I have been working with Rib City Grill in American Fork and have established a great starting point for taking advantage of Google Tags.  The key is that when you search for “Restaurants American Fork” Rib City Grill is on that list (Click here to understand how to get on the Box 7).  If that is established then Google Tags can be leveraged very effectively.

Good Reviews & a Coupon - How can Customers not find out more

By being on the Box 7 list on the first page of Google searches, a business has a great deal of free exposure to potential customers.  The next step is having the customer first (or only) look at your information on Google Places.  Before Google Tags, having multiple, great reviews was the only key differentiator.  Now with Google Tags, you can differentiate by being the only one (at least right now) with a coupon or promotion.

If a customer is viewing Google Maps, Google Tags are also highlighted and right now with few businesses taking advantage of this new offer from Google you really stand out.  Check out some of the views of  how Google is highlighting Rib City Grill’s use of Google Tags.

The last view can potentially expand your reach and notice beyond the local map.  In a sea of red pins, customers will start to look for those lonely Yellow Tags with scissors indicating a coupon that saves them money.  And Remember that all these views are also on Google’s applications on smartphones.

Customers will be looking for those Yellow Scissor Tags

Take advantage of this new Advertising tool quickly and get ahead of your competitors that are either not in the know, or are slow to move.  But there is a process here.  They are:

1. Take control of your Local Business Identity
2. Maximize your presence and get on the Box 7 on Google
3. Get positive reviews of your business
4. Start advertising with Google Tags

I can help you with this effort

Google has changed the name of Local Business Center to Google Places.  Here is an example of La Costa Uphostery’s Google Place.

All the major search engines (Yahoo, Bing, Google) have some type of alternative to Google Places.  For my discussions you may see me using the term Local Business Listing – This is the general term for Search Engines aggregating a specific business’s information (what they sell, hours, reviews, etc) and allowing some form of control by the owner of the business, but not complete control.

Google’s Place Pages are primarily for local businesses, but they also provide useful information about cities, neighborhoods, points of interest, and mass transit stops. You can see a Place Page simply by going to Google Maps and entering in a search term. When the results come up, you’ll have several results with representative pins on the map. When you hover over a pin, a box will pop up and in that box is a ‘More Info’ link. That link takes you to the Place Page for that local business or location.

One out of every five searches is location related, but local search still represents a relatively small portion of Google’s revenues. Google wants local businesses to claim their Places pages (4 million have already done so- Have you?), update them and buy local search advertising.

Businesses can also add real-time updates to their Places page and define the areas they serve.

Below is a short video from Google explaining Google Places

There is power in using Google Places, but to make the most of it you need time and knowledge.  If you have limited time and knowledge,  contact me and let me  help you.

Google Voice Basics: About Google Voice

Google Voice gives you one number for all your phones — a phone number that is tied to you, not to a device or a location. Use Google Voice to simplify the way you use phones, make using voicemail as easy as email, customize your callers’ experience, and more.

Google Voice isn’t a phone service, but it lets you manage all of your phones. Google Voice works with mobile phones, desk phones, work phones, and VoIP lines. There’s nothing to download, upload, or install, and you don’t have to make or take calls using a computer.

Google Voice will let you define which phones ring, based on who’s calling, and even let you Listening on voicemail before answering the call. We use smart technology to route your calls. So, if you’re already on a Google Voice call, we’ll recognize it and use call waiting to reach you on the phone you’re on.

Features

Basic Features of Google Voice

Bad News…

Google voice not on iphone

Back in July Apple pulls Google Voice off iphone:
The long-awaited Google Voice application for the iPhone has been officially shot down by Apple.

There were a scattering of reports on Monday, and then a Google spokesperson confirmed it: “Apple did not approve the Google Voice application we submitted six weeks ago to the Apple App Store. We will continue to work to bring our services to iPhone users–for example, by taking advantage of advances in mobile browsers.” Click here for the article

FCC looking into Google Voice

Google argues that it is not subject to the same laws because it’s a software company and because Google Voice doesn’t replace phone service; it still requires phone service to work properly. It addressed the inquiry in a blog post Friday.

“AT&T apparently now wants Web applications–from Skype to Google Voice–to be treated the same way as traditional phone services,” wrote Richard Whitt, Google’s Washington media and telecom counsel. “Their approach is what a former FCC chairman has called “regulatory capitalism,” the practice of using regulation to block or slow down innovation. And despite AT&T’s lobbying efforts, this issue has nothing to do with network neutrality or rural America. This is about outdated carrier compensation rules that are fundamentally broken and in need of repair by the FCC.”

