I look at Yahoo Local rarely and report on it even less. However, my lack of attention to it doesn’t mean that Locksmiths are not interested in playing there. And while this is old news, with Google Places having become a difficult place for them to play, locksmiths have moved on (for the most part) to the next easy pickings. I am sure that the exposure is not as great but a small fish is better than no fish at all and one can still marvel at their audacity.

Jeff Magner of Trumpet Local Media pointed out this search for watch repair in Boulder, co at Yahoo that turns up locksmith spam even in categories as unrelated as watch repair. When you do search on Locksmiths the results are “impressive” with the top 4 listings each showing more than 450 reviews each.

Since Yahoo’s algo so heavily favors review count, they appear to be in an arms race with number 3, Boulder Locksmith Service 24/7 having gathered over 400 reviews since the first of August… a clip of almost 7 reviews a day…. The number of their reviews alone amount to 1% of all households in Boulder. The top 4 listings have procured reviews from over 5% of the households. No small task that.

Obviously, as Jeff pointed out in his email, this decay doesn’t just affect the locksmith listings but has moved out and is polluting other categories as well. I recognize that Yahoo has other things on their plate. But unless they are going to proactively manage local they should be selling it off to Microsoft as well.

Related posts:

1. Yahoo Responds to Affiliate Spam Issue – as do I
2. Google Maps Vs. Yahoo Local Smackdown from a programmer’s perspective
3. Yahoo Local makes me feel good

David’s valuable survey of local search opinion is now available for 2010. As always its filled with nuggets and ideas and needs to be carefully read.

Related posts:

1. 10 Likely Ranking Factors of Google’s Local Search Algorithm
2. Local Search Ranking Factors 2009 Now Available
3. Loci 2008: David Mihm’s Significant Local Posts of 2008

I am frequently asked: Which reviews sites should I send my clients to? Which one should I pick?

My answer: think about your customers needs first (easy, choice), think about your business needs second (leverage) and consider using as many sites as make sense.

I asked this question of David Mihm, Local SEO expert, and his response was:

The syndication value of reviews on well-spidered portals like Citysearch, InsiderPages, and DexKnows appears to me to outweigh any special ranking given to Google’s own reviews (which are of course not syndicated). Additionally, I think Google places extremely high trust in reviews it finds on leading vertical portals like TripAdvisor, Healthgrades, and Avvo.

I strongly agree with David’s premise. Citysearch by virtue of its extensive syndication and still strong visitation puts its reviews almost everywhere (for a list see the end of this article). Citysearch uses Facebook Connect for its login making guaranteeing that most of your clients have a login at the ready and its reviews show up regularly and quickly in Google Maps. By virtue of pervasive syndication, Citysearch reviews have as much as 15% more exposure than a review written in Google Maps.

I would also recommend adding Yahoo Local to David’s list. Many users already have a Yahoo login making it easy for them. More importantly Yahoo Local reviews are the only reviews that show in the Yahoo Universal results. If maximum exposure is the objective then showing in Yahoo Universal (plus Google & Google Maps) results in far greater visibility that even the total exposure to review provided by Citysearch.

Should you use Yelp or Google?

There is strong sentiment in the SMB world against using Yelp for a number of reasons. I though would suggest that it be a business case decision rather than an emotional one. Yelp can be considered either a very large vertical review site or a very small general review site. In certain industries it is critical and in certain markets (SF, NY) it is widely popular. If you are in the restaurant business or in a market where they are popular then I think you should offer it as choice to your clients. Yelp does effectively bury reviews from new reviewers AND does not syndicate their reviews to Google. That all being said, I am sure that the customer can make a reasonable decision as to whether to use Yelp or not.

In the hinterlands and in many service related businesses it has yet to have much impact particularly when you consider the very limited syndication of their reviews. I recently added it as a choice for my small jeweler because she asked me about them. I assume that if she is now interested her clients are as well.

Google is a harder question. Since they don’t syndicate their reviews, their total review exposure is less than even smaller review sites like InsiderPages, Judy’s Book or Angies List. They also have the most restrictive removal process of any of the major sites. That being said many of your customers have the appropriate login, trust Google and they are rapidly increasing their review base…

So where does that leave you? Here’s what I created* for Barbara Oliver & Company Jewelry review page on her website (it would work equally well via email) :

We’ve found that customer reviews are very helpful in keeping our business thriving so that we can keep crafting the jewelry you love. We would truly appreciate a review from you!

