Ratings and reviews have long been important to local search. Quantity used to be all that mattered – businesses with more reviews and ratings could rank higher than those without, even if the reviews were unfavorable.

Google has joined Bing (and Yahoo to a lesser degree) with today’s announcement that it’s emphasizing the content and sentiment of reviews and ratings on its place pages. Here’s a look at how Google spotlights review content on the Wild Ginger Asian Restaurant place page:

Google is pulling reviews from a variety of sources, classifying them, and then providing a review and summary of the sentiments expressed in those reviews. Searchers get a quicker glance at whether the business scores favorably on things like (in this example) food, service, atmosphere, and more.

Google is catching up to Bing with this feature. The Bing local listing for this same restaurant shows what Bing calls a “Scorecard” of review sentiments.

Yahoo also highlights reviews content, but in a different way. The Yahoo local listing for this same restaurant shows star ratings and user reviews, but there’s no attempt to analyze and classify the sentiments being expressed in those reviews. Yahoo does, however, display the full content of reviews out in its main local shortcut.

Google and Bing only show a star rating and a link to read reviews from their main search results pages.

There are obvious SEO considerations here: If Google and Bing, in particular, are doing sentiment analysis to determine whether the content of local reviews is good or bad, it’s logical to think those sentiments are being used in rankings. Higher ranking local business would be the ones that have the best combination of review quantity and quality.

Microsoft is stirring up interest in its trailing Bing search service with the addition of some advanced features in a new Bing Maps beta. The Silverlight-powered technology lets users walk around neighborhoods, create and access 3-D “photosynths,” and see an overlay of tweets originating from particular map locations. The functionality is still rudimentary, but the possibilities appear endless.

Taking on one of Google’s (Nasdaq: GOOG) most popular Web applications , Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) introduced a beta for Bing Maps that incorporates improved imagery, 3-D photographs and street views using tools made possible by its Silverlight technology.

The Streetside feature puts users on street level, letting them walk around to find “that good parking lot,” for example, “or figure out exactly where the door to the club is located,” according to a blog post by Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s senior VP for online services.

Loading Image…

The Bing Maps Streetside view features 360-degree ground-level zooming and 3D imagery, with hovering street labels, a compass, and an overview map to track direction and movement.

(click image to enlarge)

Microsoft Research, Live Labs and the core maps team collaborated to build Streetside, she wrote, describing it as “an actual physical environment on top of which we can provide an experience that connects to information from across the Web.”

App Gallery Under Construction

A development platform that is currently only in limited release lets users create “mash-ins” on top of Streetside.

An Application Gallery connects Streetside with Twitter and other services, Nadella said.

Some of the apps included in the Gallery:

• An app to see tweets on the map from their originating location. Users can get real-time updates about events, breaking news, or just tweets from friends about the quality of coffee at their favorite coffeehouse, for example.
• Local Lens, a Microsoft app that indexes local blogs from around the U.S. and, using the clues in the posts, tries to place them physically on a map. “It’s an entirely new way to consume local crowdsourced information,” according to Nardella.
• What’s Nearby, an app that shows users what is close to an address they have searched for — such as places to sync up a computer before a meeting. This app automatically searches for nearby amenities and delivers the search results sorted into categories.

Microsoft has also peppered Bing Maps with Photosynths (3-D photos) generated by the community. A user can search for the “Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City,” Nardella explained, and then enable Photosynths by clicking on the orange arrow on the bottom of the left pane. Photos of Met exhibits will then appear on the screen, and users are invited to “dive in” for close-up views.

The beta is very limited in its content and functionality at the moment. Streetside views are available only in certain areas, and there’s just a smattering of Photosynths. A test search for tweets by location showed only a handful of tweets in a D.C. suburb.

Microsoft was unable to arrange an interview for TechNewsWorld in time for publication.

Taking on Google

Still, the beta is a good foil for Google Maps, which is very important to the search engine’s usability, Ken Saunders, president of Search Engine Experts, told TechNewsWorld.

“Local search and local ads are a critical aspect of a good search engine optimization effort,” he said, and how well the search engines execute on this will continue to be competitive differentiators.

Future Functionality

These developments lay the groundwork for apps that use augmented reality, John C. Havens, VP of social media at Porter Novelli, told TechNewsWorld. Being able to overlay social media data would mean a user, holding up a mobile phone, could actually see floating bubbles or widgets. From there, the possibilities are endless.

