OwnLocal FAQs

OwnLocal Platform Images Every featured and trending business will be accompanied by an image on the front page of the OwnLocal Platform. The purpose of these images is both aesthetic and functional: they enhance the look of the profile page as well as positively impact its SEO value. By including a variety of relevant content—including these images—we are able to optimize the page with the elements Google values most. How Images Are Selected These images are automatically generated from a pool of stock images related to the business's assigned subcategory. For this reason, you may notice that the images change when you revisit the page or switch devices. Since the images are assigned by subcategory, they are intended to be general. We happily offer the option to upload a custom photo to any Business Profile. Note: the automatically generated stock images and custom images both provide the same SEO benefits. If you would like to upload a custom photo to a Business Profile, simply reach out to [email protected].

Every business on the OwnLocal Platform is assigned a primary category and a more specific sub-category. Their primary category determines which section their Business Profile will be listed under on the Categories page. Changing the Category You can manually change a business's category by going into their categories settings. To access a business's categories settings, you'll need to log into your Business Admin Panel. If you have been administered admin credentials, you can log in to your Business Admin Panel here. Once logged in, select the “Businesses” tab at the top. Next, find the name of the business whose information you wish to add or update. You can either type the business's name into the search bar at the top, or browse the alphabetical list of results. Select the business whose information you wish to add or update. This will direct you to the business's admin homepage. Click the "Categories" tab to access their categories settings. From the categories settings page you have the ability to edit the business's primary category and sub-category. You can also add and remove secondary categories and sub-categories. To change the primary category, simply click into the box and a drop down menu will appear with all the available options. Choose which primary category most accurately reflects this business. Below are all the options for primary categories. After updating the primary category, the sub-category options will change as well. Now you can choose the most appropriate sub-category by selecting it from the drop down menu. When you have selected the right categories, click the "Update" button to save your changes. That’s it! You’ve updated the business's category. Now their Business Profile will be listed under their new category. Due to reindexing and caching, it can take up to four hours for the changes you’ve made to be reflected on their live Business Profile page.

CNAMEs If your first thought was, “C-What?”, don’t worry! Your IT guy or gal is likely going to be pretty familiar with CNAMEs and how to set them up. You’ll only need to give them our suggested configuration and they can take it from there. However, if you happen to be an army of one, we’ll be happy to help you navigate the process. A CNAME record, or Canonical Name Record, is just an alias domain name for a pre-existing website. This means that multiple domains can “point” to the same site. OwnLocal's products are hosted separately from your publication's server. For this reason, we’re asking you to create a new subdomain that will act as an alias for your OwnLocal Platform site. To do this, you’ll need to set up a few CNAME records that point to OwnLocal’s servers. So, for example, if your publication’s domain name is www.yourdomain.com, then you would be creating the CNAME record “local”. The result is the subdomain local.yourdomain.com, which has your domain name in it, but displays your OwnLocal Platform site. Why Does OwnLocal Use CNAMEs? Search engines recognize that local newspapers are authorities on their respective communities. Therefore, newspaper sites tend to rank very highly in search engine results. This means that whenever your website links to another website, you help bolster their search engine performance. We set up our OwnLocal Platform on subdomains of your website in order to leverage this advantage to benefit your local advertisers. So, How Do I Set Up CNAMEs? In order to connect the OwnLocal Platform with your own domain (local.yourdomain.com), you must create CNAME records through your domain registrar or DNS host (wherever you bought your domain) and point them to OwnLocal’s servers. OwnLocal cannot access your accounts for you, and therefore we cannot point CNAMEs on your behalf. Fortunately, it’s pretty easy. Every registrar or host will be a little different, so we recommend checking out the unique CNAME tutorial provided by your DNS host. However, generally you’ll need to: Find the appropriate page to update DNS records for your domain Add a record Select a record type (CNAME or Alias) Fill in the “Host” or “Alias” field (with local, admin.local, or widget.local) Fill in the “Value” or “Destination” field (with local.ownlocal.com, admin.ownlocal.com, widget.ownlocal.com) In most cases you will have control over when these CNAME changes go live. Under normal circumstances, we suggest setting changes to go live immediately, and then allowing up to 24 hours for changes to take effect. If CNAMEs are still not pointing correctly after that time, reach out to your Onboarding Specialist for next steps. OwnLocal’s CNAME Configuration Here is the recommended CNAME configuration that you’ll need to set up: CNAME >>> POINTS TO local >>> local.ownlocal.com admin.local >>> admin.ownlocal.com widget.local >>> widget.ownlocal.com Here is a very basic view of what a common CNAME record may look like: Name / Host / Alias Time To Live Record Type Value / Answer / Destination local 86400 CNAME local.ownlocal.com admin.local 86400 CNAME admin.ownlocal.com widget.local 86400 CNAME widget.ownlocal.com A Records An A record, or Address Record, is just a handy way of locating the IP address of a computer that hosts a certain domain. Why Does OwnLocal Use A Records? You'll need to set up an A record in order to offer brochure sites to your advertisers. Fortunately, getting them set up is going to be super simple for your office web guru. How to Set Up A Records Step 1: Subdomain Set Up Get your IT guy or gal. They’ll need to setup a subdomain off of your existing newspaper domain. 1. Log into your web hosting control panel. 2. Go to the Domains section and click on Subdomains. 3. Type in pages.YOURNEWSPAPERURL and select your newspaper’s domain to create it under. 4. For example, pages.lmtribune would be the subdomain under www.lmtribune.com Step 2: A-RECORD Set Up Keep your IT folks around for this one! They will need to point your new subdomain’s DNS A-Record to the following IP address ? 107.22.169.99 A-Record >>> POINTS TO pages.NEWSPAPERURL >>> 107.22.169.99 Important note! You only need to change the domain's A-record. Keep in mind that you don't need to change any nameservers, redirect or forward anything. You may need to wait up to 72 hours for the change to take effect.

