michaeldorausch.com

Last week I presented at the 2009 PubCon Las Vegas conference. I was on the Local Search panel, which had more people in attendance than I’ve seen in a long time for a local search (maybe the time for local has come), and to top it off it was the first session of the day.

I posted a copy of the presentation to slideshare and have embedded it here for viewing…

Viewing the slideshow presentation doesn’t get as much information as having attended the event, but you may find something useful in the presentation nonetheless.

I talked about convergence of the desktop shopper and the cell phone user, the increased activity we are seeing in wireless, and how local search is appearing in the SERPS.

I asked a few questions on twitter about the use of mobile applications in finding places to eat locally and received some pretty interesting responses. A few of those were posted and appear in the slides.

When I talk about SEO for local search like it’s 1999, I don’t mean spamming guest books with links. Link building is obviously important, but for local search, the basics still rule. I did a presentation earlier in the year on granular data , which is also related to the area of local search.

Thanks to all those that attended the presentation live in Las Vegas, I know it can be tough to be awake and at the conference center at 10 o’clock in the morning, you guys rocked!

I’ve been meaning to post this presentation since I spoke at PubCon Austin earlier this year. I was on the local search panel and my topic was Going Granular with local search.

On the Chiropractic Blogs site I’ve talked about granular data and location information quite a bit. It amazes me how many people to this day still don’t invest the extra time into things like filling out fields completely or including detailed information related to the topic they are blogging on. Getting very detailed with the information you are delivering can provide great benefit, especially with long-tail search results.

If you want to view the slideshow presentation it’s 19 slides long. I covered more in the talk but at least the slides offer some basics on the topic.

One of the last slides simply says “True Story” and it refers to a case where I used granular data in a blog post that resulted in a client calling my chiropractic office. That client was seeking specifically what I covered in the post (down to the model number of equipment used) and since has referred a half dozen+ other clients.

Cheers!

I’ve been holding off on posting a lot of tech related content on my chiropractic web sites because most of its just not suitable for the audience. I currently work out ideas on a huge Whiteboard in my home office but I want to begin posting some thoughts publicly in hopes of getting interaction, advice, and wisdom from those facing similar projects. I figure here is as good a place as any to begin.

I am volunteering some local SEO gurus into my brain trust. My early list includes Andrew Shotland, Mike Blumenthal, David Mihm, and Matt McGee. I’ll add more as I expand on my thinking and project development.

Here’s my thought of the day…

Develop a Central Address Database Strategy

This may appear really simple but I’m currently stuck on how to best implement for ease of use. Each day I come across address, phone, and URL information for chiropractic offices across the United States. Some come by e-mail, some I discover on web sites, some are on business cards, some get written on note paper and handed to me at conferences (basically there are lots of sources on any given day).

My thought is to assign the development and management of the database to one person so that I can cut-and-paste or scan and e-mail info and be done with it. I vision a simple web-based interface were someone can administrate records to be added and/or modified for the day. That database would be readable by any directory web sites I own or choose to partner with, would integrate with local WordPress blogs, and basically be readable by any sites I’ve allowed on the administrative end to pull local address data.

I imagine there are some pre-existing solutions but I prefer to think this out in advance to avoid the most limiting blocks to achieving the goal of providing consistently updated information across a network of sites and online properties.

If there are any contributing thoughts, I’d appreciate reading them.