Google Places Optimization and Local SEO Blog

Want more updates and transparency from Google? Ask and ye shall receive!

Vanessa emailed me a couple days ago to say she was inspired by the forum roundups that Nyagoslav & I blog to try to keep folks up-to-date on the latest tips and tricks in the Places forum. She asked what I thought about her doing a weekly video round up. I said AWESOME! So here is her 1st one. Enjoy!

Google and Your Business Forum Wrapup – May 15, 2012

That was a great 1st round up and I think users will really appreciate the updates and transparency. For those that don’t know Vanessa very well it will really help put more of a face on Google Places.

Vanessa is the new Matt Cutts of local!!!

Places Scout is almost ready to launch their incredibly full featured Reputation Management module. I think it’s going to be the most powerful reputation management solution out there. Even though I don’t personally do rep management, I’m super excited about this new solution as I know lots of my readers DO but even if you don’t yet, this software could add a whole new profit center to your business.

Just had a demo – this is HOT! In addition to all the rep management and social media monitoring features, Scout includes 2 sorely needed Google Places review features I specifically recommended; Places review automatic backups AND new review alerts, for those that want to reply to reviews.

I’ve been a BETA Tester, consultant and advisor for Places Scout since the original launch. I’ve watched it grow from a really good Google Places ranking tracking programs to one of the best rank tracking/competitive analysis solutions out there for Google Places. And by adding all these new rep management features, it really will make Scout the “swiss army knife” for Local.

After the new module is released the price is going up from $147 to $197, I believe – so I got Mark to give me some screenshots and details to share with you guys, so you can see how powerful it will be and get it before the price goes up if you don’t have it yet. I’ve given Mark lots of suggestions for this new module over time and I think he’s pretty close to getting this puppy finished and out the door. ETA is end of May.

SEE SCREENSHOTS BELOW the FEATURES

Places Scout Reputation Management Software Features:

.:. Places Review monitoring & indexing over time w/ summary metrics

.:. Alerts for new reviews on each run (Super beneficial for your clients that like to be notified of new Places review so they can reply)

.:. Review Monitoring and Indexing for over 20 of the major review sites, including Yelp, Tripadvisor, Yellowpages, Kudzu and more

.:. Social Media monitoring for Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus

.:. Summary metrics: # of reviews, average rating, sentiment analysis + more

.:. Social Media summary with combined Facebook type wall for all social media posts on Facebook, Twitter, Google+

.:. Recent Activity Feed that is a Facebook type wall for all reviews and social media posts

.:. Client Reporting capabilities with customizable HTML based templates or exported to CSV, Excel, HTML, and PDF

.:. Sentiment Analysis for each review and social media post – will tell you sentiment of each review or post based on a score of 0-100. Each review / post can be color coded based on sentiment

.:. Advanced filtering capabilities to narrow down the data for each section based on review rating, sentiment, date, and more

.:. Report Scheduling functionality to schedule a report to run on a periodic basis (Scheduling will also be added to the rank tracker reports)

.:. Layout and feel will be similar to the track local rankings module – you can create a reputation report, and run the report, with the data for each report run saved and the ability to view previous run data

BUT a picture is worth a thousand words so…

Google Reviews
PARTIAL PIC – CLICK & ZOOM FOR EXPANDED DASHBOARD

Review Analysis
PARTIAL PIC – CLICK & ZOOM FOR EXPANDED DASHBOARD

So if you’ve never used Scout, to briefly explain what you are seeing in the expanded dashboard pics; Far left column is where you select which module you want to run: Keyword Generator, Find Local Clients (which is also extremely powerful competitive analysis), Track Local Rankings, Reports, Citation Finder or Reputation Management.

Next column over under “Business Reputation Manager” is a list of all your clients. Then after you select client, below that is list of all your report runs.

Then the next big section to the right is where you can select all the different Rep Management features, reports, filters, etc. and a star summary where you can see at a glance how many 5 Star vs 1 Star reviews you have.

