Understanding Google My Business & Local Search
Entries Written By Mike Blumenthal
Is all search local?
I did an interview with Rand Fishkin yesterday that was published at SEOMoz.org. One of the questions that came up in the interview was: There have been estimates that nearly 40% of all search queries have some sort of local intent – to what degree do you think that’s an accurate estimate? Here is the …
Google SMS now providing Residential Numbers- Goog-411 to follow soon?
I recently received a text from Google that their SMS system is now providing public residential phone listings via a text message. Simply enter a name, city & st. or zip and text it to 46645 (GOOGL) and you will receive back a complete residential listing including the phone and street address. Can a Goog-411 …
Local Links of Interest
Local Searchers Hunt for Ideas, Not Categories – Brian Wool, ClickZ In recent weeks, bloggers and others have discussed how consumers are adopting a new way to use local search engines, Internet Yellow Pages (IYPs), and local directories. Actually, it’s not so much how consumers use local search products but how their search queries are …
Local is “over rated” – Local is “under rated”
This was mostly written as a response to comments in my interview with Miriam at SEOIgloo. I realized that I can only write so many words before breakfast so I have posted the comment slightly changed here. There are those who say that “local search gets no respect, it should be important to all” and …
Local Links of Interest
Your content on Google Maps Jess Lee – Google Lat Long Blog Over the past 11 months, people have created more than 9 million My Maps, encompassing a total of 40 million placemarks. That’s an impressive 1 new placemark created every second! We never anticipated that people would become so interested in mapmaking, which used …
Google Groups Upsell to Adwords
The following snippet from the Google Maps For Business Owners Group highlights one of the intrinsic conflicts of interest that Google confronts in all of its properties. While they are unwilling, particularly in Google Maps, to provide any guidance on best practices lest they give away their secret sauce, they do want you as an …
Google Coupons Expiration Date Bug Workaround
In December I reported a Google Maps Coupon Bug where if you entered an expiration date the coupon would never show up. It appears that the bug still exists although in slightly less virulent form. There have been a number of reports in the Google Maps For Business Groups where if you select an expiration …
Local Links of Interest
How To Get On Google Maps Without An Address – Chris Silver Smith, SEL [Google] essentially said that they should try to get an address in the city because Google did not display businesses that didn’t have addresses—after all, he quipped, one can’t pinpoint something without an address on the map. He suggested that those …
Captive Viewers+Demographic Knowledge+Location Awareness= AppleTV2’s Targeted Local Ads?
While reporting on Apple’s mobile strategy at MacWorld I was enamored by the elegance and usability of Apple’s AppleTV2. It solved a problem that we didn’t know we had (how to avoid driving to BlockBuster), was easy to use, very cool and consistent with Apple’s overall strategy of using the computer (or 2) as the …
Google Maps Category Mystery Part 3: Solved?
Update 02/11/10: Google has dramatically updated their category syntax. These Google LBC categories have now been placed in a searchable database too located on the Google LBC Categories page of my website. Update 12/20/09: I have a new list of current categories at Google Local Business Center Categories – The Complete List The most oft repeated complaint and …
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