10 Reasons to Use Foursquare Explore for Personalized Local Searches

oursquare recently announced "Explore", their new web-based tool that takes geosocial and local search to a new level. Check out these enticing perks that come along with the new features.

Beyond mobile check-ins for badges and mayorship battles, Foursquare Explore now leverages this data in a useful fashion as a web-based personalized search engine.

Consider for a moment that you're looking for a local place to visit for shopping, dining, nightlife, or recreation... What thoughts come to mind?

• Where have or haven't I been before?
• What places are popular?
• What places would my friends or colleagues suggest?
• What places have deals or specials?
• What does the place look like? 
• What should I try when I get there?

Regardless of if we're searching online, we all contemplate some of these questions. Channeling this thought process into a tool seems to be a brilliant idea. Behold, Foursquare Explore is here!

The process is simple:

1. Login or create an account at Foursquare.com
2. If you just created an account, add friends from Twitter, Gmail, Facebook, or Yahoo Mail.
3. Click Explore to begin your local search:

Results can be filtered by related check-in data and the interactive map allows you to easily zoom and drag the map accordingly. The iconography for location types helps to visually spot places you may be seeking.

Top 10 Reasons to Check Out "Foursquare Explore"

1. Flexibility - From your smartphone, tablet, or web browser, searching can easily be done by keyword or category and then be filtered to personalize results by location.
2. Specificity - Specific searches for things like "tiramisu" and "wine list", adjectives like "romantic" and "delicious", or time-significant keywords like "Friday" or "summer" work great because tips and lists are indexed.
3. Retained Privacy - Even if you don't personally like to do mobile check-ins, you can benefit from your friends' check-ins, tips, and lists along with 1.5 billion more from the Foursquare community.
4. Outing Ideas - Easily "save" places to visit later if you come across enticing tips or specials, and mark them "done" to remove them from your list.
5. Money Savings - Current local "coupons" and deals are easy to find! Just filter results by places that "have Foursquare specials."
6. Popularity - Displayed check-in counts help to identify hot spot destinations you'll likely enjoy. If there's a high number of unique check-ins by friends, that could also indicate a higher chance of bumping into a friend at the destination.
7. Travel Tips - Search for places proximate to any worldwide location, and Foursquare will suggest personalized "top picks" based on check-ins in your home town.
8. Adventures - Confidently find and try out new places that you "haven't been to yet" by scanning tips from places your "friends have been to" or by using Browse Categories > Top Picks for popular results.
9. Recovered Memories - Perhaps you checked into a place you visited outside of town two years ago, but you can't remember the name. If you roughly remember the location, you can search by places you "have been to" and easily be able to find it again.
10. Friendships - Grow relationships by learning what places you may unexpectedly have in common with your Foursquare acquaintances and friends.

Geosocial SEO Action List

If you have a public location you want users visit, consider planning a strategy to acquire visits from Foursquare Explore.

1. Create or claim your Foursquare location if you haven't already. 
2. Regularly review check-in comments and tips to see what users are saying. (Scan for sentiments, adjectives, or long-tail specific query opportunities.) 
3. Define a strategy to get more check-ins, photos and tips. 
• Use a QR code at entries for check-ins or exits for encouraging tip submission. (Be sure to follow QR conversion best practices.) 
• Identify photo opportunity areas and promote them with Foursquare ads. (i.e. menus, check-out counters, waiting areas, etc.) 
• Mention being featured in cool Foursquare lists as social proof and inspiration for others to list you. 
• Include sentiments, adjectives, and other targeted Foursquare SEO keywords with your ads, especially on-site! (Quality check-in comments can work great as testimonials.)

What Do You Think?

A local search tool that includes personalized tips from friends, visit history for you and your friends, and current coupons/specials definitely presents more value than merely earning a badge or mayorship.

Although Foursquare has been known for their mobile app, do you think this new utility will help evolve them into a mainstream application? Please share your thoughts in the comments. If you're tempted to check out Foursquare Explore be sure to share this post!