Basic Requirements We accept varying manifest formats for liners. However, the following basic requirements must be met: The manifest must contain one or more ads, all of which must be from business customers rather than private individuals. Each ad must have HTML content, a start date, and an end date, and may have one or more image filenames. Each ad must include business data, or reference business data found elsewhere in the manifest. Each business must include a name and either phone or address data. Images Please note that we will happily include as many images as you like with each ad, but make sure their file names are referenced in the manifest. For liners, we can accept images in .jpg and .png format. File Format Similarly to display ad manifests, we recommend exporting your liner manifest as an XML. Below is an example export from a common classified software system. 2016-02-8T05:00:00Z 0 [email protected] en_US 2016-2-09T05:00:00Z 2016-03-09T04:59:59Z 645 RAMBLER 1963 American 12,860 miles, 6 cylinder, some surface rust on trunk, Arizona car, runs good! $3,800. Call Bud: 724-231-8676 ]]> James Foo FREDERICKTOWN PA 15333 US Still Confused? Don't worry! Ad order entry systems, whether well-known software or in-house solutions, vary significantly from partner to partner. For this reason, generating manifests and sending manifests has required many unique iterations over the years. If you have questions or concerns, contact our Onboarding Team. They will work with you to figure out the best manifest solution for your current system.

Step 1: Submitting Your Logo Your publication’s logo is used to brand your directory site. Important Logo Specifications Please make sure to format your file according to the following criteria to ensure optimal image quality. High Resolution PNG File Format (transparent background is highly preferred). Dimensions: Your logo will be automatically sized to fit the Origami Directory’s default dimensions. You will have a chance to review your Origami Directory before you launch. At that time, we will be happy to increase or decrease your logo size upon request. How to Submit Your Logo Please attach your logo to an email with the subject line ‘[Publication Name] Logo’ and send to your Account Manager. Step 2: Providing Your Onboarding Info OwnLocal will send you a list of data points we need to collect before we can build your directory site. This will include information like billing contacts, circulation numbers, etc. Step 3: Connecting Your Origami Directory to Your Website Now that your Origami Directory is built, it’s time to connect it to your publication’s owned and operated website domain. To do this, we’ll have you create a subdomain that “points” to OwnLocal. This requires making some simple setting adjustments with your domain registrar. This process typically takes about five to ten minutes. We suggest delegating this to your website or IT administrator. Log into your domain name registrar or DNS hosting service. Typically, your website or IT administrator will manage the credentials for this. Add the following CNAME records to your website’s domain name: CNAME CNAME Points Tolocal local.ownlocal.com widget.local widget.ownlocal.com admin.local admin.ownlocal.com Every domain registrar has a slightly different process for adding CNAME records. Below, we’ve linked step-by-step instructions for six of the most commonly used domain hosts. If your domain host is not listed below and you need help, please let us know.Most OwnLocal publisher partners use “local” as their Origami Directory subdomain. If you need to select a subdomain that is not “local,” please let us know. We will customize your CNAME setup guide accordingly. GoDaddy Bluehost HostGator 1&1 DomainName Network Solutions Step 5: Connecting to OwnLocal’s Secure Ad Server Any print advertisements you wish to have processed by The Origami Platform must be transferred to OwnLocal’s secure ad server via a file transfer method called File Transfer Protocol (FTP). FTP is a method to quickly transfer files from a local directory to a remote directory. You will be provisioned unique credentials (a username and password) that you can use to login to the OwnLocal ads server. Before you begin sending ads to OwnLocal, there are a few one-time steps you’ll need to take: FTP (file transfer protocol) We recommend using a free FTP client called FileZilla, but any client that supports FTP will work. You can download FileZilla by visiting https://filezilla-project.org/. When connecting to our FTP server (ftp.adforge.ownlocal.com), be sure to connect in active mode rather than passive mode, and make sure you’re sending your files in binary format as opposed to ascii format. Lastly, be sure to place all files in the “today” folder. Step 6: Uploading Your Test Ads Congratulations— you’re all set up and ready to start uploading ads! About the Testing Period About one week before your launch date, we’ll ask you to install the Origami widget code on a developer or staging area of your site so test ads can be viewed once you submit your first batch of print advertisements. This is meant as a practice run. We will only have you submit a small sample size of ads at this time, and you will not be charged for anything you submit during testing. We consider this testing period critical to a successful launch. The goal is to ensure that your team is uploading files correctly and that OwnLocal receiving and processing them accordingly. It’s also a great way for your team to get familiar with the ad uploading process, as this is the process you will use every time you send us your ads moving forward. How to Upload Ads When you log in to the FTP, you will be placed in a root directory, where you will see an individual folder for every publication you have access to. Make sure to upload your files to the correct publication folder. Qualifying print advertisements must be in PDF file format, and must be local business advertisements. Every qualifying print advertisement you upload will generate an Origami order. Ads can be uploaded at any time of the day, but please note the Origami Ad production deadline of 6pm CST. If you upload a print ad before this deadline, the Origami Ad will be scheduled to run the next day. If you upload a print ad after this production deadline, the Origami Ad will be scheduled to run the day following next. We recommend that you upload files on a schedule that matches your publishing schedule. For example, our daily partners upload ads daily and our weekly partners upload ads once a week the day before they go to print. Step 7: Embedding Your Widgets You’re almost there! In the final phase of the onboarding process, you will embed both of The Origami Platform widgets on your owned and operated website. The Origami Ad Widget The first widget you need to embed is the Origami Ad Widget. This is the widget that serves Origami Ads on your publication’s website. To implement the Origami Ad Widget, embed the custom code we will send you in a 300x300 placement on every page of your publication’s owned and operated website. The Origami Directory Widget The second widget you need to embed is the Origami Directory Widget. We will provide you with the Origami Directory Widget code shortly before your launch. You or your IT point person can then embed it on your publication’s owned and operated website. We recommend implementing the Origami Directory Widget shortly after launch. This allows enough time for the widget to become populated with your paying advertisers. We strongly recommend placing this widget on as many pages as possible for maximum impact for your advertisers. The Origami Directory Widget has several options for configurations, including placement size. Please visit demos.ownlocal.com/platform/widget to review these configurations. Note: Do you have a secure site? Please let us know, and we will provide alternate widget codes for your SSL website. FAQs: Do you support manifest extraction? Currently, The Origami Platform does not support manifest extraction. All advertiser information will be carefully sourced by OwnLocal’s in-house production team using our new fulfillment processes. How can my team manage The Origami Platform? Origami comes with a new set of administrative tools that empower representatives to manage their orders and gain insights into program performance. While this is not necessary for the success of the program, training can be scheduled for interested users. Do you provide reporting for Origami Ads? Yes. Reports will be accessible at any time from business profiles, and will refresh in real time with information about both the directory and the Origami ads. How are Origami Ads billed? Each Origami Ad will be billed as a single line item. The invoices will still be sent to the email we have on file.

