Duncan Jennings' Blog

The re-launch of Yahoo! Local in the US this week saw the search giant try to regain its footing in the battle for local traffic by firmly aiming to position itself as a major local portal.

The release of Google Maps Mobile last week in the UK got a distinct lack of coverage, yet it is a tool that underpins the huge opportunities for local mobile search.

These are currently drastically under-exploited - indeed, local mobile search is where the real value of mobile search lies, i.e. search in relation to your physical location.

Local is getting hotter by the day. More people are using search to find local businesses, and the Kelsey Group seems to report on a new potential value ($31.1bn in 2010) of the local search industry each week.

Calculating a competitive CPA is an incredibly important part of any successful affiliate programme and yet it's one of the first hurdles merchants fall at.

With more and more companies launching affiliate programmes, there is a huge amount of choice for affiliates, and if you expect them to promote your programme over your competitors, you need to set the right CPA and continually review it.

Recruiting paid search professionals can be a painful experience. Whether you're an agency specialising in search or a company looking to bring it in-house, the demand for paid search professionals has never been greater.

In these market conditions it’s easy to panic and jump on the first candidate who’s heard of Adwords, but there is another way.