Recent News
Press Releases
February 15, 2010 Listedfirst.Com Provides “Win/Win” White Label Solution for Resellers.
January 21, 2010 New Google Search Improvement Optimizes ListedFirst.com Optimization Service
Google Local Business Center Changes Name to “Google Places”
April 20, 2010 - Google Local Business Center has changed its name to Google Places. In a move that further cements Google's support of the local search results the company has changed the official name of the Google Local Business Center to Google places.
Announced in a press release the company also announced new features that can be utilized by small businesses. Two of the features in particular are targeted to allow Google to start monetizing local in a significant way. The first is called “tags” and allows businesses to pay a flat $25 per month to add a little tag with additional business details underneath or next to their local listing in the Google results. The second is a submitted request inviting Google photographers to enter and photograph the interior of a business.
Within the press release issued by Google some interesting statistics were offered that further supported the value of local search to small businesses. According to Google 1/5 of all Internet searches within the search engine utilize a local qualifier. For business owners who have not been paying attention the Internet is real and consumers use Google to find local businesses.
In an ever changing marketing landscape this announcement and the updates by Google further supports our company’s services for local businesses. As Google refines their recent updates our technicians will test the impact of these updates on search results and will refine our existing clients’ listings to benefit from the changes.
Yahoo Increases Local Search Results in Normal Searches
April 7, 2010 - The perennial underdog in the world of search engines has made significant changes to the way in which local results are displayed for normal searches. Yahoo has increased the number of local businesses that return at the top of search results from 3 to 5.
The change benefits local business owners by increasing the real estate available within the Yahoo results. By taking out a larger section of the top of the results we would expect to see an increase in local click throughs as a result.
For our existing clients this change has allowed their local listing to be more prominent within the search results and has allow their listing to return for a broader range of keywords. The move by Yahoo to increase the local presence within search results further justifies the need for small business owners to improve their local search rankings.
Google Making Changes
November 1, 2009 - Google continues to refine their algorithm in local. The local search world has been turned on its ear as Google has implemented multiple checks to eliminate rampant spam on their local results.
The changes have created a net positive effect for Listed First clients since the techniques utilized by the company are and have continued to be "white hat" based approaches. With the ongoing improvement in the local search algorithm clients of Listed First are showing up higher and for a broader range of keywords than ever before.
List First search marketing professionals foresee continuing improvements in local search results and are continually adjusting SEO steps to capitalize on the changes.
Google Showing Local Results On Non-Local Queries
April 1, 2009 - Google launched a new algorithm and search query results system that has increased the importance of local listings on regular search results. Prior to the change, users were required to use a city and/ or state qualifier to find a local business (for example "pizza Salt Lake City Ut"). With the new change a user in Salt Lake City only needs to type the initial phrase (ie "pizza").
The impact of this change is enormous. Google Local Listings now can easily rank well above standard web sites for multiple keywords and keyword phrases. The change will result in increased traffic to the Maps section of Google and Local Listings in general.
"With this change, small/local businesses will now be getting exposure on at least hundreds, and probably thousands of prime keywords. As search marketers, we often tell our small business clients that they don’t want to rank for terms like “lawyer” or “doctor” because they’re too generic, and the competition for those prime terms would be beyond their reach. But, with Google showing local results on this prime real estate, a big door of opportunity has just opened up. A doctor in Topeka can get visibility on the term “doctor,” but only when local folks type it in." Search Engine Land