An update on the conferences I’ll be speaking at/attending this Spring: GetListed.org Local University, SMX West, SearchFest, Local Search Summit, DFWSEM, and SMX Advanced.

Back in 2008, when Pat Sexton and I were brainstorming the ideas that would eventually turn into GetListed.org, one of our very first long-term goals was to put together a low-cost seminar series that would introduce business owners to the world of online marketing. It pleases us greatly to announce a major step towards that goal: the very first GetListed.org Local University event in Spokane, WA on February 4th.

In a long-overdue and pretty long-winded piece, I take a look at the controversy that swirled around Yelp last Spring and some of the company’s moves to react to it. I also go through my concerns for the site’s continued growth, both among users and advertisers, and take one final look back at the Google acquisition that almost-was.

Greg Sterling relayed a TechCrunch story late last night on Search Engine Land saying that Google is in “advanced acquisition negotiations” to buy Yelp. From Google’s point of view, it’s an anti-competitive buy. From Yelp’s point of view, I think it’s smart to sell while the company is still on the rise.

Kelsey’s Interactive Local Media show was truly one of the best industry conferences I’ve attended.  The focus was very different from the typical SEO show, with only one or two tactical marketing panels but a lot of insight into how the major players approach the ideas of local search and marketing to small businesses. The [...]

I am at The Kelsey Group’s Interactive Local Media conference in Los Angeles this week, though–speaking on a panel with Andrew Shotland later today. For those not in attendance, the official hashtag to follow on twitter is #ILM09, and I’ll be posting tidbits from the conference sometime Friday afternoon or over the weekend.

As those of you who follow me way too closely on Twitter probably know, I was at my 10-year high school reunion all of last week.  So, sorry the posting has been a little light.
I’ve also been hard at work on SEVERAL presentations for the upcoming month, and looking forward to all the upcoming conferences [...]

Steve Espinosa & Local Search News have started a new Local Search conference–Local Search Summit. The first of what I hope will be many in a series will take place July 17th in San Francisco.

Borrell Associates just authored a report on SMB Search Ad Spend at the behest of Clickable highlighting the incredible churn rate among SMB’s who are being sold search advertising. In this post, I outline a few of my own thoughts about why churn on Local SEM services is so high.

I invited 27 leaders in the Local Search Marketing community to participate in the 2009 Local Search Ranking Factors survey. Participants rated the importance of 49 criteria with respect to their influence on rankings in the Google and Yahoo Local “Universal” search algorithms (those that drive the 3-pack, 10-pack, and authoritative onebox search results and NOT the standard organic algorithms). Selected responses and some commentary from yours truly are contained in this post, as well as a link to the full survey results.