With the above features, I believe Places Scout will be the most advanced and capable reputation management software on the market. PLUS it has 2 features I specifically recommended for Google Places reviews that are sorely needed; Google Places review backups and new review alerts.

If you get it before the Rep Management module comes out and the price goes up, be aware that you get all future updates at no charge for the coming year. And I’m always feeding Mark new feature recommendations and he’s constantly working on new updates. Plus this software is unlimited use, not per report or per client. So you can use it on all your clients as often as needed. Price before the update is $147 and license is good for 2 computers. (Mark still has not had time to build the site, so the only way to buy is still at the Warrior Forum at the link above.)

PS – So excited that auto report scheduling is coming for the rank tracker too! I’ve been wanting that one for awhile!

What do you think? Is your mouth watering yet?

** Catalyst Advertising Disclosure Policy

Wanted to share some new info, recent changes and somewhat conflicting expert opinions about 2 areas of the Google Places dashboard – the description and the additional details sections. In the past many have used these sections for optimizing listings and of course some people spammed those sections. Do keywords in these fields help ranking at all any more? Does Google even look at the, now invisible, more details section? Can you get penalized for over-optimizing these 2 sections?

Lots more info - Click to read the rest here

Welcome to Google Places & Local Search Buzz #3 A weekly roundup of the most important tips and news in the world of Google Places and Local SEO. Important updates, bugs and tips in this issue.

FYI NEW BUG ALERT, VIDEOS ARE MISSING – As far as I can tell its affecting all Place pages. At least in the US. I reported to Vanessa 5/9. She confirmed bug and said a fix is coming in a few days. Appears to be connected to the “do not support location” bug we thought was fixed Monday, but it appears other problems surfaced that are related. Watch this thread for updates.

Lots more info - Click to read the rest here

I was helping an exceedingly frustrated local SEO consultant in the forum that was asking Vanessa why there were so many constant problems with Places. I wanted to share part of my answer to him as it leads me to an announcement I’ve been needing to make and have put off. My answer in part was:

“Google Places is exceedingly complicated, buggy and EXTREMELY frustrating.

To specialize in Google Places Optimization takes thick skin and TONS of patience! If you can’t change your attitude to be able to deal with the constant changes & frustrations then you should get out of the business!”

So I took my own advice I QUIT!

Lots more info - Click to read the rest here

Google is busy with new product launches and enhancements on the Maps/Mobile/Places side of the house this week. Today they announced the Maps 6.7 release for android, that will help consumers find offers from nearby businesses in the U.S. — everything from restaurants, to salons, to city tours.

UPDATE 8PM – Later in the day Google launched a New Offers program and dashboard for US businesses. Here is Vanessa’s post in the forum. Here are the help docs. And Mike did a great post about it too: Google Places Rolls Out New Offers Program and Interface

Lots more info - Click to read the rest here

Google announced a new improved interface for those who do bulk uploads for multiple location businesses yesterday. I don’t deal with bulk uploads at all, but I’ll be in training with Google later today to learn more about the new interface and how everything ties together, so am excited to find out more. Below is some info from Google and a link to some videos that show you how it works.

Lots more info - Click to read the rest here

This is post #3 in an ongoing series where I attempt to surface the most important threads from the Google Places forum to ensure you don’t miss any important hot tips, bugs or fixes. Also see Issue #1 and Issue #2.

UPDATE 5/9 3:30 PM – FYI NEW BUG ALERT, VIDEOS ARE MISSING – I just reported to Vanessa. Fix coming in a few days. Appears to be connected to the bug below which we thought was fixed Monday, but it appears other problems surfaced that are related. See this thread.

MAJOR BUG and OUTAGE Working on it: Seeing “We do not support this location”? Technical issues right now, sit tight. – So the big news this past week was a bug that affected (I predict) thousands of Place pages. But since only a fraction of SMBs watch their Place page we just see a fraction of the problems reported in the Places forum. So far there have been 139 posts in the thread above and many other individual threads.

