Free SEO Optimization Tips

Reviews of Local Business Just Got Easier: Google Business Reviews, Too!

2010-08-23T19:25:00.000-07:00

No business reviews? Not enough good reviews? A big bad negative review on Yelp? They can all effect your business in many different ways. Now it's ShoutDog.com to the rescue

ShoutDog.com is ready for use. We've been talking about the cute Orange Dog for some time now, but after a huge effort on the part of the entire team here at Page1Listings, we are breaking out the champagne.

What is ShoutDog.com. It is an easy way for you, the small business owner or marketing manager or consultant to generate local business reviews, and yes, the Holy grail of business review sites, Google Places business reviews. We send you the necessary html or images and links to put the ShoutDog logo and link on your website, blog, Facebook Fan Page, or email newsletter.

When your clients see the ShoutDog logo it will be obvious that you would like them to help out with a review of your business. Now the best part. When they click on the ShoutDog, the will be linked to a page specifically constructed for your business with easy as 1, 2, 3 instructions for them to create those golden reviews.

You will have a unique page that will specifically point out the business review sites that you care about. These can be the large local search engines and directories mentioned above, or industry specific sites like AVVA for lawyers, urbanspoon.com for restaurants, or tripadvisor for hotels. All your customer needs to do is click on the link to these business review sites, and they will go directly to the very page where they can say wonderful things about you.

Go to http://www.ShoutDog.com right now and sign up. The sooner you sign up the sooner you can start to see your star rising up on Google Places. You do know that part of your ranking at Google Places is based on how many reviews you have. AND, not only how many reviews you have at Google itself, but they also give you cred for having reviews on other directories. What are you waiting for? http://www.ShoutDog.com

Did you know that when your potential customer visits CitySearch or SuperPages looking for the kinds of goods and services you provide, they are twice as likely to call you or click through to your website if there are positive reviews about you? And the reviews themselves can be the motivation needed. At only $19.95 per month, it will likely only take one person to visit you or call you because of these reviews to more than pay for the monthly subscription. http://ShoutDog.com

ShoutDog.com Business Cards

Special Bonus to sign up NOW! We will also send you 250 business cards like these. You can hand these out to customers at check out or to friends and business associates at meetings or functions. What an easy way to ask a favor: "Please help me grow my business with a review." We want to help you get those reviews. We will be posting other ideas and suggestions for how to use your ShoutDog as a massive review generator. Get your bonus. Go to http://ShoutDog.com

We are positioning ShoutDog as a proactive online reputation tool. You may have already experienced a negative review on one of these sites. The best cure to one or two negative reviews is five or ten or 50 good ones.

Or maybe you've never been "flamed." A flame is a really bad review that is more commonly written by a disgruntled former employee or competitor that a really mad customer. But it has the same effect. The best way to get ahead of a future flame or other negative review. Have multiple good reviews already posted. Either way, the answer is ShoutDog.com

Reviews on Google Places: Now You, the Owner, Can Respond

2010-08-04T13:13:00.000-07:00

Google Places business listings intends to be number one among all business listing tools on the web. They have the right location to accomplish this. The only thing left to do is provide such a robust environment for both owners and their customers that both will spend time, energy, and money here rather than at Yellowpages, Yelp, Yahoo, or other competitors in the online local search engine and directory world.

According to conversations I've had with managers at Yelp and CitySearch, and according to many articles on the subject by various pundits, the real competition is in the reviews. And online business reviews are real trouble. Flames from competitors, unreasonable expectations from consumers, and a propensity to complain and ask questions later, has resulted in lost business for otherwise excellent businesses.

Yelp has been at the center of the controversy, including various lawsuits on the subject. They started offering owner responses several months ago. Now Google is following that lead, and in a way that is very unGoogle-like. They have given rules, recommendations, and even examples of do's and dont's for handling the responses. And at least at first blush, they have made the process simple. Could this be a forerunner of better customer care by Google in the future, or just a recognition that anything less might create lawsuits for Google?

In order to make a response to a review on Google Places, you must have claimed your listing. Amazing, but true, there a millions of businesses who have not yet claimed their listings. Once you have claimed your listing, you will see the reviews section on the Place Page. There you will also see "Respond publicly as the owner." Merely click here, make your response and click publish.
Google has posted rules for the review and response section as follows:
    •    Don't spam or post fake reviews intended to boost or lower ratings.
    •    Don't post or link to content that is sexually explicit or contains profanity.
    •    Don't post or link to content that is abusive or hateful or threatens or harasses others.
    •    Don't post or or link to any file that contains viruses, corrupted files, "Trojan Horses," or any other contaminating or destructive features that may damage someone else's computer.
    •    Don't post any material that violates the copyrights or other intellectual property rights of others.
    •    Don't impersonate any person, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity.
    •    Don't violate any other applicable law or regulation.
    •    Don't use comments as a forum for advertisement.
And google has posted their thoughts and ideas on what to say or not say when you post a response.

These are very common sense ideas. You can see their suggestions here.

My thoughts are these. Acknowledge and validate their feelings and concerns while not necessarily agreeing with their facts. If you do agree with their facts, make it clear that you would welcome a chance to make it right. If you don't acknowledge their facts, make your own clear statement of your position with a very "nice" tone. In many cases, even if they don't have a leg to stand on, you can create great future goodwill with them and others by graciously offering to meet them somewhere in the middle.

