Author: andrewsho

As you probably know, I have been on the lookout for signs that Google was squeezing local directories out of the SERPs. While the launch of Google+ Local is not necessarily the death knell for IYPs getting organic traffic, it certainly is yet another omen, kind of like what happened at Damien’s birthday party (that clown always killed me): Currently Google+ Local is subordinate to Google’s traditional (as of the past few months at least) Google Maps/Places/Pack results. When you…

For those of you following the drama from this morning, I thought you might enjoy this.  It really is a work of SEO art:

This is a test to see how Google indexes posts from my site v. crap sites like TheSamSchwartz.com which copies posts from my RSS feed and provides no attribution back to my site.  I have no idea if the Sam Schwartz Company sucks or not, but based on what they do with my content, I wouldn’t be surprised if they do.  Here’s hoping this post ranks #1 or 2 for their brand 🙂 Update: Looks like I fixed it.  But…

The subhead of the session is “Right Time, Right Place, Right Ad” Greg Sterling moderating Eli Portnoy: CEO, ThinkNear Anne Bezancon: President, Placecast David Staas: CEO, JiWire Staas: Jiwire rolling out free wifi in exchange for engaging with the brand’s advertising. Launching with British Airways, Comcast & Hyatt. Oh joy. Portnoy: Finds stuff around you so you can interact with it on mobile. Bezancon: 10MM+ opted-in users. Portnoy: Traditionally local advertising was at the DMA level. We define hyperlocal as…

Moderator: Anthony Ha of TechCrunch Angus Davis: CEO of Swipely Derek Webster: CEO of LocalBonus John Valentine: VP Local of LevelUp Webster: There are 50 start-ups trying to make loyalty punchcards obsolete. Valentine: Typical LevelUp merchant does about $1MM in sales, mostly restaurant customers. 60-70% of business comes from repeat customers. Difference between daily deals and loyalty is loyalty builds a lasting marriage with a customer vs. a one-night stand. Davis: We are no longer selling loyalty as a stand-alone…

Nitin Mangtani is the Product Chief of Google Offers and I am liveblogging his talk at StreetFight Summt West 2012. He tells a story about his kid pretending to open a restaurant and makes a sign with lots of stars reading “best restaurant of all” to try to get customers. Note to Nitin, your kid has already figured out how to spam reviews… Local commerce begins online: 97% of consumer research local products and services online before buying. A Consumer’s…

Liveblogging Laura Rich’s (CEO of StreetFight) keynote kicking off Street Fight Summit West 2012 Conference. The old guard forgot something really important: understanding consumers. Laura saw a Foursquare sticker on the window of a coffee shop in Boulder. Foursquare has hundreds of thousands of businesses using their platform, displaying their stickers, but no salesforce. Local consumers went to Foursquare and merchants followed. Laura is going over the conference agenda. Most interesting: a session with a Cyborg Anthropologist. Ok not much…

Lots of good stuff this morning on Google “Business Builder” – GOOG’s roll-up of high-powered SMB marketing tools slated to roll-out in July. Here’s a nice infographic from the Wall Street Journal: Mike Blumenthal has a nice overview and some healthy skepticism: “When this occurs the real Google+ Local will be rolling, not just a new location for a landing page, but a substntial improvement to the static and marginally functional Dashboard. Let’s hope that it is an integrated marketing…

There has been a lot of hub-bub since the Google+ Local hit.  I pretty much agree with what Mike, David, Greg & Chris have had to say on the matter.  And I pretty much agree with what I had to say on the matter about one year ago. While I have been pondering what this means for SEO, I have found myself more interested in what this means strategically for Google and Google+.  I was a big user of Google+…

I am in Shanghai this week checking out the SEO scene.  These guys rank #1 in Baidu for “shanghai seo”.  Thinking I may have to redesign my site to make it a little tougher.  If you are looking for some “brand hype” I can get you a good deal.