Testimonials as Reviews – A View from the Field

Last week after publication of the new Google Rich Snippets for Local FAQ and follow up comments by Carter Maslan, there was a great deal of discussion about what was best practice vis a vis testimonials on a SMB web site. Clearly, when you focus on the client, having this type of content can be …

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Which Review Sites Should You Use?

I am frequently asked: Which reviews sites should I send my clients to? Which one should I pick? My answer: think about your customers needs first (easy, choice), think about your business needs second (leverage) and consider using as many sites as make sense. I asked this question of David Mihm, Local SEO expert, and …

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Google Favorite Places Poster Start Arriving

One of my clients, Barbara Oliver & Co. Jewelry in Buffalo for whom I do some internet marketing, received a Favorite Places poster and a congratulations letter today. Her initial reaction was muted and somewhat suspicious but once I explained that she was one of only 100,000 in the US and one of probably only …

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Where Are Google Places Pages Going? To the Index?

Last week when Google Map’s new Place’s pages were introduced it was noted that they were not going to be indexed (there is a great discussion going on at Greg’s blog now) leaving the impression amongst many that they would sit, isolated, in the Maps siloh. They would, it was thought, only be seen to …

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New Universal Local Search Result Type: Branded Local OneBox

While Firefox is not supposed to have geolocation available until ver 3.1, it appears that Google is personalizing search results using some form of geolocation now. Last month, David Mihm first spotted and pointed out a new Universal Local Search Result; the Branded Local One Box. The new Universal Result appears to only show in …

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Google My Business Photos 3.0 Launches

Google has significantly upgraded the interface and functionality of the photos section within the My Business Dashboard. The new interface replaces the arbitrary categories with tags and allows for a simpler interface for the cover photo, the profile photo and a business’s logo.  Although there is no ability to add custom tags, it is a …

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Yelp Review Summaries Back in the Google Knowledge Panel

I am not sure whether this message has been approved by Jeremy Stoppleman but at least for now, with the new reviews from the web announced yesterday summaries now showing in the Knowledge Panel, Yelp is back. For those of you that don’t go back to the “early” days of Google Local, it would seem …

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Google Nukes the Local Pin for One Boxes?

Today, Google is not showing the local pin next to the web result for searches that return One Boxes. whether brand or key word based. The Knowledge Panel is still returned for the search. The pins were visible yesterday in the main search results but gone today and apparently not visible across the US. I …

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