Topic: Miriam Ellis

Apple

Year In Review: Local Search & Maps

While analysts and practitioners have been prognosticating the imminent arrival of local search for the last several years, 2009 was finally the year that proved us right. A number of innovations and developments in mobile search, such as the widespread adoption of the iPhone, the release of Android, and a burgeoning number of location-based apps […]

| Dec 31, 2009 at 7:00 am ET
Local

Thoughts On Categorization In Local Search

Properly categorizing your business at Google Maps is one of the most important Local Search Ranking Factors, as I mentioned in last month’s column. There’s been a lot of chatter about business categories since then, most notably at the Local Search Summit in San Jose, during August’s Search Marketing Now webinar on Local Search, and […]

| Sep 10, 2009 at 7:24 am ET
Google

Google Pitches New Small Business Customers, Ignores Existing Ones

Google is hitting the streets of San Francisco next week — with at least one high-powered supporter in tow — to talk to small/local businesses about Google products and services. The event is called “Favorite Places,” and Google will have San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and other “San Francisco trendsetters” show their favorite local businesses […]

| Jul 8, 2009 at 2:20 pm ET
Local

SMB’s Need More “Local” Outreach

(Business owners, if you’re looking for actionable advice, skip to the end) I spoke at a local Chamber of Commerce here in the Portland area last week, giving a brief presentation on the fundamentals of SEO. Unlike a previous event I’d attended just three months ago in eastern Washington, about 75% of this audience had […]

| Jan 29, 2009 at 2:50 pm ET
Local

A Business Idea For Joe The Plumber: HyperLocal Blogging

The 2008 election is over and so, in all likelihood, are Samuel J. Wurzelbacher’s appearances on cable news shows. Wurzelbacher, better known as Toledo’s own “Joe the Plumber,” gained national celebrity, of course, as the symbolic everyman both presidential candidates hoped to reach with their economic messages. Joe’s 15 minutes of fame are about up […]

| Nov 7, 2008 at 5:30 am ET
Apple

Looking Back At “The Summer Of Local”

At the start of this summer, I wrote “it seems like Local has been rumored to be “the next big thing” in Search as many times as Cubs fans have said ‘this is the year’…2008 finally could be the year where the prediction, at least for Local, comes true.” Well, here we are in October. […]

| Oct 9, 2008 at 3:50 pm ET
SEO

Here’s What’s Different About Being Small

Last week’s Small is Beautiful column asked, “What’s So Different About Being Small?” The answer? Time. Money. Knowledge. Those are the three biggest challenges a small business must overcome to achieve search marketing success, and the three things that make small business search marketing unique. Many small businesses have one or two of those, but […]

| Feb 28, 2007 at 7:34 pm ET