Local SEO in 2024: 6 simple ways to dominate local search
New to local search? Wondering where to start? Here are six tactics to help you kick off your local SEO campaign.
Topic: MerchantCircle
This day in search marketing history: March 12
Go inside a Google search quality meeting, plus: Google core search ranking algorithm update, how Google prices and ranks ads and more.
Google buys expert community and ‘answer engine’ Superpod for $60 million
The speculation is that Superpod founders and assets will be used to improve Google Assistant.
Google Panda Two Years Later: The Real Impact Beyond Rankings & SEO Visibility
(Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of articles looking at the aftermath of Google’s Panda algorithm update, which launched February 24, 2011. To catch up, please see the first article in the series: Google Panda Two Years Later: Losers Still Losing & One Real Recovery.) Google’s Panda algorithm update, which launched two […]
Bing Ties Yellow Pages Sites For Most Accurate Local Data
In April I wrote about a local data accuracy study preformed by a company called Implied Intelligence. The company offers data services to publishers and developers. In April the company found that yellow pages site Superpages bested Google Maps in terms of the accuracy and completeness of the local business/POI database. The following was the […]
Report: Social Media Spending Threatens To Overtake Paid Search Among SMBs
Borrell Associates has come out with an extensive new report about small business (“SMBs”) and social media adoption. It contains forecasts and spending estimates as well as other data about SMB usage of social media as a marketing tool. There’s a great deal of data already in the market about SMB adoption of social media. […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, December 8, 2011
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Two New Bing UI Tests Spotted The folks at Liveside.net, an independent blog that covers Microsoft’s online efforts, have posted screenshots of two new Bing user interfaces that some of their […]
Survey Says SEO The Single Most Important Marketing Channel For SMBs
SEO: one channel to rule them all? A new “merchant confidence survey” from lead-gen company MerchantCircle/Reply.com, among 2,500 US small businesses, finds that search engine optimization is the marketing channel they would choose if they could choose only one. The question asked was: “If you had to put all your marketing time and budget into […]
SMX Advanced 2011 Video: Google Survivor Tips
Google Survivor Tips Presentations from SMX Advanced, June 2011 The Farmer/Panda Update blues or other Google changes got you down? This session covers ways to redeem yourself, plus ways to make yourself more Google independent. [flv:https://searchengineland.com/video_assets/advanced11/ppt/Google-Survivor-Tips.flv 364 264] Moderator: Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land Speakers: Alan Bleiweiss, Forensic SEO Consultant, Alan Bleiweiss Consulting Micah Fisher-Kirshner, […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, June 10, 2011
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Search Market Share Static, 2.2 Billion Local Queries On Google ComScore released its May 2011 search market share rankings this afternoon. The data essentially show no change from last month in […]
Survey: Facebook Is The Most Popular Site To Market On For Local Business Owners
The results of a MerchantCircle survey targeting small business owners showed the prominence of social media in the local marketing mix, especially marketing on Facebook. When asked which marketing channels the businesses leveraged, the most popular answer was “the creation of a profile on a social network” with 40.9% of the vote. The creation of […]
Four Sites Impacted By Google’s “Farmer Update” Speak Out
It has been a little over two weeks since “hell broke loose” with Google’s Farmer/Panda algorithm update. Some sites that had been relying heavily on organic traffic saw that traffic plummet, while others gained. The changes impacted roughly 12 percent of US search results according to Google. The Online Publishers Association estimated that the changes […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, February 22, 2011
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Should Korean Search Engine Naver Worry About Local Competitors Or Google? For just about the last decade, Naver has been the dominant player in the south Korean search market holding a […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, November 29, 2010
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google’s “Gold Standard” Search Results Take Big Hit In New York Times Story The New York Times has a great, detailed story out today about a merchant with an unusual marketing […]
Local Search: Fish Where The Other Fishermen Aren’t
Most businesses tend to focus on the big channels when it comes to local SEO efforts. While it makes sense to optimize your Google Place Page and pay attention to your presence on other big local search services (e.g. Bing Local, CityGrid, DexKnows, Insider pages, Local.com, Merchant circle, Superpages, Yahoo Local, Yellow book, Yelp, YP.com, […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, November 5, 2010
