It seems Google is moving steadily ahead with its plan to integrate all its services with Google+. The latest integration being Google+ Pages showing up in Places search results. As reported by Mike Blumenthal of Blumenthals.com posted about what was showing up in Google’s local results.
Local SEO
Google's road to local has just been altered, and the local search stakes have been raised by the search engine in Google Places. These changes in the local results SERPs on Google search was announced by Google recently.
It is time to capitalize on the local search. With mobile usage increasing and several other behavioral changes among the consumers, local search is a big business opportunity now. MDG Advertising has prepared an ifographic on the same titled – "Local Search Evolved", here it is:
Do you agree with the observations on this infographic? Share your views below.
If your business is on Google Places, then the address and related information will be updated automatically with the information that Google will gather from users and “third parties/trusted sources.” This was announced by Google on the LatLong Blog recently and it stated that the update will be done automatically if they think that the information is more accurate and up to date than the Places Dashboard.
Google says, “We’re introducing a new process that helps streamline the way updates are made to potentially outdated or incorrect business listings. Previously, verified business listings would always reflect the information provided by its owner – even if we received data about an updated name, address, or hours of operation. But now, if a user provides new information about a business they know – or if our system identifies information from another source on the web that may be more recent than the data the business owner provided via Google Places – the organic listing will automatically be updated and the business owner will be sent an email notification about the change.”
Google has added that business owners can always log in to their Google Places account and make further edits, if the information provided in incorrect or incomplete. Also these updates will have no effect whatsoever on the online ads from business owners using AdWords or AdWords Express programs.
Why Was This Needed?
Every SEO seems to have different views about the nature of our industry, ranging from “exciting” to “dynamic” to “ever changing”. Despite these conflicting views on the over all nature, it is an undeniable fact that the local online advertising market has grown leaps and bounds in the past few years.
Google has been working on the look of all its services- Gmail, Maps and everything. The purpose is to integrate the look of all products with with Google+. Now, it's Google Places that has been revamped by Google. The new look is crisper, and the off site reviews have been removed.
It appears, in the Google Places search result, of the main searches, the third part reviews whilst still being linked to the result are not taken into consideration for the total reviews. Google's own reviews are only being depicted in the review count.
David Mihm has published his annual survey of SEO Experts.
This report has feedback from 33 bloggers and practitioners. There are two key areas in which it differs from previous years.
- Rather than rating the importance of particular criteria on a sliding scale of -5 → 0 → +5, this year featured a drag-and-drop numerical ranking system in an effort to make the survey results both more precise and easier for the participants to complete.
In a recent blog, Google made an announcement, that with the use of Rich Snippets, web pages with a reference to a particular place, are more likely to get displayed in the search results, when a user makes a search query on that specific location.
Google says, “The Internet is teeming with useful information about local places and points of interest, and we do our best to deliver relevant search results that help shed light on locations all across the globe.”
The much applauded Local Search Ranking Factors is out with a second version. The well compiled guide published by many local SEO experts are based on survey results. The survey included polling 27 local SEO experts on 49 factors. These factors are those key points which will help in local search ranking. With respect to the influence of the 49 factors on Google and Yahoo Local search algorithm participants were asked to rate its importance. As follows
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