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Category: Google-Places

Google+ Local Takes Over Google Places Neighborhood


Tuesday June 12, 2012

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google plus

Keeping up with Google Places was almost  considered a full time job. On May 30, 2012, GOOGLE announced that Google Places will now be integrated with Google+ and have a new name Google + Local. I don’t know about you, but I am exhausted.

The Google announcement was published on what they call their Google and Your Business Blog. This article was posted by Jen Fitzpatrick, VP Engineering. I don’t know Ms. Fitzpatrick, but I am pretty sure she is very proud of Google’s latest update; however, I feel she may not have any idea what is involved with running a small business that has come to depend upon Google for generating local business.

What I am going to do is provide you with is a list of good articles that discuss this news in pretty straightforward language.  As Greg Sterling, Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land warned:

“Business owners will probably have a somewhat more difficult transition than consumers, as they’re compelled now to pay attention to Google+ — in a big way. They now ignore Google+ at their own peril.”

 

 

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The Allianz MX450 Mechanical Street SweeperImage via Wikipedia

The street sweeper just drove through your GOOGLE Place page. And it might have been swept clean of reviews. Go ahead…mosey over to your GOOGLE Place page. You will notice a few changes. The most important visible change is, according to GOOGLE:

“Based on careful thought about the future direction of Place pages, and feedback we’ve heard over the past few months, review snippets from other web sources have now been removed from Place pages. Rating and review counts reflect only those that’ve been written by fellow Google users, and as part of our continued commitment to helping you find what you want on the web, we’re continuing to provide links to other review sites so you can get a comprehensive view of locations across the globe.”

Ok, here is what GOOGLE is saying: Let’s say that you own a country inn and you have a GOOGLE Place Page. Up until July 21, 2011, the number of reviews displayed to the right of your GOOGLE Place Page result on the search engine results page would have been the sum total of all reviews:  Google users + Trip Advisor + Bed and Breakfast + Yahoo users.  Now the number of reviews displayed will be the total of GOOGLE users, and if NO GOOGLE users have reviewed your property then it will just display the words Place Page. Now you really need to take the time to reach out to your customers, clients, guests, shoppers. If they are GOOGLE users encourage them to write a review. And should they write a review (good or bad) respond to the review.

Like I said at the beginning of this post…the street sweeper went down your GOOGLE Place and if you are a business owner you might want to make sure the street sweeper didn’t change the look of your property too much.  You know what I mean.  Think back to where ever you have physically lived before. Did the street sweeper come by once a week, maybe every month? Remember the street signs that would say “No Parking 9:00AM-Noon TUESDAY STREET CLEANING”?  Did you ever forget to move your car?

The GOOGLE Places update that took place last Thursday happened quickly and without warning. It might have been nice to know the street sweeper was coming.  What do you think?

 

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Were you ever in a school play, pageant, band, or orchestra? It could have been grammar school, middle school, college, Summer Stock, regional community theatre, or Broadway…do you remember the “director” calling out: “Places, everyone!”  In grammar school it was the Benedictine (O.S.B.) nuns who tried to control me and in high school it was Mr. Van Vleck who taught drama.  I am pretty sure I annoyed him.

Today I saw a Tweet that said something like this: “Google Places just got better!” I was intrigued and I thought I need to write a post about whatever is new at GOOGLE Places, because I keep trying to stress to our clients the importance of GOOGLE Places.  Suddenly, I thought maybe I can get everyone’s attention by calling out “Places, Everyone!” GOOGLE Places, that is.

This is what is new with GOOGLE Places.

‘Starting today [June 13, 2011], Google Maps search results in the U.S. and Great Britain will include some of the phrases which are most frequently used to describe those places. These phrases come from sources all across the web, such as reviews, web pages and other online references, and they can help people quickly identify the characteristics that make a particular place unique. It’s like an opportunity to ask the business owner or its patrons “What’s good here?” or “What do most people get here?” ‘

I also learned that if you want to stay on top of all things about GOOGLE Places, then you can:

  1. Subscribe to the GOOGLE Places Blog
  2. Follow GOOGLE Places on Twitter @GooglePlaces
  3. And if you have even more free time you can review GOOGLES’ Blog Directory and subscribe to other GOOGLE Blogs.

Have you claimed your GOOGLE place? If so, do you update it regularly to keep it interesting?

google places

 

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If you have a business website it is probably safe to assume that on occasion you might feel overwhelmned by GOOGLE. “How do I get my site to be #1 on the search engine results page (SERP)?” “How can I move up on GOOGLE Places?” “How do I deal with negative reviews that appear on the web?” In the past we have written a few posts about reviews and guest (user) experience. We have tried to give you our best business advice along with our best on-line marketing advice.

Are you wondering where I am going with this? Here’s the deal. On November 28, 2010, I saw a New York Times tweet that said: A Bully Finds a Pulpit on the Web. I couldn’t resist clicking over to the story and after reading this shocking article I then forwarded it to Dick and Dennis. On Monday morning my brother-in-law sent me a link to the article, he too was shocked. I kept wondering what if anything can be done about an on-line merchant that is so bold and conniving. Unconscionable is really the best word to describe this merchant.

Now comes the good news. GOOGLE decided to get involved.  I don’t want to speak for GOOGLE, click here and you can read their post about their algorithmic solution. It is fascinating and gives me hope that GOOGLE is really trying to provide a good service. As they said:

“We can’t say for sure that no one will ever find a loophole in our ranking algorithms in the future. We know that people will keep trying: attempts to game Google’s ranking, like the ones mentioned in the article, go on 24 hours a day, every single day.” 

