Comments on: When Local Search Isn’t Really Local

By: Matt McGee

Matt McGee — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 16:58:28 +0000

It is a problem, copywriter, and I suspect it may only get worse as the big, national advertisers begin to move in to the local search space — both on the paid and the natural side.

By: copywriter39

copywriter39 — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 05:32:07 +0000

One of my clients is a local florist and much of her business comes from local search. Ironically those purchasing flowers online are primarily customers from out of town looking to have flowers delivered in her locale. We are constantly monitoring the competition and have found that many aren’t local florist shops. Instead they are florist who have no connection to the community. This article highlights something that may impact a number of local businesses, not just florist.

By: Matt McGee

Matt McGee — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 06:00:38 +0000

Thanks for the comments and links, Cathy and Miriam. I’m glad to see this got some exposure on other sites, too.

By: Flowers from Minneapolis/St. Paul... or Somewhere « LocalMN Blog

Flowers from Minneapolis/St. Paul... or Somewhere « LocalMN Blog — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 22:59:11 +0000

[...] Flowers from Minneapolis/St. Paul… or Somewhere Sean McGinnis pointed me to a couple of really good posts last night - one regarding out-of-state call centers posing as Chicago florists, and then Matt McGee’s take on it labeled appropriately, when local search isn’t really local. [...]

By: Miriam

Miriam — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 01:54:25 +0000

Good catch on this one, Matt.

This is similar to the frustration of finding top 10 results filled with price comparison results rather than actual websites. Grrrr. I believe I recently read that Google may start filtering out these types of results…however, that’s not of much help in this local issue.

Monopolies are no fun. Bad for all of us.
Miriam

By: Cathy

Cathy — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 13:03:54 +0000

Hey Matt -

Thanks for picking up on this story. Unfortunately, publishing phony local flower shops isn’t new: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/flwralrt.htm The web has only increased the opportunities for these types of ‘order gatherers’ to dupe consumers.

Yahoo Local’s featured listing plan is pitched as being available only to real local businesses. Yet apparently for the right price, a company can insert local remote call forwarded numbers and list themselves as being ‘in’ cities across the US: http://www.google.com/search?as_q=&hl=en&num=10&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=Exceptional+Flowers+%26+Gifts&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=local.yahoo.com&as_rights=&safe=images This particular company’s site is hosted by FTD, who also makes a cut on each sale.

Consumers trust publishers not to intentionally deceive them. They also trust national floral wire services, but as you can see, that trust is misplaced, too.

Local florists are not inclined to give these publishers ad dollars when they’re so willing to promote phony local competitors.