“Augmented reality is going to be a very powerful tool,” Havens said. “Right now, Yelp has a tool called ‘Monocle’ — a user holds up a phone using the app and pans it from left to right. Let’s say you are in San Francisco and want to find a coffee shop. You start panning the phone around, and you can see the icons for coffee shops, along with consumers’ comments about each shop.”

Such apps will have significant ramifications for commerce when they go mainstream, he added. “Stores will be able to tweet, for example, about products and services they are offering passerbys.”

Local search with Google is so vital to little local companies. Often local businesses build an internet site, hit publish, and find very displeasing results because they do not magically appear in search engines.
Fretting because they have spent thousands of bucks or spent numerous evenings building their site, they’re often mystified their site can’t even be found for local search.

So, what is the problem?
the 1st problem is their site is not optimized for local search. If your business is local in nature, like a needle point supply shop, a plumbing service, or an accounting practice, there are particular things you want to think about for your website before putting your information out to the world .

You have to know exactly what your clients are using to find you.
A great, virtually free tool to help you do this is Google Keyword Tool which can be found in Google Adwords.
There might be a tiny investment of $5 to open an adwords account, but this one feature alone can save you months of trouble and headaches as you attempt to optimize your site for local search.
Give your customers what they are searching for and they’ll reward you each time.
My buyers might type in internet local marketing to find info on how to optimize their site for local search. The search results for this is going to be smaller in nature ( 590 per month ), but what if I optimized my website to be found for this keyword? There is a larger chance I would be ready to get placement on the first page of Google for this keyword in numerous spots over a period of time.

remember that your subject does not need to be widely searched online to develop a flourishing business. If 10% of the people searching for’internet selling ohio’ found my website and left their information for my free offer, this means I’d have generated 59 new leads in one month!

If you multiply this number by the amount of keywords you are enhancing your website for, this means you might generate lots of new contacts and leads in a given month.
Local Directories

the web has many local directories you can list your local economy in to be found for local search. In reality, the more directories you are in, the more citations your website earns, and the more desireable your internet site becomes to search engines like Google.
Yellow Pages, Super Pages, list 411, Merchant Circle are all places you want your website to be found.
in addition, search engines provide tools in the webmaster Tools section. Google Yahoo, and Bing allow you to’claim your listing’ or enter your company name, address, web site, pictures, videos, business hours, and payment methods.

This is an fantastic great place to begin for local search, however their is much to be done for internet site promotion. One parable many entrepreneurs believe is that if they’build it, they can come.’

This can’t be farther from the truth. The enterprises found at the pinnacle of the search sites have purposefully optimized their site, utilised Web 2.0 techniques, and have tapped into the power of social media to get this done.

For local search, focus on local keyword phrases concerning geographic locators, and begin using the power of social media promoting. Within a few months, you’ll be shocked at how effective it is in bringing targeted traffic to your website.

Local search with Google is so critical to small local firms. Frequently local businesses build an internet site, hit publish, and find really disheartening results because they do not magically appear in search engines.

If your business is local in nature, like a needle point supply shop, a plumbing service, or an accounting practice, there are specific things you need to consider for your web site before putting your information out to the planet.
Local Seach Keyword Research

What local search keywords are being employed to find your business? Did you know forty percent of web searches are local in nature? This means your potential customers are typing a city, state or zip-code in an attempt to find you. You must know exactly what your customers are using to find you.
A great, virtually free tool to help you do this is Google Keyword Tool which can be found in Google Adwords.

There could be a little investment of $5 to open an adwords account, but this one feature alone can save you months of trouble and headaches as you attempt to optimize your website for local search.

Give your customers what they are looking for and they will reward you each time.

My consumers might type in internet local marketing to find information on how to optimize their site for local search. The search results for this is going to be smaller in nature ( 590 per month ), but what if I optimized my website to be found for this keyword? There is a bigger chance I would be able to get placement on the first page of Google for this keyword in many spots over a period. remember that your topic does not need to be widely searched online to develop a thriving business.
If you multiply this number by the number of keywords you are optimizing your site for, this suggests you might generate masses of new contacts and leads in a given month.

Local Directories

In fact, the more directories you are in, the more citations your internet site earns, and the more desireable your website becomes to search engines like Google.
Yellow Pages, Super Pages, Directory 411, Merchant Circle are all places you need your web site to be found.
Google Yahoo, and Bing allow you to’claim your listing’ or enter your firm name, address, internet site, pictures, videos, business hours, and forms of payment.

This is an fantastic great place to begin for local search, however their is much to be done for internet site promotion.
This can’t be further from the truth. The enterprises found at the head of the search sites have purposefully optimized their site, utilized Web 2.0 secrets, and have tapped into the power of social media to get this done.

