http://www.yodle.net/ The Yodler - A local online advertising blog from Yodle. en lisa.wess@ellislab.com Copyright 2012 2012-05-15T19:41:17+00:00 http://www.yodle.net/post/confronting-the-local-online-marketing-hype/ http://www.yodle.net/post/confronting-the-local-online-marketing-hype/#When:19:41:17Z Daily deals. Social Media. Mobile.    If I’ve learned anything over my 5+ years as CEO of Yodle it’s that conventional wisdom is often wrong and the so-called experts are all too quick to proclaim tried-and-true methods as extinct, or to crown a passing fad as the future of an industry. How much have daily deals, social media, and mobile lived up to the hype? Let’s see… Daily deals = Future of local marketing? Not so fast.   Only eighteen months ago everyone seemed to be fixated with daily deals – and for good reason. Groupon and LivingSocial were growing at astounding rates. There were hundreds of entrants into the deals space – including formidable brands like Google, Facebook, and Yelp – and you kept hearing stories about how merchants were lining up to participate in these deals where they only had to incur “marketing expense” for real, paying customers. Fast forward to now. Groupon’s stock price is half of what it was when the company went public six months ago; Facebook has pulled out of the deals business altogether (to compete in full force with Google Plus) and Yelp has significantly reduced its daily deals sales force. Small business owners are questioning whether a flood of often transient customers are worth giving up 75%+ of their unit revenue for, and consumers are increasingly fatigued by the relentless stream of deal emails in their inboxes.   Of course, none of this is to say that daily deals are dead; quite the contrary – deals are here to stay (Groupon may or may not be a $10B company, but it is a real business). What once looked like a revolutionary force in local marketing appears to now be just a part of the larger local marketing landscape. Social media is great for small businesses. Just not for getting new customers. Consider this: according to Hitwise, Facebook currently accounts for one in five page views in the U.S. - not just across social media sites, but across ALL sites on the entire Internet. So it’s not surprising that when we talk about local advertising, everyone wants to talk about “social.” “What are you doing for social?” “What’s your social strategy?” “How are you leveraging Facebook for local businesses? Twitter? Foursquare? Pinterest?” While social media is a powerful tool for many small business owners, through our own testing and research it’s become clear that advertising on social media is not a great tool for local businesses to consistently acquire new customers. Last year, we considered adding social media advertising to our suite of solutions but we discovered that it was not an optimal way to drive quality leads and actually increased the cost per lead versus other channels. Although large consumer brands have successfully advertised on Facebook to grow their customer base, things have gone in a different direction for small businesses.  Platforms like Facebook and Twitter are instead being used most effectively as customer relationship management tools, something that’s illustrated by the success of Constant Contact’s “Social Campaign” product. Small businesses are now primarily, and very effectively, using social media to drive repeat business and engage with current customers. As for acquiring new customers though, search and other online channels are still far more cost effective than social. Mobile is even bigger than we thought Everyone knows that the mobile web is experiencing enormous growth due to the increasing prevalence of smart phones, and that this growth makes mobile marketing of significant importance to small businesses. That said, the prevailing wisdom among many in the local online marketing space was that mobile was primarily important for lifestyle businesses: restaurants, bars, retailers and a few other select sectors. After all, who searches for a plumber or a plastic surgeon or a property manager on their mobile phones?  As it turns out, a lot of people do.  What’s more, in addition to the large amount of search volume for “non-lifestyle” local services on search engine, we’ve actually found that many of these sectors see much higher conversion rates on mobile than desktop. For example, the conversion rate for HVAC contractors (the guys who install and repair your air conditioning) is 15% on mobile versus eight percent on desktop, while the rate for dentists is 15% versus 11%. This means that small business owners need to buy fewer clicks in order to drive the same amount of new calls and emails to their business – and that means more efficient marketing. In closing Although all the above issues are key for small businesses to varying degrees, there is arguably still another core development that we’ve found perhaps more impactful than anything else. Recent research shows that the average small business has a monthly marketing budget of around $350. Many vendors in the space, however, have missed the mark by either offering premium solutions outside the price range of many small business owners, or low end and cheap solutions that also often don’t appeal to small businesses because they fail to drive the value that small business owners expect. Yodle by contrast has always been a leader in the local online marketing space and we’re continuing that trend by (along with companies like Yelp and Angie’s List) really focusing on this budget as the small business marketing “sweet spot.”  