Visit your preferred site to leave a review or comment. If you already have a GMail, Yelp or Yahoo Mail account, choose one of those. You may use your Facebook login at Citysearch & Insider Pages. Otherwise a quick registration at Citysearch or Insider Pages might be easiest.

• Citysearch Review
• Insider Pages Review
• Google Maps Review
• Yahoo Review
• Yelp

What would you change?
——————————————————-

Here is a (partial?) list of sites to which Citysearch syndicates:
Search Engines & Directories

• Google
• Bing Local
• Yahoo Local
• MapQuest?
• YP.com
• Superpages
• Local.com
• Merchant Circle
• City Grid

Mobil

• WHERE
• Buzzd
• go2
• Living Social
• Loopt

*I have in the past extolled Miriam Ellis’s web copywriting skills. She also helped me with the phrasing on this page. As in all of her work, she did a yeomens (yeopersons?) job of copywriting on my behalf.

Related posts:

1. Which Restaurant Review sites are used by Google Maps?
2. Review Sites in the Restaurant World – Updated Feb 2008
3. Review Sites in the Restaurant World – Dallas vs. Buffalo

I have recently added a new local account, The Option House Restaurant in Bradford, PA, the next town over. I soon discovered that they while they had a new business and a stellar local reputation, their on-line reputation was less than savory .

Sam Sylvester, the dapper 75 year old owner, moved back to his home town after 55 years of world travel, for help & support caring for his terminally ill wife. After her death and with the help of Rosie (his high school friend) as a marketing manager, he embarked on on a whole new life, but this time in Bradford. This spring, he opened a lively pub and cosmopolitan restaurant in an early 1900′s building that he had meticulously restored.

Bradford, PA was home to one of the first oil booms in the US. and in the early years of the 20th century, oil field owners would stop into the Option House for lunch and to trade oil contracts. It became an elegant depression era Vaudeville stop before falling on hard times in the 1990′s and early 2000′s. When it was shuttered it had become a less than reputable bar on the first floor and a flop house on the upper floors.

In a few short months early this year, after months of restoration, Sam  opened the restaurant to rave local reviews. It doesn’t take long in a small town like Bradford for an excellent restaurant to become wildly popular.  But as I soon found out, after contracting to build a new website, their on-line reputation reeked of sleazy rooms and a disreputable bar. From their Yahoo Local review (here is the Google cache):

On-line reviews have become the double edged sword of on-line marketing for many small business. Greg Sterling repored on recent research that Online Reviews Influence 84% of Americans. They are a reality that impacts sales whether they are truthful or not, current or not, spammy or not. I decided to see how Yahoo would respond to my desire to have the review noting service to underage drinkers pulled down.

Yahoo, like Google, has a link next to each review to report abuse or inappropriate content. However, unlike Google, Yahoo has in place a real customer relation process that is communicative, thorough and fast. Within minutes of noting my issues with the review I received this email from Yahoo:

Hello,

This is an automated message regarding your recent request for Yahoo! Local Customer Care support. Your message was received, and you will hear back from us within the next 48 hours with an answer.

Thank you for reaching out to us. We look forward to helping you!

Sincerely,
Yahoo! Customer Care

Similar to their communications when I list a business with Yahoo, it was a prompt albeit automated response that was friendly and offered the promise of a solution within 48 hours! I have become cynical about customer service, particularly in Local Search, in our times but I could hope. This morning, 24 hours after requesting removal I received this from Zach Daemon at Yahoo:

Hello,

Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Local.

We appreciate your report of potential violations within Yahoo! Local. We have completed our evaluation and have taken appropriate action, as per the Yahoo! Terms of Service and the Yahoo! Local Review Guidelines. For further details on Yahoo!’s policies, we invite you to visit the Yahoo! Terms of Service along with the Yahoo! Local Guidelines.

Please know that we cannot disclose any action taken on another user’s account. We’re unable to make exceptions to this rule.

As always, please feel free to continue to report any potential violations within Yahoo! Local.

Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Local.

Regards,
Zach Daemon

The review was taken down. Yahoo’s behavior in this matter contrast sharply with Google’s review removal antics. There are a number of reasons why Yahoo’s behavior makes perfectly good sense and should be the model that any website with a review process in place should follow. It was quick, it was communicative, it was fair and leaves the business owner with not just a sense of relief but trust. Most importantly, however, it will improve the user experience. Isn’t that what search is about? Google would be well served by following Yahoo’s lead.

A quick abuse report submit, 2 emails & a blog post later I can now move on to helping the client market their business on an even playing field. If you are ever in Bradford, stop in and tell Sam that I sent you.

Hats off to Zach Daemon and Yahoo.

P.S. I know that I promised a critique of Google’s review policy. But rather than rehash old gripes I will send you to recent postings detailing my complaints and my (the ever constructive critic) suggestions to improve the review removal process.

Related posts:

1. Google Maps Vs. Yahoo Local Smackdown from a programmer’s perspective
2. Yahoo Local makes me feel good
3. Comparing Yahoo & Google Market Share in Local

Ahmed Farooq is the founder of iBegin.com. He has created, sold and recreated significant local web properties several times over. I communicate almost daily with him about his and my activities and I have found no one to have a better handle on the technical and social issues that confront local nor a better idea on how to build honest businesses within the space. From where I sit, his youthful influence and creative vision makes him the person to watch in the coming years. He writes at his blog, Tech Soapbox.
*********

No particular order.

1. http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml – All in all, one of the best articles to start at with local search. Any time a friend asks for help in local search – this is what they get.

2. http://www.davidmihm.com/blog/general-marketing/local-seo-citation-is-new-link/ – After they are done with the previous link, this is what they get next. I think it really sums up local optimization – get cited and you will succeed.

3. http://blumenthals.com/blog/2008/10/30/microsofts-listing-in-google-maps-hijacked-oops-by-me/ – As a company, my thinking seems to be going towards the popular grain (no longer a fan of reviews or most UGC). Mike found an excellent example on how UGC is far from perfect.

4. http://blumenthals.com/blog/2008/08/04/ranking-factors-in-google-maps-cracking-the-code-smx-local/ – I’m fully expecting Mike to make this a bi-annual-updated presentation

5. http://gesterling.wordpress.com/2007/10/16/no-yelpers-says-one-local-cafe/ – I absolutely stole this off of Greg’s list, but it kind of underlines what I was trying to say with Mike’s hijacking of MS. It became even more pertinent after the entire Proposition 8 skirmish on Yelp (and I actually agreed with Yelp removing those reviews).

6. The various posts on Google Mapspam. What makes it sad is that the payday spam is still there – hell, one of the businesses listed for ‘cash advance new york city’ is a parking page!

7. http://blumenthals.com/blog/2008/12/16/in-the-trenches-the-reality-of-smb-marketing-bruces-sew-handy-interview/ – kind of smacks the DIYers (of which I am one of) in the head.

8. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/22/business/media/22carr.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1229965464-/0AeK+vUHW2muJIXWmFHcA – I really like this one – kind of about focusing on your strength, not your weakness.

9. http://gesterling.wordpress.com/2008/12/09/google-lbrr-going-out-of-business/ + http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/google-local-business-referrals-is-shutting-down/1377/ – I’m surprised no one mentioned this. It was a potential black eye for Google, but every one seemed to have moved on quickly about it.

10. http://www.localseoguide.com/botw-local-greg-hartnett-interview/ – the established SEOed sites are coming. Trust me, I know. Prepare for local data dilution like you could have never imagined

11. No story specifically, but where-o-where are Yahoo and MSN? I think Yahoo’s accomplishment in local this year was releasing data by a company they bought out.

12. http://blumenthals.com/blog/2008/12/17/merchant-circle-has-trouble-getting-it-right/ + http://blumenthals.com/blog/2009/01/09/why-google-has-trouble-getting-it-right/ - MerchantCircle and Google (!) start astroturfing on blogs. Mike is pretty tech-savvy and keeps a keen eye on commentators – how many other blogs have been hit by such comments? It kind of speaks for how big online local is becoming when people start pull such behaviour.

