Posts Tagged ‘local search’

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What is Yext Advertising? A New Way for Small Businesses to Be Found Online Through Local Search

January 5th, 2011

Similar to Google tags, the brand new Yext Advertising allows you to highlight your business listings with a – yellow tag.  But unlike Google Tags – which are simply seen on Google – when you advertise with Yext, your highlighted listing can appear on multiple search engines including Yahoo, Yelp, MapQuest, Superpages, Citysearch, Yellowbook, WhitePages and many more.

You can create custom messages such as coupons, specials, new products or services, and more.  And you control/update your tag on all of Yext’s partner search engines from one dashboard – quite a time saver.

The power of Yext advertising

According to Yext’s website, “recent studies performed on Google search results showed that businesses highlighted with a Google Tag received more than twice the attraction from prospective customers. Through special partnerships, Yext now offers you a new way to advertise your business listings on leading local search sites.”

The cost is $99.95 per month.  Although this is four times the cost of Google Tags, your listing is showing on more places.  You can try it out free for 7 days.

While we don’t think Yext Tags are going to replace Google Local Search, they are another affordable way to expand your web presence.

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Place Search On Google

October 28th, 2010

Will Place Search on Google Affect Your SEO Efforts?

Yesterday Google introduced a new type of local search result. Place Search organizes information around local places to help searchers more easily make comparisons. Previously when you did a local search, you would see the local results from Google Places at the top of the page next to a pushpin map. Now the map is in the right column above the AdWords ads and the results are included in or above the regular organic search results, marked with red pins – which helps your listing jump out from the rest.

Place Search results will appear automatically when Google predicts a searcher is looking for local information, i.e., “chinese restaurants new york city”. Google has also made it easy to start a local search – just click on the “Places” icon in the left panel of the search results page. If a local web search doesn’t yield you the results you want, click on places and you just might find what you were looking for.

One very important thing to note, Google does not seem to be consistent with how it is displaying these new results. We did our own test. Some searches yielded one “result” per business, which incorporated a regular result with a Google Places result with links to both the website and the Places listing. This combined result is included in the 10 results per page. The problem with this is you are not being displayed twice, as you may have been in the past. Other searches yielded the old format with a 1 or 2 or 7 pack listing separated from the regular results so that you could appear twice on a page. Not sure how Google is determining what to show and how.

In any event, if you haven’t created a Google Places listing you need to now more than ever! Write On Point is here to help if you need us.

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Hyperlocal Marketing For Small Businesses

October 22nd, 2010

Hyperlocal marketing is a fabulous way for small, local businesses to get the word out about their products and services – both online and off – to their communities. This post will focus on how to gain online visibility in your local community.

Hyperlocal marketing – or should we say hyperlocal search – for small businesses


Local search is really gaining traction. More and more people are moving away from browsing through the local phone book and turning toward searching for businesses, services and products online. When they do, can they find you? Here are some Hyperlocal Search tips:

1. Create a local business center listing on Google, Yahoo and Bing. Make it robust with specific information about your services and products, pictures, videos and discount offers – and make sure to use relevant keywords in the appropriate places.
2. Optimize your website with the names of your town and surrounding towns.
3. Incorporate Google Maps in your website – you can even customize Google Maps to show your service routes.
4. Get listed in online directories.
5. Incorporate local events on your site.

Hyperlocal marketing or in this case hyperlocal search is a truly effective way for small businesses to target customers where they live and shop. For those of you who don’t have the experience or know-how to implement these tips, you can always reach out to your SEO consultant for help.

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What are Google Tags? How do Google Tags work?

August 2nd, 2010

Google Tags are a new way to help you enhance your web visibility. This post will explain exactly what Google Tags are and how they work.

What are Google Tags?


Google Tags are a new paid advertising feature for Google Places accounts. They are a way to enhance your local business listing on Google.com and Google Maps. A Google Tag is literally a yellow tag that highlights specific information about your business, such as a video, a coupon, or a weekly special and most importantly makes your business stand out! An example of what a Google Tag looks like is below:

See How Google Tags Make a Business Stand Out

See How Google Tags Make a Business Stand Out

How do Google Tags work


For a flat monthly fee of $25 you can select a type of Google Tag you would like to use to highlight your business. You can choose from:

· Photos
· Videos
· Coupons
· Menus
· Website
· Reservations
· Custom Messages

The type of tag you can select depends upon the information you already have included in your business listing. For example, if you want to highlight a photo, then you need to have uploaded photos to your listing. You can only select one tag at a time. However, you can change or remove a tag whenever you like which is great if you want to announce special discounts or limited time offers. You can even keep track of how well your Google Tags are working in your Google Places dashboard.

As more and more people are searching on the go, you may be happy to know that Google Tags will appear on mobile web searches.

