E David Callender Consulting » Google

Google Places Reviews Updated

Dave Callender — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 17:16:53 +0000

It may not have happened yet to your businesses’ Google Places, but soon you will be seeing a new look to the review section of Google Places. As with all changes Google, this can be either good or bad news for the local small business. But first below is how it looks:

More Changes for Google Local Business Places

Talking the time to make it as easy as possible for customers to review your business on a variety of sources just got a big shot in the arm. Google made the decision to place the third party reviews above the fold and above Google’s own reviews. Most people do not scroll so reviews that are placed directly on Google may not be seen. Potentially, your best reviews on Google will be hidden behind old content from years ago on third party sites. On the positive side, a review on Yahoo shows not only on Yahoo local, but in Google as well. Total exposure is the goal, not just showing well on Google.

The first third party site displayed is the review site that has the most reviews (opentable.com above), then up to two other third party sites (yelp.com & tripadvisor.com) are displayed.

It is somewhat technical, but Google has also announced the development of “Rich Snippets” for local search which means that testimonials placed on your website could be aggregated on Google Places and treated as a review.

Key take home points

Create a review page to make it easy for people to see and review your business
Consider updating testimonials on your website so Google will capture and place them on Google Places
Do not concentrate on Google as the only place to direct good customers to review you.

My guess is that Google is continuing to develop Google places as the prime access point for smart phones to use for local business. So keep up and continue to provide and link information about your business on a variety of local third party websites.

Google still # 1 for Search but Microsoft/Yahoo building presence

Dave Callender — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:54:52 +0000

There was a nice article in Advertising Age this week discussing ” The State of Search Marketing“. The article continues to remind businesses that are looking to Search to build their business they need to optimize their presence beyond Google.

Microsoft announced a deal with Yahoo in which Bing would power the portal’s search for the next decade. Consumers could still perform searches at yahoo.com, but Microsoft would provide the results and the automated buying platform for advertisers. Yahoo would provide the worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers.

The move, meant to challenge the industry giant by consolidating about 26% of search share to Google’s 65%, is currently in regulatory review and is expected to be implemented next year.

Click here for the article

Google’s Offical FAQ on Reputation Management

Dave Callender — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 17:54:16 +0000

When I first start working with small businesses, they can be surprised at the information that is out on the internet both about their businesses and themselves. Yesterday, Google put out a nice overview of how they recommend managing internet reputations.

In a nutshell they direct you to:

Try to remove the offending information off the original website and then expedite the removal from Google’s indexing (Google URL removal tool).
Proactively Publish Favorable information on your Google profile

The post is mostly obvious stuff, but it is interesting that they point to your Google Profile which each business and owner should develop.

Click here for the Google article

Stop Others from Editing your Business on Google

Dave Callender — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:38:33 +0000

Yesterday Google announced a new service called Place Pages. This is an evolution of Google’s efforts for creating Business Listing for all businesses with a physical address.

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

Restaurants bringing New Customer from the Freeway

Dave Callender — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:33:08 +0000

I continue to find new value in Google’s Local Business Listing. I work with several restaurants and it is clear that restaurants are on the forefront of leveraging Web 2.0 technologies. The most recent data point is that two restaurants (Miles away from freeway off ramps) I support are finding drivers with web based GPS systems (ex. iphones) directing them off the freeway and bringing them to restaurants which they would never have found driving alone the freeway.

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 Still King – Market Share Continues to Grow

Dave Callender — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:08:40 +0000

Even with the announced merger of Yahoo and Microsoft in Internet Searching, Google continues to grow in share. Google is still the place to focus the development of your Internet presence.

Google is still in a very commanding position with a 65% market share worldwide (higher in the UK where it stands above 90%). And it’s this dominance of the market that makes Microsoft and Yahoo’s partnership such good news. A stronger player in the search market that offers credible competition to Google can potentially work for advertisers.

Online has traditionally been an area that has seen great competition and this competition have driven technological innovation that has benefited everyone.

Microsoft has invested billions in search technology and is counting on Bing, unveiled last month, to seriously challenge Google. Bing has driven mostly positive responses from those who have used it but this deal with Yahoo will allow them to show it to a much wider audience. Google won’t sit idle and allow its market share to be eaten away.

It has already announced measures to upgrade its own search engine with ‘Google Caffeine’. While this could also be a PR exercise to counter the buzz around the Microsoft/Yahoos partnership, Google Caffeine is seeking to improve search results in terms of size of index, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and relevancy of search results. Google is also going after Microsoft’s traditional business with news of developing a free operating system for inexpensive PCs as a challenge for Microsoft Windows.

This increased competition in the online world will lead to better services for consumers, advertisers and publishers. While the actual partnership between Microsoft and Yahoo is still a few years away, the threat has already caused Google to up its game.

At the same time, if Bing is to catch Google, both Microsoft and Yahoo will be forced to be extremely innovative with their products to eat into the Google lead.