Google Testing Location Answer Box
Pete Meyers of Moz just pointed out an unusual new feature that Google is testing: Location Answer Box. Darren Shaw noted that it was visible via Firefox. I see it regardless of whether location is set or whether I am logged in, if the query is specific enough to generate a single answer. IE Dress […]
Google Local Carousel Now Visible in Japan
The (not very well liked) Local Carousel is now visible in Japan on Google.com although not yet on Google.co.jp/. Kenichi Suzuki, a popular Japanese blogger interested in local search, reports that while he is not sure when it started showing, it is now showing. Since being rolled out last June they have only been visible […]
Reviews, SMBs & Google – Still Not Clear on the Concept
This story is so rich in the evolving complexity of reviews; the absurdly angry SMB, the frustrated poster and so rich a tale of service gone awry. A story of how decent service can become indecent service by the sort of reflexive behavior that is so common in the service industry. To say nothing of […]
Local U & Friends Invite You to the New Local U Forums
Last week was a busy and exciting week for Local U. It has been our long term dream to provide high quality local marketing training and advise on-line. On Thursday we rolled out the Local University Forums. The Forums will be place where marketers, digital agencies and businesses large and small can get expert answers, […]
What’s Old is New Again – Spam in the Google Local Results
Yesterday I reported on hijackings in local. Since August there have been significant quality issues. But the spam… its like 2008 all over again for Google local. I hate looking at spam. It makes me feel dirty. But since Hummingbird that seems to be all that I see these days in local. Lots and lots […]
Google Bulk Upload: Verified Listings Or Just Another Data Feed?
Does a Google Bulk upload create a verified listing or is it in reality just another data feed? Unfortunately it is the latter. Danny Sullivan and Greg Sterling have been covering the recent multi listing hijacking of hotel pages at Google. The hijackers essentially were able to take control of numerous hotel listings and insert […]
Google and Apple Consolidate Positions in Driving Directions During 2013
The driving directions market, while more fragmented than search or social, is continuing to see consolidation. Google maintained (but didn’t increase) their leading share and Apple gained share while the GPS and other web providers are seeing steady and large declines in usage. Over the past year, I have continued to survey consumers as to […]
Google Local Carousels MIA – Are they gone for good?
Are Local Carousels on their way out? They are gone today in my browsers. Which raises another question: Is this part of a larger plan to clean up the look of search results page in general and local search in particular? Several weeks ago rumors started circulating that the Local Carousels were on their way […]
Mining for Google Hummingbird Guano in So Cal
Google’s Hummingbird guano, like real guano, is fertile ground. Unfortunately, in the case of Google’s guano, it is fertile ground for spammers and spam and nothing as productive as farm crops. Southern California has always been a hot bed of Google local spam particularly in the legal industry. Yesterday I was exploring search results for […]
How Do I Merge Two Google+ Page Pages? A Very Common Question
Because of the slow and never ending transition of Places to Plus and because of less than stellar communications from Google since the rollout of Plus, a very large number of small local businesses have ended up with more than one Google+ Page. Over the past 6 weeks I have received a stead stream of […]
Google Search Quality Issues Dogging Local Results
The front page of Google where the action is. Its often where a business has the first opportunity to present their brand, it’s where calls from potential customers start and discovery of a new businesses first takes place. This is particularly true in local search results where your presence and the quality of the images […]
The Google Places Dashboard And Listing Ownership
The old Google Places for Business Dashboard allowed a listing to be verified into multiple accounts. The new Places for Business Dashboard only allows one verification per listing. This is a huge difference process. It is also an impediment to many listings being moved over to the new dashboard. Given the ambiguity of ownership in […]
Google MapMaker Update Summary: One Database to Rule Them All
Now that MapMaker is back online, I wanted to understand the recent changes to MapMaker in the bigger context, how the changes related to the Places for Business Dashboard the G+ Pages for Local and when it still makes sense to use MapMaker. I asked Dan Austin to write up his understanding of the changes from […]
Google Intros the Mother of All SMB Review Monitoring Systems
Google has announced on the Google and Your Business blog today that they have rolled out what appears to be the mother of all review monitoring systems today. The system, a new module for the updated Places for Business Dashboard, not only shows Google based reviews to dashboard owners and managers, it shows every review […]
Google, Google Plus, Dog Food & Politics
A reader pointed out to me that Google themselves do not seem to think that local Google + Pages for Business are all that important as they have not upgraded their page to social. They in fact have not even claimed the page as of yet. Certainly no consumption of their own dog food there. […]
Tips for Your New Google + Cover Photo
Early this week Google updated the layout of the G+ Pages. They also updated the imagery and maps at the top of the pages moving away from the ever slithering image that continually changed in size to one that was relatively stable. They simultaneously moved the details about business location to the an area to […]
How Does Google Choose a Profile Photo? It’s the Algo Dummie!
There has been some conversation and consternation (free membership required) of late when Google seemingly arbitrarily replaces a business owner selected profile photo with a different photo perhaps provided by a third party. Like all things in local its not random. It’s the algo. And like all things in local, you, as the business owner, are only […]
Google Rolling out New + Page Layout – Reviews Lost in the Process
It seems that the new layout first reported on October 23rd is now rolling out world wide. As noted at the time The big difference is that the page now can be displayed in either a single, two or three column layouts depending on browser window width as opposed to the current fixed two column […]
One Additonal Reason the Google Knowledge Graph Sucks More
Last summer, I wrote wrote a post 10 Reasons that the Google Knowledge Graph Sucks More than the Local Graph. Thankfully some of the problems noted in that post have been fixed. Not all of them by any means and the lack of consistency, support and feedback is still a huge bugaboo. That being said I […]
Step by Step Guide to Enhancing Multi-lingual Listings on Google MapMaker
Google has never fully supported multi-lingual listings in Places very well. At one point Google was suggesting that you create a separate listing in a different dashboard in the alternative language. Unfortunately Google was unable to keep those listings from merging and the practice was ultimately prohitibited. The current dashboard offers no real alternative. MapMaker […]