owners these days, yet can also be a struggle for them to keep up with modern technologies. Though we have the beloved Internet to advertise and celebrate our business with, we also have to learn to understand the language of “blog” and “social media”, an ever changing battle that can cause us to run and hide as if we were kids running from a domineering bully.
But..you can relax and stop worrying, and go look that bully straight in the eye. Why? Please understand that there are times of marketing your business online that relate much more directly to your offline experiences. These times are also the moments when you are blogging and working with inside a social network. It is easy as pie to get started and understand properly.
The benefits of these programs and networks is that your business will get clients and referrals that you never imagined possible, as you started advertising to a new group of people. “Virtual” people whom may only focus on blogs and networks, but never do local searches and website browsing.
The number of people in these crowds has increased by the tenfold in the last year, and are a great “word of mouth” service for your business. Besides, the concept of someone leaving a review of your business can be seen as nothing more than a public suggestion card for the people they talk to frequently.These tools are additionally very efficient in increasing your technological skills and social manners as well, both for you and your business. Keep in mind to respond to all reviews, be open-minded about changes, and understand that all sites are different in their review process. Some sites may allow more room to breathe than others, and may allow incentives for reviews.
A list is provided below of Recommended Blogs Writing Frequently on Small Business Reputation Management:
http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/
http://gesterling.wordpress.com/
http://www.soloseo.com/blog
http://www.citymarketer.com/blog
http://www.solaswebdesign.net/wordpress
http://www.convertoffline.com/
http://www.searchinfluence.com/blog/
http://www.stephenespinosa.com/
As a business owner, it takes much technological education and passion to put yourself out there online, but it is a fun way to advertise. Improving your business reputation online through blogs and social media is a new experience for many business owners, but allows them the ability to grow in character, business ethics, and socially. Don’t fear the changes of our society and online advertisement…embrace it! Blogs and social media sights are not here to hurt you; they’re here to help you succeed. Start today!
Becky of OnlineTrafficDivas.com has pointed out what appears to be a mistake but could be inidicitive of a wider rollout of the Enhanced Listing test. The billing tab for the Enhanced Listing test is visible in every Local Business Center account.
Go to your list of coupons and select the “link” link:
