GMS Local found that most of the respondents spent more on local vs. national advertising and more generally on digital than traditional media marketing:

• 70  percent of marketers surveyed said they spend greater than the national average (60 percent) of their advertising budgets on local vs. national initiatives.
• 70 percent of marketers surveyed answered that they spend greater than the national average (25 percent) of their local advertising budget on digital media.
• 83 percent of marketers surveyed expect their local online spending increases to be more than the projected national growth (25 percent) over the next three years.

However, the agency observed, “There is a large gap between the perception marketers have of their local position and the reality of what they actually implement.” For example, large numbers of respondents failed to actively manage their locations’ listings and a substantial minority failed to use local paid search.

To their surprise, GMS Local concluded that there were some very basic local tactics that these national brands were failing to utilize:

With as many as 45% of survey respondents not invested in directories (e.g., yp.com and superpages.com), nor actively managing their business listings (e.g., Google Places, Bing and Local.com), and not employing the relatively standard practice of running geo-modified paid search, this exposes the need for education about the fundamentals of local online advertising and opportunities for national brands to connect with consumers at the local level.

Insufficient funding, a lack of education or just plain ignorance were the factors behind the flawed national-local approaches according to the survey. You can read the full report here.

Stock image used under license from Shutterstock

Tis the season to contemplate the future of the local Web marketing for small businesses (SMBs) my friends. For all of you tight-fisted hands at the grindstone, 2012 is loaded with opportunity. But are you going to be a Marley, the walking dead bogged down by the chains of your past, or a reborn Scrooge, dancing in the streets in your pajamas?

“There is never enough time to do or say all the things that we would wish. The thing is to try to do as much as you can in the time that you have. Remember Scrooge, time is short, and suddenly, you’re not here any more.” – The Ghost of Xmas Present

The Ghost Of Present Local Web Marketing

I know, I forgot the Past. The Past is done. Move on already. Local Web Marketing was and is a simultaneously compelling and confusing opportunity for small business marketers. Some present-day stats to consider – courtesy of BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor study released earlier this month at the ILM West conference:

SMBs Are Spending An Increasing Amount Of Marketing Budgets Online

87% of SMBs surveyed are spending 24% of their marketing budgets online. In a recession/post-recession/whatever you want to call this thing we’re in. Where do you think that number is heading? Certainly not down (ok it went down this year, but the long term trend is up).

If you are not focused on the Web not only are you missing out on a lot of the action, you are getting totally served by your competition who is already there.

But SMB Websites Suck!

Can you believe only 13% of SMB websites have a local phone number on their home page? I sure can. Think of all the missed opportunities. I often hear SMBs say that they don’t care about clicks to their website, all they care about is calls and people walking in the door. Well, this stat, along with the general crappiness of most SMB sites says that they really don’t care about any of it.

Forget about SEO, social media and other fancy-pants ways to get customers online. Spend a little time on your website, figure out what it is you want the customer to do there (e.g., call you) and make sure the primary thing it does is help the customer do it (e.g. put your frigging phone number on the home page).

So the Present is a bit bleak. But again, let’s move on and focus on the future:

“Ghost of the Future, I fear you more than any spectre I have seen.” – Ebenezer Scrooge

The Future Is Mobile Baby

When it comes to local search, mobile is quickly becoming where it’s at. Cases in point:

• 40% of Google’s mobile search queries (about 1 billion/month) have local intent
• 40% of Yelp’s Traffic is Mobile
• 42% of moms with smartphones use them for shopping

…and on and on and on.

Now I know what you’re thinking. It’s too early. It’s not for my type of business. There’s not enough volume, etc. Well, in a sense that all may be true. The mobile marketing biz is in its infancy, but out of the mouths of babes consider the following:

1. As mentioned above, mobile search volume continues to grow at an astronomical pace, and the new smartphones unleashed over the holidays should keep that trend going.

2. Mobile-optimized websites should have a natural advantage in mobile SEO. Why wouldn’t Google and Bing want to send a mobile phone user to a mobile site instead of a normal website?

3. The competition for mobile advertising at a local level is low. Most of your competition can barely wrap their heads around standard search advertising, let alone mobile advertising. This means that a mobile AdWords campaign are cheaper on a per-click basis.

Check out the following list of common local search keywords and the comparison of their CPC for desktop queries v. mobile queries:

According to AppStack, a SMB mobile marketing start-up (Full disclosure: I am an advisor to AppStack), local mobile advertisers are currently saving about 50% on cost-per-click via Mobile AdWords on a consistent basis. Now I don’t know about you, but when I see I can save 50% off my ad budget and get the same clicks, I pay attention.

