Small Business Search Marketing

We don’t live in a 5-star world. Think about it: Even your favorite restaurant messes up sometimes. Even your favorite doctor, grocery store, or book store has a bad day. We all do.
So why do small business owners think that negative reviews are the kiss of death online? Why do retailers, manufacturers, and local [...]

This is just a quick “heads up” that I’ve updated my post:
The List: Local Search Industry on Twitter.
The list now has more than 80 locally-oriented search marketers, companies, analysts, web sites, etc., that can be found and followed on Twitter. Have a look at the list, and if you think you belong on there, [...]

During all the coverage of Microsoft’s new “Bing” on Search Engine Land today, David Mihm wondered what Bing looks like on a search for locksmiths in NYC and hoped maybe MSFT would clean up the spam a bit. Apparently not:

Here’s the thing: The switch to Bing apparently doesn’t include an algorithm/relevance update, only changes to [...]

If you’re a small business owner, chances are pretty good that Local SEO matters to you. If you think it would help to understand how Google and Yahoo rank web sites in their local search results, please check out the Local Search Ranking Factors 2009, published today by David Mihm.
I’m one of 27 SEOs that [...]

Have a look at what I came across while poking around on some local search queries last night:

That’s a search for “seattle italian restaurant” and, nope, I’ve never seen a TinyURL link used in a local business listing on Google (or any search engine, for that matter). This isn’t Google’s doing — the business owner [...]

As we continue to watch the Google Maps vs. MapQuest battle royale for online mapping supremacy, it seems that determining the winner depends on when you look. Hitwise says that, yes, Google Maps has passed MapQuest twice in its weekly measurements since the start of April, but MapQuest wins the other weekly measurements. But when [...]