Local-Social Search: A Powerful Marketing Channel For Small Businesses
Nov 16, 2009 at 6:00am ET by Stephanie Hobbs
The courtship of social networking and local search will result in a marriage that diversifies the mix of sales tools and empowers circles of families, friends, co-workers and organizations to share experiences and opinions in the local search space.
For a number of years, consumers have had a collective, powerful online voice through ratings and reviews. That voice continues to grow and has never been more powerful thanks to social media. Now, small businesses must learn how to harness “local-social search” or risk missing important growth opportunities.
Social networking has take [...]
Filed in: Locals Only
Local Newspapers Need To Embrace SEO To Survive
Nov 9, 2009 at 7:00am ET by Chris Silver Smith
It’s no secret that newspapers have been struggling with the disruptive innovations introduced by Google, and this has resulted in some level of resistance and a circling-of-the-wagons mentality by the industry. But, what if they were to go in the opposite direction, with full engagement? Search engine optimization could really help newspapers, and here’s one tactic for how to do it.
Filed in: Locals Only, SEO: Redirects & Moving Sites, SEO: Submitting & Sitemaps
Are You Ready For Google Local Social Search?
Nov 2, 2009 at 7:00am ET by Andrew Shotland
Google's new social search experiment is kind of a big deal for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is it will open up lots of opportunity for smart local search marketers.
Over the past couple of years we've seen social-local search plays like Yelp gather steam while at the same time Google Maps results have slowly started encroaching on more and more Web results. Recently Google added place pages and Google local listing ads which should both start to grab more and more local search attention. In short, as Google improves its local search experience, it will get harder for sites to [...]
Filed in: Google: Maps & Local, Google: Social Search, Locals Only
Local Search: A Solved Consumer Problem
Oct 26, 2009 at 8:00am ET by Matthew Berk
It pains me to say it, but local search is a solved consumer problem. I’m in pain admitting this, because I’ve been trying to create better local search mousetraps since 2003.
Put simply, major search engines do a good enough job of surfacing local listings and phone numbers to consumers who need a specific product or service at a moment in time. The rest of the local search “opportunity,” beyond the one or two review aggregator sites lucky enough to also pop up—is all a matter of either SEO (indefensible) or arbitrage (sinking margins). In other words, consumers have accepted the [...]
Filed in: Locals Only
There’s No Debate That Local Search Has A Role to Play in Healthcare
Oct 19, 2009 at 6:00am ET by Larry Small
Congress’ debate on healthcare has sparked many different opinions about the right path for the future of healthcare insurance. Regardless of where that debate is headed, all Americans share the same challenge at one point or another: finding good healthcare.
And that’s where local search comes in—to help connect medical professionals with patients.
Recently, Dennis Fromholzer at CRM Associates analyzed some data points from Knowledge Networks that show healthcare accounts for 14 percent of all Yellow Pages usage—or roughly one out of every seven uses. In 2008, there were [...]
Filed in: Locals Only
Become a Premium Member and see all articles in our Locals Only archives!
Premium Members get unrestricted access to all archives - and more! Premium membership details below...
Become A Search Engine Land Premium Member
Gain insider access to the industry's leading online publication, covering the latest search engine news, in-depth features and analysis of products, technologies and search trends.
Subscribe as a premium member today and you'll get:
- Unlimited access to news & How To articles.
- Exclusive videos & webinars with search experts.
- Expanded community profile & posting privileges.
- Discounts to SMX Conferences & Events.
- 30 Day money back guarantee.
FREE DAILY SEARCH NEWS RECAP!
Stay on top of all the search news with our daily summary, the SearchCap newsletter. View a sample ›
STAY CURRENT THROUGHOUT THE DAY
Search Engine Land produces SMX, the Search Marketing Expo conference series. SMX events deliver the most comprehensive educational and networking experiences - whether you're just starting in search marketing or you're a seasoned expert.
SMX Web Site » | SMX Difference » | SMX News »
Join us at an upcoming SMX event:
- SMX West - March 2-4, 2010
- SMX Munich - March 23-24, 2010
- SMX Toronto - April 8-9, 2010
- SMX Sydney - April 22-23, 2010
- SMX Advanced London - May 17-18, 2010
- SMX Advanced Seattle - June 8-9, 2010
- SMX East - October 4-6, 2010
- SMX Stockholm - October, 2010
Learn more about search marketing with our free online webcasts and webinars from our sister site, Search Marketing Now. Upcoming online events include:
- Making Online Marketing Relevant and Responsive: Tactics and A Tool for Success - November 17, 2009
- Ask the Search Engines: War Stories from the World Tour - December 1, 2009
- Turning Clients Into PPC Champions: How to Make PPC Meaningful to "the Other Guys" - December 8, 2009
TRACK US SOCIALLY
- Wall Street Journal Recommended Reading
- Ad Age Power 150 Blog
- Technorati Top 100 Blog
- Techmeme Leaderboard Source
- Best Search Engine Community/Forum
Featured sites from our Blogroll
- Abhilash
- Mike Grehan says…
- Google Operating System
- Shimon Sandler – SEO Consultant
- Jim Boykin’s Internet Marketing Blog
© 2009 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Google, Yahoo & Microsoft logos trademark respective companies and used with permission.
