You get VIP listing placement, a full profile, and more.  If you have a local audience and want to rank better for your regional searches, this is a no-brainer as BOTW has always provided good quality link juice (even if the page rank bar shows nothing yet.)

SIGN UP NOW and good luck!

I have a whole database of new friends from SMX Seattle and SMX Denver, yet have not done a good job of following up, reviewing their stuff and generally making friends. I’ve been utterly slammed with the disappearance (figuratively) of a programmer resource, I’ve needed to make up slack on several fronts.

So don’t take it the wrong way. To those of you who’ve followed up without a reply, I have every one of those messages here and will do my best to contact you… if not today, soon.

I’m replying to Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social networking pings pretty much realtime, btw.

Oh yeah… does anyone know what happened to the SMX Local Mobile group photo?

Moderators:
Chris Sherman, Executive Editor, Search Engine Land
Greg Sterling, Founding Principal, Sterling Market Intelligence

TIP: See the end of this post for other coverage on the conference too.

Gary Price, Director of Online Information Resources, Ask.com

• Phone Used / Favorite App: Trio 700p, tuned.mobi
• works with lots of end users, so he wonders how we are telling these people these services exist and training for use?
• Worries about overload consumers getting confused.
• There are places for services that help eliminate “gaming” of reviews. Review aggregations.
• IVR / Voice Response will advance. This gets people excited. This gets your foot in the door, which is key.
• semapedia.com reference. sounds cool mobot. — camera phone searches are easy.
• Ask mobile is carrier agnostic - users with company phones cannot put stuff on it (e.g. google maps) - so ask.com’s stuff is built in.
• Ask doesn’t put search box on mobile site, they just stack the information for quick navigation. Otherwise people start entering long, tedious searches - bad user experience!

Perry Evans, CEO, Local Matters

• Phone Used : Motorola Q
• Surprised by limited conversation about social -> mobile.
• Issue is more lack of focus on interaction between users.
• SME usage will follow consumer usage. Trends are pointing in the right direction.
• Over longer term, we need to stop talking about application you use when you must, but more ubiquitous use. Like going from dial-up to broadband - everything changes.
• Another barrier is carrier structure - no innovation. Like Earthlink circa 1995. This is Holding back everything.
• Computers in Cars question: The problem is the auto industry, not the technology. Can’t drive and search easily. Lots of regs.
• Leaning on your friends to find new things will be important - facebook/myspace examples.
• Quality of results will depend on content, as well as algorithm. Where is advertiser interest - who will fill the gap?

Robyn Rose, Vice President of Marketing, Superpages.com

• Phone Used: Blackberry 8830
• No conversation about local marketing video surprised her.
• Not a lot of solutions about off-line conversions surprised her.
• regarding reviews/social: Positive and negative reviews are just a normal part of the world.
• need to engage small businesses to provide information to send to mobile/local results, not just national franchises.
• Who’s paying for all of these innovations - consumers? advertisers? It won’t be carriers.
• future…Small businesses aren’t ready to be doing real-time inventories, etc.

Scott Knowles, Principle Business Planning Manager, AOL

• Phone Used / Favorite App: Treo 650, Yelp
• Accessibility lacking - devices must become easier to users.
• Real time location can enable ability communicate where friends are and even activities they’ve done / reviews.
• We try to weave in local search to SMS, put result on phone, etc.

Michael Jones, Chief Technologist, Google Earth, Google Maps, and Google Local Search, Google, Inc.

• Phone Used : iPhone
• Lack of controversy. Galactic comment. CEO of Samsung said new corporate vision was to be like Google Sky, not like Sony anymore. They said that was the most creative thing at Google.
• In local, as you narrow down the numbers go down fast. Things are inverted. Expectations are far different. Not “why isn’t local working” - yet, but “how can we be more clever working with the reality we have.”
• Anything where something is ubiquitous changes everything.
• Google maps supports hundreds of platforms (mobile) behind the scenes.
• Auto industry can’t do anything that would get them into tort cases. Nothing will be in the cars… all add-ons.
• Quality of local search results is not as good as web results, need better sources.

Mike Shean (uses Wifi to locate users)

• Phone Used / Favorite App: HDC-620, texting & Google maps
• When people start having positive experiences they’ll talk about it (WOM)

Chris Sherman - SearchEngineLand

• hears skepticism in the conference. Is there a tension being set up between needs of marketers and searchers.
• Like universal search, this makes it more challenging for marketer.
• There is a push-pull situation.
• Many challenges for search marketers.

Other Conference Coverage:

Also, the conference has some other excellent coverage going on… make sure you check these, too (let me know if I missed you.)

• Mark Barrera - Marketing Pilgrim
• Andrew Shotland -Local SEO Guide
• Mike Belasco - SMX Local/Mobile Coverage
• Marty Wientraub - AimClear

Fascinating presentation at SMX Local Mobile.

Mobile searchers don’t want lists of web pages - they want answers or fast ways to take action. Mobile search providers are increasingly experimenting with alternative interfaces, such as location-aware browsing, voice recognition, text messaging and other innovative approaches. Learn about these new efforts and how they potentially impact mobile search marketing efforts.

(room sparse, but excellent presentation!)

Mark McCormack, Chief Marketing Officer, CallGenie

Was around a long time before Goog411

Advertisement is in placements of results.

People communicate the same way they do voice search.

• Very conversational.
• Not a map problem, it’s a place problem.
• People don’t understand geography very well.
• Different places, same name
• Local landmarks are relevant

• internet cos have failed cos by creating mobile apps that are a little more than extensions of pc experiences
• mobile demands new experiences that fit devices
• Y!’s goal is mobile first.

Users want instant gratification.

• Give me answers, images, entertainment
• results that matter
• results that work on my phone
• no more click and wait
• relevant to where I am and what i’m doing
• consumers don’t want to enter many words in search
• for “pizza” - local makes most sense, so they go to the top on mobile.
• Anywhere answers exist, they are presented front-and-center
• Location is a crippled form of context.
• Sports searches, scores came first, schedule, etc.
• Guesses intent based on intelligence

Industry Accelerators - will help mobile internet take off

• Since searches are extremely relevant, so are relevant advertising opportunities.
• Mobile search is hard to find. - 66% have “never heard of mobile search.”
• challenges: 89% of non-users don’t know how to access search on phone.
• solutions: Idle screen search box / search button / embed search in carrier portal.
• consumer challenge: complicated and variable data charges. 65% think there’s a charge associated with search. 80-90% of subscribers are on a pre-paid plan. there’s a FEAR of doing too much for their plans - spending too much money.
• solution: move towards simplified plans like unlimited plans.
• publisher challenge: it’s hard to develop for mobile - so many proprietary interfaces. format support. wml,xhtml,html
• solution: move towards standard technologies and format / fewer standardized browsers / better scripting support.
• SearchAssist for mobile is not possible because it requires scripting/ajax. browser on mobile is not robust yet.
• monotization challenge: It’s brand new. Lack of standards. Limited ad experience in mobile. few mobile sites.
• solution: educate and enable advertisers - standardize formats, single full suite for advertisers.
• 2007 is the tipping point for mobile - we are moving out of early adopters this year. Next year will be early mass market. like iphone which demonstrates data services as a core of mobile experiences changes landscape.
• Nobody has cracked the “local” problem yet.

Dan Gilmartin, VP Marketing, uLocate

A more visual approach. GPS enabled.

• where.com is a gps enabled application using extensive library of widgets
• Simplifies development (slides moving fast, dense slides) using a scripting language for creating mobile enabled apps. PHP / Ruby.
• Location extracted from network and given to the widget.
• You launch the “irish pub widget” ..or “find a local event”
• …you launch eventful widget device has already located you, using their widget to show info to you.
• Users personalize their phones at where.com — cool. Sort of like iGoogle.

Sumit Agarwal, Product Manager, Google, Inc.

Greg Sterling: here to announce the Google Phone (laughter)

Data - skate to where the puck will be.
Blended mobile product usage graph - iphone launch - highly disruptive
…Only Rate limited by devices to market…
…If you focus on getting subset of experiences right, you can do really well even with one device takes market share

Phone demos. iGoogle widget that syncs your on-phone screen
Goog411 is going to get more advanced soon.
….You can also say …”map it” — sends SMS map to your phone, will fire up google maps for mobile.

Why did Google pump Adwords advertisers in with opt-out options for mobile?If it’s not useful to you, we make it go away.
Greg complained about a “very generic answer.”

Fluid homescreens - search by walking around? (my question..yay!)
Privacy Issues, searching by walking around has lots of challenges, must have an affirmative user initiation. but widgets can possibly be developed for this based on user preferences. Like an RSS feed sort of thing. Ability to configure on your pc what appears on your phone is a big deal that also plays into the decisions of what shows up on your phone.

Huge emerging markets will never use the PC, but will use mobile. Global International market.

Google: In japan: 27-32% total regular web access comes from mobile devices. Wow!

What about ultramobile pcs? Will mobile search still be “mobile” search?

Yahoo: it will be much easier for consumers, but it’s still different. try 1search or yahoo search. Possibly they converge some, but what you are trying to do on pc vs. phone are different.

So there are Billions out there. But who’s making money now. How will SEMs place bets now to ensure their success? Show me the money!

Moderator:
Greg Sterling

Speakers:

• Ian White, CEO, Urban Mapping
• Shawn Riegsecker, Chairman & CEO, Centro
• Justin Sanger, CEO, LocalLaunch
• Alfred Chow, Head, Yellowbook

Lots of energy in the room for this one. Big variety on the panel. PACKED ROOM.

Live Blogging after the jump

So much potential, but where’s the money!

Justin Sanger - LocalLaunc

“Greg, you complete me” laughter

Lots of hype - for so many of us it’s not the real world. Makes fun of google’s “galactic scale” comment. Content at the galactic scale… what does that mean to us!

The innovators are always just around the corner from making a big announcement. So tired of seeing announcements.

The irony is that the targeted beneficiary of new local ad inventory, local advertisers aren’t benefiting from all of it yet. See Nebulous local search marketplace slide… good slide.

• Local and Vertical and Social Networking are converging - next 2 years.
• Online classifieds - big marketplace
• Local search - lots of types, you must keep perspective! You must differentiate and keep perspective. Depends on who you are and where you are coming from. Unique advertising options even with one inventory provider.
• SMEs are overwhelmed and confused! Even though the innovation is exciting.
• Major Local Advertisers have tried to make sense of it. Try to identify inventory, consolidate into products. make it easy for SMEs to buy.
• SMEs are not coming online and providing content to Google/Yahoo, etc. as expected. They do not ‘buy’ advertising… they are ’sold’ advertising.
• see cost of traffic slide. Not all inventory sources are created equally.
  organic seo is like free inventory

• Majority of audience has gone immediatly to paid search… puts pressure on margins.
• Silos and advertisers don’t mix in local search
• destination and inventory providers must get omfortable iwth the idea of being a component of larger product.
• You may need to distribute advertising outside of your own walled gardens.
• Agnostic local search marketing platform. YPs are becoming platform providers.
• Platforms consolidate complex systems.

Shawn Riegescker

A different perspective - not working with search per se.

media industry ($250B) - for the most part has been scaled on people and spreadsheets. Fine when we were buying print, outdoor, direct mail. but when cable came, stress started, then when the web came, the whole thing fell apart.

If you look at last 10 years, it looks like how people bought off-line media. People are buying less than 20 companies.

When people have well built out off-line planning teams, buyers - 78% of all media spent was going into portals. Local publishers like newspapers, tv stations, LYPs, magazines, etc. were collectively getting less than 5% of all digital spending despite having best content. Why??? media was fragmenting greater at the rate than it was growing.

If an agency is doing right, they should be sending out 3 times as many ad agreements. when clients are not spending more you have a pressure margin at the agency level.� So without a system that takes out friction between national clients and local publishers the money will not find it’s mark.

Newspaper market is in bad shape. Web growth has slowed on newspaper.com to single digits, but these numbers are masking the largest success stories on the web. Why? because 70% of all of the $ reported or attributed is a forced upsell (like “buy this too” classifieds.) Eventually this noise will go away and the real numbers will emerge.� And they will show huge numbers flowing into the local market.
Regional advertisers are next big explosive growth area. Less than 3% spend right now. Because of confusion. Agencies don’t have expertise. (!)

Show me the profit!

Small businesses on one side - a sales/education issue …
on the other side are publishers - greatest cost is sales.
….big money are intermediaries who put the ads across all of the ad networks.

the fragmentation will force publishers to run businesses with fewer people and more efficiencies.

Ian White - Urban Mapping

Where the hell is the money?

• Technical Limitations
• User Behavior
• Search Engine Keyword Lockdown

Stats say “yes” but not “when”

Geo IP lookup sucks

…. for local search.

SE’s claim 99% country level
SE’s claim 95% at state level

• But granularity matters in local search!� (right down to neighborhood level)
• Adwords and YSM let you draw your ads but a SMBs dont’ want to spend a 50M radius. Barber Shops can’t use it in the current state.

Where you are vs. where you want to be.
….therefore…
“you must throw the ball where the customer will be”

What about GPS - Cell ID, A-GPS, wifi?
…. none work perfectly.

So, We must relearn what we’ve unlearned
…users known best

• Tribeca –> 10012 –> Tribeca
• Pseudo concierge
• Leaky AOL data - 20k neighborhood terms and ran it…9% used informal search terms
• Postal codes < used in 1% of searches

Another issue is Keyword Lockdowns by Search Engines

• The Duluth Issue (?) Panama “Duluth MN” freeze on regional PPC campaigns favoring national brand. Was Duluth a place or brand?
• Low volume, high quality geo-keywords are rejected by Google not enough searches.

Alfred Chow - YellowBook� Publisher and sales channel

Who’s making money? (”conferences!” - laughter)
Who will be making money?

• Print yellow pages will make money for a while, but writing is on the wall and they know it.
• Chaos is good, opens opportunity.
• Advertiser has too many options.
• Yellowpages have lots of salespeople. Like “Human Crawlers”
• They act not like the last “mile” … but the last “few feet”
• Google probably won’t hire 10k salespeople, so YP have advantages.
• Salespeople must suppress confusion - speak in customers’ language.
• Yellow pages may be able to sustain longer, not just short burst of activity.

How is user intent established?
…more words in user queries.
…personal search
…behavioral targeting
…Search Assist in Yahoo

Where are they in terms of being accurate on understanding intent?
…Google is best by far.
…Yahoo next.
…MSN — I have NO idea (room giggles)

For off-line businesses, what’s the best way to track conversions?
…Well, it’s a fact: 92% research products online, 96% bought offlines
…Also: 36% off all retail influenced by web now.
…driving directions, send to friend, send to phone, etc. can be tracked.
…coupons, offers, etc.

What Big Acquisitions coming down the road? (room laughs)
… Alfred Chow: Google is not going to buy Yellow Book… NOT going to happen
… you can expect more consolidation… nobody knows what
… Why hasn’t someone bought Yelp yet?� (Sc- Someone is going to)

Are mobile providers collecting data on how we use search on mobile?

…Too early. But they collect everything.
… Personalization will be part of mobile.

out of time.

(Partial Liveblogging - other presenters not blogged… couldn’t get a coherant flow going :-P)

Steven Chuck, Director of Strategic Alliances, Yahoo!

Hyper Local - Mom/Pop

Do we see a day when cost per lead pay per action model takes hold in SMB advertising?

It depends on

• advertiser segment,
• full impact of web2.0 (ratings, etc.)
• sales channel.

Why are we asking?

SMB ability to value clicks - changing with time?

Yahoo - reasons to build a website?

• build awareness 72%
• Present credible images 66%
• providing up to date info 56%
  ….then, way down the list…
• generate online sales 21% (wow!)
• generating leads 24%

Difficulty translating click to close for SMBs

For SMB sectors advertising will always matter! Persistent branding needs are a big part of their priority. I may not be able to measure the precise ROAS, but my customers know that my ad will always be on page x of the newspaper when they need me.

Many retail / service sector need a presence in market that extend throughout the funnel. At all points of sales consideration.

Digital WOM - ratings and reviews. WOM is public!

• The “AAA” SMB today and beyond. Everyone needs positive ratings. SMBs need help managing this!
  Scott comment: Many SMBs have no clue. Not sold in CPL method.
• 72% might use dealership web site, 58% will post comments (!)
• New Yahoo! Local site is geared towards more ratings!
  Closest and best govern Yahoo Local now, not “AAA Plumbing”

Why the sales channel matters

• Fit of online offering with current offering. Cant response response products with with reach products by adding a line item to the IO.
• No overnite transitions. Sales Force can expect channels to take a while. Take a lot of effort.
• Channel appetite for transparency. CPL/PPA requires a response orientation and tracking - sometimes it’s hard to get people to embrace this model of transparency.

Partial liveblog.

Wal-Mart buys no display advertising - they find no value. Interesting.

How do advertisers value clicks, calls, etc….

Lots of assumptions that people are rational… but it’s not true! “This is the way I do it.” We are not tracking marketers by nature!
On google 1/3 of bid have no strategy, 1/3 have flawed strategy, 1/3 have a decent strategy.

Ease of use will be a big factor. Even if the solution isn’t the “best”

Perhaps the tracking piece will be what differentiates the winner in the end?

Scott comment: Needs to be an extension to a CRM ..

Who is going to take on the role of educating small businesses?
(See show me the money panel)
Scott comment: yahoo ambassador / help on this?

A big chasm between lead sale and cost per action sale. Depends on sales teams doing a good job.

Throughout this writup: PPC = pay per click.� Don’t confuse it with PPcall
Lots more after the jump…

• 98% are not engaged in pay per click advertising - but they all have phones.
  People are able to understand PPCall.
• 71% prefer a phone call to a click. (kelsey)
• 48% are very interested in pay per call
• would pay 5-15 than to have a phone lead (Jupiter)
• They understand the value of a phone call better.
• Fewer concerns about fraud - you’re talking to people. You can tell if they’re qualified.
• 85% of SMB can estimate phone conversion rate (!) but clueless about website conversion rate. (Ingenio/jupiter)
• Incoming calls convert 45% vs 3% of pay per click (kelsey)
• PPC can convert 10x better than PPC (ingenio)
• close lag is shortened - 14 days (click) vs. 1 day (call)
• Can be locally focused - very specific service regions can be highly targeted - time of day - business hours - perhaps when you need to boost business.
• Leads can be received anywhere there is a phone - mobile.
• merchants don’t answer the phone all the time (20% connection rate !!!) - Ingenio Disputes This below. This number is from the call the call tracking space.

Challenges

• lack of market inventory. hard set-up. not enough volume. is it worth the effort?
• Some find it’s only 1-2 calls per month (!)
• High costs and lower volume than PPC - you have to change your expectations.
• Broad categories - less precise
• Google allows phone numbers in pay per click ads… and these are free to show.

Early adopters

• People who can’t manage PPC campaigns
• Businesses with complex products - lots of explanation
• Model that has a call center already - they can tap right in.
• Service providers 70% of YP ads are service businesses.
• Morgage, credit card, banks are examples.

Future

• It’s not in the mainstream yet.
• It’s happening slower than we thought.
• Once the big players offer something, it’ll move.
• Distribution networks need to grow.
• Agencies need to talk about it - embrace it.
• Scott: Chicken and egg problem.

Greg Sterling comments

Google/Ebay - announced it but haven’t rolled it out. Marc may speak about it. There are a lot of efforts like Superpages.

James Price, Group Manager - Performance Based Products, Superpages.com

Findings

• Local search in buying cycle - consumer is knows what they want now they want to know where to get it.
• consumers spend 97% offline - 3% online - but lots of research online.
• OYP users buy quicker and spend more… IYP do less searches, ready to buy.
• Superpages: 75% plan to contact business, 51% plan to purchase, 50% making 1st buy from that business.

TMP - local search users - correlates with superpages data
82% of online users follow up with offline visit, 61% of offsite visit make a purchase

slides moving fast :-(
IYP shows an excellent ROI - storage, movers, auto, repair, insurance, hospitality, auto dealers

ROI in online local and classified ads - good ROI -slide too fast

Pay Per Call Case studies

florist
spends $1200/month, cost per call $4.50, conversion rate 82%, $64/sale, Sales ROI 12:1
entertainment product:
spends $2500/month, $13 per call, 47% conv, $147/sale, sales 5:1 monthly, 60:1 anual
prof services local serv delivery:
spends $1100/month, cost per call $12, 30% conv, $1800/sale, 47:1 ROI
skilled trade, delivered locally:
spends $300/month, $35/call, 74%, $89/sale, 2:1 ROI
lasik surgery service:
spends $700/month,$3.70/call, 58% conv, $1999/sale,309:1 conv

Pay per call can also be done in print yellow pages, billboards, other channels.