Be sure to provide a response to every issue. Sometimes a good review might contain a slightly negative element. Profusely thank the person for their good review and use the guidelines above to respond to the negative part.

By far the best response to negative reviews is lots and lots of postiive ones. Explore ways to generate positive reviews and make it a part of company policy to encourage such reviews. http://www.ShoutDog.com is one online company offering some methods for getting more reviews.

SEM News: Google Places Local Maps Stats Reported by Blumenthal

2010-07-24T15:07:00.000-07:00

What? You don't follow Blumenthal on SEO, SEM, SERP, and Google Places Local Maps. That would be like not following this blog. Ok. We are a bit deeper on the details and come at it from a pure marketing perspective. However, Blumenthal's blog is the source of insider stuff and the real Guru of the category.

Here's his latest stats for local search:

The Comscore Search report for June has been released. Google had 10.29 billion searches. If roughly the same percentage of searches (20%) had local intent as Google has indicated then there were approximately 2,187,200,000 searches in the U.S. on Google’s main search site last month that were local in nature.

Google Places Myth #6- A False Street Address is a Good Strategy

2010-07-20T13:02:00.000-07:00

Google Places is a powerful tool that you can use to build your business visibility and vastly improve the Search Engine Optimization of your blog or website, IF YOU KNOW HOW TO DO IT! Like any new skill, using Google Places to it's best advantage requires practice, skill, reliable information and, sometimes, a little professional assistance!

Google Places Myth #9- Why Did Google Maps Drop My Listing?

2010-07-14T14:21:00.000-07:00

My experience says that every time someone's listing is dropped it is a result of something done incorrectly. If you seem to be experiencing problems, you can call an expert to help you achieve a higher rank on Google Places.

Google Places Myth #10- A Website is Necessary to get Good SEO

2010-07-14T14:17:00.000-07:00

You don't need to spend money on a great website to get great SEO. You can start out with a blog, and still reach #1 on Google Places. We offer professional help and are very successful at getting you highly ranked on Google Places.

Description is a Critical Element in How to Set Up and Optimize Your Google Places Directory Listing

2010-06-26T13:37:00.001-07:00

You may have heard of the elevator speech where you need to tell someone in 4 floors enough about your mortgage broker business to get your listener to ask for your card. The description space on the listing form for Google Places Directory is only 200 characters, counting spaces, or about 40 words. You need to tell your whole story in a way that is captivating and yet includes keywords.

Here's a video with much more to say on the subject.

Google Places Directory - Ten Tips on Getting Conversions from Google Places Business Listings

2010-06-26T13:36:00.000-07:00

Getting your chiropractic office set up on Google Places is one thing. Getting it on the outside MAP is the second thing. But what if all that work doesn't cause the phone to ring. No internet Marketing plan is worth anything if your resulting visibility does not result in conversions or actions taken. What is a conversion?

A Google Places conversion is turning the impression into a visit, the visit into some kind of action, and the action into an order. At any point along the way, the process can get hung up and the impression is wasted. It is not unusual to see companies get 30 impressions per day with only 3 actions such as clicked a link to the website, blog, or other link offered, looked for directions, or checked out the coupon. Google Places offers no method for finding out if someone calls your company on the phone. Your staff should be asking every caller and visitor to the store how the person heard about you so that you can determine which advertising efforts are paying off.

What can you do to increase conversions:

Be on the outside MAP.
Show up #1. If this is obvious, sorry, but it needed to be on this list.
Have lots of reviews. Consumers assume (probably correctly) that number of reviews correlates with quality of the business
Make sure you have a great first picture as it is the one that shows up as a thumbnail icon.
Fill out everything in the listing in great detail per the tutorials and posts in this blog.
Have plenty of action steps available. Use links in the NewFlash section and the More Details.
Offer a great deal in the coupon and in the NewsFlash
Look over all the content and ask if this content would sell you on taking action.
Make sure you website, blog, facebook or any other resource the client clicks to is a selling machine. Does it engage, persuade, close, and capture the client.
Watch your analytics and make changes based on results

Load it Up!- Google Places Business Listing "More Details" Section

2010-06-26T13:33:00.000-07:00

Let's say you are a law firm using Google Places and you've filled out the rest of the form using all the ideas and suggestions in this blog or on the video series. Now you are at the bottom of the page and you get lots of space to talk all about what you do. You could put practice areas on the left and then list family law, criminal law, real estate law, and personal injury law on the right hand side.

Or you could list family legal services on the left and divorce law, custody issues, spousal support, child support on the right. You can also use this area to link your Facebook to Google Places or your Blog. Just put in any URL you want to link. You could also link an inside page from your website that was about a specific area of your business. So using the law firm example again, you could put child support on the left and then put a link on the right that goes to the inside page of your website that talks about child support. Here is a video that explains more detail.

Videos Recommended by Google's Official Site

2010-06-26T13:31:00.000-07:00

Putting up a video is really easy. Finally something that isn't complicated. But where do you get a video? How do you get a video? THIS video will give you several options including hiring us to create a video for you.

But if you don't have a video, you might find some on the web that you can use. If you are an Orthodontist setting up Google Places looking for videos to put up, you could search YouTube for videos on Invisalign or braces or other manufacturers of aspects of your business. There is nothing wrong with listing these videos on your Google Places as long as they are not your competitors.

