Brittany Meye
15miles, Google, Local, Places
Following Groupon’s rejection of Google’s $6 billion offer to buy the group coupon buying site, it looks like Google has its comeback: Google Offers. Mashable broke the exclusive story of Google’s plan to launch the Groupon-like service six days ago and received this comment from Google:
“Google is communicating with small businesses to enlist their support and participation in a test of a pre-paid offers/vouchers program. This initiative is part of an ongoing effort at Google to make new products, such as the recent Offer Ads beta, that connect businesses with customers in new ways. We do not have more details to share at this time, but will keep you posted.”
Google has yet to publicly announce the launch of Google Offers – even though there are already almost 42,000 offers available (according to TechCrunch). Those of you who are familiar with Google Place Pages might remember a certain feature called “Coupons,” but don’t get confused; Google Offers is different (perhaps a re-branding effort?). In fact, Google Offers is different from the old “Coupon” feature and Groupon. Read the full article…
27Jan
Michael Solms
15miles, Google, Local, Places, local search study
Everywhere I turn there seems to be another article about Google Places. Well, this blog post is no different. Most of the articles focus on how the integration of Google Places Pages into search-engine results is revolutionizing the search world, as well as how those pages are impacting SEM/SEO efforts. However, I want to take a step back, and focus on the basics from a local business owner’s point of view.
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24Nov
Caleb Ross
Google, Local, Local Business Center, Places, Ratings & Reviews
Hotpot is here! What is Hotpot, you ask? That’s a valid question, considering Google is notoriously quiet about unrolling new features. And lately, with Google Instant, Google Instant Preview, and the Google Place Search changes, new features seem to be quietly flooding the landscape.
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19Nov
TJ Dinsmoor
15miles, Google, Places, SEM, SEO, SERP
Google is making news in the search world, again. In his most recent ClickZ article, “Google Places: Does Local SEO and Google Boost Make for a Local SEM?”, Gregg Stewart, discusses the potential impact Google’s new Place Search and Boost will have on their attempts to grab sales channels and further penetrate the local market.
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18Nov
LeAnn Hoksch
Google, Places, SEM, SEO, SERP
Google has been dancing around this change for the last year – hinting at localizing their SERP, with adjustments to their search by returning local results on queries without geo-modifiers, enhanced local business listings, broadening local reviews and most recently the launch of Places.
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27Oct
Jon Legler
Google, Places, Ratings & Reviews
Google has recently released an update to Google Place Pages that now will allow business owners to publicly respond to reviews. This is a great opportunity for businesses to interact directly with their customers. When it comes to negative reviews this has the potential to be an extremely powerful tool. It allows both sides of the story to be told if you will. It is reassuring for a consumer to see that when someone does have a bad experience with a business that the business is aware of the issue and doing everything possible to correct it.
So while this is a great opportunity to clear up complaints, I would suggest against posting a response with a hot head. More than one person is going to see the response. Posting an inflammatory response to someone who is already unhappy with your product is only going to make a bad situation worse. The phrase “The customer is always right” still has relevance in this case. Potential customers will see great value in a company who realizes that they might have a problem, and if they choose to do business with that company the same will not happen to them. In the case of responding to good reviews it is great to let the consumer know that their business is important to you, and be able to thank them directly.
All a business has to do in order to claim their place page is verify their identity and claim their listing. Remember to check your reviews often and stay up to date with responses.
09Aug
Joey Woodbury
Google, Local, Local Business Center, Places, online marketing
Google decided to change the name of the “Google Local Business Center” to “Google Places.” According to Google the motivation behind the name change is to “better connect Place Pages – the way that businesses are being found today – with the tool that enables business owners to manage their presence on Google”.
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20Apr