Scott Kliger, Founder/CTO, Jingle Networks

1-800-3733-411 - speed dial this for 411. Free. - has 5% share of 411 space.

Pay per call is their entire business model. They start on the phone.

US : 5b phone calls to 411, $1.50 avg cost, 7.5B industry. (!)

• Switches to competitor during 411 call - if they are searching by co. name
• If they are category searching, they use a live bid model to provide a list of solutions.
• They use the Google model, applied to phone, but big difference. Keyword based targets. Advertisers only pay for success.
• The “Live connection to the consumer” is the big difference. Timing, captive, interactive, uncluttered
• 85% seeking businesses, 15% residential
• Locksmiths, Bail Bondsman are big customers (!) audience giggles.
• Expedia - Ad response is 2.75% - 3% response (switch pitch) rate - closes 50% of calls
• Nationwide Insurance - PPC ads response 1.5%, once connected close is 15%, PPC is $20
• DirectTV - 3% response rate - Close is 20%, PPC is $15.00

takeaway Tip: No user behavior changes are needed for this all to work.

Marc Barach - Ingenio

Just sharing some observations, no prepared presentation.

• Nice to see there is an industry now, 2-3 y ago there wasn’t.
• Untold Billions are spent on other advertising to drive phone calls.
• Local inventory is still at a low level, so people will see very few searches in some cases.
• Sole complaint is about wanting more volume. ROI is spectacular.

Remedies?

1. Not limiting advertisers from single channel. Billboard, print, tv, web, etc.
2. Companies in space need to come together to pool distribution to improve consumer experience.
3. Relevance - categories - length of call (avg 5m) and through qualitative research.

He thinks that more are answering phone than the 20% … a negligible percent don’t answer the phone. If they are involved in PPCall advertising they answer the phone.

• Concerns about dirty inventory, rotations of phone numbers, but this has hopefully been taken care of.
• Pay per call UI tip: If your goal is to pass as many leads, visible phone numbers work far better than a button of any type.
• Ingenio says it’s a no brainer.
• Consumers told them they don’t want any internet experiences… they want a bloody phone number right now.
• But it’s harder to use real phone numbers of course.
• Why did Google not really jump in yet? No great answers yet. There may be a concern about provisioning phone numbers?

This was the best session I’ve attended yet at the conference. Lots of great information and engaging speakers. Good questions from the room and highly relevant content. Bravo!

Moderator:
Chris Sherman, Executive Editor, Search Engine Land

Speakers:

Alex Porter, Vice President, Location3 Media

Alan Beiagi, Director and GM, Mapquest

Michael Jones Google - replaced Microsoft who didn’t show

Alex Porter

Google has slowest process for getting information on the map.

Yahoo has most traffic, Idearc is second. This is one place Google doesn’t yet dominate.

Superpages has pages that are overwhelmed by (often inaccurate) paid listings (shows example) Superpages says they are reformatting the page.

Each engine has different listings - it’s hard to get your arms around all of them, or how the data is flowing in to each of them. But here is the process they’ve figured out:

Data listings come from…
22,000 phone books hand entered via offshore data entry -> axcio / infousa / amacai -> search engines / directories IYPS / local reviews

What comes back…Very basic information, sometimes it’s badly outdated, no keywords, no categories no enhancement.

How can you measure ROI from map listings?

• Call tracking
• Trackable URLs
• Tracking Coupons
• However, since listings are conducive to phone calls or physical visits, it can be hard to track it.

Alan Beiagi, Director and GM, Mapquest

Role of Maps in Local Mobile Search

Next wave of user growth will come from mobile and international users. Some have never used a PC and some will never have a PC.

• 12M use GPS-enabled Local business Search today -> will grow to 315M in 5 years (!!)
• 6% of people rec’d mobile ads made a purchase (compare to far smaller # for web.)
• only 15M of 233M cell phone users use data services — 85% of market remains!
• Roughly 55% of handsets are GPS enabled.
• A users’s handset knows a lot about user - who you are, where you’re going, what streets you’ll cross
• Mobile search revenues will climb to $1.4B by 2012
• Use of Mobile directories will grow 30% this year (?? - slide went too fast)
• Almost 2M access sports information almost every day.
• 6M consumers access restaurant info every day(?)
• Spend on mobile search will go from $1.5 -> $11.3B - in 5y? (slide too fast)
• Local search will grow 282% in 5y
• Right now you have to go all over the place to get to this information.
• Handsets are becoming aggregators (Scott’s comment as I type)

Michael Jones, Chief Technologist, Google Earth, Google Maps, and Google Local Search

Jabs at Microsoft (he’s filling in for them) - audience laughs “should he represent Microsoft? or Google?”

