Maps | Westchester Internet Marketing

GOOG-411 Shutting Down

Posted on 11. Oct, 2010 by Westchester Internet Marketing in All Local Search Posts, Internet Marketing & Local SEO, Maps, Mobile

Driving home this afternoon I dialed-up Google’s free ”411″ service and heard a disappointing announcement; 1-800 GOOG-411 is being discontinued on Nov. 12.

I suppose it was just a matter of time, but I’ve been a fan of this speech recognition powered service for several years; it’s #9 in my cell phone’s speed dial, and I speak to it (and the importance of claiming the related local business listing) in my Local Search seminars.

But with the explosion of smart phones (and Android powered devises in particular) they’re now more efficient means to obtain your local business results, including voice search and voice input (see my related post, here).

Apparently, GOOG-411′s days were numbered from the beginning: one of its primary missions was to gather as much voice data as possible for the purpose of fine-tuning and training the Android speech recognition program.

Filed under: All Local Search Posts, Maps, Mobile

iPhone, Android & Local – according to me…

Posted on 25. Jul, 2010 by Westchester Internet Marketing in All Local Search Posts, Internet Marketing & Local SEO, Internet Yellow Pages, Maps, Mobile

I’ve finally broken my pesky iPhone addition – but it wasn’t easy. Multiple so-called “iPhone killer” devices have come and gone (and I have nothing against my iPhone necessarily) but it wasn’t until last week that I found a worthy challenger.

My attraction to the newest Verizon-powered Android phone, the Motorola Droid X, are the well documented features; it’s processor speed, the larger screen, various Google app integrations, flash support and the calling network (I’ve really missed my superior Verizon coverage since moving to AT+T two years ago).

As amazing as the iPhone is – my frustrations with AT&T call quality and connectivity left me no choice. Admittedly, I’ve also grown bored with it, so last week I decided to take the Droid X out for a 30 day “test drive” – and after just one week I’ve gone ahead and ported my number away from AT&T and become a happy member of the growing Android family (which is adding 160,000 activations per-day). I’ve since learned that there are really very few (if any) sacrifices made in my switch (but I do miss my Citibank app, as well as my iTunes and email threads). As a matter of fact, certain features like widgets, Google’s voice recognition, GPS navigation and multi-tasking are actually a great up-side. It’s definitely taken some getting used to, and the battery life is very poor, but overall I’m very happy. Yes, the iPhone is “elegant”, but my new Droid X just “works” better in many ways.

As this blog’s dedicated to the business of “local search”, here are some comments and observations from that perspective)…

Voice recognition software makes search on this device extremely easy; either via Google maps, my contacts, or the Internet. I can also dictate text or email message this way – and it’s surprisingly accurate. The software allows you to simply push the home button, tap on the “voice search” icon and speak; on my iPhone, I was forced to use an app that required cutting and pasting the text after I spoke (so I rarely used it) . This is a significant advantage and I’m shocked that Apple has not come up with a comparable solution yet.

One adjustment I’m still making involves the fact that everything works so differently, and I mean everything. Also, there are multiple ways to accomplish every task. Generally speaking, it’s much faster (not really a fair comparison as I was on the iPhone 3G).

Google maps, which has always been one of my most used mobile apps, has some different features; after a quick spoken request, your presented with business results that offer large icons for dialing, getting street-view, or spoken GPS navigation.

The navigation itself is awesome, I’ve used in conjunction with my Tom Tom on several trips last week and it’s just as accurate. An added bonus – it speaks the name of the streets for my turns. It also has something called “layers”, which adds a number of other features to your journey including gas stations, restaurants, traffic, etc. Pretty cool.

Yelp is another application I use frequently. As with Maps, the voice recognition software makes this app easier and faster to use.