Lots more info - Click to read the rest here

Welcome to Google Places & Local Search Buzz #2 A new weekly roundup of the most important tips and news in the world of Google Places and Local SEO. Important updates, bugs and tips in this issue.

BUG UPDATE 5/4 4:30 PST – Vanessa just posted: “Here’s the latest: We’re processing a fix but it’s going to take a few days before you see your listings live. Check back Sunday/Monday to see where your listing’s at. I’ll check back in Monday about this.” See next link down for future updates.

Place page gone? Seeing “We do not support this location”? Technical issues right now, sit tight. – I started having all kinds of OTHER problems with listings yesterday. WEIRD stuff, not the “do not support” error. I could tell something was really off and alerted Vanessa. She posted the update above and has engineers on it. Hope they get it fixed soon.

Google Places Account Suspended- All is Not Lost – Linda Buquet notes that in some situations (where you have not received the start over email) Google is still apparently resuscitating some suspended accounts.

Lots more info - Click to read the rest here

Introducing the Google Places & Local Search Buzz
A new weekly roundup of the most important tips and news in the world of Google Places and Local SEO.

Milestones in a Google Places Campaign That’s Working | LocalVisibilitySystem.com – Your business is unlikely to inch up or down in the local rankings. The problem is that can make it very tough to tell if you’re doing things effectively or back-asswards. You need some indicators that you’re at least headed in the right (or wrong) direction.

The Google Places Purgatory and How to Get Out of It – In the last month there were many cases of disappearance of Google Places analytics data and complete listings from the organic search results while the listings’ statuses were still showing “Active”.  It appears that it is some kind of peculiar punishment implemented by Google manually on accounts that have not confined to the Google Places Quality Guidelines

Lots more info - Click to read the rest here

This is post #2 in an ongoing series where I attempt to surface the very most important threads from the Google Places forum to ensure you don’t miss any important updates, issues, bugs or fixes. In installment #1 on April 10th I went with the labels Hot Tips, Warnings, Bugs, Bloopers, Blunders. But this issue I’m doing a little differently and just starting with the primary description of the issue in bold caps, so you can easily scan to find topics about specific situations.

MAJOR BUG – RESOLVED Only 10 results for places show now what if I’m #12? – I blogged this April 17th and reported to Google. I just discovered it’s fixed and posted an update on my blog and the forum.

BAN for SPAM REVIEWS? Would You Support a Google’s Decision to Ban Listings That Have Numerous Fake Positive Reviews – Good discussion brewing between Top Contributor Nyagoslav and local pro Mary Bowling.

Lots more info - Click to read the rest here

UPDATE: 4/24 10 AM – I just was doing some testing and noticed this has been fixed. I’m in Socal – Please check and let me know if it’s working from wherever you are.

UPDATE: 4/19 8PM – Vanessa just confirmed it’s just a bug, not by design. Engineers are working on a fix.

Lots more info - Click to read the rest here

Learn how to get the most from BrightLocal in 60 minutes!

BrightLocal is offering a Free Local SEO tools webinar at 3pm EST on 18th April. They’ll do a walk through of all their live tools and provide an update on new tools & features that are planned for April & May. The webinar will be presented by Myles Anderson (BrightLocal CEO) and there will be a detailed Q&A session so you can get answers to your most burning questions. Places are limited so please register early! Register for Webinar here.

Myles also announced that they’ve just given 50 FREE Citation Tracker credits to existing customers while they prepare for official launch of this new product. What’s Citation Tracker? Watch the video below to find out.

In my Advanced Places Optimization Training, one of the things I tell consultants and SEO companies I train is that scanning the forum DAILY is crucial to Google Places success. That’s how you can stay up-to-date on Google Places changes, bugs, new penalties, ranking tips and learn to navigate some of the Places minefields. But it’s hard to make time to read every post, especially for marketing companies that don’t live and breathe Google Places exclusively.