It will be interesting to see what happens across all these areas over the coming months and years. As always, Yodle will be driving change to help small businesses succeed online. If you have any feedback to share or questions please provide it in the comments below and I’ll respond to you as soon as possible. Yodle, Social Media 2012-05-15T19:41:17+00:00 http://www.yodle.net/post/online-marketing-discussions-at-the-borrell-associates-advertising-con/ http://www.yodle.net/post/online-marketing-discussions-at-the-borrell-associates-advertising-con/#When:19:15:28Z I recently attended the Borrell Associates’ 2012 Local Online Advertising Conference in New York, which is one of the biggest gatherings of local digital advertising executives each year. The event provided a great opportunity to interact and share ideas with some of the leaders in the local digital space and to get a sense of innovations in our space.  I’m proud to say that Yodle had a strong presence at the event this year – a genuine sign of our positive progress. Court Cunningham, our CEO, gave a well-received presentation called “Using Technology to Drive Profits in Local”. Court provided an overview of Yodle, covering the unique value proposition and services that we offer to local businesses and an overview of the business model that makes us so successful. Later, I represented Yodle on a panel discussion titled “Delivering on Targeted Solutions for SMBs” (small and medium-sized businesses). The discussion was part of a Yahoo consortium and was accordingly chaired by Lem Lloyd, EVP of North American Channel Sales at Yahoo. The other participants on the panel were Todd Leeloy of Dex One and Tom Byun from Yahoo’s Small Business group. Broadly, we discussed how to drive value to SMBs, significant digital marketing developments and trends, and how to keep local businesses focused on what works and the part that social media plays in that picture. I also had the opportunity to talk about some of Yodle’s products and how we keep our clients focused on driving value for their businesses. One of the more interesting threads of conversation centered on whether local businesses get their best ROI (return on investment) from using social media at the expense of other online marketing channels.  Through our testing, of which Yodle does a lot, we’ve concluded that paid social media – specifically Facebook in the case of our most recent test – cannot compete with the economics of search for lead generation. The reason for this is the ad products built by Facebook and also Twitter were designed first and foremost to serve brand advertisers in their search for impressions and engagement, not for service advertisers looking to generate leads.   I shared this finding on the panel and all seemed to agree.  It’s this ability to understand intent and then harvest that intent that makes search marketing, for instance, so effective. Facebook and Twitter are occasionally places people turn to in order to vent about a problem or look to their network for recommendations on a service so in this way they may still be great sources of lead generation for small businesses. As firms like Yodle and others continue to delve into this issue, the question though is really about whether there’s enough volume and the ability to harvest the intent at unit economics that can compete with search. We’ll do a post later in the year on that front. In the meantime social media should be primarily considered as a good tool for post-sales customer relationship management.      Beyond Court’s presentation and my panel, I sat in on some other sessions including a talk given by Placecast on geofencing. What geofencing enables is the ability to serve messages to prospective customers that are close to your physical location. This could be very beneficial particularly for retailers that want to target potential customers in specific geographical areas during specific times. Foursquare has been experimenting for a couple years with this approach but regardless of who’s doing it, the challenge will be to have a consumer experience that’s calibrated properly between value and advertising. The team at Yodle always strives to stay ahead of the curve and part of that process involves actively participating in these key industry events. There will be more to come as we look ahead to BIA Kelsey and other shows later this year.    2012-04-25T19:15:28+00:00 http://www.yodle.net/post/part-one-building-an-effective-employment-brand/ http://www.yodle.net/post/part-one-building-an-effective-employment-brand/#When:18:19:52Z Almost 100 years ago, more than 3,000 people lined up for several miles to throw their hat into the ring for a job promising extreme risk, low pay, and uncomfortable conditions. And from that, Ernest Shackleton, an explorer from the early 20th century and one of my leadership heroes, carefully selected 28 men who would join him on one of the most famous expeditions to the South Pole.  