Hello again.
This week I’d like to mention a great graphic from Mike Blumenthal that gives you the big picture of internet marketing; in a little picture.
I share this with the reminder that even though we’re mostly talking about Local SEO around here, it’s just the foundation of your growth. After that, you’ve got to see what suits your situation best, in your industry, in your local market. Click the image if you want to dig deep into that.
Now on to This Week in Local SEO:
This week is interesting, in that it’s not all about Google. Apple Maps and Yahoo had some new important things to share that will shape a new future in local search.
Apple Maps
A month ago, Apple Maps luanched Apple Maps Connect where you can claim and improve your business listing. We’re all familiar with how many people have iPhones – and by default they’re using Apple Maps instead of Google Maps. This week Andrew Shotland shared what he discovered to be the data providers for Apple Maps.
Action: Look up your business on Apple Maps Connect and see if the information is accurate. If not, fix it, and then look up all the providers and see who else is reporting bad info on you. Or, of course, ask for my assistance.
Apple Maps Connect
Yahoo!
No, Yahoo is not dead yet. In fact, it’s growing. They just signed a deal with Mozilla Firefox (3rd largest internet browser against Internet Explorer and Google Chrome). Greg Sterling breaks down the speculations of what this holds for the future, over at Search Engine Land.
Action: What does this matter to you? Make sure your business is properly represented in Yahoo Local! Search for your business in Yahoo Maps and verify the information is accurate. If not, you can check into things for free, here’s a link. Be sure to scroll down and on the left there’s a title “Try Local Basic Listing for free”. However, BEWARE, there’s LOTS of ways to unnecessarily spend your money on that page. Yahoo is in partnership with Yext and they both have great ideas where your money is best spent. I question them having your best interests in mind.
See those 2 Google references? They’ll be replaced with Yahoo soon.
Google is enforcing mobile-friendly
This week Google announced adding a little gray snippet tag to search results on mobile browsers (that’s phones and iPads for the less tech-savvy). There’s also references to giving higher ranking to those websites that provide a better user experience. Ever try clicking a link on your phone and click the wrong one? Yea, that’s what’s being addressed here.
Here’s the news straight from the horse’s mouth.
Action: Check your website for mobile friendliness. As my friend Arp Laszlo asks his followers, if you don’t mind losing customers to your mobile friendly competitors, ignore this message. If you do mind, check out my portfolio of mobile friendly websites.
Mobile-Friendly – Check
That’s it for this week. As always, shoot me an email and tell me what you need help with.
If you need a little more local SEO in your life
My friend Mikel Zaremba who just moved over to Whitespark gave a great writeup titled: Local SEO for the Small Business Owner Short on Time. He’s got a great sense of humor and a knack for simplifying the complicated.
See you after Thanksgiving!
[…] Google doesn’t like to give you a referral either, because they’re embarrassed. Starting April 21st, they’re going to rank your mobile-friendly competitors higher than you. In fact, they’ve been putting emphasis on this since November with their announcement of placing a mobile-friendly indicator in mobile search results. […]