Google Places Optimization Blog

The Local Search Forum is just over 2 months old, but we’ve been experiencing rapid growth due to the overwhelming support of the Local Search community. The forum has expanded to the point already where it’s getting hard for folks to find the info they need. So we need to start to splitting off some more forums to help keep everything organized and easy to find.

So I just launched the new Local SEO Tools – Local Search Software Forum

This section is for news, updates and helpful information about tools and software related to Local Search. Examples of posts that could go in this section are: What is the best local search tracking software? What is the best citation solution? Is there a tool to do XYZ? What’s a good WordPress theme for SMBs?

Solution providers can also post updates in certain situations, but we don’t allow blatant self promotion. So if you offer a Local SEO product and want to post Please read the rules for that forum..

We also soon will have featured advertising spots in this section of the forum. PM me if interested.

STAY TUNED for our Forum 3 Month Anniversary Announcements on 10/24. We have some other forum additions and features that will make your time here more beneficial and rewarding.  And we’ll be announcing who our “Top Contributors” are.

Google just updated many of the Google Webmaster Guidelines.

There are a couple changes to the guidelines that directly affect local business web sites. See RED highlights for IMPORTANT Guideline changes for LOCAL I want to alert you to and discuss.

Curated post. See full details: Local Search Forum – New Google Guidelines.

Back in September the Minnesota Lynx basketball team proudly announced on Twitter that their Google+ page was the 1st WNBA team page to be verified!
 

They had over 30,000 followers and tons of content.

Then on Sunday the Lynx verified Google+ page was DELETED.
All their content and 30,000 fans in their circles – GONE!

Google told them they would have to start over.

Read the cautionary tale & find out what happened at the Local Search Forum.
Lynx WNBA Team Google+ Page Deleted – A Cautionary Tale

A huge number of SMB listings have been deleted by Google for violating the “Hide your Address Rule.” This rule pertains to outbound service area businesses, like plumbers, primarily those with home offices.

Months later Google has been unable to bring many of the listings back
EVEN ONES THAT WERE MISTAKENLY DELETED AND WERE IN COMPLIANCE.

I pushed Google again last week for an update due to a new situation that came to light. I also informed Google I was working on a big story and requested an official statement. (SEE UPDATE – LAST QUOTE)

But 1st I wanted to share the story of ONE of the many small business listings Google removed in error.

This is just a curated snippet from the HUGE long article posted over at the
Local Search Forum. Please see update from Google and full post there.

Business Listings Deleted by Google – Do Not Support Location Update

Just did 2 big posts over at the Local Search Forum that I wanted to be sure my blog readers don’t miss.

LOCAL Keyword Research Tricks, Treats & Tools – Monster post for you guys! In my Local SEO training course I teach how it’s imperative to optimize the home page (or the specific location landing page) for the the very best… See all the screenshots and discover some LOCAL keyword research techniques you may have missed.

New Google Updates and LOCAL Algo Changes – Here’s the Scoop! – Google does an average of 2 algo updates a day. Did you know that? Many new Google algos go un-named. If they are named, they are worth noting! A few new algo updates recently rolled out and some ARE affecting local. (Including NEW PANDA update.) Discover some fairly major Google updates that just came out that are affecting local.

Join the discussion happening now – at the Local Search Forum.
(Comments closed here.)

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Don’t miss the latest Local Search news and community tips!

Curated content from the Local Search Forum for my blog subscribers.

Friday Matt Cutts tweeted: “Minor weather report: small upcoming Google algo change will reduce low-quality “exact-match” domains in search results.”

All weekend the forums and blogs were atwitter with the news and lots of webmasters have reported getting hit by the algo change. Here are posts at Search Engine Land, SEOmoz and over at WebmasterWorld the discussion is up to 15 pages so far.

I was involved in a few of those conversations, plus others, trying to determine the impact on local and have not seen evidence of it. I did quite a bit of research over the weekend and here are just a few of the local EMDs I found still sitting in top spots…

Read the rest, see the examples and discuss at the Local Search Forum:
Local Exact Match Domains Still Rank – Google Algo Update

Life is crazy and work is busy. I get it! But since some of you subscribe to the blog, and don’t have the forum RSS feed yet, I’m thinking some of you may have missed important posts from the Local Search Community Forum.

Grab the Local Search Community RSS Feed here OR click the link to RECENT POSTS for the latest up-do-date news and tips in the Local Search space.

I’ve been curating all the latest Local Search news and adding all my new Google+ Local content at the new Local Search Community Forum because it’s so much easier to have discussions, organize content and build community on a forum platform instead of a blog. BUT I apologize to my blog readers for not doing a better job of communicating things here as well.

So following, in no particular order, are a few recent Google+ and Local SEO news stories and tips you may have missed.

Dominate Google Local Serps or Rich Snippet & Author Spam? – Controversial post with awesome screenshot of Google search where one local Dr dominates top 4 spots all with hReview stars and Author markup image in SERPs.

