Little old lady gets called for tech support…

I love reading the the Google Maps for Business Group postings. This one appeared under the heading, Phone Number Troubles. I’ll say. Recently we have run into a small problem with a women that lives in Sherman Oaks California (Which happens to live near one of our locations) Every time someone Google searches to find …

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Recent Posts about Local worth reading

Greg Sterling does the best strategic analysis that adds to understanding the big picture of Local Search. Two of his recent posts about Local Search that I found of particular interest: •Yelp Becoming a CRM platform •Local Numbers: Setting the Record Straighter Bill Slawski of SeobytheSea also offers incredible insights on Local but from the …

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Traffic to Google Maps increased by 26% from Jan. to Feb.

LeeAnn Prescott at Hitwise reports: Traffic to Google Maps increased by 26% from January to February 2007. It appears that this increase was due to an increase in upstream traffic from Google, which occurred on February 7, according to this daily clickstream chart shown here. Did anyone notice a change in how Google drives traffic …

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WSJ: Local Search Sites Draw Users’ Input

Today’s Wall Street Journal had an article titled: Local Search Sites Draw Users’ Input in which they: • extolled the value of Yelp’s reader reviews • reported on the trend of user generated content in local sites like Local.Yahoo.com, Yelp, InsiderPages.com • Offered up the Kelsey esitmate of $6.2 billion in local search advertising by …

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England mobile search doubles since April

m-spatial, in its most recent quarterly Mobile Local Search Index, has found that mobile searches in England, have doubled in the last quarter of 2006 compared to the first quarter “with Fast Food, Pubs & Drinking and Cinema topping the search league tables”. The report also noted siginificant seasonal shifts.

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Local Search Engine Marketing White Paper

Mary Bowling at Blizzard Internet Marketing, Inc. has recently published a white paper: Local Search Engine Marketing – Profitable Tactics for the Lodging Industry. From their presse release: You need a strategy for Local Search and, in this whitepaper, you’ll get detailed instruction on how to: Optimize your website for Local Search using both on-page …

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How accurate is Google Maps data?

There has been a recent upsurge in complaints about the accuracy of data that Google uses in Maps. There were recent (false) reports of hijacking, of very old & outdated listings not being removed and of complete bungling of a medical facility’s listings. The increase in complaints is due in large part to the increased …

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List of Google Maps categories

Update 02/11/10: 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 Update 10/13/2009: If you have found this old post then …

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