Local Marketing
22.12.2009
Local Marketing, Local SEO
The locksmith industry has traditionally been one of the most spammy spaces on Google Maps. Google has been trying to crack down on this space for some time, but in September 2009, I performed an analysis that showed that the listings were still of extremely poor quality.
I performed the same analysis today, and the results have improved greatly:
| Factor Examined |
09/04/09 |
12/22/09 |
| Is the listing for a local company |
35.85% |
64.29% |
| Does the display name match the website name? |
60.47% |
82.05% |
| Does the display URL match the website URL? |
90.70% |
89.66% |
| Is the listing name keyword spam? |
47.17% |
23.81% |
| Is the listing spam? |
64.71% |
35.71% |
This is a significant improvement. The percentage of spammy listings has been cut almost in half, while the percentage of local companies listed has increased by a factor of 1.79.
In addition, I did not find a single duplicate listing, whereas three months ago six of the listings were duplicates within the same geography.
Even not including the spamming, this is a tough, in-fighting industry. There were many instances of negative reviews seemingly written by competitors and positive reviews likely written by the company itself.
And three of the listings included reviews from competitors stating that such-and-such company was not licensed (in those cases, I couldn’t find any evidence that the companies in question was licensed, so it might be wise to stay away).
Even if you think this is Google’s responsibility to police, it’s going to be difficult to clean up. It certainly makes accurately evaluating locksmiths rather difficult, however.
By city, here are the number of spam listings:
- Austin: 1 spam, 6 non-spam
- Dallas: 2 spam, 5 non-spam
- El Paso: 0 spam, 6 non-spam, 1 off-target
- Fort Worth: 5 spam, 2 non-spam
- Houston: 1 spam, 5 non-spam, 1 borderline
- San Antonio: 6 spam, 1 non-spam
San Antonio takes the title from Fort Worth as the spammiest city in Texas (for “locksmith” keywords, at least).
There’s still room for improvement, but I need to give Google credit. They’ve made significant improvement. The number of misleading business listings within Google Maps seems to be declining.
08.12.2009
ionadas local News, Local SEO
ionadas local is sponsoring MarketMyBizOnline.com’s December Lunch & Learn, titled SEO 101: Search Engine Optimization Basics for Business Owners and Entrepreneurs. It will be held on Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 from 11am to 1pm at Dave & Busters in northwest Austin.
Jane Dueease of MarketMyBizOnline.com will discuss:
- What is SEO and Why should it matter to you?
- Organic vs Paid Search
- Keyword Research 101: How to find the killer keywords for your site
- 15 Simple things you can do to SEO your site
- How to Think like a Search Engine
- Great ways to “Measure” your SEO value
- Do it Yourself SEO vs. Hiring it Out
For more info and to RSVP, visit seo101austin.eventbrite.com/.
ionadas local’s Brian Combs will be available to answer questions on Google Maps Optimization either before or after the seminar.
07.12.2009
Local SEO
Vanessa Zamora of PubCon interviewed Brian Combs on optimization for Google Local last month in Las Vegas, NV.
03.12.2009
Local PPC
Today, Google announced that they were suspending their trial of Local Listing Ads. No new signups are being accepted, and the current ads will cease running sometime in mid-December. My understanding is that advertisers are not being charged, even if their campaign ran beyond the thirty-day trial period.
Google plans to use the lessons they learned to:
make further improvements to our online marketing offerings for small businesses, and plan to release an enhanced version more widely in the near future.
Mike Blumenthal reports hearing that click-through rates were low, but can’t imagine that Google wouldn’t have a paid offering in this area.
I can’t help but think back to Google’s ill-fated Click To Call offering.
I also suspect Google underestimated the amount of help local business owners would need, both pre-sale and post. Google simply isn’t configured to provide such customer service.
Without question, Google will return to local paid listing, but I expect it to look very different than Google Local Listing Ads.
02.12.2009
Local SEO
Every year, Google announces the top searches for the year. This year, they added info on searches for particular cities. Here they are for Austin:
- gradespeed austin isd
- ut blackboard
- birds barbershop
- long center austin
- aplusfcu
- cap metro
- bass concert hall
- travis county jail
- austin radiological association
- acl 2009
I’m sure Birds Barbershop gives a great haircut, but how the heck did they end up number three?