Google Video Tutorial- Posting Pictures on Places Business Listings

2010-06-26T13:24:00.000-07:00

The picture section of Google Places is extremely important; especially for grabbing the attention of the internet surfer. Obviously, putting picture onto the places information section makes the whole presentation look much more exciting. For a lawyer or doctor, a picture of the owner might be a good idea. But for a jewelry store on Google Places, I would suggest a picture of a really nice ring.

The potential customer or client will learn a lot more about you from 10 pictures than from 10,000 words (or so the saying goes). But the importance doesn't stop there. Google counts those pictures towards your 100% status and thus it will effect your standing on the outside MAP. If those two reasons weren't enough, your first picture becomes an thumbnail icon on your primary listing. And if you have that picture, and it is emotionally appealing, you will undoubtedly increase the number of folks who click in to see the rest of your places site. Here is a video with some more instructions. You can also check out the pictures tutorial on the left side column of this blog.

Google Places Categories - Video Tutorial on Selecting Google Places Categories

2010-06-26T13:21:00.000-07:00

Google Places has only one piece of advice for you on selecting a category. The first one of the five allowed should be one of the options that Google Places offers in the pull down menu that appears when you put in a key word. How do you decide which one to use? What about the other four categories? These questions and more are answered in this video and in the Tutorial in the left hand column. Some of the material is in both places. A few things aren't.

Google Places Directory: How To Claim Your Google Places Listing

2010-06-26T13:18:00.000-07:00

I recently received an email from a blog visitor who astutely pointed out that I had never covered the beginning of the process. Obviously, it is kind of hard to understand all the detailed inner workings of Google Places if you have not been able to find your business and claim it.

First, let's define CLAIM. Almost all local search engines and directories (same thing to me. I like to just call all of them LSE's), buy or otherwise acquire lists of businesses from various sources. So when you try to find your listing for a Hair Salon or Barber Shop on YellowPages or Yahoo.local or here at Google Places, you might find that there is information about you appearing and you didn't do anything to cause that to happen. When you find a listing of this type and you have not "signed up" with that LSE, then your listing is fair game.

By fair game, I mean that in many cases any member of the public can add to, subtract from, or change your listing. This might be friend or foe. You can well imagine the ways that your competitor or any other enemy might alter your listing for their benefit. AND anyone can claim your listing. They can say that they are the owner. Now, each LSE has different ways to try and keep an interloper from claiming what is rightfully yours. However, the best way to solve that is to claim it yourself.

There are two ways to do this. Step one in the process is to look your business up on Google Maps. Type in your business type and city (see first image below for Bakery Pomona) or business name and city (see second images below). You will get a map most of the time. If you see your name, click on more information if that is showing or reviews if not. If you are not already listed, skip way down on this post to see what to do to create a new listing.

You will now get a screen that looks like this

And you will note the location that ask if you are the owner. Please note it also offers an opportunity to edit if you aren't the owner. Once you claim the listing, this offer goes away.

Once you click on this "Business Owner" link you will now find yourself on a partially filled out form that will look like the below image.

Go ahead and fill in the spaces. I will not repeat all the recommendations here with regard to how to fill in each of these blanks. Just let me say that even the Name of your company is critical. The address, phone number, category and description all matter. So please read the Blogger pages in the left hand column or watch the video tutorials or both before filling in these blanks.

After you have filled out the first part of the form, it will look something like this. Note that I have just begun to fill in the category section, and it shows a drop down menu for selecting choices that Google suggests. Always choose one of Google's ideas for your first category.

The rest of the process is self explanatory. Now let's take a look at the other way that you can add a new listing or find an existing listing. This begins by typing this url into your address bar local.Google.com

You will get a screen that looks like this.

When you click on Add business in Google Maps, you will either go directly to a set up page if you have a Google Account or you will be prompted to set up a Google Account. Setting up the account is easy, so I won't cover that here. Once you have a Google Account, start this process again, and you will get the following screen

If you are new to Google, you may not have this many items, but find Google Places and click on that. You will now go back to the screen that offers you the same form to fill in. Of course, this time it will be completely blank. When you complete the form as far as I took you in the example above and you click on continue, you may get a screen that says Google thinks you already exist. If you get this screen take a look at the options and select the obvious one.

When you have completed the entire form, you will be offered the opportunity to submit. After pressing that, you will have a choice of postcard or phone (most of the time. Sometimes you will get only postcard. See my post on this.) If you choose phone, you will get a series of prompts that will allow you to complete the process.

Google Places Analytics - Getting Maximum Benefit from Google Places

2010-06-26T13:13:00.000-07:00

As a marketing consultant, getting tracking for any campaign is one of the greatest challenges I face when working with my client. Whether it is a newspaper ad, Craig's List, a local trade show, an ad in an industry publication, or the use of a promotional product, most owners and their employees have a hard time remembering to ask "How did you hear about us," whether on the phone, by email, or in person.

Without accurate tracking information there is little hope of getting enough real feedback to determine the success of any effort. Sure, you can look at the quantity of contacts during the campaign, or the total sales around that time, but these are subject to other influences, and therefore is not an accurate gauge.

Enter internet marketing. One of the best aspects of online marketing is that many of the stats are automatically gathered by the advertiser or through attaching statistical tools to the back end of any online marketing ap. So it is with Google Places. And the huge results that can be seen in the analytic tool supplied by Google Places is one of the reasons I continue to point to this marketing product as the most important in the local internet marketing toolbox.

