My family was recently in Boulder, CO—a place we had hitherto not been. Nice town, but where to go? We spent most of our time at The Spot rock climbing gym because our kids were competing in the bouldering national championships. After a day of intense heart-stopping competition, with thrills and spills set against a […]
Last month, I wrote about Why Local Businesses Should Be Like the Jerk, which examined the basics associated with businesses being listed in local listings and results. Now I want to take a look at the logical next consideration: How can businesses respond when they receive less-than-favorable reviews?
“The new phone book’s here! The new phone book’s here!” Steve Martin’s character in the movie The Jerk is ecstatic. He rifles through the pages and finds his name. “I’m somebody now! Millions of people look at this book everyday!” He knows the importance of being listed. “This is the kind of spontaneous publicity—your name […]
Every year, at this time of year, economic analysts, pundits, and the media pore over the fresh-from-the-till economic data to gauge how Black Friday turned out, as it is the traditional starting point for the holiday shopping season. After all, who can ignore the compelling news visuals of shoppers across the land, stacked up in […]
Election Day in the United States was last week, right? In fact, that was the “other” Election Day—when periodically, we as citizens gather to exercise our right to vote for governors, mayors, city councils, propositions, initiatives, referendums, etc. While we perused the positioning statements of local candidates and cast our vote last Tuesday, we continue […]
Fifty years ago the Soviets launched Sputnik, and local search was forever changed. In 1957, telephones had dials. Televisions had dials. The Edsel was introduced. And gasoline was 31 cents per gallon. Searching for information meant going to the library. Dressed in suits or skirts, people literally had to search through the card catalog and […]
Some will proclaim that the most valuable asset for their web site is their: technology, merchandise, content, service, (fill in the blank), because without it, there is no there there. But the answer may actually be usage metrics. Without metrics, your stuff is there, but you are in the dark. Analyzing usage metrics is like […]
Here’s a callout to the community! From all of us who operate locally focused sites, thanks are in order to the users who write reviews about local businesses such that others can make more informed decisions. User-generated reviews, as we have mentioned in past columns, are not a ‘silver bullet’ that can build or sustain […]
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video may speak volumes. Yet despite the popularity of rich media elsewhere on the Internet, the use of photos and videos on local sites is in its infancy. And with earbuds sprouting across the human landscape delivering podcasts on all manner of topics, it is […]
As reported here and elsewhere, Marchex recently launched more than 100,000 local and vertical Web sites. This involved aggregating and organizing millions of pieces of data, crafting refinements to help users pinpoint businesses, designing sites to support the variety of use cases involved in look up and discovery of local businesses, and the other couple […]
Keep the needs of consumers at the forefront. In my last couple “Locals Only” columns, I’ve mentioned the importance of this in passing, and this month I’m dedicating this space to expanding on this notion and offering specific tips. Much of what is said and written about the emergence and growth of local search focuses […]
Imagine a local search site without maps. Sounds outrageous, doesn’t it? Most local search sites are dominated by maps. Google, Ask, and Live even begin my experience with a big map of North America. Correct, yes, but now what? Many sites incorporate technically impressive features to make their maps even more elaborate. But imagine taking […]
Recently, we’ve seen a deluge of forecasts about massive financial opportunities associated with the growth of local search and local advertising. Whether you’re a company in the Internet search space, a yellow-pages directory, or a niche player, it is indeed tempting to get overly focused on how to earn your piece of the local search […]