WebProNews

Local search figures prominently in predictions for the future success of online ads. Businesses should start now at gaining good placement for local searches.

Gab Goldenberg

(Coverage of the SMX West Conference continues at WebProNews Videos. Keep an eye on WebProNews for more notes and videos from the event this week.)

Time spent on local search advertising today puts a business in better position to benefit tomorrow. Look no farther than Gab Goldenberg and his four steps to getting MontrealSEO.ca to appear twice in universal search: once alongside a Google Map, and once in a high organic listing placement. Here's how that happened:

1. Bought MontrealSEO.ca and "Sticky"-Forwarded It
2. Submitted MontrealSEO.ca to Google’s Local Business Center
3. Built Links Internally and Externally for MontrealSEO.ca
4. Passed On Reviews Into Google Maps

Eric Lander recommended cross-linking pages with maps and trusted sources to help with blended search. If multiple data sources push duplicate listings into blended search results, the site publisher will want to consolidate.

    Eric Lander

Lander recommended using a free tool at Localeze to help manage their online listings. The Merchant Profile Manager allows a business to add, edit, or remove a single business listing at no charge.

People performing a local search tend to include their city name, Chris Silver Smith noted. Seeing a certain result in a given blended search depends on the search engine and ranking factors.

He observed how ratings on Yahoo Local, and links at the Yahoo-owned Delicious bookmarking site to a business, play a role in where the listing will rank in blended search. Microsoft's Live Search blended results seem to be impacted by the address of a business.

A sample of a query for [Boston seafood restaurants] ordered results mostly by the numeric address in Live Search.

At Google, the One Box section for universal results contains a lot more listings. This gives businesses more of an opportunity to appear alongside a Google Map and the attention it draws in a search.