Domain Names With Geo Specific Keywords Offer Local Ranking Opportunities

Most local search professionals will tell you that citations and site relevance to the target geo are the keys to ranking in local search engine results pages (SERPs).

Testing and retesting old methods is part of maintaining SEO strategies so it seemed a smart choice to take a closer look at one of these key onsite factors and conduct a small study on the weight of domain names in rankings. The goal was to evaluate the performance of a related series of keywords in 10 different geographic locations and put them head to head against a term directly associated with the domain name.

For this test we elected to do a study on the University of California school system and produce a small article on the spring break dates for 2012. The domain we chose to test on was Travelfromlosangeles.com, which at the time had 32 total links and had been in existence for about a year. The domain is a typical WordPress blog with beginner basic optimizations and full metadata descriptions and tags.

The specific article page was +1'd and tweeted a couple of times by our team, but over the course of a few months it appeared on the third page of the SERP. The page continued to climb and in February it achieved the top spot for “UCLA Spring Break 2012,” even edging out UCLA.edu.

Surprisingly enough, the page climbed to the optimum position for the key phrase, and we were curious to see how it fared for the other University of California institutions. Upon further review, it was clear that UCLA centered terms garnered a much higher position than those surrounding other schools like Santa Barbara or San Diego.

Utilizing Google Webmaster Tools’ data, we looked at a constant series of terms that only varied in the school location and pulled ranking data for the past 30 days on Google. The data seemed to have a pattern of rank decreasing as distance from Los Angeles increased, so it was compiled it into the graph below. Strangely enough, no data was pulled in by Google WMT on UCSF so that locale was excluded from the graph.

Key Takeaways

UCLA Spring Break 2012 outpaced any other university search term by three spots without receiving the advantage of a mention in the title tag.

The average SERP position for universities has a correlation with the distance they are located from Los Angeles. The trend line shows the furthest institutions as the lowest performing keywords in the SERPs, with the exception of UC Santa Cruz.

Majority of SMB Websites Fail to Provide Social Links, Contact Info

Just 19.5 percent of small to medium business websites have a link from their site to theirFacebook page, with even fewer linking out to a Twitter or LinkedIn presence. In addition, 6 out of 10 sites are missing either a local or toll-free phone number on their homepage.

These and other startling insights from the SMB DigitalScape collection and analysis of over 1 million websites were released in advance of a presentation of the data at Search Starts Here, happening this weekend in Boca Raton. Together, analysts from BIA/Kelsey and vSplash will discuss the implications of the widening gap between consumer adoption of digital platforms and the deficiencies in SMBs’ digital presence.

Small and medium businesses are already challenged in many ways, as they try to coax consumers through a buying cycle that may integrate online and offline marketing elements. It is critical that companies are able to guide consumers seamlessly onto the next step, with readily available contact information and access to the type of information they are seeking at the time.

SMB DigitalScape is a data collection and analysis engine developed by vSplash. In this look into sites from 14 countries, including over 700,000 sites in the U.S., they also discovered:

• 74.7 percent of SMB websites lack an email link on their homepage for consumers to contact the business.
• 65.7 percent of SMB websites lack a form-fill option to enable consumers to request information.
• 93.3 percent of SMB websites are not mobile compatible and will not render successfully on mobile devices or smartphones.

“SMBs worldwide are falling behind consumers in the digital commerce arena,” BIA/Kelsey President Neal Polachek said in a statement. “There’s a tremendous opportunity for SMB aggregators and resellers to bridge this gap, but it will require strategic commitment and solid execution.”

Recent growth in mobile, in particular, points to a lot of money potentially left lying on the table if consumers are lost at some point in their decision making and buying process due to a lack of information or unclear next steps.

Local Search Listings: Most Relevant Search Results Regardless of Medium

Local search listings now act as a business’ online anchor identity pulling in important information like website URL, reviews, photos, coupons and hours of operation. These online listings tether all critical information consumers need about a business in order to make a purchasing decision.

Local Search Results are the Most Relevant

According to the 2012 Localeze/15miles Local Search Usage Study, conducted by comScore, 61 percent of respondents said when searching for local business information, local search results are the most relevant, while 58 percent found them to be the most trustworthy when compared to natural search results, paid search results and paid results. Business listings are often viewed as trusted search results because they represent the place where multiple biases meet to give the searcher a 360-degree view of the business.

