Business Owners: Are You Sabotaging Your Own Local Listings?
Nov 6, 2009 at 4:21pm ET by Gib Olander
As SEO rapidly becomes a core task for local business owners, there's a new temptation to build advertising messages or tracking mechanisms into business listings on the web. Typically, this might mean adding a slogan or campaign tagline to a business name or changing an office address to appear local to more customers. Unfortunately, this misguided enthusiasm can negatively impact the way search engines rank local business listings based on variations in company name, address and phone number (NAP, for short).
Business listings—name, address, phone number—are a company's fing [...]
Filed in: Google: Maps & Local, How To: SEO
Best Buy: “Would You Like A Google App With That?”
Nov 6, 2009 at 8:56am ET by Greg Sterling
In the increasingly high stakes game of mobile search, Google is leaving almost nothing to chance. Take the company's very interesting new partnership with Best Buy stores for example. According to the Google Mobile Blog:
We're happy to announce today that we've partnered with Best Buy Mobile to make Google Mobile App available through Best Buy stores in the US . . . now [users] have the option to get some help installing the app or to see a live demo of what the application can do. Just go to the mobile department at your nearest Best Buy store and talk to an associate. If you have a BlackBe [...]
Filed in: Google: Maps & Local, Google: Mobile, Google: Web Search, Microsoft: Bing
Google Removes Phone Numbers From 7 Pack
Nov 5, 2009 at 8:05am ET by Greg Sterling
Google has apparently removed phone numbers from the so-called 7 Pack of organic local results. The numbers were present as recently as 24-36 hours ago. Immediately below is an example of a recent search result for "dentist, San Francisco" (within the last several weeks) and then for the same query this morning:
The result on the bottom is cleaned up in terms of the ads presented (the screen above is a bit of a mess in that regard), but there are no phone numbers for the local organic listings. The user must click down to the Maps page below to get the numbers. Does the removal of n [...]
Filed in: Google: Maps & Local, Google: Mobile
Bing & Google Maps Update Map Imagery
Nov 4, 2009 at 9:44am ET by Barry Schwartz
Both Bing and Google have updated their maps imagery. The Bing blog announced an additional 9,460 square kilometers of imagery added to Bing Maps. Not to be outdone, Google announced that not only are they updating their imagery, but they will increasing the frequency of those updates.
In addition, Google Transit recently added more partners, including coverage of Bordeaux, Tuscany, Reggio Emilia, Brescia and more. [...]
Filed in: Google: Earth, Google: Maps & Local
Google Targets Spammers With New Local Business Listing Guidelines
Nov 3, 2009 at 3:19pm ET by Matt McGee
Google has tweaked its guidelines for local businesses that use the Google Maps Local Business Center. The new guidelines are listed on Google's Business Listing Quality Guidelines page. On Search Engine Roundtable, Barry Schwartz shows both the old and new guidelines, while on his blog, Mike Blumenthal charts the differences between the two versions.
According to Mike's tracking, there are five new guidelines:
The business name on Google Maps must be your full legal business name.
PO Boxes do not count as physical locations.
A property for rent is not considered a place of business [...]
Filed in: Google: Maps & Local
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