Few employers today would be so blunt in their advertisements. They typically spend a lot of time putting positive spin and polish on what their jobs offer in the hope of attracting the most sought after and capable talent around. Why was Shakleton different?  Shakleton had a brand – an employment brand that spoke volumes more than the words on the ad below. Recruitment ad attributed to Ernest Shackleton’s 1914 South Pole exploration. In his recently published book, Brett Michington, a renowned author on employment branding, hits the nail on the head when he defined employment brand as “the image of your organization as a ‘great place to work’ in the mind of current employees and key stakeholders in the external market (active and passive candidates, clients, customers and other key stakeholders).“  Shackleton could have put any words in the ad he posted. Men signed up because they believed he was a man who could accomplish great things, would treat his crew fairly, and would share credit and responsibility. And Shackleton did not disappoint. Companies have only truly started to recognize the importance of employment brand over the last couple of decades. As workforce demographics have shifted and new entrants value working for a company whose values and objectives align with theirs, an employment brand becomes a critical part of both attracting and retaining people in the ongoing “war for talent”. In fact, Price Waterhouse Coopers references in their report on millenials and the workplace that 88% of millenials seek companies whose values reflect their own and 86% would leave an employer if company values no longer reflected their own.   Employment branding is a key aspect in both sides of this equation. An organization that is able to articulate what truly differentiates MY company from another both in terms of values and expectations is much more likely to find the right fit for the business. That also means that the wrong fit will be much more obvious.  I’ve always believed that a company who knows who they are and what they stand for will be much more successful than one who tries to be all things to all people – and also more successful than one that is just unclear about either.  A little over two years ago, when I joined Yodle, it was clear to me that the staff and leadership had strong beliefs about the company and its direction. We had a set of six well defined values and a passionate group of hard-working, smart employees. I made one of my first priorities to define and launch a clear articulation of what that implied for our employment brand.  To be successful, I knew that the end result had to work internally and externally. These may be expressed differently, but must work in tandem and can never be in conflict. Internally, a well-articulated brand will reinforce and continue to build culture. Externally, it will attract candidates that can thrive in the culture while discouraging job applications from those that won’t. I travelled to each of our locations, meeting with employees at all levels and in all departments and asked a few simple questions: What do you love about working here? What attracted you and what makes you stay? What’s tough about being here? What should anyone know before they come to work at Yodle? The last questions – I like to call them the “truth in lending disclosure” – were as important as the first ones. I was happy to discover that there were consistent themes and a rich overlap with our values; there was no need to reinvent the wheel. My work was in translating the feedback into a few statements that captured the essence of what already existed.  Using Lominger’s Leadership Architect, the executive team also took the time to identify competencies required for success at the organization.  We now had six core values, a clearly articulated employment brand, and competencies that support both.  In my next blog, I will address how to embed and reinforce an employment brand and culture. By way of example, I’ll address what Yodle has done to accomplish that both internally and externally during a time of tremendous growth for the company. Yodle Careers 2012-04-19T18:19:52+00:00 http://www.yodle.net/post/staying-ahead-of-the-cosmetic-surgery-curve/ http://www.yodle.net/post/staying-ahead-of-the-cosmetic-surgery-curve/#When:16:43:53Z This is a busy time of the year on the cosmetic surgery trade show circuit. We recently attended the American Academy of Dermatology Annual Meeting and are heading out to Las Vegas later this week to go to THE Aesthetic Show. In addition to using these events to discuss our online marketing services with both current and prospective customers, they also provide us with an ideal opportunity to stay updated on key cosmetic surgery developments.  