ionadas local LLC

Brian Combs Speaking at Austin eMarketing Summit

If you’re in town on Thursday, October 20th, the Austin eMarketing Summit is a Can’t Miss event. It’s an all-day conference at the Austin Convention Center.

I’ll be speaking at 1pm on “#winning with Google Places”. Come learn how to get your Google Places listing to the first page of Google for your most important keywords.

There’s great content throughout the day, and at only $119, it’s quite a bargain.

But, I can make that bargain even better. If you put the coupon text EM95 in the Discount Code field during registration, you’ll get a price of only $95!

Coupon for PubCon Vegas 2011

In our opinion, PubCon Vegas is the best internet marketing show of the year. Great location, great content, and a great price.

And with this coupon from ionadas local LLC, the price is even better!

It is good for 15% off, and is valid until 10/21/2011. The code is placed in the “offer code” box at the bottom of the first registration form page and will automatically deduct the correct percentage off of the registration price.

Coupon Code: bc-4592015

ionadas local at PubCon Vegas 2011

Our favorite conference of the year is coming up quickly, PubCon Vegas. Brian Combs will be at the show all three days, and can be found at the following sessions (all times local):

Tuesday, November 8th

10:00am-11:15am: National Company – Local Focus, Salon C (panelist)
11:30am-12:45pm: Google Places & Hotpot Optimization, Salon G (panelist)
1:30pm-2:45pm: How Do You Optimize For Universal and Personal Search?, Salon A (panelist)

Wednesday, November 9th

1:00pm-3:00pm: PubCon Labs

Thursday, November 10th

10:15am-11:30am: WordPress SEO & Installation, Salon G (moderator)
1:30pm-2:45pm: Protecting Your Brand – Competitive Intel, Salon B (moderator)

Note: Locations are subject to change, so check the schedule there.

See you in Vegas!

Research: Google Places Heatmaps

For the last few months, ionadas local and Sentient Services have been engaged in research in the local SEO space. The survey uses heat mapping to reveal how the reader’s eye typically tracks geographically-based search result content, giving web developers and advertisers valuable insights into creating page layouts optimized to attract and retain viewers’ attention.

It was to be the first published survey of eye tracking patterns as applied to local search techniques. We planned to publish the research under a Creative Common Attribution 3.0 license.

Twelve days ago, however, Google released Google Place Search, and completely changed the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) for local queries. One could argue that this invalidates our hard work.

“No so fast!” I retort in my best Lee Korso voice.

There are currently multiple page types for local queries. One of them draws much of its structure from the old 7-pack. It’s reasonable to assume that many of our findings apply to this new SERP as well.

And our most surprising finding certainly still applies. The conventional wisdom has been that the map itself should be one of the greatest draws on the page. Our research found that the map actually receives very little attention. Most people hardly notice its presence at all.

If anything, this should be even more the case with the new SERPs. Google has moved the map to the right, where paid advertising usually languishes. Most users have spent the last fifteen years learning to ignore that part of the page. I believe it is unlikely to be noticed now.

So, even with the changes, we’re publishing our research report and the heatmaps:

• Research Paper (.pdf, 11.1MB)
• Heatmap One (.jpg, 147KB)
• Heatmap Two (.jpg, 152KB)
• Heatmap Three (.jpg, 135KB)
• Heatmap Four (.jpg, 127KB)

This research and this report are © 2010, ionadas local LLC and Sentient Services, LP.

They are being published under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license, allowing businesses, organizations and individuals to download, use and reproduce the data in their own promotional and research efforts providing proper attribution is made.

Proper attribution means listing the above copyright statement and including links to www.ionadas.com and www.sentientservices.com for web usage. For other uses, the copyright statement, www.ionadas.com and www.sentientservices.com must be listed.

Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from ionadas local LLC.

Free Workshop: Online Reputation Management

Learn how to manage your company’s reputation with search engines, social media networks, blogs and other online media.

Details:
Tuesday, April 27th at 11am, Dave & Busters, Austin, Texas

This workshop will help you to:

• Monitor the internet for conversations impacting your business.
• Know when and how to engage in conversations online.
• Push problem search results down the page so that they receive less traffic.
• Avoid the potential pitfalls in online reputation management.

The workshop is free, but space is limited, so sign up today!