In the hustle & bustle of running your own business do not forget that Google Places for Business is a great marketing tool. When potential customers search via google for local
Make sure you have a Google Places for Business listing
businesses in a specific category ( like dentists, plumbers, electricians etc.) those with a google places listing often top the searches. These results are also now pushing the historically top sites down the list.
Google has made a lot of changes this year with what is known as the Panda Update for SEO and as reported below, changes have also been made with google places for business. Please review as to how this will affect your business.
3rd party reviews are gone. Google has shut down the Yelp, Service Magic, City Search and other third party review sites – only displaying Google reviews on the main page of the search results. They moved the 3rd party reviews to the very bottom of the Google Places display page.
Fraudulent or duplicate Google Places accounts are disappearing. If you have noticed your competitors located on the maps listings with suspicious addresses in different cities or towns and know for sure that they are taking advantage of the old system then I wouldn’t worry. It appears Google is removing or repositioning duplicate or fraudulent Google Places accounts.
Setting up a Google Places account now requires a stringent verification process. About six months ago you could verify a listing with your cell phone. Unverifiable phone numbers now require a physical postcard to be mailed to your location. And – if you share an address with another company like in a virtual office, post office or other address with duplicate addresses your Places account may not be published.
I’ve read about Google Places accounts that were frozen due to a large number of false reviews.
There is now a hover feature on a Google search page where you can quickly and easily view a Google Places page without actually clicking on it.
This is great news, the changes made are in fact making google places for business better for users. By getting rid of duplicate and fraudulent data it makes it more worthwhile than ever for every business to take advantage of the free listing. Also, try and get your customers ot place a google review. Have a option to placing a review on your website such as a box … happy with our service?… place a review here. Note that is important not to offer any incentives to do so, this would damage the integrity of your business in the eyes of google… as Google is all knowing 🙂
Go to google places to get your business listed
Google places will change again probably many times in the next few months. There is speculation that it will strongly integrate with google+ business pages if they do not replace them altogether.
Those reviews from yelp and service magic are still REALLY important. Google is just not allowed to show them but they are strong backlinks to your business site. When people are looking for a business, these reviews can make or break them coming to yours or not.
Yes, thanks Rebecca, the only thing constant is change. I must prioritize
learning about google+ and how to effectivley use it in my business:)