As for the full landscape of search results – previously, national advertisers dominated paid search results, some were brick and mortar, but some were not. So, consumers searching for local business information, where geography was a critical component, were conditioned not to find value with national ads because they weren’t finding businesses at a granular level. Instead, the closest national chain would appear in results whether it was 5 or 15 miles from home, often leaving a consumer frustrated because merchants who were closer were not at the top of results.

Search is much more specific today and business listings are the go-to for providing consumers with businesses in close proximity of where they live and work. The popularity of location-based apps and social networks make it even more important for search results to produce business listings based on a searcher’s location. And these listings must be accurate (e.g., the phone number is correct, the website is listed and any relevant user reviews are connected).

Name, Address, Phone Number Critical to Local Searchers

In addition to consumers’ focus on local business listings, the Local Search Usage Study found that address details and phone numbers remain the primary pieces of information consumers seek (or are looking for) when they perform a local search – yet, a recent SMB DigitalScape study found that 60 percent of small- to medium-sized business fail to list a phone number on their homepage). This is followed by hours of operation, maps, website URL, distance to business and driving directions.

Most local searchers are looking for quick referential info – an address or a phone number to contact, especially on mobile devices. Searchers are increasingly looking for more descriptive content, in particular for higher-priced purchases or business categories like contractors or auto dealerships.

What does this mean for national brands? More brick and mortar national brands are realizing that online local search business listings are not advertising, yet they need to be part of their marketing efforts because without providing consumers name, address and phone number (NAP) information, their national advertising campaigns are not complete. Combine that with local listings’ impact on how businesses and brands are found on mobile and social sites and national advertisers are now viewing local search listings as a necessary component of their overall digital strategy.

Growth of Mobile-Local Search

Businesses of all sizes need to be more aware of how their local listings look online and across mobile search sites. The growth of mobile-local search is driving more category-based searches. In fact, more local business searches are conducted without a specific business in mind, according to the survey, showing that more research is being done online early in the search process.

This is because on-the-go consumers are hyper-influenced by location and are willing to trade business name for category specificity. As an example, someone traveling to New York City might search for a Smith & Wollensky for dinner. However, that same person, who just left a meeting on 32nd and Park Avenue also might be willing to visit any number of upscale steak restaurants within walking distance.

With increased smartphone adoption and prevalence of mobile-local apps, consumers are getting more comfortable with local search and finding ways to expand their use of it.

Bottom Line

Today, local listings are the search results most unaffected from advertising bias and monetization so they rank high in algorithms. The organic web results section still has a respectable amount of relevance and trustworthiness, primarily due to the vertical or hyper-local nature of some search sites, but may be suffering from the fact that savvy local search consumers know how and where to get answers quickly.

5 Essential Components of Localized Marketing Strategy for National Brands

A whopping 90 percent of consumers now use search engines when researching products or services in their local area, according to BIA/Kelsey.

Google began more aggressively serving local results in October 2010 due to the shift and growth in local search commerce by consumers and advertisers. Advertisers in turn have boosted their local marketing investment. Borrell Associates forecasts local advertising will grow to reach $19.9 billion in 2012.

Some national brands have already come to realize online visibility has become the most important ingredient in their local marketing mix. Scalable, automated technology can help them overcome slower national competitors and smaller local competitors who lack marketing support, but whether they leverage automation or manually support local stores and offices, national brands should make sure to consider at least five initiatives in any local marketing effort.

1. Leverage a Comprehensive Data Distribution Solution

Google, Bing, Yahoo, Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter, Dex, AOL, Yellow Pages, Citysearch, infogroup, Localeze and hundreds of other sites encourage businesses to submit their location information, not to mention the opportunities available in GPS and mobile devices.

National brands should do this at scale by implementing a data distribution system to ensure customers can find correct information about nearby physical locations, make contact and visit the correct address. Automation technology eases the burden, particularly for national brands supporting many physical locations, enabling new information to be added one time and trigger updates in hundreds of online listings.

