june 2008

Some interesting data Palore has put together about how many restaurants nationwide have on line reviews. Their data was gathered from over 70 local and vertical sites.  The map below shows what percentage of restaurants, in each state, has one or more user reviews on at least one site.

Just a quick note to let everyone know that LocalBizBits in now listed at AllTop.

For those not familiar, each Alltop site as like a “digital magazine rack” of the Internet. Each AllTop site is a collection of all the “top stories” for that particular themre or topic.  It looks like a pretty cool site.

Specially thanks to Michael Jensen of SoloSEO.com and CityMarketer.com

David Mihm, author of Mihmorandum, recently asked myself and a number of other highly respected local search SEMs about what we thought were the important aspects that influenced rankings in Google and Yahoo Local “Universal” search algorithms.  The survey is Local Search Ranking Factors, Vol. 1

David did a great job putting together this survey and is well worth your time! 

Starting today, I am starting a new feature here are LocalBizBits.

The folks over at Palore.com crawl the Web to identify which local businesses advertise online, where they advertise, when, and how much they pay for their ads.  Periodically I will be posting some of their research data.

Today post focused on whether Boston restaurants and NYC night clubs advertise on a single site* or on multiple sites. (By “single site”, they mean that the advertiser has elected only to advertise on one site - not that only one site is the preferred choice of all “single site” advertisers)

 This is very interesting data and definitely shows that these businesses can and should probably increase their on-line advertising.

I got a note the other day from my good friend Ben Saren about CitySquares expanding its tent pegs.  From the press release: (you can download/read the full release here)

“CitySquares.com, the premiere hyper-local search site serving Boston and its metropolitan area, is expanding into all of New England and the greater New York City area. Beginning June 13, the number of local businesses featured on the CitySquares.com website will number over 1.5 million—a 2400% increase over its current offering.”

After reading the release, I shot Ben and email with a few more questions:

Q. Ben, why is CitySquares expanding?  A. Based on the successes we’re having in greater Boston, we feel that we’ve accomplished the  key objectives and goals we’ve set for ourselves and now we’re ready to start applying those lessons to a broader geographic region. Furthermore, we’ve heard calls for CitySquares from communities throughout New England, and because we’ll continue to focus our sales and marketing efforts within greater Boston, there is little reason not to expand into those communities.

Q. How will the website(s) be set up?  Will folks will go to CitySquares.com and then select their city/state or will there be individual sites for each location? A. That’s right. There will be a home page that will feature the states and regions, and you can drill down from there. But as it is today, you’ll still be able to find city/town/neighborhood home pages. We’re just adding other layers on top of this: states and their regions.

Q. For those not familiar with CitySquares, can you tell them how much is costs and what do they get with a business profile? A. Our retail pricing for a Deluxe Business Profile is $1200/yr. However, each and every business in our market is listed for free, and that gives them a search engine optimized basic profile. For a fixed price they can upgrade to a Deluxe Profile which gets them lots more.

Then we have other products we can include in the profile like an online merchant video and Constant Contact newsletter services. Advertisers are then able to login and make changes to their profile, see traffic statistics and more. They also some pretty fantastic customer support, and access to other offline campaigns and products we provide.

Q.  How does CitySquares fare against some of the other more established, nationally based hyperlocal sites? A.  I can’t name any nationally based or more well established hyperlocal sites. The only hyperlocal sites I know of are metro focused or regionally focused and they’re not here in New England. Of the nationally established local search players and city guides, however, specifically those who are here in metro Boston, the only company we compete against for SMB advertisers is Citysearch, and frankly, their value proposition helps us with ours.

Q. Finally,  where do you the future of hyperlocal going? A. I can’t say. The concept of “hyperlocal” is so nascent and it means different things to different people. To me, hyperlocal is simply about providing relevant content in a relevant local context, whether its news, events, citizen ...

One of the biggest “problems” with on-line marketing is that there is no set standard to what we do. I have mentioned this before but today, I had lunch with my friend and associate Nick Stamoulis of Brick Marketing and we were talking about it. Because of this, small businesses can easily get burnt. This is one of the frustrations, we professional and knowledgable marketers have to deal with. Education is the answer.

A few months back, Mike Blumenthal of Understanding Google Maps & Yahoo Local Search  posed the question, “As we move forward to what I call the age of the iPhroid with who knows what transactional and social capabilities, does Local need to be held to a higher standard to “truly” succeed and play a trusted role in our lives?” and asked a number marketers what their thoughts. Below are links to the various responds:

Does Local need to be held to a higher standard? Danny Sullivan and Chris Silver Smith Respond Does Local need to be held to a higher standard? Ahmed Farooq Responds Does Local need to be held to a higher standard? Bill Slawski Responds Does Local need to be held to a higher standard? Matt McGee Responds Does Local need to be held to a higher standard? Greg Sterling Responds

This is a very good set of articles. Local search is a growing search marketing technique and the search engines are working constantly to improve their local search results. Local search is not perfect but it is getting better. From the articles above, is there one quote that summarizes them all or one line that really tells the story? Not really.  All are worth your time reading and will help you get a better idea of what local search results should/need/current provide to its users.

Today we have a nice interview with Dan Vigil of San Gabriel Valley Newsgroup.

Q. Tell the readers a little about yourself and your background. A. Most of my experience has been in advertising sales and small business development. I’ve helped start several companies here in the Southern California area over the past 20 years. I’ve also taught classes and provided seminars on small business advertising for marketing students, entrepreneurs, and small businesses at USC, UCLA , LA City College, and Los Angeles Trade Tech College. I founded and served as the CEO of  Ivenue.com   from 1992 to 2000, was Executive Sales Director for GoSmallBiz.com from 2000 to 2005 and I’m currently an Interactive Sales Manager for LA.com and The Los Angeles Newspaper Group .

Q. What is SanGabe.biz? A. SanGabe.biz is an online resource center and promotional tool published by the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group that allows local business owners to access vital business information and connect with local customers. The website enables business owners to get their message and marketing out to an online audience easily and effectively target local customers.

Q. Why was SanGabe.biz created? A. After visiting with many local businesses, it became clear that many of them were having challenges getting their businesses on-line. They knew they needed to be marketing themselves on-line but didn’t know where to start. SanGabe.biz. was created to provide an easy-to-use solution for local businesses to access vital business information and connect with local customers on-line. The site also allows our newspaper group to reach out and establish relationships with local businesses who may have never advertised with the newspaper before.

Q. How can this business center help small local business? A. Using technology from ShowMeLocal.com , the business center makes it easy for business owners to put their content online with simple tools that anyone can use regardless of Internet development experience. Business owners can use SanGabe.biz to publicize coupons and promotions, put up photos, general business info, job listings, and contact information. Users of the site can also utilize blogs to keep in touch with their customers and solicit feedback directly from customers through their SanGabe.biz listing. The site also allows business owners to form networks with one another and share customer resources.

Q. Where do you see local search marketing going in the near future? A. I see local search being powered more by local content within niche verticals in the near future. Quality local content will attract quality local consumer searches and generate higher local search ad revenue.  I also think we’ll see more efficient CPA models evolve as opposed to current CPC models.

Q. Where do you see offline marketing such as yellow pages, newspapers going? A. Offline yellow pages and newspapers may become more niche oriented. Yellow pages might become more like local guides for different sectors dining etc. Newspapers will start publishing more specialized publications for local regions and neighborhoods. Both will have heavy interaction with on-line components.

Thanks Dan for your time.

SanGabe.biz has just set up a press release over at PRWeb