Tag Archives: local seo strategies

This is an archive of all the posts on the Local Splash Blog that deal with specific strategies for local SEO

According to AT&T’s Local Insights Report, restaurants and automotive are the most popular local search categories in online and mobile searches. Other popular categories are movie theaters, beauty services and hotels as well as real estate, finance and legal services. The top growing search categories are pharmacies, toy stores, department stores, travel agencies and shoe stores.

Mobile searches now represent over 30% of all searches across the YP Local Ad Network and mobile search will continue to grow as more people upgrade to smartphones.  The Local Insights Report found that most mobile searchers used the “click to call” option to get more information about the business where users who were searching online visited the website to further research the business.

For more details, read the full Local Insights Report.

google logoAccording to SEO.com, Google recently announced its newest algorithm update. Matt Cuts, head of Google’s web spam team, made an announcement at SXSW during the Q&A portion of his session that Google has been working on a new algorithm that will reward websites with great content and websites rather than those that are using too many keywords or exchanging too many links. Google is working to make GoogleBot smarter and improve relevance so websites that are trying to “over optimize” won’t rule over truly great content.

Google has been stating for a long time that it prefers and wants to give higher rankings to content-rich websites. The new algorithm update, which is being referred to as “the over-optimization penalty” reflects Google’s long-term goal. So what does this mean for business owners? It means they should figure out exactly what constitutes useful and relevant content for their target audience and deliver it on their website. Producing great content that engages your target audience will help your business get on the first page of the search engine results pages (SERPs) and compete with big companies that have bigger budgets for their SEO efforts. One tip from SEO.com is to vary your content types; use video, photos, text, bulleted lists, headers to break up your paragraphs and more in order to add interest to your content. The more interesting and helpful your content, the more people will want to share, increasing your relevance and page rank.

Check out the top SEO, search engine and Internet marketing industry news stories from around the Web this week.

comScore Releases March 2012 U.S. Search Engine Rankings
comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, recently released its monthly search analysis of the U.S. search marketplace. View the results here.

Wordwide Social Media Usage Trends in 2012
According to eMarketer, there will be 1.43 billion social network users in 2012, which is a 19.2% increase from 2011. A Pew Internet survey found that 65% of Internet users in the U.S. use social networks which is up 4% from last year. For more details, read the full article.

Google Grows Revenues 24% from Last Year, Plans New Class of Stock
In the first quarter of 2012, Google’s revenues rose to $10.65 billion, making Google’s net income $2.89 billion, or $8.75 per share. Read more details here.

Google-Oracle Trial Begins Today, Could Change Android Forever
The Google-Oracle trial starts today concerning Oracle’s lawsuits against Google over Java-related patents owned by Oracle. Google used Java when developing its Android mobile operating system. The outcome of the trial could change Android drastically.

Yahoo’s Re-Organization: Search Stays Alive, At Least on Paper
Following the layoff of about 2,000 employees, Yahoo’s new corporate structure will take effect on May 1st. The company will split into three primary divisions, Consumer, Regions and Technology, according to Search Engine Land.