2. Claim & Optimize Listings on the Most Widely Used Sites

Ninety-seven percent of consumers search for local businesses online, according to Google. Through Google Places for businesses, the search giant enables brands to ensure local visibility free of charge. Yahoo Local and Bing Local offer similar complimentary listings, and these go a long way toward helping businesses reach potential local customers.

While an automated data distribution system would capitalize on these opportunities and hundreds of others, most searchers will use one of the local services from Google, Yahoo, or Bing. Brands unable to automate a comprehensive data distribution program should at least secure complimentary listings on these three properties for all physical locations.

Once basic listings have been claimed and verified, marketers should go on to optimize these listings based on location, business names and categories, custom fields, and business descriptions, as well as by publishing and optimizing photos and videos of each location. Taking the time to properly optimize these listings won’t just help a brand’s physical locations become more visible on the SERPs; it also helps brands put a friendly face on each location and boost the odds of creating true local engagement with customers.

3. Localize Content With Automation

Like data distribution, managing content across a national brand and numerous locations can weigh on a marketing team and limit overall effectiveness. In fact, according to the CMO Council, 86 percent of national marketers plan to localize their strategy, but only 30 percent of marketers use local automation platforms (October 2011). A local marketing CMS can provide regulated access to corporate, regional or local employees and partners to help national brands spread the workload without sacrificing control.

Maintaining brand integrity and control has long been a top concern for national marketers, but the amount of work to be completed has grown by leaps and bounds. Custom, optimized location web pages with unique URLs are just the first step. Many national brands now provide physical locations with their own mobile location web pages, as well as social and video pages on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other top sites.

4. Manage Ratings & Reviews; Incentivize Happy Customers to Share

Reviews have become vital to the success of national brands and physical locations, but controlling this content and ensuring a consistent brand voice for each location can be tricky. Marketers should never lose track of the fact that consumers and search engines love the authenticity of reviews. Marketers should put a comprehensive program in place to incentivize happy customers to share their positive experiences.

At the most basic level, national marketers should support individual physical locations by claiming pages for each location on prominent review sites, integrating unique review links to corresponding locations, and working with local staff to instill an effective review gathering and management program. Taking the time to create collateral, talk to staff and offer true education about best practices and benefits of local customer reviews can mean the difference between a beloved or loathed reputation for any location.

5. Performance Measurement & Reporting

It isn't always easy for national brands to secure the budget and resources necessary to effectively boost visibility for its physical locations; so performance measurement and reporting should be part of every campaign. The right approach can provide insights to help continually improve ROI, ensure efforts keep pace with goals, and help justify marketing investments over time.

Measurement and reporting can incorporate a wide range of response types. Call tracking, interactive voice response, corporate reporting dashboards, automated monthly reports by location, marketing analytics integration, click tracking, video views and Facebook leads are just some of the ways national marketers can measure local engagement and return on investment.

Above all else, getting started matters most. Altogether ignoring the need to boost local visibility for its physical locations can spell doom for even the most beloved brands. Ninety-seven percent of consumers now use online media to shop locally, and national marketers should assume a responsibility to support their local storefronts and physical locations.

National brands have an opportunity to leverage locations to dominate local visibility and reach more customers, and these five components should be part of any localized marketing strategy. Automation technology can help marketers save time, scale the effort and support a full national spectrum of physical locations.

This Local Search Marketing Checklist offers a handy guide to help manage the process and insights about what to look for in an automated technology platform.

5 Sure Fire Tactics to Promote a Business Blog

Relevant, Consistently Updated Content + Flawless Technical Functionality & User Experience = Perfect Blog Launch

What’s missing from the equation above? You guessed it: blog promotion.

Creating a glitch-free blog with informative content means next to nothing without attracting readers.

Start promoting your blog today with these five effective tips:

1. Involve influential industry bloggers.

By linking to popular blogs, you can gain the attention of both the influential blogger and his or her readers.

But your blog won’t be the only one to benefit. You’ll be giving the other blog a little link juice – and be paying them a compliment at the same time.

