Citysearch, a directory of local stores and services, today announced a strategic partnership and investment in OrangeSoda, an online search marketing service, to offer customers a more complete local online advertising service called CityGrid Complete.
Citysearch, a property of web giant IAC, recently launched CityGrid, a network of local business listings and advertising available through a set of APIs that can be used on websites or mobile devices. The network includes 15 million local business and 500 thousand paying advertisers reaching 140 million unique visitors, according to the company’s announcement.
The new CityGrid Complete takes the service to the next level by offering local businesses the ability to develop pay-per-click advertising, drive search engine optimization from major search engines, and access to an analytics dashboard for tracking.
Popular local listings site Yelp offers a similar set of APIs for enhancing websites and mobile devices though it hasn’t called on a special marketing firm to help its customers with search engine optimization marketing. MerchantCircle also has a similar network of nearly 15 million local businesses. Its business model is slightly different as it creates profiles for any business it can find and then gives them the option to pay to control it. The company signed its one millionth customer in January.
June 5th: The AI Audit in NYC
Join us next week in NYC to engage with top executive leaders, delving into strategies for auditing AI models to ensure fairness, optimal performance, and ethical compliance across diverse organizations. Secure your attendance for this exclusive invite-only event.
Citysearch also announced it has invested an undisclosed amount into OrangeSoda. OrangeSoda, launched in 2006, specializes in search engine optimization for small businesses and large companies local outlets, including Remax and Jiffy Lube. In 2008, the company secured a first round of funding for $5 million.