What is a Manifest? For our purposes, a manifest is simply a group of basic business data about a given advertiser, which comes in a specific and consistent file format. Not so bad, right? Typically, every time a publisher partner sends us a PDF advertisement, they send a matching manifest entry (the group of data about that particular business) along with it. To send a manifest entry, export the business's information from the ad order entry system and upload it to OwnLocal via the same FTP you use to send PDF ads. Why Do We Use Manifests? As active authorities on your community, you have the most accurate and up-to-date information about the businesses who advertise with you. In fact, if one of your advertisers changes their business location or phone number, you're probably going to know about it before Google does. That’s why we like to use the information you collect about your customers as our first resource for business data. The data you provide in an advertiser's manifest is used to fill out their Business Profile on the OwnLocal Platform. If you are unable to provide manifests or complete manifest information, not to worry! We have alternate methods of data collection. Manifest Guidelines There are two different types of manifests that OwnLocal accepts: display ad manifests and liner manifests. They have slightly different specifications and requirements. For more detailed information on each, please see the following articles: Liner Manifest Guidelines Display Ad Manifest Guidelines During your onboarding process, we will need you to generate a sample manifest file containing live business information from a minimum of three of your display advertisers. Note: If you plan to send us your liner/classified ads, you will need to export and send a sample manifest containing multiple live entries from your classified ad software. We ask for live business data because it allows us anticipate real life patterns that occur in your exports. The sooner you can send us this sample, the better! Once you’ve created these sample manifest files, send them to your OwnLocal contact and we will get to work on writing a custom "parser" for your manifests. This "parser" is a computer program that will know how to read and identify your business data. Since we are writing a special parser just for you, it is imperative that you do not change the format of your manifests in any way after testing or we won't able to correctly parse your manifest. If you need to make a change to your manifest at any time, let [email protected] know, and we can make arrangements to update your custom parser. Still Confused? Don't worry! Ad order entry systems, whether well-known software or in-house solutions, vary significantly from partner to partner. For this reason, generating manifests and sending manifests has required many unique iterations over the years. If you have questions or concerns, please contact our Onboarding Team. They will work with you to figure out the best manifest solution for your current system.

Step 1: Submitting Your Logo Your publication’s logo is used to brand your directory site. Important Logo Specifications Please make sure to format your file according to the following criteria to ensure optimal image quality. High Resolution PNG File Format (transparent background is highly preferred). Dimensions: Your logo will be automatically sized to fit the Origami Directory’s default dimensions. You will have a chance to review your Origami Directory before you launch. At that time, we will be happy to increase or decrease your logo size upon request. How to Submit Your Logo Please attach your logo to an email with the subject line ‘[Publication Name] Logo’ and send to your Account Manager. Step 2: Providing Your Onboarding Info OwnLocal will send you a list of data points we need to collect before we can build your directory site. This will include information like billing contacts, circulation numbers, etc. Step 3: Connecting Your Origami Directory to Your Website Now that your Origami Directory is built, it’s time to connect it to your publication’s owned and operated website domain. To do this, we’ll have you create a subdomain that “points” to OwnLocal. This requires making some simple setting adjustments with your domain registrar. This process typically takes about five to ten minutes. We suggest delegating this to your website or IT administrator. Log into your domain name registrar or DNS hosting service. Typically, your website or IT administrator will manage the credentials for this. Add the following CNAME records to your website’s domain name: CNAME CNAME Points To local local.ownlocal.com widget.local widget.ownlocal.com admin.local admin.ownlocal.com Most OwnLocal publisher partners use “local” as their Origami Directory subdomain. If you need to select a subdomain that is not “local,” please let us know. We will customize your CNAME setup guide accordingly. Every domain registrar has a slightly different process for adding CNAME records. Below, we’ve linked step-by-step instructions for six of the most commonly used domain hosts. If your domain host is not listed below and you