Here's the sad thing. Most owners of small local businesses don't bother to check the analytics that are so easily accessible and free. The wealth of information is huge, and can be used to impact future purchases, locations, phone practices, prices, couponing, event planning, and other online advertising approaches.

Google has now created a central location where you can access all of your Google products and tools. Just type in Google.com/accounts If you haven't signed in recently, you'll have to supply your id and password. You will get something that looks like the above (although you likely don't have quite so many items on your page).

If you have claimed a Google Places business under this account, you should see Google Places as a link like the one in the first column on this page. click that and you will go to this page.

Here is where you can start digging in to see who is looking for you, what they do when the find you, and what keywords they are finding you under, just to name a few. I will devote more time to this in a future post. For now - just go there and play around to see what is of interest to you.

The Google Places Coupon Can Help You Score Points with the Google Places Local Business Directory

2010-06-26T13:06:00.000-07:00

The truth is, many consumers don't care much or even know about Google Places Coupons, but you can be sure that Google cares and will add to your "score" if you create a coupon for your Google Places directory listing. Here's more on the subject in a short video.

Google Places Business Listing Secret - The Phone Number

2010-06-26T13:00:00.000-07:00

In order for Google Places to rank your business high on the outside MAP, your name, address, and phone number need to be consistent throughout the web. We discussed how to choose the company name and address on tutorial videos 1 and 2. Now we will examine how to choose or determine the right phone number to use.

Google Places- Confirmation by Phone or Snail Mail? Tips and Tricks

2010-06-26T12:56:00.000-07:00

You have just finished filling out all the blanks on the Google Places local business listing form. With equal parts pride and wariness, you push the submit button. Instead of the message you might be expecting that "an email has been sent to your email address. Please open that email and confirm your listing by clicking the link as instructed," you are told that you will have a choice.

Your choice is to get your Google Places listing confirmation by phone or by postcard. You are warned that it will take up to two weeks to get the postcard. If you want to get confirmed by phone, you need to be ready to answer the phone listed on the form. You also have the choice of providing an alternate phone for the purpose of this confirmation.

You are almost always going to want the phone confirmation. Who wants to wait two weeks? So if the phone confirmation is offered, click the little circle and continue. At this point you will be notified that if you continue, your phone will ring right now. It will. And a robot will give you a 5 digit number that you will use on the form now in front of you to confirm your listing. Easy, fast, no problem.
If you choose to use the phone route, don't use and alternative phone number. Don't ask? Just always use your primary number
When you press go, the phone will ring almost immediately. If you have multiple lines, the call may be answered by someone not expecting a robotic voice to give a five digit number. So, alert your staff in advance that the next call is yours.
If you blow it. If someone else does pick up, or if you get the number wrong, or if anything goes wrong, you can go back and resubmit, and generally you will still get the phone option.
For reasons known and unknown, sometimes you won't get the phone option. Go ahead and click the postcard option. In two week or less you will get the postcard which will have the five digit code. Go back into your listing area and put the number in to complete the process.
After agreeing to the postcard method, wait an hour and go back to edit your listing. Go to the bottom of the page and submit. You may now get the phone option. If not, try again the next day.

#1 Google Places Business Listing Tip - Choosing a Name

2010-06-26T12:51:00.000-07:00

Local SEO marketing guru Randy Kirk explains how to choose your company name when setting up your listing on Google Places. Even if your company already has a name, Kirk explains why you may need to change it. This is the first in at least ten tutorial videos that will supplement the written information in our pages on this blog.

Video: How to Set Up Google Places - Choosing Your Address

2010-06-26T12:46:00.000-07:00

Most local businesses that want to see more business from the internet, need to ensure that they are visible on Google Places. Each and every aspect of setting up your listing becomes critical in determining whether you get the results you want. One such element is the address. Wish it were so simple. Just write down your address. As explained in the tutorial on Google Places Choosing an address in the right column of this blog and expanded upon in this video, you might need to think a big more about your address choice.

Local Seo Optimization Gets a Huge New Option: Google Places Tags

2010-06-25T21:11:00.000-07:00

Google Places local business listings just got a whole lot better.

Now Google Places Tags offer SMB's the ability to stand out in a crowd for only $25 a month. Here is a video that tells the story.

Google Places Business Listings- We've Been Asked "Can We Pay You to Set Up Google Places and Get Us A High Ranking?"

2010-06-23T17:29:00.000-07:00

We exist to help small businesses with their internet marketing as well as their more traditional offline marketing. We have become especially proficient and knowledgeable with Google Places, thus you have this blog. Rest assured, we are top notch creators, designers, and developers of websites, and we also utilize email blasts, PR releases, YouTube Videos, blogs, and related activities to increase your visibility online.

Our prices tend to be under market as our niche is businesses with no employees up to about 50 employees. We are not interested in becoming a 10 story office building being used by the companies in the S&P 500. Instead we would be excited to have a bunch of mom and pop businesses growing and prospering due, in part, to our input.

You can learn a lot more about our services by going to Page1Listings.com. You can learn a lot more about me personally by Googling my name, or checking out my old nasty website at SearchPage1.com. It is pretty ugly, but the information is very valid.