Mobile-optimized websites can convert mobile traffic at much higher rate. According to Google, mobile optimized ad campaigns can see a 49% increase in conversions. Combine this with a lower cost-per-lead and you are looking at big potential savings on your cost-per-conversion.

So my advice to you, dear reader, is to explore mobile this year. See if it works for you. At the very least, optimize your site for mobile traffic. Make sure your phone number is displayed prominently and offer a limited set of options for visitors that will look good on a phone browser.

And for those of you who choose to ignore the mobile in 2012 here’s one last quote:

“I’m just mad because I’ve lost my money… my shineys.” – Scrooge McDuck

Six-to-One Impact in Offline Stores

Based on two years of research conducted by retail marketing firm RevTrax, the study discovered that “for every $1 of e-commerce revenue generated from paid search, marketers can expect to see approximately another $6 of in-store revenue.”

In other words, paid search has 6:1 impact on offline sales over e-commerce. Because of the challenges of tracking consumer behavior online to offline, most of this has been invisible to marketers. Only now with the rise of smartphones and other methodologies is online-to-offline tracking becoming more widely available.

Between August 2009 and August 2011 RevTrax monitored millions of paid-search ads and consequent sales for its retail clients. To track in-store sales accurately RevTrax used landing pages with coupons and unique IDs:

• A paid search ad was displayed to a consumer
• The paid search ad led the consumer to a printable or mobile landing page displaying a coupon with a unique barcode
• The consumer redeemed the coupon inside a brick & mortar store
• Each coupon was tracked back to the online search (and the keyword)

Average Paid Click Worth $15 in Store

Using this methodology, RevTrax could conclusively determine in-store sales affected by paid search ads. Here’s how RevTrax’s findings illuminated the “value of a click” (where the average transaction size was under $200):

• The average click on a paid search ad generated approximately $15 of in-store revenue, with some merchants seeing as much as $28 of in-store revenue.
• Approximately 9% of clicks on a paid search ad generated an in-store sale, with some merchants seeing up to 26% of clicks on a paid search ad generating an in-store sale.

Again, what the company found was that paid search drove $6 in offline sales for every $1 in sales online. RevTrax thus argues that multichannel merchants who do not include in-store sales into the ROI calculation are potentially “undervaluing the paid search channel by as much as 85 percent.”

This is the first study to conclusively show the offline impact of paid search at this kind of scale, based on actual behavior rather than consumer surveys and self-reported data. The findings are pretty radical, with broad implications for search marketers and the industry as a whole.

Postscript: Here’s a bit more color and explanation from Seth Sarelson, COO of RevTrax, in response to a couple of questions I received about the study:

Clients are measuring these paid search campaigns at the keyword level and looking at brand keywords, competitive keywords, categories/products, etc. and the study uses a mix all these different types of executions to come to these results. I’m not sure that it’s clear to the person commenting that we’re talking about paid search only, not organic, so there’s certainly no guarantee that a brand is at the top of the paid search results for any keywords in a particular category.

One of the things that the study also mentioned is that many clients are reporting that 40-50% of customers acquired via paid search were new. This is big as it shows that this isn’t just an example of existing customers searching on branded terms looking for a deal.

It would certainly make sense for us to do a follow up that compares brand vs non-brand to address this specifically, as it’s an important point of distinction. I’m going to push for this internally.

As for PC vs Mobile, we’re working on a later study that will address these results, but most of what we’re looking at here is printable coupons from a PC.

Stock image from Shutterstock, used under license.

Conceptually none of this is entirely new. There are a range of “analog” companies and methods that measure retail foot traffic. However Euclid tries to bring online analytics’ sophistication to offline locations with smartphone tracking.

Offline Tracking with Smartphones

At least since 2008 people have been talking about using smartphones to track retail foot traffic patterns. And many companies are now trying to connect online and offline behavior with smartphones in various ways (e.g., check-ins, digital coupon redemptions).

Each physical venue or store location using Euclid installs a sensor that tracks people with smartphones entering the store. The company then provides a familiar type of dashboard, showing the various metrics it’s tracking. And yes, not everyone has a smartphone. But while smartphones are still not in the majority (43%), they will be in short order.

Euclid doesn’t track individual users. They see and deliver data in the aggregate.

Online to Offline: There’s a Larger Story

Euclid may or may not gain traction. But what Euclid represents is more important: a larger movement to connect online ads or promotions and offline behavior.

