Hello, Has anyone read this article about this warning from Google? http://searchenginewatch.com/articl...-You-Have-3-Weeks-to-Save-Your-Places-Listing Knowing how many multi-location businesses have not yet properly engaged in using their local business listings as a marketing tool, I'm curious if this will help wake them up...along with any other business that are passive about using their Local Business Listings as a marketing tool. A quote from the Google Business Community Manager being mentioned: "We are making some changes to Google Places for Business and Google Maps so we can continue providing people with the best experience when they're looking for local businesses." Granted this does not necessarily affect everyone, however, it raises a question if this can help raise the awareness of this topic to businesses who are either oblivious to this marketing tool or are just passive by only using them through syndication services. Look forward to your feedback.
It makes me wonder if Google Places contains a large number of business that have either closed or gone out of business.
Well to be honest, there is a lot of old non working numbers and incorrect addresses / closed businesses etc, so it is a good move. As those closed businesses still take places when others could be there that are open I think they do, quite a lot tbh
The best part of that was it prompted me to check out the profile and I discovered that they now offer phone verification for listings. We don't get mail at our location so that has been a big stumbling block.
Hi Sarah, Yeah, the space of Pin Code verification of the local business listings is equally growing significantly. Mostly because of the local listing hijackings recently presented by Search Engine Land http://searchengineland.com/thousands-of-hotels-listings-were-hijacked-in-google-local-181670 ..and if you go back to 2011, Search Engine Watch broke the news about Cooper Tire hijackings. http://searchenginewatch.com/articl...ked-2300-Listings-at-Yahoo-Local-Yellow-Pages Yet, here we are in 2014 and we have businesses that have not engaged in their local business listings as a marketing tool and many national companies are only focused on data feeds through syndication services. The syndication services are not the end point, rather only a beginning point for using local listings as a local business marketing tool to reach local consumers in search and mobile. Very puzzling situation that these listings have been on the marketing going back to 2007, in the search engines since 2008 and through evolution and maturation, are now a marketing tool that need more attention than the passive approach by most businesses.
Seems like they are morphing google Local Business with google+, I would bet in the near future you will need a credit card or bank info to list your business. Already for google play you must enter a credit card or bank info just to spend a pre paid card= brute force data mining and brute force marketing tactics. Google adwords has been tanking. They will need other advertizing profit to make up for it and it would make sense for them to turn to google maps business listings. In reality they did not make these nice maps to "help improve our search experience" they are an investment to make profit from.
Hi Avery, Yes, you make a good point that Google is looking for additional advertising channels. In order for a business to use Google Adwords Express, it requires the local listings to be claimed into a Google account. Of course everything is moving towards being tied into Google+. Google has been rolling out several requirements in the last several months even for Google Certified Partners need to have their accounts linked to the Google+ Business Page. I'm not sure I'm in agreement with you about Google Adwords tanking. Google Adwords has 6 major advertising channels plus the Ad Extensions. When using all advertising channels strategically, the results work quite well. Of course you have to manage your keyword quality scores to extend your budget efficiently. If anything Adwords has become more of a science and you could say that it isn't as much of a "self-serve" discipline anymore. I think Google Adwords Express will much easier for the average small business.
Google's average ad price in the fourth quarter fell 11% from a year earlier. That's the ninth straight quarter of decline, said BGC Partners analyst Colin Gillis. And the latest decline was worse than he expected. http://articles.latimes.com/2014/jan/30/business/la-fi-google-earnings-20140131 "Search-ad prices have been declining since the fourth quarter of 2011." http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887324263404578614290220266684 "Ad prices overall in the quarter fell 6%, more than the 3% analysts expected and the 4% drop in the first quarter." http://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthof/2013/07/18/live-google-q2-earnings-fall-short-shares-down/ "The declines have ebbed over the past three quarters -- down 15% year-over-year in Q3 2012, 6% in Q4 and 4% in Q1 of this year -- but the trend remained negative and dropped by 6% year-over-year in the second quarter." http://adage.com/article/digital/google-suffering-ad-price-declines/243185/ Adwords peaked years ago around 2011-2010 they are on a continual decline. I would imagine that's why they are getting more aggressive at pushing people into them.
Hi Avery, Yes, I can see what you are referring to from these articles. I think what this showing is the complexity of Adwords and most business owners are not interested in becoming experts in Adwords...unfortunately...many don't want to hire anyone for this either. If you consider there are multiple channels and understanding how to best use them...then quality scores become a very important factor so that you're not wasting money and the details involved...basically you don't need technical expertise as much as marketers who understand strategic marketing and advertising. Even larger companies are using agencies that are trying to automate much of this without a human being really digging into what is going on. Both of these factors will have an impact on spend as well. For the small business I think Adwords Express is going to be a good thing. Less capital per month and much simpler to use. I could see more businesses getting involved in this over the regular Adwords. For the larger multi-location companies, Adwords Express is going to be a quandary because they don't like to drill down to the location for advertising and marketing...rather stay at the brand level. Yet the Internet industry, the mobile industry and consumers are pushing them down to the location level. All of this will be very interesting to see how to it unfolds over time.
Personally I will not use adwords, recommend adwords or set it up for clients. I have seen no one get back a positive return that was worth while from adwords. So I am not interested in helping people waste money. Most keywords get bid up too high by desperate, inexperienced, or speculators then abandoned so the next person buys into them at an non-profitable price. Google continually makes the adwords system more confusing so more people waste more money just to figure it out, only to learn it is not worth it.