Mike The Internet Guy’s Blog

This session was more of an update on what each of the “local” search engines represent are up to currently. Participating search engines include Yahoo, Google, Windows Live, Local.com, and True Local. Below is a brief synopsis of what each engine had to say as well as some ‘takeaways’. As usual Chris Sherman was an excellent moderator.

Paul Levine, Yahoo Local
-they are really featuring their 3 current options for local advertisers. These options are the free listing, the Local Featured Listing and the Local Enhanced Listing(http://listings.local.yahoo.com/)
-these three simple options are preferred by most local merchants because they are very simple
-Everyone is anxiously awaiting the Yahoo Panama release which will contain the ability to geo-target PPC ads

Dominic Preuss, Google
-once again Google displayed their current offerings including, Google Earth, Google Maps, Google SMS, Local Business Center, Google Coupons, and using Google base for submitting multiple location listings to Google Local
-Apparently if you SMS Google ’sf giants’ or any other sports team, you’ll get back the latest scores(i didn’t know this but will try it on Sunday with ‘denver broncos’

Jake Baillie, TrueLocal
-Jake is a funny guy.
-TrueLocal.com believes they have the most relevant data out of all the local search engines.
-Jake believes the future of Local Search is not neccesarily based on ’social content’ like some of the other search engines, but rather depth of content(ie displaying wait times for local restaurants)
Roberto Figueroa, Windows Live Local
-Live Search believes the future of local search relies on an integration of community, content, mapping, and other features
(Sorry I think I have missed some notes here)
Heath Clarke, Local.com
-local search is the crown jewel of search. He showed an example of PPC bids being 30x more for ‘attorney denver’ vs just ‘attorney’
-a quick tip which costs Local.com but saves the advertiser money is to place your phone number in your ad
-Local.com also demostrated ease of use for small business advertisers who want simple solutions

During the Q and A it became obvious that a weakness in almost all the SE’s local algorithms was the ‘geo-center’ theory. For example if you search within a city like Denver, there is a set point that represents the center of that area. All distances are then calculated from that center area which isn’t accurate because typically the searcher is not at the center point being used. For the blackhat local seo’s out there it maybe beneficial to obtain an address near the center point of major metropolitan areas for your local based websites

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