Well, it's been nearly a year since I published the last version(s) of this graphic. That's a long time in a space that evolves as quickly as Local Search, but frankly, 2013 hasn't seen quite the turmoil of 2012, in which Google+ Local, Apple Maps, and Facebook Nearby were all released within seven months of each other.

We'll be adding all of these graphics to the GetListed.org Learning Center in the next few weeks, with full references and screenshots showing attribution. But while I had a bit of time before the fall conference season—I'll be speaking more about these at Local University Advanced in just a few weeks—I thought I'd consolidate my thoughts and get them into a blog post.

The Big Three are now the Big Four

Since I first started researching the local search space back in 2006-2007, Infogroup, Localeze, and Acxiom have been the undisputed primary data suppliers in the U.S.

Although multiple independent sources heard from Yelp this summer that they no longer actively ingest data from Acxiom, Acxiom is one of only two suppliers mentioned on Google Maps' legal notices page, and they've fed data to Apple Maps since it launched.

It's always been difficult for me to recommend an answer to the question, "Which data aggregator would you pay to manage data with?" My standard answer has always been "all three." But if you are looking to prioritize your local marketing spend, I hope the graphics below showing each provider's publicly verifiable network assist with that.

 Factual is a relatively new player on the scene—they were barely on my radar less than two years ago. And yet today, if you visit their homepage, you see a who's who of local search portals, including Yelp, Bing, and TripAdvisor. It's clear they're a force to be reckoned with, especially globally (more on that below).

Aside: the GetListed upgrade

As a result of Acxiom's resurgence and Factual's emergence, for the last several months we've been working to add both to the roster of data platforms we display on GetListed. I'm excited to announce their release today. Big thanks to Adrian, Frank, and Josh for making those additions happen this summer.

Foursquare as a data provider?

The fragmentation of the location-based app market is only going to increase, and like Factual, Foursquare has turned its sights on becoming "the location layer for the Internet." Its API has been quite reliable for GetListed, at least, and it surely counts a healthy percentage of web developers among its 40-odd-million users, whom it's now enlisting in a quest to provide extremely fine-grained venue data.

If Foursquare can expand its typical venue categories beyond food, drink, and entertainment, it could become even more of a key player despite a declining rate of user growth. I still wouldn't be surprised to see Foursquare purchased by the end of the year, but the list of companies who both need and could afford it is slimming considerably as its dataset continues to get better.

The traditional IYPs have it tough

From a citation-strength standpoint, few traditional directories are competing favorably with Yelp across a broad array of categories. Citysearch, Superpages, Yahoo, and YP.com are still very strong players, but with Citysearch laying off a substantial percentage of its staff recently and Superpages' merge with Dex, it's pretty clear that a lot of consolidation and reconfiguration is happening among the major players.

It also seems that vertical and geo-focused directories, and even unstructured local citations, are playing a larger role than ever in competitive search categories. With so many traditional local search sites offering free listings to business owners, citations from traditional providers now appear to be "table stakes" in Local SEO...but the sites that offer those listings are continuing to have a hard time monetizing them.

What's Apple up to?

 It's been almost exactly a year since Apple's less-than-impressive release of Maps. The good folks in Cupertino went silent for a good long while before making a couple of key summer acquisitions: Locationary and HopStop. For our little world, Locationary is the more relevant purchase. Grant Ritchie and his team essentially built their own version of Map Maker (see below)—an efficient system of ingesting data from multiple sources and making sense of it.

I don't see the Locationary acquisition affecting any of Apple's existing data relationships imminently, but expect we'll start to see a lot faster pace of innovation with their mapping platform in the coming year. And the quality of data will get considerably better as Apple beefs up its Ground Truth and engineering forces.

The continued importance of Google Map Maker

One of the least-heralded but most important stories in the last year has been Google's unification of its backend location database. There are now effectively four (and possibly more) public front-ends to this database: "Report a Problem" reports, Places and Google+ Page Management, and the Map Maker interface itself.

