Great question that I hadn’t really thought about. Without much, much more data it would be hard to tell… One thing that they are good for regardless is elevating coupons to higher visibility.

Once it is triggered it will allow you to resave and then even if it is still bad, wait 24 hrs to inform you.

If it takes longer than 24hrs it has been released for human reviews.

I am open for suggestions, but the real question is –

If I do the Tag does anyone know if that will keep me from being flagged for review?

Thank you!

Google has degraded the local listings by not providing for an effective means of eliminating spam. It almost seems that the tags act as a sort of kickback to Google. By directly combining paid ads within a “natural” placement area Google is creating a conflict of interest between profits and quality data. The tags should go.

As time goes on, we see a significant increase in visits to the universal search results. Basically since we put up a tag visits to the map have virtually doubled from about 4% in the immediate 2 months to slightly over 8%. On top of that we have visits to the tag.

Its interesting. In our case it seems to draw attention to the site.

In our case we are using videos.

The 3 tags we tried were for: Chiropractor, Acupuncturist, Beauty Salon – all ranking in the top 3 for various categories.

We will be doing longer Tag Trials in the coming months within various industries. I will keep you posted with the results.

I agree with you. And while it appears to me working for my client, it could be a temporary early adopter benefit or perhaps the industry my client is in.

What industry was your Tag in?

Thanks for the great post.

We’ve set up tags so far for 3 listings have taken them down for two of them. There has been no evidence that they provided a positive impact on the businesses at all – despite up to 15 expansions of the tag in 30 days.

~ The tags have all highlighted coupons which we figured would highlight a certain service of the business and get some calls for that service. No calls came in. Actual calls from local listings were actually down in all 3 businesses.

~ Actions did not increase despite the tag expansions, while impressions remained about the same.

~ There is the possibility that some potential customers might actually get “turned off” by sponsored listings which might counteract any positive impact tags may bring.

~ Ultimately it’s conversion that matters – not impressions or clicks. Do Tags increase conversion? Not yet for us. The jury is still out. Maybe it’s the middle of summer and everyone is camping. Maybe I should go camping.

Can I recommend Tags for our small business customers @ $300yr? Nope. Not unless you guys tell me Tags are working for you.

Jeffrey