The local search marketplace continues to grow rapidly. Local is growing at a faster percentage rate than general search. Additionally, changes in search patterns show that consumers are becoming better and smarter searchers, moving from simple one- and two-keyword searches to more specific four- and five-keyword searches.
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Mark Jackson recently wrote an article about linking consistency in (what else would it be called) “It Pays to Link Consistently” on the Search Engine Watch site. As an enthusiast of local search and an avid learner of all things search engine marketing, this article sounded a bit techy, but I thought it best to give it a whirl. I would like to think that I have a semi-descent grasp on matters of search engine marketing- a fifth grade level in the matter, at least, so I was pleasantly suprised to find that the tips and advise throughout the column were magnificently dumbed down (I mean that in the nicest way, though. Really). Mark could have gone into a schpeel using some very techy jargon that would have left me feeling proud that I got through the article…even if I had no clue what it was about, but instead the tips that he used included simple ways to make your homepage address more user-friendly. Instead of having a homepage that says. www.example.com/index.html, it should be www.example.com, what people will REALLY be linking to. Otherwise, if you have two different ones, like the above, you lose out on “link credibility” (maybe that’s like street cred?), and have to deal with some “cred” going to one link, while the rest goes to the other. BRILLIANT. I’m not going to pretend that I can actually apply this to anything I do, but will definitely store it in the ‘ol noggin for future endeavors. Thanks Mark, way to sink to my level.
Today’s New York Times discusses a declining online advertising industry and credits the economic downturn for the industries woes. The article cites the following statistics:
While banner investments on ad networks have declined, search engine marketing appeared unaffected. Google’s revenue in the United States was up thirty percent from last year, while Microsoft’s and Yahoo!’s online revenue jumped 29 and 9 percent respectively. A majority of search engine revenue comes from search advertising.
Google Maps has added a More tab to enhance a users expererience. If you click on the More tab on Google Maps, you now have access to geo-tagged videos, pictures and Wikipedia references. I had a chance to check it out for a few minutes and it is a pretty cool feature, however it was very slow when I used it. This got me thinking a little- if someone is using Google Maps, they are probably just looking for simple, fast directions; not clutterred, time-consuming directions. Knowing Google, I’m certain they will streamline to provide consumers with what they need quicker.
Yahoo! appears to be heading in the right direction when it comes to regaining market share from Google. They have taken their Advanced Search setting a step further and have now developed Personalized Search. The Personalized Search collects information about a searcher’s interests from their search history, browsing history, and interests listed in profiles from websites such as MySpace and other social networks. In doing so, it eases the users experience by narrowing the searches.
Superpages.com recently launched a Yahoo! Widget that allows users to easily search for local businesses from their desktops. Superpages made its widget easier to use, by developing one of the only local search widgets that displays search results within the widget. Once a product category is selected, potential customers are taken to Superpages.com to review different options and make a selection.
According to research by Nielsen Mobile, over 4 million mobile phone users are accessing social networking sites via mobile internet. MySpace, the leading social networking site among PC users, is also the most popular mobile internet social networking site in the U.S. with 2.8 million unique mobile users in December 2007. In that same month, Facebook had about 1.8 million unique mobile users. “Consumer demand for mobile social networking may be a significant driver of mobile service pricing models, as evidenced by Vodafone UK’s recent move to offer unlimited internet access as a standard feature of its new monthly mobile price plans,” says Jeff Herrmann, vice-president of Mobile Media at Nielsen Mobile.