The venerable paper coupon or traditional call tracking have been the two primary methods historically used to measure the efficacy of advertising on in-store sales or ads-to-store behavior. More recently call tracking has been expanded to online advertising and digital coupons redemptions or check-ins (to a lesser degree) are starting to provide more visibility into the impact of online promotions on offline sales.

As another example of the online-to-offline tracking trend, search and social marketing platform provider Kenshoo is now monitoring Facebook and Foursquare check-ins (via APIs) to see if particular search or social ads produced in-store lift. The methodology isn’t connected to keywords but at some point you’ll probably be able to track paid-search keywords to in-store conversions.

Big Changes Coming with New Data

Credit card issuers and point-of-sale vendors are also starting to measure in-store conversions and tie those back to online promotions. There are some scary plans around credit card purchase tracking and the sale of personal data. And mobile payments/wallets will also eventually yield this “closed loop” data too — with varying degrees of anonymity.

Indeed, privacy will have to be negotiated in all these scenarios; and some of the “more aggressive” ones will probably need to be restrained by legislation. However the Euclid solution doesn’t fall into that privacy danger zone because it’s anonymous and aggregated.

The larger point is that within three years, lets say, the in-store success of online and mobile advertising will be much more visible than it is today. Indeed, the “offline” data becoming available to digital marketers via smartphones, credit-card matching and POS data is going to dramatically alter online marketing.

Today, I want to advance that concept a bit more. Let’s look at how the external world of the Web views your business. If your business is like many others, there may be a fair bit of confusion out there about the business, among the most common questions:

• Where is it located?
• What is the website URL?
• How can I contact the business?
• Why are there conflicting or duplicate listings in different directories?

If that confusion is severe enough, a legitimate profile for your business in local search or on a business directory might not be attributed properly by the Web search engines to your business. And when that confusion affects the backlinks to your website (not to mention your potential customers!), you lose.

There’s little doubt that a little clean-up effort of your online business profiles will help you get more link juice and get found by more customers.

Many Brands, Many URLs

To start off, what is the URL of your company’s website?

Many companies will ask, “Which website?” Oftentimes companies own several brands and/or registered trademarks, and if they are smart, they will reserve those terms as domain names. After all, it’s better that you own your brands rather than leave them to your competitors.

When a company owns multiple domain names, it is best to select a canonical domain name and configure the rest to redirect to the canonical domain using an HTTP 301 redirect, which passes any link juice earned by the alternative domains along to the canonical domain. That’s a good thing for SEO.

However, often companies acquiring multiple domain names over time end up having several domain names listed within their company’s business profiles on the Web (if any are listed at all!). This is particularly true for businesses that don’t actively capture existing or establish new business profiles for their company on the key business directories.

This is where the confusion comes into play. And you’ll never benefit from a confused search engine.

Canonicalize Your Business Listing, Starting With The Business Name & URL

Just as it’s important to be consistent with your URL canonicalization within your site, it is important to be consistent with your business profile listings on the Web.

One of the best ways to do basic link building among small business directories is to make sure the big business directories have accurate and consistent data. The data from the major sites often trickles down to the lesser sites.

You need to go out there and check out how the most important directories list your business.

No doubt you’ll find inconsistencies between sites, not only with your canonical URL, but even across your business name (are you officially called XYZ or XYZ Company or XYZ, Inc. or something else?), as well as your business postal address, your main phone number, even other data in your business profile.

Your goal should be to make that your business profiles between various local search and business directories are identical. That way, the search engines know that when they see a profile for your business, the citations count toward your business (especially that exact canonical URL, which is a backlink!).

Gathering Your Canonical Business Data

Create a list of the canonical data you want your all of your business profiles to contain. I suggest these for starters:

• Business name (use the exact same words in the name with consistent spelling and punctuation every time)
• Business address (look up your business address on USPS.com to get the exact postal service format)
• Phone number (if you have a toll-free number, use that as your primary, otherwise use your local number with area code)
• Fax number (include area code)
• URL (the canonical one, typically including the “www.” prefix and the trailing “/” forward slash)
• Email (a general address is best for generic listings, such as info@example.com)
• Social media links (the full URL for your account pages, typically for Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn)

You may have additional data to add to every profile, such as business hours, payments accepted, brand names carried, languages spoken, even product images. The more data you can add to your profile, the better it is for all, customers and search engines alike.

