FriendFeed now offers real-time search. As announced on their Blog you just enter a search query as usually and you see real time results. The neat thing is that the results refresh automatically and that you can embed the search results in any web site. This is really good news as real-time search is more and more demanded. With content streaming in from all kinds of Social Media Services and Feeds such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr and more, real-time search is useful for tracking your online reputation or trends. The search feature offers a pause button to prevent the screen from refreshing.

All in all a nice feature. The problem: The search results are limited to content of registered users only.

Let’s see how real-time search develops. Everybody is jumping on the bandwagon at the moment including Bing which now indexes Twitter accounts of some selected high-profile Twitterers in real-time.

Social Media and Search are getting along quite well together…

Today,  Yahoo! Search Marketing, Google AdWords and Microsoft adCenter have received accreditation from the Media Rating Council (MRC), indicating their compliance with the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)’s Click Measurement Guidelines and the MRC’s Minimum Standards for Media Rating Research.

The guidelines can be found on the IAB web site. Yahoo summarizes the new guidelines in two points:

1. They provide definition around the way businesses measure and count valid and invalid clicks.
2. They call for more transparency for online advertisers, so they can feel more comfortable knowing that they are, in fact, getting what they pay for.

The guidelines were developed over the last 3 years and the project participants are not only the search engines but also companies like Omniture, FOX and Disney.

Having a industry-wide definition of valid and invalid clicks hopefully will reduce click fraud and create more transparency for advertisers.

Technorati Tags: Click Fraud, Click Measurement, Google, IAB, Microsoft, Yahoo

In the last post of the Local Business Ads Series we have introduced Google’s Local Business Center (LBC), a very important component for Local Search Marketing. Today we see how to register one or more business in the LBC.

1. Adding One Business Listing

If you only want to add one or a few businesses to the Local Business Centre click on “Add new business”. In our example we want to set up a business listing for an online marketing company in Madrid called Fantasy Inc.

a) Business contact details and description

On the upcoming page fill in the requested information like in the screenshot below. Please note that it is wise to not only include your company name but also the most important keywords in the text field called “Company/Organisation”. As you can see in the screenshot below the text entered in this field is the title that will later be shown to the users in bold letters as the name of your business and will be automatically used as the title in LBAs for the business. Filling in relevant keywords here can be seen as a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) effort which will help your business listing ranking higher in the natural search results when users do a local search for keywords that are relevant to your business. In our example we choose the title “Fantasy Inc. Madrid – SEM, SEO, Social Media and more” and include like this our most important keywords – Madrid, SEM, SEO, and Social Media – in a prominent location. Furthermore fill in your address, phone number, email address (optional), website (optional) and a meaningful description of your business. Then click on “Next” after you have checked the preview on the right hand side.

b) Business Categories

In the section called categories you can choose up to five categories and sub-categories your business belongs in. Try to choose as many meaningful categories as possible to improve your visibility when users search for local businesses within on of these categories.

c) Hours of Operations

If you would like to indicate your operating hours in your business listing you can do it like indicated in the screenshot below. If this is not the case select the radio button entitled I prefer not to specify operating hours.

d) Payment Options

In the next section you should specify the payment options which you offer to your clients. Again, try to select all possible options so your potential customers know which payment methods you accept before they come to your local store.

e) Photos

If possible use the functionality to include up to 10 photos of your products or your store in your business listing. In order to upload a photo on your computer click on “Browse”  and select the image file from your computer. Then click on “Add Photo”.

f) Videos

Additionally to the possibility to include photos you can also include up to 5 videos. In order to show videos in your listing, these videos must be uploaded to YouTube. Having done this, copy the YouTube video URL, paste it in the text field, and click on “Add Video”  like in the screenshot below.

g) Additional  Details

This section gives you the opportunity to include a multitude of information that you want customers to know about your business. The screenshot below gives you an impression of the possibilities.

Check all your business information which is displayed on the right hand side and hit “Submit”  if it is correct.

h) Validation

You have now finished the set up of your local business listing but before your local business location will be listed you will need to validate it. Google offers three ways in order to verify your information:

1. If you choose the validation by phone Google will call you to your business phone number. In the meantime a new page will load and display a PIN that you have to enter on your phone’s keypad when requested. This is a very fast and easy way to validate your business information.
2. If you choose the validation by SMS (only available if you entered a mobile phone number before) you will receive a text message including your pin to your mobile phone. You will be requested to enter this PIN on the web page. Also very fast and easy.
3. Validating by postcard is by far the slowest way to verify your information. Therefore it should only be chosen if the other two methods are not available.

Using the phone or SMS validation method the added business should be verified and the listing incorporated into Google Maps within 48 hours.

i) Business Listing Status

After the validation has been completed you will see all of the businesses that are registered with your Google username. Next to each business name there is a column that displays each listing’s status. Several status are possible, among others active, pending, awaiting approval, flagged, marked as inappropriate, etc. For a full list of status please visit the Google glossary which provides detailed information about this topic. As mentioned before it can take up to 48 hours after validation till your listing is approved.

2.    Adding More Than 10 Business Listings

If your business has more than 10 locations, you can add listings or change existing listings at once by submitting the information in a spreadsheet. This is called a “feed.”

These are the types of feeds you can provide:

•    Complete Feed: Replace all existing listings with new information
•    Addition Feed: Add listings or edit some of your current listings
•    Deletion Feed: Deletes the specified listings from Google Maps

In case you want to use the location bulk upload please read the instructions at http://www.google.com/local/add/helpFeeds?hl=en-US&gl=US#b.

As we now have a Google Business Listing, in the next post we can go through the set up of Local Business Ads. So stay tuned.

Technorati Tags: Google, LBA, Local Business Ads, Local Search, Paid Search

So far we have talked about Local Search Marketing and its benefits.In this post we have a look at a very important tool in terms of Local Search Marketing: The Google Local Business Center. Remember, this series explains how [...] Continue Reading…

Technorati Tags: Google, LBA, Local Business Ads, Local Search, Paid Search

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Technorati Tags: AdWords, Google, Local Business Ads, Local Search, Paid Search

Since the last AdWords Editor release it is finally possible to import a CSV file with changes or additions to your AdWords account. Google published a video in Youtube, which explains how to do this.

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Technorati Tags: AdWords, AdWords Editor, Paid Search

This post is part one of a series in which I explain what Local Business Ads are, why and when marketers should use those and what the benefits are. [...] Continue Reading…

Technorati Tags: Google, LBA, Local Business Ads, Local Search, Paid Search