Facebook recently announced changes in their search offerings which have been seen by some as them declaring war on the mighty Google with their Facebook’s search strategy and their recent statement that “all Open Graph-enabled web pages will show up in search when a user likes them”.

I thought I’d just try it out …. I was in Vegas so I thought I’d check out the hotel I saw a show at. A search for Rio Hotel Las Vegas on Facebook yielded two results neither of which were the actual hotel, but both were masquerading as such. I then searched for ‘Pen and Teller’ and got a bunch of likes from various people, but not until I searched for ‘Penn and Teller Rio Las Vegas’ did I get any results which might have helped me go see their show at the Rio…and they were provided by Bing.

Needless to say, any of those queries done on Google yielded just about perfect results for both the hotel and the show. Facebook  is following (in part) the premise that a “like” on Facebook is similar to a “link” as counted by Google. It’s an interesting idea, but at first glance I would have thought that’s an approach which is highly prone to spam…in the same way that Digg seems to be….but they are the guys with the war chest of cash so what would I know?

I’m a fan of both Facebook and Google (no pun intended). Google has tried some interesting social media stuff of late, to very mixed reviews, and it makes sense that Facebook would want to take a swing at the massive piñata that is Search. This is obviously early days and if I were Google I’d be concerned that someone with as much traffic as Facebook came after my cookie jar. I’m probably a bit on the old side to really use Facebook, I tend to watch on the sidelines at the fascinating lives led by people I know, but I use search all day, every day and I like to think I know enough about it to be dangerous.

In terms of getting our customers new business through Social Media we’ll continue to integrate as much social content as we can with our products. The opinion of others is enormously important when it comes to choosing a product or a service, but when it comes to getting found through search then Facebook has a very long way to go if it intends to compete with the mighty G.

Meantime….if you happen to be in Vegas and want to see an  amazing show those magical funsters Penn and Teller at the Rio are worth every penny.

~Tim Judd
President and CEO of eLocal Listing, the nation’s leading provider of internet marketing.
www.elocallisting.com

I have to admit that somewhere in the cluttered attic of my brain I had thought that “Now we are Three” was a book about Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh (I just wrote that as Winnie the Pho…who is presumably a kind of Asian soup…). On further investigation I think I was confused by “When we were very young.” which is a Pooh story. In any event…it’s our birthday…eLcoal Listing is three years old today. I have to admit that on occasion it feels like much longer, it’s been a very intense and interesting time. We have built a considerable business by providing effective and affordable internet marketing for small businesses all over the US.

In those three years time we have established a strong track record and a huge customer base of companies who thanks to eLocal get found on the front page of the major Search Engines every day by people  looking for their products or services locally. We have driven millions of visitors to our customers through Local Search and have helped our customers land  thousands of new projects from new business. We have launched successfully in Europe and become a force to be reckoned in the US.

Looking back at what is perhaps most remarkable is just how important the world of Local Search has become. A few years ago Local was the redheaded step child of Search. The focus was squarely on national brands and national search driven mostly through Pay Per Click advertising and traditional site based Search Engine Optimization. A few short years later the landscape has changed dramatically. Recently Google themselves announced that at least 20% of all queries they process are local in intent. With the emergence of social media with Facebook and Twitter which themselves also generate enormous amounts of local content, local is gaining in importance all the time.

We find ourselves squarely in the middle of this exciting and fast growing market. It turns out that local businesses, many of whom have minimal experience in advertising let alone online advertising, have figured out that they can track every dime spent online through our products. That means that every day we are held accountable by tens of thousands of local businesses who ask us “what have you done for me lately.” The answer is typically “we have driven a bunch of calls to your phone and visitors to your company information online and we are helping you to grow your business and pay your bills”. Every month a local business lands a couple of new deals because eLocallisting.com made their phone ring through local search. As our customers grow and thrive so do we.

I am enormously proud of what our team has achieved and I have every confidence that having achieved so much in such a short time the best is yet to come. Happy Birthday elocallisting.com….and many happy returns.