Start With Local Search

To kick off this campaign, let’s start at the top: Google Places (aka, Google’s local search service). But first off, make sure Google Preferences settings has your correct location registered (that way, you’ll get the right local search results). Then see what’s already listed for your business by typing your business name and your city in the search bar.

When you see the Google Maps push pin icon in the search results, that’s the local listing result. Review the data for inconsistencies from your canonical data list, especially the company URL. (Also check the map shown in case there is a discrepancy between the address and the map location.)

Just as important, look for duplicate local listings (this often happens with companies that have relocated in recent years). Unless you already have captured your Google business profile, most likely you’ll find some data to update, and you’ll certainly have more data to add to make the profile complete. If by chance your business is not listed, you need to get it added right away.

I recommend that you check the status of your business profile listing, then capture ownership of the profile (or create one brand new if needed) in the following local search venues:

• Google Places
• Bing Business Portal
• Yahoo! Local
• Mapquest Local Business Center
• Citysearch
• DexKnows
• YellowPages
• SuperPages
• Yellowbook
• Patch.com

You’ll start with the local search portion of the top US-based search engines, then move on to the major telephone directory guide sites, and finish up with a site that hosts local information in 23 US States. Each one offers an extensive business profile, which most of the time is barely populated with data. To capture or create a business profile listing, create a login account with the above sites, then search for your business.

In the results, each site offers its own way to claim your business listing, so follow their on-screen instructions. You may need to set an option to indicate, as you did with Google, where you are located so you get the local results you want.

Note that the above list or graphic is not complete, but it’s a good start. Be sure to do some research for other local search venues specific to your area.

Continue With Business Directories

Once you have your local search business profiles nailed down, it’s time to move on to capturing or creating business profiles in relevant business directories. Depending upon the nature of your business, you might consider some of the following directories:

• Better Business Bureau Online
• Best of the Web
• HotFrog
• InsiderPages
• Local.com
• Manta
• MojoPages
• TripAdvisor
• Yelp
• Yodle
• GetListed

Note that many of these directories offer both lightweight, free business profiles as well as richer, more highly promoted directory profiles for a monthly fee. I am not affiliated with any of these entities, and I am only suggesting that you register for the free business profile options so you can create a detailed business profile with a canonicalized backlink. If you want to pay for more services, that’s your call.

Wrap Up With Social Media Profiles

It’s also important to make your business profiles on your most important social media sites consistent. Some of them expose only a little business data, whereas others allow you to create a full-blown business profile for free.

Where you can, add your canonical business data, including your business URL, in your social media account profiles, such as in those listed below:

• Facebook (create a Facebook Page for your business and complete the profile)
• Twitter (Be sure to list your business URL, but there’s little else to list here)
• LinkedIn (create a Company Page and complete the profile)
• FourSquare (capture or create your business listing)
• Gowalla (capture or create your business listing)

Forced Data Inconsistencies

Note that the business profiles between directory and local search sites are not perfectly consistent in what data they request or in how they display it.

Don’t fret over such inconsistencies (for example, when the URL displayed in the profile omits the “www.” URL prefix despite the fact that you carefully included it in your canonical URL).

If a site has done this to your data, it’s done it for everyone, and the search engines are smart enough to recognize that the inconsistency here is not your fault. And since you added all of the other canonical business data consistently between profiles, the search engines will still be able clearly recognize that profile still represents your business.

Your business is described on the Web in a number of venues, such as business directories and local search. The listings these sites have were either created by you the site owner or by culling together random bits of odd information from potentially dubious sites around the Web. These business profiles are usually incomplete, often contain erroneous data, and are unreliable.

By taking the effort to capture or create accurate and complete business profiles using consistent, canonical data, including the ever-important URL (which serves as a nice backlink to your site), you make your site stand out from the crowd, you ensure the data is valid, and you make the listings useful to all Web visitors, humans and search engines alike. Get those backlinks and the rest of your verified business data out there for the world to see.

Want the infographic for yourself? You’ll find it here: Infographic: Local Search Evolved.

As we head into fall, let’s catch up on the latest trends and developments in local search space – and what you should consider as you start to build out your business’s advertising strategy for 2012.

Take Charge Of Social Media

Social media is playing a significant role in how consumers find and interact with businesses on a national level, and we’re increasingly seeing that trend extend to local businesses as well.

Yet while the majority of local businesses are signing up on social networks, they’re not creating a presence on enough of them. And even when they do, their level of engagement is often too low to leave a meaningful impact with current and potential customers.

