The conference I missed..

The conference I missed was SMX Local / Mobile. Too bad I’m ’stuck’ here down in Europe, because I would have liked to meet some fellow local search enthusiasts in person. Well, Maybe next year.

Luckily, for me, and all of you that were not there, there is some good reading material online. David Mihm wrote a thorough recap about SMX local on his blog.
Andrew Shotland created an avalanche of blogposts on his local seo guide blog with snippets and snappets during the first day of the event.

I advice you to go ahead and read David’s recap here and pay some special attention to Mike Blumenthal’s research, the model of ranking factors

blumenthal model of local ranking factors

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July 30, 2008 · Filed Under Local Search

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The definitive guide on using KML for SEO

Most of you in the Local SEO business have probably heard of KML, but consider it a buzzword, Chinese or something they don’t want to get their hands dirty on.
But what is KML and how can it help you in your local SEO strategy? Recently Eric Enge from StoneTemple consulting interviewed Google’s Director of product management for Google Local, Carter Maslan, where he said that having a KML available in a geositemap that is authenticated with Google will automatically result in authentication of your KML file with Google and thus act as a trusted source for your business locations.

So I decided to write a tutorial to make it all a bit more easier to understand, and especially, giving step by step instructions on how to implement the KML.

If you would like to know more about using KML implementation for Local Search Engine Optimization you can head on and read my tutorial! You can find it here :

The definitive guide on using KML for SEO

If you think something is missing, have feedback or suggestions, don’t hesitate to leave a comment!

July 25, 2008 · Filed Under Local Search

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Why Local Search matters

After reading the official Google blog today I can say that it has been confirmed (at least by my free interpretation ), Amit Singhal, in charge of the ranking team at Google stated:

Today, I would like to briefly share the philosophies behind Google ranking:

1) Best locally relevant results served globally.
2) Keep it simple.
3) No manual intervention.The first one is obvious. Given our passion for search, we absolutely want to make sure that every user query gets the most relevant results.

Other news: latest hitwise reports show an increase of Google Maps usage, it’s now little over 2 percent of all Google properties. 2 % might seem little, but it’s a whole lot of people.

July 10, 2008 · Filed Under Local Search

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There is no such thing as mobile internet - Mobile 2.0 Europe

There is no such thing as mobile internet, it is the same internet!

This was one of the (quite obvious, but often misunderstood) messages of Mobile 2.0 Europe, which I was attending on behalf of my employer Onetomarket.It was a very interesting event, especially the panel rounds. Most fun part was the discussion between the community/businesses and the mobile operators, which in the end almost turned into a row. Fact is that mobile operators need to change their attitude. You can read my recap on the Onetomarket blog in Dutch or Spanish.(Use Google Translate for English version, but beware )