For local search, concentrate on local keywords involving geographic locators, and begin using the power of social media selling. Within a few months, you will be shocked at how effective it is in bringing targeted traffic to your site.

Google Adwords has added service icons for use with Google Adwords connected to Local Business Center accounts.

Local Business Center Ads

Seventeen service icons are available for use including a “No category specified” icon.

The following sixteen business categories have service icons available for use with Google Adwords campaigns combined with Google Local Business center listings:

Movies, film, video
Bar, pub, liquor
Accommodations
Restaurant, dining
Café, coffee shop
Flowers, garden
Car dealer, rental, service
Grocery, department store
Shopping, boutique
Homewares, home repair, real estate
Phones, service providers
Bank, finance, currency exchange
Bank, finance, currency exchange (UK)
Hardware, repair
Hairdresser, barber, tailor
Bank, finance, currency exchange (Eur)

Are Google’s reasons for choosing these particular local categories governed by the same reasons they make most if not all of their other business decisions – data?

Google Adwords Icons

If so, then marketers this list of sixteen business types and their icons are the most searched for competitive local search marketing categories in Google at this particular time.

Google Service Icons

If these types of service listings  are indeed the most searched local cateogies, what can we expect to see next from Google?

Matt Cutts from Google has just reassured local businesses and web owners that Google Caffeine will fully be released after the holidays only. Whew… sigh of relief for all of us, I think.

This means that sites will continue to rank as expected on the run up to the busiest trading period of the year. If you have not heard of the new Google Caffeine, it is all about new search technology that Google is going to use. There is more detailed information on this page: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/google-caffeine-update/

Talking about Matt, here is an article he initiated on Targeted Traffic:

Getting traffic, rather meaningful traffic to a website is the ultimate goal of webmasters today. “How to get traffic to ones website?” has become quite a generic question floating all over the web and many SEO experts are giving their input on how website owners can get targeted traffic pouring to their websites. Some suggest optimizing site for the search engines, and some propose social media usage, while others tell how articles and Press Releases might help. Among all these methods, a person sure feels stuck in a maze with dead-end.

Read more at Local Internet Marketing……….

Google is surveying its Local Business Center audience for feedback to help improve its local business listings product.

Today while logging into my Google Local Business Center account, I noticed this message:

“Tell us what you think! Take our 5 minute survey and help improve Local Business Center.”

I took Google up on their offer and quickly completed the following four page survey.

Google Local Business Center Feedback I

The first page of the Google Local Business Center survey asks -

1. Overall, how satisfied are you with Google Local Business Center?

2. How likely is it that you would recommend Google Local Business Center to a friend or colleague?

The survey then asks users to indicate their satisfaction with Google Local Business Center in the following dimensions: Ease of Use, Visual Appeal, Technical Reliability, Features and Capabilities, Trustworthiness, Privacy and Security and the Listing verification process.

Next, Local Business Center users are asked “Which aspects of your Google Local Business Center listing are most important to you” followed by a drop down answer box for answering the question -  “when did you first visit the Local Business Center?”

Which of the following answers are most important to you as a business listing manager?

People finding directions to my business
People clicking through to my website
People writing ratings & reviews
People contacting (calling or emailing) my business
People viewing the details of my listing (hours, pictures, descriptions, ratings & reviews)
Getting analytics & reporting on how my listing is performing

Google Local Business Center Feedback Satisfaction II

The second page of the survey asks the following four multiple choice questions pertaining to listing management:

When did you first use Google Local Business Center?
How did you verify your business listing in Google Local Business Center?
How long has it been since you last visited Google Local Business Center?
Which best describes your role or roles regarding the business or businesses you have listed on Google Local Business Center?

Google Local Business Center Feedback Process III

The third page asks the following three questions:

Which best describes the business(es) you are listing on Google Local Business Center?

What is the preferred way for your customers to contact the business you own or manage?
(If you have an appointment-based business, how do you prefer customers reach you to schedule an appointment?)

What are other ways you promote the business you own or manage (online & offline)?

While the forth and final question on the third page of the survey asks users to indicate which of the following ten (mostly Google) products they use:

Google AdWords
Google Analytics
Google AdSense
Google Coupons inside Local Business Listing
Google Checkout
Search engine optimization service (a company that improves your website ranking on search engines like Google.com)
Google webmaster tools
Yahoo! Local listing
MS Live search maps
Other online advertising (Yahoo Ads, Microsoft adCenter, etc.)

Google Local Business Survey IV

The final page of Google’s Local Business survey incorporates the users answers from the previous pages and then asks for further clarification while also asking the Local Business Center user to provide additional comments about the LBC product if they choose to do so.

