Understanding Google Maps & Local Search – Developing Knowledge about Local Search

Yesterday Marissa Mayer was quoted as saying in regards to Maps and Places at SXSW: “We do need to have some support there, and step up our customer service,”.

I must admit as a veteran of the “Google Maps support wars”, it was refreshing to hear Marissa Mayer (allegedly?) note the need for support. That being said the fact that it’s taken Google 5 years (or is it 6?) to figure this out and get to the point of publicly so noting has to be cause for concern.

When presenting at Get Listed Local University we talk with a large number of small business owners. Many that we have met are attempting to understand the big picture of internet marketing and how the pieces relate.

These SMBs are trying to make a decisions amidst the buzz as to where to focus their on-line efforts. The goal of this infographic was to provide a foundation for that understanding from the perspective of long term investment in their marketing efforts. It is not so much a guide to those marketing priorities as it is a guide to understanding the trade offs in loss of control as you move your efforts onto the platforms controlled by others.

This graphic was originally inspired by a Lisa Barone blog post titled 11 Reasons Your SMB Still Needs A Web Site and refined with the help of David Mihm, Mary Bowling and Matt McGee.

The infographic is available for embedding in various formats and layouts on this page for both web display and print.

I would love to hear your feedback about the graphic and would like to know if you find it useful in communicating to SMBs.

(Click to view whole graphic)

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Did you ever hear the one about the Lieutenant in the trenches of WWI that called together his dispirited troops and announced:”Troops, I have good news and I have bad news. Would you rather hear the good news first or the bad news?”.

The troops called out in unison: “Tell us the good news! We haven’t had any in such a long time!!”. The lieutenant says: “The Good News is that you finally get a change of underwear.” And the troops erupted with a wild cheer. “Now tell us the Bad News!”

The Lieutenant responded: “Larry you get Joe’s, Joe you get Harry’s….”

The  Google Places Dashboard has been a lot like that of late. The good news? Well the System Error and Pending Problems seemed to have been cleared up.

What’s the bad news you ask?  Apparently large accounts ”will be unable to view, edit, or take action on listings 1001 and above” that were created via the bulk upload feature. It obviously does not affect the bulk of users but it means that those organizations with a large number of stores will be unable to affect changes on some of their listings. So for example if a store closes, they will be unable to remove it from Google Places.

Here is an email that went out to the accounts: (more…)

Update 3/9 10:50: The error messages continue to be reported in the forums this morning. The most recent was at 9:39 AM. Google has yet to make a public statement about the error. Obviously, the two beers I suggested yesterday was not enough, or perhaps not enough folks with the problem followed the suggestion. I am upping the ante to 4 beers. (However any errors in judgement this might cause are solely the responsibility of the user).

There have been numerous reports in the forum this afternoon of the message:

System Error
We’re sorry, but we are unable to serve your request at this time.
Please try back in a few minutes.

Google has not used this message as a spam response in quite a long time, so the presumption is that the System is down. Take two beers and check in with me in the morning.

Reviews come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes they are used to get back at a business for bad service but they can be used as well to settle a personal or political score in a public forum.

In this review and review response, it really isn’t totally clear who is telling the truth.

jared – Mar 8, 2011

TO ALL MY VALUED PATIENTS, FRIENDS AND FAMILY : This is Dr. Jared Anderson, and I am writing to address the appearance of several scathing reviews written about me by my ex-girlfriend, Christalyn Delzell, who apparently is not able to move on after the ending of our relationship over a year and a half ago. In the reviews, you will undoubtedly see one written by ‘Christlyn’, dated Nov. 14 in Google, and another nearly identical one written in Dexmedia, dated Oct. 17. When this was originally written, Google was not listing the identity of the authors for reviews, so I was left to assume it was her. Recently, Google has made the (wise) move of listing the first name of the authors of reviews, and I see it is indeed my ex-girlfriend, Christalyn Delzell who wrote this one. She also wrote a review of almost identical content and wording in eSouthernoregon….and any other site she could find. I assume the other scathing review written by ‘Martha’ (dated Dec. 30) is either a friend or a family member of Christalyn’s, because I have only one patient in my patient base by the first name Martha, and this person has never received the treatment described, and has certainly not been “kicked out” of my office. At any rate, ‘her’ full identity is being investigated presently. I have a sincere and thorough respect for all the patients I treat in my office, as do my staff, and we take tremendous pride in delivering the best dentistry available in a professional and caring manner. I would like to sincerely thank my patients for voting me “Ashland’s Favorite Dentist” again in 2011in the Sneak Preview magazine. This is the second time in 3 years that I have received this honor, and I feel this is a reflection of what one can expect when you come for treatment in my office. I hope that Christalyn Delzell can find peace and happiness in her world soon, and heal from whatever it is inside her that makes her feel that trying to damage my business is the right thing to do. In the meantime, I will continue to love the work that I do, and show up every day giving my patients the very best care possible in a SAFE, CARING AND COMPASSIONATE environment. Sincerley, Jared R. Anderson, DDS

Christalyn – Nov 14, 2010

Completely Unprofessional I had heard some good things about Dr. Anderson and decided to switch dentists. Biggest mistake I could have ever made. Not only did I have to wait 30 mins past my scheduled appointment, he walked past me in the lobby laughing with his front desk girls as if I wasn’t even there. His hygenist was mediocre at best. She smelled heavily of perfume and scratched my gums and just giggled about it. When Dr. Anderson finally graced me with his presents, I felt completely violated! He touched my shoulder enough times to make me feel uncomfortable. His line of questions about my personal life and what I like to do for fun was borderline indecent. All in all, if you want to be hit on and visually molested by your dentist, then this is the denist for you. Anyone else should walk way as fast as you can! Just a plain horrible experience.

Regardless by not measuring his response, the business owner has managed to make matters worse. He has provided what my kids refer to a TMI (too much information). What should he have done?
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I have received several recent inquiries about the Pending message showing up on more Google Places accounts of late. According to this post by John Audette of 406 Strategies, a local internet marketing firm in Bend, Or. it is a fairly widespread bug. From his post:

“Pending – Being Reviewed. This listing needs to be reviewed further before appearing on Google. Please allow several weeks”.

We have checked with Google and they tell us it’s a temporary glitch. Their phones are ringing off the hook and they promise to have it fixed soon.

Normally the message means that your listing has gone in for additional scrutiny by Google but it appears to currently be a false positive on many listings.

The latter part of this otherwise lame ‘expose’ about deceptive hotel marketing practices from NBC’s 2/24 Today show highlights the issue of fake reviews.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Certainly the issue of fake reviews is both more pervasive and more common than the report indicates. Our industry has been reporting on cases of fake reviews for a long while.

While there has been a few cases of state and national government enforcement (contrary to the reporting on NBC), it has been extremely light.

Services promoting less than ethical review practices have sprung up. Even in the hinterlands, fake, purchased reviews are showing on Google with the ability to purchase reviews available through a number of channels.

While Google, Yelp and Tripadvisor have implemented some measures to limit fake reviews, the efforts have only been partially successful. Given the increasing media coverage of the issue, it seems probable that the FTC and State’s Attorney Generals are likely to pursue more aggressive enforcement going forward.