(Note: This podcast was originally published 1n 2006 under another domain name – bastioninternet.com/blog. In 2010, the blog was later migrated to this site. Some links may be outdated or there may be issues with RSS feeds)

Local search tactics offer a huge opportunity whether you are local or not.

Suggested Tags: seo, sem, web design, website design, search engine optimization, internet marketing, web marketing, local search, web promotion

Show summary:

Local search defined.
The numbers are all pointing to more and more local searches being done online by Internet users.

A 10 step plan to get started with driving more traffic to your web site through optimizing for local search.

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Links to resources mentioned in this podcast:

• comScore’s Local Search press release
• Google – add your local listing
• Yahoo – add your local listing
• MSN – add your local listing
• infoUSA – add/verify your information
• Yellowpages.com advertising
• Verizonâ€s Superpages.com advertising
• Local.com – vertical search engine
• TrueLocal.com – vertical search engine

Hi and welcome to Drive It – Convert It!, for October 6th, 2006. This is episode #12: Getting Started with Local Search

They say that all politics is local. Is that the same for search – listen and find out.

Drive It – Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified leads and sales.

Drive it, convert it.

Iâ€m John Boulter. Iâ€m the president of Bastion Internet. Podcasts, show notes, and transcripts can be found at BastionInternet.com/podcast. Thatâ€s B A S T I O N internet.com/podcast. Email your comments and questions to [email protected].

Welcome to the first installment of the Getting Started series. The plan for the Getting Started series is to give you a simple five to ten step plan which will get you started in a variety of traffic driving strategies. Weâ€ll focus on the less traveled strategies, those beyond normal SEO and PPC – Pay Per Click. Our first Getting Started installment – Local Search.

Local search – itâ€s very hot news in the search marketing industry right now. Last week in Colorado, Search Engine Strategies had a conference dedicated to only local search. I wasnâ€t able to attend but I did heard is was very well received. comScore, the data gathering folks, just published some stats on local search. There was some very interesting news there which weâ€ll go over. And if youâ€re following the actions of the maajor search engines, you can see theyâ€re ramping up their local search offerings.

But the hottest news came yesterday when I needed a Firewire cable. I quickly found the number to my local Target store. Local search in action, in vivid color.

Itâ€s always a kick to me when my wife is climbing up on a stool to get the yellow pages to contact some local business. As sheâ€s blowing the dust off the phone book my son gives her a printout of whatever information she needed. In the time it had taken her to get that big old book off the shelf in the closet, he had the information in hand.

Now I think sheâ€s just faking him out when she starts heading for the closet to get the book. She just wants him to do the work.

During the next 20 or so minutes, Iâ€m going to be mentioning a lot of links. Donâ€t worry about writing them down. Just visit the show notes – theyâ€ll all be the Bastion Internet website.

Local search – what is it; why is it important; and how do you get started. Iâ€m g...

(Note: This podcast was originally published 1n 2006 under another domain name – bastioninternet.com/blog. In 2010, the blog was later migrated to this site. Some links may be outdated or there may be issues with RSS feeds)

Don’t put all your eggs in one web marketing strategy. The key to short and long term success is diversity.

Suggested Tags: seo, sem, web design, website design, web site conversion, online sales, ecommerce, internet marketing, web marketing, trust, credibility, web promotion

Show summary: SES San Jose – A little about the recent Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose

Diversification – Be careful about jumping too soon AND jumping too late. Longevity is one more reason to diversify now, though. Think your safe with SEO or Pay Per Click – think again.

Upcoming podcasts – Switching back to the Drive side of Drive It – Convert It! Look for the new Getting Started series to help get you started with new Internet Marketing vehicles and for those that want some extra tips on doing it effectively.

Download the Podcast here
Subscribe to Drive It – Convert It! here

Read a full transcript here ...

Hi and welcome to Drive It – Convert It!, for August 29th, 2006. This is episode #11: Internet Marketing Diversity

Drive It – Convert It! is the podcast where Small and Medium Sized businesses learn the marketing strategies and tactics behind Driving More Traffic to their website and Converting that Traffic into qualified leads and sales.

Drive it, convert it.

Well it’s been over a month sine the last Drive It – Convert It! podcast. Thanks for sticking with me. It’s been a busy summer. I went on vacation. They tried to catch up. Then I went to a conference. Then tried to catch up. I little more vacationing, and I’m still trying to catch up. But the podcast gods were calling my name and promising retribution if I didn’t get things going again.

Actually, I have been dying to get podcasting again. There’s a ton going on. I’m fresh from the latest Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose and clients are keeping us on our toes here at Bastion Internet. We’re pushing some limits and exploring into new territory.

If you want the details of my vacation – send me an email. From here on in, this podcast is all about driving traffic to your website and converting it once it’s there.

We’ll start by reviewing the summer Search Engine Strategies conference. That’s going to lead me into what’s hot, what are the trends in Internet Marketing. From there, the main event – I want to talk about the importance of diversity within your online marketing plan and how we’re going to get you starting down that path. Finally, with diversity in mind, I’ll give you a forecast of the upcoming podcast series.

Search Engine Strategies: I attended the summer Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose. For those of you that are familiar with Search Engine Strategies you know how much information gets thrown at you over a 4 day period. For those of you who aren’t familiar with these conferences – I’ll give you the rundown.

Search Engine Strategies, also know as SES is put on by Incisive Media. It’s chaired by Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Watch fame. It runs over a four day period and follows a pretty typical trade show slash conference type of format. There’s 5 hour to hour and a half sessions running at any given time and thatâ€s done 4 times a day. So over the course of the conference there’s well over 70 different sessions. The sessions break down into different focuses – you’ve got ones more targeted toward beginners, ones targeted at advanced users. You’ve got a SEO track, an Advertising track, vertical tracks like shopping search and local search, you’ve got a B to B focus. It’s really got something for everybody.

The sessions are a little bit teaching, a little bit opinion, lots of Q and A. Most sessions have 3 or 4 panelists that are subject matter experts, and a moderator. Each panelist gives a 10-15 minute presentation offering their slant on the subject and then it gets opened up for questions.

Based on how people put up their hands when the moderators ask, it seems like about 60% of the attendees are in-house employees at various companies outside of the Search industry and about 40% are from Internet marketing firms of one description or another. My numbers could be way off, though, I’ve never seen anything published on that.

There’s also a exhib...