There's still no substitute for querying Map Maker directly if you're having persistent issues with incorrect business categorization, PIN placement, or duplicate listings, and Map Maker's release in many, many more countries—including longtime holdout Italy—making it a relevant and useful tool for SEOs almost no matter where your clients are.

Internationally speaking

One of the least-obvious facts for newcomers to local search is that other than Google's central position, every country's ecosystem is different. Factual is one of the very few companies with a reliable global dataset, and the search giant relies on a completely different set of providers in each country that Maps operates. Typically these are established yellow pages players, such as YPG in Canada, Telelistas in Brasil, and Sensis in Australia.

Secondary and tertiary relationships can be considerably harder to tease out, but the graphics below represent my best effort to reconstruct these markets. I received a considerable amount of help on both Germany and Australia from Nyagoslav Zhekov of NGS Marketing, who may have more experience building citations in international markets than anyone in the world.

Thoughts on Canada:

In my introduction to the international section, I already mentioned the primacy of YPG in supplying data to Google, and in few markets around the world is there a single provider as dominant in its country than YPG. The number of prominent local search sites under the YPG umbrella is impressive, and may be a reason its digital revenues are responsible for a comparatively large share of its overall earnings.

Canada's also relatively unique in that an arm of the Canadian Government, Industry Canada, offers such an easily-crawlable database of business information to the public. Whether Google has a formal relationship with Industry Canada or not, it's clear that this data makes it into Google's index. Thanks to Jen Salamandick of Kick Point for her empirical confirmation of this relationship.

Thoughts on the UK:

 The UK features the most complex ecosystem of any country country in the world. At first glance, Google should have a dominant provider in BT, but my experience during a two-month sabbatical in the UK in May 2011 indicated that The Local Data Company, Market Location, and 118 Information were all more influential sources for data that would eventually wind up at Google. TouchLocal's acquisition of Scoot in 2009 makes that duo a significant citation source as well. Qype and Yelp are both extremely well-crawled, and there are a number of geographically-focused directories, especially in Greater London, that Google is surely looking at.

Similar to Canada, there are two governmental entities—Companies House and the Royal Mail—whose datasets provide the backbone to a number of location indexes, I’m sure.

All this means a lot of work for UK SEO’s trying to clean up or establish citation profiles for their clients.

Thoughts on Germany:

 In preparing for my SMX Munich presentation earlier this year, the primary providers in Germany clearly seemed to be the Deutsche Telekom-GelbeSeiten-Das Ortliche trifecta. German SEOs should not overlook infobel, however, the owner of Kapitol S.A., which is mentioned on the Google Maps' legal notices page.

There are a myriad of secondary local search engines in Germany and in my research, their strength depended on the industry I was investigating. Qype was essentially the only dominant consumer portal horizontally, but Varta Guides and Restaurant-Kritik were exceptionally strong in travel and cuisine. If I'm a German SEO, I'm paying special attention to my client's phone contract records and their listings on the associated GelbeSeiten, Das Telefonbuch, and Das Ortliche, updating Qype, and then I'm going straight for industry-specific directories, before circling back to the secondary search engines. That's quite a different workflow from what I'd recommend here in the States.

Thoughts on Brazil:

 The Brazilian market strikes me as one of the biggest global opportunities in local search. It's a huge country with a lot of urban population centers, a relatively well-educated population, and high percentage of smartphone ownership. And from an SEO standpoint, it appears to be about four to five years behind the United States.

Certainly the complexity of the Local ecosystem is nowhere near that of more established markets. Telelistas and Apontador are the clear market leaders, and Yelp's purchase of Qype looks like a smart investment in this market.

Conclusion

As I said in the introduction, we'll be establishing a permanent archive for these ecosystems in the GetListed Learning Center in the next several weeks, but in the meantime, I look forward to hearing your questions and feedback in the comments below!

