It’s clear from the results of the work done on my friend’s Jensen Headshots web site (jensenheadshots.co.uk) that search engines love Qype. “How so?” you might ask, and in what way is this clear? Well here is the low down, and the net results based on my own experience of getting the Jensen web site from 0-60 mph in 1 month and the benefits of Qype in that equation.
For those who have read up on my previous posting about the site, Quick SEO Success: Is It Possible?, will know the exploits I performed in trying to get the site onto the front page of Google, but what about other search engines? Well recent searches and discoveries for the term “Headshots London” turn the site up on the home page of Bing, MSN, and Yahoo.
Often it seems like these search engines are a tough nut to crack, with an almost impossible means to get your content in, let alone to the home page. In this instance and for both these cases, however, what is clear, is that the content on Qype has been instrumental in getting the business listing, and the web site into their index. This, though, shouldn’t and doesn’t undermine the the other good SEO work that also played a part, but in reality, getting into the directory is half the obstacle.
The search results on Bing & MSN provide two links, one in the form of a local business directory listing which clearly draws the information directly from Qype, and the other in the form of a natural search link further down the page in 9th position.
The listing appears in the Bing Local Directory because the word “Headshots” is a direct match on part of the name, whilst, of course, the business is location in “London”. The obvious take home from this is that it helps to include target keywords in the business name and/or listing name on Qype and elsewhere.
Ok, so we established it is useful to get a listing in Qype, but is it enough to be in Qype with no further content? That much I can’t tell you just yet. The jury is still out. As part of the Headshots SEO process, I added more information, from photos to reviews, and I can only presume that these positive traits for the listing provides extra juice and benefit for the eventual outcome. Adding them certainly can’t do your Qype listing, and eventual business listings any harm.
Despite all that, I must say I was rather disappointed with the output of the imported text and listing from Qype into Bing. They had reformatted the business name, making it lower case and rather butchered other content. But as the saying goes. Never look a gift horse in the mouth.
Which brings us onto Yahoo. There is no clear information on how exactly the Jensen site ended up on their home page for the terms I targeted, but I can’t imagine that the combination of Qype, Google Local Business Center and even the SEO on the site, all played their important part in the equation of search engine optimisation that brought the site to the fore. What is clear though is that the site alone, without working in tandem with Qype and Google Local Business Center would NOT have ended up in Yahoo so quickly and readily for those terms. Call me a cynic, but that’s just my experience.
Anyhow, more interesting food for thought on my fave topic of SEO.
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I am, for want of a better word, a web developer. Practising since '96 and
focused on front and back-end work with a slant for optimisation.
I love music, art, and helping people, traits which I hope are borne out here.
Read more about me and this blog on the 
George - Planet Anarky Feb 19, 2010
Good writeup, and interesting stuff: I’ll have to try out Qype on a couple of my new sites to see if it has an effect…