Local Search

Reply to Reviews in Google Places »
Posted on August 9th, 2010 by Paul Woodhouse in Google - SEO, Local Search | 1 Comment

If I had a penny for every time I mentioned to somebody that they ought to respond to reviews or comments wherever they may appear I reckon I’d have close to 76p. I’d probably have another 73p every time they said they don’t want to.

I have some sympathy with business owners and their pained expressions when you tell them they have no control over what is said about them online and that they must involve themselves in conversations – good or bad – mentioning them.

That’s just the nature of the beast.
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Google Places Replaces Local Business Center »
Posted on April 20th, 2010 by Paul Woodhouse in Local Search | 1 Comment

Google’s gone and re-branded Local Business Center as Google Places. Although, on writing, when I signed into my personal Google Account it was still listed as Local Business Center under products in there. Once you click on it you’re taken to Places (like you’ve kinda seen…)

As for new features (via the Official Google Blog):
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How Much of Your Budget Are You Re-Allocating to SEM? »
Posted on April 7th, 2010 by Justin Seibert in Google Adwords, Local Search, Microsoft adCenter, Paid Search, SEM, SEO, Yahoo Search Marketing | 2 Comments

First thing’s first.  Despite what some people in the industry say search engine marketing, or SEM, refers to all forms of marketing, optimizing, and advertising through / to / with search engines.  Primarily that means paid search and search engine optimization plus all related disciplines and offshoots like local search, press optimization, etc.

Often people use SEM just to refer to paid search marketing, often also referred to as pay per click, or ppc (Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, Microsoft adCenter, et al).  If I’m having a conversation with a prospective client who uses SEM that way, I’ll go along for the sake of conversation, but you, loyal reader, should know better.  Not picking on anyone here; there’s a lot of confusion around the term – even Google itself uses it this way in their AdWords testing materials.

Alright.  Now that we’re straight, let’s dive into SEMPO’s just released 2010 State of Search Engine Marketing Report, which you can buy here if you want to curl up with 112 pages and some cocoa late at night.  Here are some key findings taken from the report synopsis and MediaPost’s write-up (hence the dueling bullet point styles): Continue reading →

Want to Blast Your Competition? Don’t Try Yelp »
Posted on April 6th, 2010 by Justin Seibert in Local Search, Search Engine Reputation Management | 3 Comments

What timing! Our good friend and mascot SEOdog just finished a post on why it’s a bad idea to astroturf  reviews on local business listings, yellow pages, and review sites.  Then Yelp! announced that it is going to be more transparent about company reviews.

A couple interesting things here, but the one I want to talk about is that it will now show ALL reviews it has for a business.  But why should you care? Continue reading →

Through the Local Search-Looking iPad Glass »
Posted on January 28th, 2010 by Paul Woodhouse in Google - SEO, Local Search | 1 Comment

More useful: iPad or eyepad?

Apple has performed a great service for those of us who have ruined our eyesight using their iPhone and iPod Touch late at night under the bed covers with the iPad. It’s like the large print hard back novel you get in libraries for senior citizens.

Forget about the puerile derision and scorn poured upon the device all over the Web yesterday during its announcement pertaining to high-tech feminine hygiene. That’s so high school.

I remember fondly the Christmas before last my 90 year old grandmother and three year old niece taking turns on my iPod Touch needing little or no explanation as to how to use it having never set eyes on one before.

These devices, along with Google’s mobile platform, Android, and Microsoft’s rumored Zune phone as part of its three screens and a cloud strategy point to a great opportunity for small businesses on small devices and local SEO.

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