SearchInfluence

Local U brings together the brightest minds in Local Search.

With Local U just around the corner, I’m getting really excited about the opportunity it’s bringing to New Orleans. While there are so many things I love about the this city, it’s not necessarily known for its booming tech industry… yet. Local businesses could use a technological boost, and that’s exactly why I’m so eager to have Local U in our city. This informative event brings together some of the top players in local search to give entrepreneurs an introductory training session in Internet marketing.

1. Back to Basics: Meta Descriptions 101 - Search Engine Journal
If you haven’t looked at your meta descriptions in over a year or 6 months, it may be time to refresh your meta data. Meta descriptions are the ones that will show up in search results, so they should sound coherent to humans. Read this refresher on meta tags.

2. Thinking about adding 10,000 pages to your site at once? Take caution. - Search Engine Land
If you are adding a large number of pages to your site, it is better to do so in stages according to Google’s Matt Cutts. Adding them in batches may be better. Releasing thousands of pages at once may cause Google to manually review your site for any suspicious behavior.

Earlier this month, Google started slowly rolling out the new Google Places For Business Dashboard which includes an updated interface, deeper integration with Plus, and a promise of faster updates. The dashboard is now available to all new users in the U.S. To help better understand the new features, we have compiled a great list of resources on this much-needed updated.

From Google:

• Improving the look and feel of Google Places for Business – Google – Qasar Younis

• More details about the improved look and feel of Google Places for Business – Google – Joel Headley

5 Ways To Pay For Twitter Exposure - Crazy Egg

We’re all used to the ads on Google and Facebook, but paid campaigns on Twitter are still unfamiliar for many businesses thinking about a paid advertising campaign online. Here are five different methods to get your tweets seen by more people.

Digg Banned From SERPs (Updated) - Search Engine Journal

Here’s a doozy for you! Last week, popular social bookmarking site Digg.com disappeared from Google’s SERPs! Read for the full report from Search Engine Journal.

Three Easy-to-Make Content Marketing Blunders - Blue Glass

Google AdWords Announces Enhanced Campaigns -Search Engine Watch
Google announced Enhanced Campaigns this month, much to the dismay of some and delight of most. The Enhanced Campaigns work to simplify mobile marketing – sounds good, right? So why are some advertisers viewing this update negatively? Check out our blog post by resident Google AdWords Expert to learn why.

The Ultimate Guide for Monitoring your Reputation Online  -Search Engine Journal
Here’s an infographic Beyonce might be interested in. We’ve all had unflattering or embarrassing photos taken. Reputation monitoring is something we all need to think about in these days of hyp ...

Why hasn't Matthew Lesko written a get rich with SEO book yet?

I’m a search marketing guy, have been since my first job out of college (if we are not counting that liquor store on Ponce I worked out for 2 weeks in the summer of ’06. You can’t beat a 30% discount…). Most people can’t grasp what I do or even understand why the company I work for exist (my mother thinks I’m everything from a telemarketer to an Internet panhandler) but it is what I do and love. Recently I have become increasingly more serious about being able to do my job better and become a more rounded internet guy (I mostly just hang out on the fringe of the internet with the /b/tards and tweeps heckling e-celebs for my own amusement). Now I feel I have to pour myself into learning new search marketing strategies in order to keep with the constant changes and competition.

We have been watching some recent Google product changes over the last few months to monitor the effects on site traffic, and in November we see most websites moved along at a positive level with their organic search numbers.  Nothing startling.  Everything is on track.  But for a significant few websites, digging into the Google organic search data in November elicited responses of “Help!” or “what in the world!?!”

As we reported in an earlier post, there are things to consider now that the Bing and Yahoo alliance is coming so near. Starting sometime in August or September, Yahoo’s organic search results will be fully provided by Bing, which will increase their organic search market share from 11% to 27%. Wouldn’t it be great if this meant an end to Yahoo Local, leaving you with only Bing and Google local listings to worry about?

Google Maps… the Local Business Center… Google Places… so many faces, so many problems. While it brings me great happiness once an issue is resolved, when trying to work them out, it seems like it’s never going to end. In the past, I’ve used a puzzle as an analogy for local search. I never really did like puzzles, and if Google Maps was a puzzle it would be a 2,000 piece box full of 1 inch pieces, 50 of which have been eaten by your kitten and thrown about the house by your children.

Is Facebook the next evolution of Local Search?

We all knew it was a matter of time before Facebook started expanding into web search and they’ve finally done it by unveiling their own Facebook local search option: Open Graph search engine. What is Open Graph, you might ask, here’s what Facebook reps are saying, according to an allfacebook.com story:

“all Open Graph enabled web pages will show up in search when a user likes them”