'Local Search'

UPDATE: Are business listings you created in Bing Local missing when you log into the new Bing Business Portal?  We’ve noticed across several clients that business listings claimed before April 1 have not migrated into the Bing Business Portal.  Others have also noted this in Bing’s forums.  Bing recommends that you fill out this online [...]

Are you a small business owner who’s seen this ominous message in Google Places? Eeek, it’s scary looking right?!  The Google Places forum is full of posts from people who have received this error after using correct, official business data in their listing.  They do not understand which terms within their listing are banned.  We [...]

Various reports released in March 2011 state that the search engine Bing has surpassed partner Yahoo in percentage share of US searches. (As previously reported by this blog, Yahoo now displays Bing’s results for searches, hence the term “partner”.) Never one to believe rumors, we turned to the official comScore report to give us the [...]

In a recent Cincinnati Business Record article, Topping the Web, our very own SEO Director, Allison Kulage, provides expert insight on the best ways for businesses to garner top search engine rankings. The focus of the article, which also includes the observations of two other area SEO professionals, is on the most effective methods for [...]

Starting this week, Yahoo search results have a new label: “Powered by Bing.”  What?!  Yahoo and Microsoft’s Bing once were two search engines vying for 2nd in market share, behind all-powerful Google.  Their limited alliance –  centered upon Yahoo’s adoption of Bing’s search technology and advertising display — is a major attempt to offset Google’s [...]

The online marketing industry is abuzz over radical changes to the way LOCAL SEARCH RESULTS may soon be displayed in Google. Since around July 1, Google has been testing alternative results page formats, seen when searching for local products and services–such as “dentists” or “Chicago insurance agent”. A full view into these display tests can [...]

Hi everybody! I’m in Seattle to attend a website usability session with guru Steve Krug all day Friday. Seattle: home of the Mariners, the Space Needle…and Microsoft’s headquarters. So it’s perfect timing that Bing, Microsoft’s search engine, announces key updates this week. For a full look view into Bing updates, check out this entry from [...]

(The Los Angeles Lakers are 2010 NBA Champions with an 83-79 win over the Boston Celtics.) As shown by the riots outside the Staples Center last night after the Lakers win, local fans get pretty excited about their team. But does public excitement translate into positive  reviews of these franchises in Google Maps? Actually, no. [...]

As many of you know, Upright’s Local Search specialists test caffeine-positive. They track weekly changes in the evolving Local Search landscape to best serve clients. See, many new opportunities are just now arising for businesses to succeed locally, online. Search engine centers like Google Places and Yahoo! Local constantly add new data features — like [...]

<Here’s a little tip.> When Upright is developing a new website, our team runs multiple reports to define site keywords. <It gets more interesting!> Recently one of our team noticed the term “2010″ appearing as a popular search term modifier. For example, we can see that roughly 132,000 people have searched “tornado 2010″ so far [...]