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ReinierNL, thanks for taking the time to comment on this.
First of all, I only see ONE local search result (an authoritative onebox) when I search for "New Orleans Chiropractic","New Orleans Chiropractor", and "New Orleans Chiropractors." So I presume the additional listings you are talking about are on maps.google.com?
The additional listings that I can actually see have not been claimed by Will OR Dr. DuBois.
Rather than ABUSING Google Maps, I would venture to say that if Will claimed and consolidated these listings on behalf of his client, he would actually dominate his SERPs MORE than he does right now. This is a flaw in Google Maps but not one created by Will; the incorrect listings are probably getting pulled from poor/un-updated historical data sources.
The reason I think this is noteworthy of a Sphinn is that it presents simply and concisely the amazing ability of Local SEO to dominate SERP real estate for SMBs. The visuals Hanan uses are stunning. It is/was my hope that this article would convince more SMBs to consider hiring an SEO shop with their advertising dollars (see http://gesterling.wordpress.com/2009/07/02/sel-on-local-organic-domination/#comment-140041">my comment on Greg Sterling's post earlier today) rather than national PPC aggregation companies.
Tim, I respectfully disagree with your opinion that no one will follow a plumber or roofing contractor. There are any number of creative things that one of those guys (or gals) could tweet about. Here's an example of a similar service (wedding planning) where people only need them once in their lives (or more, I guess, for re-marriages). They're doing a pretty nice job: http://twitter.com/NWweddingplace
Thanks for participating, and for commenting, all. It is a pleasure to read through everyone's responses & learn from each other what is working and what isn't.
Chris, yet another fantastic article. So nice to see someone with your experience with a truly unbiased look at where the YP's are today.
If you went this far, Steve, I am hoping that your wife's name is tattooed somewhere as well...
So true, Matt. Word-of-mouth with a bunch of nobodies is phenomenal, particularly if you leverage twitter.
Story: How To FUBAR At Social Media
"If you were an Internet marketer who wanted to improve your promotional game, who would you trust? Someone who is all talk and no action, or someone who actually walks the talk?"
I love that he thinks his self-described target audience for this press release will appreciate it.
Hey guys and gals, I feel like we should sphinn Mike's actual post on the subject as well http://sphinn.com/story/82231 :)
But it's nice to see someone with Danny's profile raising this issue.
LtDraper, that's an EXCELLENT comment. I'm so glad that Sarah Bird of SEOmoz straightened me out on my standard contract a couple of weeks ago. Luckily, knock on wood, fingers x-ed, etc., I've not had a problem collecting from any of my clients so far but that is not a road I want to risk going down :)
John, I agree that if Google were to share more data, the value of this would be diminished somewhat. But as far as competitive intelligence, i.e. for sites that a particular webmaster DOESN'T "own" in WMC, I think this will stand as the best and only player for a LONG time.
Also, have you used the tool yet? I was pretty impressed with both the depth and breadth of links it was pulling up for the few reports that I ran.
For the record, I don't think there's anything wrong with posting negative comments when they have some credibility behind them, as yours did. That's what discussion is all about!
Ya, Pat, you're in for a shock when you don't see grass for six months :) Congrats to everyone involved in this deal!
I'm actually not sure that your conclusion 'So all they need to do is take away the visual PageRank, in order to discourage the sale of links on these sites.' is true.
No one is approaching FindLaw to buy links, from what I understand from these articles. Findlaw seems to be approaching lawyers who a) probably don't know much about SEO and b) probably don't have a Google Toolbar installed to see visual PR anyway. So what's the penalty, if their rankings are still there? It seems like they have a pre-existing database of people to sell to? Maybe I am not understanding the situation though...
Haha Michael, yes, indeed Andrew was in attendance at our Local Search Ranking Factors dinner the night before. :) I like the "world famous" moniker attached to his name! It was a totally fun conference; hope to see you at next year's.
