Local Search, SEO, and Rants | Stephen Espinosa

Writing Commitment

May 11, 2008 – 8:28 pm
So starting next week I am committing to writing at least one good SEO article per week. I admitted to a friend yesterday I have not written on this blog as much as I would like so I have decided to do something about it. My first article will be next week about Reviews, how they effect ranking, conversions, and more.  

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At Kelsey Conference This Week

May 1, 2008 – 3:59 pm
So I am out at the Kelsey Conference this week. I would blog about it but Andre Shotland who gives me a run for my money when it comes to Local Search Engine Optimization knowledge. If you are at the conference please come say hi and let's chat.

Posted in Conferences, Kelsey | No Comments »

May I present to you … Buzzspot.net

April 10, 2008 – 9:26 pm
Ok, so I have been busy the last month working on a new start up called Buzzspot.net, so what is Buzzspot.net you ask? Buzzspot is place where small business can affordably purchase television ads for their business, and oh yeah, Buzzspot makes a custom ad for your business, for free. We have taken all the hard work out of TV, we make an ad schedule that fits your targeted audience with the right targeted stations and shows, make your commercial for free (lower cost of entry), and their are no long term contract. In fact, if you don't have to have one, just a month to month agreement. Self service doesn't work, heck just ask Google. Buzzspot calls our customers every month to go over your monthly report and what it means to you. The report is mailed (snail mail) and emailed to you, one for a quick update and one ...

Posted in TV Ads, Video | 1 Comment »

Google Onebox Changes

April 9, 2008 – 3:33 pm
I have noticed so changes lately as I have the luxury of experimenting with many customers due to the rapid growth in customers that my company has put on.  The changes I have noticed is that Google has reverted back to 3 businesses in the Onebox in some cases when the Onebox is actually blended in the search result and not just at the top of the SERP. I noticed this as I was working on getting the companies video up in the SERPs through universal search. I also noticed under another business that even though the Onebox was at the top of the page it still only had three results. My immediate thought was to call our client and ask why she did not see this coming, but had no success. I then looked to see the actual results in Google Maps thinking that maybe Google only had three businesses for ...

Posted in Google, Local Search | 2 Comments »

I need an SEO Article Company

April 8, 2008 – 9:41 pm
Does anyone know a good reliable SEO Article company? If so please let me know because I need one desperately.

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GOOG 411 accepts payments?

April 8, 2008 – 2:37 pm
I know I know, long time no post. I have been busy working on a new start up company that will launch in the coming days that I am super excited about. But in other news, I was doing a search for "local listings" and noticed a sponsored result for GOOG 411. I love how Google adds extra things to attract their eye to make themselves more money (which is smart by the way). For instance they would add a Google Checkout logo under an ad to get people to click on that ad so their is better chance Google Checkout would be used more, therefor Google will make more money. I found this interesting today how Google attached a Google Checkout Logo underneath their AdWords ad for "local listings" even though their is no payment process. Is this a sign of payments coming soon where advertisers can pay for spots ...

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Google Maps now allowing listings to add video

March 19, 2008 – 3:32 pm
It figures this happens while I am in New York and have limited time to write about it. I will add more info about this when I get back to good ol' California. UPDATE***** Looks like after I announced this Search Engine Land had time to write a better article than I could write to heres the URL http://searchengineland.com/080320-083205.php 

Posted in Google, Maps, Video | 9 Comments »

Speaking at SES New York

March 19, 2008 – 12:35 pm
What can I say? I had a blast speaking at both the Kelsey Local Video Panel and the SES Local Search Marketing Panel. Thanks to all of you and your great comments and feel free to email me at stevemcstud {at} gmailDOTocm.  Also please don't forget to fill out the rating cards SES provided all you who attended.  On another note, I am requesting all people who link to my page please use the anchor text "Biggest Chicago White Sox Fan" as I would love to rank Number 1 for that.  Again thanks for all the nice comments I truly do appreciate them. 

Posted in Conferences | 3 Comments »

Sitemap Hierarchy Update at SMX West

February 27, 2008 – 8:04 pm
A representative from Microsoft announced that starting today all the Search Engines have agreed to let webmasters start cross-linking sitemaps. What does that mean? This means that you can now link to sitemaps that are hosted on a separate domain. The one clause is that the domain name that the sitemap is referring to must be on the same domain as your robot.txt I will post more about this later but as Danny Sullivan pointed out the bloggers here get to blog about it first and therefor probably rank first for this update.

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SMW West - Local and Blended Search

February 27, 2008 – 2:06 pm
All in all this session was good except for the absence of Google from the panel as both Yahoo! and Live had representatives including my friend Brian Gil over at Yahoo! Local. There were a number of suggestions from Chris Smith an others that included: Keyword Rich Domain SEO your location page Submit to all Local Destinations Reviews There were two things that struck me during this panel, the first was that Yahoo! said that only in certain industries do reviews come into a factor for the ranking of the listing. Yahoo! also mentioned that being closer to the center of the city only comes into effect when a user is signed in their Yahoo! Local ID and has supplied there address AND is applied only to certain categories. One could assume this would be applied to restaurants and not Plumbers. The other thing was Gab Goldenburg was claiming that he was receiving seo juice ...

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