ay 1 of SMX East has drawn to a close. This is my first time attending the show, and I was pretty surprised to see so many new faces — this conference will prove should be great for networking and meeting new people in the Internet marketing business. I only had the opportunity to sit through one and a half sessions, but I was impressed with the information I heard. Below are the biggest takeaways from the Mobile Apps and Local Search panels.

Mobile Search Apps and Opportunities

Everyone did a nice job in this session but I thought that Rachel Pasqua, the Director of Mobile Strategy for iCrossing, shared some especially interesting information about iPhone apps:

• The average shelf life of a free iPhone app is 30 days
• The average cost to build an iPhone app is $50-150k

Why bother with iPhone apps if their shelf life is so short and they’re so costly to build? Well, the iPhone goes everywhere with the user, serving as a phone, calculator, browser, map, and more. Users are becoming increasingly dependent on their device to run their everyday lives. Thus, marketing through the iPhone is a smart move.

Rachel’s downloaded about 160 apps and has deleted most of them for being sucky. The apps she’s deleted have a lot in common, such as:

• They lacked essential functionality needed in the mobile context
• They were built to show off iPhone functionality and not the brand
• There was no actionable connection to the brand

The apps she does use offer the following:

• Easier access to useful content than even a mobile website (KISS)
• Useful and location-specific functionality that brings the user back again and again
• A drive/desire to purchase/patronize their stores and services

Things to keep in mind when developing an iPhone app:

• Don’t think you need an app because your competitor has one — make sure you have a smartphone audience (examine your demographic and site analytics) to see if it’s a good idea to build an app.
• Put user experience and strategy first and technology last
• Learn from the apps you yourself enjoy (What do these apps do well? What do they have in common?)

For a more comprehensive coverage of the Mobile Search Apps session, check out Outspoken Media’s blog coverage. Great job to the other speakers on the panel as well (Michael Martin, Scott Dunlap and Matt Siltala).

Ranking Tactics for Local Search
This panel had a whopping 5 speakers and I only sat through about half of them before I had to duck out to attend an off-site meeting. Nonetheless, I’ll share what I felt were the most interesting nougat-y nuggets of information (for thorough coverage of the local search ranking tactics session, head over to Outspoken Media).

Local search ranking factors:

• Having a verified local business listing
• Off-page/off-listing criteria
• Customer reviews
• Traditional on-page criteria

Develop your local mindset:

• Local is different than traditional SEO
• Local is about optimizing locations rather than websites
• Keep the name, address and phone number consistent (and don’t use tracking phone numbers)
• Don’t try to stuff keywords in your business name

How Google scores your website for local rankings:

• Inbound links from documents that mention the business with full/partial name and/or address
• Inbound links with the business name in the anchor text
• Busines name in title tag
• All or part of the business name in the domain name

That’s all I had for local search. Tune in tomorrow for some more conference coverage!