Since this is a NEW advertising medium, Google Tags are a great way to get a jump on the competition. Keep in mind though, that Google Tags will only enhance your visibility if your listing is actually visible. If your business listing is not showing for keyword phrases that relate to your products or services, you may want to consult with an SEO company that can make that happen.

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Add a business to Google Maps to increase your web visibility in your town and beyond – if you use SEO

February 17th, 2010

As discussed in the last post, creating local business center listings on Google, Yahoo and Bing is a fabulous way to gain web visibility for your brick and mortar business – if those listings are created correctly by using the search terms real people are using in the right places.

Google Maps and SEO. The most important place to include those search terms is your business category. Google Maps provides great leeway here. Rather than limiting you to pre-selected categories, you can create your own. Be sure your category reflects the search terms real people are using for your industry, service or product. Google allows you to have up to five categories, so cover all of your bases. Below are some FAQ’s from our clients, which demonstrate why utilizing effective SEO techniques in your Google Maps listing is so important for web visibility.

Will prospects then find me with Google Maps if they type in my business category and the town I am located in? Generally, Google will include businesses in the town the person is searching for before extending a wider radius. For example, if you are a pizza shop in Anytown USA and the searcher types in “pizza anytown usa” chances are you will be one of the businesses Google displays. Your visibility and ranking, however, hinges on many things, such as: (1) how many local listings Google is displaying; (2) whether the searcher is searching on Google web (which limits the number of listings to one, three or seven) or Google Maps (which will show ten listings per page); (3) the number of businesses with the same category in your town; and (4) how well you optimized all aspects of your Google Maps listing.

Is it possible for prospects to find me if they type in my Google Maps business category and a neighboring town? This also depends upon various factors, such as the number of displayed listings, the amount of competitors, and how well you incorporated SEO into your Google Maps listing. Google displays some of the local business listings we have optimized for our clients when a searcher types in their business category and towns as far away as 50 miles from their brick and mortar location.

When you add a business to Google Maps, remember: the better optimized your Google Maps listing is, the better your web visibility. Google Maps and SEO are a combination you should not, and your business cannot, ignore.

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How does local search work?

January 29th, 2010

While our last post advised not to rely solely on a Google Local Business Center listing for web visibility and traffic, it did stress that we believe in its importance for our clients. We feel the same for Yahoo Local and Bing Local. Local search is a fabulous way to gain web visibility for brick and mortar businesses.

So, how does local search work? Google, Yahoo and Bing all offer a local search function. Type in a search term and a locale in the search box and you will usually see a map with several businesses listed next to it. For example, type in “cleaners Miami”. On each of the three search engines you will see a map of Miami at the top of the search results page with local cleaners listed next to it. These local listings are completely separate from the natural listings below them or the pay per click listings above or beside them. These listings provide addresses, phone numbers, links to websites, hours, information about services and products, photos, videos and more. They are a great way to get your business in front of prospects in addition to your website. And best of all . . . they are free.

How do you get a local listing? First you need to set up accounts with the search engines. Once that is done, you can create your listings. While it is possible to do this yourself, you may want to rely on an SEO professional to do this for you. Just like your website needs to incorporate the appropriate search terms in the right places to rank well, so does your local business listing. Local listings can be very competitive. Your SEO professional can help give you the edge you need to be at the top of the pack.

Today’s tip: Local search, when done correctly, is an important Internet marketing tool that should not be overlooked.

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What happened to Google’s local search results? How does their absence impact your site’s SEO?

December 27th, 2009

It appears that Google’s local search results for some categories – including Internet Marketing, Marketing, Advertising, SEO and Web Design – have completely disappeared globally. As a SEO/Internet Marketing company, we not only utilize and rely on traffic from Google’s local search, but also stress its importance to our clients. It is a little difficult to do either now that the search results for our categories are no longer there. Go ahead, try it. Type in Advertising Agency New York City or Marketing Los Angeles or Web Design Chicago. You will not see any local listings. Type in Florist Dallas or Dentist Boston and you will. The question is will they disappear also?

Where did Google’s local search results go? We have Googled this question and found two forums that address it:

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/maps/thread?tid=18b0412b6336989c&hl=en&fid=18b0412b6336989c000478bb9964569a

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/maps/thread?tid=19f4b0936485546a&hl=en&fid=19f4b0936485546a000478b7db1a7347

A Google employee suggested that the local search results for terms such as Marketing and Web Design are not showing up because there is not enough local intent. This answer makes no sense because until a month or so ago, local listings for these categories did show up and they are categories you can select when you create your Google Local Business Center listing. Until these listings disappeared, local listings even showed up if you typed in SEO Warwick New York, which includes a self-created category and a small town.

The lesson. Relying solely on a Google Local Business Center listing for web visibility and traffic is not wise. While we don’t understand what is really happening with these local listings or when this issue will be resolved, we do still believe in the importance of Local Business Center Listings for our clients. However, you cannot rely solely on them. You need to optimize your site with your locale also in case the local listings for your industry disappear as well.

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