24 Aug Local SEO Effectiveness

Was checking out an article on LOCAL SEO Effectiveness and was very interested in the Google Venice update.  The relevance of local search optimization is becoming a paramount initiative for Google to provide the best data.  With the prevalence of mobile phones and smart searches, it is very important to get the best data to those on the move.  Click through and read http://www.smartinsights.com/search-engine-optimisation-seo/local-seo/local-seo-effectiveness/ to see some great ideas on what to do to to align your site with latest updates.

Why am I interested? 

In my arsenal of learning tools, I still have local sites that market local businesses.  In order to stay aligned with the local optimization efforts of Google and other search engines, I find that it is important to make sure that these sites have the best to offer.

Furthermore, what is exciting is that over the span of the nearly 10 years that I’ve owned these sites, the trend has made a full circle.  How?

1. In the early years after the year 2000, traffic was high for these local events and entertainment based sites because people related them to a niche.  Huge social networks were not a big thing, so these local events sites were easily indexed with good content and domains.
2. With the infusion of social networks, these local sites became less trafficked as traffic went to these centralized gigantic sites.
3. NOW, over the past couple of years, traffic is coming back due to the algorithm tweaking of localized search optimization.

We are really excited to see how “geo-granular” these data will become, and look forward to further optimizing for the local experience.

What are your ideas and experiences with geo-localization?