need help, please let us know. GoDaddy Bluehost HostGator 1&1 DomainName Network Solutions Step 5: Connecting to OwnLocal’s Secure Ad Server Any print advertisements you wish to have processed by The Origami Platform must be transferred to OwnLocal’s secure ad server via a file transfer method called File Transfer Protocol (FTP). FTP is a method to quickly transfer files from a local directory to a remote directory. You will be provisioned unique credentials (a username and password) that you can use to login to the OwnLocal ads server. Before you begin sending ads to OwnLocal, there are a few one-time steps you’ll need to take: FTP (file transfer protocol) We recommend using a free FTP client called FileZilla, but any client that supports FTP will work. You can download FileZilla by visiting https://filezilla-project.org/. When connecting to our FTP server (ftp.adforge.ownlocal.com), be sure to connect in active mode rather than passive mode, and make sure you’re sending your files in binary format as opposed to ascii format. Lastly, be sure to place all files in the “today” folder. Step 6: Uploading Your Test Ads Congratulations— you’re all set up and ready to start uploading ads! About the Testing Period About one week before your launch date, we’ll ask you to install the Origami widget code on a developer or staging area of your site so test ads can be viewed once you submit your first batch of print advertisements. This is meant as a practice run. We will only have you submit a small sample size of ads at this time, and you will not be charged for anything you submit during testing. We consider this testing period critical to a successful launch. The goal is to ensure that your team is uploading files correctly and that OwnLocal receiving and processing them accordingly. It’s also a great way for your team to get familiar with the ad uploading process, as this is the process you will use every time you send us your ads moving forward. How to Upload Ads When you log in to the SFTP, you will be placed in a root directory, where you will see an individual folder for every publication you have access to. Make sure to upload your files to the correct publication folder. Qualifying print advertisements must be in PDF file format, and must be local business advertisements. Every qualifying print advertisement you upload will generate an Origami order. Ads can be uploaded at any time of the day, but please note the Origami Ad production deadline of 6pm CST. If you upload a print ad before this deadline, the Origami Ad will be scheduled to run the next day. If you upload a print ad after this production deadline, the Origami Ad will be scheduled to run the day following next. We recommend that you upload files on a schedule that matches your publishing schedule. For example, our daily partners upload ads daily and our weekly partners upload ads once a week the day before they go to print. Step 7: Embedding Your Widgets You’re almost there! In the final phase of the onboarding process, you will embed both of The Origami Platform widgets on your owned and operated website. The Origami Ad Widget The first widget you need to embed is the Origami Ad Widget. This is the widget that serves Origami Ads on your publication’s website. To implement the Origami Ad Widget, embed the custom code we will send you in a 300x300 placement on every page of your publication’s owned and operated website. The Origami Directory Widget The second widget you need to embed is the Origami Directory Widget. We will provide you with the Origami Directory Widget code shortly before your launch. You or your IT point person can then embed it on your publication’s owned and operated website. We recommend implementing the Origami Directory Widget shortly after launch. This allows enough time for the widget to become populated with your paying advertisers. We strongly recommend placing this widget on as many pages as possible for maximum impact for your advertisers. The Origami Directory Widget has several options for configurations, including placement size. Please visit demos.ownlocal.com/platform/widget to review these configurations. Note: Do you have a secure site? Please let us know, and we will provide alternate widget codes for your SSL website. FAQ's Do you support manifest extraction? Currently, The Origami Platform does not support manifest extraction. All advertiser information will be carefully sourced by OwnLocal’s in-house production team using our new fulfillment processes. How can my team manage The Origami Platform? Origami comes with a new set of administrative tools that empower representatives to manage their orders and gain insights into program performance. While this is not necessary for the success of the program, training can be scheduled for interested users. Do you provide reporting for Origami Ads? Yes. Reports will be accessible at any time from business profiles, and will refresh in real time with information about both the directory and the Origami ads. How are Origami Ads billed? Each Origami Ad will be billed as a single line item. The invoices will still be sent to the email we have on file.