I have also produced a couple of dozen Youtube videos that might help you with various aspects of your business such as collections, sales, or how to benefit from the use of YouTube videos.

Call me anytime at 310-910-1848. No automated answering machines, no secretaries, no voice mail and call back. You'll almost always get me. I might be at the ball field watching my son strike out the side, but I'll still pick up.

Google Places Business Listing Issue – One Location, Multiple Businesses or Business Services

2010-06-23T17:19:00.000-07:00

Google Places Business Listings has a major issue for almost all businesses. Almost every business has more than one thing they do or want to tell the world they do. Even if I'm a restaurant, I may want to rank high for restaurant in general and Mexican Restaurant Specifically. But now what do I do about my catering business, or my banquet business. Then I may want to use the location as a great meeting location.

Our restaurant owner really, really wants to appear on the outside MAP for all of those. He isn’t at all happy with being relegated to the inside listings on page 4 or 5 for any of those.

The answer to his dilemma is very complicated and can be expensive. First, he can go 100% legit. He lists his business, Paco's, the address, phone, and then goes to categories. He puts his five categories in the boxes and uses the description, and detail sections to further illustrate that he is really good at all five.

Chances are that if he does all the other things listed on these pages, he will show up on the outside MAP for at least restaurant (depending on how much competition in the city) and maybe his second choice.

What could he do to get a few more? How about change the name of his restaurnat to Pacos Mexican Restaurant and Catering. By having all three in his Name, he will help to get those three to higher levels of Google’s attention. He needs this new name to be on all places where his name appears on the web, including his website, blog, City Search, Yellowpages.com, Yelp, Yahoo, and everywhere else.

What next? Go ahead and start a second business in the same location. Get a real honest-to-goodness DBA or corp name for the second business. This one could be Mexican Banquets and Meeting Room. (If you hire me for branding, I will do better than this, I promise.) Now you need another web page or landing page or blog that shows this name and your address, and a different phone number. Now list this second business all over the web. Then, last, come back to Google docs under a new Google Account and set up your second company.

There are other possible solutions, but I’ll save those for another day.

Google Places Now Offers Posts - Twitter-like Tool!

2010-06-23T17:05:00.000-07:00

Google Places Business Listings has so many ideas that are so clever, useful, and inexpensive, that it should start pulling way ahead of the other Local Search Engines real soon. This one could be called the Twitter of local search.

As a marketer or business owner, you should be monitoring your Google Places Analytics daily or at least weekly to see trends and make revisions in your strategy for both Google Places and your other online advertising. While you are checking your Analytics, you can easily put up a quick update as shown below.
Google Places POSTS.

Note the box under the "Post to your place page." I created a post for this client. All you do when you want to change it is do a new one in that box.

Here is where your Google Places News Flash appears. Note how I also used the location to create another link to the website.

Ten Tips to Quickly Set Up Google Places

2010-06-23T16:56:00.000-07:00

You take one look at this blog and your already exhausted just thinking about how much work it will be to truly optimize your Google Places listing. Just filling out the form for the basic set up of Google Places is enough to make some people wish for 5:00 to show up. So, can I give you some basic, quick help for Google Places that will at least take care of the obvious and maybe get me on the outside MAP in easy cities for easy keywords. Here's that list:

1. Use the real name of your company. Add one or two keywords if your company name has no keywords in it. (eg. Trendy is the real name and they are a women's shoe store. Use Trendy Women's Shoes.

2. Use your real address and make sure it is the same everywhere it appears. Put the address on the front page of your website.

3. Use a local phone number, not and 800 number. Make sure it is the same number that appears on the front page of your website and elsewhere on the web.

4. When choosing the category for your company, use one that Google suggests for the top category. For the other four, use Google suggestions or make up your own.

5. Put up pictures. The first one should be a picture that will look good as an icon, as it will appear to the left of your listing on the inside MAPS.

6. Put up videos. They will help to make Google Happy. Use any video about what you do. Does not have to be a video you produced.

7. Use the additional information boxes at the bottom of the listing form. You can use links in these boxes to your blog, facebook, etc.

8. Create a Coupon. Can't hurt. Might actually get some sales from them

9. Set up your business in a New Google Account. Don't put it in your personal Google Account, another business Google Account, or a 3rd party vendor's Google Account.

10. Get reviews. Lots of them. Ask friends, family, and your best customers to review you.

Bonus. If you want this done right, either read and completely follow the instructions elsewhere on this blog or hire a pro to do it for you. In fact, hire us. 310-910-1848. Ask for Randy

Google Places- Keep YOUR Listing YOURS! New Google Account For Each Business.

2010-06-23T16:49:00.000-07:00

DON'T GIVE UP YOUR HARD EARNED GOOGLE PLACES REVIEWS AND CITATIONS!!

When setting up your Google Places account, remember that there is no way to transfer this account. If you should sell the business or have any other reason to want to transfer control of the account to another person, you will need to delete the listing and start over. This means losing all of your reviews and citations. Obviously this could be disastrous!

That being said, DO NOT allow your marketing consultant, advertising agency, or any other outside company to create your listing in their account. They may wish to do this for convenience. You need to create this listing in a NEW Google Account.

DO NOT use your personal Google Account or the Google Account of another business you own or control to create your listing.

DO Create a brand new Google Account for each business that you own. This will allow you to control the account and enable you to transfer that control without losing any of the work you have done.

