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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Some say we are on the road to Recovery. Some say otherwise so it depends on which side you believe. I will say this… continue reading »

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Whenever we learn about a blogger who focuses on local search, our goal is to give them an “atta boy” for keeping it real. Recently we ran across a website that we feel deserves a mention and a read, especially if you’re into bloggers and learning more about local search…

So without further ado, please meet GrowMap

GrowMap is a blogger who’s sole entention is to educate businesses about, you guessed it, Local Search. Today, more and more businesses are capitalizing on the benefits of local search engines. There are a lot out there and the question is, which one is best for your business…?

That’s why we’ve started What The Yahoogle, a place to learn more about search, local search and the best places for you to learn about Local Search. We’ve just started so stay tuned and check back often.

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Everybody loves a good David vs. Goliath story. And with Google being the inevitable Goliath, there have been many David’s to come along, but none have been able to take down the giant (so far). Nonetheless, it is still fun to sling rocks at the big guy any chance you can get.

continue reading »

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