aimClear® Search Marketing Blog

Newsflash from #SMX Advanced Seattle, 2011! There’s more to Local SEO than claiming your business page on Google. Local SEO pros David Mihm, President, GetListed.org, Mike Ramsey, President, Nifty Marketing, and Will Scott, President, Search Influence know this, and they geared up for the final session at SMX Advanced to share Hardcore Local SEO Tactics of their own.

Under the lead of moderator Matt McGee, Executive News Editor, Search Engine Land, & Rhea Drysdale, Co-Founder & CEO, Outspoken Media, Inc. on Q&A, this one a must-attend event for businesses looking to beef up their local SEO. Let’s take a look at the full effect, eh? Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome back to aimClear’s coverage of #SMX Advanced! Let’s be honest – by and large, ours is a culture fixated on instant gratification, real-time engagement, the here and now. In such a fast-paced world, it’s no surprise we leverage shorthand vernacular where we can. From OMG to LOL to IITYWIMIWHTKY, we’ve got an acronym for everything. Likewise in an industry where every character counts, the online marketing realm has its fair share of abbreviations from SEO & SERPs to blogs & WYSIWYGS to PPC, CPA, and ROI to CPC vs. CPM. Many chic geeks (present company included) are well-versed in such vocabulary. But as far as “SoLoMo” goes? It’s one of the NKOTB.

As well it should be! The term was only recently coined by Kleiner Perkins internet visionary, Mary Meeker. She’s already begun referring to the next five years as the era of “SoLoMo,” or Social, Mobile, and Local for you n00bz out there (present company included…), and she’s not alone. This powerful intersection represents a serious market revolution to some, a natural evolution of the industry to others. Regardless of the perceived degree of influence, it is noteworthy statistic that for the first time ever, smartphones and tablets are outselling personal computers, emphasizing the fact that people want to be online now, instantly, without lugging themselves over to the other side of the room to boot up the ole’ family PC.

A stacked panel consisting of Kelly Gillease, VP Marketing, Viator, Jennifer Grappone, Partner, Gravity Search Marketing, Daniel Lemin, Founder & Principal, Social Studio, Mac Ling, Director, Mobile, iCrossing, and Nicola Smith, VP, Business Development, Performics, not to mention moderators Greg Sterling, Founding Principal, Sterling Market Intelligence and Michael Martin, Senior SEO Strategist, Covario, Inc. were ready to examine this behemoth trend as well as the opportunities and impact it carries for marketers.  Read on for an in-depth look. Read the rest of this entry »

credit: zenobia_joy

In yesterday’s post, guest blogger and CEO of BlitzLocal.com, Dennis Yu, tackled some important concepts of the local ad firm- specifically the fact that it is sure to kick the bucket in 2010 if industry professionals don’t take proactive steps as soon as possible. Part two of this story will address changes the future has in store for local ad agency fiscal models and a closer look at the crucial dynamics of this evolution.

How will the financial model of local adapt over time?

Firms can take a 50% margin until the market gets smart. Consider the current VC-funded, growth-oriented approach of a pretend composite company… we’ll call it SuperLocal, Inc. Read the rest of this entry »

Borrell Research released a report on the Economics of Search Marketing for firms catering to local—ReachLocal, Yodle, MarchEx, WebVisible, and others.  Companies in this space churn up to 90% of their clients every 6 months, meaning that they lose clients as fast as they can gain them.  The Kelsey Group confirmed this trend last year, citing the inability of these companies to deliver leads.

Clients will stay on a few months in good faith, giving the lead gen’ company time to make the phone ring.  At a certain point, pleas to allow the system more time to “optimize” and concessions not to leave break down, leading to more churn. Read the rest of this entry »

[Editor's note: This post is our continued dissemination of content from this week's  SearchEngineStrategies San Jose search marketing conference, where aimClear had 3 correspondents providing our readers notes and articles. The following is from our friend and blogger-associate, Charlene Jaszewski:]

Mobile and Local are tied at the hip, but up until recently the tools weren’t up to the task. But with advent of the iPhone however, all that is changing.

Besides making iPhone a great productivity tool (not to mention GORGEOUS eye candy), Apple has opened up third party application development.

This SES San Jose session demo-ed a few of the existing and up-and-coming applications taking advantage not only of local search, but also of the iPhone’s unique capabilities. Read the rest of this entry »