Try out a few of these ideas for leveraging other blogs:

• Create a post around an interesting concept published by an influential blogger:Be sure to attribute the information to the blogger and link to his or her post. And don’t forget to offer additional unique insight to make the post your own.
• Interview an influential blogger and turn it into a Q&A post: That blogger is sure to link to your post, and his or her readers are likely to visit your blog as a result. Side benefit: Including the insight of a thought leader will help position you as a thought leader as well.
• Create a list of influential blogs: Include popular blogs from your industry, and include a link, short description and even a screenshot. Online Marketing Blog has successfully done this with its BIGLIST of online marketing blogs. Publish a blog post each week highlighting one or two new blogs to promote the list and acquire another link to the list.

2. Promote your blog via social media.

If your organization already has a solid presence on Twitter, Facebook or other social media channel, leverage your followers or fans to promote your new blog.

For example, when a new post goes live, create a short tweet with a link back to the post – and provide the link on your Facebook fan page.

A few tips to keep in mind:

• Whenever possible (we know how quickly 140 characters can be used up!), include the blog name in tweets and other social media messages.
• Auto-feed new posts to your social media accounts with tools like FeedBurner. But if you choose this option, make sure your headlines are as compelling as possible for social media.
• Maximize promotional efforts by asking employees to add the blog URL to their signatures and personal social media accounts. Employees can also re-tweet posts that they find interesting.

3. Create “link-bait” posts and “sticky” headlines.

Creating compelling headlines or posts that resonate with social web users is another way to garner attention for your new blog.

Try some of these ideas:

• Write counter-intuitive posts – i.e, “The 10 Worst Online Marketing Ideas” or “The 5 Quickest Ways to Get Caught in the Spam Filter.”
• Incorporate celebrities into posts (if appropriate for your industry) – i.e., “Top 10 Celebrity Tweets of the Week”
• Leverage the sticky headline formula, “number + adjective + sticky message” – i.e., Lee’s recent post, “10 Must Read Tips to Start a Small Business Blog” (see image below)

How to Promote Your Website

Getting your website found is difficult, tricky but by no means impossible. Although to get found you need to put in hard work, time and effort. Here are a few tips, suggestions and ideas as to how you can promote your website.

1. Get it in search engines. Get your website onto google, dmoz, and even yahoo. If your not in search engines people cant search for you, or even accidently stumble upon your page.

2. Blog about it. Blogs sometimes get more recognition than websites so why not start a blog or 2 to promote your business and your website. You could blog about your website and use your blog as a direct promotional tool, or you could blog about your life, your daily activities and so on and use your blog as an indirect promotional tool for your website.

3. Get social networking. Get onto social networks if your not on them already such as facebook.com and myspace.com, create a profile for your website, your business or yourself, add your website information in your profile and then get out there and start networking, adding both existing and new contacts.

TOP TIP: Create a website promotion/marketing budget. Create a workable website budget that should include details of everything you want to do to promote your website and how much it will all cost. Remember that promoting a website doesn't have to cost the earth and remember that its all a matter of trial and error and market research. Find out what your target market or audience will respond to best, for example do they use search engines more, if so then you will need to formulate an aggressive SEO Plan (Search engine optimization plan) Do they respond better to social networking websites. If so then get on there and get promoting your website

4. Promote your website offline. You could do this through direct mail, through press releases, through adverts, and through word of mouth.

5. Promote your website through Pay Per Click (PPC) put together a PPC strategy or plan to suit your budget, your business and your websites needs.

6. Get linking. Promote your website through linking to other peoples websites and getting them to link back to you. Linking with other websites is free promotion for you as it can help you be seen by the other websites target markets and so on.

7. Write about your website. Write articles, press releases and news releases on topics your website covers. Send these to interested parties or to article directories to help with your site promotion and to help it get noticed.

TOP TIP: Remember to be different when promoting your business. Being different will help you stand out from the crowd and it will help you get noticed. Think outside the box when it comes to promoting your website and getting it out there.

I hope you have found this article both useful and helpful, Good luck with promoting your website, I wish you every success.