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Posts Tagged ‘yelp’
A Stroke Of Bad Luck In NYC & The Continued Expansion Of Yelp
John Vantine | July 19th, 2011
This past Tuesday I returned to Los Angeles from an awesome week on the east coast with my girlfriend. The trip was jam-packed with fun – I got to see lots of friends and family, and we covered a lot of ground. We flew into Philadelphia, and then drove to upstate New York for Camp Bisco, which was ridiculously fun. After Camp, we drove to NYC. I was driving a minivan which was jam packed full of stuff from the festival – coolers, clothing, camping stuff, etc. After sitting in traffic in the Times Square area for over an hour trying to find reasonably priced parking, I gave up and pulled the van into the first parking garage I could find. Take note that there was no real research behind my parking choice, only frustration and a strong desire to get out of the car. The parking attendant seemed shady, and at first I was slightly hesitant to leave my keys with him, but I was too tired to care at that point. We grabbed our bags and headed to the Hyatt. Fast forward to the following morning. After inhaling a delicious bagel, we checked out of the hotel and headed back to the car to drop some things off. Not only were the attendants at the garage shady, they were also incredibly rude this time. I suppose it’s understandable – after all, what kind of scumbag returns to his car after parking it unless he’s leaving? Anyway, I noticed Continue reading…
Tags: google places, love and theft, manhattan, new york city, online reviews, yelp
Posted in Local Search | 3 Comments
Optimizing For Mobile & Local Search: 5 Things Businesses Need To Know About Local SEO
Christian Vuong | June 28th, 2011
The annual SMX Advanced Conference covers a vast array of information in the search industry. This year, like others, covered everything from SEO, to Social Media, to Paid Search and more. And while it did feel like every conversation touched on Google’s Panda update and its effects on the industry, there was an important underlying theme, which was that local search has grown and is becoming even more important to businesses. According to Google, local searches now account for 20% of searches on Google. Mix this in with comScore’s May 2011 report and now we’re looking at 2.24 billion queries a month on Google with local intent. Yes, that’s billion with a B. These changes aren’t just coming from search engines, but also from the mobile side. In mobile, 95% of smartphone users have looked up local information and 88% of these users generally take action within a day. Combine this with the 66% of users who use location based apps such as Groupon NOW, Yelp, shopkick & Happy Hours, and this makes optimizing and managing a business’ online reputation even more important. Besides VCs pouring in all this money for location based apps, Google is also investing, heavily marketing local search to businesses and to date has over 4 million business listings in its index. At the same time, Google has been constantly testing out new layouts for the Google Places results. Don’t assume Bing has taken this lying down though. Bing powered search continues to grow in market Continue reading…
Tags: Bing, bing business portal, foursquare, friend recommendations, groupon now, mobile search, seattle, shopkick, smx advanced, yelp
Posted in Local Search, SEO | 4 Comments
PubCon South 2011: Local Search and Hyperlocal
John Vantine | April 13th, 2011
Why has there been so much interest in local search lately? Well, for starters, 70% of users look for local information online first, and 20% of all searches are location related. Google has outbound call centers for local listing verification, so you can tell that they care. Local Search Algorithm Continues To Evolve As local seach continues to grow, Google’s local algorithm is changing rapidly. According to Brian Combs, the local algorithm now includes major pieces of the traditional (non local) algorithm because Matt Cutt’s webspam team was doing a better job at fighting spam than the local search team was. Google’s Support For Local Leaves Something To Be Desired Brian Combs said that the “report” feature in Google Places has been broken since February 21st. Reviews come and go – they disappear from the place pages completely sometimes. The “respond to review” functionality is temperamental at best. Some businesses have disappeared entirely from the listings with no explanation. I wasn’t aware of any of these issues, but it sounds like Google Places has a long way to go. What will it take to get Google to focus on support? Brian pointed out that the University of Colorado has the wrong number listed for campus security. He jokingly asked if someone would have to die in order to get Google’s attention. He said that the best way to get help at this point is to talk to a Google Tags sales rep. Good to know. The 3 Methods Of Advertising Continue reading…