OwnLocal receives all of your ad files and manifest files via FTP. Your tech folks will likely be very familiar with how to work with FTP, and depending on your operation's current technical capabilities, they may even be able to automate this process. However, many of our partners also opt to carry out uploads manually. This can be done using: FTP via Command Line An FTP Client The simplest way for most users to use an FTP is to download an FTP client. An FTP client is just an interface for sending files to another computer or server. There are a number of FTP solutions, but we're big fans of Filezilla because it's super easy to use and completely free. You can download their FTP client here. Once you've downloaded your preferred FTP client, sending files just takes a few simple steps: Open your FTP Client Enter our FTP Server Location: ftp.adforge.ownlocal.com Enter your FTP Username and Password 4. Upload ads to the "Today" folder 5. You're done! If you don't know your FTP credentials, please reach out to [email protected]. Or, if you are still in the onboarding process, reach out to your Onboarding contact. Upload Guidelines Please submit manifests in a consistent style and in the same file format every time. If you are using manifests for display ads, you must submit a manifest entry in association with every PDF (unless you have already made unique arrangements). Only PDFs can be accepted for display ad images. Other file formats will not be processed. You must upload manifest files before or at the same time as their associated PDF creatives (unless you have received special directions indicating otherwise). Display and liner ads can be uploaded at the same time in the same feed or separately. Either way, all liner content must be submitted within a “liners” subdirectory in order to be correctly identified. For manual purposes, this can be as simple as putting a “liners” folder inside of the main folder you upload. For liners, please send us an XML manifest and any accompanying images. For liner/classified ads we can accept .jpg and .png images. All files should be placed in the "today" folder regardless of their run dates. Please ignore all dated folders. They exist for legacy purposes only. FTP Tips Remember, when connecting to our FTP server, be sure to connect in active mode rather than passive mode, and make sure you’re sending your files in binary format as opposed to ascii format. As noted, be sure to place files in the “today” folder only, and don't surprised if they disappear almost immediately. This means they have been swept out for processing.