G+ Local Edits Showing Quickly – Many don’t realize, one of the benefits to merging your G+ Local and G+ business page is SOMETIMES faster edit times. Click to read the deets.

LQQK – Incredible Shrinking Local SERPS & Traffic Drops – Google results have morphed and changed over the years. The blended local results are now so stripped down and barren of details, it’s no wonder click-through and call rates are declining. The following screen shots and stats below tell the story. I’d almost rather have an organic listing now. (OR better yet how about best of both worlds – a DOUBLE page one ranking with both organic AND a blended listings – ya that’s the ticket!)

50 Local SEO Lessons Phil Learned from 50 Local SEO Clients – HOT HOT tips from Phil Rosek!

Hide Your Address on Google Places Q & A – Folks are still confused about this. I answer some of the questions in an easy to digest Q & A format.

55 Largest Local Business Directories + the Top Citation Sources in US

Wow – Google Maps has Team of Over 7000 – Apple is Hiring Up

NOTE: Most NEW content gets posted at the forum now and I seldom post on the blog these days. So be sure to subscribe to the forum RSS feeds for all the latest Google Local news and insights from all the Local Search Pros.

Local Search Community RSS Feed SUBSCRIBE via RSS or EMAIL
Don’t miss the latest Local Search news and community tips!

I’m thrilled to announce that the Local Search Community is expanding and we just added my friend Miriam Ellis to the team.

Most of you that have worked in Local for awhile know who Miriam is. She’s a fellow contributor with me over at David Mihms “Local Search Ranking Factors” and is the Local SEO Associate over at the SEOmoz Forum, plus you’ve likely read her blog filled with Local Search topics at Solas Web Design.

When I decided it was time to expand and add to the team, Miriam was the 1st person I thought of. Why?…

PLEASE READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT AT THE LOCAL SEARCH FORUM

Please come over and join me in giving a warm welcome to Miriam, our new super mod! (Since some of my blog readers don’t have the forum RSS feed, yet, I wanted to post a little info here.)

PS I have more local community news coming. Stay tuned for our new “Top Contributor” program. Details to be announced soon.

NOTE: Most NEW content gets posted at the forum now and I seldom post on the blog these days. So be sure to subscribe to the forum RSS feeds for all the latest Google Local news and insights from all the Local Search Pros.

Local Search Community RSS Feed SUBSCRIBE via RSS or EMAIL
Don’t miss the latest news and community tips!

When a client wants to know why their ranking dropped, it can be a very tough question to answer.

The Google Local algo is infinitely complicated. Now that organic is such a big part of the algo I think there are likely over 300 factors that go into it – when you combine the all the organic factors with all the local factors.

So if you are trying to figure out or have to explain why rankings dropped it can be difficult to say. OR on the other hand if you are trying to figure out WHICH of the many factors that you worked on contributed to the ranking increase it can be uber tricky as well.

Lots more Inside - Click to Read

I read a mind expanding article last night that made me think about the extreme tunnel vision I have when I look at Google maps. I am so focused on Google+ Local that I don’t even think about the underlying map data or how it was created. I’m always just researching business listing problems, trying to solve data cluster puzzles, searching for violations or other reasons for ranking drops.

I only see NAP, map markers and business data. Maybe you are that way too. After all, this is where we focus our attention all day long.

Lots more Inside - Click to Read

I’ve known about a REALLY smart strategy my friend Matthew Hunt uses for awhile and wanted to share, but wasn’t sure it was public knowledge. He just blogged it and did a video so wanted to be sure you all see this.

It’s a really slick way of funneling or trying to screen out negative reviews so they aren’t as likely to hit Google. AND this system gets that negative feedback directly to you, tied to the customers name & email, so you can fix your customer service problem AND make it right with the customer.

Lots more Inside - Click to Read

Between end of summer vacations and back to school craziness, I’m thinking some of you, may have missed important posts from the Local Search Forum. So here is a roundup of some of the latest hot topics and helpful updates.

So following, in no particular order, are some important recent Google+ Local and Local SEO links you may have missed.

Lots more Inside - Click to Read

Places Scout just launched their incredibly full featured Reputation Management module, which is now included in the Places Scout bundled solution. I think this is likely 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.

For those that don’t know about Places Scout yet, it’s a complete solution for Local SEO and includes: Local Rank Tracker, In-depth Local SEO Competitive Analysis, Client Finder, and Citation Finder.

Today I’m only highlighting the new Reputation Management Module.

1st some screen shots, then a video that shows Reputation Management reporting functionality, then below that are just a few of the main features.

Lots more Inside - Click to Read

If you have a service area business and your office is in your home and/or you only go out to customers, YES it is absolutely mandatory that you hide your address! THOUSANDS (and I personally believe hundreds of thousands) of small business listings have been removed for violating this fairly recent guideline and some have been down for a couple months without being able to revive their listing or even successfully getting a new listing to show.

But this post is targeted at a slightly different scenario. We get SMBs on the forum that say, “Yes my office is in my home BUT customers SOMETIMES come here. So I don’t want to hide my address and don’t feel I’m in violation.” Some of you may have clients in the same boat. What do I advise?

