SEO Industry Archive

As Andrew Shotland wrote so brilliantly several months ago, the writing is on the wall for Internet Yellow Pages sites with respect to organic search referrals–at least from Google. But not all the IYPs are just running around like Chicken Little. Some of them–well, at least InsiderPages–are actually thinking very creatively about how to extract as many possible clicks from the diminishing amount of organic real estate they’ve been allotted.

Remember Local Listing Ads? You know, the ones Google released way back in October 2009 when lots of you were at SMX East?

Well, they’re back. Only this time, they’re available through the ADWORDS interface rather than the Places interface.

Last month I highlighted a few of the on-the-ground efforts Google’s been making here in Portland, and I thought it was about time that I do a follow-up, now that the campaign has been underway for a significant amount of time.

SMB’s and SEO’s alike lost a great advocate at Bing Local Friday — Product Manager Mikko Ollila has left Bing to take on a product marketing position at Atlas Accelerator. I feel much the same as I did when I found out that MapsGuideJen was leaving Google a couple of years ago.

I’ve just returned to the beautiful City of Roses after a fantastic packed-house AZIMA event in Scottsdale last night. Google is continuing its HotPot marketing blitz in our fair city via kiosks at PDX Airport, though judging by the lack of activity around this one in particular, Portlanders seem pretty non-plussed about it so far.

Obviously, it’s been a whirlwind last couple of months in Local Search…it may take all of next week to write the 2010 version of the Year in Review.  But I’ve had a few ideas bouncing around in my brain about Hotpot recently–why Google released it, and why they’re promoting it so hard, to the point [...]

It has been a struggle to get back into the groove over the weekend and the early part of the week. In case it wasn’t obvious from my liveblog, last week’s BIA / Kelsey Group ILM show in Santa Clara left me feeling nothing short of overwhelmed by the pace at which our industry is evolving.

I’m blogging live from the Kelsey Group’s Interactive Local Media Conference in Santa Clara for the next couple of days. Truly looking forward to hearing what the rockstar panelists have to say today, tomorrow, and Thursday…last year’s show was one of my favorite conferences ever. I’ll be in-and-out of meetings for the whole conference but will do my best to keep up with as many panels as I can and will follow-up with a full recap this weekend.

Hey everyone, low signal post here, but I’ve gotten a few emails and Tweets recently asking if I am attending PubCon (no), why wasn’t I at SMX East (too many other commitments this fall–see below) and I figured I’d try to head off some others here.

I think Facebook’s entry into the Local game is a watershed moment for our little corner of the world. It’s going to be extremely interesting to see how the other major players respond. The battle for Local domination is officially afoot…here’s how I’m currently handicapping the players, based on a set of six criteria. I’ll do my best to revisit this map in a year or so, but for now, here’s how I’d break down the world of Local Search. Time for someone to roll the dice…