Local Search Marketing Strategies

Local search marketing has grown extensively over the past couple of years and is expected to grow even more moving forward. While this growth has opened up many opportunities for marketers, it has also created challenges.

At the Online Marketing Summit in San Diego, Ian White, the CEO of Urban Mapping, spoke with WebProNews about local search marketing tactics. He explains how his company provides a solution to help marketers with their local efforts.

The service that Urban Mapping offers extracts geographic keywords from specific areas. It provides keywords such as names of churches, schools, landmarks, hospitals, and more.

As mobile technology advances, White said services such as this would become increasingly important. Although most mobile devices are equipped with functions that recognize location, it doesn’t mean that every user knows how to use the technology. In addition, many users may want to use local search for locations other than their own.

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Yahoo on Coming Changes to Ad Platform

Google has been the dominant player in search advertising for a long time, but is Yahoo and Microsoft about to shake things up with their joint effort? Only time will tell, but one thing that is certain is that the online marketplace will definitely see many changes in the coming months as Yahoo and Microsoft implement their search agreement.

The advertisers that use Yahoo’s ad platform will soon be migrating to Microsoft’s adCenter. The full transfer is anticipated to take place over the next 24 months and will begin in the U.S.

According to David Pann, Yahoo’s Vice President of Search Advertising, the company hopes to have the U.S. migration completed in time for the holiday season this year. However, if meeting that timeline means sacrificing quality, Pann told WebProNews that Yahoo would simply move the timeline to ensure the highest quality transition.

After the deal is implemented, Microsoft will be in charge of the core advertising platform for both companies, which specifically includes matching, ranking, pricing algorithms, and more. Yahoo, on the other hand, will maintain its responsibility for the consumer experience.

Speaking about the benefits of the deal, Pann said it was a “win” for advertisers, consumers, and publishers.

“It’s really a win for advertisers with a single buy getting access to more inventory, it’s a win for consumers for a greater relevance, and it’s a win for consumers and publishers since they have greater access to a new set of participation and inventory.”

In spite of all the changes the deal will bring for advertising, Pann was quick to say that Yahoo is still innovating and would continue to do so.

Keep watching WebProNews for more on Yahoo’s current innovations as well as information on company’s mobile and real-time efforts.

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Leveraging Natural Search

Since there are now so many different ways for people get to websites, natural search has become increasingly difficult over the past few years. Seth Besmertnik, the CEO of Conductor, talked about this idea with WebProNews and explained what search marketers need to do to leverage the changes.

In past years, SEO focused on content and keywords. However, when Google came along, the game changed. Google introduced links in relation to content and more.

Today, organic search is even more complex with personalization, real-time search, social media, and other new features popping up rapidly. As a result of the complexity, Besmertnik emphasized the need to have a scalable infrastructure that tracks everything.

He said this is critically important for businesses that want to compete in natural search. In addition, businesses that want to find synergies between their marketing efforts need to make sure they make the most of one area before they add more and complicate matters.

Besmertnik used the analogy that “you have to have bricks before you can build a wall.” Ultimately, companies will not be able to successfully blend efforts until each is established.

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Yahoo Details Implementation of Search Deal

Now that Yahoo and Microsoft have been granted regulatory approval for their search deal, what happens now? That is a question that many people in the search industry want answered.

Just for a recap, Microsoft will power Yahoo Search and Yahoo will become the exclusive search advertising provider for Microsoft’s search engine, Bing. Recently, WebProNews had the opportunity to sit down with Shashi Seth, the Senior Vice President of Yahoo Search Products, to learn more about how the alliance between the two companies would be integrated.

First of all, Seth points out that the full integration will take between 18-24 months. As it takes place, he is quick to say that users will continue to receive a compelling search experience from Yahoo that goes beyond the traditional search page.

In spite of the partnership, each engine will maintain its individual areas of focus. For Yahoo specifically, Seth says, “…What our users will continue to find is that not only can they find that great content that resides on [the] Yahoo network on Yahoo Search, but also that we can take people from Yahoo Search to the appropriate properties etc., in the right context…”

According to Seth, users will likely see slight modifications to Yahoo Search over the next several months as the Microsoft integration is completed. However, the companies have not yet decided if they will do a major launch with new features and functionalities.

There are still many questions regarding Yahoo such as the company’s level of commitment to search, implications on advertisers, future innovations, and more.  Keep watching WebProNews for more information on these very issues directly from Yahoo.

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Driving Traffic with Domain Names

According to Monte Cahn, the Founder and President of Moniker, finding the right domain name is key in driving traffic to your site. At SMX West in Santa Clara, Cahn talked to WebProNews about several issues surrounding domain names.

He said specifically, “It’s not all about SEO and SEM strategies, but without the right domain name, you’re really not going to be successful on the Web.”

Since there is so much talk of 301 redirects, how do people know when to use them and when to build up a domain name? Cahn says people should always use 301 redirects for various misspellings of the brand’s name.

On the other hand, he advises companies to build out subsites for their products or services. By doing this, companies can take advantage of link juice and use the links and referrals to drive SEO value.

One of the biggest mistakes brands make with domain names is not being proactive when they release new products or services. Cahn gives examples where both Microsoft and Apple released products before checking on the availability of the domain. If companies wait until after they announce their new product or service, chances are the domain name price will skyrocket.

Is your domain name driving traffic to your site?

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