Mike Blumenthal

Update 02/11/10: These Google LBC categories have now been placed in a searchable database too located on the Google LBC Categories page of my website. Update 12/20/09: I have a new list of current categories at Google Local Business Center Categories – The Complete List Update 10/13/2009: If you have found this old post then …

This is my current read on the state of the algorithm used within the Maps product. Matt has posted a valuable summary of factors that seem to influence Google Maps standings. I want to supplement that list and organize it in a slightly different way to clarify my understanding of the situation. Relevance Is the …

Yesterday I wrote of Google now allowing user correction of unverified business listings in Google Maps. It was reported by Barry Schwartz and repeated elsewhere that I, in part, played a part in this outcome. Well it has been a sort of Charlie Brown moment…. You know, when Lucy holds out the football every fall …

In the recent past, Google Maps has had some glaring errors in data accuracy due to their heavy reliance on on their assignment algorithm. As of late last night, Google implemented two changes to help improve the situation. Firstlly they are now providing an active alert that the business record is unverified. More importantly, if …

Google has difficult a programming problem that they are attempting to solve in Google Maps. There are somewhere on the order of 25 million businesses in the U.S. and there are perhaps more than 25 billion web pages for (some of) those businesses in their index. Google, in their Maps product, wants to gather as …

I don’t think that this is the case but at SeoRoundTable there is a posting in regards to Local Business Listing being hijacked that was based on a discussion at a Digital Point Forum thread: I have a client, who did not register a business listing on Google maps, but their competitor took the time …

With the recent upgrade to the Google Local Onebox, Google has introduced a significant change to their main search engine result ranking of these local results. I have previously noted that there was a discrepancy between the Local Onebox rankings and the ranking results in Google Maps. With this update, it appeared at first glance …

Comscore released their data on biggest traffic gainers for 2006. One of their conclusions related to Local: “Google’s popularity has been driven by… the rapid uptake of some of Google’s applications beyond traditional Web search…examples include…62-percent growth in visitors to Google Maps” With Google’s recent upgrade of the Local OneBox this trend should continue in …

Matt McGee in a recent post, Google Maps push further into regular SERPs clearly laid out some significant changes that Google had made in the Local OneBox. I would like to add to his list. From Matt’s post: In its post, Google is trumpeting the fact that this new display now shows rating/reviews to make …