Since I live in the forum and read almost every post, I thought I’d do a summary post of important issues that have come up recently. If this you find this helpful, please let me know and I can try to make it a regular feature.

I’m breaking this into 5 primary category labels

Lots more info - Click to read the rest here

Don’t edit my client’s beautiful Place page below! I’m warning you!
I will smack you hard if you do!!!

Remember when Google put the big red write a review button at the top of Place pages to encourage reviews??? They just added a new button in that spot yesterday that says “Edit this Place”. Front and center, plain as day. So I guess they are encouraging even more user edits and crowd sourcing of Places data. See my concerns below the image.

Lots more info - Click to read the rest here

I requested ranking comparison reports from Myles at BrightLocal a little while ago. Well the new update just launched and the new ranking comparison reports are live. So now you can show clients a comparison of the results 3 months ago before you started their campaign and today! PLUS they added white-label online reports and MORE! See below and watch the video too.

Compare rankings more easily…

New interactive reports make it easy to compare current rankings with past rankings.
You can visualize the ranking changes more easily using simple, colorful charts.

See ‘New’ & ‘Lost’ Rankings
Clearly shows which rankings are ‘New’ (appeared in top 50 results) and how many rankings have been ‘Lost’ (dropped out of top 50 results).

White-label ‘Online’ reports
Publish your reports onto external URLs, add your logo & branding to them and share this URL with clients & colleagues. And every time your report update so does the data & charts on this URL. No more emailing of PDF reports!

Check out the video below, then head over and
sign up for BrightLocal Local Search Rank Checker.

Local Search Rank Checker – Interactive Reports, Charts & White Labeling from Myles Anderson on Vimeo.

Got Google Places questions??? Get answers LIVE from the Top!

Join 2 of the leaders of Google Places – +Joel Headley and +Vanessa Schneider at 11 AM PST this Wednesday, April 4th, as they discuss how to get started on Google Places for business.

Have a question for the team? Ask in the comments at the link below. This is also where you go to join in or stream it. Hangout On Air: Google Places

UPDATE 4/6 Vanessa just emailed me to let us know the video and Q/A is posted here: Get found on Google with Places for business

UPDATE 11 AM PST: I’m calling for YOUR support to request an ADVANCED Places troubleshooting hangout. Voice your support for this idea over in the Google+ stream here and/or Vanessa’s post.

“3 questions just came up over on +Vanessa Schneider’s stream. All 3 were great Qs that come up a lot! Best practice for closing and moving a listing, how do Places and Maps and MapMaker interact and connect and best practices for trying to prevent merges. These are all important Qs that come up enough, that I think we should have a FAQ or help doc on them. I think this hangout has a beginner “getting started” focus. BUT I bet if we said pretty please in Vanessa’s post and there is enough demand, we could get them to do a more advanced troubleshooting type of help desk hangout.“

There is lots of controversy about Google’s newest change to the Google Places guidelines. I’ve been pretty much in the middle of this issue, but decided to hold off on blogging til today. This is a very complicated and multi-faceted issue. Below are a few of my thoughts. But 1st the back story and the new guideline for those that missed the news. In a nutshell – Hide your address or risk losing your Place page if you have a home based or service business and don’t see customers at your location.

Lots more info - Click to read the rest here

There are a bunch of new things I wanted to share. So I’m going to do an overview post that contains several important topics including 2 new Google Places updates, new Google Places algo analysis, new Places FAQs help docs, Google Places old forum archives and more.

Lots more info - Click to read the rest here

Google just moved the Google Places forum. NEW location, NEW name, NEW platform. Until Thursday both the old and new forum will run in parallel to give users a chance to wrap up current threads in the old forum.

IMPORTANT for you to know that the old forum will be COMPLETELY removed on Thursday. There will be no archive saved. So if you have any current threads you are involved in, you need to save them. Also if there are important posts you refer to with tips about how to deal with dupes or whatever, you need to save them because they will be gone.

UPDATE: Mike Blumenthal saved the forum literally! See top of this post.

Lots more info - Click to read the rest here