I would like to thank the New York Times for running the article about the merchant, Vitaly Borker, and I would like to hear what you think about this news. Leave a comment, won’t you?

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Have you claimed your GOOGLE Place Page yet?  Remember when I talked about GOOGLE Local becoming GOOGLE Places? In September I wrote about how GOOGLE Places was upgraded to a TWO-WAY STREET.  Webconsuls subscribes to a number of SEO/SMO on-line newsletters and also makes SMO and SEO News Feeds available for our site users. One of our favorite newsletters is Planet Ocean’s Search Engine News and we read with interest their current article “Must Do List for November: Create, Claim, Improve Your Google Places Page.”  Here is a bit of what they have to say:

“Google has rolled out Place Search which is a whole new way of displaying search results. This combines the natural and the local search algorithms and completely eliminates the traditional 7 pack and integrating it within the top 7 results. This is huge! The new algorithm relies heavily on Place Pages and it’s clear that without a Place Page you may be left behind. Here’s a location specific search that shows exactly what’s changed:

google places

 

“One thing to notice is that all the top results had very complete place pages that included pictures, reviews, links etc. As time goes by the consequences of the changes to local search will become clearer. The one thing we can tell you right now is you MUST have a complete Places Page for your business or you WILL be left behind in local search! Regardless how completed or not your Place Page is – make sure it is as complete as possible before December. This is the advice you pay us to hear…do yourself a favor and listen.”

Ok, I am going to run through this information again.
 Follow these steps:

·         Go to  Google Places
·         Sign in with your business GMail address
·         On the new screen click on LIST YOUR BUSINESS
·         A new screen will appear and you will be asked to enter your non-toll-free phone number and then hit the button that says: Find Business Information
·         Your current business address will appear and you will click on EDIT to update your listing.
·         A new screen will appear where you will be allowed to give all of the pertinent information about your business.
·         At the end of this process, when you hit submit, GOOGLE is going to call you within seconds to give you and PIN number to activate your account.
·         It is very important that you be there to answer the non-toll-free number.  This is one of their ways of verification of business ownership.
 
You may be wondering why we just don’t take care of this for you.  We have found that this free Google service is better managed by the customer for a number of reasons. 
  1. Google frowns upon 3rd party management of these accounts, as we are not the business owner.
  2. While we could go in and perhaps enter all of the information correctly, we are not sitting at your phone to take the call from Google and to try to coordinate that with you or your employee can be very difficult.
  3. Now that Google Places allows the business owner to respond to REVIEWS (good and bad) you really need to manage and understand this tool.  We cannot respond for you.

Should you decide you need help with this, I would be happy to tutor you over the phone while you CLAIM YOUR PLACE and LIST YOUR BUSINESS.  Let me know if you have questions. 

Let’s make it a goal: Get your GOOGLE Place Page in Order!

 

parking sign
 Your Parking “PLACE” (Page) Awaits YOU!
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One-way street in New York City.                   Image via Wikipedia

Don’t you hate one-way streets? Up until a month ago Google Places’ review feature was a one-way street. Clients/customers/guests/patients/vendors could find a business’ listing in Google Places and write a review; however, the business owner had no way to effectively respond to the review.  That all changed on August 4, 2010.

Old news? No. This is important news that warrants repeating, because in the scheme of things your business lifeline is your reputation. I don’t care what kind of business you own and/or operate; repeat customers and customer referrals provide the most effective return on investment (ROI).

I have written about Google Places. Dick Fay has written about reviews and how to work with them. At least once per day I read a blog post about reviews, like Mack Collier’s most recent post Think negative comments/reviews online hurt your company? Guess again.

Today I want to assist you in learning more about how to use this new review response feature to your advantage (HINT: all you need to know is at your fingertips in this link). And I am not just talking about negative reviews. Take the time to thank your clients who take the time to write a positive review.

Going forward:

  • If you are a Webconsuls’ client and you need help claiming and verifying your business listing on Google Places please contact me. It is important that YOU claim and verify your listing.
  • If you are not a Webconsuls’ client and want to learn more about our services, we make it easy for you to contact us. We look forward to meeting you.

Google is now letting us drive on a two-way street, let’s see if we can convert every reviewer into an advocate or at least clear the bottleneck. Can we do it?

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google places pin
Is Your Business Listed on Google Places?

It is funny how you happen across important marketing news on the Internet. For the past year or so, I have tried to follow YELP in the news and I have talked about the importance of side streets when it comes to marketing you and your business. The reason I have followed YELP in the news is that recently two class action suits were initiated against YELP. But imagine my surprise when I “GOOGLED” YELP in the news and I discovered this headline: “Google couldn’t buy Yelp—So It’s Going to War Instead”. What I learned is that Google’s Local Business Center is now called Google Places. I encourage you to read about Google Local Business Center becoming Google Places.

I have written about Google Local Business Center before and some of the frustrations I have encountered when trying to help our clients. According to Google’s Google Maps, Earth, and Local VP John Hanke, “One out of five searches on Google are related to location, and we want to make sure that businesses are able to be found and put their best foot forward.”

There is a lot of chatter or tweeting about this change, but what I find remarkable is that it does not seem that GOOGLE took the time to notify current business owners of these changes. I am speaking of those business owners who have previously claimed their Google Local Business Center listings. Google has their email addresses. Certainly they could have done this. Did you get notified? We didn’t.

Here is what I have decided to do going forward, and I have urged my other team members to do the same: Read about Google Places and SUBSCRIBE TO THE OFFICIAL GOOGLE BLOG. Don’t be left in the dust while everyone else is exploring new PLACES!

Watch Google’s Training Video

And you can learn more here:

USA Today Technology Live

Information Week