These insights are derived from the results of a recent study by Palore, which found that:

Source: Palore

• While nearly six in 10 (58%) of local businesses have a presence on either Facebook or Twitter, only 22% have pages on both Facebook and Twitter.

• The percentage of small businesses with Facebook pages is nearly double the share of those using Twitter. While Facebook dominates the social media space – and one might expect a higher number of pages – Twitter is quickly attracting a very sizable audience as well, counting approximately 13% of U.S. adults among its user base.

• Approximately 38% of Facebook pages had fewer than 100 likes, while nearly 45% of Twitter pages had fewer than 100 followers. Only a handful of small businesses’ Facebook pages had more than 1,000 likes (16%) and more than 1,000 followers (19%).

So what do these results about social media mean for your local business?

• If you haven’t launched a presence on Facebook or Twitter, the time to get on board is now. There’s no longer a doubt about whether consumers are relying on social media for local products and services. In fact, the Local Search Association’s recent Local Media Tracking Study found that 12% of consumers said they leveraged a social network within the past week to find local business information. While this is a small figure next to other major sources, the role of social media will surely grow exponentially as consumers begin to integrate it more into their daily lives.

• Make social media a integral part of your local advertising strategy by dedicating the necessary personnel and resources to ensure that your channels are successful. If you’re not social media savvy, consider hiring or dedicating one of your existing staff members who knows social media to build and manage your accounts. Integrate your sites into all of your communications and launch social media-only contests, discounts and other incentives to get people to “like” or follow your pages.

• Create dynamic content related to your business – links to insightful articles, or top-line tips based your expertise – to provide value to your followers and demonstrate that you are a thought-leader in your field. And most of all – do whatever you can to engage users by asking them for their opinions and answering any questions they may have.

Source: Bloomberg/YouGov Survey

• Always look ahead to what’s next – and right now, it’s Google+. The new Google social network launched in June, and predictions already show that the site may grow to claim 22% of online U.S. adults in a year, passing Twitter and LinkedIn to become the second-most popular social network after Facebook, according to a new Bloomberg/YouGov survey.

Already, Google+ is growing faster than MySpace and Facebook did in their early days, with more than 13% of U.S. adults signed up and another 9% projected to be added over the next year. While Google+ doesn’t have local business-related capabilities just yet, they’re sure to be coming down the line. In the meantime, make sure you or those running social media at your business get signed up fast so when the opportunity comes, you’ll have existing familiarity with the site and be ready to build a presence there.

Prep For Big Mobile Changes

And while we’re talking about Google, last week, the company made major headlines by announcing that it is purchasing Motorola Mobility, effectively rocking the mobile landscape by turning the search engine giant into a full-fledged cell phone manufacturer.

Source: comScore

Today, various manufacturers leverage Google’s Android platform – now used by 2 out of 5 smartphone users – and despite the new deal, Google has said it will keep the platform open. That said, analysts are speculating that some manufacturers may begin looking for new partners (such as Microsoft) now that Google has effectively turned into their competitor.

In addition, Research in Motion (RIM), which makes BlackBerry and has struggled to keep up with Apple and Google in recent years, is thought by some to be next in line to be purchased.

In light of these developments, what should your local business do to ensure it’s ready for what’s next in mobile?

• First of all, recognize the importance that mobile is already playing in how consumers find local business information. According to the Local Search Association’s “State of Local Search” study, 77.1 million mobile subscribers accessed local business content as of January 2011, up an astonishing 34% from a year ago. In fact, local content users now account for one-third (33%) of all mobile subscribers, up from 25% last year. Given this, mobile should play a growing role in your local advertising strategy in order to attract new customers and keep old ones moving forward.

• We can expect ongoing changes in the popularity of different mobile platforms with consumers – now more than ever after Google’s announcement. These trends are increasingly important to local businesses given the rising popularity of mobile applications, which are now used by 56% of local content users, up 34% since last year, according to the study.

• Make sure your local business is listed on as many online and mobile directories as possible – everywhere from CitySearch to Google Places to the Internet Yellow Pages (IYPs). These days, you never know where consumers will search for you, so it’s important to cast as wide net as possible. For many sites, the signup process only takes a few minutes.

While most online business directories and local sites have applications for each of the major mobile platforms, local businesses should make sure that they’re investing in those that are the most popular.

For example, an online directory may have a popular iPhone app, but a lagging Android app – so your business should compensate by finding another directory with a stronger Android presence to supplement your existing directory. On a related note, local businesses can now purchase in-app local ads on the AT&T Interactive mobile ad network, which opens another set of doors for consumer engagement.

