Experts Blog

Google+Local

By Mary Bowling on Jul 04, 2012 - 02:19 PM

In the world of search you have to stay on your toes. Changes are the norm, not the exception. Our industry has matured enough that many of the more drastic changes (like Panda and Penguin) are not unanticipated and do not really effect those concentrating on good internet marketing.  However, for those who live and die by tricks and loopholes it’s a much more tumultuous world. 

Over the past few years, the changes in local search have been fast and furious. It’s not unusual to wake up in the morning to unexpectedly learn that things have changed, really changed, since you powered down your pc the previous evening. Google giveth and Google taketh away and the G god is not always kind, merciful or forgiving.  But if everything wasn’t in continual flux, there would not be much demand for our services and if small businesses could deal with the turmoil themselves, most of them wouldn’t need us.

It also isn’t surprising when Google rolls out a bunch of local changes all at once, as it did with the marriage of Google Places with Google+ to create Google+Local. The new User Interface got most of the attention, but it’s just that – a new way to look at local business information at Google. It melds together the information Google finds about a business out on the web, the details business owners wish to share and the details that consumers wish to share with each other about any particular enterprise. 

Accompanying the Plus roll-out was a drastic shake-up in the review process and the long-awaited integration of Zagat into Google. This review system upgrade is probably the change with the most immediate impact on local businesses.

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Reviews, both legitimate and illegitimate, disappeared by the thousands.  A few have returned, but most will not. Yelp-like filters have now been implemented that make the source of the review and the trustworthiness of that source a major factor in whether a review appears on a Google+Local page or not. It’s extremely discouraging for business owners who had taken Google’s advice in facilitating customer reviews and ratings to have them wiped away like this, especially in industries where reviews are really tough to get - DUI attorneys and mental health counselors, for example.

The new rating system using the detailed, 30 point Zagat system thrills the hospitality industry, especially properties with high ratings and well-curated reviews. However, it leaves the rest of the local business world wondering where their hard-earned gold stars went and how the rating system is going to work for them.

The gold stars in the SERPs were definitely attention-getters and gave businesses a great deal of incentive to get more good reviews and ratings from their customers. Now, those same businesses are expressing their unhappiness about losing their stars, as are the agencies that notice drastic decreases in CTRs for local businesses.

Some elements of Places got either discarded or broken with the change to Google+Local.  Owner photo uploads, for example may now take a month to display. Other features, such as the additional details may or may not reappear on the local business pages in Google+. We don’t really have any way of knowing right now.

We are seeing some completely new features being added, like Google+Events, which allows you to announce events, invite people to attend them and allow them to RSVP. Google+Local also makes it much easier for businesses to interact with customers via circles, hangouts and the like.  Google’s recent acquisition of Meebo and mobile partnership with Pinterest signals additional potential and I expect Google+Local to be an ever-evolving stew of interactive features that businesses will learn to use in different ways.

Keep an eye on the Plus page of Delfina Restaurant, in the San Francisco Bay area. It’s a Google+Local test business with early access to Plus features, so you can get previews there of the features that you can expect to see on your own Plus page in the future.