Well, I’m not much of a liveblogger, but since I want to take notes anyhow, I might as well type into wordpress and share the goodness. I am sure I’ll get better at this and hope that everyone gets benefits from the notes. I’ll do cleanup on them after the show is over, too, as well as link to anything that makes sense.

Moderator:
Chris Sherman, Executive Editor, Search Engine Land

Speakers:

Chris Silver Smith, Lead Strategist, Netconcepts

Jenny Halasz, SEO Manager, Acronym Media

Paul Bruemmer, Director Search Marketing, Red Door Interactive

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Jenny Halasz - SEO Manager Acronym MediaDetermine Resources

• Use Simulators to see how mobile devices view site
• Impelment low-resource high impact changes
• Submit to networks - mobile sitemaps newsfeeds

You can Apply to be a Google News Partner
Tip: Provide your business address in a single line of text
Tip: Google 411 defaults to top 8 results, not top 10
If you can build your own mobile.site.com, .mobi domain (adoption questionable) - consider paid search in local engines and networks
If your budget allows, Build out location specific content
Always create a link back to original HTML site, in case information is not provided on mobile site.
Provide a “skip to content” link on mobile screens - hide it for regular users.
Use tel tags on phone numbers
Add area code to phone numbers - wireless providers may require it.
Be XHTML compliant
Tip: user css and js in external files
Tip: use css and div tags to put nav below content
Tip: create a mobile sitmap
Tip: minimize images and flash
hyperlocal web is making inroads - what matters to you may be very local.

International Local search Providers offer big opportunity….Huge opportunity - adoption of mobile is huge
USA SEOs are more advanced, but mobile is more advanced elsewhere.
Sometimes you cannot change a site much for regular SEO, but you can improve local website presence internationally just by placement in those local, international areas.

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Chris Silver Smith - NetconceptsLocal Search is FragmentedYellow Pages, Local Search/Map, Vertical Directories( Good Guide: http://www.localsearchguide.org)What do you do with all of this mess!!!???Internet Yellow Pages is still very strong, despite growth of other Properties like Google, etc. Partially because of social media expansions, network expansions (ad distributions.) See comscore chart.Local search will turn the corner in 2007/2008.Look at how users are on wireless Internet. 24% Local Search - yellow page type lookups. But also weather, travel info, etc. that could be considered local search. Google is building out their services as well, iPhone is driving it.IYPs are valuable for referrals. 38% go on to make a purchase.
Internet Yellow Pages users are often more targeted in their searches.
IYP users often have a better income. (verious industry sources)Ad Distribution Opportunities. Industry has “frenemies” “Coopetition” rules. Data trading, distribution netowrks are overlapped, data flowing back and forth.Mobile Companies Resist Open Platforms. Walled communities. But this will not last. Some collapse is already starting.

Trend is away from special display formats to full web display. iPhone has full web page views ,for example. We may not need special formats as much in the future. Google is translating pages as well. Users are going to expect high quality display of web pages on local.

What do we do with fragmentation. Small business is a nightmare. Outsource to an agency most probably like that (like PrecisionLocal.com!)

For Medium business, may want to consider an agency also. Full time employees for larger firms.

Local search optimization - add store locater optimization - add all locations to local free placements (Local Business Centers) - This is Time Investment at the beginning and some periodic updating, but is still a good idea.

An outside agency may be a good idea because of the commitment required.

WHERE to advertise?

Perhaps a limited number of ads and campaigns at first. Perhaps even one ad. Based on your budget.

Local search may collapse some into fewer players

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Paul Bruemmer - Red Door InteractiveHigh Penetration of devicestwice as many cell phones as pcs
web searches on mobile devices will exceed PCs
access to international consumers who cannot afford pcs
Proximity couponsPlanning CampaignsContent Sponsorship - sponsors in exchange for lower cost mobile servidce
Opt in SMS - there are successful examples - can outperform other methods - brandweek is the source
Go after early adopters first - biz, youth
Test cost of mobile - SMS marketing services $3k, mobile campaigns $10k, Case study - sugarmama
SMS and mobile ads are pretty cheap - easy to get data inexpensively.

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Chris ShermanQ/AWhat about the hardware store wanting hyper-local ads? 50M radius is too big. Is this a reason it’s not being adopted?
Chris Smith - there is some biz case for finer granularity - some times you can do zip code and radius. By keywords, or long/lat. Some users want that granularity, some ad platforms are offering some granularity. GPS location, too. People have not explored all possible opportunities including ad buyers.
Jenny - Not necessarily doing local searches in that area, you may be doing searches from afar.38% purchases from superpages - name search or geosearch?
chris smith - it wasn’t broken out. But I think name search would drive higher level.How many are using geo-qualified search terms?jenny - see search marketing standard fall issue stats. also some international data. Some recent data show up to 90% are actually for local information. Some keywords are research keywords, while others are “purchase” keywords. This gives you an advantage on personalized search as well.
chris smith - some industry figures have based criteria on keywords but it’s not broken out - so some controversy on how stats are put together. I wish these big companies would break it out more. Create persona for types of people coming to your business and imagine how these people would conduct searches. Then do the follow up analytics on those personas.
chris sharman - I’ve heard 20-40% are locally oriented. Sometimes it takes more than one search to qualify the geography.
paul - keyword research is an exhaustive process, but it’s bedrock to everything. people are learning to searchHow do you make sure mobile devices see mobile content?You have to set up your server recognize the device. You have to make sure mobile.yoursite.com are redirected, and others like it (e.g. /mobile, .mobi)Mobile Search Duplicate Content Issues?Chris smith: YES!!! Google has not documented this well enough. we need a better way to identify mobile content in search without risk of duplicate content. Don’t want to water down page rank. If you don’t want us to cloak, then tell us what to do? Google has a mobile spider, but this isn’t super well known. The sitemap is probably the better way to go right now.Jenny Halasz - Mobile Site Map does exist.Mobile Sitemaps / Robots
Good luck blocking other googlebots except for their mobile google bots. But this is a risky idea.Where is the Yahoo! / MSN mobile bot?
They say they’re coming (laughter in room)

Are there certain niche patterns in local search that depends on device, etc. trends

trend towards local results in mobile devices - absolutely
for advertising you can see it, but you cannot see referral keywords for natural search sometimes - a big challenge.

Which applications in local/mobile are actually driving the most traffic?

Chris Smith - look at companies focused on local search - those making content available to different local providers. Infospace, for example. Those trying to get onto local devices. See what their reach is. Many offer PPC options. See if you can play on many players to get small traffic boosts.

Chris Sherman - but networks are emerging - e.g. Mediarc.

Are users getting outside of the walled gardens the providers put up?

Chris Smith - Consumers are demanding it of their providers. Devices like the iPhone are changing people’s standards and expectations.
Chris Sherman - How are scroll-based navigation going to affect things?
Jenny - it’s all about targeting?
Chris Smith - voice recognition is not there yet.

What is liveblogging? Liveblogging is basically notetaking for the world. I’m not taking the time to write perfectly because I’m listening to the speaker - taking notes much as I would on my own. I will revise these posts some over time, but they will always be quickly written like this.

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