{"id":1928,"date":"2009-01-13T06:00:56","date_gmt":"2009-01-13T10:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/?p=1928"},"modified":"2009-01-13T11:42:07","modified_gmt":"2009-01-13T15:42:07","slug":"loci-2008-ahmed-farooq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/13\/loci-2008-ahmed-farooq\/","title":{"rendered":"Loci 2008: Ahmed Farooq"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ahmed Farooq is the founder of iBegin.com<\/a>. 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,\u00a0Tech Soapbox.<\/a>
\n*********<\/p>\n

No particular order.<\/p>\n

1. http:\/\/www.davidmihm.com\/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml<\/span><\/a> – 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.<\/p>\n

2. http:\/\/www.davidmihm.com\/blog\/general-marketing\/local-seo-citation-is-new-link\/<\/span><\/a> – 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.<\/p>\n

3. http:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/30\/microsofts-listing-in-google-maps-hijacked-oops-by-me\/<\/span><\/a> – 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.<\/p>\n

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

5. http:\/\/gesterling.wordpress.com\/2007\/10\/16\/no-yelpers-says-one-local-cafe\/<\/span><\/a> – 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).<\/p>\n

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!<\/p>\n

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

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

9. http:\/\/gesterling.wordpress.com\/2008\/12\/09\/google-lbrr-going-out-of-business\/<\/span><\/a> + http:\/\/www.smallbusinesssem.com\/google-local-business-referrals-is-shutting-down\/1377\/<\/span><\/a> – 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

10. http:\/\/www.localseoguide.com\/botw-local-greg-hartnett-interview\/<\/span><\/a> – the established SEOed sites are coming. Trust me, I know. Prepare for local data dilution like you could have never imagined \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

12. http:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2008\/12\/17\/merchant-circle-has-trouble-getting-it-right\/<\/span><\/a> + http:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/09\/why-google-has-trouble-getting-it-right\/<\/span><\/a>\u00a0– 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1,13,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-google-maps-google-local","category-uncategorized","category-loci-significant-articles-local-search","category-yahoo-local"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t