Local.com’s Local Search & Pay Per Call Partnerships
[I’ve had some readers email me and mention that the original version of this post, Local.com Building Strong Local Search Partnerships, was serving an error message. I’m not receiving an error message on the original post, but if anyone else is could you please leave a comment. Thank you, Loren]
Local.com, owned by Interchange Corporation, has been forming multiple partnerships with local and pay-per-call companies. One of these latest partnerships with such companies comes by way of pay per call lead generation company Jambo.
In what reads as a Who’s Who of local internet services, Jambo joins trhe impressive Local.com partner offering list which includes sponsored listings via Yahoo Search Marketing, ShopLocal, Looksmart & Furl.net bookmarking, Insider Pages listings, Ingenio Pay Per Call, MapQuest maps, Contractors.com partnered lead generation, Judy’s Book local reviews and blog info, ePilot pay per click & an Acxiom powered business database.
In a world where the big boys like Google & Verizon are teaming up to bring local search engine marketing to the small businesses of the US, these Local.com partnerships and innovations will become even more important to give it a more well rounded and competitive offering – in what proves to be a cut throat market Interchange has entered with Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask.com in each corner.
Here’s a rundown of the Local.com partnerships and offerings from Local.com over the past year:
Local.com & Ingenio Pay Per Call :
The agreement states that Ingenio advertisers will now appear in relevant Local.com search results when a consumer types in a query for a local business, product or service. The agreement will bring a new revenue flow to Local.com, which launched in August, and also “make it easier for more consumers to connect with local merchants and increase Pay Per Call advertisers’ exposure to local buyers nationwide.”
Local.com Brings Contractors.com Content Into Local Search
Local.com and Contractors.com, a popular local contractor directory, have entered into a content partnership agreement whereby Local.com users will have access to Contractors.com’s proprietary contractor listings and user reviews from its database of more than 1.1 million nationwide contractors. The Contractor.com listings will be displayed when a Local.com user searches for types of contractors in their area.
Local.com and Looksmart’s Furl.net Power Local Search Tagging
Local.com and LookSmart have partnered to add LookSmart’s Furl.net bookmarking, tagging & archiving technology (somewhat similar to del.icio.us), which will be powering the “Save” feature on Local.com. Furl will allow users to easily save and organize pages found on Local.com whicle the addition of Furl to the Local.com offerings “creates a customized experience for the user”, while driving repeat traffic to Local.com. Simply stated, Local.com users can now bookmark and tag local business profiles and search results which are found in Local.com.
Local.com Search Engine Offers Insider Pages Reviews & Advertising
Local.com has announced a new advertising and user review content partnership with Insider Pages, a community oriented local-search engine. Local.com and Insider Pages have agreed to distribute Insider Pages Pay Per Phone Call advertisers and merchant reviews on Local.com (Implementation of the Insider Pages content on Local.com is planned for early in the first quarter of 2006.)
Local.com and ShopLocal Partner for Local Shopping Search
ShopLocal and Interchange (who own Local.com) have partnered to enhance Local.com’s index of more than 16 million business listings with information from ShopLocal.com’s geo-targeted Smart Catalog and Smart Circular products.
Local.com will now not only list locally relevant businesses in their search results, but also the new “View Store Specials” link, which links users directly to ShopLocal.com’s dynamic online circulars, sales information, and location information for businesses in their area. ShopLocal LLC is owned by Tribune Company, Gannett Co., Inc., and Knight Ridder, Inc., and over the past month has been expanding its services outside of its previous partnerships with newspaper and local sites and into local search engines.
