Local Search News

The Downfall of Geo Modifiers

Posted on 14. Feb, 2009 by Steve Espinosa.

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Long before the Onebox and Yahoo! Shortcut came along; before all the geo targeting in Yahoo! Search Marketing and Google Adwords came along, searchers were already searching for local businesses and services. When performing the search, more often than not, they would simply leave out any kind of geographic modifier (i.e. zip code, city name, neighborhood, etc.) and receive sub par search results.

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When Rankings Equal Ratings

Posted on 12. Jan, 2009 by Mike Belasco.

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Of course almost any business would want to rank high on the search engines for keywords relevant to their business, but in the past this was mostly due to the expected traffic which would be generated from these high rankings. With Google and Yahoo becoming household names, high rankings don’t just represent traffic any longer, they represent trust (or high ratings).

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Web Reference Building Tips

Posted on 04. Jan, 2009 by Steve Espinosa.

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One of the first things most local search marketers have on their to do lists is getting their listings to appear in a Google Onebox at the top of Google’s search results. To be in the box, you usually need to be in Google’s top local search results. And one of the major factors that influences that are “web references.”

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Onebox vs. Natural Results

Posted on 04. Jan, 2009 by Steve Espinosa.

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In October of 2008 I spoke at SMX East on a panel with Mike Blumenthal, and Eric Stein, Director of Google Local Markets. The panel went really well and had a really great audience, thanks to all of you who showed up. One question that got brought up that I didn’t have time to address that I liked was, the value of a #1 positions in a Onebox result vs. the #1 Organic position on that same page. The answer may or may not shock you.