In the ever-changing online landscape, trends and buzzwords come and go. But the emergence of hyperlocal communication and content online is likely here to stay. Hyperlocal content refers to the local social activities of Internet users. With anyone and everyone reaching publisher status, there’s been an increase in hyperlocal activity. From photo uploads, to classifieds, to geotagging and social networks, the hyperlocal movement is changing the face of the Web.

Ben Saren, CEO of local review and recommendation site CitySquares, and Internet strategist Martin Canchola, join Virginia to talk about how businesses can optimize their hyperlocal presence. Ben explains how a small business owner can maintain a presence on multiple social networks. Martin examines the challenges and benefits for small businesses entering online communities. The discussion also explores the competition between journalism and hyperlocal bloggers.

Ben Saren Martin Canchola

Then Michael, Susan and Virginia look at some news stories surrounding the growing hyperlocal scene. Yahoo! Local Neighbors is a message board for every town in the USA. Users can sign up to receive email updates or subscribe to RSS feeds for each area. The service is a great platform for small business owners looking to enter community watering holes. Meanwhile, news organizations are testing the hyperlocal waters, with The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times about to launch local editions in San Francisco and The Washington Post shutting down its hyperlocal experiment.

News moves fast in the search marketing industry so today’s show is all about recent Internet marketing headlines. Bruce, Robert and Virginia look at the expansion of local results for non-geo queries and what it means for SEOs and small businesses. The fact that local results are listed for relevant non-local queries will benefit small businesses and may change searcher behavior.

Jordan Kasteler, co-founder of Internet marketing company Search & Social and co-host of the WebmasterRadio program Mobile Presence, shares his thoughts on a number of social media news stories. Virginia and Jordan talk about Digg’s PageRank-passing ad links, if Twitter will be acquired in the next year, and how important it is to target social media sites in your link building campaign.

Jordan Kasteler

Rounding out the show, Virginia, Susan and Michael explore a few more recent industry news stories. Bruce Clay, Inc. has released two new SEO tools: a Firefox version of the SEMToolBar as well as a new tool that gives you one convenient place to see how many pages of a domain are indexed in the three biggest search engines. They also discuss Google Me profiles and the new Google Analytics API.

Today’s show is dedicated to small businesses and local search. Bruce, Susan and Virginia start off the show by looking at small business SEO. One of the nice things about running a small business is that there is less red tape to get through to make changes. This means it’s easier to jump right into local search optimization. A good way to kick-start your small businesses search presence is by getting involved in the community. Participate in community blogs or start your own, and don’t forget to get some SEO training from a reputable program or conference.


Patrick Sexton then talks to Virginia about one of the newest resources for small business owners new to navigating local search, GetListed.org. The site is designed to help small business owners begin promoting their business online through a simple interface that lets them identify the major local listing services they aren’t currently taking advantage of. The site was launched late last month but is already helping business owners find missed opportunities and even uncover hijacked listings. Patrick is planning additions to the service, such as international versions and directory checkers.

Local search has overtaken the Yellow Pages as the way to get found by acommunity. An aspect of local search that is often overlooked is targeting searchers who are new to or visiting a location. In order to cater to these searchers, include landmarks in the directions to the business. In listing services, be sure to take advantage of all enhancement capabilities, such as credit cards you accept, towns you service, and any notable brands or products you carry. Reviews are also an incredibly powerful tool for attracting new customers.

After a week in Vegas for PubCon, Susan Esparza and Scott Polk recall the highlights and takeaways of the conference. A number of sessions were liveblogged on a variety of industry blogs and Susan shared her post-show analysis in the SEO Newsletter.

Then Virginia talks to Sage Lewis, Web marketing blogger and founder of Internet marketing company SageRock.com. Sage will be speaking at the upcoming SES Chicago as a panelist in the session Maps: They’re Not Just For Driving Anymore. Virginia and Sage talk about maps, social media and the fate of Yahoo.

Wrapping up the show, Scott, Susan and Virginia explain best practices for getting a maps local listing. The major engines (Google, Yahoo, Live Search) all have local listings centers that provide a useful starting point. Including a physical address on your site is a good indicator to local search engines. You should also manually submit your business’s information to the local listings centers.

Hosts Bruce, Robert and Susan discuss a number of recent search headlines, with Google taking a starring role. Some of the topics covered include Google’s ability to crawl and index text in Flash files, the newly launched Google Affiliate Network, and Matt Cutts’s announcement about how the search engine uses the data it collects to fight spam.

Then Matt McGee, creator and author of Small Business Search Marketing, talks to Virginia about how his blog has helped him gain feedback and insight into a new book he wrote about the rock band U2. Through a survey on his U2 blog, Matt also found that Twitter has not yet gained mainstream adoption, so social media efforts should focus on Facebook and MySpace. Matt recently accepted the position of Director of Strategic Search at the SEM company KeyRelevance.

Following up on Matt’s suggestions for small business search marketing, Susan and Virginia offer some things to keep in mind when optimizing for local search. From the local results of the major engines and local-only search engines to Internet yellow pages and local review sites, local search is a fragmented space. Providing accurate business data through a number of avenues and going after long-tail queries should be a focus of any local campaign.