Ads Next™ Local Internet Advertising, Annapolis, Maryland, Internet Advertising Solutions, Search Engine Optimization, Website Design and Integration, Social Media Marketing

By: searchengineland.com

From marketers to Wall Street analysts to the Department of Justice, everyone (even the general public) recognizes that Google is the 800-pound gorilla in the world of search. And particularly with the introduction of the generic 10-pack to Universal results, this fact largely holds true in Local Search as well. Google Maps has pulled even with Mapquest thanks largely to this decision by the higher-ups in Mountain View.

There’s tremendous value for small businesses in optimizing for Google’s Universal results, as Hanan Lifshitz pointed out last week. It’s hard not to imagine that small business owner grabbing the lion’s share of chiropractic searchers in his region, thanks to the efforts of Will Scott’s Search Influence firm.

But no matter your industry, when it comes to Local, it’s absolutely critical to think beyond Google, even if all you’re trying to do is optimize for the 10-pack.

The importance of citations for Google Maps

One of the pathways to “Local Organic Domination,” as Hanan termed it, is through the acquisition of citations. Citations are just mentions of your business name in close proximity to your address or phone number, with or without a link to your website. Think of them like votes of confidence for a particular business’slocation…the more confidence Google has in your listing, the higher they’re likely to display it in search results. So it’s important to list yourself fully and accurately in as many places across the web as possible, including blogs about your city or industry.

Bottom line, it’s hard to rank in Google Maps (and consequently Universal Search) without paying significant attention to how your business is listed across the web, not just on Google.

“Other” local search

One of Gib Olander’s favorite lines is: ” ‘other’ is the third-largest local search engine.” What he means is that local search is far more fragmented than traditional organic search. Unlike traditional search, if you’re only paying attention to getting your business on Google and Yahoo, you’re missing out on a huge chunk of local market share.

While the demise of the Print Yellow Pages seems imminent, Internet Yellow Pages sites are far healthier, and some are even thriving. YellowPages.com’s ad partnership with Bing is just one example…at least if Bing can continue to capitalize on its current hype. Superpages.com has long been a trusted source of data with its own steady traffic stream, and more recent entrants like InsiderPages and Yellowbot are starting to develop passionate user bases.

Then there’s the online classified market. Craigslist is the default place to look for local ’stuff” here on the West Coast, not to mention other major players like Oodle and Kijiji.

Vertical local search

Success in local also means promoting your presence on sites with strong market shares of their own in particular industries. This doesn’t mean only ranking well, but paying attention to what people are saying about you, responding to their feedback, and improving their perceptions.

For example, sites like TripAdvisor and Kayak are huge in the travel industry. Restauranteurs might even think about places like Yelp, BooRah, or Urban Spoon before thinking about Google. For chiropractors like Will’s client, these might include Planet Chiropractic and No More Clipboard. For searches near and dear to my heart, [golf courses] – it’s portals like Golf Digest and GolfNow.

(Incidentally, almost all of these sites make excellent citations for your Google Maps listing…)

Social local search

Many of the sites mentioned above, and even Google and Yahoo, straddle the line between social media and search due to the prominence of reviews in their users’ experience.  But local “searchers” are often turning to purely social sites like Twitter, Praized, and RetailMeNot as well for recommendations and sale information about Local businesses. And as we all learned from Dave Carroll’s brilliant lampoon of United Airlines last week, word-of-mouth can sometimes be more powerful than any search marketing campaign could be.

Conclusion

Local search traffic is only going to grow in importance.  So don’t “put your blinkers on” as Nick Faldo loves to say (indulge me…this is Open Championship week, after all) and focus all of your energies on Google. Your long-term chances for a successful online presence will suffer if you do.

In the second part of 2009 Google will be launching a new product called Google Wave. One of Google Wave’s developers Lars Rasmussen describes the new product as, “what email would look like if it were invented today.” Google Wave is a real – time communication platform that combines email, instant messaging, wikis, web chat, social networking, and project management.

Software Engineering Manager, Lars Rasmussen comments: “Here’s how it works: In Google Wave you create a wave and add people to it. Everyone on your wave can use richly formatted text, photos, gadgets, and even feeds from other sources on the web. They can insert a reply or edit the wave directly. It’s concurrent rich-text editing, where you see on your screen nearly instantly what your fellow collaborators are typing in your wave. That means Google Wave is just as well suited for quick messages as for persistent content — it allows for both collaboration and communication. You can also use “playback” to rewind the wave and see how it evolved.”