IYP’s also operates a bit differently - most Publishers offer widgets with voice-search. Yellowbook.com is one of the top app’s on Android, and offers extra features not available on the iPhone-like augmented reality, maps integration and an app called Adafixx. Adafixx brings an interesting angle to finding a local business by implementing caller i.d. and offering related business suggestions when busy numbers are reached. The advertiser videos on the Droid X screen are fantastic.

Google Googles if another application found exclusively on Android. Although I haven’t used it much yet, enables you to identify local stores or businesses simply by pointing your phone’s camera at the location. From there, you can tap on the picture to learn more about the business, contact them, or save it to your contacts. The impressive part is once you inside that business you can use the application to identify products, comparison shop or identify various product details.

The iPhone initiated the local search shift to mobile - but I think Android will finish the job.

Click here to read a more complete review.

Filed under: All Local Search Posts, Internet Yellow Pages, Maps, Mobile

Local Search Ranking Factors: Volume 3 Released.

Posted on 09. Jun, 2010 by Westchester Internet Marketing in All Local Search Posts, Internet Marketing & Local SEO, Internet Yellow Pages, Maps, Optimization, Social Networking

We’ve seen Google re-brand its Local Business Center as Google Places, begin to show an incredible number of Local-related results for nonspecific search phrases, a handful of review controversies involving Yelp (an increasingly important search engine for business owners to pay attention to), signals from Facebook that they’re about to get involved in Local in a major way, and an explosion in the number of location-aware applications and “games” like Foursquare and Gowalla.

It’s getting harder and harder, even for the Local SEO experts polled for this survey, to keep up with all the developments in our industry. I think all of us empathize with small business owners who are not only trying to understand how to use the Internet to market their business, but also to run it.

Google Places, Yahoo Local, and Bing Local remain critical places for search visibility, though–and if anything, the increasing complexity of the space makes it even more important to get the opinions of the practitioners who follow Local most closely about what can improve one’s ranking in the Google, Bing, and Yahoo Local algorithms, as well as techniques to be avoided. This year’s edition of the LSRF contains responses from 34 prominent bloggers and practitioners.

See the entire article here.

The results.

Filed under: All Local Search Posts, Internet Yellow Pages, Maps, Optimization, Social Networking

Local Internet Marketing is Complicated!

Posted on 29. Mar, 2010 by Westchester Internet Marketing in All Local Search Posts, Automotive, Business-to-Business, Classified Sites, Food & Dining, Health & Medicine, Home Services, Internet Marketing & Local SEO, Internet Yellow Pages, Legal & Financial, Maps, Mobile, Optimization, Pay-Per-Click, Professional Services, Real Estate, Recreation & Entertainment, Retail, Social Networking, Travel & Transportation

David Mihm’s illustration representing the “local search” relationships makes a great point: this business of local search marketing is complicated!

In my experience, the typical local business owner doesn’t have the time or expertise to effectively manage online advertising investments - as illustrated in the recent Search Engine Land article ”Local Search Complexity = SMB Frustration“.

Not only do you have numerous, complex supplier/directory relationships – but the continued fragmentation which is taking place keeps everyone on their toes! Search Engines, social networking, blogs, directories and Internet Yellow Pages, mobile, vertical and hyper-local sites, etc., etc., etc. Additionally, there are website design issues, analytics to keep up with, billing reconciliation, A/B testing, optimization and many other time-consuming elements. Oh, and by the way – let’s not forget about the day job! It can be challenging, to say the least.

This is the primary reason so many third-party providers have jumped-into the game over the past several years – there is a void to fill; an overwelming demand to hand off this business of Internet marketing to a trusted advisor. Problem is: exactly who can you trust? The local SEO expert? Your website design guy? An out-of-work executive or moonlighting sales rep? The phone company, the local newspaper publisher, your tax software company? All these characters are now in the game!

