Google+ Local on Suspensions – The Algo Did It!

All too many Places dashboard users are seeing this message of late: Account suspended. Make sure your listings meet the quality guidelines. Cathy Rhulloda of Avante Garden, a long time user and promoter of the Google Places and extremely knowledge about local marketing and the google Places Dashboard, was one of them. Her account was unceremoniously suspended despite …

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Google Local Announces Upgraded Phone Support

Last night Google announced that they had formally upgraded their Local listing phone support rolled-out in January to include data issues in addition to the previous phone support that had been added for verification issues. Commenters have previously noted that Google support personal had responded to requests for data fixes on the call line but the …

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Google+ Local Categories Inadequate for the Job

In rolling out the update to the editing interface for business listings claimed into a G+ Page for local Google has fixed a longstanding problem with the G+ local product and answered (inadequately) a long standing question. The problem they solved was adding the capability to add categories to listing that had been verified in …

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Google Upgrades the G+ Local Editor

Google has announced an upgrade to the Places Dashboard G+ Local Page editor that moves it closer in design to the G+ Pages editor. As Jade noted the quality checks remain the same (and the time to live is likely the same as well).  This upgrade removes one of the bugaboos of the G+ Page for …

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Loci 2012 – Andrew Shotland

Andrew Shotland is a well-known SEO practitioner and author of www.localseoguide.com and the trendy new applemapsmarketing.com.  His proudest achievement on the Web can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipkSRwgVtpA ************* When reflecting on the year, I like to think about it less in terms of specific niches like “local seo”, “seo” or even “local search”.  It’s not that 2012 wasn’t a …

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Google Rolls Out Adwords Express Plus

With Google’s new Adwords Express Plus rollout another piece of the coming SMB Business Builder Portal has fallen into place. Dan Petrovic of DejanSEO noted over the weekend that Google had started pitching Adwords Express to G+ Local Page owners. It turns out that what they are actually offering is a newly revamped & enhanced version of …

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Is the Google+ Local Dashboard Moving Towards a Freemium Model?

That Google has finally added some semblance of human support to G+ Local raises a number  of questions that are still unanswered: Is it worldwide or US only? Can agencies call in on behalf of their clients? Will it be extended beyond the verification process to other aspects and problems that occur with Google+Local like …

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What Makes for a Good Author Photo in the Local Results? (Part 1)

What makes for a good Author photo in the Local results? Author photos are increasingly showing in Google’s local search results. Since first appearing in local results in February of this year, author photos have slowly and steadily increased in frequency. In most markets you may only see one author photo in the local results …

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