Please describe any problems or difficulties you have experienced with Google Local Business center today. (optional)

What if anything do you find frustrating or unappealing about Google Local Business Center?(optional)

What do you like best about Google Local Business Center? (optional)

Local Business Center Survey V

Uncharacteristically, the final page of the survey asked whether or not I would be willing to be contacted again with more research questions about the Google Local Business Center.

Google Local Business Center Survey VI

I checked affirmative and then provided my email address.

It will be interesting to see what – if anything – transpires from the data Google gathers from their Local Business Center Audience survey.

If you haven’t received a survey in your LBC, feel free to answer any of the above questions in the comments section of this post.

We have been helping small businesses in the Greater Toronto area dominate the organic search engines for their GEO specific keyword phrases for quite some time now.  We now offer our services worldwide to any small business that is looking to have their company visible in the search engines.  If your interested, you can contact us here.  Don’t wait too long for we ONLY take on one client per business category per city.   We hate to see you decide to move only to find we can’t help you because someone else in your area acted first.

GiZoom.com has launch their local search engine optimization division today. GiZoom offers marketing for websites on the top search engines. Our effective search engine marketing services will increase visibility on not only a local level but also on a national and international level. We can offer companies direct exposure and increasing ROI with a program tailored to their exact needs. We have a full range of services at GiZoom from Business consulting to both online and offline innovative services.

Visit GiZoom.com for a FREE report on “Everything You Need To Know About Finding The Right Consultant For You And How To Save Money In The Process.”

Some of our other services are:
• Business Consulting
• Sales Training
• Custom SEO Reports
• Search Engine Optimization Consulting
• Aggressive Reciprocal Link Generation
• Press Releases
• Professional Copy writing Services
• Content Additions and Revisions
• Content Development
• Pay Per Click Management (Search Marketing)
• Email Services
• Lead Services

Visit us today at www.GiZoom.com

Are you interested in starting your own small business? If you are, you may already have your mind made up. If you are still toying with the idea of starting your own small business, you may be wondering whether or not your dream is one that should stay a dream or one that could actually become a profitable reality.

To get a good idea as to whether or not you should start a small business, you may want to examine the pros and cons of doing so. These pros and cons may help make it easier for you to decide whether or not a small business is right for you. A few of the most important small business pros and cons are touched on below.

Perhaps, the biggest pro or plus side to starting your own small business is the fact that you will be achieving a dream of yours. There are many individuals who have a dream to start their own business, but many rarely end up doing so. One of the reasons for that is fear. Many are afraid of failure. Yes, you and your small business venture may fail, but many say the ride was worth taking, no matter how good or bad the outcome turned out to be.

Another pro or plus side to starting your own small business is type of businesses that you could start. For instance, did you know that you could open up your craft store, run a payroll processing company, start a dog grooming salon, or start your own hair salon? When it comes to starting your own small business, you will find that the possibilities are literally endless.

In connection with the types of businesses that you can start, did you also know that those businesses can be run in different ways? For instance, if you are interested in opening up a dog grooming salon or even a hair salon, did you know that you could rent your own commercial building space or even run the business out of your home for a while? Also, depending on the type of business you run, you may even be able to have an online store. In fact, it is not uncommon for many small business owners, who sell products, to have storefront retail stores, as well as online retail stores. Once again, the possibilities are basically endless.

Although there a number of pros or plus sides to starting your own small business, you will also find that there a number of downsides or cons to doing so as well. One of those downsides is the fact that there are not really any guarantees. Sometimes even the best small business plans fail. There a lot of factors that go into determining whether or not a business can be a profitable one, like the ability to reach the targeted market, start up costs, monthly expenses, and location. While there are steps that you can take to help improve your chances of success, there are still no guarantees.

Another one of the cons or downsides to starting a small business is the start up money needed. Yes, there are some businesses that have smaller start up costs than others, but almost all small businesses do have startup costs. The good news though is that if you don’t have the required funds, you may be able to obtain financing for your small business project. The only thing is that you need to have good credit to do so. So, if your credit currently isn’t in good standing, you may want to think about working on it now. The sooner you get your credit repaired, if it needs to be, the sooner, you can start opening up your small business.

The above mentioned pros and cons are just a few of the many associated with trying to start your own small business. In all honesty, you may want to think about creating your own pros and cons list. If the pros outweigh the cons, starting your own small business may be something that you should look into doing.

