Comments on: Google Tags Update: Google Giveth and Google Taketh Away

By: Will

Will — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 21:06:43 +0000

I found the tag feature to be somewhat redundant.

By: earlpearl

earlpearl — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 17:59:36 +0000

Unknowingly put up a tag on the 26th, the day Google announced that tags and some other elements were down for a bit.

Put it up 2 days later. The tag was up for a bit and now isn’t up.

Bit of a glitch.

The big problem on this one is that this goes with payment. Okay. I get the first 30 days free according to the google promo.

But when does the clock start ticking? How do I fix it? Do I cancel and do it again? All up in the air.

They should fix this thing. It deals directly with payments.

I really have this sick feeling about Boost. Its tied in with the Places accounts and there are bugs.

Will it work or not? Will google give customer service. This is all a somewhat different animal than with places records themselves. In these cases they are dealing with direct payments from customers. They are getting control of the CC information and they are going to bill directly.

Come on Google. This is where the rubber meets the road. You are dealing with people’s money. You can’t hide behind non responsiveness.

Better start fixing this stuff, PRONTO

By: Menachem Pritzker

Menachem Pritzker — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 08:07:27 +0000

Yet another move by google to keep search traffic on google.com….

By: Mike Wilton

Mike Wilton — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 06:35:52 +0000

I think this is a plus. I always thought using the Tag feature for a website was pretty redundant and a waste of the tag. In the organic SERPs you click on the listing and it goes to your website, your URL is listed below that and then you have a tag that goes to it. If anything use the tag to draw attention, but your website is already accessible twice. Why add a third website link. Just me?

By: Wes

Wes — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 02:05:18 +0000

Hi Mike,
That’s interesting and disappointing. I guess they want you to stay on their site longer, and like you said – increase profit and page views.

By: Mike Blumenthal

Mike Blumenthal — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 00:33:20 +0000

@Lauren I have no direct experience but it should be possible one way or the other.... If not then a posting in the forums would be approrpriate... ping me if you do. @Dave The whole point for you is to drive traffic. The whole point for Google is to drive profit. In local/mobile that means more pages views.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 20:15:23 +0000

I don’t get it … isn’t the whole point to drive traffic to … MY WEBSITE?

By: earlpearl

earlpearl — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 18:26:53 +0000

Mike: A couple of our SMB’s have a powerful sales tool connected with an updated message. In those cases its a unique selling tool. We are going with the updates on a trial basis to see how well it works.

Nice thing about that is that if the visitor uses the tag it takes them directly off of search into a unique selling message connected with the smbs. Its a variation on a landing page. The difference with the tag and the relevant search terms…is that the search terms don’t lend themselves to that message very elegantly. This might be one way to effect that.

We’ll update you as to its effectiveness.

By: Lauren R

Lauren R — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 13:09:25 +0000

Hi Mike,

Any idea how to change the reservations link ? I accidentally gave the wrong link, and I couldn’t change it afterwards, as it assumes the same link when I try changing it. So I am using the website tag for now. I wish they offered a free form option, so that event venues can add an RFP link.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 12:59:40 +0000

@abby

I am with you.

@Jason
Boost offers two choices – your Places Page or the Landing page of your choice.

It does, on the surface appear to be an attempt to differentiate the two products and provide an advantage to Boost.