A Business Profile is automatically generated for every advertiser listed on the OwnLocal Platform. This profile features important information about the business, such as: Business Address Contact Information Website Hours Phone number and Fax About or Business Description Social Media links Business Category Helpful Links How to Update Information on a Business Profile You can easily edit the information listed on any of your advertisers' Business Profiles. To update information for a particular business, simply access their profile settings using the instructions below. To access a business's profile settings, you'll need to log into your Business Admin Panel. If you have been administered admin credentials, you can log in to your Business Admin Panel here. Once logged in, select the “Businesses” tab at the top. Next, find the name of the business whose information you wish to add or update. You can either type the business's name into the search bar at the top, or browse the alphabetical list of results. Select the business whose information you wish to add or update. This will direct you to the business's admin homepage. Click the "Profile" tab to access their profile settings, where you can make the proper edits. Once in the business's profile settings, you will see editable fields for all of their basic business information—including business name, contact name, contact email, phone number, address, and map location coordinates. You have the ability to enter information into any of these fields. Here are a few important notes about each field: Business Name field: This where you can enter the name of the business exactly as you would like it to appear on the front end of their Business Profile. Contact Information fields: This is where you can enter the name of the business owner and their preferred email address. This way, when a customer or prospect visits this advertiser's Business Profile, they will be able to email the business owner directly. Phone and Fax fields: When entering these numbers, do NOT include parentheses or dashes. For example, enter 1234567890 rather than (123) - 456-7890. Address fields: The first address field is where you can enter or edit the business' street address. The second address field is where you can enter a unit or suite number—if applicable. Latitude and Longitude fields: These are the coordinates used to pin the business on the OwnLocal Platform map. For more information about how these coordinates are generated and how to update them, please see: How to Move a Map Pin on a Business Profile. Once you have made all your desired edits, click the "Update" button at the bottom of the page to save your changes. Failure to click "Update" will result in unsaved changes. Editing Profiles Via Reports Tool Users are also able to request edits straight from the reporting page, which is accessed by typing "/report" to the end of any business listing's profile. By selecting the Edit button on the top right corner, you will be able to edit Basic Details, Location, and Contact Information, and Social Media links. These updates are then sent over to the support team, and verified before going live. That’s it! You’ve taken all the necessary steps to update the information on your advertiser's Business Profile. Due to reindexing and caching, it can take up to four hours for the changes you’ve made to be reflected on their live Business Profile. page.

If you were provided with OwnLocal administrative access, you can log in to our two administrative panels at any time. OwnLocal has two admin panels: the Ads Admin Panel and the Business Admin Panel. The Ads Admin Panel The Ads Admin Panel is for administrative activities pertaining to advertisements that have been processed through OwnLocal. You can use it to make edits to an ad or to edit the business information associated with an ad. You can also use it to pull reports about ad history or to upload a missed ad. The Business Admin Panel The Business Admin Panel is for administrative activities pertaining to your advertisers' OwnLocal Platform listings. You can use it to make edits to Business Profiles, to pull business performance statistics, and to manage claimed businesses. How to Log In To log in to either of our admin panels, you will need the publisher admin credentials that were either provisioned for you directly by OwnLocal or provided to you by your publication. These credentials should be the same for both admin panels. To get into the Ads Admin Panel, simply go here and type in your email address and password. To get into your Business Admin Panel, go here and type in the same credentials. Once logged in, you will see a list of all publications to which you currently have access. Just select the publication you want to work within, and you will be directed to their unique administrative panel. That’s it! You’ve taken all the necessary steps to log in to your administrative panels. Once logged in, you can view all the pertinent information for any Business Profile associated with your account.

Google Analytics provides detailed reporting of your website’s traffic and performance. A Google Analytics code can also be applied to your OwnLocal Platform, so you can get a clear idea of who has been visiting it, how they are engaging with the content, and other performance metrics. First, you will need to generate a unique Google Analytics tracking code for your publication’s website. To create your code, follow these step-by-step instructions provided by Google. Once you’ve generated your tracking code, shoot a quick email over to [email protected] with your publication’s name and your code. Let us know you’d like us to implement your code, and we’ll get it done. That’s it! You’ve taken all the necessary steps to add Google Analytics to your platform. Due to reindexing and caching, it can take up to four hours for the changes you’ve made to be reflected on your OwnLocal Platform.

Every business is automatically pinned onto the OwnLocal Platform map based on the address listed on their Business Profile. The coordinates of this address are extracted and used to inform the location of the pin. It is important to note that these pins do not contribute to or impact SEO value in any way. Still, we want every pin to accurately reflect the business's geographical location. To change the location of a business's pin, you simply need to update the coordinates listed in their profile settings. Follow the instructions below. To access a business' profile settings, you'll need to log into your Business Admin Panel. If you have been administered admin credentials, you can log in to your Business Admin Panel here. Once logged in, select the “Businesses” tab at the top. Next, find and select the name of the business whose map pin you wish to move. You can either type the business's name into the search bar at the top, or browse the alphabetical list of results. This will direct you to the business's admin homepage. Click the "Profile" tab to access their profile settings, where you can make the proper edits. There are a number of ways to find out the exact coordinates of a business. One of the easiest ways is to type in the business's address here. Enter your desired Latitude and Longitude coordinates. Then, click the “Update” button at the bottom of the page to save your changes. That’s it! You’ve taken all the necessary steps to update a pin location. Now the map on the front end of the Business Profile will be accurate. Due to reindexing and caching, it can take up to four hours for the changes you’ve made to be reflected on their live Business Profile page.