SHobbs, allow me to give you a very "non-gut" reaction to Chris's article. I realize that the YP industry is dying and that people's jobs are on the line, but I don't like seeing small business owners presented with mis-information, either from snake-oil SEOs OR from print publications. The Print YP’s clearly have no incentive to provide accurate data about usage.
I work with a lot of small business clients. One in particular is a long-term client in a high-margin YP category. In the last three years, he has seen his cost-per-customer from print YellowPages increase by 400%. Meanwhile, his cost-per-customer from organic search over the last three months is 1/10th of what it is in the print YP. 1/10th!
I'll admit that's a rather dramatic example, but it simply doesn’t gibe with the data that were cited by the YPA at all. I completely agree that SMB's should continue to stay in the print YP's as long as it makes economic sense for them, but I'm getting more and more inquiries from business owners with similar stories to this client's.
Chris, this is a VERY insightful comment:
"Though, why people refer to print is yet another interesting question -- since the bulk of that usage is to look up phone numbers for businesses that they already frequent, rather than to discover new businesses"
Although most of my clients' single best search term, according to analytics, is their brand-name, so there is some carryover to that way of thinking online / in search.
KenC, I think Chris's original article laid out the problem with KnowledgeNetworks' methodology, 'respected' or not.
The fact is that numbers like this can be skewed by EITHER side and in this case I'm going to stay with what my clients tell me from actual experience to inform my opinion of the best value for SMBs marketing dollars.
As I said, there may be verticals and geos where the YPs are still VERY affordable and offering good ROI. It does not seem to be the case in a couple of high-margin YP verticals, however.
Glad I am not the only one seeing this! I thought it was a bug & was doing as many searches as I could to record the #'s. :D It would be great if this were a permanent feature.
I know - I sent a request to Matt to edit the title before I even saw your comment :D The title box cut off the title perfectly (where it is now) so I didn't even know there was anymore text!
Thanks for ALL of the kind words, guys. Glad I was finally able to give something back to the community that has been so good to me over the last 2+ years :)
Miriam & EarlPearl,
The diversity of responses suggested that a lot of us had trouble figuring out how important these factors are :) & clearly all of us are working with clients of varying size, location, and industry. My goal was to get some general sense from the community about what was working and what wasn't & then perhaps study certain factors that were seen as important by some, but without a high level of agreement, a little more closely in the coming months. It would be fantastic to discuss with a number of the participants & hopefully SMX LoMo will offer some opportunity to do that!
Stephan, not only were you the best presenter at the conference, you've done a terrific job at condensing a week-long argument into a perfect 500-word synopsis.
Story: SEOmoz's Web 2.0 Awards
Sphinn is highly deserving of that award, IMHO. The moderators all work really hard to keep this place spam-free, and the user base seems really motivated to push quality content & keep discussions lively.
Hey guys, thanks for all of the kind words for both Matt AND myself :D. (Sorry I wasn't more involved in the conversation yesterday, I was traveling or in meetings literally non-stop from 6a - 6p.)
Story: A Face In Our Crowd
“You’re not much of a marketing professional if you aren’t able to work a room at a network event. If people aren’t going out of their way to talk to you, try talking to them.”
I couldn’t agree more with that statement, Todd. This industry is SO open to new faces–all it takes is a little gumption to talk to a stranger (or even someone’s blog you read).
Having attended ~10 search conferences in the last three years, the opportunities for networking at SearchFest were about the EASIEST of any of them! It was a smaller crowd, and the concentration level of truly talented SEOs and online marketers was pretty darn high…
I also thought that the networking sessions and lunches afforded plenty of time, even within a compressed schedule, to do so. All you had to do was sit down at one of those tables on the patio, or in the conference hall, and start talking!!
Just my .02.
This is such a great starting point for helping Local businesses get into online marketing, because it allows them to do so without even going beyond their existing customers. It's a no-brainer, as far as I can tell. Great work, Michael.
Story: It’s All About Local Organic Domination