~Tim Judd
President and CEO of eLocal Listing, the nation’s leading provider of internet marketing.
www.elocallisting.com

OK, I have waited my entire career in product marketing to have a product or to associate myself with a company with a great name. What did I get ? Atex, MEI and product names like IAR, Integrated Accounts Receivable, OK, I named it and sure it was concise and clear, you knew what you were getting right? Yep, an integrated Accounts Receivable package, but try to be clever in your press releases or your promotional packaging. I always wanted some sort of a name that I could rhyme with, make up cute little diddies, use puns, clichés, all those things that people roll their eyes at (and Marketing Coordinators that are 20 years younger, say “I don’t get it”, (shout out to you Jackie, miss you)), but I longed for the catchy, the inane, the just plain silly. Even if it never made it to print or web, it would have been fun to sit around and think of what we could say … I can just imagine the laughs we would have had back in suite 102, Aaaron, Steve, Justin, and the crew! Certainly, eLocal Listing is a name that is solid, makes sense, not a bad choice, again clear and concise, what do we do we provide Internet “e” Local “too obvious to put in parentheses) and Listing, as part of our Internet Marketing campaign we submit Google and Yahoo! Listings. And the logo, oh Steve and Aaron, just refrain … it is OK, I get it … blue, black, chart representing growth, business like. Sure it reminds you of the AT&T bars, but it beat the “ Mickey Mouse” ears logo we had before. But try to use either one of those to come up with a catchy slogan or marketing campaign. Sigh I had been relinquished to a career with product with a boring name … Oh flash back I worked and had to design a website for a company called PPI who had three big RED ARIAL ITALIC BOLD LETTERS as their logo … not good .. sorry, I digress and I will through this entire blog. It will make no sense and may appear self indulgent, but imagine my wonder when I was presented (like a gift) with something I could finally work with, a name, a logo, a partnership with a company who has a cool logo and a name that anyone who has ever had anything to do with marketing would die for … I had a fish. OK, I always wanted a dog, but a fish would do!

So, no I am not going to tell you what I am actually talking about (yet) … I have a fish (of sorts), so for the next few minutes, I am going to get it out of my system … so Martin, our amazing Social Media guy points me to an all Fish Quote site for inspiration … Oh this is fun!

So, let’s see now I can use sayings like “get hooked on”, the whole teach a man to fish saying, fish tales, fish stories, nothing fishy here … fish and visitors stink after three days … Sorry, I know I can’t actually use that one, but I always wanted to quote Ben Franklin in something I did …

Alright so it isn’t as easy as it seems … but it was fun nonetheless .. I guess I could use some help … anyone have any good fish quotes … after all those years with boring names and logos and I draw a blank … Comments, responses are welcomed and encouraged, can’t give you anything for them, just a thanks!

“Give me a fish and I eat for a day. Give me a PixelFish and I eat for a lifetime.” That is your only clue on what I am talking about!

Til next time … more great stuff coming.

This post was written by Carolee Collins

Recently eLocal Listing was a sponsor at the Local Search Summit conference during SES San Jose. Local Search Summit was one of the first conferences with it’s main focus being local search. Some of the highlighted speakers were Jason Calcanis (Mahalo), Steve Stukenborg (Google), Jeremy Stoppleman (Yelp), Jennifer Chin (Google), Sarah Smith (Facebook), and plenty of others.

Since Local Search Summit was only one day each panel was jammed packed with today’s thought leaders on local search, social media, and mobile technology.  Steve Espinosa moderated quite a few panels, and eLocal’s Todd Johnson made an appearance on the panel about “What kind of products do small businesses really need” and shared his sales experience and knowledge with the crowd. I personally was honored to share a panel with Will Scott of Search Influence, and Sarah Smith of Facebook where we discussed social media’s impact on the ability to drive and convert leads for small businesses. You can see my presentation here, and Sarah’s presentation here. (make sure to turn up your volume, as the audio is a bit low).

Overall I enjoyed every session and was able to take away something valuable from each one. eLocal’s Own Steve Espinosa headed up the conference and was well applauded for a great event that ended up being the talk of SES San Jose.

