Tag Archive for: canada local search

Michael Pendreigh

An Update on Recent Vantage Life

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This past month has been, despite a few spots of rain, a beautiful July in Vancouver. The team at Vantage Search Marketing is happy to report that the weather has improved overall company efficiency. We’ve never been working harder or more happily! Okay, maybe we’ve wanted to get out a bit more than usual and the sun-baked lunch’s outside might have slowed us down just a tad, but we’re definitely happier!

A New Hire

With all that happiness, good weather, and very good work being done (yes, very), Vantage has decided to add an additional staff member! Maybe the sun’s doing funny things to our heads, or we’re making progress. Either way, Vantage is jumping with anticipation at the prospect. We’ve already received multiple strong and interesting applicants.

Who will join the prolific sun enthusiasts that make up the Vantage team? If you’re interested and think you’ve got what it takes, then have a look here.VANTAGESM Logo

Worthwile Information

In other news, Vantage has also found some worthwhile information to share. We’ve been keeping our arms open to new ideas and, in this case, to the reinforcement of old ones. We read this informative post on the value of the frequency & reach report AdWords offers. It was written on SearchEngineLand.com It’s a good briefing on how to learn when or if you should be setting a frequency cap on your advertising. We thought it was worth a share. image for AdWords frequency

What Paid Search Should be Aware of This Year

Another important post we’d like to share is this one, also from the aforementioned site – good job Search Engine Land, you’re keeping us coming back for more. This article is a nice informational recap, it provides some insights into the developments of 2014 that paid search advertisers should be aware of. The most interesting, and possibly the most important has been the Shopping Campaign updates that AdWords is replacing PLA campaigns with. This revamp has made product listing advertisements somewhat simpler and easier to handle. It was a bit awkward having to set up everything in the online interface for these bad boys. Thankfully, that’s been solved too and Shopping Campaigns are supported by the Editor now.

top 10 paid search developments

 

Computer Education

And finally, Vantage made sure to share this educational video on the benefits of computers in the modern era. It’s either educational or a representation of our capabilities at the end of a Friday.

sesame street computOR

Compu-TOR

Vantage hopes everyone enjoys the sun as much as we do, and encourages fellow and aspiring search advertisers to keep on learning and laughing!

 

Written by Michael Pendreigh.

 

 

Stephen Claridge

Local Search Optimization in Canada

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Google has changed the way they show search results containing local search queries. Local search queries usually contain a “product or service + city name” or are conducted from mobile devices. The algorithm now pulls even more information from your Google Places/Business listing and displays that information in the first 3 to 8 spots in the search results. Previously, you would have seen these results beside a Google map in the results but they have now moved the map to the top right hand corner and given the Google Places listing the top left position. This is bad for PPC advertisers because the #4 spot in the sponsored results used to be amazing for ROI . Below I will show you a few ways to optimize your local presence.

Local Search Optimization in Canada

The great thing about optimizing for local search is that it is usually free and just involves a bit of work on your end. The problem with the Canadian local search market is that it is dominated by Yellow Pages. In the US you can sign up for Bing Local Business Center and Yahoo Local but here in Canada Bing, and Yahoo get there local feed from Yellow Pages. (FYI the Yellow Pages Group is the number one Canadian owned site for unique visits according to ComScore)

Sign up for local listings on:

  • Google Places
  • Yelp Business
  • Yellow Pages
  • Create a Facebook Page and bookmark the address in Facebook Places
  • Local directories that are specific to your industry are also good but stay away from spammy sites

Pimp out the listings

  • fill out as much info as possible
  • add images and videos that help build trust
  • add the correct categories and test out secondary categories
  • note if your store is called “Steve’s” then your should add in a category keyword eg. “Steve’s Hardware” which will help the search engines place you in the correct category
  • get clients and friends to review your listing of Google and Yelp

This is just phase one of local’s influence on search results, as people use their smart phones more it will be increasing more important to optimize for local. Social media metrics like reviews and “likes” on Facebook will also become huge factors in rankings. On the Pay Per Click side of things you can already incorporate reviews into your PPC ads, if you own a ecommerce site. More to come on optimizing for local paid search.

If you would like help with your local search optimization or paid local search let me know.