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Does Away With “Sponsored Links” Label, Now Ads Are Labeled “Ads” A month ago, Google began testing labeling the AdWords ads as “ads”. Prior, Google labeled those AdWords ads as […]
Ask.com Sends Dying Bloglines To Its Friends At MerchantCircle
Die-hard Bloglines users are surely happy to learn today that the IAC-owned RSS reader isn’t being shutdown, after all. Bloglines accounts are still active with all subscription-related data intact. Less than two months ago, Ask.com — currently in charge of Bloglines — said the service would be shuttered in a matter of weeks. Today, Ask […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 4, 2010
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Twitter’s Promoted Accounts Now Live As was rumored last week, Twitter has formally introduced its latest advertising option: Promoted Accounts. Promoted Accounts will show up in the “Who to follow” section […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 27, 2010
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: International SEM Goes Beyond Simple Translation: Q&A With Latin3’s Matias Perel Because only a fraction of the world’s population resides here in the United States, the idea of global reach is […]
Will Quora Challenge Google? No. Is It Useful? Yes
Yesterday the Wall Street Journal ran an article in conjunction with Quora‘s public beta launch. The article framed the discussion as Quora (and its kin) vs. Google: The race to build a successor to Web search is heating up as a number of young companies seek to fill gaps they see with Google Inc. One […]
Managing Customer Relationships, After The Click
Never before has it been easier for local business to generate leads for their businesses. There are many, many resources available to help businesses get customers in the door and on the phone. Many advertising options—online and offline—are performance-priced including pay-per-click, pay-per-lead, and pay-per-call. From search engines, traditional yellow pages publishers, newspapers, local ad agencies […]
Does CityGrid From Citysearch “Answer” The Local SEO Problem?
At one time local startups could reliably count on Google organic traffic to help build their own traffic and brands. Indeed, this is how Yelp gained visibility in its early days. And larger publishers, such as yellow pages sites, have relied heavily on SEO, as well, to drive traffic to their advertisers. However, recently that’s […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 27, 2009
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Chinese Newspaper Says Google Censored Its Web Site Oh, the irony: The People’s Daily, the main newspaper of China’s Communist Party, says Google censored its web site by adding a malware […]
Five Rules For Running A Successful Pay-Per-Call Campaign
Although it’s been around for years, pay-per-call advertising may be finally hitting its stride. Greg Sterling, a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land, recently wrote: We’ve long known that calls are much more valuable than clicks to small businesses in particular, but also to many larger entities with call-center sales operations. However… it’s taken PPCall […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 20, 2009
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 29, 2008
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web
Yelp For Business: New Tools Allowing Local Businesses To Speak For Themselves & More
As the phenomenon of local business ratings and reviews becomes more “institutionalized” and important, efforts are popping up to help businesses cope and/or take advantage of the trend. Merchant Circle is one business in the local space that has positioned itself as a platform for SMB “reputation management” as well as marketing. Local search provider […]
A Small Business Marketing Success Story: John Tuggle, Guitar Teacher
A small business can have millions of dollars in revenue and dozens of employees … or it can be a one-man-band, turning passion into a living. This month’s small business marketing success story is about the latter. Meet John W. Tuggle, a guitarist living in Athens, Georgia. John has been playing guitar for 17 years, […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 4, 2008
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Citysearch And AOL Announce Reciprocal Content And Ad Distribution Deal
Citysearch has announced a deal with AOL that provides Citysearch reviews and content (e.g., video) and place local Citysearch advertisers on AOL local properties. The two firms will share revenue from clicks or leads generated from AOL distribution.
SearchCap: The Day In Search, November 28, 2007
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
IAC To Split Up, Extends Google Ad Deal Worth $3.5+ Billion
Today is a big day for IAC, Ask.com’s parent company. First they announce they are breaking the company into five publicly traded entities, and then they announce they have extended their search ad deal with Google.