To Learn more about the Google Wave view the video below.

It is important to keep marketing in a down market if you don’t you will lose touch with your clients. In a recession customer service and marketing is more important than at any other time. If you lose touch with your client base you won’t be able to see the trends your clients are facing.  Below is a good article from Adotas discussing how online advertising will probably continue to grow in this down economy.

“So it’s no surprise that marketers are shifting to direct-response ads, search and performance-based advertising and away from less measurable display and branding campaigns, according to Imran Khan, who runs the global Internet research at JP Morgan Chase, who spoke at the OMMA Global Hollywood

“Historically, ecommerce drives online advertising,” he said. “Roughly 4% of total retail sales in the U.S. are from ecommerce. Amazon’s recent revenue results came in at about 8% during a time when consumer consumption was down.”

Overall, roughly 8 percent of the total ad dollars in the U.S. is spent online, while many consumers spend about 30 percent of their time surfing the Web, according to MediaPost. About 85 percent of total ad dollars spent online in the U.K. is performance-driven, compared with 50 percent in the U.S., Khan said.

Brands want more effective ways to reach consumers and efficient tools and processes to buy advertising online. But as observers of social media marketers have noted, brand awareness trumps intent for purchase. If more and more people are interacting on social networks, is the performance-driven models a short term phase because of a terrible economy?”

Aaron Wall recently posted an article called How Long Does It Take to Rank in Google? He mentions that he gets asked this question quite frequently.  This seems to be the only thing new clients are ever concerned about with their search marketing campaigns.  And I will have to agree with Aaron on this one, “to compete in competitive marketplaces you have to out-think the competition or invest more than they do. When you start from how little or how quickly you have the wrong mindset.”

As he mentioned several things you should be concerned about.  They are fresh quality content, building your brand, and make social connections.  You want to build a site that is informative to your users and that also has a clear message of what your website is about and what product and services you are offering.  This is a huge mistake I see happening all the time.  Put yourself in your target audience’s shoes.  Would you be interested in your site?  Are you finding the information you are looking for based on the keyword phrases you are typing into the search engines?  If not then it’s likely your potential customers aren’t finding what they want either. 

So how long does it take to rank in Google?  Aaron emphasizes several things that effect how long it will take to rank in Google.

If you site doesn’t have much competition in the search results space then it is possible that you may be able to rank highly in a month.

Is your site brand new?  If so and your competition’s site is much older it can take you’re site a year to get in the top position you desire.  However if they aren’t marketing their site well then it may be easier for you to rank in that top position.  You may want to build links over a period of time to gain recognition.  If your site is older you may be able to be more aggressive with the link building.

It is important to continuously monitor how much time and effort your competitors are investing.  You won’t rank above them if you’re not investing the time.

I read this interesting article today on Yahoo News.  The article was written by Michael Liedtke, AP Business Writer.   Will MSN buy Yahoo?  Google needs some competition and maybe this will give them just that.

SAN FRANCISCO – Microsoft Corp. has pounced on slumping Internet icon Yahoo Inc. with an unsolicited takeover offer of $44.6 billion in its boldest bid yet to challenge Google Inc.’s dominance of the lucrative online search and advertising markets.

The surprise offer of $31 per share, made late Thursday and announced Friday, seizes on Yahoo’s weakness while Microsoft tries to muscle up in a high-stakes battle with Google likely to define the technology landscape for years to come.

In a statement Friday, Yahoo said it will “carefully and promptly” study Microsoft’s bid.

With its profits steadily sliding, Yahoo’s stock slipped to a four-year low earlier this week and a new management team has been trying to steer a turnaround but sees more turbulence through 2008.

The announcement lifted Yahoo’s share price by almost 50 percent in morning trading, while Google fell more than 8 percent, dragged down by a fourth-quarter earnings report that missed Wall Street expectations.

In conference call Friday morning, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer indicated he won’t take no for an answer after Yahoo rebuffed takeover overtures a year ago.

“This is a decision we have — and I have — thought long and hard about,” Ballmer said. “We are confident it’s the right path for Microsoft and Yahoo.”

