We are barely a week away from the most significant online local marketing and search conference of the year as industry resources The Kelsey Group and Search Engine Strategies have combined their experience and insight to host ILM:07 & SES Local.

I’m sure you know how we feel about local search; without question one of the most important verticals for marketers as, though the majority of transactions and interaction with a business still transpire at the brick-and-mortar location, the internet is increasingly the first (and last) source of information for your audience. With 80% of the U.S. population online there is no better medium for reaching your audience. Local search allows you to specific requests for your business, genre, products, services, or events. Knowing the players and marketing options available to you are critical to navigating the amazing set of opportunities available to grow your business.

Hear from Google Earth and Maps Director John Hanke, Citysearch President Jay Herratti, Intuit Small Business VP Allison Mnookin, Facebook’s Chamath Palihapitiya, RHDi (RH Donnelley) President Jake Winebaum, and our very own Ethan Stock, CEO and founder of Zvents:

• Services and opportunities for search marketers from those and other important resources in the local search arena.
• Case studies from search marketers who’ve successfully leveraged the local search channel.
• Learn how to take advantage of the unique search optimization and advertising challenges posed by local search services.
• Participate in Q&A sessions with experts in local search.

Register to attend November 28-30 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles, CA. We’ll see you there!

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We had a blast at SES San Jose, re-introducing Zvents as the local search engine for things to do. As we continue to reinvent local search around the store and business events rather than the business listing, Local SEO’s are quickly recognizing a tremendous opportunity to drive in-store and online traffic for their clients by promoting sales, in-store event, and grand openings. Instead of paying to advertise those opportunities, we’re helping them do so for free.

While there, we took the opportunity to give away a flip video camcorder. Netconcepts‘ P.J. Fusco won the drawing and we had a chance to chat with P.J. who shared that the most readily overlooked opportunity in SEO is simply targeting optimal search traffic: that which provides a serious ROI while not neglecting blogs and social media. Netconcepts is a full-service search engine optimization serving big brands and IR 500 ecommerce sites with intelligent search solutions. They deploy a remarkable technology called GravityStream which P.J. explains as an opportunity for local businesses, “Even if the native site cannot be optimized due to allocating resources, GravityStream, a cornerstone NSO platform, can do it for them.” As you might imagine, netconcepts is encouraging their clients to use Zvents to take advantage of those overlooked opportunities and to drive local traffic through our free business and event listings. Asked of her favorite discovery on Zvents? “Our clients’ events”

Next opportunity to engage with us? I’ll be in Seattle next week at AMA’s Hot Topic Series about Search Engine marketing. Visit MarketingPower.com to register. Then, though plans are still being made, on to SMX Local in Denver and SES Local in LA.

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Next week the search industry converges on San Jose’s McEnery Convention Center for the leading search optimization and marketing conference Search Engine Strategies. Ask.com’s CEO, Jim Lanzone, will be there, discussing the beautiful Ask3D interface, as will Google’s Marissa Mayer to share their insight on personalized and “universal” search results.

Co-organized and hosted by respected search authorities Chris Sherman and Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Strategies delivers valuable search and marketing information through a forum which allows search engine professionals to debate and discuss industry trends.

One of the most significant trends is Local Search so, of course, we’ll be there sharing how you can work with Zvents and benefit from:

• Increased SERP share of voice


• Traffic to your website and in-store


• Tools to easily find, share, manage, & promote your events


• Incremental reach through syndication with partner newspapers and media sites

Join us at booth #330 and enter for a chance to win a cool flip video camcorder.

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