A word to the wise: be careful with whom you choose to work with! Here are a few quick tips:

Stick with a well-known firm. Check their history; how long have they been in the Internet marketing business? Is it one of their core competencies?
Was the term “guarantee” used in their pitch? If so, run for the hills!
Are they charging you for free services like Google Maps, or worse yet – taking “credit” for those leads/clicks?
Is there a monthly recurring management fee? And if so, is it based on a percent of your overall budget? Hmmmm - could be a conflict of interest…
Are they willing to provide full transparency and reporting?
Are testimonials, references or case-studies from happy clients available?

Filed under: All Local Search Posts, Automotive, Business-to-Business, Classified Sites, Food & Dining, Health & Medicine, Home Services, Internet Yellow Pages, Legal & Financial, Maps, Mobile, Optimization, Pay-Per-Click, Professional Services, Real Estate, Recreation & Entertainment, Retail, Social Networking, Travel & Transportation

Internet Marketing Tips from a Local Business.

Posted on 22. Nov, 2009 by Westchester Internet Marketing in All Local Search Posts, Internet Yellow Pages, Maps, Optimization, Retail, Social Networking

Recommended reading from the HuoMah SEO Blog -

The post’s author actually owns several local stores in Hawaii, including Wave Shoppe. The post is well written and dead-on. Some great advice and perspective from a real local business owner.

Local marketing from a business owner’s perspective

This post was written because, I felt you could use a break from all of the clawing and hair pulling that search geeks normally subject each other to on a daily basis. While I am an apparel designer at heart, I’m also a mom and pop small business owner with a physical store and a website – in the trenches if you will.

One area that I really enjoy playing in, (with web marketing) is the Local stuff. As such, I have a bit of Local Marketing wisdom, that I would like to share. So, why don’t you hop into the trenches with me and I will give you a tour of Local SEO from a small business owner’s perspective, as well as comments on some things that could maybe even make you some money in the future.

People selling Local services need to be sensitive to that fact that Local marketing can be one of the most affordable and lucrative things they can engage in. Much of the on-line local listings are free, or for a very nominal cost, and many are permanent.

More here…

Protecting Your Brand and Local Online Growth -

Posted on 16. Nov, 2009 by Westchester Internet Marketing in All Local Search Posts, Internet Yellow Pages, Maps

Internet Yellow Pages sites (“IYP)” saw a more than 23% jump in usage last year, they are growing faster than overall search engine usage. In fact, Yellowbook.com was just named one of the three fastest growing online ad companies in the U.S. by Borrell Associates.

Combine that, with the fact that 45% of those searching on these sites follow-up with an actual purchase, and you’ll start to realize how IYP can be so valuable to local businesses. A recent post on Search Engine Land discussed the topic of “protecting your brand” - it’s worth the read.

Essentially, local businesses need to be aware of how they are represented in these local online directories. Duplicate or incorrect listing can easily be corrected, and competing brands can be addressed.

In a related topic, TMP released it’s annual local-search research and identified Google Maps and Yellowbook.com as the two local online properties with the most significant growth in 2009:

New Google Local-Search Launched for Mobile.

Posted on 01. Oct, 2009 by Westchester Internet Marketing in All Local Search Posts, Maps, Mobile

Yesterday, Google announced ”a redesigned local search experience on your phone that integrates with Google Maps on your computer and includes browseable categories that let you search without typing”.

I’ve got an iPhone, and I’ll say that Google Maps is one of my single favorite mobile search tools – my only complaint is that like most other search engines, it still does not offer a a complete, accurate list of all businesses (like an IYP). I suspect that’s due to Google’s reliance on businesses proactively adding or claiming their local business listings.

Here’s more information on Google’s announcement:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_62nFjUW7Q&feature=player_embedded]

Location Extensions – A New Way to Run Local Ads.

Posted on 25. Jul, 2009 by Westchester Internet Marketing in All Local Search Posts, Maps, Pay-Per-Click

From Google this past Friday:

Today, we’d like to tell you about a new way to run your local ads – location extensions. Location extensions allow you to “extend” your AdWords campaigns by dynamically attaching your business address to your ads. This new feature will be fully available in the coming weeks, with some advertisers having access to the feature starting today.