For more information or if your in need of Consulting contact Paul Conant at 203-808-1986 or online at www.gizoom.com

Search and social marketing continue to cross paths and merge together as the internet industry expands and evolves to fit our needs.  Yahoo Neighbors is a conversation based tool that has the potential to do great things for small and local businesses by opening up a Q & A within the local business space.  While us search engine marketers have known about the influence of local search (such as Yahoo Local) and Q & A sites, like Yahoo Answers for a long time; Yahoo Neighbors is essentially a hybrid of the two concepts and conveniently brings the power of locality to smaller cities that Yahoo Answers lacks, in addition to adding a social element to local search that wasn’t there before.

In most scenarios, Yahoo Neighbors will help local businesses in cities across the US to gain traction in local search results and potentially evolve into a default best practice for all small and local businesses.

• Designed by search engine forward thinking minds, so naturally SEO credibility will come into play.
• Helps to promote website visibility through conversation, Q & A and quasi-reviews.
• Helps build and establish website and business presence and authority in the market.
• Highly useful for reputation monitoring and management.
• Has the potential to translate well to Social Media with the addition of sharing functionalities.

Yahoo Neighbors is in essence a community based Q & A, coupled with SEO value (Yahoo properties are designed by SEO-inclined folks and Yahoo Answers already ranks well in SERPs) and RSS attributes.  Not only could this tool become a large source of referral traffic for local businesses, but companies can also use it as a Reputation Management tool by opting into RSS feeds for specific categories and even more granularly down to a single topic.  Get social media sharing functionalities in place, and Yahoo might really have something.  The only catch?  Yahoo Neighbors is still in beta format, and although it has officially launched and is available nationwide, most cities have yet to establish good content and user participation.  Until the Yahoo Neighbor wave gains momentum with local searchers, smaller cities will have to wait a little longer to see Neighbors in action and to decide how to grab value from its offerings.

Get ready, I’m Josh “Billionaire By Thirty” Fuller, and you are about to learn the Top 10 Tips to Get Free Traffic With Local Search Marketing:

1.      Optimize Your Business Name. Use your keywords in your business name. Don’t be afraid to add your city to your business name, for example “Tony’s Pizza Brooklyn, instead of just “Tony’s Pizza.”

2.      Add Keywords to Your Business Description. If people are searching for “pizza Brooklyn” that keyword phrase should be in the business description.

3.      Make Them Look. Focus on writing compelling copy to attract your target audience in from the local search engines and directories.

4.      Use a Professional Picture. Don’t post poor quality photos of your business. A picture is worth a thousand words.

5.      Encourage Friends to Comment on Your Business. When we see a large number of positive reviews for a restaurant, book, or movie, then we are much more inclined to want to learn more.

6.      Keywords, Keywords, Keywords. Pick a couple of your top keywords and use them throughout your local search profile. Use Google AdWords Keyword Tool, a great free tool to generate ideas www.google.com/adwords/keywordtool  

7.      Pick the Correct Category. Make sure to pick the correct category for your business. You would be surprised how many people are lazy here.

8.      Utilize as Many Local Search Engines and Directories as Possible. The more places you can put your business information the easier it will be for your customers to find you.

9.      Embed Your Business Address in Your Website. To make it easy for the local engines to find your site, put your business address in the following places; your website’s title and meta description, website footer, and inside the body of the text of your web pages.  

10.  Get Started. Your site won’t get thousands of visitors from Local Search Engines and Local Search Directories unless you get started. What are you waiting for?

Local Search Marketing is an effective method to get free local traffic to your site. Here is a List of the Top Free Local Search Engines and Local Search Directories:

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Remember the last time you tried to order takeout from a Chinese restaurant, but didn’t have their number. So you ran a search on Google and 10 minutes later you still didn’t have the number. We have all experienced the frustration of companies hiding online.  To make it easy for your customers to find you online, you need to learn How to use Local Search Marketing to Promote Your Business?

If you type “fuller counseling seattle” into Google, the first result is a map with company information for my sisters practice Fuller Counseling.

How did she get the first result? I submitted her company information to the Local Search Engines and Local Search Directories.

Many people are searching locally for restaurants, homes for sale, jobs and just about anything and everything you can think of. Most people don’t search for generic terms like “counseling,” they search for generic terms in combination with a local term like “counseling seattle.”

My sister’s “counseling” site can’t compete with the hundreds of thousands of other “counseling” practices on Google.  She doesn’t need to because all she really cares about are her local prospects in a 15 mile radius and that is what local search marketing is great for.