Widen Online Exposure

This summer alone, popular search engines and local sites including Microsoft’s Bing and Foursquare continued the trend of teaming up with IYPs to help inform and expand their online directory databases.

These sites are increasingly depending on IYPs to provide comprehensive, accurate listings of local business information. Additionally, we’ve seen strengthening advertising distribution relationships with a variety of local search companies, which is broadening the exposure that local businesses receive.

How should local businesses leverage these growing partnerships in the online local search space?

• Look for opportunities to get the most exposure for your spend by placing your advertising dollars where you’re guaranteed the widest range of consumers, combining the “eyeballs” you’ll receive  with those promised by your provider through its distribution channels.

• Recognize the ongoing value that listings in established and trusted online directories, as well as other types of media, give your business by ensuring that potential and current customers are provided with your accurate contact information.

• Take advantage of opportunities to integrate your online advertising efforts with a smaller set of companies, or even with just one. Today, many online offerings provide packaged services that meet a variety of needs while simplifying and streamlining the advertising process and saving money for your business.

The answer to those questions is “yes,” at least according to recent data compiled by the online ad network Chitika. The company drew its local search queries from a sample of more than 10 million searches that brought traffic to its network of sites in the US between July 4th and July 11th.

The results, at least to me, are quite surprising: Smaller cities like Chattanooga, Tulsa and Wichita are among the locations with the highest percentage of local searches, while New York City, Chicago and San Francisco — the three biggest cities in the US — are among the cities with the smallest percentage of local searches.

Of the top 50 cities where local searches happen most, Chitika says 64% are located in the southern US. Meanwhile, 48% of the cities where local search happens the least are located in New York and California. In fact, seven of the cities on that second chart above are located in California and New York.

To be frank, I’m not sure what to make of the data Chitika is reporting. It flies in the face of the stereotype that bigger cities (New York, Bay Area and even Seattle) are high-tech hubs where people don’t use the yellow pages anymore and most local search happens online.

I wondered if perhaps Chitika was analyzing only a small set of potentially local keywords — as in, only looking at queries that specifically used a city/county/state name. If so, the data might be skewed by how people search differently in big cities versus smaller areas. But the company sent me a list of 15 sample keywords that it identified as local, and it includes both searches with specific local words (Boston, Austin, Saint Louis) and those without:

• boston car repair
• car service
• business schools
• plumbing austin
• electrician
• pizzerias
• fitness centers
• music stores near Saint Louis, MO
• garbage services
• modeling shots on location
• bikes near augusta, ga
• tourist day trip
• car rental
• house plumbing
• a laundromat

Chitika’s blog post suggests that maybe Internet users in smaller cities conduct more local searches because they may have to travel further to find products/services than people in New York City. That’s certainly possible, but the overwhelming nature of the data is still nothing short of a surprise to me.

As the video below shows, the MapQuest LBC functions very much like Google’s and Bing’s and offers many of the same basic features such as photo uploads, videos, categories and so forth. MapQuest is also offering two premium listing levels at $99 and $399 per year — the latter of which includes distribution of business information to other sites like Yelp, Yahoo Local, SuperPages and others.

The MapQuest Local Business Center is currently available to US businesses only. Here’s the MapQuest intro video that shows how it works:

It’s been more than two years since Google Maps surpassed MapQuest as the number one mapping destination in the US, but MapQuest remains a healthy number two in the latest Hitwise travel category market share chart:

Aside from that, MapQuest is also a frequent source of local citations inside Google Maps, so I’d expect local search marketers to welcome the addition of this new MapQuest LBC tool.

The organization is also reaching out to new constituencies that surround the yellow pages and local search industries. New members of the expanded trade association include CityGrid, MerchEngines, Kudzu, Telnic Limited, Kenshoo, Thrive Analytics, deCarta, dotMobi, VendAsta Technologies and NO PROBLEM.

The LSA has members in the US, Canada and around the globe. The name and directional shift could spawn a comparable move from the European yellow pages association, the European Association of Directory Publishers (EADP).

The LSA was originally founded in 1975 as the “National Yellow Pages Service Association” and has had a couple of brand changes in between. This is the first time that “yellow pages” has been removed from the name however.

The organization will focus on local search, mobile and social platforms and is almost unique in this cross-platform approach (most industry associations are platform specific: print, radio, TV, online). It will be interesting to see how the new LSA serves the both the interests of traditional publishers and younger digital-only companies that often compete against them.