Let’s be clear: Google’s Venice update is going to impact your sales in 2012. It’s just a matter of whether it will be positively or negatively, and that will be determined by your local search content strategy.  Let’s discuss what Venice is, how it impacts your business, and what you can do to leverage it. [...]

Spring is in the air and Search will be the topic of the week at Search Engine Strategies (SES) at the NY Hilton this week, Tuesday through Thursday. Come see 15miles at the conference. We will be moderating a session on Tuesday entitled: Local Myth Busters – Local Optimization Facts Proven or Debunked In this [...]

In a move originally announced in November 2011, AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo have officially begun to offer each others unsold display advertising inventory in the US.  The inventory is managed through real time bidding, with AOL and Yahoo inventory flowing through the Right Media AdExchange, while Microsoft is using it’s own exchange, which is built [...]

Would you like to get your marketing message in front of an audience that purchases 86% of the time it conducts a search? Or perhaps you’d “settle” for advertising to an audience that purchases 72% of the time? According to the annual 15miles Local Search Study, these amazing user intent stats are the rate at [...]

A Facebook friend asked this about social media: Is the common Internet user craving more lengthy content or still happy with quick snippets? (Thanks Tom S.) We are seeing two ways to approach social media. Facebook is built on quick hits and snippets that we engage in frequently but not very deeply; It’s fun, mildly [...]

Search engines and digital properties in general are making more and more of a push towards personalization, with the idea that customizing information to the user’s previous behavior will create a more relevant digital experience.  Just this quarter alone, there have been major releases from the top trafficked properties pushing towards a more personal experience.  [...]

SEO is like being good at a sport, or playing an instrument well. No matter how good you are, you need to keep working at it – practice, continued improvements, seeking new ways to improve performance. Stop practicing your sport, or playing music, and your skills diminish, your performance suffers. SEO is the same way. [...]

Google’s been playing in the cloud longer than most.  Their Docs features were one of the first true cloud-based tools I really utilized.  Sure, others had played in the space, but Google was the first to allow someone to truly “work” in the cloud.  The caveat was you had to use their apps.  Apple has [...]

When we as marketers talk about Google Place pages, we often focus on the importance of accuracy of contact information as well as the platform’s translation to offline activity (phone calls, walk-ins, etc.).  These are still valid discussion points, but I think that at times we overlook Places as a traffic driver for web sites. [...]