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Gib Olander of Localeze, a business information provider to local search services, presented a concept at the SMX Local conference last week that I thought might be helpful for businesses who are trying to wrap their heads around how they can use search engines to drive qualified traffic to their sites.

Gib talked about businesses creating a “cloud of content” for each individual business location to capture different types of search queries by potential customers. There are “Recovery” queries, where the user is trying to find you based on data they know about you, and “Discovery” queries, where the user is trying to find someone like you but doesn’t know about you yet.

When available to search engines via your website, online yellow pages, etc., the data that can satisfy each of these types of queries makes up the “cloud” and provides multiple paths for a searcher to find you. By having more data available in the cloud you provide more inbound paths for searchers and thus can attract more customers.

Here are some examples of data that you should have in your cloud:

Types of Recovery Queries (I know who I am looking for)

  • Business Name
  • Business Address
  • Business Phone Number
  • Primary Business Categorization
  • Local Business Website Address

Types of Discovery Queries (I know what I am looking for)

  • Products Offered
  • Business Specialties
  • Services Offered
  • Payment Methods Accepted
  • Location’s Hour of Operations
  • Unique Offerings Within a Business Category

The moral of the story: Make sure you have all of your information available on your website and anywhere else search engines may find it (e.g. yellow pages sites) so potential customers who are searching for you can find you.

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10 Response Comments

  • Ben Saren  October 10, 2007 at 6:21 am

    When Gib spoke about this and broke it out this way, I couldn’t write my notes fast enough and I was left with a bunch of scribbles. Thanks for posting this, that’s exactly how I remember it!

  • Eva White  September 15, 2008 at 9:40 pm

    I am aware of Recovery Queries, they are required, they serve as the basics or identity of a business or a person. But I am a little sceptically about the Discovery Queries that you have mentioned above should all be listed. Like for e.g. Location’s Hour of Operations or Unique Offerings Within a Business Category. They can be discussed personally better rather then putting it for search engines. As sometimes a personal conversation is better than just reading and interpreting. That’s my view…….what do you guys think.

  • http://www.netbahis.com  February 14, 2010 at 3:28 pm

    When Gib spoke about this and broke it out this way, I couldn’t write my notes fast enough and I was left with a bunch of scribbles. Thanks for posting this, that’s exactly how I remember it!

  • walter bills  April 2, 2013 at 12:37 pm

    How do I remove or change a tel number

    • Andrew Shotland  April 2, 2013 at 12:50 pm

      Totally depends on what the issue is Walter. There’s no one-sized fits all approach, but if your number is wrong all over the Web, then you should start with making sure Localeze, InfoGroup, Acxiom & Factual all have your most recent data and then you’ll want to manually update your profiles on the most important sites in your niche.

  • walter b bills  April 2, 2013 at 3:10 pm

    I have gone out of business totally . How do I remove it from the yellow pages? I keep getting unwanted phone calls.

    • Andrew Shotland  April 2, 2013 at 3:27 pm

      Sorry to hear that Walter. If that’s the case I would probably sell your current number to a competitor and get a new number.

  • walter b bills  April 2, 2013 at 3:35 pm

    I want Bill’s Farm removed from the Yellow pages totally especially on the internet.

  • Andrew Shotland  April 2, 2013 at 4:12 pm

    I would contact the big data co’s and tell them the biz is closed. Then I’d go and manually claim the profiles on the big yellow pages sites and do the same.