This content was originally posted  by " David Mihm" on "moz"

At a recent gathering of marketing professionals and people interested in learning about Internet marketing, I was surprised by the number of people asking me to confirm that their understanding of “SEM” was accurate.

While the term itself seems basic, this question isn’t a bad one as the definition has in fact changed in the dozen or so years since its coining.

SEM is often used to describe paid search marketing initiatives and yet you’ll often see uses that suggest it’s an overarching term for all search marketing efforts, begging the question I’ve heard more than once, “Isn’t SEO a part of ‘search engine marketing,’ too?”

Ah. That question.

My answer?

Here’s the full story in detail.

What Is SEM?
Short for “Search Engine Marketing,” SEM is usually used to describe the immediate, money-backed portion of search engine marketing that commonly takes the shape of PPC (pay-per-click)/CPC (cost-per-click) search engine results page ads in one form or another.

For example, when you enter the SEM track at an online marketing conference like SMX, for instance, you can expect to learn about Google AdWords, Bing Ads, PPC and CPC advertising, and other more specific factions of paid search advertising like retargeting, geotargeting and Enhanced Campaigns.

Does “Search Engine Marketing” Include SEO?
When the term “Search Engine Marketing” and the acronym SEM were popularized by Search Engine Land Editor-in-Chief, Danny Sullivan, in 2001 they were purposefully used as umbrella terms to describe all efforts that encouraged traffic gain via search engine results pages – including paid and organic initiatives. In other words, when the term was created in 2001 “SEM” referred to – and included – both paid search engine advertising and organic search engine optimization (SEO).

In the 12 years since its 2001 inception, the common use of the term SEM has shifted, and accordingly what the term communicates and essentially means has shifted, as well. While SEMPO  (the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization) still defines SEM as an all-encompassing term that includes both SEO and paid placement efforts, today Search Engine Land defines SEM as paid-exclusive (“the process of gaining traffic by purchasing ads on search engines”), Google defines SEM as “the use of online advertising on search engine results pages to help visitors find your website,” and SMX – the search marketing conference run by Third Door Media and Danny Sullivan – clearly draws a line in the sand with an agenda that labels organic optimization sessions SEO-focused, and paid advertising sessions SEM-focused.

So, does SEM include SEO? It really depends on who you talk to, but I feel based on my experience speaking with others in the industry – and based on the definitions of industry leaders like Google, SMX, and Search Engine Land – that in 2013 the industry at large commonly defines SEM as a paid search-specific faction of online marketing, as outlined in the definition above.

This content was originally posted  by "Chelsea Adams" on "bruceclay"

                                                
In her feature article, Virginia Nussey takes stock of her recent experiences at SMX East, Bend WebCam and Pubcon Las Vegas to answer those questions.

In Why the Future of SEO is Bigger than SEO: Integrating SEO into the Whole, Nussey asserts that “strategizing in buckets is out. It’s time to break down the walls in our thinking and in our marketing services.” Organizations are restructuring — the days of siloed client services are coming to an end. A holistic approach to digital marketing is major aspect of the SEO future, as well as:

Changing search behavior and the evolving relationship between technology and users.
A move beyond keywords, on-page and off-page optimization — with the rise of the Knowledge Graph, sites need to become destinations all their own.
Ongoing communication through social media.
In the Back-to-Basics article, delve into Why Siloing Remains Important in a PageRank Toolbar-Free World. In an October Google Webmaster Help video, Matt Cutts stated that “over time, the PageRank indicator will probably start to go away a little bit.” Chelsea Adams discusses what Cutts’ statement means, practically, for SEOs. Discover:

Why PageRank best practices will still apply, even if the PageRank Tool-bar disappears entirely.
What good site architecture looks like, according to Cutts.
Six tips for siloing structure that transfers PageRank
This month’s Hot Topic is the eradication of search term referrer data. Why (Not Provided) isn’t a Death Sentence explores the valuable methods webmasters can still use to obtain keyword data. In Education Matters, learn about the debut of Bing Personal Snapshots. Why (and How) to Set Up Your Klout-verified Snapshot on Bing walks readers through this new feature that further entwines search and influence.

