What's New in Local Search for March 2016

Once a month our in-house local expert, Mary Bowling, hands us her take on what's changed in the local search industry over the last 30 days. Let's jump straight in and see "What's New in Local Search" for March 2016.

• Google runs one of its review spam updates, removing suspect reviews from business listings. Many small businesses get a reduced number of reviews showing on their Local Knowledge Panels. This can be a learning opportunity for those studying the reviews that were removed. Expect this to happen about twice a year and prepare your clients for the possibility of it happening to them.

• Yahoo's officially for sale, even while Mayer tries desperately to find a way to keep its big shareholders happy.

• A regional player hops into the grocery delivery space in the Washington DC area. Peapod, the online arm of the mid-Atlantic grocery stalwart, Giant Foods, is piloting a partnership with the Washington Metro enabling subway riders to place orders online and receive them from a Peapod pick-up station at their destination stop. What a painless way to "stop by the grocery" on the way home!

  

• Greg Gifford gives us 10 tips on local link acquisition. I totally agree with his statement, "Even with low authority and nofollow, a link from a local site carries a ton of local relevancy." IMO, a lot of folks make gai...