Besides the question of Yahoo’s acceptance, Microsoft’s bid also faces regulatory scrutiny in Washington and Europe. On Friday, the Justice Department said it is “interested” in reviewing antitrust issues. European Union officials declined to comment.

To underscore its resolve, Microsoft is offering a 62 percent premium to Yahoo’s closing stock price Thursday. If the deal is consummated, it would be by far the largest acquisition in Microsoft’s history, eclipsing last year’s $6 billion purchase of online ad service aQuantive.

Since reaching a 52-week high of $34.08 in October, Yahoo shares have fallen 46 percent. Yahoo climbed $8.62 a share, or 45 percent, to $27.80 in afternoon trading. Microsoft shares fell $2.22, or 6.8 percent, to $30.38.

Microsoft publicly disclosed its cash-and-stock offer in hopes of rallying support from Yahoo’s shareholders, making it more difficult for Yahoo’s board to turn down the bid.

In a letter released Friday, Ballmer pointedly noted Yahoo’s financial performance has deteriorated since Microsoft was spurned a year ago. At that time, Ballmer said he was told Yahoo believed it was better off on its own.

“A year has gone by, and the competitive situation has not improved,” Ballmer wrote in his letter.

Microsoft’s previous offer was rebuffed by Terry Semel, who stepped aside last year as chief executive under shareholder pressure.

Microsoft sent its latest takeover offer to Yahoo late Thursday, shortly after Semel resigned as the company’s chairman. The letter is addressed to Semel’s successors, new Chairman Roy Bostock and the current CEO, co-founder Jerry Yang, who is one of Yahoo’s largest shareholders.

In a prepared statement, Yahoo said its board “will evaluate this proposal carefully and promptly in the context of Yahoo’s strategic plans and pursue the best course of action to maximize long-term value for shareholders.”

Microsoft views Yahoo as its best chance to thwart Google, which has leveraged its leadership in Internet search and advertising to emerge as an increasingly serious threat to the world’s largest software maker’s persuasive influence on how people interact with computers.

Google already controls nearly 60 percent of the U.S. search market, and has been widening its lead, despite concerted efforts by both second-place Yahoo and third-place Microsoft. By combining, Microsoft and Yahoo would have a 33 percent share of the U.S. search market, according to the latest data from comScore Media Metrix.

By joining forces, Microsoft and Yahoo also would widen their narrowing advantage over Google in providing free e-mail accounts — a service that helps foster more loyalty with users and create more advertising opportunities.

Advertisers around the world are expected to double their spending on the Internet during the next three years as more people get their news and entertainment on the Web instead of television, radio, newspapers and magazine. The trend is expected to create an $80 billion online ad market in 2010, up from an estimated $40 billion last year.

Despite an aggressive push in recent years, Microsoft’s online advertising expansion hasn’t paid off. Last week, the Redmond, Wash.-based company reported a 79 percent jump in its overall profit, but its online division’s loss widened to $245 million.

And Yahoo has been struggling to attract more advertising even though its Web site attracts one of the biggest audiences. The Sunnyvale-based company’s profit has declined for five consecutive quarters, prompting plans to cut 1,000 jobs later this month, a 7 percent reduction of its 14,300-employee work force.

Besides helping to boost its online ad revenue, Microsoft believes it could mine more profit from Yahoo by jettisoning workers and eliminating overlapping operations.

Microsoft said it sees at least $1 billion in cost savings if it buys Yahoo. Microsoft executives deflected questions about how many jobs might be lost, but the company emphasized retention packages will be offered to Yahoo engineers and other key employees, including some executives.

The fate of Yahoo’s brand also is unclear if Microsoft takes over. Both Ballmer and Kevin Johnson, president of Microsoft’s platforms and services division, hailed Yahoo’s strong brand value but didn’t commit to keeping the name alive.

Gavin O’Malley of MediaPost writes about how big brand Marketers are fed up with traditional media channels and are threatening to shift some of their budgets to the internet:

BIG-NAME BRAND MARKETERS ARE FED up with traditional media channels and are threatening to shift the lion’s share of their budgets online, according to Nick Brien, worldwide CEO of Universal McCann.

