1. Elimination of the 7-Pack Google Map listing
2. Ranking algorithm for local listings have been updated
3. Google Places pages have greater visibility in new search result layout
4. Local results surrounded by more information like including 3rd party review sites
5. Information is grouped conveniently to make it easier to digest and compare
6. New link for "Places" in the left-hand panel of the search results page so you can switch to these results whenever you want
7. Google map now on the right side above the paid search listings, which scrolls as you scroll down the page

Google is Building in Web Intelligence

A Google Place Search result will begin appearing automatically on Google when they predict you're looking for local information. Their goal is make it faster and easier for searchers to find the local information they are looking for that will ultimately help them decide where they want to go.

What this Means for Your Business

It means that you might need to re-think the way you are marketing your services online.  We at WSI are in the process of putting together a end-client webinar that will help to outline the changes and provide direction for our clients.  We will be updating our blog and sending out an end user webinar as soon as we have completed the webinar.

Yahoo! switching to Bing's>search technology in the US and Canada is probably the leading search news story of the whole month.

Yes, Yahoo has fully switched to serving Bing results to the U.S. and Canadian searchers. While the average user may not care too much as to who's providing the results (as long as they're good of course), this is huge news business marketing their services online.

Basically what this means is whenever you run a search on yahoo.comyou get exactly the same results as on Bing.com. The only things different are the navigation, some universal results (except images and videos) and related searches.



As you can see the search results in both Yahoo and Bing are identical for the search term "Ice Skating Arizona".  You might also like to know that the Ice Den is a client of ours.  Ad there is no doubt they dominate the results.

The implications for Phoenix and Scottsdale businesses can be great. If you have been ranking well in Yahoo!, but not in Bing this switch has just hurt your business.  If you are ranking well in Bing and not Yahoo this switch has just helped your business.  Either way as a business owner you need to take note of this switch.

And now let's see how you can leverage Yahoo's switch to Bing for your business.

Combined Bing and Yahoo account for about 5.2 billion monthly searches. This is a pretty large traffic pond to tap into (not as large as the 'Google Sea', but still). Since Bing is already serving organic results on Yahoo U.S. and Canada and will be powering all of Yahoo search soon, you only need to concern yourself with optimizing for Bing. Grab top rankings there and you'll be crowning Yahoo results as well.