Here are some links to other blogs that covered the events and their feedback/wrap up’s.

SES San Jose YouTube Chanel

Local Search News Wrap Up

Aaron Irizarry Social Media Session and Q&A

Expand 2 Web by Don Campbell Summit Wrap up

Wendy from Cadmus Environmental of Houston, TX had some of the typical problems small businesses have, people just couldn’t find her business on line.

She knew that as a mold inspector in Houston, TX she was providing a valuable service helping people in Houston’s mold prone climate, and she knew she needed to be found online, but she just hadn’t discovered the right solution that fit her budget.  Wendy even considered doing local search marketing on her own because many Internet Marketing firms were just too expensive.

Then Kyle from eLocal Listing called, explained the services and pricing and worked with Wendy to outline the benefits of the program.  Wendy decided that with the affordable monthly fee and the no contract obligation, that she would give elocallisting a try.  Wendy decided to test out a Premium Profile for three months.  But within the first few weeks she could tell she was getting business from the listing.

Unlike other affordable online services, eLocal Listing places businesses on the major Search Engines with an optimized, highly targeted, call to action driven Business Profile.  In a nut shell, eLocal Listing drives motivated consumers to your business through Local Search.

Wendy agrees…

“The thing I like about the calls I get from [my advertising with eLocal Listing], is that the caller has pre-selected me before they even call since they’ve already read about me and like the approach I take. It cuts down on the amount of selling over the phone I have to do in comparison to the leads I get from other services.”

We are so pleased to have Wendy and Cadmus Environmental as part of the eLocal Listing family.  Thanks for the information and trusting eLocal Listing to provide you with affordable and effective Internet Marketing.

Searching for sales, traffic and branding.

Below is a great article that was recently posted on emarketer.com.

According to a joint study by Econsultancy and search engine optimization (SEO) firm Guava, online marketers around the globe (particularly in the UK) are increasingly turning to search marketing tactics.

Fifty-five percent of respondents said they planned to raise spending on SEO, and 45% said the same of paid search.

In addition, 31% of SEO and 32% of paid search users said they intended to maintain their budgets.

Savvy search marketers use paid search and SEO to accomplish different tasks, however.

In 2008, marketers said that the main objectives of paid search were (in order) to capture online sales, generate sales leads, drive Website traffic and enhance the brand. As for SEO, most marketers said its primary purpose was to drive traffic, create leads, generate sales and brand.

In 2009, marketers’ perceptions are in similar (but lower) proportions across the board.

With the global economy faltering, and money in short supply, search marketing is often the tool that marketers rely on to attract new customers.

“Search marketing is the best customer acquisition tool in the online space,” said eMarketer senior analyst David Hallerman.

In addition, SEO offers pluses over paid search—though its advantages must be built up over time, which some marketers have little of in today’s economy.

“SEO improves organic listings, which Internet users prefer over paid search, and it is cost-effective,” said Mr. Hallerman. “Furthermore, optimization works across all search engines, and an optimized site does not drop off the first results page even when marketer spending slows or stops—as it can with paid search.”

I actually thought I had missread the story when I received the alert in my email this morning. I was skimming stories at the airport headed to Silicon Valley, and when I mentioned it in passing to a steely eyed VC type today he leapt gazelle like to his Blackberry and indeed confirmed that the mighty Idearc had filled for chapter 11. I’m a huge audio book fan, I get to fly a lot and I fill in the spots where my laptop is out of juice with the spoken word. When the narrator starts a section with “Chapter Eleven” a shiver runs down my spine. I wish the good folks at Idearc nothing but the very best, they are a very smart hard working bunch and we are already working with them successfully on several projects. I look forwards to them emerging stronger moving forwards.

What this story, and the pending possible restructuring of several other Yellow Pages giants, points to is the perfect storm of bad news which has swamped the decks of many fine companies. The economy is famously bad, sales are down, the Yellow Page print product has been hemorrhaging cash for years and the increasing stampede of local advertisers from print yellow pages to online offerings which generate track-able local results is becoming overwhelming.