“If this happens for another year, significant clients will want to walk,” Brien said at an Interactive Advertising Bureau conference on Monday in reference to a general climate of discontent due to increasing viewer fragmentation, disruptive technologies, and the resulting decrease in ROI.
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Earlier this week Greg Sterling posted an article titled What Does 2008 Have In Store For Local?  He emphasizes that the local market is about a very large number of mostly small companies.  I could not agree more and most of these small companies are not advertising online.  It is important to educate small local businesses on the benefits of local internet advertising.  Currently it is the most cost efficient way to advertise your business.

“Study after study has confirmed that consumers research products before buying (mostly offline). However, perhaps more strikingly, the internet has now surpassed the venerable print yellow pages and newspapers as the primary local resource for consumers looking for services. This is not to say that print newspapers and yellow pages don’t have meaningful usage anymore, but we’ve reached an important “tipping point” of sorts. “

Greg Sterling mentions in the above quote that the internet has surpassed the print yellow pages and newspapers for local resources.  Local companies need to take some of their ad spend from their traditional advertising like print and move it online.  If local consumers are going to the search engines for local information then you need to place your products and services right in front of them.  Consumers are searching on specific phrases that are related to your products so why not purchase these terms and guarantee that they will find you.  This form of advertising seems like the obvious way to go however most local small to mid-sized companies have not caught on to this idea.

In his article Sterling also mentions the rise of user-generated content and the increasing importance of consumer ratings, reviews and recommendations in 2007.  Yahoo and Google have both updated its local search product, expanding its search results beyond just business listings to include local user-generated content.  A local search on Google or Yahoo in any city will now return user-recommended restaurants, events and many other forms of local entertainment.  It will also display what other users in the same city have been searching for lately and list the most recent ratings and reviews. 

Users do not only want to find a business, they want to find out what other users in their community think about the product and services they are looking for. 2008 is going to be an exciting year for Local Internet Advertising.

Danny Sullivan visited SEOmoz last Friday for a white board discussion on Facebook Revolution and Search 3.0. 

Danny Sullivan discussed Facebook Ads vs. Search Ads.  In his opinion Search Ads are the revolution.  He mentioned that traditional advertisers are always desperately looking for new ways to advertise, for example on Facebook even if they don’t understand the new concept. 

The idea behind Facebook’s model is that when you purchase a product or service online it will display on your page and catch your friend’s attention, hopefully creating a word of mouth buzz.  However there are still many improvements that need to be made to this advertising model.  One that was mentioned in the discussion is that when you try to target your ads by choosing keywords related to your business your reach decreases tremendously and you are only being seen by very few users.

Danny feels that there is still huge growth in Search and advertisers should be taking advantage of this.  Search is still a cheap way to advertise compared to traditional advertising and your ROI is usually much higher than other forms of advertising. With search advertising you aren’t interrupting users, they are searching for you. Danny also discusses that when advertisers do try search ads they realize the benefits of search and want to keep it their own little secret in order to prevent competition in that space.

I agree with Danny about search still being the revolution.  There are a lot of missed opportunities in this space especially for local advertisers. When users perform searches they typically want to see results from local businesses they trust. Most local businesses are missing out on potential revenue.  Another thing that these local advertisers do not realize is that in general search is a very cost efficient way to advertise your business and the more specific you get with a location the less money you will spend.  Education is the key to convince local businesses to use Search Ads.  I am anxious to see how long it takes advertisers to realize they must move some of their traditional ad spend over to search advertising.

Danny Sullivan also discussed the evolution of search and predicts where it is headed. First there was Search 1.0 and this was based strictly on content and location and frequency of keywords.  As you can imagine this was taken advantage of and led to Search 2.0. 

Search 2.0 or off page SEO was based on click through rate and link building.  This is still a huge part of SEO today. 

Search 3.0 is happening now.  It is the process of blending verticals into the search results.  A great example of this would be local search.  Instead of displaying your typical search results at the top of the page they are replaced by the first three local results for that search query. 

Eventually vertical data will take over the search results and lead to Search 4.0.  Search results in 4.0 will be based on personalization.  The query results will take into consideration your past query history, personal data, and social data.  The results will be rewritten based on you or people you know.

Danny’s predication of Search 5.0 will include live answers and human interaction.  If a user is having trouble finding what they are looking for there will be an option for them to get help from a human.  Yahoo Answers is an example of this.