If you occasionally suffer from Local SEO fatigue, join the club. It's a fun and ever-changing space, but watch out for speed bumps. Here's a list of some of the most annoying and/or downright scary (but at the same time humorous) things about local search marketing. [Read Full Article]

Yahoo! and Bing seem to be sharing organic search algorithm. The Yahoo! Microsoft Search Alliance has been making huge strides over the past week. Last week, Yahoo! announced that they are now testing Microsoft Bing's data. Today, however, we are seeing real evidence for the first time. As an up and coming search site, we at EZlocal like to monitor our search result success regularly.  We thrive off of organic search traffic and want to do everything we can to improve that traffic.  We have been well aware of how poorly our site performs in Bing and have been on top of watching our search rankings.  Today, all of the sudden, we noticed some major ranking changes in Bing.  In fact, we couldn't help but notice that they seemed amazingly familiar to our Yah... [Read Full Article]

Last week our very own Dave Cosper, VP of EZlocal, put together one of the most comprehensive slideshows on the topic of local search optimization to date. His entire presentation is superb and deserves a complete viewing, but today I’d like to focus on just one of his points (from slide 35): Online local consumers are fragmented across multiple search engines and internet yellow pages sites – robust, broad content distribution is key to maximize reach. So what does fragmentation mean? At the most basic level, fragmentation means that consumers seek out different resources when shopping locally. Some people go by word of mouth, others use printed yellow pages and yet others may follow printed reviews or ads in their local paper. However, the only “fragment” we are concerned about in this article... [Read Full Article]

Does a less tech-savvy co-worker impress you with his inspired work ethic? Reward his staggering commitment to excellence with a featured article on Yahoo’s homepage by using this nifty Google Chrome hack. Step 1: Pick an Element For our purposes, elements are anything displayed on the page that you can change. This includes text, links, pictures, buttons and even the background color. Here is an example of some of the elements found on Google’s homepage: Step 2: Right click on the element and select “Inspect Element.” In the below example, I right clicked on th... [Read Full Article]

My full article is posted on SearchEngineGuide. Here are the cliff notes: Google's local search algorithm, in Layman's terms, looks something like this: Ranking = Location + Information + Corroboration + Input + X Understanding the variables in this equation are a critical part of getting found online. Businesses have just two meaningful representations in the local search space: a website and a business listing. The latter of the two is worth discussing in detail. Let's take a look at the anatomy of a local search results page and see where local business listings fit in. For this example I did a Google search for "cleaners boston ma"... [Read Full Article]

In the NewsCompliance Science: What Workforce Managers Need to Know About Immigration EnforcementAmong the administration's top priorities, immigration remains on track largely due to bipartisan interest in Congress. While an immigration reform bill may be out of the question this year—major expansion of aggressive enforcement efforts is well underway. ManageSmarter.comIn the NewsWalmart Places a Mega Buy with YahooThose tie-ins are part of an ad deal between Walmart and Yahoo is the largest the Bentonville, AR-based company has made to date with a single online publisher, according to... [Read Full Article]

Government, Politics, and the Economy Retail Sales Rebound Into Xmas as Shares Show Consumer Not Dead From the recent spike in sales, it's beginning to look a lot like the retail holiday season will be happier than predicted. Bloomberg.comManagement and OperationsWhy Unemployed College Grads Should Channel Their Inner Entrepreneur Recent college graduates who are unemployed should think about taking to their entrepreneurial skills and start their own business. BusinessKnowHow.comManagement and Operations [Read Full Article]

Getting your website popular is more work than you realize. However, there are some basic tips that you can do to connect your website with people searching for your products and services locally. Local search is no where near as competitive as the general, global search market. With these fast, simple and FREE optimization tips below, you will be able to out rank your competitors with very little effort. Check back soon for advanced tips to really blow away your local market. Submit to Google Local. Google is the most widely used search engine in the U.S and around the world. Over 60% of all searches in the U.S. are performed by Google. Creating a Google Local profile allows you to enter in-depth business information that will help people find your business in just a few days. Try an example search of [Read Full Article]