Where: http://maps.live.com/
What: Unlike its two counterparts, MSN uses a 3rd party — Verizon’s Superpages.com — to provide paid advertising listings.
Paid ads appear at the top of the search results in the left column (see red circle in above image), but that’s the only bit of advertising to be found on the page. These ads are provided by Superpages.com, a business directory owned by Verizon. My sample “hair salon near Fresno, CA” search produced just one ad, and it was relevant. To the right of the paid ad and an initial set of business listings is a large map with businesses plotted to match the results on the left.
How It Works: Live Search Maps, as it’s called, begins with just one text field on its search form, but adds several extra links on the home page for functions like getting directions, browsing business categories, and exploring “Collections” — user-created map content.
Like Yahoo and Google, MSN’s local search results page uses a two-column approach. One columns shows business listings (and paid ads), the other uses Microsoft’s Virtual Earth service to display locations of those listings. Business listings come from publicly available white pages and yellow pages.
How to Market:
A) You can add your business listing through MSN’s Local Listing Center. When you begin that process, the first step is to check if your business is already listed. If not, the process to add the listing is simple. In addition to the basic business information, you’ll be able to add additional web page URLs, email addresses, as well as business hours, payment methods accepted, a tagline, up to 10 photos of your business, and more.
After you’ve submitted a new business listing, MSN Local will send you a confirmation code by snail mail. The last time I did this, the confirmation letter arrived in about 2-3 weeks. You’ll need to enter the code back into the Local Listings Center to activate and confirm your business submission.
B) At the moment, MSN’s pay-per-click advertising service, AdCenter, does not supply any paid ads into Windows Live Local. Instead, the paid listings are supplied by Superpages.com. While Superpages.com does offer free business listings and pay-per-click advertising, my guess is their relationship with Windows Live Local will come to an end as soon as AdCenter is ready to provide paid listings for local searches. If you want to advertise on MSN Local’s Live Search Maps, you’ll have to decide if you want to wait for AdCenter to be ready or to sign up now with Superpages.com and switch later when MSN does.
