http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog We share tips on search engine optimization, pay per click advertising, local search optimizing, and other tactics to improve your online presence. Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:12:23 +0000 en hourly 1 http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/local-paid-inclusion-confusion-pays-skeptic-seo http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/local-paid-inclusion-confusion-pays-skeptic-seo#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:57:36 +0000 Tim http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/?p=2796 post on Search Engine Watch, a well-known and widely-read industry site, covering a new service called 'Local Paid Inclusion'. According to the article, LPI was some sort of a partnership between Bruce Clay, Inc (a long-running internet marketing and training agency), and multiple search engines and directories -- including Google, Bing and Yahoo. The post explained that the new service would allow companies to pay to show up in the local results section of a search engine results page.

At first glance, that might not sound unreasonable. After all, search engines do make nearly all of their money off of advertising, right. So it seems entirely possible that they might partner with a third-party agency to improve their local advertising solutions. But what really stuck out about this proposal was the suggestion that this wasn't advertising in the usual, search engine sense. Rather than placing their customers' sites in a clearly-marked 'paid advertisement' area on the site--which has been the MO of search engines since the dawn of online advertising--this new service would actually allow people to pay their way into the normal search engine results.]]> http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/local-paid-inclusion-confusion-pays-skeptic-seo/feed 0 http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/local-search-optimization-important http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/local-search-optimization-important#comments Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:30:42 +0000 Tim http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/?p=2546 Local Search Optimization has typically been ensuring that a business has a lot of visibility in Google Maps. A few years ago, all you really had to do was make sure that your company had an accurate, claimed listing for that service, and you could bank on getting seen whenever a user was looking for your type of company in your city. But in the past few years, there have been plenty of developments in the search world that have complicated things immensely. Foremost among these is the continued blurring of maps results and organic search results in Google results.

Over the past six months or so, we have been noticing that it's been increasingly difficult to separate local search from organic search. This trend first started happening with blended results, which appear when Google Places results are mixed in with other links in a Google search page. Blended results presented some problems--it was difficult to predict when a Places listing would appear before an organic link, for one. Yet at their heart, these were still local search results.]]> http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/local-search-optimization-important/feed 1 http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/internet-marketing-age-google http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/internet-marketing-age-google#comments Wed, 13 Jul 2011 16:27:39 +0000 Tim http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/?p=1571 Google+, it's clear that the biggest player in the search space is making good on their commitment to social media as a major component for search results moving forward. If the buzz across other social media sites isn't enough of a sign that Google+ is worth paying attention to, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt has gone on record stating that all Google products and services will eventually be completely integrated with Google+.]]> http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/internet-marketing-age-google/feed 1 http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/4-foursquare-business-owner-mistakes http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/4-foursquare-business-owner-mistakes#comments Mon, 20 Jun 2011 20:09:13 +0000 Taylor http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/?p=1459 Foursquare is especially interesting for businesses because it reinforces customer loyalty and repeat business. However, there are a lot of caveats when it comes to social media; some business execute it seamlessly...while others leave something to be desired.]]> http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/4-foursquare-business-owner-mistakes/feed 1 http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/google-places-excessive-excessive-capitalization-rules http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/google-places-excessive-excessive-capitalization-rules#comments Tue, 24 May 2011 20:31:36 +0000 Tim http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/?p=1387
What do all of these have in common? Not much, aside from being acronyms. And by virtue of that, they are pretty strictly verboten from Google Places profiles.

According to the guidelines from the market leader in local search, business owners are not allowed to use 'excessive capitalization' in any part of their profile. This means that a local listing simply won't be displayed if there are any strings of more than three capital letters in a row. And there's no method to request that Google reconsider profile inclusion.]]> http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/google-places-excessive-excessive-capitalization-rules/feed 0 http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/review-spelling-matters-site http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/review-spelling-matters-site#comments Wed, 11 May 2011 17:29:19 +0000 Tim http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/?p=1369
Repeated comments attacking Justin Bieber on completely unrelated videos
Vile expressions of hatred
At least one commenter saying 'I'm only [insert age here] and I love [insert relatively older band]
Repeated comments attacking Lady Gaga on completely unrelated blogs
Repeated comments defending Justin Bieber and/or Lady Gaga
Trolling
And above all else, grammar, punctuation, and spelling that could make a third grade teacher weep for the future]]> http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/review-spelling-matters-site/feed 0 http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/bing-continues-implement-features http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/bing-continues-implement-features#comments Thu, 23 Dec 2010 16:16:02 +0000 Patrick http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/?p=709
Below is a short list of the major updates to come:

Facebook "Like" Annotations - You will now see search results that have been "liked" by your Facebook friends.]]> http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/bing-continues-implement-features/feed 0 http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/google-hotpot-local-search-ado http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/google-hotpot-local-search-ado#comments Tue, 07 Dec 2010 22:24:46 +0000 Tim http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/?p=650 less-than-stellar history when it comes to entering into the social media space. While there has been plenty of speculation as to the cause of this historical incompetence, it's hard to accuse Google of not trying. From Wave to Buzz to Latitude to Orkut and beyond, the search giant has long tried to extend its reach beyond what has been published to the daily lives of users. At the same time, the company has been absolutely dominant in organic, paid, and local search for so long that it's hard not to imagine what could happen if they were able to really get something going in the social space.

Their latest push towards this goal is Google Hotpot, an unfortunately-named new product that aims to combine the functionality of Yelp, a recommendation engine (think Amazon or Netflix), and Google Places. Essentially, the system is designed to present recommendations for local businesses based on the ratings of the people in a user's social and geographical networks. Like all recommendation engines, the idea behind Hotpot is actually pretty elegant in its simplicity: you are more likely to be interested in the kinds of things that the people around you are interested.]]> http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/google-hotpot-local-search-ado/feed 1 http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/google-business-photos-places-maps-local-business-center http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/google-business-photos-places-maps-local-business-center#comments Tue, 20 Apr 2010 18:55:18 +0000 Taylor http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/?p=491 announced that it will be sending professional photographers to business in an effort to beef up the quality and quantity of content in listings on Google Places. Apparently, the company isn't satisfied with satellite photos, street views, a camera-equipped bicycle, and even a snowmobile for helping people find things in the real world. They are now interesting in actually going inside the businesses they list.
To feed this insatiable lust for information, Google has hired professional photographers in select cities in the United States, Australia and Japan. Businesses can apply for a photo shoot at the Google Business Photos site. Apparently, the shoots will take about an hour, and will be minimally disruptive for pretty much all types of businesses. And best of all, like most things Google, the photo shoots have the competitive price of $0.00 (which, regardless of the exchange rate, is also ¥0 in Tokyo and Kyoto).]]> http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/google-business-photos-places-maps-local-business-center/feed 0 http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/digital-coast-favorite-place-google http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/digital-coast-favorite-place-google#comments Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:40:50 +0000 Taylor http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/?p=422 Favorite Place" on Google. Based on information gathered from user behavior and local listings, this means that we have been selected among the Top 10% of businesses, calculated by the popularity of our local business listing.

Google informed us of our status with the following letter:
Dear Business Owner,

Congratulations! You're a favorite Place on Google. Between July 1 and September 30. Google users found your Digital Third Coast Internet Marketing business listing xxxx times, and requested driving directions or other information about your business xxxx times.]]> http://www.digitalthirdcoast.net/blog/digital-coast-favorite-place-google/feed 3