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How to re-verify your Google local business listing

Written By Maya Joshi on May 12, 2010 in How-To Tactics

The Google Local team is thinly staffed, which is glaringly obvious if you’ve ever, say, misplaced the login credentials to your Local account or parted ways with the employee who set up and ran the account solo.  When issues like that arise, getting some support can be maddeningly challenging, if not impossible.  At one point there were no less than three “active” Local listings for iSearch Media—one for our current office, one for our previous office, and one for the first ISM office (less ceremoniously known as Scott’s former condo building).  Sometimes all three would appear in the same Local result, one followed by the next.  Try as we might, we couldn’t get that outdated listing removed.  Why?  Because to remove the listing we had to verify that we owned it, and the only option available to us for doing so was verification by postcard—which was being sent to Scott’s old condo building, which he moved out of over two years ago.

It’s an imperfect system to be sure.  Anyway, this is a quick post for the benefit of others who are struggling with a similar verification issue on Google Local.  So without further ado, here’s…

How you can… Read More

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How (and why) you should target the Hispanic market online

Written By Christine on April 15, 2010 in How-To, How-To Strategy

The Hispanic population is the fastest growing ethnic demographic in the U.S. It’s also the demographic that’s currently experiencing the fastest rate of growth online–twice that of the rest of the U.S. web–and what’s more, U.S. Hispanics spend more time online than any other ethnic group.

The point here is, if you’re neglecting the Spanish-speaking market, you may be missing out on some huge opportunities available online.

Still not convinced? Consider the following:
-Hispanics make up almost 15% of the U.S. population.
-The average U.S. Hispanic spends 20% more time online and views 25% more pages than the general population does.
-5% of U.S. internet users say they’re likely to click on a banner ad; among the Hispanic population that figure is 17%.
-90% of U.S. Hispanics with a household income over $50K are online, with a buying power of $1.4 trillion–that’s $1.4 trillion.

Despite this massive market potential, there’s still a glaring shortage of quality sites and content geared toward Hispanics. Quality isn’t keeping pace with the growing usage and engagement rates. What does this mean for you? It means that you have a tremendous opportunity to get into this lucrative market while the… Read More

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6 things you can do before lunch to improve your local search rankings

Written By kelsey on April 6, 2010 in How-To Tactics

You know local search is important, and you’re smart enough that you’re able to follow the instructions and set up a local business listing just fine on your own.  But is “just fine” good enough?  How do you set it up in the most effective way possible?  It’s an important question, because as is the case with so many business tools online, there’s the fast/easy way to do it, and then there’s the correct/effective way.  The two are very different, and they produce very different results.  For what it’s worth, my strong professional opinion is that if you’re going to do the job at all, you should take the time to do it right.

Here are seven things you can do in the next hour or two to get your local search listing showing better on Google (or Yahoo; much of the terminology I’ll use here will refer specifically to Google Places (previously called Google’s Local Business Center) specifically, but the principles apply to Yahoo’s Local Advertising program as well):

1) Create a unique listing for each business location.

This only applies to companies that have a number of stores, branches, etc.  But it’s important enough to mention here,… Read More

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