Why Local Search Has My Attention

I’ve had a growing interest in the mobile space- particularly around mobile search and developing a business that caters to local searchers in a useful way.

First, a bit of context on Why it has my attention and interest.

Stay with me while I share some tidbits on local search and some of the current goings-on.

Local Search Statistics

Here are a few quick stats I’ve read:

• Microsoft’s Bing search estimate 53% of mobile users search for local purposes
• Google estimates that 20% of ALL SEARCHES have a local intent
• The SERP’s (Search Results) on Google are prioritizing local content more and more

Around this last point regarding the changes at Google, if you haven’t seen the recent changes to Google’s SERP’s then take a look these screen shots below that were taken today 11/16/10…

Changes to Local Search Results on Google

This first image below is a Google search query simply for “lawyers.” Google immediately assumes that the searches intent is local, they automatically read my IP address and geo-target my search… and then display a map and loads the left hand column results with location/places with alphabetical Place Pins. In this case those denote lawyers by location.

screenshot of localized search results at Google

This second image is a search for “San Francisco coffee shops.” You’ll see how the entire left column of natural search results is filled by location/Places content instead of simply links to top ranking websites for this keyword phrase.

Google Local Search Results including City Name

The focus on localized search results and local content by many of the biggest companies including Google and Facebook (with Facebook Places), and hence the growth in this space in terms of the aggregation and serving of localized ads/content is pretty fascinating.

So that explains a little bit about Why I’m interested in the space.

Seeing Opportunities In Local Search & Mobile Users

Of course, being a tinkerer with tech and systems and an entrepreneur, I couldn’t help but start to think about what new and better ways there might be of providing value to users on the go when they search with their mobile device in a specific location and want to search or discover something new.

And after taking in what I’ve just thrown at you and more for the last 6 months or so, an idea has stuck in my head for a new business in the space.

Here’s where it’s getting interesting though:

How do you go from big messy idea to implementing a real strategy for not just providing the product/service but for growing your business with users, engagement and revenue? And in this new space – can the same strategies I usually employ to test and launch startups be applied?

Well, in you haven’t ready my blog before I guess I could sum up my philosophy with launching new online businesses in the past as “Choose & Determine Your Market First.”

As in… you need to first test to determine what the existing and CURRENT demand is for what you’re doing, and do it in one or more specific marketing or advertising channels that has the potential to scale the growth of your business to where you’d want to grow it to.

For example, in my Mixergy interview with Andrew Warner on Ensuring Success Before You Launch I discuss evaluating your idea/product by testing it with Google search ads and using the results there in terms of Cost per Conversion and how many Searches and Clicks are available for qualified keywords.

So in the interests of taking my own medicine, one of the first places I’ve started is by seeing how the idea and concept of what I would build might do by first TESTING a vary simple version of my idea. Long story short, I’ve boiled down the idea to it’s simplest form and have begun testing it on the actual CHANNELS where people would discover and want to use my idea – on mobile devices.

To do so I’ve started using a variety of the mobile ad platforms out there including in app advertisements (location and phone platform specific)… as well as using local search results ads (primarily Google)… all in an effort to learn some of the following:

• In paid ads, what are the average CPM’s and CPC’s out there?
• How hard is it to rank for key terms in local areas on Google given location-targeted content?
• How do mobile users/searches behave differently and what do they respond to and not respond to?
• If I had a mobile site, or mobile app – how much would it cost on average to drive a new visitor, subscriber or app install?
• What are the most efffective revenue models in this space?

These are just a few of the very rudimentary questions I’ve started to answer and am testing for. I might share more as things evolve, but I’m busy and this is a part time “pet project” for now.

If you’re doing anything interesting in the mobile or local space and want to connect post a Comment here please. I’m looking for learning resources and to get to know some smart people in the local search, local SEO and mobile space.

Talk soon~

Chance

Great Event For Startups, Entrepreneurs & Investors

You should attend this event if you’re involved in the startup community in Los Angeles or on the west coast…

The Perfect Pitch 2009

I spoke on a panel the other night at Jason Nazar and DocStoc’s Startups Uncensored event in SM and met Dan Bliss who was on the panel as well. Dan’s the guy who’s brought this amazing event together.

At this event will be some of the top people to know in for Venture Capital, Angel investors, as well as other startups and entrepreneurs who are making things happen.

If that wasn’t enough, the Keynote for the event will be given by Sir Richard Branson.

It’s at the Ritz-Carlton in Marina Del Rey on October 26th.

Some of the speakers and people to meet at the event include:

• Sir Richard Branson- Founder, Virgin Group
• Tim Draper- Managing Director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson
• John Babcock- Partner, Rustic Canyon Partners
• Mark Suster- Partner, GRP Partners
• Scott Sangster- Angel Investor; CEO of OrganicStartup
• Jason Nazar- CEO & Founder, Docstoc
• Shawn Colo- Co-Founder/Head of M&A, Demand Media
• And other smart folks to meet…

I definitely recommend getting a ticket and attending this event.

Registration is limited, so get all the details and get your ticket now here:

Perfect Pitch 2009 Sign Up

Let me know if you’re going, and see you there…

Free Online Marketing Tips: Convert Traffic Into Customers

Hey- just wanted to let you know that I’ll be interviewed by Andrew Warner at Mixergy and sharing over an hour of my best stuff on marketing and developing content that attracts and converts.

Andrew asked me to do this interview and I decided to make it my goal to share with viewers how to move from a site that “chases traffic” to a thriving business that consistently drives engagement (email, social, subscriptions) and repeat sales.

The secrets I share are all about honing your ability to understand your visitors/prospects, deliver real value that engages them in the form of on page written and designed content, and create a system that allows your results to happen repeatedly and to be improved and optimized over time.