You should use this thinking with regard to all local search engine listings such as MerchantCircle, HotFrog, YellowPages.com, Yelp, Yahoo, Bing, and others.

Google Places City Stuffing In Category Popular, but Does Google Like It?

2010-06-22T22:40:00.000-07:00

I didn't see why Google would care, but check out this video for the truth.

Keyword Stuff Your Google Places Name? Good Idea or Bad?

2010-06-22T22:27:00.000-07:00

Here's a myth for you. Add a bunch of keywords to the actual name of your business in order to get a high ranking on Google Maps for keywords that you stuff. Now see a video that explains the truth about key word stuffing in Google Maps.

Setting Up Google Places Can Be Really Easy or Really Hard

2010-06-22T22:12:00.000-07:00

There are two myths about Google Places. One says it is really hard to set up Google Places. The other says that it is really easy to set up Google Places. This video will explode both myths.

How to Set Up Google Places Tags - Google Places Tip Eleven

2010-06-19T18:54:00.000-07:00

If you are in California, Illinois, Texas, DC,Washington, or Atlanta, Google Places Tags are LIVE and ready for you to use. If you aren't in one of those states, it shouldn't be that long before Tags are rolled out everywhere. No schedule has been posted on the official page about Google Places Tags.

A Tag is a tiny yellow ad on your Google Places listing that will make you stand out from your competition. You only get 22 characters showing, so this is even a better test of your advertising writing skills than Adwords. The introductory cost is $25 per month.

There is nothing easy about setting up tags. First, you can't create a tag unless you have claimed your Google Places Listing. I have written elsewhere about this process, and there is nothing easy about how to claim your Google Places Listing. Be sure to read everything on this blog as you claim your listing. It will help you to get a great ranking.

Since this is going to cost you money, even if a paltry sum, you want to plan your ad campaign. The good news is that you can change your Tag every day or more often if you like. Google requires no contract on Tags, so you can quit any time.
You have Five basic choices as to what your Tag can point to:

Your own website Facebook Fan Page or blog
A video that will tell your story
A picture
The Google Places Coupon created for this purpose
The Google Places Post you create for this purpose

On each of the above I have provide a link that can help you understand more about the choice. I am going to explain here what I believe will usually be the best use of the Google Places Tag.

Back on the Google Places Account page, you need to click on the small analytics graph and see the full analytics page. In the upper right hand corner of this page is the location where you can place your Post.

The post can be up to 100 characters and will show on your listing page as shown above. However, if you point to this text as your TAG, only the first 22 characters will be visible. If the viewer clicks on the tag, they will link to the listing page and see the entire Post, and everything else on your listing. You want to use the tag to stand out and create enough interest to get a click through. The clicks on the tag link will have a separate graph for analyzing its effectiveness.

Once you have decided which of the five you intend to use, you will see on this same page with the graph an offer to add the tag:

Once you have chosen from the pull down menu the type of tag you want, you can go to the check out page where you will set up your billing. If you have not set up a Post or Coupon in advance, you will not see Post or Coupon on the pull down menu. If you now create the Post or Coupon, you will need to refresh the page in order to see them on the pull down menu.

You can call a Google Rep to help you with this process at 800-838-7971. If you would like someone who will help you with the marketing rather than just the processing of your account, please give me a call at 310-910-1848.

Secrets to Claim a Google Places Listing and All the Benefits That Come with Google Places

2010-06-19T17:56:00.000-07:00

Claim Your Google Places Listing! There are many benefits to your business, but most are only available if you make it your own. If you have been in business for a year or so, you may already be listed. Potentially, your business information may not even be correct. Certainly the information will not be as good as you can make it. Importantly, claiming your Google Places Listing is known to be one of the most important factors in determining how you rank on Google Places compared to your competitors.
First you need a Google Account. You can go to Google.com or to Gmail.com and set up an account. Once you have opened an account go to local.Google.com. This will take you to a page that looks like this.

To the left hand side you will notice it says "Put your business on Google Maps." When you click on this link you will get this page.

If this is a brand new account with Google, you won't have all these things, but you will at least have the choice of Google Places. Click on that link and you will go to a page that looks like this:

Add in your company name address and the rest of the items asked for. When you finish this section, you will see a continue bar, click on that and you will be given some choices. If your company is already listed, Google will offer you the chance to claim the existing listing. If you see a good listing or even one that is close to correct, go ahead and choose that and continue.

If none of the listings they show is you or if there is no options at all, then just follow the instructions. No matter what you do, when you continue, you will now be back to the form and there will be more things to fill out. Finish filling out the form using all the best practices shown on this blog. At the bottom of the page you will be asked to submit.

Usually after submitting, you will get a choice of confirming your listing by phone or by post card. For most folks, I would suggest that you just take the phone call, get the code and enter it into the box as shown. Then you are done claiming the listing.

Google Places: Alert! Add Links to Google Places Listings

2010-06-11T14:25:00.000-07:00

I started seeing information about this recently after we reported that Google Places would allow links to a restaurant menu or a hotel reservation desk. Some then started to wonder whether this would expand. Apparently, expansion wasn't necessary. However, we can see that Google is the monster version of Mario Bros, and we need to somehow figure this stuff out for ourselves. Thus, put any link you desire. Suggested links would be anything and everything except your website (which is already linked in the main body of the listing). However, listing internal pages in your website that you would like to point out directly would be a great approach.

