While Google still is the dominating search engine, local search is growing by leaps and bounds. 40% of all searches have a local intent – that is a number all businesse should sit up an notice!

Americans conducted 15.4 billion searches in March, with Google Sites accounting for 65.1% search market share, followed by Yahoo Sites at 16.9%, and Microsoft Sites at 11.7%. The Ask Network captured 3.8% of the search market, followed by AOL with 2.5%.

So where does this leave Local Search? As a searcher’s location becomes a standard bit of metadata to be factored into the PPC bid process, geotargeting is likely to become the norm. On the other end of the geotargeting search equation, we see that landing pages are somewhat neglected. Survey results showed that few marketers were taking advantage of geolocation-specific messaging once the searcher clicked through. For retailers, in particular, this is a huge missed opportunity.

Social sites can also help marketers find consumers that purchase wine, clothing and cars. “People who have expressed intent are accessible here,” he says.

Video also presents another opportunity. More than 174 million U.S. Internet users watched online video in February, according to comScore Video Metrix. Video viewers on Hulu watched content on average 2.4 hours per viewer.

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As you all know, we are fans of local search – we’ve written about it, we have even partnered with a local search directory called MyLocalLookup. Well, we now have something new to tell you about. It’s called Local Proud! continue reading »

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Having worked around the country with small businesses, I am finding more and more small business saying no to a website for their own business. And many consumers seem not to think less of them for doing so, according to Discover Small Business Watch. continue reading »

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Well, maybe it’s not all that new but we are finding more and more search directories like this one. WTY has stumbled upon a very nice little restaurant directory – and if you live in Texas, you’re going to love this site… continue reading »

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It’s the buzz everywhere… Local Search! How does one get their business involved with local search and make it work. That is the million dollar question… continue reading »

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2009 has proven to be a tough first half of a year, though retail advertising jumped in July with increase spending on search ads for the first time according to agency Performics. And Microsoft’s newly revamped search product Bing may be an indirect beneficiary of that growth. continue reading »

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I read an article today titled CPSA: The New Pricing Model For Social Media? on MediaPost and I found it to be very good, especially for those people who are still trying to grasp all the ways of advertising online… continue reading »

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