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 [...]

You’ve just received your monthly organic rankings report from your SEO agency, and you’re excited to see that you’re ranking between 4th and 7th place for a number of key terms. And on the surface you should be – traditionally those types of rankings would put you around the middle of the first page and [...]

The thing we’ve always liked about social networking is that it engages users in a way that many other mediums do not. The opportunity to establish or fortify a relationship with a customer on a platform they place value in is too good to pass up. But with Google’s latest G+ maneuver, we have to [...]

It’s that time again.  Google’s made a big change, and based on the conversations I’ve had with clients and colleagues and the endless stream of notes from Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, everyone is scrambling to understand the new Google Places/Plus integration.  In the agency world, there are two types of responses that are happening. The [...]

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 [...]

It has been a sucky week to be a CEO.  First, JPMorgan’s CEO has to mention a $2 billion loss at the same investor meeting where they determine his pay package.  Steve Ballmer gets the dubious honor of “Worst CEO” by Forbes (because he has consistently thrown the baby out with the bathwater), Yahoo’s CEO [...]

One of the biggest challenges in executing an effective social campaign is cutting through the clutter and making your message stand out. You need a couple of factors working in your favor to gain the audience’s attention: a compelling message, and good timing. Bit.ly has released a new study that may help you with the [...]

Check out this month’s Local column from 15miles on Clickz: http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2171149/finders-seekers-local-changed-game

Hopefully you were able to attend the webinar last week detailing the results of the annual 15miles/comScore/Localeze Local Search Study. If so, you may have been intrigued by what I thought was one of the more interesting findings: respondents selected local listings as the most trusted local business data source, ahead of organic and paid [...]