So now it appears that the FCC will attempt to referee the matter. Google’s no stranger to federal authorities at the moment, with just about everything it does falling under the watchful eye of an administration that seems determined to examine dominant companies in the tech industry. Click here for the Article

But good news for Verizon Customers (Like Me)

Two Verizon Android phones coming in 2009

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-10368458-265.html?tag=mncol;mlt_related

The Android devices that emerge from this partnership will have Google’s Android Market preinstalled on the phones, said John Stratton, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for Verizon Wireless parent company Verizon Communications.

The companies declined to name hardware partners for the initial devices, but Motorola and HTC have been rumored for months as the initial phone makers expected to work with Verizon. Beyond that, it sounds like Verizon and Google expect to release other devices, such as Netbooks or perhaps an ebook reader that will run on Verizon’s network.

Some nice possible phone that Verizon may use….

I think this is something that could be great for a lot of small businesses. The only problem I have so far I have not been able to figure out how or where on Google to find this new service on Google – Anyone have any ideas? Is it just for business that are located only in the City of San Diego?  I have been looking but so far the information I have found does not work for me.

If first came across this in a nice article in Ad Age by Michael Learmonth:

Google Lures Local Advertisers by Subverting Its Own Search Policies
Two-City Test Takes on Yellow Pages With New Pricing System, Ad Model

But those companies aren’t Google, which for many people has become the de facto yellow pages as it improves local search relevance. Google believes it could vastly expand the number of local businesses using AdWords by allowing them to easily convert an organic listing into a paid ad for a flat fee.

Max Kalehoff, VP of marketing for Clickable, said Google’s move may address the tendency of local advertises to “churn,” or start a campaign and give up on it for whatever reason. “Some businesses don’t want to do search advertising; they just want to put a dollar in and receive phone calls,” he said.

For the full article click here

I also found this video from Google that says that the place to create / place the Ad is next to the Dashboard and Coupon tabs.  But I did not see this option on any of my San Diego Area  Based Customers

Below is the Google Video about the new service

One of the changes is that unlike the local business listing where information is collected by Google’s search engine, anyone can edit the info until the business owner takes ownership of the business listing.  So if you have already taken ownership, no worries, but if you have not people are going to start providing their slant on your business.  How about changing the website, address or catagory of business.  It is a little scary.

Example of edit info on Googles Place Pages

For example small applications (Networking 2.0) for iphones translate Google Business Listing & Google Maps and translate that information on the fly to direct a user to the top BBQ listing along a freeway and then the user is directed to their restaurant choice.

Where to Eat? Finding restaurants using GPS

There are two take home messages from an application like this. First you need to continually work on being on the top 10 box of Google maps.  In this example the iphone application starts with a list of the top ten BBQ restaurants that the odds are great that the user will select from.  The second point is that the Top 10 lists are not perfect as the #8 choice is not even a restaurant.  This shows that developing this information is still in its infancy and you, as a smart restaurateur, can quickly get on this list, as it may not be very competitive.

The other finer point is that as a restaurateur, if you really want to work on this aspect of your advertising you need to make sure that you are categorizing your business around the list of options in the GPS software.  In this application the list looks like this:

Restaurant Categories

I have not researched if most of the applications use the same catagories, but I would bet that the developers of these applications are not trying to change the world on the data side, but like most databased applications are looking to use standard data-sets, that Google and other large search engines supply.

Google local is an amazing tool for promoting local business, but search engines like Google bring all the information together and takes away the ability to own the perception of a company. Hopefully business owners are pleasantly surprised that people have positively reviewed their business. But what gets most business owners attention is the negative review. Those negative reviews are out there and being spread across the internet. Unfortunately they are also listed on a company’s Google Business listing. It is not all bad and here is a nice article discussing this issue: (Good or Bad – Reviews are important). Business need to embrace internet reviews and motivate their happy customers to review.

The natural way of life is that customers are more motivated to complain than praise. Many customers want to help local businesses, but for the customer there is a effort involved in providing a review. Most review services (Yelp, Yahoo, Google) require registration to provide a review. It is my experience that registering is too high a hurdle just to provide a positive review. The angry customer is more that motivated, but the good customer has better things to do.