Google maps “try this” links on the bottom left change every day. They do a lot of dynamic testing.

Demo’d oblique 3d buildings on maps, and real-time traffic, waypoint changes (did not work in presentation, audience suggested he become “microsoft” for a little while. laughter)

• User contributed content at the bottom of map results. People who put stuff up with location data. It’s like Google Web Search for Places. (!)
• Plug-ins businesses of made
• “Let me do you a favor” with Google Maps. “Add to maps” - Map becomes a meeting point - a mashup.
• Google Maps API - A way for users/companies/people to build new things - Google Maps Mania has 50k+
• How hard is that … go to code.google.com for instructions Map examples are there.
• You can see news type “clusters” that support news stories. Showed videos inside BBC Flooding maps.
• You can also put business information on the map in the same way.
• The value is in the overlaps - mashups.

Q/A

Can we buy ads that re-route traffic closer to our business? (audience giggles)
Routing and other map data - will not be altered by advertising. “change route to drive by my business” - this won’t happen.� (Sc- I hear skepticism in the room)

How do you get enhanced data on Mapquest?
Mapquest licenses data. Mapquest has a platform that licenses data. Mapquest does deals with bigger companies. (?)

How do you handle privacy issues with satellite?
there are issues. There are some foreign countries where maps are problematic … China. Sat. photos are scary to them. All sat data Google buys is commercial data that was on the shelf.

For IYPs - some advertisers have problems with changes on map - there is a lagtime as much as 1y.. what should we do?
The whole industry acquires map data from data sources and this causes delays - QA also. They get data quarterly - The lagtime shouldn’t be 1.5Y, should be a lot less than that. there can be life/death situations affected by the lagtime. It’s a research problem.

Nokia buy Navteq - Implications? (Navteq in the room)

Rest assured Nokia sees location based services strategic - navteq used acquisition to get closer to industry - kept management - Navteq mgmt reports direct to CEO - keep Navteq neutral as possible after acquisition … How come Google let Nokia get Navteq? (no answer really, room giggles)

How is the uploaded business listing data verified? (vs. postcard method.) Prevent Mapspam?
These are independent programs at Google - they are trying to fix it. There are bogus streets in Navteq and Mapquest to protect copyright. For the most part map data is trustworthy, but if it comes from the wild it may not be. Google wants to mark how much they trust it. Google correlates all of it. They correlate it to believe it . When you see it 2-3 times from different sources, it becomes “real.” So this takes a while. Google is going to show more map results soon in the list.

Spreadsheet to KML converters (?) — can be brought into mymaps.� (SC - check out )

Some providers do not want their own address, but they want to show up in the organic results? How can seo show their info without violating the rules of conduct?

before, you could use PO Box - Google Maps team is eliminating this as an option (!)

Women’s shelters example. There is no way to put a “blob” or “service area” on the map. google needs a “place.” If you have a “batcave” - there is no answer - you have to have a place. Some don’t want their business listed.
You can just “pick an address” - like a park (Sc - c’mon now.)

What’s the CENTER of a search in Google? How are they ranked?

Google gives the 10 highest “rated” results - zoom out a little to show you 10. So it’s rounded up a bit on centering. Highest number of reviews seems to have an effect on the list’s results. Google lcoal reviews are very important to them (!) BBB has a factor in the secret sauce. (!) Google Maps rebuilds data every month. So there needs to be a way to see your ad on the “new” data.� (SC - wow, BBB worth something.)
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.

Chuck Aikens - Booyah Agency

70% of internet users perform local search, 68% would use the phone number to contact business in the last 30-60 days. Only 11% would fill out an on-line form but 68% would use the phone number to contact the business

So, between an online form and phone number as much as a 12:1 ratio has been observed. Wow!

49% of search users put in a geographic modifier, 23% put in a business name.