Lots more Inside - Click to Read

Matthew Hunt from Small Business Online Coach created a GREAT step-by-step video detailing how to set up and merge your Google+ Business page with your Google Places AKA G+ Local page. Since many of us are visual learners, I think it’s really helpful to watch the process instead of just reading how to do it. So great job Matthew and thank you for sharing!

Lots more Inside - Click to Read

Most of you are aware of a myriad of problems surrounding Google Places AKA Google+ Local reviews. The Google and your Business forum ALWAYS has multiple posts from frustrated business owners with complaints. But lately the forum has been literally flooded with SMBs who are either missing reviews or can’t get reviews to show up at all.

Sunday Mike Blumenthal decided to crank up the heat to try to get Google to take action and find a solution or fix the problem. A lot of folks have been “talking” about the problem. Mike took matters into his own hands and decided to do something about it! (Ya I know I sound like a big Mike fan girl lately – cuz I am! ) He alerted Google via email what he was doing, then put out a call to action to other Google Top Contributors and asked us to help him try to consolidate all the review problems into one thread to try to get Google’s attention focused on the problem.

I’ve been helping Mike as time permits by going back through recent review problem posts and asking SMBs to post in the main thread below. As of right now there have been 53 replies so far.

See Google’s reply, read the rest of the story and weigh in over at the new Local Search Community Forum.

Comments are closed. Join the discussion at the Local Search Community Forum.

EXCITING NEWS! Google just announced the 1st iteration and beginning step for merging your Google+ Local (Google Places page) with your Google+ Business Page.

NOTE: THIS WILL WORK RIGHT NOW IF YOU HAVE ALREADY CREATED a GOOGLE+ BUSINESS PAGE with LOCAL set as the CATEGORY. (If you didn’t set local as category you are out of luck right now. Waiting to hear about other options.)

I AM CALLING THIS PHASE ONE INTEGRATION – Phase 1 is for straight forward merges with existing G+ Business page and Google Place pages.

After you verify your G+ Business page then it will merge with your Place Page and you’ll have ONE page, with all the Places features like reviews AND all the social features combined.

AND ALL WILL BE MANAGED INSIDE G+. (No more Places dashboard.)

To avoid duplicate content and having to post everything in 2 different Places please see my original announcement at the Local Search Forum.

BREAKING! Google+ Business Merge with Google Place Pages Starts Now!

All new updates as I get them will be posted over there as well.
Comments are closed here. Please discuss at the forum.

UPDATE: 8/4 Have posted several important new announcements and updates at the bottom of the 1st post. So even if you read the post yesterday, check back and read the updates there.

PLUS FYI: Service Area Businesses with Hidden Address – Can’t Merge Your G+ Business Page Yet

The Small Business Influencer 2012 Awards honor companies, organizations, apps and people who have made a significant impact on the North American small business market.

I went through and found all the Local Search Pros that have been nominated – the ones I know anyway. (So sorry if I missed anyone.) These are all great guys that all do lots of good things for our industry. But my vote goes to Mike Blumenthal, because I don’t think anyone does more to help SMBs and the industry with Google+ Local problems than Mike. He doesn’t have many votes so far, so go give him YOUR vote of confidence and appreciation for all he does!

Lots more Inside - Click to Read

Yesterday, helping someone on the Google forum I stumbled across new Photo guidelines for Google Local+. Most made sense but a couple made me scratch my head and think “this is going to be a problem”. Then my friend Miriam Ellis blogged it this AM and it turns out she has some of the same concerns/questions I did.

RETRACTION – SEE CORRECTION and UPDATE BELOW

Lots more Inside - Click to Read

Today I’m a Proud Mamma! This forum has been a dream of mine for over a year. So I’m very excited to finally announce it. Hope you’ll come say hi & join us!

The Local Search Forum was developed due to popular demand by Catalyst blog readers and all of my Advanced Google Places Training and LOCAL SEO Training clients. They all want a positive and productive place to learn, discuss Google Places issues, brainstorm about local search and support each other.

The public forum includes several sections and tons of great content already. There is a forum for all the most important Google Places updates/bugs/alerts and a Google Places help/troubleshooting forum for business owners as well as consultants to post questions and problems in. There is also a Private Local Search PROs Forum that’s only available to Advanced Places Training clients.

Join the Local Search Forum Here!

For a sampling of all the important topics and great discussions so far, click recent posts at top of forum. Set up a good signature and introduce yourself!

OH and this is YOUR COMMUNITY – I work for you now!
So just let me know what you need!

Thanks in advance for joining. Look forward to brainstorming with all of you!

We did an invitation-only pre-launch last week, but now we are ready to open to the public. My right hand man David Baxter, a full-time practicing Psychologist and part-time Geek, was extremely instrumental in making it all happen and has been working with me tirelessly for weeks, tweaking code and templates to make everything work. Thank you David!

Check it out and join us here.