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The top 3 local search engines are; Google Local Business Center, Yahoo Local, and Bing Local Listing. You can submit your business to all of them for free. Local search engines use geo-targeting, which is technology that tells the search engines exactly where your computer is geographically located, in order to give the most relevant results possible.

Local Search Marketing is a phenomenal way to get free local traffic to your site. Here is a List of the Top Free Local Search Engines and Local Search Directories:

Submitting your business to the top Local Search Engines and Local Search Directories isn’t enough, you need to learn the Top 10 Tips to Get Free Traffic With Local Search Marketing:

1.      Optimize Your Business Name. Use your keywords in your business name. Don’t be afraid to add your city to your business name, for example “Tony’s Pizza Brooklyn, instead of just “Tony’s Pizza.”

2.      Add Keywords to Your Business Description. If people are searching for “pizza Brooklyn” that keyword phrase should be in the business description.

3.      Make Them Look. Focus on writing compelling copy to attract your target audience in from the local search engines and directories.

4.      Use a Professional Picture. Don’t post poor quality photos of your business. A picture is worth a thousand words.

5.      Encourage Friends to Comment on Your Business. When we see a large number of positive reviews for a restaurant, book, or movie, then we are much more inclined to want to learn more.

6.      Keywords, Keywords, Keywords. Pick a couple of your top keywords and use them throughout your local search profile. Use Google AdWords Keyword Tool, a great free tool to generate ideas www.google.com/adwords/keywordtool

7.      Pick the Correct Category. Make sure to pick the correct category for your business. You would be surprised how many people are lazy here.

8.      Utilize as Many Local Search Engines and Directories as Possible. The more places you can put your business information the easier it will be for your customers to find you.

9.      Embed Your Business Address in Your Website. To make it easy for the local engines to find your site, put your business address in the following places; your website’s title and meta description, website footer, and inside the body of the text of your web pages.  

10.  Get Started. Your site won’t get thousands of visitors from Local Search Engines and Local Search Directories unless you get started. What are you waiting for?

What is Local Search ?

Here is a great article explaining the definition of local search for the small business owner:

http://www.uklocalsearchmarketing.co.uk

Regards

Marc Liron – Local Search Blog

Google ha da poco introdotto un nuovo servizio, disponibile per il momento nella sezione Google Labs: si chiama Google City Tours.

In breve questo nuovo servizio si propone come uno strumento di aiuto per il settore turistico per gli utenti che desiderano o hanno in programma di visitare alcune città e devono costruire un itinerario suddiviso per i vari giorni di permanenza.

L’utente deve inserire la città di destinazione come punto di partenza per la propria vacanza e poi scegliere tra i vari itinerari consigliati suddivisi per i giorni di permanenza.

I punti di maggior attrazione turistica sono indicati con i marker rossi ed i tragitti con la nota linea viola. Possiamo anche verificare i tempi di percorrenza a piedi tra l’uno e l’altro, comprensivi delle indicazioni relative al tempo di permanenza raccomandato, uno star rating e un link diretto al sito ufficiale del luogo in questione.

Uno dei migliori post che ho letto a riguardo è quello di Sicilia Turismo: vengono infatti sottolineate le forte “ripercussioni” che questo progetto potrebbe avere nel campo del Local Search Marketing.

Tra queste appare evidente la potenziale crescita degli investimento in link sponsorizzati che andrebbero a popolare questi itinerari turistici suggeriti da Google, ma anche la necessità di investire sull’organico da parte di tutte quelle attività commerciali che vogliono acquisire visibilità maggiore nel campo della ricezione turistica.

Tutto questo non potrà che contribuire fortemente ed ulteriormente alla costruzione da parte di Google di un sempre più vasto e completo database con le informazioni (informazioni di ogni tipo ormai, foto, testi, link, video, ecc.) delle attività commerciali presenti sul territorio.

Lo scenario ipotizzato nel post di Sicilia Turismo è quanto mai concreto: la possibilità di programmare e anche prenotare la propria vacanza all’interno di GoogleMaps è alle soglie della realtà in tutti i suoi aspetti. La sempre maggior diffusione di dispositivi mobile (ho detto iPhone ?) non può che accelerare questo processo evolutivo di ricerca e fruizione dei contenuti geolocalizzati.

Il consiglio per tutti (operatori turistici in primis), dunque, è quello di seguire con molta attenzione lo sviluppo di questo nuovo interessantissimo progetto di Google Labs.

Qui un ulteriore approfondimento sull’importanza di Google City Tours…

06/16/09 – 03:12 PM

RSS Feed

The Public Service Commission will hold its regularly scheduled conference on Tuesday.

