Category Archives: Google Places
How to take your best review on Google Places and “Feature” it
November 24, 2011 There is a way to grab your best review on Google Places and highlight it above the fold instead of having it mixed in with the other reviews below the photos. It’s a little technical but the results are great. Check out the following image of a Featured Review from Linda Buquet’s website. – AW
(Double click on the image to see it clearly at full size)
How to Use Google Places Featured Review
A few days ago I wrote about an interesting new feature I found out by chance – “Featured review” on Google Places. Unfortunately, I struggled to uncover
2 headed turtle
November 16, 2011 Mike Blumenthal wrote a blog post on the issue of have more than 1 Google Place page and included this picture of a 2 headed turtle. I really didn’t know if I was writing the post to show the picture or to pass on good information. I’ll let you decide. ~ AW
Google Places Basics: Two Business Listings Or One?
Many small shop owners think of themselves as being in more than one business. They have (perhaps loosely and imprecisely) marketed themselves under two or more brands into their local market and the allure of doing so on Google Places is strong.
Should they continue to do so?
Scott of BreakTheSeal in the UK asked me how to best handle this situation. He inquired:
If you have a business, offering 2 separate services but at the same address, under slightly different names, is it good to have 2 separate Google Places profiles or to amalgamate them into 1?
My predicament comes from a current client, a hair salon that also offers a specialist wig service for cancer patients.
I’m not sure whether to create 1 for each side of the business, Trinity Hair Studio and Trinity Wig Specialists, to target their individual service, or to create one for a Hair & Wig Studio. Will Google presume they’re duplicates if the same brand name at the same address is used and disregard one, if not both?
My answer:
Where do online searchers go first?
October 28, 2011 92% of anything is alot ~ AW
Search Dominates Other Sources For Local Information — Study
Oct 27, 2011 at 10:09am ET by Greg Sterling
A new survey from Harris Interactive, sponsored by CityGrid Media, confirms what many already know: Search is the dominant way people look for local business information — online. On mobile devices, review sites have equal influence. The telephone survey was conducted in August among just over 1,000 US adults.
Slightly less than 60 percent (59 percent) of survey respondents said that search engines were the first place they go when researching local businesses. That number increased to 83 percent for those under 35 years old. Less than 10 percent (8 percent) said they visit the merchant’s site first.
On mobile devices, the story is
How Users Search For Local Businesses
October 25, 2011 This article raises a very interesting question, basically how do people search, what words do they use and what do they expect. The following is some of the studies results:
59% of consumers use Google every month to locate a good local business
71% of searchers value the information contained in local search results
60% of local searchers add a town name or city name to their search terms
42% of local searchers add a zipcode to their search terms
Just 6% of local searchers add a neighborhood name
38% of searchers expect Google to return local resuls based on their location
~ AW
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How Users Search For Local Businesses + 5 Tips To Optimize Local Listings
Oct 24, 2011 at 11:37am ET by Myles Anderson
In a recent staff meeting, it emerged that the most regular question our customer support agents get asked by our customers* is:
“When we track our local search rankings, how much should we focus on search terms that include a local term (e.g. town name, ZIP code) vs. generic keywords without the local term?”
70% – 80% of the Google Places pages are NOT claimed
October 19, 2011 Someone asked me how many US businesses have not yet claimed their Google Places page and during my research I found this blog comment from David Mihm, www.davidmihm.com, one of the top experts on Google Places. (Emphasis added) ~ AW
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.… In the US we can extrapolate from Marissa Mayer’s (ed. VP, Consumer Products Google and a member of Google’s Operating committee) SxSW talk this year that there are 3MM claimed Place Pages in the US …. estimates range anywhere from 14MM US Businesses to 20MM…meaning the # of claimed pages is actually closer to 20-30%.
http://www.searchenginepeople.
Google Places have a strong impact says new ‘eye-tracking’ study
October 09, 2011 Warning – this is for ‘techies’ and ‘wanna be techies’. You do not need this information to make money with AdzZoo – but it is interesting to look at the pictures and read the over 70 comments – even if you do not understand and of it.
The following is a great article from www.seomoz.org using eye tracking ‘heat maps’ to show what people searching the web are actually looking at. The premise of the blog post author, Dr. Peter J. Meyers, are that “We are entering a new era of SEO, one where potentially small businesses will be squeezed out of the SERPs.”
On the other hand, it seems that people searching are looking at the listing in Google Places. Be sure to go to the full article for his important conclusions. – AW
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http://www.seomoz.org/blog/eyetracking-google-serps
What if a business owner wants to get on page 1 of Google?
October 03, 2011 Until this year there were 3 ways to get your website on page 1 of the Google SERP (Search Engine Reults Page), organic listing (free + $EO expert), places (free + perhaps expert) and Adwords ( not free + perhaps expert).
I am posting this excellent article by Josh McCoy, an expert in search marketing, not for someone to read (unless you want to become an SEO expert) but just to get a sense of how complex it gets to get seen on Page 1 of the SERP – and to understand the benefit of using the many services of AdzZoo. ~ AW
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7 Steps Toward Google SERP Domination
Once upon a time, search engine results consisted of 10 site listings as well as the occasional 1/3/7 pack of local listings. Then we saw the progression of search results with the introduction of universal search. This consisted of shopping, images, video, news, and book listings.
Within the last year or so we’ve begun to see local listings integrating with site listings, as well as the display of ratings and additional site data via rich snippets usage.
While many of us do a good job staying tuned to SEO to help garner an optimized Google SERP presence, many sites still don’t take advantage of the needed steps to gain an edge in Google’s SERPs.
“Hand-feeding Google, Covering your SERP Assets” discussed how you can best feed your content to the search engines. Now let’s explore how to optimize these assets with seven things you need to mind if you want to potentially lift your Google SERP visibility.
Google Offers Having Banner Month in September
September 23, 2011 When a company with tons of cash and ~30,000 employees sees positive results in their testing of a new product, it’s probably a good assumption that they will expand the test or start a roll out. It looks like Google might be planning something big soon. ~ AW
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Google Offers didn’t do particularly well in August – total revenue dropped 23% from July despite a 22% increase in its total number of deals. However, Google’s Daily Deal product has radically improved in September. Through just the first three weeks of the month, Google has already surpassed last month’s total revenue of $265k and is on track to more than double this figure by month’s end.
Google isn’t
Get a jump start on NetCare’s newsletter InfoCast
September 14, 2011 There is no reason to wait to help your client’s with information that will help the get seen on line. Experts say that customer reviews is one on the most important criteria that Google uses to decide on how high a business ranks on Google Places.
Don’t wait for the first issue of InfoCast – pass on the 5 tips to get more customer reviews below, by Andrew Shotland, not only your clients but to your prospects also. ~ Alex Weiss
5 Tips To Get More Online Customer Reviews
Sep 12, 2011 at 8:40am ET by Andrew Shotland
Google’s acquisition of Zagat last week and Yelp’s excellent snarky response has brought customer reviews to the forefront of the news again, so it’s a good time to start thinking about how garnering more online reviews fits into your business.
In my experience, when it comes to reviews there are four types of businesses:
Business Building Tips, Cold Call Training, Google, Google Places, NetCare, Training Calls A simple, clear and concise explanation of “what is SEO” in 3 minutes 30 seconds!
September 13, 2011 What a great 3 minute video Commoncraft in collaboration with Search Engine Land created!
If you wanted to get a better handle on what SEO does, here is an answer via a cartoon in less than 4 minutes.
Definitely worth the time. ~ Alex Weiss
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF515-0Tduk