So blogs, Facebook Fan Pages, Twitter, MySpace (who?), and Meetup pages are all be examples of pages outside your website you could link. As far as the inside is concerned, I would consider pointing out specific products, brands, services, specials, biographies of leadership. The list goes on and on.

To add these links, merely access your Places listing by going to your Google Account. Next, hit the edit link button. At the bottom of the form you will see the Additional Details Section. Add the link just as I have done for Montrose Bike's Blog.

Google Places - Numerous Professionals with One Street Address Can Have Multiple Places Listings

2010-06-11T13:41:00.000-07:00

Freshly picked from a new Blumenthal blog on Understanding Google Maps and Local Search

In an interview with Google

I decided however, to get Google’s “official” opinion on the matter so I asked Ari Bezman, Google’s product manager for the ~~Local Business Center~~Google Places as to how Google thought this situation should be handled.
MB: What is Google’s recommended practice in regards to handling the multiple listings that most professionals and clinics end up with?
Should we endeavor to have one listing for the practice Place and merge all of the doctors (or whatever) into the one listing or should a we endeavor to keep the individual doctor listings?
Ari: Each doctor (or other independent professional) should have their own listing, with one more listing for the clinic.
MB: A related question is that often the Doctor listings come into Google with a format of Dr Name: Speciality . Is that the preferred business name or is just the Dr. Name preferred?
Ari: The name should just be Dr. Name. The specialty should be in the category and/or the description.

This was followed with a lively discussion on what this means. Does this only apply to professionals? Should it? What happens to businesses with widely different product categories or services? For the moment, we only have it from the horses mouth, professionals that operate out of a single business location can list themselves one at a time. For the issue of naming each professional, I noted that Ari said "should be." I doubt that's true. I believe that the Doctor Could surely add a specialty, but I would stop at Dr. Jones Heart Surgeon unless I had a DBA for a longer name.

Google Places: "Owner Content Will Get Priority"

2010-06-11T13:17:00.000-07:00

The new Google Places Help Forum is not yet at its full potential, but it's definitely improved. A Google employee released that the company does buy information from other companies, including YellowPages.com. Because they buy that information, there's an opportunity for competing information. This competing information will even include the key elements such as your name, address, and phone number.

A client of mine doesn't like her picture that is included with her Places listing. This picture was taken from CitySearch. There's no telling how they got the photo, but you get the point. The Google Places Rep said that they will go as far as to call a business to establish what information is correct when there is conflict. I would love to receive news of that actually happening.

The key element to be taken from the forum post: Information, pictures, and videos supplied by the owner will always be preferred to info coming from other sources, including the paid ones. This is why there is so much importance that you claim your Google Places listing and keep it fresh.

Update - I am beginning to see situations where owner information is NOT showing up in listings, but citations from other resources are seemingly getting priority. What are others seeing? Please comment.

Google Places: The Yellow Pages of The Present and Future

2010-06-09T14:15:00.000-07:00

Lest anyone think I dost protest too much, check out the following post. Google has to the position, the product, and the power to be the king of local search. Like the 2010 Lakers, it is there's to lose.

Is Google Becoming the New Ma Bell?

By Gregg Stewart, ClickZ, May 6, 2010

Sponsored by Microsoft Mobile Advertising

First off, some younger readers might not get the comparison. The colloquial term Ma Bell ("Mother Bell") was used to refer to the conglomerate that held a complete monopoly over all telephone service in most areas of the United States. In effect, they were the utility that brought communication to U.S. consumers and businesses. Fast forward about 100 years and we see a similar "utility" emerging in Google as it moves further to embed its product set and services in the minds of both consumers and businesses.

Nowhere is this pattern more evident than in the realm of local search. With over 65 percent marketshare of search (according to comScore) and nearly $12 billion in annualized revenue from U.S. search (according to Google's Q1 2010 Quarterly Earnings Summary); I think we can all agree that Google is a successful business. Interestingly though, all of this success has come from leveraging a relatively small base of advertisers, around 1 million U.S. advertisers (as of 2009). Considering there were over 29 million businesses in the U.S. in 2008 (according to SBA), it stands to reason that Google has an opportunity to dominate the local search marketplace.
Let's consider the facts; one in five searches on Google is now explicitly location-specific. Recently, Google has taken some steps to enhance the local-search process on its site as well as the local content itself. Most notably, these steps include:

The revamp of the Local Business Center - now called Google Places
Google Maps allowing service-based businesses to target service areas
The enhanced localization of Google Suggest

Google Places: The Effect of Citations on the Outside MAP Placement

2010-06-09T14:05:00.000-07:00

(click to enlarge)

This is directed to SEO and marketing consultants looking for a substantial lead over their competition. It's also for all business owners and marketing managers who are frustrated with their inability to rank their Google Places listing as high and higher than they want.

You have not skipped a word in this blog. You have more reviews than any contenders. You have a 100% rating on Places in terms of listing completeness. You have an active coupon. You have listed your company with the same name, address and phone number on an endless list of other Local Search Engines. The name address and phone number are even on the home page of your website. After all you've done, you're still not showing up on the MAP of Google Places.

Why do you need those things first before worrying about citations? It's because every one of those things is more likely to get you to your goal, and because the advice on citations is boring, and is just barely going to add to your "Google points."