If you’re a business owner, you can set up extensions by linking an AdWords campaign to your Local Business Center (LBC) account. If you’re not the primary business owner of the locations you’re advertising, you can manually enter addresses directly into AdWords. For example, a clothing brand that distributes to a number of different stores might want to associate their ads with various store locations through extensions, even though their official business address doesn’t correspond to those addresses.

Once extensions are set up, we’ll dynamically match your business locations to a user’s location or search terms and show the address with your text ads. If we’re unable to determine a user’s location or if there are no relevant addresses to show, we’ll simply show your ad without an address. If you prefer not to dynamically match addresses to your ads and would rather show a specific address in one particular ad, you can do so by setting up specific location extensions for individual ads. Your ads can show with their relevant extensions on Google and Google Maps and as regular text ads without the extensions on partner sites in the Search and Content Networks.

With the introduction of location extensions, local business ads will no longer be a separate ad format. Instead, you can simply create new local ads with extensions from scratch or add extensions to your existing text ads. For those of you who have existing local business ads, your ads will continue running as long as you don’t edit them. If you edit a local business ad, it will be converted to a text ad with the ad’s address attached as a location extension. The new converted ad will look identical to the local business ad and will appear in the same places as your local business ads. AdWords Editor will continue to support the creation and management of local business ads, and we plan to launch Editor support for location extensions in a future release.

To learn more about location extensions, please see the location extensions overview section of the Help Center.

My earlier post on adding your Business to Google Maps/Local Business Lisings

Online Restaurant Reviews: Make or Break.

Posted on 22. Jul, 2009 by Westchester Internet Marketing in All Local Search Posts, Food & Dining, Maps, Social Networking

From Wpromiter:

In a slowed down economy with tightened consumer spending, drawing in customers becomes an even more challenging task for many companies. Low prices and high quality products no longer guarantee customers, and the importance of word of mouth becomes even more valuable to businesses. Today’s post on the Wpromoter looks at the ways restaurants and brick and mortar shops in general can leverage online review sites to their advantage. And best of all, it’s free.

While for many Americans, 50% of all meals are prepared outside the home, a recent Zagat Survey shows that 33% of people said they are eating out less and being more sensitive to menu prices. Without a doubt this has effected how restaurants managers have chosen to run their business, often adding new items or specials to their menu, redesigning the restaurant’s decor, or even retraining staff. But these efforts only go so far when restaurants turn a blind eye to what people are saying about them online.

Why It’s Important

For any restaurant, an online review and presence is just as important as the physical appearance. Monitoring a reputation online is important for two major reasons, accuracy & reviews. How accurate is the information about your business online? Are the menu prices, address, phone number & business hours correct? Or is there conflicting information from a recent move or change in management? A business is potentially losing business if incorrect phone numbers and addresses are online.

Now to customer reviews, are negative reviews of your business coming up #1 on Google? Negative reviews are inevitable, but it’s how a business responds and improves from the feedback that makes the difference. As reported by Rubicon Consulting (and noted on Marketing Pilgrim, word of mouth and online reviews are the most influential factors in consumer purchasing decisions.

Where To Start:

A. Control: Controlling your business profile is the first step. Most web sites like Yelp.com or Yahoo! Local make it very easy for business owners to control their listing. Yelp has a Business Owners Section and Yahoo! Local offers its Basic Listing for free.

Once you set-up your profiles or verify existing profiles, make sure your business’ contact information is accurate and consistent. That means if you are in Suite 860, Suite 860 should be written on all of the web sites, not #860, Apt. 860, Apartment 860, etc. Once you have basic information filled out, add in more multimedia; appealing photos of your business or video often work great!

A nice feature that Yelp offers it that once registered, it will keep you informed of new reviews, messages, and the number of views you business page has received.