The October SEO Newsletter also has a full supply of this month’s latest news, upcoming conferences, praiseworthy developments and industry shuffles.

To get The SEO Newsletter delivered straight to your inbox each month, simply sign up. You can also check out our archives to read past editions, all of which are filled with SEO, SEM, SMM and PPC treats.

This content was originally posted  by "kkellogg" on "bruceclay"

It is with a bit of sadness that I have to admit this:  the industry of buying and selling websites can be a bit shady.  But not all the shadiness comes from people who are trying to scam buyers (although there are too many of those people) – some people selling websites simply don’t know what they are doing.

Buying and selling websites can truly be a risky business.

Fortunately for us, the same tools that we use for SEO can be absolutely invaluable when buying a website.  I want to look at some SEO tools, and a few tools that aren’t specifically SEO related, that we’ve found to be extremely helpful in vetting websites for sale.

Are There Other Websites?

Consider the two following scenarios:

Scenario 1: About two years ago I had a client who sold a website that sold various computer accessories. As a part of that sale he signed a two year non-compete agreement.  A year later he came to me with a nearly identical business that had several years worth of history (he obviously had no intention of honoring his non-compete). Needless to say we did not retain his business.

Scenario 2: You are considering a website that generates significant revenue through affiliate earnings.  How can you be certain all of the revenue is coming from the website you are buying? How do you know that the seller doesn’t have other websites that have the same affiliate code?

There are a few tools which are very helpful in discovering other websites that a seller owns or other sites that they may have affiliate codes on.

    DomainTools.com.  DomainTools gives you the ability to see both the history of ownership of a domain as well as other domains owned by the current owner.
    WhoRush.com This tool is similar to DomainTools, but besides just discovering other domains that are owned by a seller, you can look up affiliate codes, analytics IDs, adsense IDs, and more and find out if they are located on other websites.
    ReverseInternet.com. This is a mashup of several different types of tools – a mix of both WhoRush and SEMRush in one service.


Is the Traffic Stable?

Very few sellers will admit that they built their website on a virtual house of cards.  Some of these sellers know exactly what they are doing and are able to build rankings or traffic systems that have short lifespans. Other sellers really don’t know what they are doing, but may have accidentally positioned themselves for trouble in the near future.

Fortunately there are several tools which can help you determine just how well a person is set up for lasting traffic:

    Google Analytics. One of the first things I look to with any website is whether their traffic is well-distributed. Are they getting a large portion of traffic from just a handful of keywords, or do they have a nice mix of social, direct, referral, and organic traffic? Strong referral traffic can also be an indicator of a stronger ranking.
    OpenSiteExplorer.org.  OpenSiteExplorer is a good, free tool you can use to get a basic idea as to how a site is linked and whether it is ripe to be impacted by future updates. The free tool by itself can be useful to examine authority, especially when compared to competition. It can also be used to identify potential dirty link building.
    SEMRush. SEMRush and other similar tools are extremely valuable for measuring a niche’s competitiveness as well as identifying areas of easy growth. This tool can also be used to identify shady link building practices or to validate a natural SEO strategy that is more secure.

Can You Build on This?

The tools listed above will help you make significant headway in determining whether a seller knows their own website as well as make significant headway in judging whether the seller is honest. But despite this, you still need to be able to make the website you are buying profitable and sustainable. Here are some common tools to help with this:

    BuiltWith.com. This is a free online tool that will tell you everything you need to know about the technology behind a website.  Very useful!
    BannedCheck.com.  This, admittedly only applies to Adsense sites, but sellers of content sites are often hesitant to admit if they have been banned by Adsense. If your plan involves taking  a content site with strong traffic and adding Adsense, check this tool first.
    Google Trends. This tool should be obvious, but it is a good idea to know if you are buying into a dying industry. We often see an influx of websites for sale when their respective niches are nearing the end of their useful lives. Google trends can help uncover the next “buggywhip business”.