Products, technologies and procedures are constantly evolving in the cosmetic surgery space.  It’s imperative that we keep our pulse on these trends to ensure that we’re offering the very best online marketing strategy to our clients, and bidding on and optimizing the appropriate keywords. To that end, we spend a lot of time at trade shows to meet with other companies to learn about what’s coming out, speak to industry thought leaders to get a better understanding of key FDA approvals, and talk to doctors about what they’re hearing from their patients. During the years that we’ve been working with cosmetic surgeons, we’ve realized the importance of these conversations and why it’s imperative to have a deep knowledge of this industry. We are now able to instantly recognize what services are most valuable for doctors and then market those services to the right types of prospective clients. We don’t only use trade shows to further this cause. We also engage in regular conversations with cosmetic surgeons and partner with some key industry educational institutions and medical associations to stay ahead of the curve.   Additionally, we have a close partnership with Neograft, a leader in hair restoration technologies.  I’m looking forward to teaming up again with Neograft later this week in Las Vegas. We’re giving a joint presentation on Neograft’s latest technologies and how Yodle has helped doctors that buy these products to generate patient flow. We give monthly presentations to plastic surgeons across the U.S. In addition to these meetings providing another great opportunity to learn more about challenges that cosmetic surgeons are experiencing, we also like to have a little bit of fun. For example, one of our employees who is a little “follicly challenged” was used as a guinea pig during a recent Neograft demonstration.  As much as we’ve learned from cosmetic surgeon professionals, we’re also excited about the value that we’ve provided to so many of our customers in an industry where there’s tremendous opportunity for high returns on online marketing. I hope to see you in Las Vegas later this week. Please feel free to stop by booth 234 to talk to us. Yodle 2012-04-10T16:43:53+00:00 http://www.yodle.net/post/taking-local-online-marketing-to-the-nations-capital/ http://www.yodle.net/post/taking-local-online-marketing-to-the-nations-capital/#When:16:25:19Z I’ve been attending events on behalf of Yodle for the last two and a half years ranging from large trade shows to smaller informational meetings.  I always enjoy having the opportunity to head out of the office and spend some quality time with local business owners in order to learn more about the marketing and advertising challenges that they’re facing.   I also usually like to have a little bit of fun when I’m on the road.  I often have a small wager with local business owners that I’m speaking to.  I bet them a dollar that they’re not showing up on online searches that potential customers are likely to make, which are relevant for their services and location.  After I usually win the bet (and tell them to put their dollar bill away), I then talk about why it’s so important for local businesses to be found on search engines for a number of different specific keywords and what Yodle can do to make that happen. I will be attending some great events over the next few weeks, but I’m particularly looking forward to Yodle’s “First Annual D.C. Marketing Workshop”. The event is taking place next Wednesday, March 28 at the Hotel Monaco in downtown Washington, D.C.  We’re partnering with the Google Channel Sales Team to present seven identical hour long sessions throughout the day making it as easy as possible for small business owners to drop in for the workshop.  The workshop is relevant for local businesses regardless of the industry they’re in.  At a high level, the sessions will review strategies that local businesses can leverage to bolster their online presence.  More specifically, Howard Tung, who is part of the Channel Sales team at Google, will provide an overview of general search marketing trends, followed by my colleague Jason Raser and I discussing a number of specific online marketing tactics including paid search and local listings. Following the short presentations, attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions to the three of us regarding their own online marketing situations and challenges.  As part of that, we’ll also do some relevant “live” searches for our attendees to show them where things stand with their online presence.   Hopefully attendees leave with some tips on online marketing activities that they can do by themselves as well as a better understanding of how a vendor like Yodle may be able to help them. Please join us next week for what will hopefully be an educational and interesting discussion.  