Tags: Bing, Google maps, google places, hyperlocal, local search, yelp
Posted in Google, Local Search | 2 Comments
Tues News: 1/12 (A Little Bit Creepy Edition)
Michael Block | January 12th, 2010
The world of search marketing and the Internet in general is a diverse place. There are good guys (kiva.org), bad guys (swoopo.com) and ugly guys (dustindiamond.com). Still, the vast majority of the sites that you deal with fall somewhere in the grey areas**. The most helpful sites, such as Wikipedia, can often lead you astray with bad information. Google is an amazing tool for almost every aspect of your life but you know for a fact that Google probably knows more about you at this point than your Nana. Sure, Ebay no longer has the sketchy stigma it had a decade ago but that doesn’t mean that people have stopped getting ripped off. The Internet may be a wonderful place but, when you really stop to think about it, it can be pretty creepy! This week, in the Tues News, I’ll address three sort of creepy developments in the search engine marketing world that might surprise you. Let’s get going! By now, you know that Google got the cold shoulder from Yelp when it offered half a billion dollars to purchase the restaurant-rating megasite. Well, as the old saying goes: Hell hath no fury like Sergey and Larry scorned. Keep in mind, all you innovators out there, that if Google offers to buy you out, what they are really saying is, “Don’t make us do what you do, only better!” Remember MapQuest? Yeah, neither do I. Google is responding to Yelp’s refusal to be bought by inventing their own Yelp Continue reading…
Tags: facebook, Google, Internet News, online privacy, search marketing, yelp
Posted in Tues News | 6 Comments
Bringing Due Process to Internet Reviews
Andrew McLellan | April 28th, 2009
“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to… be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.” -United States Constitution, Amendment VI In a recent policy change Yelp.com, the website famous for allowing users to review local restaurants and other businesses, is finally allowing businesses a chance to respond publicly against negative reviews. Yelp has always allowed users, and all but the elite members with anonymity, to review different local businesses and make any claim that they wanted without repercussion or accountability. Yelp has had numerous complaints in the past from businesses about how they are not allowed to respond publicly to any accusations made on the site, and the fact is they had every right to be upset. Without the ability to publicly defend against accusations Yelp becomes an entire website based around prosecution with no ability for the accused to defend themselves. If there are inaccuracies in the review the company has no chance to correct it so the inaccuracy stands as fact. In the current system biased reviews from competitors go unanswered, and the fact is negative reviews hurt a lot more than positive reviews help. Our entire judicial system of due process revolves around the idea that an accused person has the ability to confront the person who is making claims against them and with good reason; a false accusation can only be disproved by Continue reading…
Your Business Can’t Ignore SEO: Here Are 3 Reasons Why
Christian Vuong | March 10th, 2009
Blah, blah, blah. Search engine optimization is important, SEO is time consuming, but really why is it worth it? Here’s 3 reasons. 1. Your Competitors Aren’t Ignoring It Search engine optimization (SEO) is like a race, the longer you wait to start, the further behind your competitors you’ll be. While it’s true that SEO is more difficult for new mom and pop shops to outrank more established web sites, it’s no excuse to not try at all. I’m not saying that SEO is the perfect fit for every business, it’s not. But an important point to note is that people are no longer searching just Google & Yahoo from their computers. Iphones, Blackberries, universal search, and social media all change up the playing field. Small companies have the advantage with less red tape than most large companies to implement these new features into their online marketing strategies Tip: These are the sites you want to control Flickr – Why should a customer’s gross and poorly lit photo of your most expensive plate come up first on Flickr for a search of your restaurant? Control this, post up professional photographs of your food menu and restaurant. YouTube – What comes up first for your business? Is it a competitor’s video who has strategically placed your company name in their tags or is it your company video blog or introduction video? Control this, record an intro video with the CEO, upload a product infomercial, or do a company tour. Something is better Continue reading…
Tags: citysearch, competitors, flickr, free traffic, google knol, hubpages, protecting your brand, reputation management, SEO, squidoo, tripadvisor, Twitter, yahoo local, yelp, youtube
Posted in SEO | 2 Comments
