Archive for the ‘News’ Category

Makovision: This is where things are going to get tricky in 2012. Google is pushing organic listings further and further away from the average web search and replacing it with videos, Places listings, flight data, and other Google products they want to monetize. We’ll talk about some of the strategies local marketers can use to have a more effective presence in the search listings on Google, in next week’s podcast.

(via @sengineland) “If you haven’t heard, local SEO is taking over. More than 20 percent of Google searches are for a local business. That number doubles on mobile devices, and it’s starting to show in the SERPs. When was the last time you searched and got only the traditional 10 organic listings? SERPs are being inundated with images, videos, rich snippets and above all, local listings, and these are exactly where consumers are navigating to.

“Recently captured eye-tracking data for Google searches found that users are gravitating toward the Google Places listings over the organic listings, whether it’s the 7-pack or mixed with natural listings, as noted by the heat map.”

Read the full article at Search Engine Land

I am hopeful 2012 will finally be the year local internet marketers take conversion rates seriously.

For those of you who need it, here is a great collection of articles on conversion rates and landing pages:

Do Your 2012 Resolutions Include Increasing Conversion Rates?

“That’s a trick question. Of course the answer should always be yes. Hopefully your website conversions in 2011 have already resulted in a banner year. But if you feel like you have room to improve (and there always is), then it might be time to review what advice our conversion experts shared with readers throughout the year, and put these tactics on your agenda in 2012.

Here’s a recap of our most popular advice from 2011 on improving landing pages, testing and fine-tuning your website calls to action to improve conversion rates:”

View the collection of articles at Search Engine Land