Every featured and trending Business Profile will be accompanied by an image on the front page of the OwnLocal Platform. While we will automatically populate these images for you, you have the ability to upload custom images to any of your advertiser’s profiles. If you have admin access to our Business Admin Panel you can make these updates yourself using the simple instructions below. If you don’t have admin access, no worries! Just jump to the bottom of this article for further instructions. If you are curious about the value of these images or how they are generated, please check out this article: All About Business Profile Images. How to Upload a Custom Business Profile Image Sign in to your Business Admin Panel. Select the relevant publication. Select the “Businesses” tab at the top. Next, find the name of the business whose information you wish to add or update. You can either type the business's name into the search bar at the top, or browse the alphabetical list of results. Select the business whose profile image you wish to customize. This will direct you to the business's admin homepage. Click the "Profile" tab to access their profile settings, where you can make the proper edits. From the profile settings page, select the “Photos” tab. Click “Choose File.” A file search will pop up on your computer. Find and select the file you wish to upload. Finally, click “Upload Image”. Now you should see a page like this: As shown, you can upload a photo or business logo as long as it is in an acceptable file format such as .png or .jpg. You have the option to delete an image at any time. That’s it! You’ve taken all the necessary steps to update a Business Profile image. The front end of the Business Profile should now display the newly uploaded photo. Note: Due to re-indexing and caching, it may take up to a few hours for changes made in admin panel to be reflected on the front end of the Business Profile. Fortunately, most profile changes will appear almost immediately. Note: Any custom images you add will completely replace the stock images we generate. Therefore, no stock images will continue to display, only the custom images you've uploaded.

Why Does OwnLocal Require a Testing Phase? The testing phase is the last major step in the OwnLocal onboarding process. Testing serves as a “soft launch” and ensures that your team is confident in correctly uploading files via FTP and that we are optimally processing everything you send. We cannot overemphasize that taking advantage of this testing period is absolutely critical to a successful launch. Plus, you will be credited for everything you submit during your testing period, so there is no reason not to make the most of it! Guidelines For Testing: Please submit test ads and manifests throughout your entire testing period (usually a week) in the same file format and manner you intend to upload them post-launch. For example, if you plan to use an automatic feed, please test using an automatic feed rather than manually. If you plan to export your manifest as an XML, please do not test in any other format. Should you upload files in a different manner after the testing period, we may have to troubleshoot post-launch (and nobody wants that). If you are using manifests for display ads, you must submit a manifest entry in association with every PDF (unless you have already made unique arrangements). Only PDFs can be accepted for display ad images. Other file formats will not be processed. You must upload manifest files before or at the same time as their associated PDF creatives (unless you have received special directions indicating otherwise). Display and liner ads can be uploaded at the same time in the same feed or separately. Either way, all liner content must be submitted within a “liners” subdirectory in order to be correctly identified. For manual purposes, this can be as simple as putting a “liners” folder inside of the main folder you upload. If you intend to upload liner ads, you will also need to submit them for testing. For liners, please send us an XML manifest and any accompanying images. For liner/classified ads we accept .jpg and .png images only. All files should be placed in the "today" folder regardless of their run dates. Please ignore all dated folders. They exist for legacy purposes only. How to Submit Test Files Test files (and all ad files thereafter) should be sent via FTP to our FTP server. Information about our FTP location can be found below. We recommend using FileZilla as your FTP client because it's free and easy to use, however, there are many great alternatives. If your team is already using another FTP client, stick with it! Remember, when connecting to our FTP server, be sure to connect in active mode rather than passive mode, and make sure you’re sending your files in binary format as opposed to ascii format. As noted, be sure to place files in the “today” folder only, and don't be concerned if they disappear almost immediately. This means they have been swept out for processing. FTP Location and Credentials This is our FTP location: ftp.adforge.ownlocal.com Your FTP username and password will be sent to you during the onboarding process. If you need to be reminded of your FTP username and password post-launch, feel free to email [email protected]