B. Prepare & Interact
Prepare yourself for the worst and take the reviews with a grain of salt. Don’t try to sue customers for negative reviews. There will be harsh words, and even potentially fake negative reviews (possibly from your competitors). If the web site allows you to respond to the reviewer directly, consider doing so as it may look great from a public relations perspective and really have been an anomaly as to why the customer had such a negative experience at your establishment. On the other hand, thank users who gave you a positive review! The customer has taken time out of their busy schedule to write a positive review for you. Go the distance to acknowledge such loyal customers.

C. Encourage Feedback & Focus Your Efforts
Encourage customers to review your restaurant. Consider adding a print out with receipts, posting a sign on your business window, or leaving an old-fashioned suggestion box for people to write in their comments. You may be surprised at how willing people provide their feedback when asked.

And lastly, how far does the rabbit hole go? Online reputation management is an industry of its own. There are technically thousands of business review type of web sites online and monitoring each one can be a very time consuming task. Focusing your efforts to the most trafficked web sites is particularly important. Here’s a quick checklist of suggestions on how to manage your online reputation if you only have one hour a week to spend.

1. Search On Google And Yahoo! For Your Restaurant

What comes up first? Is it your official web site, a page on Yelp, UrbanSpoon, Yahoo! Local or another result? Scan through the result, if there’s a negative review see if there’s a way to address it.

2. Move On

Move onto the next search result. Is this page a business listing? If so, do you already control it? If not, can you control or verify the page? Is all of the contact information updated, accurate and consistent?

3. Interact

Interact where you can, respond to negative reviews and thank customers who provided you with positive reviews. Add on to the pages with new pictures, specials and anything else. Ideally, in time these pages will continue growing with unique and positive content about your business and fill with dozens of positive reviews.

Claim Your Free Google Maps Listing!

Posted on 19. Jul, 2009 by Westchester Internet Marketing in Automotive, Food & Dining, Maps, Optimization, Retail

There is no one single meathod to guarantee your complete local on-line visibility, but one important component is Google Maps.

When Google detects a local search query, their Maps (“Local Business Listings”) results are usually triggered. This can be a great source of leads, and potentially reaches both your recommended and new customers.

Google 10 pack

So, how does one attempt to get included? This is perhaps the question I get most often, and the answer is simple, but may also appear to be a non-answer, as there’s never any guarantee.

Visibility is even harder to maximize in competitive industries and/or cities. As this article illustrates, you can influence your chances by optimizing your site for local search (local terms, address, phone number, etc), but at the end of the day your consistent inclusion is still largely dependant on one large uncontrollable; the Google algorithm.

One critical step is something you can control - ”claim” your local business listing.

This 10 minute process starts by searching for your business listing on Google Maps. Use your Business name, City name and State abbreviation. Once found, click on “edit”, and follow the links to “claim your business”. You’ll be asked to create a Google account (if you don’t already have one), very simple.

Next, you’ll be prompted for some information like business catagories and keywords – complete this step with care as it’s an important factor in determaining your relevancy for various searches! Don’t forget to complete the other information like hours of operation, etc.

One tip: upload your logo and video (if applicable) - it also helps you stand out!

Finally, you’ll be asked to confirm all the information via a password. You have two options; complete instantly through an automated phone call from Google (choose only if you can answer your business phone), or by a postcard which will arrive in about two weeks. From there, you’re good-to-go!

The importance of this process was detailed in a recent survey of industry professionals, here. One other note; there have been many documented cases of business listings being ‘hijacked”; or claimed and redirected to competing businesses. Although Google is working on this and other “Map Spam” related issues, the sooner you complete this process the better! When combined with Internet Yellow Pages inclusion, Search Engine optimization and PPC advertising you’ll be on your way to achieving an effective local Internet marketing campaign!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjeCmHwqVpU&feature=player_embedded]

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