By Matt McGee on Oct 6, 2008 in Local Search | 0 Comments
Timed to coincide with a local search session at SMX East, Greg Sterling posted a Q&A about Google Maps and local businesses on Search Engine Land today. If you’re a small business owner with questions/concerns about your local business listing in Google Maps, I’m guessing this Q&A will have some helpful, interesting information.
One of the questions that Google’s Eric Stein answers is about how to handle situations when one small business purchases or merges with another:
Q: How do you handle mergers? We purchase/manage many facilities and need to change their name and contact info. But the third party sources make changing the name almost impossible. We were told by one third party submission company that we had to pay them to change the company name and if we stopped paying the monthly fee they would switch back all our data to the old inaccurate data. In the end if we don’t pay the information is not correct and the users get less relevant results.
Google: You should claim the old listing in Local Business Center, by finding the listing on Maps, clicking More Info, Edit, then Claim Your Business. Then, once you’ve claimed the business, update the name and contact info.
If you can verify neither the old/acquired business’s address nor phone number, then you should create a new listing with the new info, again using LBC. If the old listing continues to show alongside your new one and you can’t claim/verify it, you can click More Info, then Edit, then Remove Place to flag the old listing for deletion.
The whole Q&A is very detailed like that. Definitely worth five minutes of your time.
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By Matt McGee on Oct 6, 2008 in Directories | 6 Comments
GroupThink is where I turn the blog post over to you.
DMOZ, AKA the Open Directory Project, has long been thought to be dead by most of the SEO community. “Submit and forget about it” is the common advice we’ve been giving out for a couple years now; obsessing over getting that trusted directory link just isn’t worth it. Worse, just last week Google dropped a part of their webmaster guidelines that recommended getting a link from DMOZ (and Yahoo).
But there may be life yet in DMOZ. Just last week, a post on the DMOZ blog hints that big upgrades are coming soon:
What does AOL have planned for DMOZ in the near future?
While it’s not quite ready for its prime-time debut, we can tell you that we’re actively working on an all-new DMOZ that incorporates an updated UI and an overhauled back-end infrastructure.
So, I’ll pose the question to you (those of you who aren’t busy at SMX East): Is it too late to save DMOZ? Can the Open Directory be revived and become more than just a “submit and forget it” link target?
Comments are open!
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By Matt McGee on Oct 3, 2008 in Google, Local Search, Statistics | 3 Comments
One of the slides in my 90-minute Local Search Workshop presentation shows market share among the major mapping sites. I’ll need to update that now, thanks to new data that Heather Hopkins of Hitwise shared with me this week:
The chart shows the gains Google Maps is making on MapQuest, and how both Yahoo and MSN Live Maps are lagging far behind in this category.
Google Maps also received some high praise this week from financial analysts. I wrote much more about all of this today on Search Engine Land:
Google Maps: #1 In Features, Market Share Rising
You can also read more reaction on TechMeme.
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By Guest Author on Oct 3, 2008 in SEO | 5 Comments
[Editor's note: I've been meaning to invite guest posts here on SBSM for some time now, but obviously never got around to it. Knowing that I'm a huge fan of the TV show LOST, Bryan Phelps emailed me this week asking to do a guest post about my favorite show and SEO. My answer: You bet!]
Hi, my name is Bryan Phelps and I’m a LOST-aholic. With the new fall line-up of many TV shows starting, I’m reminded that LOST is still months away from the start of its new season. As I thought more about it, I realized LOST isn’t so different from SEO. Here are five ways that LOST and SEO are much alike.
5. LOST (much like Google employees) rarely provides answers to your most burning questions. Still wondering what the deal is with that four-toed statue on LOST? Try getting a clear answer about the sandbox theory out of Google.
4. Your client’s framed, flash-based, robots-blocked website is like LOST Island. Nobody is ever going to find it.
3. SEO’s are just like LOST fans. We all have theories … some better than others. Remember the theory that PPC ads will help your organic ranking? It’s about as likely as LOST island being purgatory.
2. Google’s algorithm is like the infamous “smoke monster”. It’s elusive, mysterious and could destroy you at any given time. Never stare it directly in the eye.
1. Evil Masterminds? Only time will tell…
Your Turn: Can any LOST fans out there think of other similarities?
Bryan Phelps is the Manager of SEO Services at OrangeSoda.com, a small business Internet marketing company.
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By Matt McGee on Oct 2, 2008 in Small Biz Marketing | 0 Comments
Can I take a mulligan? Seriously, I just blew it on the September recap of great articles and blog posts, because this piece from John Battelle on the Amex OPEN Forum belongs at the top of any small/local business owner’s reading list:
Think Local, Act Conversational - It Just Might Save Your Business
Let me ask you this: When was the last time you put your small business name into Google and looked at the search results? I hope you’re doing that regularly — maybe once a week, but certainly no less than once a month.
That’s what John does in his article — he puts the name of one of his favorite local businesses into Google and examines the results. What did he find? A lot of missed opportunities.
Don’t miss opportunities.
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By Matt McGee on Oct 1, 2008 in 2008 Best Posts | 7 Comments
Time again for a roundup of the best search/marketing posts during September. I’m particularly pleased with this one because there are a lot of authors and blogs that you probably haven’t seen in previous recaps. Expanding horizons = a Good Thing.
If you’re new to SBS, this is a monthly feature. You can find earlier “Best Of”s for each month in the archives. Only rule is that my own posts are not eligible.
Small Business
Local Search
Link Building
SEO
Social Media
PPC
Blogs & Blogging
Google
Online Marketing/General
LOL Funny!
Rants
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