Top search categories for Local (Mapquest data)

• Travel - hotels, airports
• Search - food, retail
• Entertainment - bars, nightclub, theatres
• Places - hospitals, churches, banks, pos
• Brands - starbucks, wal-mart, ups

Excellent SEO Tips

• Double listing between google maps and top organic rank can drive conversion to the site big time.
• Strategy is to talk about what they do and where they do it. This is an important technique - so you must lay down the geographic locations on the left and right of the site very specifically. This technique worked with very little time investment.
• Essentially good old fashioned SEO with local authority sites combined with high quality local listing practices.
• On your sites, you need to put WHAT and WHERE both on right hand side and in footer! Lets you go after organic long-tail without chasing keywords that will not result in searches. Conversion rates also go way up based on their findings.
• All of this was done with local link coverage from local media and local authority sites.
• Grab links from local bloggers and regional PR.
• List geographic targets
• watch the long tail
• get local links!

Gib Olander - Localeze

Local is a messy place. It Closes the loop on the buying cycle. {slides moved really fast}

Two types of searches….

• searcher they know exists - wants to recover information.
• The searcher knows where but not who - discovery search for a specific need.

Lots of moving parts to this index for SEO, business listing database index in addition to organic and paid search listings on SERP. Sometimes the biz listings don’t even have a website.

4 tactics for optimizing a local search:

• Microsite - location relevant info
• Locator - business name in certain communities
• Profile - build out simple profiles - what’s unique about a business in a category?
• Directory inclusion -IYPs, Merchantcircle, Superpages, etc.

business listings listing - you must get to the aggregators - infousa, acxiom, localeze so your listings in the SERPs on those listings. There are tools you can use.� (SC - ?)

You should try to answer the discovery and recovery answers with your campaigns in all of the types.

Vanessa Fox - Zillo

• Leverage community to do the work for you.
• You want to be found for city+topic pair, compel customers to click, and put them to work to dominate!
• You may not have much content for each location and you can’t just DUMP data from other sources.
• Duplicate content issues can bite you.

“Solutions”

• Autogenerate content (ha)
• You pop in irrelevant search results (ha)

Better solution?:

• Get users to create content for you! People are creating content for other sites for free. Users can add localized expertise to results.
• But then tumbleweeds grow through a ghost town if you leave them to their own devices.� Nobody is doing it… what can be learned from this?

To get people creating content for you you need….

• seeded content / beta testers / early adopters
• engaged active users with a vested interest
• Hire moderators to watch things.
• Expert/user hybrid. REI does this
• Influencer/Engagers are likely to spread word
• Go for the few “vocal” people - they contribute most content
• Discounts
• Reputation, ego, credibility

Matt Van Wagner

Learnings:

• People don’t search for zip codes
• People sometimes DO search for counties, esp after city searches have failed.
• National and State-Level campaigns must both be kept online. You can’t lean on regionally qualified campaigns only.
• Keywords + State outperforms Keywords + Abbreviations
• “Near”, “End”, “Around”, “Area” are words that people will use.
• “Western”, “Eastern”, are also used.
• County Names were actually searched for…
• Sometimes the area you are placing ads inside will be larger than you thought.

Q/A

How can we crack the maps algorithm!

Get registered in the local business center, and have all of your meta data filled in!
Let the algorithm come to you. Many people do not fill in their local business center information, so before you start cracking algorithms, get the basics done.

How many are just clicking on the map in the maps one-box?

Nobody in room knew. Chris Sherman said that Inquiro is finding eyes are drawn to the map like they are with regular images/video. They will be releasing a BIG study in Nov/Dec (!) about this.

What about Hcards, address tags, etc?

Recommendation use HCard Format definitely. But it doesn’t seem to make a difference today. Make sure the target location is used TWICE in the page (hint/tip) [note to readers - low battery]

HCard/address tags can’t hurt. Vanessa Fox doesn’t know of Google using Hcard, but they “might” for local. Yahoo Local is using hcards now and address tag. Snuck it in 6m ago.

There is no organic lift given to one Google product from Any Other. (Chuck)

Local Events might help local rank even though temporary (tip!)

Craigslist with smaller cities helps more than large cities

Also check out Mike The Internet Guy’s LiveBlogging

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.

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

• 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.

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

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.