Posts by Mary Bowling

I never ceased to be amazed at the number of big, huge, enormous brands out there that just don’t get Local Search. They tend to do okay with ranking in the results for brand names, but often fail to appear in the Local Pack for category-type searches. There is really no excuse for this since big brands usually have powerful websites that can provide considerable lift in helping all of their individual locations to rank for queries made by searchers nearby them.

Two simple questions that can reveal how well a brand is working for its franchises or in-house store operators: Are the individual locations appearing for brand name searches? And are the individual locations appearing for th...

Matt Cutts states in an interview with Eric Enge, that the pages for each franchise or chain location should be unique. He also says a few unique sentences are all that is needed. I disagree. To make location pages really useful landing pages for visitors, you need to localize them as much as you can with information unique to that particular store or service provider.

Offline maps become available via the Google Maps app. Save up to 5 geo-locations and you can view them even when your connection is lost or you can use them to save on data charges.

The new Apple mobile operating system iOS6, ...

Bing takes a step back in the battle for socializing search with a social sidebar. This new strategy takes most of the social aspects out of the search results and puts them all together into the sidebar, but you have to be signed into Bing to see it. Right there if and when you want it, but not gumming up your SERPs and jamming other people’s opinions into them. You know, sometimes, I just want to indulge in a good old school search all by myself.

At the same time, Bing takes a step forward by partnering with Yelp to integrate snip...

In the world of search you have to stay on your toes. Changes are the norm, not the exception. Our industry has matured enough that many of the more drastic changes (like Panda and Penguin) are not unanticipated and do not really effect those concentrating on good internet marketing.  However, for those who live and die by tricks and loopholes it’s a much more tumultuous world. 

Over the past few years, the changes in local search have been fast and furious. It’s not unusual to wake up in the morning to unexpectedly learn that things have changed, really changed, since you powered down your pc the previous evening. Google giveth and Google taketh away and the G god is no...

Googler Vanessa Schneifer (aka Vanessagene) begins a weekly “need to know” video round up of important things happening in the help forum available via YouTube. Two videos have been released:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp30pGhveJE&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO5wd2fl2Vs

...

While those of us in the US are often clueless about what's going on north of the border, SEO's working to promote Canadian Businesses via Local Search are acutely aware of the unique challenges they face. Hopefully, this post will help the rest of us understand Local Search in Canada a little better.

Dot Com or Dot Ca?

If you have a business that is marketing strictly to Canadians, then dot ca is the way to go with your domain name. Nothing more clearly tells the Search Engines that you are marketing to searchers in Canada.

If you also market in other countries, a dot com domain name will serve you better in most instances. How...

The new Places Help Forum is buzzing with problems. There are either some serious bugs in Places, another "unknown" guideline of some kind is in force or the enforcement of one or more known guidelines has been stepped up considerably - or all of the above. Just when you think Google Places can’t get any more confusing for small business owners, it does.

Rich snippet spam becomes a household word, at least in houses with SEOs. It’s mainly coming in the form of false rating stars appearing in the Search results, but it’s so easy to make happen and the positive effect is so strong and so immediate that you ca...