Entries tagged as ‘Product’
Something that CitySquares‘ product team works very hard at is a little something called SEO (Search Engine Optimization). It’s very important that our advertisers get maximum visibility online through their CitySquares profile. The more detailed information we have about particular businesses, the easier it is for them to get higher results in search engines like Google or Yahoo!. You see, search engines, especially Google, love context. They like content, but they love context, and they’re only getting smarter about it. CitySquares advertisers are given the ability to add content like general descriptions, services/products offered, hours of operation, photos and even videos. Users of the website can also add reviews. This combination gives the business’ profile a lot more context.
As of just a few days ago we now allow businesses to add even more detailed information about their establishments with a new feature called amenities. Businesses now have the ability to tell users even more about their business including such details as parking type, smoking/non-smoking, WiFi, kid friendly, take out, delivery, attire, price, and payment types accepted just to name a few. By allowing businesses to include this deeply specific information it helps users to find the important information they need about the business as well as allowing search engines to get more relevant content about a business and hence, help them rank higher too. We hope you enjoy this new information!
If you have any thoughts or feedback about new amenities you may like to see please feel free to email me. I am always here with an open ear!
-Bob
The snapshot is just one example of how amenities display on the site.
Categories: Product
Tagged: amenities, dough east boston, Product, seo
We’ve been hard at work on some home page updates for the past week and rolled them out to CitySquares.com last night. Here’s a rundown of the additions:
Down the right side of each city and neighborhood homepages we’ve got two new sections: “Featured Deals” and “Featured Reviews”
- “Featured Deals” highlights deals and coupons currently being offered by businesses. Watch this section to get some great discounts on local businesses in your area.
- “Featured Reviews” highlights recently posted business reviews in your area. Read what others are saying, or post your own review!
In addition to the sidebar changes we’ve reworked the entire business listing section.
- “Browse By Category” allows you to jump directly to a specific category right from the home page.
- “Browse By Popular Tags” lets you search for the most popular tags in your area.
- You’ll also see a featured video from our video library of local businesses. And keep your eyes peeled for even more videos coming to the site shortly.
Even better, every one of these features is location specific. Love the Back Bay? Every Deal, Review, Tag, and Category featured on the Back Bay home page is tailored specifically to that area. Prefer Harvard Square? No problem, with our true hyper-local focus, you’ll get only the best local business information.
We’re not sitting back and relaxing yet though, we’ve got a number of features planned for the coming weeks to improve the user experience and make it even easier to find what you’re looking for. We’ll be adding amenities information for restaurants, so you can know ahead of time what type of payment they accept, if they take reservations, what type of cuisine they offer, and what the ambiance is like.
Also upcoming on the home page is a section we like to call “What’s Hot.” This will give you a quick look at the top rated businesses in a number of popular categories for your location.
Something else in the wings, and a bit of a pilot test, is a new way to contact businesses directly and search for what you need. Enter your phone number and what you’re looking for, businesses matching your search are automatically contacted to match your needs, and you are automatically and anonymously connected when a match is found. Your phone number remains private, you get exactly what you need, and save time calling them all yourself.
Well that’s all we’ve got for this week. As always, feedback and ideas are welcome, leave a comment or send an email. Check back next week for the latest updates, and keep checking the site for new features!
-Michael
Categories: Product
Tagged: Coupons, Deals, Features, Product, Reviews, Search
Bob, Justin and Michael (the three amigos making up our Product Team) have worked their tails off to bring you a very cool new feature that we’re very proud of. This feature is also brought to you in part by Maponics, a new CitySquares content partner.
In a nutshell, this new Neighborhood Map feature allows you to navigate through the Boston area using only a map. You can hop around the site from neighborhood to neighborhood using just a map! And now we show those neighborhood boundaries! You can see for yourself on CitySquares.com. Just click the “Navigate by Map” button.
This new Neighborhood Map feature is just our first release too. We’ve got some very clever ideas in the works, including more neighborhood boundaries and more user friendly features. It won’t be long now that we’ll be able to guess where you are too. So if you’re at, say, Angora Cafe in Kenmore Square, we’d like to be able to automatically know that and take you right to Kenmore Square on CitySquares. Ya know? OK, I tend to get a little excited about this stuff. More on that later though.
So we just wanted to announce this cool new feature to you all. Oh, and hey, we’re open to your suggestions and feedback too. Just shoot an email to Bob!
If you’re interested, please click here for the official press release on the CitySquares/Maponics partnership.
– Ben
Categories: Press · Product
Tagged: angora cafe, Boston, kenmore square, maponics, maps, neighborhood, Product
Ben Saren
Amber Killingsworth
Justin Leider
Michael LeBarron
bleland
kimmyh
Phillip
caitsully
juliecaroline
chehadej
