Duncan Parry recently examined the development of local search and its likely impact on PPC advertisers. Now he looks at recent developments in local search.
Overture
Overture’s test of a local search solution at their labs page http://research.overture.com/ finished in October after generating a lot of press coverage. Initial reports suggest a roll out sometime in Q1 of 2004; expect to see testing on the AltaVista and AlltheWeb search engines (at least for US searchers). It remains to be seen however which of Overture’s partners will implement the local search technology.
Google
Google has rolled out a limited local search product for AdWords in the US (https://adwords.google.com/select/faq/reg_faq.html). This allows advertisers to target their ads to any of the 210 Market Areas (DMAs http://www.nielsenmedia.com/DMAs.html) developed by Nielsen Media Research. These determine the scope of local markets based on the reach of local television stations. There has been no news yet of when a full local search solution will be rolled out on Google allowing targeting by city or state in the US or elsewhere in the world.
FindWhat
In December FindWhat announced a deal with local telecommunications company Verizon Communications to help enhance local search results on SuperPages.com. SuperPages has previously been rated as the largest Internet Yellow Pages (IYP) in the US by The Kelsey Group. It is expected that Verizon will launch a local advertising service early in 2004, which will be hosted on FindWhat’s PPC infrastructure and systems. FindWhat will receive a share of the revenue generated by the service.
New figures and a white paper on local search advertising from The Kelsey Group
The Kelsey Group (http://www.kelseygroup.com/) predicts in a new white paper published in December 2003 that local search advertising will reach US$2.5 billion by 2008.
In the white paper, “A Closer Look at Local Search,” The Kelsey Group also estimates that 10% of all local searches have a commercial intent. Greg Sterling, director of The Kelsey Group stated that: “We estimate there are some 200,000 to 250,000 paid-search advertisers globally right now, and 10 million small and medium-sized enterprises in the U.S. There is clearly a tremendous local opportunity, but there are plenty of challenges in tapping that market, partly because it is so fragmented.”
Research conducted by The Kelsey Group and ConStat Inc., found that 60% of the US small businesses surveyed stated that at least 75% of their customers came from within a 50-mile radius – and 80% of SMEs stated that at least 75% of their buying and/or selling of products and services occurs within 50 miles.
In their eContext newsletter (http://www.kelseygroup.com/econtext.htm), The Kelsey Group also ran a brief Q and A session with the author of this article about local search.
WebAdvantage.net survey – Small Business Usage of Yellow Pages vs. Search Engine
This short survey revealed some interesting figures – 59% of businesses surveyed would use PPC advertising if they could target their adverts locally, and 69% did not appreciate the difference between paid and unpaid listings on search engines. http://www.searchenginejournal.com/index.php?p=128
BellSouth to resell LookSmart listings
In November, BellSouth (owners of RealPages.com) announced they would resell inclusion in LookSmarts PPC program LookListings through their sales representatives. LookSmarts editors will choose keywords and write accompanying titles and advert text for local businesses. The LookListigns program works on a flat rate, not auction, PPC system.
LookSmart lost MSN UK as a partner for their listings earlier this year and subsequently announced a closure of LookSmart UK (its last European office). It will cease to supply listings to MSN US in January of 2004. A number of the company’s US Editorial staff are reported to have already been made redundant.
Citysearch redesigns site to focus on local search
Citysearch.com launched a redesigned website in December, making it easier for users to find local businesses and content by typing in the area in question or selecting a city from a list of popular cities. For some cities they can also select to search the whole are of only one neighbourhood.
The site remembers the city or area specified (using a cookie) and then provides a search box, links to results for popular searches and links to common topics including restaurants, hotels and online Yellow Pages. The Yellow Pages offer links to popular categories and sub categories of local business.
Interchange Corporation testing a local-search product that bridges the gap between keyword search and category-based directory search
According to the press release (http://www.interchangeusa.com/news/pressreleases/2003/120303.asp) the product allows local businesses to advertise in search results by selecting their target area. Interchange Corporation aim to help businesses advertise to local consumers without managing keyword campaigns and bidding.
Interestingly – and this may prove one of the products strong selling points for many SMEs – it does not require businesses to have a web presence in order to advertise to consumers.
Interchange CEO Heath Clarke said: “Our groundbreaking online local-search product permanently bridges the gap between the offline and online Yellow Pages directory structure and the keyword search model”.
The product apparently works by linking keywords with their corresponding directory categories and allows for the use of city, area or zip codes to specify the area of interest.
This is a product to watch for in 2004 if it is adopted by IYP publishers – it offers the opportunity for existing print advertisers to be easily to matched to the keyword searches of online consumers – offering a rival advertising model to the bidded PPC local search solutions being developed by Google, Overture etc. The simplicity of this – without the need for keywords, titles and descriptions, bidding or even a website – may make it an easy sell to local businesses that are not Internet savvy or who do not have the time or resources to manage local search PPC campaigns. In addition, it could be sold on an annual fee basis, as a simple add-on to a print Yellow Pages listing, attracting advertisers who may shy away from bidding for traffic.
SureWest selects PremierGuide to deliver Internet Yellow Pages to the Sacramento region
SureWest Directories – which serves Greater Sacramento, Roseville, Auburn, Grass Valley, Nevada City and Foresthill – has selected PremierGuide’s Internet Yellow Pages (IYP) solution to take its print directory and place it online. The SureWestDirectories.com website contains the business and residential listings, display ads and coupons contained in the SureWest print directory. The full press release can be found here.
What’s interesting about this is that SureWest have take their offline directory and put it online – instead of offering an additional online advertising product to print advertisers. They are also not using PPC results to monetise the traffic to the website (although PremierGuide’s solution appears to include PPC advertising, details here).
This may be because they have decided it is easier to have their traditional sales force sell printed listings and include an online listing as an additional feature, rather than re-train them to sell online advertising and hope advertisers will have the time, money and patience to learn how to manage PPC advertising. The difficulty of re-training a traditional sales force to sell PPC advertising has previously been highlighted in a report by The Kelsey Group as an obstacle to the development of IYPs.
This development may be the start of an emerging trend in local search, with some IYPs seeking to gain extra revenue through selling advertisers PPC listings as an extra product- like CitySearch and Switchboard – whilst others decide to simply transfer their printed directories online.
Switchboard adds Shopping.com links to its website
Switchboard has integrated links from Shopping.com (formerly DealTime) into its search results, so that local searchers are presented with a combination of national and local results. Shopping.com will pay Switchboard on a PPC a basis, based on Switchboard’s own PPC programme LocalClicks. Press release here.
Searchers are presented with a combination of Switchboard’s local results, options to compare prices using a co-branded version of Shopping.com, and contextual PPC adverts from Google. Switchboard has been displaying the later since July 2003.
This is another example of the growth of hybrid search solutions – a combination of national and local results – that is emerging as local search takes off and the major players seek to gain market share. Expect more deals between IYPs, online marketplaces like Shopping.com and PPC engines as IYPs look to increase their online revenue.
Originally published at PayPerClickAnalyst.com.
Duncan Parry is an Editorial manager at Espotting UK, working on the campaigns of major UK brands. Previously he worked on the link directory on Lycos UK, specialising in IT, Telecommunications and Internet categories. This article does not represent the opinions of Espotting or Findwhat, only those of the author. Visit his personal site here: http://www.duncanparry.co.uk/.