I hope to see you in D.C.! Yodle 2012-03-22T16:25:19+00:00 http://www.yodle.net/post/rolling-out-the-new-yodle.com/ http://www.yodle.net/post/rolling-out-the-new-yodle.com/#When:22:02:53Z We were thrilled to launch the new and improved Yodle.com last week after an extensive design and development process.  I had the pleasure of leading the website project from initiation through to completion, and am very proud of the Yodle User Experience team’s accomplishments.  I believe (and hope) that the new website will resonate with customers, prospects, employees, job seekers, media and investors.      I’m particularly excited to have incorporated responsive web design into the new website, which utilizes one set of code to display content effectively across all devices, including desktops, tablets, and phones.  Yodle.com now scales to whatever device people are using based on screen size and platform, eliminating the need to have different websites in desktop and mobile versions. We decided during the early stages of development to implement responsive web design given that an increasing number of people use mobile devices more than, or instead of, their desktops.  We conducted several different tests to determine how to best implement this design before finalizing what would work best for supporting all users’ experience.  We ultimately always want to ensure that all visitors to our website can effectively and easily learn about Yodle regardless of the device they’re using or where they’re browsing.  We intentionally designed the website to illustrate the key benefits and services we offer to our customers and the credibility we have to back this up such as our awards and success stories.  The newly introduced map on our home page clearly outlines the greatest value that we provide, namely the volume of quality leads that local businesses across the country get when they use Yodle’s online marketing services. I believe the new Yodle.com strikes an appropriate balance between simplicity, professionalism and the “tongue in cheek” attitude, which has become part of our brand.  We particularly enjoyed figuring out how best to showcase the Yodle personality on the website, including integrating the cartoon persona of the “Yodler”, which you’ll find across the website. We truly believe that the “Yodler” is a metaphor for our customers, a small business owner standing at the top of a mountain trying to attract new clients. Now that we’ve launched the new Yodle.com, I can reflect on two particularly important elements that go beyond just the website.  First, we have set the tone for our brand moving forward and you will start to see changes in the rest of our materials over the coming months.  Second, and most importantly, the User Experience team, which is responsible for all Yodle online materials both for the company and our clients, has learned a lot from developing Yodle.com.  That experience will be particularly invaluable as we continue to further hone and elevate the adversites we deliver to our customers to help provide them with an even greater volume of leads. Yodle 2012-03-16T22:02:53+00:00 http://www.yodle.net/post/franchise-marketing-lessons-from-the-ifa-convention/ http://www.yodle.net/post/franchise-marketing-lessons-from-the-ifa-convention/#When:15:29:21Z A few weeks ago, I attended the annual IFA Convention in Orlando, which is the biggest franchising trade show of the year in the U.S. The event is hosted by the International Franchise Association (IFA), the world’s oldest and largest organization representing franchising worldwide. 2012 marked the fourth consecutive year that Yodle exhibited at the IFA Convention. As always, the event provided the perfect opportunity for the Yodle National team to meet with existing customers and make new contacts. Perhaps most importantly, the team had the opportunity to spend quality time with numerous franchisors, getting further insight into what’s top of mind for them in 2012 and helping us to better determine their online marketing needs. One of the key topics on the speaking program – determined by the IFA - was how to manage in difficult economic times. Although it’s difficult to argue that there is still uncertainty in the economy, the conversations that we had with a number of franchisors were refreshing. In stark contrast to recent years, franchisors talked about rebounding from the bad economy and seeing growth in franchising for the first time since the recession started. The consequence is that franchisors are now taking on a greater number of new franchisees and need to implement marketing strategies and tactics to support them in addition to their existing franchisees. Related to this, it was interesting to hear that most franchisors are increasing their national advertising spend on ROI initiatives at the expense of branding initiatives, a continuation of a trend that typically happens during an economic downturn.  