Perhaps the subject to get the most attention in the SEO community, the Penguin algorithm update hit the SERPS earlier this year. Google added reviews for many local queries from recently acquired Zagat and Google+ pages.
There could be an argument made that Google is slowly moving to a "closed community" like Facebook. These personalized recommendations are based on the places and ratings you've already shared," according to Google LatLong.
In its simplest form, crowdsourcing gives the community open access and control of a particular task, and in this case, adding or modifying local business details on search engines or social check-in sites like Foursquare and Gowalla.
Our friends and the online community are helping us make decisions. While we in the tech community are accustomed to creating online networks and participating in communities that mirror our personal relationships, we are the exception to the norm.
Critical for local businesses, optimizing in these community pages should be priority number one. Encourage user interactions (they matter): These interactions include comments, ratings, views, favorites, likes, embeds, and incoming links.
Was the growth of Canadian reviews harder to kickstart without local community managers on the ground? When we have that local person on the ground, we have absolutely seen that translate into more engagement on the community side.
A new breed of Internet yellow pages (IYP) sites, who's primary business model is focused on ratings and reviews, has transformed this information from anonymously provided information to focus on the social aspects and community formed around...
adCenter Cooks Up a New Community SiteThe new adCenterCommunity.com is fresh out of the oven and it is a new PPC cake with Social Media icing. Mahalo Adds New Social Search ToolsMy Mahalo is a service, currently in beta, that allows users to import...
In addition to ensuring your business information is present in all local directories, reaching consumers on social networking sites requires the local business to be active in the online community by reaching out to others, being involved with...
We’re shifting the site design to spur more active engagement from the community, and we also modified our relevance engine to bring the best and closest results. In local search, this trend manifests itself in user-generated ratings and reviews...
Most local guides bring in community elements, reviews and ratings. Local Niche – Specialty sites like kudzu.com, or Marchex's network of thousands of direct navigation domains, like NewYorkDoctors.com, target specific geographic areas and try to...
We’re shifting the site design to spur more active engagement from the community, and we also modified our relevance engine to bring the best and closest results to users’ [queries”. Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen a few notable announcements...
We're shifting the site design to spur more active engagement from the community, and we also modified our relevance engine to bring the best and closest results to users' [queries]. This is likewise geo-targeted to show the most popular searches...
Go 2.0 less than two months ago, there has been strong demand from the Windows Mobile community to get this innovative service on their mobile devices," said Marco Boerries, senior vice president of connected life, Yahoo!
The benefits can also include viral marketing and stickiness that come with the creation of community and trust in peer generated content. Lately, there has been a clear trend towards more ratings and reviews in online Yellow Pages.
One argument in favor of local UGC forums is that they not only represent a relatively inexpensive (when compared with professional reviews) sources of content, but also possess a certain appeal in the inherent trust perceived among users of peer...
As for the user generated content, Mihir explained “with local shortcuts you'll see stars indicating ratings and reviews which have been developed by our community. Type in 'interesting pictures' and you’re likely to get tagged photos from the...
Grayboxx CEO Bob Chandra rightly asserts that local community input – ratings and reviews – are spotty on even the best and most complete sites. But Chandra says that Grayboxx's algorithm, which the company has labeled "PreferenceScoring," has...
Previously there were ratings and reviews but now there's the opportunity to discover local favorites and other valuable community generated content. A number of new features have been integrated into the site that allow people to create customized...
It's only available to members but allows people to ask open-ended questions of the community. SuperPages) are adding ratings and reviews to their sites, but the social directory sites are far ahead in that game.
