Understanding Google My Business & Local Search
Category Archive For "Google+ Local"
Google Alerting Australian Dashboard Claimants via Emails
Last week Google started upgrading the Places dashboards in Australia. Last night (which was this morning in Australia) Google started sending out a notice to Australian Places Dashboard claimants. Several folks reported it in the forums (ht to Nyagoslav) with headlines like “Scam or not?”. Hello, Due to changes in Google Maps, we’d like to …
Google Dramatically Increases International Categories
Google’s categories for many international dashboards have been woefully inadequate. Fortunately Google has just announced a major increase in the number of categories available internationally. Based on merchant feedback, we’ve been working to improve business categories. One of the key areas we thought we could quickly improve is expanding the breadth of available categories globally. …
The Future of POS is the Future of Local Marketing
Amazon to Offer Kindle Checkout System to Physical Retailers was the headline in an article in the Wall Street Journal yesterday. I have long thought that POS and other similar integrated services delivered via a combination of hardware, software and web was the key to cracking the holy grail of SMB marketing services. In The Future of …
Local Answer Box: A Work in Progress or TMI?
It’s always fun when Google releases new “answers” like the local Answer Box to see them going wrong. It shows the limits of the current technology and gives some idea how it works. Leave it to Phil Rozek to find an unusual example of it not working quite right and have it give an answer to …
Google Adds Dates to Hotel Local Carousel
Barry Schwartz reported on SEL this am that Google was now allowing dates of stay to be set directly on the carousel. When updated, Google updates the results for their hotel finder immediately below the ads. I know that I have covered this topic before but it is striking even on my fairly large display …
Google Testing Location Answer Box
Pete Meyers of Moz just pointed out an unusual new feature that Google is testing: Location Answer Box. Darren Shaw noted that it was visible via Firefox. I see it regardless of whether location is set or whether I am logged in, if the query is specific enough to generate a single answer. IE Dress …
Google Local Carousel Now Visible in Japan
The (not very well liked) Local Carousel is now visible in Japan on Google.com although not yet on Google.co.jp/. Kenichi Suzuki, a popular Japanese blogger interested in local search, reports that while he is not sure when it started showing, it is now showing. Since being rolled out last June they have only been visible …
Reviews, SMBs & Google – Still Not Clear on the Concept
This story is so rich in the evolving complexity of reviews; the absurdly angry SMB, the frustrated poster and so rich a tale of service gone awry. A story of how decent service can become indecent service by the sort of reflexive behavior that is so common in the service industry. To say nothing of …
Local U & Friends Invite You to the New Local U Forums
Last week was a busy and exciting week for Local U. It has been our long term dream to provide high quality local marketing training and advise on-line. On Thursday we rolled out the Local University Forums. The Forums will be place where marketers, digital agencies and businesses large and small can get expert answers, …
What’s Old is New Again – Spam in the Google Local Results
Yesterday I reported on hijackings in local. Since August there have been significant quality issues. But the spam… its like 2008 all over again for Google local. I hate looking at spam. It makes me feel dirty. But since Hummingbird that seems to be all that I see these days in local. Lots and lots …
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