Understanding Google My Business & Local Search
New Google Places for Business: Articles From Around the Web
Late yesterday, Google started rolling out the updated Places for Business dashboard to new claimants and they have simultaneously redirected some dashboard accounts to the new interface.
Here are some additional articles from around the web about the change:
More details about the improved look and feel of Google Places for Business 
– Joel Headley (must read)
BREAKING! Brand New Google Places Dashboard – All-in-one Local Listing Management – Linda Buquet, Catalyst Marketing
Improving the look and feel of Google Places for Business – Qasar Younis, Senior Product Manager
Google Upgrades Its Google Places Dashboard With Google+ Local Integration – Matt McGee, SEL
Google Places for Business Help Files (thanks to Linda Buquet, note: the caps are all hers 🙂 ):
What’s happening to Google Places for Business?
Insights for your business (New analytics)
Status of edits in your listing editor Explains edits that could be pending review. It NOTIFIES YOU NOW!
Service area businesses in Google Places for Business This is all changed and MUCH better!
Upgrading your business listing to a local Google+ Page ONE BUTTON UPGRADE TO G+ WIDGET
My articles from last night:
Google rolling out new update to Google Places for Business
Visual Guide to the new Places for Business Dashboard
Categories in the new Places for Business Dashboard
Analysis: Google Places for Business or G+ Pages Lite?
© Copyright 2024 - MIKE BLUMENTHAL, ALL RIGHT RESERVED.
Comments
14 Comments
Thanks for the round-up, MIke.
AWSOME resource Mike! – thank you (and don’t forget to get some sleep) 🙂
@Mike, thanks for the round up!
You no likey my CAPS?
You no likey my COLORS?
You no likey my RANSOM NOTES??? 😉
@Linda
I already have my title for my next 4/1/ article: Linda Buquet Forgoes Capitals in Nod to Style Standards. 🙂
Thank you Mike for keeping us all up to date. I can’s wait til the new version rolls out for existing users.
Hi Mike,
It’s me again – I notice you are calling it Places for Business – Google Help calls Places for Business and Google Places for Business http://support.google.com/business/?hl=en#topic=3043168 At the end of May, Google said Google Places is now Google+ Local. What is the correct name?
It looks like Google Places for Business is the correct name and that within Google+ is Local. Sorry to be a pain, but the name for the past 9 months has been confusion for many of us.
If you could clarify it would be so appreciated!
Thanks,
Susan
Hi Susan, I know it’s confusing.
Google Places for Business has continued to be the branding on the business owner side this entire time.
G+ Local was just the branding/name change for the public facing page or the consumer page. With this update I thought they would rebrand one or the other or all to make everything more consistant and to clear the confusion. But they left the business side branded as Places.
Hi Linda,
I hope your are doing OK – I left you a message on your blog.
That makes sense what you are saying, they never did change the name on the backend (that’s what we call it). We often wondered why they kept Places in the name when we use the Dashboard.
Since they are keeping the Google Places name for the business owner or the manager of the dashboard, should we still be calling the consumer page (what they see) Google+ Local or Google Places?
We want to be clear with our clients. Some manage their own page. I don’t want to confuse them more than they already have been.
Thank you!
Susan
Hi Susan
Its hard to be clear with clients when Google themselves are unclear.
Google+ Local was a name used by Marissa Mayer that stuck. Google currently doesn’t really want to use it and they are striving to rebrand a local listing as a Google+ Page.
That being said, Google+ Page is not very descriptive and misses the many nuances of the pages themselves (brand, local, etc, social, not social)…
So until Google clears up their branding confusion and comes out with a name that sticks I use Google+ Local to mean all of Google’s local efforts. I use Places for Business Dashboard (or just dashboard) to talk about the primary interface for business and call the actual listing Google+ Page for local . If necessary I qualify Google+ Page for local as social or not.
Whew! Its a bit of a branding mess.
Hi Mike,
This is exactly what we needed to know! It makes sense the way you and Linda explain it.
It is a branding mess, but now at least we know how to convey it to our clients who manage their own pages.
Thank You!!
Susan
Hi Mike,
This is an excellent aggregation of information – great work to everyone who has helped accurately publicize these updates.
Do you have any preliminary thoughts on how this could affect bulk listings in the near future?
Also, the new Insights could prove themselves to be an integral part of small business reporting. Have you toyed with these at all?
@Matt
My “business” had no real data so there was no insight data available. It appears on the surface to be the same data in the current dashboard but more reliable.
The Bulk Upload feature is relatively new and will not change per se. At some point it will be brought into the new dashboard pretty much as is in the form of a widget. As to how Google will handle the potential social aspects will have to wait until they upgrade Plus to handle Brand/Local relationships.
@Mike
Thanks for the insight. I’m interested to see how this comment from Joel translates: “Sit tight! We’ve got some updates coming for bulk users that we hope you’ll like.”
@matt
Hopefully we’ll see something soon.
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