Related posts:

1. Does Local need to be held to a higher standard? Ahmed Farooq Responds
2. Loci 2008: David Mihm’s Significant Local Posts of 2008
3. Loci 2008: Matt Cutt’s Important Local Articles of 2008

Steve Espinosa, the world’s biggest Chicago White Sox fan, local search expert and a frequent speaker on Local at the many conferences, has just rolled out a new local search site called Local Search News. It will be an everything local site with both tactical and strategic information on Google Maps, Yahoo Local, Local SEO, Mobile and Local Search.

It looks to become a staple in the world of Local Search.

Related posts:

1. Local Links of Interest: Local Search News goes mainstream
2. Local Search
3. Nominees in Local Search category: 2008 SEMMY Awards

Related posts:

1. Loci 2008: Matt McGee’s Favorite Articles in Local Search
2. Loci 2008: Matt Cutt’s Important Local Articles of 2008
3. Most Read Posts of 2008

Eric Enge has an informative and detailed interview today with Frazier Miller and Shailesh Bhat on the inner workings of Yahoo Local.

There were many items in the interview of interest and a number of notable contrasts with Google’s fully automated system.

Some of the highlights:

- Yahoo Local relies very heavily on the licensed feeds that they get through data providers like InfoUSA, Acxiom, and Localeze and these should be the primary sources for maintaing data accuracy in your Yahoo record.

- They “have human and manual moderation that goes on for changes, so … submissions all go through a moderation process where we look for patterns and we actually do validation of data to make sure it is accurate”. Google could learn from this approach!

- Categorization and consistency of keywords across data sources and your listing are key to ranking

For more key points from the interview ….

- For a business the only way to “lock down a listing” is to become a paid business partner with Yahoo.

- They do geo-code verification so a listing will be rejected if the address doesn’t code to an actual location. (Something that Google has yet to implement)

- The best way for businesses to insure that the data in Yahoo is accurate is to “one of the things that we encourage our businesses to do is to update the backbone providers when they have a change in information.” This applies to multi location businesses as well as single location operations.

- Yahoo manually moderates merchant and end user submitted changes

- They are validating the business URL to prevent showing an intermediary business (and prevent affiliate fraud).

- Yahoo is not using microformats as a way of extracting location information for Yahoo Local at this time

- “The distance parameter in itself is definitely one factor, but I think it is a slightly overrated factor in many cases. Categorization, I think, is especially important because of the way queries get generated.”

- In ranking, categorization is key. Yahoo looks to websites and the business listing description that owner provides “that the categorization is correct when there is a submitted listing on the self-service side”. “Where the merchant has not provided any data, but we have data from other sources, we essentially look out for the degree of agreement between various sources. That is one heuristic element that helps us in figuring out the right category.”

- “Product keywords in the record are very important [in affecting rank]. Reviews, ratings; essentially you could say depth of content when a merchant submits a listing is a factor that is useful.”

- Their web index does not play a huge role in ranking for local

- Mobile search on Yahoo’s oneSearch uses the same data set as Yahoo Local but will bias factors like distance or if known location in returning results.

-They’ve seen a 200% increase in geo-targeting advertisers in the last twelve months at Yahoo. “People have gone from state level and DMA level, which we have today, and are increasingly looking at things like city level and zip level. ”

- As they get more granularity in Local (ie move to more local specificity) there is a lack of advertising inventory and they are attempting to aggregate more ad quantities with outside exchanges via Yahoo Advertising Network

Related posts:

1. Mapping Marketshare: Maps Up, Mapquest Down & Yahoo Local is UP!
2. Yahoo Local makes me feel good
3. Google Maps Vs. Yahoo Local Smackdown from a programmer’s perspective

Does the IYP/online business directory market share matter or has the battle already been decided? Has this category been relegated to just another niche search area where money can be made but market dominance is not possible?