Do you have a system and a way to automate some portion of your business/work? Then how to do plan on getting out of the “trading your time for money” conundrum?

In this video interview I’m going to share some of my best tips for marketing online and creating automated systems that will allow you to scale your success and results.

I’ll share why most successful entrepreneurs fail at attracting and converting paying customers… and what your business or idea needs for people to both find you, engage with you, and buy from you.

If you’re not 100% sure how to start with your online business or idea, and you don’t have tested and proven experience writing and designing marketing that works… then watch my video interview Mixergy.

The interview is here:

Free Online Marketing Tips to Convert Traffic Into Customers

Why Attention Is The New Traffic

Let me put it to you bluntly, in case you didn’t already know…

The days of the destination site are over.

The days of thinking about indiscriminately scaling traffic, and then working to “monetize” are over. (were a long time ago)

And the days of finding a model “after the fact” are over too.

And for you and I that’s all a good thing… if we’re able to adapt.

Will you adapt?

There’s been a shift over the last year or more driven by fundamentals of the internet environment, the sheer mass of content out there, the collective evolution of competition in niches, and the realities of the economics of marketing and advertising online.

It used to be that online companies could find traffic sources, buy it, and hope that it converted.

For every company that didn’t have a clear strategy on Where traffic would come from, What the traffic cost, and How Much they’d make back over X amount of days… there was still a funny way of hanging in there for a while and fumbling their way through to enough customers and revenue (unprofitable) that an exit or additional financing could materialize.

But it certainly wasn’t sustainable. Just hustling and hype. Short term faux-sustainability.

The real numbers of these traffic and destination businesses told a grim story that the founders tried to reframe with misleading charts and press releases. They didn’t want you to see and understand the numbers, because the fundamentals were flawed.

This was what was going on during The Age Of Traffic.

That age is over.

Next came a wave of smarter businesses marketers that understood the value of targeted Quality Traffic over traffic for traffics sake.

These people knew how to spot and identify market niches online, they knew how to read the tea leaves of keyword research, and they knew how to create compelling content or products to meet the desires or needs of real individuals that made up a niche of targeted traffic.

Hundreds and thousands of businesses have prospered and jumped to the ranks of a 2, 3, 20 or 30 million dollar a year businesses in this way, and they did it through a relatively simple formula-

• Create a service or product of real value that solves a real and existing need
• Find your real target market through testing
• Invest the time and effort it takes to create real value in content and products for this real target market
• Find a way to convert your real target market in some way (subscribe, buy, use)
• Follow up, often, and don’t be afraid to market and ask people to come back, try and buy

This formula was some of the focus of The Age of Conversion.

That age is largely over too, but the fundamentals of the Conversion formula are still as important now as they were then.

By the way, I talked about some of those old conversion fundamentals for internet marketing as they relate to the very first impression people have of you and your site/service on this quick ditty about Landing Pages. (*Hint- note the more “social” elements I’m testing and thinking about)

So, what’s happening now? Where are we going?

I see that we’re moving into a time I think of as The Age of Attention.

For most companies starting today online, the Conversion Age is over because of the rising cost of marketing and advertising online, and the added challenges of standing out in the crowd of existing products and businesses in most markets and niches makes competing very hard.

Building a large email list isn’t as straightforward as it used to be.

Driving traffic and getting it to convert at or above the minimum you need it to isn’t as easy as it used to be.

And prices are still generally rising in online ads, even with the downturn in the economy. (although Google Adwords hasn’t grown the same 5-8% this year in average CPC that it has steadily risen other years, from what I can tell across lots of different areas)

We’re now moving into a different time where existing companies who already have significant brands and audiences have a real advantage over companies that don’t and are starting out.

The barrier to entry for real online success has grown significantly over the last 5 years- both because of the Price of trying to compete, and because of the challenge in trying to grow your audience and the amount of Attention you can get.

Attention here meaning Qualified Traffic or Views of your message that were either referred, posted or bought.

Here’s a quick example of a barrier to entry for new companies, and the challenges in gaining Attention…

Google’s algorithm looks to favor bigger existing brands in a variety of search categories and keywords, where they didn’t before. The simple existence of Site Age in obtaining ranking in search results shows this… although age and audience awareness/attention/links can often go hand in hand.

Sites that alread have more Attention will be getting more Attention. And Attention seems to lead to more Attention.

Here’s an interesting article related to the value of links that older sites and businesses build up online. I found this quote particularly insightful:

“[There is...] the law of “preferential attachment” as it is also known, wherein new links on the web are more likely to go to sites that already have many links, proves that the scheme is inherently biased against new and unknown pages.”

Now, considering this, and consider the fact that even some of the more well-funded, experienced, web savvy people who used to be of the Conversion crowd are now changing or augmenting their methods of communicating, promoting, and growing their businesses.

Traffic and Conversion aren’t the game anymore. Everyone, even the Internet Marketing crowd, now wants a Brand, a Community, and an SEO strategy.

I found this article about the Two Tribes by Sonia Simone on Copyblogger a great insight into those still Traffic Age-minded, and those still Conversion Age-minded.

Here are some things I’m seeing as important and true in the new Age of Attention:

• Brands used to be a bad word to Internet Marketers. Now they’re essential.
• Great content alone, now matter how great, won’t win you enough Natural Search traffic to make it
• People online are starting to want and trust “in network” information, not interruptive ads and marketing
• Google is changing, can make or break you in a day, and can’t be depended on
• There are starting to be some cool ways to build attention directly in social media. Especially Twitter

What changes are you seeing?

What’s stopped working that used to work for you and your business?

How has social media, and thinking about Brand and Attention become more important to you, and changed your approach?