Be a Smart Buyer

Even though buying websites can be risky, a smart buyer can navigate most of the possible risks. Using common SEO tools and other online intelligence tools, you don’t have to rely on a seller to know what they are doing, and you can help protect yourself from those few people who are just trying to scam their way to a quick pay-day.

What are your favorite tools and how do you conduct due diligence on a seller? Share below in the comments.

This content was originally posted  by "mark-daoust"

For the past two years, financial bloggers have been writing about a small company based in New York that provides loans to people in Columbia and the Philippines. It’s remarkable, considering that most of these bloggers live in countries in which the financial company isn’t even offering a product. But this company is doing something really innovative: It’s using social media monitoring in order to determine a user’s credit scores. This could signal a huge change in the way reputation management, and social media cleanup, works in the future. Here’s what’s happening.

The Impact of Friends

Traditionally, banks rely on a few key indicators in order to measure a person’s creditworthiness. The amount of money a person makes, the amount of money a person owes, and the person’s prior history of attending to financial obligations were the three key points banks took into consideration when choosing to give or withhold money to a needy person.

A company like Lenddo, on the other hand, computes credit scores based on social media factors. The theory is that people who socialize together tend to have the same income and spending habits, so finding people who have friends who are trustworthy means finding people who are likely to pay back their loans on time.

In order to determine this social credit score, Lenddo asks applicants to provide information regarding their social media accounts, such as their screen names on:

    LinkedIn
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Google+

The higher the social media presence, and the more high-quality friends a person has, the higher score the person might receive. In addition, applicants are also asked to designate a few choice people as their “Trusted Connections.” Linking up with people who have already borrowed from Lenddo and paid back the loans on time is just one way to game the system and ensure that the loan is approved.

Broader Applications for Reputation Management

On the surface, it seems unnecessary to understand how a small bank works. After all, few Americans or Europeans will travel to the Philippines just to take out a loan, and those who do might choose to work with a reputable bank rather than an online startup. But for those of us who work in reputation management, this is a bit of an alarming trend.

Typically, when clients ask for help with reputation management, experts look at the actions that person has performed online. Snarky news articles, raunchy blog posts, nasty photographs, and unfortunate press releases are typically the focus of the effort, and SEO techniques are used to either remove these offensive items or drive them down in search results.

However, if the online industry as a whole is moving toward a more comprehensive view of a person’s reputation, this traditional technique may not be effective. Specifically, if a person’s reputation is dependent, in part, on the other people a person knows, comprehensive reputation management might mean digging into the details of the connections a person makes in the online world.

At this point, ethics become a little sketchy. While clients might provide permission for technicians to delve into their lives and amend details that aren’t quite ready for prime time, random friends may not appreciate the added attention. It might also be difficult to determine how trustworthy or helpful a friend is without really digging too deep into that person’s life and crossing privacy lines.

Additionally, people with reputation difficulties might be astonished to find out how long such a cleanup might take, and the costs might be far too extensive for them to bear. People with hundreds of connections might need hundreds of hours of help, and that could be prohibitive for some.

Takeaway Points

As mentioned, there doesn’t seem to be a need for widespread panic at this point. The company providing this service only operates in a few choice countries, and the methods they use may never catch on in the wider world.

However, anyone who works with reputation issues should keep in mind that client connections may very well play a role in cleanup efforts in the future. It’s a message we can, and should, be sharing widely, so our customers can make good choices now.

And we can also lead by example, by ensuring that our own social media connections are with real people we’ve met in real time in a real place. We should also feel free to break ties with people who are acting up (and acting out) in ways that might cast us in an unfavorable light. Just keeping tabs, and ensuring that our friends make us look good, could help us prepare to the next wave of social media monitoring that sites like Lenddo seem to be ushering in.

How might you monitor your social media connections in the face of this news? Or do you think no action is required at all? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section.

This content was originally posted  by "jean-dion" on "searchenginejournal"