10 Local Marketing Myths Hamstringing Your Business
As an internet marketer, I frequently encounter local business owners (and large chain store companies with many local outlets) that haven’t had time to really understand online marketing. Many of them have latched onto some myth that’s completely false — and which can keep their…
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Consumer Mindshare and Yelp: An Empire in Local Search Or a Wannabe?
Last week Greg Sterling noted: … Yelp and Google. They’re like Spain and Portugal in the 15th Century — rivals trying to carve up the local globe. The analogy seemed wrong to me as Spain and Portugal were to a large extent equal in their strength. I noted in the comments that “I see the […]
Have the Hummingbird One Boxes Been Flushed Down the Toilet?
As you know I have been a fierce critic of the bad local results that came out of the Hummingbird update. Search terms that should have returned lists of local businesses would often return a branded one box that often would be complete spam. When it was critical for a client, I reported the bad […]
Survey: Does Google Local Do Enough About Spam?
With the rollout of the new Google Guidelines and the @maptavists exploits, there has been a very lively discussion about Google and whether they are active enough in removing spam and in creating an even playing field. Dan Austin made the point with this comment. Please read his comment below prior to taking the poll. […]
Canadian Dashboards Now Receiving Warning – It is NOT the Canadian Placopalypse
To all my friends in the 51st state: Everyone stay calm. The Placopalypse is not about to descend. Chris McCreery has reported in Linda’s blog that Canadians with the new dashboard may be receiving the ”To Keep your listing live” message from Google. This is the same message that was received in Australia earlier in […]
Google Places Guideline Update: Now Allowing Descriptors in Business Title
Google has announced an update to their Places Guidelines and now is explicitly allowing owners to add a descriptor, via the Places or Plus Dashboard, that helps people locate the business or describes what the business offers. From the post (bold is mine to highlight the significant change): Your title should reflect your business’s real-world title. In […]
Google Maps & MapMaker Exploits – Just for the fun of it
Nyagoslav Zhekov wrote a blog post yesterday detailing a long standing MapMaker abuse in a post yesterday. The person claiming to be responsible, @maptivist, reached out to Darren, Nyagoslav and myself with some more examples of his MapMaker “work” which I present to you here: Super Mega Fun Time Land Suck Balls Kim Jongun Church […]
Why a Business Should Always Add Photos to their Google Plus Page for Local
Todd Mintz highlighted this search result a few days ago on Google Plus. It so clearly illustrates why a business should take the time to fill out every aspect of their Google Plus Local profile, add at least one post AND add some photos of their choosing. If you don’t the borg’s machine will vacuum up […]
Reputation Management Dilemma – The Review From Hell
This post recently showed up in the forums: Link to your local Google+ page Business name (as it is in your account): Bakersfield Funeral Home Business location: 3121 19th Street, Bakersfield, CA 93301, USA Business telephone: 661-871-8080 Business category: Funeral Home Website: www.bakersfieldfuneral.com An ex employee is trying to hurt the business after being fired for […]
Google Local: Hummingbird Diarrhea Persists 6 Months On
In local, Hummingbird has produced a number of terrible search results. With its obsessive preference for brand as a search result, even when a searcher is obviously looking for a range of businesses, the algo often still returns but a single spammy result. I guess I am lucky that there are so many colorful synonyms […]
Yahoo and the “Everybody but Google” Realities of Local Search
Last week Yahoo announced their Yelp review partnership with a great deal of fanfare and bravado. Putting on a happy face is standard fare in these sorts of situations and Yahoo is no exception. The press ate it up and we saw headlines like: Yahoo-Yelp Partnership Another Bold Move for Marissa Mayer But the reality is that Yahoo […]
At Local U: How Should You Market Your Google + Page?
Recently Anikait Chavan commented on an old post where I minimized the idea of link building to an SMB Google+ Page for local. With the many changes that has taken place with Google Local, his comment motivated me to revisit the idea of exactly how your Google+ Page for Local should fit into an overall marketing plan for your […]
Knowledge Graph Dropdowns & Crowd Sourcing the Future on Twitter
On Friday Sebastien Socha alerted me to the fact that Google was now including inline Knowledge Graph Dropdowns in general and local search results. Besides the fact that it provides mostly irrelevant, distracting. repetitive and non specific Wikipedia type results to very specific queries, I saw it as an annoying addition to local search with […]
New Flow for Google Places/G+ Page Creation
Googler Jade announced in the forums that newly created Google Plus Pages for local will be visible immediately upon creation. This should make the process more obvious to new businesses claiming in the dashboard. Hey guys, A few changes to page creation are rolling out gradually today – If you’re creating a listing in the […]
Local U Advanced Philadelphia Early Bird Discount Ending
I have already proclaimed how much I enjoy the format of the upcoming version of Local U Advanced. It is in the Valley Forge/Philadelphia area the night of March 7 and the day of March 8th. Besides our all new content, great food, drink and conversation, Wil Reynolds will be providing the keynote. He is […]
Google Alerting Australian Dashboard Claimants via Emails
Last week Google started upgrading the Places dashboards in Australia. Last night (which was this morning in Australia) Google started sending out a notice to Australian Places Dashboard claimants. Several folks reported it in the forums (ht to Nyagoslav) with headlines like “Scam or not?”. Hello, Due to changes in Google Maps, we’d like to […]
Google Dramatically Increases International Categories
Google’s categories for many international dashboards have been woefully inadequate. Fortunately Google has just announced a major increase in the number of categories available internationally. Based on merchant feedback, we’ve been working to improve business categories. One of the key areas we thought we could quickly improve is expanding the breadth of available categories globally. […]
The Future of POS is the Future of Local Marketing
Amazon to Offer Kindle Checkout System to Physical Retailers was the headline in an article in the Wall Street Journal yesterday. I have long thought that POS and other similar integrated services delivered via a combination of hardware, software and web was the key to cracking the holy grail of SMB marketing services. In The Future of […]
Local Answer Box: A Work in Progress or TMI?
It’s always fun when Google releases new “answers” like the local Answer Box to see them going wrong. It shows the limits of the current technology and gives some idea how it works. Leave it to Phil Rozek to find an unusual example of it not working quite right and have it give an answer to […]
Google Adds Dates to Hotel Local Carousel
Barry Schwartz reported on SEL this am that Google was now allowing dates of stay to be set directly on the carousel. When updated, Google updates the results for their hotel finder immediately below the ads. I know that I have covered this topic before but it is striking even on my fairly large display […]