Newspapers have been beset by many of the same issues, my own local Metro the mighty Boston Globe may stop publishing in the near future. Both the Yellow Pages and newspapers have been unable to completely replace the revenue lost from the high priced print products sold by humans on a face to face basis with much lower cost online products sold online or over the phone.

In the old days the purveyors of print ad products never had to prove that their products delivered value for money….over a hundred years or so they emerged as part of the landscape…a must have for any local business. Indeed in many, perhaps all cases the “dead tree products” proved highly effective as a way to deliver customers to advertisers. There is an advertising truism that “half of all advertising is wasted…the problem is nobody can tell which half.” Since the late 90’s print advertising products have been pecked away at by the pure play verticals. When was the last time you sold an exercise bike, bought a car or found a soul mate through a print product? Of course it still happens but it happens less often than it used to.

Even given those changes some sections have remained robust print advertisers. However increasingly local advertisers have an alternative to print products across all segments; they can count the clicks and measure the calls generated by their online advertising and those ad products don’t have to be bought on an annual basis.

Here at eLocal we see the impact of these changes every day. Our advertisers are looking to get on the front page of search results and they count every click, lead and call which we generate. They rightly hold us to a very high “what have you done for me lately” standard. If we aren’t effective we apply more effort to get them to where they need to be. The print equivalent would be a yellow pages company delivering more and more books, burying entire city blocks in paper, until each advertiser was satisfied with their results. It’s a tough standard and we are happy to deliver against it every day.

You can read the entire story here.

Our very own Steve Espinosa had some some interesting thoughts on how Twitter could monetize it’s traffic.

Over the last couple months we have heard many different ideas on how Twitter can successfully monetize their surge in popularity, growing user base, and overall traffic. The ideas range from charging for an account, charging for premium accounts, simply adding AdSense, and the list goes on. What we haven’t heard is how Twitter could add local search into their business model, monetize it successfully, and create more user generated content.
When you think about it almost everything that is on Twitter is inherently local. The simple question “What are you doing?” implies that because, unless you are at home watching TV, you are doing something that is local, whether that is local to you or to someone else. The obvious example of this is when you go out to a restaurant and write about that on Twitter, whether you say “Going out to [insert name here] with @stevemcstud” or “Just had a great dinner with @stevemcstud at [insert name here]“. If you simply perform a search on Twitter for “restaurant in”, the point being to see how many people tweet “I am going to restaurant in [insert city]” or “Anybody know of a good restaurant in [insert city name]?” you can see that with just that one phrasing there are tons of results of people talking about local restaurants.

Read This Article in it’s entirety here

Over at Search Engine Land Greg Sterling has some notes on the Sempo results from the “State of Search Engine Marketing” survey.

SEMPO formally released data on the state of search engine marketing, its annual survey of agencies and marketers. This year’s survey consisted of 800 repsondents from all over the globle. However 68 percent of respondents were from the US, with 20 percent coming from a range of contries. Seven percent of respondents were from Canada and 5 percent from the UK.

The respondents/clients represented a range of industries. The top sectors were “retail, business services, electronics manufacturing and financial services.”

As part of the findings and related report SEMPO forecast that SEM spending would grow from a projected $14.7 billion in 2009 to $26.1 billion in 2013. SEM is defined broadly as all spending on search-related marketing including SEO. Consequently it represents more than the share of online ad revenues that the IAB assigns to search.

For the survey results and complete article click here

Stumbled across a good read over at MediaPost…

Effective search engine optimization (SEO) can improve query rankings, but companies also need to give consumers easy-to-use Web sites to boost conversion rates and close the sale. More visitors to the site is great, but if the price of average orders drop, marketers should rethink strategies, according to panelists on a Webinar Tuesday.

Search Engine Land Executive Editor Chris Sherman moderated the Search Marketing Now Webinar, “SEO and Conversion Rates: Hand-in-hand,” sponsored by Range Online Media. Herndon Hasty, senior SEO evangelist, Range; and Chris Knoch, principal search engine marketing (SEM) consultant at Omniture, presented and fielded questions. [READ MORE]