One of the items on the agenda includes a proposal by AT&T Florida to discontinue their policy of giving customers a printed copy of residential listings up front. Customers will continue to receive a copy of the yellow pages but must request a free copy of the white pages by calling the company.

This will be a cost savings and help to reduce waste. People are increasingly turning to the Internet to find local services and using sites like Facebook to keep up with personal contact information.

Even though physical phone book usage is on the decline across the nation, phone companies continue to print and deliver 540 million unsolicited directories a year. Although the decline in advertising that has plagued the rest of the publishing industry is affecting the yellow pages business as well, and many books are a lot thinner this year then they were in previous editions.

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The new comscore report shows a dramatic move to local search on mobile devices. And across the board, local search-focused Internet brands have been developing mobile content at a feverish pace. AT&T Interactive has made a significant effort to expand its YELLOWPAGES.COM online experience across several mobile platforms.

The strongest growth in the category is coming from downloaded applications, followed by SMS at 72%. However, developers, carriers and device OEMs remain the least popular access mode for mobile access of local information. A marginally more often used channel for obtaining local information is SMS, with an impressive 72% growth rate. Overwhelmingly, though, the preferred mode to access local content remains the mobile browser.

Serge Matta, comScore senior vice president, says “…it would not be surprising within the next six months to see the number of people using downloadable applications surpass SMS for the accessing of local information via mobile devices… “

Among the various local content categories, the number of people accessing online directories has seen the greatest increase during the past year, followed by restaurants, maps, and movies.

Across the board, local search-focused Internet brands have been developing mobile content at a feverish pace. AT&T Interactive has made a significant effort to expand its YELLOWPAGES.COM online experience across several mobile platforms.

Local search brands seeking to capitalize on the trend are looking to mobile to extend consumer reach and attract incremental ad dollars. Joining YELLOWPAGES.COM within the past six months, Idearc’s Superpages, R.H. Donnelley’s DexKnows and Yellowbook’s Yellowbook.com have all released iPhone applications.

Deborah Eldred, Director, Mobile and Personalization for R.H. Donnelley concludes that “The mobile medium is an ideal fit for local directories… we have seen a significant increase in queries specific to visiting a local establishment, as people are looking for information about where to eat and what to do when they are out and about… they look to a trusted brand to provide the confidence that consumers need… “

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With more people using *Google* Maps for driving directions, glimpses of potential real estate (through Street View) and even restaurant reviews, it makes sense to try to drive as much revenue from that traffic as possible. So Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is launching a new analytics dashboard that gives small businesses a better read on their local search traffic details.

Experienced search marketers won’t be wowed by the local business center (LBC) dashboard—but for local businesses that are either managing a small AdWords account on their own (or not using paid search ads at all), the stats will offer great insight into where some of their in-store traffic is coming from, the kinds of searches shoppers are using to find them online (and possibly, the keywords they need to start running ads against).

The dashboard is free for any business owner that “claims” a listing in Google Maps (also free); they get access to impressions (meaning the number of times their business listing showed up as a search result during a given time period), actions (including whether people clicked through to the site or requested driving directions), the most frequently used keywords their shoppers use, and the zip codes they come from.

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We wonder, did R.H. Donnelley look in the Yellow Pages under “attorney – bankruptcy” to find their lawyer? The company’s pre-packaged Chapter 11 filing in a Delaware federal bankruptcy court is designed to reduce its debt by $6.4 billion.

“Our growth-through-acquisition strategy never anticipated the cataclysmic collapse of the U.S. economy and the local advertising market. As a result of these developments, earlier this year we began negotiating with our lenders to restructure our debt and provide the company with a more sustainable capital structure that reflects the current economic realities,” said David C. Swanson, Chairman and CEO of R.H. Donnelley, as he announced that the company had filed Chapter 11.

R.H. Donnelley said it has reached an agreement in principle with key creditors on the terms of a plan of reorganization that proposes to reduce debt by approximately $6.4 billion, eliminate approximately $500 million in annual interest expense and extend the company’s bank maturities out to 2014.

Throughout the restructuring process, the company said it will be conducting “business as usual” and does not anticipate any interruptions in services. The Yellow Pages publisher said it anticipates that more than $300 million of cash on hand, as well as projected positive cash flow from operations, will be more than sufficient to fund its operations during the restructuring process, and therefore does not plan to seek debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing during the reorganization of its business.

