Google Maps Should Consider A Canonical Phone Number Tag
Google Maps, local search engines, internet yellow pages and other online business directories often receive biz listing info from a great many sources and must merge it together (see my description of this in Eric Enge’s interview with me). When this happens, loads of variations in the business’s name, address and even phone number can cause listing data to fail to be merged. All this makes me think we might need a “Canonical Tag” for phone numbers! Read on, and I’ll elaborate… (more…)
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Posted by Chris of Silvery on 09/28/2009
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Filed under: Local Search, Local Search Optimization, Maps, Online Directories, Research and Development, SEO, Search Engine Optimization, Yellow Pages canonical phone number tag, canonical phone tag, canonical tag, Google-Maps, hCard, hcard microformat, local-search-engine-optimization, local-SEO, microformats, phone number, phone numbers, phones, proposed microformat, Yellow Pages
Google Supports Microformats, Rolls Out Rich Snippets
The annual Google Searchology conference held recently revealed some interesting offerings in the search marketing field. Google had introduced personalised search and universal search through the same event in previous years.
Google has stated its support for rich microformats. Yahoo’s Search Monkey has already implemented them. But is still not clear if the search engines read them. Local search results have been rumoured to use microformats but there is no evidence to back this either.
(more…)
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Posted by Ravi of Netconcepts Ltd. on 05/27/2009
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Filed under: General, Search Engine Optimization Google Profiles, Google Search Options, google searchology, hcalendar, hCard, microformats, RDF, rich snippets
Microformats Hit Mainstream!
Over on SEMClubhouse I’ve written up a post on “Why Use Microformats?” which is a mild criticism of Michael Gray’s recent post on “HCards, Microformats and Address Data does it Matter for SEO“. Essentially, Michael suggests people should prioritize implementation of hCard into local info webpages as a lower-priority, back-burner project. I not only believe that Yahoo’s SearchMonkey developer platform and Google’s new Rich Snippets display are proving that the search engines consider the Microformats protocol to be important, but anything presented as a back-burner or rainy-day project for many major corporations pretty much relegates that work to never be done at all.
With the advent of Rich Snippets in SERPs, I think I can safely declare that Microformats have now hit mainstream! (more…)
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Posted by Chris of Silvery on 05/20/2009
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Filed under: Best Practices, Content Optimization, Google, HTML Optimization, Local Search Optimization, SEO, Search Engine Optimization Google, hcalendar, hCard, hproduct, hreview, Local Search, local-SEO, microformats, microformatting, rich snippets, Search Engine Optimization, searchmonkey, semantic code, semantic markup
Plea for a New Open Format: Open Local Profile Format
My most-recent Locals Only column just pubbed at SearchEngineLand.com, titled “A Call To Standardize Local Search Listings“.
Open Local Profile Format
In it, I’m calling for the companies operating in the local search space to come together and agree upon a common data format protocol that would allow businesses and organizations to more easily submit their directory profile information to the great plethora of local info sites where users go to get information. The local search engines, online yellow pages, and various vertical directories should come together to reduce costs/complexity for businesses, and to facilitate improved information for consumers, similar to how the major search engines last year came together to agree on one common submission protocol - Sitemaps - for submitting sites’ page links to them. Read on for more details.
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Posted by Chris of Silvery on 06/04/2007
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Filed under: Local Search, Yellow Pages Business-Listings-Data, Google-Maps, hCard, microformats, Open-Formats, Open-Local-Profile, Open-Local-Profile-Format, Sitemaps, Yahoo-Local, Yellow Pages