A recent press release noted that www.local.com, ranked fifth in the Business Directories online industry category. This was based on the Hitwise analysis of market share of U.S. visits received at the internet yp sites in Q1, 2008. Greg Sterling at Screenwerks noted the other sites in the category as ranked by Hitwise in their results:

Business and Finance – Business Directories
1 maps.google.com
2 www.yellowpages.com
3 www.whitepages.com
4 local.yahoo.com
5 www.local.com
6 www.infospace.com
7 yellowpages.superpages.com
8 virtualearth.msn.com
9 www.switchboard.com
10 www.yellowbook.com

I have small quibbles with these IYP comparisons. Maps.google.com has a tendency to be over counted due to its integrated mapping function and Yahoo tends to be undercounted due to the fact that it splits its local, yp and maps products into different urls. A resolution to this methodology issue is likely to move Yahoo local closer to first in this list but these are small details.

I see a much bigger problem in that it appears to me the battle for local business listings has already been won and not by the properties on the Hitwise list. These comparisons are simply measuring who has 1st, 2nd and perhaps third of the remaining, ever declining market share left to them by market leaders Google’s and Yahoo’s universal search results.

Here is my math….

The Google Main search results generate roughly 65 times the pageviews of Google Maps. If the Local Onebox is shown on 10% of all queries then Google’s market share in the IYP sector would be 650% greater than the number one spot on the list, Google Maps. If the calculation were based on visits as opposed to page view it would show Google’s share as less but still dominant.

If you factor in Yahoo’s 15% market share and a similar 10% display rate, their blended results for business directory results on their main search results would be 100% greater than the number one spot in the list. Thus 60% or more of business directory queries may be handled by the blended results of Google and Yahoo main search pages and their local internet products. That qualifies as market dominance in my book.

While these numbers are very rough estimates I think that my logic is basically sound and if anything the numbers are conservative. The actual number of queries which show the Local Onebox could be much higher, as high as 25%. This calculation even ignores Google Earth, the Plus Box, GOOG-411, GoogSMS and adwords serving as business directory proxies.

While the battle for business directory dominance on the desktop may have been decided, the battle is being fought again in the mobile arena. However even there Google and Yahoo apparently already have the basics of dominance at hand and seem to have an insurmountable market share lead in search that will define the outcome. The Nielson study noted that in the mobile market, “29 percent of Google users and 24 percent of Yahoo users were looking for local listings”.

Perhaps I am missing something here. What do you think?

Related posts:

1. Comparing Yahoo & Google Market Share in Local
2. Mapping Market Share
3. Google Maps gaining market share vs. MapQuest

When Will ‘Mobile Search’ Overtake the Internet? - Greg Sterling, LocalMobileSearch.net

While it might take some time for mobile to pass Internet search in the US or Western Europe, in context of the entire world it’s not hard to imagine mobile search volumes exceeding the desktop Internet, in the aggregate, within 5-7 years.

Google Goes Back to ‘Opt-in’ in Mobile - Greg Sterling, LocalMobileSearch.net

When Google first launched mobile AdWords it was an opt-in program: advertisers specifically had to choose to be in mobile sponsored search results. Then, in a fairly well publicized move, Google decided to make mobile an opt-out for AdWords advertisers:

The company informed me last week that it has gone back to an opt-in policy for mobile at the present time.

I also discussed with Google the degree to which the desktop and mobile might ultimate become more similar than different, in the context of “full HTML” browsers (Safari, Opera, Skyfire, Mozilla, Android). We’ll see. As I’ve tried to argue in the past, while there are some advantages in that scenario for users there are considerable disadvantages for advertisers — chiefly because online ads get lost and become very difficult to see.

The iPhone is probably the model of how smartphone browsing will evolve: native applications + full HTML browsing. But that still doesn’t solve the problem for advertisers seeking to effectively reach mobile audiences.

Move Over Universal Search, Illustrated Search Is Smarter? - Bill Slawski,SEObyTheSea

The authors of these patent filings refer to this approach as a “smart aggregation of search results by concepts.” In addition to helping searchers quickly understand different concepts related to their queries,and view different relevant content types from different sources, is also that focused advertisement can be presented.

What Google’s ZIP Code Targeting Means for Local Businesses - David Mihm, davidmihm.com

I take a look at some of the implications of this development, and expand on an earlier hypothesis about why Google introduced the 10-pack to Universal search in the first place. Yes, ZIP code targeting means more relevant results for searchers, but it’s an innovation that might not be entirely altruistic.

Related posts:

1. Local Links of Interest
2. Local Links of Interest
3. Local Links of Interest