So why do it? Because those last few points could be exactly what you need to make that last move up.

With that huge introduction finally out the door, now we should probably define citation. A citation any time another website mentions you, especially if they are credible in your same field. Say that you're a bakery, and you get a write up in the local paper declaring you as the best bakery in town. The online version of that paper will then include your name and hopefully your URL, thus you gain credibility. These are citations.

The next step is to go to every listing ranking higher than you. Take a look at the citations that Google is showing as per the picture of my example listing shown above. What you want to do now is see if you can get the same sources' citations. In one case it might involve something as simple as being added to some sort of directory. In another case you may need to convince someone to do a write up on you.

So here's the good news and bad news. The bad news is there is absolutely no guarantee that Google will pick up your citation even after all of this hard work, but they probably will. The good news is that most of your newly acquired citations could have benefits in their own right, and may also help the position of your website, blog, or other URLs that are mentioned in these citations.

Google Places: Prioritizing Your Keywords, City, and Zip Codes

2010-06-09T13:10:00.000-07:00

Is it possible to have it all? You can accomplish everything I suggest, and do it perfectly, but sadly you won't get every keyword in every city and zip code you care about on Places. Right now I am working with a personal trainer in West Los Angeles who's business makes this case.

She would be thrilled to rank highly under Pilate Instructor, Pilate classes, Fitness, Exercise Classes, Nutrition, Personal Trainer, boot camp, weight loss consultant, personal fitness coach, and many more. In addition, her West L.A. address would allow her to draw from 15 cities such as Santa Monica, Culver City, and El Segundo, as well as 10 Los Angeles "villages" like Westwood, Venice, and Marina Del Rey. I wish there was a way to do all that.

Google Maps and other LSE's (Local Search Engines) are structured to give some sort of indexing based on how close they are to the city included in the search. For example, if I'm searching for Personal Trainer Santa Monica, why would I want an El Segundo business to show up first if the two cities are 8 miles away?

Now lets say I'm the owner, and my business borders Santa Monica and Mar Vista. However, my business is really located in Mar Vista, a small village of Los Angeles and less noticeable than Santa Monica. I sure would like to show up on the MAP in Santa Monica.

Reality time, sadly, you are going to have to do some prioritizing. In fact, you should really pick one key word and one city first. Next, do you try to broaden your control under that keyword, or work harder to dominate several key words in your primary city? Either way, the more cities you get or the more keywords you want, the harder it is to accomplish your tasks. However, it is better to at least set clear goals.

If you want to expand your reach past the "natural" stretches of Google Places algorithm, there are tricks that you can count on never being published by me. For these tricks, call me at 310-910-1848.

Google Places and restaurant - The MAP on the Outside is Critical

2010-06-08T14:30:00.000-07:00

Google Places for Restaurant Marketing should be a big priority for anyone who hopes to be a threat in their local market. After you've completed the basics outlined in the PAGES section of this blog, you need to step up the effort to the best of your ability on Reviews, Coupons, and Citations. Everyone in the business of the local search engine agrees that you will need to get as many reviews as you can on Yelp, CitySearch, YellowPages.com and all other local search engines if you're looking to compete. In the restaurant business, you will need listings as well as reviews in the specific Restaurant directories, and need to be front row center on the mobile device listings. This is a big plate to finish, but your future might very well depend on it.

However, the big hype is getting outside on the MAP. Getting that position ultimately depends on getting all those reviews, citations, and having an active coupon. Methods for getting your reviews will be the subject of a post soon to come.

For most restaurants, spending several thousands of dollars per month on prints, radio, AdPac, and everything else, is pretty much the minimum you can do. For just $1000 to $2000, you can get major permanent online positioning that will last for years to come. You can try it yourself by reading these pages and subscribing to the posts, or you can have it done by a pro. If you're inclined to just get it done, call 310-910-1848.

A website with great local SEO is a main part of the way to get you on the outside MAP. Local SEO is just one of our many specialties.

Google Places Help Forum Actually HELPS!

2010-06-08T13:54:00.000-07:00

In the past, a trip to the Google Local Business Center Help Forums gave help like trying to was away mud with more mud. Can't say that I was never helped, but after going there for help 3 or 4 times, I gave up.

I am happy to say that after a name change to Google Places, the forum has looked to have second thoughts with its views on the forum. Now we'll see experts who are answering our hard thought questions, and they're help actually helps.

But before we move farther forward, we need to get one thing straight. They will NOT give you gray hat approaches. Trust me, you'll still be coming here for that. I will never give you black hat, and just about all my work is white hat, but hints of gray are part of this internet game.

Optimizing Google Places- How To Get an A plus

2010-06-08T13:37:00.000-07:00

Here we have great helpful information, as well as an outstanding visual from Mike Blumenthal's Blog. Getting a 100% rating from Google is not critical when the time comes to rank your listing, but it can't hurt. And don't worry, it's not that hard.

If you prefer charts over well crafted visuals, here is one with exactly the same information.

Google Places Coming To the Rescue

2010-06-08T13:30:00.000-07:00

Recently, Google Places has given us these statements: they will have more information, newsletters, better forums, and all types of aid coming to us. You can call me the expert. Send me all of your questions. If I haven't already answered them somewhere in this blog, I may have the answer with me. Or with all this new help, I might be able to get an answer for you.