- David Mihm, Brian Combs & Chris Silver Smith – Speaking at Dallas-Fort Worth Search Engine Marketing Association’s Local Search Event
The three of us spoke on local search marketing, with out-of-stater David leading off with some basic, solid tactics for ranking in local search. I followed with some observations about Google Maps’ paradigm-shift to PlaceRank and some theories on other ranking signals that Google may be using. Brian rounded out the lineup with some details on leveraging reviews for local search — an influential chunk of what likely is being used under the PlaceRank algorithms.
I was overwhelmed at DFWSEM’s advanced promotion of the event — I think some press releases and SMS alerts actually referred to us as “rock stars”! I worked pretty hard to provide some material that might be of interest to all knowledge levels, and included mentions of a few factors that I don’t think I’ve mentioned at any other conference or even written about. David and Brian also coordinated with me prior to the event so that we could provide the best possible mix of material in the time alloted, and I thought their content was also of top quality. So, hopefully we lived up to the hype and made it worthwhile for any newbies/nonmembers who may’ve attended.
DFWSEM has really been ambitiously stepping up association projects during the past year or two, and I think it may well become the preeminent search marketing association for the state! One attendee from Houston, and Brian (who is based in Austin) both told me that there’s no equivalent group in either of their cities which has the level of participation and activities going on that we have here in Dallas!
Again, thanks for inviting us to speak, and thank you to all who blogged, press released, Tweeted, SMSed and Facebooked the event! I was overwhelmed by all the advance promotion that so many individuals were doing!
ShareThisTags: Dallas, DFWSEM, search engine marketing associations, search engine marketing organizations
Chris,
I really enjoyed your discussion on usability and location popularity. Standing room only and being the last one in with no seat for much of the meeting made it a challenge for me to take notes. That was a great turnout.
I would love to see some components of all 3 presentations put together as a resource on the DFWSEM site.
a few take-aways from the meeting:
“PlaceRank is like PageRank for Places”
-User Generated Maps ( Casey @smbSEO did a few of these, I didn’t think much of them, but now I am reconsidering my lack of focus on them. )
-Understanding the complex terms in patents and the details on the patents for Google/Flickr and how similar they are.
-Popularity and the impact on local search
-Authority of the reviewer
-Quantity of words and keywords in reviews
-Overall mentions….. my next thought is what online/offline methods can be performed to increase the number of mentions
-Overall importance of content like Employee Profile pages.
-“Excessive” dentist review comments related to DemandForce. (I wonder how Google will treat this practice longterm?)
-Velocity factor in algo for reviews
I can keep going. So much great content in your presentations! You guys really are RockStars!
Many folks commented on how much “knowledge” on the subject you had, such as the patents, language or jargon, and general preparation of the presenters.
Thank you!
Mike Stewart
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I really enjoyed the meeting on Local Search. I consider myself pretty “seasoned” when it comes to search engine optimization. However, I have to admit that even I was able to learn a LOT about local search and Local SEO.