Google Releases Brilliant (& Creepy) New Feature to Crowd Source Business Photos

Local Guides will be able to have photos that they are taking of local businesses “automagically matched” and added to the business listings from their Google Photos collection. The feature, first released on Android but soon available on iOS, only requires you to “turn on the back up and location features in Google Photos to have your photos of places appear in the Contribute tab of …

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Local Search Ain’t What It Used to Be…

I have been involved in local search marketing and local seo for much of the last 16 years. I love local seo and would never declare it dead. It has lots of life. But it has never been harder, once you have nailed the basics, to get an appropriate ROI.  The many changes at Google …

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Shame on Elizabeth Warren (and Yelp)

Google is a monopoly in local search. Whether they leverage their monopoly power and intentionally disadvantage smaller competitors is probable. But that disadvantaging is what would need to be proved to make the case for any antitrust remedy to be proposed. But when I hear Elizabeth Warren say in a speech that in 2012 the FTC …

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Making a Business More Complaint Receptive

I have just published the last (at least for now) article on complaints:  13 Ideas to Make Your Business More Complaint Friendly. In the article I came up with a number of ways to set your business up for success from both an operational point of view as well as a process one. But I …

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8 Steps for Dealing with Customer Complaints

I have just added another post in the Complaint Series at GetFiveStars:  8 Steps for Dealing with Customer Complaints. I put together a concise guide to help you create a plan for complaint resolution. And that is something I really think you should do, put together your own plan. When the s%^t hits the fan, it will …

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Local News Photo Captures Current Gestalt

The gun is going off, the runners are starting… ding, oh that’s interesting. I just got back from SMX and was catching up on the local newspaper reporting and was reading an article titled Corporate Challenge Sees Largest Ever Turnout article in the Olean Times Herald.  This photo caught my attention:

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Google Nearby Ads – A New Hyperlocal Ad Display Format?

Update: Jennifer Slegg has confirmed with Google that this new ad format is actually rolling out. Last week while in SMX I noticed a new hyperlocal, very contextual ad unit that appeared above the Local pack and looked more like the local pack then an ad. Google has been on a tear monetizing local of …

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SURVEY: How Quickly Should A Business Respond to a Complaint?

I have published a new article in the “Complaint Series” at GetFiveStars: SURVEY: How Quickly Should A Business Respond to a Complaint? Critical to any complaint plan is figuring out the who, when and where of responding to them. I wanted to understand the consumer perspective so I asked two questions: When you complain to a …

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Complaints and How They Can Go Ballistic

Ozzie’s Premium Frozen Yogurt and Gelato is an ice cream shop in Santa Maria, CA that has recently changed hands. And also recently managed to attract both bad reviews and press around the issue. The press handled their situation with equanimity but the reviewer, feeling scorned, did not. Who knows the actual facts (like why …

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