Manifest Guidelines The following are our guidelines for the business information and file format for Display Ad manifests. Keep in mind that the use of a manifest is preferred, but not absolutely required. What to Include in a Manifest Here are the business data points that we are looking for in your manifest file. Note that only three pieces of information are required (marked with *). The others are useful and appreciated, but not necessary. Business Name* Custom ID (frequently an account #)* PDF Filename (frequently the ad #)* Business Phone 1 Business Phone 2 Business Address Line 1 Business Address Line 2 Business City Business State Business Zip Business Website Products Services Hours of Operation Business Contact Name Business Contact Phone Business Contact Email Ad-Rep Contact Name Ad-Rep Contact Phone Ad-Rep Contact Email Start Date End Date If your data contains additional or misleading information, we can purposefully ignore attributes (for example if the exported address is the billing address, not the business address). Just be sure to let us know when providing your sample manifest. File Format The recommended format is an XML file with the following structure (see below), however we are able to parse manifests in .txt, .csv, and .tsv formats as well, and are happy to work with publications on an individual basis to meet their needs. Here is an XML file with our suggested structure: 10749632-01 SYNERGY HOMECARE -SD JUSTIN ALESHIRE 760-203-5688 1225725 6/1/2013 5/31/2014 3205 - 4TH AVE. #3205 ROSE GRIFFEN SAN DIEGO CA 92103 WWW.SYNERGYHOMECARE.COM [email protected] PAUL HUDSON 619-293-1245 [email protected] Important Rules for XMLs: For XMLs to work, they need the following: Declaration: This looks like and tells the computer the file is an XML file. Root Tags: These signify the beginning and the end of the collection of XML elements. In the example below, the root tag is simply called , although it can be any word (like ) The last line of the file should always be the closing root tag. Proper Nesting/Ordering: Inside the root tags, you can have any number of nested elements with sub-elements. You just have to make sure every tag that is opened is closed (using a , the / is very important here). Elements are NOT required to be spaced in a certain way, but the order of the tags and their respective closing tags is essential to getting correct results. Still Confused? Don't worry! Ad order entry systems, whether well-known software or in-house solutions, vary significantly from partner to partner. For this reason, generating manifests and sending manifests has required many unique iterations over the years. If you have questions or concerns, contact our Onboarding Team. They will work with you to figure out the best manifest solution for your current system.

Oftentimes a client will email in and ask to update the website field on their OwnLocal Platform profile page. This is an easy update that only takes a few minutes. Simply follow the instructions below. To access a business's profile settings, you'll need to log into your Business Admin Panel. If you have been administered admin credentials, you can log in to your Business Admin Panel here. Once logged in, select the “Businesses” tab at the top. Next, find the name of the business whose information you wish to add or update. You can either type the business's name into the search bar at the top, or browse the alphabetical list of results. Select the business whose information you wish to add or update. This will direct you to the business's admin homepage. Click the "Profile" tab to access their profile settings, where you can make the proper edits. Once in their profile settings, you will see the all their editable business information fields, as pictured below. You will be able to edit any of these fields to update their information. The website field is located at the bottom of the page. Facebook links and other social media links cannot be used in the website field. However, they can be used in the social media links tab. Enter the updated website link into the website field. When you have finished your edits, click the "Update" button at the bottom of the page. That’s it! You’ve taken all the necessary steps to update the website listed on your advertiser's Business Profile. Now, the business will get more traffic to the accurate website. Due to reindexing and caching, it can take up to four hours for the changes you’ve made to be reflected on their live Business Profile page.

Every time a business runs an ad, our software has the opportunity to augment their Business Profile with new, useful content. This includes information like hours of operation. However, you can also add or update this information manually by going into the business's profile settings. Simply follow the instructions below. To access a business's profile settings, you'll need to log into your Business Admin Panel. If you have been administered admin credentials, you can log in to your Business Admin Panel here. Once logged in, select the “Businesses” tab at the top. Next, find the name of the business whose information you wish to add or update. You can either type the business's name into the search bar at the top, or browse the alphabetical list of results. Select the business whose information you wish to add or update. This will direct you to the business's admin homepage. Click the "Profile" tab to access their profile settings, where you can make the proper edits. Once in the profile settings, click on the tab labeled “Hours”. You can now enter the hours of operation for each day of the week (Ex. 9:00 AM, 5:00 PM). It is important to include AM or PM in the time you wish to enter. You can also click on the 24 Hour, Closed, or Appointment Only box to indicate special hours for a given day of the week. When you have finished your edits, click the "Update" button at the bottom of the page. That’s it! You’ve updated the business's hours of operation. Now their potential customers will have accurate and up-to-date information about when they're open and closed. Due to reindexing and caching, it can take up to four hours for the changes you’ve made to be reflected on their live Business Profile page.