Determining how best to leverage and maximize online mobile marketing was also a hot button issue for franchisors. This came as little surprise to us as we’ve been closely monitoring the surging mobile advertising market for some time. For example, the recently announced Google Mobile Planet Survey found that 82 percent of smartphone users in the U.S. use a search engine at least one time per week on their mobile device. We’ve also found that mobile search queries are expected to continue to have a higher conversion rate than desktop. Nonetheless, it was important to have these conversations around mobile with franchisors, further reaffirming why Yodle is putting significant focus in developing the optimal online mobile marketing solutions for our customers. Beyond the one-on-one discussions that we had with franchisors, I’m also proud of the active role that Yodle played in the IFA Convention. Long-time Yodler Greg Gasparani, VP of National Sales at Yodle, officially received his Certified Franchise Executive (CFE) designation during the event. The extensive training that Greg went through to get this recognition provided him with some invaluable insight into the franchising world. Additionally, we moderated a couple of roundtables. I chaired a discussion on Google Maps and Google Places, where franchisors talked about how their franchisees are not effectively leveraging these tools and how best to resolve this issue. Ari Katz, Director of National Sales at Yodle, oversaw a meeting on “Killer Marketing Tactics”, with much of conversation focused on how important it is to track and measure all advertising and marketing tactics. Coming out of the IFA Convention, it’s clear that franchisors are still grappling with the difficulties of managing their brand and establishing marketing standards at a local level, whether it’s for online mobile marketing, Google Maps, or a number of other things. Franchisors’ common problems include that franchisees are not consistently adopting marketing programs and a system is not in place to track multiple marketing channels - or their effectiveness - across the franchise network. It’s clearly important for franchisors to fix these problems for both their existing franchisees and the potential new joiners as the economy improves.  I’m excited that Yodle is in a strong position to help franchises build on their current online marketing solutions. We have secured an increasingly strong foothold in the franchise market over recent years, particularly in the auto repair, transmission, HVAC, moving, home cleaning and hearing center sectors. We have integrated our advanced local online advertising technology for local businesses with an enterprise level suite of tools that enables even the largest of franchises to effectively monitor and coordinate their franchisee’s advertising campaigns. Franchisors have benefited from our sophisticated algorithm that determines the best combination of placements and formats for a particular business, as well as our expertise in Google Maps optimization and mobile paid search. We’re looking forward to taking the momentum from the IFA Convention into the rest of the year as we continue to focus on providing the best possible online marketing solutions to franchisors and their franchisees. We’re rolling out enhanced solutions to our customers over the coming months and are also moving into other sectors to support more franchises with their online marketing needs. Last, but not least, I want to plug an upcoming IFA Webinar on “Dispelling the Myths of Franchise SEO.” David Minchala, SEO Manager at Yodle, and Derik Beck, Director of New Media at American Driveline Systems, are leading the discussion on March 7 from 2 – 3 p.m. ET. Enjoy! The Yodle team at the IFA Convention Yodle 2012-03-06T15:29:21+00:00 http://www.yodle.net/post/why-go-mobile/ http://www.yodle.net/post/why-go-mobile/#When:22:17:21Z Yodle reviews why mobile is an online marketing channel that local businesses should explore. If you haven't considered mobile as part of your strategy in the past, here are five compelling reasons why it's time to start. Yodle 2012-02-22T22:17:21+00:00 http://www.yodle.net/post/brand-management-with-twitter-3-quick-tips/ http://www.yodle.net/post/brand-management-with-twitter-3-quick-tips/#When:14:18:27Z At first glance, you might see Twitter’s 55 million+ daily messages as an unending stream of random thoughts, musings, and lunch preferences.  Scratch the surface by using the search function, however, and what you find may surprise you. Here are customers actively sharing their positive and negative experiences about your brand.  Here is a flowing source of fresh and relevant industry news before it hits mainstream media.  But tweets can help you do more than just keep an eye on your online reputation and trending news topics.  By becoming actively engaged, you can take it a step further and use Twitter as a force multiplier for your brand. Here are 3 easy ways to help manage your brand with just a few tweets a week: 1.     Gather: Tweets are pushed out and followed instantaneously while mainstream media reporting has a delay of minutes, if not hours.  Events like Flight 1549 landing in the Hudson and street riots from Iran’s elections were reported on Twitter well before the news caught wind.  Plug industry specific terms into Twitter and be among the first to know about trends within your realm.  