SES Chicago: “Local Search Tactics”
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Written By Kate Zimmermann | December 5, 2006 | Share This
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In a session that was nearly cut from the program, a group of presenters discussed the state of Local Search advertising, its evident slowdown, and the implications for Local’s future. This was a difficult topic, considering Local’s waning performance compared with last year’s high expectations. The panelists did their best to give Local a postiive spin, but the overwhelming sense was that Local services have failed to capitalize on their wealth of content.
Though Local targeting can drive extremely qualified traffic, its services are too widely dispersed. As a result, innovative solutions for Local get lost in a sea of similar search options. Whether it’s standardization, mobile search, or some form of mashup, the panelists agreed that a wide-scale reinvention of local is imminent. In the meantime, this session focused on what advertisers can do to make a some sense of the mess. The panel was moderated by Greg Sterling, with speakers Stacy Williams from Prominent Placement, Patricia Hursh from Smart Search Marketing, and Justin Sanger from LocalLaunch!
“Local search is highly fragmented”, said Stacy. To illustrate her point, she gave an overview of the different free local search marketing channels availble. She broke it down into: Big Search Engines, Business Profile Submission (large engines), Local-Only Engines, Internet Yellow Pages, Business Data Providers, and Reveiew Sites. Patricia Hursh picked up with Paid Advertising opportunities in Local. These include:
- Running campaigns in generic search with Local keywords
- Running Geo-targeted campaigns
- Advertising on local search engines
- Advertising on Maps
Finally, Justin Sanger presented insight into the entire market. Though extremely dense in content, his presentation was one of the most interesting that I’ve heard so far. Some of his key points were:
- Local search is changing our behavior and consumption
- Local search innovation is growing, but $$ benefits to local advertisers are not
- This industry is extraordinarily dispersed - there are many services with different connotations and overlapping functions
- Local is more about managing your off-page content than optimizing your website.
- One of Local’s biggest problems is that content becomes unstructured as it spreads.
- Businesses must be proactively responsible for their content online.
All in all, the panelists agreed that marketers need to pay attention to Local search in order to assert their control over their content. If nothing else, this means tracking business profiles online to make sure that all information is accurate and appropriate.
For more detail on the presentations of “Local Search Tactics”, download THIS PDF.
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