Here are the key terms the company said are in its agreement with creditors:

– R.H. Donnelley would reduce its total debt by approximately $6.4 billion, including about $700 million of secured indebtedness;

– The approximately $6.0 billion of unsecured bond indebtedness would be exchanged for 100 percent of the equity in the restructured company and $300 million of unsecured notes issued by the company; all existing equity in the company would be extinguished;

– Total cash interest expense reduction of approximately $500 million annually

– Post-restructuring secured and consolidated debt of approximately $3.1 billion and $3.4 billion, respectively, which represents approximately 3.0x and 3.3x net secured and net consolidated leverage, respectively;

– Post-restructuring cash balance of approximately $125 million.
 
R.H. Donnelley filed a variety of customary first day motions with the court to enable it to continue business as usual during the restructuring. The motions include requests to continue paying employee wages and benefits as usual and to continue customer programs and guarantees. Serving as lead restructuring advisors for R.H. Donnelley are Lazard and Sidley Austin LLP.We wonder, did R.H. Donnelley look in the Yellow Pages under “attorney – bankruptcy” to find their lawyer? The company’s pre-packaged Chapter 11 filing in a Delaware federal bankruptcy court is designed to reduce its debt by $6.4 billion.

“Our growth-through-acquisition strategy never anticipated the cataclysmic collapse of the U.S. economy and the local advertising market. As a result of these developments, earlier this year we began negotiating with our lenders to restructure our debt and provide the company with a more sustainable capital structure that reflects the current economic realities,” said David C. Swanson, Chairman and CEO of R.H. Donnelley, as he announced that the company had filed Chapter 11.

R.H. Donnelley said it has reached an agreement in principle with key creditors on the terms of a plan of reorganization that proposes to reduce debt by approximately $6.4 billion, eliminate approximately $500 million in annual interest expense and extend the company’s bank maturities out to 2014.

Throughout the restructuring process, the company said it will be conducting “business as usual” and does not anticipate any interruptions in services. The Yellow Pages publisher said it anticipates that more than $300 million of cash on hand, as well as projected positive cash flow from operations, will be more than sufficient to fund its operations during the restructuring process, and therefore does not plan to seek debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing during the reorganization of its business.

Here are the key terms the company said are in its agreement with creditors:

– R.H. Donnelley would reduce its total debt by approximately $6.4 billion, including about $700 million of secured indebtedness;

– The approximately $6.0 billion of unsecured bond indebtedness would be exchanged for 100 percent of the equity in the restructured company and $300 million of unsecured notes issued by the company; all existing equity in the company would be extinguished;

– Total cash interest expense reduction of approximately $500 million annually

– Post-restructuring secured and consolidated debt of approximately $3.1 billion and $3.4 billion, respectively, which represents approximately 3.0x and 3.3x net secured and net consolidated leverage, respectively;

– Post-restructuring cash balance of approximately $125 million.
 
R.H. Donnelley filed a variety of customary first day motions with the court to enable it to continue business as usual during the restructuring. The motions include requests to continue paying employee wages and benefits as usual and to continue customer programs and guarantees. Serving as lead restructuring advisors for R.H. Donnelley are Lazard and Sidley Austin LLP.

Google (NSDQ: GOOG) has begun rolling out a new local search dashboard for users of its Local Business Center, a service that allows business owners to enhance their business listings in Google Maps search results and in other searches.

The dashboard “shows statistics on how local listings are found across Google properties,” said Carter Maslan, director of product management for local search at Google. 

Just as Google Analytics provides Web site owners with information about visitors to their Web sites, the new dashboard provides business owners with information about how visitors came across their local listings.

“It helps businesses see how customers are finding them,” Maslan said, noting that the dashboard offers unprecedented access to search data across Google’s services, from GOOG-411 to Google Maps to Google Search.

For example, the dashboard shows when Web site visitors clicked on driving directions included with Local Business Center listings and where those visitors were coming from by ZIP code. Information of this sort can help businesses target ads to regions where known customers reside.

“The big eye-opener for some local businesses is going to be that more than 80% of online visitors start at search,” he said.

Google wants to extend online analytics to world of offline merchants, Maslan said. He compares the service to Google Trends, a similar effort to expose search data. And he notes that no personal data is included.

“We’ve done all the scrubbing to keep it free of any personally identifiable information,” he said.

Google Local Business Center listings are available to any merchant willing to go through Google’s verification processes. The listings are available in 36 countries, but the new dashboard is currently only available to businesses in the United States.

According to Maslan, the dashboard is being rolled out Monday and should be available to businesses across the country by Tuesday.

In April, Google changed the criteria used to determine whether to display local search results, making them appear by default instead of by explicit request.

If you would like a free SEO analysis on your companies website or local listing please call 714-600-1865 today and ask for Lars.