2.     Project: Even better, use your expertise to tweet about industry news, innovative product updates, or tips of the trade for your followers. Twitter is great for garnering information that concerns you and your industry.  Giving insightful commentary on relevant breaking news is a surefire way to get more followers while turning your brand into a source people actively seek out for knowledge. 3.     Respond: Users are constantly praising companies for positive experiences and calling them out for negative ones.  Simply thanking a Twitter user for a positive tweet about your company can turn them into a lifelong client.  Conversely, being available to remedy or at least respond to complaints in a timely manner gives your company an oft-lacking caring, human touch that presents an opportunity to turn a bad experience into positive publicity. With a few tweets a week, you can single-handedly produce a stream of knowledge targeting potential customers, current customers, and a network of industry experts like you. Social Media 2012-02-22T14:18:27+00:00 http://www.yodle.net/post/can-panda-maul-your-business/ http://www.yodle.net/post/can-panda-maul-your-business/#When:13:59:29Z In 2011 Google created a new ranking factor called “Panda,” making some marketers happy and others completely miserable. Most consumers, though, may not have even noticed. That’s because Panda was about tackling one specific problem as opposed to changing the entire search experience. The reason it made such a big splash in the online marketing community is because of the impact it had on some businesses’ bottom line. In certain cases, the impact was pretty dire. As a result, many companies marketing online have been in a state of fear and paranoia over the possibility of being the next to get “Pandalized.” Are you afraid? Should you be? What is Panda? Before we dive into Panda’s specifics, let’s revisit how Google serves up results when consumers search on Google.com.  Essentially, it works like this: When Google deploys its search robot, Googlebot, they hand it a checklist of items to look for across billions of web pages.  Googlebot uses the checklist to give each page a grade.  The more positive things Googlebot can check off, the higher the grade for that page. When keywords in a search query are matched to pages within Google’s organic index, those pages with the highest scores are served first as results. Panda is just a new set of items on the checklist that Googlebot looks for in certain cases only. In fact, the update affects a relatively small portion of search queries (~12%).  Why?  The purpose of Panda is to improve search result quality by looking for tell-tale signals of content “farming.” Content farms exist solely to aggregate content and blow out the size of a site so as to appear authoritative and a rich resource. Formerly, these sites dominated the search engine result pages (SERPs) for many queries. Because this worked well, it followed that the more content you added to a site, the more impressions and ad space you could sell to advertisers. The side effect was that the SERPs became polluted with low-quality content that served no other purpose than to help make a website profitable. What to Look Out For Today all pages added to Google’s organic index are “scored” by the same algorithm. Some queries trigger Panda (that extra checklist) and have additional scores calculated to help Google decide whether or not that page should be more visible or less visible in search. Some of the things Panda might look for are: Uniqueness of content Quality of content as indicated by reading level (Google can actually gauge that!) Usability of the website (Is it really easy or really hard to get around your site?) Website engagement (How long do visitors stay on your site? What do they do? ) Is Panda Coming After Me? On your corporate website, it’s worth looking at site performance since February 2011 and seeing if there’s been a big drop in organic search traffic that cannot be attributed to any other activity (e.g. new site launch, dismantling a blog). When it comes to your franchisees at the local level, their franchise location websites are generally more insulated from Panda. This is due in part to the prominence of Places listings (those tied to the Google map), which are served at the top of the results page for local queries.  The maps algorithm is separate from the organic algorithm – that robot works off a different checklist. If you have concerns about your organic visibility (not your maps visibility), check out the list of sites affected by the update. There doesn’t seem to be any indication that local service providers (like mechanics and plumbers) were targeted. Am I Safe? Remember, Panda is only one of the hundreds of tweaks Google makes every year. If your corporate or franchisee websites experience dramatic changes in visibility, you should first look at the fundamentals of your SEO before considering Panda as a suspect. Most likely Panda is not to blame. Yodle 2012-02-22T13:59:29+00:00