LocalU Advanced – NYC September 30 – Early bird Discount Ends in 5 Days
Even though it seems like summer will never end, September is rapidly approaching and with it the next Local U Advanced. It is being held September 30th in conjunction with SMX in NYC. Ticket sales have been brisk and only 14 remain, so if you are thinking of joining us, you might want to buy […]
Google Places Guidelines No Longer Prohibit City in Your Category Field – Should You Add It?
Joy Hawkins of Imprezzio Marketing, alerted me to this post in the Google forum where a business noted that the Google Places for Business Guidelines do not prohibit the use of city in the category field . Apparently Google has recently changed the Google Places Quality Guidelines and removed the prohibition against the use of geography […]
Can I Use ALL CAPS in Google Maps?
In my SEL post 7 Things I Have Figured Out About The New Google Maps, I mentioned that businesses might want to try using ALL CAPS in their business name on their Google Places + Local (whateva) profile as I had noticed EXTREME PIZZA rocking the all-ca…
Local Search Marketers Guesstimate 2013 Google Ranking Factors
Despite the annual changes in the local search ecosystem, the ranking factors that Google uses to determine its local search results haven’t changed much over the past year. So say the 35 local search marketers that contributed to the 2013 Local Search Ranking Factors — organized again…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Google Continues Test of Local Call-Out Box
Phil Rozek of Local Visibility shared these two screen shots of a Google test that highlights the sitelinks display on a branded local search with card like outlines. The treatment, first spotted by Moz on a local search in late July, has evolved from a single box around the complete result to a number of […]
Google Changes Adwords Express & AdWords with Local Extensions Display
Several more minor updates to the way that local results are displayed on the front page of Google. These may have been in place for a while but they have just sunk in for me if they have been. 1-Review counts now include ratings as well as reviews 2-The pin used on Adwords with the […]
Google Upgrades New Dashboard with ‘Remove This Listing” Option
The new Places for Business Dashboard has for the most part been a significant improvement over the old Dashboard in most regards. That being said, it was missing one critical feature: you couldn’t remove a listing from the dashboard once you had started the claiming process. That self evident feature has finally be added (just […]
7 Things I’ve Figured Out About The New Google Maps
Google has been busy changing a lot of the user interfaces for its local search services. Between the new Google Maps, the Google Local Carousel and the new Reviews Pop-Ups, they have certainly thrown the local search world into a tizzy. I have been pl…
Does Google Helpouts Indicate a New Direction For Local Transactions?
Will Google Helpouts replace the Business Listing Places Page G+Local Page G+ Page for Local as the transaction platform for local commerce? What is Helpouts you ask? It is a (not so) secret Google project that turns Hangouts into a commerce platform/marketplace ”that enables individuals and small and large businesses to buy and sell services […]
Google Looks to Keep Local Users at Google.com With Two Interface Updates
Google has had a busy week on the local front. The most significant of these updates are two new local interface conventions in the main search results. Clearly Google wants increase the visibility of their reviews and it is going to do so by keeping users on their front page. Yesterday Andrew Shotland started seeing […]
No Reviews? The New Google+ Local Reviews Pop-Up Doesn’t Pop
Based on the comments I am seeing on yesterday’s post, it appears that the new Google+ Local Reviews Pop-Up has gone global. Since it seems like this is a real thing and not a test, I started looking at it a bit more to figure out the implications. One question that popped up: @localseoguide What […]
The post No Reviews? The New Google+ Local Reviews Pop-Up Doesn’t Pop appeared first on Local SEO Guide.
10 Reasons that the Google Knowledge Graph Sucks More than the Local Graph
The Knowledge Panel sucks much more than Google Local these days. Its like “Déjà vue all over again” (for those Googlers and other readers too young to know the reference go here). With the Knowledge Graph, like local, Google is attempting to reflect real information about the real world in their search results and, like […]
Google’s 5-(orange) Stars Spreading Internationally, to Adwords & Rich Snippets
More folks are reporting the visibility of the 5-Star system on the main search results that Google has been rolling out. I am seeing them at work in Chrome on my Mac but not in Safari or Firefox and I am still not seeing them at home. There were also reports of them being seen […]
First Sightings of Stars in the Carousel
Max Minzer captured the first screen shot of stars in the Carousel. The stars are shown with the stars AND ratio in the same red color but when contrasted with the black background they become very, very, very obvious. The reviews are much more obvious than in the 7-pack reported earlier. (Click to view larger): […]
First Reports of 5-Stars Returning to the Main Search Results
The last bastion of Zagat has finally been breached and reports are showing up of 5 Stars returning to the main search results page in the Pack. Poster Valesence shared her sighting of the new display at the LocalSearchForum. Google announced the return to the 5-Star system in mid-May at the I/O Conference, along with the […]
Should You Do Linkbuilding to Your G+ Page for Local?
Miriam Ellis of Solas Web Design asked me the other day to revisit the question of whether one should “build links to their G+ Page for local“. Often this question is asked from the wrong frame of reference. Unlike the Google Places page, a Google + Page is indexed and CAN have page rank. The […]
Should You Do Linkbuilding to Your G+ Page for Local?
Miriam Ellis of Solas Web Design asked me the other day to revisit the question of whether one should “build links to their G+ Page for local“. Often this question is asked from the wrong frame of reference. Unlike the Google Places page, a Google + Page is indexed and CAN have page rank. The […]
A Compilation of Over 300 Keywords & Phrases that Trigger the Local Carousel
Gregg Gifford, Adam Dorfman and Dan Leibson have each put together lists of keywords that trigger the new Local Carousel. I noticed that while there was some overlap between the lists there was also a number of unique words on each list. I assembled them into one list and with some additional research on my […]
Next LocalU Advanced – NYC September 30
We just finished up a LocalU Advanced in Seattle and the feedback was great. It seems to early too be talking about the next one but here I am talking about the next one because the early, early bird special is ending in less than a month. Hope to see you there. September 30th Local University […]
Local Carousel Reporting from Around the Local Web
Here are articles from around the web and myself that I found of value in understanding the new Local Carousel. If you have any others that you also found useful please let me know. Overarching Analysis & Commentary Google’s ‘Local Carousel’ Comes to PC with Mixed Results – Greg Sterling Google’s Local Carousel – Trapped in […]