So what is a business to do? How does sites like Amazon and Ebay get people to review others. The answer is they are already have an account and can simply write the review. Using that information, you can greatly lower the hurdle of reviewing a business. If a small business gets 4-10 reviews a year, they are way ahead of their competition. The secret is asking your customers with Gmail (Google) accounts to review on Google, your customers with Yahoo accounts to review on Yahoo and so on. My experience is if you have 1,000 emails around 200 to 300 of them will be either Gmail or Yahoo accounts. Getting 1-2% of these customers to favorably review your business should be easy, if not, you have greater problems than building a positive internet presence.

With over 100 interior designers listed in Google Local Search for “Interior Design Encinitas, CA” it looked like it may be a challenge to get on that key top 10 list. I am happy to report that within 10 days using the first Two of my Five Step process Karen was on the first page of Google. We started with the companies below coming up on the search term “Interior Design Encintas, CA”.

A. Rustic Rooster
B. J W McCarter & Associates
C. Stems & Co.
D. Sensible Chic Interior Design
E. Id Studios
F. Designcorp
G. Cedros Design
H. Polinara Interiors

After these top local business were six more pages of interior designers based in the Encinitas area. Karen and I created her Blog / Business Website on Google, took control of Beyond Words Design local business listing and then researched why the Top 10 businesses on Google’s Local Search were in the Top 10.

After establishing Beyond Words Design as a business on Google Local Business Center and taking ownership of that business idenity we started on moving Karen’s company up that road of search pages. The next step was examinining the business that were already on the top ten list and looking at the information that Google had gathered and deamed of value for a Interior Designer from Encinitas CA.

Google and other search engines look to other business databases for information about the validity and value of each business. When prioritizing your plan for moving up the Google Local food chain, you must make sure that your business is in databases that Search Engines use to gather business listings. Google is known to use superpages.com as one of their basic sources of validating bussiness. It is always the first step on your road to the first page of Local Searches.

Another prime strategy is to find business listing data bases that Google may use for specific industries. For example Rustic Rooster and several others in Interior Design were referenced as a business on www.interiordesignersusa.info. With that info in hand we entered Beyond Words Design into the InteriorDesignerUSA data base. The results after 10 days of waiting for the data to be pushed around the internet was:

A. Rustic Rooster
B. J W McCarter & Associates
C. Stems & Co.
D. Sensible Chic Interior Design
E. Id Studios
F. Designcorp
G. Cedros Design
H. Polinara Interiors
I. Beyond Words Design

The next step is getting a similar position on MSN and Yahoo. The other direction is to broaden the Local Search Value of Beyond Words Design to cities close to Encinitas, CA.

You Can’t Edit Your Way Out of Negative Reviews by Jeff Saxon

….Very simply, reviews increase conversion rates. And several studies point to the fact that, yes, even negative reviews help.
It all boils down to credibility. Customer reviews simply have more credibility than your sales copy, so they inspire more confidence in the buyer. And negative reviews lend credibility to the review process itself, standing as visible proof that the reviews are not edited….

…The point: Your brand and product perception is not what you say it is anymore but what Google says it is….

Click here for the Article

In the U.S. at the end of 2007 there are well over 10 billion unique searches done each month. Of those searches 4 billion have Local intent (42% increase from 2006). Out of all local business searches, 86% of Internet users follow up their search with a phone call or a visit to the store. Of those, 61% end up making a purchase.

On top of that data, respected technology experts around the world think the world of mobile search is ready to take off in 2009 and 2010. In some places around the world, like Japan, many of these technologies are already in place. They’re in use even in the United States, with more sophisticated devices like the iPhone. Mobile searches are primarily going to pull their results from Local Search Engines.

So what are the pieces to Local Search Listings?

Local online directories such as Google® Maps and YellowPages.com™ are the Internet yellow pages. Profiling your business in these directories is similar to listing your phone number in the traditional yellow pages. Today, customers turn to the Internet to find a pizza store, a beauty parlor or a home improvement contractor in their area. Make sure your business is listed in local online directories where customers are looking for it.

So how do I submit my Business to Local Search Engines, Online Yellow Pages and Local Social Networks? And how do I update or correct wrong entries? – Sometimes this isn’t easy to figure out!- For some sites you can do that online, through an online interface, but in other cases you will need to contact the Core Data Provider of the site in question.

Taking control of your business’ Local Search Information is the Key to any effective Internet marketing strategy. I can help you to find the right pages on the sites and give guidance to how & where each site (ex. Google, MSN, Yahoo) get their business data from – because only if you know that you can control it. Email me for FREE 20 minute appointment.