We awoke today to an updated local listings layout from Google  Upon first reaching a local page, the layout looks pretty similar, with the exception of a new panel at the top of the page featuring an image and business NAP (name, address, phone number) info. But if you scroll up, you’ll get a large [...]

Yahoo is rolling out an interesting new ad unit, as seen in this SearchEngineLand article. The ad unit is being sold on a cost-per-lead basis, which sounds awesome. What doesn’t sound awesome is that it resides below your branded organic result. While I always recommend a client hedge their bets by purchasing paid advertising in [...]

Finally got your arms wrapped around stabilizing rankings in a post-Panda/Penguin/Venice world? Great, because Google has rolled out another major change that will impact your search strategy. Within the last month or so, Google has been shifting certain keywords to deliver only 7 organic search results instead of the traditional 10. This seems to be [...]

There’s something ironic about a company who seeks to unify the world under its digital ecosphere embracing offline activity, but Facebook is doing it, and they’re quite wise to. The question is, will you follow their lead (if you aren’t doing so already)? We’re all wrestling with the idea of proper channel attribution these days. [...]

Google announced this week that it will be rolling out vanity URLs for brands (first in a beta stage, then at an undetermined date on a widespread basis. This represents another step in Google’s commitment to making G+ a true marketing destination for brands, which is another reason you shouldn’t be ignoring G+. As we’ve [...]

Hopefully you’ve prepared a mobile-optimized experience for your web site based on the continued growth of the mobile market, the high purchase intent that users exhibit, and the fact that many of your competitors haven’t done so. But if you are still holding out for another reason to embrace this opportunity, here’s a great one: [...]

Back in May we observed a big shift in the Google search results for a host of local service and retail queries. I documented some of the observations in my  local search expert (designed experiment on links)  column on Clickz  entitled “Was the Penguin Update in Fact the Honey Badger Update?”. In effect Google’s Penguin update [...]

Even though it’s June, the past couple of weeks would have been a horrible time to take a vacation if you’re involved in online marketing. You’d have come back to the office to find: Google Place pages morphed into Google+ Local pages, an effort to build familiarity with the Google+ social brand so that it [...]

Google’s announcement yesterday of the migration of Google Place pages to Google + Local pages feels shallow and self-serving – something geared more towards promoting their own interests than serving the needs of searchers and businessowners/brands. To be direct (as if that wasn’t already), the biggest problems facing Google Places have long been: -inaccurate data [...]

Hopefully you are not one of the businesses currently claiming that Google’s Penguin update has “ruined my business.” The recent algorithm update, which is unique in that it is by Google’s own admission designed NOT to improve search results quality but instead to penalize links obtained through dubious means, is a great reminder of how [...]